Rick Steiner Kidnapped/Was Wrestlemania a Success?

days and she finally hit her wall. Trying to calm her down, but babysitters having a rough time, So I apologize in advance if you you're na for the next hour. Anyway, it's Wednesday here in this program. We got a lot to get into here today. Oh do we ever? Did you know that Rick Steiner was kidnapped last night? I don't even know where to be in. But yes, we're gonna talk about n x T two point oh and a lot of other news as well, because there's actually

some big news. We've got the Raw after WrestleMania, largest audience for the show since January of twenty twenty one and over a year, largest audience for the show on Monday. They had a huge first hour by Ross standards. We're gonna tell you about the ratings for the raw after WrestleMania was a big success. We'll see where it is obviously a month from now, but that was the UH. That was the Monday numbers. We got a w Dynamite tonight, and in fact, we have qualifying matches for the Owen

Hart Foundation Men's and Women's tournament. And in the men's tournament it will be Samoa Joe in his Dynamite debut against Max. This poor Max castor Ah just one horrible beating after another. But that's tonight. We'll give you the full line for the rest of the show as well. We got updates on Cody Roads coming off Monday. A counter talks about his UH, his weight loss and his name change and his focus on nutrition. So we got that to talk about here today and New Japan it's

coming up this weekend. And we got a big guest on today literally and figuratively. We'll tell you bad after the break, rusting Observer Live back in the show. Brain Albert is here Wrestling Observer Live. Mike's Andimburviti also Wrestling Observer dot com. We got a lot of news to get into here today, and don't even think I'm not reviewing an x T two point oh in the final center of the show, however, Big Damo is gonna be

on the show here today, the former killing Dane. He will be wrestling for New Japan this coming Sunday night. And you want a mean guy match? Have I got a mean guy match for you, Big Demo versus Tomo hero Is She They'll be tearing up on Sunday in Hollywood. I wish I could be there, but I can't. I'm getting right in an x T. So we gotta get going because this is the shortest segment we've got today, because I got a lot to say and I may

I may need more time. So uh. It opened up with Gunter coming out as braun Breaker is doing a promo and this crowd is just I don't know what's up with this crowd, this crowd. I'm over this crowd, you know. Cameron Grimes came out later in the show after he won the title for his father who had passed away, and half the crowd chance you deserve the

other half? Chance, No, he doesn't. His death died and he won the title for his father, and we're doing the no he doesn't anyway whatever, and he's a baby face. So Brown Breakers out there and you're getting all these chances and everything and outcomes Uh comes Gunter and I'm like, oh my god, I cannot wait to see this feud. Holy Smokes is gonna be awesome. They announced a match for tonight in the main event, so I figured, well,

you know, maybe we'll ever run in or whatever. So then we had the Creed Brothers versus Imperium and they're having this match, and all of a sudden, in the middle of the match, Fabian Aichner just walks out on Marcel Bartel like there was no spot, there was no nothing. It's like he broke up a pin. And then he walked out and Marcel Bartel is all by himself and he gets beaten. So I don't know what's going on there. Then we had the two masked assailants they that have

been messing with the Creeds. They jump him after the match, and the unmasked and that's like, oh my god, look who it is, but they don't tell us who it is. And then uh, and then uh, the other one I don't remember who started an who ended, but the other guy goes, I know those guys there from n X t U K. I'm like, yeah, who are they? And finally they spit out. It's pretty deadly, but I think both guys forgot who they were and someone had to like tell him over the that side because it was

forever before they told us who they were. So pretty deadly is debuted. It will be scaring off with the creeds here. So then we had Cameron Grimes coming out and as noted, he does his promo and he's all emotional about his father's passed away and the crowd's heckling him half of them and Solo Sko comes out and he wants a shot at the North American title and they're gonna have a match, so that should at least be good. We had a bunch of Joe Gayzy promos

that sucks. I don't know what's going on, but they're Joe Gayzy promo, so you know the you know the deal. Then we had Dexter Loomas versus Duke Hudson, so they had all these vignettes over the weekend. You know which couple is hotter and everything like that. So they show us a couple of the clips, and the clips are funny because, like I've said it a million times, I don't need to see Dexter Loomas do a lot of matches,

but like his character in the vignettes, he's in fantastic. Well, now he's got to wrestle and so him and Hudson are wrestling and they both end up outside the ring and the referee is is counting, and then both women try to get their man into the ring. They both fail. Then all four of them fall down in an orgy horrific pile. But like they want you to think stuff like that, but they actually want to show it, so

they cut it. They cut away so fast when they were all laying on top of each other, It's like, why are you even bothering if you're like afraid to actually show this. So anyway, they cut away and we never saw it again. They both got counted out. That was cool. Uh, then we add Toxic Attraction versus Raquel and Dakota Kai. So for those of you, I don't know if you're fall doing this story or not, but

the WrestleMania was Saturday, guys, remember that show. Do you remember Night one of WrestleMania, the show that started at six o'clock pm pacificy Eastern for the pre show and ended after midnight, so six hours if you wanted to watch the pre show, and then they decided, well, earlier in the day, we're gonna do this n x T Standing Deliver show. So you know, if you're on the West coast like me, it started like nine or ten am, and I'm like, I ain't getting up at nine or

ten am and to watch the show. We know what some people did, and more power to them. If you're that big a fan, you're gonna watch, you know, a three hour n x T show and then a six hour wrestle Mania show. Like I'm not gonna say anything bad about you. I could use a lot of loyal a lot of loyalty like that on this program. But anyway, so if you did that, if you went out of your way to watch three hours of n x T before you watch six hours of WrestleMania, well, man, what

you saw. You saw braun Breaker fail to win back the title against a Masso Champa. You saw an n x T Tag Team championship change where Riquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai won the tag team titles. Well, if you put all that working and watching that show Monday night on Raw, brun Breaker won the title on Raw, and then the next night they did a rematch for Toxic Attraction and Raquel and Dakota and Toxic Attraction they won those belts back. So you were sure rewarded for watching

that stand in the Liver show. So yeah, we got new take team champions. They have won the belts back then we had Tony D'Angelo doing a segment a j Galante. This poor bloke, all he had to do was a ceremony to crown Uh Tony D'Angelo a made man. This was too much. This segment was horrible. Forgot lines no, but he cared and then uh he was heckled, and then Tony D'Angelo was given a ring. He's now the

dawn of n XT. He's a made man. MSK cut promos about how they won the titles, and then uh, Grays and Waller's out there with his arm and his sling and the baby face tag champs challenged the guy with the broken arm to fight for the titles tonight. He's like, dude, I'm hurt, so they didn't do their match tonight. And for those of you wondering, I hate to break KFE, but Grays and Waller is not hurt, but it looks so bad that they're gonna pretend he's hurt.

So that's why he had the sling on, which is good because it looked like he killed himself. We had Nikita Lyons and lash Legend. I mean, it wasn't horrible. I mean the match with Vince McMahon at WrestleMania was like a thousand times worse. But I'll talk more about this in a moment. Santos Escobar and Legato del Fantasma running a Tony D'Angelo and a j Galante who apparently duo now, and you know they both essentially totally other

to stay out of each other's business. And then the main event was braun Breaker and Gunther Okay, and I was so excited to see this like headline a takeover whatever whatever they call the takeovers now, and uh, I can't even believe I'm complaining about this one. They went in there and they had a very good match and they had a clean finish. Braun Breaker beat Gunther in the middle of the ring with his move pinned him one,

two three. Now why am I complaining about this? Well, they gave this away on TV for free as a set up for braun Breaker's next challenger, Joe Gacy, the former vaulter, was a set up guy for Joe Casey. That's gonna be the feud and the long term feud. Here Joe Casey has kidnapped because we joke about it, but it's actually not a joke. There is a kidnapping on this show every other week, and this week Rick Steiner has been kidnapped by Joe Gacy. That is this

set up for this braun Breaker Joe Gacy feud. There was set up by braun Breaker just pinning gun Through in the middle of the ring in a random main

event unadvertised on n x T two point Oh. The only thing I gotta say about this is, uh, what the good thing about this match, besides the fact that it was good was you know, braun Breaker is going to be somebody, and what I like is he's being thrown into the deep end because you know, this was not something that braun Breaker and Gunther practiced for a week like Gunther's in there he's calling spots left and right.

So I think that this was kind of like a I don't know, I don't I shouldn't say last minute, but I mean it was sort of last minute, because you know, this whole thing on Monday was last minute. So anyway, you know, he had to go in there and he had to do a you know, call the match. I'm sure they went over some stuff, but this was called the match in the ring. Listen to Gunther do what he says, get in there and actually work, which of course is the opposite of what we saw with

the Nikita Lions match. Nikia Lions and Lash Legend like they practiced their match probably for weeks. They got in there. You know, they managed to pull it off, but you ain't gonna learn to work like that. You're just gonna be able to pull off a match on television, which you know, if that's all you want these two to do, that's fine. But Brown Breaker needs learned how to work. And this match with Gunther, I mean, he was in there and he's a better worker now after the match

than he was before. So I like that aspect of it. We'll get Mike Saus after the break talk more Observer Live anything else? Alright, Mike, your thoughts on nine x T two point Oh uh. There's a lot of talent on that show booth, a little bit seasoned and a lot of raw talent, obviously, with people like braun Breaker and such. But when they pulled back after he seated Walter Clean, I just assumed Fabia Eichner would be standing there, you know, explaining where he went. You know that would

that would make some sense? Okay, he just beat Walter Clean. We just had Imperium lose the tag titles. You know, things are falling apart. But you know what, he lost his mind, went to the back and said, you know what, Selverik Steiner there and decided to take him. I don't know would it made more sense, I think than Joe Gayzy, But I am not a seasoned cz W viewer. I'm not I don't know if Joe Gayzy did a lot

of training at the cz W Jojo. I know a lot of people have come out of that gone through it. The MJ have a lot of people wrestled for cz W. I know he was a big part of that. I'm guessing and I'm just I'm throwing this out there because I don't know. Maybe this is obviously they want Harland with Joe Gacy to try to learn something. Maybe this

is a good thing for ron Breaker. Again I am not but Walter I know, And that's to me, braun Breaker working with Eichner and being involved in it with having some friends go after that whole group, to me would be better for braun Breaker. But maybe again this won't be the end of the world. But they the problem is it's just the gay Cy character and I don't know, to the n x T crowd, is it over. I mean, that's some of the metrics on some of the stuff that WW is doing and doubling down on.

It's like you see in some cases it's worked, you know, Tony D'Angelo people took to you know, and he's been able to kind of hold up to his end of the own in the Chomp if you'd we've had braun Breaker, we've had some successes there, but we've had some things that they have obviously done they keep they keep doubling and tripling down on that I don't think are very good at all. And again I don't know. I'm I'm

kind of up in the air. On this because I know at the end, braun Breaker should be standing Vic Toorious, and I'm sure he'll do it, and I'm sure he'll do something impressive to Harland to throw him. But you know, I'm just kind of hoping against hope here because I really don't know about Gaycy and the character and whether this people are gonna care when the match is actually

taking place. No, but maybe they have to maybe have to train him to do sports entertainment storylines, and so he's got to have this feud before he can go up to the main roster. It's so silly because that's where he should be. I just don't understand why you don't make that move. He's lost it off already and you just bring him up there as a surprise and he starts throwing people, whether it be on Raw or whether it be on SmackDown, especially with some of the

moves that they've made. It still again, it's a continuation from yesterday. I just don't understand why he's there to do that when he could work with so many people on the main roster go over them and and and they could build that. But who am I after WrestleMania largest audience for the show since January of one, which by the way, was a special Legends Night episode, So if you go back, I guess uh nine have to

rustle me is special. Best eighteen and forty nine numbers since the start of one football season two point one

zero million viewers. Point six three at eighteen and forty nine numbers far more impressive when you consider the show winning against It could be one of its toughest nights of the year for competition with the n C Double A Men's championship game going head to head with the second half of RAW sled Our one being the highest rated when of late it has been Our to nineteen point three percent drop our one to three, which is usually the sign of a bad show, but in this case,

it's a sign of a basketball game. The North Carolina Kansas game, which aired on TBS, TNT and True TV seventeen point oh five million viewers and are you ready for this Row did a point six three in eighteen and forty nine, which is stupendous for Raw. So to speak, point six three. This North Carolina Kansas game did a four point seven two in eighteen to forty nine, A four point seven two in eighteen to forty nine, all le two traditional powerhouse teams realized the listen, listen, I

don't think you guys get it. Raw okay is normally in the top ten, and sometimes it's in the top five, and sometimes it's like one, two three okay. It rarely comes near a point six three. This game did a four, not a point four, did a four point seven two and eighteen and forty nine. So the raw number is even Morris down. It's more stupendous when you think about it.

To point three two million viewers first hour, to point one one million second hour, and one point eight seven million in the third hour, so very very good numbers. So TBS and CBS, CBS and Turner Sports have this deal. They extended it out I believe here through twenty thirty two.

The eight additional years of the contract when they signed this thing a couple of years ago, are worth eight point eight billion dollars, nearly matching the value of the original fourteen year deal, which was ten point eight million billion signed in two thousand and ten. It is amazing what live sports will do, and hey, wrestling has the ability to continue to piggyback off of that. So it's uh, it's absolutely amazing, absolutely amazing those numbers that are thrown there.

This person says, normal folks don't watch this trash wrestling product. You realize it. Raw and Dynamite do very, very well in the top fifty. So all those numbers I gave you about four point seven to compared to most every other show on television comes nowhere near a point six three either, So nobody's watching nothing compared to this basketball game. So we got Dynamite tonight, Samo Joe Max Castor Men's

Tournament qualifier, Karasheeda Julia Hart Women's Tournament qualifier. Given this is a multi week tournament leading to the end of May, so multi month, why do we have qualifiers for the tournament? Why don't just have one more round of brackets? But anyway we can, we can push storylines. We're debuting Samoa Joe and we gotta figure out how brooding Julia Hart

is in this match. And I'm col Christian Cage Tables match Hardy's versus Butcher and Blade FTR versus the Young Bucks for the r O H Tag Team Titch Ampionships and the Triple A Tag Team Championships. So don't miss that one. Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz will all be appearing. And Tony Kahn, whoa Tony Khan, on his Busted Open radio appearance on Wednesday, made a point to say that he is quote going back to his ruthless roots when it comes to the line up for Friday, and it

will be a stacked up show. So obviously a Rampage has not been doing great on Friday Night to say the least. And uh, you know, he's gonna have to do that more, and I think they probably should. Look, Friday is the day that they're on. It's hard to move to a new day. It's hard to move to a new time and really be able to scratch something out. And apparently you know, TBS and T and T are happy where it's at. But it has become the show for rustling fans that if you're gonna miss something from

a w yeah you're gonna miss that over Dynamite. That's just the way it goes. But when you have the NHL Playoffs, when you have the n c A tournament, where you have all of these things that are playing with you, it may just be you really have to EBB and flow that show kind of around these big events, and then you have that stacked show after three weeks of not getting any attention at all, and you're looking forward at baseball coming up and all the other things

that are on those properties. It's like, man, you really are going to have to dance around this because I again we've talked about the day, it's I'm moving off of that day. The best thing I think they can do is probably replay in other places like True TV, L places like that. If you can spread a w programming out all across the Turner networks, I think that would be great. But this is the only thing I think you can do is try to promote strategically around

this stuff, and you better hope it hits. Gunter was asked by Wrestling Inc. What he's been doing to get in shape. I guess eat less, Gunter s D. I always worked out a lot, but I would say for the first time I have really focused on nutrition. These two guys, Marcel Bartel and Phoebe and I Canner really

pushed me. They're shredded. I've got to say, when I was a wrestling fan, I always liked the look of these solid heavyweights in Japan who had a little bit of a gut carrying around just brawlers and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, you've got to do go with the times and evolve a little bit, and that's what he did. So for those of you that are too heavy trying to lose some weight, Gunther has advice for you eat less, which actually is part

of it. Yes, you know, I was. I hate to digress and everything like that, but I always eat well, and uh, you know I was. I was doing the old I can't say it was keto, but it was pretty low carb and uh and one day I thought, you know what, I'm almost I'm almost. Actually was because I was going to Hawaii, and so I decided, you know what, I'm not only gonna eat like this, but I'm gonna I'm gonna calorie count. I'm gonna cut my calories a little bit. And uh, I just disappeared. I

got that A one thirty three. I got so skinny that I thought I could have a disease of some sort. So I started eating again last couple of days and I'm back up to win forty. So I don't think I have a disease. But anyway, the point is, if you eat less, you'll weigh less. It's my advice today, me an old vaulter, we're eating less together, exercise, eat the right things, you know, and Walter Stole a young guy doing it's, you know, it's a good time to

make a lifestyle change. He's you know, I'm gonna be with like thirty five, but you know, he's a lot of wrestling time. Things like that. And I know there's people that will wait, look at Vince, Look at Vince. It's seventy six. But it's hard to carry around that kind of way as you get older. Sure is back at them over with Big Demobserver Live. I think it's me that's something that I won't try, but imagine back of the show. Bright Over is here Wrestling Observer Live

mixmber BV also a wrestling observer at dot com. Very happy today to be joined by Big Demo here. It's got a big weekend coming up. How you doing great? Oh boy, we just gotta we just gotta problem with the connection. Try that again. How you doing? I'm doing very well? Thank you, promise not to square. Yeah, well, how you feeling after this weekend? You know you had a couple of matches down there in Dallas. How did Russell mean you week treat you? And h how did

Calvin Tankman treat you? A muster of a man to go head up with? It was? It was an incredible, incredible experience on the other side of the rest of me. New weekend and we're wrestling at eleven am and then two am at the same day, was sir, something new my random speaking like multiple times per day. But Calvin Tangmin was a lot of fun to to wrastle that

incredible talent and hopefully we can wrestle again. Maybe like seven ran o'clock at night might be a bit uh, well, how do you do how this is a heck of a of a thing here because you had Calvin Tankman, but then on the other side you had war Horse, so certainly a diverse certainly diverse body types to work against.

What is that like on these weekends where and I know you've been in ww for a while, but you know, on these weekends where you're facing multiple people all of different sizes and styles, does it does it wear on you a little bit? Does it make it tough on you at all? Honestly, that's what it's all about for me, because you're getting to tell different stories with different people. And like I thought was just to wrastle Calvin Calvin tankmin like twelve times over two weeks. For like, it

was like too the police schedule. Then it would get very old, very fun, and then it's a lot more fun when you're against somebody completely new twelve hours later.

And for me, obviously having to get ready and get get pumped for one o'clock two o'clock in the morning was new, and it was absolutely incredible experience for me because everybody, Uh, if you've Matt Moore Horse, so you've wrastled four Horse, you've seen him wrastling, you know that either a little crazy and it's hard not to get excited when he's running around like a first you know. I I gotta ask this question because I've been a fan forever and you have as well, and all of us.

And I'm a small guy myself, and sometimes I I watch there's two different kinds of matches involved big guys. Okay, there's either the two giants that face off against each other and it's just two giant dudes pounding on each other. Or there's the opposite, which is the giant guy and the really small guy, and the giant guy just kills the really small guy. And every time I see either one of these matches, I can't decide which one I actually like a better, because you know there's you know,

I don't I'm a small guy at all. But it will never get old seeing some big dude kill some small guy. But at the same time, it will never get old to see two big dudes get in there and just pound on each other. So, as a big dude who has done both of these styles of matches, which do you prefer another big dude or killing that little dude? It's hard not to always enjoy the David versus Goliath story because it's still obvious that it's in

your face. But like for me, it's always going to like if the other person has any sort of skill, if they're a technician or a flyer, or if they're a fellow bag monic can go, then that's all you want, Like you want to see if somebody who's who's got something about them, and if you're against the fellow move and they have a little bit about them, because if they're slower than me. That it's not going to be I want to be the slow one. Yes. Now, now

what are your what are your your stats? Uh? You can do either legitimate or pro wrestling stats, but in general your height and weight. So you mean when you say legitimate, you mean that's that's always because I mean obviously the sure I'm six two on, I'm twenty two stones and two stones something like that. I think I think I got my stones wrong because I don't think you're four hundred pounds. Okay, thank you. Three people believe

that's true. So the reason I ask is because there is a there is a big match coming up this weekend Vermont in Hollywood. It is you and Tomohiro? Is she okay? Now? A lot of people that have seen on television but have not seen him live. He looks like, you know, god Zilly looks like a giant, but in

reality he's not. He's he's like five five. So when you see the poster of you and Ishi together, it looks like it's going to be the battle of the two giants, but really he only carries himself like a giant. He's not really a giant, but he certainly works like a giant, and I know that this is a very important match for you, and it was a very important

match for you a few years ago. Tell us about his she Honestly, I think like I was the same as yourself when I first, like I was watching him on you know, YouTube or whatever else, when I was trying to get as many as much as I could, and I remember thinking, oh, this this guy, this guy must be must be massive whatever. But it turns out he's just got massive heart and he can actually throw anybody around. Because when I caught up next to him

and that, yes, I'm much bigger than him. But the problem is, you know, his job to put me down, and he's certain to give it his best. But you know, a few years ago when we wrestled, it was awesome because he doesn't have great English and I've got literally no Japanese. So for us to go in there and just just get out each other, it was honestly one of the best experiences of my career up to that point, because I was literally getting there working with somebody was

so much experience. You know, he's been in there with literally the best there's ever been um and you know, I'm learning how he moved. How does this thing? And I'm doing my very best to cooperative or or the uncoperative depending on what it is. And honestly it was it was so much fun, not much you know how launched me and change my my past at the time in funny fifteen. So it's great to meet him against seven years later, with what I've learned, and I'm looking

forward to skinning him alife all over again. How much of a influence was Japanese wrestling on you? Because I know over and in the UK and in in Ireland and Scotland and everything, w E has been such a massive presence. But you started breaking into the business in mid two thousands, correct, when dragon Gate and Noah and London started to draw a lot more. What was Japan

always a goal for you? Were you a heavily I think like as the world gets smaller, with you know, with the Internet helping a lot, like we used to you know, trade tips back in the day, like is that a copyright issue if you ever use lime wire? And then as the Internet like brought everything closer, you know, suddenly we were able to watch everything. And then in the UK we actually had the Rattling Channel which meant, you know, for the first time, I was getting exposed to,

like to know and everything. So suddenly I'm getting like Massawa's almost entire career, I'm getting Kabashi. You know what I'm saying. Kanta's right, and you know, it's just so like shak Yama is one of my favorites. I love Syama, like him over the bitting up on times, see a lot of his matches later on. You know, I got to go by and see what he knew with the life of Joan whatever else. So you know, I'm influenced

personally by British Wrastler. Obviously American rest you shoot, you know correser All in Print of the Problems, So the likes of Roberts's there's a massive influences for me as a worker. But like Japanese rastural, I think that, you know, we kind of adopted Japanese restling a little bit into

our own culture. And absolutely in American resting over the last ten, ten fifteen years, you can see it like Planners Day Night and any I need to show you watch now everybody has there's there's kind of this little element of of what we've picked up from there and honestly for me personally, like you know, the two thousands, but was you know, the late the late nineties, you know, because the find you know, you kind of started to learn what New Chapan was through through that way, I'm

with their cooperation. And then later on, you know, with the Internet, I was able to de find out more about like New Japan, all Japan, Noah, even ziraj Wana. Like I really end the zero one. I actually worked and with Deer one with the company that I helped I held work in Britain, And so you know that there's just all these amazing talents over the years who have been very blessed to be able to spend time with the raster with and such such not and that

it's hard not to be influenced by. Like end up on an airport roundably with Hoddie Kingston. We're sitting watching the Best of Kawana. You just kind of what happened? Oh man, what a what a time of the airport? That is I just everybody else see these two large fan hunkered over this small phone. Yeah, watching some dude drop another dude on his head. Now, what about what

about the Ultimate Warrior? Well, I mean, you know I'm sure when I was a kid today, when I was, you know, five years old, but still was staying you know, yeah, yeah, but badly as I got a little older, it became less by Warrior and borri by guys. I don't know if I would say sadly, I would say that you made the right choice to not model your career and your work after The Ultimate Warrior. I don't know, like, let's not think that there's a thing about this him.

These days, everybody seems to be into it. You know, maybe I would maybe it's being better ship that was a bigger Warrior fan. Who knows, well, hey, there there is that as well. There is that as well. Now I like the bald head. What happened time time? Well, yeah, that does happen. In fact, we got a picture of you on the show here with hair, So it's a little jarring to see the that that lovely mane of hair that you once had. But I like the bald head. Look,

thank you, I really pretty star. I think you know, it was for me personally. It's like I wanted to see in my head for the two years because I think I see I go all the way back to board games and That's when I first realized, okay, I'm maybe I could have been ten on top there and never realized it was not bad, but okay. And then as the you know that the lighting gets better, the comeras get better, it's suddenly a bit more obvious to me.

And I remember I actually pitched before I went up the smack and I pitched, listening, can we maybe do something word you know, she have in my head or whatever? And they were like, oh, we could maybe have like Lars Sullivan, like, you know, shave your head balls whatever. It never really came to fruition, and you know, fast forward a couple of years and when finally, uh, when finally it was time. It was posted later and I was like, okay, I'm gonna gonna go for it now

because it's the only thing I could focus on. I couldn't I don't really like watching myself wrestle anyway, I kind of forced myself out, but the only thing I could focus on was the dome. Now, now you're obviously working, are you what what is your new Japan enough? You've been watching a flotime Jepanes wrestling for a long time and you've you've worked with the she Evil, and you've

got him this weekend. But I mean, there's a lot of great guys not only are in New Japan, but New Japan is working with so many places that like, there's a million potential opponents for you. Do you have certain dream opponents where's like, oh my god, now I might actually have a chance to work with Tadashi or Okada or whoever. It's going to be absolutely Listen, like I'd be a school of it and say Okada would be number one on any list that I'd ever have.

I got very lucky. I got the wrestle Town of hash, I got the wrestle Markaba and she with Red Broke. But honestly, I'm looking at Okada, I'm looking at well Offspring, looking at Shingle. These are the guys I want to get in there. What if I want to I want to be in front of the stellations of people in Japan. I don't want to prove that on every but as good as them. And that's not the thing. It made it's hard not to watch these guys who think these are literally the best in the world right now, and

I need to get to that level. Now, you know you you spend a lot of time in in w w E, and and I don't know why it is. I think because w E has always been so isolationist that you just sort of have this idea that, well, if you're working for w w you're not actually watching any of the wrestling, which of course is ridiculous. But

you know, what did you were you keeping? You know, during the time that you were there, were you watching all of the major New Japan shows and and you know, obviously a w eventually got started as well, But I mean, what were you watching during that period? Well, the best part was on Worlds came up, one of the first

to sign up. Yeah, so I M and man, obviously, like it's hard not to watch everything because I think one of the things for me, you know, the because you're around wrestling so much, it literally becomes your your everything. I think I was doing my best not to watch wrong Smack then, and I was trying to watch everything else because he wanted to try and be you know,

inspired by what was going on in the world. And for me, persons so many friends like all across the world, so like I'm trying to keep up with the likes of Ice Double progress red of pro as well as trying to watch everything across the pond. You're trying to watch what's going on in the Independence? Are you trying to watch what's happening with a W I always tune in to see like which of my friends are on Impact or whatever else? And then boom you see that

New Japan's creating New jpath Strong. So you're like, wow, I need to figure out what's happened in there. Um And it's like the beauty is in this situation where there's just so much available to this whereas years agoing I as a kid, like you had nothing available to you, so you literally had to do your best, try and wear your way to get stuff not there for you. So if you're not watching it, you're an idiot. Well all that thought back in them on with more Everybody

Observer Live back in the show. Bran Albert is here wrestling Observer Live. Mike'sburviv also wrestling Observer dot Com. Big Demo joining us here. He's got a big show coming up on Sunday, New Japan in Hollywood. It's uh Demo and is she in a Battle for the Ages? And Uh, we gotta get some plugs in here, Demo, and hopefully we can get you back on the show again, because all we did the break was talking rassling. There's a lot to talk about. Absolutely, we didn't even get a

chance to cover off Eric Young. We'll be here all day. Oh yeah, I mean we we talked during the break about Eric Young. For those of you that don't know, Eric Young is is pretty much the greatest, whether you know it or not, he actually is. So we'll talk about that, but let's get some let's get some plugs in. What you got for Twitter and everything like that Pro Wrestling tease so obsolutely everything is is Demo Markel. You

can get me on Twitter, Instagram, Pro Wrestling teas. It's Demo Macho all one word add Demo Macael D m O m A c k l E and uh yeah, has noted there's uh everything you need to know is up there. There's uh links to upcoming shows, there's links to the Pro Wrestling tease. I see, we've got three new shirts out here, Celtic Chaos Beast and Big Demo's Irish Red. You can check all of those out at Pro Wrestling Tease. And has noted this Sunday New Japan

Mutiny at the Vermont Hollywood coming up Sunday. You can get your tickets now. Big Damon's gonna be facing Tomo hero she E a bunch of other matches as well. I think her own Filthy Tom's gonna be there. Lots of great stuff, So Damon, I want to wish you the best of luck with New Japan. Thank you so much for doing the show in the studio in sometime. Thanks very much, Thanks for helping me, and I'll see

you guys very soon. That's a luck with show. Yeah, thanks so much, and of course thanks everybody for listening. We got news breaking everybody. Nash Carter has been fired. We'll have more Wrestling Observer dot com and some other stories breaking today as well. So that's it. We gotta go though, talk to you next time Wrestling Observer Live. You have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network