This is WWE superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the WWE podcast show,
the one that everybody wants me got sixteen, So your ass, this is
my arm. You're gonna acknowledge me. Alrighty, guys, let's get to
your WWE SmackDown Draft Night Part one review with the Botch Guide. We're gonna
get everything going in just a minute, but first I want to thank you
guys for listening. That's always number one. Number two. Check out the
Botch Guy's channel. I mean, this guy is just he's skyrocketing in in
YouTube. Check him out, really worth your viewing time. Doesn't create very
long videos, so if you have a very short attention span, this is
the YouTube channel for you. If you love wrestling and you don't have a
big attention span, long attention span, this fits in perfectly. And he's
very energetic, great guy, fun to talk to. I can't say enough.
So check him out and he joins us on the show in just a
couple of minutes to discuss everything that happened on SmackDown and of course with the
draft that WWE did at least part one of their draft, which will conclude
on Monday night raw. So again, thank you guys for listening, and
we will be just so you know, the schedule back on Sunday night.
I am moving tomorrow. It is really late. That's actually one in the
morning right now. I have to be up at like six am, so
I'm gonna get a good, like you know, four hours of sleep,
and then of course press on and do all my moving and be back Sunday
night from my new location and give you guys a week in review. So
that'll be on Sunday, and then on Monday or Tuesday will be raw reviewing.
It'sretty much the same schedule the rest of that week, so I don't
anticipate any interruption in service, so to speak. So guys, we're gonna
get to a quick voicemail, we're gonna respond to it, and then we're
going to get into your review for SmackDown. So let's take a listen and
get the show on the road. Hello, Matt, how are you.
This is Chevron from me the Land Today. I want to talk to you
about a little bit about the importance of her brand. I know that the
past few podcasts you said that brand it doesn't matter because everyone is fighting.
Everyone but there were days, especially in the Ruthless Aggression era, that brand
doesn't matter. I remember that how much I loved Makedown in the Ruthless Aggression
era. It was the first home of John Fina. It was a great
place for Christian It was the great place for edge, for the Undertaker,
and I think that there was days that brand meant some film. Now I
think that like all the other things that the WW is doing, there is
no logic in the brand because I just think it's not important enough. Againd
of a feeling that W is thinking on their fans that they are just don't
smart enough for their don't care enough and if they were doing any kind of
changes in then what they are doing so the care the friends won't care about
it. But guess what, WW the fans all care about it, and
the care that there are no differency between the brands and they are care that
Monday Night Row and Friday Nights Makedown became pretty much the same thing, and
it really really makes me not like the current product of WW. Yeah,
that's it. I would like if you will speak a little bit more about
the days when there was a real difference between a Snakedown and ROW and now,
but it just looked the same thing the same program. Fan fee you
later by Hey, Sureeon, Thanks so much for calling back. It's been
a while. I'm glad to hear from you again. It sounds to be
doing well. Yeah, the whole brand split deal, I mean, you're
gonna hear a whole lot about it with the Botch guy and myself in just
a couple of minutes. But I think the fact that WWE not only doesn't
doesn't adhere to their own rules about a brand split, meaning you can't go
just show up on the other person's show. There has to be some rule
that, you know, like quarterly invitational, whatever, of which they didn't
even stick to that. But beyond the fact that people just come and go
as they please, where ww doesn't explain it, or there's a train that
happens that you know, we don't know how it happens or why it happens
or whatever. But beyond that, which is a huge flaw in in and
of itself, is that you have Like you said, both brands feel the
same, they're produced the same, they have the same set. It's just
a flip of color. You go from blue red or red to blue it's
the same exact thing. And don't worry. Like I said, with Survivors
Series coming up next month, all of the stars on both brands will suddenly
have a strong, strong connection with that color that they got drafted to.
Suddenly they will. They will protect it like it's their firstborn child because it's
Survivors Series and we have to we have to fight for our brand. It's
gonna be absolute nonsense, so get ready for that. But yeah, the
shows feel the same. There's no distinction between them other than colors. That's
it. That's it. And yes that the faces changed, but in terms
of production, it's the same show, just a different color. I totally
agree, and it does hurt the whole. Well, I'm drafted to row
or SmackDown. One's not better than the other. Right ones on Fox,
ones on USA, We're in the same building. You just put on a
different color shirt. That's it. I'm with you. So thanks, share
own and I hope you're doing well and please call back soon. Alrighty guys,
Well, before we get going here, follow us on Twitter at Wrestling
Underscore Audio. That's Wrestling Underscore Audio. You can also email the show at
Real WWE Podcast at gmail dot com, and don't forget that you can also
call the show. You can call us and leave a voicemail at five one
eight nine five two zero two four seven that you can leave voicemail if you'd
like to chime in about your thoughts about the draft or anything else going on
in WWE. You have three minutes, So those of you that think you're
going to do a long form audio, the voicemail will cut you off at
three minutes, So try to be concise with your argument, with your rant,
or your question or your comments, just so you don't get caught off.
Alrighty, So check us out also on YouTube at YouTube dot com,
Slash the WWE Podcast Instagram. You guys all know it, so alrighty,
let's just get to it. Let's let's just jumped to the Batch Guy myself
discussing the WWE Draft night one, so I will talk to everyone on Sunday
night already. Guys, you know who this guy is. You've heard him
before or maybe you're new to the show. Either way, you should know
who he is. He is the Batch Guy. He has an awesome YouTube
channel where he talks about various things that happen on raw or SmackDown or NXT
and just makes it really enjoyable to watch and covers different moments in very short
order in an entertaining, energetic way. And it's really good to have you
back to talk about the draft and SmackDown. That just concluded. How you
doing, man, that's a hell of a plog man. I appreciate that
quite quite dearly. Yeah, how's it going, guys? I am the
Batch guy. I do a YouTube channel covering a lot of different topics in
the WWE, but I mostly focus on like comedy and parodies and stuff like
that. So definitely check me out if you want. But it's a pleasure
to be with you, Matt. Always a pleasure doing any sort of spots
with you and talking SmackDown. Tonight's gonna be a hell of a show.
There's a lot to talk about, right like there, there is so much
that happened. It felt like it felt like WWE changed course here. It
felt like they they did some big things. There were certainly a couple of
botches and I guess pun intended with the with the pop up power bomb and
and you know, we can get to that later. But I guess what
do you what are the big takeaways from you. What are the one or
two big things that happened on SmackDown in your eyes? Well, I have
a there's so much to talk about. Let me just get like some of
the higher hype stuff, like the whole breakup with the New Day, our
guests to split up with the New Day. I think that was kind of
interesting how they did it. Of course, Lar Sullivan coming back, I
thought that was completely out of nowhere. You know, some of the matches
I thought were pretty good overall, and some of the storylines were pretty decent
overall too. Honestly, I quite enjoyed the sh overall. And obviously the
big thing everybody wants to talk about is the actual draft. Who's going where,
how it's gonna shake up with everything? What did you think, Matt,
Yeah, yeah, so agreed. I mean, there's a lot that
happened match wise and storyline wise, but the big thing that happened here.
The entire show was built around the draft, and I like the way that
they did it this year. I'm glad they didn't do war rooms and silly
stuff like that where they had Fox executives and USA executives pretending to be super
excited about people they have no idea about. So I was glad to see
no war rooms. It was just Stephanie McMahon coming back and coming out on
the podium, and that's fine with me. And I think the biggest to
me, the biggest news coming out of this maybe Seth Rollins going to SmackDown,
which I have been really advocating for, and I'm loving the fact that
he's on SmackDown And I said to myself, oh my god, he's finally
away from the mysterios. And then who gets drafted to SmackDown Dominic and Ray?
But I think for Seth this will be a really good thing. He
can no longer call himself the money it Messiah, so we'll have to see
what he does. So what do you Because, like when I was watching
the draft, like I like the old school drafts, Like I mean,
like ten years back, when you know you had like the Undertaker sitting in
there with the crowd, you know, and they're all reacting to who's going
his raw and who's going to smack down. I love that because it's just
such natural storytelling, right. It kind of reminds me of you know,
like the football drafts. And then NBA, NHL and all that stuff,
and I quite like that this year was an improvement over last year for sure,
no doubt in my mind. I didn't like the whole executive office stuff.
I was kind of down to earth simple, but again I did like
the old school way. As for seth Rawlins himself, man, I'm so
happy just to see him have a new prominent role over here, because you
know, seth Rowlins's character has has changed so drastically over the years. You
know, he went from the laughing gimmick to everybody hates them gimmick, you
know, and then he was kind of confused gimmick for going on there for
a little while with the whole Becky stuff, and all of a sudden he's
the biggest face and then he turns heel again and it's just like seth Rawlins
the money night Messiah, and it's honestly confusing. But now the fact that
he's going away from the you know, the mysterials, not really because they
got drafted over to SmackDown. Honestly, it's pretty exciting. But at the
same time, I will say, I guess you're not a big fan of
the whole mysterial storyline. Me personally, I don't really mind it. Matt,
What is it a boat that you don't like about? The length?
I mean, it's the simple the length. I mean, I loved it.
I thought it overachieved many months ago. But I think it's just time
and now they're bringing in a Leah and it's just getting bizarre. But I
did like the Murphy baby face turned. That was a nice touch. It
got me interested in what Murphy's gonna do against Seth. I did like that.
I don't care about the Mysterio family and they're really really poor acting,
and I just think that, you know, when you have Mysterial and Dominic
get drafted, the first thing they talk about is not necessarily what they're gonna
do. Maybe challenge for the tag titles or you know, try and just
turn over a new leaf. They start talking about, well, Seth Rowins
can run for his past, but you know his past. We'll catch up
with Seth Rawlins just like no, no, like, can we please escape
this? It's just you know, after the the eye for an eye,
after you know, match, after a match with Dominic and Seth inside of
his steel cage, all this stuff, Like I'm just done with the story,
it's just time for it to go away. So it wasn't a bad
storyline. I enjoyed it for the most part. It's just time for it
to go well. Honestly, at the beginning when seth Rawlins was doing all
the eye stuff and all that stuff, it was fine. I enjoyed it.
I like the progression of the storylines using Dominic. You know, he's
on the main roster now, right, and he's you know, a prominent
figure. I know what's his name now, right, So I guess they
did a good job there. I agree with you one hundred percent with like,
the rest of the family don't really need need him. I do like
the Aliyah part of it with Murphy, just because it does give Murphy an
actual storyline separate of the whole seth Rawlins exactly think. I know, he's
kind of like involved in it, but in a way, I just like
the fact that Murphy is known now as a pretty good babyface now and he's
honestly one of been one of the most underrated wrestlers and performers in the ww
for so long. It's kind of nice that he has a character all of
a sudden, Yeah, he has depth, and he didn't have that because
we all know how amazing he is inside the ring. He is so damn
good. The matches he had against Alistair Black that two out of three matches
that he had or three out of three actually, and he lost all three.
And then that's when he went to Seth Rawlins and he picked him up
when he was down. And yeah, this does give him actual depth.
It gives him something that he can sink his teeth into other than just showing
us how great he is in the ring. That I agree with. And
I am excited for the matches that Seth and Murphy are going to have presumably
down the line here. That is what I'm really excited for. And hear
him hearing him more on the mic. It does give him a personality with
a leah. But I guess maybe it's Ramy Siro's wife who is just miss
Roboto. I mean, she has no emotion. There's just nothing there.
I mean, I don't know if they didn't, maybe that she needs a
software upgrade, I don't know, but she is there's just nothing there.
I'm over the material family as a whole. Yeah, So Murphy, huge
beneficiary, big fan of that it's just that I'm just done with the storyline
in general. It's time for it to go. I agree with one hundred
percent. It's definitely time to move on, at least for the seth Rawlins
part of it. If they want to continue to doing some of the Murphy
and Leah stuff, share whatever, but seth Rawlins needs to go to something
else now, please. Yeah. No, no, I'm I'm one hundred
percent on Moore for that. And I guess the next big thing that happened
that a lot of people are talking about with the draft is not just New
Day coming back and winning the tag team championships, which I really have a
big problem with. I really really don't like that they were just afforded an
opportunity with no explanation. Even Corey Graves went off on that, you know,
WW a lot of times just gives title opportunities away. They don't They
always talk about earning things. There's never an explanation for a lot of these
rematches. And somehow, you know, with even Selena Vega, who just
went in her singles career, her first singles match is a women's championship match.
I love Selena, but it makes no sense and then New Day comes
back, and what just because of their tenure, they're afforded Day championship opportunity.
It just really dilutes championship importance. It deludes the value of any championship
when and no one's explained how they earned it. But nonetheless we have New
Day win win the championship and then they're drafted to Raw. So maybe maybe
I'm not overthinking this. And when they're drafted to Raw, WW actually explained
that if a champion or champions are drafted to their opposing brand, that they
bring the championship with them. But how the hell are they going to bring
the SmackDown Champion Tag Team championships to Raw? Are they just gonna immediately transition
to Raw tag team titles? And what happens to the Street Profits who are
the Raw tag team champions? Like, I don't understand how this happens.
How can you be a SmackDown Tag Team champion and be on your opposing brand?
It makes no sense. Am I overthinking this? No, That's exactly
what's gonna happen. They're gonna go to the Street Profits because they're gonna probably
go to smack Now they're gonna be y guys, So about the whole raw
back Them championships. Yeah, you guys are now the Smackdout Tactam Championships because
you know it just happened to get drafted the Smackdout. Honestly, I can't
agree with you more. I think it's crazy. What did the New Day
do exactly to get a chance to win the titles? And then they of
course win, right because they want to do the whole separation with Big E.
Whitch by the way, we'll get to that, but I love that
aspect, But I want to just talk about the New Day for now.
Honestly, I think it makes no sense. I think it's stupid. I
think they give no explanations. It's drives me insane. It's kind of like
roll up victories. It drives me nuts. And honestly, this is so
consistent on being inconsistent and it drives me nuts. Man, it drives me
crazy. But I do want to ask you, Matt, what do you
think about Big E officially now he's officially split up working on a singles career.
First of all, I will say that I went when I've found out
that not only did New Day come back, they won the tag team titles,
which I really really don't like, and we just talked about that,
but I was concerned, Oh God, now Big E's career just got caught
short. Maybe Vince McMahon had a second thought and it didn't go as planned,
and he's pulling back on that and just going with The New Day again
and again and again. And I was really disappointed and angry because it felt
like Big E's career hasn't even gotten started yet. You know, he has
essentially been even after Xavier and Kobe Kingston were gone from injury, he has
really kind of been the same guy. We have seen very little, although
occasional changes in his personality. He has just essentially been Big Eie from the
New Day, with pancakes and bizarre promos and just really flamboyant and all that
kind of stuff. And I don't think he can exist in a singles career
being just what the New Day was, and he needs to just evolve into
his own music, into his own personality. And I've had a big problem
with that, not there's no have a of the Big Ee character. And
when the New Day came back, I go, well, everything's dead.
And when they announced that New Day meaning An Xavier and Kovie Kingston as SmackDown
tag team champions are going raw, I said, Ali Lujah, and now
Spiggie is forced to be on his own. They didn't seem happy about it,
but it is going to be the best thing for Big E in his
career. This tells me, this is this is WWE telling the fans.
Look, his singles career is not over. It's just getting started. I
loved that message, and I hope it continues and Big E evolves from the
New Day personality. He needs to, he has to. And what's so
great about it now is, let's just say. You know, remember when
Biggie cut that amazing ass promo against the USO's in near WrestleMania time and he
went in full blown serious mode. I love that fire. And when I
saw that, I'm thinking, man, he would be a great heel one
day. He would be a great heel one day, or at least he's
going to be one hell of a baby face. And when I saw something
like that, I saw that fire, I kept on thinking, man,
he's restricted. He's so restricted. And now the fact that he's going out
in a singles career, like you said, he's going to be getting a
new entrance song. Most likely he's going to be getting a new persona new
gimmick. Look that we're hoping, right like, this is a hope,
right, He's not just gonna come out and you know, ride a unicorn
onto the stage, right like, we're hoping that this happens. And I
think it's gonna happen. And because of the separation, what's nice about this
is he didn't exactly like break up when it comes to like, you know
how you break up when the Shield broke up, a clear betrayal. No,
they're still friends, they're still cool, but they're on separate brands.
So now you could technically turn heel are with Big E in the future without
having to kind of mess up that friendship because they're they're not related, not
connected as of this year. And that's something I would like them to see
in the future. But right now, push him as a face, that's
fine. But I want to see a new persona, and I want to
see aggression, and I want to see those promos, those fire promos.
They're there, they live inside of him, beyond the inside jokes and the
wink and nod of the camera. And all the silly stuff that we've seen
that has really I think, well it's way past its expiration date. I've
been calling from the New Days split up for years, years, but it's
a cash cow at WWE. It's an extremely successful team that doesn't come along
very often, and I understand their their hesitation to break them up at times.
But now it's official, and you're right, like this, this is
this needs to be fiery big Ee. Now, are we gonna see him
turn on a dime? Probably not. He's probably not gonna come out next
week and you be, you know, walking down in a suit with a
different entrance music. Just I mean, it's not gonna happen. I need
a natural, organic no no, no, no. I the suit thing
is to me overplayed. But I don't think or what I do want is
an organic progression into a new character that I mean, that's fine. He
can kind of be Big Ee from the New Day, but it's slowly kind
of just just like fizzles away and he's into his own guy, his own
character. That's when he needs and I hope that's what they're planning. But
I don't need Big Ee coming out and finding bootyos underneath the ring like he
did, and like I mean, it's just it's just embarrassing, like and
I mean that was a bust ass match that he had with Seamus. I
will say they killed each other on SmackDown. They I mean they were bleeding
and and I give credit to both guys. How big Ee wasn't pinned after
white noise through a windshield or a bro kick on the outside at the beginning
of the match is still beyond me. But Biggie ends up winning through with
a big ending through the car or through the table rather and I that was
the right thing to do. It was the right message to send. But
what do you think about the match itself? Quickly? You know, you
know Seamus Seamus. You could put him against literally anybody and any sort of
like street flight type style match, you know, false count anywhere match,
and he will always put on a good show. Like like the bar thing
was great, you know, back when he was doing the bar with Cesarro
there, all that stuff was great. And honestly, Seamus is a guy
you can put him anywhere and do anything with them and he'll do a good
job. But I think that's where it's a good spot for Seamus and big
E turned out the fire. He had some good fire. But again I
agree with the bootyos thing. I just it's it's just I want to see
him move on. It's time to move on as a character. They finally
have the split, and that's good enough for me. Exactly exactly and other
kind of draft news we had predictably seth or Roman Reigns stand SmackDown and Drew
stay on Raw, and I guess I'm not sad about that. I mean,
they could have flip flopped and you could have had Drew on SmackDown and
Roman Reigns on Raw. But if it's just a fifty to fifty split and
it's really not benefiting one of the other, then I'm fine with both staying
there. They both feel pretty established in their own brands. Like when I
think of Raw, I like to think of Drew McIntyre, and I'm glad
that I think of Drew McIntyre associated with the Raw brand, And same with
Roman Rains. He is, as Corey Graves called it, the backbone of
SmackDown. I mean, I do enjoy Roman Reigns, and God, I
love his heel persona so much. I mean, it's It's just so damn
refreshing to see him as a heel. He feels so natural as all of
us hold WWE for six years now after his forced babyface run for six years
that he would be an amazing heel, and so far he has certainly shown
more and more progression and to me felt more way more natural as a heel.
But him on SmackDown as the backbone and foundation is SmackDown. I really
don't have a problem with these two staying on the respective brands, do you.
Honestly, I knew Fox was gonna wasn't gonna let Roman Raids leave.
I was one hundred percent sure, and that Roman Raids is gonna stay on
SmackDown. I had no doubt in my mind, And honestly, I like
that the fact that there's both kind of you know, there's still establishing themselves
on those brands as being like the big guys. I know they have naturally
that charisma. Roman Reigns obviously is the top guy in the company, so
wherever he goes is basically the top brand. But honestly, it's nice.
It's nice to see them keep on, you know, trucking along establishing the
brands quite nicely and Drew McIntyre. You know, I'm I've always told this
man, I'm a huge fan of Drew McIntyre. I've always been. I
don't know how much longer he's gonna be holding that championship, and I honestly
don't even know who might be taking that championship off of him. I would
actually love to ask you, Matt, is there anybody particular do you think
that it's going to be taking that championship? Is going to be Randy Orton
or somebody else maybe from adst coming up, Keith Lee? What do you
have in mind there with Drew McIntyre, Randy, I think Randy Orton will
do it. I mean, although if you guys, and when I say
you guys, my listeners know like that, I have been a terrible predictor
of Randy Orton winning the championship over the last two months, like I have
since they had their first encounter a couple of months ago. I said,
oh, Randy's taken it, he's got to. And then he lost,
and then he lost again in the ambulance match, and now he's got the
actual hell of a cell match. You would think third times to Charma,
you can't have a hot heel as great as Randy Orton has been to lose
again to Dreamcatarre's great of a champion as Drew is. And that's the thing,
Like I love him as champion, I have no problem with him as
champion. I've just been of the belief that having an extremely hot heel and
as seasoned as Randy Orton is and how great he could be as a champion,
I see a bigger benefit in that than Drew McIntyre continuing his reign.
We've had him as champion now for six months, like we've had our fun.
I'm totally good with it if they decide to kill it now. I
know a lot of fans are probably out there going no too. He's great
as champion, But you can't tell me that a baby face in chase mode
for a hot heel who is champion isn't a better story. Having a baby
face in chase mode is all about the story because you're on the journey with
them to get to the championship, climb that mountain to get and overcome the
heel to grab that championship. So I am to me, I've been a
Randy Orton supporter to become WWE champion forever now and I hope it comes to
Fruition and Helen to sell. And it's weird because people think you don't want
drewis champion. I do, but I want Randy Orton even more because I
think that's a better story to tell. It all depends on what they're trying
to do. They know for a fact that Randy Orton as a champion would
work. He would absolutely kill it. He's been on the top of his
game for over four to six months. He's been insane honestly cutting promos in
the middle of matches. It's just so good. I think what they're trying
to do is they want to make sure they establish Drew McIntire more than anybody
else. They need to make sure that he is that upper echelon talent,
that high caliber talent. And if he did lose to Randy Orton the first
or second time, I do think personally, even though Randy Orton is as
good as he is right now, I think it would actually benefit Drew a
little bit more that he wins those first two matches now, because if he
does now lose against Randy Orton the third time, well, he beat him
two times, he still looks strong. Randy finally gets it. So honestly,
I see what the WWE is doing. I obviously see what you're saying.
It's a tricky one, right, It's a tricky one because the ratings
are you know, we can go for a rant about that, but you
know, it's it's a tricky one, Matt, it is. And that's
why I'm struggling because I hate saying that I don't want Drews champion, because
I do. But I just in my mind, I see a great heel
champion in Randy. And it does all depend what they're trying to do.
I mean, if they are trying to prep Randy Orton and the whole w
universe environment for a EDGE return, then having Orton as champion may make sense.
It all depends on what Edge's return is scheduled for. From what I'm
hearing, it could be in a couple of months. So if Randy has
the belt from October to December or January or maybe through WrestleMania, that's not
really asking a ton where people could complain that, oh god, it's a
legacy star, an old guy holding the belt. You know, it's a
short enough time where Edge and Chase mode would be a whole lot of fun.
I just don't know. I would think that's the endgame, is Edge
challenging Randy Orton for the w W Championship. And some people also may say,
because I've heard it that, well, wait a minute, Edge,
how old Edge is? Why would we want him as WWE champion? Come
on, Well, first of all, it is not uncommon for WWE legends
to return and capture a championship for a short amount of time to help new
guys out, to help new talent, to create ratings. I mean,
they are needle movers. I believe Edges champion could be a needle mover,
and there's a story to tell there. I'm not saying for a long Edge
run as champion. If Randy Orton becomes champion, and if Edge challenges Randy
Yorton, I mean, I'm like three steps ahead of myself. But I
have no problem with Edge becoming w WE Champion, which I think I think
that's what they're probably trying to do. Does this rivalry between Edge and Norton
need a championship? No, it doesn't. I don't. I don't think
it does. If I had a choice, I'd probably exclude it because I
don't think it's needed. But if that's where they're going, I have no
problem with it. And Matt, you've caught a pretty good promo there,
Matt, I think you should be Ricochet's new manager. I think, well,
the resident superhero whatever the hell that means. Like, I mean,
I could when they call Ricochet resident superhero, like, what has he done
that superhero like? I mean, look, because he can do crazy,
I mean he's rate does Yeah, yeah, exactly does he have a superpower
for losing? I mean I don't. I don't know. Yeah, I
don't know. I can go on like a fifty minute tangent on Ricochet and
how much I'm pissed off of every single aspect of his character to the way
they booked them off. We don't have a long enough radio show, my
friend. I know I'm feeling the anger boiling up in me as well,
so we should probably suppress that for fear of really just ranting for a good
thirty forty minutes. I agree, I'm with you, I feel it boiling.
I'm gonna move on to Lars Sullivan. He attacks Riddle and Hardy,
and I didn't see this coming. The freak is back. I'm kind of
sad he's shaved his beard a little bit. I think he looked more like
a freak with the longer beard. But he's still in really good shape.
I think he's got a great look. It's great to see him back.
I didn't expect it. I don't think anybody saw this coming, and I
have no problem with it. It's weird that he attacked Riddle and Hardy and
you try to get a hold of the Miz and all that stuff. He's
just there to cause destruction, so I guess wwe wanted to put him in
a position where there was the most people in the ring that he could destroy.
So I don't think it's anything personal against Hardy and Riddle. I just
don't know his purpose. I mean, I don't even know. I can't
even think of Lars Sullivan promo. We know nothing about this guy. What
did you think about his return? Did you did you feel anything for this?
I felt quite a bit, but honestly, the first of all,
I didn't see it coming, not even a mile away. I so completely
forgot about Lars Sullivan. I was actually just randomly looking. I'm like,
when was the last time we saw him, and it was like, I
don't know, man, like like nine months ago or something like. It
was a long time ago when he got injured and obviously all the backstage drama
and all the you know, other type of drama that I don't know if
I should bring up on the show. But you know, Lars Sullivan as
a character, as a gimmick, I think it works. I really like
the character. I like that he looks, you know, mean strong.
He does have a natural charisma when it comes to looking like a badass.
It's something that a lot of big guys don't seem to have, and he
does have it. He does legitimately look kind of like a serial killer,
like he looks like he's gonna kill everybody in the middle of the ring,
which is, you know, as a character that works very well for him.
But I didn't see it coming. But I am happy he's back because
I said before and I'll say it again, I've always been a fan of
Lars Sullivan's gimmick, maybe not the person, but the gimmick itself. And
I think he does have a good mid card appeal. Eventually, maybe he
can work his way a little bit higher but I don't know, I quite
enjoyed it, to be honest, I had a mini mark up moments because
he was so kind of out of com Welcome back to the WWE podcast.
Let's get back to more great wrestling audio. Yeah, I'm with you.
It's like, I'm excited. I don't feel angry for the character. I
don't feel like I'm not you know, I wouldn't cheer for the character.
I'm just kind of like, cool, let's see where this goes. Because
we don't know a whole lot about him. He feels like he's kind of
the Bronze Strowman from a few years ago when he was just doing squash matches
and you're like, and he was coming out out and saying, folly,
I want real competition, and you know, he's I feel like that's where
he's at of just establishing him as a monster. He'll squash people week after
week after week and take maybe the Bronze Stroman path to the main event if
he's able to get there and avoid drama and avoid his anxiety and all the
things that he's had problems with in the past. He certainly had a checkered
past of injury and backstage problems and all that kind of stuff. So hopefully
things are resolved and he can move forward. But yeah, Lara Sullivan,
look I'm fine, I'm fine with it, but I also want to move
on though, because when I saw this in the first round, here we
had we had Drew McIntyre, we had Roman Reigns on SmackDown Raw. We
also had Osca staying on Raw, and we had seth Rollins going to SmackDown,
which was to me the maybe the biggest move maybe of the entire draft.
But the Hurt business is in the first round. I mean, the
Hurt business is in the first round. Look, they are a main stay
on Raw, they have been in a lot of segments. They have a
pro a problem with retribution, and I just I was surprised that the Hurt
business was in the very first round. Were you surprised about that as well?
And also Oscar staying unwrow. Yeah, I think the first round was
a little bit early, too early for the Hurt message. But what's nice
about it is they are clearly establishing their stable as a high end main event
slash kind of upper main event type stable, heel stable, And what I
like about that is because they've naturally progressed up, Like, this isn't a
group that's kind of been stale. This isn't a group that's kind of not
doing much. They have been slowly recruiting, slowly getting better. The matches
have been getting bettered or more. Bobby Lashley looks more legitimate every single week.
And I like that aspect because MVP has done such a good job overall.
Now obviously what they're gonna be doing is the hurt business versus retribution something
there. The only thing I don't really like about it is like, what
are they? Right? They're a heel group, but retribution is a heel
group, right, there's a kind of a heel group, right, So
like what is that exactly? Why is it the hurt business exactly that has
this problem with them? Like that's the thing that doesn't make much sense to
me overall as a storyline. It doesn't make sense. And I know that
they offered their services to Adam Pierce, who I guess they negotiated some kind
of monetary supplement to them as to providing services to protect raw because his security
team was you know, like about as good as a you know, a
middle school football team. I mean it was. It was terrible. I
mean, both of us up Matt Security, yes, I'm serious. I
mean, my eight year old nephew and his friends could probably have done a
better job than Adam Pierce's crack security team week after week after week after month.
But the hurt business, I guess is their problem is just that they
decided to stand up for RAW, which is weird as a heel group,
that you would stand up for the brand, which is I mean, I
don't understand that, but it's the only group WWE's god that has en he
legs to it. So they decided to do it, and MVP is clearly
the glue of this entire team. There's no question about it. MVP,
I think is doing better work now than he's ever done in WWE. Even
with his first run of ball In and all that stuff, and his program
with Matt Hardy back and the mid two thousands all that stuff. This is
the best version of MVP. He has way overachieved what I thought he was
going to do in his second run here in WWE. And to see Bobby
Lashley involved in Shelton Benjamin being really resurrected from the grave and Cedric Alexander as
well. I mean, really, Shelton Benjamin was kind of like the star
that's like, oh yeah, he used to do some cool stuff. He
took a great sweet chet music from Shawn Michael's on RAB twelve years ago,
and you know that's pretty much all you remember. And he was doing this
weird thing if you remember where he was like following something in the camera,
like there was a fly in the room or something. Remember that that whole
thing where he would just like stare around like what. Yeah, So Shelton
Benjamin came from literally the grave back into a relevancy in this group, and
I you know what that is probably what WWE's message here with drafting them in
the first round is this is a serious group. This is a group you
should take for real, because we're drafting them in the first round. So
I agree. It just to me they're not there yet, but they told
you this is where they're going to be, and I'm fine with that.
You know. MVP is like the opposite version of Triple H. Instead of
grabbing a shovel and shoveling him down, he literally grabs the shovel to lift
all these characters and wrestlers out of the ground and says, hey, join
me, I'll show you how it's done. This Honestly, this is by
far the best I have ever, I mean ever seen MVP. I think
not only that, I think he's earned himself a contract for the next three
to five years. I think there's just so much you could do with him,
even if, you know, even if the hurt business eventually starts to
fade and you can just you can always put him with somebody, right,
because he's such a good talker, he's natural, he's charismatic, and he
is a guy who looks good in the suit. I will say that one
of the few. Okay, I agree, Yeah, no, he he
wears it. Well. I love MVP. I'd like to see him and
Paul Hayman's spar You know if as managers, Hey, did I mention that
Ricochet is on Monday night raw? Oh god, well we need a superhero.
Yeah I am. That didn't do anything for me. But what did
do something for me was aj Styles going to raw. He was the very
first pick of the second round, aj Styles going to raw, so he
went from raw traded to SmackDown with really no explanation other than hey, Dolph
Zigler and Robert Rude got drafted to Raw and SmackDown got AJ Styles, although
Robert Rude wasn't there for like four months, So that was a terrible move
of whoever actually managed that trade. If this was true a true sports environment,
that person would have gotten fired on the spot. But AJ Styles goes
back to Raw, which is I think a good thing. I think he's
pretty much worn out SmackDown. Having him going back to Raw new matchups.
I think having him on Raw is a little more exciting than on SmackDown.
So what do you think about AJ Styles going back to Raw. Here's the
thing about AJ Style and what's what's weird about aj overall to me is that
I feel like he's he's too good to be in the mid card yet if
he needs some sort of character change to be in the upper card, it's
weird. I don't know, it's you know what he reminds me of.
He kind of needs a thin Balla Esque type change with him. He needs
something that makes him super legitimate again. And he's kind of fluctuating like I
don't when I see AJ Styles just even a year ago, I remember marking
out like I remember getting excited for his matches. Now it's just kind of
like, oh Aj Styles on a match on SmackDown, Oh Aj Styles on
match on Raw, you know what I mean, Like it doesn't have that
feeling anymore. And I don't know what they could do. I don't know
if it's a new stable. I know he tried stuff obviously, you know,
with machine Gun Kelly over there and but in Gallows, But you know,
I don't know. Man Aj Styles is one of those weird ones where
I don't think they know what they're doing with them, and I don't know
what I would do with them. Honestly, one of the few people I
don't have a legitimate storyline in my head for. Yeah, I'm with you
now that you mention it. Name value still got it. But how I
feel when I see him, he does he feels like he's kind of in
purgatory. Like he's a big name. You know, he's capable of more,
but he's just kind of floating there like, okay, so what are
you doing? Right? He doesn't have a clear direction and AJ Styles and
I can't remember the source or I would actually give credit to whoever the source
was of interviewing AJ Styles after WrestleMania when he was buried by the Undertaker in
the Boneyard match. He said that that would be a great opportunity because he
was missing for a while after that on SmackDown, for his character to undergo
a change, because if you're buried alive, hey, that could actually change
your personality. It could change your perspective, you could get darker. And
instead he just came back as the same age old AJ styles. Nothing happened.
And I totally agree with AJ. He needs and you that he needs
something to keep him going, he needs to evolve. He's yeah, I
made this analogy too. I think last week that it's like chewing the same
piece of gum. It's it's like, all right, I'm ready to move
on to the next piece. That's what it is with AJ. And I
know he could be really good, but he's just the same guy, like
nothing's changing, and that's what the problem is. An evolution of his character
is what's missing. And Matt, let me just say one thing randomly here.
Did you notice that Otis was drafted on SmackDown but Ducker was not.
Yes, yes I did, yep, yep I did. But yeah,
I think, well, I Honestly, I think that Vince McMahon since he
realized that Otis could be a comedy character and saw how big his gut was,
and he just is playing off of him wearing four sizes too small of
T shirts and he loves food and all this stuff. I'm not And then
let me just get right off the bat here. I am not a fan
of the Otis character that Vince McMahon has created. I was a fan of
the Otis character in Heavy Machinery before Vince got his eyes on him and realized
he could be a comedy relief character. But I am not a fan of
what Vince has done with him because of just to me, it's not funny.
I like Otis in the ring, but even in the ring, he
makes jokes out of the moves he does. He's too much of a comedy
character. He could be a serious dude and have a really good run as
a tag team with Tucker, and they never got that. They never got
a fair shake at a Champion Tag Team championship. They have never gone on
a big run. It's just like they can't get started. They're still stuck
in first gear. And now if Tucker is not on the same brand as
Otis. I mean, Otis is clearly going out on his own, which
I think Vince McMahon and Vision from the beginning, and now Mandy Rose is
on Raw and Otis is on SmackDown. That's fine, keep them apart.
I don't need that again. I think it's just a way to get Otis
as a single star and hopefully they get the money in the bank off of
him. I do not want Otis as money in the bank winner, actually
cashing in and winning. I don't know. I feel like I'm hating on
Otis. It's just the Vince McMahon version of Otis I despise. You know.
Otis is kind of like just the more comedy version of Big Ee back
when he started as the super comedy version of the New Day. Yeah.
Like, honestly, that's what it is, right, and I agree.
I pretty much agree with every single thing you said. I will say,
though some of his backstage promost like when he talks man's so funny, but
that's you know, far and few between. Some though, There's been times
I go and then I'll just go, oh, it's like, uh,
I mean, it's like ninety five percent of the time it's it's my just
absolute disdain for what Vince has done to him and his vision of it,
because you know, Vince McMahon's probably sitting in Gorilla knee slapping about how funny
some of this stuff is, and everyone's looking around, like, Vince,
this is this is awful. I mean, even if you if you remember
the look that Corey Graves and Michael Cole gave after the segment this past week,
last or today, I would say last night, because I very rarely
do shows the same day. But if you look at that reaction that Michael
Cole and Corey Graves gave after the Otis segment, they just stare into the
camera blankly for like five seconds, it is hilarious because that's exactly how I
feel. It's like, this is myn numbingly bad. And they obviously didn't
say that, but it was just a perfect meme to create for how badly
Vince McMahon has ruined the Osbacker. Yeah. You know, I could do
a killer Otis impersonation too. Eh. Hey, well, if you're gonna
tell me that you can't not do it? Oh yeah, hey, Tucky,
get over here. I have a match. A little bit later,
on tonight. Ho h, I give him some ham Oh Mandy, Oh
yeah, that's awesome. That is awesome. Makes it even better is more
believable is you're not on video, so you know, if someone jumped in
at that point, they're like, does he have Tucker on it? Or
Otis on his podcast? Uh, I gave you a great idea. That's
awesome. No, good stuff, man, that's awesome. Did you have
to practice this or did you just like, how did you come across that?
Honestly, it might be the only talent I have in this entire world,
So let's just go, well, I love it. Good stuff.
Yeah, I mean utilize that. I think there might be something you could
do with that. But yeah, so anyway, Otis, Look, I'm
not a fan. I hope that he has more in his tank other than
just being a comedic relief guy that Vince looks at and finds him funny because
he can eat food and he'll be the first one in a food fight.
And what he did at money in the bank, stopping at the cafeteria to
eat food, I mean all this stuff that's just got awful. I'm sure
he'll be in a gravy bowl this Thanksgiving on SmackDown. I'm sure he'll play
Santa Claus on the Christmas edition of SmackDown. He'll play all of the terrible
roles that are associated with his weight and all this stuff. It's just it's
not funny, especially the fact that he's the money in the bank briefcase holder.
And the last thing I'll say about otis, if this was in front
of a live crowd, they would have already turned on him about two months
ago. I'm telling you right now, if this was in front of a
live audience, the audience would have organically turned against him. I just feel
that mad I gotta respect Otis though making us talk about him for the next
six minutes. That's pretty that's pretty good. Oh No, I had no
problem with the guy. I just the presentation of the character. He's yeah,
so all right, Well, moving down the line here some of the
women's moves. Here. We had Sasha Banks dance SmackDown. We had Naomi
who's in the round two, which was a kind of surprising given she's been
completely irrelevant for the last like six months. But hey, like I'm fine
with resurrecting Naomi. She has been I think she's under the lines for sure,
and we have Bianca bel Air coming to smack down, So give me
some of those thoughts about Sasha Naomi and Bianca So Naomi being drafted in the
second round makes makes so little sense. It just they've been literally squashing her
for so long. She wasn't even in the qualification match for one of the
title when they had the Battle Royal. I think it was a Battle Royal
now I don't even remember or Gauntlet. And you know, it just makes
no sense that she's pick thing. But good for her, you know,
she must have she must have really thought for that. As for Beyonca Blaire,
oh man, I think they're grooming her. Oh I think they They
already started doing these little weird back you know, promos with her, like,
you know, out qualifying everybody with the athleticism and all that lovely stuff.
And you know, I think they're high on her. I think they're
very high on her. And I also think they're high on the street profits
the husband there and in montes Ford, so you know, beyond Caa Blaire,
I think she has just an immense amount of talent. She's still very
raw. I think there's a lot to a lot of work to be done.
I think her promos are I don't know. I just I don't get
a good feeling of them yet. I don't think they're batdter per se.
I just don't think they're great either, but I think they're definitely there's something
to work with their again, Sasha Banks on SmackDown another interesting choice. Did
they say where Oscar went on Raw? Right? So so then you have
Oscar on Raw as well? And that one, that one is the weird
one to me because she's been on Raw for god how long now, right,
Like, this isn't just the one time she has she ever been on
I don't remember now. It helped me out here, Matt, was she
on SmackDown a little while ago or not Oscar? It's been a while,
but she has been Yeah, yeah, it's been a while though, Yeah,
it's been a while. It's been a while. Yeah, So I
thought maybe they'll mover over. So the fact that she's on Monday Night Raw
still it makes me wonder because I thought, you know, Bianca Baleira was
a natural eventually progression for Osca. Who knows, like what's gonna happen there,
Like, who's challenging for Oscar. I'm looking at the lineup so far,
Mandy Rose, I know Dana Brook, no, Naomie, no,
you know, but I will say this, that's what's said is and I
didn't get to be on Dana Brook and day of Brook yet, but it's
really bad with Dana Brook's been in WWE for how many years now, like
three four years, for maybe five years longer maybe longer. But day Bok
has been there for a long time and she still has on a resume talking
about it being a fitness model, right, Like, she doesn't even have
any accolades on a resume that you would put in former WWE women's champion,
a former women's tag team champion, won a battle Royal WrestleMania. Nothing,
She's got all the all of her accolades that they put on. The graphic
for Dana Brook has to do with her former life. It has nothing to
do nothing. Bionca Blaire had more fitness promos that Dana Brook has it.
Beyonca has been on the roster for like how many months? Yeah, it
makes sense the same character continue. Sorry, no, no, I just
I don't know what to make of Dana Brook, fish or fowl. I
don't know what she is. She's kind of a weird promo. She's athletic
as hell, we know that. But I don't know what to make of
Dana Brook. I just I don't know Beyonca bel Air to your point,
Yeah, they're grooming her. I think she had an amazing showing at the
Royal Run, the Women's Royal Rumble this past year, if I'm not mistaken,
she was a big standout, eliminating I forget how many women and certainly
made a statement there. And the whole relationship with montes Ford doesn't hurt.
The angle that she had about Delena Vega poisoning montese Board, which was I
mean that that was just to me, that was just a I mean,
it got got eyeballs on her, but it was absolutely preposterous. Uh.
That whole angle was preposterous. And the pois apparently the poison is only activated
in montese Ford when he does the Ultimate Warrior rope shaking. Uh. If
you notice that's the only time that he dropped, and and it also doesn't
it kind of goes and comes back like when he shook the rope, he
collapsed, and then he shook the rope again and collapsed. It was just
ridiculous. I mean that that was that was a crazy storyline. But Jack
Bauer to come you know from really from that, you know, I will
say one final combt on Dana Brook here. You know, when she came
out like I don't know how long goes this, maybe nine months ago,
maybe older, but she came out in like this kind of like weird friendship
storyline, and she came out in jeans and a little top, and I'm
like, wow, there's a new character for her. She coming out in
these jeans, you know, you know, she looks really like extra kind
of like a new gimmick, more attractive in a way. Like it just
mind me personally, everybody has their own opinions. Looked a little bit more
attractive, a different gimmick, a different character, And I'm like, oh,
this is great. And then next week she went back and looking exactly
the same and I'm like, wow, such a missed opportunity, right,
And people were, believe it or not, Matt, people were getting behind
Dana Brook for a while there. It was like a I don't know,
it was like a two month section where people were legitimately cheering for Dana Brook.
And then they did nothing with it, right, So it's just like,
what's the point, right if you're not going to do anything with her
and she's gonna be the same character. It's the same thing that pissed me
off about Robert Rude coming back as the same character that left drive me nuts.
But no, No, he grew his hair out. He grew his
hair out. He's different, Nat, I'm telling you, I'm screaming at
my microphone. Drove me in when I saw him coming out and doing the
glorious thing. I'm like, really, that's the same ass person. You
couldn't even do anything different. I have no interest in him by anyways,
continuing, No, he's Robert Rude. Look, the guy is a one
word gimmick and it's a great word. And I actually love his interest music.
It's one of those interest musics entrance themes that gets stuck in your head
the whole day. Like I mean, if you think about his entrance song
most people are now that I'm talking about it, it gets stuck in your
head and is a catchy tune. Whether you admit it or not, it
just is. And his entrance is certainly it's good, it's really good.
But outside of that one word. The guy doesn't have a whole lot to
do or talk about. Everything has to end with being glorious. Everything is
glorious. He needs to move on, he needs some depth in his character.
And I agree they could have repackaged him there, but no, no,
no, same with John Morrison. Mister Johnny Drip Drip comes back and
gets placed right back where he left seven years ago with WWE, with the
Mizz and a tag team. When ww just doesn't want to do they go,
let's just kind of put him backhere they belong, or back where they
left, and instead of evolving the character, they did it most recently with
a j Styles coming back with no progression after being very live. John Morrison
coming back in the tag team with them is after being away from w W
for how many years? And then they did that with well, Dean Ambrose
when he came back after an injury, when he got all jacked up and
came back and just rejoined the Shield again. I mean, and we all
think home, maybe they'll do something with Dean Ambrose when he returns, and
they didn't. And it's just so many examples and when they don't know what
to do, they just go back to what they know instead of taking a
chance. I think that would be glorious if Robert Rum left again and comes
back with a Valvenus gimmick, which I thought they were gonna be doing a
Rick Rude type of Valvenus type gimmick. I thought, what I thought,
what they're gonna do that before? And I'm like, oh, this is
gonna be great. This is exactly what would work for him, and no,
you know, I just stop, man, I just we did a
longer show for that. It's it's frustrating. It's frustrating when you think,
oh, they're gonna let's see what they do to change this up, or
you know, even a small evolution, and when they come back exactly the
way and they left, it is disappointing. Okay, So a couple more
things that happened on SmackDown outside of the draft. Sasha and Bailey had their
match that everyone has been really talking about and have been really foreseen for the
last year is when is this going to collapse? And we finally got the
collapse and it was well done and Sasha got a small measure of revenge with
WWE's fascination with kendo sticks lately over the last month, everyone's got a kendo
stick to attack somebody, and she got a small measure of revenge. She
gets a championship opportunity, which to me, on so many levels doesn't make
sense that you would do it on SmackDown with really only one week to promote
the match that everyone's been waiting to see. And yeah, we all knew
it was going to be a screwy finish with no actual title change, but
the fact that they just plopped it on SmackDown, and maybe the reasoning was
to tell fans, hey, well, we don't know if they're going to
be drafted to different brands, we got to do the match. Now.
That wasn't ever told to me, but I would assume that's the reason.
And you know, the match was fine. It ended fairly in short order,
with Bailey getting disqualified on purpose and then Sasha later claiming that they're going
to face each other at Helena Cell. Well, who makes that match?
I mean, some of these logic, there's just there's just so like small
amount of logic in some of these storylines where wait a minute, how is
Sasha Banks claiming that she's gonna to face Bailey at the Helena Cell pay per
view insign Helena Cell for the championship, to Bailey agree to this. How
did this happen? Is Adam Pierce back there signing contracts? I don't know,
Maybe I'm just nippicking, but we get them inside of a cell in
just a couple of weeks, and I would think Sasha would capture it,
but I wouldn't bank on it pun intended. I would probably say that Bailey
retains and then Sasha maybe gets it at rumble. I don't know. I
mean, I mean, I'm just thinking that people think that it's foregone conclusion
Sasha captures the belt here, but I don't think so. Are you in
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Brightrealtyinvestment dot com. You're not nitpicking, man. It's one of the stupidest
things ever to see Sasha and Bailey having a you know, technically a championship
match on SmackDown advertise it. It's so like I know it was a screwy
finish, I know it was quick. Whatever. It's so hurt my my
actual want to see these two in an actual, longer, normal match.
I did not want to see them at all until they had their final,
beautiful, beautiful match together, and now they put them on SmackDown it's just
like, Okay, I care still, but I care so much less.
It was stupid. I don't know who writes this craft sometimes, like I'm
trying to think, Matt, like, let me talk to you heart to
heart, my friend. I'm trying to think behind the scenes. Okay.
So the right goes up to Vince mcmahn and says, hey, Vince,
I got this great idea to finally put Sasha and Bailey that have a match
together. And Vince says, oh, you know what, that sounds like
a great idea. Why do you want to do it? Dono holin out,
No, let's put it on SmackDown. Let's put it on SmackDown.
Oh yeah, but didn't we build this up for the last nine months.
Yeah, it's okay, just put it on SmackDown. It's just a little
bit, just ease them a little bit. Oh just drives me nuts.
This drives me nuts. When when Sasha said that last week, I'm like,
what do you mean your championship matches next week? What the hell are
you talking about? Why would that? That's like the equivalent, although it's
probably a little bit of a far stretch. When when Austin did his famous
walkout back in two thousand and three, and Vince was trying to have a
qualifier match between brock Lesser and Stone Cold with little or to no advertisement and
looking at that as a money match and putting it on roll like, what
the hell are you doing? It doesn't make any sense that they could have
at least even though I don't agree with it, Like I said, they
could have at least told us, well, you know Sasha said to Uh
said to the officials, well, look, I don't know if we're going
to be on the same brand. I want a piece of Bailey before the
draft happens, so we need to make this match for SmackDown. That would
have been a little bit more acceptable rather than just no explanation. And then
w we just throwing everything they have at this at this show, and it
seems like they did. Look, they had Sasha Bangs versus Bailey, the
program that they've been building for over a year on SmackDown with a non finish.
We had Lars Sullivan return, We had the draft itself, We had
the Fiend compete in a match for the first time ever on SmackDown. Like
there were so many things, like what were they trying to accomplish here tonight.
I don't know. They threw a lot at this show thinking maybe the
draft would create a lot more attention. So they're going to do other stuff
to maybe get the casual viewer who's tuning in for the draft to maybe stick
around after the draft. I don't know, but yeah, I'm fine with
this program continuing. It should continue. No, I hear no, it's
probably louder for you than for me. I didn't hear it. Okay,
that wasn't crazy, But having Sasha in this match against Bailey, we all
knew she wasn't gonna win, and I'm looking forward to the hell in a
Cell match. I think it's deserving of the cell, at least there's that.
I'm not a fan of matches that just gets stuck in there because it's
part of the pay per view schedule. I think this matches is deserving of
inside the cell, given what's happened and what Bailey's done to Sasha. But
do you see Sasha capturing the belt here or do you think they wait a
little longer? No, they wait a little bit longer. Let's let's extend
it. Let's extend it a little bit longer. I do want to ask
you, Matt personally, what do you think about having three Hell in the
Cell matches? This is let me say this, if if you've heard movefour,
I know that to you every single week, my friends, or every
I more than once a week, Yeah, then then you might get it.
The same thing that I've said before, because I've been very consistent about
this. The fact that WWE puts in a match that is so special or
was once so special, and it's meant so much as just part of the
pay per view schedule and whatever matches are happening at that time, whatever programs
are happening at that time, we'll just throw them in the cell is such
a disgrace to the hell in a Cell match of what it meant the hell
in a Cell match, Think about how awesome it was. And yes,
back when Shawn Michaels faced the Undertaker in ninety seven at Bad Blood, exactly
what twenty three years ago it happened in October, which was the very first
match I ever saw as a wrestling fan at twelve years old. So that
felt so damn special. Triple H versus Mick Foley felt so special. Mick
Foley versus the Undertaker in nineteen ninety eight, the famous toss off the cell
felt very special. Mick Foley got retired inside the cell against Triple H in
that very match, Shawn Michaels versus Triple H. I think it was actually
at another Bad Blood in two thousand and three. There have been some really
good moments and programs deserving of the cell, and yet WWE takes that and
goes, oh, well, gimmick pay per view. Sell Man, No,
they don't. I don't believe that fans want to see a gimmick match
that is not deserving of the gimmick. Like if a program is deserving of
the cell, which means the program has been so damn intense it is,
it's so damn personal. They can't contain these women or men, and it's
they need to be locked inside the cell. To me, it would mean
so much more than just building it into the damn schedule just because they want
to have a cute little gimmick pay per view every single year. I think
it's awful and it really detracts from what the hell in a cell match used
to mean when it was special, when it didn't happen a whole lot and
only programs that were deserving of the cell got it. Yeah, And you
know what, I'm gonna give Shane o'mack a little bit of love too,
man, because when he came back and he jumped off that top of the
thing. I remember that moment. I'm gonna remember that moment until I'm dead.
It was amazing, and that was a great spot by Shane and the
fact that he did at his age are all just everything that went around that
whole storyline. I thought that was great, So I think he deserves the
little bit of love on top of it as well. But I agree with
you completely wholeheartedly. Man. It's just it's too much like Hell in the
Cell in my personal opinion, should be one match. One match on the
card because it's a special team match. It's like Elimination Chamber in a way,
but like a lot more important supposed to be anyway, And you know,
at least Elimination Chamber you can kind of do a female version, a
male version of it. But again, it's the end of the show type
big match, right, and the Hell in the Cell it's what it's supposed
to be, supposed to be a big conclusion to a massive heated feud and
that's that's what it's supposed to be. And the fact that there's so many
of them, Like, I know what they're gonna do. What one's gonna
jump off one match, the other one's gonna be just inside it the whole
time, and the other one's gonna be outside. Maybe they'll fight on top
of it, you know, like they're gonna they're gonna mix it up.
But the point is, it's just I don't want to see it. I
want to see one match and it's not gonna happen. It's gonna be three
of them, and and I think it does hurt. I think it should
have been honestly, Sasha Bailey if they need didn't do this the whole you
know, the whole SmackDown garbage thing that they did. So I don't know,
man, I don't know. I'm more frustrated than I thought I was
gonna be, Matt, But what did you do to me? Man?
And and well let me get this out of the way too, Like,
but the hell in a cell structure itself? Are they just gonna keep it
painted red? I mean, I think is that what they're really so?
Yeah, I actually to me that that also kind of cutes it up like
it's it. Don't don't try to paint it like leave it alone. To
me, the this that that steel mesh look is a much more barbaric and
sinister look than the dressing it up with lipstick. I mean, that's essentially
what they've done. I know, there's it's all red. It's supposed to
represent blood. Well, here's the thing, you guys, don't use.
Blood never happens. And how somebody's skull gets rammed into steel time after time
after time and nobody bleeds is also like a little bit hey, take me
out of the moment. I mean, that's it. That's what that makes
me feel like. And is that what it does? Is that actually it
They made it red because it's supposed to represent blood. Well, I can't
tell me another reason why it would be red. I mean, I don't
know. No fitz mcma turns the lights red when the Fiend had matches for
a while. At least that made a little more sense because it's a specialty
match. But like, I don't want to see it red. I don't
think of anything I thought it was because oh it's a Monday NIGHTIRW match or
something no, no, no, no no, because a lot of times
I remember their logos for like the Hendle Cell pay per view, especially like
bad Blood or whenever the Helena Saw match was taking place, it would be
like drops of blood in the logo or whatever like. And how many times
in actual matches that you know, prior to the PG era from two thousand
and seven and backwards were a lot of Helena Sell matches, almost every single
one had blood in it. And so when I see Helena Cell, I
still am disappointed when I don't see color. And I'm not saying that somebody
should cut themselves and you know, put themselves at risk or anything like that,
but there are times that I really do miss blood. I mean there
are types. I got this story of Buddy, I looked it up here
we go. It's because WWE decided to jazz up to sell by making it
read, to make it look more evil and also to sell more merchandise.
Told you, they just essentially made it cute. They just they did.
They put makeup on it, That's what they did. I told you.
It's just I don't know. I don't need to I don't need to need
the need for it is just not there. I wasn't looking at the mesh
going, oh my god, I need Can they just paint this damn thing?
You know what I mean? Did anybody say that that they're so marketing
gimmicky like I When they did that, it looks I don't know. It
just takes away from it on top of what they've already done making it a
part of the pay per view schedule. I have such a problem with the
Hell and to Cell pay per view because the Heleno cell match itself is so
near and dear to my heart. It got me into wrestling. So there's
also that part of it personally, the match itself got me into wrestling,
but also because what it used to mean there's no meaning to it anymore.
It's just it's just there and you know, whatever's going on, stick them
in. It's it's ridiculous. It's I and I know the marketing department's going,
well, hell on a selling people know what it is. It's a
great way to sell. No, it's not. Because to me, when
you have all these gimmicks, you have the tlcs, you have the hell
of Cells, you have elimination chamber, and don't get me wrong, sometimes
they're worth they're worth the matches, they're worth the program, the story,
and absolutely, I'm not saying every time it's terrible, but I think it's
also a bandage or a deodorant for really a lack of good storytelling to have
gimmicks in matches when they know that the story is not great. But maybe
if we do this or add chairs or add tables or add you know whatever,
that it'll cover some of the terrible storytelling that we've had. To me,
great storytelling, characters that I care about in a storyline and a personal
feud or over a championship that makes sense, and intriguing promos. That is
what makes pro wrestling great. This one makes TV grade, It's what makes
movies great. You don't necessarily have to have violence to make it great or
gimmicks to make it great. That to me is a really an admission,
kind of a under lying ole mission or admission. I should say that you
cannot tell a story properly and you have to add these superficial items to your
story to make it cover the lack of youth being able to tell a story.
If that makes sense. Okay, I'm getting ramped up. It's just
take it one step further. Why don't they make it pink one a New
Day matches have little unicorns on top of it, then throwing little pancakes on
the ground. I could I could see something like that happening in the future.
I'm really trying to keep this a PG show. I'm really trying,
like I'm really doing a great job. I feel it's getting me, that's
getting me heated. But the sad thing is as absurd as it sounds.
I could actually see something like that happening where they they like paint it like
a rainbow, right, like they have the whole colors of the rainbow painted
on the cell. I mean, I could actually see that, or like
pancakes on a pole match or something. Oh god, uh yeah, all
right, Well we have the Fiend versus Kevin Owens on SmackDown. That was
the final thing that I wanted to ask you about the Fiend from very first
match on SmackDown. They threw everything at this at this show and Kevin Owens
lose this and that to me was actually sadly predictable. The Fiend takes punishment
and his whole gimmick is no selling like that is the Fiends gimmick. I
just no selling. That's what he does to me, to a really to
a fault. I think there's there's no selling, or I'm sorry, there's
there's a I guess a lesser degree of selling, and then there's no selling.
When you know sell, it exposes the business like crazily. I mean
like it just takes me out of the moment because I don't want somebody to
know sell. I want it to be kind of like Undertaker no Cell where
maybe he gets hit with a finish and he lays there and you're wondering if
he's gonna get up, but at least he's selling it in those moments,
and then he just sits up. And I'm not saying he needs to be
the Undertaker, but he no sells it to the point of really not believability.
I love the Fiend character, Don't get me wrong. I love the
Fiend character. There was It was one of the best inventions from bray White's
mind that ww has had in ten years. And the fact that he has
really three gimmicks to go to with his swamp cult leader and just pray Wyatt
the children's fun house host is also really great. I mean bray Wyatt has
really done an awesome job. But the Fiend character with the no cell is
it's a little bit much. Kevin Owens is the latest victim. He hits
a stunner that he no sould and it was kind of a cool ending.
I liked it, but it also diminished the stunner that he used as a
finish and he gets choked out using the mandible claw and the Fiend wins and
then joins Alexa Bliss. Why really loving lately with her acting and joining the
Fiend, And I'm wondering where that's going. But what did you think about
this match in the finish? And Alexa Bliss so, Matt, it might
be maybe the first time ever I actually disagree with you. I'm I love
the no selling as long as it's not no selling finishers left and right.
If he knows cells moves left and right, I am perfectly fine with it.
I think it makes him look more special. I honestly, every time
I see him no sell or anything, I have a moment that makes me
smile and I don't know why. I don't know, I don't know what
it is. Specifically, I think it makes sense with this character because he's
such a supernatural character. But again, he got hurt really bad with that
botch Jackhammer finished Goldberg match. Still to this day, I still feel like
they need to have a rematch and he has to destroy him to just to
make me kind of knock it over that ever again. But I just I
don't like when he knows sells finishers because I feel like a finisher should have
impact. But when he knows sells a punch or no sells a belody slam
or a you know, a souplex, that's fine because it just shows to
everybody, Okay, this guy is not normal. He's definitely special. And
I don't feel like because remember when when when they're selling it, it's not
like they're saying, oh, he doesn't have any feelings or when it comes
to like it doesn't have any pain, because when he does get hit and
he's like, oh the fiend is down, Oh he's back up, I
think it's more like he suppresses the pain and eventually if he does lose,
it kind of comes all out at once. I think that's kind of what
it is. And I do like when he picks sell right after he loses
a match, kind of right away because it makes it seem a little stronger
as well. So you know, maybe the first thing I disagree with you,
Matt, Holy crap man, what's going on? Well, it's bound
to happen. That's fine. No, I'm glad. I'm glad. I
you know, I see where you're coming from. I do understand it that
that's part of the character, but it's also the character itself. Is Look,
the mask is the center of that character. The mask was so well
done. It really it's an evil clown slash American horror story if anyone's into
that kind of throwback mask. And I apparently the mask was made by a
movie some kind of movie guy that did masks for horror horror movies. I
can't I can't put my finger on exactly who it was, but somebody who
had done masks for horror movies. He actually pray why I contacted this man?
I wish I had the name to get his mask done. It was
done professionally. I mean he didn't just go to like, you know,
Spirit Halloween down the road and and pick up a mask. I mean,
it was really well done, really does help the character. You don't see
the fiend of los there you go, and I like the fact that he
is a special character. You don't see him a lot. That's great.
I don't want to see him a lot. And he's never had a match
on SmackDown. That that is true, and that is important that he didn't.
But the no selling. Look, he actually sold a clothes line more
than he did the stunner, which he sold like completely, That didn't sell
it at all. I mean, he took the stunner and there was no
laying there maybe he's out. It was just take the stunner and you know,
I'm holding onto you with the mannible claw, which is a cool finish,
but again it does it diminishes it. And I mean, look back
no further than exactly a year ago at the Hell on a solid pay per
view with Seth Rewinds, which I keep recalling, But to me, that
was such a telling match with how WWE views this character. You know that,
hey, he could take anything. He took how many stomps? So
if you're talking about not liking the fact that he didn't sell a finisher,
you couldn't have liked that match with Seth Rollins. No selling, like I
don't know how many stomps sledgehammers, chairs, to the to the skull.
I mean it was a brutal match that I think I remember the fans booing
the hell out of it because it did so much damage to the believability,
the plausibility, the emotional investment was gone because it was like, this is
just this is child's play stuff, not in terms of physicality, but in
terms of like, hey, really, I mean I'm watching, you know,
like a child's show in terms of trying to believe what's actually happening,
Like this is this is just beyond anything anyone can get into. Hurts Seth
time Ian Seth Rowlands was already struggling as a babyface. He was weird on
camera with Becky Lynch. Yeah, they have an obviously real life romance,
but it didn't translate very well on camera. I never thought he fit a
baby face roll very well. He has that kind of like just annoyingly kind
of just whiny voice just as a natural human being. There's just the way
he is. He's got a face that you kind of want to punch.
And I mean that in the best way, Like he has got a very
unlikable face and voice, and I don't mean that disrespectfully. I mean it
in a way that is great for him to be a heel, and he's
done that, and he always feels more natural as a heal, kind of
like Charlotte, who I think feels way more natural as a heel too.
When they try to turn her baby face, it's never comfortable. So yeah,
to me, I just called back that hell in a Cell match from
last year, and I'm like ugh, and then ever since then, it's
no cell, no cell, no cell, no cell. So like,
I don't I don't know what the endgame is for this, Like, is
he just gonna go undefeated forever? Is does he have a kryptonite? Is
there something right? He got Goldberg? Oh yeah, oh god, that's
right Goldberg. God, I placed that out of my mind. I think
I just bringing it back. Don't you want I know it's God, I
know it's gonna sound stupid, but like, don't you want to see him
fight again just so he can wash Goldberg in like five seconds? And then
I would just be like, okay, okay, thank you. A right
needs a wrong needs to be righted. Yes, the universe needs to go
back in balance. That was awful. Uh yeah, that was terrible and
I'd forgotten about that just because I was just I watched that and I'm just
like, that didn't just happen right like they really. And that's where I
don't like legacy stars coming back, really taking out very decisively, taking out
a rising star, one of the biggest, hottest acts, one of the
most original acts that has come across Dobuto. You e in a decade and
you just squashed him with a guy that's going to be gone in a month.
I mean it just it made no sense at all. And I think,
uh, you know, it's where fans were there. Fans were there
for that, so and Matt, I don't need to plug my fing,
but I think people were so pissed. I think I hit like two hundred
thousand views on that one video. Did you people were pissed? Oh yeah,
Oh yeah, that was a monster. That's one of my monsters out
there. Oh god, Well, hey, no, you're more than willing
to or able to plug anytime you want. This is I'm just happy to
be here. Well, guys, how about this, I'll give you a
free pug now go check it out. I'm assuming the title is probably something
along the lines of Goldberg Beats the Fiend or something like that, something like
that. I'll have to go back and take a look. If you can
talk for another fifteen seconds. Yeah, no, no, that's fine,
So you go and search. Well I just rant about that. I mean
it was Goldberg Beats the Fiend fan rant. There you go, there go.
Yeah, no, you do have those monster views out there, and
I noticed that that is one of them. So I do. Okay,
man, thanks buddy, No, no, no problem. So that's all
I had for SmackDown. I know that there's some other things that happen in
the draft, but is there anything else that you wanted to maybe touch on
that we didn't. Yeah. I just want to say a big thank you
to you. They're having me on the show again. I absolutely love doing
this with you. It's always a pleasure to be on. I can be
on as much as you want, whenever you want, as long as my
wife doesn't divorce me for it, and if I have enough time throughout my
day to go do something. But honestly, it's always a blast. I
think you're one of the more respectful and honestly one of the best podcast people
I have ever worked with, And honestly, now ever doing collaborations with and
personally, I would love to have you not just on my show, but
you know, us working together in the future even more once in a while,
because I think we have a really good chemistry together and I love the
work you do. Buddy. No, I really appreciate that. That was
a that hell was a hell of a promo to put me over. So
I appreciate that. I mean, I think Ricochet could probably do a better
one. I think, yeah, No, I mean I'm no superhero,
but probably Yeah. No, I really do appreciate that. And you know,
it's always it's always great to have you on because you add an energy
to the show that is very unique. I mean, I definitely enjoy especially
your videos. I mean some of your videos are just hilarious. Like You'll
start out very quiet and you'll like do various posts. You just kind of
like staring at the TV. Then you just like explode on something. So
it really matters what I'm talking about, you know. Yeah, if a
happy mood, I'll just do like the nice put someone over like crazy,
and then I see Keith Lee's or there I listen to and then I just
lose it. You lost your mind that was really funny. I mean some
of them, Like I end up laughing a lot of the time because and
the thing is, like, what's great is in everyone listening. It's not
an act like you're not You're not in there trying to like pretend or like
put on some kind of facade, Like you're just naturally reacting to what you're
seeing. And it's just that's what makes it great. Yeah, And honestly,
honestly, guys like I've I've always like talked about like respect and positivity.
I believe that positive networking is something we need to have more in this
world. Good energy and everything like that. And uh, I feel like
if you're if you have a good vibe about yourself and you're respectful, Like,
yeah, I do botch videos and stuff like that where it's you know,
they laugh about mistakes and stuff like that, but like I do it
in a comedy parody style like a stand up comedian. Like it's not it's
not anything like negative. It's just kind of making people laugh. You make
people smile, you know, make some people have a good day or bad
day or whatever, just makes some like appreciate. I think that's what you
got. A good vibe in this podcast as well, because you're very honest,
You're very genuine about what your opinions are, and I think people really
respect that. No, that's exactly what we're going for. You know.
You hear a lot of other podcasts, and look, I'm not putting down
another podcasts because I listen to other wrestling podcasts, Like, I respect the
whole wrestling community. And it's not like I'm competing with anybody. I think
we're all just kind of one big, one big family. But we really
are, whether people think that or not. We all love wrestling, right,
So, like that's why we're here. You love wrestling because you have
a YouTube channel doing it. I have a podcast that I love and it's
all about wrestling because I love it. So yeah, I mean, I
just try to be honest about things. I don't try to put on an
act. I've always been honest and like you said, making people laugh,
making people feel good, and god dang do we need that today? I
mean, like with everything going on and look out, there's an election coming
up, and who the hell knows what the results or that are gonna be,
and if it sparks more problems in the world, So It is an
escape from your everyday stuff that whatever you're going through, work, relationships,
whatever, this is. That's what this is is to talk. It's really,
as I call it, playing in the sandbox. Like we're talking about
stuff that doesn't really matter, but it's a hell of a lot of fun
to get into. Oh Rick Achet not being able to cut a promo that
that matters? Man, Well, that that does matter? Yeah, no,
yeah, maybe maybe we should create a hashtag like instead of like BLM,
we could we could create like ricochet matters and create like you know,
banners and stuff because yeah, yeah, oh that's a that's a big time
problem waiting to happen. But uh yeah, ricochet. He was rafted in
the third round, along with j u So, Mandy Rose, and Dominic
and Ray. He was drafted in the third round. He would be one
of those guys in a real draft where he would be categorized under players to
be named later. That's what he would be in. And and then I
can't believe he's in the third round. He doesn't deserve to be in the
thirteenth round and just based on what they've done with him. So sorry,
Matt, I know this is going long back. You know, it's not
that I really it's not that I hate Ricochet. I think he's actually a
pretty awesome, genuine guy from everything I've heard. But he can't cut a
promo, turn him heel or give him a manager. For the love of
god, he's so talented in the rig. Agree, how much do you
need to see out of him to know that he can't cut a promo?
Is he's not getting better? It's been a year, Like, do something
different. I don't know. Maybe they'll just go with he does his talking
in the ring. Okay, maybe he just just maybe he just stops trying
it all together and just does in ring, because that's when everyone looks at
Ricochet four is in ring, like, hey, four to fifty Splash's it's
how many cool reversals he can do. He's very ww has centered his character
around his athleticism. That's what you look at. Ricochet four is his athleticism
period, and they need to do something more. You're right, yeah,
but hey, this has been a blast, So everybody listen, go check
out the box guy on YouTube. I've been plugging him for weeks. You
guys know that if you haven't already, what are you doing. Go do
it now, I trust me you will. You will be very glad that
you did. It's totally free to do so, uh and it will.
Yeah, no, it is. Well, I've got a special promo code
that I gave my my listeners that yeah yeah, so uh so yeah,
don't uh don't don't spread that around and anybody who's listening all my little normal
listeners don't uh don't tell anybody else what we did. Uh so check them
out on YouTube. A lot of fun, authentic and just a blast to
watch. So uh hey, like you said, we need to do this
more often than just you know, every two months, it seems like because
the last time was Summer Slam, so this needs to happen again for sure.
Sometimes tomorrow man, yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah, okay,
in the middle of my move let's dark man yeah yeah yeah. No,
like I said, I'm moving tomorrow, I'm gonna be so exhausted by
the end of the day and not even know what my name is. So
all right, well, hey, we'll uh well, we'll be in touch
and you enjoy your evening. You take care of you two. Thanks for
listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app
so you don't miss a show, or head to wwepodcast dot com and for
all of these shows add free head over to Patreon dot com slash WWE podcast.
Until then, we'll see you next time.