Charles Richardson | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: And joining us online right now. Charles Richardson from The Charles Richardson Show, Charles, are you there?

0:08 Speaker 2: Yes? Also president accounted for yes, yes.

0:12 Speaker 3: Wo wow, you brought a crowd. I love it. A studio audience. How are you, man? How are you?

0:18 Speaker 2: Absolutely? This has been this is being recorded in front of a live studio audience.

0:22 Speaker 3: That's amazing.

0:23 Speaker 2: But not really.

0:24 Speaker 3: Oh okay, I was gonna say.

0:26 Speaker 2: I'm listening to I was listening to the intro. I was just coming out and said, listen. Even Will Ferrell's movies have a only a significant number of outtakes. I mean that was just that was that was brutal. So I'm glad they could get done. Yeah it.

0:44 Speaker 3: It just took a little bit. But I love outtakes.

0:49 Speaker 2: So now things are right down here. It's not ninety eight and sweating, so but it is what it is in Florida.

0:56 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.

0:57 Speaker 1: I always get a little bit because here, you know, you get to this point in August it starts to cool off, and I get a little melancholy about it because summer is my favorite time of year. I love summer, and when it starts slipping away, it's like I don't like it. I don't mind the heat, you know, so, but it's humid where you.

1:17 Speaker 2: Are, right, Yeah?

1:20 Speaker 3: Most people, most people think I'm strange.

1:21 Speaker 1: I'm not a fan of winter, So whenever it starts to feel too hot to me, I just think about winter and how much I don't like the cold, and then I'm fine. I can live with it pretty easily.

1:33 Speaker 2: Then you, you and I need to like trade place, get back up the mine down here where where you're comfortable?

1:40 Speaker 3: Yes, yes, so?

1:42 Speaker 2: Uh now how would how would Jenny? How would Jenny treat the heat down here?

1:48 Speaker 4: I actually spent a lot of my childhood in Florida. Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

1:53 Speaker 2: Yeah.

1:54 Speaker 3: Yeah, Jenny does not do well in humidity, right, Jenny, no.

2:00 Speaker 5: Ramps up symptoms, so I end up stuck in the air conditioning.

2:04 Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, so, which I never used to.

2:07 Speaker 4: Be one for air conditioning, right, Likes what is it hot a week in the summer?

2:11 Speaker 3: Yeah? We don't need that right now?

2:13 Speaker 5: It's like, is there ever a week I'm not running it?

2:16 Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah.

2:17 Speaker 1: It's gonna be about eighty six today, so not not bad. But yeah when it gets up above ninety, yeah, then Jenny's usually ready for the air conditioning. But so, now, do you want to give us any before we I know we're going to talk some wrestling and and I don't know if you've been listening to the Tough Pumps podcast Eric Pilch and I do. And by the way, I did invite Eric to join us if you wanted, but I know with his schedule it might not be possible for him.

2:43 Speaker 3: So but if not, he'll hear this later.

2:45 Speaker 1: But do you want to give us a do you want to talk at all about the Charles Richardson Show? For because longtime listeners of this program are familiar with you and with the Charles Richardson Show, of course, but you haven't been on with us in a while, so newer listeners might not know. So for the uninitiated, do you want to tell us about about your show?

3:03 Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, it's a it's a very lame comparison to your show, Don't do so. It is basically a hodgepodge of topics that were just throwing together, uh, some humorous, some serious. Uh. Me and my wife usually do it. We do have a couple of other co hosts have recently joined us. That kind of pop in and out every now and then. So I'm getting back to a formula where it's gonna be more fun. We uh, I think Monday's show we had not Monday, it's the last Wednesday show. We had everybody join us. So with those like four co hosts on there, so I was able to run Jeopardy.

3:43 Speaker 2: Uh So it was actually it was actually pretty cool the first time I had.

3:46 Speaker 3: A game on.

3:47 Speaker 2: Oh in so long, and it was so much fun it and time flow. It was just like, man, we gotta go already. Yeah, so it was a lot of fun to have a whole bunch of people on.

3:59 Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt, No doubt. And what's the schedule for the show?

4:02 Speaker 3: When are you on?

4:06 Speaker 2: Whenever I feel like it? No, So it's Monday and Monday and Wednesday is the scheduled days eight pm to ten pm Eastern Time. And we're on primarily Facebook and YouTube. And my flagship station now is a music station, no competitive to yours. It's called Power one Radio. It's the number one and we primarily played twenty four to seven, with the exception of the show eighties and nineties dancing Oh okay, tempo high energy. If you ever do that, that. That's awesome and Christian. If you still want to DJ, you're welcome to if you want.

4:42 Speaker 1: Oh interesting, interesting? What are they looking for or are you? I don't know, I don't know how much involvement you have in that station, Like is the station looking for DJs?

4:55 Speaker 2: It's it's it's my it's my personal creation, and.

4:57 Speaker 3: It is Oh so you are, oh very cool.

5:02 Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't. I don't have a lot of like involvement right now. I'm just kind of like overshadowing. I'm like a silent partner to my own partner, okay.

5:11 Speaker 3: To me.

5:13 Speaker 2: So it's it's like I make sure the station is running, and I have the the the sweepers and everything that are running through, and I make sure the bills are paid. But as far as getting a lineup going, it wasn't like it used to be like around five six years ago, where I actually had a weekend lineup, hip hop lineup on Wednesday, Monday, we had a techno lineup, so it was it was pretty interactive back then. But eventually, when I go ahead and get a little bit more time, I'll go ahead and ramp it up.

5:47 Speaker 2: But yeah, that's primarily where the show runs Facebook, YouTube and that station just searched the Charles Richardson Show for all my Facebook crap and YouTube crap.

5:59 Speaker 3: Okay, okay, yeah uh.

6:00 Speaker 1: And of course people can google it to You're very googleable if you're looking for the show. You know, it's funny you mentioned you mentioned about you know, not always necessarily being consistent with with when it's on. I've been having conversations with people recently about because you know, obviously, when you're doing a show on FM radio, you know, we're we're in a set time, you know, every week. But with the podcasting, because I have a couple of different podcasts that I'm involved in, like Tough Bumps that I do with Eric, and there's another there's a political podcast that I'm doing now called Hanging Left with Todd Air.

6:36 Speaker 1: And we've even brought back the podcast version of this show for you know, conversations and things that we want to do that are not that do not fit the current format of the radio version of the show.

6:48 Speaker 3: But we haven't been doing those.

6:50 Speaker 1: None of the podcasts that I'm currently doing are on any particular schedule. Because I've noticed over the past few years, especially that a lot of and this is something I talk about with Todd about the political podcast that we do, because I use as an example a lot of the political streamers now, like the ones you see, especially the ones you see on Twitch. There's a lot of political streamers on Twitch, but then they also stream on YouTube. They're not really on a set schedule. They're using more of the it's on when it's on approach, but they have a lot of success with it because what they do is, you know, they really build up their social media accounts, They get as many people as they can on social media, and then when they're going live, a notification goes out I'm live, and then people see the notifications and they either join the show or they just get it later, right, because that's that's one of the great things about a podcast.

7:42 Speaker 1: You can access it whenever you want to, and that formula seems to be working really well. There's a lot of successful streamers that they're not on a set schedule.

7:50 Speaker 3: They it's on when it's on.

7:52 Speaker 1: If you see it live, great, you see the notification you click in live great, If not, you get it later. You know it's going out on all the podcasting platforms anyway, so it almost doesn't matter and I feel like that's the way things are going. I mean, what's your thought on that?

8:08 Speaker 2: My thought is that is a great way. If you're a social media mongol like that and you can market and you can do all that stuff, that's a great way to do it. Me. I've been dreaming of being a radio announcer since I was ten. Yeah, I got I got my my itch when I heard a talk show and this guy was just being edgy. I'm thinking, that's who I want to be. I want to do that that. I want to be heard on multiple stations all over the country. I want to be that. And it wasn't how it's turned. It was a local dude in Miami.

8:42 Speaker 2: But that's who I want to be. Yeah, And ever since then, that's kind of what I have this show done for. It's yes, I'm not making any money on it. I don't. I do it for the love of it because this is what I've always dreamed of want to be. It's something I have a drive for or thirty plus years, I'm still I'm still gunning with the microphone. Hell transforming my garage now we're actually finally got the money to transform it, building it into a studio slash art area for my wife and this this this, this separate bedroom where I'm in right now is going to be now my kids play area.

9:24 Speaker 2: But still with the idea of doing a show, expanding it, not making any money on it. That just shows you, like kind of like in depth of how I want to be. And yes, you're right, it's whenever I can. But I want to fit a schedule. I do want to keep a schedule, like I'm on that FM radio or on radio. I want to keep that type of schedule because I like doing live. I think if I had the reach, If I had the reach, I'd be better. Interactive live podcast is like I mean, it's a certain niche for certain people.

10:02 Speaker 2: I mean, if you have my one good friend who does a wrestling podcast which I'm on now, he actually does his recordings usually one or two days a week, depending on how he feels, and he records it and drops it, and he's able to be successful with he's market it and advertise it. I'm not a marketing guy, so that's where I lack. If I was a marketing guy, I'd probably be as popular as Logan Paul or Joe Rogan right, right, I'd be I'd be raking at the dollars, but unfortunately that's not me.

10:34 Speaker 1: So, what's the podcast that you're doing? Tell us about it? The wrestling podcast.

10:39 Speaker 2: So the podcast is the podcast that's called the Josh Zodiac Podcast. It stars him his brother called the Psycho Nerd. Don't even ask me and and myself. So, and there's a there's another co host that he's that he's brought on and she's pretty good too. She's very knowledgeable. And when we were doing the the live pl e's I do the live recording. He does the podcast. So when there's a live pl E a big one, I'm usually the one that does it through my channel and he joins in with with everybody and you know, we cover the matches.

11:18 Speaker 2: Yeah, but but he does this it's like an hour. It's it's an hour podcast and discuss various different topics, usually about Ross SmackDown and what's going on with the next ple e or other wrestling rumors, like we talked about Hogan, we talked about Carrying Cross and Scarlett not being re signed. We talked about how bad they are. It's just it's just completely uh all over the place wrestling. So it's like, you know, we don't discuss because I know, Tough Bumps, you focused on one topic and you guys go on it for for however long the show is maybe two.

11:55 Speaker 2: Not well you talk about several topics.

11:58 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, we actually do. We actually do several topics on on Tough Bumps. What we do is so we have the main event. Every week, we pick a subject that we're going to cover in depth, and then but we also have the undercard, and the undercard is usually two or three subjects that we're we cover kind of a short we have briefer conversations about leading up to the main event.

12:18 Speaker 3: So then the main event.

12:19 Speaker 1: Will be whatever it is, like, uh like this past weekend, the main event was AW kind of the history of ae W. So we kinda we kind of do it that way. But I mean that's but that's another great thing about podcasting too, is you know you can do it anyway.

12:34 Speaker 3: You want to.

12:35 Speaker 1: There's no there's no rules, there's no format to follow. You know, you can it can change, it can evolve, it can devolve, it can you know however you want to, however you want to do it. I feel like you've have you worked with Josh Zodiac before. The reason I ask is I've heard that name and I think I've heard you mentioned the name before Josh Zodiac.

12:55 Speaker 2: No, I've actually just recently come on to his UH podcast UH as an official co host. He had me on a guest a couple of times. But it's like, hey, listen, you're really good. I like you the interaction that we have. So it's like, I want to do a code something, sure if you want, absolutely, so Okay, Usually every Saturday we do we do a show or he records and uh, but no, it's it's only been for a few months now.

13:21 Speaker 1: Oh cool, Okay, I may I may have heard of him elsewhere then I might have U, I might have seen something of Eric, might even know him.

13:27 Speaker 3: I don't know. No, that's very cool. That's very cool.

13:29 Speaker 1: And and and then so when of the wheer the new episodes come out? When should people look for him?

13:34 Speaker 2: Is it two a week Sunday? Usually it's it's just it's just one a week. Usually they drop on Sunday.

13:41 Speaker 3: Okay, he is.

13:44 Speaker 2: We're taking September off and then we're gonna ramp up afterwards to get ready for or after Survivor series and then we'll go ahead and jump back into it. But I may I may do Survivor series on my end, because I know I think that what that's two nights now again.

14:01 Speaker 3: The Survivor series two nights and one night.

14:03 Speaker 2: I figure, yeah, I don't know. I think they're all going to two nights for crying out loud. That's what WW is all about right now, is that they're all about making money. And it's just really sad of how how downtry it is with the new ESPN deal going on. It's like, gee, whiz, guys. I mean, listen, you're already you're already firing up and everything. How about giving the fans a break?

14:26 Speaker 3: Huh yeah, it is.

14:27 Speaker 2: Uh, it's just crazy.

14:29 Speaker 5: I am not buying ESPN. No, I am not buying it. They can pound Sand.

14:34 Speaker 3: I'm done.

14:34 Speaker 5: Well, I already have.

14:36 Speaker 4: I got I got Netflix to watch raw, I got Peacock to watch PL's, I got you know, I gotta go to empty different places to watch.

14:45 Speaker 5: Stuff to begin with. I'm done. I'm not chasing them to ESPN Pound Sand.

14:51 Speaker 2: Well. So I heard that if you already subscribe to ESPN, do your linear cable subscription. I think you're covered. Yeah to go.

15:01 Speaker 5: No, I don't do cable.

15:02 Speaker 1: We cut the We cut the court a long time ago. Yeah, we don't have cable. We cut the court a long time ago.

15:08 Speaker 5: Ridiculous costs.

15:09 Speaker 3: It won't do it.

15:10 Speaker 1: It's so expensive for But now in terms of though, and this is a conversation that I had with Eric on Tough Bumps, the easy workaround is you just get a you know, you can get a VPN for like six bucks a month and connect to it because the pols will still be available internationally on Netflix, just not in the US. So you just get a you just get a VPN. Netflix doesn't know where you're connecting from. You can have access to everything.

15:34 Speaker 2: I mean really or just or just or just contact me after the show and I'll go ahead and give you information about you know, adding you on to my family subscription on YouTube TV.

15:44 Speaker 4: Ooh, well, I I agree with what you were saying before, and now it just went out of my head.

15:52 Speaker 3: Oh about it it being so expensive now to be a fan? Yeah, right, it's really.

15:56 Speaker 4: It really gives something back to the fans, hih. I mean we spend enough money by and i'mpting different subscriptions to watch I'm doing different things, and you know, but I agree with you one hundred percent, and I hate the direction they're going in. I don't like the way they're treating talent, especially truth that.

16:16 Speaker 2: Yeah right, I think talent's being treated a lot better than they were with Vince. To be honest with you, there may be some one offs, yes, for for talent that I think. I think Truth was brought back based on fan pressure, which if you think about it, wouldn't have not affected Vince one bit. But because the fans are calling out for names, Triple H is listening to the fans. So I think the talent is treated a lot better nowadays.

16:45 Speaker 5: I agree, Well maybe a little bit in that regard.

16:48 Speaker 4: But to drop somebody with no notice, no nothing, just ah, yeah we've been with us for decades, but goodbye, see it hour get out. That's the way that they've dropped people, you know, is awful. They don't have discussions with them. They just wait till the end and then go, oh, yeah you're gone.

17:06 Speaker 5: And people have been with them, people their lives are invested.

17:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's how you treat.

17:11 Speaker 2: People before, Jenny, they they've they've they've done massive cuts before just to save mine. They've done that way before. The truth. Yeah, it's just the fact of the matter that Truth is such a such is so beloved. Yeah, he's such a he's basically and I guarantee you when he retires, he finally hangs up his boots, I guarantee you, he's going to be an ambassador.

17:36 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he'll always have some sort of a connection to the company. I'm sure. Yeah, regardless, but uh not.

17:41 Speaker 4: The only one though that they just drop like that. Well, yeah, been around forever and it's just you're gone.

17:47 Speaker 1: Yeah, I do think. I do think though, with with some people. I mean, if you reach a point where you don't think you can, you know, then have a.

17:54 Speaker 5: Discussion with him. Be honest, don't be like Cross all the get to hear.

17:58 Speaker 1: Well, they carrying Cross seems like a unique situation.

18:02 Speaker 3: Did you watch did you watch him? Excuse me, I'm losing my voice, Charles? Did you watch?

18:07 Speaker 1: Jenny and I watched both the documentary The Killer Cross Part two slash My Contract Just Ended or whatever it's called. And we watched the Ariel Helwane interview where Carrion Cross to me comes across no pun intended really well and in the documentary, both he and Scarlett come across really well, and it's easy to have a lot of sympathy for them.

18:30 Speaker 3: Did you watch either of those or both of those?

18:34 Speaker 2: No? Unfortunately I can't say I have. Yeah, but here's my take on Carrion's I'm gonna be honest with you, and this is just what I see. Either Creative has dropped the ball massively, yes, or Carrion just does not get over with the fans at all. I mean he number one. If you take a look at in ring work, I can see why the guy only wrestles one time a year. The guy's dan dress. You think that that match, that match is nami zaye. Literally I saw one or two inches where he could be paralyzed. The Yeah, it was.

19:15 Speaker 2: It was some scary stuff. Me, me and Joshua We're talking about that match, and it's like, yeah, he is unsafe. He is unsafe. It's it's not a good performance at all. His character is lackluster at best. I loved it when he was with AOP and had the final testament. That was where he That is where I think he should. He needs to be surrounded by talent. He cannot hold himself with his character, he cannot. So either creative is dropping the ball finding nothing legitimate that he can do well, or he just excuse French sucks and he just needs to go.

20:04 Speaker 3: Yeah, I would.

20:04 Speaker 1: I would definitely put it on creative because you know, just hearing the guy talk, even in see I've always been impressed with him in in interviews, various podcast interviews I've seen with him over the years and whatnot. He's so articulate and so interesting. It's like, how do you not find something to do with this guy? And then in recent days when he did that that promo that was like a worked shoot where you know he did he did that that promo after WrestleMania where he was complaining about not being on the show and and he threw down the microphone and said that's killer cross and everything.

20:38 Speaker 1: And then people really got behind him after that, and apparently his merchandise sales through WWE dot com spiked massively, and his book, his new book that just came out, Life is Fighting, is doing very well. So there's clearly the fans want him, they want to get behind him. I put it all on creative. How do you not make money with this guy? And I've always felt that like they they they did well with him in NXT when Triple H was running NXT, but then you know, they brought him up to the main roster, Vince was still in charge, so Vince immediately ruined him.

21:11 Speaker 1: They released him, they brought him back, and then they's like they can't figure out what to do with him, and it's like, how do you not find something for this guy to do?

21:18 Speaker 3: You know, I don't know, I.

21:22 Speaker 2: Not not every NXT champion or or somebody that's rising up from NXT goes to the main roster and succeeds. It's it's just not that. And also there may be other works behind the scenes. There could be some back back, Uh, there could be some drama going on backstage. There could be some obviously creative differences, I'm sure backstage. But the thing is, though, just just seeing what I've seen on camera, it's very bland. It's it's it's not it's not entertaining for me at least. I mean again, it sounds like you and Jenny feel differently, but it's not entertaining for me.

22:06 Speaker 2: And and and I find his wrestling style is very dangerous.

22:12 Speaker 1: I will say, I don't think his ring work. I've never noticed the dangerous aspect of that, but I would be curious. Like Jenny said, you know, maybe we'll go back and watch that match. But I will say I've never found his ringwork to be particularly spectacular. Like I don't expect to hear a this is awesome chant during a Carrion cross match.

22:31 Speaker 3: No, but but again, it's it's it's it's.

22:34 Speaker 2: Far but it's it's far from spectacularly. It's down it's downright bad. It really is the the I don't know, because listen, when you take a look and you're inside that ring, you are dancing with your dance partner. I mean, yes, it's kind of sad to say because they're wearing tight tight shorts and everything like that, and you know, it's just you just think about that. It's just like, Okay, you're dancing with the dude, all right, whatever, But they're dancing your dance partner. Somebody has to lead, somebody has to Communication is always a spot, Sammy Zain, whether it be with Jay Usso, whether it be with the Bloodline, whether it be with Kevin Owens, Sammy Zaine's beautiful, he's he he twinkled, toes around that ring like nobody ever.

23:23 Speaker 2: Sure, great, I Seemy carrying crussing, and I'm almost ready to cry because there is no twinkle toes. Something's off and it's can't be Sammy because I've seen Sammy interact with other wrestlers and he is just beautiful. It's great. It's artwork. It's not art, it's it's just it's maybe it's not dangerous, but it's just not good.

23:47 Speaker 1: I do think they had a good match at SummerSlam. I thought it was I thought it was very good. I mean, I you know, I didn't have any complaints about it, certainly.

23:57 Speaker 2: But I think the I think the drum and the interaction, the interference with Scarlet with the bar, Yeah, I like that. But there was a couple of bumps there where I was like, please get up, Sammy, please get up, Please don't do the referee, don't do the x uh. It's just it's there's there's some of the bumps that I just taught like, I mean, okay, that didn't look that didn't look good.

24:20 Speaker 3: I do have to acknowledge.

24:21 Speaker 1: My favorite part of any carrying cross match has always been the entrance. I think the entrance is incredible. I think I think that I think that's the whole thing is really good. But but he also said.

24:32 Speaker 2: It is the best part of carrying cross is the entrance. You're absolutely right.

24:37 Speaker 1: He did say during the uh the Ariel hill Wana interview too that uh they so you said you didn't watch it, correct, He said that, uh No, He said that it's it's really it's really good. But he said that they they did make him an offer. It's not that they didn't make him an offer. They did make him an offer. But there were two things that there were a problem. One is he wanted to know how they arrived at that number. So I assume it was a low number because he again, there's been a just recently, there was a pretty big spike in his merchandise sales apparently, so they wanted to know how they arrived at number at that number.

25:12 Speaker 1: He didn't say no, He just said, you know, let's continue the conversation. And the other sticking point was they did not offer her Scarlet anything. They offered him a new deal. They did not offer Scarlet a new deal. And he says that what they told him was that they would sign him. Let's get your deal locked in and then we'll we'll figure out Scarlet, which I can understand him being very concerned about that for two reasons. Number One, she's a huge part of the act. You know, it's hard to imagine him without her.

25:41 Speaker 1: But also I would be worried about Okay, so you want to sign me, You want me to hurry up and sign this deal and then we'll and then we'll deal with Scarlet afterward. I'm worried that there's not going to be a follow through there. Okay, I'm going to sign this deal that you, for some reason, are in such a hurry for me to go ahead and sign, because you're telling me, if I don't sign it in twenty four hours, you're rescinding the offer. No ongoing contract negotiations. I either signed this or you resinned, and then I'm supposed to just trust you that then you're going to talk to Scarlet or we're going to sit down and negotiate something for Scarlett as well.

26:15 Speaker 1: That that is. That sounded pretty sketchy to me, So I don't blame him for saying no, agreed.

26:22 Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with that, because listen, what does my deal have to do with Scarlett? Scarlett has her own deal. How about we get Scarlett on board first, Yeah, and then talk to me. I think, honestly, it's a way to go ahead and break this two apart. Because number one, Scarlet's not a wrestler. She has not wrestled. She is a valet. I think she hasn't she has, Unfortunately, I think, you.

26:44 Speaker 3: Know, I thought she had wrestled in the net to.

26:47 Speaker 2: My recollection, if she had had a long time.

26:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, probably been a long time. But I mean, I know she takes bumps and everything. I thought she had wrestled at one time. I'm looking it up now.

26:56 Speaker 2: Yes, she she probably has trained before. Yeah, definitely look it up. Yeah, but she's probably trained before to go ahead and said bumps. But she's primarily of VLA, and I don't think WWE, especially with them cracking down on salary and everything like that, I don't think they're gonna go ahead and pay a VLA, which is weird. You're going ahead and bumping up to ESPN for thirty dollars a month. You're already telling people to pay for Netflix for raw, and you're cutting salary really okay, I mean you know, I don't get it.

27:30 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm looking on Wikipedia, it looks like for the Yeah.

27:37 Speaker 2: And Rosso and they're also bumping up because they said when they signed this deal with ESPN that their first pl e was gonna be wrestle Mania next year. They're bumping it up to like, yep, something called Russell Polluta yep for in September yep, y she with.

27:58 Speaker 4: I think their money. I think they're greedy as heck. They got that company's got so much money now then Nicol and Diamond, the artists who are contracted, they don't get healthcare. They got to pay their own healthcare everything else. Right, That's why I think people don't understand that sometimes too, because they think they're employees, right, They're non employees. They're independent contractor yep. They got to work around from the government basically, and it stuck.

28:27 Speaker 2: They yeah, they're I mean, obviously there's there's another wrestling promotion out there. If you don't wake it a WWE go over to AWE. What they can do. You got full creative control. You have another con and debt that's in charge. So you go from Tony to Neck or Nick to Tony. I don't know, I forgot whose con is open.

28:47 Speaker 3: They're both cons Sorry, I had to do it.

28:54 Speaker 2: God, I can't go over to the AW there. You know they did you know that they're they're thriving as well. I mean, look how awesome they are. I mean look, I mean just just think about it. Chris Jericho went from w w E to a W possibly back.

29:10 Speaker 3: To w WE most likely.

29:11 Speaker 2: I thought that, Come on, now, Tody Rhoades goes ahead and flicks off w w E when he goes to AW. Now it's back to w w E. Yeah, what's going on? How come eight? You can't keep their talent, talent that they take from w w E. Well, it's not working out. Next thing, you know, we're getting Dean Ambrose back, right, Is that what's gonna happen next? Oh?

29:32 Speaker 1: I hope, so, I hope. So that was something that Eric and I talked about too on Tough Bumps. So, by the way, if you're just joining us, we have Charles Richardson from the Charles Richardson Show on the line with us, and and uh oh, and of course the pot what's the name of the wrestling podcast? Is it the Josh Zodiac Show?

29:50 Speaker 2: Yes, there's the Josh Zodiac Podcast, The.

29:53 Speaker 3: Josh Sodiac Podcast. I want to make sure I get it right when uh when when we did? Uh Yeah.

29:59 Speaker 1: This past Sunday, on the newest edition of Tough Bumps, it was a history of AEW and Eric and I talked a lot about how the worst thing that happened to AW was And Eric and I disagree on a lot of things, but on this I think we agreed is that when Vince ended up having to permanently leave WWE because with Triple H in charge of creative because the whole reason that AEW was so successful in the beginning and to a large extent still is I mean, doing thirty thousand people in a stadium in Texas is pretty impressive.

30:33 Speaker 1: But the reason they were so successful initially was because they were offering an alternative to what had become very very stale, a very stale product under Vince. I was saying to Eric, you know, for years, I didn't even sit down. I wouldn't even sit down and sit through an episode of Raw or SmackDown. I would just go on YouTube and find find out whatever happened, and just watch whatever clips looked interesting to me. And that was it. So I never fully disengaged from the product, but so you know, so ae W was filling that void and then of course Triple H, who I wasn't surprised because I was watching NXT because when Triple H was in charge of NXT, NX was phenomenal.

31:12 Speaker 3: And uh, you know, so when.

31:14 Speaker 1: Triple H got to take over full creative, on the full roster, on the main roster, you know, that was all of a sudden ae W. It's kind of like, don't really need it after all now that WWE is running on all cylinders again for the first time in a long time. But that's but I do think that ae W is a net positive for the business. I think that the wrestling business always thrives when you have competitive forces within it. The more promotions that are successful, the better, because a high tide raises all ships interests in wrestling.

31:45 Speaker 1: You know, it's it's so strong right now. Even TNA, Jenny and I were watching a little bit of Slammiversary, they were that was their biggest North American crowd for Slammiversary, almost eight thousand people. I think their partnership with WWE helps drive that. But I do think AEW holds an important place in the market, and I think they're I think it's in that positive that they're around.

32:08 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's definitely going to be a net positive for AW no matter what, because it's an alternative. And when you can go ahead and finally get your creative brains intact and actually bump heads literally sometimes and you go ahead and get Edge and Christian back together, that's going to generate some interests like, hmm, how's this rated R superstar Adam Copeland gonna do with Christian Cage now that they're reunited. Hmmm, interesting storyline. It drove me interest in ae W because I want to see what these two are gonna go at, right, and that was the first time I heard of Spike apparently with that back and just oh gruesome.

32:52 Speaker 2: Yeah.

32:52 Speaker 1: Anyway, I'm like, I'm like, you.

32:57 Speaker 2: Know what, let's see what happens. Let's see where they go from here, because they're taking a definite tag team, a formidable tag team, hall of Fame tag team, and they're bringing it to their forefront. Now let's see how they do.

33:13 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I think, uh so, we don't. We don't watch much a w uh.

33:19 Speaker 1: Basically, if there's a you know, if they have a a big event or something, there's a website Toki video dot com that posts, uh, the individual matches from their pay per views, you know, usually a week or two after they happen.

33:30 Speaker 3: But but yeah, I think I think you know, are they not?

33:33 Speaker 2: Are they not? Are they not streaming on Max? There are there their pay per views? I know they're streaming like Dynamite in oh yeah Vision on Max Max.

33:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, we have Max Max.

33:44 Speaker 1: We've we've actually watched one of the shows on Max. We've never watched any of their pls on Max. But I think you're right. Yeah, with all the streaming services, it gets confusing. It's hard to keep up with it all.

33:54 Speaker 5: I'm ready to dump them.

33:56 Speaker 3: But but part of why.

34:01 Speaker 2: It's amazing, Mat, it's it's it's amazing, Mat. The cord. Yeah, cut the cord, everybody, cut the streaming. You're spending more now on streaming than you did.

34:13 Speaker 3: I'm not.

34:14 Speaker 4: I'm actually not spending more on streaming than I was paying the cable because it was.

34:20 Speaker 5: Expensive.

34:21 Speaker 2: People are a lot of people are though cable.

34:25 Speaker 3: Cable is far from dead, that's for sure.

34:29 Speaker 2: Yeah.

34:29 Speaker 4: I Uh.

34:30 Speaker 1: Part of why we were having that conversation on Tough Bumps was Eric is Eric is much more negative on a W than I am. Like I said, I think, I think uh. I think Cody Rhads his return to w w E UH would not have been nearly as important and as big a deal had it not been for a W even CM punk, you know, I mean, it still would have been a big deal him returning to w W E. His surprise appearance had survived series UH when he returned. But again, had it had it not been for his UH, had it not been for ae W getting him back into the game first, I don't think it would have meant as much.

35:10 Speaker 1: You know, I think AW. I think AW has directly benefited WWE in some ways.

35:16 Speaker 3: I really do.

35:19 Speaker 2: I agree, and then I disagree because Cody Rhodes developed himself in the Indies BEFOREAW even took place. That was Eric's reinventive, That the American Nightmare persona theme song and everything was before AW right, So he actually went ahead and created himself before then he was able to make a stage on AW. So I agreed to that point. I agreed to that point that Cody went ahead and turned some heads like, Wow, this guy can actually perform. You don't have to put him in a goofy gold out and called Stardust, Right, that's great, see them punk on the other hand, seem punk on the other hand, he had to try another promotion because of his experience with w W E, his negative experience with w W and at the time he went to a w Vincent Stone charge anyway, so why would he go back to a toxic relationship with that, right And of course if you haven't seen Unreal, we watched you to know that.

36:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's that. That's freaking great, it really is. But that right there not even unreal, just just a hole behind the scenes of how Sam Punk got back. It was the last minute deal. This thing wasn't like etchton Stone before a Survivor series hit. Nobody knew except three people, and one of them was aj So he he and he was hidden behind everything. He got into Gorilla Formation and like wow, seampunk is here. Yep, yeah, it's just he literally signed that contract like ten minutes before. So there was a coming to Jesus moment with Triple H saying listen, we know we messed up.

37:01 Speaker 2: We know this hap happened. We know that happened. This is how it is now. We know there's a lot of wrongs that have been righted and and this is this is what we can offer you. And I think Sampunk came back, but I think he had to try another promotion to see what exactly what it's like outside of w w E before he came back.

37:23 Speaker 3: Right right.

37:25 Speaker 1: I also have a theory, you know that you know that show that CM Punk showed up at. This was when he was on the outs with ae W. He was still under contract, but he he was out with his with his injury.

37:37 Speaker 3: Poor guy, He's had a lot of injuries.

37:39 Speaker 1: But so he was he was away from the promotion and and of course it was an ongoing story that he was at odds with some of the people there and like Jack Perry, and his relationship with Tony Cohn was pretty strange. And then there was that WWE show that he showed up at just to say hi to some people backstage, and yep, and and Vince Scott went and Vince got wind of it and kicked him out. And and by the way, Vince I think was probably right to do that, because Vince does not want to be sued for contract hampering, you know, because if he's aware of the situation, he knows assuming he was aware he knew that cmpunk was still under contract with AEW but having problems, So it's not necessarily a great look that, you know, while still under contract with AEW, Cmpunk is just showing up at a show.

38:23 Speaker 1: But that night, apparently before before Vince gave word that no, you got to get him out of here. We can't have him in the building. Kick him out, he did have a brief interaction with Triple H. I just wonder how that interaction went, because I have this, I have a theory. It's just a theory, I you know, can't base it on anything, But is it possible that part of that introduction Apparently it was very very brief, just kind of saying hello to each other. But I wonder if Punk said something like, you know, to Triple H, hey, you know, someday, when I'm not under contract somewhere else, I'm I like to come back here, you know, just kind of throwing that out there in Triple H may have said something like, hey, you know, if you weren't under contract, we'd love to have you back.

39:08 Speaker 1: Who knows what the future, you know, just something just a brief interaction like that, and they'll know And if that conversation did take place. They'll never admit it, but I just know. But I can't help but wonder if it did.

39:21 Speaker 2: You know, I have my own theory and it's it's it's definitely not wrestling related. So my theory is damn punk walks up to Triple H and it's like, hey, how are you and Stephanie doing? Yeah, we're doing great, and me, you're doing great. Won't get together and have a foursome?

39:42 Speaker 3: Really that's your theory?

39:45 Speaker 1: And yeah, so well, Charles, I mean you're definitely thinking outside the box because I can honestly tell you with all those sincerity that never occurred to me.

40:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure.

40:06 Speaker 3: Yeah. So, uh, what do you watch any a W now? Or do you only watch w W E?

40:14 Speaker 2: It's it's mainly w w E. But you know, I kind of keep tabs on stuff with ae W like I you know, I wouldn't have known about edging Christian. I knew they were feuding with you with with with each other. I think, yeah there was one time Christian hug edge until you know f oh yeah yeah and that's okay, wow, Yeah, but you know, no, I I I kind of keep tabs, like you know, apparently they got something going now, which okay, maybe I might tune in to see what's going on if they're advertised, uh, and and see what what's doing, but I'm I'm primarily w W.

40:48 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll watch any Will Osprey match. Uh and he of course, you know an a W and you know, a big fan of MJF. Haven't kept up, haven't kept up with what they've been doing. But boy, there's so much. There's just so much content now, I mean, and WWE is pumping out more content than ever.

41:06 Speaker 2: Is MJF like part of the hurt cyndykit now with lash Lee in the MVP.

41:13 Speaker 1: From what I saw online, he was, but now he's out. They kicked him out or something, so I don't know, I haven't but that's you know, it's hard though. See that's the other thing with AEW. And this is something where I think Tony Kahn probably has something in common with Vince McMahon that wanting to have full control over creative to the point where you know nothing's being delegated or if it is being well. Obviously in WW events was delegating because he had a full writing team, but then you know he'd end up tearing up the script and rewriting it himself anyway.

41:42 Speaker 1: And I think that you know what aw needs, what Tony Kahn needs is somebody or a team of people who can do what Triple H has done. Recommit to long term, logical storytelling where you can get really invested in these characters, because that's the most important thing. That's what makes w WE, in my opinion, so successful.

42:00 Speaker 3: Now.

42:01 Speaker 1: I've argued to Eric that to me, wrestling is better than it's ever been because there's more, there's more of a focus on long term storytelling. There's surprises, but everything is logical, but also character development. I can't remember ever, and I've been watching since I was a kid, I can't remember ever a time when there was as much character development as we see now and a willingness to make these characters complex and you know they've got levels to them. That's why now you'll see babyfaces fighting with other babyfaces that used to be never a thing, but now you know you can have that, or heels fighting with other heels because the audience has been conditioned to accept these are complex characters and not everything is black and white, and people who are you know, good guys can actually fight with other good guys, and bad guys can actually fight with other bad guys, because you know sometimes in real life that happens, right, So I think aew, if Tony Kahn would just allow somebody who really has a good creative mind, who can do what Triple Ah is done, coming to aw and recommit to long term storytelling, I think they'd be a lot more successful.

43:05 Speaker 1: And they're already pretty successful, let's be honest, but I think they'd be a lot more successful.

43:10 Speaker 2: Yeah, they still have a long way to go. They're still in the baby's, the d the infant stages, maybe even the Toddless stages, but definitely, definitely. I do have a couple of questions because I know we're running out of time here, so I want to I have a couple of questions. Number one, and please assume that I have not heard this on Tough Bumps. Okay, but tell me what was your reaction to Hogan's death.

43:34 Speaker 1: So we tried on Tough Bumps, we tried to present kind of a measured, fair assessment. I mean, I can tell you my personal reaction. When I saw the news alert on my phone, I was kind of numb. It was like Wow, you know, because on one hand, a huge part of my childhood and obviously Hogan a huge part of professional wrestling, something that I'm I'm passionate about, So so it was like, wow, is kind of stunning, But it's also hard to get past because I don't think he ever effectively dealt with it. You know, his racist comments that were recorded during that encounter with Bubba the love Sponges wife, which is still even weird to say, but you know, the just objectively extraordinarily racist, shockingly racist things that he said during that conversation that was recorded, which yeah, he did the whole apology tour and everything, but he never really dealt with the central His comments were very specific and he never dealt with specifically what he was wrestling with no pun intended when expressing himself during that conversation.

44:45 Speaker 1: He never dealt with that specifically, at least not publicly, and a lot of people felt like his apologies were half hearted and insufficient, and he never fully recovered from that, obviously, so we tried to so we tried to be very fair about it, and.

45:02 Speaker 2: To be honest with you, he was apparently, in his private life a very manipulative person because Brooke Hogan, his daughter, called in on Bubba and they haven't spoken in years because of the fallout between Hogan and Bubba. Yeah, and Brooke even said that, hey, my dad told me about the tape and he knew you didn't have anything to do with it. Even though Bubba lost his home, he got fired, everything that laid down, Hogan never came to his defense, even though he admitted to Brooke that, yeah, I know Bubba had nothing to do with it, right, So, just on that alone, I think he was not a good human being.

45:47 Speaker 2: Let's put it that way. Now. Is that justified to say, like, well, thank god he's dead, No, of course not. I mean I think the way he died, there's actually a criminal investigation going on that he may have been murdered.

46:00 Speaker 3: Jenny and I were talking about that earlier.

46:01 Speaker 5: Not murdered, there may be a medical medical.

46:04 Speaker 1: Malpractice yeah, yeah, okay, okay, yeah.

46:09 Speaker 5: Question during a surgery.

46:12 Speaker 4: He had a surgery apparently recently, and there's question as to whether or not his frontic nerve was damaged or severed and restitched or something. And he also had a fib so I guess the combo wasn't too good. And they think that might have actually been what caused his death, in which case it would be a medical practice.

46:32 Speaker 2: Okay, I don't know. There was a police investigation going on. I think it's still going on.

46:39 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's still it's still going on. It's still going on. Yeah, could be wrongful death, who knows.

46:48 Speaker 2: Another question, Matt, how do you feel of Sina's so called heel turn versus face turn? It was that a flop or is that you think was successful?

47:00 Speaker 1: I so, I'm I'm I know, I'm very much in the minority when I say this. I loved, first of all, the heel turn itself was amazing, and I think most people would agree on that. The actual heel turn itself was fantastic. It was so so, so well done. The subsequent him as a heel, the heel version of John Cena. Again, I know, I'm in the minority. I was really enjoying it. I understand why people didn't like that he I think people a lot of people wanted him to be more overtly evil and whatnot, where he actually underplayed it.

47:33 Speaker 1: But I liked it. I thought it was cool. I thought it was very intriguing. I really enjoyed it, and I thought the face turn back seemed a little rushed.

47:42 Speaker 3: What were you gonna say? Oh, yeah, that was so funny. Yeah when he's like, I'm going to ruin wrestling.

47:48 Speaker 5: I loved that.

47:48 Speaker 3: I loved that too.

47:49 Speaker 1: I thought it was cool. I really enjoyed heel John Cena, what did you think?

47:55 Speaker 2: I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed his promos, But it started to get a little repetitive, like he didn't have anything new coming out. It's just kept saying the same thing over and over again. It's just it kind of got repetitive. So I think when Cody finally because you're right, it did feel rushed a little bit. But you saw bits and pieces of good Sena coming out the past few weeks before that, and I think I think they were trying to lead up to it, but obviously they wanted to take the belt off him and put on Cody.

48:30 Speaker 2: So, uh, mister Lesnar can go ahead and a big introduction.

48:35 Speaker 4: Yeah, what do you think about that one coming back?

48:40 Speaker 5: What do you think about Lesner coming back?

48:43 Speaker 2: I love it, I love it. I know I know it was basically it was basically John's wish to go ahead and wrestle Lesnar. That's why he's back. It's it has nothing to do with well, he's gonna draw big money and no, no, he'll he'll draw big money. But that was a request from Sena. Sina wants to get all his adversaries. Yes, it was reported Scena requested Lesna. Yeah, so he wants to fight lesno one more so this retirement tour is basically to get all. If you ever seen Rocky five where it's like, listen, I got to get the beast out of me.

49:18 Speaker 2: I can't hold on. He's trying to get the beast out of literally in this case, he's trying to get the beast.

49:24 Speaker 3: Yeah.

49:25 Speaker 2: But yeah, she should take care of everybody that he needs one more time.

49:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense, which I don't agree.

49:33 Speaker 2: I don't. I don't agree with Logan Paul. Why would he be on that list? I don't. I don't understand that that storyline with one bit.

49:39 Speaker 1: Yeah, Charles, we are approaching the top of the hour, so we got to begin to wrap up.

49:44 Speaker 3: The time goes so quickly.

49:45 Speaker 1: But we should definitely do this more often, my friend, because uh, I always enjoy having you on and uh you know, and anytime you want me to have be on your show, I'd love to do that as well. But I do want to make sure, so where should people go to find not only your show well, but also the show that you do with Josh Zodiac. I want to make sure everyone knows where to go to find your content.

50:07 Speaker 2: So my show Search the Charles Richardson Show on Facebook like my page. All my shows go live on that page from eight to ten pm Monday Wednesday, hopefully both and any interaction or possible topics I may be talking about will be listed there as well. I used as my reference sheet YouTube same thing search Search the Charles Richardson Show. I have a channel with so many subscribers, kidding, but so many subscribers that you can go ahead and do it. It's free for now, but after that it's gonna be twenty nine ninety five.

50:45 Speaker 2: I'm launching my own app with competing against ESPN. The Josh Zodiac Podcast. Same Thing Josh Zodiac podcast on all social media. He is available on podcast on the podcast on iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts, anywhere podcasts are done. You can search that right there and boom it pops up.

51:09 Speaker 1: Fantastic fantastic. Well, Charles, thank you so much, my friend. Like I said, we must do this more often. And I really appreciate you, appreciate you joining us today, and we'll we'll talk again soon, I'm sure.

51:19 Speaker 2: Absolutely. Just have Jenny get in contact with me. I'm able to do it, all right.

51:22 Speaker 1: Sounds great, All right, Charles, try to try to stay cool down there.

51:25 Speaker 3: I know it's hot, so.

51:28 Speaker 1: And we'll talk to you all right, You got it, Thanks, take care all right. That was Charles Richardson from The Charles Richardson Show, and I always love talking to Charles