Listeners Talk About Brock & Oba Femi, Randy Orton's Mystery Caller, In-Person Raw Review, WrestleMania 42 Preview

<v Speaker 1>All right, well it's time for the mailbag here on
<v Speaker 1>this Friday, April third. We're just a couple of weeks
<v Speaker 1>now from WrestleMania. I told you, when you think it's
<v Speaker 1>five months out, it becomes two months out, which becomes
<v Speaker 1>two weeks out. And here we are two weeks from WrestleMania,
<v Speaker 1>two weeks left to build. And I have seen I'm
<v Speaker 1>recording this a little bit later than usual. I've seen
<v Speaker 1>who the person is that Randy Orton was talking to,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm confused. I don't know what's going on. I'll
<v Speaker 1>talk about that, and I will give you a spoiler
<v Speaker 1>alert right off the bat, so i'll talk about that
<v Speaker 1>in a moment. I'll also invite you to join us
<v Speaker 1>over on Patreon because as WrestleMania approaches, you're going to
<v Speaker 1>want to get everything ad free. And we now have
<v Speaker 1>a new member, Dan Cardiff. Dan, thank you for joining
<v Speaker 1>us at patreon dot com. Slash ww podcast for all
<v Speaker 1>of your ad free needs are right there, and you
<v Speaker 1>get to join us for WrestleMania season and again, no
<v Speaker 1>better time to do it. All right, So, before I
<v Speaker 1>talk about the Randy Orton thing, and yes, we have
<v Speaker 1>emails from listeners that's the core of today's show. But
<v Speaker 1>there's two things I want to talk about right off
<v Speaker 1>the top. Number one and that is Drew McIntyre's comments
<v Speaker 1>on Chris Van Vliet's show. Chris owyses a great job.
<v Speaker 1>I like his work. No issues there. That's really not
<v Speaker 1>what the topic is going to be here. It's really
<v Speaker 1>that Drew mcatyre has come out and said that he
<v Speaker 1>would not ever go there with cmpunk on the death
<v Speaker 1>of his dog Larry right the beloved feline, so mcatyre
<v Speaker 1>discussed his own recent loss his cat, Chaz, passed away
<v Speaker 1>after battling long term liver disease, and this is quote
<v Speaker 1>according to Ringside News. While the conversation centered on Chaz's passing,
<v Speaker 1>his mention of Hunk showed how personal experiences can shift
<v Speaker 1>rivalries into moments of empathy. Drew also noted that losing
<v Speaker 1>a pet is something that stays with you, regardless of
<v Speaker 1>how tough someone appears on the outside. His words suggested
<v Speaker 1>that moments like Punk losing Larry resonate far beyond wrestling
<v Speaker 1>stories and rivalries, and he said, quote, we haven't posted
<v Speaker 1>about it because we just can't bear ourselves to talk
<v Speaker 1>about it. So this is the first time I've talked
<v Speaker 1>about it, and I don't care if we get emotional
<v Speaker 1>on camera. It really hurts that bad. I missed the
<v Speaker 1>little guy and I'll miss him forever. Moments like these
<v Speaker 1>weremind fans that behind the larger than life personas are people.
<v Speaker 1>McIntire's acknowledgement of Punk's grief adds to unexpected respect between
<v Speaker 1>the two, and he said that he would never go there.
<v Speaker 1>He said, there's quote, there's one thing I never make
<v Speaker 1>fun of, seehim Punk for when Larry was gone, my
<v Speaker 1>heart broke for him because those little guys are just
<v Speaker 1>full of love and nothing else. Well, the Internet didn't
<v Speaker 1>like my response. I said essentially that really, this is
<v Speaker 1>where you draw the line a pet right, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>and I mean that in the sense that I'm fairly
<v Speaker 1>sure that we have as a company. I say we
<v Speaker 1>the WWA is a company has gone way over the
<v Speaker 1>line before with dead wrestlers, including Rick Flair's son that
<v Speaker 1>was brought up shortly after he died in a promo
<v Speaker 1>against Charlotte Eddie Guerrero mentioned dozens and dozens of times
<v Speaker 1>since he's been He died twenty one years ago. Paul
<v Speaker 1>bar let's see, Oh, most recently, Roman reigns his dad
<v Speaker 1>right being used in a promo. Yet we're cutting off
<v Speaker 1>the line in the sand that we're drawing is a
<v Speaker 1>dead pet. That's it, really, Drew, really, now, I understand. Look,
<v Speaker 1>family pets have gone over this, and I'm not trying
<v Speaker 1>to rehash this whole thing that set people a blaze.
<v Speaker 1>Family pets are beloved animals. They are. But here's the difference.
<v Speaker 1>They're animals regardless of whether or not you think of
<v Speaker 1>them as that or say it at one hundred and
<v Speaker 1>forty eight times that know, they're my daughter, they're my son,
<v Speaker 1>they're like my brother. No, they're not. They can't ever be,
<v Speaker 1>no matter how many times you wish it to be.
<v Speaker 1>They're not like a son. They're not like a That's
<v Speaker 1>those are terms for humans, see the human species. That's
<v Speaker 1>what those terms are for. And people just don't accept it,
<v Speaker 1>and like whatever, I don't care. You live in your
<v Speaker 1>imaginary space and I'll live in reality. But my point is,
<v Speaker 1>people for whatever reason are going crazy because well, well
<v Speaker 1>you can talk about dead people dead. Look, anybody that's
<v Speaker 1>been as far as the human species go, everybody is
<v Speaker 1>up for grabs. But don't you talk about someone's pet.
<v Speaker 1>Really explain that to me, I don't know. Get now
<v Speaker 1>now I've kind of come to the conclusion. Look, these
<v Speaker 1>people are childless caretakers of animals. I know that until
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people that dumbs it down. No, you're
<v Speaker 1>just a caretaker of an animal, period, Like that doesn't
<v Speaker 1>mean to treat the animal poorly. In fact, the caretaker
<v Speaker 1>means just the opposite. But my point is you can't
<v Speaker 1>equate it with actually having a human being, son or daughter.
<v Speaker 1>It's not the same thing, not even close. But what
<v Speaker 1>it is for a lot of people, and I'm not
<v Speaker 1>making fun or and it's just the way that people
<v Speaker 1>function is what they'll they'll substitute animals for people where
<v Speaker 1>they'll try to equate it to having a child, and
<v Speaker 1>it's again, it's not even close. But I get what
<v Speaker 1>they're saying, and I'll leave it there. I have I
<v Speaker 1>have no agenda to treat animals poorly. A lot of
<v Speaker 1>people are somehow assuming that and whatever. You know, But
<v Speaker 1>but boy, a lot of these people are coming out
<v Speaker 1>of the woodwork and are not happy, and that that's fine.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to change my too, and I'll just
<v Speaker 1>double down on it. You know, that's the way it works.
<v Speaker 1>But so anyway, I guess we're drawing the line at
<v Speaker 1>dead pets when it comes to furthering storylines. I actually
<v Speaker 1>think it would have been very effective for Drew to
<v Speaker 1>bring that up. The crowd would have got all over him.
<v Speaker 1>It would have been beautiful. So i'll leave it there. Secondly,
<v Speaker 1>the reveal, and I'll give you guys a moment to pause,
<v Speaker 1>because Amanda will go over this more in depth on
<v Speaker 1>her SmackDown review and I will two on my weekend review,
<v Speaker 1>which may be a little funky this weekend, but we'll
<v Speaker 1>see how that goes. The reveal of who the person
<v Speaker 1>could have been or was that Randy Orton was talking
<v Speaker 1>to on the phone. The expectations immediately got lowered when
<v Speaker 1>we found out that Randy Orton was going to be
<v Speaker 1>revealing it on SmackDown, because when it's being revealed on SmackDown,
<v Speaker 1>it is immediately going to be six levels lower than
<v Speaker 1>it would have otherwise been if it were revealed at WrestleMania,
<v Speaker 1>for example. So the rock you immediately knew was out gone,
<v Speaker 1>you knew likely Kevin Owens, as many people thought could happen,
<v Speaker 1>is out, and that left what like Ted Dibiasse Junior
<v Speaker 1>or Vince McMahon. And you know Vince is out, so
<v Speaker 1>you're thinking Ted Dibiasse, but no it was and spoiler
<v Speaker 1>here it comes. It was Pat McAfee. So Pat McAfee
<v Speaker 1>was the guy he was talking to on the phone.
<v Speaker 1>Very bizarre, Cody getting booed as he should have. They
<v Speaker 1>didn't even put a microphone in front of his face,
<v Speaker 1>and they were smart to do that. The crowd didn't
<v Speaker 1>want to boo Randy Orton despite the things he said,
<v Speaker 1>didn't want to. They're just like, yeah, whatever, make fun
<v Speaker 1>of us, make fun of our city. I don't care.
<v Speaker 1>We see through it. Essentially, that's what they did. And
<v Speaker 1>Pat McAfee attacked Cody Rhodes and hit him in the
<v Speaker 1>nuts and Randy Orton beats him down to and what
<v Speaker 1>pat us said on the microphone beyond the reveal of
<v Speaker 1>Pat McAfee, which I don't think anybody saw in their card,
<v Speaker 1>so certainly a swerve, but what he said on the
<v Speaker 1>mic was that the way that this company has evolved
<v Speaker 1>is total shit, and that everybody in the back is
<v Speaker 1>circle jerking each other, and that the forgotten Attitude Era
<v Speaker 1>fan is, you know, deserve some respect. So I guess
<v Speaker 1>he's trying to represent the Attitude Air fans like people
<v Speaker 1>exactly like myself who grew up in the Attitude era
<v Speaker 1>and we have to watch according to Pat McAfee, a
<v Speaker 1>bunch of five to five guys have forty five minute
<v Speaker 1>iron Man mattress. First of all, that's not happening. Bat
<v Speaker 1>not even close. In fact, the majority of guys in WWE,
<v Speaker 1>men in WWE are well above the average height of
<v Speaker 1>the of a man in the United States. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>it's just not even close. I get what he's saying.
<v Speaker 1>The premise is it's gotten smaller, it's gotten more athletic,
<v Speaker 1>and generally it has. But I think he was certainly
<v Speaker 1>over exaggerating. And he's talking about the people that go
<v Speaker 1>around and say what and if you smell yeah, well again,
<v Speaker 1>we did that, but twenty years ago, and most of
<v Speaker 1>us were teenagers. If again, if you're an Attitude Era
<v Speaker 1>a fan, then you're likely a teenager then, which means
<v Speaker 1>now you're in your thirties or forties. And he's trying to,
<v Speaker 1>I guess, speak on behalf off of the millennials who
<v Speaker 1>were fans back then, and he used the F word
<v Speaker 1>on the show, which was very crazy. I mean, I
<v Speaker 1>don't know the last time someone's done that outside of
<v Speaker 1>Cody Roads telling the Rock go f himself. So that
<v Speaker 1>was a kind of a shock and all I guess
<v Speaker 1>Pat McAfee turning heel, joining Randy Orton and saying, you know,
<v Speaker 1>basically that last week's show was super It was the
<v Speaker 1>least or the lowest rated smack down, and that WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>still hasn't sold out because of whatever reason, And how
<v Speaker 1>can it not sell out because Randy Orton's there. Well,
<v Speaker 1>i'll tell you, Pat, it might have something to do
<v Speaker 1>with the money. But the fact is that we have
<v Speaker 1>Pat McAfee as the reveal. Now, I'm still not counting
<v Speaker 1>out that The Rock could still somehow be involved in this,
<v Speaker 1>or The Rock could be involved in what is a
<v Speaker 1>punk n' Roman. I don't think we should count the
<v Speaker 1>Rock out completely. He's filming. His filming schedule has conveniently
<v Speaker 1>also gotten in line with WrestleMania. I believe he just
<v Speaker 1>wrapped up the latest film he was doing, so it's
<v Speaker 1>possible The Rock still is there for those that are
<v Speaker 1>interested in the Rock being involved. He still could be
<v Speaker 1>an either main event. The other big reveals of Chris
<v Speaker 1>Jericho aren't gonna happen obviously, Chris Jericho is not a
<v Speaker 1>part of w W now he has joined AEW and
<v Speaker 1>rejoined I should say, And then Vince McMahon could be involved,
<v Speaker 1>although the latest with Vince McMahon kind of a lot
<v Speaker 1>of news here up front here for today's episode, but
<v Speaker 1>I promise we'll get to emails. Is the Janelle Grant
<v Speaker 1>case has taken a new twist. She's filed new allegations
<v Speaker 1>or come forth with them. And I don't understand why
<v Speaker 1>she wouldn't if these are true, wouldn't have just included
<v Speaker 1>them in the original civil suit instead, all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 1>she's having this epiphany, Oh yeah, and also you know
<v Speaker 1>he did this stuff if there's not somebody with an
<v Speaker 1>agenda right there now, Look, most of us have not
<v Speaker 1>gone through the details of the case and now new
<v Speaker 1>case from Jenelle Grant. Most of us have not. But
<v Speaker 1>just from a common sense perspective, if you zoom out
<v Speaker 1>and look at this, there's nothing criminal here. There's or
<v Speaker 1>at least there's nothing that has been filed criminally. This
<v Speaker 1>is not a criminal case. This is a civil suit,
<v Speaker 1>and so Jenell Grant claimed all of these things and
<v Speaker 1>there's some evidence for it. Rock Lesnar are getting put
<v Speaker 1>back into this hot seat again. And it's very interesting
<v Speaker 1>that the timing that Jenelle Grant has chosen has been
<v Speaker 1>right before WrestleMania, as Vince is starting to coming dipping
<v Speaker 1>his toe just ever so slightly back into the public eye.
<v Speaker 1>You see his name pop up every now and then
<v Speaker 1>a clip comes up of him walking or reading a
<v Speaker 1>fan or whatever. The general fan base is warming up
<v Speaker 1>to Vince McMahon as a whole, I think into interest
<v Speaker 1>being interested in seeing him again, and just conveniently, Jennell
<v Speaker 1>Grant's like, you know what, No, you know, I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>just bring this up now and just kind of make
<v Speaker 1>a new case about it now. I don't know if
<v Speaker 1>what her new allegations are claiming is true. I just
<v Speaker 1>have speculation, and I think it's a healthy speculation that
<v Speaker 1>if you were going to try to bury a guy
<v Speaker 1>like Vince McMahon and get as much money as you
<v Speaker 1>can out of him and publicly shame him, why wouldn't
<v Speaker 1>you have dumped all of this in the first suit,
<v Speaker 1>where you just like, you know, what I'm gonna save
<v Speaker 1>the good parts. I'm gonna save the good parts for
<v Speaker 1>something else, somewhere else down the line. You have to
<v Speaker 1>wonder if there is an agenda where what she's saying
<v Speaker 1>is false and it's simply to try to keep Vince
<v Speaker 1>McMahon under her thumb, to just smear him for the
<v Speaker 1>sake of smearing him. And I have no doubt that
<v Speaker 1>Vince probably did something weird with her that just seems
<v Speaker 1>to fit Vince McMahon's personality. He stepped down, you know,
<v Speaker 1>as chairman three years ago. We all know that he
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't have done that if he otherwise felt he had
<v Speaker 1>a strong case against her and he could just dismiss her.
<v Speaker 1>So something probably happened. I'm not saying that there is
<v Speaker 1>and I'm not saying his actions, if true, are warranted. No,
<v Speaker 1>but you do have to wonder with somebody like Janelle Grant,
<v Speaker 1>the timing of this is suspicious. And if Vince McMahon
<v Speaker 1>fights back, I mean he should, I mean he has
<v Speaker 1>the legal right to, then we probably won't see Vince
<v Speaker 1>again for a long time. It's almost like he was
<v Speaker 1>getting reset in the minds of fans and she comes
<v Speaker 1>along goes ah, and she's like, I got some new stuff.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if this is true or not, but
<v Speaker 1>I'm to put it out there. And I don't know
<v Speaker 1>if it's true or not either. But you do have
<v Speaker 1>to wonder, why are we supposed to just take everything
<v Speaker 1>this woman says that none of us know at face value?
<v Speaker 1>Because what believe all women? Is that the slogan that
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people are going to be pioneering on
<v Speaker 1>this one. I've heard that already. Because she's a woman,
<v Speaker 1>We're just supposed to believe her. Yeah, yeah, I have
<v Speaker 1>a hard time with that line of thinking. I have
<v Speaker 1>to say, how about we just look at the evidence
<v Speaker 1>and not worry about if she's a man or a woman.
<v Speaker 1>How about that we just look at them evidence. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>that's what we do. People again today want to be
<v Speaker 1>vilified or made the hero based on their immutable characteristics,
<v Speaker 1>like if you're a man or woman, black, white, whatever,
<v Speaker 1>I mean. People, they everybody has an agenda based on
<v Speaker 1>completely irrelevant facts about themselves. So anyway, some pieces of
<v Speaker 1>news here, big pieces of news coming out just before
<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania again between the dog comment again and Janelle Grant
<v Speaker 1>and Randy Orton and Pat McAfee. Lots of stuff to
<v Speaker 1>talk about, but let's hear from you, so let's get
<v Speaker 1>to it. And those of you on Patreon do get priority.
<v Speaker 1>So let's jump into you guys, and let's where do
<v Speaker 1>we start. I'm going to start with James James and
<v Speaker 1>he says, it's been a while since I've wrote in
<v Speaker 1>and with WrestleMania on the horizon, I thought i'd give
<v Speaker 1>my thoughts on the build so far. Ron Monday was
<v Speaker 1>an improvement on the previous weeks, and I feel the
<v Speaker 1>criticism with Gunther versus Seth is over the top. They
<v Speaker 1>gave Brown right until the last minute to try to
<v Speaker 1>fit in, but going with Gunther as the best choice. However,
<v Speaker 1>what I'm disappointed in is the build for the other matches.
<v Speaker 1>How did they decide who is qualified for the Ladder Match?
<v Speaker 1>Why does La Knight have a match? Doesn't La Knight
<v Speaker 1>have a match yet? Or Carmelo Hayes creative have been
<v Speaker 1>lazy and it's carried on from last year. Last note,
<v Speaker 1>I don't want the Rock to be on Orton's mystery
<v Speaker 1>phone call. He already ruined three very promising storylines. James,
<v Speaker 1>well you got your wish, James on the last one,
<v Speaker 1>the rock is not the man on the phone call Again,
<v Speaker 1>he could still appear in some form of fashion in
<v Speaker 1>either main event, and he could slide himself in and
<v Speaker 1>it would make sense. But at least, yeah, you got
<v Speaker 1>your wish there. As far as Ella Knight, I don't
<v Speaker 1>know why he doesn't have a match. I mean, La
<v Speaker 1>Knight can't stay up on the ropes. How many times
<v Speaker 1>we've seen him slip and fall is just comical. He
<v Speaker 1>needs to stop stepping on the ropes and stick to
<v Speaker 1>a ground game even during his entrance. Just don't go
<v Speaker 1>on the ropes just you know, or if you're going
<v Speaker 1>to do it, do it in a front facing fashion.
<v Speaker 1>It's a much you have much more control. He stands
<v Speaker 1>on the ropes in a way that gives himself way
<v Speaker 1>too much or way not too much, but it really
<v Speaker 1>shrinks the room for error on the way that he
<v Speaker 1>stands on the ropes during his entrance. So I don't
<v Speaker 1>know why. I don't think Ellie Knight will not be involved.
<v Speaker 1>He will be in some form of fashion. He'll probably
<v Speaker 1>be involved in the IC title match. That's my guess.
<v Speaker 1>Carmela Hayes, I don't know. I mean, boy, they did
<v Speaker 1>him dirty? Did they not? Us? Title? Gone? Sam? He's
<v Speaker 1>aying yes, I mean again, they can make that a
<v Speaker 1>multiperson match too. We'll see what Friday Night SmackDown brings.
<v Speaker 1>I don't have all the results yet as far as
<v Speaker 1>who who is qualified for the ladder match. Sometimes we're
<v Speaker 1>just supposed to accept it, and you know what, I'm
<v Speaker 1>ready for WrestleMania, So in this case, I'm a big
<v Speaker 1>fan of understanding who and why people are in matches.
<v Speaker 1>There's so many matches on WrestleMania now that I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>If they feel they have time to decide, they could
<v Speaker 1>over the next two weeks do some kind of quick
<v Speaker 1>qualifier that would eat up a lot of TV time.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if they will, but I have no
<v Speaker 1>problem with them at this point, just saying, you know what,
<v Speaker 1>it's just these people. I mean, we've seen worse creative
<v Speaker 1>and going back to your first point about Gunther being
<v Speaker 1>the best choice, yes he is. Oh absolutely, I have
<v Speaker 1>no issue with Seth and Gunther. From a non paper perspective.
<v Speaker 1>The story doesn't make a ton of sense. Maybe we'll
<v Speaker 1>find out more, and I would expect we find out
<v Speaker 1>more on Raw. But yeah, this match is going to
<v Speaker 1>be fine. It's just it's a cold match. They could
<v Speaker 1>build as best they can over the next two weeks,
<v Speaker 1>but I don't expect this to be long term. I
<v Speaker 1>think bron Breaker will show up at WrestleMania or shortly
<v Speaker 1>thereafter to pick up his feud right where it left
<v Speaker 1>off with Seth. This is just a hey, you're really good.
<v Speaker 1>We don't have any be for you. You know. Chris
<v Speaker 1>Jericho's out, sorry, Gunther and with Seth, Hey, buddy, sorry,
<v Speaker 1>bron Breaker is not available. He can't make it. He's
<v Speaker 1>not going to be cleared. What do we do? Oh? Hi,
<v Speaker 1>my name is Gunther, my name's Seth. Nice to meet you.
<v Speaker 1>Why not? Yeah, you can't have a bad match with
<v Speaker 1>these two. This wrestle menia worthy on paper? Why not?
<v Speaker 1>I don't have any I really don't. What do you
<v Speaker 1>What else are you gonna do? What are the other
<v Speaker 1>options for these two men? So? Thanks James, all right,
<v Speaker 1>let's go to let's see Oh, Matt another patron, and
<v Speaker 1>he says, here's my in person review of SmackDown in Pittsburgh.
<v Speaker 1>All right, thank you. Mostly families, but a lot more
<v Speaker 1>groups of guys. Eighteen to forty than I remember seeing
<v Speaker 1>at past events most of the kids had Cody Orsina
<v Speaker 1>Merch and most of the guys eighteen to forty had
<v Speaker 1>Austin rock Taker and Randy Merch. Well, that's how that's
<v Speaker 1>really funny you mentioned that because it's exactly the demographic
<v Speaker 1>that Pat McAfee was speaking to tonight. It's exactly what's
<v Speaker 1>happening here. And having this demographic of young kids lean
<v Speaker 1>towards Cody and seen it. I mean that that is
<v Speaker 1>as unsurprising as it gets, and I appreciate the confirmation.
<v Speaker 2>Though.
<v Speaker 1>Dan Housen Merch was everywhere, and during his commercial break
<v Speaker 1>segment he got a massive pop. That's good. I'm glad
<v Speaker 1>for him, I really am. It's a fascinating case study
<v Speaker 1>of Dan Housen. All right, Randy and Rhea seem to
<v Speaker 1>get the biggest reaction. There were definitely some booze for Cody.
<v Speaker 1>I even got a small Cody sucks chant going, you're
<v Speaker 1>doing the Lord's work, my friend, the Lord's work. Not
<v Speaker 1>sure how it came across on TV, but the booze
<v Speaker 1>were so loud in the arena. For Jade, we couldn't
<v Speaker 1>even hear her on the mo like that is impressive,
<v Speaker 1>given that Jade has a pretty commanding voice, that's impressive.
<v Speaker 1>Good for you guys, and overall, I think it was
<v Speaker 1>a good smack down. The ending was extremely lackluster, and
<v Speaker 1>I know being there in person makes it better, but
<v Speaker 1>I think it had some nice progressions toward WrestleMania. Thanks
<v Speaker 1>for reading my email, have a good weekend. Well, No,
<v Speaker 1>I appreciate you taking the time to write in and
<v Speaker 1>give me your observations. It's always nice to see what
<v Speaker 1>they do and what happens that we may not see.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, it's progression, and I always just hope that
<v Speaker 1>when you come out of the event, you're like, you
<v Speaker 1>know what, that was worth my money because you are
<v Speaker 1>trading your time and money and the time you spent
<v Speaker 1>to get that money to go to this event. And
<v Speaker 1>I just that's the ultimate goal. It's come ouither and go.
<v Speaker 1>You know what. I feel like I got my money's worth.
<v Speaker 1>And today's day and age, with the ticket prices the
<v Speaker 1>way they are, it's more and more difficult to proclaim that. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>so thank you, and we have let's see another raw
<v Speaker 1>review here and in person raw review though that was
<v Speaker 1>SmackDown excuse me the in person raw review. This is
<v Speaker 1>from longtime listener, first time patron. Thanks for the shadow well,
<v Speaker 1>thank you so much, Eddie. Eddie, I believe right. I
<v Speaker 1>must say I look forward to your episodes and find
<v Speaker 1>them far more entertaining than many of the WWE episodes.
<v Speaker 1>Your commentary, perspective and sometimes colorful rants have made my
<v Speaker 1>reimmersion significantly easier. Well, I'm glad. I'm not for everybody.
<v Speaker 1>I know that I'm not made to entertain everybody, and
<v Speaker 1>I'm not gonna certainly try to appeal to everybody. You know,
<v Speaker 1>they think that comes off a little it comes off phony.
<v Speaker 1>And when you're not somebody that's authentic, people can easily
<v Speaker 1>tell and it pushes people away. And sometimes you'll listen
<v Speaker 1>or watch something and you go, yeah, I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>it just didn't grab me. Something ain't right. A lot
<v Speaker 1>of times it's because of inauthenticity. And I'm not again,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not trying to pretend to be anybody, And I
<v Speaker 1>would just hope everybody takes that advice to whatever you're doing.
<v Speaker 1>There's your inspiration for the day, all right. I've been
<v Speaker 1>watching WWFWWE since the late eighties. Oh right, so you're
<v Speaker 1>ahead of me. My friend, you are ahead of me.
<v Speaker 1>If you've been watching that long, you're I'm gonna guess
<v Speaker 1>you're five to ten years older than me. I remember
<v Speaker 1>trying to locate a decent enough cable TV. Do kids
<v Speaker 1>to me know what that is today? Did they even
<v Speaker 1>know what the concept of a cable TV is? They're
<v Speaker 1>gonna say, wait, what do you mean cable TV? You
<v Speaker 1>mean a streaming TV, dad, Like, it's a smart TV.
<v Speaker 1>What's a cable TV? I'm telling you, I bet just
<v Speaker 1>some kids have no idea what that means. So you
<v Speaker 1>were looking for a decent enough cable TV customer that
<v Speaker 1>would allow me to pay for the pay per view events.
<v Speaker 1>Thanks Grandpa A eighty five WrestleMania one got me hooked. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>so yeah, you're definitely older than me. I was born
<v Speaker 1>in eighty five, so yeah, I was born in the
<v Speaker 1>year that WrestleMania was so kind of kind of cool,
<v Speaker 1>all right. I thought WrestleMania three was epic. I rarely
<v Speaker 1>miss Saturday morning Saturday Morning wrestling. Later, I loved Monday
<v Speaker 1>Night Wars and then was reinvigorated by the Attitude Era.
<v Speaker 1>But then I spent my free time with my daughters
<v Speaker 1>and all their activities and events. I now have the
<v Speaker 1>time to engage in the w WE the way I
<v Speaker 1>did in my youth. Please let me know. Okay, So
<v Speaker 1>that's cool. You know, it's it's interesting to see what
<v Speaker 1>brings people back and what pushes them away. And you
<v Speaker 1>know that's certainly understandable. I mean, you have your free
<v Speaker 1>time family, man. Yeah, that's exactly, and you now have
<v Speaker 1>the time to engage with w WE. And boy, when
<v Speaker 1>if you took the today's product and just one episode
<v Speaker 1>of today's product, and as you're watching in the eighties
<v Speaker 1>during WRESTLEMANI ie, WrestleMania three, and you today's product, imagine
<v Speaker 1>showing somebody in the mid to late eighties a twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty six Monday Night Raw. They wouldn't even know what
<v Speaker 1>the hell they're watching. The product would be unrecognizable. It
<v Speaker 1>would be if you were to show it to somebody,
<v Speaker 1>I bet their reaction would be, is this a parody?
<v Speaker 1>What is this supposed to be? Am I supposed to
<v Speaker 1>be laughing? Why does it seem like I'm watching a movie?
<v Speaker 1>You know, because it's become so produced compared to what
<v Speaker 1>it was presented as in the late eighties and so
<v Speaker 1>polished that it would it would. I really would love
<v Speaker 1>if it was possible to get in a time machine.
<v Speaker 1>You're from the eighties, maybe you have a DeLorean. I
<v Speaker 1>don't know, but you would be able to travel back
<v Speaker 1>and show somebody. I really wish you could do it
<v Speaker 1>and just see the reaction some diehard fan be like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>watch this. Give me your impressions, give me your thoughts,
<v Speaker 1>give me your words. It'd be fascinating. Okay, so please
<v Speaker 1>let me know you think of these impressions. Pick and
<v Speaker 1>choose only what you want to comment on. See him
<v Speaker 1>punk only one who can truly cut a promo. Best
<v Speaker 1>decision Triple h May to bring him back. Would like
<v Speaker 1>to see him against Gunther? Well, yeah, I think it'll
<v Speaker 1>eventually happen. It's going to It's certainly been a smart
<v Speaker 1>business decision to bring him back. Paid dividends, Yeah, no
<v Speaker 1>doubt about it. He's he is in a kind of
<v Speaker 1>a category of his own with promos. He's talented. Love
<v Speaker 1>him or hate him, he just is Cody Rhoads. Please
<v Speaker 1>turn him heel and out of the championship scene. He's
<v Speaker 1>not Dusty. I miss him. Needs a change. Well, I
<v Speaker 1>think Pat McAfee kind of outlined that in a very
<v Speaker 1>kind of meta but somewhat in a storyline way. It
<v Speaker 1>was very out of left field to have Pat McAfee
<v Speaker 1>delivering this to the fans. Very weird. So I, by
<v Speaker 1>the way, I'm also trying to while I did criticize
<v Speaker 1>it a little bit, it's somewhat interesting. The content of
<v Speaker 1>what he said is interesting. It's just that it's Pat
<v Speaker 1>McAfee who said it. So it's kind of like, what
<v Speaker 1>why Pat, You know, he's he's a beloved commentator, Randy's
<v Speaker 1>a beloved wrestler. It's kind of hard for me to
<v Speaker 1>absorb what's happening here. But the content of what he
<v Speaker 1>said is very interesting. And so yeah, they said that
<v Speaker 1>Cody embodies everything that's wrong with wrestling. It's almost as
<v Speaker 1>if they were like listening to the show. And I
<v Speaker 1>don't think they are. I'm not claiming that or trying
<v Speaker 1>to take credit for it or think that we're that
<v Speaker 1>big that ww's listening, but I will say that there's
<v Speaker 1>pretty much everything Pat McAfee said tonight is just foundationally
<v Speaker 1>a lot of what we say here, you know, So
<v Speaker 1>it's just interesting. It's almost as if I had control
<v Speaker 1>of creative from a pro standpoint for a night, not everything,
<v Speaker 1>but all right, Dominic Pasterio, I think he could be
<v Speaker 1>a bigger draw than Cody if they do the face
<v Speaker 1>turn correctly. So much charisma, Well, it almost happened a
<v Speaker 1>couple times and they push back. Dom was a babyface
<v Speaker 1>last year when he won the Intercontinental title in WrestleMania,
<v Speaker 1>and they just weren't ready. Then later in the year
<v Speaker 1>they try to. You know, I forget what the scenario was,
<v Speaker 1>but the fans were starting to really get behind Dom
<v Speaker 1>and they just kind of cooled it off, and they're like,
<v Speaker 1>what are we doing? Dom is gonna be? I would
<v Speaker 1>agree a massive babyface when they finally get the machine
<v Speaker 1>behind him. I'd agree Sammy's ain. I really enjoy his
<v Speaker 1>n ring, but I can't take the whining anymore. Let
<v Speaker 1>him win the championship for a bit and move on. Well,
<v Speaker 1>the whining, I think is what will ultimately turn him heel.
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to give him as a babyface the championship.
<v Speaker 1>I want him to continue to whine and complain and
<v Speaker 1>be annoying backstage, like a fly pestering Cody Rhodes. I
<v Speaker 1>don't want to just give them that belt until they're
<v Speaker 1>ready to turn them heel if that's the ultimate goal.
<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton has a face, He's always been a heel
<v Speaker 1>and he will always receive face treatment from fans. Needs
<v Speaker 1>to win fifteen. There's no chance of w WE fans
<v Speaker 1>totally booing Randy Orton. There's just it's not gonna happen.
<v Speaker 1>And they gave it a pretty good try this past
<v Speaker 1>well SmackDown tonight, they tried, and it's gonna it's you know,
<v Speaker 1>it's gonna be triple hard given the fact that they're
<v Speaker 1>in Saint Louis. But Randy Orton even tried to hammer
<v Speaker 1>the fans. That didn't work. The fans are just like
<v Speaker 1>they literally sat there and go, yeah whatever, sure, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>our city sucks, our team suck. Okay, fine whatever, I'm
<v Speaker 1>just gonna cheer you. That's the fans said. They said,
<v Speaker 1>screw your stuff. I know what you're trying to do.
<v Speaker 1>We're not gonna buy it. We're happy to be here.
<v Speaker 1>You're a legend in the business. You're still somehow wrestling
<v Speaker 1>better than you ever have. We're not gonna boo you
<v Speaker 1>because we understand the level of star that you are.
<v Speaker 1>And by the way, this is your hometown. So Randy
<v Speaker 1>Orton is in a tough spot and the company is too.
<v Speaker 1>If they are truly trying to turn Randy, it's gonna
<v Speaker 1>be a uphill struggle all the way and I don't
<v Speaker 1>think they'll ever reach the top. So yeah, good luck,
<v Speaker 1>Good luck Drew McIntyre. He needs to be champion and
<v Speaker 1>not get screwed over every time. We need at least
<v Speaker 1>one heel champion. I would agree, y'a. I'll pick a
<v Speaker 1>couple more here. You've got quite a few. Spend some
<v Speaker 1>time on this. My friend Seth Rollins said he was injured.
<v Speaker 1>He can be the catalyst for so many stories and
<v Speaker 1>can be matched with anyone. Obafemi monster face, Let him win,
<v Speaker 1>breaker isn't available because of injury. Let him fly. Well yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I mean Obafemi is a monster. Again. I have yet
<v Speaker 1>to really understand who and what Obafemi is. As kind
<v Speaker 1>of a new view you were of Obafemi, I didn't
<v Speaker 1>watch him in NXT, and I understand loosely the story
<v Speaker 1>of Brock and Obafem. Brock eliminated him from the Brumble.
<v Speaker 1>That's like literally it. Other than that, the majority has
<v Speaker 1>been built on I am big man, you big man.
<v Speaker 1>We fight. That's essentially been the logic because they haven't
<v Speaker 1>spoken at all, so that's it. It's kind of a
<v Speaker 1>caveman approach. I'm not saying it's a bad one, and
<v Speaker 1>I have people actually claiming I've seen some of the
<v Speaker 1>top streamers and podcasters saying that, oh, it's been the
<v Speaker 1>best build thus far. What are you talking about? Obafemi
<v Speaker 1>and brock Lester has been the best build? How you
<v Speaker 1>have Oba Femei coming out doing the strut to come
<v Speaker 1>out to as brock Lesers watching him. Oba Femi's coming
<v Speaker 1>out strutting. What think about? How all weird that is? Again,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not crapping on this program. I think they will deliver.
<v Speaker 1>I think they both will deliver in a big way
<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania, and Obra Femi should be the one to win.
<v Speaker 1>I I agree with all of that. But to say
<v Speaker 1>that the build of Obafemi brock Lesner has been superior
<v Speaker 1>in any way is just it's it's a fallacy. It's
<v Speaker 1>it's a fantasy too. It's not even how what build.
<v Speaker 1>They haven't done anything. They've just like they they've gotten
<v Speaker 1>physical pretty much right off the bat. That's it. They've
<v Speaker 1>explained nothing as to why we are attacking each other either,
<v Speaker 1>Like what's the story? Why do I hate you? Why
<v Speaker 1>do you hate me? Why? Yeah, that's it. So I'll
<v Speaker 1>pick one more because you've got a lot here. Let's
<v Speaker 1>see here. Oh okay, I'll pick Roman Reigns. I'll bite
<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns, met part timer, make him a Hall of Famer.
<v Speaker 1>He needs to acknowledge that it is his time. Well
<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't say it's his time. I mean Roman Reigns.
<v Speaker 1>If he wanted to go back full time, he could.
<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns has been doing this a hot minute now.
<v Speaker 1>He's smartened himself up to realizing Number one, his priorities
<v Speaker 1>are his family and that's great, good for him. And
<v Speaker 1>he's putting much more time on his body than you know,
<v Speaker 1>men and women did not too long ago when live
<v Speaker 1>events were six days a week and you know, you
<v Speaker 1>didn't get any time off. And now they're much more
<v Speaker 1>family friendly. The company is. And that's actually the one
<v Speaker 1>thing I will say for all the shit that I
<v Speaker 1>give t KO of their their greed and everything else,
<v Speaker 1>and it is just egregious. And you know they're they're
<v Speaker 1>arrogance to fans, thinking that the fans are going to
<v Speaker 1>just buy it, and unfortunately they buy shit up, which
<v Speaker 1>just emboldens TKO to continue to price things that that's
<v Speaker 1>the level they do because fans continue to buy it,
<v Speaker 1>which is again we need to stop buying stuff. But
<v Speaker 1>for all the crap I give them, they have been
<v Speaker 1>and I am pro this, they have been much more,
<v Speaker 1>were flexible with people taking time off the performers, taking
<v Speaker 1>time off the wrestlers, and being able to have a
<v Speaker 1>little bit more of a balance in your life. You know,
<v Speaker 1>it's not just all WWE all the time. I can
<v Speaker 1>appreciate that. That's cool. I like that for them, For
<v Speaker 1>the wrestlers, I really think that's a great change from
<v Speaker 1>the Vince McMahon era of pro wrestling. All Rightie, Eddie,
<v Speaker 1>thank you so much. My goodness, you spend so much
<v Speaker 1>time on this. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>pin this email because you've spent a lot of time out.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe I'll come back to it next week and talk
<v Speaker 1>about some more. You've got pretty much everybody on here,
<v Speaker 1>my goodness. Good for you, Eddie. All right, Brock and Obafemi,
<v Speaker 1>speaking of which, it's easy from Leeds, England, cool love.
<v Speaker 1>The show has always been listening for a few years.
<v Speaker 1>I just wanted to offer another point of view for
<v Speaker 1>Brock and Obafemi. I don't think Oba needs a reason
<v Speaker 1>for challenging Brock. Technically, Brock issued an open challenge and
<v Speaker 1>Oba answered, and why wouldn't he. He's trying to establish
<v Speaker 1>himself as a top strong guy in the business, and
<v Speaker 1>so of course he wants to accept Brock's offer. It's
<v Speaker 1>as simple as that. Also, his goofy walk, as you
<v Speaker 1>put it, I think was needed. You think it was
<v Speaker 1>okay When he came out, Brock was amped up, ready
<v Speaker 1>for a fight, looking angry, while Oba was just like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>look at me doing my thing. I'm not scared of you.
<v Speaker 1>You just stand and wait for me while I start
<v Speaker 1>to the ring. It sends the message that he's not
<v Speaker 1>scared of Brock, and it's almost cocky. It's not a
<v Speaker 1>personal feud for Oba, so he doesn't need to come
<v Speaker 1>out all guns blazing. He's just there to tell the
<v Speaker 1>world he thinks that he's capable of bringing down the beast.
<v Speaker 1>I think he's doing a great job of getting in
<v Speaker 1>Brock's head. Maybe that'll change and things will become more
<v Speaker 1>aggressive and personal as we get closer to WrestleMania. But
<v Speaker 1>for now, I think this is working perfectly. That's in
<v Speaker 1>my opinion. Anyway. Well, no, I think that's a fair
<v Speaker 1>it's a fair argument, and I understand what you're saying.
<v Speaker 1>Back to the walk, while Brock is all amped up,
<v Speaker 1>Oba family comes out and does his strut. I get
<v Speaker 1>your perspective. That's valid, But there really are two ways
<v Speaker 1>to look at it, and I don't Again, your way
<v Speaker 1>is not wrong. I don't think mine's wrong. Otherwise I
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't hold this thought right or hold his opinion. Be
<v Speaker 1>kind of silly to hold an opinion I think is wrong.
<v Speaker 1>But I think that for me looking at this Obafemi,
<v Speaker 1>it's almost like, hey, let me do my gimmick. I've
<v Speaker 1>got my give. It just took me out of the moment.
<v Speaker 1>It's almost like he went into entrance mode. You know
<v Speaker 1>what I mean? For me, I looked at as looked
<v Speaker 1>at it as Obafemi going entrance mode. I don't care
<v Speaker 1>who what is going on inside the ring. Let me
<v Speaker 1>just do my entrance. It doesn't feel organic, doesn't feel authentic,
<v Speaker 1>doesn't feel like a true sports simulation to me, do
<v Speaker 1>you know what I mean? That's how I again, that's
<v Speaker 1>how I want WWE to be presented, which does not
<v Speaker 1>align with the current viewpoint of pretty much anybody and
<v Speaker 1>d KO or a lot of the fans. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'm probably in a small percentage, but that's how I
<v Speaker 1>view that. It looked goofy. It did in my view,
<v Speaker 1>But again, if you look at it as oh, he
<v Speaker 1>was just trying to be cocky and I'm just going
<v Speaker 1>to do my thing and you don't affect me. Sure, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I can understand that. I can understand that. I just
<v Speaker 1>think that for me in a sports simulation environment, being
<v Speaker 1>if this were truly a competition, nobody would actually do that.
<v Speaker 1>If you're trying to make me believe that this is
<v Speaker 1>a real fight, which I hope is the goal, but
<v Speaker 1>I don't think it is anymore. Then that that took
<v Speaker 1>me totally out of the moment, and it just comes again.
<v Speaker 1>It comes down to what are your needs as a
<v Speaker 1>wrestling fan. We just have different ones, that's all. And
<v Speaker 1>as far as obam, we all agree obafem he has
<v Speaker 1>to win. He just has to you would think, thank
<v Speaker 1>you and thanks for listening. For so long is he
<v Speaker 1>and hope all is well over the pond there? All right,
<v Speaker 1>Let's let's go to Sam. Quick question, who or why
<v Speaker 1>do you think Orton has remained more relevant than Edge? Well,
<v Speaker 1>Orton's been consistently in WWE for the better part of
<v Speaker 1>what twenty five years versus Edge, who was forced to
<v Speaker 1>retire in twenty eleven, made a return in twenty twenty,
<v Speaker 1>and then you know, kind was off again, on again
<v Speaker 1>in ww until he went to AEW. So I mean,
<v Speaker 1>when you say relevant, you I'm guessing you probably mean
<v Speaker 1>in WWE or just overall, even overall, I would say
<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton's become been more relevant because he's been more consistent.
<v Speaker 1>Short answer there, All right, Okay, this is a see
<v Speaker 1>from Zachary, and I think this is the final email.
<v Speaker 1>I have another one, but it's it's kind of a
<v Speaker 1>follow up from last week. So let me just go
<v Speaker 1>to Zachary and we'll pretty much put a bow on tonight.
<v Speaker 1>Let's he says, uh, Hi, first, want to thank you
<v Speaker 1>for your unfiltered, blunt, honest reactions to the product that
<v Speaker 1>we are currently consuming. I love your sense of humor
<v Speaker 1>and willingness to call something for what it is. The
<v Speaker 1>kind of commentary is very rare in today's society, so
<v Speaker 1>it's a nice breath of fresh air listening to your show. Cool. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's I don't know why. There are so many podcasts,
<v Speaker 1>and there's a lot of good ones and ones that
<v Speaker 1>are much much bigger than mine. I'm not going to
<v Speaker 1>say here pretend mine's the most successful. It's not. It's not.
<v Speaker 1>It's difficult. It's a lot of grind, a lot of
<v Speaker 1>marketing which I don't I just simply don't have the
<v Speaker 1>time to do. And we're a small shop here now,
<v Speaker 1>so it's maybe we'll get there someday. But I've noticed
<v Speaker 1>that a lot of those bigger platforms they don't They
<v Speaker 1>just kind of deliver on the analysis of the storyline.
<v Speaker 1>They don't ever, they don't seemingly give their opinions in
<v Speaker 1>a strong way. They're almost too shy to take a
<v Speaker 1>stance on something. And it almost seems as if for
<v Speaker 1>a lot of them that they're almost working for the company.
<v Speaker 1>Now I know a lot of them aren't, but it
<v Speaker 1>almost comes across that way. The perception is that a
<v Speaker 1>lot of these big platforms are just they're very analytical
<v Speaker 1>and robotic. They don't seemingly humanize, like if you were
<v Speaker 1>to just talk to your friend, and maybe this is
<v Speaker 1>the way that I'm trying to create this show without
<v Speaker 1>even knowing it. If you were to just talk to
<v Speaker 1>your friend behind closed doors about wrestling, that's how I
<v Speaker 1>guess I've come across with this show. If I was
<v Speaker 1>to talk to a friend who loves wrestling about it
<v Speaker 1>and just give them my dead honest opinion with no audience,
<v Speaker 1>just that person, this is how I would talk about it,
<v Speaker 1>you know. And that's I think what makes this feel
<v Speaker 1>more like a breath of fresh air than a lot
<v Speaker 1>of these produced Very well done and very analytical, very intelligent.
<v Speaker 1>I gotta say a lot of them are very good.
<v Speaker 1>They are, and they're big for a reason, but they
<v Speaker 1>do lack that kind of human element of like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>well what do you really think? They'll give us your opinion,
<v Speaker 1>and a lot of them will just kind of cowtout
<v Speaker 1>at WWE. Maybe they have connections there, or they don't
<v Speaker 1>even give their opinion, they just kind of they're almost
<v Speaker 1>a commentator for the product themselves, if that makes sense.
<v Speaker 1>I started following WWE in twenty twenty, again right before
<v Speaker 1>the pandemic, and I have been watching shows semi consistently
<v Speaker 1>since then, mainly the PLS. I was fortunate enough to
<v Speaker 1>attend WrestleMania forty a couple years ago, and it was
<v Speaker 1>certainly the experience I'll never forget. Unfortunately, make many other fans.
<v Speaker 1>I feel that WE has lost its luster after that
<v Speaker 1>event and hasn't quite been the same since. Not to
<v Speaker 1>beat it at horse, but the weekly shows seem to
<v Speaker 1>all follow the same redundant structure. I used to love
<v Speaker 1>the anticipation and excitement of returning legends, but now it
<v Speaker 1>seems that the only purpose of their return is social
<v Speaker 1>media buzz and nothing more. Creatively, WWE can't even seem
<v Speaker 1>to decide on a consistent theme for WrestleMania graphics and material.
<v Speaker 1>That being said, I absolutely love Randy Orton. He's my
<v Speaker 1>favorite by a country mile, and has been since I
<v Speaker 1>started watching wrestling again. I literally jumped off my couch
<v Speaker 1>when he defeated Cody at Elimination Chamber and advanced to
<v Speaker 1>the main event WrestleMania. Fingers crossed. He wins number fifteen
<v Speaker 1>next month and gets one step closer to passing John Cena.
<v Speaker 1>I think the rock coming out with Randy. It's some
<v Speaker 1>sort of alliance and causing overpushed Cody to lose with
<v Speaker 1>be awesome and add some closure to that whole story.
<v Speaker 1>Sorry for the long email. I just wanted to say
<v Speaker 1>thank you and sharing my thoughts. Well, no, don't worry
<v Speaker 1>about it. Totally fine. It really wasn't that long, Zach.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you. So first of all, jealous you were able
<v Speaker 1>to go to Philly. That was a hell of a WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 1>I have to say that the finish to WrestleMania forty
<v Speaker 1>was certainly very good. I really I did like it
<v Speaker 1>a lot. But so many people are talking about the
<v Speaker 1>rest best ending the WrestleMania ever, Well, well, hold on,
<v Speaker 1>that covers a lot of ground for me. Again, you
<v Speaker 1>attending in person. Being there in person of course amps
<v Speaker 1>up how you view it, and it should right because
<v Speaker 1>you were there live to experience it. There's nothing like that.
<v Speaker 1>But I mean, I look at wrest I've been personally.
<v Speaker 1>I've seen every wrestle media since WrestleMania fourteen is where
<v Speaker 1>I really got into it, WrestleMania fourteen till now, so
<v Speaker 1>we're almost heading on thirty years and there's a lot
<v Speaker 1>of great moments ending WrestleMania probably the worst was last
<v Speaker 1>year the best one. I mean, I have to go
<v Speaker 1>back and look at how they ended a lot of them.
<v Speaker 1>But what about Stone Colds WrestleMania fifteen, Climbing the Mountain
<v Speaker 1>seventeen arguably one of the best WrestleManias of all time?
<v Speaker 1>In Houston nineteen it was was that. What did they
<v Speaker 1>end with in nineteen? Was it brock Lesner and Kurt
<v Speaker 1>Angle for the championship on the speed Championship. I think
<v Speaker 1>that was it because I know it didn't Triple h
<v Speaker 1>to Chris Jericho. I also fight I believe in that
<v Speaker 1>was the semi mean anyway, So I'm saying that covers
<v Speaker 1>a lot of ground for me. And WrestleMania has lost
<v Speaker 1>its luster. It has, you know why, because it's not
<v Speaker 1>about the wrestling anymore, and everybody gets a ticket to go,
<v Speaker 1>so it's it's no longer an exclusive club. It's everybody
<v Speaker 1>gets a ticket because you're on the team. And that
<v Speaker 1>should not be the case. And it won't ever reverse itself.
<v Speaker 1>It's become too big to do that. It's gonna eat itself.
<v Speaker 1>It's now about celebrities. We have people like and again logan.
<v Speaker 1>Paul is an exception here. He came from the YouTube
<v Speaker 1>and vine for those old enough remember that app community,
<v Speaker 1>and he's grown a hell of an audience. But he's actually,
<v Speaker 1>you know, a next level athlete. He's incredible. But you're
<v Speaker 1>getting people from crossover. Now you're getting I Show speed
<v Speaker 1>Jake Paul kind of dipped his toe in for a
<v Speaker 1>little bit. You've had NFL player Pat McAfee, for God's sakes,
<v Speaker 1>is here because of that. You've had oh god, celebrities
<v Speaker 1>from Shack getting involved in matches, remember Snookie getting involved.
<v Speaker 1>So there's been an evolution of celebrities, you know, kind
<v Speaker 1>of injecting themselves as a core part of WrestleMania, and
<v Speaker 1>some of them end up being full time wrestlers. So
<v Speaker 1>it's a different product, and it's I don't like how
<v Speaker 1>everyone gets a jersey as a fan. Everybody in the
<v Speaker 1>locker room would disagree with me, probably because that would
<v Speaker 1>mean they're you know, they don't get featured on the
<v Speaker 1>show and that could affect their payout all the rest.
<v Speaker 1>And they want to be a part of WrestleMania. I
<v Speaker 1>get that, But you know what makes me people better,
<v Speaker 1>I think, is to make it competitive instead of just
<v Speaker 1>oh you're not on WrestleMania, all right, we'll find something
<v Speaker 1>for you. And not everybody gets included. But my point
<v Speaker 1>is it's expanding and expanding and expanding into places that
<v Speaker 1>I don't think it needs to. But it thinks that
<v Speaker 1>bigger is better, and I don't think it is. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>you have, you know, the camera panning into the crowd
<v Speaker 1>half of the show, you know, pointing out the different celebrities,
<v Speaker 1>you know, Adam Sandler, Hell, Jelly Roll's going to have
<v Speaker 1>a match. You know, you get all these celebrities in there,
<v Speaker 1>and it becomes less about the wrestling and much more
<v Speaker 1>about the pomp and circumstance surrounding it. It's a lot of,
<v Speaker 1>as Jim Ross would say, a lot of sizzle and
<v Speaker 1>less and less steak. So I would agree that the
<v Speaker 1>lore of WrestleMania has really started to come down steadily.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, not that the matches were ever really horrible.
<v Speaker 1>You don't ever have terrible matches per se. It's rare
<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania to have a horrible match. It's just that
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't have the feeling it did because what they're
<v Speaker 1>focusing on is not the wrestling anymore, if that makes sense.
<v Speaker 1>I know it's called WrestleMania, but it's becoming less and
<v Speaker 1>less about wrestling, all right, thank you so much. Jack.
<v Speaker 1>One last quick emaunt and this is from Curtis. He said,
<v Speaker 1>I wanted to just Matt. I wanted you to see
<v Speaker 1>this for yourself and show you some shirt prices that
<v Speaker 1>we're talking about, just so you can actually see it.
<v Speaker 1>This is horrible. I haven't bought a w shirt since
<v Speaker 1>twenty nineteen because it's just not worth it. Well, let
<v Speaker 1>me open your attachments here. Hopefully they're not viruses. I'm
<v Speaker 1>taking a chance. Yeah, this is ridiculous. All right. So
<v Speaker 1>you took a screenshot here and this is Canada, right,
<v Speaker 1>it's Canada for Canadian prices. Okay, so let me look
<v Speaker 1>at this. For a white men's John Cena WrestleMania there
<v Speaker 1>and back shirt seventy dollars. For a women's black John
<v Speaker 1>Cena Farewell T shirt and Las Vegas shirt forty nine dollars.
<v Speaker 1>Oh my god, let's see you also have this is
<v Speaker 1>just stupid. A men's cream colored Undertaker crossbone hoodie. What
<v Speaker 1>would you guess that is probably like what fifty no, no,
<v Speaker 1>no eighty four dollars. Oh it's ship's free. Well, I
<v Speaker 1>fucking hope so yeah, I hope it. I hope it.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe I hope it ships itself and puts itself on
<v Speaker 1>my body for eighty four dollars. Holy shit. And then
<v Speaker 1>a Men's Antisocial Club WWE black Undertaker shirt seventy seven dollars.
<v Speaker 1>Is this for real? Again? T shirts should be mandated
<v Speaker 1>by law at twenty five dollars. Do you want to
<v Speaker 1>go to a hoodie? You can go thirty five. I
<v Speaker 1>would even accept forty bucks for a hoodie, but no more.
<v Speaker 1>That should be by law forever, in perpetuity. I mean
<v Speaker 1>this is ridiculous. I mean here, here's what we do.
<v Speaker 1>Guys again. You want to see these prices come down?
<v Speaker 1>Don't buy it. Don't buy it. Oh god, I'm scared
<v Speaker 1>to open your last attachment. I really am. I don't
<v Speaker 1>know if I can see it. Oh my god. How
<v Speaker 1>about a men's black Triple H Civil Regime Iron Discipline
<v Speaker 1>or sorry discipline disciple boxy T shirt? If you're wonder
<v Speaker 1>what that is. It's just kind of a little bit
<v Speaker 1>of an odd shaped T shirt, is what it says.
<v Speaker 1>It is. It's kind of boxy with a triple H logo,
<v Speaker 1>specialized triple H logo. You want to just take a
<v Speaker 1>gander how much that is? Ninety one dollars. The boxy
<v Speaker 1>T shirt is more than the goddamn sweatshirt. It has
<v Speaker 1>less material and costs more. This is insane. I don't
<v Speaker 1>even know, like how to why people are buying this
<v Speaker 1>stuff is beyond me. I mean, of course, I can't
<v Speaker 1>regulate what people do with their money. But the way
<v Speaker 1>that you make the biggest impact is not by complaining
<v Speaker 1>on social media. I'll send a tweet to WWE. I'll
<v Speaker 1>show them, no, here's what you do. It's actually silence
<v Speaker 1>by not purchasing anything, and we have to do that
<v Speaker 1>in mass. Of course, that will get their attention, especially TKO,
<v Speaker 1>who is the most outwardly transparent, transparently money hungry company
<v Speaker 1>that I've seen in my lifetime. That will certainly get
<v Speaker 1>their attention. So I'll leave it there. Thank you everybody
<v Speaker 1>for joining me here. I just I want to quickly
<v Speaker 1>scan because those of you on Patreon, I don't want
<v Speaker 1>to miss if you sent me a message while as
<v Speaker 1>a recording this or something like that. So I'm going
<v Speaker 1>to just take a quick look by the way. You
<v Speaker 1>can message me directly in Patreon if you're interested. Nope, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>we're clear there. Good, so then I will leave it there.
<v Speaker 1>If you guys want to join me on Patreon, you
<v Speaker 1>can do that at patreon dot com, slash WWE podcast
<v Speaker 1>or go to Spotify, Apple, everywhere that you can get
<v Speaker 1>your podcasts and give us a five star rating and
<v Speaker 1>review it. And again, I hope that you guys made
<v Speaker 1>it this far. I know this. Hey, there's a lot
<v Speaker 1>of animal lovers out there, and this is not me
<v Speaker 1>attacking animals. It's just being logical with my approach and
<v Speaker 1>just using reason here that we can now bring up
<v Speaker 1>dead people all we want, including Reed's son who overdosed.
<v Speaker 1>We can bring that up on television. But a dead
<v Speaker 1>pet is off limits according to Drew McIntyre. I mean
<v Speaker 1>that's just that that makes no sense to me. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>for me, nothing's off limits in wrestling. I mean, you
<v Speaker 1>want to further an angle, let's do it, you know,
<v Speaker 1>all right, I'll leave it there, Thanks everybody, and we'll
<v Speaker 1>be chatting in a couple days for the Week in Review.
<v Speaker 2>Take care, Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't
<v Speaker 2>forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you
<v Speaker 2>don't miss a show, or head to wwepodcast dot com
<v Speaker 2>and for all of these shows ad free, head over
<v Speaker 2>to Patreon dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then, we'll
<v Speaker 2>see you next time.