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In this episode, we discuss Crown Jedwel viewership numbers and concerns. Who is leaving TNA now? Why did Andrade leave WWE?

All of this and the rest of the day’s news and rumors are covered in this episode of the Fro Wrestling Podcast!

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Transcript
00:00Hey yo, Fro Wrestling Podcast listeners, welcome to the show where we don't sing it, we bring
00:05it.
00:05Help us out, click subscribe to show your support.
00:09This episode, another departure from TNA Wrestling, what's up with the Crown Jewel viewership
00:14and why did Andrade leave WWE?
00:17We'll get into that and the rest of the day's news and rumors in just a moment.
00:20For now, here's some tunes and I'll get right back to you.
00:30Fro, Fro, Fro Wrestling Podcast, Fro Wrestling, what, what, what, what, what, I got 141 and
00:47two-thirds chance of winning at Sacrifice, whoo, Fro Wrestling Podcast, as God is my witness,
00:55he is broken in half.
00:57And you are just a bucktooth netho baby who ate dog food for a weird old man.
01:03Yeah.
01:05Just when they think they got the answers, I change the questions.
01:10Did he do it?
01:11Cover.
01:12Oh, and a kick out.
01:14Unbelievable.
01:16I will never repair.
01:18Turn too hot to handle into cold water.
01:22And I am the Macho Finer and Savage.
01:27Shut your mouth, you thong-wearing fatty.
01:29It's me, Austin.
01:30Whoa!
01:31Bang!
01:32Whoa, Austin, podcast.
01:35Jacob 5-2 is all gas.
01:38No brakes with it.
01:40Y'all are made.
01:435-2.
01:45City Hall.
01:47City Hall.
01:49I said WWE stands for.
01:52Rock and Miami.
01:55Promotional consideration paid for by the following.
01:59Welcome back to the show.
02:01I am Dr. Fro.
02:02Thank you for taking time out of what I am sure is your busy day to spend some time with
02:06us
02:06and the Fro Wrestling Podcast.
02:09Let's get into the important stuff, the sponsorship stuff.
02:13Our lead sponsor, as always, if you are sick and tired of dropping 60 to 100 bucks every
02:18single year, especially after you factor in all the player packs and expansions for
02:22the latest and greatest wrestling video game, stop immediately, put that cash back in your
02:26pocket, head over to Wrestler Unstoppable, and it's totally free.
02:30Create a wrestler, sign contracts, get into storylines, headline PLEs, even build your own
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02:45If you go to Wrestler Unstoppable tonight and you go and look up Odin Maximus, that is
02:50my avatar, send me an in-game message.
02:53Let me know you're one of my listeners and I will send you a contract offer to join my
02:57organization within that game, Universal Wrestling Evolution, and help you get a start
03:01in the game.
03:01If you want to become a member of the Fro Wrestling Podcast family, we'd love to have
03:05you.
03:05There are multiple tiers to do this.
03:07Head over to patreon.com slash frowrestlingpodcast, and if you'd like, just become a member of
03:12the family.
03:13It's free.
03:13No cost, no obligation to just become a member there at the free tier.
03:17If you want to be a monetary donor to the show, help us keep the lights on and bring
03:21the content to you, then any monetary donation, we will make sure we put you into the shout
03:26outs like my good buddy John down in Texas.
03:29John, I hope you're listening.
03:30I love giving you that shout out.
03:31Thank you for all of your support over the years.
03:33If you want to do more than that, you want to be a part of the show, you want to
03:36co-host
03:37with me, at the $15 a month tier or higher, we will negotiate a date, time, and topic,
03:43and thing you want to talk about, and we will create an episode around your interests at
03:47that $15 a month or higher tier.
03:49At the $7.50 a month level, you get entered into a drawing to also have that same opportunity.
03:54So, all the stuff being covered and said, if you have questions, concerns, something you
04:00want me to touch on in a future episode, there are two ways to make sure I get that information.
04:04One, the Fro Wrestling Sound Offline, 267-642-1160.
04:09In that, it's a talk-to-text service.
04:11Let them know what you want me to talk about.
04:13I'll address that in a future episode.
04:15However, if you want a much more expeditious way to talk to me, you want me to get back
04:19to you faster, then go into whatever streaming service you're getting our show from.
04:23Like, share, subscribe, but most importantly, in terms of what we're talking about here,
04:28comment.
04:29Your comments come straight to me, and I respond to every comment I get.
04:33Your comments tell me what you want to hear about, what you want to talk about, what your
04:36feelings about things are that we cover on the show, and if you have something that's
04:40important to you, then it's important to me.
04:41Because let's be honest, there is no show without you.
04:44You guys are the drivers of this.
04:46So, please, please, please comment in whatever social media platform you're doing.
04:50Of course, we'd love the subscriptions.
04:52We'd love all the likes and all that stuff.
04:54That all helps the logarithm and helps us bring you more content.
04:57But, at the end of the day, the comments is the best way to personally, one-on-one, interact
05:01with me and get me to be able to engage in the things that you want to talk about.
05:04So, tonight, let's talk TNA to start the show.
05:07TNA has seen a mass exodus of talent over the last several months, starting all the way
05:11back with the Tommy Dreamer release when he was in creative and he left the company.
05:15Various other talents along the way have been let go.
05:18TNA took on a policy of short-term contract signing, a lot of per-appearance signings.
05:25And, now, we've seen a lot of their talent that has actually been there for an extended
05:28period of time start to leave the company.
05:30And, today, another one.
05:31Liang Li, formerly known as Xia Li in WWE, who's a former Knockouts champion.
05:36She's done a lot in her two years in TNA Wrestling.
05:39She is now gone from TNA Wrestling.
05:41Word is she's also getting conversations going with other major promotions.
05:45Now, you can speculate on who those are.
05:47She's been to WWE before.
05:49I'm sure they're clearly familiar with her and maybe they feel confident after seeing
05:52her perform in TNA that maybe that's something they could explore again and have her come
05:56back.
05:57If not, what about AEW?
05:59Now, here's the thing.
06:01These companies can't hire everybody.
06:03Okay?
06:04You just can't hire everybody.
06:05As much as they're incredible talents, you can't hire everybody.
06:08Now, where would she slate into the AEW roster?
06:11I don't know the answer to that.
06:12I would be perfectly fine with her in AEW.
06:14Does she do something on the indies?
06:16Does she go to GCW?
06:17MLW is talking about bolstering their roster and then cutting other people that aren't
06:21bringing the value.
06:22Does she go to Japan and wrestle for Stardom or Marigold?
06:27There's a lot of options for her.
06:29Does she go to WWE now that they have AAA and does she add a unique presence to the AAA
06:34brand if she goes down there?
06:36CMLL doing crazy business right now and they love having talents from all over the world.
06:40So there's so many opportunities for her that I'm really hoping that wherever her next
06:46step is, I hope they treat her like the star she is.
06:48She is a fantastic in-ring worker.
06:50She's proven that the last two years.
06:52She was just getting traction in WWE when they released her and, you know, some of the
06:56releases, they make some sense.
06:58You know, when you're in WWE and you're never going to progress past a certain level, they
07:03don't necessarily want to invest more money in you since you're not going to show them
07:05a great return.
07:06However, she's somebody who could and TNA proved that and they had the confidence in her to
07:12make her the TNA knockouts champion.
07:15Hopefully, she's not unemployed for very long and has already had some productive conversations
07:20and finds herself in a new, more permanent home very, very soon.
07:24From there, got to talk about WWE Crown Jewel.
07:27The numbers are coming in and Dave Meltzer addressed this on the latest Wrestling Observer
07:31Radio that this is going to be the lowest viewed show of all PLEs in 2026 for WWE.
07:38The average shows, according to Dave Meltzer, are in the 2 million viewer count range, with
07:44the exceptions, of course, of like WrestleMania, SummerSlam, the big ones, Royal Rumble, but
07:48the general pay-per-view, the general PLE, is typically bringing in 2 million people.
07:53This show brings in estimates of between 1.2 and 1.3 million.
07:57That's a significant drop-off.
07:59Now, what contributes to that?
08:01Is that a boycott by fans who don't want to see them go to Saudi Arabia?
08:05I don't know.
08:05I don't really believe that.
08:07I'm not thrilled they went to Saudi.
08:09I think it's a terrible decision, but that terrible decision is not going to prevent me
08:13from watching great wrestling action.
08:15I watched Crown Jewel.
08:17I didn't want to do it to support WWE, but I get a free ESPN Plus membership because of
08:22my DirecTV.
08:23So, it's not costing me anything.
08:25They're not getting anything else out of me.
08:27They're getting one more view, but at the end of the day, I don't care how many views
08:29they get.
08:31I'm not buying new merchandise from the company right now.
08:33You know what I mean?
08:34So, is it that?
08:35I don't think so.
08:36I think wrestling fans want to see wrestling action.
08:38And there was a solid card.
08:39The problem might be that there were only four matches on the card.
08:42Let's be honest.
08:44Maybe if the Finn Balor, the demon character, was taking Gunther, maybe that would have helped
08:47a little bit.
08:48But I think Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton is enough of a draw to open the show.
08:52I thought that was solid.
08:53I think the tag team title match was shocking in how it ended.
08:57I don't think people saw that coming.
08:58And the influx of Bronson Reed and Obafemi into that match situation, it really put that
09:04match over.
09:04And it was actually a very good match.
09:06The two Crown Jewel Championship matches, they were, I think, what most people expected
09:10them to be.
09:11And I've heard lots of people talk about the Liv Morgan-Chelsea-Green match, talk about
09:15how it wasn't the greatest wrestling match ever.
09:17If you went into that match expecting it to be a phenomenal catch-as-catch-can match, then
09:21you're a fool.
09:22That was never going to be the case.
09:24Liv has chemistry with some people, as does Chelsea, but that doesn't mean they're going
09:27to necessarily have chemistry with each other.
09:29I think they made the best they could out of this situation.
09:32And keeping in mind that they can't even beat all the character that they normally are
09:36because of where they're at.
09:38And I'm sure they're performing with some form or some level of duress because the understanding
09:43is that pretty much nobody wanted to go to this show out of safety concerns.
09:46So while you're out there in the ring, you probably have that in the back of your mind,
09:50like, oh my God, please don't let anything happen while I'm out here.
09:54So I don't fault the ladies.
09:55I think their match was fine for what it was supposed to be.
09:57And when you get to the Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn match, that, to me, was fantastic.
10:01And the ending segment with the handshake and the hug and the, you're not an honorary
10:07oos, you're an uso, like all that stuff, that was as good as it could possibly get.
10:12So the show itself was fine.
10:15Could they have done more matches?
10:16Probably, and I think that would have helped quite a bit.
10:19I think WWE has gotten so comfortable with these four, five, six match cards, and it's
10:25not what people want to see.
10:27Back in the day, and when I say that, I feel so old when I say that, but when I
10:30went to
10:30WrestleMania I, I went to WrestleMania II.
10:33When I was at WrestleMania's, there was 12 matches on the card some years.
10:38WrestleMania III had like an enormous card.
10:41And WrestleMania IV had a whole tournament in one night, kind of like King of the Ring
10:44the first year, the first pay-per-view year.
10:47And, you know, now we're to the point where we're in and out with six matches.
10:50There's some SmackDown or Raw episodes where you can cram six matches in.
10:54And a PLE is supposed to supersede those types of offerings.
10:58And a lot of the matches on the card, the tag team match in particular, and kind of the
11:03Live in Chelsea match, both were, it felt like more like television matches, not PLE matches.
11:07So maybe that would have helped a little bit.
11:09Like if I was tuning into the show, and there are people who reach out to me during these
11:13PLEs, and they go, hey man, what's going on in the show?
11:15Is it worth me tuning in?
11:16If there's something incredible happening, then I'm always willing to share that with
11:20people.
11:20But if I'm not impressed, or if I don't think it's one of these things where like you
11:23have to tune in live, like there's a lot of them to be PLEs anymore where it's like,
11:27you know what, I'll catch it later.
11:28I'll catch it when I have some more downtime.
11:31This was not the case.
11:31I thought this was a good show, but a lot of people didn't know that.
11:34But there was also nothing on the show that was so diehard, have to see it in the
11:37moment, except maybe the end of the Roman Sami match.
11:41So take that for what you will.
11:43I don't know how that's going to play out going forward.
11:45I'm sure that Saudi Arabia would like to see higher numbers for something they're paying
11:50so much money for.
11:50I'm sure WWE would like to see higher numbers just because that helps them negotiate media
11:54rights deals with other companies when they have contract renewals coming for other
11:58properties.
11:59So I don't know.
12:00Interesting stats, interesting numbers.
12:01Does not surprise me though that it's the lowest rate.
12:03And keep in mind too, the time of day that it aired too.
12:05We're not talking about something that was daring in prime time.
12:08This was something that aired early, early on in the day.
12:11So very different expectations, at least for me, about that.
12:15Andrade in the news today talking about when he left WWE.
12:18One of his frustrations was that they wanted him to go work in AAA and that he was on the
12:23Talk is Jericho podcast and on the Jericho cruise, I'm assuming is where they recorded
12:28this.
12:29And basically he was saying like, you know, he already did a bunch of stuff in Mexico.
12:32He came to WWE to wrestle the best wrestlers in the world, all over the world.
12:37He wanted to go to other countries and he mentioned some in the, in his interview and, you know,
12:41he wanted to see other places.
12:43He didn't want to go back to Mexico where everybody already knew him and he kind of did everything
12:46he needed to do in Mexico.
12:49So when WWE wants to send him down, then that becomes problematic for him because that's
12:54what he was there to do.
12:56That's not what he negotiated to do.
12:58And if I was him, I would take that little look at that and consider that to be a demotion
13:01as well.
13:01If you remember right before he left WWE, he was doing the tag team stuff with Ray Phoenix.
13:06I thought there may have been some traction there.
13:08I thought they could have put Penta with he and Phoenix and really started a, like a new
13:12level LWO kind of thing, but they didn't go that route.
13:15Santos Escobar was still under contract at that point.
13:18They could have done something and brought him into the fold.
13:19And instead, WWE kind of dropped the ball on all these, these talents and it led to
13:24his release and him leaving and that crazy contract situation with the no compete clause
13:30that they eventually get rid of.
13:31And he ends up in AEW and now he's thrilled because he was welcome back with open arms.
13:34He can apply his craft on a much bigger stage than AAA.
13:38No offense to AAA.
13:39I love everything AAA is doing, but they're not WWE.
13:41AAA is not AEW and that's what he wanted.
13:44And I'm thrilled that he's enjoying what he's doing now.
13:46I think he's put himself in position where at some point this year, I actually expect
13:50him to win the AEW world championship.
13:52He is so over with the fans.
13:54His character is really fresh compared to what it used to be.
13:57I think it might be time.
13:58And I think this interview really highlights why he, he really had his head in the right
14:03space.
14:03He knew what he wanted.
14:04He went out to get it.
14:05Um, in the release, it was not a bad thing.
14:09And, uh, I, I, I, I think the thing that really shocked me about the interview the most
14:12is how complimentary he was of what he referred to as his ex-wife.
14:16You know, that would be Charlotte flair, very complimentary for others.
14:19Didn't sound like there's a lot of bad blood there or anything like that.
14:22So that was, that was nice to hear.
14:23It really was.
14:24Cause that's not always the case.
14:25Um, and the last thing for tonight, according to the hump podcast, Sean, Sean Ross Sapp was
14:30talking about MJF and what is going on with MJF and his status with AEW.
14:35He is claiming that MJF is coming back very soon.
14:38He'll be in a top program coming back to AEW television.
14:41He has been gone for too long.
14:42I'm sorry.
14:43I guess he's leaving to take time off the heel injuries.
14:46I understand that.
14:47But when you're getting involved with new Japan pro wrestling, setting up a match at wrestle
14:51kingdom and all that, then you're able to go.
14:53And AEW is heading into a part of the year where we have the continental classic coming
14:57up, or at least I assume we're going to have that world's end type stuff.
15:00If they're going to have a continental classic this year, he has to be a part of it because
15:04that's exactly the thing they should be looking at doing with the MJF right now.
15:07He had the world championship twice last year.
15:09He's had it three times overall and whatnot.
15:11It's time to do something different with him and keep him away from that title for a
15:15while.
15:16When it comes to people like hangman page and back in the day, Cody Rhodes, you give
15:20them stipulations where they can never challenge for that title again.
15:23I don't need MJF in that picture right now.
15:25If you're not going to give him that stipulation, just give these talents something else to do
15:29him going into the continental classic and maybe defeating John Moxley for that championship
15:34would be a very interesting angle to it.
15:37It gives him a different championship to run with.
15:38He could stay away from the world title picture for a while and do some other things.
15:43But whatever this is that's planned for him, apparently it is supposed to be a big angle,
15:47a big program, and he will be a big focal piece of the product going forward, which I
15:51don't think surprises anybody.
15:53But what do you think?
15:54Tell me in the comments down below.
15:55What do you think about this crown jewel situation?
15:58Do you think this is the byproduct of fans boycotting WWE over being in Saudi?
16:02Or is this the match card?
16:03Is it the quality?
16:04Is it the buildup?
16:05Is it the time of the day?
16:06You let me know in the comments.
16:08Where do you think Yi Ling Li should go next?
16:11Should she go back to WWE?
16:12Hit up NXT?
16:13Should she go to AAA?
16:14Should she go to AEW?
16:15If she does, tell me what you think you should do with her when she gets wherever you think
16:19she should go.
16:19You know?
16:20But whatever your opinions are, please give them to me in the comments down below so
16:24I can respond to you as soon as possible.
16:26For now though, that's all the time we have for this episode.
16:29Check back with us next episode.
16:30We run down the latest wrestling news and rumors.
16:31Special thanks as always to Suno for creating the music and sound effects we use on our
16:35show.
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18:08today, for tomorrow, and for life with Fro Life.
18:11I'm Fred Froelich, better known as Dr. Fro.
18:14I want to thank you for taking some time with us today.
18:16Until next time, take care, everybody.
18:17Have a great night.
18:44Harduntą presence!
18:47Wrestling Podcast
18:49Wrestling Podcast

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