Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network Heaven.
Live from San Francisco. I'm a sports byline broadcasting network. You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with your hosts, Brian Alvarez and Mike SEMPERVV.
When you're ready, When you're ready, let's get it all. How's it going, everybody. Brian Alvarez here on Wrestling Observer Live. We are here every day Monday through Friday, New Pacific Threeastern, Sunday three Pacific sixt Eastern, Saturday mornings with Jim Valley at Tenday and Pacific one Eastern. And it is Friday here on the show. And you know what that means.
We have a very busy weekend coming up, and I have a bunch of lineups for everybody wants to know what they should watch this weekend, which by the way, is pretty much everything, as we have got a SmackDown tonight with the Bloodline civil war beginning. For those of you that have been following the Bloodline storyline, it's the US's against Roman Reigns and Solo Soca and money in the bank. We have a full lineup for SmackDown, five segments,
slash matches, and ask for the show here tonight. We also have Dynamite, and I've got a spoiler free lineup for the Dynamite Show. But I would like to tell you right now, without revealing anything, that if you are listening to this program right now, you should watch Rampage tonight because something cool is gonna happen on the show. We've got Dynamite. Actually we don't have Dynamite. Oh no, this is Rampage.
I'm sorry.
Collision. We have Collision on Saturday night and we have six matches slash segments announced for the Collision Show. And we also know that we are going to find out a mystery partner for Sting and Darby Allen on Saturday night. Of course, Sunday is Forbidden Door. We have got a full line up for Forbidden Door. Tony Kahan did a media call in advance of Forbidden Door, and he talked about a lot of things, including all one Bill Phil.
So we gonna tell you about some of the things that he talked about in that press conference, and also we will talk to UH or we will hear from UH Brian Danielson an interview that he did regarding Okada, and this is being his dream match that he's wanted for so long and never thought it was actually a possibility.
A lot of other news. We're gonna take your text message today, probably not phone calls, but I could change my mind, So be ready to text four two five seven eight zero seven five sixty six back in a moment with more. Observer Live.
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You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez and Mike simperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Back Gonna Show. Brian Albarez here, Wrestling Observer Alive. Mike semper vv also of Wrestling Observer dot Com. Go all right, let's get started here today.
Angelas.
Yeah, I went to l A. I get shut your.
What's your love of LA in California? Is it? Is it a thing up there where you are where you just wanted to be from somewhere else? I mean you used you know, look at the theme.
You used in What are you Wearing?
What do you mean?
What am I wearing?
What are you wearing?
We're in a throwbag? Baltimore, Colts Gino Markets.
Do you live in Baltimore?
Yeah? I did?
You don't? Now it's kind of weird, now, isn't it? You want you want to live in Baltimore or something like that?
Now?
What happens. I go places and I buy shirts. And I went to LA and I bought a shirt. I bought a shirt when I went to Maui. I bought a shirt when I went.
All over the place.
So I don't know the problem is. I don't know why everyone has a problem with me today, Like, what's the problem? The show hasn't even started. I'm irritated. Listen if Dave wrote something in the Observer that you don't like I talk about, what does that have to do with me? It has nothing to do with me. It has nothing to do with me. I didn't write it, I didn't say it. I don't know why everyone's mad at me about it. And then it was like, oh, well, you know, uh, you know, I don't know we're the
same guy or something. We're not. Actually he wrote something I didn't. So if you're mad, get mad at him about it, not me. And if you don't like hearing about it, I don know why you're listening to the show. You know a guy got mad at me? That Ah,
it's tiring listening to uh talk about seeing punk. He's one of the biggest stars and all of aw what kind of show am I gonna run out and talk about Cmpunk Jimminy Christmas, but you know I will talk about the Bloodline because the Bloodline civil War begins tonight on SmackDown. This is the build towards Roman Reigns and Solo Soca versus the USOS, So that's gonna be interesting. We have a title unification match. Were you aware that there's a title unification match tonight? There is the WWE
Women's Tag Team champions. Rond De Rousey and SHANEA. Basler will be facing Alba Fire and Isla Don and the NXT and WWE Tag team titles are on the line, which is interesting because I'm not saying all the teams are great, because you know they're not. But there are a lot of teams, a lot of women's teams in NXT, and now they don't have NXT women's tag team titles anymore. So I don't know if they're gonna get a new belt of some sort in NXT or what this sleution
is going to be. But we're unifying these titles so you know, we can set more records. Run Arousey and Shana will now be a double champions. I guess maybe they'll carry around a whole bunch of belts or anything. And then we got Santos Escobar, Butch and l A.
Knight.
In a three way, we have got Bailey versus Shatzi. The stipulation is if Shotzi wins, she is going to take Bailey's spot in the Women's Money in the Bank ladder match. And I don't know, here's the thing. Bailey's a bigger star, okay, but you know they don't do a lot with Shotzi. But you know they do do with Shotzi. They put her in ladder matches and she's
not currently in the ladder match and Bailey is. And if you were going to do some sort of storyline with EO and Bailey to further lead to their split, I mean EO could accidentally cost Bailey this match that furthers that storyline, and then shots he can go in and fall off stuff, which is what they like to have her do. And then we have Cameron Grimes and
Baron Corbin. And you know, I'm not a big fan of fifty to fifty booking or anything like that, but Baron Corbin's got a NXT Championship match on Tuesday, and in no universe should he be losing on the Friday before Tuesday, so Cameron Grimes beat him quick the first time. My guess is Baron Corbyn beats him here and or you know, you could also do the deal which they like to do, which is Cameron Grimes gets the win after Carmelo Hayes costs Baron Corbin the match to set
up that title match on Tuesday. I hope that Baron isn't winning on Tuesday, but you know, I can't rule anything out. But that is smack Down here tonight. And the show's been on fire of late. It's regularly the number one show on television and I'm slot the Bloodline stuff has been adding literally a half million viewers, which is impossibly successful. So we'll see how it goes tonight.
Yeah, nothing, all right, I can't no, no, look you agreed, I don't want to anger you right now?
Or agreed? Do I look angry to you?
Just as a addition to what we talked about a couple of days ago when he came to Seth Rollins and wondering if Seth Rollins was in the mud when he came to NXT apparently granted, I know it was an overrun, but I believe it hit about nine hundred and fifty thousand people.
Eighty it was basically a million viewers watched the end of the seth Rawlins Bronze Breaker match, So you know, if you look at the quarter hours, I mean, you know it wasn't granted almost, but I mean the point is like it was one of those deals where it kind of goes like this and then it shoots straight up.
That was the overrun for that seth Rawlins. And the only times that you see that are you know, Sammy Zay and the lead up to Montreal did that, and then Baron Corbin for his thousand Days celebration and the angle that they did last week when they split everybody up. Those also boom went straight up. So yeah, it was it was good stuff.
Look for that again too. No matter what it is, no matter how corny it ends up being, if you think it's that way, no matter how great and artistic and cinematic you believe it is, whatever happens tonight, it's probably gonna do the same exact thing.
What did he do for a thousand days? I think the thousand Days celebration was at two point eight million, and the bloodline Breakup was also at two point eight million, so they virtually did three million viewers for those two segments. So they were very, very successful. And you know, I was mentioning this on the Brian of Inny show last night.
I the more I think about it, I mean, there's nothing wrong with and obviously there's not only nothing wrong, but you know, as we're gonna talk about later, there're gonna be more main roster stars going to NXT because they're trying to boost the NXT numbers we got. You know, it's time to renegotiate television deals that sort of thing, so they want these numbers to be strong, and obviously when you bring big names down, the numbers are strong. And you know, this was the first time ever that
NXT ranked number three on cable. Never if they ranked number three on cable, So they would love to have NXT regularly in the top five, top ten. Got to remember there were periods where NXT on USA wasn't even the top fifty, and they hit number three for that show with Seth. But the problem when I got thinking about it, was all right, well he beat Braun, and
obviously they want to give Braun. This is the thing They think that Braun got the because he had a championship match on NXT with seth Rawlins and it was a good match and he kicked out of moves and he ended up losing in the end. But you know, they think he got the rub and you know, I mean, maybe you did. But my thought is it was already clear before this match that there ain't nothing left for bron Breaker to do an NXT. He's done it all. He's even stated in his storyline, I don't want the
title anymore. So you know, at some point he's got to go up to the main roster. And does anyone here think that bron Breaker has gone up to the main roster and beating Roman Reigns, Well, he's not, okay, But what you could have done is you could have brought him up to the main roster, debut him on Raw and had him, you know, smash folks to build up to a match with seth Rawlins for the title. But what they did was the Raw World Champion has already beaten bron Breaker, and so now what like, it's
not like you can't build to it again. I mean, he could get called and eventually beat seth Walins, for the title and that sort of thing. But to me, I mean I would have had Seth beat him already, because I mean, what's the point, Like he's done with NXT, He's got nothing left to do there, and then he gets called up like the guy that he could actually you know, feud with for the title has already beat him. So I got thinking about it yesterday. I was like, well,
that was a stupid thing to do. But whatever, They beat people all the time.
One thing's for sure is whatever they do, the more they can get that NXT number up. I don't think that they can really sell that as a viable third brand to say, you know, a third different broadcast partner. But what it does do is it increases all of the hole that they have over USA having that on Monday and Tuesday night with big numbers for that network.
Backing them on with more Observer Live.
You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez and Mike simper vv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Back in the show, Brian Albarez here Wrestling Observer Alive. Mike SIMPERVVI, also of Wrestling Observer dot Com. Guy Goes, Guy Goes I can tell you see Broun going for the main roster, wrecking Allie and calling for a rematch with Rawlins and winning that feud. Yeah, I don't think that there's no chance that Braun goes up to the main roster and beats Uh beats Seth for that title. I mean they they like doing stuff like that, they like telling stories like that, and uh, I would not
rule that out. The Rampage show tonight we have got
for the first time ever. And speaking of prediction contests, the winner this year was the guy that predicted eighteen months ago that MGF would make zero appearances on Rampage in any form, not taped segments, no interview segments, no matches, nothing, which, by the way, when you really think about it's like, that's a weird prediction to just come up with out of the blue, Like of all the things to come up with, that guy thought, you know what, I'll bet
that not one time in twenty twenty two is MGFF ever going to show up on Rampage. But he didn't, But now he will and he will be there.
Some sort of background investigation on some of these things, is this like that Reddit dolphin or what was the name of him.
You might add inside information.
Taylor's son allegedly or whatever.
I don't know, man, it was weird. MJFF will appear, Adam Cole will appear. Check this show out, everybody, Anna Jay versus Sky Blue in a Women's owen Hart Foundation Tournament quarterfinal, Rocky Romero, Chuck Taylor, Trent and Yo. We'll be facing will Osprey, Kyle Fletcher, Jeff Cobb and Swerve. Jack Perry versus Dokie and the Acclaimed will be an action which apparently is gonna be quite the segment because ten solid straight minutes of booing for what they did
in that segment. And then of course Saturday, we now have six matches for a collision, well six segments. We have Siampunk FTR and Ricky Starks versus j White, Juice and the ass Boys.
That's going at least two segments.
We have Hiroshi Tanahashi and Swerve Strickland. Wow. We have Willow Nightingale versus Nyla Rose and an owen Hart Foundation Women's Tournament match. Brody King will face Andrade Sting and Darby will review there they'll reveal their mystery partner. And there have been a lot of rumors about that mystery partner, and hey, you know, some people are predicting it's gonna be be Goldberg. I do not think it's going to be Goldberg. I think it's going to be somebody from
New Japan. And Vinny last night suggested Shingo, who is not currently on the card, and other people have suggested perhaps Nito, who was not on the card. Yeah, so I guess we shall find out.
And you know, one person that would really like the team with them would be Horomo. But do they have different plans for Horomo's Horomo even coming over? I would assume that he is, so it'd be interesting to see where he gets placed on the show. Somebody on Twitter suggested Nick Wayne. I don't know if that's you know, boy.
Nick Wayne is not eighteen yet.
Ah well, okay, that's what it is, Okay.
I mean they've already announced his debut, which is going to be in July, so I don't think.
It's in July. Okay, So well, hey, you know, in that case, to me, it's got to be somebody from lij anyway. You know, it just seems like the most natural fit. I couldn't remember if Jericho had beef with Nayato. He did, correct, I mean, because that was one thing that Darby Allen hinted at was it was going to be somebody. Because Chris Jericho is pissed off a lot of people all over the place. You know, he has storm after he burned off there, maybe.
Maybe it'll be you. And thought of that, maybe it'll be you.
He'd run.
You could come to the ring in a boat.
He'd run for me like a coward. He'd run for me the same way that his father was run out of the league by my.
In order for him from you, you'd have to be able to run after him, and we all know that ain'd happened.
You know, I can run, no pro I have no proof of that. Yeah. Well, Chris Jericho clicking those purple heels together telling me he can run her, blowing in the breeze. Yeah, you know what.
I see Chris Jericho run virtually every single week. I've never seen you run. Now, I usually see.
Chris Jericho run away from a challenge, like, you know, turn the music down and stop letting people cheer for you. You heal, you want to throw fire, throw fire at me, Chris Jericho I'll fire back.
Oh yeah, Christian Cage addresses the TNT time go.
Joined Don Kallis's family. Alvarez Bro. You know what, Frankly, You're perfect.
You know he's a despicable, horrible, disgusting, horrible, hideous human being. But god darn if he is not right up my alley anyway, then we have a Sunday The Forbidden Door Show, the Dark Match, the pre show match. Athena and Billy Starks, my former partner, by the way, a Women's Own Hard Cup tournament. A lot of help she was in that match where the hell was Billy when my stump was getting pulled outside the ring somewhere. Kenny O'meghan will Osbury
for the iw GP US Championship. Brian Danielson and Okata which is going to be the main event, Sonata and.
Jack Perry with Hook Interesting.
M JF and Airoshi Tanahashi for the a W title. Le Suzuki Gods, Jericho Samy and Minor Suzuki versus Sting Darby and the TVA. John Moxley, Wheeler You to Claudio Takeshna and Show toa Umino versus Hangman Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Eddie Kingston and Ishi E, CM Punk and Satoshi Kojima, Orange Cassidy Zach Saber Shabbata and Daniel Garcia in a
four way for the aw International title. Tony Storman Willow Nightingale two champions fighting for the a W Women's title, the I Double or the new Japan Strong Women's title out of the line at Adam Cole. Well, we'll find out tonight, now, won't.
We Yes, we will, we will.
Hey, you know what no one's talking about. The Blackpool Combat Club will be facing the elite. Eddie Kingston and Ishie and CM Punk is gonna face Satoshi Kojima.
Yeah, that means the first.
Time since brawl Out these individuals are scheduled to be on the same card.
What can happen?
Well, I don't know what's going on. I don't know if they're gonna do the deal where you know, certain people are on a bus while other people are in the building and then vice versa. I don't know if they're all supposed to be in the building at the same time.
Because it's Canada, because of the exchange rate, the drama when don't you go up there kind of lessens a little bit.
Well, we're gonna find out one way or the other. We're gonna find out on Sunday. Tony Khan answered questions from the media yesterday, and let's go through some of these from the front page of Wrestling Observer dot com. Think about Tony Khan, you know these press conferences, he's really good at saying nothing. You ever noticed that. So the first question was about the Elite and see him Punk being on the same card, and his response was, it's great to have so many superstars on Forbidden Door.
I'm really excited about having Punk in the Elite on the show. However, he never spoke about them being in the same building at the same time.
Only in America. That man is a pro. He has been through the ringer with the NFL teams and plenty of other situations. And yes, we have seen him have very poor times out there dealing with employees and dealing with things. But when it comes to these things, yeah, you get a lot of this and that's what you're gonna get.
He was asked about the locker room dynamic regarding Punk being back. He said, so far it has been a positive experience at the last two shows in Chicago, and he hyped up Punk's upcoming matches this weekend. That's what he said. Con said everybody was really excited about the television ratings for Collision. Well, the first week was very good. Bleacher Report was asked about the booking of Jungle Boy and Sonata. Con said jungle Boy was his first pick
for the match. He said the whole company believes in him and he has continued to develop over the years. As for where Brian Danson and Okada ranks as far as matches he's excited to book, he said it was ranking near the top in terms of anticipation as a promoter or a fan. Also happy with how they've been building the match in recent weeks. Asked about the owen Hart Cup tournament and the lack of Canadians participating, Con
said he wanted to give the strongest field possible. Feels a did that and there will be future owen Hart tournaments in Canada and there will be chances for Canadian wrestlers to get involved. Asked about seeing punkin Kenton not taking place, conresponded punkin Kojima is the match he wants to see and that this Sunday show has more stars on it than any show he has ever produced.
Stars in the Sky Baby.
As for anyone else who Punk was rumored to wrestle, he said he can't comment on that. That's about Stardom telling you today Stardom pay per view on the same day. He hopes to work with Stardom in the future. He has built stronger connections with New Japan's Ghetto and Takami Obari through organizing the show. Continue to talk about the injury problems the show suffered from last year. He was asked about the report that his family was interested in
purchasing Belator. He said he was surprised to see that and does not know what it's about. They've not had any conversations about purchasing bellator is. Asked about the Elite BCC feud, talked about many different stories taking place within the match, Moxley Kingston to catching the elite, et cetera. That's about women working in creative He mentioned Madison Rain and Sarah Stock as those who contribute and praise their work.
He gets a perspective of top wrestlers as well. Asked about opening the Forbidden Door with other companies, he said he'd like to work with CMLL and Triple A own Dave Meltzer had said here asked about one Bill Phil and if it was a reference to a new and possibly lucrative television deal with WBD. Tony Kahn said that Punk's comment about Zaslov was a throwback to when wrestlers
on TNT would refer to ted turn on television. He said the company is continually growing and trying to reach the number that Punk referenced, which means they didn't sign a billion dollar deal back in them with more Observer Live.
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You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez and Mike semper Vivi on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network. Got the show.
Brian Alvarez here Wrestling Observer Live, like semper vv also of Wrestling Observer dot Com.
And you say, I annoy you. You know, I'm looking at this chat right now, and I don't know, Brian, I think you bring.
This all on yourself.
I didn't bring any of this up. I'm reading a transcript here.
Yeah.
He was asked about Goldberg being involved with AW He said he had nice conversations with Bill, but he does not see him as a good fit for Stinging Darby, Allen's partner on Sunday. Now, a lot of people would look at that and go, well, for sure, he's going to be the partner then. But you know, normally, when when Tony says something is not going to happen, he's not doing that to swerve people's He's doing that because he doesn't want people expecting something that he's not going to give them.
Right about Look, I know Tony's rich and all that, and he can spend as much money as he wants in the family and all that, but like, wouldn't you if you're spending that much money on Goldberg. Don't you want to kind of build that up, don't you want?
Well, I mean, so, yeah, the idea is they build it up on Saturday night. I mean, here's the thing. It's very clear if you watch the way that that Tony Kahan books, that he believes no one is buying a pay per view until the day of the show. Okay, this is not the nineties where you call your cable company a week in advance and you place your order
and all that kind of stuff. He didn't think anyone's buying the show until the day of the show, which ninety nine point of the people are not buying the show.
Until the day of the show.
So at the end of the day, as long as they know everything they need to know on the day of the show, it's fine. He's done that show after show after show after show. And if he thinks and by the way, I don't think he thinks this. If he thinks that Goldberg is the guy that's going to team with them, and as long as he announces it on Saturday before the show and it's a big angle and people go crazy, that's all he needs. Then that's what he's going to do. But I don't think it is going to be Goldberg.
And look, I'm sure a lot of the data says impulse and things like that with shorter retention spans and things like that, you get it out. I mean, I guess that's kind of what WWE seems to be doing with their premium live events, and that we used to have a schedule for the year, at least of the dates of where everything was, if not all of the cities that they were going to be in, and now they do all the branding, where the city announcement's going to be, the ticket sales, all that sort of stuff.
They've now shrunken that whole time frame down a lot too, So obviously there's something to that when it comes to really all this stuff.
Yeah, that's about Punk having an ownership stake, and a w con said that is not the case, but Punk wants the company to do well. He was using a colloquialism collis. I don't like that word. It's too big for me, he said, He's just quote trying to run a business. He was asked about the viewership for Collision, what w B would consider a success. He responded the
number they got was considered very successful. He said he doesn't know the exact number that is projected week to be going forward, however, and then was asked about Stat Lantern Punk coming back from injuries. He said they have hit the ground running and it is good for returning wrestlers to get the ring rust out early.
Can I ask you a silly question, I don't think you know.
I love silly questions.
Yes, is the writer's strike fixed? Is that over? Or is it still ongoing?
As it they been fixed? Like is it a work?
No?
But I mean is it has that been resolved yet? Because what will be really interesting it is unresolved.
It is unresolved.
Properties Could we see Monday Night Raw end up on NBC on a Monday night because who knows? Could we TBS and TNT decide to move collision or rerun it at some point during the week if that happens, Could we see it end up on True TV? I mean, it'll be interesting to see what happens, because that's the one thing you have. You have sports, you have professional wrestling, and then you have whatever cheaply produced game shows and reality shows that you can get that don't involve writers.
And again, I don't know what production times are on all these sorts of things. But as time moves on here, you're gonna run out of time to finish things, and it's gonna be really interesting.
So my gut feeling is that there is enough stuff to air that they will not have to worry about that in the short term. But if we're talking like, you know, in two years is still has not been resolved, then yeah, of course you could see something like that.
Well, but you know how people get weird and desperate in these you know again some of these companies and decision makers where it's like, Okay, we're gonna shift all these game shows and you have this on here. I mean, that's the one thing ABC has going forward is the fact that ESPN. I mean, look at the amount of programming and they are you the ones who anytime you see sports on any single property that's being executive produced
through ESPN. So again, it's just it's gonna be really interesting because again, even a long even one that pushes into January, like pushes into half the season, could start turning things upside down.
We had Dynamite on Wednesday, nine hundred two thousand viewers, up eight point four percent viewership is nearly identical. The uh A demo was appoint three to three, up ten percent and uh for those of you that saw the Quarters with Brandon Thurston, you know, just want to note that the highest rated thing on the show was a concession stand brawl. That was the highest rated quarter on the show.
Dogs on the side of the Road.
No, it was a fun match. People interested in the product.
So lucky like everybody involved in that match.
Boom boo you yes, No, that's what happened, dude, that's what happened.
People slings it does work, It does work.
Yeah, anyway, yeah, go ahead. Could have been on the farm. I'd have been fine with it being on the farm.
You know how it could have got more ratings though Starlight Kid somehow being involved in that match. Everybody else was involved in that match.
No, that wouldn't have gotten more. That would have just sold more shirts, that's what that would have done. Yes, Let's see, who are these NXT tag teams in the women's division. I don't feel like they are enough right now. There's a Taule Abertag teams. They just introduced that new one.
Well lash Legend of Jakara Jackson. You have Ulyssa Leone and uh Valentino, farraz Or Froze whatever it is, and then who is it now with the girl whose name I can never remember, Crusa Rivera u Electro Lopez and her new partner. The problem with all of those women is they really shouldn't be on NXTV right now. As great as Jaikara and Lashar is part of that group, I mean again, for where they're at in the ring, this is insane. They have people they need to concentrate on.
Tiffany Stratton has completely leveled out. Roxanne Perez as a character has completely leveled out. You know that Roxanne could go in the ring, but we had to give her personality. You know what physical things Tiffany can do, but we have to keep giving her more dialogue so she can
be ready for the main roster. It's like, that's not what these women need, and they all need reps with each other because in theory those women be Priestly Kora Jade, some of the other women they have, they are supposed to be the bone of everything moving forward. So it does drive me nuts that they really seem to concentrate
way too much. Again on the dialogue part. It's killing every single I can't believe people don't see that, and I can't believe that it's not an issue for them to see these women struggle or to even see the guys struggle on these promos.
Four two five seven eight zero seven five sixty six. That is four two five seven eight zero seven five sixty six. Text me your questions. Person here says, do you think that cmpunk will get the aw title back? Or will he get another shot or another title like the Owen Heart Belt, or will he take the TNT title? This is what I think is going to happen everybody. Obviously, you know FTR and cmpunk are giant fans of Brett Hart. So I do believe that cm punk is winning the
Owen Heart Cup for the men this year. Okay, now, as the winner of the Owen Hart Cup, which, by the way, don't let me forget what I was on, but I want to mention this. So I asked a question the other day, and the question was, britt Baker is in the women's tournament this year as a winner last year, but Adam Cole is not in the tournament. Why is Adam Cole not in the tournament, and you know, people were like, oh, well, you know he's in the tag tournament, and it's like, who cares. He can't do
two tournaments at the same time. And then apparently Tony Khan was asked about it and his answer was, well, he's in the title picture, and it's like, well, actually, in storyline, he's not in the title picture. In storyline, he's trying to get a title shot because Tony Khan or because MGM will not give him a championship match. So anyway, it should be a better explanation than you know, he's in the title picture or whatever. But one way or the other, yes, say you go, one of us
could talk here. Damn it.
Don't worry. This show's almost over, boss Man. But you know when it comes to the g one being announced at the time of the year now, and you know, look that New Japan is changing and there are a lot of young guys as well as their veterans who need to be involved in that thing. Every year. In this fantasy that seven guys are gonna come over from all over the world, that's probably never gonna be the case again, especially if it gets smaller, which it should.
They may want to do their booking in a way and organize it in a way where, since it's only eight people in this own Hard Cup, you put them in there and it's almost like your own g One where the winner not only wins the own Hard Cup, but they actually have a guaranteed title shot, or they have something that leads into something else, and they actually puff it up a little bit more and take care of it a little bit more, because they don't want to see a time where it's just you see random
people in it because you need somebody to take an l to say powerhouse Hobs, and you're scared about putting somebody else in that mix. I think you can add more gravity to it and put more focus on it by doing it that way.
All right, So anyway, I believe that Seampunk is going to win the Own Hard Cup, and then I believe based off that at some point he is going to get a shot at MJF. Now let's talk about old Chris Statlander. Remember stat Lander got injured. Yeah, her her knee was out nine actually it was out more than nine months.
Okay.
Now, in the meantime, Jade Cargill was the TBS champion and it was it was pretty clear that the idea was always going to be for stat Lander to beat Jade Cargill. And if you watched the Jade Cargill title reign, I mean, the fact of the matter is she They were building up that streak and everything, but it was just the same thing dragged out forever. So the boy were in storyline. Jade was like, you know, this thing is boring. I'm bored, and then like other people were
talking about how it was boring. So the reason was stat Lander was supposed to win the title and so they had to wait for her to be back, and then they pulled the trigger on it. So my point is, where were we last year? Well, the idea was that MJF was going to return, MJFF was going to feud with Cmpunk who was the champion, and MGF was gonna beat Cmpunk and become the champion. That was clearly the idea that they were working with. Then everything went off
the rails. Everything went off the rails. Fights happened, injuries happen, et cetera, et cetera. So what I believe is that the end results of all of this is Punk ends up getting a championship match. With MGF, but MJF beats him, because that's the whole plan that Tony had from the very beginning, was MJF beating cm Punk and winning the championship from him. You could have Punk win, but what he's gonna beat MGF win the title, and then MGF is gonna beat him back to get to where you
wanted to be. Just MGF can beat him and then you know, you do whatever you're going to do. I'm not saying that Punk isn't gonna win the title again at some point or anything like that. I'm just looking at what was the idea before everything went off the rails, because things have gone off the rails before, and Tony has just waited and waited and waited and then did what he wanted to do the entire time. And my
presumption is that what he was going to do. And it seemed clear from storylines and where everything ended up that MGF was gonna beat Cmpunk to become the champion.
And MJF does not defend that title a lot, and so how many more title defenses you're gonna have this year? He can defeat Adam Cole at Wembley than defeats cm Punk either in Chicago the next week or maybe later on, you know, in November, or whenever the next show is, and then you have you know, that plays into that storyline of Now we're on twenty twenty four on MJF and I don't have anything to do. I vanquished all your heroes. What's gonna keep me here?
So agonemo with more Observer Live. Well, hey, we're back here on the show. Everybody out. We need that deep voiced man to bring me back. They got me, damn it. Hey, we got a lot going on this weekend and this is the plan. So Sunday we're gonna be doing dual shows after the Forbidden Door show, We're gonna do myself and Vinnie and Craig reviewing Forbidden Door and anything big that might happen on Collision, but we're not planning on
doing a full Collision review. I will do a full Collision review with Dave and also I will be doing a full recap of Forbidden Door with Dave and both of these available to subscribers at Wrestling Observer dot com and you can watch live at video dot FW online dot com and the Brian and Vinnie and Craig show will be our monthly live stream for our Twitch subscribers as well, and of course you can sign up for Twitch through your Amazon Prime account and join our channel
for free. That's right free. So that's all coming up on Sunday, and until then you can listen to all of the other shows on the website. There's a I think fifteen thousand now by my last count up in the archive and read the new Observer. Listen to my kids screaming wildly in the background.
It's a vacation, God help me. That's all you ever want.
It is.
There's no such thing as a vacation. Do you know that there's no such thing as actual Actually, once a year, I do take a vacation once a year before Christmas. I leave and don't bring anything wether or not. People are like, oh, he's always on vacation just because I just because I went from one place to another place, I'm always right here, Like could I never go anywhere? We all no matter where we go, we're just still
right here. So I'm on vacation. I'm doing my job like I always do, and anyway, my job is done for the day. I'd like to thank you all. Mike as always, callers and listeners over the studio, have a fun weekend. 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