Let's talk about mental health. Mental health is increasingly important in something none of
us like to address. Are you stuck or does your mind have you dressing
sharp but feeling dull? Perhaps it's time to talk to a life coach.
Meet fellow WWE podcast listening and wrestling fan Steve from a Damn Healthy Dose of
Coaching. Steve is a certified ADHD life coach and getting you unstuck is what
he does. Period working together, he'll come up with strategies and provide you
with the tools you need to set you on the way. Follow at Damnhealthy
Doose on Instagram or x or visit damnhealthydose dot com. That's damdose dot com.
You can also email Steve at damnhealthydose dot com. That's Steve Steev at
damnhealthydose dot com directly for a free thirty minute consultation mention this podcast and Steve
will provide you with the first two sessions for free to see if life coaching
is a fit for you. Again damnhealthydose dot com. This is WWE superstar
Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the WWE podcast show, the one that everybody
wants me. God's good for sixteen So just what your ass? This is
my iron. You're gonna acknowledge me? What's going on? Everybody, Guys
and girls, Welcome back to another edition of the SmackDown Review right here on
the ww podcast. As always on one of the hosts of the show,
Michael Ritter. You can find me on x formerly known as Twitter at Michael
five Ritter, and also one of the hosts of the Football Function podcast,
available on all of your podcasting platforms, including on Patreon if you prefer an
ad free experience. WHOA, that was a pretty good episode of SmackDown.
Right impactful, as one word that I would use to describe it. Not
a whole lot of segments like it wasn't just packed full of like six seven
different segments with backstage interviews and video packages galore things like that. It was
more so focused on the segments that were on the show, giving them depth.
So I really appreciated that the segments that you know, it took place
from start to finish, I felt like all mint something, especially the start
and obviously the finish, which is typically how the shows go. So just
an all around good episode of SmackDown, and obviously This episode of SmackDown took
place on November tenth, twenty and twenty three from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus,
Ohio. Shout out to DJ Cuzmo for the location breakdown. So let's
get into it right now. This episode's coming on Saturday, Saturday afternoon.
Had to work, so my work schedule once again interfering with this. But
I've noticed that this is kind of becoming a trend, right This is kind
of becoming one of the, I guess, more normal things to happen here
lately with my schedule. So here's what we're gonna do. I am going
to try to make it up to you guys for having a little bit of
a later show at least that I record, by giving you a little bit
of bonus content at the end of the episode. If you're a loyal listener,
then you're very familiar with what we used to call Top five Fridays here
on the SmackDown Review. Now, obviously it's not Friday. I'm recording this
on Saturday, So how about we do something somewhat like a stack them up
Saturday, pretty much the exact same concept. I'm going to rank my top
five of something anytime one of these episodes is late, just as a way
to make it up to you, just to give you a little bit of
bonus content towards the end of the episode, So stay tuned for that,
because this time in particular, I'm going to give you my top five spears.
A lot of people do the spear, a lot of people have used
the spear as they're finishing move over the years. So I am going to
give you my top five. This is mine very subjective list, per usual,
and you know, as always, feel free to respond with your top
five. Who you think should have been on my list? Who did I
get wrong? Who did I misplace? I would love to hear. I
would love to hear your opinion on the spear because it's always been one of
my favorite moves. So we'll get into that towards the end of the episode.
First things first, we got some business to talk about here, and
that is this episode of SmackDown. So let's go ahead and get into it,
starting with the way that the show opened, which is this whole LWO
dilemma, specifically with Raymastereo. But before Raymisterio came out, Kevin Owens came
out guest on commentary had a nice little tie. He was on commentary up
until a little Austin Theory Grayson Waller debacle that took place. We'll talk about
that a little bit later, but I will say phenomenal job by Kevin Owens.
He just brings a lot. You know, you see former wrestlers put
themselves on the commentary table. Look at Taz, look at Jerry the King
Waller. Obviously Corey Graves has history of being in the ring. It's just
a way bear, It's just something that is a very common transition as a
wrestler will go from being an active wrestler on the roster to possibly calling the
action at ringside. So seeing Kevin Owens thrive in that role not a surprise
to me at all. I would definitely consider or I'd be interested in seeing
him possibly take that path after his wrestling career is over. He's been around
for a pretty long time. I know that My knowledge of Kevin Owens pro
wrestling career, I guess is what you want to phrase, it dates back
to like two thousand and eight. He was on that star studded two thousand
and eight Ring of Honor roster. So that's how I was introduced to him,
not necessarily in real time, obviously, I was not watching A Ring
of Honor back in two thousand and eight. But whenever I heard about Kevin
Steen and they were talking about his history and where I could go look him
up to find, you know, some of his best work, that's where
I was pointed. So clearly, he's been around for a while, well
over like fifteen years. At this point, he's already a family man.
He has kids that are grown up at this point, damn near So obviously,
Kevin Owens is someone that you know, the clock isn't taking on his
career, but I would imagine that he has a lot more matches behind him
than ahead of him, and that would be a phenomenal transition just whenever his
wrestling days are over. A way to keep him around, keep his personality
and his charisma right there close to the vest by having him, you know,
just move over to the commentary table. But anyways, back to the
show, Raymisterio and LWO come out, and he's pretty much just addressing the
obvious. You know, he's addressing the elephant in the room. He lost
his US title this past Saturday a week ago. Right now, from when
I'm recording this to Logan Paul, and clearly it's you know, a pretty
big deal. It's a big deal from you know, for all parties.
Number One, ray Masterio lost a championship. That's not going to hurt his
his resume or anything like that. But who he lost it to That's where
some people might have a problem. Obviously, Logan Paul was not there tonight.
What kind of championship rain is this going to be? Is it going
to be one where he's just kind of in kind of out Do they just
do this as like a publicity stunt. I don't really know. I have
to wait and let it all play out and then I'll you know, be
able to have an opinion on it. But as we sit here right now,
you know, I picked Logan Paul to win that match because I thought
that it made sense. But I thought that, you know, his schedule
was free up or freed up for the near future where he would be able
to make these types of appearances, especially for a night like this. But
clearly the US title itself really wasn't the focal point in this whole little segment
here. Raymonsterio lost it, but you know he acknowledged the brass knuckle part
of this whole thing. You know, he brought up that, hey,
I would still have that championship if it wasn't for Logan Paul using the brass
knuckles. And then outcomes Carlito, one of my you know, I like
seeing Carlito. I will say, you know, out of all the wrestlers
that I see, he's one of my favorites that you know, just kind
of pops in here and there. I'm waiting for him to, you know,
be more involved. I'm waiting for him to have a bigger role,
and we might be getting there based off what we saw on this episode of
SmackDown, because he comes out and he flat out says it. You know,
every now and then, there's those situations where you kind of want to
call somebody out, you know that they need to be called out, and
it would pretty much just serve everybody involved. It would do them justice just
to you know, point out something. And that's exactly what Carlito does here
by telling Rey Mysterio that he's pretty much blaming the wrong person. Like,
look, Logan Paul didn't pull those brass knuckles out of his boot himself.
KSI wasn't out there dressed up as a prime bottle and slid this to him.
It was one hundred percent someone who you wouldn't expect you should be looking
and blaming. Santos has kebabra. It's exactly Carlito said it, but pretty
much he just tells Ray look Santos is the one that slid those brass knuckles
to him, dude, like you're blaming the wrong person. Santos is absolutely
just furious about this. He's losing his mind, like you're seriously gonna blame
me, Like this is my family. I was here in LWO before you.
I mean, they're kind of bickering back and forth. They pretty much
have to be split up. Santos eventually leaves, you know, he exits
through the Samantha Irvin area. I know she's not the SmackDown ring announcer,
but you know what I'm talking about now, right right over there where the
ring announcers, it's and obviously Ray Masterio and Zelina Vega chase him. They
try to get him to stop. He's too mad. So you kind of
got an idea on where this was going to go because it was rumored earlier
in the show that there was going to be a quote unquote turn, someone
was going to turn. It was going to be a pretty big deal.
And this is what we thought, you know, this is what we thought.
It was like, Okay, here we go, like Santo's Escabar is
for whatever reason not happy with the LWO and he's just deciding to be the
one that's going to drive a wedge in this group. And immediately after this
opening segment we get a match Carlito set to go one on one with Bobby
Lashley, and I still throwback match here. I was enjoying this. If
you just picture those two in their early runs in WWE, like Carlito without
the facial hair, wearing the unbuttoned like Hawaiian type shirt or like beat shirt
with the apple in hand, looking at Bobby Lashley pretty much looks the exact
same that he looked back then, minus just a little bit of a gear
change. But all in all, these two dudes have a aged very well.
Seeing them in a match in twenty twenty three on SmackDown, had to
tip my cap a little bit, had to kind of give a little bit
of a you know, round of applause, because it's not easy to maintain
a professional athlete's physique over all these years. Professional wrestling brutal, brutal lifestyle.
Like it's pretty much like you your whole life is to get thrown on
your back, Like that is what you do for a living essentially, is
yeah, I mean what do you get? What do you do for a
living? While I work in an office? No, I staid at a
computer desk. I do this, I do accounting, this or that.
You know, I'm involved in landscaping. I am a lawyer. You know,
there's all types of different career paths professional wrestlers. They just so happen
to get thrown on their back. They power bomb people. You know,
it's a it's a unique line of work. That's why it's not easy to
get into. That's why it's extremely hard. Only the strong survive is a
very real statement whenever you're talking about the path to being a professional wrestler.
And I've always given my respect to people who you know, have it in
them to do this because it's it's a sport that gets fun poked at a
lot. We all know why it is what it is. Not everybody understands
it, and I don't expect them to. So the people who kind of
tough it out, they stick it out, and you know, they put
their body through hell. I always want to give them a little bit of
extra respect. And then whenever you talk about professionals, you know, doing
it at the tip top level, that's where it points you back to these
two, you know. I mean, I don't know when exactly Carlito was
involved in the whole John Cena stabbing him in a nightclub. I feel like
that had to have been sometime in the two thousand and five range. I
don't know for sure. I know that John Cena had to have been on
SmackDown, right, and then John Cena moved over to Raw in two thousand
and six. I know that it didn't happen then. But then again,
I could be very wrong in this situation. It's all kind of blurry,
but I do know that. You know, obviously, Bobby Lashley showed up
there in the mid two thousands as well, pretty much just representing easy to
you had a nice run on SmackDown to Bobby Lashley had potential, Like I
don't really know exactly who I would compare him to in terms of athletes like
from other sports who just kind of came in, they dominated, they took
a little bit of time off, they came back next thing, you know,
Bam, they have a whole second chapter of their career and it ends
up being phenomenal. Maybe Michael Vick, I don't know for sure if that
would be a you know, an accurate comparison, But if you think about
Michael Vick, you know, obviously being with the Falcons, that's Bobby Lashley
in his first run with WWE, where he was just so raw, such
a you know, untapped potential, just all that talent there waiting to be
unleashed. And then obviously Bobby Lashley leaves the WWE, Michael Vick goes to
prison. A little bit of a different comparison. That's where the comparisons kind
of stop right there, but they kind of picked back up whenever you think
about Michael Vick eventually had a rejuvenated, a resurrected career with the Philadelphia Eagles,
where he mastered his ability to throw the football, played with any Reid,
had just you know, a beautiful connection with the Shan Jackson, Jeremy
Macklin, Lashawn McCoy, Brent Selick, the phenomenal Eagles offensive line that they've
had for such a pretty long time. You look at Bobby Lashley now he's
back, has the Street Profits. He was doing his thing with the Hurt
business. Like, Bobby Lashley has had a nice second run here in the
WWE. It's been like four years now or something like that. It's been
a pretty long time, and I'm just not eager to see him take any
time off. I'll just say that I think Bobby Lasty's kind of hitting a
stride again here, and comparing him to Michael Vick is a pretty accurate comparison.
I'm glad I was able to nail one there, or I feel like
I nailed it. You might think I'm a little bit off. Give me
your opinion. I want to know if you feel like I could have,
you know, had a different lay up there with another athlete comparison for Bobby
Lashley. Definitely let me know because I'm into that type of thing. But
anyways, Bobby Lashley wins this match with Carlito, and after the match is
over, you already know his boys, the Street Profits in himself. If
they start putting a beat down on Carlito is their new thing. They beat
people up. After the match, we see Befab backstage watching on a JumboTron
or just a television screen. But that's just kind of, you know,
teasing that she's going to be joining the group. So I thought she might
go out, but Lena Vega left to go chase Santo's escobar, so it
really wouldn't have made sense for her to go out then. But the fact
that they showed her, they gave her some airtime, they acknowledged her,
it just lets you know that it's happening. So be prepared for, you
know, an inevitable b Fab joining. Whatever this group is called. I
hope they get a name. I want to continue to call them the Street
Profits, but I can't just say Bobby Lashley in the Street Profits. Like,
no, this isn't a band. You know, this isn't Casey in
the Sunshine Band. You know, this isn't Hoody and the Blowfish. You
know, we need a solid faction name for this group, and I do
believe it will come in due time. Let's see, let's move on to
another little part of the show. Not a lot of segments like I mentioned
to begin, so we're gonna kind of just talk about the next thing that
pops up here. Dragon Lee defeated Cedric Alexander, speaking of her business via
pinfall DDT was the move that he used. It does look like Dragon Lee
starting to get a little bit more exposure just in terms of matches. What
this is two and out of three weeks or something like that. He's getting
more and more TV time. It does seem like maybe SmackDown has a plan
for him. That's where you know, the Cruiserweight Championship being Is this still
a thing on NXT? I honestly don't know. I don't watch a XT,
so I'm not one hundred percent sure. It kind of confused me why
they brought it down to NXT in the first place. But the Cruiserweight Championship
has a spot on the main roster because it's for that lower card, the
guys that you know, I mean, when are they going to get an
opportunity to go after Roman Reigns Championship. When are they gonna be really go
after Gunther or now Logan Paul is the mid car champion, you know,
so the people like Cedric Alexander, like Dragon Lee, Akira Tozawa, people
from you know, the even the Monday Night Ross side of thing, like
the Cruiserweight Championship used to have meaning. It really did. Ray Mysterio really
brought some credibility to that championship back in his heyday whenever he was a champion.
Obviously Chavo had it, Billy Kidman had it. There were several different
wrestlers that kind of you know, rotated. I remember Jamie Noble, he
had that championship from several times and the storylines were interesting. Spike Dudley even
got his hands on that bad Boy. See. I mean, there's the
fact that I can just name about five or six off the top of my
head just tells me that they're misusing an entire weight class right now, Like
look at you. You're telling me that Johnny Gargano wouldn't be a phenomenal Cruiserweight
champion and you could actually have you know, his cult following. All the
fans that love Johnny wrestling, they would probably have some interest in the Cruiserweight
Championship. So it's just something I kind of want to plant to seed there.
We'll see if the cruiseweight Championship is being utilized on the or I guess
in the NXT division. I mean, is Becky Lynch not going back and
forth. Is she not kind of appearing on both? I don't know.
I know I'm kind of contradicting myself because you guys all know how much I
value the brand split. But I'm just saying that Cruiserweight Championship is a smack
down championship. It started off in the Ruthless Aggression era as a smack down
championship. Let's bring it back. Let's just go ahead and you know,
have a little reunion there. The roster's there for this championship to thrive.
That's all I'm gonna say there about that. But you guys all get where
I'm going. I wouldn't mind seeing a Cruiserweight division actually get some vocal point
and you know, don't turn the ropes purple. Let's not have the Cruiserweight
Classic or anything like that where we try to make it more than what it
is. I was never a fan of that. Whenever, you know,
they tried to make the cruiseweight division like back whenever it was in zo Omore,
Devil was in it, TJ. Perkins, there were so many others.
I think Cedric Alexander might have been too, Mustafa Ali, Tony nice.
There were quite a bit back in that twenty sixteen twenty seventeen range when
the cruiseweight Championship was initially brought back, and I just feel like they kind
of dropped the ball the execution. I mean, I get the plan right.
They wanted to make it feel good, they wanted to make it feel
important. But I feel like whenever you would change the ropes and make it
just seem like it was something different, and that's the main thing different.
Not everybody likes different. If you just bring the Cruiserweight wrestlers out and make
it seem like, yeah, this is part of Monday Night Raw, this
is just part of the show. Here, We're going to have a cruiseweight
match. You don't have to make it seem like it's like it's something completely
different from the show, from the regular show that you were watching, with
the red ropes or whatever. That's where I felt like they kind of went
wrong because people felt like it was less than Whenever it feels different, then
it has to be either better or worse because it's not part of the exact
same show, so it has to be better or worse. And I feel
like they kind of, you know, set it up for failure in that
regard, but there is a route and there is a method for them to
do it the right way. Up next, we get La Knight and Grayson
Waller having a one on one match here, and this is obviously where the
Kevin Owens on commentary was really entertaining, and just because of the history that
he already has, the quick history that he has with Grayson Waller in his
short time being on SmackDown. But before the match actually happens, La Knight
gets a pretty good promo talking about, you know, his match at Crown
Jewel, how he lost but he ultimately should have won had it not been
for Jimmy Usso I'm sorry, La Knight. Get in line. There's a
long list of wrestlers that have gotten screwed over by the bloodline. You were
just the most recent name, and you're definitely not going to be the last,
so you know, don't feel too bad about that, I will say,
though. He also took some shots at Grayson Waller once he eventually got
out there, just pretty much saying that dude, you got beat up by
a you know, Saudi Arabian actor or comedian whoever that guy was. It
wasn't the worst segment I've ever seen, but it wasn't going to just be
something that you look at and think, man, this is this is right
up there with some of the best comedy that we've ever seen from WWE.
But you know, it is what it is. I'm not complaining about it
by any means. Ellie Knight does get the win here obviously against Grayson Waller.
I don't really believe anybody thought that it was going to be the other
way around, But I don't really know. I just feel like La Knight,
I told you there was no way in helly was going to win.
It's where do we go from here? What do they do with La Knight
from this point? And that's really what's going to make me, I guess,
believe in his future as a you know, a mainstay. Crowd's going
to get tired of channing his name and buying his merch if WW doesn't do
the right thing with him. Obviously, as many times as they bring him
out, when time you hear that music here, the crowd's gonna pop.
But his merch cells have to be through the roof right now. Like I
imagine that he'll probably you know, bring that up in one of his promos
if he hasn't already. But he doesn't seem like the kind of guy that
really smells the roses or likes to, you know, pat himself on the
back from that type of perspective. Now, don't get me wrong, La
and I will tell you he's the best thing since sliced bread, and that's
just a fact of life. But he will also not just say, Hey,
there's fans everywhere here that have my shirt on. You know, there's
just all these kids everywhere that are chating. Yeah, you know. It's
one of those things where I feel like La Knight is pretty humble. Now
behind the scenes, backstage he might be soaking it all up and just saying,
oh my god, this is so awesome, But for the most part,
it does have a little bit of I've been here before or I'm not
surprised by this type of vibe. So ill I mean, that's not easy
to do. If you get your little five minutes of fame, especially for
somebody who's worked as hard as La Night has to get to this point,
it's pretty easy to kind of just say yeah, you know, my you
know what doesn't stink and I'm just pretty much walking on water here and La
Knight, I feel like isn't necessarily taking that approach, But nonetheless, I
am happy for the guy that he's getting all this popularity. He definitely deserves
it and the future could still be bright for him. Talk about Cody Rhoades
finishing his story, we may see La Knight have his own story get finished.
Now. Obviously he's not gonna go beat Roman Reigns or anything like that,
but there is still a story to be told with La Knight, and
I do believe that it's going to be at some point, and who knows.
I mean, I'm happy for the guy, so whatever happens, I
will be on board with more wins for l A Night. The final part
of the show is this six women tag match. We got Osca, Bianca
Belair, and Charlotte Flair. They call it an all star team multiple times,
which is true. It's what it is. All these women have pretty
much main invented WrestleMania at some point. Maybe not Oscar officially, but she
did go into wrestle with an undefeated Street That was a big time match,
as you had with Charlotte back in like WrestleMania in twenty eighteen, maybe twenty
nineteen. I don't know. Like I said, man, my memory is
starting to get kind of foggy. Let's talk about mental health. Mental health
is increasingly important in something none of us like to address. Are you stuck
or does your mind have you dressing sharp but feeling dull? Perhaps it's time
to talk to a life coach. Meetfellow WWE podcast listening and wrestling fan Steve
from a Damn Healthy Dose of Coaching. Steve is a certified ADHD life coach
and getting you unstuck is what he does. Period. Working together, he'll
come up with strategies and provide you with the tools you need to set you
on the way. Follow at Damn Healthy Dose on Instagram or x or visit
damnhealthydose dot com. That's damdose dot com. You can also email Steve at
damnhealthydose dot com. That's Steve Steev at damnhealthydose dot com directly for a free
thirty minute consultation mention this podcast and Steve will provide you with the first two
sessions for free to see if life coaching is a fit for you. Again
damnhealthydose dot com, but either way. Here this match damage Control without Dakota
Kai. So we had Bailey, EO Sky and Kyrie sayin versus Charlotte Bianca
and Osca, And you know, I think this is kind of a mismatch.
Despite the other team the champion Bailey was a phenomenal wrestler and the newly
returned at Kyrie Sain, I still think that the other team is a good
head and shoulders better on paper, they just felt like the more I guess,
well rounded team. They can hit you from a lot of different ways,
and their skill sets seemed to compliment each other pretty well, whereas Bailey
seems like, I don't know, like in terms of her entering, she's
not I don't know. I want to be careful when I say this,
but I don't feel like Bailey is on the level that she was a few
years ago now character wise, the way that she, you know, interacts
with the crowd and is telling stories that is still very very elite. But
at one point, I feel like, you know, babyface Bailey, she
was known for her entering, like she was one of the best women dressers
that was on the roster. I feel like things have kind of changed over
the past few years and she's kind of slowly transitioned into you know, this
new role in this new chapter or her career, and again you know it's
going well for her. But it's just one of those things that I noticed,
like when I'm looking in the ring and I'm looking at all the talent,
it's rare that Bailey's in a match, and whenever you're talking about the
most talented or you know, the most quote unquote hot in terms of figurative
like who's hot right now going you know, in their career, Bailey isn't
necessar, you know, on the level of EO Sky, who's the champion,
and Bionca bell Air is constantly a challenger. Charlotte Flair doesn't even need
an explanation. Oscar has this new thing going on, and clearly tonight she
had a big role in this whole situation. Bailey's name comes up fifth or
sixth, and that just seemed like it was strange. I had to,
you know, point that out that Bailey's I guess time at being at the
very top or one of the top four women wrestlers in the entire company.
I guess maybe those days are coming to a close. But Hey, she
still offers a hell of a lot to this company, and even just doing
her role in Damage Control, it's been entertaining and she's currently in the midst
of like an arc right now, So you know, we have to acknowledge
that and kind of just appreciate what she's doing despite her ring work maybe not
being top tier. You can't be ninety nine overall on every single aspect.
It's usually not doesn't work out that way, and you know, she's no
spring shot either, so I definitely want to give her a shout out,
And I guess just say that despite the talent around her kind of continuing to
reach their peak, she's still excelling in other ways. But this match took
a massive left turn whenever Osca refused to tag in. After Bianca Belair was
crawling to their corner to try to get a hot Oscar get the hot tag
and their team obviously run away with the match. Oscar moved her hand,
hit Bianca with the mist and yes, Osca aligns herself, she teams up,
she turns hill and joins damage control. It's weird. Do you remember
the Kabuki Warriors. There's a little bit of a reunion there obviously. Now
you got Eo Sky. This is a dangerous team. Man. When you
factor in Dakota Kai, you got Bailey there as well. This is a
solid group now the whole Bailey having her own plan, Eo having her plan,
This is clearly going to come to a head soon. We're not going
to get this dream team of the three Japanese wrestlers who were all badass in
the ring. I just want to go ahead and give them their you know,
give them their flowers right now along with the charismatic wit and the ring.
I guess the in ring ability of a healthy Dakota Kai and a veteran
Bailey who we just talked about. This is a solid group in terms of
women's factions, Guys, this might be the best one of all time.
I know, it's barely scratching the surface. We barely saw it, you
know, kind of built. But what other women's factions that we've seen over
the years that we could actually look at and say, okay, they can
hold the candle to that group? PCB, what was that, Paige Charlotte
Becky. I think that that's a talented group when you look at you know,
what they have accomplished over the years, but even that group was really
short lived. Now clearly this group right here isn't going to have a long
run either. But for as long as they are together, man, this
group hass potential. Man, I really think that they have to keep Bailey
there though. They really do to be a mouthpiece that can kind of translate
and you know, keep the interest levels up. But when you have the
the no pun intended the warriors, like the Kabuki Warriors who were there,
it's it's dangerous. And I feel like this is this is massive. Two
hill turns on one night Osca and Santo's Escobar just great stuff. You always
appreciate a good hill turn, and they gave us two in the same night.
But that does do it for the SmackDown review portion of this show.
And like I mentioned, guys, we are getting into a stack them up
Saturday. I'm gonna rank my top five spears. And this is kind of
tricky because I have some personal attachments to a lot of these wrestlers. The
spear is a great move. If you're a football player, you have imagined
yourself, whether it's football practice or a game. You've just said, Man,
that felt like Goldberg. There you know, I felt like I delivered
a spear. You know, I felt like I actually executed the move.
And if you do it on a trampoline, it's one of the easy est
ones you can do. Now, as I say it's the easiest one.
Not all of them look the same. I'm going to talk about it.
Some of them are not as good as the others, and that's just part
of it. Not all stunners are as good as stone cal Steve Austin's.
We see super kicks left and right. As it's officially become a transition move,
they don't all look like the Heartbreak kid. So it's just kind of
the same thing with the spear. It's one of those moves that it's not
really a transition move. It's a finishing move. It's a move that can
end a match if you hit it right and if you do it good enough.
Now, we talked about one person already on the show, and I'm
just gonna go ahead and get this one out of the way. It's not
an honorable mention. I just want to mention it and say that it's not
on my list, and I didn't even consider it. Charlotte Flair, she
does this spear, and I'm gonna be honest, it's the worst spear I've
ever seen in my entire life. Number One, she's running and I've always
said this, Charlotte Flair, she's a very choreographed wrestler. Like I don't
want to say that as like a complete derogatory thing, because I understand wrestling
scripted. It is what it is. It's just kind of how the cookie
crumbles. But Charlotte looks like she's rehearsing, Like she looks like she's acting
out moves that were rehearsed if you've done this type of thing on a trampoline,
or like, if you've ever had any experience watching like a cheerleading team
warm up doing something to day. For her, it looks like she's literally
waiting to do something, and her matches just seem more choreographed than others.
That's not even what I dislike about her spear. Her spear is that she
runs pretty much bent over already. Not like because whenever you're tackling somebody,
it's important to have a low center of gravity. Why do you think Goldberg
starts out you know, the the what's it called in the ropes? Whenever
he's I guess, kind of leaning between the second rope and the first rope
or the bottom rope, I guess is what it's called. And he's squat
down same thing with edge. He's bouncing up and down with his hand there,
and they're kind of they're staying low because you need to be running low
with your head up. But she doesn't really do it properly. I understand
that it could be the you know, the woman that's selling it, the
wrestler that she's delivering the spear to. A lot of things probably factor into
the equation, but still it's it doesn't even pass the eye test. I've
never once seen a Charlotte spear and thought, oh man, she almost cut
that lady in half. And she even gets extremely fired up afterwards. You
know, she gets up, she screams, does her own little version of
you know, Roman reigns. But I had to get her out of the
way because, yeah, I didn't even consider it. I've always had an
issue with her spear. I wish that it was done right, and you
know, I'm sure that someone can come along the way and you know,
master it as a women's wrestler. But number five, guys, this one
might not sit well with some of you. Some of you might be like,
what are you kidding me? But at number five, I'm putting Edge,
And at one point in his career, I feel like Edge had a
good spear. It looked good, you know, I feel like it was
I bought it. I guess is what you know, a way to put
it, but here lately, and it could be because of his neck injury.
It is what it is. That's just, you know, something that
he has to deal with, and it's just a circumstance. But it doesn't
change the fact that his spear is pretty much just like an over exaggerated hug.
He runs up to him, pretty much hugs him, falls on his
knees. There is no you know, hardcore. Damn, he just absolutely
killed that person. I don't know, that's just my personal opinion. I
feel like, you know, had I be making had I made this list
back in two thousand and six. Yeah, obviously Edge is probably gonna be
a lot higher. But for the past like three to four years, I've
seen Edges spears and they've been very underwhelming and they don't hit the same as
what they once did. I'm always going to be a fan. That's why
I did put it on the top five. But I just feel like whenever
you compare it to some of the other spears that are delivered, I don't
think that it is quite at the top. Number four Bobby Lashley, I
do think his is better than Edges. It's a little bit more believable,
you know. He just he is someone that, whenever you see them spear,
someone you think, Okay, that looks like it hurt like a son
of a you know what. So Bobby Lashley, I do feel like Edges
out Edge no pun intended whenever you talk about their spear. And I know
that's not going to be the popular opinion, but that's just how I view
it. Whenever I look at the spear, I do think Lashly is a
little bit better. Number three, I'm going with bron Breaker. Guys.
I think that this is someone who has mastered the spear. It's a great
move. It looks great whenever he does it. It looks like, man,
if I got a spear from him, I would be sore for a
week. I don't necessarily know if that would be the case with Edge.
Bobby Lashley, Yeah, he's a really strong dude. It would probably hurt
like hell. But with bron Breaker, I feel like he would knock you
out of your shoes. He could bruise a rib at the very least.
And you know, he's just he's been the face of n XT and actually
just recently got his action figure part of my collection on my shelf. So
I do believe the top three, you know, I gotta give it to
him. I think he does do the spear just as good as damn near
anybody, and he is a legacy wrestler, like he's from a generation of
professional wrestlers, So I think that he does have a bright future and he's
gonna make that spear look damn good over the course of the rest of his
career. Number two I went with Roman Reigns, another one that could be
unpopular, but you know, you know what is what it is. I've
seen him do it pretty impressive ways he jumps up, he times it very
perfect. It's not an easy thing to do the way that he does it.
It is different than any other spear. I will say, I could
do without the ooh ah that he does before. That's almost like stomping up,
you know, pumping up the band or whatever. Seaw Michaels does.
It's like counting down the clay war. For Drew McIntyre, it just seems
like it's letting your opponent know. Every time Roman Rains does the spear,
especially in his babyface era, whenever he would lose matches, lose big time
matches for the championship and things like that, I would get pissed. I'm
like, dude, stop freaking letting them know when you're about to hit him
with the spear. But I have seen him do it, you know,
pretty creative ways as well. Like I mentioned, so I had to give
him the top two spot. But number one, guys, it's no secret.
And this is where some of you might click tune me out, but
guys, you got to give credit where it's due. The one thing that
Goldberg does well that you cannot argue with is spear. People people say he's
not a good wrestler, he only does two moves. Well, guess what.
One of the two moves that he does is a spear, and he's
done it pretty damn good for his entire career. Even late in his career,
he delivered some pretty good spears. But you want to talk about the
nineties like Goldberg and his heyday in WCW. There's not a better spear out
there. I promise you there's just not. You can go watch a highlightrail
of him just killing people, massive people, The Big Show, Brock Lesner,
Mark Henry. The list goes on and on. Goldberg in his prime
has by far the best spear of all time. And that's just I feel
like, obviously it is subjective, but I'm pretty confident in that one.
You could flirt and move around all the others, all the other four,
and you might be able to include someone that got left out. But I
feel pretty confident and I will pound the table for Goldberg having the best spear
of all time. So there, you guys have it. Stack him up
Saturday. I'm gonna try to deliver these anytime that the episode is late and
I have to record a little bit late. As an apology to you guys,
and also just a little treat for those of my loyal those of you
who are loyal listeners to the SmackDown Review. And also if you're a loyal
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