You are now listening to the UK and the world's favourite wrestling podcast, Archie and wrestling with your host Andy and Emma. Staunson? Hello. We're back.
How are you doing? Just when I'm looking at news that we can potentially talk about. Oh yeah. Back and unprepared.
Strap yourselves in, folks. It's a lot of fun. Is there ever a time? How are you doing?
I'm going to do these last time with the show a long time ago. We've been back a week from our Jolly Holiday got back last Saturday. I went to the booster so I'm kind of getting the podcast in before I start to feel like a bit. I'm starting to hurt.
Yeah. When I come. How are you? Yeah.
I feel odd. I mean, we're not really, I don't think we've publicized anything that we've, like the whole holiday thing. It was great but stressful. Yeah.
So just to recap, we went to Florida, see my mother, who lives just outside Orlando in a place called Winterhaven, which is really cute. We stayed there for two weeks, supposed to be flying home on January 2nd and we couldn't get a test because it was January 2nd was Sunday. It was New Year's Day on the Saturday so everyone was closed on the Sunday and because of the carryover band called it, most places were closed up closed on Monday as well and the pharmacy we went to had faulty tests. Do you remember people saying that their tests were faulty and they were waiting to see whether or not they'd be fine.
So we extended the trip and went to Disneyland. What's the line up? Essentially because it's like, well why not? You know, me mum didn't fancy, mum and David didn't fancy coming.
I don't blame him. It's not their scene and we're probably ready for us to leave at that point after two weeks in their house. Yeah, probably. Because I know I would be.
But yeah, Christ, it was, it was mad because it sounds, you know, obviously it was amazing. We had such a lovely trip and it sounds, you know, like so idyllic but the Covid situation just made it really, really stressful because obviously we had to test within 24 hours of flying out and there's that stress because you're like, do I even bother packing? Which we didn't. We only packed when we got the OK so we had a negative test.
Then of course we had the stress about not being able to get a test to make a January 2nd flight and then we got a test. We got a test the day before we came back and they changed the rules. We didn't need a test anymore. That was so good.
So all in all folks, we spent about 500 pounds on testing which is sick. Because we had PCR's when we came back. What we Covid for it. So we managed to dodge that bullet.
I don't fucking know how. And then we got pinged. And we got pinged just like a few days after being back. It's like, oh, you've been in contact with someone with Covid.
It's like, fuck off. Yeah, I've been walking on Disney for a fucking, you know, it was the plane. It can only have been the plane. But yeah, so yeah, that was our trip.
It was great. I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year. Yeah, and we've completely lost by the way side the old RTM Cup. It was for my last day, but maybe we'll do it again.
I mean, I don't know. It's odd. I was kind of saying this to you last night. And since saying this to you, I've watched quite a bit of wrestling.
So I was saying, I was like, you know what? I just don't feel in the mood to watch wrestling. Because the New Japan world subscription I let laps because I had to change my card and my card beat. I was like, I can't be bothered signing up to it again.
Because I wasn't watching it. And the AW thing, I thought, oh, you know, well, we're away. We'll probably watch a couple of the AW shows like live. And then fight TV doesn't let you watch it if you're in America.
So I was like, well, I'm not saying to you more. I'm like, oh, can we put it in? It's so weird being on at like eight o'clock at night. It's just so bizarre because we're so used to it being in the dead of night.
Yeah. And it just felt strange with it being smacked bang in the middle of our evening. It was like, oh, we're having dinner and we're doing all this shit. And I did watch it all though when we were in the hotel.
I watched all of you fell asleep. You fell asleep straight away. I watched what was it like not this Wednesday, Wednesday before then, Daniel Bryan, Bryan Danielson, and Hangman. And I watched all of that episode, I think.
Oh, I think I missed the last match, Mike on to sleep. So I sat up and watched that. That was kind of cool. Bit of room service in even pizza while you were asleep next to me watching that.
Yeah, because I was a poor man doing college work when I... Well, this is it as well. We both worked with all this when we went away because we had a lot of work to do. And obviously, Andy's at college.
I work for myself. So any downtime is mean not earning any money. So we said, we're never going to do that again. No, it's just not worth it.
It's not worth kind of taking that away and thinking that I'll do an hour a night and then, you know, a week goes by and you're on to anything. Jesus Christ, there we go. It's just constantly reminding. I think this is what I was kind of alluding to last night is I feel like we've got so much stuff going on.
It's like anything. If you guys are doing something and you've got a lot of things on, there are certain stuff that you do normally that kind of fall by the wayside. Whether you're playing football or whatever it is you're doing. There's things that you would have done during lockdown, like watch a certain show or binge Netflix for...
Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.
Inhaled. Inhaled. Aargh. Oh my God.
I'm doing things that you would normally do. And then it comes a point where something else takes the precedent of it. So it feels like at the moment like we college, it's just all consuming. Completely all consuming.
And I should be working now. Should be always working. When you're back in education or in education, you could always be working. Yeah.
There's always so much to do in there. That's the problem. And so I sort of said to you last night, it's like I really don't feel like in a wrestling mood. And it's not so much like when WWE kind of made us queer.
And I was like, this is shit, fuck this, I'm not doing this anymore. So I'm going to make a resolution this year trying to not swear as much. Really? Yeah, just on the podcast.
I think it sounds like a thing. Because I swear all the time, whereas you're seeing when I've listened to that episode, you're always quite fully. I feel like I've seen it all the time. Yeah, no, every other word for me.
Especially with what I'm doing at the moment, like if that ever good cause a problem. Yeah, so it's not like with WWE when they kind of like ran us out of town. It was, it's more last year, I feel was so good. And we could probably talk about a few things from last year.
Maybe that was, you know, like an end of year kind of review thing maybe. I feel like last year was so good and it was so exciting. It was like every, every couple of days it was like, oh, what's next? What's next?
Don't you out? Yeah, I think it was, I think it was, and obviously with, with New Japan as well, like the, the Tokyo Dome shows, I've watched a bit of them now. I tried to watch the One vs. Noa, and for some reason it looked like, it looked like it was, it was through a filter of fog.
Like it was, I watched the, maybe, yeah, well I watched the, so basically just put Knight to him. I watched the Kenta and Tana Hashimatch and the Akada Osprey match. Both unbelievably fantastic as you would expect. Kenta got fucked up, like he's got broken ribs, broken finger broken nose.
He was bleeding everywhere. And he didn't look that bad to me. Like, cause I knew that going into it. It just didn't look that bad in the match, but they're tables.
Like, they look like real tables. Like, come on guys. I know you're trying to, you know, strong style and all that. You know, you want to make it look as real as possible and you want to drop in each other on your necks.
But fucking hell. I don't need to see somebody going through a real table. It can be one of those thin, you know, tables that like break the polystyrene or whatever. That just break apart really easily.
You know, I'm totally down with that. What do you feel though, like going from there to WWE, where it was a lot softer, even though we got really badly injured. Yeah. And like, it gets all operations and stuff.
Yeah, yeah. And like, going to that softer style. And then when you're a bit older, returning to that really hard style, I think that's got to be like a, it'd be like a shinsuke. Went back after all these years of soft style wrestling in the US for WWE in particular.
To then go back to New Japan, which is like, fuck I'm hurting. I bet it was a hurting. I bet it was a surprise. Yeah, I mean, like it's got to be though, isn't it?
Because they take it so much more seriously. Yeah. And it's sort of, it's so, it is that strong style. It's hit really fucking hard.
You don't pull the punches. You don't pull the kicks. They're like proper kicks and they probably punch and they go for it. And nothing soft.
There's no like, it feels like there's no like stunt furniture going on. There's no like stunt, you know, like throws into the, you know, into the fucking buckle and all that. So it's all like really hard and it must be tough to come out of it and then go back to it. Well, that's why the G1 is the fucking hardest thing any wrestler will ever do because it's like wrestling every two days in those styles and matches.
Everybody gets made events lots where they go in 30 minutes and they're just getting the shit kicked out of them. I mean, it's, I'm sure conditioning all that kind of stuff plays a part in it. But yeah, I mean, I love New Japan for that because I, again, I was kind of thinking about this the other day. It's like, you know, if I could only, you know, now obviously we've got lots of stuff on.
It's like, I want to be a little bit more economical with my time. It's do I want to watch AW or do I want to watch New Japan? And the thing with that is I really enjoy those New Japan house shows, but there's nothing riding on it. So it's very easy for you to miss like a New Japan house show.
Whereas the big pay per views, the rest of kingdoms, you know, all that kind of stuff is for me, like must see. But like, as I'm thinking about it, I like must see wrestling because it is my style. Like I do like the kind of pump and people falling off cages and, you know, and all that kind of shit in the promos and all that kind of stuff. But really I like, as I've said before, really good technical professional wrestling.
Like it makes me feel good when I say a good match. And it doesn't have to be like an amazing match. It just has to be technically sound. Like nothing jars me out of it more than seeing a mistake.
And mistakes can happen and mistakes happen all the time in New Japan. You know, I'm not kind of putting them on a pedestal. But it's like which one we're going to have to watch. But then I would say, well, New Japan's big pay per views are definitely more spotable at the thing lapse.
And since we've been back, I have flicped on AW. It's a little bit more of a light relief. I think it's somewhere, it's like an in between kind of point between like the really soft WWE style and the New Japan thing. And because a lot of them do crossover, you buy like a little bit more lean into a lot of New Japan, but it still has that American pump.
Yeah, definitely. And some of the people that they've got now, you're just like, well, it's definitely a must see TV in my opinion. And it is going to slow down a little bit. If I was going to predict, isn't going to be as big for AW as 2021 was, you know, I think you think it's going to be down.
I think pay per view buys will be down. If they're not, not by a lot, only by like, you know, a couple of percent here. But the, I think everything will trend down because you're not getting any bigger than at the same point with Brian Danielson. Twenty-two months.
It was absolutely not like really when you look back at it and look back at everything. And then like 2020, at the end of 2020 had the sting. You know, like it was ridiculous. It was insane.
It was just me favorite ones. We didn't know it's happening. Like it's complete and it's a total shock. Yeah.
Had no clue and watched it lie because nothing was spoiled. It was and then I feel like speaking of spoiled, we then got spoiled all through 2021. And in a way, it's great because it was still, you know, it's like the second year of the pandemic. We're still kind of like facing lockdowns and all that bullshit.
We know that they're not coming to the UK pretty much. So it was cool to sort of see so much happen during like such a non-year relay. Yeah, definitely. I feel like they made it the best they possibly could.
It was fantastic. Don't get me wrong. It was an amazing year for wrestling. You know, I really started watching New Japan.
AEW was obviously just, from my opinion, was knocking out at the park every week. You know, every show was entertaining. You know, even because like last night, like I watched a bit of the, the solo go down. And then started trying to watch the Noah show and was just, and I watched the first match, like which was like a dark match with it, like a young lion from Noah, but they don't do it that way.
They give the youngsters a little bit more room to create. So not just black pants. Same music, you know, looking a little bit more. And that was a 10 minute draw between two youngsters and then we were at each other and then pushing and showing at the end.
And I was like, yeah, perfect. I don't really do that all the time. But it was great. But then after that, I was just like, you know, fuck this camera.
Like I just can't see anything. Like, you know, I was cleaning me glasses thinking it was that. So that's what I bought Rampage on. And Rampage was really good.
I think this week. Yeah. Obviously I'm not going to review shows because we don't do that anymore. But I thought it was really cool.
And the main event was awesome. It was like a tag team title match, Jurassic Express, John Silver and Alex Redal. I mean, you know, everyone's going to be smiling coming away from a match like that. So I have like last night kind of got me felt like it got me back in a little bit.
I was like, Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. I'm kind of here again now.
But yeah, it is weird. And I like, you know, other things happen and you can easily just step back. Well, this is a problem that wrestling bases. It's like you've got to keep your interest.
You know, it's the fence, fence thing in it. It's not a fence for one man. That's how easy that one rolls off the tongue compared to the man. But like, you've got, you've got, you've got a battle on your hands to keep people really interested in it and to keep them watching all the time.
Yeah. I mean, it's hard work. I think what I'm going to start doing is not beating myself up for, you know, mixing a show. Because I know we do this and it'd be good to, you know, it'd be good to, you know, USB.
It's a charge. Oh, I just put one that was a bit longer. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Look at that beast. That'll be easy to bait with. All the wires. We're living for a day when wires will no longer be a thing.
You'll always hate them. Well, if you look at these like, those like couches, I can't remember what it was, but we're away. It's like you put your phone on the arm of the chair and it charges it. How?
How? Well, the Donald's did something. Didn't they? Where they, in the UK, they were like on it, they were rolling out those tables in McDonald's restaurants where you could just put your phone on in a charge.
What? It's like a power bank. It's like a power bank. You can just get that you just put your sticky phone on it and it charges it for the power.
Oh, no. I don't know. It just shows our fucking redundant. Why is that?
Even though the power bank needs a wire. So I guess, I don't know how we work. I really don't. We can get phone cases.
So that phone case I've got, they do like smart ones that like interact with that shit. So you can just charge them at these like, yeah, it's really good. It's really weird. Like, come on.
I, I, technology is passing me by a rapid rate. What the fuck is an NFT? Do you know what I mean? Like, come on.
I'm done. I'm out. I don't know why that is. Stick a talk in there.
I'm fucking done technology. My iPhone can do a lot of shit that I do not use it for. Go on Twitter on the browser. Don't use the app.
I take calls. I still text message. It's wasted on me all that time. Yeah, I feel like it's passed me by now.
Passed me by. I was going to say actually, going back to our wonderful holiday. Okay. So we were in Florida.
Yes. Home. Available year. I was hoping to see some wrestlers maybe just knocking about.
Who did we see in Universal? The one wrestler. Oh, yeah. The one wrestler.
I completely forgot about that. Did you? Yeah. Scotty too hot.
What by Scotty too hot? He had a wrestler vibe about him. I feel like that's somebody. As soon as we went past you like that's got too hot.
Cool as a cucumber. It's like that. It's like that. It's like that's a shit.
It's a shit. It's a shit. It's a shit. It's a shit.
It's a hot. I can't remember. It was Universal. It was Universal.
Yeah. But that was the only one we saw. It was like nice top. Oh, because I was wearing the Adam Cole Street Fighter.
And then we saw him queue of the Disney Ball City's AEW top. Like bless that dad. But it was the day after and I feel like he was wearing it to try and run it again. Yeah, no bless him.
Yeah, no day after. But I honestly, because obviously geography, not much stronger soon. I thought when we got over there, we'd be like, oh, well, there's that New Year's bash or whatever. That was only in Jackson, Villadalee's place.
That'll be a piece of piss to get to. No, it's like a four hour drive. So like if it's all on though. And then Winter Haven's like maybe an hour and a half.
An hour and hour and a half. An hour and a half hour of all under, but towards Jacksonville. So you've got like all under, like if you think like, you know, below is all under. My army's the lowest.
Then it goes all under. Then it goes to Tampa. Then it goes to Jacksonville. So like Jacksonville was like, yeah, yeah.
How would you say that we were on was going to Jacksonville? Was it? Yeah, because loads of the little cars. Yeah, we would.
But Tampa's the other way because so it's like a tamper's over to the west. But that's still the order it goes. Oh, is it? Yeah, because we were coming back down to all under.
Oh, okay. It was like a cross is Tampa, like open across. It's kind of doing this. It's so hard.
It's just doing a ring. It's like, it's any need for it to be that fucking large. It's vast. But I was like, oh, yeah, we'll easily get to this show.
And look, it's $20. Yeah, let's get in the fucking building. Yeah, definitely. No, it's like a four hour drive.
So that was a bit of shame. That would have been cool to go. Well, we know we could get the train to Jacksonville from Orlando if we're ever there. It's the next stop after all, I know Jacksonville, I think.
It's still like two hours away. That's why Orlando was a smoke break. It was, yeah, the train's over there. But yeah, so we were hoping when we were in, we flew out of Gatwick because it was cheaper.
The Manchester was impossible. I'm just a one and just about a 24 hour flight and fly via London. Was that what's the fucking point? I'm not going to get off the London, wait 24 hours and get on over the plane.
So I'm quite a middle man. We'll get the train. Go get out. There's so much cheaper as well.
And I was hoping we'd see Chris Jericho heading back after we've been hospitalized from a non-COVID-related illness. He likes to stress. We were hoping we'd run into him in the airport. Nah.
But I was just like, this is going to happen. Do you swear no, are you throwing in? He's not fucking around with a Gatwick? Yeah, it's fucking miles.
That's another fucking place. London. It's big. It's big.
I was like, Gatwick. And we'll just get the tube to Gatwick. It'll take five minutes. What the fuck?
It's fucking miles away. The tube over ground. Then we flew back into Heathrow because the fire gets a rearrange of fights. And that's miles out as well.
Is that still from London? I think so. He's a jeal. He's pissing himself laughing at this.
Now he's pissing himself. Like you're fucking sorry. He's pissing himself if he's not. Yeah, he's just too thick.
I was like, oh yeah, everything that's one that's five minutes on the tube. Surely. Do you know the queen? We're no better.
We're no better. Three weeks in the stage and you just become one of them morons. Three weeks in the stage. I'm so sorry.
Oh, I'm so sorry. Oh, I'm so sorry. Oh, fucking hell. Losers.
Oh, yeah. So I don't have a lot of home press anymore. It's way too. As far as like massive things that are going to happen.
But what I have noticed since we've been away is the other guys have done a shitload of releases again. Of course they are. Some old joke released twice in a year. Well, that was surprising.
It comes sooner because it strips him in the fucking title. Why the fuck did they be hiring? Well, it's Triple H re-eyed. Triple H re-eyed.
And now, you know, they're just pissing on the dude's chips. It's like, oh, there's one dry chip at the back. Bruce, get your cock out. Spray it.
Spray it all over this dry chip. Yeah, they've just completely systematically destroyed everything that he's putting place. Which, if you're going to be, I know we've said this before, I think we kind of said it with the RIP XC show that we did. You have to.
Because it was a completely different thing. You know, we're watching a brand new isn't it, which isn't a wrestling show. It's just not. It's an entertainment show and a good entertainment show here and so.
But what's the point in having your Adam Cole's, your Gargano's, your Champers. What's the point in having them there? Because NXT 2.0 has been going for a couple of months now. It's holding steady viewership-wise at like 600,000, which is all they really want.
They don't really care. And, you know, for a TV show, that's not too bad. You know, things like, you know, the news gets 0.8. You know what I mean?
So it's not that bad. They're not like 100,000 views. You know, we're all talking impact on free TV here. And they will produce, if Vince is in charge of it, Bruce, Rich has in charge of it, they will produce people that when they go to the main roster, they're going to use them.
Because if they don't, then, I mean, you know, they've shown themselves completely incompetent over the last couple of years anyway. But that would be the biggest, you know, say this Braun Breaker guy who I've not seen a frame on apart from a picture, where he seems to be the one, like he seems to be Neo with NXT now. He'll probably come out in the vulnerable and do really well. But if he doesn't go to the main roster and start main event, then they fucked up.
And that's the thing. When you triple H's NXT will, on paper, have made them more money. In merchandise, in viewership, we could probably have negotiated a better contract than TV deal, but only just. Only just isn't good enough for the Disney of wrestling.
You know, you need more than that. And as much as it's sad that these guys keep getting released, you know, the fact that AW's there is a great thing because a lot of people are going, and we can talk about that maybe in a minute. But it does beg the question for AW now is when is enough enough enough? Because ROH has gone down, but loads of people from ROH have gone to impact.
What I thought was really strange is their sort of young prodigy woman, Rock C, who I've seen a couple match stuff, but really great. Was their first women's champion, runs into Donna Peritz, who had an impact paper view or whatever the fuck it was and loses the belt. So she's but so peritzos now the impact and, or knockouts, whatever it is, and ROH champion. It's like, what a fucking waste.
Because she was top and I've watched a few of this Donna Peritzos matches and I'm not impressed at all. Like, I wouldn't even, I would just skip through it. Yeah, I'm sorry. Even though she is trying and making all the right noises and that kind of stuff.
You know, I'm not asked at all. But a quick side note on our way to the 100% coming back. Okay. And already you've started selling tickets for the WrestleMania weekend.
So they're coming back with a super card of honor. Which is normally like a new Japan, you know, cross over type things. So they were, they were true to their word then. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, they just, I think they just wanted to reimagine what it was and that whole being a super indie thing rather than being a company that has contracted stars. I think it's a very smart move. You know, you've got MLWs doing that really well.
You've got GCW doing that really well. Not that they get particularly big crowds because they want to keep it small, but pro wrestling guerilla does that really well. Like, I was a black spin or Malekite black spin back on them. All that kind of stuff.
And so that's a good way of doing it because you keep that product fresh then. It's just to never revolve in cast the characters that, you know, sometimes will be there sometimes won't be there. So you'll see different things just as I've been announced, GCW announced a mocksley match. Oh, really?
Yeah. For the ballroom show, the Hammerstein ballroom. I don't know. I didn't see where the day was, but I think it may be like a month or two away.
Okay. But he seems to be back on track again. So that's a good thing. But yeah.
So I kind of pulled a couple of news topics, but they're all around, you know, eight kind of eight. You know, eight kind of eight of you and signing people. I mean, you said to us before just going on their potentially regal. That's a rumor.
It's a rumor that they are. So I mean, I think it will be smart if they're looking to, you know, get some new talent in there that's homegrown. Then he's the perfect person to go and scout that talent and find him and nurture him. The contact's that guy has.
100% is really well-liked to Japan. He's exactly regal. He's exactly what they need, I think. Well, it is a question for you.
Sorry to interrupt, Jon. Jon. It really, it really kind of properly confirms to me that WWE are literally like, you know, like, I'm just not interested in finding wrestlers at all. They're interested in just finding folks from like, you know, collegiate sports and all that stuff who needed a job, who haven't been kind of selected for the NFL or, you know, like I was watching that Netflix show, Cheer.
And so some of those people could be wrestlers because they are so acrobatic and so brilliant, like a bit of training. And they put their bodies through shit, you know, and they're it's rough. So you're like, right, that really confirms to me that they're not interested at all in wrestlers. They are just interested in making wrestlers, which is fine because they've done it with, like, loads of people.
And it's worked particularly well, but it is like that final because if you were interested in getting any wrestlers at all, you keep regal and say, find someone green who's great, like, who we've never heard of, not so indie darling who's been around the block. But go and find some new people and get them when they're really young and they're obviously don't care at all about them being able to wrestle when they come into WWE. Because as they keep him. So, yeah.
Yeah, no, no, yeah, because I mean, but even like on the flip side of that, you've got some of you are so much experience and isn't just a guy that can pick a good indie star out. You know, I'm sure, you know, give him a couple of college football players and he's going to make him 10 times better. Or whoever it is that they put into train. So I just think the whole thing is just a bit petty.
Like, like, drawing a line on the black and gold area around there. Yeah, they're just wanting to get rid of it and anybody associated with it. And that's where ever enough, you know, regal's had a really good run. He's also really good stuff with NXT.
It isn't that now. You know, NXT tried to tour the UK now. They wouldn't get anybody. You know, you'd have to put, which they have done.
They've put AJ Styles on NXT for a couple of shows. Yeah, you'd have to do that. Yeah, you'd have to do that. You wouldn't be able to tour NXT as it is now.
I think people would go, but I don't think it would be anywhere near like what we've seen kind of in the past. Yeah. But I do think it's a smart move because that's, it's funny because when you step back from it and you don't watch it. Because I've probably not watched WWE now, like a frame of it for six months, maybe more.
Like, but not even like checking the highlights on YouTube. Like I've just completely been out. I don't know what's happened. I don't know what's going on.
I always see like the odd thing, you know, news-wise. I'll possibly talk about Mickey James as a bit as well. So to me, I don't give a fuck. Like, you know, these people are getting hired and fired and all this kind of stuff.
You know, it's sad when people lose their jobs, but these people are fine. Like, they're going to be absolutely fine. Like, even, you know, you train the NXT people who they've let go. They're going to be fine.
You know, Jake Atlas did retire at an hour away to show and then come back and now he's injured. You know, but he's fine. You know, he got a match with Cole on Rampage. So all these people are going to be fine.
There's going to be work there for them to get. You know, they're not going to just be like spinning the oils unless they're really green and they can't do anything. But from the outside, he's like, well, you think, well, surely there's something you could do with Regal. Surely he has tons, you know, moving up to be a producer of the main roster.
But then, you know, if he does go to AW, that's better because that's one of the shows I watch. So I appreciate it, really. So if he still wants to work or has to work, then I would love him to be an AW because I just think he's such a... It's like a safe pair of hands, isn't it?
Like he's having a little bit to have someone like that there. In the same way and weirdly, like I kind of got that vibe when the big show Mark Henry were in AW, like this signed those guys. I don't know what they're doing with them. I don't know how involved they are backstage and all that shit.
I don't know. CBY is not doing anything from Mark Henry. Mark Henry's got a T-shirt now. That says time for the main event, which I thought was quite funny.
But like, is that safe pair of hands? And I guess that it gives... Maybe it's a bit of a creative outlet for him because it's so new. And it's like you can actually carve your own...
make your own role. Like maybe old school WWE was like, you know, you could probably, you know, back in the day, in the 90s and the 90s. I bet you could make your own role. You could carve out a role for yourself.
Whereas I think WWE's gone very corporate and it's always been corporate. But it's gone very to the point where, you know, as we've always said, that sale seems quite imminent to me. Yeah. I just think it's gone so business without the heart that that smacks selling it.
Or we're keeping this person on because they've been really good. It's like, no, get rid of them all. Because we're selling, trim all the fat, sell it, and then maybe re-hire some of those people after it's sold. Maybe that's what will happen.
I don't know. Well, I couldn't care less. I know that's like a harsh kind of tactic, but I really don't care. Like, I'm not going to watch Raw Rumble.
I'm not going to watch WrestleMania. I don't care because there's nothing for me there. Well, the announced all of the surprise inverted commas women. Like pretty much every single woman who's in the boy was already been announced.
Right. And it's like, what ever happens to the surprises? It's like, you keep the surprises for the men's one. But yeah, the women's one.
It's like the bellows are there. Bellows are in the Royal Rumble. Bellows are in the Royal Rumble. Holy shit, the fucking- It's not two places.
You've just- You've just- You've just- You've announced it. You've announced it. And Renee was making the same complaint on her podcast. Right.
She's like, it's cool and all that you get in all these people. But why are you not having them as a surprise? It's like, why do you have to announce- Why are you announcing them all? Because I'm actually pretty- It's an epoch- It's an epoch show as well.
So it's not like they're trying to get their viewers. Exactly. It's like, what happened to the whole point, the whole thing that made the Royal Rumble great, was it was a surprise? You know who's going to pop out and you have veterans, you have people from NXT, you have a real mix of people.
And yeah, pretty much every fucking female intern has been announced. Well, it's for the ground. It's for a Twitter. Yeah, to get hyped.
Yeah, but it's not- But they don't see this as a thing, right? And we'll talk about Mickey James in a second, when she can take a trash bag to WWE with her. The problem that the reason why- And you know, you can- Because me and you've brought us up with some shit for a lot of years. For a lot of years.
Yeah, we've brought with a lot of really bad shows. Yeah. We've all done it and people are still doing it. It's that gift where the dudes in a room are drinking a coffee in the rooms on fire going, this is funny.
Yeah. That's exactly what it was to be a WWE fan for the last five years. You're probably longer. So we've brought with a lot of crap when it comes to that show.
And all that time, when we were kind of giving them crap for it, is we were saying that it doesn't feel like they're putting together a show for a live crowd. It doesn't feel like they're putting together a show where people are going to talk afterwards and go, wow, that was unbelievable that show. Because I'm sure people do. You know, people who still really like it.
It is a personal preference thing. Like, do I think it's awful to the point where if I put a role on, I couldn't watch it? No, I probably could watch it. I could probably find enjoyment in it, you know, some sort of thing.
But I couldn't watch it weekly because again, it would just restrain me. But the problem with that is, is they're not- I thought for a while now, is that they don't do things for the shock value because they don't see any profit in it. And that's what, you know, this whole sting thing where, you know, they got crap from T&T saying, you know, that was great and all. But if you didn't announce it before it, you might have got more viewers, so don't have to do that again.
And it's like, excuse me, who are you to tell us what we do with our show? Like, do you even like it or you don't? I just find that whole concept quite kind of bizarre. I guess it's a different thing with television.
Completely different because, you know, it would be the same as saying to any person who makes a movie. You've got to, you've got to, you've got to advertise all the spoilers in the trailer and a lot of the times that does happen. But it would be like every film. It's like, say if Spider-Man, for example, has some guest stars in it.
It'd be like saying, you've got to put them on the trailer. Excuse me, I've not watched that yet. You've got to put them on the trailer because otherwise people don't know they're there and that's like, if they knew they were there, it would be a massive, people more people would go. And it's like, but the whole point, I'm still surprised when I watch movies.
Not all of them. Some trailers do give away everything for some films. But the only time I'm ever surprised is watching movies and like long-running series is, you'll be like Line of Duty going, well, you've got to say you, the guy is at the end. Some more people watch it.
And it's that that I don't understand. Like, why is it about wrestling where it's like, is it because it's so difficult to get people to watch wrestling and that the networks are always nervous about it going, don't have a lot of respect for it and go, well, you know, it's already a struggle to get people to watch this shit. So you're going to have to, if you've got a surprise person, you're going to have to tell people because we need more, we always need more. Because it doesn't happen with anything else.
There's been spoilers, not spoilers, sorry. There's been twists, turns, surprises, cameos, a plenty. If you think about every TV show movie you've ever watched, there's been that plenty. And yet, you know, like, why are you allowed to be surprised when you watch those, but you're not allowed to be, the networks don't want you to be surprised when you watch wrestling.
Like, it annoys me because it's a fictional fucking show. So you should be allowed to be surprised. And the thing is, the social media fucking meltdown happens when something actually is a surprise, someone comes out and you're not expecting, is great because people are still talking about it. I know what's on naive, but they do treat it very differently than they treat other forms of entertainment.
And it's like, if they're thinking about, if they're putting it in the same boat as sport, go ahead, hold, everybody knows when they tune into the NBA. When someone's going to be playing, who's new and it's very exciting. Everybody knows, but we're not talking about sports, not fucking sport. It's a fictional show.
You should be allowed to be surprised. You should be allowed to have a surprise. The fucking mousetrap in London, that secret has been kept for ages. Like, there are people saying, if you keep carrying on keeping it a secret, actually, that's like, if you just tell people, if you just tell them how great the ending is, more people come and watch it.
Because everybody knows how the lanking ends because we've seen movies, but we still all got, that's the fucking hottest ticket in town. Let's just tell everyone how wonderful the ending is. It's like, I just don't understand, don't understand why it's treated that way, why it's like you've got to tell everyone before they watch it, what they can expect for them to watch it, because I fundamentally disagree with that. You made your own point.
Right at the beginning, you made your own point, what did you say? They just don't have any faith in me. What was the example you gave, like, if a film did it? Spied them out of no way, no way I'm aware of it.
You said, no, I think if they gave away the guest stars in night, it's one of the biggest grossing films of all time, on a rumour, that other people would be in the trailer, nothing about it. Absolutely zero, zero about it. And people then still saying, keep the secrets on Twitter, people like, please please please please keep the secrets of this, please. People over God, every fucking Darren Brown show we go and watch, you literally have a title and you just turn up.
I'm sure if people were able to talk about how amazing they were, more people might be interested. But that's not the point. And that's a thing, because it pisses me off as well. The thing with this, you know, you used five months example, it's one of the biggest grossing films of all time.
That is, that, you know, see, I don't know, we all knew CM Punk was coming, because it was two on the nose, but they didn't say CM Punk was coming. They allowed the crowd to challenge it and they gave close up to people in the crowd with signs and all that kind of stuff. So they said it without saying it. And then they sold out the, what's the Chicago arena, the big one?
I can't remember. I know it's gone. But they sold that out on a rumour. Like, it wasn't confirmed, whereas WWE at the moment, it seems like they would have said CM Punk debut's on this show.
Yeah, 100%. 100%. Would the pop have been as big? Probably not.
Would the chair has been as big? Probably not. And then you exactly what it was in and all this kind of stuff? Probably not.
But the whole thing with, you know, because to me, they are not the masters of their own show. And I've said this for a while. And it is a bit of a, you know, I'm not trying to get them out of, I'm not trying to, you know, give them away out. I'm not trying to stick up for them in any way, because again, don't like the show.
But it's got to be hard when you are not the master of your own show, if somebody's, because basically, you know, they're gearing it for a sale. But it's already sold because they've sold, they've sold the TV rights. And then we know from AW because Tony Khan can't hold his own urine. So he just needs to get a grip of himself, but we'll talk about that.
So, you know, we know from him that TNT are very involved, and now CBS are very important, pretty much. They're very involved in what goes on on the show, and they dictate what they want to see. They say, we want to see this, we want to see that. We want to see more Dobby Allen, because he hits the ratings well and all that cancel.
Which, in some ways, can work really well. When he doesn't work well, he's when they're dictating to you exactly what happens. So, you know, and I saw it in an interview with James Gunn, the director, saying about, you know, he's never been told what to put into a Guardian's film or a DC film. He's just kind of been allowed to go and do it.
The first one that he did the Guardians, he said, just put something in about Thanos and just the Infinity Stones. That's all we need. And that's it. That's it.
But then the rest of it's yours. So that's fine. But it's when they go through and they're like, right, we need more of this. No, she needs sacking because she's not hot enough.
No, he needs sacking because he doesn't fit our demographic. That's when it starts getting bad. And when you've got WWE who are producing their TV shows and probably getting a little bit of feedback, the problem they've got with Peacock is Peacock have given them a billion dollars over five years. A billion dollars.
So if they've said, listen, the ratings for your show on our network is crap. If you want another billion dollars in five years time, which I'm sure they do, if you want another billion dollars, you're going to have people watching this role. So you're going to have to come up with ways of getting people to watch the role. And they're like, right, okay, well, what can we do?
Well, we don't really give a shit about the women's match. So let's release all the legends that we're bringing back for the women's match to try and get some hype around the show so people will watch it. And that's it. Unfortunately, they are more, the situation that WWE are in is they are more held to account by the people who own them and give them money than they are by their own funds.
The amount of money they get out of funds percentage wise is probably under 15% of their overall turnover. And when that happens, you can do whatever you want. It doesn't matter because these people are going to keep coming back. And yes, attendance figures are awful.
How should attendance figures are awful? Live TV tapings are awful. Like they did it. I can't remember where they were the other day, but they did a role that drew 5,000.