Wrestling Nostalgia: SummerSlam 2002 The Rock vs Brock

It's Sunday night, and that means it's time for some wrestling nostalgia. This
week, we're going back to the year two thousand and two at SummerSlam the
Rock versus Brock. Here comes the Pain. It's time for your weekly fix
of wrestling nostalgia. When we look at wrestlings past eras from the Attitude era,
this is the reality era. I'd like to think, then maybe this
company will be better after Vince McMahon's dead, But the fact is it's it's
gonna get taken over by his idiotic daughter and his dupest son in law and
the rest of his stupid family. Jes the day here on the WWE Podcast.
Welcome to the WWE Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me on
this Sunday, Augusts fourth, to twenty nineteen. As we take a step
back in time, back to the year two thousand and two. We're going
to get to that a match that I was very very at the time angry
with. Of course, being seventeen years later made perfect sense, but being
a big fan of The Rock, I was not a particularly excited about the
outcome of the match. But now we're going to get to all the analysis
on that. And it's ironic that the match that we were talking about today
is a match that includes a competitor that is still active seventeen years later,
in one brock Lesner. So that was not done by accident. Of course,
this was in the spirit of Summer Slam season that I'm going to be
covering this match, But it's also one of the ones that regardless of whether
or not it was Summer Slam season, I was still going to cover at
some point because well I may have mentioned it in the past and maybe covered
it a little bit, this match deserves to be broken down more. And
I want to give you guys, of course, as always, some audio
from the match, so you can relive some moments with me and my reactions
in real time and my thoughts from seventeen years ago when I was exactly half
my age. So if you double seventeen, you know exactly how old I
am. But I was seventeen years old at that time, and we fast
forward seventeen years later and brock Leser is still on the card. It's just
it's amazing really when you think about it. I know that brock hasn't restled
a full schedule at all, and he took quite some time off from we
and all that, but there's certainly a lot to dive into, and not
just the match itself, but the crowd reaction and the resulting effect on the
Rock after the match that was equally just as interesting and much of a story
as this match was. So it was certainly a passing of the Torch match.
So before we get there, though, guys, thank you so much
for joining me. This is the WWE podcast, the one and only WWE
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W and incapacity. I do have to say that I am not. This
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And so this show is just trying to get it as into as many
ears as possible because I'd love to be able to talk to you guys about
this. As they always say, it's my therapy for the week. It
is my therapy for life and to escape life for an hour or so a
few times a week. And so, but just so you guys know my
schedule for the week, it is going to be a typical schedule. So
today we'll be wrestling Nostalgia, and then you'll have Tuesday Raw review, Wednesday
SmackDown Live review, and Thursday bringing on my co host, which is Ashley
this week, and really excited to have her back and to discuss everything leading
up to Summer Slam, including our predictions that will be dropped on Thursday,
our official predictions on Thursday for the Summer Slam card that is hopefully not going
to rival wrestle Mania in terms of length of the show in any capacity.
That is certainly not a goal that ww should try to achieve. For the
love of God, please. I mean, when you falling asleep in the
main event of WrestleMania, and I've been watching wrestling for twenty almost twenty five
years, it starts to really wear on you. I mean, like when
you again, it's not desirable to fall asleep during any kind of wrestling event,
much less WrestleMania, And to that was just I remember just waking up
and I had to do a post show that night, and I woke up
like, oh my god, and the matches. You know, I hear
Becky's music playing, and it's not that we didn't know who was going to
win, but you know, you had this build and build and build for
this match, and damn I missed seventy five percent of it because I fell
asleep during the main event. So hey, but it's all about the numbers.
And how many people are watching the network and how long they're watching the
network for. So it's all about the financials and statistics. So I guess
that's where I guess that's where we fall in terms of fans complaining about how
long shows are. But one last thing, guys, if you would like
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have done that in the Amazon like everything else. So all right, let's
get right into it's let's talk a little bit about the match here and just
kind of the preliminary stuff and kind of setting the table here. Brock Lesner
debuted in two thousand and two. He was the infamous Class that came up
with John Cena and Batista and from OVW Ohio Valley Wrestling. That was their
developmental before NXT was even a thing, even a twinkle in Triple H's eye.
OVW was their developmental system or territory for lack of a better term.
So that class was one of the most star studded classes to ever come from
OVW. Brock Lesner probably the biggest name to come out of that, and
he burst onto the scene. I remember when brock Lesner first debuted. I
believe he got in a program with the Hardys and he came out and it
was just he was rag dolling Jeff Hardy around and Matt Hardy around, and
it was striking to see. And Paul Hayman, who we all knew from
ECW, was the advocate or the manager or whatever he wanted to be named
at at that point of brock Less he was saying brock Lesnon was the next
big thing. That was his tagline. He wasn't really the beast yet,
Okay, he wasn't. There was no Suplex City that didn't exist. He
was simply known as the next big thing and the sheer size and athleticism of
Brock Lesner was enough to grab your attention. He didn't even have to say
a word, and he grabbed your attention. Who the hell is this guy?
You know, who is this guy? He's running through people like a
hot knife through butter and booked as a heel rightfully. So he's the he's
the new guy that's coming through making a name for himself at the expense of
all of the established stars that we have sat through the annitator with and come
to know and love. And I remember specifically that program with the Hardys and
just it was a demolishment of Chef Hardy and Matt Hardy just just it was
rough. I mean, I remember when chaerir shots were still thing. They
hit Brock in the head with the chair a couple of times and he didn't
go down. He was just I mean that kind of stuff. And so
he grabbed your attention immediately, And he still had Paul Himan as his mouthpiece.
Seventeen years later, Brock still has Paul Himan as his for his mouthpiece.
It's just it's accommodation that doesn't really ever get old. I know that.
I say, I want Brock to do new things and last Monday night
he did. Last Monday night, he actually came out and destroyed Seth Rollins.
So I like that. It's not just him coming around, bouncing around
and doing weird facials. Okay, but back then it was essentially the same
formula. Brock burst onto the scene, destroyed his opponents, and at some
point you're thinking, can he just get to somebody that can go toe to
toe with him? I need somebody to shut him up. I need to
see him go one on one with somebody that can handle him, somebody that's
been here, our top guy. Let's see it. And what do we
get. We get brock Lesnar going one on one. You guys know where
I'm going with this with the great one. And I said to myself,
seventeen year old self, finally brock Lesnar is gonna get his ass whooped.
Because number one, he's a heel. And even then, I was smart
enough to know at my seventeen year old self, a junior in high school,
to know that heels almost never win without cheating. And in this case,
boy, was I wrong. And that's what pissed me off even more.
So we'll get to that finish. But I said to myself, well,
if he's going one on one with the Rock and there's no interference,
there's no funny business, there's no Paul Hayman interfering, there's nothing. The
Rock's gonna whoop his ass. It just has to be. It has to
be in the Rock. The Rock was a mainstay. The Rock was,
The Rock was Superman at that pointot the Rock was the biggest guy on the
roster. Yes, stone Cold was there, Okay, stone Cold was coming
off of his heel run, turning back at this point to a babyface and
using his what thing. The what thing had just begun in two thousand and
two. That is also a seventeen year disease, as I'm sure management in
WW would describe it as that has not had a cure yet, and so
it is still well and it's alive and well. That disease is just maybe
it's incurable. But it started in two thousand and two and originated with Stone
Cold, Steve Austin. I think we all know that, but that's in
terms of the landscapewwe the top guys were Austin and Rock. Now it's kind
of a shame that we never got to see Stone Cold and Brock Lesnar goal
one on one. We all know the infamous take your ball and go home
Austin walk out. That happened in two thousand and two, and it happened
with Austin leaving WWE because he was booked in Atlanta, Georgia to be defeated
by brock Lesnon with no build, nothing, And I understand Austin's frustrations.
That is one of the dumbest booking decisions you could ever make, is having
those two unadvertised, with brock Lesnar going over stone cold Steve Austin stupid,
stupid. I mean, I was Austin right in walking out? No,
But was he right in his frustrations and calling that creative crap? Yes?
Hell yes. I don't know whoever came up with that and why Vince McMahon
approved it. But nonetheless, this is not what this show is about.
But as far as the landscape goes, Austin at this point, while his
what thing was alive and well, I believe at this point he had walked
out of WWE, So it was the rock carrying the two. He had
even come up on the roster, and I remember he cut a promo after
Austin left and said, you know, Austin took his ball and went home
and you can get the f out and all this, all this stuff,
it's for slights in Austin. And so this was the guy in WWE,
the man, not Becky Lynch. This was the true man, the real
man, the rock, who was your top guy and when if you're a
fan of the rock. And I still was, regardless of the reactions that
he got that night, I was still a fan of the rock at this
point, I was still one hundred percent behind him. I know he was
beginning to migrate to movies, which many fans felt that it was they were
deceiving them or turning he was turning their back on them, and I didn't
feel that way. I didn't like when he left, but I wasn't pissed
when he returned, and I didn't feel like he was a trader like many
fans did. But the reaction that night was it was quite interesting, very
pro rock and very anti rock. And so that was it took me by
surprise, and I was thinking to myself, what the hell are these fans
doing? Like why why? And now I see why, in my elder
years of my life, if this was the same scenario today, and it
was the long standing babyface that represented the old version of the WWE older and
you had this up and coming guy that was a monster, and you knew
something was there. This guy's going to be huge. Why wouldn't you want
to be a part of it. You're a part of your supporting the change,
right, you want to be a part of something that is igniting the
change in WWE. You're going to cheer that guy. He was so much
different and was presented so much different and looks so much different than anyone else
had previously. Anyone could he talk? Not really Brock gave some pretty bad
promos. You know, he's not great on the mic, But look,
you have Paul Hyman solved that problem real quick. So now looking back,
so that's kind of the setup in the landscape. You have ww's number one
guy because Austin was gone at this point, taking his ball and going home,
and you had the Rock carrying the torch with the undisputed championship around his
shoulder, and you're thinking, no, no, if it's one on one
and no funny business, the Rock is gonna beat this guy and shut him
up and finally stop Brock Lesnar the next big thing. All right, So
what I want to do is, of course bring you guys in a little
bit. I'm gonna give you the audio. This is about a minute and
a half, so a little bit lengthy, but worth listening to. The
reason I say that is because when you hear the crowd reactions for the Rock
and Brock. Remember, Brock was the heel here. Brock was billed as
this monster, this invading monster that came in and really just wasn't wasn't the
intruder of WWE. Right, you want to see somebody take him down?
And the Rock was the babyface. Well not this night again. This was
in the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, US. Good old New
York fans always got to make sure that the heels get cheered, so you're
welcome. But this was the trend that continued. It wasn't just ah,
those non traditional fans, you know, those this is bizarre world. No,
No, this trend continued. This trend certainly continued. So we're gonna
get into that too, and don't forget too before we get to this audio.
This was a card that I want to read you quick and you're gonna
be like, oh my god, I forgot about that, right, and
especially with the last match, well, the second to last match so was
Spike Dudley versus Stephen Richards. Remember remember Steven Richards, good old White Sox,
right, he was in the RTC, Right to censor. Kurt Angle
defeated Ray Masterio by submission. Rick Flair defeated Chris Jericho by submission. Edge
defeated Eddie Guerrero. The UnAmericans defeated Booker t in gold Dust. Rob Van
Dam defeated Chris Benoit. The Undertaker defeated test Sean Michaels defeated the Triple H
in an unsanctioned street fight, and which that honestly is probably worth discussing at
some point too because of just how awesome that match was from Shawn Michael's first
match back and then ending with Triple H trying to paralyze Shawn Michael's great stuff.
And then obviously broc Lends are defeating the Rock for the undisputed Championship.
And one thing I will note as I'm looking down this card here, no
triple threats. Amazing. You can have a pay per view that has no
triple threats. There's no booking crutch. It's not everyone gets a prized for
being on the card for oh will you showed up? Let's stick you on
the card somehow. It's who deserves it. What are the storylines call for?
What are the fans asking for? I don't see a single triple threat
on here. It's all singles match, singles match, singles, match,
singles match, tag team match, singles, singles single, unsanctioned, and
the single match one on one, one on one, one on one.
That's the way it should be. It muddies the waters when you have triple
threats. It's such a booking crutch and you gotta have everybody in the car.
But it's a bunch of nonsense. All right, guys, Well enough
of my blabber and let's get to that audio from Uniondale, New York SummerSlam
two thousand and two. The Rock versus Brock feel and it is hip for
his people, step of the way, and the Rock is still be the
challenger. Proplesson was fifty three and three college. But I don't think that's
gonna do. I'm I'll find out come Rock his poise and pumped him ready
at the lip up. Probably a rock bottle. Let's go about the top
dud, a rock bottom. I can't believe it, give it up,
put it pumped him, pumped this up, the next big thing. Brockless
looking around, And when that moment happened, I just wanted to say that
I was losing my you know what, as my friends were cheering for brock
Lesner and I didn't understand why I was such a mark for the baby faces
and uh, you know, especially the Rock, where I related to a
lot. I mean, look, I dressed as the Rock listened to this
one. I haven't told you as you guys this before. I dressed as
the Rock to go to a high school dance. Oh yeah, Oh no,
no, no, it's true. I wore like a Hawaiian shirt and
I had the sunglasses that was as close to the Rock sunglasses as I could
find. And I showed up to the dance like that. Oh no,
it wasn't a costume party, No it wasn't. It was just me trying
to show up and be cool. Yeah. I don't know why I was
single the whole time was in high school anyway, So that's how much I
mean the Rock I really related to, and so when people were cheering for
Brock, I was like, guys, why even my brother who didn't really
care about wrestling much at all. I mean, he didn't give a damn
about wrestling other than you know, the if it was like a huge match
Rock versus Austin Hogan, it there. I mean like it would have to
be the top top top top household names involved in some kind of huge angle
and only want to see the finish. I mean you're talking about like the
top of the Sunday right. They don't want to see the cherry on top.
So when this happened, I mean he was into Brock, he even
watched wrestling, and I was pissed off. I was like, yeah,
what is going on? So when Brock kicked down to that rock Bottom,
I am like, oh crap, because you know that Brock is about to
give get his finish in and the rock better kick out. Well here's the
results of that. At least time people up pat me on any day.
It's see that's so many times the low back of the fish. I don't
want to tell you the rock Bottom look run out, the rock Bottom suck
come down, popluster, rock the cluster chippiot of the studio from Rock Lester's
taking out the Rock one lefter be up the dumpest zippiot it w w W
history. So there you have it. I mean, that was the conclusion
of the match, and that really, I mean just brings back so many
memories of me wanting to see and and part of me still wants to see
Broc lose that match because I was just so into the Rock. Uh,
he was the guy. And to have somebody new who comes in and takes
the spot of the Rock in a non controversial, straight up, no nonsense
fashion, with no false finishes or wonky interference or anything like that. No
feet on the ropes, no referee missed a call, none of that.
It was a straight up Brock beats beats the Rock, and it was it
was hard for me to take because the Rock had not lost clean to a
heel, I believe since he turned face. I mean when he had the
big monster face run and it was shocking, it was it was frustrating for
me. I mean, the Rock came back as a heel and he played
off the crowd, and that turn from the crowd in Uniondale really cemented his
then heel turn and actually followed all the way through to WrestleMania nineteen against Austin,
which would be Austin's final match. So quite an interesting dynamic there in
butterfly effect and having The Rock again lose was just it was devastating for me,
but it was it was a signal of the changing of the guards.
I understand that, I know that it was it was time for a change.
Rock was getting more involved in Hollywood. He was starting to open the
door to other opportunities, other opportunities, and he did. And obviously he's
one of the most successful and is the highest paid actor of twenty nineteen at
like one hundred and fifty some million dollars, or maybe I'm even underdoing it.
So The Rock has certainly chosen the right career path and has also quietly
retired from wrestling. Apparently that's like the news story of the week. And
so The Rock certainly made a good career choice. He saved his body.
He is making more money than anyone could ever know what to do with,
and it was just it was a signal of to the fans, hey,
there's this is a change, a huge change in the direction we're going.
And I don't know if they planned the Rock being heel, but the fans
certainly chose that. And why WW is so resistant nowadays to turn babyfaces heel
when the crowd is clearly rejecting them, is you know something that's beyond me.
I won't even name names here because you all know who I'm talking about.
You know, if they would turn the biggest baby face, one of
the biggest baby faces of baby faces of all time heel, you can't just
turn you know who heal? I mean? Anyway, Okay, one other
thing I really liked about this match too, was not just the match itself
and the crowd reaction and the resulting net effect of the Rock turning heel ultimately
staying heel all the way through until what he two thousand and four when he
returned to help Eugene, and so he stayed heel for a good year or
more after that and through the final Austin match at WrestleMania nineteen. But what
I really liked about this match too was the build. The build is something
I really didn't touch on, because, yes, you wanted to see Brock
go against a real competitor, your top dog, see what he's got.
But the build to this in terms of not just physicality between them before the
match and the promo between you know, Hayman and Rock, but there was
a very very well done promo that was pre taped showing Brock and Rock both
training in the gym, hitting stairs at stadiums, doing weights, talking about
what this match means. It's something I don't think is done enough. I'm
not saying it has to be done for every single match, every single high
profile match, but why not show guys training, get them in their real
element, their natural element. You know, It's like seeing a shark in
the wild versus seeing it contained and controlled at sea world, it's not the
same. You get to see how they really act and feel. That's the
overarching feeling that you get when you see those kinds of training videos, because
you know they are actually truly training their ass off. I mean, that's
a real deal. I mean, of course they are. Of course,
it's for trying to make sure that they put on the best possible performance and
not actually try to defeat their opponent. So if you tweak that, I
mean you have to. But to see them training in their own element,
the things that you know they're doing anyway, and to just have to sit
down interviews. That's oh my god, so effective. I just remember that
standing out so much because we never saw that from the Rock. We never
saw that from the Rock, even in his biggest feuds with Triple H and
Stone Cold, Undertake or Cane. It was always just the typical WWE style
of promoting a match. And you know that formula works, but it's nice
to see something that felt more real, something that didn't feel controlled, contrived
and produced, and that certainly did. And if you guys haven't seen it,
I really recommend you check out this match for nothing else, just the
build to this match. The promo video for this match was just stellar.
To me. That sold it more than any interaction they had live on Raw.
It was beautiful, well done, and I think something that could be
utilized today in this very controlled, micromanaged, too polished of a product.
It's as almost as if WWE is too good at producing their show, because
if this is supposed to be a feel good or rather a anything can happen
field type of product, it feels anything but that every segment is so perfectly
timed, instructured, and the interviews are there and the camera angles just happen
to be the right place at the right time, and the show happens to
go off the air at the right time perfectly, every single day or every
single week, twice a week, just by chance. And in a show
at the same time that's supposed to just be anything could happen. Yet all
the matches work out perfectly, all the promos work out perfectly, the main
event ends on the exact time it should. I mean, I understand as
a fan, you know the show is going to end at X amount of
time, but maybe bring back time limits in a match? Whatever happened to
that? What the hell is the point of having a timekeeper at ringside?
Is that even a hireable position anymore? I mean, how can it be?
How can that be a actually a paid position in WWE? It can't
be. It can't be because there's no time being kept. If there's no
time limit, every match has an unlimited time. Name is sport in which
there's unlimited time to finish the game? Please? Soccer? No, not
soccer. They have a contrived, very difficult way to figure out the time.
They add out add on to the end of the game. But it's
not unlimited. No sporting event in the history of sports on this earth has
unlimited time for it to finish. Accept professional wrestling, And if you're going
to create a sport that is a simulated sport, well you might want to
use the basics of sports that are truly competitive as your basis for constructing a
somewhat realistic environment that fans are supposed to be invested in. Just bring back
time limits, even if you don't use them, because it's nice to hear
it has a fifteen minute time limit. Great, great, that's fine.
And you know it does too. And I said mention this, I don't
know last week or week before. It gives the writers in creative events and
everybody else another out another finish. Because the two competitors end up having a
broadway meaning a tie, then you have something that fans look for over to
again. Why not have things end in a tie? Football, the National
Football League has games that end in a tie. That's a thing. So
why can't wrestling matches end in a tie? Because it would build anticipation for
those two going head to head again to find out who is truly the better
man or woman. I don't know, it's so small, but it's something
that I think should be brought back. And so, guys, just the
short of this is, if you haven't checked out Rob versus Brock two thousand
and two at SummerSlam, you need to check it out. I say that
every single time that I have a wrestling nostalgia Sunday night, and this is
no exception. If you haven't seen it, see it. If you've seen
it, see it again. It's so it's just so well done. The
match itself too, is by the way. I didn't really get into the
nitty gritty of the match itself, but it was very physical. These two
worked very well. They clearly rehearsed a lot beforehand and got a lot of
live time with each other, and that was that's key. They did very
well and just so well done. And that the crowd reaction was also a
spot on and really added to the match, despite my unhappy and disagreement towards
the reaction of the Nassau Coliseum that night. So all right, well,
guys, I'm not gonna head out yet. I do want to go over
some of the news coming through on this Sunday night, because there seems to
always be news coming through on Sundays. I don't know why. But there's
a headline here running through the ww online universe, to use a corporate term,
that ww is going to be returning to separate brands when SmackDown moves to
Fox, and that I think would be a good thing. According to the
Wrestling Observer newsletter, the two shows will go back to having completely separate rosters
October when the SmackDown Live moves to Friday nights on Fox. Quote. There
may be some minor crossover, according to the Observer, but they will become
legit separate brands with completely different storylines. Okay, couple of things here.
I'm glad that they're acknowledging that this wildcard rule was one of the worst ideas
ever, not just because it was terrible even if it was strictly enforced and
adhered to, because it completely threw out the sanctity of what the brands meant
and the fact that there really is no brand split if you're gonna allow anybody
to show up on any show, even if there's a quote of rule of
four. But it muddies the waters and doesn't make the two worlds special when
they collide. So uh. The other little the problem I have with this,
though, there's gonna be some min crossover. If that's the case,
If that's the language WW used that the quote there'll be some minor crossover,
well then there you go again. It's a very slippery slope because once you
start having talent crossover, they don't feel separate anymore. It's not special.
We've seen it over and over and over and WWE not able to control themselves
and help themselves, and they panic when ratings fall and they want to,
oh, well, let's just bring everyone together. That's gonna help, that's
gonna help, But you're shooting yourselves in the foot. You're kind of,
you know, cutting off your nose to spite your face, because what you're
doing is essentially saying, oh, there's not enough star power. We got
to bring stars over, but we have to build stars. And how are
we gonna do that if the stars that we have, the small amount of
them, are on both shows, how are we gonna actually build new stars
that can sustain the brand that they're on and now have to rely on these
crossover stars come in. It's all about building new stars always is always,
will be always, And if they don't give the new talent time to shine
and time to build their characters and create themselves in front of the audience and
build that connection eventually to stardom. And you're just kind of going with the
hot shot bring people over the ratings. A're tanking. You're gonna do long
term damage, more long term damage than you would if you just let things
go and say, you know what, the ratings are low, but we'll
bring them back with our storylines. It's going to take some time. There's
a little bit of growing pain that we have to go through. But in
the long run, this company and this brand will survive and thrive because we
are taking the time to do things right and not hot shotting and bringing talent
over because we're freaking out over the ratings. So I think that that is
a very slippery slope. If someone said that to me, I'd be like,
well, well, then why even do this? Why are we even
doing this? If there's quote a little bit of crossover. No, it's
either you have no brand split or you have brand split. You can't be
half pregnant. You either are or you aren't. It's the end of the
story. I mean, there's nothing else to talk about and discuss. I'm
not understanding WWE's philosophy of yeah, well we'll go back to a true Blands
brand split, but there might be some little bit of crossover. Well,
no, that's not a true brand split. I don't know why I can't
say that phrase. There's no true brand split if you're gonna have any kind
of crossover whatsoever? Am I right? I mean maybe they're just trying to
go, oh, well, you know, October will be when we especially
the first show on Fox, is gonna be probably a huge crossover in them
saying this is the last crossover show. I'm sure of it. They want
as much star power on that Fox first show as possible, and I understand
why. Maybe they'll do a reunion show on the first show, who knows,
But after that they had to focus on the stars of tomorrow, and
hey, maybe if they actually adhere to the brand split that November when they
have their Survivor series marketing campaign of and their slogan because I gotta have a
cute little name for everything, and the stars always have to import it into
their promos some stupid way. Is it's the one night a year that's smacked
down in Rogo's head to head. I am just daring them to say that
this year. I am begging and daring them too, because it's not even
pay per views anymore. That SmackDown and rog going head to head, it's
every week. So I am I am just pleading with them to say that.
I just don't see how anyone in WWE marketing is that dumb to use
that slogan this year. But I am just I'm waiting for it, please
please. I If WW does that, I'm not gonna be too kind to
them on this show. That would be unless they're just trolling the fans.
It's a complete just trolling of fans. Then number one are why you wish
sen your time doing that? And number two you look stupid? Okay,
you just look plain dumb. But all right, well we'll cross that bridge
when we get to it. I just wanted to bring that little piece of
news to you guys, if you haven't already read that. Some other news
that I'd like to get to that's of course coming through this all important news
wire, this anonymous news wire, is that brock Lesner is confirmed for the
Go hod A Go Home episode of Raw tomorrow night. And I think that
is not unexpected. That's kind of been Brock's schedule since he came back is
I'll be here when he gets close to the pay per view. I'll be
here the Monday after and then everything in between. Yeah, I'm not gonna
hear from me. Paul Hamm is gonna fill me, fill in for me
the other three weeks. I'll be there for the pay per view the Monday
before, the Monday after, and then I'm gonna go home and sit on
my ranch in my farm and I don't know, throw bales of hay around
or whatever I do. Uh. That that's been the brock Lesser schedule.
And you know what, though, good for him to get paid that manute
much money to basically, I don't want to say do nothing, but for
that amount of money he's being paid, it's essentially doing nothing. But he'll
be there, and that's good. It's interesting to see and very interesting at
least from what I'm thinking, is how is Seth at least physically going to
be selling this injury? That's the key here. What is the official diagnosis
from the WWWE medical staff. Is Seth going to physically show up? I
think he will. How is Seth going to react after spinning up? Blood
last week. After one of the most talked about and best segments of Raw
last week, what does Seth do? Does WWE announcers do WWE announcers start
to tell the narrative of Hey, Seth's injured, he's got broken ribs or
cracked one, fractured rib, bruised rib. So, I don't know,
it's gonna be one of the it's gonna be something with ribs has to be.
And do they start to play it up that it's gonna put his title
in jeopardy or his chances of winning the title back in jeopardy, or is
it the narrative that they're gonna build to have fans rally behind him to try
to overcome not just the ribs but also brock Lesner and also at SummerSlam.
Can WWE please not use the low blow on brock Lesner. Can Seth Rollins
find a way to actually have a true match with brock Lesner. Yes,
brock will be attacking the ribs and we'll see We're gonna see Seth writhing in
pain for ninety percent of the match on Sunday. I mean, it's just
it's a fact. Brocola is gonna go after the ribs and after the ribs
and after the ribs as he should. He's a heel, he should.
It's gonna piss off the audience. So it's gonna be a lot of Seth
selling for Brock on Sunday. But I want to know how Seth eventually gets
that advantage. Is it the old Bronze Stroman way of getting the advantage where
unless he inflicts pain upon himself, you can't get an advantage. Where,
for example, when Braunz Stroman, would you know he would be in a
match with somebody completely dominate them ninety percent of the way, and the only
way that his opponent would get an advantage would be if he his opponent moved
out of the way and he ended up slamming his own body into the ring
post. I mean, he's gonna be one of those where Brock has to
beat himself before Seth can get an advantage. I don't know. I'm very
interested to see how Seth is narrated unraw, how he sells his injury.
I'm sure he's taped up as he should be. If he's not, this
show is gonna be a rantfest with a show marked that's explicit let me just
say that right now, I don't think that they'll miss that mark. But
I've thought differently before. And how is this match laid out on Sunday?
How does gain that advantage on Brock? How does that happen? And ultimately
who wins this match is intriguing on so many different levels. That beat down
on Monday last week changed everything. It changed absolutely everything, and that's a
good thing. I'm praising WWE, I'm praising Brock. I'm praising Seth Rollins
for making all of us care about a match that, up until last Monday
were lukewarm at best about. So that's a credit to everybody involved there,
the execution, the camera at everything. It was very well done. W
two K twenty, By the way, guys is also going to be getting
its first information. There's a trailer that's out, but we're going to be
getting our first information. I think tomorrow. Is it tomorrow? So those
of you that are video game fanatics like I used to be, I mean,
let me just say, I mean I used to bring in my PlayStation
two. I know you guys are hearing a lot about my personal life,
So if you're bored by it, I apologize. But it's just bringing back
all these memories on Nostalgia Nite. I guess it's appropriate though, right,
it's wrestling nostalgia Nite. I remember bringing in my PlayStation two to every single
day of senior year. I'm not kidding when I say that, every single
day I'd have like a Nike sports bag, and oh no, it didn't
have like a lacrosse stick in it. It didn't have my football equipment in
it because I played one day a football that's a real thing. One day
of double sessions in August, and I said, yeah, I'm not wasting
my summer on sports. I'm like, what do you mean you have to
start in summer? You know school doesn't start for another three four weeks.
The hell with this? And I actually went ironically on picture day and they
wouldn't take my picture, and then I quit. That was my football career
for my high school. One day of double sessions and then I said,
f this. I got the f out as wwe did in two thousand and
two. So anyway, it's like a wronggoing joke among my friends who actually
did football and were relatively successful. I just said, the hell with this.
I am not giving up my summer. I love my free time.
I loved my free time in high school. I did not want to deal
with what do you mean after school? Everything should just take place during school.
I got my life after this, like my real life. The hell.
It's like going to work as an adult, in your real adult job
and then having people go, oh, we should do something after work and
you're like, yeah, no, after I leave, you do not exist,
right. This place is I'm only going here because I have to,
like and it supports my real life outside of this place. Right, So
it's kind of like that in high school, and wow, the hell they
get on this. But video games in high school like my life. And
I had friends that, even if I weren't wrestling fans, loved the video
games of wrestling, especially No Mercy. My god, No Mercy was the
king of our video game playing in the senior lounge, and I'd bring in
the PlayStation two or N sixty four almost every single day, hook it up
to this really crappy TV with the you know, audio video cables, and
we played No Mercy, or we played WrestleMania two thousand and then eventually migrated
into WWF. Was it shut your mouth for PlayStation two, and then we
just missed Here Comes the Pain, which was also rated one of the best
wrestling video games of all time, and of course James Bond Double O seven
on nine to sixty four, which is rated one of the best video games
of all time. So it was, you know, quite a busy senior
year for me. I had a lot to do. So there's a little
bit of an insight into my very successful senior year when I was seventeen eighteen
years old and played into the exact timeframe that brock Lester was champion. How's
that for sinking things up tonight? Right, boy? I just had a
little bit of a back in time machine in my head tonight. I apologize
for those of you that are said, I don't want to hear about your
personal life. I just hear about wrestling. Well, wrestling was my personal
life. Wrestling was my first life. And I will just tell you as
a side note, I mean growing up in high school as a wrestling fan.
I grew up in the attitude era. I in ninety eight, ninety
nine, when in two thousand, when WWF was at its peak of the
Attitude era, I was seventh, eighth and ninth meaning just going into high
school. So being a wrestling fan at that time was somewhat cool, although
you still let some people go, ah, that's stupid, fake stuff and
make funny or whatever. Oh it's just stupid or whatever. But it actually
was cool back then because it was an edgy product. It wasn't a you
know, a soft, little PG family friendly product anymore. So it was
almost rebellious to watch it at times. And I remember I had friends that
wouldn't let their parents wouldn't let them watch it, and I had to,
you know, cover up the shirts I was wearing. And there was a
show me your Puppy shirt that was from Jerry the King Waller that I remember
getting that. My mom and dad are like, what do you mean,
show me your puppies? What's that? I'm like, oh, you know,
you know, so they think it was actual dogs. And I had
a Degeneration X T shirt with that said the too, just the classic one
that had two words and s asterix c k it And actually just bought that
shirt from wb dot com. So I'm thirty four years old and I can
finally say, haha, Mom, I can wear my own wrestling clothing.
It's like kind of like, what's old is cool again. So the retro
shirts are still cool because it brings people back to a time when they remember
when it was cool. Funny how things come full circle. So I have
a classic Austin three sixteen shirt, a classic TJ and Generation Next shirt,
whole Commania, those old ones that are just still kind of in because they're
so retro. But growing up as a wrestling fan it is it can be
challenging, especially for those people that are just think wrestling is just the worst
thing that's ever created by human beings in the history of mankind. I mean,
there are people like that who make fun of you. It's especially in
high school. People can be ultra cruel. But when you find your niche
group that also likes the same things you do, you don't give a damn.
It's like fu basically right. And so you know, I found my
niche group, which is actually outside of my current best group of friends,
and I don't even talk to people that I used to watch and talk wrestling
with anymore from high school anyway, you just kind of drift their part and
it was fun. Well that lasted, but there was no real connection with
them outside of wrestling. It just kind of like they didn't like the same
music I did. They you know, they like to do things I didn't
like to do. I was actually pretty straight laced in high school. I
mean while people were talking about and like oh my god, drinking and like
you know, doing this and that with girls, and I was actually like
pretty conservative, to be honest with you. I mean I didn't. I
didn't get drunk until I was nineteen nineteen. That's insanity. I mean,
at least when you talk about today's standards. I mean, and people are
look at me, you were in nineteen before. I'm like, yeah,
but don't worry. I made up for lost time, that's for sure.
But everything just hit when I was nineteen. I mean just everything from top
to bottom in my life in terms of the innocence was gone at eighteen nineteen
years old, just out the window. But now you hear people talking and
drinking at like fourteen fifteen years old, that's commonplace. So I don't miss
the fact that I did not drink and get involved in all that stuff before
I was nineteen, because I got to live my life as a kid.
I got to just be innocent for a while and naive and just totally ignorant
to the stresses and pressures and being drunk and what the consequences of what that
is and just all that. So while I got a late start, I
also was able to extend my childhood to some extent, and wrestling helped me
do that. Wrestling helped me cope with a lot of stuff, and it
was just mindless entertainment, and it helped me find my identity. I mean,
I actually here's something. In my high school pep rally, I dressed
up as Winnie the Pooh and had a very brief wrestling match with my brother
and a couple of friends. Then it had ended up in a couple of
stunners. I think a rock Bottom was in there. The crowd, I
mean, they loved it, and people just said, hey, this guy
doesn't give a damn, And you can't give a damn if you're a wrestling
fan and take things personally, especially when you're younger, and it's not easy
to do, you just kind of not give an f I mean, that's
the bottom line. So those of you that are wrestling fans out there,
I know I're on a completely random personal tangent about a very brief look into
my high school and somewhat personal life. But those of you that are wrestling
fans, especially when you remember back when you were younger and are somewhat around
my age, understand what I'm talking about that if people aren't wrestling fans,
they automatically default to the old Oh that's so fake, you like that stupid
stuff. That's just it's such a late the argument. It's just such it's
lazy analysis. It's ignorant analysis because they haven't ever watched the product in their
day. They just have seen pictures or watched the little video. They have
no clue, right, and why don't you go yank their chain on whatever
shows they like? I mean, it's the same thing, right. So
anyway, all right, Well I went way off topic, guys. I
apologize if you've already tuned me out. I just wanted to, for some
reason share that with you guys, and maybe I'll come up with a little
bit more personal stuff because I got a lot of personal experiences with wrestling,
winning tickets by performing a stinkface with my brother on stage at an amusement park
and winning like you know, tickets to a pay per view that was held
here in Albany, just some wacky stuff. I mean, I it has
influenced my life from top to bottom. Every girlfriend I've ever had has not
been a wrestling fan, and so that that's always been a little bit of
a stressor when they don't understand you know why I watch that stuff. And
it's just it's amazing. Just there's no other form of entertainment out there in
terms of TV shows or movies that get so heavily criticized as wrestling does.
Yet at the same time it is one of the longest running forms of entertainment
in the history of the world. I mean, so it's just it's just
amazing how quickly when you say the word words professional wrestling, that stirs up
some kind of very strong opinion one way or the other. There's never an
in between, like I don't really know, I don't care. It's oh
that stuff so stupid, it's so fake, or oh yeah, I love
that stuff, let's talk. I mean, it's very extreme. So all
right, well, guys, I just want to I want to thank you
for listening and trudging through my personal little live story there in my tangent.
I hope you guys enjoyed it or maybe it didn't, and I apologize for
that, but I felt like I was compelled to share, and like I
said, maybe I'll do a little bit more of that if you If you
guys want to or not, and you're just here to listen to w W
analysis, that's cool too, and not hearing my listening to my life story.
But all right, well, guys, I want to thank you for
listening again. Check out the website wwpodcast dot com. And if you want
to support the show, well here's something real simple. Go to support the
show tab on the website. I created it last week. And if you
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Like the Rocks title at SummerSlam two thousand and two. It's gone.
So you can check that out. But guys, I'll be back Tuesday for
the Monday Night Raw review, the go home to Summer Slam, which I'm
assuming and anticipating should be a relatively hot show. I'm looking forward to it
and we will see what happens. And then Wednesday, I'll be back with
my SmackDown line review on Thursday as my co host and with Ashley. I'm
looking forward to that as well. So, guys, thank you so much
for joining me. As always, i'll talk to you next time.