The Taz Show Recap – Money in the Bank Predictions, It’s Mahal’s Time, Lita Returning at MITB? More!

A listener calls into the show and tells Taz that in a recent ‘I Quit’ match on the indie scene, one performer pulled a gun on the other in order to make them quit. The caller thinks that was a bit much, and Taz agrees. In this day and age, Taz doesn’t think there’s a place for that stuff in the business of professional wrestling, but that’s strictly his opinion.

Taz gets into his Money in the Bank predictions.

He says that it’s weird to see a PPV with only five matches on the card, but he admits that the two Money in the Bank ladder matches will eat up a large portion of time. He points out that it takes a long time to tell good physical stories when ladders are involved.

The Usos vs. The New Day – The Usos

* Taz doesn’t think that The New Day needs the Titles right now, and a win over New Day will strengthen The Usos’ Title run significantly. Taz thinks that The Usos are one of the freshest acts on WWE programming right now, and he’d like to see their Title reign continue.

Lana vs. Naomi (C) – Lana

* Taz thinks Lana will defeat Naomi for the Smackdown Live Women’s Championship, but he doesn’t think that’s a good idea at all. He thinks that Naomi has had a good run with the Championship, but it’s evident that WWE wants to push Lana to the moon. After debuting with a big entrance and a new gimmick, a loss here for Lana will kill her run before it even gets started.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Russo as WCW Champion, Changing Landscape of the Wrestling Business, Undertaker Returning? More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane and Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno).

Russo comments on the growing speculation online, that WWE’s promotional image for the upcoming ‘Great Balls of Fire’ PPV resembles a penis and two testicles. Sasha Banks even tweeted this week that she actually agrees with the speculation and can see the resemblance. Russo doesn’t understand why WWE would blatantly do this given their ‘PG’ environment, and the fact that their target fanbase is mostly children.

Gilbertti points out that there was a recent study which concluded that the median age of WWE’s fanbase is 54. Russo is shocked by this news but it proves what he’s been saying for a long time now, that WWE isn’t making new fans. Gilbertti says that this number has nearly doubled from 28 in 2000, and today’s fans are mostly attitude era leftovers. He adds that WWE’s fans are literally dying off.

Russo says that wrestling isn’t ‘cool’ anymore, and teenagers aren’t watching today’s product. In turn, WWE is unable to generate and maintain new fans. Gilbertti says that WWE had the biggest increase of median fan age from 2000 to 2017 out of the 25 sports that were studied.

X-Pac 1, 2, 360 Recap w/ Road Dogg – Writing for Smackdown Live, Women’s MITB Details, Picking on The Rock, More!

X-Pac opens today’s show congratulating Samoa Joe on his big win at last Sunday’s Extreme Rules PPV. He says that he’s known Joe for a while, and he knew it was only a matter of time before Joe made his way to WWE. Even when Joe was doubting his own ability to get there, X-Pac knew his talent and abilities would eventually land him in WWE.

He thought it was strange that WWE implemented a submission stipulation in the cruiserweight match between Austin Aries and Neville. He says that submission matches often limit the talents’ ability to provide exciting false finishes and in the case of the cruiserweights, it hindered some of the high flying abilities of those two men. Nonetheless, he thought Aries and Neville pulled it off and had a good match.

X-Pac comments on WWE’s recent signing of Thea Trinidad. Trinidad recently played the role of A.J. Lee in the upcoming Paige biopic, and X-Pac thought she was marvellous in that role. He says he wasn’t surprised by this signing at all, and he thinks she’ll start in NXT before making her jump to the main roster.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Analyzing Bash at the Beach 2000, Getting ‘Screwed’ by Bischoff & Hogan, Shoot or Work? More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane. On this episode, Russo will discuss the events leading up to and during WCW’s Bash at the Beach PPV on July 9th, 2000.

Lane says that he was 21 years old at the time and he watched this PPV live. He thought the entire thing was a shoot and even the dirt sheets reported that it was a shoot at that time. It wasn’t until years later when he was smartened up by a friend, who Russo had told that the whole thing was a work. Russo says that even to this day, people ask him if that angle was a work or not.

Russo says that he never watches his old shows because it really hurts him to do so. For so long people have criticized him for ‘killing WCW’ and while it never made any sense to him, he allowed it to get to him. After watching this show, he thinks that premise is hilarious. This PPV occurred three months before he left the company, and the audience is insanely hot and 100% into the product for the entire duration of the show.

He says that the more he thinks about it, he was completely set up by Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. The things that he’s about to say regarding Bischoff on his show today are not new, and he’d say it to Bischoff’s face if Bischoff were to come on the show to discuss it.