Field Dispatch
Matt Connarton Unleashed 1-27-24, first hour
Game Plan
You're listening to w n H command God, don't get so greenly Matt south
coving you. Good morning, everybody, Welcome, Happy Saturday. It is
that time again, Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of
w m n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Downtown Manchester, New
Ympshire. Also on Comcast. No, I'm sorry, we're not on comcasts
now yet. We'll be back there though, let's see. But of course
you can stream us online and we're on social media and all of that.
On this still getting used to Saturday in the new Studio, Saturday Morning,
January twenty seven, twenty twenty four. We've got a great show for you,
and I am not alone. Best friend Morning Sunshine. Jenny is here
of course at the news table where, of course this is only I dub
the news desk. There you go, yes, yes, this is only
our second week in the new studio. So here on Canal Street, this
beautiful new studio. Cool. Yeah, it is. No, it's nice
to be in a new environment and very new. Everything's new for at least
very clean. So I love it. It is so it's wonderful, it
is it is wonderful. I do like how bright it is. Not everyone
likes it bright, but I I like it bright. I like it keeps
the neurons in the brain firing, you know what I mean? Yeah,
yeah, exactly exactly. Uh. Let's see. So we've got a great
show for you this morning. We've got our friend Eric Kilchure is going to
be skyping in to talk about his upcoming film reviews and uh and something else
that This has been big news in the last twenty four to forty eight hours.
We'll get into that. And then in the second hour, we've got
After the Winter, Yes, returning they were on a number of months ago.
They've got a brand new single which we're gonna play for you when they're
here, plus some of their other stuff as well. I love those guys.
Really looking forward to what's that No one has parted so it'll be a
world radio premiere. It is it is the World World World premiere. Yeah,
so looking forward to that. And then in the third hour, we're
going to be joined by Gary Lawrence who's coming in singer songwriter, and Tom
Russo is going to be with him, yeah, and we accompanying him.
They're going to uh they're going to do what I think. This is our
first Skype call in the new studio, so hopefully all goes well. Eric,
are you there? Yes, I am. Good morning, Matt,
Good morning, Jenny, good morning. Time we're getting uh wait wait,
oh, maybe it went away sometimes with with Skype, it goes away,
Jenny talk. When it was when you were talking that I heard of I
was talking, I heard an echo. Okay, it's fine, it's better.
It cleared up. Yeah, Skype is weird like that. Sometimes it
sounds like there's something like there's a problem in the very beginning, and then
it clears up after after ten seconds. You ever noticed that, Eric,
Sometimes it's wonky right at the start, but then it clears right up.
That's one of the drawbacks I have with Skype, honestly. But it could
have also been that I have the show on my iPad, ah, and
I might not have gotten the audio killed on the iPad right Billy, Oh
nope, it's gone again. I thought it was there again. No,
I don't. I don't hear it. No, it sounds sounds fine,
sounds good, sounds good. Uh. Let's see, so before we uh,
before we get into anything, I do want to mention too, the
studio line is open. Eric is with us via Skype, so we do
have a studio line open if anyone wants to chime in on the discussion that
we're gonna have in the first hour. Uh the six O three two five
six seven is the studio line. Six oh three two five six seven.
By the way, while I'm thinking about it too, we almost had Vermin
Suprema on as a guest last week. He tried calling in, but unfortunately
someone I won't say who, Uh, we'll just uh say it was John
Hopwood gave him the wrong Uh. No, we love John, but John
gave him the wrong times. He thought I was on noon to three.
So that's because uh so Jenny and I are sitting here after the show and
you know, uploading the show and everything, and uh, the studio line
was ringing and the caller idea just said wireless caller. It didn't have a
name on it. Found out later it was actually Vermin Supreme trying to call
into the show. But uh, anyway, but you can call us we
are live of course, if you call us while we're live every Saturday morning
from nine am to noon Eastern time, six o three two five o six
seven six three two five six seven. You can also text me at six
one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at
Matt Connerton and uh, of course you can always email me Matt at Matt
connorton dot com. But the best thing to do so that we can hear
and enjoy your dulcet tones is to give us a call at six O three
two five oh six oh seven. And I do want to say hello everybody
in the Facebook live chat just quickly here our faithful uh faithful live listeners here,
we've got Riley King joins us and says, good morning. The new
studio looks nice. Yes, Facebook is working for us this week, so
you can actually see. We just have the one camera, but you can
you can kind of get a get a glimpse, get a vibe of the
new studio here on Canal Street. Eric Pilcher, I see you're in there,
of course. Uh. Melanie Liberty and Jay Fed from the great state
of Vermont join us. Ronda Faverro says, joining, Uh this very early
morning from California. Yeah, it's like six am there, Yes, yes,
very early. We appreciate that. Run. Thank you so much.
Hans Smith from the band Sepsis joins us and says, hey Metal, Matt,
Hello, Eazy g. Eric Gagnan says, are you ready for the
Royal Rumble? Yes, that is today. I know someone who isn't.
That's right, that's right, Yeah, no, uh no, Vinnie Mack.
Yeah, Well we'll talk about that in a moment. We should also
mention Eric, of course your Classic Film Reviews that's going to be returning shortly,
and we should talk about what you have planned for for February. Yeah.
You know, for the past two years, Uh, I've done We've
done for Black History Month of course, African Americans and cinema. Last year
we had it was an interesting month with some of the films that were chosen.
Uh, this month, we're going to be a bit more We're gonna
be a little bit more low key about it. I don't think there's anything
that's going to generate the uh, generate the response that Shaft and Superfly did.
Oh that's right. Yes, that that was interesting. Yes, not
everyone thought that those were necessarily the best selections, and but it facilitated some
really interesting discussion that came out of that. Yeah. But so this month.
Starting next week February third, we are going to complete the trilogy,
so to speak, uh of the urban youth films with John Singleton's Boys in
the Hood. Year one, we did the Hughes Brothers Menace to Society.
Last year we did Juice. This year we are going to do Boys in
the Hood, which I've always said is probably the glossier of the three.
Still a powerful film, And by saying that, I'm not trying to diminish
the power of that movie, but it does have a very big after school
special vibe. Then then for February tenth, we are I will be covering
Coming to America, the Eddie Murphy film one and two or Just One,
Just one, love that movie. Just One. Yeah. I haven't seen
the second one, and based on what people have told me, I don't
know if I will. I liked it, I didn't like I didn't like
the first one. I've never loved the first one. I don't think that
I don't think the first one is funny. I've never understood why people like
you're liking Street Zone this morning. You don't think anything is funny. I'm
just you aren't he woke up. Yeah, Yeah, it's trying to ning
jokes and he just sits there. What if anything? The cast is amazing
in that film, sent and a lot of them come back for the second
one. Eddie Murphy, Ursineo Hall, James Earl Jones. I thought John
Amos is in it, and like I mean John Amos. Uh he played
the adult Kunta Kintaian roots and just an amazing perform in my opinion, he
had the second best performance in that entire mini series after Ben Vereen is Chicken
George. But uh then week three, Uh, we will be covering Hustle
and Flow. Ah. Yes, that that that's a personal favorite of mine.
I don't think I've ever seen it. Quick, quick, quick side
note about Hustle and Flow. Uh that that's one of those few movies that
I had a visceral, very positive reaction at the end of it. I
just remember, at the very end, you'll you'll know what you haven't seen
it, Jenny, so you won't know. But uh, the the final
scene, the final line of dialogue in the film left me with a big
smile on my face when I watched it. I just loved it the end.
My favorite memory of that film is hearing an old white guy have to
say the song title, It's hard out here for a p right one,
best original song, Yep, yep, that's right, that's right. Yeah.
And then we are going to wrap it up with Spike Lee's film about
this will probably be one of the more controversial choices of the month, Bamboozled,
which is a comedic look at the history of blackface and cinema. When
did that come out, Eric, Because I'm not even somehow that got by
me. Bamboozled came out in nineteen ninety eight, Okay, yeah, I
wasn't even aware of it until you mentioned it recently. It's like, oh,
that's that's interesting. Actually, I'm I'm wrong. Came out in two
thousand. Okay, well close, close. But you know, we do
live in an era. We live in a time where sometimes politicians get in
trouble because something will be unearthed or even or even other celebrities, you know,
of a picture of them making a poor choice in that vein you know,
when they were when they were younger and foolish, or or perhaps they
just assumed that, you know, maybe maybe they were photographed in blackface in
a time when they didn't you know, they couldn't have foreseen the Internet and
that those things would come back to haunt them, and we've we've seen instances
of that. So that's a very so actually, yeah, that sounds like
a very interesting film. Yeah, and you know it, I do remember
when it came out, a lot of Spike Lee got a lot of backlash
because he added comedic elements ye to the film and a lot of people are
like, well, how dare you make joke of this? And it's like,
well, I mean, in a way, he in a way,
he's making a joke at the at the people that felt blackface would be okay,
Right, That's what I assume. I'm not having seen it, but
yeah, when you say that there's humor in a yeah, I assume he
pokes fun at the the people who are ignorant enough to think that that was
okay. And you know, in a way, yes, he does poke
fun at the performers that the African American performers that accepted it as well.
But you wouldn't expect anything less from Spike Lee, right of course. So
I yeah, I mean that that to me is just people that don't understand
the history of blackface and cinema looking for a reason to complain and Spike Lee
right wrong or indifferent has made a lot of enemies throughout his career. So
I mean he could direct, Uh, he could direct a g rated movie
and people are going to be detractors against it. Sure, but yeah,
no, I look forward to hearing that review and I'd like to check out
that film that that sounds great. So that's the Uh, that's the plan
for February. Excellent. Yes, that is the plan for February, and
it'll be the format will be a lot like what we did with George A.
Romero. I want to have like interviews with uh the creators and actors
really give a behind the scenes look at these films. Yeah, I like
that. I'm sorry good. Oh no, I wasn't gonna say anything.
Oh okay, I think I was hearing my I think I was hearing a
little bit of you know, skypeing Skype. I was hearing a little bit
of echo of myself, and I thought it was you. No. I
Uh, I was just going to say, I like the way that your
reviews have evolved, and uh, I think they're really good to you know,
it's a very popular feature here on the show. To begin with but
but I think the way they've evolved is outstanding. Yeah, and I'm I
mean John Hopwood was the one that actually kind of led to the evolving because
he's like, they listened to hear your analysis of the film, and I'm
and in my head, I'm like, well, yeah, I get that,
but there's only so much I can say. But there is a lot
that the creators of the film and the actors and actresses can say. And
that's what really kind of led me to trying it and it worked out.
Yeah, especially a guy that was as open as George A. Romero was
in talking about his films. Right, absolutely, absolutely excellent, very good.
I want to say hello to USh Armaine Davis Elliott, another loyal listener
in the Facebook laugh chat. Good morning. Also just to quickly address something
Melanie mentioned, as she said in the chat, uugh, So no politics
ever, we're not doing so just so everyone knows, just I won't get
into the details of of why I explained it once before and but so we're
not doing politics on this iteration of the program anymore here on w M and
H where we're just focusing on other things on Saturday mornings. But Melanie and
those of you who are interested in the subject, keep an eye on social
media because we have something separate from from the station that that we're going to
be working on. Jenny and I and of course Eric you'll be participating,
and some other people as well. So but we just in this venue.
We won't be discussing politics on the show, but we've got we've got something
else cooking. It's a lot nicer is to just have what we're doing.
To me, it's more exciting because we're getting to see so many local musicians
and artists. And I never realized that how many little gems and jewels there
are in the city, like the Mosaic Art Collective. Yeah, would You
wouldn't know unless you heard that it was there, and then you go there
and you're like, oh, let's play. This is awesome. So I'm
loving that. I feel like we've just barely started to scratch the surface of
what we're gonna find as we go along. Melanie says, all right,
but mama isn't happy. I know, Tell Mama, tell mama, good
things are coming. Don't worry. We have we have, we have,
we have a lot to say on the subject, just not just not here,
we're gonna keep this uh away from the uh from the dirty business of
politics. But speaking of dirty business, to clean your arrow with something good
every once. And that's true. Yeah, that's true. That is about
to get dirty up. Well, let's uh, let me give the studio
line and then we'll we'll get into uh yeah, and then we are going
to shift gears six O three two five six seven six O three two five
o six o seven. Now on the on the positive end of this,
uh what we're what we're going to uh because it's actually so the really the
really bad news that has been going on, uh that that broke within the
last twenty four hours actually is follows really good news for of course WWE.
They've got their new deal with Netflix, which will begin in January. If
that doesn't get if it doesn't right, that could be in jeopardy now.
Although I although I don't, I don't think so. I don't think so.
Yeah, but no, all right, I won't say anything more yet.
Oh I'm sorry, Jenny. I didn't mean no, no, no,
I meant I didn't want to go to jump ahead too far. Dave
Meltzer actually yesterday talked about this on the Observer Radio and the Netflix deal is
done. There's an understanding that Netflix knew that something more was probably going to
come out. Really Yeah, see, I wonder about that because Slimjym just
pulled their sponsorship. They put a pause overnight. Yeah and yeah, but
I assume they're going to unpositive now, well, yeah, I don't know
today's the event. I mean, we're talking about WrestleMania. No where are
we talking about Royal Rumble? Thank you? I have my name is mixed
up, So that's supposed to happen today's Slimson was the big sponsor. Now
they're like, I don't know about this, So their logos off some stuff
and we'll have to wait until tonight to see whether or not they end up
coming out of it or not. But if they don't, I don't think
that's a positive sign for the Netflix steal. I think the Netflix steal will
be will be fine. I think, Uh, the positive part of the
Netflix deal is it's not set to start for another year, right right,
and realistically, Like I'm gonna try to be delicate here, but it's early
and the rock star hasn't taken hold. Is this really shocking to anyone?
Yeah, not shocking that he has done heinous things is as far as women
are concerned. But how bad it is, how depraved it is, Yeah,
that's that's pretty As a woman, I'm I just feel horribly sick the
more I hear, Well, let me just okay, So I wanted to
the Netflix steal. For anyone who doesn't know, it's what is it?
I think it's uh, it's like, uh, five billion dollars or something.
It's an outrageous some of them for ten years, which is unheard of
usually these kind of any year. Netflix. By the way, they took
a pay cut. They're making less money to be on Netflix, are they
doesn't work out to less money up front? Yes, oh okay. I
don't understand why they're doing these multiple platforms. I mean part of the special
pay per views are on Peacock, the SmackDown is on Hulu. Well you
get more un raw is on Well you get more money that way. On
all these different as somebody who supposed to fans of the show are having to
run in chase to find all the different iterations. This should be in one
place. That'll never happen. It's particular. It used to be that way.
It used to be one place. Now you don't know where to go
to watch anything. And then there's gonna be a couple of months or so
that Rod just has nowhere to live. When the Netflix steal goes into effect,
the network will move to Netflix, right I did read that. Yes,
so all of the network content, including the premium live events will be
on housed on Netflix. SmackDown is moving to USA, yeah, and NXT
is moving to the CW. Really there's another one. Yeah, yeah,
Well, Hans in the chat room says we are in the biggest streaming wars
ever before. He's right. Everybody's scrambling for the same content, which is
good for the content makers, that's for certain. Well, they've they've been
a very lucky company, WWE, because they signed so when they signed their
last set of TV rights steals, it was right before it was shortly before
the pandemic. Ye, and of course no one foresaw what was coming,
but they signed what at that point were their biggest television rights steals ever.
Had that not happened, I don't know how that company would have survived the
pandemic because that was so those deals were worth so much money that that's what
kept them afloat. Really, I mean, they probably would have survived anyway,
but it would have been a lot tougher. So they were very,
very lucky. Well, it helped that DeSantis made them all special, they
could actually work in Florida, and then they did smart with all the different
cameras that they had where people could end up being one of the heads.
Yeah. I thought that was actually a good idea. Yeah, they actually
ripped that off from the NBA. Really, I remember that NOWBA did that
for the their playoff bubble and wwe just kind of ripped it off. But
I mean the NBA is just like, well, it isn't proprietary, and
you know, we're we're trying to run our playoffs in a compound in Florida.
This is somethings that just don't work with on an audience crowd, you
know. I mean, it doesn't hit you the same when somebody flips somebody
and there's nothing in the background schearing it on. The NBA didn't really really
care. But the rumor, and it's a rumor, is that ESPN didn't
really care for it, and that's what really kind of led toes. Everyone
one's asked, well, why did an ESPN jump in on the new rights
deal. ESPN was pretty much there's been things WWE is done in ESPN's just
like, yeah, we're not doing it right. Well, it's always a
little awkward anyway for Ears. I know that at various times they've had different
segments and WWE content, but it's always a little bit awkward I think for
ESPN because it's you know, there's always going to be a segment of not
only a segment of their audience, which has dwindled over the years. I
know ESPN's had a lot of problems, but also too, I'm sure there's
a lot of people within that company who are like, huh, why do
we have to Why are we doing this fake stuff? This isn't real sports?
Why are we getting involved in this? You know what I mean.
I'm sure there's people in that in that company who really are resistant to doing
anything with wrestling. So but well, and also keep in mind that one
of their top personality has been very, very outspoken against WWE Jonathan Coachman.
Yeah, yeah, I saw I saw an interview that he did. Uh
yeah, he was very critical. It was so yeah, I so ESPN,
I mean, people, there are people in the Chad who may not
care or too young to remember this. ESPN was the first cable company to
have pro wrestling on its network. They had the aw A. Yeah,
that's what kept the awa aflow for much longer than any of the other territories
that Vince put out a business because they had the ESPN deal. They had
they had one hour a day on ESPN from three to four. What an
odd time, thought, So yeah, it kept them afloat for the longest
time. Wasn't wasn't, come to think of it, wasn't world Class Championship
Wrestling also on ESPN or ESPN two during the during the eighties. No world
Class was not World Class was simulcast by the sports network because I saw it.
I know my I know the cable system uh my family had when I
was a kid. Somehow I was able to see World Class because the the
theme song is forever etched in my memory. That the the the oh yeah,
it's like it's it's stuck in my brain forever. Yeah. I believe
they were a part of TSN. Okay, not a national sports network or
national cable network. I mean in ESPN, wasn't the first Obviously TBS and
TBS was with World Championship Wrestling. But outside of TBS and Turner, ESPN
took They needed content in their early days, and AWA already had filmed programming.
So what's the best way to get content, Well, programming you don't
have to pay production costs for all you have to pay is for rights to
broadcast, and that's all ESPN had to pay. But that kept the AWA
afloat for their final I would say two and a half three years that in
vern constantly milking the equity of his Lakes Lakes lake front home in Minnesota,
ver Gania. One other interesting thing about the Netflix steel I was reading too
that I didn't know initially is it Apparently there's a couple of five year options
worked into it. So, for example, at a at the five year
point, it's a ten year deal. But at the five year mark,
if Netflix isn't happy about anything, they can exercise an option to kick WWE
to the curb. And at the end of the ten years they have a
five year option where they can they can extend Netflix as the option to extend
for another five years at the same rate. I think they were released smart
about this, making it a fifteen year deal if they want to. What's
really shocking about this, and this wouldn't have happened if Vince was in control.
As much as I loathe and detest that man since an infamous November night
in nineteen ninety seven, this deal wouldn't have been made Evince was in charge
because it is a very very friendly deal to Netflix. Everyone sees five billion
dollars, but it's for theoretically a ten year period. WWE has to handle
all production and that's a very key part of the deal. The Netflix doesn't
incur any production costs and what you said, they can extend it and opt
out of it. Yeah, so it's a very friendly deal to Netflix,
which leads me to believe that WWE wasn't getting the offers they felt were were
worth it, or that they felt were fair, which I believe is due
to all of this Vince McMahon's stuff, and once again chalks up to his
ego and selfish nature as a businessman, And I get it. All CEOs
have to have an ego and all of this other stuff. Fine, cool,
but there's a difference between self ego and when your ego hurts the company,
and that's what it's done for the last two years. To WWE,
they are a damaged product because of Vince is the ego, and then there's
sadism. Seriously, yeah, I mean this is beyond anything. Well let
me just let me just say about that before we before we go any further
too. So for anyone who hasn't been following, obviously, because of the
venue that we're in and the time of day and several different factors, we're
not going to go in any details here about what Vince the allegations against him
are specifically, but you can certainly if you're not aware. I mean at
this point, I mean, this is you know, it's pretty big news.
If you just google the name Vince McMahon, Uh, it will come
up. There's a there's a what's that? Or Janelle Grant or Janelle Grant.
Yes, there's a very detailed article in the Wall Street Journal that is
uh that I would recommend if if people want something really in depth or or
I'm sorry, what Wall Street Journal has a paywall? Oh that's true,
that's true. Well, well, if you just go into Google News,
and sometimes Google News has an entire page of nothing but articles about this,
and multiple articles are going into great detail. I it's easy just to use
it broader term, especially because we don't want anybody to say anything on air
that could upset anybody to say that it's it's pretty sadistic and pretty bad.
And you know, if you do have younger ones who are wrestling fans,
you might want to watch their news feeds because this is pretty bad. And
I know you wouldn't want your young ones reading about the things that he is
accused of doing. And it's like in I as I'm gonna say as just
as a man, not even as a heterosexual male, just a man in
general. And I say heterosexual male because I date women and I may not
understand them, but I do understand how they should be treated. And as
a man, it's disgusting to me and it makes me ashamed too, at
the least be a man. And then secondly to be a pro wrestling fan.
Well, and let me just let me just say again for people who
don't know, if you haven't been paying attention, you know, Vince wash
he's been accused prior you know, the second harassment and pain, hush money
and and all kinds of things. But what what has come to light in
the past twenty four hours. Is is far beyond it's it's far beyond that.
I mean, I'll use a little bit of coded language, but you
know, if I if I say things like misconduct or assault or even criminal
or even yeah, either criminal level or or even or even the term trafficking.
Again, Uh, go ahead and assume some of the worst. It's
that bad, and it and it's and it's all. It's all very shocking,
and even assuming the worst, you're selling it short. Yeah, it's
it's I'm I'm stunned. I'm I'm truly stunned. I want to I do
want to add, though, there are some text messages of evidence from McMahon
to Janelle that are absolutely undeniable. Just yeah, undeniable the things that he
uh says my cousin saying about those messages, Jenny and I said, you
know, in my college days, I I you know, you get into
the frat boy mentality. And I'm sorry to say, but this does exist
in our society a lot more than people realize it does. I'm not excusing
the behavior when I say frat boy mentality either, and I hope no one
thinks that I think that. Minimum don't get sucked into that, and I'm
like, I've said some things that when after I've sent the text or I've
said it, I cringe. I'm like, this is so bad that I
don't feel bad for the cringe stuff I've said. There. There is this
exist existence out there, and we've we've heard more stories over the last probably
six months of women being found chained to floors, women being found in boxes,
hidden away. That element does exist in our society. And when it's
somebody like this who has so much power and so much public notoriety, it
it's uncovering some of the darkest parts of our society that have existed since mankind,
and unfortunately that has it's that's just men usurping women, telling your that
happens. And when it's somebody like this is so powerful, he's and and
he's quoted as saying things to her in the very beginning, like I don't
want you to just be an employee. I want to I want you to
have a better life. Here, we should we should point out because you
mentioned the very beginning, Yes, the way this all started was apparently this
is a this is actually this is a yes, this is this is a
very important part of the story because apparently, and there's a pattern with him
too with this. Apparently she was down on her life. She's far from
the first woman to ever have a jugative. Yeah, she was down on
her luck. She was struggling financially. She had parents who had just died.
She was their full caregiver. Yep. So she was homeless, so
she was well, she was living. Apparently she was living in an apartment
building where Vince also rented an apartment, so she was Eventually he moved her
and gave her a place to live. She didn't have a place. He
und a luxury car. Yeah yeah, so yeah, so he he took
advantage of her. So he would do things like when he was going to
be around her, he would be, you know, coming out of the
shower and a towel, Oh, give me a hug, give me a
hug, Let me give you a kiss, doing things like this to slowly
groomer in, groomer in, and then you would you know, and then
go from there. And it happens in what they're talking about, and what
happens in situations of abuse like this is called trauma bonding, where somebody is
groomed and traumatized in such a way that they feel entrapped and caged by the
other individual that they can't get out, that there is no way out,
and it's it's devastating, and it takes what little self esteem you might have
had left away and you become a puppet in that person's hands. I read
something in the Daily Mail articles and the Daily Mail probably was the most in
depth because they're in the United Kingdom and they don't fall under rules of what
you can't print, what you can't print like we do. One of the
one of the disturbing parts is that he paid for surgery, cosmetic surgery for
her. Yeah, and it's not just it's the it's the bleeding up to
that. It's Oh, I want to get this for you. Oh this
would make that better. You know where they groom. He pushes her in,
push her in, push her in. No, I'll cover everything,
I got everything. Oh, you're going to be so beautiful with this.
It's not like, hey, I'm gonna get this for you. She just
jumps in. There's a process to this where that control takes over and she
loses control of her own life and becomes a puppet into his hands. While
simultaneously purchasing her silence as well, exactly exactly, And he's done this numerous
there's this past. He has a history, a proven history. There's multiple
instances, incidents, excuse me, of him paying hush money to women.
And you know, I mean, this is it's not sadly, it's not
a secret. And there have been other people implicated in this. Yeah,
And it reminds me of the story years ago about the airplane the airplane story
that the airplane ride from Hell? Yep? Isn't that what it was called?
The plane ride from Hell? Yeah? Yeah, and that involved particular
wrestler that's coming back up again too, Rock Rock Lesner. Well, also,
let's look at the fact that I mean, I just recently watched the
Dark Side of the Ring episode on that and interesting, I watched that one
too, Rick Flair. Let I mean borderline I mean, or, depending
on your opinion, at the very least, it was borderline sexual assault is
what he's accused of. You look at the guys that were fired from that
plane ride. Rick Flair wasn't one of them. Rick Flair wasn't even fine.
This is no. Lesnar wasn't fine. The big, the big stass
got to walk away with their little fun and games and suffer no consequences.
Therefore be told, there's nothing wrong with that behavior, right. You know
what I'm saying is that's the atmosphere that Vince perpetrate. I mean, let's
and it was acceptable, though. You got to put this in Put this
in the context of the era. Okay, it was acceptable for men to
rule over women in the office space. That was normalized behavior. I used
to do agency work years ago, and I got sent to a lawyer's office
and I was supposed to answer his phone, you know, type any letters
he needed. And he called me into his office and had me come over
to his desk. He wanted to supposedly show me something, and then he
proceeded to put his hand on my leg and started to rise it up,
to which I jumped aside, left, never went back, and got fired
because I refused to go back. But it was normalized. I mean,
they were saying things to me like, oh, it's he's just he's just
he's just a little freshy, no big deal. You know, don't you
want the job, don't you want money, don't you want to eat?
I mean, that's what's over your head right control. Yeah, Well there's
a more broadly too. There's there's the element of uh, if you are
the more powerful you are, the less likely you are to face any accountability.
Right. So again with you know, the more the more powerful people
on the plane ride, the more important they were, the less likely they
were to face any sort of punishment for their behavior. I was disgusted to
hear about that when I heard about that with brock Lesner. Now that these
new allegations are coming out with him, it's even worse for me. And
I'm wondering if that's why we really haven't seen him out there as much as
we were. You know, maybe they knew this was coming, so to
speak. He was supposed to return tonight. Well it happens, I would
assume it's not going to It's up in the air. They want um Jim
back they brought they better not bring him in. I don't think that's going
to help them with any of their sponsors if they have any named individuals showing
up on screen. I mean, the issue they run into the unfortunately,
and this is the evil business side of this. Brock Lesner's contract is fully
guaranteed, and what do you mean, I mean there's no outclause WWE has
about that. They don't have a behavior clause like they did with You don't
think there's some kind of behavior clause in there after all the things they've gone
through. I mean no, I mean, if they've never had one before,
I doubt they had one when they re signed him. I mean,
they were still under Vince's control when they resigned him. And I will say
this about Brock Lesnar As of right now, it's only allege. There isn't
any proof that Brock did anything. There isn't any text messages from Brock or
anything that I've seen. It's all secondhand accounting from Vince. And I mean,
I'm sure there's evidence if he's named, but the evidence hasn't been put
out there against him, is what I will say. Yeah, I think
he's referred to in documents as a former UFC champion. Evince was trying to
resign, so that that narrows it down pretty quickly. My prediction is we
do not see him again. I don't think we see rock Lesser again.
I mean, I would agree with that, but again, that's just another
example of Vince hurting the business. Because now i mean, you're going to
at the very least because you're gonna owe him some money for doing absolutely nothing.
But what's really interesting about this is the victim Janelle Griant, sorry the
alleged victim, because it's all allegations right now, is she said she was
promised three million on this NDA, but she only got one million of it
when all of this started. It was due to in the books, this
was listed as a three million dollar NDA payout. My thing is, where's
the other two million? If you have three million listed as a payout,
where's the other two This is where Vince could be in some major legal issues
if the FTC wants to get involved, because that was information given to shareholders.
That's defrauding your shareholders. That is a white collar felony. Wasn't there
some kind of investigation going on anyway with the FDC or the SEC or somebody
launched an investigation headed by Stephanie McMahon Levac, which very interestingly enough, they
never contacted Janelle Graham. I know I read that. That was shocking to
me. Like Stephanie McMahon who got on her pedestal and they had the all
women's pay per view and said things like women have been marginalized in our sport
for so long, mainly by your father who had a woman get on all
fours in her undergarments and bark like a dog on national TV. But that's
in the past, and just put herself as a champion for women in pro
wrestling, and you know, and she was one of them that changed the
women's tournament from the fabulous Mullah Invitational to the May Young Invitational because of the
allegations against Mulah. And it's like, Wow, what a load of crap.
If you cared so much about women's rights, Stephanie McMahon, if you
really cared as much as you say, the first phone call you would have
made while you were in charge of that investigation would have been to Janelle Grant
or at the very least her legal representatives. You made none of the above
you investigated, But to be fair, she did question her father and John
Moronidis. Yeah. So yeah. Honestly, I think the only recourse for
WWE and Endeavor is they got to cut ties with anyone that with Vince and
anyone that was attached to Vince during this time or came back when Vince did
his hostile takeover to come back right before the sale of the company. Well,
from what I've read, that's their plan, right Ari Emmanuel says,
we're gonna We're gonna get rid of anybody who knew. Anybody who knew anything
about this. Anybody who was involved, you know at all, is out
of here, is gone, which I think is what they should do.
You know, any anybody who knew about it and kept their mouth shut,
and and you know they they should be gone. Get rid of them,
get them out of there. Absolutely agree this. This is disgusting stuff.
And this is if you look into the history of the wwe WWF and I
don't mean the company with the pay and the bear right, there's a history
of this stuff, not just with Vince, but with Vince's underlings. Pat
Patterson for many years has been accused of sexually harassing male wrestlers, male ring
attendant, the Ring Boys scandal. Yep, nothing ever happened. Fabulous Mulah,
who Vince loved a death, accused of heinous things. There's a dark
side to the ring about things she did to these women that were absolutely horrible
and detestable. This is not one man, This is a culture and when
it's a culture, you gotta tear out the foundation, bulldoze the house and
rebuild it. And I'm sorry if you know there's some big name guys that
are involved in WWE right now. Uh, Paul Levec formerly known as Triple
H. If he knew of any of this, gone, Sean Michaels hbk
runs NXT. If he knew of this, he's gone. Undertaker who's a
brand ambassador. He knew about this, Kick Rocks dead Man. I hope,
yes, I hope none of those guys knew anything about him. Nick
Con. I think Nick CON's gone. Really, Nick Kahn, as Vince's
right hand man for many, many, many many years, being groomed to
take over for Vince, didn't know any of this. There's absolutely no way
with knowing that. How close Vince McMahon keeps his inner circle, there is
no way that this is Nick Con had no idea, right. I don't
know how much he knew, but if he knew it was going If you
knew it was going on and you said nothing, you're complicit in the act.
I agree with you there. I agree with you there. This is
awful, it's horrible, and it's reprehensible. And what sucks to me the
most is that this is the worst that's going to happen to Vins because of
this, if we go back in the annals of history, the pain and
suffering he has caused. And I said this in a private chat to both
you and Jenny and a couple others. You know, the families of the
family of Owen Heart, Nancy Argent, who Jimmy Superfly Snooker murdered Invins allegedly
more than likely bribed law enforcement in Allentown, Pennsylvania to keep it under wraps.
On down the line, Vern Gania, Sam Munchick, the lives he
ruined, superstar Billy Graham, the bodies of the wrestlers whose blood, broken
bones, damaged joints that his billion dollar empire was built on. They're sitting
there and I can only imagine they're saying, it sucks what he did.
But what have we been telling you? Uh uh interesting, Yeah, what
have been saying? Look at what this man did to me, Look at
what he did to my life. Look like this is a pattern of abuse,
not just on females. And I am not trivializing what he did here,
No, God, no, we're all horrified. But you look at
it, at the abuse of his employees that he put through. You're hurt.
Here, here's some pills, go out and do your job right.
Well, I'm sorry, go ahead, Eric. It's just it's sad that
it's took this woman to go through the absolute horrors she went through for people
to finally realize what a degenerate, egomaniacal, scumbag, detestable human being Vincent
Kennedy McMahon really is. Yeah, absolutely, no, it is. It's
it's quite shocking, and it's it's just awful. Well, Eric, we
uh, we gotta start to wrap up. We're gonna be crossing into the
second hour. We've got a great band coming in after the winter. But
uh, but I appreciate you joining us this morning to talk about this.
You know, it really is uh And I I really, Jenny, I
want to thank you for adding, you know, a personal element to it,
because you know, I don't know if you picked up on this.
I am a guy. Really, yeah, I can't give the female perspective
on it, no, So yeah, I mean, I I really think,
I mean, I think it's a discussion that could go any longer and
I really it is some things that aren't for morning radio. Oh some of
these details, I mean, this isn't for Matt Connorton unsheathed. Oh yeah,
like like like I said earlier, if you you know, if you
want to know the details, or if you're or I should say this too,
for anyone who's hearing this and just and thinking that it's you know,
just more sexual harassing there and agree with whatever I mean. I mean,
that's uh, that's I will personally invite any of the listeners to direct message
me and I can send them the Daily Mail articles. Yeah. No,
what what I what I wanted to say is for anyone who's just kind of
assuming that you know, this is more just more of the same that has
already come out, it's uh, which was bad enough, No, this
is this is far worse. To really understand the evil that Vince was involved
in, you've gotta you've you've got to see, uh, you've got to
read these articles. Like I said, you know, this was this would
this is not the appropriate place to get into the details of that. But
but but if you're but for anyone who's doubting or sort of downplaying it in
your own mind or or even if you've got like an old school sort of
uh, you know, misogynistic, Oh, boys will be boys type of
Look look look into this and you'll you'll rea aize pretty quickly. This is
this is really really bad. And all of this has come out within the
last like forty eight hours or so publicly, like I mean, it was.
It's beyond shocking, it's disgusting, it's evil, it's cool, it's
statist. It's shocking as heck that this is what's been going on all these
years. I just thought of this, and what disturbs me the most is
that this will eventually go away. Now, Janelle Grant will get money out
of this, but definitely non dollar amount that can redeem her mental redeem her
mental state, yeah, redeem her feeling of self self worth, redeem what
Vince McMahon allegedly took away from her. Yep, they're just therapy, I
mean, amberenda. A lot of credit goes out to her to have the
courage to say, exactly, Jenny, to say, you know what,
No, there's gonna be good that comes out of this, because what I'm
gonna do is I'm going to help people in the same position she has said
that that. That's oh absolutely, there's a really great article about her saying
that and trying to make a space for other women to come forward. I
mean she's given details and things that people have suffered through similar types of things
but never talked about it publicly. She's opening that door and starting those discussions.
And that's where we've got to begin to make things like this stop,
right, And I mean where it all starts is Matt, you hit it
on the head. We got to get rid of the old boy's mentality.
Yep, in every aspect of society. Yes, very much. So it's
getting there. We're getting there. We can't. Boys will be boys is
no more when it comes to this. That's that's what got Janelle Janelle Grant
there in the first place. Is so many people say, no, it's
Vince being Vince. Well yeah again, tell that to Janelle Grant in his
litany of other victims, both of uh sexual misdeeds and other misdeeds. Right,
all right, we gotta we gotta go. Eric. Thank you so
much, my friend, and we look forward to your film review next week.
Yes, yes, I look forward to doing it, and thank you
for having me. Matt. Nice discussing with you and Jenny as always.
Oh, thank you, We appreciate you, my friend. Have a good
day, guys, all right, Eric to take care, Bye bye.
All right. That was our friend Derek Pilcher is After the Winter. I
assume they're in the building, all right, So we're so we're gonna take
a break. We're gonna play this track Breadcrumbs, that I think we had
featured the last time they're here. We're gonna save the news single for when
they're when they're in the room with us, and we'll give that a listen.
But we're gonna take a break. We're gonna play this track. We're
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