Struggles of being a Wrestling fan

Three lifelong fans, one mic, and zero safety rails. We open with a full-circle story—sumo, anime, and a chance meeting in Kissimmee—then dive headfirst into the state of wrestling: why AEW’s best-in-class rosters still need tighter continuity, how New Japan tells stories inside the ropes, and where WWE’s character-first machine succeeds even when it overplays the moment.

Our guest, ring announcer and host of Main Event Mindset, lays out the journey from 1999 WWF fandom to indie wrestling in Orlando, what it takes to find purpose after life detours, and why the local scene can heal burnout with raw craft and community. We get candid about Mercedes Moné’s “revenge arc,” the Four Horsewomen ripple effects, and why Swerve Strickland breaks molds without leaning on old tropes. Then we pressure-test the business: TKO’s incentives, Triple H’s constraints, and a bold idea for capitalizing on a Saudi WrestleMania season with a stateside festival that puts fans first.

John Cena’s farewell tour becomes the ultimate Rorschach test. Is the glaze too thick, or is it a smart setup to elevate Dominic Mysterio and protect Gunther’s long game? We weigh legacy against leverage, argue for matches that end with purpose—lariat, cloverleaf, piledriver—and remind ourselves why the bell still matters: because when story and struggle align, even a simple finish feels seismic.

If you love sharp takes without the cynicism, this one’s for you. Tap play, then tell us: what keeps you watching—workrate, story, or the feeling only live wrestling delivers? Subscribe, share with a friend, and drop a review to help more fans find the show.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Open: LA Knight News Hits
• 0:14 Welcome And Guest Intro
• 1:22 Sumo, Anime, And A Full-Circle Meet
• 3:25 AEW Love, Frustrations, And Intent
• 6:35 Origin Story: From Fan To Ring Announcer
• 10:20 Indie Wrestling Doors Open In Orlando
• 13:24 Bumps, WrestleManias, And Work Behind Gorilla
• 18:00 Why Wrestling Still Brings Joy
• 21:18 Mercedes Moné: The Villain Arc Debate
• 27:35 Becky, Charlotte, And The Slipstream Effect
• 31:55 Representation And The Rock Problem
• 36:30 Swerve, ECW Memories, And Style
• 40:05 Can AEW Seize The Saudi Mania Gap?
• 45:12 Story vs Workrate: What Hooks Fans
• 50:30 Injuries, Booking, And Continuity Gaps
• 54:48 Cena’s Farewell: Glaze Or Strategy?
• 1:00:10 Dom, Gunther, And IC Title Chess
• 1:05:30 Who’s Really Steering WWE?
• 1:10:08 NXT, DX Era, And TKO Reality
• 1:14:20 Weekly Speed Run: Raw And SmackDown
• 1:19:20 New Japan’s Simplicity And Pain
• 1:23:30 Support Your Indies And Sign-Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:00

LA Knight is gonna have two surprise opponents back to back. Because LA Knight was supposed to face Matt Cardone. No, no, no, no. Zach Ryder lost. Oh man. Um to another episode of the Big Brothers of Destruction podcast. It's the Masaku. It's your boy, Swag Switcher in the building. And we actually have a guest with us here today. I'm gonna allow you to introduce yourself for us, please. Fantastic. Well, uh, I am your host with the most, your artist working the hardest, Mr. McKinnon. I'm always winning. Ah, I like that. It's way better than I gotta tell myself better than that. I'm not really the main attraction, you know what I'm saying? It's the it's the group, you know? That's the very butt. We are here today. I'll be first time actually getting a chance to interact with you. And two, apparently there's a story I didn't hear about this. This is great. So, yes. I met this man, so I met you like two years ago. I'm gonna tell you guys, I'm gonna tell your audience here. I was with one of my close friends. You know somebody named SB The Anomaly? Does that name sound familiar to you? SB. It doesn't have to. If you don't know it, it's okay. Potentially. Okay, so I went to Kissimmee. I'm a huge, you see this guy's shirt, right? You guys know your, you know your audience. This guy got a sumo shirt on, he's got the beads, all these things. I'm a huge anime fan, a huge fan of Japanese culture. I don't know all the things. But I went with my friend to this uh Asian Heritage Day, something of the nature of the Japanese festival in Kissimmee. Yeah. And I was like, I have never seen a black sumo wrestler in my life. Oh, and that was the day that I met this guy, and I was like, wow, I seen his robe, he had the the guard, he had all the traditional gear, and then I was like, this is incredible. I just watched from a distance and I was just wow. And yeah, he was he was he was teaching everyone around, and I was like, they got a black guy showing them Asian culture on Asian Heritage Day, and I was like, this is incredible. Everything about this is fantastic, and I was like, because I'm a huge, again, like I said, I'm a huge fan, but I've never been a sumo fan, but seeing him today, I thought that I was talking to someone else entirely. I thought I was talking to a completely different human being. And I was like, he was like, I'm gonna make the group chat, and then I see the group chat and I was like, oh, that's the guy that I was like, that's crazy, didn't respond, right? And then I told my friend on the way here, I was like, yo, you know that guy that we met in the this and that, the third. I was like, I'm gonna do a podcast with him. He's like, that's crazy. You know how I remember? Because I've never seen a black sumo wrestler in my life. There's actually one, his name is uh Enmon. He was, you know, he was like around my size, a little bit bigger, but he was definitely well known in uh Japan for like I want to say 80s-ish. Okay, but like that was the that's the most decorated black sumo I've been aware of. But okay. Um that's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. So this is this is this is a full circle thing. And this is, ooh, you have no idea. And now I'm not on this is you guys show. We'll talk about something. We'll talk about something.

SPEAKER_00: 3:19

That's actually hilarious. Talk about small world situations.

SPEAKER_02: 3:22

Literally, literally, small world situation. And speaking of the world, uh, as we do here, we normally talk about the wacky world of wrestling or the wild world of wrestling, depending on what's going on in the week of wrestling. And normally, Swag here is always the uh, I say, connoisseur of AEW. Okay, not really though, but like he punishes himself and watches AEW. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00: 3:53

I'm not gonna say that I'm punishing. There are times where it can be punishing, but like, and it's it's actually rather hilarious because right now there's a there was a post that I recently made about watching AEW, and uh I feel like a lot of people have me misconstrued. But of course, these are just passer-byers. They they have not looked at the content in its totality because sure, I may say a lot of things about AEW, but it's out of love, not of spite. Because I love AEW, yeah, though it may not seem like it sometimes, I I do really enjoy AEW because it is a different brand of wrestling. But the problem with AEW, not even just AEW, but wrestling as a lot of and that's something that I actually wanted to make sure I get a good speak with you on as well to really get your insight when it comes to wrestling. Because though we did not say, me and him, we've met because uh we have much likenesses when we uh when it comes to the indie scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So but uh, and that's that's really how we met. But uh I've only had one situation in the indie scene.

SPEAKER_02: 5:15

It's the fact that you started off with situations. No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01: 5:21

It wasn't bad.

SPEAKER_02: 5:22

It was it wasn't bad, it was at if for those who know the dojo, you know nothing. And I went there, I went there on the show because there was a person I was talking to at the time who was a wrestler, not gonna say her name. Yeah, all good, but bumped into her. And I'm just leaving it that.

SPEAKER_00: 5:41

See, if he knows me, so he knows what happened there. And took a couple of bumps in the ring, if you catch it. Ah fantastic. That is the best way to put it.

SPEAKER_02: 5:55

We took a couple bumps.

SPEAKER_00: 5:56

Yeah, yeah. Um funny enough, actually, no, see now I can't even say that because I made that statement, because because then that'll be a pause moment. You know what? I'm gonna just slide by. We're gonna slide past.

SPEAKER_02: 6:09

Let's get to the real reason why we want to definitely give you your shine to let us know how did you get into wrestling and tell us a little bit more about your podcast, too. Man, uh, I said this off-air, but I told them. So if you guys get mad at me or get mad at them, I warned them. I said, How much time you got? So they are gonna need to stop me when I'm going too long. Uh that's a it's a it's a fascinating story, I should say. So my first interaction with wrestling is in 1999. Well, I moved to Florida in 1998, and um, 1999, and I and I can only know that year because WrestleMania 2000, which is historically heralded as probably like the worst WrestleMania or like top three worst WrestleManias, that was my first WrestleMania. And uh how can I say this? I remember things leading up to that. So that's why I'm like 1999 is the time I started. I like my first wrestling real memory, is like the big one is you know, the whole storyline with uh Rock and Big Show, like who actually won the match. Yeah. I know there were things happening before then, but that's like the first one like I remember watching from here ongoing. So um, with that being said, um that was my introduction into wrestling uh when I got down here. My involvement in current wrestling, like in the NDC now, I'm gonna tell the story a little all over the place, but my involvement now comes from anything great that I do, or like anything great out of life usually spawns from like the end of a relationship or the destruction of something. It's like this energy has to go somewhere now. So for me, it's like anytime people see me turn up on like I had my prime years, like peak years, and me doing dope stuff with artistry or whatever the case may be, something happened before then to where it's like I'm throwing everything into this because this is the thing that I know that's consistent that works, and uh, I never want to lose myself in a relationship uh type thing. So um there's more to the story, but for for indie wrestling aficionado, uh Mr. McKinnon, I'm always winning. That came, oh man, I don't know how spurger you guys get here, but whatever. I was again, relationship stuff. I remember being on a this is the first time I'm gonna tell this this type of story. Oh, y'all getting exclusive. Okay, okay, y'all getting an exclusive feeling. I was on a dating app, and was it plain and fish? It was not. It was not because that was the one I was on back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was on a dating app, and I uh I was like, God met me in my loneliness. I was like, I was scrolling through some things, and then um I see somebody that mentioned that they had an interest in wrestling, and I was like, hey, I know that we're here for this, but uh tell me more about that.

SPEAKER_01: 9:07

Ain't no way.

SPEAKER_00: 9:10

I mean, listen, that's literally how me and my girlfriend, the mother of my child, kind of sort of ended up happening. Yeah, it was it was literally we we played a fish, we started talking, and um, I I made a uh a wrestling metaphor, uh a new day reference. Okay, and she reciprocated with a new day reference.

SPEAKER_02: 9:34

You're like, oh, this is that. Oh no, it's like no, so click, you ain't gonna write six-year-old child writing. Yeah, congratulations. Wonderful. So, so my story isn't that, but what I ended up doing after getting some information, all of the things started happening. I wrote some things down maybe a month or two before, like what I wanted to do with my life from this point after a failed relationship, and just like nothing makes sense. I was like, but this is where I know where I'm this is what I want, this is where I want to go. I wrote all these things down, and everything lined up. I was asking them about where's this particular event, da da da. I find out that the establishment, TEW, the establishment wrestling, is housing a show like five minutes from my house. I had no idea that this promotion was this close to where I lived. So I go there and then I meet um DMC, um, who's a local talent here in Orlando for your audience. Um he's yeah, I meet DMC. Um he at the time is presenting himself as one of the three in terms of like uh the heads of the establishment, and I meet the owners and things like that. I meet people, I ended up meeting this guy that's I don't want to give too much information, but he's connected with people in the wrestling industry. And so it was like a match, it was just like the perfect conglomerate of things that worked at the same time, and I was like, this is my spot. I was like, this is this is where I'm gonna break into ring announcing.

SPEAKER_00: 11:08

Wait, what happened to the honey?

SPEAKER_02: 11:10

Um I don't think that this is the time for that segment. Uh I left with that, but the point is, I was my goal outside of relationships was wrestling. I knew for me, I had given so much to wrestling, I was like, now it's time I had received so much from wrestling and given so much. I was like, it's my time to get something out of wrestling and to give to it in a way that um that I know that only I can. So they they they are alive and well and healthy, and they're good. They say, you know what I mean? But for me, I'm good also. And so um it's no love loss, ain't no beef, ain't no nothing. It was just like, you know, I don't know how they feel.

SPEAKER_01: 11:56

I didn't ask them, I didn't ask them how they feel.

SPEAKER_02: 11:59

Um, you know what I mean? But that that's the truth. That's the that's how I that's a part of how I got to know um the in the in the local space. I've known things in the local space as well, because you brought up a promotion earlier that I don't want to give too much light to. But um, that was my first experience with um with taking my first bump. I took my first bump in the ring uh like over yeah, over 10 years ago. I took my second bump and I was like, yep, not for me. I'm gonna go ahead and uh I'm gonna go ahead and use this microphone. We both, we both, well, I did it in high school. I did uh some some small stuff and and a promotion of my dad didn't want me to keep doing it because he was like he wanted me to focus on graduating high school. Yeah, so I never got a chance to finish like training. But this one, he's actually done training. So it's funny we all taking a bump at least. I think eventually when you love something so much, you do. I mean, I've been to six WrestleMania. I've been to um 20, yeah, 2024 was my first one in Orlando. Okay, then I went to 27 in Atlanta, 28 in Miami, then 30 in New Orleans, then 33 in Orlando when they came back, and then 35 after the pandemic, night two. I worked 33. Wow. You did? Yeah, I worked in audio. Nice. Oh, like you okay, in the girl. Not okay. But I was working audio in the area, like basically in the gorilla-ish area. Yeah, yeah. But I was helping out with audio, like out front of house and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01: 13:27

That's what's up. That's what's up.

SPEAKER_00: 13:29

WrestleMania. Yeah, how many you got? That's impressive. How many you got? I never remember the numbers, I just remember the specific inventions. The matches, yeah, the matches. Yeah, that's the same for me. So I my first one was the one where uh Ric Flair retired. Uh then my second one was indeed the uh Once in a Lifetime John Miami. And so we were the same first. And then the next one was uh where I got that belt right there, which was where Undertaker retired. And uh and as of right now, those those are the only ones I was I really wanted to go to the one that was in Tampa uh with the. Yep, when COVID was going on. But I I had to be responsible because at that time my kid was tiny and my girlfriend was auto and me with eyes. Okay, we can't accidentally bring none of that.

SPEAKER_02: 14:34

I get it. I get it. But yeah, that's crazy. I've never actually attended a mania. Never attended a mania. My thing was I wanted to, and I wanted to be the weird one in the group. I was like, I'm gonna be the first one to go to Wrestle Kingdom, bitch. No, that's that's dope. So I literally 2020, my graduation year from college, I was getting my I just got my master's degree. You know, I had stuff set up, and then obviously pandemic happened. So obviously we can't travel, right? None of that stuff, but I literally was like, man, their their tickets for their Russell Kano is the equivalent of like I forgot it's like$300? I'm sure. Have you been to Japan? Oh man. Because the only two times I've ever had a chance to was do it for a tsunami. Uh we had a sumo competition where if you won uh third uh first uh first, second, or third, you gotta go to Japan to actually go into the competition. I was like seven. But uh definitely a lot. Uh but um if you still wanted to go, because we could still go as a group, you just had to pay your way. Gotcha. And at that time, my finances, so no. So I had two chances to do it. Well, technically three, but two chances. One to try to go to Wrestle Kingdom, and then two for someone. But I will retire. That is that is a fact. Hey, listen, this is great. This so I told him on camera, like him, him and I, I don't give up my number like that anymore because you know, I've just I feel like the I don't know how many of your audiences like gaming fans. Oh me. But yeah, so if y'all remember Final Fantasy VII when uh Red 13 was looking at his dad, he thought his dad was a punk all the time, and he had like 800 arrows on his breath. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how I feel like I walked through life with like all the arrows. I'm like, how much stronger can I be? And I'm like, I'm good. I'm good right now. I ain't giving out my number of people and just you know doing all the things, and so yeah, but we're we're gonna connect. Yeah, we'll connect on that. Yeah, we're gonna connect. Uh you were you were telling us how you got introduced to wrestling and how you currently are, where you're currently at in wrestling. Yes, yes, yes. Um, yeah, so right now I currently do ring announcing for TEW, the establishment wrestling. Um great promotion, um, lots of dope talent that's there. Um I have we've all started off as like uh as well, I don't know about you guys, let me not speak for this. I started off again as a fan in 1999 as a WWF fan. I knew WCW existed at a time, but WWF had my like they had all my intentions. So I was ignorant to everything WCW wise. And then I came to find out later on as I grew up and then I got like more in tune with all of my blackness. I was like, oh, that's why all the black fans watch WCW because it was more hip-hop stuff over there. The booker tees, the booker tees, the LWOs and the grass schools, yeah. Yeah, so I was just ignorant to it. I mean, I was in the I'm from Brooklyn originally, so I was like, I only saw white people at the airport where I grew up. So for me, so for me, I was like, uh, I came to Orlando, a whole different demographic, uh uh, you know, a lot of Hispanic people, but it was like Hispanic or white, it wasn't a whole lot of black people on the east side of Orlando at the time. So I was WWF is what I was introduced to and what I stuck with. And so um have some black representation, small, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was there, sprinkles. Um, we talk of them WWF, we're talking about Orlando. Uh WWF, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. No, you're good, you're good, you're good. You're good. But yeah, sprinkles. Um, but yeah, so um I ran announced for again, T EW, and um I knew for me, I've used my voice for everything. I'm a I'm an artist, I'm an MC, through spoken word, I model, I act, I've done um commercials, all the things. Um so for me, physically, athletically, I only did, I did track, um, even like y'all, my bio. I did track two uh times in eighth grade and then in my uh in my junior year in high school. Um but athletically, that's pretty much where it stopped until like recently, where I was like, I gotta get back in shape. Uh because life was whooping my ass, and I was like, it's time to fight back. Get into sumo. It's for everybody shape. I'm telling you that right now. It's for every no, in serious, it's for everybody's shape. Yeah. Literally. Japan has this big thing where uh the Shikos, the thing that you see us do when we lift our legs and go down, they they make sure like everybody does it. They have a day where you go out and do the sumo arena and they just all and just because it helps your hips. That's why you see a lot of their elderly are never like because their their bodies are always just doing the training. Every martial art that you see has fundamentals of sumo.

SPEAKER_00: 19:32

There's a there's legitimately, there's uh there's a white dude that I've seen videos of. And he's like, he might be just slightly thicker than me. Kind of thing. But he's about our height and everything. Okay. This is white guy. Okay. I do believe he's been a champion before. If you're talking about one in Japan, you gotta get talking about it. It's like I'm I'm talking like he'll go up against dudes his side and you'll have him doing cartwheels. But but it but it's all about that technique. Technique, yeah. And being it, because like when the big dude comes at him, the first strategy is like, alright, he's bullying, I'm all right. So I can tip him over it. And that's how I got hit the first time with my my trainer.

SPEAKER_02: 20:12

He was like, Oh, yeah, you play football, come off the line. I was like, Okay, come off the line. And then I came up and he just took my body weight and pushed me to the side. He was like, I don't have to make contact with you. That's it's not football. So yeah, it's it's definitely a sport that's for everybody. It's just the only thing is you might get slapped in the face by a 400-pound dude. Every once in a while, it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00: 20:32

But I mean, if you was gonna be in the rings, but that's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02: 20:36

The matches last compared to a 5 to 15, 20 match. Yeah, the matches are like 12 seconds. Yeah, they couldn't be, yeah. Um, anyway. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 20:47

Also, real quick, I just have to say, because every time I look at the camera, I like I actually kind of like how this ended up turning out because yeah, we each have a belt right now. Yeah, it's just uh you will put me with the Cena belt because you know I'm a Cena fan, so that's I mean, I'll be honest, that was not my intention. Man, that's it.

SPEAKER_02: 21:06

Yeah, I'm telling tell us flying, man. We're crying at night, man.

SPEAKER_00: 21:10

And now we're currently now we're curving back into the things that we that we need to go ahead and get to. Now, now I gotta know because it has been well documented on this channel where we are. Yes, but considering you are you you also have your own thing.

SPEAKER_02: 21:27

And I actually had this actually before you do that, it's funny because me and him had this conversation beforehand. All three of us are kind of um more privy to one product than the other one. So funny thing is, he's the WWE guy. Currently, right now in our show, you're more so the AEW guy because you're watching the product, and right now I'm watching New Japan.

SPEAKER_00: 21:48

Which is crazy that I'm dubbed the AEW guy. Because I'm not watching the shit right now. And you're watching it, I'm not watching it. But it it is it maybe I'm watching it because I'm in this position of like, it's gotta turn around. Yeah, and that's how I feel too, unless it's Tony Story. But I have to know, in in your eyes, like, like as of this very date with everything that has been going on, where are you mentally when it comes to how you feel about wrestling right now?

SPEAKER_02: 22:21

That's a great question. It really is. Um for me right now, because I'm plugged into the independent space, it's like a renewed love for wrestling. It's like going back to the fundamentals of like why you love this in the first place. So I feel like I'm in a good place with wrestling overall because of that. Had I not had that component, then I would be in a I wouldn't be in the greatest place. And it's only because like I'm enthusiastic on my when I shoot my videos, right? And it's because obviously, who's gonna watch someone talk shit about the thing that they're supposed to be like a fan of? Like a lot of social media stuff. You know what? You know what? You're right. You'd be surprised. You're right, you're right. You guys you guys are right. I'm the anomaly here. Not no no no. It's a it's a very disciplined-like mindset, is it to try not to bring negative energy? Because we talk like earlier, like we're very individuals who have spiritual or like energy-based kind of mindset. Like, let's not bring negative energy to the public. Yeah, and I feel like that might be what you don't want to do. So, right, and then because for me, like wrestling genuinely does bring me joy. I'm doing, I'm so involved in wrestling right now because it's been one of the only consistent things in my life outside of my relationship with God, or outside of like, I don't know, you like you know your parents or whoever's been in your life the longest, like wrestling since 1999. I have not, I have not uh what have I done longer than that? Like, my love for hip hop uh started in '96. And then that's been like a strange road, or like it's been a great road, don't get me wrong, but I'm like, there's only been so many things that I've been doing longer than wrestling, and hip-hop is probably the only thing. And then that besides that, that's it. So for me, I want the love that I have for wrestling to show in the camera so that if somebody's not a wrestling fan, it's like, what does this guy love so much? This there's actually true fun fact there's a woman that was directed to my page because at the time I was hosting to open my new piece Mondays, and um, and basically, how can I say this? She came for the poetry, but she stayed for the wrestling because of my because of my energy enthusiasm with it. So for me, this is stuff that we'll talk about later on. So I want people, my biggest thing is I love to promote and share the things that give me joy. I connect with that, and then we definitely have the conversation, but like I understand what you're saying is like in the sense of you you speak highly of the things that make you who you are. Absolutely. And so the energy you give is always gonna be connected to that. So you speak enthusiastically about anything you're passionate with, right? Like I will talk about sumo or anime culture, just like whatever it is, it's the thing that makes people say, Wow, you're interested. Can I talk to you more like that? Right. That's what it is. Yeah, yeah. But people are drawn, I mean, yes, people are drawn more to negativity because it's just very easy, yeah, you know. But you know, for me, like people that I connect with, again, this is weird, but I mean he's he's one of my closest friends. But SB, I'm close to him because of the positivity that he radiates on a regular basis. I got to know him as a person. No, no one's like a positive a thousand percent of the time. Yeah, it's just not possible, but it's like that's what I'm drawn to, and then it's I'm drawn to those types of energy. So for me, we'll talk about Japanese stuff in a bit, and I'll get back to your questions. Uh, too. I took forever to watch Naruto because nobody could tell me how dope Naruto was without shitting on Dragon Ball.

SPEAKER_00: 26:03

Nah.

SPEAKER_02: 26:04

So I'm a so as a if if you're a Nas fan and I'm a Jay-Z guy, talk to me about why Nas is so great without shitting on Jay-Z. You know what? This is this is me as a human. Okay, I see where you're coming from. This is me as a human. Yeah. So, you know, so, but yeah, so where I'm at with wrestling right now, I think is in a um, I'm in a good space with it. Um doing the podcast stuff as well. Um you good. Okay, alright. So doing the podcast stuff as well um helps keep me, like it helps keep me privy and educated. So that way when I do meet people in the business, like I'm up to date on what's going on. And um just you know, being able to share my knowledge and an enthusiasm. I'm I feel like I'm in a good place because I choose to be, even if the product itself is trash. If the product is trash, it's man, there's videos that I do where I'm like, ah, like, what good can I say about this? No. They make it really hard. So it's funny that I have made a video talking about the women's blood and guts match. And I was just like, as much as I love the women in this match and the things they did, I truly feel like they came into it and said, yo, let's do it better than the men's. Because every one of their hardcore matches in AEW is better than the men's. I'm sorry. But this one was like, okay, who wanted this spot? Why are we doing this spot? And I was just like, I felt bad. I was like, I'm bashing this more than appreciating what they did because it was just like, well, you did all this, but next week you're gonna be like, all right, cool, let's have another match. Where's the selling? And so I just like, you know what? I made this video, probably not a good idea. I felt like I was just bashing the hell out of them. And I was like, nah, it's bad. Sometimes, man, you just gotta have you just gotta have balance. Like, I just I recorded an episode uh for my podcast, Main Event Mindset. I didn't talk about that. I think you asked me, and I still never talked about it. So I host a podcast called Main Event Mindset, and um I shoot it intermittently, but I do like every week on my TikTok and my YouTube shorts, there's always gonna be videos going up every Monday, mostly every Friday, because SmackDown sometimes is hard to talk positively about. We try to. So there's people that I love that I that keep me along with the project, like the pandemic era. I was about to stop watching wrestling if it wasn't for Roman Reigns and Sasha Banks at the time of Sasha Banks. Now since we should be. Yeah, no, we didn't talk about Monet. No. Yeah, we did not talk about Monet. No. Oh man. Monet Monet is not. Let's talk about it. Hold on, let's talk about it. Well, I wanna I want to I wanna fit into you guys for a minute, right? So I don't want to mess up this stuff. You can like at the end of the day, the whole the whole premise was to have just a chat with you as a wrestling fan. I told you that before, like, if we didn't have anything, we're gonna talk about the Wacky Rika wrestling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And and and uh, but if we if it's still technically connected to you as a wrestling fan, you talk about Monet. If you enjoy Monet as a wrestling fan, please.

SPEAKER_00: 29:07

Please because we're gonna be a good thing.

SPEAKER_02: 29:12

Here's the thing, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 29:16

Our audience knows where we stand with with Ultimo Monet.

SPEAKER_02: 29:22

Monet.

SPEAKER_00: 29:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've had this want to be able to have at least somebody show up to maybe shed or at least attempt to shine a glimmer of light in this eternal darkness made with magic. And it keeps picking on me because I play fighting games and I have two belts from CEO, you know, the big big big big big thing. And so I have them in my house to hang up to COVID Monet belts, his Mercedes Monet tribute belts, his CEO belts.

SPEAKER_02: 29:55

So whenever she started coming out of CEO, I was like, did Tony Khan get another face? With uh the CEO, like what's called Alex Jabailey? And it's like, oh, it's Monet?

SPEAKER_00: 30:05

Monet fucking that up now. Like, I can't even hold these belts no more. Of course you can't. You just put it because you have two of them. You put both over your shoulders and dance to dance. Yeah. Yeah, that's all right. Okay. But please give give us your take on Mercedes right now.

SPEAKER_02: 30:24

So great. Thank you for asking the question, first of all. I have not seen their takes on it, but I know the air is there. They have the air of most of the most of what Mercedes-Monay uh detractors are right now. I will tell you why I'm a fan of her. Okay. And it comes from not only her ability, but also from, again, told you, I'm a I'm a spiritual guy, but I look at things from the lens of entertainment, but then I look at the person itself as well. Okay. For me, if you know Mercedes Monet Journey, she started out in NXT, huge Eddie Girl fan. NXT Brooklyn is heralded as probably one of, if not one of the greatest women's match. Yes. And um, that's in 2016. Um, she gets to the main roster. Um, she never has a successful title defense. No. Even though being one of the best, if not the best, at the time on that roster, uh uh adjacent to Charlotte Flair. They were constantly taking the belt off her, Pat Charlotte's resume, and um never giving her a sustained run. We're all three black men here. I'm like, for me, I am gonna have some buys and root for her more. But also, also, though, skill-wise, there wasn't a lot of people effing with her at the time. Now, fast forward, she walks out with Naomi, Trinity. She never comes back. She goes to the independence, she goes to Mexico, she does her spirituality journey, she ends up in AW. Now she holds all of these belts hostage, right?

SPEAKER_00: 32:05

13 now?

SPEAKER_02: 32:06

13. I think we're at 14.

SPEAKER_00: 32:08

Oh, well, technically it's still 13. Because one's interim, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 32:11

And then so she'll wrestle for that, and then it'll be 14. It'll be the official. It already happened, right? That's right. Sorry, my time frame. So, yes. So, so here's my thing. I understand why wrestling fans are mad at her. I just want to offer this perspective. Monet Mercedes came from a place where, in spite of her ability and her uh and her her dopness, she wasn't allowed to excel because the company had their own agenda. So, right now, what we're seeing is the revenge arc of like, I'm gonna make you pay for shunning me. And yes, everybody else is paying for Vince's sins right now. I understand that. However, for me, this is what I think is going to happen as well. I think ultimately, even if they can't pay her booking fee, this is the problem of having too much knowledge and awareness. No, I think. This is the problem with having too much knowledge and awareness. Yeah. So I think the the what how this ends, even though everyone hates it, she drops the belts back individually to each promotion. And then, and then and only then, when she turns baby face, then she wins the AEW Women's World Championship. That's how I see it playing out long term, which is why I don't, I can't hate her for maximizing on her worth when a company told her that she wasn't worth as much. Is she doing a lot? Is she is she um extra? You know, yeah. But that and and that's fair because it comes from a pain point. And so for me, I'm like, I can't hate her. If she sucked in the ring and was doing that, so for you guys, you're like, let's explain the reasoning why we're not a fan currently. Gotcha. I wanna I wanna root for her because she's a black woman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to root for her because of that, and because I love Sasha Banks. Yeah, what she did in WWE, you cannot touch that. Okay, okay. Cannot touch that. Okay, he said Sasha, not Mercedes. Let's go. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 34:27

So I like how you caught.

SPEAKER_02: 34:31

Um, but that's why. Because then when she went to New Japan and she had this new finisher, I was like, what's this? Yeah, what's this? So then when she started doing the AEWs, Mercedes Bonnet, and I was just like, okay, and then I noticed that in every one of these matches, the other person just looked better than her. And I was like, but no, this is you, you, you, you, you're so good. Like, what's going on? So it's like watching your favorite wrestler not be as good as you remember them. And then all of a sudden it was the narrative of the belts. The belts was like, okay, yeah, I want to see her with a belt. Give her a belt. She deserves that. Because Athena damn train doing that with that ring of honor title. And I that's a shame. Yeah. Um, I was happy when I saw, because I don't I'm not I don't keep up with AEW as often. I really don't. I'm not privy to everything that's happening, which is where you'll come in. But I do know that there was a time that Athena and Mercedes uh fought each other, and then um they were teaming with each other.

SPEAKER_00: 35:32

They're currently doing it on that tag team. Yeah, that just got done after that.

SPEAKER_02: 35:36

Right, okay. So for me, I'm like, at least Athena's getting more shine now by being next to Monet. I don't know if people, I don't know how the fans feel about Athena being in close proximity with her if she's catching Mercedes heat by being that close. We know Tony Khan gets her feet picks.

SPEAKER_00: 35:54

That's that's why Monet is doing what she's doing, but he's getting her feet picks, but let me first start off by saying the fact that what you said I 100,000 percent agree with. Yes. And that's just the fact of this whole idea that like and for all intents and purposes, I with the way you said it, it made me realize, or even kind of sort of put more into my mind to kind of solidify the fact that right now when you look at where she came from and where she's at, yeah, she is I mean, which she kind of is, but she's she's in her villainy arc. Yeah, she's in her her villain arc, yeah. So like, and it's funny because I'm the big Charlotte guy over here. No, no, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 36:46

Charlotte's great.

SPEAKER_00: 36:47

Yeah, I love Charlotte.

SPEAKER_02: 36:49

And and you go, and out of the Four Horsewomen, I was I was a Sasha girl too, and a little bit of the Bailey, but as currently, yeah, I do like Becky. Currently, there's nothing I don't think there's anything wrong with liking Becky. He hates her, or okay, maybe it hates a strong word. He doesn't like her, he doesn't like her, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 37:08

So, well, just to touch on the Becky game, yeah, in my where I come from when it comes to Becky is the fact that Becky Lynch is Becky Lynch is the one who you know how when you play a racing game, right? And um you might be falling behind, but then if you get behind that one real fast person, yeah, you can catch the slipstream. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And then like once you're like, you know, in a nice good spot and you got that good get up behind you, you just fling out from behind and just take it, take them over, kind of thing. That's Becky Lynch in my eyes.

SPEAKER_02: 37:46

You're absolutely that's a that's a great analogy. You're absolutely correct.

SPEAKER_00: 37:49

Because like when you look at the other four scores women, the other three, like Charlotte, of course, uh Sasha Banks, absolutely. I feel that Bailey got the rough end of the stake. Bailey got the rough end of the stick because she had to compete against Charlotte and uh and Sasha, and then there was the fourth wheel that was bad. But what ended up happening was while Bailey was off licking wounds because now that uh you know Sasha left, you know, Charlotte has no one else to bully but Bailey right now from from behind the man shows up and takes this spot, this spotlight. Not just that, but that is half of it, but in my eyes, and I mean sure everyone can say like nah she earned that spot kind of. Okay, but it's like but like you know number one, it almost there is this unknown, unspoken about like how Becky even got there. Yeah, she's got punched in the nose. There's there's really no there's really no explaining it, just the fact that it just it just happened. Really?

SPEAKER_02: 39:13

It's just it's literally she got punched in the nose by night. That's literally it. That's your so so I just want to, if we can take a brief pause, I just want to make sure I understand both of y'all's perspective. For you, Becky, but you like Becky. I like Becky currently. She has the best, she's doing the best heel run currently right now. Got you, got you, got you. Uh I'm gonna say shout out to Naomi because she's not there. Oh yeah, no. Before that, she wasn't. We all are Naomi. I've known her for years.

SPEAKER_00: 39:39

Okay. Oh, listen, where you have like, you know, a PlayStation, an Xbox, a PC, Naomi is is definitely a PC. That that uh well, I would say I say Nintendo in the sense of like in the original console war, like you might side with the Xbox, but you're going to get that a GameCube. Everyone got the GameCube. It didn't matter if you were a PC person, if you were a PlayStation 3, it didn't matter if you was down with Xbox, you had a Game Boy. You got the Game Boy color in the advance.

SPEAKER_02: 40:18

So Naomi is your GameCube. For all of these prestige. Yeah, prestige. Exactly. You use the prestige of the of the of the women's wrestling space. Well, think about it like this. This is probably a better analogy. We have these three belts, right? All of us can say one of these belts is more prestige than the other one.

SPEAKER_01: 40:37

We do like the other two belts, but it's that belt. Right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02: 40:42

Okay, okay. I feel like that might be a little bit better than a smooth man. But um, you were going with that. Yes, I would like to offer some perspective. Um Becky did not get in that spot only because she got punched in the nose. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I just want to elaborate. More so for him, because he doesn't like her, from what I understand. That rise to prominence came from uh who was in the company at the time? Charlotte was uh Charlotte was Charlotte, I think, was gone at that time, wasn't he? No, no, no, no, no. Charlotte, it was Becky and Charlotte for the title, and Becky ended up turning on Charlotte after she lost the match because she should have won. The fans were behind her, they wanted her to win. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That part, yeah. And then when she turned on it, the crowd went nuts. And then so she was healed, and then so after Nia Jax, then after Nia Jax broke her nose, it cemented like we want Becky to be in that top spot in the big phase, which is when the fans wanted to see Becky Lynch versus Rhonda Rousey, main event, the first WrestleMania for women at uh 35. When did Becky it was 32? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I think night one. I think it had to be. Yeah, it was night one, yeah. It had to be, yeah. Yeah. So can we still talk in? All right, cool, cool, cool. So, so for Becky, you know, her uh she wasn't giving her just dope because again, Becky suffered the uh she suffered being in the Charlotte vacuum. And then so while I love Charlotte, it was like it's like the Roman Reigns thing. Roman Reigns held the title hostage uh for almost four years, and nobody was nobody else, regardless how good they were with getting that title, it felt like Charlotte was holding that thing hostage, and the fans were revolting and they're like, we wanted somebody else. Like Becky's hot right now, and and Charlotte was shoehorned into the main event. Um and so yeah, so for me, I'm like, uh, you know, Becky, I can I can understand why people wouldn't like her as well. Um but yeah, man, I I I there were times where I was just like, okay, this is enough. Like this is enough, but I think that's that's I think that's a problem in uh in wrestling overall. And maybe with maybe more so with WWE when they stick with one person so long and they don't have like a top three or four cast of characters where they're promoting regularly like it was, and I hate to be this person because I talked to him about this off camera as well. Like every time you meet a wrestling fan, it's like last time I watch wrestling, The Rock is Stone Cold. The Rock is Stone Cold, and it's like, yeah, it's like I love that time too. But also, at that time, they were the top two, but they had a cast of characters. It was Undertaker, Mankind, uh Kane, uh, Triple H. Uh, you even had, uh, of course, um, I mean, even Chris Jericho was in that mix. You had people that were like anybody could have been champion. You had the top, but anybody could have been champion. But WWE got to a point where they're like, Charlotte, Roman, Cena, that's it. And um I'll pause there. No, you go, no, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 44:09

But what you said at I'll Charlotte, Roman, Cena, that's it.

SPEAKER_02: 44:20

And um, I'll pause there. No, you go. No, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 44:23

But what you said, uh, I I'll accept that.

SPEAKER_02: 44:29

It's all opinions, man. It's all opinions. But yeah, like that.

SPEAKER_00: 44:33

That's what we call the boiling room hot takes. We have our heart at uh but that particular that particular point you made, I I I can't be I can open my eyes to catch the glimmer and glam that is Charlotte Flair. Yeah. And see that. But you were rolling into an interesting piece that I want to get a little more from you about. Because that which you were saying about, you know, they have their ones in specific that they're kind of picking. And I know since you're more, since you do focus more on WWE and whatnot, and this I feel is this is more of a WWE problem, mostly because AEW's AEW hat does not they're they're in a really weird space where this really I don't think applies to them. Okay. And that is that whole idea of the fact like them not having a specific them having this, you know, they only have their their particular stars that they're going to look at, and we're just gonna stick with that, and we're not gonna deviate from the play.

SPEAKER_02: 45:44

Kind of like everybody has a place to shine, where it is in WWE, these are our main players. You know, you look at people like Carmelo Hayes and Montez Ford, which other representations of us, and they are really great individuals. Yep. When was the last time you seen Montez Ford? Missing. Missing. And shout out to, I'm glad you brought up Carmelo Hayes. And this is not an excuse for the prior weeks to it, but I just happened to watch SmackDown. And he got played from a count out. He did. We don't like how it happened. Yeah. However, he does advance in the last time is now turned in. It's a dance. So, so so he's gonna get a prominent spot in. I forgot who he's gonna get uh paired up with next week. But he but he advances in that, and that's something. I feel you. Yeah. I'm not so this here's the hard part about being a WWE fan. And also being probably black. It's always the same. Oh man. I'm so glad that I'm a guest here today. It is very difficult. You know, when I come out with my book and my documentary, I'm going to say, do you can imagine how many ways one can get made fun of in being in Florida and being a wrestling fan. You're black, if you believe in God, you like anime, and you like wrestling, you're weak.

SPEAKER_01: 47:04

It's too much working against you.

SPEAKER_02: 47:06

It's like, you know what I mean? This is we survived. We got here off the strength of just tenacity and just being like, we take all of the crap that y'all gave us and we still decided to be dope anyway. So we still decided to be dope anyway. I mean yeah. So so coming back to uh to coming back to being a black wrestling fan watching WWE is the main product has definitely been difficult a whole lot of time. That's why I go out of my way to celebrate. Where's she at? Oh my girl. Yeah, so first of all, I know she's married. I know she's married, and that's fine, but people are married in movies and all that stuff all the time. And people have this. I mean, look at Dom. Dom is Dom is married, he's kissing like four of them. First of all, he's an entertainer, and you know, exactly. You know what I'm saying? So it's like Dom has Dom is in a very good spot. This guy's under 30. He's been in in at least three of the last uh four uh John Cena matches. Like he this guy lost the Intercontinental title to Cena. Um, he's gonna give it back to Survivor Series, you know that, right?

SPEAKER_01: 48:16

Which which is even more like we just had to get Cena the Grand Slam, come on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 48:22

I'm okay with that. Like it's you can't, all of those athletes and never winning. I mean, we live Hunter and Seth Rollins both have two Grand Slam fans.

SPEAKER_00: 48:30

And it's the biz. But you can't give it to Cena? Listen, bro. We're gonna get back to the point. We're gonna get back to the point in a second. We're gonna get back to the point in a second. Which no, actually, no, I'm gonna hold I'm gonna withhold that. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 48:42

I'm not coming back to over the blaze in the jumps. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I'm porn and over the belt. All the blaze. So, yeah, so so coming back to J. Yeah, so we're talking about uh Dom and all of those things, but then also being black as a wrestling fan. Being black as a wrestling fan, right? This is why I go out of my way to promote the J Carville, to promote the Naomi's, to promote the um Mercedes-Monet, to promote, again, Montez Ford, to promote Carlo Hayes when he does have a uh when he does have a match. Trick, Trick Well, man, every time so on TikTok, I started doing a thing in the middle of the week where I was like, like Trick Williams says, let's talk about it. Even if I'm not talking about Trick Williams, just to put that out there, because as black wrestling fans, oh, I'm about to, this is rant mode right now. So forth. I was watching a segment on LFG, and there was, I don't know the woman's name, but she was admonishing, I think, Maxine Dupree's uh boyfriend. I forgot what his name is too. Um, but I know he's uh I think he's on Evolve or he might be coming in NEC, whatever. Long story short, somebody was admonishing him for trying to be like The Rock, right? And I was like, I got this is the first time that I got so annoyed with somebody saying that. And here's why. And this is the black wrestling fans plight. If there were more black wrestlers on top in WWE, maybe black wrestling fans would have more to look at than The Rock. Stop being mad at black and brown talent wanting to be like The Rock when that was the only mother that you had that was on the top. Who else did we have? Yes, there's Boogie T. Yes, but the biggest company in the world. You know what I'm saying? Like it's this is this is my angst and anger comes from that. So it's just like if you give more to people that are not just because they're black, but they're talented too, then you won't have your crop of black talent that sounds like The Rock or whatnot. This is why I love Swerve so much. Shout out to Swerve. Yeah, because I watched him originally in Lucha as Killshot, and to see what he did there, and I keep telling Swag, watch Lucha. Just watch Lucha Underground, bro. I know it's done, but just watch it. Okay, watch it. I'm also, which is the weird thing about us, as I do we both watch the Attitude Era. Uh, I watched ECW more than WWE. Nice. So you're a Jerry Lane RVD guy. Yeah. Jerry Lane, uh, two code Scorpio. New Jack, as much as this is a controversial tape, I love New Jack. You want to talk about violence? Violence! Hey Jack. I'm sorry, I'm clipping the mic on the show. Hey Jack, hey Jack, I can't feel melee. You ain't gotta worry about bones. New Jack is the guy. Because he's he's that raw and gutter from the streets that we are from, and he's not filtering it. And that's the one thing I love. But I was also I'm a I do love Deathmatch Rashley. But uh, that's besides the point. What I was trying to get at was you know, seeing people like Swerve, who is an example of that, who doesn't have to do the stereotype of like the crime time, and he's just swerve. Right, right. And to see that, and it's like, man, he's been champed twice now. Yeah. Okay. I like this. He's got his own shoes. Yeah. And his theme song is fine. Yeah. And he's a big, he's a big Sean fan. That's how he goes with the the swerve, swerve. Yeah, man. That's a I'm I uh I respect and I love that a swerve stricken exists, and I would love, and this is I'm gonna bring it back to a point even though I'm late. I'm like the, you know that meme, the Internet Explorer? Yeah. The meme. My brain is like that sometimes.

SPEAKER_01: 52:48

Like, oh yeah, you said that 35 minutes ago.

SPEAKER_02: 52:50

Speaking of that. Um, when we were talking about AEW being in the place that it's in, um, I watched the Tony Khan interview, most of it, like half an hour ago. Oh, yeah, the Tony on the Huani? Yeah, Ariel Huani, yeah. And so for me, I think this is pie in the sky. Even though I'm a WWE fan, sometimes, sometimes, you just want to see the big person get knocked out because they're just man, the NASCAR. You want to see the underarms? Yeah, but it's it's more than the underdog. I wouldn't have a like if the Yankees keep winning or this prominent team, I'm like, I'm not gonna get mad at the Yankees or Floyd Mayweather for constantly being successful. I'm gonna be like, your favorite hasn't cracked the coke. That's that's your problem, not theirs. Now, that is a problem now, now, but come up with WWE though, between the ticket pricing, I talked about this on my uh that's my other train of thought. I talked about this on the podcast that I did on Monday. That should be dropping uh Sunday or Monday. I had to talk to my producer about it. But I would love to see when WWE hosts WrestleMania in Saudi Arabia since uh since Tony Khan, not Tony Khan, since Nick Khan and um um oh my gosh, who's the other guy? Mark Shapiro, all these these guys that think that WWE fans are gonna gladly fly to Saudi Arabia to go to WrestleMania. I would love for AEW to take that season because WrestleMania weekend or week is like where all of the wrestling people get their shine. They go there and they get exposure. I would love to see Tony Khan AEW house a giant event while WWE is not here in Orlando, he's cooking, and they will generate, they'll get the fan base that can afford the ticket pricing, and then that way it's like a tilt. There will be a tilt that happens in the wrestling space if Tony Khan maximizes because it's like you're in WWE's backyard where they're about to put a second performance center in, right? And then you have all these fans that want to go to Mania, but damn, if I got kids, if I'm like you, a Mercer fan, I can't bring my kid there because I'm not spending 80 grand to go overseas to, you know what I'm saying, not taking out a second mortgage to do that. What if he called it all the way? Instead of all in, all out, all the way.

SPEAKER_00: 55:20

I mean, honestly, to do that, which on which would be the most ideal and the most smartest thing. That would be This is Pine in the sky. I'm just saying, yeah, this is an idea I have. This is an idea I had. Listen, because you're not alone. There are other people out there who think with this whole thing going on with the Saudi Arabia thing, they they they they wish and hope that AEW will come up with such a plan.

SPEAKER_02: 55:48

However, it is Tony Khan. What does that mean? Well, I'll let you finish and then I'll let you say what that means.

SPEAKER_00: 55:55

However, the problem is when you say it is Tony Khan. There is what they like to, or what they've been doing, right, is almost they've been doing what is considered the definition of insanity. They are doing because for a while it felt like maybe, just maybe they're about to do something a little different. They're gonna change the formula though, because as we all know, the stock prices and and and everything about AEW is is quite on a slope, right? It is on the roller coaster down, and you don't see where it loops back up just yet in any kind of way. And that's just when you look at their ticket sales and how many people are coming to shows, and you know, they're they're giving out tickets for free just to make the ring look like it's full. They're hosting residencies and small venues while WWE they've jacked their prices up and they're still getting more people in these stadiums than they are, you know, three times as many people as they're getting in these venues. And WWE is gonna slop from the first. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But it's like I've described AEW a many different ways. One of the ways that I want to really describe AEW, but they just not have shown any kind of uh of showing that they're going to finally tap in is AEW is is Gohan.

SPEAKER_01: 57:35

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00: 57:42

Okay, okay, yeah. And AEW in many different areas have shown themselves to be Gohan at almost all points of where Gohan is. The only problem is we're waiting for Cell Super Saiyan 2 Gohan to happen and AEW can't seem to go super. No, no, no, no, no. You say Super Saiyan base?

SPEAKER_02: 58:10

You can't say not base, but you say they can't go Super Saiyan, period. No, no, no. I take that, I I'll actually retort that. I feel like there was a point where he did already reach Cell, and it was a peak that you weren't really watching the product, and I know I was really watching the product, and I was like, man, this is peak, and that was when CM Punk was there.

SPEAKER_00: 58:28

When CM Punk was there, it was around that time because we got MJF versus CM Punk, and that match, that build was a so if we if you want to call that point where where AEW as Gohan is on Super Saiyan 2, then right now we're going through the part when Cell comes back and he's even more stronger and he's broken Gohan's arm. I I actually feel like he's more so current Dragon Ball Super Gohan. It's AEW right now. But see, that's the problem. I don't think with the way that they're going, AEW isn't going to make it to Super. Okay. Damn. They're not going to make it to Super. No. And the reason why they're not going to make it to Super is because. Maybe Great Sandman? Goodness. Listen. No. They haven't made it to the book. They are still in the Cell saga right now. Oh, damn. So this hasn't even gotten the ultimate potential. Listen, bro. This is the part where Cell came back, broke Gohan's arm, shot a beam through uh through trunks, and the Gina's over there crying.

SPEAKER_01: 59:42

This is that's the that's the state of AW right now.

SPEAKER_02: 59:45

So are you saying are you saying that CMML and uh New Japan are Goku trying to shoot the be? No.

SPEAKER_00: 59:54

No. Don't reason why I say no to them. Is because of the fact that we don't know who Goku is in this scenario yet. Because we haven't even gotten to that beam part. We're still on that downward spiral where everything seems hopeless. If you want to say CMLL, that's Trump's laid out on the with a hole in his chest covered up blood.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:20

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:22

Yo, I just want to say, as a guest on this podcast, I love the anime metaphor. And I also want to say that if you have any pro-AEW audience members, it's not my goal to continue to pull my pants down and take and do some AEW. I'm uneducated in some of the spaces. There's people in AEW that I enjoy, that people I'm familiar with that I want to see through festival, but this is a fantastic conversation because I feel like you guys speak my language. The metaphors that you're making. I've been doing this all my life. Yeah, you can't. It's fantastic. This is it's that it's that blurred culture thing.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:01

Like when you said the Gohan thing, I was like, fuck! He has a plug! But it's like, so when I look at AEW, right? And this actually kind of goes back to one of the things that were that Ryan made the video. What a AEW, and I will say this with no hesitation, AEW is where the best wrestle. AEW has some of the best wrestlers in the in not in the world, for all that matter. Okay, they have some of the best wrestlers in the world. And I would say, as far as other promotions, I would say NXT wrestlers, the only reason why they look like they're the best wrestlers is because they're fighting for that spot. And so because of that, they look they they look like some of the best, which is just fine. But the problem with AEW, and this is the part that a lot of AEW fans don't want to admit, is the fact that no matter how you slice it, no matter how you cut it, no matter what you do, when you go down to the very bare bones, you know, you know, nuances of the wrestling business. Wrestling is only a small part of the bigger picture. AEW is, if you was looking at their stats, they maxed out wrestling and they put like three points in story. Now there are other bits that go into it, but them not using and utilizing the abilities to tell stories makes you fall asleep while watching an amazing match sometimes. Because you can have Will Ospreay and uh Kenny Omega. You can have Will Osprey and Kenny Omega go up against each other and it's going to be entertaining no matter what, based off of namesake and what they've done in the past. Right, right. If you don't give me a reason why they're facing each other, I'm only going to be so tapped into it. Now, on the flip side, when we have WWE, which is one of the arguments one of the commenters did on the little post I made commenters. He's like, you know, he's he talks about how um, you know, you would prefer to watch WWE and they're you know only having 25 minutes of wrestling and everything else's promos and commercials. And it's one of those things where I understand that piece. Right. And WWE has completely diminished their bar when it comes to the wrestling that they give you. Yeah. However, the story aspect, good or bad, there is story, and they're giving me a reason to kind of want to tune in and me hope that they're not gonna give me slot.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:21

Yeah, yeah. I yeah, I I feel you. I want to say things, but I feel like you have something to do. No, I mean, what I was basically to take was, you know, we all were brought up through WWE. And WWE and WCW were very privy to story. That is the key component with wrestling in America. Jim Cornette said it perfectly where wrestling is the equivalent of seeing two guys, you have the bigger guy, you have a smaller guy. Small guy is seeing a big guy, he says, Yo, I'm gonna beat you up and you keep messing with me. Or the bigger guy, every week, every week he goes in his bar and keeps shitting up, keep shitting on. But one of these days, that little guy says, Yo, I'm gonna go fight him, and I'm gonna take all this energy and I'm gonna meet, I'm gonna be there this Saturday. And everybody's like, Y'all wanna see that fight? And that's the thing that pulls you in to watching it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:09

And that's a good way to put it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:05:10

But it's not a good thing. If you watch, and this is what I was telling you about before, with Tony Khan is a big fan of New Japan. If you watch New Japan, you barely see the story. Right. The story is told in the fight between two competitors. What is the the energy where you see, let's say, Shinsuke and Nakamura, just type telling you Shinsuke and Akamura has been fighting and trying to get this title forever, and he either keeps losing a match or he has this happen. So the story happens in the ring, not in the segments, not in the it happens in the ring and through the the energy their bodies are given. So that's how they tell their story compared to where we get a match and then we get a backstage segment. We get a beat down in the back, we get this. They don't do that in New Japan. You rarely see backstage anything in Japan. So when you look at Tony Khan, who is a big fan of New Japan, that is the product he's bringing. He's bringing New Japan to America. And as American wrestling fans, we're like, we're like, what the fuck is this?

SPEAKER_03: 1:06:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:14

Because we're so used to story as the component.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:18

Yeah. Considering when you look at it, because which that is very right. Because with what with the analogy that he was giving with uh uh what Jim Cornette said, what AEW is doing and pushing is the big man picks on the little guy and they just start fighting right then and there. Yeah, there's been no build-up, there's there's no one's there. Only the people who are currently there knows that this is happening. Right. There's been nothing to broad, like, there's there's no going to it's like, hey, oh, there's this dude down at the bar that's been picking on it. I think he's gonna he's gonna blow up in another couple days.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:53

There ain't none of that. So, so um I I agree only because I mean the sentiment because I don't watch, I don't I what I for me, I don't like speaking on topics that I feel I'm uneducated on because it's just like I just sound dumb. Yeah, I don't like looking and sounding dumb. But I do know the general consensus online for people that don't care for AEW as much or not biggest fans because there is no storytelling. And um, and if I can um I'm not gonna counter that because I don't know. All I know in terms of I asked this question in the in a group that I created on Facebook for one of my safe places. I was like, where can I be? Uh um, where can I where can I not deal with a million racist atheists? I'll just make my own group. It's fine. And then I'll just make my own group. Sometimes I do. So that's that's good. So I did that from my safe place in the corner of the internet somewhere that uh that's now it's been 10, 11 plus years or whatever. Uh but I say this to say um there's only one story that I think that people remember or that's like heralded is like long term, and it's the feud with uh Hangman and Swerve.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:06

Exactly. Boy!

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:08

And so I think that was great. However, you need more of that. So you're so you're telling me from watching AEW being the guy that's watching it now, they don't have anything that's that's like that. Don't so they so I'll so I was except except the Tony Storm uh match with uh well she's Max. Oh she's um what's she now in the NCAA? Blake Monroe. Yeah, yeah. That way, yeah, which but now she was um Mariah Mariah May. Mariah May, Mariah Main, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:36

Now they did, and with but it's but once again, had yeah, yeah. They don't have that anymore. Yeah, it's like they're in this weird space where they're like, and to me, they're I they're like they're floundering a little bit because now some of their like big name people like Swerve and Little Osprey, they're they're all injured right now. So swerve is injured. No one has seen on the clip. He got a neck uh surgery or something like that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:03

Yeah, man. So I mean those when you work in, I mean, neck injury can happen to anybody, but I've seen the stuff that they do and how hard they work. Like when Kevin, I know we're talking about AEW right now. I have to transition a little bit. We're gonna we're gonna also transition to the real wrestling system. Perfect, perfect. So Kevin Owens is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. Yes. Him do you know Kevin Steen though? I've met him, but I don't know. I mean, like, you know. I don't know him. I've only met him. I've only met him. I mean, like, you didn't see his ROH product. Correct, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Metaphorically, I've met him. Yeah, I've seen him and CM Punk in R.O.H. days, like, you know, off the hinges, just zero filter, yeah, all that stuff. But um, oh my goodness. You were talking about Kevin Owens being your favorite wrestler. Yeah, uh, he's not my favorite, but he's one of, yes, yes, yes. But it's when you see someone work a string of matches that are just just stiff, and I was like, how is I was how how is he doing this regularly? How is he putting his butt- I'm like, you if you whether you're educated about wrestling or uneducated about wrestling, if you watch a certain string of Kevin Owens matches, you're like, how is he not injured? How is he not, how is he when he took the Alabama slam off the the announce table through the ladder when Cody put him through in that match? When then he was doing some stiff stuff with Sami Zayn at the pay-per-view before Mania that made him have to miss Mania in the first place. He was already injured then. So I say all of that to say AEW working as stiff as they do with the talent to put on a superior wrestling product, you're gonna get more injuries, and that sucks that Swerve is out, and that sucks that Omega's out because he's in the neck doing next surgery too. Osprey's out with neck too, isn't he? Or Omega's back. Omega's back. So he had he had uh what was it called? What is it called again? Um I keep I keep always saying illness the diapeticulite. Yeah, they're reticulite, that's right. He had the Lesnar disease. That's the only time the reason I heard of die reticulitis. Um but yeah, so he's back, but then he's off TV now because they put Andrade on TV or El Idolo and the WWE was like, you're under contract for one year not compete with that bullshit. This is why, this is why I can pitch stuff like AEW should come and in WWE's tone turf and do something dope, but as you're telling me, they're not uh they don't have enough uh aggressive business model to do something like that. Well no, but what I was gonna say, and I feel like this is gonna be a good way to lean into the week. The reason why I say Tony Khan cannot do it is because of the product we've been getting. We just literally had blood and guts, and the next week we're still in matches. Nobody's selling anything. So now we go into a WrestleMania where we barely get that stuff, we get maybe one hardcore match.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:01

What?

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:02

But now you're telling me we might get a WrestleMania equivalent, but almost like five matches are damn near death matches. No, that's too much for the W. You got the kids. But it's it's it's it's something though, because you're there's an open market now. There's a there's a there is going to be this is the first year since 1985 that there will not be a WrestleMania in the States. That is crazy though. This is 1985, okay? So for me, there's an open market, like some someone is going to do something. I think there's gonna be little sprinkles of things that come up out of Mania not being here, or you have a promotion that's like, well, since Mania's not here, why don't we try to do something that's amazing? That's all I'm saying. I just feel like WW's greed could be another promotion's game, yeah, and it'll be a good thing for the wrestling ecosystem overall, depending on whoever takes advantage of that. That's all I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:53

No, you're not wrong because like I know there's because I know WrestleCon usually follows WrestleMania, and then with WrestleCon in wherever the spot where Mania is, there's like like literally all promotions are normally in that spot, doing this, that, and like I know uh, you know, our our guy with the house of space, you know, him and his competing partner, they're gonna they did uh they I think they both because Bobby had some other things that he had to do at that time. But Xeon, he went to uh what was they? Las Vegas. He went to Las Vegas and he had the last one. And he went he went to Las Vegas and was there that whole week and had like what like four or five, he just just walked up and was like, hey, I'm booking. Can I come through? And he like did like four or five shows or so, like just for showing up. And then like while he was like, like, like literally every wrestler in the universe is there. He's telling me how he's ran, he ran Carlito, Bobby Lashley, and all of them, and they're like hanging out over here, and hanging out at the club over in this spot with this guy, and just just sounds like a big ass anime convention. I mean, honestly, that's WrestleMania does for wrestlers and active wrestlers, it is kind of like a it's like an anime convention, but it's like an anime comic-con convention for wrestlers slash a family reunion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're gonna see everybody out there because it's Mania, you gotta go to Mania. And people who you might not have seen or wrestled with in a long time, you can see them hang out with them, dap up, and stuff like that. And then catch up. Like it's it's a big thing, yeah. That's probably but yeah, no, I I I agree with you with AEW honestly, really need to. I just don't have the faith.

SPEAKER_02: 1:14:52

Yeah, I mean, you know, somebody in Tony's ear. I mean, I would have anyway, we'll see what happens. It's an opportunity, right? And whoever is smart and has resources or community could put on something I think that could be special that can grow into another AEW or T. You just never know. You just you just never know. But I think it's a it's a huge opportunity to do something special, especially here when we're in the city of Orlando. It's just, I just think there's a big opportunity. I'll I'll I'll be thinking of some stuff. Yeah. Please do.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:22

Um tell someone to tell him.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15:26

So speaking of which, we can kind of uh spit shot into again the wild rec of wrestling, and just kind of because we have you know AEW and we have WWE to kind of talk about, and I do want to give a little splash of New Japan just to get him into it, because I'm trying to get him to watch it, because we want to be at least we don't see anybody else covering New Japan. Everybody's always covering WWE. This is great. And to to be one of the maybe, if not one of the only people who are currently doing it, we want to at least be a bit more prominent if we can. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:56

Um I gotta do it. Now uh yeah, to cycle back around to WWE to uh some of the recent events with WWE because I I brought it up slightly as as you mentioned, but I I need to hear your your your current standpoint with uh all of this John Cena stuff. I I need to get your because so for me, just the lady. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think John Cena's this whole thing has been uh a disaster. And when you sum it up in its entirety, it started out like it was going to be something for reals, and I don't blame John Cena for how bad this retirement run has gone. But what I do feel that's happening right now is there is an extreme there's to me, there's an extreme overglazing of John Cena. Okay. Like, I I get that people look at him as I I get that people look at him as like one of the greatest of all times. Or at least right now, they're not saying one of. He they're they are defining the fact that the greatest the THE greatest of all time. Yeah. And I I almost wish I could agree.

SPEAKER_03: 1:17:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:17:31

But like I I can't because I feel as if we are over the top, overglazing, we're overdoing it. Like when Triple H came out, and he I'm talking slopped him up, bro.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:49

Triple H he said Triple H had his knee pads on the heal, he's not even an active competitor anymore. Bro, if somebody anybody in this universe, it delays me the way Triple H does.

SPEAKER_00: 1:18:10

It would be no swag. It was, it was, it's just I feel as if they're it's like they're trying to they're overcompensate. They're like, I feel like they're overdoing. Just let John Cena's doings speak for him. Like, I feel like, and I always compare it to like when Sting was on his retirement run. Okay. Now, I guess some people would what would say that would try to argue the fact, well, Tony Schiavone was out there, da-da-da-da. And it's like, sure, Tony Schiavone might bring it up saying, you know, like, you know, giving out Sting's accolades and whatnot. But at the same time, Sting also went out there and gave his accolades. And it wasn't, it just did, to me, it did not feel forced. He he it didn't feel like it was so forced. Yeah. Yeah. Where with John Cena, we're giving he is in a retirement. People are competing to face John Cena in his last match, like they're fighting for the WWE undisputed title.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:18

Well, remember, you want his take. You're giving your. Oh, oh no.

SPEAKER_00: 1:19:23

I'm laying it on the on the all out so that he can understand why I feel John Cena is being extremely overglazed. Like, for like with because the part that you kind you started to bring up was, you know, how he's the intercottile champion, just to make him the Grand Slam champion. If that is not proof that we're just like, oh hey, let's just do everything we can to really boost up this fellow, like I'm talking, that's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:56

Not the double hand. Not the Tennessee tornadoes.

SPEAKER_00: 1:20:04

Listen, when they came to Cena Intercontinental title, they was doing the Tennessee tornado with with two other F2s.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:15

Like they were That's a lot. It's a lot of people. It's a lot.

SPEAKER_00: 1:20:18

I think it's a lot. And I just like uh where do you sit with all of this?

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:25

Thank you. Thank you for that elaborate uh explanation of where you are. But also, no, I really do appreciate it. I'm gonna give you my my my straight shot for real where I'm at with everything. I agree with you in the sense that they are overdoing it. Here is what I'll say in regards to where I think it's some of it is uh some of it is warranted, but I can I feel like I don't know how much your audience knows, but just to go back, they when John seen uh uh what year was it? It was a year when they started calling him the greatest of all time, like as a gimmick. Let's like at Main Event J Uso, they started being Big Match John. No, no, no, but yeah, Big Match John was a long time, but it transitioned to the greatest of all time. I think that was events for getting it. Well, no, it wasn't John, it was John was saying it. He John Brash was saying, yeah, he was saying it. He was saying so, but he wasn't saying that of his own volition, though. He was being fed. Oh, yeah, absolutely. This is my point. So that came from Vince while Vince was still there, and then so, but they stuck with it. They for some reason wanted to stick with it because that what you're seeing is the overture, you're seeing the remnants of of the Vince McMahon era. This is the this is the last of it that can be um shown on camera. This is what you're seeing. This is the last of his brain child is like this is Vince's thing, and it's being shoved down your throat for the last time because that's John Cena is the last, let me not say the last. And it's gonna be the last time he's gonna get any Vince though. Yeah, yeah, for real. But it's the it's the last of the of the full-fledged like McMahon era, like John Cena is that guy because that's what that is. So uh to make a different point, I like the fact that John is Grand Slam champion, and it's not, I don't think the company that's just doing that. That's a large portion of his fan base. That if you're a Cena fan, they know the stat that he's never been intercontinental champion. And so for me, I'm like, I'm happy because not just because John Cena's Grand Slam, I think that he should be, but also I'm more so looking at the future and them having him in his hometown in Boston, Dominic Mysterio, being they're setting up Dominic, they're setting up Dominic and Braunbreaker to be the future of the company. Oh, absolutely. It's them two, but more so, they put Dom in that spot. They didn't put Braun in that spot, they put Dom in that spot. And so for me, even though Cena gets this last accolade, it shines a brighter light on Dom because Dom is gonna get that title back in his hometown of San Diego. That's like John is John being glazed more with the IC title does more for Dominic Mysterio long term in the next 10 years. You notice how a lot of these uh passing of the torch moments that we have? Yeah. When um the the the wrestler that's being passed the torch usually is only around for like three or four more years and then they're gone. That's I don't think it's supposed to be that way. When it was Rock Hogan, um Hogan was around for X amount of time and he was gone. Or excuse me, not Hogan. Uh Rock. Rock was around um, because it was a 2002, yeah, WrestleMania 18. Passed the torch, then he beat him again, no way out 2003, and then Rock left after 19, or Red left and left after WrestleMania 19, came back for WrestleMania 24 spot, they was gone for seven years. It was just like, okay, where's the Rock and Tanker were brought to the streak, and Rock was only, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um technically like he's there, but he's not there. Right. And then it was like the Rock passing it to Cena, WrestleMania 29th. It was like Cena. Cena was then he's transitioned into being like part-time. It was like a weird thing. So for me, I'm like, yes, you give Cena the title so Dom can take it off of him. So that way, Dom has that legacy with him. Dom's 27 or 28 or something like that. So for me, I think it serves a per all this boosting and glazing that they're doing of Cena benefits Dom. And also another thing you gotta give Cena credit to, because like what Hunter wanted to do for his last whatever, they wanted to do a tribute show. That's what they wanted to do. Yeah. But Cena said, no, let's let's do a thing where he's been to the PG like twice, right? And PC speaks. Um and he's been there twice. He actually wanted to do a thing where it was just NXT. Right. He just wanted NXT guys to get this opportunity because who better would it benefit if they got the pen on Cena?

SPEAKER_03: 1:25:10

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:25:11

And that's why I was like, okay, you gotta give respect to Cena for that. That he got it more NXT guys than Orton, uh a Cody, or you know, like they already they're already getting ready to leave themselves. Exactly. So this is why, so it sucks that Seamus got injured, right? Um, because he's another one that's never won the Instagram Tensor Championship. They were telling that we didn't live in the injured? Yes. Yeah, he literally got hurt. During the the trigger match? Or I don't know if it was in that match, they didn't state that. They just said that he's out with the injury and he can't compete in the tournament anymore. So they have to get so now LA Knight is gonna have two surprise opponents back to back because LA Knight was supposed to face Matt Cardona. Matt Cardoffs! No, no, no, no, Zach Ryanos Cardone. Oh man. Um you know, everybody had their fantasies. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, I think we all know where it's going, and I'm I would have picked somebody else, not to slight at it, but the direction is Gunther. We know this, right? Yeah, of course. Okay, so then I'm like, that's why Dom has to get the title off of him first. So Cena's gonna Cena's gonna go out in his back twice over. I just hope, I just hope that Gunther is around for at least another seven years. I I feel like Gunther, the way he is, the way he is as a wrestler's wrestler, yeah. I feel that. I feel like at least a good more seven, if anything, because I think he's like, what, 35? He's in his 30s. I don't know how old he is. Like 35.

SPEAKER_00: 1:26:44

You do make a very good point. And WWE has been extremely horrendous at doing this. And in the fact of having, if Dom does win the Santa Continental title back from hell on the on at the pay-per-view, if he does win, then it does make it. So what if Dom loses at San Diego, right?

SPEAKER_02: 1:27:14

And then the surprise opponent is Dom. And then Dom is the final opponent. So I I so And he takes it back then. So I like that. I had an idea prior to Seamus getting injured when he lost the title. I thought Dom was gonna enter the tournament to get his lick back to be the final opponent. That was my original idea. But then when they announced the match of arts for Survivor series, I was like, ah, well, you know, it's it's it's close enough. But I like I lose this, and then it's like, okay, I lost, but hey, yo, yo, yo, yo, put me in, put me in the tournament. Yeah, but then you're gonna have to have somebody beat Gunther again, and then you know, uh, they don't want to do that because Gunther. Hey, look, you want him to be Eddie Guerrero. He he'd definitely be any Eddie Guerrero to Gunther. He's gonna like Brock. It could be fun. It would be fun. I wouldn't be against it. Me personally wouldn't be against it. Because look like we if we all know it's Gunther, imagine the biggest flip in the world is we know it's Gunther, but then it's Dom. Man, so he got the so you're gonna have so you're gonna have you're gonna have Dom lose to Cena and Cena's hometown in Boston and in Dom's hometown in San Diego. But again, but again, you're trying to get him away from Judgment Day because they're doing it now. What better way to make him a face is when Cena raises his hand and gives him that credit of being a face now. I think he'll do it at Survivor Series. I mean, could you say if they did, that'd be this is what we call uh the the discant Lariat.

SPEAKER_00: 1:28:58

I I will say, yeah, no, that'll knock you silly. I would definitely say that piece. Um I I mean Dreamers RD going to be a little bit more. Dream Boy Maddie. Listen, I more nerd stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:14

Are y'all going to DreamCon? You know what DreamCon is? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:29:17

I want to so bad. DreamCon has been.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:21

That would be dope for us to go, especially as uh as a podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 1:29:24

I gotta I gotta actually actually I'm glad you said something about that. I gotta look into more cons and stuff like that to try and get into. Uh I I I hear you on the John Cena piece. I hear you on the John Cena piece. And I I wish that would be the case. Okay. I guess I don't know. I just I currently do not have faith that they're going to do anything right do that. Yeah. Like I I wish, like in my mind. If he was to go there, y'all's little discus lyriat that y'all was talking about there. Dom is not going to go to the very end and fight John Cena and all that. That's not happening. Okay. As crazy and as amazing as it would be, it's not going to happen. Now him.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:22

You gotta give this guy the title if it happens the way he said it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:30:25

Well, I mean, listen, I will I would gladly stand corrected if for whatever reason y'all's crazy rigamaroo comes through. But in my mind, I could I can imagine Dominic winning and beating John Cena. I can see that happening and him getting the title back because it does not make sense for the person who we know is going to win this Gunner. Yeah, you're gonna put Gunther back in the IC title picture, you're not gonna do that. But it's like, granted, I also am like, which is the reason why I'm like, this whole John Cena run has been bogus because I'm like, Gunther, Gunther does not need to beat John Cena. He doesn't. He really doesn't.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31:08

He already retired Goldberg this year, by the way. Exactly. So he'd be retiring Goldberg and seeing a scene.

SPEAKER_00: 1:31:14

Gunther is a very secured superstar. After having an Eric Cottonell tile for six, six, six days, and then for him having the heavyweight tile and carrying it the way that he did, it's like I would date like they really could have had night two.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31:31

It really wasn't wrestling on night two. It could have been 667. They were just like, they don't care. They don't care. We go with it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:31:38

I feel that like with I I guess like I can kind of uh uh get behind that idea that you know they're you know John Cena taking the icy title to just boost up Don Wayne takes it back again. I can get behind that idea, and so I can I can that that almost makes me kind of like rest with okay, sure. Right. We can let John Cena have this title, though I see through the foolishness, it's very forced.

SPEAKER_02: 1:32:11

No, no, no. A lot of it is again, it's the it's the Viz McMahon rhetoric that this guy's the greatest of all time because uh the the legend is that John Cena never says no, he just says yes to everything, uh, like the Miz, but I guess he's just the Miz is not John Cena. And so um, so you know, and they they are doing the forcing, even Triple H, um, you know, having to be in the ring to to that promo that Triple H did, I just want to take a quick second to say if you are a longtime WWE fan, I would love, as much as I love the product, I want you guys to just pay a little bit more attention to who's like behind the scenes and who's running this ship. Triple H told you to your face, I am uniquely suited to distinguish who the greatest of all time is.

SPEAKER_00: 1:33:08

Yeah, that part.

SPEAKER_02: 1:33:10

He was like, objectively, and this I'm the I am the one that's suited to say this. I'm just saying. That's a catch. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_00: 1:33:19

That's a catch.

SPEAKER_02: 1:33:19

He's the one, objective, the greatest asset. This is this just lets you know this is why you're being forced this information so hard. Vince McMahon, Paul, his name should be Paul McMahon. That is Vince's McCon. Vince raised him.

SPEAKER_00: 1:33:36

I mean, he Vince raised him.

SPEAKER_02: 1:33:38

Triple H's parents birthed him, but from the time Triple H signed to the company until now, Vince McMahon is his father. I mean, he has also been with a McMahon. There's children with the McMahon. He is a McMahon. That is Paul McMahon. He is married to a fan. That is Paul McMahon. And all I'm saying is that all of the boosting you've been getting, again, he said it, the greatest asset that this company has ever had. Because John Cena is the champion of WWE full style, with or without the title. This guy went out of his way to learn Mandarin so WWE could break into the Chinese market because they never had a lot of foothold there. Nobody was doing more to promote WWE as this thing as an active competitor than John Cena. And that's why they make him rich, man. And this is what I'm saying, and that's why they glaze him as much as they do. It's not about his in-ring stuff. He does have people will argue, people will say that you can't rest for however long. You can go back and find great Cena matches, yes. Um, you know, his US title stint is probably his best string of work. Yes. Um, in terms of string of work, he's had pockets of great matches, but the string that I see title went ushering Sami Zayn, ushering Kevin Owens, um, you know, all the things that he did there. And then um, and on his retirement run, even though the immense flop of WrestleMania 41 and you know, them not following up on that stuff, Travis Scott, all of that grossness that's what it's called. I was like, I said this on my on my channel one time on TikTok. I was like, you should have known some evil shit was gonna go down in the corner, burning stage, and it's like this guy coming out, he was he was he came out smoking a butt uh like two weeks earlier or something like that. I was like, there's some there's some wild shit that's about to happen here, and then it seemed to turn heal, but it was like it set the bad president be like, why are you here in such this prominent fixture of a spot? This like this that is putting way too much stock in somebody that's not vetted and putting in that role, and it's so the scene of flop stuff was like him turning heel, it was it it was it was it was over before it started. There's pockets of things in there that I enjoyed, however, it could have been a whole lot better, and the best thing out of the retirement tour for me is when um you know doing all the callbacks, um, doing the uh you know his version of a pipe bomb, calling out Matt Cardona and uh Nick Nemeth, and they actually made the spot in the last time in the tournament. So I thought those are good things about it. I also thought that his match with uh AJ Styles was great. That was a tribute match that was like you put that you put that in a I feel about that match. I don't want to over-glaze, I know how you feel, but um I really feel like in the best way I could possibly say, even if it's not a thousand percent accurate, that match to me was like um Avengers Endgame. Literally. And you just put for me, I feel like Marvel, outside of the three uh Spider-Man movies that came out, or the two Spider-Man movies that came out post-endgame, I feel like all of that stuff should have been in a time box and don't f with it for 20 years. I feel like people can go back and look at this John Cena AJ Styles match that they had and been like, damn, this is the history of wrestling in one match. I mean, look right here, in terms of these things, right? For for that fan base. So there's been pockets of greatness in the run, but again, I do think that they've gone too far with how much they're shoehorning it and they're getting people, they're rewriting history, they're doing, they're doing the America thing. They're doing the America thing with John Cena. He's the greatest of all time. Like, huh? Like, if you were if you're young and if you're old enough, you remember who you would consider the greatest of all time is, but to this new audience, they are making sure that when they look back in the history tapes, that John Cena is the greatest of all time. That's what they're doing. I really actually want to set up a conversation in the future where we all sit here and say, who to us is the greatest? Is the great, our greatest of all time? Because I was like, man, I said that when you said I was like, I want to say Austin. He's not the best wrestler. So it's like there's too many subcategories. It's like it's like a conversation. You're talking about the best lyricist or the best, you know, is it talking about the best matte wrestler, or are you talking about the best promo? Are you talking about overall?

SPEAKER_00: 1:38:12

Is there too many, that's why you think that is the bit to it when it comes to the whole greatest of all time conversation? Because it is you have to you have to figure out and actually define what are the cat what are the classifications that need to be met for a greatest of all time. And then once we once those categories have been established, then you start plugging in for kind of thing. So however, but but I will say though, like that that that that bit that you mentioned about what Triple H said and the way that he said it's like that that that that almost changes everything that he actually said. That that almost now makes you be like, huh. He wasn't glazing him at all. He's just doing his job.

SPEAKER_02: 1:39:12

He's just being Paul McMahon. He's feeling he's doing his sonly duties, carrying out his father's wishes. Look at this going at uh it's been four years, by the way, since that story that popped up on, I think, a WrestleMania or something thing.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39:32

Now, that that does, however, open up to like one more thing I do want to note when it comes to trying to make it quick because we still gotta speed running because we literally almost had a time. Oh, well that's a good episode. I love it, I don't care. Oh yeah, because there's plenty to speed. Yes, but when when it comes to uh WWE and and and and TKO and whatnot, I just want to get your your one take when it comes to who is the person that was who you think is truly responsible for where WWE is as a whole, because you know, with the whole their in my eyes. Just one person? I would say who you think in general. Just in general. Because a lot of people say triple H is the reason why WWE's in the space and everything that's happening with WWE is going on. Because he's, you know, the people look at Triple H as the booker. But as I've come to see things and we look at how, you know, we when you look at like what the war games match that's happening, and like the people who are in the war games match are the most important people in WWE right now, uh mostly just looking from the guy's perspective because that's where they those people are the ones who are on TV the most because they make them the most money and and and that's what everyone wants to see, and they dangle them in front of you the way that they do. Right. And it's like a lot of people want to blame Triple H as being the promoter of all this, but in my opinion, has now come to the fact that I don't think Triple H is as responsible for a lot of these things as what when you look at like in government the president is because what people don't completely understand sometimes is that like yes, the president is the one that's in front and center, and he talks about the decisions. You're saying the Congress is the issue. The Congress.

SPEAKER_02: 1:41:34

Yeah, no, this is this is great. This is why talking with wrestling fans that are adults is healthy. This is why. This is why when you have people that are well versed like this, you're yeah, so and not to cut off your question, it's a great question. I only know I'm trying to you know all the things. I think that two people mainly are responsible. You're right, Triple H is the figurehead, he's the fall guy, he's the he's the he's the he's the puppet, he's the guy that's on all the posters, he's the guy that's on all the the his narration. I'm getting some of this stuff from Solomon Monster, by the way, because he has a point. Shout out to Solomon Monster sounds off. He's a part of the reason why I do uh some of the podcasting that I do. I'll tell that another story. But long story short, I think Vince McMahon, because he's the one that uh was trying to sell WWE in the first place. Um and then so when you have new ownership, that's gonna happen. And then whoever the president of TKO is, because those two those two are um one, he gave up ownership. Once you give up ownership, you're you're at the mercy of the person that you sold the stuff to. You hope to have a certain level of partnership, but then this did all his scandal stuff. And then um, you know what I mean? So he he effed a lot of things up on his way out by just being who he was. So there's that, and then there's the president of TKO that that literally went on record. I'm trying to remember, I was trying to Google his name earlier, and maybe he may not be the president of uh TKO. Uh I it's um it's not is it Mark Shapiro? I kind of hit the name of the. Yeah, well, because he's on the board. Yeah, but he's not in any case. The point that I'm trying to make is that because they're so money driven, TKO is two billion dollars in debt. They owned UFC before they did that, and they had debt before they acquired WWE. So the price gouging, um the price gouging along with some of the creative, I think Triple H is operating in the space that he can under new leadership, but because of this new era and contracting, remember, WWE talent right now, they can't really speak negatively about WWE in that way. Like it's written into the contracts. I think even they did that. Yeah, yeah, Phil Brooke, I think it was the first the first time we got wind of like, hey, you can't say anything bad, we're gonna re-sign you, but we can't have what happened last time happen again. I think that they took his contract and they kind of made it a little bit of a template in a way to where it's like even Triple H in his position, he's never gonna go on record and be like Mark Shapiro or this guy, like this is the reason why. He was he did that though when Vince was still there. He didn't directly say Vince is why all this stuff sucks, but he was taking credit for all the great ideas, and it was kind of like Dan's Vince's thing. He can't do that now with new owners because they're gonna put his ass out of a job real fast, and then they'll probably well people say they put replacement with uh Brian Gwartz and uh somebody else's like head writers and uh whatever the case may be. So I think it's Sean. Yeah, or Sean, right, but yeah, it's funny how the whole DX is running WW. You got Rodolph riding SmackDown, you got Triple H head of creative, you got Shawn Michaels running NXT, and you got Xbox. But the click is moving. Yeah, the click is Well, I like to call NXT uh NXT. Ah, Sean is just a man. I said somebody wrote a somebody wrote a comment event and said uh Mr. Hick and Bottom is something something, and I said Mr. Hick and Bottom is thinking about hitting bottoms. I mean apparently just signed this new you know talent and the first two photos was the games. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a everybody, every red-blooded heterosexual male is thanking Shawn Michaels for his good eye that he does have that looks at all these things. And that's not a shot of Sean. I'm just saying because they did the whole storyline thing and one looks, he knows he has a lazy eye. Sean is one of the greatest of all time.

SPEAKER_01: 1:45:45

Yeah, there you go. I know what it looks like. Shout out Dimension Expansion.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:51

Shout out to Lola Vice, shout out to Jaden Parker, shout out to Jay Cargo, I should thank Mark Henry for that. Shout out to uh Bianca Belair should thank Mark Henry for that too. Uh shout out to yeah, all the NXT that we're talking about, you know. Shout out, shout out to, yeah, shout out to Sean and the talent acquisition, you know. Um, but yeah, that's so that that's my thing. I think it's the owners, and then Triple H is operating under the guise that he can. Um doesn't mean that Triple H is doing everything perfectly because he, you know, but Triple H also, gosh, I gotta say this, it's been said that Triple H is um Triple H hasn't been at some of the shows. Allegedly there were pre-planned days off, but he's been uh going into more of like a behind-the-scenes political position, doing stuff with drunk and that cabinet. So for me, it's like he's he's like making his way. Like, what am I gonna do when I'm done with all this? Which is wild too, because like you know, when you look at Vince's story, he bought the company from his dad, yeah. So I was just like, okay, Hunter, yeah, family. Buy it from yeah, keep it in the family. Or, you know, and everybody keeps saying stuff about Shane, and like if he did it, I mean, at least Raw Underground was goofy, but it was in the bank. We were like it was and then there was also that thing he said he wanted to keep running ECW when they first bought it, which I really would like, you know, let's let's see how Shane would have ran ECW if you would have got Paul, and I think it would have been a good secondary product. I've been here for it. But I say off to that, is I do want to kind of, since we're kind of having to wrap things up, let's end the episode with what our takes, real quick, like speed run take of this week of wrestling, starting from Raw. And if you can say in five words or less, how good was Raw for you guys? Oh wait, this last week it wasn't Boston New York. This is the um This week's Raw was great.

SPEAKER_00: 1:48:02

That's all it is. We are setting up all Raw was settled. Settled and high Settled and High Trying to make a story out of it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:48:21

I would say it was restoring the feeling, imagine restoring the feeling of must-see TV. Because remember back in the day when we were kids, you could not miss all. You couldn't. Because going to school the next day was critical. And until if you missed it, you couldn't go back and see it, but it was just like it was must-see TV. Raw felt like must-see TV for once and a long time. It did. I I feel that I agree. I feel that and the the boss episode, but more so this one because you had they literally were like, we're gonna maximize from a business perspective, they're like, this is John Cena's last Raw. We're gonna maximize on everything possible here. We got Maxine Dupree winning the we got winning the Intercontinental Championship from Becky Lynch. You got a returning Dolph Ziggler, uh, Nick Nemeth. You got the return of Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar in the same segment. And um, what did we start off with? Uh John Cena again, and then Dominic Mysterio bossing up and getting that rematch. Then it was uh Cena, Seamus, and Mysterio doing a little bit of a throwback and the triple threat against Judgment Day. Um, you know, uh Cena pins JD McDonough, um, which, you know, JD McDonough has that accolade now as the last person to get pinned on raw by Cena. But I think J.D. McDonough, this is why I think it's all intentional. JD McDonough is a phenomenal time. I think J.D. McDonough is one of the most underappreciated people on the roster, and he should be in the mid-card space.

SPEAKER_00: 1:49:52

Bro, that back beat, man. Damn. Man, so we're saying like when we talk about when it comes to SmackDown.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50:00

US with Iliad Dragonov. And I was like, this is where he's supposed to be at. He's supposed to be in this crop. And you notice how all the Judgment Day characters came out by themselves this week. They're splitting them off. Yep. And we can't say too much about Finn Bower. Penn Balor, excuse me. Oh, we call him Pim Bower on here. That's all good.

SPEAKER_00: 1:50:16

He calls him Pim Bowler.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50:17

Pen Bower. There are others that call him Pim Bowler. He's not alone. Anyway, um, but so you say that about Raw. Yeah. How about SmackDown for you guys? I'll let him start. I gotta think about it because this was just last night, right? Yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_00: 1:50:32

SmackDown is trying to be better.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50:40

Um did anything excite me? I think it did. I feel like I gotta go back to my videos, which is bad, but it's hard to retain with so much wrestling content. I'm gonna say SmackDown was cool. Smackdown was cool. Thank you. Thank you, Charlotte, and Rhea Rick. Because getting that segment felt like when Cody bumped into Roman. No. And I was like, you know what? I love how they understood, hey, these two are supposed to hate each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we're gonna put them in a team. I like the thing. You need to specify that. The presentation I thought was great because it definitely felt like we're gonna give the women as much shine. Like, if I'm a kid coming up now, I'm looking at the women as the and on equivalence with the men. And then if I was a younger girl, it's just like, man, they're presenting these, like these are these are the biggest deals right now. And so I think that is, I think they did great for presentation when it comes to them.

SPEAKER_00: 1:51:43

Story. Story is why. Yeah. Because if they would not have acknowledged the Rhea and Charlotte and them in their past, if they would not have acknowledged it, they've been no better than anybody.

SPEAKER_02: 1:51:57

You know, I was gonna say, Willow Nightingale and Chris Statlander, please take notes. That is how you do that. Damn. Because how are you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But um, when you come, we talk about the situation of Chris Statlander and Willow Nightingale, and they apparently have this on and off beef or whatever, and then they go on the match and say, whoa, I'm your friend. It's like, why don't y'all hash this out before the match? Do you not strategize before the match? You know, that's what wrestlers do. Yeah, so did you just say I'm gonna put my gear on and just show up? No, you didn't do that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:52:29

Like, come on, like, be real.

SPEAKER_00: 1:52:32

This is this real which goes into my my feeling on the AEW. Please give me more story.

SPEAKER_02: 1:52:41

Yeah, that's your plight, is is many, and then as long as after I got my education from Manzer over here, that Tony Khan is such an NB uh NJPW fan, I don't know that that changes because his fandom is rooted in in something that is not rooted in giving you stories. So he would have to invite more people into that space, which on that interview that he did with Ariel Hawani, if you noticed, he very smartly did not name who else was in the writing room or who was booking. Tony Khan said that he's the only one that's at every show in that capacity. He alluded to there's a revolving door of people that uh help him create the things, but he wouldn't name drop. And I was I thought that that was a cool way to protect people from swarming whoever the bookers are. Yeah, because road dog, whenever the the AJ Styles and Shinsuke and Nakamura, it was like people were meaning executive producer roadog. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53:42

So that's not that was a good way. That's actually a very smart way to protect, because Lord knows they're coming for their next. And if he said the fact that they have a revolving door, he didn't say those words, but that's he alluded to it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:53:53

If you watched the interview, the second the first 38.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53:57

Because if that is the case, then it shows. Because it's like, imagine one of the ways I would almost compare AEW sometimes, it's like Dragon Ball Z when they it's Dragon Ball Z but worse when they when it comes to like recognizing past history or continuity sometimes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As much as I'm a big Dragon Ball Z fan, sometimes DBZ's continuity is a little is a little scratchy. Yeah. You know, as far as you know, like, alright, so like are these all separate universes or are they one? And AEW works in a way whereas if like there's a little bit of DBZ, but then uh uh Super and GT are like canon but not canon because they're super. Super's definitely canon. But now it is. Yeah, yeah. No, no, super is canon. Yeah. But AEW does the thing where it's like, imagine if you're watching Super, and then and then like somewhere in the middle of Super, they address something that happens in GT in GT. And you're like, huh? Or at least they're like, like, hey, uh, we're gonna make, we're gonna throw this in here so that it can link to GT, but then they turn around and be like, GT's not canon.

SPEAKER_02: 1:55:07

Yeah, you good, yeah. So like, yeah, like with the the Broly's real quick, Broly situation, they said when Broly uh turning his super whatever, it's supposed to be the equivalent of Super Saiyan 4. So they're trying to use Broly's power-up now as a way of bringing in GT because of Super Saiyan 4. I didn't hear that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:55:26

Or either they or even a more direct way is you know, they just had Dragon Ball Z Dyma. Okay? Now Dyma technically happens before, or so like it in the lineup it'd be Dragon Ball Z, Dima, then Super is how that lines up. Okay? If you were when you now they don't say that no one has claimed that Dyma is canon, but if you lined it up, diamond Dyma falls in between DBZ and Super. This sounds about as bad as the Street Fire one. Street Fire is the same way. Alpha's the first game. So, you know, so like if what happens in Dyma, since you said you have to finish, I won't say spoilers, I'm sure you've seen, but just for the sake of it, if what when when you think about what happens at the end of Dyma, and then you relate it to super, and then you're like, Well, why why why did why have that not been seen and and and talked about and why why now we know what the real answer is is because of the fact that super happened first and then they did dyma. But at the same time, there are also things that are said in dyma that and super they said happens differently. Yeah. Uh and so it and it's like things aren't there there's confusion and things aren't connecting. Sure, if you watch it just straight objectively, AEW is a great show to watch. If you're just watching it purely from wrestling standards, this is a great show. But when you're like, well, let me look at why is uh Samoa Joe fighting Hangman?

unknown: 1:57:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:57:14

Wait, because he shoved the belt in it, but but weren't they just helping each other to fight? Samoa Joe broke his, almost broke his neck to make sure that he could win that belt that he now says he does not deserve and shouldn't be the chair. But if you didn't think he deserved, why then would you literally risk breaking your whole net and it just starts falling apart?

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:41

I will I will end the episode with this. Because you talked about just now that AEW is a great space for watching wrestling. I will say I have been getting extremely hyped for watching New Japan because it gives that feeling. I was I was telling him earlier where when you're watching New Japan, there's not the omega 10,000 finishers that are happening in the product. Oh man. I've been watching matches where the finishes have been like a Boston crowd, a figure four, a singular power arm, a power driver, or even a clothesline. But these are the moves where you see it, it's like, ooh, yeah, that should have took him out. And not like I need to do a this and do this and then hype the crowd. No, and then plus I am an audio guy. I do love the way the New Japan ring sounds when they slam people. It shit sounds like it hurts. So yeah, it doesn't sound like there's a whole lot of give to it at all. It sounds like it hurts. Yeah. It sounds like it hurts a lot so much. But I say that is if you have the opportunity, as if you were just watching the product just to watch the wrestling, maybe pick up a match or two for New Japan right now. Um, they are currently doing what they call the uh World Tag League, where the winner of the tag league is the opportunity of facing the tag team champions at uh Brussels Kingdom, which is in January, right? Yes, and that's when uh Japanese John Cena was that to catch up. Oh, okay. Well, because he basically he's the most positive character, and uh his whole thing is where John Cena used to rap, he does air guitar. So that's okay. Um is the shining light of New Japan as uh WWE shining light. So it's interestingly, currently they're both having their uh uh retirement. Oh wow, okay, yeah. Lots of wrestling retirements happening. I think, yeah, Cena's on his Tom Brady, uh, and like he's on his Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant run, and I think it's um a lot of people are gonna be uh trying to emulate it, which kind of sucks. It's like it's not gonna be the same. Next year AJ Styles last year. We got uh Cody. Um no, excuse me, not Cody. Um I know that's the main one. JD Cho is it, uh Fanny Dangle said he's retiring. I mean Tech is not one of the things he's retiring. Okay. Um I know that I know uh I know uh Punk, I know he mentioned he didn't say when, but it's like that crop, there's like you have you hear murmurs of these people like I'm thinking about hanging up soon, they see John walking away early. So he's gonna set like a certain precedent of like, you know, people are gonna wanna follow, yeah, it's time, you know. So um that's again, and this is why, again, taking his advice and talking about watching New Japan, this is why for me as a as a wrestling fan that's been around since '99. Um I take joy in being a part of watching new local dope talent come up. Like uh, uh I want to shout this, I want to shout these people out real quick. Uh Elias AK47. Um, dope heel, young heel in the industry right now. If you see any of his stuff, I think he's great checking out. Destin is another dope one, Tiny Tiny. Um, obviously you have um, oh my gosh, I should know this because he's the champion. Uh Mikey Spandex. Um, he's dope. Um and you have a lot of just, there's a lot of, if you love wrestling and you're pissed at what you're seeing on TV, there's stuff that you don't have to be pissed at. That's all I'm saying. So get into your community and try to see who's got wrestling going on there. And if they don't, just watch some other not as popular products like he's talking about with NWPW. I do need to apologize. It's uh um Tanahashi, not Tonoskay, the catchment. Yeah, I was yeah, Tanahashi. But um, but yes, no, that that is currently going on. So, yes, uh, we want to first off thank you for being able to be here with us. Because originally he wasn't supposed to be here, he was gonna be occupied with something else. So he was like, Yeah, you have to do the pod, and uh we was gonna have uh another guest we had a story, but he works pretty much as heavy as all of us do. So I was like, you know what, it'd be a great opportunity to connect because we uh we've been you know looking at your content, and you know, every once in a while I think we've shared it too. So it's like, you know what? Let's let's go ahead and see if we can start creating partnerships with other people, especially since you're local. Yeah, why not? So you know, it and I say, you know what, let me extend the out branch. Man, I appreciate that, man. It's uh it's a pleasure, man. You guys are great. Um, thank you for having me. Um, yeah, I didn't even know you guys were sharing the algorithm in social media is weird now. And it's so um I have no idea, but that's that makes me I know that people see it. People say things, but they don't people see things, but they don't always say things. So the fact that you guys thought that I had enough content that was quality or interesting enough to share, I very much appreciate it. So thank you and shout out to what you guys have built. I'm gonna get to a point where I get my logo, my microphone stuff, you know. Um I'm I'm still building, but it's happening. No, I mean that's the same thing for us, because we mean like even if you didn't have a huge audience, it was just like let's clap, let's especially as other, you know, black wrestling fans, or just wrestling fans in general, we all are trying to get into the space where we can talk about wrestling as passionately as these other people, like Russell Lane, you know, Russell Tall, Johnny, you know, Jim Cornet, and make a living of talking about the thing that we've been brought up on, and we have so much history in, yeah, and give our own opinions. And that's what someone is, and the best way to do that is networking. That's it. That's it, man. It's been a pleasure, man. We're gonna this won't be the last time that we connect. Absolutely not. Oh no, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_00: 2:03:36

It's what I said in the very, very beginning when we first started doing the first time. You're a guest. After this, you know what a fridge is.

SPEAKER_02: 2:03:44

So, so we had this runny thing real quick. Uh, where apparently I'm Undertaker, he's came, and then my friend's story is Paul Barron. He's our Paul Baron.

SPEAKER_00: 2:03:54

So you have to think of something to do. Now listen, uh I'm gonna let him see. Okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01: 2:04:10

I'm gonna put it on the spot.

SPEAKER_00: 2:04:12

Yeah. Just just in general, because I'll be honest, I like I will good guy Kofi is where I was gonna put you at. Ah. Like real heavyweight, world heavyweight. Kofi mania. Yeah, Kofi Mania Kofi is where I would put you. Wow.

SPEAKER_02: 2:04:28

Okay. But that's that's just me. Okay. I mean, I I understand it. I do, I do, because I am again, oh you know, more of the positivity, things like that. I just I try not to speak overly negatively about things in general because I just there's a lot to be angry at in life in general. And I was like, wrestling is one of the only spaces where it's like it's a consistent joy, even if things are bad, it's like it's just it's consistent enough for me to be like, this is my happy place, and I don't want my happy place to turn into a not happy place. That's it. There's something about wrestling where you can just turn it on and just let go. And I love how granted my wife, she's she's not, she is a wrestling fan because she's watched it from her younger years, and she can literally not even know the storyline and be like, so what's going on? I want to watch, and she could just get lost in it. And that's just what wrestling does for us. We get lost in these stories. So um I say thank you again for coming here. Please let everybody know again where they can find you. Yeah. More about yourself. Perfect, wonderful. Again, my name is Mr. McKinnon. I'm always winning. Um, you can find me on all social platforms at main event mindset. That's on TikTok. And YouTube Shorts, you're gonna get the most consistent content. Um, on YouTube, I do shoot my podcast episodes uh intermittently. You'll see those uploaded. You'll see the shorts uploaded on TikTok as well. Um, yeah, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, main event mindset. Um we are uh streaming on all podcasts. So if you look up Main Event Mindset on where podcast streams, you'll get me. Um the episodes are typically short, like 30 minutes, anywhere between 30 to 45 at most. Um and then yeah, if you if you don't see anything there, I'm going to be on TikTok. You will find me on TikTok and YouTube Shorts for sure. Yeah. So yeah. It's interesting you say that because our podcast is way longer. Our episode's like an hour and 30, if not 45. Because you guys shoot it. I have to, I work with other people. When everything is independent, then I have a little bit more wiggle room and I'd like to start doing more evergreen content too, where I'm uh not just talking about the current product but the history of certain things so that way stuff can continue to build up.

SPEAKER_00: 2:06:37

And um and also, please, I was gonna say earlier the fact of please continue talking about the the positive things that are in wrestling. We'll we'll handle all that other stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 2:06:50

I mean, we're the yin in the yang. Yeah, you need you need a balance.

SPEAKER_02: 2:06:54

You gotta have people saying that how it is. I mean, I think I you know, I just what I what I'm also careful about is that if these people end up becoming my peers, it's like starting off on a bad foot where it's just like, oh yeah, you saw the shit about me for 15 years before we met each other. I mean, there's a lot of people that have done that in the industry, and then they'd be like, well, let me hear your opinions, why, rather than behind the camera or something like that. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, shoot, look at look at uh Paul and um see and punk is a perfect example. They hate each other's guts, they're poor now. Yeah, maturity and growth. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I I I can't take more chances, um, but the whole game episode for me. If you want to hear me like shoot straight all the time, that episode, and then I got some I got some I got some smoke for WWE in this last episode, too. So uh so yeah, yeah. But we everybody can get it. Yeah. You know, as a street province, we all want the smoke. But we want to definitely say thank you guys so much. Please uh choke slam that like button, tune stone the subscribe button, because we will be here every week with a new episode. Uh, because it's it's no screen. My apologies. The ending is uh because the ring is sacred, the questions are real, the destruction is guaranteed.

SPEAKER_00: 2:08:11

It's the Masakusa, and it's your boy, Swag Switcher in the building. Also, before you close out, I just want to also point this out because it's the it's just the the the the geek in me. I I like how we kind of got the the the sonic shadow and knuckles of adult nerds for the win, man.

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:32

I think the colors are I mean the colors are a little skewed as well.

SPEAKER_00: 2:08:35

I'm the knuckles guy. I'm usually the the sonic guy, however, when it comes to where we're at, I probably should have been the shadow and you would have kept the knuckles in this particular case because you you definitely have the sonic energy going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fine. Hey, you know, it's a positive option.

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:52

Yeah, yeah. I try to do, man. There's a low lot of negativity and hate and ugliness in the world. I'm like, they gotta be balanced from somewhere. They gotta be balanced from somewhere. That's all it is. So as uh Top 10 will say, keep on rolling.