Mailbag #266 & A WrestleMania Match That Could Change the Game

<v Speaker 1>Time to get into your emails, your questions, your complaints.
<v Speaker 1>We're going to do all of that in just a minute,
<v Speaker 1>but I want to welcome you to the show first.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for joining me as the newer listeners, Cohn
<v Speaker 1>and those of you who have been listening to me
<v Speaker 1>for a long time. I appreciate your support on this Friday,
<v Speaker 1>March thirteenth, twenty twenty six, as we get into the
<v Speaker 1>real meat of the WrestleMania season, and I have to say,
<v Speaker 1>I wonder how you guys feel. It's perhaps men know
<v Speaker 1>I'm not the most normal person to say the least.
<v Speaker 1>I just feel maybe I'm a little bit off an
<v Speaker 1>askew from the typical fan here. But this year's WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>feels directionless in a way. Even though we have Cody
<v Speaker 1>back in the main event. Even though he lost the Rumble,
<v Speaker 1>he lost the Chamber wwe found a way to put
<v Speaker 1>him back in, which I think the fans are going
<v Speaker 1>to resent. This is a weird WrestleMania. And I feel
<v Speaker 1>like every year I say that it doesn't feel like
<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania season, and this year it's not only that it
<v Speaker 1>doesn't feel like WrestleMania season. And maybe that feeling is
<v Speaker 1>long gone for us, that where we had a normal
<v Speaker 1>anticipation and excitement towards WrestleMania, that aura of WrestleMania has faded,
<v Speaker 1>and it's been faded for a long time. I feel
<v Speaker 1>like I've been saying it doesn't feel like WrestleMania season.
<v Speaker 1>It doesn't feel like WrestleMania season for like ten years,
<v Speaker 1>So I'm not sure exactly where that feeling kind of
<v Speaker 1>just disappeared. But in addition to that normal feeling that
<v Speaker 1>I still somehow expect, it feels directionless, like we're in
<v Speaker 1>a fog of WrestleMania. Like I know it's WrestleMania season. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't feel like it, but we're used to it
<v Speaker 1>not feeling it like WrestleMania season anymore because WrestleMania has
<v Speaker 1>been really redefined as this entertainment team not really about
<v Speaker 1>the wrestling. It's about the other stuff, and the wrestling
<v Speaker 1>is like a sideshow. Maybe that's the reason. But the
<v Speaker 1>direction of the company right now feels really scattered. I
<v Speaker 1>don't know where they're going, And yes, they've had a
<v Speaker 1>lot of injuries, but injuries are part of the game,
<v Speaker 1>and it feels like this is a safe WrestleMania. The
<v Speaker 1>main events are safe, and that's not a bad thing,
<v Speaker 1>but it's doesn't feel aggressive to me. And I don't
<v Speaker 1>know if I'm putting an unfair expectation for them to
<v Speaker 1>take the risks because it's not my company. Easy to
<v Speaker 1>spend other people's money, easy to tell people who own
<v Speaker 1>organizations what to do when it's not your own livelihood
<v Speaker 1>at stake. I totally get that, but this year feels
<v Speaker 1>just maybe compared to the last few, it feels like
<v Speaker 1>I don't I don't know where we're going anymore. Last
<v Speaker 1>second changes, last second major title changes. I'm not a
<v Speaker 1>particular fan of that because I think it does the
<v Speaker 1>current champion a disservice and it essentially sends the message
<v Speaker 1>to fans that we didn't want this person in the
<v Speaker 1>main event. We don't trust them to draw big numbers,
<v Speaker 1>and perhaps they are a bit gun shy because this
<v Speaker 1>is a ticket season that's not going well for them.
<v Speaker 1>They have ticket sales that are underwhelming, to say the least.
<v Speaker 1>From what I understand, this is according to I believe,
<v Speaker 1>and I got this from credit to the Stevie Richards Show.
<v Speaker 1>Shout out to them. I have no connection whatsoever to them,
<v Speaker 1>But I love the work that they do the Stevie
<v Speaker 1>Richards Show, big fan, and I got this from them.
<v Speaker 1>They posted this a couple days ago that WrestleMania has
<v Speaker 1>not even sold forty thousand tickets on either night. That
<v Speaker 1>they're still under their high thirties for both nights. That's
<v Speaker 1>not good. That's well under what they sold last year,
<v Speaker 1>well under it, and they're only selling a few hundred
<v Speaker 1>per day. They are nervous, and they should be because
<v Speaker 1>I think for the first time, the company is realizing, Hey,
<v Speaker 1>we can't just rely on the brand of WrestleMania to
<v Speaker 1>be sold to the fans for them to buy tickets anymore.
<v Speaker 1>The fans aren't gonna look at this anymore and say, oh, okay,
<v Speaker 1>it's WrestleMania. I don't know what the card is, but
<v Speaker 1>I'll spend whatever it takes, especially after the bad taste
<v Speaker 1>in our mouths last year. Ticket prices have never been higher,
<v Speaker 1>just inflation in general. It's in the same place as
<v Speaker 1>last year. And the card doesn't exactly light up your world.
<v Speaker 1>Sure you have Randy Cody, there's problems with that and
<v Speaker 1>of itself, but I'll talk about that later. And you
<v Speaker 1>have Roman and Punk on paper. Nothing wrong with that,
<v Speaker 1>nothing wrong with that. But again you have Cody once
<v Speaker 1>again shoehorned into the main event of WrestleMania. Drew is out.
<v Speaker 1>He's probably gonna work with Jacob Fatu, which is a
<v Speaker 1>damn shame. It's a damn shame. Drew does not deserve that.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, for Jacob fa two, it's a huge match.
<v Speaker 1>For Jacoba two, it's just the inverse biggest match of
<v Speaker 1>his entire career. For Drew, he gets the shaft, he
<v Speaker 1>gets screwed, and I feel for him, and I think
<v Speaker 1>the fans will too, and the fans will, I think,
<v Speaker 1>rally behind Drew McIntyre WrestleMania. On top of that, you
<v Speaker 1>have just a general just mistrust of booking lately with
<v Speaker 1>Triple H, and you have the wrestlers telling us to
<v Speaker 1>just essentially shut up and enjoy the product. And you
<v Speaker 1>have the on top of that, the feeling of and
<v Speaker 1>evidence of TKO trying to squeeze every dollar out of
<v Speaker 1>every fan that they possibly can with their money hungry
<v Speaker 1>vision and strategy that they're not even trying to hide.
<v Speaker 1>You compile all that and it makes sense that WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>tickets are down, and they deserve it. WWE deserves to
<v Speaker 1>get this message loud and clear. You compile all that
<v Speaker 1>shit and you're going to get the result. That should
<v Speaker 1>be lower ticket prices or lower ticket sales. That's what
<v Speaker 1>you deserve. And I hope they turn it around. I'm
<v Speaker 1>not rooting for WWE to go out of business. It
<v Speaker 1>sounds like I am. It sounds like I'm ANTIWE, even
<v Speaker 1>though I have an entire show I've done about wrestling
<v Speaker 1>for twelve years, I don't. I don't hope the company
<v Speaker 1>goes under. I hope they just get the damn message
<v Speaker 1>that we as fans are not going to pay whatever
<v Speaker 1>you tell us that we're going to pay. Screw you.
<v Speaker 1>Screw you. They flawn into our faces at the events
<v Speaker 1>of the gross Gate. They put it on our faces
<v Speaker 1>on TV, telling the crowd, we made more money off
<v Speaker 1>of you than we made it out of any crowd ever,
<v Speaker 1>and the fans are like, yay, all right, I spent
<v Speaker 1>the most money out of any fan ever. People need
<v Speaker 1>to wake up, and I think they're starting to wake up,
<v Speaker 1>and WWE is getting the message, and there I think
<v Speaker 1>there's probably panic a little bit inside WWE now. You
<v Speaker 1>won't see massive empty sections. WWE will if the ticket
<v Speaker 1>prices don't improve. They will find ways and they should
<v Speaker 1>production wise to hide the empty seats. They probably won't
<v Speaker 1>talk about attendance. I wouldn't, especially when you compare it
<v Speaker 1>side by side to last year. That's the other risk
<v Speaker 1>you run. If you don't talk about attendance, then it's
<v Speaker 1>kind of an omission by silence that you did not
<v Speaker 1>do as well as last year. I don't think they'll
<v Speaker 1>have another WrestleMania back to back in the same location.
<v Speaker 1>They've probably learned their lesson on that. So this is
<v Speaker 1>right now somewhat of a disaster for WWE when it
<v Speaker 1>comes to ticket sales for WrestleMania. Now, WrestleMania isn't there
<v Speaker 1>end all be all right. I mean, it's their end
<v Speaker 1>all be all show of the year. But they'll move
<v Speaker 1>past this. It's not like the life of the company
<v Speaker 1>is hinging on WrestleMania being a success. But I think
<v Speaker 1>the WWE is saying, oh boy, what the hell's going
<v Speaker 1>on here? And now, look, if they turn it around.
<v Speaker 1>The only way to turn this around, the only way
<v Speaker 1>to turn this around and get fans to shell out
<v Speaker 1>the money that they're asking for is sure they can
<v Speaker 1>run sales. They can run ticket sales, and they might
<v Speaker 1>continue to do that, especially closer to WrestleMania. But the
<v Speaker 1>way you do it it's not exactly revolutionary. Bring in
<v Speaker 1>massive stars. Now I'm not a fan on principle of
<v Speaker 1>bringing in yesteryear's stars to sell WrestleMania, but in this case,
<v Speaker 1>if they are trying to make sure they sell as
<v Speaker 1>many tickets as possible and they're starting to put themselves
<v Speaker 1>in panic mode, although they'll never admit that publicly, then
<v Speaker 1>you bring in the big stars. Who Stone called Steve
<v Speaker 1>Austin and look, I know he's pushing sixty. He can't
<v Speaker 1>go the way he used to. He did a very
<v Speaker 1>good match with Kevin Owens a couple of years ago
<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania thirty eight was it in Dallas, did very well.
<v Speaker 1>But if you want to sell a ticket and you
<v Speaker 1>don't want to go to Saudi Arabia and wait for that,
<v Speaker 1>which I'll get to in a second, then you bring
<v Speaker 1>in Austin. Who do you have him face?
<v Speaker 2>Hell?
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, you could have him faced brock Lesner.
<v Speaker 1>If you want to go all out you want to
<v Speaker 1>sell tickets, You want a true needle mover where it
<v Speaker 1>gets the fans' attention. You want a match that people
<v Speaker 1>will be discussing immediately and looking at as, oh my god,
<v Speaker 1>I can't believe we're getting this. I want to go
<v Speaker 1>to Vegas. That this is a match that if you
<v Speaker 1>were able to make happen, and it's actually plausible. Brock's
<v Speaker 1>actually active on the roster. He's looking for an opponent.
<v Speaker 1>You have Stone called Steve Austin who said he can
<v Speaker 1>still go. Why the hell not if you want to
<v Speaker 1>match that immediately gets people texting their friends and going
<v Speaker 1>to ticket Master and going, oh my god, maybe I
<v Speaker 1>could make this happen. This is a once in a
<v Speaker 1>lifetime You want to immediately expedite ticket sales and get
<v Speaker 1>thousands more people to consider going and spending the money
<v Speaker 1>to do it. This is the match that could do it,
<v Speaker 1>and it's plausible. Brock is still open Austin. Three point
<v Speaker 1>sixteen day is Monday. It's Monday Night Raw. Guess who's
<v Speaker 1>going to be at Monday Night Raw this week? Rock Lesnar,
<v Speaker 1>Who's looking for his WrestleMania opponent. It's three sixteen day.
<v Speaker 1>The stars are aligning. It sounds insane, although it really shouldn't.
<v Speaker 1>If you're if you're WWE, you're TKO all you need.
<v Speaker 1>The only thing that is stopping this match from happening
<v Speaker 1>is Steve Austin, Steve Williams his real name, right, But
<v Speaker 1>he's the only guy that would say, you know what,
<v Speaker 1>I don't have time. I don't know if I can
<v Speaker 1>perform to the level that I expect of myself. That's
<v Speaker 1>the only only thing that could stop it. It's but
<v Speaker 1>it's right right there for the taking. Yeah, it would
<v Speaker 1>take a lot of zero's on checks for Austin to
<v Speaker 1>come back.
<v Speaker 2>But he would.
<v Speaker 1>If the money's right and he feels good, let's go,
<v Speaker 1>let's freaking do it. But that would shift I think,
<v Speaker 1>not only would that get people to physically decide to
<v Speaker 1>go and make the trick to Vegas and spend the
<v Speaker 1>money that they don't have, which WW doesn't give a
<v Speaker 1>shit about that. I mean, they just want people to go.
<v Speaker 1>Not only would it do that, but it would increase
<v Speaker 1>I think ESPN subscriptions to their overpriced thirty dollars a month.
<v Speaker 1>It might even push me to do it, and I've
<v Speaker 1>been very adamant not to it would I think generally
<v Speaker 1>get people talking more about WrestleMania on social media. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>it's sure as hell would everyone knows whose Stone Cold
<v Speaker 1>Steve Austin is. Everyone everyone knows who brock Lesner is.
<v Speaker 1>Both guys are household names. They aren't these fringe top
<v Speaker 1>guys in wrestling that only really wrestling fans know who
<v Speaker 1>they are, but their household wrestling names. No, Stone Cold
<v Speaker 1>and brock Lesnar transcend wrestling. You'll bring people in that
<v Speaker 1>haven't been talking about wrestling or watching wrestling for a decade,
<v Speaker 1>and maybe they even checked out in the Ruthless Aggression era.
<v Speaker 1>You would bring people back now. The expectation for that
<v Speaker 1>match would be high, but also realistic. I would hope.
<v Speaker 1>But you talk about a game changing, paradigm shifting match.
<v Speaker 1>Stone Cold versus brock Lesner is on the goddamn table.
<v Speaker 1>If they don't at least explore this, they are morons.
<v Speaker 1>You have the stars aligning, Brock searching for an opponent.
<v Speaker 1>It's Austin three p sixteen day, brock is confirmed to
<v Speaker 1>be at Monday Night Raw. It's right there, and it
<v Speaker 1>would shift. I think everything about how people look at WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 2>Now.
<v Speaker 1>Look, you're gonna have people at that match happens, you're
<v Speaker 1>gonna have people still talking about how it's gonna be shitty.
<v Speaker 1>You know, these guys are old. It's not what it
<v Speaker 1>could have been. Look, I don't care, it's not. It
<v Speaker 1>won't be bad. These two men cannot make it bad.
<v Speaker 1>They can't. It's not gonna be a five minute Brett
<v Speaker 1>Hart Steve Austin WrestleMania thirteen Classic. It's gonna be a
<v Speaker 1>twelve to fifteen minute brawl that is slow paced. And
<v Speaker 1>that's fine, and you're gonna have people going wild for this.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, you'll have the naysayers, you always will. Who
<v Speaker 1>cares Screw them. You're gonna get a match that is
<v Speaker 1>a match that should have happened twenty years ago and
<v Speaker 1>actually could have happened. And now we actually know it
<v Speaker 1>was gonna happen twenty two years ago in two thousand
<v Speaker 1>and four, It should have happened even two thousand and three,
<v Speaker 1>it could have happened with Brock Lesners, so twenty three
<v Speaker 1>years ago and we're getting it almost a quarter century
<v Speaker 1>century later. So I'll get off that horse until it
<v Speaker 1>actually happens. But if Brock's opponent is Oba Femi. It's like, okay, fine,
<v Speaker 1>you know brock Lester's on the card, which helps a
<v Speaker 1>little bit, but Brock we already knew Rock was on
<v Speaker 1>the card, right, so the ticket sales are already inclusive
<v Speaker 1>of brock Lessner being on the card. So if it's
<v Speaker 1>Oba Femi, that's not going to do anything. It's just
<v Speaker 1>gonna be like, oh yeah, okay, we kind of figured
<v Speaker 1>it was Oba Femi. No one's gonna move any tickets
<v Speaker 1>or look at this and say, oh, like yeah, well,
<v Speaker 1>oh it's Obafemi. Well let me buy a ticket and
<v Speaker 1>spend money. I don't have no but Stone col Steve Austin,
<v Speaker 1>that's a game changer right there. So I'll stop. I've
<v Speaker 1>spent ten minutes talking about a match that doesn't exist yet.
<v Speaker 1>But if you're looking for all the stars to align, man,
<v Speaker 1>they are right there. My fear is that next year
<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania forty three in Saudi well number one, that
<v Speaker 1>I'd be a little bit fearful. I mean, imagine if
<v Speaker 1>Saudi Arabia was in a WrestleMania this year was in
<v Speaker 1>Saudi Arabia, given what's going on with Iran and everything,
<v Speaker 1>and the Department at Homeland Security telling essentially if you're
<v Speaker 1>if you're a United States citizen in Saudi Arabia, you
<v Speaker 1>might want to get out, h it would not be
<v Speaker 1>a good situation. They are probably counting their blessings that
<v Speaker 1>it's not in Saudi Arabia this year, but it will
<v Speaker 1>be next year, and God knows what the geopolitical scene
<v Speaker 1>will look like at that point. I mean, Saudi Arabia
<v Speaker 1>has we all know as fans, we look at it
<v Speaker 1>and know this. No matter where you are, unless you're
<v Speaker 1>in Saudi Arabia, I have not heard a single fan go,
<v Speaker 1>oh my god, it's great that it's there. Nobody. I
<v Speaker 1>don't care if you're in the United States, in Canada,
<v Speaker 1>in South America, in Europe, Australia. I've heard no one
<v Speaker 1>be excited about this other than TKO, who continues to
<v Speaker 1>just laugh all the way to the bank every time
<v Speaker 1>that they have a show there. So all right, I'll
<v Speaker 1>get off this. It's time to hear from you guys.
<v Speaker 1>But I want to let you know that if you
<v Speaker 1>want to go ad free and you've heard ads throughout
<v Speaker 1>the show already, Patreon, dot com, slash WWE podcast go there.
<v Speaker 1>You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Spotify has an
<v Speaker 1>ad free feed, so check it out. If you look,
<v Speaker 1>listen to the ads and you just go, oh my god,
<v Speaker 1>that's how you get rid of him. Okay, let's talk
<v Speaker 1>to a patron and see what they have to say
<v Speaker 1>we have. Let's see, Oh we got bad fish, he says, Hey, Matt, Hope,
<v Speaker 1>all is well. Long time, no right, But I have
<v Speaker 1>a theory I'd like to share with you and the community.
<v Speaker 1>I think L. A. Knight is joining the vision. Him
<v Speaker 1>driving Hayman in the ambulance is the perfect way in.
<v Speaker 1>He's gotten nowhere, has a baby face. He's been publicly
<v Speaker 1>shunned by Triple H on unreal. I think it's time
<v Speaker 1>they turn him. Heel and have and Hayman is just
<v Speaker 1>the man to talk him into it. What do you
<v Speaker 1>think I mean? Hayman can talk anyone into anything. I
<v Speaker 1>mean he could sell ice to an Eskimo right, the
<v Speaker 1>old saying, But Ella Knight, I don't know. It's not
<v Speaker 1>that he hasn't gone anywhere. He's got the fan support,
<v Speaker 1>and he has been He's had a and maintained a
<v Speaker 1>level of support from fans that you don't see very
<v Speaker 1>often and the fans have been in support of him
<v Speaker 1>and kept about the same level of support despite the
<v Speaker 1>fact that they haven't given him a championship yet, which
<v Speaker 1>is all the evidence you need that he should be
<v Speaker 1>a champion at some point and it should have been
<v Speaker 1>a long time ago. But given that it was Cody
<v Speaker 1>or nothing for a while, or Roman or nothing, right,
<v Speaker 1>and then it was Seth, and then Seth was world
<v Speaker 1>champion for a while, right, Like, it seems like they
<v Speaker 1>can't time it out with elle Knight, and whatever Triple
<v Speaker 1>H's issues are with elle Knight continue to fester. I
<v Speaker 1>don't know, he just doesn't have He has an issue
<v Speaker 1>with him and we don't know why. But I don't
<v Speaker 1>know if turning him heals the answer, because what was
<v Speaker 1>all the support for it would have been for essentially nothing.
<v Speaker 1>I really don't know if the fans are going to
<v Speaker 1>turn on him. I don't know if they'd go with it,
<v Speaker 1>because the fans have just an organic love for him,
<v Speaker 1>and sometimes that organic love can be turned on its
<v Speaker 1>head in a great way and they'll hate him just
<v Speaker 1>as much as they loved him. But we've seen people
<v Speaker 1>that have been beloved try the heel turn and it
<v Speaker 1>just doesn't work, you know, so I don't think right now. Look,
<v Speaker 1>would I be opposed to at least trying. No, But
<v Speaker 1>based on the information I have now, I don't know
<v Speaker 1>if it'd be the best idea. Given how what type
<v Speaker 1>of babyface Ellie Knight is, and then he's never been champion.
<v Speaker 1>I think fans would grown at it and go all right,
<v Speaker 1>I guess we're supposed to hate him now. All that
<v Speaker 1>support for the last few years, what was that all
<v Speaker 1>for a couple of predictable title losses? He never made
<v Speaker 1>it as champion. Like, I mean, I'm not sure it's
<v Speaker 1>worth a try if they don't know what else to
<v Speaker 1>do with him and they're not going to make him
<v Speaker 1>champion in the next twelve months, Like, give it a go,
<v Speaker 1>but I'm a bit concerned that it would not work.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you, buddy. Okay, let's see who else we've got
<v Speaker 1>this is. Let's see we've got I'm not sure who
<v Speaker 1>this is. I actually don't know who this is. I
<v Speaker 1>really don't. But let's see. This is from an emailer.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know who. We have no name it, says
<v Speaker 1>russev Lied about a fan interaction on a podcast. He
<v Speaker 1>claims the fan puts his hands on him, but he
<v Speaker 1>did not. Wrestlers should not be able to lie about fans.
<v Speaker 1>The first link is the lie. Russev claims the fan
<v Speaker 1>put his hands on him at a ww Live event
<v Speaker 1>while doing an interview on a podcast at Shaq Wrestling.
<v Speaker 1>The second video proves otherwise. Maybe you heard about this,
<v Speaker 1>but did you see the alternate angle? Yeah? I saw
<v Speaker 1>your videos, and you're absolutely right. I mean I saw
<v Speaker 1>the lie, I saw the second angle. I don't know
<v Speaker 1>what the purpose of this is, though, Like why would
<v Speaker 1>he lie attention? I mean, I'm not sure Russev. I've
<v Speaker 1>never heard anything bad about Roussev up until this point
<v Speaker 1>about him lying or he has a tendency or a
<v Speaker 1>history of a pattern of lying, nothing like that. So
<v Speaker 1>I'm not sure why he would do this really, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I haven't earn anyone else really make a big stink
<v Speaker 1>about it. But you're right, and it's something to keep
<v Speaker 1>an eye on. So thank you WWE fan. I'm not
<v Speaker 1>sure again who you are, but good good stuff, And
<v Speaker 1>again kind of bookmark that and see if that anything
<v Speaker 1>comes of it. All right, let's see, as of this moment,
<v Speaker 1>we actually don't have any other messages, but we do
<v Speaker 1>have and in lieu of messages, I want to talk
<v Speaker 1>about some other news that's going on because it's worth
<v Speaker 1>talking about. So this is according to Wrestling Inc. Credit
<v Speaker 1>to them, always make sure I do. I really will
<v Speaker 1>never take any any analysis or any news stories without
<v Speaker 1>giving credit. I know there's some other people that do.
<v Speaker 1>It's not and I'm better than those people, but it's
<v Speaker 1>just I think out of respect, I won't do that
<v Speaker 1>because I know the effort it takes to be in
<v Speaker 1>this space, so to speak, of podcasting and news reporting
<v Speaker 1>about wrestling, and it's just kind of the right thing
<v Speaker 1>to do. Even if I am giving free promotion to
<v Speaker 1>other places, I don't care. So this is Wrestling Inc.
<v Speaker 1>And it's backstage news on internal frustration regarding the WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>forty two promotion. So this is according to them. Wrestle
<v Speaker 1>Voltes Radio and Fightful Select reports a WWE's graphics department
<v Speaker 1>has had the most issues, dealing with multiple changes. One
<v Speaker 1>source close to the situation revealed that the promotional direction
<v Speaker 1>for WrestleMania forty two initially began with WWE wanting a
<v Speaker 1>high end, classy vibe to promotional material. This was highlighted
<v Speaker 1>in the earliest posters released for WrestleMania forty two, including
<v Speaker 1>the one that featured Triple H with top stars such
<v Speaker 1>as Roman Reigns, seem Punk, Cody Roads at a poker table,
<v Speaker 1>and another that featured top women stars such as Charlotte
<v Speaker 1>Ripley and Eosky in a lounge area. After that initial push,
<v Speaker 1>WWE their ideas regarding graphics for Wrestleman have changed multiple
<v Speaker 1>times from the original vision, which is I guess no
<v Speaker 1>pun intended. While it's unclear how many changes have been
<v Speaker 1>made overall, a recent poster for the upcoming match between
<v Speaker 1>Punk and Rollman shows the contrast, with the casino theme
<v Speaker 1>no longer being used in favor of a more sleek
<v Speaker 1>look akin to most wrestling promotional posters. Over time, the
<v Speaker 1>number of changes the graphics department has undergone with the
<v Speaker 1>promotional material, as reported, led to many members feeling frustrated. Well,
<v Speaker 1>welcome to WWA. I mean, if you're frustrated with WWE's changes,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I don't know what to say. That's just
<v Speaker 1>kind of how the business is. I mean, that's just
<v Speaker 1>to me, that's just typical frustration you can find in
<v Speaker 1>any organization. Where there's changes and people make a bunch
<v Speaker 1>of effort for things that they don't need to ultimately.
<v Speaker 1>I mean I have that personally going on with my
<v Speaker 1>own work. You know, you spend all this time doing
<v Speaker 1>this or that, and ultimately it's like, oh, yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>guess we didn't need that. It's it's very frustrating, but
<v Speaker 1>I mean so it's just a common complaint. I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>I honestly don't know why this is a news story, honestly,
<v Speaker 1>but whatever, Uh this is according to uh, let's see
<v Speaker 1>Wrestling News Dot co Cody Rhad says, I think Bell
<v Speaker 1>to Bell, you're gonna get one of the better WrestleMania's ever. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>let's let's see if that actually happens. I don't know
<v Speaker 1>about that. I mean, it's possible Bell to Bell. This
<v Speaker 1>is what he said in an interview with Chris van Vliet.
<v Speaker 1>This is that's where that quote came from. He said, quote,
<v Speaker 1>and this place certainly gets all of me, so I
<v Speaker 1>would have been able to dig in. But I think
<v Speaker 1>looking at WrestleMania this year, I said it incorrectly. I
<v Speaker 1>said sleeper Mania, which would imply that people are sleeping
<v Speaker 1>on it. And that's not what I meant. What I
<v Speaker 1>think you're going to get from this year's WrestleMania is
<v Speaker 1>you have two main events with Roman and Punk for
<v Speaker 1>the world title, and myself and Randy and the show
<v Speaker 1>that's filling out with Stephanie and Live and the show
<v Speaker 1>you're seeing kind of come together because these matches are
<v Speaker 1>starting to become obvious what they are. I think Bell
<v Speaker 1>de Bell, you're going to get one of the better
<v Speaker 1>manias ever. Bell de Bell I really like being a
<v Speaker 1>part of the Okay, so this is essentially a nothing burger.
<v Speaker 1>He's towing the company line. And look, if you're in
<v Speaker 1>Cody's position, you kind of have to. He's saying, what's
<v Speaker 1>weird is he said? And he even quoted himself saying
<v Speaker 1>that he said, it's a sleeper mania. He said that
<v Speaker 1>implies that people are sleeping on it. Well, no shit, Cody,
<v Speaker 1>that's what that means. What else could being a sleeper
<v Speaker 1>mania mean. That's exactly what people are doing. And you're
<v Speaker 1>trying to pretend that that's not what sleeper mania means. No,
<v Speaker 1>being a sleeper WrestleMania or a sleeper anything means people
<v Speaker 1>are sleeping on something. They're overlooking it. They're downplaying it,
<v Speaker 1>they're disregarding it, they're underestimating it. Pick your synonym. That's
<v Speaker 1>what that means. So don't try to pretend that that's
<v Speaker 1>not what that means. That's definitionally what that means. And
<v Speaker 1>then he just goes on to say that you know
<v Speaker 1>you're gonna see bell de belle a better word. So
<v Speaker 1>what that essentially let me just put this in Plaine
<v Speaker 1>language instead of this kind of like corporates corporately sanitized
<v Speaker 1>HR sanitized language, which is how Cody Speaks's how a
<v Speaker 1>lot of wrestlers speak today, especially John Cena, who is
<v Speaker 1>just like the He's like a walking HR sanitation department.
<v Speaker 1>He knows how to speak in Hran. It's like he
<v Speaker 1>took and spent five years in a compound where they
<v Speaker 1>taught him how to speak in human relations language. And
<v Speaker 1>that's exactly how John Cena speaks, and to some extent,
<v Speaker 1>in a large extent, Cody wrotes too. So let me
<v Speaker 1>just say it like normal people do. He's saying, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I know that a lot of people aren't looking at
<v Speaker 1>this WrestleMania. They're not excited about it because look, some
<v Speaker 1>of the matches aren't exactly you know, earth shattering. It's
<v Speaker 1>seeing a very safe WrestleMania. It's not like this WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>has a ton of hype. Fans seem kind of down
<v Speaker 1>on it, but don't worry. The wrestling and the ring's
<v Speaker 1>gonna make up for it. That's what that This is
<v Speaker 1>exactly what that means. So if you want it in
<v Speaker 1>just like normal people language and not this sanitized bullshit,
<v Speaker 1>that's what that means. Don't worry. The promotion hasn't been great,
<v Speaker 1>we feel directionless, and people have been kind of down
<v Speaker 1>on this year's WrestleMania. But in the ring, we're gonna
<v Speaker 1>be really good. That's all that means. And maybe he's right,
<v Speaker 1>and I hope he's right because we watch wrestling. To
<v Speaker 1>excuse me, actually watch wrestling and the entertainment value, which
<v Speaker 1>is the wrestling. There's some comedic parts, and Dan Housen,
<v Speaker 1>I've been hey, I can admit when I'm wrong, and
<v Speaker 1>so far backstage he has impressed me. In the ring,
<v Speaker 1>he will see. I'm still not a big fan of
<v Speaker 1>his entrance, but there is an entertainment value there. Totally
<v Speaker 1>get it, I admitted at the time, and I went
<v Speaker 1>on a big rant about how shitty I thought Dan
<v Speaker 1>Housen was and his entrance, and you know, it was
<v Speaker 1>just comedic and a cartoonish and it was at the time, yes,
<v Speaker 1>But I also said it concurrently that I hope I'm wrong.
<v Speaker 1>I want him to succeed and so far, Hey, they
<v Speaker 1>are pushing him out there. Why because he's making the
<v Speaker 1>company hand over fist money with his merch. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>he's the number one T shirt seller right now. Congrats
<v Speaker 1>to him. I wish him nothing but more success because
<v Speaker 1>I want ww to succeed. I want to be very
<v Speaker 1>interested in the product. I want to not be embarrassed
<v Speaker 1>by the product. But Dan Housen is such a unique character,
<v Speaker 1>and if he continues to do well, awesome, I want
<v Speaker 1>him to I really do so. But most people watch
<v Speaker 1>WWE two have great wrestling, great storylines. It's really that simple.
<v Speaker 1>I know that. Again, that's a very Simpleton way to
<v Speaker 1>look at it. I don't give a shit. That's how
<v Speaker 1>it is. That's what we came to wrestling for. That's
<v Speaker 1>what brings us back. That's what brings us back is
<v Speaker 1>just great storytelling and great interring action. It's that simple.
<v Speaker 1>And if Cody's right, and this wrestling WrestleMania. We go
<v Speaker 1>into kind of I mean, like the card's okay, nothing
<v Speaker 1>big earth shattering on it sounds good, sure, but then
<v Speaker 1>we come out of it going, wow, the match is
<v Speaker 1>kicked ass. Then I hope we do. I mean that's that.
<v Speaker 1>I really hope we come out of it. I don't
<v Speaker 1>want a shitty WrestleMania. But right now this is extremely underwhelming.
<v Speaker 1>It doesn't feel like WrestleMania season. It's been a very
<v Speaker 1>just kind of I don't know which way we're going
<v Speaker 1>feeling as I open the show with, so yeah, again,
<v Speaker 1>take that corporately sanitized bs and just turn into a
<v Speaker 1>plane language. Yeah. So there's some other stuff he talked about,
<v Speaker 1>but that's really the the big headline there. And yeah,
<v Speaker 1>we are sleeping on this year's WrestleMania, and perhaps we
<v Speaker 1>are put to sleep by it. Perhaps our fears are
<v Speaker 1>going to be realized. I mean it very well may
<v Speaker 1>be the case. So Seth Rollins also gives a huge update.
<v Speaker 1>This is, according to Wrestling World, a huge update ahead
<v Speaker 1>of WrestleMania forty two. This was published as of this
<v Speaker 1>recording about an hour ago. He let's see here, I'm
<v Speaker 1>looking for the actual meat of it. Rollins did not
<v Speaker 1>receive Although he was indicated or included in WWE shows again,
<v Speaker 1>he did not receive medical clearance to return to compete,
<v Speaker 1>and during his last appearance on Good Morning Football, he
<v Speaker 1>revealed that his current shape. He revealed it without hiding anything.
<v Speaker 1>He said, I can't get into any real physicality. I
<v Speaker 1>got to protect his shoulder from maybe another couple weeks
<v Speaker 1>or so, and then we'll see if we need these
<v Speaker 1>masked men. He also added, I was just hoping nobody
<v Speaker 1>lost a shoe. Hopefully nobody falls over when you're dealing
<v Speaker 1>with a lot of bodies like that and a lot
<v Speaker 1>of moving parts. I was just hoping nobody blew out
<v Speaker 1>an acl that's true. Yeah, these mass man I've been
<v Speaker 1>very critical of them. They're trying to find things for
<v Speaker 1>Seth to do and include him on the road to
<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania with the hope and anticipation that he's going to
<v Speaker 1>be actually active in a match, which is all our
<v Speaker 1>expectation too, and it seems like that should be the case.
<v Speaker 1>Is it going to be Logan, Paul and Seth Rollins
<v Speaker 1>seems probably where they're going, which leaves Austin theory out
<v Speaker 1>in the dust with the original mass Man this year.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, they're keeping him on TV without having him
<v Speaker 1>take any bumps. I have no issue with that. I
<v Speaker 1>don't like the mass Man's story. It has been just
<v Speaker 1>beat to death over and over and over. But the
<v Speaker 1>idea is to bring Seth into the fold with a
<v Speaker 1>match at WrestleMania. But you have to have him on
<v Speaker 1>TV without taking bumps. This is one way to do it.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think it's the best way, but it's one way.
<v Speaker 1>So I just also don't understand why Seth has to
<v Speaker 1>do the masked man thing in play Where's Waldo instead
<v Speaker 1>of just showing up on the show and Adam Pierce
<v Speaker 1>is like, hey, you're not medically cleared, and Seth's just like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I know, I'm not medically cleared, but you're saying I
<v Speaker 1>can't be here, you know. And again that's not as
<v Speaker 1>maybe that's just a very boring way to approach it,
<v Speaker 1>but you could do that instead of this kind of
<v Speaker 1>hokey pokey stuff with him disappearing into the crowd and
<v Speaker 1>you know, trying to be a magician or whatever he's doing.
<v Speaker 1>So I mean, I get it, and he ultimately will
<v Speaker 1>be in a match, and if it's with Logan Paul again,
<v Speaker 1>I feel the same way about Logan Paul that I
<v Speaker 1>kind of do about the rest of the matches, or
<v Speaker 1>as rather seth than Logan that I do about the
<v Speaker 1>rest of them. It's like, okay, safe, gonna be good
<v Speaker 1>to really good. But here's the thing about WrestleMania and
<v Speaker 1>the expectations that come with it. It's not like any
<v Speaker 1>other pl of the year, you know. Like that's why
<v Speaker 1>I think a lot of fans are sleeping on it,
<v Speaker 1>and they have the right and they have a strong
<v Speaker 1>justification to is cool. Yeah, like we're looking at that
<v Speaker 1>going okay, yeah, we've seen these matches before. I mean, yes,
<v Speaker 1>punkin Roman is a bit unique. We've seen these matches,
<v Speaker 1>but we and we know they're going to be good,
<v Speaker 1>really good in the ring, which is again what Cody's
<v Speaker 1>alluding to. But it doesn't have that WrestleMania feel, you know,
<v Speaker 1>like it doesn't have that look of wow, oh man,
<v Speaker 1>I can't wait for that. That's the difference because also
<v Speaker 1>we've seen these before. Punk and Roman again is kind
<v Speaker 1>of the outlier, and it's a big match, and the
<v Speaker 1>promos have been really good, so that I would put
<v Speaker 1>that match and in terms of anticipation above a little
<v Speaker 1>bit above all the others, because I know, look at
<v Speaker 1>a lot of you are probably so well Cody Randy.
<v Speaker 1>I don't like the way that it was done, though.
<v Speaker 1>It was set up because Cody Randy is a match
<v Speaker 1>that we haven't gotten yet. But here's the thing, Cody
<v Speaker 1>Randy should have been set up. In my mind, a
<v Speaker 1>more interesting setup is having one of them turn heel,
<v Speaker 1>and that way you can fully squeeze out the promost,
<v Speaker 1>because otherwise you're gonna have these guys going at each
<v Speaker 1>other in kind of a gentleman's way. You're not gonna
<v Speaker 1>have a heel turn. I don't think before WrestleMania. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>you could do it at WrestleMania, and I've talked about
<v Speaker 1>those possibilities, and all four men involved in the main
<v Speaker 1>events on either both brands do fit the baby face roll.
<v Speaker 1>But the build, to me, could have been much better
<v Speaker 1>and probably would be if we had a heel in
<v Speaker 1>the Cody Roman. I'm sorry the Cody and Randy match,
<v Speaker 1>because then you're able to get really deep and cut
<v Speaker 1>deep in this way if both our baby faces and
<v Speaker 1>you're trying to maintain being a babyface. There's only certain
<v Speaker 1>ways you can present arguments and and and attack verbally
<v Speaker 1>your opponent without having the crowd turn on you. It
<v Speaker 1>really I think hamstrings that build. You're not able to
<v Speaker 1>have them really hit personal attacks. You have to stay
<v Speaker 1>away from that and talk. Yeah, they're going to talk
<v Speaker 1>about legacy and put some cool promo videos together, but
<v Speaker 1>I do believe that you're not getting the full build
<v Speaker 1>that you could given them both are in the babyface role.
<v Speaker 1>That's that's how I look at it. And again, having
<v Speaker 1>Cody also take the belt from Drew right before WrestleMania,
<v Speaker 1>is it really I think does a disservice to Drew
<v Speaker 1>as we all know, and it sours how people feel
<v Speaker 1>about Cody, and it's it's just an overall kind of like,
<v Speaker 1>oh okay, we got Cody Randy, but man, it feels
<v Speaker 1>a little slimy the way they did it. It's got
<v Speaker 1>this dark cloud over of how they did it. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but that's how I feel about Seth and Logan, which
<v Speaker 1>is the most likely is good to great match, but
<v Speaker 1>it just doesn't feel like it's, oh my god, WrestleMania,
<v Speaker 1>like you know, we've been here before. Boy, all right, well,
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna check my box one more time here to
<v Speaker 1>see if I have any other lingering messages. I know
<v Speaker 1>I'm doing this a bit early, which is why I
<v Speaker 1>don't have as many emails. Let's see, I don't think
<v Speaker 1>I do, so I'll end it there, but I'll be
<v Speaker 1>back soon with your weekend review and maybe some other things.
<v Speaker 1>I am going to be moving my platform to a
<v Speaker 1>different provider, Spotify, which means Spotify hosts and allows for
<v Speaker 1>video podcasting, so that is something I'm looking forward to
<v Speaker 1>and perhaps being able to do sooner than later. I'm
<v Speaker 1>trying to migrate from my current platform over to Spotify.
<v Speaker 1>That doesn't really affect how you guys listen to it.
<v Speaker 1>I'm just letting you know that the video portion will
<v Speaker 1>be It's in my sights for Spotify. I'm just having
<v Speaker 1>issues trying to migrate all my stuff over at the moment.
<v Speaker 1>So anyway, just thought i'd share that for whatever the
<v Speaker 1>hell it's worth. If you guys want to follow me
<v Speaker 1>on X follow me Wrestling Underscore Audio, you can also
<v Speaker 1>email us at mailbag at wwepodcast dot com and if
<v Speaker 1>any come through. Any emails come through after I've published this,
<v Speaker 1>you guys know the rule. I will read it on
<v Speaker 1>my weekend review. So whatever my next show is, which
<v Speaker 1>is usually the weekend review, I will read it, and
<v Speaker 1>I'll put the any voicemails I get as well in
<v Speaker 1>the weekend review, because I want to make sure you
<v Speaker 1>guys get a voice and I don't ignore any of
<v Speaker 1>the emails. So there it is. Thank you so much everybody.
<v Speaker 1>We'll be talking in a couple of days and enjoy
<v Speaker 1>the weekend. Take care.
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to
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