WWE SmackDown Review: Andre The Giant Battle Royal, Jey vs Solo, Dragon Lee Attacked

This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the WWE podcast, the
show, the one that everybody wants me tell you, somebody stand for sixteen,
So just us, your ass is my ard. 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 ww podcast. As always,
I am one of the hosts of this show, Michael Ritter. You can
find me on x at Michael five Ritter on Instagram at Michael Ridder five and
also one of the hosts of the Football Function Podcast, available on all your
podcasting platforms, including the one that you're listening to this show on right now.
We actually just recorded our five hundredth episode of the Football Function Podcast.
Pretty monumental milestone, if you will. I mean five hundred that's a hell
of a lot of episodes to record, edit, produce, all that good
stuff, all the behind the scenes stuff that really doesn't get talked about,
probably doesn't even get thought about. Really, I mean, it's more than
just sitting in front of a microphone and talking for half an hour or however
long these episodes end up running, but I did want to give a quick
shout out to everybody that has gone over to the Football Function Podcast from the
ww podcast. It's a big deal to me the listeners that we've gained over
the years, that have come from this tight knit group. Now, obviously,
you know, listeners come and go, that's kind of the nature of
podcasting. But every now and then you come across some that really stick around,
you know, and they're here for the long haul. So shout out
to all of you, and hopefully you will continue to listen to not only
this show, but the Football Function Podcast as well. Having said all that,
guys, it is wrestle Mania weekend. We are finally here one of
the most joyous times of the entire year. The fact that you know,
our fifth, five hundredth episode kind of went in sync with WrestleMania weekend that
it almost feels like, you know, I kind of mentioned this on the
podcast the other day, that it feels like the end of the school year.
It feels like there's reasons to be excited. You know, Joy's in
the air. So I think that this is going to be a pretty monumental
weekend. I think it's going to be pretty juicy. For those of you
that don't know, Apparently there's the quote unquote WrestleMania World. I'm not sure
I've heard about this before other than this year. Obviously, some of the
listeners that I know that are going to WrestleMania definitely are going to attend the
WrestleMania World. So I definitely want to see some pictures and things like that.
But I will say that if it's anything like WrestleMania Access, or if
WrestleMania Access is the same thing, just kind of rebranded or inside of WrestleMania
World, then I imagine it's going to be a pretty damn good time,
just because that's almost just as cool as WrestleMania. And obviously that's saying a
lot, but the fact that we're creeping up here to WrestleMania forty man,
like, that's that's a big time reason to get excited for wrestling. I
know quite a few people that are kind of easing their way back into wrestling
over the last few weeks, over the last few months, just specifically because
of the you know, the Rock coming back, and because of that,
they're having to watch all these other wrestlers who are just you know, modern
day superstars and they're having to you know, watch them work, watch them
compete, and pretty much be gravitated towards them a little bit, and you
become invested. It's happened to many people. You know a lot of people
that take a break from watching wrestling. It takes something that really gets them
emotionally invested or just really living like curiously to somebody, or just having that
type of affection for you know, a wrestler. And we all have those,
you know, those wrestlers, whether it's male or female, that we
really get excited. You know, we want them to succeed, we want
them to be quote unquote pushed by the company, and you know a lot
goes into that, but it's those superstars that really get our feet in the
door. You know, they get a foot in the door, i should
say. And that's really what gets you hooked watching every week and next thing
you know, you are fully up to speed on all of the you know,
wrestlers that are on the roster. You know the storylines that are going
on on a weekly basis, and you want to see them get paid off.
You want to see the storylines come to fruition. And that's just a
good thing about watching wrestling, because Triple Ah even mentioned it when he was
on the Pat McAfee show earlier today, is that you know, when WrestleMania
hits, or when WrestleMania is over and the fireworks are going off, and
it almost feels like the culmination of something. It feels like the end of
the story this year, or the end of the road, however you want
to look at it. But for Triple H and those that are decision makers
in WWE, it does not stop there. He even said, like as
soon as the fireworks go off, he's getting a sheet for Monday Night Raw
and he's looking over that show and trying to get ready to gear in to
this next year. So I am definitely excited for him what's to come with
WWE. It feels like they're in a really good spot. I actually heard
from more just you know, you hear it on the internet. You know,
I don't know if you call them sources or not, but people who
talk to people have said that Triple H mentioned that the draft is going to
be coming back very very soon, that the WWE Draft is going to be
taking place here and you know the next coming months. So the rosters are
gonna get shaken up a little bit. I think that SmackDown kind of got
the short end of the stick a long time ago, or the last draft,
I should say, it feels like a long time ago. But nonetheless,
I'm gonna be pretty upset if we lose bron Breaker, if we lose
Jade Cargill, if we lose Tiffany Stratton. You know, like these new
additions that SmackDown got, I feel like they should be somewhat off limits.
Otherwise, what the hell was the whole which contract are you going to sign?
You know, what was the point and all that? So hopefully we
can get some stability and some big name people get drafted, but it would
be nice to, you know, keep some of these newer names, some
of these new faces that we just got on the brand. Because Ro's doing
fine. I will say, Ro's a hell of a show right now.
It's probably the hottest that it's been in a very long time. And obviously,
you know, you want to see both shows do pretty good. So
definitely don't want to see SmackDown lose any of the new marquee wrestlers. But
nonetheless, let's go ahead and get into this episode of SmackDown. This is
the SmackDown that aired on April fifth, twenty twenty four from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This had the tag WrestleMania SmackDown, so it's got that theme to it,
and you knew that big things were going to happen. Obviously, the
Andrea the Giant Memorial Battle Royal is on this smack Down. I think it's
been on this card for the past two maybe three years, so it just
seems like this is it's new home. And that's why it does feel somewhat
appropriate that you can call this one the WrestleMania SmackDown, given that it's twenty
four hours or less from the actual start of WrestleMania forty. I did really
like that Meek Mill opening video package. I thought that was phenomenally put together.
As somebody that's been to Philadelphia, you know just how passionate those fans
are, you know, like just for all sports, they are not afraid
to let you hear it. And you know, I wouldn't advise anybody going
there as a visiting fan, Like, if you're going to Philadelphia for WrestleMania,
cool. You know, it's a neutral site, you know, so
you don't really have to worry about Eagles fans or Phillies fans kind of walking
around and you know, doing whatever it is that they do that make all
the other fans hate that city. But I will say, you know,
I went there for a Falcons versus Eagles game, the season opener in the
twenty eighteen season, after they just won the Super Bowl. So it was
a pretty huge game for Philly and ended up being a really good game.
But I definitely felt that atmosphere and you know, the the intensity that they
bring. It's pretty wild. But like I said, would not recommend going
there if you are a visiting fan. I necessarily didn't have the worst time,
but some Falcons fans that were sitting very close to me, they did.
They were hearing it all game. But either way, the city itself
absolutely beautiful. I didn't expect it to be so humid whenever I was there,
but you know, going to see the Rocky statue, going to the
steps that Rocky ran up. You know, there's a lot of things to
do in Philadelphia, but obviously you got to eat a Philly cheese steak.
But you know, the one time I went there, it was definitely a
little bit tainted. I had the bad taste in my mouth from going there
as a Falcons fan. So you know, I mean, I'm sure going
there at WrestleMania, those of you that are there are going to have to
let me know how you enjoyed the city, because you know, I would
love to go back there just you know, for something like WrestleMania, something
that is not sports related and you could actually just enjoy enjoy the city because
you know, me living in Texas, I don't think I'll ever go to
Philadelphia just to go. It would have to be something pretty big that was
attracting me there. Otherwise I would just probably go to Atlanta again. You
know, that's somewhere where I could like to go two three times a year.
So yeah, it's it's a great city, but there are there.
I guess the pros and the cons if you will. But I will say
the meat Meal video package phenomenally put together like that was great. It's probably
gonna be the same video package that we see for WrestleMania nine one and two.
I think it's a great idea because obviously, you know that video really
sets the stage and it sets the tone for the type of show that it's
going to be, and you know, it is the proclaimed self proclaimed biggest
WrestleMania of all time, so they're gonna have to live up to those pretty
high expectations. I will say though, because smack Now itself was so crowded
and because there were so many fans that wanted to get inside the Wells Fargo
Arena to go attend SmackDown, they had to reduce the stage, they had
to adjust, it didn't have the huge jumbo tron. It was kind of
like, you know, like we've seen in the Royal Rumble in the years
past. So that just tells you right now kind of the state of the
product, like they're having, like you got some promotions. I'm not gonna
name names that are having trouble filling just the lower level seats, you know,
that are right there in the view of the camera. Meanwhile, WWE
is having to readjust their stage just so they can fit in more people.
Because it's such a massive show and this is just for SmackDown. I imagine
that the Philly crowd is going to be very very loud tomorrow whenever, you
know, we actually get to WrestleMania. But this episode of Smackdowns started with
Kevin Owens and the Kevin Owens Show special guest Randy Yordon. And I will
say that Kevin Owens was wearing his WrestleMania theme shirt. He comes out with
one of these every single year, depending on what match he's in, and
it actually counts. I think this is WrestleMania eight for Kevin Owens. And
you know, obviously the last two he was in the WrestleMania or in the
main event of Night one. So it's I guess you're doing all right if
a quote unquote demotion means that you have a championship match, you know,
a match for the United States Championship the following year, and it feels like
a demotion, you know, just because of how high you set the bar
for yourself over the last couple of years. But as Randy Orton came out,
obviously they were both taking shots at Logan Paul, which triggers Logan Paul
to appear on the screen. And because it's not the massive jumbo tron like
we typically have for SmackDown, they have to look really hard to see Logan
Paul, but they do. And obviously he is from Lincoln Financial Field he's
coming to us live from the WrestleMania stage, which sidebar. I think it
looks great. I know that a lot of people probably had some pretty high
expectations. I don't mind them aisling it back a little bit. You know.
Sometimes they go kind of overboard. Sometimes they really hammer it in that
this is WrestleMania. I remember, like WrestleMania, like thirty four, whenever
it was in Orlando and it was the roller coaster theme. I thought that
looked great. When the Hardy showed up. Great WrestleMania. I like the
one in Dallas a few years ago with just that massive star. So I
don't mind whenever they kind of, you know, take the simple approach,
if you will. But as Logan Paul was running his mouth, Randy Orton
and Kevin Owans point out just how close they actually are to the stadium,
because Wells Fargo Arena is or the Wells Fargo Center, whatever it's called,
is literally right across the street from Lincoln Financial Field. So they literally leave
the ring, go find him to try to kick his ass. But as
soon as they leave the ring, that is theory and Waller appear from under
the ring and do the exact same thing. They're just running chasing them up
the crowd trying to leave the arena. And then as Kevin Owens and Randy
Orton are outside, after being unable to get in the car, they decided
to take a golf cart, leaving Theory and Waller chasing them in pursuit.
And we kind of tie back into this a little bit later. But up
next here on the show, we get the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
You know, I mean, it is what it is. You know,
some people don't like this. I totally understand that the people that don't,
others they probably look forward to it every year just because of the random
things that happened. One of the things that was pretty random that happened in
this match was a very scary Akira Tazawa spot. I mean, there was
a funny spot too. I wanted to point that out, where he was
ripping his shirt and as soon as he realized he was in the ring with
three bohemoths, he decided to try to you know, close his shirt up.
Eventually he got thrown over the top rope, but it was like an
overthrow. He was trying to throw him on top of otis and he went
flying over Otis and oh man, he is very lucky to land the way
that he did, because it very easily could have been Leada on Monday Night
Raw all over again, where she's scorpion and you just never really want to
see that type of thing. But it was a very scary fall, and
then obviously Bronson Reid ends up winning the whole thing. So shouts of Bronson
Reid for being the twenty twenty four Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner.
Up next year. In the show, we get a promo from the Final
Testament carrying cross mentions that he wasn't on the WrestleMania card last year and how
he really didn't pout about it. He wasn't sitting there. He imitates a
baby crying just like whining, and he said, I wasn't pouting that I
wasn't on the card. I just worked got better. And now he pretty
much is taking the credit for getting on the card this year. With the
Final Testament going up against Lashley, the Street Profits and b Fab, he
takes credit for making that fight a must see fight, so pretty much he's
saying, like, look, last year they kept us off, but this
year we were pretty much undeniable, and they had no choice but to put
us on the card. I kind of feel like WrestleMania, you know,
being on WrestleMania just doesn't have the the same flare that it had back in
the day. No pun intended obviously, like this this year and years past
having two nights, the card being so long, like we're talking about four
o'clock to ten o'clock two nights, Like that's insane. And I remember back
in the day, you know, the great WrestleManias, they had six seven
matches, maybe eight or something like that, Like it was never an extremely
loaded card, and that's a testament to how badass the roster is. But
I don't necessarily look at it as a bad thing if certain matches aren't on
the card, because there's gonna be a lot of bathroom breaks during WrestleMania forty
and that's that says a lot, given how highly anticipated and how great we
all expect this pay per view to be. I do think that, you
know, there's gonna be some matches that you know, you're gonna say that
necessarily didn't need to be on WrestleMania, but we're still going to enjoy it
nonetheless. Up next, Logan Paul comes out to trash Philly and obvious.
He goes on to take shots at Kevin Owens and Randy Jordon. He calls
himself a mastermind. He says that he's playing cat and mouse, playing four
dimensional chess. He mentions that he has some people ready to put their hands
on Kevin Owens and Randy Ordon at Lincoln Financial Field as soon as they see
him. The camera that Logan Paul was standing in front of the back whenever
he earlier on the show, whenever he was at Lincoln Financial Field is now
showing Grayson Waller and Austin Theory pretty much looking for nobody. They're standing there,
what's going on? We're here? Where are these guys at? And
as they're saying that, Kevin Owens and Austin Theory appear from under the ring.
They crawl out, and obviously they meet Logan Paul with a stunner and
an RKO just setting the stage for that triple threat match tomorrow or maybe it's
night two. I'm not really sure what night that match is actually going on,
but either way, I'm definitely excited for it. I think Logan Paul
is doing a great job as champion. You could tell that he's really committed
and he's really buying into his role with the company right now. But just
something about Kevin Owens and Randy Orton right now, Like, I'm pretty high
on both of those guys, So I would love to see one of them
walk out with the United States Championship and kind of carry it into this quote
unquote new era. I think everyone has pretty high expectations for where the company's
going to go in the rest of spring and in the summer of twenty twenty
four. Big things are ahead, and it wouldn't hurt to have somebody like
Orton or Kevin Owens hold that United States Championship. As we, you know,
get into the changed season, Dragon Lee is attacked backstage. No one
really knows who it is, although Carlito was there says this was not Santos
a scabbar. I thought that was a pretty funny little reference. So I'm
not sure if they were, you know, actually referencing the internet and how
popular that meme is of him saying that, but the fact that we heard
it so clearly in this little segment, I thought that was pretty hilarious.
I just had to point that out though, and then obviously keeping things LWO
related Zelena Vega versus Electro Lopez. Next, when Electro Lopez is accompanied by
Santos and the Dominic Mysterio makes a little surprise appearance, and then so does
Andrade, and that's whenever we kind of were like, Okay, I'm confused,
like what the hell's going on? Ondrade is going to join Legado del
Fantasma Like that's kind of what I was like, come on now, like
this cannot happen. So I did have my doubts the entire time, and
as the match is going on, obviously, Electro Lopez wins this bad boy
with an electra shock thanks to a minor distraction from Dominic distracting the referee,
and as Ray was checking on Zelena. After the match, dom and Santos
attack Ray Mysterio from behind and pretty much just started a beat down until Andrea
shows his true allegiance and saves Ray. And you know, the crowd popped
right there. They wanted to see Andrade stay babyface. They wanted to be
able to cheer for him because they've wanted him back in WWE for so long.
So now that he's finally back and he's taking the babyface route. That's
definitely the way to go. Continuing on here in the show, Naomi,
Jade, Cargill, and Bianca they want to send a message to Damage Control,
and I thought this was great as well. They all get a little
bit of mic work. You can tell that Jade is very scripted. You
can tell that somebody is preparing her lines for her, and she's not really
comfortable on the microphone just yet. I think that's really her only glaring weakness
though in her game, her wrestling kind of is what it is at this
point. I mean, could she be more polished, yes, but I
think that, you know, just giving her style in the type of matches
that she can put on, you just expect that she's in a good spot.
And I think that she has plenty of time to grow and they're gonna
really take their time with her. I think she's gonna get the Cody Roach's
treatment and have a jetpack immediately put on her back. Taking things backstage,
Ray Mysterio is informed that because of the attack earlier, Dragon Lee will not
be able to compete at WrestleMania. So how conveniently androte he offers his services,
so Ray Mysterio will not have to forfeit the match or anything like that.
He will still get to go up against Santos and Dominic Mysterio. Just
he's gonna have Andrade on his side, and I think that the fans are
gonna be behind that, just as much like Andrades is pretty damn popular and
I wouldn't be opposed to it. Let's see here, New Ketch Republic versus
Grayson Waller and Austin Theory. New Ketch Republic do win this match with a
Berlin Hammer on Grayson Waller, but the Judgment Day come out and immediately start
to cheap shot New Ketch Republic, just putting a beat down on him.
I was like, what the hell is there beef with this team? Like,
there's so many other teams in this six pack ladder match. I guess
you're trying to at least weaken one of them. But as soon as that
happened, I was like, well, I mean I kind of want to
bet on New Ketch Republic winning now, like for some reason, Like I'm
just like, why would you do that? You know there was no need
for you to, I guess beat up one team when there's still four other
teams that you're gonna have to be going up against. Nonetheless, it happened,
so we'll see if it does actually come into effect tomorrow. But yeah,
if New Catch Republic actually wins this thing, I'm all for that.
I just for some reason, I think this tag team really has that it
factor and it won't be long before the fans really get behind them. But
let's see here, did you guys hold on number one? Rear Ripley got
extensions? Thought that is a little bit odd, just timing wise, right
before WrestleMania. I just think that I don't know, I just think that
maybe she knows, all right, something's gonna happen. This highlight's going to
be shown for decades and decades. But I just feel like the look that
she had going for was just kind of her brand at this point. But
she looks great. I'm not criticizing her whatsoever, but I do just I
kind of noticed. I was like, man, the timing is interesting because
that's a pretty drastic thing to do. All of a sudden, you have
hair down to your shoulders. Now it's pasted your shoulder blades down the halfway
down your back It's a pretty pretty big change just in like one day,
so I think get used to that. But also the video of La Knight
getting into a little bit of a fisticuffs with Aj Styles, that was it
the WrestleMania World. I don't even know exactly where that was, but it
started off just them kind of shoving each other, and I was wondering,
okay, like this is a work, you know, like they're just kind
of going at it. But man a just Styles slammed him on the ground
very hard, like it was a very real slam whenever you saw La Knight
kind of just hit the ground like that. And then when Aj Styles finally
comes free, you see that he has a bloody nose, and obviously cuss
words are said. They you know, they go back and forth. AJ
Styles says, I'm gonna f you up and La and Knight tolds us them
to show up to smack down, calls them, you know, the P
word. So it was interesting to say the least is that they're trying to
make us really want to see these two beat the hell out of each other.
There's probably gonna be some stiff shots. But also AJ Styles I saw
kind of there's a lot of wrestling news going on right now. A lot
of things are kind of hitting the interwaves, and one of the things that
I saw was that AJ Styles is very close to retiring, Like he's already
to the point to where he doesn't want to embarrass himself in the ring,
and he just feels like he wants to kind of go out and still be
at the top of his game. I totally understand that you don't want to
be a shell of yourself. I just kind of didn't expect it to happen
so soon. And I mean, he's been wrestling for a really long time.
It's not like he's a spring chicken. He has four kids, you
know, and just his type of wrestling, he's always been like a high
flyer, put his body through hell. He's still doing front flips and backflips
and things like that. But kind of just call me off guard the AJ
Styles is really that close. But hey, I mean, you know,
he's had a phenomenal career, no pun intended, and if it is going
to end very soon, then yeah, but he did, I mean,
yeah, he deserves to ultimately go in the Hall of Fame at one point.
But also he mentioned that he wants just to have that last story.
He wants to have one more good storyline, one more good I guess programmed
to go out on and probably with someone that he's fine saying, Okay,
this gonna be my last match. Maybe it's one year left, you know,
maybe he's got one year left and he can kind of culminate it at
WrestleMania forty one. At this point, that's what I'm hoping for. It's
crazy that you just feel like it could end up being a little bit sooner
than that, as much as we don't like it, or as much as
we don't want it to happen, But you know, like I said,
he spent a lot of his career outside of WWE. He was already in
the twilight in the back half of his prime whenever he showed up to WWE.
So I guess you just kind of got to appreciate the time that we
did get with him. But La Knight does come out and he addresses aj
Styles and they just talk about their match that's going to be happening Sunday Night,
Night two of WrestleMania. One of the only noteworthy things though that I
took away from this promo excuse me from La Knight, was he choked on
his gum. I'm not sure if any guys caught that. Like, he
never stumbles over his words, but whenever he was talking, he kind of
choked on his gum and it stopped it mid since and he kind of just
had to improvise from there. It was a funny little moment. You know,
you really don't see La Knight have something like that. He's usually pretty
flawless on the microphone. Even Corey Graves might have mentioned something about it.
So just go back and watch that if you want to see La Knight choke
on his gum, because it is pretty funny. Another thing that happened during
SmackDown, not like on the show, but in the discord chat obviously the
plug. Go subscribe on Patreon to get the access to the discord. You
definitely want to be involved in that. For WrestleMania, like I promise you,
it's going to be a lot of chat, a lot of conversation going
on during the pay per view, and you want to be involved in those
conversations. But DJ Cuzmo, he is the one who announced that Bobby Lashley
be fab in the street. Profits they're called the Pride. That's the name
of the faction. I'll take his word for it. I still haven't seen
it anywhere, but I haven't gone and looked anywhere. I trust DJ Kuzmo
is a pretty reliable source, So yeah, we're gonna roll with it.
The Pride announced that in Philadelphia for WrestleMania, it's going to be a Philadelphia
street fight against the Final Testament, So just adding a little bit of juice
to that rivalry. You know, it's been going on for a pretty long
time, good enough to get on the WrestleMania car. I remember carrying across
that it was a must see fight. So we'll see just how truthful he
was being. But anyways, I'm glad they finally have a name, because
it's tough saying lashly in the street profits all the time, Like, come
on, give this faction a name if you're gonna have him actually stick together
for a long, extended period of time. But the main event is here,
not only in the show, but main event jay Usso going one on
one with Solo Socoa Brother versus brother, and this match goes on for probably
about like twelve minutes, twelve thirteen minutes, and then Jimmy Usso comes out,
breaks it up taxed Jusso, causing it to be a disqualification, and
then he and Solo proceed to beat down their brother right before he's about to
get a SAMO and Spike. Cody's music hits and out comes the American Nightmare
alongside seth Rawlins and then the tables turn and I mean literally turn. It
all of a sudden turned into a beat down the other way around. And
then Cody Rhodes cuts a promo immediately after the show, making a lot of
declarations that you know, obviously they're gonna smack the rock around, They're gonna
remind him what it's like to be the People's Champions, and they're gonna smack
his ego out of his body. I'm pretty much just remind him of who
he used to be. And then he says that he's going to dethron Roman
Reigns. He flat out says that on Sunday, I'm going to dethrown Roman
Reigns. And then he mentions how whenever one story ends, an even better
one begins. So he's he's really teeing himself up that this could be the
moment that wrote or yeah, Roman Rains loses his championship, and it's just
hard for me to wrap my mind around that. Like if so like where
either going to get one outcome, Cody Road is going to lose his second
WrestleMania main event in a row, or this historic streak that we've seen from
Roman Reigns is coming to an end. I don't know which one is going
to happen, but one of them has to. That's the beauty of this
sport. There's only going to be one winner. And I think that if
Cody Roads loses again, people my riot, but it doesn't seem like they're
in any hurry to take Roman Reigns or take the championship off of him.
In fact, didn't he just say not that long ago, whenever he loses
or in that documentary that just came out for Roman Reigns. I could be
paraphrasing. Don't really know exactly what was said. I truthfully admittedly have not
watched it, but I've seen some clips online and I've heard some chatter,
and one of the things that I've heard is that he flat out said,
whenever I lose the titles, I'm done, Like I don't want to be
here if I'm not the top guy, like, I'm pretty much emptying my
tank right now, and if this just so happens to be the end of
the road for me, then so be it. But he's not going to
go back to just being on the roster. I think that, you know,
he's going to go straight from being the champion to true part time.
And a lot of people might say, well, he's part time right now.
We hardly have a wrestles He hasn't wrestled since January, and here we
are in April WrestleMania. He's not going to wrestle for months after this,
no matter what I mean. If he loses, we could see a WrestleMania
backlash, or at WrestleMania backlash him get his rematch akinst Cody rhads, so
we could very well see that. But if he wins, he's not going
to show up till damn near Summer Slam, I bet, like, and
that is sad. So you tell me, as a wrestling fan, like,
what do you want? Do you want to see the Street continue?
Do you want to see that championship continue to be an afterthought? Or do
you want Cody Roads to get a chance to see what he can do with
it, to see where the company can go behind the American Nightmare. Last
year, I was all for Cody Rhads winning. I was pretty confident he
was going to was very wrong in that prediction. Cody Rhoads did not win,
as we all know. And it just feels different this year, like
it just feels like the moment is there him and he has an opportunity to
take it. Now. There's a lot of things that are going to come
into effect. Obviously, if they lose on Saturday Night and it's Bloodline Rules,
the odds are stacked even more against him and his chances to win decrease
drastically. So that's why this whole WrestleManias must see Night one, Night two,
Find the matches that you like, find the superstars that you like,
and just watch them work. Not even mention the gear. You know,
WrestleMania always is very fashionable. Is that the word to use? I really
don't know, but I know that people bring out their best gear, they
bring out their best moves, and you know they the best things happen in
WrestleMania. It's the grandest stage of them all. It's the biggest, the
granddaddy of them all. You know, this is this is it, So
I'm glad that we're here for another run. Obviously, the first WrestleMania that
I was a part of was in twenty twenty one, and now here we
are this is my fourth one. So shout out to you guys for being
here along the ride with me. And I'm looking forward to this pay per
view happened, and thank you guys so much. That conclude the SmackDown review,
or should I say the WrestleMania SmackDown Review, So I hope you guys
all have a damn good weekend. We do chili dogs every year for WrestleMania.
We've done it since like twenty ten, twenty eleven. It was a
thing that happened in my house, you know, growing up when I was
in middle school in high school, and I kind of carried it on to
now and all these other WrestleMania. So yeah, chili cheese dogs for WrestleMania.
It's the theme, and I'm definitely looking forward to eating probably like twelve
or fifteen of them. We'll see what happens. I end up gaining some
way every April because of the NFL Draft, because of WrestleMania other holidays.
So yeah, looking forward to this weekend, though hopefully you are too.
Come back next week let's talk about the fallout. Go check out the Football
Function podcast. I will truly appreciate that. Let me know if you do,
I'll give you a massive shout out. But with all that being said,
guys, have a damn good weekend. Enjoy WrestleMania at forty, walk
passionately in the direction of your dreams, and I'll talk to you soon.
Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. I don't forget to subscribe on your
favorite podcast app so you don't miss a show, or head to wwepodcast dot
com and for all of these shows add free head over to Patreon dot com
slash WWE podcast. Until then, we'll see you next time.