Dave Neal | Bachelor Clayton Echard HOAX Paternity Scandal Pt. 2

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Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates national average 12 month savings of 779 dollars by new customers surveyed who saved with progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary not available in all states. I'm dropping names, folks today on Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, Another guest for the Big Two 100th episode. There's going to be live at Caroline's on Broadway in New York City. SummerSlam Week gets revealed. Sean Mooney is on the show to talk about his storied WWE career and a very controversial tweet from yours, truly as it pertains to Monday Night Raw. All that and more today on Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Sam Roberts wrestling podcast. Introducing your host from New York here is Sam Roberts. I did, I did. I had a very controversial raw tweet. Then I'm going to have to address in the state of wrestling this week. I had no idea. Sometimes, you know, that's the thing. When you're the last professional broadcaster, you tweet out opinions and you have no idea what's going to be controversial. I sent out a tweet that I thought was downright tame and it became highly, highly talked about all through my feed. We'll talk about that later on today. Welcome to Sam Roberts wrestling podcast counting down the episodes to two hundred at episode 200. That's when we officially become not Sam wrestling that becomes the new name of this show. And we do it live at Caroline's on Broadway, New York City, August 16th. Thursday, 9:30 p.m. That's two weeks from today. If you're downloading this podcast, the day it comes out in two weeks will be live at Caroline's on Broadway. Get your tickets now ! Caroline's dot com. You can also go to Twitter.com/ not Sam. Look at my pinned tweet. Pinned tweets are important. Look at the pinned tweet and you can find a link to get tickets to the big 200th episode. It's where Sam Roberts wrestling podcast becomes not Sam wrestling. And you can be a part of history. Be there. Get your tickets now. I already told you, Bruce Prichard, brother love himself will be in the house. Yours, truly. Bruce Prichard, the wonderful venue that is Caroline's. It's nice. It's intimate. You'll be able to be so close. You're not legally allowed to touch Bruce, but you'll be close enough that you could if you wanted to. And who knows, Bruce is a weird guy. He might let you touch him. It's time to announce another guest, though. It's that I would. And why wait a moment longer? Not only will friend of the show Bruce Prichard be on Sam Roberts wrestling podcast 200th episode from Caroline's on Broadway. But another great friend of the show, former. Ring of Honor, world champion. Dalton Castle, Dalton Castle will be on the 200th episode of Sam Roberts wrestling podcast, Dalton Castle will be in the Flesh. The last time we talked to Dalton on the podcast, he was Ring of Honor Champion. Now you'll get to see him, you'll get to see the conversation happen live right in front of you. One of his first interview since losing the title, we got his first interview after he won the title here on this podcast. He really didn't do all that many interviews lately, so it'd be great. Dalton Castle will be in person at Caroline's on Broadway. Thursday, August 16th, 9:30 p.m. Prime Time in Times Square, New York City. The Thursday before SummerSlam be there and by the way, we've got more guests to announce, and it's not just going to be those two Bruce Prichard, Dalton Castle, surprise names and more names that I will announce. So keep tuned in to social media to get those tickets now. You're going to love the show. Caroline's JD.com and of course, twitter.com slash. Not same for that pin tweet. Now I'm going to tell you something. This conversation? Today's conversation with Sean Mooney. It was not the easiest thing in the world for me to get done, not due to any fault of Sean Mooney, Sean Mooney and I were. We were put in contact with each other, which is still mind blowing. I mean, the whole point of this show is that I'm a giant WWE fan. Everybody knows this. I talk like a WWE fan. I talked to WWE fans. It's the whole reason this show exists so we can have a place to just talk about this thing that we like so much. So the idea that I'm put in contact with Sean Mooney, Sean Mooney was a staple of WWE TV from about 1988, let's say the late 80s until the early 90s, he probably had a good five or six year run of every event center. He would pop up in commentary for primetime wrestling. He would interview do the promos backstage every now and then. Really? It was Sean Mooney. It was Bobby, the Brain Heenan. It was Lord Alfred Hayes. It was Gorilla Monsoon. These and mean Gene Okerlund, Sean Mooney, Lord Alfred Hayes, Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby the Brain Heenan mean Gino Crow. And for a lot of us, this was our childhood announce team. And it really is amazing to kind of get the perspective from these guys. Now, years removed, now that we're all adults and we can have conversations. It's an amazing all. All, all these people have amazing stories to tell. And I wanted to get this amazing story and I wanted to get it here on the podcast or I could share it with you. It's one thing to sit down with Sean in a bar and have him tell me all kinds of stories. That's not good enough for me. Let's record those stories. Let's put them out on the internet. Let's let you listen to them. So of course, the idea is that I'm going to get in contact with Sean Mooney via Skype, and I'm going to do it here in the wonderful, vivacious, beautiful NATSEM studios. Unfortunately, sometimes you want things to happen and they don't happen so easily. So today I record this on Wednesday, the night I had literally this thing. If you listen to this. As soon as it gets released, I'm recording this, you know, six hours before it comes out or something like that. So Sean Mooney, we get in contact. We have an interview scheduled today. I had a meeting that I had to go through this afternoon. Then I had to rush home to make sure they get this interview done right. So I rush all my time. I get here. Everything's good. It's storming in New York like it's off and on. There's thunder, there's lightning, there's torrential downpours. It's just ugly off and on, though sometimes it will be bright and sunny. Beautiful August afternoon. Other times, rain, thunder, lightning and it all goes in 15 minute increments. So I get in the house and for some reason, Fayose has screwed the pooch. The internet is down all over the house. The internet's down. I restart the modem. I plug, I unplug, I plug in. I unplug again, unplug, then then plug again. Nothing is working. Red dot of death. The globe on my modem is red and I'm sitting there and we're already late and I know that Sean's got a busy schedule. He's got a couple, he's got other interviews to do. He's got other things to do. He's not the type of man that you just leave around waiting. So I'm texting with him. I'm going short. I'm sorry. This is really embarrassing. Plus, I want to would at least like some people. There are some people left that have some kind of weird idea that I'm actually a professional broadcaster. Me calling myself the last professional broadcaster. I've done it long enough that there are a few people out there that still might have this idea that I actually am a professional. Unfortunately, I do stuff like this, and it really, really gets that idea right out of people's minds. So internet's not working. Plug, unplug, unplug, unplug. And I'm sitting there. What am I going to do? I'm taxing Sean Mooney a couple of minutes. Couple of minutes. I'm so sorry. Internet's down. I'm trying to figure this out. I need the internet. I can't just call him on the phone because if I call him on the phone, I can have a conversation with him. But it's not gonna get recorded. You're not going to get to hear it. What am I going to do for this episode of Sam Roberts wrestling podcast? So I'm sitting there, I'm looking around. I go, What's the move? What's the move? My mom's over at my house. She's waiting for my son to wake up from his nap so that she can watch him while I talked to Sean Mooney. OK, that's the deal that I have right now for this day. I'm sitting there going, Mom, do you have internet at your house? She goes, Yeah, there's no problem with the internet over there. So I go, OK, I go downstairs in my Nazeem studio here on the wall. You know, if you've seen it on YouTube, you see all the tchotchkes and stuff all over the wall. Everything's got a little meaning. For the most part, everything's got a little meaning behind it. I guess some of it's just tchotchkes, but most of it has at least a little bit of meaning. I go. And one of the things I've hung up on the wall is the original USB microphone that I was doing Sam Roberts wrestling podcast out using when I didn't have this studio before we built a Nottingham studio. This is the little microphone that I would plug into my iPad and record off of there. So I go, OK, that's no longer a decoration. I grab that. I look through, I save all these cables. I got bags of electronics and stuff like that. I look through it, I find my wire, the USB wire, the cable that connects the microphone to the computer. I go upstairs, I grab my old laptop, I grab the charger for it. I grab some earbuds. I go, Mom, I got to go run out of the house, drive to my parent's house. I'm texting Sean Mooney just a second, just the second. I'm right on top of that rows. I'm right on top of that rows. I go into my dad's house, my dad's there. I call it my dad's house because my mom's at my house. My dad's there I go. Yeah, I got to do this thing. You gotta I know your mom told me your mom called. I go, OK, good. So that means we don't have to do this whole conversation thing. I go upstairs, right and I plug in. And then I realize my parents are out of their minds. And the entire second floor of the House, the first floor. Every room is too loud because it's raining sheets down now. Now is the time that it started raining sheets. So everywhere you go in the house, you're just hearing rain, rain, rain, rain, rain can't do that trying to give you guys a great experience. So I go upstairs and I go, OK, I'll just sit down in the hallway. There's a rug here. It'll it's good for the sound. No problem, right? I sit down in the hallway and I realize that because I lived in that house for about, I don't know, 19, 20 years of my life. I don't hear what you guys will hear, which is everywhere you go on that second floor, there's ticking clocks in just about every room on the second floor. And I got so used to him as a kid that I go into that house and I don't hear him. But somebody who's not used to being in that house is all that they hear. So I go, I can't do it in this hallway because I don't hear the tick talking behind me and all of you will and you guys are going to be like, Hey, what's with the Tic Tacs? And I'll be like, Did you listen to Sean Mooney at all? That's your question. What's with the Tic talks? So I go into the bathroom, shut the door, muting the Tic Tacs a little bit. You might hear him a little bit. Grabbed my old microphone, plug it in, turn on Skype on the old computer and boom, we're off to the races, but that's all to say. If you're wondering why it doesn't sound like I'm in the Nazeem studio for this interview is because I'm not in the Nazeem studio. However, I want you to go through history, OK, when my wife gives birth a year and a half ago. What happens? Sam Roberts wrestling podcast comes to you live from the maternity ward of the hospital that that young man was born in, OK? Days after his birth, we're still in the hospital. I'm recording the state of wrestling live from the maternity ward. We go on vacation to Europe. What happens live from Brugge in a hotel room? Sam Roberts wrestling podcast comes to you. I get home. There's no internet. I don't have an interview for you. What happens? We go to my parents' bathroom and I talk to Sean Mooney. So here he is this week on Sam Roberts wrestling podcast. And all of that is to say I work as hard as I work to make sure that there is a product out for all of you guys. The least you can do is come to New York and get your a*s to Sam Roberts wrestling podcast 200th show Live on Caroline's on Broadway. Caroline's dot com for tickets Thursday, August 16th. From the bathroom at my parents house, ladies and gentlemen, the legend Sean Mooney and now the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast Interview. Somehow, for the first time on Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, This is this is big. This is big for anybody. I think that grew up watching wrestling around the same time as me. I think a lot of us did, and this man's face was, I would say, omnipresent on most of WWE programming for a lot of years. Ladies and gentlemen, Sean Mooney, Sean, what's the haps? Wow, that's a hell of an introduction. Can you? Could you just cut that loop off there for me and just send it to me because Sam Roberts just made one of the best introductions I've ever had coming on as a guest with the podcast? Hey, I'm glad we finally were able to chat here because, you know, I was I thought I was going to have to go all Miz on. You saw this. I saw that when he came into the studio and was a little upset that Conrad and I think Bruce were stopping in. He was he was kind of moved out of the way, but I don't do that at stopping. No, I'm glad and I'm glad you could see my true character that we there were there were a lot of there was a lot of adversity in our way before say, Yeah, but I tell you, I love that that exchange between you two, I think this is awesome. I always have. Even when the doubters are out there, I thought that the guy was like, incredibly talented, but I digress already. Well, you know, I mean, it's a good point. You were kind of people like me and people around my age. The way I interact with wrestlers, I think, has a lot to do with growing up watching guys like you and like Gino Grill in and Lord Alfred Hayes and the way the other guys would interact with superstars. When you guys were on TV, I mean, that's the model. I think you can hear it in a lot of wrestlers voices now that they're I don't want to say, mimicking, but certainly inspired by the promos that were cut with you by the superstars. And I feel like, you know, today's announcers and this isn't a slight on anybody. It's just the way TV is made now. Don't really show a ton of personality by design, not because they don't have it, but when you are around. Even though you were the straight news guy when it came time for you to go back and forth with any of these superstars, you would kind of show a lot of personality and you would react that off of a lot of what they were doing, how well, how hands on was Vince McMahon in the way that you were, that you interacted with these superstars and what was kind of the instruction back then? Well, I want to back up a little on that question before we talk about that because you mentioned something I think is really important that, you know, it is unfortunate today that these very talented announcers and I've worked with a couple, you know, I work with Charlie and we did a DVD together and I thought she was very good and I watched some of these others. It's just unfortunate. They're not really given that opportunity to show that personality because I thought that that was a huge part of putting over these superstars when you got the opportunity because it was that interaction and that and you know, and that reaction. And it's unfortunate. That's what it is. And like you said, it's not a slight to these people because I think that many of them, if given the opportunity, would really be a shot, you know, really shine and be part of of, you know, the product, really the content they would really add to it because people like Gene Okerlund, jeez, you know, you look back at some of the stuff Gene did and it's and it's. Really amazing what he brought to those promos back back in the day, but as you mentioned, you're like Vince. Vince has I don't think he's changed a bit because I still had quite a few people that work with the company and they say he's as involved as ever and he was very much involved. But one thing that was great about Vince, and even though they would give you the instruction about where we were going was something it wasn't a word for word scripted. So I think that that really added to it because a lot of those reactions were very real. The other thing about it is that he didn't, you know, I don't ever really remember ever being yelled at by Vince or him getting in my face. I have to do it because that just wasn't his style. Maybe that changed later. I've heard stuff about, you know, when he gets in these headsets now, but back then he did it. And I think that in some ways, man, did he cut me a lot of slack. I don't know if you've ever saw some of the really early stuff, Sam, but I mean, I was I was maybe I was awful, but I was not good. And it really did. You look at some of those early events centers and I'm yelling, Yeah, that is, it's good. Go to this Friday night and I'm thinking, like, who the hell told you to talk like that? And I came to the conclusion I finally figured it out. You know, Howard Finkel was the one who was the first guy who gave me any guidance when I went into the event center. It was the ring announcer, for God's sakes. So it's they're telling me it really got a production. And really? And I remember he always used to say I would say WWF, and he'd say, No, it's WWF. You don't say it right? You know? I'm like, Okay, Howard. Yeah, right? But you know, he did. Vince gave really was really good with me as far as letting me develop a giving me a lot of opportunity to to get into that role that I had. I won't say character, but that role that I had. I mean, there were times I remember one time we were doing it was a steel cage promo at this live event and we were doing a pre-taped and I was supposed go down inside this cage and do this thing. And Vince laid it out for me. It wasn't that tough, but I could not get the damn thing. I would just kept. And I, you know, I was at that point, I was pretty good. I and then I thought, but I just couldn't get this one. And I'm thinking, Oh s**t, you know, Vince. He's a no, he's in the truck. And Kerwin told me later, he said, You better go talk to your boy. And I remember Vince came down, you know, down the steps. I'm saying, I'm like, Oh God, he's going to. And he came down and just said, You know, I think, pal, that you're looking at, you're concentrating too much on the cage and just just do it and just say, and I then I nailed it. But you know, he could have come down and just ream me because it was absolutely warranted. But back then, he really did work with me a lot when he had, you know, the opportunity. So I think that that allowed me to really develop on my own and and you know, I knew from the beginning I wasn't Gene Okerlund I never tried to be. And I think that that's in a way we were able to compliment each other after a while because we were two completely different announcers. Yeah, I think I think so too, and I feel I feel kind of two ways about the idea of announcers and personality and stuff because I agree. I think it adds tremendously. I mean, the reason why so many of those promos are look back so fondly upon is not only because of the superstars, but because of what you guys gave the superstars to work with. But at the same time, it takes a tremendous amount of understanding as to what your role is and what the product is to do it right. Because you know, when you watch, you know, stuff going on on the indies, when you watch people that aren't really trained to be wrestling announcers, people get themselves over because they're so anxious to show that personality. Everybody wants to be Bobby Heenan or mean gene. And I think that that's why it's just kind of a blanket rule now that nobody shows that kind of personality because the learning curve of being able to use personality in order to get other superstars over and not get yourself over is a really, really difficult thing to master. Yeah, and you nailed it right there because that you look back on those, you know, thousands of promos, all those interviews that Gene and I did, Gene certainly did a lot more. But even with Gene B gene, we have a line that would, you know, drop you. I mean, he just but you never he never put himself above the talent and he never crossed that line. And that's that's what makes good announcers to be able to, you know, still be entertaining. But you're not the show. And that really is. Yeah, that is an absolute art to do that. And, you know, Gene Okello. Was a master at it, and I learned a lot from him in that regard. So how often were you on the road in those days? Because in my mind's eye, I feel like most of what you did was in Stamford and which the events center and was the, you know, even later on, you know, at the beginning it was the event center in front of all the monitors. And then later it was the live event center in front of the kind of multicolored early 90s backdrop. But it was all studio stuff. You know, how often were you on the road going to shows and doing those locker room promos? Well, you know, prior to my arrival, you know, Craig George, Craig Minter, Beanie and Gene were out on the road. They'd go to these house shows and these TV tapings, and they were and they would do these all live. And that was the reason that they came up with the event centers because it was ridiculous. These guys would, you know, start doing these promos that would last two and a half minutes to localize these markets, and someone finally brilliantly figured out, You know what, we don't need to have the guys do this. We can have a central location like a news center and that guy does the traffic and throw in. These guys can do so many general interviews and then we'll have them do a few specifics. But that guy in the studio is the one who's going to do the, you know, the real work as far as customizing these markets. So you were right. I spent most of my time in Stamford, where some weeks we customize up to 90 markets, which was just an insane amount of house shows they were doing. And you know, and as you mentioned when we started talking, I did those for every show. I mean, you could not get away from me with the event center as far as, you know, superstars and challenge and international and I mean, everything primetime. And that's what I would take about four days to do that in a week. And of course, then somebody would get hurt and I'd get the red phone at the desk of Howard telling me, Yeah. Barb hurt his leg. You got to do 16 markets over again, which, as you could imagine, was not something you wanted to hear. And then I would go to TV tapings pretty often because we would do, you know, customize things. And then all the pay per views. But I was nowhere near on the road like I was. Ah, like a lot of these other guys, you know, I wasn't going to these house shows, and I wasn't mostly TV tapings, which we did every three weeks back then. Yeah, I mean, I remember so I grew up in England for kind of the yeah, well, yeah. So I watched like from the time I was, maybe, I don't know, four to eight or nine years old, I was little guy. Exactly. I was living in England and watching on Sky Sports, so I watched superstars and challenge, of course. But my memory of those event centers was really, for the most part, prepping pay per views, plug in the magazine, things like that because we didn't get a ton of live events. It wasn't until really much later like it was probably a tape trader. You know, in high school, when I started to try to find VHS copies of old episodes of superstars and challenge and stuff like that that I really it kind of clicked in because depending on where these tapes would come from, it would be different event centers and I realized, Oh my God, these guys, the Sean Moonies of the world were just sitting there recording a different event center for every single market. And I mean, I can't imagine that must have just been I mean, every day, you know, however many hours a day, that's crazy. Yeah, Groundhog Day. Yeah, really. And you know, there was so much material you couldn't put it in a prompter. So I had to ad lib that stuff and I would get, you know, there was things you could do, but still you had to nail the market. You had to nail whatever the venue was. Yeah. And it just went on and on and a great story about that sky television. We started doing that pretty much Alfred and I were the first ones to do any kind of customization, you know, for England. And I remember the first time we went over there and Jim taught me early on to localized things, you know, and you couldn't get on the internet back then, but I would get these Atlas's and, you know, come up with these little towns and I would, you know, localized things and find out a bar somewhere or whatever. So we were one of the first ones to really be addressing people in England. And I remember the first time we went over there and I remember, you know, people would recognize me when I went to that, you know, different house shows or whatever. But for the most part, I lived a very normal life. We went to England and we were staying in this hotel, and I remember Bobby was with us and, you know, a few other people and we were sitting in this bar and these fans came in just, you know, rush this hotel. It was just hundreds of them. And I thought, Well, they don't know who I am. I mean, they're going to know Bobby, and there is a few of the boys there. And I kept hearing these people say, it's the lad, it's the lad. And they were like me, and I felt like, what the hell? Well, it was because I was talking about them where they lived. And, you know, and. That was that just absolutely blew me away. Everywhere we went to, it was crazy. Did you? I mean, and you also like you have to keep in mind and you probably don't realize this as you're doing it because you're sitting in this studio with three other people four hours a day just repeating yourself over and over. It's not even like it's real life. But for us, watching your face like, you know, we watch this stuff religiously and your face is, you know, the most consistent face that we see because not every superstar is on every week for sure, but every single week. Sean Mooney is there, you know, throw into this guy, throw into that guy, throw into this promo so you know, you do become a TV star. Like right under your nose. Yeah. And it took me a long time to understand that now, because, you know, when I started, you know, I did that appearance on the 1000th episode of Raw, right? And that's really the first time Sam I ever came back and had really done anything. And I just remember my son had set up this Twitter account for me at the time, and I took him there to the bet with me. It was like this 27 27 hour marathon. And there's a I'll tell you some great stories about that someday. But anyway, the next day we're going to the hotel and he looks at my twittering is dead. Look at this. I'm like, what? Like 3000 followers on Twitter in one night. And I'm like, What the hell? And then I started hearing from people, you know, trying to get me to go to different these memorabilia shows and stuff like that for signings as the like what? Why the hell do they would they want me? I need to to be at these things. And I finally went to one and to actually talk to some of these fans that love that era, the 80s and 90s. And like, I talk about it on my podcast, I don't think there's ever been a time that has matched that, and we could probably go on for hours. Why? But when it comes down to it, it was just a magical time. There was so much going on. You know what Vince did with professional wrestling and the hulkamania and the whole thing? And it was during their childhood and that to them was an awesome time of life. So when you see somebody who was a part of that during that, when you see those shows and it brings back such great memories, it's like running into somebody who was had a bit part or had a part on that favorite television show. And you get to meet them. And once that kind of got in my brain, I said, Now I get it. And really, it just was kind of a light bulb because I honestly, Sam, I didn't understand that. I didn't get it. I just said I would. I just did event center. I mean, I stood there and held a microphone, you know? And but now I get I understand it because when you're a kid, it's magical. Those guys were bigger than life. They were the, you know, their heroes, these comic book heroes right there that they could go see and good versus evil and the bad guys and, you know, Hulkamania and all of it. So it really was an incredible time. Now you ended up leaving WWE in what year 93? OK, so ninety three. So you kind of got to see the reality that Hulk Hogan could be leaving. This company is leaving. This company is not going to be a part of this company. As a guy who's been there for years and as a guy who's watched the company prosper and kind of lived through Hulkamania and made a living at a company that was kind of working off Hulkamania. Is that a scary thing, even on your level when you're in the WWE and you're like, Oh my God, Hogan's leaving like, This is this is the guy. Yeah, but then you'd seen and I heard a discussion the other day where you. There was this transition because initially when that all started, when it really started to explode in 85 and then you saw that wave, you know? But I think that Vince saw, you know, in the future that for whatever reason, this is not going to last forever if I'm writing this one horse. And so we've got to start developing and bringing making these supers other superstars. And that's where, you know, Randy came in and you know, that's where we saw these other superstars really start to come into the limelight. And yeah, it was scary. But then you saw the reaction to what, you know, the Macho Man was doing and some of these other, you know, big time heals that we had. So it became, you know, it. The company stop being Hulkamania and started to become the WWF. And then of course, what we've seen it, you know, evolve into in the WWE. But I think that that was a great lesson for Vince. And it was a frightening time, as you mentioned, that there was, you know, a lot going on then and it was one, you know, you wondered some days that, you know, they're going to board up the windows. They at the TV facility. They took the water cooler away. I mean, like this cost cutting, cost cutting measures like what the hell? I guess. I guess I'm not going to be ever getting up in front of the plane on one of those guys, you know? But that's when you know, it's trouble when, when, when the free pretzels disappear from the back room. Yeah, water cooler goes and they don't have, you know, they got pretzels in. You know that that that's in the the the room, you know, things are going bad. But yeah, it was a frightening time that we'll get back to my parents bathroom in a moment. But I have to tell you something, something you might not learn from my parents bathroom. 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Or did you do it because it had just run its course and a man can only read live events for so many markets before he goes nuts? Yeah, it was pretty much that, you know, people always ask, you know, that usually you know, you get fire digitally. And it really it just got to the point where, you know, I the events. There was killing me, I mean, it was just it was one of those things you have the all this great things happen to you, but then you that the price you pay is really, I mean, to be in a room after a while, it just drives you crazy. And then, you know, doing these events. And I didn't mind it, and I even went to Vince and said, Look, I want to start doing more. And that's when they had the Murray Hudson experiment didn't work out so well. And initially, he was supposed to help take over the event center so I could go do more. I don't know if they were thinking if this kid could do it, that money's out. But at least that was kind of the door that was opening for him because, you know, I was doing, you know, these Coliseum videos and I was getting involved in doing a lot of the vignettes. And I did the prime time and I thought, you know, I can do this stuff and I love doing it. I just wanted to do more. But the event said, you know, was a four day thing, and Vince is like, Well, that's that's most important. And so it does seem like that's where I was going to be. And, you know, it wasn't I wanted to be a newsman or anything like that. That's another story. How that all that happened. But you know, I just wanted I didn't. It was kind of that crossroads, OK, you want to be a wrestler announcer for the rest of your career or do you want to do other things? And I always wanted to do entertainment. And I didn't know if the opportunity was going to be there because they were bringing, you know, auditioning other announcers. And, you know, I just felt like it was it was a time to do it. Yeah. And I mean, I remember, you know, watching primetime and every now and then one of the matches would pop up and it'd be you and like Lord Alfred Hayes or something doing commentary. But it wasn't all that often that you got to do it. That was something that you wanted to do. I want to be doing more of this Play-By-Play stuff. No, it wasn't necessarily the play by play, although, you know, Alfred and I did hours and hours. It's just that it wasn't seen in the United States. We did all the international matches. And I thought, you know, I initially, I think it was very good at it. But I think at after we'd done it a while, I thought Alfred and I made a pretty damn good team. But Vince didn't didn't like us together. He didn't like me doing it. And so I kind of knew, well, that that's probably not going to happen, and it wasn't something I really wanted to do. But I love doing the the more interaction with the superstars. I love doing those interviews. I love doing, you know, the vignettes. Coliseum was a blast. I mean, if you look at some of the stuff that I've put in and I did early on, we were we had no, no, you know, ties on us at all. We could do pretty much whatever we want to because I had no idea what the hell these Coliseum videotapes are going to do. They had they had no clue that they were going to take off the way they did. And once that happened, you know, then the rains got tired. But if you look at tighter, but if you look at some of those tapes that we did early on, it was, you know, we could do pretty much whatever we want. We'd go in a prop room and just grab stuff and just, you know, ad lib through it, you know, and that was a blast. And I love doing that. And I wanted to do more. But, you know, I didn't know if the opportunity was ever going to come. And I remember sitting in that office with Vince when I told him and he said, Well, you know, there's there could be things down the road and and he goes, But you're going to you're going down south, aren't you? And like, No, that's what I said. If I want to work at professional wrestling, I'm working here when I go down south and I swear to God, I don't think he believed me until I showed up on the air at WWE Air in New York that I was going down there. And so they didn't. He didn't believe me. He thought for sure because everybody else was heading south. He thought that I was going to be there, too. And I've been asked about that, and I never even had a conversation. I never talked to Eric. I remember I talked to Tony one time after he'd gone down there, and he just kind of in passing, said, Would you be interested? And I said, Oh, no. You know, and this was before that, but that was it. You know, that was never even a consideration for me. I remember you disappearing off TV and then I remember I knew you were on UPN and that BWR because I was sitting there. And I think I think they played the Thunder in Paradise Hulk Hogan movie. This is how I remember it was the mid-nineties. I'm a kid. Yeah. W w o r plays that and this is New York W w r. As in New York station, they play thunder in paradise. And then there's a commercial that says, and they're obviously trying to attract Hulk Hogan fans. They say coming up on the UPN 9news, we're going to show you the secrets of pro wrestling, and I got that. I got to see this, so I stayed up to watch it. And Shawn Moody comes on and I go, What? That like? I had seen a ghost because, you know, when you leave WWE, was it difficult to to enter into the mainstream world like W W O R was after leaving WWE to be the wrestling guy who's now going into a world where he's got to be kind of taken seriously as a journalist? Oh Sam, you have no idea. Yeah, it was. And you know, I left there. I think my my confidence was a little better than what, you know, I really thought, Well, all these things I've done, I've been, you know, I've broadcast all over the world. I've done live television. I've done. Studio work, I mean, they know me in England, I'm a teacher, yeah, they yeah, I'm the lad. Oh, right. And and dude, I was, I was, man, I couldn't get anything. It was terrible and I had a child on the way and I fortunately, I had good agent. I had gotten a good agent who was, you know, got me all kinds of great auditions, but nothing. And I was doing some voiceover work. I actually was where I did a memorabilia show on cable with this guy hawking, you know, baseball stuff. I mean, I just, you know, to do whatever I had to do I was doing, I was going into I was taking the train into the city to do these auditions for commercials, and I got a couple that actually helped pay the bills. But I was like, What the hell? What am I going to do? And then I got an opportunity, what my agent said, Look, WW, ah, they have the second half of their news. They do these features, and that's long form stories. And I drove through a blizzard, went down there and auditioned for Will Wright, who was the news director there and had kind of a vision, a new vision for news and it. And, you know, if it wasn't for a wrestling announcer, but he liked me for some reason and brought me in and said, Look, we're going to bring in and we'll see how you do doing these feature stories. Well, I'd been out of the writing game and putting, you know, stories together for a long time, but I had honed my craft when I was with Major League Baseball productions. I mean, I produced television shows for them, greats of the game. And this week in baseball, I produced that for a year. And so I, you know, so I I think I surprised them. I don't think they expected that. I knew how to put a story together, and I started doing these features for them. And Sam, I was on a one a week by week contract with them, and then it was two weeks and then it was a month. And you know, one thing led to another really like my stories and then I filled in one night. It's like Wally Pipp. I, being the anchor, went down with a migraine headache and they needed somebody to go in. And that's how I started anchoring. And that's they. But for me to say I want to leave the WWF and become a news anchor was not the last thing in my head was there. That was one of the reasons I made, you know, I had a news. I had an internship in college and worked at New Station and said, I never, ever when I got done that, I'm never going into local news. Well, look what I'm in. I'm back in it today, so it's funny how things go at any point. Did you try to get back to WWE, like when when the jobs weren't coming? Did you try to call Vince again and say, Look, maybe I made a mistake? Did you think to yourself, I got a call Bischoff and see if they're hiring up there because this isn't happening? Well, I would have never gone to WCW and and but stupidly and stubbornly, I never made that call and I looking back. I wish I would have, but I didn't. I was too damn determined that I'm going to. I'm going to see this through and I did. And really, until years and years later, did I even I'd got a call about doing some things that I ever even think about going back. But I think that it was just being young and not realizing the opportunities that you had. You know, so but yeah, I did. I regret, I, you know, thought about, but I never did make that call. Were you? And the reason that you did nothing related to wrestling was that all because, oh, I don't think anybody wants to see me. Nobody remembers me or was part of that, that stubborn pride going. No, I'm not coming back until I've proven, at least to myself that I have value outside this industry. Well, a little of both. But, you know, bottom line, though, to me, that was the only company I'd ever want. I would ever wanted to work for, ever want to. And if I was going to go back, it was going to be with them and it was it. Did you grow up a fan of wrestling, though? No. You know, I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, where I live now, but I, you know, we didn't we didn't have any shows and we didn't have. Of course, you know, we didn't have TV that we had no local wrestling on. I remember, you know, when it was on air where you would see it once in a while. But no, I just didn't have the the means to to see it. And so, you know, I got up and got grew up and got into sports. And, you know, that was kind of my focus. But till the opportunity came up, no. How did you wrap your head around the product? Like I said, you know, in the beginning of the conversation, like, there's this such a delicate balance in getting talent over and not getting yourself over in selling the product without coming across like, you know, a used car salesman or something. How did you? How long did it take you and how did you wrap your head around the product of what exactly is that we're selling here? It was I was on the job training because, you know, I certainly and back then, Sam, think about what the business was like. We're talking, you know, 1988 there was, you know, kayfabe was still very strong in the industry and the business. And also, you know, these two worlds were colliding. You know, Vince was bringing in, he realized that I cannot take this company to the next level unless I bring other people from the outside who understand how that production world, that business world works. So you had old school, you had guys that had come up from generations of wrestling. And then, you know, these people that came from television production, some of them from network and being thrown into this world and people are speaking carny and you're walking into a locker room and nobody trusts you. And you know, I mean, it took it took a year, but for me to even really get accepted and then also really feel like, OK, now I know what this is about, and I thank God that Vince was patient with me. She saw something in me early on. When I even think about that audition I had, you know, and and Bruce has mentioned it a few times with the, you know, sell me a broom that somehow I did well. And I also had come up with some other thing. I, you know, going up there on the train from New York and saying, I'm going to have to do something different here. So I came up with this crazy little skit that I did, and I think that they thought, Well, she's, you know, he thinks on his feet and he we didn't ask him to do that and he just threw that in there. So I think I stood out. But, you know, Vince was was really patient with me. Yeah. So what happened first? Did they trust you? Did the wrestlers trust you? Or did you just learn how to speak carny? I think it was about the same time I thought about stuff, but no, I think they accepted me first. But they would. It wasn't easy. And yeah, I mean, I would imagine like your family and the people from outside this world, when you start trying to explain to them what your job is like, do you even bother? Because people who aren't at all familiar with the wrestling business like you have to sit them down? I would say four hours, but really four days, weeks and months before you can finally make them understand it's the most unique business in the world, I believe. Yeah, but you have to live it to really understand it. And, you know, like I said, you can people probably thought they're smart in a number of ways, but you haven't you really don't have any idea until you're really living in that world. And, you know, a lot of these people are the ones that are the best at it. They're some of the greatest. You know, they call them workers or whatever. But to me, they're they're just brilliant. These these psychologists that just know how to read humans. You know, if you really look at it, they know how to read crowd reaction. They know how to to work people to get them, to do things that they would not normally do and, you know, for business deals and stuff like that. And so they're it's, you know, its base is, you know, its roots are in Carnival. So that probably gives you some idea, you know, in Kearney, like the language. But yeah, it's it's fascinating. And it's almost like when you're in, you feel like, you know, you're you're the part of the mafia that you know, doesn't whack people. You know, it's just like, you know, you're in and you're like a made guy and you're and it's that way forever. But it's not easy getting in by any stretch of the imagination. I would imagine when you left, you had to step away from the product entirely. At what point did you start watching again? Because, you know, you brought up The Miz earlier? At what point do you start watching? Kind of as a fan? It was it was a years a few years later, and you know, my son, when he got older, like five or six, he really started getting into it and that kind of brought me back as I used to sit and watch. And so that was God. That was when that was it's probably the 90s. You know, late '90s, early 2000s, too, but I had kind of started watching because I was fascinated by the rock and, you know, that whole thing with stone cold when everything in the attitude era, I was like, This is different. And so, you know, I wasn't a know weekly, but I started to keep up on it because I was just fascinated by what was happening as it was going on. Did you ever have any thoughts of, OK, how to Sean Mooney? How would Sean Mooney fit into the attitude era? Or were you thinking to yourself, Yeah, this is probably not the time for me. Oh, I would. I wanted. I would have loved to bet early when Jonathan Coachman and he got to do all that stuff with the Rock. I was like, Oh, that's so me. Oh, I'd love that. All right. Well, I think I got to let you go your busy guy. You got a hundred things. Oh yes. But I do want to. Of course, whenever you're in New York, extend the invitation to you. You've got a podcast now you are back full force in the wrestling world and I love to see it. And I think probably the funnest part of this, because I know as I was listening to you, it hit me a couple times. There's certain I don't even know what words they were, but there's certain moments in this conversation that we were having that I go, and that's the voice that's here, you know, and I think that I think that a lot of people are going to have the same experience listening to this. So, Sean, I appreciate you making the time. And we got to do this again, man. Yeah. And folks, please tune in to prime time with Sean Moody. A lot of my old pals, a lot of the superstars have been guests and we have new ones every week. And I think you'll enjoy it. It's a conversation. I don't call them interviews. And you know, Sam, I really love listening to the stuff that you've done. You are been an inspiration to me, just listening to some of the, you know, the way you have this rapport with the people. And, you know, it's been fun. It really has been fun to be back. And I'm also going to be a part of Starrcast when that comes up. So folks, keep tuning in. Well, it's incredible to hear you say that, and I appreciate it, man. All right. And here is Sam Roberts. Oh, man, how cool was that? Let me know if you guys had the same experience that I did listening to Sean Mooney talk. Just I don't. There were just certain moments. Maybe it wasn't words so much as moments in that conversation where I just like, listen to his voice and I just get that feeling. I don't know if it's deja vu, because you know what? It is usually with deja vu. You don't exactly know what you're feeling. But with Sean Mooney, there were there was just like statement just sounds that he was making that we're bringing me all right back to my childhood watching Sean Mooney at that event center, getting hyped up for whatever Pay-Per-View or TV show or live event or whatever it was that was hyping up. And I'll never forget. I'll never forget the shock when I saw Sean Mooney on UPN, because back then that was like 94 95. The internet wasn't the internet that we know now. So people could just disappear when they would leave TV. They were just gone. You know, unless you had like you were a subscriber to the wrestling observer or something like that, which I was and I was a kid, they would just disappear. And then one day to just I'm not a kid, I'm not watching the 10:00 p.m. news on Channel nine. But one day to just turn on that news one evening and see Sean Mooney there, it really was as much like catching a watch, seeing a ghost as anything I could imagine. You know, it was really it was really cool, but it was very, very cool getting to talk to Sean Mooney and and having him on the show. And, you know, for him to say nice things about me, like, I don't even know how to deal with that, to tell you the truth. I don't know how to sit there and be like, Oh yeah, Sean, of course, you know, you pay attention to what I'm doing. It's nuts. It's totally crazy. But thanks again to Sean Mooney and make sure you guys listen to his podcast because it's just cool that he's got. He's sharing his insight, especially sharing his insight on the business today. Very, very interesting stuff. Speaking of the business today, I did notice real quick that a couple of the guys from WWE were posting tweets, apologizing for old tweets. And man, it's just like if they feel that way, I'm all for it. If people want to apologize for stuff they did in the past, you know, apologize for stuff you did in the past, that's fine. I think a lot of people change and it's kind of what I've been talking about. You know, there's this thing in us that should allow us to forgive people to make who make mistakes, especially when these mistakes are a long time ago. I think and this isn't just for wrestling all these sort of tweets that get drawn up, you know, it happened to a baseball player this week. It happens to celebrities that happen to James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy. You sit there and it's tweets from years and years and years ago, and I'll never understand how somebody can make an off handed joke. Maybe they were having an off night. Maybe they used poor taste for one moment. Maybe it was a different time, and people weren't as aware as to how insensitive it was to make certain comments. That happens, too. But this idea that somebody can tweet something six, seven, eight years ago and it comes up now, right? There's no it's clear that in the last, however many years, they haven't been making jokes like this. There are different person, you know, I guess apologizing is fine. But it's when people decide it's time to punish people for tweets that came out years ago that don't really match the person that we know today. You know, it's just it's a shame. I don't think, you know, we love social media, we love Twitter, and we love the idea that people that we look up to, people that we look at as celebrities, people that we idolize in some ways, just people that were naturally curious about get to express themselves and we get to read these expressions. And you know what this is going to do if you're going to drag stuff up and kind of bring it out of context from years and years and years ago. It's just going to make people, you know, not do this stuff, not interact on social media anymore. And maybe that is the best thing, you know, maybe not every thought is supposed to be recorded, but I just I hope that we're all in the same category now if somebody tweeting out bad stuff today. Then of course, you know, this is reflective of who they are today, and they should kind of answer for it. But if it's from a long time ago and their tweets don't match that anymore, I just don't think that there's much of a conversation to be had. But you know, if they want to apologize. Good on them and good on them to make clear that they're not that person anymore. I do want to talk about the Mae Young Classic. Before we get into the state of wrestling because it's coming up, I don't know the exact date of it. I think it's after SummerSlam, I want to say, but I think 27 so far. Female superstar wrestler, I guess if they're not WWE, there might not be superstars, they might just be wrestlers have been announced in this Mae Young classic. I believe they said that the finals of the Mae Young Classic, we're going to go down at evolution. The all female pay per view in October. So I won. So I would imagine this Mae Young Classic will start sometime after SummerSlam and run through October. But some of the people, of course, Caitlyn is going to be in it. It's going to be fun to see Caitlyn back in a WWE ring. Deonna Purrazzo. I'm super Purrazzo. I'm super excited. How about seeing her in a WWE ring, she's done, she did like a little bit of enhancement work on Smackdown, you know, at this point must be a year ago, but really cool to see her getting a shot and I believe she is signed to next. This is just going to be the first place that she showcased. I really hope she goes far in the tournament, too. You know, I think, Caitlyn, it's cool to see her back, but this should really just be a reintroduction because I think, Caitlyn, we're ready for her to be on the main roster. She doesn't really need to go all that far in the Mae Young Classic because she she can just show up on the main roster and be competing for either the Raw or Smackdown Women's Championship right away. Mercedes Martinez is back, Mia Yim is back, which I'm super pumped about. I watch Mia Yim compete on the East Coast Indies for years and years and years, so watching her, that's what I love to see. People who've just been grinding and grinding and grinding get these opportunities. I think it's it's awesome. Toni Storm, Madison Rayne, Ashley Rayne, I guess, is what she's going by. That, to me, was probably the coolest announcement of the week that Madison Rayne is going to be in this thing. She's got a really great mind for wrestling. She's done stuff in the creative end. She's done stuff on broadcasting, and she's obviously done a ton on the wrestling end. And to see somebody compete in Ring of Honor, TNA and now the Mae Young Classic Slash WWE all in one year. It's just super, super cool. You know, it's really cool. So I think it'll be an interesting tournament for sure. I loved when they did it the last times, and I do wonder like, I don't think Ashley Rayne, I think that's what I that's the thing that I just read had her build as Ashley Rae, but I don't think Madison Rayne has a contract with WWE. I think right now, as far as I know, she's just signed on to do the Mae Young Classic. So I would imagine if she's got that much history and she's being introduced, I would imagine that she will do stuff with next to you. Who knows, you know, if they're going to start they they're talking about starting in next UK women's division. Maybe they ship Madison Rayne off to the U.K. they may do this stuff. That's what you have to keep in mind that if they're starting a full on annexed to U.K. brand, there is a possibility that not everybody on that brand will be from the U.K. same way. Not everybody on the brand is from North America, right? Like they could move guys and girls over from either the next roster or from the independents or wherever and put them on that UK roster and have them wrestle that style. There's no doubt about it that the next UK, the next UK tournament that we saw on the WWE Network several weeks ago, looks very, very different from the next product. So I don't think we're going to be confusing anything between the next product and the next UK product. The next UK product feels like it was far more inspired by the independent scene in the UK, which is a pretty unique scene right now. And yes, just about everybody is from the UK. But still, I would not be shocked if certain people were brought in and then went over to the UK. I mean, it could be something for Madison Rayne. It'd be a really easy move to sit there and be like, you know, I don't need to prove anything to next. I don't need to prove anything to WWE. I've been all over the world. I'm going to take over the UK. I'm not going to let you guys have it is like a heel thing, you know, I'm not going to let the UK have this show. I'm going to be the one who runs things here, whatever you want to do. I just think it could be a cool opportunity. I don't think you have a ton of people that aren't from the UK because then you start to go like, Well, why are we doing this in the UK? But a little sprinkling, a little sprinkling of people from from this side of the pond? I think it could be interesting. So we'll see. We'll see. That's that's the fun part about WWE right now is that there are more opportunities to do things with WWE for athletes around the world than ever before, whether it's a full time contract on the main roster, whether it's a spot next or whether it's just a couple of matches in this tournament, you know. Keep in mind, Zack Sabre Jr. wrestled in a WWE ring that cruiserweight classic was a WWE production, you know, a BUSHI. It happened. And they didn't end up signing contracts, but and I wish they had to tell you the truth, but. There's just opportunity to do a lot now associated with the WWE, just because there is so much going on there. Also, there's rumors about Mauro Ranallo doing the commentary for the Mae Young Classic. I wouldn't be at all shocked by that. You know, they've used they used Mauro in the UK, obviously, as the next lead commentator. So I wouldn't I wouldn't be shocked if that happened. But I do wonder. I wonder who's going to be doing the commentary for evolution like I if it's going to be a full female staff, how would that kick show, huh? You know, any dudes on the kick off show? How about a feminist dudes wrestling podcast? Maybe, maybe, maybe. So I don't. I don't. I don't know. You know, they could do it. I feel like you could easily do. Clearly, you can do a female renounce your Jo-Jo can be your ring announcer. I think you will have female referees. But to do all female referees when we've only got one or I think you've only got one female referee, you might have two female referees to do all female commentators when really, as far as female commentators go, you don't have a staff of them. You know, Beth Phoenix, I think, should be included. But like a lead Play-By-Play person, I feel like. You don't want to add in women just for the sake of adding in women, I think almost like if you're regular, whether it's Michael Cole, whether it's Tom Phillips, whether it's Mauro Ranallo, if your standard one of your standard lead commentators, does that pay per view? It might lend more credibility. You know, I don't know. You've got to have some female representation in that commentary booth. Whether it's one or two, that might be one way to do it. I think maybe maybe one man and two women in the commentary booth if you're not going to go all women. But yeah, it'll be interesting. I bet WWE doesn't even know for sure yet. We'll find out. We'll find out. We got a lot to talk about this week in the state of wrestling, so why spend any more time doing anything but doing that? It's now time for this week's state of Bristol. Welcome. It's state of wrestling time where we count down what hour, according to me, the top five stories in this world of professional wrestling here on Sam Roberts wrestling podcast each and every week, and I thought it only fair this week to start at story number five. Certainly not the least important story, but just kind of where I want to begin paying our respects to three superstars three men that we lost over the weekend. I believe if yeah, I believe it was Sunday, but I could be mistaken. That, of course, is Brickhouse Brown. Brian Christopher and Nikolai Volkoff are awful. They say things like that come in threes, and that's a it's terrible. It's terrible that things like that, if they really do come in threes, I wish they came in zero. So Brickhouse Brown, I believe he had cancer, prostate cancer. If I'm not mistaken, I could be wrong. But I believe it was some form of cancer I didn't know. I mean, I knew of Brickhouse Brown, but Brickhouse Brown was a big star in the 80s and into the early to mid 90s, mainly down south. He never, to my knowledge, was in WWE, but he did a bunch of stuff in NWA. He did a bunch of stuff in Memphis. I think he ended his career in the U.S. way, working for Jerry Lawler there or Jerry Jarrett, or maybe both of them. But, you know, he was one of those names that you heard about all the time. But I guess, you know, because he didn't make it to the international stage. There are people who are just unfamiliar. I do hope when stuff like this happens, you know, the legacy that these wrestlers leave is so important to so many of them. I mean, you know, Bret Hart talks about it all the time. Bret Hart talks about how important it was to have a DVD out with his matches on it and stuff. And I think Bret maybe the most vocal about it. But a lot of guys, you know, wrestlers give up everything to be able to have this career. They give up their families, they give up their bodies, they give up their lives to be able to perform. And the idea being that at the end of the day, they want to leave a legacy for the most part. So the one thing that I do hope is that when all is said and done, you know, you guys go out there and when you hear something like this happen, you go out of your way to find their catalog. You know, I think that that is probably if you're not close to them, you know, if you're not family, that's probably one of the best things that you can do and one of the things that we definitely do for WWE guys. But I think it's even more important for guys that were never in the WWE to go out there, find the tapes, find the stuff. It's easier than ever. Whether it's WWE Network, whether it's YouTube, whatever it is, you can find it to go out there and find what these guys careers were all about. You know, I just I think it's really, really important. Of course, we also lost Brian Christopher, also known as Grand Master Sex, a son of Jerry the King Lawler, and this one was a real shame he's only 46 years old. Of course, Brian Christopher, like so many others, battled a lot of demons. It was said that he died of hanging, or he died after he was hanged, whether he hung himself or whatever. I think now there's investigations open, but he died of a hanging in a jail cell after being arrested again. It really is. It really is a shame because, you know, Brian Christopher is one of these guys who. He made it to cool is an act that everybody of that era remembers, you know, there are some that are going to remember the light heavyweight division coming to the WWE. When the cruiserweight division in WCW got so popular when WWE brought over, the greats ask for a little bit, but really it was about Taka Michinoku. They brought over Taka. They ended up bringing over kind typhoon. They ended up bringing in Scott Taylor. They brought in a handful of guys. But clearly, this division revolved around two sexy Brian Christopher as their top cruiserweight heel and Taka Michinoku as their top cruiserweight. Good guy. Of course, Brian Christopher went on to team with Scott Taylor and become too much. They then evolved into to cool, which especially after adding Rikishi to the group and dancing and stuff. It kind of at first. Was this heel obnoxious poser wannabe gangster group that you know you were invented for you to boo because they were like losers? But it evolved into something that was one of the more popular acts on TV now they weren't having like, you know, these five star matches or anything, but people got excited. They sold shirts, they show sold sunglasses. You know, I saw people literally going to shows wearing ski goggles because that's what Grandmaster Sexy would wear to the ring. And when the three of them, Scotty two Hotty would still people talk about Scotty. Two, Hotty, you know what I mean? People still talk about doing the worm and the dance that rikishi Scotty to Hardy and Grandmaster Sexy would do after their matches. You know, you talk about wanting to have an impact in your legacy. At the end of the day, there's not that many acts that had as big an impact as too cool, and that might be a crazy thing to say, samurai. Come on, Sam. But realistically, when you talk about people, especially when you talk to people outside of the hardcore wrestling fan base, when you talk to people in the mainstream that watch here and there, a lot of people remember to cool, you know? And it says a lot. About the group, about the act, about the whole thing. So that was a horrible shame, and it's always a shame to of course, you know, Jerry the King Lawler is one of the more beloved personalities in the history of WWE. So to know that you know, Jerry Lawler has got to go through losing a kid got to go through losing a son is pretty heartbreaking. So, you know, all of our thoughts and everything go out to the entire Lawler family. And of course, we also unfortunately lost Nikolai Volkoff. I never met Brickhouse Brown. Obviously, I was not, you know, as familiar as I should be with his career. I unfortunately, I don't think I don't think I ever met Brian Christopher. I certainly never interviewed him or anything. But I met Nikolai Volkoff a few times. Nikolai Volkoff also passed away. Of course, one of the great heels, the iron she act. Is a hard act to follow. You know, the iron cheek was such a great heel, but Nikolai Volkoff, the evil Russian who had come to the ring singing the Russian national anthem, that's another act that people always remember. And then, of course, he did the I'm embarrassing. I'm I'm hard up. I need to be purchased by the Million Dollar Man. Ted DiBiase. He was the first member of the Million Dollar Corporation in late 94 ish, the early to mid 90s. And the gimmick was that he was going through some hard times. He would wear the same suit every week, so eventually in order to provide for his family, he had to be bought. His services had to be purchased by the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, and he would make him Million Dollar Man would come out in his tuxedo with the dollar signs all over it, while poor Nikolai would have to come out in the tuxedo T-shirt with the scent signs on it. Brilliant writing, but a sad time for poor Nikolai. It was a fun character, though he hit two generations for sure that early to mid 90s generation and that 80s generation, you know Nikolai was as nice guy as you ever want to meet. You know, I met him a handful of times. I don't know exactly two, three, whatever it was and always just a really sweet man in a world where. Keeping your niceness is not always the easiest thing to do. Nicole, I seem to, you know, I met him obviously later on in his life within the last 10 years. And just, you know, he wasn't one of these hustlers that's out there. A lot of times you meet these older people in their Vergil and you specifically, I'm talking about Virgil. But Nicole, I never did that, Nicole. I was just a sweet man and a good a good person. And yeah, it's a shame to see all three of those guys leave us. But it's always it's always tough. When any superstar goes, it's always a sad day as a wrestling fan, especially when three people get taken all at once. It's a sad day, but we do want to pay a little bit of tribute to all three of them here on on the wrestling podcast because it's a wrestling podcast, and it wouldn't be much of one if we didn't. At least, you know, acknowledge the careers that all three of those men had before they passed away. We'll move on to story number four. And of course, the rest of these stories are far more pleasant, if a little more, maybe a little more trivial. We're not talking about life and death anymore, but still more pleasant and more wrestling talk. And this, I wouldn't say, is trivial. It's just not life or death. New Japan puts out a statement this week that says they want Nakamura back. They would welcome Nakamura back to New Japan pro wrestling. And why wouldn't they? You know, I don't know when Nakamura is contract actually ends. There is no doubt in my mind that if Nakamura went back to New Japan. He could become the biggest star in the promotion once again. You know, he could. Then again, you know, we all thought he could become a mega star in WWE, or at least a lot of us did. But definitely. With the way the Bullet Club has evolved over New Japan, with everything that's going on with with Nido, with everything that's going on with everybody over there, you know, for instance, if we're going to see a Chris Jericho Nakamura match ever. I would prefer that match to happen in a new Japan ring than a WWE ring, just because that match and the presentation of that match, I think, would be presented in a more entertaining way for me. Now the question is so, so yes. Do I think it would be a positive thing if Nakamura went back to New Japan in terms of me as a fan watching New Japan? Yes, that would be a positive thing. You know, in terms of me sitting down and being entertained by the new Japan product, there would be no downside to Nakamura coming back. Now what do I think of Nakamura going back to New Japan and what it would mean for Nakamura? I don't think now is the time, I think that. Nakamura has the U.S. Championship, that's something. Nakamura, as a heel, is certainly more interesting, compelling. There's certainly more to this character than there ever was as a good guy. And you know, who knows why that is. But Nakamura is a heel is interesting. I think. Nakamura. Still, and this is me, maybe it just because I'm a completionist. You know, I don't like nothing. I like to know that I have run a, well, dry if I'm going to give up on it. I personally, and I don't know, maybe Nakamura and me are not the same person. I have it on good authority that Shinsegae Nakamura and the last professional broadcaster Sam Roberts, yours truly are actually not the same person. However, for me, all I can do is talk from the perspective of me. Before I went back to New Japan. I would want to make sure that I left the biggest impact that I could on WWE. If Nakamura left today. His WWE run would it would be unfair to call it a disappointment, but I think if Nakamura left WWE today, it would still feel like there was unrealized potential. If Nakamura left WWE today, it would feel like he never quite got to where we thought he might get to. In this promotion, you know, as a WWE superstar and who knows, maybe he won't get to that level. Maybe all of our expectations are too high, and it's just not in the cards for Shinsegae Nakamura in WWE. But I'm not ready to say that personally, I personally am not ready to say now. Nakamura has gone as far as he can go, and the reason for that is I feel like a new world was opened up to him at WrestleMania when he turned heel. And WrestleMania was, what, April, May, June, July, August, just four months ago? You know, I think you would say in the last four months, Nakamura has been more interesting than the four months previously I did. I'm not ready. To throw in the knock on Wood Italia, I'm not ready to say that we've seen all we're going to see out of Nakamura, and I don't think that Nakamura should go back to New Japan until he feels like we've seen all that we're going to see and it's difficult. This guy has a family to uproot your family from Japan, move them all to the states and and become this guy who works for WWE lives in the states does the whole thing, only to move them all back to Japan a couple of years later. That's a little bit difficult. So I don't necessarily see it happening. I think that Nakamura will continue to try to make an impact in WWE. I don't know how to finance his work. You know, I would assume that the money's better in WWE, but one could also assume that New Japan would certainly make it worth Nakamura, as while so we'll see. But I think that that was kind of new Japan's attempt to maybe at least pique some interest but really gain a little bit of publicity for themselves. And I think that even they know that the idea of Nakamura going back to New Japan in this moment are probably not that realistic. You know, I don't I don't personally think that it's probably going to happen. Probably not. You know, you talk about guys realizing potential. Right? And you think about the careers the guys have and when they're really going to hit their peak, we want to believe that our favorites are ready to hit their peak when we're ready for it. And sometimes that's just not true. And that was what we learned with the guy who is the highlight of my number three story of the week. The number three story of the week is that this guy is the new next champion, Tommaso Ciampa wins the next World Championship in a title victory. It's I don't remember. The next Championship changing hands on an next TV show, and I'm probably wrong, you can tweet me and tell me what happened then, but I certainly don't remember the last time the next Championship changed hands on the TV show. It's taped. So it makes it a little bit more difficult, takes a little bit the luster out of it, and of course, you know, they put so much into these takeovers that that's usually where stuff like that happens. But Tommaso Ciampa is as outside the box as any superstar in that promotion has been. It really feels to me like Tommaso Ciampa has to be Triple H, his pet project. You know, I think that I think that when I watch next, I go like, OK, I think I think Aleister Black is Triple H, his pet project. I think Tommaso Ciampa is Triple H, his pet project. When I look at Velveteen Dream, I think did the entire WWE is aware that he's going to be a star? I think everybody that looks at Lars Sullivan is like, Oh, we're going to be able to do something with him. You know, I think if you show Vince McMahon, Lars Sullivan, he immediately goes, Yeah, we're going to be able to do something with him. But I think and I think that I think the Velveteen Dream is in that category, too. You know, I think that some of the indie guys, the undisputed era, for example, I think that those are guys that Triple H likes and wants to see, OK, what do these guys have? But just based on booking, based on what I see when I watch the TV, these are all assumptions based on my opinion. When I watch the show, I really feel like. Tommaso Ciampa and Alistair Black are Triple H has two pet projects, and I think that what this title win does for Ciampa. Is it takes him out of the story of Johnny Gargano, so Ciampa did everything in his power and he's so great. Ciampa keeps that character alive by staying in character on Twitter, by not selling T-shirts. There is no evidence. I would imagine he doesn't do interviews. I would love. To have Tommaso Ciampa on this podcast, but I would imagine he would stay in character the whole time. And that's part of what makes this so compelling is that, you know, with the Gargano story, you don't even feel like Johnny Gargano was doing a character. Johnny Gargano is Mr. Wrestling. He is this guy that he's portraying, right? You started to feel like as as over-the-top evil as Chopper is in ways you feel, as you're watching, like that's really him, that's who that guy is. And I think that that that is what that extra layer, he's one of the great storytellers in there right now. And I think, you know, Triple H every time he does an interview where not every time, but every time he gets asked about it. Triple H. Historically in interviews, has talked a lot about the art of storytelling in the ring. You know, he's talked about, you know, how important it is and everything. And I think that that is something that he clearly passes along. Shawn Michaels the same way, I'm sure Shawn Michaels passes those along, too. I love Tommaso Ciampa as next champion. You know, it's been a while since there was a good heel champion. I guess Bobby Roode was. But Bobby Roode was so popular because of the entrance music and because of the whole deal that he was doing that it wasn't really just that dirty, dastardly bad guy. Chapo was going out of his way to tell a story with Alistair Black. As soon as he beat Gargano, Ciampa started tweeting and talking about how much he wanted to take out the next champion, Alistair Black and still in all of our minds because the last to takeover main events were so good. Specifically. The last take over the story that was told between Gargano and Ciampa was one of the great stories that was ever been told in a wrestling match, I really think that the Gargano Ciampa story, what I believe will eventually become at least three parts, if not more. Right now, it is kind of three parts in the sense that there's the betrayal, then the two matches. I think clearly we will have a third match in this series at some point. But after those two matches happened in succession or succession, I should say it wasn't. It wasn't like they weren't succeeding. You know, they weren't leaving the union. They were when they weren't succeeding in order. One after the other is when they happened, after those two matches happened, one after the other. I said they were both good. Like, after the second match was just as good as the first match between Gargano and Ciampa. People were sitting there going, OK, I associate these two guys together. And the story had been told in such a way where it was almost like there was takeover. There was next. And then there was Gargano and Ciampa both times. And in the end, in the in-between there was everything happening and next and then there was this story over here and. I think that winning the Championship from Aleister Black really cements that this is not about Johnny Gargano and Ciampa anymore. We are jumping headfirst into the next story. This is now Ali Ciampa is the next champion, which means that we now have to start thinking about, Oh, who's going to get shots at him? Is he going to fight Lars Sullivan? Is he going to fight the velveteen? Dream is the undisputed era. Even though they are, they have their titles. Are they looking at him? You know, when does Alistair Black get his rematch? All of these matches become feasible for Ciampa because he's got the Championship. The Gargano storyline gets put on hold, and that's obvious now. So clearly, Alistair Black is going to get a rematch at some point, but I just think it's so good and I stand by my statement. You know, I think should Shawn Michaels ever come back for one more match? There is no choice for him, but Ciampa at a takeover. You know, that would be the purpose of Sean coming back would be to put over somebody to put him over and it would be maybe chomp his last match next. But he would have to destroy the legend of Shawn Michaels and just be the ultimate villain, the ultimate bad guy, because that's who Chopper can be. I'm so thrilled to see him win that championship. So very, very thrilled. Let's get into story number two, speaking of matches. Ronda Rousey is going to be wrestling on Raw next week. First time that Ronda is wrestling on Raw, she'll be wrestling Alicia Fox. And, you know, I think. Because for me, I don't need to see to wrestle on Raw. Rhonda is I don't mind attractions that don't wrestle every week. The Brock Lesnar thing is insane because he's not even he hasn't been on TV since April, and he finally shows up this week. We'll talk about that in a moment. I'm not advocating for that, but what I am advocating for is the idea that they don't have to wrestle every single week. I like the Ronda Rousey is there. I want her to be a part of the show every week. You know, I don't want every month for her to go off and make a movie or something. I want her to be on the show every week, but I'm OK if she doesn't wrestle every week, especially at this point in her career. I think that the reason I'd be OK if she didn't wrestle until SummerSlam and wrestled Alexa bliss just to just to maintain how special it is when Ronda Rousey wrestled. I think the reason that Ronda Rousey is wrestling on Raw is because there is so much heat from the fans on Brock Lesnar right now. Brock Lesnar is so disliked, and what he's done with the Universal Championship is so disliked that they want to keep Ronda Rousey popular. They want fans to know that Ronda Rousey is not the female version of Brock Lesnar. Because nobody's going to like her, fans aren't going to like it, they're going to like the matches. But if you find out that she's only wrestling once every two or three months, that's not exciting. You know you it. The idea was that what we were sold. And that's the Ronda Rousey was going to be a full time part of the women's division. Not not a part timer. And you know, if she goes off and makes a movie, that's fine. WWE guys go off, make movies. Miz went off and made a movie. You know, Cena goes off, makes movies. It's not a big deal if she leaves here and there to go, make a movie. It is a big deal if it becomes a thing that she's doing all the time and it is a big deal if it becomes a thing where she's only wrestling every three pay per views. So I think even though for me, I don't need to see her at this point, wrestling on Raw, it's certainly exciting. I'm interested to see what she does with Alicia Fox, and this would be a good indication, right? Because. We've really only seen her. We saw a WrestleMania, obviously, she did extremely well. We saw our Russell Nia Jax, she did extremely well. But you know what? Alicia Fox is great, but. You know, she's not. Ronda Rousey is not necessarily protected in the ring when she's with Alicia Fox like Alicia Fox. It's going to look bad, but Alicia Fox is, you know, not going to. Hmm. It's not guaranteed that Alicia Fox makes Ronda Rousey look better, if that makes sense. So one would almost expect Ronda Rousey to kind of carry this one, right? The idea with with Alicia Fox's character and her win loss record, you wouldn't think that she would get a ton of offense in on Ronda Rousey. So I don't think that it should be like a 10 second match because people would kind of feel ripped off if we're all getting psyched up. Ronda Rousey is actually going to wrestle in the last 10 seconds, but it'll be interesting to see because I kind of feel like Ronda Rousey is going to have to carry this match. Not due to Alicia Fox is shortcomings at all. Lisa Alicia Fox could do just fine, but. Because of the characters involved, because of who she is, it just it just feels to me like that's the way this story needs to be told. And I think it'll be really, really interesting. Hopefully, we'll get excited every time Ronda Rousey is wrestled, every time she's gotten in the ring and done anything physical. We get excited. She's really, really good at that. Hopefully, this match happens and it reminds us how good Ronda Rousey is in the ring, because that may be part of this motivation. It may be. We got to remind these people how good Ronda is because she hasn't wrestled since money in the bank, so that could be it, too. That the idea is that when we see her wrestling Alicia Fox, we're going to get excited because Ronda Rousey is really good and we're going to get excited for the women's championship match with Alexa Bliss. That could be part of it, I don't know, but I definitely think that it is very, very interesting and I'm anxious to see it. You know, speaking of raw, I thought Raw had its ups and downs this week. I'll talk about the number one story in a moment. I was a little confused by the Bobby Lashley Elias segment. And, you know, not because Bobby Lashley forgot the words to rock and Robyn. I know I didn't quite get. I don't understand the Bobby Lashley character to tell you the truth. You know, he loses to Roman Reigns after beating him, and it's kind of like, OK, I'm not getting the title shot instead of being like, That's insane. Total B.S. I beat him already. I should get the title shot. Let me have one more match with Roman Reigns to prove that I can beat him. You know, it should at least be having a rubber match now. So not complaining about that. And. Why would you sing with Elias, like Elias is a is a bad guy. He's not a nice dude. Fans boo him or they're supposed to. Why would Bobby Lashley want to perform with him? I'm not 100 percent sure why. I also don't quite understand. It feels like they're building to something between Elias and the Rock. I don't know if that's going to happen at WrestleMania, I don't know if he's just putting that out there now to get fans talking and to get the rock interested, who knows? But he mentioned him on Raw. I mentioned him in the documentary mentions him a bunch. But he mentioned him on Raw. And to me, it doesn't feel like it's putting Bobby Lashley in a space where he can easily succeed. If a lobbyist calls out The Rock and Bobby Lashley comes out, you're in Miami. I get that he's just mentioning the right because he's in Miami. But the rock comes out sometimes. The Rock has surprised audiences before, so it doesn't really put Bobby Lashley in a spot to succeed. If Elias is going to call it The Rock, and then here comes Bobby Lashley to defend the good people of Miami. Because you've implanted this idea, you've intercepted the good people of Miami with this idea that The Rock is coming out. So that was a little confusing to me. But we'll get to the number one story of the week I sent out a tweet on Tuesday. So I didn't see the end of up most of raw, but I didn't see the end of Raw until Tuesday afternoon. Sometimes, you know, I do a morning radio show, I end up having to go to bed and then the next day I got it on my DVR. I'll go and I'll watch. I'll watch Raw and see what I missed. A lot of times, you know, there are spoilers and everything, but you know, I'm OK with that, that that's part of the game. So I'm looking for my tweet right now so I can give you an exact verbatim wording of what I said. OK, there's uh. There it is. Just caught up. Best ending to hashtag Rauh in a long time. Thumbs up, thumbs up, thumbs up. Thumbs up emoji. Now the tweet has 160 likes on it, so there were a bunch of you I'm assuming. If you like a tweet like that, that means you agree with it. But there were dozens and dozens and dozens of replies and the vast majority I'm scrolling through. The vast majority are very negative, of course. Some any time, any time I post anything that I like anything on raw. People are assuming that Vince McMahon has called me up and said, Sam, I am going to give you extra money. I want to. I'm going to pay you to please say that you like something that happened on Raw this week. I go, OK, Vince, you got it. Now, if he did that, he wouldn't even have to pay me if he, Vince McMahon called me and said, Hey Sam, would you compliment something that happened on Raw? I got a comment. Everything that happened on Raw, Vince, you're on my phone right now. And guess what? I think most of us would do the same thing. There's a T-shirt that says Shill Roberts shill. I'm not ashamed of who I am. I'm a WWE fan. I'm going to look for the positive in things. But. The idea that like every time I like anything on WWE TV, I'm like, you know, just kind of selling the company line. It's a little nuts. However. However, this one specifically, I was kind of surprised by the amount of people I got a lot of Rollie. I mean, I got a lot of means telling me to GTFO. I got a lot of people being like, Sam, you're crazy. A lot of teams that just went, Ah, no. A lot of people are saying, that's enough, you know? And I was I was I was surprised because I thought the ending to Raw this week was quite good. And I don't know. Maybe I should find somebody to do the podcast with that didn't like the ending of Raw this week. And when I said the best ending of Ron, a long time like somebody tweeted me and I think I quoted their tweet that day, they brought it back to like like stone cold and the invasion angle, right? And I'm like, I'm not talking about. I would hope that you guys realize when I tweet something like that, I didn't think that the ending of this week's episode of Raw was the best ending in decades. You know, you're really searching. If that's what you thought. But I do think it was the best ending to Raw in several weeks, if not months. The reason why I thought that is because I thought the buildup was strong in the sense that Brock Lesnar reading magazines all night and not watching the show was hilarious. OK. I feel like they're tapping into something that fans are really saying. They're tapping into this idea that Brock Lesnar doesn't care. They're tapping into this idea that he doesn't defend the title. They're tapping into the fact that fans are pissed at Brock Lesnar. So they're getting him heat based on this. I think that the part of what's going on is that there are fans or viewers that don't like that Brock is getting heat because they think that Brock is getting heat in order to get Roman, Reigns cheered. And while that might be true, I'm not looking at it on that level. I'm just looking at it in terms of the story that they're telling with Brock Lesnar right now, it's up to Roman Reigns to get cheered. And right now, it's not 100 percent happening, but we will talk about what happened at the end of the show in a moment. But the buildup was good. Kurt Angle, finally showing some chutzpah was good. Having Paul Heyman be in the ring and Kurt Angle's yelling at him about what a horrible Universal Champion Brock Lesnar has been like, that's a that's a direct acknowledgement that yes, this is something fans are saying. We are acknowledging this. You know, this idea that, you know, we don't like Brock Lesnar. He never defends the title. OK, let's talk about that on TV. Like, that's what I want out of wrestling. I love the idea that something that gets talked about, you know, on Squared Circle on Reddit or something that gets talked about on Twitter or whatever is talked about on TV, and they're not going to talk about everything, you know. Of course, they're taking a very safe topic there, but still they're taking a topic that people are really talking about. They're trying to make Brock Lesnar into a villain by using things that people really don't like about Brock Lesnar. He finds Kurt Angle, which I thought was awesome. You know, and people are already like, Oh, you know, there's a double standard. Ronda Rousey got suspended for 30 days. Brock Lesnar is going to be at SummerSlam in three weeks, you know, before you start poking holes in WWE storytelling. Let's wait and see what happens next week. Let's wait and see if that's addressed or not. You know, I don't I don't like. The idea that just because many times WWE has not cashed in on on storylines, just because many times WWE has has not lived up to that doesn't mean that we can sit here and go like, Well, that's not going to go anywhere. Well, that doesn't make any sense or that's hypocritical because we don't know what the next piece of the story is. They could easily do something next week on Raw to address this, and they should. I don't know if they will or not. I would imagine Brock Lesnar won't be there because that will build heat for him. But really, I mean, Brock Lesnar attacking Paul Heyman. Is huge now, like did people not I was like, Whoa, that's big, that's awesome. Now you're really I feel like this has to be a separation between Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar. And I think that that's being done because people love Paul Heyman. People are going to cheer Paul Heyman. He's so good at cutting promos. He tells the truth. And the last thing we want is for anybody to tell the truth about Roman Reigns because the fans are going to agree with it. You know, the vocal fans are going to agree with what Paul Heyman says about Roman Reigns. So. The idea that Brock Lesnar is going to go at this alone, I don't think he should have another manager, I think he should ditch Heyman now, and I think he should go this alone and be big. Beesley mean Brock Lesnar, at least for this story. I was not even I was impressed by the ending of Raw, because not a lot of times on Raw, it's like, OK, I kind of saw that coming. OK, I knew where that was going. Sometimes you end with the great matches like Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler and stuff like that, but it's not that often anymore. The U.N. with a story that really hooks you or that surprises you. And I don't think anybody thought that Brock Lesnar was going to jump Paul Heyman. You know, I think Brock Lesnar turning on Paul Heyman is big news. And by the way, you know, 18 hours after Raw went off the air, it had four and a half million hits on YouTube. I saw it and I was like, OK. Because at first I started getting replies on this tweet and I'm like, Am I crazy? Have I taken drugs? And I'm in some alternate dimension where I think this ending of Raw was great, and in reality, it was a piece of garbage. I'm going like, What am I smoking? But then the lights started coming in on the tweets, I realized that maybe some people are a little more vocal. And, you know, we've got all these hits and people enjoyed it. But I do think there are a lot of you that didn't enjoy it. And I find that very interesting. You know, I I would love to know why, because the stuff I heard it was like some people were saying, Well, it really didn't do anything to further the Brock Lesnar story. That's not true at all. The whole show painted Brock Lesnar in a brand new light. Brock Lesnar now matches the picture that we fans have been painting of him as a guy who doesn't care about wrestling. In real life and doesn't defend the title and is a dud, you know, that's what a lot of fans have been saying, and that's what this character is now portraying. And him going at it without Paul Heyman to me is huge. I think there might be a lot of people that just don't want to see this Brock Lesnar Roman Reigns match. And I don't I don't. I don't fault that. I'm not mad at that. And it's almost like anything that has anything to do with these guys. You're not going to be happy about, and maybe that's true, I could be wrong. I'm not trying to assume everything. But yeah, yeah, so I was I was a little bit surprised now. I was also shocked, shocked that at the end of Raw, I heard watching Raw. We want Roman now, the voice of the fans chanting absolutely sounded like. Women and children, for sure. That's and that's another reason why I thought it sounded like we want Roman, but still like it really do we want Roman chants? We're not being outdone by Roman socks. It was like, we want Roman is that's what I thought I heard. Then there were reports coming from the arena that they were chanting, We want Strowman. Not we want Roman, and I went, Oh. And then I started going into are they saying boo or boo urns? And then Hans moments stood up and said, I was saying Roman. So I don't know what they were saying. I still kind of feel like they were saying Roman because it was women and kids. It sounded like that anyway. But it could have been Roman, you know, I'm not. I'm not. That's not a hell. I'm willing to die on. If it was strongman, it's still interesting, like that was an interesting chant to end the show if it was Roman. That's a successful end, if it was Strowman. That goes back to what I've been saying from the beginning that Braun Strowman needs to be the one to dethrone Brock Lesnar. Now, I don't think it's a given as it's even less of at WrestleMania. It was a given that Roman Reigns was going to win, and then he lost. I think it's less of a given this time that Roman Reigns is going to win because I think that there is this idea that's in people's heads that Brock Lesnar may go to his fight with Daniel Cormier that will presumably take place sometime at the beginning of 2019, January February ish. That's what all signs are pointing to. It's nowhere near official, but there is this idea that Brock Lesnar may go to the UFC with the Universal Championship. And I'm not against the idea. You know, I'm not. I think that if Brock Lesnar loses. At UFC, whatever it is to Daniel Cormier. I still think it's good promotion for WWE. I still think it's good promotion for the Universal Championship. And you know, I think he comes back to WWE and he loses there too. That's fine. I don't think that in twenty eighteen it damages the Championship because we know that UFC and WWE are two separate worlds. At this point, we know what WWE is. So, you know, I think it's a positive thing for Brock to go to UFC with that championship. I just. Don't know if it's a positive thing. I don't know if the stories that Brock Lesnar tells between now. And his UFC fight with Daniel Cormier. It's going to be a could be more damaging to the universal title. What Brock Lesnar does with it between now and his UFC fight, then losing the UFC fight would be, you know, the idea that it wouldn't be defended like, honestly. The Universal Championship. Has been. A bit of a prop. Since its inception, you know, you've got Finn Balor only holding it for a day because he got injured, no fault of Finn Balor, but it is what it is. So it starts off on a weird note and who knows if Finn Balor hadn't gotten injured? The history of this championship would probably be a lot different. So you've got. Finn Balor. Then it goes to Kevin Owens, who, you know, and I only call it a prop for Kevin Owens because he was kind of the the chicken bad guy with it. You know, he wasn't he didn't have that heroic like leg to have a bad guy holding the title. It's not a run that establishes the title that run established Kevin Owens as a great main event bad guy, and he did amazing with it. But because the title was so new, it did not establish the universal title. He goes off of Kevin Owens. And on to Goldberg, which, you know, Goldberg. What he defended it in. Jan, and you defended it at WrestleMania right of that year, and then it goes off of Goldberg and on to Brock Lesnar. We have not had the only person that defended that title on a regular basis is Kevin Owens. Unless I'm missing somebody and you can hit me up on Instagram or whatever if I am. But Kevin Owens is the only person who's really defended that title on a regular basis, and we've never had a good guy face of the company with that championship. So I think that the Universal Championship is suffering it has not established since its inception a few years ago. I think that there I've said this before. WWE is making a huge mistake by not taking advantage of that and putting the spotlight back on the WWE Championship because let's be honest. AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe is not going on last at SummerSlam. Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns is going on last at SummerSlam, so. You know, all you can do is hope that in September, maybe the WWE Championship goes on last, but you know, it's it hasn't happened. It hasn't happened on a pay per view in a very long time since the brands came together. So, you know, I don't know what you're going to do, but the point of this is I thought the ending to Raw was great this week. Some of you did not hit me up and kind of let me know if I'm missing something, you know I always want to hear from you. Let me know. You can also let me know in person. People go like, Hey, Sam, where are you going to be? I'm going to be at Caroline's on Broadway Caroline's Comedy Club August 16th for the first time. Sam Roberts wrestling podcast gets a primetime slot at Caroline's On Broadway, one of the most famous comedy clubs in the world. Thursday night, August 16th at 9:30 p.m. So far announced Bruce Prichard and Dalton Castle. Both will be at the show. And I've got even more guests to announce. Stay up on social media. Go to Caroline's dot com or the pinned tweet at Twitter.com/ not Sam to get tickets, but get those tickets now for the Live. Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast 200th episode It's the night that Sam Roberts wrestling podcast becomes not Sam Wrestling. I will see you there. I appreciate you being here. I love all of you, and I will see you firstly next week here on Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast. Thanks for listening. Follow Sam on Twitter, Esther Graham, Facebook and YouTube. And subscribe for free to listen every week to sing. This podcast is brought to you by progressive insurance. Let's face it, sometimes multitasking can be overwhelming. Like when your favorite podcast is playing and the person next to you is talking and your car phone is blasting, all while you're trying to find the perfect parking spot. But then again, sometimes multitasking is easy, like quoting with progressive insurance. They do the hard work of comparing rates so you can find a great rate that works for you, even if it's not with them. Give their nifty comparison tool a try, and you might just find getting the rate and coverage you need is easy. 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