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1:43

Wrestling is cool once again.

1:46

You guys were chanting, this

1:49

is awesome. Yeah. Yeet.

1:53

No. I had to do some

1:55

research for a quick. I have to

1:57

finish the story. All

2:00

the nostalgia freaks out there are gonna want

2:02

the match. I'm in on this idea, but

2:04

only if heard worldwide What's

2:07

up, everybody? Welcome to another episode

2:09

of Wednesday worldwide worldwide

2:12

a proud member of the faction known

2:15

as the ringer wrestling show My name

2:17

is Ben Cruz and I'm a producer

2:19

here at the ringer With

2:21

me as always are my tag

2:24

team partners senior editor at the

2:26

ringer calm Cal Davenport

2:28

and of course the super producer here

2:30

at the ringer. Mr. Brian H Waters

2:35

Cal Yeah, we

2:37

saw you took an early trip Down

2:40

to Philadelphia. Oh, yeah last week

2:43

Notice that guy Greg was with you as well.

2:45

That's a great. We're doing out there. We're doing

2:47

some some WrestleMania scouting What's happened actually low-key? Yeah

2:49

We went to get some some some cheese

2:51

steak shots out the Greg shots of the squad

2:54

shots after killing them And it was funny when

2:56

we were pulling in I was

2:58

like, oh, is that the 2300 arena? And

3:00

yeah right there was it was the ECW

3:02

arena was right in front of my face

3:04

Wow Okay, if you're a

3:07

fan of cheese steaks the James

3:09

Beard Award winning John's roast

3:11

pork is down the street

3:14

From okay, the 2300 arena if you see

3:16

it's across the street from an eye-hopping like

3:18

a random strip mall But you can smell

3:20

it when you get out there, but yeah,

3:22

we went there We

3:24

checked another spot and we actually went to Suplex

3:27

wrestling on South Street. That's the

3:29

spot where West Side Guns having

3:31

a pop-up what I think

3:33

it's a Friday I forget which date

3:35

is it's on go check his Instagram

3:38

But uh that place if you can

3:40

get to suplex wrestling before the pop-up

3:42

before like the crowds of WrestleMania really

3:44

get there no shade anybody

3:46

else. I highly read the amount

3:49

of memory They've got a wall full

3:51

of $10 action

3:53

figures there and it's everything

3:55

every era Old

3:58

stuff new stuff off it If

4:00

you're trying to buy some t-shirts you better make

4:02

sure you got your your Klarna I don't know

4:05

what they accept there, but Vintage

4:08

wear but they've got a lot of

4:11

ill titles there. There's this lucha mask

4:14

There's all sorts of and there's an upstairs

4:16

section we can go and there's even more

4:18

It's I highly recommend the trip to South

4:20

Street if you're going to WrestleMania and you're

4:22

gonna be in Philly We

4:24

talk about the smile cow head on his face.

4:26

Oh my god. This is what I wanted to

4:28

bring up because My

4:31

guy our guy looked like a kid

4:33

in a candy store cuz he got you got a

4:35

free action figure alright,

4:38

so We were in

4:40

the spot right there was this I don't know what this

4:42

older guy's name the guy who works there It was in

4:44

there that day's name is Hector. I think he may be

4:46

one of the guys or the guy behind the shop and

4:49

There was this older guy and he just asked me he

4:51

was like say who's

4:54

your favorite wrestler? You know

4:56

me. I'm Talking wrestling.

4:58

Let's go say too cold Scorpio. My

5:00

man looked at me He said it doesn't

5:02

matter who your favorite wrestler is and I'm

5:05

like, alright, man. You got me you got

5:07

that Good bit. That was

5:09

a good bit. I get tapped on my shoulder Here's

5:12

Hector. I don't have it on me right

5:14

now But here's Hector with the with the

5:16

flash funk figure like, you know I've never

5:18

heard anybody say that their favorite wrestler was

5:20

too cold Scorpio. Here you go. But here's

5:23

the funniest part I Should

5:26

have known something like this would have happened because

5:28

earlier that day when we were in there squads

5:31

looking at you know, there's so many figures

5:33

and there was one somebody point is like

5:36

is that Andre the Giant and Greg

5:40

Being the stat guy that he is he's

5:42

like, yeah That's Andre the Giant from such as

5:44

such TV It was like an episode of some

5:46

TV show us a Star Trek or something like

5:48

that and the dude was like I've

5:51

never heard anybody guess that exactly here

5:53

take great Nice

5:56

it's a dope spot. I'm not saying you're

5:58

gonna get free figures if you guess up

6:00

there But it is a hill spot again

6:03

if you're if you're if you're there for

6:05

the nostalgia especially for

6:07

like the attitude era like

6:09

that 90 stuff that a lot of you

6:11

know Harken back to the other

6:13

the final boss was doing on raw. Yeah

6:15

plexus is a spot. You need to be

6:17

checking out Wow,

6:20

this this is great scouting because

6:22

first of all, honestly after we finished

6:24

recording I was gonna ask you where you

6:26

guys ate because the caption that

6:28

I think it was SG G Wrote was a it

6:31

for someone and he's from there So

6:33

to say that that was like I think it was a he

6:35

said it was the number one spot or something like that Maybe

6:37

yeah, yeah, it wasn't even his capture. Maybe it was a collabo

6:39

IG post But I mentioned the one

6:42

spot when we stopped recording I mentioned the other spot

6:44

because we went to we went we had two spots

6:46

that day. Yeah, there were Well,

6:49

okay can't wait where that's

6:52

this is the kind of information that we needed

6:55

Honestly So great

6:57

to see and I did the being

6:59

out there just how much

7:01

did it drive up your excitement? Like if you were and

7:03

let's say you were at a seven going

7:06

into this this preemptive

7:09

Philly trip, where were you on the way back home?

7:12

Well that It's funny.

7:14

So my I don't get

7:16

to go out with my homies much and uh, when

7:18

I talk about you know My wrestling fans. I'm like

7:20

my homies know me as being like the seven eight-year-old

7:23

kid It was sitting on the like my front porch.

7:25

I was listening to music, but it was like WWF

7:28

theme music like I'd be sitting there jamming

7:30

to the Jake the snake theme stuff like

7:32

that. So we're in suplex I don't know what

7:35

was going on. But uh Dragging off some music

7:37

hits and I'm just sitting there. I'm just

7:39

like conducting the orchestra like he is and

7:42

They were like, yeah, see there it is. There it is Jake the

7:44

snake But the thing is is like, you know, it's I

7:47

was feeling it I was I don't know if that's

7:49

the mana that the rock is talking about or what

7:51

but I I'm

7:54

in the spirit. I'm in the spirit of WrestleMania

7:56

season if I want to give it a number

7:59

shit, especially after I'm probably like

8:01

eight and a half right now. There we go

8:03

climbing up. I'd say it's it's

8:05

like that holiday spirit I think is what we can

8:07

compare it to right? You

8:09

know, you're putting up a tree you're putting up some lights

8:12

and you know for no reason really That

8:16

shit for the holidays makes no sense as we take it right down

8:20

In anger and frustration, but this is the this

8:22

is the wrestling equivalent right now because we are

8:25

Who we are how many days away

8:27

like less than 12 now I

8:29

was using the shows So 10

8:31

days are we 10 because I think raw

8:34

is 12. This is nuts. This is nuts, but also

8:37

Speaking of events and food. I'm gonna plug

8:39

this right up top Before

8:42

we forget but please please please if you're

8:44

still making your WrestleMania calendar or if you

8:46

already have it You

8:49

know create it and you want to add something to it bring

8:52

a wrestling show meet and greet Shikis

8:54

and Pete's on Friday April

8:56

5th from 5 p.m. To 7 p.m It's

9:00

it's gonna be a great time. We're treating it as a

9:03

Smackdown Hall of Fame tailgate if you

9:06

will a little pre-party whatever you want

9:08

to label it as come through

9:11

You can share a beer with with Kaz

9:13

and Dave and maybe

9:15

they'll power rank you as As

9:18

the ring of wrestling show listeners

9:21

by the end of the the event there, but no

9:23

seriously come through It's gonna be great time. All I

9:25

keep hearing about is these are these crab fries Which

9:29

are apparently? Incredible, so

9:31

please come through and hang out with

9:33

us We would love to say what's

9:35

up and and kick it with everybody

9:37

who who listens to the show and and just

9:39

and just chat it up So come

9:42

through and it's gonna be a good time All

9:45

right, and let's take things off the right

9:47

way with some high spot headlines, you

9:50

know the deal I'm gonna read out some

9:52

of the most interesting headlines of the week

9:54

in the world of professional wrestling And

9:57

whoever wants to tag in and let some thoughts

9:59

fly let it fly First up, Jade

10:02

Cargill says that

10:04

some big shit is about to

10:06

happen on this week's Smackdown. That

10:09

is a direct quote from

10:11

Jade Cargill. She was

10:13

courtside for the Hawks Celtics game, which by the way,

10:15

was an incredible game for her to be at because

10:17

the Hawks came back from down 30. She was chopping

10:20

it up with the fans, which was always great to

10:22

see. So as we know from

10:24

last week, she's now officially a part

10:27

of the Smackdown roster. I

10:29

guess my first question is, obviously

10:31

with this being the pre-Go

10:35

Home Smackdown, if you will,

10:38

what could she possibly be talking

10:40

about? Like if she's targeting some

10:42

involvement in Mania, what does that

10:44

look like? Or is

10:46

it something else? Brian H. Waters, I'm going to start

10:48

with you. When

10:50

you saw this quote from Jade

10:52

Cargill, what was the first thought that

10:54

hit your mind? I'm

10:56

ready. We were always told

10:58

her debut would be massive, right? Massive

11:02

I take as the Royal Rumble. Then

11:05

we saw, you know, negotiations per

11:07

se. She's

11:11

arrived and we see everything

11:13

brewing with damage control. Bianca

11:17

Belair, Naomi, and

11:19

I think Jade could kind of

11:21

be that mediator to say,

11:23

okay, while Naomi was not here a

11:25

year ago, Bianca, you need to let

11:28

this shit go with Bayley, you know,

11:30

because Bayley is not the enemy here. And

11:33

she has a dominating presence that

11:36

I think Bianca will hear her out and

11:39

Naomi will hear her out without making them look,

11:42

you know, kind of small per se. So

11:46

this could be, dare

11:49

say, one of the more entertaining

11:51

six women tag matches we've had

11:53

in a long time. We

11:55

get that at WrestleMania. I

11:58

would love to see the belts on the line. If

12:01

her quote-unquote wrestling isn't ready, you

12:03

know, maybe she shows up as an

12:06

enforcer for a tag team match You

12:08

know especially if Dakota Kai can't

12:10

go for a whole match But I think either

12:13

way I think she's getting involved in

12:15

there and I think she's just gonna wreak havoc

12:18

And I can see it, you know, we could see the

12:20

storm coming. I could see a big grand

12:22

interest We see all the stuff they've been doing with

12:24

the rock all the cool effects I

12:27

see J card Gil getting that treatment Cal

12:31

when you're thinking about those two options the

12:34

Hollywood laid out so either You know,

12:36

she's she's coming out with with

12:38

Bianca and Naomi, you know in this

12:40

tag title match or it's a straight-up

12:43

a six-woman tag Where

12:45

do you fall on what you'd want to see

12:47

Jade do I mean? I just the situation has

12:49

been that because they've not they've this is the

12:51

first time we've really seen Jade since she said

12:53

she was Gonna show up on Raw to talk

12:56

about maybe going over there. So it's been a

12:58

little bit There's not it's not

13:00

enough time for a story at all. It's

13:02

not enough time for a story at all And again,

13:04

this is assuming that what Brian H

13:06

waters is saying is what I was sneaking when I

13:08

was watching And they said she was gonna be

13:10

on smack down that she would be a part of this damage

13:13

control situation it makes

13:15

sense Primarily because

13:18

it's Bianca and Naomi kind

13:20

of being outnumbered

13:24

Right in this fight which is odds considering that

13:26

Bailey's also a part of this But we don't

13:28

really see Bailey's but anyway because of that they

13:30

need somebody to back them up I

13:33

don't know where Dakota Kai is Dakota Kai is

13:35

she had a match with Bailey Yeah,

13:37

she's she's worked some if that match with

13:39

Bailey on SmackDown as she's worked been working

13:41

some house shows So I think she's cleared

13:45

Right my assumption was that they were

13:47

good cuz you they're gonna have to

13:49

announce something with Bianca and Naomi Naomi

13:51

So when they said Jade was making

13:53

her Smackdown superstar

13:56

debut next week. I

13:58

don't know how they're gonna set it up but when

14:00

she was sitting the court side and said, it's

14:03

gonna be some shit, I said, oh, they're

14:05

gonna do what I thought they were gonna do, or

14:07

at some variation of it, it's not just gonna be,

14:09

she's gonna be going there to make an impact. And

14:12

I think all you really need her to do is

14:15

get some impact shit off in

14:17

whatever six-woman tag

14:19

match as an enforcer, like, she

14:21

only got to hit a couple moves and

14:24

get that place to pop. She

14:26

may have to say something, there may have

14:28

to be a swerve that goes on at some point, I

14:30

don't know how they set her on a path to give

14:32

her a real focus, but she, there's

14:34

only so much she needs to do, so

14:36

this situation is perfect for her. Get her

14:38

with somebody that can actually work

14:42

with her and be on, like, a focus program

14:44

for a minute after

14:46

WrestleMania, gangbusters. Ooh.

14:48

Yeah, I think that's the big thing here, is

14:51

to set her up for post-Mania, right? And

14:53

this is a great way to do that,

14:55

and, you know, setting

14:58

her up in a storyline, even

15:00

as quickly as it's gonna be, with damage

15:03

control does make some sense. I

15:05

mean, they kind of teased that tension a

15:07

couple weeks ago, you know, when she was

15:09

in Nick Aldis' office and so was damage control, you

15:12

know, a little stare down there, so it is gonna

15:14

make some sense if and when, you

15:16

know, she officially involves

15:18

herself in this feud. I

15:23

guess one question I have for both of you is that,

15:26

is there any level of disappointment in

15:29

that she is not directly,

15:31

in all likelihood,

15:33

directly pairing with Bianca

15:36

or with Naomi to

15:38

target the women's tag belts? Because,

15:41

I mean, it's

15:44

looking like it's going to be Bianca

15:47

and Naomi, right? If

15:49

they do go the tag route, is

15:51

there any disappointment that Jade's not involved and

15:54

kind of, you know, adding that rocket to

15:56

her back by putting, you know, someone in

15:59

the tag titles? No,

16:01

because I was the one standing outside

16:03

like, hey, let me

16:05

get Jade and Bianca head to head.

16:08

You wanted it right away. That's right. I

16:10

was the one that was putting the batter

16:12

in people's backs about Bianca and Jay uniting

16:15

to get them titles. I

16:17

understand it, but I think the flip

16:19

side is, there's

16:21

been too much going on. Naomi

16:24

came back, Tiffany's debuted.

16:27

There's been a lot, they were

16:29

trying to build the Bayley and EO

16:31

situation because that felt natural. There's actually

16:34

why I was surprised that Jade

16:36

went to SmackDown. Because I know

16:38

that there's, not to

16:40

say there's nothing going on on Raw, but

16:42

it's not popping like it is over

16:44

in SmackDown, where you've got a lot of immediate

16:46

options to slot into a championship program if you

16:49

wanted to. Raw could do that, but it feels

16:51

like it's a little more development. I was wondering

16:53

if they were going to have, not to almost,

16:56

I don't want to say Jade's going to be overshadowed

16:58

at all, but there's a possibility

17:00

of with so much going on, and only

17:02

so many segments on a two-hour SmackDown, Jade

17:05

could not get a segment or whatever segment

17:07

is not going to be what it could

17:09

be because they've got other stuff going on.

17:12

That was my thought, was that would be why they put her

17:14

on Raw, but this may be better.

17:17

Get her in there with some people to put

17:19

her under their wing for a little bit. It

17:22

feels though, if they're saying we're

17:24

debuting her now, it

17:28

feels like after WrestleMania, they're at least

17:30

ready to have her mixing it up

17:32

regularly on TV. So outside of any

17:34

quote unquote disappointment people I may have,

17:36

I think that's what you need to

17:38

be looking forward to. The fact that

17:41

the moment you've been waiting for since

17:43

she didn't resign with

17:45

AEW is about to happen very

17:47

soon. Right. There's

17:50

no chance they're going to make her be

17:53

the host of this thing. Are they some

17:55

bullshit like that? I hope not. No,

17:57

I'm not. I

18:00

don't want right. I don't want that. No,

18:03

no, you know, I was thinking

18:05

about everything. And, you know, she

18:07

has an opportunity, which I think

18:09

we're going in the direction of.

18:11

She'll join Omos Biggie as

18:14

people who made their debuts in

18:17

in-ring competition at WrestleMania.

18:21

You know, yeah, she was at the Royal Rumble.

18:23

But this right here, this is a huge opportunity

18:26

for her. And I think this is the best way to

18:28

do it because it still keeps her protected. You remember, like

18:30

both of them were in tag matches also. And,

18:33

you know. Cow,

18:36

it sounds like you're saying like, wait, we

18:38

do Smackdown need to be three hours. But you're right,

18:41

it is jam packed over there. But

18:43

I think, Raw, there's

18:45

more seasoned where

18:48

but not necessary to people that's going to

18:50

really kind of help. I

18:52

don't want to use the word coach,

18:55

but kind of like showing like that

18:57

WWE style. Yeah, your Bianca's your Naomi's

19:00

they'll do, you know what I mean? Like

19:02

you got Shayna Baszler, you guys Zoey Stark

19:04

over there, but they still try to get

19:07

over Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell, you know.

19:09

So I think I always looked at Raw's tag team

19:11

heavy where, yeah, even

19:14

though the champs go to both shows

19:16

and looks like the next chance

19:18

could be from Smackdown, I still feel like Raw's

19:20

tag team. I mean, that's what they're establishing over

19:23

there. A lot of stables over there.

19:25

That's what makes it next up on

19:27

High Spot headlines. Becky

19:30

Lynch updates her WWE contract

19:32

negotiation saying it's all up

19:35

for conversation. Now, you know,

19:38

I think we can

19:40

all safely say that. She'll

19:43

be back question marks and you know, she's

19:45

obviously doing a ton of interviews right now

19:48

for to promote her book. And

19:53

I guess when I saw this and

19:56

whenever, you know, wrestlers in general

19:59

are noncommittal to. to coming back.

20:01

I get it. It's part of the

20:03

negotiation process, right? That's across sports in

20:05

general. What

20:08

is the percentage that you would

20:10

each put on Becky

20:12

Lynch going to AEW? The

20:16

percentage on... If you had to,

20:18

and you can't do zero. You

20:20

cannot do zero. Becky Lynch returning

20:23

to Rebecca Knox or whatever

20:25

the name would be at an AEW

20:27

double or nothing or something.

20:30

I'm not saying zero. I'd give it

20:32

a good 10%. And mind

20:35

you, we're in a week where

20:39

she's... You said 10

20:41

days away from facing off from

20:43

one of the major women's titles

20:45

while on a book tour with

20:47

her husband on the other

20:49

side of the show. I don't know. I

20:51

feel like... I never

20:54

say never, but I don't

20:56

know if I see Rebecca Knox and

20:58

Mercedes Monet facing off for the TBS

21:00

title anytime soon. Oh, you're

21:03

giving them the secondary title? Are

21:06

they going to be ready to put her in the

21:08

match with Toni Storm? I don't know. Hey, talk

21:11

about it later. This is a four-way

21:13

match with women for the TBS title.

21:15

And Mercedes Monet is doing commentary. That's

21:17

a CM Punk move right there. That's

21:22

very fair though. That's actually a

21:24

very fair assessment. All right, fine. So we got 10% with

21:27

Cal, Brightage Waters. What percentage are

21:29

you giving Becky being AEW

21:31

bound? You know, I'm a

21:34

huge fan of the prices, right? So this

21:36

is the part where I turn around and

21:38

look, and then I say nine.

21:40

I thought you were going to go 11. You

21:45

know, they would always go... You got to go one

21:48

up. The strategy is one up. Yeah, you're giving me

21:50

$8.99. They're like, dang. Yeah, yeah. I don't want it

21:52

or whatever. God dang. Yeah. Yeah.

21:54

But I'm going to be fair. I'm going

21:57

to say 20 against you, bro. say

22:00

20 just because

22:02

of the Mercedes Monet

22:05

effect. I think if she

22:07

see the dollar signs, she

22:11

see what Mercedes gets. This

22:15

makes an argument of where

22:18

Becky Lynch draw a bigger

22:21

salary, base salary than Mercedes.

22:23

Because allegedly,

22:26

what may come over there is

22:28

more freedom. You look at

22:30

she's done everything she could

22:32

in WWE. Now she's really having

22:34

fun. Now I'm

22:37

probably about two hours into

22:39

her book. We're doing

22:41

the audio book. The audio book. Yeah.

22:44

It is great. You hear her voice. I can't do that immediately.

22:46

Yeah. With her... It's not

22:49

just her reading, but she's telling a story.

22:53

She always talks about she always wants to, like every person

22:55

she gets in the ring with, make

22:57

them look great. And

22:59

maybe she feel like the WWE women's division

23:01

is in good hands and

23:04

she can kind of take on that

23:06

challenge. And you can see her Mercedes

23:08

now for the TBS title.

23:10

I'm sorry. That's a gorgeous belt. But

23:14

y'all got to make that your

23:17

world title. I mean, even Mercedes

23:19

right now, I mean, granted she's

23:21

on commentary, but it's not, you

23:24

know, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not even, I'm

23:26

trying to ignore the fact that it's about the

23:28

TBS title and that it's more about her keeping

23:30

her eyes on Willow. And I could

23:32

see, you know, Becky Lynch maybe coming over

23:34

there having a little issue with say a Tony storm,

23:36

you know, it's a lot

23:38

that she could do over

23:40

there. It would be interesting, but

23:43

I think I

23:45

may give a higher

23:47

percentage if she

23:49

was, wasn't married. And

23:52

so I'm glad

23:54

you said that because that was going to actually be one of

23:57

my points. My

24:00

percentage would be just to be

24:02

different. So we got 10 from Cal, we got 20

24:04

from Brian. I'm gonna go 25 because, so

24:11

I think AEW's schedule

24:14

in general is more family friendly.

24:16

Yes. Right, like there's just

24:18

less dates, there's

24:21

less house shows, right, that I'm sure she's

24:23

participating, she's definitely participating in, right? And

24:26

the way that her and Seth

24:30

are able to kind of keep their family

24:33

unit together on the road is, it's one

24:35

of the most admirable things I've ever seen

24:37

as a parent, knowing what it's

24:39

like to travel with little kids and

24:42

work at the same time, they

24:46

deserve all the flowers, right, for being able

24:48

to do that. So on

24:51

the AEW side, with

24:53

there being less travel, to

24:56

some extent, less, almost

24:58

shows, if you will, all right, because there's

25:00

not a monthly PLD that they have to

25:02

build towards too. You

25:05

could see that kind of being a selling

25:08

point, right? In addition to what

25:10

I'm sure would be an enormous bag for

25:13

her to come over. Now, to Brian's point,

25:17

for her to come over, you

25:20

would also have to get Seth

25:22

Rollins, right? Like we have to get

25:24

Tyler Blackback, you know what I mean?

25:26

So, because it would be, I think that would

25:28

be really, really tough to separate them. I don't think you

25:31

can put them on Raw and

25:33

SmackDown, much less separate them

25:35

by company, right?

25:37

So like, that's a huge

25:39

caveat with my percentage. So

25:43

now, let's put

25:45

a bow on this with she's not leaving

25:47

WWE. Like, I'd be

25:50

so shocked. I'd be so shocked.

25:52

Like, we were having this

25:54

conversation because the

25:56

way that the quote came out was, she's

25:59

doing the negotiation. thing as she should

26:01

and this is just This

26:03

is a hypothetical situation, right? It's

26:06

an accurate statement at the time. Like if

26:08

she's not there she's not resigned yet, right?

26:11

There's always the possibility You

26:13

know, I mean it's it's it's it

26:15

oddly enough. It's a Nick Khan answer like in

26:18

everything's for sale We just have the cover Yeah

26:23

Whoo boy, I mean First

26:25

of all, I'm she's all over

26:27

all over the algorithm Yeah on my end

26:29

ever since she was on she was on

26:31

cheap eat by the way with with Peter

26:34

Rosenberry last Friday go check that out and

26:38

I mean Everything

26:40

I've heard from people who've read the book and

26:42

Brian is like the fourth person now kind of

26:44

in my immediate circles who Been you

26:47

know dive it into it. I've said it's fantastic. And I

26:50

I think it's It's something

26:52

where I can I don't think WWE is

26:54

letting her go they

26:56

fully understand that you

26:59

know even with With

27:01

her kind of being in the spot that she is where she doesn't

27:03

need the title anymore She again, like

27:06

you guys said she's done everything she there is

27:08

to do in this company there's

27:11

no they're gonna try to make her a lifer, you

27:13

know, I mean and and Put

27:16

her in kind of you know, the

27:18

Cena space, right? The the

27:20

rock space where it's these these

27:23

people have been with the company forever

27:25

and they they will continue to be

27:28

you know, so it's It

27:32

definitely just especially with like the Drew

27:34

McIntyre contract situation stuff still not being

27:36

resolved It's stuff like this.

27:38

That's it's always interesting wrestling free agency is

27:41

always interesting because you never know exactly

27:43

what's You know, what's

27:45

K-fabe or not when it comes to this stuff?

27:48

When in in sports like in, you know

27:50

football I kind of going through this on

27:52

with on the football side with the 49ers

27:54

and Brandon Iuke He's posting all those emojis

27:56

that you're you're you're trying to decipher and

27:58

break the code on And

28:00

you know Pro wrestling you can

28:02

you can just kind of be sort of up front without being

28:05

up front Right. So exactly

28:07

it's it's super interesting a last

28:09

one here on high spot headlines

28:13

Andrade Has said

28:15

that he's waiting for what happens After

28:18

WrestleMania 40 now and I've

28:20

been back for what's going on two months now

28:22

came back at the Rumble Let's

28:25

start here with Andrade. How have

28:28

you guys felt about his return so

28:30

far? Cal he you

28:32

know, he's a Came

28:34

back at the Rumble was one of the surprises quote-unquote

28:38

But you know on Raw this past Monday

28:41

didn't really have the full entrance So he's

28:43

gotta got the the full

28:45

spectrum there of the WWE experience. Where are

28:48

you out with with Andrade? Yeah,

28:50

I'm actually I was going in a cage

28:52

mess I is even he didn't get a

28:54

full entrance if you especially if you go

28:56

back and look at the stills from that match from Raw I'm

28:59

trying to with everything is him doing a

29:02

backflip like that man's working it But it's

29:04

just sad to see the like throughout the

29:06

month of March He's gotten like ten and

29:08

a half minutes of TV time total and

29:10

then kind of been the problem I've had

29:12

with on dry not that I've had that

29:14

it seems like companies have had with making

29:17

him a viable part of their

29:20

programming before the

29:22

pandemic I Thought

29:24

it was I thought it was up. I thought Andrade was gonna

29:26

be one of the guys It was

29:28

him and and was it Angel Garza? Mm-hmm.

29:31

They were the team and it's

29:33

in WWE seemed like they were bigger on Garza

29:35

than they were on dry And they let him

29:38

go and I was like that's that seems

29:40

really bad I mean, I don't I don't I

29:42

don't think I mean I don't the dirt chiefs were

29:44

saying that part of it was they didn't believe he

29:46

could cut promos Which I don't know if I agree

29:48

with it all I

29:50

don't I've never had any issues with really

29:52

understanding him But I also think it's not

29:55

it shouldn't have been that difficult to have

29:57

him and Zelina Z like

30:00

an Alexandria York type, I'm running the

30:02

show. This is like the top guy and

30:04

we're gonna send him out on, and you know, smack some

30:06

heads. But

30:08

even when he went to AEW in a

30:11

company where I thought style-wise,

30:14

he may be able to get a little better of a shake,

30:17

they weren't, the opportunities that were, him being

30:19

part of these factions and, you know, having

30:21

to work with other people, it never really

30:23

seemed like it fit. Just like he had

30:25

those damn pants and

30:27

they always seem to split every time he's

30:30

having matches. It was just like, it was

30:32

just indicative of not understanding on

30:34

both sides what he could do. I was very happy

30:36

to see him come back at the Rumble, but, you

30:39

know, we're not getting anything out of it. And I

30:41

don't know if it's a situation where, again,

30:44

because he came back at a time where a

30:46

lot of, you know, plates were in the air

30:48

spinning, maybe they have to

30:50

finish all that out. Maybe Jay Uso's

30:52

gotta figure out where he's going for Andrade to go,

30:54

or whatever the case may be. I

30:58

hope he gets a better shake this time right now.

31:00

I don't know if I see it. For

31:05

After Mania, Brian, what

31:07

is your ideal situation

31:10

and storyline for Andrade? Like, what is

31:12

his ceiling in your mind after WrestleMania?

31:15

And they're kind of starting fresh building

31:17

up to next year. I

31:21

would like to see him kind of go out with Gunther,

31:24

you know. For the title? For

31:26

the intercontinental line? Yeah, mid-card title. You

31:30

know, maybe throw him in the mix with, I

31:33

can see Chad Gable kind of getting back in there.

31:36

So I would throw him in that mix and see, you

31:39

know, what they get. I think the styles may seem,

31:42

you can make something work. You can make some magic

31:44

that, you know, kind of like people don't need. You

31:47

know, I like where they was going

31:49

with, where they seem to have been

31:51

going with Dominique Rasturio and

31:53

him, you know, it's kind of

31:55

like that, hmm, you was talking shit. Well,

31:58

hello buddy. We're not going to. too far,

32:00

but unfortunately. That's

32:02

still a potential situation that

32:04

could happen. Yeah. I

32:07

just feel like you need Charlotte for that. Like I

32:09

feel like you gotta come full

32:11

circle, but then at

32:13

the same time, do I really want to see him and

32:15

Charlotte work together? Right, do you want to do the couple

32:17

thing? Do they want to see, I don't

32:19

know if they're hyped for that. I, I,

32:21

I'm, weren't, didn't they split them

32:23

up when, back before, when

32:26

they, right before the pandemic, there was that whole

32:28

thing where they had split the two, they

32:30

did the trade, the drafts. And

32:33

at one point they were trying to split them. And they

32:35

made, they made an action. I think the case was they

32:37

actually, again, the Durchie said that they spoke with them, that

32:39

not be able to be split up. But the plan was

32:41

for them to be on two totally different things anyway, I'm

32:43

sorry. No, no, yeah. Like I

32:46

don't necessarily want to see it, but

32:48

because of like, that was the premise

32:50

for me of why he would

32:53

have an issue with Dominic Mysterio when Charlotte would come

32:55

out there and say, I got, I got a real

32:57

poppy at home and calls me mommy and all that

32:59

other stuff. So to me,

33:03

it's like, you either go full cooking

33:05

with that feud or not. So I

33:07

don't necessarily need to see him intertwined

33:09

with the judgment day just yet, but

33:12

you know, what I want to see him

33:14

do is just go out there, put on

33:16

great matches with some storytellers and go from

33:18

there. And I think Goother, you know, it's,

33:21

it's a believable feud. It's

33:24

also something we haven't seen before. So I think

33:26

we could see that. And if he was the

33:28

one to be Gunther, I wouldn't be upset. Really?

33:33

As a face too. Like

33:36

this hypothetical situation is him as a face. Okay.

33:39

I mean, that would

33:41

be, I've

33:43

always felt with him, he's best as

33:45

a heel, but I mean, I feel that way about

33:48

a lot, a lot of people and you

33:51

know, it would almost be in a

33:53

way refreshing if he was, if he had

33:56

a little bit of a baby face run. And

33:59

you're right. It does feel His

34:03

ceiling as being kind of very mid card

34:05

title II right like intercontinental

34:07

title a US title Which he's won it in

34:09

the past right like he was he

34:11

was a United States champion during his first run

34:14

and I Hope

34:19

they find a better way to deploy him this

34:21

time around than last time and obviously it's a

34:23

different regime, but I Hope

34:26

it's not a situation where they have to they

34:28

have to send him back to almost NXT right

34:31

to kind of revitalize him Because

34:33

I mean as as dope as that would be

34:35

in in a short timeframe

34:38

like long-term Not

34:40

not great for a journey. It's

34:43

not it wouldn't be it wouldn't feel

34:45

like they had It's

34:48

because it could be good for him in the short

34:50

term, but I think in the long term It doesn't

34:52

feel like they would be having any real they

34:56

Wouldn't really have his back in regards to his

34:59

future It seems like they would say you're a

35:01

former NXT champion We remember seeing all of us,

35:03

but we don't really see you as anything more

35:05

than that I mean I think

35:07

to Brian's when I think maybe

35:10

him him beating Guther for the

35:12

IC title or something like that

35:14

Winning a money in the bank or something

35:17

like that He probably needs well waiting the

35:19

money in the bank briefcase and then cashing

35:21

in successfully. He needs something like that Right

35:24

to kind of get to kickstart his career

35:26

in WWE. So pay

35:28

you backing off with that thought in three

35:31

years with Andrade Do

35:34

you see him being in any

35:36

world title picture? in

35:39

in America Yeah

35:43

I don't know. I could more soon

35:46

see him back in CMLL or something like that

35:49

competing for be competing for the big gold

35:51

but again, that's Solely

35:53

based off of how he's been booked for

35:55

the last like five six years in both

35:57

companies if they don't seem to be

36:01

putting the battery in his back to get

36:04

him into those opportunities or put him in,

36:06

you know, with those those impact players So

36:08

I again at a certain point. It's why

36:10

people see certain wrestlers as nothing

36:12

more than a midcard person because they're only

36:15

Barely used in the midcard to begin with how could you

36:17

see them stepping out in the eye or unless you're a

36:20

really big fan of that person Do

36:23

you guys like his new finisher? It's called the

36:25

message Or something like

36:27

that. It seems kind of generic seems

36:29

kind of very creative wrestler Generic

36:32

to me and he's such a

36:34

great wrestler where who looking

36:37

for something a little bit more high-impact or at least aesthetically

36:40

more pleasing That

36:42

I don't know. Maybe I'm just being nitpicking out You

36:46

got a way for after WrestleMania 40 see

36:48

what happens. See that's how you

36:50

bring a circle. Yeah Absolutely.

36:52

All right We got

36:54

a lot more to get to here on the show before

36:56

we get there. Let's take a quick break This

36:59

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the hotels.com app today. It

38:05

is now time to welcome this week's

38:08

special guest to Wednesday Worldwide. He is

38:10

not only one of our ringer wrestling

38:12

show brethren, he is also one of

38:15

the masterminds behind the definitive party of

38:17

WrestleMania week in Walla Mania, which is

38:19

being held this year at Franklin Music

38:21

Hall in Philadelphia Thursday,

38:24

April 4th at 8

38:26

p.m. To me, he'll always

38:28

be at RealLifeCaz and apparently now

38:31

the number one Brian Dipperstein stand

38:34

in the world. He

38:37

is Kazim Ben Ridey. Kaz,

38:39

welcome back to Wednesday Worldwide.

38:41

How the hell are you?

38:43

Yes sir. I'm good,

38:45

man. I'm good. I'm excited. I feel

38:48

it in the air. It's that time of

38:50

the year and man,

38:53

it's the time of the year where things are

38:55

just moving a million miles an hour. So I

38:59

can't wait to get to Philly, man. I'm excited. How

39:01

are you guys doing? I'm

39:03

saying how are you guys doing? I don't

39:05

talk to you guys like every week. We

39:07

didn't see you yesterday or we're talking like

39:09

an hour ago. Sorry. It's always good to

39:12

do the podcast thing with someone you talk to all

39:15

the time. You act like you haven't been talking but

39:17

you know. I'm trying to make this

39:20

a listener experience. Right? Like if you're

39:22

a regular wrestling fan and you go

39:24

from this to cheapy to Wednesday Worldwide,

39:26

I got to act like, hey guys,

39:29

I haven't seen you while you're on

39:31

this. Exactly. Well, as I mentioned up

39:33

top, you're one of

39:35

the main reasons that WALL-A mainnet even exists

39:38

and has become as big of

39:40

an event as it is. And one thing I

39:42

was curious about is

39:44

the process of deciding who the

39:46

guest of honor is every year. Because

39:48

I know that can't be easy to

39:51

decide because there's so many deserving names.

39:53

This year, going to be Shelton Benjamin.

39:55

Last year, Trinity Fatu, Naomi. Give us

39:57

a peek behind a

40:00

little bit of that decision process of who

40:03

gets bestowed, you know, that prestigious honor

40:05

at Walla Mania. Well, I

40:07

always feel like it's kind of evolved,

40:09

right? Like the first time we did

40:12

this all the way in Santa Clara

40:14

in California, our

40:16

first quote unquote guest of honor

40:18

was Ray Mysterio. And, you know, it was

40:20

one of those things where Ray

40:23

wasn't in WWE at the time. And,

40:25

you know, it kind of speaks to

40:27

sort of like the essence of what Walla Mania

40:29

started as, as this sort

40:32

of like underground offshoot, like we're the

40:34

real, we're wrestling fans, but we're also

40:36

like have so much respect and love

40:38

for the industry. Let's do this sort

40:41

of like good vibe event

40:44

around the biggest weekend of

40:46

the year. And every year, you know, I

40:49

just remember just how much it

40:51

stuck with me, not how,

40:53

not just how much like we wanted to see

40:55

Ray and show Ray love, but how much other

40:58

people wanted to show Ray love

41:00

as well, which is like the other wrestlers, the talent,

41:02

the people that they're around, people that's on the road

41:04

with all the time. So we

41:07

all, we all kind of put that into consideration when

41:09

it's time to do the guest of honor. And,

41:12

you know, it's like, it's not like a

41:14

hall of fame, but it's like, man, you

41:16

know, in our community, you know, I take,

41:19

I take, I take

41:21

a little bit of a following from the

41:23

BET Awards, right? And the BET Awards get

41:25

a lot of flack, right? Because, you know,

41:27

you black people, we're critical of everything. But

41:30

one thing they do really well is give people

41:32

their flowers while they can still smell them. Right?

41:34

Like while they, while they could come out and

41:37

just like embrace it and not do it,

41:39

you know, when it's too

41:41

late and you know, Shelton

41:43

Benjamin, I think is, is in

41:45

that sort of line of people

41:47

who have been

41:49

ridiculously underrated and undervalued for, for

41:51

several years. He was one of

41:53

my favorite wrestlers growing up. I

41:55

see B Waters. He's got like

41:57

the Shelton belt behind him. You know what I mean?

41:59

Like the belt that he sort of made famous. And

42:01

I think a lot of people don't realize just how

42:04

influential he's been in the history

42:06

of, you know, sports

42:08

entertainment, whether it's not just his WWE

42:10

work, but man, this guy was all

42:13

American at Minnesota. Right? Like he was a guy

42:15

who was a legit athletic freak.

42:17

He's somebody who, you know, put the money

42:19

in the bank match on the map. He's

42:22

somebody who is, you know, before Gunther was

42:25

the longest reigning intercontinental champion until, you

42:27

know, Gunther, you know, took that reign

42:29

from him on top of that. He's

42:32

somebody who has a

42:34

ton of love throughout the industry.

42:36

Like I don't think you can find anybody,

42:38

you know, and I talk to a lot

42:40

of folks within wrestling in

42:42

the ring, outside of the ring that can

42:44

never say a bad word about Shelton Benjamin.

42:47

So it's kind of an easy choice, you

42:49

know, and I love being able to, you

42:52

know, show love to the people that make

42:55

this what it is. Originally, what While

42:57

I Mania started as was how

42:59

can we show love to people who

43:01

literally break their backs for our entertainment

43:03

all year around and how

43:06

do we step it up a little bit

43:08

more and make it so we're giving love

43:10

to people that have broken

43:12

their backs for decades, for years to

43:14

doing this. And, you know,

43:17

and while I made

43:19

it such a unique sort of experience and

43:21

a unique sort of party, especially within like

43:24

the pro wrestling culture that,

43:27

you know, yeah, like we also want to give

43:29

love to folks that also

43:31

had that extra hurdle of being black

43:33

and being, you know, in

43:36

this industry that, you know, traditionally has had

43:38

to overcome a lot more than just being

43:40

a good wrestler. Also stuff that we don't

43:42

even really get to talk about like that

43:45

a lot. So, I mean,

43:47

it's not just, you know, black wrestlers, but

43:49

it's just the way it sort of

43:51

happened over the years, you know, like

43:53

we've, I think Booker T really set

43:55

it off in New York when he

43:57

was our guest of honor. He was going into the hall.

44:00

of Fame for the second time as a

44:02

member of Harlem Heat. And it was also,

44:04

you know, Kofi Mania that coincided with that.

44:06

So I think that, that,

44:08

you know, that, that, that convergence of

44:10

all of that energy was like, man,

44:13

we should do this every single year.

44:15

And, you know, leaned

44:18

into MVP, being our guest of

44:20

honor after the pandemic, WrestleMania and,

44:22

you know, everything that him and

44:24

her business went through on top

44:26

of his incredible career before that,

44:29

honoring him in Tampa, I mean, in Dallas, Trinity

44:33

Fatu, somebody who is incredibly talented and

44:35

incredibly underrated and undervalued, but somebody who

44:37

has made an indelible mark in the

44:39

industry, especially on fans like us. That

44:42

was an easy one. And I think

44:44

Shelton Benjamin is an easy one too,

44:46

because when he talked about workhorses, when

44:49

he talked about guys who have made

44:51

incredible moments in WWE history, when you

44:53

talk about legitimate badasses, when he talked

44:55

about people who have influenced wrestling culture,

44:58

and just on top

45:00

of all that being a solid,

45:02

good ass human also, it's

45:05

an easy choice. So man, I can't

45:07

wait for Shelton to get those flowers

45:09

in Philadelphia. Big thanks. Speaking

45:11

of people we're going to be seeing in

45:14

Philadelphia, it's always dope to me to see

45:16

when you or Emilio, you guys are posting

45:18

up the cards, those announcements to who's going

45:20

to be in the building. I've been hype

45:23

ever since I saw that Corey Townes was going to be in

45:25

the building. This is one of

45:27

my favorites behind the wheels of steel, but

45:29

also even seeing like that Willow is going

45:31

to be, you know, send foot in the

45:33

building as well. I was wondering from you,

45:35

Kaz, is there anybody in particular that you

45:37

can't wait to see get the Awali-Mania experience

45:40

in Philly this year? I

45:42

mean, I can't be.

45:44

That's a two part answer,

45:47

right? Because obviously I'll

45:49

say as much as I can say without saying too

45:51

much. The

45:53

industry is different.

45:56

And there are definitely people that I'm excited

45:58

to see pull up that I can't mention. right

46:00

now. But that's an easy

46:02

answer. But on top of

46:04

that, man, it's also served

46:06

as a makeshift

46:10

family reunion for

46:13

the wrestling industry. And these are people that

46:15

travel every single week

46:17

all throughout the country. Damn,

46:19

they're 52 weeks a year. And

46:22

a lot of time, this is the one time of the year that

46:24

they all get to just hang out and kick it. And that Thursday

46:26

is like the nice sweet spot where,

46:28

you know, before this week gets crazy, let's

46:30

like, enjoy this. Let's enjoy this journey. Let's

46:32

enjoy this moment. So I'm really

46:34

excited to see the folks that don't see

46:37

each other enough to really enjoy the time

46:39

with each other. I can't wait to see

46:41

Corey, a son of Philadelphia, the son

46:43

of DJ Jazzy Jeff, getting

46:46

that moment and really tearing that

46:48

place down. My man,

46:51

Carlucci, Tommy Carlucci, I think a lot

46:53

of people sleep on, man, like he's

46:55

been killing it as far as

46:57

like, you know, being from Connecticut and one

47:00

of the bigger pop DJs out there right

47:02

now. And he's also a floor manager for

47:04

NXT as well. So if you guys have

47:06

watched any WWE in the past like 10

47:09

years, you'll see him, you

47:11

know, lurking around, but he's a guy for years. It's

47:13

been like, man, I can't wait to, you know, I

47:15

want to do while I'm a mania one day, I

47:17

want to do while I'm a mania one day. And

47:19

like just in the year, seeing him build from like

47:21

getting spotted hot 97 and DJ with like Ryan Cabrera

47:23

and doing all this stuff with, you know, all these

47:25

other artists. So like, I can't wait to see those

47:28

DJs tear it up. I've seen Gigi Rosa.

47:30

She kills it over here at somewhere nowhere

47:32

in New York city. One of the best

47:34

rising DJs. And I think a lot of

47:37

that what makes this is really fun. This

47:39

event is I get to book my friends.

47:41

I get to book people that I know

47:43

are talented for an event that we sort

47:46

of seen grow altogether. And that's

47:49

always phenomenal. And last but

47:51

certainly not least, man, like a while

47:54

a man like he's somebody who

47:56

every year we're

47:58

not here without, you know, his sort of

48:00

vision for what this sort of thing

48:02

could have become over the years.

48:05

And he's really entrusted me over the years to

48:07

sort of like, you know, point guard this entire

48:10

thing. And he's been

48:12

in the lab and he's been cooking with

48:15

gas for a long time. So that's going

48:17

to be really exciting, man. And

48:19

I have a lot of surprises, a lot

48:21

of surprises for

48:24

this year. So I know

48:27

you wanted one answer, but there's several. There's

48:29

several reasons I'm excited for this one. All

48:31

right. Okay. Last but not least,

48:34

I know you got to get out of here, but

48:36

I got to ask you, I'm real big on like

48:38

those glass breaking moments, the moments where, you know, like

48:40

we got something for you. Like last

48:42

year you told us the history and how you

48:44

got involved, but when was it that you knew

48:47

you struggled with you, Emilio

48:49

and Wale and everybody? Man,

48:53

um, I don't

48:56

really know, man. Like the parties kind of

48:58

went through a lot of evolutions, right? Like

49:00

I don't think we're really here without court

49:02

Bauer, who kind of like, who runs MLW

49:04

and is a good friend of ours. And

49:06

he's somebody who's sort of like, you know,

49:09

really got this thing going at first. And

49:11

you know, once, I mean,

49:14

I'm always going to be partial to New York city

49:16

because it was a special time of my life and

49:18

my career. I had literally just finished my run at

49:20

WWE. I was with

49:22

these people all the time, everywhere, uh,

49:25

throughout the year. And

49:27

it was a time where, you know, me and court

49:29

had like a conversation. I was like, you know, like,

49:31

I think, I think I should, I should

49:33

like take the reins on this. Let

49:35

me like, let me see what I could do with this. And you know, he

49:37

was cool with it. And um, you

49:39

know, it, it, I think that's

49:41

where the energy of what

49:43

the party really could be sort of took

49:46

off because everybody saw like WWE was like,

49:48

wow, like we should be using

49:50

this type of stuff. And

49:53

I would say, man, there was

49:55

literally a specific moment in that New York party

49:57

where we do the, the, the, the, the guest

49:59

of honor chose. for Booker T

50:01

and he comes out and as gracious as

50:03

he is with Queen Charmeau, lifts up the

50:05

cup and you know gives a

50:07

wonderful speech. But at the end of the speech,

50:09

he's like, you know what, this week it's all

50:11

about Kofi and everybody goes crazy and nobody knows

50:14

Kofi and the new day are coming. So they

50:16

pull up and no

50:18

announcement and God rest his shoulders. Shad

50:20

Gaspart lifts him up on his shoulders

50:23

and they're just like vibe. And it's just

50:25

like you got to understand that was

50:27

an emotional time to be a wrestling fan going into

50:29

that moment. We didn't really know this Kofi moment was

50:31

going to happen. So we're like, yo, this is as

50:33

good as it gets. This is

50:35

pretty damn fun. So, you know,

50:39

that, I mean, like, you know,

50:41

we've seen so many people come

50:43

through and I think

50:45

after that one was

50:47

when I really started to get like, have

50:50

conversations with wrestlers who went on to become

50:53

megastars being like, man, I remember buying a

50:55

ticket to Waller mania just going to just

50:57

hang out and like they're

50:59

just like excited to be invited. They're excited

51:01

to be a part of it. Like, and

51:03

I think New York was when we really

51:06

were like, okay, this could be something more

51:08

than what we've been doing for the past

51:10

several years. I think LA last year was

51:13

awesome. And this

51:16

year I'm going to top

51:18

that we're going to top that in Philadelphia. That's

51:21

what you call a tease in the business

51:23

right there. That is absolutely fantastic. Kaz, you're the

51:25

best. Thank you so much for hopping on. I

51:28

know you got to run, but I'm

51:30

going to put my David Shoemaker glasses on real

51:32

quick. Once you get your plugs in on the

51:34

way out. While

51:36

I made it tickets, all VIP tickets are gone,

51:39

but you can get some GAs also. Also, you

51:42

know, I'll throw a little something out

51:45

there. We are probably

51:48

going to announce a really cool

51:51

pregame tailgate sort of situation for

51:53

host. I get there really early.

51:55

We'll have

51:58

a DJ outside the venue.

52:01

Uh, most likely we're still confirming this at the moment,

52:03

but I'll just say it here cause it's Wednesday worldwide

52:05

and screw it, get the exclusive.

52:09

Uh, I'll just say this,

52:11

you're gonna want to get there early. I'll

52:14

put it like that. You're gonna, if you're

52:16

in Philadelphia on Thursday, if

52:19

you know there's a million things going

52:21

on and I promise you once all

52:23

these things are confirmed, you'd be

52:25

like, Oh, I gotta get there. So

52:28

I'll just leave it at that. Get your

52:30

tickets on the access.com. Obviously

52:33

catch me on the mass man show every Monday

52:35

and Thursday right here in the ring of wrestling

52:37

show. Uh, you catch me on

52:39

S and Y token. Nick, she catch me

52:41

on MSG token. Nick's and you can catch

52:43

me off of that exports book Monday, Tuesday,

52:45

Thursday, and Friday talking all things hoops. Uh,

52:48

with my guests, those Nick style skin sauce Castillo,

52:50

uh, the filled up. Well, you used to be

52:52

Philadelphia 76 with Michigan Wolverines. Uh,

52:54

but then, yeah. While a

52:57

mania can't not wait. We got

52:59

Armani white performing. We got Connie

53:01

diamond performing. We got Corey towns,

53:04

DJ and Gigi Rosa. Um,

53:06

I got ACE book. He's going to come

53:08

through and do a set DJ money. It's

53:10

going to do a set. Uh, Tommy Carlucci

53:12

doing a set. We got a ton of

53:15

surprise performances while he's bringing a ton of

53:17

friends. Uh, and I'll, I'll

53:19

just say you're going to, you're going to, there's

53:21

no other way to kick off WrestleMania weekend. Like

53:23

I don't know what to tell you. Like there's

53:25

going to be a ton of wrestling. There's going

53:27

to be a ton of, you know, uh, autograph

53:30

signings and meet and grease and all

53:32

that type of stuff. And that's fine.

53:34

And that's amazing. But if

53:37

you want to vibe before all

53:39

that while a mania is a place for you to be at.

53:42

And that's why we do it on a Thursday.

53:44

That's why we do it before the hall of

53:46

fame and smack down and night one

53:48

to night two, all that type of stuff. It's going to

53:50

be incredible. Can't

53:52

wait to see all y'all there. Be nice. Come

53:55

say hi. Don't bite. Uh, and

53:58

it's going to be really awesome. See a lot of the lift. of

54:00

the ring of wrestling show in person. So pull

54:02

up. I know you guys

54:05

know already. So we got some massive

54:07

guests lined up for the ring of wrestling

54:09

show live that I can't announce right now.

54:13

The underselling that Kaz has to do right

54:16

now is the restraint is just the most

54:18

impressive thing I've seen because we've also had

54:20

to keep these

54:22

secrets. It's tough. It's weighing on

54:24

me. But you're

54:26

going to be glad that you're going

54:29

to be glad because you know what? One

54:31

thing I've learned about wrestling is there's nothing better than

54:33

a surprise pop. Pops are

54:35

nice, but the surprise pop is what

54:38

you're... That's the one. Oh

54:41

my God. She's here. She's here. Final

54:44

boss. That is it that I get excited

54:46

for. Oh my God. You kidding me? It's

54:49

going to be great. It's going to be

54:51

great. Absolutely. Kaz, thank you so

54:53

much. We will see you next week. We're looking forward

54:55

to seeing you. So we'll see you again. Thanks

54:58

man. Of course. Take care guys.

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55:29

right. Before we get out of here, let's hit on last

55:32

night's NXT. Look ahead

55:34

tonight's upcoming dynamite. We'll

55:36

each pick the biggest thing that stood out

55:38

to us from NXT. We'll talk about one

55:41

a little bit more in depth. Cal, kick

55:43

things off for us. What was your biggest

55:45

NXT takeaway? I think my biggest

55:47

NXT takeaway is that the

55:50

HBK, Sean Michaels clearly

55:52

is putting trick and

55:54

mellow on in the main event stand

55:56

deliver. I shout out to Tony D'Angelo.

55:58

Shout out to Dragunov. They wasn't, they

56:00

didn't go up the Rocky steps. They didn't get

56:02

the Rocky run. They didn't get rain pouring on

56:04

them and nothing like that. That's what I like

56:06

seeing last night. Absolutely. Brian,

56:08

what do you have? I

56:11

wasn't gonna say about the Rocky steps, right? Does that

56:13

mean now Cody can't run them? He

56:15

can't. He can't, yeah,

56:17

they burned it. Rocky stepped on

56:19

Cody. Cody can't run up the Rocky steps.

56:22

I'm sorry. Yeah, he's still bleeding.

56:25

Do we know? Yes. Cody's

56:27

still on the feet of his bus. He's

56:30

still getting rained on. He's

56:32

still getting rained on. Oh man, but definitely my

56:34

stand. I say this, Natalia,

56:36

I'm always gonna pop when

56:39

Natalia comes to NXT.

56:43

Enjoy her while we have her because

56:45

she been around for a while and

56:48

she loves this business, but

56:50

she's definitely prepping the next

56:52

generation, but I'm gonna enjoy

56:55

her in these spots when

56:58

she makes these appearances and just

57:00

seeing her last night with Lola

57:02

Vice, beautiful, beautiful. Yeah,

57:05

and was that Carmen Petrovich's

57:08

debut on main NXT? Well,

57:10

I guess not debut, but it's

57:13

kind of like her biggest spot that she's had.

57:15

So Natalia trying to give her fellow Canadian the

57:17

rub. I'm just, that was solid.

57:21

The Mellow Trick video package was just chef's kiss, man.

57:29

I felt like I was watching 24 seven on HBO. Fact.

57:34

Right, it just felt so real.

57:36

And you're right, I mean, this is, it's

57:39

so far ahead of being one,

57:42

the best storyline, and

57:44

two, clearly the main event. It's

57:47

a little wild that there's not a title attached

57:49

to it. It gets more wild.

57:51

We talked about how it's already wild. It

57:54

gets more wild by the week when

57:56

you just see how fantastic this is

57:58

gonna be at the end. division. It's

58:00

so much so that little, little dirt

58:03

sheety, but there's some thought

58:05

about them continuing this feud on the main

58:07

roster if and when they're both up there,

58:09

which is, which is why the

58:11

thing about it. I think, I think Melo's on his way up

58:13

at some point, but if him and

58:15

Trick are still continuing this, it

58:18

could be, uh, I'm gonna say this, Ben, if

58:21

the timeline had their way, this

58:23

match would be on WrestleMania 40. And I could

58:25

see it because there's a lot of story, but

58:28

I'm, and I'm, I'm just going to say it

58:30

again. If

58:32

you put Trick Melo

58:34

anywhere other than stand in the liver,

58:36

I think it gets lost. There's

58:39

so much story going on here, but again,

58:41

I, and we, we're not the show to

58:43

talk about the final boss, but I can't

58:46

not reference it. I've been watching that thing

58:48

all week. That beat down all week. Like

58:50

it's, it's, there's so much overshadowing.

58:52

I think it would get a great vignette

58:54

when you're in the, in the building or

58:56

at home, but it's going to

58:59

be a really dope moment surrounded by a

59:01

bunch of amazing moments where on stand and

59:03

deliver that being the main event that

59:07

makes that show one of those memorable ass shows

59:09

that you go, Oh, you don't remember standing deliver

59:11

Philly? No, that's got the Carmelo trick at the

59:13

end, assuming that they do the main event, but,

59:15

uh, you, you, you got to do

59:17

the right thing. Sean Michaels. He's

59:20

got to know that

59:23

they've got to know, man. I mean,

59:26

it's going to be wild when this is a bigger

59:28

moment for mellow than him winning the NXT title last

59:31

year. Yeah. Right. It's

59:33

that's, that's so, I

59:35

mean, shout out to both of them and, and,

59:38

and Sean for putting this

59:40

whole thing together the way that they have, but

59:42

oh boy, it's, it's going to be, it's

59:45

going to be a hell of a match.

59:47

Uh, looking at tonight, AEW dynamite. That's the

59:49

one thing you were looking forward to most.

59:51

Brian, what do you got? I've

59:54

never been so intrigued by

59:56

someone being on commentary. Then

59:59

I am. Here Mercedes Monet

1:00:02

on commentary during the Fatal

1:00:05

four-way or I guess we just can call

1:00:07

a four-way match for the TBS

1:00:09

championship adw dynasty Chris

1:00:11

that lander sky blue Anna J

1:00:13

and Willow nightingale because I want

1:00:16

to hear the trash talk I know what's coming Mercedes

1:00:19

is coming this she's not playing games. I love

1:00:21

the way she's been kind of Hitting

1:00:23

that going at Willow's neck Will

1:00:26

own a nice person one of the most wonderful

1:00:28

people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting and

1:00:30

working within this business But

1:00:33

I see we'll see a different side

1:00:35

because I don't think that lady gonna take

1:00:37

everything Mercedes I should only be nice for

1:00:39

so long Absolutely

1:00:47

Cal what do you have? I

1:00:50

am NOT a big this is gonna make sense.

1:00:52

I promise I'm not a big reality show guy,

1:00:54

but lately shouts out to Drew ski Anything

1:00:56

related to could have been house has been

1:00:59

up my alley and I because

1:01:01

of that I've been hype Seeing

1:01:03

private party do their

1:01:06

auditions for the third member I'm

1:01:08

gonna go with the young bucks or I

1:01:10

guess the AW EVPs and private party a

1:01:13

because I've been waiting for Private

1:01:15

party to get real mixy in this tag

1:01:17

division since they made their return back in

1:01:19

Jersey at the top of the year but

1:01:21

also Because it looked

1:01:24

like he should be the third member of Stan Michael

1:01:28

the king of RB He

1:01:31

said yeah, I can't even hit the year there was

1:01:33

so much feeling in his yet I

1:01:35

hope he's walking out there with them as a

1:01:37

third member I don't know if it's happened yet,

1:01:40

but now that that tag match should be dope

1:01:42

regardless of his stands out there And that's

1:01:44

my boy real quick quick memory. I have Battle

1:01:47

Club Pro in job

1:01:50

or slam job or slim to

1:01:53

Stan Michael he's facing The

1:01:57

guys may shoot he's facing his opponent like

1:01:59

there in this Battle Royce the great sweatpants

1:02:01

barrel. He beats the guy grabs

1:02:03

his arm like he's beating him up. He grabs

1:02:05

his Fist and starts

1:02:08

singing It's

1:02:10

used his fist as they microphone

1:02:20

Mouse Hawkins doesn't and I'm like, okay

1:02:22

roll See

1:02:25

the entertainment Right

1:02:28

private party. That's the

1:02:30

third member do the right thing

1:02:32

private party There

1:02:35

it is I Had

1:02:38

the the Bucks private party is my thing

1:02:40

too. I I love private party

1:02:42

man. I mean I When

1:02:45

they first kind of came on the scene at aew

1:02:47

I had a take that

1:02:49

gin and juice was the best tag

1:02:51

team finisher In the

1:02:53

game I caught some heat for

1:02:55

it at the time, but it's still it's just

1:02:57

so visually appealing, you know it's

1:03:00

it's it in Non

1:03:04

or in in reality the move

1:03:06

actually probably doesn't make much sense So

1:03:08

much the opponent has to do to

1:03:11

like participate in it, right? But still

1:03:13

looks cool as hell every every single

1:03:15

time But it should be

1:03:17

a should be a good show tonight guys That's

1:03:20

how you do Wednesday be sure

1:03:22

to check out our other Ring

1:03:25

of wrestling show offerings because we are coming to you every

1:03:27

single day of the week We've got

1:03:29

the masked man show with David Shoemaker and

1:03:31

Kaz on Mondays and Thursdays We've got cheap

1:03:33

heat on Tuesdays and Fridays with Peter Rosenberg

1:03:35

stack-eye Greg and dip You'll

1:03:37

find Wednesday worldwide smack dab in the middle and

1:03:40

of course Wednesdays and if

1:03:42

you're not already you should have

1:03:44

follow us subscribe hit us with those five

1:03:46

star ratings here on the ring of wrestling

1:03:48

Show feed another reminder ring

1:03:50

of wrestling show meet and greets cheekies

1:03:54

and Pete South Philly Friday

1:03:56

April 5th 5 to 7 p.m. Come hang

1:03:58

out with us before you head to SmackDown,

1:04:00

we'll walk down with you, hang

1:04:03

out with us, have a bite,

1:04:05

have a drink, have whatever you want, but we'll be out

1:04:08

there, the whole squad will be out there. Cal,

1:04:10

Brian, tell the people how they can find

1:04:12

you on Socials. At

1:04:16

Cal on Twitter slash X, I guess we're

1:04:18

calling it. Cal Dub on

1:04:20

Instagram, TikTok and threads, but it's always,

1:04:22

it's never about me. Brian H. Waters,

1:04:24

where can people find you and where

1:04:26

can they find me?

1:04:29

We find me at Brian

1:04:31

H. Waters on Instagram, TikTok,

1:04:34

X, threads, but more importantly,

1:04:36

Ringer Wrestling at TikTok,

1:04:39

threads, X, Instagram. As

1:04:42

I said it before, get ready,

1:04:44

because next week we're gonna crank it up,

1:04:46

three, four notches. You got Ben, you got

1:04:48

Cal, you got me in person, and we

1:04:50

tend to like this gimmick called social media,

1:04:53

and we're going to be having some exclusive

1:04:55

TikToks. We even gonna get David Shoemaker involved.

1:04:57

We gonna get Kaz involved, we gonna get

1:05:00

Stackout Greg, Demp and Rosenberg. They

1:05:02

don't know it yet, but when they listen

1:05:04

to the show, yeah, we gonna be creating

1:05:06

TikToks out of exclusives. Last year we

1:05:08

gave you a little bit, a couple

1:05:10

videos on Twitter. A little taste last year, yeah.

1:05:13

And you know what, I repurposed some of that.

1:05:15

We got a chance to talk to Natalia, we

1:05:18

got a chance to talk to Roxanne. If

1:05:20

you saw what we did at the Royal Rumble, just

1:05:22

wait. Maybe

1:05:25

we can get, you know what, maybe

1:05:27

we can get the new day

1:05:30

to sit there with Cal and

1:05:32

really hone out the Big Meat classic. Oh

1:05:34

my gosh. Yeah, yeah, write it down. Just

1:05:36

actually write it out. The Big Meat classic,

1:05:38

yeah, let's go. Yeah, maybe get it, or

1:05:41

Bronson Reed, you know, I mean Bronson Reed,

1:05:43

Otis, they like the name, so why not?

1:05:45

Let's get them all together, and we can

1:05:47

get them with Cal, because Cal, you know,

1:05:50

Cal came with that name, so let's put

1:05:52

it all together, you know? And

1:05:56

Taz came on here, he talked about Wile E.

1:05:58

Mania. He already told me. like, bro, you're

1:06:00

gonna be busy. No, we're gonna be following

1:06:02

that TikTok, I promise. Absolutely,

1:06:08

yeah, if you're not already, please.

1:06:10

At Ring of Wrestling, Twitter, Instagram,

1:06:12

threads. After you follow Ring of

1:06:15

Wrestling, you can follow me if you want. At

1:06:17

Cruise Controls, Control Decay, Twitter, Instagram, threads, all that

1:06:19

good stuff. Thank you very

1:06:21

much to Brian Hollywood Waters for producing

1:06:23

this episode, making us sound better than

1:06:25

we should. Gentlemen, thank

1:06:27

you as always for the grabs. Everyone

1:06:31

else, we will catch you next week. Bye.

1:06:59

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