WWE SmackDown Review: Bianca vs Bayley / Theory & Carmelo Hayes injured / Top 5 Current WWE Championship Designs

This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the WWE podcast show,
the one that everybody wants me tell start for sixteen. So God, just
us your ass, this my you can acknowledge me. What's going on?
Everybody, Guys and girls, Welcome back to another edition from the SmackDown Review
right here on the ww podcast. As always, I am one of the
hosts of this show, Michael Ritter. You can find me on x and
Michael five Ritter on Instagram and Michael Ritter five and also one of the hosts
of the Football Function Podcast, available on all of your podcasting platforms, including
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as you are well aware, whole playoffs are officially underway. We've already had
a couple of games go on. By the time you hear this, we
will probably be well into Sunday football. So I do want to thank you
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a growing show. It's been around for a few years now, but we
are still continuing to grow and any type of support, any type of contributions,
you know, just in terms of like downloads, I feel I can
I consider a listen, a download whatever alike, I can I consider that
a contribution to you helping make the show what it is, which is,
you know, a growing podcast. And I'm definitely proud of where we are
up to this point. Now, I am here to talk about an episode
of SmackDown that aired on January twelfth, twenty twenty four, from Lincoln,
Nebraska. Shout out to you DJ Kuzmo for the location breakdown per usual.
But before we get into this episode of SmackDown, I do kind of just
want to catch you guys up and let you know why this episode of SmackDown
is as late as it is. Number one. I was in Dallas for
Thursday and Friday, and you know, I traveled back home on Saturday because
I was in attendance for the Pod Meets World Live. I've kind of talked
about this over you know, the last few weeks, maybe the last month
or so, in the build up to this event. Long story short,
it is a rewatch podcast. The cast of Boy Meets World is going through
episode by episode, season by season in chronological order and providing a review show
for every single episode, and I am, you know, I'm a loyal
listener. I've been listening to this show every single episode, every single week.
I believe that drops one every Thursday. I think is the routine.
Maybe a couple of week, depending on if they get like some type of
bonus episode with an interview or something like that. Because that's another thing is
they bring on former cast members, former crew members, people who are just
you know, connected to nineties, like just this this last Weekdatrick Renna.
You know, if you're a nineties baby or if you are you know,
familiar with the nineties decade, you're very familiar with who Patrick Renna is.
He was the ham on obviously The Sandlot, one of the big popular sports
movies. He was also in Son in Law. He has a very recognizable
face. He's on TikTok now doing all kinds of dances. They had him
on there just kind of talk about his few appearances that he had on Boy
Meets World. And they just continue to do that with so many other guest
stars. So it's a very entertaining podcast. I heard they were coming to
Dallas, which is about five hours five and a half hours from where I
live, So anytime something goes to Dallas, it's pretty reasonable that, you
know, I can make an appearance there and something like this without a doubt.
The venue was phenomenal. It was just a great experience for you know,
a theater type show, because that's exactly what it was. We were
at the Majestic Theater in downtown Dallas, Texas. Was a beautiful venue.
I'm not sure if any of you guys had been there before, but yeah,
you walk right in such a smooth process. I'm not sure if you
if you guys go to like sporting events, but sometimes you gotta wait.
You know, you gotta walk a very long way from wherever it is that
you park. You have to go into a line. It takes you thirty
minutes to get to your seat. That was not the case for this episode
or for this show that I went to. I should say we went,
you know, right from our parking lot, probably about a five minute walk
right into the front door, showed our tickets. Yep, going that door
right there, we got where we're able to get some merch, which,
like wrestling shows, you've got to be careful going to a merch stand.
If you don't go with the right time, that line is going to be
insane. And by the time you get up to the front, they're probably
out of sizes left and right. You're just pretty much, you know,
scraping the bottom of the barrel there from my experience, so you have to
kind of take a strategic approach to when you go to the merch stand.
That's just with anything, just you know, food for thought. But you
know, we get in there, we get our merch, we get to
our seats probably about a thirty five forty minute wait. And one of the
themes of these, you know, these live shows that they do is people,
you know, they show up in costumes just from various episodes, various
scenes, famous moments in the show. We have just reenactments. They bring
like the best ten costumes on the stage and we have a like a vote
off where you just pretty much you make some noise, you know, say
all right, who wants this person to win? And put their hand over
their head. The crowd cheers. You guys know how that goes. You
know, they had a Q and A or so many different people were getting
up there asking very good questions. They showed Blooper reels that were never before
seen. Obviously, we're heard from the one and only mister Feenie, and
you know, if you're a Boy Meets World fan, you know that's that
means everything. And obviously with the age of mister Feenie, getting a chance
to see him on the screen was a it was a very touching moment.
But that's why it's it's late in terms of the SmackDown review. That's why
the show is coming out even later than what it normally is. But do
not worry. Like usual, anytime this show comes out after Friday, you
will get a stack them up Saturday, and it is still Saturday when I'm
recording this, so we are going to do that. We're going to do
the current championship belt designs at the very end of the episode, so you
can kind of just stay tuned for that because I am looking forward to getting
into you know, which belts I personally think are the best that the company
has right now, there's a lot of good ones. They're finally starting to
get out of the cookie cutter mode, which is pretty much what they ran.
Every belt looked the same other than a different type of color. It's
extremely company branded, which that's just how it is these days. I mean,
go look at the Vince Lombardi Trophy. It has an NFL logo right
there in the middle. Same thing with the the larryob you know, the
trophy for the NBA, it's going to have the logo of the respective leave.
Look at the USC or UFC Championship belts, they have the UFC logo
right there. And I promise you, I mean, if you are a
fan of UFC, you know that the belts didn't always look like that.
It almost seemed like UFC took a little bit of a page out of WWE's
playbook when it comes to their belt designs and having them all somewhat be sinat
or like a unanimous look like they all look pretty much. I guess universal
look is what I'm trying to say there. But I think WWE has kind
of done a decent job making their belts look a little bit unique. And
obviously we're going to get into all that towards the end of the episode.
But first things first, let's go ahead and talk about this episode of SmackDown.
Like we said, Lincoln, Nebraska is where it took place. January
twelfth, twenty twenty four is when it took place, and I feel like
this episode of SmackDown was pretty I guess it was story storytelling centric, if
that makes sense, Like it was really focused on things outside of the main
event picture, getting some build up, Like just for example, we saw
you know, the whole faction duel going on between Carry and Cross and Bobby
Lashley and their respective factions. We saw the storyline with Damaged Control taking another
step forward. It does seem like this episode of SmackDown didn't need the absolute,
you know, main eventers featured throughout the show for it to be a
good episode. I mean, Paul Hayman was featured throughout the show, which
was a nice little story in of itself, just the way that they were
building it up, making the Bloodline seem desperate for help. Paul Hamon go
into several different people asking them to join Jimmy USO and Solo so CooA in
their main event match, trying to prevent it from becoming a handicap match due
too, Roman Rains not being there. Nick All just doing his thing per
usual, kind of just being a thorn in the side of the Bloodline,
And that's kind of how the episode of SmackDown starts off, we can go
ahead and just get right into it. We're supposed to get a one on
one match between Grayson Waller and Cameron Grimes. Grayson Waller coming out to the
ring as Cameron Grimes is coming out, he gets attacked from behind by Solo
and Jimmy pretty much just say no, SmackDown is starting on our terms,
which is exactly what they do. They go to the ring and Paul Hayman
picks up a microphone pretty much just blaming Nick Altis. You know, it's
like the way I look at it, the way that Paul Hayman is blaming
Nick Altis for the Bloodline and specifically Roman Rains being in the situation that he's
in as we sit here going into the Royal Rumble, him at a completely
disadvantageous spot having to defend his championship against not one, not two, but
three people in the same match. Clearly the odds are stacked against Roman Reigns
and it's going to make for interesting television, and obviously this match itself is
going to be one worth watching. But it's somewhat reminds me a little bit
of like if you're a person of power or a person of authority at your
place of work and someone shows up late time and time again and you,
it being your job, have to write them up, so you have to
somewhat discipline them if that's you know, for lack of a better word,
and they blame it on you, Like really, man, you really wrote
me up. You're gonna get me in trouble, dude, Like, how
could you do this to me? Now they're the one that's late, but
they're blaming you for you doing your job, and you know, you laying
down the hammer, so to speak. So I feel like Nick All does.
He does a really good job kind of sticking it to the bloodline and
specifically Paul Hayman. Whenever they kind of get on the microphone, he snatches
the mic away from Paul Haman. He reminds him, makes it very clear,
like if you think that this is a conversation between two equals, you're
very much mistaken. Like, know your role is pretty much what he was
saying there. I love seeing that from Nick. Some people aren't a fan
of the general manager having a personality, and especially if they're leaning towards one
specific side, whether it's hill or baby face. I feel like the side
that Nick all This leads or Leans I apologize is the side of logic,
like the side that it makes sense. It's almost like he's watching it as
a fan where he comes out to the ring, he sees complete bs happen,
and he steps in. Seeing Nick all This and Paul Hayman go face
to face also provided a little bit of nostalgia, almost like a then versus
now. It's like someone who likes, obviously Paul Hayman used to be the
general manager of SmackDown way back in the ruthless Aggression era. It's almost like
seeing the head coach your favorite football team from two thousand and three coming face
to face with the head coach your favorite football team, and twenty twenty three,
you know, it's almost like, what the Hell's going on? You
know, twenty years later, I'm in the same position you were in,
and it just seemed a little bit weird. I guess, you know,
no one else might have noticed that. Whenever they were kind of standing face
to face having that little bit of a conversation, it immediately came in my
eyes. I was like, man, almost like full circle here Paul Hayman
looking at someone who was in the position that he was once in, although
doing it from a completely different point of view. I'll you know, I'll
be a Paul Hayman was a heel general manager. But still, uh,
it just it was something that jumped out to me. But that's pretty much
how it ends. He just says, look, that fatal four way match
that you're trying to you know, already start the train up. You're starting
trying to get the ball rolling. To assume that this isn't cemented already.
No, this is already a done deal. That fatal four way match is
in fact happening, and as a matter of fact, the contract signing is
happening next week on SmackDown. And if I'm not mistaken, next week's episode
of SmackDown is from Atlanta, Georgia, and you guys already know that is
home for the host here of the SmackDown review Psychoed Mico. So if they
are going to Atlanta and I didn't miss hear them, then clearly next week's
episode of SmackDown is going to be a very juicy one. We're getting very
close to the Royal rumbo, so that's going to make the WWETV that much
more juicy weekend week out, so clearly we have to prepare ourselves for what's
in store here. Now, let's go ahead and talk about the things that
happened on SmackDown before we get to the main event, which I kind of
already set that up and put the framework as to what's going on here.
Nick all this pretty much. He continues to stick it to the bloodline by
telling them, Hey, you have a three on three match tonight or six
man tag, I guess is a better way to say it. You got
Orton, La Knight and aj Styles going up against Roman Reigns, Solo so
CoA, and Jimmy Usso. So typically, I don't know, I'm not
really a fan of these. They've worked in the past, but I feel
like, whenever you're doing it every single week, it does seem a little
bit redundant. Making the challengers team up together to see if they can coexist
and beat this team. I just feel like that's one of the most overused
terms. It's one of the most overused formulas, and I mean, like
I said, I can appreciate it whenever it's done. One's per program.
You know, we don't need to see it every single week, and it's
not even Survivor series seasons, so having people team up that don't usually team
up isn't even the you know, it's it's like playing Christmas music in July.
You know, you gotta at least make the make the stipulations matchup with
the year. Come on, ww what are we doing here? But Paul
Hayman doesn't like that news. He pretty much says, you know just as
well as I do, that Roman Rains is not here in this. He
pretty much tried to run down link in Lebraska, like come on, you
think Roman Raine is gonna make an appearance here? Like what are we talking
about here? But so he says, okay, that's fine. You have
the end of the night to find a partner. Otherwise this match is going
to be a three on two handicap match. So that leads to Paul Hayman,
you know, going through multiple people, going up to multiple people,
trying to get them to join the team. He goes up to Carlito,
offers him an apple just to try to get him to do it. He
goes up to Bobby Lashley. Bobby Lashley has a nice little tea, saying,
look, the only time I'm going to be in the ring with the
Bloodline is if I am going face to face with the Roman Reigns for that
Universal Championship. So that was a nice little touch there. The crowd sure
as hell pop for that as well. Pretty deadly come up to Paul and
they pretty much offer their assistance, but he says, look, I only
need one person, not too and in that case, they're pretty much out,
no thanks, We're gonna go do something else with our time, which
I feel like that's probably a good idea for them. They might have been
in the wrong place at the wrong time, but obviously we'll get to that
main event once we get there. First things first, let's go ahead and
get through some other things that happened on SmackDown. Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo
defeat LWO, Joaquin Wilde and Cruise del Toro via pin Paul with a rope
assisted roll up. Carlito and Santos Escobar brawled during the match, which you
know Escobar was a guest on commentary Carlito comes out of nowhere, which he
actually came from the quote unquote, let me quote Corey Graves the WWE universe
to attack Santos, and that right there reminded me of how much I appreciated
whenever they were called fans. And I'm not even crapping on oh they shouldn't
be called ww universe. But it's something so small as hearing JR. Say,
Oh, they're taking this battle out to the fans. They're taking it
out to the crowd. Now this thing is feeling out to the WWE universe,
you know, Like I just feel like the terminology. It's a slight
it's a slight twist, but it's enough to make me say, like,
like, come on, man, Like I don't think that the crowd in
attendance should be considered the WWE universe. Now, the IWC, the Internet
Wrestling community, all the fans, millions watching at home, they should be
the WWE universe as a sense of, hey, we're not here, but
you could feel us. You know. It's like the stars that are in
the universe. Sometimes you don't see them during daytime, but they're still there,
you know. So it's almost like that same comparison when you're talking about
ww fans. The people that are there in attendance should be part of the
show. They should be part of the WWE. You know they're not in
the universe. I guess it's a really small thing. I'm not gonna go
on a rant about it, but it's something that kind of just it almost
hit my ears like nails on a talkboard, like come on, just call
them fans, say you're going out to the crowd. Carlito comes from the
crowd and he attacks it. It just seems like a small chain that could
go a long way. But after this matches whenever, Carlito is walking backstage
and Paul Hayman comes up offers him the apple, which he does take the
apple, but you know, he doesn't take a bite and split it up,
which is you know, typically what he would do there in that situation.
Continuing on here, Logan Paul threatened to sue Kevin Owens if he used
his cast in their United States Championship match is going to be taking place at
the Royal Rumble. And then Kevin Owens invited Logan Paul next week to the
Kevin Owens Show to be a guest on the Kevin Owens Show. And this
is going to be a very interesting segment, probably going to be one of
the better segments of SmackDown next week. When you look at what these two
were going to say to each other, like verbally, this is this is
one of the better programs going on right now because Logan Paul, you just
never know what you're going to get with him. It's extremely authentic his character,
his personality. It just seems like that's really who he is. And
Kevin Owens is one of the most blurred line guys in WWE. He's the
one guy that does kind of break the fourth wall in a sense when you
talk about him, like constantly, like pointing out like, hey, we
just said someone's name, Why aren't they coming out yet? Why isn't there
music hit You guys know how it works around here? Or am I the
only person that knows how it works around here? We've seen Kevin Owens do
that multiple times. So I just feel like these two are a really good
mixture. If you're looking for an elite promo battle, like if you're looking
for a war of words, this is definitely, you know, right up
your alley, and I think we're gonna get some pretty good stuff. On
Friday Night SmackDown Tyler Bait. He tried to convince Butch this was a video
package they played or not really, it was just a you know, a
pre taped segment where Tyler Bait was trying to convince Butch to team together moving
forward, but Butch obviously refused. And they also teased a little bit about
Butch going back to his original ring name Pete Dunn, which I would not
be opposed to that. I've you know, been a fan of Pete Dunn
really whenever he debuted in NXT. When he was in NXT UK, I
just felt like his character was really unique. It did feel real, and
it's not like Butch doesn't feel real. It just seems like he's watered down
or maybe new to in a sense where I'm trying to bring up another analogy
here, like it's almost like you have a really good friend, you know
when he gets in a relationship, and you know, you know the type
of friend that you have. You know him. You've gotten to be around
this guy so many different times, so you know his tendencies and what he
is and isn't okay with, And then you see him doing things with like
a new girlfriend that he wouldn't normally do, like say, the guy doesn't
ever wear sweaters, and all of a sudden he's with this girl and now
he's wearing like a really nice sweater, dressing nice, trying to I guess,
please her and maybe her group of friends. And I'm not saying that's
exactly what Butcher's doing. I'm just saying that it almost seems like you could
look at him like, dude, like this isn't you what are you doing?
Go be the crazy dude. He's biting championship belts and you know,
just absolutely twisting people's fingers and stomping on him and making them shatter. You
know, that's the pe done that I remember. And it's not like I
said, It's not like Butch is something that I'm not okay with. I
just think that it was a little bit of a shift and it wasn't even
a lateral movement. I think that this was for sure like a a backwards
move and if we could get in back to his original style, then I
think that would be going in the right direction. Continuing on here, BEYONC.
Bell Air defeats Bailey He'd be a pin or via pinfall after hitting a
kod As Damnic Control watched on. Bailey was upset backstage with the lack of
support, but Dakota Kai said that the referee had his eyes on him,
and this is just like, come on, what are we doing here?
All four members of Damage Control were out there watching, They were all in
the corner of Bailey trying to support her, and it wasn't enough, Like
they even used the excuse like the raffle was watching this. Come on,
Like when does that ever mattered the referees watching? Who cares they do blatantly
obvious stuff. You get ejected from ringside before you allow your teammate to lose,
like no, I'm gonna get involved completely and try to win this match.
They're gonna throw me out before you lose this match. And I just
feel like Damage Control is absolutely just showing those signs, you know, and
when you look at Bailey, they even use that excuse like, no,
in order for you your plan to come through, you need to win the
Royal Rumble on your own. And because your plan is for all of Damage
Control to have the gold, the Gold all being in Damage Control, so
in order for that to happen, you need to be on your own.
And they even mentioned like, hey, we thought you could handle beyond on
your own. A little bit of a backhanded jab there as well. So
yeah, like this is kind of hitting another gear here, and I wouldn't
be shocked, as you know, as much as I do want Bailey to
eventually win the Royal Rumble and that baby face turn. You know, she
wins the Royal Rumble, she comes out and they all want her to go
get the belt, right, they want her to get all the belts inside
of Damage Control, So that means challenging Ria Ripley, getting her championship and
hopefully bringing it back. Imagine the pop if she has a little Dave Bautista
style thumbs down, like, no, EO, I'm going after your championship
and I'll see you at wrestlemaner. You guys don't think I know what you've
been doing for the past few months. Like I could almost write the promo
myself. But they could go that direction. They might not go that direction.
Obviously, Bailey could just get eliminated. They could just have, you
know, Damage Control kind of screw her over unintentionally in air quotes. But
you can look at the Royal Rumble as like a three month check up,
like if you have a torn acl or something and you have to go home
and the doctor says, no, you know, you're on bed rest,
you're very limited, you're on crutches. But come back in three months and
we'll kind of see where you are and then we'll have a really good idea
for how this is healing. That's kind of what the Royal Rumble is.
For this specific program and this storyline and this slow burn, it's like,
yeah, just kind of get through it. Come to our checkup at the
Royal Rumble, and that's going to tell us a lot. That's going to
be a big moment. I really feel like in this whole damage controlled demise,
the Royal Rumble, we're gonna look back on, just like last year
with Sammy's aim when he hit Roman Rings with that steel chair. The Royal
Rumble is the biggest pivot foot in the entire WWE calendar year, and I
am, without a doubt looking forward to seeing how this one specifically plays out.
We've been watching it for a few months now and it just keeps on
getting better and better, but continuing on here. Bobby Lashley in the street
profits, they come out and they call out carrying Cross Scarlett, the authors
of Pain, Paul Ellering, pretty much everybody we didn't know. We thought
their group could have possibly been the Final Prayer, because that's what a shirt
was labeled as. It's actually labeled the Final Testament. That's what their group
is named. We saw that in a little sinister promo that they cut.
So that's the group, the Final Testament. So get used to it.
We'll see where they go from here. Definitely has potential. Just being completely
honest, I really think that this group, the way it's set up,
like I said, they got the coach, they got the eye candy,
they got the heavyweight contender what he should be a heavyweight contender, a top
guy, and they got the tag team. Like that's really all you need.
I just go back to even what was the This is one of the
rare times I'm not familiar with the ruthless aggression call back the cabinet, right,
JBL had a specific cabinet where it was the Bashing Brothers, Orlando Jordan.
He even had Candace was it Candace Michelle ah Man? Dang it SmackDown.
I'm not as familiar with Rust's aggression SmackDown as I am. One to
Night Raw Evolution was going on this exact same time period, so clearly there
was a thing for factions, just like there's kind of a theme for factions
now. Obviously triple As having his fingerprints all over this, But yeah,
this this seems like a really good group, just like some of the groups
have passed. I feel like it's constructed properly. It's not, you know,
too top heavy. There's a lot of balance throughout it, and that's
that's really important. It really gets overlooked, I feel like. But up
next here we get Carmelo Hayes versus Austin Theory. This match does not end,
or at least it doesn't have a have an actual finish. There was
a box that took place. Austin Theory attempted a seated springboard Spanish fly and
it resulted in his head being smashed to the mat with Carmelo Hayes coming down
on top of it. This was a rough fall, they called it immediately.
This was a you know, kind of just fly by the seat of
your pants decision. With WWE, they don't expect something like that to happen,
obviously, But when you have two dudes like Theory and carmel O Hayes
that are flying around, I mean you could tell they didn't have a lot
of experience, honestly, because I watched this episode of SmackDown after SmackDown already
aired, so I already knew that this injury happened, and I was looking
for it and I was kind of paying attention, and the chemistry was noticeably
off. There was a spot in the match where Carmelo Hayes was trying to
drop Austin theory like off the outside of the apron, and theory slipped and
you could tell that it went a little bit more rough than what it was
supposed to go, and that kind of told me, Like, as I
was watching it, knowing what happened, I was like, yeah, they
got lucky right there, Like they dodged a bullet with an injury right there,
and because the match continued on and they kept going, you know,
you're not gonna dodge multiple more, you know, multiple more bullets, and
that proved to be true because they had a botch an other botch that really
they're lucky that they were able to walk out of there, because it was
it was a rough fall, man, you gotta be careful. And Corey
Grays even said it immediately, like do not try this at home. That's
why we repeat this over and over again. A nice little reminder there,
and shout out to WW for being able to jump right on top of it.
Specifically the official who was right on this bad boy threw up the X
put an end of this match. Obviously, the health is more important,
so they took care of that. Want to see both these guys come back.
They're really young, they're really promising, especially Carmelo Hayes. This whole
match began with Carmelo Hayes pretty much trying to enter the Royal Rumble but also
signed the SmackDown as I do look good and blue and obviously, you know,
I want to cut to the chase. While we're on the topic the
Royal Rumble, when he gets interrupted by Grayson Waller and Austin Theory. They
kind of go back and forth and that's what leads to this match between Hayes
and Theory. But obviously we hope both these guys get well soon. I'm
not sure who got the worst of it, but it just looked rough for
everybody involved. So yeah, obviously shout out to them, and you know,
hopefully nobody is seriously injured from this. But let's go ahead and go
to the main event, where obviously we talked about it had potentials being a
three on two handicap match if the blood Line did not find a partner,
and that's exactly what happened. But it was funny the way that it played
out because Paul Hayman throughout the show, they continued to show him begging people,
just trying to, you know, brown nose and get somebody to agree
to be their partner. And the way that he twisted and manipulated that situation
as soon as he was face to face with the blood Line was hilarious.
And it's exactly why Paul Hayman is a living legend, because he just made
it seem and he walked up to him and he said, look, yeah,
screw everybody, there's nobody on the level. I've been having interviews all
day. I've been working people out. The tryouts are over. Nobody is
worthy of being in the ring with the blood Line, and I fully believe
in YouTube that you guys can get it done. And I'm not worried one
bit. And Jimmy USA says, I'm worried, like I don't want you
to making it obvious that he doesn't want to do it, but Solo pretty
much tasks him on the chest and says, I'm not worried, and I
believe him honestly when I'm not gonna call Solo a liar, damn sure.
But it was a little bit of a funny twist by Paul Hammon to make
it seem like, you know, the blood Line is still it, you
know, the blood Line is still what everyone wants to be in, but
it's not really the case. I think the list of enemies for the blood
Line is actually growing by the day at this point. So Jimmy and Solo
are forced to go to the ring expected to have a three on two handicap
match unless they could, you know, pull something out of their rear end,
and that's pretty much what happened. They had one final straw, one
last chance to make this match two on two, and what they do is
while Randy Orton was making his entrance because the baby Face team was coming out
first, the blood Line attacked him just like they did earlier in the night,
to Cameron Grimes to beat the hell out of Randy Orton. So it's
essentially a two on two match, right. We got La Knight Ages Styles
versus the blood Line, and this thing's going back and forth a majority of
the match. In the very beginning, you saw the heads kind of collide
and the you know, the the whole question can they coexist? That was
really in question with the way La Knight and AJ Styles were kind of bickering
back and forth, Who's going to start the match? AJ Styles accused La
Knight of like trying to steal the moment from him after he already dominated.
He wasn't tagging whenever he had an opportunity to tag. But nonetheless, this
match looks like it's getting out of hand until Randy Orton comes out. The
Babyface team absolutely beats the living hell out of soul So CoA and Jimmy us
So, really sending a message really pretty much making it, you know,
less and less likely that Roman Reigns is going to have people in this corner
because this was an absolute beat down when Randy Yorton finally came out there.
And that's what makes me question whether or not the Bloodline is going to be
there at the Royal Rumble, not even if they're going to interfere, like
we might see somebody kind of sneak up and make an appearance out of nowhere,
because I just I have my doubts, I really do, if you
know if they're going to because I mean, look what happened to uh Aj
Styles, right, sol So Cola or Solo so CooA, Jimmy us.
So they put this dude out and I could see the exact same thing happening
to them. A little bit of a taste of your own medicine. Maybe
it ain't this week, maybe it's not the contract signing, the beatdowns already
happening. I promise you they felt that they're probably gonna feel some more between
now and then. We only got like two more weeks, but nonetheless,
we're very very close to things getting good. And I mean it's not like
they're not good right now, but you guys know what I mean, this
is the freaking royal rumble, Dude, Like, if you're not excited for
this, turn your wrestling fan card in, check your temperature, make sure
that you don't have the VID or something like that, because this is this
is a juicy, juicy time with a juicy juicy roster, and we have
a nice booker who's going to put some good stuff on our plate. We
just have to be able to consume it all. But that is the SmackDown
review portion of this show. Remember, we're going to get into a stack
them Up Saturday almost at top five Friday we want. We're probably gonna have
a Top five Friday come back soon if I can ever get my schedule to
work out for me recording on Friday. Right now, it's pretty consistent here
on Saturday, which is why Stack Them on Saturday has become a mainstay here
on the show, and it's going to continue to be that way tonight because
we're going to go through the top five current championship designs on the main roster
n WWE, but specifically on the main roster. So we're not going to
include the NXT Championship, the North American Championship, nothing like that, the
Cruiserweight wherever that is, if it even exists at this point, We're going
to focus on strictly ross SmackDown the main roster championships. Number five. This
might surprise some people because of where it is on the totem pole, at
the very top. It's set number five. Whenever you're talking about the undisputed
WWE Universal Championship, I think that this one is just it's a different color.
You know, go to create my own belt on ww dot com or
whatever, and you could make this belt pretty easy. So that's why I
knock it a little bit. It is still a nice belt, but in
comparison to some of the other belts, I really don't think it compares at
all, especially whenever you factor in creativity and things like that. Number four,
I have the Women's World title held by a rear Ripley. It looks
almost identical to the World Heavyweight Championship, just a white strap, and that's
pretty much why I take it down just a little bit because the white strap
I'm not the biggest fan of those. Now, they don't look bad by
any means. I literally have the white Intercontinental Championship over there, and it's
special. So don't think I'm like hating on the white strap on belts.
I just prefer the black look on that specific belt. So that's why it's
a little bit of spoiler. The World Heavyweight is going to be a little
bit high on this list, but I do like the theme giving the women
a championship that's similar to the World Heavyweight and it just makes you know,
it makes all the sense in the world. So I had to put rear
Ripley's belt right here on number four. Number three, the Intercontinental Championship held
by Gonther And I'm trying to not factor pasted into this, like obviously,
when if you think about past Intercontinental championship, like the one I just mentioned,
even the one from the Ruthless Aggression era. A lot of people like
the other Intercontinental Championship designs and I don't disagree. I like them too,
I like them better than the current one, but I still think the current
one's good. It's a good design, it's a good belt, it's unique.
It doesn't looked like in any of the other ones. So that's why
I kind of was like, all right, I'm not gonna think about past
Intercontinental championship. I want to put this one in a vacuum and look at
the design. And I do think it is a top three belt right now
in WWE. Number two is the one that I kind of teased earlier,
the Men's World Heavyweight Championship held by seth Rawlins. I think this is a
beautiful belt. One of my favorite belts, or not even one of my
favorite belt was the you know, the Big Goal, the one the Triple
H held Edge Undertaker Batista. The list goes on and on, Scott Steiner,
Goldberg. Actually I don't know if Scott Steiner held this one. I
know that for sure Rick Flair did. He made it famous. Booker t
held this one whole Cogan Sting. Like, the list goes on and on.
This is a very beautiful belt and the fact that they kind of remade
it, just modernized it with that WW logo in the middle and reminds you
that's just part of you know, the modern times. You're going to have
the logo of the company on the belt. That's just marketing. I totally
understand it. I'm not going to sit here and cry about it. It
looks great. I love that they even themed it and made it inspired of
that World Tavyweight Championship belt. So I'm not going to complain because I only
got two pieces of pizza. I'm going to, you know, be happy
that I got two pieces of pizza, and hey, I couldn't have got
any. So it's kind of the way I approached this. I'm thinking of
my glass half fool here instead of eh, you know, my glass is
half emptied, Like no I really appreciate them for bringing that back. But
Number one, I gotta go to the United States Championship. I think that
with the color involved in this one, the theme, the way that it
does look like they improved previous United States Championships, and I love previous ones,
but whenever you look at compared to this one, they do look a
little bit cartoonish, like the John Ceno one, the ones the Big Show
held. I love that one. That's another one that I have right over
here on one of my shelves. But just in my personal experience, I
think that, you know, the one they have now clearly is an upgrade
and is a very beautiful belt. I'm going to get that one too,
It's going to be on my shelf. I got a few of the newer
belts that I really need to get, but until then, these are my
favorite. These are the ones that I'm rolling with, and I'll just recap
it really quickly. Number five Roman Reigns Universal Championship, the black strap with
the black WWE logo and the gold plate behind it. Number four Rhea Ripley's
Women's World Championship, the white belt that's exactly like Seth Rollins. Number three
the Intercontinental Championship that Gunther pretty much this belt is synonymous with Gunterro like the
era of this Intercontinental Championship. Does anybody remember anyone else holding this now?
Obviously you know Shin Kate and a Kamora held it, Ricochet held many others,
But it does seem like this version of that ic title is synonymous with
Gunther, which makes sense. He's out the belt for like Damn ne'ar over
two years now and number one Logan Paul's championship that United States that beautiful belt.
But that does do it for us here, guys, on this SmackDown
in review, I do want to thank you guys for listening. I apologize
for the delay, but hopefully you will still consume and enjoy this episode and
let me know any you know, any thoughts, any feedback, Get at
me at Michael five Ritter on x Michael rider five on Instagram. Those are
the best two ways you can get a hold of me. I will one
hundred percent respond. Other than that, I mean, do you guys have
a damn good weekend? Enjoyed this playoff football? Go listen to the Football
Function podcast. It'll mean the world to me. Let me know. If
you do go listen to that to that podcast over there, and you're from
the ww podcast, find a way to let me know so I can give
you a major shout out on the show, because I definitely like to give
shout outs on the show, and I will definitely do that if I am
aware that somebody came from the ww podcast over there. So thank you guys
so much for in Hopefully you will continue to do that. Like I said,
I have a damn good week and enjoy with all the football you can
walk passionately in the direction of your dreams and I'll talk to you soon.
Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite
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