Speaker 1: Well, it's time to talk SummerSlam, Wald Wall, Summer Slam,
Speaker 1: some emails. We'll get to those emails right up front here.
Speaker 1: As we are now just one day away until SummerSlam
Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday in Minneapolis, We're gonna go through all
Speaker 1: twelve matches on the card and give you my thoughts
Speaker 1: and some wild cards and some news. I'll just start
Speaker 1: with that. Kevin Owens reportedly is close to returning to WWE.
Speaker 1: That's according to some sources on X some bigger names
Speaker 1: in terms of wrestling news, and is he actually gonna
Speaker 1: come back? I hope.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you do a good quick Google search
Speaker 1: right now, it's on Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports about the
Speaker 1: potential of Kevin Owens' return to WWE, and others as well,
Speaker 1: like Randy Orton, Where's Drew McIntyre. So you have three
Speaker 1: huge names that are maybe close to returning, all within
Speaker 1: the same month or so. I don't think they're all
Speaker 1: going to return this weekend, but I think one of
Speaker 1: the three, between Drew McIntyre, Randy Orton, and Kevin Owens,
Speaker 1: huge names, guys that are difference makers, needle movers, would
Speaker 1: absolutely make a difference in the product right now, and
Speaker 1: it's sorely needed in a time where I feel like
Speaker 1: we are dying for star power and authenticity. So we'll
Speaker 1: talk about that in terms of the potential of who
Speaker 1: could return again, I think maybe one of the three
Speaker 1: is possible, and we'll get into that. But first let's
Speaker 1: get to the emails, and also let you know that
Speaker 1: we have an ad free experience over at Patreon and
Speaker 1: you can get rid of all the ads you hear
Speaker 1: for as little as three dollars a month over at
Speaker 1: patreon dot com. Slash WWE podcast. Okay, email time, So
Speaker 1: let's start with Let's see, we got Curtis, but he
Speaker 1: has a voicemail. We'll get to him in a moment.
Speaker 1: We're going to start with Jeff from Calgary. He says,
Speaker 1: I completely agree with you about there being a total
Speaker 1: lact of build for SummerSlam. That seems to be wwe'smo
Speaker 1: this year for ples. Remember how weird it was that
Speaker 1: there was zero build for the Rumble and Saudi after
Speaker 1: a major pl I'll give WWE credit for the fact
Speaker 1: that the card is stacked for SummerSlam, with the potential
Speaker 1: for some banger matches. Considering the talent involved if given
Speaker 1: enough time. However, properly building anticipation for matches makes the
Speaker 1: difference between fans saying I'll check out SummerSlam versus them
Speaker 1: saying it's must see. I can't afford to miss SummerSlam.
Speaker 1: Pro wrestling is at its best when a solid match
Speaker 1: pays off a strong build. Matches on their own can
Speaker 1: always be good, but they're elevated by compelling story that
Speaker 1: builds anticipation for the outcome. Well, that's the key element
Speaker 1: that's been missing from WWE for the last several years,
Speaker 1: and yes even more so as of late. They don't
Speaker 1: know how to build anything, or they don't care, or
Speaker 1: they've run out of ideas or all three.
Speaker 2: They just.
Speaker 1: Again. I don't know if it's a lack of talent
Speaker 1: or concern for building things properly, but they have not
Speaker 1: executed well and it has put a damper on the
Speaker 1: whole season. And we say that almost every WrestleMania season
Speaker 1: this past year. I remember it's a good point. The
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble had almost no build, which was ridiculous. Now
Speaker 1: we have Summer Slam that has a lukewarm build at best.
Speaker 1: Anticipations have the fun getting yourself geared up for that weekend,
Speaker 1: thinking about what could happen, getting yourself all riled up,
Speaker 1: wondering the outcome, wondering about what could happen.
Speaker 2: And it's just.
Speaker 1: I don't haven't felt that way about the product in
Speaker 1: a long time. So my predictions meaning Jack's not mine,
Speaker 1: he says, Nights Solo and Keys go over the budline.
Speaker 1: The bell is in page over Fatal Influence, Gunther over
Speaker 1: Aldus Sky over Morgan, Femi over Lesner. I'm still holding
Speaker 1: out for Gunther to retire Lesner and next year's WrestleMania
Speaker 1: Punk over Rhodes, hoping for a roads he'll turn Night two.
Speaker 1: Dan Housen over Dirty Dom. After this, Dan Housen needs
Speaker 1: to go away. I agree Corbyn over Williams. Still not
Speaker 1: sure why they brought Corbin back when you have talents
Speaker 1: like draggon Off and Carmelohayes doing nothing. Yes, I've heard
Speaker 1: that as well. Gable over Penta. Wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 1: this steals the show. Balor over Zane. I'm a Samy's
Speaker 1: Ain fan, but I think it's better for his character
Speaker 1: if he loses. Charlotte wins the ladder match, and will
Speaker 1: then continue her program with Cargill rains over Rollins Rollins
Speaker 1: Win provides fresher time title matches going forward, but tkoc's
Speaker 1: too much money and rains as Champ keep up good,
Speaker 1: good content and enjoy Summer Siam minus all the commercials.
Speaker 1: Well that's the other part of it. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's commercials with a side of wrestling. All right, Jeff,
Speaker 1: thank you. Let's go to Dylan. He says. Oh, okay,
Speaker 1: a few days ago, I discovered I had a tick
Speaker 1: submerged on my shin. Thankfully the doctor helped me and
Speaker 1: got it off. There's no live disease.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I think it was a follow up from last week. Well,
Speaker 1: glad you're you identified the tick on you. I've had
Speaker 1: a tick as well before. It's uh, just gross and
Speaker 1: you don't really feel them on you until they're embedded,
Speaker 1: and then you feel something on you. You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's this lump and you go, I know
Speaker 1: what that is. It's uh yeah, Well, good glad you
Speaker 1: got out off Dylan. Let's go to Kuali qualitya from Kenya,
Speaker 1: and Qualitia says, assuming brock Lesner has his final match
Speaker 1: this weekend, who do you think should or will be
Speaker 1: the next Paul Haman guy. If I were to pick,
Speaker 1: I'd go with Royce Keys. He's got the look and
Speaker 1: also good in the ring. If you've seen him in
Speaker 1: aew let me know what you think. I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: a different direction. I'm gonna say no one else should
Speaker 1: be a Paul Hayman guy. I mean, he could return
Speaker 1: to the vision where he's kind of stepped back a
Speaker 1: bit from, but he could return there and get really
Speaker 1: behind Bron Breaker. He could do that, and Bron would
Speaker 1: be better for it. Bron's a decent talker, though it's
Speaker 1: not as if he's really inept on the mic. He's decent.
Speaker 1: He could do that, But I would actually argue, perhaps
Speaker 1: Paul Haymond has a different role. I know he's great
Speaker 1: in the on air managerial role. He's been legendary with
Speaker 1: Rock Lesner. He's had a hot minute with Seth Rollins,
Speaker 1: He's done a lot with cmpunk. I get it. In
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns, of course, as the oracle or the tribal
Speaker 1: the wise man. But what if he decides to maybe
Speaker 1: go to commentary. People forget how good Paul Hayman is
Speaker 1: on commentary. He's magnificent. If you want a sample, he's
Speaker 1: done a lot of it in WWE go listen to
Speaker 1: WrestleMania seventeen. Excellent, he's he's so good on the mic,
Speaker 1: and you can still utilize his on air personality. But
Speaker 1: make him a color commentator or you'll throw Wade Barret
Speaker 1: out the window. Take Corey Graves off. I mean, Paul
Speaker 1: Hayman would be excellent. Excellent, maybe or make a three
Speaker 1: men booth. I guess you could do that. I like too,
Speaker 1: But his talents could be utilized very very well on
Speaker 1: the announcing side of things. All right, So oh Joey,
Speaker 1: final email, and he says, before I go into my scenario,
Speaker 1: I will tell you a gas station story. A few
Speaker 1: years ago, I was chilling at the counter. It was
Speaker 1: like eleven o'clock at night, and this customer that's a
Speaker 1: regular came in. His name is Dennis. He came in,
Speaker 1: said hi to me, and went to the back where
Speaker 1: the refrigerators are, and he grabbed one of those nasty
Speaker 1: burgers already in the plastic bag. The price of them
Speaker 1: went up to three ninety nine. He used to be
Speaker 1: two ninety nine for the burger. They aren't bad, but
Speaker 1: they give you the shits. Dennis, who's a bit of
Speaker 1: an oddball, came up and bought one of the burgers
Speaker 1: and paid for it and started yelling, this is just
Speaker 1: fucking wrong. What kind of fucking beef do you use
Speaker 1: in these burgers?
Speaker 2: Wagoo?
Speaker 1: I said, I didn't know the company ships them here.
Speaker 1: Then Dennis pulls the burger out of the bag, keep
Speaker 1: in mind he paid for it, and then puts it
Speaker 1: on the floor and proceeds to pull down his pants
Speaker 1: and underwear and literally shits on the burger and walks out.
Speaker 1: I was stunned. I called my boss, who then called
Speaker 1: the police. Dennis must have known we called the police,
Speaker 1: so he literally picked up the burger with the poop
Speaker 1: on it with his bare hands and runs away with
Speaker 1: it down the street. I can see him in the
Speaker 1: distance of the city lights, still holding the goddamn burger
Speaker 1: with shit on it. The police came later and I
Speaker 1: showed them the footage. Later on that night, Dennis comes
Speaker 1: back holding his shit in a plastic bag and throws
Speaker 1: it at my counter and then proceeded to stick his
Speaker 1: fingers in my mouth. Okay, this just this, just did
Speaker 1: a ninety degree turn. Uh, let me reread that, make
Speaker 1: sure I got it right. Later that night, Dennis comes
Speaker 1: back holding his shit in a plastic bag and throws
Speaker 1: it at my counter and then proceeded to stick his
Speaker 1: fingers in his mouth. Oh, not my mouth, his mouth, Okay,
Speaker 1: so miss something there and barked all over the floor,
Speaker 1: and then called my boss and told him I'm done
Speaker 1: for the night. I got my to my car and
Speaker 1: I saw Dennis getting placed in handcuffs and he was yelling, poop, poop, poop.
Speaker 1: Fuck this life. I drove home after giving I gave
Speaker 1: the cops a statement and showed them more footage if
Speaker 1: you want to hear more. I still have Uh, I
Speaker 1: still have a few. But this is by far the
Speaker 1: worst encounter.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: By far, I mean I feel traumatized by reading it.
Speaker 1: Just the fact that I had to create this scenario
Speaker 1: that I never experienced in my mind. I feel as
Speaker 1: if i'm I'm I need some kind of therapy at
Speaker 1: this point. That is horrible. Damn. I had a feeling
Speaker 1: it would be bad, but not that bad. At gas stations,
Speaker 1: you see all kinds of people. Okay, Anyway, here's my
Speaker 1: scenario for the week. You and Michael Cole are officially
Speaker 1: best friends from the barbecue. So one day Mike Cole
Speaker 1: facetimes you and says, I'm bored with the WWE. Let's
Speaker 1: go to the movies. You jump out of your couch
Speaker 1: and yell, Yippi a good idea. You and Michael Cole
Speaker 1: drive his WWE car. You both get to the movie
Speaker 1: theater and order popcorn and pop for the movie. You're watching.
Speaker 1: The movie starts and Michael Cole is feeling a bit
Speaker 1: silly and starts throwing popcorn around, yelling WWE. Food is
Speaker 1: getting everywhere as everyone in the movie is partaking in this,
Speaker 1: And the staff closed down the theater and you're in
Speaker 1: and locks it up and says no one's leaving until
Speaker 1: Michael Cole and Matt clean all this up. The only
Speaker 1: problem is people keep throwing food all over the place.
Speaker 2: What do I do?
Speaker 1: That's easy. I mean, I'd start dishing out some sweet
Speaker 1: chin music. I mean, tune up the band. It's dark
Speaker 1: in there, people can't see it coming. You just stand
Speaker 1: in the corner, tune up the band and starts, you know,
Speaker 1: dishing it out. Or I mean you could you could
Speaker 1: go real extreme, the threatening I have a bomb and
Speaker 1: saying everybody better shut the fuck up and clean help
Speaker 1: me clean this, or I'm gonna blow this place up.
Speaker 1: I mean, you could get crazy, but in reality, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's another very realistic scenario that I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: be concerned about coming up in my life. So if
Speaker 1: everyone is just throwing food all over the place and
Speaker 1: only I'm responsible, along with Michael Cole, to clean up
Speaker 1: the place, I would try to find an emergency exit,
Speaker 1: do what Obafemi's doing, and just beat up the security
Speaker 1: guards or police as well as quickly as I can
Speaker 1: to get out the door, because I'm not cleaning up
Speaker 1: everyone else. So shit, let me tell you that. All right,
Speaker 1: And oh gosh, you have an image attached. I'm scared
Speaker 1: to download it. There it is best threads forever. These
Speaker 1: are just these are wild, fucking wild. So we're watching Okay,
Speaker 1: I wish I could post these. I should post these
Speaker 1: somewhere over the hedge is the movie we're watching. He
Speaker 1: created an AI image. We both have BFF shirts on.
Speaker 1: There's food everywhere and there's a sign that says theater
Speaker 1: locked clean up all popcorn to be released. This uh man,
Speaker 1: this is disturbing.
Speaker 2: Ai Is.
Speaker 1: It's a net negative of my life at this point
Speaker 1: because it's too real. You can't discern anymore between reality
Speaker 1: and what a computer system has generated. So Joey, thank you.
Speaker 1: Hopefully nobody comes in and shits on the burgers. You
Speaker 1: guys have so best of luck. All right, let's get
Speaker 1: to actually, yeah, this has been a while, but let's
Speaker 1: get to Curtis. He has a quick voicemail, and then
Speaker 1: we'll get to the official predictions and preview for Summer
Speaker 1: Slam on the back side of that.
Speaker 3: Hey, Matt, I thought today would be a good time
Speaker 3: to do a voice email because or a voicemail, whatever
Speaker 3: you want to call it, because I just got back
Speaker 3: from an evening walk, beautiful night for a walk, and
Speaker 3: I was listening to your Monday Night Raw review and
Speaker 3: I could not agree with you more. I'm sitting there
Speaker 3: in my living room with a cold one, just enjoying it.
Speaker 2: I didn't hate it at all.
Speaker 3: I did not hate Monday Night Raw up until this
Speaker 3: fucking segment. And man, all I can say is thank
Speaker 3: god my woman was in the other room. If she
Speaker 3: came out and saw this, I would have been just horrified.
Speaker 2: You know, when Dan Housen debuted.
Speaker 3: She unfortunately had to see that, and I told you
Speaker 3: before on an email a while ago when he debuted,
Speaker 3: it reminded her and I both of Scooby Doo.
Speaker 2: But then after that it wasn't bad. I gave him
Speaker 2: a chance.
Speaker 3: You know, he's really bringing in that merch money for
Speaker 3: TKO and all that fun stuff.
Speaker 2: But I don't hate him.
Speaker 3: I don't, but they really got to reduce his TV
Speaker 3: time because that bullshit was just so unnecessary, especially for
Speaker 3: a go home show.
Speaker 2: If that was.
Speaker 3: A normal Monday Night Raw just during the year, still,
Speaker 3: I would still be fucking embarrassed. You know, I am
Speaker 3: not joking you. I finished that episode of RAW, and
Speaker 3: I don't watch NXT up until this past Tuesday. I thought,
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm gonna give NXT a chance. And
Speaker 3: I'm not joking you. I thoroughly enjoyed NXT more than
Speaker 3: Monday Night Raw, and I'm probably gonna be watching a
Speaker 3: bit more NXT so because I can actually enjoy I mean,
Speaker 3: it's not perfect, but it's it's better.
Speaker 2: It's better than Monday Night Raw. So my cat was
Speaker 2: trying to put her pawd on my drink.
Speaker 3: So anyway, Yeah, I just wanted to email you with
Speaker 3: a voicemail this week because I have no other way
Speaker 3: to get this off my chest with anybody. My wrestling
Speaker 3: community circle is very small and limited, so I just
Speaker 3: thought I would give you a voicemail. I am going
Speaker 3: to a house show in August. I emailed you with
Speaker 3: that a while ago, and it can kind of concerns
Speaker 3: me now because now I'm thinking, what the fuck am
Speaker 3: I going to get because last couple of days I've
Speaker 3: been seeing clips of See Them Punk and Cody Roads
Speaker 3: kissing Dan Housen And if you haven't heard of that,
Speaker 3: I wish I was lying.
Speaker 2: I wish I was joking, but it's.
Speaker 3: Out there, so if you look it up, not that
Speaker 3: you'd want to, it's unfortunately out there. And I was
Speaker 3: hoping it'd be AI or something like that, but I
Speaker 3: don't think it is.
Speaker 2: But anyway, thanks Matt. Keep doing great work on the pod.
Speaker 3: I listen to it literally every time I'm at work,
Speaker 3: on my Sunday shifts, sometimes my Monday shifts too, and
Speaker 3: sometimes like one of them, on my evening.
Speaker 2: Walks just going around the town. So thanks Matt Curtis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good to hear from you for the first time
Speaker 1: I did see this, and unfortunately was a it stumbled
Speaker 1: across my feed I have been burned forever with that.
Speaker 1: And if you haven't seen it, I guess viewer beware,
Speaker 1: or if you don't care, whatever, the fact that Seampunk
Speaker 1: kiss Dan Housen at a house show, why, you know, Like,
Speaker 1: what are we doing here? Is it supposed to be funny?
Speaker 1: It's just it's just not why. Yeah, that's what I
Speaker 1: want to see a week before the biggest title defense
Speaker 1: of his career. I want to see him kissing other
Speaker 1: wrestlers at house shows.
Speaker 2: You know that.
Speaker 1: That really gets me going, That engages me for SummerSlam,
Speaker 1: really gets me excited for the show.
Speaker 2: And the match.
Speaker 1: It's just and Punk is incredible on the microphone. We
Speaker 1: all know that that's an undeniable fact, how good he is.
Speaker 1: And in the ring, yeah, I mean he's showing me
Speaker 1: still at the top of his game, put on one
Speaker 1: of the greatest matches I've ever seen with Roman Reigns
Speaker 1: at WrestleMania. None of that can be taken away, But
Speaker 1: what the fuck are we doing here? I don't need
Speaker 1: to see you kissing other dudes. Whether it's supposed to
Speaker 1: be funny or not like that that's not doesn't what
Speaker 1: is it supposed to do?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 1: It's all in good fun fun for what there's what's
Speaker 1: the reason here? I don't know, but yeah, that that
Speaker 1: Dan Housen segment. It has been thoroughly destroyed, demolished, embarrassed
Speaker 1: as it should be. And I agree. My circle of
Speaker 1: wrestling fans in my life is very very small as well,
Speaker 1: which is why a lot of us come here and
Speaker 1: talk to other people that we don't even know or
Speaker 1: have met in our lives, and we connect over wrestling.
Speaker 1: That's what a lot of us do. So could you
Speaker 1: imagine if you had somebody who is like a WrestleMania
Speaker 1: fan that only comes in for the big stars and
Speaker 1: the big moments, and they still ask about Attitude era wrestlers.
Speaker 1: I have a few friends like that, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: maybe some of you do too, where they're only interested
Speaker 1: in his Hey Austin, did he did stone Cold show
Speaker 1: up and stun anyone? Did the Rock come back? That's
Speaker 1: the kind of like wrestling fans I have in my life.
Speaker 1: Very few actually still watch regularly. So that's also a
Speaker 1: great outlet for me here because I can come and
Speaker 1: talk to you guys about it. But imagine bringing in
Speaker 1: somebody in your personal life to watch raw and they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to give it a chance.
Speaker 1: And imagine them sitting there watching that. How embarrassed would
Speaker 1: you be? I mean, if you can be embarrassed sitting
Speaker 1: by yourself alone with no one there and you feel
Speaker 1: ashamed of yourself for consuming this content, imagine bringing in
Speaker 1: a person that's in your real life. That's how That's
Speaker 1: how bad it was. And I'm trying to move on
Speaker 1: from it. I think they'll learn from it. But whoever
Speaker 1: was involved in it needs I mean, you just need
Speaker 1: to be fired. It's that egregious of a mistake. It's
Speaker 1: not a whoopsie. Well we tried. We had a good idea,
Speaker 1: it just wasn't well executed. See, there are sometimes good
Speaker 1: ideas that just aren't executed well, like heel turns or
Speaker 1: baby face turns or title changes. Fine, or a stipulation
Speaker 1: in a match. Fine that I get that. I can
Speaker 1: appreciate the effort, and sometimes it just doesn't go the
Speaker 1: way that you think it's going to go, or it
Speaker 1: doesn't play out the way you think it's going to.
Speaker 1: But there's not any excuse for designing this or trying
Speaker 1: to execute it that is a good idea. It is
Speaker 1: a cancer to professional wrestling when you see this shit.
Speaker 1: And there's been things like this too. I mean, Dan
Speaker 1: Housen has been evolving into more and more of just
Speaker 1: a plain walking cartoon. And he's had some decently chuckled
Speaker 1: chuckle a bowl segment, segments. He's done decently in his
Speaker 1: role backstage. But the moment you bring him out and
Speaker 1: you put him in front of a crowd, the crowd
Speaker 1: receives him well, but he always has to have some
Speaker 1: other ridiculous antics or people or midgets or boxes or
Speaker 1: toys or magic tricks, and you may say, well, that's
Speaker 1: part of his charm, but you'll see on raw you
Speaker 1: can overdo it very quickly and it'll come out horribly.
Speaker 1: So I would agree with a lot of the listeners
Speaker 1: here that he needs to go away for a little bit.
Speaker 1: They won't do it because, as you said, Curtis, they
Speaker 1: look at him as a money machine. In fact, what
Speaker 1: I think they're going to do is the opposite and
Speaker 1: continue on this path, if not show him more, because
Speaker 1: they are making him, they're making TKO money hand over fist.
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear any of the reason that
Speaker 1: he's there. That's the only reason he's there, despite the
Speaker 1: fact that he's had seventeen matches and he's been victorious
Speaker 1: in these seventeen matches, is really irrelevant. It's just the
Speaker 1: fact that he's a walking cartoon that a lot of
Speaker 1: people connect with, and including the much the younger audience
Speaker 1: and some older ones. But this is how you lose
Speaker 1: the older ones. You lose the older ones, meaning anyone
Speaker 1: over twelve by doing this kind of just horrifically bad
Speaker 1: bullshit and when he's out there just too much. But
Speaker 1: what I'm hearing is he's going to have an ice
Speaker 1: cream truck at SummerSlam. All this other you know, he's
Speaker 1: going to do something ridiculous at SummerSlam. So they have
Speaker 1: put themselves in a precarious position with this character. And
Speaker 1: I'd be very very very cautious about how I present
Speaker 1: him and how much I present him over the next
Speaker 1: week or two and give fans maybe a chance to breathe.
Speaker 1: The thing is, you know they won't because TKO just
Speaker 1: cannot help themselves and will forego everything and anything to
Speaker 1: make money and feel that if he's not on TV,
Speaker 1: how our kid's going to be reminded to go buy
Speaker 1: his merch? So good good stuff, Curtis, thank you. Anybody
Speaker 1: who else wants to send a voicemail, you can do that.
Speaker 1: You can do that via email, you know, just email
Speaker 1: me mail back at wwepodcast dot com. You can create
Speaker 1: a voice memo in your phone and just send it
Speaker 1: as a file. So I don't mind playing voicemails as
Speaker 1: long as there are about three minutes or less. I
Speaker 1: don't want any ten minute rants. I understand the needs sometimes,
Speaker 1: but if you can keep it three minutes or less,
Speaker 1: I'd have no problem doing what we just did here. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's get to the damn card. Talk about some big
Speaker 1: time matchups, because, as I've said over the last several weeks,
Speaker 1: this show has been poorly built. I'm not that excited
Speaker 1: based on the build they've shown me because of the
Speaker 1: back and forth, the lack of the women's matches being
Speaker 1: feeling important at all. Cody and Punk have feeling like
Speaker 1: they kind of just rinse and repeat their build over
Speaker 1: and over. There's no real story there. What's the story
Speaker 1: that CM Punk quote unquote accidentally hit Cody with the
Speaker 1: belt strap and then oh, I did this on purpose
Speaker 1: and they just start shoving each other. What how is
Speaker 1: there no actual backstory here? Give us some insight into
Speaker 1: the last fifteen years that he kept them apart. What's
Speaker 1: going on? Give us something? There's no story and these
Speaker 1: two are ultra talented on the mic. I don't get it.
Speaker 1: Obafemi Brock. Okay, let's just get into it. We'll start
Speaker 1: on Saturday and we'll go from bottom to top.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: The six women tag team match with the bellatwins in
Speaker 1: Page versus Fatal Influence. This is actually a tough one
Speaker 1: in a couple of ways, one in the outcome and
Speaker 1: two in just being able to watch. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be tough because I despise the Bellas as we all know,
Speaker 1: and it's hard to watch a match when you actually
Speaker 1: despise them as people, not just as a wrestling character,
Speaker 1: like as who they are as actual human beings when
Speaker 1: the camera's off. But the bellotwins in Page again, Page
Speaker 1: is the just a complete victim in all of this.
Speaker 1: I feel the most for Pages. I've said after this,
Speaker 1: this needs to be her final tag team match forever,
Speaker 1: not just for a little while, like forever. Page is
Speaker 1: an underutilized talent. Now that Nikki's back, she can go
Speaker 1: back with her sister, and as a forty one year
Speaker 1: old women, they can continue to do their stripper dances
Speaker 1: and pretend that wearing their hat backwards is sexy somehow
Speaker 1: or something. I don't know, but Page needs to get
Speaker 1: the fuck out of the women's tag team division because
Speaker 1: she has not even it's she returned, but it's almost
Speaker 1: as if she didn't because she's so hidden. So who
Speaker 1: wins this? Nicki just returned. I'm gonna go with the
Speaker 1: bellatwins and Page, even though I think Fatal Influence should.
Speaker 1: My guess is the way w w E books that.
Speaker 1: Since Nicki just returned and she's one of the quote
Speaker 1: unquote I guess stars in the women's wrestling I wouldn't
Speaker 1: put her that way, but she's got name value, she does.
Speaker 1: I think that they'll have her win and get the
Speaker 1: get things started off right if this is the first
Speaker 1: match of the night, Okay, So bellatwin's and Paige win,
Speaker 1: and then Page can do what she's best at, and
Speaker 1: that's stay in the singles division. The men's six man
Speaker 1: tag team match. La Knight Solo soaka Royce Keys Versus
Speaker 1: Jacob Fattu and the USOS. This one seems pretty pretty
Speaker 1: easy for me. I'd give this a sixty five percent
Speaker 1: chance of the Babyfaces winning here, Ellie Knight, Solo, and Royce.
Speaker 1: The reason is no one gives a shit about Jacob
Speaker 1: Fattu and the USOS right now. We don't know how
Speaker 1: to feel about them. Are they with Roman are they not?
Speaker 1: They're Romans ignoring their business, but they're kind of helping
Speaker 1: him but not really. And they're acting like heels at
Speaker 1: times and the other times they're not and humping up
Speaker 1: the crowd and Jay's running it back. But then they're
Speaker 1: going after Ellie Knight, so we're supposed to boo him.
Speaker 1: It is a fucking mess. So I think Alley Knight
Speaker 1: and Solo, especially Solo and his momentum as a babyface,
Speaker 1: this new fun, laid back Solo, you need to have
Speaker 1: him win here, and especially also with Royce Keys, Royce
Speaker 1: Keys being on the rise, new to the roster getting
Speaker 1: some rub from the other guys, need this team to win.
Speaker 1: So I think Solo, La and Royce win. I don't
Speaker 1: want anybody turning on anybody by the way, no Solo
Speaker 1: turning on night or Royce turning on night or Night
Speaker 1: turning out nothing. Everybody stays in their lane and we
Speaker 1: have a nice babyface win with Solo Socoa at the forefront. Okay,
Speaker 1: this next match is very interesting to me, and more
Speaker 1: interesting to me than initially I had in my mind,
Speaker 1: and it's Nick Alldos versus Gunther And the biggest driver
Speaker 1: of that is the fact that Chris van Vliet had
Speaker 1: interviewed Nick Alldos and he just posted a couple days ago,
Speaker 1: and Nick Aldos got very emotional about his upcoming match
Speaker 1: and talking about how much this means to him, and
Speaker 1: he was crying with Chris van Vliet and he was saying,
Speaker 1: how people don't know how hard I work to come back.
Speaker 1: You know, he's worried about how he's going to perform
Speaker 1: given the fact he hasn't had a match in three years.
Speaker 1: So go watch it. It is such a genuine, very
Speaker 1: heartwarming moment. And I don't say that often here, but
Speaker 1: that did more for Nick Alldos, for me and probably
Speaker 1: anyone else viewing that than three years as a GM.
Speaker 1: And he did an excellent job as GM. Excellent probably
Speaker 1: one of the best GM roles I've ever seen, and
Speaker 1: that GM role has been going on for what twenty
Speaker 1: plus years more than that, So this is a tough
Speaker 1: tough one to call. I want. I actually don't even
Speaker 1: care who wins this. It's not about that. For me.
Speaker 1: It's how does Nick look? And I hope he looks
Speaker 1: awesome and I think he will. That's to me on
Speaker 1: a human level, what I hope is the end result.
Speaker 1: But who wins? You know, Gunther should win. Gunther should win,
Speaker 1: and I think he will. That's my prediction because you
Speaker 1: just had him beat John Cena in his retirement match.
Speaker 1: How can you have him lose to a guy that
Speaker 1: hasn't had a match in three years. Gunther should win
Speaker 1: this despite the fact that nig All this is going
Speaker 1: to put up a hell of a fight and I
Speaker 1: think we'll get a standing ovation from the crowd at
Speaker 1: the end. Live Morgan and Eosky in the Women's World Championship.
Speaker 1: I gotta say I'm not interested, and I hate saying that,
Speaker 1: but number one, we just saw this at the last
Speaker 1: PLA What Night of champions So we just saw this.
Speaker 1: They have not done a whole lot to build this
Speaker 1: and the match itself will be fine ten twelve, thirteen minutes.
Speaker 1: I think Eosky will win only because Live hasn't defended
Speaker 1: it in a while. That's usually a telltale sign that
Speaker 1: they're about to drop the title from you the next
Speaker 1: time you do defend it. So I think Eoski will win.
Speaker 1: And that's really all I have to say. O befem
Speaker 1: me rock Lesner hell in a cell, Well, this one
Speaker 1: is very interesting. They have done an okay job promoting
Speaker 1: this match. I wouldn't say it's been awesome, nor would
Speaker 1: I say it's terrible. It's been okay. I think that
Speaker 1: this match will go twelve to fourteen minutes, maybe longer,
Speaker 1: and there'll be blood. They'll be incredible feats of strength.
Speaker 1: Perhaps somebody actually lifts the cell up so they can
Speaker 1: climb through or something crazy like that, or actually rips
Speaker 1: the cell wall off or something like that. The mesh
Speaker 1: steel will get pulled off of the hinges, something along
Speaker 1: those lines. Someone will actually rip the door off like
Speaker 1: Caine did in ninety seven. That's why I think Obafemi
Speaker 1: will do that to get to Brock Lesnar where Brock
Speaker 1: thinks he has him where he wants him. Brock gets
Speaker 1: outside the cell, just like he did on Raw. And
Speaker 1: then Obafemi gets his adrenaline going and has some incredible
Speaker 1: feet of star strength where he is actually able to
Speaker 1: tear through the cell, and then they fight outside the cell.
Speaker 1: They might fight on top, they don't have to fight
Speaker 1: on top, but we always love that. I don't need
Speaker 1: anyone taking a bump through the cell. I don't need
Speaker 1: anyone playing the role of Mick Foley, but there needs
Speaker 1: to be violence, blood, and incredible feats of strength. I'd
Speaker 1: give this a ninety five percent chance of Obafemi winning.
Speaker 1: I would be floored if this is Obafemi looking up
Speaker 1: at the lights and he loses, I would find it hilarious.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't get mad, but people would riot if Brocklesner wins,
Speaker 1: despite the fact they're in Minneapolis, it's not his hometown
Speaker 1: anymore though, by the way, it hasn't been his hometown
Speaker 1: in like fifteen years or more. So I think this
Speaker 1: is not brock Lesner's final match by the way, either.
Speaker 1: I think brock will go to WrestleMania. There's two big
Speaker 1: of a payday with Saudi involved for brock lesn to
Speaker 1: miss that. So I think Oba wins broc goes into hiding,
Speaker 1: he'll show back up at the Rumble as he does,
Speaker 1: and then WrestleMania forty three will be Brocklesner's final match
Speaker 1: in Saudi against perhaps Gunther. All Right, see I'm punk
Speaker 1: Cody Roads easily could be match of the night. Yes,
Speaker 1: I don't know how this isn't match of the night,
Speaker 1: may not be Match of the weekend, but it should
Speaker 1: be a candidate for it. Excuse me, I think this
Speaker 1: this match should be should be memorable. Do I see
Speaker 1: a return here? Potentially? Is there a turn here? Potentially?
Speaker 1: I think you could have Drew McIntyre interfere. If you
Speaker 1: want to keep Cody Rhodes babyface, he could interfere and
Speaker 1: screw Cody. Cody and Drew have a long history. If
Speaker 1: you're gonna have Drew mcatyre appear here, you could have
Speaker 1: Randy Orton appear here as well. They have unfinished business
Speaker 1: from WrestleMania. Remember we haven't seen Randy in like three
Speaker 1: and a half months, and Cody beat Randy as we
Speaker 1: all know, So you could have Randy Orton screw Cody here.
Speaker 1: But to me, the more interesting thing beyond Drew McIntyre
Speaker 1: coming in or Randy coming in, is Cody turning heel?
Speaker 1: That would be beautiful. You could have Cody Rhoades do
Speaker 1: something cheating to win, taking advantage of an opportunity of
Speaker 1: a moment. And he has said I need to win now.
Speaker 1: He's said that before, but he's really laid that on
Speaker 1: thick this time. And when someone needs to do something,
Speaker 1: they'll do anything to get that result, despite the fact
Speaker 1: that it morally may be questionable. So I think in
Speaker 1: a twenty minute excellent match, probably four at a five
Speaker 1: star match, Cody Rhodes ends up using Punk retains because
Speaker 1: unless you're gonna turn Cody heel, there is just absolutely
Speaker 1: no interest in seeing him as champion right now none.
Speaker 1: So you could have a Cody Heel turn if he
Speaker 1: becomes champion, but if you're not, if you're not gonna
Speaker 1: turn Cody heel, then Punk stays champion. You could also
Speaker 1: turn Cody after the match where Punk beats Cody flat,
Speaker 1: there's no interference, no Drew McIntyre, no Randy Orton, and
Speaker 1: you have punkin Cody hugging and he holds up Punk's
Speaker 1: hand and it's almost as if it's like you were
Speaker 1: the better man tonight. And then he kicks see him
Speaker 1: punk right in the balls. You could have that for me.
Speaker 1: The end results should be the same. Cody should turn
Speaker 1: heel here. I feel like I'm screaming into the void
Speaker 1: about that. It should be on the table, though there
Speaker 1: is no interest in Cody being champion again for a
Speaker 1: fourth time. Okay, let's get to Sunday, Dan Housen and
Speaker 1: Dom for whatever the hell this is. This is a
Speaker 1: human of money's on a pole.
Speaker 2: Whatever.
Speaker 1: Dan Housen wins to keep his streak alive. Lots of
Speaker 1: Shenanigan's nonsense, magic community theater, all of the horribleness wrapped
Speaker 1: into one, and Dan Housen wins. That's all I gotta say.
Speaker 1: Undisputed Championship Number one contenders match Sammy's a and Finn Balor.
Speaker 2: Hmm.
Speaker 1: It's tough because you could have Sammy louse and go
Speaker 1: on another escapade of losing his mind over this and
Speaker 1: he shouldn't even be in this position, but he's here,
Speaker 1: and if he wins, he gets a shot at the
Speaker 1: number at the Championship. I know people are saying, Finn,
Speaker 1: I think Sammy wins. He's interesting as hell as in
Speaker 1: the Championship in the championship picture. He has proven to
Speaker 1: be an overachiever in that in that site, and he
Speaker 1: got screwed over being champion for what nine days? That
Speaker 1: to me doesn't speak heal. Sammy is once again kind
Speaker 1: of towing the line. Do we see a potential return here,
Speaker 1: meaning Kevin Owens. If Kevin Owens is ready, this is
Speaker 1: where you could slot him in and help have him
Speaker 1: help Sammy. Maybe I'm not calling for that. That's not
Speaker 1: my official prediction. I'm just saying it's a dark horse possibility.
Speaker 1: If not, I think Sammy should win, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pick Sammy in a great match Trick Williams and Baron
Speaker 1: Corbin for the United States Championship. This is seemingly well.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say Trick Williams, but Baron Corbin's back,
Speaker 1: He's got some heat. You don't want him to just
Speaker 1: keep losing and losing and losing. I'm gonna say Trick
Speaker 1: Williams retains, though in a fun maybe I don't know,
Speaker 1: nine to ten minute match Pent and Chad Gable. Yes,
Speaker 1: people are looking at this as the potential match of
Speaker 1: not just the night, but of the weekend for the
Speaker 1: Intercontinental Championship. This one is a seemingly lock that Chad
Speaker 1: Gable wins, and he should. There's no need to fuck around.
Speaker 1: Chad Gable needs to make this his moment, to capitalize
Speaker 1: on his momentum from the crowd. And it's cooled off
Speaker 1: already because people have no attention spans and WWE didn't
Speaker 1: strike when they should have. But and they also made
Speaker 1: him into it a you know, emasculated him into this
Speaker 1: apologetic little bitch. But Chad Gable is still a hell
Speaker 1: of a wrestler. This is going to be an excellent,
Speaker 1: excellent match. Yes, it could be a match of the
Speaker 1: Weekend contender. At least on paper, Chad Gable should win.
Speaker 1: There's there's not even a question. Okay, the interim WWE
Speaker 1: Women's Championship Ladder match Tiboty Stratton, Jade Cargill, Charlotte Flair
Speaker 1: and Chelsea Green versus. I don't know whoever that person
Speaker 1: will be to fill in for the fifth person. This
Speaker 1: seemingly is easy, but we'll find out. I think it
Speaker 1: should be Charlotte. We've seen what Jade can do with
Speaker 1: the championship. She was fine, But I think right now
Speaker 1: it should be Charlotte. Chelsea Green would be a fun
Speaker 1: pick because she's so beloved by fans. Tiffany no one
Speaker 1: has any interest in anymore. Tiffany though, is easily her
Speaker 1: biggest fan. She's on social media worrying about being an influencer,
Speaker 1: not being a wrestler. Go look at her, all of
Speaker 1: her stuff. It's just it's just headshaking. She's so much
Speaker 1: more interested in getting likes than she is actually competing
Speaker 1: in a ring. But Charlotte Flair should win this in
Speaker 1: what is going to be I think a really good match.
Speaker 1: I'm interested to see if Jade is continuing to improve.
Speaker 1: I'll be keeping my eye on her. Whoever that fifth
Speaker 1: person is, I don't know, but I think it will
Speaker 1: be Charlotte. Although that fifth person, what if it's Becky Lynch.
Speaker 1: That's out there all right. And then the main event,
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship. I'll
Speaker 1: say right off the bat, Roman Reigns is gonna win this.
Speaker 1: I have high confidence. But it's not a lock that
Speaker 1: Roman wins this. Why because TKO does not want Roman
Speaker 1: Reigns to drop the championship because he's a cash cow.
Speaker 1: It's it's comes down to a lot of it is
Speaker 1: money ratings, and I get that, actually, not faulting TKO
Speaker 1: on that. It's just business. Seth Rollins is not quite
Speaker 1: the draw that Roman Reigns is. It's just a fact.
Speaker 1: So given that I think Roman will win, on top
Speaker 1: of the fact that Roman has not yet beat Seth
Speaker 1: Rollins in this in this platform, one on one, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to have Roman get that monkey off his
Speaker 1: back so he retains the championship. Seth ends up losing.
Speaker 1: Roman contained retains his championship and gets the monkey off
Speaker 1: his back and these two go their separate ways, maybe
Speaker 1: forever that maybe the last time. I don't think that
Speaker 1: there's any interference here. I hope not. Anyway, I don't
Speaker 1: need any third party here. I don't need the Rock,
Speaker 1: which is not what I'm picking, but I don't need anybody.
Speaker 1: This should be one on one and Roman just beat
Speaker 1: Seth in what could be an excellent match of the
Speaker 1: night easily or match of the weekend candidate. These two
Speaker 1: have a lot of good chemistry, a lot of history,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking forward to it. I know a lot
Speaker 1: of people aren't, and a lot of people are bored
Speaker 1: by this, but I like it I do all right.
Speaker 1: So there you are there my predictions. We got yours in,
Speaker 1: we got your emails in, we got a voicemail in.
Speaker 1: Now we need you, guys to go add free at
Speaker 1: patreon dot com slash wwe podcast, or you can head
Speaker 1: on over to Apple Podcasts and just subscribe there. We've
Speaker 1: got a great way for you to listen there, or
Speaker 1: on Spotify or anywhere else that podcast are available. So
Speaker 1: I'll be back. I'm gonna be out of town tomorrow night.
Speaker 1: I'll still be able to watch Summer Slam, but I
Speaker 1: won't be able to I don't think do a review
Speaker 1: because I'll be in a place I can't review. I'm
Speaker 1: not at home, So I'll be definitely doing a show,
Speaker 1: maybe even Sunday before Summer Slam Night two. I'll do
Speaker 1: a Summer Slam review of Night one Sunday, you see
Speaker 1: what I mean. So I'll put out the Night one
Speaker 1: review before Night two happens, and then of course i'll
Speaker 1: do the Night to review subsequently after that, maybe early
Speaker 1: Monday or right after the show on Sunday, but I'll
Speaker 1: get them out to as quick as as I can.
Speaker 1: You can follow me on x if you want to
Speaker 1: see my kind of play by play takes on the
Speaker 1: show at Wrestling Underscore Audio, and I hope you guys
Speaker 1: enjoy the show. I do think when all is said
Speaker 1: and done, we will come out of it going that's
Speaker 1: pretty good.
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 1: I think that we'll come out of it saying, you
Speaker 1: know what, despite the fact this build was just shitty,
Speaker 1: the wrestler's delivered because now it's up to the wrestlers.
Speaker 1: TKO didn't do their part, WWE management didn't do their
Speaker 1: part of promoting it and building it. But now the
Speaker 1: wrestlers have a chance to go out and over deliver,
Speaker 1: and I think they will. Generally speaking, that'll do it.
Speaker 1: Everybody enjoy the show. I'll be in contact as soon
Speaker 1: as I can about the reviews and we'll talk soon.
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Speaker 4: next time.