You've Got To Be Kidding Me Ep. 50 Victory Road July 2006 - Team Canada Disbands, Gail Kim's In-Ring Debut

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0:30Hello, Voices of Wrestling Podcasting Network listeners. I am Jeff Hawkins, co-host of Shake Them Ropes with a very special announcement. If it's been a while or you've never listened to us before, the original gang is back, myself and Rob McCarron, back talking wrestling. We have no idea where this show is going to go, where we're going to keep any of the old bits or any of the old things in there. It's going to be a process. It's going to be a journey, and we'd like for you to come along with us. It's only on Shake Them Ropes on the Voices of Wrestling Podcasting Network.

1:03TNA is the best wrestling in the whole world. Think this is funny? No. Why would you do this? Told you. Get a life. Get a life! Uh, actually, a couple weeks ago I lost my tripod. Oh, don't worry. I got your tripod. Right here. Death to ECW. Long live TNA. Oh, what do you want, you stupid stooge? See that, Joe? That's a vein.

1:34Something you don't have, you little fat bastard. That's Osama been saving. I didn't even know he was Al-Qaeda. This is BS. This sucks. I've lost my objectivity, and I don't give it, Dad! Welcome, everybody, to You've Got to Be Kidding Me, episode number 50. We are a TNA history podcast that covers TNA one month at a time. On this episode, we're talking about the month that is July 2006, up to Victory Road 2006. I'm Garrett Kidney. I'm joined, as always, by Liam Jones. Hello. Welcome to this very special post-Australia episode.

2:06We did, at one point, promise that this episode would be in person. And then I started to, like, cough up the swamp thing. Yeah, Liam got too prolonged proximity to me, and then was like, no, I can't, I can't speak. Yeah, and my body started rejecting it. We have done an in-person podcast. You're gonna have to give us ten bucks for it. Good. This is actually a ploy all along. If you'd like to see the photo of me and Liam together, or listen to our watch-along of Victory Road 2006, which we did record in person,

2:37you will have to go to patreon.com slash kiddingme. And it's the best content we've ever made. It actually, like, flew by more than most watch-alongs do. Oh, 100 million percent. I realized that as we were getting toward the main event. It's like, usually I check the time, like, an hour and a half into those, and I'm going, oh, no, we're halfway there. And, like, we got to the main event of that one. I'm like, oh, that actually went by really, really fast. Yeah, it's way easier. Hmm, we should do it in person every time. Yeah, just move here. If the time zones weren't, like, monstrous for my job, I might think about it.

3:10You'll get used to it. You stay up all night anyway. That's true, but it would have to be, like, all night. Yeah, you're just, you're working the night shift. Hmm, just jumping on Zoom calls at fucking three in the morning. Yeah? Hmm. I don't see a problem with it. All right, Garrett, break down your trip day by day. Those are the people here want. They want to know how your trip was. I flew to Australia. Boom. Very long flight, but mostly fine until you hit, like, the one period in, like, the second, because it was a seven and a half hour flight into a 13 and a half hour flight with a two hour layover. So it was quite a long time on a plane.

3:42And, like, first flight went by fine. Second flight, half of which went by fine. And then, like, you hit the stir crazy mode where it's like, oh, my God, I've been on a plane so long. I want to die. And then it's like, how have I been on this plane for six hours? And there's still seven and a half hours left. And you get to, like, the other side of Australia. And you're like, oh, I can see Australia. It must be... No. It's really, really big. So it takes so long to fly over even just Australia. So there's not even comfort being like, I'm over Australia. I will be there soon. You won't.

4:13Then you land and it's fine. Except they fucking border patrolled me. Yeah. You deserve to declare. I've watched a lot of Border Patrol as well. And what is it? Nothing to Declare is the other one. As both of them, I think, are based in Australia. And I was like, ah, one of them might be English. But either way. And I'm like, ah, I'm going to... I joked with Ken, brother Ken, that I was going to get border patrolled. And then I got border patrolled. I was like, fuck. Just like Chris here. Yeah. I saw all the jokes about that from when they announced the show.

4:44Oh, that's funny. Everyone's like, ah, Chris Hero, border patrol. It's like, yeah. But I lived it. And then they called you and you didn't answer. And he was like, that's fine. That's okay. It doesn't sound like it's fine. I think you're going to kick me out. And I couldn't call back either because they called me from a private number. So I couldn't even be like, sorry, I missed it. So I was just standing out there like, ooh, what if I send him back? You'll just be waiting there for like seven hours. You'll have huge, huge charges. It's like, I assume they'll call more than once.

5:15I think that once they were reassured, I was not working. And apparently there's like record emigration from Ireland to Australia, or at least it's the highest it's been in a decade. So they're like, oh, the fucking Irish are trying to sneak in here. Yeah. Like they always do. Yeah. We are a plague. We are a scourge on society and humanity and everything decent. Snakes in the fucking ground. Yes. So yeah, they did let me in. And then there you were in a nice Pokemon jumper. So very nice. Thank you. I was looking dapper. You were. We drove a drive that I usually accompany you on audioly, but actually in person for

5:51once. It was amazing. It was like an in-person Skype call, which I guess is what a conversation is. Yeah. Because we did it again last night. Did it feel weird last night or this morning, I guess, for you to be like, oh, he's not next to me anymore. He's back in the box. No, it felt right. It felt back where it should be, you know. Yeah. Put me in a box. I deserve it. Live in a box. I'm a man in a box. I'm Tommy Dreamer. I have thoughts about Paul Heyman at WrestleMania. You have plans for what you want to do to Paul Heyman at WrestleMania? Mmm. Mmm.

6:22And then we had a weekend. Well, no longer than a weekend. Like nine days in Australia. We went to an AFL game, which was absolutely amazing. My first AFL game too. It was a good first game to go to. It was fucking awesome. It was great. I'm never going to go. I'm never going to watch it on TV again, but if I get the opportunity to go and see it in person, I will. Because I was looking at like the score of the Essendon game, which we went to see Essendon against Sun Coast. What was the name of that team? They were the Gold Coast Suns. That's the one. I knew Sun and Coast were in there, but I didn't remember the rest of the words or the order.

6:54But I looked at like the Essendon score for the next game and they lost by like 40 points. I'm like, that would have been a bummer of a game to go to. No, we really, we lucked out on that one. Big back and forth game. Last minute winner disallowed. Last minute winner for the opposing team. So Liam's. A truly devastating matter too. Yeah. It was a heartbreaker because they should have had many, many more points, but that is the nature of sport. Essendon did win the next game after that against West Coast. Then they lost to Geelong and then win, loss, loss, loss, win, loss, loss to the Gold Coast

7:28Suns again. God damn it. How often did they play? Sorry, that was our loss. Oh, okay. I was going too far back. It's been, it's been two losses since. Yeah. Cause I've, I've watched some AFL on TV and I was always like, yeah, I don't get it. Yeah. I was just like, I'm not, I'm not hooked by it. And then that game was unbelievable. Yeah. Uh, you also took me to a video game museum while at more of a multimedia museum that also had video games. It had a big video game section in the, in the middle of it. You saw the cuphead thing. Yeah. Which is really fancy. Um, it's like a, what would you describe that as? It's like a shadow puppet thing.

8:01Yeah. It's like a, like shadow puppet carousel where like the, it turns into 3d motion through movement, even though it is a flat 2d surface. Yeah. Um, yeah, we also met many animals. Yes. We went to the sanctuary. You had a moment with an owl. Not zoo. Yes. Um, a spiritual connection with an owl. You had like a full arc cause you were initially reluctant to meet the owl. Then you met the owl and had a spiritual connection. You don't. But then, but then I, I looked into that owl's eyes into the, the sparkling abyss and it welcomed

8:31me. It enveloped me in its wings and it told me it was going to be okay. You saw Chris Park in his eyes and found comfort. Yeah. You looked in his eyes and you're like, whoa. And you met, you met all the, you saw all the animals you wanted to see. Yeah. Saw koalas. Saw dingoes. Saw kangaroos. Kangaroos are so gentle. Yeah. Well, the domesticated ones. Yeah. I assume the ones in the wild, they're not so gentle, but they're so nice about it. I mean, I'm just, I imagine they're, I think kangaroos are like a, if you're fucking with them, they'll fuck with you. If you're not fucking with them, they won't fuck with you kind of animal. Yeah. Yeah. But they very politely just walk up to you and like lay their hand on your hand for balance

9:03and then nibble out of your hand to eat the food you're giving them. It's like, oh, you did get to, you did get to feed the kangaroos. Then the ducks ran over and like, nah. Yeah. Um, we watched some G1. We watched a lot of G1. We did. More G1 than would have been watched otherwise. Probably. Uh, we watched some Naruto. A lot of Naruto. You introduced me to the Halal Snack Pack. Yeah. The HSP. Yeah. Which was enough to like, make you not need to eat until the, like the next day. Yeah. Like a full day without eating. Cause like, it's so much food. And I actually looked to see, can you get one here?

9:34And you can't. It really hasn't like, uh, the translated across continents. It is truly our Australian culture. Mm. Um. I talk about the food. How did we feel all in all? You are right. You have no culinary things. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's true. You just have other people's food. We are a very new nation. You haven't like invented dishes. I'm sure you have. You did give me Vegemite. Yeah. And I am the Vegemite centrist. Like we have like things that we've turned into our own, but it's like,

10:04and I'm sure we like have our own, but like mostly like the thing that's like our food that we're known for is like seafood and steak that like exists elsewhere, but it's just different because it's here. Yeah. So it's like, it's not like it's, it's hard to like make new things out of nothing. Cause like we, you have like an Irish stew. That's an Irish dish. Mm. But like other countries also have stews. But like, but like stew is, stew is fucking everywhere. You know, it's like, so it's like, it's like, you know, I have, I could have made a fucking stew and be like, oh, it's an Australian stew. Like use Vegemite as the sauce for the stew.

10:36It's an Australian stew. Oh, people do that. That sounds disgusting. That would be way too salty. Well, no, it's cause, cause, well, it's cause like, yeah, you don't, you use it as a salt substitute. So you put it in like broths and stuff. I would never, my grandparents do that. You can smell it on that road. What? The Vegemite smell on the road. Oh yes. Because we drove past the Vegemite factory. In which you can smell it through the car window. There's just a Vegemite smell on the road. We didn't get the, the golden Vegemite ticket, unfortunately. Oh, I would have been shoved in a tube and made to turn into Vegemite.

11:07Yes. That's how that works in that. And it would have been the perfect ending. That's what you wanted all along? Yeah. And most importantly, I got to spend nine days with my friend. Yay. Which I assume you share the same sentiment. Yeah, your cats. Oh yeah. I don't know. I had a wonderful time. Aww. I had a wonderful time with my wonderful friend. Got to go do a lot of things. We explored. I did a lot of things that I haven't done. Because I, you know, I've moved to this area recently. So I haven't had a lot of a chance to explore. So it gave me an excuse to explore.

11:38That is the thing. You're never like a tourist in your own city. So you're not like, you don't do the touristy things in your own city. So you're like, what the fuck do tourists do when they come here? Exactly. So, you know, it was fun. A lot of beach time. Yeah. A lot of nature. I have multiple beaches. You have a lot of beaches. I do live right next to you. Some might say you're girt by sea. Motherfuckers do be saying that. I now know what that means. My house was broken into the day before you came. Did they get the car back? They got the car back. Do you have it now? Yeah, in our position. Do you want to tell that story? Uh, someone walked into my house, took the keys and left for the car.

12:11I think the more interesting part is when they found the car. Oh, yeah. They found the car. The police called us and said we found the car. Then they went to go get the car and the car was gone again. It got re-sealed. Because they didn't take the car when they found it. They just said, hey, we found it. They just left it there. Yeah. So, it's been a process. But it is now home? The car is home. Is it in okay shape? It's fine. It's, it's just like dirty. There was a full Powerade in the back though, so. Did you drink it? Score. Uh, no. You should. I should have. It was unopened.

12:42I could have. You just left it there. Yes. So, that was my little Australian excursion. As I said, patreon.com slash kiddingme. If you would like to hear the full watch along in person in Liam's home theater. Which was fun to try and set up for a watch along. It was fun. I think it worked well though. It did. I think it went well. So, you can listen to that, patreon.com slash kiddingme. Or you can also see us at an AFL game. There's a photo there that you can see. See our faces together in the same place. Wow. What a selling point. Woo! Before we get into the news, anything else you want to talk about?

13:13Um, I watched a movie. What movie? I watched two movies back to back. Mm-hmm. And it was the combination of Kiki's Delivery Service into Alien Romulus. Those go together, I think. Yes, it was a beautiful one too. Uh, I also saw Alien Romulus, so. And Alien. I gave them both four stars. Which is better? Uh, ooh. Ah, Kiki's Delivery Service. Mm-hmm. Like, it, like, they're both really impressive in a way. Like, because they are both, like, like, from the ground up, just made with people making things.

13:43Like, Alien Romulus is something like 80% practical effects. And, obviously, Kiki's Delivery Service is hand-drawn. Yeah. So it is cool to just see, like, the innovation of humanity in making art. Yeah. Because I watched Alien in preparation for Alien Romulus. And I've never seen Alien. I've only ever seen Prometheus from that series of all the movies to have watched. And, like, watching Alien, you are just like, holy shit. Like, look at all the stuff in this movie. Like, that movie has aged so well because of how, like, practical it is. That's the thing, like, I love about watching, like, Alien or Blade Runner or the first Star

14:20Wars, where I'm just like, look at these things that people made. It's an actual world they had to make. In real environments that they had to go out and film, and they had to deal with, like, sun, and they had to, like, you know, like, just fun. And, like, everything is CG, and, like, I think there's, like, a perfect hybrid that you can use when making a movie of, like, CG to make the practical stuff look better. But it's, like, it just, it ages like fucking fine wine. Yeah. Because, like, uh. And, like, you look at it, I was watching Star Wars 1, and I was just like, that's just a bin with wheels on it, but look at it, it's a fucking droid.

14:53Yeah, it's an actual thing. It's a physical, tangible thing. The actors are looking at a thing, they're interacting with a thing. Somebody is inside that bin with wheels operating it. Yeah. It's like, it's just, I don't know, something about that stuff is amazing. But yeah, Alien Romulus, good. You watch, like, Alien, or, like, Jaws is the same thing, where, like, the monster is not on screen very long. Yeah. And you would argue, oh, that's a really good filmmaking choice. And realistically, it was just a technology choice. It's like. Yeah.

15:23Well, there was a lot more of the xenomorph in Alien Romulus, you know? There sure is, and a lot more xenomorphs in Alien Romulus. Because, well, like, part of that is, like, you know, what is it, like, 40 years later? Like, they've done it a lot. Mm. There's been a lot of different xenomorphs over the years. But, like, it's one of those things where you're like, oh, like, constraints make for better art a lot of the time. Where it's like, they chose not to show the alien a bunch in Alien, because it would look bad. So they had to, like, work around how that looks. And it looks really good, because they work around how that looks.

15:56Same thing with Jaws. It's like, oh, they didn't show the shark. It really adds to the suspense. They didn't show the shark, because it would have looked really bad. So they work around that, and make the film better because of it. And now you can just do whatever the fuck you want with magic computers, and that makes everything bad. When AEW had a small roster, and they had to use everyone to their... Now that they have everybody... And they have this Jaya roster, and it makes everything bad. Like, there was that period of Dynamite where it's just, like, Cody segmented, the Jericho segmented, the Mox segmented, the Bucks segmented, the Kenny segmented.

16:27It was like, oh, holy shit, this show is cooking. Yeah. Now, half those people, if they had segments on the show, one, it would be remarkable, because one's WWE champion. But, like, the Bucks and Jericho are, like, the most bad vibes wrestlers in the world at the moment. Both, which I think would be solved with, like, six months of not being on TV. Yeah, boys gotta disappear for a while. And coming back fresh. Just doing, like, a big 5v5 elite lose-they-disband thing. Oh, another Australian thing. Morning Dynamite. Yeah. I'm kinda into it. Yeah, it's amazing.

16:57All wrestling should be ingested in the morning. People don't know, like, how good they got it. 10am AEW Dynamite currently airs. A little move, I think, for daylight savings as we hit toward the winter. But 10am in the summer for AEW Dynamite. 10am Dynamite into a 5pm G1. It's perfect. You have great times. It don't get better. We do. And that's why I was like, the one time I ever get to whine is all in. And I'm like, ugh, it's 2am. Now you know how we feel all the fucking time. Yeah.

17:28I'm sorry that you were born in the wrong times. Ah, it's really bad. Because everything airs at night. New Japan's alright. New Japan will be a morning thing. So you can have New Japan for breakfast. But everything else is night time. Like, late night. It's just 1am. Like, my sleeping pattern is fucked. People are always like, why is your sleeping pattern like that? It's like, I'm a wrestling fan in Europe. Like, the average time I've fallen asleep in my life is like 4am. Which is kind of crazy. Yeah. But overall, very fun. I had fun.

17:58I hope you had fun. I was a host. You were a tremendous host. The best host there's ever been. A host so good, an alien would sit in your chest and be like, yeah, I'm gonna boring myself in this thing. I'm not even gonna get out of here. I'm just gonna stay. That's how much I love being in this host. This guy's cool. Alright, that brings us to the month that is July 2006. Before we get into it, Patreon. That's how we make money. You can go to patreon.com. That's how Garrett can afford these lavish vacations. We are thinking about Grand Slam in February.

18:28So if you'd like to fund... Yeah, please. Us going to wrestling in Australia in Liam's hated town of Brisbane. Fuck Brisbane. You can give us money. Patreon.com.starkiddingmeteenagead.com Where you can get watch-along show notes. You can get ad-free episodes. So if you don't like these ads at one buck a month, you can get ad-free episodes. And the episodes actually go... Well, this ad will stay in. This ad. This ad for the ad-free episodes is still there, yes. Also, the episodes go up slightly early on Patreon. You might get them a few hours before you get them in the main feed as well.

18:59So... That's worth it. You can have finished the episode by the time people are getting out of the news. Yeah, other people are like, what the hell, man? And you can spoil them on our great bits. You can tell them who won the Road to Victory 4-Way before anybody else. This is the only way you can find out. This is live as it's happening. Mmm. We... That's how the watch-along works. We actually travel back in time to when the show first aired. That's how we can change it. Mmm. Can we? We can change the course of everyone's lives. We can fix TNA? No. No one can do that. But yes, you can also get Rain Takers.

19:30You can also get our Pro Wrestling Guerrilla show. Our PW... That's what I just said. Our Lucha Underground show. Our Gift of the Pot. Why do I keep going back to the same shows? What else do we do? Monday Night Wars show. Because they're your favorites. Global Force Wrestling show. Wrestling Society X show. Ring Ka King show. Like, 150 pieces of exclusive audio are sitting there right now on Patreon. PWG. Lucha Underground and PWG. Did I say those? Sure. Yeah. Patreon.com slash gettingme.

20:00TNAchat.com. You can get all of that and more. You can get a lot of content into your ears. Way more us than you already have for free. Patreon. Money. We will live in you. Like a xenomorph. Apparing to burst from your brain with your takes. My brain went to the Lion King when you said that. He lives in you.

20:21That's us. In your head. Okay. When they play that song in the Mufasa movie. Which they didn't play it in the Lion King movie. They should have moved it into the Lion King movie in the place of the Beyonce song. But fuck them. The remake. But if they don't play it in Mufasa, what a waste of a great song. That's like a top tier song and it's in fucking Lion King 2. I didn't remember it. But yes. Patreon. That brings us to the news. Starting with Liam, your favorite thing. Ratings talk. Whoa. I'm going to go like bounce for half an hour. The June 22nd Impact drew a 1.1 rating.

20:53It's the first Thursday without a first run edition of The Ultimate Fighter as its lead-in. It drew a 1.1. A rerun of the previous episode of Tough aired beforehand. So there was still an Ultimate Fighter episode before but not a new one. Then June 29th. The first episode with no Ultimate Fighter at all. 1.1 rating, 1.4 million viewers setting another high watermark for the show. So there was this whole thing week after week where they're like, oh, what's it going to do without an Ultimate Fighter lead-in? And even without it, it's doing... The exact same. Even better, frankly.

21:24Because there was that thing where every week PW Torch would be like, oh, they only held so-and-so percent of the Ultimate Fighter lead-in. And you'd be like, different audiences, what the fuck are you talking about? And now that it's gone, different audiences, what the fuck are you talking about? Yeah, I don't know. It's... I mean, all, like, a lot of the same audiences just stay in. Like, it's the ones that they got early on. It drew a 1.3 rating among men, 18 to 49. 1.4 among 18 to 34. The replay on Saturday drew a 0.5 rating, meaning 2 million people watched Impact that week.

21:55Which is kind of crazy in 2006. I mean, it's insane. But, you know, a different television environment than now. Where people would literally kill someone live on TV for 2 million. Yeah, even WWE for, like, Raw would kill somebody live on TV for 2 million. Never mind AEW. Multi-channel news reported that TNA Impact averaged slightly above a 1.0 rating for its first run on Thursday nights. Wrestling... Oh, sorry. Dixie quote. Wrestling has never been... I'm getting extra, like, inconceivably something.

22:26Wrestling has never been on at this time of night. TNA president Dixie Carter said, which seems untrue. We're in kind of uncharted territory. Nathan Drake's here. But we're having a lot of success. I haven't done it in so long, I don't know how to do the accent anymore. You've forgotten Dixie? Yeah. Damn. You've lost touch with your roots, man. I know. The 1.03 average is 222% above Spike's average in that time slot last year. The Ultimate Fighter will return as Impact's lead-in starting on August 17th.

22:58But in the meantime, TNA's Thursday night lead-in will be an extreme stunt comedy call from Finland called The Dudesons. I fucking love The Dudesons. And an unscripted comedy series starting a Backwoods family titled Raising the Roof, which we talked about in the last episode. We didn't talk about The Dudesons, though. Are you familiar with The Dudesons? No, is that like Finland Jackass? That is exactly what it is. Okay. I think I've heard of The Dudesons. You don't need anything more than that. It is Finland Jackass. Is it better than Jackass? They're crazier. Like, they do stupider shit.

23:30But that's obviously not to the success of a jackass. Do you think they're still making Dudesons content? I think they are. They're still churning it out? I'm going to their YouTube now. I'm searching. Their last video was five years ago. Oh, what was it? Uh, Hide in the Frame Challenge Dudeson Xmas Special. Did the pandemic kill the Dudesons? Not literally. Metaphorically. Not actually. I mean, I could find it. Maybe they, probably, you know. Not, did they actually die of COVID? Maybe they did. Oh, no. I'm going to go to their Twitter.

24:01Mm. They're on X the Everything app. Boo. I love the Everything app. I don't. I go to the Everything app and I ask Gronk what I should eat for breakfast. What does it tell you? Um, to be a Nazi? Oh. Well, you have to follow the AI. Is that what you did? Oh, classic old bit. Bringing it back. I'm calling you a Nazi again. Because that was an old bit that we used to do. Yeah. Harris Brothers are long gone. Um, their last tweet was in 2019. What happened to the Dudesons in 2019? Their last vlog was five years ago. Yeah, they just stopped in 2019.

24:32What? Did they get cancelled? I'm going to go to the Dudesons Wikipedia page. Oh, no. I'm worried what happened to the Dudesons in 2019. Uh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh. Um, international career. Uh, it kind of just seems like they fucked off. All right. If you are the Dudesons, or you know the Dudesons, or you know what the fuck happened to the Dudesons, please inform us. Because it appears like they just dropped off of the face of the earth in 2019. Hmm. Um, I'm going to go to the individual Wikipedia pages. Try and find what the hell any of these individuals are doing.

25:04Um. Please name the Dudesons for me. I cannot do it in their language. You can't speak Finnish? No. Damn. And I wouldn't even, I wouldn't even pretend to do it. Um, well, one of them is doing a, another show. Mm-hmm. Where he does, like, a Bear Grylls gimmick. Yeah. Um, the other one just had a kid. Good for them. Another kid. Has five children. Turning them out. Um, yeah. I don't know. It seems like they do just a bit of, it seems like they still are involved in TV, just not

25:37the Dudesons TV. Mm. They just pop up doing other things. Did they break up, though? Was it acrimonious? Did they just go their separate ways? It doesn't say anything about them ending. They just took a break? They're like, I'm sick of doing shit? Like, it doesn't say anything about them stopping. Yeah, it's really weird that, like, there should be, like, there's usually a note, like, the Dudesons decided to go on a hiatus, or the Dudesons, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's just like, nothing. They just stopped in 2019. Oh, okay, I finally found it. Mm. I found something, I guess.

26:08Um, filming the show The Dudesons in America was an exhausting experience for the Dudesons, and they wanted to take the group in a new direction after that. They created the show, some fucking Finnish words, in which they helped families with their problems. Aw, they became wholesome. Yeah, it seems like that, it does seem like that. Mm. That is listed as 2023. Okay. But, like, the TV show, I think, was 2018. So, I think, again, they're just involved in TV, if not doing stuff as a group. Okay. I hope the Dudesons are doing well. The Dudesons retrospective.

26:38Because, like, we found out that dude from Raising the Roof was dead, so I hope the Dudesons aren't dead. TNA in part held strong the first week without those, my fighter as it's leading on Thursday night, drawing a 1.0 rating, the same fucking rating it does every week. It shows TNA has a loyal audience that isn't reliant on the carryover from UFC. So, there you go. After all, again, the hand-wringing the... Which is how I read all news stories. Um, it's, it's, it's the same. It's, it's the classic fucking gif of TNA always doing a 1.0 to 1.2 no matter fucking what. I guess until they didn't.

27:08Yeah. I love, like, like, every time we talk about, every time we talk about TV ratings, that's just what, like, that image just plays in my head the entire time. Just that rolling gif. It's like, Shane McMahon buys TNA, Shane McMahon sells TNA, whatever it is. What is that from? I, I think someone just made it, because I think the joke was just, TNA always does a 1.0 to 1.2 no matter fucking what. Even on, like, holidays, they'd still do it. You know what the funniest thing about that is? What? Soon we can have Shane McMahon debuts in AEW, 600,000 people.

27:40Shane McMahon forms the, uh, Entitled Men's Combat Club, or whatever. The Mean Street Combat Club. The Mean Street Combat Club was so good. Oh, God. Yes, get Joey Absinthe there with Jon Moxley. By the way, that group is gonna be, like, dumb. Yeah? Like, if they do get Lashley and MVP involved, kinda dope, alright? I can't, I can't, but if it's, like, Josh Barnett, Shane McMahon. That's so funny. What the fuck are we doing?

28:10The idea. I mean, I'm kinda into the idea that, like, Shane McMahon is leading an invasion of real fighters. And he's like, these are my real fighters that I'm bringing to AEW Dynamite. The shoot puncher is taking out AEW. Yeah. I don't know. I've always been, like, a Shane guy growing up. Um, I'm, I'm exceedingly nervous about, like, his involvement in the McMahon sex trials. Mm-hmm. So, probably not the best time to bring him in. But it would be funny. But, it will be funny. Um, he is, like, the black sheep of that family.

28:40So, I guess, you know, it does make sense in that, in that aspect. But it'll be, it'll be interesting to, it'll be interesting TV. Yeah. If, I'm more excited about Big Bob, the boss. The Teenage Legend. The Beatdown Clan. It is basically the BDC. They should get the song. And Josh Barnett. And I guess you have to add Joe. Yeah. Get Key back. They, I'm still mad AEW has never booked Low Key. Fucking cowards. Yeah. But, you know, it's gonna be weird, and, like, you know, I'm up for some weirdness.

29:11Like, the mock stuff on Dynamite felt weird, but I'm up for some weirdness, so, let's go. Within TNA, there is the belief that the show will, sooner than you think, be expanded to two hours. It still takes over a year from here, but it's, it's clearly on the table. I mean, that's probably still sooner than a lot of people would have thought. It's pretty early to go, like, another hour. Spike officials, when contacted, denied there was anything in the works aside from a potential two-hour special. If TNA could maintain its ratings the next few weeks without a UFC lead-in, that would be a major feather in their cap, because it would show it could run on a night without UFC, which it would have to if it goes two hours.

29:43CSI runs until 9pm on weeknights, and Ultimate Fighter and Unleashed are a synergistic pairing that shouldn't be broken up. If TNA goes two hours, it would have to be moved to a new night. At this point, there are no new plans, no plans in place, but it is something being talked about, although it is probably a few months away at the earliest. Interestingly, it stays on the same night, but does become two hours, so I think the UFC move. I, like, it's so, again, like, I guess we're seeing it now, right, but, like, the doom and gloom surrounding this fucking show, for them to then, like, just do, like, amazing numbers that everyone's really happy with.

30:14Yeah, they're talking about moving the show to two hours, they've moved it to Thursdays, they're moving it to primetime, like, they've had, like, the most success you could possibly have in six months on television, well, longer now, eight months on television. It's exactly what we see now. It's like, AEW, Doom, and Gloom company's dead, and then, like, in two months, they'll announce $280 million a year for the next four years. Or, like, they just put over 50,000 people on Wembley Stadium. They're about to do a show in the Tokyo Dome, 50,000-seat stadium in Australia, 40,000 seats

30:46in Texas, like, right? And, like, the biggest, like, doom and glooming of it all, like, right before they're about to do, like, what is their most ambitious year ever. Like, assuming they get the TV deal, next year will be the most profitable year in AEW, history. It'll be, like, the first profitable year in AEW history, probably. The least loss-making year in AEW history, but still. But like we said, money's never been the problem. It's a Merck company. Just, like, there's people, the idea of analyzing AEW as a real business is so funny to me. The only reason, like, the only thing I think you can, like, analyze it about is, like,

31:20if, like, is profitability, like, a factor in Tony Khan wanting to keep doing it? Yeah. Or is it just, like, love of the game as a sicko? Like, is his dad gonna be like, dude, stop losing my money? Or can he just lose his money and do his sicko shit because he wants to run a wrestling company? And if it's the latter, all power to him. Yeah, and then, like, you know, God forbid his fucking dad dies at some point, you'll have no goddamn worries. You buy every company in the world. The original Spike TV TNA deal was for one year and everyone is happy and there is no fear at this point of it not being renewed.

31:52On Saturdays, TNA was projected to do the 0.48 average that Velocity was doing and they averaged closer to a 0.8. When it moved to Thursday, Spike's projections were 0.8 and it ended up beating it by 20%. So TNA running away with it and for some reason they're gonna replace the Booker in two months. That's always been their big thing. It's, like, trying to fix the problems that aren't there. Yeah, they want more, they want bigger, they want endless growth. But, you know, regardless of all this, the company's in a fine spot for now. It'll be, it'll be, like, four years before shit starts getting really fucked.

32:23Even then, like, even, like, the Hogan Bischoff era is successful. There's no threat of the company being in, like, dire straits until 2014. Twenty-twenty-two. Well, the mood in the locker room is really positive right now as wrestlers do see a sense of permanence and stability with TNA now that wasn't there a year ago when there was a constant concern about its future. Also, AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels, as veterans of TNA without WWE experience, are content and pleased with their pushes lately, which rubs off on the Leicester Experience exhibition guys. The wrestlers with the most tainted locker room reps aren't around anymore.

32:55That's good. Wow. Rotating people out who make the locker room shit? No, you should keep them around until they ruin everything very publicly. You know, okay, I have something to say about that. Go. So, like, the Ricky Starks thing came out, right? Yeah. About how, like, you know, like, they feel like he doesn't want to be there, so, like, and he's turning down ideas that have been pitched to him, so it's like, well, you know, whatever, we're not gonna pitch ideas because we don't think he wants to be here. And people are like, ugh, how ridiculous of a thing to- it's like, that makes sense.

33:25They're still paying the guy. He's still getting a paycheck. Like, all they can do is send him ideas and if he doesn't want to do it, he doesn't want to do it because they're a company that, you know, allows that instead of just telling people what to do. I don't know. I would be like, fucking come to work. That would be my stance, honestly. That would be me, too, but it's like, I don't know. I don't see the, like, that's not an AEW, like, negativity from, like, a worker's standpoint, you know? Yeah. Like, they're pitching ideas. The dude doesn't want to do the ideas. Very funny if that's how all workplaces worked. It's like, Liam, we want to pitch you on this idea of you doing this during your shift.

33:56And it's like, ah, that doesn't work for me, brother. Doesn't work for me. Actually, I'm gonna stay home, but please pay me still. Nonetheless. That's just like, good, I'm glad they're still getting paid, but it's like, I don't know, man. It feels like, that seems like a perfectly reasonable response to be like, we don't know if you want to be here. We're not going to keep putting you on TV. Especially if, like, you don't want to come to TV and job. Come to do... Which I'm not saying is the Ricky scenario, I don't know, but it's like, you know, like the Miro thing that came out a few months ago when it was like, hey, we want to give you, like, this month push and then you put someone over at the end.

34:27And it's like, he just doesn't know. Like, that's, like, that's crazy to me than, like, the idea of just, like, stopping pitching things to people who don't want to do things. It's like, like, I, that, like, call a guy and say, get on the fucking plane. Yeah. Get in the ring. Do, do, do the story that I want you to do. Why else do I hire people? So you can ask them, do they want to do the story? And they say no, and you continue to pay them. Like, like, that would be probably better for the locker room morale if they had, like, a leader who was willing to put his foot down and say, no, do the shit that I'm paying you to do. We talked about this, I think, on one of our last episodes, but I think wrestlers,

34:59wrestlers are willing to fall in line more than you'd expect if you're hard with them. Yeah. I think it's most people. Yeah. Oh, actually, speaking, speaking of, before you get onto that thought, I meant to do this at the start of the show. You made a very full-throated endorsement of Brett Ratner in the last episode. Would you like to retract that? Did I? Yeah. What'd I say? Because you were, you were doing, like, Brian Sager is terrible. And you were, like, unlike my unproblematic king, Brett Ratner. And then we didn't visit Brett Ratner's Wikipedia page that day and maybe should have. What did he do?

35:29Numerous women in... Okay. Immigrated to Israel in 2020. Hey, Liam, how do you feel about Brett Ratner? That brother still makes a hell of an X-Men movie. What can I say? Sure. Anyway, back to your thought. No, bury him in the dirt. What do you want from me? I didn't know. Oh, my God. Yeah. It just gets worse the more you read it. It was one of those where it's like, uh, maybe, maybe you want to at least say he sucks publicly.

35:59So, like, because I always think about people, because, like, if you go back and listen to War Games, there's a lot of, like, oh, Marty Skrull should show up in AEW. Wouldn't that be great? And, like, people understand that one at least now, whereas this is post-Brett Ratner and be like, oh, Brett Ratner's good. A lot of people are listening. It's like, that guy really loves Brett Ratner. Did I say he was, like, a great guy? No. But you were expressly being like, Brian Singer, fuck him. Brett Ratner, though. Well, I had only, I had heard the Brian Singer stuff. Yeah.

36:29Um, I don't, yeah, yeah. Fuck, fuck him. Fucking kill him. I don't know. What do you want from me? Murder, murder him! I'm calling for his murder! Socially murder him. Um, I don't know, yeah. Bad guy. The guy who made Red Dragon, huh? Hmm. I'll give you a reason.