WWE SmackDown Review: 6-Pack Ladder Match Qualifiers, Jade Cargill Arrives, WrestleMania XL Predictions

This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the WWE podcast, the
show, the one that everybody wants me ste sixteen. So just what your
ass is, my eyn you're gonna acknowledge me? What's going on? Everybody,
Guys and girls, Welcome back to another edition of the SmackDown Review right
here on the WWE podcast. As always, I am the host of this
show, Michael Ritter. You can find me on x at Michael five Ritter.
I am, you know, here to review the SmackDown that is from
where a small town in Connecticut, I believe, But you know, DJ
Cuzmo provided the location breakdown. But because it was so far down the line
whenever you're talking about everything that was going on on the Patreon the discord chat,
you know, because that's a luxury. If you subscribe on Patreon,
you get access to the discord server where you can communicate with various different ww
podcast listeners. In fact, this one is from well, let me pronounce
this right, the Mohegan Sun Arena in Kissville, Connecticut. I believe that's
what DJ Cuzmo said. So location breakdown obviously brought to you by DJ I
probably butchered the name, so that's on me. But another, I guess
perk of being a Patreon subscriber is sometimes you get to come on the show
and actually host a raw or SmackDown with the co host, which is what
we're going to do today. We're joined by Frankie Graham, who is a
member of the ww podcast family. He is a Patroon subscriber as well,
So you definitely want to do that already, or do that if you haven't
already, I should say, but Frankie, thank you so much for joining
Bud. I appreciate you taking the time out of your weekend to hop on
here and talk about some smack down with me, maybe even get some WrestleMania
predictions. Yes, I'm so excited, ready to go awesome. Well as
you can tell, you know, whenever Roman reigns, whenever Cody Roads and
the Rock aren't on SmackDown, you feel it, you know, especially just
these last few weeks, it seems like every single week we've been getting some
type of juicy main event scene. Whenever you're talking about the Universal Champion,
Roman Range, I guess the unspeeded Champion. Obviously, Seth Rollins has even
come over to SmackDown a little bit within the last couple of weeks, but
this night in particular, it was more so focused on the women. I
feel like it was more building that type of picture and setting the stage for,
you know, what the women's division is going to look like, since
it got a pretty big bolt of energy with the addition of Jade car Gill.
You know, her showing up tonight. I feel like, you know,
cutting her first promo and then actually coming out in a main event segment
that you know, was absolutely one of the best parts of the night.
But we're going to go through just some of the things. We probably won't
go in chronological order, just that's usually the method I take whenever I'm hosting
these shows solo, whenever I have somebody else, I like to kind of
just go through the big talk or the talking points. That way, we
could make sure to, you know, to cover everything that happened, and
because you know, it's not just me speaking, you know, I want
to get your opinions as well, So we're not just going to roll through
it like that. We'll kind of just go segment my segment here and just
kind of pick out which things we want to talk about we could start off
with La Knight dressing as a security guard. I'm sure that was something that
was nice for the in crowd audience, like the people that were actually there
in a you know, in attendance, because you know, the guy came
running over the barricade, he thought that maybe that would have been La Night.
Quickly we realized, no, that's not him. Aj Styles obviously called
out the cameraman was taking shots at him, and then we do see La
Night there with a with a hat on, a wig, got some glasses,
an oversized shirt, so his ussels really weren't exposed by any means,
and it really did look like a security guard, probably for the people who
were sitting in the middle section, although him standing there like that could have
probably been a little bit of a giveaway. But what are your thoughts on
this match right here? I really haven't got a chance to talk to you
about it, obviously about Aj Styles in La Night, because last week,
obviously they were at his house. We've seen these two kind of build this
hatred for each other, even dating back to when Aj Styles just came back.
He attacked La Night for pretty much jumping over him in the line to
challenge Roman Reigns, and then you think about what he did going over to
Australia for the Elimination Chamber. It seems like whenever you're talking about a grudge
match, which we really don't see in WWE anymore, especially at WrestleMania,
this is going to be I think one for the ages because of the two
people that are involved. But what are your thoughts about the build up to
this match and are you excited to see these two go head to head of
WrestleMania. I I'd rather aj or l a Night go up against someone other
than aj Styles. But that being said, you know aj it is what
it is. He's a great, great uh in ring performer and especially right
on the Mount Mount Rushmore. But uh that being said, this gretch match,
I feel is gonna be a long doing gretch match, not not short
term. So you think it's probably gonna go further past WrestleMania, Yeah,
I think so. I mean that's usually what they do, especially since they've
had the tagline WrestleMania Backlash for the last few years. It seems like most
of these programs tend to go just a little bit further than WrestleMania. So
that might be a little bit of a of a teaser for what's to come,
because you know, obviously I really haven't thought about that yet, Like
I haven't thought about the possibility of some of these programs and some of these
feuds going further. Like if a title changes hands, usually at backlash,
that's whenever the champion gets their contractual rematch, So you know, we could
see that happen probably a couple of these championships. I do expect to change
hands. I think l A. Knight is gonna face AJ, continue facing
him and chill the draft, and then that's when he'll he'll go over to
Raw. Have you heard anything about that draft? Is that like just a
little bit of like a hunch, like a little kitchen or it's a hunch
because they usually do it in September, So you know that's being said that
that's more of like a little less than halfway. So I feel like that's
a new beginning for Elle Knight because that's what he needs. He needs a
new beginning. Yes, and especially with Tody Rhodes possibly going over to SmackDown,
they got to have a big star are coming to be on Raw,
And I feel Seth has done it. I think it's going to be a
double heel turn on Mania. Uh it's just my predictions, my thoughts,
not predictions, but thoughts. All right, all right, moving on here.
Like I said, we didn't see Roman Rains on the show, but
we did see Paul Hayman, Jimmy Uso and Solo so CoA where it was
announced that Roman Reigns ordered the match to prevent Jay from making it to his
WrestleMania match with Jimmy Uso. So that match that he is ordering is going
to take place next week, so CoA versus Jay Usso, brother versus brother
just days before he has to take on and his other brother Ja. So
that is so we get a match ordered by Roman Reins for Solozo CoA to
pretty much put his defeated streak. He's like, oh and thirty something since
tvat John Cena. It's actually crazy. If there was any type of you
know, betting apps out there, I would put as much money as I
possibly could han j Uso to beat Solo Soakoa next week. But what do
you think about that? Getting a little bit of brother versus brother Jay Usso
having to take on both of his brothers in the same week. You know,
first off, I think Jay is gonna it's gonna beat Solo because Solo
is what oh and thirty or something like that since losing to John Cena,
and so he's gonna lose against Jay just so Jay can have built up for
WrestleMania. And I also feel like the final boss is not the Rock I
think it's Jay Usso that's an interesting, an interesting perspective there. Just I
mean, I mean, because you think about it, the bo Jay's been
underneath of Cody this whole entire time, hasn't done nothing, really really done
anything towards Cody, and I feel something like that will go big that you
know, will turn his back on somebody and say, hey, I'm the
boss Man, not you. I think that is a you know, way
out type of long term development if that were to be the case. Because
the Rock Man, he's on fire right now. I feel like the version
of him that we're getting WWE wants to take into Netflix. I'm sure that
since he's now on the board, he's gonna want the product to be as
successful as possible. And you know, I'm looking forward to reaping the benefits
of that just being a wrestling fan just you know, obviously most of his
work, not this past you know thing that happened to mondayn iraw obviously,
but you know, SmackDown was snow secret. It was pretty much named after
the Rock. We're created in his honor, I should say, like SmackDown
was the was the show that was supposed to elevate stars like the Rock,
who he took to the next level, and then we seen guys come up
after him, such as like Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, you know,
John Cena obviously, I remember the Big Show, brock Lesnard, the Undertaker,
Like there were so many different wrestlers that were on SmackDown way back in
the day that are just kind of synonymous with the brand the Rock is.
He is the you know, the poster child of SmackDown. So the fact
that you know he's come back multiple times and we've got a chance to see
him on the show, I hope we see a lot more of it because
you know what else is going on. Obviously he's going to be doing a
movie at some point, Like we're not gonna We're not gonna get the Rock
every single week for the entire year, you know, Once WrestleMania comes and
goes, you could probably expect his schedule to to really take a decline.
Now, obviously that's just a prediction. I don't know. I would love
to be wrong, obviously, and we're just sitting here talking about how much
we love seeing the Rock. So I'm not sitting here saying I want him
to go away. But it's just kind of what you expect. You know,
if you set yourself up for high expectations and you're going to be disappointed
most likely. But if you just expect The Rock's going to go away sometime
in the near future, then you know, the more weeks that you get,
you could just kind of enjoy them. And obviously John Cena making these
cryptic posts on Instagram where you think that maybe he could show up, you
know, seeing that truck in the background of this beat down between you know,
Cody Rhodes and the Rocks that happened on Monday Night Raw this past week.
They I saw on the internet. No, obviously, that was a
WWE production truck, right had stone colds. He lost this picture that had
John Cena's picture on it. However, those aren't the trucks that WWE is
using. Right now to travel across the world. There's been research done.
Fans have been taking photos of their production trucks and they're all WrestleMania themed.
You know, they all have Charlotte Flair and Drew McIntyre or something. You
know, like they're very up to date with the stars that are on their
production trucks. So the fact that that is the one that was shown had
to have been a strategic move. And I think that you know what I
mean, it's WrestleMania forty you know, this is WrestleMania XL, and why
wouldn't they bring out everybody. Why wouldn't they make this storyline that they're putting
all their eggs into. And also, like I've been listening to this other
podcast called Busted Out and Okay, and they said that what if Dustin Rhoades
shows up. I mean, he's gonna be in Philly that on during WrestleMania,
you know, doing his other skits. So there is a possibility he
might show up because of the fact that the tweets that he's been posting on
on x saying if you rock all this, it would just have to be
the first time that w W and A you actually worked together now you can
say, well, I mean they they mentioned Steing's retirement match on you know,
national television on Monday Night Raw whenever you know, Pat mcabee said that
was a hell of a match last night or whatever you know was said.
You could, you know, talk about Cody Road just having history over there
and how you know, maybe they could just put their differences aside for this
night. But you don't. I just don't see ae W being willing to
help out WWE with this type of you know, monumental moment. I feel
like that would almost be like them admittedly taking the back seat and just say,
even though it's it's inevitable, like we all know who's in the front
seat and who's in the back seat when it comes to the you know,
pro wrestling industry, But it'd be one thing for us to what's up,
even if it's a family versus fam or bloodline versus you know, bloodline match,
you know, it would That's who I've been like to see come because
he has to bring his family. Well, I would love it too,
Like the fact that he does have a brother who's a pro wrestler that's wrestling
right now, Like it makes all the sense in the world. The only
thing that does it make sense about it is that he's currently signed to AW
and it's just so unlikely now, is it impossible? No? You know,
Mickey James showed up whenever she was the Ring of Honor Women's Champion.
Same thing with who was it this past royal rumble man? I can't remember
her name. I think her last name was like Lopez or something. That
makes Jordan Grace the one that roy rumble and obviously had her moment, So
it's not completely out of this world. I've seen Triple Ah. She probably
you know, is close with gold Dust. They were wrestlers in the same
era, you know, so it wouldn't absolutely blow me away. But it's
the other side, like I know that Triple H would probably probably be willing
to do business with AW, especially in a moment like this where it makes
wwe have the juicy storyline, But would he be just as willing, say,
you know, because I mean it's WrestleMania, right, Like this is
a big moment for w W. What about whenever? What is it?
Is it all? I don't know exactly which pay per view for AEW was
like the big time, big time, like their you know, massive pay
per view, but say they had something really big going on and you know,
they asked, hey, you know it's it's involving one of our guys.
Can we borrow somebody from you know, a big even if it's not
even a big time wrestler. Would Triple H be willing to let that happen
or you know, it's just one of those things like that. There's so
much speculation and at this point there's so much crossover like who knows, Like
like say it involves Buddy Murphy, you know, like say Buddy Murphy's in
the main event of aw's biggest pay per view and he says hey, and
you know, Tony Kahan calls Triple Ah and says, hey, can I
get Ria Ripley to come be in Buddy Murphy's corner and you know show him
if she's the WWE Women's Champion at this point, the world champion, whatever
it is, that would be insane, you know, for that to you
know, be one of the things. So that's one thing that I feel
like, as far as fantasy booking goes, you're spot on. That would
be brilliant to have gold Dust come out, just as Dustin rohads, no
makeup, nothing like that, just come out to help his brother whenever.
Obviously, and inevitably, the numbers do become a disadvantage for Cody Rhoads.
But yeah, you know, it's just one of those things that it's hard
to picture the two top companies working together at this point, especially for something
like WrestleMania. I mean, if going you gotta think big wise and they're
gonna go big yeah, without a doubt like WW. Like if it was
just a one sided thing, like if WW was like, hey, can
we borrow gold dust for this weekend? Like can we borrow dustin dustin roads?
Like, I'm sure that they would be willing to do it WW that
is, But it's just AW saying like, yeah, we're gonna help you
make your the storyline that could ultimately put us under, the storyline that's been
pretty much taking over and the reason why we're taking a back seat for so
long. They would pretty much just be helping that out. That's the only
perspective I'm trying to trying to look at it from is not just from a
w w E lens, but also from people who don't want to see wwe
have the biggest storyline in the world that they want to see them kind of
drop the ball here and hopefully can close the gap we get too qualifying.
Yeah, and you know one of them is featuring New Catch Republic going up
against Legato del Fantasma. And speaking of Legato del Phantasma, the reason why
they had a massive disadvantage in this specific match is because right before it happened,
Ray Maasterio and Dragon Lee ended up challenging Dominic Mysterio and Santo's Escabar to
a match at WrestleMania forty and then a broad took place which LWO got the
better of. Dragon Lee was introduced as the newest member of LWO. It's
going to be a pretty good match when you think about, you know,
WrestleMania thirty eight, Raymastereo and Dominic team together up against I think it was
that Logan Paul in the Miz. I think that's right. In the WrestleMania
forty they went one and one, you know, one on one against each
other, and now or a WrestleMania thirty nine, I apologize they want one
on one and now WrestleMania forty they're tagging against each other, so they're getting
pretty much every variation of a match you can do involving one another. Three
straight WrestleManias. That's pretty impressive, just being completely honest. But New Ketch
Republic they hit a double Burning Hammer to defeat LDF and earn a spot in
that six pack ladder match at WrestleMania forty. But it was the interaction between
Dominic Mysterio and Ray Mysterio pretty much asking Ray asking who you're gonna tag with,
because at this point it wasn't introduced or it wasn't announced that Dragon Lee
was a member of LWO, so I thought it was it gonna be Carlito.
That's I was kind of just, you know what I was expecting.
I had a hunch that I had a hunch that Dragon Lee was going to
be part of LWO. With as much as he's been hanging around Ray and
all that, am defending Ray and everything, Yeah, and as much as
not even just that aspect, but also Logado del Fantasma pretty much just bullying
him backstage, you know, just giving giving him AM an enemy with the
LWO, and that makes it easy, and you mentioned it, it just
seems like a perfect fit too, So it does make sense that dragonly joins
the group and then tags with Raymisterio, which is going to be a pretty
big moment for his career, especially whenever you look at possibly passing the torch
as that current Lucha wrestler in WWE. But the whole reason Dominic was even
out there in the ring in the first place was because Santos Escobar wanted to
personally thank him for interfering last week and then pretty much face to face,
tell him that he was right whenever he and you know Santos way back when
for Santos was teaming with Ray Mysterio and Dominic was the one that was feuding
with Ray Mysterio and telling him, hey, like this is a deadbeat dad,
all that good stuff, pretty much setting himself up for I guess the
the vindication. You know that he was right Dominic, that is, but
because he was out there with Legardo del Fatasma his other action the judgment day,
they really weren't too happy about that. In fact, there was a
little bit of tension backstage. They just you know, none of them expected
Dominic to do that. They're kind of questioning, well, did you know
he was doing it? No? Did you know he was doing it no,
and then you know, Damian Priest points out how important this WrestleMania is
for them, not only just individually, but as a group, and you
know, it's just one of those things where maybe the split up and the
breakup of the Judgment Day might be happening a little bit sooner than we all
expected. What are your thoughts on the Judgment Day and the tension that's been
going on in the group. I've I've felt that it's been leading up to
this, and I you know, it's kind of suspicious how Finn's like been
saying, you know, well, you know something's going on. Something's going
on. Yeah, areci He's been saying. He's been saying it for a
while too. Finn's been saying that in the background, Yeah he has.
But you know, I guess I don't really care if they break up or
not. Just being honest, It's been a group that I feel like has
kind of rent it. Of course, the creator of the group has been
in aw for months now, you know, so it seems a little bit
strange that this is still going on just considering all that. But I'm sure
the group makes a lot of money. As one of the most popular Superstars
where youre Ripley. Dominic obviously is a heat magnet, so I don't expect
the group to break up that quick. But it just seems like, you
know, the things that we've seen on you know, they'll, you know,
every time we see them have more and more tension and more of a
wedge gets driven between them. It just seems like it could be something that
gets sped up. And obviously we've seen groups get breaking up or get broken
up early time and time again. Let's go ahead and move on to another
match. Here, Austin Theory and Grayson Waller defeat the Street Profits via pinfall.
And it was really just a roll up here as you can, I'm
sure recall the video package or the jumbo tron showed Bobby Lashley being attacked by
Carrying Cross backstage, and that's whenever the roll up happened. And then afterwards
the entire Final Testament came out and pretty much just beat the hell out of
not only Bobby Lashley but the Street Profits as well. Even Befab got attacked
backstage. So Austin Theory and Grayson Waller they earn a spot in the six
Pack Challenge just like Newcatch Republic earlier in the night. Do you think that
this was the right decision having Theory and Waller go rather than the Street profits.
I honestly think yes, because you know, next week it could be
they could say, hey, let's make it at WrestleMania, you know,
the first first Testament versus whatever this freaking team that they have going on is
and doing it that way at WrestleMania too. In the feud, we do
get another tag team match, pretty deadly. Elton Prince and Kit Wilson defeat
Kevin Owens and Randy Orton via pinfall. After Logan Paul sneaks up, knocked
out Kevin Owens and brass knuckles, he hides under the ring. Luckily,
Randy Yorton pulls him out, puts a pretty big beat down on him,
and then obviously pretty deadly come back to try to help out Logan Paul,
in which case they both get stunnered and hit with an r KO and Logan
Paul gets chased out of the arena, just setting it up for, you
know, a pretty good triple threat match. I always love a good triple
threat match at WrestleMania. It seems like they like to do it every ten
years at least, and I'm all for it, especially when we're talking about
a championship as prestigious as the United States Championship. So if it were to
go on somebody like Randy Orton or Kevin Owens, I would be all for
it, And to be completely be honest, I would even be behind Logan
Paul retaining it just because I feel like he's doing a decent job being a
United States Champion thus far, and obviously the eyeballs that he brings on to
the product, it's just, you know, it's dollar signs no matter what.
So I feel like WWE has set themselves up for a win, win,
win, no matter what when it comes to this triple threat match.
What are your thoughts on just what happened on this episode of SmackDown though Logan
Paul appearing using the brass knuckles again and then getting chased out of the arena,
I felt that I knew it was going to happen, especially if they
put at the beginning of a show them two and then I knew Logan Paul
was going to do something like that shady because he because that's what he does.
He's you know, since he's a heel, and my thoughts on I'd
like to see Randy take it because I think he'll put more prestige to the
title than what Logan Paul can do. Yeah, Randy's already got such a
Hall of Fame resume that him getting a championship run at this point in his
career I think would do wonders for him, but also for the championship and
everybody that comes to challenge him. They just get to go up against Randy
Orton for a championship, which you know is something that is a notch on
everybody's belt as a professional wrestler. We also got to see backstage or I
guess just a video package of EO Sky, who was cutting a promo.
As soon as the cameraman or whoever it was said, all right, cut
clear whatever, we got it, Bailey comes out of nowhere and attacks EO.
Sky, gets her hands on her, which is something that Eosky's had
coming for a while now, and Bailey's, you know, she finally gets
a chance to take out some of this frustration after all these months. What
did you think about Bailey putting the attack on EO. Sky after she finished
her little interview or I guess her little video package promo. I thought that
was the right move, especially for what's to build, you know, to
show EO, hey, you're not the boss, you know of the women's
industry. Yeah. And the last question I'll ask you before we get into
obviously the main event and then our WrestleMania predictions is the storm has arrived.
What do you think about Jade Cargill making her appearance, you know, finally
here on SmackDown, but just coming over to WWE. How do you think
she's gonna do? Do you have high expectations for her or do you think
that, you know, maybe she might be a little overhyped at this point.
I think she's overhyped. Honestly, Yes, she's a she could be
a great wrestler. I didn't really watch her when she was part of AW
so I didn't know much about her per se, but what I've seen from
the Royal Rumble and then to j Night's show, she got a lot of
power. But can she you know, whin the stacks against her? Can't
she back it up? That's the question. Yeah, I think that it
really depends on who you ask, Really, if she's overhyped you know,
because I feel like there are some people with reasonable expectations. They know that
she's not as polished as some of the wrestlers that are here on the WWE
roster. But whenever you look at what she's bringing to the table from a
starting point and her upside, you know, it's draft seas and we're looking
at trades, we're looking at potential, we're looking at landing spots. I
feel like she landed in a perfect situation, or she's going to be booked
as this Babyface teaming up with Bianca bell Are possibly Naomi looked like she was
there too. I mean, who knows that this quote unquote team is going
to actually go anywhere, or if it was just Babyfaces helping Babyfaces for her
demeanor, her aura, you know what she has as I feel like,
like, in my opinion, I think that she's she's in a perfect situation
where the people in WWE, you know, at the performance center, the
wrestler she's gonna be going up, you know, going up against rubbing shoulders
with backstage such as you know, wrestlers like Natalia, you know, even
people that are her size that that are kind of thriving right now. You
look at rock Hill Rodriguez, you look at Ria Ripley and Bianca Belle Air,
Like, there's so many people that she can lean on at this point
that can try to bring it out of her. They didn't give her a
whole lot of my time. You could tell she's not polished on the microphone.
Well, she did say the storm has arrived. It's about damn time.
And I feel like if she were to have a mouthpiece, like if
she were to just somehow after this whole Bloodline thing is over, find her
a way to work with Paul Hayman or somebody like that, then yeah,
we might be looking at no pun intended the next big thing obviously, And
I shouldn't even said that. We're not trying to quote rock Lesnar or anything
like that, but I'm just saying that being with Paul, being with Paul
Hayman and you get Jay Cargill, you can get the most out of her
with someone that can put her over on a weekly basis. I can cut
the promos while you know, in the meantime, she's polishing her game at
live events and obviously the performance center too, just polishing her craft while also
having somebody in her corner that can elevate her, not make her get exposed
on the microphone, because she can get better at that over time. I
think that maybe she could have a pretty successful career. I'm not gonna say
she's gonna be a Hall of Famer out of the gate, but I would
be lying if I said that I wasn't extremely excited about this edition, and
I have pretty high expectations for her. See. One thing I wasn't too
keen on on this episode of SmackDown was when they were saying that the Andrea
the Andrea the Giant Battle Royal. I'm not. I'm just not a fan
of it because it's been they've had it too long, especially with what the
tats are. It's it's it's putting it down, Yes, it's it's really
just it's one of those things, like it's a way to get on the
card, you know, like if you don't have a promo or a program,
if you don't have anyththal and you're not tied up with anybody, it's
a good way just to get someone used at WrestleMania because you want to satisfy
all the fans. So I'm with you, like I'm not over here looking
forward to the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, Like that's not something that
I'm going to get excited about. But it's also like I guess I understand
why and it's not and it's not even all in WrestleMania. It's the night
before, right, That's how it was last year too. That's that's just
come on, you know, like at that point, yeah, like let's
let's do away with this, you know. So I'm with you, that's
kind of a little bit of a misuse of talent. Like if you don't
like WrestleMania, isn't isn't a participation award, Like you don't get to just
be on WrestleMania or I guess, in this case the night before WrestleMania.
Like so that's why I'm with it being on small down if they're going to
do it anyways or whatever, but just I guess, I don't know.
I just feel like, you need to earn your spot at WrestleMania, and
you know there's ways that you can do that. Obviously, Jay Cargill she
does end up getting a spot, which I believe it might have been announced
that she has a six woman tag match at WrestleMania. We'll talk about that
here just a little bit, because in the main event there defeats Dakota Kai.
As soon as that third hand hits the mat. As soon as the
bell rings, the rest of damage Control comes out there to try to put
a beat down on Bianca Bellair and then out comes Naomi, which obviously it's
still not enough. And then you see Jay Cargill's music Hitch. He walks
slowly, calm just to the ring. You can kind of tell that everyone
was waiting. Everyone's eyes were on her to see what's going to happen here.
She gets in the ring pretty much saves the day. The big boot
wasn't extremely impressive, but the power bomb that she did to Dakota Kai,
I rewinded it. I showed my roommate and I said, look this right
here. If you're just looking at a wrestling prospect, similar and we'll kind
of tie it back to football. If you're at a if you're watching a
quarterback's pro day and he scrambles to the left, bam moves back over to
the right on the run, throws the football fifty five yards down the field,
right in the bread basket. You're gonna put a little check mark.
Okay, this player has something in the wrestling world. Seeing how smoothly she
picked up another professional wrestler, another grown woman power bombed her on the mat.
The force and the power that was behind that power bomb, that's you
check that and you say, okay, like she has something. Her floor
is a lot higher than a lot of other women's floor. In fact,
her floor is higher than some women's ceiling that we're talking about that are currently
on the roster. So that's why I can look at Jade and think man
with you know, the piece of clay that she is that can be molded
by somebody you know that's on the roster, and you know, just like
I mentioned, all the talent that she's going to be surrounded by that can
help her figure out this business. I truly think she set up better than
she wasn't aw, that's obvious, But possibly having a match at WrestleMania this
quickly, do you think that's a little bit too quick for her to,
I guess, be showcased, especially in front of a crowd of like eighty
thousand, Yes I do. But with what her talent was, like,
I was watching one of her moves for she was behind the girl the double
arm scissor face slam or whatever it's called. That right there, that girl
she literally looked like a doll compared to Jade. Yes, but with I
think they need to promote her more before she gets a big event like this,
because this is just throwing somebody into the wolves, yes, it really
is. But luckily she's going to be surrounded by the talent that she is,
you know, being surrounded by Bianca blaiir Naomi. I feel like it's
gonna help her out a lot, and then going up against women that are
so much smaller than her, like the other three women in Damage Control.
I think that's going to you know, make it a little bit easier for
her. But let's go ahead and look at this card, shall we.
It's it's prediction season, Like it's time for us to kind of get ahead
of the ball here, maybe get our predictions out a little bit earlier than
what we normally do here for WrestleMania. Now, obviously cards are going to
happen, like changes are going to happen, that's just inevitable. But we
can still go through what we have right now in front of us, right
you know it's Saturday, so a week away from WrestleMania Night. We're WrestleMania
forty nine one. So let's look at some of the things that we're going
to be having at our disposal here WW Women's Championship match. EO Sky versus
Bailey. I'll let you go first here. Okay, so the uh,
I'm gonna say, h Bailey. Bailey's gonna out maneuver EO with But I
have a feeling that Damage Control is going to come in and help EO,
which, in turn, the Naomi Bianca and Jay Cargill are gonna be Bailey's
back up. I'm with you on that. I think that Bailey will one
hundred percent win the championship here and probably have a pretty damn good twenty twenty
four. She deserves it, obviously for what she's done, and I think
she still looks phenomenal just in the ring. I know that she's definitely getting
a little bit older. She's been around for quite some time and she is
not a spring chicken. But I think that she's got a lot of great
years I had of her, and this is gonna be a pretty big moment
for her winning this championship. At WrestleMania. The other women's championship, the
Women's World Championship match Ria Ripley versus Becky Lynch. This is a tough one
because Ria Ripley won this championship. Did she win it this at WrestleMania last
year? I think I think she did. Yeah, So hmmm, she
could lose it at this you know, this year mark, you know,
going from WrestleMania to WrestleMania, and Becky Lynch kind of cementing herself obviously selling
the book. This could be a big moment for her. This is probably
one of the most unpredictable matches that I've come across on the car thus far,
just looking at the entire list. But if I'm going to pick the
other championship to change hands, I'm going and I'm kind of on the fence
with this one. I think that I'm going to lean towards the champion retaining,
and I think rear Rip is going to continue to be on top.
Look, I'm I like, I like Ria, but I don't like the
action she's doing. But I feel Becky she just she wants it. More
to that being said, I feel she's gonna she's She's gonna win it.
Well, I wouldn't be shocked. Like I said, I'm on the fence
like I think Becky Lynch would. Where she is in her career, would
make sense for either good wins. I mean, I mean, look at
what she did with Naya and Rhea hasn't even beaten Naya yet. Yeah,
I mean I would be behind to Bechu Lynch victory, no doubt about it.
Up next to the Intercontinental Championship match, Gunter versus sammy's Ain, I'll
give it back to you here. Is Sammy Zain the one to dethrone Gunter?
Yes, yes, because in the previous in the previous weeks, Gunther's
been saying, look, I need somebody that's I'm done. I'm done is
what he's been saying. I'm done with this title. I'm ready to move
on, and he he wants to battle somebody like Sammy Zain. And I
feel Sammy Zain. Yes, he's found the title before, but he didn't
get the opportunity where he's at now to elevate it more than what it already
is. LE mean, look what he did you look what he did with
Roman Reigns. Yeah, I think he is beyond it. He knows that
he's he's pretty much done everything he can with his championship. So Sammy's a
winning It would be a monumental moment for him in his career. And you're
satisfying Goonter by allowing him to elevate himself and go on to something up,
you know, going to greener pastors. I guess so I would be behind
the Samy's victory as well. Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship, the six Pack
Ladder Match, Finnbaler and Damian Priest versus DIY versus Awesome Truth versus The New
Day versus Newcatch Republic versus Austin Theory and Grayson Waller. Now this one very
interesting. I'm going to roll Dy. I just think that when you look
at everybody in here, I want to number one. I want to give
it to a true tag team. I feel like, if if WW is
serious about doing something about this whole tag team picture and they actually want to,
you know, revamp those belts, get the color out of there,
you know, make single championships that are just the undisputed tag team championships,
putting them on a team like Dy not to mention their connection with Triple H.
How close he is. That's kind of what I'm factoring in as well
with the Sammy's Ain thing, Like Triple Ah is really close to Sammy's Ain.
He and Triple H is big on giving people their quote unquote WrestleMania moment.
D I Y has such a historic pass together at NXT and the fact
that they're showcasing their ability to be a tag team and you know, elevate
the tag team division at WrestleMania. WrestleMania forty, I feel pretty confident that
DY can do this and you know, take the championships away from whoever,
you know, whether it's you know, obviously from Valerin, Damian Priests.
But they're going to have to climb a ladder to win this match. I
think that Champa and Johnny Gargano can get it done. My opinions are probably
a little bit different than yours. Yeah, DIY, you know much love
they get. You know, they they're a good possibility to win it.
But I think since this is WrestleMania, the biggest WrestleMania of them all,
I think the Miz and Our Truth. Our Truth has never won a singles
championship or never held an actual championship besides the twenty four to seven and he
won that seventy seven times, but he never held it. So I feel
Our Truth and the Mis are gonna get this. I ought to be fine
with that outcome as well. Both of us seem like going with underdog teams
here, you know, given the New Day and their resume almost unfair.
At this point, New Catch Republic is just on fire. You got Theory
and Grayson Waller that I feel pretty confident they're not going to get it done.
And then obviously the champions could always retain. But what the cracks happening
in the judgment Day, like we kind of mentioned a little bit earlier,
is he look how close back and look how close our Truth and Trip and
Triple Hr They've known each other for twenty some years, So I mean,
yeah, no doubt. United States Championship logan Paul, Randy Orton, and
Kevin Owens. Who do you got in this one? I got Randy Orton.
I want to pick Randy two just because of you know, him coming
back. His comeback was kind of watered down by seeing punks just happening in
the same night. Randy was pretty upset that they leaked it that he wasn't
able to, you know, get that surprise pop that he probably was looking
forward to for the entire time he was out. So winning a championship at
WrestleMania, it, you know, has Randy Orton written all over it.
You know, he was a part of Wrestlemingia twenty as his first WrestleMania,
so here we are twenty years from that. It makes sense giving him the
belt. I want to pick Randy Orton as well. I'm just like,
are they going to, you know, make us this happy? Like,
are they really do they really want to see us walk away with this much
joy from WrestleMania Because Randy Orton, that would make all the you know,
all the fans happy, and and on and on top of that. I
don't know if you notice, like at the end of the thing he had
with Logan Paul at the be ending of the show, Randy looked like he
goes, it's receipt time. Up next, we got l A. Knight
versus AJ Styles. I think because AJ Styles already teased he's probably going to
get new entrance music. H This is another tough one here, but I'm
gonna go with l A. Knight. I think that you know just how
hot he is right now and where aj Styles is. He's at the point
where he can put over somebody like La Knight at the WrestleMania where he has
like all the crowd behind him. I'll pick l A Knight to win this
one. This is a tough one because of the fact that you know they
both have much to gain but much to lose too. I think I'm gonna
go with uh. I gotta go with La Knight just for the clarification of
saying I got my receipt. So the Dominic beat Ray Mysterio last year are
no So Ray got the win, right, Yes, Well, in that
case, I am picking Dominic Mysterio in Santo's Escobar to defeat Ray Mysterio and
Dragon Lee because I just Dominic he's that that slimy, slithering type of nuisance
that you really just you wish you could squash him, but you somehow can't.
So yeah, I think he's gonna get a win here and finally get
the better of his dad at WrestleMania, whether he is the one who pins
Ray Mysterio or if it's ends up being Santo's speaking pinning Dragon Lee or vice
versa. In fact, I will probably go on limb. I think Dominic
is going to pin Ray myastereo and they are going to get to win,
you know, the Hill Team. I I don't think that's not how it's
gonna go down. I feel like Ray and Dragon Lee are going to get
the win just because of what all Dragon Lee can do, he and everything.
I think they're going to get the win and and the pen to end
dom and sen Santos escobars uh spewed. Let's see. Now we've got Jade
Cargill, Bianca but and Naomi versus Oscar, Kyrie Sane and Dakota Kai.
I think this one's a pretty easy one. Despite you know, damage Control
being pretty good faction. Jay Cargill isn't losing this early in her run.
They're trying to book her like an absolute unbeatable force. You can just tell.
You can tell that it's gonna be a while before she loses. And
especially team wrote with Bianca belaira who has a WrestleMania win streak of her own.
It's two years in a row. Yeah, Like you know, Bianca
is someone that she steps up to the big moments for for WrestleMania. So
yeah, give me the baby Face team. Oh yeah, baby Face team.
I mean because you got Bianca bell Aira that's one two back to back
WrestleMania. So she's undefeated at WrestleMania. I think she's gonna be like the
next like I feel, the next Undertaker kind of thing. And then you've
got Naomi. She's trying to she's to bringing herself to be known again,
and so is Jade. So I feel like they're good. They're just gonna
stomp the damage control all right, things get juicy here. We got the
Rock and Roman reigns versus Cody Rhodes and seth Rawlins. I think that it's
the Rock and Roman they're going to get this win here. Don't know how,
don't know what we're all is going to take place in this match,
but I just feel like there's no way that you're going to make the path
easy for Cody roads. Is he going to win? We get our picks
here in just a little bit. But I just think that like, in
order for it to be like Cody Rhodes accomplished or defeated all odds, you
know, like he pretty much just rose to the occasion is to make it
as hard as possible and make him take the path with the most resistance.
And the way to do that is to have the match be bloodline rules,
and somehow, you know, you lose that tag team match, well because
they got cheated out, and then you know, whenever we get to WrestleMania
Nite two and he has to go one on one with Roman Reigns, he's
going to have to you know, overcome the the what is it, the
Samoan spike and all the other things that have costed so many other Roman Reigns
challenges in the past. But I do feel pretty confident that the Rock and
Roman Reigns are going to win WrestleMania Night one. I think Night one,
Uh, the Bloodline is gonna win just because I feel like they're gonna have
some disqualification to win to get that blood line. They're not gonna let it
let Cody get it easy, Yes, no doubt about it. It's pretty
much just making him take the path with the most resistance. So that takes
us to the main events of Night two, the World Heavyweight Championship match,
seth Rawlins versus Drew McIntyre. Is this the moment that Drew gets it done.
Do you think that we finally have a new world tapeweight champion in WWE?
Legally? Absolutely? I think I think Seth needs some time off and
come back strong. I had this. I feel it's going to be a
double turn. I feel afterwards, Drew's gonna be all happy and Seth's nattack
him and then leave for a while, and Drew's gonna be the maybe face.
It could happen, give Drew that moment that he's been desperately wanting to
be the guy with fans in attendance. I can only imagine what those what
those promos are going to be like if you were to actually win it.
But that takes us to the main event, the undisputed WWE Universal Championship match,
Roman Reigns versus Cody Rhodes. You're the guest here on the show,
so I will watch go first. What do you think is going to happen
here? I think it's gonna start off like the one on one kind of
deal. Then the whole bloodline comes out and they it could be even they
could bring in uh Jacob Fatu from Independent just to be there because he's part
of the bloodline. The whole you know, and then Cody he you know,
he nods or whatever, and his whole team shows up kind of like
the Avengers kind of match and have John Cena, have Jay Uso to have
uh uh who else seth and and then and then you hear uh the the
last Shatter John and then that that's when you know Stone Cold shows up and
then added it and then you know there could be a possibility of the gold
Dust come out. There's that possibility. But I feel even the match and
Cody gets Roman and pins them on two three, I just feel like it
like if you want to build Cody is the new face of the company,
like he you know, WrestleMania's tagline is you know, finish your story,
you know, and finish the story. And I just feel like there's no
way that you could have him lose two years in a row in this spot.
Like it just I feel like you've been in a situation. The whole
story thing. Look, I understand it. It took me a while to
understand it. This story has nothing to do with his dad. That the
thing. The story is the fact that he when he came to the business
many years ago, he he tried to get a championship, couldn't get one,
couldn't get one. He left, he got him over there when he
started his own franchise. Then he comes back and he says, I want
to finish my story. I want to get my championship. I'm with you.
I think that the story is deeper than a lot of people might realize
or might even care about. A lot of people are like, well,
I don't care. You know, I don't want Cody Roads to win anyway,
so you know it's irrelevant at this point. But I feel like I'm
not a Cody fan at all though. Yeah, you just have to ask
yourself this point, like, what do you think is more likely that Roman
Reigns is on his last week as champion and this streak is this history streak
is about to come to an end? Or do you feel like Cody Rhodes
is about to lose his second main event singles match in a row. Now,
it wouldn't necessarily surprise me if he lost, because they've done it to
people in the past, such as Roman Reigns. But it wasn't two back
to back WrestleMania main events that this guy just flat out lost, you know,
whenever he lost. The one thing I've wanted from Cody is for him
to show why he's called the Nightmare. I mean, his dad has said
it, showed multiple times he's the American Dream, has showed it that he's
the Dream, the American Dream. He was the faith of the company.
And but Cody in two years that he's been back, has never shown a
sign of evil. He's only shown his good side and being the politician,
the goodie good tissue kind of kid. Right, He's never shown the evil
side the Nightmare. I want to see it, and this is the best
place to see it is that WrestleMania. Dang well, I'm probably gonna pick
Cody Roads too, just because I don't. I don't think they could do
it to him two years in a row. It's crazy, Like I said,
put themselves into place, so one of us two outcomes have to happen.
The Street come already has to suffer the last years in a row.
I picked Cody to win last year, and I was wrong. I'm gonna
possibly have his yourself. I'm again, We'll see see what happens. But
that's the match. With that looking forward to the most two years. Some
people want to think I do winning Tody a good job. I'll make get
the second and you know, the vis you'll pass. I could probably both
match begins. I could expect that to be true. Cinema, you know,
cinema, it gets thrown around so much like whenever you think about like
people will see a wrestling promo and they'll say, oh, this is cinema.
It's just, you know, it's almost like generational whenever you know,
I'll tie it back to a football evaluation. People throw out the term generational
talent a lot lately, you know, when I feel like people do that
again, or people do that with cinema and wrestling. But I think that
with how good the WWE production team is, and you have everything at your
disposal that we've seen over the past two years with these guys, you could
put together something truly special. And I think that, you know, we
could get something similar to the my Way video package that we got with Stone
called Steve Boston and the Rock Back of WrestleMania seventeen. But Frankie, thank
you so much for joining me. Obviously, this is gonna be the last
time I make it a picture on the d W Debut podcast. You have
a lot of things going on yourself that I'm gonna let you plug. And
obviously you've shown up for the football function as well, so I definitely want
to appreciate and say thank you for taking some time out of your we can
talk about WrestleMania and SmackDown with me. I really appreciate it. Oh,
not a problem, non a problem. Is there anything you need to say
any plug shout out anything like that before I let you go? So to
let y'all know I I am thinking about starting a every Sunday on TikTok.
If you guys are part of TikTok. If you are, find me,
I am Frankly Wilder and I'm gonna do be doing like a mail bag kind
of deal. Let me know what you guys think, message me, let
me know that's something you would like to do, and I'm gonna have a
co host on it. We're gonna go and pretty much talk about you know,
people's questions, concerns, what their thoughts, anything that has to do
with the w W week. And then you can also find me on Twitter
or x whatever you want to call it. Frankly Wilder, that's where you
find me at. Well, there you have it. The definitely look up.
Franky's gonna get some I'm going I think it's gonna be pretty fun,
very interacted with all of the you know, the contributors and all the followers
and everything like that. So definitely give him a listen. And you know,
we check out over there on TikTok's. TikTok's where you know, you
can spend hours and hours just getting distracted, whether you're you know, in
the car or doing something you're not supposed to you when you're at work,
you know, just you know, I'm supposed to be staying busy, but
here I am looking at tiktoks and I'm just wasting all this time all that
good stuff. You know. TikTok's one of my favorite apps to just be
a consumer of, not necessarily a creator, but I definitely absorb a lot
of TikTok videos. But thank you guys so much for tuning in here.
We are one week away from WrestleMania, so obviously things are about to get
very juicy this week. I don't know if there's going to be a single
day without something going on, you know, starting Monday all the way to
WrestleMania Sunday. So I have a question for you. Go ahead, what
would you give a rating for Mondays? And did you watch Mondays at all?
I watched bits and pieces of it, not the full three hour show,
but I was able to kind of pick out certain things and you know,
go to YouTube and things like that. Okay, what would you give
rating for Monday and Today's I think Monday Night Raw was absolutely a better show.
They had more star power, They were able to you know, really
hit the ball out of the park with some of their segments and get the
Internet talking. And I think SmackDown the outsider, like the casual fan may
not look at this episode of SmackDown and think, oh, this was just
a brilliant show. But whenever you look at obviously introducing Jay Cargill, we
get more storyline development with the women's picture and then the advance the tag team
advanced and advancing to WrestleMania. I think this car or this specific SmackDown had
a lot to offer, but it wasn't your your better SmackDown. So because
Raw was so good, Like if you're combining the shows, I would say
it was a pretty good week of smack or of ww programming. But if
you were to take out, you know, the star studded episode of Monday
Night Raw, and you were just evaluating this episode of SmackDown by itself,
it wasn't the best, but you know, I appreciate the good stuff that
came from it. I so SmackDown. I gave it probably like a two
out of a five. I mean I was really not the only there's only
bits, like the whole Hayman thing. I was not interested in that at
all because he was saying some stuff that was not like it hadn't made no
sense at all. And then there was parts, you know, but overall
the action, I mean, yeah, it was cool, but it was
predictable, yeah, no doubt. And then and then Raw it was like
a four out of a five because with all the everything going on. Yeah,
we'll all was an elite show. Like I really I really appreciated that.
Like it. If I had the time, I would love to sit
down and watch every single second of it. But luckily we have people that
kind of fill us in on all the all the jews noteworthy stuff, and
we're able to kind of just watch what we have time for, and you
know, that's pretty much all you can do at this point. But yeah,
I think that this was a great week, this past week of ww
programming, and we're probably gonna get another good week, just being completely honest,
just the one that's coming up. I have some pretty high expectations for
it, so I am definitely looking forward to talking to you about it the
next time we chat, and then getting all the WWE podcast listeners' opinions,
you know, with the mail bag and all of the other ways that you
can get a hold of Matt, DJ, Cuzmo, everybody else that is
involved with the mail bag, you know, it's a nice way to keep
in touch. And obviously subscribing to Patreon gets you access to the discord datso
another great way to communicate. But thank you guys so much. Hope you
all have a damn good week while passionately in the direction of your dreams,
and I'll talk to you soon. Wow. Thanks for listening to the WWE
podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast st app so you don't
miss a show, or head to wwepodcast dot com and for all of these
shows ad free head over to Patreon dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then,
we'll see you next time.