Speaker 1: All the damn work. I'll put it in with you,
you Fisto.
Speaker 2: What can you do with this person?
Speaker 1: Who's you?
Speaker 2: So they look good, you look good and everybody's safe
as well.
Speaker 1: Put him on a black leather jacket, a black eye
Jeff Lippman. It looked like she was too slow for school,
but she came out playing the hot.
Speaker 2: Mean girls, look really good boys Friday to Boys. It's
all of season three, episode nine. This one is titled
tag Team Turnoil and once again this tag team will
piss me off, but it is what it is. My
dear Jeff Lawyer, Extraor and Air. How are you, by
the way, I'm lu Fisto, and like I just said,
he's my co host, mister Jeff Liffman.
Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, it's good to see you again.
I did the rant that you're going to do two
weeks ago, so hopefully, uh don't take my absence of
rant not guaranteed that there will be as absence of outrage.
This the subtitles of the show was the Apollo Elijah Connection.
I am furious about this, but like I said, two
weeks ago or two episodes ago, I did the rant
on this. I continued it a little bit last week.
The fisto I think is going to rant about it.
Today I did frant, but I am this is so
fucking annoying, and I I am well, I don't think
TNA's next lay that cats me out. I am so
hoping the WWE wave the remainder of the ninety day
non compete so he can join TNA, so he can
be that multi single champion the TNA was teasing in
exchange for him being aired on LFG at least twice.
The season still is a third to go, so who knows,
but hopefully they'll.
Speaker 2: Do the way we are talking about a Paul Cruise.
Speaker 1: Yes, we were talking about Apollo Jeus. Thank you for that.
Speaker 2: Wow, we are starting being so positive. I hope a
few people are doing great anyways.
Speaker 1: I hope you are doing I hope all of you
are doing great too. I have had a troubling two
weeks in a lot of ways, but we're here. I've
kept the show content going. I've you know, putting stuff
up and hopefully I don't sound like controul. I am
troubled about this legitimately, and you know, I know that
people think I'm sort of a corporate stooge, and to
extent I am, but not that much of a stooge
to not be outraged about, you know, prices and this
stuff and some of the over sanitization of rest slain,
but especially on the t K O WWE side of things.
Speaker 2: So you had a bad week. I had a bad
like the bad like last two weeks. I had a
bad last two weeks. Everything broke in my house, my dishwasher,
my the washer, my smart watch, and something else. Anyway,
So somebody else's having a bad day is Carly Bright.
Right from the start from this episode, she has oh
in nice segue. Right, I'm learning, I'm getting there.
Speaker 1: Nice nice segue.
Speaker 2: So she she has hip and lower back problems. She
says it's probably the wear and tear or left legs
shut down. And when she said that, I'm like, oh
my god, we're in tear already. That young in a career,
and I mean her being an athlete and doing you know,
she's been doing sports since I don't know, since probably
very very young years of some issue.
Speaker 1: She was a Division one cheerleader at University of Minnesota.
So I mean, that's yeah, that will miss it. Let's
not falling on your back unless your teammates drop you.
Speaker 2: Well, let's not hope. But I mean it's still a
lot of stress on her body. She's not really she's fit,
but she's not big, so she doesn't necessarily has a
lot of protection when it comes to wrestling because the
bumps they hurt. I mean, it is what it is.
And she's been having a lot of trouble with him,
and you know, she's trying to work through her fear
and she and this is this I really like this quote.
Got to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable, and it's
it describes wrestling perfectly. It's also I've always said to
students and new wrestlers, like wrestling is, you know, learning
to live with pain is just part of your life
from now on and you have to deal with it.
It's like second nature now. So that's why when you
go to the hospital because you get hurt, and they
say so on the scale of one to ten, how
much does it hurt? You'll probably say five because you're
used to it. But a normal person would say that.
But it is what it is. So she says she'll
keep on pushing, and that's basically the last we year
from her in this episode, and we go right away
to the morning meeting with this time, of course, always
head coach manager.
Speaker 1: That's gonna say one thing on that of course, of course,
of course Carly Bright said all of the right things
in this segment. However, I'm pretty sure that the fact
that her body was already so shot is part of
the reason why she was released. It's not just that
they already are you know, flush with blondes who are
athletic in from D one sports backgrounds and from wrestling
backgrounds with Blake Monroe, et cetera. But it might have
been for her own safety or really that why are
we investing in someone who you know, in within two
or three years has already gone to this point with
which seems like on the path towards permanent nerve damage.
And it's almost like a liability issue at that point
that you know, you know, WW is very good about
taking about taking care of medical bills and things like
that for people who get injured in the ring, and
if someone's gonna have permanency, there's always that argument as
to when do we cut this person off? You know,
I mean, anyone's been a car act A workers cop
knows about that.
Speaker 2: There's a difference between someone who, let's say, breaks a
bone or they're they're a muscle, then you fix it
and they start, you know again, and someone who has
constant pain and damage and it's always going to come back.
It's not something that's been broken and then fix and
then we move on. You have to deal with it
for the rest of your life. And I'm I think
you're actolutely right. Yeah, you that's probably the reason why
she's gone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you're in the ring and your leg
gos numb, you are a danger to your opponent, you know,
for yourself, for people you're working with. So it's not
just yourself, it's also the other person. So it's not
just selfishness. I mean people might look at it that way.
I mean, assuming I'm right, but you know, people look
and say, oh, they're so mean that it's a liability issue,
but it's also it's also liability on not in the
legal sense, but it's a liability to the people that
you're working with. And you know, if your legost and
someone's doing a uh, you know, jumping from the top
rope and all of a sudden you can't catch them.
Speaker 2: Wow, the I mean one thing you can do is
something that's your wrestling, that that's happening. The good thing
in wrestling is you can do something else. You could
be someone who works backstage. You can even be a
manager because you're not going to bump as much, you're
not gonna move as much, but you can still be
involved and take a few bumps here and there. But anyway,
we'll see what happens with her. I don't think she's
been doing anything wrestling since she was released. Correct me
if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't seen anything from I've seen stuff from
Serena Linton. I've seen stuff from me. Even bj Ray
still thinks he's in the business. Uh, you know Andre Chase,
Duke Hanson, which was duke cousin Gentala has has certainly
been uh do anyway, I can't remember all the people,
but yeah, there there's there's a good half dozen or
so that that you know from the LFG world who
are not no longer there that had been tried. I
just saw Malik Blade is trying under what I presume
is his real name or his new wrestling name. Looks
like he got himself jacked up, which he probably should
have done. Before. He's a good guy that I could
I can tell. Uh anyway, You're right, why why are
we burying the am meeting in the morning meeting. We
love the morning Meeting. We love Matt Bloom with Bubba
and Booker and and Terry Taylors with them this time.
So yeah, take take us through that. That was great.
Speaker 2: The Booker gets the match of Braxton Cole being the
heel and Arlene Lewis as a babyface, which is really
inter wrestling. They say they want to still work on
the smarter you know, PhD guy, book reading guy goes
to the ring and you know, Bubba tells Booker that
he needs you know, he told him he needs to
show it more so people get the gimmick and stuff.
I like that Bubba was like sharing his own insight
with Booker. One brain is always better than just one
in wrestling. Then there's not much to say from this match,
I mean right now, besides that, you know, Arlam is
going to be a babyface for for me, I think
the first time I've always I've only seen him as
a heel in LFG or maybe kind of in between.
Sometimes we don't.
Speaker 1: Know more what tag team match with Dorian van Vue
was sort of yeah, but it wasn't that clear. Yeah,
I have seen him as a face and evolved, but
that's you know, I mean, it's the same universe, but
it's not really the remit of the show.
Speaker 2: So we got Terry Taylor and he's gonna get Serena
Litton versus Zena Sterling. So I was really interested in
seeing what Terry was going to do with Zena because
we saw us last week or the week before. I
do apologize, I've I've watched a lot of wrestling lately,
so that Booker. He did a good job with Zena.
He did correct some of her flaws. So having Terry,
who's been you know, working with women of you know
in TNA and WWE and stuff like how we would
work with her would be interesting. And Matt mentions that Matt,
like I know him. Coach Blum mentioned that she's kind
of head of a plateau, especially in her selling, which
we've been mentioning most of the time. He says that
like the light bulb flickers, but it's not on yet,
which I thought was a good way to explain it,
and it's like you and she doesn't understand anger and
I was like, oh my god, like the right he
put the finger like right on it. It's like, yeah,
it's like she can't portray anger, right, it looks it
looked like she acting, but bad acting. So and Serena
Linton there was no comments at all, so I was like, okay, nothing.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was really okay. Maybe I should save
this for when we're about to cover that match.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well we move for this with Bubba's match. He
gets the tag team match of Jamie Garcia and Malik Blade.
They want Jamie to make them believe that it was
he's actually doing is real because he still has those
He works the crowd really really good, but maybe not
at the right spot. So they want him to kind
of switch things around where what he does what he
does good, he keeps it, but he places it at
the right spot in the match so it doesn't look
phony and it fits with whatever the store they're trying
to say. And Malik once again, Booker t uses he's
in the bubble. He's in the bubble. I think he's
just there so we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: And do you know that. I mean, first of all,
I remember so Jamie Garcia for those of you who
only watch LFG or NXT or seeing the commercial with
Cody Rhodes where a guy super kicks a machine to
get the whatever energy drink they're selling. He goes by
his WWE name is Romeo Moreno and he's from Spain
and he's young. I don't know how old Lee is,
by I would guess he's under twenty five. He's being
paired with Noam dar Now on both Evolve and NXT,
so obviously they have a lot of interests in him
where they're pairing and basically with the coach good kid.
Uh yeah, Malik very much. Well, he was on the
bubble before. Now he's in a different bubble and he's
out of will Yeah and listen. I routinely extend invitations
to these folks to come on the show who were
on LFG, and you know, no one ever responds to me,
or sometimes they huld like but one day maybe so
Malik or I think it's Russ now Serena. Any of
you really, uh even Bejay, if you want to come
on the show and join us, we would, We would
love to have you. We're not going to ask you
to bury anybody. We can do our we can do
the burying. We don't want to hurt your you know,
repping the business or your chances in the business if
you intend to be in the business. But if you don't,
like Chris Island, you've retired and you want to bury people,
sure go ahead. If you don't, that's fine too. We
just want to get your insights into the show and
how things work and how much is you know, portrayed
on the camera and what's not shown on the camera. Anyway,
that digression is over back.
Speaker 2: Just to finish on this match. You know, it's the
first time that Cruz and Oliefielder working as a tag,
so is Jamie and Malik actually, and does you know
the goal to this match is very simple, tell a
good story. And they expect Apollo to be a great
a great leader.
Speaker 1: And they talked very highly of Apollo. Kevin. I think
Kevin Owens is like was he somebody said sob He said, yeah,
you know, he's going to lead this match. Great, He's
gonna be a great ring genimal. Everyone says good things
about him. So I agree about this. Just listen to
my rants from two weeks ago. I don't even want
to upset myself still will be two hours long if
you if I keep.
Speaker 2: Let's go before Jeff goes on those second round.
Speaker 1: I've never met Apolo Cruise. I've never talked to Apollo Cruise.
I'm not even like a giant fan. I just this
is an injustice, and there's been other injustices. It makes fuck.
Speaker 2: Hunter Brax and Cole versus Arlen Lewis. So Lewis says
like he feels that it, you know, being still at LFG,
he kind of feels that he's fighting below his weight
and he's being told that, you know not Actually, I'm sorry,
I will I'm already on. Cole Booker tells Coles, like,
you know, being a heel, you can do the first
clean break, but then just just the show, like you
understand again the smart thing that comes back, and then
show that you are a heel later.
Speaker 1: Don't just do a lock up. In other words, have
some drama with the locker being refused. Go, you know,
push it into the corner, reverse it, whatever it is.
Don't just do a simple lock up. And you're right.
Harlan Lewis basically said that he's overachieving here, almost like
this is beneath him. Though i don't think that's what
he meant, but those are the words he said. And
son do with all due respect, No you're not, No,
you're not. As far as Braxton Cole there, they tell
him just what they said in the am meeting. Work
on the PhD gimmick, slow things down. Really incorporate that
into the match. People. It's not just an entrance. Use
the book more, use it as a prop. Make it
part of the story.
Speaker 2: Work the body language. Work the body language. That's what
he Booker tells him.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And the other thing that Harlem said that
was interesting is that he's like, you know, me and
Booker got off on the wrong foot, but we've worked
it out. Oh and now I love Booker. I'm super
excited to work with Booker. So Harlem giveth and Harlem
taketh away. I mean, that was great. And Booker indicates
these high on Harlem Lewis, he thinks he's got star qualities.
And he's also really high on Braxton Cole, who obviously
is much younger or in his wrestling journey than Braxen
Cola's I'm gonna turn it over to you in a second,
but I want to say I think maybe they were
listening to us, or maybe this is so obvious that
they came up with him. But when Braxton Cole came out,
he had an actual hardcover book that looked like it
was a scholarly academic, not not headbanger Chaz's autobiography or biography.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what they like. I right away says, Okay,
better book.
Speaker 1: He was read point read the title, but I was
hoping it was like Dante's Inferno or like you know,
the Aristotle on Zoology or something whatever. He should have
a giant tome, the Malice Maleficarum whatever. Well probably not that,
but he should have some giant maybe even volumes of
the Encyclopedia Britanica. But whatever he should have, it should
be huge with the letters overstated on the on the binder.
And they should probably make him like twelve different books.
You know, that's just whatever looks like.
Speaker 2: Different covers for every show.
Speaker 1: No different book every time, like like war are in Peace,
you know, anything that like everybody knows the name of it,
or to recognize that it's like you know, Hessi, it's
you know theogony, you know, they don't have to know
what it is, just to know that it's snooty, fancy
schmancy exactly.
Speaker 2: Actually people call him nerd, which I thought was funny.
He works the gimmick like he's reading the book, doesn't
care much about them, you know, it's it's kind of
a little bit. I feel there's still something missing right more,
I would say more character into it, Like he just
looks at them without being in trusted, but he should
look at them with disgusts, like to have something happening
on his face. Because it's just nothing or barely so
they always say make it bigger. He should be like
or even like put it his stalling out or like
I want a puke, Oh, you guys are stupid, or.
Speaker 1: Make like a like their breath stinks or something, or
just their bodies.
Speaker 2: Something, Yes, something that adds to it, because right now
is just it's a smart guy that reads book. People
call him nerd, and that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1: So, but I do really want you who I want
to see him work with, who probably won't because he's
probably moved on. Tristan Angels, Nathan Cranston on this show.
Speaker 2: They could work together as a team.
Speaker 1: And he could learn a lot from how Nathan Cranston
works the crowd exactly.
Speaker 2: And you know what, one thing I thought was funny
when people started to call him nerd bub was like,
oh my god, if you would have the balls to
take the mic, you know, and tell them to go
home whatever. I'm like, dude, you know that if he
does this, he's going to get reprimanded because they did
not tell him to do it. Like maybe in the
indies it would be right, but I'm like, I don't
think it would fly. Like maybe maybe there they would
be like, especially if he cuts a great promo, but
I'm like, everything is so like planned.
Speaker 1: There's like the last person who ran off script and
everybody they loved it was Hayes Jamison and they cut her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it is what I just thought.
Speaker 1: She's another one who seems to be still grinding, though
I've seen it slow down recently, so I don't know.
I just want to call it. One thing that that
Jerry Bosh compared Harlem Lewis's faithful hair to Ox Bakers,
and what a reference. If you don't know who Ox
Baker is, He's usual, yeah, and watch Escape from New
York because he he aside from professor to Tanaka and
Andre the Giant. He might be the first wrestler and
he was sort of a deep cut wrestler who made
it into a major emotion picture. I'm sure out there
there's there's you know, someone will show me where I'm
wrong or others. But yeah, Ox Baker, the Master of
the heart punch.
Speaker 2: Uh Arlem. I thought this entrance was bland. I thought
he needed more fire, and I was like, I understand
he's not a happy babyface, but he needs to show
at least some intensity, some fire, some I don't know, grit,
like I'm here the fucking fight and I love it,
like I'm happy to beating easy.
Speaker 1: The story here is the conceited guy who was everything
in Harlem, is the guy who had to fight for everything.
And he could be saying, you think you're better than me,
I'm about to show you that you're not. I mean,
just say something, get the crowd and then and then
point to the crowd and go, he's not better than me.
You would say you were yelling nerd before nerd, nerd,
nerd or kick the nerds ass whatever, do something. Still
just walk there, I mean anybody can just walk there. Yes,
he looks more intense than like the average person just
work walking there, but you need more than that because
there got Piano Carver there. They already have bron Breaker there.
You know, they've got people who know how to walk
and look intense and frankly look more intense than you do.
I mean, as big and strong as you think you are,
and you are, you're not as big and strong of
those guys.
Speaker 2: So they started the match with a lock up that
was kind of weak for these two guys. You know,
back you know, to the corner, break, good clap on
the chest. There was some nice headlock, takedowns, exchanges, but
they were making no sound. It was like almost it
looked like a practice. Then you know, Arlin got into
a shigne, two big tackles, a big, big slam. But
after the lamb he should have like kind of fired
up look at the crowds, scream or or a nerd
I'll beat your ass or something. There was nothing. Then
the cut off is like a guillotine from the top rope.
There was barely any selling. Then everything I felt was
too fast Arlem selling. There was no facials, like no
exaggeration of it. Uh like almost almost like he didn't
want to feel weak. But I mean if you doesn't,
if you don't give me anything, I'm not gonna have
any sympathy for you. Therefore, I'm not gonna feel like
clapping for you. Uh. Sound was barely there. Uh there
was a whole spot from here where he gave a
back elbow then a punch cut by an out guide
our gow sorry I rape or whatever. It was too
fast the cell, Like again, it was a small cell.
It was not like, oh my god, my eyes and
kind of turn around and trying to get your vision
back there's It was kind of yeah, and I felt
cold though, had like solid suck to the back. The
hanging neck breaker he did in the corner looked good,
and I really liked that he pulled He was very
close to the ropes after that movie, but he pulled
Arlem for the pin away from the ropes. I'm like, yes, please,
you know you don't want to be close to the
ropes because you know, foot on the rope or whatever.
He's pulling him to get the pinfall. I was like,
that's great, But there was like no cockiness in between
the moves he was doing, Like I felt his mechanics
were better than what I saw in the first match,
like he's I see evolution, but you know they were
I really liked that he was. He kept working on
Arlem's neck like and then he went into like a
hold on the ground and then finally Arlem started to
you know, I could hear like sounds of pains and whatever,
and they went back up into a headlock and Arleam
gave him like little elbows to to the stomach. But
usually you pull your elbow all the way out and
in so it looks big and your opponent can actually
kind of jump on.
Speaker 1: You know, shows the words that you should never say.
With Harlem Lewis little elbows.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. I was like it was so close
we could barely see them, and depending on where you're sitting,
you you didn't know what was happening. And I was like,
what the freaking And I was like, make this bigger
and from the comeback.
Speaker 1: I have a you a question as the as the
expert here, because I know the heel is supposed to
lead the match, but Harlem is the in quotes veteran
of the two, So who was leading the tempo of
this match or who was supposed to.
Speaker 2: Be I mean the heel is supposed to slow down
the tempo, meaning he does a move, punts, the crown, talkscrap,
kills time, then goes back to the babyface. The babyface's
job is to either sell to the next spot, so
there's no whip running, placing, you know, too much shit
in between that doesn't make sense. Either places himself to
the next spot that's coming, and he's selling, selling, selling, selling,
And if it takes too long, you have to fight
back with punches or pushing or just so you don't
look dead. And it's the heel a job to stop
you because he's still in his heat. But you can
fight back. You could push, you can do a punch like,
but right away the heel like sells a little bit,
then Boom gets back on you. So I feel Cole
was working too fast. But Arlen, as a as a veteran, veteran,
i mean, more experienced than Cole, should say go work
the crowd, take your time, hit me again. These are
things you could say and to give like kind of
guidance to the the rookie heel to you know, hey,
slow down, give me time to sell, give me like like.
Speaker 1: You know, they're both equally responsible.
Speaker 3: Then yeah, it's it's I mean, it's Cole's job to
work slow, but if he works too fast, the veteran
has to step in and tells, like slow down, you know, that's.
Speaker 1: What I mean. You know, I don't know who the
really you know, but you just covered a beautiful Yeah.
Speaker 2: The the heel sets the pace, but it's the veteran's
job to tell the heel if he's not, so he
slows down and then gets back on track.
Speaker 1: Both these guys would benefit from working with like whatever
the male equivalent is of a Natty Well date Charlie Dempsey.
You know, there's you know, Dolph Ziggler's not what the
company anymore. Doesn't mean they can't bring him into train.
I don't know what you know, there's not you know,
they used to have the entry, you know, if it
was the law. If you if you came on the
main roster, your first feud was either with the miss
Dlph Ziegler or Baron Corban. And people often wonder why
why did Baron Corbin have a job for so long?
Because he was that safe guy that you could work
with anyone and was sort of like a gatekeeper. And
sometimes that was the order of your feuds. You know
those advice dudes. Women, As it used to be the
law that your first view was with Natty because she
was safe, you know, and and and you know and
and would help get you better. And if she couldn't,
maybe it was time to put you in a tag
team or cut bait. But uh, I don't know. I
don't know who that person is, but I think that
that would be interesting. Then again, if you're a veteran
and you saw what happened to Apollo Cruise, unless you
get like a no cut clause in your contract that
they don't exist for another two years, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2: They don't exist in wrestling. Those clause they do in
hockey or no they.
Speaker 1: Heard they don't exist in wrestling. But they can, I mean,
TKO change the WWE contracts. They can change it for
this work. They will. But listen, this is fifty thousand
people watched LFG last week. Now listen. I know that
there was the World Cup and other things as well,
but the week before was like one hundred and sixty
three thousand, And I keep saying that there has to
be some lack of interest. Is because many of the
people on the show are no longer with the company,
and I think some of the disgusted I'm expert, you know,
is diffused amongst that audience as well, and it said,
why am I investing another hour of wrestling per week
into this show when I'm not really getting to know
the people that not they sort of stepped away from
the the you know, vignettes, the personal vignettes, and you know,
half to two thirds of these people no longer with
the company anymore. What do I care? I mean, we
start with Carli Bright not with the company. We Apollo Cruise,
and Malip Blade no longer with the company. You've got
there's another Serena Linton on this show, no longer with
the company. I mean, it's why why invest? You know,
It's like it's almost it's almost said, it's like, you know,
the end of the story. So again, wwe very short sighted. Again,
just pay these people for another three months before you
release them, if you're intent on releasing them, you know,
and then have the noncomput after that for you know,
or you know, or four months whatever it is until
the show runs. I'm sorry. I back to the match.
Speaker 2: And the comeback. Arlm goes sorry, Cole goes for a
big boot, Arlem ducks it clothesline punch Mitchinoko Driver one two.
He shows frustrations but no fire. I mean that's where
the babyface needs to work the crowd and gets a fire.
Then Cole counters gets into a neck breaker. I love
that he's staying on the next so that's a good
falsey because he worked the neck the whole match. So
he goes back to it one two, okay, no grabs
the book, then argues with ref Stephanie. I like that
they mentioned her name. He goes for a low blow attempt,
but that doesn't work. Arlem catches him, go into Jack
Knafbain one two three, and that's the match. So again,
I felt there was good mechanics but not enough emotions.
I felt Cold was better as a wrestler, but oh
my god, Arlem is so he's like stagnant to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I say I and this is also related to evolve,
But I become less interested in Harlem week by week,
and that's not the way it's supposed to go, all right,
so let me start it here. So that's on the record.
I thought this match was somewhere between okay and pretty good.
So I'm not burying the match. However, the lock up
they did exactly the opposite of what Booker told them
to do. So that's a very bad start for two
guys not not registering what the coach said at the
very beginning. I understand it. Sometimes at some point you
forget about, you know, instructions or maybe some of the
agent ing and the booking. But right from get go
you covered the entrances perfectly. I do not like you
know Cole young kid, but one of the things they
wanted to see from him, and they let him know
the last time we saw him in LFG, and I
don't know how much real time allow ops between these
the airings of these shows, but they said, use the
book more incorporated into the story. He did not. It
was just there that on the ring. Apron didn't threaten
to go with it, didn't try to distract a ref
when the Rake of the Eyes grab the book and
have the ref take it away. Nothing. Harlem Lewis got
a sort of a sneaky win, which I do not love.
For a baby face badass like Braxton, Cole is the
one who get the sneaky win. Harlem Lewis, like Braxton,
Coles should have tried to cheat. It should have been failed.
And then Harlem Lewis hits him with a spear or
something like that, or and then into his mitchinoko driver
as you said, and then whatever his like I don't
even think he used his finisher. He it was like
a roll up. I don't even remember what it was. Whatever. Okay, yeah,
it wasn't great. And Matt bloomg with me because his
his comments. I mean, you know, he said, he basically said,
what you liked. I like your execution. I like CARLM.
Lewis as I like your physical work, he said to Bloom.
Bloom said to Cole, I want you to incorporate your
character in your book more into it. You need to
act more. Couldn't agree with more. I'm not so sure
that I liked Lewis's Like I didn't dislike Lewis's work,
but for I didn't love his work, like I don't
think he's as great as they think he is, and
I don't think he's as great as he thinks he is.
Like he's fine, but I don't know. He's not Keano Carter,
he's not Oba Femi. He's you know, there's something, there's
something not there.
Speaker 2: I felt that Coach Bloom was a lot more strict, uh.
His criticisms were more like heavy thwords cold than than Arlem,
because he was like, you know, he's behind character wise,
he needs to find an identity. This is a TV show.
He needs to step up. His position was is not right,
and I'm like, this is all true, but he didn't
say much to Arlem, and even Arlam like goes, oh,
I did a good job selling and fighting back and
and I'm like, really, I like this, this is not
what I saw. I'm like, maybe I have other expectations
when it comes to my babyfaces. But I was like,
I didn't see fire, I didn't see any I didn't
have pity for him. I didn't feel pissed because the
other guy was like super fucking cocky. I mean, that's
the heel problem there. I mean, if if you really
hate the heel, you're gonna automatically cheer for the babyface.
And of course Cole did not give me enough. But
I was like, when you look at the experience of
Cole versus the one Arlem has, like he's been to Japan,
he's doing Evolve And then LFG and just from lfg's
last season. I was like, why aren't you mad at him?
I was like, I get the other guy, like, maybe
he's a little behind, but I mean talk about being behind.
I'm like, to me, I still see things to do
with Cole, but arlem, I'm like, somebody will have to
kick him in the ass or do something because it's
not fucking working. Maybe maybe being a babyface is not
a sting. Probably he's much better as a heel. But
don't tell him he's great at his selling and fighting back,
because that just not fucking happened. I was like, why
why are you saying this?
Speaker 4: I was like, awwe, like I've said already, have a
bunch of guys who are somewhere between five to ten
and six feet who are I mean, they've got like
six some owens that.
Speaker 2: Rock Lesner sells like a motherfucker when he needs to,
Rock fucking Lesler if you can't sell, by the way
Brock did for fucking Oba Femi when he got thrown
over the fucking top rope and his fucking face lit
up and he was read as fuck as like, oh
my god, what the fuck just happened? I was like, sorry,
you don't want to sell because you feel you're bigger. Whatever.
Just watch fucking brock Lesler. He fucking sells, he tries.
Speaker 1: To cover and you cut Ridge Holland you know another
guy who was that's instead of this guy who got
was really good and evolved, you know, maybe partly because
you thought you, this guy in the pipeline Harlem do better.
This it's in you, it's there. I mean, I don't
want to I don't assume you're listening to the show.
But if you are, I mean, I'll assume you're bearing.
But you know, you have to act bigger. You have
you have to be able to react in the moments.
You have to learn how to act. You have to.
You have to learn how to act. That that that's
it's a TV show, So you have to learn how
to act.
Speaker 2: Speaking of the TV shows and acting, it's back to
our friends Xena Sterling versus Serena Linton and this time
they are with Sairry Taylor yep In.
Speaker 1: They one comment on Zena because she said something really
strange to me in the you know, before we get
into this pace, they did little interviews with Serena and Zena,
and Xena said that they don't really know each other.
They're both on their third season of LFG. How the
hell do you not know each other?
Speaker 2: Oh, in wrestling, there's so many people and you're so
focused on your own thing, you might not know the person,
like I didn't know it. I don't know if she
was talking personally or wrestling watch because she's also said
they did not wrestle a lot together, so maybe that's
what she meant more about, like, Oh, we haven't been
in the ring that much, like compared to other people
she's been with, maybe more times than as, you know
what Serenas.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're you're probably right, but you know, I
you know, I know this week has been a week
to beat up on Bubba a little bit because he
said he could beat up John Moxley or whatever. And
you know, Bubba I very mixed feelings about. And that's
not important. But I do think that Zena maybe didn't
socialize so much because she was busy doing the podcast
and promotion to her with Bubba Ray and doing things
instead of being in the PC and that might be
some of the reasons that she hasn't gotten to know
some of these people. And maybe because she thought she
was fast tracked. She didn't need to. And I'm not
saying that she's a stuck up or anything like that,
but you know, young and you're you're again too much,
too soon. Maybe this is a symptom of that. Maybe
I'm projecting that's.
Speaker 2: Okay, it could be all these reasons altogether too.
Speaker 1: So I can't wait till we get doctor Gina, because
that's one of those stories.
Speaker 2: I want to questions I don't ask, so Terry mentions
that Serenia's job as the heel must be she must
be like it's clear as they she is the bad guy.
So automatically, Zena is the good guy. He wants the
match to look unique, not the same choreograph routine that
they see in every other match, and he says, you know,
be smart about it, focus on a body part. And
I like that Norman Smiley was right there too bad
that they like, we've seen the effusic, we've seen Jazz,
we've seen Norman Smiley now and they they don't say anything.
I wish they would. I mean, they're part of this
freaking thing. Obviously, they're there, they're working so anyway, you know,
it's a feeling business again let's you know, not forget
about it. There needs to be sympathy for the good guy.
They need to believe and let's go to the match.
Speaker 1: Hot dog, hot dog.
Speaker 2: Anything you want to say about any the Terry Taylor's
advises are what he's looking for or.
Speaker 1: A little bit in that. I didn't think that Terry Taylor. Listen,
I don't know what's editor or not, but he was.
He was. It was a little bit short, like I
think both of these women could have used a little
bit more. But I thought what he said. But I
think that's part of his teaching methods is I'm gonna
say it once. I'm gonna be brief and concise and
simple in my instructions, and let's see if you can
follow it. They had Serena position as the bad guy, said,
the story we're telling is you're going to work a
body party. She's bigger and stronger than you, and that's
what a heel does. Very Anderson Tag Team, which is great,
and we've had Serena as the bad guy before, but
she didn't present as a bad guy. And I have
to be honest with this is what I was gonna
say at the top of the show, and I said,
I'm gonna save it. I don't. I didn't understand why
Serena was cut until I saw her cry, and I thought,
maybe she's too emotional, maybe she doesn't have it. And
between Zena and Serena, I was prepared to see who
cries first, you know, or if we see them both
have waterworks at some point, to see to test my theory.
And that's a tease for the audience because you know,
we'll get into that a little bit later.
Speaker 2: So there was not much of an entrance for Zena.
It was no I mean, I just she was in
the ring commercial, she was there posing.
Speaker 1: But Serena came in new gear, new music. Really liked
the music and the beginning of it was the same,
but she definitely had different facials. There was like, you know,
more spicy then fun, you know, more like the Lolo
ice dancing. There was more specy, and she definitely came
in acting as a heel and I'm like, yes, Serena fine.
She did the same moves, but she did them in
a different way. Her body language, her facials, it was
almost like fuck you, I'm hot, but you can't you know,
you can look, but you can't touch. And not only
can't you touch, but if you do, I'm snut, but
you can't arm here.
Speaker 2: I like Zena's gear. I I just didn't get. She
was singing. She had a little bit of fire, and
I was like, okay, you're a heel. Maybe it's because
Serena was so I mean, Zena was so stoic that
Serena coming out second again and that bothers me. I
will I will die on that heel. And and she
was singing her song. She had a little bit of fire,
she was had banging. But I'm like, is she metaled?
She's supposed to be kind of more spicy. But I
was like, uh, you know it's I would not sing
or maybe the head bang or I would do I
don't know, something else that's a spicy because now I
feel it's more metal and right now there's a metal legit.
It's fucking metal girl in the NXC. But anyway, that
was from way before Luzy Rain came in. But I
was like, okay, there was a solid lock up. Xena
pushes Serena in the corner and she keeps it at
the ref counting and she stays there. I'm like, ciz
elish then there's a big slap from Serena. There was
not much reactions from Zena. Serena goes to the ropes
and they're both separated from the ref and I'm like,
Zena should be insulted right now, and Serena jumped in
Zena's arms that she was thrown in the corner and
then there's like shit slaps to the chest and she
goes for a luck take down. Okay, let me explain something.
Once you hit in a match, you do not go
back to chain wrestling. There is chain wrestling until someone
hits you. Once there is a punch or in this case,
a slap, do not fucking go into a headlock. You
look like a fucking idiot. A heel slaps you work
into something where you, as a babyface, slaps back. You're
gonna get a fucking pop and then you go either
either you use it to start your shine or you
keep it for a little bit later in the match,
and it's gonna play either in the finish or your
comeback as a babyface. You need a payoff. But Xena
didn't seem really insulted by the slap anyway, So I
was like, and yeah, I didn't like this pigoting.
Speaker 1: And I was gonna say, you think because I because
when I was hyping this as the match went on,
I thought I was being overly cruel. Yes, I spent
a lot of time complimenting Serena entrance, but in the
beginning I thought she was trying a little bit too
hard to look healish. I'm not sure if that was
a reaction to Xena sort of being a little bit
dead pan, or she was just trying to add But
it settled down early, so I was not going to
say it, but now I feel like I have to.
But it was almost it was almost campy, which might
be okay for wrestling. I know that you're working for
the back of the room, so I just wanted to
throw that out there if you felt the same thing.
But also, Xena is the face. I mean, I thought
her her finisher was a little bit I've seen it.
It looked okay, but I've seen it where she couldn't
quite do it.
Speaker 2: Well, let's wait for the finish. I mean, there's there's
more to cover in this masks. After that, she went
into that headlock takedown. I will I will say that
solid headlocks Xena I liked her face with the you know,
the tongue sticking out. She has more personality. There was
some good you know, I was talking about the little
elbows of Arlem. Serena did them good, like good, we
swing all the way back into the stomach boom. Serena
like it looked good. But they worked a little bit
too fast. Then there was a clothesline and back to
the headlock and the crowd was clapping for Serena. Serena
was down into a headlock. The crowd was clapping for Serena.
She is supposed to be again, I repeat, clear as
day heel right now. You know what, she's a babyface.
I look at her and icy babyface. There's a There
was like a cool duck from Serena, you know, the
split and then again it looks like Serena is doing
hope spots during Zena eat. But she's the he apparently
cut by a big slam. Xena misses the corner and
Serena goes for you know, boots and choke and the split,
broncobuster and stump and then she finally goes into heel mode.
But oh my god, did they lose time at the beginning,
like you're supposed to know right from the start, who's
the heel, who's the face. Right from that slap. There
should have been something where Zena's mad. She runs at
Serena and she either dropped toe holds her in the
rope and starts choking and starts jaw jacket right away,
and she right right there. But no, they kind of
went into I don't know, catch me if you can,
and then fucking drop me and then go back to
chain wrestling. Made no fucking sense. But anyway, we're in
the good part.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Serena is a fucking heel. She she's talking crap at
the ref at the people at Zena kicks in the
back good body scissors. Now the crowd is clapping for
Xena the baby face. Finally she goes for a pin
attempt though as a little hope spot, but it's so
so fast that it kind of looks like shit. It
looks bad. The shoulders are not really both on the mat,
but they go into a double down like flying clothesline
ish from Zena. It looks good. Then the comeback they do.
I really like comebacks like this where the baby face
blocks the heel punch and then punches back and then
chops and block and punch and chops. Then there was this,
you know for the Zena's come back to clothesline up down,
a backsplash, a tilta World Slam one two three. Once
again they went in into a fucking comeback into a finish.
It was flacked. I didn't see any you know well
working a bottom part. It's I'm guessing it it's the
back because the scissors and the stump in the back.
But there was, you know, a broncho buster, and there
were chokes and stuff. It was not really targeted, like
not not as much as Terry Taylor wanted to see it.
The hits were good. The Xena's fire was better. I like,
like I said, like when she does her chin wrestling stuff,
now she has personality in her face, like, but my god,
that was a flat fIF And Zina she does have
more intensity, more personality, but she rushes it to everything
and then at the end she goes and Slapslinton in
the face. Was just so fucking elish. And then she
starts skipping and she's selling her belly. I was like, why, Yeah,
the scissors okay, but there was not long enough. You know,
there was kicks to the backs and stumps, like I
would sell the lure back or whatever part of the
fucking back before I would put my hand on the stomach.
I mean, she had two elbows, but really is that
would cause so much damage? And I was like, with
the end of it, before I talk about the end,
anything else you want to say about that match? You
you were already talking about the finish, So yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: You. I mean, I think we can sum it up.
And Xena doesn't know how to tell a story in
the because she's not actually being hurt. She doesn't understand
how to to demonstrate really anything to the audience. I mean,
I understand the attractiveness of her mud, you know, and
and they want to sculptor, but you know it, it's
like we've we they you know, you don't need to
make a David, but you need you need to make sense.
We've got to get past the figure They were like
five thousand years ago, and we're still sort of in
the five thousand year ago figurine stage.
Speaker 2: It's it's something some promoters would ask me. Uh they
would they would say like, hey, we have this girl,
can you like push her? Meaning you know, uh, not hurt,
but you know, shake her a little bit just to
see if she has anything. You know in our gouts like, no.
Speaker 1: You don't like talking about yourself in this context. But honestly,
if they really believe in Xena, they should give her
to you for two to four weeks because you could
teach her that or you can say she's just not
gonna learn.
Speaker 2: She needs, you know what she needs. But the problem
with w W there's no girls like that. She needs
a Seamus uh Ilia, Dragonoff Well, shanea Basler, that's why.
But she's not. She's been at the PC a little bit,
but she needs someone that's gonna wrestle her, and it's
gonna it's someone who's gonna actually hit her. So she
feels something and she she see if she gets mad,
you need to push her because it's nothing's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: I know that she's not doing great, absolutely on the
main roster, and I know that she's working a WWE
style now, but Julia came from that hard heading background.
Like if they had her work with Julia, that that
might be something that's worth while. I mean, I know
you have Julia's got a schedule already, but I don't know.
Speaker 2: I would The only thing I'm afraid would be if
there's any language barrier, if but I mean she she needs,
it would work because if you throw Julia in there
and just say, like, hey, throw her around, beat the
shit out of her. It's like, hey, Xena, just just
fucking follow and see what happens. She would be Yeah,
she could do it for you. Well, she's not there anymore,
but Oscar would be one that could do that.
Speaker 1: Well, she sort of is. She's just he's just gone.
She's just all the break. Obviously, she took the pay
cut for half the money or whatever, and she's working
half a year. But they could hire her on a
ten ninety nine you know well, it's already a ten
ninety nine on a on a you know whatever per
diem for the you know under now that you can
a consulting contract or training contract. I mean, I'm whatever.
They have the best lawyers in the world. They can
figure this shit out.
Speaker 2: But yeah, they wouldn't either.
Speaker 1: Girl.
Speaker 2: I would say English speaking.
Speaker 1: Because I mean you, yeah, Mercedes Martinez, if you don't
want to volunteer yourself, Mercedes Martinez, who's probably available, I
know she's available for work. This is her last year
wrestling wrestling, so she's available for work as well, and
she'd be a great trainer for in this hard hitting style.
Speaker 2: I don't think the girls want someone like this though. Okay,
Unfortunately there's there's people who go and complain that some
of the girls are too are too tough, and then
you don't see them. You wonder why.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they're they're they they're fighting for a
coveted spot on TV. I mean, I know that wrestling
fans and a lot of people think that everybody going
through the system should make it to the main roster.
First of all, there's not enough spots for that, and
there's not enough spots and TV for u SEC. So
it's a coveted spot.
Speaker 2: So if and there's some people who don't want to
give their.
Speaker 1: Spots and this is gender neutral, if you are a
girl or a guy or something in between and you
don't want to learn a certain thing, then just just quit.
Speaker 2: So what happened in the end, the slap in the
phase and the skipping and the kind of I was like,
if anything, I hope this is Zena slowly going to
the dark side and turninghel if that's where you're going
the end of this match, it makes sense. If that's
not the plan, I would take her, you know, aside
to say, what the fuck was that? You were supposed
to be a fucking babyface whatever whatever, and right.
Speaker 1: And I said she did the pie face after the
match was over.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the well I call it the slap
but yes, kind of slap pie face things. I was like, yeah,
that's that's what I mean.
Speaker 1: I'm just like that and that was me. I'm like,
what the fuck was that? You're the face? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that's why I'm saying, if that's a slow
bill to her being pissed off and then turning, okay,
I see, I see. But Terry goes like that was
so good and he's like then he explains and then
it's like, okay, I get it. He's like, the mechanics
were goods, but you know, smooths are a small part.
And I was like, yeah, move wise, they were better
than the guys before. It was more hard hitting. I mean,
besides that, the beginning didn't like. The story didn't ah
to me was shit. The moves, the hits, the headlock, takedowns,
the everything was betver, So okay, I agree with that.
He's like the problem with people who are, you know,
so young in their career is they don't have the
experience to wait those four uncomfortable seconds between the moves
to get the reaction. And I mean it is so true.
Say you know, I was saying that with Cole and Arlem.
Cole should have hit way, do something, talk, kill time,
then go back. And that's exactly what Terry Taylor says
at this point, like these are uncomfortable seconds, but you
gotta fill them up with something, especially if you're the heel,
and then they don't feel so uncomfortable and you give
time to your baby face to suffer. Look at the
people and tell them only with their eyes and the
pain on his face, please help me. I need your help.
And if the heel doesn't give you time to do this,
then it's just like move move move wrestling, and you
don't get the feeling part of the feeling business. So
I he was right when he said, like the legsigasers
should have been longer. So Zena looks in Jeopardy like
the people just started to clap when they begin, you know,
when they begin to move again, so keep it longer.
You know, the audience needs time to understand. And just
like you mentioned before, I feel like Terry Taylor is
so good at explaining things in a simple way. It's
like he says a lot with a few words. But
the thing is you have to listen and you have
to apply what he's saying. Matt says, like Matt Bloom says,
he enjoyed the match. Uh Serena should have you know,
got the beach bitchiness? How out? And I'm like, what
the fuck? What was he? What was I don't know
he didn't did he uh drink his coffee this morning?
Because like it's been two matches and back to back
that I'm like, I didn't see the bitchiness. I saw
it as soon as like the you know, she she
started kicking Xena in the back and then the stump
and then but it took a while, like like right
from the start she felt like a baby face to me,
She's like there was nothing major besides that slap that
led to nothing to a headlock. I was like, fuck,
you know, he's like work the holes, you know, so
you know, so the baby face can can work and
that they don't give up while they're hurting and stuff.
I was like, yeah, like all good like advice and
thinks to uply in the next match. But I was like, oh,
my head is hurting from this.
Speaker 1: Here are all my notes, the TOTALI of my my
non match related or not part of the match notes.
Coaches think they rushed everything. Terry said, mechanics were good,
but take twice as much time. Great advice. He explained
how the crowd must think the faces in jeopardy and
they want to help her. They got that at towards
the end. This match very much had acts in it.
I don't think it was on purpose, but it very
much had accent bloom. He liked the match. Zena said,
I need to know how to get the audience into it. Yeah.
I mean Xena always reacts properly to what they say,
it just doesn't translate so much into the ring though
she has started emoting above the waisligne. You know, so
she got that my notes about myself. I was bored
by this match.
Speaker 2: Yeah like it. It's there's like two parts in this match.
There's a part where Serena's the babyface, and then there's
a part where Xena's the baby face and then they
go really quickly to a finish. There's no like, oh
my god.
Speaker 1: Like neither one cried and so no water work. So
Jeff was wrong. So nobody is overly emotional. So Jeff
was wrong. And I'm very happy to admit that. However,
I'm scratching my head now as to why Serena was cut,
because that was the only reason that I could put
my finger on it. And I do think she acted
heally and while this was hardly perfect, I mean she
had she had sort of imperfect dance partner, and I
mean I think there's something there. Again, I'm not a
giant Serena fan, but I know a lot of people are,
and clearly there was there's a market for that, you know,
looks wise, the whole package she did, the Molly Go Round.
I mean, I know that Aaron Rourke is doing that too,
But I mean, I think more than one person I'm
the same finisher, especially if they're in different divisions won
a woman, So I don't you know, I don't know. Also,
one of them can change their finisher, and I would
suggest to be him, because she does it better than
he does. Anyway, Uh, you know, I'm not going to
go on a rent like I did about Apollo Cruise,
because single A isn't supposed to advance every everybody and
sometimes hard decisions have to be made. I will go
back to you didn't have to do it four months ago,
and wait for the damn show to air and then
do it if you're going to do it. But anyway, Serena,
if you're listening, you know I've invited you onto the show.
We would love to have you.
Speaker 2: And then we go to the main event tag Team
and we have a tag team specialists in Bubba, he's like,
what's the story here? And he's actually asking the guys
what's the story? So Cruise in Alifield everything is about
mentorship and Malik and Jamie is like, we justmept. This
is our first shot at the LFG Arena. It's our shot,
so it's very important which and Bubba's like, yep, exactly,
It's it's very simple. What's the reality of this match?
This is okay? Sell me that in me. It's important
to you. You want to shine, you want to prove
that you belong in this arena and this main event
and you are maybe not brock Lessner the next big thing,
but a big thing coming, like you have potential and
you're gonna go up to NXD. So awesome, like they
they knew what they had to do. Bluem wants to
see the synergy. How well can they gel as a team.
And I love that Olifield man, Like I love him
more every time I see him. Why because while they're practicing, okay,
they're going over the match, he's practicing his reactions, his
selling his intensity, like he's not just going to the motion.
He stops and takes time to say, okay, here, I'm
going to to do this as a reaction. Here. I
was like, oh, I'm gonna go and you know work,
You see that every detail for him is important and
it counts and honestly it's the way it should be,
and like Bubba gives him it's it's actually something we
mentioned like Olie, Phil should avoid punches at all costs
during the match, and of course Booker Tie approves. He's
like save it, yeah, save it, And right away Elijah
gets it. He's like, yeah, it has to be like
once the writing goes up, the match is over.
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't want to because he's an adult,
but he's a smart young man. He is smart, he's
so coachable. Yeah, we both like him. We both liked
him the first time he saw him. We both like
him even more. I have something that's okay back to Bubba,
because remember in earlier seasons, Bubba made a really big
deal about not shaking people's hand and you had to
earn my handshake. As far as I can tell, this
was Bubba's first exchange with Jamie Slash Romeo Moreno, and
he went right to shaking his hand. So is this
that Bubba was being a douche Canoe on purpose? Was
it he was bj Ryan or bj Ray was a
douche Canoe and Bubba was acting or has Bubba actually
changed and softened a little bit over time? Reason, these
are kids. He's not there to intimidate, he's there to teach.
Speaker 2: I would say, Bubba right away knew the other guy
was a douche, so he acted accordingly.
Speaker 1: So so the earning my handshake is on a case
by case.
Speaker 2: Basis, Yes, I would, I would think. So, you know,
he arrives and Jamie's looking at you know him, with
big eyes, and he's he's obvious listening, and like when
you look at him. You feel like it's a kid
that doesn't want to do anything wrong, so he doesn't
see him as an asshole or a douche or a
threat or you know, just.
Speaker 1: Told him we have high hopes for this kid. He
was killing it in Europe. Maybe maybe don't scare him away.
Speaker 2: Maybe, but yeah, I just feel Bubba it's a douche,
just just from the prior the show that was on
the Roku channel, like it could be all this and
it's like, yeah, maybe maybe Bubba has a douche radar.
Speaker 1: He very I'm sure, very very much does and you
don't need to have a strong douche. I mean, I
think BJ would tell you his his character is I'm
a douche. I mean, is it a character though, right?
I mean I think that's it. But it's you know,
maybe turned up to eleven or maybe he's already at eleven.
I I don't know, but you know, he he is douchey,
and you know he just postes something I'm three and
oh on the indies. So I mean, I mean, good
for him, I get, I mean I sort of admire him,
but I sort of don't at the same time. It's
it's it's it's a weird thing, but we're happy. We're
happy to talk to to. I need to stop to
pretending like these folks are listening, but maybe you'll get them.
Speaker 2: So they have a six minute match, which is really
that's short for a tag team match, but Buba mentioned
it's like it's six minutes, but it means it needs
to mean something, and you know, if we go into
the match right from the start, it's first of all,
it's more of a baby baby thing. It's it's more
of veteran team or mentorship team less because Ollie feels
not a veteran, of course, but he's under the guidance
of a veteran versus two upcoming guys who are new
to you know, the LFG crowd. We could even say
that Nig teak around like a you know, the big
show of LFG slash close to nxt so Garcia. You know,
during the entrance, he has so much energy, he works
the crowd. Malik is more serious and for some reason,
I feel that the dynamic works. You got the like, yeah,
super excited guy and the guy that's like the reason
like it it can work. It's something that can work.
They have a tag pose right in front of the camera,
right like right from the start, I see a team
like they've never teamed together, but they take this seriously
and they have both have like very different attitudes and
they have like you see, like they're not the same,
but they they need to gel and they're gonna make
it work. And that's from the entrance. I can tell
that from the entrance, And you know what, that's the
way it should be. I should not be asking questions
like I see Malik the serious one. Oh, he might
do stuff that's not necessarily legal because he that's very serious.
The other guy, he's more up and going whatever, but
it's important for him too. But he loves the crowd,
and I see the dynamic. I love it. And I
understand all this just from the entrance.
Speaker 1: And okay, I mean call it. The answer is we
saw the same thing but interpreted different ways. I agree
the energy from garciiam Blade was completely different levels on
the entrance. I'm just not sure that that was planned
or purposeful. I just think that's Malik and I felt, listen,
maybe this is this is again projecting or over interpreting,
because I knew that Malik had already been released, but
I felt like everything in Malik's body language was surrender.
It's like he's like I was in a tag team
before they released my partner. They barely put me on Evolve.
Now I'm here, and I think he knows that this
is his last chance, and I don't think he's got
that level of confidence. Again, you might be right that
one was supposed to be the hyped up one and
one was a serious one. But you know this is
but because.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know if it was planned,
but I that's the way they worked with it. And
I felt like like I didn't overthink, you know, the
release and everything, but just from watching it without without
you know, thinking about the outside stuff. I'm watching this
as a wrestling fan, and that's how you know. That's
what I see. One is serious, the other one is
really outgoing. But you know they have a tag team
post they obviously talked, they have a plan. It goes
with the story that hey, this is our chance, so
they just aproaly.
Speaker 1: But this is where I would really love to hear
from you to see did you see what I see
or did you see what lusaw? I fully accept that
I might be over analyzing this thing based on information
that was, you know, not supposed to be part of
the record when this aired. But yeah, I felt it
was body language of surrender. But you're you're feeling like another.
The problem with I thought they were supposed to be
the heels. Blade came out like with a heel, Garcia
came out like a face, and I don't know if
Elijah and Cruz was supposed to be heals. Nobody was
gonna boo Elijah. I mean, he's already like Samoa Joe
and then nobody's gonna he needs to do something terrible
to turn him heel. So, you know, so I didn't
I didn't get Blade being healy with the way that
Romeo was so energetic, and I don't know if that
was supposed to be the story. But I will say
this was a fun, high energy tag match. This was
a good notch. So I don't want anyone to you know, again,
I don't want to be overly negative, but I think
if I say one positive thing and then I go
longer on the negative, I mean, that's that's it's not purposeful.
But like the positive thing is the positive thing. Negative
thing I feel needs to be explained. But yeah, but
that's probably enough of me for the while.
Speaker 2: So Elijah and Apollo they come out. Elijah's smiling a little.
That's enough that tells me you're a babyface, you're a killer,
or you're a babyface. Cruise has so much fire. They
look great together. I was like, what if they had
matching gear, that would be like great, but just just
I mean money. I see money with them. Malik and
Jamie are in the corner and now they're both serious
their face there, you know, uh, they want to face
the challenge. Looking at their opponents getting in the ring,
and I feel like they're selling very well that it's
their shot. They start the match with Oliphil and Blade
and you know there's right there, there's a push and
a good bump and right away, I you know, Holly
feels the power and I love that. On the lock up,
Blade was like putting his arm in Ollifield's face, kind
of like it's it's such a little minute detail, but
it was like, yeah, it tells me right away that
he takes it seriously. He knows he barely has a
chance against this guy, so he's gonna, you know, he's
gonna work everything he has. Again, like I said, solid
push bump. There was like good self from the rookiecuse
like he went in this corner, looked at his partners
like what the fuck they were telling me, like with
their faces like oh, this is Sears.
Speaker 1: Though.
Speaker 2: These guys are real.
Speaker 1: And I'm not trying to compare the teams in terms
of experience and skill level, but this is very much
like Bobby Eaton trying to deal with Hawker Animal. You know,
it's exactly this guy's gonna kill me. He can kill me.
He's much stronger than me, So I've got to I've
got to take everything in my toolbox and toolkit to
get over no matter how. And lady was.
Speaker 2: From what yeah, and this is from what just the
lock up. They are telling me the story right from
the lock up, and that's how it should be. The
fans should not be questioning what the fuck is going on.
I see the story like from the entrance and the
fucking you know, lock up and push, I know what's
going on. And then that's where it gets really interesting.
Malik goes and attacked the arm right away, like very smart,
that's the threat. We don't want to get punched. Also,
you know is arm I mean the punching arm and
the injured arm not the same, but still his arms
his power. Let's focus on that. He tags in Garcia.
They again, you know, work the arm, reverse into a
slam and again like once, what's Elijah's slams Garcia. He's
selling his arm from whatever happened with with Moleik a
few seconds before. He doesn't sell it much, but he
reminds us just by touching it that, oh, like something
happened with this arm, so he makes it important. They
go corner for a quick tag. There's a double tackle
for the baby Faces of freaking press slam from Apollo Cruise,
go behind into a headlock, push into the ropes, and
then there's a blind tag. We don't see that. Malik
is being smart again and tags this partner in. They
don't know what's the baby Faces don't know what's going
on because it happened behind the back. So I just
felt here it was a little bit too long for
the referee to count them out. They were in there
for too long together. Uh, but a polo bumps Garcia
go behigh and then big back elbow to Garcia and
Malik is right there on the top rope with a
close line, so it took a big move from the
top rope to bring the bigger baby Face down so
he doesn't look stupid. But the heels with the blind
tag by, you know, going behind a polo so he
doesn't know what's going on, you know, behind us back,
Babyface doesn't look stupid. The heels are because right from
there you could see that they were. Malik was more mischievous,
he had a plan, and Garcia was more of a
baby baby be babyface. But now they see like, oh
this is serious, like we might need to do things
that you know are not legal. The wind against these
two guys, so they're telling me that story, which is great.
You know, Molik goes to punch Elijah, and I love
that the referee goes on Elijah. This was so good
because Molik leaves his corner, punches Elijah. Babyface is angry,
goes in he's not legal, so the referee pushes him
back and that's where you know, brings They bring a
polo to their corner. They they do like good work
together on their side of the ring, cutting the ring
in half. They keep the guy away from his partner.
They went into a little combo thing where they they
both like jump over like a leaf frogs. I thank you.
I was looking for the like leaf frog. It was.
It looked cute, but it was a little bit too
fancy once you're in, which we could say is the
heat right now, like they have control over the match,
And it.
Speaker 1: Was like the second guy should have done an offensive
movie exactly it was.
Speaker 2: It was fancy, was cute, but it was not realistic.
Speaker 1: I have to be honest. I didn't mind it in
the moment at all. But when Sean brought up, I'm like, yeah,
that's pretty smart. But the while I was watching the match,
I appreciated the then not synchronously the quarry the choreography out,
but that's it.
Speaker 2: Maybe it looked too chureraphed, Like if you do a
drop down, the guy jumps over and then he gets
hit right away. There's a purpose to the drop down.
Why would you jump? I mean the babyface should stop.
Speaker 1: The babyface, you know the maybe the heel member of
the team did it on purpose, and the babyface member
of the team was trying to be cute seeing fancy
and maybe figured he'd do something on on the on
the rebound, you know, when so I I really didn't.
I mean, I hear what.
Speaker 2: It's not the worst thing, especially that they did it right.
There was no fuck up. It looked clean and right
away from there, Garcia goes for a pin holding the tights.
So he's on Molik's plan now that they need to
they need to cheat because these two guys are fucking real.
So we see like the you were saying, once babyface,
once heel, Yes, but the babyface sees that he will
need the heel tactics to beat these guys too, So
they get on the same page.
Speaker 1: On the double leapfroduct thing that could be part of
the heel package going. We you know, telling the other guys,
we know that we can't match you with power, but
you can't match us with speed and and sneakiness.
Speaker 2: Yeah that too, But it was really you know, Cruz
was fighting back and you know when I talk about
fighting back is like never dying. He was trying to punch,
She was trying to push, She was trying to reach
to this partner like you could get behind him and
you wanted to cheer him. It was like, yes, you
can do it, Cruise, you can do it. Like he
kept trying. He never he never died, like he gave
us hope. So as as a fan, like we would
normally cheer for him. So that again, great tag team wrestling.
Speaker 1: Then he's great tag team wrestling. And a guy want
to put a rocket to a rookie, what do you do?
You put him on a tag team with somebody who
this guy volunteer. Shut up, stop Jeff, stop it, you
need to drink more.
Speaker 2: So Garcia pushes him back in this corner. Malik goes
in nice snapmare headlock, you know, slows down the pace
so that people start clapping for the baby face too,
you know again fight back. Then you know there was
a tag. There was a miss from the second rope.
Garcia goes for mood Salt roll through, almost runs into Maleik,
and just that those few seconds where it goes like,
oh my god, I'm sorry, was enough you know for
Apollo to come in running and they were kind of
surprised by him. So he will break the kind of
double clothesline they were going to do. I would guess
boom they break it, and then boom tags it Ollie feel.
So everything made sense. There was no dead time, even
the heel. What we could call the heels, I would
say the rookie who are trying everything to win, the
sneaky rookies. Let's call them this way because they're not
like very they're not evil, but they will cheat. So
in this case they are the heels. It was a
great way, you know, to make them look They didn't
look stupid because the mood salt thing and almost you know,
ending up running into partner. That little thing was enough
for them to be surprised by a Paulo and go
into the hot tag.
Speaker 1: And when there's a hot tag, great hot best hot
tag I've seen.
Speaker 2: On Here's yeah, you know why because with a hot
tag should come a bump and feet bump, bump, bump
and bump, and then you go back to the baby
face bump and you go back to the babyface, which
is what Garcia and Malik did, you know, and you know,
tackles clothesline and what was he doing her friend Elijah,
He was firing up. He was looking at all side
of the crowds. You know. He went from corner the
corner splashes with a lot of impulsion, a lot of energy,
went into a bulldog full nelsle slam kickout. So there's excitement.
It's not come back one, two three, it's like, oh shit,
there's a kickout.
Speaker 1: Then Malika, good bulldog.
Speaker 2: Alside, it wasn't good Bulldog. I don't remember. I think so,
but I mean that it doesn't matter. It was. It
was back and forth. It was exciting. Nobody looked stupid.
They all look they they look even if one team
was a lot stronger and had a veteran in it
like the other team. Look, they were giving us the
impression that they could win because they were ready to
do anything, pulling the tights, you know, tagging behind the referees, back,
going to hit the other partner on the apron like
all like it was.
Speaker 1: No one in this match deserved.
Speaker 2: To be cut. And it was like Molic goes in,
throws Oliefield out, and there's a punch from Apollo which
sends Blade out. And remember like it's kind of a
schmase right now. But the two guys you need to
bring in, the two guys who are legal, which are
Garcia and Apollo. I mean, excuse me, excuse me, not
Garcia and Olifield. So Apollo, there's a little thing going
on with Apollo and Garcia there's a rolling drop kick,
Apollo goes out, Garcia jumps on the top rope to
the outside. It was like damn, it was like really
impressive crossbody and cruise of and Apollo. So it's really
back and forth at this point, which is the part
that we call falsees why because it's they look like finishes.
It could be finished at you know, any seconds, but
they kick out, so you're like, oh my god. Oh
so that's how you get the end of a match
to be exciting. You don't know who's gonna win, and
then you know, even if if one team is a
lot stronger, the other team is willing to do fucking
everything that moves. Why because they sold it at the
beginning and they even mentioned it before the story of
this match is that this is our shot. We need
to do everything to make a name for ourselves, and
that's exactly what they're doing. Garcia jump on top rope
for a crossbody on cruise outside. Yes, throws Elijah in
because Elijah is the legal man. Goes on the top
rope for a drop kick and he misses, and what
is the babyface doing now? He calls for his knockout punch,
looks at the crowd, fucking Craik the arm bam great,
great fucking cell of Garcia and falls like a potato
sack one, two three with a solid pinfall with the legover.
This was a great match. Everybody looked great. These guys
are money. I think I think Malik looked great. He
sold so good, like the guy who's he's more of
a heel and he wants to do everything to win,
and his partner who's like super Babyface. He even gets
on his side because he's like, yeah, his plan is
probably the one who's gonna work, so goes in, you know,
pulls the tight. There's never anything very dirty like I
rake or you know, joking, but there's enough to say
this is so important. We're gonna play with the worlds.
Speaker 1: And that might come next is if it gets desperate enough.
I love this ending. It's not just that he missed
the missile drop kick from the top rope. It's that
Elijah walked away almost like the Samoa Joe Why but
it was an homage to it, and it was it
was so smart. And then Romeo gets up and walks.
He turns around right into the side of the impact.
The timing was perfect. It was beautiful and I agree
with everything he said. Bubba was happy. I've never seen
Bubba this happy on this.
Speaker 2: He and fun. I'm like, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: And you know what I say, t k o ww,
you are mother Truckers for releasing two out of the
four people who were in this match. Mother Truckers.
Speaker 2: Of course, we don't know whatever's going on the PC.
Were there other problems. Yeah, I'm playing Devil's advocate here,
but if you just look at this match, if you
just look at this match, you're like, fuck, I see
a team that can be money money, money money, not
only in NXC. On the main roster and the two
other guys did great. They worked really well as a team.
I would have pushed that that, you know, like I said,
like the Sears guy and the like it's almost like,
you know, the Terry Gordy and Michael Lays like ones
like really out there fucking outgoing and shaking and dancing,
and the other one is more of a stoic no.
Speaker 1: Shit, you know, right, and then there's w Jack Roberts,
who's even just just play mean.
Speaker 2: So these kind of dynamics they work, and they could
have had that with these two guys, because you know,
apparently they never worked together. If if it is the case,
and right from this match, they're dude, they're giving you
this fuck that was that was the way to go,
I think so. But anyway, we see Sean like, we're
not go over again. You just mentioned the leapfrog thing,
that there should have been a leapfrog and an offense,
which absolutely right. You know, Bubba loved that, the fact
that they had a hold on cruise and as soon
as Malik went in, he went into another old to
bring him down and get the crowd going, so great,
hottag come back. But you know, sell up, you know,
little details because the back of the house must see.
And that's true, like everything you do, whoever's sitting in back,
they either have to see you, you know, feel it
or hear it. They need to be part of whatever's
going on and anyway possible, you know a Paul Gibbs
great advice to Ali Field. There's no limit. And then again,
I'm mad, God, damn, I don't want to go over
this fucking show more than we did. The two first
matches were.
Speaker 1: Like we have a Pelita watch. We got Class of
Champions coming up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the two first matches were like blah, the
last one was great. And as you say, the from
the first two matches, Serena Linton was cut, which is
probably the one that had a little something in all
the four people in the first two matches, and then
there's two people the main event that was great that
were cut. So what do you wanted to do?
Speaker 1: It was like, no, exactly. I mean, I think I
think I've made my feelings on this like more like
probably more than anybody wants to hear.
Speaker 2: So hopefully next week we have I'm not I don't know.
I don't know what I'm expecting for next week.
Speaker 1: Now. I was like tomorrow in real time do I
and I didn't. Normally I do a peek ahead and
I see what the show's title is. I haven't done
that yet this this week.
Speaker 5: But you know, first of all, I can be blameless
because as we both know that we've had very hard weeks,
both of us and more than just one week for
both of us.
Speaker 1: Uh and I think we hide that well, but it's true.
And there's a lot of fucking wrestling. There's a lot
of fucking wrestling on this weekend. We've got class, we
have I watch MLW. We have Triple A. There's you know,
if you.
Speaker 2: A w TNA and I'm going to wrestling show the night,
I'm like.
Speaker 1: An n w A on comment if if if you
watch it, I mean, so if you do support all wrestling,
I mean and plus I'm sure there's a million indie
shows that are on i W TV and then and
things like that and j c W, Lunacy whatever. Anyway,
where can I find you?
Speaker 2: They can find me on x at Lofisto, Facebook, dot com,
slash Lofisto, LuFisto Original on YouTube. I just like added
a bunch of matches that there's a new one every
day for the next few days, so look it up
on LuFisto Arts and pro Wrestling on Instagram. Also follow
LuFisto dot doc which is my documentary that they are
working on. Still in production, but they're releasing little images
and you know, little bits of stories and stuff. So
check it out. And of course follow the Wrestling Soup
The Wrestling Soup of course on YouTube, subscribe to their channel,
subscribe to their Patreon, follow them on give them some
love and where can they find you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do also want to thank wrestling Soup, So
thank you very much to Mission Joey for allowing us
to be on your platform. You can find me sometimes
on the Wrestling Soup and Friendos. I did drop a show.
I actually did one for this for Soup. I don't
know if it was gonna be on Wrestling Super Friendos
or a super Prime, but I think it got lost
in the sauce at You know, during the time that
Mish was moving, and I'm sure he's still dealing with
the aftermath of moving. And I know that since moved
to Arizona, he's made at least two trips back to
the Midwest, so he's certainly excused for that. But I
did a show on the Sports Jedi Network, which is
a friend of the Wrestling Soup and Frendos network. They
share contact with us, and they did send me a
copy of the show and I uploaded it to Wrestling Soup,
which is me talking about the Janelle Grant, the John
Moxley a little bit with the cad and Kelly Tate
and Kelly Suit and then Ryan Emmathsuit sort of like
a body slam breeze, but not a lecture because there
were three other guys that are asking questions and making comments,
which I think made a lot more interactive and probably
a lot more interesting. At some point it sounded like
I have a lisp, which I don't, but you can
argue with me about that. I also do the MLW
Files with my best friend mister Thomas, godfather of the
boom Aye, Monday nights at six oh five live, or
you can catch it on any of the platforms where
Sports Jedi is, and of course my own show is
Garden of Thought which now you can watch the visual
on Sports Jedi Network if you like too. Usually it's
Sunday at one and Wednesdays at sixth but you can
watch it on Sports Jedda anytime if you want to
listen to it. It's still obviously available on all audio
platforms including the Wrestling Suit Network, and you can watch
it on my YouTube channel which is at Garden of
Thought pod. It's just there's no pictures, there's just the
show art, but if you listen on YouTube it's it's
the same show. So did some cool stuff there, including
the show with our good friend White Chocolate on Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory and we went deep, so please
check that out. Follow me on x at Dose Underscore Evil.
At this point, I want to get to fifteen hundred
two thousand followers. I'm like fourteen hundred and ninety two.
I don't normally ask for followers, and of course when
I did, I was at fourteen hundred and ninety four.
So when I asked for followers, I lost too. So
I don't know, show me some love too, but not
as much as you show lou or wrestling super friendos.
But if you show me ten percent of the love
that you show to them, I don't need much. I
really don't. So but yeah, that's where you can find
me and listen. For those of you I know you're
gonna by the time this publishes, you'll have already had
your full of your weekend full of wrestling. I hope
whatever show or shows you've watched, you enjoyed them all,
including Forbidden Door.
Speaker 2: So we will not see you. You will hear us
again this filling when we watch FG and try to
see what's going on, because uh, Jiff and I did
not look at what's happening next week, so ah, surprise, surprise,
So enjoy all the wrestling that you're watching and V
bills next week A friend, What have in stee
Speaker 1: Stay with my Friendtmas