Wrestling with Charles Richardson | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: So what's the podcast that you're doing. Tell us about it. The wrestling podcast.

0:04 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.

0:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, but but he does 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 p l E or other wrestling rumors, like we talked about Hogan, we talked about and Cross and Scarlett not being resigned, 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 how long?

1:18 Speaker 2: The show is maybe two?

1:19 Speaker 1: Not?

1:20 Speaker 2: Well you talk about several topics.

1:23 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. So then the main event will be whatever it is, like like this past weekend, the main event was aw kind of the history of ae W. So we kind of we kind of do it that way.

1:54 Speaker 1: But I mean that's but that's another great thing about podcasting too, is you know you can do it anyway you.

1:59 Speaker 3: Want to this.

2:00 Speaker 1: 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 wanna, however you want to do it. I feel like you 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.

2:20 Speaker 2: No, I've actually just recently come on to his UHS 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 co 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.

2:45 Speaker 1: Oh cool, Okay, I may I may have heard of him elsewhere then I might have h I might have seen something of Eric, might even know him.

2:51 Speaker 2: I don't know.

2:52 Speaker 1: No, that's very cool, that's very cool. And and and then so when do the whe doer the new episodes come out? When should people look for him?

2:59 Speaker 2: Is it two a week Sunday? It's it's just it's just one a week. Usually they drop on Sunday. Okay, he is. We're taking September off and then we're gonna ramp up afterwards, 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.

3:26 Speaker 3: The Survivor series two nights one night.

3:28 Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I think they're all going to two nights. Crying out loud. That's what w W 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 you're already firing up and everything. How about giving the fans a break?

3:50 Speaker 3: Huh yeah, it is.

3:52 Speaker 2: Uh, it's just crazy.

3:53 Speaker 4: I am not buying ESPN. No, I am not buying it. They can pound stand.

3:58 Speaker 3: I'm done. Well, I already have.

4:00 Speaker 4: I got I got Netflix to watch raw, I got Peacock to watch pl E's I got. You know, I gotta go to empty different places to watch stuff to begin with. I'm done.

4:11 Speaker 3: I'm not chasing them to ESPN.

4:14 Speaker 2: Sand Well, so I heard that if you are subscribed to ESPN, do your linear cable subscription. I think you're covered. Yeah.

4:26 Speaker 3: No, I don't do cable.

4:27 Speaker 1: We cut the We cut the court a long time ago. Yeah, we don't have cable we cut the cord a long time ago.

4:32 Speaker 2: Ridiculous costs.

4:33 Speaker 3: It won't do it.

4:34 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 because the ples 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, I mean really or just or.

5:01 Speaker 2: 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 O.

5:10 Speaker 4: Well, I agree with what you were saying before, and now it just went out of my head.

5:17 Speaker 3: Oh about it it being so expensive now to be a fan? Yeah, right, it's.

5:20 Speaker 4: Really it really gives something back to the fans, hih. I mean we spent enough money buying, emptying different subscriptions to watch umpthing 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.

5:39 Speaker 2: I 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, right, 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.

6:10 Speaker 4: Well maybe a little bit in that regard. 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 that's the way that they've dropped people, uh, 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. And people have been with them, people their lives are invested. Yeah, that's how you treat people.

6:36 Speaker 2: For Jenny, they they've they've they've done massive cuts before just to save They've done that way before. The Truth. It's just the fact of the matter that Truth is such such is so beloved. Yeah, he's such a he's basically I guarantee you when he retires he finally hangs up his boots, I guarantee you he's going to be in Bastad.

7:01 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he'll always have some sort of a connection of the company, I'm sure, Yeah, regardless, but not.

7:06 Speaker 4: The only one though that they just drop like that. Well yeah, but been around forever and it's just you're gone.

7:11 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.

7:18 Speaker 3: Have a discussion with them.

7:19 Speaker 4: Be honest, don't be like Cross.

7:23 Speaker 1: Well, the Carrion Cross thing seems like a unique situation. Did you watch did you watch him? Excuse me, I'm losing my voice, Charles, did you watch? Jenny and I watched both the documentary, uh, the Killer Cross Part two slash My Contract Just Ended or whatever it's called. And we watched the Aeriel Helwani 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 it's easy to have a lot of sympathy for them.

7:54 Speaker 1: Did you watch either of those or both of those?

7:59 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 his erring work, I can see why the guy only wrestles one time a year. The guy is dangerous. You think that that match, that match is dammy Zaye. Literally I saw one or two inches where he could be paralyzed. The Yeah, it was.

8:39 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 the Final Testament.

9:02 Speaker 3: Oh, the Final Testament.

9:03 Speaker 2: Yeah, 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 my French sucks and he just needs to go.

9:28 Speaker 3: Yeah, I would.

9:29 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 mic crophone and said that's killer cross and everything.

10:02 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 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.

10:35 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?

10:43 Speaker 3: You know, I don't know.

10:45 Speaker 2: I put it on creative. Not every NXT champion or somebody that's rising up from NXT goes to the main roster and succeeds. It's just not that. And also there may be other works behind the scenes. There could be some back back uh 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 Field differently, but it's not entertaining for me.

11:31 Speaker 2: And and and I find his wrestling style is very dangerous.

11:36 Speaker 3: I will say I don't think his ring work.

11:39 Speaker 1: 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 this is awesome chant during a Carrion cross match.

11:56 Speaker 2: No, but but again it's it's it's it's far but it's it's far from spectacularly. It's down it's downright bad. It really is. 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 a dude, all right, whatever, But they're dancing and your dance partner.

12:27 Speaker 2: 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 twinkle toes around that ring like nobody ever great. I seemy carry and crossing 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 Inner act 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.

13:11 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, but I think the I.

13:24 Speaker 2: Think the drama and the interaction, the interference with scarlet with the bar, 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 saw the like, I mean, okay, that didn't look that didn't look good.

13:45 Speaker 1: I do have to acknowledge my favorite part of any carrying cross match has always been the entrance. I think the entrance is incredible. I think I think, I think that the whole thing is really good. But but he also said it is the.

13:58 Speaker 2: Best part of carrying cross is the entrance. You're absolutely right.

14:01 Speaker 1: He did say during the uh the Ariel hill Wana interview too, that they so you said you didn't watch it, correct, He said that, he said that it's it's really it's really good. But he said that 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.

14:36 Speaker 1: At that number, 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 Scarlett 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 will 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.

15:05 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 Scarlett 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. Either sign this or you resined, 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 Scarlet as well.

15:40 Speaker 1: That is that sounded pretty sketchy to me, So I don't blame him for saying no, agreed.

15:47 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 apart, because number one, Scarlet's not a wrestler. She has not wrestled. She is a valet.

16:05 Speaker 3: I think she hasn't she has.

16:07 Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I think I.

16:10 Speaker 3: Thought she had wrestled in the net to my recollection.

16:12 Speaker 2: If she had a long time.

16:14 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.

16:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, 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 a vala. 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 vala, 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, I you know, I don't get it.

16:54 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm looking on Wikipedia.

16:57 Speaker 3: It looks like I.

16:58 Speaker 4: Get Peacock for the play.

17:02 Speaker 2: And and and they're also bumping up because they said when they signed this deal with ESPN that their first p l E was going to be wrestle Mania next year. They're bumping it up to something called Russell Polluta yep in September yep, y she with.

17:23 Speaker 4: I think their money. I think they're greedy as heck. They got that company's got so much money. Now then Nikol and Diamond, the artists who are contracted, they.

17:34 Speaker 3: Don't get healthcare.

17:34 Speaker 4: 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 contract They got to work around from the government basically, and it's stuck.

17:51 Speaker 2: They yeah, they're I mean, obviously there's there's another wrestling promotion out there. If you don't make it a WWE, go over the w see what they can do. You got full creative control. You have another con and debt that didn't charge. So you go from Tony to Neck or Nick to Tony. I don't know. I forgot whose con is open. They're both cons.

18:15 Speaker 3: Sorry I had to do it.

18:19 Speaker 2: God, I can't go over to the aw there. You know they you know that they're they're thriving as well. I mean, look how awesome they are. I mean, look, look, I mean just just think about it. Chris Jericho went from w w E to a W possibly.

18:34 Speaker 3: Back to w w E most likely.

18:36 Speaker 2: I thought that, Come on, now, Tony Rhodes goes ahead and flicks off w w E when he goes to AW. Now it's back to w w E. What's going on? How come you can't keep their talent, talent that they take from w w E. Well, it's not working. Now, next thing you know, we're getting Dan Ambrose back, right. Is that what's gonna happen next?

18:56 Speaker 4: Oh?

18:57 Speaker 1: I hope, so, I hope. So that was something that Eric and I talked about too on Tough Bumps. 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? Yes, the Josh Zodiac Podcast, the Josh Zodiac Podcast.

19:19 Speaker 3: I want to make sure I get it right. When when when we did? Uh yeah?

19:23 Speaker 1: This past Sunday on the newest edition of Tough Bumps, it was a history of ae W and Eric and I talked a lot about how the worst thing that happened to ae W was and Eric and I disagree on a lot of things, but on this I think we agreed is that when when Vince ended up having to permanently leave WWE because with Triple H in charge of creative because the whole reason that ae W 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.

19:58 Speaker 3: But the reason they.

20:00 Speaker 1: 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 AW 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, NXC was phenomenal.

20:36 Speaker 1: And uh, you know, so when Triple h got to take over full creative on the full roster, on the main roster. You know, that was all of a sudden AEW. 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 AEW is a net positive for the business. I think that the 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.

21:09 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 Slamiversary, 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 there I think it's a net positive that they're around.

21:32 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 interest, like, hmmm, how does this Rated R superstar Adam Copeland going to do with Christian Cage now that they're reunited. Interesting storyline. It drove me interest in ae W because I want to see what these two are gonna go at.

22:10 Speaker 2: Right, And that was the first time I heard of Spike apparently with that bat just oh gruesome. Yeah, anyway, I don't like that. I'm like, I'm like, you 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.

22:38 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think, Uh so, we don't. We don't watch much a w uh. Basically, if there's a you know, if they have 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 happened.

22:55 Speaker 3: But but yeah, I think I think, you know, are they not?

22:58 Speaker 2: Are they not? Are they not stream on Max? They're they're paid per views? I know they're streaming like dynamite in Oh yeah, Max Max.

23:07 Speaker 3: Yeah, we have Max Max.

23:08 Speaker 1: We've we've actually watched one of the shows on Max. We've never watched any of their p L E s on Max.

23:13 Speaker 3: But I think you're right.

23:15 Speaker 1: Yeah, with all the streaming services, it gets confusing. It's hard to keep up with it all.

23:19 Speaker 3: I'm ready to dump some. But but part of part of why.

23:25 Speaker 2: It's amazing Max, it's it's it's amazing. Mat the chord. Yeah, cut the cord, everybody, cut the streaming. You're spending more now on streaming than you did. I'm not.

23:39 Speaker 4: I'm actually not spending more on streaming than I was paying the cable because it was ridiculously expensive.

23:45 Speaker 2: A lot of people are, a lot of people are though cable.

23:49 Speaker 3: Cable is far from dead, that's for sure. Yeah, I Uh.

23:55 Speaker 1: Part of why we were having that conversation on Tough Bumps was Eric is. Eric is much more negative on ae W than I am. Like I said, I think, I think Uh, I think Cody Rhads his return to w WE UH would not have been nearly as important and as big a deal had it not been for ae W, even CM Punk. You know, I mean, it still would have been a big deal him returning to WWE, his surprise appearance at Survivor 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.

24:35 Speaker 1: You know, I think ae W. I think a W has directly benefited WWE in some ways.

24:40 Speaker 3: I really do.

24:43 Speaker 2: I agree, and then I disagree because Cody Rhoades developed himself in the Indies before AW even took place.

24:51 Speaker 3: That was Eric sent.

24:54 Speaker 2: That the American Nightmare persona theme song and everything was before a W. 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. That's great. See them punk on the other hand, see him 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 AW vincents 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.

25:45 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 CM punk got back. It was the last minute deal. This thing wasn't like etchton Stone. Before Survivor series hit, nobody knew except three people, and.

26:04 Speaker 3: One of them was Aja.

26:06 Speaker 2: So he did he and he was hidden behind everything. He got into Gorilla Formation and like, wow, Sam Punk is here. Yep, yeah, it's just he literally signed that contract like ten minutes before.

26:18 Speaker 3: Oh yeah.

26:19 Speaker 2: So there was a coming to Jesus moment with Triple H saying, listen, we know we messed up. 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 WE. Before he came back.

26:48 Speaker 3: Right right.

26:49 Speaker 1: I also have a theory you know that you know that show that cmpunk showed up at, this was when he was on the outs with AW. He was still under contract, but he out with his with his injury. Poor guy, He's had a lot of injuries. 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 strained. And then there was that WWE show that he showed up at just to say hi to some people backstage, and ye and and Vince got went and Vince got wind of it and kicked him out.

27:26 Speaker 1: And and by the way, Vin 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 cm punk 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 AW, cmpunk has just showing up at a show.

27:47 Speaker 3: But that night, apparently.

27:49 Speaker 1: 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 A. 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, uh, you know, to Triple H, hey, you know, someday, when I'm not under contract somewhere else, I might 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.

28:33 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.

28:45 Speaker 2: You know, I have my own theory and it's it's it's definitely not Rustling related. So my theory is damn Punk works up to triple h and it's like, hey, how are you and Stephanie doing? Yeah, yeah, we're doing great. I mean you're doing great. You won't get together and have.

29:04 Speaker 3: A foursome, really that's your theory?

29:10 Speaker 1: And yeah, so well, Charles, I mean you're definitely thinking outside the box, because I can honestly tell you with with all the sincerity, that never occurred to me.

29:24 Speaker 2: I'm sure.

29:31 Speaker 3: Yeah. So, uh, what do you watch any a W now or do you only watch.

29:36 Speaker 2: W W E? It's it's mainly w W E. But you know, I kind of keep tabs on stuff with a W like I you know, I wouldn't have known about edging Christian. I knew they were feuding with with with each other. I think, yeah there was one time Christian hug Edge and told them you know, oh yeah yeah, and that's okay, wow, yeah. But you know, 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 and see what's doing, but I'm primarily WW.

30:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll watch any Will Osprey match and he of course, you know an AEW 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.

30:31 Speaker 2: Is MJF like part of the Hurt syndicate now with lash Lee and the MVP.

30:37 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.

30:58 Speaker 3: Delegated or if it is being well.

31:00 Speaker 1: Obviously in WW, Evans 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, And I think that you know, what AEW needs, what Tony Kahan 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. Now 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.

31:34 Speaker 1: 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 ae w if Tony Kahn would just allow somebody who really has a good creative mind, who can do what Triple H has done, come into aew and recommit to long term storytelling.

32:28 Speaker 1: I think they'd be a lot more successful. And they're already pretty successful, let's be honest, but I think they'd be a lot more successful.

32:35 Speaker 2: Yeah, they still have a long way to go. They're still in the baby, the d 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?

32:58 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 passionate about. So it was like, wow, it's 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.

34:09 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.

34:21 Speaker 3: So we tried to so we tried to be very fair about it.

34:25 Speaker 2: And 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 Brook 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.

35:12 Speaker 2: Let's put it that way. Now. Is that Is that justified to say, like, well, thank god he's dead. No, of course not. I mean I think the way he there's actually a criminal investigation going on the that he may have been murdered.

35:24 Speaker 3: Jenny and I were talking about that earlier.

35:26 Speaker 1: Not murdered, there may have been medical malpractice, medical malpractice.

35:30 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, yeah, question during a surgery.

35:37 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 feb 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.

35:56 Speaker 2: Okay, I know that there was a police investigation going on. I think it's still going on.

36:03 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's still going on. It's still going on. Yeah, Yeah, could be wrongful death, who knows.

36:12 Speaker 2: Another question Matt, how do you feel of Sina's so called heel turn, oh versus face turn? It was that a flop? Or is that you think was successful?

36:24 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.

36:58 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 turned back seemed a little rushed.

37:06 Speaker 2: What were you gonna.

37:07 Speaker 3: Say wrestling thing? Oh? Yeah, that was so funny. Yeah, when he's like, I'm going to ruin wrestling.

37:12 Speaker 2: I loved that.

37:13 Speaker 3: I loved that too.

37:14 Speaker 1: I thought it was cool. I really enjoyed heel John Cena. What did you think.

37:19 Speaker 2: I 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.

37:33 Speaker 3: It's just that is true.

37:34 Speaker 2: 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 scene it 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. So, uh, mister Lesnar can go ahead and a big introduction.

37:58 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, what do you think about that one coming back?

38:04 Speaker 3: What do you think about Lesner coming back?

38:07 Speaker 2: I love it? You love it? I know, I know. It was basically it was basically John's wish to go ahead and wrestle Leslo. 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 Sina. Sina wants to get all of his his adversaries. Yes, it was reported Sina requested Lesna. Yeah, so he wants to fight Leslo one more. Yeah. So this retirement tour is basically to get all If you ever seen Rocky five, where it's like, listen, I gotta get the beast out of me.

38:43 Speaker 2: I 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.

38:49 Speaker 3: Yeah.

38:49 Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, he's going to take care of everybody that he needs one more time.

38:53 Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, no that makes sense.

38:55 Speaker 2: Which I don't agree. I don't. I don't agree with Logan Paul. Why would he be on that list? I don't understand that that storyline one one bit.

39:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, Charles, we are approaching the top of the hour, so we got to begin to wrap up. The time goes so quickly. But we should definitely do this more often, my friend, because I always enjoy having you on and you know, and anytime you want me to 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 but also the show that you do with Josh Zodiac. I want to make sure everyone knows where to go to find your content.

39:31 Speaker 2: So my show search the Charles Richardson Show on Facebook like my page. All my shows go live on that 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 set Okay 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's free for now, but after that it's gonna be twenty nine ninety five.

40:09 Speaker 2: I'm watching my own app with competing against the 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.

40:33 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 talk again soon, I'm sure,