WWE SmackDown Review: Huge Change for Royal Rumble Main Event, Top 5 Current Factions

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com slash dg een Dash Gang. This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're
listening to the WWE podcast. Stop the show, the one that everybody wants
me to sixteen says that just gros your ass is mind. You're gonna acknowledge
me what's going on? Everybody? Guys and girls, Welcome back to another
edition of the SmackDown Review right here on the ww podcast. As always,
I am one of the hosts of the show, Michael Ritter. You can
find me on x or on Instagram at Michael Ritter five and also one of
the hosts of the Football Function podcast, available on all your podcasting platforms,
including on Patreon if you prefer in that free experience. The episode that I'm
going to be breaking down today obviously it aired on January fifth, twenty twenty
three, from the Rogers Arena in British Columbia, Canada. Shout out to
djqu for the location breakdown per usual, and DJ also nailed it right on
the head whenever he said that this episode was going to have a little bit
of a pay per view feel to it, because I personally feel like it
did. It lacked the moving promos, nobody cut along promo, There wasn't
a whole lot of Mike time in that department. We got a little bit
of stuff from a lot of people, right people made their declarations or I
guess they're announcing, or their announcement that they're entering the Royal Rumble. We
got a little bit of teases from certain wrestlers and even like guys like Paul
Hayman, who addressed all of Roman Reign's potential challengers. But you know,
guys like Logan, Paul got on the microphone as well, so there were
opportunities for promos to be cut, but I don't feel like the episode was
focused on that. I think it was more so focused on delivering great matches
that gave us contenders and furtherment into certain storylines, including a potential butting heads
that we're going to see going forward between the bloodline more specifically Roman Reigns and
Paul Hayman with general manager Nick Aldis, and that's something that I'm certainly going
to enjoy. It's just a little bit different. We don't have two cookie
cutter general managers where they're both clearly I guess manipulative, like Eric Bischoff was
somewhat of a heel general manager, not somewhat. He was, without a
doubt, a heel general manager. And you've had guys like Paul Hayman who
have been that same version of a general manager, and then you have people
like Teddy Long. You have people like Adam Pierce, who really is the
most mutual, I guess or fair general manager that I've seen in quite some
time. But Nick Alldis clearly leans towards the baby faces. He doesn't put
up with any heels nonsense, and that is a little bit of a breath
of fresh air from the general manager position. So we will get into everything
that happened on SmackDown. Obviously some great stuff to talk about. First and
foremost, I wanted to talk about what happened on Monday Night Raw. Now,
I was in Okac for this past Monday. I was in town for
a Thunder versus Celtics game. The Celtics lost, so that really wasn't the
best outcome. But as far as the Monday night raw that took place while
I was there at my hotel room, that outcome is probably as good as
it could have possibly been. If you are one of the fans who want
to see the Rock make his inevitable return, which he did so did gender
Mahal. General Hall came out and he did what he was supposed to do
in that segment. But the segment was mainly about the Rock coming out and
teasing it at first and then ultimately giving us what we want, which is
the name drop Roman Reign specifically. But he said take a seat at the
head of the table, and the crowd erupted, the Internet erupted. I
feel like a lot of people got some vindication that have been pounding the table
for this. You know, they really want to see the Versus Roman.
How could you not rock? Versus Roman is everything that WrestleMania forty should be
about. Like WrestleMania XL just for a split second here, it's going to
be a monumental moment in the wrestling landscape, in the timeline. Whenever you're
thinking back over the years and you're talking about all these WrestleManias, I think
WrestleMania forty is going to be one that you you mentioned pretty quick because I
think it's catching WW at a time where it's red hot, the hottest it's
been in arguably a decade plus. This is going to be a historic number
when you just look at WrestleMania forty, I feel like, I mean the
way that the the NFL does it is whenever they have a milestone super Bowl,
right like super Bowl forty, they brought out every single former Super Bowl
MVP. Same thing as Super Bowl fifty in Santa Clara, California. So
I think that with WrestleMania forty, you should do something a little bit more
than just a traditional Hall of Fame ceremony where you honor the past eras I
feel like at WrestleMania forty there needs to be more of an acknowledgment of past
WrestleMania's whether you know, you just bring out certain wrestlers and say, you
know, have them wave to the crowd, and at the bottom of the
screen you could just put some of the WrestleMania highlights that Main invented WrestleMania twenty
eight, main invented WrestleMania fourteen. You know, you could do certain things
with so many different Hall of famers that would probably be more than willing to
make an appearance in Philadelphia at WrestleMania forty. And I know so many people
that are going to be there, like a lot of people in the discord
are Buddy Howard Poole's going to be there, amongst many others. And as
someone who went to WrestleMania thirty eight, my only WrestleMania I've been to,
and you know, we'll see, I plan on going again at some point,
I have to. But that one was really meaningful and this one should
blow that one out of the water like it should, because I mean,
honestly, when I hang my hat on, when I think about wrestling,
Winnia thirty eight, the one that I was in attendance for. I think
I got to see Stone Cold Steve Austin wrestle his first match in almost twenty
years. Like that was a beautiful thing, you know. So comparing that
to what we could possibly see this year, which is Roman Reigns versus The
Rock in the main event, that's a very highly anticipated matchup. You could
also see something like ceem Punk versus Seth Rollins. I've seen people, you
know, drop that video. I think Matt is actually someone who tweeted it
if you want to go follow him at wrest or Wrestling Underscore Audio. He
tweeted the link to the video of Jim Ross sitting between c and Punk and
Stone Cold Steve Austin and they were talking about WWE thirteen, which came out
at the time as a video game, and they were just hyping it up,
talking about the different generations you're allowed to do. They were specifically talking
about the prospects of Stone Cold Steve Austin versus CM Punk and what that would
be like. And it's a hell of a video. It's I mean,
it's without a doubt if this match ever happens. And now it's more possible
than it's ever been. If this match ever happened, then they would,
without a doubt, call back to this, They would show that video,
they would show that interaction. It would probably get another five million views just
because people are going to be going back, People that weren't watching wrestling at
the time are going to be going back to that video to get a little
bit of a taste. And obviously seeing Punk has his site set on seth
Rollins and you know, winning the World Rumble, all that good stuff.
But for Stone Cold, Steve Austin and that program to be a possibility,
like, give me a WrestleMania with The Rock and Stone Cold both wrestling.
When was last time we saw that WrestleMania nineteen. I think it was right,
could have been the last time that we saw The Rock and Stone Cold
both wrestle on the same WrestleMania card. So clearly it's multiple decades in the
making that you give some of the fans what they want. Yes, we've
gotten Undertaker matches, we've gotten Edge matches, we've seen Goldberg come back,
we've seen Triple H wrestle even as recent as what like WrestleMania thirty five,
whenever it was that he wrestled Batista. Like, we've seen multiple legends come
out and you know, put on matches. Even Kurt Angle was having matches
in like twenty sixteen, twenty eighteen, whenever it was probably even more recent.
I don't know the dates off the top of my head, but Kurt
Angle wrestled not that long ago. Clearly his days of wrestling or behind him
now, but it was just five years ago that we were seeing Kurt Angle
in the ring. So seeing Stone Cold, Steve Austin and The Rock on
the same card make this WrestleMania so appealing, And it's going to make so
many people who just love the Attitude era and who don't watch wrestling because they
don't know the wrestlers these days, they're not familiar with the current product.
It'll bring a lot of people back. And you know who knows. I
mean, it happened to me right Like I mean, I didn't come back
because of a legend, but as someone who stopped watching wrestling and just so
happened to watch the twenty fifteen Arl Rumble, and now here I am.
You fast forward eight years later and I've already been hosting my own podcast for
over three years now, a wrestling podcast, you know, so you never
know what could happen by getting a die hard fan getting their eyeballs back on
the product, you could, you know, reignite that fire, and sometimes
fires are hard to put out. And that's pretty much what's happened with me.
Now, what's to the point to where like my girlfriend's son who I
live with, is a diehard wrestling fan, and now you know that kind
of that passion is being passed down where he has he's only been collecting wrestlers,
you know, wrestling action figures for a little bit over five months and
he already has well over fifty. I mean, he has pretty much anybody
you could think of that's on the current roster. There's a couple that you
know, are hard to find because we like to scope, right, We
like to go to targets, Walmart's, even in ok See, we went
to like ten Walmarts and he came back with twelve Action figures. Because that's
that's something that we do as like a you know, a wrestling family bonding
experience. You know, you go scope, that's what we call it,
which is the same thing as like a toy hunt. You go to various
walmarts, you try to look for figures that you don't have, ones that
you've seen online. Of course, if you can't find it, you eventually
just have to take the l go to eBay, go to obviously Ringside Collectibles,
or just matel. You know, you can go to several different places
to buy whatever action figures you want online. But I personally enjoy the thrill
of finding it on the shelf. But the only reason why I say that
is because it's crazy. What could happen just by simply getting your eyeballs back
on wrestling. It kind of it is like a butterfly effect. It kind
of changes the trajectory of what you're doing. And I would love for that
to happen with WrestleMania forty. Like people are going to be tuning in that
haven't seen wrestling in a very long time, and I think, with how
hot the product is and with what they have at their hands right now,
there's a good possibility that, you know, they could really make this one
of the most memorable WrestleManias of all time. And it starts with what got
me on that little bit of a tangent or not even a tangent that was
just a little bit of like a sidebar. There was the Rock, you
know, the Rock making his return, and I think that is what this
WrestleMania needs to be built around him and Roman Reigns. I'm someone who wanted
to see Cody Roads win at WrestleMania thirty nine. The timing, I feel
like was personal or was perfect, And the only argument that people had to
make at the time was Roman Reigns are so close to a thousand days.
Okay, he's past one thousand days. Now what are we going for the
all time record? Are we just kind of going to continue to inflate that
number? Because think about it, guys, are you not tired of Roman
Reigns not being there regularly? Now? I know he was at this episode
of SmackDown, the one that we're about to break down right now, But
for the most part, how many days in between title defenses? Like does
he have? He has like probably one title defense every one hundred days,
So it really takes a little bit of the flare out of that streak,
out of that rain. I know that probably you know it was kind of
similar in the old days. I wasn't around for Hulk Cogan and Bruno,
Sam Martino and all those other long streaks that were going on. But I
can tell you that this Roman reign streak GA, if you show a video
package of all of his wins, it's going to be like, oh,
that was such an impressive run, very dominant. But if you actually add
some context to it, if you actually throw the days in there, in
between the rains or in between the defenses, I think, just me personally
my subjective opinion, that it does make the reign itself feel a little bit
like, okay, like it's inflated. You know. I'm not saying that
it's not entertaining, and I didn't enjoy this Roman reign streak. But at
the same time, I can call a spade a spade and say, like,
come on, like I have eyes, and I obviously know that the
only reason why Roman Reigns has his championship number as high as what it is
is because he goes years pretty much with only having like five matches, five
or six matches, Like it's actually insane when you think about how far he
goes. So that's the only reason why they didn't pull the trigger on Cody
Roads. They wanted to continue this streak. Well, congratulations, you did
it. I personally feel like that ruined that moment. Yes, Cody Roads
can finish the story. He can, but what is his story? Let's
think about it. It was his story to beat Roman Reigns, or was
his story to be a world heavyweight champion, to be a world champion in
WWE. He doesn't have to finish the story now. It doesn't like Yes,
it would have been nice at WrestleMania thirty nine him winning the Rumble.
I felt like the timing was perfect. It was time to move on to
have a new champion. WWE didn't agree. They didn't make the call,
and a lot of fans predicted that was going to happen and that Roman Ragns
was going to retain. It's exactly what happened, and now people are just
saying, well, Cody needs to finish the story. Yeah, he needs
to finish the story, but it doesn't necessarily mean it has to be right
now, because his story can still be finished just by him winning a championship.
It doesn't matter if it's at WrestleMania forty. It doesn't matter if it's
against Roman Rains or against Seth Rollins, against Drew McIntyre, even The Rock,
you know. I mean, I think Cody Rhodes just needs a championship
victory, a WWE Championship victory, to secure that story being complete. Whereas
this story with The Rock and Roman Reigns, the Rock isn't going, Like,
think about how hard it was to actually get this to happen, to
actually have it possible Rock versus Roman And just a little bit of a sidebar,
I know that there's been some speculation, well possibly Roman Reigns could defend
the championship at Elimination Chamber in Australia against The Rock. Money talks, right,
Like the people there in Australia can say, no, we will give
you just a blank check to have that match here take place in Australia.
That's the only reason why I would That's the only I guess outcome that I
would say logistically, like, okay, money talk. So clearly they're going
to take that blank check and set themselves up for the future. But if
you're talking about storyline wise, like go back and look at that clip on
Young Rock. He said it himself, that's a match that could only happen
at WrestleMania, Like come on guys, the Rock versus Roman reigns. It
shouldn't like, it should not happen anywhere outside of WrestleMania. I personally don't
think that you could get The Rock to come back for a match on Summer
Slam Survivor Series, any of the other Big four pay per views. It's
WrestleMania, Butt or Bust much less a non Big Four pay per view,
like just a random elimination chamber of paper. You on the weight of the
you know, the biggest WrestleMania that we've seen in such a long time.
No, the Rock, if he's going to lay some up, if he's
going to have a match, I personally feel like it's WrestleMania or Bust,
and it's Roman Reigns or Bust, So just do the obvious. Who cares?
I guess what you got to sacrifice? At this point, we need
Rock versus Roman. The title doesn't need to be on the line. So
that's why we can still get Cody versus Roman the second night of WrestleMania.
If they're going to have WrestleMania be two nights, utilize your champion. Say,
okay, the first match is for the Ulafalla. You know, it's
for that right to be considered the head of the table, the tribal chief.
I'm sure that they can come up with a catchy name for it that
would make that match a hell of a match. Or you could put the
title on the line and still have Roman Reigns win the match. But I
mean still I think that no matter what, if you were to have the
title not be on the line for WrestleMania Night one, Rock versus Roman,
whoever wins wins, We'll address that later night two. If Cody were to
win the Royal Rumbo for the second year in a row and he challenged Roman
Reigns again, you could do that night too of WrestleMania, and then you
know, have Roman do double duty and still end up one way or another
getting CM Punk versus Seth Rollins for that World Heavyweight Championship. So there are
possible avenues where WWE can still hit multiple home runs. Like this is going
to be a great WrestleMania one way or the other, no matter how you
slice it. So just buckle up. And I just wanted to give my
quick thoughts on the Rock returning. I think it's going to be money.
I think it's a huge step in the right direction to finally getting the main
event or just you know, a match on the WrestleMania car that includes rumed
Rains versus the Rock. But let's go ahead and get into this episode of
SmackDown, shall we, because at the end of this episode, per usual,
stack them up Saturday. I you know, there was a return of
a tag team on this episode of SmackDown that we'll talk about as we're getting
into it, and it looks like they're going to be forming a faction with
Carrying Cross. So that right there made me think WWE has quite a bit
of factions right now when you think about it that are just whether they're starting,
they're just getting their feet wet, or they're already established. And I
just kind of wanted to go through and rank some of the current factions right
now in the WWE. But that is going to be at the end of
the episode. This next portion of the show is going to be the SmackDown
review section, so we are going to actually get through what happened here on
this episode of SmackDown. Like I mentioned earlier, it aired on January fifth,
twenty twenty three, from the Rogers Arena in British Columbia and not a
lot of promos, a lot of I mean your occasional video package that probably
took up about one fourth of the show when you look at video package slash
commercials about one fourth and the rest was mainly matches and the very small sprinkled
in promo that was pretty much just people saying what they had to say very
quickly, not going too much into detail. So let's talk about some of
the smaller things before we get to the actual main event and the things that
involved the bloodline. We'll start off with Kevin Owens getting a win over Santos
Escobar. Obviously got that win with the stunner Logan Paul was a guest on
commentary, and also before the match even began, we saw Angel Garza and
Humberto Carrillo. Took me a little bit to recall the names get attacked by
Cruz del Toro and Joaquin Wilde, the former tax team partners of Sanchos Escobar,
so that even the playing filled. Obviously, Santos is going to have
those guys in his corner at first, which is going to get give him
the clear edge over Kevin Owens. But because the former members of the l
d F and also LWO. They come out and even the odds, so
it ends up being Kevin Owens versus Santos one on one, and Kevin Owens
gets to win to earn a United States Championship match against Logan Paul at the
Royal Rumble and obviously I mentioned Logan Paul being on commentary. After this match
is over, he stepped inside the ring talking you know what about Kevin Owens
and pointing out that you know you're a you know, you're dripping in sweat
right now, number one and i haven't even broken a single drip of sweat.
And I've been United States Champion for sixty two days now it's sixty three,
I believe, since this is the Saturday that I'm recording this. And
he goes on to say and also, dude, you're Canadian, which there
in Canadian. So he takes a shot at the local sports team, which
is always a nice little a little quick, a little quick way to get
some heat, and he tells Kevin Owns, you're Canadian, why are you
going to you know, assume that you can be the United States Champion,
which is laughable considering that there's a lot of professional wrestlers that are Canadian who
have already held that championship. Probably some of the best United States Champions of
all time are from Canada. So I thought that was just, you know,
a clear, little obvious shot. He wanted to get some quick heat.
No, had no merit had no legs to stand on. Obviously,
if you're Canadian, if you're Mexican, if you're African, Australian, you
can win the United States champion. I just want to or the United States
Championship. I just wanted to go ahead and clarify that obviously, which is
already pretty obvious. It's just Logan Paul being an a hole and trying to
get as much heat as he possibly can. And that's, honestly, what
makes him as good as he is is the fact that when he picks up
the microphone, he says things that make you feel a certain way. You
know, it's nothing about Logan Paul makes you indifferent. You're usually either one
way or the other. And I think that he's going to be a pretty
good asset for the company. But after he got to run into his mouth
a little bit of Owen's actually gave him a little bit of a little club,
a little punch in the face with his cast hand, So Logan Paul
does get drops and uh he finds out who his new opponent's going to be.
That was a beauty of this episode of SmackDown. We got contenders announced,
we know who the championship matches are going to be at Royal Rumble,
and then obviously we also got championship matches here on SmackDown, which is what
happened with the WWE Championship EO Sky defending it against Meechen And this match came
from Meechen pinning EO Sky whenever they had their what was it Holiday Havoc match,
I believe is what it was called on SmackDown a few weeks ago.
So she got the pin doing just you know, a sent on type logan
thing through the table on EO Sky pin the champ. I thought that was
meaningful. So I wanted to see how she fared here in this match against
the champion one on one, and Eosky already knows like she doesn't need damage
control to come out and interfere anytime that damage control is interfered, think about
it. Most of the time it's Bailey going against the advice from her damage
control members and disobeying them, and like whenever they say no, Bailey,
we don't need you to come out to the ring tonight, and she'll go
out there and do it anyways. Now, obviously they've cheated time and time
again in the past, but I feel like with Eosky and championship matches,
she's more than willing to keep her partners in the back and go out and
defend her championship fair and square, which you do have to give her credit
for. That's not always what he'ls do. He'ls usually lean towards the rule
breaking and you know, taking the past or the path with least resistance.
They want the easiest route to defending their championship, which is why sometimes you'll
see a champion grab their belt and try to walk out and just get counted
out so they'll lose the match but not lose their championship, and the baby
face walls to go out there and you know, just bring them back to
the ring. Triple H was very famous for doing that during his run or
runs as the World heavyweight champion. But eo Sky is always more than willing
to, you know, put her money where her mouth is and defend her
championship straight up. So I always you know, respect that about her.
And she does hit her signature moon Salt to defend this championship successfully against Michen,
getting the win. Michin took a rough bump, though, I will
say, just diving through the ropes to the outside, so it was obviously
like over a six foot drop right on her face, not literally on her
face, but that's called a face bump. Whenever you're facing forward and you
don't take a back bump, which is on your back, so you drop
on your chest or your torso, your stomach, that's called a face bump.
And that's exactly what Michin did diving doing a suicide dive through the top
two ropes, and that was just a nice little esthetic. It was a
good visual to see to let you know this was a hard hitting match,
which isn't always the case when you get a women's match, especially on free
TV on SmackDown, I think Mitchen and Sky both delivered and they gave us
a pretty good match here. What I alluded to you earlier in the show
was the return of a tag team, and that tag team is the authors
of pain and also Paul Ellering, who both you know AOP and Paul I
have not been in ww' They haven't been seen in WWE since twenty twenty,
so it's been well over three years. In this return, I feel like,
especially if they're going to be here on SmackDown, is a phenomenal addition.
I am pro genuine tag teams. I love that. That's why I
liked Gosh, what are their names? Oh, I can't remember. It's
the Cash Wheeler right like they're in AW right now, but they used to
be in the WW and I cannot remember their name for the life of me.
But they embraced the art of tag team wrestling, and I genuinely love
that, Like, look at pretty deadly. You can't see one of those
guys having a single career right now because they are embracing, you know,
their role as a tag team heavy machinery. Whenever they were matching, you
know, they had just a gimmick, a specific gimmick. Even American Alpha,
which I felt like as a tag team that had Hall of Fame written
all over them, it didn't pan out clearly. Gables still doing his thing
as an nering competitor and Jason Jordan backstage as a producer and just you know,
a WWE quote unquote official or whatever his role is back there. It
didn't work out for them as a tag team, but I always like whenever
wrestlers embrace it, like, yes, we've seen multiple tag teams come together
two singles wrestlers and have a great, you know, a great run together.
Look at the Bar with Seame with cin Cinara. Look your team rated
RKO with Edge and Randy Yorton. But if you're asking me, I've always
you know, gravitated a little bit more towards the true tag teams, and
that's who our authors of pain are. They're a great tag team whenever they
just are wrecking havoc across an entire locker room. But this whole thing started
with Bobby Lashley come into the ring and declaring that he's entering the Royal Rumble.
He came out with obviously the Street Profits, and I don't know the
name of that group. We're gonna talk about them here in a little bit
when we talk about the factions. It would be nice to get a name
for that group. But as they're talking in her as soon as he makes
his declaration for the Royal Rumble. Carrying Cross comes out with Scarlett, and
then we see Paul ellering and then that's kind of what, let me know,
wait a minute, what is going to happen here? Bam, Authors
of Pain attack the Street Profits and Bobby Lashley from behind here comes carrying Cross.
It's pretty much a three on three beat down advantage Authors of Pain and
Carrying Across. They do their damnedest to this. You know, this unnamed
group that is Bobby Lashley and the Street Profits. But the shirt that Cross
was wearing said the Final Prayer. Now I don't know if that's their their
group name, if that's you know, just a marketing slogan or something like
that. I don't know exactly what the deal is, but so far,
that's what I'm going to call them, the Final Prayer, or at least
that's what I'm going to assume they're going to be associated with. So sign
me up for this group. It seems like they have everything you could possibly
need. Someone who has potential to be a top guy, someone who has
potential to challenge for heavyweight championships, carry across that dominant tag team that you
need to hold tag team Championships, the authors of Pain got the Eye,
Candy the I guess she's not really the best on promos, but we've seen
her in the ring before in the past. She can wrestle Scarlett who just
her being there, her presence alone is a net positive trust me. And
then Paul Ellering the whise experienced coach, if you will, for this group.
So that's really what inspired me, seeing this group, seeing how I
guess strong they look out of the gate. Just from a look standpoint,
it's what kind of made me want to do this. Stack him up Saturday
and you know, talk about some of the better factions that are going on
right now in the WWE. Continuing on here, we get Ashanti the Adonis
asking nick All this for an opportunity. Backstage, he's expressing, you know,
just his his lack of direction is a way to look at it.
He really doesn't know what to expect and Nicko All this expresses that he's always
been a believer in Ashanti the Adonnas and he's going to like what nick All
this has up his sleeve for Ashanti going forward. So kind of just keep
an eye on that and see what that has planned. Also, just a
little bit of another little side note, what happened to be Fab joining Bobby
Lashley? You know, Bobby, can I talk to you real quick?
Like what happened there? I thought that we were supposed to get her joining
that group. Maybe she's just taking some time off. Maybe we're going to
see that a little bit more. Maybe this is connected. Maybe hold on
a second. Because of the presence of Scarlet and the Final Prayer, attacking
the almighty prophets is what I'll call them for now, maybe that's what's going
to lead to b Fab showing her value while they're getting jumped there and to
got jumped tonight. What if they get jumped again next week and Scarlett gets
involved and now there's a woman putting her hands on Lashly in the street,
profits and outcomes, Befab. I think that could work out. I think
that could be a natural, organic way for her to join the group and
not just be handed a position like no, you came out and you had
our back, even though it was just Scarlet that you're taking out. But
still it's the thought that counts. It's your motives and your loyalty that we're
going to you know, focus on here and have you join our group,
and maybe they could just sprinkle in a shanty in the group as well.
Why not, you know, it just seems like if that's the the direction
that they're going to go here, which is more you know, bigger numbered
faction, not just two or three, but more so like five, it
would make sense to add Befab and Ashanti. They're not doing anything and they're
signed by the company. Why not see what they can do. Let's squeeze
that fruit and get as much juice out of it as we possibly can.
The last thing before the main event that we'll talk about here is Butch and
Tyler Bait having a tag team match between pretty deadly and obviously Butch and Tyler
Bait get the win following a double Tyler Driver. But we didn't know who
the tag team partner was going to be. For Butch, he came out
first, it was going to be a mystery. I really wasn't sure.
Ended up being Tyler Bait, who they have a lot of history together from
their time at NXT. So yeah, this is a phenomenal addition. If
he's coming up to the main roster. It could have just been a hey,
I need a favor here, I need a tag team partner. Tyler
Bay steps up, But if we do see more of him on the main
roster, I think that he'd be a phenomenal addition. He just he has
something to him. Then I saw this this match, and I definitely want
to see more. But moving on now to the main event, AJ Styles
versus L A. Knight and Randy Orton. Now, to start the show,
Roman Rains and Paul Hayman show up tanted Windows. We already know exactly
who it was going to be. It was Roman Rains and they're immediately asked
about the Rocks subtle call out on Monday Night Raw. They both just pretty
much laugh it off. They're just saying, yeah, the Rock, right,
that's hilarious. They just they don't even address it. And then Roman
Rains really doesn't make another appearance throughout the rest of the show until this main
event, when we're getting a pretty entertaining match. I will say this triple
threat AJ Styles, l A. Knight, Randy Orton a Number one Contenders
match for a shot at Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble means the world Like
this is an absolute, you know, like career making match for some of
these guys, especially La Knight, if he were to get this win and
go get an opportunity at Roman Rains at the Royal Rumble. Just think about
his one year rise from that Mountain Dew Pitch Black match against Bray Wyatt last
year at the Royal Rumble all the way to being in the Championship match going
up against obviously Roman Rains who had a very very big Royal Rumble last year.
When you look at the whole Sammy's ain turn. So the Royal Rumble
is always a big spot. It's big for the build when you look at
going towards WrestleMania. So expect one hundred percent of the Rock and Roman reign
to have a face to face moment at the Royal Rumble. I mean,
that's just kind of what my gut's telling me right now. That's a little
bit of a sidebar. But as far as this match goes, there was
a couple of near falls. I mean, like I said, it was
a great match. Whoever produced this one I really want to, you know,
shake their hand because I love a good near fall. The referee went
down for the three count whenever La Knight had countered an RKO into a btf
BFG, I apologize, bam he had the pinfall there, Randy Orton was
almost pinned. Aj Styles physically stops the referee from bringing his hand down for
three. So right there, the match goes on. And then whenever aj
Styles has an opportunity to pin Randy Orton later in the match, La Knight's
the one that yanks Charles Robinson out of the ring and the pinfall stops.
And other than that, there was no close calls. We kind of hit
a little bit of a stalemate with all three competitors on the ground and then
bam you hear Roman Rains music hit. He comes out to the ring,
he sends solo, he sends Jimmy you. So we get a little bit
of a three on three brawl here and obviously Roman Rains ends the match.
It seems like he gets the upper hand because he does it. He ends
the night on his feet. But Nick Alldis, who was right there,
he actually you know, he like we mentioned butting heads a rivalry going forward
that we can focus on all this In Roman reigns, he goes up to
Paul Hamm and he says, look, congratulations, you just earned your champion
a fatal four way match at the Royal Rumble. So now at the Royal
Rumble, we're not only going to get Kevin Owens versus Logan Paul for the
United States Championship. We're not only going to get the two Royal Rumble matches,
the Men's and the Women's, but we're also going to get a Fatal
four way for the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship with three worthy contenders. How is
Roman Reigns going to win this one? Has he been tested with the Fatal
four way yet? I don't believe so. The triple threat at WrestleMania with
the Daniel Bryan and Edge, that is probably the only multi competitor match that
he's been in when you talk about title defenses. So I think this one's
going to be a you know, like again, I tip my hat to
the producer here because the ending might have been deflating because we didn't get an
outright winner for a notice qualification match. That seems kind of weird to end
it in a no contest, But I'll take that if it means we get
the Fatal four way. It's a nice you know, it's something fresh for
Roman Reigns. That we really haven't seen yet, and I think that,
you know, that's about as strong of a match that you can get for
the Royal Rumble, almost as strong as that announced table that they had there
on SmackDown that took like what three people trying to go through it and they
failed to do so. So I'm all for this episode of SmackDown. Everything
that happened with the storyline development, everything that happened with the matches and their
outcomes. It was just an all and all great episode of SmackDown. So
I definitely if you didn't already get a chance to watch it, go back
and watch it. Because we're officially on the road to WrestleMania. Baby.
It is twenty twenty four. We're close to the Royal Rumble, and you
guys already know once we once we're at the Rumble, we're cooking with gas.
But any who, let's go ahead and get into the stack them up
Saturday, shall we. This is the you know, the like what fifth
week that I've done this in a row. Now. I've definitely enjoyed doing
it. It's it's fun, it's entertaining. Definitely message me on X at
Michael five ridd message me on the discord Chat, Instagram at Michael Ridder five,
or you can find my email one way or another. All definitely get
in touch with you if you want to get a hold of me that way.
But I like doing this. I the feedback, I like the suggestions.
Let me know if there's anything you guys want me to do next week
for the Stack Them Up Saturday. So let's quickly go through this one,
shall we? The top five current factions in WWE A couple honorable mentions that
I'll say just because you know they do deserve some credit, but they're not
going to make the top five. The OC that's one of them. We
saw Mechen she did her a little too sweet today. Obviously she got the
Good Brothers with them. Without aj Styles, that faction is about as entertaining
as paint and drying. So they're not going to make the top five.
But with someone like aj Styles, I think they got some legs to stand
on. Santos's group right now, I don't really know what it's called with
Angel Garza and Humberto Koreo, So once we get a name for them,
I think they'll they'll probably have a pretty good twenty four as well, definitely
better than LWO, a question mark because I don't know if they're even a
group. Still. We saw Joaquim Wild and Cruz del Toro make making appearance
tonight as Lena Vega really hasn't gone anywhere, but still like without Santos and
with that group pretty much inflating, Raymisterio being put on the show because of
his knee surgery, I don't necessarily know that I can put them in the
top five here. So the honorable mention groups are LWO, the unnamed Santos
Escobar Group, and the OC. So it's getting in the top five at
number five right out the gate. They've made one appearance in BAM. They're
in the top five in my personal opinion, and that is the final prayer.
That's what I'm going to call them right now. Hopefully we'll get a
name for them sooner, or at least get an announcement what their name is.
But that's the shirt that carrying Cross was wearing, so I feel like
that was probably done strategically, and you know, that could end up being
the name of their group. Number four, The Almighty Prophets and other groups
that I need an official name for but if they're starting to grow, if
they get BFAB and we continue to see them get put in meaningful programs,
I think this Hill group could be in for a pretty big twenty twenty four
as well. When you think about, you know, some of the other
groups that were mentioned here, They've already had a couple months under their belt,
so we've already seen some steps in the right direction. Number three.
This might come as a surprise, but I'm putting the bloodline they've they've lost
a lot of Like, who is the blood line anymore? Is it Roman
Reigns showing up once every six weeks? Is it Paul Hayman? Is he
the leader of the group with Solo Sokoa and Jimmy Uso, and they're supposed
to carry this group? No, Like, this faction is lucky that they're
even making the top three right now, because I think that obviously the Final
Prayer is gonna have a pretty nice little road Domania. And then I think
the Almighty Prophets could have an argument for jumping this group, but out of
respect and because they do still feature Roman Reigns and when he's here, this
faction is involved in all the important storylines. You have to give them a
top three spot at number two, and this one was pretty much back and
forth. I could have easily put this group at number one, but I'm
putting Damage Control. They have a lot of credibility right now. They have
a lot of legit wrestlers. I think that the Kabuki Warriors being in that
group, the veteran leadership of Bailey. You got Dakota Kai, just her
coming back from her injury. Eventually she'll be cleared for ring competition as well.
Obviously Eo Sky in there. She's as legit as it gets. This
group just I feel like they've been having a slow burn storyline themselves, and
it doesn't get the attention that a slow burn storyline like the Bloodline has done
over the last couple of years. But Damage Control is a very legit group.
They have very talented wrestlers in the group, and I'll be honest,
I enjoy whenever I see them involved in any type of storyline, and I'm
glad that the championship is attached to them right now as well. But speaking
of championships being attached to certain groups, the number one group, guys,
let's talk about it. It's the judgment day, whether you love them,
whether you hate them, whether you're indifferent. This group numbers don't lie.
They have real Ripley. He's one of the most popular wrestlers in the entire
company. Finn Balor, He's another Aj Styles, He's another seth Rawlins,
He's another Daniel Bryant when you talk about just pure classic wrestler in its or
at its finest. Obviously Damian Priest send your money in the banks, who's
been on a rise here lately, and he's probably one of the most improved
wrestlers when you look at where they started twenty twenty three to where they end
a twenty twenty three. And obviously the heat magnet dominating Mysterio, who's on
his way to being one of the best heels in the company, especially once
he gets his feet wet. And then, guys, are we gonna skip
out on our truth? The real backbone of this group, the straw that
stirs the drink. This group right here is everything that you want in a
group, that you want in a hell faction. They are a little bit
overexposed. I will admit that they're involved in damn near everything. Some of
their story or some of their promos I apologize are a little bit redundant,
a little bit repetitive. But I mean, whenever you get so much airtime
on a three hour show, week in week out, you're gonna seem a
little bit copy and paste from time to time. But I mean, I
will say, the Judgment Day, you have to give them their respect.
Shout out to Edge for being the person who birthed it. But he must
have put it up for adoption or something. And he went to and the
faction went to a family that fed it very well and took care of it
and raised it up to be one of the best factions in the WWE.
And that might not have been the best analogy, but here we are.
I will recap my top five. The Final Prayer at number which is carrying
Cross and his group with the authors of Pain. The Almighty Prophets speaks for
itself. We'll see if they get an actual name here coming or going forward.
Number three the Bloodline, Number two Damage Control, and number one the
Judgment Day. So that is my top five current factions in the WWE.
Let me know which factions you feel like are the best of all time.
I would love to hear it, but out you know. Other than that,
guys, I do want to thank you for tuning in to another episode
of the SmackDown Review, the New Year's Revolution edition. We will be back
next week. Already got some matches announced for next week, so SmackDown is
going to be obviously an entertaining show. However, I may not be here.
I'm gonna see what's going on. I'm gonna see the schedule, see
what happens. But a little bit of a spoiler, a little people behind
the curtain. I'm going on another trip January eleventh, which is next Thursday.
I'm going to Dallas to see Boy Meets World, you know, the
the group there, Boy Meets World. Never mind, actually, now that
i'm thinking about it, I will be here because I could just recorded on
Saturday whenever I get back, So forget I even said that. But remember,
I'm going to see Boy Means World, Podmets World live in Dallas.
Going to be a great show, a great experience. I've been watching Boy
Meets World since, like, you know, the late nineties, early two
thousands, so this is a great show for me, without a doubt,
A bucket list thing. You know. I went to my first Celtics game,
although we lost. I've already gone to see the Falcons play time and
time again. At one point, going to Atlanta was the biggest bucket list
on my you know agenda. I went to see a Kiss concert. So
I'm knocking off things that I've always wanted to do and this is just another
one on the list. So thank you guys so much for listening. Have
a damn good rest of your weekend while passionately in the direction of your dreams,
and I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast.
Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss a
show, or head to WWE podcast dot com and for all of these shows
add free head over to Patreon dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then,
we'll see you next time, Hm,