WWE SmackDown Review: CM Punk Returns to SD, Top 5 PLE Moments of 2023

This is WWE superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the WWE podcast show,
the one that everybody wants me tell you stand for sixteen So I just russ
your ass. This is my n you can 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'm the host of
this show, Michael Ritter. You can find me on Exit Michael five Ritter
and also on Instagram at Michael Ridder five and of course one of the hosts
of the Football Function podcast, available on all your podcasting platforms, including on
Patreon if you prefer an ad free listening experience. Today we're I want to
be talking about the SmackDown that aired on December eighth. I apologize two thousand
and twenty twenty three. Today's December ninth. When I'm recording this the morning
after, I do want to just go ahead and give a quick disclaimer at
the very beginning of the show. Hopefully you can't hear it, but I
do have a very small space heater underneath my desk. It's pretty much like
underneath slash right in front of my desk, just blowing at my feet.
Spoiler alert, it is cold as hell. Maybe not cold as hell,
cold as balls is maybe a better way to phrase it. Either way.
It's like right around thirty degrees. We had snow falling this morning and a
little peep behind the curtain. I live in Texas, so thirty degrees to
us here in Texas might be a little bit different to thirty degrees to you
guys who live, you know, in the northeast and the areas that just
get a lot more colder weather frequently, you know, so I handle a
ittle lot different. I am not a cold weather guy, pointed that out
time and time again. It's just something that's not part of my DNA.
It's not part of my wiring. I am not a you know, a
snowboarder or a skier or anything that involves the snow. So whenever we get
snow here, most of the time, these Texas drivers they don't know how
to handle it, you know, they don't know how to drive in the
snow. They kind of freak out. If we get like five or six
inches of snow, they usually like cancel school, you know, because they
don't need just accidents happening where kids have a chance of being harmed, or
school buses being out driving. You know, they just they sometimes seem to
overreact whenever even just a little bit of snow makes its way into our lives.
So I did want to just give you that disclaimer. I am aware
that noise and podcasting doesn't really go that well together. Sometimes there's this German
shepherd that's out in the backyard. Not my German shepherd, it's my neighbors,
but our houses are so close together that you could hear it. Like
There's been times where it has one hundred percent affected my recording and I've had
to pause and try to go out there and tell them to be quiet and
just say, hey, man, you know, I'm over here trying to
get this podcasting stuff done. If you just wouldn't mind giving me a little
bit of silence for the next thirty minutes or so, I would definitely appreciate
it. Maybe throw you a dog treat here there. Who knows, but
hopefully because of the low temperatures and the fact that there was snow on the
ground earlier today, it just makes sense that the dog is an outside and
the fact that I haven't heard him. Tells me that he is probably inside
staying warm, which I hope is the case as well as for yourself.
I hope that you are staying warm wherever you are. I mean, it's
December, so unless you're living in California or maybe Florida, you're probably dealing
with probably the coldest temperatures you've seen all year. I know that we certainly
are here and we're getting through it, and we're also going to get through
this episode of SmackDown. And I will say I thought that this was an
above average episode of SmackDown. Typically, for the most part, SmackDown delivers
as a pretty good show, but they don't always hit home runs. And
I don't necessarily think that tonight was a home run by any means. But
whenever you see a show that's kind of taglined tribute to the Troops, you
expect it to be somewhat of a glorified house show. Maybe you know,
you expect it to be pre recorded, you expect it to not have any
type of meaningful storyline developments. That's just pretty much what I've gotten myself used
to over the years is knowing that these shows around December and you know,
around Christmas time. I just got the news that the RAW that's going to
be taking place on Christmas Day, I believe maybe Christmas Eve. I'm not
sure exactly. I don't have a calendar right in front of me, but
I did hear that that show was going to be a best of so not
going to be a pre tape show, not going to be a live edition
of Monday Night Raw. It's going to be, you know, just a
highlight show of everything it took place over the year, which is you know,
what you do here in December. It's somewhat fitting because that's what we're
going to do at the end of this show, not necessarily the best moments
of the twenty twenty three year as a whole. We're going to focus on
the ples. We're looking at things that happened at pay per views. So
I want to know what your top five moments that happened on a premium live
event in the calendar twenty twenty three year. So from the Royal Rumble in
San Antonio in January to Survivor Series in Chicago, Illinois at the very end
of November, this was a pretty loaded year. Whenever you're talking about meaningful
moments. A hell of a year to be a wrestling fan, and it's
hard not to fill that arrow trending up, it's hard not to fill.
Like WWE is going in the right direction. You know, you can credit
it to Triple h. You can credit it to Endeavor for buying the WWE
and pretty much forcing them to do something different, not necessarily sticking their heads
in the meetings or anything like that and saying hey, do this, do
that. But it's almost like, you know your company that you work for
gets bought out. You're working for a new set of people now. You
know you have new bosses, you have new people to report to and new
people to please, And instinctively, it seems like you would want to put
your best foot forward. You want you would want to bring your a game
and have your fastball. And it seems like WWE is coming out swinging and
just with the talented roster that they have right now, it does seem likely
like all these storylines are going to just fall right into their lab. They
pretty much have both Knights of Wrestling, they have multiple options for both nights
in the main event of WrestleMania. It's not very often that you could say
that, well, there's probably five different scenarios if I could pitch you five
different ideas for who could win the Royal Rumble and where they would go after
that, who they would face at WrestleMania, and what would happen with the
other belt. You know, because the winner of the Royal Rumble is only
going to go after either Roman Rings or Seth Rollins, not both. So
the other one is going to have to have a challenger. So we're going
to see multiple meaningful, main event worthy programs leading up to WrestleMania. It's
what happens whenever you have two top championships and a brand split. Just another
reason on the long list of things that makes the brand split so special and
so important WrestleMania, especially when you have two nights, it just seems like,
Man, the formula is there, they have the blueprint, and I
think we're going to see it be fully what's the word I'm looking for,
executed, Because that's the thing, you know, just like on a talented
football team, you could draw up the perfect play. The player still has
to catch the ball. You could call up a fade route, single coverage,
the wide receiver versus the cornerback. He beats in by thirty yards.
Quarterback puts the ball right on the money. In theory, it was going
to work. The play did work, but execution still needs to happen.
If the receiver doesn't catch that ball, it's an incomplete pass. So if
you look at the creative team in ww or just the wrestlers in general who
are going to be in the ring actually performing, everybody has to do their
job and everybody has to execute, and if that happens, then us as
wrestling fans, I truly think that we're going to be in for a pretty
good treat. I was just thinking about the roster and just looking at all
the stars that are just top to bottom on both brands. It's probably been
since the Ruthless Aggression era that I've been displeased with what the WWE landscape looks
like from a pure talent perspective. Like, just looking at the roster,
I'm impressed, I really am. I know that, you know, the
babyface pool might be a little bit deeper than the heel pool, but still,
you know, it is what it is that's going to kind of level
out. It always does, you know, you're I guess you're not always
going to have this same set of people in the roles that they're in,
so you can enjoy it right now, you know, you can enjoy Drew
McIntyre being this heel version of himself, but eventually he's probably gonna go back
to being a babyface. Same thing with Roman Reigns. Roman Rains has completely
just redefined what it means to be a top heel in a company. And
you know, the fans just clamored for him to be a heel for so
long. They absolutely wanted it was the only thing they wanted, and sure
enough they were proven right. Roman Reigns has been a phenomenal heill, way
better than he was ever a baby face. But I do think that now
that he has so much credibility, experience, and ultimately just a completely new
cult like following, when you look at everybody who throws the ones in the
skies, it's just it's night and day difference. So I think that Roman
Reigns going back and getting another crack at being a baby face could actually pay
off later on in his tenure. And I think that, you know,
that could be the way that they end his run here in the company.
But that is forecasting way in the future. Let's go ahead and get back
into the moment. Specifically, December eighth, twenty twenty three, in Providence,
Rhode Island, Location Down brought to you per usual by DJ Cuzmo,
And, like I said, just a little bit ago, I feel like
this was an above average show. The tribute to the troops theme throughout the
show. I mean it started at the very beginning singing America the Beautiful or
you know, whatever that song was. That's on me for not knowing off
the top of my head, but there was constant reminders throughout the show,
just the exact type of I guess episode of SmackDown you were going to get.
And it made me think, why is the tribute to the troops so
different? They talked about it during the show. It's been twenty one years
that they've been doing this, two thousand and three, I believe it was
whenever it started, and you know, it used to be so much different.
There's a lot of speculation as to why they stopped going to actual military
sites and you know, performing in front of nothing but army veterans and people
who were in the military. So I just kind of did a little bit
of research and I just want to know, you know, what kind of
change happens, And I guess it was the strategy that really shifted from WWE's
perspective. In recent times, WWE made significant changes to its programming strategy,
which ultimately affected Tribute to the Troops. One major shift was focusing more on
global expansion and reaching new international markets. As part of the strategy, WWE
started hosting more events overseas, resulting in limited resources for producing special shows like
Tribute to the Troops. Additionally, WWE faced an increasingly demanding schedule with their
multiple weekly shows, pay per view events, and international tours. These commitments
put strain on their production team and wrestler schedules, making it difficult to allocate
time for an additional Tribute show. So pretty much, this I guess international
version of WWE that we're getting right now could be the reason why we're not
seeing Tribute to the Troops every single year. I think that's a little bit
of a crutch in my personal opinion. I think that you could easily do
Tribute to the Troops and have this international tour going on multiple times throughout the
year. We've seen it, you know, several times. They had pay
per views in every single country but America for the most part, you know,
up until WrestleMania obviously was in Los Angeles and Chicago. But you guys
have to admit, you know, Clash at the Castle, Backlash, Elimination
Chamber, all these pay per views that took place, you know, they
weren't on American soil, and that's a good thing. I like the ww
starting to go overseas for these type of big pay per views. Just look
at the crowd reaction that we're getting. They pop like crazy over their overseas,
So I give them credit. And you know, I'm not opposed to
it unless they're coming right here to my backyard or somewhere that's extremely close.
I don't care where the pay per views are. It doesn't really make a
difference to me. I just think that WWE is successful enough to make it
work, you know, Like I just feel like, yeah, work that
in. You have a whole twelve months to plan tribute to the troops and
your tour schedule, and I just feel like there's a way to have your
cake and eat it too, and to please all parties involved with this type
of situation. That's just kind of my opinion. I think they could get
back to going to actual military bases if it were up to me. And
obviously I don't know everything that's going on behind the scenes, I just feel
like, why the hell not? You know, sometimes I feel like WWE,
I mean, they're not how to say it, They're obviously not a
cheap company. They make a hell of a lot of money. They are
a for profit organization, billion dollar company. You know, like money is
not an issue for WWE, but sometimes they do, I feel like,
try to cut corners with the little things, whether it's the production of their
video games, whether it's still like you'll go to live event tours and you
will noticeably see that they're they're trying to sell not all the merch. Obviously,
if if you go to a show in La Night just has been popular
for the past few months, you're gonna see La Night shirts everywhere. But
they do certain things and you can until it's kind of wash rents repeat,
Like you'll get a program and you look at it in twenty twenty one and
it says the program was from twenty twenty or vice versa. You know,
you're in twenty twenty three and you're getting a WWE Cup that's from twenty twenty
one. There's little things like that that I've seen. I was like,
wow, really, I mean, they must not care too much about their
live events, or I mean, I don't know, they just must.
And we're talking about resources here. They must be allocating those resources elsewhere,
which is perfectly fine. It's just one thing that I've noticed. WWE sometimes
like to cut corners, and they sometimes do take the cheap route. Hopefully
that's not the case when it comes to trying to dedicate at least, you
know, ten twelve wrestlers and a production team to go to Tribute with the
Troops or tribute to the Troops, and I feel like that would still be
a hell of a show, and the people there would they'd have a hell
of a time getting a chance to see even just a handful of WWE superstars.
But with all that stuff out of the way, let's go ahead and
get into this episode of SmackDown. And interestingly enough, JBL was on the
commentary team. I really wasn't sure why. I just must have felt a
little bit special to them. They knew that it was a special show being
tribute to the troops, So why not bring somebody like JBL back and have
him join Kevin Patrick and Michael Cole there on the commentary team. Now,
the show actually starts with a United States Title Tournament Round one matchup. This
one was Santos Escabar versus Dragon Lee. Obviously, Dominic Mysterio comes out to
watch from ringside, and the look on Santos's face when Dominic was coming out,
just that smirk. I mean, it was just like a couple short
months ago, it seems like it could be a hell of a lot longer.
Time really flies by, especially this year, it seems. But whenever
Santo's Escobar was pretty much defending Ray Masterio's honor during the whole WrestleMania build up
to that match, and it just seemed like he quickly turned and now he's
like, ooh, just thrilled to see Dominic. I don't know, it
just seemed like it all happened too fast, and that looked that he gave
him definitely bothered me. And I guess that's what it was supposed to do.
So he's doing his job being a phenomenal hill, But something about Sancho's
and just that whole dynamic with the mysterios. I guess it just it rubbed
me the wrong way and it just makes me feel like he's a little bit
of a snake, but ain't. Nonetheless, that's you know, what he's
trying to portray, that's what he's doing, So credit to him for doing
a damn good job. Sanchos does win this match with a phantom driver after
stealing control of the match by causing Dragon Lee to rack himself on the top
turn buckle. Dominic gets in the ring after the match is over to taunt
Dragon Lee and then spits his gum at him, one of the most disrespectful
things you could possibly do. Hopefully they got that gum out of the ring
so it doesn't get in anybody's hair or stuck to anybody's shoe. But nonetheless,
why the hell would you put your gum at somebody. That's like flicking
a cigarette at somebody. Man, that's just no matter what on I'm punching
you in the face if you spent your guming like I don't know, that's
just obviously it's pro wrestling, But that's just something just if you need any
type of, you know, advice from the show, I just highly recommend
not ever spitting gum at anybody. I don't think you would. If you're
a listener to this show, you're probably a good person. You know,
You're probably someone who you know is a smart individual, and I expect you
to make better decisions than what Dominic Mysterio makes. Just let's just go ahead
and say that, so shout out to you for being a stand up person.
Was go ahead and give you a random shout out here on the show.
And also, dom gets your head out of your ear in Bud,
I don't know he's spitting gum and anyway, And number one, that's disgusting.
Number two, I mean thank god he had a mask on, because
I mean you probably hit him like in the chest or something like that.
Anyway, But I don't know, just people's mouths, that's always been something
that grosses me the hell out. And yeah, just I'd prefer not to
have anybody spit their gum at me. But nonethelesslet's go ahead and move on
here. Randy Orton visits Nick Alldus in his office, questions his decision to
put him in Attack Team match tonight with La Knight against the Bloodline. Nick
pretty much just says, yeah, I mean the fans want to see it.
I want to see it, so it's going to happen. He has
a check in his hand, and I was kind of wondering, you know,
what the hell is that. Apparently that check was given to him by
Randy Orton. It was a fine for the RKO that Nick All just received
last week, and the fine was for fifty thousand dollars, but the check
was for one hundred thousand dollars. And Nick quickly tells him like, hey,
you know your check was fifty thousand dollars more than what it was supposed
to be and it weren't just clarifies, yeah, that's for next time.
Pretty much already just telling him like, yeah, there's gonna be another one
soon. As long as you do your job, you know, you pretty
much don't have to worry about it. But at the same time, I'm
Randy Orton and IRKO whoever the hell I want. Let's see here. Up
next, Cody Rhodes comes out to address the crowd and also thank the servicemen
and women and give a massive shout out to the twenty one year tradition that
is tribute to the which is followed by a nice video package sitting around John
Cena and all of his contributions over the years to this event. And after
the video package is over, Cody introduces the United States Army Drill Team.
A nice little moment there for people in attendance and obviously anybody who's connected to
the Armed Forces. Let's see here brad Nessler. He makes a special appearance
on commentary for the following match. Brad Nessler, you might have known him.
You definitely have recognized his voice if you're a sports fan, a football
fan. He calls the Army versus Navy game. I believe he works for
CBS, maybe ABC one hundred percent sure, that's definitely on me. But
he's a he's a pretty popular voice in college football, so if you watch
college football, you probably know exactly who brad Nessler is. And just seeing
him in the WWE setting on that commentary booth with Michael Cole, jbl and
Kevin Patrick, it was a little bit of a I guess a crossover,
like you know, seeing Jimmy Neutron and Timmy Turner in the same episode.
It's like, what the hell are we doing here? This is kind of
strange, which I will say side note that was a pretty cool thing that
Nickelodeon did back in the early two thousands, was whenever they had that crossover,
because clearly Jimmy Neutron three D show just completely different animation than what Fairly
Odd Parents was with you know, Timmy Turner and Cosmo and Wanda, and
then they switched like whenever Timmy went to Jimmy Neutron's world, he was all
three D and he had that animation, and then vice versa. Whenever Jimmy
Neutron went to the Fairly Odd Parents episode, he was a little bit different
looking himself. Just if you're a Nickelodeon fan, that was a quick reference.
I wanted to make there one of the best all time crossovers really that
I've ever seen. But we get another United States Championship Tournament Round one match
here, former United States Army sergeant Bobby Lashley versus Carry and Cross. And
as soon as they you know, played the little video package for Bobby Lashley
and you knew his history with the Army, there was no way in hell
that they were going to have him lose this match. So let's be honest,
they would have pissed off the crowd. It wouldn't have fit the theme
of the show, which is truly send everybody home happy, and that's pretty
much what happened throughout the entire night. Bobby Lashley does get this win and
he advances to face Santo's Escobar in round two in this tournament, the semi
finals. This was a relatively smooth victory for Bobby Lashley. I expect next
week to be a relatively smooth victory for him as well. He's been the
United States Champion not even that long ago. I could see him getting another
run here with this belt. But up against Logan Paul, it's hard to
really forecast who they're going to have, you know, go ahead to head
with him. I don't think that Logan Paul is going to have a long
title reign, but they're going to be very careful with who beats him.
I promise you that they're not just going to have anybody get the win over
him. I still pick Kevin Owens to win this tournament, by the way,
but Bobby Lashley, he was was not going to lose in round one
and he damn sure was not going to win the Night of Tribute to the
Troops, So kind of just book that if you're in a sports gambling that
for sure would have been one that you hammer. Bobby Lashley getting the wind
moving on. Here we get damaged control backstage trying to get Oscar ready for
her match up against Charlotte. The awkward vibes with Bailey continue as their moods
clearly change. Whenever she appears like they're all kind of joking having a good
time. Bailey pops up, she appears on camera, they all get kind
of quiet. You get just see their body language just shifts as soon as
Bailey pops up. As soon as she inserts herself into the picture. You
could just feel it's cringe. You know. I'm not really into that type
of stuff, just so it makes me have that secondhand embarrassment, Like I
feel sorry for Bailey at this point because number one, she's talented as hell,
but this version of her character, it seems like she has this coming
and I'm excited to see this bad boy come to a rap. I'm not
saying I wanted to hurry, but the culmination, without a doubt, was
going to be interesting. It just seems like with how they're kind of putting
their foot on the gas with it here lately, it seems like a Royal
rumble culmination like it seems like it's it's going to come to its head at
the Royal Rumble, whether somebody gets eliminated by somebody else. Maybe Bailey goes
on as TI rate and she eliminates everybody from Damage Control from the Royal Rumble.
There's a lot of different routes you can go here, but let's see
Bailey volunteers to stay in the back again after what happened last week with Kyrie
Sage pretty much say you know, all stay in the back and I won't
go to ringside tonight. But apparently Damage Control were already leaning that way and
they had already made that decision way before Bailey. However, the other three
Dakota, Kai, Eo, Sky, and Kyrie saying they're all going to
be an Oscar's corner tonight, but they all voted that Bailey, you know,
stays in the back. Of course they want to go out there though,
because they quote unquote don't know what Charlotte's capable of. So clearly there's
just you know, a wedge, a massive wedge. There's some friction,
some animosity, it's obvious, and like I said, royal rumble, I'm
circling that as the event where maybe things can get a little bit more juice
and then probably head to a WrestleMania program between Bailey and eo Sky. That
just seems like where they're going. They're so close to that, like that
that mark, Like they're so close to getting to that point in this calendar
year. Where it started was SummerSlam, maybe even earlier. I'm not sure
when the divide started where Bailey was kind of going out of her way to
make life more difficult for Eosky, volunteering her multiple times to defend that championship.
I remember that it was pretty entertaining stuff. But I'm excited for where
this babboy is going. If you can't tell already, this has been a
nice slow burn and it's probably gonna only get better from this point on.
Up next in the show, CM Punk makes his return to SmackDown after nearly
ten years. That's crazy, without a doubt, the first time I've covered
Cmpunk in the ww podcast. Like yeah, I've talked about him when he
was on Monday Night Raw and he made his comeback a Survivor series I gave
my opinion, but this is the first time that a segment came on WWE
television that involves c in punk and I was responsible for covering it. It
was a little bit of a surreal moment, and I thought it was pretty
cool. Just being completely honest, it is like, come in full circle.
I'm not the type of person that's going to just be stuck in my
ways and die on a hill, you know. Like it's pretty evident when
you look at the whole La Night thing. I was pretty vocal early in
this process with La Knight, the whole yeah chant like that wasn't for me
At first. I felt like it was or it wasn't organic, which clearly
I couldn't have been more wrong. Whenever I did some research after that,
after opening my mouth on a podcast, you see that, No, he's
been doing this for a pretty long time and the crowd obviously gravitates to it
and going to multiple ww shows, including one all the way back in January,
seeing how over La Night really is. Obviously, I'm not just going
to be stubborn and say, yeah, I'm still thinking that this isn't the
way to go. Like, No, clearly I was wrong, and I'm
man enough to admit it, just like I'm willing to, you know,
change my opinion on seeing Punk. It's pretty obvious. I've vocalized in the
past, I was not a cempunk guy. His run in WWE. I
caught the very beginning of it before I kind of, you know, started
to slowly distance myself. Meanwhile, he's only rising in the company, and
there's a reason why why he has a cult white following and a massive fan
base that follows him whether you know, they leave WWE, they go with
him to AW now they're coming back to WWE. If somebody has that type
of following, clearly they're doing something right. And I'm looking forward to seeing
to seeing see him Punk on you know, WWE probably won't be on SmackDown.
This pro or the promo that he's about to cut kind of made me
feel that, you know, he's coming to smack Down to make an appearance
and to check that off his bucket list or just his to do lists in
the drought, the ten year drought since he's appeared on SmackDown. But I
think it's pretty obvious that he's going to choose RAW. That's just my my
hunch. But he comes out to the ring, and he immediately points out
that a segment tonight is in the middle of the show instead of the end,
so he doesn't have to worry about his time getting cut short, obviously
referencing his first promo on Monday Night Raw. It went pretty short and a
lot of people were just expecting more, and his first time picking up a
WW microphone in so long that you know, the I forgot which match it
was. Was it dominicting Mysterio and Drew McIntyre. I'm not sure which match
it was. That's on me. I'm not a raw review guy, all
right, but I do know that a match that went on right before Ceampunk
was going to close out the show. That match went on just a little
bit too long, and it caused Ciampunk after you know, cut his short
a little or cut his speech a little bit short. Luckily that did not
happen tonight. I feel like we got a pretty good promo from him.
He also mentions that Adam Pearce is trying pretty hard to sign him into Monday
Night Raw, which does not surprise me. Adam Pierce seems extremely desperate here
lately. It could just be my SmackDown bias. But seeing Adam Pierce,
you know, appear on SmackDown and just trying to create that, you know,
that tension between Nick all this. It's just one of those things that
I'm like, hey, you know, chill out out on Piers. But
I get it, you know, you want to sign Cmpunk. I feel
like he fits on Monday Night Raw a little bit better. It's just kind
of the you know, the flagship show. Seeing Punk is, without a
doubt, a big name. Having him on SmackDown, I feel like,
you know, that's having too much not too much testosterone. Obviously, it's
it's the WWE. He's a grown man. But having somebody like Roman Reigns
and seeing Punk on the same show, I just don't know if that would
work out, you know, for the long term, which how long is
the long term whatever you're talking about seeing Punk? How often is he going
to be on the show. But he made it seem like he is back,
like back back, you know. He also mentions possibly winning the Royal
Rumble and main eventing WrestleMania. Apparently he is going to be brand exclusive and
he's trying to decide where he is going to take his talents. He starts
to name drop some people like Cody Rhodes, the USO's Roman Rains, Randy
Yorton, La Night, and Kevin Owens. He makes a quick aid W
reference when he mentions that, you know, it's twenty twenty three and you
can't just punch people in the face backstage, And you know this goes right
over the heads of the people that are in attendance. They really didn't pop.
There was no ooh or like anything like that, no type of chant.
I feel like this is pretty evident, and this is the type of
I guess I'm trying to think of how to phrase this, but this is
the type of example that you need to show some whenever you know you're telling
them like, look, AEW is not on the radar of most wrestling fans.
Like when I say most, obviously, that's kind of a I don't
know, it's I don't want to just put everybody in one box, because
I know there are diehard AW fans, but the casual wrestling fan really does
not pay attention to AW. And that's just you know, that's a fact.
It is what it is not necessarily hating on AW by saying that it's
just you know, what's a fact. I have know wrestling fans that pop
in here and there, If I say, hell, yeah, do you
watch AW, They're like, what the hell that you know? I mean,
it's it's just not something that the casual fan is going to pick up.
And I feel like the fact that it completely went over the audience's head.
Obviously some people in the crowd were like, oh man, I got
that, you know, But for the most part, people are like,
yeah, cool, you know, don't punch anybody in the face backstage.
Yeah, you know, I agree with that. Cool. But I just
feel like that moment right there told me all I needed to know about what
the perspective is an AEW. And I hope that they can stay around.
I hope that they continue to be an alternative. There's rumors that MJF has
already signed a long term extension with AW, and it's just been kind of
kept, you know, under wraps. But I do have concerns just long
term about how good this company is going to be, especially like I talked
about with WWE, just seeming like their era was pointing up and they're about
to enter a hell of an era. I can't stay the same for AW.
But at the same time, I am not necessarily the right person to
ask about AAW. So there are people out there who can give you a
lot better of an idea on, you know, what their landscape is going
forward now that they don't have some of the people who have obviously left the
company, but there's still some there that are more than worthy of building around.
But Seeing Punk continues on by talking about how great it feels to be
welcomed backed with open arms, except for one person, but he says he's
not going to put any stock into what he says, and it's not because
of his whiny voice. It's because he's not even the man in his own
household. We've heard that before. I'm not sure who said it, but
I know that I've heard that line before being used against seth Rollins. It
does seem like some low hanging fruit. But you know what, could you
expect. He's just pretty much taking what he can get right now. It's
his first promo on SmackDown, his first actual not promo cut short. Give
him a little bit of time, seampunk will get cooking. I really believe
that. But this is where I kind of feel like the hand was tipped
a little bit because he says that on Monday Night Raw in Cleveland, he's
going to make his decision. He's going to decide whether it's going to be
RAW, whether it's going to be SmackDown, or possibly even n XT,
because Shawn Michaels called him go ahead and rule that one out. They're trying
to make NXT feel, you know, important and like a third RAM,
but come on and seeing Punkin is not going to go to NXT, that's
pretty obvious. I think it's going to be raw. He says that he's
rubbed people the wrong way being back because he's, you know, he's that
proverbial monkey rich in their future plans. But he's back for one reason,
and that is to finish what he started. He wants to finish his story,
and that is to main event WrestleMania. Might drop literally he dropped Mike,
and I feel like that is right there for the taking for him,
Like he could easily be in the main event of WrestleMania forty in Philadelphia.
Liked think about this, I already talk about it. WrestleMania twenty far and
away my favorite WrestleMania. And here we are twenty years later from that moment
and we have a chance to have this type of WrestleMania, like this type
of card, like you want to put all your eggs in one basket,
you know you want to Like I wouldn't mind getting two Knights of Roman Reigns,
right, give me Roman Reigns versus Cody Rhodes on the first night of
WrestleMania Night two. Have CM punk when the Royal Rumble screw it. Normally
I would never advocate for somebody like CM punk to win the Rumble. It's
for a young person who needs that type of push, that type of you
know, kickstart to their career. I typically would not, you know,
side with cmpunk, but I just think the story is there for him to
win the Rumble go after that World Heavyweight Championship face seth rawlins in Night two
in the main event. But at the same time, the whole reason I
said have Cody Rhods go against Roman Rains on Night one is so you could
have the Rock Versus Roman Reigns a night two. But are you gonna have
the Rock Versus Roman Reigns and it not be a main event? See that's
where WW is kind of getting themselves into a good problem being you have a
lot of options and they all make so much sense that it's hard to leave
them on the table. It's hard to pull the trigger on one and just
say we'll save that for another time, because you never know if another time
will come. So I totally understand that. But it just this was the
great promo by CM Punk and it got me excited. It got me fantasy
booking and thinking what could possibly happen going forward, and you know, needless
to say, And I've pretty much been the theme of this episode as WW
is in a pretty good spot going forward, and I cannot wait to see
what's in store for seeing Punk up next to those Seampunk is shown walking backstage.
He like walks by the Bloodline's locker room. He almost knocks on the
door, and he doesn't. I was just kind of a little bit of
a tease, maybe a seed being planted. Kevin Owens walks up to him.
They kind of get face to face and he says, hey, you
know where nick all this office is and Kevin oan says no, and they
kind of just, you know, go their separate ways. Definitely going to
be something there in the future. I feel like that's going to be damn
near better than the Seth Rawlins and See Him Punk. Now hear me out.
I understand there's a lot of tension between Seth and Cody, which is
going to set the expectations pretty high. And you know, with the expectations
comes like we just said execution and you have to execute and you have to
live up to those expectations. Whereas See Him Punk and Kevin Owens, I
feel like there would be no expectations. It would just be hey, let's
see what these guys got and have some fun, and it would probably blow
those false expectations out of the water and over deliver. And that's why I'm
really excited to see Kevin Owens end up crossing paths with See Him Punk and
moving on in the show, we get the match we were talking about earlier,
Charlotte versus Oscar. Damage Control tries to come out with Oscar, but
they're taken out immediately by Meechin and Zelena Vega trying to even the odds and
ensure that this is going to be a one on one match. The sloppiness
from the attack just you know the cell by Kyrie saying to you know the
just the terrible shots from Zelena Vega. They could have done better. This
just it was not It doesn't get a passing grade for me, just from
the not the idea to have Zelena Vega and Meechin come out and attack damage
control of try to even the odds. That makes sense, But just go
watch it, like seriously, go watch that attack and just tell me,
oh, yeah, that's good. They all did a great job right there,
Like no rest, it's supposed to be believable. We all know what's
going on. Doesn't mean that the punches have to look completely god awful.
And I mean this whole segment was full of botches clearly, because we'll get
to it. Bailey does eventually come out, she cost Charlotte the match,
But the bigger story here is the real life knee injury that Charlotte suffered due
to a botch on the top rope. Now, botches happened. These are
professionals, Charlotte and Nosco. You would trust them ten times out of ten
to put on a safe match for both themselves and their opponent. This is
just one of those freak accidents that happened. But nonetheless, if you go
watch the replay, there's a there's a crowd video. Someone was in the
crowd and they recorded. You see the exact moment that Charlotte got hurt.
Just fell off that top turn buckle. She stumbled on the ropes, clearly
hit her knee. I don't know what's going on. If I were to
guess, they'd probably be safe with it. Maybe she takes some time off.
I don't expect it to be like a super like, oh my gosh,
you tore a cl or anything like that. I don't think it's going
to be that serious. But I do know that knee injuries are nothing to
play with, especially when you're getting close to Royal Rumbo slash WrestleMania season.
It's like having one of your you know, your star players kind of get
deemed up, but you already have a playoff spot clinched. Of course,
you're gonna play a safe with your star player and have them ready to go
for the playoffs. So I feel like they're gonna do the same thing with
Charlotte. They're gonna play a safe and have her well and ready to go
for the stretch run that is WrestleMania season where we always get the best of
Charlotte flair is just you know, you gotta be careful out there. This
is not a I guess a mattress and a pillow that they're landing on.
You know, these these wrestlers put their body in harm's way more often than
not. It's a brutal lifestyle. I talk about it all the time,
and this was just evident of that. And we do get the main event
between Randy Yorton and La Knight versus Jimmy Usso and Solo Soka. I will
say rip to barefoot Solo. I don't know if this is just a one
day like a one time thing. Maybe he has an injury on his foot
and he had to keep it covered up. But he did come out in
wrestling shoes, which is not what we're used to seeing with him. Hopefully
he comes back, you know with his ankles taped and barefoot, because we
don't really see that a lot. And it did add to his character.
It made him, you know, much more of a badass and just look
like that I guess traditional Samoan wrestler. But Randy Orton does win this match
with his partner La Night, but he Randy Orton gets the pen with a
RKO on Jimmy USSO, which is several weeks in a row now that Jimmy
USO has been the one laying flat on his back as SmackDown goes off the
air, just you know, talking back to last week whenever he I believe
he got r kaot again by Randy Orton and he laid in the ring for
pretty much like the whole time that the people were trying to set up for
the dark match. Randy Orton left the ring after RKO and Jimmy USO.
Everybody else left the ring. Nick called us Adam Pierce. Next thing you
know, Jimmy USO is still in there laying down and they're pretty much having
to roll him out of the ring. Phenomenal cell job. The people that
were there in attendance's probably got a nice little treat seeing Jimmy USO just mess
around and have a little fun. It's always nice whenever you could tell that
they're having some fun and they're actually enjoying what it is that they're doing and
dedicating their life to. Now, that does do it for the SmackDown review
portion of this episode, like I mentioned, stack them Up Saturday, we're
going to talk about the top five pl moments of twenty twenty three, just
whether they're you know, something that happened in a match that happened on a
pay per view, just an actual return, or just you know, a
big time moment from this pretty you know, juicy or ussy twenty twenty three.
So I will go ahead and get into it. My honorable mention Ray
spanking Dom at WrestleMania thirty nine. That moment made me pop. I feel
like there's parents all across the world that just related to that moment so well.
And the fact that he you know, took his belt off and actually
got a chance to whoop Dom one of the best moments in that entire pay
per view, not even exaggerating. I truly felt like that that right there
kind of stole the show for me. Number five, AJ and Seth Rawlins
put on a very classic match to determine the first ever WWE Modern World Heavyweight
Champion. Seth Rolinds still holds that belt, so clearly that match was a
pretty meaningful one. Couldn't have had two better superstars in that match, so
I definitely, you know, I had to mark that one down. And
I remember in the moment thinking, man, this is special. We got
aj styles versus Seth Rollins. The winner. It's to bring back my favorite
belt of all time and be the first world heavyweight champion here in this modern
I guess version or iteration of it, definitely pretty meaningful. Number four Sammy's
Am battles Roman Reigns in front of his home crowd at Elimination Chamber. This
one was good just because of the build up to it. You knew what
was at stake. Nobody thought Samy's Dame was going to win, but you
knew that he earned the spot to be in that main event. You know,
we were all happy for him. Another person that had a hometown experience.
At number three, Bad Bunny made events backlash and puts on a show,
gains the respect of wrestling fans all over the world. Had arguably the
best entrance in the whole twenty twenty three calendar year whenever he had his own
song come on, the sold out crowd, just singing it word for word
and just you know the vibes. This is sometimes wrestling is made or broken
by whether or not the vibes are good, and it's hard to doubt how
good the vibes were that night in Puerto Rico for Bad Bunny number two one
that I was there for in attendance, Sammy's ain turns on Roman Reigns at
the Royal Rumble. That chair shot was heard around the world. That pop
was massive. I can still get chills thinking about it, just, you
know, knowing how big the moment was, knowing what was at stake,
and just seeing it coming, knowing that Roman Rains was just pushing his head,
just shoving his head, and Sami's Aines finally had enough took that chair
when rights Roman Reigns. The rest is history, but that moment right there,
just I know, you know, of all the events I've been to
you over the years, obviously WrestleMania thirty eight, get a chance to see
Snoone Cold Steve Austin wrestle for the first time in like nineteen years or whatever
it was. Seeing other events happen over the years, too, But I
mean, outside of the Stone Cold Steve Austin match, Samy's a turning on
Roman Reigns was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen as a wrestling fan in
person. Number one obviously could be prisoner of the moment recency by whatever you
want. To call it ceing Punk returning at Survivor series wargames in Chicago.
It, I mean, truly, the hell froze over shirts that tagline they're
marketing it. It's the truth. I never expected that, not in a
million years. I didn't want it. I saw the toxic environment that was
aw I thought maybe CM punk had a lot to do with that. He
might not have. He might have, obviously we'll never know. But I'm
willing, like I said, to give him a chance and see how he
does here in WWE. I feel like he deserves it. You know,
like stories, they don't always have to have ah almost cursed there. They
don't always have to have a bad ending, you know, they don't always
have to you know, leave you just damn it, you know, just
wanting more and just never getting a chance to know what if, you know,
what could have happened. And I truly think that the story and the
saga of CM punk deserved a proper ending. And it probably feels like,
you know, a huge weight was lifting off of his shoulders, because like,
have you ever gotten in an argument with a really good friend or you
know, just got on bad terms with someone or something that meant a lot
to you at one point, and you know, being without it, it
feels whether you admit it or not, whether you even acknowledge it or not,
there might be a sense of pressure that's kind of on you, a
sense of stress or stress, anxiety. Just there's a lot of different feelings
or emotions that you could feel whenever something like that happens. Because we're all
human, you know, seeing Punk as a human. The WWE was his
actual job, and this was actually a real situation that happened to him and
he had to kind of just bury it for ten years and just kind of
deal with it. No, well, this is what was meant to happen.
Here we are, and you know we're making the best of the situation.
You don't ever think that you're gonna get a second chance. You don't
ever think that you're going to get another opportunity. And that kind of happens
with any you know, with anything in life. Sometimes you think that the
story's over. You think that this moment in time, this event, it
came and it went and it was what it was. Life is such a
marathon, like life is long. You know, it's supposed to be really
where there's a good chance, you're gonna cross paths multiple times with people in
places, and you know it's up to you to grow and it's up to
you to be better because you know, Triple H was right, you know,
like you're not supposed to be the same person you are or you were
ten years ago. If if that's the case, then something went wrong along
the way. And you know, I feel like with CM Punk, with
Triple H, with where the company is, it just seems like now was
the perfect time and the vibes are great. Man, I'm really loving it,
Like this is truly a great time to be a wrestling fan. I'm
truly honored to be here on the ww podcast and you know, be the
host of the SmackDown Review. I do not take it for granted. I
love that you know, you guys come back every week and tune into this
show. Hopefully you'll continue to get feedback. Let me know what I can
do to make this show better, because that's all it's really about. You
know, if you guys are enjoying the show, that's really all that matters
to me. So really quickly, I'm gonna run through my top five pl
moments of twenty twenty three. One more time, just to kind of freshen
up your memory. The honorable mention Ray Mysterio spanking Dominic Mysterio at WrestleMania number
five, AJ versus Seth for the World Heavyweight Championship number four, Sammy's Ain
versus Roman reigns in front of his home crowd at Elimination Chamber number three.
Bad Bunny main Evance Backlash in Puerto Rico, also in front of his hometown.
Sammy's Ain at number two whenever he turned on Roman reins at the Royal
Rumble and the number one see him Punk returning once and for all. Let
me know what you guys want me to stack him up next week? Let
me know what you know you guys want to hear here on the show,
because you know, I'm open to any and all suggestions. We're getting into
a new year, We're creeping up into twenty twenty four, so yeah,
I definitely want to make sure that the show is going in the right direction
and make sure that the arrow was pointing up and the best is always yet
to come. That's that goes out for everything, you know, just the
raw review, the SmackDown review, the mail bag, Like, yes,
what we've done up to this point. Great, extremely proud to be part
of this ww podcast team. But I would be lying if I told you
that I thought that our best days were behind us. I truly believe that
the best is yet to come. We haven't even scratched the surface for what
this is going to be. The type of platform that this is going to
be. Go over to football function, it's the same energy over there.
We're trying to grow that podcast. It would mean the world to me if
you would be a listener or you know, just involved in that. Maybe
subscribe over on Patreon, get add free episodes. That's you know, it's
a nice plus. You also get early accessed episodes that also goes with it.
But nonetheless, guys, hope you all have a damn good rest of
your weekend. Stay warm wherever it is that you are. Enjoy this,
you know, Christmas season, if you celebrate, if not, just enjoy
the time with your family. And like I said, man, I cannot
you know, I cannot make this more clear. I cannot say it enough.
Bundle up and stay warm. I did not want to see anybody freeze.
And you know that meme. I don't know if it's home alone or
something where the dude has like icycle's coming out of his no and off of
his hair, Like yeah, we don't need to see any of that.
We need to keep everybody warm and we can all have a nice, good,
enjoyable winter here. As we close up twenty twenty three, but one
more time, guys, have a damn good weekend. Walk passionately in the
direction of your dreams, and I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening
to the WWE podcast. 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.