Speaker 1: This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to
Speaker 1: the WWE podcast, the.
Speaker 2: Show, the one that everybody wants me tell you stand
Speaker 2: three sixteen says says us. Your ass is MYNYD.
Speaker 1: You can acknowledge me.
Speaker 3: Well, guys, the Royal Rumble has come and gone. We
Speaker 3: now have the answers as to who has won the
Speaker 3: Royal Rumble for the men and the women. We've got
Speaker 3: the outcome of the Fatal four Way, We've got the
Speaker 3: outcome of the United States Championship match. We've got some answers,
Speaker 3: but it overall seems to it And this is just
Speaker 3: my my quick feeling on the show, based on everything
Speaker 3: I've heard from you guys too, and from other podcasters
Speaker 3: and their fans, and it felt like most people were
Speaker 3: underwhelmed with the show. Most people seem to be disappointed
Speaker 3: by the show. Most people feel like something was missing
Speaker 3: from the show, whether it was someone, something of feeling
Speaker 3: and intangible.
Speaker 2: The crowd was too.
Speaker 3: Quiet, and I would say there are some and there
Speaker 3: is some legitimacy to those claims. I think that the
Speaker 3: show perse me my view of the show, I tweeted
Speaker 3: out earlier. I said that it was a good I
Speaker 3: thought it was a good show, even if it was predictable.
Speaker 3: And I'm all about making the right decision in lieu
Speaker 3: of just doing something shocking that makes no sense just
Speaker 3: for the sake of shock. We've seen that before under
Speaker 3: the Vince McMahon regime and under the Hunter regime, Triple
Speaker 3: H regime, there has been more of a sense of
Speaker 3: ples over delivery. Now, well, there was a dark cloud
Speaker 3: hanging over the entire show, and that cloud was called
Speaker 3: Vince McMahon, and that cloud consisted of the lawsuit pending
Speaker 3: against Vince McMahon from the former employee. We went over that.
Speaker 3: You guys have heard about it already, and in the
Speaker 3: post press conference, wwe did a very bad job. I
Speaker 3: thought of kind of skimming over it or trying to
Speaker 3: downplay it. I mean, even Triple H, who is usually
Speaker 3: pretty good at dealing with the media, gave a really
Speaker 3: just not good answer saying he didn't read the lawsuit
Speaker 3: and then he doesn't want to focus on the negatives.
Speaker 2: There's so many positives. And I had to say to.
Speaker 3: Triple H, like, I understand what you're doing. You're trying
Speaker 3: to divert the attention and there are some good things
Speaker 3: to talk about, a lot of good things to talk
Speaker 3: about from the show, But that's all stuff that is
Speaker 3: in the sandbox, you know what I mean. It's almost
Speaker 3: like he was prioritizing a fantasy environment, which is the
Speaker 3: on screen stuff with WWE.
Speaker 2: Over the actual real.
Speaker 3: Stuff going on with Vince, the real world stuff, the
Speaker 3: stuff that is always more important than what's on camera,
Speaker 3: And he wanted to just really dismiss it. I don't
Speaker 3: want to that's the negative stuff. I want to focus
Speaker 3: on the positives bad, bad, that just sounds and looks bad.
Speaker 3: And then telling us he didn't read it. Okay, maybe
Speaker 3: he didn't, Maybe he didn't. Maybe he sell the truth.
Speaker 3: He probably is telling the truth. He didn't read it,
Speaker 3: but that's still not a good thing. I mean, your
Speaker 3: your father in law is under under this cloud of
Speaker 3: a massive civil suit, and you are not even bothering
Speaker 3: to read it. I mean, I understand what he's doing.
Speaker 3: I understand the attention that he wants to divert away
Speaker 3: from that.
Speaker 2: Don't don't look at that.
Speaker 3: Look go look over here, look at all this nice stuff.
Speaker 3: Because he's trying to make the company look as good
Speaker 3: as possible and just kind of push it aside, but
Speaker 3: it just still doesn't look good. And he could have
Speaker 3: just said, look that it's a pending lawsuit. I can't comment.
Speaker 3: It's a you know, for legal reasons, guys, we can't
Speaker 3: talk about the suit. If you have questions about tonight
Speaker 3: and the Royal Rumble itself, I'd be glad to.
Speaker 2: Answer them, end of story. That's it.
Speaker 3: And instead he actually decided to go a different road,
Speaker 3: which I thought was a bad call, a really bad call.
Speaker 3: But so I don't know if it was that that
Speaker 3: made the show feel a bit underwhelming, and I agree again,
Speaker 3: I thought it was a good show because of the
Speaker 3: booking decisions, but I didn't think that, you know, some
Speaker 3: of the matches, particularly the men's rumble match, wasn't particularly overwhelming,
Speaker 3: and maybe to an unfair degree. Every year, our expectations
Speaker 3: get raised to a level that's unachievable. And yes, brock
Speaker 3: Lesser did not show up. Bron Breaker is the man
Speaker 3: who apparently took his spot, and the positioning of Braun
Speaker 3: made Braun not Braun, although Braun Strohman I actually thought
Speaker 3: he was going to appear. You know, look when you
Speaker 3: look at bron Breaker's number, and where he came in
Speaker 3: and how Dominanti looked that was apparently supposed to be
Speaker 3: brock Lesner's spot was bron Breaker filling in for Brock.
Speaker 3: So Brock does not make it appearance. We are not
Speaker 3: going to get a brock Lessner and a Gunther matchup,
Speaker 3: it appears, unless something comes out that clears brock Lesner's name.
Speaker 3: Without question, brock Lessner is off TV indefinitely until things
Speaker 3: are settled. And even after that, if things are looking
Speaker 3: bad for Brock, if he is found guilty or some
Speaker 3: he's involved in a way that is let's say undesirable
Speaker 3: to say the very least, then he probably won't be
Speaker 3: back on TV. Ever, so a lot is hanging in
Speaker 3: the balance with this suit, and that didn't help the
Speaker 3: royal rumble. Brockleser's appearance, I think would have really helped.
Speaker 3: Many of us were looking forward to a Gunther brock
Speaker 3: Lesner interaction and that didn't happen obviously, But for broun Breaker,
Speaker 3: it's a breakout performance. You know, when when one door closes,
Speaker 3: another opens, and that door of opportunity opened for bron Breaker,
Speaker 3: and I think he made a very nice, big splash
Speaker 3: in the Rumble. I do I think he You know,
Speaker 3: that military press of gun throw over his head was
Speaker 3: incredibly impressive. The crowd reacted fairly well to him. There's
Speaker 3: a lot of narrative going around again that the crowd
Speaker 3: was quiet, and at times they were. At times they were,
Speaker 3: especially during the women's Royal Rumble, they didn't have a
Speaker 3: whole lot of energy, shall we say. They felt a
Speaker 3: bit underwhelming at times quiet, But they weren't the worst
Speaker 3: crowd in the world. I'm hearing over dramatized statements from
Speaker 3: people that this was one of the worst crowds in
Speaker 3: the history of Ples, and I wouldn't go that far.
Speaker 2: They weren't.
Speaker 3: They weren't a I don't think they added a ton
Speaker 3: to the show. But they weren't silent, you know. I
Speaker 3: thought they were loud when they needed to be. But generally, yeah,
Speaker 3: their energy was down a bit, yes, I would agree,
Speaker 3: So that didn't help the show. The absence of brock
Speaker 3: lesn didn't help the show. The black cloud, as I
Speaker 3: mentioned of Vince McMahon's lawsuit, definitely did not help the show,
Speaker 3: which is what everyone was thinking about. Also in the
Speaker 3: men's Rumble, as we're kind of looking at some of
Speaker 3: the negatives here, because there are some positives, and I
Speaker 3: got a lot of good stuff to say. Pat McAfee,
Speaker 3: I love uncommentary. I mean, that's not exactly a shocking
Speaker 3: statement or a controversial statement. A lot of people like him,
Speaker 3: I do on commentary. He's grown on me. Why would
Speaker 3: they waste a Royal Rumble spot on Pat McAfee. What
Speaker 3: did that do for anyone? I understand that him in
Speaker 3: the Rumble is funny, and yeah, like, okay, I get it.
Speaker 3: He would he just eliminated himself because he would have
Speaker 3: gotten his ass kicked. But like, then, why even waste
Speaker 3: the spot that could have gone to an NXT guy
Speaker 3: or another guy on the roster. You're gonna have Pat
Speaker 3: come in look like a chicken and then, you know, eliminate.
Speaker 2: Himself for what.
Speaker 3: That doesn't help anyone. It wasn't funny, didn't help Pat
Speaker 3: McAfee in any capacity, and it took a spot away
Speaker 3: from a guy that would have actually competed. That was
Speaker 3: a weird waste of a spot. So there's that, and
Speaker 3: then there's also the returns that underwhelmed a lot of people,
Speaker 3: or to be more specific, the lack of returns that
Speaker 3: underwhelmed people. Now that's not to say that people didn't
Speaker 3: care about Andrade. They absolutely did. Andrade coming in was
Speaker 3: a big moment, coming back after how many a few years, right,
Speaker 3: that was a big moment, you know, having him return,
Speaker 3: The interactions with Santos, all of that was a lot
Speaker 3: of fun. So Andrade will be a big player moving forward.
Speaker 3: But and of course Naomi Naomi, I mean, ye, by
Speaker 3: the way, the announcers didn't react the way I thought
Speaker 3: they would. They were just kind of like, and it's
Speaker 3: been a long time and here's Naomi. I feel like
Speaker 3: they would have should have oversold it a little more,
Speaker 3: and they were just almost quiet about it initially anyway.
Speaker 3: So Naomi was a big return. Really good to see her.
Speaker 3: And the debut of Jade Cargill was arguably the biggest
Speaker 3: moment of the entire night. I mean, you could argue
Speaker 3: it was the biggest moment of the night over all
Speaker 3: the championship matches and everything else could have been the
Speaker 3: biggest moment of the night, you could have argued. And
Speaker 3: the crowd reacted appropriately. They were waiting for Jade Cargill.
Speaker 3: Some of the face offs she had we'll get into
Speaker 3: the Women's Rumble in a little bit, but particularly with
Speaker 3: Bianca Bella air people or are just dying for so
Speaker 3: many different moments with her. I mean, obviously she didn't win,
Speaker 3: but still live. Morgan returns, but it's that big return,
Speaker 3: that big moment, that big, big thing that didn't happen,
Speaker 3: Like Roman losing the belt didn't happen, the Rock returning
Speaker 3: or interfering or getting involved in any capacity didn't happen.
Speaker 3: The guys that you thought were gonna win, or the
Speaker 3: guy and gal you thought we're gonna win one, which
Speaker 3: is fine. Again, it's not a complaint at all, but
Speaker 3: that big goosebump moment never came. And I think that
Speaker 3: is what people are really pointing to when they talk
Speaker 3: about this year's Royal Rumble pay per view or ple
Speaker 3: e is that there was no big, massive goosebump shocking
Speaker 3: moment that we all were looking for and almost maybe unfairly,
Speaker 3: you know, maybe unfair Maybe we should stop expecting that,
Speaker 3: maybe we should stop expecting WWE to produce those moments
Speaker 3: every single pl But the Royal Rumos a big pl
Speaker 3: I mean, this is not exactly your you know, your
Speaker 3: extreme rules event in the middle of the summer. This
Speaker 3: is a you know, one of the Big Four beloved
Speaker 3: by fans pay per view, so kind of weird that
Speaker 3: they didn't produce that moment. But I don't know what
Speaker 3: options they had, and they didn't want to do it
Speaker 3: just to do it, and I respect that.
Speaker 2: So it sounds like.
Speaker 3: A big, big whiny baby complaint about the ple and
Speaker 3: it's not. But I do tend to feel while it
Speaker 3: was a good event and good booking, it lacked that
Speaker 3: Google Spump feeling. It lacked that big feeling like you
Speaker 3: could come away from this pe and go, huh yeah, Okay,
Speaker 3: all these decisions made sense, but there wasn't those that
Speaker 3: kind of like awe inspiring moments that none of that
Speaker 3: didn't occur, which I think is what a lot of
Speaker 3: us are complaining about, unfairly or fairly. So we'll get
Speaker 3: into all of it in just a minute, but first,
Speaker 3: after that big long intro, Welcome to the WWE podcast. Everybody,
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for joining us, as we are
Speaker 3: going to review the twenty twenty four Royal Rumble here
Speaker 3: in depth, and tomorrow will be joined by Anthony DeMarco
Speaker 3: who will joining us for the current state of wwe,
Speaker 3: I wonder what the heck we're going to talk about.
Speaker 3: And we are then going to pursue our regular schedule
Speaker 3: here until the next pl which is in I think November,
Speaker 3: no November February twenty fourth, twenty fifth, something like that,
Speaker 3: for the Elimination Chamber event, which is four weeks away,
Speaker 3: and then after that it's about five or six weeks
Speaker 3: until Mania sixty nine days as I record this, until
Speaker 3: WrestleMania forty, so that'll go quick, as it does every year.
Speaker 3: It feels like they tell us seventy eighty ninety hundred
Speaker 3: days and then you blink and here we are. It's
Speaker 3: like ten days away, right. That happens every year. That'll
Speaker 3: happen this year. But we do have one more pit
Speaker 3: stop in the Elimination Chamber in Perth. I think a
Speaker 3: lot's going to happen there. Of course, I believe Punk
Speaker 3: will compete in the chamber, He'll win his right to
Speaker 3: face seth rollins in the chamber. To me, that is
Speaker 3: more than likely what's going to happen. But thank you
Speaker 3: everybody for joining us here on what was a very
Speaker 3: eventful show. So we're going to talk about a whole
Speaker 3: lot more again, I'd like to invite you, guys to
Speaker 3: the ad free version of this show.
Speaker 2: If you've listened to the show and you're already.
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Speaker 3: get that ad free access as well as the exclusive
Speaker 3: after Dark show that is every single week. It's an
Speaker 3: adult version of the show, is really what it is,
Speaker 3: and usually wrestling based, so check that out. It's an
Speaker 3: exclusive show to you. So all right, let's get into
Speaker 3: the details, guys. Let's let's dive right in to the
Speaker 3: results here. And it opened with the Royal Rumble and
Speaker 3: the Women's Royal Rumble, and again it started honestly kind
Speaker 3: of It started hot. Okay, let me let's be stray
Speaker 3: with you. It started hot, It started really fun with
Speaker 3: Naomi's return I was a bit underwhelmed with the reaction
Speaker 3: from the announcers at the beginning of her return. It
Speaker 3: was what a year and a half, nearly two years
Speaker 3: since she was back in WWE May of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: so nearly two years. Naomi back was a nice hot
Speaker 3: start to the rumble. I had no issue with it.
Speaker 3: I was I mean, it was a kind of a
Speaker 3: set the tone type of return that I hoped would
Speaker 3: be the case. And really throughout the women's Royal rumble,
Speaker 3: I was not exactly impressed until Jade Cargill came out,
Speaker 3: or really Becky Lynch and number one, by the way,
Speaker 3: was who was it?
Speaker 2: Who was it?
Speaker 3: No inn Italia in Italia who was eliminated eventually by
Speaker 3: Tiagan Knocks. But Naomi came out and big return. She
Speaker 3: had a big showing. Nice to see her back. I
Speaker 3: have absolutely no issue with this. The women's division needs
Speaker 3: a little bit of a boost, and Naomi had a
Speaker 3: nice showing and she was eventually eliminated by Jade Jade Cargill,
Speaker 3: by the way, we'll get to Jade. We then got
Speaker 3: Bailey at number three, who, of course we all know,
Speaker 3: went the distance. Candice Leray Jordan Grace. I thought it
Speaker 3: was Jordanna. It's Jordan Grace. She's the current TNA knockout champion.
Speaker 3: Very interesting here, you know, it's this is the first
Speaker 3: time that I can recall in which the TNA champion
Speaker 3: anyway was involved in the actual royal rumble. I think
Speaker 3: we've seen a little bit of a crossover before, but
Speaker 3: nothing like this where she actually had a hell of
Speaker 3: a showing here. Jordan Grace was, you know, one of
Speaker 3: the standouts up until, of course, we got the bigger
Speaker 3: names here with Bianca bell Air and yeah, the other
Speaker 3: the other woe I mean, Tiffany Stratton eventually came out
Speaker 3: and she had a nice showing too, But Jordan Grace
Speaker 3: really was the first one that you looked at and
Speaker 3: went wow. All right, and most of us who watched
Speaker 3: WWE you have never seen her before. Most of us
Speaker 3: don't even know the name Jordan Grace, and so it
Speaker 3: was a nice showing for her. The crowd reacted pretty
Speaker 3: well to her. She is a powerhouse woman and it
Speaker 3: was cool to see a bit of a crossover. So
Speaker 3: she was eventually eliminated by Bianca bell Air, but she
Speaker 3: had a hell of a night.
Speaker 2: No doubt about it.
Speaker 3: If she ever does come to WWE and do her thing.
Speaker 3: Indy Hartwell was next. She was eliminated by Bailey Oscar
Speaker 3: was eliminated by Cayden Carter and Katana Chance. Maybe then
Speaker 3: had Ivy Nile and Katana Chance come out eight to nine.
Speaker 3: Bianca Belle Air was number ten and she was eventually
Speaker 3: eliminated by Tiffany Stratton. By the way, Kyrie saying who
Speaker 3: gets almost no reaction, which is a shame lately, came
Speaker 3: out at eleven. Teagan knocks at twelve, Cayden Carter at thirteen,
Speaker 3: Chelsea Green and Piper and Niven. Now here's one of
Speaker 3: the bigger bright spots of the show for me. Beyond
Speaker 3: the Jade Car Gill, which was clearly the biggest star
Speaker 3: moment of the night, it was Chelsea Green, the unsung
Speaker 3: hero of this match, who just kept getting raged alled
Speaker 3: and somehow staying in the match. When she got eliminated
Speaker 3: by Becky Lynch eventually, I mean I was disappointed when
Speaker 3: she did. She is entertaining as hell. I mean, Chelsea
Speaker 3: Green is just so good at what she does, being
Speaker 3: that annoying kinda that just you know, obnoxious character that
Speaker 3: runs her mouth and obviously can't back it up, but
Speaker 3: then will gloat about some ridiculous statistic. For example, she
Speaker 3: was the fastest eliminated from last year's Royal Rumble five
Speaker 3: seconds and then somehow she said she made history, right,
Speaker 3: so she turns it into some obnoxious kind of flex
Speaker 3: and I enjoyed Chelsea Green. She just kept getting squashed
Speaker 3: in the corner by Piper Niven or Nya Jacks. It
Speaker 3: was just a lot of fun and seeing her eventually
Speaker 3: get eliminated was kind of sad. I was hoping she'd
Speaker 3: somehow just luck her way into the end of the match,
Speaker 3: but Chelsea Green was really No one's talking about it.
Speaker 3: But I enjoyed Chelsea Green in the match a lot. Now,
Speaker 3: this match up to this point, number fifteen was Piper Niven,
Speaker 3: so we're about halfway through the rumble now. It was
Speaker 3: kind of clunky, a lot of botches and especially by
Speaker 3: the time Nia Jacks came out, a lot of botches,
Speaker 3: a lot of miss spots, and the rumbles. Not an
Speaker 3: easy match to navigate. Most women haven't been in a
Speaker 3: Royal Rumble match, has only been once them on top
Speaker 3: of it, so I get it. But it was kind
Speaker 3: of a sloppy middle of the match here, one that
Speaker 3: was kind of took the crowd out of it, the
Speaker 3: announcers trying to cover for them. I mean, it happens,
Speaker 3: but it was uncomfortable to watch at times. So then
Speaker 3: we get to number sixteen, Zili. She didn't have her
Speaker 3: lightning coming out of her arms and legs, so I
Speaker 3: think that's probably why she didn't win here. I didn't
Speaker 3: see any come out of her. Usually on her entrance
Speaker 3: she's able to, you know, produce some kind of electricity
Speaker 3: from her from her limbs, and I didn't see any,
Speaker 3: So she must have not had her power crystals activated,
Speaker 3: which is why she didn't win the match. So I'm
Speaker 3: not sure what happened there. You know, she'll have to
Speaker 3: check with zord On. That's a Power Ranger reference for
Speaker 3: those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: So all right, Then we got Zelena Vega, who had
Speaker 3: a nice showing Selena Vega. She was eventually eliminated by
Speaker 3: Shanna Basler, but Zelena Vega also is somebody that I
Speaker 3: enjoyed the showing she had.
Speaker 2: She had.
Speaker 3: She came in hit Mediora right away. I think that
Speaker 3: she had a nice showing. Now she didn't make it
Speaker 3: as deep as I was hoping that she would make it,
Speaker 3: but she kind of settled things down for me seeing
Speaker 3: her come out, and I, you know, as you guys know,
Speaker 3: I'm a bigs Leena Vega fan, so that was nice.
Speaker 3: Maxine Duprix coming out, I think she had a pretty
Speaker 3: bad botch or maybe no, was it after the reverse Caterpillar.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure, but Maxine Duprix, the crowd was with her,
Speaker 3: you know, the crowd reacted to her pretty decently. And
Speaker 3: then we get Naya Jax, who was eventually eliminated by
Speaker 3: Jade Cargill. Here, but number nineteen was Naya Jax. We
Speaker 3: all knew what she was going to do in the rumble,
Speaker 3: just be a force to be reckoned with. Shatzi comes
Speaker 3: out in her ridiculous power wheels tank, which needs to
Speaker 3: just be destroyed. Becky Lynch, now we're getting serious, right,
Speaker 3: Becky Lynch comes out at number twenty one. She was
Speaker 3: eventually eliminated by Jade Cargill. By the way, Becky Lynch,
Speaker 3: let me just say this was probably the biggest dis
Speaker 3: appointment of the entire night. And I understand she made
Speaker 3: it deep into the match, but she's number twenty one,
Speaker 3: so that's not exactly impressive. But also, she got her
Speaker 3: ass kicked ninety eight percent of the time she was
Speaker 3: in the match outside of the first moments she came in,
Speaker 3: which is what every single entrant on the men's and
Speaker 3: women's side does. And the second they come in, they
Speaker 3: just start kicking ass, right and then within ten seconds
Speaker 3: somebody knocks them down. That's just what happens. It's just
Speaker 3: the way everyone enters the rumble. Outside of that flurry
Speaker 3: that everyone gets upon the entry of the match, she
Speaker 3: did nothing, absolutely nothing. And this isn't a slight on Becky.
Speaker 3: This is a slide on the way she was booked here.
Speaker 3: It was I mean, I don't want to say awful.
Speaker 3: It was very surprising. Is maybe the word disappointing if
Speaker 3: you're a Becky Lynch fan. Becky Lynch did essentially nothing
Speaker 3: in this match. She just got her ass kicked time
Speaker 3: after time she spent I'm not kidding you. If someone
Speaker 3: was to do a percentage ninety eight, maybe a bit
Speaker 3: of an over drama dramatization, I understand probably about eighty
Speaker 3: percent of the time realistically, she was getting her ass kicked,
Speaker 3: laying on the ground, getting stomped in the quarter, getting splashed,
Speaker 3: getting hit with a finish. She did nothing in this match,
Speaker 3: and that was very surprising, and van Becky Lynch, it
Speaker 3: was unbelievable really, So that was a big surprise for me,
Speaker 3: was Becky Lynch having essentially.
Speaker 2: No say at all.
Speaker 3: Alba Fire then came out and Valhalla, who was eliminated
Speaker 3: by nia Jackson five seconds. Our Truth had some something
Speaker 3: to say here. Oddly, he thought he was in the
Speaker 3: men's rumble, which was I mean, anything Our Truth does
Speaker 3: is funny. He was confused and nia Jax just threw
Speaker 3: him out. Michin comes in and she was eliminated by
Speaker 3: nia Jax. But Michen, I don't want to overlook her here.
Speaker 3: She looked more intense than I've ever seen her look.
Speaker 3: She looked better than I've ever seen her look in
Speaker 3: this moment. While she didn't last long, it was still
Speaker 3: something that I do remember with Mechen having some kind
Speaker 3: of offense, and it was somewhat memorable for Mechen, the
Speaker 3: most important match of her career, given that she doesn't
Speaker 3: ever have a match so Zoe's star came out, and
Speaker 3: then Roxanne Perez had a nice showing as well. She
Speaker 3: was eliminated by Chip Tippany Stratton, and then Jade Cargill
Speaker 3: finally comes out, biggest pop of the night for the
Speaker 3: women and arguably a top five pop of the night overall,
Speaker 3: maybe higher. The crowd lost it for Jade Cargill. She
Speaker 3: does look like an absolute star. She absolutely has the look.
Speaker 3: I mean, we all knew that, but even seeing her
Speaker 3: for the first time live, she's I mean, as Corey
Speaker 3: Graves I think put it. I think it was. I
Speaker 3: think it was Corey. If you were going to create
Speaker 3: from scratch a women's superstar, you would come out at
Speaker 3: the other end with Jade Cargill. And that's absolutely true.
Speaker 3: She has got a look that can really, I think,
Speaker 3: deodorize a lot of the missteps she may eventually have
Speaker 3: in the ring, because she just looks the part so
Speaker 3: overwhelmingly much that even if she missteps in the ring
Speaker 3: and doesn't have the five star matches that unfortunately everyone
Speaker 3: has the expectation of these days, it can be deodorized
Speaker 3: a little bit with how damn good she looks. And
Speaker 3: I don't just mean like, oh my god, I'm drooling
Speaker 3: because she's got such a nice physique. It's you know,
Speaker 3: it's beyond that. Of course, I mean as a man,
Speaker 3: I'm not blind. But also it's it's not that necessarily,
Speaker 3: it's just that she looks like she should be on
Speaker 3: the poster of everything without even saying a word. And
Speaker 3: I don't know a whole lot about her promo skills.
Speaker 3: I will, you know, that'll be remaining to be seen here.
Speaker 3: But she just unbelievably, it's really insane, how just star
Speaker 3: studded she just looks, which is going to help her
Speaker 3: moving forward. But the crowd reacted, I mean exploded for
Speaker 3: Jade Cargill, and yeah, we all knew what was going
Speaker 3: to happen here. A couple of face offs. She did
Speaker 3: take Naya Jacks.
Speaker 2: She did.
Speaker 3: I don't know if she was a botch, but she
Speaker 3: did the best she could to lift nia Jacks up.
Speaker 3: Who if I was going to guess her weight would be,
Speaker 3: you know, north of well north of two hundred, I
Speaker 3: would say Nia Jacks is like two thirty. I'd say
Speaker 3: Nia Jacks's two hundred and thirty pounds maybe more.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: And if that's the case, you know, her dead lifting
Speaker 3: a two hundred and thirty plus pound woman is pretty
Speaker 3: damn impressive and doing what she did putting her over
Speaker 3: the top rope. I mean, that's what Caine did to
Speaker 3: the Big Show back in the day, if you remember,
Speaker 3: It's kind of like that, and that was impressive as hell,
Speaker 3: lifting her up like you know, nothing on her shoulders.
Speaker 2: It was crazy.
Speaker 3: And then Tiffany Stratton comes out at number twenty nine,
Speaker 3: she was eliminated by Bianca Belle Air and Live Morgan
Speaker 3: comes out at number thirty. So the only thing here is,
Speaker 3: you know, we didn't get any aj Lee, No a
Speaker 3: j Lee. I forgot to even mention her in the
Speaker 3: preview show no aj Lee, which was a bit disappointing.
Speaker 3: I thought she would make an appearance given that we
Speaker 3: saw her working out in the ring and doing maneuvers
Speaker 3: in the ring. Eventually, I think what we'll get is
Speaker 3: a eventually maybe for a one off a CM Punk
Speaker 3: and aj Lee versus Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins. I
Speaker 3: think that matchup could happen maybe at Backlash or at SummerSlam.
Speaker 3: But that matchup is ready and set to go. You know,
Speaker 3: that would be an amazing matchup. But the other thing
Speaker 3: is the face off with Jade Cargill and Bianca bell Air,
Speaker 3: which even Corey Graves alluded to the fact that the
Speaker 3: fans have wanted to see that since we heard that
Speaker 3: the moment Jade Cargill was signed that we wanted to
Speaker 3: see that they had a stare off. They were interrupted.
Speaker 3: Of course they didn't have any exchange physically, but Bionca
Speaker 3: Bellair and Jade Cargill just from a visual standpoint is
Speaker 3: going to be, I mean, next next level. And now
Speaker 3: how they work together physically in the ring remains to
Speaker 3: be seen. Jade Cargil overall physically, I thought did a
Speaker 3: nice job. I don't think she was too nervous, or
Speaker 3: if she was, she didn't show it. She certainly covered
Speaker 3: it well. She's very proud of her physique. I has
Speaker 3: no doubt about that. She's extremely proud of how she looks.
Speaker 3: She will let you know it. And you know if
Speaker 3: you just you just click by her her profile on
Speaker 3: any any social media platform and you will be very
Speaker 3: quickly You'll you'll very quickly realize how proud of herself
Speaker 3: she is, which was going to lend her to lend
Speaker 3: itself to be very nice when She's a heel, all right,
Speaker 3: when she eventually turns a heel, which yeah, I don't
Speaker 3: know when that's going to happen, but Jade Cargill is
Speaker 3: essentially a heel when you think about it. She's so
Speaker 3: proud of herself it's kind of obnoxious. But right now
Speaker 3: she is a babyface, and let's ride it out and
Speaker 3: see how far that can go. And there they did
Speaker 3: tease a lot of potential matchups with Jade, and many
Speaker 3: are proposing Jade versus Nijacks at WrestleMania, so we'll see.
Speaker 3: Jay doesn't seem to be fitting in the tadtle picture
Speaker 3: right now. But liv Morgan got a decent reaction for
Speaker 3: her return. I wasn't overly impressed by Liv again. I
Speaker 3: think the letdown. The thing is, the letdown for the
Speaker 3: number thirty spot is almost a given every year because
Speaker 3: the thirty spot has been really just unfairly raised to
Speaker 3: a level that's almost unachievable every year. I mean to
Speaker 3: be honest, I was hoping for aj Lee for number thirty.
Speaker 3: Obviously that didn't happen. Or many people thought Sasha Banks
Speaker 3: would be number thirty. That obviously didn't happen. So when
Speaker 3: you look at aj Lee and Sasha Banks and you
Speaker 3: get liv Morgan. It's like, oh, okay, cool, you're back.
Speaker 3: We won't boo you, but you're not exactly who we
Speaker 3: were looking for. I mean, that's the way the fans
Speaker 3: reacted as well. Number thirty. If you're not a superstar superstar,
Speaker 3: you're gonna be a bit disappointed in the reaction get
Speaker 3: because fans have an expectation for that number thirty spot
Speaker 3: for better or worse. That's just the way it is.
Speaker 3: You can love it or hate it. The fans expect
Speaker 3: a big star to be number thirty. It's just the
Speaker 3: way it is. So overall, I thought the women's rumble
Speaker 3: was good and Jade Cargill clearly the standout star of
Speaker 3: the match. Bailey winning made absolute sense. Now, Bailey has
Speaker 3: alluded to the fact that she's going to face Rhea Ripley.
Speaker 3: If that's true and she doesn't go after EO Sky,
Speaker 3: I'll be very surprised. That'd be kind of a weird
Speaker 3: thing to do, because where does that leave Becky. You know,
Speaker 3: where's she going. It's going to be a very weird WrestleMania.
Speaker 3: If Bailey and Ria no one's asking for Bailey and Rhea.
Speaker 3: By the way, no one wants Bailey Ria Bailey. The
Speaker 3: fans are ready to cheer Bailey, but they're also ready
Speaker 3: to cheer Rhea Ripley. I don't think anyone wants that
Speaker 3: people would readily cheer EO boot Eo Sky and cheer Bailey.
Speaker 3: That's a built in story that's been going on for
Speaker 3: a year and a half. So to me, it's a
Speaker 3: no brainer that Bailey's gonna change her mind and go
Speaker 3: after EO. I would hope Bailey and Rhea just don't
Speaker 3: make sense, not at this juncture. So that's still slated
Speaker 3: for a Becky Lynch I think, a Becky Lynch Andria
Speaker 3: Ripley matchup, I would think, but the Chamber is going
Speaker 3: to really set things in motion. So alrighty, what happened
Speaker 3: after that?
Speaker 2: Next?
Speaker 3: We weirdly got the fatal four way for the undisputed
Speaker 3: Universal Championship here with Roman, Randy AJ and l A.
Speaker 2: Knight.
Speaker 1: This.
Speaker 3: When I heard that this was coming up next, I
Speaker 3: thought to myself, well, there is exactly, now, without you know,
Speaker 3: over exaggerating, exactly a zero percent chance that romand Reigns loses.
Speaker 3: Because if you guys, remember my preview show, I said,
Speaker 3: the positioning of this match at the Rumble will dictate
Speaker 3: if Roman loses or not, or at least there's an
Speaker 3: elevated ris of him losing. I thought it would at
Speaker 3: least go on third or fourth. It was either going
Speaker 3: to be the men's Rumble or this match main eventing.
Speaker 3: This match went on second. When's the last time a
Speaker 3: Roman Reigns title match went on second on the show?
Speaker 3: So that told me immediately there is no chance of
Speaker 3: Roman losing, and to double down on it, there is
Speaker 3: almost no chance of the Rock showing up either, and
Speaker 3: neither of those things. Those things happened. It was a
Speaker 3: standard by the numbers Roman Reigns victory, and some people
Speaker 3: are claiming by the way that it's a clean Roman
Speaker 3: Reigns victory. Some people are telling them, like, did you
Speaker 3: watch the match? I watched, What do you mean a
Speaker 3: clean Roman Reigns victory. It's the same formula we've been
Speaker 3: getting for Roman Reigns's title defenses for the last three years.
Speaker 3: We get a interference from the Bloodline, which costs Roman
Speaker 3: or costs his opponent the opportunity to win the title.
Speaker 3: Roman Reigns. It's a spear and that's it. It's the
Speaker 3: same thing we've been watching for years now and say something. Okay,
Speaker 3: First of all, the match was fine. It was good.
Speaker 3: It was really it was good. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: I didn't hate the match.
Speaker 3: I just hated the positioning, which completely gave away the finish.
Speaker 3: All four men did an incredible job. There was moments
Speaker 3: during the match that they said, oh maybe right AJ
Speaker 3: Styles nearly killing Roman Reigns. By the way, on the
Speaker 3: Styles clash, he barely got him up. I said, oh god,
Speaker 3: I was like, don't break his neck. That scared me.
Speaker 3: But the rkos when Roman was hit with the RKO,
Speaker 3: I said, oh god, here we go maybe and then
Speaker 3: here comes so those like and then dead, same thing
Speaker 3: some moments. By how many times are we going to
Speaker 3: see this? La Knight By the way, wwe did a
Speaker 3: really nice job out of nowhere reminding us how big
Speaker 3: of a star La Night is, who has kind of
Speaker 3: fallen off in recent months with all the other big
Speaker 3: returns with Orton and Punk. WW has done a nice
Speaker 3: job of repositioning him as a real threat, and they
Speaker 3: really seemed to focus on him before the match and
Speaker 3: the promo package of doing a nice job of reminding
Speaker 3: us how big of a star he is and how
Speaker 3: he has a real chance of winning. So that was
Speaker 3: a nice unexpected boost for La Knight that I think
Speaker 3: his career needed. And the crowd seemed to be really
Speaker 3: behind him too. I mean they were really behind him,
Speaker 3: even maybe more so than Norton. People knew aj Styles
Speaker 3: wasn't going to win. But when you look at this match, Okay,
Speaker 3: you had the solo interference, you had all that. But
Speaker 3: what I want to talk about is Michael Cole who
Speaker 3: responded to the Internet Wrestling Community when the match was
Speaker 3: just beginning, I think of Roman Rains was making his
Speaker 3: entrance and doing his thing for forty five minutes. Michael
Speaker 3: Cole responded to the Internet community Internet Wrestling Community the
Speaker 3: IWC by saying that some believe you know that his
Speaker 3: match or his title rain is it's not deserving because
Speaker 3: he doesn't defend the title every week. That was his words.
Speaker 3: His words were that were mad because he doesn't defend
Speaker 3: the title every week and that he only defends it
Speaker 3: couple of months, and that his response was if you
Speaker 3: don't like it, then someone should beat him. That was
Speaker 3: his response. Michael Cole that is okay on several levels.
Speaker 3: That is a very weak argument. Number one, the premise
Speaker 3: that we're asking that, the premise that you have laid
Speaker 3: out that we are asking Roman Reigns to defend the
Speaker 3: belt every week is false. No one is asking Roman
Speaker 3: Reigns to defend the belt every week, no one. I
Speaker 3: don't want that. We see it with Seth Rollins and
Speaker 3: a lot of fans don't like it. Seth Rawlins over
Speaker 3: defends the championship. There's nobody asking for Roman Reigns to
Speaker 3: defend the belt every single week.
Speaker 2: No one.
Speaker 3: So first of all, that's false. Yes, he defends it
Speaker 3: every every couple of months. I would argue he defended
Speaker 3: it once in four months over the over the twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three there was like a four month gap between
Speaker 3: WrestleMania and SummerSlam.
Speaker 2: I mean that was egregious. So yeah.
Speaker 3: Also, if you want if your argument of well someone
Speaker 3: should then beat him, well here's the problem, Cole. He
Speaker 3: doesn't effing show up. Okay, he has been. He's negotiated
Speaker 3: a contract which I have congratulated him for, and I
Speaker 3: have no fault against Roman Reigns himself. He has made
Speaker 3: himself a hell of a living he has set for
Speaker 3: the rest of his life. He's set his family's life,
Speaker 3: hopefully for generations to come. With all the money he's making,
Speaker 3: he's preserving his body with the schedule he has. And
Speaker 3: good for him, good for Joe, good for Joe Onuai,
Speaker 3: good for him. But for fans, the Roman Reigns character
Speaker 3: doesn't ever show the f up. So tell me, Cole,
Speaker 3: how are we supposed to have someone beat him? If
Speaker 3: he can't, if he doesn't show up. And by the way,
Speaker 3: we have had several candidates over the years, namely Drew McIntyre,
Speaker 3: Sammy Zain, Hew even Kevin Owens compete with him, of
Speaker 3: which we have said this is our guy, this is
Speaker 3: La Knight another more recent example. Those are the guys
Speaker 3: that we have told w no, no, it's time to end
Speaker 3: it with this guy, and WWE has said no, okay,
Speaker 3: So how exactly we're supposed to have someone beat him
Speaker 3: when we have told you who we want to beat him,
Speaker 3: and then WWE management management refuses to comply. And I
Speaker 3: still look back at all of those title defenses, specifically
Speaker 3: Sammy's Ain, specifically La Knight, who have been a really
Speaker 3: good candidate, and those still would have been really good candidates,
Speaker 3: and I still believe that they should have one of
Speaker 3: them should have taken the belt from Roman, but instead
Speaker 3: WWE refuses. So Cole the argument of responding to us that, oh, well,
Speaker 3: you know, you're we're complaining that he's never defending the belt.
Speaker 3: He's not even there to defend it. So let's start
Speaker 3: at baseline. Cole, you're wrong on like four levels and
Speaker 3: no one's asking him to defend.
Speaker 2: It every week.
Speaker 3: I love you, Cole, I really do. Your commentary is
Speaker 3: an anchor on the show when you're not on the show,
Speaker 3: it is. I really enjoy it. But you're wrong, just
Speaker 3: on the premise of the argument. You're wrong, all right,
Speaker 3: So I really when he said.
Speaker 2: That, I'm just like, what are you talking about? Can you?
Speaker 3: I'd love to have him go on a show, or
Speaker 3: anyone who's in management come on the show and actually
Speaker 3: have like a debate about why you're doing what you're
Speaker 3: doing and how you feel it's a the best for
Speaker 3: the company to keep a belt on a champion that's
Speaker 3: absentee and has been absentee for so many years at
Speaker 3: this point, Explain the benefits of that. Explain how not
Speaker 3: giving guys an opportunity regularly, not every four months, an
Speaker 3: opportunity to potentially win a championship, and not allowing guys
Speaker 3: to get in the ring with Roman Reigns regularly.
Speaker 2: Once I'm.
Speaker 3: To tell me that that's worth it all after all
Speaker 3: these years, and then tell us at the same time
Speaker 3: that Roman Reigns is the greatest champion of all time
Speaker 3: when he has been there a very small fraction of
Speaker 3: the time, and then go these large chunks of time,
Speaker 3: these large gaps in his apps in his reign where
Speaker 3: he goes two three months, he's just missing and that
Speaker 3: adds like one hundred days automatically to his run. And
Speaker 3: we're supposed to be impressed by the number of days
Speaker 3: he's been champion when he takes like, you know, multi
Speaker 3: month vacations.
Speaker 2: How is that impressive exactly?
Speaker 3: And his matches, you know, I tweeted this out too,
Speaker 3: and I'll stand by it, and then I'll move on.
Speaker 3: I promise I'm gonna move on to the Yes title match.
Speaker 3: The uh, the Roman Reigns matches on really some level
Speaker 3: have become boring. And I don't mean that from an
Speaker 3: effort perspective. I don't mean that in the near fall fun,
Speaker 3: or that the guys just don't care, or they're not
Speaker 3: trying to put on a show, or they're putting their
Speaker 3: bodies through hell no, no, no, no, no. All of that's true.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, it can also be true
Speaker 3: that his matches have become boring because they are so
Speaker 3: predictable and formulaic. Where you know he's going to be
Speaker 3: in Jeopardy's, somebody hits a finish on him, you know
Speaker 3: that there would be a three count, and then here
Speaker 3: comes the bloodline, here comes Solo, here comes Jimmy. Oh wait,
Speaker 3: never mind distraction, Samon and Spike spear there it is
Speaker 3: game over. It's the same fing formula. That's why they
Speaker 3: can also be really good matches and boring at the
Speaker 3: same time. Those two can happen at the same time,
Speaker 3: and that is where where the Roman Reigns matches have
Speaker 3: become and where they are now. They're boring, but also
Speaker 3: I can appreciate the hell out of the effort. It's
Speaker 3: a very strange combination. I'm just sick of going into
Speaker 3: Roman Reigns matches and immediately knowing the outcome. I'm sick
Speaker 3: of it. The fans are sick of it. This isn't
Speaker 3: the heat on Roman, This is the heat on the company.
Speaker 3: The heat on Roman is and was on him because
Speaker 3: as a character in a good way. The heat now
Speaker 3: has transferred to the company. It has been on the
Speaker 3: company for over a year now, I would argue maybe longer.
Speaker 3: The heat is on the company for continuing to push
Speaker 3: this for some unknown reason. Is it just for Cody?
Speaker 3: Is it really? I mean, we'll get to him in
Speaker 3: a minute, but I'll leave it there. I'll leave it there. Overall,
Speaker 3: it was a good match. I applaud all four men,
Speaker 3: including Roman. The timing was there, It was a very
Speaker 3: sound wrestling match. Some funder falls that made you wonder,
Speaker 3: but ultimately it's the same match we've been watching. You
Speaker 3: can just plug in play this formula that we saw
Speaker 3: last night to any of the matches he's had, nearly
Speaker 3: any of the matches he's had over the last couple
Speaker 3: of years, and go, oh, let me guess. Solo interfered,
Speaker 3: Roman reigns got lucky, Jimmy came out. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's right, Yeah they did right. Yeah, Jimmy wasn't there,
Speaker 3: but Solo was the one that helped him retain at
Speaker 3: WrestleMania helped him retain last night, among other times. Right, okay,
Speaker 3: I'll get off this match and get into the United
Speaker 3: States Championship match, which this was a lot of fun
Speaker 3: and lover hate Logan Paul. Every time he gets in
Speaker 3: the ring, he kicks his own ass. He does not
Speaker 3: leave anything to be desired. He, as I've mentioned, doesn't
Speaker 3: deserve to be this good and he is a lot
Speaker 3: of funder falls. The bumps that they took were just
Speaker 3: I mean, Logan Paul was bleeding.
Speaker 2: At one point.
Speaker 3: This was just a blast of a match, and I
Speaker 3: knew it was going to be, but it even exceeded
Speaker 3: my expectations. Logan Paul never hit a stunner, I don't think,
Speaker 3: by the way. Which was interesting the finish was that
Speaker 3: Logan Paul had his crony come out try to give
Speaker 3: him the knucks, the referee stopped him. Eventually we had
Speaker 3: Ko get a hold of the knucks hit Logan Paul,
Speaker 3: knocked out Logan Paul, but the referee saw the knucks
Speaker 3: on Owens as he was making the cover, and the
Speaker 3: referee called for the DQ and Owens ends up losing
Speaker 3: the match via DQ, which allows Logan Paul to remain
Speaker 3: the United States Champion. We had Grayson Waller and Austin
Speaker 3: Theory come out and get themselves involved. But then we
Speaker 3: got after the match, we got Owens continuing to attack
Speaker 3: Logan Paul, sending him through the announcer's table. And this
Speaker 3: program is going to continue, which is fine with me,
Speaker 3: and it should still be to me. La Knight taking
Speaker 3: the belt off of Logan Paul at WrestleMania, So I
Speaker 3: had no issue with this. This was the absolute right
Speaker 3: booking all of them. And by the way, again all matches,
Speaker 3: all four matches at the Rumble were booked properly. They
Speaker 3: were the winners and losers. Think we're booked properly. I
Speaker 3: really do all of them. And this one just you
Speaker 3: could argue this was a match of the night. You
Speaker 3: could this was just again all four men are both
Speaker 3: men rather did a really nice job and Logan Paul
Speaker 3: continues to just kill it inside the ring. So no
Speaker 3: issues here with the finish and some nice near falls,
Speaker 3: and this program is going to continue. All right, Let's
Speaker 3: get to the men's Royal Rumble match. The first guy
Speaker 3: out Jay Uso. He was eventually eliminated by Gunther. We
Speaker 3: then got Jimmy Usso coming out and he was eventually
Speaker 3: eliminated by Brown Breaker. But more importantly than that, Jimmy
Speaker 3: Usso staring at Jay Uso. Jimmy needs to chill on
Speaker 3: the body language. His facials were a complete overreaction to Jay.
Speaker 3: He's I mean, he had his eyes wide at him.
Speaker 3: I don't know if he was trying to make him
Speaker 3: laugh enough, or he was trying to actually emit some
Speaker 3: kind of craziness, or he was supposed to be scared,
Speaker 3: or it was to me just whatever the intention was,
Speaker 3: it's still to me came off goofy. The wide eyed
Speaker 3: stare at Jay was just overdone. It felt like he
Speaker 3: knew the camera was on him zoomed in, and he
Speaker 3: was trying to overcompensate for that. I didn't like it,
Speaker 3: but Jimmy and Jay facing off given the history was fun.
Speaker 3: We haven't seen it in a while, and I don't
Speaker 3: know if this is a precursor for these two facing
Speaker 3: each other at WrestleMania. I still believe that Jay Uso
Speaker 3: should win the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania, so I don't
Speaker 3: if I was given a choice, I'd rather have Jay
Speaker 3: versus Gunther and in the icy title picture at Royal
Speaker 3: Or rather WrestleMania than Jimmy versus Jay. I really still
Speaker 3: don't care about Jimmy versus Jay. I'm done with the
Speaker 3: civil war stuff. I don't even care. I know some
Speaker 3: of you do, and that's great. I just to me,
Speaker 3: I'd rather have Jay win an actual championship than beat
Speaker 3: his brother, So just my thought, okay. Grayson Waller came
Speaker 3: out next. Andrade number four Andrede returns. He's been gone
Speaker 3: for what three years plus, and it was nice to
Speaker 3: see him back. He was eventually eliminated by Bronson Reid,
Speaker 3: but Andrade back was an expected return in a lot
Speaker 3: of ways, but still cool to see him back. He
Speaker 3: looks like he's more polished, more confident. I mean, got
Speaker 3: a good pop as well, So Andrade coming out was
Speaker 3: a nice, a nice return. Carmelo Hayes was next. Shinzkana Kamura,
Speaker 3: who was eventually eliminated by Cody, came out. Santos Escobar,
Speaker 3: who was eliminated by Carlito, was out next. Carrion Cross
Speaker 3: was next. He was eliminated by Bobby Lashley, so that
Speaker 3: program continues. Dominic Mysterio was number nine. He was eventually
Speaker 3: eliminated by Punk Carlito came out at number ten, Bobby
Speaker 3: Lashley came out at number eleven. Ludwig Kaiser was number twelve.
Speaker 3: Austin Theory was number thirteen. Finn Baller was number fourteen.
Speaker 3: Cody Rhodes cut his number in half from last year.
Speaker 2: He's number fifteen.
Speaker 3: Bronson Reid was sixteen, Kofi Kingston was seventeen, Gunther was eighteen.
Speaker 3: Ivar was nineteen. Number twenty should have been Brock Lesner,
Speaker 3: but it's bron Breaker. He was eventually eliminated by Dominic Mysterio.
Speaker 3: And again bron Breaker had a nice showing here, really
Speaker 3: nice showing with some of the spots and getting himself
Speaker 3: some exposure to the main audience that may not have
Speaker 3: seen him in a while or really know kind of.
Speaker 2: Who and what he is.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it was a big loss for a lot
Speaker 3: of people angry that Brock didn't show up, given the
Speaker 3: pending lawsuit with Vince that names Brock, which is not
Speaker 3: good for either man obviously, But bron Breaker here, I think,
Speaker 3: really capitalized on that opportunity that was lost by Brock Lesnar,
Speaker 3: and it was the right by the way the right
Speaker 3: call that you don't put Brock out there. You just
Speaker 3: can't with all the sponsorships, because if you guys didn't
Speaker 3: know Slim Jim, who paid millions to be on the
Speaker 3: show last night and all their ad spots and everything else,
Speaker 3: they were pulling out of the sponsorship deal until Vince resigned.
Speaker 3: Once Vince resigned, they went back into the deal and
Speaker 3: they decided to move forward with the partnership for the
Speaker 3: Royal Rumble with WWE. If brock Lesner had come out,
Speaker 3: I think that would have been a big issue with sponsors. Again,
Speaker 3: you guys got to think about that. As fans, we
Speaker 3: don't really care about who cares about the sponsors to WWE,
Speaker 3: that's a major source of income. Is the sponsorships major,
Speaker 3: if not their primary, source of income, even more than
Speaker 3: the fans and the merch sales and the ticket sales
Speaker 3: and everything else. We are a big source too, but
Speaker 3: the sponsorships supersede us, so they give a damn about
Speaker 3: what the sponsors say. And it was just the right
Speaker 3: call on top of the fact that it's just the
Speaker 3: right thing to do, so, which sucks. If you wanted
Speaker 3: to see Brock and you wanted to see brock and
Speaker 3: Gunther interact here. Well you can thank his actions for
Speaker 3: unfortunately if they're true. Omas was number twenty one, who
Speaker 3: was eventually eliminated by braun Breaker. Omas coming back. I mean,
Speaker 3: did anyone really care that much? He had a cool
Speaker 3: face off with braun Breaker, which was going to be
Speaker 3: Brock But we've seen Brocken and Omas before facing against
Speaker 3: each other, so that wouldn't have been that big of
Speaker 3: a deal. But Amas facing off against Broun, it was
Speaker 3: a fun little new interaction. Pat McAfee was number twenty two.
Speaker 3: He eliminated himself in thirty eight seconds, again a totally
Speaker 3: wasted spot that helped no one. J D McDonough was
Speaker 3: eliminated by jay Usso we then had Our Truth come
Speaker 3: out and he thought it was a tag match, which
Speaker 3: was hilarious. So he's on the on the rope. He
Speaker 3: was dominic played along and in truth that was hilarious.
Speaker 3: I mean, I wish Our Truth made it to the
Speaker 3: final four. I mean, how do they not have this
Speaker 3: man eventually as a champion just a quick three month run,
Speaker 3: have some fun, give him, you reward him instead of
Speaker 3: just being a comedy character, which he's very successful, and
Speaker 3: I would love something a little more serious for truth.
Speaker 3: The Mizz was number twenty five, Damien Priest was number
Speaker 3: twenty six, CM Punk number twenty seven, number twenty eight
Speaker 3: was Ricochet, Number twenty nine was Drew and number thirty
Speaker 3: Sammy Zain so noa hul Cogan. Thank god Sammy's Ain
Speaker 3: was back. He just went right after Drew McIntyre. He
Speaker 3: had halluva kick on Drew McIntyre, but he was eventually
Speaker 3: eliminated by Drew McIntyre. So Sammy's Ain and Drew are
Speaker 3: probably gonna go right into her, continue where they left
Speaker 3: off from the program from a couple of months ago,
Speaker 3: and go right on too raw and face one another.
Speaker 3: And maybe you could bring Jay us So in Gun
Speaker 3: through into this too and have that fatal four way
Speaker 3: I keep imagining in my mind for the icy title.
Speaker 3: And Sammy's Ain't had a nice reaction again, I don't
Speaker 3: think it was as explosive as you know, you know,
Speaker 3: maybe the rock which a lot of people thought was
Speaker 3: gonna happen, and it didn't. So Sammy's Ain ends up,
Speaker 3: you know, having a nice showing. But he was really
Speaker 3: there just to continue his program with Drew Drew had
Speaker 3: a nice showing as well, But it came down to
Speaker 3: I think it was was a Cody Punk and Seth
Speaker 3: or Seth, Cody, Punk and Drew, and it was the
Speaker 3: men that you thought would be there that were there,
Speaker 3: and it came down to eventually Cody and Punk. They
Speaker 3: had a really nice showing together, really fun kind of
Speaker 3: finish for finish, who can throw each other out some
Speaker 3: you know, very intricate close eliminations that eventually did end
Speaker 3: in Cody Rhoades beating Punk as we all know now,
Speaker 3: and I thought, but he would win, and to me,
Speaker 3: that's the right call again. You could have Punk win
Speaker 3: at Chamber and eventually face Seth Rollins. That's probably what's
Speaker 3: going to be on the line at Elimination Chamber is
Speaker 3: who's going to face Seth at WrestleMania, and Punk will
Speaker 3: win the Chamber and face Rollins at WrestleMania. That to
Speaker 3: me is very clear and has been clear for a
Speaker 3: month now, which is fine because now you have Cody
Speaker 3: Rhodes who has won back to back rumbles. And if
Speaker 3: you guys have been paying attention, I don't mean that
Speaker 3: in a derogatory way. I mean that if you really
Speaker 3: have WWA had started pushing this, this narrative that or
Speaker 3: that this really reminder to fans the moment that Cody
Speaker 3: Roads declared for the Rumble, which was like the day
Speaker 3: after Survivor series. Hey, don't forget if Cody was to win,
Speaker 3: the last guy to do that is stone cold Steve
Speaker 3: Austin to win back to back rumbles. Now, of course
Speaker 3: Hogan and Sean have done it before, but they wanted
Speaker 3: to remind you that it's been I think, by the
Speaker 3: way Cole said twenty six years, where's that math coming from?
Speaker 3: Cole was off his game a little bit last night.
Speaker 3: I mean he was stumbling through ad reads his attack
Speaker 3: on the IWC had I mean, I just destroyed his
Speaker 3: argument there with romans complaints and all that. And then
Speaker 3: he says it's been twenty six years, And he said
Speaker 3: that a couple times, and I'm like, Austin won in
Speaker 3: two thousand and one? Is it twenty twenty seven? Am
Speaker 3: I in a time warp that I get in the DeLorean?
Speaker 3: Like was he talking about? And I'm like, nah, bruh,
Speaker 3: it's like been twenty three years, you know, I'm like,
Speaker 3: what are you talking about? And even Corey Graves repeated
Speaker 3: the twenty six. It's a small misstep, I understand, but
Speaker 3: he repeated it over and over, like, where is this
Speaker 3: twenty six coming from?
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 3: Nonetheless, they were pushing that very early on, when Cody
Speaker 3: Rhoades declared himself for the rumble right after Survivors Series
Speaker 3: a couple months ago. Hey, don't forget, the last person
Speaker 3: to do this was Stonecults, and then it kept getting
Speaker 3: ramped up every week. Every week that'd remind us to
Speaker 3: try to equate what Cody's about to do to Stone
Speaker 3: Cold Steve Austin's accomplishments, and which is just to me
Speaker 3: hilarious and it will never work on me that Oh
Speaker 3: my god, Wow, he's the equivalent of Austin. Wow, Austin
Speaker 3: did this, Cody's done it. Well, I guess Cody's the
Speaker 3: new Austin. And it's just it's ridiculous. But I know
Speaker 3: what they were doing, and I'm not faulting them for it.
Speaker 3: But if you kind of heard that early on, it
Speaker 3: was a setup to remind you how important and big
Speaker 3: this would be if Cody were to go back to back.
Speaker 3: So I thought that was a very very big kind
Speaker 3: of tipping or writing on the wall if you will that, hey,
Speaker 3: Cody's going to win here, and when he does, don't
Speaker 3: forget what we told you about Austin, you know, And
Speaker 3: I'm sure they'll remind us again on Rod tomorrow night.
Speaker 3: So this was again I didn't hate the win. I
Speaker 3: thought it was probably the right way to get Cody
Speaker 3: into the main event. So all of you Cody fans
Speaker 3: that were worried he's not gonna be in the Rumble
Speaker 3: or in the main event of Wrestle Ania, well you
Speaker 3: don't have to worry about it. And after the match,
Speaker 3: he pointed directly to Roman Reigns, who was in the
Speaker 3: skybox Seth was also in his own skybox. That was
Speaker 3: a nice touch, by the way, different different way to
Speaker 3: a different way to kind of end the show with
Speaker 3: the champions in the skybox, which was cool. And he
Speaker 3: pointed right to Roman Reigns, So we don't have to
Speaker 3: worry or wait, right, we don't have to wait many
Speaker 3: weeks to figure out a decision. Sometimes they'll string us
Speaker 3: along on the men's and women's side of like, oh,
Speaker 3: who's gonna choose who? By buh, and they go on
Speaker 3: and on and on and on and it's like, no,
Speaker 3: you gotta choose what championship you're going after, and it
Speaker 3: should be, by the way, the championship they're chasing, not
Speaker 3: the person, but nonetheless, so Cody made it very clear
Speaker 3: that he's going after Roman. Roman seemed a bit distraught
Speaker 3: about him having to face Cody again. So we're gonna
Speaker 3: get Cody Roman too, and Cody should be the one
Speaker 3: to take it off Rome.
Speaker 1: It.
Speaker 3: As much as I despise the Cody Rhodes babyface character,
Speaker 3: and I still do mister smile. Everywhere he goes. He
Speaker 3: wears a suit to and from the buck. He probably
Speaker 3: wears a suit in the gym. He wears a suit,
Speaker 3: probably to bed, and he's probably got a you know,
Speaker 3: a bedsuit.
Speaker 2: He's got like.
Speaker 3: A you know, everywhere everywhere the guy goes, he's got
Speaker 3: a suit on and it's obnoxious, and he's got a
Speaker 3: stupid smile on his face everywhere he goes. Cody Rhods
Speaker 3: is like he's trying to be too personable. He's trying
Speaker 3: to be like too too much like the common man.
Speaker 3: He's trying to be too like. He's trying to be
Speaker 3: like one of us, Like just be a fan, be
Speaker 3: relatable and it comes across very kind of pandering and
Speaker 3: I can't stand it. So nonetheless, I had to get
Speaker 3: a little Cody jab in there. He was the right
Speaker 3: guy to win, and Cody and Punk put on a
Speaker 3: nice ending to the match, but she had a few
Speaker 3: moments that made you believe Punk could win, and I
Speaker 3: had no issue with it. No Rock, though, so we
Speaker 3: don't know where the Rock is gonna land, how he's
Speaker 3: gonna get involved with Roman. Apparently the reports are saying
Speaker 3: that yes, Cody, or rather Rock and Roman is still happening.
Speaker 3: But unless it's gonna happen on night one and Cody
Speaker 3: and Roman's happening night two and it's not happening at Chamber, well,
Speaker 3: then I don't know how the hell it's happening. The
Speaker 3: time and places are running out, at least when it
Speaker 3: comes to between.
Speaker 2: Now and Mania.
Speaker 3: Of course, you could do SummerSlam, you could do WrestleMania
Speaker 3: forty one, both of those have been floated around. But
Speaker 3: if you're gonna do it between now and WrestleMania forty
Speaker 3: you've got very limited options here. And also, I know
Speaker 3: I'm rambling, guys, I've got a lot to say. This
Speaker 3: has also been a big problem with Roman Reigns is run.
Speaker 3: Not only does he not show up and you know
Speaker 3: he's all that kind of stuff, which is all true
Speaker 3: and big. It's the biggest problem we have with him.
Speaker 3: When Roman Reigns goes and wins a pay per view,
Speaker 3: when's the main event of the event of the whatever
Speaker 3: pay per view, you're at whatever pl you're watching, and
Speaker 3: you get the same finish and all that, you immediately
Speaker 3: look at it, look ahead and you go, okay, well
Speaker 3: he's not going to show up to this b pay
Speaker 3: per view, which means he's not going to lose it
Speaker 3: maybe until the next big one, which is in three months.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: So that's been another problem with Roman Rerains' run is
Speaker 3: he doesn't not only does he not defend it at
Speaker 3: every event, but you can look ahead in chunks of
Speaker 3: like three months a quarter of years and go, well,
Speaker 3: he didn't lose it at the Rumbles, so now he's
Speaker 3: definitely not losing it at the Chamber. He's not supposed
Speaker 3: to compete at the Chamber, by the way, either. But
Speaker 3: then you look at WrestleMania, well, you know he's going
Speaker 3: to have a run at least through April third or whatever.
Speaker 3: WrestleMania is this year, so that's also been a big
Speaker 3: problem with Roman's run, as you just look ahead and go,
Speaker 3: if he doesn't lose it here, he doesn't have another
Speaker 3: chance of losing it for another three to four months
Speaker 3: after that at this event. That's been also super frustrating.
Speaker 3: So you're artificially just pumping in three to four month
Speaker 3: chunks of time because you know they're not going to
Speaker 3: drop the belt in a b pay per.
Speaker 2: View with Roman.
Speaker 3: Just wanted to put that out there, but I do
Speaker 3: want to end in a positive note. The WWE did
Speaker 3: a nice job with the women's Rumble, also in the
Speaker 3: fact that they didn't land and lean on the stars
Speaker 3: of Yesteryear, which they've done so much in the past
Speaker 3: to fill out the thirty women's spots. They didn't. I
Speaker 3: don't think did they bring in anyone from Yesteryear, like
Speaker 3: a Molly Holly or a Tory Wilson or a Stacey Keeble.
Speaker 3: They didn't, And I applaud them for that because they
Speaker 3: did that year's past, especially early on, and it made
Speaker 3: it just feel so artificial. It made it feel so
Speaker 3: just like just weak and like they couldn't fill out
Speaker 3: the roster so they had to bring in stars to
Speaker 3: make it look like there was a deep roster of women.
Speaker 3: It was embarrassing. So I'm glad they didn't do that
Speaker 3: this year. So that's something positive I wanted to end on.
Speaker 3: But when it comes to the Rock guys, I know,
Speaker 3: no Rock, no Brock, no Austin. Some people were predicting
Speaker 3: he would somehow show up. No, I mean no, I
Speaker 3: understand that. No aj Lee, no big moment, right, there
Speaker 3: wasn't that big, oh my god, this is going to
Speaker 3: be awesome moment. I understand that. I feel that disappointment.
Speaker 3: I share that with you. But also they booked correctly,
Speaker 3: so wwe would say, well, you didn't get that moment,
Speaker 3: but you got what you said you wanted, so what
Speaker 3: are you complaining about. It's a weird feeling, right, but
Speaker 3: I guess we want to have our cake and eat
Speaker 3: it too. We want the really good booking that makes sense,
Speaker 3: but we also want those shocking returns. We want those
Speaker 3: shocking moments, we want those shocking confrontations, and we didn't
Speaker 3: get any of that this time around, but we still
Speaker 3: got some nice returns. I'd say nice andrade Live Morgan.
Speaker 3: We got the debut of Jade Cargill. We got to
Speaker 3: see a lot of some nice moments from Tiffany Stratton,
Speaker 3: Roxane Perez, bron Breaker. We got some really nice NXT
Speaker 3: talent as well, which I know doesn't create as much buzz,
Speaker 3: but this is what the life leove of the company
Speaker 3: is is to help create new stars and get them
Speaker 3: moving them in front of fans. It's not as fun
Speaker 3: as a fan established fan, especially if you don't watch
Speaker 3: a XT. It's not as interesting. Who cares about these people?
Speaker 2: We don't know?
Speaker 3: But you will know them, you know, So like it's
Speaker 3: hard to kind of convince fans of that sometimes that yes,
Speaker 3: they're not the big stars, but they might very well
Speaker 3: be one day. So overall, what do I give the event?
Speaker 3: Some people ask me that out of ten, six and
Speaker 3: a half maybe yeah, six and a half is kind
Speaker 3: of where I've landed, kind of like okay, okay to
Speaker 3: good Maybe a seven six and a half to seven
Speaker 3: out of ten is where I would land the event.
Speaker 3: I know many of you are a lot lower, some
Speaker 3: of you are in threes, fours and fives out of ten.
Speaker 3: Six and a half is kind of where I've landed
Speaker 3: out of ten because it did what it needed to do,
Speaker 3: but it didn't live up to the expectations, which is
Speaker 3: kind of sounds like it's a contrarian statement, but it's not,
Speaker 3: if you know what I mean. And also the looming
Speaker 3: the dark cloud of Vince McMahon and being there because
Speaker 3: of the whole lawsuit and Triple H handling the press
Speaker 3: very poorly at the end and telling us to stop
Speaker 3: talking about it because he just wants to talk about
Speaker 3: the positives. It's like, no, dude, we're the journalists. We
Speaker 3: decide what the hell we want to talk about, and
Speaker 3: this is way more important than whatever's going on on
Speaker 3: TV that's all manufactured. By the way, you need to
Speaker 3: address this if we ask you, and stop telling us
Speaker 3: not to because it's a negative, I don't want to
Speaker 3: talk about it. How did he not know that that
Speaker 3: was going to be something that the journalists immediately ask
Speaker 3: And how are you trying to downplay it like it's
Speaker 3: not more important than the positives of well, we had
Speaker 3: a great we had a great event, guys, right right,
Speaker 3: talk about the event, don't talk about that. It was
Speaker 3: very I mean, that's that's a very rare misstep for
Speaker 3: Triple AH. She should have had a canned response to
Speaker 3: cover all his statements, so he didn't have to talk
Speaker 3: about it. Of like, hey, guys, listen, I know you
Speaker 3: want to talk about events. I know you want to
Speaker 3: talk about the pending lawsuit. Let me just say, right
Speaker 3: off the bat, for legal reasons, I can out comment
Speaker 3: on it. So if you have any if you have
Speaker 3: any questions the Royal Rumble event itself, I'd be happy
Speaker 3: to answer it, but at this time we can't comment
Speaker 3: on the pending lawsuit. Events anyway, just shot it dead
Speaker 3: right there. It would have been a boring can statement,
Speaker 3: but better than what he produced. I mean, I'm sorry, Trips,
Speaker 3: you didn't exactly handle that the best way.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: It's a rare misstep for him. And there are reports
Speaker 3: too of oh well Triple H is going to be
Speaker 3: gone soon too, which I hope isn't true. But all right,
Speaker 3: Well that'll do it for my Rumble review. I'm all
Speaker 3: fired up now. We've got a really hot Monday NET
Speaker 3: raw hopefully coming. We've got, of course SmackDown on Friday,
Speaker 3: but in between we have a lot of content. We've
Speaker 3: got a lot of co hosts coming on. We've got
Speaker 3: Anthony de Marco tomorrow night, who will obviously we'll talk
Speaker 3: about the Rumble. We've got the raw review. I've got
Speaker 3: a guest host coming there. I've also got a guest
Speaker 3: host coming next Sunday night. You guys have heard them before,
Speaker 3: brand new co hosts. I got Amanda and Chrissy who
Speaker 3: are coming on this week, so you guys will get
Speaker 3: some female flavor into the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think we need it, right, We need that's side.
Speaker 3: We need that more. We need that side that's not
Speaker 3: always not always so negative, which is I know sometimes
Speaker 3: we lean on that. But all righty, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 3: If you want to go add free Patreon, Patreon dot com,
Speaker 3: slash ww podcast, or you can go to Apple Podcasts
Speaker 3: and subscribe there and go add free there as well,
Speaker 3: or wwepodcast dot com. Lots of ways to go add free,
Speaker 3: and I'd recommend you do it during the Rumble season
Speaker 3: and beyond. So thank you so much, everybody. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Hope you enjoyed the Rumble review, and I'll talk to
Speaker 3: you next time.
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