The Taz Show Recap – LaVar Ball Invades RAW, Enzo & Big Cass Swerve, How to Hold A Title, More!

Block 1:

Taz opens today’s show speaking about the MizTV segment from last night’s RAW, which featured guest stars LaVar Ball and his two sons. LaVar Ball is a lightning rod in the sporting world right now, and WWE knew that they’d garner the attention of the mainstream sporting media if they had him make a guest appearance on RAW.

Taz says he’s sure that Vince McMahon knew this was going to be horrible, but he was definitely laughing his ass off in the Gorilla position. The positives outweighed the negatives in this situation, and that’s why McMahon loves to do these things from time to time. Regardless of all this, Taz was incredibly annoyed by Ball’s antics and wanted to jump through his television to beat him up.

He adds that he feels very sorry for Lonzo Ball, son of LaVar, who was recently drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers. His father’s heat resulted in him actually getting booed by the WWE audience in his hometown of Los Angeles, and he now has a huge target on his back as he enters his rookie season in the NBA.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Karma Gets Jeff Jarrett, Responding to Corey Graves, More!

Russo says that he can’t believe how much people are talking about him lately, whether it be on their podcasts or on the WWE Network. He says that he’s currently waiting on a bill from WWE for all the promotion that he has been receiving lately that frankly, he wouldn’t be able to afford. At this point, he’s starting to think it’s all a rib.

Russo comments on the recent passing of Adam West. He says that the original Batman (Adam West) was his first hero, and he looked up to him as a child. There have been only two people in the world that he really wanted to meet, Gene Simmons and Adam West. He was lucky enough to meet Simmons during his time working in WCW, and years later he was able to meet West.

Russo said he had one question that he really wanted to ask West, “How were you able to portray that Batman character so perfectly?” West looked at him and said, “Vince, the first time they gave me the script and I read the script, I got it.” West knew right away what the Producers and Writers wanted from this character and he was able to get into that frame of mind right from the start.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Monday Nitro Analysis, Cutting A Live Promo for the First Time, Old Guard vs. New Blood, More!

On today’s show Russo and his co-host Jeff Lane will be discussing WCW’s Monday Nitro from April 10th, 2000.

Russo says that watching this show made him sad because it’s evident that he could work well and create some good television with Eric Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett. This was the first episode of Monday Nitro that he co-wrote with Eric Bischoff, and he really wishes they could let bygones be bygones and move on with their lives without all of this bad blood.

Russo informs that he originally reached out to WCW after Vince McMahon told him to get a nanny to take care of his kids. Family was more important than that to Russo, so he inquired about work opportunities in WCW. Russo was hired in WCW as head writer, but he knew pretty early on that things were problematic there.

Bill Bush, an Accountant, was looking over WCW at that time for TNT and he knew nothing about professional wrestling. Russo and Ed Ferrara’s first goal when arriving in WCW was to elevate the mid card and introduce some new blood into the main event picture. The old guard of main eventers like Hulk Hogan and Sting were not happy about this, and they were quick to get in Bush’s ear.

Rumor on TJ Perkins Changing His Name

Bryan Alvarez made the following remarks about WWE’s decision to change TJ Perkins’ name to simple “TJP” on an installment of the Bryan and Vinny Show:

“I was told this by someone in WWE and I believe it. It’s astonishing because I suggested this like a month ago when it happened and it wasn’t until yesterday that somebody told me that it’s true. TJP is no longer TJ Perkins and I largely joked that clearly, Vince McMahon had a bad experience at a Perkins [restaurant]. Sure as s**t, Vince apparently hates Perkins. I was told that Perkins is not a national chain but apparently, he hates it and he thinks it sucks and he thinks that if people hear ‘TJ Perkins’ they’re gonna think of the f**king restaurant so now he’s TJP. I’m just telling you what I was told. This guy [McMahon] is crazy enough that I believe that.”

TJP caught wind of the story when a follower on Twitter mentioned it to him and indicated that it was his idea to change the name.

Vince McMahon Says Chris Jericho Is The Only Person Who Could Get “Stupid Idiot” Over with Fans

Chris Jericho recently spoke with Rock 100.5 ATL’s Bailey and Southside. Here are some highlights:

The Creation of The List: “Working with this guys who’s a writer in the WWE named Jimmy Jacobs. He used to be a [pro] wrestler. He came up to me one day and said, ‘what if we do something where you put somebody on this list?’ I’m like, ‘I knew this guy once who had a list of people he didn’t like.’ I’m like, ‘oh, that sounds funny.’ So I said it and it kind of got a reaction.” Jericho said, “the whole concept of The List went through the roof. The List is more popular than 85% of the guys on the show. The List is more popular than I am! And you just never know what’s going to make an impression with fans.”

Getting Stupid Idiot Over: “They’re chanting it now, ‘stupid idiot’ and I remember when I started saying that, Vince was like, ‘nobody could say this, nobody can get away with this, but you can. You’re the only guy in the world who could do this’ because when I started using ‘stupid idiot,’ it got heat. I would call the fans, ‘you’re a stupid idiots’ and they’d be like, ‘boo!’ and then, like everything else, suddenly people loved it.”

Dinner with the King Recap – ‘This is Your Life’ Reaction, Invading the ECW Arena, Hatred from Fans, More!

Lawler opens today’s show speaking about the ‘This is Your Life’ segment featuring Alexa Bliss and Bayley on this week’s episode of RAW. He says that WWE probably wishes they had another opportunity to re-write this or scrap it altogether, because it certainly didn’t go as planned.

He says that you have to give WWE creative a break from time to time because they’re producing 5 hours of live television every single week of the year, and not everything is going to be must-see television. It’s impossible to write the best segment of all time every single show, so he has no issue cutting WWE some slack on this segment.

Moore says he’s not buying that, and he feels that somewhere along the way someone should have pulled this segment from the show. It was very difficult to watch and it probably should have been scrapped during rehearsals. Lawler says that he’s worked on RAW and Smackdown for many years and he has seen a lot of stuff that was hard to watch. Sometimes things just don’t turn out the way you hope.

Lawler also points out that this was live television, and anything can happen on live television. Vince McMahon and the company’s philosophy is that nothing can go wrong on live television, because whatever happens happens.

Reason Why Sasha Banks Loss to Alicia Fox on Monday’s RAW

As seen on the May 8th episode of RAW, Sash Banks pinned Alicia Fox, but the the former Divas Champion had a shoulder up outside the ref’s field of vision, which led to Fox getting another shot at The Boss this past Monday night. This time around, Fox won the match.

With Noam Dar at ringside, Fox managed to muscle out of a Bank Statement attempt and nailed Banks in the small of her back with a ruthless Scissor Kick to claim the victory.

For those wondering about Banks losing to Fox, the word going around is that Vince McMahon isn’t high on her like other people are. Therefore, he won’t protect her from losing matches.

While McMahon recognizes the reaction that Banks gets from the crowd and her overall appeal, he believes that she is injury prone because of how she operates in the ring.

It’s also believed that a long title reign is very unlikely for her anytime soon.

Banks became a three-time champion last year, but she didn’t have a successful title defense against Charlotte Flair. A lot of the reasoning behind that is McMahon doesn’t trust her to hold a title for long periods of time.

Banks has a history of back problems and that is a huge huge red flag for McMahon because he sees putting the RAW Women’s Championship on her as a big risk. She’s been hurt or injured quite often and will need to have back surgery eventually.

Earl Hebner Says He’ll Probably Never Go Into the WWE Hall of Fame

Earl Hebner recently appeared on Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling, here are the highlights from his appearance:

Did he think after that night in Montreal, the wrestling business would still be talking about the Screwjob 20 years later: “Not at all. Not at all. But it is just one of those things that it is like Hogan and Andre it was shocking to the world and believe me the people in Canada still hate me. I have talked to Bret and we are great friends and we’ve had a couple personal appearances together and hugged me and he hugged my brother (Dave) and we all know the deal. I really don’t want to go into all that because we all know the deal.”

Doing the “You Damn Right I Did” act at shows and who did “screw Bret”: “Whenever I’m around Bret I don’t bring them and truthfully Vince screwed Bret. Earl didn’t screw Bret, Vince screwed Bret. Earl did what he had to do. It was his (Vince’s) command and that is what happened but I think most Americans understand but I don’t think any Canadians will ever forgive me but I hope that they do. If you look at my track record, I’ve been put in a lot of tough spots in my career. Where other referees would not volunteer, Vince knew what I would do and whatever his demands were is what I did. So you can’t put the blame on me, you’ve got to put it on him.”

Will he ever be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and being inducted into the IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Fame: “It an honor and since I’ll probably never go into the WWE Hall of Fame because we still have problems down the road and it doesn’t really matter to me whether I do or I don’t, anybody that knows me will know who I am. If Vince doesn’t ever want to induct me into it that is fine. I really think I should be but the problems that we still have, it is what it is. If I never get in there that is fine and it is no problem to me but people know who I am and I’ll let it be my legend of being a Hebner and I’ll just base it on that.”

Being the “evil twin” referee in Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant’s Main Event title match his first night in the WWE: “I was nervous. They invented this whole program over about I’d say a good three weeks in Connecticut. Bu it was great for me that I was the evil twin (and I’m still evil) and if you look at my past record you can tell I’m evil (laughing), I’m actually not I am a nice guy but it worked great for me that they put me on the goal line of working for somebody and I’m not knocking the NWA but to make a life in this business and to make money. It was so quiet or if you want to say it was kayfabed so long and nobody knew anything until it happened. It was so great. It is the way the business should be but today it isn’t like it was when I first started. What a great opportunity for me and it made me who I am today and is one of the main angles that made me who I am today.”

The injury sustained after Hulk Hogan launched Earl over his intended target of Ted Dibiase, Virgil and Andre: “When he started running and I was in his arms, I was saying to myself that is not the plan. He was supposed to walk to the ropes and throw me in their arms. When he shot me I missed everybody including Andre and when I hit the floor I destroyed my rotator cuff in my right arm. When I hit that floor it just exploded my whole right arm and rotator cuff and I was out for about eight weeks or nine weeks getting it repaired. When I got to the back I was thinking that this is sure a good way to get into the front door because when I hit that concrete floor and it exploded, brother it was horrible.”

Talk is Jericho Recap w/ Jinder Mahal – Becoming Number One Contender, Relationship with Great Khali, Origins of 3MB, More!

Jericho welcomes Jinder Mahal to the show.

Jericho mentions that Mahal appeared to come out of nowhere to become the new number one contender for the WWE Championship. He says he was told the day before winning the 6-pack challenge on Smackdown Live that he was going to become the number one contender. Concerning his run as an enhancement talent prior to this, Vince McMahon told him that WWE’s audience has a short memory and Mahal says, “I guess we’ll all find out about that”.

Mahal says he got pretty down on himself emotionally after being released from WWE a couple of years ago. He was drinking a lot and his weight ballooned to 260 lbs. He realized that he needed to change his lifestyle, so he began dieting and getting into shape, and soon enough WWE came calling. He says that Impact Wrestling actually called him about coming to work for them as well, but he chose to come back to WWE.

He says that during those two years he was very negative and was working the indie scene and just didn’t care. As soon as he started to care about himself and his wrestling again, everything changed and opportunities started to arise again. He says he’s remaining very positive now, and he keeps a daily planner of his goals. One of his goals is to have the best body in WWE, and another is to win the WWE Championship.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Triple H Working Vince McMahon, Safety Concerns in Wrestling, Booker T’s Commentary, More!

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

Russo comments on the dynamic at the top of WWE between Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. Russo says a fan wrote him a letter this past week suggesting that Triple H is ‘working’ his father-in-law, Vince McMahon, in an attempt to ascend to the top of the mountain that is WWE.

Russo truly believes that Triple H is working Vince McMahon, and although he had a lot of pleasurable experiences with Triple H in the past, he also remembers times when he wasn’t as easy to deal with. He recalls one time when Triple H refused to do the job for D-Lo Brown, who had put Triple H over for months upon months. This really aggravated Russo because the creative team wanted to keep D-Lo Brown strong and the one time they asked Triple H to return the favour, he refused to do so.

The fan who wrote Russo suggested that Triple H has convinced McMahon that social media is WWE’s most important statistic at this point, ahead of television ratings and things of the sort. Since social media is compiled mostly of hardcore fans, WWE’s product has skewed towards a niche fanbase in an attempt to get positive reinforcement from their social media target base.