This is w W Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the WWE podcast God
Show, the one that everybody wants me to start sixteen says, just clift
your ass is my You're gonna like knowledge train. All right, everybody,
welcome to the Summer Slam Review Show. We're gonna dive through every match and
dissected piece by piece, the good, the bad, the boring, the
weird. All of it will be coming your way in just a minute.
But first, for all of the new listeners, welcome. We get a
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right, guys, SummerSlam. You know, I was traveling Saturday, so
I wasn't able to watch it live, and by the time I got home,
I was dead to the world. I would have been of no use
to watch the event. I probably would have fallen asleep during the event.
But I did have a chance. I did have a chance to to actually
watch it today. And today being Sunday, I'm recording this like ten pm
on a Sunday, So yeah, I know, super late, guys.
I wish I could have gotten this too earlier, but life. So this
was an interesting event, and my knee jerk reaction to this is that this
event was below most people's expectations, including my own, And when you look
at why, you know, when you break down the why why did this
fall short? In most people's eyes? Not everybody. Some of you loved
it, thought it'd exceeded expectations or met your expectations. But I feel like
the majority of you would look at this event and go, hey, not
bad. Some good matches thrown in there, some good drama, a weird
heel turn at the end, but overall it kind of felt flat for me.
It didn't fall off a cliff. It wasn't bad. It just kind
of was. It was okay. I feel like that's how most people feel.
It was like a five or six out of ten. And I have
to say, you know, to join in the bandwagon here is not popular
or controversial, But I am on that bandwagon, and I'll tell you why.
I think a major reason why Summer Slam for a lot of us fell
flat one of I'll get into the others, and don't get me wrong.
Before I jump on Summer Slam. I thought it was an okay to slightly
above average show. I do, But here's where I think things didn't meet
expectations for fans returns. How many times do we go through pls and predict
Bray Wyatt, Biggie the Rock, Randy Orton and we don't get him?
It is happening constantly, and I fall victim to it as well. And
we're told that WrestleMania is the biggest party of the summer. I don't how
they say party. It just could say event, because party wouldn't sinuate we're
not taking this seriously, but potato potato. So I think a big factor
for a lot of people is there was nothing you came away with of that
event where you would go, oh my god, I can't wait to see
the follow up. You just kind of were looking at it going no,
okay. Some rivalries got wrapped up, you know, the Jimmy thing will
get into that. A lot of people were very perplexed about. And some
matches that were just blase and we'll talk about the MMA rules match, which
I think you know I'm going to talk about. And so there's there's multiple
reasons. But the big return flop that many people expected didn't happen. And
I thought for sure, I mean, I wasn't confident on the Rock,
but I had thought that maybe Randy Orton or Bray Wyatt or Biggie would at
least be the ones to come out one of them, one of the four,
one of the three come out and make a major return, make a
splash, make it. Make it so that you come away from the event
going, man, I need to see the follow up. Tell me,
tell me one match in which you came out of this and going, oh
my god, I need to see the follow up. It can't be the
Jimmy turn because I'm kind of done with that version of Roman facing whoever and
the intra family stuff. I'm kind of done with it like most of us.
So you'd imagine it's going to be Jimmy versus j And it makes me
concerned because I'm thinking back to the Hardies. Remember when Matt and Jeff Hardy
faced each other and Leda was a special referee. I think that was a
thing, and no one really cared to see or wanted to see the Hardies
face each other. This could be one of those scenarios. This could be
one of those scenarios as to looking at the USO's going one of the greatest,
if not the greatest tag team in WW history, and now you're gonna
pit him against each other. It was like a turn for a turns sake,
where they didn't have another finish for the end of the match, and
you know the referee bump. Did referee actually take a bump in that match?
I don't know if he did, but it was an ODQ match anyway,
so it was not like the referee needed to be knocked out in order
for the some kind of Shenanigan staguan, because nothing would have mattered anyway if
it happened in front of the referee. But it was Jimmy Yuso who came
out and yeah, hey, he was dressed in his you know, his
handkerchief and his black hooded sweatshirt and he screwed over Jay. And I'm looking
at this going, uh now, shout out to DJ Couzmo, one of
our listeners. He had actually called one of these possibilities. Many people didn't,
And I think the reason is people are looking at this going, I
don't know if we want to see this. Sure, it's it's a bit
shocking. It's a bit it's a shock to them because they've never faced each
other before. They've always been on the same page. But when you look
at this, you're like, do I want to see this now? It'll
pull Jay away from Roman rains. You would imagine it's gonna pull Jay away
from Roman Rains and it's gonna be Jimmy versus j at Payback, but that
leaves Roman Rains open to, oh yeah, by the way, do nothing
at payback. You know that's coming, so he might defend it at fast
Lane. So this is where you jump another two months to another title defense,
and you are just padding on numbers that are certainly inflated artificially when you
go these long stretches, and no one else Unsmackdown has even talking about the
belt, trying to chase the belt, and we're told it's the most important
belt on the entire roster, and yet no one's even talking about it.
It's just it's frustrating. But this is where maybe, perhaps maybe for the
first time, we are witnessing the whole Bloodline story take a turn that fans
actually don't want to see. Perhaps too early to call, too early to
tell, but at first sniff, you're looking at this and hearing most fans,
and you even heard the live reaction of people going yeah, it wasn't
overwhelming. It was just kind of like, oh, Jimmy's turning now,
and really you're looking at this also saying why not in the typical why you
know, why Austin. Why. In other words, you're so interested to
know why that person turned their back. I mean, you're mildly interested,
But I'm my why is more of why does Jimmy even? Why is Jimmy
supporting Roman after everything that he did, pummeling him into the ground, you
know, all these things that just is really unforgivable to come back to,
and all of a sudden, Jimmy just sympathizes and signs with Roman. Now
we can project forward and assume the answer is going to be that Jay really
wanted to dethrone Jimmy or you know, whatever the case may be. And
you really were you never really had my back brother, and look what Roman
did to me. You weren't able to save me from what Roman did.
And you know I'm doing what's best for the family. I mean, you
can see, it's what's common. They have no other real narrative. But
my point is, do the fans even care about what Jimmy's explanation is?
That's the bigger question. It's not the typical Oh, I can't wait to
hear the reason, it's why are we doing this? That's the why.
That's not a good why to have when you do a heel turn and look,
I can be totally wrong. Things turn in a way that you know
that this fire is up the Bloodline story again and all that like, and
I hope it does. I'm not rooting for this to fail. It just
for the first time in all the booking and all the promos and all the
segments for the last three years, this one you're looking at, going,
huh, was this finally a misstep in the otherwise nearly perfectly told story of
the Bloodline in Roman reigns and the three year reign Because now we've about past
three years. So again I'm not going to judge it as good or bad
yet, because follow up is key to any decision you make. But I
do look at this and go, you know, you're raise an eyebrow,
You raise an eyebrow like Dwayne would and go, you know. Not only
are some fans asking the question that w W wants to ask of why Jimmy
Why, as if they're along for the ride and so interested here Jimmy's explanation
as to why he turns his back on Jay, But I think most fans
are asking why is Jimmy even doing this? Not that I'm interested in the
story or getting emotionally invested in it, but rather why this doesn't make sense.
That's not the why you want if you're WWE. But I could be
wrong. I mean not that I've ever been wrong before, but it's out
there in the ether as a possibility. So outside of that, though,
guys, the match I thought with Jay was very good. It was now
the pacing was a bit a bit questionable. I'm all four matches that slow
the hell down, but sometimes Roland Rains matches feel like they're long just to
keep him on the screen longer when it's actually coming at the cost of the
pacing of the match, of people sitting there going oh my god. It
feels a bit like if you're a baseball fan the time between pitches and MLB
has regulated this. There is an actual time limit now between pitches, but
it was identified as one of the ways to shorten the game because it is
downtime that needs to be filled. And when you add up all those seconds
in which pitchers you know, sit there, they adjust their hat, they
messed with their shirt, they wipe the sweat off their head, they put
their ball on their glove, then they step off the mouth and all these
things, right, they spit and they're just like thrilled the damn pitch right.
It kind of felt a little like that with the pacing, I need
something in between Ricochet and Logan Paul's pace and Roman reigns in Jay's pace.
That was a bit at times a little too slow for me, but overall,
physical, well told story and having Solo come out and beat up Jay
was good. Having Jay finally get those chair shots in on Roman was a
lot of fun. The table spots were good. All of that certainly was
a lot of fun to watch. Having Jay hit the spear on Roman a
couple of times, through the barricade in the ring, a couple of nice
near falls, certainly the USO splash, the I mean, all well done,
no sloppy wrestling, but you didn't expect that. It was just a
well told story. However, I feel like there was no point at which
I actually believe Jay could win this. He never felt like a true contender
throughout this whole thing, outside of just the narrative that he's a family member,
which a lot of people hung their hat on. Right, that he's
a family member, How cool it be? How apropos would it be that
an intra family member or somebody internal from in the bloodline was the one who
finally dethrown him. And I certainly get that. I understand why people would
believe that, and there's a there is a case to be made for it.
But when you're actually looking at it and you're just using your eyeballs,
you know, you're like, m, this probably ain't happening, right.
You can't tell me that Roman, or rather Jusso felt like as credible of
a threat as Cody Rhodes did, or Drew McIntyre did, or or somebody
else even Kevin Owns at one point felt like a true threat or Sammy Zane
more recently at the elimination chamber. Those men felt like true threats, and
you were genuinely excited, going, well, this is kind of the time,
let's do it, whereas Jay was like, well, you know we're
hearing reports. Roman still has a guys out there he hasn't matched up with
yet, probably ain't gonna happen, right, And so as the match went
on, you know, you're just you're looking at him, going the crowds
behind him. But I don't think the crowd truly believes that Jay can beat
Roman, and he ended up, of course not doing it because of Jimmy
pulling him out of the ring, presumably when he was about to beat Roman.
I would also like Roman to find, you know, once in a
while, win a match where he doesn't need help. I understand that's the
WWE tried and true method for heels, where the heels always need help.
I don't always want them needing help. I also also I also don't want
them always being cowards too, you know, not that Roman over is showing
cowardice, but I what about having a true badass heel that just people can't
simply beat Right and have him cheat once in a you know, once in
a while, not every single time where he needs help. Okay, now
you can say legally he did because the match was no DQ, but for
all intensive purposes, this was the heel cheating to win right and Roman has
had that more often than not throughout is run. And I think that's one
blemish on the on the run of Roman in this historic, legendary run that
none of us in our lifetimes will ever forget and we won't trust me.
But it's just a bit of a blemish, you know, or it's just
certain ideologies of what a what a baby face, and or certain characteristics I
should say of what a baby face and heel should be in wrestling. WWE
just will not let go of baby faces must be fighting champions, they'll take
on all comers, where heels cheat to win and they don't want to fight
anybody. And it's just sometimes you can blur the lines a bit and not
have it be so black and white. And I think that romans run,
you know, because if you have a massive heel run like Roman has right
now, wouldn't it be fun to actually have him just be a badass that
doesn't need help and you know, can defeat the baby faces on their own
and want to see somebody that can finally take him down. Wouldn't that be
more satisfying. I don't know, I'm going off on the tension. However,
now Roman did his usual thing as we've seen for the past three years,
holding up the championship, fireworks go off. I mean he was standing
in the aisle away. But when he was standing in the aisle away,
that meant that was what made me think nobody's coming out, because you don't
have a return when the guy's standing in the aisle way. Not that it's
never happened, but it's not something that happened and frequently. So when he
didn't stand in the ring and hold up his belts, I go, oh,
well, nope, no one's coming, No one's coming to No one's
gonna be the White Knight, no Rock, no Randy, no Rko,
none of that. So it is it's a bit disconcerting because now I don't
know Roland goes. You know, you look at this and go, where
the hell is Roman going? Yeah, I don't know who his next opponent
is. I really hope it's not Jay. I'm done with it. I'm
done with the kind of that version of the bloodline story. I'm ready to
move on. So I don't know, I don't know. You know,
when you don't have that next big opponent lined up, it just Wwe clearly
didn't want him to go there yet, which tells you that Payback is not
going to be a Roman rain show. And hey, at least this,
at least they had four main events. And I thought about that. I
know that you guys don't care as much about this as I do. No
one cares about these little things like I do. However, the reason i'm
and I hate the way that they try to tell you there's it's just lying
to your face. There's one main event, period, end of subject.
I don't care. If WrestleMania is twenty nights, it's the final match of
the final night, and whatever the night is, that's the last night.
Or if just one night, then it's the last match of the night.
But I think the reason they do that is not just marketing to make it
feel like a bigger event than it actually is, to kind of skew your
perception, but also they also they don't want to make it look like Roman
Rains has been main eventing every pay per view for the last three years,
you know, because because could you could easily make that complaint. I'm not
complaining about it, but someone could. And backstage, I'm sure people are
thinking Roman reins the main event again. Instead they're trying to sell the fans
and I think the talent backstage of well, there's four main events, No,
there's not. I mean, anybody with you know, four or five
brain cells to rub together, we'll look at this and go, you know,
don't insult my intelligence. The main event, as we all know,
is the final match. It's just it's just a law, it's just a
lie. They've tried to pluralize. Well, I said that, right.
I think it's right pluralize main event when main event inherently is a singular thing.
It just is. So I'm not buying into the narrative. To me,
Roman reigns the last match. That's the main event, period of subject.
Okay, moving on to as many of you want me to just shut
up and talk about SummerSlam, and I'm going to. So we got Logan
Paul and Ricochet, and I felt that match was a perfect way to set
the tone for the pay per view. Excellent. It was just it was
really well done, and I give the devil his due. Logan Paul,
while not perfect, should be nowhere near this good. He doesn't have any
business being this good with so few matches in front of live crowds. He
has no business being this good. I don't care, look, personal,
professional, whatever, whatever you think about it. Objectively, you cannot deny
he should not be this good right now. And I was still watching with
a keen eye, a very kind of weary eye, that somebody would get
injured, and luckily nobody did. But boy, some of the spots they
did amazing. Some of these spots they did were just I mean, John
dropping that swinging neck breaker that Ricochet did on Logan Paul. My god,
the backflip in toward Tornado DDT really good. The only the only blunder was
a recoiler or a was it a recoil where Ricochet or rather Logan Paul just
did a back bump and didn't sell that. You know, it was a
codebreaker basically, and Logan Ball didn't sell it perfectly. But my god,
am I splitting hairs. I'm trying to I'm trying to search for something that
was bad about this match. It's difficult to do. They lived up to
the hype. They just did the Spanish fly on the outside of the ring.
Huh Holy, I mean, this stuff is just insane, Logan Paul
calling it the Hogan Paul doing the boot and the leg drop that he modified
into his own so he didn't completely rip off Hoogan. About nine and then
Ricochet did the People's elbow, which was interesting to me. You know,
all of a sudden, the rock is kind of coming back through Grayson Waller
and through Ricochet. Here. I just an interesting note I don't think it
has anything to do with the rock and particularly directly with this storyline, of
course, but interesting to see and I did not expect it. But the
match went eighteen minutes and the finish was the four fifty that landed flat back
for Ricochet he missed. And then we got somebody from the crowd or from
ringside somewhere when one of Logan Paul's cronies put brass knucks on him. I
love that. Oh, brass knucks have been missed. I've greatly missed the
brass knucks finish of the old William Regal finish and having him knockout Ricochet with
the brass knucks that the referee didn't see. Brilliant, brilliant, and then
Samantha Irving having to announce Logan Paul as the winner. And she did a
good job of the facials too, I have to say, because she didn't
oversell, she didn't overreact. She just kind of sat there with quiet anger.
But you could see her subtle facials and this kind of just anger being
shown on her face. But it wasn't overdone, it wasn't overdramatic, and
it was just well done. I know, It's just a small thing,
but I enjoyed that. But this program, I don't think it's over.
I mean, that's the point of the next pay per view event called Payback,
So I would imagine that they have a rematch. I'm thinking, but
Logan Paul, who comes out of the woodwork about five six times a year
at this page, who knows. Maybe they wait till fast Lane, maybe
they way all the way to the Robber Series. I don't know, but
this was a really nice match to start and set the tone for the night.
One could argue though, that it was kind of a slow decline from
here generally, and this was just it was a great match though, good
stuff from both men. Logan Paul just the dude was like made to do
this. So all right, what's next? A lot of promos for Payback
and WrestleMania forty in Philly. That was fun to see WrestleMania x L on
the Liberty Bell. Nice logo. Let's see what else? What was the
next match? We got Cody Roads and brock Lessner. I was surprised that
they made this the second match. You know, I looked at this and
I said, wow, Okay, I guess we're doing this. The narrative
throughout the match was that they were trying to sell you is Cody doesn't ever
give up. He has the heart of a lion. And the pacing of
this match was similar to Jay in Roman, and it was a striking contrast,
even more so because I just came off for Cachet and Logan Paul,
So you're that's still fresh in your mind. When you see these two,
you think they're moving in slow motion. But the match was good and I
thought they told a good story from the perspective of the story they were trying
to tell. I think they did a nice job telling it that, you
know, Logan or loganball Brock. Lessner was trying to f five Cody Rhodes
and get him counted out, and Cody Rhodes continue to fight and beat counts
into the ring and just it was a glutton for punishment and Brock was looking
at him kind of pitifully. Eventually Cody comes back and hit his hit his
signature moves, hit the Cody Cutter, some disaster kicks and you know,
fought back and yeah, Lessner was sent into the ring post and then he
finally got the ring steps and hit Brock Lessner with it, and then Cody
took or either Lesser took Cody down with a Camara lock, and then Cody
eventually reached the bottom rope to break the hold, and then Cody used the
Camara on Brock and Lessener t's tapping out, but he eventually drove Cody into
the mat and then Lessner hoisted up Cody for an at five, but Cody
slipped out and hit Crossroads. Of course he has to hit it three times,
which it's the one criticism about this match, not just that, I
mean I kind of am on the train that I'm not a still I'm not
a fan of the baby face Cody Rhodes. He feels too produced as a
wrestling baby face, and he feels too pandering, which always is a massive
turn off for me. However, really good, I mean, he knows
his stuff. He's a polished pressler. It's just it's just not my flavor,
that's all. And if you don't like a certain flavor, it doesn't
mean you don't respect other people that like it. And so my point is
the Crossroads thing, and this has nothing to do specifically against Cody. It's
just generally speaking that in this instance applies to Cody, why should you be
hitting your finish three times now? Your answer could be, well, you
know, he knows it's not going to put Brock down for a three count.
Well, how do you know any The thing is Cody has also done
this many times before, and it's just it diminishes the significance of your finish
because it tells the crowd, oh, well, one's not effective enough,
he's going to have to go for three. And I just I'm not a
fan of that. A finish is exactly what that is. It's a finishing
maneuver. If you don't have faith in your finish, maybe you should change
it. And actually, in Cody's case, it's a difficult finish for the
receiving person to take. I mean, I haven't seen the Crossroads be sold
well, I mean more often than not, it's it's not it's a difficult
move to sell because there's so much torque and you got to hit it right.
And I know it's never gonna change. But I don't like the Crossroads.
I don't. It never looks like it affects it. Actually, most
of the time is delivered. And you guys know, I'm right about this.
Whether you love Cody or not, most of the time that the Crossroads
is delivered, it looks like most of the damage is on Cody and not
the opponent, because half the time, Cody's the one taking the bump and
they're trying to sell it like the you know that that all the opponent's heads
being spiked into the mat, and you're like, it didn't even come close,
like not even close. And by the way, if it's performed expertly,
what are we supposed to buy into as to why this finish is so
devastating? Cody is still taking a bump. I mean, so, I
just I'm not a fan of Crossroads because it's never executed well and even when
it is, it's you're still looking at it going well, Cody's still bumping
like well, it's like, I don't know, It's not as bad as
the big ending from Biggie, which is probably one of the worst endings of
all time, worst finishers of all time in my estimation, But Crossroads is
just is It's just it's not an easy move to make look good or convincing
to be a finish. I've said enough about that. But Cody Roads won
Okay, Cody Rhodes pinn Lessener after that Third Crossroads got the victory, got
the you know that that chapter of his story is complete. So we still
don't know since April, I thought it was May April. We still don't
know why the hell Brock attack Cody the night after WrestleMania. We have no
idea, zero, We don't know. It's ridiculous that they just said,
hey, we're gonna put Brock with Cody, and we're gonna say, hey,
we're not going to give the crowd an answer as to why we're just
gonna do it. It's lazy, insulting booking. Even if the execution of
the matches are good, the storytelling has been bad. Sorry, you can't
give us a basic element of storytelling. You hit the road, pal.
I'm just frustrated by that. However, the matches have been executed well,
and that's enough of a deodorizer for most people to go add and give a
damn about the story. I just the matches have been great. Who cares?
And that's that's good. That's that's you, bro You know I do
care about storytelling. That's what foundationally pro wrestling is built on. Okay,
but this matches. This program's over. As brock Lesner showed the sign of
respect to Cody and gave him a hug, and I think they made out
a little bit in the ring, and you know, which is very un
brock Lesner, Like I have to say, so brock Lessener, though,
essentially turns baby face. And I think that they did that because the next
time that we see Brock could be against Gunther at WrestleMania. I mean,
that's my guest, but I've also heard conflicting reports that Brock's going to be
around from now to WrestleMania. So either way, whoever Brock's next opponent is,
whether it's all the way until WrestleMania season and Brock comes back towards the
Rumble, or it's a round at Payback. Whoever he's facing next is a
heel. That's to me what this told me. And sure they have signs
of respect, and all of a sudden, Cody's smiling at Brock after all
he did a yeah, yeah, yeah, But it was just I understand
why they did it. I don't disagree. If you're going to end a
program, end it that way to really send a message, drive it home
to fans that brock Leser Cody Rhodes is finished. So it is. It's
done. Good, great, right, all right, let's go here the
Battle Royal. My gosh, guys, the Battle Royal. This was the
third man on the card. It had Kaiser, Nkamuro, Waller, Riddle,
shame As Butch holland Cruz Escobar. I'm not gonna go through all of
them, you know, And of course let me talk to you mister la
Knight was the star of the show. Now surprisingly Omas came back and he
was a force to be reckoned with in the match, doing double eliminations.
He looked decent in the match, as he does in and Omas. I
will always continue to say this. He may not be as charismatic or rather
as technically sound as his younger and you know, lighter, shorter counterparts,
but for his size, he is good for his size, and I will
continue to say that he's never gonna put on a five star match for you,
at least how we define five star matches in twenty twenty three. But
for his size, again, I think he is more than equipped to put
on good matches. I really respect the progress Omas has made. Now you
knew he was going to be a big threat. Eventually he is the one
that's he has eliminated. And Lae Knight was the one after like five guys
piled on Omas. Elia Knight was the one that he was the straw that
broke the camel's back, the broverbial camel's back, and he was the one
that finally helped push a moss over. And that was interesting because'm like,
they're trying to push the guy that in which five other men are really the
ones doing the heavy lifting, and he's just going to come over and basically
lift a finger and help, you know, put a moss over, and
there we're supposed to go, Wow. Elie Knight's the one that did it,
and they didn't try to sell it like that, but I was worried
they were. And Elie Knight also I think corrected or made good on his
botch with a Shamus on SmackDown where they did that spot at the top rope.
It was a hurricane ronner or a suplex, but neither fell off.
They did, you know, they executed it the way that they wanted to,
so that I understand why they did that. I would too. And
la Knight wins Lnight wins. It came down to the two men you thought
it was going to come down to, and Shamus and La Knight. They
didn't do any tomfoolery, They didn't do any you know, trying to push
him without pushing him. I think the strategy. I think we can finally
declare that the reverse psychology or the sneaky underhanded method of pushing La Knight by
not pushing him or whatever. The case is over. And I think while
winning about a Royal isn't exactly something you put on your resume as a you
know, a top a top accolade, but it's a starting point. And
that was the message, and well, actually the message was La Knight has
arrived from Michael Cole, and Michael Cole said that about somebody else, and
we'll get to that a little later in the show. But that was kind
of W's way of saying, Okay, here we go, let's do this
and again winning a bottle Royal, which was hilarious to me because if you
watch the video package, and I actually appreciate them trying to attempt to put
a video package together for a Battle Royal. When's the last time WWE did
that? Typically it's a throwaway, mean nothing everyone that's got no actual program
going on in the match to get in ring time. You know all that,
and I get that, but I can't remember the last time they actually
had any kind of effort put towards a video package for a Battle Royal.
However, it wasn't a video package for a Battle Royal. It was a
video package from Royal Rumbles being used and trying to repackaged as a promo for
a Battle Royal. Right, much different from a Royal Rumble to a Battle
Royal. Now, there were some Battle Royal footage moments in there, but
the Rock. They put the Rock in there. The Rock never was I
mean, at least cut a promo in a Battle world. I don't even
know if the Rock was involved in an actual Battle royld. I'm sure in
his career he was. But the actual audio he was talking about was in
a Royal Rumble. Might have been Royal Rumble two thousand. They think we
weren't going to catch this Royal Rumble in Battle Royal. Two very different things.
Yes, the mode of elimination is the same, but very different as
to the what's at stake and how the entrance come out very different and anyway,
anyway, I just found that funny or I don't, I don't know
what I guess funny is the word. I'm like this is this is mostly
footage from Royal rumbles. What are you talking about? Right? But to
their credit, I will give them that at least they did do something to
promote and make the winner of the Royal Battle Royal have a little bit of
a shine. Right. So whatever La Knight wins, crowd was super into
La Knight, super into it. And Michael Cole kept talking about the ground
swell and now that you know the crowd reaction to l Ae Knight, and
then the fans finally have something to seek their sink their teeth into. All
true. That knows. People that look at this and say no w W
either not do anything to push l A Night and they haven't been. But
yet the ground swell has continue to grow. And they they had no choice
here but to have Elia Knight win. They could not go another time,
They could not have him lose again. It was time. There's really nothing
at stake. You could go anywhere with this. It's a starting point.
Now where did they go? We will see, we shall see. I
think l A Night's gonna, I mean, probably use this victory as a
selling point to Adam Pierce to get himself involved in the US title. That's
my guess. Directly one on one against Austin theory, that's my guess.
So all right, ron Rolsi, Shana Basler. This sum was seven and
a half minutes and an MMA rules match. The referee was on the mic,
well on the camera's mic, explaining the rules to Rousey and Basler,
and a MMA type production. That's how MMA starts their matches with the referee
kind of going over the basic rules and except it's competed in an octagon.
But overall, it was a nice start to the match, even though the
crowd again it was leaning Shana booing, but also slightly indifferent against Ronda.
To their defense, the crowd was also a little bit burned out from the
previous three matches La and I Brock and the showcase that was Logan, Paul
and Ricochet, so the crowd's energy level was significantly deteriorated already by this point.
Add that to the fact that most of the fans look at it this
going, I guess Rona is the baby or the Ron's the heel. But
I don't really know, right, I don't know, it's sure whatever,
And I do have to say one thing before I forget. It made a
difference with the crowds not being in London or the you know, or Puerto
Rico or Saudi Arabia, the crowd in Detroit, you guys, you were
not a sustained You didn't have a sustained energy level. You came alive for
some things. And Ford Field. I looked up from what I could see
anyway from the cameras, and it does have a roof, so I was
worried all the sound's gonna escape through the roof into the open you know,
into the open sky. No, there's a roof, so you'd imagine that
any sound should trap and be reverberated and things be louder than the otherwise would
be Nope. I mean again, for fifty nine thousand people, there were
times where you guys like fell asleep and it made me long for the days
of of the previous three pls Postmania. Now again, I'm not insulting you
guys in Detroit. It's just the way that US crowds are. There's very,
very much lulls and times where people need time to recharge, no doubt.
I mean, hell, my own city here in Albany, we do
the same thing. It's just kind of and every every event I've been to
almost has been like that. But when you go from pls being you know
you're used to now crowds going bananas for every match and every move, no
energy level drop to this. It's just a striking difference, and it does
make a difference on the show and how you perceive the show too. It
just did so all right back to the match, it was okay, and
I might be being generous here. It wasn't disastrous, It wasn't embarrassing.
It was just people looking at this going, I don't know if I really
care who wins this. I really think that's how people viewed this. Again,
not embarrassing effort was there by both women. They did. I think
they executed the MMA rules stipulation the best that they possibly could have given.
It's in w w W E ring, So the kicks and the punches and
the kick though by Shana on Ronda looked brutal. I don't know how you
fake that one. It was either you know, the best kick of all
time, or she made some contact, So that kick to Ronda was really
well done. The fact that Michael Cole pointed out that Ronda has never tapped
gloves with anyone in her career was I enjoyed that little tidbit by Michael Cole
and Ronda losing here after Shana made her pass out. It was a technical
submission, was the right call. Ronda looked a little bit disheveled after the
loss, you know, she she looked like she wanted to go back into
her hole and wherever she came when she went into the Holly Home depressions,
looked like it looked like that's where she wanted to go back to. So
perhaps she will be I mean, I really don't know if people are going
to cry that Ronda Rousy goes away or maybe that is it for Ronda,
whatever her contract is saying, but it was This match was definitely a kind
of a snack break. And the reason is simply because the characters aren't emotionally
the crowd is not emotionally invested in the characters. They just aren't, and
this pairing didn't make it any easier because Ronda's inherently unlikable. Shane is the
one that actually they portrayed try to be the heel at the beginning, and
she is. I don't know if she's ever been a baby face in her
main roster career. So the fans were just like, I don't know what
to do here. They told a good story in the video packages, but
even after the video packages last week, you're looking at it going cool.
I know the backstory, but who do I cheer for? Again? What
am I supposed to do? It was still kind of an indifference. So
all right, let's keep going here. Early a match or two left.
We've got seth rollins, Finnbaler and Oh No, no, no, no,
no, my bad, Gunther and Drew McIntyre for the icy title physical
as hell as you'd imagine, Physical as hell, McIntyre setting up to the
Claymore a couple of times. Gunther saw it coming. Gunther and his dropkicks.
I think some of those drop kicks, I think one of them was
supposed to be or was Drew McIntyre's Claymore, And I think Michael Cole labeled
it as a Claymore or a drop kick, when in fact I think Gunther
minute meant it to be a claymore anyway, this match was again both men's
chests are brutal this morning. I'm sure the effort was there. I think
the standard was unfairly placed on this match to meet WrestleMania equality standards, and
I don't think they WrestleMania quality, but it was certainly main event quality if
they if they put this on as the main event, I would have been
like, m okay, Like you know, in some respects, I would
have liked it to go on last. But it was pretty apparent when they
brought up the Honky Tonk Band that Gunther's only thirty two now, thirty one
days away from beating that that record and being able to claim he is the
longest running intercontinental heavyweight champion of all time. You knew immediately you're going,
that's not that belts not going anywhere. They have an opportunity to crack that.
They are not going to touch that, right They're not going to touch
Gunther right now. So we had Gunther beat Drew. I think this was
absolutely the right call, absolutely the right call. So thirty two days though,
guys, that puts you past payback, So there's zero chance that Gunther
loses that payback if he's defending his title, So the next time he could
is a fast Lane in October, if that's where they want to go,
just to get Gunther over the hump, being able to have him claim that
he's the longest running Icy title, and I mean, maybe he loses it
at Survivor Series and then he goes on to face brock Lesnar at WrestleMania forty,
which is the rumored match right now. But before we get to that
again, this match with McIntyre, I can't complain about it. And in
the least, it's about almost a fourteen minute match, and it was Gunther
and here's the most important part, winning clean over McIntyre. It was the
right move, no doubt about it, and having Gunther hit the top rope
splash, but then he followed up with a lariat and a power bomb stacked
him up win. I enjoyed the match. I just it wasn't It didn't
blow me away. But I sat there and go, I'm engaged, right,
I'm engaged. Two men are beating the hell out of each other.
Both men are established stars. Gunther is on his way to being a world
champion in the next year or two, depending on Roman and of course what
Brandy's on and all that. But Gunther's on his way, well on his
way. So I'm excited for you for his career. And this isn't hurting
Drew and the least, not in the least. All Right, what do
we got next, Seth and Finn? Okay, let me say that I
love, I really do enjoy Michael Cole. I think he is an unsung
hero. Corey Graves said he's the goat the grace of all time. I
don't know if he's ever heard of the name Jim Ross, but Jim Ross,
I mean what Everyone's got their own. Of course, opinion is a
subjective. They are, That's what they are. But I'm just like,
Okay, Cole's he's very good. But really he's better than Jim Ross,
at least in his heyday. Anyway, I give Cole all the credit in
the world. He is on his game most of the time. He knows,
he inserts things. It's like, you can tell he does his damn
homework. You could tell he prepares for the matches by going in and getting
in depth information and you know, spitting facts about stuff that we may not
know about that individual like Rona Rowsy and the touching of the gloves that was
a nice little I'm like, oh cool, I didn't know that. That
shows that she actually respects from you know, Shana all that like little things
like that. He does very well and he has a ton of experience,
he's seen it all. But for some reason, and this is not specific
to Cole, although Cole seems to be a constant offender of this, and
it's a I'm sorry, it's a fatal flaw in an announcer that they just
can't help themselves when they do this, they cannot help themselves. It's just
an itch they have to scratch. I don't know what, for the love
of God can announcers, and I guess I'm talking to call the most specifically,
when somebody is about to or somebody has a false finish coming, can
you not say the opposite of what's going to happen? What I mean by
this is Finn's gonna win the World Hippood Championship right here, right or gun,
there's got whatever the case may be. Once an announcer says that'll do
it, that'll do it. We have a new champion. The moment I
hear that, I tune out, And isn't that the most important part of
the match. If you hear those words, you're you're sitting there going shut
the f up? Can you and can you use different words when we're in
that scenario. Tell me the last time that you heard an announcer say,
Cole, if you want to use him, say we're going to have a
new champion right here and it actually happened. No. And I understand that
their job is to make the crowd believe take them on a ride, bah
bah bah bah. But what you're doing is doing, in fact, the
exact opposite. When you say that, we have been conditioned to know the
opposite is happening. There might be rare exceptions, but over my twenty five
plus years of watching wrestling, I have been conditioned by Again, this is
not specific to Coal, but Cole seems to be the most most prominent offender
of announcers doing this. At the moment that the near falls happening, they
try to make you believe the opposite is happening, in which case you know
whatever they say is not happening, if that makes sense. So that kills
it for me, because there have been some near falls that go I actually
don't know, this could be it. And the second that I hear an
announcer say that'll be it. We have a new champion or so and so
is going to retain the championship, I go, h, well, that's
not happening. Here comes a kick out right, it's it's infuriating. So
Cole, buddy love, you find a new way to announce or or to
to what's oor position? I guess position that moment to perceive that moment,
that the way that you want the h the fans to perceive it. The
fans inherently will think that's it. But when you say that's it, we
know it's not. Think about when when? When go listen to when finishes
actually happened in the three count happens? Cole, I've never heard him say
and that'll do it. All he'll say is oh gun, the stacks him
up, and then I'll go quiet, and then that's it. Like so,
either if you don't know what to say, shut up, or if
you do, be consistent when you go back and listen to some tape of
when finishes happened and listen to what you're saying. So that when near falls
are happening that fans may believe is the finish, but it's not. You're
saying or doing the same thing that you would during an actual three count or
submission so that it's more believable. Does that make sense? It was just
it happened like three times or more throughout the event last night. Okay onto
Finn and Seth boy. Okay, a lot happening in this match. This
could have also easily made event of the entire pay per view, but we
were told it's one of the main events. Lol. This match also got
eighteen minutes. Eighteen minute seems to be that sweet spot that was allocated to
like three different matches. But this was good, really good. They did
bring back the spot as I had predicted of Finn and Seth that happened the
injury that happened seven years ago a Wrestling or Summer Slim twenty sixteen during the
Universal title match, except that it was this time Seth doing it to or
rather Finn doing it Seth. But nonetheless, this was I really enjoyed this.
This was a very traumatic match, one that I actually predicted Finn to
win. And actually I don't have any issue that Seth one other than the
fact that I think Finn winning the world title would have been more fun because
Damien would have been lurking and there's that tension there, and then all the
Judgment Day was holding gold. But this now they clearly are just pointing towards
Finn leaving the group, turning baby face and him and Finn, him and
Aamian priests is going to get into a program. And then that that makes
you wonder, well, what Seth gonna do? I mean, Seth,
I guess could go back to Finn one more time at payback, but we
shall see. So this again really good stuff here. I enjoyed most of
what happened. Of course, we get the full Judgment Day group coming out
to try to help Finn and the ku de graw. When when when when
Damian or rather Finn hit the cou de gra, I said, oh my
god, this this actually could be it and Seth kicked out. So really
good stuff. Dom and Rha get involved. They were I think they were
hooded or something. Maybe they weren't, but really fun, a lot of
fun Dom getting did he get pedigreed on the out, now he got stomped
on the outside, So that was fun watching Dom get his ass kicked.
And so that whole miscommunication between Balor and Finn happened when Priests threw the briefcase
into the ring, presumably to help Finn, but it ended up being Seth
who used it as a platform to stomp Finn's face off of and that is
what prompted the three counts. So quite interesting, and we all know I
think where this is going. All right, we get a sponsored segments with
Mike's hard Lemonade with Gable, Otis, Maxi and Duprie and of course them
is and they're talking about Mike's I don't even know why I'm talking about this.
Let's move on. Osca Bianca Charlotte WWE Women's Championship. The match started
out slow, you know, and I'm you know, this actually got twenty
one minutes. My god, I'm reading this now twenty one is it did
feel that long? It was a long match, unnecessarily long. I thought
one that I think they could have easily put Trician, Becky and Lynch into
and each gets ten minutes, or even Becky and Trish get eight minutes,
and this match could have got twelve minutes. But I don't want to hear
that they couldn't fit Becky and Trish into this. I mean, there's just
no excuse none, that's just it's disappointing. But okay, this was This
match was fun, I guess, you know, again, slow to start,
slowly even in the middle, but ramped up towards the end as most
finishes do. And it ended with Bianca Belare feigning an injury, which you
know, you weren't actually sure if it was an injury or not, because
they did a good job of making you wonder as a fan, so that
was nice. And then have hering her limp out like she had torn you
know, her achilles heel and you know her acl and her mcl limping and
she couldn't put any weight on that thing on her way out, and then
suddenly she finds it in her to self medicate and go, you know,
just have some kind of divine intervention when she needs to hit a four or
fifty splash, suddenly she has the ability to do it. That's the part
I understand. She did a nice job selling the injury up until it came
to the point where she actually had to use the leg that she was selling
to perform in a maneuver in which case, all of a sudden, her
leg worked perfectly, and then she went back to selling it. It's like,
no, no, no, no, that's not how that works.
It's not like your leg is saying you saying to you, Okay, you're
I'm gonna be unusable until you need me to actually you need to actually use
me. That's that's not how injuries work. That's not how your body works,
right, So I was a bit off put by that. However,
Bianca Bellair did get to victory. Oscar sprayed the mist in Charlotte's face.
Roll up one, two, three, blah, blah, blah blah.
We got a new w W Women's Champion in Bianca bell Air. That didn't
last long though, because, as maybe people predicted, since the wwe can't
keep the briefcase on the women for more than five seconds, is Eo Sky
cashing in, Bailey went on a tear hitting everyone with the briefcase. I
enjoyed that that that was a nice version of Bailey and having Eo Sky versus
Bianca bell Air. She beats Bianca bell Air becomes the new w Women's Champion.
Crowd went crazy as they should have, because no one wants to see
Bianco bell Air's champion again, at least not this point, at this point,
and Bailey did not turn on EO, So that turn that we were
all waiting for it didn't happen. We just it just didn't end. U.
They're waiting on that. And EO got a great pop. I mean
they, I mean just an enormous pop. It was well deserved. It
was really fun to hear the crowd get behind her. And I also think
it was let's change it up right. It doesn't need to be the same
few women that are trading the belt back and forth. Let's give it to
somebody that is a fresh face and is in a group that honestly need.
I thought they were actually dead. I didn't know that they were still a
group. Corey Graves pointed out that they actually debuted a year ago and a
year later, here they are and Dakota Kai came out and she had been
injured. I don't know if she's still injured and just made a cameo.
But seeing them all together, it was the night. It was a feel
good moment. The crowd loved it. The crowd absolutely dug this and they
should have EO Sky's champion. So all right, this was this is pretty
much it because I already covered the main event, so overall, everybody again,
if I was to rate this, I'd give it a six out of
ten. This event no big returns did hurt just because there were there were
lofty expectations here. It felt kind of just like a B pay per view,
except the B pay per views actually overperformed where the big events, that
is, they're wrestlemanting the summer and stadium show. Now they just kind of
made it a ho hum, slightly above average show. I mean, it
felt like a SmackDown on steroids. You know, it wasn't as you know,
I don't know, I'm not trying to crap on Summer Slam. But
after the last three p l's postmania, you hear the crowd reactions, just
deafening crowd reactions to everything. Everyone overperformed, the matches exceeded all that,
and then all of a sudden, the Summer Slim happens and you're just like,
oh, all right, well that was okay, and you're looking forward
to just seeing seeing what happens next because it feels like everyone's at a crossroads.
Right now, no pun intended. Cody's moving on to something different.
EO Sky is going to find a new opponent. La Night is the starting
point. You don't know who his first real opponent's going to be. Maybe
Austin theory. You know, the role of the Jo Roman Reigns thing is
done. Jimmy and Jay apparently you're going to fight if anyone cares about that.
And so you have a lot going on, and you also have to
finish up Trishan Becky, which is perplexing they didn't put this on the event.
I think it would have really helped. Actually, so there's a lot.
There's a lot here Logan, Paul and Britochet probably one of the few
that are continuing their program and maybe through payback. So all right, that'll
do it for my show. Guys, continue to support me if you like
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You can't miss it. So oh all right, thank you guys. For
listening. I really appreciate it. I'll be back tomorrow night with mister Anthony
DeMarco to cover a little bit of SummerSlam, get his thoughts and takes,
and then it'll be just a normal week as we get closer and closer to
Payback. That's our next stop. So thanks everybody for listening, Take care,
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