Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network.
Ready, when you're ready, let's.
Get it off.
How's it going, everybody?
Brian Alvarez here on a Wrestling Observer Live. We are here every day Monday through Friday, New Pacific three Eastern, Sunday three Pacific six Eastern, Saturday mornings with Jim Bally at ten Pacific, one Eastern. And it is Tuesday here on this show.
Hey, you know what that means.
We have a lot to talk about here today, a very busy week because a lot's changing both in pro wrestling and on this site. As tonight, the final retro raw from the nineties on the Brian and Vinnie and Granny and Craig and Sean Show. Tonight we're gonna be reviewing part two of The King of the Ring nineteen ninety four, and after that it's done. Next week we move on to twenty one years ago in Nwatna. As a result, Tonight on the Brana Vinie Show, it is
going to be a nineties party. We're celebrating the end of the nineties. We're gonna party like it's nineteen ninety nine, and then we are going to move on well two thousand and two, so that's tonight. Also, of course, that means this Sunday we will no longer be reviewing Rampage. We will be reviewing Collision, which kicks off on Saturday night. And we've got a lot of news on Collision on the show here today, so we're gonna tell you about that.
Last night obviously was Monday Night Raw. We've got the Raw Report, the world famous Raw Report actually, and we've also got the lineup for everybody's favorite show tonight's NXT, so that and Kofi Kingston and incredibly, another wrestler from NXT is gonna be working for Booker T's Reality of Wrestling. I don't know if you remember this story, well I sure do. We'll tell you about that and plenty more
if you'd like to text us here today. Four two five seven eight zero seven five sixty six is the phone number at is four two five seven eight zero seven five sixty six, Brian at Wrestling Observer dot com, at Brian Albarez on Twitter, and more.
Back in a moment Observer Live.
Back in the show, Bright Albert is here wrestling Observer Live, Mike SIMBERBBI, also Wrestling Observer dot Com. I got a lot of news to get into here today. My first I've a plug Observing Live. Wrestling Observer Live podcast with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez August twenty seventh, ten am to noon British Standard time, because Dave and I are in fact going to the UK. We're going to this Wembley show and we are gonna be doing a Q and A and tickets are on sale kind of now.
There is a mailing list pre sale which began at six pm UK time today and gets go on sale to the general public six pm UK time on Wednesday, July fourteenth. The podcast will take place at Clubhouse five WC two h seven b G and I'm a stupid American, so I don't know any of that means, but it will be just hours before all in. Dave and I will be there for a Q and A and a
meet and greet and tickets on sale. General admission is fifty five pounds and the seven Star VIP admission is seventy five pounds That includes priority seating, professional digital photo autographs with Brian and Dave and I know some people have said, man, that's expensive. Well we have to go to the UK and that is also very expensive, and we're.
Going to be paying for it. Folks, Well, I mean questions.
Good, No, here's the reality, Like, yeah, that probably is a lot of money, but you know what, we're not going to lose money. Like, it's just not gonna work. If we're to lose money, I'm not going How.
Much was the cheapest ticket?
I don't know, dude, but it would you say, there's seventy how much seventy five for.
The U fifty five pounds is the cheapest ticket?
Okay, it's American right now.
Yeah, and I'm afraid that, you know, the fl to and from the UK and lodging and everything like that, we could not get that for fifty five pounds.
It was a little more expensive than that.
But I know, I know you're not paying for that, are you.
Well no, because we're selling tickets. If we weren't, I would be paying for that.
I thought you had a sponsor.
I thought maybe you know, somebody was picking that up for you guys traveling first class over there.
I wouldn't move out to the first class. Yeah, you're a star right.
Listen, it's it's a business, everybody, and you know, if it's if it's not, if it doesn't make financial sense, it's not going to happen.
Now.
I would love to go to Wembley and go to the aw Show, which we're going to do, but I can't lose my ass doing it. It's just the fact I got kids, as Heath Slater used to say, I got kids. So anyway, the pre sales today, the actual sale is tomorrow, and tickets are limited because there's only so many seats in this particular building. So anyway, get it, well you can. We have never gone over there for a and who knows when we will be back if ever. Hey, I haven't gotten to the UK since it was my
senior year in high school. I think I went there for a school trip. And actually, you know, I've told this story before. I don't remember this, but Vinie does. Vinie and I climbed the Eiffel Tower together because we weren't actually friends in high school because I was a senior and he was a junior, and who hangs out with the juniors, So anyway, I didn't really know him.
But apparently we went up the Eiffel Tower together, and then a few years later he met me at the local YMCA after I'd been wrestling and he wanted to get into wrestling, and then I agreed to help him with that. So that's actually how we really met. But we did go to the UK together when I was a senior in high school. And I don't know if you guys are where this or not. My birthday was yesterday.
I'm forty eight. That means that I have not I have not been to the UK in thirty years, and so there's a decent chance I may not return to the UK for thirty years. So you know, if you don't want to pay the fifty five pounds, that's fine. I'm not mad at you. But if you want to, this will be your chance, and then who knows if you'll ever get a chance.
Due again, how's that for a plug?
Well, ay, not going to pay for it because you know they're not showing it in this country.
It's gonna be fun, you know what, It's gonna be fun. So no, I will not bring the tech sar Candad television title because that would involve me bringing more carrying man. And yeah, I've been doing a fair amount of traveling lately. You know, the secret of traveling is bring nothing.
Yeah, you're just gonna like do it old school style too, like you did back in ninety four, ninety three whenever it was that you graduate in. Just take a bunch of T shirts and roll them all up in the ball, sticking them at the bottom of the backpack, and there you go.
That's basically what I do. I try not to ever have to check any luggage nothing. Never. Never do things go right when you check luggage. It only goes wrong. And so anyway, grab your tickets now. The website get ready for this who Live London dot com at being WO Live London as in Wrestling Observer wo Live London dot com and all of the information is up there. It is in association with wrestled Tours and Progress Wrestling and we are going to be going to a lot
of shows that weekend. It's gonna just basically fly to the UK, go to a bunch of shows, do a Q and A go to another show and go home. Boom boom boom boom boom.
So that's gonna be a lot of fun and.
If it goes well, maybe we can have a wol live in London.
Hey, you never know, dude, You never know, You never know.
Might need to get my paperwork in order.
All right, we got new It's not all good. AW has fired BJ Whitmer after his early June arrest on domestic violence charges. Fightful reported Monday. The forty five year old was arrested Sunday, June fourth by the Boone County Sheriff's Department charges of first degree strangulation, second degree burglary. Shortly after the report, AW released the following statement to the media. BJ Whitmer has been terminated following his arrest
on domestic violence charges. While talent and staff are ultimately responsible for their own personal actions, this behavior is intolerable within AW. AW has reached out to for support to those impacted by his behavior. He was released from custody Monday. Bond of twenty five thousand dollars was set. Whitmer bound to a grand jury. For a further definition in Kentucky quote, the prosecutor must prove to the judge that there is enough evidence to show that a crime has been committed.
This involves presenting a minimal amount of evidence which will justify further proceedings. If the prosecutor establishes sufficient evidence, the case will be bound to the grand jury. And this is wouldn't say a former ring of Bonner or Take Team Champion been with AW in a producing role since twenty nineteen, So I don't have any other details. Talk to people yesterday, actually asked some people yesterday and they hadn't even heard about it yet. So yeah, not a
good story at all. To kick off the show today. Gos's Collision coming up on Saturday, and I'm gonna talk about this after the break because there's been a lot of talk, including finally by Tony Kahan, about the idea of who is going to be on what show and what is going on, and we're gonna know more once Collision kicks off, and maybe there will be some mentions of things on Dynamite, but I've talked to people and I got a lot to say about that, so that'll
be after the break. Very quickly to is NXT everybody's favorite program, We've got braun Breaker. He is going to do a promo talking more about wanting seth Rawlins to come to NXT to defend the world title. Thea Hale will face Kora Jade. We have got Mustavali Wesley and Tyler Bate against Joe Gasey and the Diad. I guess remember Joe Gasey was gonna take some time off to think about things. I guess he's thought about it. Baron Corbin versus Elia Dragonov Noam Dar or, as Granny refers
to him, Normdor. He is gonna be facing Nathan Fraser, Edris and Ope versus Mulik Blade and Roxane Perez versus Tatum Pasley speaking of Granny. Tonight on the Bran and Vinnie and Granny and Craig and Sean and everybody else show, there is a Brian's Birthday song contest MP three sixty seconds or less. But song contest in the subject line. And I know you're laughing, Mike, but I did not come up with this idea.
This was Tim Page's idea.
And not only is it Tim Page's idea, but he is going to pay one hundred dollars to the winner of this contest.
I'm shocked.
So I'm giving you.
Guys some time to come up with some songs. Not a lot of time, but you still have time. Brian at Wrestling Observer dot com MP three sixty seconds or less song contests in the subject line er Now everybody and have fun on our nineties party tonight.
Back in a Moment, Observer Live. Back in the show.
Bryan Elberz here Wrestling Observer Live. Mike SIMBERDDI, also Wrestling Observer dot com. You know, I'm in a preface what I'm about to say by pointing out how often I'm right. Okay, I don't like to do that. No, I'm not that kind of guy.
No.
But you know, it wasn't that long ago that there were all of these stories about Aw's new television deal, and you know, all sort of rumors about a billion dollars or this that and the other and everything like that. And uh, and what what did I say? I said, you know, you know what I think this is. I think this is a deal for collision and not anything involving streaming HBO Max. Did I not say this? And
I know I said this. I know I said this because I had all these people that were messaging me one weekend when I was camping and they were all angry about what I said. And then uh, and then what happened, Well, it was just a deal for collision. Right, that's what happened. So I was right, do you want a gold star for not that? Well, no, I just want to I want to bring that up, you know,
I want another one to bring up. You remember like a couple of months ago where I said, you know, NXT wrestlers, you might remember this, Mike, NXT wrestlers are going to be doing select indie dates. Do you remember I said this? And then Ivy Niall was booked for Booker T's Reality of Wrestling. And what did they say after I said, you know, they're gonna be doing selects indies and hey, here's Ivy working Booker T's Well, they said, no, that's not gonna happen. Now, this is a one time
only thing. It's one time only.
We just happened, remember that.
And even Booker T did some interview and he was like, ah, all this other stuff, well, you know.
That's about what it sounded like.
Do you know who's wrestling for Reality of Wrestling on July fifteenth, Booker T's Reality of Wrestling. Incidentally, well, Trick Williams, another NXT wrestler, is booked for Reality of Wrestling. I'm sure that this is also a one time only thing that will never happen again until the next time it happens.
But I just want to point.
Out that that I was right about that as well. Now I could go on, but let's get the point here. Okay, everybody is talking about Collision and Dynamite rosters. Everybody wants to believe this, and they want to believe that. Now I'm gonna tell you what I think is gonna happen. And I don't care if you believe me or not. If I'm wrong, you can get back to me in a couple of months. But I'm gonna tell you what I believe is happening.
Here about something else that's okay.
Tony Kann did an interview on Barstool Wrestling, and he says he has not quote drawn any hard lines between the shows or locked AEW into a roster split. Certain talent will be featured on certain shows. There's also the opportunity for certain stories to cross between Dynamite and Collision. A w champions will be the champions of every show. So, you know, we've heard a lot of words hard split, soft split, you know this and that.
Who's talked about a lot of that stuff.
And I have said from day one, and I will reiterate here that this I believe is what's going to happen with AW and Collision in Dynamite. This is going to be how it was after Vince left and before he came back in WWE, which means you have a raw show and you have a SmackDown show. There are talents that are generally featured on one show, and there
are talents that are generally featured on another show. But if there is a talent that is hot, if there is a storyline that is hot, if there is a necessity for someone to switch to another show, then they will do that. That is the way it was when Vince was gone, and I am telling you that that is the way it is going to be here. Now, there are exceptions. The young Bucks and Cmpunk are not going to be on the same show. Now, does that mean one hundred percent that you will never see the
Bucks on Collision or Cempunk on Dynamite. No, but you will not see them on the same show together. The Collision show is largely going to be considered CM Punk's show. He will be on that show ninety percent of the time. If he is needed on Dynamite. He will be on Dynamite, but the Young Bucks will not be there that day. Okay, MJF And may show up on the Wednesday show, he may show up on the Saturday show depending on when
he is needed or whatever. But for those people that think there is not going to be a split or whatever, I hate to tell you this, but yesterday not all talent, but some talent were sent the e that this is the show that you are going to be on. Now, if there's no such thing as a brand split, they're not sending out an email telling you that this is the show that you are going to be on. So to a degree, there is going to be a split. Is it a split that is set in stone?
No, of course not.
But this is the key to all of this. Okay, this is not WWE where you know, in the old days, before there was a brand split, you could if you let's say your curt Angle, you leave your house on Thursday to fly to the city. You work SmackDown on Friday, you work House Show on Saturday, you work House Show on Sunday, you work Raw Monday, and you fly home your home Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday, you fly out and then you do that loop again. Okay, they do not
have a loop. They do not have a loop. And so therefore, if everybody is going to work every show, which is not gonna happen, that would require you to fly out Tuesday, do Dynamite Wednesday, and then either fly home Thursday and fly back out Friday.
So you can do the Saturday show.
Fly out Sunday, and you get like a day or two at home, and then this will be a nightmare.
Okay.
So that is why what is likely to happen is certain people Wednesday is going to be their show. Other people Saturday is going to be their show. Doesn't mean you can't do both, but for ease of travel, having a schedule, knowing what you're going to do, you're gonna know whether you're likely going to be Saturday or you're likely going to be Wednesday.
Okay.
I mean, it's just not feasible to require people to either be on the road from Tuesday night Sunday morning, or to fly home for a day and fly right back out again. It's just not feasible to do that. No one's gonna want to do that. Some people are gonna have to sometimes if you're a champion. But MGF
doesn't need to work both shows every week. MJF can work four straight weeks of Wednesday and then after the pay per view cycle or whatever, he can do six eight straight weeks of Collision or whatever, and then you know, go back and forth. But there is going to be a split. There's gonna be talent that are largely always on Collision, There's gonna be talent that's largely always on Dynamite, and here and there without a draft, you will move to a different show or whatever. But that's the way
it's going to be. And if you want to call it a soft brand split, whatever you want to call it. I mean, each show has its separate ross, whatever you.
Want to call it.
That is what's going to happen here. So we'll see who ends up where when. But obviously things can change.
And when they have pay per views is gonna get in the way of that. Roh House shows are going to get in the way of that when it comes to Claudio and Joe and some other people just regular house shows. You know, if you're usually working on Wednesdays on Dynamite, but your scheduled for this Saturday House show,
maybe you don't work that previous week's Wednesdays Dynamite. Instead you work Friday on Collision, then you go Saturday to wherever the house show is and Sunday whatever it's going to be, We'll just have to see how it goes. It just seems like the only real brand split is keeping cmpunk and the Young Bucks apart. You know, it's really at the end of the day, that seems to be what it is, because I can't picture a scenario where champions don't show up on both shows. Then you're
putting yourself into a position that WWE is in. Just doesn't make any sense when it comes to your mjfs and people like that. If something happened serious on Dynamite, you haven't cut a promo where you have a really good video package that you could show on Collision and vice versa. So you know, it's obviously we're gonna have to see how everything shakes out. But I wouldn't look for too much on that first or second show either.
I mean, it's going to be a process to kind of see how everything plays itself and how you construct the travel and all that sort of stuff. So it's probably going to be a work in progress, at least through the first month.
SmackDown on Friday two point two seven eight million viewers on Fox, down eleven percent from the thousand day celebration. It was third on all of television points six zero in eighteen to forty nine trail to Game four of the NBA Finals, SmackDown more than doubled everything else on TV in eighteen to forty nine. They more than doubled everything else on television in eighteen forty nine, finished third behind the NBA with a point four four eighteen to
thirty four, also more than doubling the next closest competition. So, uh, SmackDown.
Remains it would be sawn hot.
At this moment.
And Rampage oops, I accidentally pasted SmackDown twice. Rampage did terrible. I don't remember the number, but it was. It was literally the lowest audience ever for the show.
In its normal time slot.
There has never been an episode of Rampage at ten o'clock PM on a Friday that did fewer viewers.
Than the show.
This passed Friday, so if you look at the lineup, probably not a surprise, but that was the Rampage number there and also got Kofe Kingston recovering from ankle surgery. He hopefully will be back soon. Underwent surgery in March to remove a bone chip fix a ligament. He's ahead of schedule, hopefully he'll be in the ring sooner.
Rather than later.
Raw report coming up after the break. Observer Live. I love it, check out.
Again the show.
Bray Elbert is here Wrestling Observer Alive, Mix member BB also Wrestling Observer dot Com. Apparently the Twitch homies want the Bryana Viny show tonight to be available for those Twitch homies. They know what happens if I do it there and ask for next week too. We want the first TNA show to be also.
For Twitch subscribers. So I'll think about it. I'll think about it.
All right.
Show opened up with a Rhea Ripley coming down to the ring. So they have they have done what I can't help but notice I said they should do, which is take away the branding of Raw and SmackDown on the women's titles because it's stupid and every time you do a draft, it's stupid. And so that's what they have done. They're no longer Raw SmackDown Women's champions. On SmackDown, we have the Women's WWE Champion with a new belt, and on Raw we now have the Women's World Champion,
which has a new belt. Therefore, every year when they do the draft, it doesn't matter where people go, you're just going to have either the world title or the WWE title, much like we now have the WWE Undisputed title, which is funny because it's not and the WWE World title. So Rhea came out, she's super over people channing her name,
channing mommy. She gets her new belt, and then Dom comes out an immediate hatred for Dom and out comes Cody, and they show footage of what happened with Cody and Dom last week, and Cody says, you know, I'd love to face Brock and money in the bank, but he's a coward. He's not going to show up. So you know what, Dom, how about we wrestle add money in the bank. And Dom says, I'm not afraid of anybody.
I'd embarrass you like I did last week. But he does not answer the challenge, and so Cody said, listen, it's a yes or no question. We're gonna wrestle or not, And so Rhea jumps in and says he accepts. So it is Cody Rhodes versus domb not producer dom mind you, but Dominic Mysterio.
I had money in the bank and I am excited for that match. I am no.
I don't think that having new belts changes anything when it comes to the branding because the belts look different, so we're still going to have to have that silly if they wanted to do it exchange of belts in.
The middle of the ring.
They don't have to change the belts.
Why would they have to exchange the belts. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what brand the world title is on. It doesn't matter what brand a w WE title is on. But in theory, it's stupid to have the raw Women's champions spend a year exclusive to backdown. That's stupid. So having it a w WE title in a world title, it doesn't matter at all what brand they're on.
So did they not want to align the belts so they look like the men's and women's.
It doesn't matter. It's just like no, it's just the world title looks like the old big Gold belt, and the w WE title looks like the logo.
Does it matter to you what?
It doesn't matter at all, now doesn't matter. I don't care what brand the winged Eagle is on, should be on both, but I don't care. Cody versus the Miss Cody, uh, you know, he did a good match with the guy bled. I don't even know how. He just started bleeding all over and Miss tried the skull crushing finale. Cody versed it, Crossroads pinned him, and now we look forward to Cody and Dom. Becky came out for a preposterous promo. So we got money in the bank coming up? So how
do we make money in the bank seem important? Well, Becky explains that you fans, she said, I still can't believe I'm reciting this. You've fans have been conditioned to think that the number one person in the company is the champion. But she says, in my opinion, this is straight out of TNA. The number one person in the company is the person with the power, and who has more power than the person with the money in the
bank briefcase. And I thought, well, the person with more power than the person with the money in the bank briefcase is in fact the champion.
Actually so she.
Said the briefcase holder had the power to make the champion scared. Tricia is scared, but she will.
Be beating Zoe Stark. However, at Night of Champion, Zoe Stark came out.
God bless her, you know, National Television Live, she was nervous.
Was not a very good promo.
Then she did an interview claiming, you know, Becky, you got no personality. The only reason you're over is because somebody broke your face. Everyone's giving her the what treatment, and she says, at money in the bank, I'm gonna break your face again and make you famous. And this led to Becky versus Chelsea, which I don't know what
this means. But the match itself was seven minutes long, but we only saw three minutes of it on television because they immediately went to commercial and they came back solely for the comeback in the finish, which of course
was Becky submitting her with the disarmer. We've got a beginning of a long term storyline here with the judgment day, and the story is that Damian Priest is going to be splitting and going babyface at some point, and they're planting seeds every single day, Priest is all excited about money in the bank, but Finn is morose and he glares at Priest as he leaves. We had Priest versus Riddle Ina Money in the Bank qualifier fifteen minutes. Really good match. These guys were great and back and forth.
Riddle missed the floating bro past grabs him, Razor's edge pins him clean in the middle to qualify for Money in the Bank. And then Imperium came out afterwards and pre says, go pick the bones, and so they attack and destroy Riddle to get revenge on Riddle taking out Baldy as they call him last week with the ankle lock, and he was not on the show this week. But I believe that it is a worked injury. I don't think he's actually hurt. That's the impression I've been given
Cody today. Promo asked about the Dom match, and you know, he's still on the finish of the story story, and so no matter what happens, he will not be held back, he will not be kept down. He will finish his story. Nothing is going.
To knock him off his path.
We had an Imperium segment with Sammy and Kevin where apparently I wasn't even aware of this. But all that work building up Imperium week after week after week after week after week, they finally announced the match. This was supposed to be non title and so Imperium's like, put the titles on the line. Bro. So Kevin's like, sure, we'll put him on the line. He says, let's go do this, and then he notes, I can't wrestle in
this T shirt and shorts. I gotta go change into a different T shirt and shorts, much like Buddy Wayne once showed up in the building for a street fight and took off his jeans to put on a different pair of jeans. That's weird. Sorry, it's a street fight. Brother, Ricochet, faced Bronson, Red, and Shinskate came out to watch. Three guesses this was just weird. So Bronson catches Ricochet on a dive and he throws him into Shinsky Knakamura at ringside.
Bronson then throws the dude into the ring and he goes up top for the tsunami and Nakimura attacks him for the DQ And this finish was so lame that the fans booed the baby Face for kicking the heel leading to it a DQ, so Rick Kshet Nakamura yelled at each other. Bronson jumped Knockimur from behind. Knakamura and rick Sha were like so close together, arguing that when when Knakamura got jumped they shoot head butted each other,
they were dead, but they got up. They gave the double superplex to Bronson, and a crowd a shirted like that to the point they said something I can't say here. In the year, Samy met with Kevin. He said, dude, what's up lately? You're always blowing up? Why are you a ten every day, to which Kevin replied, I'm a six. This Kevin character is great. This is like the best Kevin Owens I think there's actually ever been. He's always agitated.
Yes, this new amped up Kevin at all times where saying he's trying to be the calm voice of reason.
It is fantastic.
And Rick Achet wanted to match with Bronson next week, but Pierce said, actually, he's already got a match with Ricochet, and uh Ricochet is angry or no, Ricochet wants a match with Bronson, Pierce says he's already got a.
Match with Knakamura.
Ricochet's met at Nakamura Mura for interfering, and then Nakamura says, listen, I will succeed where you failed. And when I'm done, you can you can, you know, pick the bones? Which is there a new deal? Then we had this fricking segment with Seth Rawlins and Finn Balor. You know what. I had a guy tell me the other day. He goes, how come you hate the fans singing seth song? But you don't have a problem with this them singing Chris
Jericho's song. And it's like, well, Chris Jericho's song is this ain't even a song, it's just whatever, And they just won't shut up about and you know what, you know what, everybody mark my words, mark my words. This sing in Seth's song is gonna be the new what.
That's what.
It's gonna be the new what. Where These people are gonna come out and they're gonna try and do promos with Seth and the people are just gonna sing and sing and sing and sing and sing, and you're never gonna get to the point and it's gonna drag on forever.
The I want so much for putting that in everybody's heads as they can continue to do to be annoyed.
That's what's gonna happen. You know what happened here? Here was the whole point of the promo. Okay, Finn is mad that seven years ago they were doing a match. He was supposed to start his run as a Universal champion, but Seth legitimately injured him with a buckle bomb into the thing. He tore every muscle in his upper body. Finn missed a year of his career and he was never the same again. And now he's ad and he
wants to do the same thing as Seth. And Seth's response, oddly is well, I hope the tough guy shows up a not this wimp because I guess he wants a challenge or whatever. And how long did it take me to say that, like, you know, thirty seconds at most. Well, this thing went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on to the point where the next two matches, Raquel and
Shana and Chad Gable and Eric. Whether you wanted to see him or not, the fact of the better is they both got their time drastically cut because the interview segment went on forever. So I'm sure that Raquel and Shana and Chad and Eric and Ivar and Super Porky and Maxine, I'm sure they're all thrilled with the fans just singing this song NonStop as they prepare all after You're noon for a match and are told, sorry, you got to cut it down to two minutes.
Because we're we're just running out of time.
My god, though that they really need both of those segments. The most important person out of anybody in that mix is Raquel Rodriguez at this point in the game, and then you cut her match short. You could have done the wackiness with Chad and Maxine and all of them next week or at another time.
Well, Shana rolled up Raquel a stupid finish, so incredibly stupid. Randa gets on the apron in front of the referee. Raquel begins fighting her on the apron in front of the referee. This allows Shana to roll her up, and then Rhonda pushes on the buttocks of Shana for leverage to pin her.
I like, dude, God help me.
I you know, referees never had to be Ivy League MENSA members, you know, and pro wrestling. But at this point the game, every single promotion, AWWWE New Japan, you know, the major promotions just treat them like trash. They're garbage and they get in the way. It's just ridiculous.
And we had she had Gable and Eric Maxine is now in a wrestling singlet and she gave a power slam on the floor to Valhalla, which distracted Eric Chad rolled him up and pinned him again two minutes time cut because of all the fans singing. Finn was giving JD a pep talk, So they're moving in that direction. JD is going to join. Actually, what will probably happen long term is JD is going to replace Priest be
my guest. And Priest showed up and essentially Finn's like, you know, if I win this title at money in the bank and you win the briefcase, like you're not getting cash on in on me, right, And Priest is like, I can't believe he even asked, of course not, but he says, you know, from now on, you need to keep your word to me, which I don't know what he's talking about, but I'm sure something happened somewhere, so uh, Fay in the bank, Seth did a promo thankfully backstage,
no one's saying, and then the main event was great. Kevin and Sammy beat Imperium when Samy hit the blue thunder Bomb for the pin on uh what's his face?
Gun?
But yeah, this match was great. Everybody was great, hard chops, great wrestling, big near falls, excellent main event and that's raw back in a moment, it was her live.
Ben the show.
Brain never is here, Wrestling observer alive. I can't believe I'm arguing in the chat about whether or not WWE is hot. Like it's hot.
It's as hot as.
It has been in like two decades. They're selling more tickets than they've sold in forever. They're making more money in merchandise than they've made in forever. They're up year over year, which they haven't been in forever. I mean literally, you gotta go back to the nineties for them to be up year over year. To the nineties. And by the way, you know this is not just you know, they were stagnant, stagnant, stagnant.
Now they're up a little bit.
They were declining dramatically year over year. Don't you remember, like a couple of years ago, we were talking about, how do you realize in eighteen to forty nine they're down fifty five percent in three years. Do you know what kind of a collapse that is? They have gone from that to being up in everything. They're up in ticket sales, they're up in ratings, they're up in viewership of their shows, they're up in what else is they're they're up in merchandise. Like everything is up, and we're
arguing that it's not hot right now. No.
I think some people are maybe.
You know, conflating hot and good product, good creative product, and it goes in.
Yeah, if you don't like it, that's fine, you don't, you don't subjectively like it, that's fine, But objectively they are as hot as they have been in decades right now, Ryan, time, by the way, to renegotiate their television deal, which is impeccable timing. Impeccable timing anyway back later on tonight for the nineties party.
And Fine.
It'll be available on Twitch for the Twitch subscribers as well. Sign up today at Amazon Prime.
He's wearing flannel.
Talk to you next time, Wrestling Observer Live. You have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network.