WWE SmackDown Review: The Rock Joins The Bloodline, More Chamber Qualifiers, Bron Breakker Signs With SmackDown

This is WWE superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the WWE podcast, the
show, the one that everybody wants met for sixteen So what your ass is
my 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 one of the hosts of the show,
Michael Ritter. You can find me on Exit, Michael five Ritter on Instagram
and Michael Ridder five and also the host of the Football Function Podcast, available
on all your podcasting platforms wherever you're listening to this show and including on Patreon
if you prefer an AD free experience. Somebody who prefers an expert or an
AD free experience on all of the podcasts he listens to, including the WW
podcast, is Frankie Graham, and he's someone who is on the SmackDown tier
of the patroon subscribers for the WW podcast, but he's also a patron subscriber
for the Football Function podcast, so we definitely had to bring him on.
He's someone who is a pretty long time wrestling fan and I was very interested
to get his thoughts and his opinions on everything that's going on with the product
right now. He did watch SmackDown, so he's very up to speed on
everything that's going on with the ww product. So, Frankie, thank you
so much for joining me here on this Saturday morning, and I'm looking forward
to talking about SmackDown with you. Oh, thank you, thank you so
much. I'm excited. Yeah, this was a pretty eventful episode of SmackDown.
Anytime you get the Rock, anytime you get Roman Reigns, I mean,
whenever they're not there, people definitely like to point it out, and
they like to know, pun intended acknowledge the fact that they're not making an
appearance whenever they should. It's in the you know, the the need gritty.
You know, we're here in crunch time, getting towards WrestleMania season.
So you would expect that your WrestleMania main event program would be just weekly TV
programming. You know, you just see them on your TV every single week.
So the fact that we pointed out whenever they're not there, I feel
like it's only right that we point out whenever they are there. And they
closed the show with, you know, a well over ten minute segment where
you know, we got Roman Rings, we got the Rock. The rest
of the members of the Bloodline will get to all that as we get through
this episode of SmackDown. I kind of took notes in chronological order. That's
how I like to do it sometimes. So we'll probably do that exact same
thing, just to kind of roll through the show here and make sure we
do not miss anything. But this episode of SmackDown aired on February sixteenth,
two thy and twenty four from Salt Lake City, Utah. In the arena
that the new or I apologize the Salt Lake City, Utah Jazz play.
So yeah, the jazz who aren't necessarily doing too hot this season, they
allowed their stadium to be used by you know, the WWE, and that's
always a nice thing for these professional organizations and all these leagues to do,
is to share it with, you know, a place that's going to sell
it out. And you know, obviously they kind of highlighted it a little
bit later in the show that it was a record breaker in the stadia at
Utah or an indoor crowd. I don't know the exact number, but I
do know that the crowd at SmackDown last night in Salt Lake City was the
loudest or the largest indoor crowd in Utah indoor sports history. So definitely had
to give a shout out there because WW is known to do things like that
and they just break records damn near every time they go to a stadium.
But this episode of SmackDown had a lot of Elimination Chamber qualifying matches that had
a lot of you know, storyline development, mainly the main event, which
we will get to, but there was no video package to start the show,
no progressive match flow to kind of, you know, get us all
up to speed on what happened the previous week. They kind of just bamed
rolled it out, and obviously we saw the Rock he kind of pulled up
when we saw him arrive to the arena himself. But in terms of actual
juicy segments that happened on SmackDown, they started right out of the gate with
a qualifying match for the Elimination Chamber, this one between Kevin Owens and dom
Ko comes out first and Don comes out with the microphone and the crowd won't
let him get a word out during his little pre match promo where he's pretty
much just putting over the Judgment Day talking about how obviously Priest and Finn Balor
going to successfully defend their championships, Rio Ripley's going to successfully defend hers,
and then he's proclaiming that he is going to win the Elimination Chamber, go
on to WrestleMania defeat Seth Rowlands. You know, pretty much, just live
out the dream and make the Judgment Day, have all the gold and be
the most dominant faction in WW right now, which you could argue that they're
getting there already even without all the Gold, but we'll talk about that a
little bit later. Our Truth comes out to get a little bit of a
better view. He's watching this thing from ringside. Dom has a couple pretty
big kickouts. There was a couple of frog splashes. I thought that maybe
he was gonna get put away pretty early in this match, but he actually
kicked out. I was actually kind of impressed from what he was doing.
A couple of botches here there, but you know, that's just part of
it. These two guys that are on different shows and don't really wrestle each
other very often. I do believe this is their first ever match together,
So you're not going to see just chemistry oozing out of the ring. But
dom tries to tell Our Truth to get him a chair. He pretty much
says, hey, if you want to be part of Judgment Day, go
get me a chair right now. Which Our Truth goes and gets a chair,
but he doesn't hand it to Dom. He actually just sets it up,
sits on it right outside the ring, and that distracts Dominic just enough
to allow Kevin Olans to hit a superkick followed by a stunner to pick up
the win and earn his spot inside the elimination chamber in Australia. And then
Our Truth celebrates with Kevin Owens after the match. Now, I've kind of
went on record saying that this is some of Our Truth's best work just in
my personal opinion. So I do I want to get your opinion. What
do you think about this whole Our Truth Judgment Day, this whole dynamic that
we've been seeing here for the past like a month or so. So Our
Truth, he's I've watched him, you know, going from when he came
to WWE to you know now, and like him now is just has blown
up so much just his comedy, you know, wrestling needs that comedy way
more than they do like anything else, because you know, you got to
put people smile on their faces, and he just pulls people in with that
joking around and stuff like that. So him just messing with Judgment Day,
it just it's throwing them off their game and making to where they they they
can't concentrate on what they're striving for and you know, dominating and stuff like
that because they have to deal with our truth. That's joke when people being
the good guy. Yeah, just the whole dynamic. It just it makes
so much sense from like a like I guess, a comedic standpoint to see
a group like the Judgment Day who obviously our true does not fit in with
them at all, and the fact that he's just so persistent trying to be
in the group, which obviously that that shit might have sailed just looking at
kind of how things played out here today on SmackDown. But I have been
enjoying it as well as you know JD mcdonoughh and obviously dominant kind of coming
into his own, separating himself from his father's shadow, I guess, and
you know, just making a new chapter in his career alongside this group keeping
things going here. Backstage, we get a very intense face off, a
very intense exchange between Drew McIntyre and La Knight. Drew McIntyre just gets a
little bit of an opportunity to have like a backstage interview. He's talking to
Caleb Braxton. Out of nowhere, La Knight comes up and they're, you
know, they're kind of going back and forth. La Knight is actually reminding
him how you know for two year years Well, first off, Drew McIntire's
telling him like, hey, I see right through you, you know,
like I'm looking at all the jokes that you tell, all this erro against
all this confidence. I see it. You know, I see right through
you. It's really just a sign of insecurity, you know, for lack
of a better word, what he was trying to say and pretty much is
saying like, look as quick as the fans got behind you, they'll get
against you, and they'll turn on you just as fast. And he referenced
his own resume like he was pretty much saying like they'll do it to you
who hasn't won pretty much anything. Look at me, you know, my
resume is stacked and they still turned on me. La Night takes advantage right
there, says well, hold on, I'm gonna stop you right there.
I'm glad you brought up your resume because you haven't done jack. You know
what, since I've been up here, since I've got called up to the
main roster here in WWE. So yeah, I understand why the fans have
turned on you, because your time has come, your time has passed,
and you're gonna get passed up again whenever I eliminate you from the elimination chamber.
Just a nice little exchange here, but you can just tell the I
guess the animosity that was going on between these two guys. They don't really
interact a whole lot. They're on different shows. So the fact that they're
having I mean, they're gonna have a match next week because of this at
stemmed from this little interaction. But Ella Knight pulls out that shirt, the
Drew McIntyre shirt that has a picture of seeing Punk's WrestleMania main event tombstone.
He says, there's room for one more name there. Great stuff from LA
and n I. Did you catch this segment? You know? Am I
kind of overreacting to it? Or do you think that this is something that
could set up something between these two guys, maybe even I mean, you
know, it's hard to see this match going if none of them have gold,
going all the way to WrestleMania. But you know, even if it
ends an elimination chamber, the fact that they're giving us some something to be
invested in Just and Knight Drew McIntyre, two guys who obviously the fans both
love. So I don't know, am I overreacting to this or was this,
you know, an a one segment here backstage? I thought it was
an a one segment set a one. And I think what they're doing,
what they're playing, like, they're giving us little teases and stuff like that,
because that's how Tripp does. He throws little like pieces of cheese out
to the mice for them to you know what I mean. Yeah, So,
like, I think what they're doing is setting something up for after WrestleMania,
because I feel like Drew is gonna beat Seth and and then after that
La Knight is gonna have a match with Drew for the title and beat him.
Okay, okay, that makes sense. Let's see here. Continuing on
we get Tyler bait, he suggests that he and Pete Dune they need a
new name. They need to get a new name for their tag team.
And Dominic Mysterio, who's walking up, He kind of chimes in a little
bit and says that those two guys can't beat any two members of the Judgment
Day, and they kind of poke fun at him, saying, well,
how about this next week it's you and Our Truth versus us where they obviously
are. Dominic says, our Truth isn't the Judgment Day. Come on,
you guys should know that by now, so we're clearly gonna see more of
Judgment Day versus Pete Dunn and Tyler Bate. I can't remember because obviously I
just watched Smack Gat not that long ago. What their group name was,
it was like the the New Something, the Charge. I don't know exactly,
so don't come at me, listeners. Obviously it's very very fresh.
We're gonna find out what these guys are called very very soon. But that's
just something that I kind of took note, because you know, teams need
a name, especially if you're kind of clicking. These two guys are the
number one contenders. They're gonna go at the Judgment Day Priest and Finbaler to
get an opportunity at those tag team championships, So we might as well find
a name for these guys. But let's see moving on here, there's another
elimination chamber qualifying match. This one is for the women's chamber match, Zelena
Vega versus Tiffany Stratton. Go ahead. I think their name should be something
like the Strongest Band, you know, because you have Pete Dunn, Yes,
he always sees always bending people's fingers and stuff like that, and then
you had this strong boy, so you kind of put both the one together,
and that's what they should be. I wish I knew, because I
agree that that makes total sense what you just said there, But they already
said what the name was, and it's New Catch Republic. That's what it
is. See, I knew there was something like that, Y had,
New Catch Republic. I just had to look it up. Google is your
friend, just so you know. If you're ever in a little bit of
a pickle here and you know you talking, obviously gave me the time to
look it up. But yeah, so definitely New Catch Republic. That's what
we can call this team going forward. They're going to get an opportunity to
go out the judgment day here, but that match taking place at elimination Chamber.
Speaking of elimination Chamber, we do get this women's qualifying match. Here's
Alena Vega versus Tiffany Stratton, and this was a pretty good match. I
will say I kind of thought, you know, a new NXT call up
is Vega, who's kind of been floating there on the bottom of the women's
division for such a long time. Does this match really have anything to get
invested? Obviously, you want to know who's going to win. It's pretty
obvious who was going to win just before the match. Are they going to
really not have this new shiny toy get elevated and inserted into this match?
I had my doubts about that, but I really did get invested whenever there
was a really well executed moon salt from Zelena Vega outside the ring. It
was just jumping onto the second rope, obviously Tiffany Stratton standing there on the
you know, on the outside of the ring. Just beautifully done. Obviously,
Tiffany Stratton has her own moon salt that she does in this match.
It's one of her signature and finisher moves, so she knows all about it,
and these two probably work together just a little bit to make sure that
the timing was right. But it was a very well executed moon salt by
Vega, and that's whenever she really started to get control of this match.
And then the camera shows Legato del Fantasma is sitting at ringside, and so
naturally the able You'll come out trying to make sure that they don't cost Vega
her opportunity. The match spills over to the commentary area where Electro Lopez I
was a run in with Selena Vega, and by the time she gets back
in the ring, Tiffany Stratton capitalized by hitting the prettiest mosult ever and earning
her spot inside the chamber. I think Stratton definitely earned this one her gimmick.
Her persona is obviously one of someone who's very arrogant, very rubbing in
your face. I'm way better than you. We see that a little bit
later in the show whenever she has a run in with Bianca and Live Morgan.
But nonetheless, I think the right person won this match. The match
over delivered from what I expected. Obviously, I expected Stratton to get the
win, but I do believe that Selena Vega did have a nice performance in
this match, and obviously we got some more development when you look at the
Dottodell Fantasma LWO. These two factions just on a collision course here and they
did ultimately cost Vega the match, So you know we're going to get a
little bit more of this. But what do you think about Stratton earning her
spot in the chamber? I was really impressed. I mean, I've watched
her when she was part of NXT and all that, but I was more
impressed on what the move that it was right before the prettiest Moon Salt was
when she did that power bomb. Yes, I was like, wow,
it really just showed the power because there's not a whole lot of wrestlers that
are like Tiffany Stratton when you look at obviously they have the looks, but
they also have the strength and the pure wrestling ability. And she's someone obviously
dating Ludvig Kaiser. They work together a lot, they work out together a
lot. They are like one of those gym couples. So you know,
she's got that raw strength and that's really what she puts on display time and
time again. Whenever she gets in the ring. And you're right, I'm
glad you highlighted that because that is what set up the prettiest Moon Salt and
it really even the commentators like, man, the power displayed there from Tiffany
Stratton. It's definitely something to take note of. Another thing to take note
of Aj Styles confronted by the OC Backstone age, and this one is a
little bit interesting because he gets in a shoving match with Carl Anderson smacks him
in the face. What do you think about this whole thing? I I
was pretty yeah, I was like, oh, this is gonna be good.
And on the on the backstage, when Tiffany Stratton was talking to Bionca
Live Morgan and then Jade, I was thinking, oh that you know what
if Bianca and Jade team up together, you know that would be a good,
good tag team. Oh, no doubt they'd be borderline unstoppable. Yeah.
But as far as aj Styles and his little shoving match with Carl Anderson,
I feel like this kind of puts aj Styles in a unique spot because
he you know, what does he have going on for him right now?
He just turned to Hill, he just came back. He looks like a
million bucks. He looks like he's in great shape, but he lost to
Drew McIntyre and they're continder or not Drew mckawait wasn't Drew mcan it was?
Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm trying to think who he lost
to a for the spot in that elimination chamber match. So the fact that
aj Styles is, you know, right now, he doesn't have a challenger
in his future. He doesn't necessarily have a clear path to a championship.
He can't just continue to go after the blood behind. I mean, he's
already lost pretty much time and time again. So it's a little bit of
a you know, he's got to catch twenty two here, and he's at
a crossroads. So I think that it makes the most sense to maximize this
opportunity that you have here, which is Carl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Mitchen
just the OC pretty much wondering why they're being pushed away so hard by AJ
Styles genetically lead to a one on one match for him and Carl, possibly
at WrestleMania, because they do have two days worth of cards to fill up.
Yeah, and I feel like with that whole match, you know,
the the good boy brothers. They're you know, they're still a babyface,
yes, and so he and AJ's turn heel. So he has to break
away from that. That's what I feel. That's why he attacked attacked him
like he did. Yeah, there's there's something brewing there, and you know,
you could definitely look forward to seeing more of that as we kind of
continue to get closer to elimination chamber. Because even if they don't put it
on Mania, excuse me, I could definitely see them having this stretch all
the way to elimination chamber and you know, maybe have them settled there.
Because it's so soon elimination chamber literally a week from today. I think that
they're going to have to do what they can to maybe stretch this a little
bit more. But AJ Styles versus Carl Anderson on the WrestleMania card is one
of the earlier matches in the show, and just the you know, a
format of like a grudge match, no title involved, nothing like that.
Just two guys who do not like each other, who have a reason to
go at each other. I think that makes all the sense in the world.
We have a squatch match here though. Coming up, we have Authors
of Pain up against Bo Morris and Javier Bernald. I believe this is how
you pronounced it. I apologize if I missed miss built there, but this
is the squashiest of squash matches. There was absolutely no offense on the other
side from this. You know, obviously the underman team, the Authors of
Pain, who had the entire Final Testament in their corner. I mean this
thing was like forty five seconds, literally less than a minute. The other
guys had no offense, They had no type of control in this match,
your typical squash. But it made Authors of Pain look very, very strong.
And I will say I wrote down here in my notes the potential that
this group has. They could be in store for a really big twenty twenty
four. Just when you look at the boxes they check. I talk about
it all the time. Tag Team, top guy, Eye Candy, and
just that veteran coach that is Paul Ellering. So the fact that you know,
the Final Testament has all the pieces on paper look like such a good
group, it's almost like it's almost like a layup for them, like they
should, without a doubt go on a nice run here. It's all about
triple you know, the Creative Team putting them in the right spot. But
from the outside looking in, like just the aesthetic part. Even if you're
like an AEW fan and you didn't watch the WWE, just seeing that faction
on TV, you're like, you know, it turned some heads for sure.
Yeah, and with a aop. I saw them when they first came
a few years ago, and they they were and then they were dominant,
dominant, and then they just up and left, and I, you know,
I always wondered where they went. And then they came back and they're
still got as they're stronger now than they were. And like this match,
they they took out the one guy and then they took out the other and
they went and let they put both them in the ring, just demolished off
both of them or less. Yeah, it was an absolute squash match.
But continuing on here in the SmackDown review, we have Logan Paul, who
he has a match, but before actually pitches that there's a chance that he's
going to be WWE's double Champ because he wants to earn his spy. He's
the current US champ, so I got one of the belts, but he's
in the running to earn a spot in the elimination Chamber to possibly be in
that match, win it, and then go on and beat seth Rawlins WrestleMania.
Now, that would be the situation my question. Now, don't get
me wrong, but did he said that he's going to be the very first
double champion? I don't think he said first. I just think he would
that he said that he would be WWE's double champ, just meaning like because
you know, obviously it happens in the UFC and happens in boxing, so
that's probably what he's referencing. But I was listening closely because, yeah,
you gotta be careful because obviously he's definitely not the first double champ. There's
been so many others before him. Seth Rawlins one that you know, just
comes to mind immediately. Even before they were unified. Roman Reigns had the
w W Championship in the Universal just whenever he first beat Brock Lesner at WrestleMania
thirty eight. So yeah, and then you had Becky Lynch, Yeah,
Becky Nch exactly. Yeah, So it's happened multiple multiple times, so he
would just be simply miss speaking if if he actually did say that. But
speaking of WrestleMania thirty eight, Logan Paul and the Miz were teammates going up
against the Mysterios for WrestleMania thirty eight. The Miz obviously turned on Logan Paul
after that match, but nonetheless they're going one on one here for an Elimination
Chamber qualifying match, and Logan Paul pretty much just he does everything he can
to cheat. He's the absolute heal in this situation. He scrapes the eyes
of the of the Miz whenever the ref was looking away, and then he
hits the Mizz with the skull crushing finale, but the Miz kicked out puts
Logan in the figure four leg walk. Obviously, he breaks out of itually,
gets a road break, and then Logan leaves the ring. He gets
an assist in the form of brass knuckles by a friend of his sitting ringside,
and then he steals the win along with a spot in the Elimination Chamber
match. Not a fan of Logan Paul having the having to do these hill
tactics, but it is what it is. You know, He's someone that's
absolutely talented enough to get the win on his own. So the fact that
he's constantly looking for an upper hand here. Not a great look for the
guy, but hey, you know, it is what it is is pro
wrestling. He is a heel, so you know, you gotta do what
you gotta do. But as someone who you know, I guess takes what
Logan Paul says somewhat serious because he is someone that as as much of a
professional wrestler as he is, he does blur that line from time to time
where you're wondering, like, is this scripted what this guy's saying or is
it a little bit real? We don't really know. He definitely kind of
pulls from the hit more than maybe your average wrestler. But yeah, nonetheless,
just you got to just accept it's who he is at this point.
As long as he's a hill, he's going to use those hill tactics,
and he's gonna be using brass knuckles and pretty much just using every type of
advantage that he possibly can. I mean, I saw the under Taker do
this whenever he was the the heel version of American badass. Go look at
how many matches the Undertaker had to cheat twin and you'll be like, it's
just part of the business. But yeah, Logan Paul earns his spot in
the elimination Chamber. What do you think about that? I thought that was
uh, I thought it was really good. There were some parts where I
was skeptical on but overall, you know, I think the right person one
because you know, you got to have a heel during this elimination chamber.
Yes, yeah, no doubt, and you're right, the right person absolutely
won. If you just put Logan Paul on the card and you just look
at the elimination Chamber graphic with all six participants, it looks better with Logan
Paul than it does with the Mis. And that's just fact. I really
think that. I mean, obviously people can disagree with that, but I
just Logan Paul's got more to offer, without a doubt. But and also
if you put if you put the Mis on there, you won't get as
much outside WWE people hoping to see it. Now, if you put Logan
on there, you look at what he's done on YouTube. Yeah, he's
he's an icon on the YouTube skit. So putting him there, there's gonna
be so many some of the so much more people coming to the show or
watching the show to see it. Exactly. Yeah, Logan Paul brings in
outside eyeballs people who don't typically watch the product, and now he's just he
has his own fan base. So there's WW fans who probably like Logan Paul
and they just want to see him on the card. But something you mentioned
a little bit earlier was Tiffany Stratton barging into Nick Alta's office, and you
know, it was very arrogant. She was talking smack to live Morgan Bianca
bel air while Nickoletis was negotiating with bron Breaker and Jay Cargill and you see,
Jays you kind of said, hold of this is not going on right
now during my big momail. You guys aren't about to take this over and
have a little bit of a you know, a petty fight. And clearly
you know what kind of simmers down there, and that's whenever Nick all this
leaves, he takes them, you know, both of them with them.
But that's whenever you kind of got the idea Jadeen Bianca looked like they could
be a tam good dominant you know, two woman power trip. You know,
just them two up against everybody. Good luck stopping them. But I
think that even in this segment it really showed more so who Tiffany Stratton is
and who we can expect to see her going forward. And you know,
she's just you know that that Braddy Hill has a little bit of Alexa Bliss
whenever you know, like twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, Alexa Bliss in her
game, whenever you look at just that that spoiled brat type of persona while
still just being an absolute powerhouse as we saw inside the ring. Like I
said, checks all the boxes. She's gonna have a bright future here in
the WWE or even the like the bad version of what is her name?
She's part of raw Chelsey Green. Yeah, yeah, a little bit more
of a powerful a little more talented in the ring Chelsea Green, but Chelsea
Green is a mouthpiece absolutely like Do Drop was more of a credible like force.
Like if do Drop had more of like a Naya Jacks type of vibe
to her. I think that that team right there could be a lot more
vulmierable. That's just kind of my opinion there. But moving on another the
last Elimination Chamber qualifying matchup the night we have Alba Fire versus Naomi. The
only reason why Alba Fire was in this match is because she replaced an injured
Shatzi Blackheart who could not get medically cleared to compete in this match. So
Albu Fire steps in. They have a pretty phenomenal match. Although I will
say Eila don her attacking partner, was there at ringside is constantly being a
thorn in Naomi's side. The fact that Naomi actually prevailed overcame the odds and
won this match credit to her, because you know it was pretty much a
two on one handicap match. She gets it done. Naomi returns the WWE
pretty much shot out of a rocket, having a nice run in the Royal
Rumble and obviously earning a spot in the elimination chamber. What do you think
about Naomi's return? Do you think she has a shot in this chamber?
Honestly, I think she does because she's the She's gonna be the underdog of
this whole kit kaboodle. I don't think both line member Like, if you
look at her, she was on that family tree, so imagine her winning
the title in the world that Roman retains. All of a sudden, it's
looking like, holy hell, we're entering a new chapter in the bloodline,
but also they have Becky Lynch is supposed to you know, win it,
but she needs to change her whole gimmick. And I already have a solution,
but she needs to change her whole gimmick for Becky to move on.
Yes, does that make sense? And Becky Lynch's new gimmick, I think
she should go back to being the the Irish ass kicker. Yeah she could.
I mean she very well could. I feel like with how she's marketing
The Man, she literally has a book coming out pretty much titled The Man
and Not your average average Woman whatever. I think that with how The Man
is kind of taken off, she'll probably try to squeeze every last ounce of
juice out of that. But yeah, I mean the Irish last Kicker.
There's so many different versions of Becky lance Ansettrolinds you know that we've seen over
the years. It just is a credit to how long their careers have been.
Like the fact that it's been damned near like a decade and they've been
consistently on the top here in WWE. You know, you have to tip
your hat to them, because it's not an easy sport to stay on top
for a long time, and it's not an easy sport to have a long
career. I mean, this is a very brutal lifestyle, a very gruesome
way to you know, spend your day to day traveling, staying at hotel
rooms, eating unhealthy. For the most part, sometimes you probably got it
taken care of, unless you're like a really experienced veteran and then you kind
of know the you know the tricks of the trade. But for the most
part, these are a bunch of young people learning pretty much flying by the
seat of their pants, learning by experience every day. They're kind of just
going at this and it's a different business now than it was back then.
Obviously things are just a lot more healthy from a just general standpoint, but
nonetheless being a professional wrestler for a long period of time, but it's not
an easy thing to do. So I always give credit to people like Becky
seth Rawlins, Roman Reigns, you know, Charlotte Flair, people that have
been around for a long time now. Even though it might not seem like
it, they might still seem like the quote unquote new names to the casual
watchers who come in only to see snunke cald Steve Austin, the Rock,
Triple H, the nWo, whenever they show back up, you know,
whenever you can know, Like, all right, we're witnessing legends have historical
Hall of Fame careers right in front of our very eyes. And it's not
like, oh, they started in the ages. You saw a little bit
of them in the nineties, and then they have the tail end of their
career having retirement matches in the two thousands. Like, No, we saw
these people start their careers, have them, and now they're kind of entering
that latter stage. I look at Kevin Owens, He's such an experienced veteran
at this point. Like it's kind of off topic, but I was just
kind of thinking like he's, you know, probably getting towards the last run,
you know, the last handful of years of his career being this full
time, every single week talent. Because he's had a long career even before
he got to w W. But he's only been on like WWE television for
like ten years, and he seems like it's been so much longer, you
know, because we've seen so much of Kevin Owens. Yeah, and it's
same with like these two guys that I'm about to say, they've been around
this business their whole entire live and so they have witnessed the ups and downs
and the traveling and stuff like that. You know, you got dominate mystereo.
And then you have bron Breaker, Yeah you know because bron Breaker he's
the son of the Steiner regularly. Yeah. So yeah, they've just been
around it for literally raised in it. They were raised in this business,
so they just a whole different perspective. But anyways, getting back on track
here, Dakota kai backstage, she asked Bailey for help. I guess she
saw some pretty sketchy things from damage Control earlier in the show that makes her
feel like she might be in some danger. But Bailey isn't just so quick
to say, Look, I'm gonna forgive and forget. I don't know who
I can trust right now, so I don't know if I can be just
this companion for you. Things are gonna get pretty interesting. But I wouldn't
be shocked if, you know, we see Dakota Kaye laid out backstage in
the coming weeks. I think so too. But I also think that uh,
Bailey, since she's gone baby Faith, I think she has to she
has to cover her, you know, Tyler, cover her teams and dr
eyes because I mean you have damage controlled attacking Bailey basically what it is.
Yeah, and you just have to you know, watch your back, yes
sir, and go ahead and moving on to another thing that happened right before
we get to the juicy main event part of this show, broun Breaker officially
signs with SmackDown. With someone like me. For you know, the casual
WW fan who watches Raw, who watches SmackDown, has no horse in the
race, They're probably like, oh cool, you know, just another segment
now they know where they're going to be able to see him on a week
to week basis. But for me, who's very much so invested in the
SmackDown brand and has been for the better part of like over three years now,
I love seeing these types of signings happen, having you know, Tiffany
Stratton come up, broun Breaker. If we can make Jay Cargill official,
which I'm prety sure it already is, like we already have Jade on the
roster, that would be nice. And in a world where the brand split
is actually enforced and they're you know, following their own rules and there's actually
a structure to the way that WW is formatted. Then I believe that,
you know, SmackDown has a pretty good roster and I'm actually really really fond
of the shape that it's in, just you know, to bottom. But
now we could talk about the juicy stuff. We could talk about Roman Reigns,
the Rock coming out. We really didn't know. I didn't really know
what to expect. But Roman Rings makes it very clear like this is going
to be the rocks first night, pretty much first night being introduced as a
member of the Bloodline. So he wanted the you know, the crowd to
pay some respects that, yeah, they're gonna get excited when the Rock say
a catchphrase and when he does this, when he does that. But they
didn't want, you know, Roman Reigns didn't want the crowd to lose sight
over what's at hand here. And that is a very historic moment in the
Bloodline family. Just storyline here and the Rock comes out immediately, like I'm
sure you've already seen it. There's like an eight minute video of him absolutely
demolishing the state of Utah, the city of Utah, or the Salt Lake
City. I apologize the state of Utah, the city of Salt Lake City,
just absolutely going on a tangent, saying how they're just inbred, how
he was going to to smack their herpes off their lips. He even referenced
them losing in the NBA Finals to Michael Jordan, which is pretty much like,
as someone who has been there, done that, It's like bringing up
losing to Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. You know. It's just there's
so many different shots that the Rock can take it to you, and he
was taking at you. I mean, the bloodline, whether it was Roman
Range, Jimmy Solo, Paul Hyman, they were all just standing there like,
oh man, he is just absolutely decimating this crowd right now. But
the only thing, like the Rock was cooking, Like I was smelling what
the Rock was cooking. But in that same breath, I will say he
kind of stopped making sense when he was questioning why Cody Roads is in this
spot now, Whether you feel like it should be Rock versus Cody or I'm
sorry, Roman versus Cody or Roman versus Rock. That has nothing to do
with what I'm about to say or what I'm about to say, is the
Rock was making it seem like Cody Rhodes had no reason to be in the
spot that he's in right now. He lost last year, even brought up
to forty nine ers. They just lost the Super Bowl, Like that would
be like them telling the Chiefs, hey, let's have a rematch. Like
No, they took their loss like a man. They moved on. Is
there a Royal Rumble in the NFL. No, there's not. And the
thing about that is the Rock was making it seem like Cody Rhoades did not
win the Royal Rumble. He was like, the world doesn't work like that.
The world doesn't work like that where if you lose your opportunity you get
a rematch, like just because you want one. He's not getting your rematch
because he wants one. He's getting a rematch because he won the Royal Rumble.
And if you're upset with the fact that he won the Royal Rumble,
you gotta take it up with triple As whoever made that decision, because I
pitched long before the Rumble happened, that the Rock should act like absolutely win
it, because that's a way for him to rightfully, logically and legally skip
over Cody Rhodes because he won the rumble he could usually wanted to go up
against, but I do. I will say I like what they're doing with
it right now. The storyline is in a place where nobody really knows what
to expect, nobody knows what's coming. Everybody is kind of pointing out how
the Rock and the way that the camera englover worked at the end of SmackDown,
when he said I'm going to make sure or you lose, it looked
like he was pointing at Roman reigns, and then when he was holding up
the one for the blood line, he was like holding up an l I
think that might be grasping for straws a little bit, just like if you
if you're absolutely like putting stock in that, you know, if you're saying
who the Rock was putting a Roman rings. I think that they would have
made it a little bit more obvious if that was something like a direction they
were absolutely going. They could play on that a little bit later if they
changed their mind and audible. But I just think that as great as the
Rocks promo was, it got really kind of off the rails whenever he was
making it seem like Cody didn't have a logical reason to be in this spot.
And my only problem or my only thought process was, somebody needs to
tell the Rock that Cody Rhodes won the Royal Rumble, because apparently he doesn't
know if he thinks that there's no reason. But what did you think about
this, just this whole segment. I was I liked majority all of it.
There were some parts of it that you know, I was skeptical on,
but overall, I understand where what the Rock is trying to do.
Like, for one, when he was down this this mill mannling Ah,
the Salt Lake City, Utah, Jazz Utah. Uh. But yet on
on x Twitter whatever you want to call it, he he the next day
he said, oh, thank you celt like for having a cell sold out
arena. Like you're dissing in but you're thinking them. Yeah, I gotta.
I don't understand what you're what you're pulling on. So but overall,
I I understand what the Rock is trying to do. Yeah, you know,
just throwing us a little bone every once in a while kind of deal.
Yeah, uh, I get it. Like just that, I feel
like the reason why he brought up the tendance record and all that stuff first
is to make the crowd think that he was like they were about to get
their moment, like he's about to say, finally the Rock has come back,
and it's gonna be a great moment. I've been looking forward to this
all weeks since I bought these tickets, only for him to you know,
pull the rug out and really make it, make it more of an anti
Utah type of segment, which is what he does, and I appreciate that.
Like a lot of people think it's so such a low hanging fruit just
insult the local team sports teams. But if you can do it in a
creative way, like The Rock has done for decades at this point, Like
if you can actually like take the shots at the city and make them creative,
like the way that he did, actually referencing a real event that happened.
When you know, the Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz in the NBA
Finals. So there's multiple ways that you can do that. And I mean,
I'm a sports guy. I always appreciate whenever that type of thing happens.
But I definitely appreciated this SmackDown. I feel like it was a good
one. There's gonna be more juicy episodes of SmackDown coming as we get closer
to them when Nation Chamber in WrestleMania. But before I let you go,
Frankie, you mentioned something about a dream match question. So I'm gonna give
the floor to you and let you elaborate on that. Okay. So I
was thinking this the other day, like for the UH main event at WrestleMania
forty having a dream match, So I was thinking this. You know,
they would have Roman versus Cody and then the Bloodline come out, all the
blood bloodline comes out. Then Cody has uh aj Styalis comes out to attack
uh Solo, and then the Rock comes out and attacks uh not the uh
uh jay Usso comes out and attacks Jimmy, and then you have a stone
Cold come out and then attack the Rock control him. And then when Roman
range is about to spear Cody, you hear the ship the shield music and
here comes Seth Rowlins and Dean Ambrose down to the room and then Cody gets
him with the Cody Cutter and pinishes it. I think that would be epic.
That would be like storybook right there, Like that's that would be very
like you're bringing in so many different like parts of history. Obviously, you
mentioned, you know, Jimmy and Jay, that's a whole, that's a
branch, like this is a tree, like this whole fantasy booking you just
did, because that is like you just look at the WrestleMania main event as
the tree, and then you have all these branches, right, the Jimmy
versus Jay aspect, the Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, you know, having
their history and obviously the Shield being just such a big part of Roman Reigns
past, and then the Rock and Stone called Steve Austin who have main evantage
like what three WrestleManias. Yeah, I feel like there would be a huge
demographic that just would lose their mind as all the music kept hitting, as
the people were coming out, and as the odds kept you know, evening
out, people would be losing there, you know what. But that just
makes me think, like, man in the moment, whenever Roman Reigns is
actually on the cusp of losing that championship, it's gonna be very historic and
I'm not really sure when I'm not really sure to who, And that's you
know, a credit to WW for keeping us going this long and still wondering
when and who and you know, how was this going to happen? But
either way, I'm excited because you know, we're going to be in store
just to kind of piggyback on that my dream main event for WrestleMania forty,
just to kind of let you know, it would have been for the Rock
to win the Royal Rumble, for him to come out at number thirty and
just stay baby faced. We didn't need to see this Hill Rock Now.
Obviously, I'm glad that we're getting it. It's just a completely different perspective
and a point of view on this that you know, I didn't anticipate,
but a babyface Rock coming back to you know, Avenge, Jay Usso and
everyone else that's kind of fallen to Roman Reigns and just be that final boss
that Roman has to meet at WrestleMania forty for the belt. And if you
plan on have Roman Reigns retain, that would have been it would have made
so much more sense to have him beat the Rock right then WrestleMania forty and
then you know, just move on and let Cody finish his story another time
or whatever, because honestly, Cody had his chance to finish his story in
WrestleMania thirty nine last year, Like that was the opportunity, Like that was
when it was supposed to happen. I remember going on the show with a
Cauchure wrestling fan and DJ Cuzmo and Kanye Twitty, and we were literally talking
about it, and we were all talking about how the fact that like if
not now, when we asked that question, if Cody Roads doesn't want to
beat Roman Reigns, if not now, when, and I remember thinking like,
like, I don't know, Like, if you're going to have him
beat Cody Roads right now, then at this point you might as well hold
it on him for X amount of days, as long as you want,
because it's going to be very hard to find someone that's worthy, find a
story that makes sense. And as you can tell right now, just like
from the fan reaction, you're not going to please everybody one way or the
other, so you might as well just do what makes the most sense.
And also, you know, Rock doesn't have that much time left to wrestle.
You know, he's getting up there where he can't wrestle no more,
so let him finish off that story between him and Roman, and Cody's still
young enough where he can go next year, damn Yeah, no doubt and
have his brother come down to the ring and be there when he wins it.
Yeah. Man, a lot of fantasy booking, a lot of good
stuff that could happen as we get closer, and who knows, one of
these stories might end up coming true. But Frank, thank you so much
for joining. Obviously, You're more than welcome to come back anytime. I'm
glad that time wise is able to work out this week. We're definitely going
to get you back on a lot more, you know, as a loyal
patron to not only this show but also the football function. I certainly appreciate
that. So yeah, open invitation anytime you want. You can definitely hop
on the SmackDown review football function doesn't really matter. But do you have any
shoutouts, any plugs, anything like that before I let you go? Uh?
Not really? I mean you can find me on TikTok, Franklee Wilder
on TikTok. I'm always on there, so that's about it. Yeah,
but check out as TikTok. Things are going to get crazy on there from
what I've heard, so I'm looking forward to seeing what's going on there.
But yeah, once again, thank you so much. Frank going to get
this bad Boy sent to Matt so all of the ww podcast family can enjoy
it and get your perspective and you know hear you on the show for the
first time. So Frank, thank you so much for joining Bug. You
have a damn good week. Yeah you too. 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
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we'll see you next time.