WWE Week in Review: SummerSlam Card Takes Shape, Huge Returns Nearing, Solo vs Cody, Paul vs Knight, Gunther vs Priest

This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre, and you're listening to the WWE podcast show,
the one that everybody wants me. I stand three sixteen, So just
what your ass is, my n We're gonna acknowledge me. Hey, guys,
welcome to the podcast here, and we're gonna jump into the week interview.
As we are now just two weeks away from summer slang, which is
right around the corner. It's now approaching in We've got a lot of matches
that have now been added confirmed. We have nearly a full card if I'm
correct and saying I mean, we've got the title matches set, We've got
a US title match set. We likely have an idea of the women's tag
title scenario, believe it or not, with eilid On and Alba Fire,
and we have Piper and Niven and Chelsea Green and of course Jade and Bianca.
Maybe it's some kind of triple threat, but that I think. I
don't think it's been confirmed yet, but probably the likely scenario, of course.
And so we've got a lot to talk about this week as we are
now in the thick of summer nearly August, and then once August goes by.
It's September, which is the NFL season for those that are interested in
such things, and we've don't really talk about a lot about the NFL here.
I mean there are other topics I'd love to talk about here. I
may save that for after Dark as we move forward here, as things in
the world get crazy, and I'll leave it at that, but I may
mayde up doing that. And I have to be honest, I am very
close to, you know, potentially creating some kind of other show. I
don't mean after dark, I mean a separate show all together, not abandoning
this one, just maybe doing a once a week show on other topics,
whether it be other sports, politics, some technology, something along those lines.
I have some ideas, but I am kind of toying with that.
But nonetheless, you're not here to talk about and hear about my potential future
endeavors. It's more about WWE, and i'd like to invite you to take
a look at our ad free stuff that's out there on Patreon that you can
get a hold of if you want to check it out for free. We
have a seven day free trial there as well as on Apple there's a seven
day free trial there too for ad free everything. So let's talk about let's
talk about Rowan reins and when the hell he's coming back. At this point,
we're already we are all ready to go. But you knew this week
though. It's kind of that in between week. You know, you're not
closing out to build the Summer Slam. You still got a couple of weeks
to go. There's still two more smackdowns to go before Summer Slam. You're
also no disrespect to Dayton, but you're in Dayton, Ohio. And I
say that in a in a condescending way that a large organization that has big
plans to have a big return when they look at the calendar and the I
big cities, Sorry Dayton, just like, hey, I'm in albody.
We're not a big city. We're the capital of New York. But no
one cares because people look at New York City is really the capital of New
York. So I mean, I'm really you know, again not disrespecting Dayton,
but it's not exactly a city that you would have a massive return in
or look to if you could choose to do it, if you're you're the
company. So I didn't think Roman would return this week. I figured it
would be the day before Summer Slam, maybe as early as next week,
more likely at Summer Slam itself. The way things are looking now as the
heat continues to build on the Bloodline, the Rogue bloodline, Solo's version of
the bloodline, Bloodline two point zero, take your pick of how you want
to describe them. The heat is at a boiling point for this group,
and it has been done I think pretty damn well. I've enjoyed the build
to Solo and what he's brought to the table, his viciousness, his hairpin
trigger, you know, his ruthlessness, calling out Roman saying that you know
if you do return that you will acknowledge me, and beating down Paul Hayman,
which I have to say is unexpected given the age of Paul Hayman and
the fact that he didn't have to do that. So, you know,
there's just really everything now hasn't been perfect. No, some of those guys
could use a little bit more development and who and what they are other than
the Wolverine, the no, the werewolf or the wolverine, I don't know
of the of the group with Jacob Fatu and he certainly does bring an element
to the group that is uh that that just overloads them with power and with
viciousness, and you know, having that numbers game on their side, Jacob
Fatu really put them over the top. I think we're done though, adding
to any members of the Bloodline. I don't think we're going to be adding
anyone else anytime soon. I think that's kind of it. And then again
we'll have to figure out who's going to join Roman and the USOS to face
them at some point, which you'd imagine that big match is coming at the
at the Survivors Series Wargames match. And again maybe at that point we get
the return of the Rock, who I think we're probably aiming into the fall
for the return of the Rock. It's my guess. If it happens earlier,
I'll be surprised. But I think that's the order in which those those
returns will happen. Roman first, Rock second, a few months later,
and then we're off to the races with Rumboland Summer Slam, and lord knows
what's happening after that. Is it Rock versus Cody, is it Rock versus
Roman. Finally we'll have to see my fantasy of Rock Brock does not seem
to be on the table this year. He's too heavily involved in this storyline,
which is not a complaint at all. Look, the Rock can come
and go as he pleases. This final boss character has been brilliant, continues
to be in the background, brilliant because you're thinking of all the things that
could happen, and there's no need for Rock Brock. But it's just a
fantasy of mine that I've been pushing for since they had their first encounter back
in two thousand and two at SummerSlam no less. But anyway back to this
week. No need to talk about twenty two years ago. Let's talk about
this week as Cody Rhodes has now suffered the same fate as Randy Orton getting
demolished, being put through a table. Kevin Owens is the surprise, well
I shouldn't say surprise, is the mystery partner for Cody Rhodes to take on
Austin Theory and Grayson Waller, who continue to just surprisingly be together. And
the more I look at it and think, do people even really want Grayson
Waller versus Austin Theory. It's been talked about so much that they're splitting up,
and even on a they've teased it with you know, miscalculations and they
lost their tag titles and here we go. But the fans even care or
want this, I don't know. I don't know if they do. I
feel like fans feel a little bit neutral towards that maybe they can strike lightning
in a bottle or catch lightning in a bottle with that program with maybe Austin
theory, turning baby Face, keeping Grayson Wall or a heel, which I
think is the way to go if you do it. But they're just still
together. And I don't think that's a bad thing, because you need another
heel team that is not named the Bloodline, you know, you need a
different flavor of a heel group. And sure you have other tag teams out
there, but not, you know, not ones that really spark too much
interest when it comes to heal factions. I mean, they're kind of it.
They have the Final Testament out there, but the Final Testament are here.
They're never there. They don't get a ton of on a or mic
time promoll time. So there does need to be an existence of other teams
and factions that are heels, not named the Bloodline. So my point in
saying all that is, do we really need to split these two up yet?
I don't think there's a long term game for them to stay together.
But in the short term, I think they serve a purpose of being that
team that can help other babyfaced teams get over and get to that next level.
At the same time, they need to elevate themselves. I mean,
they continue to put on really good matches. Austin Theory and Grayson Waller,
I mean, especially Austin Theory are just really good. I mean they gel
very well together atown down Under. It gels nicely. Is it the best
combination of all time? No, but I think it gels well, and
I don't think there's a need at the in the immediate future to break them
up, despite all the chatter about it. So this match, by the
way with Cody and Kevin was fun. You knew that Kevin Owens is going
to give it as all as he always does. We got a nice update
too from I think it was a Corey Graves might have been who said that
you know that that Kevin Owens' mom seems to be doing better, that she's
out of the hospital and is doing better again. I don't know specifically what
was wrong with her, maybe you guys do, but that's good news.
It's good news. You know, on a human level, these are still
men and women that have families, and that's always nice to hear that.
You know that his mom is doing better. So good news. And now
we have again this matchup that was really good. And you know, there's
all there's almost every mass that I talk about. I don't go into great
detail about it because you get performers that are just so good it's not really
worth going into move by move outside of just my general thoughts the finish.
There's maybe some important spots that happen in there, but there's so much good
wrestling and good to great wrestlers right now that it's I don't think there's a
need to just continue to say the same thing over and over. But I
will say it was the right strategy to have Cody Rhodes get that hot tag.
He's the champion. You figure he's going to get the hot tag because
he's the guy who's facing solo. Kevin Owens at this edge of this moment,
does not have a does not have an actual match at SummerSlam. Kind
of like seth Rollins floating out in the wind. Now, next week,
does Kevin Owens end up meeting the same fate as Randy did and as this
past week Cody did. I think it's logical if you take out each guy
one by one every week, it makes sense. But then what do you
do the week the night before the event? I mean, I don't know,
because what are Randy and Kevin doing at SummerSlam? The answer right now
is absolutely nothing as of this recording. So and also I'm not complaining,
it's more just an observation that I think in the Triple H era, we
need to get used to the fact that we're not going to have every person
have every match all the time on every ple E and just crunch in a
bunch of matches just for the sake of getting more people on the pl E.
Triple H's approach to ples has very much been in the last year to
two years, a fewer match less story is told more thoroughly. And I
like that. I mean, he said, what five six matches per card?
Even the WrestleMania nights, given they're split into two, are five matches.
I think six at the most. So it's palatable. Sure, the
matches are longer, sometimes there are slow points in the match, but that's
fine with me. That fits my taste perfectly. So I think, just
because Randy, just because Kevin, just because Seth. As of this recording,
things could change, of course, in the next two weeks very quickly,
and they might. But if they don't have matches on the card,
I'm not going to lose my mind. It's a big event, so you'd
imagine big names are there, so they probably will find a way to factor
those three men in, but we will see. Now the bloodline continues to
also down on the red uh. I don't know, Hula, I don't
know whatever whatever you call it. I actually don't know what you call that.
Whatever you that red necklace that you put on Roman, where Roman was
putting on or Paul Hammond was putting on Roman. And now we have Tomatonga
or Tongaloa, whoever it is, putting on that red tribal necklace. I'm
butchering. Probably whatever it's called, I'm probably it's probably sacrilegious for me not
to know what that name of that thing is. I could easily google it
or something, but I don't know what the name of it is. But
you guys know what in your mind what I'm talking about. But he's mocking
Roman Reigns by doing that. You know that has been his thing lately,
is to do that, mocking Roman Reigns and calling himself the tribal chief,
and Jacob Fatu screaming at Kevin Owens that you know, you disrespected my tribal
chief, and you know, dismantling an Owens in the corner. It's all
just a lot of fun, it is, and I have I've been really
enjoying it. And Roman is a very close, very as soon as next
week, as late as SummerSlam. We're now a matter of two to three
weeks away. One to three weeks. How about that? All right?
So a quick touch on on RAW. I'm got to bounce around tonight,
guys. The Priest and Gunther promo. I went into detail on this on
my Monday Net Raw review. I mean, I, you know, six
days removed from it, I still believe it was a promo that did exactly
what it needed to do, what it set out to do, what its
purpose was was to take a match that most fans, including myself, looked
at this match and said meh, heal, heel, who cares? And
we went from that to I I'm interested. Now you have me. You
know I'm biting, I'm nibbling on the hook here. I'm about to half
swallow your bait. And it was good. I mean, the context of
it was good. There were some awkward moments, some awkward pauses where you
could tell they kind of lost themselves a little bit. But so what most
people will remember the line about street trash. That was a really good line.
I think it was a line that felt like it was something that wwe
crossed that. He's also said that not only is Priest street trash, but
he chose to be street trash, implying those that are on the street that
they're choosing to be there. I really enjoyed this. Gunther is getting Gunher,
whether it's intentional or not, is getting a deeper personality beyond just the
war general look and mister respect the ring. I want opponents. I mean,
he's digging a little more personally into his opponents than he has in the
past. In the past it's been strictly business. Give me the best opponent,
it's about competition, and now he's digging into the personal weaknesses of their
opponents or perceived weaknesses of his opponents. And I think that's a nice element
to bring to his character, that it's not always just about business all the
time. And you heard the crowd respond in kind, and I love it.
I think this is a great move forward for Gunther's character to show that
he does understand what's happening with that person, and that he is aware of
their lives and that his character is more than just business and he'll mess with
your head too, And I like it. And we all of course know
his accomplishments in the ring, We know his style in the ring. He
literally is what he says he is a ring general, you know, he
is what he says he is. I don't think that's really at this point
just a tagline anymore. I think at this point it's real. Do I
think he's a ring general in the sense that Triple H was at the end
of his career where people are dawned with the ring general name, you know,
like talent actually will refer to a specific other talent that's been there a
while. As a ring general, I don't know, I mean, I
don't know the backstage dynamic, but I think at this point he looks and
feels like it. And on preside, man, I mean, I continue
to just sing this guy's praises. You know, I know a lot of
you are pointing to his faults in the ring, his mix ups, his
mishaps, the guy is outside of okay, him nearly breaking his own leg
two pay per views ago and then botched finished the money in the bank.
I mean, you take those two away, I mean, and you look
at this guy and you're like this, this is starting to actually feel this
guy is starting to feel like our actual champion. He's not the guy that
just cashed in opportunistically. Is holding the championship that you know he's gonna drop
in a few weeks or whatever. He's held it now. And like I've
said, we are at the point where you believe it or not have to
give Priest a significant chance to retained against Gunther. Is there going to be
interference from se Rollins? Maybe? Does Seth Rollins turn heel? Maybe?
Is Seth Rollins the special guest referee? Maybe? But I also have an
issue with Seth being a special guest referee when is that exactly the best use
of his skills at a big pl No. I don't think it is well.
I think we will get our answer tomorrow night or tonight, of course,
depending on when you're listening to this on Monday night Raw. So all
right, bouncing back to SmackDown now, talking about the Logan Paul La Night
confrontation. You talk about another guy a little bit different of a path and
a different situation, But there are some similarities in Priest and Paul here because
Logan Paul is a guy that comes from social media, yet he is an
accomplished boxer. He is a badass athlete. Young Can Talk has picked up
the WWE style faster than anyone I've ever seen, including Kurt Angle. I
think he's neck and neck with Kurt Angle. I know everybody uses that as
the measuring stick for how quickly someone picks up wrestling, and sure you could
use Ronda Rousey as well, but I think Kurt Angle and Logan Paul are
right up there with one another. That's a debate that you can have rights.
That's a fun little conversation that you could have with your friends, or
if I had someone on the show, I'd ask that question. But Logan
Paul and La Knight are in a program now that I am starting to really
enjoy and and does have some longevity to it, because La Knight reminded us,
hey, remember how I came out here a year ago and told you
where you could stick all these bottles of prime. I gave you a map.
And then La Knight proceeds to get a little bit torched by Logan Paul
calling him a rock wanna be name, you know, compared him to some
references that I guess I'm too old to know now, some SpongeBob stuff.
But it was a nice back and forth battle, and La Knight held his
own against a much younger Logan Paul that sure, he's the only thing about
Logan Paul he has against him is his age. If you're looking for anything
to knock him for of oh, he's too young to hold the championship,
or he's he's too young to fully understand the business. If someone didn't tell
you his age, I think a lot of that preconceived idea of he's not
able to hang here or doesn't understand the business would not even be brought into
the conversation. This guy has just come into the Wwe felt a little uncomfortable
at first, they tried to make him a baby face. Remember that,
Do you guys remember that a couple of years ago, three years ago at
WrestleMania, Kevin Owens ended up stunning him at WrestleMania. I was concerned that
they were just gonna make a mockery of the company, which they've done a
lot of times in the past with celebrity guests. Austin I'm sorry. Else
there, Kevin Owens stuns Logan Paul and then he ends up just slowly dipping
his toe into WWE. And do I think he'll ever be a full time,
full time guy doing the house shows. I would say no, but
of course he never say never in wrestling. We all know that it's a
golden rule. But I would lean no. And the reason is, Logan
Paul doesn't need to be doing that. He doesn't need to do it.
Look at all the success he's achieved without doing all of that stuff, going
on the road in every single town, making the live events. You don't
need to do those to be successful. And WWE is also in a very
good place right now, from viewership to financials, to social media engagement with
their fans. Stock prices are very good right now, so they are a
hot product. There's really no reason to say, oh man, we should
probably put Logan Paul in it. No, you got a formula that works,
and La Knight has a strong chance of beating Logan Paul. But I
wouldn't say it's a lock. This is also a very difficult match, very
difficult. And you know, as I look at this Summer Slam card,
in my mind, just the for three matches that I talked about So and
Cody. While most people believe Cody's gonna win, and he probably will,
there is a strong case to be made for Solo Soka to win that belt.
And the reason is you have a returning Roman Reigns right around the corner.
He's gonna come in and look at Solo who is now not only made
himself the self appointed tribal chief, created and brought in guys that he didn't
ask for or want, attacked his wise man and took his championship. Wouldn't
that maybe be a bigger story than if he doesn't have the belt. Maybe
I'm all for just personal issue. Title doesn't always need to be involved,
but it's something to at least consider. I think Cody is a heavy favorite,
but not over So solo winning here at SummerSlam may not be the craziest
idea in the world. Sure, it's a little bit short of a rain
for Cody, and I still don't think they'll do it, but there's at
least a conversation that should be had, that's all. And when you go
to La Night, as I said, and Logan Paul not an easy match
to pick, not easy. Logan Paul is rolling with it despite the fact
that he's almost never there. He continues to find ways to be a part
of the show. And when he's there via satellite or via Instagram or whatever
via x he still finds ways to make impacts, whether even the wrestler's talking
about him keeps his name alive for that week, even if Logan Paul's not
there physically that week. That's another good strategy and it's worked. So I
think you have also another situation here with Priest and with Gunther. As I
said, yes, Gunther is favorited, but are you really gonna bank on
that given the history with Priest the last three months, looking at what they've
done with Priest, I wouldn't touch it. These three title matches are not
slam dunks and not slam dunks for the first time since Premania. I mean,
it's it's fun when you don't have a super strong feeling on who's gonna
come out on top, because ww has done a really nice job of getting
you off the set, off the track, off of the off the trail.
And I don't know if that's intentional or it's not, but the fact
remains is you just don't know. And I do often have and continue to
have, like usually at least a few matches on a card that you can
just lock it up, throw away the key. You know who's gonna win.
Be careful in this one, guys. I know some of you do
bet, and you've bet a significant amount of money. I'd be very careful
of this this card. I don't think it's going to be easy at all.
But La Knight and Logan Paul good stuff. They did brawl at the
end of that segment, and you know, no one really got the upper
hand. He went for a BFT, Logan Paul slid out. Nice little
teas there. That was fun. It was fun, So all right,
So what else happened here on SmackDown? We we got Tiffany Stratton versus Meechen,
and this is a match. You know. I have to say I
enjoyed more than I thought I would. While Meechen has almost no personality,
at least that they've shown us, I'm not saying in real life that just
what we've seen on camera has been very limited. And Tiffany Stratton they done
this week, they did it especially nice job with in that promo video that
they did for her that I think Elle elevated her character a little bit more,
not crazy, but enough to make you see who and what Tiffany Stratton
is what they're trying to convey with her strength, a bit of a sexuality
to her, but also really good in the ring. She's got confidence,
I mean, she does check all the boxes. And it does look like
it's being set up for a potential Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton match. I
think Charlotte Flair is also very very very close to returning. I have had
no reports and seeing no reports of any setbacks with Charlotte Flair. It makes
sense that she returns. Now, do you want Charlotte Flair though as a
heel or a babyface? Because we've seen what babyface Charlotte Flair looks like and
it's never as fun or as comfortable as a heel, Charlotte Flair who was
born to be a heel, and even she has admit that, right,
So, I don't know, We'll have to see, but this Meetchen and
Tiffany Stratton match was simply to help put over Tiffany as it should be.
I mean, Meechen doesn't have much going on. They haven't done much with
her character, and that's being generous. Tiffany Stratton has gotten the support of
fans since day one in ww the main roster. Tiffy time is over.
It is it? Really? I think has gotten to a point where it's
it's catchy. It's catchy and she has something there, but she needs to
expand upon it, continue to build her fan base. Even though you're a
heel, you can still get fans to notice who the hell you are.
And Tiffany Stratton and this video package, I think this week did a nice
job of that. Also show a little bit of Tiffany Stratton in gymnastics,
you know, things that she did outside of w W E is also very
important, all right, So what else? What else happened here? We
had Uh, let's see Seamus and Bronson Reid on Raw. I did talk
about that a little bit. Seam He's got some new music, which is
really what most people are talking about. Uh. Sammy's Ain versus dragging off
for the Intercontinental title, which led to another Bronze Breaker spear and another bron
Breaker interruption. You know this is going to send Adam Pierce into you know,
into a seizure at this point, I'm still waiting for him to spear
Adam Pierce. I keep I thought he was gonna do it at one point.
I'm waiting for that spear on Pierce. I think more importantly on let's
see on Raw. What else happened? Was there was a big seting I'm
missing. Oh the Ria Ripley stuff. Yeah, so Ria Ripley and dom
that story is also look at me all positive today? What the hell's wrong
with me? I gotta come up with something to complain about, you guys.
I can't have the whole show beat all gushy, gooey good stuff.
I'll find something to complain about, So just sit tight, stay tuned,
as they say, But Ria Ripley and Dominic and Rhea, I'm sorry and
live Morgan are I think telling one of the best stories in WWE today,
not ever, just today. In the current product, Rhea is pushing off
the advances and apologies of Dom, dismissing him. The idea also is that
Dom did not text Ria at all during the three months she was injured,
so that doesn't help Dom's case. Ria, you know, continues to still
pursue Dom. Dom is I think still headed for a ass kicking by Rhea,
and I think that Live Morgan is not going to drop the belt to
re Ripley at SummerSlam. Yes, she's overpowered, significantly overpowered, but the
story doesn't warrant Ria to win yet. There's still too much to tell with
Lives Champion and with Dom likely turning on Ria at SummerSlam. That's my pick.
If SummerSlam were tomorrow. Of course it's not and things could change.
So take what I say with my predictions with the grain of salt, because
again, on Row tomorrow night, you can have everything get blown up.
And I sound like a fool because what he's doing it doesn't make sense.
Well, I don't you know, I can't look into the future. I
don't have my flex capacitor working on the on the Doloreans. So I unfortunately
I can't look into the future. So but mommy, mommy, chance,
uh Rea Ripley mega over. She should not be booked as a heel.
If they're ever trying to consider being her, have her being booked as a
heel this point, I wouldn't do it. She was a heel for a
significant amount of time. The fans gravitated to her. She found herself,
she's come back. You know, she's got the support of fans. There's
no need to try to mess with fans to have her double down or whatever.
Keep it alone, let her just do her thing. And yes,
again, do I think that they will do a Ria Ripley versus Dominic mysterial
match? Sadly? Probably they can't help themselves. I think it's probably coming,
or at least Ria Ripley's gonna just demod and Dom's gonna say, oh
man, wait a minute, Am I allowed to retaliate? Oh she's a
woman. I can't. And that's it's kind of where it ends, all
right. So, uh we again a lot of throwbacks to Eddie Guerrero and
China here. I think that's what they were actually going for too. By
the way, especially with the attire that re Ripley wears, a lot of
it is paying homage to Joni lore I e China, which is cool.
It's really cool. All right, Sonya Deville is back, but no one
noticed, and she's messing around with Zelena Vega at which no one cares.
And I mean I'm saying that because when WWE puts a women's match out there
that's one minute long, their message is we don't care. It's a box.
We checked. Oh see, the women had a match. We had
two matches, we had three minute Hell, we had four matches on raw.
Here's my question, what are the minutes? What are the TV minutes
of those matches? It just this is the stuff. This is the stuff
I'm talking about. Guys, those of you that are advocating for a women's
IC Belt US Belt, you really want this, You really want to add
titles into this. No, the title match, or I'm sorry, the
titles themselves shouldn't be introduced until there's a platform that can handle and respect those
championships. We are not there yet, adding titles to a women's division that
ww already doesn't. By a lot of people's accounts, put enough time into
is not going to help anyone, all right, So somebody else happened.
That's significant Anyway. The promo, as we said, with Priests and Guntherro,
that was really good. We did get Damian Priest and braun Strowman in
a non title match that ended with Priest hilariously hitting a South of Heaven on
bronz Stroman. Lol. I know why they did it. We all know
why Priest got the victory because he's the one with the championship match at SummerSlam
and bron Stroman is not so all right, little tease of Xavier Woods being
helped by ALFA Academy, and we got some Wyatt Six interference trying to attack
Chad Gable after they meaning Chad and the Creed Brothers beat down Bo Dallas.
That leads to the Wyatt Six coming out. Nothing actually happens. There's this
bunch of moniaca laughing by Bo Dallas. All right, so let's see,
Oh McIntyre, that's the last thing I'll say. Unwraw McIntyre refusing to apologize
to the referees. You know, McIntyre, to me, you could give
him an award for most Improved Superstar of the year already. He has found
what the word evolved means, and he has applied it, and applied it
brilliantly. What he has done with his character over the last twelve months has
been nothing short of miraculous, coming off of Oh look at my sword,
Angela. Look, you know, it's a tribute to my mommy. And
I'm mocking because I'm a jerk, but I hated the sword. I'm sorry
I hated this, or I didn't hate. I don't hate Drea. I
think he's a genuinely good guy. The sword, though, while it's nice
and it's symbolic and it does have actual meaning to him, and it is
unique and that not a lot of people bring swords, you knew that he
would never ever be able to use it on anybody, or if he did,
it would be an obvious swing and a miss. So I wasn't a
big fan of it. But he then turned into this guy that is the
kind of falling into opportunistic victories where he just sees no wrong in himself and
he's always the victims. Just such a fun, damn fun character. And
what he's got going with punk right now is gold. He refused this week
to apologize to the referees and instead shove them down and then push security aside
and left, which means Adam Pierce has told him he's still suspended, which
I think makes sense to me. You're not gonna have Punk and Drew likely
brawl before the event. They could, but do you want that a little
bit more controlled, because otherwise every week they'd be just beating the hell out
of each other and it'd be kind of just a little bit on repeat.
So McIntyre is still suspended as of this moment, but that will change.
As we all know, Punk and Drew is going to be a match at
SummerSlam. So all right, let's talk a little bit more about SmackDown and
wrap it up here. Here's a complaint. Here we go. This ought
to get somebody riled up, all right, This is a little bit in
in the spirit of moving women's wrestling forward. And Jade Cargill and yes,
Raea Ripley at times was the focal point of my complaints with the women's attire.
And I gotta sit here policing, taking notes, you know, complaining
to the FCC. No, I don't care on that level. I care
about women's wrestling continuing to be women's wrestling, not bron Pennies matches. And
when you look at what Jade Cargill specifically wore this week, I'm a big
Jade Cargill. I shouldn't say I'm a big Cargill than because I've been complaining
about her forever, but she's been I think she's been more improved than people
give her credit for. I will say that, but what she wore this
week on SmackDown was nothing short of just lingerie. I'm serious when I say
this. What Jade Cargill was wearing this week is akin to having an escort
put up an ad on a website. I mean, it looks like a
picture with at least from the outfit perspective, of what you would wear to
put up an ad for an escort. I'm serious, and I know Jade
Cargill has a an insane physique, and good for her. It is that
takes tons and tons of work and dedication. Could I do that? Hell
No, good for her, and I genuinely mean that. I'm not being
a facetious jerk, but I also recognize what in part held the women back
in the nineties and early two thousand, mid two thousands. Part, not
all by a long shot, but in part it was the male audience that
continues to primarily be a male audience that ate that stuff up, the sable
stuff, right, Uh, Terry Runnels and a Sonny right, and the
list goes on. And when you have the women who this you know,
twenty years later, who are starting to show signs of going back to some
of the attire that was worn back then, well, some red flags just
go up. For me. I'm not sitting here trying to be a male
feminist women empowerment. I don't care about any of that. To me,
everyone's equal, right, everyone should be treated equally. I'm not about who
should be treated better, men or women. Everybody should be treated the same.
Okay, So I don't want to get into that crap, but I
also recognize when I see it, I go, hey, I'm as a
guy, live through the attitude era, live through the discussion era. Uh,
you know, understood and understood and do understand still what ww was trying
to present with the women's division, which is a whole lot of sex.
That's what they were presenting with a little bit of wrestling sprinkled in. For
a long time that was the flavor of women's wrestling, and it was considered
generally a joke. Generally, there were exceptions. Trish Lida right, China
was an exception. Victim Vitoria was an exception, her program with Mickey James
or Mickey James rather with Tristratus, but same with Victoria. They were all
exceptions. But generally the women's division in the you know, in w's history
has been viewed at it as kind of a sexual thing. And again,
when I see this, it's just it reminds me of that a little bit.
I know that she's trying to show off her physique. I'm talking about
Jade now. She's proud of it, and she should be, But that
doesn't mean you need to be so you lack the self awareness or the I
guess I just don't care. There's also that of you understanding that, like,
hey, I don't want men to sexualize me. I don't want my
core audience to adhere to their biological wiring of thinking, wow, pretty woman,
that does things to me. Now I'm not thinking about her match,
I'm thinking about other things. And to those in the crowd and the audience
listening here, you can deny that all you want or pretend I'm you know,
misogynistic or you're the one with the sex problem. No, no,
no, no, no, no no. It's called biology, my friends.
And if a man, straight man says to you that when they look
at Jade Cargill they only see boss, you know, boss woman, girl
Boss, nonsense, nonsense, it's not true. Okay, so you know
exactly what the problem is there. My whole point about saying all this beyond
just getting a complete segment in so I can piss off some of the people
that listen to the show is and I'm being serious about all this. I'm
not making any of it up. I genuinely feel this way. But again,
I also want to advocate for the women to continue on their path in
w I want them to. And I see these things just like we saw
with the outfits on not just rear Ribley, not just you know Jade Cargill,
who if she could be naked every week, she would, but just
Chelsea Green too, who took exception with the fans telling her that. You
know, I think there was some tweet wait a while back about her getting
angry with the fans about what they were trying to tell other women to wear
and all that kind of stuff. So you kind of were you know,
you know, her mentality lies and maybe her her leanings are. But I
just want to see women's wrestling continue and continue down a road that doesn't sexualize
them. That's all. That's all I'm asking for. That's the entire reason,
the entire reason that I don't want skimpy outfits. Now, sure they
can wear athletic wear. I'm not saying for them to wear potato sacks or
you know, sweats in a sweatshirt. No, no, no, no,
no, like it's you know, we're watching the one o'clock NFL game.
No, I'm not asking for that. But there is a distinction between
athleticwear and just being skimpy to show off your body. There just is.
And I don't want to hear all the men look at what the men wear.
Yeah, except here's the difference. You're generally dealing with a population for
your core audience that are men that are straight. That's from eighteen to forty.
That's still the key demographic, and it doesn't exactly interest the core audience
with men in tights for most of us. Most all right, I got
my complaint segment in I think I'll end it there, so you guys end
in a high note the hum but I do appreciate it. I mean,
I really I know I try to push some buttons here, but I'm being
genuine about that. I really want the women's division to progress. We all
know that what we saw in the nineties and early two thousands was if you're
looking for women's wrestling, was not exactly textbook. But I'll think i'll leave
it there. All right, Well, that'll do it for you, guys.
I appreciate your time for taking the time to listen to me, and
I will be back tomorrow with a little bit of a rehash. Tuesday will
be the Raw review, and then Wednesday is the NXT review, and then
of course we have other shows coming on later in the week nearly every day.
As I said, we do publish shows nearly every day. So all
right, thanks everybody for listening, Take care, I'll talk to you next
time. Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on
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