Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Hello everyone and welcome to Faces and Heels here on the KB Radio Network. I am your host Kevin Reed and today is a weird day. It's weird because this is me coming on here to say that I can't watch WWE anymore. I just can't bring myself to watch it. I can't... bring myself to sit down for two to three hours and enjoy pro wrestling in a in a industry that i've enjoyed for the better part of 40 plus years i've been a wrestling fan it's especially wwe back then it was wwf i've been watching since i can remember to walk you know The This goes back to the Mid-South wrestling days, you know, with Junkyard Dog and all that. So I'm a pro wrestling lover, you know, in the golden age, the new generation, when we got Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Moving over to the Allitude era and the Monday Night Wars between the WCW, which I enjoyed as well. and then the rootless aggression era with john cena and uh chris ben y and eddie guerrero and then we get into this new emageration i don't know what you would call this era the triple h era the tko era but it's just it's gone my love has gone from this company and it's been gone it wasn't a snap thing It wasn't one particular thing that had me say, I'm out. That wasn't it. It was a combination of several things that has taken place over the last few years that I just couldn't take anymore. You know, I looked at the state of WWE in the current condition that it's in, and I defended it internally. You know, I never really... got in a debate about it but internally i tried to convince myself that okay it'll get better it'll all pan out sooner or later you know going back to the vince mcmahon days and i know that's a dirty name to say but he was horrible at times but he found the way every now and then to kind of squeeze out a storyline here or there that'll keep you engaged you keep you engaged enough to watch and i missed that time i never thought i would get to a time and this was really the nail in the coffin i sat here uh what about three or four days ago and i looked at the state of wwe and how it's just structured as a whole with the advertising and the high ticket prices and you the the bad i mean just plain horrible creative and all these other things you know and i sat back and said to myself i miss vince mcmahon and i never felt so dirty in my life i feel disgusting right now saying it out loud but i missed vince mcmahon running this company and we all know that Vince McMahon. is one of the most vile horrible human beings that ever were walk god's green earth that's how bad it is but i'd rather that than what we're getting now but to circle back to how i feel a little weird about it it's not a decision where you might think is a heartbreaking decision being as though that i've been a huge fan of this company of this product for Over 40 years, as I said. And you would think that would have been a tough decision for me to make. But no, I feel good making this decision. I feel so at peace with myself right now. I can't even bring it into words. The only thing right now that I can honestly say with my whole heart that I will miss is Triple A. And that... just came into the equation and and that's more well no i mean wwe have his hands all over it of course you know i mean one of the greatest matches to take place in triple a or wwe in the last 10 years took place on a triple a card that was virtually free on youtube and that was uh el grande americano versus the og of el grande americano that match was epic the story was epic that's what i love about pro wrestling and i think that's what really brought everything to a conchendo with me i i i watched that match and what should be a jolt of uh uh adrenaline to get me back in love with wwe actually reversed it actually worked in the opposite way because i'm sitting there looking at that storyline that wrestling match these two performers with uh chad gabriel and uh luke with kaiser and just couldn't wrap my head around why can't we do this on the main roster why can't this be done on smackdown or raw or nxt for that matter or on these ple's why can't we get this type of storytelling why is it relegated to triple a it is like when triple h was over nxt when it first came to fruition the black and gold era when triple h was cooking when triple a's had uh d Undisputed Era, when he had Velveteen Dream, when he had Karrion Kross and all these all the, my god the women's division, if it wasn't for the NXT Black and Gold Era, we wouldn't have this women revolution that we have right now in wrestling, that's my humble opinion, with Bayley and Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, all them coming out of this era, with Bayley and Sasha Banks putting on probably one of the greatest women matches of all time at that takeover in brooklyn and all that spawned from there that's where the excitement for wwe when triple h took over creative we were like oh my god we're gonna get that maybe we put too high of an expectation on triple h in that regard obviously we did because we we haven't gotten an ounce of what we got you in NXT. And it's just getting worse and worse and worse. I want to say this. It's not the talent. It's not the performers. It's not the professional wrestlers. Because I love this roster. Especially this young crop that is moving up onto the main roster. Obafemi is going to be a beast. He's going to be the star for years to come. Javon Evans can rule the midcard for many years to come. Sol Ruka can put her stamp in the women's division for a while. It's so much there in the young talent. Now, we have the older talent that I also enjoy, but you look at them and you're like, we only have two years tops with a top. tier cm punk we have maybe two possibly three more years with a top tier roman reigns you know cody rhodes i don't know i don't know how long that would that that's gonna last but after that leaves then what then what you're left with yeah we have the young talent that i discussed but what else what else do we have and do you have faith in the creative to create a new star i have zero faith that Triple H can create a star. I think Shawn Michaels can create a star. He's doing a pretty decent job in NXT. NXT isn't what it used to be, but at least it's better than SmackDown. I can look at, I can watch NXT, but I can't watch any of the main roster. And it's to the point now, it's like pulling teeth sitting down watching Raw or SmackDown. it is so boring for one uninteresting uneventful no storylines being pushed no real it just doesn't feel like it's for the fans everything is so corporate now that tko or endeavour bought wwe and just turned it into this big branding corporation every two minutes We gotta get a shot. of the audience a celebrity an athlete or whatever you know promoting something you look at the ring the ring looks like a joke you have more advertisement in the ring it just takes your attention off of what's going on in the ring and if is that if that's not enough surrounding the ring you have advertisement the uh turnbuckles have a logo on it you know for for whatever they pushing that week the match is every match is sponsored by something you know it's it's just so corporate gone are the days of family of fans being included into the wrestling you know what i'm saying it doesn't feel fan oriented like vince mcmahon had i know i know i know that sounds crazy But it's the God's honest truth. Vince McMahon, Vince McMahon, for as devious as he is, would not have ticket prices as high as they are. He would make sure families can go enjoy the show. He at least did that. He wasn't that evil. He wasn't that vile and heartless. He knew where his bread was buttered at, you know, with the families. Having. an atmosphere it was it's called the wwe universe for a reason we're a part of the show we we are what fuels the show but now you watch wwe and it's a spectacle and not in a good sense not in the sense it used to be the crowd and the fans kind of turning the tide on pushes and who to push and who the uh uh heels are who the who the baby faces are is none of that anymore the lines are blurred kayfabe is dead and it just took all the allure away from wrestling everybody everybody knew or know that wrestling is scripted i don't call it fake because it's not fake these professional wrestlers and performers do put their body on the line every single night they step into the ring And so it is a real thing in that sense. The outcomes are predetermined, but performing in the ring, anything can happen. We've seen it time and time again. But going on the days of what was it? WrestleMania 30, the lead up to that with Daniel Bryan and the Yes Movement and completely changing the trajectory of WrestleMania. it. ultimately led to daniel brian or brian danielson whatever you want to refer to him as becoming the wwe champion uh kofi kingston the the lead up kofi mania the the fans got behind that you know to a lesser extent the the cody rhodes finishing the story when the rock came in and and threw a monkey wrench and to Cody Rhodes and Roman reigns. at wrestlemania and the backlash was unbearable to the point they had to pivot and the last example of the fans taking over was the uh our truth firing or releasing or allowing his contract to expire whatever the story they put out but the backlash behind that was so loud that they had to hire that man back do you know and that was the last time other other than that the fans aren't engaged and it takes something extreme as that for the fans to really have have their voices heard you know aside from that it's it's the same old same old you know recently we're back to the bloodline we're back to the bloodline store why because they are dead creatively there is nothing remotely interesting creatively that they can come up with so they have to rehash this bloodline storyline don't get me wrong the bloodline storyline at its peak was probably the best storyline in in the past 20 years in wrestling or uh 15 10 somewhere up in there i don't want to really go all the way back and like oh no it was such as that i'm not going that far but it definitely Lee most recently was the best storyline going and but going back to that well is an act of desperation It feels like. And it's not interesting. It's no longer interesting. The move from Peacock to ESPN, colossal mistake. Colossal mistake. It is unbearable to watch on ESPN. It really is. Watching WrestleMania Night 1 was the worst experience I ever had watching a PLE, pay-per-view, whatever. from wwe you had 10 10 to 15 minute commercial breaks between two matches that consecutively were seven seven minutes long it it made no sense whatever and and that's why those matches were short it they were so short because they had to fit in the commercial breaks you couldn't did the performers had no time to tell a story night two was different i don't know if they picked up on it or that was the original design or or layout for it but night two was vastly different because they knew it was horrible night one was horrible don't get me wrong peacock had its commercials it had its fair share of commercials but it wasn't as bad as it is on espn Then we get to this past year. This past year, when we've seen legends take off their boots in the middle of the ring. You know, you had John Cena, you had AJ Styles, and then you had the fake out of fake outs. Which was the nail in the coffin in that regard, in this particular category for me. It was Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. That was the one thing about WrestleMania that I enjoyed. The one thing, well, other than CM Punk and Roman Reigns, which was an awesome match. But Brock Lesnar retiring, being virtually squashed by Obafemi was amazing. And I thought that was such a poetic end to Brock Lesnar's career. There was no other way to go out if that was Brock Lesnar. wrestlemania virtually passing the torch to the next beast the next monster the next big thing in wwe on the biggest stage that there is it was perfect perfect he went down he he was crying he was emotional uh uh paul heyman was emotional he left his boots his gloves in the ring walked out Everybody cheered, you know, despite the fact that Brock Lesnar has his issues outside of the ring, you know, being wrapped up in this Janelle Grant thing with Vince McMahon and John Leranitis and all that other foolishness, you still had to respect Brock Lesnar as a WWE superstar. And I thought that was awesome. Completely awesome. Only... Only for them to come back, what, two months later? And he comes back and challenges Obafemi again. They fight at the pay-per-view or PLE, and he gets the win over Obafemi. And what was the point of all that? It just sucked all the air out of that great moment at WrestleMania. And I don't understand why. Because if the intentions was for Brock to retire at SummerSlam in Minnesota, his hometown, why did you have this match at WrestleMania? You should have saved it. No, you chose to shoot your load at WrestleMania. Why? Because you knew WrestleMania was not up to snuff. WrestleMania was not a good card. it wasn't that that whole wrestlemania was built around roman reigns and cm punk and cody rhodes and uh randy orton with pat mcafee which was the worst thing on wrestlemania probably the worst thing in wrestling that whole storyline but the cm punk roman reigns thing yeah other than that you had nothing else going into wrestlemania what else could we do let's have a big match let's have this big match against the two biggest stars the the legend the beast the up and coming obafemi let's get it all right cool if that's where you were gonna leave it but if you were gonna set up this uh uh trilogy which nine times out of ten you're gonna get just just just make it a trilogy you know don't have oh um not over but don't have brock go out there and fakers out the fake out is what bothers me it just bothers me the but Because when he do it again at SummerSlam, who cares? Who's going to care? That moment was wasted. And going back to the kayfabe of it all, coming out on Netflix, which was another mistake, moving Raw to Netflix was a bad idea. Because nothing changed. You know what I'm saying? It still... feels like is on the usa network there's no big change you would think on netflix it'll be more raunchier well i'm not saying go back to the attitude error but a little more raw no pun intended no actually it looks more bubble gummed up it looks it looks more toned down on netflix than it was on usa if that was a mistake but being on netflix and having that uh docuseries and i say that loosely the documentary uh uh unreal where we just go completely behind the curtain it's just no kayfabe no kayfabe at all takes all of the magic all of the joy out of it it's like watching if you grew up with your your mother or your grandparents uh when you was younger and they're watching young and the wrestlers or general hospital and all this other good stuff but after victor newman does what he does the next half hour after the show goes off we have a behind the scenes the making of that show it it's it's or any show any show i'm using soap operas because that's not that's what it used to be wrestling used to be a soap opera for men for boys you know for the for the male demographic now i don't know what it is but ultimately to kind of sum it up and and uh put a put a bull on all this my frustrations really lie in the fact that there's too many cooks in the kitchen there's too much going on you have chief uh chief uh creative officer with triple h He's supposed to be over creative. Then you have the corporate side who come in and interject. You know, you have Ari Emanuel who wants The Rock to come in so he can sell tickets. And The Rock will come in. He brings in his writers. And you have the board of directors who want to make changes. Nick Khan who wants to make changes and dictate this. You know, it's too much going on. It's too many. people with input on how the show is supposed to go as opposed once again uh bringing up satan uh vince mcmahon it was vince mcmahon a bus that was it it was one voice and that was it like it love it or hate it which we got a lot of that but that's the voice he he was the be all say all do wall and if all lied on his feet if it went great celebrate vince if it went horrible celebrate vince now we don't know honestly we don't know a lot of people are mad at triple h about certain things that are going on i'm not in that camp i don't think triple h is the reason for all of the problems he's a he's a reason for a bit of them quite a bit of them but not all of them There's a lot of hands in that pot, and it's too much to bear, way too much. And honestly, I don't know how to fix that. There's no way to fix it. The worst thing they could have did was sell this company, let alone sell this company to TKO or Endeavor and became TKO. It's just, it's too much of a corporate... brand now as opposed to just a regular wrestling promotion. you know aew for all of his flaws and oh my god they have a lot of them i i respect the fact that they are a wrestling promotion they're basically an indie wrestling promotion with a lot more money to run you know with a tv deal and i gotta respect it you know they they have a mission statement and they pretty much sticking to it as far as i know i don't watch aew now does that mean with me stopping uh my allegiance with wwe i'm gonna start watching aew absolutely not just can't i cannot bear watching dynamite or collision or any of their pay-per-views it i cannot i i can't stand watching aew aew is not my brand it's not that i hate them I really don't. I don't have any hate towards AEW. It's just not for me. That's like death matches, you know, the indie death matches and stuff like that. They're not for me. I grew up with WWF, later WWE, and that's how I roll. With WCW, that's how I roll. Early TNA, yes, I watched that. TNA now, not so much. At one point, at one point, I was starting to get a little excited about TNA when they started their partnership with WWE. And I say partnership loosely as well because it was more one-sided than anything. You thought we were going to get John Cena and Roman Reigns, you know, crossing the forbidden door, if you will, and going over there. No, it was just NXT. NXT, they didn't. they didn't incorporate anybody. Every now and then you'll see somebody in TNA crossover and do a show on the main roster on NWWE, you know, Joe Hendry and getting his WrestleMania moment with Roman Reigns as the TNA champion. That was cool. But aside from that, outside of that, they really haven't, they really haven't, just turned that corner as far as quality. Tried watching it. I just couldn't get into it ever since they've been on AMC. I just can't get into it. It's not good. It's just not a good show. But back to WWE. Yes, I've decided. I just can't. I can't do it anymore. And so with that being said, I know the question is, well. Kevin, are you still going to be doing Faces in Heels? No, I can't do Faces in Heels because I'm not going to be watching WWE. Now, this isn't an abrupt stop. Being as though Night of Champions is literally right around the corner, I'm still going to recap and react to Night of Champions because I am interested to see who will become King of the Ring. queen of the ring and whatnot uh but i i think that's gonna be our final show of uh faces and heels unless something drastic changes but as it stands right now and i know this isn't gonna change and that's my feelings i just cannot religiously watch wwe wrestling anymore i i this used to be Monday night, that's it. There's no disturbing. Leave me alone. I'm watching Raw. You know, Friday nights, I'm watching SmackDown. Leave me alone. Tuesday nights, I'm watching NXT. Leave me alone. On Saturdays, leave me alone. Definitely leave me alone. Saturday nights, it's a PLE. I don't care what the PLE was. I'm in front of TV. Not so much now. I'm free on Mondays and Friday nights. I'm still going to be a casual watcher because I'm a fan and believe it or not I love WWE. I still have a love for them. You know I still want them to succeed. I'm praying that they change. I'm praying that something different or some some type of change happens to whereas either we're going to get one voice that's going to dictate the show good or bad but just let it be that one voice and we're going to run with this instead of having everybody in in the office at endeavor putting their two sense in and just botching everything. Like they botch all the pushes. Why LA Knight has not been a champion after all these years on the main roster? Mind-boggling to me. Still don't understand it. Fent Balor not having gold around his waist. Blows my mind. Letting New Day just walk clean out the door. The New Day. Probably the greatest tag team. Well. top three top three greatest tag teams wwe has ever had on their roster you just let them walk out the door you know i mean if you really want to go all the way back which i'm not but just just for an example you let the hurt business which now they're the hurt syndicate you let them walk out the door and look what they did in aew when they first got there and not so much now But it's mind-boggling how they let these talents just walk. And you keep talents like Maxine Dupree, God bless her, but she can't wrestle. B-Fab can't wrestle. You know, why are you keeping these people around? You know, and I'm not saying take food out of these people's mouths because, you know, that's... that's not fair to them and i'm not that cruel of a person but the point i'm trying to make is there there's better talent on this roster than the people that they decided to keep now you're not going to let me believe that it's financial reasons which is the reason they always release oh we're making budget cuts but you're paying roman reigns like 50 million dollars a year or Something, and I'm embellishing it, of course, but you get my... you get my drift you paying all this money to is a top heavy as hell in wwe you get i don't know i i don't know then you and you're charging 2.8 million dollars to sit in the nosebleeds to watch a a wrestling show and you don't have money you're making budget cuts cut that cut the prices cut cut some of these ples we don't need one every single month we really don't we don't need a show every single month on ple on espn spread it out some the absence makes the heart go fonder but that's just a suggestion but anywho yes we're we're going to we're going to pause i'm not going to say we're shutting down faces and heels on the kb radio network But we're going to pause for a minute and hopefully maybe my love will return for this company, for this sport. And we can come back energized and excited to do it because it got to the point. It was obligation. It was all out of obligation. The last PLE clash in Italy did not want to watch it. I had no interest in watching that show. But I knew that I was going to react and recap it for the show, for the audience, for all of you guys. So I watched it out of protest. Well, under protest. And I did not enjoy the show. And that's not how I want to watch these shows. That's not how I want to recap, you know, and react. How can I react? Because I'm going into it not wanting to do it. And it wasn't fair to you. It wasn't fair to me. And it wasn't fair to WWE and those performers as well. So after I did that show, that's when I really sat back and started thinking, like, do you really want to do this or continue to do this with WWE? So with that being said, like I said, we're going to do one more for certain. That's Lockdown. We will recap and react to Night of Champions. on saturday june the 27th after that we'll wait and see we're gonna be in hover mode uh going forward on the faces and hills podcast but uh yeah man i'm gonna shut it down here but it is so much i wanted to get it is a lot more it isn't it isn't just the stuff i mentioned that that's merely 33 percent of the stuff that I'm bothered by when it comes to WWE right now. You know, Gunter. Gunter is probably the best professional wrestler in the business overall. And they literally had to find ways to incorporate him in plot lines and story lines and get him championship opportunities. And he's losing to Cody Rhodes and stuff like that. Come on, man. come on and then cody still holding on to the belt i'm i love cody rhodes i am happy for cody rhodes he returned he he went and proved himself returned won the championship beautiful story great story his father is one of my top three favorite wrestlers of all time i loved dusty rhodes growing up and just have that story come to a conclusion a few years ago was epic to me i got emotional when it happened you know love cody rhodes and he's one of the best storytellers in the business you know he gets it from his dad he's awesome but i'm tired of seeing him with that belt he's cody rhodes i mean come on it's cody at the end of the day we're talking about cody rhodes cody rhodes you need to tell me cody rhodes is that dominant of a professional wrestler stardust that he could defeat gunter roman reigns drew mcintyre cm punk john cena he he has went through hall of famers literally and and champions like they're nothing randy orton all these come on come on bro but I know. No, I think Cody Rhodes, Cody Rhodes story was 20 times more interesting as as the one chasing the belt, as opposed to trying to defend the belt. And we were getting too much of it. He's been the champion for the majority of the last two years. And it's time to take the belt off of. And then when he lose the belt, he only lose it for maybe two or three months at the most. I think John Cena took it off him for the longest tenure, but he got it right back under under stupid circumstances, which is creatives problem. But it's just so much that I wish I could get into wanted to get into. But I'll be here maybe for about three hours listing all the. issues because i ain't even get into their political things that i don't agree with you know all that it's just it's too much it's just too much for me and i just to protect my mental health i decided to step away for a minute but uh with all that being said i would love to know how are you feeling at it this state of wwe as it stands right now are you still a super fan are you still a part of the wwe universe and i'm not mad at it mad at you if you are you know because this was hard it at first it was hard and then when i started thinking you know weighing the pros and the cons it got kind of easy for me but you know when you love something so much and you've been following it so long Hey, hey. It's hard to let it go. But this wasn't hard for me because I've been feeling this way and hiding it from myself for so long. It was kind of easy for me just to walk away. But I would like to know. And if you're frustrated with it, but you're still holding on, I would like to know what what what what is it that's keeping you engaged? If there was one thing to keep me here engaged, I wouldn't I wouldn't even have made this show. I wouldn't even have made this announcement. I would have kept going business as usual. As much as I'm enjoying Obafemi, loving him since NXT. I remember when he came, he was the rising star the first time he appeared on there. From that moment on, I knew he was going to be something, and he is proving me right. You know, I like these young crops that they have called up to the main roster. I think this is truly the next generation, and I'm excited for that, but it's not enough to keep me engaged, and the reason is... They got called up, but that suck creative is still there. So I have no faith that they're going to progress on the main roster. But I want to know your thoughts. You can contact the show on our website, DKBRadioNetwork.com. You can also search for the show on all social media platforms. Just search for the KB Radio Network. Also, don't forget about YouTube. Subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel and like this video if you don't mind. Don't forget about the five stars, the reviews, and sharing this show. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, wherever, you are currently listening to Faces and Heels here on the KB Radio Network. Everybody, thank you for joining me as I made my grand announcement that I'm done. with wwe but not until june 27th after i recap night of champions and make it official until then hope you come back check me out after that ple and then we'll wait and see y'all be cool i'll catch y'all at night of champions peace