CBWL 065

 Wrestling Observer Live

June 22, 2026

Bryan Alvarez: Alright, we’re back. Dave, I don’t even know where to start with this CBWL show from Charlotte. I really don’t.

Dave Meltzer: Well, let’s start with the fact that they did another show with no ring. Again. They’re using the Sterling Marlin situation as the excuse, and at this point it’s just part of the presentation. But that’s the least of what happened tonight.

Bryan Alvarez: Yeah, no, the least of it. The least of it was the no ring. We got way past that pretty quick.

Dave Meltzer: The big thing, obviously, is the Emma Watson angle. That went to a place that… I don’t even know how to describe it. She attacked Nicki Minaj backstage, choked her with straps, went on this long rant, then ripped all the tubes and wires off Sterling Marlin and dumped him on the floor. Then she strapped Nicki to a gurney and threw her down the stairs. And it didn’t even look like it went as planned. It looked like it went down more flights than they meant it to.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, that wasn’t wrestling. That wasn’t even “edgy wrestling.” That was just… I don’t even know what that was. And the way they sold it on commentary? Freddie Benson sounded like he was having a panic attack. Chelsea Handler was screaming. Even Sofia Vergara sounded upset. And then you could hear Cowboy Watts in the background telling them to sell it like murder. They’re telling the announcers to sell a stunt like it’s an actual attempted murder on live television.

Dave Meltzer: And the crowd reacted like it was real. They were rushing the barricades. Fire alarms were going off. It turned into an actual riot in the building. I don’t know how much of that was planned and how much of it got away from them, but it looked out of control.

Bryan Alvarez: And this is after weeks of them already pushing this stuff further and further. The Mila Kunis promo on Pam Beesly was nasty as hell. She went into all this The Office backstory about fucking Jim and how Pam strung him along and how she was the one who told Roy about the kiss. It was mean, it was personal, and it was designed to completely humiliate her. And then she superkicked her and pinned her while she was out. That was probably the best-executed thing on the show, but even that was just straight-up humiliation porn.

Dave Meltzer: It was effective, though. If you’re trying to get Mila over as a vicious heel, that worked. The problem is they’re doing so much of this stuff that it’s all starting to blend together. And then you had Mariska coming out and booking Florence Pugh in an “Eat My Shit” match against Kristen Bell because Florence has been eating cheese and is constipated. That’s where we are now.

Bryan Alvarez: And Wendy Williams had a full-on breakdown on camera after that. She was laughing, then choking, then she looked completely lost and didn’t know where she was. They had to pull her off-screen. I don’t even know if that was a work or if something actually happened to her, but it looked bad either way.

Dave Meltzer: The show ended with Taylor Swift beating up Miranda Cosgrove in the parking garage next to Sterling’s vandalized truck after Mariska gave her permission to go after Emma with no consequences. And they just left on that shot while the building was still in chaos behind them.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, at what point do we stop calling this a wrestling promotion? Because this isn’t wrestling anymore. This is just fetish content with wrestling camera angles. The stairs spot, the “Eat My Shit” match, the constant humiliation, the one-sided beatdowns… this is not sports entertainment. This is something else entirely. And the fact that they’re having the announcers sell attempted murder like it’s real? That’s not edgy. That’s just irresponsible.

Dave Meltzer: Well, the question is whether this is sustainable. Because they keep escalating. Every show they go further. And at some point, either the audience is going to get numb to it, or it’s going to cross a line that even their audience won’t accept. We saw a little bit of that tonight with how the crowd reacted to the Emma stuff. Some people were into it, but a lot of them looked genuinely disturbed. And when you have actual riots in the building, that’s not a good sign for long-term business.

Bryan Alvarez: And now we’re supposed to believe they’re going to top this on Sunday? What are they gonna do, have someone actually die on the show? Because that’s the only place left to go from here. This is already so far past the line that I don’t even know what the next step is supposed to be.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, we just got this report in from Charlotte. Two people are dead. At least 27 injured. Police used tear gas inside the building. There was a crush in the lower concourse, people got trampled, businesses downtown got looted, cars were set on fire. This is no longer just “a wild angle.” This is an actual disaster.

Dave Meltzer: Yeah, this is bad. According to the reports coming out now, one man, 34-year-old Marcus Ellison from Concord, was trampled during the crush near the lower concourse and died. A 29-year-old woman from Charlotte, Kayla Rivera, had a medical emergency during the chaos and was pronounced dead at the scene. Another 27 people were treated for injuries, with eight of them listed as serious. Police made 41 arrests.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, when we were talking earlier about the stairs spot and whether it got away from them, I don’t think either of us realized it had already spiraled this far outside the building. This wasn’t just fans being loud. This was a full-scale riot.

Dave Meltzer: From what I’m hearing from people inside the building and a couple of sources close to the promotion, the plan was always to have the Emma angle feel dangerous and out of control. They wanted the crowd to be angry at Emma. They wanted it to feel like something had gone wrong. But they did not expect the level of reaction they got.

Bryan Alvarez: So the stairs spot was supposed to look bad, but not this bad?

Dave Meltzer: The stairs spot itself was planned to be rough. They wanted it to look like Emma had completely lost it. But according to one person who was backstage, when the gurney went down the extra flight and it looked as violent as it did, even some of the agents were caught off guard by how far it went. And once the crowd saw that, combined with Emma dumping Sterling on the floor earlier, people just snapped.

Bryan Alvarez: And then security and the cops couldn’t control it. They had to bring in riot gear and use tear gas inside the coliseum. That’s how bad it got.

Dave Meltzer: Yeah. Multiple sources have told me that once the alarms started going off and people started rushing the barricades trying to get to Emma, it turned into a genuine safety issue. Some people were trying to “handle it themselves,” like one fan told reporters. Others were just trying to get out with their families and got caught in the middle. One witness said her husband had to carry their youngest child while she held onto their daughter because people were shoving and screaming.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, this is the part that pisses me off the most. They knew what kind of reaction they were trying to get. They wanted people to be furious at Emma. But when you do an angle like that — especially one involving an old man on life support getting dumped on the floor and a woman getting thrown down the stairs — you have to know there’s a chance some people in the crowd are going to take it too seriously. And when that happens in a building that’s already on edge from two weeks of no-ring shows and increasingly brutal angles, this is what you get.

Dave Meltzer: Well, and now they have two deaths on their hands. Even if both of those are ruled accidental or medical emergencies brought on by the chaos, that’s still two people who went to a wrestling show and didn’t come home. That’s not something you can just move past with a “it was a work” explanation.

Bryan Alvarez: And the question now is what happens Sunday in Atlanta. Are they even going to be allowed to run that show? Because after what happened in Charlotte, there’s no way local officials and police aren’t going to be all over this. And I don’t know how you top what they did last night without it looking like they’re just trying to cause another riot.

Dave Meltzer: I’ve been told the promotion has been in meetings since early this morning trying to figure out how to proceed. Some people inside are apparently arguing they should tone it down significantly for Sunday. Others are saying they have to lean into it even harder because the attention is through the roof right now. But after two deaths and dozens of injuries, I don’t know how you lean into it without looking completely tone-deaf.

Bryan Alvarez: This whole thing has gone off the rails, Dave. It stopped being wrestling a long time ago, and now it’s not even just edgy content anymore. People are dead. That’s the reality. And I don’t know how they come back from this.

Dave Meltzer: We’ll see what they do. But yeah… this is bad. This is really bad.

Dave Meltzer: I want to get into something else that I’ve been hearing about regarding Sterling Marlin, because it adds another layer to what happened last night.

Bryan Alvarez: Go ahead.

Dave Meltzer: From what multiple people close to the situation have told me, Sterling’s actual condition is worse than what they’ve been presenting on TV. The original story was that he was hurt in some kind of accident involving the ring truck, and they’ve been using that as the reason there’s been no ring the last two weeks. But according to people who have been around him, his health has been declining for a while now, and what happened in Charlotte was not as simple as just wheeling him out for a segment.

Bryan Alvarez: What do you mean?

Dave Meltzer: I’ve been told that for the hospital scene they shot with Nicki Minaj, they had to load Sterling up with a significant amount of medication just to get him through it. Strong sedatives and painkillers. Enough to keep him essentially immobilized and unresponsive for the shot. The sunglasses, the lack of movement, all of that wasn’t just acting. They needed him in that state to even do the segment.

Bryan Alvarez: Jesus Christ, Dave.

Dave Meltzer: And then Emma comes in, rips all the tubes and wires off him, and dumps him on the floor. From what I’ve been told, even with the medication, that part was rough on him physically. Some people backstage were not comfortable with how far they took it, especially knowing his actual condition.

Bryan Alvarez: So they drugged an already injured, older guy just to get him to lay there while Nicki gave him a lapdance on camera, and then they had Emma manhandle him and throw him on the floor? And this is after weeks of building this whole “Sterling is hurt, Sterling is recovering” storyline?

Dave Meltzer: That’s what I’m being told. And now, after what happened with the crowd last night — the riot, the two deaths, the injuries — there are people inside the company who are very concerned about how this is all going to play out, both publicly and legally. Because if it comes out that they were heavily medicating him just to get him through segments while presenting it as part of the storyline, that opens up a whole other can of worms on top of everything else that already happened in Charlotte.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, this is so much worse than I thought. They weren’t just doing a dark angle. They were using a legitimately hurt guy, loading him up with drugs to keep him still, and then having another performer attack him on camera. And then the crowd actually tried to get to Emma because they thought what they were seeing was real. Two people are dead because of this.

Dave Meltzer: And that’s why I think this situation is much more serious than just “another wild CBWL angle.” There are real-world consequences here now. Two people died. Dozens were injured. The building was damaged. Police used tear gas. And on top of that, you have reports that they were medicating an injured performer to get him through a segment that then turned into one of the main catalysts for the riot.

Bryan Alvarez: I don’t even know what they do from here. How do you run a PPV on Sunday after this? How do you explain any of this?

Dave Meltzer: I don’t know. But the fact that they were already having to medicate Sterling just to get him through a basic hospital scene tells me his condition is worse than they’ve let on publicly. And after last night, I think a lot of people inside that company are starting to realize they may have pushed things too far in more ways than one.

Bryan Alvarez: Yeah. This is bad, Dave. This is really bad.

Dave Meltzer: I’ve been getting more information about how Sterling Marlin actually got removed from that hospital, and it’s a lot more violent than I initially thought.

Bryan Alvarez: What are you hearing now?

Dave Meltzer: According to people who were told pieces of this, Tony Soprano and Butterbean were the ones sent to get him out. And Butterbean didn’t just stand there — he went on a full rampage inside the hospital. He was punching out nurses, doctors, security guards… anyone who got in his way. One source told me it looked like he knocked out at least twenty to thirty people before it was over.

Bryan Alvarez: Jesus Christ.

Dave Meltzer: While that was happening, Tony grabbed one of the nurses at gunpoint and used her as a hostage to force the doctor to unplug Sterling from life support. They didn’t just wheel him out quietly. They took the nurse with them too — basically kidnapped her so she could keep Sterling alive during transport.

Bryan Alvarez: So this wasn’t some quiet “against medical advice” discharge. This was a full-on violent extraction. Butterbean beating the shit out of hospital staff while Tony holds a nurse at gunpoint and forces them to disconnect a critically injured man from life support?

Dave Meltzer: That’s what I’m being told. And it lines up with some of the other things we’ve heard — like how heavily they had to medicate Sterling just to get him through the segment in Charlotte. This wasn’t a clean operation. It was messy, violent, and extremely risky.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, if even half of this is true, this is kidnapping, assault, and possibly manslaughter if that nurse is dead or if Sterling dies because of how they handled him. This isn’t wrestling drama anymore. This is criminal activity.

Dave Meltzer: And that’s why I’ve been careful saying this is all coming through hearsay. But too many people have now told me variations of the same story — Butterbean going wild, Tony taking a hostage, and them physically removing Sterling against the hospital’s wishes. It’s hard to ignore at this point.

Bryan Alvarez: Especially after what happened in Charlotte last night. Two people are dead because the crowd thought Emma Watson was actually trying to kill people on live TV. And now we’re finding out that behind the scenes, the company was already committing real crimes just to keep their storylines going. This whole thing is completely out of control.

Dave Meltzer: It is. And the more that comes out about how Sterling was actually handled, the worse this is going to look for everyone involved.

Bryan Alvarez: This is so much darker than I thought it was going to get.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, I gotta ask you something straight. With everything we’re hearing now — the violent extraction, the heavy medication, the way they were using him — how sick was Sterling actually during that hospital segment in Charlotte? Was that a work, or was he really that fucked up?

Dave Meltzer: From what I’ve been told, it was mostly a shoot in terms of his condition. He was in very bad shape. The injuries from whatever happened to him were real, and they were serious. Spinal issues, internal damage, the whole thing. When they filmed that scene with Nicki Minaj giving him the lapdance while he was just lying there motionless with the sunglasses on… he wasn’t acting. He was heavily sedated.

Bryan Alvarez: So he wasn’t even conscious for that?

Dave Meltzer: According to the people I’ve talked to, no. Not really. They had him drugged to the point where he was essentially unresponsive. The sunglasses, the lack of movement, all of that was real. They needed him in that state just to get through the segment without him waking up or reacting.

Bryan Alvarez: Jesus. So how the hell did they get away with putting a guy in that condition on TV like that? Especially after they’d already pulled him out of the hospital in such a violent way?

Dave Meltzer: That’s the part that’s bothering a lot of people right now. From what I’m hearing, they’ve been keeping him heavily medicated for weeks just to get him through these segments. Strong sedatives, painkillers, whatever they needed to keep him stable and quiet. The concern from some of the people I’ve spoken with is that they’re pushing his body way too hard just to keep the storyline going.

Bryan Alvarez: So they’re basically keeping him alive with drugs so they can keep using him as a prop in these angles?

Dave Meltzer: That’s the fear. Especially after what happened in Charlotte with the riot and the two deaths. People are starting to look at every part of this Sterling storyline a lot more closely, including how they’ve been handling his actual medical condition behind the scenes. And when you combine that with the reports of them violently removing him from the hospital and then continuing to drug him just to get him through TV segments… it starts to look really reckless.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, at what point does this stop being “edgy creative” and start being straight-up dangerous? They already had a real riot last night with casualties. Now we’re finding out they were drugging a legitimately injured guy just to keep him on camera. How far are they willing to push this?

Dave Meltzer: That’s the question a lot of people inside and outside the company are asking right now. Because if even half of what I’m being told is true, they’ve been risking this man’s life for weeks just to keep a storyline alive. And after what happened in Charlotte, that’s not something they can just brush off anymore.

Bryan Alvarez: This whole thing is completely out of control.

Dave Meltzer: It is. And I don’t think we’ve even seen the full extent of it yet.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, I keep coming back to that part where Emma dumps Sterling on the floor. Even if he was heavily drugged, how the hell does a guy in his condition survive that? We’re talking about an older man with spinal damage and internal injuries. Getting yanked off a bed and slammed onto a hospital floor? That could’ve killed him on the spot.

Dave Meltzer: Well, that’s the thing. We still don’t have an official age on Sterling in this storyline, but from the way they’ve been presenting him, he’s clearly not a young guy. He’s been portrayed as this grizzled, old-school truck driver type. Even if he’s only in his late 50s or early 60s, with the injuries he’s supposed to have — spinal compression, internal bleeding, broken ribs — getting thrown onto a hard floor like that is extremely dangerous. Especially if he’s already sedated and his body can’t protect itself.

Bryan Alvarez: And they had Emma rip all the tubes and wires off him first. So even if the machines were keeping him stable, she just yanked everything out and then dumped him. How does he not code right there on the floor?

Dave Meltzer: From what I’ve been told, they had him so heavily medicated that his body wasn’t really reacting normally. But that’s also part of the problem. If he was that sedated, how much stress could his system actually handle? People have died from less. And we’re supposed to believe he just laid there while all of this was happening around him.

Bryan Alvarez: What about Nicki? She got choked with those straps and then thrown down multiple flights of stairs on that gurney. Even if it was a work, the way it looked on camera… that had to have done some real damage. How hurt do you think she actually is?

Dave Meltzer: I’ve heard she was pretty shaken up. The gurney going down the extra flight and bouncing off the wall made it look a lot worse than they probably planned. From what I’ve been told, she had some bruising and was sore as hell, but nothing was broken. Still, getting choked out and then launched down concrete stairs like that? Even with pads and protection, that’s going to leave marks. And if she wasn’t expecting it to go that far, the shock alone would’ve been rough.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, this is the part that keeps pissing me off. They’re doing these extremely physical, dangerous-looking spots with people who are already in rough shape or older, and then acting surprised when things go wrong or when the crowd reacts like it’s real. Sterling getting dumped on the floor, Nicki getting thrown down the stairs… at what point do they stop and think “maybe this is too much”?

Dave Meltzer: That’s the question a lot of people are asking right now. Especially after what happened with the crowd in Charlotte. When you push things this far with performers who are already compromised, you’re playing with fire. And eventually, something’s going to give.

Bryan Alvarez: Yeah. And I don’t think we’ve seen the worst of it yet.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, let’s talk specifically about the rioting that happened during the show in Charlotte. Not after, but while the show was still going on. Fans rushing the barricades, trying to get backstage to get to Emma Watson, police in riot gear, tear gas inside the building… two people ended up dead because of it. Have you ever seen anything like that happen during a wrestling show before?

Dave Meltzer: Not like this. I’ve seen riots at wrestling shows before, but never quite in this context or with this level of consequence.

I’ve covered situations where crowds got out of control. ECW had multiple riots in the 90s where fans were throwing chairs and invading the ring. There were times in Japan, especially in the hardcore and deathmatch scenes, where things got very ugly and fans would rush the ring. Even in Mexico, there have been incidents where crowds have turned violent. And of course, there was the infamous riot after the Montreal Screwjob in 1997, where fans were throwing things and the building was in chaos.

But those were usually reactions to booking decisions or finishes that pissed people off. This was different. This was a crowd reacting to what they believed was a real, violent crime happening in front of them — a woman being choked and thrown down stairs, and an injured old man being attacked. And instead of just booing or throwing things, a large portion of the crowd tried to physically get to the person they thought was responsible.

That’s not something I’ve seen happen during a wrestling show before. I’ve never seen a storyline cause fans to believe someone was being legitimately attacked to the point that they tried to storm backstage during the event. And I’ve certainly never seen that result in deaths inside the building.

Bryan Alvarez: The fact that police had to use tear gas inside the arena says everything. That’s not a wrestling crowd getting rowdy. That’s a full-scale riot.

Dave Meltzer: Exactly. And the fact that it happened while the show was still ongoing, and that two people died because of the chaos it created… that’s unprecedented in wrestling. I’ve seen fans get hurt at shows before. I’ve seen medical emergencies in crowds. But I’ve never seen a wrestling angle directly trigger a deadly riot during the event itself.

This is a different level. And it’s going to be very hard for them to come back from it.

Bryan Alvarez: Especially when you consider they were already pushing things this far with injured performers behind the scenes. It’s like they were playing with fire in every possible way, and it finally blew up on them.

Dave Meltzer: Yeah. This one’s going to be talked about for a long time… for all the wrong reasons.

Bryan Alvarez: Here’s what I keep coming back to, Dave. The two deaths happened during the final segment — when Taylor was chasing Emma in the parking garage and then beat up Miranda. By that point, the show was basically over. So how the hell were they supposed to stop it? It was already the last thing on the show.

Dave Meltzer: Well, that’s the thing. Technically, you’re right. Once they went to that final segment, the show was essentially done. In live TV, especially with something this chaotic, pulling the plug in the middle of the last angle isn’t really realistic. By the time the crowd started rushing and the crush happened, they were already in the closing moments.

Bryan Alvarez: So are we saying they couldn’t have done anything? That’s bullshit. They could’ve ended the show earlier. They could’ve cut the feed the second things started getting out of control with Emma. Instead, they let it play out all the way to the end, and people died because of it.

Dave Meltzer: I’m not saying they couldn’t have done anything. I’m saying that by the time the actual crush and the deaths happened, the show was already in its final segment. Stopping it at that exact moment wouldn’t have changed much because the damage was already done. The crowd had already snapped during the Emma attack and the stairs spot. That’s when things really escalated.

Bryan Alvarez: But that’s my point. They should’ve recognized how dangerous it was getting before they went to that final segment. The second Emma started choking Nicki and ripping tubes out of Sterling, that should’ve been the cue to get the hell out of there. Instead, they kept rolling and even had Taylor go after Emma in the parking garage like it was just another angle. And while that was happening, people were dying in the stands.

Dave Meltzer: Look, I agree they should’ve pulled the plug earlier. But you also have to understand how these things work in the moment. Once the crowd starts moving and security loses control, it’s very hard to just “stop the show” cleanly. Especially when you’re dealing with something that’s already spiraling this fast. By the time they realized how bad it was, it was probably too late to prevent the worst of it.

Bryan Alvarez: So what, we just shrug and say “well, it was the last segment so they couldn’t do anything”? That’s not good enough. Two people are dead because this company decided to play with fire for weeks and then acted surprised when it actually burned them.

Dave Meltzer: I’m not shrugging it off. I’m just saying that from a pure production standpoint, once they were in that final segment and the crowd had already turned, stopping the show wouldn’t have magically fixed the situation. The real failure was letting things get to that point in the first place.

Bryan Alvarez: Yeah. And that’s on them.

Bryan Alvarez: Before we get too deep into the Emma stuff and the riot, I want to talk about Mila Kunis for a second, because I thought her segment was one of the strongest things on the show.

Dave Meltzer: Yeah, that was probably the best-executed angle of the night. The way she jumped Pam from the crowd, dominated her on the plywood, and then cut that long, vicious promo… it was mean as hell, but it was effective.

Bryan Alvarez: It was brutal. She went into all that The Office backstory — admitting she fucked Jim, blaming Pam for stringing him along for years, taking credit for telling Roy about the kiss, all of it. And she didn’t just say it once and move on. She kept going. It felt personal. It felt like she was trying to completely destroy Pam’s character.

Dave Meltzer: And it worked. That’s the thing. Whether you like the content or not, from a pure wrestling standpoint, it accomplished what it was supposed to do. It made Mila look like a vicious, nasty heel who’s willing to go to dark places. And Pam came out of it looking completely broken. That’s good, effective heel work.

Bryan Alvarez: The only thing I’ll say is that it felt very much in line with the overall tone of this show. Everything was mean. Everything was personal. Everything was designed to humiliate people. Mila’s promo fit right in with that, but it also stood out because it was so well done compared to some of the other stuff.

Dave Meltzer: Yeah. Out of everything that happened on this show, Mila’s angle is probably the one that helped someone the most. If they’re trying to build her as a serious heel, this was a big step in that direction. The rest of the show was chaos and darkness, but that segment actually felt like it had a clear purpose and it delivered on it.

Bryan Alvarez: It’s funny, because on any other show, that promo would’ve been the main talking point. But with everything else that happened — especially the Emma stuff and the riot — it kind of got overshadowed. Which is a shame, because it was really good.

Dave Meltzer: It was. And it might end up being one of the few things from this show that actually helps someone long-term instead of just adding to the mess.

Bryan Alvarez: Alright, let’s talk about this “Eat My Shit” match they announced. Mariska comes out after Florence Pugh’s match, calls her out for eating cheese all week and being constipated, and then books her in an “Eat My Shit” match against Kristen Bell at the PPV. What the fuck even is this?

Dave Meltzer: It’s exactly what it sounds like, apparently. From what was said on the show, it’s a match where the loser has to… well, eat shit. Literally. It was presented as a punishment for Florence not taking care of herself and running her mouth.

Bryan Alvarez: This is so far beyond wrestling at this point. I don’t even know what to call it anymore. They’ve been building Florence’s character around eating cheese and being backed up, and now they’re turning that into an actual match stipulation. And they had Wendy Williams out there laughing and piling on about how Florence can’t even shit, so how is she supposed to win?

Dave Meltzer: It’s clearly meant to be another layer of humiliation. They’ve been leaning hard into body-related degradation lately — the granny panties spot with Laura Prepon last week, Mila’s promo on Pam, and now this. It feels like they’re trying to make these matches feel as personally embarrassing as possible for the people involved.

Bryan Alvarez: But Florence Pugh? She’s not even been positioned as some big star or anything. She’s relatively new, she’s been eating cheese on camera as a running gag, and now they’re making her do this? And Kristen Bell is the one who gets to be on the other side of it. It just feels mean-spirited for the sake of being mean-spirited.

Dave Meltzer: Well, that’s kind of been the direction of this whole show. Everything has been mean. Everything has been designed to embarrass or degrade someone. The “Eat My Shit” match fits right into that. Whether it’s good for business or not is another question, but it’s consistent with what they’ve been doing.

Bryan Alvarez: Consistent, yeah. But at what point does “consistent” just mean they’re running out of ideas and defaulting to the grossest, most humiliating thing they can think of? Because this doesn’t feel like it’s building to anything meaningful. It just feels like they’re trying to top themselves with how disgusting they can get.

Dave Meltzer: That’s the risk they’re running. They keep escalating the humiliation and the bodily function stuff, and at some point it stops being shocking and just becomes the new normal for them. And when your new normal is booking “Eat My Shit” matches on pay-per-view, you’ve gone pretty far down that road.

Bryan Alvarez: I don’t even know how you promote this. “Come see Florence Pugh eat shit at the PPV!” Like… what are they even doing anymore?

Dave Meltzer: I don’t know either. But they’ve clearly decided this is the direction they want to go in.

Bryan Alvarez: Hold on, Dave. When you said they’re punishing Florence for “not taking care of herself,” what exactly do you mean by that? Because on the show it just sounded like she was eating too much cheese.

Dave Meltzer: Well, that’s the surface-level story they’re telling on TV. But from what I’ve been told, there’s a rumor going around the locker room that Florence hasn’t been doing the mandatory bi-weekly enema sessions that Conrad Murray has been booking for the girls.

Bryan Alvarez: …What?

Dave Meltzer: Apparently in CBWL, there’s this expectation that the women are supposed to be getting regular enemas done by Conrad. It’s treated like part of the job. And the word is that Florence has been skipping them. So now they’re using this “Eat My Shit” match as a way to call her out and embarrass her for it.

Bryan Alvarez: You’re telling me that not getting enemas is, like, a thing in this company? That other girls won’t work with you if you’re not doing them?

Dave Meltzer: That’s the rumor. It’s being compared to not shaving your pussy. Like, if you’re not keeping up with that kind of maintenance, the other girls don’t want to work with you. It’s seen as unprofessional. One person even called it the “soft handshake” of the business — that thing that tells everyone else you’re not really serious about this.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, this is so far beyond wrestling I don’t even know what to call it anymore. They’re out here forcing girls to get enemas as part of the job, and if you don’t do it, they book you in a match where you have to eat shit on pay-per-view? What the fuck is this company?

Dave Meltzer: I’m just telling you what I’ve been hearing. Whether it’s 100% true or not, that’s the talk going around. And it explains why they went so hard at Florence with this angle instead of just doing a normal punishment match.

Bryan Alvarez: This is sick, man. This whole thing is sick.

Bryan Alvarez: Dave, we’ve spent all this time talking about what happened in Charlotte last night. Two people are dead, there was a riot inside the building, police used tear gas, and the whole thing turned into an absolute disaster. So I gotta ask — what the hell happens on Sunday? Are they even going to be able to run this PPV in Atlanta?

Dave Meltzer: That’s the big question right now. From what I’ve been told, there’s a lot of uncertainty inside the company about whether they should even go forward with it. Some people are arguing they need to cancel or at least postpone it, especially with everything that just happened and the attention it’s going to bring. Others are saying they have to run it no matter what because backing out would make them look even worse.

Bryan Alvarez: How do you even promote a show after this? “Come see the follow-up to the riot where two people died!” It’s insane. And that’s not even getting into the fact that they were already doing some really dark, dangerous stuff behind the scenes with Sterling and the whole hospital situation.

Dave Meltzer: Well, that’s part of the problem. A lot of people inside are worried that if they run on Sunday, they’re going to get even more scrutiny — both from fans and from authorities. Between the riot, the deaths, and now these reports about how they handled Sterling’s extraction and medical situation… this isn’t something that’s just going to blow over in a couple of days.

Bryan Alvarez: Do you think they’ll even be allowed to run? After what happened in Charlotte, I can’t imagine local officials or the police in Atlanta are going to be thrilled about letting this company put on another show so soon.

Dave Meltzer: That’s another layer to it. I haven’t heard anything concrete yet about whether Atlanta is trying to step in or put restrictions on them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that becomes an issue. And even if they are allowed to run, the bigger question is whether they should. Because right now, it feels like they’re in way over their heads.

Bryan Alvarez: They keep escalating and escalating, and now it’s blown up in their face. Two people are dead because of something that happened during their show. How do you come back from that?

Dave Meltzer: I don’t know. But whatever they decide to do on Sunday, it’s going to be under a microscope. And if they try to lean into the same kind of stuff that caused all this in the first place, it could get even worse.

Bryan Alvarez: Alright, so if they actually run on Sunday, what the hell is even on the card? We know they announced the “Eat My Shit” match with Florence Pugh and Kristen Bell, and they mentioned an Escape the Stall rematch with the iCarlys against Boxxy and Anya. But beyond that, do we have any idea what else is happening?

Dave Meltzer: Not a whole lot has been officially announced yet. The “Eat My Shit” match and the Escape the Stall rematch are the only two matches that were made on the go-home show. Everything else is still pretty up in the air, especially with everything that happened last night.

Bryan Alvarez: So we don’t even know what the main event is?

Dave Meltzer: Not officially. There’s been talk that Emma Watson is going to be heavily involved, obviously, after what she did to Nicki and Sterling. And Taylor Swift was positioned as going after her at the end of the Charlotte show, so I’d expect some kind of blowoff or confrontation between them. But whether that’s a match or just another angle, I don’t know yet.

Bryan Alvarez: What about Mila Kunis? She had that really strong segment last night. Are they doing anything with her on the PPV?

Dave Meltzer: Nothing’s been announced, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t have something for her. She looked like the most credible heel on the show last night. If they’re smart, they’ll capitalize on that.

Bryan Alvarez: This whole card feels like it’s being thrown together at the last minute while the company is on fire. They’ve got two matches announced, a bunch of unresolved angles, and now they’re dealing with two deaths and a riot from last night. How the fuck do you build a PPV off of that?

Dave Meltzer: That’s the problem. Normally you’d have the go-home show set up several key matches and angles for the PPV. Instead, most of the focus last night was on chaos and punishment. So right now it feels like they’re scrambling to figure out what the actual card even is.

Bryan Alvarez: Do you think they’ll even have time to properly build anything before Sunday?

Dave Meltzer: Probably not. At this point it feels like they’re just going to have to throw something together and hope the Emma situation and the fallout from Charlotte carries most of the interest. Whether that’s enough to actually draw is another question.

Bryan Alvarez: Before we get out of here, I gotta ask you one more thing, Dave. Where the fuck was security during all of this? We had a full-scale riot inside the building — people rushing barricades, trying to get backstage, a crush that killed two people — and it felt like nobody was doing anything to stop it until the cops showed up with riot gear. Where was CBWL’s own security?

Dave Meltzer: That’s a very good question. From what I’ve been told, their head of security, John Wick, was actually there. But from the reports coming out, it sounds like they were completely overwhelmed. Once the crowd decided they were going after Emma, it escalated way too fast for the normal security team to handle. A lot of people have been asking the same thing you are — where were they when this was all going down?

Bryan Alvarez: And what about Butterbean? We haven’t heard a single thing about him during any of this. Was he even at the show? Because if their “security” or enforcers weren’t doing anything while people were getting trampled and tear gassed, that’s a massive failure.

Dave Meltzer: Butterbean’s whereabouts during the show are still unclear. There’s some speculation that he might’ve still been tied up with the Sterling situation from earlier in the week. We know he was involved in getting Sterling out of the hospital, and that whole thing was a mess. It’s possible he wasn’t even at the arena, or if he was, he wasn’t in a position to do anything about the riot. Either way, it doesn’t look good that one of their more physical guys wasn’t visible when things got out of control.

Bryan Alvarez: So we’ve got a company that’s running these extremely dark, violent angles, using injured performers, and when shit actually hits the fan in the crowd, their security is either missing or useless. That’s not a good look.

Dave Meltzer: No, it’s not. And it’s going to be one of the many things people are going to be asking about in the coming days — how did things get this bad, and why wasn’t there a better plan in place to handle it when it did?

Bryan Alvarez: This whole thing is a disaster. I don’t even know what to say anymore.

Dave Meltzer: Yeah. We’ll be back tomorrow with more on this developing situation. Thanks for listening.

Bryan Alvarez: Take care, everybody.