5 YEARS AGO: WrestleMania 37 Week Preview w/Michael Gross

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to the WWE Podcast, your number one source for
<v Speaker 1>the latest in wwee news and straightforward analysis.
<v Speaker 2>Are you ready to get this thing going?
<v Speaker 1>Hell yeah, I said, give me your hell yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Dude, Let's get this show started right now. All right, everybody,
<v Speaker 2>and welcome to the WWE Podcast. Welcome to wrestle Mania Week.
<v Speaker 2>It's the week that we all have been thinking about
<v Speaker 2>during the year, planning out fantasy booking, and it is
<v Speaker 2>here as we kick off WrestleMania Week with a two
<v Speaker 2>and a half hour show with Michael Gross. I'm not
<v Speaker 2>complaining about it. It's a great conversation, fastest two and
<v Speaker 2>a half hours I've ever had and hopefully yours as
<v Speaker 2>you listen to Michael and myself talk about WWE right now.
<v Speaker 2>It's current state, where we're going, what could happen, all
<v Speaker 2>of the usual fan fun things that we do, and
<v Speaker 2>it was just again a great conversation with Michael. And
<v Speaker 2>we'll get to that in just one second. But first, guys,
<v Speaker 2>I want to do a couple of things. Number One,
<v Speaker 2>I want to let you know that we are available
<v Speaker 2>on Patreon, Patreon, dot com, slash wwepod the WWE Podcast.
<v Speaker 2>You can also just search for us on the app.
<v Speaker 2>They have an app and you can get all of
<v Speaker 2>our shows completely ad free, in every show we've ever
<v Speaker 2>done ad free with just a dollar a month, and
<v Speaker 2>you can get in the door with that price, and
<v Speaker 2>I think it's a pretty good deal and it'll cover
<v Speaker 2>you through Wrestlming season and beyond, so not bad. You
<v Speaker 2>can also give us a five star rating in review
<v Speaker 2>on Apple Podcasts or anywhere that podcasts can take reviews,
<v Speaker 2>and it does help us out in the rankings and
<v Speaker 2>algorithms and everything like that, so certainly take advantage of
<v Speaker 2>or give us a little pat on the back and say, hey,
<v Speaker 2>thanks for doing a good job. And that's how you
<v Speaker 2>can do it. There. I want to give you guys
<v Speaker 2>the WrestleMania schedule because this is a very big This
<v Speaker 2>is a huge week if you're a podcaster or a
<v Speaker 2>YouTuber who covers wrestling, but more importantly for you the listeners.
<v Speaker 2>We want to be able to cover everything from every
<v Speaker 2>angle and give multiple perspectives. So here's what's gonna happen
<v Speaker 2>this week. I'm going to give you the schedule, so
<v Speaker 2>get your pens and pencils out. So obviously this is
<v Speaker 2>the weekend review but on Tuesday, I'll be doing the
<v Speaker 2>Monday Night Raw Review Live. Yeah, Live on Tuesday night. Now,
<v Speaker 2>I normally don't do it on a Monday night Law Raw
<v Speaker 2>Review Live, but I think this could give you guys
<v Speaker 2>a quick voice. I understand that we have the Mailbag.
<v Speaker 2>The mail Bag is still going to be happening on Wednesday.
<v Speaker 2>I may or may not be doing a new nostalgia show.
<v Speaker 2>I may bring it back from the vault and rehash
<v Speaker 2>one that I did maybe a year or so ago
<v Speaker 2>so it doesn't feel so recent, but just so that
<v Speaker 2>I can give you guys the best quality audio. I
<v Speaker 2>don't want to just pick something just to pick something
<v Speaker 2>and not have a real thought behind it. So nostalgia
<v Speaker 2>may or may not be happening. And from an original perspective,
<v Speaker 2>I'm not sure yet. I'm not you know, I'm kind
<v Speaker 2>of kind of see how I feel this week. It's
<v Speaker 2>gonna be a very very long week. So Tuesday is
<v Speaker 2>going to be live though. Now you may be asking,
<v Speaker 2>what do you mean live right? How is this going
<v Speaker 2>to happen? Well, I'm gonna be doing this on blog
<v Speaker 2>talk Radio. Now, many of you have maybe listen to
<v Speaker 2>blog talk Radio. Maybe you haven't. Maybe you don't know
<v Speaker 2>what it is. Basically, it's a live call in format
<v Speaker 2>and uh, here's the number. This is not for our
<v Speaker 2>mail bag by the way, this is only for the
<v Speaker 2>live format we're doing for for live shows this week,
<v Speaker 2>so don't confuse this with our mail bag number. The
<v Speaker 2>mail bag number is staying the same, okay. So that
<v Speaker 2>number is five one six, three, eight seven, one four
<v Speaker 2>four three again five one six, three, eight seven one
<v Speaker 2>four four to three. Now why that number is important
<v Speaker 2>is not just for Monday Night Raw, my Monday Night
<v Speaker 2>Raw review, but also because I will be doing a
<v Speaker 2>live show format next Saturday night and Sunday night. I'll
<v Speaker 2>talk about that in a minute. But again nine pm.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't give you the time nine pm on Tuesday
<v Speaker 2>evening nine pm Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, I'll be
<v Speaker 2>doing a Monday Night Raw review. Five one six, three,
<v Speaker 2>eight seven, one four four three is the number. Call
<v Speaker 2>in and give me your thoughts on Monday Night Raw.
<v Speaker 2>If we don't have any callers, that's cool, Like I mean,
<v Speaker 2>I'm just getting started on that. On that format, it
<v Speaker 2>is not a free format, so I don't I don't
<v Speaker 2>usually stick around too long. So if I don't have
<v Speaker 2>any guests or callers, I'll just be super embarrassed and
<v Speaker 2>I won't do it again. Of course I'm joking. I
<v Speaker 2>don't really care because I want you guys to call in.
<v Speaker 2>But at the same time, I mean, I run shows
<v Speaker 2>solo all the time and it's no problem, So it's
<v Speaker 2>just an opportunity for you guys to call in. So
<v Speaker 2>that is Tuesday, nine pm Eastern satday time with that
<v Speaker 2>number to call in. Then Wednesday will be again nostalgia
<v Speaker 2>and your mail bag as normal. Thursday is going to
<v Speaker 2>be a much needed breather for yours truly. But we
<v Speaker 2>have our great co host of Zach Smith and Mimi
<v Speaker 2>covering Awn NXT. Friday starts the Insanity. Friday, I'll be
<v Speaker 2>doing a preview and prediction show with Mimi and maybe
<v Speaker 2>another co host. We're working things out, but Friday will
<v Speaker 2>be a preview and prediction show Saturday Saturday night, immediately
<v Speaker 2>following WrestleMania. I don't have an exact time set up yet, obviously,
<v Speaker 2>because we don't know when we're gonna be going live,
<v Speaker 2>but I'll be bringing on the Botch Guy. YouTube's The
<v Speaker 2>Botch Guy. Go follow him on YouTube. For goodness sakes,
<v Speaker 2>search the Botch Guy. Hilarious, really up to date with
<v Speaker 2>all this stuff. Go follow the batch Guy on YouTube
<v Speaker 2>and get yourself up to date. But he'll be joining
<v Speaker 2>me Saturday night and Sunday night for the WrestleMania reviews,
<v Speaker 2>two nights in a row, back to back. The Botch
<v Speaker 2>Guy will be right here in a live format. So
<v Speaker 2>that's why I said the number is important. I'll be
<v Speaker 2>going live on a blog talk radio with the YouTube's
<v Speaker 2>The Botch Guy. Five one six three eight seven one
<v Speaker 2>four four three. That's the same number I gave you,
<v Speaker 2>so that's not changing as the Botch Guy will be
<v Speaker 2>joining us here on the WWE podcast each night of
<v Speaker 2>WrestleMania right after the show. Again, we don't have an
<v Speaker 2>exact time, but usually within a half hour of the
<v Speaker 2>show ending, we go live. So of course, keep up
<v Speaker 2>to date with our Twitter at wrestle Underscore Audio and
<v Speaker 2>on Instagram at ww Underscore podcast, or email us at
<v Speaker 2>Real ww podcast at gmail dot comfo comments, questions, suggestions, whatever.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, that is the WrestleMania schedule. It's gonna
<v Speaker 2>be a long it's going to be a fun one.
<v Speaker 2>My voice is probably going to be non existing by
<v Speaker 2>Sunday night, but we're gonna have of last. I'm looking
<v Speaker 2>forward to it. All right. Well, guys, it's time enough
<v Speaker 2>of this rambling and housekeeping stuff, important housekeeping stuff. I
<v Speaker 2>don't want to dismiss it. Let's get into the content.
<v Speaker 2>Let's get into Michael Gross and myself discussing everything you
<v Speaker 2>can think of that is happening right now in WWE
<v Speaker 2>to WrestleMania and beyond right now. So everybody, thank you,
<v Speaker 2>take care, I'll be back very soon. You'll be tired
<v Speaker 2>of hearing from me, and as always, i'll talk to
<v Speaker 2>you next time. All right, welcome to the WWE Podcast.
<v Speaker 2>It is your week in review, and what a week
<v Speaker 2>this is going to be. It is officially WrestleMania Week. Guys,
<v Speaker 2>whether you love it or whether you hate it, this
<v Speaker 2>is the week that we live for as wrestling fans,
<v Speaker 2>at least in theory. So I'm really pleased to be
<v Speaker 2>welcoming back the Gardner Michael Gross to the show to
<v Speaker 2>discuss everything WrestleMania Raw, smack Down with me here and
<v Speaker 2>kick off wrestle Mania Week. Right.
<v Speaker 1>How you doing, Michael, I'm excellent. How about yourself, sir,
<v Speaker 1>I'm tired, just like yourself.
<v Speaker 2>But we're good. We're running on adrenaline and whatever drink
<v Speaker 2>is in front of us with me right now is water.
<v Speaker 2>And I am really excited to be talking about WrestleMania
<v Speaker 2>with you. While while the card you and I agree
<v Speaker 2>isn't exactly the strongest, and we'll discuss that. I am
<v Speaker 2>excited to at least discuss the details of how we're
<v Speaker 2>getting to WrestleMania and the storylines individually. So I'm good.
<v Speaker 2>But let's let's talk about a couple of things before
<v Speaker 2>we get there, and that is the passing of Blade Braxton.
<v Speaker 2>So let me toss that to you. What are your
<v Speaker 2>thoughts about this? When did you learn about it? What's
<v Speaker 2>going on?
<v Speaker 1>Well? I found out about Blade Blade Braxton passing earlier
<v Speaker 1>this week. Actually, you and I text each other back
<v Speaker 1>and forth about it. And if a lot of listeners
<v Speaker 1>are not familiar with mister Braxton, he was part of
<v Speaker 1>the Wrestle Crap website, which is something I fell in
<v Speaker 1>love with many many years ago. I've bought a couple
<v Speaker 1>of their books. Between he and R. D. Reynolds, who
<v Speaker 1>runs Wrestle Crap, they did the book a list they
<v Speaker 1>did the actual wrestle crap book. It was great. It
<v Speaker 1>was the best of the worst, and it was so hilarious.
<v Speaker 1>It went beyond just you know, your typical negativity it was.
<v Speaker 1>It was actually incredibly funny. And I don't know all
<v Speaker 1>these circumstances surrounding his death, but I know that the
<v Speaker 1>pro wrestling world lost one heck of an analyst who
<v Speaker 1>was brilliant, He was funny, and he gave it as all.
<v Speaker 1>I never listened to his show. I know that he
<v Speaker 1>had his own kind of podcasting, and I know that
<v Speaker 1>he and R. D. Reynolds worked on a lot of things.
<v Speaker 1>But as a person who loves wrestling as you, I
<v Speaker 1>think it is sad and I wish his family the best.
<v Speaker 1>I wish everybody who knew him the best in a
<v Speaker 1>recovery time. But we all lost somebody who was who
<v Speaker 1>was great, who was really funny and very entertaining, and
<v Speaker 1>it's it's to me just tremendously hurting wrestling as we
<v Speaker 1>know it right now.
<v Speaker 2>It does. And yes, this wasn't somebody that was a
<v Speaker 2>performer or wrestler, but but he's part of the wrestling community.
<v Speaker 2>We're all a part of this family of wrestling analysts
<v Speaker 2>or reporters, whatever you want to categorize us as. And yeah,
<v Speaker 2>we're we compete with one another, but we're all generally
<v Speaker 2>in that same boat of trying to make a living,
<v Speaker 2>trying to just give our opinions. We love wrestling, That's
<v Speaker 2>what we all share. And I'm with you. The wrestling
<v Speaker 2>crap dot Com that he started was it was a
<v Speaker 2>big deal. I mean, he was at I believe he
<v Speaker 2>was even at Starcast at one point. Yes, yeah, so
<v Speaker 2>a big, big deal. Sad, and you know, I really
<v Speaker 2>do want to wish that the family and friends, you know,
<v Speaker 2>my condolences and certainly so, you know, but switching gears
<v Speaker 2>to to something else. I also, per your knowledge, have
<v Speaker 2>gotten insight into the IWGP.
<v Speaker 1>Title.
<v Speaker 2>We got the Intercontinental and World title that have united.
<v Speaker 2>And what does that look like?
<v Speaker 1>It looks like a heart. It is the ugliest belt
<v Speaker 1>I've seen in a long time. It looks like the
<v Speaker 1>old Divas Championship. And a lot of people have been
<v Speaker 1>blowing up Twitter with it. And it's it's Coda Aboushi's
<v Speaker 1>first reign. And this is a guy that is synonymous
<v Speaker 1>with IWGP wrestling. It's a lot of funny. It's hold on,
<v Speaker 1>let me try this again. It is really funny to
<v Speaker 1>me that a lot of people in America know him
<v Speaker 1>as a guy from the Cruiserweight Classic. They don't realize
<v Speaker 1>that he's beyond that. He's incredibly talented, the guy shredded, ripped,
<v Speaker 1>and he's getting his first championship, he's unifying two titles,
<v Speaker 1>and they give him one of the ugliest titles I've
<v Speaker 1>ever seen in my life. I've seen some ugly titles before,
<v Speaker 1>but dear lord, this thing, it doesn't take the cake,
<v Speaker 1>but it is pretty bad. It is really high up
<v Speaker 1>there on the what were you thinking? Scale? So if
<v Speaker 1>you folks haven't had a chance to take a look
<v Speaker 1>at this belt, New Japan has really outdone itself with
<v Speaker 1>Oh my dear lord, why did you do this belt? Belt?
<v Speaker 2>So what should fan those are listening that are like, wait,
<v Speaker 2>what do I google search? What would you tell them
<v Speaker 2>to google search to see this championship?
<v Speaker 1>Just just google search IWGP Heavyweight Championship. It's the brand
<v Speaker 1>new championship and it should come up with a picture
<v Speaker 1>of Coda Abushi and you're just gonna look at and
<v Speaker 1>say what were they thinking? Like why? Why? Yes? Isn't it.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, guys, please see this belt.
<v Speaker 1>It's half of a belt. It's funny because I I
<v Speaker 1>like the a W Championship, just a ginormous gin Normo's
<v Speaker 1>belt with huge side plates and there there is no
<v Speaker 1>there's no continuity to the belt. It's it's hard to
<v Speaker 1>look at. You almost look at it like did did
<v Speaker 1>half the belt break? Like you're on your way out
<v Speaker 1>the door? Half it broke, But hey, we'll just show
<v Speaker 1>you this half. That's what it kind of looks like
<v Speaker 1>to me. So it is. It is. It is pretty
<v Speaker 1>pretty ugly. So I just want to also mourn the
<v Speaker 1>loss of the old iw GP championship. Yes, absolutely, Wow,
<v Speaker 1>this is the first time while I'm talking to you
<v Speaker 1>that I'm seeing this because I wanted to google it
<v Speaker 1>as everyone else can while they're probably you know, at
<v Speaker 1>their computers or wherever they may.
<v Speaker 2>Be able to see this. Holy uh yeah, this is bad.
<v Speaker 2>This is bad. It does look like the old Devas Championship.
<v Speaker 2>Whoever it was inspired by the Devas Championship that was
<v Speaker 2>so beloved, So I mean they're just missing butterflies.
<v Speaker 1>So exactly. It really does look like some if a
<v Speaker 1>heart and a Butterfly had a child and it was
<v Speaker 1>made out of metal. That belt is that love child?
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this is this is a pretty rough one, no
<v Speaker 2>doubt about it. I mean when you look at the
<v Speaker 2>old one and the new one next to one another,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's it's an abomination. I mean, that's just
<v Speaker 2>the way it is. And I know a lot of
<v Speaker 2>times championships the look of them, don't you know. I'm
<v Speaker 2>not really necessarily a belt guy because to me, what
<v Speaker 2>it means and represents is worth more than what it
<v Speaker 2>looks like. But sometimes the look of it can overshadow
<v Speaker 2>what it actually is is viewed as value wise, and
<v Speaker 2>this is tough, Yeah, no doubt.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yes, absolutely absolutely.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, I want to move on to WrestleMania
<v Speaker 2>because that's what we're here to talk about, and of
<v Speaker 2>course Monday net Ron and SmackDown, And before we get
<v Speaker 2>into those details, I want to ask you. While I
<v Speaker 2>know that you aren't super high in this year's WrestleMania
<v Speaker 2>as many fans are, I think in your boat, are
<v Speaker 2>you at least excited for real human beings to be
<v Speaker 2>in attendance to voice their opinions to WWE You know.
<v Speaker 1>This is a mix back to me, and I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>tell you why we are going to have so many
<v Speaker 1>piped in reactions and piped in sound. I don't know
<v Speaker 1>if it's going to drown out the people or not.
<v Speaker 1>And I think it's going to be very interesting to
<v Speaker 1>hear all these cheers when the people behind you you
<v Speaker 1>can not necessarily hear them booing, but see their reactions.
<v Speaker 1>I'm curious to see how this is going to be
<v Speaker 1>pulled off. Because WWE now no longer has their way
<v Speaker 1>with making you cheer or making you boo who they want,
<v Speaker 1>You're gonna have human beings there. It makes me wonder
<v Speaker 1>are they gonna have signs even Let's look at the
<v Speaker 1>most basic T shirts? Okay, are they gonna wear aw
<v Speaker 1>T shirts? Are they gonna make you wear WrestleMania T shirts?
<v Speaker 1>Are they gonna make you turn your T shirt inside
<v Speaker 1>out if it says something they don't like? I'm really
<v Speaker 1>curious besides what the restrictions are, how the people are
<v Speaker 1>gonna react, Are they gonna cheer, are they gonna are
<v Speaker 1>they gonna make any sound at all? You know, they
<v Speaker 1>used to say that what would kill a wrestler's career
<v Speaker 1>is if the people sat on their hands, so to speak.
<v Speaker 1>They don't cheer, they don't clap, they don't boo, they
<v Speaker 1>don't do anything. It's like they care less. How are
<v Speaker 1>the people going to react, how the spectator's gonna react.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's not necessarily knowing if you're gonna react as
<v Speaker 1>much as are they gonna care to react? Are they
<v Speaker 1>used to having the reaction spoon fed to them? So
<v Speaker 1>are people even gonna mug for the camera? This is
<v Speaker 1>gonna be very interesting the first couple rows of people
<v Speaker 1>and the way they act. Are they just gonna be
<v Speaker 1>goofy just to see themselves on TV? So I'm it's
<v Speaker 1>it's almost worth me watching WrestleMania just to see how
<v Speaker 1>people are going to act more than what the reaction
<v Speaker 1>is going to be, If that makes any sense.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's really that's a good point. And I think
<v Speaker 2>that while if you're down on the WrestleMania card, I
<v Speaker 2>know a lot of people are. And some of the
<v Speaker 2>storylines are just ridiculous and how they're happening. Shane McMahon's
<v Speaker 2>braun Strowman, it's childlike how this storyline came together. And
<v Speaker 2>we'll get to that, but outside of that, even if
<v Speaker 2>you're down on the card the return of the biggest
<v Speaker 2>superstar of all time, which is the fans, how do they,
<v Speaker 2>like you said, how do they react? Listening to the
<v Speaker 2>fans throughout the entire show is going to be if
<v Speaker 2>you're bored with whatever's going on and you don't like
<v Speaker 2>the outcome, that's going to be the most interesting to me.
<v Speaker 2>If you don't like the you know, the actual match
<v Speaker 2>that's happening, you can listen to the crowd. But as
<v Speaker 2>you said, does WWE not want to let go of
<v Speaker 2>that playing odd type of control that they've had over
<v Speaker 2>the last year of being able to push a button
<v Speaker 2>and get the reaction that they want. Are they gonna
<v Speaker 2>let go of that? If the fans start yelling or
<v Speaker 2>booing who they want to cheer and cheering who the
<v Speaker 2>they want to boo? I would hope that WWE does
<v Speaker 2>not put any artificial reaction into the into that pay
<v Speaker 2>per view. I think that would that's a that's disrespect
<v Speaker 2>to the fans. I know what fake crowd noise sounds like.
<v Speaker 2>We've heard it for the last year, So if they
<v Speaker 2>try that crap, it'll be very easily recognizable. I've heard it.
<v Speaker 2>We all know what fake booze and cheers sound like.
<v Speaker 2>It's not quite authentic. It doesn't have that same sound
<v Speaker 2>as real in life, live in person people. So I'm
<v Speaker 2>gonna be listening for that, that that little kind of
<v Speaker 2>oh well, I hear booze, but are they trying to
<v Speaker 2>drown it out with their cheers? I mean I have
<v Speaker 2>a keen ear for that, and I think a lot
<v Speaker 2>of fans that you do, and probably the fans that
<v Speaker 2>listen to this show have that keen sense of wait
<v Speaker 2>and as something's not right here.
<v Speaker 1>Well, if you overrule the live crowd with your own
<v Speaker 1>piped in noise, what is that going to do? And
<v Speaker 1>what kind of a template does that set going forward
<v Speaker 1>for more live crowds. Are people going to get fed
<v Speaker 1>up with it? What kind of attendants will you draw
<v Speaker 1>after that? Once you can start drawing attendance, if they're
<v Speaker 1>just going to feed you the reaction continually as if
<v Speaker 1>you're not there, do you really want to be there?
<v Speaker 1>In person? So this is going to set a lot
<v Speaker 1>of precedents all the way around.
<v Speaker 2>It's not sold out either, and I know the ticket
<v Speaker 2>prices are through the roof, and this is in secondhand prices.
<v Speaker 2>This is like through Ticketmaster. The prices are insane. So
<v Speaker 2>I would hope that the people going to this, you
<v Speaker 2>would think that they're not just going to go there
<v Speaker 2>to just sit on their hands. You would think these
<v Speaker 2>are the most passionate of passionate fans that maybe have
<v Speaker 2>been vaccinated. They just want to get out. They want
<v Speaker 2>to voice their opinion after being silent to WWE for
<v Speaker 2>a year, and that WW just says, you know what
<v Speaker 2>guys have at it, tell us what you really think
<v Speaker 2>is going on, and you will let it come through.
<v Speaker 2>And I hope that's the case. I hope that the
<v Speaker 2>energy is through the roof. Yes, it's only a third
<v Speaker 2>capacity of the building, so that the noise won't be
<v Speaker 2>as loud as it could be, which it does hurt
<v Speaker 2>a little, But at the same time, twenty five thousand
<v Speaker 2>people can make a lot of noise, there's no question.
<v Speaker 2>And I hope the people spending this amount of money
<v Speaker 2>to go to wrestlemainting, which, by the way, each ticket
<v Speaker 2>you buy is for a separate night, it's not for
<v Speaker 2>both nights, and the rates are through the roof. You
<v Speaker 2>got to get airfare most likely you have to get hotels,
<v Speaker 2>like people are going to be spending thousands of dollars
<v Speaker 2>even not for ringside seats, just for you know, the
<v Speaker 2>run of the mill if you want both nights, you know,
<v Speaker 2>mid level seats. So I would think you're not going
<v Speaker 2>to go there to just send in your hands. So
<v Speaker 2>I'm hopeful. Oh, anybody listening, if you're going, please voice
<v Speaker 2>your opinions to WWE. So all right, I want to
<v Speaker 2>get into, of course, something else that's going on, and
<v Speaker 2>probably the biggest news of the week is the dissolution
<v Speaker 2>of the Hurt Business. And I'll stop there and got.
<v Speaker 1>It's like you read my mind, because that's what really
<v Speaker 1>where Honestly, this is really where I wanted to start.
<v Speaker 1>First of all, you and I always talk about organic
<v Speaker 1>situations and what comes natural and momentum, and that the
<v Speaker 1>dreaded word. We always talk about momentum, I know. And
<v Speaker 1>the thing is, the Hurt business is the most organic
<v Speaker 1>thing that they've created over the past year. It is
<v Speaker 1>a heal faction that did and made good on every
<v Speaker 1>promise they had and they were over. They had heal heat,
<v Speaker 1>they had heal momentum. And if people wonder what I'm saying,
<v Speaker 1>heal Momentum is like a team like like the old
<v Speaker 1>Midnight Express. I know, I'm going to old school and people,
<v Speaker 1>but it's a team that not only got booed, but
<v Speaker 1>they won a lot, and they won a lot against
<v Speaker 1>top tier teams. And that's something for you to believe in,
<v Speaker 1>whether it be by you know, interference from a manager,
<v Speaker 1>or whether it be by just sheer dominance or in
<v Speaker 1>their case just out wrestling or luck of the draw.
<v Speaker 1>But the point is that they won. So it wasn't
<v Speaker 1>always okay, they're going against the top babyfaces, they're gonna lose.
<v Speaker 1>It wasn't as always predictable. You had a dog in
<v Speaker 1>the fight. Anytime the hurt business was in there, you
<v Speaker 1>had a dog in the fight. And so watching them
<v Speaker 1>and watching MVP really really at the top of his
<v Speaker 1>game in a managerial role, even as when he was
<v Speaker 1>transitioning from the player coach situation. For them to always
<v Speaker 1>do what they were doing was great and to dissolve
<v Speaker 1>something that it was selling T shirts, it was doing
<v Speaker 1>everything that you wanted to do with heels. And you
<v Speaker 1>didn't spoon and feed it to us. You didn't force
<v Speaker 1>it down our throats, you didn't tell us to doo it.
<v Speaker 1>We caught on. You know. The one thing I will
<v Speaker 1>say about the Hurt business that they did wrong is
<v Speaker 1>that a heel is not supposed to have fans. But
<v Speaker 1>in this day and age, everybody has a fan, no
<v Speaker 1>matter who you are, and I was a fan everybody.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know people who weren't a fan of the
<v Speaker 1>Hurt business. You had something great going, Why dissolve something great?
<v Speaker 1>It makes no sense to me. It is a top
<v Speaker 1>story because honestly, this was one of the hottest things.
<v Speaker 1>One of the reasons that I wanted to turn on
<v Speaker 1>Raw was to see what they were doing, to see
<v Speaker 1>Shelton and c get the tag titles back, because they
<v Speaker 1>never should have lost them to begin with. And I
<v Speaker 1>don't even know what's going on with that with WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>because of my work schedule and being so busy. I
<v Speaker 1>just know that I saw something. I saw the biggest
<v Speaker 1>travesty in wrestling over the past week, and that was
<v Speaker 1>the disillusion of the Hurt business. That's really what it was.
<v Speaker 2>It pissed off a lot of fans and myself, and
<v Speaker 2>I mean, this was just it wasn't It wasn't the
<v Speaker 2>worst thing I've ever seen but it's one of the
<v Speaker 2>worst decisions I've seen ww make in a couple of years,
<v Speaker 2>I think, to dissolve the Hurt business so soon, and
<v Speaker 2>I went back and I wanted to see exactly how
<v Speaker 2>long they've been together. And they actually came together on
<v Speaker 2>May eleventh of twenty twenty and they were dissolved on
<v Speaker 2>March twenty ninth, So they got a ten month run
<v Speaker 2>roughly of the Hurt business. And you know, I don't
<v Speaker 2>know what is it is with WWE and their inability
<v Speaker 2>to sustain factions for more than really a few months,
<v Speaker 2>And in this case, ten months is a long time
<v Speaker 2>with what they've done in the past with Andrade and
<v Speaker 2>austin Aires and Selena Vega, that group that was together
<v Speaker 2>that they could never get off the ground that was dissolved.
<v Speaker 2>You have Seth Rollins have his group that yeah, aop
<v Speaker 2>got injured and then they you know, went, yeah, they went,
<v Speaker 2>They're gone. They that group didn't stick together. And then
<v Speaker 2>then you have Buddy Murphy trying to get back with
<v Speaker 2>Seth Rowlins. It's bizarre now he's kind of in and out.
<v Speaker 2>Then you had King Corbin kind of have subjects. Then
<v Speaker 2>they were like they left WWE cannot keep a faction,
<v Speaker 2>whether it's by design or whether it's just by bad
<v Speaker 2>luck or injury. This was clearly not either of those.
<v Speaker 2>This was a creative decision to break them up, and
<v Speaker 2>it was to me a bad decision. Now. The only
<v Speaker 2>the only thing, as I'm trying to spin this in
<v Speaker 2>a positive light, which is not easy to do, because
<v Speaker 2>I want to be very clear, I completely disagree with
<v Speaker 2>this decision as it stands right now, and I hope
<v Speaker 2>I'm proved wrong in a couple of months where I'm like, oh, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>I see why they broke them up, but I have
<v Speaker 2>no faith in WW because they have not given me
<v Speaker 2>a reason to ever think that way. But the only
<v Speaker 2>thing I'm thinking is what their mind is, in their
<v Speaker 2>creative reasoning, is let's break them up, because right now
<v Speaker 2>the focus is on Bobby Lashley's champion, and we want
<v Speaker 2>him to again in their minds, retain at WrestleMania and
<v Speaker 2>then possibly go on to be a huge babyface champion
<v Speaker 2>with maybe a double turn of with Drew and Lashly
<v Speaker 2>at WrestleMania. Now, again, a lot of ifs there, I understand,
<v Speaker 2>there's tons. I understand that, But what my thought is
<v Speaker 2>when you're a babyface, you don't need a stable behind you.
<v Speaker 2>You know, usually you're on your own fighting the world. Typically,
<v Speaker 2>I understand that there's acception, but typically when you're a
<v Speaker 2>big baby face champion and you've proven yourself you are
<v Speaker 2>a legitimate badass, you don't need backup. So perhaps they're
<v Speaker 2>laying the groundwork for Bobby Lashley to go off on
<v Speaker 2>his own and just be that monster with MVP as
<v Speaker 2>his mouthpiece. Is that possible or was this just nowhere
<v Speaker 2>near there?
<v Speaker 1>It's possible, just not probable. The fact is MVP is
<v Speaker 1>a great mouthpiece and Bobby Lashley needs him because you
<v Speaker 1>could tell by his pro manra Bobby Lashley is not
<v Speaker 1>a speaker. He's not a great order. He's not even
<v Speaker 1>a good order. He is a downright terrible order. Now
<v Speaker 1>would I say that to his face? No? Would I
<v Speaker 1>say that to his face behind five inch glass? No? Okay,
<v Speaker 1>because he'll come through there and he's gonna hurt me.
<v Speaker 1>But I don't want to see double turn. I want
<v Speaker 1>to see Bobby Lashley the way he is, because the
<v Speaker 1>best way I could put is, like you look at
<v Speaker 1>somebody like Apaula Cruise, also like let's flip the coin
<v Speaker 1>they smile too much, which they they there's there's something
<v Speaker 1>kind of generic as a babyface, but you can buy
<v Speaker 1>him as a heel. And while I like the fact
<v Speaker 1>that Bobby Lashley is the centerpiece and the focal point,
<v Speaker 1>you can still do that with the group. You look
<v Speaker 1>at DX, they had a long run and while the
<v Speaker 1>incarnation you know, starting off as Sewn Michaels and Triple H,
<v Speaker 1>but you also had a world champion in there, and
<v Speaker 1>they didn't break them up. It was only injuries that
<v Speaker 1>broke them up until later down the road, and then
<v Speaker 1>they boiled down to an upper mid card tier act
<v Speaker 1>until Triple H eventually broke free. But then you had
<v Speaker 1>Evolution later on, which they stuck together and everybody held
<v Speaker 1>that title at one point or another. So you can
<v Speaker 1>do this. You just you don't have to break them
<v Speaker 1>up right away, and you can still have Lashly as
<v Speaker 1>the focal point. I mean, look back to the old
<v Speaker 1>Four Horsemen. Rick Flair was the focal point and it
<v Speaker 1>but you still had the supporting cast. And this was
<v Speaker 1>a very close to me. The Hurt business could have
<v Speaker 1>built up to the next version of Evolution. I don't
<v Speaker 1>think anybody will ever be the next version of the
<v Speaker 1>Four Horsemen, but you have to have different versions of
<v Speaker 1>different generations worth or or being in the same vein
<v Speaker 1>as something okay, And I feel that the Hurt business
<v Speaker 1>could have been that. In fact, I wanted to see
<v Speaker 1>the Hurt business the either one more one more stable member.
<v Speaker 1>I would love to have seen why, whether it be
<v Speaker 1>a female or a male, one more person in there
<v Speaker 1>and let it ride out another year. You can do
<v Speaker 1>other things with it, you know. The of course, the
<v Speaker 1>trick is what do you do with Lashley as the champion?
<v Speaker 1>But we can you know, we can talk about that
<v Speaker 1>more and more once you get past the obstacle for WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 1>But the fact is you could have kept them together
<v Speaker 1>and there's not going to be a double turn if
<v Speaker 1>you do it. Nothing that absolutely WrestleMania will be oxymoronic
<v Speaker 1>at that point. There's just no chance of a double
<v Speaker 1>turning if they do. I see people people canceling Peacock
<v Speaker 1>at that point because it's just way too confusing. Everything
<v Speaker 1>is way confusing going into this mania. But that would
<v Speaker 1>just be the icing on a really bad cake.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I hear you, and Peacock in and of itself
<v Speaker 2>is a mess, right, I mean, I don't know, maybe
<v Speaker 2>we're just so used to the WW network format, but
<v Speaker 2>I gotta say, Peacock, it seems to have most things,
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't have everything. And I guess the rumor is
<v Speaker 2>that they are going to take out certain storylines and
<v Speaker 2>video footage that they deem is inappropriate. Now, I mean
<v Speaker 2>that's the thinking to kind of go along with, you know,
<v Speaker 2>all the other political things going on. Take that for
<v Speaker 2>what you will, but I am I just I'm not
<v Speaker 2>following the logic. To me, the upside of dissolving the
<v Speaker 2>HERT business does not nearly outweigh the downside of dissolving
<v Speaker 2>the HURT business. And I think I probably answered my
<v Speaker 2>own argument about the possible double turn at WrestleMania because
<v Speaker 2>Bobby Lashley was firmly, firmly placed as a heel the
<v Speaker 2>last couple of weeks, putting up Bounty Andrew McIntyre's head,
<v Speaker 2>which is completely unlike Bobby Lashley. I mean, he was
<v Speaker 2>he was on his own, he didn't need help. He
<v Speaker 2>was in the most intense we've ever seen him. He
<v Speaker 2>was literally dominating. It wasn't cheating to win. And then
<v Speaker 2>he needs suddenly he suddenly needs help. He needs to
<v Speaker 2>put a bounty on people's head. So that to me,
<v Speaker 2>that that signifies that you are establishing this person as
<v Speaker 2>a heel. And you, inexplicably, by the way, this past
<v Speaker 2>week have Baron Corbin from SmackDown, which was never explained
<v Speaker 2>coming to Monday Night Raw. This wasn't the court of
<v Speaker 2>the Invitational, This wasn't the you know, the wild card rule.
<v Speaker 2>This was just well, it's wrestlemany season, No one cares,
<v Speaker 2>and we don't have another heel to work with. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>that's the only reason that that is the reason why
<v Speaker 2>which WWE can never stick with their own rules with
<v Speaker 2>a brand split. That's another rant for another day. But
<v Speaker 2>I just to me, this was this was just a
<v Speaker 2>bad call. I don't see the big upside on this.
<v Speaker 1>So no, you're absolutely right. And like I said, I
<v Speaker 1>wish they would have added another person to the herb
<v Speaker 1>business and just just kept it going. I really think
<v Speaker 1>that that. I don't want to say, you know, lightning
<v Speaker 1>in a bottle, but they had something and it was organic,
<v Speaker 1>and like I said, they came together. MVP made good
<v Speaker 1>on every promise that he gave you. You believed in it,
<v Speaker 1>I believed in it, and especially with Bobby Lashley having
<v Speaker 1>you know, the real background in Bellator and I've watched
<v Speaker 1>his fight. I mean, the guy is an animal. You
<v Speaker 1>have credibility all the way around. You've got a top
<v Speaker 1>tier heel. You don't have a flash in the pan.
<v Speaker 1>You don't. This isn't like you're let's throw of Shamus
<v Speaker 1>out there and hopefully it sticks kind of thing that
<v Speaker 1>you have something that works. So I don't want to
<v Speaker 1>use the term had because I really don't want to
<v Speaker 1>see him lose the championship and get caught in some
<v Speaker 1>mid card feud with Drew Gulak or something like that.
<v Speaker 1>And nothing against Drew, because I think he's a great performer,
<v Speaker 1>but he's not to that that caliber. I don't want
<v Speaker 1>to see somebody who had a world championship three weeks
<v Speaker 1>later going into the next pay per view going against
<v Speaker 1>somebody who doesn't matter over inconsequential things. I really want
<v Speaker 1>to see Bobby Lashly on his top game. So, you know,
<v Speaker 1>breaking up something this beautiful was just it was a disgrace.
<v Speaker 1>Like you said, We've seen worse decisions in our lifetime
<v Speaker 1>with wrestling, but this is probably the worst one. Of
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty one easily so far.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, And I know we're only four months in,
<v Speaker 2>but you know, I think this one will stand for
<v Speaker 2>a while. I mean I was, I was angry about
<v Speaker 2>the Iconics, which still doesn't make sense to me of
<v Speaker 2>their breakup, but I mean looking quite ahead to WrestleMania
<v Speaker 2>as we I want to kind of put a ball
<v Speaker 2>on this topic, because this is the topic you could
<v Speaker 2>dive into for forever. But I do want to ask
<v Speaker 2>you as we look towards WrestleMania. Yes, we still have
<v Speaker 2>one or more Monday Night raw in which things can
<v Speaker 2>be shaken up or directed one way or the other.
<v Speaker 2>But who do you think goes over in this? That's
<v Speaker 2>my first question to you. Who do you think goes
<v Speaker 2>over as champion? And also how are the fans going
<v Speaker 2>to react to this? Because I think the fans are
<v Speaker 2>going to have a tough time cheering one guy louder
<v Speaker 2>than the other. I think there's gonna be a lot
<v Speaker 2>of dueling with this. And the reason I think that is, yes,
<v Speaker 2>they're establishing Bobby as a heel, but I think fans
<v Speaker 2>are excited for Bobby. They want to see what he
<v Speaker 2>can really do and not just have a one or
<v Speaker 2>two month run, but rather a six to twelve month run.
<v Speaker 2>See what he can really do with MVP. We've seen
<v Speaker 2>Drew his champion. Yes, Drew didn't get that moment in
<v Speaker 2>front of fans, and I do feel for him on
<v Speaker 2>a human level, and I understand that. And the fans
<v Speaker 2>didn't also got robbed last year as everybody did of
<v Speaker 2>having that moment with Drew. But Drew was champion for
<v Speaker 2>the better part of a year. So it's kind of
<v Speaker 2>like fans are like, well, we've been there, done that.
<v Speaker 2>You know, Yeah, he's playing the face, but we do
<v Speaker 2>want we do want to see what Bobby can do.
<v Speaker 2>How do you think the fans are also going to react?
<v Speaker 2>So kind of a two part question.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, this whole thing's a mess, okay, because there is
<v Speaker 1>there is no loser in this situation. There is no
<v Speaker 1>bad guy. I mean, there's a heel, but there's no
<v Speaker 1>bad guy. There's no there's no situation where you don't
<v Speaker 1>want to cheer for somebody. You got to like Drew
<v Speaker 1>because he's coming to his own His only problem right
<v Speaker 1>now is he's starting to get into that sickly, surpy
<v Speaker 1>sweet kind of situation where he's he's getting two baby face.
<v Speaker 1>He's getting too I I'm I'll walk your dog and
<v Speaker 1>help your mother across the street. Almost it's it's they're
<v Speaker 1>starting to push that side of him. I don't want
<v Speaker 1>to see that, okay. I like I liked it when
<v Speaker 1>he first won the championship, when he was staring down
<v Speaker 1>brock Lesner. That kind of I wanted that Drew. I
<v Speaker 1>don't want to see him always in a kilt. You're
<v Speaker 1>not Roddy Piper, doesn't. We don't, we don't. I I
<v Speaker 1>I kind of miss the Spikey Jackie, even though you
<v Speaker 1>look like a giant version of Alistair Black. You know
<v Speaker 1>that's that's that's the Drew that that we like. That
<v Speaker 1>was the guy that came back that that they envisioned
<v Speaker 1>as a champion. So you know, I want to see
<v Speaker 1>the Scottish psychopath again, not the sexy scotsman. While it's
<v Speaker 1>kind of funny once in a while, I don't need
<v Speaker 1>to see this character evolve too much in one year.
<v Speaker 1>It it hurts him. Okay. With that being said, though
<v Speaker 1>he's still great and where he was over this past year,
<v Speaker 1>I do not see him winning this championship one it's
<v Speaker 1>Bobby's time two for him to hold the title three
<v Speaker 1>times in a year, in a year's time, not the
<v Speaker 1>same calendar year, but three times in a year. Especially
<v Speaker 1>that whole mess with Brandy Orton that we both agree
<v Speaker 1>made no sense, that whole hot potato thing. It makes
<v Speaker 1>him look like a champion who just can't hold you know,
<v Speaker 1>he's a drinker who can't hold his whiskey. It doesn't
<v Speaker 1>make sense, and we don't need that for him. If
<v Speaker 1>he doesn't win this, he needs the bulldoze over a
<v Speaker 1>couple of people. Maybe go to smack Down and work
<v Speaker 1>that returning program with Roman Reigns. That's where the money
<v Speaker 1>is gonna be for Drew McIntyre going down the Road. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>it's gonna be He and Rains, which that's your spoiler
<v Speaker 1>for our prediction for that one Going down the Road too.
<v Speaker 1>But so lastly, I really feel is gonna retain. Of course,
<v Speaker 1>it could be in the most crookeet of crooked manners.
<v Speaker 1>It could be from you know, any kind. That is
<v Speaker 1>where I was gonna go with this. Okay, So who
<v Speaker 1>is brock Lesner's best friend Paul him Ah, you're close.
<v Speaker 1>That's his second best friend, the guy he shared a
<v Speaker 1>room with all through Ohio Valley exactly, and who seems
<v Speaker 1>to be the person who's standing up to Bobby Lashley
<v Speaker 1>the most.
<v Speaker 2>Oh wow, I don't think anyone's calling that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it could right itself now. I've thought about this
<v Speaker 1>as I was rewatching raw today because I wanted to
<v Speaker 1>digest a little bit more and I thought, huh, wouldn't
<v Speaker 1>that be interesting? Now? Of course, without Paul Hayman, you
<v Speaker 1>can't really have brock Lesner because we all know he
<v Speaker 1>can't speak for himself and he gets way too frustrated.
<v Speaker 1>He needs brock Lesner, or excuse me, he needs Paul
<v Speaker 1>Hayman in real life too, to help control him and
<v Speaker 1>controls mood swings and the way he deals with management.
<v Speaker 1>So all the way around, I really hope brock Lesner
<v Speaker 1>comes back and we finally get that Bobby Lashley Versus
<v Speaker 1>brock Lesner match, which give me six months worth of
<v Speaker 1>it because there's ways to spin it and we can
<v Speaker 1>have so much fun with.
<v Speaker 2>That to happen. It's been teased on Twitter. I think
<v Speaker 2>that that's my early thought too, is that Drew loses here.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, if Drew wins, like you said, I won't
<v Speaker 2>hate it. I'm just gonna go kind of go ah cool, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>he's champion again. I won't be excited, I won't hate it.
<v Speaker 2>I'm just gonna go okay like it's and I don't
<v Speaker 2>want to feel that way. I think I'd be more
<v Speaker 2>excited if Bobby retained, and it's because of brock lesnar
<v Speaker 2>f fiv ing Drew McIntyre and leaving him all of
<v Speaker 2>the ring. And if Bobby wins that way, he wins
<v Speaker 2>that way. I understand that people want to see him
<v Speaker 2>go over clean, and I think he's capable from a
<v Speaker 2>character perspective of going over clean. But I think that
<v Speaker 2>if you're gonna make a Bobby Lashley and Bobby Lashley
<v Speaker 2>and brock Lesner program, that that has to happen. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>he's gonna help Bobby retain, but it's in revenge for
<v Speaker 2>what Drew did to him last year. And yeah, you
<v Speaker 2>could do a triple threat with these three. I mean
<v Speaker 2>that that is. I mean a triple threat would be
<v Speaker 2>SummerSlam or an extra's WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 1>But it would have to be But that's it's a
<v Speaker 1>whole lot of big boys in the ring. Wow. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>so that's a hoss match. That's a hoss match and
<v Speaker 1>a half right there.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, like legitimate badass guys, not people playing wrestlers,
<v Speaker 2>Guys that I would not want to be at a
<v Speaker 2>dark alley with. I mean, they aren't just playing anything,
<v Speaker 2>they are real.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, absolutely, absolutely, one hundred percent agree. But that's
<v Speaker 1>that is what I thought of, and I couldn't wait
<v Speaker 1>to talk to you about that because with Shelton Bedgment
<v Speaker 1>being Lesner's best friend in real life, and a lot
<v Speaker 1>of people don't know this, but Shelton Benjamin getting signed
<v Speaker 1>was a key because Brock Lesner basically when he was
<v Speaker 1>brought into Ohio Valley Wrestling many many years ago, he said,
<v Speaker 1>as long as you bring in this guy, Shelton Benjamin
<v Speaker 1>and you keep us together in some form that I'll
<v Speaker 1>sign with you. A lot of people don't know that.
<v Speaker 1>So this is this, This could be the conduit. But
<v Speaker 1>also it's also wishful thinking. Let's be also honest here.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, I think it's wishful thinking, but I don't think
<v Speaker 2>it's good. Come completely impossible. I mean, if if Vince
<v Speaker 2>writes enough, zero's on the check, I think Brock could
<v Speaker 2>be swayed to leave his home that he's sheltered in
<v Speaker 2>Montana with uh to to come out of the woodwork
<v Speaker 2>and and and come back for a massive payday or two.
<v Speaker 1>That.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, that's right up Brock's alley. So I think
<v Speaker 2>that it's I think it's possible. I just don't think
<v Speaker 2>it's probable. So I wouldn't be shocked, but I also
<v Speaker 2>wouldn't be, you know, really disappointed if it doesn't happen,
<v Speaker 2>because I don't think that it will. Smart money says
<v Speaker 2>probably not. But I think there's maybe like a one
<v Speaker 2>in five chance of Brock of that coming out.
<v Speaker 1>So well, it all comes down to the raw after WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 1>If they have, you know, another one of these raws
<v Speaker 1>where you're hovering at two mil or less, that check
<v Speaker 1>is going to come out pretty fast. That's supposed to
<v Speaker 1>it's supposed to be the biggest raw of the year,
<v Speaker 1>and you know, at least they'll get their wish, there'll
<v Speaker 1>be no beach balls. But I mean, if it's if
<v Speaker 1>it's still really pathetic and it's supposed to be the
<v Speaker 1>biggest raw of the year, then yeah, that check is
<v Speaker 1>going to be written pretty fast.
<v Speaker 2>It'll be from Yeah, that's what stinks. Yes, we have
<v Speaker 2>fans back the WrestleMania. That's great, twenty five thousand fans
<v Speaker 2>a night if it gets sold out, which it hasn't yet,
<v Speaker 2>which tells you people are I think a little hesitant
<v Speaker 2>from COVID and they're also like, I'm not spending that
<v Speaker 2>much money to go here, and the card's not as
<v Speaker 2>strong as it should be to spend that money. I
<v Speaker 2>think a lot of factors there, but sadly, the Monday
<v Speaker 2>night rafter WrestleMania, it doesn't. It's gonna be from the
<v Speaker 2>award winning and critically acclaimed Thunderdome. But that's it, and
<v Speaker 2>that that stinks. I really really love the atmosphere of
<v Speaker 2>the Monday night ro after WrestleMania. It is pay per
<v Speaker 2>view worthy and it's really a rough ride that we're
<v Speaker 2>not gonna be able to see and hear those fans.
<v Speaker 2>But all right, well, I do want to move on.
<v Speaker 2>And this is completely shifting gears to smack Down. Now.
<v Speaker 2>I'll jump back and forth, but this is the next
<v Speaker 2>thing I had on my list. SmackDown next week is
<v Speaker 2>having something called WrestleMania SmackDown, where they're gonna be basically
<v Speaker 2>giving you the pre show of WrestleMania, the matches they
<v Speaker 2>didn't really want to put on the pay per view
<v Speaker 2>that they don't feel deserved, the PA that they're just
<v Speaker 2>gonna stick on SmackDown next week. One of them is
<v Speaker 2>a fatal four way for the SmackDown tag team titles
<v Speaker 2>and the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal You. I
<v Speaker 2>mean again, I don't know how many thoughts you have
<v Speaker 2>on this SmackDown WrestleMania SmackDown, but I didn't know if
<v Speaker 2>you caught that.
<v Speaker 1>No, I saw that. And first of all, the tag
<v Speaker 1>titles should be defended on WrestleMania. All titles should be
<v Speaker 1>defended on WrestleMania. That's the point of having a title.
<v Speaker 1>It's supposed to be prestigious, so it takes away from
<v Speaker 1>it if you're defending the day before or the last
<v Speaker 1>go home show. It just it's it's demeaning to it's
<v Speaker 1>demeaning to anybody who's worked very hard to get these
<v Speaker 1>titles and try to add prestige to especially when titles
<v Speaker 1>are meaning less and less these days. But we're gonna
<v Speaker 1>have great matches, like you know, Bad Bunny in the news.
<v Speaker 1>And the other part is, I you know, I really
<v Speaker 1>can't wait to tune in to see that Andre the Giant,
<v Speaker 1>you know, Memorial Battle Royal. I just can't wait to
<v Speaker 1>see what inconsequential wrestler is gonna win it this year
<v Speaker 1>and how their career is gonna flounder media. You know,
<v Speaker 1>why don't we just call it the Mediocrity Bow Royal? Now,
<v Speaker 1>enough of doubting it. Unless something really really amazing happens,
<v Speaker 1>It's it's just gonna be another SmackDown. It's just gonna
<v Speaker 1>have a Bottle Royal. I've seen a Bottle Royal a
<v Speaker 1>million times, so I don't see this musty TV unless
<v Speaker 1>something amazing happens with those tag titles and somehow another
<v Speaker 1>match gets added to WrestleMania, which probably will not happen.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not excited for that SmackDown. It's just another show.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's a grasp at straws, just to make the
<v Speaker 1>people of Fox happy going into WrestleMania. When you've got
<v Speaker 1>what looks like, we both agree, a pretty weak WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>coming up. And if you can't get very or higher ratings,
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't have to be very high, just anything above,
<v Speaker 1>you know, try to fill up the bucket. The goal
<v Speaker 1>is to fill up the bucket. You can't have it
<v Speaker 1>overfill at this point. If you can't get at least
<v Speaker 1>normal ratings for what they paid a billion dollars for
<v Speaker 1>you to be on their network, for going into your
<v Speaker 1>biggest show of the year, I'd be afraid I was
<v Speaker 1>going to get canceled. So this is grasping at straws.
<v Speaker 1>To me, that's what all the SmackDown is going to be.
<v Speaker 1>How about you?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this is nothing more Like I said, it's a
<v Speaker 2>glorified pre show, but under the SmackDown label it is.
<v Speaker 2>It's what they wanted to you know. They they gave
<v Speaker 2>us a bone and said, hey, this is WrestleMania SmackDown.
<v Speaker 2>That's not a thing. It's either SmackDown or it's WrestleMania,
<v Speaker 2>Like you can't tell us one when it's really the other.
<v Speaker 2>They're trying, and I understand what they're doing. They could
<v Speaker 2>have just said pre WrestleMania SmackDown. That's true, but there's
<v Speaker 2>no such thing as WrestleMania SmackDown, so combining the words
<v Speaker 2>doesn't make it true, although they're trying to make it true.
<v Speaker 2>It's a SmackDown. Like, I'm not gonna go with WrestleMania
<v Speaker 2>SmackDown it is just SmackDown. They're giving us the matches
<v Speaker 2>that they would have put on the pre show. And
<v Speaker 2>it's even to me, this is even worse than putting
<v Speaker 2>it on the pre show, because they're telling us it's
<v Speaker 2>not worth the pre show of WrestleMania. It's even worse.
<v Speaker 1>It's a burial. It's a burial of anybody who's worked
<v Speaker 1>this hard that they're getting pushed. They're getting pushed off
<v Speaker 1>of the biggest show of the year. So this logan
<v Speaker 1>Paul whoever the heck he is and Bad Bunny can
<v Speaker 1>be on it, who will never see a wrestling ring
<v Speaker 1>in their lives again?
<v Speaker 2>And well, I was gonna get to that, and I'll
<v Speaker 2>actually get the logan paula just a second, but I
<v Speaker 2>will say, you know that we don't know for sure
<v Speaker 2>that these individuals aren't going to be on WrestleMania. Although
<v Speaker 2>the Andre the Giant memorial about a road and once
<v Speaker 2>you do that, that's over. You can't do it again.
<v Speaker 2>But perhaps there's another SmackDown tag team title match at WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 2>Something wacky happens on SmackDown, some kind of shady business
<v Speaker 2>and Adam Pierce says, no, no, no, at WrestleMania, you'll
<v Speaker 2>be competing in at a fatal four way ladder match.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, you know, maybe maybe something like that happens.
<v Speaker 2>So we can't completely write off the SmackDown tag team
<v Speaker 2>titles as not being on WrestleMania because we don't have
<v Speaker 2>the final final card. But this would tell me if
<v Speaker 2>it has the WrestleMania label that they're trying to say,
<v Speaker 2>we're just getting this out of the way. It's not
<v Speaker 2>deserving of the pay per view at all. Like most
<v Speaker 2>likely we're probably right. So but Logan, Paul, I mean,
<v Speaker 2>I want to ask you about that. I mean, you
<v Speaker 2>have no idea who he is. I actually did. I'm
<v Speaker 2>a I'm not a big fan of his as far
<v Speaker 2>as like I don't watch his stuff on YouTube. I
<v Speaker 2>knew he was on if those of you that remember
<v Speaker 2>the Vine app, it was like that six second looping
<v Speaker 2>video app from several years ago that was huge before TikTok.
<v Speaker 2>He got really big on Vine and then he had
<v Speaker 2>some bad publicity a number of years ago for going
<v Speaker 2>into It was a forest or a park in Japan
<v Speaker 2>where people will notoriously take their own lives, and he
<v Speaker 2>was making fun of it, and you know, cracked a
<v Speaker 2>couple of jokes and people lost their minds, and he
<v Speaker 2>he apologized, but of course things were not good for
<v Speaker 2>him for a year or two, and he came out
<v Speaker 2>of that, right, you know, he came out of it
<v Speaker 2>at least enough for WW to say things are probably
<v Speaker 2>good now. And he's He's got twenty some million subscribers
<v Speaker 2>on YouTube, so I know who the dude is. I
<v Speaker 2>don't follow his stuff religiously at all, but I honestly
<v Speaker 2>I'd rather deal with him than Bad Bunny because at
<v Speaker 2>least this this guy has a boxing somewhat of a
<v Speaker 2>boxing career. He actually is really athletic. He could take
<v Speaker 2>a bump or two, and he doesn't make me want to,
<v Speaker 2>you know, punch my TV screen like Bad Bunny does
<v Speaker 2>when he comes on. So there is at least that.
<v Speaker 2>But at the end of the day, you know, Michael,
<v Speaker 2>I know that WWE will never make their celebrities look
<v Speaker 2>bad at a show. They will not take a bump.
<v Speaker 2>If they do, they'll end up winning a match anyway.
<v Speaker 2>So am I wrong in that? Do you think there's
<v Speaker 2>any chance of Logan, Paul or Bad Bunny losing their.
<v Speaker 1>Matches, only they wrestle each other. That's I mean, that's
<v Speaker 1>that's the way it goes. And it's it's so sad.
<v Speaker 1>You're absolutely right that it's it's demeaning to somebody, like
<v Speaker 1>like anybody in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
<v Speaker 1>who their whole life wanted to be a professional wrestler.
<v Speaker 1>Went to school, taking the beatings, broken their bones, taking
<v Speaker 1>their bruises, went to the hospital for everything that they
<v Speaker 1>believed in because they had one true vision, one true dream.
<v Speaker 1>And then you have these people who got famous doing
<v Speaker 1>other things that really don't have any business being there whatsoever.
<v Speaker 1>The day for pageantry and celebrities has come and gone.
<v Speaker 1>It came and gone, It came and went after the
<v Speaker 1>third wrestleman Ia. They should have stopped there. They should
<v Speaker 1>have put a bullet in it. But instead they still
<v Speaker 1>have this vision that you know, you could put Alan
<v Speaker 1>Thick in there and people are gonna care. No, they're not.
<v Speaker 1>And for me, somebody who eats, sleeps, and breezes wrestling
<v Speaker 1>as much as you do, and as long as I've
<v Speaker 1>been watching it, it continues to get worse every year.
<v Speaker 1>Now that we don't even have I don't want celebrities.
<v Speaker 1>Let alone, we're getting b team celebrities. I don't care
<v Speaker 1>who Bad Bunny is and how many records he sells. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>you know, one of my favorite bands is Faith No More.
<v Speaker 1>Mike Patton has the best vocal range of all time
<v Speaker 1>that a lot of people don't know that you know.
<v Speaker 1>And yet if he was at Wrestlemingia, I would not
<v Speaker 1>be happy about it because he has no business in
<v Speaker 1>a wrestling Yeah, you know, and I don't care if
<v Speaker 1>you know, if they brought Ken Shamrock back, Yes he was.
<v Speaker 1>He wrestled there at one point, and he did this,
<v Speaker 1>he did that, and he was UFC. But at this
<v Speaker 1>point he's not part of the product, and he's well
<v Speaker 1>into his fifties and it would have no bearing on
<v Speaker 1>the long term. So just to put these people over.
<v Speaker 1>People aren't gonna this isn't. Let me. Let me try
<v Speaker 1>this again, because I'm gonna get ahead of myself and
<v Speaker 1>start stuttering like I always do. But this isn't in
<v Speaker 1>the eighties when they said, oh my gosh, Muhammad Ali
<v Speaker 1>or Liberaci's there, and people talk about what were they on, Oh, WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 1>Let's watch a replay those days have come and gone.
<v Speaker 1>People now are gonna say, oh, we can watch a
<v Speaker 1>clip on YouTube, it's free, and that's if they really
<v Speaker 1>want to. And how much of a fan are you
<v Speaker 1>of that particular celebrity that you're really gonna watch this?
<v Speaker 1>If you're not a fan of wrestling, you are not.
<v Speaker 1>So it's doing nothing but just driving driving the hardcore
<v Speaker 1>fan away instead of attracting the casual fan.
<v Speaker 2>I think, and I'm trying to come up with the
<v Speaker 2>time in which a celebrity coming in for WrestleMania actually
<v Speaker 2>worked in any kind of way. I can only come
<v Speaker 2>up with a couple. Number one Tyson. Tyson was probably
<v Speaker 2>the best of all time in terms of getting eyeballs
<v Speaker 2>on the product that cross over from the boxing world,
<v Speaker 2>which was actually still pretty alive back in the late nineties,
<v Speaker 2>because Tyson was Mike Effing Tyson coming to WrestleMania, which
<v Speaker 2>was you know, the attitude era. Vince going for broke
<v Speaker 2>on bringing in Tyson. That's when Eric Bischoff on his
<v Speaker 2>podcast has said, when they when he heard that Vince
<v Speaker 2>brought in Tyson, he goes, he knew that everything he
<v Speaker 2>goes that was it, Like he knew in that moment
<v Speaker 2>that when WW brought in Tyson, he goes, we're done,
<v Speaker 2>and he knew that at the time. But I would
<v Speaker 2>think that's one that is probably the biggest and most
<v Speaker 2>well known actual celebrity that brought it was brought in
<v Speaker 2>and it worked. The other one, I mean, Drew Carey
<v Speaker 2>coming in, Pete Rose coming in, but that's royal rumble.
<v Speaker 2>I'm trying to think of anything at WrestleMania. I don't
<v Speaker 2>know if I can. Mickey Rourick punching out Jericho, bad
<v Speaker 2>Snooky in a ring, bad Floyd Money Mayweather. It worked
<v Speaker 2>to a degree. I think they miscast him as a babyface.
<v Speaker 2>I mean you hear the crowd they were cheering for
<v Speaker 2>big show that was I think it over delivered, but
<v Speaker 2>it still made the celebrity look like a million bucks,
<v Speaker 2>and I can't stand when they do that. I just
<v Speaker 2>I don't know any other example other than Tyson. Can
<v Speaker 2>you WrestleMania won, mister T. Mister T, Yes, yes, mister T.
<v Speaker 1>Because I mean, obviously the A team was hot. It
<v Speaker 1>was a crossover to mainstream audiences. It was the beginning
<v Speaker 1>of the global domination. It made sense Mike Tyson because
<v Speaker 1>the biggest thing about Mike Tyson. It wasn't the fact
<v Speaker 1>that it was he was the basest man on the planet.
<v Speaker 1>He had already lost a few fights. Of course he'd
<v Speaker 1>whip anybody. Is the fact that he could do anything
<v Speaker 1>he wanted, and he's legitimately not all all there. So
<v Speaker 1>you didn't know if you didn't know if he was
<v Speaker 1>gonna bite someone deer off, you didn't know if he
<v Speaker 1>was gonna break character and go after Steve Boston lay
<v Speaker 1>him out. Then again, boxing's one thing. You don't know
<v Speaker 1>if Steve Austin's gonna, like, you know, pull your legs
<v Speaker 1>out from underneath you. So it's it's it's one of
<v Speaker 1>those things where there was an actual feeling of unpredictability.
<v Speaker 1>Oh my gosh, he'll do anything he wants. He's told
<v Speaker 1>to do this, but will he do it? And that's
<v Speaker 1>why it sold so well. And he can back it up,
<v Speaker 1>and especially without gloves on, if he hits you, he's
<v Speaker 1>breaking you open. So you know, there were so many
<v Speaker 1>factors with Tyson, so many factors with with mister T
<v Speaker 1>because it was the first couple WrestleMania's and you know,
<v Speaker 1>mister T. It's funny because when you look back at
<v Speaker 1>some of that stuff. He was smaller than Piper. He
<v Speaker 1>was actually the smallest guy in those rings. Not to
<v Speaker 1>say he was a tiny guy by any stretch, but
<v Speaker 1>he was because I mean it was pre steroid testing
<v Speaker 1>and such, you know, it was it was a different time,
<v Speaker 1>Let's let's put it that way.
<v Speaker 2>And so he.
<v Speaker 1>Was like smaller than a lot of them. But it
<v Speaker 1>it made sense with the crossover, and of course they
<v Speaker 1>had hul Cogan on the A Team episodes and things
<v Speaker 1>like that, so that made sense. But Mayweather did nothing
<v Speaker 1>for me. That was just when I knew when to
<v Speaker 1>take my bathroom blaze break. Acubono did nothing for me.
<v Speaker 1>That was just that was just the terminology I want
<v Speaker 1>to use for the sake of our listeners and keep
<v Speaker 1>this safe from work, I will not use. But it
<v Speaker 1>was just terrible, so bad. Bunny's got not going to
<v Speaker 1>do anything in this this logan, Paul, He's not going
<v Speaker 1>to do anything for it either.
<v Speaker 2>It's and I understand from a business perspective, I get
<v Speaker 2>what they're doing. I understand the train of thought of
<v Speaker 2>bringing in other celebrities or other mainstream YouTubers, which is
<v Speaker 2>really how most people, at least in the social media
<v Speaker 2>world gain their fame, and especially with the younger audience,
<v Speaker 2>there's a lot of people now that grow up and
<v Speaker 2>they're like, I want to be a YouTube star. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>instead of like, hey, I want to be an engineer,
<v Speaker 2>I want to be a firefighter, I want to be whatever.
<v Speaker 2>People like, gen Z is like, hey, I want to
<v Speaker 2>be a YouTube star, Like I want to be YouTube famous.
<v Speaker 2>That I mean, that's that's today's world. At the same time,
<v Speaker 2>you can make a lot of money if you are
<v Speaker 2>successful on YouTube, but it's a fraction of a percent
<v Speaker 2>of people who do. But that's the that's the thinking,
<v Speaker 2>that's the drive for a lot of the gen Z,
<v Speaker 2>which I'm a millennial. I'm not a gen Z, so
<v Speaker 2>I don't know if that's good or bad. But anyway,
<v Speaker 2>I know we've kind of strayed here a little bit.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, the celebrity bringing into WrestleMania is it's a
<v Speaker 2>conversation that we could dive into more. But I want
<v Speaker 2>to bring it back to a little bit from Let's
<v Speaker 2>see where do I go here? Oh, the women's tag
<v Speaker 2>team titles from SmackDown. I know this is also kind
<v Speaker 2>of another mess and it was it seems as if
<v Speaker 2>they're going the way of a multi woman match at WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 2>I don't see anything on the card yet. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>it looks like that's probably gonna be the case where
<v Speaker 2>it's like a I don't know. Basically, if you're a
<v Speaker 2>tag team in the women's division, you get an opportunity
<v Speaker 2>at the championship at WrestleMania. That's probably what this is
<v Speaker 2>gonna be. It all ended in Natalia and Temina, who
<v Speaker 2>got a new look, and I like it. An Italian Tamina,
<v Speaker 2>who have been dominant in the last several weeks, stood
<v Speaker 2>tall again this past week after the the run in,
<v Speaker 2>after running after run in, and I believe the original
<v Speaker 2>match was Natalia, uh facing, I'm sorry, it wasn't known
<v Speaker 2>with an Italian or Temina versus Shanna Basler. I don't
<v Speaker 2>know which. I thought it was Italia, Yeah, versus Shanna Basler,
<v Speaker 2>which Italia, and oh yeah it was because they did
<v Speaker 2>the reversal into the reversal, into the versal into the
<v Speaker 2>reversal exact, yeah, and Italian ended up getting the pin
<v Speaker 2>and so and then everything broke down. What is your
<v Speaker 2>what's your thoughts on the women's tag team title situation.
<v Speaker 1>Well that that whole scramble on SmackDown was a mess.
<v Speaker 1>That was just a mess. I mean, okay, we get
<v Speaker 1>you have like twelve women's tag teams, but not a
<v Speaker 1>one man's tag team that are men's tag team that's
<v Speaker 1>gonna stick together. I can't figure that one out. Of course,
<v Speaker 1>you're gonna break them up anyway, no matter who they
<v Speaker 1>are and what tag team. But if if Natalia and
<v Speaker 1>Tamina get the rub, I would like that. I don't
<v Speaker 1>know if Timina's ever held a title. She definitely has
<v Speaker 1>the talent and and she she has the strength. She's
<v Speaker 1>a brick of a female. I don't mean that in
<v Speaker 1>a demeaning way. I mean, if you're gonna believe that
<v Speaker 1>someone's gonna hurt Shanna Basler, to mean as you you know,
<v Speaker 1>that's that's your person right there. She looks strong, she
<v Speaker 1>is strong, and Shanna Basler I mean I I I
<v Speaker 1>don't know a whole lot of guys that really want
<v Speaker 1>to mess with her, let alone a whole lot of females.
<v Speaker 1>And of course Naya Jack's is you know, small and
<v Speaker 1>limit lineage. So you need a great tectician in in
<v Speaker 1>Natalia uh Tmina as the brawler, I've got something I
<v Speaker 1>can buy in as far as going Aunt Shana and
<v Speaker 1>Nya Jacks, I do kind of see the title switching
<v Speaker 1>hands here because I feel that they're gonna turn Jack's
<v Speaker 1>and uh Basler on each other because they don't know
<v Speaker 1>what else to do with them, and especially three or
<v Speaker 1>Ripley being on the on the main roster, now, Basler
<v Speaker 1>has been pushed a little bit further down the top tier.
<v Speaker 1>Even though I think she's still top tier, she's been
<v Speaker 1>pushed down a little bit. As far as night Jack's
<v Speaker 1>being floating around the top. I think her her days
<v Speaker 1>at the top, she's upper mid card at best. So
<v Speaker 1>the two of them are gonna have to go face
<v Speaker 1>to face and then evasually eventually elevate Basler. So I
<v Speaker 1>really see the title switching hands, And honestly, I'd say
<v Speaker 1>that's good for Temina because I've always saw her as
<v Speaker 1>somebody who's underappreciated, and I just think, especially with everything
<v Speaker 1>with her dad for the last couple of years, her
<v Speaker 1>life was kind of a mess and she was just
<v Speaker 1>always in the wrong place the wrong time, and always
<v Speaker 1>stuck in the wrong mini factions. So why not give
<v Speaker 1>her a shot because I think she has the goods
<v Speaker 1>and with the right promotion, it can go. You know,
<v Speaker 1>it could be a nice, a nice little run and
<v Speaker 1>let's see where it goes. I mean, why not. As
<v Speaker 1>far as the other team's in it, I mean Dana Brook,
<v Speaker 1>who I'm a big fan of. Once again, she's she's
<v Speaker 1>being pushed down further Mandy Rose. They don't seem to
<v Speaker 1>know what to do with. I'm a huge fan of
<v Speaker 1>the Riot Squad, you know that, And I'm hoping that
<v Speaker 1>the Riot Squad get that that underdog build that it
<v Speaker 1>might It might have taken two years, but when we
<v Speaker 1>get that payoff, it's gonna be a real organic payoff,
<v Speaker 1>and I really hope. So aside from that, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know why Naomi and Lana are still employed.
<v Speaker 1>And I don't mean that in the mean way. Naomi
<v Speaker 1>has never Naomi has never done anything for me. If
<v Speaker 1>you want to talk about a wrestler who wrestles scripted,
<v Speaker 1>she is one hundred percent scripted. In that ring. You
<v Speaker 1>can always tell everything she does. You can almost see
<v Speaker 1>her mouth, counting her steps before she does a move.
<v Speaker 1>As far as Lana goes, Lana is meant to be
<v Speaker 1>on the outside, not in the inside. That's not me
<v Speaker 1>being demeaning. It's just the fact that she's not a
<v Speaker 1>good wrestler. She should never have been in the ring.
<v Speaker 1>She is more a mouthpiece, which now that she's lost
<v Speaker 1>the accent over well over a year now, there's more
<v Speaker 1>to do with her that way. I think she would
<v Speaker 1>be better replacing Charlie Caruso as a backstage interviewer than
<v Speaker 1>she is an on screen performer.
<v Speaker 2>That look, I think that if I'm at WrestleMania and
<v Speaker 2>I'm trying to test the crowd or get a sense
<v Speaker 2>of who they're probably going to support during that match,
<v Speaker 2>I think the Ride Squad is far and away who
<v Speaker 2>they would support. I think the Ride Squad are out
<v Speaker 2>of all those teams that you mentioned, because it's probably
<v Speaker 2>going to be a all hands on deck. Every tag
<v Speaker 2>team gets a shot here. I think that the Ride
<v Speaker 2>Squad is going to be overwhelmingly the favorites of the
<v Speaker 2>of the in person crowd. So I'm excited to hear
<v Speaker 2>them actually get the support that they deserve, and that
<v Speaker 2>they don't even get a voice on SmackDown. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>they're barely on SmackDown as it is, and then when
<v Speaker 2>they are there, they don't get a voice to elevate themselves,
<v Speaker 2>to give them a chance to connect with the fans,
<v Speaker 2>give them a chance to explain who and what they are.
<v Speaker 2>And even when you do, in the rare instance here
<v Speaker 2>a promo, it's those promos that are pre taped, those
<v Speaker 2>like fifteen seconds pre tape promos after they've made their entrance,
<v Speaker 2>and then they play it like that's that. That doesn't
<v Speaker 2>count to me.
<v Speaker 1>I don't.
<v Speaker 2>Those are the most scripted awful. Just do a promo
<v Speaker 2>to meet a quota type of promos that you can
<v Speaker 2>possibly do. I think the Riot squad is far and
<v Speaker 2>away gonna be. I think the favorites and should be
<v Speaker 2>the favorites, and I'm excited to hear them get some
<v Speaker 2>support at WrestleMania. But to your point too about the
<v Speaker 2>women's division, I want to first touch on the smack
<v Speaker 2>that women's championship and then I'll move to the raw
<v Speaker 2>with Riear, Ripley and Osca. But first, the Bianca bel
<v Speaker 2>Air and Sasha Banks dynamic that's been going on over
<v Speaker 2>the last month two months now since Bianca won has
<v Speaker 2>been kind of kind of a friendly competition to a
<v Speaker 2>breakdown of you know, teasing, they're gonna get physical to Sasha,
<v Speaker 2>punking her out, slapping her, pushing her. Bianca stands there like,
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna be the bigger woman in points to the
<v Speaker 2>WrestleMania sign as if said some kind of revenge a
<v Speaker 2>couple of weeks ago, and then acknowledges that on her
<v Speaker 2>on her promo last week that Twitter really loved that one, which, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that was awful. By the way, how am I supposed
<v Speaker 2>to even care about a babyface if you can't stand
<v Speaker 2>up for yourself and then you tell me a lame
<v Speaker 2>excuse that you're gonna be the bigger woman nonsense? And
<v Speaker 2>then she does slap Sasha last week, gets the backstabber
<v Speaker 2>last week, and then this week it gets worse because
<v Speaker 2>Bianca bell Air was in a match with Carmela, beats Carmela.
<v Speaker 2>We can talk about Carmela on a side note too,
<v Speaker 2>But she gets an attempted backstabber from Sasha after the
<v Speaker 2>match and doesn't go after her, just stands there. I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>how am I supposed to get and look, I'm a
<v Speaker 2>Bianca bell Air fan. I do think she will win
<v Speaker 2>the championshipt Wrestleinni I think that's that's one of those
<v Speaker 2>matches that you think is a lock that she's gonna
<v Speaker 2>win the smack that Women's Championship. But I want to
<v Speaker 2>be able to feel like she can stand up for
<v Speaker 2>herself and not just have the idle threats. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>it's just don't make me. And I've said this before,
<v Speaker 2>but it's you look at her and you're almost thinking
<v Speaker 2>that she's gonna say to Sasha, don't make me do it.
<v Speaker 2>I'll point at that sign, Sasha, don't make me do it.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's it's embarrassed. How am I supposed to get
<v Speaker 2>behind her? I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe I'm making more If there's gonna be a double turn,
<v Speaker 1>this is going to be the match that there's a
<v Speaker 1>double turn, because it makes the most sense. Uh. The
<v Speaker 1>more you see it, the more Sasha looks like the dominant,
<v Speaker 1>justified person and Bianca looks more like a fool and
<v Speaker 1>more like she does everything out of frustration. And I'll
<v Speaker 1>be the bigger person by pointing to a sign. It's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I just want to scream in your face common sense.
<v Speaker 1>Do you have it? It's a rhetorical question because the
<v Speaker 1>answer is no. I I was a fan of Bianca
<v Speaker 1>in NXT, she got overexposed on the main roster. It
<v Speaker 1>was her time to win the Royal Rumble, sure, but
<v Speaker 1>the lead up to it, and especially the rumble it
<v Speaker 1>she has become very scripted also, and just being on
<v Speaker 1>every week, being always put in the top tier of
<v Speaker 1>any female match every week, it's it's she will win
<v Speaker 1>this championship. If she doesn't, it's going to be a
<v Speaker 1>huge shock to me. But I could see a double
<v Speaker 1>turn on this one and Sasha looking like a pot
<v Speaker 1>of gold and Beyonca looking like the heel and the
<v Speaker 1>bad person in this and with that, I can also
<v Speaker 1>see that leading to a street profit. It's a heel
<v Speaker 1>turn too, because it all goes hand in hand, you
<v Speaker 1>with being common knowledge that you know there's a relationship there.
<v Speaker 1>It all has to go together. It's kind of like
<v Speaker 1>you couldn't leave Renee Young alone when when Dean Ambrose
<v Speaker 1>was going crazy, so to speak, So you know, you
<v Speaker 1>might as well play to it and it might give
<v Speaker 1>a breath fresh air to the street profits. But we'll
<v Speaker 1>get to that in a minute. What's more important here
<v Speaker 1>is it's it's got to be a double turn for
<v Speaker 1>us to buy into why Beiyonca looks so foolish and
<v Speaker 1>just points out a sign and it's just always for
<v Speaker 1>straighted noise one step behind.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah yeah. And babyfaces should almost never be outsmarted
<v Speaker 2>by the heel, you know, like the baby faces should
<v Speaker 2>usually be, as a rule of thumb, smarter than the heels.
<v Speaker 2>You know, like that's how that that. You know, I
<v Speaker 2>don't want to feel that I'm rooting for a dumber person.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, just to really simplify it, and I feel
<v Speaker 2>like at times I am, and you know what, as
<v Speaker 2>I'm thinking about it, does is this really a lock?
<v Speaker 2>Is this really a lock? I don't know, because we
<v Speaker 2>would have said that last year about Becky and Shannon Basler.
<v Speaker 2>With Becky Lynch, we were like, oh, Shane Bazel was
<v Speaker 2>gonna win this, and then when Shane Bezeer lost, We're like,
<v Speaker 2>what what the f what?
<v Speaker 1>What?
<v Speaker 2>Why? Like people were ready for Becky to drop the belt.
<v Speaker 2>She was getting annoying and mock obnoxious, and we were like,
<v Speaker 2>people are starting to turn on her. You know, It's
<v Speaker 2>probably a good thing that they weren't in front of
<v Speaker 2>eighty thousand fans, because that would have been a rough day.
<v Speaker 2>At the office for Becky lynch Ye And I mean,
<v Speaker 2>there's so many times we've said that over the last year.
<v Speaker 2>But I you know, maybe we're being duped into this,
<v Speaker 2>Maybe we're we are being kind of uh directed to
<v Speaker 2>believe that she's gonna win this and Sasha does end
<v Speaker 2>up retaining. I mean, it's not a total impossibility, but man,
<v Speaker 2>oh man, this is uh. I'm just I can't find
<v Speaker 2>myself getting behind getting behind somebody that can't stand up
<v Speaker 2>for herself other than go mm mm girl and points
<v Speaker 2>at the sign, like, well, come on, do something I
<v Speaker 2>want you to. Don't just threaten. It's beyond the threatening
<v Speaker 2>and talking stage. Now we're a week away from WrestleMania. Like,
<v Speaker 2>show us that you have a pair and we know
<v Speaker 2>you do metaphorically, of course, we know that you do.
<v Speaker 2>Go and show us. Stop with the threats, and I'll
<v Speaker 2>wait till WrestleMania. I'm gonna take the high road. No, like,
<v Speaker 2>taking the high road will be actually standing up for yourself,
<v Speaker 2>not disrespecting yourself and your integrity by just threatening. At
<v Speaker 2>this point, we're beyond that. So that's how I feel
<v Speaker 2>about it.
<v Speaker 1>So it almost feels like third grade name calling. I'll
<v Speaker 1>get you later when the teacher's not around. But it's
<v Speaker 1>it's it's a false it's a false threat on Bianca's part,
<v Speaker 1>like she just she can't follow through. She just keeps
<v Speaker 1>looking like she has a egg on her face. Also,
<v Speaker 1>we said we touch on Carmela. What I'm gonna touch
<v Speaker 1>on with Carmela is please stop screaming. I'm Carmela. We
<v Speaker 1>know who you are, and there's no one for you
<v Speaker 1>to talk to. Carmelo's biggest attractor right now is the
<v Speaker 1>fact that she mugs for the camera, and she mugs
<v Speaker 1>for a crowd that's not there. It is really irritating
<v Speaker 1>to me. It gets under my skin when you're pretending
<v Speaker 1>to play to a crowd that we know is not
<v Speaker 1>there and not live. It just makes you look really foolish.
<v Speaker 1>With that being said, what I will say about her
<v Speaker 1>is while she is not top tier women's horseman material,
<v Speaker 1>every time she wrestles, she gives it her all, and
<v Speaker 1>every time she wrestles she gets a little bit better.
<v Speaker 1>Now she might be incrementally improving by baby steps, but
<v Speaker 1>I never get frustrated. Like when she first came out,
<v Speaker 1>it was like, Okay, this might be a bathroom break.
<v Speaker 1>She's as she keeps going on, she gets better in
<v Speaker 1>the ring. It's not it is not you know, the
<v Speaker 1>next coming in the dynamite kid. But she keeps getting better.
<v Speaker 1>She improves a little bit more, a little bit more,
<v Speaker 1>a little bit more. Yes, she's ridiculously attractive, but she's
<v Speaker 1>in my opinion, I think proving that, you know, she
<v Speaker 1>she's not just there for looks, so you know, while
<v Speaker 1>they've reinvented her and to keep going with you know,
<v Speaker 1>the Staten Island Princess, the glam Queen, everything else. I
<v Speaker 1>do see slight improvements with her all the time. So
<v Speaker 1>I want her to keep up that good work because
<v Speaker 1>who knows, in a couple of years she could be
<v Speaker 1>on that top level. She could be She could just
<v Speaker 1>keep taking those baby steps until it's a giant step.
<v Speaker 1>So good for her. That's what I have to say
<v Speaker 1>about Carma.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, no, I look, I am. I am a Carmela fan,
<v Speaker 2>and I was excited when they did those teasers of
<v Speaker 2>this blonde woman coming back and people were speculating, who
<v Speaker 2>is this, what's going on? And speaking of blonde women,
<v Speaker 2>I want to ask you about Charlotte and soon. But
<v Speaker 2>when I was. I was like, oh cool, they got
<v Speaker 2>you know, Reginald with her. She's they seems like she
<v Speaker 2>was repacking and she I think it was better on
<v Speaker 2>the mic than Sasha Banks was when they had their
<v Speaker 2>whole program together. I think she's underrated on the microphone. Honestly,
<v Speaker 2>I'm in the ring. I agree she is improving. I
<v Speaker 2>have no problems with her in the ring. Is she
<v Speaker 2>at that top, top, top, top top level. Probably not.
<v Speaker 2>She's she's so close though, I mean, she's she is improving,
<v Speaker 2>that's the that's key. And they've tweaked her character after
<v Speaker 2>she dropped Reginald now where they're doing this silhouette dance
<v Speaker 2>with her and she's wearing this, you know, very enticing
<v Speaker 2>outfit all that, which again I understand she's an extremely
<v Speaker 2>attractive woman. Corey Graves, I mean you had to basically,
<v Speaker 2>you know, pick take his drool cup off his desk
<v Speaker 2>because I know the guy, I mean, and he's legitimately
<v Speaker 2>probably drooling because of I mean, everything that we know
<v Speaker 2>about what's going on with them. But yeah, I just
<v Speaker 2>I feel like maybe she is relying a little bit
<v Speaker 2>too much on her sexuality in her character because it's yes,
<v Speaker 2>she's extremely attractive. Ninety five percent of the women in
<v Speaker 2>WWE are very attractive. That they are. They're you know,
<v Speaker 2>you could you could put them in a fitness in
<v Speaker 2>you know, fitness and wellness magazine and they would fit
<v Speaker 2>right in perfectly. But I don't. I'm not a fifteen
<v Speaker 2>year old boy anymore, and I don't think that's their
<v Speaker 2>core audience anymore, either where it's the attitude or and
<v Speaker 2>they're sexualizing all the women. Now, I'm not saying they're
<v Speaker 2>gonna have you know, playboy pillow fights with her at
<v Speaker 2>WrestleMania or whatever, or you know, lingerie pillow fights, whatever.
<v Speaker 2>What I'm saying is perhaps they tone down the sexuality
<v Speaker 2>a little bit and get to the core of why
<v Speaker 2>somebody should like or dislike her. I want to know
<v Speaker 2>more about Carmela. I want to know what makes her tick.
<v Speaker 2>We understand that she's extremely attractive. But when they go
<v Speaker 2>the road of making somebody accentuate their top half, their
<v Speaker 2>bottom half, their skin tight outfits. Even Sasha Banks does
<v Speaker 2>this at times, it's distracting. And yes, I'm a straight man,
<v Speaker 2>I'm a married man, but like I look at this,
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, oh, that's nice. But I don't watch wrestling
<v Speaker 2>for that, Like I don't watch wrestling for that. It's
<v Speaker 2>to me a distraction from what I should be paying
<v Speaker 2>attention to. And it's it's there, it's their their being,
<v Speaker 2>their essence there. Why should I care if you win
<v Speaker 2>or lose, not just ooh, eye Candy, that's nice, you know.
<v Speaker 2>And I feel like that's a very superficial thing to
<v Speaker 2>do with a character. Is was when you put those
<v Speaker 2>elements on that character of kind of over sexualizing them,
<v Speaker 2>especially this at this stage in the game in twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty one with the women.
<v Speaker 1>No, I agree because Carmela is in a unique situation
<v Speaker 1>where she can also get the dreaded O word organically
<v Speaker 1>over because they can keep slowly tweaking her character, slowly
<v Speaker 1>taking away some of the sexuality part of it. But
<v Speaker 1>the way she continues to improve, even if it's it's
<v Speaker 1>just tightening up some of them maneuvers or not taking
<v Speaker 1>too many steps to do something in the corner. You know,
<v Speaker 1>there's little things that she did in the beginning that
<v Speaker 1>she's so much better at now. And if she just
<v Speaker 1>keeps continuing her in ring, eventually it's gonna out. Uh,
<v Speaker 1>It's gonna outweigh the sexuality. I mean, I am not
<v Speaker 1>a married man, and yes I do enjoy the way
<v Speaker 1>she looks, but I rather watch Sasha Banks or or well.
<v Speaker 1>I also think she's ridiculous and beautiful light a Charlotte
<v Speaker 1>Flair match. Charlotte is amazing in the ring, okay, and
<v Speaker 1>while she's attractive, but she's not the most attractive woman
<v Speaker 1>in the world. To me. I love watching her wrestle,
<v Speaker 1>and so it Carmela has a chance to break through
<v Speaker 1>the ceiling and be known more for her in ring
<v Speaker 1>and less for her photo shoot and you know, play
<v Speaker 1>Playboy cover, you know, appearance. Now, with that being said,
<v Speaker 1>we also mentioned the name of Charlotte Flair, So why
<v Speaker 1>don't we talk about our good friend Charlotte Flair.
<v Speaker 2>So people have asked me this, and now it has
<v Speaker 2>come to light over the last couple of days that
<v Speaker 2>the reason she was out is a couple. It's twofold
<v Speaker 2>and maybe threefold. I'm sure it's not just a singular
<v Speaker 2>or two reasons. I think it's many. But here's what
<v Speaker 2>we know. That Number one, she did have COVID. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>that's the problem, right, they have COVID. She's been quarantined, fine,
<v Speaker 2>so does it? You know, Drew mcatyre did the same thing,
<v Speaker 2>although even when Dreamcatary had COVID, he was still chiming
<v Speaker 2>in every week whatever storyline he was doing, So there
<v Speaker 2>was that. So even if there are quarantining, we all
<v Speaker 2>have phones. They can you know, cut a piece of
<v Speaker 2>footage and send it to you know, production. So exactly,
<v Speaker 2>I'm thinking, well, what else is going on? I mean,
<v Speaker 2>just because she has COVID doesn't mean she can't be
<v Speaker 2>a part of the show still. And you know, so
<v Speaker 2>it has come to light that one of the doctors
<v Speaker 2>or somebody in WW thought that she was pregnant. Uh,
<v Speaker 2>and that turns out to not be the case, that
<v Speaker 2>she is not in fact pregnant. So if that's the case,
<v Speaker 2>and if the truth is that Charlotte Blair is not
<v Speaker 2>pregnant and this has just become news and it's true,
<v Speaker 2>then you would think perhaps perhaps they could slide her
<v Speaker 2>in to some kind of match at WrestleMania this Monday night.
<v Speaker 2>They still have one more show to go, is I mean,
<v Speaker 2>I'm sure creative there's always creative issues everyone, you know,
<v Speaker 2>no one's ever comeletely satisfied with creative as Jim Ross
<v Speaker 2>always says, it's one of the two seas cash or creative. Typically, yes, always,
<v Speaker 2>And you know when someone says it's not about the money,
<v Speaker 2>guess what it's about. But in this case, I'm sure
<v Speaker 2>it's partly creative COVID and the fact that they thought
<v Speaker 2>they were that she was pregnant and then she turns
<v Speaker 2>out she's not. So am I missing something else here?
<v Speaker 1>No? You know, there's been way too many rumors that
<v Speaker 1>circulate around this, plus the fact being involved Andrade who
<v Speaker 1>demanded his release, this could also be a punishment, which
<v Speaker 1>it's not her fault, you know, I believe this or not.
<v Speaker 1>I've had a girlfriend or two in my life and
<v Speaker 1>whatever they did didn't directly correlate to me in my
<v Speaker 1>you know, my job. So it's it's inane to punish
<v Speaker 1>her for for he asking for his release and getting it.
<v Speaker 1>But I've I've read everything from that to the pregnancy.
<v Speaker 1>Here's the thing with pregnancy. Either you are, you're not,
<v Speaker 1>you're not kind of pregnant. Okay, it's exactly. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>as a man who's expecting a child, I think you
<v Speaker 1>know this pretty well. Yeah, and so oh, you know,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's either you are or you aren't. And you know,
<v Speaker 1>the only other thing I could think is that that
<v Speaker 1>there could be another underlying health issue. Who knows, We
<v Speaker 1>don't know at this point. You and I don't know
<v Speaker 1>the other The other thing is Charlotte is so big,
<v Speaker 1>she's she is beyond top tier. She's in that like
<v Speaker 1>John Cena's status of females, where's she's gonna win ninety
<v Speaker 1>nine point nine percent of the time. She's also gonna
<v Speaker 1>give you a great match ninety nine point nine percent
<v Speaker 1>of the time. But you also have a have to
<v Speaker 1>have a great dancing partner. We can't have you in
<v Speaker 1>there against not to bag on Carmelo, who we just
<v Speaker 1>talked about and we both agree is is improving. But
<v Speaker 1>if we see Carmelo versus Charlotte on the books for
<v Speaker 1>us many, we already know who's gonna win. So how
<v Speaker 1>do you put Charlotte on a WrestleMania and make it must
<v Speaker 1>see TV. There's only one name out there that you
<v Speaker 1>could put her against and and make it at the
<v Speaker 1>last minute and make it must see TV, and that's
<v Speaker 1>Tessa Blanchern. Hmmm. That's it. That's the only person right
<v Speaker 1>now that you could say, Wow, this match just got
<v Speaker 1>added for me. Yes, I'm gonna tune in to see
<v Speaker 1>that between their fathers. It rights itself between what kind
<v Speaker 1>of in ring you're gonna get. It's gonna blow anything
<v Speaker 1>away that we've seen in a long time and the repercussions.
<v Speaker 1>It's gonna make us want to watch the fall on
<v Speaker 1>Fallout on a Monday or on a Friday. And it
<v Speaker 1>can last for a long time and it's fresh, it's
<v Speaker 1>brand new. We've never seen this. It's not the same
<v Speaker 1>rotation of the top tier women that is the only
<v Speaker 1>must see, last minute thing, and it just to have
<v Speaker 1>these two, give them, give me a best of seven
<v Speaker 1>between these two, I will not get bored of it.
<v Speaker 1>And it could headline or raw, It could headline a
<v Speaker 1>pay per view, it could headline anything. It can be
<v Speaker 1>must see TV.
<v Speaker 2>And that is certainly the one match that I think
<v Speaker 2>Charlotte needs to have before she hangs it up, and
<v Speaker 2>obviously I think she will. I mean, she's young enough.
<v Speaker 2>I think it'll happen. If those of you have not
<v Speaker 2>studied Tesla Blacher, please please, for goodness sake, just just
<v Speaker 2>do a little research, do some youtubing, and you'll understand
<v Speaker 2>why these two need to have a collision at some point.
<v Speaker 2>My only thought is, and people have been speculating this,
<v Speaker 2>including myself admittedly, as we roll into the Monday night
<v Speaker 2>Raw side of things with the Raw Women's Championship that
<v Speaker 2>you know, those of you breaking news who didn't know
<v Speaker 2>Raw does have a women's championship, it does exist. Rear
<v Speaker 2>Ripley versus OSCA is going to be the main event
<v Speaker 2>for the women's side, and is it possible? Well, Number one,
<v Speaker 2>of course, we can break down the rear Ripley Oscar story,
<v Speaker 2>which there isn't a whole lot to talk about other
<v Speaker 2>than what's happened last couple of weeks of just basically
<v Speaker 2>Oscar saying sure, but you're not ready for Oscar. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>that's the gist, guys, that's the gist.
<v Speaker 1>It is. It's but does.
<v Speaker 2>Problem. My final thing I was gonna say is, yes,
<v Speaker 2>I want to talk about that in one on one scenario.
<v Speaker 2>But also, is there any possibilities Charlotte gets thrown in
<v Speaker 2>this last second for a triple threat?
<v Speaker 1>No, I think if anything, if if, if she doesn't
<v Speaker 1>get thrown into a program with Tessa, it she could
<v Speaker 1>be thrown onto Raw, and that's how you could bring
<v Speaker 1>in Tesla, which I would really like. I think that
<v Speaker 1>to gain more momentum for Charlotte. A disgruntled Charlotte on
<v Speaker 1>Raw or SmackDown, whichever, talking about being left off of
<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania if she's having health issues, no matter what, she's
<v Speaker 1>not gonna be on there. Even if she if she's
<v Speaker 1>on commentary, I would still enjoy it, just because she
<v Speaker 1>can call moves pretty well. Actually she and she's really
<v Speaker 1>good on the mic. So I if there's any way
<v Speaker 1>that they can have her in some capacity, I think
<v Speaker 1>they will, But I don't think it's going to be
<v Speaker 1>in ring, and I kind of hope it's not. Be
<v Speaker 1>honest with you, i'd rather see Oscar versus Ray Ripley
<v Speaker 1>because it's fresh. I don't like the circumstances surrounding how
<v Speaker 1>you get a title shot, but which is something I
<v Speaker 1>really definitely want to delve into you with right now.
<v Speaker 1>But no, she's not going to be interjected into it.
<v Speaker 1>Who knows what's going to happen in twenty four hours
<v Speaker 1>from now or by the time people listen to this show.
<v Speaker 1>Things can change really fast. However, I don't see that happening,
<v Speaker 1>because I do think there might be a health issue,
<v Speaker 1>and if there's not, then the musty TV is Tesla
<v Speaker 1>Blancher definitely.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I guess I'll toss it back to you again,
<v Speaker 2>though I know, kind of quick. But I'm curious, what
<v Speaker 2>do you think about Oscar again? Assuming Charlotte is a
<v Speaker 2>non factor at WrestleMania, which again is a it's a
<v Speaker 2>blow to the women's division. But I'm sure some women
<v Speaker 2>are like, hey, fine, good. I mean, I'm sure some
<v Speaker 2>women are actually excited that it's not all about Charlotte
<v Speaker 2>Flair this year and that they get to maybe have
<v Speaker 2>a spot or an opportunity. So there is that like selfishly.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, you kind of have to be selfish in
<v Speaker 2>that business, and people say that all the time. So,
<v Speaker 2>assuming Charlotte is not a factor of WrestleMania, she doesn't
<v Speaker 2>exist real rially versus OSCA. Are you for this? How
<v Speaker 2>do you feel like it? How do you feel about
<v Speaker 2>the story they're telling about how it even came about.
<v Speaker 1>Well, the story's weak sauce, you know, it's it's it's
<v Speaker 1>not very good. That's the best way I could put it.
<v Speaker 1>You know, it's it's like taking one little piece of
<v Speaker 1>beef putting water and calling at a ju I'm not
<v Speaker 1>gonna put my prime rib in there. Sorry, guys, you
<v Speaker 1>know I had to have one at least in the show. Yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 1>It's it's very weak, you know. It's it's like me
<v Speaker 1>showing up in the crowd and saying I want to
<v Speaker 1>challenge somebody, which Lord knows, bad Bunny can do it.
<v Speaker 1>I don't see why I can't. But yet they didn't
<v Speaker 1>take my offer to be in the Royal Rumble seriously,
<v Speaker 1>so I don't see, you know, anything else happening anytime soon.
<v Speaker 1>So I don't like to build up, but I do
<v Speaker 1>like the potential of the match. What's what plagues my
<v Speaker 1>mind is what's gonna happen because it would be kind
<v Speaker 1>of redundant to have both women's titles change hands. So
<v Speaker 1>that tells me more than likely Oscar will retain, and
<v Speaker 1>if they do, it's gonna kill rear Ripley's momentum. So
<v Speaker 1>whichever female match happens first, we basically get the outcome
<v Speaker 1>of the second female's match predicted for us. So this, this,
<v Speaker 1>this is very pondering because you have two people who
<v Speaker 1>are supposed to be the up and coming hungry challengers,
<v Speaker 1>and if you, if you squash re Ripley at this point,
<v Speaker 1>I don't mean squash like squash match, but if you,
<v Speaker 1>if you, if she doesn't get her shot and follow
<v Speaker 1>through this time around, you're just cutting her legs off
<v Speaker 1>her before she ever had a chance to run. And
<v Speaker 1>that's just silly. Uh. We all wanted it last year
<v Speaker 1>and they took it away from her, So this it's
<v Speaker 1>really really silly if they do it again. With that
<v Speaker 1>being said, though, then that also predicts Bianca and Sasha,
<v Speaker 1>So I think it will be a really good match.
<v Speaker 1>I really do. I think the contrasts and styles will
<v Speaker 1>be fun. I really think that Osca needs to go
<v Speaker 1>back to the character she was in Japan more than
<v Speaker 1>she does being this pseudo crazy zudo diva. I don't
<v Speaker 1>know what she is. I really am having a hard
<v Speaker 1>time putting my finger on it. She's supposed to be
<v Speaker 1>kind of like the Great Muda with mist and such,
<v Speaker 1>but then she she screams like she's some crazy hillbilly
<v Speaker 1>on moonshine. I don't get it, and it's it. The
<v Speaker 1>more she does that, the more I disconnect from what
<v Speaker 1>potentially she the greatness that she could have. So the
<v Speaker 1>more they do that, the more she talks half cuts
<v Speaker 1>a promo, which kind of makes sense, and then all
<v Speaker 1>of a sudden does that speaking in Japanese and acting
<v Speaker 1>crazy and acting and it's not even a good crazy.
<v Speaker 1>It's not a I'm scary crazy. It's a I've had
<v Speaker 1>one too many to drink and I think my uncle
<v Speaker 1>can beat your uncle up kind of crazy. That's what
<v Speaker 1>it is, and that's what's detracting from her character. So
<v Speaker 1>I just want to see the wrestling. I'm in it
<v Speaker 1>for the wrestling. I'm for the inn ring. On this one,
<v Speaker 1>I think the inn ring is going to be the
<v Speaker 1>most fun as long as Oscar does more of her
<v Speaker 1>joint manipulation, more of her submission style and you know,
<v Speaker 1>uses the mist as a weapon, and you know, shows
<v Speaker 1>more of that female version of great Mooda as opposed
<v Speaker 1>to whatever they've been painting her for the last six months.
<v Speaker 1>Besides an absentee champion.
<v Speaker 2>Right well, in all fairness, yeah, she has been out
<v Speaker 2>and she got kicked in the face and not tooth
<v Speaker 2>knocked out. She had dental surgery. That I mean, I
<v Speaker 2>do understand that. I mean that is understandably she's not
<v Speaker 2>in on Raw for a couple of weeks, several weeks,
<v Speaker 2>three weeks, whatever it was for getting your you know,
<v Speaker 2>your front tooth kicked out. I totally get that. I
<v Speaker 2>mean that that is, that was brutal. You can't fake that.
<v Speaker 2>That was real. So, I mean, I've been a really, really,
<v Speaker 2>really a big critic of the fact that they have
<v Speaker 2>ignored the Raw Women's Championship for six months. There is
<v Speaker 2>no good reason for it. I don't want to hear that, well,
<v Speaker 2>we didn't want do We didn't have anyone for Oscat
<v Speaker 2>to challenge that could be a real threat. I don't care,
<v Speaker 2>Like that's how you help bring up new talent. Even
<v Speaker 2>if you don't plan on having her drop the belt,
<v Speaker 2>that's a relevant You could help bring up new talent
<v Speaker 2>in the process. And instead people just forgot that she
<v Speaker 2>was Raw Women's Champion at least at least that's how
<v Speaker 2>it was perceived on Raw. For six months, they haven't
<v Speaker 2>defended the championship. It's a crime. It's inexcusable about how
<v Speaker 2>WWE has handled the Raw Women's Championship. I don't want
<v Speaker 2>to hear any there's none, There is no excuse no
<v Speaker 2>good reason. It's not that Oscar has been involved in
<v Speaker 2>this personal storyline that's been mind boggling over the last
<v Speaker 2>six months, that you didn't need the championship there. No,
<v Speaker 2>it's been inexcusably embarrassing. But you have now Rea Ripley.
<v Speaker 2>They actually had these vignettes, They had the promos which
<v Speaker 2>I think were really well done about the Nightmare coming
<v Speaker 2>to Monday at Raw, coming soon, coming soon, coming soon,
<v Speaker 2>And I can't tell you the last time that they
<v Speaker 2>did something like this for the women, not Carmela doesn't
<v Speaker 2>count because it really wasn't done in the same type
<v Speaker 2>of tone that they did Reha Ripley for now. I
<v Speaker 2>love the way that they built her up and built
<v Speaker 2>her up as truly debuting on Raw and not just
<v Speaker 2>kind of like a one and done from NXT last year,
<v Speaker 2>you know, coming up with Charlotte. But this time, this
<v Speaker 2>is this is the real deal, real real Ripley. I
<v Speaker 2>think you see, you've seen a new and improved Ria
<v Speaker 2>Ripley from twenty twenty, and I'm loving what I'm seeing.
<v Speaker 2>I you know, you would think you would think that
<v Speaker 2>Ria Ripley would grab the championship here, but perhaps they
<v Speaker 2>don't perhaps Osca does pull out the miss, she goes
<v Speaker 2>full heel, she retains the championship, and it also puts
<v Speaker 2>the baby face in chase mode. That's always a good thing.
<v Speaker 2>I understand it's WrestleMania, but there hasn't been a bunch
<v Speaker 2>of tension between Osca and Rea Ripley that you're like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>I can't wait to WrestleMania until she finally climbs the
<v Speaker 2>mountain and beats Osca. It was thrown together real quickly.
<v Speaker 2>It's just a bunch of words, as you said, with
<v Speaker 2>Oscar screaming in Japanese as she does, and we're all
<v Speaker 2>waiting for the five English words so we can just
<v Speaker 2>understand the gist of what she's saying, which is usually
<v Speaker 2>you're not ready for Oscar. I mean that's the gist
<v Speaker 2>of about ninety five percent of her promos. And now
<v Speaker 2>we have Oscar versus Rhea Ripley, which, again, like you
<v Speaker 2>said to me, it's all about in ring here. I
<v Speaker 2>don't have a real attachment to the storyline, just excited
<v Speaker 2>for the wrestling. This could be the best match for
<v Speaker 2>the women on the show. Certainly Oscar and Bianca could
<v Speaker 2>put on I think a really good match too. It's
<v Speaker 2>gonna be it's gonna be a tough to see who
<v Speaker 2>has the better match. But I'm looking forward to this
<v Speaker 2>from a wrestling perspective, But from a pick who wins,
<v Speaker 2>you would say Rha, But man, I could see Oscar
<v Speaker 2>going full heel with the mist and retaining.
<v Speaker 1>Either way the ultimate winner hears us watching this match,
<v Speaker 1>I feel that, I definitely feel that this is gonna
<v Speaker 1>be the the women's match to watch. The only thing
<v Speaker 1>that could overshadow this is if the Riot squad actually
<v Speaker 1>get some how put in as tag team champions, just
<v Speaker 1>because it feels like the momentum and it feels, you know,
<v Speaker 1>like a real build. But yeah, you know, like you said,
<v Speaker 1>use the mist if that's the way the retention is
<v Speaker 1>gonna be there, I'm just afraid that it'll ultimately kill
<v Speaker 1>Ria off. And so they're at a point where it's
<v Speaker 1>it's do you pull the trigger or put the gun away?
<v Speaker 1>And they already put the gun away once, So how
<v Speaker 1>many times are you gonna put the gun away and get,
<v Speaker 1>you know, take a beating. So, like I said before,
<v Speaker 1>whichever female match happens first will know by the outcome
<v Speaker 1>of that how the other one's gonna go. Now, if
<v Speaker 1>they go full on with both Bianca winning and with
<v Speaker 1>Riha Ripley winning, things are going to be very interesting
<v Speaker 1>here in the women's division then, because obviously you have
<v Speaker 1>new queens at the top of the hill, and you
<v Speaker 1>you definitely have to build up new credible opponents, and
<v Speaker 1>so that that that could also be a diamond in
<v Speaker 1>the rough building up that we're not looking for or
<v Speaker 1>that we're not seeing yet. That could be the ultimate
<v Speaker 1>payoff on this. So we can have some hope for
<v Speaker 1>that too. With new champions could be new challengers, and
<v Speaker 1>the way to get those new challengers could be the momentum.
<v Speaker 1>Thank god, I know I shouldn't say the word, but
<v Speaker 1>there could be momentum being built for competitors that have
<v Speaker 1>been overlooked like you're Dana Brook, like your Ruby riot,
<v Speaker 1>you know. So let's hope for the best on that.
<v Speaker 1>If both new champions are crown.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and the thing is too, well you normally I
<v Speaker 2>think it would be great and you very well. Maybe
<v Speaker 2>about the the tipping the reading the tea leaves, as
<v Speaker 2>they say about if you see a championship change in
<v Speaker 2>the women at the beginning of the night, well, then
<v Speaker 2>you're probably going to get a retention on the back end.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, usually they balance things out, but it's wrestle media.
<v Speaker 2>That's the one thing, the fact that this is wrestlemedia
<v Speaker 2>and Vince likes to make sure generally that babyfaces win.
<v Speaker 2>It's the feel good show. They're back in front of
<v Speaker 2>live fans. I don't think they want a ton of booing.
<v Speaker 2>You know, people had just come out of a pandemic.
<v Speaker 2>Well at least we're on the backside of it anywhere,
<v Speaker 2>we're not really out of it. But that it typically
<v Speaker 2>is the we want to make sure people smile when
<v Speaker 2>they go home type of feeling. And if Sasha and
<v Speaker 2>Bianca main event the first night, then I would think
<v Speaker 2>Pianca bell Air is probably gonna win the Smack Themoen's Championship,
<v Speaker 2>given she's the babyface in this program. So we're gonna
<v Speaker 2>have to see. As you said, when one does one thing,
<v Speaker 2>typically the other does the opposite. So there's an equal
<v Speaker 2>and opposite reaction. But I don't know, it's WrestleMania. Vince
<v Speaker 2>is seventy some years old. He's seventy five years old.
<v Speaker 2>Who knows what he's thinking. Who knows what he wants
<v Speaker 2>to do. Your math is usually right on that, But
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. I'm not really gonna be writing off
<v Speaker 2>anything for sure, other than the fact that I will
<v Speaker 2>be cringing throughout the Hey Hey and Hop Hop music video,
<v Speaker 2>don't I don't even know. I honestly I thought about
<v Speaker 2>not even like discussing it with you, because you and
<v Speaker 2>I have the exact same feelings about this whole thing.
<v Speaker 2>So I don't even know do I dare even go there?
<v Speaker 2>I mean about bad Bunny and the whole situation and
<v Speaker 2>the Hey Hey Hop Hop. I mean, I'm scared. I
<v Speaker 2>don't know what to say.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna keep this very bridge because everybody knows how
<v Speaker 1>I feel about them. Is you know, an actor playing
<v Speaker 1>a wrestler shouldn't be in my ring And I don't care.
<v Speaker 1>If you want to argue with me, you can find
<v Speaker 1>me at one four or four Captain on Twitter. We
<v Speaker 1>can argue it all day and I'll tell you how
<v Speaker 1>you're wrong. Okay, now going forward, yes exactly, I'll take
<v Speaker 1>it all day and all night and it'll be a
<v Speaker 1>lot of fun. But it's not about me, Okay. What
<v Speaker 1>this is about is very interesting to me, so I've
<v Speaker 1>got the regular version of Hulu. I know you do
<v Speaker 1>commercial free because you hate commercials. We've discussed this, so
<v Speaker 1>if you pull it up, if you're trying to fast
<v Speaker 1>forward whatever else, you'll see it broken up to where
<v Speaker 1>the commercials are, which is like your segment. The biggest
<v Speaker 1>segment is right in the middle, which is technically wrestling's
<v Speaker 1>segment six, which is supposed to be the top of
<v Speaker 1>the hour, which is where you get your highest ratings,
<v Speaker 1>which is eight o'clock to nine o'clock. Okay, Yes, I
<v Speaker 1>do a lot of wrestling homework and a lot of
<v Speaker 1>stuff with the ratings on my homework. Okay, And do
<v Speaker 1>you know what that whole segment six was dedicated to? Yes,
<v Speaker 1>them is hip hop Bad Bunny all of that. First
<v Speaker 1>of all, Damien Priest's career has already been cursed by this.
<v Speaker 1>It's gonna take him a year to recover from this,
<v Speaker 1>no matter what you do. What you did is you
<v Speaker 1>took a potential monster and you Barren Corbin to him. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>just by this association, people, he might get negative heat
<v Speaker 1>just by his association with this guy. And once Bad
<v Speaker 1>Bunny's gone, which we can praise sooner than later, what
<v Speaker 1>are you gonna do with him, because you've already made
<v Speaker 1>him look like a fool by backing up some guy
<v Speaker 1>who doesn't deserve to be in a ring. No offense
<v Speaker 1>to you. If you're listening to the show, Sorry, buddy,
<v Speaker 1>you shouldn't be in the ring. It's for wrestlers. Go
<v Speaker 1>make music. That's what you're really good at. Okay, even
<v Speaker 1>though it's not kind of music, You've made a lot
<v Speaker 1>of money off it, so just roll with it. It's
<v Speaker 1>not it's not putting crossover by rates through through the ceiling.
<v Speaker 1>It's not doing it. But yes, that is the that
<v Speaker 1>was the dedicated, biggest segment, and that is just inane.
<v Speaker 1>That is garbage, and that's that tells you where their
<v Speaker 1>priorities are. They're still trying to push the celebrity angle.
<v Speaker 1>It's terrible and that whole thing. John Morrison's career is
<v Speaker 1>now in the toilet. Unfortunately we had to see the
<v Speaker 1>Miz and Damian Priest's career has now been set back
<v Speaker 1>quite a bit. That's how I feel about this whole thing.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, the sad thing is we know the
<v Speaker 2>outcome at WrestleMania before it even happens, and as much
<v Speaker 2>as I despise the Miss's character when he's with John
<v Speaker 2>Morrison and the missus character just generally as a whole. It's
<v Speaker 2>sad and it will tell you exactly how I position
<v Speaker 2>Bad Bunny that I will be actually hoping that miss
<v Speaker 2>flattens Bad Bunny, like I want Bad Bunny to be
<v Speaker 2>thrown off of a very tall, tall structure, you know,
<v Speaker 2>to a crashing conclusion. I mean, obviously will happen. I'll
<v Speaker 2>be surprised if he takes more than like two three
<v Speaker 2>bumps that are super safe and they just you know,
<v Speaker 2>put cushioning around the ring for him so that he
<v Speaker 2>doesn't you know, hurt his arm. The guy is I'm sorry,
<v Speaker 2>the guy is skinny. He is not intimidating whatsoever. He's
<v Speaker 2>only got a big mouth because he's got Damien Priese
<v Speaker 2>to back him up, which is not a babyface roll,
<v Speaker 2>by the way, at all. It's ridiculously stupid. Just when
<v Speaker 2>they brought in flame Money Mayweather and they, you know,
<v Speaker 2>they try to position him as a baby face, yet
<v Speaker 2>he had all this backup and ran his mouth. It's
<v Speaker 2>the same thing. It's the same thing, and they never
<v Speaker 2>learn their lesson and they feel that there's a net
<v Speaker 2>positive somewhere about bringing in Bad Bunny into pro wrestling,
<v Speaker 2>and it'll get more eyeballs on the product. People that
<v Speaker 2>are follow Bad Bunny are gonna say, WHOA, what's he
<v Speaker 2>doing with this WrestleMania thing, Let's check it out. That's
<v Speaker 2>not how it's working, right, Most people that watch Bad Bunny. No,
<v Speaker 2>everyone generally knows what pro wrestling is. Like, we all
<v Speaker 2>know what pro wrestling is or isn't, and we all
<v Speaker 2>have formed an opinion about it. I mean, talk to anybody,
<v Speaker 2>even your friends and family that don't watch pro wrestling
<v Speaker 2>know what pro wrestling is. So if I'm a big
<v Speaker 2>fan of a say I don't know a big fan
<v Speaker 2>of Michael Jackson, I mean, it's the first one in
<v Speaker 2>my head. Obviously is no longer alive. But if I'm
<v Speaker 2>a big Michael Jackson fan and he is gonna be
<v Speaker 2>at WrestleMania, I mean, and I don't watch wrestling and
<v Speaker 2>I hate wrestling because it's quote fake or whatever, I'm
<v Speaker 2>not gonna watch wrestling, Like I'm not gonna purchase the
<v Speaker 2>network to go see what he does when I could
<v Speaker 2>just either a watch highlights b get like some kind
<v Speaker 2>of third party stream that I don't have to pay for. Like,
<v Speaker 2>I'm not gonna go and purchase the network because I'm
<v Speaker 2>such a fan of Michael Jackson that I'm gonna find
<v Speaker 2>out what he does a WrestleMania. I mean, obviously weird example,
<v Speaker 2>but I don't I just don't understand why they feel
<v Speaker 2>that this is a net positive. And it also makes
<v Speaker 2>the people that are in the in the company, the
<v Speaker 2>wrestlers that have been there for ten twenty years and
<v Speaker 2>in miss case Missus Casey's been there fifteen years, and
<v Speaker 2>as much as I despise him, I would rather have
<v Speaker 2>him beat the holy hell out of Bad Bunny and
<v Speaker 2>go over than the opposite. That's how much I despise
<v Speaker 2>this type of dynamic, but they do it every year.
<v Speaker 1>No, You're You're absolutely right, and like, look, I to
<v Speaker 1>not stand them. Is but he's two hundred and fifteen
<v Speaker 1>two hundred and twenty pounds and Bad Bunny is a
<v Speaker 1>buck thirty. I'm I'm one hundred and forty five pounds.
<v Speaker 1>I know I've seen pictures of you. I know I
<v Speaker 1>cannot whip you because you're bigger and stronger than me.
<v Speaker 1>So if they booked this Matt versus Michael Gross match.
<v Speaker 1>I know I'm not gonna win, and it would look
<v Speaker 1>really silly if I'm coming off the top rope and
<v Speaker 1>with doing sloppy maneuvers to you and winning, you know
<v Speaker 1>what I mean? And well, hey, anybody could see that.
<v Speaker 1>So you know, there's only so many real situations in life,
<v Speaker 1>like Hoyce Graci in the first UFC when he's choking
<v Speaker 1>out Dan Severn and people that size. There was anomalies,
<v Speaker 1>but everything evolves. This is not one of those anomalies.
<v Speaker 1>This is not one of those situations. And it's not
<v Speaker 1>going to bring any kind of viewers anytime soon to
<v Speaker 1>any kind of streaming or it's not gonna bring any
<v Speaker 1>kind of viewership to any streaming or network properties at all.
<v Speaker 2>No, this is and honestly, even those small, small, small
<v Speaker 2>fraction of people, and I'm talking very minuscule, like less
<v Speaker 2>than one percent of those people maybe less than maybe
<v Speaker 2>like a fraction of one percent of people that follow
<v Speaker 2>bad Money are like, cool, let me just get the
<v Speaker 2>network and see what's going on. Perhaps they do get
<v Speaker 2>the network and go go to Peacock and spend four
<v Speaker 2>ninety nine or nine to ninety nine to get the
<v Speaker 2>network for WrestleMania. Guess what they're gonna do after WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 2>They're gonna cancel their subscription and go eeah, okay, cool.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah dump it. For anybody who already has Peacock, this
<v Speaker 1>is a bonus throw in for if you don't have Peacock.
<v Speaker 1>I am not laying down. Like I said, I love
<v Speaker 1>Mike Patten from Faith No more, but I wouldn't lay
<v Speaker 1>down five dollars to see him in something that I
<v Speaker 1>don't watch. I was a you know, okay, A great
<v Speaker 1>example the television show Friends. If I heard Mike Patten
<v Speaker 1>was on it, I'm not going to tune in to
<v Speaker 1>watch it. And that's free. That's the best way I
<v Speaker 1>could put it.
<v Speaker 2>It's I mean again, we all know the outcome before
<v Speaker 2>it happens. Bad Bunny is gonna go over. The fans
<v Speaker 2>are gonna I hope, you know what. That's the good
<v Speaker 2>thing about this one though. Fans are in the arena,
<v Speaker 2>and the fans that are gonna go to this number
<v Speaker 2>one are spending a boatload of money to go there.
<v Speaker 2>I hope they're vocal. As we talked about at the
<v Speaker 2>beginning of the show, and usually the ones that go
<v Speaker 2>to this are the ones that are the quote hardcore,
<v Speaker 2>are the quote non traditional, as WWE labels us as.
<v Speaker 2>They're the ones that have been sitting there all year,
<v Speaker 2>and really are the ones who listen to these podcasts,
<v Speaker 2>who have the wrestling websites, who usually have a lot
<v Speaker 2>of influence in the wrestling community. Those are the ones
<v Speaker 2>that are, by the way, they're also the foundation of WWE,
<v Speaker 2>the ones purchasing the merchandise for their kids. Usually, those
<v Speaker 2>are those people that go there. And yet we are
<v Speaker 2>belittled every year by WWE and labeling us as some weird,
<v Speaker 2>non traditional group of fans that our voice doesn't count,
<v Speaker 2>even though the were the ones that are your foundations,
<v Speaker 2>spend the most effing money every year towards your company.
<v Speaker 2>I hope that they go here and destroy Bad Bunny.
<v Speaker 2>And yes, Miss is a good heal to some degree.
<v Speaker 2>You know, when he's alone, not with Miz or not
<v Speaker 2>with Morrison. He's unmanageable when he's with Morrison. But at
<v Speaker 2>least I think the fans will go, look, Miss is terrible,
<v Speaker 2>but we respect him one hundredfold over Bad Bunny. And
<v Speaker 2>hopefully Bad Bunny gets booed out of the building. That's
<v Speaker 2>really our only hope here.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely absolutely, and I'm on my knees praying right now
<v Speaker 1>for it.
<v Speaker 2>Everybody, please, and what I don't care whether even if
<v Speaker 2>you're atheists, just pretend. I mean, like, please, all right,
<v Speaker 2>let's get onto something else that I want to talk
<v Speaker 2>about a little more serious here, and the Edge comes
<v Speaker 2>out on SmackDown and says he declared that the rated
<v Speaker 2>our Superstar is back.
<v Speaker 1>Now.
<v Speaker 2>I know it's kind of ironic, and the PG era
<v Speaker 2>he's obviously not going to be really the rate at
<v Speaker 2>our Superstar. He's not going to have live sex as Alita,
<v Speaker 2>Like he's not gonna you know, he's not gonna bludgeon people.
<v Speaker 2>And you know he's not really the rate at our Superstar.
<v Speaker 2>He's like the rated PG thirteen.
<v Speaker 1>Superstar at best.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, like really, you know, he's parental guidance at best,
<v Speaker 2>because you can't have a character that it overshadows your
<v Speaker 2>entire corporate structure of TV production and your your TV ratings.
<v Speaker 2>It's just it's funny that he's calling himself that in
<v Speaker 2>a PGR. But nonetheless I get his premise. I understand
<v Speaker 2>what he's saying that that that version of Edge is back,
<v Speaker 2>and that's what he said. People forget this when Edge
<v Speaker 2>got injured at the greatest wrestling match ever. God, I
<v Speaker 2>hate saying that against Randy Orton, which was a really
<v Speaker 2>good match, by the way, but he got injured, and
<v Speaker 2>his promo the next Monday Night said that when I
<v Speaker 2>come back, and this is all threatening towards Randy Orton,
<v Speaker 2>when I come back, you know, I'm not gonna be
<v Speaker 2>Adam Copeland. You know I'm gonna be the man that
<v Speaker 2>got me to where I am. I'm gonna be I'm
<v Speaker 2>gonna bring back the rate at our superstar. So he's
<v Speaker 2>at least following through with what he said seven, eight,
<v Speaker 2>nine months ago when he first got in back in
<v Speaker 2>the spring of last year. So I am I'm cool
<v Speaker 2>with it. I don't know if this really means a
<v Speaker 2>heel turn for Edge or if it just means that
<v Speaker 2>he's going full in. He's just not the happy, go
<v Speaker 2>lucky Adam Copeland, the family guy who's here to hopefully
<v Speaker 2>get a great win at WrestleMania. That he's actually getting
<v Speaker 2>deep into his character. Now, is that how you took this?
<v Speaker 2>How did you take this?
<v Speaker 1>I saw flashbacks too when Edge first turned heel back
<v Speaker 1>when he was tagging with Ben Wah right at the
<v Speaker 1>beginning of the ruthless Aggression era, right around the time
<v Speaker 1>they did like Taboo Tuesday and all that kind of stuff,
<v Speaker 1>when he had that weird tweeter right before he turned
<v Speaker 1>heel kind of unpredictable, always frustrated, always angry edge. That's
<v Speaker 1>where I see it. I don't see the rated ar
<v Speaker 1>Superstar was more smug more. I mean, his his exploits
<v Speaker 1>with with Leeda and the whole Matt Hardy situation went
<v Speaker 1>out of you know, it went out of the private
<v Speaker 1>sector into the public, and that's how they create version
<v Speaker 1>of the character. So I don't see the right Atar Superstar.
<v Speaker 1>I see the frustrated, angrym Ifacemi heel I'll do whatever
<v Speaker 1>it takes to win kind of version. The problem is
<v Speaker 1>because he's a legacy character, a throwback and a legend
<v Speaker 1>and limited people are gonna have a hard time booing him,
<v Speaker 1>and so that's it makes him a default baby face,
<v Speaker 1>a default baby face with a bad attitude. But he's definitely,
<v Speaker 1>by not any kind of stretch, the right Atar Superstar.
<v Speaker 1>In fact, what I would like is a different version
<v Speaker 1>of him and however, you could evolve it, because there's
<v Speaker 1>a million ways you can evolve a character. Look at
<v Speaker 1>people like Chris Jericho. Look at Kurt Angle the way
<v Speaker 1>he started to the way he finished. There's always different people.
<v Speaker 1>Nick Bockwinkles another one. You can take a character and
<v Speaker 1>turn it into something else. People forget that before Rick
<v Speaker 1>Flair was the nature boy, he was a brawling hillbilly
<v Speaker 1>that tagged up with Dusty Rhodes and was three hundred
<v Speaker 1>something pounds and not in very good shape. So you
<v Speaker 1>can turn something, you can spin it and still make
<v Speaker 1>it marketable. And to try to promise the same thing
<v Speaker 1>that we had years ago that we liked then in
<v Speaker 1>a watered down version, it just adds to more frustration.
<v Speaker 1>So now, with the anticipation of the match coming up,
<v Speaker 1>I see Roman Reigns retaining because I think the ultimate
<v Speaker 1>plan for him is that he and Drew are going
<v Speaker 1>to go at it again down the road, and that's
<v Speaker 1>going to be part of their so called superstar shakeup.
<v Speaker 1>It's all the same company. It's either your wrestle on
<v Speaker 1>Monday or wrestle on Friday. It's the same venue, come on.
<v Speaker 1>So that's gonna be the ultimate plan going down the
<v Speaker 1>road I see in the future. So without a prize
<v Speaker 1>to dangle in front of it, you don't make it
<v Speaker 1>that much more important. So what I think we'll get
<v Speaker 1>out of the match is that Daniel Brian is going
<v Speaker 1>to carry the weight of the world as far as
<v Speaker 1>making a technical spectation or the spectatorship is going to
<v Speaker 1>be from the technical aspect on Daniel Brian. Uh, the
<v Speaker 1>unpredictability is gonna come from Edge, and the ruthlessness is
<v Speaker 1>gonna come is going to come from Roman Reigns. And obviously,
<v Speaker 1>like I said, I see Roman rains Stanley Tall. Of
<v Speaker 1>course one of the ussos will get involved, which that's
<v Speaker 1>getting a little played out. I think there's other things
<v Speaker 1>you could do with him at this point, because he's
<v Speaker 1>the weirdest lackey in the world. At this point. Your
<v Speaker 1>cousin sometimes you're there, sometimes you're not, and you get
<v Speaker 1>slapped around by your own cousin. I don't know what's
<v Speaker 1>going on with that family that any family member of
<v Speaker 1>mine like that I really wouldn't speak to. But Roman
<v Speaker 1>Reigns retains, and that's the way the match is gonna
<v Speaker 1>come together, and that you're gonna have false finishes all
<v Speaker 1>due to Edge, and that's how Rains is going to
<v Speaker 1>retain because Edge and Brian won't be able to go
<v Speaker 1>on the same page. You're gonna see Brian with the
<v Speaker 1>s lock on. You're gonna see Edge spearing the wrong first.
<v Speaker 1>He's gonna go for Rains. Who's gonna move hit Brian.
<v Speaker 1>I'm just hoping we get the best version of this
<v Speaker 1>match we can.
<v Speaker 2>It has the potential also to be very good. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>this match could again you talk about false finishes. This
<v Speaker 2>is gonna be the king of false finishes, yes, no doubt,
<v Speaker 2>especially triple Threat. We're gonna be reminded, of course, that
<v Speaker 2>triple threat that the champion doesn't have to be involved
<v Speaker 2>in the decision to lose. I mean, I can't wait
<v Speaker 2>for that narrative to come out next week, you know,
<v Speaker 2>because we just have never seen one. And by default,
<v Speaker 2>every triple threat is a no DQ match, which is
<v Speaker 2>still just ridiculous on its face that you have every
<v Speaker 2>triple threat by default be no DQ and people say, well,
<v Speaker 2>what do you do what if someone uses a chair? Easy,
<v Speaker 2>you take them out of the match, right like they lose,
<v Speaker 2>Like they they are out of the match. They get disqualified,
<v Speaker 2>they leave the match, and then it's one on one.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's very simple. It's a very simple solution
<v Speaker 2>to take out No DQ for every match that's triple threat.
<v Speaker 2>Now again, whatever it is, what it is, it's gonna be.
<v Speaker 2>There's gonna be weapons involved, it's gonna be I think,
<v Speaker 2>a twenty five minute classic. It's gonna be very, very good.
<v Speaker 2>I have no issue about the quality of this match.
<v Speaker 2>And this past week, of course, we saw Daniel Bryan
<v Speaker 2>snap and leave everyone laying, just as the week before,
<v Speaker 2>Edge left everyone laying, which logic would tell you at
<v Speaker 2>WrestleMania SmackDown this week, which is not a thing, it's
<v Speaker 2>still SmackDown, Roman Reigns is gonna leave everyone laying like
<v Speaker 2>That's exactly the way that WWE books and that's the
<v Speaker 2>way that I believe it's going to happen is Roman
<v Speaker 2>Reigns Spears, Edge Spears, Brian brutalizes them and oh my god,
<v Speaker 2>can they make it to the triple threat. You know
<v Speaker 2>they're gonna which is fine. They're trying to sell the match.
<v Speaker 2>I get it. But that's where they're going probably for
<v Speaker 2>WrestleMania SmackDown this week, and that's fine. I think that again,
<v Speaker 2>standing right now, that Roman Reigns has a chance at retaining.
<v Speaker 2>I think Edge has a chance at winning. I think
<v Speaker 2>Daniel Brian has little to no chance of winning. I
<v Speaker 2>think Daniel Briyan is there to take the fall for
<v Speaker 2>Edge or Roman. I really hope Roman is the one
<v Speaker 2>to retain, because, as I'm a huge Edge fan, I
<v Speaker 2>think Edge has still a lot to contribute. But I
<v Speaker 2>think that the future and a great heel run supersedes
<v Speaker 2>even a Hall of Fame return and to get Edge
<v Speaker 2>back to the way he was. He's ninety percent of
<v Speaker 2>what he was in terms of ring ability. He's still
<v Speaker 2>really good on the MIC. It's that's not the problem.
<v Speaker 2>And it's sad that I have to sit here and
<v Speaker 2>say I still don't want Edge to win, even though
<v Speaker 2>it'd be a great feel good story. It'd be ten
<v Speaker 2>years exactly for when he had to give up the championship.
<v Speaker 2>I understand all that synchronicity. That would be very nice
<v Speaker 2>to tell in a documentary series. I get that, but
<v Speaker 2>I don't think that supersedes the great heel run that
<v Speaker 2>Roman Reigns is on right now. That very rarely comes along.
<v Speaker 2>We've seen heels come and go over the decades, and
<v Speaker 2>very few are actually and are successfully executed to where
<v Speaker 2>people want to see someone and would pay to see
<v Speaker 2>someone get beat up. That is rare. I mean not
<v Speaker 2>the cool heel that. Yeah, their cast is a heel,
<v Speaker 2>but people still cheer them because they're kind of cool.
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 2>Roland Reins is on a rare run that I would
<v Speaker 2>say should supersede anybody anyone else's need to win that
<v Speaker 2>match at WrestleMania and keep that he'll run a momentum
<v Speaker 2>going well.
<v Speaker 1>Like I said, down the road, the money is Drew
<v Speaker 1>versus Roman two and it's I think the second time
<v Speaker 1>they do it, it's gonna be very very good. Not
<v Speaker 1>to say the first one was bad, but I think
<v Speaker 1>it's gonna be even better. You just have more polish,
<v Speaker 1>more time, and more It's not as thrown together at
<v Speaker 1>the last minute as it was before. And when you
<v Speaker 1>build it that way, I just think that that it
<v Speaker 1>makes it just more palatable, more desirable, It makes more designrable. Also,
<v Speaker 1>we have to remember the Edge can only wrestle per
<v Speaker 1>his contract five times a year, so he is going
<v Speaker 1>to go out of his way to have matches with
<v Speaker 1>people he never has before the original plan was AJ Styles.
<v Speaker 1>Now we know AJ is in the last contract of
<v Speaker 1>his career, what I could see and this would be
<v Speaker 1>the ultimate match, and tell me if you think I'm wrong?
<v Speaker 1>Is a three way retirement. All three retire in a
<v Speaker 1>three triple threat match between Brian Edge and AJ Styles
<v Speaker 1>a year from now. That is must CTV. And you
<v Speaker 1>build it throughout the year by having those three always
<v Speaker 1>in each other's business, always getting at each other. Because AJ,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know what he's doing right now, if you
<v Speaker 1>could tell me, it looks like it's a mania that
<v Speaker 1>he has no purpose. I can't really think of what
<v Speaker 1>he's doing, which is sad. The almost character is years
<v Speaker 1>away from a real in ring person offica, so you
<v Speaker 1>know it's I mean, like the almost thing I see
<v Speaker 1>is like the Shawn Michaels Diesel thing, except I think
<v Speaker 1>they learned their lesson lesson with Kevin Nash that he
<v Speaker 1>was just terrible in the ring, so they got to
<v Speaker 1>have something to present once AJ, you know, retires, So
<v Speaker 1>while you're gonna have one of the greatest in ring
<v Speaker 1>performers arguably ever in AJ kind of mentoring him and
<v Speaker 1>showing him things behind the scenes and always, you know,
<v Speaker 1>together to build further down the road, to have AJ
<v Speaker 1>and Daniel Brian continue their problems and qualms with each other,
<v Speaker 1>costing each other matches, throwing in AJ once you do
<v Speaker 1>a you know, a superstar shakeup or something like that.
<v Speaker 1>It just kind of makes sense because not all of
<v Speaker 1>them have that much left on their body. Could I
<v Speaker 1>see Edge having one more world title run? Sure, but
<v Speaker 1>it's also you got to look at with somebody who
<v Speaker 1>limited in ring appearance, is how do you build an
<v Speaker 1>elongated storyline when they can't wrestle every month. So that's
<v Speaker 1>that's the kind of things that I'm looking at as
<v Speaker 1>far as Edge goes right now. So that's that's kind
<v Speaker 1>of where I see things going. That's where I'd like
<v Speaker 1>to see it go. The rains He's he's got to
<v Speaker 1>retain because the money is in He and Drew in
<v Speaker 1>a in a longer program.
<v Speaker 2>Second coming, well, to answer your question about AJ styles,
<v Speaker 2>because I wanted to confirm this too, and I think
<v Speaker 2>you and I are victims of the Hulu Hulu version
<v Speaker 2>of Raw, which cuts out things and a lot of
<v Speaker 2>times a Jane and Almost are not a part of
<v Speaker 2>that of the edited version of Monday det Raw and
<v Speaker 2>what they're doing is challenging the New Day for the
<v Speaker 2>Wrang Tag Team championships at WrestleMania. So we get to
<v Speaker 2>see the debut of Omas or almost in the ring
<v Speaker 2>with AJ styles against the New Day for those tag
<v Speaker 2>team belts, which you know, I get now how I
<v Speaker 2>understand the logic, although I don't agree with it of
<v Speaker 2>why they drop the Hurt business with the Tech team
<v Speaker 2>belts to give it to New Day. So it's babyface
<v Speaker 2>versus heel, not heel versus heel. But I think almost
<v Speaker 2>an AJ could have been the de facto babyfaces in
<v Speaker 2>that match. But I think that they want to know,
<v Speaker 2>well it's New Day, they're more of an established team.
<v Speaker 2>We're gonna have them drop the belts and which is
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of crap. I don't think New Day need
<v Speaker 2>the belts ever again, and I actually have resentment when
<v Speaker 2>they have the belts. But yeah, that's the role right now.
<v Speaker 2>Is AJS thousand, almost Omas in that tag team role,
<v Speaker 2>challenging for the raw tag team titles or WrestleMania, but.
<v Speaker 1>With the New Day or excuse me, with the hert
<v Speaker 1>business being dropped by MVP. And lastly, they could become
<v Speaker 1>the facto Babyfaces and still be in that position with
<v Speaker 1>the titles on them still to go Hoo Can Stay
<v Speaker 1>and almost almost whatever his name is as the Heels.
<v Speaker 1>So they kind of shot themselves in the foot either way,
<v Speaker 1>because now we're getting well. While the New Day are talented,
<v Speaker 1>they are very very hard for me to watch these
<v Speaker 1>days because they're overexposed to the point of irritating. It's
<v Speaker 1>it's not it's not channel changing like them is to me,
<v Speaker 1>but it's it's it's very hard for me to watch
<v Speaker 1>them because there it's one thing to have allowed a
<v Speaker 1>live crowd and kind of play to the crowd. It's
<v Speaker 1>another thing to play to nobody, kind of like Carmela does,
<v Speaker 1>but to take it to level fifteen on a one
<v Speaker 1>to ten, which they always do. It's it's and we're bored,
<v Speaker 1>We're sick of them. We're sick of them. There's other
<v Speaker 1>things to be done with them, and putting the titles
<v Speaker 1>on them which they don't need, and having them kind
<v Speaker 1>of irritate us, which we don't need. It's it's not
<v Speaker 1>helping any young talent, and it's not going to help
<v Speaker 1>a j and almost almost I don't I don't know exactly.
<v Speaker 1>The point is that there I could have got more
<v Speaker 1>into this, this tag title situation with a freshly dumped,
<v Speaker 1>hurt business. It would have made more sense to me
<v Speaker 1>that way to Facto baby Face. They could have just
<v Speaker 1>done it a week or two prior and the New
<v Speaker 1>Day could be involved in something else, on a different path,
<v Speaker 1>and maybe evolving their characters more to be less caustic
<v Speaker 1>on the eyes and ears when they come out and
<v Speaker 1>less overexposed.
<v Speaker 2>All right, well, very good. I mean, I'm with you.
<v Speaker 2>I have a few other topics I want to get
<v Speaker 2>to before we close things out, but I do have
<v Speaker 2>to ask. I know we talked about a little about
<v Speaker 2>Logan Paul, but outside of Logan Paul and whatever his
<v Speaker 2>role is at WrestleMania, whether it's actually in a match
<v Speaker 2>or not, we'll find out at next week's Backdown. Sammy
<v Speaker 2>Zaane's Conspiracy Theory his premiere, his red carpet premiere of
<v Speaker 2>his Conspiracy Theory trailer that debuted this past week on SmackDown.
<v Speaker 2>Kevin Owens, I mean he came out, delivered a stunner
<v Speaker 2>and then shoved Logan Paul out of the way. Obviously
<v Speaker 2>these two are having a match at WrestleMania, which we
<v Speaker 2>know in ring is never going to disappoint. But I guess,
<v Speaker 2>are you just appointed in the storyline? Are you not
<v Speaker 2>with Sammy zaying on this whole conspiracy theory thing, or
<v Speaker 2>how do you feel about Kevin Owens position at WrestleMania
<v Speaker 2>as well? How do you feel about everything?
<v Speaker 1>It's it's a waste of a top tier match. It's
<v Speaker 1>it's it could be so much more with a better storyline.
<v Speaker 1>I don't like it. It was kind of a tongue
<v Speaker 1>in cheek, kind of funny at first, but now it's
<v Speaker 1>it's been taken too far, especially to have the big
<v Speaker 1>blowoff at the supposed biggest show of the year. We're
<v Speaker 1>getting what's going to be solid in ring mixed with
<v Speaker 1>a lot of cornyback story. There's just other ways it
<v Speaker 1>could have been done. And then of course we have
<v Speaker 1>the celebrity factor, and whose side is the celebrity going
<v Speaker 1>to be on? Because now he's been shelved by KO,
<v Speaker 1>but he's also part of you know, Sammy's got the
<v Speaker 1>conspiracy against him and against everybody, and it kind of
<v Speaker 1>leaves it convoluted as to where a person like this
<v Speaker 1>logan Paul, who nobody wants to see on the product
<v Speaker 1>to begin with, is gonna lie and how he's gonna
<v Speaker 1>affect the outcome and the match. So yeah, I think
<v Speaker 1>it takes away. It's a detractor to what could be
<v Speaker 1>some really solid wrestling. It's the same thing with Cesarro
<v Speaker 1>and Seth Rallins. I like Seth Rollins as a Jim
<v Speaker 1>Jones cult leading messiah, not as a guy who says
<v Speaker 1>I'm never gonna get spun again, never, never, never, like
<v Speaker 1>it's so scripted, then all of a sudden he gets spun.
<v Speaker 1>You've got four guys who you could mix those four
<v Speaker 1>anyway in matches and have great matches, And just the
<v Speaker 1>over overscripting of it and the bad storylines behind it
<v Speaker 1>and the dumbing down of the characters has affected it.
<v Speaker 1>But I'm looking forward to watching the matches this coming WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 1>I think there's gonna be surprisingly about four to five
<v Speaker 1>good in ring matches with terrible storylines and possibly detrimental outcomes.
<v Speaker 1>And unfortunately victims of circumstance here are going to be
<v Speaker 1>Kevin Owens and Sammy Zain. I wish they would do more.
<v Speaker 1>Samy Zain, I really wish well, it was kind of
<v Speaker 1>funny for a second. Too much funny. It becomes corny
<v Speaker 1>and then becomes just it becomes a festering wound. And
<v Speaker 1>I don't need my wrestling to give me an infection
<v Speaker 1>I need. It's the best way I can put it
<v Speaker 1>right now. I don't want it to be where I'm
<v Speaker 1>sick of Sammy's ay. When i watched him for so
<v Speaker 1>many years as El jen Erico, especially he and Kevin
<v Speaker 1>Owens and stuff, they didn't ring him honor and pro
<v Speaker 1>wrestling gorilla and stuff. If they mimic some of those
<v Speaker 1>matches they had, and if Vince will pull back the
<v Speaker 1>governor on them and let them do what they do best,
<v Speaker 1>we could have some really great classic matches. And Czarro
<v Speaker 1>and Seth Rawlin's the same thing. Let them, let them
<v Speaker 1>channel who they were years ago and the reason that
<v Speaker 1>you signed them, and we can have some really good stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Just don't force them to say silly things. And let's
<v Speaker 1>not interject people who have no business like Logan Paul
<v Speaker 1>being in the ring or affecting the outcome. Uh So, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's it's watered down greatness, that's what it is.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's like you know, the last last couple of
<v Speaker 1>SIPs of orange juice, and you liked it so much
<v Speaker 1>to pour a little water in it to make it
<v Speaker 1>last longer. But it's just not the same. That's where
<v Speaker 1>I am with. That's it.
<v Speaker 2>That's funny. Yeah, it's kind of an analogy. I was
<v Speaker 2>gonna go with too, like a top shelf liquor and
<v Speaker 2>you throw water in the vodka and you're like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's still top tough licker. Yeah, yep, yep. So I
<v Speaker 2>mean I went the alcohol root, you went the orange
<v Speaker 2>juice roots for more mature. But at the same time, look,
<v Speaker 2>Logan Paul, we've already discussed what we could think about that.
<v Speaker 2>They're never gonna want a celebrity to be in a
<v Speaker 2>position to look bad or get booed. So that would
<v Speaker 2>tell me that even the shove from Kevin Owens is
<v Speaker 2>not gonna be enough for Logan Paul to turn and
<v Speaker 2>try to attack Kevin Owens to WrestleMania. Although I wouldn't
<v Speaker 2>mind if he took a stunner, I think that it's
<v Speaker 2>gonna be him turning on Sammy's ain Kevin Owens against
<v Speaker 2>the victory and the celebrity stands there and they're both,
<v Speaker 2>you know, holding hands high. I like their best friends,
<v Speaker 2>and you know it's gonna be just a feel good moment,
<v Speaker 2>at least a perceived one by Vince McMahon. And you know,
<v Speaker 2>Samy's Ain's gonna continue to just lose match after match
<v Speaker 2>after match. Sammy's Ain's a heel, a perfect example of
<v Speaker 2>an entertaining heel that does not have heat on him.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm like, well, then he's not a heel, right,
<v Speaker 2>He's just he's kind of a deluded babyface. That's what
<v Speaker 2>he is. Like Sammy's Ain, I don't feel like I
<v Speaker 2>like his character in terms of I find him entertaining.
<v Speaker 2>I think he's good on the mic. His conspiracy thing,
<v Speaker 2>I don't dislike it as much as some people do,
<v Speaker 2>so I don't. I just don't. I don't want to
<v Speaker 2>see him get beat up. I actually find him entertaining,
<v Speaker 2>but I know he's cast as a heel. So again,
<v Speaker 2>that's where I talk about Roman Reigns. That's the difference
<v Speaker 2>Randy Orton over last summer was that's the difference. Heels
<v Speaker 2>like that do not come along very often. So anyway, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>Kevin Owens, we know what the kind of match they're
<v Speaker 2>gonna have logopol Is the wild card, and they're gonna
<v Speaker 2>have just, I mean, a really good match. As far
<v Speaker 2>as Cizarro and Seth Rollins look, they you wwe just
<v Speaker 2>threw them together knowing that this is a sure fire thing.
<v Speaker 2>They know that these two are gonna have a great match,
<v Speaker 2>and they will. They're not really fighting for anything other
<v Speaker 2>than I guess, pride or who's the better man or
<v Speaker 2>how many times Seth Rollins is gonna be swung, which
<v Speaker 2>is just ridiculous. But honestly, I don't even like the swing.
<v Speaker 2>I think the swing is like it gets them dizzy,
<v Speaker 2>I guess, but it also gets Cazarrow dizzy. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>I don't get it. I don't understand the appeal of
<v Speaker 2>the swing. I've never been a fan of it. It's
<v Speaker 2>all sizzle and no steak. As Jim Ross would say,
<v Speaker 2>It's just is like, Okay, you're swinging someone around. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>I could do that with my three year old son,
<v Speaker 2>and you know I wouldn't do it twenty two times.
<v Speaker 1>But I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>So I've never been a fan of that, But I
<v Speaker 2>understand what they're going for here. This past week, their
<v Speaker 2>promo together wasn't great. Seth did the best he could
<v Speaker 2>to keep it together, but all the puns about Cizarrow,
<v Speaker 2>how many times he could fit the words swing in there,
<v Speaker 2>like take a swing at me? It felt very tater
<v Speaker 2>tots like like it felt like the writer they brought
<v Speaker 2>back for Yeah, it felt very much like whoever wrote
<v Speaker 2>that for Roman. There they got in contact with their
<v Speaker 2>person and then like, hey, we need some we need
<v Speaker 2>some good we need some good stuff. Can you write us?
<v Speaker 2>Can can I email us over a promo for Cesarrow
<v Speaker 2>and SmackDown? It felt like that same guy orl Gral,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know who it was, but it was so
<v Speaker 2>w w a to try to throw in those puns.
<v Speaker 2>That's not who Cesarrow is. It didn't make me want
<v Speaker 2>to see this match more. I didn't learn anything more
<v Speaker 2>about Cizarrow. It was not a good promo for Czarrow.
<v Speaker 2>I think it was detrimental. In fact, Seth did the
<v Speaker 2>best he could, but it was it was not good
<v Speaker 2>for Czarrow. I mean, the match we know is gonna
<v Speaker 2>be fine, but I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>No, it like you said, match is gonna be fine,
<v Speaker 1>but yeah it was. It was definitely the promos were
<v Speaker 1>suffering suck attash level. I just hope they let him
<v Speaker 1>tear it down because it's it's it's gonna be, it's
<v Speaker 1>gonna be, it's gonna be fantastic. I really think the
<v Speaker 1>match is gonna be solid. But the less they speak,
<v Speaker 1>the better. It'll just be more fluid. That way, it'll
<v Speaker 1>be more more more memorable. That's the best way I
<v Speaker 1>could put it. More memorable. And don't give me. I
<v Speaker 1>usually kind of like a little bit of a postmatch
<v Speaker 1>interview and stuff at WrestleMania. Some people just want match
<v Speaker 1>after match after match, But to me, that kind of
<v Speaker 1>I mean, there's gotta be some kind of feelings and
<v Speaker 1>emotion and frustration and you gotta see some of that
<v Speaker 1>that aftercare or setting the table or setting you know,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's it's a preamble to the story when you're
<v Speaker 1>going into it, like give us a little something before
<v Speaker 1>the match. So but this, in this case, this is
<v Speaker 1>one of those I just need the match. Yeah, I wouldn't.
<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't even be mad if it was the curtain
<v Speaker 1>jerker because that makes it it makes it that much more. Uh,
<v Speaker 1>you know, it just kicks off WrestleMania on the right
<v Speaker 1>foot with the best foot forward. Let's get let's give
<v Speaker 1>us a great match right out the gate. Let's just
<v Speaker 1>let them do it and then follow it with something else.
<v Speaker 1>But let's not have any any promo time. Let's just
<v Speaker 1>go right into wrestling. That's how I feel, agreed.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I think the less they say the better in
<v Speaker 2>this In this program program, there's nothing really personal here.
<v Speaker 2>It's all professional. That's fine, that's fine. I want these
<v Speaker 2>two to just kill it, and I hope they're given
<v Speaker 2>enough time on the show to do it. So, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>a couple more topics and then I'll toss to two
<v Speaker 2>for anything I missed is Randy Orton in the Fiend.
<v Speaker 2>I have no idea what kind of match they're gonna
<v Speaker 2>have at WrestleMania. I've really rattled my brain. It can't
<v Speaker 2>be straight up wrestling. We know that. I would think
<v Speaker 2>it's a no DQ, just straight up flat no DQ,
<v Speaker 2>because that opens the door for a lot of other
<v Speaker 2>things to happen, rather than restricting yourself to a specific stipulation.
<v Speaker 2>No DQ is like, okay, there's no DQ, but you
<v Speaker 2>can do a lot of like infinite amount of things
<v Speaker 2>within no disqualification. So I think that's probably where they'll
<v Speaker 2>go with it, because you can't go beyond an infernal match.
<v Speaker 2>You just can't. So that's my thought. I think that
<v Speaker 2>the Fiend goes over. I don't think there's any other
<v Speaker 2>way around that. That's not really the issue. But the
<v Speaker 2>interesting thing too is Alexa Bliss on Alexi's Playground this
<v Speaker 2>past week on Raw said that the Legend Killer would
<v Speaker 2>die at WrestleMania. You know, I'm not a fan of
<v Speaker 2>w w A or wrestling in general talking about death
<v Speaker 2>in their promos, that they're actually going to kill someone. Now,
<v Speaker 2>that's not what she said. She just said the Legend
<v Speaker 2>Killer would die at WrestleMania. Now does that mean psychologically?
<v Speaker 2>I mean, you can't obviously deliver on the premise that
<v Speaker 2>his physical body is going to die. It's wrestling like,
<v Speaker 2>you can't ever pay that off, which is why you
<v Speaker 2>never go there. You never talk about actually killing your opponent.
<v Speaker 2>It's just you just don't touch it. But perhaps she
<v Speaker 2>was metaphorically speaking that the character of the Legend Killer
<v Speaker 2>would die at WrestleMania. Whatever that means getting in his head. Perhaps,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, But how did you take this? And
<v Speaker 2>what about their match at WrestleMania?
<v Speaker 1>Well, everybody knows that if you lose to the Fiend,
<v Speaker 1>you revert to a former version of yourself. So I
<v Speaker 1>think that that when Randy Orton ultimately loses this match,
<v Speaker 1>because if they drag it on any further, it just
<v Speaker 1>doesn't make any sense. He'll become a different, you know,
<v Speaker 1>a prior version of Randy Orton, which would be evolution
<v Speaker 1>Lackey or perhaps when he first came in and he
<v Speaker 1>used that like high cross body from the Top Rope
<v Speaker 1>as his finisher. It was just terrible. So that yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>remember remember when he got his shoulder surgery and he
<v Speaker 1>would give you the Orton updates.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and like he was like twenty yes he would.
<v Speaker 2>He would come in with the Orton O N N
<v Speaker 2>update or something. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah. My favorite one is that he's giving like
<v Speaker 1>they go to interviews, so but you could tell he's
<v Speaker 1>coming back as a heel and he gives the Orton
<v Speaker 1>update and he's like, I'm at eighty five percent and
<v Speaker 1>then it cuts the camera pans over to Vince McMahon.
<v Speaker 1>He's like, it's great to have you back, Randy, and
<v Speaker 1>he slaps him on the shoulder, the one he had
<v Speaker 1>surgery on and it pans back to Orton, he was
<v Speaker 1>seventy five percent. Seventy five percent. That was hilarious. But
<v Speaker 1>so so what I think that's what they meant with it?
<v Speaker 1>You can't. It's like the hole when the Fiend was killed.
<v Speaker 1>Just there's certain things you just don't touch because it
<v Speaker 1>doesn't make sense. Okay, we're The next thing is we're
<v Speaker 1>gonna have aliens wrestling in these cinematic matches, and it's
<v Speaker 1>I'm afraid it's gonna be a cinematic match, which it
<v Speaker 1>probably will. So let's just brace ourselves for like that
<v Speaker 1>match fans.
<v Speaker 2>So you got to remember the fans there. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>fans are gonna it's we're not in the performance center
<v Speaker 2>this year, So fans are gonna lose their mind if
<v Speaker 2>they pay all that money and then it's cinematic, they
<v Speaker 2>just have to watch it.
<v Speaker 1>Well the way around that it's gonna be a you know,
<v Speaker 1>boiler room match and then they make it cinematic coming
<v Speaker 1>to you live from the boiler room when it was
<v Speaker 1>last week. So my new name for the Fiend is
<v Speaker 1>the Baconator, and he's pealing around with Baconator Junior, which
<v Speaker 1>would be you know Alexibliss, I don't know what to
<v Speaker 1>really expect on this except the Fiend's got to go over.
<v Speaker 1>Probably gonna be one of those, like, like I said,
<v Speaker 1>a boiler room out of out of the sight of
<v Speaker 1>the fans, just showing on a like the Titan Tron
<v Speaker 1>or whatever they call it these days, just so they
<v Speaker 1>can kind of sneak in a cinematic or something that
<v Speaker 1>some kind of burning somebody alive, hokey thing that we
<v Speaker 1>really don't want to see. If it's gonna be straight
<v Speaker 1>up wrestling match, they better they better really pull out
<v Speaker 1>the bells and whistles on this one, because I this
<v Speaker 1>could be the one that the fans turn on. This
<v Speaker 1>could be the one where they really really turn on
<v Speaker 1>it if they try to get a little hokey in
<v Speaker 1>front of live people, or if the Fiend doesn't get
<v Speaker 1>the justice that people want, that that's that's gonna be it.
<v Speaker 1>And that that's with like Alexa Bliss saying that he's
<v Speaker 1>going to die, that's that's the ultimate outcome. Because you
<v Speaker 1>remember the Fiend had, you know, the Firefly Funhouse had
<v Speaker 1>all the victims and Daniel Bryan became the American Dragon
<v Speaker 1>persona again and Finn Baaler went back to NXT, so
<v Speaker 1>on and so forth. So it's going to be some alteration
<v Speaker 1>of him. And if he gets his shoulder injured in it,
<v Speaker 1>mark my words, I want to see those orton.
<v Speaker 2>Up things and people forget about that. I loved that, God,
<v Speaker 2>I love that.
<v Speaker 1>That's that's so that it has to be a prior
<v Speaker 1>version of him. So some kind of not reinventing, but
<v Speaker 1>de evolution of his character. So what do you think
<v Speaker 1>That's the only way I could see it is definitely
<v Speaker 1>pre match or excuse me, pre taped, and that's going
<v Speaker 1>to be like the stipulation, And so I think that
<v Speaker 1>will be the build for this week. If not, and
<v Speaker 1>it's live, mark my words, if the fans turn on one,
<v Speaker 1>this is going to be the match.
<v Speaker 2>It has a very high potential of the fans turning.
<v Speaker 2>It also has the high potential of the fans going,
<v Speaker 2>oh my god, is Randy okay? I think they could
<v Speaker 2>They could. They could go either way where it does
<v Speaker 2>come off cartoonish and the fans turn on it like
<v Speaker 2>they did with Seth and the Fiend, a Hell and
<v Speaker 2>a Cell and start channing bs. Yeah, they could turn
<v Speaker 2>on it and just completely crap all over it again,
<v Speaker 2>or the opposite end of the coin. I don't think
<v Speaker 2>there's gonna be a middle ground here because there's such
<v Speaker 2>an extreme factor to this match and this story. It's
<v Speaker 2>one extreme of the other, though. I don't think there'll
<v Speaker 2>be a middle ground or again, the other side of
<v Speaker 2>it is the great side of oh my god, like yeah,
<v Speaker 2>the match quality again, the match quality isn't even the
<v Speaker 2>factor here. It's the story. It's the antics. It's the
<v Speaker 2>magic tricks that are really what's at The fans are
<v Speaker 2>wondering about, not necessarily can they have a great match.
<v Speaker 2>Nobody's asking that. No one's asking about the fact that
<v Speaker 2>do you think that there'll be a lot of hammer
<v Speaker 2>or drop toe holds? And you know, you know hip tosses?
<v Speaker 1>No one the arm bar, not the dreaded arm bar.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, or they just pointed the rest of them. Whoever
<v Speaker 2>pointed the WrestleMania as signed the longest wins the match.
<v Speaker 2>I just think that this is going to be I
<v Speaker 2>hope it's not cinematic for the fans. For the fans
<v Speaker 2>sitting there paying thousands of dollars and you know, taking
<v Speaker 2>time off work and all the merch and all the
<v Speaker 2>everything that they spend to sit there and watch a
<v Speaker 2>cinematic presentation, even in part.
<v Speaker 1>If that would do that would be almost a live
<v Speaker 1>crowd riot. I would think it would they would have
<v Speaker 1>to mute the crowd and do their own uh piping
<v Speaker 1>in of sounds, which they're really good at it appears.
<v Speaker 1>But I also could see whatever matches followed it, the
<v Speaker 1>crowd still being ornary by not getting the result or
<v Speaker 1>by getting something so kindergarten is fed to them so
<v Speaker 1>very this one. That's one of the reasons I really
<v Speaker 1>want to see this match because I want to see
<v Speaker 1>what the reaction is going to be and if they're
<v Speaker 1>going to do it right and do it justice, or
<v Speaker 1>if they're going to try to treat us like six
<v Speaker 1>year olds at nap time.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, here's here's your warm milk and go to bed.
<v Speaker 2>I mean yeah, I'm very interesting. I think obviously at
<v Speaker 2>Monday night Roth tomorrow night, we're gonna get more information
<v Speaker 2>on the stipulation. You would think they've come up with
<v Speaker 2>a stipulation that will direct us to to really is
<v Speaker 2>this going to be cinematic or is it going to
<v Speaker 2>be in ring? I mean again, so okay, the last
<v Speaker 2>program that I have here is bron Strowman and Shane McMahon,
<v Speaker 2>and this whole storyline began, of course, on the playground
<v Speaker 2>as we just described, of somebody calling somebody else stupid,
<v Speaker 2>and braun Strowman only knows one emotion that is anger,
<v Speaker 2>and he just just is constantly angry about everything. Shane
<v Speaker 2>McMahon apparently does fifty eight burpies before he comes out
<v Speaker 2>to be on the mic. He's always sweating and out
<v Speaker 2>of breath every single time that he I mean, just
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I don't know what it is. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>that's the only explanation is he's doing burpies or something
<v Speaker 2>in the back before he comes out. And it's all
<v Speaker 2>over Braun being stupid because it's brains versus Braun. So
<v Speaker 2>I guess that's the pun Law was supposed to laugh at.
<v Speaker 2>But braun Strowman, to his detriment, is very one dimensional. Again,
<v Speaker 2>he's extremely one dimensional in the fact that he's just
<v Speaker 2>always angry. Everything is anger. Everybody's gonna get hands everybody.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's so one dimensional. The guy's a very athletic,
<v Speaker 2>big guy. That's one attribute. He's got a great look
<v Speaker 2>there's another attribute, and that's kind of where it ends
<v Speaker 2>for braun Strowman. For me, that you can build on
<v Speaker 2>that and he's an okay promo, He's okay Shane McMahon
<v Speaker 2>is to me. I think Shane was actually better when
<v Speaker 2>he was twenty some years old in the attitude are
<v Speaker 2>in early two thousands. I think he was better on
<v Speaker 2>the mic, better in the ring when he was, you know,
<v Speaker 2>twenty some years old than he is now. I think
<v Speaker 2>he's uncomfortable on the mic now for whatever reason, he's
<v Speaker 2>regressed in that area. But what I can't stand is
<v Speaker 2>the fact number one that this is built on your
<v Speaker 2>stupid premise. I mean it literally is built on that.
<v Speaker 2>Number two, you have the sound effects for braunze Stroman
<v Speaker 2>now that WWE pumps in like a train's coming through
<v Speaker 2>when he does his outside the ring ramming through people,
<v Speaker 2>which again, if anybody knows basics of physics, if you
<v Speaker 2>have to cut a corner, you can't continue to accelerate
<v Speaker 2>your momentum. He's not going to be going any faster
<v Speaker 2>because he's going around the square. He's not running in
<v Speaker 2>a straight effing line. There's a maximum amount of force
<v Speaker 2>that he can have because he has to turn the corners.
<v Speaker 2>It's ridiculous that they're putting in sound effects and the
<v Speaker 2>fact of braunz Stroman making the stipulation that it's a
<v Speaker 2>steel cage match. Has he watched wrestling at all or
<v Speaker 2>have you know the writers watch wrestling ever and learn
<v Speaker 2>the fact that the steel cage does not in fact
<v Speaker 2>keep people out, actually invites people in. It does not
<v Speaker 2>create the illusion that somebody can't run. Well, actually, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>they can run because there's a door and there's a
<v Speaker 2>wall they can climb, which not only can they escape,
<v Speaker 2>but that's also a method of victory. You can actually
<v Speaker 2>just walk out of the damn cage and win the match,
<v Speaker 2>which is another that is a whole rant. I could
<v Speaker 2>go on the show about of how stupid that stipulation
<v Speaker 2>is for steel cage matches, that your objective is to
<v Speaker 2>just walk out the door or run away from your opponent.
<v Speaker 2>It's how you win. But I mean, I could, I
<v Speaker 2>could go on about this. I'll stop and let you
<v Speaker 2>pick it up.
<v Speaker 1>Well, Bronze Strumman right now is like a boat at
<v Speaker 1>sea without a captain. It's without a crew because you
<v Speaker 1>don't know where it's going. Yeah, he's always angry for
<v Speaker 1>the love of God stops spitting on your own beard.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, it's distracting.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's also disgusting. Like, I don't know why it
<v Speaker 1>really bothers me. I know it's dumb, okay, And for
<v Speaker 1>everybody listening, I know you can laugh at me, but
<v Speaker 1>I just think it's disgusting and it just it just
<v Speaker 1>makes you look stupid, like and I don't mean like
<v Speaker 1>Bronze an idiot. I mean it just it makes you
<v Speaker 1>look dumb, like you can't control your own body functions.
<v Speaker 1>This match does nothing for me. You could tell by
<v Speaker 1>the way that Shane smiled when he found out it
<v Speaker 1>was a steel cage match that you know, Elias and
<v Speaker 1>Jackson Ryker are gonna be under the ring for some reason,
<v Speaker 1>something like that's gonna happen. Also, let's not forget that
<v Speaker 1>Kane is going into the Hall of Fame, so I
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't be surprised if he pops up in the middle
<v Speaker 1>of the ring. But that's not gonna happen because you're
<v Speaker 1>gonna have matches afterwards, so you can't destroy your ring.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, I gotta make another note here for the
<v Speaker 1>end of the show. All right, So this program makes
<v Speaker 1>no sense it's it's one of those Well, the big
<v Speaker 1>show's gone, and we don't know what to do with
<v Speaker 1>bron because we've made him so big and indestructible. We
<v Speaker 1>don't know how to book him because if we put
<v Speaker 1>him in a title pit picture and he doesn't win,
<v Speaker 1>we don't know how to describe that. How is this
<v Speaker 1>guy inhumanly strong and turns over some eyes but he
<v Speaker 1>you know, he can't seem to put He just can't
<v Speaker 1>seem to hold onto the icy title. I just don't
<v Speaker 1>buy it. They don't know what they do. They've painted
<v Speaker 1>themselves in the corner one too many times with him,
<v Speaker 1>and this is what's gonna happen. He's gonna destroy the cage.
<v Speaker 1>He's gonna show off those mighty muscles and somehow destroy
<v Speaker 1>gonna rip the door off. You can't, he can't. If
<v Speaker 1>there was no spectators, then I would say he would
<v Speaker 1>destroy one wall of the cage. But because they're gonna
<v Speaker 1>want to show people as much as possible, which means
<v Speaker 1>they're gonna try to have people as close to the
<v Speaker 1>ring as possible. In my mind, you couldn't have the
<v Speaker 1>cage to where it could be destroyed and potentially fall
<v Speaker 1>on people and hurt them, right, you know, unless unless
<v Speaker 1>you can make it work like that. I just don't
<v Speaker 1>see it. I could be wrong, but he's gonna destroy
<v Speaker 1>the cage and then the lackeys are gonna get in,
<v Speaker 1>or the lackies are gonna be under the ring somehow,
<v Speaker 1>lackeys get in. I'll just be happy when this program's over.
<v Speaker 1>But once it's over, they're not going to know what
<v Speaker 1>to do with him again. And they they they don't
<v Speaker 1>have a credible person big enough to take him out.
<v Speaker 1>I mean they do. It's just I this is a
<v Speaker 1>guy a couple of years ago who impressed me with
<v Speaker 1>how much he had he had he improved in the ring, okay,
<v Speaker 1>but now it's like he's become the revert. It's not scripted,
<v Speaker 1>he's just it's it's five moves of doom. He's he's
<v Speaker 1>become a five moves of doom character. And that that
<v Speaker 1>that train whistle thing is just god awful. And yeah,
<v Speaker 1>how are you gonna do that inside the cage? Idiot? Wait,
<v Speaker 1>wait to develop that now going into a cage match. Hello,
<v Speaker 1>and it's it's it's it's just the dumbest premise. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>it is the dumbest, you're stupid hoo Like, yeah, so
<v Speaker 1>that that's supposed to get get you. You that angry
<v Speaker 1>that that you're gonna you can't outsmart a guy who's
<v Speaker 1>calling you stupid, but you're like twenty times stronger. And
<v Speaker 1>then the whole interaction between he and Drew, which could
<v Speaker 1>be Drew's next program before he eventually goes to smack
<v Speaker 1>Down to go against Rains. At least that's you know, biable.
<v Speaker 1>It's plausible that Drew can beat him, and he's big
<v Speaker 1>enough and strong enough, so I can buy that maybe
<v Speaker 1>there's a bron heel turned down the road, and that
<v Speaker 1>Shane McMahon could get into his mind and coax him
<v Speaker 1>into turning heel. That might happen, But this match does
<v Speaker 1>nothing for me. In fact, you know what this match says. One,
<v Speaker 1>we got involved Shane because he's the owner's son. He's
<v Speaker 1>an owner too. You know, those McMahon's have to have
<v Speaker 1>some you know, cut, some kind of handle handle on
<v Speaker 1>on a match. And two we couldn't afford another celebrity's
<v Speaker 1>That's all this says to me. And and the fact
<v Speaker 1>that we're even mentioning this match and talking about more
<v Speaker 1>then we are Big e versus Apollo is it's a shame,
<v Speaker 1>but it's the truth because it's gonna get more press
<v Speaker 1>and more minutes and more follow up the Big e
<v Speaker 1>versus Apollo, which could be a sleeper, sleeper great match.
<v Speaker 2>I'm looking for. Well, I'm gonna switch to because I'm
<v Speaker 2>just gonna rant about Shane and Bronze Stroman. And I
<v Speaker 2>don't want to take up listeners time because everybody knows
<v Speaker 2>how you feel. I feel the exact same way about
<v Speaker 2>this match. It is just a it's nothing more than
<v Speaker 2>Vince going Shane, I need you to get back in shape.
<v Speaker 2>We need you WrestleMania, you know. And and he did
<v Speaker 2>that with the Undertaker, He did that with who is
<v Speaker 2>a Randy Orton or who aj Styles? Rather they faced
<v Speaker 2>each othert WrestleMania. And now we've gotten Randy or or
<v Speaker 2>Shane McMahon versus Bronze Stroman and the steel Cage and whatever.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, there's there's one hundred things that we could
<v Speaker 2>talk about to dismantle the logic of how this happened.
<v Speaker 2>Why it's a waste of time. But I think we'll
<v Speaker 2>be wasting our breath. So let's let's talk about Apollo
<v Speaker 2>in big Ee. I'm I'm a big fan of the storyline. Now,
<v Speaker 2>I know you're not big on his adoption of his
<v Speaker 2>new character. He had just a Paulo Cruz that is
<v Speaker 2>about him bringing in the Nigerian accent. I actually, I
<v Speaker 2>gotta say he's done a good job of bringing in
<v Speaker 2>an accent where typically accents go the opposite way and
<v Speaker 2>they just go into never never land and we never
<v Speaker 2>see him again. Kovie Kingston's Jamaican accent, Lana's Russian accent,
<v Speaker 2>they go into like, you know, the land of misfit Toys,
<v Speaker 2>and I never hear from him again. But in this case,
<v Speaker 2>Apoulo Cruise is like, you know what, I'm just gonna
<v Speaker 2>take one, and he's gonna say and he's done a
<v Speaker 2>good job. I gotta say, his Nigerian accent is it
<v Speaker 2>is very believable. You know. I've I got to give
<v Speaker 2>him that. And he has turned his career around in
<v Speaker 2>the matter of a couple of weeks by just being
<v Speaker 2>a good heel leaning on his family heritage. Again, his
<v Speaker 2>promos I think are good to very good at times.
<v Speaker 2>Do I think Apollo Cruz is a top top tier
<v Speaker 2>heel right now? No, do I think he could be.
<v Speaker 2>I haven't seen enough. I don't know for sure, but
<v Speaker 2>Big Ee and Apollo, you feel you feel something there, right,
<v Speaker 2>Like I actually want to see Big E beat the
<v Speaker 2>crap out of Apollo Cruise. That's how we should feel.
<v Speaker 2>We should feel some kind of emotion one way or
<v Speaker 2>the other with every match. We should in theory, and
<v Speaker 2>I do for this match. I'm looking forward to this.
<v Speaker 2>I hope it's not as awkward as their last encounter.
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to chalk that up to just whatever, and
<v Speaker 2>that this will be a proper match for these two.
<v Speaker 2>And I actually hope Apollo Cruz wins this.
<v Speaker 1>I'm with you on hoping he wins. I want to
<v Speaker 1>see the match. I want to see exactly where it goes.
<v Speaker 1>I'm hoping that Big Ee can figure out if he's
<v Speaker 1>truly a babyface or if he's a heel. Yeah, because
<v Speaker 1>Apollo is supposed to be the heel in this one, right,
<v Speaker 1>So that's that's because with the antics, he's got to
<v Speaker 1>develop his character into a true baby face as far
<v Speaker 1>as a polo goes. I love the heel turn. I
<v Speaker 1>don't like the accent. I could buy everything except for
<v Speaker 1>the accent. It just I just don't like it. The
<v Speaker 1>only way you could make the accent work, in my opinion,
<v Speaker 1>is if like you do, like not necessarily a hidden camera,
<v Speaker 1>but him talking to somebody like Apollo and then like hey,
<v Speaker 1>and then you see somebody coming up to interview him,
<v Speaker 1>and all of a sudden he clicks on the accent
<v Speaker 1>like he's trying to be a jerk. I could buy
<v Speaker 1>that more like that could be a little bit more fun.
<v Speaker 1>It's not completely comedic. It's just him being a jerk
<v Speaker 1>and that adds that heel heat. So that way I
<v Speaker 1>could buy into it, and it would make me. It
<v Speaker 1>would make me say, yeah, he's really trying to get
<v Speaker 1>under my skin. Definitely, it's got to be better than
<v Speaker 1>that last outing they had because it didn't make sense.
<v Speaker 1>This can go either way for me as far as
<v Speaker 1>who wins, and you know how big of an Apollo
<v Speaker 1>Cruise fan I am, but I think that big Ee
<v Speaker 1>has been wasted for what eight years now, seven years
<v Speaker 1>on the main roster as being a single star, true
<v Speaker 1>single star and true singles push. So it's one of
<v Speaker 1>these situations where it's like when he finally gets a program,
<v Speaker 1>a good program, and in the right place. It's with
<v Speaker 1>somebody you don't want to see go under. So it's
<v Speaker 1>a tough one, which makes us both the winners and
<v Speaker 1>the losers. As the spectator. You, I still also okay
<v Speaker 1>with a Paulo's character. I could buy, Like I said,
<v Speaker 1>I could. I just like him as a heel, I
<v Speaker 1>really do, and I hope he continues it, and just
<v Speaker 1>giving these guys more than five minutes and not having
<v Speaker 1>some wonky finish and some very you know, forced match
<v Speaker 1>because somebody else, and you know, because the the Shane
<v Speaker 1>McMahon brounz Stroman match went too long, So now you
<v Speaker 1>gotta schmase it. I don't want that. Let these guys
<v Speaker 1>have some fun out there. It's WrestleMania and these guys
<v Speaker 1>are getting a chance to show off. But for the
<v Speaker 1>love of guy, can we please get Biggie a new finisher?
<v Speaker 1>You and I are You're gonna say this until they
<v Speaker 1>do it. You know that stomach breaker is him any
<v Speaker 1>favors anytime soon. So with with Biggie finding his defining
<v Speaker 1>his character more as a face, with a longer match,
<v Speaker 1>and with Apollo healing it up, I even want to
<v Speaker 1>see him kind of pulling the old Eddie Guerrero on
<v Speaker 1>his knees, begging for mercy. At one point, feed the character.
<v Speaker 1>Feed the character, because I mean a Paulo looks like
<v Speaker 1>he could rip you up. He's not as big as
<v Speaker 1>big Ee though, so always having a bigger babyface than
<v Speaker 1>you do heal is a challenge because it almost becomes
<v Speaker 1>like an you know, it becomes like a come uppance
<v Speaker 1>of a bully. But there's when your bully is the
<v Speaker 1>bigger guy. I gotta have more helish tactics from Apollo.
<v Speaker 1>Give me that begging on his knees, and then when
<v Speaker 1>when Biggie you know, kind of gives him a break
<v Speaker 1>and steps back, POKEM in the eye. Let's let's have
<v Speaker 1>some fun with it. Yes, give me that, because I
<v Speaker 1>really need this, this Apollo character to take off. So,
<v Speaker 1>like you said, he's not top top, top, top tier.
<v Speaker 1>He won't be for a long time as a heel,
<v Speaker 1>but he's going to be a hell of a lot
<v Speaker 1>higher on the card than he was as a baby face.
<v Speaker 2>That is the most important thing. And I'm seeing, you know,
<v Speaker 2>signs that this could continue to progress again. There'll be
<v Speaker 2>times where he flattens out and you feel like they're
<v Speaker 2>gonna go backwards with him, and you know, you just
<v Speaker 2>don't see him. And that's just kind of the way
<v Speaker 2>the WW has booked. I don't think he's going to
<v Speaker 2>the moon right now, but he's been there long enough.
<v Speaker 2>The fans know who he is. He's just been the smiling,
<v Speaker 2>good athletic guy. And now we actually have after seven
<v Speaker 2>years of that, in two weeks, we learn all about
<v Speaker 2>his heritage. We actually have a motion for him. Imagine that,
<v Speaker 2>and and like like that, we all understand what he
<v Speaker 2>where he's from, why he's angry with Biggie. We learned
<v Speaker 2>about his family, we learned about his vicious side. All
<v Speaker 2>of that, I mean, seven years is just nonsense to this.
<v Speaker 2>It's a great thing to see and it shows you
<v Speaker 2>that sometimes just flipping a switch and instead of trying
<v Speaker 2>to get a guy over that's all smiling because they're
<v Speaker 2>supposed to smile because there's a good guy, which I
<v Speaker 2>think is a bunch of crap. I mean, I don't
<v Speaker 2>think you ever did you ever see Stone Cold smile?
<v Speaker 1>No?
<v Speaker 2>Even when Undertaker was a baby face, do you see
<v Speaker 2>him smile?
<v Speaker 1>No?
<v Speaker 2>I mean, there's so many examples why Vince has the
<v Speaker 2>incessant need for every baby face. He got a smile
<v Speaker 2>when you're a baby. No, it's crap. But this program
<v Speaker 2>I'm really looking forward to. I'm looking forward to the ascension.
<v Speaker 2>To me, this is about the ascension of Apollo Cruise
<v Speaker 2>and yeah, big Eie Biggie to the same degree, he's
<v Speaker 2>in a similar path. You know, he's freshly a single
<v Speaker 2>star that is actually showing a little bit of fire
<v Speaker 2>and a little bit of ability to cut a angry promo.
<v Speaker 2>That's what I've been looking for. I don't need a
<v Speaker 2>complete dark turn for Biggie. That's not what I'm looking for.
<v Speaker 2>I'm looking for just range instead of just everything's a
<v Speaker 2>joke no matter what.
<v Speaker 1>Uh.
<v Speaker 2>And that's what I got last week and this week
<v Speaker 2>on SmackDown. I'm looking forward to what these two do again.
<v Speaker 2>I'm concerned about time, just as you are. That Vince's
<v Speaker 2>gonna look at this and if other matches go along
<v Speaker 2>and this one has to be at the chopping block,
<v Speaker 2>that they get six minutes instead of sixteen minutes, which
<v Speaker 2>is what I think they need. They need like fifteen
<v Speaker 2>minutes maybe longer to tell that great story. And that's
<v Speaker 2>what I am really looking forward to ultimately, like you said,
<v Speaker 2>I think Apollo Cruise is gonna win. But this I
<v Speaker 2>would not touch this with a ten foot poll with
<v Speaker 2>money on the line, because either man could win this,
<v Speaker 2>and I honestly both have a good case to to
<v Speaker 2>either in big Ease case, keep it or in Pollo
<v Speaker 2>Cruise's case, to to obtain it. So this is tough,
<v Speaker 2>but I'm looking forward to this program. So yeah, it.
<v Speaker 1>With definition of a big East character with more texture
<v Speaker 1>and depth and true babyface allegiance or excuse me, alliance.
<v Speaker 1>I should use the proper words in the right way,
<v Speaker 1>the right context. I should say, then we're gonna get
<v Speaker 1>more on this, and just like like I said, like
<v Speaker 1>we both agree more minutes, don't force it, Let's see
<v Speaker 1>where it goes. And and I I would definitely make
<v Speaker 1>Apollo as dastardly as possible. Yeah, and I I don't
<v Speaker 1>want him frowning. I don't need him doing the anti smile.
<v Speaker 1>It's funny because when you were saying, you know you
<v Speaker 1>didn't see the Undertaker smiling, could you just imagine like
<v Speaker 1>hearing hearing the gong going and then he has like
<v Speaker 1>his arms spread that he just gets this big like
<v Speaker 1>goofy smile on his face and then does like the
<v Speaker 1>finger guns like like, no, some things just don't work.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, uh this this there's no absolute way to
<v Speaker 1>predict this one. I can't say one hundred percent. There's
<v Speaker 1>there's you know, like I said with women's match, we
<v Speaker 1>know if one match goes one way, that the other
<v Speaker 1>match will go the other. I'm not touching this one either.
<v Speaker 1>As far as prediction goes, I'm just hoping that these
<v Speaker 1>guys have a chance to shine, and I'm hoping that
<v Speaker 1>both of them can reinforce their characters and develop their
<v Speaker 1>characters further. And Biggy be a face do something very
<v Speaker 1>face like and don't don't act like you're still part
<v Speaker 1>of the New Day, and you know, doing something hip
<v Speaker 1>swivels and sophomore jokes and pant don't bring back those
<v Speaker 1>pancakes and those stupid sweaters. And as far as Apollo goes, man,
<v Speaker 1>I I hope that he watches old Rick Flair, old
<v Speaker 1>Eddie Guerrero old I'm trying to think who else maybe
<v Speaker 1>a little bit of mister Perfect at the height of
<v Speaker 1>his smarminess. That's that's that's kind of the you know,
<v Speaker 1>the the character the level I want him to develop.
<v Speaker 2>Like the what I'm envisioning is like you said, the ipoke,
<v Speaker 2>the eye rake, or the where Rick Flair would like
<v Speaker 2>kind of corner and block the vision of the referee
<v Speaker 2>and do like a backwards low blow with his leg. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>Like that's when I'm pictured, That's what he needs to do.
<v Speaker 2>That underhanded when when the when the gets too hot,
<v Speaker 2>as you like to make food analogies, I mean, he
<v Speaker 2>has to he has to pull out something to get out.
<v Speaker 2>I mean that that's what he when when he can't
<v Speaker 2>straight up beat the guy and he knows he can,
<v Speaker 2>he has to do underhanded things. That is exactly what
<v Speaker 2>Apollo Cruz needs. Yeah, I love that. I love that.
<v Speaker 2>So Okay, well what else did you have? Because my
<v Speaker 2>list is exhausted. What what did you have that you
<v Speaker 2>wrote down?
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so just a couple of things. I'll run through
<v Speaker 1>it really fast. First of all, I'm already missing Charlie
<v Speaker 1>Caruso backstage. I just got used to her as being
<v Speaker 1>the backstage interviewer, and I think that she had a
<v Speaker 1>better rapport with everybody. I'm seeing a lot of fresh faces.
<v Speaker 1>I didn't even memorize their names because I really don't
<v Speaker 1>care because, in my opinion, just like the ever evolving
<v Speaker 1>commentary team, I just think that we'll see some this
<v Speaker 1>week and maybe never again. And whereas I think Charlie
<v Speaker 1>played her role really well, especially with Angel Garza, I
<v Speaker 1>I enjoyed that it was it was going somewhere as
<v Speaker 1>dumb as it sounds, and now she's working with ESPN,
<v Speaker 1>so good for her. Make your money, honey. I gotta say,
<v Speaker 1>while I'm not a big fan of him, and people
<v Speaker 1>know this, I'm impressed with Seamus's chain wrestling he did
<v Speaker 1>on on RAW, I'm gonna give him kudos where kudos are.
<v Speaker 1>It looks like he's trying to switch things up. Every
<v Speaker 1>once in a while. He'll do that. It's not just
<v Speaker 1>the same. I'll beat on your chest and give you
<v Speaker 1>a kick every once in a while, depending on who
<v Speaker 1>the opponent is, depending on who his dance partner is.
<v Speaker 1>He he breaks out some new stuff and I enjoyed it.
<v Speaker 1>It was a shamous match. I enjoyed. Now it's not
<v Speaker 1>it's not gonna be me calling you in the middle
<v Speaker 1>of night, going, Matt, you got to watch this tomorrow.
<v Speaker 1>But I'm saying, hey, good for you. It's you're not
<v Speaker 1>doing the same old move set. And I saw chain wrestling.
<v Speaker 1>I liked it, Okay, so I want to give him
<v Speaker 1>kudos where it's deserved and he deserves it. But the
<v Speaker 1>whole Oh and I loved MVP's Midnight Express stan Lane
<v Speaker 1>Sweet stan Lane reference. Did you catch that no talking
<v Speaker 1>about he's talking about Matt Riddle. He's like, I don't
<v Speaker 1>want to say it, but he's got educated feet. That's
<v Speaker 1>what they used to say about sweet stand in the
<v Speaker 1>Midnight Express. It was a lethal hands and educated feet.
<v Speaker 1>That's what Jim Cornet would alway say abut him because
<v Speaker 1>he had great kicks. Yeah, it was a little little,
<v Speaker 1>uh little throwback there. I liked it. Cool. Yeah, the
<v Speaker 1>program between Matt Riddle and Seamus needs to end fast though.
<v Speaker 1>If that if that's happening at WrestleMania, truly, let's get
<v Speaker 1>it over with. I mean, I'll tell you what's funny
<v Speaker 1>is you know, I know how tough Matt Ridle is.
<v Speaker 1>And you saw that little twitter war we have when
<v Speaker 1>people were talking about who's inducting Rob dyn Dam and
<v Speaker 1>I also have that written down here real quick too.
<v Speaker 1>Is you know people talking about like Seamus beating him up.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think in real life Seamus is a big,
<v Speaker 1>strong guy. We're talking about a real MMA fighter. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>he might be giving up fifteen twenty pounds of the guy,
<v Speaker 1>but he knows really how it hurt people. I've watched
<v Speaker 1>this match up. Yeah, and I don't know who he
<v Speaker 1>made mad to have those that stupid stoner bird thing,
<v Speaker 1>you know what I'm talking about when he kicked off
<v Speaker 1>his and and that infographic which they're throwing that did
<v Speaker 1>You also notice too, by the way, a lot of
<v Speaker 1>times when people are coming in that lately they've been
<v Speaker 1>filming them coming in, it almost goes to slow mo
<v Speaker 1>and they look around like they're mugging for the camera,
<v Speaker 1>and I think what they're doing is getting face shots
<v Speaker 1>to set up for the next video game. That catch
<v Speaker 1>that and that I bet you'll if you go back
<v Speaker 1>a few rows, especially over the last month, and you watch,
<v Speaker 1>it looks like everything's out of time by like a
<v Speaker 1>couple seconds, and it almost seems like they're getting as
<v Speaker 1>much of everything in the background as far as they're
<v Speaker 1>Titan Tron or whatever they call it now, and a
<v Speaker 1>little infographic, and the way they they look around with
<v Speaker 1>it being like almost a half second delay. It looks
<v Speaker 1>like a video game, and something tells me that's imagery
<v Speaker 1>that they're using. And that's also why on SmackDown they
<v Speaker 1>also always have the tail of the tape factoid thing
<v Speaker 1>next to him, like two time champion and this and that.
<v Speaker 1>I don't I know, they don't really do that raw.
<v Speaker 1>Instead they have the floating you know, cgi stuff that
<v Speaker 1>I really cannot stand. So the other thing was the
<v Speaker 1>Jackson Reker Stroman match was botchtastic. That was some of
<v Speaker 1>the worst wrestling I've seen in a long time. I
<v Speaker 1>don't know what happened with that whole Jackson Riker jumping
<v Speaker 1>off the ropes and then just freezing. Did you know
<v Speaker 1>that he just froze in the ring for a second. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>And it looked like they both forgot what they were doing.
<v Speaker 1>And you know that that that would have been in
<v Speaker 1>front of a live audience, that would have been eviscerated.
<v Speaker 1>So real quick, I'm to touch on the Hall of Fame.
<v Speaker 1>This is a very interesting class because you have last
<v Speaker 1>year's class I think is going in. We're not sure,
<v Speaker 1>or they just might get mentioned, like whatever happened to Juicianleiger?
<v Speaker 1>Who's who's getting induct him? Is anybody going to talk
<v Speaker 1>about it? Why are the belt Twins even considered Hall
<v Speaker 1>of Fame? But the biggest as as Rilla Monsu would say,
<v Speaker 1>miscarriage of justice. A man who should never been hired
<v Speaker 1>to begin with the great colleagues going in, A man
<v Speaker 1>who should never have had a career, probably can't even
<v Speaker 1>spell professional wrestling, let alone, is probably one of the
<v Speaker 1>absolute worst in ring performers have ever seen in my life,
<v Speaker 1>is getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. So, ladies
<v Speaker 1>and gentlemen, your Hall of Fame means nothing anymore. Just
<v Speaker 1>like this, WrestleMania potentially could be one of the worst
<v Speaker 1>ever and potentially WrestleMania could be dead, folks. And why
<v Speaker 1>I think that is true is the fact that now
<v Speaker 1>that the network has expired, everything is switched over to Peacock.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think those subscriptions went through the roof like
<v Speaker 1>they thought they would, even at a discounted rate. And
<v Speaker 1>this whole idea of putting together and slapping these Bronze
<v Speaker 1>Strom and Vince McMahon and Paul Logan and bad Bunny
<v Speaker 1>things are not selling subscriptions anytime soon. And with the
<v Speaker 1>advent of YouTube, the way it is, you can catch
<v Speaker 1>a lot of this stuff the next day for free
<v Speaker 1>in some way, shape or form between YouTube and daily
<v Speaker 1>motion and clips. So do you really need, even at
<v Speaker 1>a discount rate, this whole network, this is this Peacock. No,
<v Speaker 1>you don't. And so I think to prove and this
<v Speaker 1>is where the proofs in the pudding in my friend,
<v Speaker 1>and you can prove me wrong and tell me I'm wrong.
<v Speaker 1>That the subscription buy rate over to Peacock did not
<v Speaker 1>go as well as planned. That is why they're doing
<v Speaker 1>the stone Cold Chris Jericho interview.
<v Speaker 2>It's funny you had. I had that on my notes
<v Speaker 2>and I was I thought about asking you about that.
<v Speaker 2>It could be I think people are like, what the
<v Speaker 2>hell is this Chris Jericho obviously a star in aw
<v Speaker 2>coming on Austin's podcast that is on the WWE network.
<v Speaker 2>What the hell? Yeah that I can't wait to see it.
<v Speaker 2>I'm definitely watching it, as many of us are. And
<v Speaker 2>it could be a symptom of oh boy, what happened
<v Speaker 2>to our subscription base. WWE had one point four million people,
<v Speaker 2>we only have four hundred thousand. What's going on?
<v Speaker 1>You know?
<v Speaker 2>I don't know if it's that low. We don't know
<v Speaker 2>the real numbers.
<v Speaker 1>But you're right, we're just throwing this out folks. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I think that's asymptomatic of problems if you're taking a
<v Speaker 1>known a person who has not only turned his back
<v Speaker 1>on the company, has also outright buried the company and
<v Speaker 1>rather well fed these days. Yes, sorry, I had too
<v Speaker 1>or rather well fed, Chris Jericho. I'm not knocking at
<v Speaker 1>our bodies change over time. I'm not the man I
<v Speaker 1>used to be. I've gained five pounds. But you're taking
<v Speaker 1>a guy who also helped develop the competition, he helped
<v Speaker 1>in putting all this together, and you're having him on
<v Speaker 1>your network. That says, okay, if a person said I'm
<v Speaker 1>not going to get it, I'll just try to scam
<v Speaker 1>bits off of YouTube. Now there's saying, all right, I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna pay the five ninety nine for it. It's worth
<v Speaker 1>it just to see this interview. I got to see
<v Speaker 1>what he says. Now, what I think is that this
<v Speaker 1>is gonna be severely edited. I don't think that whatever
<v Speaker 1>Jericho says, they are going to definitely splice, you know,
<v Speaker 1>splice a lot of that out. They're gonna take a
<v Speaker 1>lot of it out. If it's a three hour interview,
<v Speaker 1>only forty five minutes are ever going to see airtime.
<v Speaker 1>That's number one. Number two. Whatever makes it to YouTube
<v Speaker 1>is gonna be heavily protected. If it's on YouTube for
<v Speaker 1>like twenty minutes, ww's gonna or Peacock is gonna find
<v Speaker 1>a way to remove it right away. Yeah, because this,
<v Speaker 1>I think they are gonna get more people who want
<v Speaker 1>to see that, especially your hardcore fan. Your hardcore fans
<v Speaker 1>are the ones who are not jumping peacock. I have
<v Speaker 1>bought the subscription yet, have you? Ah?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, already I have already caved into it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I've been a little busy, but you already know
<v Speaker 1>what's going on with my personal life. Agree with my work,
<v Speaker 1>my Yeah, I just didn't have time. And honestly, I
<v Speaker 1>haven't had a reason to jump through that flaming hoop yet. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I it just there's been nothing to entice me with
<v Speaker 1>it yet. I mean, Mania is coming, and of course
<v Speaker 1>I'll probably get it for Mania because and for future
<v Speaker 1>pay per views and such, and for the sake of
<v Speaker 1>this show and for our listeners. Of course I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>have it. But if I was if I was if
<v Speaker 1>I wasn't on the show with you, would I let it?
<v Speaker 1>Would I wait maybe six seven months to get absolutely?
<v Speaker 1>Would this be something to make me want want to
<v Speaker 1>watch it? Yes, this would be a reason for me
<v Speaker 1>to plump down five ninety nine and get it, because
<v Speaker 1>if it's not severely edited and he has a lot
<v Speaker 1>of things to say, they're gonna say whatever he wants.
<v Speaker 1>This could be. I think it's gonna outdraw WrestleMania as
<v Speaker 1>far as getting people to switch over. That's what I'm
<v Speaker 1>trying to say. As long as I'm not tripping over
<v Speaker 1>my own tongue.
<v Speaker 2>It's huge pee. I don't think people realize how big
<v Speaker 2>this is. I mean, but like you said, do the
<v Speaker 2>editors come in and cut out this and this and
<v Speaker 2>this and this so you're really left with a super
<v Speaker 2>watered down not so bad Jericho podcast or a stone
<v Speaker 2>cold podcast the Broken Skull Sessions. I mean, I want
<v Speaker 2>an unfiltered, unedited, don't touch it, let things go as
<v Speaker 2>a part of it. And I think they know that
<v Speaker 2>the fans are looking for that. They know that you
<v Speaker 2>know that WWA is probably gonna edit it and they're
<v Speaker 2>going to edit out the things that they don't want
<v Speaker 2>to be known to the public about maybe Jericho sharing
<v Speaker 2>some personal information about Vince or sharing personal stories. At
<v Speaker 2>the same time, Stone Cold's kind of in a weird spot.
<v Speaker 2>He's got the Legends contract with WWE. He knows that
<v Speaker 2>Jericho knows that he can't ask the questions that perhaps
<v Speaker 2>could bury WWE. But you also have to kind of
<v Speaker 2>be fair about asking the questions fans want to know
<v Speaker 2>about and want to hear some of the dirt. It's
<v Speaker 2>a very very conflicting interview of goals, and you're also
<v Speaker 2>promoting it on the WWE network. I want to know
<v Speaker 2>how this turns out. Like I said, if you don't
<v Speaker 2>already have the subscription, I mean you gotta get it
<v Speaker 2>from just this alone.
<v Speaker 1>I mean there's only one way they could screw this up,
<v Speaker 1>and that's you know, you're the mediator of this. Whole
<v Speaker 1>thing's gonna have to be Barren Corbin. Sorry, no, if
<v Speaker 1>there's no way to straight shoot this into mediocrity, bring
<v Speaker 1>in Corbin, you know, or you know it's with appearances
<v Speaker 1>by Bad Bunnie and Logan Paul. No, this this to me,
<v Speaker 1>if if if it's say it's only forty five minutes,
<v Speaker 1>which usually these these broken skull sessions are topping out.
<v Speaker 1>They usually top out about an hour. You're gonna have
<v Speaker 1>talk aw They're gonna have to talk about Kenny Omega,
<v Speaker 1>They're gonna have to talk about Tony Kahn, They're gonna
<v Speaker 1>have to talk about competition. Why he did it, because
<v Speaker 1>that's that's gonna be the stuff people want to know.
<v Speaker 1>He's come out openly and said the reason he went
<v Speaker 1>to New Japan is because it was a recruiting purpose
<v Speaker 1>for Vince McMahon to try to get Kenny Omega. Instead,
<v Speaker 1>the whole thing backfired and he ended up teaming up
<v Speaker 1>with people to start the competition. Now, mind you, the
<v Speaker 1>ideas they have are not doing the greatest thing in
<v Speaker 1>the world. They have the comp they have the potential
<v Speaker 1>in the world to be the greatest thing and write
<v Speaker 1>all the wrongs and professional wrestling. Instead they're swimming in
<v Speaker 1>the same pool. And that's just the dumbest thing. But
<v Speaker 1>with being said, the information is what people are going
<v Speaker 1>to tune in for to hear the competition talked about,
<v Speaker 1>to hear why he did it, and not on his show,
<v Speaker 1>but to be on a WWE produced show. And if
<v Speaker 1>Stone Cold can get away of saying what he wants.
<v Speaker 1>You have two people who can talk without a script
<v Speaker 1>at all, ever, so to let them say what they
<v Speaker 1>want to say and just brush over bullet point questions,
<v Speaker 1>but get in depth on it. This could this. I
<v Speaker 1>think it's going to sell more conversions from the old
<v Speaker 1>network to Peacock than WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 2>Will I'd love to know the streaming numbers on this
<v Speaker 2>after like thirty days. I mean, it's going to be
<v Speaker 2>through the roof fear is that WWE or even Stone
<v Speaker 2>Cold understandably at the same time, would only maybe like
<v Speaker 2>ninety percent of the interview is just going through Chris
<v Speaker 2>Jericho's career, how he came up, some stories about WWE,
<v Speaker 2>you know, and then the last ten percent is like
<v Speaker 2>what we all tuned in to hear. I mean, yes,
<v Speaker 2>Chris Jericho has had a hell of a career in WWELL.
<v Speaker 2>He'll probably go through his WCW run as the Lion Hard.
<v Speaker 2>He'll go through all that, how he came up, how
<v Speaker 2>he came to WWE debuting as the Y two J
<v Speaker 2>character against the Rock. If anyone remembers that, he'll he'll
<v Speaker 2>debut on the He'll go of course, on that and
<v Speaker 2>what ended up leading to his departure from WWE. As
<v Speaker 2>he usually does, he goes in usually chronological order of
<v Speaker 2>that individual's career. But we all want to get to
<v Speaker 2>as interesting as that may be, we all want to
<v Speaker 2>get to what led you to get going too? Aw?
<v Speaker 2>How are things going there? You know, what's going on?
<v Speaker 2>Why did you leave? Like we want to know that stuff, right,
<v Speaker 2>But I have a feeling it's going to be about
<v Speaker 2>seventy five eighty percent or more about ww and WWA.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and that's that's that's the bait and switch they're
<v Speaker 1>gonna hit us with. You know, it's it'll be like
<v Speaker 1>the last question, how are things over in aew You know.
<v Speaker 2>It'll be like the final question, Yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Like tell us so you were in New Japan for
<v Speaker 1>a while. Instead of talking about going there to face Omega,
<v Speaker 1>he'll talk about like his time is portraying the Evil Lager,
<v Speaker 1>the Superlager character, which was only one match or something
<v Speaker 1>like that. So we'll waste fifteen twenty minutes of airtime
<v Speaker 1>talking about how he couldn't see through a mask and
<v Speaker 1>it was a big bomb. So we went back to WCW.
<v Speaker 1>That we'll get spoon fed that and force fed that,
<v Speaker 1>and of course they owned the rights to a lot
<v Speaker 1>of smokey mountain stuff. So they'll talk about tagging with
<v Speaker 1>Lance Storm as the thrill Seekers and that kind of
<v Speaker 1>thing and the ECW stuff. Once it comes to AW,
<v Speaker 1>it's gonna be one, maybe two questions, tops and thank you.
<v Speaker 1>Tune in next week when we have I can see
<v Speaker 1>that somebody the great Colleie on no so that, but
<v Speaker 1>I I if anybody could contact myself or or you
<v Speaker 1>on Twitter, I would love to know if you can
<v Speaker 1>find these streaming numbers and what uh since the announcement
<v Speaker 1>of Jericho being on there, how how many more peacock
<v Speaker 1>streaming services uh streaming service uh subscriptions have been added?
<v Speaker 1>Of course, Also it's skewed because how many people are
<v Speaker 1>just getting peacock for peacock and not.
<v Speaker 2>For That's the thing. You don't know, like that, you
<v Speaker 2>don't know when you sign up, you don't say what
<v Speaker 2>made you purchase. This was exact addition of the stone
<v Speaker 2>cold broken skull, like you don't know.
<v Speaker 1>So put dj Kuzmo on this, you know he'll he'll
<v Speaker 1>dig it up for.
<v Speaker 2>A that's your call, DJ, I know you're listening.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, that's that's that's I think that was the Okay,
<v Speaker 1>things aren't going so well, and so now we we
<v Speaker 1>have to pull out a big gun, and that's the
<v Speaker 1>big gun.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah it is. When I saw that, I'm like, what,
<v Speaker 2>you know, Ever, as I'm sure all of us were.
<v Speaker 2>You know, he's brought in some great guest undertaker a
<v Speaker 2>couple of times. It has been really good. Sasha Banks, Bailey, fantastic,
<v Speaker 2>Kurt angle Caine. I mean he said some really really
<v Speaker 2>good ones that you know. I'm loving the broken Skull
<v Speaker 2>sessions that he's doing. He's he's a really good host.
<v Speaker 2>He asked the follow up questions that you want to
<v Speaker 2>know about. He's organized. He drinks a lot on the show,
<v Speaker 2>like a lot. I mean, some of the drinking they've done,
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, i'd be out. I mean like they're doing
<v Speaker 2>shot after shot after shot of Jack wisgom like geez,
<v Speaker 2>but I like his format. He's he's stone cold, Steve
<v Speaker 2>effing Austin like he you know, he's gonna be straight
<v Speaker 2>shooting with you. But anyway, so, Michael, was there anything
<v Speaker 2>else on that list before we wrap things up?
<v Speaker 1>Well, the only thing I want to say is a
<v Speaker 1>very happy Easter to everybody, and of course everybody celebrates Passover.
<v Speaker 1>I hope you have great Passover. I hope everybody had
<v Speaker 1>a great holiday today. And as far as wrestling goes,
<v Speaker 1>this whole next week is going to be very intense.
<v Speaker 1>It's going to be a lot of a lot more
<v Speaker 1>forced storylines. Kind of curious as to how big of
<v Speaker 1>a disaster SmackDown is going to be, with them trying
<v Speaker 1>to tell Smusy TV, and with obviously knowing that whoever
<v Speaker 1>wins Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal is basically going
<v Speaker 1>to have a cursed career, So I don't know what's
<v Speaker 1>going to happen this week. Of Course, you and I communicate,
<v Speaker 1>so we'll see what's going on. And I just want
<v Speaker 1>to throw a shout out to a girl named Abby
<v Speaker 1>that I'm kind of smitten with. She knows who she
<v Speaker 1>is and I hope she enjoys the show. And some
<v Speaker 1>friends at Jerry Lawler's barbecue because they got me a
<v Speaker 1>shirt for a good friend of mine. So aside from that,
<v Speaker 1>that's what I got in wrestling this week.
<v Speaker 2>Awesome. Well, Michael, I am. I'm sure you and I
<v Speaker 2>will be in contact. It is the most biggest wrestling
<v Speaker 2>week of our lives. I mean, this is the one
<v Speaker 2>week out of our fifty two that is our super
<v Speaker 2>Bowl of wrestling. Even if you and I and others
<v Speaker 2>aren't super excited about the card and some of the storylines,
<v Speaker 2>setting the bar solo doesn't make it easily exceedable, So
<v Speaker 2>perhaps we'll be We'll be pleasantly surprised by WWE. I'm
<v Speaker 2>not going to crap on it before things happen. I
<v Speaker 2>will still go into this pay per view with an
<v Speaker 2>open mind and hopefully surprised. But you and I will
<v Speaker 2>be in touch in short order, I'm sure as we
<v Speaker 2>get closer and closer as WrestleMania is what six days away?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah exactly? Wow yeah crazy crazy.
<v Speaker 2>So all right, well, Michael, thank you so much and
<v Speaker 2>it's been a pleasure. We will be in touch very soon.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you and everybody out there. You have a great
<v Speaker 1>Easter once again, and we'll look forward to speaking to
<v Speaker 1>you again.
<v Speaker 2>Awesome. Have a good night you too, Goodbye.