It's A Whole New World For The New York Yankees

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Learn more at americanexpress.com slash Amex Business. Now you hear this. The cardiac bulls.

Everybody thought it was over. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Today's guest, WWE superstar, CM Punk, Vikings defensive tackle, Jonathan Allen, comedian Bert Kreischer, and now it's Rich Eisen. That's right. Right here on the Rich Eisen Show, right here on the Roku Sports Channel, right here on the Infinity Sports Network, 120 radio stations coast to coast listening in, and you're wiser for it.

Or at least I like to think so. We say hello to everybody that is out there listening on Sirius XM Channel 375. Also, the Odyssey app. You can stream us every single day. Also, listen to us on our podcast.

We greatly appreciate it. The Cumulus Podcast Network. The Jim Jackson Show's latest episode. Jim, who's calling NCAA tournament games, doing double duty for us this week. He has Mike Bibby as his guest this week.

There's also No Contest Wrestling. We always appreciate anybody who listens to our show all three hours every single day. The YouTube channel is a great backup.

Almost 915,000 subscribers there now. Interesting guest list today that we have for you. And I guess to help talk about our first and third guests and how it all chimes in and how it all weaves together. TJ Jefferson, we say hello to you first today. Candles lit.

Candles lit. Now you just said to me before we came on the air that it's fascinating to you as to how our first and third guests of this show line up on this Friday program. You've got CM Punk, best in the world. He's well known. He's straight edged. He's sober.

Never had a drink of alcohol. And then we end with the machine, the party animal who might imbibe as he's sitting in the chair, Bert Kreischer. So that's just kind of, you know, we're running the gamut today. And also, I would think, though, CM Punk and Bert Kreischer have one thing in common is they frequently perform without a shirt on.

But that is also true. They're used to being shirtless and comfortable in front of people. Yes. Yes.

Very comfortable. I don't know if I'll be asking CM Punk about that, but Seth Rollins on last two Thursdays ago, he zoomed in from the back of a courtesy car in Bologna, Italy. I believe CM Punk is joining us from London, England. Yeah, they're over in merry old London. They are in doing that is what you have. You either as an American sports broadcaster need to refer to it as merry old or jolly old England or across the pond.

I mean, you've just checked that box. Well done, T.J. Jefferson. We say hello to you, Jason Feller, all smiley because he's got his Dodger hat on, Otani Homer again. They're going to be 162 and 0 with Otani getting 162 home runs. That'll be great.

It's going to be $162. Chris Brockman is not here today. Normally, Susie Schuster would be sitting in that chair, but she is pulling double duty as her executive producer of women's sports now, which you can see on Roku. There's lots of meetings, conversations because there's lead pipe wielding professionals at Roku and also Hello Sunshine that are making sure everything is up to speed every single Thursday that show airs. So you can check out women's sports now on your Roku devices and your portals. And we greatly appreciate you checking that show out.

It is awesome. So Susie is doing that. Yeah.

And to prove to prove that Chris Brockman's job is, in fact, something a teenager can do. Wow. Sitting in his chair on his spring break is none other than my 14 year old, Cooper. What's up, Coop? How are you?

Good to see you, Coop. You could you could lean into the microphone. Go ahead. Go ahead.

You got it. Oh, it's his microphone. Not on.

Did he kick it? What's going on, Felly? Oh, there we go.

Oh, it was muted. Hey, Coop, I do it once a show, baby. It's OK. What's up, Coop? Everything's good.

Everything's great. We came off of a struggling day every year. Well, every single day we got to see a Yankees closer struggle.

And that was tough to watch. Yes. Yes. Oh, he's jumping right in.

Well, he's just jumping right into it. Yes. Because yesterday, Coop, you and I were watching the Yankees Brewers opening day and lots to talk about in that game as Devin Williams, the new closer of the Yankees, became the first New York Yankee to ever close a game.

Coop, you can back me up on this, right? Back me up on this first Yankee closer to ever close a game with a nicely trimmed beard. Correct? I think so.

OK, I think he's the first ever to be bearded. That might be true. We were watching it.

It's like, how weird was that? Right. Yeah. You know, it's in Rodona and a beard to beard starting beard closing. What's going on with the Yankees? That's right. Welcome to 21st century New York Yankees. Yeah. And there's also a shot on ESPN that showed Pablo Reyes with the beard, too. So unbelievable.

Beards everywhere. It's a whole new world for the Yankees, right? So but it's funny because Coop and I, we were then zipping around right on the MLB app. Correct. Our friend, the Pasquatch. He had already had a three run bomb against the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Guardians.

Pardon me. That's my I'm showing my age, Coop. What up, Vinnie?

Vinnie Pasquantino stepped to the plate in a one run game against Cleveland. And Coop, you're like, hey, let's go there. And we pop that on. We pop that game on. Right. And then we popped a bunch of games on.

All of a sudden comes to our attention. Ninth inning, Houston, Texas. The New York Metropolitans are down.

Yeah. They're down by three runs. And I will ask my son, the reason why they were down three runs is who started that game for the New York Metropolitans Cooper Eisen? Clay Holmes.

Excuse me. I think you're mispronouncing his game, his name. So in our family, we call him Schmaysh Momes. And my sister's a big Harry Potter fan. And we basically like Voldemort, like he who must not be named. He was definitely not to be named in our household last year with all due respect, but he's a new Clay Holmes. He's starting five hits, three runs, four walks later.

Kind of familiar. You know, if you take his frequent relief outings and extend them to starters type numbers. Now, if only Major League Baseball was like the National Football League, where we would spend an entire week talking about one game dissecting it and talking about it and the drama of one game up steps to the plate in this game as the go ahead run. Right. Did the go ahead run at the time against Josh Hader?

Two guys on. Okay. Yeah. What was the final score of this game, Cooper, of this game, of the Mets and the Astros? I think the 3-1. 3-1. It was 3-1.

Go ahead. Run two outs ahead of Josh Hader. 3-0. And as it happens, I think to myself, TJ Jefferson, what did you think? I think to myself, didn't Daniel Jeremiah come on this show the other day and say, this guy stands at the plate and you're ready for him to actually win the game and he takes a walk.

And I think to myself, is he about to do this here and hand the baton to the polar bear? Three balls. Which one? I got it. Well, he wound up taking a strike, wound up taking a nice hack at a ball, fouled it off. Now it comes 3-2 pitch.

Strike three. It was a slider way out of the zone. He looked funny swinging it. His eyes still got the swing. His hands got the hit of him. It was a check swing. Is my son telling no lies? It was a check swing.

Or zero lies? He went around, Cooper. What was my reaction? Would you care to explain to everybody my reaction, Cooper?

So we were watching, we were near the couch and what happened was he looked at me and he was like, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. That's like his classic reaction when he feels happy about things that he hates. For example, Juan Soto going off for a 770 million dollar contract. But Cooper, why does that bother your dad so much how much Juan Soto's making? Why is he so just hurt by this departure from Yankees? I mean, just moving off the Queens just hurts any Yankee fan like you do not want. This player is a generational player.

Very good. He helped the season, the Yankee season a lot. He's the reason why they went to the World Series. And when you lose this really good player, it's unfortunate. Would you say it hurt you that he left? Kind of, yeah.

Would you say it hurt your dad? For sure. Oh, okay. Excuse me. Excuse me, counselor. No more questions, counselor. No more questions.

Judge Feller, we heard no objections. I just wanted to get that out. Let me explain, because I was hurt by that, right?

And hurt people hurt. Excuse me. If you're going to side with you in this room at the moment, Cooper is what I never thought growing up my child would be or my children obviously would be his brother, his older brother, who's probably dead asleep still right now and his sister might be as well. They're Southern Californians.

I did not think when I was growing up in Staten Island, New York, Southern California. So I must now pick it up from here because Juan Soto- Why are you interrupting him? He was giving me an answer.

He was under interrogation. No. Juan Soto takes the money, goes across town, dares to say the words with a straight face. It's a Mets town. Game one. Oh, base hit. Everything's good. Yeah.

Juan is, this is worth the money. Game one. The baseball gods are just remarkable gods. They put them at the plate with the game on the line and two outs and a shot at flipping the script because the Mets use one of the worst Yankee closers I've ever seen after being an all-star to start as their starter and he strikes out. Now I think obviously it's baseball and when do the Mets play again?

You don't even know. Is it today or is it one of those, it's one of those crazy things like they play now Saturday and Sunday. Cause you know, opening day opening weekend is weird. No, today's Friday. They played today. Okay.

Yeah. Like last year that Astros played the Yankees in the first game. But what happened was Juan Soto threw out a runner at home, which saved Clay Holmes his day. And in the end, the Yankees won that game. And then when he's a Met, he strikes out to lose the game.

So he helps the Yankees against the Astros on opening day, but not the Mets. I didn't even prep him on this. I don't even remember what he's talking about. Well, of course, because you cut him off when he was giving a heartfelt, real answer about your feelings. I didn't cut him off. I cut you off.

Understand is the greatest baseball players of all time are going to fail 70% of the time. That's fine. Well, it's one game.

There's 161 left. That is correct. We are going to be fine. And that is true. As a matter of fact, in years past Coop, I would have turned the TV off when it was topped in ninth Oh three, because we wouldn't have had a chance. Now, at least we got hope. And that's all you want only to have the chair pulled out from behind you.

Today's a brand new day. Okay. That's baseball. Yeah. If it was only football, could you imagine what the New York scene would be?

Oh my goodness. If it was another week and there were only 18 baseball games all year, could you imagine what it would be like eight 17 baseball games all year? What would it be like in New York city right now? Cut 17 games out of the baseball season. It's too long, but could you imagine what it would be like in New York city right now?

Oh, it'd be panic at the disco. You want to explain that reference to Cooper? You know, the wild thing is hater. It appeared as though he was going to try to walk.

So though, like it didn't seem like it makes no sense. Lefty on lefty. I mean, let's go.

You got one more to Gail. Like get, you know, you gotta to beat somebody. You gotta to break them.

You gotta go through their strength. That's what Michael Irvin always says. But like I said, we all know Soto has one of the best size in baseball. That ball was out.

You were a coop. He swung at a bad pitch. Yeah. And he, and he knows hater. He should have known him because he played with him in the Padres a couple of years ago. He got caught.

It's all right. Yeah. So he should have known his pitches. He should have. I think that that was a bad at bat for someone who's being paid $765 million. Austin walls is still on his rookie contract and he's hitting an opening day. It's talking about how much a man makes that's rude, but you know, it's not rude talking about a man's feelings.

So let's get back to your day. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Austin Wells do yesterday. Coop was the first ever actually the first ever Yankee did an opening day home run on a lead off and also the first catcher to lead off home on opening day. And I think he saw on his rookie contract, like he's probably going to pay like, yeah, like for example, like one of the most elite closers, Mason Miller, he's going to get paid 750,000 a year.

Then there's one soda striking out down the game. He's going to be paid more than a hundred times. You are real caught up on this money thing, but just know it's, it's called facts. No, no, it's not caught up on the money thing.

He's called facts. It's fine. That's fine. It is Yankee gear. Here's a question I have. Your dad just said earlier, you're a Southern California kid, right? So you kind of secretly in your heart of hearts, really want to root for the Dodgers, right?

Cause you're here. The Dodgers are world series champions. You know, you don't really like the Yankees.

It's bad parenting. I think that you're being forced to root for a team 3000 miles away from where you live. You know, you want to be the Dodger.

We'd accept him, but he seems perfectly fine where he's at. Thank you, Jason. Right.

Yeah. I have a, I have a friend who's a Dodger fan and he's a big Dodger fan. And sometimes it's too much like to hear it's like, Oh, the Oscar Hernandez show. He's like the best.

And I feel like it's too much. I liked, I was, I was born or Yankee fan. Like even if you're born in Colorado and you're a Rocky fan, you're still a Rocky fan. That's right. TJ back off. And one other thing just to go to break, just to go to break on this because CM punk awaits. Listen, Kurt Gibson and Freddie Freeman connecting yesterday on the ceremonial first pitch for the first game for the Dodgers at home. I miss that. Yes. They went ahead and did the full Dodger Palooza. I saw ice cube driver, blue rider out with this trophy to see the fact that Kurt Gibson, now for me, he's a Michigan state or two.

So I already got an issue. Kurt Gibson and Freddie Freeman getting to connect like this because Freddie Freeman connected like Gibson against the Yankees in the world series in the only world series game that the man who occupies Brockman seat right now has seen game one, right? Cook on the, on the scale of one to 10 of the suck meter, where did that stand for for us?

Probably a 10. Yes. And the fact that that allowed the Dodgers to have a portal to open this season in that manner and dealt hufo still will root for the Dodgers is disgusting. And he must renounce. He must renounce. He may not say he's both a Dodger and a Yankee fan.

He'll try to go back someday. I saw that this morning. Cooper showed me that video. I was unaware of that ceremonial first pitch, but coop, you live on the MLB app.

So congrats to MLB. You do. You do. It's okay. It's fine.

Listen, he shows me this. And I, I was sick to my stomach. And then it just hit me. Del Tufo will be able to see this and still root for the Dodgers and the Yankees. No. Yeah. Ever since this day, also on the drive back from the game, you were like, why didn't Aaron Boone not put in Tim Hill?

We were looking up at the, at the screen. It was like in the bullpen, Nestor Cortez and Tim Hill. Tim Hill was this waiver wire pickup, like this 34 year old that was lights out for us the whole season, half of the season of postseason. And then you have Nestor Cortez who just came off of an injury. He's been out for three months. And then the first game you put him in, it's the world series.

And if it's a Homer, you lose the game and what happened and lost the game. So like, why would you put in someone who's been out for three months instead of someone who's been one of your best pitchers? And who did we see that on, on, on, uh, social media struck out Freeman, a positional player. Rizzo did.

That's what he said. We should have put in Anthony Rizzo in the world series. Cause he struck out Freeman. Yeah.

He struck him out before. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. And that was the last pitch Nestor ever threw as a Yankee. That's right. And what's his next pitch going to be as a brewer? Um, against Austin Wells and the Yankees. Oh, that's coming up. That's the next game. You've got your next game. We've got ours versus three.

We are often running in the Mets town, one back in the Mets town. It's 161 to go. I understand.

All right. Let's take a break here on the Rich Eisen show. We've got a CM Punk coming up right now.

Jonathan Allen, formerly of the commanders. Now of the Vikings will join us. Um, Burt Kreischer will join us in studio hour three coop. You will not be on the set for that. Why?

Oh, oh, please. It says best dad ever. Okay.

Burt's a dad. Yeah. He's still a while out coop blink twice.

If you're being forced to say all this, he won't blink. How dare you? Uh, and, uh, there's not one, but two, what's more likelies one for college, one for a regular that Chris Brockman wrote and is handed off to Cooper to administrate. Okay.

All right. I like this. And we will review the wild ending in Chicago and what, uh, what Cooper calls the Los Angeles Lakers in our household. Favorite team in my dad.

That's not true. He keeps watching. He's like Luca and LeBron. I do like watching them. It is great. But how dare you think that I'm a Laker fan? 8 4 4 2 0 4 Rich is the number to dial.

When we come back, see and punk everybody from London here on a fun Friday show blink twice coop. Hey, Rich Eisen here. I hear from a lot of business owners like you about the work it takes to pursue your passions. So I know how important it is to have the tools that can help keep you moving forward. And with access to world-class business and travel benefits, the American express business platinum card helps you take your business to the next level. It offers a flexible spending limit that adapts with your business.

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Learn more at American express.com slash Amex business. Let's talk turbo tax people. You might be sitting there going, wait a minute, rich.

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Get an expert now on turbo tax.com. This episode is brought to you by universal pictures. Today's the day from universal pictures and Blumhouse come a storm of terror from the director of the shallows. The woman in the yard. Don't let her in. Where does she come from? What does she want? When will she leave?

The woman in the yard. In theaters now. All right, back here on the program. CM Punk joining us in a matter of moments. Again, where is Brockman? Did he go, he said he was going to Texas or something like that?

I think for a bachelor party or something. Maybe. I thought it was San Francisco. Am I totally off? No, I've heard it was Texas. Was it for a bachelor party?

It can't be because I think Sarah might have went with him. I'm not sure. I don't ask questions. Hold on a second. Am I not mistaken, Cooper? Did you watch The Hangover the other day? No, that was my brother.

Oh, that was Zan and Nora. Okay. But what did you watch with Jackson, your buddy Jackson, the other day? Ocean's 11.

Oh, okay. That's a good one. That's a good one. Did you like it? Yeah, that was fun.

Yeah. What was your favorite part of Ocean's 11? Um, I think like the end's pretty cool.

Like how like they got the money. It was nice. It was like, it was like fun to watch.

Who was your favorite? I don't really know. Like there's not really a favorite part.

It was just fun to watch overall. It goes fast, right? It's a, it moves. Yeah, it's cool. I haven't watched that in a minute.

Oh, you should watch that. Yeah. Yeah.

That's so good. Did you, uh, this is kind of crazy. Was that the first time you saw anybody in that movie in a movie? Did you know any of the stars of that movie before? I've seen Don Cheadle and some.

Okay. And who else? Matt Damon. Have you seen him before?

Yeah, I watched Oppenheimer. Yeah. Okay. That's right.

Okay. Um, what about Clooney? Have you, is that the first George Clooney movie you've ever seen? How about Brad Pitt? Is that your first Brad Pitt movie? I think so.

Oh, buddy, you're going to have a tremendous worm. I know that. Right. Um, Zan, I showed Aaron Brockovich to Xander the other day. Okay.

Cause he's now of an age that he can, he can get the, and really get into these movies. Enjoy it. That's your first Julia Roberts movie, right? Too. Yeah. Andy Garcia movie. Have you seen Andy Garcia before? I don't know who that is.

He's 14. Okay. In two years, we'll show you mystic pizza and I'll give you a different thought of Julia Roberts. What does the matter with you?

Cause she lives in our neighborhood. Oh, I'm sitting at the rich eyes and show desk. Ranger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger has the right product for you.

Call click ranger.com or just stop by. All right, TJ. Oh man, this is your guy or one of them. He was the first ever in studio guest for no contest wrestling with you. He put us on the map and O'Shea Jackson Jr. He's also, uh, one of the featured guests of ESPN's original series, Stephanie's places that premiered on Wednesday on ESPN plus featuring him and triple H ladies and gentlemen, back here on the rich eyes and show WWE superstar CM punk.

How are you CM? Oh, terrific. Just waking up in, uh, in London today, dude, I just, it's crazy. We had Seth Rollins on last week.

He's in the back of a car driving around Bologna Bologna. Sorry to hear that. I understand. I know I strolled into that, but I'm just saying you you're everywhere. Everybody's around the world right now. WWE is just going, um, global as always, but it just seems that everybody's all over the place. CM global is always, but it's a little bit different because our television shows are airing from, uh, various European cities for the first time, uh, live on Netflix.

So it's, everybody's kind of just enjoying the experiment. Okay. So how I, I'm sorry. I didn't mean, I didn't mean to mention his name like that right off the bat. It seems like I pissed you off punk. I didn't mean to piss you off. No, no, no.

I'm, I'm, I'm lighthearted about it. You can mention, you can mention whoever you want. Just, I need a list. I need a list. I need to make a list right here, but I'm sure it's a long list. Do you have a list? Do you have a list somewhere? No, there's, there's no list.

There's, there's no real actual list. Like I don't open up my wallet, write somebody's name down or, or actually I would think the motion would be like this. You're crossing it off. You know that you got to write it down first and then cross. I see. Very good. Now, now I'm getting this thing down, Pat.

You know, it's a silly question. I do get asked, uh, all the time when, when I'm calling games for the NFL in London, like, are there fans of the NFL in London? It's just like, they're everywhere. And I'm sure you're seeing the same thing for, for wrestling WWE for sure. Right. You're seeing that. Yeah.

Oh, absolutely. You know, I think we've always had a global presence, but again, you know, you have to beat a horse, but the Netflix thing opens us up to, I think a lot of different markets. And traditionally when we'd come overseas twice a year to do two, two week European tours, we would do a television and it would be delayed to the States. And I do believe SmackDown still is a USA network.

It'll be, it'll be taped, you know, and then broadcast live in the States, but the Netflix shows are live live. So that's what the difference is for us. So when I say it's an experiment, we're all, we're all still kind of learning on the job. So, uh, what, uh, what, what hood are you wearing right now? The Sudbury Bulldogs. Am I seeing that right now?

Do I see that correctly? What do you want? What are you rocking right there? Yeah, this is the, uh, the Sudbury blueberry Bulldogs. Um, so little, little known hockey team from way up North in the middle of nowhere, you know, just a fun, a fun bunch, not the most skilled, but you know, they'll punch you in the face is why I like them. What did you think of the four nations? I know it's a, it was just about a month ago, but what, what did you think of that punk? What'd you think?

Absolutely, absolutely loved it. Um, I think it's good that the NHL is at least trying to do a couple of different things. I never really minded, uh, the skills competitions for the all star stuff, but the all star games got a little bit, um, like long in the tooth, a little confusing. Sometimes this guy's on this team, he's playing in this division, but he's, uh, you know, like you put, you put USA and Canada on the front of a sweater and you know, you're in for a fight. Did you, have you ever met a ketchup? Have you met a, uh, not officially.

No, I don't, I don't believe I have. I'd imagine you'd get along pretty well. Yeah, probably. We're all goons in a way.

That wasn't my, my reference. Uh, just, you know, hockey lovers who, you know, don't take, you know, who, who cross all write down names and cross them off. You know what I mean? Like that's, yeah. I just think you're a grinder punk. You know what I mean? Like that's, that's fine too. I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't the battle on the boards every time.

That's what I'm pretty, you know, you can grind it. You can get that puck out from, you know, some of the corners and then center it up or do something or, but those, those were, I I'd be honest with you. I, we were talking about more hockey because of that. Um, then we've had on this, on the show, you know, I think everybody, I think everybody was across the board that really kind of opened up some eyes.

Um, probably, I mean, that was the most watched hockey game ratings wise since, I don't know, forever, maybe since the Black Hawks were in the playoffs. Yeah, I'm sure. Um, how much are you following? How much are you following these days? Oh, I, I, I still follow. Yeah. It's, it's almost, it's almost going to drive me to drink. That's how much I follow. Why is that?

Why is that? Well, the Black Hawks are the last in the league. It's depressing, you know, like it is, it is what it is where everybody always likes to make fun of me and chirp that the Black Hawks stink now. And I just say, we won three cups in 10 years.

Uh, so the bill came and we're still paying the bill. Have you, um, have you, um, ever been around the cup? Have you held the cup?

Have you hoisted it? When was that? When was that?

Yeah. Uh, 2013 when the Hawks won in Boston, they flew back to Chicago and I had a whole bunch of, a whole bunch of friends on the, on the team, um, Burish, uh, Sharpie, Duncan, Keith, uh, may, they invited me out and I spent the entire night out with them. And it was, uh, it was one of the greatest nights of my life. It was just insane. Well, is there anything you can tell about the insanity or I'd rather, I'd rather, I'd rather not, I believe that means it was, it was only about 11, 11, 12 years ago.

So I think the statue of limitations is still in effect on certain things. I'd like to just, you know, like to just say it was a really good time and I'm possibly the only person who is there that remembers everything. If there was a straight edge during the hangover, that's, that would be you is what you're saying pretty much, right? That would be it. Okay.

The hockey version of the hangover. Very good. Um, CM Punk joining me here from London, uh, cause that's where the WWE is and the ESPN original series Stephanie's Place has premiered on Wednesday, ESPN plus featuring Triple H and you. Um, and you went, you went down, uh, the story about your return to WWE. Is there anything you want to share here that, uh, people haven't already picked up maybe from, from, uh, that show right now? Uh, no, I think that show is a pretty good representation of like everything that involves me coming back via the initial conversations, uh, in live time. You know, you get to see me, uh, about to go out the curtain to make my return after 10 years, and you see the, the anxiety and the nerves and the pride and the tears and just the happiness and like just everything that goes along with it.

So if you're into underdog stories and comeback stories, you know, you're going to want to for sure catch the first episode of Stephanie's Places. Well, when you're watching this back and you're seeing yourself return, did you think at any point in time, you know, um, that you would ever return that, that you were wondering if that would ever happen in your career? I obviously famously said that I'm never coming back. Never, you know, right. And then what does life do to you?

What life humbles you, life teaches you, uh, lessons life tells you, you never say never. Um, I can confidently say that if it was the same place that it was, we have the same people in charge. Yeah.

I don't, I don't think either side would have really reached out. It never would have happened, but, um, amidst a, a shakeup of the hierarchy of the company, you know, it right place, right time. Timing is everything in life and in sports. And it came to fruition, you know, and it starts with an idea, starts with that little spark, that little match.

And it turns into a pretty big forest fire. Yeah. So, um, the never say never part of it is definitely a jumping out.

There's no question about it. And again, uh, Stephanie's places, new episodes debut Wednesdays on ESPN plus and, um, available to stream on Hulu and Disney plus for Disney bundle subscribers. And all of that is available here on the, on the Roku platform. Uh, I, you know, you were the first ever guest of no contest wrestling, a new podcast that we're putting together here. You, uh, O'Shea Jackson Jr. And my guy TJ, who's sitting here, uh, I'm sure eager to ask a question of you CM Punk, go for it, TJ, go for it. Well, first of all, man, of course, O'Shea and I were talking last night and we just both want to say thank you for taking the chance for sitting down with us, giving your time to help kind of put us on this wrestling podcast map. So first and foremost, I want to say we appreciate that so much. And you know, that kind of, you guys are, you guys are great. You're great. I love, I love having, uh, conversations with great people. So, you know, like you guys, if you guys weren't great people, I wouldn't have done it, you know, so don't worry about it. I'm glad I could help.

Appreciate you. You know, we always consider you the unofficial third member of the six man crew. And, uh, when we get Bret Hart, you got to come in and sit down with us like, like you promised. So I promise now, you know, we had your buddy Seth Rollins here, uh, earlier. And you know, I think one of the greatest things that we found out over the last, you know, two years is that you and Seth really, really truly love each other. And that's so great to see in this day and age, you know, that the love that's shared between people, but in all seriousness, you know, you were a big part of the shield, right back in 2012. And they debuted, you know, they were supposed to be kind of your protectors.

And then their story went on, your story went on after so much time. And what's it going to feel like for you to, to step into WrestleMania with Rollins, with Roman reigns, and hopefully that main event spot that you've earned, you know, many, many years ago, and it looks like this is now the time that you're going to get it. What's that going to be? I'll give a bit of an uncharacteristic answer.

You know, I think everybody's always trying to, um, navigate, like, how do you deal with media different from what we present on our television show? And in 2012, you know, I was a champ. I was on this, uh, what, what at the time was a historic run with the belt 434 days, uh, obviously shattered by Roman reigns since I've been gone. And what I needed was guys to work with, you know, like, I was always looking towards the future.

Yeah. There's the, now there's the me and there's Cena. Um, but outside of that, I would look at the landscape and be like, what do we need to do need to do to get money talent in the position that I'm in now? How do I bring guys up? How do we elevate superstars?

So the idea of the shield was that simple. I need guys to work with for good or for bad, whether I like them, whether I hate them, whether I'm going to wind up having personal problems with them, I need talented individuals to work with, or I have nobody to work with in the future. And lo and behold, who am I working with at WrestleMania? You know, so, uh, life's pretty funny the way things kind of work out. Um, I just don't want those two guys to forget that they were, they were picked for a reason.

I brought them into this and, you know, WrestleMania, I get the chance to take them out in Las Vegas, Nevada, all places as well. So, um, talk about going all around in the desert, speaking of the hangover. Right. I mean, pretty much right. There you go.

Sounds like a plot for that. Um, and I look forward to, you know, you coming back here in studio for whichever one of the shows that we do out of here, uh, punk. Thanks for the time. Greatly appreciate it.

Oh, no problem. If I ever make it back from Europe, I'm your huckle bear. I'm going to come knock on your door and just sit, sit in the studio and drink all your coffee. Sure.

How do you form right over here? How do you like it? How do you like your coffee? Okay. I'm in that stage of my life.

The next is decaf and then I'll die. So it goes from, okay. Got it.

Sounds good. It's cream and sugar. Okay. Just cream. Yep. Black decaf. Yeah.

Deaf out taxes in there somewhere. I imagine. Um, and yeah, so you, you got a favorite coffee brand?

Like, is, is there a go-to like, and how much? Like one of the fun, one of the fun things about being overseas and being in foreign countries is I try to find a gym and I try to find coffee. Sometimes I break out.

Sometimes it was a really good cup. Um, but I like to try different things from all over the place, honestly. Okay. So somebody could just be strolling around their, their hotel gym and there's CM punk getting to getting a sweat on. Is that how it works? I was doing, I was in a laundry mat yesterday drinking local coffee. Wow. Wait a minute. Hold on a second.

WWE doesn't pay for your dry cleaning on the road. Is that what you're saying? Listen, listen, man, I'm not, I'm not that bougie. I went a hundred percent could have sent it out. I could have had somebody else do it for me. I'm washing my gear and I don't need anybody else touching my gear, trying to steal it. Or, you know, I'm a very responsible.

I want to, I want to handle my own stuff. So you found a laundromat in London to do your own stuff. Just I'll get a coffee and just watch my stuff go around and around a washer dryer.

Is that what you did? That's the most peaceful day I've had quite some time. This is the stuff I can't get enough of.

Imagine you stroll in the washer comforter and there's, you know, Charles Montgomery punk comforter. Oh, look at you. Very good.

Real life, man. I am not bougie. Okay. Very good.

CM Punk. Greatly appreciate it. We'll see you again soon. Safe travels. We'll see you. Appreciate it guys.

Have a good day. You got an everybody watch CM Punk on ESPN's original series, Stephanie's places that premiered Wednesday on ESPN plus, which you can see right here on the Roku portal. I guess we now have a, a new fantasy team name.

Punk's London laundromat. It looks like we may also get another guest host. Yeah. Right. I, I, I should have offered it to him. Well, if he comes in, well, that's true.

That's right. You got to come in here. Well, he's already been here, but for you, I'm going back and forth here while we were talking to punk, um, major breaking news in the NBA. We will dive into it, um, quite a bit when we come back, but I'm sure that's part of, I shouldn't say this.

I'm assuming, well, I shouldn't say that either. Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first three months only then full price plan options available taxes and fees extra see full terms at mint mobile.com. Your data is like gold to hackers. They're selling your passwords, bank details and private messages. McAfee helps stop them.

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Visit McAfee.com cancel any time terms apply. So I have here word for word verbatim, three of the great sports rants of all time. Um, and we would love for you to do your best Victor Newman. The first one is Herm Edwards. Yes.

Herm Edwards, the first one up Herm Edwards on October 30th, 2002, after a week eight loss to the Cleveland Browns. Here is play to win the game as told by Victor Newman. This is great about sports. This is what's the greatest thing about sports is you play to win.

Hello. You play to win the damn game, right? You don't play just to play it.

That's the main thing about sports. You play to win. And I don't care if you don't have any wins. You're going to play to win. When you start telling me, it doesn't matter.

Get your ass out of here, then retire. Cause it matters. Well done. That's number one. Next up in October 16th, 2006, after the Cardinals blew a 20 point lead against the bears on Monday night football. Oh man.

Dennis Green. They are who we thought they were as, as portrayed by Victor Newman. Bears are who we thought they were, you know, that's why we took the damn field. Now, if you want to crown them, then crown their ass.

But they are who we thought they were and we let them off the damn hook. Very good. Very well done. All right.

Last one for you. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm glad that we got it rolling.

Cause here's the last one. I can feel it. On May 7th, 2002, the famed practice press conference of one Alan Iverson as recounted by the man who plays Victor Newman, Eric Braden. Hit it.

The great Alan Iverson, my God, man. Go for it. I mean, listen, man, man, you're talking about practice. Okay. Not a game. Not a game. Not a game.

All right. You're talking about practice. Not a game. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it's my last. Not the game. You're talking about practice, man.

I mean, how silly is that? I know it's important. Yeah, I do. I do. I do.

I honestly do. But you're talking about practice, man. What are we talking about? Practice. You're talking about practice, man. Eric, I think that's your finest work, if you don't mind me saying.

Well, thank you very much. I don't know how many times he played that. We do play it a lot, but it's funny.

But it's funny every single darn time. I can feel it. There you go.

Thank you. And then later on in the show, based on the news that the Hallmark channel have hooked up with the Buffalo Bills for a special Christmas movie on the Hallmark channel later on this fall, I've got a top five list of the top five other NFL teams worthy of a TV movie, made for TV movie. And Hoskins and Smitsch did their magic for what the can wait to see this promo panel looks like. I would not miss that top five later on in this program. And then comes Bert Kreischer. So that's how we're rolling on this Friday. Can we keep Coop?

Of course, but not for Bert Kreischer. Back here on the program, Uber Eats is delivering game day deals all tournament long because you can't watch eight hours of basketball a day on an empty stomach. Burgers to wings, pizza to chicken sandwiches, whatever you're craving. Uber Eats has deals on all your game day favorites, so you never have to miss a single buzzer beater. Get game day deals on all your favorites only on Uber Eats. Order now. Remember, get your game day deals on all your favorites only on Uber Eats.

Order now. We're going to have a what's more likely college hoops edition in a second. Cooper Eisen is going to be administering that as Chris Brockman's at a golf tournament in Dallas right now or Texas or whatever. Anyway, we weren't planning on talking about a coach being fired in the NBA with nine games to go despite being 16 games over 500. But Shams with a Shams bomb that the Memphis Grizzlies have told Taylor Jenkins after five plus years, he's in the middle of his sixth year, we're done. Or vice versa because it's called parting ways nowadays.

I have no idea. Called it a difficult decision. Given the consistent and tangible development of our players, I'd say so. An overall success under Taylor's leadership, I wish Taylor the very best going forward. And then Shams saying that he was called in the Grizzlies office this morning, was fired in person.

Shams called it a stunning dismissal, I would say so. He now becomes one of the top head coaching candidates for the upcoming cycle. He's won 54% of his games. And again, the Grizzlies with a turnaround season this year with Ja Morant back healthy for most of it, they're tied with the Lakers right now for the fourth seed in the West. And guess who they play? Well, the interim coach is going to be coaching for the Grizzlies tomorrow night against the Lakers. And then after that, it's the Celtics. And then after that, it's the seventh seed warriors. So welcome to the bench.

I don't get this at all. Especially not this point of the season, right? Yeah.

44-29. You've got Ja Morant, right? And Ja has pretty much kept a low profile all season after, you know, he had some issues before. You haven't heard a peep negative out of Ja Morant, you know, Jaron Jackson, Desmond Bain. I read that and I was like, I can't believe that this is going on right now.

I can't believe it either. I guess we'll find out the what and the why or what have you, but nine games to go. They're in the fourth seed tied with the Lakers, who with Luka and LeBron are coming in on Saturday. And then it's the Celtics and then it's the Warriors.

I'm really confused. Like, for example, like what he kept saying, Jaron Jackson Jr. is having a great season. They also have lots of potential with Edie on the bench. They also have this guy Santi Aldama. He's been great for them. I'm surprised. Like, why would you fire your coach when you know you're going to go to the playoffs?

He's been, you've been successful with him. So like, what is the move? Like, are they going to try to hire someone from the college? Like, why did you do this? I don't, that's a great question.

I don't think anybody knows the answer to it. Especially considering, I mean, they could have made their way up to the third seed. And now you're going to have an interim coach with that murderer's row coming up. I mean, there's something on the inside. Obviously, we're not privy to, but from the outside, this looks crazy. It's nuts.

It doesn't make any sense. I think Coop it's going to obviously have to be an interim coach right now. I mean, nine games to go. I'm, I'm wondering. Maybe they want to sign that Sacramento coach that got fired.

Well, Mike, Mike Brown, Mike Brown, maybe. Who knows? Or maybe what's in from Indiana? I don't know. These are interesting thoughts.

Interesting. But still the timing is just so strange. I am wondering, has there ever been a coach ever, ever fired 16 games above 500 with nine games to go in the history of the NBA? This sounds like, you know, this is like a, this is like a, an NHL move.

You know what I mean? This sounds like an NHL move where anybody could be fired from the bench at any time, despite the record, right? This is a team that has got, let me just repeat nine games to go, 44 and 29 tied with the 44 and 29 team coming into their building on Saturday night.

And that's the way you're putting an interim coach on the bench. Uh, I mean, and, and on top of it, game and a half behind the nuggets, one loss behind the nuggets and three losses behind the rockets. I mean, the thunder just so far gone.

It's just, you know, they're in, they're, they're in a different stratosphere. Yeah. Yeah. The other rockets have had a great season with shangoon and Jalen green.

So they're going to have some great success maybe in the playoffs too, but they'll have to play possibly the warriors in the play and that's going to be their problem. Yeah. That, that, that is no, no joke, man.

I don't understand it. Keep an eye out peeled about the, the what and the why. I mean, obviously there's going to be some deep dives in, but I, I don't, you know, was it player based? Was it something off the court? And like TJ said, it's gotta be something we don't know.

Yeah. Also like we're so consumed with Steven, eh, and LeBron right now that you don't know you I've had, I've heard nothing really about Memphis and any problems. I don't think we get so consumed with this story over here. I don't know Memphis fans. Do you know something? We don't call us eight four four two oh four riches. The number to dial our number one is in the books.

Couple of what's more likelies with uh, my boy coupe Jonathan Allen, formerly the commanders. Now the Vikings coming up still here on the Roku sports channel. Seriously. I mean, I don't think it's, um, something that was going on, but we, we missed it because Steven was clapping back and LeBron was causing a massive, massive ESPN food fight. God, we're not at that table.

Um, I, I, I just don't know why it would be. That sounds kind of crazy. It sure does. And the Lakers, you know, could have been, um, you know, a half game in front of the Grizz, but they blew it in Chicago last night. Just majorly at the end.

Yeah. They, they were up 16 entering the fourth quarter and lost. It was Josh Getty tossed in a 46 footer at the buzzer. We've got that, that, uh, um, play-by-play queued up for later on.

That's how we're going to finish the show. So the Lakers, the last two games back to back, by the way, LeBron played both. They needed a LeBron tip with no time left to survive Indiana, and then got an Austin Reeves bucket to try and dig out of a dreadful sequence at the end of the game in which the bulls hit back-to-back threes with a sort of, you know, Kobe white hit a three off of a LeBron bad pass that looked reminiscent of, of Reggie Miller and Madison square garden. It was just like, the Brown was just like, take the ball right after the bulls had made it a two point game with a three, then white goes up. It puts the bulls up by one Reeves puts the Lakers back up by one and giddy throws one in from half court. Oh man, by the way, giddy last two games, you know, cause he played the Lakers on Saturday, two triple doubles. On Saturday at 15, 10 and 17 assists.

And then last night, 25, 14 and 11, he's taking something personal against the Lakers. Coop. I don't know what it is. Don't say it.

I know what's in your head. The Lakers. My mom took me to the game. He was on the thunder and he was just getting booed by everyone in crypto.

I still like to call it staples though. But yeah, he was, he was getting booed the whole time. Like whenever he had the ball.

Well, that was right after he had those elite allegations. Well, he took that personally coop. He's probably taking it out.

He went to Chicago and he took it personally, as you said, triple doubles back to back. Yep. Man. Okay. And he's been great for my fantasy. Why are you still picking up players out here? He's stopped.

It was, it was fun because like I, I saw Boozellis after he put that big game on the Lakers and then Chris got pissed off at me, which is funny. Right. We'll mess up his workstation. Yeah. Jonathan Allen coming up.