WOL: Hour one talking Elimination Chamber, dual-brand shows, Raw Monday, more!

Wrestling Observer Live is back this Sunday afternoon with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive for the first hour. The second hour, featuring Mike Sempervive going solo, will be posted in a few hours.

The show starts off with a rundown of Elimination Chamber this Sunday. Following an update on CMLL following a major 7.2 earthquake, Bryan reads questions regarding Wrestling Observer Awards voting and Tetsuya Naito at AAW.  Bryan and Mike then talk about the news that Raw and SmackDown brand-only events are over, and WWE is going back to dual-brand events after Fastlane in March.

Bryan runs down the matches for Raw tomorrow, then answers question on Ben Askren and his chances of getting to UFC, as well as Joey Janela and his recent success on the indie scene over the last year. Before going to break, Bryan and Mike start to answer a question about why politically-charged characters like the Iron Sheik don’t work anymore in today’s landscape.

More in-depth discussion on politically-charged characters following the next break. Questions in this segment includes calls on believable characters, a possible match between Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi, CM Punk, the number of Money in the Bank matches, and Rob Gronkowski possibly heading to WWE.

Timestamps:

0:00 – 2:23 Intro, Elimination Chamber rundown

2:23 – 12:16 CMLL cancellation, questions, demise of single-brand events

12:16 – 23:14 Raw rundown, more questions

23:14 – 37:10 More talk about politically-charged characters & more questions

37:10 – 38:52 Ending

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