Is WWE Pricing Out Its Fans, NXT vs. TNA Fallout & Our Crown Jewel Picks | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #817 – 10/09/25

0:00 It's still real to me, damn it! What up, you! Welcome, everybody! Welcome to this week's edition of the Sto Rilla show Episode 817, Rocktober 9, 2025 The Shredo New Week round jewel, preview and prediction edition of SRT View I am on Appenshaw, I am Jeff Packard joined every single week of my course You're the one only Dr. Trey Franklin Dr. Trey, will you tune in to Monday Night Raw breakfast this Monday, my friend?

0:44 I do have, typically I do have Mondays off, but it is a holiday So Sammy is out of school, so I have to take him to grandma's house I might try to catch it live as I am traveling to grandma's house and then out to wherever I am going So, it's kind of like, when I was a kid in the 80s I actually did like watching Wimbledon Dennis because I liked John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors Did not think this was going to be the direction of this Wow! Yeah, it just caged me here because I was thinking of like, oh yeah, you could have breakfast Wimbledon was one of the selling points of it And so like on Saturday mornings I'd be at my grandma's house watching John McEnroe yell at the test-efficient Yeah, it's going to be a very intriguing weekend coming up here because on Saturday it's 8 a.m. East for Crown Jewel which means it's what, 7 a.m. Central for you Then 7 a.m. Central and 8 a.m. East on Monday as well It's pretty cool Right, I mean like once in a while they do these things I remember when they did that July 4th Special in Japan on the WWE Network And putting on the network at like 5 a.m.

2:06 and they were like halfway through the show And that was pretty cool But yeah, we've got Crown Jewel Saturday morning We've got Monday Night Raw or Monday Morning Raw Monday Morning Here in the United States It's got to be pretty cool, Dr. Trey I'm looking forward to it It's something out of the ordinary And it's a rare moment that if you're able to get raw in the books And I don't know, watch Monday Night Football I think Monday Night Football has like double I think they're doing a double header again on Monday Night Football So it's a pretty intriguing weekend for wrestling fans Yeah, I don't think either of our teams are on Monday Night This week's no, that's no Monday Night.

2:50 The downside is true Because I always hate when the Niners are on Monday Night Football Because I'm jumping back and forth The entire time I'm sure you kind of do the same thing When the Packers are on Monday Night The other upside to having the shows this early Is that you can then if you have to work on a Monday Or you have to work on Saturday You can then watch it at your convenience Later in the day like typically I usually get home from workaround 4 o'clock, 4'30 I usually have like an hour, hour and a half Where it's basically just me and Sammy at the house I can throw that on And watch it and not have to stay up later in the evening And start dozing off through the main event Like I do now in my older age Same thing with you know, with crown jewel perth I might not be able to watch it Saturday Because that's usually a busy day for me and the family But Sundays are usually our lazy day So I think the Niners play the bucks at like 3 o'clock Like I can wake up Sunday morning, throw it on at 10 a.m.

3:56 And I'm good to go So it does give you a little bit of like time flexibility With them airing it live So early in the morning You can kind of watch it at your convenience And not have to tune in to it live that night So what Dr. Trace is saying is that is It's time for he and I to become fans of like an Australian wrestling promotion So if which by the way I think it was Sean Michael said recently in the interview That Australia is like becoming a hotbed for wrestling And he is not wrong at all There's a lot of talented wrestlers from that area That region that have come over the United States and absolutely killed it So yeah, I guess what the finer Australian promotion Dr. Trace Let's say like wasn't isn't your new favorite wrestler from Australia?

4:37 Kyle Fletcher I do like Kyle Fletcher You got Kyle Fletcher, you got pronged and read You've got Rhea Ripley Rhea Ripley, the Iconics, you've got Monix T.M. was a T.M. D- Six-one Six-one, yeah, they're from us. I mean it is I am actually be more like I am kind of amazed that they're still talking about doing some kind of version of NXT Europe again And I'm like why don't you just do NXT Australia because A, talents there and B As much as I love a British accent, the Australian accent is cooler And it's just slightly different but it just sounds more blue collar Sometimes I guess I can listen to the Iconics cut promos all day long and be thrilled with it because they're beautiful The accents are great and the former Billy Kay is hilarious Yeah, I figured that there was going to be a visual reason as to why Dr. Trey could hear them all day but nonetheless There we are, we will preview and predict Crown Jewel later on in the show Kicking things off on this week's edition of SRTU Dr. Trey We talked about this about a month or two ago about the increase in WWE ticket prices We talked about the Endeavor CEO Rhea Manual in an interview with J.P. Morgan I want to say, talking about how they were going to be raising their ticket prices

6:07 How Vince McMahon, the previous owner of WWE which is very weird to say out loud Was garing his ticket prices more to families rather than trying to make the bottom dollar It stretched it out as much as possible We had talked about our own instances like the price that I paid for WrestleMania 29 is nowhere near I think it would be like the last row in a arena that has 400 sections It would be the tippy tippy top I would be paying for WrestleMania 29 to just watch it in the last row of this year's WrestleMania There's been growing issues with the ticket prices in WWE And it's kind of given a little bit of room for AEW to slide in and say okay If WWE is going to price out the families then we're going to slide in and you could spend $150 as a family for Have some really good decent seats and have a good night of professional wrestling on your hands And that's where they're capitalizing right now And we talked about this, we're like this is not a good home and this is not great, this is bad And eventually it's going to come up and bite WWE in the ass And we may have seen that first inclination of ticket prices bleeding into attendance Because according reports last week's Smackdown was reportedly down 5,000 fans compared to a show in February earlier this year It's pricing is it in now the fan demand and then it makes you wonder is this product VTG is it ticket costs?

7:47 What is really driving the drop-offs? I don't think it's product VTG, I think the product is pretty healthy And I think it's doing well, I think this is very much so a ticket cost problem This is, I mean this is considerable number of people, Dr. Trey If we are in arena for 15,000 people and 5,000 are not there from 7,8 months prior That's a glaring change here because WWE is doing really well What do you make of all this here? Is WWE pricing themselves out or will you make a case that the product VTG is catching up to them?

8:27 And that creative isn't as good as I think it is right now Now I think it is more a pricing issue, I mean you live in the Northeast, I live in the South And pricing is everything right now for a lot of families If you are a single dude and you got disposable income then yeah great, you are going to hit the show up But if you are working class dad pay check to pay check or a little bit above that And you are looking at like hey I can take, you know my two boys love wrestling, I want to take them And you see some costs 450 bucks to go to a Smackdown show is it really worth it?

9:07 I mean I deal with retail stuff every single day and just in the last three months I am in a big box retail store I have 13 stores I have to cover for a big box store All these stores right now are down about 8 to 12% just foot traffic Because people are trying to figure out ways to conserve every penny To me right now although there are parts of the economy that are doing much better You know inflation hasn't dropped all that much, you are seeing prices go up for certain entertainment things And it is kind of becoming very much about the halves and the half knots when it comes to this stuff We have seen it happen in the NFL, we have seen it happen in Major League Baseball, we have seen it happen in the NBA Where prices for the top level stuff get so high that you start seeing a bump in the minor leagues Because I love baseball and if you know if take us to a brave game which is about 2 and a half hours away It is going to cost me 300 bucks for two seats or I can go to the Rockets City trash pandas or the Birmingham Barons Is he some double a baseball with my kids for 100 bucks I'd rather do that So I think that is just kind of where we are at right now in this current economy that we are in right now Where people are just going is it really worth it to get crappy seats way up in the nosebleeds or just stay home and watch it on TV

10:40 Just to note there so last week SmackDown was in Cincinnati, Ohio That was the location of this past week's edition SmackDown where they sold reportedly down 5,000 fans compared to a show in February Were you going to say something else? I'll say Dr. Troy? And that's, as I said, that's one of the areas that our company covers is Cincinnati And I know the manager in that area is running into a lot of the same issues that we're running into where people are just trying to conserve as much money as they can And not deal out with expenditures and I know for a fact that his stores in that area in Cincinnati are down about the same percentage of foot traffic and sales that matter And the online sales are up because people just don't want to leave the house in that sense Like do I want to spend that money and possibly you know have to shortchange on something else or Man can I just order some little Caesar's pizzas and sit at home and watch it and get backstage interactions and close-ups that I wouldn't see in the 400 level seats of that stadium? Yeah, that's how I've always gazed things as a wrestling fan is I do feel like I've talked about in the show before that there is a personal bucket list of shows I want to go to I obviously want to go to the big four which is rumble, mania, summer slam, survivor series and I've done three of the four I always wanted to do money in the bank did the money in the bank and did it in XCT take over wanted to go to full sale want to go to the PC at some point to watch a show

12:10 Been to a dynamite and these are things that I think on the wrestling fan bucket list that hopefully everybody has their own out there and that's what I want to do I've also come to the grips now that the more stadium shows that do we does the more likely of me actually completing it to go see a royal rumble is slim to none because probably not going to do anything in the northeast or on the east coast for a rumble because they're doing them in stadiums and all the stadiums around here typically outdoors so we're not going to have a February or January rumble where they're outside at MetLife Stadium with snow coming down that would be a really shitty show and if I wanted to get tickets for them anyway they're astronomical I have been to MetLife for a WrestleMania 29 I had decent seats I did not have amazing seats I didn't have great seats I had decent seats that actually came from a family friend who was a WWE employee and I was able to do that and it was great checked it off the bucket list I'm glad I did because I think the seats that I had then now are like in the thousands and that's just ludicrous professional wrestling was built on family fun entertainment and here's the thing that I think is a little bit of a disconnect within Deborah right now and when I was putting together the prep for the show Dr. Trey this is what struck me so outside of saving money which I think most Americans are doing right now is just trying to save their money and not spend

13:41 disposable income like for no reason whatsoever like they really have to be you know pushed forward to or make it worth their bottom dollar to do this this is a blue collar entertainment form it has always been a blue collar entertainment form whether it was in Texas whether it was in New York people who worked blue collar jobs would take their five bucks and go to the sportatorium in Dallas Texas or they would go to Madison Square Garden in New York City that is what they did this is not an entertainment form where a high ranking white collar official at a big business in the United States is going to take three clients a couple sales people a couple higher ups and go sit a couple rows behind nearby ringside to watch WWE that's not their style that's not what businesses do unless you're either in the ad business and trying to get ad revenue or marketing in WWE or you're somewhat tied to the company you are not a high ranking official at JP Morgan and taking clients to go entertain them and watch Monday night raw or Friday nights Mac down that's just facts it's not a disrespect to professional rest in his entertainment form is not a disrespect to the fans it's just straight facts it's they may do that with their families but they're not doing it with clients then that's the difference between the NFL NHL MLB NBA those entertainment forms even the UFC which is part of the TKO umbrella

15:25 those are the places where people are taking their clients and maybe that's what WWE maybe that's what TKO endeavor want to get to at some point but I can't see it happening anytime soon and quite frankly to be blunt I can see it ever happening this is a family fun industry this is like if the Harlem Globetrotters and the Savannah bananas put their ticket prices up skyrocketing because they were trying to attract the bottom dollar rather than having a full house at a decent price point so that families can enjoy themselves for two and a half to three hours I think that's there more in that vein doctor try the Savannah bananas the Harlem Globetrotters of the world the same stuff that you see monster trucks the professional bull riding association that goes around the Disney on Isis of the world like the road shows that go around the United States WWE is in more of that umbrella I think they're on the higher tier of those things but they're not the NBA they're not MLB they're not NFL they're not even NHL so to me I just think that this is really bad business I know these people that are making these decisions have been way more successful in businesses than I ever have but if this continues on then in early parts of 2026 they're going to be going back to buy one night of WrestleMania and get the second night free BS and that's how they should be doing it's a shame the WWE has priced themselves out of their own made majority of fan base but here we are and this could be the beginning of a sign of things to come when it comes to ticket pricing and attendance for world wrestling entertainment

17:05 yeah and I think what endeavours doing is they're looking at UFC when UFC first started it was basic tough man contents and those are they may not be traveling road shows but those are things that were made by blue collar people and they look at what it's become now and they think they can do the same thing with professional wrestling and it's like the difference is it's it's still not always cool to say you're a pro wrestling fan there is kind of and I don't know if you've encountered this I know I have when you tell somebody that oh like I'm not really in the UFC like you get this like what I can't believe you're not in the UFC like you have those like almost snobby UFC fans at times and they look down upon the world of professional wrestling because it's quote unquote fake or whatever it is like everything you mentioned is what made wrestling kind of the success it is it is monster trucks it is you know bull riding is very blue collar and it's very real and and and and kind of working class and that's why like this weekend one of my favorite events is happening in its the red river shootout and in Dallas Texas the Oklahoma Texas game but it's in the middle of the Texas state fair 100,000 people coming to the state fair and in that's the car in is a professional wrestling that's where wrestling is from

18:39 and the fact that you know could Oklahoma Texas move the game to AT&T stadium and charge outrageous prices for and still sell out Jerry World probably and more than likely but in reality they know that this is where they keep those long term fans as people who grow up Texas fans as people who grow Oklahoma fans that's their base and they're staying true to their base for this one game or year in WWE sometimes I feel like they lose touch with what makes long term fans why there are people like me and Jeff who have been fans for 30 40 years because we were able to go to these shows as kids and get really close to the pro wrestlers and see how larger than life they were and what kind of like outrageous costumes and everything else that makes pro wrestling great and when you start to alienate that base and you start showing hey we have the CEO of Snickers in the crowd of nine we have the senior vice president of this like I don't give a damn who those people are show me the crowd that show me the fans in the crowd that basically got you know the slim Jim prize package I am more excited to see those people than I am to see hey look at this random NBA guy that nobody's really ever heard of unless you actually fall the NBA he's in the front row I don't know who this guy is it WWE is who taught me who the hell Tyree's Alabama was I didn't know it from anybody else it took WWE to clue me in who he was

20:16 I'm glad he's a wrestling fan but I don't care about celebrities I don't care about who's in the crowd I want to see the families there having a good time and having fun I want to see crying Miss girl like I love that I want to see the kid in Brussels that John Cena may cry and then comes back six months later I'm apologizes to the kid that he was having a bad day that's to be is what the heart of pro wrestling is is those families coming together to watch a show have a good time and then create those memories that their kids tell their kids years and years later about yeah WWE is really botching this opportunity to kind of really really pace themselves away from a W I mean the creative has been OK this year but it's the business end that is disappointing it's 1995 a month for Netflix it's 200 plus dollars a year annually for the ESPN tool and then it's if I wanted to go see them live it's astronomical and not everybody has the type of money this is a blue collar industry it's what Dr.

21:19 Sray said before that wrestlers were known as like carneys there that's you can't take the carnival and put it at a steakhouse and that's what they're doing right now and it does not make sense and this is really ample opportunity for the AWs of the world maybe even some of the smaller brands and MLW to take a little bit of the market share don't we still going to be king don't get me wrong there still going to be king both radiance wise viewership attendance money making they will but they're giving an opportunity for letting the door back in for some of the die hard so disappointing but it's not surprising the same sense and that is something we'll continue to monitor here is the attendance numbers for WWE as these ticket prices continue to climb upwards and a price their die hard fans out of it just to get greedy and make the bottom dollar that much more expanded than previously. Dr. Trey a big ticket show that will be taking place in November in San Diego is survivor series war games and as long as war games has been added to the WWE calendar it has become tradition here on SRTU that we start thinking about the men's and women's matches for that and I think WWE really starts taking this into account in about late August or really September and you could start seeing the shape of these war games matches

22:50 and the men's war game match has gotten me really thinking and just to kind of walk through this do you see a scenario right now Dr. Trey where the vision Seth wrong's bron breaker broncum read are not involved in the war game is matching November no not really like the only thing I could think of would be like if they if they decided to do Seth versus Roman for the title lesser of the viva series but I don't think we're there yet I think that's going to be probably maybe your Royal Rumble matchup if not your WrestleMania matchup so right now I think it's got to be those three guys definitely have to be involved in this match so it's funny to bring up Roman because there's a report out there I think it was PW insider that said that Roman reigns is penciled in to participate in the war games match itself at survivor series this November so if we take what we believe with the vision being involved and what is being reported right now Roman reigns being involved so if you look at one side you've got Seth wrong's bron breaker broncum read over the last several years they've been doing five on five matches so that leaves two spots on the vision side and on the Roman reign side it's four I think this has the potential of being one of the most all star epic men's war games match matches ever and I think that's what we should do I think this should be an epic style match

24:24 so I'm going to throw out some names we're going to start on the vision side of things and I may go back and forth here to kind of start planting the seeds of what I'm thinking fantasy booking wise so we've got Roman on one side Seth bron breaker broncum read on the other I'm going to add Brock Lesnar to the men's war game match on the vision side because I don't think that you do all the stuff that we've seen at wrestle Paloza and Brock and Paul Heyman reconciling if he is not in the match so I'm adding Brock Lesnar to this match do you agree or disagree with that approach I think it makes a ton of sense so I'm not going to disagree with it because it does make too much sense to not have that happen so let's go to the other side here so that leaves four now one on the other can you see Cody Rhodes in this men's war game match I can see it but I don't think it's likely yet okay you think that maybe they're going the Randy or in direction with him I think Cody's going to have a world title okay I don't know if it's Randy or somebody else may I don't think I'm going to bring Drew back up or something but I expect Cody to have a one on one world title match can you see see a punk on the baby face side of this match yes can you see I already have I already have my five on that team already in my head

25:59 so my five are punk rains Cody Rhodes John Cena and on the other side I've said Seth Braun breaker Branson Reed Brock Lesnar I would put Drew McIntyre on that side and I would add Jacob Fattu to the baby face side right now to try to make this like the first off that baby face team is like a super historic team with punk rains Cody Cena part of me wanted to add Randy Orton in there but storyline wise that doesn't make much sense what are you thinking on the men's side so what I have in my head right now is Roman Jimmy J Punk LA night on the baby face side and then Seth Braun Branson Brock and Gunther on the heel side really think Gunther could be aligned with them yet unless you take Jimmy out and put Cena in see I would take Jimmy out and put Cena in if that's so there's rumblings that they're going to be doing a tournament for the last opponent of John Cena and that is going to lead them to Gunther and I would figure by survivor series that that match is set and I could see if I think Cena should be in this match and I could see Gunther being on that other side just to you know put that out there as well that they're setting they're starting to work towards that final match of Saturday night's main event

27:30 yeah then I can see you know either Cody and Orton or Cody Drew and Orton in a triple threat match which is why Cody be tied up and drew me to I like Drew getting added to it if they don't go the Gunther routes but they also try to traditionally keep for the most part everybody from a brand in that one match so be like all people affiliated with raw and then the women's matches where they usually kind of mix it up a little bit but with everything going on with Knight, Punk and Jay and Roman is kind of hard to not have them be together because they almost have an intertwined storyline against the vision so that's kind of where like Cena and Cody would be great but they just don't have a tie in to what's going on I mean so you think the likely scenario if we talk through this is Punk Reigns Usos L.A. Knight yes okay and then on the other side Rollins, Ron Breaker, Bronson Brock and it could be somebody else I mean it may not be Gunther they may save Gunther to do the tournament the tie in and that's just trying to find you know like is Austin Theory tied into it because of his history of Seth well I made the case for Oba Femmy right this is the time to do the Oba Femmy

29:02 I feel like that this is the time to add someone to the vision and I think that's what takes place at Crown Jewel I think there is someone that is off radar that joins the vision on Saturday morning and that makes sense because that way if you have four people in the vision and then you add Brock there's your fox yeah and then you can do you know the OG Bloodline minus Sammy you know the Usos and Roman adding Punk and Knight to the mix because they're tied in to the storyline with the vision and in a little bit with Roman and we still have what happened last year Survivors series of Punk and Roman tied into it and what happened at Russell Media so they still have existing story that they can bat they can kind of backload as well to tie into it so to me I'd love the All Star match like would you laid out but I just think that they're gonna kind of have Cody do his thing maybe save Cena for because he's only got what three appearances left right now so do you do a Survivor Series or do you do everything running up to get to Saturday's main event DC?

30:11 Yeah I really want to see a scenario where they do the All Star but I think the All Star is far fetch I think I just have this vision of Punk, Reigns, Cody, Cena and whoever the fifth person is like raising their hands up post war games and I think that would be a really historic team that could legitimately sell out San Diego like I don't think that they're gonna have any issues moving tickets at this point even though unless they continue to hike them up all of a sudden but I just would love to see that All Star but I think the scenario that we walk through is the one that makes the most creative sense of Punk Reigns LA Knight Usos Yeah me too. I just, because I mean Survivor Series over, especially like with the men's side, that's always been kind of a big story builder to get to rumble and then even get to Mania as we saw last year with Seth Roman and Punk so those things all kind of like Survivor Series is actually usually as much as it seems like it's the blow off to feuds, it's really not. It's actually what kind of sets the table for the road to WrestleMania starting at the rumble.

31:25 Alright so a little bit of work that we put in there for the War Games match, the Men's War Games match. I mean we'll talk about the Women's War Game match as well as the weeks go on here but I think we got to the most creative, literally what the WWE Creative is doing and how they're lining it up but boy just give me that All Star match because I think that would be absolutely insane to see the vision of all those guys celebrating post War Games at Survivor Series this November. Talking about Dream scenarios, Dr. Trey, if you told us 10, 15 years ago that there would be a WWE vs TNA show we would not believe you, we would never see this coming but it happened this past Tuesday.

32:09 We had NXT vs TNA showdown, what did you think of the show and who benefited more from the show? NXT or TNA? I enjoyed the show. I don't know, I'll say, I enjoyed the show, maybe the matches, there were some few spots in there that were really, really clunky and bad at times. Dark State. Yeah, yeah, dark State. Even in the Women's Survivor Series matches, a couple of like, yeah, you guys, some of these people folks are still a little green but overall, like, I don't know if it wants to say the nostalgia of the show or maybe just the fact that we're actually seeing for guys like you and me, we're seeing WWE and TNA competing and it felt like equal footing made the show really good and special for me because like Jeff likes to point out I'm the long time TNA fan but it felt really, really fun and enjoyable to actually see all these TNA people.

33:19 And so a lot of them are a former WWE guys but back in NXT and that kind of gave me all the good feels, I guess. Do you feel like this is a real crossover now or is this a one-off stunt in your opinion? What's the likelihood of, I think there's always going to be a partnership but where do we see it go from here for NXT and TNA? I think both sides are seeing benefits to it. I mean, you know, we, we, you know, trick Williams, those are point out that TNA's ratings have not been this high in quite some time. So I think you are getting some love for that. That's also going to help TNA if they want to, I think they're deal with whatever channel they're on now is coming up and they'll be able to shop it around and they're like, hey, we have WWE support behind this as well.

34:08 We should be able to get them a better, you know, positioning on some channel that people have actually heard of. So I guess in America? Oh my gosh. Hey, give them a Paramount Plus, I'll take it. Pop TV. I think there's rumblings in the band up on CW. I'd be fine with that. I mean, it's a little bit harder for an app for me to navigate because I don't have that kind of traditional cables. But anything right now would be better than where they're at now. But I think they're always going to have something about working relationships. So I think this might become an annual event like we might see the two companies separate a little bit and get back to just having one or two people crossing over, you know, those people that each brand feels needs a little more ring work time, things like that back to like when Tatum Paxley was challenging for the TNA women's championship.

35:04 You know, a random show, things like that. But to me, I love the show because I mean, not only did you get the hearties winning the NXT Tatum Championships on NXT television, but TNA, the men's team won the five on five Survivors Series match in the main event with Kazarian and Moose being the survivors. That's crazy to me. Like Moose and Kazarian celebrating on NXT. Like, there's no way I would have ever thought that would have happened, especially with them not being in NXT.

35:44 I think that gave a lot of love back to TNA because a lot of people or feelings was kind of one side of what you look at, like half the champions in TNA are NXT guys. Now you're getting TNA winning the main event, TNA claiming the NXT Tag Team Championships, albeit the hearties. But overall, it kind of gave some love back to TNA where it's not nearly as one-sided as the AEW TNA crossing. And the perception from the outside looking in is that it's been a respectful partnership between both brands. I don't think you could say that with a lot of other things. I think the AEW partnerships have left a bad taste in fans mouth.

36:25 I don't think New Japan is better off now than they were when they started with AEW several years ago. I mean, they lost a lot of talent to AEW and that could very well happen between WWE and TNA. But I don't think AEW did anything here in the United States to help raise up the profile of New Japan that made me go. I want to watch New Japan if I didn't know anything about New Japan. I mean, I was watching New Japan at one time during their heights on my own. As tomorrow, is she one imagine AEW speaking? Because we just saw he was wrestling mostly again on Dynamite or collision this past week. Collision, yeah. But yeah, there's a great example. Is she is like a legend in New Japan.

37:09 And I don't think he has ever won a singles match in AEW. No, and an AEW wrestler won the G1. It could also get to Kesheka. He's going to be facing Zach Saber Jr. soon. I expect him to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship because I think it's going to help. They believe it's going to help their profile more with him having the time of the ZSJ. Yeah, and AEW, you know, I want to say still, but they brought over a lot of those New Japan guys where at least with W and TNA, like, yeah, WWE signed Jordan Grace. They're probably going to sign Joe Henry when his deals up, but they're also contributing back to NXT by letting them have trick Williams and Kalani Jordan some of their other talents on their show where they're not purging the roster and not giving anything back.

37:56 Like AEW did to New Japan. So that's why I feel like this is a much more cohesive relationship than maybe any of these other crossover. Maybe WWE Triple A is not as great as maybe we want because literally like WWE guys are challenging for every title and getting a lot of titles. I think that's a different situation though. That's not a partnership. That is an ownership. Yeah, legitimately own Triple A. Yeah, so I would just want it. Yeah, this one does feel like a true partnership. We're like, hey, we might take these two guys or these couple people, but literally picking shoes off our NXT roster and you can have anybody show up on your show and we're fine with it.

38:40 Yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't, almost every major player in NXT has been on TNA television this year. And not only that, it helped promote Bound for glory. So Bound for glory is one of if not their biggest show of the year. I think it's their version of WrestleMania and that helped promote it this past Tuesday. Heading into Bound for glory, which I think it's like is it this weekend? I think it's Saturday night, obviously. And meanwhile, prior to this year with Forbidden Dora, Forbidden Dora would be typically in June and that would segue into the G1 in New Japan. And I never felt following Forbidden Dora like, I'm going to go check out G1 now, which is unfortunate.

39:23 So I think those are the comparisons of actual partnerships in TNA has worked out really, it has benefited them. It's raised their profile more. I think WWE fans are more interested in watching TNA than ever. I know I certainly am, I'm like, I'm interested in watching TNA, but there's only so much wrestling I can watch on a weekly basis. So great overall, NXT TNA partnership, I hope it continues onward and I hope we see more of NXT and TNA. Speaking of the weekend, Dr. Trey, this Saturday morning is WWE Crown Jewel from the Rack Arena in Perth, Western Australia. This Saturday morning, grab your eggs, grab your toes, grab your coffee, sit down, watch the professional wrestling in Australia.

40:06 Let's give our preview and predictions for the show, Dr. Trey, we go into this. You are leading in the year, 53 and 16. I am behind 51 and 18, so why did you kick it off first here with Rhea Ripley and EO Sky taking on the Kabuki Warriors? It's in Perth, everybody loves doing the EO weird headpoint thing. I don't think you have Rhea lose in Perth, unless Vince was booking the show. He's booking the show, every Australian will lose every match ever. But I'm taking Rhea and EO in this one. Next match here is rumored, excuse me, I'm taking Rhea Ripley and EO Sky as well.

40:49 So, Dr. Trey is predictions. You can't avoid the prediction and get it right, so you got to pick one. I am picking Rhea Ripley and EO Sky as well, so it's in Australia and Rhea Ripley's on the card, so enough said. Next match here is a rumour right now to be the main event, Dr. Trey of Crown Jewel, it's an Australian Streetfight. It's the OTC Roman Reigns taking on Bronson Reed, the hometown fellow Bronson Reed. I'm going to be going with Roman Reigns in this one. I think Reigns gets his revenge against the tribal thief Bronson Reed. But Roman won their last one on one match up, correct, and then he got beat down.

41:32 So, I am going to take Bronson Reed in the upset because it is a Streetfight, which means everybody can get involved, including Bron Breaker, including Seth Rons. It was so choosers, and I think this is what helps set up Roman putting a team together for Survivor Series. So, I'm going to take Bronson Reed getting the surprise victory in this one. I love that. I would love to see Bronson Reed get that victory. Next match here is just no build, Dr. Trey. This is solely a dream match. It's John Cena versus AJ Styles one last time. Who do you got in this one? It makes me almost sad that John's retiring in a month and AJ's retiring in 13 months.

42:14 It's the face of TNA versus the face of ruthless aggression. I'm taking Cena in this one because he had the bad loss at clashing... What's the clashing pairs? Who is... WrestlePelooza. WrestlePelooza, yeah. I'm sorry. Some of these names are awful. I forget them. He's got to rebound off the Brock loss to get to Saturday's main event. So, I'm going to take Cena getting the winner or AJ. But this should be just a fun, classic record the match for posterity type situation. Just two of the all-time greatest pro wrestlers of all time locking up or one more time. I'm going to take AJ Styles in this one. I think Cena wants to look up at the lights as he's getting his on his way out.

43:02 AJ Styles could use a massive victory. He has just been really treading water for quite some time in WWE almost years now. I feel like he's been treading water. If he is going into his final year of professional wrestling as AJ Styles said... I think a victory over John Cena would really seal the deal that people start recognizing. Again, recognizing how important AJ Styles is because he just feels like he treads water lately in WWE. This current stretch he is at almost like four or five years. Ever since the Undertaker, Boneyard match, I just feel like AJ Styles has been stop-go, stop-go, injuries thrown in there. And I think I would love to see AJ Styles getting one last victory over John Cena at Crown Jewel.

43:43 And then we've got the Crown Jewel matches themselves. Dr. Trey, we've got Women's World Champion, Stephanie Valkour, take it on WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton for the WWE Women's Crown Jewel Championship. I will start here, Dr. Trey. I'm going to be taking Stephanie Valkour to defeat Tiffany Stratton in Women's Crown Jewel Championship. Yeah, I don't know if Naya gets involved because Naya lost last year to live. And it would make sense that Naya doesn't want Tiffany to have that ring. But Stephanie really doesn't have a rival or a challenger to kind of jump into it. So I'm going to take Stephanie getting the win also. And then finally, the Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes takes on the World-Avway Champion Seth Rollins for the WWE Men's Crown Jewel Championship Cody Rhodes is up three-0 on Seth Rollins.

44:33 Do or die for the World-Avway Champion. Dr. Trey, who do you like in this one? This one's hard because normally I would just pick Cody because Cody's like the new Superman. But that conversation that Seth and Hayman had on Raw, not to mention Cody's up three-0. If Cody goes up four-0, I don't say rude, that doesn't ruin the legacy of Seth Rollins, but it does kind of put a damper on stuff. So I think I'm going to take Seth Rollins getting the win at Crown Jewel.

45:15 I think Paul Hayman has something up his sleeve. I think there will be a new member of the vision. I have been pitching Oba Femi as wrapping up in NXT and working with the vision here and joining and aligning with them and helping Seth Rollins to feed Cody Rhodes on Saturday. So we are both taking Seth Rollins. We will recap and review Crown Jewel on next week's edition of SRTU. With that said, let's get a couple plugs and sponsors out of the way. You could support us at patreon.com/srtupodcast. You can get the show ad free along with many other exclusives like SRTU Classic, SRTU Watch and some of my old interviews.

46:01 When I was with the Bauer show on '97 on ESPN and Hartford Connecticut, one that will be landing this month is my one-on-one interview with Fan Dango when he was on top of the world. It was in line for an Intercontinental Championship match. Just before he unfortunately suffered a concussion that took him out of Intercontinental Championship match, I believe in 2012. So maybe it's my fault that he never became an Intercontinental Champion, which was rumored around that time. You could download the show every Thursday or Friday at realguyremediah.com, Russell Chatnet on X and this to roll the show feed on Apple Spotify wherever you download this podcast. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe on all those platforms that helps us keep climbing the charts. You could follow us individually on X for myself at SRTU. Jeff and for Dr. J Franklin at the Dr. Trey.

46:44 And of course, don't forget to follow the show on X at SRTU Podcast. With that being said, what is going on in the wonderful world of Dr. J Franklin this week? Well, like Jeff said, you can follow me on X at the Dr. Trey. You can follow me on Facebook and Instagram. Dr. Trey Franklin, when you're on Facebook, check out Rockets Eat Championship Wrestling. We just had another big show this past Saturday. We're Jeff. I took my first bump in three years Saturday night. Yeah, all because I can't pronounce one guy's name correctly. He got mad. But yeah, be sure to show those shows out. But more importantly, go check out your local independent wrestling shows where you and your family can go check out a show and be in the front row for probably under 100 bucks.

47:27 Probably. I hope so. Probably. Probably. I mean, well, some of these any shows front rows have got about 20 bucks a pop. And if you've got a big family, you might be over it. But definitely take you and your kids out have a good time. Get some nachos, watch a bunch of grown men and their underwear slap man meat and call it a night and do it for a much more fan-friendly budget than any of the big shows can provide. There you go. Support all the great things that support SRTU spread the word about the stuff real though show. And thank you for everybody for supporting and downloading this week's edition of the podcast. If you would be so kind head on over to patreon.com/SRTU podcast and support us even more so until next week for Dr. Trayfrey.

48:11 And I am Jeff Peck. Enjoy the weekend. This has been the stirrilla show.