*Throwback* Current State of WWE: Latest on Vince McMahon & Brock Lesnar's Return

<v Speaker 1>This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre, and you're listening to
<v Speaker 1>the WWE podcast, the.
<v Speaker 2>Show, the one that everybody wants me.
<v Speaker 3>God, we've stood three sixteen said, I just gluss your ass.
<v Speaker 2>This is my eye. You're gonna acknowledge me? All right, everybody, Well,
<v Speaker 2>there is no shortage of things to talk about tonight.
<v Speaker 2>Tonight We're gonna focus on two specific topics, and I've
<v Speaker 2>got Anthony DeMarco here with me as always every single
<v Speaker 2>Monday night, to talk about the current events of WWE,
<v Speaker 2>and we usually pick out a couple of stories that happened,
<v Speaker 2>and we're gonna get into that with Vince and brock
<v Speaker 2>Leszer's return. But welcome to the show, Anthony. How's everything going?
<v Speaker 3>Not bad? Men? A bit of a hectic. I know
<v Speaker 3>that we had talked about it.
<v Speaker 4>The process of moving is maybe single handedly the worst
<v Speaker 4>thing one could experience in their life. Obviously I'm grossy exaggerating,
<v Speaker 4>but it's completed for the time being. I have to
<v Speaker 4>do it all over again in sixteen weeks or so,
<v Speaker 4>but for now I can sit back and relax a bit.
<v Speaker 3>And I'm sure you know that feeling I'm talking about.
<v Speaker 2>I do and I thought that was like the worst exhaustion,
<v Speaker 2>and then you have kids and then you're like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>I didn't know there was a fourth level of hell,
<v Speaker 2>and then there is so yeah, but you know, I
<v Speaker 2>get it, and you know, definitely we'll get through this
<v Speaker 2>tonight and you know you can get back to get
<v Speaker 2>back to your insanity. And so let's talk about Vince
<v Speaker 2>McMahon because right now, I mean, he seems to be,
<v Speaker 2>at least for the moment, the most talked about thing
<v Speaker 2>in the world of wrestling, and we all know the story,
<v Speaker 2>at least what we can know at this point. There
<v Speaker 2>was an investigation, There is an ongoing investigation with Vince McMahon,
<v Speaker 2>and the board has put a committe together to essentially
<v Speaker 2>investigate a three million dollars settlement, an alleged three million
<v Speaker 2>dollars settlement from Vince McMahon to kind of a hush
<v Speaker 2>hush type of deal with former employees. I guess one
<v Speaker 2>of them or both of them, or I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>One of them at least was a paralegal in the
<v Speaker 2>organization that is no longer in the organization, and they're
<v Speaker 2>looking into alleged misconduct with that money and if it's
<v Speaker 2>found that he's guilty. You know, we'll have to see,
<v Speaker 2>but right now, Vince McMahon, Vince McMahon has stepped aside,
<v Speaker 2>not stepped down. I guess that was a distinction, as
<v Speaker 2>Stephanie steps in his introm ceo. Let me let me
<v Speaker 2>stop there. What do you make of this whole thing?
<v Speaker 4>Well, I mean, it's kind of crazy when it comes
<v Speaker 4>out in concrete info because we've seen the mister McMahon
<v Speaker 4>character play someone who has abused their power, has cheated
<v Speaker 4>on his wife, had affairs left, right and center, been
<v Speaker 4>obsessive over women, and you know, I guess you always
<v Speaker 4>kind of thought that that was a bit of how
<v Speaker 4>the person Vince McMahon was, but you always kind of
<v Speaker 4>like to think that it was just the character and
<v Speaker 4>mister McMahon. But then when a report like this comes out,
<v Speaker 4>it really kind of makes you think, like damn, Like,
<v Speaker 4>was he almost trying to live you know, his real
<v Speaker 4>life on television in a way, And was mister McMahon
<v Speaker 4>always just like an amplified version of Vince McMahon, And like, look,
<v Speaker 4>I read as much as probably you did, but like,
<v Speaker 4>just just before I go any further, the report, the
<v Speaker 4>early reports is that they were consensual relationships correct.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, that they were consensual, yes.
<v Speaker 4>And that they are investigating the fact that he paid
<v Speaker 4>three million dollars to keep it hush hush of the
<v Speaker 4>company's money.
<v Speaker 2>Right stockholder shareholder mind.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, And it's tough because, like it's just it's awful
<v Speaker 4>to hear about, especially when you consider that it happened
<v Speaker 4>in twenty nineteen, I believe, and you're just like, hey, god,
<v Speaker 4>you know, this guy was probably like already in his
<v Speaker 4>early to mid seventies and he's still doing stuff like this,
<v Speaker 4>and it really kind of questions, like it makes you
<v Speaker 4>question the person. But at the same time, there's a
<v Speaker 4>part of me that says, like, my god, like, I
<v Speaker 4>guess we always kind of knew this, and this's just
<v Speaker 4>kind of confirms what we always knew that the Vince
<v Speaker 4>McMahon person wasn't completely far off from the mister McMahon character.
<v Speaker 4>And I guess all that I could kind of say,
<v Speaker 4>if to kind of find some kind of silver lining
<v Speaker 4>in this, is that at least they.
<v Speaker 3>Were consensual relationships.
<v Speaker 4>It doesn't and again, like they were consensual, but why
<v Speaker 4>are they completely consensual where there's their manipulation going on. Uh,
<v Speaker 4>you know, obviously he's a high rank one of the
<v Speaker 4>most powerful men in the country. You know, I can't
<v Speaker 4>imagine that did the age come out of the women
<v Speaker 4>that No, I don't think so well either way, I
<v Speaker 4>can imagine that a still a working woman that you
<v Speaker 4>would have to assume is somewhere in the range of
<v Speaker 4>twenty to fifty years old, would be really you know
<v Speaker 4>excited to you know, start doing you know, sexual things
<v Speaker 4>with the guy in his early seventies.
<v Speaker 3>So, I mean, it just kind of really paints.
<v Speaker 4>WWE in a bad way, and it kind of confirms
<v Speaker 4>what a lot of people have always speculated about Vince McMahon.
<v Speaker 2>What would you say, Well, yeah, it certainly lives up
<v Speaker 2>to the uh living your gimmick accusation. And maybe that's
<v Speaker 2>why it seemed to work so well on camera for
<v Speaker 2>Vince for so many years that you know, he seems
<v Speaker 2>so believable in what he was doing on camera, and
<v Speaker 2>he was one of the best heels the companies the
<v Speaker 2>organization's ever seen, which is maybe why it works so
<v Speaker 2>scarily well. But you know, look, I mean there's this
<v Speaker 2>is still an ongoing investigation. We can make our assumptions
<v Speaker 2>that this is all true. And you know, again there
<v Speaker 2>is no conclusion on this yet. They are still doing
<v Speaker 2>their investigations. So I mean, I guess we'll go with
<v Speaker 2>the presumption that he's guilty of this. I mean, that's
<v Speaker 2>the only way to do this. Otherwise we have nothing
<v Speaker 2>to talk about. But if he's indeed guilty of this,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, the thing is, even if he used private
<v Speaker 2>funds like okay, say it was proven he did make
<v Speaker 2>this payment, but the payment was made from his own money,
<v Speaker 2>it was not from Stair stockholders shareholders money. I think
<v Speaker 2>that only makes it a little better from the perspective
<v Speaker 2>of the shareholders saying, Okay, he wasn't misusing appropriate appropriating
<v Speaker 2>our funds, but he's still kind of a scumbag that
<v Speaker 2>is cheating on his wife and paid the woman to
<v Speaker 2>be quiet about it. Now, he wouldn't be the first
<v Speaker 2>nor the last millionaire or billionaire to do this. It's
<v Speaker 2>probably way more common than people realize, especially in the
<v Speaker 2>world of sports, with things like this that we don't
<v Speaker 2>don't even know exist until they come up. So Vince
<v Speaker 2>would not be unique in that way. But it is
<v Speaker 2>given that Vince McMahon has you know, it's taken this
<v Speaker 2>long for something that does to happen, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna still say there's a small sliver that it's
<v Speaker 2>not true, but I'm gonna lean on the side of
<v Speaker 2>yet probably did happen. And if it comes out that
<v Speaker 2>he actually did this with funds from that were like
<v Speaker 2>publicly traded, which I think would be really bad. I
<v Speaker 2>mean that that would make this worse for him. But
<v Speaker 2>if that indeed is the case, then I think Vince
<v Speaker 2>McMahon may have no option, no alternative, but to permanently
<v Speaker 2>step down as CEO and maybe leave the company all together.
<v Speaker 2>That I mean, do you think that's even a possibility?
<v Speaker 2>A guy that once defeated God in a tag team
<v Speaker 2>match has an opportunity. I mean, do you think that's
<v Speaker 2>even possible. Say the worst case scenario for Vince comes
<v Speaker 2>comes to pass and it's found that he is guilty,
<v Speaker 2>do you think that'll actually leave the company?
<v Speaker 4>You know you often thought, or I'll just use myself
<v Speaker 4>as an example, that there would be nothing, aside from
<v Speaker 4>death that would be able to pry Vince McMahon away
<v Speaker 4>from WWE and full control both on the business side
<v Speaker 4>and the creative side. And he's managed to maintain control
<v Speaker 4>of the creative side even through this so far. And
<v Speaker 4>we'll get to his promo and appearance on SmackDown three
<v Speaker 4>nights ago. But I feel like when you're a publicly
<v Speaker 4>traded company and so many billions of dollars are at play,
<v Speaker 4>and there's so many people with their hands in the pot,
<v Speaker 4>and we're living in as such a fragile climate as
<v Speaker 4>we are today, where cancel culture is a real thing,
<v Speaker 4>and I'm not referring to that. This would be like
<v Speaker 4>a victim of cancel culture. If they do come out
<v Speaker 4>to be true these accusations, I think that they would
<v Speaker 4>be completely justified for people to be completely upset about them.
<v Speaker 4>But it feels as though, especially when you take into Aunt,
<v Speaker 4>his daughter coming in as the interim CEO and chairwoman,
<v Speaker 4>and how much of a philanthropist she tries to present
<v Speaker 4>herself as, I feel like this would be something that
<v Speaker 4>he would.
<v Speaker 3>Not be able to survive.
<v Speaker 4>And to be honest, I'm still very surprised that he
<v Speaker 4>was able to maintain creative control and allowed to appear
<v Speaker 4>on SmackDown like that for me, and I have no
<v Speaker 4>doubt in my mind that was completely a Vince McMahon
<v Speaker 4>call to try and act like, you know, I did
<v Speaker 4>nothing wrong, and you know, try and get out in
<v Speaker 4>front of it in a way. But I just the
<v Speaker 4>more and more they let Vince McMahon go here, it
<v Speaker 4>just seems to be tarnishing his legacy. And you know,
<v Speaker 4>we talked about his appearance at WrestleMania, how he botched
<v Speaker 4>the stunner, how he looks now, the way he kind
<v Speaker 4>of acts awkwardly like. And this is aside from the
<v Speaker 4>real life stuff that's going on. From an ons screen perspective,
<v Speaker 4>I can't speak for you, but I just feel like
<v Speaker 4>he's absolutely tarnishing his legacy as a great arguably greatest
<v Speaker 4>heal of all time as far as on screen characters go.
<v Speaker 4>But now you couple in what's going on behind the
<v Speaker 4>scenes and now is coming out publicly in real life matters,
<v Speaker 4>and how big of a company WWE is and how
<v Speaker 4>many big how much money is at play here, it
<v Speaker 4>seems like something that Vince McMahon will not be able
<v Speaker 4>to evade, especially when you consider that a guy like
<v Speaker 4>Nick con has gotten involved recently and it is a
<v Speaker 4>publicly traded company. I feel like this may be a
<v Speaker 4>storm that he can't avoid this time around.
<v Speaker 2>Even the powerful Vince McMahon may not be able to
<v Speaker 2>survive this. I mean, Vince McMahon is a guy that
<v Speaker 2>has survived the courts before, but in this case, I
<v Speaker 2>don't know if he could survive because of the back lessions.
<v Speaker 2>Especially as you said, the culture that we're in right
<v Speaker 2>now is that is sensitive to these kinds of things,
<v Speaker 2>and for better or worse, we're not going to get
<v Speaker 2>into that, but it does exist and I think that
<v Speaker 2>it would be a big factor, especially from a PR
<v Speaker 2>perspective now. It's also interesting to note that Stephanie McMahon
<v Speaker 2>and I brought this up, and others have two as well.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not a genius that thought of this, but Stephanie
<v Speaker 2>McMahon stepped kind of aside from WWE a number of
<v Speaker 2>months ago, you know, just prior to that this news
<v Speaker 2>coming out, and before I mean since essentially the womb
<v Speaker 2>she was in WWE day to day, involved in the
<v Speaker 2>decisions involved in whatever. I mean. She she actually was
<v Speaker 2>selling T shirts early early on in her childhood and
<v Speaker 2>made her way all the way all the way up
<v Speaker 2>to the chief brand officer whatever. And the thing is,
<v Speaker 2>is it a little bit suspicious that she maybe you know,
<v Speaker 2>kind of saw the writing on the wall. She knew
<v Speaker 2>it was coming down the line. She probably knew ahead
<v Speaker 2>of time that there was there's something going on with
<v Speaker 2>her dad, and she heard rumblings of this coming out,
<v Speaker 2>and she smartly decided a couple of months ago to
<v Speaker 2>step aside from WWE and do kind of her own
<v Speaker 2>thing and distance herself. And then all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 2>these allegations come out and she's like, oh, well, wow,
<v Speaker 2>this is shocking. Yeah, I didn't know any of this
<v Speaker 2>was going on. I mean, maybe from its kind of
<v Speaker 2>self preservation on her part, or it just could be
<v Speaker 2>dumb luck. I don't know which one it is, but
<v Speaker 2>it is just very suspicious timing where she decided the
<v Speaker 2>moment probably she found out to distance herself, and then
<v Speaker 2>when the news actually broke, she has some kind of
<v Speaker 2>soft landing to say, well, I mean, I left a
<v Speaker 2>couple of months ago to do my own thing. I
<v Speaker 2>don't know what's going on here. I mean, you know,
<v Speaker 2>who knows. But do you think that Stephanie knew something
<v Speaker 2>ahead of time and kind of made the smart move
<v Speaker 2>to get away from the company and distance herself, so
<v Speaker 2>that when the news broke, she wasn't associated in any
<v Speaker 2>way with this.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, like logic would suggest that, right, Like, it
<v Speaker 4>feels like way too coincidental that she took a leave
<v Speaker 4>of absence what in late May, and then less than
<v Speaker 4>a month later this all comes out the only thing
<v Speaker 4>that would maybe suggest the opposite is that she was
<v Speaker 4>like placed in as the interim CEO and chairwoman. But again,
<v Speaker 4>you're right, Like, I just think that it's too coincidental.
<v Speaker 4>Maybe it wasn't like solely because of this, but maybe
<v Speaker 4>it was like she wanted a few weeks away or
<v Speaker 4>she wanted some time away, and they then she found
<v Speaker 4>out that this was maybe coming down the pike, and
<v Speaker 4>she said, okay, well now maybe is no better time
<v Speaker 4>than now. And I mean just for someone like Stephanie McMahon,
<v Speaker 4>who has been so gung ho about distancing herself from
<v Speaker 4>the wrestling aspect of the company, you know, a self
<v Speaker 4>proclaimed philanthropist, all these like how would you say relationships
<v Speaker 4>with these companies or these foundations like Connor's Cure and
<v Speaker 4>the Susan G. Coman Foundation, Like I just feel like
<v Speaker 4>this would be the where this is rather the worst
<v Speaker 4>possible scenario for someone like Stephanie McMahon. But I guess
<v Speaker 4>I'll just flip it into a question back to you.
<v Speaker 4>Do you think that her becoming chairwoman and CEO was
<v Speaker 4>something that she knew was going to come at the
<v Speaker 4>end of the tunnel here? Or do you think that
<v Speaker 4>maybe the board of directors just picked her because they
<v Speaker 4>truly felt that she was the best person for the job.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I think that in every organization, especially one as
<v Speaker 2>large and as WWE is, they have a succession plan,
<v Speaker 2>like they knew. For example, if Vince McMahon were to
<v Speaker 2>die and you know he just you know, get hit
<v Speaker 2>by a bus, they know who's going to step in,
<v Speaker 2>and that person is Stephanie. Now it also is smart
<v Speaker 2>from the perspective of creating the illusion or the reality
<v Speaker 2>that the company is stable with a McMahon in charge
<v Speaker 2>to the shareholders and stockholders. If it was somebody they
<v Speaker 2>never heard of that is suddenly the CEO of the organization,
<v Speaker 2>people are maybe scrambling, have some doubts, some concerns, and
<v Speaker 2>some of their stock I think it's it is something
<v Speaker 2>that they thought of ahead of time. Even if this
<v Speaker 2>wasn't the case with a scandal, if Vince were to
<v Speaker 2>literally die in his sleep or something that they have
<v Speaker 2>to have a succession plan, and I think Stephanie was
<v Speaker 2>that succession plan and is that succession plan. And it
<v Speaker 2>is smart from the perspective of stability as a whole
<v Speaker 2>to the public eye. So you know, do I think
<v Speaker 2>this is going to be permanent? I mean, time will tell.
<v Speaker 2>Vince is still involved in the creative, which doesn't surprise me.
<v Speaker 2>He's stepping aside, but he's not really stepping away from
<v Speaker 2>his work, is what. It sounds like. He's still kind
<v Speaker 2>of the man, even without the title of being CEO
<v Speaker 2>and him coming out on smack Down. I just want
<v Speaker 2>to say, like, I really thought that was like I
<v Speaker 2>understand why he did it. I understand why he did
<v Speaker 2>it because it was to send a message to everybody
<v Speaker 2>watching that he isn't going anywhere. He's not shying away
<v Speaker 2>from this and emphasizing the word together as if we're
<v Speaker 2>supposed to just back him on everything. I think that's
<v Speaker 2>what the message was. And he didn't say much of
<v Speaker 2>it anything, which really pissed me off because it was
<v Speaker 2>very to me, very kind of narcissistic on his part
<v Speaker 2>to just do that. I'm like, dude, you should just
<v Speaker 2>go back and take care of business. You don't need
<v Speaker 2>to come out here for your own ego to send
<v Speaker 2>a message like we know who you are, we know
<v Speaker 2>what kind of person you are. Go back and take
<v Speaker 2>care of business. You don't need to come out and
<v Speaker 2>do this public stunt. That is literally you've said nothing.
<v Speaker 2>People were just like, what the hell is that? I
<v Speaker 2>was sitting there, I'm like, that's it. He literally repeated
<v Speaker 2>the signature video package at the start of the show,
<v Speaker 2>like that's it. He repeated like four words. I did
<v Speaker 2>not like that at all. I understand why he did it,
<v Speaker 2>but I think it was left a lot of people like,
<v Speaker 2>what was the exact point of this? Vince? You took
<v Speaker 2>up a small amount of time to do what to
<v Speaker 2>to pop a rating because you knew that, Oh my god,
<v Speaker 2>he's there's a scandal going on, he's gonnappear on smack Down.
<v Speaker 2>What the hell is he gonna say? You know? And
<v Speaker 2>we got literally nothing.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, for me, that reeked of him saying like, oh,
<v Speaker 4>I'm gonna show them that I'm actually innocent and i
<v Speaker 4>can do whatever I want and I'm not rattled by
<v Speaker 4>these reports and nothing's gonna stop me. But it's just
<v Speaker 4>like you literally came out just to tell us that
<v Speaker 4>you're still in charge, basically right like that, there's no
<v Speaker 4>other reasoning for him appearing. And I feel like the
<v Speaker 4>last few times that Vince has come out, save for
<v Speaker 4>what he did lately with Austin theory, but like when
<v Speaker 4>it's announced, like, oh, Vince McMahon is gonna be on SmackDown,
<v Speaker 4>he comes out and he says nothing.
<v Speaker 3>It's like when he was meant to open the.
<v Speaker 4>Show, I believe on SmackDown when they first came back
<v Speaker 4>in front of audience, in front of people, and he
<v Speaker 4>just came out and he said, where the hell have
<v Speaker 4>you been?
<v Speaker 3>And then he left, and I'm just in my head,
<v Speaker 3>I'm just like, just go away, and look, this.
<v Speaker 4>Is not for me to make light of what all
<v Speaker 4>these accusations and what's going on in real life. But
<v Speaker 4>for a moment, let's talk about vin Vi McMahon on screen.
<v Speaker 4>Does anybody want to see Vince McMahon on screen anymore?
<v Speaker 4>For me, it's no, And it's been no probably since,
<v Speaker 4>to be quite honest with you, probably since he got
<v Speaker 4>involved with the Roman Reigns and Triple H program back
<v Speaker 4>in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen.
<v Speaker 3>That's the last.
<v Speaker 4>Time that I could remember, and that's we're talking six
<v Speaker 4>years ago now or six and a half years ago now,
<v Speaker 4>that Vince McMahon resembled any kind of version of his
<v Speaker 4>past self. And you know, I'm not a huge fan
<v Speaker 4>of Stephanie McMahon on screen, but why not let Stephanie
<v Speaker 4>McMahon be that character. Why not let Triple H be
<v Speaker 4>that on screen character. Hell let Shane McMahon be the
<v Speaker 4>on screen character. But it's just so sad now, and
<v Speaker 4>there's no other way to put it. It's just sad
<v Speaker 4>to watch him try and be what he used to be.
<v Speaker 4>And I feel like, in a lot of ways, that's
<v Speaker 4>the way it is in real life too, that he
<v Speaker 4>still tries to be that genius that create genius and
<v Speaker 4>this over the top powerful guy in real life, that
<v Speaker 4>he makes these bonehead decisions to like book himself, to
<v Speaker 4>open SmackDown, to quite literally say nothing and just come
<v Speaker 4>off as an egotistical narcissist.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know it's.
<v Speaker 4>Sad because again, take away the real life parts of
<v Speaker 4>it for a second. It's said that he's tarnishing his
<v Speaker 4>on screen character, his on screen legacy, and now we're
<v Speaker 4>seeing him tarnish his real life legacy.
<v Speaker 2>It's akin to when people go beyond the wrestling years,
<v Speaker 2>when you're just like, dude, it's time to hang up
<v Speaker 2>the boots. Can you please stop ruining your legacy. I
<v Speaker 2>mean a lot of criticism was hit. It sent undertakers away,
<v Speaker 2>and some of it legitimate, some of it not. You know,
<v Speaker 2>when it comes to inn ring and when wrestlers just
<v Speaker 2>don't know when to let go. I think Vince also
<v Speaker 2>has that sickness, and I understand it, Like, even though
<v Speaker 2>I'm not I don't have the size of the ego
<v Speaker 2>the size of Vince mc mann, I do understand it
<v Speaker 2>on some left, like when you love something so much
<v Speaker 2>and this is your baby and you've created it, and
<v Speaker 2>you have been successful in the past, as you and
<v Speaker 2>I said, arguably one of the best heals in the
<v Speaker 2>organ in the entire industry ever, and he wasn't even
<v Speaker 2>a real wrestler. So to let go of that and
<v Speaker 2>not appear on screen, I'm sure to him is hard
<v Speaker 2>to let go of. But I think also he recognizes.
<v Speaker 2>I do still think he has some self awareness to
<v Speaker 2>realize that he can't speak long form much more anymore
<v Speaker 2>because he mumbles, Like you really have to listen to
<v Speaker 2>what Vince is saying. He just kind of like mumbles
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of words together, and it's like Grandpa, like
<v Speaker 2>can you can you slow down? It feels like he
<v Speaker 2>just at this point should be kind of in a
<v Speaker 2>rocking chair playing with his grandchildren, like you know when
<v Speaker 2>I was your age, palll you know, I used to
<v Speaker 2>be you know, like that kind of stuff, Like you
<v Speaker 2>shouldn't be running an organization at this age. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>you just shouldn't be. That's all. It's time. We all
<v Speaker 2>need to move on. There needs to be a succession
<v Speaker 2>plan in place, and maybe he is forced out with
<v Speaker 2>this whole scenario. So do I think he's hardishing his legacy?
<v Speaker 2>I mean, beyond the scandal, which you will hear about
<v Speaker 2>the results of that maybe in the coming weeks or months,
<v Speaker 2>you know, certainly, Yeah, I mean because for a long
<v Speaker 2>time now, especially with the Austin theory thing, which really
<v Speaker 2>put it over the top for me, of him just
<v Speaker 2>for whatever reason, sitting in an office talking about golden eggs,
<v Speaker 2>mumbling to Austin theory, em masculating a talent you're supposed
<v Speaker 2>to be elevating all that kind of stuff made no
<v Speaker 2>sense to me. And also he was not coherent. I
<v Speaker 2>cannot hear what you're saying, Vince. So yeah, I'm on
<v Speaker 2>top of the bone headed creative decisions. It's just his
<v Speaker 2>mental faculties are wearing, as we all will when we
<v Speaker 2>get to that age, and he just unless something forces
<v Speaker 2>him out like this and there's public outcry from stockholders
<v Speaker 2>and shareholders, I do not believe that he will leave
<v Speaker 2>the organization unless there is like almost unanimous, unanimous movement
<v Speaker 2>to get him out. So well, I heard that.
<v Speaker 4>Now, Stephanie McMahon, if she sticks in this role, I
<v Speaker 4>believe there's Wade Keller who reported it that if she
<v Speaker 4>ends up sticking in this role as the permanent CEO,
<v Speaker 4>she's gonna lean a lot on Triple H. No surprise there,
<v Speaker 4>but Paul Hayman, and that Paul Hayman would get a
<v Speaker 4>massive role in Creative And let's just play, you know,
<v Speaker 4>for funzies, the hypothetical scenario that Vince McMahon is forced out.
<v Speaker 4>Do you think Stephanie McMahon becoming the CEO and chairwoman
<v Speaker 4>and delegating a lot of the creative decisions to Paul
<v Speaker 4>Haman and presumably Triple H would be a good thing
<v Speaker 4>for the company.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I mean both of them are proven. Like I mean,
<v Speaker 2>Triple H built NXT from literally nothing. I mean they
<v Speaker 2>built it from the days of essentially doubled Are to
<v Speaker 2>an established brand that has credibility around the world. And
<v Speaker 2>then of course Paul Hayman an established, well documented creative mind.
<v Speaker 2>Now he's also getting up there in h two. Age
<v Speaker 2>is a factor here, guys, Like I hate to say it,
<v Speaker 2>I'm not saying Paul Hayman is completely out of his prime,
<v Speaker 2>but he's on the back nine. I mean, let's be honest,
<v Speaker 2>He's not a young guy. But at least in the
<v Speaker 2>next ten to fifteen years, could Paul Hammond be a
<v Speaker 2>guy that you could rely on. Absolutely, he's proven. He's
<v Speaker 2>one of the best problems on the ever in the
<v Speaker 2>industry ever barn on any generation I put him up against.
<v Speaker 2>He's a guy that had built as ECW. He's a
<v Speaker 2>guy that actually created Stone Cold. Steve auser at least
<v Speaker 2>created the environment to help facilitate Stone Cold to become
<v Speaker 2>Stone Cold. You know. So yeah, I mean I think
<v Speaker 2>that would be fine. Why not? I mean, they're both proven.
<v Speaker 2>Why go with somebody that you don't know. Now, some
<v Speaker 2>people may say, well, it's even with Vince gone, it's
<v Speaker 2>kind of the same thing, like the apple doesn't fall
<v Speaker 2>far from the tree. Stephanie's a chip off the old block,
<v Speaker 2>whatever analogy you want to use. And there are some
<v Speaker 2>realities to that. I mean, just because Vince is gone,
<v Speaker 2>some people think that, you know, all will be well,
<v Speaker 2>it'll be a totally fresh new product. I even if
<v Speaker 2>that were the case, where Paul Hammond and Triple h
<v Speaker 2>each run raw or small her both or whatever, and
<v Speaker 2>Stephanie's the CEO and Vince's gone and the evil Vince
<v Speaker 2>McMahon is sitting at home, I still don't think we're
<v Speaker 2>gonna see a massive change in WWE because you still
<v Speaker 2>have a McMahon in charge. You still have everybody that
<v Speaker 2>Vince McMahon hired in creative there, presumably everybody that is
<v Speaker 2>in the production team and in helping create the product
<v Speaker 2>that it is today. You still have all those people
<v Speaker 2>there that are all in the same positions. There are
<v Speaker 2>no new minds unless you literally clean house and start fresh,
<v Speaker 2>which they won't do because it's not a smart move.
<v Speaker 2>If you're a publicly traded company. There's a lot of
<v Speaker 2>restrictions and things you need to consider when you're a
<v Speaker 2>publicly traded organization. So I don't think with Vince gone
<v Speaker 2>that things are just gonna bam magically change. Now. You
<v Speaker 2>may see small things here and there, but I think
<v Speaker 2>largely it'll be run mostly the same that Vince has
<v Speaker 2>run it because Stephanie learned under Vince McMahon. She was
<v Speaker 2>his daughter, for God's sakes, and she is got Vince
<v Speaker 2>McMahon's blood literally running through her veins, so she's not
<v Speaker 2>a carbon copy. But I think largely things won't change.
<v Speaker 2>And I hate to say that for people that want
<v Speaker 2>to see a massive change in WW.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I mean, I just wonder if stephan McMahon would
<v Speaker 4>delegate more because she so doesn't want to be a
<v Speaker 4>part of the actual wrestling aspect of it, right, But
<v Speaker 4>like I wonder if maybe that would be like a
<v Speaker 4>hidden positive, that because she doesn't want to be really
<v Speaker 4>directly involved with it, that she would delegate more to
<v Speaker 4>people with more wherewithal to be better served in that position.
<v Speaker 4>But then there's the other aspect about this, and the
<v Speaker 4>one guy who's kind of becoming the X factor in
<v Speaker 4>WWE is Nick Kahn, Like I know that Stephanie McMahon
<v Speaker 4>has assumed the role of chairwoman and CEO, and is
<v Speaker 4>it technically a higher position than Nick conn who he's
<v Speaker 4>the president if I'm not mistaken, And I'm just wondering
<v Speaker 4>here that since he joined WWE and replaced I believe
<v Speaker 4>her name was Michelle Wilson and George Barrios, I think
<v Speaker 4>for their names, he has kind of just been like
<v Speaker 4>taking like a machete to the complete organizational structure here.
<v Speaker 4>And I think that like in a weird way, like well,
<v Speaker 4>I don't think it's more I'm just like thinking out
<v Speaker 4>loud here, rather is like, is he kind of trying
<v Speaker 4>to clean up WWE and fix it for the way
<v Speaker 4>that maybe the shareholders and the border directors want to
<v Speaker 4>take this company into the future. Do you think that
<v Speaker 4>Nick Cohn is kind of a big X factor for
<v Speaker 4>the company moving forward?
<v Speaker 2>Oh, he's already been right, Like you said, he's already
<v Speaker 2>been a guy going around with a machete, sledgehammer, whatever
<v Speaker 2>blunt object do you want to use. I mean, the
<v Speaker 2>guy has had a massive impact, especially over the last
<v Speaker 2>couple of years of not just COVID. COVID didn't help,
<v Speaker 2>but the firings, the releases, the shocking releases that have
<v Speaker 2>taken place over the last two years. I mean, typically
<v Speaker 2>it's the week after WrestleMania. I think it's like they
<v Speaker 2>call it like Black Thursday, Black Wednesday, whatever it is
<v Speaker 2>that week following WrestleMania, where there's typically layoffs. There were
<v Speaker 2>mass amounts of layoffs the last couple of years and
<v Speaker 2>throughout the year, not just one particular time, and not
<v Speaker 2>just wrestlers either, like production, travel staff for obvious reasons.
<v Speaker 2>You know. So the guys already had a massive impact
<v Speaker 2>on WWE from a personnel perspective, and I'm sure the
<v Speaker 2>organizational chart if you looked at it, with the few
<v Speaker 2>hundred people they have working there, looks much different now
<v Speaker 2>than it did a couple of years ago prior to
<v Speaker 2>nickcn coming in. So he's already had a massive impact. Now.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what their plans are moving forward, Like
<v Speaker 2>you said, maybe Stephanie McMahon decides, hey, this would be
<v Speaker 2>really cool on the first woman chairwoman of WWE, you
<v Speaker 2>know that kind of thing, and you know she may
<v Speaker 2>use that for kind of like women's empowerment or whatever
<v Speaker 2>the hell she wants to do. I don't know, but
<v Speaker 2>if she doesn't, then perhaps she's just gonna get the
<v Speaker 2>organization ready for a sale. Now I know that this
<v Speaker 2>has been discussed for six to twelve months now oft
<v Speaker 2>they're going to sell it to Disney. Well, while they didn't,
<v Speaker 2>at least up until this point with Vince gone, maybe
<v Speaker 2>he was the one roadblock that Disney could not get
<v Speaker 2>to say yes, and they obviously need his blessing. Vince
<v Speaker 2>out of the way. Stephanie really doesn't want to run
<v Speaker 2>the place. She's more interested in doing her own business ventures.
<v Speaker 2>Why not make a few billion, sell the company to Disney,
<v Speaker 2>get it, or at least prepare it, sell it to Disney,
<v Speaker 2>and then be on her merry way and it let
<v Speaker 2>Disney run the organization. I mean, I'm not saying that's
<v Speaker 2>gonna happen. I'm not saying that I've heard that's gonna happen.
<v Speaker 2>But it's in terms of the information I have at
<v Speaker 2>this point, doesn't seem out of the relevant impossibility.
<v Speaker 3>No, not at all.
<v Speaker 4>And you like that's the way that these things sent
<v Speaker 4>seem to be trending, right, like it happened with the UFC.
<v Speaker 4>I believe it was Dana White and were they the
<v Speaker 4>Fertida brothers. I think that sold the UFC to a
<v Speaker 4>big corporation and they kept Dana White on as the president.
<v Speaker 4>And it just seems like that's the way that this
<v Speaker 4>thing is trending here, and the only thing maybe stopping
<v Speaker 4>it is Vince McMahon. And like, look, they've already sold
<v Speaker 4>the ww network to Peacock ak NBC Universal, so it
<v Speaker 4>would stand a reason that maybe they'll sell the entire
<v Speaker 4>company to a company like Disney. And you know how
<v Speaker 4>like because let's be honest here, like, do you think
<v Speaker 4>that Stephanie McMahon definitely not Shane McMahon. He hasn't been
<v Speaker 4>involved in any major way on the business side for
<v Speaker 4>about twelve years now, if not longer. It doesn't seem
<v Speaker 4>to me like Stephanie McMahon is chomping at the bit
<v Speaker 4>to you know, be her father's successor and carry on
<v Speaker 4>the McMahon legacy as you know wrestling promoters. Hell, her
<v Speaker 4>father won't even say the word wrestling. They invented the
<v Speaker 4>term sports entertainment out of thin air, and Stephanie McMahon
<v Speaker 4>has really taken that ball and completely run with it,
<v Speaker 4>So I would think that maybe that's where this is
<v Speaker 4>going to trend. And Nick conn kind of seems a
<v Speaker 4>guy who has kind of spearheaded that. You know, You've
<v Speaker 4>also heard some rumors that maybe The Rock would buy
<v Speaker 4>it because he has a long standing relationship with Nick
<v Speaker 4>Con that I don't think anyone knew until the Rock
<v Speaker 4>social media post. But I mean, I guess before we
<v Speaker 4>move on to the Brock and Roman thing, the last
<v Speaker 4>question I would kind of ask you is that do
<v Speaker 4>you think that once Vince McMahon isn't in power anymore,
<v Speaker 4>whether that be that he survives this and eventually dies
<v Speaker 4>or he is forced out because of the scandal, do
<v Speaker 4>you think the McMahons will move forward as massive parts
<v Speaker 4>of WWE and by McMahons.
<v Speaker 3>I guess you could also say Triple H as well.
<v Speaker 1>You're listening to the WWE podcast. We'll be right back
<v Speaker 1>after this short break. Welcome back to the WWE podcast.
<v Speaker 1>Let's get back to more great wrestling audio.
<v Speaker 2>I yeah, So do I think that WWE is gonna
<v Speaker 2>move on with a McMahon charges? Was that your question? Like? Yeah, exactly, Yeah, Well,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, again, assuming Disney doesn't purchase WWE, because at
<v Speaker 2>that point they could make whatever decisions they want. From
<v Speaker 2>a management perspective, I do believe again, like you said,
<v Speaker 2>with Shane, Shane's a guy that I would love to
<v Speaker 2>know the inner workings of the like the relationship with
<v Speaker 2>Shane and Vince and and the backstage stuff that's going
<v Speaker 2>on with Shane, because he seems to be in out
<v Speaker 2>and out. Things seem good up now they're bad. He's
<v Speaker 2>back to doing whatever, making shoes in China. I don't
<v Speaker 2>know his whatever he's doing. And so the Shane thing,
<v Speaker 2>like you said, that's out, Like Shane clearly isn't a
<v Speaker 2>good fit or doesn't want to be a part of WWWE.
<v Speaker 2>From that perspective, Stephanie is a wild card. Maybe she
<v Speaker 2>is interested in doing this, and she does have a
<v Speaker 2>little bit of the evil geniusness inside of her that
<v Speaker 2>you know, her dad certainly instilled, and I think that
<v Speaker 2>there's a possibility that maybe she actually does want to
<v Speaker 2>and this is kind of just her evil plan being hatched,
<v Speaker 2>where not that she set up her dad, but maybe
<v Speaker 2>again distancing herself, setting herself up for that role so
<v Speaker 2>that knowing she's in that next line of defense, that
<v Speaker 2>next person in line of Vince Wertz's have to step
<v Speaker 2>aside like he just did. Then she knew that if
<v Speaker 2>I'm involved, well, I can't be involved with a scandal
<v Speaker 2>going on. How did I not know? So let mean
<v Speaker 2>distance myself and in two months they're gonna call me
<v Speaker 2>to be introim CEO, and then they're gonna find that
<v Speaker 2>Vince is guilty and I'm the permanent CEO. I mean, like,
<v Speaker 2>it's possible she thought that far ahead. I wouldn't put
<v Speaker 2>it past her. She's a smart woman. I mean, you
<v Speaker 2>can't get to that level and do what she's done
<v Speaker 2>if she wasn't. So there's that possibility. So long answer,
<v Speaker 2>I think, yeah, I think that there will be a
<v Speaker 2>McMahon in charge when the smoke settles from this this scandal.
<v Speaker 2>Even if Vince's found guilty, he's thrown out, people go crazy.
<v Speaker 2>The headlines below up Vince McMahon out of debt, to
<v Speaker 2>be whatever, which will be a lot of fun to
<v Speaker 2>talk about. But I still, at the end of the
<v Speaker 2>day think the last name of the person running the
<v Speaker 2>company will be McMahon.
<v Speaker 4>Because you think that even if a company like Disney
<v Speaker 4>or let's say NBC whatever would buy WWE, they would
<v Speaker 4>keep a McMahon still in charge to oversee the operations.
<v Speaker 2>If they were willing. If Stephanie here's the thing. If
<v Speaker 2>Stephanie's not willing, though, things change, right Like, if if
<v Speaker 2>Stephanie McMahon has no interest and she truly does just
<v Speaker 2>want to do her own thing or you know, sell it,
<v Speaker 2>let Disney make whoever they want to make, CEO, president,
<v Speaker 2>you know, head of talent relations all that, then sure,
<v Speaker 2>then things change. Stephanie McMahon, to me, though, is the
<v Speaker 2>last member of the McMahon family that I think could
<v Speaker 2>actually be the CEO. I don't think Shane has any
<v Speaker 2>interest based on just the last twenty years of his
<v Speaker 2>in and outs and the things we've heard. But if
<v Speaker 2>Stephanie's not interested, then then all bets are off. I
<v Speaker 2>think maybe Paul Avec triple h could be the guy
<v Speaker 2>to actually take it over at or hell, maybe Nick
<v Speaker 2>con I mean the he could I mean Nick con
<v Speaker 2>or triple H. I don't know who else could possibly
<v Speaker 2>step in if Stephanie's I'm interested.
<v Speaker 4>The Seae McMahon thing to me has always been so weird. Obviously,
<v Speaker 4>you can't judge a guy based off of his on
<v Speaker 4>screen character. But like everyone who's listened to me for
<v Speaker 4>a while, no now knows that I'm a big Sehae
<v Speaker 4>McMahon fan, But I always felt that he resonated well
<v Speaker 4>with the crowd. I would argue that he was probably,
<v Speaker 4>of all the McMahon's, probably the best serve to play
<v Speaker 4>the babyface role. I know Jim Cornett has said numerous
<v Speaker 4>times that he's the best McMahon or the nicest McMahon.
<v Speaker 3>It just really makes you wonder what the.
<v Speaker 4>Hell went on behind the scenes with Shane, especially considering
<v Speaker 4>the fact that he's the older of the two, I
<v Speaker 4>think relatively substantially Between him and Stephane, I think he
<v Speaker 4>has like at least.
<v Speaker 3>Five years on her.
<v Speaker 4>It just really begs the question, like, what the hell
<v Speaker 4>went on with Shane for him to leave in two
<v Speaker 4>thousand and nine. Then even when he came back in
<v Speaker 4>twenty sixteen, it was a large usually only as an
<v Speaker 4>on screen guy, and I.
<v Speaker 3>Still think that he got over pretty well.
<v Speaker 4>Like when he was the commissioner of SmackDown, he had
<v Speaker 4>his programs with Kevin Owens and not Daniel Brown aj styles.
<v Speaker 3>He had the matter.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, like I thought that he really resonated well with
<v Speaker 4>the crowd, and obviously what happened at this year's Royal
<v Speaker 4>Rumble when he was a producer really kind of killed
<v Speaker 4>that entire thing in the cradle and he ultimately.
<v Speaker 3>Got ousted by the company.
<v Speaker 4>But I've just always wondered what the hell went on
<v Speaker 4>with Shane mcmahn behind the scenes.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, yeah, I hope at some point before before that,
<v Speaker 2>you know, Shane heads to his grave, he doesn't take
<v Speaker 2>it to his grave. I would love to know the
<v Speaker 2>ins and out of that, I mean, because it's fascinating
<v Speaker 2>the things we don't know about the relationship between you know,
<v Speaker 2>the son and father and now the course that's a
<v Speaker 2>very private, intimate relationship. Maybe we will never know, and
<v Speaker 2>they both will take it to their graves and everyone
<v Speaker 2>just say that's none of our business, and I guess
<v Speaker 2>it isn't, but I think it is very interesting. It's
<v Speaker 2>fascinating of the relationship between Vince and Shane, because your right,
<v Speaker 2>Shane is a very popular, if not the most popular
<v Speaker 2>from a crowd perspective. McMahon. Yeah, his punches and he
<v Speaker 2>doesn't wrestle the best, and yeah, I've heard all the
<v Speaker 2>criticisms and I understand that's some degree, But Shane McMahon,
<v Speaker 2>you know, puts one hundred and ten percent in even
<v Speaker 2>if he doesn't wrestle the best quote unquote. I think
<v Speaker 2>that Shane could if he was interested, he could run
<v Speaker 2>the company. But I don't know if whoever's in charge
<v Speaker 2>at the very top would want him as the CEO. Again,
<v Speaker 2>a bridge will cross when we get there. But let's
<v Speaker 2>dive in to brock Lesner and his return. So, Anthony,
<v Speaker 2>were you surprised and are you? Do you like this? Like?
<v Speaker 2>What do you think about all this?
<v Speaker 4>I'm torn because I truly do like brock Lesnar a lot.
<v Speaker 4>I know a lot of people hate him because he's
<v Speaker 4>a part time guy and he always just gets handed
<v Speaker 4>these main event type of matches and storylines, and just
<v Speaker 4>his entire career has been a main event served to
<v Speaker 4>him on a silver platter because he is a massive draw.
<v Speaker 4>But I've just always really liked brock Lesner. I like
<v Speaker 4>that he brings like a legitimacy to WWE. I think
<v Speaker 4>he's a very underrated worker. I'm not as big of
<v Speaker 4>a fan of Cowboy Brock as I am as classic Brock.
<v Speaker 3>I like classic Brock Way more.
<v Speaker 4>But I respect the hell that he's been able to
<v Speaker 4>provide another dimension and prove to people that if he
<v Speaker 4>wants to be, he can be a standalone character without
<v Speaker 4>Paul Hayman talking for him.
<v Speaker 3>He's not the best, but he's passable.
<v Speaker 4>I like that he's at least proved that he can
<v Speaker 4>be a different type of guy than just bouncing up
<v Speaker 4>and down and looking big and scary.
<v Speaker 3>But I'm with you.
<v Speaker 4>I prefer the classic Brock, so I always have time
<v Speaker 4>for Brock Lesner, and I do think that including Roman
<v Speaker 4>reigns aside from if the Rock comes back or when
<v Speaker 4>Austin comes back, or even John Cena, but I think
<v Speaker 4>maybe he's on the same.
<v Speaker 3>Level as Brock.
<v Speaker 4>Brock is like the biggest draw WWE has right now.
<v Speaker 4>That really kind of and since the business that everybody knows.
<v Speaker 4>Obviously his UFC background helps, But this just isn't it.
<v Speaker 4>You know, my love for brock Lesner isn't enough for
<v Speaker 4>me to get behind this number one. It's just because
<v Speaker 4>we're doing this again again. We're doing Brock and Roman again,
<v Speaker 4>and it doesn't make sense this time around because the
<v Speaker 4>last two times that they competed one on one, Roman
<v Speaker 4>won he beat him in Saudi Arabia last October, and
<v Speaker 4>he beat him at WrestleMania, and I believe at WrestleMania
<v Speaker 4>was clean.
<v Speaker 3>Was it not?
<v Speaker 2>Yep?
<v Speaker 3>So what grounds.
<v Speaker 4>Does brock Lesner have aside from the fact that he's
<v Speaker 4>brock Lesner to come.
<v Speaker 3>Back and jump the line?
<v Speaker 4>And the other part about this is is that And again,
<v Speaker 4>maybe I'm backtracking a bit, but I just didn't wasn't
<v Speaker 4>ready for Brock yet, Like I thought Brock was gonna
<v Speaker 4>come back like post SummerSlam, because it kind of felt
<v Speaker 4>like we got like a Brock overload in a lot
<v Speaker 4>of ways. And I just think we got a Brock
<v Speaker 4>and Roman overload. And I just I don't know why
<v Speaker 4>we're seeing this again. I think that they're going back
<v Speaker 4>to the well with how they start programs with Roman
<v Speaker 4>way too much like that he beats someone, he's about
<v Speaker 4>to walk off and then someone's music hits and just
<v Speaker 4>comes in gets in his face. You know, we saw
<v Speaker 4>that with what was it when he beat bray Masterio
<v Speaker 4>edged it that when he beat Edge, John Cena did that.
<v Speaker 4>When he beat John Cena, Brock did that. Now when
<v Speaker 4>he beat Riddle, brocked.
<v Speaker 3>At it again.
<v Speaker 4>Like, it's just like, do they have no other way
<v Speaker 4>to start or build a program involving Roman reigns? And
<v Speaker 4>obviously you have the whole thing with Roman Reigns that
<v Speaker 4>you know. I know, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
<v Speaker 4>I get that, But the fact that he's occupying both
<v Speaker 4>world titles and he's only defended them on screen once
<v Speaker 4>since wrestling, to me is inexcusable. Not like not even
<v Speaker 4>out of pay per view, it was just on a SmackDown,
<v Speaker 4>which we talked about last week, solidified that even though
<v Speaker 4>we didn't we wouldn't think that Riddle would have a
<v Speaker 4>shot even if it was at a pay per view,
<v Speaker 4>the fact that it was on SmackDown, we knew for
<v Speaker 4>a fact that it meant Riddle was not winning. And
<v Speaker 4>I just think everything together has just made this very
<v Speaker 4>underwhelming and it's just a WWE going back to the
<v Speaker 4>well one too many times. I understood why they did
<v Speaker 4>it last year in Saudi Arabia because they wanted to
<v Speaker 4>get presented in a different way with Roman as the
<v Speaker 4>heel and Brock.
<v Speaker 3>As the baby face. Okay, I was on board.
<v Speaker 4>I wasn't a huge fan of them doing it again
<v Speaker 4>at wrestlemane. But I understood that they were trying to
<v Speaker 4>make it feel like the biggest match of all time. Fine,
<v Speaker 4>wasn't a fan. The match was terrible, but I understood it.
<v Speaker 4>This I don't even understand anymore.
<v Speaker 2>It really is puzzling. Like you said, I'm a fan
<v Speaker 2>of Brock Lesner too. You know, how can you not be?
<v Speaker 2>You know, regardless of the program he's in, he's a
<v Speaker 2>once in a lifetime athlete, and he is not the
<v Speaker 2>greatest on the mic, but that doesn't even matter. That's
<v Speaker 2>how big of a deal he is and how much
<v Speaker 2>he's accomplished, and the presence he has all that, and yeah,
<v Speaker 2>what he can do in the ring too, And you know,
<v Speaker 2>I I, Hey, the guy wants to make millions for
<v Speaker 2>showing up part time. Are we gonna start crapping on
<v Speaker 2>Roman Rangs for that? We're gonna start crapping on John
<v Speaker 2>Cena for that or everybody else that's done that and
<v Speaker 2>made that path the Rock. You're telling me we're gonna
<v Speaker 2>boo the Rock if he comes back and say, oh,
<v Speaker 2>you're part time, get out of here. Like the fans,
<v Speaker 2>I understand get frustrated at a certain point, but the
<v Speaker 2>problem with Roman is he is He's champion, and the
<v Speaker 2>really iron ironic part of this whole thing is that
<v Speaker 2>wwe merge these belts together, so Roman has a whole
<v Speaker 2>new set of opponents to work with. He can work
<v Speaker 2>with the entire roster and show up on raw more
<v Speaker 2>and SmackDown. Yet he's done, actually less of both. Like
<v Speaker 2>he's done. They've they've actually done the worst possible thing
<v Speaker 2>you could do with this, uh this scenario and take
<v Speaker 2>the guy that won the belts, take the belts and
<v Speaker 2>take everything and just put it into hibernation and it
<v Speaker 2>just goes away Like that's the Like, that's the worst
<v Speaker 2>possible scenario. No, I understand he's working on states and
<v Speaker 2>Roman's getting paid a lot of money. Great for him,
<v Speaker 2>seriously happy for him. He's at the point in his
<v Speaker 2>career where he can work less and make the same
<v Speaker 2>good for him. That's what I would want to But
<v Speaker 2>the problem is now you are you are sacrificing other
<v Speaker 2>opportunities for other people who could be holding one of
<v Speaker 2>those belts or both if they still want to keep
<v Speaker 2>it unified by what for? What to hold it for?
<v Speaker 2>For brock Lester and a challenge again that we know
<v Speaker 2>he's going to lose for the fourteenth time. You know,
<v Speaker 2>when they could have easily had a rematch with Riddle.
<v Speaker 2>Now I understand the stipulation was, oh Riddle couldn't challenge
<v Speaker 2>Rome again. There's a billion ways around that, you know.
<v Speaker 2>I think that that would have been a much more
<v Speaker 2>fun match with Riddle, only because they've they've gotten a
<v Speaker 2>lot of momentum behind him. People organically like Riddle, and
<v Speaker 2>they would have had I think a better quality match,
<v Speaker 2>especially what we saw on smack Down. They have really
<v Speaker 2>good match, a lot of really believable near falls, i e.
<v Speaker 2>The RKO that was or the spear that was reversed
<v Speaker 2>into an RKO, Like there was a moment I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>oh crap, like he could actually win it here and
<v Speaker 2>everyone else saught the same thing, you know, and Riddle
<v Speaker 2>is amazing in the ring. They could have built that
<v Speaker 2>into the main event of Money in the Bank at
<v Speaker 2>the MGM in Las Vegas. But the problem is, again
<v Speaker 2>I think this comes straight from Vince McMahon, is that
<v Speaker 2>he wants the biggest main event possible and he thinks
<v Speaker 2>that bringing Brock back is a bigger main event. Now
<v Speaker 2>in one respect it is, but At the same time,
<v Speaker 2>you've got this rising star and a star that's more
<v Speaker 2>believable to beat Roman than a guy that just got
<v Speaker 2>beat by Roman like eighteen times to come back that
<v Speaker 2>you know isn't going to beat Brock or beat Roman.
<v Speaker 2>He has zero chance. I don't think Brock has any
<v Speaker 2>chance to beat Roman at Money in the Bank versus Riddle,
<v Speaker 2>who you can make an argument, Hey, he's an up
<v Speaker 2>becoming star. That's what you want to do with the
<v Speaker 2>person that beats Roman is have a guy that's on
<v Speaker 2>the rise, has a momentum behind him, he's young, check
<v Speaker 2>check check. Riddle has a okay chance that you can
<v Speaker 2>make an argument. Brock has zero chance of beating Roman,
<v Speaker 2>And so you take that element of surprise away from it.
<v Speaker 2>And I think he brought back Brock earlier than maybe
<v Speaker 2>he wanted, especially if Randy Orton truly is out for
<v Speaker 2>the next you know, I don't know how long, apparently
<v Speaker 2>till the end of the year. I've heard a lot
<v Speaker 2>of different things, but I don't know if this is
<v Speaker 2>gonna be the end of it with Brock and Roman.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, they got SummerSlam next. What are they gonna do?
<v Speaker 2>Just have Brock Lezer go away and then I don't
<v Speaker 2>think so. I think I think we could see like
<v Speaker 2>part seven of this, of this matchup with Brock and
<v Speaker 2>Roman at SummerSlam. Like I'm not saying it's gonna happen,
<v Speaker 2>but Brock isn't back just for this kind of b
<v Speaker 2>pay per view. I think he's back through Summer Slam,
<v Speaker 2>and it could be Roman reigns for both both times.
<v Speaker 4>Well, that's the thing I wanted to ask, like, is
<v Speaker 4>it for money in the bank, because I thought I
<v Speaker 4>saw something that said that he came back to challenge
<v Speaker 4>Roman for SummerSlam.
<v Speaker 3>H that they're just gonna skip over.
<v Speaker 4>I like, don't quote me on that, but and I'm
<v Speaker 4>pretty sure it's for a last man standing match. I
<v Speaker 4>saw that, So like, I'm pretty sure, like you could
<v Speaker 4>double check this for me, that they booked this for
<v Speaker 4>Summer Slam, Oh my god, and they're just gonna leap
<v Speaker 4>frog money in the bank. And assuming that's accurate and
<v Speaker 4>I'm not completely messing this up, you're basically holding that
<v Speaker 4>title hostage or both titles hostage for.
<v Speaker 3>Two months, yep.
<v Speaker 4>And we know that for two months, nobody's even going
<v Speaker 4>to get involved in the world championship picture or the
<v Speaker 4>undisputed championship picture. Forget having a match for it, forget
<v Speaker 4>having you know, winning it. There's gonna be nobody even
<v Speaker 4>stepping up to Roman for the entire summer because they've
<v Speaker 4>already decided.
<v Speaker 3>Two months in evance. It's Roman versus Brock.
<v Speaker 4>For what reason, no other than Vince feels like that's
<v Speaker 4>the biggest match that he could put together, and that's why, Like,
<v Speaker 4>maybe I was overly negative with Roman from the onset
<v Speaker 4>when he won the two championships at WrestleMania, but I
<v Speaker 4>felt like, this is the way that it was going,
<v Speaker 4>that these champions were just gonna go into hibernation. And look, again,
<v Speaker 4>maybe I'm talking about both sides out of my mouth,
<v Speaker 4>because when Brock was Universal Champion on Monday Night Raw
<v Speaker 4>back in twenty seventeen or whatever it was, I didn't mind.
<v Speaker 3>It as much.
<v Speaker 4>But part of that was because you had guys like
<v Speaker 4>aj Styles and Daniel Brian carrying the other world championship
<v Speaker 4>over on SmackDown, so it still felt kind of legitimate
<v Speaker 4>that there was at least one world championship.
<v Speaker 3>In the mix.
<v Speaker 4>And to be honest, I feel like Brock back then
<v Speaker 4>competed more than Roman is now, and that's crazy to say,
<v Speaker 4>Like you had Brock defending the Universal Championship at pay
<v Speaker 4>per views like Great Balls of Fire and Battleground and
<v Speaker 4>stuff like that, and this you don't even have Roman.
<v Speaker 3>Competing at any pay per view.
<v Speaker 4>And for me, it's just the fact that you've brought
<v Speaker 4>back another part timer to go head to head with
<v Speaker 4>him for like the fifteenth time. It's like it's absolutely crazy,
<v Speaker 4>and it's it's like, how am I supposed to invest
<v Speaker 4>in this anymore? Like unless it is like this incredible
<v Speaker 4>long term booking that Seth is gonna win money in
<v Speaker 4>the bank and then cash in on Roman and Brock again,
<v Speaker 4>you know, akin to what happened seven years ago. But
<v Speaker 4>I mean, I'm not giving WWE that much credit, especially
<v Speaker 4>with the way that they've booked Seth in terms of
<v Speaker 4>wins and losses over the last twelve months.
<v Speaker 3>So I mean.
<v Speaker 4>Anything short of that and assuming I don't know if
<v Speaker 4>you're able to double check it, but like assuming that
<v Speaker 4>this is just booked for SummerSlam and they're completely leapfrogging
<v Speaker 4>money in the bank and everything in between.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I just I'm not very high on this.
<v Speaker 2>No, I'd just read a few articles that did say that.
<v Speaker 2>I mean that that apparently I did to see the
<v Speaker 2>last man standing. I just didn't see the venue. I
<v Speaker 2>thought it was money in the bank. It does look
<v Speaker 2>like that is slated for SummerSlam. And if that, if
<v Speaker 2>that holds true, that is again, like you said, another
<v Speaker 2>sixty days tacked onto his six hundred and fifty, so
<v Speaker 2>he'll be at what like seven hundred and ten days
<v Speaker 2>as champion and at that point you're three quarters of
<v Speaker 2>the way there, roughly two the thousand days. And I
<v Speaker 2>keep harping on that, but I can foresee them just
<v Speaker 2>doing that, and can just because they're like, well, guys,
<v Speaker 2>when are we gonna have this opportunity again to have
<v Speaker 2>a thousand days? Like, to me, that's such narrow minded booking.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, but the only the only hope we have
<v Speaker 2>is exactly what you said, the money in the bank winner,
<v Speaker 2>whether it's Drew or Seth. Yeah, because I think those
<v Speaker 2>are really the only two that have a legitimate argument
<v Speaker 2>to win that match, which I probably think it'll actually
<v Speaker 2>be Drew because then he'll challenge Roman for Clash at
<v Speaker 2>the Castle, I'd imagine, unless he wins some other way
<v Speaker 2>to challenge Roman, but you already know at least through
<v Speaker 2>Clash at the Castle with Drew in September, Like Roman's
<v Speaker 2>gonna hold a belt at least another three months to
<v Speaker 2>get to Rome, or to get to bra sorry, to
<v Speaker 2>get to Drew. There's there's there's like the same cast
<v Speaker 2>of characters here. To get from Toro versus Drew at
<v Speaker 2>Clash in the Castle, you gotta go another three months.
<v Speaker 2>And it's just absurd that we already know the next
<v Speaker 2>quarter of a year there is no chance of anyone
<v Speaker 2>taking the belt from Roman. Like that's I think the
<v Speaker 2>biggest problem I've had with this run. And I've been
<v Speaker 2>a big proponent of this run. I have, and I've
<v Speaker 2>sat here and defended him more than most, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>for better worse, that is what it is. It's very
<v Speaker 2>subjective here, But the biggest problem I've had over the
<v Speaker 2>two years almost that he's been champion, and look out
<v Speaker 2>for them harping on that at SummerSlam. By the way,
<v Speaker 2>for two years he's been champion. The biggest complaint I've
<v Speaker 2>had is that every nearly every opponent he's had, you've
<v Speaker 2>never really believed that they could beat Roman. Like they
<v Speaker 2>they've Kevin Owens even it's you know, in his four
<v Speaker 2>matches or whatever he had, there was maybe one of
<v Speaker 2>the matches You're like maybe, But at the end of
<v Speaker 2>the day, you're you're never thinking, oh my god, they're
<v Speaker 2>probably gonna be the one to beat Roman, and then
<v Speaker 2>they don't. You're like, oh man, they had the chance.
<v Speaker 2>Nobody there's been nobody, Cizarro, the Demon, Finn Baler, Kevin Owens,
<v Speaker 2>obviously brock Lester. You know, anytime he challenges Roman has
<v Speaker 2>no chance. You know, he faced John Cena. You knew
<v Speaker 2>while there was some speculation he's a part time guy.
<v Speaker 2>Doesn't make sense, legend doesn't need it, he doesn't make
<v Speaker 2>He's not gonna get it, you know, the rock he
<v Speaker 2>comes back. You know, it doesn't make sense. It's all
<v Speaker 2>just nostalgic matches and just like video game matches that
<v Speaker 2>people are are thinking themselves, yeah, there's no chance, like
<v Speaker 2>this is it's cool that these matches are happening. But unfortunately, guys,
<v Speaker 2>we know the outcome, like we we already know Romans
<v Speaker 2>retaining because it doesn't make sense for this person to win.
<v Speaker 2>That's the been the biggest complaint I've had with his
<v Speaker 2>entire run. Is that ninety percent of his opponents you
<v Speaker 2>just going, yeah, it's gonna be a fun match, but
<v Speaker 2>there's no way they're winning that. That's that's a terrible
<v Speaker 2>way to have a title run.
<v Speaker 4>I think the only time that I really thought that
<v Speaker 4>maybe he would lose was WrestleMania thirty seven in the
<v Speaker 4>triple Threat match with Daniel Bryan Edge. That's and once
<v Speaker 4>he beat them, and I still picked Roman to retain,
<v Speaker 4>But that was the one time where I wasn't one
<v Speaker 4>hundred percent confident. But you're right, like Ray Masterio, no
<v Speaker 4>Edge the second time, and money in the bank, no Sina.
<v Speaker 4>I mean somewhat, I said, like maybe they'll give Sena
<v Speaker 4>his seventeenth world title to pass pass Flair and then
<v Speaker 4>he'll drop it back to Roman. But I mean the
<v Speaker 4>way that they booked him versus Sena was embarrassing. The
<v Speaker 4>Brock thing obviously, like him winning at WrestleMania was the
<v Speaker 4>most clear cut outcome we've ever seen, arguably at WrestleMania,
<v Speaker 4>and we knew that he was gonna beat Riddle on SmackDown,
<v Speaker 4>and like, I don't know if I'm missing anyone in there. Obviously,
<v Speaker 4>Jay us at the very beginning, we knew wasn't gonna
<v Speaker 4>have a hope in the hell of winning the championship.
<v Speaker 3>So, like, it is a shame.
<v Speaker 4>It sucks that, like even a guy like Seth Rawlins,
<v Speaker 4>like if that was a good match, I think the
<v Speaker 4>program had a lot more juice left in it aside
<v Speaker 4>from the fact that it was heel versus heel. But
<v Speaker 4>we knew that Rawlins wasn't going to win because they
<v Speaker 4>were in the midst of the Brock angle, and you
<v Speaker 4>had Seth as a raw guy. So even that we
<v Speaker 4>knew that Seth didn't have a hope and Halt winning
<v Speaker 4>the Universal Championship at the rumbles. So, I mean, it's
<v Speaker 4>very unfortunate that even though it has been an excellent
<v Speaker 4>run for the most part, I would say, all the
<v Speaker 4>way up until this year's WrestleMania, I had no complaints
<v Speaker 4>with it. I would say that it is still a
<v Speaker 4>shame that for the first eighteen months when it was
<v Speaker 4>red hot, you never presented a formidable opponent for him
<v Speaker 4>to go up against.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's that. I mean again, I'm not going to
<v Speaker 2>pretend that I wasn't a fan of it. I was,
<v Speaker 2>I as a big fan of his run, and to
<v Speaker 2>some degree I still am. I can respect what's going on,
<v Speaker 2>but at this point, like fans are starting to lose
<v Speaker 2>their patience in a way that's not good. It's not
<v Speaker 2>good heat. It's like people don't want to watch anymore.
<v Speaker 2>And I will argue tooth and now that there is
<v Speaker 2>difference in that kind of heat where people just want
<v Speaker 2>to change the channel and they don't want to even
<v Speaker 2>invest anymore. Disengagement is not heel heat. I think that's
<v Speaker 2>the difference that people don't understand sometimes, and so I
<v Speaker 2>think that that people are at that point. People are
<v Speaker 2>at that point where they're just like disengaged and they're
<v Speaker 2>just like, oh, well, Roman's gonna win. It's gonna be
<v Speaker 2>a good match, you know. So I'll watch for just
<v Speaker 2>like the wrestling perspective, but I'm kind of disinvested from
<v Speaker 2>the bloodline. It's the same thing. Roman wins, retains, he
<v Speaker 2>stands there till it tells people to acknowledge him, and
<v Speaker 2>then a new opponent comes out just as he's holding
<v Speaker 2>up the belts. It's like very formulae. It's the same thing,
<v Speaker 2>and I totally get it. I'm not crapping on that
<v Speaker 2>and I'm starting to I'm starting to get on that
<v Speaker 2>bandwagon of like, okay, yeah, I'm kind of done with this.
<v Speaker 2>Can we just get the belts off Roman so we
<v Speaker 2>can get Roman in matches that you actually don't know
<v Speaker 2>if he's gonna win or not, Like, like, to me,
<v Speaker 2>you've made your point. Roman's a future Hall of Famer.
<v Speaker 2>He's had an epic run, a legendary run. We get
<v Speaker 2>all that great heel turn, great success, great execution. For
<v Speaker 2>the most part, point made. Can we move on? You
<v Speaker 2>are strangle holding two championships unified into one that you're
<v Speaker 2>not even maximizing or utilizing at all, by the way,
<v Speaker 2>and you're also holding mac talent that could be taking
<v Speaker 2>these spots for pay per views that are that oftentimes
<v Speaker 2>don't even have a world title match because Roman's not there.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, so there's there's to me, the negatives finally
<v Speaker 2>outweigh the positives of Roman holding those belts. I just
<v Speaker 2>I'm there now, and it.
<v Speaker 4>Sucks because they had something amazing, but it's just they
<v Speaker 4>had to exaggerate, they had to push it.
<v Speaker 3>And by day I mean vince that like you know.
<v Speaker 4>I could see it just like oh you see, like
<v Speaker 4>now they're behind Roman.
<v Speaker 3>Now I'm gonna give them what they want.
<v Speaker 4>And it's just like no, like why can't he just
<v Speaker 4>be a top wrestler, but like not above and beyond
<v Speaker 4>and head and shoulders above everyone else, like even Stone
<v Speaker 4>Cold Steve Austin back in the day wasn't pushed like this,
<v Speaker 4>like you know, like even Stone Cold when he was
<v Speaker 4>on top, at least you had that one guy in
<v Speaker 4>the Rock or to a bit lesser of extent, Triple
<v Speaker 4>H that like when they would go head to head
<v Speaker 4>with Austin, you would think, like, damn, maybe they could
<v Speaker 4>beat him, and sometimes they did. Triple H beat him
<v Speaker 4>in the Three Stages of Hell Match.
<v Speaker 2>The all Time, by the way, I love that match, Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Exactly, like The Rock beat him at WrestleMania nineteen.
<v Speaker 3>Obviously a different context, but he still beat him.
<v Speaker 4>Like you when the Rock was the world champion and
<v Speaker 4>Austin was out two thousand, the Rock was the top guy,
<v Speaker 4>like Kurt Angle beat him at No Way Out in
<v Speaker 4>two thousand or no sorry it was No Mercy two thousand.
<v Speaker 4>Like these are things sometimes that have to happen, and
<v Speaker 4>I could guarantee you that guys like the Rock, guys
<v Speaker 4>like Austin, even a guy like John Cena, and you know,
<v Speaker 4>he was pushed as Super Sena for a long time,
<v Speaker 4>but never to this extent that like it pays sometimes
<v Speaker 4>to have them lose, and it pays sometimes.
<v Speaker 3>For them to have that redemption story.
<v Speaker 4>Like I think one of the things that really helped
<v Speaker 4>Sena and I don't know if you remember this, but
<v Speaker 4>like in the year twenty twelve when he lost to
<v Speaker 4>the Rock at WrestleMania twenty eight and then he was
<v Speaker 4>just a losing match after match after match after match,
<v Speaker 4>and twenty twelve, all Sena did was lose and he
<v Speaker 4>had a failed cash in money in the bank briefcase.
<v Speaker 4>And then in twenty thirteen he won the Rumble and
<v Speaker 4>he beat the Rock at the at Wrestling in twenty
<v Speaker 4>nine and even though it wasn't my favorite thing in
<v Speaker 4>the world, I think it got a lot more people
<v Speaker 4>behind John Cena again because they did have him face
<v Speaker 4>some form of adversity and could you imagine like Roman
<v Speaker 4>losing a match and coming out like a month later
<v Speaker 4>more vicious than ever because he did finally lose, like
<v Speaker 4>they would have a brand new like can of worms
<v Speaker 4>to open and work with and everyone would be so
<v Speaker 4>much more invested because we're just like, Okay, we had
<v Speaker 4>a vicious rome before, but now that he's lost, let's
<v Speaker 4>see what levels he'll take it to to get that
<v Speaker 4>title back.
<v Speaker 3>And they just won't even go there.
<v Speaker 2>There's there's such a story to be told on the
<v Speaker 2>other end of this, like we have had, They've squeazles
<v Speaker 2>every last drop of juice, at least we think they
<v Speaker 2>have out of this current product. For two years, they've
<v Speaker 2>been doing the same thing with Roman, and there's a
<v Speaker 2>there's such another side of this. There's a potentially better
<v Speaker 2>side of this, or more interesting side of this on
<v Speaker 2>the other side where Okay, he lost, Now what the
<v Speaker 2>hell is he gonna do when he comes out? What's
<v Speaker 2>he gonna Is he gonna like light the arena on fire? Like?
<v Speaker 2>What is he gonna do? Like the quiet anger? I
<v Speaker 2>think he could show on camera would be scary good
<v Speaker 2>and I would love to see it. They could even
<v Speaker 2>turn him babyface off of it. I mean, honestly, the
<v Speaker 2>fans are already cheering when he comes out. Some of
<v Speaker 2>them are He's got a great entrance music, you know. Again,
<v Speaker 2>I think that the fans have had time to hate
<v Speaker 2>him the ones that have wanted to boo him have
<v Speaker 2>had time to boo him. We've We've had a lot
<v Speaker 2>of a lot of fans, like myself, pent up anger
<v Speaker 2>for him that I think is now released and were
<v Speaker 2>ready to embrace him if they ever wanted to turn babyface,
<v Speaker 2>they could that we could get to the point where
<v Speaker 2>Vince wanted him to be six years ago winning the
<v Speaker 2>Rumble in fifteen in Philly, except actually be there now
<v Speaker 2>because they've gone through the time of hating him and
<v Speaker 2>now they can instantly turn him on a dime. I
<v Speaker 2>really believe that. So you're right, it's just time, and
<v Speaker 2>I think that fans are fed up, We're done with it,
<v Speaker 2>and you know, I just I don't want to go
<v Speaker 2>in circles. But any final thoughts on this.
<v Speaker 4>No, I just it's a shame that we know that
<v Speaker 4>the world titles aren't going to be moving or have
<v Speaker 4>a developing storyline for two months during the summer.
<v Speaker 3>It's just it's just sad and it's frustrating.
<v Speaker 2>It's right, I honestly don't even know the next time
<v Speaker 2>they are there in question, I mean WrestleMania, but if
<v Speaker 2>the Rocks there challenging for the belts got helpless. I
<v Speaker 2>didn't want to cross that bridge. I mean, we've got
<v Speaker 2>like eight months until we have to talk about that.
<v Speaker 2>I would just really hope if the Rock comes back,
<v Speaker 2>is not for the belts. You and I have discussed that,
<v Speaker 2>but I really don't even know the next time. I
<v Speaker 2>would look at a Roman match even again all the
<v Speaker 2>way to WrestleMania and go, hmm, well, it could be
<v Speaker 2>this person who beats him. Here There's literally no one
<v Speaker 2>I can think of at this time that could come
<v Speaker 2>back and challenge Roman outside of some people in XT.
<v Speaker 2>You have heard the names, but right now, in the
<v Speaker 2>current roster, I'll look at it. I go, yeah, there's nobody,
<v Speaker 2>So just put it on Seth for God's sakes, Like,
<v Speaker 2>just have Seth win the money in the bank, cash
<v Speaker 2>it in that night. Let's get it over with. Seth
<v Speaker 2>is now the unified champion, Like, let's move on. That's
<v Speaker 2>what I would do. But all right, well, Anthony, thank
<v Speaker 2>you for coming on tonight. Of course, you guys can
<v Speaker 2>check out Anthony on his retro show, and this past
<v Speaker 2>week was from the vault version, but this week, hopefully
<v Speaker 2>we'll get a fresh, a fresh, new episode. And did
<v Speaker 2>you have anything in mind, Anthony, or you're waiting for
<v Speaker 2>the universe to inspire you over the next few days.
<v Speaker 4>No, No, I actually have one in mind. It was
<v Speaker 4>supposed to be last week, but it's just with the
<v Speaker 4>whole moving stuff, I knew that I would have had
<v Speaker 4>to record a half assed version, so just figured give
<v Speaker 4>us a brand new episode this week and it will
<v Speaker 4>be the Rocks run from twenty eleven to twenty thirteen,
<v Speaker 4>as we will dive into his return and his semi
<v Speaker 4>full time run that when he came back in early
<v Speaker 4>twenty thirteen all the way up until WrestleMania in late March,
<v Speaker 4>were for just about two or three months or so.
<v Speaker 4>It felt like the Rock was kind of on a
<v Speaker 4>full time schedule. Maybe not from an in ring perspective,
<v Speaker 4>but he was appearing on Raw, he was appearing on
<v Speaker 4>SmackDown almost each and every week when he held the
<v Speaker 4>WWE Championship in early twenty thirteen, and I don't think
<v Speaker 4>people remember how often he came back during that period,
<v Speaker 4>So I'm excited to dive into that.
<v Speaker 2>I actually I'm glad you're doing that because I actually
<v Speaker 2>don't remember him there much, but maybe it is foggy memory.
<v Speaker 2>Because you look at these legacy stars and you're like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>but they weren't there that much. But I think you're
<v Speaker 2>right that he was there way more than we realize,
<v Speaker 2>and you know that that's important. I think he wanted
<v Speaker 2>to put some respect on the belts and not just
<v Speaker 2>be this absentee champion. So good stuff. I'll be looking
<v Speaker 2>forward to it. And you have a social media want
<v Speaker 2>to share as well?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, as always, you can get me at a to
<v Speaker 4>Marco twenty five on Twitter.
<v Speaker 2>Awesome. Well, looking forward to the episode and we will
<v Speaker 2>be talking next week.
<v Speaker 3>All right, man, take it easy, take care.
<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to
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