Speaker 1: It.
Speaker 2: This is WWE superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to
Speaker 2: the WWE podcast.
Speaker 3: Stop the show, the one that everybody wants me.
Speaker 4: God sixteen says, your ass's modern.
Speaker 1: You're gonna acknowledge me?
Speaker 5: Okay, everybody, Welcome to the official twenty twenty three Royal
Speaker 5: Rumble Review. I have with me today a special guest
Speaker 5: co host, patron of the show, longtime patron of the show,
Speaker 5: and voicemail contributor to our mailbag, as well as an
Speaker 5: in person perspective from last night's Royal Rumble. And we've
Speaker 5: got a lot to talk about. But first let me
Speaker 5: introduce you to Rocky T. You guys have heard him before,
Speaker 5: but if you haven't, I want to introduce him to
Speaker 5: you now. And Rocky T, how you doing man, and
Speaker 5: how was the show?
Speaker 1: I am doing well, Man, still coming off the high
Speaker 1: from last night. The show was amazing. First time to
Speaker 1: a Rumble. I've been to past WrestleMania's and plenty of
Speaker 1: smackdowns and raws house shows over the years, but this
Speaker 1: roy Rumble is at the top of the list.
Speaker 5: I could imagine you don't get in our wrestling fandom careers.
Speaker 5: We don't get to go to too many pay per views,
Speaker 5: much less one of the biggest pay per views that
Speaker 5: WW has every year. So I'm jealous. I'm sure many
Speaker 5: of us that are watching are jealous, or listening rather
Speaker 5: are jealous. And before we get going, where were your
Speaker 5: seats exactly when you went to the arena, where'd you said?
Speaker 1: So? I was behind the entrance, so where the intrance was,
Speaker 1: we were above it to on the camera angle would
Speaker 1: have been to the left.
Speaker 6: So unfortunately, as I told you.
Speaker 1: When we message, I was not able to get the
Speaker 1: sign inside the arena.
Speaker 6: It was too big, was what they told me. But
Speaker 6: I think the guards.
Speaker 1: Were by our gate just being more a little more
Speaker 1: strict because we saw signs get in that were about
Speaker 1: about our size that I had. And then even the
Speaker 1: side the sign that she created, they said it was
Speaker 1: too big and it's a regular poster poster board signs.
Speaker 1: So we were right behind the entrance pretty much, but
Speaker 1: not on camera. So even if I would have had
Speaker 1: the sign, it may not have made the camera angles.
Speaker 1: But I did rewatch some of the roombo last time
Speaker 1: when we got back to the hotel, and to see
Speaker 1: where if we could see ourselves on camera but I
Speaker 1: don't think it would have made it on camera either way.
Speaker 5: It's all right, yeah no, And I when I was
Speaker 5: looking around, I didn't see too many signs as a
Speaker 5: whole anyway. I mean, and it's not like back in
Speaker 5: the late nineties where everyone brought a sign every single show,
Speaker 5: And I think, like you encountered, you have much stricter regulations.
Speaker 5: I guess for what the security and the building are
Speaker 5: told by w W management is allowable and it's what's not.
Speaker 5: And so yeah, no, no big deal. I actually had forgot.
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, that's right, and I started looking
Speaker 5: for the sign and I'm like, I don't even see
Speaker 5: many signs at all. So I figured that's something had happened.
Speaker 5: But no big deal. Let's jump into the show. As
Speaker 5: we opened the show, this may have been the only
Speaker 5: Royal Rumble I can remember that we had the actual
Speaker 5: Royal Men's Royal Rumble match open the show. So that
Speaker 5: was pretty surprising. And uh, we opened the show with
Speaker 5: the World Rumble.
Speaker 3: Were you surprised by that? First of all?
Speaker 5: When they immediately went to the Men's Royal Rumble, which
Speaker 5: typically is slated for the end of the show.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yeah, I remember what you were saying in the
Speaker 1: last couple of podcasts that if the Rumble came on
Speaker 1: first before Romas match, then we would probably end up
Speaker 1: seeing Cody win, and if it was vice versa, then
Speaker 1: maybe a Sami win. So when they announced the start
Speaker 1: of the Rumbo, yeah, I was very surprised. I didn't
Speaker 1: expect that format. By the end of By the end
Speaker 1: of the night, I felt like like it took out
Speaker 1: a lot of energy from the crowd. I mean, that
Speaker 1: was a good rumble. The order everybody came out, the
Speaker 1: little the mini storylines that they told was great, but
Speaker 1: it was loud and it took a lot of energy
Speaker 1: out of us. So maybe there wasn't as loud later
Speaker 1: on during I mean, I know it's loud, the whole
Speaker 1: whole rumble, but uh, I think it's totally surprised me.
Speaker 1: I guess, I guess I'm okay with it. But I
Speaker 1: didn't like the back to back women matches. So if
Speaker 1: they would have started with maybe you know, the women's
Speaker 1: match and then men's were a rumble and then the
Speaker 1: woman's but that's what threw me off.
Speaker 3: Yeah, usually, yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 5: This was I didn't hate it I'm like, okay, cool,
Speaker 5: I don't have to wait two and a half three
Speaker 5: hours to get to the match that we all want
Speaker 5: to see.
Speaker 3: And no disrespect to.
Speaker 5: The women's but right now, the men's Rumble and specifically
Speaker 5: the championship match with Roman and Kaoh, we're the main
Speaker 5: events of the show, without question. And so I was
Speaker 5: I'm with you. It took me by surprise, but I'm like, all.
Speaker 3: Right, let's do this.
Speaker 5: Let's go and with a fresh crowd, you're going to
Speaker 5: get the maximum reaction at the beginning. And you guys,
Speaker 5: were you guys, were you guys were loud? I gotta
Speaker 5: say there were, there were some There was some times
Speaker 5: that you know, especially with the Sammy turn and we'll
Speaker 5: get there, that may have been the loudest pop I've
Speaker 5: heard in quite some time. Again, we'll we'll, we'll touch
Speaker 5: on that in just a few minutes. But as far
Speaker 5: as this World Rumble goes, when you guys saw Gunther
Speaker 5: and you saw Seamus one and two, you guys must
Speaker 5: have been like, all right, cool, we're gonna get a
Speaker 5: couple of minutes of some great wrestling.
Speaker 1: Uh, Gunter's music hit and the pace, I mean, the
Speaker 1: roof must have flew off or at least lifted a
Speaker 1: few inches. Same thing with Shamus. They both had amazing pops,
Speaker 1: and their pops lasted from the time they came out
Speaker 1: all the way to the ring. Like it wasn't just
Speaker 1: an initial pop and then just lackluster, but it went
Speaker 1: through all the way down to the ring. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: people were hyped and then it was just I mean
Speaker 1: just hearing those two theme songs hit and the lights
Speaker 1: go out for both of the entrances. Yeah, the crowd,
Speaker 1: that was a I think it was a perfect way
Speaker 1: to start the roumbull.
Speaker 5: And let's not forget about Pat McAfee. I forgot to
Speaker 5: mention him.
Speaker 3: You guys gave him a pretty wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, to open the show. That was crazy. You
Speaker 1: would think you were at like a college football game
Speaker 1: or something. People were just jumping up and down in
Speaker 1: the crowd and going nuts for this dude.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5: It was a bigger reaction than I've most superstars don't
Speaker 5: have that reaction, much less announcers.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So you guys pop for him pretty damn vague and
Speaker 5: that was cool to see, you know, and he almost
Speaker 5: fell off his chair. Did you see that we had
Speaker 5: McAfee nearly slip off his chair and he had to
Speaker 5: have one of the ring crew hold his chair at
Speaker 5: ringside when he came in.
Speaker 1: So I saw when I played it back last night
Speaker 1: in the hotel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he just is.
Speaker 5: He's so fun to watch. So yeah, very cool. So
Speaker 5: back to the rumble, we had gone through one and two.
Speaker 5: I'm not going to go through all thirty, but some
Speaker 5: of the bigger moments that happened in the rumble, well,
Speaker 5: Kobe Kingston had his moment of just always creative non
Speaker 5: eliminations that he had some way to stay in the match,
Speaker 5: and that was fun to watch. I believe his foot
Speaker 5: was on a chair, so he technically wasn't eliminated. We
Speaker 5: had Gargano, Xavier Woods carrying cross, Chad Gable. So before
Speaker 5: I get that's the first third of the match. Jam
Speaker 5: McIntyre was number nine and Santos sasca Bar was number ten,
Speaker 5: So just the first third of the match. If there's
Speaker 5: anything notable that you remember or wanted to comment on,
Speaker 5: just with the that that first part, well.
Speaker 1: The first part, like I said, Gunt and Seam has
Speaker 1: had those long lasting pops, so did Drew the other guys,
Speaker 1: you know, They had their initial pops when the music hit,
Speaker 1: but then they were coming down and to the ring,
Speaker 1: and you know, people were cheering, but just not as loud.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it transitioned over to the into
Speaker 1: TV where you're watching. Chad Gable had a nice little
Speaker 1: shoes from the or at least from my section. My
Speaker 1: section was cheering a lot and started a couple of chants.
Speaker 1: There was a little shoes chant for him and Kofe
Speaker 1: and I don't know what, I know, you don't like
Speaker 1: New Day. I'm over them too, But those guys got
Speaker 1: pops and there was even New Day caps before the
Speaker 1: show started. People were doing the little New Day, the
Speaker 1: little clap clap before the show started, and then a
Speaker 1: couple of things before As we're walking into the arena,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of La Night Yeah Chance and then
Speaker 1: of course the Rick Flew, Rick Flair, the woos. This
Speaker 1: is all before the show, but that first half of
Speaker 1: the rumble, yeah, Koffee and Xavier's pops and you know,
Speaker 1: they do the little thing in the ring, but other
Speaker 1: than that, not too much. Santos comes out at number ten.
Speaker 1: I like the guy hit hit a cool little pop.
Speaker 1: I think people really by with his music and his wagger.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't know him yet, even though he's been
Speaker 1: on you know, SmackDown for a little while now, they
Speaker 1: just they don't know his work. If they don't if
Speaker 1: they didn't watch him in NXT. So he got a
Speaker 1: good pop for me though.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I'm with you on that. And I was
Speaker 5: actually surprised to see Carrie and Cross get eliminated so quickly.
Speaker 5: I mean, for all of what all the things he's
Speaker 5: done the past six to twelve months, I'm like, wow,
Speaker 5: and he got eliminated pretty quickly. But that said, after
Speaker 5: we got Santos Escobar, it was Dawkins and then Brock Lesner,
Speaker 5: Bobby Lashley, Baron Corbyn and Seth Rollins. So that was
Speaker 5: the first half of the match, and boy twelve through
Speaker 5: fifteen Lesner, Lashley, Corbin and Rollins. That's a I mean,
Speaker 5: that's like a superstar dump. And then of course you
Speaker 5: slow down and then pick up again with bigger stars.
Speaker 5: So comment on the lastly Corbin, Rollins, Lesner participation in
Speaker 5: the rubble.
Speaker 1: Right, So again like with Gunter, Shamus and Drew and
Speaker 1: you know, New day having their long lasting pops. Of
Speaker 1: course Brock and Bobby get their pops as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: when Brock's music hit again, the roof it must have shifted, dude,
Speaker 1: it's and then you and then you hear the Pyro hit,
Speaker 1: so those guys are coming down. And when Bobby's music hit,
Speaker 1: you know, Rock thirty in the ring waiting, and you know,
Speaker 1: people were waiting for the showdown. And again I'm surprised
Speaker 1: to see Brod get eliminated that fast too. I thought
Speaker 1: he would do more. And then Rawlins comes out, and
Speaker 1: then you have Gun the Shams and Drew and and
Speaker 1: then Bobby and you have all these heavy hitters in
Speaker 1: the match, and you're just like, these guys are going
Speaker 1: to go the distance. That's what That's what I'm thinking
Speaker 1: in my head anyways, like these guys are going to
Speaker 1: go the distance and be in the final five or
Speaker 1: final six, and and then you know, you know, surely
Speaker 1: everybody gets limited one by one. So yeah, like you
Speaker 1: were saying towards the last the first half, a big
Speaker 1: name dumps and then a couple of guys get dumped out.
Speaker 1: But uh, from there on out, well, who's next? We
Speaker 1: got otis and we got what happened with Ray? What
Speaker 1: did you think about that with Ray? Because people in
Speaker 1: the in the crowd were mad. They were chatting for Ray.
Speaker 1: Where's Ray? Like the whole rest of the match, Where's Ray?
Speaker 1: Even during the Woman's royal, but they're like, where's Ray?
Speaker 1: People were just asking for him? But there was was
Speaker 1: there anything on commentary that that led to anything about
Speaker 1: what happened to him?
Speaker 3: They were speculating.
Speaker 5: I mean, obviously they were suspicious of dominic who had
Speaker 5: something to do with it, and I'm sure he obviously
Speaker 5: does so they were speculating and a bit suspicious.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Yeah, the crowd was, you know, they were
Speaker 1: into it the whole time. When Dominie came out, of
Speaker 1: course you get your booze. There's something about dom now
Speaker 1: that he's you know, kind of growing up a little bit.
Speaker 1: When I saw dom in person, you know from the
Speaker 1: view I had, there's something about this kid now that
Speaker 1: he's like, he's on the track to be a big star.
Speaker 1: He's got he's got it in his blood. You know,
Speaker 1: he's got to polish his Mike scales and the ring work.
Speaker 1: But he's doing great work right now. But when I
Speaker 1: lay the eyes on him in person, it changed like
Speaker 1: I respect his kid in some like a whole different level.
Speaker 1: I can't really explain it. I have a soft spot
Speaker 1: for second generation stars, I've mentioned back on older emails
Speaker 1: and podcast so now that he's getting into his groove,
Speaker 1: I might like to buy his kids shirt. I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: but seeing him in person was a little game changer
Speaker 1: for me.
Speaker 5: That's interesting to hear. You know, Dominic who has he's
Speaker 5: getting one of the biggest heel reactions that the company
Speaker 5: has right now for anybody, and deservedly so. He has
Speaker 5: found his niche as this punk x con dom gimmick.
Speaker 5: I love everything about it. It it fits him and
Speaker 5: suits him absolutely perfectly. And of course we're getting to
Speaker 5: a Ray Dominic match at WrestleMania and that'll be fun.
Speaker 5: That whole story is going to be really fun. The
Speaker 5: video package on that should be absolutely phenomenal. I'm looking
Speaker 5: forward to that. But continuing with the rumble, we got
Speaker 5: Elias who was pretty much a non factor, Finn Balor
Speaker 5: in that match, and then and then Booker t. I mean,
Speaker 5: you guys pop pretty big. I would have as well.
Speaker 5: Booker t entering the Royal rumble. How did how did
Speaker 5: that sound in person?
Speaker 1: That that was incredible hometown boy for me? Sorry about
Speaker 1: Booker Before he had Reality of Wrestling down here in Houston,
Speaker 1: he had p w A, which was his pro wrestling alliance,
Speaker 1: and he had that down in Pasadena when I was
Speaker 1: going to college. The lady I knew was dating his promoter.
Speaker 1: So I actually got to pass out the flyers for
Speaker 1: Brooker T when he had his promotion down there when
Speaker 1: I was in college back in two thousand and six
Speaker 1: and seven. So besides being a hometop boy, Brooker T,
Speaker 1: you know, I have a soft spot for him, But
Speaker 1: the crowd went nuts for him. He must have had,
Speaker 1: if not the biggest pop, you know, next to next
Speaker 1: to Edge or Brocker Bobby's pop, Booker T might have
Speaker 1: been the loudest one and sustainable too, all the way
Speaker 1: down to the ring. And then when he hit the
Speaker 1: spinner Rounee, I mean, the people were just jumping, like
Speaker 1: they were just calling for it, like yeah, I just like,
Speaker 1: I'll never forget it. I hadn't seen the spinning Roune
Speaker 1: in person before I experienced the crowd reaction for it.
Speaker 1: I was, I was going ballistic for it. I couldn't wait.
Speaker 5: It was a fun moment. And you know what, for
Speaker 5: his age for not being in the ring, he was
Speaker 5: in really good shape and he you know what, he
Speaker 5: wasn't exactly what he was, you know, twenty years ago,
Speaker 5: but of course he's not gonna be However, I really
Speaker 5: enjoyed seeing him. He just seeing Booker T was such
Speaker 5: a nice fun throwback. Of course, you know he's not
Speaker 5: gonna win, but it's always fun to see those guys
Speaker 5: come back for kind of a cameo appearance. And I'm
Speaker 5: with you. I was sitting at home like, oh.
Speaker 3: This is great.
Speaker 5: Like you know, when you don't load up the Rumble
Speaker 5: with a lot of legacy stars and it's kind of
Speaker 5: here and there, it means more.
Speaker 3: So I was I was big on this.
Speaker 5: I really enjoyed Booker T in the Rumble, even if
Speaker 5: it was for a short period of time. Then we
Speaker 5: get Damian Priest, Montes Ford Edge and Austin Theory at
Speaker 5: number twenty five. So for that batch with Booker, Damien,
Speaker 5: Montes and Edge and Austin Theory kind of go through that.
Speaker 5: If you have any comments on just that batch of individuals.
Speaker 1: Uh, well, you know you already had Dominic and Finn
Speaker 1: in the match, and then when Priest comes out, you
Speaker 1: kind of had an idea that they were gonna throw
Speaker 1: people out and take over, and then the idea of
Speaker 1: Edge started to sink in, and you know, in my head,
Speaker 1: Gimberly had mentioned it that he was going to come back,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't sure, you know, because we're speculating a lot.
Speaker 1: We thought he might have came back the Raw Raw
Speaker 1: thirty or something. So I like that he didn't come
Speaker 1: back for Raw thirty. And then so when you see
Speaker 1: you know, Judgment Day in the ring and then you
Speaker 1: got Ford come out, which was you know, kind of
Speaker 1: almost of a throwaway even though he's on the rise,
Speaker 1: and then they're standing tall on the ring, Judgment Day
Speaker 1: is and then it Edges music hits. It's I don't
Speaker 1: know how that's like the perfect setup. I mean for
Speaker 1: him to come back and get get his revenge, you know,
Speaker 1: so to speak, instead of coming back and making a
Speaker 1: return on Raw and just beating them. I think it
Speaker 1: was perfect to do the storyline with that. In the rumble.
Speaker 1: Also three comes out, he gets his booze, you know,
Speaker 1: walks to the ring and does his thing. But there
Speaker 1: were actually a couple people during for the kid. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty high on the kid right now too. It's got
Speaker 1: a good luck. Of course, he's in ring is very
Speaker 1: good and his mic skills so and then he made
Speaker 1: it to the final four, you know, so good showing
Speaker 1: for him, even though he came out at number twenty five.
Speaker 1: But the Edge pop was just back to that real
Speaker 1: quick was just it was amazing two people. Await. I
Speaker 1: don't know if people are ever gonna get hired of Edge.
Speaker 1: You know, as many times he's come back and every
Speaker 1: time it's a pop, loud pop, I don't think people
Speaker 1: ever gets hired of him. No.
Speaker 5: I mean, well, I think he's also doing a really
Speaker 5: smart thing of not sticking around too long for when
Speaker 5: he comes back. I mean he's he's kind of sticking
Speaker 5: around for a month maybe two, and then going away
Speaker 5: for three months and then doing you know, it's it's
Speaker 5: extending his career at his age, and it's also keeping
Speaker 5: him somewhat fresh when he comes back. So yeah, I
Speaker 5: mean plus his music, I mean, his music never gets
Speaker 5: old ever. It's one of the best entrance music I
Speaker 5: think of all time in terms of for baby faces. Anyway,
Speaker 5: I absolutely love it. So yeah, it gets the crowd
Speaker 5: going every time. It's energetic, it's catchy, it's it's just perfect.
Speaker 1: And ye when I'm at the gym sometimes.
Speaker 3: No, I'm with you.
Speaker 5: It gets you pumped out if you're exercising. Yeah, it's
Speaker 5: great workout music, but it also is a perfect wrestler's
Speaker 5: entrance music. And yeah, so you put all that together,
Speaker 5: an edge comes back. It's a measure of revenge. Although
Speaker 5: I don't think it's over, you know, as we get
Speaker 5: closer to elimination chambers. So all right, then the final five.
Speaker 5: Here we get Omas ron Stroman Ricochet, Logan Paul, Cody
Speaker 5: Rhodes at number thirty. And I mean there's a bunch
Speaker 5: of places you can go with this, but I guess
Speaker 5: my first question is that spot with Logan Paul and Ricochet.
Speaker 5: I mean, that's gonna be one of those highlight reel
Speaker 5: things that people remember from the Rumble in probably for
Speaker 5: a few years with their spot. And I don't like
Speaker 5: Logan Paul like on a lot of levels. I know
Speaker 5: he's good in the ring, but I'm not a fan
Speaker 5: of him. However, he's very good in the ring. So
Speaker 5: comment on just that spot and then anything else you want.
Speaker 1: To talk about. Okay, well, just to start off, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll comment that on a second. But to get back
Speaker 1: when Almost comes out at twenty six, and then you
Speaker 1: have Roman at Strowman at twenty seven, of course we're
Speaker 1: you know, people were expecting that little show off, but
Speaker 1: he started getting all these big men in the ring,
Speaker 1: you know, towards the end, and uh, Ricochet comes out.
Speaker 7: I'm not a fan of his music at all. He
Speaker 7: didn't really get a big of a pop as I
Speaker 7: thought he would. And then Logan's pop music.
Speaker 1: Hits and the crowd just they just lost it and
Speaker 1: in a bad way. People.
Speaker 6: Yeah, people love to hate this kid. He's super great
Speaker 6: in the ring.
Speaker 1: I give him that. He's got that that he doesn't
Speaker 1: have that go away heat he has that. I want
Speaker 1: to see him get punch in the face heat. And
Speaker 1: my crowd with my section, I think they started the
Speaker 1: f you Logan chat did that? Uh yeah, he did. Okay.
Speaker 1: I thought they were gonna edit that out. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was loud in my section and.
Speaker 6: We heard it in the arena, but I didn't know if.
Speaker 1: It would go on to the TV. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: was I mean, it was kind of funny, but at
Speaker 1: same time, like people were yelling no waste of an entry,
Speaker 1: waste of an entry, and they just kept on f
Speaker 1: you and in the spot with Ricochet whenever they were
Speaker 1: both on Apron, I mean, wasn't much tales they could do.
Speaker 1: I guess the double clothesline was or the crossbody what
Speaker 1: they did. Yeah, it'll definitely be in the highlights of
Speaker 1: Nick Year's Rumble opening package to the show and from
Speaker 1: years on going on. That was a big moment. People
Speaker 1: were wild for that.
Speaker 5: And I think Logan Paul got a lot of heat.
Speaker 5: Number One, he's not a likable guy. I mean, just
Speaker 5: in general, he's he's not likable at all. He's got
Speaker 5: an arrogance about him that he just can't help. And
Speaker 5: that's great if you want to be a heel. So
Speaker 5: I think he's I think ww he's embraced that they're
Speaker 5: not going to try to swim upstream and just continue
Speaker 5: to put him as a heel. I think that's a
Speaker 5: smart thing to do. I hope they do. And so
Speaker 5: as we move on here, you know, Logan Paul finally
Speaker 5: gets eliminated. And one thing I didn't talk about too
Speaker 5: Brock Lesser got eliminated very quickly and more much quicker
Speaker 5: than anyone expected. He starts tearing up ringside. I know
Speaker 5: this was earlier in the match, but I never got
Speaker 5: your opinion on or your reaction to. What was it
Speaker 5: like in person? Where people actually angry that Bronck got
Speaker 5: eliminated so early, even though they didn't want Brock to
Speaker 5: win and knew Brock wasn't gonna win. Were they kind
Speaker 5: of disappointed? That's the sense I got from listening to
Speaker 5: the crowd that you guys were just you guys were
Speaker 5: just kind of angry that he was eliminated so quickly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he got in and you know, of course
Speaker 1: the German the suplex city and again I'm taking he's
Speaker 1: him and Bobby they're gonna last, you know, to the
Speaker 1: final foursome, or at least down to the last five,
Speaker 1: and he got eliminated. I was disappointed.
Speaker 6: Some of the people around me were sharing, and some
Speaker 6: of them you could.
Speaker 1: Feel the disappointment, like, oh, like he's out, so like
Speaker 1: bro When Brock comes out, it's always a big moment.
Speaker 1: People are always getting drops, you know, f five's and
Speaker 1: German and German suplexes, and it's like it came and
Speaker 1: it went so fast, and I think that's why people
Speaker 1: were disappointed. I think they just wanted it more from him,
Speaker 1: but to the story of him and Bobby, I guess
Speaker 1: it makes sense. But again, yeah, people were seemed like
Speaker 1: they were disappointed.
Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, that's kind of what I felt. So, so
Speaker 5: one more thing about Logan Paul and then we'll get
Speaker 5: to of course, Cody Rhads ending with Gunter is that.
Speaker 5: I think Also he got heat, not just because he's
Speaker 5: an arrogant kid, but also because people realized that Cody's.
Speaker 3: A part of the Brumble.
Speaker 5: They knew that there were only two spots left and
Speaker 5: one of them for sure is Cody Rhodes, and people
Speaker 5: were wondering, wait a minute, could twenty nine be the Rock?
Speaker 5: Could twenty nine be Stone Cold? Could twenty nine be
Speaker 5: Randy Orton or Riddle or somebody else? So I think
Speaker 5: also it was a kind of a disappointment angry pop
Speaker 5: on top of the fact that Logan Paul is just
Speaker 5: an annoying, you know kid and an sob So, did
Speaker 5: you feel that way? Do you feel like the fans
Speaker 5: felt that way?
Speaker 3: In person?
Speaker 5: It was kind of also disappointment that it was Logan
Speaker 5: Paul instead of another big name that was floating around
Speaker 5: for weeks.
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely yes, Like I said, as soon as he
Speaker 1: came out, loud booze, and then the people in my
Speaker 1: section start started that if you Logan chant yeah, and
Speaker 1: the guy behind me was a waste of an entry.
Speaker 1: He kept on saying it over and over. Yeah, people
Speaker 1: were expecting a superstar, a full time superstar, or a
Speaker 1: big name like Rock or Austin. I know we people
Speaker 1: were speculating. But if it would have been Riddle or
Speaker 1: Randy or Biggie, you know, somebody that we wanted to see,
Speaker 1: then yeah, it would have been great. But for log gonna
Speaker 1: take up somebody's spot, knowing that he's not gonna win,
Speaker 1: just just you know, get more heat on him. Uh,
Speaker 1: people were really upset. Yeah. I can't really stress that enough.
Speaker 1: I don't know who. I guess since maybe he eliminated Rollins,
Speaker 1: could we be expecting something between them going forward? You
Speaker 1: think maybe?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I mean their styles certainly match up, and we also
Speaker 5: have proof that Logan Paul can put on a really
Speaker 5: good match that has been established very well, and he
Speaker 5: is getting a very big push, very quickly, which is
Speaker 5: going to create resentment for him, And that's great if
Speaker 5: they want to push him as a heel, and I
Speaker 5: think they could with him and and Seth Rollins. So
Speaker 5: I'm all for Logan Paul Seth Rollins match. However, I'm
Speaker 5: more of a Seth Rollins the main event of WrestleMania
Speaker 5: instead of being a grudge match at Mania. But I digress. So,
Speaker 5: but yeah, I think that that is probably where they're
Speaker 5: going because they know that the match is almost guaranteed
Speaker 5: to be really good.
Speaker 1: Okay, to circle back real quick about Raining dom I
Speaker 1: know we were you were, and I were expecting a
Speaker 1: show off between them, a face to face, and we
Speaker 1: didn't get that. How disappointed were you about that?
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 5: I understand where they're going. I know that eventually it'll
Speaker 5: be revealed. You know, we'll get footage of Ray Mysterio
Speaker 5: being you know, hung up in a basement somewhere, strapped
Speaker 5: to a pole, or just you know, beat up, or
Speaker 5: it'll be something some kind of nefarious reason why we
Speaker 5: all know that. But I would have liked them to
Speaker 5: have had it play out on the Rumble where Ray
Speaker 5: Masterial on fire Dominic has been eliminated and Dominic, even
Speaker 5: though he's eliminated, comes back low blows his dad and
Speaker 5: throws him over the top rope.
Speaker 3: Like I would have liked to have seen.
Speaker 5: Him play out in front of fans, Like I know
Speaker 5: we'll get to something on SmackDown, but yeah, like they
Speaker 5: could have easily continued to push this at the rumble
Speaker 5: where Dominic does something underhanded. Again, Yes, I was disappointed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, very much so whenever dom was coming out with
Speaker 1: the mask, you know, so the story is that he
Speaker 1: took off raised masks and Ray can't come to the
Speaker 1: ring got beat up. In my mind, logically, I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: doesn't Ray have a ten thousand masks and every rest
Speaker 1: of travels but at least at least three or four
Speaker 1: different color schemes, you know, for for the ring gear,
Speaker 1: So like why can't you just put on another mask?
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was disappointing not to see that. I
Speaker 1: was looking forward to that. I'm not like, you know,
Speaker 1: I've always liked Ray over the years. He's not at
Speaker 1: the top of my list or anything, but you know,
Speaker 1: respect and then again soft spot for the second generation stars,
Speaker 1: you know, like dom So I think that really would
Speaker 1: have added a nice spice to their storyline leading into WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: If Dom would have eliminated Ray or vice versa. You know,
Speaker 1: if if Ray would eliminated Dom, that would have been
Speaker 1: a great pop. But we didn't get any of that.
Speaker 1: So a little disappointment there, but you know, yes's uh,
Speaker 1: we can move on from from that now to mister
Speaker 1: Cody Road.
Speaker 3: Explain the pop.
Speaker 5: I mean, people knew number thirty was Cody, right, so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: but go ahead.
Speaker 1: Once twenty nine hit, you know it was Paul and
Speaker 1: then we knew, okay, Cody's the only one left. People
Speaker 1: were ready for it. So one thing we didn't talk
Speaker 1: about is the demographic, you know, of the of the crowd.
Speaker 1: So a lot of families and I'm talking about like
Speaker 1: mom and dad with kids all in bloodline shirts. You
Speaker 1: had grown grown men in our age, like in groups
Speaker 1: of three and four and five, all with matching USO
Speaker 1: gear like red red hats, red shirt, red shoes. You
Speaker 1: had a lot of men in their thirties and forties
Speaker 1: that were in my area, you know, like it looked
Speaker 1: like lifetime fans. But at the same time, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of kids. Uh, the kids were going crazy,
Speaker 1: like young kids, you know three, I mean like four
Speaker 1: to five, maybe ten years old. The cheering for Cody,
Speaker 1: like just before it even came out, like crazy, And
Speaker 1: once we knew it was Cody coming out at thirty,
Speaker 1: everybody was just Cody, Cody, you know, doing the little
Speaker 1: chance when his music hit, Yeah, the loud pop happens
Speaker 1: when he walks down to the ring. The noise went down,
Speaker 1: and then at one part of the song where it goes, oh,
Speaker 1: everybody likes to sing along with that part, so he
Speaker 1: gets that loud pop. He gets to the ring, and
Speaker 1: then he does his little pose of the pops. So
Speaker 1: Cody's pop wasn't as big as I as I thought
Speaker 1: it was going to be, and it wasn't long lasting
Speaker 1: to the ring like some of the other guys. And
Speaker 1: I was very disappointed because I, you know, like I
Speaker 1: had mentioned in a couple of mile backs ago that
Speaker 1: if Cody was gonna win it, I thought he should
Speaker 1: have been as the number one spot coming at thirty.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like it's earned at all, and I'm
Speaker 1: very disappointed with that. I'm happy that he won, but
Speaker 1: I do not like the way that he won. I
Speaker 1: don't feel like it was earned. At all. I don't
Speaker 1: know if they were maybe just testing out his pet
Speaker 1: and see how he could go. I don't think they
Speaker 1: wanted to put him at number one or even at
Speaker 1: number fifteen. I don't think they want him in the
Speaker 1: match that long, maybe to risk injury again, but the wind,
Speaker 1: the pot from the wind was pretty big, but it
Speaker 1: could have been better if it felt like it was earned.
Speaker 5: Do you hit the nail on the head now? Again,
Speaker 5: I know him in the minority. I'm not a Cody
Speaker 5: Worlds babyface fan, and that doesn't help my analysis here. However,
Speaker 5: regardless of who wins the rumble, number thirty is a
Speaker 5: privileged spot to be in. And if you're going to
Speaker 5: bring a guy back that you're bringing back from injury,
Speaker 5: you're creating this whole story that we're all supposed to
Speaker 5: get behind him and feel for him and all this,
Speaker 5: and you put him in at number thirty. He is
Speaker 5: in a spot that has a very high likelihood of
Speaker 5: success and you It just also doesn't help him that
Speaker 5: he was it was down to the number one guy
Speaker 5: of Gunther and him. He almost lost to a guy
Speaker 5: that was in the match for over an hour. I mean,
Speaker 5: that's not a good it's not a good testament to
Speaker 5: your baby face that you're supposed to push. They did
Speaker 5: a great job, and Gunther is a future world champion,
Speaker 5: bar none. I mean, I am a massive Gunther fan.
Speaker 5: I love everything that he is and stands for. I
Speaker 5: love everything Imperium stands for. But if you're gonna bring
Speaker 5: Cody Rhodes in and make him number thirty and then
Speaker 5: nearly lose to the guy that's been in the match
Speaker 5: for an hour, it's not a good look. Now, I
Speaker 5: think fans in the moment don't think that. They just
Speaker 5: look at Gunther versus Cody, and then then maybe later
Speaker 5: on the reality of wait a minute, he kind of
Speaker 5: just kind of slid into this position. You know, why
Speaker 5: are we cheering for him again? And plus it's Sammy
Speaker 5: Zain's here. This is not Cody Rhodes is year, you know,
Speaker 5: so's there's a dynamic there as well. But yeah, I
Speaker 5: thought the end of the match was very well done.
Speaker 1: Of course, from a.
Speaker 5: Wrestling perspective, they had me believing for a moment or
Speaker 5: two Gunther could win it. I mean, they they did
Speaker 5: an job at the end of the match. There's no
Speaker 5: complaining from a wrestling in ring perspective, but when you
Speaker 5: look at it from logical perspective, I mean, yeah, Cody, Cody,
Speaker 5: Cody was in a very advantageous position that we're supposed
Speaker 5: to be, you know, admiring.
Speaker 1: Right, So back to circle the gun through real quick.
Speaker 1: I've renamed him iron Gun there because he did go
Speaker 1: the distance. Uh, and that was really incredible to see
Speaker 1: for him to make the final two, start as number one, uh,
Speaker 1: and then to be a champion on top of that,
Speaker 1: like going forward, I mean, you think he's gonna keep
Speaker 1: the bell forever. He's gonna have to drop it eventually,
Speaker 1: but uh, yeah, you're right, he's in a future champion
Speaker 1: h Cody. Who knows if he's gonna be a future champion?
Speaker 1: And well at he said WrestleMania. Of course he will
Speaker 1: be eventually, but who knows if it's gonna be a WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: What what did disappoint me? I did not like what
Speaker 1: it had. What did not happen was usually when the
Speaker 1: final four, after the fifth guys is thrown out and
Speaker 1: there's four left, the guys usually revert back to a corner,
Speaker 1: you know, and they didn't have a final four face off.
Speaker 1: We didn't get that.
Speaker 3: I noticed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and it happened in a woman's match too.
Speaker 1: And you know, I don't know if I'm nitpicking or not,
Speaker 1: but if you noticed it, then maybe I'm not a nitpick.
Speaker 5: No, it's because you and I've seen so many rumbles
Speaker 5: and it's it's predictable, but you want that. It's kind
Speaker 5: of like a reset of like, okay, here I find
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. Like it is, it's like
Speaker 5: turning the chapter, change the page of a book, and
Speaker 5: you're like, all right, here's the stage. Here's a scenario.
Speaker 5: You get a chance to just for a few moments
Speaker 5: even just sit back and try to figure out what's
Speaker 5: going on.
Speaker 1: I agree, yeah, and then you get everybody to, you know,
Speaker 1: to start chearing. You know, the final four. You know,
Speaker 1: it's the final four of a rumble, like people were
Speaker 1: hyped up and ready for a winner. And yeah, it
Speaker 1: just that kind of you know, left a little sotour
Speaker 1: taste in my mouth. But I got over it.
Speaker 5: No, very good, and I'm I know I didn't. It
Speaker 5: didn't ruin the rumble overall. I thought the Rumble match
Speaker 5: itself from a wrestling perspective, was good. There was some
Speaker 5: surprise exits of course, brock Lesser being eliminated fairly early,
Speaker 5: carring Cross being eliminated fairly early, Ray not being a
Speaker 5: part of the rumble. We did not have any John Cena.
Speaker 5: I was surprised about that. We didn't have Rock, we
Speaker 5: didn't have Austin, we didn't a Biggie, we didn't have Orton,
Speaker 5: we didn't have a Riddle. All these names that were
Speaker 5: floating around, even Vince McMahon himself, you know, like I've
Speaker 5: heard crazy things and we had got none of that.
Speaker 5: And so at the end of this, after people, I
Speaker 5: mean people were generally cheering for Cody Rhoades.
Speaker 3: So twenty won was the pop really?
Speaker 5: I mean it sounded loud, but in person, did you
Speaker 5: hear any booze or was it pretty unanimous that people
Speaker 5: were cheering for him?
Speaker 1: It was a unanimous cheering. There weren't any booze. But
Speaker 1: like I said, it wasn't as it wasn't as loud
Speaker 1: or sustainable as a Cody roads Wind should have been
Speaker 1: for a royal rumble win. You know, of course you
Speaker 1: got the Pyros gets on a rope and does the point.
Speaker 1: That's always an out of pop. But the initial once
Speaker 1: once he got good over. Yeah, it was a good
Speaker 1: pop but no booze, but just not allowed enough pop
Speaker 1: to satisfy satisfying me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I understand that. And being that it's the
Speaker 5: first match of the show that you guys give maximum
Speaker 5: amount of effort, you have maximum amount of energy, and
Speaker 5: it still wasn't a place it should be, as I
Speaker 5: you know, I think it's a little concerning, but I
Speaker 5: ultimately I think I know I'm know him in the
Speaker 5: minority here and I'm cool with that. I usually I'm
Speaker 5: not in this one, I am, and I'm willing to
Speaker 5: embrace it. So all right, Well, any thoughts or rather
Speaker 5: any final thoughts on just the Rumble match itself before
Speaker 5: we get to Bray White in l a night.
Speaker 1: Uh. The only thing else I have to say is
Speaker 1: that I'm glad that Booker T was the only legacy
Speaker 1: star that showed up and there wasn't you know, any
Speaker 1: other wasted spots besides Logan, Paul you know, of course
Speaker 1: you had, you know, you know, Edgent and Brock are
Speaker 1: your your part timers, but there's still big names and
Speaker 1: very relevant. But very glad to see that there wasn't
Speaker 1: a lot of wasted spots on Legend Legacy Stars. But
Speaker 1: Booker t being at Texas, Boy, was I think the
Speaker 1: perfect fit if you're going to use anybody to fill
Speaker 1: up a spot.
Speaker 5: Agreed, Yeah, I'm cool with one or two of them.
Speaker 5: They didn't like and they didn't even do that a
Speaker 5: whole lot with the women's which I really appreciate. We'll
Speaker 5: get to that a little bit later. So all right
Speaker 5: now the women are rather the pitch black match bray
Speaker 5: White versus La Knight. It was a basically a rave
Speaker 5: party with black lights. I have no idea what all that.
Speaker 5: I guess it was just shredded up paper that was
Speaker 5: somehow implanted into the announced table that was made for
Speaker 5: the spot to look more dramatic.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 5: I mean, I know why they did it because it
Speaker 5: looks cool, but it also is preposterous that there's a
Speaker 5: bunch of paper shoved into the desk.
Speaker 3: It was ridiculous.
Speaker 5: Nonetheless, I get why they did it. I think that
Speaker 5: bray White's makeup and his mask were really cool. It
Speaker 5: was kind of an evolution of the fiend, but also
Speaker 5: a version of himself that we haven't seen yet. You know,
Speaker 5: La Night, I love all of his works. You know,
Speaker 5: I think that he is a massive star in the making.
Speaker 5: My quick analysis, and I'll toss it to you, is
Speaker 5: that I thought the match was okay. I thought that
Speaker 5: it was it was physical as it should have been.
Speaker 5: I was very disappointed in the ending that it was
Speaker 5: basically a complete squash at the end of La Knight
Speaker 5: where there wasn't even a hint that he could win,
Speaker 5: and then he got destroyed by Uncle Howdy. We still
Speaker 5: don't know the identity of Uncle Howdy, which is kind
Speaker 5: of puzzling to me. But Uncle Howdy showed up and
Speaker 5: did his spot off of the scaffolding or whatever it
Speaker 5: was that, you know, set off the pyro and La
Speaker 5: Knight not only lost but was completely destroyed at the
Speaker 5: end of this.
Speaker 3: To me, being an L. A.
Speaker 5: Knight fan, I think he needed to win more than
Speaker 5: bray Wyatt did. But I didn't hate it. I thought
Speaker 5: it was okay. What did you think being there in
Speaker 5: person about this match?
Speaker 1: So right after the men's wear rumble finish, everybody's rushing,
Speaker 1: you know, through a Russian break, and then I'm not
Speaker 1: expecting La Knight to go on second. I'm expecting a
Speaker 1: woman's match to go second. So I go as well.
Speaker 6: The lines are are out out the restroom, you know,
Speaker 6: they're so long.
Speaker 1: But then you hear ed a Night's music hit and
Speaker 1: everybody's running back from the restroom lines back to their seats.
Speaker 1: It was nuts, so there was a scramble to get
Speaker 1: back to our seats. I actually didn't make it back
Speaker 1: to my seat until Bray White's music hit, so I
Speaker 1: missed any Night's insurance, which is kind of disappointing because
Speaker 1: I am a big fan of him as well. I
Speaker 1: followed him in n XT. I knew he was going
Speaker 1: to be a big star whenever he was finally, you know,
Speaker 1: brought up to the main roster. Uh. I was very
Speaker 1: mad when he was Max the Prix and then when
Speaker 1: we when he you know, reverted back to the early night,
Speaker 1: I was like this, this guy's this guy's gonna be
Speaker 1: be something. It's gonna be a champion. The match started,
Speaker 1: they dropped the lights, Yeah, the Neon show, the Rave party.
Speaker 6: Look, I guess it was cool.
Speaker 1: I did watch it back at the hotel. It looked
Speaker 1: I think it might look better on camera than it
Speaker 1: does in person, maybe because from my view.
Speaker 6: And the Maschi's. Yeah, it was physical, but a Night.
Speaker 1: I don't think he had enough offense to really to
Speaker 1: look strong in the loss. So that was disappointing to me.
Speaker 1: The botched part on the on the outside where that
Speaker 1: set up the stairs, it looked like Bray was trying
Speaker 1: to supplex him. But then I don't know if l. A.
Speaker 1: Knight reversed it or he just fell off the barricade.
Speaker 1: But then when he tackled him onto the table and
Speaker 1: all that confetieploded. Yeah, I thought it was kind of
Speaker 1: silly too, but you know, to go along with the match,
Speaker 1: I guess it fits. The squashed part of it. Again,
Speaker 1: I was expecting didn't have to have more offense. And
Speaker 1: when he got that candlestick out was is it just
Speaker 1: me or was when he was hitting Braidy, does it
Speaker 1: look like it was like made a rubber.
Speaker 5: It looked yes, I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 1: Yes, it looked like a like a pool floating kind of.
Speaker 5: Yes, like one of those pool newes.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, So that that kind of let
Speaker 1: that kind of lost it for me there when I
Speaker 1: saw that part and then the ending with with howdy,
Speaker 1: So I think that should.
Speaker 6: Have been the end of the match, not the after
Speaker 6: mass of the match. They should have fought over there
Speaker 6: to that part whether we're going to.
Speaker 1: Do the spot, and then Howdie should have done his
Speaker 1: thing and then break. It should have been like a
Speaker 1: KO victory instead of it being the after mass of
Speaker 1: the match. That was too far from us to see,
Speaker 1: of course, on the oppos side of the arena, so
Speaker 1: we were watching it on the big screens up there.
Speaker 1: I don't know if, if if I'm really happy with that,
Speaker 1: because we were expecting, expecting to reveal or we were
Speaker 1: expecting something more to the to the story. We saw
Speaker 1: the Firehouse puppets up there, which is a cool visual.
Speaker 1: But I don't like it was a squash match. I
Speaker 1: don't feel like any like La Night doesn't look stronger
Speaker 1: in the loss. It was a squash match. It's like
Speaker 1: all that all that hype and stuff to the match
Speaker 1: and then I don't think I don't think it delivered honestly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, overall, I thought it was a slight disappointment. It
Speaker 5: wasn't embarrassing, it wasn't a sloppy match. It just was
Speaker 5: I don't know. I mean, maybe it's because every Bray
Speaker 5: Wyatt match always seems to have to have a gimmick
Speaker 5: to it. It can ever just be a normal match,
Speaker 5: which I don't think is a good thing. Like I
Speaker 5: know that bray Wyatt hasn't wrestled in a couple of
Speaker 5: years in we and all that, and he used to
Speaker 5: have the red lighting when he was the Fiend, which
Speaker 5: I don't think was a It was cool for the
Speaker 5: first like one or two times, and then it became annoying.
Speaker 5: And then also the fact that he never sold is
Speaker 5: the Fiend. It was just like, you know, nothing could
Speaker 5: destroy him. Ever, there was a little bit of that
Speaker 5: with the Kendo stick. It reminded me of the seth
Speaker 5: Rollins disaster at Hell in a cell number of years ago,
Speaker 5: where there's you know, it brought flashbacks to me, scary flashbacks.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I'm with you about the pool noodle. Look
Speaker 5: I looked at that. I was trying to watch the kendostick.
Speaker 5: I'm like, Kendo sticks don't bend like that. It looked
Speaker 5: like rubber. But in the interest of safety, I know
Speaker 5: why they did it. If you're gonna take a kendo
Speaker 5: shot to the head, I totally understand why they did it,
Speaker 5: and they knew they could cover it under the darkness
Speaker 5: of the match, so it didn't look ridiculous. But yeah,
Speaker 5: it bent way too much. But I still think the match.
Speaker 5: I think it hurt l A. Knight a little bit.
Speaker 5: I was disappointed that La Knight was just so dominantly
Speaker 5: defeated at the end instead of you know, putting up
Speaker 5: more of a fight and uncle howd he screwed him over?
Speaker 5: I could have seen that. I could have seen that. Okay, fine,
Speaker 5: like you said, La Knight is winning, He's about to
Speaker 5: win the match, and you know, uncle how he comes
Speaker 5: out to make the save. And that's not the way
Speaker 5: they did it, I think because they want to give
Speaker 5: Bray whye to win, given his first match back, and
Speaker 5: you also don't want to give the heel an argument
Speaker 5: to say I had you beat right. It's typically flipped.
Speaker 5: The babyface usually is about to you know, deliver the
Speaker 5: heel of victory or a defeat, and then somebody interferes
Speaker 5: and causes the babyface to lose. But since the baby
Speaker 5: face is Bray, it gets a little wonky either way.
Speaker 3: To me.
Speaker 5: The follow up is very interesting to me. I think
Speaker 5: LA Knight can get back on his feet and get
Speaker 5: some momentum back with him because he's so good on
Speaker 5: the microphone. He can generate that heat pretty quickly. So
Speaker 5: it's not a great for me an outcome for being
Speaker 5: an L. A.
Speaker 3: Knight fan.
Speaker 5: But that said, it's I don't think it's a career killer,
Speaker 5: you know for La Night.
Speaker 1: No, I don't think so either. And I don't know
Speaker 1: if I really see Edie Night as a heugh. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know he talks like a heal and talks a
Speaker 1: little trash to the crowd sometimes, but his caschhage is
Speaker 1: getting over. Like I'm telling you people, well, as we're
Speaker 1: walking into the Alamodome, you just hear everybody, yeah, let
Speaker 1: me talk to you like and then everybody's you know,
Speaker 1: repeating it just over, just like the Rick fairbou chance.
Speaker 1: It was. There was like, you know, neck and neck
Speaker 1: of how much you were hearing and that's all you
Speaker 1: were hearing. You weren't you know, hearing the what chance
Speaker 1: of stone col or anything else like that in the
Speaker 1: crowd beforehand, But you were hearing those any Night chants.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Now you're right, I think L. A.
Speaker 5: Knight and he could flip flip to a baby face
Speaker 5: very quickly. He is a He's a guy that is
Speaker 5: a sleeper pick. I think to become world champion, maybe
Speaker 5: by you know, any year's time, whenever the hell Roman
Speaker 5: decides to you know, give it up, her w B
Speaker 5: decides to finally drop it from Roman. I think that
Speaker 5: La Knight is in the conversation. At least, you know,
Speaker 5: in the next year or year and a half, and
Speaker 5: we'll be seeing him at least carry Intercontinental Championship gold
Speaker 5: or United States Championship gold at least in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 5: La Night is destined for some kind of gold in.
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty three.
Speaker 5: I don't think there's any question. But okay, let's get
Speaker 5: into the next match. Here 'ra All Women's Championship biancabell
Speaker 5: Air versus Alexa Bliss. I'll tell this toss this one
Speaker 5: to you first, Rocky.
Speaker 1: So this was my actual restroom break. I knew after
Speaker 1: this we're getting the Woman's roy Rumble and then of
Speaker 1: course the main event. So this was my actual restroom break.
Speaker 1: We went out and I'll choose the restroom, and before
Speaker 1: I got back to my seat, the match was over.
Speaker 1: So I actually didn't get to watch it, but I
Speaker 1: did watch it before you know what, I was waiting
Speaker 1: for you to get anything set up underwhelming. Alexa was aggressive,
Speaker 1: but it just was it was just a match was
Speaker 1: It really wasn't much else to it. You know, Bianca
Speaker 1: comes out, does her thing defense. I expected Alexa to
Speaker 1: maybe at least kick out of the kod at least once.
Speaker 1: And there wasn't a lot of close spots where you
Speaker 1: thought Alexa was gonna win, which also disappointed me a lot.
Speaker 1: I would have preferred her to win. I'm a big
Speaker 1: Alexa fan. I always happened ever since, you know, her
Speaker 1: godless gimmick. Uh and even through all the fun playhouse
Speaker 1: funhouse stuff, I still liked her even though she wasn't
Speaker 1: in ring. Uh. So disappointing that she didn't have a
Speaker 1: better showing And then, like where does she go from here?
Speaker 1: Is what I'm really worried about, because I thought she
Speaker 1: was kind of making her way back up the ladder,
Speaker 1: maybe going to be a champion soon. But she didn't
Speaker 1: have a good enough of a showing to really, you know,
Speaker 1: make you think that she's going to be a champion soon.
Speaker 1: What did you think?
Speaker 5: No, this was a I don't want to say it was.
Speaker 5: It wasn't a bad match. It just felt like a
Speaker 5: typical Monday Night raw matchup, and exactly, yeah, it was
Speaker 5: just kind of a normal match. And again that's not
Speaker 5: an insult or a compliment, it's just kind of there.
Speaker 5: And I'm with you that Alexibliss, I think is deserving
Speaker 5: of gold. The problem is timing for her. If this
Speaker 5: was after WrestleMania, then I think we're talking about a
Speaker 5: potential win for Alexa. But given that they want to
Speaker 5: get Bianca to WrestleMania as champion to face Rhea Ripley,
Speaker 5: I mean, this was to me a slam dunk, you know,
Speaker 5: take it to the bank decision that Bianca Belair was
Speaker 5: going to retain because of the timing of this match,
Speaker 5: and I don't think Alexa Bliss is going to get
Speaker 5: another championship match, probably until after WrestleMania sometime against Rhea Ripley.
Speaker 5: I think, you know, I do believe Rie Ripley. I know,
Speaker 5: going far ahead here, but I think Rie Ripley will
Speaker 5: capture the Women's Championship in April at WrestleMania thirty nine,
Speaker 5: and then then she'll have opponents lined up and hopefully
Speaker 5: Alexibliss is one of them. So for Alexiblist fans out there,
Speaker 5: you know, for her carrying gold, it's probably going to
Speaker 5: be a while. That said, this match was okay, as
Speaker 5: I said, and you know, the near falls. The only
Speaker 5: near fall I can think of was when she hit
Speaker 5: her DDT she did, you know, and got the near fall,
Speaker 5: and that was like, oh, never mind, right, I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 5: Like that's it. And really what this match was about
Speaker 5: was okay. After the match, the bray Wide symbol flashed
Speaker 5: and then she got mesmerized by watching you know, the playground.
Speaker 5: So apparently she's going back to sitting on a swing
Speaker 5: for a month. I don't know what she's doing, but
Speaker 5: that's really what this progress of this story is is
Speaker 5: her How far is she going to descend back into darkness?
Speaker 5: Is it going to be the same character, is it
Speaker 5: going to be another version of her? What is this
Speaker 5: going to be? That is really the takeaway, not who
Speaker 5: won the match, but rather where does Alexa Bliss's character
Speaker 5: go after this?
Speaker 1: Right? So with that being said, I would have much
Speaker 1: preferred a dec you finished with Alexa going off the hinges,
Speaker 1: maybe not releasing a hold while beyond holding the ropes,
Speaker 1: or maybe grabbing a weapon and after seeing the symbol
Speaker 1: or you know, during the match, if they would have
Speaker 1: played the symbol, then maybe a de you finished when
Speaker 1: it's been to make her look so that she doesn't
Speaker 1: have a loss by being pinned. And then like I said,
Speaker 1: she didn't even kick out of the kod once. You
Speaker 1: don't see Alexa finish her off the top ropes. I
Speaker 1: would have liked more close you know, naked Cemac Alexa
Speaker 1: was gonna win at least and if she's gonna revert
Speaker 1: back to dark Alexa, I'm okay with with her ring gear,
Speaker 1: the makeup and the little black skirt or whatever the
Speaker 1: overall skirt she wears. But yeah, I don't want to
Speaker 1: see her on the favre on swinging, just a waste
Speaker 1: of her talent. Let her be back in the ring,
Speaker 1: I don't know, Move her the SmackDown, let her go
Speaker 1: after Charlotte or something. Don't take her out of the
Speaker 1: title picture though. I know she's a five time champ
Speaker 1: and it's been what almost five years since she's had
Speaker 1: the belt. Yeah, it's been a while. Uh, I'm over
Speaker 1: Bianca a very I'm not a huge Bianca fan. I'm
Speaker 1: very happy that she made history Wassaga a few years ago. WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: I'm happy that, you know, WW has somebody of color
Speaker 1: to represent for the last few years and to make history.
Speaker 1: But yeah, she has that that heel gimmick that she
Speaker 1: you know, disguises as a babyface gimmick and people cheer it.
Speaker 1: I can't wait till Beyonca turns hell. When she turns
Speaker 1: heill'll probably buy her shirt. But until then, No, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm a heel through and through man like truly am
Speaker 1: I'm a heel. I love, I mean, I was, I
Speaker 1: mean I'm purposely. I mean, I'm not a Logan pant,
Speaker 1: a Logan Paul fan, but purposely. I was clapping for
Speaker 1: him during the rumble. Wow. Yeah, same thing with with Dom.
Speaker 1: People hate Dom. I like him. So I was clapping
Speaker 1: Dom's performance and people around me were looking at me like,
Speaker 1: you know, what's wrong with you? So but yeah, So anyways,
Speaker 1: back to the Beyonca match. Let's just see what they
Speaker 1: Hopefully Alexi doesn't doesn't get lost in the security here
Speaker 1: and you know it becomes a jobber. Hope not, but
Speaker 1: we'll see.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I hope not to. I think again.
Speaker 5: While she won't be involved in the title the title
Speaker 5: picture for some time, it's about the evolution of the character.
Speaker 5: Does she rejoined Bray in some kind of Wyatt five
Speaker 5: group We don't know, but that's clearly going to be
Speaker 5: the path for Alex over.
Speaker 3: The next several months.
Speaker 5: So speaking appeals, we get to the women's Worlal Rumble
Speaker 5: match and number one is Ria Ripley after she was
Speaker 5: speared earlier in the night by returning Beth Phoenix. So
Speaker 5: Ria Ripley entering number one and Live number two, first
Speaker 5: two in the ring.
Speaker 1: What were your thoughts, Well, the consensus around my crowd
Speaker 1: my section was that Beth was gonna be number two.
Speaker 6: So when Ria came out, people were cheering Beth.
Speaker 1: But then Live Live came out, Uh, mommy gets a
Speaker 1: pop she does. We love her in our household. I
Speaker 1: love I've always loved Ria especially I mean I follow
Speaker 1: her since NXT two. I love Ria. I love what
Speaker 1: she's doing the work in Judgment Day when she came
Speaker 1: out as number one, you know, she's my head. Was
Speaker 1: my heavy favorite as long as we know, with yours
Speaker 1: as well. In my mind, I'm like, Ria's gonna go
Speaker 1: to the distance. She's making history tonight, like I'm telling
Speaker 1: I'm telling Kimberly. We're watching History tonight, Rie's gonna win. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Live comes out and then you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's cool. That's a good way for that's a good
Speaker 1: spot for Live. You know, she's gonna show up and
Speaker 1: show out. And then we get rolling, we get number three, four,
Speaker 1: you get Dana. You know, no pot for Dana, no
Speaker 1: pop for Emma Shanton gets a little pop. Bailey always
Speaker 1: gets a pop for me. I love Bailey, but people
Speaker 1: were booing Bailey. People were like, I hate you, Billy Hey,
Speaker 1: Like people don't like Bailly. You know, I don't, man,
Speaker 1: I get it, But at the same time, I don't
Speaker 1: get it. Like she's a four horse woman, She's a
Speaker 1: legend already. She's annoying as hell, but I love it.
Speaker 1: What do you think about the first six that came out?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I thought that you always have the ebbs and
Speaker 5: flows of you know, kind of the lower card and
Speaker 5: the big card to balance it out. But you got
Speaker 5: to have that. You can't have just big Star, Bixtar
Speaker 5: Bixar big Star. So I don't mind the fact that
Speaker 5: you had a couple of down you know, entrants with
Speaker 5: three and four with Dana and Emma. That probably got
Speaker 5: little to no reaction, as you said, and then SHANEA.
Speaker 5: Bezler picks it back up and you're like, all right,
Speaker 5: here we go, and then Bailey really picks.
Speaker 1: It back up.
Speaker 5: I thought the beginning of the match was good, and
Speaker 5: Rea Ripley's selling that spear was good.
Speaker 3: She didn't forget about it.
Speaker 5: You know, so many times there's a lack of selling
Speaker 5: that can really really push a storyline forward, and it
Speaker 5: really I think adds an element of realism to the
Speaker 5: sport that people forget about selling, and she sold it well.
Speaker 5: She was coming out kind of clenching her her midsection,
Speaker 5: and so yeah, I'm a real Ripley fan, but I
Speaker 5: wouldn't cheer her. I would still boo her, but in
Speaker 5: a way that is what they're designed to be. I
Speaker 5: wouldn't boo her that I don't want her on my screen.
Speaker 5: I think this is Rea Ripley's year. She's in a
Speaker 5: position I don't think anybody would have expected her to
Speaker 5: be in. She was my favorite, your favorite, many other
Speaker 5: favorites to win, and uh, you know, having her in
Speaker 5: the match here for the first six anyway, was what
Speaker 5: you'd expect, you know, No, massive eliminations, just kind of
Speaker 5: you know, hold the hold the fort and wait for
Speaker 5: the ring to kind of fill up. So as we
Speaker 5: move we get b Fab, Rox Sane Perez, Dakota Kai,
Speaker 5: and Neo Sky to round out the first ten. Again
Speaker 5: not not the biggest stars in the world, but looking
Speaker 5: at the first ten, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1: Right? So after Bailey you get beat b Fab, who
Speaker 1: gets doesn't get much of anything for her. I guess
Speaker 1: they need to do something or they need to fill
Speaker 1: a spot because I know Befab was not really she's
Speaker 1: on the main roster, but she's not really full time wrestling,
Speaker 1: but whatever with her. Then rox Hanne comes out. That's
Speaker 1: my new number one, rox Hannes. Rox Haanne got a
Speaker 1: very nice pop. I guess more people know her now.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's because she's a Texas girl
Speaker 1: or because she's an NXT champ, but she got a
Speaker 1: very nice pop. She came in the ring.
Speaker 6: It was a little firecracker, as you know, and some
Speaker 6: other people know.
Speaker 1: I was able to meet her back on the Christmas
Speaker 1: Holidays break. She was in my part of town, uh
Speaker 1: with I believe it's her boyfriend. His name is Gino. Uh,
Speaker 1: he wrestles with Brokers's promotion down here in Houston. They
Speaker 1: were together in town, just trying to get away from
Speaker 1: her recent you know, uh stardom or her famous she
Speaker 1: got from winning the title. They can't even go to
Speaker 1: anywhere local in Loreto where she's from. So they were,
Speaker 1: you know, on my side of the town in Houston,
Speaker 1: visiting his family. So it was very cool to meet
Speaker 1: her and then to see her in the rumble. I
Speaker 1: mean I almost fell like the role in front of
Speaker 1: me when I jumped out of my seat. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then and then we get Dakota and Eo and then
Speaker 1: again just like when when Finn and Priests were out,
Speaker 1: you knew that, you know that these girls were gonna
Speaker 1: take over the match with Bailey. They were coming in
Speaker 1: back at Bailey, and of course it's started eliminating people.
Speaker 1: So whenever we whenever we have those three girls in there,
Speaker 1: you're thinking, well, who's going to come out to oppose them?
Speaker 1: So then you have eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, which is
Speaker 1: Natalia Cannis, ray Zoe starting Xia Lee Kimberly being you know,
Speaker 1: a part time watchup. You know, no, she's not a
Speaker 1: new fan but she's, you know, getting back into it.
Speaker 1: She's like, who are these people? She knows Natalia because
Speaker 1: of her when she got her nose busted by shaying
Speaker 1: a bas lern because she knows her as the balltox lady.
Speaker 1: But then you have Candis lo Ray and Zoe and
Speaker 1: Lee and Azili who she doesn't. She's like, who are
Speaker 1: these girls? So I'm explaining and then big Time Becks
Speaker 1: comes out and the roof just goes off. You're like,
Speaker 1: all right, all right, it's getting good. What do you
Speaker 1: think about Well, at least between the time that EO
Speaker 1: came out and to the time that Becky came out,
Speaker 1: what was your your initial reaction to those few yeahs?
Speaker 5: So I thought that it was u you know, it
Speaker 5: held my interest right because, like you said, the dynamic
Speaker 5: was Bailey and Bailey and her cronyes Eosky in Dakota
Speaker 5: Kai pretty much dominating the match, and that was the narrative,
Speaker 5: and I was all for it, you know, and also
Speaker 5: giving giving the quote newer stars some shine like Zoe Stark,
Speaker 5: who you know, most fans, most mainstream fans who don't
Speaker 5: follow NXT probably looked at her and said, who you know?
Speaker 5: Like most of them probably did. I mean, let's be real,
Speaker 5: so you know, and also rox sanm Perez and Champion.
Speaker 5: But again, you can't assume that everyone that watches the
Speaker 5: main shows watches n XT. Most don't looking at the numbers.
Speaker 5: So it's nice to see those women get exposure on
Speaker 5: the main roster on a big stage. And that's to
Speaker 5: me the most important part of this particular part of
Speaker 5: the rubble. I will say what was interesting to me
Speaker 5: about b Fab and it's not her performance, which was okay.
Speaker 5: It was the comments made by Michael Cole. He's being
Speaker 5: clearly directed by whoever in the headset. It was almost
Speaker 5: like Vince was in the headset or something, because he
Speaker 5: was running down top dollars so much like about how
Speaker 5: you know he was an embarrassment and all that. He
Speaker 5: will not let it go about that over the top
Speaker 5: rope flub that he had like a month ago on SmackDown,
Speaker 5: And I'm like, why are we making such a big
Speaker 5: deal about this? Are they trying to humiliate? Like what
Speaker 5: what are we getting out of this? With the announcers
Speaker 5: continuing to remind the fans of this flub, Like who,
Speaker 5: I don't really care anymore? It was a scary moment,
Speaker 5: but and then we talked about it for like a day.
Speaker 3: We moved on.
Speaker 5: So the announcers continue, especially Michael Cole, continues to try
Speaker 5: to put down the top dollar and again, I know
Speaker 5: in person you obviously didn't hear this, but if you
Speaker 5: watch it back, you're gonna hear that. And I just
Speaker 5: I don't understand what the payoff is other than to
Speaker 5: humiliate and eventually let these three go.
Speaker 3: I don't get it.
Speaker 1: I don't I really don't have anything to say about
Speaker 1: them these I liked them when they were I like
Speaker 1: him bro when they were NXT, but when they came up,
Speaker 1: they ever dating through the right right direction with them,
Speaker 1: the right storytelling. That just lost everything for me. And
Speaker 1: also they're missing they're missing the leader, which is you know,
Speaker 1: Swarp of Strickling. I know he's with a W, but
Speaker 1: that man is talented and he's good on the mic,
Speaker 1: and he he was the glue to that group. So
Speaker 1: without him, you know, hit Row is nothing to me really,
Speaker 1: and you know, they haven't really proven anything. They're not
Speaker 1: good on the mic. I don't know what WW is
Speaker 1: doing with them or how long are you even going
Speaker 1: to be around. I guess there's just a job or group. Now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they are in a very, very not desirable position.
Speaker 5: I know they turned heel, but people seem to still
Speaker 5: not care. I would be very if I was if
Speaker 5: I was any group of any part of the Top Dollar,
Speaker 5: you know, the whole group there, I would I would
Speaker 5: be very concerned if I was anywhere near hit Row,
Speaker 5: if I was a part of hit Row, I'd be
Speaker 5: very concerned.
Speaker 3: About my job.
Speaker 5: I just would, based on the fact that announcers were
Speaker 5: even running you down now and continue ryind fans of
Speaker 5: the Botch like, I don't know, it's just not a
Speaker 5: good spot. But okay, let's move on. Becky Lynch again.
Speaker 5: She comes out as you mentioned, and massive pop has expected.
Speaker 5: Then Tiagan Knox and then a returning OSCA new look.
Speaker 3: I liked it.
Speaker 5: Piper Niven, I mean, thank god they changed her name
Speaker 5: from do Drop, Alujah, Tmina, and Chelsea Green. So looking
Speaker 5: from fifteen to twenty, this was a I mean, there's
Speaker 5: a lot of big names in here, some nice changes
Speaker 5: for names for Piper Niven, specifically new look for Oscar.
Speaker 3: Your thoughts.
Speaker 1: So teaking Knox, I know her a little bit again,
Speaker 1: from NXT. She had a very great match with Dakota Kai.
Speaker 1: It was a street fight. That's how I learned about
Speaker 1: those two names. So if anybody doesn't know much about
Speaker 1: their history, check out their street fight from NXT. I
Speaker 1: believe it was at a takeover event a few years ago.
Speaker 1: Oscar's new little Oscar got a great pop. Everybody was
Speaker 1: happy to see her and then her face, it was amazing.
Speaker 1: Is that a new gimmick or is that a past
Speaker 1: gimmick or is it do you know anything about it?
Speaker 5: It's not anything I recognized.
Speaker 1: No, okay, uh so, yeah, so that was great. And
Speaker 1: then yeah, it was great to see Piper back. I'm
Speaker 1: glad she's back from injury. I'm glad they changed her name.
Speaker 1: I was really starting to be high on her before
Speaker 1: she got injured, you know, when she was kind of
Speaker 1: having a title match here and there to Mina.
Speaker 6: I guess they need to, you know, fill a spot again.
Speaker 1: And then Chelsea Green I heard, I've heard the name
Speaker 1: here and there, but I don't know her work. Do
Speaker 1: you know her a little bit? Not? Okay? Okay, so,
Speaker 1: but so it seemed like in my road there was
Speaker 1: some hardcore indie fans so they they popped really hard,
Speaker 1: like they were like high fiving and hugging for her.
Speaker 1: So they must have known her, you know, from the indies,
Speaker 1: but I don't know nothing about her.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, she that's that's what you're gonna get
Speaker 5: with somebody like Chelsea Green. It's gonna be kind of
Speaker 5: very isolated groups of people that are that much into wrestling,
Speaker 5: that that know everything about everything, including independence. So yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean, but overall, I mean, the reaction for her
Speaker 5: was tame and as expected. Most fans don't know a
Speaker 5: lot of her work. I know very little as well, so.
Speaker 1: Right, and then she didn't do anything right, she got
Speaker 1: eliminated really fast. Yeah. Yeah, So what's the point of
Speaker 1: having her come if we don't even get to see her,
Speaker 1: you know, do a finisher or do her a signature
Speaker 1: move to anybody likes in and out? Great? I think
Speaker 1: I think I think she was a wasted spot just
Speaker 1: because they didn't showcase her.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 5: No, it was when you have somebody come in just
Speaker 5: get eliminated that quickly. It's especially if someone that you're
Speaker 5: trying to maybe build as something bigger, it's not it's
Speaker 5: not not not good. No, I agree, but all right,
Speaker 5: Selena Vega, Rackel Rodriguez, Meechen, Lacy Evans, and Michelle McCool.
Speaker 1: Very interesting.
Speaker 5: She might have been one of the very few actual
Speaker 5: legacy stars that have plagued the women's World rumble the
Speaker 5: last few years kind of in an embarrassing way, just
Speaker 5: to fill thirty spots.
Speaker 3: In this case, you know, we had we had.
Speaker 5: Triple H to actually utilized the NXT roster, you know,
Speaker 5: instead of Vince bringing back quote unquote legacy stars that
Speaker 5: it's really an exposure of how weak the women's division is.
Speaker 5: So I'm really glad the way Triple H booked this,
Speaker 5: but from for rather Zelena Vega, Raquel Rodriguez, Meechin, Lacy Evans,
Speaker 5: and Michelle McCool.
Speaker 3: What'd you think?
Speaker 1: So Selena? I like Selena, I always have. Of course
Speaker 1: I didn't really like her as you know, the queen
Speaker 1: when she was the Queen of the Ring or whatever
Speaker 1: the Queen's crown. But uh, you know, very impressed with
Speaker 1: her mic work. Roquel hometown pop for Roquelle, I know
Speaker 1: she's from She's from Texas. She had a nice hometown pop. Uh,
Speaker 1: Mitchong was lackluster.
Speaker 6: Lacy Evans the same and then Michelle.
Speaker 1: McCool comes out and Yeah, I think she's the only
Speaker 1: Legacy Star in this rumbo, just like how Booker T
Speaker 1: was the only guy. I think she's the only Legacy star.
Speaker 1: We got a couple of NXC people. Do you think
Speaker 1: her plaguing the End the World rumble like you just said,
Speaker 1: has anything to do? Do you think, I don't take her
Speaker 1: has any pool with that getting her in because we
Speaker 1: saw an article that or uh maybe she posted it
Speaker 1: that she was upset that WW didn't call her for
Speaker 1: the rumble and that because she was so close to
Speaker 1: where it was going to be where she lives. So
Speaker 1: we think that was an online swerve that they try
Speaker 1: to swerve us. But then they showed her in the crowd,
Speaker 1: so I don't know for that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So if they are only going to delegate one
Speaker 5: spot or maybe two per year for Legacy star kind
Speaker 5: of cameo appearance, it's an I'm all for that.
Speaker 3: It's fun.
Speaker 5: It makes the room for fun if you don't do
Speaker 5: too much of it. And if they're going to choose
Speaker 5: just one and they realize that that the wife of
Speaker 5: the Undertaker is interested, I mean it'd be kind of
Speaker 5: silly to say that now that has no effect on
Speaker 5: their decision if they're looking at Michelle McCool, Tory Wilson,
Speaker 5: Stacey Keebler, Molly Holly and they're like, well, like, obviously
Speaker 5: they're gonna choose, you know, Michelle McCool given the connection
Speaker 5: with Undertaker. Do I think that's the only reason. No,
Speaker 5: But if that's a I mean to say it's not
Speaker 5: a factor, I don't think it's fair.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think it had something to do with it.
Speaker 1: And I know they were in town tyfically because Undertaker's
Speaker 1: doing a one man show now and he had he
Speaker 1: was doing a show on Friday night here somewhere in
Speaker 1: town in San Antonio. So they were definitely, you know,
Speaker 1: here in San Antonio. But uh yeah, so glad that
Speaker 1: they only put out the one Legacy Star and then
Speaker 1: from from the n XT. You know, think we only
Speaker 1: had three people from NXT, which we had was a
Speaker 1: rock sand and then it's always dark and then comes out.
Speaker 1: Uh was Indy hartwell at twenty six after Michelle? Are
Speaker 1: you familiar with the Indy.
Speaker 3: A little bit?
Speaker 1: Yeah, a little bit. So I'm familiar with her back
Speaker 1: when she was in the group with Johnny Gargano and
Speaker 1: Kennith Loray and Dexl Loomis. They were together in the
Speaker 1: n XT. She had that big thing with Dexter, they
Speaker 1: got married, all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 6: So, uh, she's she's solid in the ring.
Speaker 1: She definitely is working on promo. But I like Indy,
Speaker 1: so if if if this was her highlighted spot to
Speaker 1: letting us know that eventually, like she's coming up to
Speaker 1: the main roster soon, she may be somebody to watch
Speaker 1: out for. And then you get Sonya, like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: and I was clapping for on purposely clapping for dom
Speaker 1: and and clapping for Logan. I did the same thing
Speaker 1: with Sonya. I know she's a little whiny baby right now,
Speaker 1: but people love to hate this woman. I don't know
Speaker 1: if their respect her because of all the whining men.
Speaker 1: She hasn't proven herself, and you know, she keeps on losing,
Speaker 1: but she's she's getting her way. I don't know. I'll
Speaker 1: talk to you about about those last two with Indy
Speaker 1: and Sonya.
Speaker 5: Yeah again I thought that, Uh, well, specific Sonya Deville,
Speaker 5: she gets a negative reaction. I mean, she's just she's
Speaker 5: so good on the microphone. I don't think people realize
Speaker 5: how good she is on the MIC, and I don't
Speaker 5: think she's utilized to her for a full potential. Yet
Speaker 5: she's she's getting there. I don't think she's in championship
Speaker 5: territory yet. Again, everything resets when it comes after WrestleMania.
Speaker 5: But looking at WrestleMania season, I don't think she's involved
Speaker 5: at all. I understand she has a championship match against
Speaker 5: Charlotte Flair again, that's gonna go absolutely nowhere. Charlotte will
Speaker 5: beat her again and then you know she'll she might
Speaker 5: be involved in like the elimination chamber for the women
Speaker 5: if they have a chamber match, But there's just no
Speaker 5: way that she's going to win the championship before WrestleMania.
Speaker 5: But I think that, yeah, these two entries were good.
Speaker 5: I mean, you have somebody that most again most people
Speaker 5: probably don't know, and then that you have then you
Speaker 5: have somebody that almost everyone that watches the product knows
Speaker 5: the name Sonya Deville. And while you were cheering, I'm
Speaker 5: gonna assume most of the other people were booing. And
Speaker 5: then you get Shatzi out there, and Shazi seemingly got
Speaker 5: a pretty good reaction. She brought out her TEA C
Speaker 5: B tank. I'm not a fan of it. They get silly.
Speaker 5: But the announcers were The announcers were kind of making
Speaker 5: fun of her, saying, hey, why don't you just drive
Speaker 5: that damn thing to the ring instead of sprinting to
Speaker 5: the ring. I can't imagine how many people were like
Speaker 5: blown up by the time they ran to the ring.
Speaker 5: That was a hell of a distance and they were saying, hey,
Speaker 5: just drive your tank to the ring. And so you
Speaker 5: know that they were making fun of that.
Speaker 1: Matt, leave Shatzi's tank alone. Why do you hate it?
Speaker 3: I hate it?
Speaker 1: I like it, Okay. I didn't like it when they
Speaker 1: were when they had the NERF gun came the little
Speaker 1: NERF bullet came out. But now that they put some
Speaker 1: pyro on it, okay. Yeah. And then, like I mentioned
Speaker 1: a few it might have been a few months at
Speaker 1: this point. If she ever makes it, you know, George Championship,
Speaker 1: and they ever get that merchandise out, that tank is
Speaker 1: gonna sell. It will I'm telling you. When when they
Speaker 1: make a Shazi figuring with the tank, it'll sell. They
Speaker 1: won't with the green hair. But other than that, yeah,
Speaker 1: she got a nice little pop but I didn't from
Speaker 1: where I was sitting, I couldn't. I didn't get to
Speaker 1: see the tank and I didn't watch that part back
Speaker 1: over yet on the on the playback, so I didn't
Speaker 1: get to see it yet. But uh so I'm I
Speaker 1: guess I'm glad she came out with it. And then
Speaker 1: twenty nine where we got Rick Niki Cross and then
Speaker 1: that was not a waste to pick because she's not
Speaker 1: a legacy star. But I mean, there wasn't really much
Speaker 1: a part for her at decent in the crowd. Uh
Speaker 1: and then number thirty, I know you saw the boss
Speaker 1: with the clock, Yes, okay, so yeah, people were very
Speaker 1: upset about that in the crowd, and I don't I
Speaker 1: think people were just just as upset that it was
Speaker 1: Nia Jacks. What did you think about her coming back? I,
Speaker 1: you know, well, what are you expecting?
Speaker 5: I thought it was Ronda Rowsey.
Speaker 1: I think I'd rather have Nia Jackson, Ronder.
Speaker 5: Raul agree, agreed, But given the the you know, given
Speaker 5: the current roster, I was thinking, well, it's probably Ronda Rowsey.
Speaker 5: I did not expect Nia Jacks. Nia Jacks is not
Speaker 5: a name I've even mentioned over the last six months.
Speaker 1: I didn't.
Speaker 5: I actually didn't hate it. I don't like her character.
Speaker 5: I don't think she's good in the ring, but I
Speaker 5: had like there was there was a pop for her,
Speaker 5: and I was trying to listen to you guys and
Speaker 5: figure out if it was positive or negative, and it
Speaker 5: generally trended. It started off like WHOA, what cool? Then
Speaker 5: it I feel like it kind of like that devolved
Speaker 5: into booze.
Speaker 1: It did? It did? Yeah, because well because I think
Speaker 1: more of the initial pop that you heard might have
Speaker 1: been from the crowd reacting to the botch of the
Speaker 1: clock and then her music hitting, because her music hit
Speaker 1: and then the clock was like at eight and seven,
Speaker 1: and then they just they didn't do the rest of
Speaker 1: the condown because he was he was already coming out.
Speaker 1: So that first initial pop was the botx of the
Speaker 1: clock and then her music, and then when she walked out,
Speaker 1: people went a little crazy, and then maybe they lost
Speaker 1: little interest that she walked to the ring. But then
Speaker 1: when she got in the ring, it picked up, you know,
Speaker 1: because of the spot where everybody gangs up on her.
Speaker 5: So yeah, no, I that's probably a better analysis than
Speaker 5: watching it at home. Glad you know you gave us
Speaker 5: exactly why. There was probably that initial like, well, people
Speaker 5: are reacting positively, and then it's like nope, you know,
Speaker 5: and then people started booing it and boeing her generally.
Speaker 5: I don't think that, you know, Naya Jacks was a
Speaker 5: key component of the women's division. I understand why they
Speaker 5: put her thirty. She's returning. She hasn't been around in
Speaker 5: a while. She hadn't nagging injuries, and from last I
Speaker 5: saw her, I think we had Shanna Basler break her
Speaker 5: arm or something. I think that was during the pandemic era.
Speaker 5: So it's been quite some time since we've seen Naya Jacks,
Speaker 5: and nobody's been asking for her to come back. No one,
Speaker 5: I don't think asked to have her back. But we
Speaker 5: have her back, and you know, I've I don't know.
Speaker 5: I understand why they have her. I think she's her
Speaker 5: look is actually an asset. While she's not as flippy,
Speaker 5: floppy and athletic as the other women her size, I
Speaker 5: think can be an advantage because she's not going to
Speaker 5: ever put on a very fast match, which is fine.
Speaker 5: She is a powerhouse woman, but that also leads you
Speaker 5: to potential matchups with other powerhouse women like Piper Niven
Speaker 5: like a Rickel Rodriguez and they had that quick kind
Speaker 5: of standoff. I think that there's something something here. I
Speaker 5: don't think she's a women's champion yet, but uh, I
Speaker 5: don't know. I think there's there's value in it. But ultimately,
Speaker 5: rear Ripley winning was the one hundred percent right call here.
Speaker 5: And I have no issue with Ria Ripley winning at all.
Speaker 1: Did you Absolutely not? Like I said, when she came
Speaker 1: out one, I just I felt it. I felt that
Speaker 1: she got such a good pop. People were just chanting, uh,
Speaker 1: chanting for mommy dude to just it's it's gonna get over.
Speaker 1: I don't. I mean, I know she's in a hill group.
Speaker 1: I know she's doing hell tactics and she's talking like
Speaker 1: a hell. But she may be the coolest female hell
Speaker 1: that we ever had or had it in a long time.
Speaker 1: And then, you know, towards towards the end there again
Speaker 1: with the women's match, when the final four happened, there
Speaker 1: was no final four showdown, just like in the men's map,
Speaker 1: so that that kind of you know, threw me there,
Speaker 1: and I was upset about that. When it gets down
Speaker 1: to the final three of her Oscar to live. You know,
Speaker 1: we just knew. I mean I especially knew after Bailey
Speaker 1: and Becky were gone from the match, Like after that,
Speaker 1: there was no other big names that you really thought
Speaker 1: could pull it off. And Ree was in it, and
Speaker 1: every woman that came in the match was dropping Rio.
Speaker 1: They were hitting her with the move and then Rio
Speaker 1: will go off to the side, and then somebody else
Speaker 1: will come out, and then they would hit Rio with
Speaker 1: another move. And she was bleeding for most of the
Speaker 1: match and looked like, I think from her nose. Did
Speaker 1: you see that? Yes, I'm sure, but you know, just
Speaker 1: I mean just mad respect and props to her for
Speaker 1: fighting through it, but you know, she was getting cheered regardless.
Speaker 1: And then whenever she told everybody to, you know, to
Speaker 1: gang up and throughout Naya like people were behind it.
Speaker 1: And I'm looking over the list here people that had
Speaker 1: got thrown out. Rhea had eliminations, which leads, which leads.
Speaker 1: I thought she was gonna have more. I thought maybe
Speaker 1: she might have set a record or something, but she
Speaker 1: does have six. I know, she says the record of
Speaker 1: being the female to start the match at one and win.
Speaker 1: She lasted over an hour, so that's gonna be you know,
Speaker 1: in in the history, you know, forever, just like how
Speaker 1: they show ray materials sixty two minute you know, World
Speaker 1: Rumble victory, and you know the opening package, the video
Speaker 1: package of the Rumbo They're gonna put Ria's you know,
Speaker 1: time and win in there for the rest of our
Speaker 1: lives and then just walk quick to get back to
Speaker 1: the men's match. Gunther had five eliminations, and so did Cody,
Speaker 1: so you know there was nobody who had you know, eight,
Speaker 1: nine or ten eliminations, but you know some people had
Speaker 1: a few, uh but Riah at the end there.
Speaker 6: You know, the finish on the eighth from there, I
Speaker 6: think that that.
Speaker 1: Was the best way to get uh Oscar back up,
Speaker 1: showing that she had a good showing, get her back up,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe to a championship. Here Live has a
Speaker 1: great showing starrying for number two, finishing the match, you know,
Speaker 1: final two get eliminated. There the spot with the poison
Speaker 1: miss being you know, sprayed into the liv's face, and
Speaker 1: it was a good spot, you know, And there was
Speaker 1: a lot of times where you thought Ria was going
Speaker 1: to get eliminated and she didn't, so you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of roller it was the roller coaster ride. Really,
Speaker 1: but when you know she eliminates live I mean again,
Speaker 1: the roof it just it had to shift. Man. People
Speaker 1: were just cheering, mommy, Mommy is just just And the
Speaker 1: girl's only twenty five years old, dude, I mean I
Speaker 1: don't know, she might. Yeah, she's very young, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, who knows how many times she's gonna win.
Speaker 5: You forget how young she is. Yeah, it's a good point. Yeah,
Speaker 5: she doesn't look twenty five. I mean, yeah, the dark
Speaker 5: makeup doesn't help, but the way she acts it feels
Speaker 5: like she's ahead of her years in terms of understanding
Speaker 5: psychology and all that. She Yeah, so that's a good
Speaker 5: thing if you're a really Ripley fan. She's got a
Speaker 5: lot of years in front of her barring injury that
Speaker 5: she she's gonna be with us.
Speaker 3: So that that's a good point.
Speaker 5: And to put a ball in the Women's rumble, I think, yeah,
Speaker 5: that that's the ending of the Women's Rumble was a
Speaker 5: lot of fun. The mist that the real to me,
Speaker 5: the Women's World Rumble was a little bit more up
Speaker 5: in the air at the end when you had those
Speaker 5: three Because Oscar is a believable candidate, given that she
Speaker 5: just returned, she's got a new look. They're trying to
Speaker 5: rebrand or whatever. And I'm like, all right, well Ria
Speaker 5: should win, but you know, Oscar's making a good case
Speaker 5: for it. And they had her teetering on the rope
Speaker 5: and I'm like, oh, all right, like they had us.
Speaker 5: They had us hook line and sinker for the ending
Speaker 5: of that match, and it was very well done. And
Speaker 5: I really don't have any complaints the way Ria won.
Speaker 5: I think it was the right person. So all right, well,
Speaker 5: let's we got to jump into the championship match here,
Speaker 5: which is Roman Reigns, of course, facing Kevin Owens for
Speaker 5: the undisputed Universal Championship. And you know, the match, let
Speaker 5: me just quickly says, the match itself, because this is
Speaker 5: not something that is the talking point. Is really the
Speaker 5: match itself that I thought was good, and I think
Speaker 5: we all knew it was going to be good. It
Speaker 5: was just a matter of how well could they convince
Speaker 5: us during the match that Owens might actually win. And
Speaker 5: there was one or two spots, but generally it was
Speaker 5: pretty clear that Roman Reigns wasn't losing. Here he hit
Speaker 5: the stunner once there was no referee at one point
Speaker 5: and you know everyone's counting one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, whatever,
Speaker 5: and there's no refs, So that spot, you know, happened
Speaker 5: and you're thinking, oh, well, he could have won there,
Speaker 5: But ultimately we knew it wasn't gonna happen. It was
Speaker 5: all about the post match at post match antics, that
Speaker 5: is the discussion here, and I actually not to toot
Speaker 5: my horn, but I called it nearly verbatim of what
Speaker 5: was going to happen after he was going to beat
Speaker 5: down Kevin Owens after he beat him and then tell
Speaker 5: Sammy that he wants to do the same thing, and
Speaker 5: that's exactly what happened. I didn't know what would transpire
Speaker 5: after that, who would attack who, But ultimately Sammy hit
Speaker 5: Roman reigns in the back and let me just ask
Speaker 5: about that moment because people online are talking about it.
Speaker 5: You know, I went back and listened to it several times.
Speaker 5: The pop when Sammy hit Roman was it was probably
Speaker 5: the biggest pop of the night, would you agree, being there?
Speaker 1: Yes? And then the leading up to the chair shot
Speaker 1: when Roman first when when Roman first gave Sammy the
Speaker 1: chair and he was just holding it up, you know,
Speaker 1: like he was about to hit him. The people were anticipating,
Speaker 1: like they were cheering for it, you know, and then
Speaker 1: some people were like, no, no, don't do it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: and then when it actually happened, like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: it was Yes, definitely that I was pop of the night.
Speaker 1: But when when it happened, you, I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you, I'm sure you felt too, but I
Speaker 1: felt the shift in the landscape of WWE with that
Speaker 1: one chair shot and and just you know before that,
Speaker 1: when they were when they were just beating up Owen,
Speaker 1: I started to feel bad for the guy. Uh, they
Speaker 1: just they did a real number on him. Uh, even
Speaker 1: before the handcuffs that they did a number on him.
Speaker 1: They put the handcuffs on and oh my yes, the
Speaker 1: stairs before the match even ended. You know, when when
Speaker 1: when he threw him on the stairs twice. Yeah, Kevin's okay.
Speaker 1: I hope he didn't hurt his neck or something. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure this will take him off TV for a while.
Speaker 1: But whenever, whenever that happened, yeah, you knew there was
Speaker 1: no chance that Kevin was gonna win. I mean, we
Speaker 1: already knew it, but just when that happened, like you
Speaker 1: knew that this was gonna be bad. And then you know,
Speaker 1: right when that chest shot happened, like I said, I
Speaker 1: felt a shift in my heart and my mind and
Speaker 1: the w W universe. I felt it. I felt it
Speaker 1: in the crowd. And then when you see the USA
Speaker 1: is getting mad and Jay's yetting at him, and you
Speaker 1: just you can feel his anger and disappointment and the betrayal,
Speaker 1: and you know, just but at the same time, you're
Speaker 1: it's a watercoaster of because you're feeling bad for Kevin,
Speaker 1: you feel bad for Sammy. You're excited for Sammy because
Speaker 1: he's finally gonna turn. You know. You see Roman get
Speaker 1: hit with the bell, the users getting mad, Paul Fame,
Speaker 1: Paul Haymen's facials, and you just you don't know what
Speaker 1: to feel. You're feeling everything. And Sammy drops a chair
Speaker 1: and then you're like, oh man, here it comes. You
Speaker 1: you hear You're like, here it comes. And then the
Speaker 1: super kick happens and he falls, and then you feel
Speaker 1: jays you know, the struggle that Jay is having not
Speaker 1: not to help, you know, and there's Jimmy beating down
Speaker 1: Sammy and and then you just feel the struggle get
Speaker 1: backs into the corner, Solo gets in and the Roman
Speaker 1: gets up, and I mean when he ripped off Sammy's shirt,
Speaker 1: I mean I was I was wearing my honorary shirt
Speaker 1: and I'm like, that's it, He's not use anymore. I
Speaker 1: was like, let me just hang the shirt up on
Speaker 1: the wall. But yeah, we felt it coming, and but
Speaker 1: you felt the sympathy for Sammy. You can feel that
Speaker 1: the tide shifting, like, yeah, he's an ultra babyface now
Speaker 1: like ultra babyface. And whenever Ko does come back, I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that they are gonna che us ussos eventually. But
Speaker 1: we got to see how that dynamic plays out between
Speaker 1: the USO's because of what happened with Jay not helping
Speaker 1: out and leaving the ring. How loud was the Jay
Speaker 1: chance when he was walking back to the stage then
Speaker 1: they can'tlate on TV. Pretty well, Yeah.
Speaker 5: It came through very clearly. And that is the other part.
Speaker 5: I don't think that we thought of what would happen,
Speaker 5: and we knew that somebody was going to turn on somebody. Ultimately,
Speaker 5: Sammy was going to come out on top or rather
Speaker 5: get cheered with all of this, and that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 5: But the j part of this is something that I
Speaker 5: don't think a lot of people thought about, where he
Speaker 5: was conflicted. Jimmy immediately super kicked him. Of course, Solo's
Speaker 5: co game the Small and Spike. But Jay, like you said,
Speaker 5: it's conflicted and doing a great job from a facial
Speaker 5: standpoint of going through the emotions and the struggle and
Speaker 5: what do I do?
Speaker 3: Do I attack him? Do I not?
Speaker 5: He just excused himself and then just left the ring,
Speaker 5: and Roman was staring him down like angrily, like what
Speaker 5: are you doing?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 5: And then we get of course Roman reigns standing tall
Speaker 5: at the end of this, but you know, both of
Speaker 5: them are beaten down. Where do they go from here?
Speaker 5: I mean, it's gotta lead to a championship match between
Speaker 5: Sammy and Roman. But the question is does that happen
Speaker 5: at wrestle Mania or is that still reserve for Cody.
Speaker 5: If it's a reserve for Cody given he won the Rumble,
Speaker 5: well then where does Sammy's ain fall at WrestleMania. It's
Speaker 5: gotta be against Roman unless they split the belts. I mean,
Speaker 5: there's again, there's still a lot of ways they could go,
Speaker 5: but I still think that it's going to be at
Speaker 5: Elimination Chamber, given it's in Montreal, and imagine that hometown
Speaker 5: crowd with Sammy z Ain challenging Roman Reigns at the
Speaker 5: Chamber in the Bell Center in Montreal, and then it's
Speaker 5: gonna be Kevin and Sammy versus the USSOS at WrestleMania,
Speaker 5: eventually probably taking down the USOS for the tag tag
Speaker 5: belts with Cody versus Roman at Mania. That's still my prediction.
Speaker 5: It doesn't seem like any big stars are coming out
Speaker 5: of the woodwork, at least at this time to challenge
Speaker 5: Roman Reigns for that Universal Championship. So given that, I
Speaker 5: don't know, what are your thoughts moving forward on where
Speaker 5: this goes?
Speaker 1: Well? Where to start? I guess it. I guess it
Speaker 1: really depends on what we get at the Limitation Chamber.
Speaker 1: Are we getting? I mean, of course we're getting the match,
Speaker 1: But what does the winner get of the match. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure Roman's not defending in the chamber. Is Sammy
Speaker 1: in the match? Is he not in the match? Is
Speaker 1: Roman defending the title at Limitation Chamber in the singles match?
Speaker 1: Maybe Sammy interferes in the match. I don't know, because
Speaker 1: if again, what is the winner of the Chamber get
Speaker 1: We know the winner of the Rumble gets the title shot,
Speaker 1: but if there's only one title and they're not splitting it,
Speaker 1: then that spot is reserved for Cody. So the only
Speaker 1: other thing I mean between now and then over the
Speaker 1: next months is going to be the storyline of Sammy's
Speaker 1: rise basically. But does he get so ultimately popular that
Speaker 1: they have to change the main event like with a
Speaker 1: Daniel Bryant thing in Resumania thirty? Is Cody really I mean,
Speaker 1: based on the reaction of his the Royal Rumble win
Speaker 1: and then the reaction of Sammy now being turned on
Speaker 1: by the blood line, I mean, sammy startup might overshadow
Speaker 1: that Royal Rumble win, And that's what I'm thinking might
Speaker 1: might be the case. So do we have a situation
Speaker 1: where maybe Cody tries to cash in his win before Mania,
Speaker 1: like Austin did that that one year and you know
Speaker 1: doesn't lose, or because people are gonna expect Cody to
Speaker 1: win as Pressemania, but we are expecting Roman to keep
Speaker 1: it for the thousand days. I know you've been mentioning
Speaker 1: it time and time and again. We've done the mass
Speaker 1: It's all the way until May. It's it's I know,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of answers now after the rumble
Speaker 1: with the split or the initial split of the Bloodline,
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens with Jay. We know Sammy's out.
Speaker 1: I don't think we have enough answers yet to really
Speaker 1: to really say. The easy answer is Cody versus Roman again.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm a big fan of second generation stars,
Speaker 1: so Cody Bean the second generation star soft spot for him,
Speaker 1: and the right the right thing in my mind for
Speaker 1: Roman to lose is Royal Blood beats Royal Blood, and
Speaker 1: that's Cody beating Roman. But again, it's the bigger story here, Sammy, Now,
Speaker 1: how do you become such a babyface and such a
Speaker 1: dominant Hill group, you know, and then you turn this
Speaker 1: group around over the last six months and make this
Speaker 1: title Reign of Romans not so aggravating of you know,
Speaker 1: because it made Starline good. Everything that was going on,
Speaker 1: the initial heat between him and Jay, the progression of
Speaker 1: their relationship, and then him accepting Sammy and then now
Speaker 1: you have, you know, his confection and you have the
Speaker 1: heartbreak of Sammy being kicked out the group and beating Downber.
Speaker 1: That was a good beatdown. The way he ripped off
Speaker 1: his shirt and beat him and then broke off the
Speaker 1: tribal chief necklace over him. I think that was a
Speaker 1: really nice touch. I don't know. I think I think
Speaker 1: maybe Sammy, like I said, I think his his startup
Speaker 1: might overshadow that Royal rum will win. Of course, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get Cody's speech tomorrow on Raw you know about
Speaker 1: winning the Rumble, wanted to go for the title, but again,
Speaker 1: we'll see if his initial crowded reaction is sustainable all
Speaker 1: the way into Mania, because we have a few months still.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, the.
Speaker 1: Playoff is whatever happens that elimination chamber exactly.
Speaker 5: And if I was WWE, I would be very careful
Speaker 5: about putting Sammy Zan and Cody Rhoads in the same
Speaker 5: program at all. I mean, because that will turn if
Speaker 5: they're not trying to turn. But that I think the fans,
Speaker 5: if they were going to choose Weld, choose Samy's Ain
Speaker 5: over Cody Roads. Right now, Sammy Zein's the hotter one.
Speaker 5: He's the more organically connected one with the fans. He's
Speaker 5: been around longer with the fans. I think he's the
Speaker 5: hot I mean, he's just way hotter. They've got the
Speaker 5: biggest storyline that they've had, and I don't know how
Speaker 5: many years, and they've been waiting for this turn and
Speaker 5: waiting for this moment. To me, if you're gonna keep
Speaker 5: wrote Cody Rhoads in a babyface position, you got to
Speaker 5: keep them away from Sammy Zain because then the fans
Speaker 5: will be forced to choose, and guess what they're gonna do.
Speaker 5: They're gonna turn on Cody instantly in favor of Sammy's Ain.
Speaker 5: So I think that right now what they're gonna do
Speaker 5: is just finish it up at Chamber and then somehow
Speaker 5: just keep the belt on Roman, not split it, and
Speaker 5: have Cody versus Roman at WrestleMania, and then I still
Speaker 5: don't think he'll drop it there, but that's the only
Speaker 5: way you can go through with this and not have
Speaker 5: the fans resent Cody Roads for taking the spot that
Speaker 5: really should be reserved for Sammy z Ain at WrestleMania
Speaker 5: and the main event, because you know, while Cody is
Speaker 5: a over, you know he's over, he's in, he's a
Speaker 5: great performer, all that. Right now, he's he's been absent
Speaker 5: for seven plus months and Sammy's Aine's been here and
Speaker 5: he's been in a position that's been a very very
Speaker 5: enviable position of growing slowly with the fans. Fans start
Speaker 5: realizing he's a he's a you know, he's really good
Speaker 5: on the mic. They they start just starting to connect
Speaker 5: with him. They've seen him be a wrestler in WW
Speaker 5: for like, I don't know how many five, six, seven, eight,
Speaker 5: nine years he's had great match after a great match.
Speaker 5: It's just a dangerous position. And I would not be
Speaker 5: wwe want to be them. If they're trying to somehow
Speaker 5: get them in a fatal or a triple thread or
Speaker 5: something like that, I.
Speaker 3: Really wouldn't do that.
Speaker 1: I would.
Speaker 5: It's danger zone if they try to position the fans
Speaker 5: in that way.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I totally agree. Have you heard any rumors
Speaker 1: about what might have been at Chamber yet? Because I'm
Speaker 1: not really big on going through the rumor Mayo, And
Speaker 1: you know, I see it on the news articles here
Speaker 1: and there, but I perfectly keep myself out of, you know,
Speaker 1: the line groups where they're spoilers and stuff, because I
Speaker 1: even though restling can be predictable, I still like to
Speaker 1: be surprised. Yeah. So, and I know it's hard in
Speaker 1: this day and age, because anytime you just go through
Speaker 1: your phone, something's popping up or you're hearing somebody's telling
Speaker 1: you something. Especially in your case, I'm sure people are
Speaker 1: missing you all the time about did you hear this?
Speaker 1: Did you hear that? I purposely like to keep myself
Speaker 1: out out of it, so I get most of my
Speaker 1: news updates from from you and the other co hosts.
Speaker 1: When I listen to all the reviews and you know, whatever,
Speaker 1: whatever the Patriots are saying, the mailbag, whatever people bring up,
Speaker 1: That's where I get my news, and then I'll research it.
Speaker 1: But I don't like to hear it, you know beforehand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 5: In the age that you can access anything at any point,
Speaker 5: it kind of ruins the fun of pro wrestling, doesn't it. Like,
Speaker 5: I don't want to know, And I hear things and
Speaker 5: I talk about them because I have to, but I
Speaker 5: don't go purposely digging out the spoilers. I really don't.
Speaker 5: I don't want spoilers. I don't I think there. I
Speaker 5: think they're a detriment to the business. I know people
Speaker 5: use it to get clicks and all that on their websites.
Speaker 5: It's not for me, but I will report on things
Speaker 5: like if if Fight Fuller or Bleacher Report comes out
Speaker 5: with something I'll report on, I don't. I'll talk about it,
Speaker 5: but I'm not going to go into you know, the
Speaker 5: stuff that's maybe comes out that leaks out of Oh
Speaker 5: someone someone's gonna win the belt at wrestle an. I
Speaker 5: don't like to get into that. I don't like spoilers.
Speaker 5: But all right, well let's put a ball on this
Speaker 5: whole thing. What are your final kind of final thoughts,
Speaker 5: final conclusion on the event and being there live and
Speaker 5: of course anything that you want to touch on that
Speaker 5: we didn't.
Speaker 1: Uh sure, Well, actually, I know usually whenever you and
Speaker 1: I know we were both excited to get to start
Speaker 1: of the show and well a lot of talk about
Speaker 1: but usually when you bring on somebody usually ask them
Speaker 1: how they got into wrestling. We skipped that part.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, Well go ahead.
Speaker 1: Uh So, my wrestling career or my wrestling days start
Speaker 1: as a very young child, about four or five years old.
Speaker 1: I remember going through the Compact Center a lot, you know,
Speaker 1: for house shows here in Houston. My early earliest remember
Speaker 1: memory is my took me and my cousin, my aunt
Speaker 1: and the only thing I remember from that show is
Speaker 1: her running back to our seats screaming that old smiling
Speaker 1: warrior had touched her hand because he would run down
Speaker 1: and slap pants. I was waited for the ring. So
Speaker 1: that's my early earliest memory of wrestling. But I remember going,
Speaker 1: you know, all those early years based from five to
Speaker 1: ten years old, Compact Center and shows. And by the
Speaker 1: time I was in sixth grade, because you're you're only
Speaker 1: two years older than me, so just get that in perspective.
Speaker 1: By the time I was in sixth grade, you know,
Speaker 1: wrestling it was it was getting hot, attitude, the air
Speaker 1: was starting. I threw away. When I threw away, I
Speaker 1: gave away all my Power Rangers and Injin Turtles to the
Speaker 1: Little Brother and it was all wrestling figures From there,
Speaker 1: I had the Wrestling subscription. I had posters all up
Speaker 1: and down the wall. My whole room was full of it.
Speaker 1: I've been to a handful of smackdowns over the years.
Speaker 1: I was at Wrestmating in seventeen and the Astra going,
Speaker 1: I was at Wrestmating of twenty five and Reliance Stadium.
Speaker 1: But what really what really got my I guess my
Speaker 1: passion started is uh Brett Hart and hb K where
Speaker 1: my dudes growing up. Those were my number one and two.
Speaker 1: I always liked the big guys like Taker, you know,
Speaker 1: and kne stuff, technical wrestlers, high flyers were or my
Speaker 1: kind of guys because my bite, my my heightened body
Speaker 1: type is like them. So those were my guys. And
Speaker 1: I remember UH Sean you know, winning the Rumbo to
Speaker 1: Face bred at Wrestling twelve, and that was the first
Speaker 1: UH pay per view that I asked my dad to
Speaker 1: get for me because I wanted to watch that match.
Speaker 1: And the announcement of the Iron Man match was was
Speaker 1: was a big thing, and and even as a young kid,
Speaker 1: I understood the magnitude of what it represented. And then
Speaker 1: I remember sitting down watching that match for the full
Speaker 1: hour and I was just in awe. You had that
Speaker 1: epic entrance of Sean. It was an epic match. They went,
Speaker 1: they went into overtime and that sweete music that Shawn
Speaker 1: deliver to Brett to end the match. You see the
Speaker 1: spit fly off of BRIT's mouth and the way that
Speaker 1: he just draped over his body and hooked the leg
Speaker 1: like you know, I was, I was memory of mesmerized.
Speaker 1: I can't I've watched it back so many times. I've
Speaker 1: had that image in my head over the years. You
Speaker 1: hear JR. Screaming, you know, the boyhood dream has come true,
Speaker 1: and then you have Howard Finkel announcing the HPK is
Speaker 1: the winner. Like all of it, all of it together,
Speaker 1: that wrestle I don't remember anything else from that WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: I remember that match forever, and that's what if I
Speaker 1: wasn't already hooked before, that's what hooked me right there.
Speaker 1: I remember watching Raw from time to time, you know,
Speaker 1: over the years, those early years, there was an early
Speaker 1: Saturday morning show they used to come on, maybe it
Speaker 1: was Superstars. It was for an hour every Saturday. I
Speaker 1: remember catching that from time to time. But that wrestlemending
Speaker 1: twelve match was was was what did it for me,
Speaker 1: and I was hooked, and from from there on out,
Speaker 1: I was it was just I was all wrestling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was cool to watch wrestling. You know, back in
Speaker 1: middle school you had some of your everybody like of
Speaker 1: course Austin and Rock. That's what everybody remembers. That's what
Speaker 1: everybody still ask about, and you know, it was cool
Speaker 1: to like it. Then we used to wrestle in the
Speaker 1: backyards and our trampolines and have our wrestling matches. I
Speaker 1: had all the title belts, and you know, it was
Speaker 1: it was a great time growing up. And then by
Speaker 1: the time you get into high school, it's not cool
Speaker 1: like wrestling anymore. So in high school, I was a
Speaker 1: closet wrestling fan. I had to you know, hide and
Speaker 1: not hide it. But my friends wouldn't come over to
Speaker 1: watch it anymore, so I was watching it on my own,
Speaker 1: but I didn't care. I'm I'm a fan for life.
Speaker 1: So you know, early days, I fell in love with
Speaker 1: the Intercontinental title that watched that that Sean had. I
Speaker 1: used to think that was the top belt because they
Speaker 1: said Intercontinental in front of you know, championship instead of
Speaker 1: just w W championship. So because the name was longer
Speaker 1: and sounded more prestigious, thought it was the top bell
Speaker 1: when I was a young kid. At the time, I
Speaker 1: didn't know better. And then in high school, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to walk through Attitude Era, all through PG era,
Speaker 1: and then John Cena happens, and I respect the hell
Speaker 1: out of the dude, but I hate John Cena. I
Speaker 1: disliked him whenever he beat Triple A's Wrestlemanda, and then
Speaker 1: I started hating him when he beat HPKA WrestleMania. And
Speaker 1: then the PG era happened, And of course I still watch,
Speaker 1: but I would tune out from time to time, but
Speaker 1: I would still keep up with each report back then.
Speaker 1: And then I know, as during the twenty fifteens when
Speaker 1: it started to pick up again, you know, I started
Speaker 1: to get heavily back into it. But lifelong fan thirty
Speaker 1: years plus my first rumbo now, so I mean, what's
Speaker 1: left to do is try to go to a Summer
Speaker 1: Slam or try to go to a Survivor series. That way,
Speaker 1: I can at least say that I've been to all
Speaker 1: the Big Four, which is which is a life, lifetime
Speaker 1: goal for me. So if I can make it through
Speaker 1: the Virus series and a Summer Slam sometime in our
Speaker 1: lifetime and I can say I've been to the all
Speaker 1: Big four events, then I would say that I accomplissed
Speaker 1: something in the resting world myself. And then ever since
Speaker 1: finding your podcast back the beginning of the pandemic, that's
Speaker 1: really changed a lot for me, just because I stopped
Speaker 1: listening to the radio as much and I didn't have
Speaker 1: any friends that like to talk wrestling. I mean, they
Speaker 1: were all grown now, and people don't they don't you know,
Speaker 1: believe in it as much, or they don't care for
Speaker 1: it as much. So I don't have anybody to talk
Speaker 1: to about it. So when I found y'all's podcast, you know,
Speaker 1: I really took to y'all's. I backlog listened to all
Speaker 1: your nostalgic shows and on all the reviews and stuff.
Speaker 1: And then once I got caught up, and then you
Speaker 1: started the mail back and that was a big deal,
Speaker 1: I know for me and for a lot of other
Speaker 1: people because you know, you have a lot of international listeners.
Speaker 1: So the mailbag was a great, great addition to the podcast.
Speaker 1: And that's what really made me.
Speaker 6: Like, I believe in you. I believe in the podcast.
Speaker 1: I believe in everybody that takes the time dedication to
Speaker 1: take the time to put into the podcast. That's why
Speaker 1: I wanted to make the sign for you and and
Speaker 1: and to kind of advertise for you because I want
Speaker 1: to help I want to help this podcast grow. So
Speaker 1: that's pretty much my story there. So faithful listener, faithful contributor.
Speaker 1: Uh so, you know, just to you and all all
Speaker 1: the other all the other hosts keep up the good work.
Speaker 1: I was a little disappointed I was not able to
Speaker 1: meet up with Michael and John Michael. Michael Ritter did
Speaker 1: not have good service at the Rumble, so when I
Speaker 1: got there and I was messaging him, he didn't get
Speaker 1: a message until after, so I did. I did not
Speaker 1: get to meet the guys, which was a little disappointing.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure they're gonna have a lot to say
Speaker 1: on their Snackdown review. But than that, that's that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's my story. Man.
Speaker 3: Very cool.
Speaker 5: I mean to hear how people get into wrestling is
Speaker 5: always interesting to me, how their evolution of a fan continues,
Speaker 5: and especially in school when it's not cool to be
Speaker 5: a wrestling fan.
Speaker 3: I'm with you. We all experience that.
Speaker 5: If you're a wrestling fan in the early two thousands,
Speaker 5: especially when you're in high school, it's like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 5: with you on that, you know. But if you find
Speaker 5: your group of friends that like wrestling, then you guys
Speaker 5: are bonded forever. It's just kind of the way it worked.
Speaker 5: But yeah, and then of course the moments you went
Speaker 5: to seventeen twenty five WrestleMania, I mean, like the Undertaker
Speaker 5: HBK match at twenty five, which is just one of
Speaker 5: the greatest of all time, and WrestleMania seventeen, which is
Speaker 5: generally regarded as one of the best pay per us
Speaker 5: of all time. I mean, those are certainly some some
Speaker 5: things that you could put in your resume that are
Speaker 5: pretty awesome to be at. And then you know as
Speaker 5: you look to the present and that you're you know,
Speaker 5: you have the Big Four you want to get to.
Speaker 5: I think that that's a that's that is that's not
Speaker 5: something most fans can say that they have done. Most
Speaker 5: fans can't say they've been to a WrestleMania, much less
Speaker 5: Big Four. So I hope that you eventually get to
Speaker 5: get your goals achieved and maybe maybe get to a
Speaker 5: wrestling event that has or doesn't say that your sign
Speaker 5: is too big to bring in, right Like, I that's
Speaker 5: that's something of it must be a new regulation or
Speaker 5: if you're on the camera side, it can't be this
Speaker 5: big or that big. I don't know who knows, but
Speaker 5: I really appreciate you you at least making even the
Speaker 5: effort to make that. I really do appreciate it, and
Speaker 5: I appreciate listening.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I have a solution for the sign. I
Speaker 1: was just gonna get a T shirt. Mate. It can't
Speaker 1: take off my T shirt.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they can't sell your T shirt's too big. Sorry,
Speaker 5: So you're gonna have to remove your T shirt.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. But there was a lot of eyeballs that
Speaker 1: were put on the sign as I was walking in
Speaker 1: going through security, waiting to get into the stadium. But
Speaker 1: once we got up to the doors to show our tickets,
Speaker 1: there like that sign is too big and it must
Speaker 1: have just been our side of the stadium because I've
Speaker 1: seen other postal board signs, but mine was like four
Speaker 1: feet tall. Ude, So I get it. And even if
Speaker 1: I was gonna cut off the borders, they still said
Speaker 1: that was gonna be too big. They want to be
Speaker 1: the top off part of your legs where it says
Speaker 1: the w W pocket. If you cut it at the legs,
Speaker 1: you can get in. I'm like, well, that defines the
Speaker 1: point of it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so a good handful of people got to
Speaker 1: see it as we're walking through. So I'm hoping, you know,
Speaker 1: if some people get in and get some listeners and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I saw the sign at the rumble, that would be great.
Speaker 5: No, no, I I if anybody does that, I I
Speaker 5: would you know, I think that that would be awesome.
Speaker 5: I would be like, you know, how did you first
Speaker 5: listen to it? Well, actually I saw a sign at
Speaker 5: the Royal Rumble that that would be so cool to
Speaker 5: hear somebody say that they actually started listening because they
Speaker 5: saw the sign at the Rumble. That'd be really cool.
Speaker 5: And I will let you know if anybody does. But
Speaker 5: Rocky listen. I really appreciate you coming on. I'm so
Speaker 5: glad you were able to give us the in person
Speaker 5: perspective and have a lot of fun. It sounds like
Speaker 5: at the show, and certainly you know anytime that you
Speaker 5: want to want to come on and chit chat wrestling,
Speaker 5: you let me know.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to
Speaker 2: subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss
Speaker 2: a show, or head to wwepodcast dot com and for
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Speaker 2: dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then, we'll see you
Speaker 2: next time.