This is WWW Superstar Drew McIntyre, and you're listening to the w w E
podcast god Show, the one that everybody wants me Godot three sixteen and says,
just clips your ass is moder You're gonna like now the train Alberty.
But welcome to the current state of w WE of got Anthony de Margo with
me tonight on this Monday May eighth, as Monday at Raw is being filmed
right now, it is live right now. We are unaware of who is
going to win or is winning the triple Threat, the two triple threat matches,
and the final person who's going to emerge from that as the person who's
going to the finals. We have no idea as always, just giving you
a precursor because we're going to talk about the triple Threat matches, the World
Everywhey Championship. So Anthony, welcome to the showman. How you doing and
how did you enjoy Backlash? I thought it was a good show. I
thought it was something that or something a pay per view that over delivered.
I think that being in Puerto Rico set the stage for a very very good
and active crowd, and I think that WWE has been on a very good
run with pay per views and the crowd reactions, like thinking back, like
the last like pay per view that the crowd didn't really feel special was probably
Survivor series. But even at that Survivor Series was branded as war games,
so the crowd had that extra incentive. And then the rumble was in a
stadium. We know what manshreal was for the elimination chamber wrestlemating at Puerto Rico.
They've just been doing a really good job under Triple H, and he
has had his flaws. But one thing I have to say about Triple H's
regime here is that every single pay per view has felt special under him.
It's a good damn good point. You know that. That is something that
I don't think fans have really appreciated or or have even realized they appreciate,
is that under Triple H, even if the raws, that the regular weekly
rows and smackdowns have been not always perfect, they're never going to have a
perfect show. This is something that has been staple of Triple H's Every pay
per view has over delivered, whether it was in the ring or storyline,
or just doing the right thing booking wise. That is one thing Triple H
can hang his hat on or this under his under his guidance. And on
that quick note, just so if you guys are interested, a CNBC article
came out with yours truly in it. I have a couple of quotes.
It's basically just talking about Vince McMahon and the merger with Endeavor and my thoughts
on it. So you see a couple of mentions in there from me with
our WW podcast, So check it out if you want to take a look.
I'll be putting it on my stories on Instagram, which you could find
me a w B Underscore podcast and on Twitter, so it'll be easy to
find if you want to just google it searched CNBC WW and you'll be able
to find it pretty quickly. So but yeah, moving on to your point,
Yeah, I really think that's a great point to bring up, and
without going into too much of backlash, I want to ask you about the
match between Brock Lesner and Cody Rhodes because that match was unexpectedly bloody, which
I love and makes you just miss blood so much. And there's debate whether
or not that was intentional on Brock's behalf, but ultimately Cody gets the victory
with a roll up reversal of the camera and he is victorious. What did
you think about it? Is? Well, I thought that this was a
match that they were going to have a tough time booking because it kind of
felt like a match that neither guy could afford to lose. And that might
sound weird talking about brock Lesner, someone who's probably gonna retreat back to Saskatchewan
now until summer Slam season, and a guy who is a made man and
doesn't need victories, But I do think that there's something to be said about
keeping the legitimacy behind brock Lesner. And save for his victory against o'mass at
WrestleMania, it had been a while since brock Lessner had won like a legitimate
one on one match, like a big name or a big, highly stouted
one on one contest, And thinking back to it, since he returned to
WWE in the summer of twenty twenty one, I cannot remember at one on
one match aside from Omas, that brock Lessner has won, like even against
Bobby Lashley, did he not? Oh no, he did beat Bobby Lashly
with that roll up in Saudi Arabia, But you know, he just hasn't
had that one dominant brock Lessener victory in a one on one fashion since he
returned, and that's why I thought maybe he was going to, you know,
get the one up here on Cody. But they did a good job
of protecting Brock with the role up Finnish, and obviously the blood added a
lot to the drama of that match. I would argue maybe it would have
been better to have Cody maybe lose another match and maybe have him face some
adversity, And it's kind of like a long term storytelling perspective, like really
make the friends really want to see him get back on the horse and into
the winning column. But I understand, especially with the impending tournament for the
World Heavyweight Championship which we're for sure going to get into now, you want
to get one of your biggest stars back on a winning page and get some
momentum behind them. So I mean it's something that I think they could have
gone a bit differently, but ultimately it was the safest route to go.
Yeah it was. And look by Brock Lesner, should he be losing a
match in real life to Cody, of course not. But Brock Lessner is
not at the stage in his career that you need to protect him in a
way that you're concerned about the future of ww A rock Lesner. If he
disappeared off the earth tomorrow, god forbid, the w W would do just
fine. You know, not to say he doesn't add, but he's not
the future. Cody is much more the future, and he's going to be
imminently in this World Heavyweight Championship tournament. And again we'll get to that momentarily,
but that this is the right call because it also does protect brock too,
because it wasn't like Cody hit his finish and then brock Lessner as clean
as you can possibly win or lose, and that's not what happens. So
with this being a roll up finish, I don't hate it. I thought
it was the best possible outcome because while roll up finishes are just hated generally
among fans, it's simply because of its overuse and it's crutch for booking rather
than when it's actually appropriate and good to use a roll up in this scenario.
That's why I think a lot of some fans that didn't like the finish
looked at the roll up and go stupid roll up, but you forget that
there are scenarios where roll ups actually make sense, and this is a scenario
in which it made sense. It made Cody looked like he didn't get lucky,
but he outmaneuvered Lesner without outright beating him, So protects Lesner in that
sense. So I had no issue with this. And the match quality,
of course, was physical bloody love that. Any final thoughts on this before
we dive into this tournament, No, just that I think that it was
a match that really over delivered and it made you kind of want to see
more of Brock Lesser versus Cody Rhodes. One of those matches that you didn't
really know you wanted until it was given to you. And it makes you
wonder if maybe they could have drawn out this program a bit longer and not
just have had it as like a one off following WrestleMania exactly. So all
right, well, let's less dive into this tournament. Man. I was
wondering how they were going to format this in terms of competitors and who is
selected, and how these people were selected to be in the tournament in the
first place. I doubt we're gonna get that explanation, and it is what
it is. So we've got now two triple threats. We've got one triple
threat happening on Raw, Triple Threat happening on Raw, and in the same
night tonight, those two individuals will compete at the end of Raw. Imagine
in the main event, that person will be in the finals, going to
Night of champions insaide Arabia to compete for the World Have you a Championship?
I have no problem with this except for the fact that SmackDown is now involved
in the same way to triple Threats. Do you have any explanation or can
you give WWE a pass on this? Well, it's tough for me to
say because you literally just went through the process of splitting the roster. You
just brought back the brandswin Triple H's first time heading up the WWE draft,
and right off the bat, you are doing something that kind of what's the
word I'm looking for, circumvents it and you're going to have a SmackDown competitor
competing for the World Heavyweight Championship. Now, there is a simple explanation.
Maybe Smackdowns officials didn't know about this tournament, and if one of these SmackDown
competitors, and just looking at the list, I would imagine that the guy
who has the best chance to win it is probably AJ Styles, maybe Edge,
but like maybe if they win, then they could be the World Heavyweight
Champion and just move over to Monday Night Ross. Simply that simply us enough
for me to say, ay. But the one thing that bothers me more
so than this that the SmackDown competitors are involved in this tournament is the fact
that you know that one of the SmackDown guys is going to be in the
finals. So not only is SmackDown going to be involved in the tournament,
you know that the finals is going to feature a SmackDown competitor. I've seen
rumors of it being AJ Styles. Looking at the list, my guess is
that it will be AJ Styles. But right off the bat, you're going
to be going into Saudi Arabia kind of expecting the raw guid'll come out with
the championship. And let's just for argument's sake, say it's Cody Rhoades versus
AJ Styles. You know, you can't say with one hundred percent Curtady that
it will be Cody Roads, just because, like I said before, they
could make it as simple as, Okay, you won the World heavy Championship,
so you're going over to Monday and Night Raw and SmackDown will get like
a compensation prize or what have you, but you're automatically going to be leaning
more of Monday and Night Raw. Whoever that representative that representative is, whether
that be Rawlins or Roads or what have you. So I don't know why
they went down this road. I know that it's probably best for promotion,
because you're going to be promoting the new World Heavyweight Championship and this tournament and
the pay per view on both shows for two weeks straight here, But just
from the perspective of predictability and just trying to keep the integrity of the draft
that literally is going into effect tonight, I don't really understand why they went
down this road. Yeah, it feels and I hate to say, but
it feels very Vince mcmanish to do something like this where you know, you
you immediately just violate the rules of the draft, which, by the way,
the draft's not even in effect yet and they already violated it. I
mean, that's a record, and so I'm not saying Vince McMahon was directly
involved in this decision. That's all speculative. But what I do know is
with SmackDown involved, it does really inherently take away from what the draft is
supposed to be. Two separate worlds. Okay, everything's locked in place.
On May eighth, We're good to go. Let's go. You stay here,
I stay here, and we'll just do our own thing. And we're
instantly, not even waiting a week, instantly having a cross brand match,
and that's going to happen at Night Champions, and presumably if the SmackDown person
wins, they would come to Monday Net Raw, because Triple H told us
this belt is for Monday Night Raw. It's going to be on the brand
that that that Roman reigns is not on. Thereby, the belt will be
on Raw regardless of who wins, which means if it's a SmackDown Star,
they come to Raw. That's that's my assumption. I don't think it's going
to be a SmackDown Star regardless. This is all just kind of I think
WWE trying to make the best matches possible and they want to have the best
of both worlds. Because they want to have guys on SmackDown that are not
on Raw to be able to put the best matches together. And it's already
their admission that they can't. They feel they can't have great matches with top
stars without including both brands. It's already an admission of one of the weaknesses
of the brand split. But that said, I mean, I would imagine
it's either Cody Rhodes or Seth Rollins that wins this whole damn thing. Can
you imagine that it's anybody else that wins this? Well? It was so
weird because I literally thought that it was going to be Drew McIntyre and he's
not even in the tournament. And I thought that Drew McIntyre was gonna win
and they were going to turn him heal, and then you're gonna have maybe
like a chase until Summer Slam of let's say a Seth Rawlins or Cody Rhodes
chasing a heel Drew McIntyre. But now that Drew isn't even involved, I
think it has to be Seth. It doesn't feel like it's going to be
Cody, like it feels like it's the two obvious choice and I feel like
they have more long term storytelling to do with Cody Rhodes, and that his
story is going to cap off in a bigger fashion. And it's weird to
say that, but in a bigger fashion than winning the world title in Saudi
Arabia. It feels like his story is going to be capped off by winning
the WWE Championship at like WrestleMania or something. So I think it's gonna be
seth Rawlins. It feels like it's a slam dunk to be seth Rollins in
my mind. But it's either him or Cody Rhodes. Like AJ Styles,
I guess as an outside shot, but I think that he's found a nice
home over on SmackDown coming out of the draft here. But I would imagine,
like to be honest, the only guy that I could see winning it
from the SmackDown side is Edge because him flipping right back over to Monday Night
Raw would hurt nobody. I mean, he would be back on the same
show as the Judgment days, so you'd have that to contend with. But
to be honest, I mean, aside from those two, and I would
say Edge is a better chance than any other Raw guy just because I think
that it's almost like a foregone conclusion that Seth and Cody will be the two
winning their respective triple threat matches. So I mean, aside from those two,
Cody and Seth, that is, I would probably say Edge has the
best chance, just because I think that the other Raw guys don't stand a
chance, and maybe because of Edges part time status, it would make it
easier to just flip him back over to Monday Night Raw, and he has
that history with the world title. That's not a bad pick because as you
said out, everybody else that is that was drafted between you know, theory
styles, Lashly, Mysterio, Shamus, Edge is the one that makes most
the most sense. If you're going to present the argument that somebody from SmackDown
should win and come to Raw, then Edge absolutely I have no problem with
that, you know, with Edge coming to Raw. But then again them
will have presumably a absentee champion over on Raw. Not to the same extent
as as Roman, but to some extent. I mean, I wouldn't imagine
Edge is going to be doing how shows and every Monday and a Row is
going to be wrestling, and ww has told us this person is going to
be a fighting champion. All of those boxes that ww is trying to check
with this champion seems to be either Seth or Cody. And I'm not trying
to put the fear of God in anybody, but there is and there is
an argument out there to be made that Roman reign still wins this now,
how considering he's not in the tournament, what if there's an injury or the
USOS or solo attack somebody on SmackDown like Lashly or a Mysterio or Edge or
Shamus and that person needs to be replaced all of a sudden, our replacement
a mystery man. Who's the mystery? Right? Maybe it doesn't happen on
Friday, but maybe it happens in the actual tournament. I mean, who
the hell knows where it could be Roman Reigns. And the argument for that
is, well, WWE loves their first time ever, is what about the
first ever? Here's a mouthful WWE Universal World Heavyweight Champion. I mean,
it sounds insane, but the fact that they've already put Roman Reigns with two
belts on it's not it's it's I don't think it's going to happen Okay,
I don't want anyone think I'm that I'm advocating or predicting that. But do
you think there's any chance at all that that happens. I don't think so.
I just think you'd lose a lot of the trust in the fan base
if you did something like that. It would be hilarious. It would be
very bleeping hilarious. And I think you've said this a lot that you almost
just want to see it for what the reaction would be. But I don't
think they're going to do that. I think they actually want to see what
a Monday Night Row will be with a world title for the first time in
trip Lah's tenure as the head of creative, Like, let's be real,
since he took over, there has not been a consistent world champion on Monday
Night Raw, And like I said on our last show last week, it
looks like he's trying to structure things, at least from a championship perspective,
back to the way it was in the Ruthless Aggression era, where you had
the world title in the Icy Championship on Monday Night Raw, in the US
title in the WWE Championship over on SmackDown so I think they really want to
see what a Monday Night Raw can become with Triple H running it and a
world title all going on at the same time. And you look at some
of the guys over on Monday Night Raw seth Rawlins a Cody Rhodes, a
Drew McIntyre. If he returns Gunther eventually when he moves on from the Icy
Championship, they're going to need. Like they spent the past a year really
pushing Roman Reigns for a bit. They had him, you know, flexing
between both shows, but it got old very fast. He almost became exclusive
to SmackDown again very very fast, and you saw Raw very much suffer from
it. I think when Cody Rhodes returned at the Royal Rumble and he won
and became the number one contender, it kind of helped Monday Night Raw a
bit. Obviously the bloodline was carrying both shows. But if you really do
want to commit to a true and for the most part hard brand split,
you absolutely need a world Championship exclusive to RAW. So I don't think that
they're going to ultimately give it to Roman Rains, but it is a funny
thought just because of all the points we laid out, it would be I'm
sorry, I'm part of me does, the sick part of me, the
dark part of me does want to see how the crowd would react, right,
Like, what would they do if Roman Rains captures this belt. I
mean, again, I don't think it will happen for the reasons you laid
out, but it's I mean, it's at least the hilarious thing to talk
about. But that said, back into the world of reality, it has
to be, to me, either be Cody or Seth. Now, if
it's Seth, then I think the fans would absolutely embrace it. But if
it comes down to a final of at least on raw of Seth versus Cody,
I mean, it's that I would imagine is going to be the final,
you would think, and if it is, who to the fans cheer
for um and on SmackDown. If I'm going to make a prediction who is
going to be in the final, it's probably Edge versus h Well, AJ
Styles versus Shamus or there's a lot of baby faces in this so it's hard
to it's hard to gauge, but Edge versus Austin theory, Edge versus AJ
Styles is also on the ticket for me. Um, I think that those
two are you know, Edge and AJ Styles could absolutely be in the final,
and then it could come down to my god, Seth Rollins versus AJ
Styles at the at the event, there's there's really a lot of combinations and
none of them suck when it comes to wrestling quality for a night of champions
So, Um, the one thing I've also laid out, and I don't
know if you feel the same way about the Championship, is remind people about
the lineage of it. Remind people what it meant, Remind people who held
it, because there's a lot of fans that you think that maybe WWE just
invented this out of nowhere and they don't understand what it meant, and that
it's not just the Universal Championship that they created out of nothing. That there
is a lineage and that's important. Do you think that they should do that?
Yeah? For sure. And coincidently enough, that's going to be the
topic of my retro this coming week. I was going to do it last
week, but then we remembered that I don't record a retro on pay per
view weeks. So that's going to be the topic for my show this week
and I'll go more depth on it, but just to kind of give it
at the cliff notes a bit like you look at the World Heavyweight Championship and
who held that, and obviously it was the successor to the WCW Championship,
but just looking at it in it's WWE days when they brought it back in
two thousand and two to be the main world title on Monday and net wrong.
You know, the only singles championship that HBK one upon his return to
the company in two thousand and two was the World Heavyweight title. The Undertaker
has not held the WWE Championship since two thousand and two, but he held
the World Heavyweight Championship several times in the late two thousands. You look at
the fact that the World Heavyweight Championship main evented WrestleMania on three occasions I want
to say believe were wrested twenty twenty one and twenty four. You look at
the iconic and historic feud between the Undertaker and Edge on SmackDown that was over
the World Heavyweight Championship. You look at when Randy Orton became the youngest world
champion in history. That was winning the World Heavyweight Championship, Like these are
all things that I think people really need to go back and realize what this
title meant. And to your point, in two and sixteen, they created
the Universal Championship out of thin air, with no lineage, no history.
Why were we supposed to believe that this was put on equal footing with the
WWE Championship. But to ww's credit, they did a good job. Kevin
Owens had a solid run with title. Brock Lesner held it for eighteen months.
He really legitimized it. But you can literally go back twenty five plus
years and look at the lineage of the WCW and later the World Heavyweight Title,
and it tells you all you need to know as to why you should
care so much about this belt coming back. I mean well laid out,
and I hope that WWE does something similar with just a couple of minute video
package. With how good they are at putting video packages together, this should
not be a big lift. And it's important because this is a title that
you're telling us is on equal footing with the WWE and or Universal Championship that
Roman Reigns is carrying, and it should be and there is something to be
said for who has held it in the past that matters, even if it
hasn't been around in the last six years seven years since they retired it and
now bringing it back. So what I mean, they've done that with the
IC Belt before too, And this is something that I think the fans need
to remember and or be educated on about the World Heavyweight Championship. And when
I think about it, to me that when I think of the World Heavyweight
Championship, all I can think about is Triple H from like, you know,
oh, what is it, oh three or oh four, to say
like he held oh two, maybe it was at two h three. He
held it for like two years straight, it felt like. And so that
to me, and in Triple H did a hell of it a job in
evolution carrying that championship. And you're right, Shawn Michaels in the elimination chamber
winning it his first night and then shortly thereafter dropping it. But there are
so many big names that have made careers off of this championship and helped make
the championship, namely to me, Triple H is just imprinted on my mind.
With the World Heavyweight Championship on on WWE, And so yeah, absolutely
that that's a great topic for this coming Friday's you know, retro show.
And I just hoped WW does this because there is so much invested into this
championship, you would hope they tell us how important it is and why and
why we should care so and for you do you think that what they did
by creating the Universal Championship and some of the guys who have only held there
that title as being regarded as a world champion, like let's say Finn Balor
or Kevin Owens or even Goldberg like he can win upon his return to the
company in twenty sixteen, he's only held the Universal Championship. To be honest,
Goldberg has never held the WWE Championship. He's only held the Universal or
the or the WWE or the World Heavyweight. Actually, so do you think,
because eventually I think we're gonna we're gonna see the Universal Championship get retired
in some capacity, Like eventually it's going to be it's going to go back
to just being known as the WWE Championship. It's gonna be one belt and
the lineage you see on ww dot com will be of the WWE championship for
before I go any further, do you think that's the likely road they take.
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up, because I mean, outside
of like just they they're different colors, they're identical looking championships, and I
think that's confusing for fans. And I think I'm overseeing guys with two championship
belts when they're telling us a single championship. Okay, we get it,
cool photo op. They've done it a million times. Great, let's if
you're telling us it's one championship, stop with the two physical belts, you
know, and and again outside of the way that they look, which is
literally just a different shade of color, there's no Yeah, that's it.
And I think having w W the w w E Championship prevail and just absorb
the universal isn't gonna make anybody lose any sleep. I think that makes total
sense because right now, in a weird way, there's three top belts and
even though Roman has one quote unquote championship, he has two belts and now
there's one on Raw, so thereby there's kind of three. I don't like
that. I want WWE to just create a just go yeah, like you
said, just create one belt, go back to w w E and you
can call it to w w E un Disputed Championship. Okay, fine,
like you know, just get Universal out of there. They did a good
job of, you know, building that up for what it was at the
time with the brand split. Okay, the other brand has to have a
belt. Fine, they did a nice job, but I think it's time
that they cut down one of the physical belts with Roman Reigns and here,
and the other part about this is is that you go onto ww dot com
and if you look at their champion section, it still shows Roman Reigns being
the WWE Champion and the Universal Champion. Like, they're still regarded as two
separate championships on WWE dot com. So eventually they're gonna have to regulate that.
And this is the third time that they've unified world championships. They did
it in two thousand and one with the WWF and the WCW Championship. Eventually
it got made into the Undisputed Championship and then slowly but surely, it quietly
just became the WWE Championship again and it kept that lineage. And then in
two and thirteen, they unified the world Heavyweight with the WWE. In the
latter match between Sena and Randy Jordan at the TLC pay per view, it
was known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. They unified the titles following SummerSlam
twenty fourteen when Brock won it, and then slowly and quietly it just came
known as the WWE Championship. So I expect that's where they go with it
again. But the difference is is that the last two times they did it,
you had the world title and its predecessor, the WSCW Championship, being
consumed by the WWE title, but it had all that lineage behind it,
so we would always remember it, and guys who had only won those championships,
like a Goldberg or like a Shawn Michaels, you would always regard it
as a world title because of the lineage going back into the early nineties in
the WCW days, and I believe it derived from the NWA World Championship.
My question is is that when we look back five, ten, fifteen years
from now, will we consider a universal championship victory as a world title victory?
And you look at some guys like the runs that they had, like
Seth Rawns in twenty nineteen when Brock held it for eighteen months from twenty seventeen
to twenty eighteen, braun Stroman's a guy who only world title he's ever held
is the Universal Championship, the phene Bray Wyatt, Like, I'm just wondering,
do you think that eventually, and in my opinion, inevitably, when
they do retire the Universal Championship, it will be regarded on the same level
as the WWE and now the World Heavyweight. Well, they're certainly Here's the
thing that's a difficult question answer only because well, you and I and most
fans would have no problem in we just getting rid of Universal, just going
back to w w E on SmackDown and the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw.
That's the cleanest, makes the most sense and less confusing. But the problem
is this that WWE has put so much stock into the Rolling Rains run that
since his run began with that Universal Championship that we're proposing goes away. I
don't know if they would just dissolve it because that then if all of a
sudden, like you're in your scenario where ten fifteen years down the line,
we're like, wow, did we regard it as a world everyway championship?
You know, well if they don't, if we say yes, and then
that belt that Roman Reigns started is run with doesn't exist anymore. I think
the fans may look at that, or WWE may say, well, we
don't want to look back and go, yeah, the five hundred out of
the however many days at this point one thousand or two thousand whatever it ends
up being, the first five hundred days of it did not was with the
Universal, and so why would why would we just dissolve a belt where five
hundred of those days were just with the universal. That again, that championship
doesn't exist anymore. I I could think that's the only argument against it other
than that. I mean to answer your question, if Roman reigins Is Run
didn't exist, I think that they would just they would probably look at it
as a world title victory. I think that they would because that's how they
treated it for years. Yeah. I guess the reason I ask is because
WWE it's kind of muddied the waters a bit when it comes to world championship
victories like the say like seen as a sixteen time world champion, like well,
a lot of those were the World Heavyweight Championship, so we are counting
that as a world title victory. But that's what the danger you get is
when you create a world championship out of thin air, the World Heavyweight Championship,
they're just bringing back, like for people forget, they retired the Intercontinental
Championship for like almost a year, I want to say, from O one
to O two, and they did the same with the US Championship, So
titles can be retired and brought back. But the Universal Championship they literally created
out of thin air in the summer of twenty sixteen, and it never made
sense from the beginning to your point when in its inception it was just the
WWE Championship with a red strap, so it almost didn't even have like an
identity of its own. And I guess that's why, Like I wonder if
WWE, if they could have had a do over, if they would have
just brought back the World Heavyweight Championship in twenty sixteen to place over on Monday
Night Raw. And I guess my second question, or one of my numerous
questions for you would be, is do you think if they do a good
job at trying to remind people of the lineage of the World Heavyweight Championship,
that Raw will be able to feel as important as SmackDown has with Roman reigns
and the Undisputed Championship, because we've talked about for so long now that Raw
has really been behind the eight ball in regards to SmackDown because of the world
title lacking. Well, I think that's a multi layered question. So first,
I think already instantly feels more important than it has in the past,
not just because there's a tournament and we'll focus on the tournament, but what's
the ultimate result of this tournament is we're gonna have a world champion, thank
God. Like I mean, you and I have been advocating for that among
other fans. You could hear the reaction when Triple h and reduced it.
Fans cheered, it was a big pop. Fans were ready to see somebody
there on a weekly basis, and it's not just you and I on the
podcast here. So that is already elevating Raw and does make it feel more
important. But the second part of this, the second layer, is does
this make it feel as important as Roman Reins to your question, I mean
not right away. No. I think what's gonna make it feel as important
as Roman Rains is run is who's holding it and what storylines are they in.
How is the crowd reacting to this proposed baby face champion. There's a
lot of factors, and it's difficult because from a lineage standpoint, it's equal.
I mean the universal doesn't count. I'm saying WWE in World Heavyweight.
There's a lot of lineage there between both of them, decades of lineage and
going back like USA to WCW. So from a lineage standpoint, I think
they're on par. But from an actual in the moment, what do I
think about it? In this second? Who feels more important? I mean,
Roman Rains has had such a long lead here that it's going to be
tough for anyone to catch up to that feeling that they're unequal footing because of
how epic this run has been. So it's gonna take a long time,
if it's even possible at all, for in the moment that person that champion
on raw feeling unequal footing to Roman Reigns. Given how much lead time Roman
has had with this belt, I know it might be a bit of left
field, but I just want to address it before we wrap it up.
But like I kind of brought it up before, but like, where the
hell are they gonna go with Drew McIntyre, Like, think about where this
guy was three years ago in the pandemic era and before Roman Reigns returned to
the Thunderdome. You know, Drew McIntyre was the straw that stirred the drink
for w W. He was the guy that carried them through the even the
pre thunder toomera, like the Performance Center era era. I don't even think
we saw Roman Reigns to do a show in the Performance Center that was all
Drew McIntyre and he never got his moment. The runway ran out well before
they got back in front of fans, and I'm just wondering, like,
are they ever going to be able to rekindle the magic they had with Drew
McIntyre just as COVID started that is That's that's tough because all the reports you've
heard, I've heard everybody is that WWE and Drew are on separate pages when
it comes to the next contract because he's close to his current was expiring soon.
Now what do I what date is exactly? I don't know. I
would imagine the next thirty to sixty days that his contract expires. And they
seem to be on two separate pages when it comes to the two c's cash
and creative, and they seem to not be anywhere near one another, which
is not good. And if they're at an impass, then Drew will go
his separate way with w w EE. And if they don't, though,
I'm gonna go with the assumption that they eventually come together, they come to
an agreement and Drew stage with WWE. I don't know if Drew can get
back to where he was. I don't know. Now, a heel turn
is something that is fun to explore. Drew has been heel before. Remember
Shane McMahon, Remember he religned himself with Shaney was like Shane's heavy for a
while. I think it was during was it during the AJ Styles program?
That Yeah, he was his heavy And that was in twenty nineteen, right
when we were just starting to work together on this podcast. Coincidantly enough,
and he came really a long way since then. Oh god, yeah,
I mean he as you said, he carried the pandemic era. He is
the face sadly, and I mean this in a respectful way, but he
is the face of the thunderdomera, the pandemic era. He carried WWE,
and I feel really bad for him, you know, getting that massive elimination
of Brock and the Rumble and then having his moment. You're thinking, oh
my god, he's finally going to be in front of fans being crowned as
champion. And he gets crowned as champion in front of no One, and
I'm like, oh my god, that's got to be so heartwrenching for the
dude. And I felt for him. But he really did an awesome job
carrying the company during that time of just bizarre. It was a bizarre world
for all of us. And so you know, I have nothing but respect
for him. But he has come a long way. He just is a
He's the perfect example of a polished performer leaving a boy coming back a man.
All of that is true. He just knows who he is, he
knows his value. He's just a solid in ring worker. He never has
a bad match. He's always solid on the mike. He'll never blow you
away, and you know, just leave you jaw dropped. But he's just
such an all around He's like an he's an a guy. He could be
a world champion at any time, and I don't think anyone would complain.
But if he sticks around, I honestly he may short turn tround the baby
face thing. But honestly, if that that doesn't work, I would turn
him heel and give him a new, a new fresh coat of paint.
Because you look on the Monday Night Raw Side and I guess that Gunther is
the top heel on the brand right now because you have Seth who's a baby
face, Cody who's a baby face. I guess if you count the Judgment
day, it feels like they're gonna give Damien Priests a massive run. Like
do you think there's any chance Damien Priest comes out of this as the world
champion? No? Not right now. I mean that match with Bad Bunny,
it was fine, it was good. I didn't have any problem with
the match quality, but it wasn't meant to build Damian Priest, even though
he came out, you know, I think he came out and feeling a
bigger star, and he was left out of WrestleMania season for all intents and
purposes, it's nice as child. Yeah, he was exactly and for him
to get the spotlight with bad Bunny and having a good match, it was
important and that's good, but it did not elevate him to World Heavyweight Championship
contender status at all. You know, maybe if things continue, we could
be talking a different tune next year, but right now, no, I
don't think he's in the conversation to be a realistic competitor for the World Heavyweight
Championship, not not the way that they've defined him anyway. Right now.
Yeah, I mean, I guess I'm just looking at this that the raw
card, and aside from Gunter, I don't see a top heel. And
that's why if Drew does come back, and I'm hoping he does, I
would imagine that maybe they turn him. He'll because you look at Cody,
he's gonna stay baby face. Seth Rawlins just turned baby face again. I
mean Finn Balor, Finn Balor feels as stale as ever if you ask me.
I mean, it just feels like Drew would have the best spot to
lock in a main event kind of spot. Not to reiterate myself, if
he were to turn heel, No, yeah, no doubt, I mean
him, it could be the best thing he ever does. Kind of like
Bianca bel Air turning her heel too, would do effing wonders for her career.
And like you said, with Drew, because fans will cheer him,
he gets a solid reaction. But fans are kind of like, all right,
we've seen this act. We're kind of ready for something new. Show
us how nasty you can be. Remind us because how it's been like what
four years since your McIntyre has been a heel. I mean it's time,
like we're ready to see that side of him. It would instantly make him
more relevant. He'd be able to work with top guys like Seth, like
Cody, and it would be a lot of fun to watch. And he
could work with any buddy and always has great matches. So I think that
that's a really good solution for if they bring them back, and like you
said, hopefully they do. But all right, well, I guess we'll
wrap it there. But before we go, any final thoughts or plugs or
anything that you want to mention. Well, yeah, just um, I
guess my upcoming show this week we will be covering the history of the World
Heavyweight Championship and my last show it was about a week and a half ago
now, and I'm constring to remember what I did. I think it was
it JBL. It could have been JBL, it could have or was it
Seth Throns It was one, Yeah, it was one of those two.
It was JBL or Seth Rawlins. But either way, I just think everyone
should be on the lookout for the history of the World Championship. I'm not
gonna do WCW so just from O two to twenty thirteen. Obviously, I'm
not going to get into the weeds for so to speak, but I just
want to kind of cover what we should be expecting and what the lineage was,
because I think there's a lot of fans out there who probably don't remember
what the World Heavyweight Championship meant to or like you and I maybe those that
have forgotten, right, I mean, I think it's it's been a while,
so I think we even those that feel like they're hardcore fans, I
think it could do all of us, those that are new and the quote
unquote hardcore, It could benefit all of us to remind us the faces and
names of those that held it beforehand, and I think that's going to do
wonders for the World Heavyweight Championship tournament that is going on right now presumably.
So all right, well, very good, and I'm looking forward to your
discussion later this week about the World Heavyweight Championship, the lineage of it.
Very important topic and timely. So we will be chatting again in a week
and we'll at that point know what the finals are for this World Heavyweight Championship
match. Yeah, and we'll be able to preview the Saudi Arabia event.
I just keep calling it the Saudi Arabia event because I always forget it's Night
of Champions is it? Yes, officially nine of Champions, but I know
anytime it's in Saudi Arabia like overshadows any anything else. Yet, Well,
it's because it used to be Crown Jeweled then they did they didn't. They
do an elimination chamber there too, like they always change whenever they're going.
The Greatest Royal Rumble where broun Stroman won and it meant nothing. Yeah,
all of that. Yes, they and the beloved Crown Jewel event that was
one of the worst pay per views ww's ever had, bringing Sean out of
retirement and people getting injured left and right. It was a disaster. Yeah,
so's there's something cursed Undertaker? Oh my god, Oh god, that's
right. I think that's the word. Is that the worst match in history?
Like I'm not even joking. When you match it up against the expectations
and the perceived star power to the actual in ring result, it was that
the worst match of all time. It's so bad, it's so yeah,
that's true. I mean in terms of right expectation to result. Yes,
I mean there's been some really bad women's matches, like really bad. There's
been some awful celebrity matches. But if you're just if you're going to frame
it as expectation and result, it's got to be in your top two.
I mean, like and considering that Undertaker literally almost was paralyzed and or killed
in that match, Yeah, that that's should top our list. So um
who yeah, but definitely, guys, I would not recommend watching that pay
per view. What I'd recommend listening to, though, is our show on
Friday that's going to cover the World Heavyweight Championship that I'll get you ready for.
Who is going to be crowned the new World Heavyweight Champion at the end
of the month. So all right, buddy, we will be chatting again
in a week, so you take care. Yeah, you two looking forward
to it, but bye. Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't
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