WWE’s SummerSlam Ticket Gamble & AEW Redemption Preview | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #858 – 7/23/26

0:00 It's still real to be damaged! [Music] What up, you all! Ooh, welcome everybody! Welcome to this week's edition of this The Real Dissauce show, Episode 858 for July 23, 2026. This is your WWE star right here at Event 3CAP and AW Redemption preview edition of F-R-T-U. I am one half of the show, I am Jeff Pack, joined every single week like ours, the lonely Dr. Frank Lynn, Dr. Trey, and you have been waiting for a long time, potentially, for this wrestler to return to the ring, my friend.

0:48 Uh, he slaters back in WWE? No, not yet. Not yet. Not yet, my friend. Hey, we all have kids now. It's not his tag team partner either, the former Ryan O. The first ever Smackdown Live tag team champions by the way, Dr. Trey, it is a gentleman that you watched extensively be in the TNA guy on the show, the former Magnus, current Smackdown general manager Nick Aldis, entering back in the ring, he played a massive role during Saturday Night's Main Event, he has a match at SummerSlam against Gunther. Are you excited for this? I mean, as somebody who watched Magnus, uh, in Ring of Honor, TNA, all the way up through, like I am excited, I don't know how the general population of wrestling fans feel about it, because most of them have not seen Nick Aldis wrestle, and so on paper, it looks like a huge mismatch.

1:49 But, uh, I'm excited to see him get the ring, I'm excited to see if Mickey James gets involved in this. Uh, I'm excited to see if this is like, a career ending match as well. Like, I'm kind of excited for where they go with it, but I just, you know, Tommy, you know, Tommy Jones who watches WWE once every six months or whatever, I don't know if he's excited about it, but, uh, they did a little, that little SummerSlam scrum when, uh, you know, Triple H coming out, that was pretty well done. Yeah, that was pretty well done. So, Nick Aldis returned to the ring. I think WWE needs to be calling up if they have a done so already, their pals over at TNA wrestling, uh, and get that, uh, footage ready to go for some packages, just to like, for anybody who's never seen him wrestle, why should I give it damn?

2:37 I mean, they can't go to all, uh, out and use that footage or all, and I should say, when he took on Cody Rhodes for the NWA World Championship, maybe they could have Billy Corgan from the NWA, add a little bit of footage in there as well, but, uh, yeah, that is something they need to do, and I did not have that on my bingo card, uh, at the beginning of the year that Nick Aldis would be in the ring wrestling and Roller's Entertainment. Uh, let's get into a doctorate. Let's recap Saturday Night's Main Event, this past Saturday for Madison Square Garden in NYC. Uh, let's start with that Main Event match. It was a tag team match, CM Punk and Cody Rhodes defeating Gunther in Sammy Zayn. They went into this match Friday night's Smackdown the night before, saying that if Gunther and Sammy Zayn won, they would be added to the match at SummerSlam and make it in Fatal Four Way. Missed opportunity by WWE here.

3:20 They should have done that the week prior, really set it up in build. I feel like less than 24 hours later, they were like, uh, people aren't really interested into this match. Like, well, why should they care? And then they gave this out. Um, we talked about Nick Aldis. This is directly, he directly influenced the finish by preventing Gunther's pinfall, and then striking in with the WWE Championship. Uh, Punk accidentally stuck, uh, struck Cody Rhodes with the championship belt strap. Afterward added some more tension between the reluctant partners, uh, the next day on that SummerSlam kickoff show that you just referenced with Nick Aldis and Gunther. Um, CM Punk pie faced, uh, Cody Rhodes. And now we are all system go here with Cody versus CM Punk at SummerSlam.

4:00 Gunther has a match, Sammy Zayn, to be determined if he has a match at SummerSlam. I, I would hope he does. Uh, thoughts on the match are then the fallout from this all. No, it's, I thought poor kind of a hodgepodge tag match. It came off really good. Um, storyline wise made a lot of sense. You can ribbit his tension with, with Punk and Cody leading into the aforementioned, you know, SummerSlam press conference thing. You get the Nick Aldis thing. Overall, outside of like, what do you do with Sammy Zayn, which I think right now on paper is a complete missed opportunity, unless they have a good plan for him. Right now, like, all this and Gunther, I'm excited for, Punk and Rhodes, I'm excited for. I just, I just feel bad for Sammy right now more than anything else.

4:49 Yeah, Odd Man now. And I think that's one of the reasons why, at least for myself, I guess. I shouldn't say everybody feels this way. Uh, that's why I'm like a little bit skeptical and, like, tiptoe, pessimistic about the booking from WWE creative as of late. I mean, there is certainly some good bright spots, but there's certainly, you know, peaks and valleys with the entire thing. The Sammy Zayn stuff. It's like extremely annoying. Uh, the way he's been booked right now. No idea why they went in that direction. But here we are. See a punk, Cody Rhodes winning. Uh, and now we have a 101 match at SummerSlam. Uh, Falun Henley and Laney Reed defeated Paige and Bri Bella to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. Dr. Trey, did WWE make the title change to elevate, uh, Henley and Reed, or was Paige and Bri's reign simply designed to establish a newer team?

5:36 Yeah, I think it's a little bit above. I think it was designed, you know, if, if Falun and Laney can have this on their resume, that they beat a, you know, one Hall of Famer and potentially a second Hall of Famer, it establishes them, you know, and fatal influence as a credible threat in the division. Plus, I still think this was just a way to get Paige out of the tag team title situation. So then when Nikki comes back, which she should be really close, they can make a new Nikki and Bri together. Um, and then Paige can go off and do her own thing because God knows I still want a page in AJ Lee match, uh, even though it's been 12 years since the last one, 10 years since the last one. I still want another one.

6:20 Paige and Rio Ripley, there's some dream matches we can have with Paige and I think she's better situated to be out on her own than stuck with Nikki and Bri. Yeah, it, um, the, the, the reign has been really weird, Bri and Paige and when it comes to Paige's injury, I'm often like, just because she had a retire so young and I felt so Daniel Bryan, Bryan Daniel saying I feel this way without him Copeland, Edge. These guys retired, they were allowed to come back, um, but they get hidden pretty well like matches are, they're not like back to back to back to back, even though Adam Copeland did that in AW when he first joined. Now he's kind of hidden it in a tag team. It's like, okay, what do we do with Paige now?

7:01 Uh, because I've heard Nikki Bell's names come back up and talks for a return. So I wouldn't be surprised maybe if she's involved at Summer Slam. Like I just feel like this screams short title reign for me, like get the titles off Paige and Bri, maybe let Paige go do her own thing. Bri gets back with Nikki, which was the plan probably coming out of WrestleMania. And then we go from there. That's, that's the vibe I'm getting from this title change, Dr. Try. Yeah, mind too. And, and you know, because that was always kind of the plan, even heading into WrestleMania was, you know, Nikki and Bri win the belts. Have a good little title wrong. Get to see them in the ring with some people that they've always wanted to work with the injury through all that off. It just so happened that we they had Paige available to fill the spot because literally on paper.

7:45 Like Paige is the anti-Diva and Nikki and Bri represented the Diva division. So even though off screen their friends just on screen, it was always just kind of a weird pairing for me. I don't know how you felt about it, but it kind of felt like it wasn't Daniel Bryan and Kane weird pairing like complete offices, but it just it never felt like they meshed as a tag team. And I'm actually surprised the rain lasted this long. So the fact they made it what four months, I'm pleasantly surprised with. Yeah, I think the only thing that I saw them pairing with and it's completely off screen from what we've seen on WWE television was just basically like, you know, relying on their stuff with total divas where they were like pals and best friends.

8:35 And that's kind of what it went off with and obviously Nikki Bella's injury like weeks before the WrestleMania this year through a big monkey wrench into the entire process. And I will say I thought they saved face. I saw Paige mentioned this in an interview recently like she was upset that it got leaked that she was returning. I saw that report leading up to WrestleMania. I could not agree more. I think her pop and reaction and our feelings for her return while still very good. What have been incredible had we not known what took place so that's my only thing on this entire thing and we'll see where the women's side team title division goes from here. Dan housing defeated JD McDonough and a notice qualification match. Carly Anthony towns emerged from Dan housing's clothing machine helped in housing secure the victory doctor try.

9:18 This was a typical WWE sports center moment. I mean for anybody who likes the next NBA the minute that Dan housing set on Friday nights back down like I have a cat involved like man so call Anthony towns cat makes total sense here. That was a nice sports center moment and looks like cat could actually put a little bit of size on him. He could he could wrestle in that ring. I'll give credit to JD McDonough for jumping out the gym on that choke slam like JD jumped before Carly Anthony towns his hand went up like his jumping almost forces hand up. But is this now the typical Dan housing match which look I'm not knocking it I you know me I've been a Dan housing fan for quite some time but is this kind of the are we ever going to get.

10:10 I don't want to say a serious Dan housing but you know whether it's the many housings or somebody else or there's always like I I love comedy resting as much as the next guy and probably more so because that's actually been my wheelhouse on the indies as well. But it's kind of like it's becoming a little bit formulaic and I'm just kind of waiting to see if we get the next evolution of Dan housing. But overall yeah it was a sports center moment it got all the publicity I mean that entire Saturday's main event before being in the garden was basically there's two segments designed for sports center in that so but look JD McDonough is probably one of the top in ring workers and the fact that he can make everybody look good in that moment was great.

10:59 I mean Dominic's choke slam was not that great compared to JD so all the credit in the world goes to JD McDonough the guy with the head which is a great line. Yeah you know you make an interesting point there if Dan houses is potentially a one trick pony in WWE standards I think if you've seen him on the indies a w certainly not the case. I think it's very well possible here doctor try that his match with dominant mystery with summer slam here in a couple weeks is going to be a good test for him. I would like to see I he's always going to be comedy I don't need to see the many housings all the time I don't need to be cloning machine all the time I wouldn't mind just like let's see him wrestle so that people could while they enjoy him and and find him entertaining which you know inside bar this entire thing I am so happy for him as a human being because when he debuted in February and elimination chamber we all know that not a great reaction and just like that.

11:47 Not a great reaction in Chicago and he is completely turned it around 180 is one of the highest sellers in the company and is extremely well like liked and I just enjoy segments but yeah I would love to see him wrestle a really good clean match against Dominic Monsieur at summer slam so I'm with you is he a one trick pony maybe or at least we're WWE seeing that way I'd love to see him perform and put on a good ring performance so you know maybe if there's times in the future where they do decide to put a singles championship on him or even a tag team championship. That it's not looked at as a joke and while an entertaining character he is someone that has legit in ring chops. Yeah I mean it's it's a little bit of the art truth situation because for you know in truth first came on the scene even when he was cake quick and then you know the stuff and his heel run you know it showed he's a capable wrestler and then he got kind of podcast into being just a comedy act and at least now even though like we're not really excited about the Smackdown tag team division at least when he's in there with priest he can show folks hey he can still go.

12:55 I just think we need to see Dan Housen actually have a match where he can go and people go oh damn he's actually tough guy and he can actually wrestle a little bit it's not just purses and midgets. Next match here is that's a terrible way to say we're here we go next match is live or Valkyrie defeated Bailey V referee stoppage. Dr. Trey was this the beginning of a longer rivalry or was the post match attack designed to temporary right Bailey off television it's reported that her contract is coming up here I believe in October. She is not signed a new deal with WWE yet most wrestlers it appears want her to test the free agent waters and not resign Mercedes Monet has been hyping up you know Bailey coming to AW a W has reportedly had interest but has not reached out through direct channels.

13:48 Figure that out on your own I'm sure stuff goes on behind the scenes but I think Bailey's potential free agency is going to be playing a big storyline here your thoughts on how that story may be and what this match from this past Saturday night may have played a role into that. I think this is the ricochet situation where they do an injury angle to either write the person out or hey we're in the contract negotiations if you come back you get a big return from your injuries thing ricochet obviously at that point was ready to go and went to AW I think this is kind of same scenario for Bailey where if she decides to leave it gives Lyra credibility she's the one who took Bailey out of the way.

14:34 If she comes back she comes back to a big heroes welcome in the story like continues the I mean the ball is completely in Bailey's court. I will say her going to AW and having to either use her real name or create a whole new person I think will be troublesome for a little bit. I mean we had a little bit with Mercedes Monet Sasha banks just getting used to the new character because Bailey's name real name is nothing like the name Bailey. What is it it's like is it something rose is that's where the rose plant comes from right now I know it's Pamela but I thought her other wrestling name that you I would assume she goes off of.

15:20 Yeah but even then can you really use rose and then people go what that was mandy rose I don't know if that's an issue in the W but yeah yeah but it's just yeah because the real name is like Pamela and this she has like his spanic last name I believe. So I don't know really where she's going to go because even her Indian name was was different so. This is going to be interesting I mean if I don't know like I'm still not a big fan of W up E stars going to AW because I once again I've said this for four years. We have yet to see a WWE person go to AW and become a bigger star than they were in WWE other than Swarth Stricle it like that's it that that's the line is swarve and then everybody else I don't think anybody else benefited other than.

16:08 And personal life and stuff like career career trajectory it's swarve and that's it that's where the line ends. Yeah no he's he's the guy I fully believe Bailey whatever name she goes with would be very very successful in AW she feels early indication she feels like an AW talent to me right now Dr. Dre. I feel like she is on her way out I cannot foresee her resigning with WWE on July 23rd to us 26. Yeah I mean especially yeah especially with her best friend I mean we all know how close her and Mercedes are so I I fully expect her to make the jump I mean plus she's really tight with Claudio she's tight with John Moxley like she's tight with a lot of those people over there.

16:57 If she is somehow ends up in a W she is in Bailey are very close as well so yeah on paper it because it feels like a changing of the garden WWE with you know new her and Xavier Woods are extremely close you know so it does kind of feel like a changing of the guard from. You know all the people we saw through the early 2020s now are kind of making their way to AW. And then lastly Jiongiel and Brunson the New York next appeared with Roman Reigns Roman presented Brunson with a customized next theme World Heavyweight Championship before Seth Rollins and Tyree's Hall of Burton of the Indiana Pacers interrupted Brunson helped prevent Rollins from taking out Roman allowing rates to recover and stand tall WWE smartly use the next Pacers rivalry to generate instant MSG heat while advancing Roman Reigns versus Seth Rollins.

17:44 I'm a next fan Dr. Trey I mean I liked it I enjoyed it but I could totally understand fans from 49 other states going like what the fuck is this about. So here's the thing like I am not I'm a casual NBA fan I think we thought like I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I've been a Lakers fans as I was a kid but not like a LeBron fan so I like the guys who acknowledge their wrestling fandom and we've seen Tyree's Hall of Burton acknowledge his. Jalen Brunson you know now apparently Carl Anthony Towns we've seen several NBA guys and so those guys I'm always a fan so I liked the segment I was actually just happy to see Tyree's Hall of Burton up and walking around because he blew out his ACL in the playoffs a year and a half like almost a little bit over a year and about a year ago.

18:33 So just seeing him up and moving around although they didn't take a chance of him getting in the ring that was nice to see. But I'm still this weird mix right now we're like I don't know if I'm looking at summer slam I don't know who I'm supposed to be cheering for and who I'm not and that's not just the Seth and Roman thing but even the bloodline LA night solos a co-roys. I don't know who's in the right in their perspectives of these fuse like Gunther Nick Aldous we kind of know but even like pumpkin Cody like there's a lot of matches going on in summer slam where like I don't know who as a fan I'm supposed to be behind the t-shirts for so I'm a little confused on those.

19:20 Yeah no I think there's been a lot of weird gray area with the bloodline in general right. I think you bring up a really good point and I remember you mentioning like a couple weeks back that I don't know like you said this directly but it's basically what you were talking about before where you don't know who to cheer for you can't tell the good guy bad guy all that stuff right now and basically how wrestling has evolved to like a gray area because that's really what we're in right now I mean there are times where. Jacob is a baby face actually a little bit more like a heel I would say Roman actually a little bit more like a heel but he was in full baby face mode with Bronson the usos feel are more baby face than they are heel but they've had heel tendencies.

20:03 LA night full fed fledged baby face Royce keys I would say full fledged baby face solo is that weird tweener right now. Um you know I'm you and I both long time wrestling fans obviously I don't know if I like it yet I really don't I I'm I'm holding judgment until I see it become executed because at some point you cannot just ride the fence right at some point we're going to find out if their baby faces are heels and that could catapult at the summer slam match with the three on three match. And I would not be surprised if let's say the three on three match happens on Saturday and the Roman Seth match closes on Sunday night if they do that path I think there's I think there's going to be a major storyline that plays out in that three on three match anyway like I think everything's point to all will solo just come home solo just come home so we'll just come home I would be surprised for us keys is the one that turns.

21:00 But yeah it kind of just lens to today's booking and you see that in a w as well doctor this is not just a WWE thing I mean look at the death riders right now right there at one point death riders was beating up the conglomeration but they also hit the don cows family and John moxley on Wednesday night by the way this is recorded before dynamite airs. Is tagging with Kenny Omega and they will osprey in the death riders right now will osprey full-fledged baby face all the other guys tweeners heels I'm not sure so it just seems to be that this maybe just today's wrestling right this today's wrestling creative. Yeah I mean Claudio and Parker fighting coca-caging cope at redemption yep you know it's like but half the half the factions baby face because you got it and I don't know if it's the TKO influence I mean the they W stuff that is stuff I have point out since day one.

21:53 You know and you look at the history of wrestling and when guys get super popular or super over with the audience it's because there's a bad guy making the crowd cheer for them more like Hogan had paper Hogan had Bobby heenon you know you get into Austin Habick man Rockhead triple H you know there's always been that person that nobody really likes doing bad things to make the good guy even more popular Daniel. Brian had the entire W W marketing team against him you know like we all kind of knew that. But right now when you start going into these shades of gray areas is kind of like like is Gunther like the only real villain currently look on the roster like that does evil mean stuff I mean it's Sammies in that borderline gray area to yeah it's weird it's you look at you look at a w is basically mjf and don call us yeah yeah those are two bad people everybody else is in walksies I mean in speed balls like the only true like good guy baby face again there are some still white meat baby faces like the collaboration I think in the AW sorry Darby yep W. East Side Cody punk you can make a case for times so yeah it's a really weird I don't know if I fully love you but I would say this is like the first.

23:19 Like calendar year that I could really remember this happening a lot more than ever before I mean it's it's something that I can't really it's like WWE and a w like secretly call each other like this is what we're going to do creatively it's going to walk the line for a lot because they're both doing it they really are Tony Tony and Nick are actually cousins it makes you wonder Dr. Tron it makes you wonder this could be a thing for another day but it really makes you wonder if creative for both companies like runs their shit through AI and like hey make this the most entertaining thing because it just doesn't make sense from a wrestling structure perspective just throwing it out there that's just my own skepticism it doesn't make sense from a storytelling because you and I always talk about wrestling being a soap opera you know or it's it's we always compare it to star wars or Marvel it's like okay we have maybe one of the biggest Marvel movies in the world coming out you know later this year of Avengers Doomsday it's all the Avengers against this one really evil son of a gun you go back to infinity wars it was the Avengers against Thanos who wiped out half of existence star wars for loose skywalker and on solo you always had Darth Vader like that's great storytelling it's good overcoming evil good guys overcoming obstacles good guys over coming the odds to even even in our sports movies we always you know the miracle on ice it was about the scrappy underdog US team coming

24:50 overcoming the evil Russians rocky was always overcoming bigger stronger people we don't have that right now like nobody really wants to be just an evil son of a bitch on TV yeah it's it's it's different I wouldn't say it's odd I wouldn't say it's weird I wouldn't say I don't like it I'm intrigued by because I think there's two major storylines coming up next month with the bloodline in the early part of August for summer slam and then we'll all spray whenever happens with death writers Kenny Omega at all in London at the end of month that kind of defines what this is like is it a setup for future major storylines this like tweener walk the line heal baby face I'm not sure type of thing so yeah I think I think we'll see some clarity here in a little bit and if this is something that is a formula that the wrestling companies are be running with moving forward so it's it's very interesting times I'm I don't hate it by any means I'm cautiously optimistic on how it plays out switching gears talking about summer slam doctor trice over the weekend or in Saturday and to main event or fanatics best I guess they made this announcement w e announced thanks to Justin Jefferson of the Minnesota Vikings if you use this code J jets you can get tickets as low as $25 for summer slam in a couple weeks in Minneapolis Minnesota about like 25,000 tickets for roughly around there for both shows Saturday and Sunday were sold and US bank stating could hold like 70,000 people so it's a complete and other major issue in one we really

26:22 have in touch upon here on the show in the last weeks but it's a major problem w e $25 ticket offer clearly has worked because nearly 9,000 additional tickets moved across both night and just four days showing the issue was pricing not a lack of interest in summer Saturday and Sunday each increased by roughly 20% once affordable upper level seats became available fans quickly responded especially families and people considering attending both nights the strategy helped fill the stadium but it could create a future problem because fans may now wait until the last minute for discounts instead of buying w e stadium shows tickets stadium show tickets early at higher prices I mean we've talked about the ticket issues for some time here the pricing doctor try this is a clear indication of it we know WWE was going to lower their tickets obviously it wasn't enough for fans to be really interested in buying and selling out for summer slam your thoughts here as they did a ticket drop all the way to as low as $25 a ticket you know I love that they say that like this might be a problem going forward as fans are going to wait we do that for everything anybody who's on a budget we wait till stuff goes on clearance or we get the best deal possible you know not like me going to WrestleMania was it was always a dream to go to WrestleMania but I got you know good price on seats it was upper level but it was more about just saying I've been to WrestleMania you know it's kind of same thing here like if I'm looking at tickets for summer slam and I live in that area like okay yeah I can't afford the

27:53 four seats I can't afford first level if I want to go to summer slam I'm having to buy nosebleeds and if I know now that hey if things aren't selling we just waited out they're gonna drop ticket prices then yeah I'm waiting it out like but I think that it does kind of you know let WWE know like hey our products actually decent we they're we're just pricing our customers out of the markets and it's the same issue the NFL has it's the same issue basically baseball has a time that like if my options are stay at home and order in and and have the family gather around the 72 inch TV and watch summer slam or spend 300 bucks for the bucks a thousand bucks a pop for each person to go to summer slam I'm probably gonna stay home just because it's it's just more affordable that way now if you tell me hey I can get a family of four into summer slam for a hundred bucks and they can experience the onsite yeah watching the matches may not be that great but the environment the spectacle everything that goes on around that that's much more in a budget friendly mind for most families nowadays yeah it's it's not something I think about as like that's not gonna be my family vacation right to go out there and spend thousands of dollars to go to the wrestling show for both nights when I could watch it at home get a better view and be content and happy it's it's a problem and hopefully W. E. learns from this we've been saying that all

29:24 year when it comes to these ticket prices and and could and you know makes it right for the fan make it affordable and it's it's possible we'll see where summer slam continues to grow here and maybe in the coming months Dr. Treble or weeks will be talking about maybe W. E. does way too many stadium shows or maybe two nights for summer slam just isn't doable maybe it's just a one night show and WrestleMania should only be the two night show because of this whole entire situation that has taken place where they needed to lower tickets all the way down to twenty five dollars a pop so at least they saw some traction will see here as the weeks coming will be preview and predicting WWE summer slam on next week show and we'll see if the ticket sales continue to increase as they get closer to show time on August the second Saturday August second Dr. Treble I've been doing this a lot lately with these like anniversaries for major events that have taken place it was 15 years ago earlier this week that the CM Punk John Cena match from Monday the bank 2011 took place which was wild this stat which is came out for Wednesday July 22nd blew my mind that 25 years ago yesterday the WWE invasion paper view took place I don't remember this that it's just potentially old age I probably set up before but I when I saw this I was like it took my breath away this was the highest pay-per-view buy rate in WWE history for a non-resolmanian event at 770 thousand pay-per-view buys obviously a lot has changed with the pay-per-view buys nowadays but

30:56 just an insane statistic there that that was a record for a non-resolmanian event we've talked about this at great length if you've been a long time listener no shock here about what we're going to say if you're new to the show and watch this pay-per-view or part of the storyline or understood the impact of it no shock here if you're too young to understand it then just sit back and relax to what we're going to say this may be the most botched wrestling storyline of pay-per-view in history Dr. Trey I mean this had amazing opportunities to be something very very special and it wasn't and it just blows my mind that that was 25 years ago this week because I remember that very very very vividly yeah it's it's arguably the yeah I think it's the most botched storyline ever it's also the storyline that had the most potential of any storyline I think we maybe we've ever had in professional wrestling and it all comes down to just money that's the bad thing it all just came down to money because and I've had this discussion with several people like if if Vince had just said hey I can't afford to bring everybody over and I've got some guys like the Booker T's and some of those other guys and that well but let me pay for Goldberg Sting and you know somebody else and just had a big angle play off at the end of that invasion pay-per-view everything would be forgiven but because you know we still go back to the WCW Monday Night Raw

32:29 you know it was Booker T and Buff Bagwell in the main event you know it's like dear God that that's whole thing had so much potential and literally it just came down to money more than anything else and it is I hate when people bring it up because it just kind of pisses me off thinking about what could have been at that time and you're like oh my god we could have got Goldberg in Austin at a WrestleMania like in their prime you know you could have got Sting and Takeer at a WrestleMania in their prime and we just never as kind of like we never got Hogan and Flair at a WrestleMania despite both guys spending an an ordinary number of years in the company yet we never got Hogan and Flair at a WrestleMania yeah yeah no it's a bunch of what if something there's a lot of things there I don't know if I fully blame WWE for not taking off and throwing out the money I blame AOL time Warner because you cannot like for Kevin Nash and all those guys Goldberg Hogan Hall Hall was on our contract then Sting like those guys were just basically waiting for those AOL time Warner contracts to come up and they were making millions of dollars to do nothing like it just it made sense to stay home but it just sucked from a wrestling's fan perspective because it could have been really really amazing the biggest what if of all time I just watched dark side of the ring Necro butcher versus Samoa Joe on Tuesday night and they got to do one either on invasion or just

33:59 specifically the buff bag will book a team match from raw that basically killed WCW like legitimately like they were going to make according to reports I believe WWE was going to be Smackdown and WCW was going to be raw and there was discussions with deals with TNT not TNT TN spy TV for WCW to air and there was some there's this you know stuff that was out there that like to buy tickets and there was discussions about that like with these newspaper ads or articles or magazine articles that you are very very hard to find like that was the plan and then that match basically killed it so and that was our name are not saying aren't Anderson on commentary did not help that much that that that match was better first from getting because they did have Scott and what you have Scott Hudson in Hudson's not a bad play but he actually lives here in Alabama Scott Hudson wasn't bad but are was not great on commentary for who the ref was but even that that's right yeah the looked in look they did the updated WCW logo like the red and black and I'm like none of it if you go back and a little watch that thing you're like other than the three people I named because Scott Hudson at that point I mean he was he was you I mean he was Shavani it was Mike today and then there was Scott Hudson like he was way down the announcer list so to speak yeah he was like to be like the worldwide yeah like nothing about that match screamed nostalgia other than

35:35 there's booker there's buff and there's aren't and the blue and the blue light the blue light on the crowd which is what they were doing on nitro but yeah I mean yeah we could do an entire I believe we've done entire shows on it but yeah it just was like 25 years ago that was man I'm freaking getting old AW Dynamite's television audience appears to be gaining some momentum Dr. Trey from Russell Purys on X the July 15th episode average 786 thousand viewers which was up 2% from the previous week and 17% above the shows trailing four week average more importantly dynamite is averaging 731 thousand viewers so far in July up 21% compared with July 2025 and the show finished tied for second among cable programs in the key 18 to 49 demographic that night the 18 to 49 rating was also up 25% week over week the one caveat is that AW's average demo rating remains below last year's level but the recent increase to suggest that overall interest in dynamite is moving in the right direction Dr. Trey does it feel like AW Dynamite has momentum or is these or are these viewership ratings taking advantage of the world championship matches that they've had on place and the pay-per-view style shows that they've had on dynamite over the last several weeks. Where's a couple things by the way who do they tie with? I've know I'd say I've know I'd say I've always here is like who tied wrestling you like and do they do they do they announce like hey we tied AW Dynamite um yeah I do think it is a lot of this work of mouth social media like you're seeing a lot more

37:09 positive feedback about AW you and I have been serious I ain't hey the program he's been better the bookings better the storylines have been better a lot of it makes more sense they're not just hodgepodge-ing stuff around and seem it works like there's intriguing stories there's still really good in-ring action like that's never really dropped off so the positives there I also think they're taking advantage of there's two times of gear in sports when you can really capitalize on the audience one is right around this time of year because baseball takes the all-star break off baseball tip lead doesn't draw really high kids are out of school it's not really vacation time because kids are going back in a couple weeks but not right now there's no college football there's no NFL there's NBA's over you don't really have anything to compete with so it makes sense to really hype up your shows and put some good programming on because that's how you get those hooks into people to keep them watching so I think it's like just right time for everything like storyline in-ring time of year it's been kind of a perfect storm which then makes you wonder why didn't you guys do this last July? Why didn't you guys do this the July before because the seasons don't really change when it comes to viewership in a way?

38:29 Yeah it's a trend that I think it reflects momentum for AW but you cannot ignore the title matches the title matches in the pay-per-view style shows that they've been putting out there like for back-to-back weeks like beach break and then that first show in July coming off of Forbidden Door I can't remember the name right now where it was brisco and mjf I mean they was really heavily loaded shows in a great way and in a way that is great for the viewer so they have the roster in place right now this creative been has been good the matches are always good stories are good AW definitely feels like there's been a little bit of a renaissance almost for a full year I would say like late 2025 to now it's it's been very very solid we talked about our halfway point of the year you know leaders in candidates for the award show we both agree that AW is a promotion of the years is certainly a leading leading candidate right now so it's something to keep an eye on and see if this trend is showing yes as a company they have momentum or is it because they just put out pay-per-view style shows on dynamite the last couple weeks because I watched collision as well I watched it this past Saturday I enjoy the show however I mean there's a way too many squash matches like that at times can be a throw away show if they did that on dynamite the viewership would not be what collision is by any means so yeah I thought it was a very very interesting trend and does reflect how I feel about AW lately where they've been doing very very very

40:01 good as a company again which is awesome to say last thing here dr. Trey is our preview for AW redemption this is from the Bell Center in Montreal Quebec Canada these are the matches that we know right now as we record the show because this is recording it before dynamite on Wednesday night to be available like at midnight Thursday morning Kenny Omega versus Kevin tonight for the AW World Championship Tecola Defends will the AW Women's World Championship against Willa Nightingale marked Davis Defends the AW National Championship against Andrade El Iolo the Paymaker Chris Jericho versus Tomaso Champa no holds Bard match Kyle Flescher Defends the AW International Championship against our AW World Champion Mandito Adam Copeland Christian Cage defend the AW World tight team championship against Claudio Castagnolian Pock John Moxigan will Osprey take on the Young Bucks and her car will she defend the AW TBS Championship against Maya World Dr. Trey is redemption a meaningful pay review or merely a stop on the road to all in I'm going to go with it's merely a stop I mean especially if you're going off like hey our main event world title match is you know Omega and Kevin night like that kind of feels like a throw a one there are some things on there that I'm like yeah this could be a turning point um the tag team time I've been wanting Claudio and Pock to be more of a regular tag team for a while now but them in Cajun Coupe but if I'm not mistaken the 90 days for the new day should be up at redemption

41:31 what if the new day shows up to challenge Cajun Coupe at the end of redemption for all in the Wembley that's a big thing um you know um I think fecla will and I know this might be when they take the title off fecla to do willow and Mercedes at Wembley all in because I don't think fecla and Mercedes has that same pole that willow Mercedes match has so overall I think it's a placeholder show but there is some stuff coming out of this that could be really really intriguing for what we do in Wembley I mean and then just personally I'm kind of stoked to see what they do with Jericho and Champa in their no-olds bar match just because of two of my favorite all time guys I do find the paymaker gimmick like very corny I gotta be honest with you like I know people pop for it and I'm like this is this is some corny shit uh yeah so yeah it's it could be very meaningful pay per viewer just merely stop uh then last last year dr. Trey Kevin night's biggest opportunity and an important test for AW's ability create new main eventers is taking place at this pay per view how do you feel about that as we go with Kevin night TNT champion taking on Kenny Omega in a huge high profile main event level match for AW world championship before all in I mean I think it's good for the you know testing you know Kevin night out to see you know can he hold his own with arguably the best obviously the best ball machine because that's his nickname but like you know one of the best in ring wrestlers a guy whose main event in multiple pay per views over the last decade

43:10 like you're putting that young guy in the ring with that with with Kenny Omega in the past you can see the guy like Kenny Omega he'd up a Kevin night and we never see Kevin night on the big stage again you know in the past this would have been like when John Cena with quote-a-go buried young talent and never got to send the latter so it's a good test for Kevin night to see if he can hang with Kenny Omega and if he can gold is Kevin night get the Kyle Fletcher treatment is Kevin night get the will Osprey treatment where hey this is one of our new pillars that we're building around and this is going to be a main focal point of our show for the next five or 10 years yeah this is a huge test for him I love when young wrestlers get these tests and this is a massive test for Kevin night because if he proves that he could show out which I really believe he will it's not hard to do given his his athletic ability and being in the ring with Kenny Omega this could be really good catapult and something special for him moving forward you know is he someone that I could see as an AW world championship you know by the end of 2026 now I would you know have taken other guys like Kyle Fletcher maybe even Kadozka Tikeshka as younger guys that are established an AW that would be a champion before him but this is a really huge test for him and I look I'm excited for him I hope he shows out I really enjoy watching Kevin night wrestle and I expect this match to be amazing at redemption this weekend in Montreal Quebec Canada with that said Dr. Tray let's get a couple plugs and spots out of the way to close up shop on this week's edition of SRTU

44:43 you can download the show at patreon.com/SRTUpodcast and it's still a really show feed on Apple Spotify wherever you download this podcast don't forget to rate review and subscribe you could fall as individually on extra myself at SRTU Jeff and for Dr. Tray Franklin at the Dr. Tray and of course don't forget the fall show on X at SRTUpodcast with that being said what is going on in the world of Dr. Franklin this week. Well like Jeff said you can follow me on X at the Dr. Tray you can find me on Instagram and Facebook Dr. Tray Franklin when you're on Facebook go check out Rocketsy Championship Wrestling we just had a big show this past Saturday the Sean Schacher Evans Memorial Tournament which was won by the Diamondback Christian Pierce in the finals so congratulations to him having to have three matches in one night to win that you can go check out all of Rocketsy's past shows at youtube.com/rocketsy Championship Wrestling but most importantly you have to check out your own local independent wrestling show you may not get Samoa Joe Neckro but you're which was highlighted on Dark Side of the Ring but I will tell you Jeff this much this was one of the first shows that Sammy Franklin actually sat and watched the most I would say the majority of the show by the end of the show he was up at the ring side high five in the wrestlers and getting really involved in cheering and screaming which for dad made my heart feel good so folks get out there take your kids check out your local independent wrestling shows and make those guys be even more die hard fans than then what you think you're turning them into.

46:13 That is awesome to hear I like why similar moment as my son while I had Saturday it's main event on the next day watching it during the daytime not at night because he goes to sleep he put the one he put the one up for Roman Reigns and Jalen Prson coming down the ring I was like oh man what a one a moment so I'm right there really we both have these major dad moments so with our wrestling fandom support of the great things that support SRT once again thank you for downloading this week's edition of the show thank you for making us part of your week spread the word about the Storla show enjoy AW Redemption this weekend we'll be back next week to recap AW Redemption and get you ready for summer slam weekend so for Dr. Tray Franklin I am Jeff Peck this has been the Storla show.