Speaker 1: Today's show, I'm joined by my co host Anthony DeMarco.
Speaker 1: We break down everything from WW this week and run
Speaker 1: down the Stomping Grounds pay per view match by match
Speaker 1: to give our predictions. That all get started right after
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Speaker 2: Welcome to the WWE podcast, your place for the most
Speaker 2: passionate wrestling analysis on the web.
Speaker 1: Just turn Roman Heel what is WWE Waiting for another
Speaker 1: wrestling podcast?
Speaker 3: Put you to sleep.
Speaker 2: You can count on the WWE Podcast to get you
Speaker 2: engaged and asking for more.
Speaker 1: I've been watching wrestling for over twenty years and that
Speaker 1: was one of the best matches I've ever seen. If
Speaker 1: you're easily offended, this may not be the show for you.
Speaker 1: Whatever happened to the men being able to physically retaliate
Speaker 1: against the women in WWE, this is a fantasy environment.
Speaker 2: This is unlike any other wrestling analysis. So without any
Speaker 2: further delay, let's get this show started right now.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the WWE Podcast. On this Thursday, June twentieth,
Speaker 1: two nineteen, the last day of spring, so summer actually
Speaker 1: starts tomorrow, the longest day of the year for daylight anyway,
Speaker 1: and after that, sadly, things start to turn the other
Speaker 1: way until we get to the winter beginning of winter
Speaker 1: in December. So longest day of the year tomorrow, Enjoy it.
Speaker 1: It'll be light at least where I am until probably,
Speaker 1: Like I mean, you can see the sunlight up until
Speaker 1: nine point fifteen at night. It's just nuts. So enjoy
Speaker 1: that and enjoy this podcast as well, because we have
Speaker 1: a great one for you. Might be and I keep
Speaker 1: saying this, but I keep topping myself the longest show
Speaker 1: in the history of the WWE podcast, my co host
Speaker 1: Anthony DeMarco and I we chatted for over two hours
Speaker 1: about the status of WWE, the current product, Ron spack
Speaker 1: Down dove a little bit into the past because a
Speaker 1: lot of the past is now relevant for what's going
Speaker 1: on now. So some cool tidbits there, and of course
Speaker 1: we give our predictions for the Stomping Grounds pay per
Speaker 1: view this Sunday, so we'll get you all ready for
Speaker 1: that with some interesting selections. And what is a pay
Speaker 1: per view that on paper looks very predictable, And so
Speaker 1: we've got a couple of swerve picks for you there
Speaker 1: and I think you'll enjoy it. But again, guys, if,
Speaker 1: by the way, if you guys don't like ads in
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Speaker 1: Easy way to resolve that, Number one, You could just
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Speaker 1: podcast and it's just a dollar. A dollar will get
Speaker 1: you access to like a zillion shows that I've done. Okay,
Speaker 1: not a zillion, that's not I don't even know if
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Speaker 1: So if you want ads to go away, here's your
Speaker 1: place to do it. So thank you guys once again
Speaker 1: for joining me though, and please check out wwepodcast dot com,
Speaker 1: where I have published numerous articles over the past couple
Speaker 1: of days too talking about WWE, and I think you'll
Speaker 1: enjoy them. It's always a good read, not coming from me,
Speaker 1: not just my brain, other people's brains, which is a
Speaker 1: good thing. And so the site is growing in content,
Speaker 1: it's growing in general. This podcast is growing, as you
Speaker 1: guys know, and that's all thanks to you. So this
Speaker 1: will be the final show of the week, but I'll
Speaker 1: be starting a new week in just a few days
Speaker 1: on Sunday when I do my Wrestling Nostalgia and or
Speaker 1: what If segment. I haven't decided yet, so what I've
Speaker 1: done what I've decided to do, just so that you
Speaker 1: guys know. My schedule is. On Sunday, I'll be doing
Speaker 1: my typical what if and or wrestling nostalgia segment, and
Speaker 1: then I will be taking Monday off from doing audio,
Speaker 1: and then Tuesday I'll be doing a raw show. Wednesday
Speaker 1: I'll be reviewing SmackDown Live. Thursday will be my typical
Speaker 1: co hosting spot, and then I'll take Friday and Saturday off,
Speaker 1: so you guys will get me four days a week.
Speaker 1: This week. I did experiment with five. I think four
Speaker 1: is more realistic for me just in terms of time,
Speaker 1: and I have other projects going on, so I think
Speaker 1: that Sunday, Monday or Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, So Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Speaker 1: Thursday will be your audio audio pleasure of wrestling, and
Speaker 1: so I'll be off three days a week, working four
Speaker 1: days a week for you. So just so you guys know,
Speaker 1: and thank you guys for listening. Thank you guys for
Speaker 1: making this a great show, a big show, and much
Speaker 1: more to come. As you guys know, this show is
Speaker 1: just getting started. So no further Ado. Let's just get
Speaker 1: you to the conversation with myself and Anthony and everybody.
Speaker 1: Enjoy your weekend. I'll be back Sunday. Take care. Okay,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the WWE podcast, and this week I have
Speaker 1: my third co host in the rotating cast of three,
Speaker 1: Anthony DeMarco, who is officially on the show co host
Speaker 1: for the first time, and it's a blast to have
Speaker 1: him here. So Anthony, welcome to the show, and congrats
Speaker 1: on being the official co host of the ww podcast.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Matt.
Speaker 4: It's a real honor to get this position. I'd just
Speaker 4: like to thank everyone who voiced their opinion, who supported
Speaker 4: me and want to be wanted me to be a
Speaker 4: permanent co host, So thank you all, and especially thank
Speaker 4: you Matt.
Speaker 1: No, it's it's it's always great when I have an
Speaker 1: opinion that agrees with the masses. And you were one
Speaker 1: of the three that people were like, oh, you got
Speaker 1: to bring them back on, you got to make make
Speaker 1: him a co host. You guys had good chemistry, and
Speaker 1: so I was like, yes, all right, so I don't
Speaker 1: have to pick somebody that I didn't feel was the
Speaker 1: best choice. And I got my wish. So it's a
Speaker 1: it's a blast to have you on and we certainly
Speaker 1: don't have any shortage of things to talk about this week.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of things going on in WWE.
Speaker 1: The some of them good, some of them not. With
Speaker 1: the lowest SmackDown rating in the history of that's a
Speaker 1: non holiday. That is a telling tale sign for WE,
Speaker 1: And you can't really blame it on any kind of
Speaker 1: sporting event. You can't blame it on Memorial Day, fourth
Speaker 1: of July. And so we'll get to smack Down live.
Speaker 1: But so hey, they let me just ask you this,
Speaker 1: out of this entire week in WWE, what are some
Speaker 1: of the things that really stood out and that you're like,
Speaker 1: we need to talk about this.
Speaker 4: Well, I think the biggest thing, and I'll start with
Speaker 4: the positive is I actually like Seth Rollins's kind of
Speaker 4: changing character with the chair shot the business that he's
Speaker 4: on right now.
Speaker 3: It kind of adds a new element to his character.
Speaker 4: I feel like he was getting a bit stale there
Speaker 4: for a bit and it was just kind of getting repetitive.
Speaker 4: But it kind of gives him almost like a Steve
Speaker 4: Austin anti hero type of thing that I'm really liking.
Speaker 4: And I guess and then on a bit on the
Speaker 4: negative side, event it's just kind of like the Shane
Speaker 4: McMahon in your face over over and over and over
Speaker 4: and over and over and over again of raw and SmackDown.
Speaker 4: It's just the same thing. It's like it's just getting
Speaker 4: repetitive a bit, and I'm just kind of getting tired
Speaker 4: of it.
Speaker 3: So there's my big.
Speaker 4: Positive and there's my big negatives for this week so far.
Speaker 1: And so I want to touch on that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I I'm with you about the Shane McMahon deal. I
Speaker 1: was a proponent and still I am a proponent of
Speaker 1: Shane McMahon staying heal. I think he's doing a very
Speaker 1: good job as a heel. But the problem is, Shane
Speaker 1: McMahon is not the future, right. Shane mcman' is a
Speaker 1: forty nine year old son of the promoter who is
Speaker 1: the head of this stable that has no name that
Speaker 1: I know of that is that should be. And it's
Speaker 1: starting to transition to focusing on the wrestlers Drew McIntyre
Speaker 1: and Elias who's just kind of there. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: with you about the Shane deal. I understand what they're
Speaker 1: going forward with the Heat, but at some point this
Speaker 1: is going to need to come to an end, there
Speaker 1: needs to have a faction that stands up to them
Speaker 1: and and just dismantles them and they all go their
Speaker 1: separate ways. But I'm with you on that. The chair
Speaker 1: shots with Seth Rollins, I'm all for too. I mean,
Speaker 1: that was a nice change, a nice big difference from
Speaker 1: what we have seen from Seth in the past of
Speaker 1: just kind of like talking and there was no real aggression.
Speaker 1: There was no sense of urgency from Seth. It felt
Speaker 1: like and he has seemingly snapped and become the chairman
Speaker 1: of w WE and gone around and just pummeled anybody
Speaker 1: that has thought about being a special guest referee for
Speaker 1: Baron Corbyn. So I really liked that aggressiveness from Seth
Speaker 1: to It needed to be done. As you said, Seth
Speaker 1: has been feeling a bit stale and adding this to
Speaker 1: his his character is just another layer that we need
Speaker 1: to see from Seth. We needed that, and I was
Speaker 1: glad to see it Monday night and obviously bleeding into
Speaker 1: Tuesday night.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it brings almost like a realistic sense to
Speaker 4: the character because anyone who's constantly being shadowed by a monster,
Speaker 4: by a guy like brock Lesner and toyed with the
Speaker 4: potential cash, and then you have Baron Corbin just always
Speaker 4: kind of like busting his balls in the background and
Speaker 4: like taking cheap shots at him. So it makes sense
Speaker 4: that eventually any normal person would come to this conclusion
Speaker 4: where you would snap eventually.
Speaker 3: So I like that it.
Speaker 4: Shows it's more like of a realistic feel from seth
Speaker 4: Rawlins as opposed to just the repetitiveness that we both
Speaker 4: alluded to. But then to just go back to the
Speaker 4: shame thing a bit. I really do like what Chain's doing.
Speaker 4: I've always been a big Shane McMahon fan, and I
Speaker 4: like the whole faction thing. I think factions are kind
Speaker 4: of a lost art in the WWE these days, or
Speaker 4: if they are, if they do get assembled, they're quickly
Speaker 4: died out, like that awful faction the League of Nations
Speaker 4: way back in twenty fifteen or what was it.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I like it.
Speaker 4: I like that now it's transitioning onto Drew McEntire. But
Speaker 4: I think just as a result of this stupid wildcard rule,
Speaker 4: it's kind of getting diluted a bit that we're seeing
Speaker 4: it on both shows for more than once per show,
Speaker 4: so I just wish they would.
Speaker 3: Tone it down.
Speaker 4: Of it because I loved the idea, I love the
Speaker 4: people in it, I love McIntyre, I love the revival,
Speaker 4: but I just think it's being a bit too diluted.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned wildcard. What are your thoughts on the wildcard.
Speaker 1: I'm hearing a lot of conflicting opinions, very strong opinions
Speaker 1: one way and the other. What are your thoughts on
Speaker 1: this wildcard rule?
Speaker 4: If it was used to the pure definition of it,
Speaker 4: just like three random wrestlers per week could go on,
Speaker 4: maybe I could get behind it. Like I told you
Speaker 4: the first time I was on the show, before I
Speaker 4: was a permanent co host. I grew up in the
Speaker 4: ruthless aggression era, and that's when the brand split was
Speaker 4: in full force, and that was like no one crossed
Speaker 4: over brands. The only only time you saw crossovers was
Speaker 4: at the Royal Rumble. Now I understand it's not like
Speaker 4: that anymore, but and I know they're more loosely with
Speaker 4: the rules, So like, I'm trying to be open to
Speaker 4: the idea. You know, times change, but it's not even
Speaker 4: random three on each shows. It's now four or five
Speaker 4: or six, and it's always the same four or five
Speaker 4: or six they're just using the wild card to use
Speaker 4: the same wrestlers weekend week out on both shows. It's
Speaker 4: not changing. It's always Samy Zene going to SmackDown, Alexa
Speaker 4: Bliss going to SmackDown, Drew going to SmackDown. It's always
Speaker 4: Roman coming to Raw, Kevin Owen's coming to Raw, Bailey
Speaker 4: coming to Raw. It's not being creative, and I thought
Speaker 4: the whole point was to give more creativity to the
Speaker 4: writing and make it more unpredictable, but it's actually become
Speaker 4: the exact opposite. It's predictable, same thing, same thing, every week,
Speaker 4: and I absolutely hate it, Honestly, I can't stand it.
Speaker 4: And we're not seeing other wrestlers being used, like we've
Speaker 4: barely seen Cedric Alexander since he came up, and he
Speaker 4: was supposed to be like the big graduation from Cruiser.
Speaker 3: Weight to Raw. So yeah, I just think it's done
Speaker 3: more harm than good.
Speaker 1: And it's also I think an admission, although it would
Speaker 1: never be admitted, but it's kind of in a subset
Speaker 1: admission by WWE that they're of their failure to create
Speaker 1: big stars that can hold down both brands, so they
Speaker 1: have to take their biggest stars and put them on
Speaker 1: both shows, and as you just said, you already know
Speaker 1: who's going to be there. So this quote, this idea
Speaker 1: that the wild card is supposed to add this this
Speaker 1: unpredictability factor, that anything could happen at any time, it's
Speaker 1: done the opposite, because you know which stars are going
Speaker 1: to show up, and they've taken their top stars and
Speaker 1: just diluted the entire product with those stars. And now
Speaker 1: you've overexposed them on both shows twice a week, so
Speaker 1: you're doubling down on the problem by doing this, which
Speaker 1: is it's really unbelievable when you think about it, that
Speaker 1: this rule was supposed to be doing the opposite of
Speaker 1: what it's actually doing. And if it was, as you said,
Speaker 1: implemented to a t in the exact way that it
Speaker 1: was meant to, Yes, this could be a very cool
Speaker 1: idea if NXT stars could do it. Have we seen
Speaker 1: an NXT star come up and utilize this wildcard rule?
Speaker 1: I mean anybody. And furthermore, and I've said this before
Speaker 1: and I won't get too much more into it, but
Speaker 1: how is this done? Nobody has explained to the fans
Speaker 1: how it's decided who shows up. They just I don't
Speaker 1: understand as it first come for surf first to the building.
Speaker 1: Nobody's explained this, so that furthermore is diluding this whole
Speaker 1: wild card thing, which is just it's nonsensical. But as
Speaker 1: you said, I would love them to go back to
Speaker 1: totally sprit Lands Sprint split brands. I'll get it right.
Speaker 1: And they just have one world living in it of
Speaker 1: itself and an island another island, and they never ever
Speaker 1: ever cross paths unless there's an absolute big reason to
Speaker 1: do it. Maybe it's WrestleMania. As you said, I remember
Speaker 1: when Goldberg and brock Lesner were on separate brands, and
Speaker 1: I mean back in two thousand and four when they
Speaker 1: had their terrible match of WrestleMania twenty. But I remember
Speaker 1: how crazy it was to see, oh my god, Goldberg's
Speaker 1: on SmackDown. He's not supposed to be here, and it
Speaker 1: just felt like it felt much more exciting when it
Speaker 1: genuinely felt as if somebody was invading the other opposing
Speaker 1: brands show. So we don't have that. Nothing surprising, you know,
Speaker 1: is gonna be there. And this whole thing is not
Speaker 1: even a wild card, it's just a it's a quasi
Speaker 1: brand split. But really there's no brand spit anymore.
Speaker 3: So oh yeah, and that's exactly it.
Speaker 4: And it just feels like they knew the ratings were down,
Speaker 4: so they wanted a reason to get top superstars from
Speaker 4: both brands and just use them on Raw.
Speaker 3: And smack them.
Speaker 4: Like look at this past week on Raw Daniel Bryan
Speaker 4: Verus seth rawlins of that kind of match, zero build
Speaker 4: to it, no logic.
Speaker 3: Behind it, like it makes no sense and you're just
Speaker 3: wasting it.
Speaker 4: And was it a good entering, Matt, of course it
Speaker 4: was two of the best wrestlers there, But you're just
Speaker 4: wasting this to get cheap ratings, in my opinion, because
Speaker 4: you advertise this big time match and I just I can't.
Speaker 4: I think you're you're a big proponent of this. I
Speaker 4: don't care if the match is super good, if the
Speaker 4: story is garbage or in this case, nonexistent, I'm not
Speaker 4: gonna care about it.
Speaker 3: I won't.
Speaker 4: I've never been a big guy of like, Okay, well
Speaker 4: we'll throw two really technical guys together out of nowhere
Speaker 4: and you'll draw attention. No, I'll get behind a really
Speaker 4: good story even if I know that the in ring
Speaker 4: product won't be its best, Like shit, Shane McMahon versus
Speaker 4: Vince McMahon at Wrestling A seventeen that like, we knew
Speaker 4: that the entering product wasn't gonna be too good, But
Speaker 4: I to this day go back and watch that match
Speaker 4: because I remember the build to it and the build
Speaker 4: of Shane coming to his mother's aid and all this
Speaker 4: in the street fight and Dad versus Son and this
Speaker 4: and that, and now with this Wildcard world like except
Speaker 4: for like the same stories of Roman against Shane or
Speaker 4: Lexa Bliss against Bailey, and then somehow, some way, Kevin
Speaker 4: Owens and Sammy Zine always weasel their way in as
Speaker 4: just guys who lose. Because that's why I just feel
Speaker 4: like they are now guys to put over the good guys.
Speaker 4: I don't know, it's it's just really bothersome to me
Speaker 4: that they're just using this to be creative, but it's
Speaker 4: the opposite, and it's just the same thing week in
Speaker 4: week out, and just the stories have just gotten so
Speaker 4: diluted and just poorly written.
Speaker 1: And and we're not gonna beat it at Horser. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, we've said everything there is to say in
Speaker 1: terms of the wild Card execution, and I don't think
Speaker 1: we're being unfair. This is just the truth. I mean,
Speaker 1: the fact that you can bring a team over and
Speaker 1: only consider them as one out of the four wild
Speaker 1: cards is preposterous because why doesn't everybody just say they're
Speaker 1: a team and oh, we're all just considered one. So
Speaker 1: I mean, like, it's just the ridiculousness of this and
Speaker 1: the fact that they don't ever take the time to
Speaker 1: just give us basic details of how this works is
Speaker 1: maddening and insults fans intelligence. And it's lazy, sloppy booking
Speaker 1: to allow themselves leeway to book however they want without regulation,
Speaker 1: to fit whatever story they want to fit at the time,
Speaker 1: even if there's no parameters for it. It's it's the
Speaker 1: worst possible storytelling that you could make if you're if
Speaker 1: you're an author of any book. It's just terrible. So
Speaker 1: moving on, though I want to, I'm going to move
Speaker 1: away from this because I could, I could rint about
Speaker 1: the wild card for a while, I'm not going.
Speaker 3: To do that.
Speaker 1: So what about Dolf Ziggler? Do you are you are
Speaker 1: you thinking like, hey, does Dolf Ziggler even belong in
Speaker 1: the main event picture? Do you think that Dolf Ziggler
Speaker 1: is deserving. Do you like that he is saying it
Speaker 1: should have been me? What's your take on Ziggler and
Speaker 1: Kofi Kingston.
Speaker 4: Oh, well, I've always like Dolf Ziggler because I he's
Speaker 4: kind of a diverse character. You can kind of give
Speaker 4: him anything and he'll spin it into gold if you will.
Speaker 4: But I, as we talked about when I came on
Speaker 4: the show about a month ago, I really liked at
Speaker 4: the beginning, I feel like this should have been me
Speaker 4: saying the promos. It's starting to get a little bit repetitive,
Speaker 4: but I still like it. But even though he's kind
Speaker 4: of referring back to like his screaming thing now the
Speaker 4: one thing about golf. And I'm happy that he's getting
Speaker 4: a second match because I thought it was just gonna be.
Speaker 3: A one and done in a Super Showdown, But I.
Speaker 4: Still feel like he's just a placeholder challenger, and it
Speaker 4: just it gets that feeling because he doesn't really like
Speaker 4: even though he's the number one contender for the w Championship,
Speaker 4: he's still kind of just on the side of it.
Speaker 4: Like he comes out at the first segment of the show.
Speaker 4: He wrestles a match against Zevier Woods, and he's done,
Speaker 4: and then the guy who he's challenging for the belt
Speaker 4: on Sunday is often a completely irrelevant tag team match.
Speaker 4: So even though I like for the most part what
Speaker 4: he's doing, and I think that he should have been there,
Speaker 4: no play intended, even though I think that he belongs
Speaker 4: to be there, it just it gives off this feel.
Speaker 4: And this is more on the writing than him, that
Speaker 4: I'm not taking him seriously as a potential winner, and
Speaker 4: either're just kind of finding a placeholder challenger until they
Speaker 4: can find something more concrete heading into SummerSlam.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he does. He feels like a placeholder. And I
Speaker 1: said this last night on the show that I did
Speaker 1: with for the SmackDown review, is that Dolph Ziggler. He
Speaker 1: the thing is, his character has been educated to fans
Speaker 1: for how many years now that he can wrestle his
Speaker 1: ass off, he can sell his ass off, he can
Speaker 1: cut a good promo. He's not He's not a bad character.
Speaker 1: He's not bad on the MIC. He's decent on the MIC.
Speaker 1: I mean, aside from his screaming, and even when he's screaming,
Speaker 1: you're still paying attention. There are certainly worse guys in
Speaker 1: the business on the on the promo than Dolf Ziggler.
Speaker 1: He's I would say good to above average. And so
Speaker 1: the problem though is, no matter what how good is promo,
Speaker 1: no matter how good he is in the ring, you
Speaker 1: just know, because of years and years and years of
Speaker 1: booking that Dolf Ziggler is going to lose the big
Speaker 1: match because we have been educated to believe that, and
Speaker 1: I have no reason to believe otherwise until proven wrong.
Speaker 1: Dolf Zigler's character has been a victim of creative booking
Speaker 1: and just booking that has destroyed the credibility of his character.
Speaker 1: Anytime he tells us he's going to win, he has
Speaker 1: to win, I will beat you. It's like, but you're
Speaker 1: not going to Like Dolph, let's be real, You're not
Speaker 1: gonna win. We all know you're not going to win.
Speaker 1: And that's the problem with his character. Beyond the fact
Speaker 1: that he is one of the best in the ring
Speaker 1: and has been for quite some time, and is a
Speaker 1: he can make his opponent look like a million bucks.
Speaker 1: That's a huge asset. But as you just said, Kofi Kingston,
Speaker 1: I think is on a roll and he is a
Speaker 1: people's champion, no pun intended, and he anytime that and
Speaker 1: I've said this before or two. Anytime Kobe Kingston or
Speaker 1: anytime a champion wins the championship at WrestleMania, it's a
Speaker 1: championship win that needs to stick for six months. And
Speaker 1: I really believe that you can't just have a champion
Speaker 1: win it WrestleMania and then have them lose the next
Speaker 1: month or two months after, because then it really means nothing.
Speaker 1: WrestleMania is the reset button. Wrestlemani's the end all be all,
Speaker 1: And on top of it, it doesn't hurt that Kobe
Speaker 1: Kingston's a black man. I mean, let's be honest, he
Speaker 1: is the perfect candidate right now for WWE's progressive ideology
Speaker 1: to play Kate, Hey, we have an African American champion.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think he's being used for that,
Speaker 1: but it certainly doesn't hurt that he is the face
Speaker 1: of WWE right now. There's a lot of things going
Speaker 1: against Dolf Ziggler, and those are just a couple of them,
Speaker 1: but overall, look, I am a fan of Dolph Ziggler
Speaker 1: to a point. I'm not gonna go there and scream
Speaker 1: my face off like a thirteen year old girl for him.
Speaker 1: But I think that he has a lot of good
Speaker 1: qualities and it's just unfortunate that they didn't strike while
Speaker 1: the iron was hot. And when I think the iron
Speaker 1: was the most hot for him was I think it
Speaker 1: was the night after Wrestleler he had twenty seven don't
Speaker 1: quote me on maybe twenty seven to twenty eight, and
Speaker 1: he cashed in and won the World Heavyweight Championship against
Speaker 1: Alberto del Rio. And he was a placeholder champion then
Speaker 1: and he feels like a placeholder contender now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because if I if memory servedn't correctly, they ended
Speaker 4: up at the end of that feud, it culminated in
Speaker 4: a double term turn with him in Alberto do Rio,
Speaker 4: if I'm not mistaken, where like in one match they
Speaker 4: swapped heel and face positions, and honestly, like that whole feud,
Speaker 4: like I just hated Alberta do Rio. I thought he
Speaker 4: was the most boring thing I'd ever seen, and they
Speaker 4: were just kind of recreate Eddie Guerrero to be honest,
Speaker 4: but yeah, to get back on Dolf Ziegler, like it's
Speaker 4: just kind of been the same thing over and over
Speaker 4: and over again with him. I did think they were
Speaker 4: kind of rejuvenating it with his initial face run when
Speaker 4: they first did the brand split in twenty sixteen, or
Speaker 4: the second brand split, I must.
Speaker 3: Say, because he was the initial number.
Speaker 4: One contender to Dean Ambrose at the time on on
Speaker 4: SmackDown to the w W Championship. They actually had a
Speaker 4: title match at SummerSlam that year, and then he kind
Speaker 4: of had that feud with the Mizz of the Intercontinental Championship,
Speaker 4: and I thought that there was going places, and then
Speaker 4: it just kind of died again.
Speaker 3: And then he did the whole.
Speaker 4: Like the no music thing, the no entrance themes thing,
Speaker 4: and then he walked out after winning the US titles.
Speaker 4: So I just found that his character has been kind
Speaker 4: of hard to follow. He's all over the place. He
Speaker 4: was somewhat relevant when he teamed with Braun and McIntyre
Speaker 4: last year when he was on Raw. It's just and
Speaker 4: I feel bad because I do like the wrestler for
Speaker 4: the most part, but it's just been way too hard
Speaker 4: to follow because it's been all over the place.
Speaker 3: He's been faced, he's been heel, he's.
Speaker 4: Been kind of cocky and arrogant, or now he's kind
Speaker 4: of psycho.
Speaker 3: It's just too much and I just I don't see
Speaker 3: how there's.
Speaker 4: Any way that he actually wins this title or how
Speaker 4: I can even take him seriously.
Speaker 1: You can't. And that's a good point too, that his character,
Speaker 1: there's zero consistency in his not just as you said
Speaker 1: heal and face, just his personality, like we don't know
Speaker 1: who he is outside of a great in ring wrestler.
Speaker 1: We just don't know who he is. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: that him as a person is extremely frustrated with Creative
Speaker 1: just not giving him a clear path and saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're this this month, this next month, but you know,
Speaker 1: we'll see how this goes, and then we pull back
Speaker 1: and then there's just stop start, stop, start, go over here,
Speaker 1: go over there, And when you get to that point,
Speaker 1: no matter how good you are in the ring, fans
Speaker 1: get complacent. They just go who cares? I mean, like this,
Speaker 1: this guy's clearly not the guy that WW is gonna
Speaker 1: get behind. How can we get behind him if we
Speaker 1: know that he's going nowhere? And that's exactly where Dolf
Speaker 1: Ziggler is. And it's really unfortunate because I really think
Speaker 1: he could have been He could have been a top,
Speaker 1: top guy had they given him a serious run and
Speaker 1: go all in with him at one point, but they
Speaker 1: never have. So let's let's get to something that we
Speaker 1: like and something that I like. And I think I
Speaker 1: brought this up last time, but it is a shining
Speaker 1: light in my week of WWE, and that's a Firefly
Speaker 1: fun House. Now I can't remember. Are you a fan
Speaker 1: of the Firefly fun House?
Speaker 3: Yes? Very much?
Speaker 1: So Okay, now now that we're what almost two months,
Speaker 1: probably closing in maybe on two months of this, are
Speaker 1: you still as big of a fan? Are you ready
Speaker 1: to just say, oh my god, just debut you already?
Speaker 1: Where do you stand with this?
Speaker 3: I've loved it.
Speaker 4: There was a point where that one episode of him
Speaker 4: when he was like dancing and it was almost like
Speaker 4: a your music video and I looked at my girlfriend,
Speaker 4: I'm just like, did we take LSB?
Speaker 3: And I didn't know.
Speaker 4: But on his ears note, there was a point where
Speaker 4: I was like, Okay, it's hanging old. But it actually
Speaker 4: worked out perfectly because they dropped the whole fiend thing
Speaker 4: for a bit and there's either two or three each
Speaker 4: where you didn't really see him and now he pulls
Speaker 4: you back in.
Speaker 3: And this episode was just.
Speaker 4: Amazing because now it's kind of it's starting to make
Speaker 4: a lot more sense that Like, from what I'm taking
Speaker 4: from it is that he's saying like he was always rejected,
Speaker 4: so he created this altered ego to protect himself from it,
Speaker 4: And I just think it's amazing. I think they're really
Speaker 4: pushing the boundaries here of PG Again, I think you
Speaker 4: shared the same concern, or the only concern I may
Speaker 4: have is that I just hope that when he finally
Speaker 4: does debut, they execute it properly, because they've built it
Speaker 4: so well, better than anything they've done in the last
Speaker 4: number of years, that it would just kill me to
Speaker 4: see them just butcher it when he finally does debut.
Speaker 3: But as of right now, I think it's the best
Speaker 3: thing they have going.
Speaker 1: WWA cannot, under any circumstances screw this up. They can't.
Speaker 1: This is one of the best things, as you said,
Speaker 1: that they have had going in I can't remember the
Speaker 1: last time, when is the last time that WWE has
Speaker 1: utilized Vignette's videos, promos whatever to this extent to where
Speaker 1: there's this much anticipation for not only the video itself,
Speaker 1: but also when is he going to debut? I can't wait,
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen? How's it gonna be. Is he gonna
Speaker 1: come out in a sweater vest? Is he gonna come
Speaker 1: out as a fiend? How's it gonna work. Is he
Speaker 1: gonna be like Finn Balor and kind of a regular
Speaker 1: guy but bring out the demon when he needs to?
Speaker 1: I don't know, And I think that's the interesting part,
Speaker 1: but also the part that I'm scared of, Like I'm
Speaker 1: nervous that they are going to really really mess this up,
Speaker 1: and they can't. And bray Wyatt has done an amazing,
Speaker 1: amazing job going all in with this character. Like when
Speaker 1: I look at bray Wyatt, I believe that he's like
Speaker 1: that in real life. He's gotten me to that point
Speaker 1: where I believe that he is this crazy. Of course,
Speaker 1: I still know it's fantasy. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: when I'm watching, I get lost, and that's what I
Speaker 1: miss watching WWE, And I just I watch this Firefly
Speaker 1: finause every week and I'm looking for Easter eggs and
Speaker 1: I'm looking for hints, and there are there's so many
Speaker 1: layers to every episode that he's done that you could
Speaker 1: spend hours every week dissecting just that episode because of
Speaker 1: just all the all the different things that he's put
Speaker 1: in each episode, between the characters' names and the things
Speaker 1: that he says, the looks that he gives, the way
Speaker 1: he says things. There are so many different things that
Speaker 1: you could dissect that it's just it's so complex, but
Speaker 1: it's easy to follow at the same time. And he
Speaker 1: is he's a he's a master at making you just
Speaker 1: in pulling you in right now. He's he's masterful at that,
Speaker 1: and he has got us hooked. And it's been two months,
Speaker 1: I think around two months, probably a little bit less,
Speaker 1: but it's been to the I don't think it's I'm
Speaker 1: not to the point of, oh my god, I'm sick
Speaker 1: of this. Let's just get him in the in the ring.
Speaker 1: I want this to go as long as it needs
Speaker 1: to go, and I want creative behind the scenes and
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon to make sure they have all of their
Speaker 1: ducks in a row and have a long term plan
Speaker 1: for bray Wyatt, not just well, we're debuting against I
Speaker 1: don't know Matt Hardy and see how he does. No, no, no.
Speaker 1: They need to have a vision and stick by their
Speaker 1: guns and go all out with this character and see
Speaker 1: their plan through, which hopefully is a three to six month,
Speaker 1: maybe even longer plan for Bray White. I need this
Speaker 1: to succeed. Bray needs us to succeed in WWE cannot
Speaker 1: flop on this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'm really hoping that when he does come out,
Speaker 4: it's not just him, you know, squashing people like just
Speaker 4: no names or really bottom card guys. Because you mentioned
Speaker 4: this the last time we spoke about it. He's already
Speaker 4: an established wrestler. Sure he's been repackaged to the fullest extent,
Speaker 4: but people know who Bray Wyatt is. He's been a
Speaker 4: WWE champion, he's been around since twenty twelve or whatever
Speaker 4: it is. He can't just come in and, you know,
Speaker 4: squash like Apollo Cruz or whatever one of the guy's
Speaker 4: chasing the twenty four seven title. He has to come
Speaker 4: in and get into a few that's worthwhile, like come
Speaker 4: in and attack Roman Reigns or take or fight with
Speaker 4: Kofi Kingson. I want him to come in and make
Speaker 4: an impact because already his story of the Firefly Funhouse
Speaker 4: is making such an impact and he's not even in
Speaker 4: the ring. So I don't want him to show up
Speaker 4: on either Raw or SmackDown or at this straight both
Speaker 4: and take a back seat. I want him to come in,
Speaker 4: and I want this story to be the focal point
Speaker 4: of the show because I think it can be, and
Speaker 4: I think people want it to be. And he's just
Speaker 4: such a mastermind at it as you brought up, and
Speaker 4: he's good in the ring. We've seen him be good
Speaker 4: in the ring. I just think that when he comes out,
Speaker 4: they better pick their spot properly, because it can't just
Speaker 4: be a storyline on the back burner. It has to
Speaker 4: be front and center. It has to be in a
Speaker 4: major storyline or possibly for a title. I don't know
Speaker 4: what they're gonna do, but I just know that they
Speaker 4: have to make it worth while. We can't just be
Speaker 4: an afterthought.
Speaker 1: No, it absolutely can't. Ww has no choice on this one.
Speaker 1: And I don't say that lightly. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I've set that in quite a while, but if they
Speaker 1: botched this, there's gonna be I think a lot of
Speaker 1: angry fans that that are. I mean, they mightn't. I
Speaker 1: don't want to say the rebel, but you could turn
Speaker 1: a lot of fans off very quickly if this is
Speaker 1: is failed. And it's failed on the part of WWE
Speaker 1: and Bray White has put so much effort into this
Speaker 1: and has done an amazing job. So let's touch on
Speaker 1: the women's division, and I just have to put some
Speaker 1: quick thoughts. So in general, you know, for a while,
Speaker 1: it felt as if Becky Lynch, I think, has been
Speaker 1: cooled off, and I think that she has been kind
Speaker 1: of just flopping out there since WrestleMania. I alluded to
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago that maybe it's because she hasn't
Speaker 1: had the great dance partner of Ronda Rowsey hanging around,
Speaker 1: which I think is a big contributing factor. And you
Speaker 1: have Lacey Evans who's been put front and center against
Speaker 1: Becky Lynch. And while some people may really really dislike
Speaker 1: Lacy Evans and thinks she's undeserving, and yes, she had
Speaker 1: a terrible match against Charlotte a number of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Of course it was awful. It was probably the worst
Speaker 1: match of the year. But you need to establish new
Speaker 1: stars and build new stars. You can't just have all
Speaker 1: the time stars against stars. You need to have people
Speaker 1: that are up and coming, and after WrestleMania is the
Speaker 1: perfect time to do it, to build that new star
Speaker 1: for the new year. And I think overall, Lacy Evans
Speaker 1: has done a good job as the heel. I don't
Speaker 1: think she's masterful in the ring. She does need work,
Speaker 1: but that'll come in time. She's got her promo down
Speaker 1: better than most do when they come up from NXT,
Speaker 1: even though she does speak a little bit slow, and
Speaker 1: Becky Lynch alluded to that pretty well on Monday Night Raw,
Speaker 1: but I think she's got it good presence. I don't
Speaker 1: mind her right now is the challenger because I want
Speaker 1: to see Lacy Evans get her ass kicked and that's
Speaker 1: what I want to feel. And Becky Lynch, on the
Speaker 1: other hand, has kind of felt luke warm. I haven't
Speaker 1: got that spark, that energy that I want as Becky
Speaker 1: Lynch really had when she turned heel and turned her
Speaker 1: really into the biggest babyface in WWE, but has since
Speaker 1: cooled off and right now she's I don't think going
Speaker 1: to be getting back to that status when she's in
Speaker 1: a program with Lacy Evans. However, right now I'm fine
Speaker 1: with Lacy Evans and going against Becky Lynch. We all
Speaker 1: know Lacy Evans isn't going to win the championship, at
Speaker 1: least not at this time. So those are my thoughts.
Speaker 1: What do you think about the women's division, and not
Speaker 1: just even Becky and Lacy Evans, but the SmackDown women's
Speaker 1: division as well. Well.
Speaker 4: I think the women's division as a whole has kind
Speaker 4: of I won't see torpedoed, but it hasn't been as
Speaker 4: good as it was pre Wrestlingia because leading up to WrestleMania,
Speaker 4: I would argue that it was much more entertaining than
Speaker 4: the men's division. But since WrestleMania, you know, Charlotte's kind
Speaker 4: of she's been there, but now like the past few weeks,
Speaker 4: she's kind of not been around. Sasha Banks has been
Speaker 4: on a hiatus. We haven't really seen Naomi or Ember
Speaker 4: Moon prominent roles, so it's kind of just been Bailey,
Speaker 4: Becky and Lacy Evans. Becky, I find she's gotten really stale,
Speaker 4: you know. I feel like her promos have just become
Speaker 4: the same thing, calling people.
Speaker 3: Blokes or what have you.
Speaker 4: And I won't say that I'm happy that she's cooled
Speaker 4: off to this extent, but I am also because I
Speaker 4: think people took Ronda Rousey for granted and they didn't
Speaker 4: realize just how good Rowsey was in promos and in
Speaker 4: the ring, and as you said before, she was a
Speaker 4: great dance partner for Becky.
Speaker 3: I personally really like Lacy Evans. Obviously she does need work.
Speaker 4: In the ring, but I think she's hammered down her
Speaker 4: character perfectly. Her promos are good, you understand her standpoint,
Speaker 4: and she's just not quite there to elevate Becky's game.
Speaker 4: I just think that Becky's become just repetitive and it's
Speaker 4: the same thing and we know that people have held
Speaker 4: you down and blah blah blah, and I don't know.
Speaker 4: I just I've had a hard time getting behind Becky lately.
Speaker 4: But as for Lazy, I think she's been the best
Speaker 4: part of the women's division up until Alexa Bliss getting
Speaker 4: back into entering competition, because I think the Alexa Bliss
Speaker 4: Bailey storyline is much more intriguing aside from the fact
Speaker 4: that Alexa Bliss is a raw competitor fighting for the
Speaker 4: Smackdowens title, but.
Speaker 3: We already touched the wildcard rule.
Speaker 4: But as a whole, I think that storyline of Bailey
Speaker 4: and Alexa is much more intriguing than Becky and Lazy
Speaker 4: right now.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I'm glad you brought up Becky and Alexa
Speaker 1: because that's something I wanted to talk to about as well,
Speaker 1: but just to finish up on Becky and Lacy. I
Speaker 1: really think that they as you said, Lacy Evans has
Speaker 1: her character. She's down more than most do and more
Speaker 1: than some more established stars do. And she has come
Speaker 1: up from NXT and made it impact, made it impact quickly,
Speaker 1: and that's what you want. And she feels different than
Speaker 1: most of the women. That's what you want to you
Speaker 1: want to differentiate yourself from the pack. She's done that.
Speaker 1: She's the sassy Southern bell or whatever cute nickname they
Speaker 1: give her. But she plays the part. She goes all
Speaker 1: in that's what I want, and she does it, and
Speaker 1: she's got a really good looking finish. I like the
Speaker 1: woman's right, it's it's nice. It's kind of the female
Speaker 1: version of Big Shows WMD Weapon of Mass Destruction. I'm
Speaker 1: fine with it. I think it's unique. And you know,
Speaker 1: on top of that, Becky, as you said, has kind
Speaker 1: of just spun her wheels. I mean that's kind of
Speaker 1: a good that's a good analogy. She's just there running
Speaker 1: on old fumes, not giving us something new to get
Speaker 1: behind her on. She's just still kind of in WrestleMania
Speaker 1: post match mode, instead of looking ahead and just saying
Speaker 1: the same things you said.
Speaker 3: It good.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's just saying everybody's held me down. I've
Speaker 1: done this all my life. I've put dopes down like you. Okay,
Speaker 1: well come up, we need something more, Becky. Please. Right now,
Speaker 1: I'm starting to lose a little bit of interest in
Speaker 1: Becky Lynch. She's nowhere near how hot she was. If
Speaker 1: you would put her out a ten from how hot
Speaker 1: she was the night after the Royal rumble, I'd say
Speaker 1: she's about a three or a four right now. That's
Speaker 1: based on crowd reaction. That's just based how I feel
Speaker 1: sitting at home watching her. I mean, I'm interested when
Speaker 1: she comes out, but I don't have that unpredictable feeling.
Speaker 1: I don't have the rebellious nature, that instinct that I
Speaker 1: felt when Becky Lynch came out. She's just kind of
Speaker 1: another one of the women, and she happens to be champion,
Speaker 1: and I don't want that for Becky Lynch. As far
Speaker 1: as Bailey and Alexa go Man, that promo they had
Speaker 1: on SmackDown, while they clearly booked it for a work
Speaker 1: shoot promo, it came across very real and I'm sure
Speaker 1: that a lot of that, some of that material was
Speaker 1: instinctual and from their own brains in the moment, and
Speaker 1: that's what I love too. When Alexa noted to Bailey, hey,
Speaker 1: you know you peaked an NXT. What have you done
Speaker 1: since you got here? And boy is that true? Since
Speaker 1: Bailey got here Outside of her being the I don't
Speaker 1: know she was some surprise tag team partner. I forget
Speaker 1: what pay per view. She has just gone up, down, up, down, down, down, down,
Speaker 1: down down, and her and Sasha going back and forth
Speaker 1: and the love you Hate you mode for a year
Speaker 1: and a half and the Bailey this is your life
Speaker 1: that she had with ironically Alexa Bliss a year and
Speaker 1: a half ago. None of that didn't her any favors,
Speaker 1: and the promo they had it brought it all back together.
Speaker 1: It made Bailey human again. It really also kind of
Speaker 1: made me side with Alexa because she had a lot
Speaker 1: of good valid points that as a heel I typically
Speaker 1: don't I'm not supposed to. I feel like I agree
Speaker 1: with and you know see that they see their side
Speaker 1: of it. But they both had some scathing things to say,
Speaker 1: and yes, of course it was a workshoot promo, but
Speaker 1: I don't know, I loved it. What did you think
Speaker 1: about that on SmackDown Life?
Speaker 4: Oh, it was really good. It felt real, it felt authentic.
Speaker 4: I liked I well in general, I've liked the Nikki
Speaker 4: cross element to it. I like that, like, you know,
Speaker 4: the whole manipulation on the part of Alexa Blizz and yeah,
Speaker 4: I just think that a lot of it felt like
Speaker 4: it came from the gut with them. It's made me
Speaker 4: care about Bailey. It's not just like she you know,
Speaker 4: she was the cartoon character and at first it was fine,
Speaker 4: but then the fire dinam quick. But lately, like I
Speaker 4: like seeing her come out just in street clothes and
Speaker 4: jeans and a T shirt and regular girl heels or whatever,
Speaker 4: and it just felt like she's more relatable now, And so.
Speaker 3: It makes me care about Bailey.
Speaker 4: It makes me want to support her and Alexa well,
Speaker 4: she's just always been great as a heel and getting heat.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I'm really invested in this match. I'm looking
Speaker 4: forward to this match as opposed to the raw one
Speaker 4: where I just really couldn't care at this point. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I really like what Bailey and Alexa have done and
Speaker 4: that problem they had ons fact that was amazing, and.
Speaker 1: Like you said in one fell Swoop, they made me
Speaker 1: care about this program more than they have ever since
Speaker 1: they started having a few, and that was years ago too.
Speaker 1: This is not something I want to see all the time.
Speaker 1: I don't need this workshoot style every single time. But
Speaker 1: when it's done in dribs and drabs here and there,
Speaker 1: when you don't see it coming, that's when it's the
Speaker 1: most effective. So just because it was super effective this
Speaker 1: week doesn't mean I want to see it every single week.
Speaker 1: I don't mine the you know, the typical uh wwe
Speaker 1: created promo. Sometimes that's not a bad thing to have.
Speaker 1: I don't want to make it feel like they're reading lines.
Speaker 1: But I also don't need the shoot aspect all the
Speaker 1: time because it just it takes me out of the
Speaker 1: moment I need. I need it occasionally. So yeah, the
Speaker 1: street clothes thing, and while Alexi said it looks like
Speaker 1: you're working at you know, Forever twenty one, which made
Speaker 1: me laugh, it did humanize her, just as it did
Speaker 1: with Drew McIntyre. Not constantly seeing him in street clothes
Speaker 1: or in in his wrestling gear and having him just
Speaker 1: wear jeans and his shirt or whatever just the simple
Speaker 1: thing of that humanizes people quickly, and Bailey was a
Speaker 1: cartoon character Bailey buddies. I just like to hug people.
Speaker 1: I come out and I'm all colorful. I want to
Speaker 1: who's Bailey? I need to know who you are as
Speaker 1: a person and what your mission is. Apparently you're done
Speaker 1: giving hugs, but your Bailey buddies are still here. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't I don't know. But the Nicky
Speaker 1: Cross thing is interesting too. And for Bailey to say
Speaker 1: to NICKI, Hey, do you remember Naya Jacks? What did
Speaker 1: Alexa do to Nia Jacks? Do you remember Mickey James?
Speaker 1: What did she do to Mickey James? How do you
Speaker 1: not see this coming? And interestingly too, I don't know
Speaker 1: if this was by design or not, but Nicky Cross
Speaker 1: never actually punched, kicked, did anything too to Bailey to
Speaker 1: pull her off of Alexa other than just pull her off.
Speaker 1: There was no actual physical exchange between the two, so
Speaker 1: whether Nicky Cross turns on Alexa or not remains to
Speaker 1: be seen, but it was just interesting that they never
Speaker 1: actually had a physical exchange in that moment that she
Speaker 1: could have, and there was there was also a pause
Speaker 1: or a hesitation by Nicki after Bailey had started attacking Alexa,
Speaker 1: So that's just something interesting. But yeah, to take Nicky
Speaker 1: Cross into this, it does add another layer. I don't
Speaker 1: know what the endgame is for Nicky, but I hope
Speaker 1: it ends with Nicky not looking like a fool.
Speaker 4: You know, Matt, you said something in there that I
Speaker 4: want to touch on because it doesn't have to do
Speaker 4: with the women particularly, but you said that it worked
Speaker 4: this week, so I hope they don't keep using it
Speaker 4: and gets diluted because they think we've touched on. When
Speaker 4: Vince McMahon likes something, he beats that thing to death.
Speaker 4: And one thing that I don't understand why he keeps
Speaker 4: going to is Sammy Sane and Kevin Owens. You know,
Speaker 4: I don't understand why that these two constantly have to
Speaker 4: be paired together as just glorified trolls, and because they
Speaker 4: have relatively big names attached to them that like their losses,
Speaker 4: will automatically put over the over guys. And it's just
Speaker 4: been something bothering me that like these guys like I've
Speaker 4: has had seen them been building matches like final time ever,
Speaker 4: culmination of former best friends they won't meet again. Now
Speaker 4: one's on raw one's unsmacked up, but then for some
Speaker 4: reason they're always just went back together as giant trolls.
Speaker 4: And it's just it's bothering me that, like it's been
Speaker 4: going on for so long now, because now we're coming
Speaker 4: up on two years that the whole thing started with
Speaker 4: the angle against ironically Shane McMahon, that that's all that
Speaker 4: they've been and since the days where Sammy Seen was
Speaker 4: actually a somewhat relevant mid card guy and Kevin Owens
Speaker 4: was a competitor against aj Styles for the US title
Speaker 4: and the Universal Championship, and now I just feel like,
Speaker 4: because their whole slightly heeled comedic act work, that that's
Speaker 4: all they use.
Speaker 3: These guys for. And I just feel like these guys
Speaker 3: are being wasted big time. Now.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to remain a little calm here, because
Speaker 1: last night I went I went off on this topic
Speaker 1: that Kevin Owens and Sammy's Ay, they are sorely underutilized,
Speaker 1: and that is being the most mild I can be.
Speaker 1: Do they have such an upside? I don't care if
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon looks at Kevin Owens and says, look on him,
Speaker 1: he's got a beer gut. He can't be the face
Speaker 1: of the WWE. I mean, I feel like that's what
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon is thinking. And I don't know why they
Speaker 1: put him as Universal champion, and since that time after
Speaker 1: Triple H handed it to him, if we all forgot
Speaker 1: he lost to Goldberg and then we have he just
Speaker 1: spiraled down into an abyss and once he was doing
Speaker 1: these promo videos to come back, if you want to
Speaker 1: call him promo videos. He's in a bowling alley with
Speaker 1: his kids, he's at a movie theater and he comes
Speaker 1: back as a baby face and I'm like, all right, cool,
Speaker 1: Like I want to see how this Kevin Owens' babyface
Speaker 1: run goes. And they cut that so quickly that I well,
Speaker 1: I mean everyone said all they shouldn't have done it
Speaker 1: that quick, and I'm kind of torn because we all
Speaker 1: knew the other shoe was gonna drop and it was
Speaker 1: a matter of time when he turned here. Okay, so
Speaker 1: he turns heel, he's back to where we all thought
Speaker 1: he was going to be anyway, But then they just
Speaker 1: have him lose and lose and lose. What has Sammy
Speaker 1: done since he came back and was a critic of
Speaker 1: the critics, which I think has gotten good momentum and
Speaker 1: I actually enjoy It's something different, unique, And they bring
Speaker 1: out an electric chair one week, which made no sense,
Speaker 1: but they had an interaction with fans and it seemed legitimate.
Speaker 1: It didn't seem like they were plants in the audience.
Speaker 1: You get to ask Sammy z Ain questions and he
Speaker 1: attacks the fans and he's the critic of the critics.
Speaker 1: I think that was great, it was original. I am
Speaker 1: enjoying it, and they gave him a lot of time
Speaker 1: to do it. And yet braun Stroman comes out flattens him.
Speaker 1: You know, Kofi Kingston beats him like there. And I
Speaker 1: know wins and losses don't really matter too much in
Speaker 1: the in the world of professional wrestling, this fantasy environment,
Speaker 1: but I can't get behind characters that lose and lose
Speaker 1: and lose and lose and two guys that could easily
Speaker 1: either one be a top guy and I'm talking champion
Speaker 1: just to samoa Jo and maybe we'll touch on Samoojo too.
Speaker 1: You can put samoa Jo in this argument too. All
Speaker 1: three guys, why are they being just just push to
Speaker 1: the side, not given an opportunity to take the ball
Speaker 1: and just go to the end zone when they could
Speaker 1: easily do it. All three are very experienced independent scene.
Speaker 1: They've had their independent scene run. They know who they are,
Speaker 1: they are, they understand the business, they understand the psychology.
Speaker 1: They can work a crowd, they can have amazing matches,
Speaker 1: and yet they lose week after week after week. And maybe,
Speaker 1: and I said this last night, maybe it's because for
Speaker 1: Kevin Owens anyway, that he's being punished by management for
Speaker 1: not going to Saudi Arabia. I don't know, I don't
Speaker 1: know the reasoning, but it is maddening that these three
Speaker 1: guys who could if my god, maybe they're eyeing AW
Speaker 1: because if they ever go to AW and are allowed
Speaker 1: to just creatively do whatever they want, look out. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure they feel handcuffed. I'm sure all three feel frustrated.
Speaker 1: So I'll just stop there.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, and we saw glimpses of the old Kevin
Speaker 4: Owens when you like that vicious heel, and he could
Speaker 4: really be a force to be reckon with Sam He's ay,
Speaker 4: it feels as though like, unless he's just riding shotgun
Speaker 4: with Kevin Owens, he's a nobody to them.
Speaker 3: And it's kind of weird because when he first came.
Speaker 4: Back and he was the critic of the critics, you
Speaker 4: thought like, Okay, they're finally gonna let him go off
Speaker 4: on his own, but no, he just somehow inexplicably used
Speaker 4: the wild card rule again, jumped a SmackDown, and now
Speaker 4: him he's basically riding shotgun with Kevin.
Speaker 3: Like I just said. As for Samoa Joe, it's just
Speaker 3: it's feeling like.
Speaker 4: Bray Wyan all over again, where he's like this vicious,
Speaker 4: like evil heel and like no one can stop him,
Speaker 4: and then he I remember you talked about how like
Speaker 4: Somojo has this aspect that even when he loses, he
Speaker 4: makes you believe that he's gonna come back better than ever.
Speaker 4: But even when he loses now he always has that
Speaker 4: like look of shock on his face. I don't know
Speaker 4: if you know what I'm talking about, where he gets
Speaker 4: rolled up and he's like completely distraught. But it happens
Speaker 4: so often, he loses so much that that look on
Speaker 4: his face.
Speaker 3: It's not even realistic anymore. It's almost funny to me
Speaker 3: because you're just like, how is he shocked? This always
Speaker 3: happens to me. He always loses, and I know.
Speaker 4: That they put the US title back on him, which
Speaker 4: I am happy about because I think he's a guy
Speaker 4: that could benefit from it and the title could benefit
Speaker 4: from him as well. I still find it ridiculous that
Speaker 4: he got it because Raymond.
Speaker 3: S dieror just vacated it.
Speaker 4: I remember you touched on it, Like when has that
Speaker 4: ever happened before? The title never just gets vacated and
Speaker 4: then handed to someone. It always has to be fought for,
Speaker 4: like what happened with Roman Reigns when he had to
Speaker 4: go away for his leukemia.
Speaker 3: So even though.
Speaker 4: They put the belt back on Joe, it doesn't mean
Speaker 4: anything because.
Speaker 3: They just handed it to him.
Speaker 4: But another thing is like do titles mean anything anymore?
Speaker 4: Obviously the two major titles of the Universal and the
Speaker 4: WWE means something. But again, Finn Ballard, besides win against
Speaker 4: ANDRAWNI a Super Showdown, I don't even know if I've
Speaker 4: seen him on television, let alone win a match since
Speaker 4: he's been drafted to SmackDown Samoa. Joe is the US champ,
Speaker 4: but I don't think he's won a match since being.
Speaker 3: The US champ.
Speaker 4: And as for the tag team titles, well, Hawkins and
Speaker 4: Ryder literally lost it their first titled event since WrestleMania,
Speaker 4: and that's that's just ridiculous to me. Like, I think
Speaker 4: people have forgotten that they had these titles and that's why.
Speaker 3: They eventually just put them back on the Revival.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I think Joe at this point is just
Speaker 4: a very big victim of just how badly they use
Speaker 4: the titles right now.
Speaker 1: It's a crime. I mean, I feel like this could
Speaker 1: be a felony of sorts, Like there's got to be
Speaker 1: some kind of penal code for this. It's it's it's awful.
Speaker 1: And Samoa Joe is a guy that could easily be
Speaker 1: a top guy, you know. And when I said that
Speaker 1: about Samoa Joe and his promos, he is you can
Speaker 1: have him lose and his promo the next night would
Speaker 1: make you feel like he won and you want to
Speaker 1: see him you lose again. He's got that ability, and
Speaker 1: that is an ability I don't really know anybody has
Speaker 1: that I can think of beyond Smojoe. It is such
Speaker 1: a good quality. But he loses and loses and loses.
Speaker 1: It's it's as if his one win was a fluke
Speaker 1: win and it happened to be for a championship and
Speaker 1: since then. I mean, he constantly loses at WrestleMania. I said, okay,
Speaker 1: here we go. He beat Raymisterio in like a blink
Speaker 1: of an eye. They're gonna finally strap the rocket to him.
Speaker 1: He's just gonna tear through in the SmackDown Live roster
Speaker 1: and they're just gonna have him be a bulldozer and
Speaker 1: he loses and loses and loses on roll ups and
Speaker 1: roll ups and roll ups, and it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous
Speaker 1: that Smojo would lose on a roll up, the guy
Speaker 1: that nearly beat brock Lesner straight up. So but as
Speaker 1: far as the tag team champions go, if we're gonna
Speaker 1: jump into that realm the revival, yeah, I think it's
Speaker 1: simply because they are associated with Shane McMahon and they
Speaker 1: want to get more heat on that faction that they
Speaker 1: have the Gold and they were told if you bring
Speaker 1: the gold, you can come to the party. Well, they
Speaker 1: brought the gold and now they're invited to that backstage
Speaker 1: champagne lobster whatever it was that Roman reigns ended up crashing.
Speaker 1: But on the flip side, I'm really liking Rowan and
Speaker 1: Brian as champions on SmackDown live and heavy machinery. I
Speaker 1: really think that they are good, formidable opponents for Daniel
Speaker 1: Brien and for Rowan. Rowan, who has been reinvented from
Speaker 1: the really the third wheel of the Wyatt family and
Speaker 1: has been re educated to us as a legitimate threat,
Speaker 1: a legitimate big man, a guy that can take a
Speaker 1: lot of punishment, kick out of finishers, and is the
Speaker 1: heavy for Daniel Brian. And I'm really liking this duo
Speaker 1: the Planet's Champions. I think that Daniel Brian has done
Speaker 1: a great job with his veganism, brought to the max
Speaker 1: to be arrogant and an obnoxious and they're doing a
Speaker 1: really good job. Despite the fact that they are not
Speaker 1: being booked to be anywhere near the focal point of
Speaker 1: the show. They are always a highlight of the show
Speaker 1: because Daniel Brian is so believable and his delivery is
Speaker 1: always very smooth. It's easy to understand and it's they're
Speaker 1: arrogant and the fact that Daniel Bryan has been able
Speaker 1: to pull the wool over fans eyes and in a
Speaker 1: way that you resent Daniel Brian now, a character that
Speaker 1: we never thought we'd hate again is just a tribute
Speaker 1: to the genius and mastery that is Daniel Bryan and
Speaker 1: he's and Rowan is certainly benefiting from this, and that's
Speaker 1: that's always a plus.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Daniel Brian is brilliant. I think he's one of
Speaker 4: the best talkers right now. He's a great wrestler and
Speaker 4: he's just great in whatever.
Speaker 3: Role he does.
Speaker 4: He's really taking the ball and run with it in
Speaker 4: his full blown he'l vegan mode. And I think Rowan
Speaker 4: is really excel that he got a shot and he's
Speaker 4: really like taken advantage of it, and I really it's
Speaker 4: good to see how well they're doing because it seemed
Speaker 4: as though before WrestleMania SmackDown was loaded with tag teams
Speaker 4: and now all of a sudden there's none. You know,
Speaker 4: Jeff Hardy got hurt, so they're so the Hardy Boys
Speaker 4: don't exist right now.
Speaker 3: The USOS went to Raw.
Speaker 4: The New Day have basically been taken out because of
Speaker 4: what's gone on with KOFE. The bar inexplicably dismembered, and
Speaker 4: now Cesarro is off being some weird character on Raw
Speaker 4: that we'll get to.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I really like what they've done on SmackDown.
Speaker 3: Rowan and Brian that is.
Speaker 4: I like how Brian has alluded to the fact that
Speaker 4: SmackDown has no formidable tag team challengers. As for Heavy Machinery,
Speaker 4: I really like them. They feel like an old school
Speaker 4: type tag team. I find them funny too, and they're
Speaker 4: well placed comedy because it's organic, they don't go out
Speaker 4: of their way to but they also are good in
Speaker 4: the ring. I find entertaining and I think it's a
Speaker 4: good kind of feud because obviously Heavy Machinery or rather
Speaker 4: heavier set guys. So Daniel Brian can kind of, like,
Speaker 4: you know, grasp on to that about like the whole
Speaker 4: vegan thing and being healthy and not stuff in your
Speaker 4: face with gluten. But yeah, that's been a really bright spot.
Speaker 4: I've always liked Daniel Brian Rowan's been nice touch, and
Speaker 4: they've had good chemistry with Heavy Machinery.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And while we're on that subject, as you said
Speaker 1: about Cizarrow, though I don't know what they're doing with Cesarrow.
Speaker 1: I don't think Cesarrow knows what they're doing with Czarrow.
Speaker 1: It's just another iteration of them trying to find and
Speaker 1: Cesarrow trying to find who he is. We all know
Speaker 1: he is freakishly strong in the ring. He's a great competitor,
Speaker 1: he is in incredible shape. All of that is true,
Speaker 1: check check check. The problem is he has never been
Speaker 1: able to organically connect with the fans on a level
Speaker 1: that's outside of the tag team of the Bar. And
Speaker 1: even the Bar didn't really like it. Never connected with me,
Speaker 1: like I understood who they were, but I never was saying, oh, hey, yeah,
Speaker 1: I understand what you I mean, I connect, I feel
Speaker 1: what you're doing. They just kind of came up with
Speaker 1: the catchphrase that you know we are we aren't the bar,
Speaker 1: we set the bar, you know whatever, and they never
Speaker 1: just felt like they were something that would be long term.
Speaker 1: They were just in good in ring competitors and announced Czzar,
Speaker 1: as you said it, is doing this whatever he's doing
Speaker 1: with new music. Okay, he's refreshed with new music. I'd
Speaker 1: like to see a promo from him to let us
Speaker 1: know who he is. But his in ring competition on
Speaker 1: Monday Night certainly spoke for itself. And that's where he
Speaker 1: does most of his talking is in the ring and
Speaker 1: in his crazy strength that he you know, what he
Speaker 1: showed against broun Strohman was just otherworldly. Uh, and you
Speaker 1: know he has that ability to go toe to toe
Speaker 1: with anybody and put on a five star match if
Speaker 1: given the time. So I mean, obviously that match was
Speaker 1: really more focused around braunz Strung, who tossed everybody around
Speaker 1: for you know, half the match until he was eliminated
Speaker 1: by two guys who were already eliminated and then hit
Speaker 1: you know, about three finishers on him before he was
Speaker 1: taken out of the match. So what did you think
Speaker 1: about that match and what did you think about Cizarrow
Speaker 1: getting kind of repackaged.
Speaker 3: Well, the match was good, the match was entertaining.
Speaker 4: I think it was like a cool aspect that it
Speaker 4: was the elimination factor. As for Cizarrow, I think it's
Speaker 4: never been in doubt how good he is in the ring.
Speaker 3: I remember, even before the Bar he had.
Speaker 4: One or two really really good matches with John cenn
Speaker 4: Raw and people were always kind of waiting for him
Speaker 4: to break out, And then when he got paired with Seamus.
Speaker 3: I was personally a fan of the Bar. I liked them.
Speaker 4: I've always liked Shamus and I found that they were
Speaker 4: also kind of like an old school like brutish tag team.
Speaker 3: But ever since he's been repackaged, it kind of made
Speaker 3: me realize why he was in a tag team because
Speaker 3: he I don't know who he is.
Speaker 4: I don't know his character is, and I found it
Speaker 4: weird because they feel like there was even confusion between
Speaker 4: him and the creative because when he first started coming
Speaker 4: out on Raw solo post WrestleMania without Seamus, he came
Speaker 4: out using Seamus's music and then they quickly switched it
Speaker 4: to new music. But then for the biggest while, he
Speaker 4: was still coming out with the bar wrestling attire and
Speaker 4: doing the sign coming to the ring while the commentators
Speaker 4: were making no reference to the bar. And it's only
Speaker 4: been the past few weeks where he's got rid of
Speaker 4: the sign and got rid of the attire. So it's
Speaker 4: almost been me just not taking him seriously because obviously
Speaker 4: he's good in the ring and no one can take
Speaker 4: that away from him, but it's just the whole character
Speaker 4: direction just doesn't make sense. He hasn't said a word
Speaker 4: since coming over to Raw and being dismembered from the Bar,
Speaker 4: so I can't get behind him because I just don't
Speaker 4: know who he is. I don't know why he's there.
Speaker 4: I don't know why him and Shamus broke up. I
Speaker 4: know for real reasons. I think Seamus left to go
Speaker 4: fill him teenage Ninja Turtles or something. But just tell me, why,
Speaker 4: tell me what happened, Just tell me anything, you know.
Speaker 4: It could be as easy as when Bobby Rood and
Speaker 4: Chad Gable split and Ruge just said, ah, he was
Speaker 4: weighing me down and I shed two hundred pounds of nothing.
Speaker 3: Okay, at least I get it, at least I know why.
Speaker 4: But like, I have no reason as to why won
Speaker 4: the most successful tag teams over the last two and
Speaker 4: a half years randomly dismembered.
Speaker 3: So yeah, but it's just been kind of hard for.
Speaker 4: Me to get behind him when it's like there's been
Speaker 4: no explanation as to why he's solo.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a funny point. I mean, when you
Speaker 1: see Cizarro outside of a tag team, you just said it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you go, oh, that's why they put him
Speaker 1: in a tag team, and him and Seamus before they
Speaker 1: became the bar. We're having a best of seven series
Speaker 1: and if you remember, they got to game seven, if
Speaker 1: you will, they got to the seventh match, of course,
Speaker 1: and I believe that match ended in a draw, and
Speaker 1: so Mick Foley decided to put them together, and they
Speaker 1: reluctantly were together for I don't know how many months
Speaker 1: before they finally started to gel and just accepted each other.
Speaker 1: And the fans got behind him for a while. It
Speaker 1: was Boo Shamous yay Cesarrow, Boo Shamus, yay Cesarrow, and
Speaker 1: then they just kind of morphed into one and you know,
Speaker 1: outside of their catchphrase, they didn't say a whole lot.
Speaker 1: It was just their catchphrase. And so now that he's
Speaker 1: on his own, he needs to tell us his identity
Speaker 1: and tell us it fast. While you while you kind
Speaker 1: of alluded to it. And I agree that I'll get
Speaker 1: behind him because I like Cesarrow as an in ring performer.
Speaker 1: I respect him so much and he's so good that
Speaker 1: I'll get behind him until they tell me otherwise. But
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get super excited about who he
Speaker 1: is or where he's going until I'm told who he is,
Speaker 1: until they tell me something. But wwe doesn't care about detail,
Speaker 1: And Vince McMahon, you can hear a Mex stage j oh,
Speaker 1: people don't remember that. People don't care. They just want
Speaker 1: to be entertained. Well, here's how you entertain people by
Speaker 1: telling them detail and rewarding them for paying attention to detail.
Speaker 1: But that's not gonna happen. You know, we'll never get
Speaker 1: an explanation, just as And I don't know why I
Speaker 1: keep bringing this up, but it irks me. Charlotte got
Speaker 1: a SmackDown Women's Championship title match a week before WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: yet and she won. I mean, there was no zero
Speaker 1: explanation against Oscar for that. I mean things like that.
Speaker 1: How can you overlook that? How can you not tell
Speaker 1: fans why this is happening or how it's happening. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Cizarro and Seamus breaking up, I don't think is on
Speaker 1: the scale of Charlotte winning the SmackDown Women's Championship a
Speaker 1: week before WrestleMania. But it's that same logic, that same
Speaker 1: mentality that WWE has creatively vince McMahon that we don't
Speaker 1: need to tell him, we'll come up with something later.
Speaker 1: No one's gonna ask, well, we're asking, we're asking why
Speaker 1: wouldn't we want to know? And it's a fundamental problem
Speaker 1: with WWA.
Speaker 4: And you know what, I like that you brought up
Speaker 4: the lack of logic because this is something and it's
Speaker 4: been amplified by the wildcard rule.
Speaker 3: That's been bothering me. Why is it that heels who
Speaker 3: have never come into contact before, or heels that have
Speaker 3: had past beef with each other just because their heels
Speaker 3: they're friends?
Speaker 4: Like why do Sammy Zin and Kevin Owens inexplicably.
Speaker 3: Have the back of Baron Corbyn?
Speaker 4: Why is it that like Baron Corbyn can bump into
Speaker 4: Bobby Lashley backstage and all of a sudden their buddies
Speaker 4: and it goes on to SmackDown shame m Man's walking
Speaker 4: into the building, sammy' zan and Kevin Owens are there
Speaker 4: to greet him and kiss his ass. Do we not
Speaker 4: remember what went on a year and a half ago
Speaker 4: that lasted six months between Sea mcmhon and Kevin.
Speaker 3: Owens and Sammy Zin.
Speaker 4: It's just like I understand the premise of it that
Speaker 4: eventually heals will side with heels and baby best I'm
Speaker 4: the baby faces, but like, let me know why you
Speaker 4: guys are signing like with each other. I always found
Speaker 4: it cool when heels would come into contact with each
Speaker 4: other and they would actually like have a bit of
Speaker 4: beef and say like, oh, you know, like I don't
Speaker 4: like you, but the the enemy of my enemy is
Speaker 4: my friend or whatever it is, but like, just give
Speaker 4: me something, like I just can't get behind, like, Okay,
Speaker 4: they're together because they're two heels. No, why are they together?
Speaker 4: Why is this guy backing this guy? And it's just
Speaker 4: it's too much of just like it's just lazy, like
Speaker 4: oh yeah, like you mentioned about Vince mcmatt Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: they will remember that Sammy Sane and Kevin Owens and
Speaker 4: made the Shae McMahan's life a living hell for five
Speaker 4: or six months on end.
Speaker 3: It's just like, give me something.
Speaker 4: It just can't be so easy as heels are friends
Speaker 4: of heels and babyfaces are friends of babyfaces.
Speaker 1: I think maybe the logic would be, if you're if
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Vince McMahon, why are all he wills
Speaker 1: automatically friends? Maybe his explanation would be, well, fans aren't
Speaker 1: gonna care about two heels fighting each other. There's no
Speaker 1: investment there. They have nobody to get behind. And that's
Speaker 1: probably what he would say, is that's the reason that
Speaker 1: no one would care who wins if they got in
Speaker 1: in any kind of argument or program, because no one
Speaker 1: would care. However, you could create a new star and
Speaker 1: see who the fans would organically get behind by putting
Speaker 1: two heels together. They did that, maybe you remember or
Speaker 1: not with Kurt Angle and Triple H when Kurt Angle
Speaker 1: was getting with Stephanie McMahon and getting a little close,
Speaker 1: but Triple H was still the heel. So do you
Speaker 1: side with Angle? Do you side with Triple H? And
Speaker 1: WW left it up to the fans to decide. That's
Speaker 1: how you created.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and exactly culminated at Summerslime two thousand and a
Speaker 4: triple threat match with The Rock, and it actually happened
Speaker 4: where the Kurt Angle and Triple H brawled for about
Speaker 4: ten minutes before the Rock even got to the ring.
Speaker 4: And now I'm not I'm not like you are right
Speaker 4: because why would heels like go against each other the
Speaker 4: fans women.
Speaker 3: Get behind it. I'm not saying that, but it's it's
Speaker 3: also it's more so in the.
Speaker 4: Fact that, like, why are Sammy Zing and Kevin Ohens
Speaker 4: so behind helping Baron Corbin out?
Speaker 3: Why can heels trying to undercut each other?
Speaker 4: Like I liked it a bit when Baron Corbin tried
Speaker 4: to like take advantage Drew McIntyre in a Number one
Speaker 4: Contenders match.
Speaker 3: Something like that.
Speaker 4: I just I want a bit more of like a
Speaker 4: bit more meat behind the storyline, like explain to me
Speaker 4: why they're helping him. I'm not saying that they have to,
Speaker 4: you know, go against each other, because you are right there,
Speaker 4: I don't think there would be too much emotional investment
Speaker 4: in from the fans. But at the same time, it
Speaker 4: can't just be Okay, well, they're both bad guys, so
Speaker 4: he's gonna automatically come out to help him, like what
Speaker 4: happened at the end of Raw, where like all these
Speaker 4: different people were coming out, like the usos came out
Speaker 4: to help the Fate the the New Day, just because
Speaker 4: they're both good guys, like in the Daniel Brien and
Speaker 4: seth Rawlins match. I just don't like how, just like
Speaker 4: all these different storylines will intertwine and people will side
Speaker 4: with each other just because ones are booked at baby
Speaker 4: faces and the other ones are booked as heels, and
Speaker 4: that's the only explanation we get for it.
Speaker 1: I think it's just reasons. I mean, that's just reasons.
Speaker 1: I mean that you're right that there are no inexplicable
Speaker 1: rational reasons why heels and heels and faces and faces
Speaker 1: are all just we Oh, well, you're on my side
Speaker 1: of the land. Here on my side of the train tracks,
Speaker 1: we all like you. Once you cross over, we automatically
Speaker 1: dislike you. I mean, it's not reality, that's not life,
Speaker 1: but it's the life of WWE's interpretation of professional wrestling.
Speaker 1: So now I do want to get to stomping grounds.
Speaker 1: But before I get into stomping grounds, is there anything
Speaker 1: else that maybe I didn't touch on from this week
Speaker 1: that you wanted to get to.
Speaker 4: Well, there was one little tidbit of SmackDown that happened backstage,
Speaker 4: and it was the whole Apollo Cruise Androtti part where
Speaker 4: you know, Androtti basically god Selina Vega to goat in
Speaker 4: Apollo Cruz and.
Speaker 3: Then he attacked them.
Speaker 4: And I actually liked that story and I'm just like, oh,
Speaker 4: you know, this is like a cool, fresh storyline. And
Speaker 4: then it made me realize, like, you know, because of
Speaker 4: the wildcard rule, all these guys got in this week
Speaker 4: a WWE programming was a minute and a half of
Speaker 4: a backstage segment. But that's why I liked the brand split,
Speaker 4: because guys like Androtti and Apollo Cruz would get screen
Speaker 4: time and it was fresh feuds and those are two
Speaker 4: guys that Androtti much more so.
Speaker 3: Than Apolo Cruz. But those are two.
Speaker 4: Guys that are very good in the ring and I
Speaker 4: think have potential, but they're just buried because Raw and
Speaker 4: SmackDown are constantly being taken up by the same guys
Speaker 4: and the same storylines, and I just feel like, if
Speaker 4: they just let the brand split alone, these are two
Speaker 4: guys that could actually have a really good undercard feud
Speaker 4: and maybe eventually culminating Intercontinental Championship match or Number one
Speaker 4: Contenders match. And again, like, where is Finn Bowler? And
Speaker 4: I think he's also a victim of this wildcard rule.
Speaker 4: So that whole segment backstage made me realize that I
Speaker 4: want to see your wrestlers, and I like a lot
Speaker 4: of the wrestlers are not using and just kind of
Speaker 4: makes me despise the wild card that much more.
Speaker 1: We keep coming back to the wild card, but a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of the source of the problem
Speaker 1: is the wildcard that's been implemented, and that is a
Speaker 1: side effect, a negative side effect. Another that we can
Speaker 1: just tally up on this bandwagon of just terrible ideas,
Speaker 1: is that, yes, because you are now bringing in the
Speaker 1: same predictable wrestlers into each show. Now that takes away
Speaker 1: from the guys that would have gotten the screen time
Speaker 1: to build new stars for the guys that are already
Speaker 1: here to just kind of run the same main storyline
Speaker 1: through and have the leftovers on SmackDown and the real
Speaker 1: the progression of the storylines on Raw and then oh
Speaker 1: the leftovers are smacked down. It's the same thing over
Speaker 1: and over and over now since it's been implemented. And
Speaker 1: guys like Andrade, who, as you said, Andrade is so
Speaker 1: damn good in the ring. He's so damn good. Zelena
Speaker 1: Vega adds so much to his character. I love that pairing.
Speaker 1: They are so good together. Apollo Cruz, who I think
Speaker 1: inarguably may have been one of the i'd say least
Speaker 1: successful NXT call ups since NXT has been a thing,
Speaker 1: and he was actually I believe one of the first
Speaker 1: NXT call ups. Yeah, that could be that the spark
Speaker 1: for Apollo Cruz that he needs in his career going
Speaker 1: against Andrade, who could make him look really good in
Speaker 1: the ring. It was and it is a few that
Speaker 1: I want to see, But it's a blink of an
Speaker 1: eye in terms of the airtime that it's given because
Speaker 1: we got to worry about Shane McMahon and his faction,
Speaker 1: or is Roman Reigns going to come out here. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the same thing as Seth Ronin's going to attack
Speaker 1: somebody from behind with a chair, which I like, but
Speaker 1: again it's it's over exposing the top guys when I
Speaker 1: want to see less of them, which makes it more
Speaker 1: special to see them, and I want to see newer
Speaker 1: stars built. That's the cycle of professional wrestling, and right
Speaker 1: now we're not getting that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's exactly because I remember days of pay
Speaker 4: per views, especially when they were Brad exclusive pay per views.
Speaker 3: Where I would look forward.
Speaker 4: To some of the undercard matches and I would look
Speaker 4: forward to the US title feuds and the Intercontinental Championship feuds,
Speaker 4: Like I find it kind of crazy that, like, yes,
Speaker 4: the match was great, but the US Number one Contender
Speaker 4: Championship match of the Fatal five Way where Ricochet ended
Speaker 4: up winning, I find it kind of insulting to that
Speaker 4: whole group of wrestlers that they were given just a
Speaker 4: week to build a feud with Samojo for a title
Speaker 4: before a pay per view event.
Speaker 3: And as I up several times.
Speaker 4: Sorry, but Finn Baller holding one of the most prestigious
Speaker 4: titles on the main roster is just irrelevant and we
Speaker 4: just don't see him and there's not even a challenger
Speaker 4: for him, Like no one brings up the Intercontinental Championship.
Speaker 4: And that's after years and years and years of the
Speaker 4: Miz repeatedly saying that he was trying.
Speaker 3: To elevate it and make it relevant.
Speaker 4: And again, I just think it all comes back to
Speaker 4: the Wild Carnival because they're just devoting so much time
Speaker 4: to the same three or four storylines and then recycling
Speaker 4: it and as you said, Raw gets the main advancement
Speaker 4: and then SmackDown kind of just picks up the scraps.
Speaker 4: So I just find it really a disservice to a
Speaker 4: lot of these wrestlers who are very talented that they
Speaker 4: can't get the proper airtime. Now obviously, Apollo Cruz, like,
Speaker 4: you know, I wish you'd stop smiling, damn it, you know,
Speaker 4: like it's kind of the.
Speaker 3: Same thing over and over again.
Speaker 4: But maybe if he got a somewhat relevant feud, he
Speaker 4: could become something, I think, Androwdy's one of the best
Speaker 4: up and comers they have, But how are they supposed
Speaker 4: to take that next step and advance them themselves when
Speaker 4: all they get is a minute and a half of
Speaker 4: backstage airtime and a few that we don't even really
Speaker 4: know why it's happening.
Speaker 1: You can't. The answer is you can't. You can't succeed
Speaker 1: with that little airtime. I know that the old adage
Speaker 1: is maximize your minutes. Well when you don't even get
Speaker 1: minutes you get minute, you can't do it. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just not feasible, it's not realistic, and it's not
Speaker 1: fair to expect any performers to excel if they're getting
Speaker 1: that little airtime. And it's unfortunate because I understand that
Speaker 1: there are some wrestling fans out there that don't have
Speaker 1: the patience to build new stars and that they just
Speaker 1: want to see all the big names all the time,
Speaker 1: and they don't care about these people that we don't
Speaker 1: know their names. Well, why don't you learn their names?
Speaker 1: Because eventually the people that you like to see all
Speaker 1: the time, and that's all you care about. You want
Speaker 1: to see your favorite moves and your biggest stars, they
Speaker 1: will be cycled out because Father time wins all the time.
Speaker 1: You need to constantly have people up and coming. You
Speaker 1: need to have that farm system, which is why NXT
Speaker 1: is so brilliant and credit a Triple H for his
Speaker 1: vision and his execution of it, because that is the
Speaker 1: breeding ground for the stars of tomorrow. And so when
Speaker 1: you don't have that mentality on the main roster, eventually
Speaker 1: you're gonna be so reliant and heavy on the top
Speaker 1: stars that you are quote top stars of Roman and
Speaker 1: Seth and Drew. Whatever. What if they get injured, what
Speaker 1: if they decide to leave and their contract expires, they
Speaker 1: go to a different promotion. There are so many variables
Speaker 1: and factors that I understand. You can't get everybody hot
Speaker 1: all the time, but you certainly can add new things
Speaker 1: to their character. You can progress them in different ways.
Speaker 1: There are ways to advance characters and move them along
Speaker 1: and give everybody an equal share of the time that
Speaker 1: is allotted unsmackedown. I know SmackDown's two hours, which is
Speaker 1: why I enjoy the show more. But they need to
Speaker 1: understand that while all the big stars do indeed draw ratings,
Speaker 1: you need to also build new stars, and you can't
Speaker 1: do that if the current stars are sucking up all
Speaker 1: the airtimes. So one more thing I want to get
Speaker 1: to and then I want to talk about stomping grounds
Speaker 1: to get your predictions. What are your thoughts on the
Speaker 1: twenty four to seven Championship still fund kind of corny
Speaker 1: in between, I think.
Speaker 4: That it's done better than I would have anticipated. I'll
Speaker 4: give them that they've come up with some creative things
Speaker 4: to like keep me interested, Like, you know, the whole
Speaker 4: elevator scene is kind of funny. I found the whole
Speaker 4: airplane thing going to Jetta funny how Artruth covered Jenior
Speaker 4: Mahal and.
Speaker 3: Then everyone chased them through the plane.
Speaker 4: I think that given my ultra low expectations for it,
Speaker 4: it's really succeeded. I think that they've timed it properly,
Speaker 4: unlike how when it originally started. I think they've kind
Speaker 4: of reduced how many times they use.
Speaker 3: It on a programming show.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I think even though it started maybe a
Speaker 4: bit too much to just get the point across, I
Speaker 4: think the past month or so they've done a pretty
Speaker 4: good job with it.
Speaker 1: I'll second that. I mean, I was a lukewarm proponent
Speaker 1: of it when Mick Foley introduced it in front of
Speaker 1: my hometown crowd. That gave it no reaction, So congratulations Albany.
Speaker 1: I was a proponent of it, and it was we
Speaker 1: all kind of alluded to it as the PG hardcore
Speaker 1: title because it's got the same rules, and we all
Speaker 1: kind of we all poo poo on what it looks like. You, Oh,
Speaker 1: it looks like awful. I don't need the belt to
Speaker 1: look good. I don't really care about that part of it.
Speaker 1: I don't care what the belt looks like so much
Speaker 1: because it's not a belt that I'm supposed to take
Speaker 1: seriously anyway. But in execution, they are certainly going wild
Speaker 1: with the creative on this, and the creative is. The
Speaker 1: upside is there is no limit to what they could do,
Speaker 1: the scenarios that could happen, and I think that it
Speaker 1: adds a little bit to that unpredictability that Vince McMahon
Speaker 1: is looking for. But at the same time, they need
Speaker 1: to be careful to not undermine their own product with
Speaker 1: such a joke of a championship, and there's that fine line,
Speaker 1: and right now I think they're teetering on it. I
Speaker 1: love our truth as champion. I loved the Drake Maverick
Speaker 1: interaction because Drake Maverick has been going all in on
Speaker 1: his character on social media, putting up wanted signs for
Speaker 1: Our Truth, just saying you know, I'm gonna find you.
Speaker 1: He bumps into him backstage a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: They look at each other and Our Truth takes off.
Speaker 1: They have a really good chemistry right now, at very
Speaker 1: unexpected chemistry with Drake Maverick and Our Truth. And Our
Speaker 1: Truth obviously loses this week because Drake Maverick dresses up
Speaker 1: as Carmela, which was really funny, and Drake Maverick ends
Speaker 1: up tweeting out that you guys don't know how much
Speaker 1: those fake boobs cost or something like that. Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: just the hilarity of it is. It does make me chuckle.
Speaker 1: It is a nice bit of a comedy segment to
Speaker 1: cut through all of the quote serious storylines. I am
Speaker 1: fine with it right now. I think that eventually that
Speaker 1: it will get boring and we'll all go home. My god, Okay,
Speaker 1: what are the doing this week? This is getting boring,
Speaker 1: This is stupid, This is totally unbelievable. I'm sure we'll
Speaker 1: get there. I mean, this has a shelf life, This
Speaker 1: championship does have a shelf life. But for the moment,
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying it. I love the pro the completely impossible
Speaker 1: scenarios that happen. Do I enjoy that our Truth is
Speaker 1: constantly being chased in it by don't know, the same five, six, seven,
Speaker 1: eight guys that aren't having anything going on backstage, and
Speaker 1: they all just chase them in a straight line all
Speaker 1: the time. I mean, it gets a little bit cartoonish,
Speaker 1: but I'm enjoying it for what it is right now,
Speaker 1: and I'm on board it'll eventually, you know, wear itself out,
Speaker 1: and the expiration date will happen. But I'm fine with it.
Speaker 4: One thing about one of the wrestlers that's constantly chasing
Speaker 4: our truth because I think the Our Truth has been
Speaker 4: fantastic doing it. I love what Drake Maverick has done.
Speaker 4: I really enjoyed that elevator scene. I found that pretty comedic.
Speaker 4: But I don't know about you, Matt, but how lost
Speaker 4: does EC three look in every single segment? He looks
Speaker 4: like just completely lost. Like in that elevator scene, I
Speaker 4: remember when everyone's fighting each other, he was literally being
Speaker 4: restrained by the ref, but the ref wasn't even looking
Speaker 4: at him like It's just like it's like he couldn't
Speaker 4: get around the five foot five ref and I just
Speaker 4: he it's almost distracting that like as soon as the
Speaker 4: segment comes out, like I automatically focus on him, and
Speaker 4: he's just just so bad And I don't want to
Speaker 4: be mean, but he's just bad. And he's never even
Speaker 4: said a word. And like, okay, his segment on Raw
Speaker 4: when he got clobbered by Seth but the chair was
Speaker 4: purely funny. But aside from that, just like the twenty
Speaker 4: four to seven Championship moments, like he's so he stands
Speaker 4: out in the worst ways and I just can't understand
Speaker 4: how clumsy he is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is this is a tough one with ease seats.
Speaker 1: As you said with the elevator segment, Yeah, I'm on
Speaker 1: board with that. It made no sense that he couldn't
Speaker 1: get past the referee. It's just preposterous, I mean ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And he when he game to the main roster, I
Speaker 1: believe he was in a very very short program with
Speaker 1: Dean Ambrose. I think he lost one week and one
Speaker 1: another week. The crowd didn't react to him in any
Speaker 1: kind of significant way, and he's just all over the place.
Speaker 1: In the twenty four seven Championship trying to be a referee.
Speaker 1: They don't know what the hell to do with him.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's very clear right now they're going here, there, up, down,
Speaker 1: left and right. And what's very interesting, though, beyond this
Speaker 1: this disaster that he has so far had in WWE,
Speaker 1: is that when they were doing all of the promos
Speaker 1: for hey, we're bringing up new stars, and Lars Sullivan
Speaker 1: was one of the freaks. And obviously he's injured for
Speaker 1: the next six to nine months with a knee injury,
Speaker 1: which is I'm kind of sad about. Honestly. I think
Speaker 1: that when you have three as one of the stars
Speaker 1: of that promo, if you remember, it was just craziness.
Speaker 1: I mean they were talking about all these new stars
Speaker 1: that are gonna come up boom boom, boom, and then
Speaker 1: it slowed down and was EC three walking into a
Speaker 1: room in a suit, and you were like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: they're clearly going to focus on him, because he seems
Speaker 1: to be the focal point of this promo video that
Speaker 1: they aired like four hundred times leading up to all
Speaker 1: of these this change that they were implementing, and since
Speaker 1: then they've done absolutely nothing, zero less than zero with
Speaker 1: EC three. He doesn't look lost. He looks like he's
Speaker 1: in another universe right now. He looks like he's he
Speaker 1: doesn't know what to do, where to go, And I
Speaker 1: really hope that they know and figure out what to
Speaker 1: do with him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it hurts his reputation and more that
Speaker 4: there was so much hype behind him and like, okay,
Speaker 4: his initial feud with Deeve Ambers was underwhelming, but he can't.
Speaker 3: Just pour cold water on him. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 4: I'm not the biggest fan of him, and I wasn't
Speaker 4: as soon as he debuted it. But like, what are
Speaker 4: you saying to the other guys coming up from NXC
Speaker 4: that you build and hype up this guy so much
Speaker 4: and so much and then he's just become such an
Speaker 4: utter joke, Like I don't know how he could ever
Speaker 4: come back from what happened to him on RAW where
Speaker 4: he got obliterated with the chair and then the New
Speaker 4: Day mocks him where again, like come on, really like
Speaker 4: he's that like they were acting as if he was dead,
Speaker 4: Like let's be real, Like I'm all about comedy, but
Speaker 4: after a certain point it just kind of becomes hokey
Speaker 4: and unrealistic. But aside from that, like that segment alone
Speaker 4: buried him. There's no way that he can ever come
Speaker 4: back from this and be a somewhat relevant wrestler or superstar,
Speaker 4: as they like to say. And I just I can't
Speaker 4: understand how that early into this guy's career, especially after
Speaker 4: all of this hype behind him, and you thought that
Speaker 4: they were gonna give him this big push, especially that
Speaker 4: he had that opening feud with Dnamor was obviously Ambrose
Speaker 4: was on his way out, so he wasn't held in
Speaker 4: as fire regard.
Speaker 3: But it's just how could you bury a guy so
Speaker 3: so fast and not even give him a chance to breathe?
Speaker 1: Well, they're doing it. And again, I didn't follow EC
Speaker 1: three too much before his WWE entrance, to be honest
Speaker 1: with you, Like I knew a little bit about him,
Speaker 1: I didn't follow him beyond or before that too much.
Speaker 1: So if you didn't know anything about him before, you
Speaker 1: would just think that this guy is here to be
Speaker 1: used as an enhancement talent. And like you said, he's
Speaker 1: basically laying there like a corpse after a few chair shots.
Speaker 1: Really all he did was get hit in the back.
Speaker 1: You didn't get hit in the skull. Chair shots of
Speaker 1: the skull are gone. I mean, you got knocked out
Speaker 1: from being hit in the back. Really, I mean, and
Speaker 1: then they made a reference to weekend at Bernie's and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. I mean, it was clearly just a
Speaker 1: segment to try to make people laugh or Vince McMahon,
Speaker 1: you know, sitting backstage, you know Nie slapping and chuckling,
Speaker 1: and a lot of this humor seems to be Vince
Speaker 1: McMahon driven, and any nine times out of ten, Vince
Speaker 1: McMahon humor is not the majority of the audience's taste
Speaker 1: in humor. So yeah, it's really just a shame that
Speaker 1: they're doing with him. Find something for him, do anything anything,
Speaker 1: I don't care what it is, but find something in
Speaker 1: stick with it. And right now they don't have a direction.
Speaker 1: So let's get to stomping grounds. And I want to
Speaker 1: start right at the top of the card here, not
Speaker 1: waste any time. I'm gonna go with the Universal Championship
Speaker 1: of Seth Rollins and Baron Corbin. That floating guest referee
Speaker 1: is out there. I think we all know who it's
Speaker 1: going to be, so I won't steal your thunder. What
Speaker 1: are your thoughts on this match? Who's that special guest
Speaker 1: referee going to be.
Speaker 4: If I were to take a guess, I would have
Speaker 4: to guess Elias. But again, I'm not too sure of it.
Speaker 4: You seem more sure than me, but I was gonna
Speaker 4: guess Elias. I think that no matter who the guest
Speaker 4: referee is gonna be, I think Seth Rawlins is gonna win.
Speaker 4: And I just think that Baron Corbin's have a placeholder
Speaker 4: challenger right now.
Speaker 3: I do like what they've done.
Speaker 4: With Baron Corbin, but just not enough to overtake Seth
Speaker 4: Rawlins for the title.
Speaker 1: Yes, I agree with the outcome, so I'm gonna second
Speaker 1: that that Seth Rollins isn't gonna lose. He's on fire.
Speaker 1: Baron Corbin's champion would be a disaster, ratings disaster more
Speaker 1: than it is now. Seth has really got a lot
Speaker 1: of momentum. To use the corporate buzzword, he is on
Speaker 1: a tear and he won it WrestleMania. Again. My argument
Speaker 1: that WrestleMania Championship wins need to stick and this one will.
Speaker 1: So my pick though for referee. And I'm only saying
Speaker 1: this confidently because I had heard someone suggest it and go, oh,
Speaker 1: how is this person not going to be the special
Speaker 1: guest referee, and that is one and only brock Lesner
Speaker 1: as a special guest referee, because if Baron Corbin has
Speaker 1: him as a special guest referee, then it would essentially
Speaker 1: put doom and gloom to Seth Rollins as champion. I mean,
Speaker 1: at least in the story arc of brock Lesner being
Speaker 1: the special guest referee, and if he is and then
Speaker 1: Baron Corbyn, which I think he's going to lose somehow,
Speaker 1: Seth Rollins wins the match, but he'll be beaten down
Speaker 1: and worn down from the match, which would put brock
Speaker 1: Lesner in a very advantageous position which brock Leser would
Speaker 1: want to be in if he was a special guest
Speaker 1: referee to cash in his money in the bank contract.
Speaker 1: Do I think he's going to cash in? Maybe not,
Speaker 1: but the scenario just seems to make sense that brock
Speaker 1: Lesner would be the special guest referee. What do you
Speaker 1: think about that?
Speaker 4: I think that would be great. Do you think it
Speaker 4: would be really cool? I didn't even think about brock Lesnar.
Speaker 4: I was just under the impression that they were going
Speaker 4: to kind of let brock sit a bit and lurk
Speaker 4: in the weeds and aka let him have time off
Speaker 4: that we all know he loves. But no, if that's
Speaker 4: the case, I think it would be the best case scenario.
Speaker 4: It would kind of suck to have him, you know,
Speaker 4: kate the belt away from Seth because one thing I'll
Speaker 4: say about Brock is that they can have another failed
Speaker 4: cash in. So the only reason why I think they
Speaker 4: may not do that is to build up when you
Speaker 4: said they want Seth to run with the belt here
Speaker 4: have a good long title run, but they can have
Speaker 4: another failed cash into the third year in a row,
Speaker 4: or also just diminish the value of the money in
Speaker 4: the bank.
Speaker 3: So I think that's a really cool concept.
Speaker 4: I'm just not sure if they would go with that
Speaker 4: and have Brock failed cash it in.
Speaker 1: Very possible. Yeah, I don't think a failed cash in
Speaker 1: by brock Leaser especially would I don't. I think that
Speaker 1: would be disastrous. As much as nobody really wants to
Speaker 1: see Brocklezer's champion anymore, I think the prestige and value
Speaker 1: of the money the bank briefcase is worth more at
Speaker 1: this point because Seth could come back the next night,
Speaker 1: challenge Brock somehow and even win it back the next
Speaker 1: ton unraw. I mean it's very possible so that you know,
Speaker 1: Brockleaser could cash in, and maybe he does, and maybe
Speaker 1: we just say, okay, good, Brock doesn't have a championship,
Speaker 1: he doesn't have money in the bank, go away for
Speaker 1: a little while. And we keep thinking Brock's just gonna
Speaker 1: kind of go away. And every time we think he's
Speaker 1: gonna go away and sit on his farm in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: he ends up showing up out of nowhere. And I
Speaker 1: like that to a point because it's not predictable. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, Brock Lesnar needs something in his
Speaker 1: character as well. It's just kind of the same old Brock.
Speaker 1: He's Brock freaking Lesnar. I mean, think about who he is.
Speaker 1: He doesn't need to pick people apart at their weakest moment.
Speaker 1: He is the guy that was the UFC champion and
Speaker 1: came in and dominated the sport. He's the guy that
Speaker 1: came in and demolished the WWE stars, the wrestlers. Think
Speaker 1: about who he's beaten. He's beaten Goldberg, he's beaten Big Show,
Speaker 1: He's beaten the Rock. Like, you don't need to have
Speaker 1: Brock Lesnar playing this heel character as this guy that
Speaker 1: oh I'm gonna I'm only gonna cash in when you're
Speaker 1: at your weakest. Brock doesn't need to be that. And
Speaker 1: I know he's a heel, but that's not Brock. I
Speaker 1: need Brock to be Brock, and Brock hasn't felt like
Speaker 1: himself for quite some time now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's why I found it kind of weird
Speaker 4: that he like planned his cash in after the Super.
Speaker 3: Showdown, which I know how you felt about that show
Speaker 3: because I listened to your random about it.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I think that a scenario of brought me
Speaker 4: the ref and then cashing in on vulnerable sent rollins,
Speaker 4: I don't think that would be too good for his character.
Speaker 3: I think, as you mentioned, they should get brought back.
Speaker 4: On the whole train of doing everything face to face,
Speaker 4: beating the hell out the guy's face to face.
Speaker 3: He doesn't need any advantages.
Speaker 4: That's why I did find it a bit weird that
Speaker 4: they put the money in the bank on him so quickly.
Speaker 4: But look look at the braun Stroman how he did
Speaker 4: it last year. Obviously it was a failed cash in,
Speaker 4: but in a similar aspect, he wanted to face Roman
Speaker 4: face to face. So I think Brock will eventually do
Speaker 4: that but I'm kind of expecting something more down the
Speaker 4: line towards SummerSlam a bit because as of right now, well,
Speaker 4: I think people are still like on their heels for
Speaker 4: Brock to come back, because we had what three four
Speaker 4: weeks of.
Speaker 3: Brock consistently being on television for a bit.
Speaker 4: So I think now they want to let people kind
Speaker 4: of forget about Brock a little bit and then finally
Speaker 4: come in and actually surprise people when he does show up.
Speaker 1: Very possible. I mean, that was just a logical choice
Speaker 1: that I was like, oh, because I didn't think of
Speaker 1: it either, And I'm like, how did I not think
Speaker 1: of that? But it would make sense for him to
Speaker 1: come in as a special guest referee. I'm fine with
Speaker 1: a long periods of time without seeing brock Lesner, at
Speaker 1: least in his current incantation. I want to see a
Speaker 1: different brock Lesner, maybe one that, even if he cuts
Speaker 1: his own promos or whatever, they're just short, sweet, to
Speaker 1: the point, because that's where brock Lesner lives and thrives.
Speaker 1: He's never been a good long promo guy. That's why
Speaker 1: Paul Haym is with him and is a perfect mouthpiece
Speaker 1: for him. Yeah, but I would also like to see
Speaker 1: somebody get an advantage on brock Lesner or face him
Speaker 1: face to face and get an advantage without having to
Speaker 1: kick him in the nuts. Like the only way that
Speaker 1: Seth Rollins has been able to get an advantage is
Speaker 1: by kicking him between the legs. That has been the
Speaker 1: only way. And as a babyface, I'm just like, come on,
Speaker 1: even the Undertaker didn't when he faced brock Lesner a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. I don't want that. I want
Speaker 1: to see a baby face be able to go on,
Speaker 1: like you know, Manda Man, toe to toe and be
Speaker 1: able to find a way to get an advantage on
Speaker 1: Brock without having to resort to that. And it's just
Speaker 1: it diminishes the babyface's credibility every time I see it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think that's just it shows just how
Speaker 4: much Stock convinces put into brock Lesner and that he
Speaker 4: wants to build Brock as like this bigger than life
Speaker 4: character that even the best of the best wrestlers need
Speaker 4: to cheat to beat him.
Speaker 3: But you're right, it.
Speaker 4: Takes away from the whole baby face because yes, Seth
Speaker 4: climbed that mountain and finally beat Brock on the grandest
Speaker 4: stage of them all, but like at what.
Speaker 3: Cost did he have to do that? So yeah, I
Speaker 3: would like to see someone be Brock.
Speaker 4: Well, obviously we know Triple H did it and Goldberg
Speaker 4: did it, but like it doesn't always have to be
Speaker 4: the select few that Vince chooses. And as we brought
Speaker 4: up before, like he always relies on like the established legends,
Speaker 4: but like, let Seth beat him clean as Roman did,
Speaker 4: because it always kind of leaves that Asterix beside him
Speaker 4: or that.
Speaker 3: That stain on him. And even now, you.
Speaker 4: Know, like Seth beat the holy hell out of him
Speaker 4: that super showdout, but you did it with a low
Speaker 4: blow and twenty four times you hit him with a chair.
Speaker 4: So again, like it's cool to see him get the
Speaker 4: better of Brock because it shows that he's smart and
Speaker 4: he'll do anything, but it takes to win the title
Speaker 4: and take Brock down, which I could kind of get behind.
Speaker 4: But again, it would be nice to actually see him
Speaker 4: be able to be brought clean and troop baby face fashion.
Speaker 1: So I think we're both on board with Seth retains
Speaker 1: as long as Brock doesn't cash in. Yes, all right,
Speaker 1: So with that said, moving on to the other big
Speaker 1: championship match, be Kingston against Dolve Zigler in a steel cage.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a breath and a pause. What are
Speaker 1: your thoughts?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 4: I think Kofe's gonna win. I think Kofe's gonna win clean.
Speaker 4: Because obviously Xavier got involved in the match at Super Showdown,
Speaker 4: which I liked because it allowed for the storyline to
Speaker 4: advance a bit and set up a rematch.
Speaker 3: I think it's probably going to be the match of
Speaker 3: the night.
Speaker 4: These two guys inside the steel cage is gonna be
Speaker 4: something to be seen. But I think that eventually Kofi
Speaker 4: will come out on top. He's gonna win, and then
Speaker 4: they'll finally close the book on this storyline and move
Speaker 4: on to bigger and better things. But I will add
Speaker 4: one tidbit that I do think that when Brock does
Speaker 4: cash it, it will be on Kofi and not seth.
Speaker 3: Hm.
Speaker 1: I was thinking the same thing. Really yeah, Well, I
Speaker 1: don't know if it'll happen on Sunday night, but people
Speaker 1: keep thinking it's definitely gonna be set. It's gonna be set,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be and you're not even thinking about Kofe.
Speaker 1: And I think it very well could be. And think
Speaker 1: about the heat that that would put on Brock lesn
Speaker 1: to beat Kofee Kingston. That feel good story comes crashing
Speaker 1: down to a guy that is going to hold that
Speaker 1: the WWE Championship, which has a hell of a lot
Speaker 1: more prestige in the Universal Championship does in lineage and
Speaker 1: hold that championship hostage for months or maybe even years
Speaker 1: at a time. I wouldn't put it pat pass Vince
Speaker 1: McMahon to do that, and it could very easily happen
Speaker 1: because we've seen Brock and we've seen Seth a couple
Speaker 1: of times, and now it's time for maybe a new opponent,
Speaker 1: and when the guy we're not thinking of is Kovie Kingston.
Speaker 1: But to the match on Sunday, assuming again Brock doesn't
Speaker 1: cash in on Kofee is I'm looking forward to this match.
Speaker 1: You hit it on the head. This could easily be,
Speaker 1: and should be, on paper, the best match of the
Speaker 1: night if given enough time. Both of them are very
Speaker 1: similar styles, they both sell well. They do have a
Speaker 1: lot of parallels which alluded to, and they do. They
Speaker 1: are both very good in the ring, and if given
Speaker 1: enough time, this could be a classic. And so my
Speaker 1: prediction is Kofe wins hands down, Dolf goes away, and
Speaker 1: so let's get that out of the way. The only thing,
Speaker 1: the only tidbit I have and an issue I have,
Speaker 1: is just the premise of a steel cage match itself.
Speaker 1: And I went off a little bit on this last night.
Speaker 1: I don't understand that why and how escaping a cage
Speaker 1: or walking through a door is a legal way of
Speaker 1: winning a match. Basically, whoever can run away from their
Speaker 1: opponent the fastest or the best wins the match. And
Speaker 1: think about this. All you have to do if you're
Speaker 1: a super athlete is you could throw somebody in the
Speaker 1: other side of the ring, and if you really wanted to,
Speaker 1: you could climb over the cage in the blink of
Speaker 1: an eye. And think about I mean, think about all
Speaker 1: these athletic crazy things that they do, but they just
Speaker 1: somehow can't get up that cage in time and draw
Speaker 1: it out. I don't like the fact that you can
Speaker 1: open a door and walk out and win. In what
Speaker 1: world is that a legal way of winning any sports
Speaker 1: sport situation, Whether I don't care what sport you're talking about,
Speaker 1: in you know, whether it's a competitive sport, professional wrestling,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't make sense. And the fact that we're
Speaker 1: supposed to believe that a steel cage always keeps out interference.
Speaker 1: There's nobody gonna be able to help you. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna have any help. It's just you and me. Well,
Speaker 1: the last time I checked, a steel cage match is
Speaker 1: a no disqualification match, which means the world could come
Speaker 1: in that match, the entire locker room could come in
Speaker 1: that match, and it would still be legal. So it
Speaker 1: just every time I hear that and hear those two arguments,
Speaker 1: it's it just hurts my brain. It should be pinfall
Speaker 1: or submission only inside of a steel cage.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, I've always personally hated the walk through
Speaker 4: your door, the walk through your doorway to victory because
Speaker 4: you're right, like, anyone if they try hard enough, could
Speaker 4: scratch and claw their way out of there.
Speaker 3: Or weasel their way out.
Speaker 4: And I don't think I've ever seen someone actually win
Speaker 4: by going out of the door. I don't so much
Speaker 4: mind the over the top of the cage because at
Speaker 4: least that proves an obstacle, like you have to actually
Speaker 4: climb the damn thing and go over it before the
Speaker 4: guy can come up and stop you.
Speaker 3: But yeah, the whole.
Speaker 4: Like argument of like oh yeah, like there's gonna be
Speaker 4: no more interferences side like oh come on. You know,
Speaker 4: one of the most iconic steel cage matches, well maybe
Speaker 4: not iconic, but one that sticks out in my mind
Speaker 4: is the one that the Rock and Stone Gold ad
Speaker 4: after wrestling its seventeen, when Vince and Triple Ah got
Speaker 4: in the cage and they just beat the holy hell
Speaker 4: out of the Rock and formed the two man Power Trip.
Speaker 4: And I'm just like, Okay, well, what the hell was
Speaker 4: the ply of that they just basically trapped the Rock
Speaker 4: inside and destroyed them.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I've hated that whole narrative and it's.
Speaker 4: Gone on for as long as I could remember about
Speaker 4: like oh well, no one's gonna get in now it's
Speaker 4: just you and me. Then maybe I've just become accustomed
Speaker 4: to it and I don't really, you know, react to
Speaker 4: it the same way anymore. But yeah, I'm with you there,
Speaker 4: the whole notion of being able to walk out of
Speaker 4: the door and win, or that we're supposed to believe
Speaker 4: that no one's cain't get inside, like, and I think
Speaker 4: what makes it worse is that we all know that
Speaker 4: when it's actually a match where no one's getting inside.
Speaker 3: It's the hell in the Cell.
Speaker 4: And I think that makes it a bit more or
Speaker 4: less believable for us because WWE has an exact other
Speaker 4: match that does that exact purpose that the steel cage
Speaker 4: match pretends to do.
Speaker 1: Yep, they do, they do. But as much as I
Speaker 1: would love to make the Helenacell a prestigious match and
Speaker 1: make it only for extremely deserving heated rivalries that you know,
Speaker 1: you've gone from a standard wrestling match, maybe into a
Speaker 1: street fight, then you go to the steel cage and
Speaker 1: the blowoff as a hell in a cell. I mean,
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to happen like that all the time,
Speaker 1: but that to me would be how a natural progression
Speaker 1: of a heated blood feud would end, and that the
Speaker 1: Helen of Cel would be the blowoff of that feud,
Speaker 1: and the Helen of Cel pay per view unfortunately to
Speaker 1: all of the mistique of the Hell in a Cell
Speaker 1: because it's built into the pay per view schedule, so we're,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever few's happened to be going on at
Speaker 1: that time, well, just Sticky in the Cell because it's
Speaker 1: a cute gimmick and it's killed the Hell in a cell.
Speaker 1: To me, the hell in a cell is such a sacred,
Speaker 1: special place that so many amazing matches have happened, so
Speaker 1: many amazing moments, from the very first one with Shawn
Speaker 1: Michaels an Undertaker, which was the very first program that
Speaker 1: I remember watching, and it just that drew me in
Speaker 1: like IMS hooked forever because of that program, all the
Speaker 1: way obviously mcfoley's fall off the cage to Cactus Jack
Speaker 1: retiring at the hands of Triple H and I believe
Speaker 1: it was two thousand when he pedigreed him on top
Speaker 1: of the cell to the Armageddon pay per view and
Speaker 1: Rakishi got choke slammed off of it into like a
Speaker 1: bunch of wood chips. I mean, there's so many things
Speaker 1: that happened inside the cell that are special that when
Speaker 1: you put it into a pay per view schedule completely
Speaker 1: kills the mystique of it. But I'm getting way off track,
Speaker 1: but you're right, they have a structure that could do
Speaker 1: exactly what they're telling us could do. There's no roof
Speaker 1: on the set, on the cage, it's just a it's
Speaker 1: not even a cage by definition, has a roof. This
Speaker 1: is like a four walled you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: what you'd call it. It's not true, a true cage.
Speaker 1: So yeah, they they are making us supposed to believe
Speaker 1: that nobody can interfere. But even in hell and a cell,
Speaker 1: you've seen people hide under the ring up until the
Speaker 1: point when they're supposed to come out. I mean, you've
Speaker 1: seen wacky things happen, but less so. But back to
Speaker 1: this match, I'm really looking forward to it. I think
Speaker 1: they could blow the roof off the place and I'm
Speaker 1: expecting a lot of high spots, a ton of nearfalls,
Speaker 1: a zigzag off the top. I'm expecting some crazy crap
Speaker 1: because these two are capable of it, and I expect
Speaker 1: Kofe to come out on top in the end. So
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre, I am just I'm a
Speaker 1: little bit torn on this. I don't think this one's
Speaker 1: as easy as most people think. And the reason is
Speaker 1: Drew McIntyre has been groomed over the past couple of
Speaker 1: months to be a top guy. Yet Roman Reigns is
Speaker 1: the elder statesman of Vince McMahon being the top guy. Romans,
Speaker 1: he's the big dog, he's the he's the gatekeeper to
Speaker 1: being you know the top guy, but we saw them
Speaker 1: face at WrestleMania, which we're all supposed to forget. This
Speaker 1: time around, I think the program has been built much better,
Speaker 1: much more properly. I'm much more invested in this program
Speaker 1: than it wasn't WrestleMania, which kind of felt like a
Speaker 1: last minute we'll throw these two big guys together and
Speaker 1: they'll have a match. Roman came out on top of
Speaker 1: that match. I wouldn't be so sure that Roman comes
Speaker 1: out on top of this match as revenge. I think
Speaker 1: since this is the first time that they're officially meeting.
Speaker 1: And I say that in air quotes, I say Drew
Speaker 1: McIntyre wins this, and I say that because I think
Speaker 1: Drew needs to win more than Roman does. What do
Speaker 1: you think.
Speaker 3: I'm with you. I think Drew's gonna win this.
Speaker 4: I think that they're fully behind building this stable with
Speaker 4: Shane and Drew and the revival. But I think, like
Speaker 4: you said, I think Drew needs to win more. He
Speaker 4: hasn't really had a big time pay per view victory
Speaker 4: in a while now, and he's and I think they
Speaker 4: want him to be established as an actual threat, not
Speaker 4: just a lackey or just the right hand man of Shane,
Speaker 4: a man. They want him to be his own guy
Speaker 4: and be able to fight Roman Reigns on his own.
Speaker 3: And be able to take him out.
Speaker 4: Now in saying that, I don't think he's gonna win clean,
Speaker 4: I think there will be outside of the ring shenanigans
Speaker 4: from obviously Shane, maybe the Revival, maybe Alias or what
Speaker 4: have you. But I think when it all comes, when
Speaker 4: it all finishes, it will be Drew McIntyre coming on
Speaker 4: top and in some way, shape or fashion. I feel
Speaker 4: like this is all gonna culminate at SummerSlam. But you know,
Speaker 4: Shane gets that win against Roman at Super Showdown. I
Speaker 4: think they're gonna make Roman lose again here due to
Speaker 4: outside interference and just keep Roman's frustrations building and boiling
Speaker 4: and culminate down the line. But as for this match
Speaker 4: on Sunday, I think Drew comes out with the win
Speaker 4: and get some more momentum behind them.
Speaker 1: They have to. It's almost as if Drew has to
Speaker 1: win this because of everything that they've put in front
Speaker 1: of him and everything he's talked about and said. He
Speaker 1: has to back up his words. I don't care if
Speaker 1: it's a clean win over Roman Reigns. And you know what,
Speaker 1: I would actually prefer a clean win. I know he's
Speaker 1: a heel, and heels traditionally win by hooker, crook low
Speaker 1: blows feet on the ropes, refezent looking for an object.
Speaker 1: I want to see Drew outright beat Roman Reigns with
Speaker 1: the Claymore, which has been established as a killer move,
Speaker 1: and it looks like Drew McIntyre is. It looks like
Speaker 1: a shotgun going off. I mean it's sold really well,
Speaker 1: nobody's kicked out of it. It's a money finisher, and
Speaker 1: I would like to see Drew McIntyre outright beat Roman Reigns.
Speaker 1: I would that, to me, would be the most beneficial
Speaker 1: to Drew. It would establish him as a credible threat,
Speaker 1: not just a guy that uses any means necessary. All
Speaker 1: heels don't have to do that. You could be a
Speaker 1: guy that beats your opponent clean as a heel, but
Speaker 1: you're what you stand for is is demonic. It's it's
Speaker 1: just nasty. Who you are as a person is terrible,
Speaker 1: even if you're winning matches clean. And I think Drew
Speaker 1: could do this because it would what it'll do is, yes,
Speaker 1: it'll get him over as a heel, as a credible heel.
Speaker 1: But when he turns babyface, eventually the fans will remember
Speaker 1: that that he was this guy that just came out
Speaker 1: and kicked ass. And now when he flips, you're gonna
Speaker 1: remember that. So of course that's down the line. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't I wouldn't want him to turn baby face for
Speaker 1: a year or two. But I think that Drew needs
Speaker 1: to win, and he needs to win clean and decisively.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and because like I think what you said about
Speaker 4: himentering babyface one day is perfect. I think that they
Speaker 4: need to give the fans something to kate Drew McIntyre seriously,
Speaker 4: because yeah, he's talked a big game and he's been
Speaker 4: a lot of wrestlers on side matches, but like there's
Speaker 4: yet to be that one big time feud that he's
Speaker 4: really culminated in with a victory, because he didn't beat
Speaker 4: Roman at WrestleMania. Sure he had his way with Dean Andrews,
Speaker 4: but we know that Dean Androse was just doing the
Speaker 4: favors going out the door. But yeah, I think that
Speaker 4: for the long term vision of Drew that he really
Speaker 4: needs this win. They've done a great job building up
Speaker 4: to now. I really like.
Speaker 3: What he's like his partnership with Sean McMahon.
Speaker 4: But I do kind of fear that, like, if he
Speaker 4: doesn't get this win, he'll just be viewed as an
Speaker 4: afterthought because it would look kind of straighte like, Okay,
Speaker 4: well Shane could beat Roman, but.
Speaker 3: Drew can't, So yeah, it would hurt his reputation.
Speaker 4: I think that Roman could survive it because you know,
Speaker 4: Roman could just bounce back from anything due to the
Speaker 4: writing and how.
Speaker 3: W W has built him, you know, come back it's
Speaker 3: a rive and lost to Drew McIntyre.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I really think this is a crucial Andrew
Speaker 4: and he really needs this victory to build it hihimself
Speaker 4: in the future.
Speaker 1: Roman is elastic. I think that's a good point to
Speaker 1: bring up. Roman can survive, and he can survive a
Speaker 1: big string of losses because Roman has been established for
Speaker 1: so long in the minds of fans that he is
Speaker 1: a top guy and at any moment, regardless of how
Speaker 1: terrible of a losing streak he goes on who he
Speaker 1: loses to, he could come back at any moment with
Speaker 1: fire in his eyes and just start as wait, let
Speaker 1: me say the tagline, start kicking ass and taking names.
Speaker 1: He could do that. I mean, don't even get me
Speaker 1: started on that forced nonsensical, corporate corporately forced into every
Speaker 1: promo garbage. So that's what I think about that. It's awful.
Speaker 1: But Roman could do that. Roman could easily come back
Speaker 1: regardless of the losing streak, which is why Drew needs
Speaker 1: this tenfold over Roman.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's exactly it.
Speaker 4: Man. You hit it on the head there, because Roman
Speaker 4: just keeping knocked down and he will get up and
Speaker 4: he always will and like even just like the whole
Speaker 4: real life battle he had with leukemia, that he no
Speaker 4: matter how many times he gets knocked.
Speaker 3: Down, he will be built back up. But Drew needs it.
Speaker 4: And I think Drew needs to kind of get the
Speaker 4: jackpack put on him and blown away here in the
Speaker 4: trajectory of you know.
Speaker 3: Succeeding, and I think they're.
Speaker 4: Kind of doing that with with Sea McMahon right now,
Speaker 4: but he also has to find some you know, solo
Speaker 4: success at the same time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. So let's move on
Speaker 1: to the Raw Women's Championship. The Becky Lynch versus Laly Evans.
Speaker 1: We alluded to this a little bit before, So I
Speaker 1: honestly don't have a whole lot to add to this,
Speaker 1: other than I think that this will be a better
Speaker 1: match than their first, which I didn't think was a disaster.
Speaker 1: But it's their second match. They should get to get
Speaker 1: a feel for each other more. They probably will get
Speaker 1: a little bit more time. I think Becky wins and
Speaker 1: I think that's the end of the story. I honestly
Speaker 1: don't have a whole lot to add to this. I
Speaker 1: think just as Dolf will go into the background, I
Speaker 1: think Lacy Evans will fade into the background into another
Speaker 1: program after Becky Lynch beats her here. So what are
Speaker 1: your thoughts on that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, as I said before, I'm a big
Speaker 4: fan of Lacey Evans, but she's not ready yet to
Speaker 4: overtake someone like Becky Lynch. I think Becky's gonna win
Speaker 4: clean and kind of close the book on the story
Speaker 4: for this particular fear. But yeah, we kind of said
Speaker 4: all we had to say before. There's not too much
Speaker 4: to add. Becky wins clean and just closes it off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean case closed. Really, Yeah, I mean there's
Speaker 1: it's very straightforward here, I believe. So all right, what
Speaker 1: about the SmackDown Women's Championship. Bailey and Alexa a little
Speaker 1: more interesting, so you know, you go ahead. What do
Speaker 1: you think?
Speaker 4: I like this story a lot, so I don't think
Speaker 4: it's gonna be as cut and dry. I think that
Speaker 4: it's gonna end kind of in a disqualification of sorts.
Speaker 3: I think that it's going to I think I would
Speaker 3: say I'm not sure who will win.
Speaker 4: I will say Alexa wins via disqualification and warns a
Speaker 4: future title match, because I don't think that Alexa is
Speaker 4: gonna take the belt away from Bailey so soon after
Speaker 4: she won it, and for the women the next pay
Speaker 4: per view after she won it, because they compete at
Speaker 4: Super Showdown. But yeah, I think it's gonna end in
Speaker 4: disqualification match due to Niki Cross getting not a disqualification match,
Speaker 4: but disqualification finished due to Nicky Cross somehow getting involved,
Speaker 4: So no clean finish and just something to result in
Speaker 4: a future match down the line to keep this story going.
Speaker 4: As we both mentioned, we both really like this story.
Speaker 4: I don't think they're quite ready to close it off completely,
Speaker 4: so I would say Alexa wins disqualification, but Bailey keeps
Speaker 4: the title.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like I'm just gonna repeat what you said.
Speaker 1: It's The only thing I would change on that is
Speaker 1: I think it easily and probably will be a disqualification,
Speaker 1: But Bailey wins via disqualification after Nicky you know, unintentionally
Speaker 1: gets caught by the referee hitting her in ahead or
Speaker 1: you know, kicking her or pulling her off the apron
Speaker 1: or something something will cause a disqualification. I don't care
Speaker 1: who wins the disqualification because either way, the championship doesn't
Speaker 1: change hands. But yes, I think that is the case.
Speaker 1: This is the start of the program. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is their first match. It can't be a clean finish
Speaker 1: either way. I believe that it is going to be
Speaker 1: a three maybe longer pay per view match, or a
Speaker 1: pay per view long feud. This could actually go all
Speaker 1: the way to Summer Slam. I really believe that if
Speaker 1: this is done correctly and we have no more Bailey
Speaker 1: This is your Life segments, this could be a program
Speaker 1: that does culminate at SummerSlam. So yeah, this is going
Speaker 1: to be a finish that has nothing clean about it.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be a lot of tomfoolery in this finish,
Speaker 1: and you know that's just WW logic. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: other ways to do it, but based on how WWE
Speaker 1: presents their programs, especially at the beginning of programs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's really the only way that this program
Speaker 1: can start off is thea disqualification or some kind of
Speaker 1: some kind of funky ending.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, because
Speaker 4: if you have a I don't think it'd be wise
Speaker 4: to the belt off of Bailey this way. And if
Speaker 4: Bailey wins, the story's pretty much done. So I think
Speaker 4: that if she wins clean that is, then the story's
Speaker 4: pretty much done. So yeah, I think in some way
Speaker 4: there's gonna be some nonsense that goes on outside, something
Speaker 4: to keep the storyline going and warrants Alexa Bliss to.
Speaker 3: Have another match. And I think that's good.
Speaker 4: As I just said, because these two clearly do have
Speaker 4: chemistry outside the ring. They will have chemistry inside the ring.
Speaker 4: They are two very good in ring competitors. And I
Speaker 4: think the whole wrinkle of the effect of Nikki Cross
Speaker 4: has led to a way more complex story than we've
Speaker 4: just been presented on the surface.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is we've kind of said it all. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is the beginning of a program, So Okay, the
Speaker 1: United States Championshi, Samoa Joe, and Ricochet. I'm gonna toss
Speaker 1: it to you first on this.
Speaker 3: I think Samojo wins here.
Speaker 4: I'm hoping, as you brought up before, that it's a
Speaker 4: start of a long run. I think Rikoshet won that
Speaker 4: fatal five way match to take the first loss to
Speaker 4: Samoa Jo. I don't think Rikoshet is gonna beat Samojo
Speaker 4: at Stomping Grounds to win his first title. I just
Speaker 4: don't think the stars are aligned for that. I think
Speaker 4: that it will be a very good match. I'm looking
Speaker 4: forward to it, but I just don't see how Rikoshet
Speaker 4: comes out. I think it's a good first step to
Speaker 4: first step rather to get to rik Aschet's feet wet
Speaker 4: a bit in the title scene and his first kick
Speaker 4: at the can of the title, but no, there's no way.
Speaker 3: That he can come out here with a victory. I
Speaker 3: think Joe wins.
Speaker 1: So my brain is telling me, don't pick Rikoshet. This
Speaker 1: is a very easy pick. It's a slam dunk. The
Speaker 1: problem is everything that we just talked about a little
Speaker 1: while ago about Samoa Joe and the way that WWE
Speaker 1: treats him. I could see rick Aschet winning this, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to pick him for that reason that WWE
Speaker 1: has not only devalued Samoa Joe to this point, but
Speaker 1: also they don't seem to really care about the United
Speaker 1: States Championship itself, so by Rikoshet winning it, it's not
Speaker 1: the most prestigious. It's not in line with or or
Speaker 1: at the same level as even the Intercontinental Championship. Even
Speaker 1: it's if it's presented to be. It's not. So for
Speaker 1: Ricochet to win this, I think would be I think
Speaker 1: the fans will go nuts. They the fans are behind
Speaker 1: him because he does really crazy, wacky moves even though
Speaker 1: we haven't heard a word from him yet. He is exciting,
Speaker 1: he's fun to watch, all of that, which is true.
Speaker 1: So I think Samoa Joe loses here. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: bet any money on it at all. Then this is
Speaker 1: probably a dumb pick, but I'm gonna go There's always
Speaker 1: that one or two, those one or two matches that
Speaker 1: you think are locks that Vince ends up being going out. No,
Speaker 1: they think this is gonna happen. This looks too predictable.
Speaker 1: We're gonna We're gonna change it up, and this could
Speaker 1: be that one. This could be that one that is
Speaker 1: that's sleeping giant. So I'm gonna go with Ricochet winning
Speaker 1: the United States Championship here to shake things up. As
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon would say, I'm just trying to get in
Speaker 1: that man's brain. And I think that Rikoshet could win
Speaker 1: this and try to bring some life back to the
Speaker 1: United States Championship. And do I want that to happen.
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Do I think that should happen. No, But I could
Speaker 1: see a case of Vince McMahon wanting it to happen.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I mean all the points you just outlined,
Speaker 4: it could very well happen. Like I would have never
Speaker 4: thought in a million years that being Mysteria would have
Speaker 4: beat Samojo for the US title, and just the way
Speaker 4: that Simojo has been treated as all the points you
Speaker 4: just brought out, it's completely realistic. And I have to
Speaker 4: keep bringing myself back down to earth about the US
Speaker 4: title because you're right, it's not that prestigious anymore. They
Speaker 4: don't seem to care about it. It is kind of
Speaker 4: an afterthought. So even if rick A were to win,
Speaker 4: it's really not a big deal. And that would kind
Speaker 4: of stuck for Riccoshet, like his first title win is
Speaker 4: supposed to be this big monumental achievement, but it's the
Speaker 4: US title who no one really cares about. But no, yeah,
Speaker 4: I think that he could go either way. Just based
Speaker 4: on McMahon wine to swerve US. I don't think that's
Speaker 4: a bad pick at all on your part.
Speaker 1: And think about the way Simo Joe Quote won the
Speaker 1: United States Championship. He inexplicably had his long time he
Speaker 1: did rival just handed to him. So that tells you
Speaker 1: what Vince McMahon thinks about the United States Championship. So
Speaker 1: this could Now I'm kind of like talking myself into it,
Speaker 1: but I really believe Rikoschhet could win this. So that's
Speaker 1: my pick. SmackDown Tag Team Championships with Daniel, Bryan and
Speaker 1: Rowan against Heavy Machinery. I think this one is a
Speaker 1: pretty darn good lock and I don't think anybody's gonna
Speaker 1: be surprised by this that Daniel, Brian and Rowan retain,
Speaker 1: and my god, they should retain his. I enjoy Heavy Machinery.
Speaker 1: I enjoy Otis and Tucker, especially Otis, who he's clearly
Speaker 1: the star out of the They're funny, but they're also
Speaker 1: serious when they need to be, and they're legitimate, so
Speaker 1: they're not just a comedy act only. But they're not ready,
Speaker 1: just as Ricochet. It doesn't seem ready this one. Really,
Speaker 1: they are really not ready. And Daniel Brian and Rowan
Speaker 1: are on a roll as the Tag Team Champion champions
Speaker 1: on SmackDown Live, and they're bringing credibility back to the
Speaker 1: tag team division. They are clearly the top team. There's
Speaker 1: just no reason to have Heavy Machinery win this match
Speaker 1: Daniel Brian and Rowan walk away as champions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm with you there. I love Heavy Machinery.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna sound like a macoing you here, but yeah,
Speaker 4: they're just not ready, especially in a SmackDown world that
Speaker 4: the tag team division isn't especially deep. I think Rowan
Speaker 4: and Daniel Bryan are single handedly carrying it and making
Speaker 4: those titles relevant just because of the star power attached
Speaker 4: to Daniel Brian. And give give Rome for addit like
Speaker 4: you brought up before. He's done a really good job.
Speaker 4: But yeah, there's just no logical scenario have hav Your
Speaker 4: Machinery comes out with a win. I think it's gonna
Speaker 4: be a good match. I think it's gonna be a
Speaker 4: entertaining match. I hope that it's not the last match
Speaker 4: these two teams have, but yeah, I think Rowing and
Speaker 4: Daniel Bryan come away with a win here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really have nothing more to add to this.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it'll be an entertaining match. I
Speaker 1: think it'll be you know, physical, It'll be just a
Speaker 1: very I think smooth logical ends with even if it's
Speaker 1: by hook or crook, Daniel Brian just does something underhanded.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm fine with it. I don't care how
Speaker 1: Daniel Brian and Rowan retain. They just need to retain.
Speaker 1: Just end of subject. Uh, New Day and Kevin New
Speaker 1: Day versus Kevin Owens and Sammy Zay your thoughts, you.
Speaker 4: Know, I wish that it was a harder pick that, honestly,
Speaker 4: but as we've seen Kevin Owens and Sammy jam being
Speaker 4: utilized lately, I'm gonna go with the New Day because
Speaker 4: just like how much how buried Zaane and Owens have been.
Speaker 4: But I could see Kevin Owens and Samise play out
Speaker 4: the swerve here beating the New Day. But I just
Speaker 4: feel like the New Day has taken such a bat
Speaker 4: And by New Day, I mean obviously Biggie and Koha
Speaker 4: and Xavier would. I feel like they've taken such a
Speaker 4: back seat to Kofe's title reign that they've almost been
Speaker 4: an afterthought and they they need this win. But then
Speaker 4: you could also say, on the other hand that Kevin
Speaker 4: Owens and Sammy se need the win.
Speaker 3: But I think with all of a sudden done that
Speaker 3: the New Days go.
Speaker 4: Out with the win here just solely based on how
Speaker 4: Zaane and Owens have been booked recently.
Speaker 1: You're you're right. I just I'm trying to talk myself
Speaker 1: into Kevin Owens and Samu's a winning I'm trying to
Speaker 1: come up with a reason and trying to convince myself
Speaker 1: to pick them. I just can't. I can't pick them
Speaker 1: for the fact that they haven't won a match since
Speaker 1: they came back. And yeah that Vince McMahon could this
Speaker 1: could be another one of the swerves that all people
Speaker 1: think that New Day is just gonna win and Kevin
Speaker 1: and Sammy are gonna lose because they've continue to lose.
Speaker 1: I don't think this is a swerve because there's no
Speaker 1: reason to do the swerve in this case. There's no
Speaker 1: championship on the line. Clearly Vince does not think very
Speaker 1: highly of either Kevin or Sammy as long term single
Speaker 1: stars in WWE. So I think New Day wins and
Speaker 1: Xavier and Biggie come out on top. Will I be
Speaker 1: absolutely stunned if Kevin and Sammy win. No, I won't
Speaker 1: because they honestly need the wins more than anybody on
Speaker 1: the roster. But at the same time, look at the
Speaker 1: track record they do. Their track record is awful. It's
Speaker 1: it's abysmal. So I'm gonna go with the New Day
Speaker 1: and it's sad, but that's my pick.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it feels like we're both kind of getting
Speaker 4: depressed here. But yeah, you want it to be more
Speaker 4: of like a hard pick. You want to have trouble
Speaker 4: pick if this pick. But it also it isn't a
Speaker 4: hard pick because you just know that Kevin Owens and
Speaker 4: Semi Zeen are and Tiken seriously in the eyes of
Speaker 4: Vince McMahon and I just it's.
Speaker 3: Really sad to see.
Speaker 4: But yeah, there's just no way that I could see
Speaker 4: them coming out with a win here.
Speaker 1: I can't. I really want to. I'm trying. I'm in
Speaker 1: I do I sound depressed because I am, because I
Speaker 1: can't believe that I'm not having a hard time with this.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to come up with something in my brain,
Speaker 1: but it's it's very depressing. So moving on Raw Tag
Speaker 1: Team Championship, a Revival versus the USSOS, I think this
Speaker 1: one's another one. This card up and down the line
Speaker 1: looks very predictable and it looks like you can make
Speaker 1: a case of no championships changing hands at all on
Speaker 1: the entire card, and I think in general that will
Speaker 1: be the case here, with the exception of the United
Speaker 1: States Championship. Is don't go to dount on a limb.
Speaker 1: But this Raw Tag Team Championship, see how the Revival
Speaker 1: lose them to the USSOS. I just don't. I think
Speaker 1: the Revival, with Shane McMahon behind him and the McMahon
Speaker 1: power behind him and the stable that they're in, they
Speaker 1: don't lose here. I think that the Revival and the
Speaker 1: USO's are gonna have a very good match. This could
Speaker 1: be a sleeper of a match that people are overlooking.
Speaker 1: And again, if given the time, that's the key, they
Speaker 1: could have a very very good match. You know, like
Speaker 1: three and a half maybe even higher out of five stars.
Speaker 1: They could have a hell of a match. I just
Speaker 1: don't know if they'll be given the time and ultimately
Speaker 1: the Revival comes out as champions. What do you think?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think Revival aging come out on top as well.
Speaker 4: I think the USOS can survive the victory as opposed
Speaker 4: to the Revival that although they are multi time tag
Speaker 4: team champions, it seems like every time they have a
Speaker 4: chance to defend the titles, they are unable to, whether
Speaker 4: it be against Gable and Rude or Ryder and Hawkins.
Speaker 3: I think like a big statement.
Speaker 4: Win over arguably the best tag team in ww RE
Speaker 4: right now is needed for them. I think it there
Speaker 4: to drop the titles so soon after winning them, it
Speaker 4: would almost like I wouldn't be able to take them seriously.
Speaker 4: So I think this is a crucial opportunity for WWE
Speaker 4: to allow the Revival to get a big impact win
Speaker 4: against a team like the Users and show that they
Speaker 4: are on that same level with them. So yeah, I
Speaker 4: really think the Revival come out with the win here,
Speaker 4: and they need the win here.
Speaker 1: They do. And again, I'm not a hot potato title fan.
Speaker 1: I don't like title changes for the sake of title
Speaker 1: changes and oh it's newsworthy. I like long reigning champions
Speaker 1: regardless of who's holding the belt, it means so much
Speaker 1: more when the belts change hands. So in this case,
Speaker 1: in this day and age, long term championship rains last
Speaker 1: beyond a pay per view like unfortunately, that is the
Speaker 1: scale and definition of what long term now means. But yeah,
Speaker 1: revival retains. I think you can pretty much take that
Speaker 1: one to the bank as well. And finally, the Cruiserweight
Speaker 1: Championship with Tony Nice versus Drew Ghulac and a Characterzawa.
Speaker 1: What do you think?
Speaker 3: I basically Tony Nice. I like the way that they
Speaker 3: built him.
Speaker 4: I think that when he beat Buddy Murphy at WrestleMania,
Speaker 4: who was a telltale sign that they were serious about him.
Speaker 3: I'm with you.
Speaker 4: I like the long title reigns here, So I think
Speaker 4: they're gonna stick with Tony Niese here. They've built them well,
Speaker 4: and I think they're gonna give him a bit more
Speaker 4: time before he drops the belt.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't have a strong feeling on this, to
Speaker 1: be honest, because I don't have a lot of emotional
Speaker 1: investment in this, and I don't think most people do.
Speaker 1: I mean, however, two or five live they've been putting
Speaker 1: out some good matches as of late. There was some
Speaker 1: controversy in the finish of the Number one Contender fatal
Speaker 1: four way match, so Gulac and Tazau got the opportunity.
Speaker 1: I think Tony Nie retains because he seemed I think
Speaker 1: he's got the most established character in the in the
Speaker 1: cruiserweight division. He's a good champion. As you said, his
Speaker 1: win at WrestleMania was a a statement made by WWE
Speaker 1: to say, hey, we're changing. This is changing of the
Speaker 1: guards here, so we're gonna go with Tony Nice. And
Speaker 1: I think it's Tony Nice for probably the next few months.
Speaker 1: I don't see any reason to take the championship off
Speaker 1: him and just put him in matches, because you know,
Speaker 1: he can have good matches and at the end of
Speaker 1: the day though, he's gonna be the champion, and I
Speaker 1: don't see anything different happening here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And you know, as you brought up, like it
Speaker 4: was a change of the guard, and they gave the
Speaker 4: reins to Tony Nies and just in the fashion that
Speaker 4: the two challengers got put into the match, like the
Speaker 4: controversial finish at the end of the Number one Contenders match.
Speaker 4: I don't think that's the kind of, you know, storyline
Speaker 4: that would calminate in Tony lose event actually losing the championship.
Speaker 4: I think it'd be something of way more of like
Speaker 4: an intense storyline, a one on one storyline for a
Speaker 4: guy like Tony needs to drop the belt. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I think it's gonna be a good match. I think
Speaker 4: it's they're gonna all put on a good show. As
Speaker 4: you mentioned, they've been a good product there lately. But
Speaker 4: I don't think a guy like Tony Niese, after winning
Speaker 4: such a big match against Buddy Murphy will lose it
Speaker 4: in this kind of fashion.
Speaker 1: No, I think it's totally right. I honestly don't have
Speaker 1: a whole lot more to add to this. And it's
Speaker 1: just a shame that they have really defined down the
Speaker 1: cruiserweight division, you know. I just they ww can't seem
Speaker 1: to find that perfect balance of being able to showcase
Speaker 1: this division in a way that feels legitimate and not
Speaker 1: just kind of the stepchild to well, this is the
Speaker 1: main roster, and then we have this little, this little
Speaker 1: side thing of the cruiserweight division. It just doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like it's as important, at least the way they present
Speaker 1: it on air as it should, and that's the problem
Speaker 1: that I have.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and because again I know I always keep bringing
Speaker 4: back up, but I remember how it was in the
Speaker 4: Ruthless Aggression era and how they weren't kind of just
Speaker 4: segregated into their own TV show, and the cruiser weights
Speaker 4: could also be taken seriously, like look at Raymond Sierra
Speaker 4: Eastern as the cruiserweight. I remember the days of Tyjierry
Speaker 4: being a cruisewight and all these guys who were just
Speaker 4: taken more seriously because they could sometimes compete with guys
Speaker 4: on the main roster.
Speaker 3: So I have had a bit of a.
Speaker 4: Hard time taking the cruiserweights seriously because even how they
Speaker 4: treat the Cruiser Eights when they jump up to RAW,
Speaker 4: like it's.
Speaker 3: Almost like they're graduating to the big show.
Speaker 4: So I'm almost like, oh, okay, so is this like
Speaker 4: kind of on the par with NXT. Because when Cedric
Speaker 4: Alexander jumped from two to five Live to RAW, I
Speaker 4: was at the two O five Live there in Montreal
Speaker 4: on his final show, and it was almost like he
Speaker 4: was saying goodbye, he was moving on to bigger and
Speaker 4: better things. So on that respect, I've always kind of
Speaker 4: had a hard time getting emotionally invested into the new
Speaker 4: version of the Cruiserweight division.
Speaker 1: WWE is just not doing what they should be to
Speaker 1: get people to care, because they probably think people don't care.
Speaker 1: But the ironic thing is that people don't care because
Speaker 1: they are showing us they don't care, So how are
Speaker 1: we supposed to care? It's this vicious circle. And I
Speaker 1: just they aren't showing the respect that they should be
Speaker 1: for these athletes that are putting on matches that are
Speaker 1: going overlooked by the majority of fans because WWU is
Speaker 1: not presenting them as as big of a deal as
Speaker 1: they should be, so fans aren't tuning in. And and again,
Speaker 1: it's just like this self fulfilling prophecy of c These
Speaker 1: people aren't paying attention. They don't care. Well, we don't
Speaker 1: care because you're telling us you don't care, So how
Speaker 1: are we supposed to It's just this this, and I
Speaker 1: really believe that that's the psychology going on behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: And it's just it's a shame because of the fact
Speaker 1: of how good some of these guys are. So antony
Speaker 1: anything else that we didn't touch on that you wanted
Speaker 1: to discuss.
Speaker 4: No, I think we covered everything up the bottom, the
Speaker 4: We really touched on all bases this week.
Speaker 3: I find.
Speaker 1: We did. We did, and it's easy. It's crazy how
Speaker 1: fast two hours can go when you're talking wrestling. It's
Speaker 1: it's amazing, Like I'm looking at them like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: probably been an hour, right, No, No, it's been two hours.
Speaker 1: So it's just that's what professional wrestling does. And I'm
Speaker 1: not complaining because that's that's what we love to talk about.
Speaker 1: And it's always great to be able to bring people
Speaker 1: on the show that are so much fun to talk to,
Speaker 1: and it's great to have you here as a co host.
Speaker 1: So but before we let you go, let everyone know
Speaker 1: where they can follow you as an official co host now.
Speaker 4: And you can follow me at aid to Marcus twenty five.
Speaker 4: I'll put out this caution if you're gonna follow me,
Speaker 4: I hope you like hockey because I'm all about that.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you've seen that, Matt, especially with last month
Speaker 4: or so.
Speaker 3: I'm big into hockey.
Speaker 4: But yeah, at a DeMarco's play five with my handle
Speaker 4: and I just want to say thank you again Matt
Speaker 4: for choosing me to be one of the permanent co hosts,
Speaker 4: and thank you to everyone who wanted me to be
Speaker 4: one of the permanent co host I expressed my a,
Speaker 4: my absolute gratitude and it's my pleasure and I can't
Speaker 4: wait to do it again in three weeks definitely.
Speaker 1: I mean it's three weeks flies by. I know it
Speaker 1: seems like a long time, but it'll it'll be here
Speaker 1: sooner than you think. And yeah, if you like hockey,
Speaker 1: it is a good follow I do say that, like
Speaker 1: I am a casual hockey fan. I mean, being from
Speaker 1: the United States, it's not as like rabbit as it
Speaker 1: is in Canada. However, you know, once the playoffs come
Speaker 1: around in NHL gets into the mix here like I do,
Speaker 1: kind of pop in. So if you do like hockey,
Speaker 1: it's a good follow. You should you should definitely do that.
Speaker 1: And Anthony, it's been a pleasure and always good talking
Speaker 1: with you, and we will definitely be in touch and
Speaker 1: you'll be on the show sooner than you think.
Speaker 3: All right, man, have a good night, and can't wait
Speaker 3: to do it again in three weeks.
Speaker 1: Definitely. Take care, Take care,