This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre, and you're listening to the WWE podcast Stop
show, the one that everybody wants me god Tell on three sixteen said Jess
b your ass, it is my eye. You're gonna acknowledge me. Welcome
everybody to the current state of WWE. Anthony DeMarco is back with me tonight
on this September fifth, twenty twenty two. Monday Night Raw is going on
as we speak, and I heard about a big return. I won't spoil
it yet, so if you haven't seen Monday Neet Raw, there's a big
return that happens. But before we get there, Anthony, how you doing?
And I know you want to talk a little bit about IEW, so
take it away. Yeah, man, good to be back. I know
we missed last week, but you know, our schedules have been kind of
upside down, pullar opposites and whatnot. But yeah, like obviously we're the
WWE podcast. We don't talk about AW a whole lot. I don't think
I've ever spoken about AW with you or on my own show because I just
I don't typically watch it. I'll peak and every now and again. But
I have to say I'm sure that most wrestling fans, even if you are
predominantly a WWE guy like ourselves, have seen at least some of the tidbits
of the cmpunk press conference. And look, obviously you have speculation that it's
a work, and it very well could be for sure. But even if
it is a work, and I would say it's a fifty to fifty toss
up because I could see it going either way. For whatever reason, I
feel like AW is barreling towards just like a crash of epic proportions, especially
when you consider how hot they were coming out of the gate. And I
don't know if it's because they're simultaneously going on the down turn, while WWE
seems to be on the optic under Triple H's guidance. Although WW isn't perfect
and we'll get to that, trust me. But first of all, did
you see the cm punk press conference? And what did you think of it?
So? I had to see it because it was going all over my
social media obviously, you know, as a wrestling fan, you couldn't avoid
it on your Twitter feed wherever. I didn't watch the entire thing. It
went on longer than I thought it was it was like, I don't know,
a fourteen minute clip or something. I saw enough of it to know
what the general gist of this was. And the highlights of this were about
c im Punk talking about how he's a grown ass man and he doesn't need
to explain to people why he's not friends with them, and he called out
Hangman Page and all these things. And you know, there is speculation of
whether or not it's a work. I honestly don't care if it's a work
or not. To me, it's beyond that, you know if it is
or isn't. The fact of the matter is this seems kind of desperate by
aew in a way. I don't know for somebody that doesn't really watch the
product, but I understand what wrestling is and what it looks like when it's
good. This seems like a desperation move. Not that they're gonna be flailing
or that they're gonna go off the air next week, but it's almost like,
hey, hey over here, look at me, Look at me.
Everyone's talking about this. Is it a work? Is it a shoot?
I don't know. Guys talk about it and figure it out, and I'm
like, it just smells of desperation. And the more I look at this,
the more I'm like, really kind of becoming less and less a fan
of cmpunk. I have to say his return was hot. It was one
of the biggest returns in pro wrestling. I was marking out for it.
I'm not I'm gonna pretend I wasn't. But like cmpunk comes across, whether
intentionally or not, or work or not, as a genuinely big d bag,
like a self entitled kind of above everyone d bag. I mean,
that's the way he's come across lately. So those are my thoughts. I'm
not gonna pretend I know more than that. What did you think? He
just came off a super bush league And like you said, work or not
like for one, Like, look, I'm all for more mature content.
And I think that swearing sometimes does have a place, like you know,
with the Matt Riddle stuff and they bleep it out. But like he must
have said, dropped the F bomb like twenty times, and in my head,
I'm just like and look, I'm not like a child here, like
I swear regularly with my buddies and went up. But it just felt so
garage league, and like especially the fact that the owners sitting beside him and
just taking it. And I think that's another thing about this is like,
I'm not gonna lie, Like Tony Kahn to me comes off as just an
unlikable mark with his daddy's money. And that's what he comes off, like,
just a wrestling super fan who wants to play pretend with his toys and
just happens to be the son of a billionaire who owns the Jacksonville Jaguar and
a soccer team in Europe, and like, look, I'm not gonna lie.
Like there are parts of AEW in the early on that, like I
respected, I'm not really a fan of like the indie style kind of wrestling
that they do. I think their production value leads a bit to be desired.
But look, to each his own. It was just a matter of
preference with me, but lately, especially with cmpunk, and you're right,
like Cmpunk to me, I always thought he was a little overrated because it's
just like, oh, he was so disrespected in WWE, and look,
they certainly made their mistakes, but in my head, I was just like,
is it just me or did this guy not get one of the more
historic runs with the world championship in the modern era, like his run from
July twenty eleven to January of twenty thirteen was pretty damn hystoric. And look,
I get it, he dropped it to the Rock and the Rock was
a part time guy. But at the same time, I'm just like,
who didn't want to see the Rock at one last time with the championship,
Like, let's be honest here and would you not agree that it maybe even
per detected Punk that in storyline the only guy that could beat him was the
Rock. Yeah, that that did protect him at the time, although as
you as you and others have heard in subsequent interviews that Punk did. He
was not happy about having to turn heel. He didn't want to do it.
He felt the fans still were behind him. He could have gone away
all the way to WrestleMania and main evented WrestleMania. He still has sour grapes
about that. But yeah, I think it did protect Punk And just one
point about what you made too. With Tony Kahn sitting there, it does
make it look like Little League, uh. And the reason is because if
it's a work or not either scenario, both paths make the company look weak.
It looks like the management doesn't have a set of balls. It makes
it look kind of in disarray. Even if it's a work, that's not
a good look. It's worse. It's yeah, there's there's That's why I'm
saying there's no good path no matter what the answer is, it's irrelevant because
of the situation they're in and the way they're making the company look. It
makes the company look pitiful. Yeah, and that's what I was thinking,
Like, even if it is a work, it almost comes off worse because
it's just like, so you have to like because you buried your some of
your top talent and executive vice presidents. You buried one of your former world
champions, cmpunk Wu, I guess is their most marketable star right now,
aside from maybe Jericho and Moxley and one of the faces of the company.
You just look like a big efing baby and for all like for all intensive
purposes. And another thing I saw and like, this is something I read
in some of the comments because obviously I went down the rabbit hole of these
comments, is just like you overshadowed a world title match along with an MJF
return with this like that pay per view look, I didn't watch it.
By all accounts, it was an underwhelming pay per view, but you know,
the world title and the subsequent return of MGF did kind of save it
and send the crowd home happy. But nobody's talking about the inn ring stuff.
Nobody's talking about Mgf's return, which in my mind, he's the best
star they have and I think eventually he's destined for w WE. People are
talking about this like basically temper tantrum of oh is it a work? Is
it true? Are they fighting backstage? And like, even if it is
a work, like you said, like, this is the type of content
you guys have to like conjure up to get people to like talk about your
product. It can't be from just the in ring stuff. Like look,
people are talking about Clash of the Castle, right, and look, I
will get to it. But like I thought the ending and the booking decision
for the ending was bad. I don't agree with it, but like from
an in ring perspective, I think we could all agree that was one of
the better pay per views we have seen in years, not just the fact
that it was good wrestling, but the fact that there weren't many hot air
matches like there weren't a lot of matches on the card, and I believe
you spoke about this as well in your solo show. It felt like all
the matches went for a long, substantial amount of time. There were no
just throwaway matches there to fill in the fill in the the hours. But
with ae W now it's it's like no one's talking about the actual pay per
view, We're talking about this And if it is a shoot, if this
was real, it's just like, I don't know how Tony Kahan allowed this
to happen, and I can't imagine that they pushed forward with cmpunk. But
if it's a work, it's just like it is the only way that you
can really get us to tune in now is through like these work shoot type
of angles. Like and it seems like AW is doing this more and more
because was this not the case with the MJF pipe bomb a few months ago?
Yep, same thing, same, the same exact thing, which I
think and again that that to me, I actually I accepted that a little
bit more. It was part of the actual show. It wasn't like after
the after the fact, after the or the press conference thing, which WB
I know did too, they kind of I don't know if they literally took
it from a or whatever. I don't care, but the fact is that
that was part of the show. MJF did that as part of the show,
and it left you wondering. I mean, ww, doesn't you know
somewhat you know once who They do that once in a while and when they
make you kind of blur the lines between reality and what's a work and what's
not on the show, that's kind of cool. Like once in a while
that happens. It's like, all right, man, I'm kind of in
this. Like for example, with Seth Rollins in Riddle the promo last week
when they went off the mic and they said, okay, is this thing
off? And then Riddle or Rollins talked about Riddle's ex wife divorcing them and
stuff and apparently they actually don't like each other. Like that's cool, Like
I enjoy that, But when it comes to like after the fact, that
had nothing to do with the actual pay per view and it takes away from
what the actual event was supposed to be. With these extracurricular activities after school
activities, it's like, you're really, this is what people are talking about
when you just had a pay per view? Is cempunk crying and whining and
dropping F bombs like we've never heard the F word before? Come on,
I don't know any anything else on this because I really want to talk about
Clash the Castle. Yeah. The last thing I would say is just like
it feels like AW is just going back to the well too much with like
the and look, I like blood in matches, but it feels like every
match I watch then now the guy's just like pissing blood out of his head.
They're always swearing now, it seems like almost bi weekly they're going with
like these Workshoe promos like look, I think there's a place for all those
things, and like look, you know the Paul Hayman one at to ECW
one night Stand, the seth rawl and stuff like we are accustomed to,
Like I have time for stuff like this. Just feels like AW goes so
well with it far too often. Yeah, it does, And man,
I could go down this hole. Even though I don't watch the product,
I've I've seen enough of what everyone's talking about to know, you know,
what's good what's not. And when I see a company kind of in desperation
mode, Anyway, all right, let's talk about Clash at the Castle.
And I'm not gonna break this down match by match simply because of time.
But before we get to the main event, I want to ask you about
one thing, and that's Gunther versus Shamus. Did you would you say that
was the match of the night? One hundred percent? And the last time
we had spoke, I think that I said that was the match I was
most looking forward to, and it over delivered my expectations and it just felt
like a classic match for like a mid card championship like I remember back in
the day, even though not old when I'm talking like I'm old, but
you would be excited arguably the most for a mid card championship match, and
this was one of those times, and I think it instantly made Gunther a
legit star. Even you could have made the case he already was that I
love Gunther, but this match, you know, undeniably put him in that
stratosphere now. And then Shamus, a guy who, like I think he's
been one of the more consistent workers in WW for the last probably fifteen years
at this point. I don't remember exactly when he came in, but it's
coming up on that, but it felt like the most meaningful match that he's
done, probably since the Bar and has a single star. I don't remember
feeling this invested and this strongly about a shamous match forget a program, just
a match, probably since he was the babyface World Heavyweight Champion and his very
underrated program with the Big Show in like twenty thirteen. Because since then,
although all was consistent, good on the mic, good in the ring,
all that, like, he just never really had that kind of match and
this one, to me, you saw his chest after it so stiff.
We knew it was gonna be stiff, but arguably stiff for them. We
thought it would be absolute classic to me, match of the Year candidate.
It's like just absolutely, in my opinion, put the Inner Connoile Championship back
on like the main page, back into relevancy. These two guys. I
hope that they continued this program. I think they have a lot more they
could squeeze out of this. It felt like a like a blowoff match just
because of how good it was, but like there's still a lot of juice
lest to be squeezed, and I was really happy to see Shamus get the
recognition from the crowd in Whales just all around. For me, it was
five out of five stars. Like maybe I'm too generous with that, but
I loved it. Yeah, this was and it showed you so many things.
Number one, it showed you you don't need to do all these crazy
maneuvers and not sell and just to worry about the moves and how cool they
can be and how many reversals you can do and go four hundred miles an
hour. It showed that pro wrestling at its core, doing what worked when
pro wrestling was just still just before this era of high flyers and athletics and
gymnastics. It made you. It reminded you that you can still have a
five star match without implementing today's style. And I loved it. It brought
me back. And Michael Cole called it old school. It was old school
sure, And the pacing was great. The physicality was more than you and
I thought it would be. The how many pop blood vessels did Seamus have
on his chest waking up Sunday morning? You know, Gunther doing his part
in not only taking his time, not rushing. Yeah, he missed a
couple of power bomb spots. I don't really care about that that much,
you know. And and also selling, the selling in this match was so
good because they didn't rush, and selling is something that is it's so fundamentally
important and key to any pro wrestling match to make you feel something. And
you said to me that, hey, Seamus, for the first time in
his career at least since he was world champion, actually you know, it
was a match that you cared about and made you feel something. And it's
like, yeah, like Seamus has essentially been under the radar, just kind
of a veteran guy ring general, no pun intended, and he'd always there,
but he hasn't made you feel anything in the last ten years, and
now he has in a single match. And of course it's in Wales.
The crowd certainly helped the match. I think that the crowd did their part
throughout the entire night kept the energy level up. So props to Wales in
the sixty two thousand people there. But this was a match that you go
back and you realize that you don't need to kill yourself or risk breaking your
neck every other maneuver to have a five star match. It was I can't
say enough about this. I wouldn't. I don't know about Match of the
Year. It might be more than that. I mean, like, I
don't want to say best match ever, it's a little too broad, but
match of the year certainly the crowd love that gave Seamus the respect that he
deserved. Gunther also instantly put on the map, instantly now a star in
WWA if he wasn't already. The Interconminental Championship, which was dead six months
ago, dead and buried and you wondered if they still had it as part
of their championship lineup, is now front center feeling like one of the most
important championships WWE has. It's just I can't say there was nothing wrong with
this matchup. I'd agree it was. It was a five and even the
build, like just the staredown and they put together so quickly, they put
together in what like three weeks, not even, and it felt so damn
important, like with the stare down while the brawl is going on around them,
Like just that one promo between the two of them made you so ready
for this match, and you didn't even need that promo just when they booked
this match initially, It's like you had said it was like the match you
never knew you wanted. But then they do that masterful promo where they're just
locked eyes, not moving while their henchmen are battling around the ring. Obviously
you get the return of imperium with the I know his first name is Giovanni,
which is Vinci. I don't know what it is, so yeah,
yeah, but like that was cool. So it kind of made it a
three on three type of brawl or a two on two outside the ring.
Just nothing bad to say about this. I hope they explore it more.
And in my mind, just my opinion, I think that as he transitioned
into more of a legacy star, I think you keep Seamus as a babyface.
Well yeah, why not? I mean Seamus has been a heel for
about ninety percent of his career, and he's a good heel. He knows
how to get the crowd angry, the hair, the mohawk, the you
look stupid chance, all that that happened several years ago. He's been hated
most of his career, but this is a match that he didn't even have
to say thank you to the crowd. He did nothing other than wrestle,
and he turned babyface that's called respect right there. That's a respect thing from
the crowd of like, hey, that was effing awesome. We we respect
how long you've been here. It's kind of like, oh cool. It
just reminded fans of what they have in Seamus, a guy that I think
you're right is probably underrated and underappreciated, has been put into the limelight now.
And I do think they'll probably have another match or two. I wouldn't
put it at the level of this one. It's gonna be very, very
difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate this. The same thing happened with
who was it? I can't remember. There was another matchup that was awesome
and then they put them back together and it wasn't as good. Just recently,
but oh the Tag Team Championships, the Street Profits and usos that their
SummerSlam match wasn't as good as their Money in the Bank match, and so
like it's near. It's so hard every star has to align. It's almost
impossible to duplicate a performance like that. So if they go at it again,
and I think they will at extreme rules, I'm gonna taper in my
expectations because if I look at it and go out, they're gonna have a
six star out of five, you know, match. I'm like, it's
not gonna happen. You just you can't expect that, you know. But
yeah, certainly they'd be silly to not put them back together at least for
one more time before Survivor Series, at least Extreme Rules. But yeah,
this is something that will happen again Babyface for sure. Right now with Seamus,
I don't know what happens his group, but anything else before we move
on to the main event here, No, I just kind of want to
jump into the main event. Let's do it. So main event, Roman
Reigns Andrew McIntyre. The crowd was super behind Drew here, and I was
a bit concerned that Wales would, you know, kind of go in favor
of Roman Reigns here, but they didn't. It was about ninety five percent,
if not more, in favor of Drew. They did a good job
with promos, they did a good job with video packages. All that was
great, and the match I thought was pretty good. You know, I
don't know if it was as good as the brock Lesnar match that just happened
at SummerSlam. A different kind of matchup but the crowd was into it.
There were some believable spots here, and well, we didn't get a new
champion here. We got no returns either. And the ending was really weird
and I don't agree with it at all. But Roman Reigns retains after Solo
SIKOA, I can't. I don't know if I even saying that right.
Yeah, the younger brother of the Usos comes out a new member of the
Bloodline. So, as I said in my review, not only does the
blood Line keep all of their championships, but they're expanding. It's like the
worst nightmare of fans here. And Roman Reigns retains and he does what always
happens at the end of every pay per view for the last two years,
holds up his belts as fireworks go off, and then he leaves and you
know, there's no rock, there's no anything. He just leaves. And
then Drew gets in there with Tyson Fury. After Theory tried to cash in,
Tyson Fury interjects himself, no one says anything, no security does anything.
It's just okay, And then they get in there and sing like you
know, I don't know, there was making sing singing something I don't know
if it was like some kind of American pie movie or something, some kind
of weird thing. And I'm like, you just lost one of the biggest
matches of your career and you're singing with Tyson Fury. What the hell is
going on? What did you think? Look in ring fine, I mean,
Drew and Roman are great workers, but I'll just cut right to the
chase here. I cannot believe this ending, especially with Triple H at the
Helm, especially now like apparently Roman Rains has taken another leave of absence,
and look, I mean really, wait, is he really? That's I
read it today that apparently he's rumored to take another leave of absence. So
in my mind, he's not gonna be at Extreme Rules. So now we're
guaranteed. We're just tacking on another guaranteed two and a half months to his
reign because now one hundred percent will not lose the championship before Survivor Series.
And it's like, so Raw doesn't have a champion, SmackDown has an ultra
part time champion, and you built up Drew so well. I thought the
bill to this match was excellent. I thought the crowd was mostly behind Drew
I thought the Broken the Broken Dreams video package before his actual entrance was amazing.
It just felt like the stars were ready to align for Drew. And
look, I like you said it first. I was in full agreement with
you just take one title off of Roman. If you want to get them
to that thousand days with the Universal Championship, knock yourself out. I could
not care you want to do that on SmackDown, Go ahead. I think
there still is a bit of an appetite for that. But to be the
dual champion when you're as part time as he is and it's been two years
and it's just all Roman all the time, I can't take it anymore.
And I thought that they were doing a good job with him by making him
more kind of like on an even keel with the rest of the with the
Superstars. And this is another thing, is that you're quickly barreling towards a
predictable outcome here as now it's just like, so what, it's just gonna
be Cody Rhodes, Like Cody Roads is gonna come back whin the Royal Rumbel
and dethrone them, Like I don't want to be that predictable six seven months
out from WrestleMania, nor do I think it should be Cody Rhods Like for
me, I don't mind if you want a position Roman as the top guy,
but there has to be someone on even keel with him, And for
me, I thought what they did here, and I know he didn't win
clean. I get that they tried to protect Drew, but Drew has never
once if I'm not mistaken, in a one on one match pinned Roman Reigns.
He lost to him at Wrestling at thirty five, he lost to him
at Survivor Series twenty twenty, and you lost to him now Clash at the
Castle. And I remember, I think a few years ago Triple H said
something like getting Roman and Drew in the same ring was like the equivalent of
getting like Rock in Austin, which is laughable. It was laughable, but
I understand what he was trying to say. But you've killed that now because
all you've told us is that by hooker Crook, it doesn't matter. Drew
will never even be close to Roman's level. And I don't think WW is
a good place when there's one guy so head and shoulders above the rest.
There's always has to be a tough guy. There has to be a higher
archy. But when Austin was the was the guy, the Rock was always
a formidable foe against him, Even Triple H, even the undertaker, when
Sina was the top guy or was always a formidable foe against him, as
was Batista, as was Shawn Michaels, as was Triple H. And now
with Roman, it's just like you've gone so far in the other direction where
now it's like every single pay per view we're just like, Okay, he's
going to retain, and it's gonna be the same, like cop and paste
he cop and copy and paste finish as we've been accustomed to for the last
twenty four months. That's what it is. We are right clicking on our
mouse and just copy and pasting. That's that's exactly what we're doing. And
I've said this before, but I can't drill it home enough because for those
in WWE management that think that well, they've got us where they want us,
even though they we don't know that we are right where they want us
to be. What I mean by that is, well, we're so angry
that we want We don't want Roman to be champion. We want to see
somebody take the belt off of him that you know, we're angry, and
how many in WW is saying, see, we want to elicit anger out
of you. And it's like there's there's there's a difference between a heel doing
a great job that you would still boo. I'm not talking about a sing
along heel that's kind of quasi in between. But he's cool and all that.
No, no, no, there's a difference between old school heel like
Randy Orton was during the pandemic era when he faced Edge. I think that
was some of the best work Randy Orton has ever done in his career when
he turned on Edge and you know Triple H back in the day and from
the two thousand and two and to whatever he was two thousand and four or
five when he was running basically he was world champion essentially for like four years.
It felt like, yeah, like that era of Triple H old school
heat. That is, there's a difference between that and fans just being pissed
at the company. Like the heat is transferred like people are mad at Roman
reigns. I think kind of you if you're still kind of in the KFA
world. But like most fans are just pissed at the company right now.
They're just like, can we move on? And it's affecting people on Raw,
like actual careers of the guys on Raw. I've said that before,
that's true, Like this is a storyline that's no longer benefiting Roman, Like
you've maxed out what you can do with him at this level, Like there's
no you could make him champion for five years and you know, versus two
years, and people will be like, well, it's the same guy.
Like I mean, it's just more and more anger being transferred to the company
and people not wanting to watch. It's a change. I don't want to
say it's changed the channel, but it's just people being disgruntled with Romans still
being champion. And I understand it's the got to have it now. People
have no attention span era with our phones and everything else on our fingertips,
and a lot of that has to do with the way we look at the
world. But this is just they've maxed out what they can do. They're
handicapping themselves too, by the way, by only having Roman be champion.
No championship on Raw, and you're running out of baby faces to work with,
if you flip it to somebody else that's gonna be there on a weekly
basis, open up an entirely new possibility, a new world of matchups.
Instead, you look at it and you know there's only like a very few
select people that can work with Roman. Like I know, Seth has made
a proclamation that once he's done with Riddle, he's moving on to the younger
spee the championship. That's at least halfway encouraging. Do I think he's gonna
beat Roman? Probably I'm imagining it's Seth versus Roman at the Survivors Series.
I'd imagine, by the way, that's probably what they're headed towards. But
even if that happens, I don't have the confidence that WW is gonna put
the belt on Seth. Why because he's a heel. And I don't think
people are gonna just automatically cheer Seth, even though I think they will because
they're just tired of Roman being champion. But for it to go from a
heel to a heel, that's that's something that's not usually advisable. And also
there's history from last year. People forget about the beatdown Roman reigns gave Seth.
I hope they go back to that. So anyway, my point is
that the heat is on the company now. It's no longer on Roman and
people going, man, good golly, they're doing such a great job with
Roman reigns. I hope someone takes the belt off of him. It's it's
kind of like, dude, Triple H, you're the one running things now.
You better have a hell of a plan here, because people are they're
they're over it, they're done with it, and they're tired. They're actually
just mad at the company at this point. It's just frustrating. You just
want to see something different and like again, like would you be upset if
they had just taken one belt off of them and push forward with the universal
time advocated for that because they can have their cake and eat it too.
It's great for everybody. It works for everyone. You get to keep the
streak, you get to put a championship on raw, you can I don't
care if he's champion for five, five hundred thousand days, as long as
there's a championship on raw that people can compete for, you know, outside
of the US and Intercontinental, which admittedly they have done and Triple H has
done an excellent job of resurrecting them from their graves, excellent, especially the
IC and that's a credit not just Triple H, but of course the wrestlers
and Gunther and and Seamus and Bobby Lashly and yeah, all them. But
no, I don't to me, I just see no negative in that.
There's no negative in having Romans split his championships. Some kind of snaffoo in
the contract. As I've said, Paul Hammond, this the little sly tribal
chiefs assistant. Find something in the in the in the contract, and boom,
okay, he's still Universal champion. His street continues, and here raw,
here, here you go, here's your w championship. It's not that
hard to do. I just they're handcuffing them. They're screwing themselves at this
point, with the limited number of matchups, you don't have your world champion
on even semi regularly. He's be like he makes brock Lesnar look like an
every day occurrence. I mean, like that's how like rare it has been
for Roman Reigns to show up on SmackDown. Although you know before the paper
he did, and I understand that. But yeah, this is. It's
just it's getting out of hand, it is. And you know, I
remember when Brock became champed the first time upon his turn, when there wasn't
a brand split, There's just one world title, and he was an absentee
champion for I believe six months until Seth Rowen's dethroned him at Wrestlmania thirty one
in twenty fifteen. Every other time Brock has been champion, there has been
a counterpart champion on SmackDown. Like for all of twenty seventeen and half of
twenty eighteen, you had like aj Styles or Daniel Bryan as the WWE champion
over on SmackDown, and even this time when he won the title, you
had Roman Reigns on SmackDown. If you want to have one absentee champion,
or maybe one for like a six month period as the sole champion, then
fine, but you can't have one absentee champion for like months on end.
And it's been since WrestleMania, and how many times has he actually showed up
on Monday Night Raw? I feel like I could count on one hand,
and it just feels like no one on Monday Night Raw is a challenger for
him, like before Drew McIntyre who was challenging him, Brock brock Lesner was
he was both brands right, Like he's not a raw nor a SmackDown guy
before brock Lesner who was challenging for the title. Matt Riddle. I guess
Matt Riddle is technically a raw guy, but it seems like whenever you feud
with the USOS, you can float, or you're involved with the USOS or
the Bloodline, you can float from brand to brand. Like the last time,
like a raw guy actually was in the mix for a championship regularly,
it felt like Bobby Lashley all the way back in the winter, and like,
look, I get it, Bobby Lashley, as I guess, kind
of elevated throughout all this because he's holding like the sole singles championship on Monday
Night Raw for the men, but it just feels like raw, which is,
you know, theoretically your flagship program just has nothing going for it right
now in terms of a world title scene, and you see guys like aj
Styles, seth Rawlins, even Matt Riddle. You can make a case for
Bobby Lashley, Kevin Owens, all these guys that in my mind could be
absolutely adequate. World champions are just kind of withering away in like personal feuds
and like mid car championships, which is well and good, but like,
what's the ultimate goal of being in any form of competition to win the big
one? To win the world title? And there's just no goal right now
for anyone on Monday Night Raw. And now if he does take a leave
of absence, I think that it will be that case on SmackDown too.
It's just I don't want to just tear down like an otherwise very good pay
per view and anotherwise very good product since Triple H took over. But I
was absolutely dumbfounded that he actually made Roman Reigns win this one. It felt
like, yeah, I mean I made the joke on my show, my
review show that Vince somehow snuck into the building and you know, wrote down
on a piece of paper what you know the creave is going to be,
and then somehow submitted it I might have for Triple H. And that's the
ending we got, because it felt very Vince mcmahonsque. It's almost like Vince
got in the head of Triple H or something for this, and especially what
happened after this with Tyson Fury and uh and Drew Mcatyre singing American Pie,
you know, like they're drunk at a bar at four am. Like we're
all supposed to be entertained about what they're doing here when no one gives a
damn by the way, like no one cares about Tyson Fury, Like he
showed up and like why is he here? I don't want to see him?
What was he doing here? Why does he get free reign to just
knock out the wrestlers. We're all just okay with it. Uh? And
then he sings, you know, with Drew, and that made Drew kind
of look like, yeah, he didn't care that much, like he I
know, he thanked the fans, and it's I'm not blaming Drew. The
creative on that was bad. I know they were trying to make the fans
go home happy. They want the smile on your face, so it kind
of softens the blow of Drew not becoming champion. You know, I understand
all that, but like, don't don't try to sugarcoat this, Like just
just let us be angry, don't try to sugarcoat it. And and all
of a sudden we're supposed to be singing along with Drew like screw that,
I'm not doing it, I'm not buying it. And that made me.
That's the thing that made me very just kind of dumb downed too, is
like Triple H's in charge, right, like the big man, like somehow
sneak in. It felt like very vinced to do this because e Vince was
in charge. I wouldn't even have picked Drew McIntyre. I would have said,
yeah, Roman wins, like I actually would have said that, you
know, there's a small chance Drew could win, but Roman probably retains.
The major reason that I chose Drew is because Triple AH seems to be much
more in tune with what the fans want. He's doing a lot of the
things that we wanted and didn't even know we needed and wanted with returns and
storylines. And I said, there's the biggest statement he can make in his
entire oh well, albeit a couple of month month run as the head of
creative and the talent relations, is to take the belt off Roman, just
at least one of them. And he didn't do it, And that to
me was the biggest shock and the biggest I don't want to say it's a
betrayal because I know Triple H has something in mind here, but I honestly
don't even know what the payoff could be that would warrant this continuing. I
mean, like, how big or good of a payoff could this be?
Where I'm gonna be like, oh, well, man, now I get
it. Now I know why they kept this going like eighteen months longer than
it should have. There's just nothing. And honestly, the longer they go,
the higher expectations fans have for what the payoff's going to be, which
is going to be an unattainable an unattainable level as it already is. And
the longer you go, the more fans are going to think that, all,
well, they must have something big planned. And I just don't think
there's anything imaginable that they could come up with where I could just be like,
Okay, they're vindicated, I get it. Is there anything for you?
I honestly think that at this point, it's like a law of diminishing
returns, where like you think like, okay, well, now it's going
to be so big when he finally does drop the belt, and it's,
like you said, like there is no payoff big enough to now make up
for what they've done with this title run. I think that it's gotten to
that point. And it's sad, right because if you would have asked me
a year ago, a year and a half ago, two years ago especially,
I always said, like, no, when they end this rotten,
which we all liked in the beginning, the first like three quarters of it,
right up until this WrestleMania, to be honest, we all would have
said, like, it's going to be an amazing ending. But now it's
just like I just want it to end, and when it doesn't, I'm
not even going to care how it's done anymore. And that's what sucks.
I don't even care about the creative that will lead to him dropping one of
those belts. I just want it done. Like you could literally have like
Bad Bonnie come out and like roll them up like twenty four to seven championship
ask and like beat him for one of the world titles, and I'd be
like, Okay, thank god, terrible creative, but I don't care anymore.
And that's exactly the point where I've gotten to. That's true. Yeah,
I mean, while the expectation is maybe building for some maybe some people
may be on board for that. The other argument is fans have kind of
given up and said, f this, I don't care how it happens or
when it happens, or if our truth does it. I mean, if
our truth does it, hey, like, sign me up. I would
actually love to see our truth this champion. I think that'd be entertaining for
a while. But yeah, I mean, I'm at the point literally where
I just I don't care. I don't care. I don't care how they
do it, when they do it, or I do care when, but
I don't care how, I don't care who those are the two. I
don't care about it anymore. And that says something about the product when fans
have a lot of fans and not just you and I have reached the point
of just not caring and just can we get it over with so we can
move on versus WWA thinking they have this grand plan that oh, you'll see,
guys, You'll see I know you're angry with us now, but you'll
see in a few months, when Roman drops the belt or whatever it is,
you guys will look back and you know, we'll be the ones that
are smarter than you and it's I have a very high suspicion that that is
not going to be the case at all, but yeah, this is it's
just getting crazy. It's getting crazy. We praised this Roman reigns run for
a while and it was great for a while, and then it reached the
point of like, all right, it's he's still champion, and now it's
like, holy you know he's still champion? Can we please move on?
Yeah, it's it's just it's overkill. So any final thoughts, No,
oh, I think I got it all off my chest, to be honest.
Yeah, me too, Me too. It's a rent that we go
on every time, but it's gonna get worse. This is ww's fault.
This is not our fault that we rant. So all right, well before
we go, let everyone know what the show that you produce every single Friday
and which you're at Twitter is. Yeah, so obviously I dropped WW retscho
every single Friday, sometimes later in the day, but I always seem to
get it in. This week. I did RAW one thousand, which went
down just about ten years ago in July of twenty twelve. It was kind
of cool to go look back and see all like the kind of guys and
the nostalgia that came out for that show. No, virtually no wrestling on
that show. A very entertainment, high level show, but be sure to
check that out and obviously catch me on Twitter at a DeMarco twenty five.
Very good. All right, well yeah, let's go catch our breath.
I think it's gonna take a week to recover. And yeah, so thanks
so much, buddy. We'll be back in a week and you take care.
Yeah, man, looking forward to it. Thank care, Thanks for
listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app
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Until then, we'll see you next time.