WWE Week in Review: Backlash for Rock's No-Show Continues, New Women's US Champion, Street Profits Victorious, Orton vs Cena Official

<v Speaker 1>This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to
<v Speaker 1>the WWE podcast show.
<v Speaker 2>The one that everybody wants me godet three sixteenths just We.
<v Speaker 3>Your ass is my eyn you can acknowledge me. Hey, everybody,
<v Speaker 3>Welcome to the Weekend Review on this twenty seventh day
<v Speaker 3>of April twenty twenty five, as we roll towards Backlash,
<v Speaker 3>a couple of weeks away already that'll be here before
<v Speaker 3>you know it. WWE haven't really released their full card yet.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, we had some major progressions in some matches
<v Speaker 3>this or storylines this week that told us what matches
<v Speaker 3>could happen at Backlash. One of them, obviously, is the
<v Speaker 3>Randy Orton and John Cena match that is official for
<v Speaker 3>the Saint Louis event. With Randy Orton being from Saint Louis,
<v Speaker 3>crowd should be hot. Not that anyone really expects Orton
<v Speaker 3>to win, but still going to be a fun story. Nonetheless,
<v Speaker 3>end these two guys are legends, and these two guys
<v Speaker 3>one of the most storied rivalries in all of WE,
<v Speaker 3>so still we should take it for what it's worth.
<v Speaker 3>It's not about who's going to win, It's about how
<v Speaker 3>Sina wins, and about you know, the moments that we
<v Speaker 3>could see a potential Randy Orton victory, at least even
<v Speaker 3>those that all of us I pretty much know Randy's
<v Speaker 3>not going to win. Can they make us believe for
<v Speaker 3>a moment. That's really what we should look for here.
<v Speaker 3>I don't expect it to be a five star classic.
<v Speaker 3>Randy Orton is still capable of I think three to
<v Speaker 3>four stars, but even in his condition or his age,
<v Speaker 3>with Sina being so limited, I just don't I'm not
<v Speaker 3>worried about the quality. Well, I shouldn't say I'm not
<v Speaker 3>worried about it. I'm not expecting the quality of the
<v Speaker 3>match to be a five star match. It's about story,
<v Speaker 3>It's about progressing Sena's heel character. And I'm very interested
<v Speaker 3>to hear your guys take on Sena because my I've
<v Speaker 3>done so much ranting about the Rock, and I will
<v Speaker 3>pause on that, or at least minimize it as best
<v Speaker 3>I can in this podcast, because that's seemingly what all
<v Speaker 3>I've done is just rant about The Rock's absence and
<v Speaker 3>how just insanely unprofessional it was, or at least maybe
<v Speaker 3>i'm Professional's not the right phrase. It was a misstep,
<v Speaker 3>a massive misstep by the Rock and company whoever made
<v Speaker 3>the decision and signed off on it. It just doesn't
<v Speaker 3>make any sense at all. But we've won over that,
<v Speaker 3>we've gone over that, we've done it, we've been through it.
<v Speaker 3>So I will continue to talk about it as if
<v Speaker 3>news comes out, if The Rock continues to talk about
<v Speaker 3>it and continues to progress with his responses, or you know,
<v Speaker 3>more Dave Lea Greca and Rock commentary comes out and
<v Speaker 3>we get more to the story, then I will, you know,
<v Speaker 3>I'll continue to talk, but for now, I'll put that
<v Speaker 3>whole debacle, which is a nice way of putting it
<v Speaker 3>a debacle, on pause, as really it's been totally just
<v Speaker 3>panned by everybody from Eric Bischoff to the PW Torch
<v Speaker 3>really good guys over there, to Pro Wrestling that and
<v Speaker 3>really all the big shows that we all know, right,
<v Speaker 3>so it's WWE's feeling the heat on that. So moving
<v Speaker 3>on with John Cena, though, I'm curious to ask you, guys,
<v Speaker 3>how do you feel about his heel turned thus far?
<v Speaker 3>Putting the Rock story aside, and the fact that there's
<v Speaker 3>been no explanation about selling his soul, which was the
<v Speaker 3>whole reason for it, right, So we unfortunately have to
<v Speaker 3>take a massive part of the story and put it
<v Speaker 3>on the side and not talk about that because it's
<v Speaker 3>we've gone down that road. But if we just look
<v Speaker 3>at John Cena's heel turn and we look at how
<v Speaker 3>he's reacted to the crowd or the things he said,
<v Speaker 3>how does everyone feel. I'm having trouble still feeling it's authentic.
<v Speaker 3>And I don't know if it's because he's still wearing
<v Speaker 3>the same attire or if it feels like he's trying.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know. I feel it's a little bit inauthentic.
<v Speaker 3>I feel like it's still not like what it could
<v Speaker 3>have been as far as the heel turns. So far,
<v Speaker 3>he's attacking the crowd for us being low lifes, or
<v Speaker 3>it's a dysfunctional relationship, which I appreciate the analogy, and
<v Speaker 3>to some degree it's true. It is a very dysfunctional relationship.
<v Speaker 3>If you are talking about a one on one relationship
<v Speaker 3>and expanding it to a million people, like I get
<v Speaker 3>the premise. I just I don't know. I have trouble
<v Speaker 3>still trying to detach the John Cena we've seen for
<v Speaker 3>twenty five years into this John Cena. It's it's not
<v Speaker 3>something I disagree with it. So I don't want anyone
<v Speaker 3>to think that I'm going back on my my reaction
<v Speaker 3>initially to the heel turn that I think was still
<v Speaker 3>a great idea. I would have done it even after
<v Speaker 3>everything we've seen, even after the whole debacle of what
<v Speaker 3>we just said with the Rock, I still would have
<v Speaker 3>pushed forward with it because I would not have wanted
<v Speaker 3>to wanted to get to December of this year where
<v Speaker 3>John is really calling it quits, and always wondered what
<v Speaker 3>what would that have been? You know that that would
<v Speaker 3>have been the one critique I would have had. Is Okay.
<v Speaker 3>We saw John Cena's greatest hits. He's still an excellent promo.
<v Speaker 3>We saw the happy, go lucky John Cena version of himself,
<v Speaker 3>and I just wish I knew what the heel turn
<v Speaker 3>looked like. And you can't ever go back. This is
<v Speaker 3>your one chance. So I still support this decision. I
<v Speaker 3>just have trouble with the execution of some of the
<v Speaker 3>things he's said and how he's attacked the fans. It
<v Speaker 3>still feels a little bit inauthentic, and maybe he's still
<v Speaker 3>trying to adjust I mean again, remember this is his
<v Speaker 3>first time being a heel. Okay, he was fine a
<v Speaker 3>little bit of a heel in Doctor Ofthconomics, but for
<v Speaker 3>all intentsive purposes, he's not been a heel before in
<v Speaker 3>front of this many people at this stage of his crea.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, it's been twenty years since he's been a heel.
<v Speaker 3>So there is some adjustment he needs to make about
<v Speaker 3>how to progress and how to move forward with this.
<v Speaker 3>But he's attacked the fans, and Randy Orton attacks his
<v Speaker 3>this past week, attacks the fact that he's not a dad,
<v Speaker 3>and then he tells Randy Orton, how dare you? How
<v Speaker 3>you dare? How dare you? Father? Shame me? And he said,
<v Speaker 3>well I don't need kids because I've been raising yours
<v Speaker 3>for twenty five years. Well there's a couple of problems
<v Speaker 3>with that logistically. Well, number one, he's if you've been
<v Speaker 3>raising ours for twenty five years, well then you're doing
<v Speaker 3>a very piss poor job because you've been an absentee
<v Speaker 3>father for I don't know the last ten So that's
<v Speaker 3>a very bad father figure to have. If we're talking
<v Speaker 3>about just massive holes in the logic here, Well, dude,
<v Speaker 3>you haven't been around for most of the time, all right,
<v Speaker 3>So it's a good thing to say, and it's a
<v Speaker 3>very clever thing to say by john that it's been
<v Speaker 3>you know, he's had to raise ours. But for him
<v Speaker 3>to bring up the fact that he's not a dad
<v Speaker 3>is whoof, that's pretty brutal. But Johnson has said he
<v Speaker 3>doesn't want to and he actually went on an interview
<v Speaker 3>I think a years or two ago, I forget what
<v Speaker 3>podcast it was, and he said the reason he doesn't
<v Speaker 3>want kids is he just wants to enjoy life and
<v Speaker 3>he wants to you know, he doesn't feel he'd be
<v Speaker 3>able to dedicate the time he needs to. In other words,
<v Speaker 3>he's I mean, look, this is what it is. Everybody
<v Speaker 3>can make their own decisions. But if your idea of
<v Speaker 3>not having kids is because you to be able to
<v Speaker 3>take your car and drive it around the entire state
<v Speaker 3>of Florida, which is what he said, that's just that's
<v Speaker 3>kind of that's selfish. I mean, I'm not saying if
<v Speaker 3>you don't have kids, you're a selfish person, but he
<v Speaker 3>gave reasons that we're alluding to the fact he's selfish. Now,
<v Speaker 3>I know a lot of people can't have children, some
<v Speaker 3>people elect not to. I generally think it's a good idea,
<v Speaker 3>despite the struggles that come with it, despite the stress
<v Speaker 3>that comes with it, despite the the selfishness that will
<v Speaker 3>be extracted from you, and it's a very painful process,
<v Speaker 3>the joys that come with it, I think far outweigh
<v Speaker 3>all of the sacrifice.
<v Speaker 2>That you have.
<v Speaker 3>And again speaking from somebody who has two kids, again,
<v Speaker 3>that's just that's what I think. And it's how our
<v Speaker 3>species continues to survive too. By the way, so there's
<v Speaker 3>that if we don't continue to approcreate, well we'll see
<v Speaker 3>to exist. But I'm going way off track. If John
<v Speaker 3>Cena is giving these reasons of basically saying he's too selfish,
<v Speaker 3>which is essentially what he said, then it's a good
<v Speaker 3>thing to bring up by Orton. Orton saying you know
<v Speaker 3>that you know you become a father, is that will
<v Speaker 3>humble the hell out of you. I don't care who
<v Speaker 3>you are, man or woman, having children will humble the
<v Speaker 3>s out of you. And I think that was a
<v Speaker 3>great thing to bring up. And Orton at the end
<v Speaker 3>of that segment getting attacked by John in a very
<v Speaker 3>vicious way. A new aggression by Sena which was cool.
<v Speaker 3>His stomps. I've never seen him go to town like
<v Speaker 3>that with his stomps on Orton, I thought he was
<v Speaker 3>going to get to the title belt shot. Instead he
<v Speaker 3>got an RKO, and the RKO I actually didn't I
<v Speaker 3>strangely didn't want to see because I want Sena to
<v Speaker 3>live on that title belt shot that I want had
<v Speaker 3>to be his brass knucks, you know what I mean,
<v Speaker 3>like the William Regal brass knucks. That's what I want
<v Speaker 3>that to be for Sena over the coming months to
<v Speaker 3>be able to retain his championship. And I think what's
<v Speaker 3>going to happen. Early prediction in the Randy Orton John
<v Speaker 3>Cena match at Backlash is probably the same way that
<v Speaker 3>the Cody match ended with the title belt shot. It'll
<v Speaker 3>be an RKO. I don't know if Travis Scott will
<v Speaker 3>be there. He is one of the most hated men
<v Speaker 3>in the company right now. I mean probably from top
<v Speaker 3>to bottom in real life. People just like they don't
<v Speaker 3>I don't want this guy anywhere near professional wrestling, and
<v Speaker 3>he continues to somehow tell everybody he's a fan. I
<v Speaker 3>don't care if you're a fan. I'm a fan, but
<v Speaker 3>I don't belong in the ring. I weigh more than
<v Speaker 3>Travis Scott and I'm probably four inches shorter than him. Right,
<v Speaker 3>So this, dude, just because you're a fan doesn't qualify
<v Speaker 3>you to be in the ring. Just because you are
<v Speaker 3>a you know, you're an artist, doesn't qualify you to
<v Speaker 3>be in the ring. But my guess is at backlash,
<v Speaker 3>when all of a sudden done, it'll be a similar
<v Speaker 3>finish that we saw at WrestleMania with Cody and the
<v Speaker 3>belt shot. Hopefully no Travis Scott unless somebody's gonna actually
<v Speaker 3>give him a real receipt. I just don't need it.
<v Speaker 3>But the other danger is with the massive I've never
<v Speaker 3>seen anything like this, the massive backlash of the WrestleMania
<v Speaker 3>Nite two main event that w W received. Do they
<v Speaker 3>dare go anywhere near that type of finish again? They
<v Speaker 3>might tease it and then do something that's a much
<v Speaker 3>more crowd pleasing, but it's gonna ultimately end with John
<v Speaker 3>Cena winning. So there's only so much happiness you can
<v Speaker 3>give the fans, even though you're giving them the same
<v Speaker 3>result as the night to main event. So that's going
<v Speaker 3>to be a fine line. How does Randy Orton lose.
<v Speaker 3>Does the Rock actually show up? Maybe he does, and
<v Speaker 3>you know what, would it's gonna be great when the
<v Speaker 3>Rock finally returns. I want to see two things. And again,
<v Speaker 3>I know I'm not talking about the whole debacle of WrestleMania,
<v Speaker 3>but I when I say moving forward, okay, that's the difference.
<v Speaker 3>I know I've talked a lot about it, but I'm
<v Speaker 3>talking about moving forward with the Rock. When he does
<v Speaker 3>come back is number one. How does the crowd react
<v Speaker 3>to him? Do they boo him? I want people to
<v Speaker 3>boo him. I don't want people doing the Rock pop,
<v Speaker 3>even though he's a a heel and he's the final
<v Speaker 3>boss and you know he can get the crowd to
<v Speaker 3>turn on him. I don't want the people cheering for him. Unfortunately,
<v Speaker 3>I think they probably will no matter what, because it's
<v Speaker 3>like a knee jerk Pavlovian reaction. They just cheer when
<v Speaker 3>the Rock comes out, just like you hear cheers for
<v Speaker 3>Johncey and when he comes out because they're so excited
<v Speaker 3>to be there for the fact that, you know, people
<v Speaker 3>don't get to see these guys anymore. So I still
<v Speaker 3>think the Rock will probably get cheered whenever he does
<v Speaker 3>decide to come back, but even more importantly, what the
<v Speaker 3>promo will be to someone when they finally get the
<v Speaker 3>rock in the ring, whoever that's going to be. You
<v Speaker 3>talk about some low hanging fruit that they have against Dwayne.
<v Speaker 3>I mean they should just absolutely hammer him for I mean,
<v Speaker 3>the first thing they should say is, well, Dwayne, a
<v Speaker 3>nice you to show up, and then pause at the
<v Speaker 3>crowd cheer that I mean, and then you can continue
<v Speaker 3>to hammer him. But you have to be careful of
<v Speaker 3>making sure that you're not going into too much of
<v Speaker 3>a destructive or self destructive language, because you could go
<v Speaker 3>too far and talk about how storyline you know, you
<v Speaker 3>should have been here for the story like, you gotta
<v Speaker 3>be careful. Even though WWE has no shame anymore about
<v Speaker 3>exposing the business, even in the even on air during
<v Speaker 3>Raw SmackDown Ples you talk about the destruction of k FABE,
<v Speaker 3>which even though there was shreds of like the shreds
<v Speaker 3>of it left, but when you create the post show
<v Speaker 3>that essentially just says, hey, let's talk about how what
<v Speaker 3>you just saw wasn't real and the stories that we
<v Speaker 3>just told after every pl I mean, it's built in
<v Speaker 3>to the show I know not most people watch the post,
<v Speaker 3>but the fact that it's actually immediately following it's like, hey,
<v Speaker 3>heybe here's how we made the cake. We're gonna tell
<v Speaker 3>you every single time. I hate that. But again I
<v Speaker 3>don't know. I'm the old fuddy duddy, right. So anyway,
<v Speaker 3>back to the Rady Orton thing. I think it's gonna be.
<v Speaker 3>It's a fun program. We should just appreciate it because
<v Speaker 3>it's not going to last long. And this is apparently
<v Speaker 3>the only match with John's limited dates, you have to
<v Speaker 3>look forward to who's his next opponent going to be
<v Speaker 3>for the championship? And also how how does he take
<v Speaker 3>the championship home, which he said he was going to do,
<v Speaker 3>and then he continues to show up, so like, why
<v Speaker 3>aren't you doing it now? That's kind of weird. And
<v Speaker 3>also I still don't follow his logic of well, they'll
<v Speaker 3>create another tenfoil championship and they'll they'll crown a new champion,
<v Speaker 3>but I'll be the last real champion. Again, how is
<v Speaker 3>no one pointing out I know that they probably can't
<v Speaker 3>because it'll undermine everything he says. But look, you can
<v Speaker 3>take the championship home all you want, but the belt
<v Speaker 3>is a symbol of what the what the championship means,
<v Speaker 3>what being a champion means, What being the WWE to
<v Speaker 3>speed a champion means. Is not just carrying that physical belt.
<v Speaker 3>You can carry that physical belt and bury it in
<v Speaker 3>the in the sea. It doesn't matter, because it's about
<v Speaker 3>who's champion. It's the it's what's the meaning behind the
<v Speaker 3>championship is what you can never destroy or stop or
<v Speaker 3>artificially pause. You can't do that. I don't know how
<v Speaker 3>no one's pointing this out to John in a promo like, Okay, dude,
<v Speaker 3>sure take the championship home. The WWE management will they'll
<v Speaker 3>strip you of the championship. You can keep the belt,
<v Speaker 3>keep it all you want. But have you forgotten that
<v Speaker 3>that's just a symbol of what being the champion means.
<v Speaker 3>So you're not stopping anything, You're just all you're doing
<v Speaker 3>is taking the championship belt home. But if you're not
<v Speaker 3>taking the true meaning of being the champion home, the
<v Speaker 3>lineage will continue. There is nothing you can do physically
<v Speaker 3>in this world to stop the lineage of that championship.
<v Speaker 3>How many times I mean the championship belt, the physical
<v Speaker 3>look of the belt has changed over the years. It
<v Speaker 3>has changed from I mean, you look at the attitude
<v Speaker 3>or look what Cody Roads did in his promo before
<v Speaker 3>I think it was the SmackDown before WrestleMania. He had
<v Speaker 3>all the championship belts there. Well, did the lineage of
<v Speaker 3>that championship stop at every single time they changed the
<v Speaker 3>look of the belt? No, it didn't, it did, It
<v Speaker 3>didn't change at all, right, it just continued. Now it
<v Speaker 3>is a little bit rocky in terms of the lineage
<v Speaker 3>of combination of belts and universal championship. And then they
<v Speaker 3>combined the belts and then split them again, and it
<v Speaker 3>gets really into the weeds. But if you're talking about
<v Speaker 3>just a simple way of looking at it, the w
<v Speaker 3>WA Championship has decades and decades and decades of lineage
<v Speaker 3>and many, many, many examples of when it changed its
<v Speaker 3>look did again. The lineage was not interrupted because they
<v Speaker 3>changed the look of the belt and someone took it
<v Speaker 3>and went home or whatever. It doesn't matter what it
<v Speaker 3>looks like because it's just a symbol of what the
<v Speaker 3>championship means. So I don't know how no one's poked
<v Speaker 3>a hole in that thing. He can about call himself
<v Speaker 3>the last real champion all he wants, and he can
<v Speaker 3>go home and we'll never see him again with that belt.
<v Speaker 3>That doesn't change anything. Think about what Medusa did on
<v Speaker 3>WWCW putting the women's championship in the belt, That that
<v Speaker 3>stop the lineage of the championship for the women in
<v Speaker 3>w W A. No, of course it didn't, right. So
<v Speaker 3>it's just I just that's an obvious hole in the
<v Speaker 3>whole logic that someone should point out to him. Dude,
<v Speaker 3>you think we're that simple minded? No, I don't. I
<v Speaker 3>just be anyway, moving on hid So again the Orton
<v Speaker 3>stuff and seeing his stuff open the show, and that
<v Speaker 3>went for a while. I did count there was it
<v Speaker 3>was eight minutes before anybody spoke on the mic between
<v Speaker 3>Orton and Sina. It took eight minutes of the show
<v Speaker 3>before it when it opened for anyone to even speak that.
<v Speaker 3>It felt like an eternity. But all right. So we
<v Speaker 3>then had Phraxium Nathan Fraser versus and Axiom an Axiom, sorry,
<v Speaker 3>Phraxium Nathan Fraser an Axiom versus Los Garza, Angel and Barto,
<v Speaker 3>who were with Santos Escobar. The match went eight minutes
<v Speaker 3>and twenty seconds with Faxium and Axiom beating Losco Garza
<v Speaker 3>in eight minutes and twenty seconds again their first night
<v Speaker 3>on SmackDown, Fraser and Axiom, and that was fun to see.
<v Speaker 3>I think they did a fine job, and I think
<v Speaker 3>they're going to be a great addition to the Tag
<v Speaker 3>Team Division again. Now suddenly the Tag team division is
<v Speaker 3>getting a boost in WWE. Suddenly they are becoming a
<v Speaker 3>focal point once again for a SmackDown and that's a
<v Speaker 3>good thing. And on Rod to some degree as well
<v Speaker 3>with New Day winning the belts at WrestleMania. But you know,
<v Speaker 3>this is kind of the ebb and flow of the
<v Speaker 3>Tag Team Division where you think they're going to finally
<v Speaker 3>put a little bit more airtime for the Tag Team
<v Speaker 3>Championships and Tag Team Division and then it just falls off.
<v Speaker 3>And I don't have no reason to believe this still
<v Speaker 3>won't be the case. I understand their acquisition of Triple
<v Speaker 3>A that certainly helps. I understand that they're you know,
<v Speaker 3>they've got the street profits that have kind of a
<v Speaker 3>new vibe to them and all that. But I'll ultimately
<v Speaker 3>we'll have to see if this this has any kind
<v Speaker 3>of staying power. All right, So then we had well,
<v Speaker 3>Diy Johnny Gargando went to massol Champa, showed seating in
<v Speaker 3>the shown seated in their dressing room while Tested Tour
<v Speaker 3>hyped the TLC match. And then we had Tiffany Stratton
<v Speaker 3>come out and she asked the fans what time it was,
<v Speaker 3>and then she said that it was Tiffy time at
<v Speaker 3>WrestleMania for sixty thousand people, and she went one of
<v Speaker 3>the went toe to toe with one of the greatest
<v Speaker 3>of all times, Charlotte Flair, and the fans booed, and
<v Speaker 3>Stratton said there were times where she doubted herself, but
<v Speaker 3>she walked out of WrestleMania as champion, and she said
<v Speaker 3>people told her she was the next Charlotte Flair. She said,
<v Speaker 3>there's only one Charlotte, but she guaranteed there's only one
<v Speaker 3>Tiffany kind of your standard standard promo here, Nothing earth shattering,
<v Speaker 3>nothing that you know, made you gasp or anything.
<v Speaker 2>It was.
<v Speaker 3>It was an okay promo from tiffany kind of you
<v Speaker 3>your typical I'm not the next anything, I'm the one
<v Speaker 3>and only this well, you know which is I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>It's a little bit overused, I think, but it's true.
<v Speaker 3>Like I don't want to be the next anyone if
<v Speaker 3>I was a WWE star, because then you're always compared
<v Speaker 3>to that great star and you'll never live up to
<v Speaker 3>that because there's only one original. So yeah, you might
<v Speaker 3>as well just be yourself. So that's when Jade Cargill
<v Speaker 3>comes out and she said she's gonna give credit where
<v Speaker 3>it's due. Jade spoke about that as she walked to
<v Speaker 3>the ring and saying Tiffany's match with Flair was impressive,
<v Speaker 3>but it put an even bigot target on her back,
<v Speaker 3>and she said that she has nothing but time after
<v Speaker 3>finishing her business with Naomi, and she came in the
<v Speaker 3>ring and she said that she came to WWE to
<v Speaker 3>be a champion, and she said beating Charlotte doesn't make
<v Speaker 3>Stratton the best, especially when she hasn't faced her. And
<v Speaker 3>she said, put your money where your mouth is, and
<v Speaker 3>then referee came out. We got the match Tiffany versus Jade.
<v Speaker 3>At least I will say this, Jade and I have
<v Speaker 3>been hopeful she will continue to improve because she has
<v Speaker 3>lived and died. Based on her look. She has essentially
<v Speaker 3>made her entire career thus far how she looks, it's
<v Speaker 3>been all superficial She's had some glaring glimpses of hope
<v Speaker 3>in the ring, but there hasn't been a sustained great match.
<v Speaker 3>And I think her match with Naomi at WrestleMania actually
<v Speaker 3>was as good as it probably could have been, and
<v Speaker 3>that was a big test and her promos and why
<v Speaker 3>she's here need to be the next thing. And we
<v Speaker 3>got a little bit of a we did get a
<v Speaker 3>mission statement here. Okay, I'm here to be a champion. Fine, good, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>good starting point. So I'm hopeful for Jade that this continues.
<v Speaker 3>I want her to be as big of a deal
<v Speaker 3>as they hoped that she could be when they signed
<v Speaker 3>her to the dotted line. And it's slow, but we're
<v Speaker 3>moving in that right direction. So she felt somewhat natural
<v Speaker 3>on the mic. Again, that's what we need to see,
<v Speaker 3>just slow progression, and that was a good thing here.
<v Speaker 3>And this match here was about eight minutes which saw
<v Speaker 3>some fun, you know, some fun moments and a little
<v Speaker 3>bit of clunkiness still in Jade's part. She still doesn't
<v Speaker 3>feel buttery smooth in the ring. She doesn't feel like
<v Speaker 3>she's a grizzled veteran. It feels like she's still thinking
<v Speaker 3>a little too much of what's the next move and
<v Speaker 3>a little too mechanical at times, and I don't I'm
<v Speaker 3>only saying that as I want to see her improve criticism,
<v Speaker 3>not that I'm saying that, oh my god, she's awful
<v Speaker 3>and what are they doing? They should fire her. Quite
<v Speaker 3>the contrary. All I'm looking for is progression and I'm
<v Speaker 3>not looking for perfection because she I see where what
<v Speaker 3>they see in her, which is money, and I think
<v Speaker 3>it's coming it just as long as she continues on
<v Speaker 3>this path. So this match here wasn't super smooth, but
<v Speaker 3>when she hits a move man, because of her strength,
<v Speaker 3>she can compensate for mistakes if someone doesn't, you know,
<v Speaker 3>help her as much as they need to, when you know,
<v Speaker 3>jumping with her or you know, maybe needing to balance
<v Speaker 3>her opponent. She's got the strength to compensate for issues
<v Speaker 3>for mistakes in the ring, which is a good thing.
<v Speaker 3>And the power mom she hit on Tiffany I think
<v Speaker 3>was very good. That was great, a great false finish,
<v Speaker 3>but it ended up with Naomi interfering after a superplex,
<v Speaker 3>which was a nice spot in the match, and having
<v Speaker 3>Naomi come out and do her her punches, which look
<v Speaker 3>I love Naomi's new character. I wish she had gotten
<v Speaker 3>a promo this week. I love her caution tape. She's
<v Speaker 3>a great new look. But the punches she threw a
<v Speaker 3>Jade were just horrible. I mean, that's what if you're,
<v Speaker 3>you know, in middle school what a fight looks like,
<v Speaker 3>not as a presumed professional athlete who has a decade
<v Speaker 3>in the business. That's that's not how you throw punches.
<v Speaker 3>It looked like two little girls fighting, particularly at Naomi's end,
<v Speaker 3>with the punches she threw that were just it looks
<v Speaker 3>like that was your first fight. I now understand she's
<v Speaker 3>trying to put intensity into it, so it just made
<v Speaker 3>me laugh, but also shake my head. I go, Naomi, please,
<v Speaker 3>like your punch is not only did they look amateur
<v Speaker 3>and it's like your first fight ever, but also they're
<v Speaker 3>not even looking good, like they're even coming close to
<v Speaker 3>landing is like a foot from her face. So I
<v Speaker 3>have to just point that out. It's just that kind
<v Speaker 3>of stuff, you know, It's just when it looks like crap.
<v Speaker 3>But I can appreciate the effort. I feel mixed on it,
<v Speaker 3>so just I would advise against those punches. If they
<v Speaker 3>don't look good, stop doing them is really what it is.
<v Speaker 3>If you can't throw a working punch that looks good,
<v Speaker 3>don't ever throw a working punch. So all right, anyway,
<v Speaker 3>Naomi is clearly not numb with Jade, so Jade is
<v Speaker 3>not yet in the championship picture. Now, we could get
<v Speaker 3>a triple threat. It could be Jade Naomi in Tiffany
<v Speaker 3>at Backlash, and it's very possible. It also could be
<v Speaker 3>Charlotte interjecting herself next week or something, because we're only
<v Speaker 3>two weeks from Backlash now, and that means they got
<v Speaker 3>to put a card together quick, and there's no time
<v Speaker 3>for new rivalries next week or the week after. It's
<v Speaker 3>got to be what's kind of here is what's what
<v Speaker 3>we're going with. So it could be a triple threat
<v Speaker 3>or a fatal four way with Tiffany if Charlotte comes
<v Speaker 3>in next week, but I fully expect Tiffany to retain
<v Speaker 3>no matter what Backlash. I don't even know the last
<v Speaker 3>major title change that happened at Backlash, because I mean
<v Speaker 3>that is the statistically least likely ple e of the
<v Speaker 3>entire year to have a title change, is the night
<v Speaker 3>or the pl e after Mania. I mean it's I
<v Speaker 3>don't even know the last time it happened. I'm saying major,
<v Speaker 3>not like a tag team title. I'm talking like you know,
<v Speaker 3>ic US World or W. I don't know. Maybe I'm
<v Speaker 3>just my memory's bad too, but it's typically not even
<v Speaker 3>especially the top titles world in W I don't even
<v Speaker 3>know the last time it changed, you know, changed changed
<v Speaker 3>hands for men or the women. All right, so let's
<v Speaker 3>continue here. As we had Jacob Fatu come out and
<v Speaker 3>he had his title around his neck and wore a jersey,
<v Speaker 3>and I mean people are still chanting his name and
<v Speaker 3>they should. Solo said everyone saw at WrestleMania what he
<v Speaker 3>already knew, that Jacob Fatu is the future of the company.
<v Speaker 3>And he said no one in his family wanted Fatu
<v Speaker 3>in w WE other than him, and the fans gave
<v Speaker 3>the what treatment, which is I don't even know what
<v Speaker 3>to say about that anymore, and Fatu took the mic
<v Speaker 3>from Solo and told him not to get it twisted.
<v Speaker 3>Fatu were called Solo or telling Solo that he would
<v Speaker 3>win the US title and bring it home to the
<v Speaker 3>family with or without him, and Fatu played to the
<v Speaker 3>crowd while holding up the title and said he knows
<v Speaker 3>the title makes him America's most wanted and a menace
<v Speaker 3>to society.
<v Speaker 1>L A.
<v Speaker 3>Knight comes out and he recalled saying Fatu would eat
<v Speaker 3>a BFT and said that's what he did at wrestle
<v Speaker 3>Mania and conceded that Fatu beat him and said he
<v Speaker 3>gives credit where it's due, but said people told him
<v Speaker 3>he had a hell of a match at WrestleMania, and
<v Speaker 3>Knight said he wasn't worried or isn't worried about having
<v Speaker 3>a great match, He's worried about winning. Olli Loujia Knight preach, Yes,
<v Speaker 3>thank you. That's Can we put this on a poster
<v Speaker 3>board and put it in every locker room that the
<v Speaker 3>that the wrestlers change in. Can we put that in
<v Speaker 3>everything all the time? Can this be just a propaganda
<v Speaker 3>piece for everyone in WWE? Put it in the NXT
<v Speaker 3>training center, put it at the door to the entrance
<v Speaker 3>of backstage. Put it on hel plaster, it on w
<v Speaker 3>W headquarters that when it comes to promos, you're here
<v Speaker 3>to win. Putting on a great match is a side
<v Speaker 3>effect that shouldn't be your stated goal. So that can
<v Speaker 3>used to happen in w W. A I'm glad finally
<v Speaker 3>someone said, I'm not here to put on great matches.
<v Speaker 3>That's not what my concern like. It started to just win.
<v Speaker 3>You want to be able to create that illusion that magic.
<v Speaker 3>Part of that is to make sure that you're telling
<v Speaker 3>fans that what you're trying to do is when you're
<v Speaker 3>not trying to steal the show, that is a byproduct
<v Speaker 3>of your efforts. That shouldn't be what you say. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, so that's just my own, my own again,
<v Speaker 3>my own opinion that I don't know if any of
<v Speaker 3>you share. So, but Drew McIntyre comes out and he
<v Speaker 3>talked about beating Damian Priest in one of the most
<v Speaker 3>violent matches in history, and looked into the camera and
<v Speaker 3>thanked the priest, saying it was an absolute pleasure to
<v Speaker 3>beat him in front of his entire family, and spoke
<v Speaker 3>about fighting the baddest dog in the yard and points
<v Speaker 3>to Jacob Fatu and he uh then pointed over to
<v Speaker 3>Night and Night was lying in the top turnbuckle and
<v Speaker 3>mcmctire said, Knight always was, always has a joke, and
<v Speaker 3>he said the only joke around around here was your
<v Speaker 3>last US title run. Knight dropped from the ropes and
<v Speaker 3>said that he'd say that McIntyre's last TI ram was
<v Speaker 3>a joke, but he can't remember it. And that's when
<v Speaker 3>Knight said, if McIntyre thinks he deserved this title shot,
<v Speaker 3>he should get in the ring and show him. That's
<v Speaker 3>when McIntyre drops the mike and gets in the ring,
<v Speaker 3>and that's when Nick All just comes out and booked
<v Speaker 3>McIntyre Knight for a shot at the US Championship. That
<v Speaker 3>match lasted. Let's get the time stamp here. Well that
<v Speaker 3>was later in the show. But okay, so next up,
<v Speaker 3>if I'm going to go in order, here, Chelsea Green
<v Speaker 3>and Zelena Vega for the Women's Championship. Six and a
<v Speaker 3>half minutes, we have a new champion. Zelena Vega wins
<v Speaker 3>her first singles championship in WWE. I think the phrase
<v Speaker 3>about damn time is appropriate here. She's been here long enough,
<v Speaker 3>she has connected with the fans. She I think never
<v Speaker 3>really got a fair shot at becoming Women's champion. I
<v Speaker 3>don't know if the timing never worked, if she had
<v Speaker 3>heat backstage, or if she just I don't know what
<v Speaker 3>the case is, but they never really allowed her to
<v Speaker 3>have a run with the championship and now she's got
<v Speaker 3>a championship. It may not be the championship, but it's
<v Speaker 3>a step in the right direction for Iselena Vega. It's
<v Speaker 3>who you kind of envision being in the picture when
<v Speaker 3>they created this championship out of nowhere. Same with the
<v Speaker 3>Intercontinental title for the women, and it allows more women
<v Speaker 3>to be able to claim that they're champions, and to
<v Speaker 3>some degree they are. Again, my concern is that they
<v Speaker 3>can't manage the championships that they currently have much less
<v Speaker 3>trying to invent new ones out of whole cloth and
<v Speaker 3>then also trying to manage them. But I think this
<v Speaker 3>is so far for the US title for the women,
<v Speaker 3>it has been a positive. Chelsea Green is just one
<v Speaker 3>of those beloved characters because she's just so ditzy, so uh.
<v Speaker 3>She's at first was so unlikable that she became likable
<v Speaker 3>because she was so good at being unlikable, and it
<v Speaker 3>came across authentic. Now Selena Vega wins. After hitting a
<v Speaker 3>Destroyer and getting the victory, Vega held up the title
<v Speaker 3>and got emotional on stage, and I bet you that
<v Speaker 3>was real. I hope you know she deserves it. She
<v Speaker 3>took a picture at Dicka on Instagram or on x
<v Speaker 3>and put a picture of the US title in her
<v Speaker 3>bed with her. I believe it good for her, good
<v Speaker 3>for her. I don't know how long this title run
<v Speaker 3>is going to be for Selena. I would guess that
<v Speaker 3>the over under on this is probably about two months,
<v Speaker 3>three months on. I'd have to see. And I don't
<v Speaker 3>mean this in a way that's to degrade Selena's run,
<v Speaker 3>but I do wonder if they are positioning her as
<v Speaker 3>a champion as they go into the back to overseas,
<v Speaker 3>if they're going to Puerto Rico again, to be able
<v Speaker 3>to bring her in as champion in Puerto Rico, I'll
<v Speaker 3>have to look at their schedule. They've done that at
<v Speaker 3>times with certain champions, and you know, just the timing
<v Speaker 3>is just way too convenient to be any other reason.
<v Speaker 3>So again, Selene is totally deserving, and I'm not saying
<v Speaker 3>her title win was because of their upcoming schedule, but
<v Speaker 3>either way, she's a champion. The end result is still
<v Speaker 3>the same, all right. We then have Carmela Hayes and
<v Speaker 3>the Miz stand in front of the Dre Trophy while
<v Speaker 3>both men were justin white, and miss claimed that he
<v Speaker 3>sacrificed himself so Hayes could win, and Mis gave Hayes
<v Speaker 3>a box that contained a chain with a hideous gold
<v Speaker 3>andre the Giant head hanging from it, and Mis said
<v Speaker 3>he was heading to the ring to get something off
<v Speaker 3>his chest, and he told Hayes to stay back stage,
<v Speaker 3>and yeah, the Drey head was just horrible. It's hideous.
<v Speaker 3>But Miss came in the ring invented about Ray Phoenix
<v Speaker 3>and Joe Hendry getting a WrestleMania match, and he said,
<v Speaker 3>Henri is an internet meme. Mis said he's sick of
<v Speaker 3>people showing up in w W and getting opportunities, and
<v Speaker 3>Mis tried to close with his catchphrase, but the lights
<v Speaker 3>go out and Alistair Black comes out to his old music.
<v Speaker 3>A welcome welcome back chant broke out and the Mis said, hey,
<v Speaker 3>who the hell do you and that's when he got
<v Speaker 3>kicked with a Black mass kick and Black sat down
<v Speaker 3>cross legged next to Miss. So Black comes in makes
<v Speaker 3>a big, big impact here. I guess to whatever degree
<v Speaker 3>you view the Miss as a big deal, them is
<v Speaker 3>being left off. WrestleMania is a bit of a I
<v Speaker 3>mean it has been a bit of a head scratcher
<v Speaker 3>now as much as Sammy's Ain, Sammy's ain being left
<v Speaker 3>off of WRESTLEMANI is really one that you need to
<v Speaker 3>be the needs to be investigated by the authorities. But
<v Speaker 3>also Nia Jack's being left off the WrestleMania card kind
<v Speaker 3>of incredible given the run she had, which is a
<v Speaker 3>really good run as Women's champion, and you know, among others.
<v Speaker 3>But Alistair Black coming out here, it's the right move.
<v Speaker 3>Bringing him in as a babyface, bringing him back to
<v Speaker 3>start as is the gimmick he left with. So I
<v Speaker 3>hope they modify that though, and they understand what they
<v Speaker 3>have instead of what happened the last time. But the
<v Speaker 3>Mass is also a guy that you know is always
<v Speaker 3>there to just be the punchline for any upcoming heel
<v Speaker 3>or I'm sorry, upcoming babyface, somebody being reintroduced to the company.
<v Speaker 3>Like Black, he's the guy that can make anybody look good.
<v Speaker 3>He's more than good in the ring, he can cut
<v Speaker 3>good promos. He's never gonna be the guy, never ever
<v Speaker 3>ever will be the guy. I think we've established that.
<v Speaker 3>But he's, as they say, in the business, because I'm
<v Speaker 3>in the business, right so I can say these phrases.
<v Speaker 3>Or am I one of those Internet fans I don't know,
<v Speaker 3>check with Paul Devec but either way, if I don't
<v Speaker 3>get fine, I'm gonna use the phrase he's a hell
<v Speaker 3>of a hand because he is the miz Is, There's
<v Speaker 3>no doubt about it, and having him feued, probably very
<v Speaker 3>briefly with Alistair Black is the right move for Alistair
<v Speaker 3>Black and it also puts them Is in a situation
<v Speaker 3>with oh, I don't know something to do. So if
<v Speaker 3>you're a mis fan, even though you know what the
<v Speaker 3>end result is going to be of this programs still
<v Speaker 3>good to see him. So that's when we have Byron
<v Speaker 3>Sachson interviewing bell Air, who had her hand taped up
<v Speaker 3>and a finger in a splint, and she said she
<v Speaker 3>walked into Mania with a couple of broken fingers and
<v Speaker 3>said it was all worth it and that they all
<v Speaker 3>fought hard and she can't at least say she's proud
<v Speaker 3>of what they were able to do. In a three
<v Speaker 3>way match against at WrestleMania, Bellair credited EO Sky for
<v Speaker 3>taking the perfect opportunity opportunity to capitalize and said she
<v Speaker 3>would have done the same. She took a shue with
<v Speaker 3>Rhea sneaking into the match and said they didn't. They
<v Speaker 3>haven't seen the last of one another, and ed that's
<v Speaker 3>SmackDown is her home. Okay, So a couple things here.
<v Speaker 3>Not many people are talking about in this interview here,
<v Speaker 3>but bel Air seemingly is staying babyface for the time being.
<v Speaker 3>There's no hint of her turning. Maybe they don't have
<v Speaker 3>plans and they're just forging through WrestleMania season, letting the
<v Speaker 3>fans calm down and they're getting back to homeostasis of
<v Speaker 3>just cheering for bell Air, and that's could very well
<v Speaker 3>be the case. I think they're testing fans here now. Also,
<v Speaker 3>the fact that bel Air is injured is perfect timing.
<v Speaker 3>If you're worried about a babyface getting booed and you
<v Speaker 3>don't want them to get booed and stay the good
<v Speaker 3>guy or good gal, you need them to take time
<v Speaker 3>off because absence makes the heart grow fonder. Even if
<v Speaker 3>you're the most hated heel in the company, coming back
<v Speaker 3>as a babyface is automatically what's going to happen no
<v Speaker 3>matter what. So I think if this is timed outright,
<v Speaker 3>and it looks like it is, bel Air should be
<v Speaker 3>safe as a babyface for at least the foreseeable future,
<v Speaker 3>and I don't know how long she's going to be out.
<v Speaker 3>I wouldn't think it's more than a month or two
<v Speaker 3>if it's just broken fingers, and we'll have to see there.
<v Speaker 3>But also a couple of things she's this is the
<v Speaker 3>whole piggybacking on the idea that they're you know, they
<v Speaker 3>want to put on a put on a show or
<v Speaker 3>have great matches. She said she was proud of what
<v Speaker 3>they were able to do in the three way. Now, yes,
<v Speaker 3>that's something that Again, it was an incredible match, probably
<v Speaker 3>one of the best opening matches to WrestleMania I can remember.
<v Speaker 3>It was the polar opposite of the night before and
<v Speaker 3>credits all three women. But again, shouldn't her shouldn't her
<v Speaker 3>whole deal be Hey, I lost, I'm not happy about it,
<v Speaker 3>instead of just I'm so happy with what we're able
<v Speaker 3>to accomplish. It's like taking a bow at the end
<v Speaker 3>of a performance, one of these just little things that
<v Speaker 3>just eat away at you. If you're trying to generate
<v Speaker 3>the magic for yourself of what makes you love pro wrestling,
<v Speaker 3>it's these things that just whether you even realize these
<v Speaker 3>things or not, I think a lot of it eats
<v Speaker 3>away at our conscious subconscious probably and makes you go, hey, yeah, this,
<v Speaker 3>if you're worried about the performance, shouldn't you be worried
<v Speaker 3>about fing winning? And if you lose, shouldn't you be
<v Speaker 3>talking about with how devastating it is to lose. But
<v Speaker 3>now she's credits what they're able to do. No, that again,
<v Speaker 3>that that really just means whoa, I'm so I'm so
<v Speaker 3>happy we had a great match. Shut up, I mean,
<v Speaker 3>just shut up. This is anybody who says this. But
<v Speaker 3>bel Air credited EO for capitalizing. She said she would
<v Speaker 3>have done the same thing. Well, yeah, bruh, it's a
<v Speaker 3>triple threat. That's what you do. If you don't do that,
<v Speaker 3>you are you should not be in a triple threat,
<v Speaker 3>or you don't understand the rules of a triple threat,
<v Speaker 3>in which case you should not be in ww A.
<v Speaker 3>So these things, I know what they're doing. Again, I'm
<v Speaker 3>breaking this down in many If you're just like, shut up,
<v Speaker 3>it's why you're complaining. Some of these just these these
<v Speaker 3>almost though when you break them down, and I know
<v Speaker 3>I'm not supposed to notice, because I the sin of
<v Speaker 3>noticing is what I really commit the most. Some of
<v Speaker 3>these are just the most asinine comments that are made
<v Speaker 3>by all a lot of stars, not just Beyonca. I'm
<v Speaker 3>picking on her because she said it on SmackDown, but like, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>you should have done the same thing. No, no, no, right,
<v Speaker 3>no crap. So she took an issue with Ripley sneaking
<v Speaker 3>in and so that's good. They're eventually going to get
<v Speaker 3>to Bianca in Rio one on one. That's what I
<v Speaker 3>am looking forward to wing I very much. You know,
<v Speaker 3>have been wanting for years now. Okay, So then we
<v Speaker 3>have Drew mcatire and La Knight for the US Championship.
<v Speaker 3>A shot at the US Championship and this match went
<v Speaker 3>almost ten minutes with Drew McIntyre beating La Knight by
<v Speaker 3>d Q. And the reason is as McIntyre shot solo
<v Speaker 3>and nasty look who's there and shot up and started
<v Speaker 3>his countdown, Damian Priest pulled McIntyre out of the ring
<v Speaker 3>and attacked him to end the match. Priest then chokeslam
<v Speaker 3>McIntyre through the broadcast table. Knight confronted Priest Jacob Fatu
<v Speaker 3>shut up, and then hit them both with a suicide dive.
<v Speaker 3>Fatu ran Priest into the ring post and then ran
<v Speaker 3>Night into the ring steps and Fatu got both men
<v Speaker 3>in the ring, hit them with hip attacks and moon salts.
<v Speaker 3>Fatu stood in the ring and held up US title. Okay,
<v Speaker 3>so a DQ finish here not the worst thing in
<v Speaker 3>the world. Again, you can kind of feel when two
<v Speaker 3>guys or two women are on the same level and
<v Speaker 3>both of them probably shouldn't win. I'm sorry, lose the match.
<v Speaker 3>One of them shouldn't win cleanly. There should be some
<v Speaker 3>tomfoolery going on. I don't hate DQ finishes by default.
<v Speaker 3>I've only come to dislike them because for so long
<v Speaker 3>they were just overused. But I think in this case
<v Speaker 3>it was the right call because Night is a guy
<v Speaker 3>that the fans love. Your McIntyre is a guy they're
<v Speaker 3>trying to move up the ladder, and either man taking
<v Speaker 3>a defeat here cleanly wouldn't have been I think a
<v Speaker 3>good a good time for that to happen. So DQ
<v Speaker 3>finished was the right move. And having Damian Priest come
<v Speaker 3>out and attack mctyre again, guys, don't forget it's called
<v Speaker 3>backlash for a reason. It's essentially the WrestleMania leftovers, and
<v Speaker 3>there's nothing wrong with that. You know, a lot of
<v Speaker 3>times you have WrestleMania matches he'd love to see again.
<v Speaker 3>And it looks like, based on the the results of SmackDown,
<v Speaker 3>mctyre and Priests are going to have another match at Backlash.
<v Speaker 3>Don't know what it is. It could be a cage match.
<v Speaker 3>They've already done a street fight, so I don't know
<v Speaker 3>what this NIS presumed match at Backlash looks like, but
<v Speaker 3>it's going to be more violent and it could be
<v Speaker 3>for how about this that First Blood match? I mean,
<v Speaker 3>they're not shy doing blood anymore, which is really awesome.
<v Speaker 3>My guess is first Blood because I don't know where
<v Speaker 3>they go. They can't have I mean, a cage match,
<v Speaker 3>to me is actually stepped down because I mean, cage
<v Speaker 3>matches a lot of times are less violent and they
<v Speaker 3>don't keep anybody out, and your your objective or your
<v Speaker 3>your your path to victory is running out of the
<v Speaker 3>cage like a coward. That's how you win. It's just
<v Speaker 3>it's stupid. So until they take those rules away, then
<v Speaker 3>I just I have no interest in cage matches as
<v Speaker 3>they're currently presented. But to me, first Blood makes sense.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, I guess you hell in a cell is
<v Speaker 3>a little bit overboard, but I think that's what I'm
<v Speaker 3>gonna go with first Blood, all right. Then we had
<v Speaker 3>our Truth catching up with John Cena backstage in the
<v Speaker 3>Parking garage and he told him he's his hero from
<v Speaker 3>the beginning. Truth told Sena to call him if he
<v Speaker 3>ever needed him, and Sena walked away. Jimmy USO showed
<v Speaker 3>up and asked Sena when seen it became so whack,
<v Speaker 3>and Truth said there are two sides to every story,
<v Speaker 3>and there's more comedy from from Truth. And then we
<v Speaker 3>had next week Alistair Black versus the miss announced for
<v Speaker 3>next week into Moyne, Iowa. And then we get the
<v Speaker 3>Street Profits versus the MotorCity Machine Guns versus DIY and
<v Speaker 3>at TLC match for the WWE Tag team titles. This
<v Speaker 3>match went twenty two minutes and thirty seconds long, main
<v Speaker 3>event by today's standards. I thought the match was well done.
<v Speaker 3>It seems like the attitude, the new attitudes are kind
<v Speaker 3>of aura around the Street Profits is much needed. I
<v Speaker 3>still think they don't really have a personality per se.
<v Speaker 3>It's been very subtle over the years of them transitioning
<v Speaker 3>from this really to me anxious team that was all
<v Speaker 3>about solo cups and all about the smoke or whatever,
<v Speaker 3>and I don't know it took for them to transit
<v Speaker 3>a transition out of that, and then they went with
<v Speaker 3>Bobby Lashley in turn heel. But then they we're back babyface,
<v Speaker 3>and then they fell off the face of the earth
<v Speaker 3>and then they kind of come back and here they
<v Speaker 3>are as champions, and hey, I really there's a lot
<v Speaker 3>of talent in this team. There's a lot of talent,
<v Speaker 3>a lot of chemistry, a lot of years. They've got
<v Speaker 3>a great body of work here the street profits, winning
<v Speaker 3>here and winning the tag team titles was I think
<v Speaker 3>the right move. And again you saw the MotorCity machine
<v Speaker 3>Guns have some great spots, diy. You know what they
<v Speaker 3>can do and what they're capable of, some really just
<v Speaker 3>spots that made you. I mean, I think this was
<v Speaker 3>in a lot of ways a pl worthy main event.
<v Speaker 3>The finish for those at home that didn't see it
<v Speaker 3>are or was Gargano pulling forward down he got him
<v Speaker 3>in between the rungs of the ladder. Gargano climbed the ladder,
<v Speaker 3>got his hands on the belts, but Saban climbed the
<v Speaker 3>other side. Ford recovered, climbed up the middle of the ladder,
<v Speaker 3>knocked both opponents down and then remove the belts to win. Now,
<v Speaker 3>there was some kind of weird moments where people forget
<v Speaker 3>how to climb these uber you know, all world athletes
<v Speaker 3>suddenly can't put one foot in front of the other
<v Speaker 3>when it counts. They just the steps of a ladder,
<v Speaker 3>The wrongs of a ladder just perplex them. Every step
<v Speaker 3>is like solving a Rubik's cube. They just don't They
<v Speaker 3>look at it and go huh. They just go hold
<v Speaker 3>on and you can see like the math equation bubbles
<v Speaker 3>above their heads, like of how to proceed. They're not sure.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know. I mean again, I'm only crapping on
<v Speaker 3>that part of the presentation because that's something that happens
<v Speaker 3>all the time. But without that, again, how are you
<v Speaker 3>supposed to present a really good ladder match. It's I
<v Speaker 3>understand why it's done. I just I just had to
<v Speaker 3>poke fun at it. But other than that, hey, I've
<v Speaker 3>really enjoyed this match, really enjoyed it. Hell of an
<v Speaker 3>effort by all parties and the three profits win really
<v Speaker 3>really good. You know a lot of people have been saying,
<v Speaker 3>why the hell wasn't this at WrestleMania. Good question, good question.
<v Speaker 3>Just I mean it was PELI worthy. Dare I say
<v Speaker 3>WrestleMania worthy. I would agree with that sentiment. So I
<v Speaker 3>think they made the case. They made the case to
<v Speaker 3>put it at WrestleMania maybe next year, and keep Travis
<v Speaker 3>Scott out. Maybe maybe Travis Scott if he, you know,
<v Speaker 3>if he allows us to, we can bump his match
<v Speaker 3>next year and put in at tag team title match.
<v Speaker 3>But we'll see. So that was SmackDown this past week.
<v Speaker 3>Next week, by the way, Amanda's going to be returning.
<v Speaker 3>Thank you to Ryan Sprague who did an excellent job
<v Speaker 3>for the last few weeks covering from Amanda. But she'll
<v Speaker 3>be back next week from holiday and she will be
<v Speaker 3>covering SmackDown. But let's talk a little bit about Monday
<v Speaker 3>Night Raw, as it was the raw Aftermania, biggest one
<v Speaker 3>of the year. And let's see John Cena came out,
<v Speaker 3>we saw that whole thing. We are sorry chant broke
<v Speaker 3>out from the fans and Sina didn't accept it. And
<v Speaker 3>the great part, I like this line from Sena where
<v Speaker 3>he said, you say I can't wrestle, I don't have to,
<v Speaker 3>and he talked about the countdown of dates that he
<v Speaker 3>has left. He had thirty six dates. He's down to
<v Speaker 3>twenty seven. Now down to twenty six, and all he said,
<v Speaker 3>all I have to do is show up and do this.
<v Speaker 3>When that hit zero, the professional wrestling timeline stops cold,
<v Speaker 3>and he continued to talk about the fans or puppets.
<v Speaker 3>There's no one at WWE with his strength and speed
<v Speaker 3>and wisdom or ruthless aggression. Randy Ordon entered the ring
<v Speaker 3>Bam RKO and we know what we got on SmackDown
<v Speaker 3>this week with Orton's promo against Sena with another RKO,
<v Speaker 3>so let's see. We then had the Becky Lynch Lyra
<v Speaker 3>Valkyria versus Live Morgan and Markel Rodriguez matchup for the
<v Speaker 3>women's tag titles. And this match, I thought, let's see
<v Speaker 3>how long did it go? That was a twelve minute match,
<v Speaker 3>And of course no one's really remembering the fact that
<v Speaker 3>they dropped the belts to Live in Raquel and they're
<v Speaker 3>champions once again. It's all about the turn. So Becky
<v Speaker 3>Lynch had a twenty four hour babyface run, turns on
<v Speaker 3>Lyra and really just beats her down and leaves. Now
<v Speaker 3>they're making a big deal about tomorrow night in I
<v Speaker 3>don't know what city they are, I have to look,
<v Speaker 3>but wherever they are, for all, they're making a big deal.
<v Speaker 3>It's being promoted heavily. Is like the main thing tomorrow
<v Speaker 3>night that Becky Lynch is going to explain her actions.
<v Speaker 3>She's going to explain why she did what she did
<v Speaker 3>right the old Why Becky Why? And I'm very interested
<v Speaker 3>to hear this because they must have something somewhat significant
<v Speaker 3>here if they're really promoting the hell out of this.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, sure it's going to be Lyra versus Becky,
<v Speaker 3>probably for her intercontinental title, and it should be and
<v Speaker 3>Becky could very well win at Backlash again presumed match,
<v Speaker 3>but I don't see any other path. So there's that.
<v Speaker 3>But they're heavily promoting it, so I mean, that's not
<v Speaker 3>a bad thing. You just think that if you know,
<v Speaker 3>when they're promoting it this much, there's got to be
<v Speaker 3>something even bigger. I don't know if that's the case, though.
<v Speaker 3>It's just we have one of the biggest stars in
<v Speaker 3>the company and on the female side, going to explain
<v Speaker 3>her actions for turning. And what I'm also interested in is,
<v Speaker 3>you know, what exactly is she going to change about
<v Speaker 3>this heel run versus her last one, because her last
<v Speaker 3>one honestly was kind of underwhelming. Fans didn't buy in.
<v Speaker 3>They did not buy in because some people just aren't
<v Speaker 3>cut out to be bad guys, just in gals. They're
<v Speaker 3>just not ask stone cold, right, uh, even ask John Seena.
<v Speaker 3>To some degree, it still feels weird. I mean, I
<v Speaker 3>went over this before and I'm not trying to rehash it,
<v Speaker 3>but it's a it's a perfect example. Thus far still
<v Speaker 3>feels kind of weird. I don't know if it's because
<v Speaker 3>he didn't change his attire or if his entire attack
<v Speaker 3>is about the fans. His entire attack is about the fans,
<v Speaker 3>and obviously the glaring hole as to why he sold
<v Speaker 3>his soul. I mean that doesn't help either. So maybe
<v Speaker 3>if those things are resolved, I'll feel a little bit different.
<v Speaker 3>But so far, I would I would. I would rate
<v Speaker 3>John Cena's He'll Run a little oddly underwhelming. Thus far,
<v Speaker 3>I still one hundred percent support it, but it feels undwhelming.
<v Speaker 3>And hopefully for Becky Lynch this go around, she has
<v Speaker 3>a different strategy. I don't know if it's new music,
<v Speaker 3>probably a new I mean, she tried different hairstyles when
<v Speaker 3>she was a heel to fans just never really took
<v Speaker 3>to it, so perhaps she has some new tricks up
<v Speaker 3>her sleeve to get us to hate her. All right,
<v Speaker 3>what else happened on RAW? We had let's see here
<v Speaker 3>just so much. We had Russev make an appearance or
<v Speaker 3>a return rather, and he is essentially I think he's
<v Speaker 3>a heel. I mean he attacked Otis and Tazawa, so
<v Speaker 3>Russev I think is a heel, even though the crowd
<v Speaker 3>cheered him. We'll have to see what that follow up
<v Speaker 3>is tonight tomorrow night, so I don't know if Russev
<v Speaker 3>days back, but crowd was into it. We then had
<v Speaker 3>to EO Sky come out. She stood in the ring
<v Speaker 3>and thanked everybody you deserve it. Chance that's when Stephanie
<v Speaker 3>Vakour comes out. Good reaction and she stood ring with
<v Speaker 3>Sky and the crowd was into it, and Stephanie congratulated
<v Speaker 3>EO and introduced herself as the NXT Women's Champion, who
<v Speaker 3>also she also was the NXT Women's North American Champion.
<v Speaker 3>I believe if I caught that right, for the only
<v Speaker 3>time anybody any woman has held both titles at the
<v Speaker 3>same time. So that's when Stephanie. Veacorr said, Hey, I
<v Speaker 3>want to challenge the best of the best, and that's
<v Speaker 3>when Leo accepted. We get an excellent match here, excellent
<v Speaker 3>match between EO and EO and Stephanie. But like the
<v Speaker 3>Drew mac entire match I mentioned on SmackDown with La Knight,
<v Speaker 3>he kind of knew that this is gonna be a
<v Speaker 3>bit of a schmast finish because both women need the victory.
<v Speaker 3>Eo Sky is coming off of a hell of a
<v Speaker 3>main event, in my mind, one of the main events
<v Speaker 3>of WRESTLEMANNI. Even though it wasn't officially won, it was
<v Speaker 3>an incredible opening match, and Stephanie just got introduced. You
<v Speaker 3>know you're not gonna have her lose. So this match
<v Speaker 3>ended in fourteen minutes with a no contest because we
<v Speaker 3>had Roxanne Perez spoil the match. Ria Ripley comes out
<v Speaker 3>and cleared Perez from the ring, and so you have
<v Speaker 3>a lot of fun future matchups. That's what this was.
<v Speaker 3>There's a lot of Hey, look at this, this potential
<v Speaker 3>matchup with her, Stephanie and Ria. You have Roxanne and Ria. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>you have EO and Stephanie again. You have rox Sanne
<v Speaker 3>and EO again. Like there's a lot there, so that
<v Speaker 3>that's really what that was set up for. It is,
<v Speaker 3>it was just it was a great segment. So Jay
<v Speaker 3>USA comes out just to basically, you know, I guess
<v Speaker 3>metaphorically have a makeout with all the all the fans
<v Speaker 3>in attendance. Just everybody line up and you know, you
<v Speaker 3>get five seconds to kiss jay Us. So that's essentially
<v Speaker 3>what this was. And that's what happened here, no turn
<v Speaker 3>because Sammy's ain came out and I know everyone else
<v Speaker 3>was thinking it. You know, Sammy was there to just
<v Speaker 3>congratulate Ja, you know, and just say, you know, I
<v Speaker 3>almost wasn't here, but how could I not. You're my oose,
<v Speaker 3>you're my brother, blah blah blah, And he congratulated him
<v Speaker 3>sam with Jimmy, and I go, who's turning here? You're
<v Speaker 3>waiting for it? Especially the look that Sammy was giving
<v Speaker 3>Jay when he was on the top rope or in
<v Speaker 3>the middle rope and Samuy was just standing in the
<v Speaker 3>middle of the ring. I'd go, oh, crap, holuva. Nope,
<v Speaker 3>at least not yet, not yet. We'll see if that changes.
<v Speaker 3>So we then had what else my gosh Gunther attack
<v Speaker 3>Cole and Pat McAfee Cole, or rather McAfee came to
<v Speaker 3>the aid of Coal, then he got attacked and Cole
<v Speaker 3>went back to announcing, but that took Pat McAfee out
<v Speaker 3>of the show for the rest of the night, which
<v Speaker 3>was already like three quarters the way through. Anyway, and
<v Speaker 3>from the storyline perspective, Gunther has been suspended in death
<v Speaker 3>definitely and find an undisclosed amount. So I don't know
<v Speaker 3>one we'll see Gunther again. Perhaps it's after It probably
<v Speaker 3>is after Backlash, but that's also a good thing too.
<v Speaker 3>He had a devastating loss at WrestleMania, almost at Summer Slim.
<v Speaker 3>He had a devastating loss at WrestleMania, because that's a
<v Speaker 3>guy that should never ever tap out ever, and if
<v Speaker 3>he does, it is deep into his career, really deep,
<v Speaker 3>like towards the end when you're trying to anoint somebody else.
<v Speaker 3>Gunther should not tap out, much less how quickly he did.
<v Speaker 3>I thought it was a terrible way to open WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 3>Not that the match was bad. The match was okay
<v Speaker 3>with Jay to open the WrestleMania Night One. You kind
<v Speaker 3>of knew Jay was gonna win anyway, But the way
<v Speaker 3>and how quick Gunther tapped was just criminal. Like I
<v Speaker 3>mentioned it with the WrestleMania Night one review, somebody needs
<v Speaker 3>to go to prison for that decision. I don't care
<v Speaker 3>if your running the long on time. Oh we got
<v Speaker 3>to wrap this one up. Go go home, go home,
<v Speaker 3>go home. You know, f you we can at least
<v Speaker 3>wait fifteen seconds to make it look like Gunther's struggling. Now,
<v Speaker 3>I disagree in principle that Gunther should have even tapped
<v Speaker 3>out at all, Like that wouldn't have been a thing.
<v Speaker 3>But if if I had no choice, what you do
<v Speaker 3>is you have gun through at least look like he's
<v Speaker 3>effing struggling, and instead he's like, oh, okay, I'm going
<v Speaker 3>out by now. Okay, taped up? Tap?
<v Speaker 1>What this is?
<v Speaker 3>Gunther? So I thought that was horrible. So Gunther taking
<v Speaker 3>time here, good move. Just like Cody taking some time.
<v Speaker 3>Good move. If you're trying to keep everybody in their place,
<v Speaker 3>you're trying not to have the fans turn on Cody.
<v Speaker 3>Good move, because that was starting to happen. If they're
<v Speaker 3>worried about it. Time off, we'll heal all things. Time away,
<v Speaker 3>time in general heals all things, and hopefully in Gunther's case,
<v Speaker 3>not that they're trying to turn her babyface, but they're
<v Speaker 3>trying to maintain his worth, you know, his uh, his
<v Speaker 3>his aura. Then you gotta you gotta keep him away
<v Speaker 3>right now Dominic and Finn Balor or I'm sorry Dominic
<v Speaker 3>with Finn Carlito took on Penta for the Icy title,
<v Speaker 3>Dominic turning baby face. Here he beats Penta. No turn
<v Speaker 3>yet from Finn, so that hasn't happened yet. And that's
<v Speaker 3>when Seth Rollins comes out and we all know the
<v Speaker 3>end of raw right with Roman coming out and spearing Seth.
<v Speaker 3>We all know that, you know, you knew that there
<v Speaker 3>had to be something up the sleeve of this is
<v Speaker 3>the main event, and Punk gets his ass kicked. Roman
<v Speaker 3>gets his ass kicked because of bron Breaker, who comes
<v Speaker 3>to the aid of Seth and Paul Hayman standing at
<v Speaker 3>the you know, in the middle of those two men.
<v Speaker 3>A great that that's a raw after Mania, that's a
<v Speaker 3>raw reminding you're introducing new NXD stars, teasing potential future matchups.
<v Speaker 3>You have great action, massive storyline progression for Backlash, star
<v Speaker 3>Power with Randy Orton with John Cena setting up the
<v Speaker 3>main event for the Backlash. You also have notable absences,
<v Speaker 3>which again is fine. You have championship celebrations with Jay Uso.
<v Speaker 3>If you're you know, in that camp of loving on Jay,
<v Speaker 3>then you had your night. It was a great pacing
<v Speaker 3>and great show to RAW. I thought it was a
<v Speaker 3>really good Raw for WrestleMania. Did it take the bad
<v Speaker 3>taste out of my mouth from the Night two main event?
<v Speaker 3>It made me stop thinking about it for a minute,
<v Speaker 3>but it didn't give me the forgiveness in my heart
<v Speaker 3>for WWE. It just put my attention elsewhere, which is really,
<v Speaker 3>I think all they could ask for, because they I'm
<v Speaker 3>sure they deeply are concerned about my opinions, very concerned.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sure they are sweating bullets, so what I'm gonna say,
<v Speaker 3>but they, at least for a night, took the fans'
<v Speaker 3>minds off of the debacle of Night two. So there
<v Speaker 3>is that. But thank you everybody for joining me here.
<v Speaker 3>I hope you enjoyed it on this Sunday nights tomorrow
<v Speaker 3>obviously big night for Monday Night Raw. Not much time
<v Speaker 3>left till Backlash, so right from WrestleMania in a backlash
<v Speaker 3>and then Summer Slam on the horizon believe it or
<v Speaker 3>not in just a few months, so thank you everybody
<v Speaker 3>for joining me. You can head on over to Patreon
<v Speaker 3>if you want to go add free at Patreon dot
<v Speaker 3>com slash WWE podcast. If you want to listen to
<v Speaker 3>me on Spotify, I'm there. If you want to listen
<v Speaker 3>to me on Apple Podcast, I'm also there. Both of them.
<v Speaker 3>You can also listen ad free, so check it out.
<v Speaker 3>I'll be back the hell Tuesday, yes Tuesday, for your
<v Speaker 3>raw review, and then the rest of the week is
<v Speaker 3>the normal schedule. So thanks everybody's always take care. I'll
<v Speaker 3>talk next time time.
<v Speaker 4>Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to
<v Speaker 4>subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss
<v Speaker 4>a show, or head to wwepodcast dot com. And for
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<v Speaker 3>Until then, we'll see you next time.