- 8 months ago
In this episode, we discuss WWE Raw, the possibility of WWE Cancelling Night of Champions, AEW Injury Updates, and the rest of the day's news and rumors.
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02:41Hello everybody.
02:42Welcome to this episode of the Fro Wrestling Podcast.
02:44If you've got questions, comments, things you want to talk about, give us a shout.
02:48For Wrestling Sound Offline, 267-642-1160.
02:52We will get to those conversations in a future episode.
02:55Got a ton to get to today.
02:57Some controversial, some not so much.
02:59Some important, some not so much.
03:01Let's get into it.
03:02The most important story right now is whether or not the Night of Champions pay-per-view in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will take place as scheduled.
03:11The issue is, is that we have a no-fly zone implemented in Qatar, where we have some WWE personnel currently at who cannot get to Saudi Arabia.
03:22We've got the heightened tensions over the bombing of Iran's nuclear test facilities and nuclear sites.
03:28The ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel.
03:31Concerns about shots being fired at a Qatar U.S. military installment.
03:36So there's all this going on, and the issue is, is it safe for the wrestlers and the talent?
03:43Think about it.
03:44If you are somebody looking to perpetrate harm on another nation and really grab their attention, maybe Iran has no idea how important pro wrestling is to the WWE.
03:53I doubt it, since they have one of their home people, the Iron Sheik, who legitimately was from Iran, a former world champion.
04:01I'm fairly confident they know wrestling is a big deal, and they also know the numbers of people who would be present at a show of this magnitude.
04:10Talk about a target for a military operation.
04:14I'm not saying it's going to happen.
04:15I don't think it will.
04:16I think they're going to be just fine.
04:17But as of right now, WWE wrestlers, talent, production team members, and things like that, the ones who are not already there,
04:24are scheduled to fly out Wednesday to get there ahead of SmackDown for the PLE.
04:32And the reality is, if they do this show, which again, like I said, I think they will do,
04:38the decision has to be made probably by Wednesday whether or not they're going to move forward with this.
04:44And we've seen in the past where they've had issues with these Saudi Arabia shows,
04:47flights being delayed, not being allowed to leave at one point, and I believe 2019, over a contract dispute, things of that nature.
04:56Interesting stuff always going on when it comes to this deal with Saudi Arabia.
05:01But I cannot see a scenario where, already embroiled in a conflict with Israel, that Iran would want to bring Saudi Arabia into the mix as well.
05:10I don't think that's going to happen.
05:12For those who know me on a personal level, you know I'm a social studies guy at heart.
05:15I teach social studies during the day.
05:17I could get into that with people in private message if you'd like.
05:21I just don't think that's a smart move on Iran's part to create a conflict with Saudi Arabia when they currently are on the sidelines and not a part of the issue.
05:30There are some WWE personnel, it's been reported, especially people like PW Insider,
05:35confirming that, yes, there are employees in Qatar who are under a no-fly zoning are probably not going to have an easy path getting to Saudi Arabia.
05:49But that, contrary to early reports, it's not as big an issue as people are making it out to be.
05:54It's not like there's hundreds of staffers there that can't get to Saudi Arabia.
05:58It's a limited number of people.
05:59I think the show is going to go on just fine.
06:03That being said, this issue is not the only thing related to Saudi Arabia that's big news in the news, or at least theoretically big news in the news.
06:12The conversation came up about whether or not WWE would consider bringing additional PLEs and big-name PLEs to Saudi Arabia.
06:23This was covered on virtually every online platform you could imagine, from WrestleTalk News, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Busted Open Radio.
06:37We've all been talking about this.
06:39We already know that the Royal Rumble is headed to Saudi Arabia.
06:43Now, in the past, they wanted to have the Royal Rumble, but we have that in January.
06:47They had it, I believe it was Philadelphia 2019.
06:48They did the Royal Rumble, and then they did the quote-unquote greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia, where Braun Strowman won and got that ugly green belt.
06:56Similar situation may take place here with regards to WrestleMania.
07:01The Saudi PIL, they want to have WrestleMania in Saudi Arabia, but think about what that does to the people who always go to WrestleMania.
07:11The international community would like to go to WrestleMania.
07:13WrestleMania, one of the biggest draws, heck, that's why we're going back to Las Vegas, supposedly, is because of the huge amount of influx that they did by going to Vegas.
07:23It would, in my opinion, it would either take an astronomical amount of money from Saudi Arabia on top of whatever deal they currently have to bring WrestleMania to Saudi Arabia.
07:32Or, what a lot of people are theorizing is, is there may be two shows called WrestleMania in the same year.
07:38One in a traditional format here in the United States, and one over in Saudi Arabia so that they can claim to have hosted WrestleMania.
07:46Now, look, you and I both know WrestleMania is WrestleMania.
07:51It's the show that takes place March to April every year.
07:55It's going to stay the show that takes place March to April every year here in the United States somewhere.
07:59However, that does not mean they can't have a WrestleMania-titled event, and you can come up with whatever titling you want for that,
08:10but an event that has the name WrestleMania attached to it run in Saudi Arabia to appease this relationship with the Saudi Arabian government.
08:19That is definitely something being discussed.
08:21Don't know where it's going to go, but definitely something to monitor.
08:24And look, I get it.
08:25People look at some of these Saudi shows as being glorified house shows.
08:30I don't think that's what would happen with both the Royal Rumble or with a Saudi WrestleMania.
08:34Now, I'm not saying to book it like it's the WrestleMania, but you certainly have to book it stronger than a glorified house show, and I think they would.
08:42I think you would expect to see championship change hands and things like that at a show like that.
08:47Premium matches, once-in-a-lifetime matches, or the ones that you look forward to.
08:51Look at what they're doing right now with Night of Champions, when you've got matches on the card that we have, as fans, wanted to see at WrestleMania or at SummerSlam for a decade.
09:03We all were expecting that there was a possibility of seeing Cody versus Randy Orton with Orton going heel against Cody for the WWE Championship,
09:14and everybody was very excited about the possibilities of that happening before the whole John Cena craziness went down.
09:19We're going to get that now in Saudi Arabia for the King of the Ring.
09:23It's almost like we're rushing one of these dream matches to put it on a Saudi PLE.
09:29There's a story out this week that Jade Cargill was planned to be a singles women's champion heading into WrestleMania 41.
09:37Then those plans got derailed when she got injured, and now she'll be going to Saudi for the Queen of the Ring,
09:43and I suspect she's going to win the Queen of the Ring tournament.
09:45That way, it'll open the door for her to challenge for one of the women's championships, and she will win that women's championship at SummerSlam.
09:51There you go.
09:52I'm already giving you predictions for SummerSlam.
09:53I don't even know who's going to be wrestling yet, but that's what I would predict if I was looking at things for what they are right now.
09:59So you've got to expect that these matches, even, I'll be honest with you,
10:03this time of year with all this going on and Night of Champions taking place,
10:06I'm shocked that Goldberg-Gunther isn't taking place at Night of Champions.
10:10I would have expected that to happen, though I love the fact that it's going to be happening in Atlanta.
10:17That being said, we're going to move on from all this Saudi conversation,
10:19jump into the Raw reactions, because Raw was a little crazy last night.
10:24Let's be honest.
10:24We opened a show with Seth Rollins.
10:26He talks for a good 12 to 15 minutes and basically told us nothing.
10:31He basically gave us a declaration that he won the Money in the Bank briefcase.
10:37We knew that weeks ago.
10:39So why are we taking up 15 minutes of television time,
10:42taking away an opportunity to showcase in-ring action for 15 minutes to tell me something I knew when I watched the PLE?
10:49What you basically told me is there's no reason to tune in to Money in the Bank.
10:53I could just tune in two weeks later and listen to Seth Rollins tell me what the results were.
10:57It's ridiculous.
10:58It was a waste of time.
10:59Now, look, don't get me wrong.
11:00I love Seth Rollins, and I love the one part of his promo that I really enjoyed was when he talked about how fans don't know what they want.
11:08You know, they sang his song going to the ring.
11:10They want CM Punk.
11:11They want the OTC.
11:12They want Braun Breaker.
11:14They want to sing his song again, and they do.
11:16They sing his song again.
11:18They really – the problem is he – when he says that, he sounds like he's dealing in absolutes.
11:23You can only want one or the other.
11:25And the reality is we're wrestling fans.
11:26We can have it all.
11:27We can cheer for everybody.
11:28We can boo everybody.
11:29It's totally up to us, but whatever.
11:31It moves into the first match, Penta versus Braun Breaker.
11:33Very solid match.
11:35I thought it was kind of funny when you hear on commentary they talk about Penta having such a great year and how he was the Iron Man of the Royal Rumble.
11:41When, in fact, all of us know that when he went over the top rope, both feet touched, and he technically should have been eliminated in the first two minutes of the Royal Rumble.
11:50But they had to talk about him being the Iron Man.
11:52I do like that they've booked Penta a little stronger lately.
11:56I love the tease of Seth Rollins at the end of the match, Braun Breaker picking up the win with a spear coming out of a springboard off the ropes.
12:03But I do love the tease of Penta and Seth going face-to-face.
12:06That's a match I would love to see happen because I think that Penta is capable of much more than they've given him, but he's got to have the right dancing partner.
12:14And I'd love to see him in the ring with Seth Rollins.
12:16I'd love to see him pick up a win clean over Seth Rollins to really push him to the upper stratosphere in the pecking order of talents in WWE.
12:25Love Breaker picking up a win.
12:26Look, that kid is the future of the business.
12:29That's just my opinion.
12:30He's one of my favorite talents in the entire industry right now.
12:34And I know, look, like all of you guys, there's many of them on my list, but he is certainly one of the top ten of my list, probably top five of my list right now, best talents in the world right now.
12:43So, that being said, moving on, Jade Cargill, Roxanne Perez, I think going into this, we all knew Jade Cargill had to win.
12:52I actually was more interested in whether or not we would see interference from multiple individuals.
12:59Would this lead to some kind of thing between setting up Cargill for another feud with somebody beyond the Asuka match?
13:06But in the end, knowing what I've seen in the reports about her supposedly being a champion prior to Mania 41, I really look at this for what it really is.
13:14This was, let's get Jade Cargill with a premier talent who she can go in the ring with and have a great match with, and then set her up to win Queen of the Ring so she can be in a championship opportunity at SummerSlam.
13:26Michael Cole's sit-down interview with Goldberg, I'm going to say it the only way I can, I've never been more frustrated or more furious with the booking of a situation that could have been much, much, much, much worlds better.
13:37Bill Goldberg has been asking for a retirement match for forever and a day, ever since he felt that Vince shafted him.
13:43So, he's going to get that opportunity against Gunther.
13:46They set it up last year at Bad Blood.
13:49I'm okay with all of that.
13:50But, let's think about the logistics and the logic behind this entire thing.
13:55You know, Goldberg talking about finishing business because of what happened at Bad Blood.
13:58It's been eight months.
14:00Did it take you eight months to build up the gumption to come face-to-face with the guy?
14:05Or did you have to go home and work out for eight months to get yourself in shape because you were somehow in horrible shape?
14:10When I saw you at Bad Blood, you looked pretty jacked.
14:13You know, I understand you were wearing a coat, but he looked jacked.
14:16So, I don't feel like he aesthetically needed eight months to get ready.
14:20I'm sure in his personal life, he probably did because Bill really cares about his performance.
14:26I get it.
14:27That's what annoys me about people who knock Bill Goldberg's performances.
14:30The guy cares.
14:31He may care more than anybody else in wrestling right now.
14:34Think about it.
14:35The Bret Harts, the Stone Colds, Kurt Angle, all these classic wrestlers who don't really like to come back because they're afraid of tarnishing their legacy because they care about how their matches go over.
14:45Or, Goldberg feels the same way no matter how long his matches go for.
14:48That being said, this has been botched from the beginning of the announcing of this match.
14:55First off, Jey Uso never should have lost the World Championship.
14:58It's being reported by Dave Meltzer, which, take that with a grain of salt, all you want.
15:02The guy is hit or miss most of the time these days.
15:05But he says it was always the plan to give Jey the belt for a short period of time, move it back to Gunther, and then have Gunther face Goldberg.
15:10The problem is, you have to have one of two things.
15:13Either you have to have Bill Goldberg announce ahead of time that this is his retirement match and he wants Gunther for his retirement match.
15:21Or, you have to have another match planned after this for Goldberg and make it clear this is not the retirement match.
15:29Otherwise, you know, it makes it obvious who's going to win, right?
15:33I'll come back to that in a few seconds.
15:36Jey Uso keeping the championship from Gunther and Gunther going against Goldberg, there's no championship on the line.
15:41There's no way to predict who's going to win.
15:44If he's retiring, how could he retire and be world champion?
15:47When you have John Cena talking about ruining wrestling, if he retires as champion, you're going to have the good guy, Bill Goldberg, come in and do the same thing on the other brand?
15:55That doesn't make sense.
15:56There's no continuity in their storytelling, and I know I've briefly touched on that in previous episodes, but that's the issue.
16:02WWE doesn't think about how their stories, they contradict each other.
16:07It makes them look like they're not even beginning to think about what they're doing as a whole, as a company.
16:13John Cena's going to ruin wrestling by walking away with the world championship and retiring as champion.
16:17But Goldberg, he's going to challenge for that championship, and it's not going to ruin a flipping thing if he retires right afterwards.
16:24That doesn't make sense.
16:26Couple that with the fact that if you left the championship on Jey Uso, even if you wanted to take it off him right away, that could have been Seth's cash-in.
16:32Gunther could have beat him down, he could have snuck a roll-up win, WWE's favorite move to finish big matches, a quick roll-up, and Seth could have cashed in and taken the championship from Jey, and you're fine.
16:42You still get the bell off of Jey.
16:44The issue I have is Goldberg always getting a championship match for no reason whatsoever, and no storytelling.
16:51Bully Ray on Busted Open said it the best earlier today.
16:54He was saying, you know, Gunther should have come out and said, you want this world title match?
16:58What, because I talk trash about your family?
16:59That doesn't get you a championship match.
17:01He should have said, if you want this championship match, you've got to put something, you've got to put some skin in the game.
17:06If I'm putting the title on the line, you have to put your career on the line.
17:09That would have made it make sense.
17:11Why is it?
17:12I said that on a previous episode.
17:14Why is it that we, the fans, or somebody like Bully Ray, have to think of these things after WWE screws it up?
17:21How could you possibly, an organization, it's a multi, multi, multi, multi-billion dollar corporation, screw this up that bad?
17:28It doesn't even begin to make sense.
17:30You have to have better storytelling.
17:32So at this point, we all, every person, look, I know I've heard people debating, oh, well, they had Goldberg beat The Fiend.
17:40I get it.
17:41Horrible booking decision.
17:42But they know that.
17:43They've seen the backlash.
17:44They've seen the videos where people joke about this and make fun of them for that decision.
17:49For years now, do you really think they're going to do that again?
17:51I don't.
17:52Even in Atlanta.
17:53Goldberg is going to lose to Gunther.
17:56So don't put the championship on the line so that we know how it's going to go down.
18:01That way you could have Gage get involved.
18:03You could have Ludwig Kaiser come out and get involved.
18:06You think about if Kaiser came out to help Gunther, but Gage took out Kaiser.
18:10Oh, that'd be amazing.
18:11Think about the pop from the Atlanta crowd.
18:13Goldberg could still lose and it wouldn't matter.
18:15He gets to share a spotlight with his son, getting physical, who's talked about possibly training to go into pro wrestling at some point.
18:23I just think they've totally muffed what could have been a fantastic angle.
18:27And for everybody who's out there saying that they don't want to see the match, they don't want to see Goldberg, I question your fandom.
18:31I really do.
18:32I'm not asking for Bill Goldberg from 1998.
18:35He's a 58-year-old man.
18:37But you know what?
18:38A 58-year-old Bill Goldberg is, for me, even in 30-second squash matches, would be more entertaining than some of the stuff I see on other programming that people rant and rave about.
18:489,000 super kicks, jump flips, and everything else that makes no sense that 15 years ago somebody gets a super kick to the face and they're out for 10 minutes.
18:56And now you get 17 of them a match and you still kick out on one.
18:59It doesn't make sense.
19:00I'll take a Bill Goldberg squash.
19:01I will, even at 58 years old.
19:04I love the three-minute squash of Brock Lesnar.
19:06But here's a guy who beats Lesnar, beats The Fiend.
19:09Is there a possibility to beat Gunther?
19:11Yes.
19:11If Triple H really wants to pull the trigger on that, sure.
19:14But then they asked, you know, what happens if this was supposed to be a retirement match but then you win the world championship?
19:20And he goes, oh, it's an interesting conundrum or quandary or whatever he said.
19:24I get it.
19:25That opens the possibility.
19:27I think they said that just so we don't think it's impossible for him to win.
19:31You didn't have to do that.
19:32Just put the career on the line.
19:34Build it into the storyline.
19:35Bad idea.
19:36All right.
19:36I've been on this way too long.
19:38We're going to keep moving on here.
19:39We come back.
19:41We have Gunther come out and cutting his promo.
19:43Again, we talked about how he missed the boat there.
19:47Bayley, Becky Lynch, the Intercontinental Championship match.
19:49I understand what they're, you know, planning for.
19:52This looks like it's going to be a three-way at SummerSlam between Becky Lynch, Bayley, and Lyra Valkyria.
20:00I understand why they're doing that.
20:02I just don't love that they're doing that.
20:04I would have liked to have seen just a legit match between these two.
20:09And no need to have a clean victor here.
20:13But this was, I don't need Lyra Valkyria being pulled into this.
20:18I want to see these two legendary horsewomen go at it without the outside nonsense.
20:23But like I said, I feel like we're probably going to see this three-way either at SummerSlam or better, more likely, because it's such a premium match.
20:33We may see this at Evolution 2.
20:36Don't like it.
20:37Didn't enjoy it.
20:37But it is what it is.
20:40Raquel Rodriguez coming out, throwing down a challenge for Rhea Ripley.
20:43Obviously, this is going to lead to a match being made between the two, a street fight.
20:49They have not built up Raquel to seem like a threat to Rhea to me.
20:54I get it.
20:54Putting her through a table and all that last night was great.
20:56But I don't think this really puts her in position to be taken seriously as a threat to Rhea.
21:03They needed to do more work if they wanted to make that happen.
21:05Have her squash some people.
21:07You know, it doesn't have to be big names.
21:08Have her squash every, you know, B-level female star, go down to NXT, tear through them, you know, whatever.
21:15But they should have built her up more before they were putting her in a street fight with Rhea, unless you're going to have outside interference help her win.
21:21I did love the fact that you have Roxanne and Raquel seemingly get on the same page, which I have a feeling will lead to them giving her the opportunity to take over the Tag Team Championship.
21:33This would not be the first time we've seen Trish Stratish do it when she replaced Lita.
21:36We saw Naomi do that when Jade went out to injury.
21:40So it would not be, you know, unprecedented for Roxanne to take over the Tag Team Championship.
21:46I think that's a good idea, what happens when Liv comes back.
21:49We'll have to wait and see.
21:50And then the big match of the night, Cody versus Jey Uso.
21:54A solid match, back and forth, real technical masterpiece.
21:58I loved it.
21:58Some near falls.
21:59I don't think anybody ever expected that Jey was going to win, but I also don't think they expected the match to progress the way that it did.
22:08Cody Rhodes picking up the win.
22:09He'll go on to face Randy Orton.
22:11Look, I know there's not a lot of people who are clamoring to see Jey Uso versus Randy Orton at the Night of Champions, but that's actually what I would have done.
22:20Just so you could save Randy and Cody.
22:23I mean, let's be honest.
22:24If you're going to have a WrestleMania in Saudi next year, that could have been your main event in there.
22:27If you really want to have Randy and Cody in Saudi, this I didn't think was a great idea.
22:33I think it leads to Cody probably winning the King of the Ring tournament to challenge John Cena at SummerSlam.
22:38I also am not a fan of that.
22:40I wanted that to be the match in December at the Ruthless Aggression pay-per-view and let Cody regain the championship there if it's going to happen.
22:48If Cody goes to SummerSlam and doesn't regain this championship, I don't see a path for him to get back to that before the end of the year,
22:54which means Cody would not be the one to take the championship from John Cena.
22:59Now, who could replace him in that role?
23:02Jey Uso.
23:03Remember, he's the one who threw John Cena out at the Royal Rumble.
23:06They've had some interaction during the tag team match.
23:09There is a storyline there, and think about what it would do for Jey Uso to be the guy who ends John Cena's career and his World Championship reign.
23:16I think it'd be great.
23:17Jey Uso has not lost any support despite losing the World Championship.
23:20And look, like I've said it before, you cannot blame Jey for the booking of his championship run.
23:25That is all on the writing team.
23:27They planned for this nonsense to take the belt off him so quickly, so I don't blame him at all.
23:32But it'll be interesting to see how this plays out, what happens at SummerSlam, how Cena progresses through the year.
23:38Because this puts a premium match.
23:41We all wanted to see Cody and Randy in Saudi.
23:45And we just had Randy Orton versus John Cena, so I can't see Randy winning again.
23:49Because, again, this is where they're booking things, so it looks like there's no way for certain people to win.
23:53Which takes away some of the luster from the match.
23:56Jey versus Randy would have made a lot more sense to me.
23:59It really would.
24:00And then you could still play out the Jey John Cena storyline that I was just talking about for the end of the year if you don't do the Cody thing.
24:06And just do it earlier if you don't want Jey to be the one to do it.
24:10And then have Cody find his way to the championship later in the year.
24:14I don't know.
24:14We'll have to wait and see.
24:15Some other stories coming out of Raw related to Night of Champions.
24:19Sami Zayn and Karrion Kross has been added to the PLE because of the change in the car.
24:25Dominic Mysterio, I don't know if it's keyfabe or if it's a legit injury, but he is out of Night of Champions.
24:32He was going to defend the Intercontinental Championship against AJ Styles.
24:34So instead, we're going to get the Sami Zayn-Karrion Kross match.
24:38Gosh, I hope they put Kross over big here.
24:40And I know they probably won't because Sami Zayn in Saudi is a big deal.
24:43But I would love to see Kross start to get a legit push.
24:48Now, with his contract coming up and no word on him getting a new contract offer anytime soon, I don't suspect that's going to happen.
24:54But that's what I would like to see happen, if we're being completely honest.
24:58Have to wait and see.
24:59Let's get into some other WWE stuff.
25:02CM Punk and John Cena, the reverse pipe bomb from SmackDown last week.
25:06I haven't had a chance to talk about it.
25:08I get why they did it.
25:09I love the shout-outs, Castagnoli, Nick Nemeth, Matt Cardona, specifically to Matt Cardona because there's always been conversation about Cena costing Cardona some of his push when he was doing the True Long Island story.
25:23I thought that was interesting.
25:24I saw Cardona responded over the weekend videotaping a response.
25:27Hey, John Cena.
25:28He's now selling t-shirts that say that, which I think is hilarious.
25:31John Cena doing that to him actually creates a revenue stream for him.
25:34But if you think about it, Cardona being with TNA and Nemeth being with TNA, there's a chance that you can make something happen there, but you're not getting Claudio.
25:44It's just not happening.
25:45AEW and WWE are not in a conversational relationship yet.
25:50Maybe someday, but certainly not right now.
25:53But I like some of the parallels, but it was almost like they were copy and pasting.
25:59I get it.
26:00This was solid.
26:01It did what it was supposed to do.
26:03I love the part about you were the best in the world for, what was it, seven minutes, 14 years ago.
26:09I did like that line.
26:11I don't think John Cena is the GOAT.
26:13I don't think he could ever be considered the GOAT when you're the five moves of doom guy.
26:17I think he's the corporate GOAT, maybe.
26:20Then he's got to fight Hulk Hogan for that championship.
26:23But certainly I don't think he's the GOAT.
26:24But I loved how they built this.
26:26And really, you know, for people who weren't around for the original Pipe Bomb, this, or weren't fans at the time, this was nice.
26:33This was a good play in for that to bring a new audience.
26:37Because I'm sure people looked it up and then they found the other one and they were able to watch both.
26:40And there's a lot going on here that, you know, back in the original Pipe Bomb with Punk talking about how he was leaving in a month and taking the championship with him.
26:50Cena saying I'm leaving in six months taking the championship with me.
26:53There are a lot of parallels.
26:54And I thought, though it was effective, a little too much copy-paste for me.
26:59But I still, I like the fact that there's some nostalgia going on for this situation.
27:07In other news, actually I should have talked about this previously when I was talking about the Gunther Goldberg stuff.
27:13The word is, Goldberg is going to be, according to PW Insider Elite, that he is scheduled to be on weekly television on-roll leading up to Saturday Night's Main Event with the exception of next Monday.
27:23Now, that report was released prior to last night's show.
27:26He was on last night's show, but it was a pre-tape.
27:29So, I don't, that to me is not the same as walking in and seeing the crowd and hearing his entrance music and seeing him, you know, blow smoke and kick and punch and all that fun stuff.
27:37But, whatever, there's supposed to be something else that he will not be at next week's show.
27:41And he'll be at the following week's show leading into the Saturday Night's Main Event.
27:45So, that is the plan for Goldberg going forward.
27:47We'll have to see how that plays out.
27:49The talent from AAA that worked the World's Climb pay-per-view, specifically Vikingo, Octagon Jr., Mr. Iguana, and now Psycho Clown, which if you haven't given, if you haven't checked it out, go to AAA's YouTube channel, watch TripleMania from the other weekend, watch Psycho Clown, killer talent.
28:09Those guys now apparently are pulling back from their independent appearances because they are expected to be making their way over to WWE in short order.
28:21So, when they do that, you know, they don't want them working for some independent company sustaining some kind of injury that somehow takes them out of WWE's plans.
28:30And they have plenty of things they can do to try to get them over while still allowing them to work AAA.
28:36So, I think this is interesting.
28:37It will give some exposure to a new crop of guys that can work most of their matches in Mexico but still get some time in the ring for WWE.
28:45So, in the short term, it looks like we can get a good idea of who these guys are because of who work Worlds Collide.
28:54WWE LFG Season 2, if you weren't watching, that kicked off this past weekend.
28:58I'm so disappointed.
29:00I enjoyed the first season.
29:01I thought it was solid.
29:02This one, they brought back most of the cast from the first season.
29:05And what's really weird about that, and I love the fact that, and if you don't check them out, eWrestling News has a great article about this up.
29:12There's an article, and if I remember correctly, it's Anthony Mango is the one who put up the article responding to his first impressions of LFG2.
29:21And, basically, he had the same opinions I did.
29:23One, bringing back 90% of the cast from the first season, and then having them go through, like, these workout sessions so that the coaches can see what they can do.
29:34You just had an entire season to see what they can do.
29:37Now, what we're not talking about is the fact that they recorded Season 1 long before Season 1 aired.
29:41So, they have been in the ring extensively since then, preparing for Season 2.
29:46But, Season 2 was filmed shortly, right around, and my understanding is right around WrestleMania time.
29:51So, there was a little bit of a break, but not some astronomical amount of time where they might have gained, you know, worlds of knowledge.
29:57So, spending time having to get to know the guys again is a little weird.
30:00And, then, when you realize that, if you watch the Evolve show, which is a fantastic show, by the way, you should do that, you'll notice that, like, the winners from the first season got NXT contracts, which is fine.
30:11They've debuted on NXT.
30:13But, then, you see other people, like, Troy Yearwood and Lee Laurel.
30:19They already are working for Evolve.
30:22So, clearly, they got a contract of some kind.
30:24So, putting them back on here is a little weird.
30:26You're supposed to believe, and the article on E-Wrestling News by Anthony Mango talks about this.
30:34He's like, you're supposed to believe this is a reality show.
30:38You know what I mean?
30:38Why would people be giving contracts and go work Evolve, and it wouldn't be people like Xena or Shiloh, who were the runners-up for Season 1?
30:46It doesn't make sense.
30:48So, it really makes it so the whole, like, reality show feel that you're supposed to have doesn't really follow through.
30:57He also saw what I saw.
30:59The Undertaker talking to Shiloh Hill, telling him to, like, to kind of tank it while they were going through their drills.
31:07I thought that was funny because, you know, trying to get him to fall down the draft board.
31:10They only did the first two picks of the draft.
31:12Booker T got all angry and stormed off set.
31:14I thought that was pretty funny.
31:15But there are several of these people who are already on Evolve.
31:19So, I don't know.
31:20Does LFG rank above Evolve?
31:23You know, I don't know.
31:24I think maybe WWE needs to explain that a little bit.
31:27But all in all, I mean, I'm glad to have a show like that.
31:29It's kind of, like, tough enough, but not quite tough enough.
31:31But I'm cool with that.
31:33Let's get into some AEW stuff.
31:35There was reportedly a plan in place earlier in the year for Edge and Christian to reunite and battle FTR for All In.
31:42And that apparently is on the back burner for now because Christian wants to wrap up his current ongoing saga that he has playing out with the patriarchy and have a separation from Nick Wayne and wrap all that up before the reunion with Adam Copeland.
31:58And the issue is, at this point, Cope has been out for so long.
32:04The guy doesn't have forever to wrestle.
32:05They got to get this going if they're going to do it.
32:07And we're bigger than at All In.
32:09But apparently that's no longer in the works.
32:12We're only a couple weeks away from All In.
32:13So there's no way they're going to be able to build that correctly and put that together in time.
32:16So that's not going to happen.
32:17So at this point, I think what we're looking forward to is maybe All Out, some other big PLE, then we'll finally get to the FTR versus Edge and Christian match.
32:30But again, who knows the way these things get booked.
32:33People come up with ideas and every once in a while, there's just no follow through.
32:36So we'll have to wait and see if that ever comes to fruition.
32:39There are some stars who have been missing from AEW television as of late.
32:42Hook has been out.
32:43He is dealing with a concussion.
32:44He should be back sooner than later, hopefully.
32:47But they want to make sure he is all clear of any post-concussion issues.
32:51Juice Robinson is very close to coming back.
32:54He's been out for an extended period of time.
32:56Broke a bone in his leg back in the Continental Classic, his fibula.
33:02So he has been out for quite a while.
33:04He will be coming back soon.
33:05But then people have been asking about two really curious ones.
33:07Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, has been out as well as Jack Perry.
33:11Both are perfectly fine.
33:12They're just not factored into any plans.
33:14We haven't seen Britt Baker since November of 24.
33:17And her deal runs until 2026.
33:19So at some point in time, she should be doing something or Tony's just wasting his money.
33:23Especially if he extends her because of her injury time.
33:26And Jack Perry, I don't understand at all.
33:28Unless this is a behavioral concern.
33:30Maybe the kid's just too big for his britches.
33:31Which is kind of what we thought we saw when we saw the video released about the CM Punk situation.
33:37We've heard other reports about him doing the same thing.
33:38Even on Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray was talking about his interactions with Jack Perry not being all that welcoming.
33:44So maybe there's an issue there.
33:47But we haven't seen him.
33:47But apparently he's perfectly fine.
33:49So we'll have to wait and see how that plays out over the next few months.
33:52They have all this talent that they're just not using.
33:55And some other updates.
33:56Here's an obscure one for you.
33:58The Judo Olympic gold medalist Aaron Wolfe has signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling.
34:03He finished up his last Judo competition.
34:06And he is headed to New Japan.
34:08He'll be in their dojo.
34:10And he will be wrestling at Wrestle Kingdom January 4, 2026.
34:15Look, WWE is not the only company that can bring in a world-class gold medalist to compete.
34:22Congrats to him for finding his path and wanting to take a step into the world of professional wrestling.
34:26It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
34:28Let's talk about what's not beautiful.
34:30A poster online putting up, I believe, on Reddit, if I remember correctly,
34:35talking about Ric Flair frequenting various bars and restaurants and things of that nature in the Florida area that he's in.
34:45And let me think how to say this in a clean way.
34:49Relieving himself while he's there or having accidents while he's there repeatedly.
34:55The guy talked about six times that he's aware of, of him defecating in public in his trousers because the guy's always inebriated and off his rocker.
35:06Look, I have always thought Ric Flair was one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.
35:10But as a human being, one, the fact that he's still drunk partying all the time despite his medical emergencies that he's had is, look, I'm a father, I've got children.
35:23To see what his near-death scare did to Charlotte, to Megan, to David, like, it's just sad.
35:31But it's sad that a father wouldn't prioritize extending as much time as he can with his kids and give up the drinking for them.
35:39But he apparently just can't.
35:40He can't stop being Ric Flair and go back to being Richard Fleer.
35:43And that's a big problem.
35:45And I feel like, I can't imagine what Charlotte thinks when she knows what her father's been through.
35:51If you remember, she had that incredible promo before Survivor Series the one year when it was going to be Red vs. Blue.
35:57And she took the women's championship over on SmackDown.
36:01And she was going to then challenge Alexa Bliss.
36:03And the night that she won the championship, she talked about, you know, they were in the Carolinas.
36:09And she mentioned how they had always seen her family in the ups and downs and how he couldn't be there but he would be texting her from home and congratulating her.
36:17And then he surprised her.
36:18He came out and shocked her.
36:19And how she shared such a vulnerable moment with the crowd.
36:23For her to now have her father doing this kind of stuff again is just mind-boggling to me.
36:26My heart goes out to Charlotte for having to try to, you know, stay the course through all that hard times when Ric is still out there and clearly not valuing the relationships more than the alcohol.
36:39And look, maybe that's me being overly critical of Ric Flair.
36:41I'm not Ric Flair.
36:42I haven't walked in his shoes.
36:43I don't know what he feels.
36:44But I'm a father.
36:46And he's a father.
36:47And to me, being a father, your number one job is to look out for your kids and prolong and spend as much time with them as you can.
36:53And when you're doing this to your body, you're not doing that.
36:55And when you're doing this in public, this report you came out, it's disgusting.
36:59It's unnerving.
37:00It's disheartening.
37:01It's saddening.
37:02But I hate to say it.
37:04It's also not surprising with everything we've been hearing the last 10 years about the journey and the path that Ric Flair has taken in his own words.
37:10It's not even like secondhand in his own words.
37:13And one last tidbit for today.
37:15Eric Bischoff gave a health update on Hulk Hogan.
37:17There was reports out last week.
37:19Bubble to Love Sponge was talking about how Hogan was like dying or something like that.
37:23Bischoff rebuffed that.
37:24But he did say that he had been in for surgery on his neck.
37:28And he can only handle, I believe the quote is, the body can only handle as much, a certain amount as so much anesthesia over a certain period of time.
37:35He's had a lot of anesthesia.
37:37And between that and some of the prescription medication he's on out of that surgery, it just kind of combined.
37:42It set him back a little bit.
37:43But he said the prognosis is good.
37:45The rumors of the family gathering at the hospital, that part was all BS.
37:48But yeah, he had a bit of a setback because of the neck surgery.
37:51But he's going to kick out like he always does and he'll be fine.
37:53Which is great to hear.
37:54Hogan's going to make it and pull through.
37:56No matter what your opinions are about Hulk Hogan, I don't wish ill on anybody.
38:00Nobody, including the Hulkster, I always wish everybody well for a speedy recovery and hopefully he gets back on his feet.
38:08Besides, I need my Real American Freestyle Wrestling to be a success for all those amateur wrestlers out there who want to see a better path forward.
38:16That's all the time we have for this episode.
38:17Check back with us next episode where we run down the latest wrestling news and rumors.
38:20Special thanks as always to Suno AI for generating the music and sound we use in our show.
38:24Today's podcast, sponsored in part by Beazle Games, bring a new friend to family game night.
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38:46As Fro Life Educational Planning is for today, for tomorrow, for life, with Fro Life.
38:52I'm Fred Froelich, better known as Dr. Fro.
38:54I want to thank you for taking a few moments with us today.
38:55Until next time, take care everybody.
38:57Have a great night.
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