CM Punk's (potential) AEW return and AEW Saturday Collision is finally announced | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #692 – 5/18/23

0:00 It's stud Welcome everybody. Welcome to this week's edition this s Realto Show, episode number six hundred ninety two May oldteen, two twenty three. Welcome so this week's edition of s Bong. I am one half of the show. I am Jeck joined every single week on the lach By and my co host, the one and only doctor Trey Franklin. It's a little bit late while we're recording this, but doctor Trey, you were not in a press release and then removed from it? Were you? My friend? Um? Let me think here. So, I mean I have been banned from locations I have been. I don't know about this. Do you get revit invited to all of your class reunions? Because I don't. So I think I've been scrubbed from the yearbooks. So but I have not been edited out of a press release yet. Okay, okay, fair enough. I have only had my ten year reunion. I didn't go to it because I saw most of my friends at that point. But twenty year reunions coming up next year, and I don't see a lot of my friends anymore because we've all gotten old to have families, all that good stuff. But yeah, no press releases, Doctor Trey being announced and then being secretly scrubbed and removed. That has

1:32 not happened. However, it has happened to one one wrestling superstar. Were you about to say something, Doctor Try, I actually, now that I think about it, I was announced for a show recently and then unbooked without my knowledge. So I was taken off of the flyers. Did you know you were booked? I guess yes, I can confirm the booking. The promoter his girlfriends said I said some things about her and it made him mad, and so instead of calling me and asking me about it, he just told everybody Elsium booked me, but they never told me he unbooked me.

2:13 So you went to the show? No, I was like, I had heard about it coping by friends that were on the show told me about it, and I was like, yeah, we're just not gonna deal with that guy anymore. So it's kind of fucked up, But yeah, I guess it did kind of happen that I was scrubbed from the existence of a press release related relatable Doctor Try Franklin, Folks, Doctor Try. Speaking of press releases, it was announced on Wednesday during Warner Brother Discoveries, upfronts. This is all taking place, like every major television company is doing these upfronts right now because it's ad season. They're getting ready for the fall of twenty twenty three, which is scared because we haven't even entered summer yet, which is awesome. I love summer. So now it's a little bit scary that we're talking about fall. And of course everybody had been talking about for the last for six weeks that AW was going to be announcing a Saturday show. The Saturday show would be called Collision. The Saturday show would see the return of cmpunk for the first time since the brawl out in September twenty twenty two.

3:19 Two of those three things happened. AW Collision was announced to take place on Saturday, starting June seventeenth, for two hours APM to ten PM, because that's what we need. We need another night of professional wrestling, another two hours of professional wrestling, all jokes aside. AW definitely can certainly utilize it. Can my wrestling fandom continue utilize it? As another debate for another day, but you know here we are, Doctor Trey. Saturday Collision has been announced. Throwback logo very reminiscent of WW Monday Nitro, which was badass. I dug it. The graphics which is not getting a lot of love for some reason. I don't know if people aren't noticing it or if I seven ready yet, but behind the throwback logo is like this little digital stuff that is very reminiscent to WW Saturday Night, when the beginning of that entrance was like these little robots like move it around and I think they like scanned a human body. It was very high tech for nineteen ninety four. But people aren't mentioning that. I thought that may have been a nod to know you Saturday Night as well, But I digress. So Saturday Collision has been announced.

4:30 There was also removers of a potential brand split that is kind of wishy washy. Right now, it may or may not be happening. I guess the only people that it won't affect are the AW champions. Nonetheless, let's start with the first part of this Doctor Trey Aw's new show, and it's on Saturdays, and it's called Collision. Your thoughts, you know, this is something we've talked about. They kind of needed another two hours of TV time because their roster was really flushed with a a lot of talent. Would you compare it to what ww head going on with three hours of raw, two hours of NXC, two hours of SmackDown. You know, they're filling seven hours with their roster, aw is trying to fill it with three.

5:15 This at least gets them back up to five hours. So you know, well as rampage, rampage is one hour, right, rampage is one hour yea, yeah, so this gets them up to five hours of television time a week. So it's going to give some people more, some more exposures, maybe help build some storylines, maybe help build some backstories, flushed out some character to the character, some things that we've been asking for for a while. So I'm happy in that regard. Maybe not thrilled with the time slot. Maybe, like if you're trying to capture casual fans doing a Saturday night show when people are usually going out on date nights on at eighteen to you know, forty five demographic, you might be missing some folks. I was kind of hoping they would land at six o'clock on TVs because that'll be fantastic from six oh five so far on about the cheap of you wheel maybe, um, but yeah, I was kind of hoping for maybe a little bit earlier because now it's like, I mean, Jeff, you and I both have significant others. Can you imagine looking at your wife or girlfriend or fiance and going, maybe I'd love to take you out the movies, but collisions on, I have to watch it for the podcast. This is how guys like us end up single again and in our parents' basement is because of you know, timing of things like this. So time slot wishes a little bit earlier, but I get it. It's a prime time slot, you know, TV or Warner Bowers came outs that are doubling down on wrestling, and this is why they're doing it. Hey, it's it's great for the

6:47 brand. It's great for the product, not great for wrestling fans. Guys like us who do podcasts who have to somehow consume all of this wrestling now to you know, verbal diarrhea. All of our fans who listen to us that we can talk about all this stuff. So I would say nineteen percent positive for a so far. Yeah, I mean, they definitely need it. There are so many more wrestlers than when they first launched. A lot of wrestlers have been shelved for a long time. Miro thunder Rosa, I mean, well, she's been injured, but even like Action and Ready, like since he had that victory over Chris Jericho, it's like, what the hell is this guy done? Not much? There's been so many stars that don't frequent on television each week and they lose a ton of momentum and fans tend to forget about him. I'm sure there's a laundry list of wrestlers that you enjoy watching that are being shelved because there's just not enough TV time.

7:46 I like Best Friends a lot. They get a decent amount of play, especially late with Bandido, but there's period of times where they're just kind of background players to Orange Casside, Like Orange Casside gets a ton of airtime, and rightfully so, he's like one of my favorite wrestlers right now and one of the best champions in all professional wrestling. Like him and Gunther I think are some of the unsung heroes when it comes to champions and professional wrestling presently, so they definitely need it. Saturday Night is not ideal. This is one hundred percent going to be a DVR. I should say ninety percent because the winners here in the Northeast suck. It's not like where Doctor Trey is, where it's just like fifteen you have to put on a sweatshirt. It'll be a DVR show for sure the next several months when it's really nice, and then like when football season comes, like I don't know, like how the hell do I squeeze it in on a Sunday. Maybe a lot of YouTube watching. I don't know, But I mean Dynamite is musty television.

8:43 Rampage, which is shifting towards a like up and comer show which I dig, has become kind of non like a show that I wouldn't typically watch if I didn't have a podcast, Like Rampage is fine, but they're not progress in anything. And it's nowhere where guys or girls are getting some more airtime that I think kind of need it. So we'll see where that goes with that. Collision is a nice addition, but I don't know. I mean, brand splits all this stuff. You see the graphic, right, You see Miro, you see Andre Andre al Elo, you see Powerhouse Hobbs, you see FTR. It's like hmm. These are all like seeing punk people.

9:28 There's a little bit more to that, which we'll get into him and just a little bit. The brand split Duc Trey that's been rumored as happening not happening. It's going to be loose, it's not happening at all, Like it's this complete volley which maybe AW doesn't know what the hell they're going to do. But I think I'm to the point where I would totally be down where Collision is a brand for AW and Dynamites a brand for AW or as we discussed on last week's show, it's like, wh not just make dynamite AW and you make Roh the Saturday Show? Like then you legitimately have two resting brands and organizations and you could run it. I'm for the brand split, especially if it gives more people some time, but it seems like I guess that's a little bit cloudy, not as cloudy as the next thing that will discuss about someone that was missing from that poster. But where do you sit on the brand split that was potentially happening and potentially not happening.

10:26 I mean, at this point, I don't I just I think it's going to happen, because then you can have like, hey, so finite people on this brand, finite number of people on this brand, and then you can actually it's kind of like budgeting time for these people to get their exposure and get there and get there, get their stuff in. All I can think about was a couple weeks ago we talked about the draft, the WW Draft, and how one of our favorite drafts was when they had Flair and Vince do the draft and all like a picture was like Katy Obega and Cumpunk out front for their respective shows drafting folks, Like how much fun would that actually be? I think until the Punk stuff's ironed out, I think that they're just to have like a case of their roster just being in flux, and if he is going to come back, then hey, we can actually dedicate some of his guys to that show, and you know, Kenny's folks and you know Matt and Nick's folks to the other show. My only worry about that is that if that's the route they take where they split, they split the company based on who wants to work with one guy and who doesn't want to work with a guy like doesn't have give credibility and more power to each individual guy on that show, Like, oh, I don't want to work for kennymore, I want to go work for Phil. I don't want work playing where I want to go work for Kenny. Oh I wanted to commnegotime my contract and if I leave, you know, half his rosters and

11:58 the quid too. Like it just once again kind of feels like the guy in charge of everything is just kind of trying to play peacekeeper and not being an actual leader in this situation. So or he comes off like a mark, right yeah, yeah, Like, oh well, hey, if you come back, I'll give you your own show and you can have your own guys on it. If that's the case, just call it a w Ring of Honor. You didn't have to make a new brand. You could just literally like use the name and all those guys have their love for Ring of Honor and it would have been fine. It just like you said, it feels like a guy who's not being a leader and just being a fan of the guys he's hired, which is never a good recipe for success. Could you I mentione like you know, like any NFL coach, Like I mean, you're got your team traded away their Hall of Famer franchise quarterback this year just because they got tired of putting up with this childish pettiness, you know, and moved on. That's actually what leaders actually do in that situation where this is this is like the Packers that we're gonna start our second team in Milwaukee. He's just giving Aaron Rodgers' own team. Yeah, the Brewers are coming to football and Aaron Rodgers will be there. I mean, that's a great analogy. I mean, I think you hit right on the head.

13:11 So let's get to the cmpunk part of this chapter is there were reports out I think on either Monday or Tuesday, saw Andrew Zarinian from Russian Observer had tweeted out, expect the return of cmpunk to be announced this week to a w expected that would take place with the collision. So collision is announced and in the graphic collision is no cmpunk at all. Jimmy Train a former former longtime friend of mine, actually we did our podcast back in two thousand and nine, back in the day before he blew up for Sports Illustrated. He sent out a screenshot of I guess it was like the header for an email that said like AW Saturday Collisions coming check out CM, Punk, Powerhouse, obs FTR, thunder Rose Amro Right, So there was something, but it was completely scrubbed out. So there's a lot of confusion. Wait, I thought Punk was coming back earlier in the day. It's feeling like, well, maybe they're holding off on this so that it's a surprise to night for Dynamite. And then you hear the reports Warner Brothers Discovery is saying that Sampunk is not affiliated with AW Collision. It's like, wait, what, Okay, that's weird, and then you hear a couple hours later that I guess and this is all being reported, right, we have no inside intel, so this is just us reacting, which I know wrestlers, especially Sampunk.

14:39 Hey, but according to reports that there were some sort of story out there that Sampunk was under the belief that A Steel, one of his good friends who was fired from brawl Out a produced for a w was going to return to the company and was going to working Collision. Somewhere before the announcement for Collision, it was revealed to Punk and a Steel that a Steel would be working remote and that did not sit well with Cmpunk. So you saw I think it was Thursday morning Warner Brothers Discovery. There was a story out there that they were hoping to workout issues with Cmpunk. Punk again was caught off guard. And then you hear a report later today actually that aw rehired a Steel quote months ago and that A Steel has been working in creative with Tony Kahn remotely. The thought was that once Punk came back, that A Steel would be back on the road working behind the scenes for the Collision show again.

15:48 So that was surprising because we hadn't heard that. Props to AWE for keeping that tight lipped. So a Steel is back and there's all this, you know, roughly the feathers still or what have you or Punk was still removed from the press release. Wasn't happy with a Steel not being behind the scenes. But there was another adelaide to the story. In the story about aw being rehiring a Steel is from came from Haus of Wrestling. It was mentioned that Cmpunk was motivated still to help AW. So it's like this is bizarre brawl out happens twenty twenty two. We all know what happens. Punk Elite a Steel, They get into a fight. Punk is out on injury with triceps. They were trying to build the bridges back together. Punk and the elites Sale haven't talked. Punk talks to Jericho somewhere, a Steel gets back involved. So clearly AW wants to bring Cmpunk back. Cmpunk clearly wants to be back in AW. What happened at brawl Out and why nobody's talking about it, why things aren't resolved is a whole other story. But now we reach collision Collision, and again there's this added story later today where it's like Punk is motivated to help, so and I'm a huge Sampunk fan, so this is just calling it like I see it. If cm Punk is motivated to help, why didn't he still go forward with being announced for AW

17:19 Collision. There's two streets on this right. One is obviously he's upset that a Steal isn't going to be back on the road, did not like the disagreement, put a little bit of a pause, playing hardball with Tony Conn and a w and he's like, whoa wa, whoa, We're not doing this yet until we figure it out. Or there's also this story circulating that Punk didn't want his return to be announced he should it should be a surprise, and like it should be closer to the return, which I will give some narrative. There could be some legitimatelycy behind that, because I think if you announced it now a month before a collision happens, there may be some serious anti see him Punk chants that are taken place if you announced it maybe two three weeks from now, and somehow it gets brought up creatively a little bit better than just a random mentioned. Maybe it's better accepted. But let's go back to the story where he's removed from the press release. Upset about a steel. There's a disagreement with AW. As a fan of AW, and even as a fan of c Himpunk, this story does not make Sehimpunk look great. And then you come out on Instagram last night or on Wednesday night and told the fans to stop with tribalism and to touch grass. So it's all bizarre here Doctor Trey recapped it all there. That brings us to now punk is official return to AW has not been announced yet, was not

18:52 in the collision press release. Could be upset about a steel not being back on the road. A steal is back with the company, but see him Punk is mo devated to help your thoughts. Oh and you left out the part where he went and visited WWE and Impact Wrestling. But he's motivated to help aw which hey by I mean he could be doing some u some some scouting, some recruiting. Could it could be something like that as well? Um, yes and no, so like I want to say, like I want you going makes Punk wo bad. But then again, if these are all things a still being part of collision, all these things were promised to him and then renegged upon, it looks once again bad on Tony Kahn, like he's trying to play both sides. And that's that's that's the part of this whole story that just drives me absolutely insane, is that there are no adults in this room. You know, like every time we think there's an adult, like something stupid and childish comes out and then you kind of lose the like luster to it. It's like somebody needs to stand up and just take charge and if you like me, great, and if you don't like me, straw off. Like somebody needs to take control of the situation because it just feels like it's very just which every way the wind blows, like, Oh, I'm on Dynamite, I gotta be nice to Kenning the Bucks.

20:22 Oh, we're going to the Collision stuff. Let me see if I can be nice to Ace and Phil And you know, it's just it just feels like which every way the wind blows is kind of where this story goes because you know, honestly, you can see both sides of the story. You can see both sides, and you know they always say he says, she said, the truth is always in the middle. You know, my only concern right now, Jeff, with this whole situation is is Larry the Dog. Okay. That's That's where I'm at with this whole team right now, until them Punk shows up on Collision, That's where I'm at, Like until like, oh you see Kenny Omega come out and say like I've I've made peace with everybody and everything is like cool, Are y'all gonna work a match together? Because I think that's what fans want to see, Like people just want to see, you know, the elements of realism in a fictitious fight. If we know you guys have real life, you know issues, we want to see you guys in the wrestling ring. Because either we want to see a great match or we want to see a train wreck. But right now it just feels like it just makes everybody look bad. And Warner Brothers just like, hey, we'll keep giving you guys money, Like, just just show up. We'll keep giving you guys money. We'll keep you Like they're moving the T and T show that we both said we like the All Access shows moving to the new Max streaming service. You know, it's like there's just Warner Brothers like going, guys, if you can just figure this out, we will throw buckets of money at you guys. And they're like, yeah, but I'm mad at him. Well I'm mad at him, but I'm mad at him. It's like this is not like there's personal

21:52 and there's business. There's a lot of money to be made here. People just act like the adults in the room. That's trade is see him punk the worst thing to ever happen a wum. I still go enjoy Janella, but it's just a personal thing. Oh no way, I take that fact. They signed Leo Rush also at one point, so we all know my love for Leo Rush. If they had signed Sasha Banks at the same time, I would have been like just this coupy just hates me in particular. But I don't know, Like I'm still trying to figure out if see him Punks the worst thing to happen aw or the best thing, because like, as a guy who's been in leadership roles in multiple companies, like I can kind of see his point at times, So I don't know if he's a bad thing for it or maybe a good thing because look, one of the founders of this company left to go wrestle somewhere else where he had no power, Like is that a rat jumping the ship? You know what I'm saying, Like, maybe Punk coming in is actually a good thing because maybe he is the adult in the room and everybody else is still teenagers, or maybe he's a substitute teacher that nobody likes it. It just kind of depends on how you view see him Punk at all this because like I said, everything he said for the most part at the brawl out I didn't disagree with.

23:27 So is it really a bad thing if he's actually speaking his truth so to speak? So here then here's the second part of it, right, If he's not the worst thing is the bucks Kenny Hangman, some of the founders of this company, are they some of the worst things because that happened to this company because maybe they weren't used to being in a professional wrestling organization where it was like their actual day job, right, they would go to ROH for a little bit, they'd go to New Japan for a little bit, they go to PWG for a little bit, Like they didn't work in the WWE atmosphere, Like what do you think about that? Like is that because you got to look at two sides to every story here, Like there's a ton of negative point and seeing Punk because I do think it's ludicrous and bullshit that if he's legitimately trying to help out the startup wrestling company, which it still is four years in, like be on the fucking press release for the brand new show, dude, unless creatively, creatively they're waiting a couple more weeks, which that story wasn't out there. The story was out that Wednesday that Punk is potentially pissed off and has a disagreement because of Ace Steel not being back on the road, Like what's the problem here? Like how have we not figured this out yet? Punk talks to Jericho they reportedly work things out. Will they be best friends while they change Christmas cards? Maybe?

24:56 Maybe not? Who gives a shit? But like the stuff with the Elite still reportedly has not been resolved, Like why has that not happened? Why has that not happened? Punk is out there on Instagram and he's calling out Jericho and Moxley. Moxley gets on his wife's podcast and I think did a pretty damn good job of not really wanting to get in the bullshit, but he addresses it like Punk is fifty percent of this. He's bringing a lot of bullshits at the table. Kenny, the Bucks, Hangman, they brought bullshits at the table, Like, I just I don't get it, Like, could we be looking at the side that Kenny and the Bucks and Hangman are just as much to blame as well? Are they potentially the worst thing that's ever happened in the company is even though they're founders. So I'm trying to figure out a way to kind of for this to make sense to me.

25:49 It feels like I was watching The Top Gun, the New Maverick movie before the show started, and I kind of feel like it's it's kind of a good comparison where you know, the indie darling guys, the the elites, the guys that have just traveled and you know, had a lot of Mark promoters kind of catered to their whims because they have a good following. They don't they play by their own set of rules, and you know Tom Cruise Maverick plays by the side of the rules. The Navy or in this case, WW or other professional wrestling companies like WCW and things like that have their own set of rules, and sometimes you try to meld those two worlds together. It's either really really beautiful or it's a nightmare. And you see that in the workplace as well, like you bring in a hot shot sales guy who's kind of just been a freelance sales guy, but you bring him into a corporate setting all of a sudden he can't adapt. And I feel like at times you have this old guard of the fulkerk W guys that are used to structured, uh you know, hierarchy protocols, things like that, and then you have the guys who you know have done all the all the small like all the smaller promotions or the big indie shows where they didn't really have those roles and you're trying to meld that and together into this, you know, amalgamy type wrestling promotion. And I think that's one of things that

27:22 Cody struggled with. I think it's the thing that alt guys, like the Mirrors, the andras, things like that those guys have struggled with is they're kind of used to structure, and it feels like a lot of times AW doesn't have structure to it. It doesn't have a hierarchy of pecking order, a protocol to follow, like those other places that they kind of grew up in and thrived in had those things in place, and I think that's where you get this kind of pushback. It's almost like you know, taking two sides of a magnet and trying to push them together and they just repel each other like on paper. Like in Jericho's mentioned it, Jericho, it was just adaptable. Jericho mentioned we first got the company, he didn't understand the Orange Cassidy gimmick, he didn't understand the Darby Allan gimmicks. He didn't understand a lot of these gimmicks that were super over from the indies and how it would work in professional wrestling. Now, Jericho's smart enough of a guy to kind of go, hey, if the crowd likes it, I'm into it, you know where instead of like the old guards, just like others stupid bullshit, we're just gonna I'm just gonna keep ignoring it. I think that's where we're at with this, is that you have a guy like see him Punk that is actually a really old school wrestling guy at heart, where you have the elite maybe being the new generation of what professional wrestling is, and there's gonna be an odds, and then you have a guy in the middle like a Tony Khan who just who loves all these guys and wants them all to get along, but he doesn't know how I actually make them work together.

28:52 He just tries to appease both sides until somebody calls somebody else on a lie or a misleading information. In that where we get to these kids of situations, and that takes me my last point here is Tony Conne the worst thing happened to aw He's the money man. But yes, he said yeah, yes right away, So that just takes all the wind out of the sales. But let's add it. Write the money Okay, that's great, but creatively, did you watch Sonamite last night? Parts of it? And they're right about the rest not a good episode from my opinion in reaction, was was good normally, but just like it felt like I was like Speedball and it was just insane how quick everything was going, and it was It was not a great episode. And I have felt like for the last couple of years, maybe in nearly two years that creatively aw lost that buzz that it had from like nineteen to early twenty one that was really good, like really good creative. I would say from its launch to after all out September twenty twenty one was a really good error for the company and then afterwards like it completely lost its way. They just like signed everybody, had them debut and then did nothing with them. And creatively, like there were some hits, there was a lot of misses, but it was like head scratching um all the time. Like I'm a huge J White fan and I know he was in the main event slot on Wednesday Night, but J White to be

30:22 contending for a championship, you gotta ride the buzz. The Guy is a former IWGP heavyweight World Heavyweight champion and he's fewing with where he's arks, which is great. The feud has been has been good, it's been decent, but it's like, man, we gotta puts our pushing this guy, like what are we doing? The action and Dretti stuff. He defeats Chris Jericho earlier this year, it's the biggest, like shocking when we've seen since one two three and Razor ramone two three Kid and Razormon which just happened thirty years ago this week, which let's all feel old again. That's like, what I mean, what are we doing? And then the second show it's like, okay, maybe this will help out a little little bit, but is he the right guy for creative running the company? I don't think so.

31:07 I think better executives and better leaders that's been the theme of the show. Would have resolved this elite see him Punk situation for the betterment of the company, and he hasn't. At the end of the day, Punk walking off the press release being upset having a disagreement with a Steel about a Steel's role with the company. The elite allowing Hangman Page to call out Punk in a promo before that led to all this stuff that falls at his feet and he's not leading from the front. It's clearly noticeable from the outside to the fans and for all intents his purposes, he's been spoken about very highly by a lot of wrestlers. Is a really nice guy, great boss. People love him. But maybe that's where it stops running rust of an organization. Maybe you let Moxley, maybe you let Jericho, maybe let Danielson do it.

32:04 At this point, like I don't know, it just doesn't doesn't seem right. And then I just think about like the stuff a couple maybe like a year ago bringing up Joey Jannello, they did not have a talent relations department, Like people would just fade away and their contracts would expire and they wouldn't tell them happen new Uh, Joey Janella, Marco Stunt, And that left a bad taste in those guys mouths, and that's not how things should be treated. So then AW turned it around and they had Tony Shivanni involved in Christopher Daniels or whatever. It's just I don't know. People keep going there, Doctor Trey, people keep going there, people keep signing with AW. So it's weird. The money is good I mean if the money is good. Look, there have been jobs, yeah, but they're starting to work.

32:47 They're starting to work a lot like Dwe's calendar right house shows, Wednesday show, Saturday show r H. They figured out they have to get money out of these investments. Yeah, yeah, like, hey, we got to actually make money off these shows. I mean we just like put Karen Jarrett's on a show. Damn it. We gotta pay her two hundred thousand dollars a year because we have equal checks for everybody across the board. We have to make some money out of this. What it feels like. So Tony Kahn, like so everything people say about Tony Khan. He's a wonderful guy. He's really easy to talk to you. This is the same thing that every beautiful woman says about their best guy friend. Not the guy that they actually date, but like that guy that's always in the friend zone.

33:31 He's always there for you. He's a super nice guy. He's really smart, he's really creative. He's not a leader. He's not the guy who's gonna stand up and kick somebody in the pulse. Like you look at the history of w W, Like since you and I've been watching it. People have gotten mad and walked out on Vince so many times. Vince never gave any of those guys their own show. This said, all right, cool, I'll see you. I'll just make it another you until you come back and apologize whole Covid wocked off, you know, walked away from it, came back Vince game and title shot. Hogan pissed him up again. Cool see a palad to head to turner Land. Sean Michael's left, lost his smile, went home, Bret Hart left. You know, all the stone Colts got mad about the brock Lesser match and took us a ball and went home. Fence never begged any of these guys to come back. It's this, I'll make another you the show. And this is one thing I've learned with rockets An the show is not about the guys on the show. It's about the show itself and making the show better to be the everlasting thing.

34:35 Guys get old. Mother Nature's undefeated. Guys get old, they have to retire, they get hurt. It's just the nature of the beasts. WB's been around for what like since the actual Fence took it over and what eighty one, So we got almost forty years of WWE or over forty years. WWWF was around before that. It's because the show is actually bigger than the performers, and people forget sometimes, like I don't know anyway, wouldn't you know? I didn't think I'd keep watching wrestling after Austin and Roca left, and then I did. I didn't think i'd watch, you know, WCW and all stuff after the nWo left or retire when you shutdown still watching stuff. I still go back and watch stuff because the show is bigger than the performers, and people lose track of that. You know, you've been alive through Brett Farr, Aaron Rodgers. Now you're on the Jordan loved. You're a Packers fan. You're not a player fan. You like your players, but you're a fan of the team the organization because those things are everlasting.

35:32 So people lose sight of that, and when leaders lose sight of that, that's when your company starts to struggle. Speaking of contracts negotiations, Tony Kahn the leader. According to the Rustling Observer and Newsletter, there has been no recent movement regarding contract negotiations between the Elite and aw SO. The Elite signed multi year contracts with the company back in January twenty nineteen. They agreed to new deals in twenty twenty one that would take them until twenty twenty four. Kenny Omega's deal, which was due to expire in February, was extended due to time miss because of his injury. No recent movement with contract negotiations, that's bizarre. I don't think there's an AW without the Elite, and ultimately to wrap up everything with the Punk situation as well. I want AW to be successful. I want see him Punk to wrestle in AW. I want the Elite to wrestle in AW. I want everybody to work this out and make some damn money and make them good creative on television because drama and controversy pushes things forward. But this is a concern. Is this showing a little bit that maybe be a leader upset with the way that things are being ran, Doctor Tree? If they have not had any recent movement regarding contract negotiations, No, No, I didn't worry be. It's just it's all leveraging.

36:53 I mean they I mean they know how much Cody got paid go to WWE. You know, they see all the Hubbub about the MJF. You know, a bidding war coming up. They know there's money out there and if somebody's gonna pay them a look, if WV comes in and says, hey, we'll pay you twice way w's been paying you, why would you take a contract early? You know, they have agents, they have representatives, they have feelers out there. They kind of know what the market's gonna be like when it comes time. You know, it's not like the NFL. When your contracts almost up, either try to get your home team to resign you for market value, or you go become a free agent, you know, or you do like so these players do. And now, just now, wouldn't Kenny and the Bucks scrub all their social media of AW references?

37:37 All right, cool, we'll start. That's like the NFL trick now apparently, but you know, for me, like not moving on yet. No, Like Hew Boxley's contract was up, he was wrestling for three months on a handshake deal. That's just kind of how the wrestling business is. They don't really do something until they absolutely have to. And you know, if it comes out that Triple H has you know, had serious feelers out to Kenny and the Bucket. Maybe it makes Tony working a little harder, but when you start a company with a guy, he's always going to feel like you're going to come back to him, you know. And I just don't think that Tony kaf feels like he's in a rush to do this because he's negotiating new TV rights deals, getting a new show launched, trying to make shim Punk happy. The contract thing for him is on the back burner because in his mind, as the owner of the company, he has more pressing issue to deal with, because you know, he just kind of thinks Kenny and the Bucks are gonna be loyal to him and they'll cut him the hometown discount. So until that leverage comes into play, they don't need to use that card right now. Interesting situation all on, all the drama around aw was Gangbusters for a couple of months, cooled down, and then this past week kind of ramping back up again. How do you think this all works out? Doctor Treys? What's the prediction on May eighteenth? How do you think this all shakes out? I think them Punk shows up at Collision on June seventeenth in Chicago, because how monster was that Poppy got in Chicago

39:07 last time. Like, I just feel like it's there's too much money on the table for them to not work something out for everybody involved. Otherwise this is the biggest bunkled incident, you know, maybe of all time. Like you have two stars who have a leg this is Sean and Brent, Like, this is what we always wanted to have the rematch for after the Montreal screw job that we never got because it's legitimate beef. It's legitimate you know, anger played out in a fictitious sport where at any point things could go awry. And if you don't somehow make this work, if you want to have a match that could rival a WrestleMania type thing, that's your match and that's gonna get you all your fans to buy into watch. And if you mess this up, I don't think you have anything else on this roster that could rival eight potential Kenny Omega CM Punk match at you know, a major event. You just don't have anything else in the you know, in your playbook they could rival that Switching Gears, Doctor Trey to World Russia Entertainment.

40:20 We're talking dream matches, Kenny Omega CM Punk Well, at Nightive Champions to crown the new w W World Heavyweight Champion. I don't want to say first because the title was around. I guess the first of this new incarnation of the championship will be Seth Rollins versus AJ Styles to decide a winner. Seth Rollins representing Raw, AJ Styles representing SmackDown. I laugh because it's like they told us the title would be um Brand specific to Raw, but we have a SmackDown wrestler competing for it. This is a dream matchup Doctor Trey and and I love it. I think this is this is the match that that I wanted to see once I realized Cody Rhodes will going to be in the running for it. Your thoughts here next week will be prepunter predicting the show Seth Rons AJ Styles. Was this the right choice to crown a new worldwide champion in this era of wrestling? Yes, it is arguably the two best in ring performers w TW has to offer. In fact, if you look at the history of this show, this is two of our last three male superstars of the year going at it. I think AJ had it for two years, Seth had it for two years. That Romans had it for two years, so on paper, literally the best in ring matchup you can come up with. I do wish there was a little bit storyline built into it other than just you know, hey, it's for the title and then the whole it's a SmackDown guy competing for a Raw championship, even though we have

41:52 BEYONC and Oscar for the Raw Women's championship, and they're all both ons back down, you know, right right now, until they've finally fixed where these title belts are going. I don't because I can look at it. Go. If AJ wins, they just gonna tak the AJ and the OC moving over the Raw, so you know, and then then everything's okay because I believe the whole OC was drafted as a group. So move the whole OC to Raw and then everything's fixed. Two weeks on SmackDown back to Raw. Look AJ and like the Good Brothers don't look good and Blue they look better in red. So that's why. Um. But yeah, but on paper, if you said, hey, give me two guys in this company you want to see go for thirty minutes in a match for a championship, I mean eighty five percent the people will probably picked this matchup. So and then also, I don't think I think they've wrestled singles one match before this.

42:51 I was actually there live. It was Money the Bank two thousand eighteen, the year that Kofi won the w Championship. Yeah, and then I thought they might have had a raw match nineteen. Yeah. So but yeah, for two guys that have been the company now for quite a while to have only had one previous encounter, yeah, this is fantastic. So um. And this is also what modern wrestling fans want to see, athletic acrobatic performers that can go They don't you know, not everybody likes the big man, you know, the you know, big beefy men swapping meats. You know.

43:31 I love a good hoss fight. But this is like the John Woo equivalent of a wrestling match. To have Seth and AJ going b I got it. I just in my head, I'm hyping this up to be a Match of the Year candidate, and I just really don't want to be let down by it because it is happening in Saudi Arabia. I'm just happy that Agstells is back in the World Championship picture. He has not been in that picture since I want to say Survivor Series two thousand, is it? No, it was twenty eighteen ish I want to say. I want to say Daniel Bryan ended up defeating him and then went on to take on brock Lesner. That's when he started doing the Planet Champion heading into twenty nineteen, and then Wrestling thirty five was him and Kofy. But AJ has not been in the world title picture for nearly five years. He's been He's had some high profile matches, right The stuff with the Undertaker was huge, and he was doing that with the OC, Then he was tagging with Omas Denny was injured for a little bit, then he was here and there for a little bit.

44:34 It's like he hasn't been doing single wrestling matches in a while. So this is great that he's back in the World Championship picture. I think that's where he should be. Hopefully this bodes well for him heading to the summer because he should be, you know, challenging Roman or if he's the World Champion, representing that title with Pride. So I'm still seth rollins AJ styles. We will preview and predict that match on next week's podcast. It's gonna be fully loaded show heading into a moral day weekend, just like the wrestling gods wanted it, with Night Off, Champions, Double or Nothing, and XT Battleground all taking place next weekend, So that'll be the entire show unless something crazy happens and like see Him, Punk is released from his contract, So more on that all on next week's edition of SRTU. With that said, let's gait a couple of plugs and sponsored out of the way. You can download show every Thursday at real guy rated dot com, Russell chatting at on Twitter, and the store world of the show iTunes feed. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to uscon charts on iTunes. You can follow us individually on Twitter for myself at SRTU Jeff and for Doctor Trey Franklin at The Doctor Trey and of course don't forget to follow a show on Twitter at SRTU Podcasts. With that being said, what is going on the wonderful world of Doctor tre Franklin this week? Well, like Jeff said, you can follow me on Twitter at the Doctor Trey. You can find me on Instagram at Facebook to the search out Doctor tre Franklin on Facebook check out rocket Seed Championship Wrestling is. We are just a couple days away from Wrestling Con six coming up this Saturday in Lovely Hazel Green, Alabama. On that show,

46:07 We're gonna have action. Mike Jackson defending the Rocket City World Heavyweight Championship against Lord James Cicero. Barry Koloff defends the rockets City Television Championship against Sin Body, Chase Owens versus Lutha X Scrap, Iron Lewis, Tiger Kid, and Ryan Bishop versus Dalton Castle and the Boys. Not to mention thirty Man a Bottle Royal like, I am so excited for this. Um. Do you listen to the Conrad Thompson podcasting Network. Are you familiar with Cassio Kid? I am a little bit. He does the rhodoc show right. Yes, Cassio Kid's wife if you've ever heard her mention her name is Big Boody Judy on the radio. She is actually making her Dave ju at Rocket City this weekend as well, so Cassio Kay will be in the crowd. A certain announcer from Georgia, the Hales and a works for aw is supposed to be in building. A certain podcast. Podfather is supposed to be in the building this week, so a lot of stars making their way down to Hazley Green for Wrestling Tons six this weekend. So there you go. Support all the great things that support sr tou U like us on Facebook, Facebook dot com, slashes to row the show, and fall us on Twitter at SRTU podcast.

47:20 Um, congratulations to everybody because we were going to reset the clock. Doctor Trey Franklin was not abused by Sammy Franklin this week. We still have a couple of seconds to go, so congratulations to doctor Trey for that. That was that That's that's pretty big. Yeah, but now he's threatening me. So he's sitting here playing Mario. See he's playing Super Smouth Brothers. So at any moment, I could be here with the Nintendo's WI. So let's wrap this up so that we can restart the clock. So until next week, we were proving predict Ninive Champions NXC Battleground and of course aw doula or nothing. Thank you for tuning in, spread the word for doctor Franklin, for Sammy Franklin, I'm Jeff. This is then better, didn't better