WrestleMania 42: Night Two Reaction w/Brock Lesnar Retiring, DanHausen, Rhea & Roman Win Titles

<v Speaker 1>Another WrestleMania has come and gone, and I think we
<v Speaker 1>have more positive things to say tonight than we did
<v Speaker 1>last night. There's no question that Night two wiped the
<v Speaker 1>floor with Night one. Not everything was good, not everything,
<v Speaker 1>not by a long shot, but it was a vast
<v Speaker 1>improvement from Night one. The commercials will still a problem.
<v Speaker 1>They'll continue to be a problem on ESPN. It's an
<v Speaker 1>embarrassment of how disrespectful that the commercials actually are in
<v Speaker 1>comparison to the amount of wrestling in the ring. It
<v Speaker 1>shouldn't even be fifty percent of the time. And last
<v Speaker 1>night and this tonight it was almost on par with
<v Speaker 1>the amount of wrestling we got. Although the main event
<v Speaker 1>did go thirty four minutes, which was deserving of all
<v Speaker 1>thirty four I could have watched sixty four minutes. We'll
<v Speaker 1>get to that in a moment. But tonight was as
<v Speaker 1>improvement and there were moments, not just in the main event,
<v Speaker 1>although mostly in the main event, that I felt that
<v Speaker 1>this was WrestleMania, and you get those moments that you
<v Speaker 1>remember why you love this, why you watch, why you
<v Speaker 1>invest your time. We got those moments tonight. That's what
<v Speaker 1>you look for, that's what you look for. In Ples,
<v Speaker 1>but particularly WrestleMania. It's your Christmas as a wrestling fan,
<v Speaker 1>and yesterday we had a big bunch of disappointing gifts.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's akin to opening a gift on Christmas as
<v Speaker 1>a kid and you think it's going to be a
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo sixty four and you get, you know, a new
<v Speaker 1>shirt from Grandma, you know, a new pair of socks.
<v Speaker 1>So tonight we got what we asked for. I think now,
<v Speaker 1>were there any big returns, any major returns? No, no,
<v Speaker 1>but that's okay. We didn't get the Rock, we didn't
<v Speaker 1>get Vince McMahon, we didn't get Austin, but that's okay.
<v Speaker 1>Tonight you also got the feeling that it was about
<v Speaker 1>the future. You got a lot of decisions and outcomes
<v Speaker 1>that would point towards the future of wrestling, and it
<v Speaker 1>was well booked, generally well executed. The women's match surprised
<v Speaker 1>the hell out of me, and I've got really nothing
<v Speaker 1>bad to say about that, other than Rie Ripley's makeup,
<v Speaker 1>which I'm kind of conflicted on. It's just different. I
<v Speaker 1>guess maybe that's the problem I have with it. But
<v Speaker 1>this was a night that provided I think so far
<v Speaker 1>the match of the year, maybe one of the best
<v Speaker 1>main events that I've seen in wrestle Maine in the
<v Speaker 1>last several years. And yes, that even includes Cody Roman
<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania forty that for some reason everyone looks to as
<v Speaker 1>the gold standard nowadays, which it was a good match.
<v Speaker 1>I think it was missing a couple of elements, but
<v Speaker 1>that's on the list. This one might have superseded it
<v Speaker 1>even more than Seth and Roman and Punk Night one
<v Speaker 1>of last year's WrestleMania did and they had a spectacular
<v Speaker 1>night one main event. So it's a lot of good stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Tonight there's again you know me, I'll find things I
<v Speaker 1>don't like and I'll give them to you. And there
<v Speaker 1>were some of that. There was some of that tonight,
<v Speaker 1>And really it's mostly a carryover from the massive complaint
<v Speaker 1>in the complaint, the main complaint I think most of
<v Speaker 1>us had last night, which was the amount of advertisements.
<v Speaker 1>It's unacceptable. It's unacceptable. I don't care if you're a
<v Speaker 1>business that needs to make money, yes, yes you do,
<v Speaker 1>we know that, but now you are negatively impacting the
<v Speaker 1>viewing experience to a distracting degree. You're taking away wrestler
<v Speaker 1>entrances at WrestleMania for ad placement. And if you don't
<v Speaker 1>know what I'm talking about, just look at the Intercontinental
<v Speaker 1>Championship ladder match that took away about half the entrances
<v Speaker 1>and didn't start on ESPN until Ray Mysterio's entrance was shown,
<v Speaker 1>so Russov didn't get an entrance, Dragonly didn't get an entrance.
<v Speaker 1>And I know they're not not major, major stars, but
<v Speaker 1>it's just it's just disrespectful to them. I'm sure they
<v Speaker 1>know what happened, but it's the major complaint tonight, outside
<v Speaker 1>of other things I'll talk about, but the major complaint
<v Speaker 1>is just the advertisements and the incredibly distracting, unnecessarily you know,
<v Speaker 1>the ad placements in the ring, the sponsorships on the
<v Speaker 1>turn and buckle, the overhead camera view for the from
<v Speaker 1>the ring that you know is only there to show
<v Speaker 1>the sponsors.
<v Speaker 2>That's it.
<v Speaker 1>Somebody actually put out and I put it on my
<v Speaker 1>X account. You can follow me at thew podcast on X.
<v Speaker 1>I was tweeting throughout the show. Somebody put out a
<v Speaker 1>meme that was just so clever and hilarious but also
<v Speaker 1>somewhat possible and not too far from reality, which was
<v Speaker 1>Bianca Belle Air when she showed her pregnant belly yesterday
<v Speaker 1>and someone overlaid the Capitol One Bank logo on her
<v Speaker 1>belly as if they had sponsored her belly. It was
<v Speaker 1>fucking hilarious. If you haven't seen the picture, check it out.
<v Speaker 2>I mean you can.
<v Speaker 1>You can look on X on my feed. It's all
<v Speaker 1>over the place. One of the best memes of the weekend.
<v Speaker 1>So just awesome. I may make that my profile picture.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's just great. So yeah, that carryover issue still happened,
<v Speaker 1>but you knew it would. The ad placements and the
<v Speaker 1>ad sponsorship money has been locked in for the weekend,
<v Speaker 1>so you knew that wasn't going to change. But moving forward,
<v Speaker 1>they have to resolve this somehow. I understand that they
<v Speaker 1>are just feverishly obsessed with making money at all costs.
<v Speaker 1>But when you're going to get this kind of press consistently,
<v Speaker 1>it's going to dis incentivize people from buying the app,
<v Speaker 1>which is what you're trying to do. And next year,
<v Speaker 1>WWE is in Saudi Arabia for WrestleMania forty three, So
<v Speaker 1>I don't think WWE is going to be back in
<v Speaker 1>the United States, maybe until WrestleMania forty five. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>who knows what they're doing for WrestleMania forty four. They
<v Speaker 1>might do it in London, that's long overdue, but they
<v Speaker 1>also owe a WrestleMania to New Orleans. So my guess
<v Speaker 1>is it could be New Orleans for forty four and
<v Speaker 1>then London for forty five. Who I mean, that's my
<v Speaker 1>best guess. But you know this is only me speculating.
<v Speaker 1>And next year this was imperative. So last year's WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>forty one left such a bad taste in people's mouths
<v Speaker 1>because of what happened at the end of WrestleMania forty
<v Speaker 1>one with John Cena and Travis Scott. Despite how how
<v Speaker 1>I think well put together, last year's WrestleMania was. The
<v Speaker 1>lasting image was that match and how expensive Vegas is.
<v Speaker 1>People were telling me nine dollars for a bottle of water,
<v Speaker 1>the twenty two dollars for a beer or something something stupid,
<v Speaker 1>And I can't imagine what people are spending at the
<v Speaker 1>the WW superstore, thousands and thousands of dollars that people
<v Speaker 1>just shelled out. And can you imagine being one of
<v Speaker 1>the people that only purchased the ticket for night one,
<v Speaker 1>given what you saw on night two, can you imagine.
<v Speaker 1>I know there's a lot of people that buy ball,
<v Speaker 1>but there's a significant number of people that even if
<v Speaker 1>you took last night's attendance and tonight's attendance, it's a
<v Speaker 1>difference of about that five thousand people. Even if you
<v Speaker 1>just took five thousand, that's still a chunk of people
<v Speaker 1>that did not purchase Night two, that purchased Night one
<v Speaker 1>and are going, God damn it. You know they're they're
<v Speaker 1>they're saying to themselves, Okay, if we're only going to
<v Speaker 1>pick one night, it's got to be night two. And
<v Speaker 1>I would agree, But I just I do not envy
<v Speaker 1>those of you who purchase Night one with the hot
<v Speaker 1>garbage that was produced, that you spend all your time
<v Speaker 1>off of work, managing your lives, flying in hundreds on
<v Speaker 1>the flight, hundreds on the hotel, hundreds on food and
<v Speaker 1>merch and the tickets themselves, and the at the stadium
<v Speaker 1>ancillary expenses, the ubers or whatever you're doing to get
<v Speaker 1>to and from the stadium.
<v Speaker 2>Fuck that.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, some people spend thousands of dollars for nothing.
<v Speaker 1>But all right, anyway, I'm not trying to make anybody
<v Speaker 1>feel bad, it's just WWE. The message I'm trying to
<v Speaker 1>convey is WWE had to deliver tonight. They had to,
<v Speaker 1>and they did. They did I think in a in
<v Speaker 1>a way. That is, if the whole pl was like this,
<v Speaker 1>we'd be saying this is one of the best WrestleManias
<v Speaker 1>in recent years. You know, if last night's was as
<v Speaker 1>good as Tonight's was, the whole narrative would have shifted.
<v Speaker 1>And I think tonight really saved WWE's ass from more
<v Speaker 1>public scrutiny and pressure and criticism, which they're used to
<v Speaker 1>it at this point. But at some point there's gonna be
<v Speaker 1>there's gonna be actual action taken, and I think some
<v Speaker 1>people's jobs likely got saved tonight, but the performances we
<v Speaker 1>saw it was Triple H's job save Who knows. I
<v Speaker 1>think at some point in twenty twenty six, Triple H
<v Speaker 1>is probably gonna get the boot.
<v Speaker 2>That's my guess.
<v Speaker 1>But that's only from what I hear and what I
<v Speaker 1>can sense from all the statements I read from TKO
<v Speaker 1>execs and the general feeling from fans. It's the same
<v Speaker 1>mentality of firing a coach for a team that you
<v Speaker 1>know that sucks, but it's not the coach who's on
<v Speaker 1>the field. They're just the play callers. Even though again,
<v Speaker 1>you could throw anybody in that position and they would
<v Speaker 1>likely have the same outcome. But you got to have
<v Speaker 1>a pound of flesh. You got to make it look
<v Speaker 1>to the public like you're taking action and you're listening.
<v Speaker 1>So a triple H could be that pound of flesh.
<v Speaker 1>Not that he I don't think he'd be fired, but
<v Speaker 1>he could be moved to a different position in the company.
<v Speaker 1>That's it's just a prognostication here for twenty twenty six.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, I think jobs we're saved tonight and we're
<v Speaker 1>going to dive into the details. But before we do,
<v Speaker 1>to welcome you to the show, our biggest show of
<v Speaker 1>the year, WrestleMania Night two review. If you haven't joined
<v Speaker 1>us before, welcome. If you are a longtime listener, thank you.
<v Speaker 1>We are here several times a week, especially this time
<v Speaker 1>of year when it's WrestleMania season, and now tomorrow night
<v Speaker 1>is Monday Night Raw, the Raw after Mania, which I
<v Speaker 1>don't have as high expectations for anymore. I've really calmed
<v Speaker 1>down my expectations for that show because I've been educated
<v Speaker 1>to do so. The last several years have been very
<v Speaker 1>underwhelming when it comes to the raw after mania from
<v Speaker 1>the crowd reaction not being the same to really kind
<v Speaker 1>of a generic raw that was presented to us. And
<v Speaker 1>so I don't have high hopes for tomorrow night. We
<v Speaker 1>could see big returns or we quit could and that'd
<v Speaker 1>be fun. But I'm reducing my expectations of tomorrow night's show.
<v Speaker 1>But that means tomorrow night we are going to have
<v Speaker 1>a review show. Maybe I normally do them Tuesday. We'll
<v Speaker 1>see how I feel. I know, I mean, can imagine
<v Speaker 1>being a streamer and just sitting there for six hours
<v Speaker 1>and over two days, seven hours over two days and
<v Speaker 1>just just doing constant reactions.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work,
<v Speaker 2>all right.
<v Speaker 1>But if you want to go add free Patreon dot com.
<v Speaker 1>Slash WWE podcast is where you go. You can also
<v Speaker 1>join us on Spotify or YouTube, or on TikTok really anywhere,
<v Speaker 1>join us everywhere that we are available. Okay, good god,
<v Speaker 1>let's get into the results here of Night two that
<v Speaker 1>really delivered. I enjoyed the hell out of Night two,
<v Speaker 1>much more invested. It felt like WrestleMania. So let's get
<v Speaker 1>to it. Brock Lesnar Obafemi. This match had a lot
<v Speaker 1>of a lot of people, and I had said it
<v Speaker 1>was a good built. People said it was one of
<v Speaker 1>the best ever. I didn't think that. I think people
<v Speaker 1>were over selling it there. And I was hoping that
<v Speaker 1>this match wasn't going to be a three minutes special
<v Speaker 1>with some kind of lopsided victory. I thought they could
<v Speaker 1>pull out ten, twelve minutes, thirteen minutes, maybe up to fifteen.
<v Speaker 1>I really did think that, and they're certainly capable of it.
<v Speaker 1>But what we got was a five minute Obafemi victory,
<v Speaker 1>and as I actually predicted, Obafemi no sold the F
<v Speaker 1>five and hit his finisher for the victory for the win.
<v Speaker 1>And I will say this, I'm torn on my frustration
<v Speaker 1>about this match. We'll get to brock Lesner's retirement in
<v Speaker 1>a moment. Obafemi was an overwhelming favorite for this match
<v Speaker 1>with good reason. I made the case that brought could win.
<v Speaker 1>You can easily make the case for that, but Obafemi
<v Speaker 1>is the future. Hence the theme for the night. And
<v Speaker 1>the match was paced slow and it should have been.
<v Speaker 2>It was it was.
<v Speaker 1>I enjoyed the pacing of the match for as quick
<v Speaker 1>as it was, I just I want a longer match
<v Speaker 1>from Brock matches. Now we're done with Brock matches apparently,
<v Speaker 1>but I wanted a more complete matchup. And maybe that's
<v Speaker 1>not Brock style. Maybe that's not what it is, and
<v Speaker 1>I've just never accepted it. I don't know, but Oba
<v Speaker 1>Femi winning the way he did. I'm also excited that
<v Speaker 1>they decided to have a finish be a finish in
<v Speaker 1>that brock Lester didn't kick out of Oba's finish. They
<v Speaker 1>protected that. That is huge. They did it on purpose.
<v Speaker 1>They could have easily had brock Lesner kickout and kick
<v Speaker 1>out two three times. But if you're gonna put a
<v Speaker 1>guy over, you also need to put his finish over
<v Speaker 1>as devastating. And now when he hits that finish, you're
<v Speaker 1>gonna look back and say, well, that person's not kicking out.
<v Speaker 1>Brock Lezer didn't kick out, and it reminded you that
<v Speaker 1>a finish should be a one and done. That said too,
<v Speaker 1>if you're gonna have any finishers be kicked out of WrestleMania,
<v Speaker 1>is the time to do it. The problem is over
<v Speaker 1>the other eleven months of the year. WWE has everyone
<v Speaker 1>kick out of everyone's finishes multiple times every show. All
<v Speaker 1>the time, someone someone kicks out of it.
<v Speaker 2>It's just normal. It's just you expect that.
<v Speaker 1>When one finish is hit and it puts a guy
<v Speaker 1>like brock Lezer down, you take notice. So I actually
<v Speaker 1>like that. I just don't like the length you build
<v Speaker 1>this up and it ends up being five minutes. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>am I watching a Goldberg match. The guys are capable
<v Speaker 1>of it. It's not as if you are having Goldberg
<v Speaker 1>in the ring and he's limited and you know you
<v Speaker 1>can only do so many things. Brock Lesner is more
<v Speaker 1>than capable at least ten minutes.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>I just I feel like we got cheated out of
<v Speaker 1>a potentially a much more complete match. But Olba Winz
<v Speaker 1>and brock Lesner sits in the ring and he starts
<v Speaker 1>taking off his boots, throws his gloves down, much like
<v Speaker 1>AJ Styles did, much like Triple H did upon their retirements,
<v Speaker 1>much like The Undertaker did before them, and he ends up.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, brock Lester actually was emotional. He almost looked
<v Speaker 1>like he was crying, And that's what made it more
<v Speaker 1>real for me that, Okay, this could actually be the
<v Speaker 1>retirement of Brock Leser, and I think it was. Could
<v Speaker 1>we have, like way Barrett said, a change of plans,
<v Speaker 1>and when emotions calm down, he decides to actually push
<v Speaker 1>it to Summer Slam, which is what many of us
<v Speaker 1>thought he would do. It could that could happen. But
<v Speaker 1>it looks like this is the end for Brock, which
<v Speaker 1>is sad because I wish we got to see Gunther
<v Speaker 1>and Brock at least one more with Gunther and Brock
<v Speaker 1>and then goodbye, thank you for a great career. And
<v Speaker 1>in my fantasy world, Brock levesner Stone Cold that unfortunately
<v Speaker 1>now is never going to happen ever, which is a
<v Speaker 1>massive bummer. So you know, obviously the crowd sympathetic to Brock.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you Brock, they knew what this meant. Symbolically, Paul
<v Speaker 1>Haman hugs him. Everyone's applauding Brocks, you know, basically saying
<v Speaker 1>goodbye and thank you. It could be a false retirement,
<v Speaker 1>which would be really funny on Brock's part, just trolling
<v Speaker 1>us all that would be hilarious, But I think this
<v Speaker 1>is probably real. So all right, we'll talk more about
<v Speaker 1>Brock Luzler once it becomes official. That likely means he
<v Speaker 1>will be heading up the Hall of Fame class next
<v Speaker 1>year in Saudi.
<v Speaker 2>I hate to say that.
<v Speaker 1>Now we have to look at Saudi Arabia for next
<v Speaker 1>year's WrestleMania, A whole year of thinking about that wonderful
<v Speaker 1>on top of all the others. See, Saudi Arabia is
<v Speaker 1>not just for WrestleMania. We've also got the other wonderful
<v Speaker 1>events throughout the year that are going to be in Saudi.
<v Speaker 1>So it's a lot of Saudi this year. Yeah, I know,
<v Speaker 1>I'm as excited as you. All Right, Then we get
<v Speaker 1>the Interconinental Championship ladder match with Penta, Javan Evans, Draggonly Raymisterior, Russev,
<v Speaker 1>j D McDonough. The match was as advertised, as the
<v Speaker 1>announcer said, a car crash, but everybody had their moment.
<v Speaker 1>Javan Evans with the cut around, Russev was incredible, the
<v Speaker 1>destroyer on top of the ladder. J D McDonough, the
<v Speaker 1>Spanish fly that he hit, incredible moves, dangerous moves. You
<v Speaker 1>knew that was going to be the case. Hopefully everybody's
<v Speaker 1>all right, it seems like they are, and Penta ends
<v Speaker 1>up winning. Penta ends up defeating everybody and he ends
<v Speaker 1>up retaining the Intercontinental Championship, So good for him, good
<v Speaker 1>for good for everybody in that match. And that was
<v Speaker 1>a coming out party for Jion Evans. They've really focused
<v Speaker 1>on his age and how he's twenty one years old,
<v Speaker 1>which is just incredible. I mean, he's got another twenty
<v Speaker 1>five years if he wants to. It was it was
<v Speaker 1>just it was a showcase for him JD. Also being
<v Speaker 1>put over by Michael Cole was fun. Ray Masterio had
<v Speaker 1>his moments and the three loocha doors in the ring
<v Speaker 1>that was fun too. That that kind of nostalgic moment
<v Speaker 1>for Ray And how they mentioned twenty year years ago
<v Speaker 1>he had won the World Championship in a triple threat
<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania, which is just crazy that it was twenty
<v Speaker 1>years ago. How is that twenty years ago that was
<v Speaker 1>in a triple threat I believe with Shawn Michaels and
<v Speaker 1>Triple h after Ray won the Rumble after going an
<v Speaker 1>hour and two minutes in the Rumble.
<v Speaker 2>It just doesn't How is that twenty years ago? Holy shit?
<v Speaker 2>Oh my gosh.
<v Speaker 1>All right, So then Trick Williams and Sammy Zain have
<v Speaker 1>their match for the United States Championship. Sammy got booed
<v Speaker 1>more and more as the night went on. So there
<v Speaker 1>were some fans cheering for him when he came out
<v Speaker 1>and at the beginning of the match, but as the
<v Speaker 1>night war on, people were just hammering Sammy and it
<v Speaker 1>was great. Little Yachty got no reaction. It was just
<v Speaker 1>dead when he came out. But yeah, I mean, no
<v Speaker 1>one really knows who Little Yachty is yet, and they
<v Speaker 1>aren't Even if they do, they aren't there for him.
<v Speaker 1>They're there for Trick Williams and Sammy's aint. So I'm
<v Speaker 1>not going to react a little Yachta. He doesn't have that
<v Speaker 1>much of a rapport with the fans yet. But the
<v Speaker 1>match was really good. I enjoyed the hell out of this.
<v Speaker 1>The brainbuster on top of the apron by Zayne. You know,
<v Speaker 1>you're always I'm always worried about that match or that
<v Speaker 1>that maneuver, because there's just a horrifying result that could
<v Speaker 1>take place, you know, in my mind. But all is well.
<v Speaker 1>Trick hit the book end and he attempted the trick
<v Speaker 1>shot at the champion, then countered it into a blue
<v Speaker 1>thunderbomb Sammy and the crowd was booing just well executed. Here,
<v Speaker 1>Zayne went for the Halluva kick, but Little Yadi prevented
<v Speaker 1>Zayne from attempting it before Trick nailed the trick shot,
<v Speaker 1>and then out of nowhere, Williams landed the trick shot
<v Speaker 1>and pinned Sammy to become the new United States Champion.
<v Speaker 1>So Sammy Zain looks distrawn on the Outsidelliams is your
<v Speaker 1>new United States Champion, and it furthers both stories. It
<v Speaker 1>puts strict Williams on the map. It pushes Sammy down
<v Speaker 1>further down that dark path, that distraught path. Sammy now
<v Speaker 1>can blame the rider dies that he said we're going
<v Speaker 1>to be at WrestleMania and said that none of you
<v Speaker 1>showed up or we were too cheap to purchase tickets
<v Speaker 1>to come see me, and now because of you, I've
<v Speaker 1>lost the championship. I mean, there's a million ways you
<v Speaker 1>could go with this, and it's it's the way he
<v Speaker 1>should go. His heel turn is just so organic, which
<v Speaker 1>means it's going to stick. It's not forced. It's just
<v Speaker 1>the fans. As a fan, I can feel it. And
<v Speaker 1>the reason is we're just tired of your character. We're
<v Speaker 1>tired of it because it's just it's not worth investing
<v Speaker 1>in because you never win the big match. You've also
<v Speaker 1>been the same kind of guy for years upon and now,
<v Speaker 1>and it's time for you to move on and evolve,
<v Speaker 1>and we want to be reminded of how good you
<v Speaker 1>be as a heel. It's just time for a change.
<v Speaker 2>All right.
<v Speaker 1>Then we get the Demon Finn Balor, which they only
<v Speaker 1>referred to him as the Demon. I mean, I guess
<v Speaker 1>they were just told say the demon. Don't say Finn Balor,
<v Speaker 1>but it is Finn Balor, so just say the Demon
<v Speaker 1>finn Balor.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>That was kind of weird. But this matchup ended with
<v Speaker 1>the Demon winning after a coup de gras through the
<v Speaker 1>table on Dom. A kendo stick was used at one point,
<v Speaker 1>and Dominic Mysterio, I mean, he had a fine performance.
<v Speaker 1>This was a match a long time in the making,
<v Speaker 1>several years in the making. The right person won. Dominic Mysterio,
<v Speaker 1>I would think, is.
<v Speaker 2>Probably back on the path to be a babyface.
<v Speaker 1>He's lost a lot of his momentum, I would say, though,
<v Speaker 1>dom has been kind of pushed to the side for
<v Speaker 1>a little bit, and if you bring him back to
<v Speaker 1>the forefront. I think you can easily have the fans
<v Speaker 1>just ride with him here, because we have had many
<v Speaker 1>years of hating on him. And I said this last
<v Speaker 1>year's wressle many when he won the Icy title, that
<v Speaker 1>the fans.
<v Speaker 2>Were with him.
<v Speaker 1>They weren't ready to push him as a baby face.
<v Speaker 1>But the fans said, no, we are, and Ww's like, Nope,
<v Speaker 1>you're not getting it, and they didn't push him as
<v Speaker 1>a face. And now he's kind of in I think
<v Speaker 1>Dominic Baciro is back at the crossroads here. Which way
<v Speaker 1>are we going? So good match? I enjoyed this. Then
<v Speaker 1>we get Ria Ripley and Jade Cargill for the women's championship,
<v Speaker 1>and this surprised me. Now I mentioned earlier that the
<v Speaker 1>makeup of Rhea Ripley surprised me because the makeup was
<v Speaker 1>much lighter than we're used to. Number one, I think
<v Speaker 1>that she looks better natural anyway. I mean, when they
<v Speaker 1>showed her arriving to the arena, I said, wow, she
<v Speaker 1>looks like a she looks like a person. And I
<v Speaker 1>know that the dark makeup is her thing. I personally
<v Speaker 1>find it better that she just doesn't wear it, just
<v Speaker 1>a layer upon layer of heavy dark makeup, so this
<v Speaker 1>was a lighter version of that, albeit a lot of
<v Speaker 1>light version of that. So the red around the eyes
<v Speaker 1>kind of killed it for me though, like the red
<v Speaker 1>eyeliner around her eyes, not a huge fan of that.
<v Speaker 1>But more importantly, the matchup here, Where the fuck has
<v Speaker 1>this Jade Cargill been so for months and months, if
<v Speaker 1>not years, We've been seeing this limited version of Jade.
<v Speaker 1>We've been seeing this limited version of Jade Cargill that
<v Speaker 1>is being hidden in tag team matches, has three minute
<v Speaker 1>singles matches, and then she has this match with Rhea.
<v Speaker 1>Did I miss something? Did everything just come together for
<v Speaker 1>her in one moment?
<v Speaker 2>This was really good for.
<v Speaker 1>Jade, easily easily her best match to date. Jade Cargill,
<v Speaker 1>even though a loss here has arrived. She has finally arrived.
<v Speaker 1>I don't care that she lost. Now she needs to
<v Speaker 1>put the other piece together and show the fans she
<v Speaker 1>can talk. Because I've been harsh on her. You listen
<v Speaker 1>to me, you know that, because I understand, Like, when
<v Speaker 1>you see someone like her, you immediately know she's a star.
<v Speaker 1>Even if you don't know what pro wrestling is. You're like, hmm,
<v Speaker 1>she does something. She does something on TV. I just
<v Speaker 1>don't know what it is. So she looks the part
<v Speaker 1>ten times more than the next person. And I've been
<v Speaker 1>critical of her in ring because it has progressed very slowly,
<v Speaker 1>but finally she's arrived. Now, yes, she has one of
<v Speaker 1>the best that's ever done it with the women in
<v Speaker 1>Rhea Ripley. So that doesn't hurt that that's her opponent.
<v Speaker 1>But Rhea has to do her or Jade has to
<v Speaker 1>do her part. And she did, and the finishing sequence
<v Speaker 1>was as smooth and as perfect as it could have been.
<v Speaker 1>But the riptide and the Jaded being reversed into reverse that,
<v Speaker 1>it's just it was just great, just great. Not too
<v Speaker 1>many kickouts of finishers here, if any. It was a nice,
<v Speaker 1>smooth matchup, just good, really good. So Jade ends up
<v Speaker 1>losing the belt. Tier Ria Ripley again with her muscle loss,
<v Speaker 1>could have been a more formidable force against Jade. Visually.
<v Speaker 1>I know she won, but I'm saying visually it's I
<v Speaker 1>think would have been more more pleasing. But EO comes
<v Speaker 1>out to even the odds after Meechin and Befab get involved,
<v Speaker 1>and Rihea is your new women's champion. Good stuff, just
<v Speaker 1>just a perfectly booked match, excellent night for Jade, kind
<v Speaker 1>of a regular WrestleMania for Rhea. I feel like, and
<v Speaker 1>I don't mean that in a bad way. She's just
<v Speaker 1>seemingly always in a title picture at WrestleMania. A lot
<v Speaker 1>of times she wins it, and here she is again,
<v Speaker 1>and that's fine. This feels different because she didn't spend
<v Speaker 1>the whole year chasing the championships. She took a detour,
<v Speaker 1>much like Charlotte Flair did in the tag team division.
<v Speaker 1>So this victory does feel a little bit more fresh
<v Speaker 1>than it otherwise would have. Okay, and then what was that?
<v Speaker 1>It was the next match, the main event. I feel
<v Speaker 1>like I'm missing something here. Oh, we had John Cena,
<v Speaker 1>by the way open the show. I know that he
<v Speaker 1>opened the show, and then he had a second segment
<v Speaker 1>and he talked about the attendance, which was fifty five thousand,
<v Speaker 1>and then he had to Mizz interrupt him and he
<v Speaker 1>ended up bringing out Dan Housen, which had midgets dressed
<v Speaker 1>like him, and Michael Cole said that, yes, we can
<v Speaker 1>call the midgets. We were told that that's okay because
<v Speaker 1>he knew the internet would hammer him in today's day,
<v Speaker 1>and age for calling people midgets, which is definitionally true.
<v Speaker 1>It's like changing the role of secretary to administrative assistant.
<v Speaker 1>It's the same fucking thing. That's the day and age
<v Speaker 1>we live in. The tasks are the same. It's just
<v Speaker 1>sanitize language to I guess, try to hide typical stereotypes
<v Speaker 1>that come with certain terms like midgets. So that's the
<v Speaker 1>day and age we live in. It was very much
<v Speaker 1>a sign of the times. But it was funny that
<v Speaker 1>he pointed it out because he knew. If he didn't
<v Speaker 1>and he just on his own decided to call these
<v Speaker 1>people midgets again, which is definitionally correct, people would have
<v Speaker 1>just been all over him. So they come out, which
<v Speaker 1>I didn't hate as much as I thought I would,
<v Speaker 1>And Dan Housen got a good reaction, really good reaction.
<v Speaker 1>And he comes out and the Miz starts running everybody down,
<v Speaker 1>and he eventually gets kicked in the nuts by Dan Housen.
<v Speaker 1>The midges get involved as well. John Cena said, you know,
<v Speaker 1>that was hilarious basically, and he seemed to have fun.
<v Speaker 1>John Cena seemed to have fun as his host of
<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania role, So I gotta say it. It was a
<v Speaker 1>fun It was a fun little segment. It worked, It worked.
<v Speaker 1>I've seen worse. I know that many of you are
<v Speaker 1>probably thinking that I'm gonna shit all over this segment again.
<v Speaker 1>It's a let me up moment, as Vince McMahon would
<v Speaker 1>would say, you need that moment after some kind of
<v Speaker 1>serious matchup to take a breath before the main event.
<v Speaker 1>It's a moment just clear your head, take a few
<v Speaker 1>minutes to watch some nonsensical stuff, and you're, you know,
<v Speaker 1>move on. So that was a perfectly placed segment. Execution
<v Speaker 1>was as good as it could be for something like that.
<v Speaker 1>Dan Housen getting eyeballs on him at WrestleMania was good,
<v Speaker 1>very evil, very good, you know or very nice, very evil,
<v Speaker 1>You're cursed all the rest of it. That should sell
<v Speaker 1>him a few more thousand T shirts just by being
<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania. Then we get to the main event, and
<v Speaker 1>the main event, Roman Rains's music, his original music being
<v Speaker 1>used was I like his original music much better. Was good,
<v Speaker 1>really good. Having the drum you know, being played live
<v Speaker 1>was good. Roman looked just in incredible shape. Even Wade
<v Speaker 1>Barrett pointed that out Roman Reigns has at times not
<v Speaker 1>had the abs pop, and he really committed this time
<v Speaker 1>to WrestleMania season and the training, and that more importantly
<v Speaker 1>the diet, which is as an effect more of anything
<v Speaker 1>of body fat content than anything else. He clearly put
<v Speaker 1>in the work. It's insanely difficult to get abs to
<v Speaker 1>that level for him man his size as well. Roman
<v Speaker 1>Reigns committed himself and he might have been in the
<v Speaker 1>best shape of his entire career that I've seen, so
<v Speaker 1>credit to him.
<v Speaker 2>He looked great.
<v Speaker 1>Roman gets in the ring and here comes Cempunk and
<v Speaker 1>they had a little montage video kind of set up,
<v Speaker 1>and he was walking backstage, and they showed him walking
<v Speaker 1>backstage when he was coming through Gorilla and then then
<v Speaker 1>like everybody got quiet and there's no entrance music and
<v Speaker 1>he just walks out. That was an interesting touch. I
<v Speaker 1>didn't hate it because I was paying attention and I
<v Speaker 1>was like, Wow, this is this is different. So they
<v Speaker 1>took a moment to have punks stand on stage with
<v Speaker 1>no entrance music and a camera circled him because I
<v Speaker 1>guess he wanted everyone to see the names that were
<v Speaker 1>written on his jacket and his yes, his stupid dog
<v Speaker 1>on his the front of his jacket And as a
<v Speaker 1>side note before I get to the entrance here, Roman
<v Speaker 1>Reigns did kind of say the thing that I've been
<v Speaker 1>saying here when he was asked in an interview before
<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania about why Punk talks about family and that he
<v Speaker 1>gets so upset when Roman says that he has priorities
<v Speaker 1>with his family and his kids. And Michael Cole said
<v Speaker 1>to Roman, do you think that's because well, Punk doesn't
<v Speaker 1>have the kids in a family, And Roman's like, what
<v Speaker 1>do you think, essentially saying yes without saying it, because
<v Speaker 1>he knows that it's kind of a sensitive subject as
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people are in that position. But he said, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>you're gonna if you create all this wealth, who are
<v Speaker 1>you going to pass it down to. It's exactly right,
<v Speaker 1>It's exactly right. So Punk can't transferred down to his dog.
<v Speaker 1>You can't leave inheritances to dogs anyway. And I get
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people who get pissed at that statement,
<v Speaker 1>but it's just true. It's true. And people don't like
<v Speaker 1>truth sometimes. I don't know either, no, But I'd rather
<v Speaker 1>I'd rather have truth that I don't like than a
<v Speaker 1>lie that I do. And I'm not just saying that
<v Speaker 1>as like some kind of slogan. Anyway, moving on, see
<v Speaker 1>Impunk stands on the entrance way, walks down. His music
<v Speaker 1>finally hits and Michael Cole does explain the names on
<v Speaker 1>his jacket and outside of the dog, he had some
<v Speaker 1>other names, and they were camera operators and other people
<v Speaker 1>that we wouldn't know that we're backstage that recently passed
<v Speaker 1>and one of them, I guess was really close with
<v Speaker 1>Michael Cole, and he said he appreciated that being on
<v Speaker 1>his jacket. So kind of a cool moment. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I have to say, beside my criticism of this stupid
<v Speaker 1>dog on his front jacket Larry, which I won't get into,
<v Speaker 1>that was a nice tribute by Punk. They really was.
<v Speaker 1>I thought that was in good taste. Michael Cole appreciated
<v Speaker 1>it genuinely, so good stuff. Then we get to the
<v Speaker 1>match itself, which again was like thirty four minutes, just
<v Speaker 1>a beautiful thirty four minutes, A master class in a
<v Speaker 1>main event of WrestleMania. Not every match needs the last
<v Speaker 1>thirty four minutes. That's not my point. Even if the
<v Speaker 1>for the WrestleMania Maine event, you can have a WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>main event, fifteen minutes. That's a classic, you know, I
<v Speaker 1>prefer twenty minutes is probably the sweet spot. But they
<v Speaker 1>went thirty four and they fucking killed it. They were
<v Speaker 1>a master class in psychology pausing when they knew when
<v Speaker 1>to pause. The trash talk that you could hear through
<v Speaker 1>the camera mic was a nice touch that I think
<v Speaker 1>was genuine. The physicality was there. They were brutal but safe.
<v Speaker 1>They didn't go one hundred miles an hour. They didn't
<v Speaker 1>do too many stupid moon salts and suicide dives and
<v Speaker 1>all the rest that I have a lot of issues
<v Speaker 1>with today. You notice how they stayed basically on the
<v Speaker 1>ground and only went up when it made sense, like
<v Speaker 1>the you know, the crashing through the announced table and stuff.
<v Speaker 1>But that's seemingly standard for every match nowadays, is the
<v Speaker 1>announced table spot. And you genuinely wondered at times whether
<v Speaker 1>or not somebody was actually injured. I mean Punk being
<v Speaker 1>busted open. The gts looked like it connected genuinely to
<v Speaker 1>Roman reigns. A couple of times, the spears looked vicious.
<v Speaker 1>Cmpunk got a bloody mouth when he was hung upside
<v Speaker 1>down for an inordinate amount of time, hung up on
<v Speaker 1>the ropes and look, yes, there was that spot with
<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns using the steel steps on cmpunk where he
<v Speaker 1>could have been disqualified, and even the announcers pointed it out.
<v Speaker 1>They were saying, hey, that could have caused the disqualification.
<v Speaker 1>The referee obviously giving a lot of leeway. So I
<v Speaker 1>don't know what that was about. I do have to
<v Speaker 1>say I don't know what that was about. It's possible
<v Speaker 1>that Roman just forgot he wasn't in an O DQ match.
<v Speaker 1>I actually think that's a possibility. It's on the board
<v Speaker 1>of bullet pointed possibilities. But it also could just be Hey,
<v Speaker 1>the ref decided no, because this is a WrestleMania main event,
<v Speaker 1>We're not going to have this end to DQ. It
<v Speaker 1>was a little strange of a spot to have happened,
<v Speaker 1>but Punk ended up getting bloodied. He was upside down
<v Speaker 1>for just an amount of time that I was concerned
<v Speaker 1>for him. It looked like he was getting too much
<v Speaker 1>blood to his head. Eventually he got a massive amount
<v Speaker 1>of all around his face, which looked great. The spot
<v Speaker 1>where he collapsed was a great spot for seampunk.
<v Speaker 2>He could have won it there. The low blow.
<v Speaker 1>Was a moment just like Cody. It mirrored Cody in
<v Speaker 1>that you wondered, is this the heel turn?
<v Speaker 2>Here we go?
<v Speaker 1>And it ended up being just being It ended up
<v Speaker 1>being covered by cole By saying he's just doing what
<v Speaker 1>you gotta do here. After Punk blatantly low blowed Roman
<v Speaker 1>reigns behind the referees back gave him a GTS And
<v Speaker 1>that was an awesome, awesome false finish. I mean, because
<v Speaker 1>you're thinking, okay, I mean, yeah, here we go. That
<v Speaker 1>would have been the heel turn, but it wasn't.
<v Speaker 2>That was not it.
<v Speaker 1>And Roman eventually spears Punk at the end where see
<v Speaker 1>them Punk, even after all that, kind of sits back
<v Speaker 1>up and then gets speared again into oblivion. One two three,
<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns is your world heavyweight Champion.
<v Speaker 2>Now.
<v Speaker 1>The only criticism I could have of this matchup, and
<v Speaker 1>even this I don't have any issue with. I'm just
<v Speaker 1>trying to search too many kickouts of finishes. I just
<v Speaker 1>like to stick to my principle. But the kickouts of
<v Speaker 1>the finishes here worked because the crowd was into every
<v Speaker 1>minute of this. This was an A plus five star
<v Speaker 1>main event. This was as close to a perfect of
<v Speaker 1>a main event in terms of pure wrestling and story
<v Speaker 1>and pacing and physicality and bringing you in that you
<v Speaker 1>could you can ask for. It's Is it my favorite
<v Speaker 1>main event of all time? No, no, it doesn't mean
<v Speaker 1>it's my favorite, But I know a five star match
<v Speaker 1>when I see it. The build most of the time
<v Speaker 1>was pretty good. It started off hot, cooled off, ramped
<v Speaker 1>back up, and they delivered the fuck out of this match.
<v Speaker 1>Hats off to both men. Now, Roman Reigns is your champion,
<v Speaker 1>and the crowd was back and forth, OTC singing Roman
<v Speaker 1>Reigns his name, chanting for CM punk. They were back
<v Speaker 1>and forth. Crowd was split right down the middle, as
<v Speaker 1>you'd expect. Crowd was into it though the fight Forever
<v Speaker 1>Chance started, Holy shit Chance. It was just it was
<v Speaker 1>just awesome. It capped off WrestleMania in a way that
<v Speaker 1>will skew how you view this year's WrestleMania, just as
<v Speaker 1>any Night two main event will. And it happens for
<v Speaker 1>the for better or for worse. Last year it was
<v Speaker 1>for worse, and then I think deodorized a lot of
<v Speaker 1>Nights one's issues. But it's impossible to get rid of
<v Speaker 1>the ads. I mean, the ads are a mainstay that
<v Speaker 1>no matter how good your card is was just an
<v Speaker 1>unacceptable distraction. The main event being thirty four minutes was
<v Speaker 1>about half of the total wrestling all of last night.
<v Speaker 1>Just think about that. I'll say it again, the length
<v Speaker 1>of tonight's main event was half of all the matches
<v Speaker 1>in ring wrestling of last night. I didn't say that
<v Speaker 1>as perfect as I could, but you know what I'm saying,
<v Speaker 1>that's a scary stat for Night one, and Night one
<v Speaker 1>was a pretty much a disaster, and we covered that
<v Speaker 1>many times. I have many videos out about that now
<v Speaker 1>and you have a full review that it did yesterday
<v Speaker 1>about Night one. But tonight a lot of those bad feelings.
<v Speaker 1>The concerns about WWE's ability to produce a quality WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>have been put to bed, at least for the time being,
<v Speaker 1>because the biggest issue beyond the ad, it's just an
<v Speaker 1>overarching issue that the ads are representative of, is that
<v Speaker 1>wrestling is not a part of WrestleMania anymore. At least
<v Speaker 1>it's not the focal point anymore. It's about how many
<v Speaker 1>celebrities can we shove in our face, shoving the audience's
<v Speaker 1>face to show, you know, let the general viewing public, no,
<v Speaker 1>we're still hip. We're still cool. See these people.
<v Speaker 2>Still come and watch our product. That's all that is.
<v Speaker 1>And advertisements avel on our face turnbuckle advertisements. Now, the
<v Speaker 1>four minute ad blocks after every match is unacceptable for
<v Speaker 1>a paid service. It's it needs to be dealt with.
<v Speaker 1>It needs to be dealt with. So overall, guys, tonight,
<v Speaker 1>what would I give it? Last night? I said six
<v Speaker 1>point five. I revise it to a four point five,
<v Speaker 1>which I stand by. Tonight, I would give it eight
<v Speaker 1>point five out of ten. The only thing that would
<v Speaker 1>have made it a nine or a ten out of
<v Speaker 1>ten would have been some massive return that we didn't see,
<v Speaker 1>or some set up for a huge angle that we
<v Speaker 1>can't wait to see. That's the only thing that is
<v Speaker 1>pushing me away from making this an eight or nine
<v Speaker 1>or a ten. So I've given an eight and a
<v Speaker 1>half out of ten tonight, and if you average that
<v Speaker 1>with last night, it's a six and a half out
<v Speaker 1>of ten because last night I revised it to a
<v Speaker 1>four point five. Do the math right, six and a
<v Speaker 1>half out of ten for the entire pl Boil BOYA.
<v Speaker 1>If you just bought Night one tickets, I am so sorry.
<v Speaker 1>I'm so sorry you gotta choose better and odds are
<v Speaker 1>night too is usually better. So I hope you guys
<v Speaker 1>enjoyed this. I'll be doing many more video clips over
<v Speaker 1>the next twenty four hours and tweets or posts on
<v Speaker 1>x I guess how you phrase it now, follow me
<v Speaker 1>on X search the WWE podcast, go to TikTok, and again,
<v Speaker 1>Patreon's the big place for everything ad free Patreon dot com,
<v Speaker 1>slash WWE Podcast. That's it for Night two of WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 1>Much more to come in the days ahead. We have
<v Speaker 1>some of our team members covering Night two of WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 1>You'll get their take on it. I'm curious to hear
<v Speaker 1>yours though. Email me mail bag at wwepodcast dot com.
<v Speaker 1>We have a massive mailbag show coming this week with
<v Speaker 1>voicemails and your emails giving me your thoughts on what
<v Speaker 1>happened this weekend. So now WrestleMania is over. Feels like
<v Speaker 1>we just said that about Wrestlmingia forty one. Here we
<v Speaker 1>are WrestleMania forty two and now WrestleMania forty three on
<v Speaker 1>the horizon on the horizon in Saudi Arabia, Do you
<v Speaker 1>guys have any early calls on me?
<v Speaker 2>Events.
<v Speaker 1>Do we dare even venture out a year?
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. It's fun to think about.
<v Speaker 1>If you're coming off of this year's WrestleMania and you
<v Speaker 1>know you need something to look forward to and hang
<v Speaker 1>your hat on WrestleMania every year, you can always fantasy
<v Speaker 1>book till next year. That will do it.
<v Speaker 2>Everybody.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for listening and give us that five star rating.
<v Speaker 2>Or subscribe if you like us.
<v Speaker 1>If you don't, still do it anyway, all right, all right,
<v Speaker 1>we'll be back in a day or so with the
<v Speaker 1>Monday Night Raw review.
<v Speaker 3>Take care, Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't
<v Speaker 3>forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you
<v Speaker 3>don't miss a show, or head to WWE podcast dot
<v Speaker 3>com and for all of these shows add free head
<v Speaker 3>over to Patreon dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then,
<v Speaker 3>we'll see you next time.