You are now listening to the UK and the world's favorite wrestling podcast. Party and wrestling with your host Andy and Emma. Here we go. There we go.
Isn't it easy why you used to get on this chair around me? There are four. These chairs are for the local. We need to invest.
Oh no. We'll take it out in a holiday fund. Just go in and learn from them. I've been waiting for them for about 24 hours since the last time.
I feel like we've been on this a lot. Oh the podcast. What was it like? 24 hours since we've been on the whole day.
Yes. Yeah, we were podcasting definitely like 24 hours ago. Yeah, because it was like, I finished it like that. I've won.
Yeah, it's fun. So thanks for people who have watched that. We'll listen to that already and send us some messages about it. It was very fun and highly.
Not necessarily recommend you go and listen to our review, but I recommend that you go and watch us on any one if you've not seen it. Don't think there's many people that want to see. People our age might have just seen like highlights and things. You don't quite get how it started until you kind of watch that.
I agree. I think if you do go back and watch it, I'd like to hear what you think. Because even though we've already done our discussion of it, we'll still read out people's thoughts on the next retro of like looking back. If you've got anything to say about it, then that was no.
Yeah, definitely more read about it. It's how you do it. Cheers, by the way. I know you're not counting.
It's not going to make a good cut out on it. A can and a glass. Yeah, wait a minute. Awful, awful.
There you go. Loved it. Use the vape if you don't. I am having a glass of wine or two or three because this podcast goes on a while.
I can guarantee you might go on a very long time. There's a lot to talk about. I'm fine. It's day two of four day bank holiday weekend.
We've got zero plans, which is cool. So a little lazy one. How will you? Because I always forget.
So I'll have to get that in there quick. That's all right. I'm all right. I'm still buzzing after watching WrestleMania 1.
Just been consuming a lot of wrestling related content today. Whether it be podcasts or watching stuff. I'm very excited for Scour Genesis tomorrow, which is silly really because nothing's going to change, I don't think. There's one potential shock, which is maybe a new member of the Kingdom, Osprey's group.
I've got a mystery partner. Obviously he's in the main event against Abushi, which can't be anything but ridiculous. So that starts like 9am UK times. I'm going to hopefully get these nicely tonight so I can get up and watch that.
I'm really excited for that. I think it just kind of kicks off the whole, not that this particular emphasis on things like WrestleMania or standing deliver, which I only just realized like an hour ago before we were coming on. It's like, oh, yeah, Wednesday is standing a little bit. I'll talk about standing deliver, even though I've watched very minimal things and only the next two.
Yeah, so it's take over Sunday and deliver over two nights. The Wednesday night is, and we'll talk maybe talk about how it's stacked towards the Wednesday night. It isn't behind that. Just as a side note, do you think that's a better name for an XT UK show?
Because of the Ad-A-Man. Yeah, the Ad-A-Man thing. It sounds like a British takeover. It sounds like a British takeover.
If it was in London, if it was in XT London, it would be a great name. Yeah, definitely. Totally right. I think the reason why they've done it is because of the pirate theme.
Oh, okay. So that's stuff. But again, it's a British thing against pirates or, you know, yeah. It just would work really well for a UK show, guys.
I think it would work really well for a lot of people. Yeah, I know. I'm really looking forward to watching it. I'm looking forward to NXT TakeOver because I think some of them are actually on it.
I'm kind of glad that I've not watched it. But I do think maybe tonight I'm going to go back and watch the last couple of episodes because quite a few different places now is the last two episodes have been particularly good. Not amazing. But they've had some really great sort of build-ups.
I think it seems a bit harder to keep up with because Raw and Smackdown, obviously, you know, I listen along with you sometimes, but you listen to Alvarez and it kind of Raw and Smackdown gets broken down. So you can sort of, and obviously there's top 10s and I know they do like NXT videos. It's a lot easier to passively know what's going on on the main show. But then NXT sort of like, I'm just completely clueless.
I've seen literally the odd thing. I don't even know, like, I don't know what Dexter Lumis is doing. I've got an easy- if he's still in it, I presume so, because I think he's a virgin name mentioned in passing. But it's, yeah, I feel like I need to get a bit older speed of what the fuck is going on.
Yeah, and I've just copied and pasted the two nights because if we're honest, like, you know, yes WrestleMania will have 25,000 fans there. A lot of them will be comps, so a lot of them will be celebrities that are sitting around the ring because they can't sell them tickets. Yeah. But NXT is always the wrestling show.
And so regardless of what I think of the actual product at the moment and how much they're pissing around, you know, they've kind of done a lot over the last couple of weeks that have been good. But again, I've not seen that, so I can't comment on that. But I will go back and kind of watch it. Because it's a shame because we used to do like really great, like, prediction shows.
And I did really enjoy the prediction shows and getting people involved. Like, today I've kind of tweeted, you know, what do you think of standing deliver? Is there anything that not really got a response? So I think quite a lot of people are feeling the same.
It's just a bit, yeah. Because of other things where it's AWS, where it's New Japan, where it's Arrow Age, whatever it is you're into. But yeah, I think the next couple of weeks are going to be really good, just regardless of how they do stuff. So watch obviously watch the AWS.
Viewer shaped wise, it did pretty badly. But the show itself was Ace. I thought that's some really great moments. But the Christian, because Harry Mafr is great.
Lucha Bros on the Raider Kid versus the Maker of the Good Brothers. Give me every week if you want to. The Inner Circle return was just amazing. So great.
It's really funny. Really funny. Really funny. Oh god.
I mean, it's got to be leading some more games for me. I think everyone is genuinely across all the wrestling shows is fatigued by the lack of crowd now. And I think that is reflected. And I know I've said it before, but I think it's across the board.
It's everybody. Because it is quite trying to watch some of the shows sometimes. Not AW for me, but I think if you're a passing fan, if they were in a full arena and you switch the channel on, you keep watching. There's loads of people cheering.
I think if you turn it on and there's nobody there, I'll just very few people there. I don't know. It's just easy to change the channel. If you're not a fan, you know, there'll be quite a lot of passive wrestling fans that will just dip in and out.
I don't know. I just think that the times come hopefully, and I do even hope all of the viewership just gets across everything when it's full again and there's that noise of the crowd when you pop the channel off. Oh, I was getting that. That's where I was.
That's why I still bought all three words. I was like, oh my God, I'm going to burst into the song. It's going to be cheesy moment. Yeah, I hope so as well.
Because Raw is not doing very well. Smackdown is not doing very well. And in the grand scheme. Yeah.
In the grand scheme of things, it's like, well, you know, they're still getting like 1.8, 1.9 million. It's still a lot of viewers. But the quality's really low. There's more people bitching about the show than not.
Like what you've said with these viewing figures are right, you know, because they can't. They don't have a definitive way of finding it out. So what's real and what's spinning and just before we move on and I know we're going to go on a tag. It's probably early to be going on a tangent.
It's never too early to go on a tangent. So I know there's obviously a lot that said and a lot of people, you know, like, again, you know, to reference the Brian Alvarez comment of if everyone's been really honest with themselves, do we to be the quality of the product that they're putting out considering the quality of the roster is so great, is pretty poor. But do you think the quality of what they're doing story-wise and with people was better in like 2011, 2012 when we were watching it for, because it wasn't to me. I just don't think it was that good.
I think they had John Cena and that was a big deal. And NXT was right, like just coming up as a brand that was really pushing and pushing. But like the show itself, we've come back and watched it's dog shit. I mean, it's hard because...
But we enjoyed ourselves. Yeah, and now it's all-majable. Which is why I don't understand why it's so bad now. I genuinely can't put my finger on it because I'm looking back on 2012, you know, and Ziggler's coming out with AJ and fucking Biggie.
And it's just all a bit poor and that whole like John Cena in the hotel room with AJ, you know, the women's story lines are terrible. Like the men's a crap as well. You know, it's just a bit... it's just incredibly dull.
It's like, why is it now unwatchable? Because at least now they've got talented people there, like more so. I think for me, the reason why I've stopped, because I've watched like one episode of NXT, I think, in the last six months. And I thought it was okay, you know, for those reasons.
But for NXT it's more aesthetic. So it's the banging on the glass. And this is just me personally. You know, what, what, I...
the reason why I've switched off. You know, the banging on the glass, it's the kind of weird kind of punk rock aesthetic. You know, they've always had a bit of a meadow punk rock mentality. But they seem to be really leaning into that at the moment.
And I just think it makes it look a bit cheap. But that doesn't necessarily, you know, and this is the thing, like most of the things that I say, you know, people who watch it all the time and enjoy it and disagree, they're not wrong. It's just my personal feeling on it. So that's NXT.
The issue with Raw specifically is there's no, I'm trying to think of the words carefully because I don't want to come across as like an AW Mark. But I, what we kind of said on the WrestleMania show last night, was if I want to watch quality wrestling, this is right now. This is the decision that I've made like literally last night. If I want to watch quality wrestling, I'm going to watch AW and I'm going to watch New Japan.
Do I think AW does great storylines as well? Yes, I do. And I think the cohesion is great and they do long term pay offs. Everything's a slow burn, which sometimes is good, sometimes is bad.
But you can't have everything can be a slow burn. Like I saw an article a couple of weeks ago about on Teasing Sting. And like me, a new stage up to watch that, Winter is coming show. And the whole thing with the sting revealed now, like TNC, like you can never do that again.
Which is really frustrating. So like, you know, Alvarez said it weeks ago. Jericho said it on his new podcast with Christian, which I really enjoyed. I think Christian is just a really nice guy.
And everybody just seems to like love him as a wrestler wise. They all love him. And he adds it. He's told the story.
And of course, you know, you can take it with the pinch of someone and somebody says it out of their own mouth. But when Christian turned up and he was hiding in the back on a revolution, you know, he's talking to Cody. And he's like, oh, how are you doing Cody? And they're just like having a chat.
And Cody's like, I don't think you quite understand how big of a deal it is for you to be here. And he was like, oh, thanks man. Like, you know, not really knowing what he meant. And he's like, no, I don't mean it from like a show standpoint.
He's like me and you as in Cody and him. We grew up watching Hogan and Andre the Giant and Matt German. And you know, and his dad, you know, just he runs all that kind of stuff. This locker room grew up watching you and watching Jericho.
I think you're watching me. You grew up watching you and Jericho and Big Show. So it's a fucking huge deal this that you're here. You don't really think about it.
You know, and he said when he walked through, he was like Eddie Kingston was like all over him. Just asking him stuff and like trying to pick his brain. And he was like Eddie Kingston's amazing. And Jericho's like, where the fuck is this guy been?
Like, he's like, if I knew of him and he was like this standard. Yeah, he was like, I would be onto Vince and been like, you got a fucking look at this guy. And he's like, yeah, he's like a 20 year veteran. He's like, just never been given his break.
And he's like, well, there's loads of people in A to B like that. I've watched him the blade, him, you know, we've never like signed TV deals and shit. And that was really interesting. But he said on that podcast that TNT after the sting reveal was really angry with him.
It was the first time he got angry feedback from from TNT. Yeah. And he's like, and I understand that the TNT mentality because there was no reason to do that surprise other than to do the surprise. Now, I think it was amazing.
Absolutely. And like, he popped me out in the chair, popped you out in the chair, but there was no crowd there, really. You heard the crowd losing it. But it was only December.
And obviously, I don't think you're a sting what I get going on. But could you have waited for the crowd? Could you have waited till? I mean, obviously nobody knew when we would all be back to normal or whatever.
Or could you have waited for the crowd to get that? Who knows? But because it was in the works for like 12 months, so it wasn't like it was a month and then Sting just came out. Obviously, he's deal got done really quick, but they were trying to do it for a long time.
So TNT gives him the feedback of don't do any more surprises. We're here to get viewers. And that's the problem. That's the problem that you're dealing with.
So because of that, they can't really do any of this shit anymore. And I forgot what the original point was. Well, we were talking about why WWE is worse now when you were saying, if you're going to watch wrestling, you're changing in Japan. Sorry.
It's not an engine. So yeah, so if I want to watch high quality wrestling, I'm going to watch New Japan. If I want to watch high quality wrestling, our storylines to it, I'm going to watch AEW. When I want to be entertained, I want to watch WWE because they have got the best people, arguably.
They've got loads of people that I like, but for some for their own fault at the moment, I'm completely turned off to the product. And they've got the biggest stage and the biggest platform. And WrestleMania when it's in an stadium is so impressive and Royal Rumble is so impressive. And all this kind of shit is like, it's cool.
It's even at its worst. You know, because we can say, you know, the WrestleMania we went to see wasn't a great show. However, there was loads of moments within that show. But I really enjoyed when I was being there.
I enjoyed cheering the Miz against Cena. I was laughing when people were booing Cena's proposal. I was laughing at that. The Hardys return, even though it was ruined for us, was still fantastic to be a part of that.
You know, things like the Jets flying overhead. There were so many things that were great about that show. Even though it wasn't necessarily a great show. It was just the WrestleMania.
But WrestleMania is still great. You know, it's not, you know, you're there for all the fireworks and you're there for it. I don't think anyone would ever come away from it. And even if it was a particularly poor year.
I don't think you come away from it, not having, having had a great time being there. I think the only time you would is if you went every year. Yeah. If you went every year and you were really critical about it, you know, then you can say one's worse than the other or whatever.
But it's still a WrestleMania. For a lot of people, it's kind of a once every five, ten year job. All lifetime. Yeah, all lifetime.
If you go at all. Because, you know, when I know the inflate the figures, but 90,000 people isn't a lot of people. As opposed to what, who are watching it. So you've got like at the moment, you've got 2 million people roughly watching more, 2 million people roughly watching Smackdown.
You know, say 2 million fans in the US. That's a lot of people who would probably want to go to a WrestleMania. You know, if you're a kid, if you're like 10 or something and you're seeing these adverts consistently, because they can't help but consistently advertise to you. You've seen all these adverts from WrestleMania, especially if you're based in Tampa, or you're just in Florida and you're like, Mum, Dad, can we go to WrestleMania?
It's like, no, we're in a pandemic and we don't have the money. So there's a lot, there's a lot of that goes into that kind of thing as well. But the issue with WWE at the moment, I know I've talked quite a long time to get there, is coherence. There is no, there's no thought whatsoever, it seems, that's put into these shows.
Everything's, and you take the riddle thing, you know, which I said on last night's show, but if anyone didn't listen to that one, is the Matt Riddle thing from Monday, where he forgot his line of words off. He made it look like it was live, but it wasn't live. It was a pre-taped interview segment, which he did three or four times, and Vince saw the outtake and thought it was hilarious. And I thought, I thought that story was really funny.
I think it's really funny, however, it completely, it completely shows them of what they do at the moment. It's fly by the city of Pans. You know, you shouldn't be, I don't know, you've got to check things and you've got to watch them and you'll check for cuts and all that kind of stuff. And I appreciate that.
But you shouldn't be changing your show on the day of the show every week. You shouldn't be going into it with one idea and coming out of that meeting with a completely new idea. Because, you know, I understand why they want to change, and I've kind of stuck up for Vince in the last couple of weeks, saying it's not his fault. And I do still believe that, despite what people say, I don't think it's solely Vince's portfolio.
I agree, because I don't think it would get magically better if he suddenly wasn't there. This is what I'm thinking. And I know it's going to change radically, isn't it? Because the network's designed.
Like the Observer guys and some of the podcasts I was listening to say it's going to, you know, Vince and Bruce Richard needs to step aside, and then we'll see if it gets any better. And they're quite adamant that he will get to him better when Vince is not in the picture. But I don't think it will, because they're already giving up for Vince stepping down. Because, but Stephanie and my mum pretty recently did an interview where she, the astra about what's going to happen when Vince eventually steps down.
So, and they don't really have to talk about that shit, but then she would talk about it as like, well, you know, who can fill the shoes of Vince McMahon? Nobody can fill the shoes of Vince McMahon. So it'll be like a committee, and there'll be more people who can make the final decision, and then it won't get better because you won't have. They won't have a bit of, you know, if you've got to pass something through five people rather than one, it's going to get even worse.
I agree. I think it will get more diluted. What the end product will be so safe and risk free. Yeah, but I don't even mind that because A.W.
doing fucking great shit for me. New Japan should have been from a pure wrestling side of it doing great shit. So I don't need to watch, you know, because AJ Styles, you know, we've been talking about AJ Styles for like years now, has been like an amazing worker and such a great wrestler. And he's gone to WWE because he's kind of in the Swilighter his career and whereas Christian's gone the other way, AJ went there when he was a bit older, but then he's been there for years now.
But that'll probably be where AJ Styles will retire and why not? But I don't now. I don't need AJ Styles to have like a 40 minute crazy shinske in like a more match like he had in New Japan. All I need from AJ Styles is a 10 minute match and something that's entertaining.
I want to say entertainer don't mean like stupid shit where the weather doing like stupid storylines and this karaoke and I don't mean that. I still mean within the confines of wrestling, but there's no cohesion whatsoever. Look at the hurt business. I had it and I got rid of it today because there's all the things to talk about.
But I had the taste of talking about fucking breaking the hurt business on. Oh, yeah, just saying why the fuck would you break the hurt business up? And the only reason why is because he thought Lashley had get cheered. That's the only reason.
So you've literally kicked two guys to the curb and then you've introduced Baron Corbin to make sure that Lashley's going to get booed. To the point where MVP goes and Twitter says Baron Corbin is not part of the hurt business because everyone was like, but he was though because that was the plan. And this is the problem is they can't stick to the guns. This is what really fucking pisses me off about them because on Raw and I've heard it because I've watched the fucking highlights on Raw, they fuck off and they're doing something at the end of something the highlight just started when Baron Corbin came in and took out McIntyre MVP says on commentary, this is the hurt business.
Like Corbin was the new member. Right? The massive backlash and fallout from it has meant that now MVP's gone on Twitter and said Baron Corbin's not part of the hurt business. So we've got a tape Raw this week that they taped last week.
So now they can't do anything with that. You can edit it and they can change it around. So do you reckon Corbin was part of the hurt business in that pre-taped thing? That's what I think.
But in this week, so Corbin's not going to just come out because if he does that completely shows the point that I'm making, your Corbin comes out and does this big finger and he's standing tall with Lashley in the end. So I think MVP says this is the hurt business and Corbin's with him and it's to get cheap heat so that they guarantee that these 25,000 fans, because Lashley and the hurt business have been the best thing on the show for months. So Lashley doesn't get cheered. So McIntyre gets his moment of fans cheering for WrestleMania.
Who fucking cares? Who cares? Well they care enough to think, well we can't have that. So we'll split the group up.
That's the issue. The issue is the fucked up edge to the point where he's complete. I know Edge, heel edge is the best edge and he's gone full heel now. Like on SmackDown you went fucking crazy.
You've got the best edge. But you would have seen the best face edge if the Ana fucks him up and they've absolutely fucks him up to the point where nobody gives a shit about Edge Reigns main event. So the after she went on Daniel Bryan in there to try and boost it because it is the main event of WrestleMania. It's the main event of 9-2.
And Edge's main event is WrestleMania before. So it's not, no skin off his nose because all three of them are fucking main event, especially Reigns. But how do you fuck up Edge? And this is the issue.
Kevin Owens, he has six months program of Roman Reigns where he gets screwed out the title in the end and he's having a singles match with Sami Zayn which obviously on paper. But he's having a single match with Sami Zayn where they have to bring in Logan Paul. Why the fuck is it? Why, you know, that's not the type of entertainment I'm talking about.
The type of entertainment I'm talking about is a long, cohesive story. Yeah, just some consistency. Exactly. And some planning and not this constantly flipping around because it doesn't even make sense.
It doesn't make sense for like, as an entertainment show, but it doesn't make sense for the characters' point of view. It's like the characters start becoming non-formed people. They're just like husks. It's like they're just like whatever whatever's needed to happen to get viewers that week, that character completely changes and it's like, well, that's hard to get behind anybody when they keep changing.
Anyway, I'm glad I asked that question. Yeah. That's what we thought of the inner circle. We certainly didn't.
And obviously, it was the main event as well. It was just the arcade anarchy which was min. Well, we said that a couple of weeks ago, so I'm going to say about the commentators. And yeah, they had two surprises in that.
So I wonder if TNT are going to be a little bit. They won't be asked. They're only asked when it's someone like Sting. Because that will have, because if it's shocked, because they're the thing that will look, no in business, the way I know business.
And I know at a very small scale, nobody likes to be surprised. And TNT won't know. And that'll be what pisses them off. It won't be that they did a big surprise, or we didn't tell us.
And that'll annoy them because it's like, you work for us and you didn't even tell us. They won't even, they'll have a point where we need to sell it. But the thing that will smart them the most is they never knew. They didn't even know.
So they weren't even consulted or asked about, listen, we would quite like to make this a surprise. We went to his coming, we wouldn't love it. And I'll bet you, any more, TNT would have come around and gone, okay, thanks for letting us know. It's not ideal because we want the ratings, but we understand your vision.
So I'm telling you, they weren't informed. And that's why they were upset about it. Yeah, because they've not got any saying what goes on on the actual show. But they can comment on it afterwards.
So if something that's like lauded as a success by the wrestling fans, you know, some, I'm not interested in people who have fucking WWE marks, you say it's shit for no fucking reason, because you watch the show that makes no sense of Jock on. But from the fans who I think were going to play a mind could see that was a really good debut of seeing not done too much with him. Obviously the tape's much was fantastic and he wasn't on this way. But he'll be on it next week when Darby Owens defended his TNT title again.
For them the network to say, listen, listen, you don't do this again. How many times do we have that conversation with them? Oh my God, it will be so much. It will be so.
There's nothing worse for executives than a bruised ego and not being told something that big will bruise the ego. They're not being asked about like random people showing up or returns, but when it's someone like Sting, who they've got history with his network, that will hurt him because they're like, well, he's coming home to us. It's not starting with you. He's coming to us.
So it's our story too. It's our PRPs as well. But now after the fact, we can do anything PR wise about what a big thing it is for us to have him. So that's why the Christian thing will have been so and that to me, the Christian thing is to me, AEW, give it a bit of a middle thinker.
All right, one announcement will over egg this hood in big time. That's why they said Big Show was announced and then Big Show announced an announcement for a paid figure. Yeah, I think that that was them going, is this what you'd prefer? And then they'll probably go back and go, all right, we can meet in the middle here, considering we've got a bit of backlash on.
That's not a bad point. I think so. I think it was a deliberate move of like, okay, you don't, so we'll over announce it. We'll talk about it everywhere.
We'll go in coming now. What do you want? Yeah, yeah. Because, and they will go back, I know I'm massively speculating, but I would bet my bottom dollar that they would go back and present back to TNC and go look at the amazing reception we had to sting on social media and look at how much we got trashed.
Yeah, it's a really good point now. So what do you want? It's really good. There's got to be, we have to meet in the middle here when we actually have these big ideas and you understand we have to keep them secret because they leak.
So what do you want us to do? Because there's definitely a midpoint there where they're still, that's, I would imagine that situation is still consensual in the air because of the vast difference between sting and Christian in how it was handled and it looks very deliberate. So I think it's really a bit of a point because Twitter did go, you know, it divided Twitter, whereas the sting thing, it was trending the day after all day. We said if they did the same thing with Christians, they did a mistake where it was just a shock sort of run out on dynamite, then it would have done great.
I mean, if it was me, you know, big show, that's fine to announce before and because he's been a commentator and he'll wrestle every now and again and all that kind of stuff. But for Christian, if they'd have just done a thing where like, you know, because he was good to go, like he didn't need to wait that long. He could have had the match with his area on, on Revolution, but you know, he comes out on dynamite, you know, literally the week before the pay for being to end the show and does that spot that you did with Omega. And then it's like, by the way, on Revolution, Christian's going to be on it as well.
And then it would have been a completely different story. It wouldn't have been, oh, is the rock because they even mentioned that on the podcast, where they were like, oh, people thought it was going to be the rock or John Cena. And that's the problem. And I do think that because there's nothing, nothing is petite than PR and marketing, like it's a petite, a cinderella street you can possibly be in.
And I do think that they, it's a short sighted scalding from TNC's point of view, an AW will work to tell them, listen, this is about long term storytelling. We got over on social media, everybody was talking about AW and we've only been around a year. And these like spikes in viewership aren't going to happen. Like, if it was like, Sting, next week, yeah, people would have probably watched, but I would argue that there were a lot of people that would then get on social media and start conversations going, it was not going to wrestle.
So his whole career in AW would have been mapped out before you can set foot on stage. And it would have been like, oh, what's the fucking point? Oh, they're signing all the old guys. And it would have just, why?
Whereas it was all positive reaction when they did it their way. And I'm hoping that the bill, the case and they've got two cases in point of please trust us. It will translate, we're a year old. So stop with your fucking spikes in ratings because this will come in time.
You've got to trust us. And you've signed us for a new three year deal. One more story telling. And that's why I like long term stuff.
There's nothing, like I said before, slow burns are slow burns. But yeah, we'll leave it there without it because... Sorry, I went off on one. No, no, I hope I'm not off on one now.
We can talk about WWE and we will get on to WWE again later on in sort of blue in the face. But yeah, Axel J Mo's tweet was saying that the main event was great, the women's spot was great. It's that long term doing like a mission, okay, driver through the hockey table on the edge with Penelope Ford. Yeah, I like that.
I like that main event. I thought it was brilliant. Like mixing it up, it was like action, popping at all angles. It was a little wonder it was the main event because they have so much going on.
And you might have changed the main event so frequently. Because if you look at that and you think, right, you know, you've got the lucha bros and lorado kid against Omega and the good brothers. You instantly think that's going to be the main event straight away. And then you've got next week is Omega and the good brothers against Moxley in the young books.
You think that was the main event every time, but it probably won't be. But then the ones they put in the main event are having, you know, it's like this revolving door of different people in the main event. And they're having these like high quality matches like Thunderoza, Britt Baker. Well, that's what you have to do.
And that's the argument you go back to the network is we're in the business of actually not just saying we create stars to WWE. We are actually trying to create stars and it's going to be massively reductive if we keep putting the same people in the main event over and over again because it doesn't help those people. Because those people who are in the main event aren't going to be around forever. Or they might want to have a year off and be fully entitled to, but then we need people who are going to sell the show.
Yeah, and they've had loads of different people in the main event spot where they called it the main event. You've had John Silver and Darby Allen, you've had, you know, best friends and Miro and Kip Sabian. You know what I was saying? Like they weren't doing enough for Miro.
Miro will come out like a fucking beast in this match. Yeah, you know, he's beating all three of them up at one point. And yeah, you know, Trank makes his return and kind of gets his own back. And then the, you know, the pinning Kip some sure Kip Sabian is going to get it pretty soon.
But it was just great. And it's again, you know, reintroducing Trent and Chris Staland the restars. They're in the main event. They're coming back at the main event.
And then, you know, they kind of give it away, which was a bit of a shame. But I, because I, you know, just watched it without looking at Twitter or anything and didn't notice it, but then went and re-watched it again. And when, you know, obviously playing the Pixie Song and coming out, an alien face comes up. And it's like, oh, you know, there was loads of people on Twitter that was like, oh, Chris Staland just coming back then.
It was much. And he's like, she did. Yeah, it's a bit of a silly thing to do. But I mean, her pushing the plexiglass thing out of that game and smashing it into her face like it was harsh as fuck.
It was highly effective, weren't it? Oh, definitely. But yeah, no, it was absolutely great. One of the best AWs that they've done in, you know, since they've been going, you know, dynamite for me is just, it's perfect.
They shouldn't mess around with it. Yeah, yeah, well, I'm going to say perfect. You know, they don't mean, like, they come to do things better. But, you know, it's just, it's a great wrestling show and I really enjoy watching it.
And it's probably got in the news. I've got a nice little, little story, which you can find too much on because everybody was just put up a video. Sorry, to point my chair. I'm not sure if it's a natural video rather than an actual new story.
So I couldn't get any of the names of the wrestlers or anything like that. But there's a video that I've retweeted. If you want to go and see it, go and check out our team wrestling. And you'll be on our feed somewhere.
Mexico's Mask Wretches Wrestling. So some Luchadores went down that. I'm guessing from AAA, but who knows? Because they didn't put, you know, it's like publicity and not telling you they are.
And some Luchadores went and supported a vaccination site in Mexico City, helping out the elderly, getting the vaccinations. It was a great little Sweti Saki video. So definitely go and check that out. I think some wrestling copy that.
Oh yeah, well, like WWE. I was primarily thinking of WWE. And then actually making a really glossy video to show on WrestleMania Quick. Let's see if we can just get it in quick.
Let's send him to fucking Titus. He's now getting honoured at the Hall of Fame, isn't he? That's one of those stories. No, right?
Doesn't matter. But yeah, they're just going to send him down. But yeah, they should have at least credited the wrestling company that they're from. It's really lovely video though.
I like it. Let's go on to the news. So it's an odd little list here because it was going from Monday onwards. There's obviously been updates and things which I've not put in, but we'll talk about as we go.
And so the first story is Andrade. So on Monday this week, Andrade didn't interview. Talk about his WWE release and things like that. And so he said that his inability to master the English language was the excuse for WWE not to use him on TV.
So Andrade pointed to Brock Lesnar and Asuka not being fluent in England, in England, in English. Brock is, but he just doesn't speak. That's the point. Yeah.
So those are excuses. I know the language better than Brock Lesnar and Asuka. I respect him, but it's the truth. They don't get bought or criticized for not speaking English.
So he said that in Spanish. Yes. Yeah. Because Brazil's Portuguese.
Yeah. So in Spanish. He also mentioned in the interview the issues that Charlotte's been having since then. So this was on Tuesday.
Charlotte's team put out a statement giving more context to the story. So they said, because he basically said that WWE suspended her for being pregnant when she wasn't. So what Manny said about the pregnancy testing today's interview was true. But a significant amount of the context was lost in translation and we'd like to clear it up the best we can.
A few weeks ago, Charlotte received a call from WWE Medical saying her HcG levels had come back high and was being medically suspended for pregnancy. That day she took several home tests, which she would do. And then they all came back negative. A few days later, blood work in an ultrasound confirmed there was no pregnancy.
And this was done before any issues with COVID, which she did have. It put into this point in context for Charlotte, how small the women's window is as far as career. And the men are able to work into their fifties while the women are seen as older in their early thirties. And for an athlete in her prime, these years mean everything to her.
And then Andrade went on to clarify his position on it. He wasn't saying that he could speak English better than Brock. He was saying that Brock doesn't speak. Yes.
So I thought that was really interesting. I think that's a really interesting insight. And it shows that he's really, really divorced from the company now to talk so freely so quickly. Like he just isn't.
I mean, we said he won't bother by his tweets saying, yeah, all the rooms are trying to get out my contract. Like we would make it a case for more wrestlers doing that. I've created a PR nightmare to get released quicker so that they're not hanging on and something fucking catering or just at home. I like that he pointed that out because there's so few, it's such a weird thing.
And I promise I won't go on too much of a tangent, but like, I don't know. We're all right. I'm telling you this is strike yourselves and guys because it's going to be a fault. I know.
I know I know I have so much to say on this, but I will try and keep it concise. But there is so much so much loaded shit about women's wrestling that never gets discussed at all. Like we don't talk about how they cope with having a period every month. Like and the bell has talked about that on their podcast about like, you know, like, I know, sorry guys, if it's TMI, but it's a fact, it's like, you know, having to like wear tampons and cut the string off so the string wouldn't come out with these shorts.
If you're Nikki, raise our eyes, she wears trousers. You know, it's all this shit you've got to think about and stomach aches and the cramp in and all that stuff. That's one thing. And then you've got the constant suspicion about you being pregnant.
And of course, you've got to be really, really concerned about safety because Christ, it would be a nightmare if someone was pregnant, they didn't know about it and something happened in the ring. So obviously they've got to be super careful about it. But it's all this added shit and added baggage that the women's wrestlers, like Charlotte, quite clearly, wasn't pregnant and she wasn't thinking about being pregnant. And the fact that, you know, as a female wrestler, you can get a call going, oh, this level's up, so we're going to medically suspend you.
And then she's had to take a shitload pregnancy test, not only that, she's had to have blood worked on and an ultrasound. And then she got COVID. So you have an ultrasound in hospital and then you get COVID. So she's had to go nothing.
There was nothing at all wrong with her. And like I said, I understand safety, but that's like one of your best women. That is the shit that the women have to go through constantly if they're in a relationship. Like if I bet if they're single, I bet they don't get anywhere near the scrutiny.
But there's always a constant underlying fear that, oh my god, they might be pregnant. Especially when they hit 30 because they'll be going, oh, oh, when is it going to happen? When's it going to happen? D'Embecchi wrestle when she was pregnant.
She did mania and then I think she found out she was pregnant after mania because he kept her off. So I think as soon as she found out, I don't know, I don't know. I thought the roar afterwards or something was when she did the whole, the man's going to be a mum thing. I mean, it was pretty quick.
Yeah, it was quite quick, wasn't it? It was quite quick, but I don't know how quick I can't remember. But it's just like this stuff, I don't know why it makes me so irrationally angry because, you know, like I say, Charlotte wasn't pregnant. This test is obviously, that one with the fucking level is being high.
It's faulty because she won't pregnant. The level is being high, it's obviously something else. So why then you can just go, oh, well, you know, it's likely you're pregnant, so you're suspended now and you're going to have to go and have all these, you can do your home pregnancy tests, all you're fucking like, but now we're going to have to send you for more tests in a hospital and then suddenly she gets COVID. Yeah, yeah.
It's like, are you fucking kidding me? Like talk about wasting somebody's time when they have quite clearly been careful and aren't trying to have a child. And I do think that the statement from her team, because she said something very similar, it sounds like her words, because she was on the Bellas podcast one time talking about Andrade and stuff and talking about how it's sad to have such a short window for her because there's loads she wants to do. She was talking about like outside of WWE, talking about like I'd like to get involved with sports label, I'd like to do this and I want to do that.
And it's really sad that I've got a few years to do that. And what if I don't want to do it, you can tell like it's real conflicted, it's hard. And she's also not got, you know, she's not got, you know, infinite time to have a kid either if she wants to have a family. That's what I'm talking about.
Like she wants to do all this shit, but she's like, I've got this window where if I want to have a kid, I've got to trap, like there's never a good time. And if you're not 100% sure, then what do you even do? Like what do you even do with your other level and the level of a lot of these women? That's like the Lacey Evans thing that she talks about again on the Bellas podcast where she knocked on Vince's door and said, listen, I want to have another kid, how does this work in this company?
Because nobody talks about it. Do I plan it in? Do I have to ask you what happens? Yeah, yeah.
Like it's fucking crazy that all this, I think they should talk about it so much more. Things that they have to deal like, I can say the period thing blows my mind because as a woman who's had periods, most of my life, I can't imagine anything worse than getting in a bra and knickers when I got blow it stomach and it's, it's not killing me. And wrestle and have to like be slammed about like Christ on my, I honestly, I can't think of anything worse. And that's like the worst job you could have at that week of the month.
And it's every month. And then you have the advantage thing of you've got this constant paranoia from like medical people at your pregnant all the time. And it's, it's relentless. I can't even imagine the relentlessness of it and the exasperation, they all feel about it.
But I'm glad that I liked that statement. I thought it was a really, it was infra-lendrad down to the bus. No, it was a bloody sense. We were just clearing it up, but they would, but they pushed the point of like, it's fucking hard to be a woman in this industry.
And I like that because we don't, not that we don't talk enough about it, but I just don't think it's discussed. It's sort of like just, just like, it's just like, I'm just just looking at it. It's fucking hard. It's fucking hard just to have a normal job and be a woman and let alone be a wrestler.
I'll be at the top of your game as a wrestler and have to deal with all that crap. I don't know. I mean, there's no real like solution to it because obviously they have to be very careful. Well, they've potentially, not that financially she'll lose out because I'm sure they'll have those conversations.
But if, so I mean, I don't know what the timeline is, but let's say the timeline is, you know, do you think she's pregnant, the medical suspender, she goes to hospital to get this scan, she gets coded from the hospital. They've fucked a WrestleMania up because it was supposed to be Charlotte against Asuka for WrestleMania. And now she's not even on WrestleMania. So this has got to be the first Mania that Charlotte's not been in for ages.
I think so, and I'm not sure. And it just sucks. It just sucks. They've tuck it, because the thing is, we all know they get payouts for WrestleMania.
So when you get, when you're off a decent WrestleMania match, you get a payout for it. You know, it's, you get guaranteed contracts, but that's, you know, merchandise, it's, it's, pay per views. That's what you guarantee contract builds up. And you basically like, say it's 200 grand, even though we know it's more than that.
Well, you guarantee contracts 200 grand. So then you get, you get, you guarantee, regardless of what happens. So if you're never on the show and you're backstage, you'll get 200 grand. But if you get a WrestleMania match, or if you get, you know, a decent WrestleMania match, like if you have a red hot year end or going against Triple H, you might get 300 grand just for that WrestleMania.
So you're telling me that Charlotte against Asuka is an indecent payday, absolutely is. But if they've fucked that up for it themselves, then they'll obviously compensate for it. But you know, Andrades done something in the last few days as well where he said he signed a contract with somebody, but as I said, who is? And starts interesting, Sleeveda Vegas, or the Triya, whatever it is, Triya.
She signed a contract, but it's not sold anyway. They would be great. They'd be great to come back together again. They were really good.
They were really good. I mean, I don't know what her ambitions are with regards to wrestling, because it would be a shame if she exclusively was a valet, if she'd done loads of in ring work after she wasn't his valet again, because I think that is a bit of a setback. But it's worth it. They're both money.
They're both money. And they worked well together. And he is quite aware of the fact that, but then I know I'm talking to a wee, wee, wee, I've got a wee, wee, wee head on. He's aware of the facts about the accent of the language thing.
It's nothing to somebody like AEW, because like a panther. It's nothing in any of the other companies. Look at New Japan. You've got language barriers for days there.
From every single way you can look at. And the English-speaking wrestlers speak in their own language. They don't try and shout back to them Japanese. They're talking their own language.
And it's one of those things where it's the ring awareness and that's how they communicate it. But they talk to them as if they know what they're saying as well. So like, Osprey is promo recently to set up the Genesis match. He's talking to him in English and Abu Shis like nodding at him.
I know what he's saying because Abu Shis works all over the world. All these guys will know English to a certain degree so he'll know exactly what he's saying. But the fans won't necessarily know. So they're doing a promo in English.
They're not translated as well. There's no pressure from New Japan. It seems almost in New Japan that sort of insists on it because I would imagine that Osprey will know Japanese to some extent to go promo now. He's a bit nervous.
I don't know if he lives there, but I presume he does because he's never off the thing. It's like an existence of like, no, speaking your language. They're aware of who they're aware of their audience crosses into different places and countries. And they're aware that they've got like a big Western audience's eyeballs on their product.
They know it. But like, do we can get the Western to think they can't drop the English speaking thing? Well, that's the thing is New Japan doesn't make any allowances for Japanese either. So you can watch a show and the Japanese wrestlers will cut the promo in Japanese and subtitles won't come up.
On the English commentary, if you want to wait two days, I mean, on the live events, like the live sort of paper-view-esque shows like Tomorrow, it's got English commentary like Straight Away. But unlike their versions of like Raw and SmackDown and Dynamite, you know, when they're doing the road to and you've seen all the road to matches and things. You've got to wait two days for the English commentary because you're poor Kevin Kelly, you know, he's having to go put one in the morning to fucking watch these things. And from that, they are unapologetic about the fact that you're watching something in Japanese.
Like, there's no such titles. It doesn't take anything away from the show, though. There's no subtitles. There's no like, you know, there's no in-ring translators or anything like that for both sides.
You know, obviously when you listen to the English commentary, the Chris guy, he knows Japanese, so he will tell you what they're saying, which is a great thing. You know, and from the Japanese side, there isn't an English cop. There isn't a commentator that I know of that would translate the English speaking wrestlers. But it probably is.
But it doesn't matter because their whole product is in-ring. You know, to see, you know, the wrestling in 2014, that was re-watching a new guy, Takashi against Jericho and they're messing around, you know, in the promo, and they're leading up to it. And Takashi's doing his thing where he's attacking Jericho, looking like in a band, and taking over and singing along, and putting it along in Japanese. It was hilarious because that's the most kind of storytelling thing that I've seen.
Other than, I'm the best, I'm the heel, and I'm gonna beat you. As opposed to, I'm the best, I'm the face, and I'm gonna beat you. Because that's all I need really, when it comes to great wrestling. You know, I don't need the audience and outs.
You know, that's cool. Well, you know, again, hacking back to last night, WrestleMania 1 on the ATM retro show, it was because it was so formulaic the way it was done. It was, you couldn't lose anything. Like, it was so clear.
Who was the face? Who was the heel? Like, you could've muted it. The whole show.
And enjoyed the show. Because they never cut to the commentary scene with them just gassing away. It was just the show. It was like you were in the crowd watching it.
Absolutely. Because all you saw was what would've been put on the big screen. And obviously you do miss the commentary on your A when the wrestling. But you don't need, it was so unnecessary.
Like, everything was crystal clear. Like, it broke more barriers and boundaries back in the day than it does now. It's so like a fucking speaky. Like, when movies weren't silent anymore and they'd have to speak it.
And it was like, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here. That shit where they just said like a million words a minute, just cram them all in. That's what it's like now. You do have to have a bit of a grasp of English because it's so fucking convoluted.
So much chatting. So much shit getting chatted. It's like in every corner of every ring. It's like Christ on my ear.
Anyway. Well, I am, I just on the Android Day thing before we move on. I think it's, it was quite the whole like pregnancy weird. It's just angle.