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00:00Hello there, my very good friends. On today's wrestling news, Jacob Fatu bends the knee and
00:05acknowledges Roman Reigns on Raw. WWE rips up King of the Ring, sort of. A top TNA star is becoming
00:12a free agent this summer. And what's next for El Grande Americano after unmasking Chad Gable?
00:19I'm Andy H. Murray. The H today stands for Hey, Where'd All My Friends Go? And this is the news.
00:24Solo Tuesday news, because one of those days. Let's kick this one off by talking about Jacob
00:29Fatu and the events that transpired on last night's episode of Raw. Of course, Simon Miller
00:34will be here later on with your ups and downs review of the show. But we're going to talk
00:39about the opening segment in which Jacob Fatu bent the knee, acknowledged Roman Reigns and
00:43was, as Michael Cole put it, at Clash in Italy, neutered. Interesting word choice there. But
00:50yes, so this episode of Raw took place in Turin, Italy, just like Clash in Italy did. Clue is
00:58in the country's name there. And the main event of Clash in Italy saw Roman defend his WWE World
01:06Heavyweight Championship against Jacob Fatu successfully, which means that Fatu had to
01:10come out and acknowledge him and re-enter the bloodline. I almost said the judgment day
01:16there. That'd be weird. That didn't happen. That wouldn't make any sense. And that's exactly
01:21how it played out on Raw, basically. So the bloodline came out, Roman and the Usos. There
01:27was a bit of tension there between Jacob and Jey Uso, hinting at future Discord, perhaps.
01:34And let's not forget, there was a bit of a showdown between the bloodline and the MFTs at Clash in
01:39Italy as well. But yeah, Roman came down, he had the Usos with him, we had all this stuff,
01:45the We the One pose, all that. But Jacob basically bent the knee, he showed fealty, is that the word?
01:53I learned that from Game of Thrones, so it better be correct. He re-entered servitude in the bloodline,
01:58he acknowledged his tribal chief, and now he goes through this period. Now, we've had some of the
02:06verbiage used by WWE. They've said Jacob's on a leash now. I believe the word Roman use was talking
02:12about him being domesticated and stuff like that. So the long-term goal of this will be for Jacob to
02:19break out of the bloodline again and become a single solo star, you know, a big baby face and break
02:26through and all of that stuff when he finally gets away from this tyrant Roman Reigns who's been
02:32controlling him. It's very similar to, I mean, basically anyone who's broken out of the bloodline
02:38has gone through that. Jey Uso, Sami Zayn, Jacob himself. His version was a bit more heavily involved
02:45with Sola Sokoa, of course. Now he's going through it with Roman. And I think, like, if you were to
02:52look
02:52at it from a very idealized standpoint, you might think that this will maybe result in a huge match
02:58where Jacob beats Roman as a baby face, maybe wins the title if Roman still has it at that point.
03:04There is a fair bit of cynicism towards it, though. I do think that the use of the word neutered
03:09is
03:10a bit much. It's a bit much. But I can understand where the people who see this as Jacob being
03:18undermined and everything else are coming from, because he has been so hot at various periods,
03:25you're going to purposefully cool him off with the goal of heating him back up to an even greater
03:29degree further down the line. But ultimately, with this stuff, I do think that the proof will be
03:36six, seven, eight, nine months from now, where we're at the end of the story. Does Jacob emerge from it
03:42stronger than before? Does he emerge from it more over than before? And a fully fledged main event,
03:47world title caliber guy in terms of his overness and his ability. The ability is there, obviously.
03:53And he has been super over at various points in his WWE run. We'll just see how it plays out
03:59at the end.
04:00I think that, like I said, I completely understand the criticisms here, particularly on a show where
04:08considering Obafemi just lost to Brock Lesnar and Braun Breaker lost to Seth Rollins last night,
04:15so some of the younger up-and-coming talents have taken that step back creatively.
04:21Is it with purpose? Is it not with purpose? Is this just where they live now? We will find out
04:27as time
04:27progresses. But let me know what you think of this in the comments section below. Do you approve of
04:32Jacob rejoining the bloodline in a way? Do you think his acknowledgement was fine or do you hate it?
04:37You're entitled to whatever opinion you have on this stuff. It's wrestling. That's how it works.
04:41So let us know in the comments section below. Let's talk about a bit of King of the Ring
04:45confusion now. Various wrestlers announced, various wrestlers unannounced, matches switched up.
04:52Joe Tess announcing a singles match, which obviously wasn't the case. These are four-way matches
04:58in King of the Ring. We had the first two last night, Obafemi and Io Sky, the winners on Raw.
05:03But on the pre-show for Clash in Italy, Obafemi's match, his first one, was announced as a singles match.
05:12It was later confirmed that these would be fatal four-ways. WWE then switched up their social media
05:18graphics to have Drew McIntyre and Sami Zayn replacing Tala Tonga and Ricky Saints in the tournament.
05:24Okay, sure thing. Then, they announced Jey Uso vs. LA Knight vs. Finn Balor vs. Drew McIntyre.
05:33And then this is apparently a mistake. According to PW Insider, he's not in the tournament or he'll
05:38be announced later as his name was removed from the whole thing. So I don't know what the heck is
05:43going on with this. There's been a couple of examples of the arse and the elbow not knowing,
05:48you know, not really communicating with each other in this company recently. And it's just a
05:54strange little error. I mean, to be fair, when Liv Morgan was announced as a participant live,
06:00it felt like she didn't, she wasn't told maybe. And she had to kind of like react in real time.
06:07This is just me speculating, by the way. But it felt that way. And that would make sense given that
06:12she's the Women's World Champion. And why is she in the tournament? Jordan Grace is right there,
06:16Blake Monroe, a bunch of other people too. So there's a lot of confusion surrounding this
06:21tournament and it could have been clearer. It ultimately won't matter because they're going
06:26to deliver what they deliver and you're going to get these series of four-way matches leading
06:31to the finals and everything else. And they'll probably be pretty solid given the quality of
06:37the personnel involved. We had a big tease between Tala Tonga and Obafemi on Raw last night.
06:43So maybe that's something we'll see later on, perhaps. But yeah, just kind of a sloppy shop
06:50kind of deal there, really. Pulling people out, replacing them on the graphic, then replacing
06:54them again and yada, yada, yada. We do know that Drew is ready to return. He's wrapped filming
06:59on Highlander and he was considered as a potential Jacob Fatou replacement if Jacob was injured
07:07and couldn't compete at Clash in Italy. That wasn't required. Drew stayed at home, probably
07:11watching Rangers on the telly or whatever he was up to. And it didn't play out. But
07:17it sounds like he will be back soon. He's always pushed to a decent degree in WWE. Former
07:23World Champion multi-time, of course. Recently is this year. Almost forget about that. Crazy
07:29year it's been so far in wrestling and WWE in particular. But yeah, bit of King of the Ring
07:34confusion there. Let me know who you think should win the tournament down below. I feel like
07:37they were teasing Seth Rollins quite heavily last night. He's looking at the trophy. He's
07:41going like, ah, I've never been this before. King Seth. King Seth feels right. Maybe that's
07:46the direction they're heading in. If that is, is that the right direction, in your opinion?
07:49Let us know. Let's now talk about TNA Star, who might be becoming a free agent this summer.
07:54His contract is expiring relatively soon, according to PW Insider. Sometime in July. If he doesn't
08:01agree in extension, he will be done. It's Mike Santana, the world champion. The last name
08:06if you're TNA, yeah, probably the last name, our world champion, that you would want slipping
08:11through your fingers and all of that stuff. Now, there's no guarantee that he'll leave.
08:17There's no saying that he'll leave. They're not reporting that he's definitely going or
08:20anything like that. However, it is noted that WWE has been interested in him in the past.
08:26And of course, Mike, as part of TNA's working relationship with WWE, has made several appearances
08:32on WWE programming. So, if he was to leave, and this is where the speculation hat comes
08:38on, maybe we need a physical hat that we can put on when we're talking about this stuff
08:42to differentiate between the news and the editorialization. Yeah, you'd probably say he's
08:48going to end up in WWE as a consequence of that. But ultimately, you don't know. You
08:54never know. People make these individual, personal, professional decisions based on myriad factors
09:00that we simply are not privy to. There could be a number of different things that will influence
09:06Mike Santana's pro choice. Maybe he stays with TNA. Who knows? And we just won't hear
09:12about a lot of the things that will make his mind up. Money, exposure, bigger platform,
09:16all of that stuff definitely comes into it. Now, when you're talking about potential free
09:21agents in this era of wrestling, you automatically have to think of AEW as well because they are
09:27WWE's closest competitor and they do tend to offer at least financially comparable deals.
09:33In this case, Santana has been there before and not been used to his liking. So, that maybe
09:40is less likely than it would be for somebody else who might be becoming a free agent coming
09:45up soon. Maybe that's just something he's not considering. The reason he left is because
09:49he wanted more for himself and he's found that in TNA and he would probably hope to find
09:54that in WWE as well. So, maybe AEW's not on the table. But maybe with how Mike's game
09:59has evolved over the years, maybe different promises could be made. You never know.
10:04If I was a gambling man and I'm not, I would say that he's going to end up back into,
10:09or
10:09in WWE, sorry. At some stage. I still think it's a real shame how his long-time tag team
10:16before T's panned out. But hey, look, personal issues happen and that's life. Sometimes you
10:20move apart from people. It's the way of the world. It's the way of the world. But Mike
10:26is a guy who has really bet on himself, really worked on his game. He's transformed his physique
10:30as well. I'm sure his mentality is different now too. He's in the best form of his life,
10:35the best shape of his life. And you can't ask for more than that. You cannot deny the grind
10:40that he's put in to take himself to the next level and become a bona fide singles wrestling
10:45star in his own right. I think it's really admirable. He's one of the guys I'm rooting
10:49for most to succeed in pro wrestling. Just a big fan. Big fan of anyone who takes their
10:54future into their own hands and just really grabs it by the scruff of the throat. That's
10:58not the phrase. But you know what I'm trying to say. Really takes control of their situation.
11:02And it's great seeing him thrive. And I'm sure he will continue to do so wherever he
11:06lands. Because his work rate simply cannot be denied.
11:10Great work. I loved his past few years. Let's talk now about El Grande Americano. Very hot
11:17button guy. Very hot button topic at the moment. On the strength of his tremendous AAA mask
11:24versus mask clash with the original Grande Americano. Turned out to be Chad Gable. Which
11:32of course, I'm not going to play the silly games. We know it's Ludwig Kaiser versus Chad
11:36Gable. Come on. I'm 38 years old. I can't pretend otherwise. However, it was a tremendous
11:42match. I'm not undermining the quality of the match. Just proper pressure cooker atmosphere.
11:47The right amount of interferences and well-timed kind of disruptions and stuff like that. Heated,
11:54personal, really good stuff. Really good stuff. And if you're wondering what his future might hold,
12:02they showed the match on Raw this week. And they had El Grande Americano come out during the break and
12:08he got a huge response in Italy. But JBL thinks that this man should stay in AAA for a while.
12:15This is an interesting theory. This is from Busted Open Radio. Here's what JBL had to say.
12:20I want him to stay in Mexico. There's no doubt about it to me. It's hard to get over. It's
12:26hard
12:26to get over anywhere. If guys can get over anywhere, I don't care if it's Tennessee, Japan, Puerto Rico,
12:31Mexico. It doesn't matter. If you can get over, it's tough to do. He's the biggest star in Mexico
12:36right now. And that is amazing. That's also not true, JBL. But he's a star. He's a big star in
12:42Mexico. Let's just cool the jets. Mystico exists. I would ride this AAA wave. I don't know what
12:49they're coming for next. I don't have any insight about this, so I'm not giving away anything from
12:54meetings or anything. But I think they're going to get a pretty good TV deal coming up. They've got
12:59a good TV Fox deal down from Mexico down south all the way to South America. I think they'll get
13:04another TV deal. And what would you want to be? Would you want to be the biggest star on this
13:09new show
13:10and be one of the reasons they brought it to you? I think that's an opportunity that's just too good
13:15to pass up. I totally agree with this. I think that, and look, AAA, it's technically the same
13:21company as WWE now. But I think there's value in spreading talent around and, you know, not
13:28immediately jettisoning someone when they get hot from a smaller product to what they will see,
13:36obviously, as the mainline product, the mainline WWE shows. Just immediately yanking him away.
13:41He's great in that environment. The Mexican crowds have really, really, really taken to him just as
13:47he has taken to it. And I feel like his decision to really embrace the Lucha Libre culture and the
13:53culture of the country in general has been a big contributing factor to Kaiser El Grande Americano
13:59getting over super huge. He's done a sensational job. Why change a thing? Why change a thing right now?
14:07Yes, there's an argument to be made that if he came back to WWE TV full-time, he'd be a
14:11bigger star.
14:12And it's correct. It's absolutely correct. But why not keep him on the stove in AAA for now, right?
14:18Why not let Jeremy Borash or The Undertaker or whoever the heck is booking the majority of the show
14:22take care of him and let that star grow even further? How far can you take this? Maybe he can
14:30become the
14:30biggest star in Mexico at some point. He's certainly the biggest star in AAA right now.
14:34And that's beyond dispute. Also, look, WWE is kind of going to battle with CMLL in September.
14:42And whatever you think of that, you need your hot guys on that show. You need your hot talents.
14:46El Grande Americano is absolutely that right now. So what started off as a real weird gimmick with AI
14:52videos and real disingenuous stuff. Look, I have my own opinions on the gentrification and all of that
14:59stuff. Gentrification is not the word. Commodification is the word I'm looking for. The homogenization
15:04get my Asians wrong here. You don't want to do that with the words. But you can't deny the effort
15:11he's
15:11putting. You can't deny that he has fully embraced this. And you can't deny that he's over huge. The match
15:17was
15:17tremendous. That's subjective. I thought it was really great. The angle, you can disagree on it. It's fine.
15:24That's how it works, guys. We all have different opinions. Everyone's got a different one.
15:29Let me know what you think of our Grande Americano in the comment section below. What should WWE and AAA
15:34do with him next?
15:36I've been Andy.
15:37Other people will be back tomorrow. I'm taking a little break, but that's fine. We rotate. We've got a bench.
15:43No one's on the bench here. We're all in the trench. Shoutouts Gridiron. See you later. Bye.
15:46Bye.
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