WWE Week in Review: The Rock's Massive Return, Raquel vs Rhea, Bayley vs Asuka, LA Knight's Mission Statement

All right, it's time to give a huge shout out to the sponsor of
today's episode, Happy Hippo dot Com. So if you guys haven't checked this
out, you gotta go to Happy Hipo dot com because they have some of
the highest quality cradam products that I've ever come across. And if you guys
aren't familiar with the kradam is, it's an herbal substance that has many different
uses, everything from a balanced mind to energy. You can it can help
you relax. And my wife and I over the last couple of weeks have
tried out some of their products and I have to say it has improved her
sleep. Specifically, she's very anxious and her mind runs at night and it
has helped her fall asleep and stay asleep. She actually was using one of
the powders that comes in a pouch from Happy Hippo and just dropped it into
her water, and you know, off she went and she was just she
she was very happy. Let me just put it that way. And so
myself during the work day, if you guys didn't know, I have a
big boy job. I work in contract management and I need that balance.
I need the energy during the day, and they have something called hyper Hippo
and an energy shot. Those energy shots coming those little tiny bottles. You
guys are familiar with it from other brands that use that type of packaging,
But there's nothing like this all right, this energy shot. I take it,
easy to take and within minutes I feel the effects. There's no massive
crash after I take it either, which is a huge deal. Right,
how many energy drinks have you taken and coffee have you drank throughout the day
that just leads to the massive crash. Well, this doesn't, and it's
an all natural herb, and I'm telling you right now it will help you
get through your day, can help you relax. Depending on the type of
product you're looking for, Happy Hippo delivers and guess what, right now,
if you have an order of two hundred or more, you can get free
next day FedEx shipping. And also their stuff tastes great. So check out
Happy Hippo dot com, support the ww podcast and Happy Hippo, and do
yourself a favor as well. Guys, I'm telling you right now, if
it can help my wife go to sleep, for somebody as anxious as she
is, and as somebody that needs as much energy as I do during the
day to do this podcast and to do my job during the day. And
right now you can say fifteen percent are your entire order by using promo code
WWE fifteen. That's right, WWE fifteen. We'll get your fifteen percent off
if your entire order. And starting August twenty eighth, they are having their
largest sale of the year on their hyper Hippo product, forty percent off,
so you'll definitely want to check them out then. But anytime you can use
WWE fifteen as your promo code, you get fifteen percent off your entire order.
Check out Happy Hippo dot com. Whether you're trying to relax or whether
you need energy or balanced during the day, Happy Hippo dot com. This
is w BB superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the WWE podcast. Stop
the show, the one that everybody wants me God Radio Step three sixteen says,
just clift your ass is my art. We're gonna acknowledge me. Welcome
to the w W podcast, everybody, It is time for the weekend review
here and a lot to get to as it was a massive week in w
W E one that I don't think we saw coming of this caliber and how
quickly John Cena's returned the greatest of all time, as we're told every week,
is overshadowed instantly. Nia Jack's return shot, We're overshadowed instantly. And
what were they overshadowed by? Well, of course the return of the Rock.
We're gonna get to that in just a minute. But first, thank
you guys for joining me here on the show, and also give the latest
patrons a shout out. I want to give a shout out to our new
trial patron, Seth. Hope you guys or hope you enjoin us on the
on the other side of things after your trial. And also Mark s And
I think that's it for the time being. And Mark and Seth welcome to
the family. And if you guys need anything, let me know. You
guys have the Discord server, you have had free everything. You have the
Anthony DeMarco on the ad Free Anthony DeMarco Show that we do now every Friday
for after Dark. So the first one was published this Friday, so enjoy
that. And I'm starting to do more video, as you guys have seen
on the Patreon side of things, I gave my instant reaction to the Rock,
and also I post something else. I can't remember what it was,
but I'm starting to do video and that is for the SmackDown tire and above.
So all right, well let's let's stop into it, everybody. The
Rock. I mean, I'm not going to dance around it. I'm not
gonna wait till the end of the show. I'm just going to talk about
the Rock now. Unfortunately, the Internet ruined this one for me, as
it does so many returns. And the reason is I saw of clips going
viral instantly about the Rock talking about WrestleMania forty and he was on the Pat
McAfee show earlier that day and he was in Denver, and the rumors started
circulating, and the rumors instantly started coming out the Rocks backstage He's coming to
SmackDown. And I'm like, well, econom makes sense because he's in the
city or in the area of SmackDown. We're getting close to WrestleMania season where
people start to think about it at least, and you know, he's on
Pat McAfee's show, one of the biggest podcasts in the world right now right
and also the content of what they were talking about the Rock brought up WrestleMania
forty. He said it's in Philly. He gave kind of a smile about
it, and pretty much locked it in. Now he didn't say it,
but he's not going to say it. You don't say those things, you
show them on TV. But also talked about how in Sofi Stadium last year
that he was it was locked in to face Roman Rains. And the reason
that it didn't it didn't actually happen is because the Rock didn't feel that they
could come up with or the entire creative team and management and Vince didn't feel
like they can come up with something that was not just the end of something
but the beginning of something and do something more than and bigger than a match.
And I understand that logic that if you're going to do this one of
the biggest fantasy matches of all time, you want to do it more than
just a match in a program and wham bam Rock wins or loses, and
you know he's gone after the Monday at Rock to WrestleMania, right back to
Hollywood, which is essentially what's going to happen. No matter what happens,
that the only thing and think of that would be bigger and the beginning of
something is if the Rock beats Roman reigns. But I don't think, actually
think anybody wants that. If the titles on the line. I've been saying
that for years now, if the titles on the line, Rock should not
win. But to me, it's already by default bigger than just a match.
The fans have already built this up in their minds so much, and
this program up in their minds so much, and what it could mean,
and the storyline is so right there for the taking. There's not much thought
that needs to be put into it from a just a foundational standpoint anyway,
of why is the Rock facing Roman? We all know the reason, but
this is already bigger. So if their excuses, well, we couldn't think
of anything bigger than just a match with Roman. And it's not just the
end, it's the beginning of something. I'm sorry, it's kind of lame.
It's a lame excuse for me. I don't the fans honestly don't need
it to be bigger. They just want the match, they want the program,
they want the promos. I think they're overthinking this, they're over they're
trying. I feel like the WWB management, if that's true, that they
couldn't come up with something last year, and if it if it doesn't happen
this year, if that's the reason, it's lame, it's it's lame sauce
is what it is, and I don't I don't buy it. This match
rights itself, the program rights itself, the storyline rights itself. The match.
We're not expecting a five star classic, but should be a you know,
fun slower pace, near falls, lots of finished kickouts, hopefully no
you know, outside interference and when loser jaw the Rock leaves after the Monanete
Rock to WrestleMania and that's I mean, it doesn't need to be more than
that. I don't know why they think it does. But moving on to
the actual segment with the Rock. Now, Pat McAfee is a fan favorite.
He's beloved and he's yeah. I think the reason, one of the
reasons that makes him so appealing is he's just kind of his goofy self.
You can tell he's not acting, you can tell this is like who he
is. He thoroughly enjoys what he's doing, and that authentic personality and love
of what he's doing comes through, and I think that is a massive appeal
to the crowd who and human beings watching, because we can sense when something
is more often than not, when something's phony, and this with Pat is
not phony. He loves this. He obviously has a million other projects going
on. He's got his own show that's massively successful. Pat is a fun
a fun dude, watch, no doubt about it. He's he's a he's
an entertainer by heart or at heart, and naturally, so he comes out,
and you know, Austin Theory follows suit pretty quickly, and you know,
you kind of see what. First of all, I don't why are
all three men wearing wearing black tank tops? I don't know. I guess
I missed the memo that night that everyone must be wearing black tank tops.
But Austin Theory comes out. He said it was Austin Theory live. And
and then he said he's twenty six, he's everywhere, and all McAfee had
a twenty six was a mug shot, and Theory said that he had unfinished
business and he was going to drop him right now because he wasn't sure who
he thought he was. And he would send him back injured to his football
show, like the injured Aaron Rodgers. McAfee said he wasn't going to do
anything and had no interest fighting. Okay, so let's see here. So
McAfee said, this wasn't Austin Theory Live, it was the People's show,
and he asked if he knew what that meant, and then The Rock came
out. I mean, just a mind boggling massive reaction. But it's been
four years, I believe since The Rock did come back. I think the
last appearance he had was on SmackDown against Corbin for the premiere of SmackDown on
Fox. I think that was the last time till's been quite a bit and
or, as the kids would say, a hot minute. So the Rock
grabbed a mic and a lot of holy s chants, which were cut off
by Fox. Half this segment was cut off by Fox in USA and any
all the other networks because of the profanity and not just the and the crowd
chance that The Rock helped initiate, but also the actual words that the Rock
was saying. However, the Rock did his finally bit and the crowd,
Denver crowd was you know, completely losing their minds, but Austin Theory cut
him off and said, finally Austin and Rock are back in the ring together.
And he was a real Austin, an ass kicker that would and he
would take up the whole amount rushmore and Theory told the Rock he doesn't matter
what he says, and the Rock says that actually does matter what he says,
and it matters what the people say. He then worked through a bit
where he had one half of the audience say you are and the other half
was an a hole, And honestly, like, you know, it's uh,
it was just I'm not a fan of this. Actually. The Fox
censors were, you know, it's very very busy that night, and I
actually you couldn't even hear what they were saying the crowd when you watch it
after this, if you you know, watch it in post production after the
show, they just took out the chance completely and made just generic crowd noise.
You couldn't hear anything. It was. It was unusable. But I
actually, I mean I don't even like this kind of stuff actually, And
also like you know, this is like his in the audience, right,
like being a father myself, I actually kind of feel that part of it.
Now, if you're a dad bringing a young child or a young daughter,
or whatever the case, if you're under the age of like twelve,
you're probably I mean you might have heard the word, but you know,
if you especially younger five to ten years old, like, I don't know
if i'd want my kids hearing that stuff, I don't know. I mean,
it's PG I understand, But if the Rock is eliciting eliciting this and
it goes on for several minutes, I don't know. I'm not a fan
of this stuff. I'm not trying to bring this segment down. I didn't
like it so much. But Rock said Theory came down to the ring to
run the people on the Rock show the People Show, and in three seconds,
the Rock would whoop his candy ass all over Denver and Theory trying to
jump the gun and he got a spinebuster, and then the Rock hit the
People's elbow, and then so did McAfee. So crowd goes wild. This
is a lot of fun. Despite the fact that the Rocks still has you
know, elementary insults, He's still the Rock. You know, if you
took the content of his promo and stuck it. With anybody else, we
would have said this was an awful promo, But it's because it's the Rock.
The way he delivers it. He's a magnetic personality, one of the
biggest stars, if not the biggest star in the world, one of the
most recognizable faces in the world. Now he's the king of Hollywood. He's
at the top of the mountain. Yeah, we know all this, right,
but you know it's because it's the Rock that he is able to pull
off one an otherwise content wise promo is conn of lane. You know,
he comes up with a whole like when you have to result to name calling,
you've lost the battle, right Like when you when you result to resort
to like name calling and cheap low blows like that, it's kind of like
you don't have anything else creative to say, so you know, you're you
kind of have to resort to that to make yourself sound like you're a tough
guy. Again, I'm not running down the Rock. It's just that the
promo from the Rock didn't impress me. But I mean, I'm not complaining
at all because he didn't have to be there. He did not have to
show up. He's in Boulder with on an ESPN interview with Bat McAfee.
Many of you have seen and so cool, you know, massive bumping ratings.
I guess social media exploded. Good for podcasters like myself right, good
for anybody creating content. It give us a lot to talk about, a
lot of boosts and viewerships and sponsors and all that kind of thing, which
is good. But here's what I want to talk about, more than just
the rocks appearance is I think we can finally pun intended, I guess,
finally talk about and Rock. I think it's time we can seriously talk about
this now. Now things could turn. But the Rock publicly saying on a
show before WrestleMania, not going in silence and hiding and doing his movies and
not talking about it, but actually publicly kind of giving a win good nod
about WrestleMania forty before showing up on SmackDown is a big deal. And I
think we can say with high confidence, not one hundred percent, but high
confidence, Roman and Rock is happening, and it's happening at WrestleMania forty.
I think we can finally say that because anything else of the Rock appearing here
other than oh, it's a one off and who's nearby. That's cool.
Sure that's a possibility, that's definitely a possibility. But I think we can
finally say it now. It's time. Let's get this match underway. From
what I understand, though, The Rock isn't going to be there for a
while in w He's not going to be there on like in every other week
or you know, any of that time schedule. He's probably gonna take some
time back and you know, do what he's been doing with his schedule in
his life, and probably reappear late this year from what I understand. Of
course, there's rumors circulating about see him Punk now and his interview or he
you know, I forget where I saw the clip, but Punk did say
I'll be free for the next two months. What's the next two months?
What does that put us? At Survivor Series in Chicago? So Punk knows
what he's doing there. The lots of talk about here, guys, lots
of returns happening right now. It's kind of an avalanche of returns and lots
of talk about. But from what I understand, don't expect to see The
Rock for at least a couple more months, and then at that point he'll
start ramping things up with the Roman. I would imagine after the event in
Saudi Arabia in November, and maybe just after Survivor series, you'll start to
really hear and see things from the Rock again to ramp up to Roman and
Rock at forty. Maybe they wait till January after the Rumble, but that's
my assumption and from what I understand, that's where they're going. So let's
do this right, alrighty, let's let's get to the next segment here Aj
Styles and Finn Balor. Now this is not a SmackDown only review. You
guys can hear Michael Ritter, who did a great job covering SmackDown with the
one of the biggest review shows of all time. You know, our download
numbers exploded, But I mean, I think I have to credit that to
The Rock and Michael Ritter, who does a great job. But it was
you know, thank you Rock. Okay, But hey, the next segment
here with Ajstles and Finn Balor, I really enjoyed. This was a solid
matchup, one that you knew was going to be solid from from the ground
up. You knew this wasn't gonna be sloppy. The only down side to
this was it was only about eight minutes, not enough time to tell a
great story. And this ended with Finn Balor beating aj Styles and that was
because Jimmy Usso jumped on the apron and ended up colliding with Styles. Ballard
then pulled him into a crucifix pin for the win. And again these two
could go twenty five thirty minutes and even in the short time they had,
I think they did a really good job here, but a lot of kind
of outside stuff. And after the match, Balor escaped to rejoin Domin Priest
and Jimmy smiled at what he had done. So this was again not the
match of the century, but it did what it needed to do with these
two professionals. I thought, all right, rock backstage after this and he
was. He came face to face with John Cena, which was cool.
They hugged it out. You know that program is obviously not going to be
resurrected, no need for it. And in the ring LWO was there.
Ray Masterio spoke and said he was grateful for the LWO teaching him what a
family was all about. Again, did he suddenly forget he has a wife
and a daughter. He has to remember what a family is like. I
know what he's referencing, of course, Dominic, but are you completely discrediting
your wife and daughter? All right? Anyway? Santos Escobar then spoke up
and he told Ray he was happy he took his place in his match against
Austin Theory. He said it's always been a dream of him to face against
face off against Ray and he asked him respectfully for a US Championship match,
and Ray Masterio agreed. But Bobby Lashley's music hit. He came out with
the Street Prophets Prophets and said they had tag teams falling apart in teams having
weird love fests in the ring. He said they were there, they were
going to take over, and Cruiz del Toro then spoke up and said if
they were looking for a fight, they shouldn't be standing fifty feet away and
demanded to get in the ring, and the referees came down, so the
LWO Joaquin Wilde and Cruised del Toro versus the Street Profits happened, and the
Street Profits defeated the LWO at about thirty seconds. A bit disappointing here,
it was, Yeah, I think this got a bit of a cut because
of the Rock segments throughout the night that maybe weren't planned. But this was
a bit disappointing one that I'm sure it will be revisited. So I'm not
gonna, you know, I'm not gonna hammered to be too much about this
other than to say this is kind of a preview of what's to come.
But by the way, there were no direct interactions between the Rock and the
Bloodline, nothing that you could really draw a line to yet, but other
than the segment with Jimmy was directly after the Rock, so production wise,
maybe you could. So there is that alright, l A n versus them
Is then happened, and this match was a little longer at eleven minutes,
with La Night beating them Is. I really enjoyed the match here. It
in credit to them Is, who certainly did his part in this match,
and it always really does. As much as I don't like his character,
and I still can't ever not look at him as as a real world character,
and the fact that he has not aged in twenty years doesn't help him.
He still looks like he has a very young face and all of that.
I don't. I don't think he ever fully got rid of the real
world reality star stink on him. It just never left him and that's just
what it is. But this match here, hey, I can't blame anybody
here or talking negatively about this. This was exactly what it needed to be
a solid in ring performance once again from Night and beating them is clear,
no wonky outside stuff, no happenstance. It was La Night straight up beating
them as as it should be because at this juncture in the l A Night
Rise, you know, there's just no need for any wonky stuff. It's
just let's get going, you know, not that he needs to be champion
tomorrow, but it's a let's get going kind of thing. Now. The
most interesting part of this wasn't even the match, which La n eight won
and any should but it was the mid or La Night getting on the mike
after the match and said he came, when he came to SmackDown, he
was coming for gold. He called out Gunther, Raymond Stereo Seth and then
said I don't even care if it's Roman Reigns and he said he's top two,
but he's not number two, which was which was a good line,
but he basically made a declarative mission statement that I'm here for gold. All
champions should watch their back. But for him to actually mentioned Roman Reigns by
name for the first time was something. Now, what do they do?
I don't know. I'm not sure. You know, I'm not sure what
they do here with Ali Knight. I have a theory and I'm gonna give
you that theory right after this break and a word from the sponsors. So
stay right here, all right, It's time to give a huge shout out
to the sponsor of today's episode, Happy Hippo dot Com. So if you
guys haven't checked this out, you gotta go to Happy Hippo dot com because
they have some of the highest quality cradam products that I've ever come across.
And if you guys aren't familiar with the cradam is, it's an herbal substance
that has many different uses, everything from a balanced mind, energy, you
can it can help you relax. And my wife and I, over the
last couple of weeks have tried out some of their products and I have to
say it has improved her sleep. Specifically, she's very anxious and her mind
runs at night and it has helped her fall asleep and stay asleep. She
actually was using one of the powders that comes in a pouch from Happy Hippo
and just dropped it into her water and off she went and she was just
she was very happy. Let me just put it that way. And so
myself during the work day. If you guys didn't know, I have a
big boy job. I work in contract management and I need that balance.
I need the energy during the day. And they have something called hyper Hippo
and an energy shot. Those energy shots come in those little tiny bottles.
You guys are familiar with it from other brands that use that type of packaging.
But there's nothing like this all right, this energy shot. I take
it, easy to take and within minutes I feel the effects. There's no
massive crash after I take it either, which is a huge deal. Right.
How many energy drinks have you taken and coffee have you drank throughout the
day that just leads to the massive crash. Well, this doesn't. And
it's an all natural herb and I'm telling you right now it will help you
get through your day, can help you relax. Depending on the type of
product you're looking for, Happy Hippo delivers and guess what, right now,
if you have an order of two hundred or more, you can get free
next day FedEx shipping. And also their stuff tastes great. So check out
Happy Hippo dot com, support the ww podcast and Happy Hippo and do yourself
a favor as well. Guys, I'm telling you right now, if it
can help my wife go to sleep, for somebody as anxious as she is,
and as somebody that needs as much energy as I do during the day
to do this podcast and to do my job during the day, and right
now you can say fifteen percent are your entire order by using promo code WWE
fifteen. That's right, WWE fifteen. We'll get your fifteen percent off if
your entire order. And starting August twenty eight they are having their largest sale
of the year on their hyper Hippo product off, so you'll definitely want to
check them out then. But anytime you can use WWE fifteen as your promo
code to get fifteen percent off your entire order. Check out Happy Hippo dot
com. Whether you're trying to relax or whether you're you need energy or balanced
during the day, Happy Hippo dot Com. All right, let's let's talk
about La Night here. So what I think could happen is, since the
Rock is tied up with Roman at forty and they want to make that as
big of a match as possible, they'll probably have the title on the line.
They probably will with Roman and Rock. I don't think it's I think
it's a bad move. I think it's ill advised because, as I mentioned
many many moons ago, when you have the title on the line against the
Rock, you know the Rocks not winning. Therefore, the outcome is extremely
predictable. Now they could do something wild and all they think, the fans
think, they know we're gonna swerve him. It's not the right guy.
Even as a shock to the world, Oh my god, the Rocks champion
again, as they did with John Cena back in ten years ago. It's
not enough for me to say the Rocks the right guy. He's not the
right guy. He's the opposite of what you would you would put down on
paper as somebody you'd want to beat Roman Streak. Rock would gain nothing,
it would all be for nothing. So that means that the Rock is losing
that match. So that leaves You're like, well, where's La Night going
if he wins the Rumble? What's happening? Because you can't have Rocking and
Roman if La Knight is won the Rumble. I mean, it just it
gets very weird, very quickly. Right, So they could have him,
they could have him if he wins the Rumble face Seth Rollins. But right
now, Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins seemed to be on a path for WrestleMania.
So here's where things see see, here's what things could happen. Now.
The only possibility of La Knight grabbing that championship is if it's before WrestleMania.
But if you're gonna have La Night win the Rumble, he can't face
Roman at WrestleMania because it's one on one with the Rock. This is this
is probably one of those things guys that we're gonna have to be even more
patient with Alla Knight winning. So if the Rock loses, here's my prediction.
Now, I'm not sure what Ellena is gonna do at WrestleMania at forty
I'm not sure, but the Rock loses, Roman remains, it's this SmackDown
after the after WrestleMania, or maybe Roman Reigns shows up on Raw and that's
when everyone's booing Roman and all that, and then La Knight comes out and
challenges Roman Reigns. Now, I mean that could happen, though, crowd
would pop for that. But then who wins the rumble? The Rock to
face Roman. This is a weird conundrum. Let me know what you guys
think. I'm actually curious, guys, how would you book this? Where
La Night is on the rise. It could reach a perfect boiling point by
WrestleMania, but you have Rock Roman locked in for forty WrestleMania forty. What
do you do with Night if he wins the rumble? Or do you not
have him win the rumble? It's almost like the Rock is inadvertently hindering the
perfect progression plan that would have otherwise been in place if the Rock wasn't facing
Roman at WrestleMania forty. And as we know, Roman Reigns is on every
fourteenth SmackDown, so it's difficult to get a promo going anyway, a program
at all. Now, I'll be interested to hear your thoughts. Let me
know. The other thing is Roman reigns here, you know, barring a
injury that he has okay, which apparently he has, but even if he
does, it's irrelevant to my point because he wasn't injured from WrestleMania to Summer
Slam, and he didn't defend his belt once between that time other than again
until Summer Slam. That was a four month window. Now he's going to
go from SummerSlam to Survivor Series or rather the Saudi Arabia I think Crown Jewel
event in November. That's another three months. So get this. In seven
months span, Roman reins defends his belt twice. One of them was to
an immediate family member, the other is yet to be named outside star.
So it gets worse. In seven months, he defends his belt against one
person outside of the bloodline. It's inexcusable, nonsense, it's inexcusable. I
don't want to hear how he's injured. He wasn't injured between Mania and SummerSlam,
and he didn't defend his bells once between there. Again, this isn't
on Rollman, This is on the creative plan for Roman, on the whole
stat side of things, management side. This is getting to the point where
it's embarrassing. I don't want to hear well, when he's there, it
feels more special. We're way beyond that. We're way beyond that. Yes
it does, but who cares? Who cares? That? Is that that
juice has been squeezed out. We understand that, and sure it still does
feel important when he's on the show. I understand that. I get it.
But this is not the nineteen seventies anymore, okay, where you have
the NWA champion traveling from town to town to town and he only that person
only comes through like once every six months. I understand that. This is
a different world now. I don't want him on every show, But for
the love of God, how can somebody tell me right now it's a better
idea to have Roman reigns. It is belt on the line against one person
outside of the blood line in seven months. Explain that to me. I
don't want to hear this. Soul smore is more special when he's there.
That's long past its shelf life gone to me. Yeah, that still exists,
but that is a at this point to me, a diminishing return where
there is no return anymore to that. It's minuscule, microscopic. It's to
the point where that's the most important championship in the company, and it's not
even visible. Nobody's talking about it on SmackDown. The people that should be
talking about it aren't. Yes, we got La Night this past week,
which was an encouraging sign. But this has got to stop, and it
is hurting Roman reigns his title reign, I think because he's inflating his numbers
egregiously, this streak is being inflated by these massive chunks of time where he's
not defending the belt or not showing up. Okay, it just is.
I mean, you can't have somebody saying they're having a three year run and
they're showing up, especially over the last twelve to eighteen months, which is
really where I'm focusing here, and all of a sudden you're just like,
wow, they've been champion for a thousand days. I would say, yeah,
they have. What have they done the last eighteen months? Again,
defended the belt how many times? And since this past years or so many
how many times? It's just I'm sorry, guys, it's a it's I've
reached the boiling point with it. I'm done with it. I'm over it.
I don't care that it's more special when he's there that that's not an
excuse anymore to me. That's not enough of a benefit for me to say,
oh, okay, yeah, that's true. It is more special when
he's there, that can you can work that for like a year, it's
been three plus. Now I'm done. Not that I don't think Roman as
good as champion or not that I want to see him drop it, but
he needs to charge start showing up more. There's just no if sounds or
butts about it. There's no excuse in the world that would make me change
my mind. There a little bit of a rant. All right, let's
continue on here. We got pretty deadly backstage. They're coming back soon.
The whole injury here too was a Kit Wilson who was in a wheelchair even
though he hurt his shoulder. Was kind of funny. And the whole yes
boy and heel gimmick, they got it. It's it's it certainly is a
heat inducing gimmick, so that that's a good thing. But yeah, the
tag teams divisions always need help. Just by definition, So anytime you get
depth in any of the divisions, men or women's, it's a good thing.
Just just assume they all always need help. They just always do.
Okay, So let's see backstage, we had Jimmy Uso Hayman telling Jimmy USO
that, or rather, I'm sorry, Solo told Hayman that Jimmy was making
deals with the judgment day and causing problems with Sina and those problems that Solo
will have to solve, and Solo reply that he already knows what he needs
to do and it would happen tonight. So it kind of leaves you with
a hook of what's Solo gonna do? And we find out at the end
of the show, which I'm a bit critical about the end of the show,
I'm not gonna lie. So we got a Bailey with Dakota Kai versus
Oscar match. Again, very nice to see Bailey in prominent, high not
high stakes, but highly visible matches. Right, I have no problem with
Bailey getting back involved in the ring doing things that she should be doing other
than just leading age that no one has cared about in eight months. So
Bailey and Oscar had a sound match. It was nine minutes, but this
kind of reminded me of the first match here that was the opening match that
we talked about. The finish of that and that was the Styles and Valor
match. It kind of reminded me to finish here and again Bailey Osca no
concerns other than the fact that you know there's going to be outside interference here,
and boy was there. So we got a Shotzi showing up in the
crowd and chase Bailey back to the ring, who looked like she saw a
ghost, and that allowed Oscar to take advantage, and he's a backslide for
the win again, a very very similar finish to the first match. Here,
the backslide wins the day, I guess, and Osca gets the victory,
and then shots he chased back Bailey to the back. I'm not understanding
why changing your hair is so scary. I mean, there's a lot of
weird characters in w B, and Bailey's scared of a little bit of a
hair change in Shotzi and she makes scary faces. Is she is? She
twelve? I understand she's supposed to be intimidated by Shotsy. I get that
it's just a little bit outside of the realm of believability when you have a
grown woman on national television running away from a screaming a screaming Shotzi because she's
got scary hair. Now, my god, she cut her hair. That
must really improve her ability to win matches. I mean, let's let's get
serious. I'm not down on Shotzi or Bailey. I'm down on the dynamic
that I'm supposed to believe that Bailey is so scared of Shotzi. I don't
know, all right, So next week Santos Askabar and Ray Mysterio versus the
Street Prophets is taking place, So that's a that's a match I guess he
can look forward to. And then we get the John Cena segment here.
This was weird and it may be the first time that w w WE took
away one of the biggest weapons John Cena has is in his arsenal, not
the five knuckles shuffle, not his Georg's, not his bald spot. And
no, no, no, I'm talking about his voice. And they didn't
let him speak at all in this and I'll get into that in a minute.
So Grayson Waller told rather Sena came out and Waller said, this must
be like a dream for him to be on the Grayson Waller effect. And
then he had a really funny line though. He said that when he talks
to grown ups. He takes his hat off, and then Waller told Sina
he needs some help and needs to be more like him and just sit back
and let the stars shine. And then he started talking bad about the refereeing
job that John Cena did at Payback, and he accused Sina of want not
or rather of not wanting to be an in ring competitor anymore. And Waller
said he was the greatest of all time and it's clear nowhere near the greatest
right now, and Jimmy USO came out and just as John Cena was ready
to take out Grayson Waller, Jimmy comes out and heads to the ring,
and Sina walked up to Jimmy, who stole his mic away. He told
Sina that Kangaroo Jack had a point and that's the fact that nobody wants seeing
it here and everybody came to see him, and then he threatened Sina.
He told him to get the hell out of his ring. And then Solo
comes out and stepped right into seeing his face. He faked like he was
going to summon spike Jimmy and then superkicked Sina in the face, and then
Jimmy and solo beat on Sena and aj Styles made to save and we got
a five knuckles shuffle on Jimmy. We almost got a nephew or rather an
attitude adjustment on Jimmy, but Solo pulled Jimmy away to save him. So
this was again this could have definitely used the John Cena promo. Now he'll
get to that. Maybe, hell, maybe he opens the show next week
and he's able to respond with nobody taking the mic away and all that.
But it is disappointing when you don't get to hear John Cena respond, especially
when he's in serious Sina mode, not the bow and tie, tongue in
cheek, breaking the fourth wall, backstage clown right when he tries to play
Pee Wee Herman. It's always a disaster to me. It's like the worst
version of anything that I've ever seen. But when he's in serious mode,
he's the polar opposite. He you know, he is a master on the
microphone, and it is disappointing when he's in serious mode that they didn't give
him a chance to speak, which is again very weird, but it's not
weird in the fact that I don't see what they're trying to do of setting
up the match. This weird and that they took that away from him.
He's one of his greatest assets. Has nothing to do with his physicality or
his body or anything. It's it's his damn voice. He knows that a
man knows how to speak. And so that was a bit disappointing and frustrating
as a fan. But maybe that's all I'm supposed to feel. I'm not
sure, but it looks like we're gonna have an AJ Styles and John seen
a tag team match against Solo and Jimmy. That seems to be coming.
I don't know when, probably at fast Lane. I don't know if Roman
Reins is going to get involved. Paul him and is incessantly telling his iPhone
in the wrong place to call Roman Reins. I mean, does does he
not know that he can just, you know, tap a button on his
phone and it'll call Let me Paul. Please, if you're listening to me,
use your phone the right way. Okay, you're clearly, by the
way, not telling the phone to call Roman Reins, because if you were,
Siri would be activated in which your screen would light up. Your screen's
never lit up, and so that that's strike one. Also, you continue
to talk into the wrong part of the phone. The microphones are located at
the bottom of the phone. Don't talk to the earpiece, talk to the
mouthpiece. It's by the charger. If you have an iPhone, which you
clearly do, it's towards the bottom of your phone, Paul, So if
you're gonna do it, make it look real. It just annoys the hell
out of me. Every week he's doing this and he looks like an amateur,
like it's the first time he's ever picked up a you know, a
cell phone, and he's like, how did these contraptions work? Gee?
I don't know. You know, it's like, bro, you know,
you're so brilliant on the microphone. You're one of the greatest minds in wrestling
history, and you can't just perform a simple to ask with an iPhone that's
been out since two thousand and seven. I just come on, Paul,
I don't know. I don't even nitpicked these things, but they continue to
just they're so solvable. All right, Anyway, let's move over to the
raw side of things, which also, you know, feels like a million
years ago. But as a as a quick reminder, of what happened on
Raw. We did get a Ripley Roquelle Rodriguez Women's Championship match, and we
had a massive return there. Now, I enjoyed that match more than it
seems like most of you did. I thought it was an improvement over their
payback match. I didn't think it was blow away, but it was definitely
better. And then I Jack's returns and takes out both Ripley and Roquell,
and Ripley does retain. Though. The one thing I don't know, if
you guys have seen this, I don't know how the hell I stumbled across
it. Stevie Richards. You guys might remember him from Right to Censor,
one of the most underrated heeled groups of all time. I think RTC back
in the late nineties, early two thousands perfect just on a love. Love
that group more than I don't think I appreciated them in their time. I
appreciate them much more now. But anyway, my point is Stevie Richards went
through piece by piece, and it's in a frame by frame, like as
if you were sitting down and he's your teacher in a classroom, and he
went point by point about how awful Nia Jacks is or was in that segment,
and it's brilliant the things she did. And I'm not talking about her
career where she injured people, although there were several times in which you know
she injured Charlotte by accident and all that. When Nia Jackson and I'll get
I'll just quickly tell you a summation of what he said. The Samoan drop
that Nia Jacks did on Raquel was unsafe because she literally he did, put
all of her weight behind it. And also he criticized the fact that why
even do that, if if if that wasn't going to cause a count out,
like why even bother? He said that was pointless. And then the
whole Yokazuna bomb dropped that she did, Now I said a Vader bomb earlier,
I meant to say it was Yokazuna, not Vader. Vader did something
different. But she said that that was unsafe because she let go of the
ropes and then put all of her weight on the chest of Rhea and then
slapped her around, which is just taking liberties that I did see. Two.
Now, the drop that she did on Rhea, I didn't notice it
looked so bad until he went frame by frame, and he called her out
for it, and then of course he said he you know, the whole
slapping in the face, which was weird. So if you want to look
that up, I'm sure it's available on YouTube. Just you know Stevie Richards
did it. He went and talked about it, and it was a brilliantly
laid out, piece by piece dismantling of how unsafe that segment was with NIA.
So I know a lot of NIA fans out there. I know there's
many of you out there that listening to the show. I think that it
comes down to this. Nai Jacks is using her size to her advantage,
and not just in matches and storylines, but I think in some degree in
real life because she is not. She obviously doesn't look like most girls pun
intended. She doesn't, and that's an advantage. She doesn't look like the
highly athletic, flip flop and fly, you know, Charlotte doing a moonst
off the top rope type of type of wrestler, and she's not. And
that's fine. That differentiates her immediately, and that's a positive. But the
negative comes down to two things. One, I think she's in she's had
a lot of knee issues. Okay, she's had a lot of issues herself,
her joints, and a lot of it has to do she's carrying extra
weight. Simple physics, she is, and that's just the way it is.
And if physics doesn't discriminate, So she's carrying extra weight, which puts
herself in danger, and also it's putting her competitors in danger because she's not
able to time her maneuvers the way that most of the women that work together
are. So the women often I would imagine the timing is off because nai
Jacks is a tick or two slower because she's carrying more weight. It's just
the way it is. So I would actually anticipate sadly that Nia Jacks is
going to probably be involved in another injury incident before her run is up here.
I just it's unfortunate. I'm not rooting for it by any means,
but you know the fact that she's a higher risk candidate for it, and
her opponents are higher risk, it's probably gonna happen. Again, I'm not
predicting it. Oh well, you said it was gonna happen. She's been
so safe and her I'm saying in the near future, in the next like,
I don't know, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna put a number on
it, but the next several months she's probably unfortunately going to be involved in
that with herself or her opponents. So and again, Nai Jack's I get
it. She looks she's got a good look, and you know she's okay
on the microphone. But hey, I don't know if you like her,
wonderful, good for you, all right, But boy, it doesn't that
feel you talk about You talk about returns being overshadowed. Who I mean,
I think people forgot she returned after the whole rock thing. Okay, Gunther's
Intercontinental title celebration, I love that And I mentioned this on the Raw review.
The dude is as sharp as attack in a suit. I mean,
he belongs in magazines, he is. He just it fits him so perfectly.
You know, I would say if Cody Rhodes wasn't doing the suit thing,
that we could have Gunther and Imperium do it. They just they all
fit to perfectly. They're all about respect and all that. I mean,
it just it fits their personalities too. But we got Chad Gable once again
challenging Gunther and it's probably gonna happen at fast Lane, so I have no
problem with this. They work well together, they have a chemistry that's that's
difficult to manufacture. And it is also very possible to fourth go around here
that Gunther loses. There's a legitimate chance. This is probably the biggest threat
to his title because they already he already crossed the finish line. He's already
the longest reigning Intercontinental champion of all time. They made it, so now
it's no man's land. It's possible that he could drop the belt now to
to to Chad Gable, and I have no problem with that either. Chad
Gables is still a guy that his full potential hasn't been realized yet. So
all right, let's see what other big ticket items happened here. We did
get, you know, of course, we got jay Uzzo, who is
main event, jay Uzzo who is being not trusted by pretty much everybody on
the roster. The mids destroyed to cure it to Zowa. Let's see here
we got Xavier Woods and Drew McIntyre, with Drew beating Woods in nine and
a half minutes. We got Shanna Basler and Chelsea Green with shanea beating Chelsea
Green in under two minutes. We got Rollins and shins Gay, with Rollins
challenging Shinskay once again, where Shinskay is keeps saying no and teasing Rollins.
I don't think I've ever seen a program where the champion has to force a
title match on his opponent. Never, but I don't. That's not a
plane, it's an observation. It's a weird dynamic. We all know what
it's really selling here is Shinski wants to do this on his own time.
He wants to be the one to choose when and how and where he takes
the belt off of set. So yeah, that's really what this is.
All right, let's see, we got a Champa Gable and Otis beating Imperium
in thirteen and a half minutes. And Rea Ripley and Quel Rodriguez. As
I said earlier, Quel Rodriguez lost due to a Naia Jack's interference, and
she is still Rio. Ripley is still your current Women's World champion. So
a hell of a week in WWE, one that I don't think we saw
coming. I mean, if you told me a week ago, the rock
would be appearing on SmackDown. You know, nobody was expecting it at that
point until it became apparent he was in the area and Boulder. All he
had to do is going hour to Denver, and you know they made it
happen. So let the rock and Roman anticipation officially start to build here now.
Again, not officially announced, but you might as well at this point,
and I think we can all talk about it as a real strong and
likely likely but not one hundred percent locked in possibility. So all right,
everybody, that'll wrap up my weekend review. I will be back tomorrow with
the current state of WW with Anthony DeMarco and then Tuesday's the raw review,
Wednesday's Mailbag, and that'll that'll wrap up my week. But we are really
enjoying all the patrons that are joined the show over the last week or two.
You guys have really you know, not only been so much fun to
listen to and we're watching the chat, the Discord chat, but also you
get to enjoy all the ad free stuff, which is which is I know,
great where you don't have to hear anything interrupt you're listening. You just
hit play and sit back and I hope you're enjoying that. You can join
those patrons at starting at a dollar and there's a free trial for every tier
right now, so check that out at Patreon dot com. Slash ww podcast
you can go to Apple, which also offers an ad free option. Wwe
podcast dot com is also a great place for your ad free stuff. All
right, I'm gonna take a breather. I'm gonna actually head to bed now
because I am beat tired, and I will talk to you guys. You
know I'm gonna say next time. All Right, it's time to give a
huge shout out to the sponsor of today's episode, Happy Hippo dot com.
So if you guys haven't checked this out, you gotta go to Happyhapo dot
com because they have some of the highest quality cradam products that I've ever come
across. And if you guys aren't familiar with the kradam is, it's an
herbal substance that has many different uses, everything from a balanced mind to energy.
You can it can help you relax and my wife and I, over
the last couple of weeks have tried out some of their products and I have
to say it has improved her sleep, specifically she's very anxious and her mind
runs at night, and it has helped her fall asleep and stay asleep.
She actually was using one of the powders that comes in a pouch from Happy
Hippo and just dropped it into her water and off she went, and she
was just she was very happy. Let me just put it that way.
And so myself during the work day. If you guys didn't know, I
have a big boy job. I work in contract management and I need that
balance. I need the energy during the day. And they have something called
hyper Hippo and an energy shot. Those energy shots come in those little tiny
bottles. You guys are familiar with it from other brands that use that type
of packaging. But there's nothing like this, all right, this energy shot.
I take it, easy to take and within minutes I feel the effects.
There's no massive crash after I take it either, which is a huge
deal. Right. How many energy drinks have you taken and coffee have you
drank throughout the day that just leads to the massive crash. Well, this
doesn't. And it's an all natural herb and I'm telling you right now it
will help you get through your day, can help you relax. Depending on
the type of product you're looking for, Happy Hippo delivers and guess what,
right now, if you have an order of two hundred or more, you
can get free next day FedEx shipping. And also their stuff tastes great.
So check out Happy Hippo dot com, support the ww podcast and Happy Hippo
and do yourself a favor as well. Guys, I'm telling you right now,
if it can help my wife go to sleep, for somebody as anxious
as she is, and as somebody that needs as much energy as I do
during the day to do this podcast and to do my job during the day,
and right now you can say fifteen percent are your entire order by using
promo code WWE fifteen. That's right, WWE fifteen. We'll get your fifteen
percent off if your entire order. And starting August twenty eight they are having
their largest sale of the year on their hyper Hippo product off, so you'll
definitely want to check them out then. But anytime you can use WWE fifteen
as your promo code, you get fifteen percent off your entire order. Check
out Happy Hippo dot com. Whether you're trying to relax or whether you're you
need energy or balanced during the day. Happy Hippo dot com. Thanks for
listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app
so you don't miss a show, or head to WWE podcast dot com and
for all of these shows add free head over to Patreon dot com slash WWE
podcast. Until then, we'll see you next time.