WWE SmackDown Review: Men & Women's Semifinals, 6-Man Tag Match, Bayley vs Chelsea Green

This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the WWE podcast show,
the one that everybody wants met for sixteen sous we. Your ass is my
ear. 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 ww
podcast. As always, I am the host of this show Litter. You
can find me on x and Michael five Ritter on Instagram and mi Gwitter five
and also the host of the Football Function podcast, available on all your podcasting
platforms, including on Patreon if you prefer an ad free listening experience, joining
me on today's episode to review the go home show for the King and Queen
of the Ring premium live event. Patron of the show returning guest Frankie Graham.
Frankie, thank you so much for joining me here today to recap this
episode of SmackDown. Oh it's a pleasure man, Ready to break this down?
Oh yeah, same here. We're actually doing this about one o'clock Central
time, so King and Queen of the Ring has already started. We haven't
gotten a chance to see anything. I know that. Frankie said he caught
the kickoff show, but I was actually watching SmackDown or at work. I'm
not sure exactly when the kickoff started, but as soon as I got off
work, I went and finished up SmackDown. And now we're ready to talk
about it, so we can get into, you know, obviously, the
chronological order that things happen, and then we'll kind of give some quick predictions
for the very end of this episode. But before we get into that,
Frankie, how you've been man, it's been a little bit since we've gotten
a chance to talk. Has life been going smooth for you? Yep,
yep, it's been going really good. I'm just trying to keep up with
what's all going on with the WWE and what's going on with my boys,
the Detroit Lions, and just work and and everything. So I got it.
I did. I did get to meet Chris Nunius. Nice. Yeah,
he went to a convention here in Witchitalk, Kansas, so I got
to meet him in person. That was pretty awesome. Oh yeah, So
really quickly, I'm curious, are you a fan of the new Detroit Lions
uniforms? Because I know of you guys switched not too long ago, and
obviously you just switched again. So are you a fan of the new look?
I am, Actually it's not surprising. I mean it's a nice little,
nice little uniform you guys got obviously bringing back the blue face mask,
that's phenomenal, and it's more of an old school traditional theme. I really
do like that. Yeah. Yeah, But with all that being said,
let's go ahead and get into this episode of SmackDown. Obviously. This episode
aired on May twenty fourth, twenty twenty four, from Jetta, Saudi Arabia
location breakdown brought to you by none other than DJ Cuzmo. And one thing
I noticed immediately was the stage. How it looked different at first, just
given you know, just being in the moment. As soon as I started
SmackDown, the first thing that I said was, oh, wow, like
the stage looks different and they get a new stage. What's going on?
And then I kind of realized, Oh, this is a go home show.
They're overseas, so clearly they just do what they've typically done. SmackDown
uses the stage of the Saturday pay per view, and I do appreciate that
it does give SmackDown a little bit of like a like a little bonus as
like oh this little you know, cherry on top. For watching SmackDown,
you get a little peak, a little sneak peak of what the stage is
going to look like the following night. So I've always liked that, but
uh yeah, another thing I noticed, because this pay per view started with
the women match. It's one thing that always kind of, you know,
I've seen it happen for so many years now, but it always kind of,
you know, catches me off guard anytime I see a women's match in
Saudi Arabia, because obviously they have to tweak their gear to completely cover their
whole body. Even the referee has a long sleeve shirt on underneath her shirt.
And I just thought that, you know, in twenty twenty four,
I'm not trying to get into anybody else's culture say that it's wrong or right
or anything like that. I just feel like it's kind of odd that in
twenty twenty four, you know, they're still doing that, but I mean,
with what they're used to seeing on a daily basis, seeing some of
the gear that the women wrestlers are wearing in today's day and age, it
would be like, you know, a completely culture shock, I guess,
I in my opinion, with the whole the way they have to dress over
in Saudi. I actually like it because of the fact that they're it's about
the wrestling, not about their life look Like, for example, the way
Rhea Ripley has been showing off or stuff on X and all that, it
doesn't show up a good image. It's putting it back to the nineties,
you know, when they had to do the brawn painting matches and stuff like
that. You know, this when they're in Saudi, it's about what they're
capable of doing. Yeah, that is a really good point that it's not
just about you know, the eye candy aspect, where like if a wrestler
that really doesn't have a whole lot to offer inside the ring, she could
wear a specific out you know, outfit that could still garner her a pretty
solid fan base, you know, And I feel like that kind of is
eliminated from the equation whenever you look at, you know, the way that
they do things in Saudi Arabia. But this show started off with the women's
semi finals match Bianca bell Air versus Naya Jacks. I feel like this was
a pretty impressive match and Niah wins in impressive fashion. Did she immediately cuts
the promo directed at her opponent for King and Queen of the Ring, do
you know how to pronounce the name? I admittedly have not watched one in
Night Raw, and I'm a handful of weeks, so I honestly I'm not
too familiar with the the other finals that's representing Raw. When alar a Valkyrie?
Okay? Is she like? I mean, I hate to sound like
such a you know, but I mean I'm not really familiar she She's from
Ireland. She was trained by Becky Lynch. They both trained together when they
were both over over there, and when she was when she went to n
x T and she wrestled Becky for the title and she beat Becky for the
title. It kind of through everybody's eyes open, saying, hey, she
has capability going to going to the dance. Yeah. So I'm not really
too familiar with her, but obviously I'm going to watch her tonight whenever I
watch the King and Queen of the Ring or finalists where you know, she's
gonna have an opportunity for a championship matches SummerSlam, which that's a little bit
of a sidebar there, Triple Ith makes the announcement that this King and Queen
of the Ring Tournament respectively, for both the men and the women. There
is something at stake. There are some you know, some good things on
the line, not just Wanger crown, not just getting the opportunity to have
a new gimmick for a couple of months. It's going to go stale and
people are gonna get tired of it. We've seen Queen Zelina since kN knock
on more, I believe had like a keen gimmeck going on. Like we've
seen this happen time and time again. Sometimes it's really good, sometimes it
kind of falls flat. But this makes it more like, yes, you
get a phenomenal looking crown that clearly they redesigned a little bit. But also
it's almost like a royal rumble in a sense where you get a championship opportunity
at SummerSlam. With SummerSlam is going to be two nights this year, I
feel like, Okay, I should have seen it come and I didn't,
but I should have known that the you know, Summer Slam is going to
be two nights, and I promise you it's only a matter of time before
the Royal Rumble is going to be two nights, and they're going to have
the men's on one night and the women's on another night, and they're just
going to load up that card. It's smart. I mean, you get
to pretty much when you're talking about you know, date entry, you talk
about you know, pay per view subscriptions and things like that. Obviously it's
on peacock, but still just the streaming numbers. Triple H is always every
single press conference after a pay per view is talking about the numbers. Now
they just broke this record. How they just broke that record. That's only
going to continue to happen if they're doing things like that. So, I
mean, I do think that, yeah, it's only a matter of time
before we get the Royal Rumble broken down into two days. And at this
point, you know, being someone that has gone to a two night WrestleMania,
it is pretty cool, like because you do you get that first night
and then you get to go home, you get to recharge, and then
you have that whole day to get excited. All right, we're going you
know, we're going back to WrestleMania tonight. And I think that you know,
doing that for Summer Slam is you know, obvious a step in the
right direction. But I'm more so just happy that the King and Queen of
the ring, you know, they actually have a little bit of something to
fight for, and you know that that always makes the tournament mean a little
bit more. Do you agree? I I do. The only downfall is
is there with the two nights Summer Slam that that won't be for two years?
Oh so it's twenty twenty six, Okay, yeah, yeah, it's
in twenty twenty six. It's not this come up here, which I wish
it would have been, because with as hot as the talent is right now,
it would it would blow the roof off of what the previous Summer Slams
have been. Yeah, and they're really picking on ww continuing to grow in
the right direction, right and doing that this year would do that rather than
waiting, you know, three years to be able to do something. Yeah,
no doubt. So let's see the next thing that happened in smack.
Now, Grayson Waller effects with La Knight and Carmelo Hayes comes out and puts
himself over, obviously referring to his draft status. He's going to reference that
as long as he possibly can. He pitches to a town down Under that
all the young guys need to stick together and they need to kind of,
you know, not let the old guys take the glory take to shine.
And then he kind of goes in on La Night talking about how La Knight's
an old guy but he's kind of just now getting the exposure and he really
doesn't have anything on his resume that other guys his age do have. And
this kind of just seemed very like I guess it could have just gone right
over my head, But I assume Carmelo Hayes was a baby face for this
whole time. Is he a heel because this was a this was a very
hill promo. He's a heel, he has been a heel. He's like
a he's. I consider him more like a newbie heel. So he's the
one that turned on Trick Williams right in the next t yeah yees yeah.
For some reason, I thought that was the other way around. I thought
he was got attack. So the way it broke down, he Trick Williams
went to him and said, Hey, I would like a match with you,
you know brother, the brother you know bro to Bro and uh,
and he agreed to it, and then he turned on Trick and then now
Trick has the title and he was so Carmelo Hayes went to SmackDown and I
personally think he shouldn't have been number one draft picked, but hey, that's
my opinion. And he so he became a heel. Now it's a good
start. You got to start off as a heel and when you first come
into the business, you really do to set your name out there, because
yeah, I mean, that's it's better overall. And I agree with you
in a sense that Carmela Hayes was overdrafted, Like I personally feel like bron
Breaker. I mentioned this on a previous show that he should have been the
early pick for SmackDown. He was already on SmackDown. There was the huge
negotiation where he was going back and forth and all that, you know,
all that happened was two months later we end up seeing this guy get drafted
to completely other brand. And that's one thing that does frustrate me with the
timing of these drafts, Like they know they're coming, So why would you
even do that? Like the antics you were doing with Jay Cargill, Tiffany
Stratton, you know, and obviously bron Breaker, you know, all of
them choosing SmackDown. Luckily we still got the women on SmackDown, but it
was just it was strange that so quickly we get a draft where they just
shake the whole thing up. But after he gets called out, Ellen Knight
does come out to the ring and respond very quickly, you know, gets
very direct and straight to the point you're poking an angry dog with a sharp
stick. I thought that was a pretty good expression to kind of explain exactly
what's going on. And as La Knight is leaving, Hayes hits him from
behind and then it becomes a three on one until montes Ford and Amuel Dawkins
come out to even the odds. During the commercial break, Nick Alt just
made it official that we're going to get a six man tag match La Knight
and the Street Profits versus Grayson Waller, Austin Theory, a Town down Under
and from Elo Hayes, which the Babyfaced Team ended up winning this match.
I don't really think that, you know, because I feel like the six
man tag match. Anytime you get an impromptu six man tag match, nine
times out of ten it's supposed to be filler, you know, it's really
not supposed to be being too meaningful. But the fact that the you know,
the tag team champions do you lose to the Street Profits? Do you
feel like this? You know, all but makes it official that if not
at SummerSlam, very very soon, we're going to see the Street Profits get
an opportunity to take those championships off of a town down Under because we did
see the Street Profits have a little bit of an interaction with Di I Why
later in the show. So do you think it's more so you know,
propelling them to that kind of that next level, like, okay, now
you go up against d I Y and then we'll kind of go from there,
see which one of those two teams kind of you know prosper I think
I think as of right now, the Street Profits, my opinion, are
washed up the way they when they first came to what was it RAW a
few years ago, I think it was like four years ago. They were
hot because they were they were all about rushed, rufless aggression. Hard for
me to say, sorry, but they were all about pounding and and you
know, doing all that, but they were still a baby face and yeah,
That's that's what they need to go back to and get that, you
know, because if they're gonna be with the Pride and be with Bobby Lashly,
I mean, Bobby Lashley is a hard hitting man, they have to
be hard hitting team. Yeah, very true, very true. And also
in order for them to take the title and get back to where they were
the president E Fab. That's one thing I kind of wanted to talk about
is just it just seems like they're trying to just find a place for her,
like she really doesn't fit into well. Like I think that part of
me wants to just you know, she's just eye candy for them. Part
of me wants I just wishes that Bianca Bellair could be in that role.
I just feel like the credibility of their group would go through the roof,
not only just Beyonca, but get Jayden there too, Like why not create
a super faction and you know, really make this a strong unit here,
because I just I feel like b Fab she's the last you know, she's
pretty much on the ventilator when it comes to hit Row. You know,
hit Row is a group one by one got shipped out of town, got
sent somewhere else, some of them are in other promotions, some are doing
other stuff. I honestly have no idea really where they all are right now.
But b FAB is pretty much like if you go in the hospital or
you watch a show that you know involves like a doctor's office, and someone's
literally hooked up to a machine and they're kind of just before they just completely
flat line, you do you see the rare and very few and far between,
that little heartbeat just b be. Maybe that's kind of where b fab
is right now, where it's like something has to happen, she has to,
you know, sink her teeth into something, because at the moment,
I just feel like she's just a warm body almost taking up space in that
group. Yeah, she went, she was able to, I guess,
make it even whenever they were going up against the Final Testament. We saw
her collide with Scarlet time and time again. But outside of that, we
never saw her scene useful. She's not the she's not the mousepiece like which
we've seen Selena Vega do. She adds value in a faction filled with men
because she's able to say, all right, well I might not be able
to do with that. Well, she's talented in the ring. But the
people she's within the ring are phenomenal wrestlers. So she's like, Okay,
what am I going to do to add to this group? What am I
going to do to make this you know a net positive me being in this?
I'm going to absolutely run circles around people on the microphone. And I
don't see Befab having that in her in her bag of tools. I think
that she's more so like you said, eye candy and just taking up space.
Yeah, now I was thinking about that what you're just saying, have
like a faction the Pride plus have Bianca and Jade and Naomi all together and
taken the the SmackDown on Storm. Yeah, no on you know, taking
work from Jade. But that would be that would be a strong faction exactly,
It really really would. But this is about, you know, the
part in the show where I paused it because I started watching some last night,
so when I finished it today, So the part that I came back
in was for Cody Rhodes coming out to the ring and he really doesn't hit
a kit to say anything. He's immediately interrupted by Logan Paul and then Logan
Paul just pretty much assures him that he's not going to use any brass knuckles
in their mag at King and Queen of the Ring. He's going to,
you know, give him to Michael Cole, which I'm sure he already did.
He gave him to Michael Cole, so he doesn't have anything. According
to him, he's not going to do anything. But Logan or Cody Rhades
seems like he's two steps ahead. He references previous experiences with guys like Logan,
and he says that his gut is telling him that Logan has a pair
of brass knuckles on him right there, like on his person as they are
talking, and Logan very confidently says, no, I don't like you're you're
lying. I absolutely don't have one, and Cody tells him, okay,
Well, brings a referee into the ring. The referee pass down Logan Paul,
and sure enough he does have an extra pair. Did you know there
was going to be a pair once the referee comes in there to like,
did you know that there was going to be brass knuckles on him? Or
did you think this was going to be an opportunity for Logan to prove that
he was shooting it straight? With Tody Rhodes, I knew that there was
going to be another Brass Knuckles, But this is my thought. If I
saw a video on X of Cody Rhodes as a heel and where he turned
on somebody and just went crazy, like local crazy. I think it was
an indie when he was in the indies, but he was a politician kind
of Cody Roads. So it's cool. And so I was thinking this,
I said, what if at King and Queen he turns on Logan Paul after
say Logan Paul wins. Okay, if Logan Paul wins, he turns on
Logan Paul and turns heel and then and then Roman Reigns comes back as a
babyface, that would be interesting because you would get the you know, the
double turn. I personally, I think that's just probably the furthest thing from
Triple H's mind, just given what we just experienced for so long having a
heell champion. I know that Cody Roads is nothing like Roman Reigns in terms
of, you know, obviously their character, but also their schedule in the
way that they appear on television. I think that it's been a while and
a long time coming that wwe had a babyface champion that was as over as
Cody Rhoads. One could argue that it's been since John Cena that we've had
a champion that has really, you know, been this. I guess it's
the word I'm looking for here. Controversial almost like it's probably still not the
word that I really want to say. But you know, either you love
Cody Roads or you hate him. There's rarely people that are just kind of
indifferent where they're like, you know, I really don't care about Cody and
whatever. I have no interest, no investment in his story, whether he
finishes it or not. Now there are people that are on the other side
with them, like, yeah, I don't I don't care if he finishes
the story because I don't like Cody Rhoads. So that's where I feel like
there are just two very distinct sides of the coin. And I just think
that as interesting as that would be, Cody Roads being hell, I think
that that would be, you know, a great call down the line.
I just think right now, in twenty twenty four, they're going to ride
this babyfaced train that is Cody Rhoads for probably the foreseeable future. I was
actually wondering that myself, because I mean, even if he won the title,
yeah, I mean even if he kept the title but turned heel,
he can run the heel all the way to summertime and bring back Roman and
then have Roman beat him, and then it would be the bloodline versus bloodline
at WrestleMania. I guess it would just need the logistical part, like there
would need to be a reason for him to turnhill, and if he won
his championship in that hypothetical situation, it would just seem like, what's the
reason for you to turn hell? Like you have what you want, you
finish your story're running like it would almost just make absolutely no sense for him
to just out of the blue this recent after winning the championship Turnhill. Now,
if the crowd were to sour on him, because he's going to be
a babyface, he's going to be kind of forcing the same thing down people's
throat for months and months during this championship reign, And if that happened,
then if a crowd starts to just you know, advertedly boo him like what
we saw them due to Roman reigns, then yes, I think that they're
not going to make the same mistake twice. They're not going to just try
to force their own hand. No, he's a babyface. I know the
crowd boos him, the crowd doesn't like him, but we know better than
them. We're gonna can can you pushing him as a babyface kind of similar
to what they did with Roman Rains, and they wasted probably like four years
of valuable time that he could have been a heel, just you know,
wrecking shop in WWE. I think he was. But the problem is is
that Roman Reigns is more known as a heel than he is a baby face.
Yeah, now he is, because he has been a hill for four
straight years. But before that, I'm talking about whenever he was the big
dog and he was getting you know, booed out of arenas on a weekly
basis because they were tired of the babyface character. It was Joe's tale.
They were just they weren't doing with it. And he hadn't had the mic
skills. He wasn't as polished as he is right now. The Roman Reigns,
that was back then, in twenty sixteen, seventeen eighteen, he wasn't
this Roman Reigns. He was the big dog and you know he had he
hadn't gotten the work done to his teeth, so it's even as little of
a thing as that looked like confidence that he brought didn't come until the pandemic
hit, whenever he took time away, and then he came back. I
agree that he is now all easily. Roman Rains is one of the greatest
hills of all time. The run that he had as a heill is almost
second to none. But as far as Cody Roads goes, it would have
to be an organic crowd turns on him get they just grow tired of what
he's preaching, they're no longer buying it, and then he just gets booed
once the woe stops, you know, in his entrance obviously, once that
stops being so loud and so rorist. And I think that maybe they would
consider that, because, like I mentioned, I don't think they're gonna make
the same mistake twice. They wasted valuable years with Roman as a babyface.
And I think that if the crowd's telling you, no, we want to
see Cody as a hill, then you have to you have to make that
switch pretty quickly. But let's see here, they kind of keep going a
little bit after that, after he finds the brass knuckles, they kind of
just continue their little war of words, and then eventually Logan Paul Leave,
and Cody Roads pretty much just tells them, Hey, I'm gonna beat you
worse than you've ever been beaten. I'm gonna beat you to the point to
where you regret getting agree with me. And I thought that was out of
character from Cody Road. I never really seen him that, I guess intense
and you know, just cutting straight to the point of physicality, just saying
like, no, I'm going to beat you. He wasn't even saying things
like that to Roman Reigns. It almost always seemed like it was coming from
a point of respect during their whole build up. Even kind of with Seth
Rollins, it never got to the point to where he was verbally saying like,
I'm gonna beat the hell out you. So there, as much as
he says he respects Logan Paul and he does view him as an actual pro
wrestler, not just a YouTube I'm pretty much poser trying to imposture himself as
a wrestler. He actually respects Logan, didn't he do the same kind of
thing like the I'm going to beat you kind of deal so bad? Did
he do that with brock Lessner. That's kind of what I was thinking as
I was listening to names, But I feel like that one was a little
more like there was totally reasons behind it, like this, what has Logan
Paul done to warrant that? You know, like whenever you do what brock
Lesnar does with his act like you're going to be my tag team partner and
then just bam, kind of turn on me right there, and then you
pretty much do the same thing whenever you Cause i'mretty sure brock Lesner beat the
hell out of Cody Roads like two or three times before. Cody roadse was
officially like, Okay, I know it's stupid. He even said, is
it smart to want to fight you? No? But do I want to
fight you? Yes? Like I remember pretty vividly that Cody Rhoads was still
like acknowledging the fact that, you know, brock Lesner was far more superior
than him, you know, in terms of their physical stature and what they're
capable of just beating the hell out of somebody. But yes, you are
right. He did kind of go to that level with Brock, but I
feel like that was warranted. This stuff with Logan Paula just seemed like,
I mean, Logan, paul hasn't hit it with brass knuckles yet, has
he Has he even done anything really like that. I feel like it's more
so just sricty verbal like they've just been had wars of words. Right,
No, there's just it's just a verbal altercations. But he has been watching
Logan for a while, so he knows what Logan's been doing. And it
to be fair, you know how Logan said that he was the he was
the first, he came out before uh Cody. Yeah, okay, that
is false because Logan he he came to he came with the Miss and teamed
up with the Miss as a celebrity person first time, you know, tag
team, and this was I can't I'm trying to remember the year. What
WrestleMania was its thirty eight in Dallas? Was it? Yeah? I was
there that night, I was in, I was in the crowd and yeah,
let's see, and Cody didn't And Cody didn't come till uh third,
he came in that same night. Cody Roads debut that same night. It
was both they both happened night Onemania thirty eight in Dallas because it was miss
and Logan and they teamed up against the Mysterios because that was the first WrestleMania
the Dominic was a and he teamed up with Ray, and then at thirty
nine he went one on one with Ray, and then forty this past year
he teamed up like there were a tag team match where he was on separate
teams with Ray. But yeah, as far as their debuts, they did
happen on the same day, WrestleMania thirty eight, April twenty twenty two.
I think in April first second something like that, I was thinking, I
was thinking opposite. So no, yeah, there is a little bit of
a connection there between them two or a little bit of a parallel there,
because yeah, night one WrestleMania thirty eight was whenever they both showed up.
Obviously Logan Paul. I thought that Logan had had matches before that though.
I thought that he had like a match in Saudi Arabia or something like that.
See, and that's what I thought too. I thought he can't he
the first time he showed up in w w EE. That's what I'm trying
to figure out. Yes, so I think that, Yeah, let me
google this. Well, I'm thinking about it, Yeah, trying to think.
I know that, you know, he obviously had a match with Roman
Reigns Logan Paul did, but I feel like that came after WrestleMania thirty eight.
But I know that there was a moment at one point where he because
I mean he even said it, this is his fourth time going to Saudi
Arabia, which means I had to do it, says eight. WrestleMania thirty
eight, April twenty six, April of twenty twenty two. Oh wait,
after he had a few brief appearances in twenty twenty one. Yeah, but
made his first wrestling professional wrestling debut as its Missus Tech team partner in at
WrestleMania thirty eight. Okay, so there is that connection between them. But
other than that, I feel like, you know, what, what,
what is the point for Cody to have all this hat? I mean,
yeah, you mentioned he sees watched Logan. Maybe it's just a right.
I'm not even gonna bullshit with this guy. I shouldn't have said that.
I'm not gonna bs with this guy. I'm just going to pretty much cut
it straight. Look, you're not going to fool me. You're not going
to be a what is it a woof of cheap's clothing or whatever it is,
Like, I'm i gonna let you just act like even you know,
he called this bluff right there, Like, dude, you got brass snumckles
in your pocket right now. I'm not stupid. I'm not gonna let you
pull one over on me, like I know who you are. Let's cut
to the chase. We're gonna have a match, mon beat the hell out
of you. So I was like, Yeah, as as uncharacteristic as it
was to me, I feel like, you know, it still did I
mean, it wasn't bad by any means. I just I guess I just
didn't. But let's see here. Up next, we get a one on
one match Chelsea Green versus Bailey. The women or the WWE Women's Champion Piper
Niven interferes. This match ends very likely Bailey gets to win because of the
DQ. What did you think about this just dismatch in general, you know,
even being on the card. Ah, I thought it shouldn't have been
on the card personally because it was it was a squash match. And and
then a beat down. Yeah, because Bailey's on a whole other level than
you know, Chelsea. Yeah, I mean Bailey could have wrestled somebody,
uh somebody different then then uh Chelsea Green. Yeah, it's cool seeing Chelsea
Green. But I mean I did like how Chelsea Green was more rough.
She wasn't like the little pretsy kind of girl like. She was over on
raw mm hmm, like the you know, the pretty Karen don't touch me
kind of a deal. That's how she was over on the rock. And
this is the first time seeing her on SmackDown that I can remember, and
she was more rough and tough, and so that that's a the positive out
of it. Okay, well let's see here. Keeping things backstage for a
little bit, aj Styles approaches nick Altis and asks for one more chance.
Talking about the undisputed WWUT championship, he pretty much says the winner out of
Logan and Cody, just give me an opportunity. To give me one more
chance. Nickola says that you know, personally he would love to, but
professionally he can't do that. He can't just give aj Styles that opportunity.
What he wants has to be earned over time, and ages Styles quickly says,
man, you know, I don't have time. So someone tells me
Aj Styles are gonna do something. He's going to cut a corner or two,
maybe piss somebody off to to get that opportunity. Come. What did
you think about this interaction between nickoll This and Edge of Styles. I thought
it kind of threw some stuff and giving people some other perspective of who aj
Styles is and what he's capable of doing, like who he could compete against
and not for the title because he doesn't have time left, he thinks.
Backstage, Paul Haman reminds Solo Socoa that Tongoala isn't there tonight. They couldn't
get him overseas, they couldn't get into I guess it's sometimes to do this
passport or something. I'm not really sure, but Solo seems that bothered.
But Hayman claimed that the men that Solo is recruiting are dangerous, and tom
A Tonga pretty much just gets in Paul Hayman's face. What were you going
to add? I don't say that. I from what I think they it
was like something like his background. Oh yeah, exactly, you're right.
I did mention him say that because of the things going on with his background,
if they were to do a background check, it wouldn't be good.
So that was just their way of telling us that this is a guy that's
not necessarily a uh, you know, walk a straight line, follow all
the rules type of guy. If he has to, he he can get
dirty and he can break a few rules, and apparently they're not going to
allow him in Saudi Arabia. I'm not sure what the real reason is,
but you know, they're trying to paint this Tongaloa guy is and you know,
a physical force, an unwide or a wild, unpredictable element of this
group that maybe they didn't have in the past. And you know, we've
kind of gotten that same thing from Tomatonga, who Corey Graves said is almost
more hyena than he is a human being, which damn Deier makes sense if
he just listens to kind of just look at his mannerisms and things like that.
But well, and I do know that Tomatonga and Tongaloa, which that
you know their brothers, they were both trained by Bubba Ray Dudley. Really,
yes, yeah, they were trained by Bubba Ray Dudley because their father
came to Bubbaret and says, hey, can you train these and then they
were known as the good I think it was. I think that's what they
were. Interesting. Well, that probably does, you know, confirm the
connection to Paul Hayman, obviously, the connection that Hayman has to the Dudley
Boys, and now he's working with ease to these brothers. So it's crazy
how things kind of just come full circle and history almost repeats itself in a
way. But we get the main event here, the semi finals for the
men's side, or I guess the SmackDown side tom A Tonga versus Randy Orton.
Gunther in the crowd watching who already advanced to the finals on the Monday
night row side and Tonga comes out very quick after they ring the bell,
takes his gear off, he tries to cheap shot Randy Orton. Match goes
on, it leads to outside of the ring. Obviously. Randy Orton is
a very long paced type of match. He likes to kind of slow it
down or I guess slow paced to create a long match. He likes to
wear you down and then hits you pretty much like his version of a knockout
punch. Is that RKO at the very end, after he wears you down
for a fifteen to twenty minute match and hits the RKO out of nowhere.
Most men don't come back from it, and or Toma Tonga could not.
So Orton wins a pretty good pay per view quality match. I will say,
this is the main event on a very jam packed crowd in a loaded
stadium that's going to be filled with you know, obviously probably some of the
same people a lot of different people for the actual pay per view that's going
on tonight or right now. But Orton wins this like it was the right
choice. Now he goes one on one with Goonther, but before that,
Solo comes in after the match, attacks Randy Orton, and you know,
obviously Kevin Owens doesn't like that, so he comes out and kicks Solo's ass,
and that's ultimately how the show goes off the air. So I have
to ask you really quickly. This kind of segues us into making a couple
predictions because obviously the show's already going on, So I want to keep this
as you know, keep the integrity as high as possible. So I know
that there's two or two matches that I want to get your thoughts on the
King of the Ring and the Queen of the Ring, the women's side,
Nia Jackx versus the raw winner. You mentioned her name a little bit earlier,
even though I don't know her name. I just feel like it makes
more sense for her to win, just giving her youth and given the way
that she's shot up. Now. Obviously I don't want to see Raw Wind,
both because I do have a really good feeling about Goonter. But at
the same time, Orton versus Cody Rhodes as SummerSlam has a lot of you
know, juicy aspects to it. So if Randy Orton were to win,
it would almost set up Cody Rhodes for his new opponent, and that would
just be months worth of you know, good promos. The program itself,
I feel like would be an early candidate Program of the year, just because
you know where we are could get topped obviously, but just the history and
now that the tables have kind of turned and Cody Rhose is that top guy.
Now there's a lot of stuff that you could, you know, tie
in there. But really quickly, I will just go ahead and say that
I kind of convinced myself. I'm going Randy Orton and I'm picking Nia Jacks
to lose. So the raw woman, I think she's gonna be the one
that ends up getting the Queen of the Ring. Interesting, that's a good
pick, I mean, but you gotta look at you gotta look at the
the possibility. Like with uh Naya Jacks and Lyra Bakiria. Naya has the
power and she has the promos and stuff like that to help build the Summer
Slam up to make it montumental, because that's what she's doing right now.
And she's gotten so good with the promos in the past few weeks. And
Lyra she hasn't done no promos really, I mean, hers are all scripted.
I feel I feel like they're all on a piece of paper, you
know, kind of deal. I feel like she's not doing it from within
like Naya, and Naya has the experience and Lyra does not. So I'm
I'm gonna I'm going with now. I said in the mailbag that I wanted
Nya Jax to win it. I'm kind of retracking my statement and I'm gonna
go with Lyra Valkeria just from what I saw on Friday. I'm excited to
watch her in this match. This is almost like a little bit of an
old school feel because I am a SmackDown guy. Back in the day,
I was a raw guy, just full like when I was a child,
obviously, because I didn't have the channel that picked up SmackDown, so I
was not like by choice a raw guy. I just default that was the
only show that I was able to watch. And now I kind of have
that other side of the spectrum here. Monday is a way busier night for
me than you know, obviously Friday, and I just have this built into
the schedule to cover the SmackDown review. But as far as Monday Night Raw
goes, I haven't watched it. So there's a lot of you know,
good talent there, and it feels like a whole different world. You need
to watch Raw. It's been getting really juicy, getting really juicy. I'm
telling me. Did you see the video, uh that where Uncle Howdy came
and interrupted with Drew McIntyre. So howd he actually came out? Yeah,
yeah, there's a video of it on x you can google lit and all
that. You can find it on YouTube and stuff like that. But he
it was Drew. There was a few weeks ago Drew was talking, he
was doing his promo and Uncle Howdy showed up. He didn't say anything,
and then he disappeared. Well, just in the time you were talking.
I already got that video pulled up on YouTube as soon as we stopped recording.
So I guess that leaves me to say that. I mean, that
does it for the show? Obviously? Is there any shoutouts? Is there
any plugs that you want to say before we before I let you go here.
Also, I wanted to pick my King of the Ring. Oh,
yeah, go ahead, I'm apologize, Yeah, go ahead. I don't
want to get ahead of you. It's all right, I'm gonna go with
I really want Randy to win it, just so it would be Randy versus
Cody. But I think that's too soon. I think Gunther is gonna go
against Cody at Summer Slam and make it just to hypen up the Summer Slam
and make it epic because that'd be one of that will be one of Gunther's
biggest match and Cody's. And you just think about them two coming down to
the wire in the Royal Rumble, like how they do have a little bit
of, you know, things to kind of play back on. So either
way, I think Cody set up well for a pretty good opponent going through
or going into the summer and then obviously leading up to Summer Slam. Who
the winner of this match is going to be there waiting for him, So
I'm really really excited to see who does. In fact, it's probably already
going on right now, so I'm also looking forward to getting in there and
seeing what's going on with the old pay per view King and Queen of the
Ring. But is there anything you want to shout out, any plugs or
anything like that before I let you go. I'm excited for Sunday's show on
the Football Function with with you, Mike. I want to talk. I'd
like to talk about my boys, the Detroit Lions, but never neither of
the case because they're they got a great lineup right now. But you can
find me on on x at Frankly Wilder, I think that's what it is.
And you can find me on TikTok At Tattoo tiede Tickles. That's a
good one. Nice nice handle there. But anyways, thank you, yeah,
thank you so much for joining obviously, It's always good having you on.
You're a great wrestling fan. You provide good insight, good perspective,
so you're always welcome and I'm definitely look forward to having you on the football
function as well to talk about your Detroit Lion. So stay tuned if you're
a listener for that show for a conversation with Frankie and myself talking about the
NXC North champion and hopefully back to back and it's yes, it's gonna be.
It's gonna be a juicy conversation. It is. I'm looking forward to
hearing what you have to say, and all you listeners out there, hope
you all have a phenomenal weekend. Enjoy King and Queen of the Ring,
whatever else is that you have going on, have a safe weekend, will
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
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