Smackdown/Rampage/Hiroshi Tanahashi Resigning

Rampage Tonight, Rampage already taped. We'll give me the the line up, another results, you can watch the show tonight to find out what happens. Smecton of course is live tonight, and believe it or not, we actually have some segments announced for the show, so we'll tell you about that here Today, w w E injuries, Hiroshitanahashi re signing with New Japan, Sunny arrested again, the ratings for DNA might

and more. And of course, yesterday the new edition of the Wrestling Observer newsletter came out and we have four actually five, one of them six, I guess one of them is an act, but four new entrants into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame three of which three acts, of which Los Bravos is one of the Los Brasos one of the acts. That's three guys. But anyway, the top three all going into the All of Fame with

more than eighty percent of the vote. Okada going in with nine two percent of the vote, So there were eight percent of voters that did not believe Okada is a Hall of Famer. I don't want to talk about it, but we will talk about Okada going in and uh and the guy who almost went in with fifty nine point seven percent of the vote last year, he only got thirty three. Some very interesting results in the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame voting, so we'll talk about that

here on the show today and so much more. If you want Texas, 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 at Brian Albert is on Twitter back in a moment to kick it off Observer Live back in the show.

Bright Albert is here Wrestling Observer Live mix umber Baby, also of Wrestling Observer of her dot com, the Wrestling Observer newsletter, Hall of Fame edition is out, thank God, on the front page of the Wrestling Observer newsletter website Wrestling Observer dot com atfortably online dot com. Subscribers canna read the whole thing. A bunch of great bios in there, a lot of great stories and all you can see how everybody who was on the ballot for the Observer

Hall of Fame did. And uh spoiler here Hall of Fame balloting results. The four acts going into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame in two Catuchico Kata nine two per cent of the vote. Los Brazos went in with eighty six percent of the vote, having only gotten fifty three percent of the vote last year. Jim Crockett Jr. Went in eighty two percent of the vote after only getting thirty six percent of the vote last year. Don Owen going in of the vote after getting of the

vote last year. But the jumps for Jim Crockett Jr. And Los Brasos, particularly Jim Crockett Jr. I mean, bro, what happened this year? What happened? And look it's eighty two That's what I'm saying. A forty six percent jump. And look at the jump that Los Brasos has and you hate to put it this way, but it is put this way mostly the death bump and Jim Crockett Jr. Passed away, uh Los Brasos to Plata, super Porky passed

away last year. When that happens a lot of times, a lot of like it shed on somebody's career and especially the positives of one's career, and people tend to look at other people in a different way. I think a great example of this, to me, at least, my personal example of this is always Eddie Guerrero in that I always kind of pointed Chris ben Wait always surprised me not that ben Wah was in before Eddie Guerrero, but that Eddie Guerrero's point total and that his vote

total was so low. That's what always surprised me. He ultimately did get in after he had passed away and people had their warm, fuzzy memories. Obviously that tends to take place. We see a great jump. But also I think pushed some of these numbers was the fact that there were going to be some people that were going to fall off the ballot. Ole Anderson Sergeant Slaughter, they were two of the people and we saw a big

bump up in Sergeant Slaughter as well too. It's only five in, but when you look at some of his numbers over the last several years, you can see where

he did get a significant bump. But when it comes to a lot of hall of fames, including the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame, especially when it comes to the Baseball Hall of Fame here in America, it always drives to me nuts when there is somebody that is such an obvious no brainer and you still have people as members of the voting community that just refused to put somebody in for whatever reason. And Kazuchka Okada was a no brainer. Kenta Kobashi the year he went in

was a absolute no brainer. And no one will probably ever touch Kobashi's vote total at this point with the what was it, Brian ninety six percent? What what? What was he voted in? With a you're talking about Kobashi here. Kobashi was ninety eight, lire was Okada was ninety two. I'm still trying to figure out who would not vote for Kazucho Okada. What is the excuse because he's still active,

because he's too young? I think that's absolute craziness by the letter of what you're supposed to be voting on Kazuhiko Okata like all of those other men, no no brainer, Hall of famers, I mean, even the Rock. In some ways, because of two thousand and seven, you could even almost argue against him, possibly in some way a lot easier to me than you could could go against kazooch Ocata. And I think that's insanity in itself. But listen, we don't know, we don't know who all the voters are.

But I do know that when Dave kind of sort of revealed that Okada was going in on accident observer radio, I mean he did say that he did not get of the vote, and he had heard from a few people that didn't vote for Ocata, and I believe his exact words were, there wasn't one good reason. I couldn't see it myself. I can't see it myself. Can you can you come up with I've been watching wrestling for a long time. I've watched wrestling from all over the world.

I haven't obvious Slee seen everything, but I've watched a lot. And Okada is either he is either the greatest professional wrestler I have ever seen, or he's He's easily top five when he had that run a couple of years ago. I watched those Okada matches, and I grew up with Shawn Michael's and Rick Flair, and I've seen Kobashi and Missawa and Omega. Name anyone you want in this huge name Tanahashi, like I've seen all of them. Okay. I

never saw somebody who was as good as Okada. Okay, fine, So maybe you say, well, he's not the best, you know, I think Rick Flair's the best or whatever. Okay, fine, he's not a Hall of Famer, bro it's crazy. Of course he's a Hall of Famer. So he's in and Los Braslos Jim Crockett Jr. Don owen all in. Uh, Poor Mystico, poor a charistico. Listen, here's the thing with Mystico. Everybody. If you're looking at the Hall of Fame and you know Mystico, yes, he went to w W E and

it was an abject, horrific failure. Okay, but you guys, some of you don't understand how big Mystico was before he went to w W E. Find the Last Lucador that one wrestler of the year. Oh you never will, because he's the only one ever who did. He was a massive draw, a mainstream name in Mexico. Now, obviously a lot of people only remember he went to w w E and he didn't do well and he wasn't very good, and he sucked and he just was gone. But he went to w w E. They don't know

what to do with anybody. So anyway, the point is he got fifty nine point seven percent of the vote this year after getting thirty three percent last year, and so essentially one person didn't vote for Mystico and he did not make it into the Hall of Fame. Hey, look, everyone everyville counts, bros. It's while we're going into what seventeen eighteen years now since Mystico was at his peak. But I mean, and I know, look, there are some people listening to us right now. They weren't even born

yet when Mystica was at his peak. But it was appointment television, any of the CMLL shows, especially what was the next of a couple of days later out Channel fifty two where where it would come on, And I mean it was appointment television, Friday night appointment television because of Mystico. That's he was that big, He was that good, he was that big of a star. I mean, it was amazing how big Mystico wasn't how much he crossed over. So I don't know if he ever makes it in

I think he ultimately he will. But that damage of going to w w E, I mean that absolutely hurt him. It hurt him big time. Now also to back to Jim Crockett Jr. The you know, the big boost that he got. Granted I am a little bit biased, you know with the mid Atlantic stuff, but to me, he was always unnaturally low. To be frank with you. I mean, Jim Crockett Jr. And his father, you could argue you

could have went in in the initial class. Obviously they didn't, but I think both of them, being in the cadillac of wrestling territories, what he was able to oversee. At the end of the day, everybody died, every promoter died at the hands of Vince mcmahn, every single last one of them, every booker as we see now with Vince McMahon, who at the end of the day, no matter what he wants to call himself, that's how everybody who was ever involved in wrestling. Look at him, he's the final say,

he's the booker. You see what he's turning into right now. What a mess with an embarrassment that is with his vision right now. Frankly, so, I think sometimes we hold that against some of these older promoters, like like Jim Crockett Jr. Who had the Cadillac of wrestling territories. Literally he was the best wrestling territory and his biggest cities were Charlotte, Greensboro, Norfolk, and Roanoke, for heaven's sake. So

you know, I always thought he was way low. But you know what, bottom line, at the end of the day, he's in. And I think there are some people that may never get in that deserve to be in, but everybody that is in absolutely deserves her place. So congratulations with everybody back in the moment, Observer Live, Back in the show. Bran elbur is here Wrestling Observer Alive and Mike's umber Viv also Wrestling Observer dot Com. Hey, listen, we have a guy here who's all up in. Uh.

He's all up in old Uh. Mr COO's grill about botching spots. Yeah, and listen he did batch a lot of spots, you know what, before he lost his mind and murdered his family. I was friends with Crispin Wa for many years in the early two thousands, and he had gone to Mexico, and he had gone to Japan, and he had gone to He had wrestled all over America and North America, and one day I said, how, like, how are you able to like work all of these

different styles like lucca and and everything. And you know what he told me, He goes, I didn't do any Lucca. I just went to Mexico and I just wrestled basically all the lucadors did Luca around him, and he just wrestled like Chris Ben while he wasn't in there trying to do like whatever. So the point of this story is Mystico is his massive, massive, massive superstar in Mexico.

W w E wants a new Ray Mysterio. So instead of taking the guy Mystico and bringing him to w W E is Mystico and having him work Mystico matches with like other people that can do Lucca, they took the guy. They changed his name. They wanted him to work American style versus Americans with a little bit of high flying in there. Well, of course it didn't work. That's the point. Now, granted, Mystico had some issues of his own. He uh, he didn't want to learn any English,

he had some behavioral issues. But the point of this is if you would have taken Ric Flair in his absolute prime, when he was the best wrestler in the world, arguably mid eighties and uh, and he got signed by CMLL and they brought in Rick Flair and they said, Okay, we're gonna first off, we're gonna change your name. You're gonna be uh Blanco whatever, and uh, you're you can't

work the Ric Flair style. We want you to uh you know, do headlocks on the other side and uh flips and rolls, and let me tell you about Rick Flair. Guy don't roll very well. So and then they go in there, they want me to work Luca style with a different name, and it toldly doesn't work. He doesn't get over. I mean, are you gonna go, oh that Rick Flair? He actually sucked. No. And you know what, no one in the right mind would have done that

with Rick Flair. There's exactly one company who would want to take the biggest superstar in Mexico, bring him in, change everything about him, and then not figure out why the guy didn't get over. So anyway, I don't want to hear it. Obviously the guy had a lot of problems.

He wasn't perfect, but man, that guy got screwed in w w E. You know, I remember there being a time where wrestling was so down in Japan, and wrestling was especially so down in New Japan that people were wondering, would we ever see somebody get elected to the Hall of Fame, what would the fates of the Eugene Agadas and the Minorah Suzuki's be. And then we have obviously seen the ascension of New Japan and the entrances of Hiroshi Tonahashin Ski Nakamura's well as people like Minora's Suzuki

and Eugene Nagata. And now when you look at the landscape, Roman Reigns is going to be added next year on the ballot. Thanky Lynch is going to be on the ballot for the first time next year. It is going to be very interesting now to see where w W E and where today's stars end up. You know, see him Punk did not get a large bump. Even though he doubled his total, he had such a low total last year that you know, it's not really up that high.

But when you look at the w w E side, you ask yourself, Man Edge, Randy Orton, Uh, these types of people, will they ever have really a shot to get in Well what they do in w w E, Well, how they are are handled, you know, and they're booking, and how they're presented on television. How much will be held against them not being able to to evade what happens to them at the control of w w will be interesting to see, you know, how people react to

them as the years go on. So next year, a lot of tag teams are going to be added to the ballot, and that's going to be interesting for me, somebody who's a big fan of tag team, somebody who was very influenced by tag teams, by the Tolly Blanchards and arn Anderson's, by the Steiner's. You know, we're going to have Ricky Steve Bowton, j Young Blood to cure Tauwai and Toshiaki Kawada Taae. The one pillar that has not been voted into the Wresting Observer Newsletter Hall of

Fame as a singles. As a tag team, I mean, to me is almost undeniable. Antonio Rocca and Argentina Rocca and Miguel Perez, same way, they're the biggest drawing tag team in the history of pro wrestling other than the Road Warriors. I mean, you know, to me, they're a no brainers. So it will be very interesting to see tag teams and how they're looked at as we continue on, because here's the one thing that seems to be pretty consistent.

Even though we have a lot of great tag teams now we'd like to talk about, they are still never going to be in there and not at the forefront in the way that I think a lot of people would like them to be, and I think is as much as they could be. So tag teams always getting the short end of the stick. Tonight on SmackDown, former Shields stablemates Roman Reigns and Seth Walls will take part in a face to face segment tonight. That's exciting. They're

wrestling at the Royal Rumble. Leta will make her return to SmackDown tonight. Aliyah and Natty are two of the other restaurant who have been confirmed for the Women's Rumble. They will face off in a singles match tonight. It will be Eliah's first singles match on SmackDown since being called up from n x T, and the first time that she has wrestled since she vomited all over herself after a match in November. She was excited. Sammy Zane

has promised to out jackass Johnny Knoxville. Yeah, I'm sure it's a fun segment to film for Sammy So and that's tonight. Sammy is a new stunt show called Insane. It's wacky, It's insane, insane. Sure, why not? Announced for this Rampage Tonight, Jungle Boy in Lucas Source versus Alex Reynolds and John Silver Trent will face Adam Cole, Layla hirsh Red Velvet and Chris stat Lander faced Nyla Rose, Penelope Ford and the Bunny. Sean Spears faces Andrew Everett

and a look at Thunder Rosa and Mercedes Martinez. That's tonight on on Rampage much Pan. Zavier Woods currently into action due to injury. He was on G four's Attack of the Show on Thursday. He says he's out of action dure just suffering a torn plan taurus, which doesn't sound good. He is out of action four to six weeks. The plant tauris is a muscle located underneath the calf. If he is unable to return to the ring before the four to six week timetable, he would miss the

Royal Rumble. The injury happened when he was jumping into the ring to hit a d d T. Because eight times out of ten, when you get hurt, it's something dumb, you never should have got hurt doing it just happens. Then the other two times where you're doing something crazy and you actually get hurt. He says. It was jimming to the ring to do a d d T. I spring off the bottom rope and grab the guy and then run his head into the ground, hopefully shattering all the bones in his body so I can pin him

and win the match and make more money. I didn't know that a d d T is about shattering every bone in a man's body, he said. I did that part still, but in the process just jumping off the ropes, So nothing like a shark attack. A steel chair hit, not a machine gun, not a machete. I just jumped That's what I said. So what happened was he tried to do the move where he was gonna break every bone in the other guy's body, and he hit the move,

but the only one hurt was his own leg. This man seems to be uh hyperbole here, but I mean that should be the move or the goal of any wrestling move was to shatter and destroy your opponent, right, I mean it should be what are we doing? Erope Otherwise, But of New Japan's top stars has renewed their contract with the promotion, Tanahashi announced he has signed a new

deal with New Japan. He's a current i w g P United States Heavyweight champion, won the title from Kenta after almost killing the Poor Guy and a nod Q match at Russell Kingdom sixteen Night Too earlier this month, Kenta came out with a dislocated left hip, a broken nose tendant, damage to his finger, severe lacerations to his back, and had to miss the n j P W versus Noah show. Teach him to mess with Ace now, teaches both of them not do those stupid matches at their age. Whatever.

I'm not missing with the Ace at all. I'm trying to protect the Ace by having him do wrestling matches and not stunt shows. Bro, you know what, Mike is funny if if they would have announced it as a result of that hardcore match, Hiroshi Tanahashi had a dislocated left hip, a broken nose tendant, damage to his finger, severe trace to his back and we have to miss night three of Wrestle Kingdom sixteen. You would be railing on that man because it's Kenta, who's not as big

a deal as the Ace. Everything's all right, Oh, it's only Kenta. Don't mess with the aces hardcore match. What if he was doing a high fly flow and just on a basic move and you know, blow out his knee or something like that, like well, you know what, like Jake Atlas is somebody like that, right, I guess he didn't have to match. I get it that you didn't like the match, and I was not a huge fan of the match. I wouldn't have went in that

direction either. But like this whole arguing about, well, this whole hand was I need to be proven correct, you need to be yelled at, and you need some sort of verification and some sort of like you know, uh, you know whatever. No, I mean, because all you're doing is you're making a mountain out of mole hill and handwringing over the fact that this was so horrible and I'm so sad for these people and all this stuff.

It's like, Okay, cool, you didn't like the match, but like you've you've beaten this to death on how tragic and how ridiculous and all this other stuff, like they've killed their careers and it's just it's really way over the Okay, hold on a second, Hold on second. I just want to read this one more time. Okay, A guy got a dislocated hip, a broken nose, tending damage to his finger, and severe laceration to his back, and you're telling me I'm making a mountain out of a

mole hill. No, I think you're beating something to death and you're taking this and you've really I mean, you've obviously you want I know, it's one of those things you want to you know, a hill you want to die on and what you want to plant your flag on. And that's fine. It's just I don't know. I think it's silly to me. So I'm gonna get Kenta on this show. I'm gonna rattle off a list of his injuries, and I want you to say it's silly. Can know?

I think you're so silly these man, I think you're Yeah, I think your crusade here has been silly. So I'm gonna punish you for this. You know how. I'm opening up the phone lines back in a moment Observer Live. You heard me, Kent of vez phone lines are open. Everybody. Eight four four nine, one three seven is the phone number that is eight four four nine one three to seven to seven. You can text me four to five seven zero seven five six six. Should on the Prediction

Show today, but I didn't. Will springboards be outlawed in two due to so many injuries seemingly happening off of them? We shall see what dude brother said. Nothing to do with springboards, dude has to do with a dangerous match. They had consequences, which is apparently a mole hill. Oh mole hill. Geez, look at you, Austin, Texas. Show us how this is done. You're on the air, Hey Brian

a Mike shout out of the twitch honies. I was just calling to ask you if you knew about the uh if Josh Alexander had extended his contract Impact Wrestling because he has been looking pretty strong these past few months, and I was just making sure that you know he wasn't gonna leave R anything, because that would really be silly. All right, thank you all, hang up and listen, would be silly if he left for more money. Yeah. I haven't earned update on Josh Alexander, but I thought he

was recent. I couldn't be. Maybe I'm crazy because of what was going on. Why, right, all Ego Ethan Page, I mean they when they were teaming as the North, I thought Alexander resigned. I could be crazy about that, but I thought he resigned. Obviously Ethan Page didn't. He went on to a w But look, he is a He's a real feather in their cap, and he is somebody that I think, you know, the mainstream wrestling fan, they're gonna have to really be pulled kicking and screaming

over to him, I think. But I if you see what he's able to do with what Lee Moriarty and Daniel Garcia and Filthy, Tom Lawler and Alex Shelley and Davy Richards, and you go down the list of people who are in that vein Josh Alexander is as great of a wrestler as any of them, and I'd love to see him in New Japan. Strong and I think

Impact being that door, I think is is good. I think he's the type of guy that when Ring of Honor comes back, he's the guy I tapped to be on my shows if I can get him for that weekend. I think he's outstanding. He had a match with Ruby Soho in a a W that I think they may have released for free on YouTube. They kicked ass. I mean, he's just a fantastic, fabulous worker and Garcia. There are a lot of guys who had big years on the indies last year and in the last couple of years.

But man, if you're not watching Impact, you really ought to check out Alexander at the very least on some of the indies that he's done and some of the things that are out there for free on streaming services, because he's fantastic. The w W rename the Elimination Chamber? Is that true? Germany? They did it, says I'm still laughing at w W willing to rename Elimination Chamber WrestleMania Chamber to save themselves from the backlash. No, that's an email,

so I'll follow up on that here. A w has being Raw at eighteen and thirty four two weeks in a row. Dynamite has now beaten Raw eighteen thirty four back to back for two weeks point sixty two point two four this week. That is the second most important demo. They know, well, the most important one is eighteen and forty nine, not the only one, but the most important one eighteen forty nine, And in fact they tied Raw

this week. Nine hundred and sixty nine thousand viewers on TBS Low's viewership for Dynamites in December fift eighteen and forty nine eight point three nine, which matches the number drawn by this week's episode of Raw. Dynamite was third on cable for the night. Shell was down nine point three percent from last week. Still Dynamite second highest rating in the demos since October. Raw had very slightly more viewers five oh seven to five oh five, but it

is essentially a statistical tie. Raw had very stiff competition in the form of a college football national championship game. Brandon Thurston had the quarters for the Dynamite show, and uh, this was not pretty for those of you that watched the show, the show, but at one point one six nine million viewers. Uh, then we had c him punkin Wardlow come to the ring. Uh the show lost viewers

during that match. For those of you angry at me for not thinking it was a success, the show then fell even further tod It did go up above a million when MGF came back out, So now we're gonna have to listen to this bloke brag about that till the end of time, and then it largely kind of stayed even in the hundred range high eights from that point forward until the end of the show. So from the beginning of the show to the end. Uh, they lost over two hundred thousand viewers as the Dynamite Show

went on. So not a great ratings pattern, but it's one show, So there you go. Yeah, you know, w W this week on Monday fascinating. You know, not only do they have Monday night football again, it's playoff football and a lot more eyes on that game than some of these average Monday night games. So it's gonna be an interesting number. Whatever they do, it's gonna be low and all likelihood, And if they could just hold on and hold tight to their older viewers. I mean, that's

what they're gonna need to do. And those people don't change. They're very setting their ways. And we talked about them a lot and w W E just naturally has gotten more fans to to pick from. But when you look at those eighteen to thirty four numbers, and I know a lot of WW fans will always point at the overall number and point and make fun of the A W a person that you know as they go back

and forth. But aw's got a higher percentage of their fans that are between the ages eighteen and thirty four, And it's you've got to convert those people, you know, once they hit thirty five, odds are if you've gotten

by then they're gonna stick with you forever. And you look at the disparity between eighteen to thirty four and the overall viewership of RAW and it just it makes you shake your head because it's a bunch of people like Brian and I that I've talked about this before, that have been through a lot of peaks in this business. We've gone through the last one with Sina, we went through one with Whole Comania. We went through the attitude era. We've we've seen changes. We're the ones who are the

most hardcore. We're the ones who are left. A W is doing a better job right now, I think convincing their fans and building their young fan bases and making them longer term, more passionate fans. We'll see how that all turns out. You know, because of WW size and influence,

that could change at the drop of a hat. But as we move forward, especially if there's changes in w W, if they're sold to a Fox, if they're sold to an NBC Universal, if something like that happens, be interesting to see what the changes are and if those people, you know, that's an excuse for some people to maybe walk away from it for good at that point. Just it's very interesting to see where these demos are going

to go and how we're creating new wrestling fans. Look in rebranding, the Elimination Chamber the WrestleMania Chamber, according to Dave, not official until it is announced. There you go, well,

that'll be your gimmickman after Wrustlemania every year. I just you know, I think like the backlash thing or the rebound whatever the hell they called it where they had all the rematches last year, to do anything right before WrestleMania, or or to waste your time in some ways after it with a bunch of rematches and not use it as a new fresh start. It just it boggles my mind. It's not something I would do. All right, let's go to New York. You're on the air. What's going on?

Brian's Mike from Buffalo. I have two questions about one about the men's and the women's rumble. I don't know if you heard the men's is they're gonna be like a potentials forbid door surprise or whatever from impact on the men's side or even just like an r O H displaced talent. And then with the women's like all the firings and stuff, if they're already announcing you know, people like Brian and Nikki and Mickey James and Leda,

Like what what surprises could they have left? Because they've completely I mean like like you guys say that they're at the bottom of the barrel with the women's division in that company, and it's like, like you said, there's eleven slats to fill. Who could be these eleven other people that are bigger than like a Bella twin. It's like ridiculous. They have to be bigger. All three Toxic Attraction members will probably be in that match, you know

what I'm saying. Maybe they can get a Trish that to me, that's the only name that's out there that I think would liven up people from the past, somebody who would get over get a huge response. I mean, Trish is unsinkable. You know, she steps out there, everybody's gonna fallow over themselves. But other than that, I don't know. Does box C count as somebody that was cast off from Morrow h who possibly maybe maybe we could see in the rumble. I don't know. We got more than

enough dudes. I don't think we need anybody from Impacts possible, and no, I have absolutely no idea where they're need to love more women. Nick All does he still signed to that end of the A deal? We got another fellow here has a legitimate question if anybody knows, I mean, do you know is nick ald still n w A. I mean, with Mickey James going in, I believe nick Alds just resigned with him like a week ago. There's there's that. Then, alright, New York, what's up. All right, Brian.

So the other day I noticed you called Grayson Waller. What's his face? I'd like an apology? Please? Thank you? Is this Grayson? It's Grayson's people's well cool. You know what if you're not gonna get buddy an apology? All right, Anthony, you're on the air. What's going on? Hey Brian, Hey Mike. For those who didn't listen to the Brian and Vinny Show on Thursday, I totally recommend listening to Vinny talk about the Joe Gay c match. It's a classic land

Store and I know you're listening. They cover this on your Ship next week as well. Um, But the one guy from New York kind of stole my thunder. My question was, do you think a no, not that one, the one, the guy who was talking about them showing their hand by showing all their surprises ahead of the rumble. I think that's part of the joy of the Rumbles, is the element of surprise. And it can't be to

sell tickets because the rumble is the draw. People always love the Royal Rumble, and I just think by you know, showing all of the surprise interest beforehand, it only needs a lot of the joy and the fun of watching the rumble and the element of who is it going to be? And I just think it's foolish on their part, and I think they should save some surprises. And I wanted to get your thoughts on, well, I mean, I agree, but at this point, like, we have eleven surprises left

for the women. Eleven. Usually you get like one or two surprises. We have eleven. And as far as like the dudes, let's see how many guys as we've gotten. But Brian, don't we have I mean even we even have Okay, listen for the guys for the thirty man Royal Rumble. Okay, we have Angelo Dawkins, montez Ford, Ray Mysterio, Dominic Masterio, Austin Theory, Johnny Knoxville, Shamus, Damian Priest, aj Styles,

and Biggie. We have twenty one spots left. So I feel with twenty one remaining men's spots and eleven remaining women's spots, I think we've got room for a few more surprises. I would hope to be wrong, I would

hope that would be the case. And honestly, of all of the women that they've mentioned, okay, the only ones that I could argue having not mentioned and making them big surprises would be the Bellas because the bell has kind of made it public that Nicky was never going to wrestle again and now she is, so that would have been like a big surprise. And Mickey because she's the impact UH knockouts champion. But other than that, like Kelly Kelly Summer, Ray, Michelle Coom, it doesn't matter. I

mean they're there every year anyway. It's like everyone knows you want to see Kelly Kelly Well get the Rumble. It's so one show per a year you're gonna see Kelly Kelly get thrown at the Rumble in But yes, there's still plenty of spots left for a Cora Jade is going to be riding her escapeboard to the ring for the Royal Rumble. Zoe EO Toxic Attraction, I mean right there, there's six people to fill those guests, but they didn't want to use a lot of the n x T women. Yeah, they say a lot. I mean,

what are they doing? What what is Toxic Attraction doing in n x D. I mean the whole point of them being in n x D is to make Mandy Rose a star. I mean they are so of all the people they've invested in Mandy Rose and they want her to be a star. I mean, now would be the time, right, all right, let's go to Miami, Lovely, Miami, Florida. You're in the air. What's up going once? Miami going twice? Hey? Oh yeah, you know that is everyone. That's an old

school art bell, fat lamp. That's probably one more. Uh, let's not right, one more? Sorry brother, back in a moment, I was ever alive. Start cracks so far the most fallen through the floor. Just as well the game, the game score with me. We'll be again from the tweet in the Cool Cool Morning, Turn the days a swim say living ride is easy? Well, look at this plays

off that previous color there. So Mickey James here did an interview with Erli Lwani and said that her her Royal Rumble deal was originally going to be a surprise, and they decided not to make it a surprise. They wanted her to be one of the names they announced on Fox because I got so much traction. I guess they had to get a fair amount of attraction just

because she's the Impact Champion. But originally they were gonna have her come back as a surprise entrant in the Rumble, and they changed their minds and decided that they would just announce her on Fox, so she's back for at least of the night. It was very excited. She said, no hard feelings about that whole trash bag deal. She personally quote was not as offended as the rest of the world was, and that her posting the picture was

initially meant to be sarcastic. But some good did come out of the situation, as released, talents, gears, and belongings will no longer be sent in that fashion. Yeah, somebody actually had a good one, so it could be worse for the bag, like at the grocery store. Well as if they put somebody said, put Mark Krano in the one's royal rumble and just let them have at him. And I thought that was a pretty funny idea. So

there you go. Well that's the show for today. Everybody Semen, I guess was either one was a Korano or Canyon That Semen is not going to fit in any of those bags now, Canyan Semen, I wasn't sure if it was himper Karano though they put the stuff in the bags. I know they both had issues, people had talent, had issues with both of them, but I wasn't sure. And you know, when you got when siemens around you, you might need some some bags to to protect yourself in

my God, you weren't even here yesterday. You weren't here a couple of days before that. Well. Yeah, anyway, we're at a time when if they call of the viewers listeners, sports byline, Twitch homies, top tier YouTube subscribers, head over the Rust observer dot com and sign up today for more of this. We'll talk to you next time Wrestling Observer Live. Yeah, you have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network