WWE SmackDown Review: Orton vs Solo, LA Knight vs AJ Styles, Top 5 Royal Rumble Dark-Horses

This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the WWE podcast show,
the one that everybody wants me tell you stand for me sixteen So I just
use your ass. This is my y. You can acknowledge me. What's
going on? Everybody, Guys and girls, Welcome back to another edition of
the SmackDown Review right here on the ww podcast. As always, I'm one
of the hosts of the show, Michael Ritter. You can find me on
x and Michael five Ritter on Instagram at Michael Ritter five and also one of
the hosts of The Football Function podcast, available on all of your podcasting platforms.
Get over to the Football Function if you are a football fan. We're
getting right into the thick of the playoff tournament obviously, were about to start
Division Round as we speak. I'm about an hour away from the first Divisional
round game. I watched SmackDown a little bit ago, got all of my
I guess notes taken, and I am ready to rock here to bring you
this SmackDown Review before any games get started. But if you are a football
fan, I would highly recommend going over to The Football Function, subscribing and
becoming a certified funky over there. I definitely appreciate it and would welcome you
to the Football Function family. However, this episode of SmackDown that we're going
to be talking about, I'm a pretty big fan of it. Got to
be honest, especially the Kevin Owen show. I felt like that didn't feel
like an episode of SmackDown. I don't know if the ring was set up
differently than a normal KO show. I noticed there were no chairs, no
decorations outside of the little posters that have the logo and the KO show,
so it seemed a little bit different. I don't really know. Maybe it
was just the star power of Logan Paul being there along with someone who I
really respect, no One. So it was just a really good segment.
There was a lot of other good things that happened throughout the show. Obviously,
we're going to get there in good time. First things first, got
to give a shout out to DJ Cuzmo for providing the location breakdown per usual,
and this episode aired from a place that is very close to home,
not geographically but emotionally, I guess, just you know, a place that's
close to the heart, so to speak. It aired from Atlanta, Georgia
and the State Farm Arena formerly known as the Phillips Arena. First time I
ever went to Atlanta, it was still the Phillips Arena, and this is
just a beautiful facility. They showed the outside view of it, how it
literally says Atlanta on the outside of the stadium, just in like huge metal
letters. They showed a skyline over the city. It's just a beautiful city
altogether. But this specific arena I have been to is a very very nice
setup. You could tell that they remodeled it not that long. It's very
modern for how long it's been up. The time I went there was for
an Atlanta Hawks versus Detroit Pistons game, and believe it or not, Henry
Elson, who I don't even know if he's still in the NBA, he
wasn't into the bench guy. He didn't even come into the game that specific
season or that specific game whenever we went and watched the Hawks and the Pistons
that season. But long story short, we went to Zaxby's, which is
a chicken finger, chicken wing type of place in Atlanta or just in the
South in general. It's extremely good. I love that place. I actually
just got it in Oklahoma City not that long ago, whenever I went there
for the Boston Celtics game. So back to the story. I was there
at Zaxby's. This was like twenty I want to say, twenty fifteen,
twenty sixteen, somewhere around there in that timeframe, and literally there were just
two Detroit Pistons players. It was pretty obvious they were players because how tall
they were, the gear that they were wearing. We just asked them,
Hey, are you guys on the team, and sure enough they're like,
yeah, we are. We said awesome. You know, I'm not a
Pistons or Hawks fan, so I wasn't going to fangirl out or anything like
that and just be completely honest, I didn't know who they were at the
time, so I was thought it was pretty cool that we just ran into
NBA players. But the main thing that I was talking to them about was
the fact that two Chains was performing that night after the game, and because
they were the road team, obviously they're not gonna stay and perform. But
I was just curious if they were aware that two Chains was going to be
in the facility. They're like, oh, that's right, he is doing
that. Huh. Like, it was just a cool casual conversation with him
with two professional basketball players, and of course we go. We have great
seats that night. It was a phenomenal game because, like I said,
I don't have a I don't have a horse in the race. I'm not
a Hawks fan. I didn't care if they won or lost. I know.
It was my first ever NBA game to attend, and I've only been
to three in my entire life, so definitely one of the more fun things
to do. You guys know, if you're a loyal listener to this show,
I go to professional games, specifically Falcons games, every single seas,
but the Celtics I just got to watch them play for the very first time
this month in January of twenty twenty four, the second right when the year
started. So that's that's a pretty good bucket list thing, I will say,
and I'm looking forward to going to more games. In fact, the
next thing that I'm doing, actually that I'm pretty sure is going to happen,
is I'm going today Monday Night Raw in San Antonio on March the fourth.
So if any of you are in San Antonio or any of you are
you know, in the area, that are going to be going to that
let me know for sure, because obviously that's a phenomenal city. I've been
there a few times, gone to a couple of rold Rumbles there. I'm
definitely probably going to go back for the Monday Night Raw that's going to be
there. Because now I live with a six year old who absolutely loves wrestling,
and you guys know, especially if you have you know, children or
younger siblings, that you see that fandom in a really young kid, like,
you know, the wrestling is still like Santa Claus to them, you
know, like they still are being used to it. For the very first
time, he's never seen a WrestleMania and he's going to watch his first WrestleMania
this year. And this Monday Night Raw that we're going to go to is
going to be on the road to WrestleMania, so you expect it to be
a pretty big one. Obviously with some of the people who were on Monday
Night Raw. I'm excited for this as a thirty year old, so I
can only imagine how excited he's going to be, and it just kind of
sets the stage for him attending wrestling shows of his own, you know,
growing up. The first time I went to a wrestling show was like nineteen
ninety nine here in Amrollo at the Civic Center, which I've gone to wrestling
events there literally as recent as June twenty twenty two, but I go there
anytime WWE shows up, But this was actually a WCW show. I got
to touch Sting was the biggest highlight of my life up up until like I
don't even know, probably like eighth grade or something like that, whenever something
else cool happened, but getting a chance to touch him, and I remember
the main event was Diamond Dallas Page versus Booker t for the World Heavyweight Championship.
Obviously T one, but it was a it was a fun night.
Man. I'm just you know, going back a little bit remembering that time,
and you know, I'm hoping that he will because I was born in
nineteen ninety three, so I was riding around six years old whenever I went
to my first wrestling show, could have been five, I know that was
in that time frame, and that's like literally how old he is right now.
So I'm looking forward to being the one who takes him to that event,
and obviously, you know, hoping that he has a great time,
as good of a time as I had, because you know, this isn't
a house show. That show that I went to in nineteen ninety nine was
just you know, a live event. The one that I'm going to be
taking him to is an actual Monday night raw on the road to WrestleMania forty,
which is just extremely huge, a monumental WrestleMania. I wish I was
going to this. I'm extremely jealous of all of you who are going to
this event, specifically Howard Poole, because you know, Howard's come on the
football function a lot, and it's going to be in his home state of
Pennsylvania. So you know, the last time WrestleMania was in my home state
in Dallas, the WrestleMania thirty eight. I went, and it was the
first WrestleMania, probably the only WrestleMania that I'll go to. So I can
only imagine, you know, getting a chance to go to WrestleMania forty with
this roster that's here at your disposal and all the good storylines that are happening
WrestleMania. WrestleMania any year that you go, it's you know, one of
the biggest moments probably of any type of wrestling fans live, why wouldn't it
be, But going to a WrestleMania like WrestleMania forty, gotta say, man,
I'm definitely jealous of all you. But nonetheless, we have a SmackDown
and many other smackdowns to cover before we actually get to WrestleMania. So let's
go ahead and talk about this one, the one that aired on January nineteenth,
twenty twenty four, from Atlanta, Georgia and the State Farm Arena.
But before we do that, I do want to plug. At the very
end of the show, we are going to continue the stacking WEP Saturday trend.
Just for those of you who aren't aware anytime that I record this episode
on Saturday instead of Friday, I pretty much like to give the listeners a
little bit of a and that's a Stack Him Up Saturday, which is a
top five, a random ranking of various different things this week, in particular,
just in spirit of the Royal Rumble, and because it's Royal Rumble season.
It's actually a week from today as I'm recording this, We're going to
do the top five dark horses to win the Royal Rumble this year. Both
men and women, and I'm not gonna give you two different lists. There's
going to be some women some men sprinkled in. But long story short,
this isn't going to be the layups. This isn't going to be the people
who you know it's obvious, Okay, there's a good chance that person is
gonna win the Royal Rumble. These are people who I know it's not likely.
That's the reason why they're called a dark horse, but I do think
that they do have a greater than zero percent chance to win the Royal Rumble.
And WWE has shocked me many many times. Usually, I mean anytime
that there's a very predictable Royal Rumble winner, which you could argue last year
in San Antonio, whenever Cody Roads won, that was pretty predictable as soon
as it was revealed that he was coming out thirty, like, oh man
toy Roase is coming out at thirty. Yeah, he's definitely about to win
this Royal Rumble. I think that they might go the opposite route this year,
might be a little bit less predictable. That's why I feel like it's
necessary to have this stack him up Saturday be Royal Rumble themed and speaking of
it being Saturday, one of the benefits to recording this episode on Saturday is
there are, I guess, more sources that you can look at. There's
you know, more content that you could search and you know, get opinions
on things. As far as what happened on SmackDown, it's not so fresh
out the oven that it's still you know, you haven't even had enough time
to process it because SmackDown has been already over for I don't know, like
thirteen or fourteen hours. It's had some time to marinate, and I've been
able to surf the web before coming on here and hitting the record button.
So let's go ahead and get into this bad boy, shall we. And
you know, speaking of surfing the web, as you guys know, I
really like looking at what CBS Sports has to say about it, not only
wrestling but pretty much everything. I look at CBS Sports for their mock drafts.
They have people who cover college football or the NFL and just I guess
the draft process, so to speak. So anytime it's mock draft season,
you just go to CBS Sports and you're gonna find various different writers who are
putting together their own first round second round, three round mock drafts, and
it's pretty much the same thing for wrestling. You know, like if you
go on there for pay per view picks, you'll see who many of the
different writers and the contributors for that website are picking to win each match,
and it's very insightful. And the same thing with SmackDown. You know,
I've noticed that Shaquille Majory, that's the one person you guys have known.
I've quoted him many times on this show. I feel like he is someone
who's a reliable source, and I absolutely wanted to read something from him just
about you know, the main event picture. I'm not going to give his
opinions on the entire show of SmackDown, but I did want to read what
he said about, you know, the Roman Reign, Soul so Cola,
just the whole main event picture and what happened on SmackDown, because I feel
like it's not only a good chronological series of events, but it also just
gives good detail as to what happened on the show because you know, the
quotes really aren't there, because I mean it's like I've kind of peeled back
a little bit on my SmackDown review You guys really don't need to hear word
for word what was said on SmackDown. As long as you know the bullet
points what happened and get our analysis of it, you know, it's up
to you to form your own thoughts. Most likely you did watch SmackDown,
but there's usually a couple, you know, a couple segments in every single
show that I'm like, hey, if you didn't watch SmackDown, go back
and watch this one because of me as the person who covers this, you
know, the show for the WW podcast. I take pride in watching SmackDown
every week. Is some segments I'll watch three or four times just because you
know, I want to for sure be able to know exactly what happened.
What I need to make sure gets you know, articulated and I guess transferred
down the line to you. Just in case you didn't watch SmackDown. I
have to make sure that whatever segments are juicy enough, you can go to
YouTube or whatever and make sure that you you catch up. So I do
want to read one of Shaquille's paragraphs here and what he said about you know,
just Randy Orton and Roman Reigns and pretty much things that happened towards the
end of SmackDown. Rains told Jimmy Usso and Solo Sokoa backstage that he was
there tonight because they failed to deal with his title challengers last week, so
CoA said he'd solve the problems tonight. SmackDown General manager Nick All. This
kicked off SmackDown with the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship contract signing. Just really quickly
pause, tell me that's not too damn long to read. With the Undisputed
WWE Universal Championship contract signing, Like come on, man, let's let's undisputed
Championship that's perfect right there, or WW Championship or Universal. They're literally combining
three different belts. The Undisputed Championship was once the title, the WW Championship
was one of the title, and the Universal Championship was once a title.
So the fact that they're combining them all to three, like, let's just
let's get one name for this, it's a little bit redundant to continue saying
all this stuff over and over again. But nonetheless, back to what Shaquille
said here. Styles was introduced first and signed the contract. Knight entered next
and jotted his signature. Orton was the final challenger to put pen to paper.
Unfortunately, Rains did not follow the script. The Champion's theme song blaired
to the arena, but the Special Council Paul Hayman, stood alone at the
entrance. Hayman said that Rains would not sign the contract because their attorney has
yet to look over it. All this threatened to book a triple threat match
for the vacant undisputed WWE Universal Championship if Rains refused to sign. Hayman's ripped
all this for doing a mediocre job as general manager. Hayman said the Board
of Directors would never strip Roman reigns and that the Tribal chief runs the show.
Hayman demanded that Rains defend his title in a one on one match instead.
That led to an intense verbal altercation between Knight and Styles, both of
whom felt entitled to a singles match with Rains. A fight broke out as
ww officials separated the two. Styles later demanded a one on one match with
Knight I Guess that same episode of SmackDown, and then Nick Allus agreed to
book it. Deeper into the show, Rains berated USO for having too much
fun and failing to defend the bloodline's name. So CoA took responsibility for the
group's shortcomings, specifically last week against night Orton and Styles in that three on
two is supposed to be a three on three match. So CoA said that
as the quote unquote tribal hair, you guys know me h ei R.
I didn't want to make sure you guys know exactly the term hair that I'm
using. Their air is how it's pronounced. Actually, the heir to the
throne, the tribal air. It was on him to fix things. Styles
ran into his OC compatriots Gallows informed aj Styles that they would still have his
back despite a lack of communication between the group in recent months. So you
guys already know this pretty much sets up a pretty good way to close the
show, because I was looking at what I already knew was going to happen
on this episode of SmackDown, which you know for sure, the main point
that I was coming into this now on ooh, you know, I'm getting
my popcorn ready for that segment was the logan Paul on the Kevin Owen Show.
So I already knew that was going to be a pretty big focal point
of the show. But this right here kind of solidified because we were also
told that we were getting Rido Yorton versus Solo to COVID tonight. So after
this whole brawl took place, and you know, we saw I just Ales
go backstage and talk to Nick all this eventually get that match booked between L.
A. Knight and A Just Styles. The name is a lot of
names going through my head right now. That told me that we were going
to get not one, but two main event quality matches on this episode of
SmackDown. And that's why I feel like this was, you know, another
home run show because what they were able to deliver and the characters that were
all to our or I guess at our disposal, the Roman reigns. He
did used to live in Atlanta. He went to Georgia Tech University, played
football at Georgia Tech. So the city itself, I mean, for all
we know, he may have a home there. I mean, it's a
very popular destination. It's a tourist destination. A lot of people are transplants,
you know, they come there from New York and California and all other
states and even Texas. A lot of people go to Georgia and specifically Atlanta
and that whole metroplex just to further their career. You know, it's mini
Hollywood at this point. They shoot movies there. The Hartsville Jackson International Airport
is literally the busiest airport in the world. That's not an exaggeration that that's
not hyperbolic, that's legitimate. It's for sure the busiest in the United States.
But you could almost I mean, I could almost guarantee that the stat
that I saw at least as of as recent as like twenty twenty three,
maybe twenty twenty two, Hartsville Jackson was, you know, the busiest airport
for sure that I've ever been to, but even in the entire world,
And that's crazy to think about, but you know, I believe it.
You have to ride a train just to go from your gate to the rental
car station. The baggage claim like you have to legitimately ride like a skytrain,
and then you're riding the plane train and they both go pretty damn fast.
Just you know, just kind of getting that out there, but look
it up, Google it. I could be wrong, but I do,
you know, I feel like if you were to google it. Not being
familiar with that airport, you'll come away think in Holy hell, I'm so
glad that I've never been inside of that hell hole. But anyway, it's
continuing on here. Let's get back to the SmackDown review. Speaking of the
La Night versus AJ Styles match, La Knight did get the win over AJ
Styles, but it wasn't one two three. It was because of just qualification.
So the Wind actually felt like a loss because he got a Samoan Spike
Solosakoa showed up Jimmy usso, you know, came down the ramp as well.
The Bloodline specifically, you know, not Roman Rains, the other two
members of the blood Line. They just like to stick their noses in the
other challengers business. They like to stick their noses just where the you know,
where it doesn't belong. And they really like to sticky up the sticky
up the situation, muddy up the water, or so to speak. And
that's exactly what happened here because you know, the brawl breaks out, Solo
beats the hell out of boats On Samoea, and Spike wipes out AJ Styles.
On the outside of the ring, two picks up the microphone says,
that's two down, one more to go, and like, you guys already
know, we already knew that we were getting a Solo so CoA versus Randy
Orton match for the main event. So he says, Randy Orton gets your
ass out here right now, and that's whenever we get the one on one
match between Randy Orton and Solo Soca. And this one was a pretty good
match, despite not lasting very long, it was a good match. But
you know, Solo so CoA, he's not going to win these matches anymore.
Ever since Cody Rhodes beat him, the floodgates seem to be opening,
and now these specific matches when he whenever soloz Co was main eventing against the
next challenger for Roman reigns, he's never able to get the job done.
And you know, it just so happens that that's what happens this night as
well. He gets an RKO from Randy Orton. But he's not the only
one that gets an RKO. You know, we do see aj styles,
we see la night. They both eat an RKO and then Roman Rains comes
out of nowhere, gets a Superman lunch on Randy Jordon. He signs the
contract for the Fatal four way that he didn't sign earlier in the show,
remember that, and instead of handing it to Nick all this, he just
drops it on the floor, the ultimate disrespectful move that you could possibly do.
And he's going for the spear on Randy Orton, but he runs right
into an RKO. So Randy Orton hit so many rkos tonight or last night,
I guess, just whenever I watch the show was today, So he
hit so many rkos on this episode of SmackDown. I know that Atlanta was
absolutely loving that they were chanting Randy Orton's name multiple times during the show,
and the fact that he was able to be the one standing tall over everybody
else seems fitting. It seems like the right thing to do. In fact,
you know, in a fatal four way match, technically all of the
challengers are on an even playing field, but it does seem like Randy Orton
is just a little bit higher. Maybe it's because he hasn't lost the Roman
reigns yet in a one on one situation, so that does kind of give
him a little bit more credibility in this specific match. I think that he's
going to be the one that has I guess, the biggest push in the
match. You know, he's the one that's going on in actual run,
He's gonna swing momentum. There's gonna be spots in the match where you think,
damn is rand you aren't actually going to pull this off. And I
do think that that matters at this point. But unfortunately, we all know
what's going to happen in that fatal four way match. We don't know how
it's going to happen, but we know that Roman Reigns is going to leave
that match as the Universal Champion, and it's not the wrong thing to do.
Like we've said, I mean, this isn't me, you know,
don't let the tone fool you. I know that it's not an exciting finish
because we already know what's going to happen. Yeah, we don't know how
it's going to happen, but still it's It doesn't take away from the fact
that it kind of waters it down a little bit, makes it less enjoyable.
But I just I mean, just because I'm not going to enjoy a
predictable finish doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do at this point in
the calendar. We're at the Royal rumble. You fumbling the bag by having
Roman Reigns lose makes about as much sense as Nick all this try to pitch
ending this history making title reign by stripping the title, by stripping Roman reigns
for not signing a contract. We're like, yeah, we're going to end
this historic What is it like two or twelve hundred days something like that.
Man, it's been a long time. I don't even know for sure.
I probably sold him short a little bit, but well over one thousand,
obviously, I mean I had it right in front of him, because he
did pass Bruno San Martino's second longest title reign. He's officially like in the
top four now or top five, I don't know exactly which one it is,
but Bruno San Martino obviously twenty eight hundred and three days at the very
top, and he had another title reign that was pretty damn long too,
and Roman Reigns just passed that one. So he's working his way up,
you know, still got a little bit of ways to go before he passes
whole Cogain And who's the other one, man, there's one more guys that's
ahead of Roman reigns. I apologize. I saw it on Twitter. It's
not like I've screenshot at it and planned on bringing it up on the show.
Just casually came up and I don't remember, So don't come for me
for the know. Those those perfectionists, you know, the ones who want
to make sure that the SmackDown review gets all their facts right and there is
absolutely no questions left asked by the time the show is over, no stone
left unturned, so to speak. But let's move on to some of the
other things that happened here on this episode of SmackDown. We'll start off with
Legato del Fantasma, Santos Escobar, Angel Garza and Humberto Korea versus l WO
Carlito, Joaquim Wilde and Cruise del Toro. LDF got the win via pinfall,
so I mean, and it was obviously, you know, it was
a roll up. It wasn't like a nice finish to this match. It
was a nice cheap finish if you're a heel. But one thing I will
say, just some quick things that came to my mind as I was watching
this. LDF is back, and I do feel like they're better than ever
just because the additions of Humberto Carrillo and Angel Garza. I feel like it
makes the faction a lot stronger than Joaquin and Cruse Delterro just being completely honest,
and that's not a you know, it's not supposed to be a shot
at Cruise and Joaquin. They're just doing what they gotta do. But just
from an objective viewers perspective, some of the you know, the definition of
a non needle mover, like, I do not know how you can get
behind these guys. They absolutely have nothing to them as far as like character
wise, and that's ww's fault two. You know. It's it's not like
they could just take a microphone and go into business for themselves and explain what
their mission is and who they are, who they're supposed to represent, all
that good stuff. But it seems like they're just so Vanilla, Like it's
almost a you know, it's almost a discredit to the actual flavor of Vanilla
because they're even worse than Vanilla. I've never been able to really get behind
them, and I just think that where LDF was whenever they were in the
group kind of hit their ceiling. But now whenever you throw this group in
front of me. I feel like there is still some juice left to be
squeezed, and I feel like there is still some development that could happen with
these guys character wise, and I feel like we're going to get a little
bit further into telling their story and watching them, you know, rek havoc
over other groups specifically and starting out with the LWO, and then we'll see
them just continue on to do that. Eventually they'll feed with other people.
But what I'm trying to say is it's a night and day difference, and
I think that this is what Santos needed. And you mark my words,
this faction right here. You know that we already did our stock investment draft.
But it wouldn't shock me if by the time we get to twenty twenty
five, LDF has one of the biggest years behind them being twenty twenty four,
and even if they don't capture the Tag Team Gold, they cement themselves
as a household name. Whenever you're talking about factions, current factions in the
WWE, And speaking of factions, we got a little bit of like a
dueling promo battle here. It wasn't at the same time, but Bobby Lashley
in the Street Profits. They could a promo on the Final Testament, just
pretty much letting them know like, hey, don't get it twisted. We're
not the you know, the laughing happy street profits that we once were.
We're the Triple Crown tag team. That's when you know, the NXT tag
team goal, the raw and the smack Down. Like not a lot of
tag teams have done that, and just remember that before you go picking a
fight with us, because we can take care of business. You know,
I think there as a tag teams speaking directly at the authors of Pain,
and then the Final Testament, they had their own little vignette teasing a match
with Lashly in the Street Profits next week on SmackDown, So you know we're
going to get that, likely going to be a six man tag and yeah,
sign me up for that because now we're going to see more of this
group. And my I'm putting my uh, you know, if we were
in Vegas at the casino, I'm putting my chips behind the Final Testament.
I just think that they got a little bit more juice right now than what
the what Lashley and his team have. So give me the Final Testament,
that whole group, that whole little faction that they have, because I've already
talked about it, they cover a lot of ground. They don't have a
mid card male wrestler there. That's one thing I noticed, Like there's no
like, there's no wrestler there that can go for like the United States Championship,
unless that's where you see Carrying Cross, in which case they don't have
a top guy. But I think Carrying Cross is only one of those He
only fills one of those holes. You can't have him as your top guy
and your mid card guy. So yeah, they have the in my eyes,
they have the top guy. They have the tag team, they have
the eye candy and the mouthpiece or just that coach, that person in their
corner who's doing more behind the scenes rather than actually at ringside and you know,
cutting promos and things like that. Just his presence alone adds to the
group. I think that we're just sitting here someone who would fit perfectly in
there. I mean, did he get kicked out of the Judgment day?
Why not? JD McDonough. That seems like someone who could maybe join that
group looking for a place to permanently all home. He just got kicked out
of one faction now he's looking for a new group of people come over to
smack Down. That could be an avenue. But if you're not going that
direction, off the top of my head, it's it's kind of tough maybe
because look, look at what happened. Obviously, Butch is no more.
Pete Dunn is now the mainstay for that character. Like he's by his self.
He's the bruiser weight again, so we don't need to worry about him
being in the brawling brutes. But that leaves Ridge Holland, who's technically like
a free agent. Now then right, you add him, he's already on
SmackDown. Technically you could add Ridge Holland to the Final Testament and then you
get more beef as well as getting that mid card champion or that mid card
contender there, and it just makes your faction stronger in general. So that's
just a little bit of a suggestion there. But speaking of Pete Dunn,
him and Tyler Bait, they get a win over pretty after Dune hit Prince
with a bitter end and this was just a welcome back party for Butch.
He saw it in his eyes. The crowd popped, the graphics were there
on the jumbo tron. You heard Corey Graves talking about it. This is
just a win for everybody. And like I was talking about last week,
that's how I was introduced to Pete Dunn, and I think that he's just
more comfortable here. He's still doing a good job as Butch. But that's
just a credit to him. You can be a great pass rusher and go
play a little bit of off ball linebacker and still thrive. It doesn't mean
you're not still a way better pass rusher. Just go look at Micah Parsons.
That's kind of like Pete done. Just because he can do butch doesn't
mean you put him their long term. You put him where he's going to
thrive and where he's going to be the best version of himself, and that
is as Pete Dunn just being himself. This takes us to Logan Paul being
a guest on the Kevin Owens Show, and this was probably my favorite part
of the entire show. You could tell that Kevin Owens immediately was kind of
reluctant to bring out Logan Paul. He was like, man, I can't
if I've been saying this, Please welcome Logan Paul to the Kevin Owen show
and he comes out, and you know, Logan Paul pretty much immediately says
like, Hey, you don't like that I'm here in WWE. The crowd
doesn't like that I'm here in WWE, But there's only one person to blame
and it's not me, pretty much, telling Kevin Owens to look in the
mirror. And then they showed the video package from WrestleMania back in twenty twenty
one, just like three short years ago, and Kevin Owens hit him in
Tampa, Florida with a stunner at WrestleMania and that was his first ever WrestleMania
appearance. A year later, he's teaming up with the Miz taking on the
Mysterios. I was there for that one last year Logan Paul at WrestleMania.
What did he do? He had a match? Right, gosh, I
don't know why it's slipping me and I know people are probably yelling right now,
thinking I'm an idiot for not remembering off the top of my head,
and I apologize, but I cannot remember what Logan Paul did at WrestleMania last
year. Was he injured? Oh gosh, that's going to bother the hell
out of me. But either way, he's going to have a match at
WrestleMania this year, probably as the United States Champion. I could see him
losing it there at WrestleMania. It just makes a lot of sense, right,
Like have him win this card or win at this card, I should
say at the Royal Rumble to find that championship and then go on to WrestleMania's
it's his first WrestleMania holding a championship, and we don't need him to win.
Him going into Mania as the champion is going to be enough enough to
put him over. And you know, I would definitely look forward to to
see in Logan Paul on the WrestleMania build up being a you know, a
United States Champion. But it doesn't just stop there. He also, you
know, reminds Kevin Owens about the cast, telling him like, Hey,
that cast is a weapon. You're gonna have to take that bad boy off
before our match at the World Rumble otherwise you could be in for some legal
trouble. Of course, Kevin Owens doesn't just go quietly into the night,
however, He tells Logan Paul like, look, I've been doing this for
twenty five years. So, yeah, a lot of people really don't like
you because you you get thrust to the top because of the viewers, the
eyeballs you bring in, when in reality you're not as good as me,
You're not as good as Sammy Zain, Seth Rollins, He name drops a
few people as well. Ray Mysterio is pretty much telling him like, look
dude, like and just because that you have that championship doesn't mean that it's
not a joke in a lot of people's eyes. And that's pretty much coming
from the heart from Kevin Owens. And of course Logan Paul does his typical
he turns it on him. Every single person you just referenced, you said
their name, I have knocked him out and I'm gonna knock you out as
well, which Kevin Owens obviously does not agree with. He tells Logan Paul
that there isn't a single punch you could throw that would knock me down for
more than three seconds, and it damn sure would not knock me out.
And then he continue to go on and on. Eventually takes off his cast
that throw it out of the ring, and he turns his back on Logan
Paul, which is absolutely the worst thing you could possibly do, because right
when he turns back around, he has met with a right hook right in
the jaw, knocks Kevin Owens on his ass, but he gets right back
up. That's the thing about it. Kevin Owens is not going to stay
down, and maybe he does have a point that he you know, he
isn't going to you know, get knocked out with that one punch, but
they continue to go at it. They end up going outside of the ring,
in which case Kevin Owens he leaves that right arm, he leaves it
vulnerable, and Logan Paul does the right thing for him, which is beat
the hell out of him, throw that right arm into the ring post.
He's absolutely doing more damage to it and it's going to make it way harder
for Kevin Owens to not have a cast come Royal Rumble. But Kevin Owens
gave him his word he is not going to wear the cast. So Kevin
Owens is going to have to go into Royal Rumble, the Royal Rumble and
defeat Logan Paul with a broken hand and no type of protection on that hand.
So he's already at a disadvantage. More reason to believe that Logan Paul
will successfully defend that championship. Come next Saturday, let's see Carmelo Hayes.
He challenged Austin Theory to a rematch. Remember what happened last week? Their
match did not finished because of the injuries that happened. You know, thankfully,
everyone's okay, everyone's all good. So next week in Miami, we
were supposed to get Austin Theory versus Carmelo Hayes. But as the challenge was
made, Grayson Waller is the one that accepted, which tells me that maybe
Austin Theory isn't cleared yet. He got rocked and maybe he's still a little
bit injured. So they wanted to bring him back, and this is his
hometown, Atlanta, Georgia. He wanted to have a match, but he
wasn't able to and they wanted to still have him on TV. He's probably
not going to be cleared next week either, so they just went ahead and
made it seem like he's okay. But Grayson Waller's really going to take the
heat in that match, and he's going to be the one that you know,
goes toe to toe with Carmelo Hayes. Speaking of Grayson Waller. Do
you guys see the media appearance or the TV appearance that him and La Knight
made and they were quote unquote being disrespected by some of the TV crew there
just you know, Austin Theory probably would have been a better partner to be
there next to him rather than La Knight because La Knight kind of just you
know, he plane at Calm, which a lot of people are saying,
Hey, shout out to La Night for playing at Calm whenever, you know,
Grayson Waller was going crazy. Austin Theory, if he were there in
that seat next to Grayson Waller, probably would have been two guys standing up,
and who knows how the situation would have went. But yeah, Grayson
Waller just stands up. He defends himself the business where he must says,
hey, you don't be disrespecting us like that. You know, we're gonnat
punch you in the jar right now. It's pretty much what he was getting
at. But yeah, phenomenal job by Grayson Waller standing up for the industry
and you know, reminding everyone that hey, it's not sweet over here,
bucko, all right, so don't think that you could talk sweet about wrestling
in front of a pro wrestler on national television and not you know, get
threatened. So let's continue on here. The only thing else that happened was
we had a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match. Katana Chance and Kayden Carter
defeated the Unholy Union which is Alba Fire and Iola down via pinfall by hitting.
After party on Alba Fire postmatch, Oscar and Kyrie saying from front of
the champions they had their belts. That's one thing I thought was weird because
they were all at ringside. Bailey was a guest on commentary, and they
had their championships, but they didn't want to give them to them. They
like had them and they're like, hey, like, why the hell you
guys have your hands all over our championship. Give them to us. They
snaped them out of their hands and we get a face to face like,
oh, you want a piece of us? Which is I mean, it
wasn't the most well executed plan. That's typically what happens here. Seemed a
lot better in the head than it was actually executed in the ring. Just
kind of go back and watch it. I could be nitpicking, but I
just wasn't a fan of this whole, the whole end of this. Maybe
it's just I'm not used to seeing Katana and Kayden Carter as you know,
actual legit champions. Maybe that time will come, but I am rooting for
them. I will say, you know, there needs to be some new
blood and you know, the women's tag team championship picture that really doesn't exist.
But hopefully the more teams come, the more stick around and eventually that
you know, that division and of itself will get a little bit of a
credibility. Uh let's see here, let's go and move on that. That's
the episode of SmackDown. That's the SmackDown review portion, so we can move
on to another segment here in the show, which is Stack Them Up Saturday.
And remember I wanted to go through in the you know, the honor
of the Royal Rumble and just make this one Royal Rumble themed. I could
have gone best Royal Rumble winners of all time, best Royal Rumble performances of
all time, Best Royal Rumble returns of all time. So there's a lot
of different directions I could have gone, but I wanted to keep it modern
and I wanted to do something that's not quite as obvious, you know,
because there's there's some obvious names I could win the Royal Rumble this year,
but there are a couple that you want. You scratch your head and you
think, really like this year of all years. So let's go through my
quick list. It's only five names, and I will let you guys know
who I think is, you know, a dark horse worth keeping your eye
on once we get to Tampa next Saturday. At number five, I got
Bailey and this one is it's a name that's been mentioned to win the Royal
Rumble here by fans and by herself. And you know, it makes a
lot of sense, you know, to get all the gold and damage control
right, like, it just makes sense for Bailey to win. But she
doesn't quite fit the mold of recent Royal Rumble winners. You know, they've
kind of gone, especially like for the women, they've gone younger, they've
gone like more Women's Championship picture ready, you know, like people would probably
raise an eyebrow. Bailey just tomorrow was thrust into well obviously because she's tagging
partners with the EO Sky. But rear ripley, right, let's just get
the other Women's champion. Like if Bailey was the one who came out and
she was being pushed as the actual contender, like the official contender for the
championship, people would probably be like Bailey, feel like there were other other
women who might be worthy. And that's kind of where I see the pecking
order as far as Royal Rumble winners. I think it could be more of
like a ready polished commodity, someone who could immediately be thrust into the spot.
But if you're asking me, I think that Bailey would be a phenomenal
winner. And I do think she is a dark horse because of the built
in storyline with EO. Sky, and she could, like I've been mentioned,
or like I've been mentioning, she could pull a day Batista and challenge
the champion in her own faction after she wins this Royal Rumble at number four,
I got goother And some people might think of that and say, well,
that's kind of obvious. Some people might look at it and say,
he's the Intercontinental Champion. There's no way there's two, you know, world
champions that we need to find a challenger for. Why are you going to
give the Royal Rumble spot to the Intercontinental Champion, Like that doesn't make any
sense. And the only reason why I say that is because, like I
said, bigger things could be in store for Gunther. The Intercontinental Championship is
important, but imagine if he won the Royal Rumble while still holding that championship,
would it not put him like damn, Like we may have two historic
wrestlers on the roster right now in terms of like doing something that's never been
done, because obviously no one's ever had the Intercontinental Championship as long as Gunther's
had it. But doing something like winning the Royal Rumble while on this historic
title reign, it would submit him on a level where he would be by
himself, Like it would be lonely at the top for Gunther, because that's
just another another avenue to history. You know, there's several Roman reigns is
on one. It's not the only path that you can get to wrestling immortality.
And I think Gunther doing something like this could be well on his way
at number three. Going back to the women, Roquel Rodriguez, and I
was really high on her last year at the Royal Rumble. Whenever me and
John were there in person, she was the person that once she got eliminated,
I let out an audible. I can't say it on the show because
obviously it's a PG show and I'm not allowed to cuss, so I'm not
gonna but I didn't. Let's just say I might have said cussword or two
because I was pulling for her throughout that match, and hopefully it carries over
into this year and we get some you know, some I guess some new
wrestlers getting that opportunity, what that you know that comes with winning the Royal
Rumble, because like the Royal Rumble is a jet pack, Like the Royal
Rumble is a springboard of all springboards. This thing thrust you into the main
event of WrestleMania, where right then, like you're you're pretty much forced,
like, hey, I don't care if you've been riding the bench all year.
It's fourth and ten. The person in front of you went down.
We need you to come in and catch this football. And I think that's
kind of where Roquel could find herself if you know, they choose her to
win the Royal Rumble, or she can go one on one with Rhea Ripley,
Oreo Sky whoever. At WrestleMania. We can get a phenomenal show,
and we can get a new champion, someone who I feel like is going
to have many title reigns in their future. And you know, Roquel is
more than worthy of getting that honor. Number two, I have Finn Balor
because he hasn't won it yet, He's definitely capable of winning it. He's
good enough, and I think this is what I mean, we're talking about
factions kind of colliding. You can have Finn Balor when the Royal Rumbo Go
Challenge seth Rawlins win it, and then we get the whole money in the
bank. Conversation with send your money in the bank, Damian Priest. Is
he going to cash in on Finn Balor? Or is he going to go
to SmackDown to try to cash it in over there? It's just, you
know, storylines are kind of riding themselves, and that's the beauty of having
this deep of a roster and the creative team having this type of I guess
they're in their bag. So all these characters have compelling storylines as we speak
right now. So of course, if you throw a Royal Rombo victory,
there's a lot of avenues you can go down to set up for phenomenal WrestleMania
matches and beyond, which gets me to number one. Now, a lot
of people are thinking that The Rock and Roman Reigns are going to fight one
night at WrestleMania, and Cody Rhoades and The Rock are going to fight another
one. It's a triple threat. They keep the trend going, right.
We had a triple threat to main event WrestleMania twenty, a triple threat from
main event WrestleMania thirty. Why not get a triple threat to main event WrestleMania
forty. Let's have our cake and eat it too, right, Let's satisfy
the Rock people, let's satisfy the Cody Roads people, and let's get one
big triple threat match. That's what a lot of people are saying. However,
I think that the one way for us to solidify Rock versus Rock versus
Roman rains and not just make it seem like he was you know, he
cut to the front of the line over Cody Roads. He stole Cody's moment.
One way to make it seem somewhat justified have the Rock enter the Royal
Rumble and eliminate Cody Roads. Cody Roads already made his declaration that he's entering
the Royal Rumble. That is the path he's taking. He is trying to
recreate history, win it again, get another opportunity at Roman Reigns and beat
him this time. He's trying to do what you know the Avengers did,
right they went back in time. They're trying to go kill Thanos. They're
trying. He's pretty much trying to, you know, do it all over
again. Will he be able to do it? I don't know, But
if we're going to feel good about Roman Reigns, and I know it doesn't
have to be for the championship. Everyone's always said that Rock and Roman doesn't
need to be for the championship, and I agree, it absolutely doesn't.
But if Roman Reigns is the champion, why the hell not? Man Like,
seriously, if that's one way for us to get it, that's one
way for us to get Rock versus Roman is Yeah, him being the surprise
entrand number thirty and he eliminates Cody Rhodes and whoever else is in it by
pretty much saying like, look, we went head to head, we have
face. But let the Rock and Cody Rhodes be the final two in the
men's Royal Rumble, and I promise you every single wrestling fan will be on
the edge of their seat. They will be watching that like, Holy hell,
we're really here. This is who's going to go on to fight Roman
Rings at WrestleMania, and let it be the Rock. Let him beat Cody
Rhodes. I just think that it would make sense, and you know,
it would be for the championship at WrestleMania, and you know at that point
we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But that's how you justify it
being the Rock, and that's how you know you can, I guess,
get him that one on one match with Roman Reigns and not feel like him
cutting Cody Roads because he went through Cody Roads and Cody had a chance to
eliminate the Rock and he wasn't able to do it. So that pretty much
just eliminates that argument right there. So really quickly, let's go back through
my top five dark horses to win the Royal Rumbo match Number five Bailey,
number four, Goonther, number three, rock Hill Rodriguez, number two,
Finn Balor, and number one The Rock. I do want to hear you
guys. Is I want to know what you guys think about this, so
definitely let me know whether you do that via Twitter, Michael fire Ritter or
you know, the Patreon app. I haven't been able to get on the
Patreon app for whatever reason. It's kind of strange as a as a listener,
I haven't been able to listen to the ww podcast episodes on Patreon.
It's definitely frustrating. Behay, it is what it is. Hopefully that'll be
fixed sometime soon. But definitely, just find a way to get that list
to me. Get your top five and or just one or two. Doesn't
have to be five. You can just tell me who you think it can
even be, just just be one name you know, doesn't have to be
an actual list, but I would be more than happy to hear your suggestions
as well. But thank you guys so much for listening to this show.
Hopefully you will come back next week for the go home show for the twenty
twenty four Royal Rumble match. So thank you guys so much for listening.
Have a damn good weekend. Enjoyed the football Go check out the Football Function
podcast. Definitely would mean a lot to me. It would help me out
a lot as well, and just having your presence in our listening audience would
make the show better in of itself. So thank you guys so much.
One more time well passionately in the direction of your dreams, and I'll talk
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