Jonah/Weekend Wrap Up/NXT War Games

what that means. We've got a lot to talk about here today, very very busy weekend and a lot of things coming up, particularly on today's show. Yesterday was n XT War Games. What did you think of this show? It had the good and the bad and the ugly. It was not a traditional takeover, but you know what, they didn't call it takeover. So if you're a fan of the n x T Talent and w w E main roster shows, if I got the show for you, I'll give you the results of that show here today.

Also an update on Jeff Hardy. Very strange situation where Jeff Hardy was wrestling a match and then he just left in the middle of the match and he has since been sent home. We'll give you more details on that. We've got updates on Johnny Gargano who schedule or his contract. It's expired and it's a very interesting story we'll talk about here. Shabbada has got a big announcement. Jerry Lawler has resigned with w W e FTR is gonna be

facing the Rock and Roll Express coming up. I hope they do better than myself and filthy Tom Lawler did. And in the final segment of this show, I'm very happy today to be joined by Jonah the former Bronson Reid and n x T is gonna be joining us on the show today. I just watched him thirty minutes ago,

absolutely murder this poor bloke on New Japan Strong. So we'll talk to him about New Japan and and whatever we want to get into today, because there's a lot to talk about that's coming up in the final segment of the show, So a lot to get into if you would like to Texas here today. Four to five seven eight zero seven five six six is the phone number that is four to five seven eight zero seven five six six. Brian at Wrestling Observer dot com is

the email and at Brian Alvarez on at Twitter. Back in just a moment, Mike sumber v stick around everybody Wrestling Observer Live in the show. Brian Albarez here Wrestling Observer Alive. Mike sumber Vivi also Wrestling Observer dot Com is noted in the opening segment. Jonah will be joining us on the program today. The former Bronson read, are we talking to him about a lot of different things?

And yes, tomorrow is the big day, barring some whatever because you never know what's gonna happen on Observer Live. But Mike sumber viv will be co hosting with Oreo the Orca and we will be interviewing Dan Housing. That is a tomorrow You're un Wrestling Observer Alive, so get ready for that. That should be exciting. I don't know what I'm more excited for to see you in that outfit and to talk to Oreo face to face or Danny I where no outfit. The whale is showing up.

Oh wait, wait wait a second on time time out? Does this mean we are going to get wrestling perspective and a raw report from the view of Oreo the Orca. And I'm not gonna be there, so I don't know what's gonna happen, but we'll find out tomorrow, won't we. Now, let's get some important news here, because this actually is some way concerning story here and we don't have a lot of details. Jeff Hardy was reportedly sent home following a match that took place over the weekend in a

w w E health show. P WVE Inside reported tonight Jeff Hardy was sent home from the road did not appear tonight's health show in Corpus Christi, Texas. On Saturday, he was teaming with Xavier Woods and Drew McIntyre against the Bloodline Roman Rains in the us OS at an event in Edenburg, Texas. He spent most of the match in the ring and was said to be more sluggish

as the match continued. He reportedly made a hot tag to McIntyre and then walked out through the crowd, followed by security and did not return to the ring after Woods and McIntyre. One Ray Mysterio replaced Hardy in the match on tonight's show. Already Last wrestled on television. Novembery, on SmackDown Last Person eliminated in a Battle Royal to determine the next number one contender for the w w

E Universal title. He was dumped to the floor by Sammy Zane, who ended up losing his championship match on this week's SmackDown. So I don't really have a lot to add this. This happened, It was not a work and I know there are people that are concerned for Jeff Hardy, and obviously a lot of people don't have any ideas going on, and I don't know what's going on, but obviously Jeff Hardy has had many many issues in

the past. Hopefully it is not that I don't know what's going on, but obviously we want to wish the best to Jeff Hardy and hopefully whatever the situation was, it is resolved quickly. But that is one that's a weird one, like walking out in the middle of the match, not before after the show, not no showing, doing the whole match, making a hot tag, and leaving. So I hope everything is all right there. I don't know if

it's leaving as much as leaving through the crowd. You know, if something just clicked and you got slagg issues the match, whatever happened as the match went on, you know, to to bail out of the ring and to go to the back or you know, okay, that makes some sense for him to go through the crowd. That's where it's obviously leading my thing more to what is really going on here, But the best to him, It's bottom line is hopefully he is healthy and whatever happened, hopefully it's

a again fixes itself quickly. Well I don't want to say hopefully it's a concussion, because I never want to see anybody get a concussion, but if he were doing a match and suffered a concussion, it made a hot tag and just left and didn't even know which way he was going. I mean, at least a concussion, you know, ultimately that's gonna heal. Everything's gonna be all right. So I don't want to talk anymore about it because we don't know anything more about it, but that very thing, Yeah,

the hydration. There's so many things that could that it could be, but everybody, because of what's happened in the past, always looks to the worst. So hopefully there is no worse to this and everything is fixed quickly. So we'll talk about war games in a moment, but Johnny Gargano will address his future on this Tuesday's edition. Of an x T. So if you didn't watch War Games last night,

I don't know what's going on with Johnny Gargano. Okay, let me repeat that, I don't know what's going on with Johnny Gargano, but I'm getting this feeling that he's staying with w w E. I could be a thousand percent wrong, Okay, but Johnny Gargano's contract expired and he signed a short term deal, which and I could be wrong about this, but to my understanding, it was through the pay per view, which means his contract should be

expired right now. Perhaps he actually signed through television, all right, that could be what happened. But I don't know if you guys are aware of this or not. But there's been a lot of people that have been fired released from w w E over the past a couple of years now, and uh, you know, a lot of them

don't get a send off. And they were they did the show, and it was literally part of the storyline that this might be the end for Johnny Gardano, and him and Champa were talking about it, this could be the end. Let's do this one more time. They were doing d I Y spots during the match. The fans were channing, thank you, Johnny. Now it turns out he's coming back on Tuesday to address his future. And if w w E we're thinking this guy's out of here, he's going to a w This is not in their wheelhouse.

So is possible that he is not leaving immediately? It is possibly he's resigned another deal. It's possibly he's coming back to w w E. I mean they certainly one way or the other, they're not letting him on TV Tuesday. He's done our contract. It's just not happening. So I guess we'll find out. But all of this here is uh. I guess his extension expires on Friday, so he is under contract for Tuesday's show. But it is him coming

on television to address his future. That to me is a is a makes me think he might be staying. But we'll see. I'll see what he says on Tuesday. Yeah, I think so too. And I'd be interested to know what Candice Lorey's contract status is because if he wants to take this down to basically being a coach, and I think, you know, look, there's value in having Johnny Gargano there. He's been wrestling since he was what's sixteen years old or whatever it is. The guy has been

around forever, you know, he and Chompa. If they are looking at them and going or Triple H again. Look, it's not like Triple H is dead here. I know people want him to leave and start his own company or whatever nonsense people think Triple H is gonna do. But he's still there, and he is too. Those are two guys that he really Those two in Samoa Joe he's obviously got an affinity for. And there's plenty of

other guys there. You're Steve Corinos. You're plenty of guys where they could assimilate in nicely into the system out. Could they be fired at any time like everybody else. Yeah, sure, But maybe they look at the landscape right now, they see what's going on with a W and they go, hey, that's gonna be there. Look a W is going nowhere. So maybe we go ahead and continue to ride this thing out because we are happy here and my wife

is under contract and whatever. I just I can see him not being a regular character in the n x D if he does stick around, because I don't know how much that body has And I think that's the same way with Chompa too. At some point we're going to see that torch past the bron Breaker and I don't think he's gonna have a foot out of the company. I think he's going to be there too. Dude. I don't know if you guys remember this or not. There's

a fella. His name was Daniel Brian and his deal was come and do, and he loved w w E. And he was very torn about whether to stay or go, and they very much wanted him to stay, and they even attempted to make a deal with You Japan so that Brian Danielson could go work New Japan while working for w w E. I mean, they really wanted this guy to stay, and he really loved working there. And remember his last appearance, it was not there to address his future. It was not there to say goodbye and

thank you. It was being choked out in the middle of the ring by Roman Reigns and left for dead. So let's see what happens with Gargana. But yes, his deal expires Friday, so let's see what he says on it. Tuesday. We've got a couple of other quick notes here. Jerry Lawler has resigned a new deal with w w E. So for what, I don't know. He's not really doing commentary but shows. I guess he's doing pre shows all right, Well he's resigned for more pre shows, so you can

look forward to that. You see, I don't watch the pre shows. Maybe I should as part of my job. You know, there's a lot of things I gotta do as part of my job, and watching the pre shows does not fall into those categories. Back in the moment with war Games Deserver Live time, I got to show my Elba is here wrestling Observer Live MICEMBERV. They also Wrestling Observer dot Com. Jonah joining us after the break. But the first off, you guys watched this war Game

show last night? I sure did, and it's ed x T two point oh. So if you were watching this expecting a takeover, he didn't get it. If you're expecting this watching a main roster expecting to see like a main roster show with n x T talent, which is a mix of great wrestlers and green wrestlers, like nobody in between. Maybe Joe Gacy would be actually right in between. But that's what we got here. And there was good and there was bad. And uh, there was ugly horrible

booking on this show. So the opener was the women's War Games match, and as we have noted, they gave the baby Faces the woman advantage. It never works. They always try, it always fails, and once again it's failed. So the baby Faces were Cora Jade, Eosharai, Kayleie Ray and Raquel Gonzalez. The Heels were Dakota Kai, Mandy Rose, Gi Dolan and j C. Jane. And of course every time it was a two on one three on two

with the baby Faces. The fans are cheering the Heels and they're chanting their names, and they're popping when they come in to make the safe because they're outnumbered. Poor Cora J tried to skate to her entrance and she fell off her skateboard and everyone chanted, you can't skate. You could not have booked a worst match for baby Faces. Cora J did a dive off the cage, sold it like she had injured her shoulder, and then she sold

it for the rest of the match. She did a good job selling I. I probably would have fallen for it had they not done the spot where Eo Shari tried to pop it back into the socket, but she's sold and sold, and then finally at the end, they did the big spot where everybody does all of these moves and everyone is dead and uh, Cora Jade looks around and there's there's a body there, and according to announcer, she's wise beyond her years to think, oh, make a cover,

and she makes a cover and she wins, at which point she's shocked. I can't believe I won a wrestling match. This was not good. This is not going to match at all. I was. I was. I was pleased that they actually let Cora Jade get the pin because they have been talking about pushing younger people, but they screwed up every time. So amazingly, I thought, man, they're gonna give her everything and make her herd and have her do the big comeback and then pin her. They didn't.

She won, so that was good. Yeah, but she gets the pin in the way that they try to get baby Faces over and miserably fail. Right from Jump Street where you gave the baby Faces an advantage in the

crowd because of how they feel towards toxic attraction. Anyway, decides to heckle her as she falls off the skateboard and the one thing that I wish would go out of wrestling altogether because it happens in a w and everywhere else too, but it is most obnoxious in w W. E the shocked face, because not only did Cora not believe that she was going to be able to get the pin, she couldn't believe that everybody was dead and laid out around her before she slowly crawled over to

look around dramatically and then get the pin and then have the shocked face that she got the pin. It's just this is how they try to get people over. This is why they don't get over, and then they go, well, Cora j didn't get over. Why are people behind her cut her? She's no good? Doesn't make any sense, but this is what they do. Let we had the This

actually was a great match. If you go into the match and you presume that Imperium are the baby faces and Kylo Riley and von Wagner are the heels as Imperium versus Riley and Wagner for the tag team titles, and this match was great. And Marcel Bartel in particular Fabie Nichner, I'm sorry, they both were great, but Fabie and Eichner was absolutely fantastic in this match, and they're doing all these baby face spots, these dives, these power moves.

The crowd's going crazy for them, and uh, finally they they pinned Kyler Riley and uh afterwards, I mean, it was bizarre. Kyle is dating the ring and they start changing thank you Kyle, because you see these n x T fans, they just presume everyone's leaving. It's like they no, ho, they don't go, Kyle, please stay or whatever the chance is.

They're like, thank you, we know you're leaving. So this guy standing there and Von Wagner tries to turn on him, so Kyle beats him up, and then they announced it's gonna be a cage match on it Tuesday. So I don't know if Kyle is leaving or not. Okay, but let's presume that he is. Okay, if he's leaving, he's going to like New Japan or a DOUBLET or whatever.

So if that's the presumption, if we're presuming that he's leaving, shouldn't he turn on Von Wagner And Kyle is the heel and baby face Von Wagner runs him out of the territory instead, Kyle is the baby face, and so we're gonna we're gonna give him sympathy on the way out to go to another company. Yeah, but but but now he's already turned on somebody who's beloved, So why not. To me, Von Wagner looks like a heel, you know what I'm saying, And I would present him as such.

So to do that and then leave him in a obviously not a pile of his own blood, but lee of him laid out in the middle of the ring in the cage, I I do get that. But then it's okay, Now who you're gonna work with with von Wagner? Is it going to be Cameron Grimes. You're gonna have to put them with somebody who can really help this guy out a lot. And yeah, there's one thing you can say about him is he didn't get in the way in this match. And Eichner and Bartel were awesome.

Then we had Cameron Grimes and Duke Hudson and Tim and a match. First five minutes, nobody cared, just a dead crowd. And then second five minutes, Cameron Grimes is so good that he got the people into the match and to their credit, Cameron Grimes is the baby face and he was cheered as the baby face, and Duke Cutson was the heel, and he was cheered as a heel. And I want to make it abundantly clear, this was

not the crowd going into business for themselves. This was the crowd reacting the way that they should have reacted to every single one of these matches. Thankfully, Cameron Grimes knows how to work as a baby face, and he put over Duke Cutson as a heel, and so everything worked out. He won. Duke Cutson try to cheat the entire match. Cameron Grimes rolled him up, pulled trunks and beat him. And then they teased that Duke Hudson was going to knock him out and shave his head even

though he won. But Cameron Grimes did the big kick, got the clippers and shaved Duke Hudson. So this was good. Roderick's Strong Joe Gazzy. I hate this Joe Gazy character. It's the worst. If it were my job. It's turned the show off heat with me, not good heat. But he's a good worker and Roderick Strong is great, and so they had a very good match. It went about eight minutes, and this stupid Joe Gazy character is just horrific.

But I thought for sure that he's gonna win, and then this was gonna be like the n XT Inclusive Championship. They we're gonna do that chimmick, but I said, they're just going back and forth. Roderick does a flying knee, hits his move, wins totally out of nowhere. So Roderick's wrong retains the title. Well, I wasn't eactly out of nowhere. In that what's uh whatever Powder's name is, there is

his bodyguard or whatever. Land her Land threatened uh Ivy Nile and picked her up, and he of course put her down, so that may lead towards would assume something, probably turning them against the people that he's been trying to support this whole time. So stupid. Then we had the main event, which was fascinating. We had you know, you always they always talked about we want to get

young guys over, we know we need more young people. Well, we had the team two point oh guys against the uh, the veterans and won't call him the old guys, but the veterans and the veterans are the baby Faces and

the new guys. We want to get over our the heels and uh, but it's weird because they put l A Night on the baby Face team because he's an old guy, and they put bron Breaker on the heel team, so they did the man advantage thing right, But nobody it to Boo braun Breaker and he's in there running wild and their cheering this guy. And the match was good. I would not call it great because it went forty minutes,

which was a good ten minutes too long. It's like, you do you know, twenty minutes of the you know, the War Games or whatever, and then it goes to the match beyond. It's like everyone should be half dead and then you just boom, boom boom, go to the finish. Now the match Beyond begins and everyone just now it's all of a sudden. Fine, they square off and then start a new match and they go twenty minutes. So

it's way too long for me. But the finish was good, and that was Tamasa Champa was going for his finish and he gets speared and mid moved by braun Breaker. Broun Breaker hits him with the Goldberg pressing of the power slam and pins him, So the young guys won. Braun Breaker, who's obviously the biggest star of the n x T two point oh crew, he pinned Tomasa Chompa, so he's probably on his way to another championship match, which presumably he'll win. But the match was good. I'm

not gonna take anything away. Everyone worked hard. It just did not need to be forty minutes. I don't fault any of the workers here on this show. I fault whoever put these matches together in terms of trying to

structure a competent match. Three of them, four of them actually, and one of them was my favorite match on the show, the Imperium Kylo Relevon Wagner match, And that one I can at least sort of understand, because yes, Imperium were pushing the baby faces, but if Kyle's leaving, I don't think they want him massively cheered and von Wagner was gonna turn so whatever. But the other three no excuse.

With the World Games matches, there's just so much superfluous garbage that's in them because of visuals that we need for production, and it takes away from it. Look, you've got to have more spots because you can't have blood and you don't want to accident the violence, even though you're you're supposed to be in word games in the match beyond. So I I accept that, but when there's so much, there's too many face offs, there's too many variations of face offs, there's just too much nonsense, and

it drags it out way, way too much. So I don't know. There was a a whole lot I didn't like about this. One thing I can say to Peacock, I pay four because I already get it for free anyway with Exfinity, good Lord. The vignettes they played during them made me want to just put the thing altogether back in a moment with Jonah here on Wrestling Observer Live. Back in the show, Brian elberre Is here Wrestling Observer Live,

Mike Sumbur, bv Elso Wrestling Observer dot Com. Very happy today to be joined by Jonah the former Bronzon read Jonah Rock, Jonah, how are you doing here today? Do very well? Thanks for having me man. Am I excited to talk to you today? Do you know what I just watched, Jonah? What did you watch? I watched you kill poor Lucas Riley I did. I watched this match and I thought to myself, who is a more horrible person? Is it Jonah or is it Ghetto or Rocky or

whoever put this match together? This poor guy, Holy smokes, it's promoter. They I don't want to put me in the ring with whoever. It's up to them who they want to see died. Well, dude, this guy died. If you guys have not seen it, it's on the UH, it's on the New Japan Strong show that's on right now in g p W world dot com and uh. I for my whole life, Jonah have been a sucker for the giant dude versus the little skinny geek in

a squash match. And when I saw you two in the ring, I was like, oh man, this is gonna be one for the ages and uh and it was a fabulous squash match. Yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad. You know. I am a big fan of When the Half as well. And I've had my hands on quite the few Guinea geeks and if they get in my leg and you'll see some more stuff like that. Well, you are certainly

making your presence felt in New Japan Strong. You had a it feels like a different lifetime ago now in two thousand and eighteen, when New Japan went to Australia, you had your chance to mix it up a little bit there against the Bullet Club. But now you enter into New Japan Strong, laid waste to Juice, Robinson killed this man. How does it feel to be involved in New Japan right now? And how does it feel to have your new freedom on the wrestling landscape. It feels great,

you know. Um. As soon as I was able to wrestle somewhere else after my release, there was only really New Japan par wrestling that I really had in the forefront of where I wanted to go um, And I was very happy that it all came together. And I'm doing stuff with New Japan Strong, and when the world permits, I'll be over in Japan ready to kill some people

over there as well. You know. I I Am not just saying this because you're on the air, but I talked about this a while ago when we when it happened. But when they when that list of names came out that had been released from n X Team, I was like, I was shocked, Like of all names. Your your release

was like the biggest shock to me. And you know, I was there in San Jose when you when you made your debut a couple of weeks ago, and then I watched the match on Strong here and like in every single case, I was just like I was a gas, like who are you thinking getting rid of this guy? And you know, I I don't know what they think. I've been trying to figure it out for likes, but I was I was very happy to see you to

make that debut. And as as someone who's working for New Japan, I mean it seems like you would have the opportunity to do Impact and and some other places as well. Yes, yeah, yes, um, I have an agreement with New Japan. But also it is non exclusive, so that's what's able me to open up the door to Impact Wrestling as well, and I'm gonna hopefully be doing more stuff with them. I made quite you know, PUN intended the impact when I attacked Josh Alexander, and I

want to continue to do that wherever I go. You know, I think what you were saying it was a very big head scratcher when I was let go. I too, the way I feel I had not even peaked in my w w E career, nowhere near it. So now I'm going to peek and put on these performances that

people are going to remember elsewhere. It's not even not just you know, not peaking yet, but like you had been there for a while and they kind of sort of did whatever for a while, but it was it was like very underutilized, and then all of a sudden they decided that they were going to do something with you, and they did. And then it was like immediately after

they had start did this, they released you. And that that I think was the most shocking part to me, because it wasn't like you would hit a peek and then gone down. It's like it was like you had just gotten to to arise towards where you could have been. Yeah, I think I was such a big shock to so many people because and this is this is not any

ill will towards anyone else that has been released. But sometimes people do sit on the shelf for a year or even longer and you don't see much of them, and you can almost justify not that I want anyone to lose money or lose their job, and you can justify it to a degree. Whereas with me, I was always not held back, but creative was always the thing that stop me from getting on a wrong and Hunter was always actually in my corner and wanted me to

be utilized, and it was always creative. Um, you know, a week after week, we're trying to write you into this or write you into that. And finally I went Hunt to put his done. I started getting rolling. I became North American Champion. And yeah, it seems like in an instant everything changed, and the direction that I got from Hunter and Sean, that direction was completely out of the window. And things have changed there now, and I

guess they thought I didn't fit in. Well. Obviously, we don't want to stay too much on the topic of of w w E and n XT, but he talked about Hunter being in your corner. A lot of people just think he's got a little you know, wand and he just waves it everywhere. And things have gone every you know, his way up until you know this n x T two point oh thing has happened here. But what are some of the headaches that he would try

to run into. Is he was trying to get creative for you and and what were some of the headaches down there that you had to deal with it maybe we don't know about I think it comes down to, um, there's a lot going on, you know what I mean. You have riders trying to write different people into different spots, um. And then at the same time, with a place like that, you always have new talent coming in. Some people swap out things, exchange, some people go to raw, some people

go to SmackDown. So there's always something happening. And it seemed like week to week, not that I was forgotten about, but it was always like next week, next week, almost where like they wanted to keep me strong, so they didn't want me to to look like I was just a you know, one of the other run of the mill guys there. Um. But they could have obviously got on the ball quicker. And I know that from speaking with Hunter, he was frustrated that the writers didn't do that.

But you have riders, you didn't have Hunter and shown to go through, you didn't have your match producers. It's it's a lot of chefs in the kitchen. I guess. Let me ask you, is it like a Saturday Night Live type of comedian sort of thing where you would it be in your favor to curry a favor with a writer or two. Is that something that happens there or something that maybe you didn't do that maybe could have helped you along, maybe to get more creative flowing

and get ideas for you. Yeah. I feel like when I first was there, it was a different head writer. He then then ended up leaving, and when the new team sort of came forward, that's when I was more utilized. I feel like some people body up to riders or stuff like that, and of course you want to be close to these people because you're working with them creatively, and the type of performer that I am, I always want to put in my import I can't just copy and cut and paste what I do. I like to

be creative. Um, So it does pay people's best interesting to get on with these people. But I found things started working best for me once myself and Hunter, and I had a great relationship with Sean as well. Once I was on board with those guys like that was where things took off. So prior to going to w w E, I mean, you worked all over the place for over a decade and never in New Japan, and then after being released like the first thing you do

as you work for New Japan. So what what prevented you from going to New Japan prior what changed after your your release? Was there? Was there anything? And how long have you been a fan, like regularly watching their shows? Yeah, I've been a fan of New Japan Pro Wrestling h since I was a teenager, probably around thirteen years old. Was the first time I saw New Japan Pro Wrestling and it was Utian Liger and and that made me

a fan instantly. Um. But I was also a huge fan of a company called Pro Wresting Noah and that's sort of where I got my first taste of Japanese wrestling as an actual pro wrestler. So I wrestled in Australia for maybe five or six years before I actually got a contract with Pro Wresting Noah. UM, and I worked with them in two thousand, thirteen, fourteen and fifteen, so I had my I'm a very loyal pro wrestler, so where I am, I'm very loyal to that company, same as I just was with n x T. I

was no as well. I didn't want to I obviously would love to work with New Japan, but I wanted to keep my interest there. Then obviously time goes on. I get signed to w W, E, I now get released from w W and I feel like it's the right time for me as the top dog to go

into New Japan Pro wrestling. Now, you worked, I don't want to say exclusively in Australia, although maybe it was, but you were you were mostly in Australia for the first five or six years of your career, and you know, it's very hard to be a regular in any of the major promotions if you're living in Australia so very much.

When you first started, I mean, was it always your goal to be a full time pro wrestler, or for the first few years, was it kind of well, you know, this is fun, but I like my job or whatever. How would you classify your first few years. My goal was always to be a full time pro wrestler. There was nothing else I ever wanted to do in life. You know, since since I was a little kid, my earliest memories of life are actually watching WrestleMania. So I've

always wanted to be a professional wrestler. And when I first started in Australia two thousand and seven, the scene wasn't something that you could make a living off of. You could get paid here and there, but you were never going to make a living. So I wanted to try and do that, and I saw Japan as the

best avenue because it's probably the closest um. No one was really going to fly Sharlan wrestlers from one side of the world all the way to America to to you know, have one shot or a couple of shots a weekend. It just wasn't viable for people, and I

understood that. So that's how I got my contracts in Japan and I started working from there, and then years later actually did have promoters in p w G that would fly me all the way from Australia to l A. What was that first wrestle Mania You remember that a curiosity. You're a young man, so I need to hear this. I am a young man, but it was WrestleMania too

whole Cooken in King Kong, Bundy in the Cage. For some reason, as a kid like I used to have all these tapes because my uncle was a huge wrestling fan, so he would borrow tapes from the bough Buster because you were when that match happened. That happened before you were on the earth. Oh yeah, it did. But that's my earlier memories of sticking that tape in. And I don't know if it was the Blue Cage or something about maybe Hogan's ribs being taped up, but I remember

that vividly. Well, man, if you if you think about that match, I mean that that your whole career has been has been the whole cogn in King Kong Bundy. Yeah, it has two is agree? Yeah, I like to think that I am in the same vein of the King Kong Bundy or Damn Bigelow. So, so when did you first start getting tapes of of non w w E programming? I mean, were you a w w E guy up until mid nineties or when did you discover there was other stuff out there? Yeah? I was a huge w

W guy until I want to stay around. Is when I first discovered WCW as as a kid, I would have only been like eight years old, but then I was a big wh W and w w E fan up until I was thirteen. Was the first time my friend showed me a clip. I don't remember what website or where it came from, but it was a highlight video of one of the first Ring of Honor shows and I remember seeing that and being like, what is this?

And from there we found clips of then Japanese wrestling stuff like Jush and lager Um, FM, w Hey Booster and one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, Kender Kabashi, and that completely changed the way that I you professional wrestling, and I became a huge wrestling note throughout my teenage years. Well stand by and we had to a break back in a moment more Wrestling Observer Live back in the show. Brian Elvare is here Wrestling Observer Live. Mike simper Viv

also of Wrestling Observer dot com. Jonah is joining us here. If you want to see Jonah kills somebody well this coming Thursday at the Vermont Hollywood. Tickets still available New Japan Strong and presents Nemesis that's coming up on Thursday. All of the information I'm actually gonna retweet it right now. You can check out at Brian Alvarez or of course, uh, we'll get some plugs in here for for Jonah all

of his social media as well. Yeah, you can follow me at Jonah is here on Twitter, and Instagram the best places to find everything that is Jona, and you will be able to find stuff like merchandise and stuff on there as well. Hopefully at some point down the road we'll be able to check you out here and uh hopefully someday actually in Japan once this place opens up again. Not sure when that's gonna be, but at some point that's what I want. I want to be

the future champion in New Japan. I want to be in the same vein as the three hundred pound plus guys like Vada, Scott Norton and Bob Sap. I'm going down that line. I'm that modern day beast very quickly. What do you think about a g one? I'd love to do it. That's something that's on my bucket list and hopefully I get that ticked off in two Well, listen, I want to thank you so much for doing the show today and best of luck with everything is noted

the shows coming up on Thursday. You can also check out nupan Strong on n j p W world dot com. All of the New Japan shows go up there. They've got tons of archives if you want to see the match we were talking about earlier. N j p W Strong or New jpan Strong and n jpu w World dot com so check it out and Jonah thanks so much and hopefully talk to again soon. Thanks for having me and we're out of time. Everybody, thanks for listening.

We'll talk to you next time. Wrestling Observer Live. You have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network