Speaker 1: Tell you man that astronaut is doing my two hours
SmackDown dance. That's the dance I did when I learned
that SmackDown was going from three hours to two hours,
and you could see why. If you watch this show tonight,
you can see exactly why SmackDown hasn't gotten any better.
But it's an hour or less of what we had before,
So I will always do my dance. You know, we
are about a week away now from SummerSlam, supposedly the
second biggest event of the year. Does it feel like
Summer Slim yet? I don't think so. Tonight's SmackDown didn't
do a whole hell of a lot to get this
guy excited for Summer Slam. I don't know if you're
in the same boat as I am, but what I
was looking forward to was face to face between Cody
Rhoades and Cmpunk coming out of all of the drama
from Saturday Night's main event last weekend and the Summer
Slam kickoff event on Sunday or Punk you know, pie faced,
and I said, finally on Friday, we're gonna get some
real heat between these two. So I was looking forward
most of all on this show to the two of
them in the ring and what they were going to
be talking about, and you know what, shots would be fired,
so to speak between them, what we got tonight was
actually a very tame, face to face. I thought that
for the story they're trying to tell, which isn't really
much of a story. Let's just be honest. But the
best story that they could tell is probably what they're doing,
which is that you have two people who are friends,
they respect each other. But as Cody Rhodes told Sea,
I'm punk tonight. I don't like you. Right, I respect you,
you're my friend, but I don't like you. And you
got punk telling Cody, I think you're paranoid because in
the past, you've had people like and he said this
at the kickoff event, Kevin Ohens and John Cena. Right,
Randy Orton, You've had people who have stabbed you in
the back. You're paranoid. But I told you a lot
long time ago, I'm not going to stab you in
the back. I'm going to stab you in the front,
and that's what I'm doing now. So they kept it
very respectful for the most part, and I thought what
they did was good. It wasn't this knockdown, drag out
memorable promo. They didn't get their zingers in there the
way that Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins did in their
contract signing a few weeks ago. To be honest with you,
they've done a better job of kind of I guess
building heat for their match then Cody and Punk have
done for theirs, which is probably why Cody and Punk
are going to be given the Night one spot in
the main event. If I had a venture, I guess.
So what we got tonight was good, It was not
enough to really kind of light a fire. I think
under things with these two in the way that I
was kind of hoping. But at the same time, it's
like you only have so much to draw from because again,
they've kept these two apart ever since Punk came back
to the company and Cody came back to the company,
and they don't have a whole lot of history together
because they've never really worked together before. And the fact
that they're putting this match together on short notice doesn't
change that. You know, even if they had six weeks
to promote this match, this is pretty much what the
build up would look like. My big takeaway from what
we got tonight was a ligne very early in Cody's
promo where he said, and maybe I'm paraphrasing here, but basically,
I have to beat you at SummerSlam. Now, what does
that remind you of? What does that line remind you of?
Because I know what it reminded me of. I immediately my
mind went to the sit down promo many years ago
between Steve Austin and The Rock and Steve Austin made
it very clear to him I need to beat you.
I need more than anything that you could ever imagine.
That's how much I need to beat you. My takeaway
from the segment tonight is Cody has to go heal
at SummerSlam. Cody came out tonight, he got a very
lukewarm response from the Crab Punk got a much more
you know, kind of warm welcome where they were tonight
in Oakland. And the way that Cody is behaving, the
way that Cody is acting where he kind of does
come off as paranoid. If anybody is going to be
going heel, it has to be Cody Roads. Now, maybe
nobody goes hel Punk as a heel. We know he
can be heel. But I think in this situation. If
somebody was going to turn, it should be Cody Roads.
Cody Roads is going to be infinitely more interesting if
he embraces the dark side, if he goes just full throttle,
pedal to the metal. Let's just embrace this, let's just
go let's go there right. None of this is half assed,
let's he'se it kind of stuff. That's my takeaway. That's
my hope as we go into Summer Slim and that
way you can also prolong this or circle back to
it and do another big match between them. Yeah, maybe
early next year. So that was my takeaway from there.
Face to face tonight, Also on this show, we had
two matches added to the Summer Slim card. I don't
know what the total. What does that bring the total to? Now,
what do we have before eight? Now we have ten,
We're somewhere in that range. We still have a few
more matches left to be added. Again, we have two nights.
We still don't know what matches are going on on
one night yet. But the two matches added tonight include
Sammy Zain. I was getting worried that Sammy was going
to be left out in the cold after being screwed
over it's Saturday Night's made event. If anybody has a
reason to be pissed at Sammy Zain, well, he's going
to have a match at Summer Slim, and it's a
match that has championship implications because it's going to be
a number one contenders match for the WWE title. We
just didn't know who his opponent was going to be
until they decided to put together a random fatal four
way match out of nowhere. I mean, Adam Pierce just
pulled it out of his ass tonight, and this match
was going to send someone to SummerSlam to wrestle Sammy,
and the winner of that match coming out of Summer
Slam will be the number one contender, and that man
is going to be Finn Baller. He was Finn Balor
in the four way tonight. We had him wrestling his
former Judgment Day brother, Damian Priest. Royce Keys, Yes, the
same Royce Keys, who already has a match at SummerSlam.
Let's throw him in there. Although I understand wanting to
get him on the show, he was in his home right.
He's from East Palo Alto. Apparently that's like forty minutes
away from where they were tonight in Oakland. It's still
a little weird because he's got a match, but okay, fine,
and then Trick Williams. And as I saw Trick Williams
come out for the main event in that I realized,
I said, you know, Trick Williams has his own program
going on right now with Carmelo Hayes. In fact, two
weeks ago, Baron Corbin, after years away from WWE, made
a surprise return, and everybody was talking about Baron Corbin
for one night. Last week we had a very quick
video promo from him. This week we had nothing. I'm
watching Trick out there and I'm like, where the fuck
is Carmelo Hayes, Where's Baron Corbin? Why does he not
have a United States Championship match already announced for SummerSlam?
We already know the women's US title is not being defended.
They threw Tiffany Stratton in the ladder match. Where were
those two on this show? I thought maybe there was
a chance that Corbin was going to run in during
the main event, you know, to kind of take Trick
out of the equation, because Trick wasn't winning. Nowhere to
be found, which means that next Friday, We're going to
be twenty four hours out from this Summer Slam show,
and maybe they can scrap something together at the last minute.
Whether it's a triple threat, whether it's a rematch with
Trick and Mellow, I don't know what they're gonna do.
That's me. That's wishful thinking on my part. By the way,
that we're even going to have a US title match
on that show show, I would imagine we will, But
if we're going to, we got nothing. We got nothing.
In reference to that, on the show tonight, Nicki Bella
is back the United States Champion. May not have a
match yet at SummerSlam, but Nicki Bella does. Nicky Bella
has been gone since March. She made a save tonight
for her sister and Page, and it's going to be
a six woman tag team match. This has also been
added to the Summer Slam card. It's going to be
Fatal Influence taking on the Bella Twins and Page. Speaking
of heel turns, we'll talk about that. So that's been
added to the Summer Slam card too. And then we
have this women's ladder match for the Interim Championship, which
is completely unnecessary. Five women are going to be wrestling
for the Fake Belt at SummerSlam, and we had last
week an epic encounter between Jade car Gill and Naya Jacks.
I mean, this was just the Battle of the Titans
last week. Going to be talking about this match for
years to come. Obviously, it was god awful what they
did last week. It wasn't even really a match. What
they did was just it just it was just bad.
It was just bad, bad, fucking lazy television. And Jade
car Gill gets in by disqualification when Charlotte Flair interferes,
the same Charlotte Flair who was so upset with Jade
for injuring her best friend and tag team partner that
she let her emotions get the best of her and
she sent Jade Cargill to the championship match at SummerSlam.
And so Charlotte's reward for involving herself in this match
was to be gifted a qualifying match of her own
tonight against Naya Jacks, who got screwed last week. Guess
what happened. I think we all know who was gonna
win this match. The way they went about doing it,
this is pain bund numbers just lazy television. Charlotte is
going to SummerSlam, Jade is in the ladder match at
Summer Slam. Instead of having a singles match, they've now
put them in the ladder match, where by the way,
there is one spot left open and then we'll have
the full field of five. But I just love how
you know, we had Jade Cargill qualifying Charlotte Flair tonight,
as Charlotte Flair qualified Jade Cargill last week, and so
they're both in the ladder match. You know, we got
a lot of short matches on the show tonight that
still were broken up by just a ridiculous onslaught of
ad breaks at the weirdest times. I don't know what
was going on with the breaks tonight. So we got
nothing in Ring tonight, I'm sorry to say we really didn't,
and I can't even blame the talent for it. It's
not their fault. We got nothing in Ring tonight. We
had a decent enough main event until all of the
interfere into the end from the people who were in
the six man tag team match at Summer Slim La
Night and the USOS and Solo Socoa and Jacob Fatu.
So that was decent enough until everybody started running in.
But that's it. And unfortunately, there really isn't anything else
on this show that is compelling enough to really care.
And so this is where we are right now with
the state of Friday Night SmackDown. Where and again, maybe
for you Gunther and nick All this, maybe that stuff
is something you're really interested in because you want to
see nick All this. You know back in the Ring,
that's kind of cool. You know that's coming up at
summer slim. But you have no good in Ring, no
really good in Ring to sink your teeth into. Not
like when we were having those US title matches, right
at least we had that. We have no real good
in Ring to sink our teeth into, and we have
nothing really exciting story wise. So what are you really
left with? You're left with a shit show, That's what
you're left with, a week out from their second biggest
event of the year. Not really a great place to be.
This is your Friday Night SmackDown review. This is actually
a good place to be. This is the best place
to be. He is right here on Friday nights, because
even when you have a shit show, we try to
make it entertaining. It's your Friday Night SmackDown review. It
is July twenty fourth, twenty and twenty six. I am
the solemn monster. That's right. Look at that? Look at
the acknowledge emoji? Who is that? And Tran see he
knows and Tran actually who was it in the chat?
I don't know who it was. Somebody mentioned this before
and it's actually a great point. I noticed it too
when Cody was out there for his segment. He looked jaundiced,
he looked orange. What was going on with Cody Rhoads tonight?
I've never seen that shade of humid? Well, actually I have,
but yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's funny because
I was watching Unreal and I'm not done with it yet.
I'm like four episodes in. I'm not going to finish
it in time for this weekend probably, But I was
watching got an episode three or four, Chelsea Green, Matt Cardona,
they get featured and there's a shot in the episode
Chelsea is complaining about her husband wearing all that self Tanner,
and she showed a shot of their bed and it
looked like a crime scene. You just see like all
of the self tanner. It's like on the sheets and everything.
I would imagine that that's probably the same with Cody Rhodes.
You know when he gets up in the morning, you
look and it's like, what is this? The man looked
orange on this show. I was trying to look at
the whites of his eyes to see if they were yellow.
I was starting to get concerned. Yes, he's turning it
to Chester Cheeto. Yes he is, like and subscribe super
chats are open. We actually have a brand new fifteen
dollars one speaking of Cody, So that is up right now.
And we got the wheel ready. I had to I
had to grease the wheel. It was making noise when
I would spin it. It was starting to rust a
little bit. So I took an oil can and it's
all ready to go, and we're going to take it
for a spin right now. Find out how many likes
we need for be the booker tonight. This is a
big spin, big spin. Five hundred and thirty likes and
we're at two twenty four. This is going to be
quite the undertaking. It's not impossible. We got some work
to do here. Five hundred and thirty likes, we do
have the bonus goal as well. I shall leave that
up to you guys as we get into this, starting
with Adam Pearce. Adam Pierce is going to have some
more work on his plate because Nick Alldis, at least
until he gets through SummerSlam, is no longer officially the
general manager of SmackDown because that's not allowed. But he
was in the ring with Nick Alldos to open the
show and we were getting ready for the contract signing
for all this's match with Gunther at SummerSlam. But we
had some stipulations that had to be adhered to, and
so first they went and introduced Gunther and he came
down to the ring and he was all smiles here
as he got in. Pierce mentioned that there are certain steps.
So for instance, once Nick Aldis signs on the dotted
line for this match, he will no longer serve as
the general manager of SmackDown and his responsibility will then
become Adam Pierce's responsibilities. He also said that there is
a whole harmless agreement where all this will not be
able to hold WWE responsible for whatever happens when he
is in the ring with Gunther. Alda said he was
ready to accept the consequences of his actions, even if
it meant relinquishing his responsibilities as the GM. Gunh said
that this is going to be the greatest match in
moment in the career of Nick Alldis, but he's wasting
his time with this instead of chasing the championship because
all this didn't know how to do his job. Ever
since Gunther joins SmackDown, all this has had it out
for him and he finally figured out why said that
all this is jealous of him. He knows all this
is a former NWA World champion, but all this never
really made it as a superstar in WWE. He was
dreaming of being here, but it never happened. Meanwhile, Gunther
showed up. He got it. All the records, the money,
the championships, all this had to face not just being
not good enough. But now Gunther is going to make
all this is dream come true. So he went and
signed the contract that he said that he'll have all
this join the list of legends that Gunther has put down.
He mentioned Bill Goldberg, he mentioned aj Styles, he mentioned
John Cena. He said all of his victims were chasing
one more moment. So now Gunther was going to add
him to the list. So all this took the mic.
He said, if Gunther actually believed that he wouldn't be here,
he wouldn't still be here saying it all these things
that he's going down the laundry list, of all these
things that he's talking about, it's almost like he's trying
to convince himself. So he finally figured out gun Thro.
He said, Gunther is projecting because Gunther never thought that
this would actually happen. He thought that he would cheap
shot the general manager, he would pay a fine, he
would move on with his life, all this stuff. Fought
back and he said that Gunther can talk about Goldberg
and Sina and Styles, but he hasn't had a match
in three years. And he said, I've got nothing to lose.
When I beat you at SummerSlam, you go from the
career killer to the man who got made a bitch
by his boss, which is true. This is kind of
where we are now with Gunther, the man who beat
John Cena and his final match, the man who retired
aj Styles at the Royal Rumble, is now wrestling his boss.
And if I had a venture, I guess Gunther is
gonna win. But he is in a situation where he's
wrestling his boss, and if he gets bitched out by
his boss, considering where he was six months ago, seven
months ago, that's going to be pretty sad. For a
guy who hasn't even been in the ring and had
a match in three years, it's not a great place
for him to be. So Gunther attacked him all this
got the better of him. Pierce to get in between
them and separate them, and that gave Gunner the chance
to hit him with a dick kick, and then he
powerbombed him through the contract signing table that was in
the ring. I thought it was an effective segment, you
know again it was It was fine to me. How
much physicality can you really expect between these two. I
didn't know we were going to get much in the way
of physicality. Yeah, but they had Gunther, you know, give
him the power bomb. Not the first time that Gunther
is stepping into the ring with a non active person
in the company, with a non active member of the roster.
Last year it was Pat McAfee. This year it's Nick Alldus, who,
as I said, has not wrestled ever for w W
and has not had any kind of wrestling match in
about three years. But he is, you know, an accomplished
wrestler in his own right. He's got the pedigree, he's
got the resume. He's been there before right well over
a thousand days combined as NWA champion. He's got to
win over Cody. But this is something that most WWE
fans who don't even know they probably be in the
NWA's rap group. You know, they have no fucking idea
what the NWA is. How are they supposed to know.
The audience the WWE has these days very very different
than the audience that they had once upon a time.
This is not what I would call a hardcore audience
who was in tune with all the wrestling history and
all the wrestling knowledge. They hear these things about how
Nick all thisis was a wrestler he wrestled, right. They
mentioned the NWA tonight, because that's all they need to do.
They just give the fans a sense like all you
people need to know. You don't need to know where
he wrestled, or who he wrestled, or what kind of
wrestler he was. They just want you to know he
used to be a wrestler. He never made it to WWE,
and this is the biggest moment of his list, is
bigger than the birth of his child. He's going to
finally get to call himself a WWE superstar, which, in
the context of the show, is the biggest possible thing
that one can do in their entire life. You could
cure cancer, you could save kids from a burning building,
and it still wouldn't be the kind of accomplishment that
it is for you to be a WWE superstar. And
so Nick All, this is finally going to have that
opportunity in Minneapolis, because there's just nothing bigger in the world.
But look, WWE decided to bring him in and bench
him and put him in the GM role, and I
think he's done well, you know, I think he's excelled
in that role. I'm surprised it took this long to
get him in the ring, but good for him. I
know that this is something that he has wanted for
a very long time, you know, even back to when
he was in TNA in the NWA, and so this
has been a long time coming for him. And hopefully,
you know, win or lose, hopefully he comes out of
it healthy and hopefully the two of them can go
out there and have a good, a good showing. Arabian
Night says, I don't remember one great all this match. Ever, Well,
I don't have any memorable TNA all this matches. I
do know he beat Sting, I believe right in Sting's
final TNA match. But in the NWA, especially the stuff
with Cody, and they hit a couple of matches. I
mean they had a match at the first all in
and that was really good, as I recall, So I
would at the very least I would go back and
check that one out. In the back Kathy Kelly, she
was about to give us a medical update on all
this who was taken into the trainer's room when Sammy's
ain hijacked the interview and he talked about winning the
WWE championship, but the powers that be did not want
him to be the champion. And so in just a
matter of days after that, he's on Monday Night Raw,
a show that he's not even on, defending his title
against Cody Roads. And when Cody got taken out the
second corporate poster boy, CM Punk, he showed up ready
to go. And so now Punk and Cody they're set
for Summer Slam. Everybody's all happy, except for Sammy said
that he was champion for eighteen days ago. Eighteen days.
I was gonna say he was champion for eighteen days.
He wishes he was champion for eighteen days. He was
championed eighteen days ago. Now he has no Summer Slam match.
So he's yelling at Adam Pierce who appears, and Pearce
is just fed up. He shouts him down, tells him
to shut up because Sammy wants to be added to
the match at Summer Slim. He says, make it a
triple threat, and Pierce is like, no, the match is
locked in, the main event is set, the main event
is not being changed. But he tells him, I know
you got caught in the crosshairs, and so tonight there's
going to be a fatal four way match, and he
said it's gonna be Finn Balor Roy's Keys, Damian Preez,
Trick Williams. The winner of that match will go to
Summerslim to wrestle you, and the winner of that match
will become the number one contender for the WWE Championship.
So Sammy was not very happy about that he complained
that these four men, they just had to be mentioned
by CMPI. And so now we know why Punk name
dropped them. You remember Punk's promo last week, he name
dropped them. You know, he said, I'm going to defend
my title, Sammy, you deserve a rematch. And he mentioned Priest,
and he mentioned Keys, and he mentioned Trick, he mentioned
everybody except Cody. Those are the four men that they
put in this fatal four way match. So Punk just
mentioned their name and they're getting a shot. First of all,
it is ridiculous that Sammy has to win a Number
one Contenders match. He was the champion, he lost his title.
There are other champions who will lose and they'll get
that automatic rematch. I know, for a while there years ago,
they did away with the whole automatic rematch the thing,
but then it sort of crept back. But then if
you look at what happened at Saturday Night's main event,
he got jobbed. He got jobbed, his boss interfered in
the match and screwed him out of a Summer Slim
Championship match. He shouldn't have to go through anybody. He
has a legitimate gripe to file acclaim okay with upper
management about Nick all this, and the solution should be
that he gets a championship match coming out of Summer Slim.
Why does he have to fight for it? Well, we
know why. The real reason why. The real reason why
is because otherwise he doesn't get a match at Summer Slam,
so we have to go through this facade of there
being a number one contenders match. But in storyline, I
stand with Sammy. The man has a very legitimate right.
But he says, look, because Pierces like take it or
leave it, he goes, fine, I'll take it, but I
don't want any shenanigans. I don't want any funny business,
and Pierce says we're in agreement. So at least he
got on the card. Now we know what Sammy Zane
will be doing at Summer Slim. We had Brie Bella
in a singles match here on this show against one
half of the new Women's Tag Team champions, Laney Reid
of Fatal Influence. Before the match, JC Jane had a mic.
She cut a promo and said, it would have been
perfect if I had a chance to go to Summer
Slim in the latter match to become the interim women's champion.
We would have had all the gold at Page and
Brie Bella that medled in her match last week, and
then she said that she was going to take the
US Championship from Tiffany Stratton in due time. You know,
they could have done that match at Summerslim if they
had played their cards right. That could have been a
Summer Slim match. Anyway, they cut to a commercial break
not even a minute into this. Laney had bri In
positioned later for a superplex, recountered out of it. She
dumped her face first down to the mat. Page then
attacked jac Jane when Jace tried to interfere, and then
Laney countered with a sun or. Brie went for a
sunset flip bomb and Laney countered into what she thought
was the pin. She was holding the ropes for leverage.
The referee saw her, so she stopped her count and
then Brie countered into a pin of her own and
got the three. After the match fatal influence, they went
on the attack on Brion Page. When you can look
but you can't touch. That's what we hear. I'm not
singing it, but we heard it, and out comes Nicki
Bella and she ran to the ring, first time that
we have seen her since March. She got injured on
SmackDown before WrestleMania, shattered her ankle basically or her foot.
I think it was her ankle, but whatever it was,
she ran down to the ring here to make the
save for her sister. Then for Page dropped Jace with
a rack attack and then got on the mind and
she said, it's gonna be me, Brie and Page against
the three of you at Summerslim. So we just added
a new match on to the card. A. We have
a six man tag and we have a six women tag.
We have a men's rumble, we have a women's rumble.
We have a men's chamber, we have a women's chamber.
We have a men's wargames, we have a women's war games.
We have terrible men's booking, we have terrible women's booking.
Everything in this company is fifty to fifty. At least
they're consistent. Most of this took place during the commercial.
I don't even know how I can give an opinion
on this match or grade it or rate it. How
can I fairly do that? Right? I mean, they went
right to commercial. Half the fucking match took place during
the commercial break. There really is nothing to say here
about this match. I'm not a fan of Laney taking
the loss here coming off their title win last weekend,
but they're probably gonna win at Summer Slam, and so
I get it. They wanted to give the baby Faces
something here. The Babyface has already lost their belts. They're
probably gonna lose at the PL so they gave him
a win here. It's really not that big of a deal.
But my thought is this, so Nicki is back, and
my thinking a few months ago was that when we
there she is, I mean, the timing could not have
been any better on that Venom Ktetsu. He's got a
knack for it, coming in with a twenty five dollars
pre mode. Thank you, Venom Catetsu. A few months ago,
after Nicki was hurt, I was thinking, when she eventually returns,
do we get a heel bella Twins where the sisters
basically turned on pay and Page plays the role of
baby Face. But I'm watching this and I'm like, you know,
I would not be against the idea of a Page
heel turn and Page linking up with fatal influence. You
get four members instead of three, and so she goes heel.
I do wonder if someone is turning, if it might
not be Page instead of Nicki. But I almost feel
like there's gotta be something. I don't know. I just
I don't see Page and the Bella's you just kind
of keep them together as friends and everything just you know,
everything's fine. I feel like there has to be something here.
Maybe it's a case where after they lose, you know,
someone is frustrated, whether again, whether it's Nicki, your Page,
and then that's the catalyst for one to turn on
the other. I just feel like there may be a
turn at the end of all this, and I wouldn't
mind it if it was Page. We go to the back.
Kathy is talking to Finn Balor about his fatal four
Way Tonight. Balor thinks about the twenty sixteen summer Slim
ten years ago. Can you believe it? Twenty sixteen when
he had the best and worst night of his career.
Ten years later, he's been scratching and clawing his way
trying to get that glory back. And in the middle
of this promo, Gunther shows up and reminds Balor that
I'm next when it comes to the World Championship and
then he mocks Balor taking ten years for this moment.
It is kind of pathetic, is it not. He had
that Universal title win, he dropped at the very next night,
and he has not touched world gold of any kind
since then. It is quite said. After the break, we
got a recap of the La Knight, Royce Keys, Solo
Socoa stuff that's been going on with the Bloodline to
set up the six man tag at Summer Slim. So
now we go back live. Royce Keys is in the
back and he's warming up. Here's Solo Socoa and shockingly,
he was not wearing red. He's been wearing that red
suit now for like a month and he finally bought
a new one. So he shows up and he's getting
Royce all hyped up. He's talking to him like these
guys are a faction. Yeah, he's talking about him like
he's his newest member of like the new MFTs and
Key says he's happy to be home in the Bay Area.
He's got a big opportunity tonight, Solo said, if you
win Tonight, got a match on Summer Slim Saturday, got
a match on Summer slim. Sunday, La Night shows up
and he says that he hopes Keys wins tonight. He
reminds him, though, keep your eyes open in the back
of your head for some Bloodline bs. Keys then reminded him,
I'm a grown ass man. I take everything I want.
Solo says, they're all on the same team. All the
Bloodline found is an ass whooping at SummerSlam. And he's
cutting the promo here and he's putting over Royce, he's
putting over La, he's putting over himself. He was talking
like Jimmy, or not Jimmy. He was talking like Jay
in this promo. It's almost like their brothers or something.
But we got to see, you know again, glimpses of
Solo Soca his personality in a way that we never
did before when he was doing the Mftist. This is
what I'm talking about, Like, he's just more enjoyable to watch.
He's more fun to watch when he's in this role.
We get happy Solo instead of stoic Solo, you know
what I mean, where it's more serious and he's all
buttoned up and he's got to lead, you know, he's
got to lead his family to victory. This is this
is a version of him that's a lot more tolerable,
and I think it really taps into more of what
he brings to the table that will make him entertaining,
as opposed to before where I didn't find any of
what they were doing entertaining in the least, So more
of that elsewhere In the back, Tiffany Stratton was hyping
up Chelsea Green than wishing her luck ahead of her
qualifying match. Apparently now we have moved beyond the phase
where Tiffany is very standoffish and doesn't really want to
have anything to do with Chelsea. I guess Chelsea is
just she's wonder over. I guess they're like best friends. Now,
Chelsea goes off to get ready for her qualifying match
and Blake Monroe shows up, and shockingly, she didn't attack anybody.
This is all she's been doing for weeks, is just
randomly attacking women on the roster. In the back, she
shows up and she advised Tiffany start worrying more about
your US title and less about Chelsea Green. You know,
forget what I said before about Tiffany and Jase, had
they really played their cards right? Tiffany Stratton wouldn't have
to be in a ladder match this weekend. She would
be defending her United States Championship against Blake Monroe. Instead,
we have no US title match at SummerSlam, and Blake
has not even wrestled the match, not one match on SmackDown. Yet.
She's been showing up and attacking different people. She's been
and cutting little short promos. We're heading into Summer Slim
as she has no match, of course, not because she
has yet to wrestle one. But had they taken the
time to get her on TV, put her in the
ring with some people, let her rack up a few wins,
you could have set up a singles match between these
two for Summer Slim. Again, there's been so many questionable
booking choices. Some of them have been dictated by injuries. Right,
injuries happen, you have to pivot, you have to adjust.
Maybe you have great plans for this person and that
person and they get blown to smithereens and I sympathize
with that, but that doesn't excuse some of these other
decisions that they have made coming into the Summer Slim card.
Certain people who either are not on the show or
they're on the show, but they have belts, but they're
not defending. Like, what is going on here? How do
we not have this as a match at Summer Slim?
Why is Blake just still running around cutting promos and
just beating people up? When did she show up on
this show? Was when Julia? What was before that? Really
in the vignettes, but like in terms of her being there,
like really making an in ring appearance. It was after
Julia beat Keana? How long ago was that? At this point?
I mean, there's really there's no there's no rationale for it.
There really is, There's no excuse for it. Chelsea Green
against Keana James. This was an interim Women's Title Ladder
Match qualifying match. Chelsea hit a rough rider that almost
got her a win. She went for the unpretty Her
counter though by Keana with a super kick and then
a Falcon arrow, but Chelsea kicked out. James had a codebreaker. Chelsea, though,
then slipped out of a samo and drop attempt, hit
the unpretty hurt and got the win. This went three minutes,
So that very brief summation I just gave you, really
was it all that like off from like the full
match it's I'm not exaggerating by that much. This went
three minutes. I don't really have a whole lot to
say about it. It was a match. I'll tell you what.
I am happy to see. I'm happy to see Chelsea
Green get a win and a significant win, because that
win will now send her to Summer Slim. And I'm
sorry it came at the expense of Keana James. What
is there really to say, you know what I mean?
Like she was together with Julia. The breakup that they
did was overdue, but we finally got the breakup. We
had the one match between them, and ever since then
and Julia beat her. Ever since then, they have been
completely directionless. In fact, Julia hasn't even been seen on
the show. She's been Mia. She ain't getting that spot,
that last spot in the ladder match. They're both completely
directionless right now. And you know, again, they broke them
up without having any real plan for what to do
with either one of them. That's the real sin in this.
They knew enough to finally separate them, but then they
were like, oh, well, now, what what's planned b for
the two of them? They're still trying to figure it out.
I'm sure, in the midst of trying to plan the
eventual creative for Tom Brady and Logan Paul, they'll figure
out what to do with some of these women. Again,
I just think about the women's division right now on
this show, and it's not just a Blake issue or
a Keana issue or a Juliet issue. Again, you have
these two women. Like I just said, no direction whatsoever.
Blake Monroe is still going around stalking people in the
back and not wrestling all of this. By the way,
with their champion Rhea Ripley on the shelf since the
beginning of June, which you would think would open up
some opportunities to feature some other people on the show.
Oh shit, we lost Rhea Ripley. We can't build everything
around Rhea Ripley in her Summer Slam opponent. Because Rhea
is off the table. What are we going to do?
And I, like I could picture all the other women,
like Paulo Vak is standing there like, oh my god,
what do we what are we going to do? And
I just see this like horde of women behind him,
like tapping him on the shoulder. Oh, Paul, Paul, I'm
right here, and He's like, yeah, later later, later, we're
trying to figure out what to do right now. But Paul, yeah, yeah,
leave us alone. We're busy right now some other time,
as they all stand behind him like, hey, we're right here,
We're right here. This is the brain trust at work,
our Truth and Damian Priest. They were having a chat
backstage and he was basically Priest, like Royce Keys earlier,
was warming up because he's also part of the Fatal
four Way. Truth comes over and we come to find
out Truth thought their tag team match was tonight. Price
said no, no, no, the match against the war Raiders
for Our Belts and their Triple A tag team titles,
that's next week. So now we have a date on
when that match is going to be. Truth asked him,
are you upset that I use your credit card to
buy hot dogs for the fourth of July? And pre
said they were free, and here comes Cody Rhodes and
Cody says, I heard hot dogs. I like hot dogs. Hm.
He also mentioned Punk and what he had said last week,
and he joked about coming for their tag team titles
because Punk had mentioned that the two of them, him
and Cody, maybe we're going to go after the tag
belts when Punk had his interaction with Damian Priest, so
Cody brought that up again, kind of in a joking way.
Truth thinks that Priest and Cody are just confused, and
he wanders off, So anyway, Truth is out of the picture.
Cody puts over Priests and says it he'll be waiting
for him after he regains his championship at Summer Slim,
and Price said, look, everybody is sick of the same
people at the top, and if you listen, you can
hear light cheers in the background from the fans in
the arena at that comment. So are there are enough
people in the audience to make noise to where they
feel the same way. It is tiresome when you see
the same faces over and over and over and over again.
So that was kind of funny to hear that. Price
said he's coming to drop the champion, whoever it may be,
whether it's Cody or Punk coming out of Summer Slim,
He's going to drop him. And Cody said, look, it
might shock you to hear this, but I like that attitude,
and he walked off. Cody Rhodes was out to the
ring next, got one of the weaker receptions that I
can honestly remember him getting in a very long time,
and he got right to brass tacks. Here he introduced
his summer Slam opponent, the WWE champion CM Punk was
greeted a lot more warmly by the fans here in Oakland.
So Cody. Cody had two mics and he went to
go hand one of the microphones to Punk and he
dropped it. Accidentally dropped the microphone on the mat. It
says like when Hangman Page went to go hand what
was it the trios titles to Samoa Joe and he
accidentally dropped it and Joe flipped out. That's what started
the fucking feud between them, because he dropped the belt. Here,
he dropped the mic, and he was waiting for Punk
to bend over and pick it up, like Bill Buckner
with the tickets that Pete Rose left him in Boston
for WrestleMania. Punk didn't want to bend over. Punk did
not want to bend over for Cody. So he went
over and somebody handed him a brand new microphone, and
he said, it's sad that this is where things are
between the two of them, because it feels like his
friend was acting very paranoid. He didn't want the title
to come between him and Cody. But if Cody's got
another reason for all of this, then, by all means explain.
Cody said they should stop with the word paranoid. He said,
I'm not paranoid, which is exactly, by the way, what
a paranoid person would say. So Cody said, I'm not paranoid.
He said, what happened is Saturday Night's main event. Or rather,
he said, what happened just now is an accident, just
like Punk hitting him with the title belt strap when
he put the belt over his shoulder and to hit
Cody in the face, just like that was an accident.
It's Saturday Night's main event. Cody said he needs to
be Punk for himself. Punk said there doesn't need to
be another reason other than the title, but he said
that he was all ears if Cody had another reason
as to why, you know, he's doing what he's doing
and acting the way he's acting. Cody said, They've done
a lot of these moments, and people have heard him
say that he loves Punk and he respects Punk. Those
two can be true, and so too can this. I
don't like you In twenty eleven, Punk cut the pipe
bomb promo showed everybody that there was another way, and
Cody did everything that Punk talked about. Punk had a
pipe bomb, but then Cody dropped a nuke on the business.
Cody was aware though, that each step he took on
that journey, the fans wanted it to be Punk instead
of him. Damian Priest just told Cody that he was
sick of the same faces on top. But Cody has
done apologizing for everything that he's worked for. He's been
in this ring with the very best, and he doesn't
sweat any of them. Anybody in that locker room, he
doesn't sweat except for one, and that one is CM
Punk Only. Punk puts the chip back on Cody's shoulder,
says he loves and respects Punk, but he doesn't like him.
For this story to have a proper ending, he has
to beat Punk at summerslim I have to beat you.
So Punk asked if Cody just doesn't like that he's
the champion. He knows how big of a shadow he casts,
and a lot of people can get can't get out
from under it. But with Cody, it's not jealousy. They're
just brothers who fight. He's glad that Cody paid attention,
but only history determines whether Cody did it bigger and
better than he did. That's not for him to say.
That's not for Cody to say. It's for the fans
to say. It's for the history books to say, who
did it better. Cody showed Punk that there was a
way back. After leaving, Punk says that Cody can't handle
the pressure of taking the title from someone who he
actually likes, and now he's got to make himself the
victim and everyone else's enemy. He says, if Kevin Owens
and Randy Ord and John Cena are all his enemies,
that makes Punk his only friend, right because those were
all men who turned on Cody. Punk once promised that
he would never stab Cody in the back. He would
stab him in the front. If Cody thinks the only
way this plays out is beating Punk, then it's SummerSlam.
Punk will break his heart. So at that point, Cody
pulled his tie off and he says, I think we've
said all that there is to say. Two of them
are going to be teaming up tomorrow, and I think
he said on Sunday and all the live events. I
guess they have a bunch of live events coming up,
some rare live events between now all the way through
next Thursday. He said at that event on Thursday, he's
going to bring a gift to give to Punk and
then at SummerSlam he's gonna whip his ass. Punk said
that he was going to give him his own gift
at SummerSlam, the disappointment of a loss said, they'll be
tagging on house shows. That's true, and Cody again is
going to have a gift for him. He's gonna save
his gift of for Summer Slim and he's gonna whip
Cody's ass and then he's gonna give him the lesson
that Punk is the best in this ring on this
microphone and not even Dusty's Kid can touch him. And
so that was the mic drop moment for Punk and
he went to go leave the ring and Cody said,
hold up, hold up, Dusty's Kid said, we're really going there.
He says, well, get Kingdom ready right, queue up his music.
And I'm thinking, okay, this is gonna be some big
like zinger that he's got for CM Punk It there's
gonna be some big burn like when Roman Reigns was
telling Seth Rollins that Triple H is his work, daddy,
and the only times that Seth can ever win a
world title is when he's cashing in a money in
the bank briefcase, which I thought was a good line.
I'm waiting to see what Cody has up his sleeve here.
He says, come Summer Slam. Is that like von Wagner,
come Tuesday. I don't know why I just thought of that,
but he says, come Summer Slam, he'll win the title
for a fourth time. And he did the horseman hands
gesture when he did it. Not sure if there's any
significance to that, but he made sure that we all
saw it, and that was it. So there really was
no big burn at the end. It was actually kind
of underwhelming. Frankly, the way that Cody ended this promo.
Punk Punk kind of had him licked there. I thought
that what we what we got between them was it
was good. This wasn't anything that's like, oh my god,
they just sold Summer Slam. It wasn't like a big
money promo. It wasn't I don't know, even the intensity
wasn't there. You know, you got punk and Cody talking
about I love you, I respect you, but Cody says
I don't like you. There was no like we We've
seen fiery babyface promos before from Cody, and we didn't
get that same like intensity here from him or from Punk.
We've gotten it from Punk as well in past promos,
whether it was a promo exchange with Drew McIntyre or
Seth Rollins, or ahead of that World Championship match that
he had earlier this year with bron Breaker. Remember there
was a promo on Raw that Punk cut Breaker wasn't there,
but Punk looked right into the camera. The camera guy
was right in the corner of the ring and he
got right up close. Like there were those moments where Punk,
when you really give him something to work off, he
can knock it out of the park on promos in
terms of just his intensity and that fire that really builds.
We didn't get any of that here. I mean, what
they were saying made sense for the story. They're trying
to tell you have two friends and each guy feels
like he's better than the other, and Cody is telling
him I need to beat you and all this other stuff,
and Punk's accusing him of being paranoid because all these
other people have turned on him, and I'm not going
to turn on you. I'm going to stab you in
the front and not the back. Yeah, that's the gist
of the story they're trying to tell. It's just there
wasn't there just wasn't anything there. I think that really
made you go, wow, Okay, that left an impression on me.
They just if I wasn't sold on this match already,
I'm really sold now. We didn't really get that there
was something missing. But my big takeaway from this is
that Cody should go heal. Cody should go heal at Summerslim.
I don't know if they have the balls to do it,
you know, I mean, it just it feels to me
like there have been times where people have hoped for
a Cody heel turn. They've expected a Cody heel turn,
and it just never felt like the right time. It
felt like it would be a mistake. Now that you
have punk on SmackDown, if they want to turn anybody healed,
this would be the time to turn Cody, and I
think you do that, And depending on what kind of
heel Cody decides to play, everyone's oh homelander Cody, whatever
version of Heel Cody we get, as long as it's
not you know, dashing Cody Rhoades is going to be
a hell of a lot more interesting than what he's
been doing on this show, especially if he continues to
feud with like an extended feud with Punk and they
could kind of play off of each other, then that
would make things a lot more interesting. So I hope
we get to see it. Do they have the balls?
So we had breaking news here. I mentioned before that
there was no Carmelo Hayes, there was no Baron Corbin
on this show, and Arabian Night says after SmackDown, WWE
announced Trick Williams against Baron Corbin at SummerSlam. No Carmelo Hayes,
no Ricky Saints shaking my head, Well, maybe they'll be
added on SmackDown twenty four hours before Summer Slim next week.
They did show Ricky. I think when Trick and Mellow
were wrestling, right, they showed Ricky watching backstage. He's still
tied into this, possibly kind of disappeared, hasn't he. Yeah,
I mean it was just very, very stupid to not
further that on the actual television show and now they're
just throwing that out there. Baron KORbin. He interfered in
the match, and it's weird enough, like he's being inserted
into the Now you didn't mention is this going to
be a championship match. I don't want to call it
a US title match because I don't know for sure
if the US title is on the line. Actually, let
me check. Let's see what's being reported on whether or
not this is actually a title match. Let's see if
there's anything on this. I do not see anything. There's
actually nothing on this right now, so we'll have to
see if it's a title match or not. I can't
I just can't imagine. Carmelo Hayes doesn't get added. He
was getting a match against Trick when Corbin interfered, Corbyn
put both of them down. Why would Mellow not be
involved in this? It should absolutely be a triple threat match.
If it's not, I don't really understand that it is
for the title, That's what I'm being told. Well that
makes even less sense. Yes, rewarding rewarding bad behavior. The
guy who interfered in the match is getting a title match,
and the guy who was in the match who got
screwed out of a potential win, even though it was
a non title match, is not even in the conversation.
It barely make it make sense. Charlotte Flair against Nya
Jacks another interim title or yes, interim title ladder match
qualifier for SummerSlam. Speaking of rewarding bad behavior perfect timing,
who meant you? Roderick said that in the chat perfect
Timing Roderick, Charlotte Flair last week involved herself in Jade's
qualifying match, which she had no business being a part of.
Charlotte was then put in a qualifier of her own
against Nya Jacks. This was their way of trying to
make it up to Naya who got kind of got
screwed last week, and so she's gonna get another chance
to qualify here. As with most of the matches on
this show, there really wasn't much to it. That's the
case pretty much up and down this show. After a break,
Nya headed up to the middle rope. She dropped the
big leg. Flair kicked out, so Naya was looking for
the annihilator. Charlotte got all up under her and delivered
a power b for a near fall. Wade Barrett he
oversold this on commentary. I mean he was. He was
selling this like it was fucking Hogan slamming Andre in
nineteen eighty seven. I'm like, brother, we see this spot
all the time. Give me a break. So Charlotte was
headed up for a moonsaal when out comes Jade and
the baddies. They come out for the distraction. Flair got
thrown out of the ring by NYA, and Nya then
turned to the batties and she didn't want them there either.
She was talking down to them. Meanwhile, back on the
other side of the ring outside, Charlotte took out BFAB,
She took out Mechen by throwing her into the barricade.
She went back into the ring, she knocked Jade off
the apron with a punch. Then Jade got into the
ring and she hit Charlotte with a punch, and then
the referee called for the disqualification, and so this match
is over. We got the lame DQ and then after
the match, Jade laid out Charlotte with a jaded rinse.
Repeat with this nonsense, at least we got more of
an actual match this week between Nya and Charlotte than
we did with Jade and Nya. Last week, Nia went
on a rampage after this. She cleared off the announced
desk and she was swearing up a storm. She kept
yelling that she just got fucked. Multiple times she said this,
and they had a censor at each time, so I'm
sure as soon as she came through the curtain to
the back they pulled her aside to have a conversation.
She was dropping f bombs here like they were going
out of style. I would be upset too if I
were her, just like Sammy's saying, this woman has every
right to be upset. Two weeks in a row, she
has been screwed, or she said, fucked out of a
spot in this ladder match, which actually makes me wonder
now that I think about, Oh my god, I just
realized something. She's now been screwed over twice. They may
just put her in the match. She may be the
one filling that fifth spot because she has a legitimate
claim to a spot in that match. Two weeks in
a row. Now she's been screwed. She may not even
have to wrestle for it. They may just put her in.
We may be looking at Naya Jacks taking off the
fifth spot in that ladder match. You know, Bliss Fan.
I know Bliss Fan was very hopeful, very hopeful. So now,
so wait is she not in the match? Lash Legend
against Julia is the final qualifier next week on SmackDown.
So then Naya Jacks really did get fucked? She really did.
Does how is this allowed to go on two weeks
in a row? This woman got screwed. I mean, say
what you want to about Naya Jacks. You may not
be a Naya jackx fan, you may not want to
see Nia Jackson this ladder match, but she has a
legitimate gripe here. So it's Lash and so Lash is
getting in the So lash Legend will take the last spot. Sorry,
Bliss Fan. I know Bliss Fan was hopeful that Alexa
Bliss would be back in time to get a spot
in the match. It seemed pretty clear when they wrote
her off television that was not going to happen anyway.
The main event of this show fatal four way Damian
Priest against Finn Valor against Trick Williams against Royce Keys.
They were in Keys's backyard, they were not far from
Palo Alto, and they didn't even give him a televised entrance.
He got a jobber entrance. The winner goes on to
wrestle Sammy's Ain at SummerSlam in a Number one Contenders match.
We were not even thirty seconds into this main event
and they cut to a break. Immediately killed the vibe.
This whole show is a vibe killer. This entire two
hours kills the vibe. Late in the match, Trick caught
Priest with a backhand that sent him to the floor.
Balor then dumped Trick out of the ring and then
Lowbridge keys and then Balor hit a flip dive out
onto the pile. Solo Socoa walked out as the show
went to another break, Jimmy and Jay they made their
way out. They attacked Solo after the break. La Knight's
entrance music played, but he had enough sense to come
out of the crowd. At least he didn't slip and
fall this time, and he attacked the ussos who were
busy watching for him, looking towards the stage. Solo at night.
They fought the usos to the back. Meanwhile, in the ring,
Priest put Trick down with the South of Heaven Choked
slim Keys, though stopped Priest from going for the pin. Keys,
put Priest down with a spinebuster, had him beat when
Jacob Fatu appeared at ringside and he pulled him out
of the ring at the last minute. Fatu worked him over,
hit Keys with a running hippotack. Keys was seated up
against the timekeeper's barricade and Fatu built built up ahead
of Steam. He came in with the running hip attack
inside Balor hit Priest with a shotgun dropkick, followed up
with the double stomp off the top Coup de grass.
Thanks for coming Finn Balor. He leaves Pinn Balor at
home again and actually picks up the win. I think,
legitimately it has been years since Finn Balor has strung
together this many consecutive wins, and it's nice that he
got himself a match at Summer Slim. How about that
it's actually gonna have a singles match on that show.
Same for Sammy Zayin. I legitimately didn't think he was
gonna have a match on the card, and so now
you've got Baler against Zane. You know what, It's a
I think a perfectly solid addition to the middle of
that card with main event implications. Because the winner is
going to get a World Championship match, and honestly, I
could see that match going either way. You would think
Sammy would win, but they've really teased Balor going for
the belt. There's been some backstage interactions with Punk and
I think Cody, so it's probably gonna be Sammy, but honestly,
it could go either way. But at least they have
a match on the card. The rest of this show
didn't do a whole hell of a lot to get
me excited for the Summer Slam Show. This Summer Slam
Show on paper, you look at some of the matches,
and there are matches on this card that I know
are going to be really good matches like Cody and
Punk is going to be really good. Roman and Seth
is going to be really good. Oba and Brock their
first two matches have been fun. Now you put them
in the cell. I'm excited for that match to see
what they can do inside the cell. Penta and Chad
Gable is a match that I'm looking forward to. This
should be the big crowning moment for Chad Gable, right,
So that's why that's four matches, And then you look
at some of the other ones on the show, and
they have potentials. So it's one of those situations where
I think the talent will go out there if they're
given the time to do so. I just remember whatever
night it was or WrestleMania this year where every match,
not every match, but like most of the matches got
like seven minutes. Hopefully we don't have a repeat of that.
If they have the time to go out there and
do what they do, they can have a really good night.
But in terms of the storylines, in terms of all
the hype to get you all, you know, all the
promotion to get you hyped up for this show, and
it's a big one. You know, it's summer slant. It's
just it's missing. It's missing, and these shows are just
so uninspired. SmackDown is the worst defender of mall. Nothing
has changed in that regard. Punk's on the show now. Punk,
I think did a lot to help elevate Raw. I'm
hopeful that he'll be able to help out SmackDown. He
hasn't been there long enough to really have made a
dent yet, but I think having him on the show,
if they I mean again, if they can get Kevin
Owens back in the next few months. I was thinking
about Naomi too, because they mentioned her unreal you know,
when she had to step away for the pregnancy, and
we're coming up on a year. You know, next month
is going to be one full year. And even in
her promo when she left, she said, you know, nine
months from now, I'll be back, and you knew it
wasn't going to be nine months. I don't know how
far along she would have been at that point. Naomi's
another one, though, or in the next few months potentially,
you know, and maybe it won't be until the Rumble.
You know, we still may be a ways off. But
I look ahead and I just see these names that
have been missing. Bronson Reed is another one. Some of
them would be on Raw, but again, like Kevin Owens
someone like that, to get him back on SmackDown, to
get Drew McIntyre back on the show. The show could
really use some of these faces back. And then you
throw in maybe a Cody Heel turn right, As crazy
as it sounds for me to even say that, like,
there are tools in the toolbox for them to use
to get this show going and they just don't use them.
And then on top of that, you compound that when
there is an injury like they've had to rear Ripley.
So you combine just this bizarre booking and then whatever
injuries are setting them back, and it creates havoc, and
then there are other people missing Dragon of and I mean,
I don't know, it just smack SmackDown sucks. SmackDown sucks,
and I just hope they could turn it around coming
out of Summer Slam. I don't know if that's just
the blind hope and optimism that I'm trying to have here,
but that's why I say when the show went back
to two hours, I'd rather have two hours of a
terrible show than three hours of one. Unfortunately, things haven't
really changed, and we happen to be going into our
second biggest of end of the year on the WWE calendar,
not ideal. Probably also has something to do other than
the ticket prices, with why tickets haven't sold quite as
well for Summer Slam this year as they did last year.
They're still gonna get their seventy or eighty thousand people
over the course of two nights, but they ain't gonna
hold a candle to what they did in Met Life
last year. They ain't even gonna come close. All right,
here we go. Let's get into your questions here. Maybe
you guys thought of this SmackDown show or got Summer
Slam thoughts. Lay them on me, Lay them on me.
Bianca is still pregnant? Is beyond is she? I thought
she would have had her baby by now. She's really
holding onto that thing. Huh. I doesn't want to let
go hit the bonus goal. Just literally just now hit
the bonus goal, which is good because we're still over
one hundred off from the main goal, which is five
point fifty. We're four to forty seven. So whether or
not we're going to get that bonus round is going
to come down to whether or not we hit the
likes goal. But at least we got the one round
coming our way. Joseph, Happy Friday to you, brother, San Diego.
Comic Con is this weekend. It was this past weekend.
I thought, right, I've seen all all of this comic
Con stuff on my timeline over the last few days.
I know it's going on right now. Actually, they had
they showed the old LJN figures. They've re released them,
I guess under Mattel and they're coming out with a
new line and they actually have a Heart Foundation two pac.
I don't know when it's out. I'm gonna have to
try to get my hands on that. If anybody's got
a lead on that, let me know. Those were some
l jns that I never got my hands on back
in the day. I never had a Brett. I never
had a Heart Foundation l JN. Justin says, did you
know that Raven was responsible for bringing in Beulah to ECW? Well?
I know now, I know. Now it's got a couple
of birthday shoutouts here too, because I will be watching
the Masters of the Universe and the Dolph Lungern version
tonight for my Friday night movies. Yeah, you know the
new Masters of the Universe movie which bombed in theaters,
which sucks because I saw it and I really enjoyed it.
It's on is it Prime? I think it's Amazon Prime.
It was number one. I believe it still is number one,
So it's a good sign make some of that money back.
He says, how different would WWE and wrestling look today
if Stone Cold did not turn heel at wrestle Mania
is seventeen. Wrestling would look exactly the same that WWE's
business wouldn't have plummeted quite as quickly as it did,
And Joseph says, remembering Hulk Hogan today, Yes, indeed, it's
been a year. Could they do a Dark Side of
the Ring on bray Wires up? Fuck that tree? Hey,
cataclysm or cataclysmic? Cataclysmic is me? Thank you for the
twelve dollars learning trait. This Sunday we have the Painmaker.
It's not the learning trait. I should actually I should
do I should do a Painmaker super chat oh Man,
dark Side of the Ring on bray Wyatt. Yeah, I
mean I could see that years from now. It's it's
way too recent to even think about doing something like that.
Snow Dog says, I just looked up the Heart Foundation figures.
Oh they're out now. I thought this was like a
preview for something coming later in the year, says, I
just looked up the Heart Foundation figures. Seventy two dollars
at targets. That's nonsense, Joseph, thank you. Broley says only
forty year olds can go for world titles. Apparently, seems
like it great fatal influence versus the Bella is all
so that the Bellas can beat them at Summer Slim,
because fuck the new Girls. We need to get the
Bellas over pal. Yeah. If I were betting the Bellas
are not winning at Summer Slim, fatal Influence is gonna
win at Summer Slim. Anything else would be ridiculous. DJ
fifty five says here in Oakland for SmackDown, Sun has
eighteen dollars chicken strips. Just spilled water on a guy
in front of us. A drunk dude keeps talking to me,
And now I'm seeing Naya Jacks come out. This is
turning into a dream night sounds like a nightmare, not
a dream. Justin g Win Balor, who led him in here. Yeah,
I look, I was as shocked as anybody. Every now
and then Winn Balor makes an appearance. Philip Bowman, how
would you feel about the Dark Side of the Ring
episode on Edge and Matt Hardy's two thousand and five feud. Also,
what did you think of the Necro Butcher and Joe episode.
I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. You know what they
I don't know that they would be able to if
they couldn't get Copeland to sit down for it. You'd
have to get Copeland at least, if not Copeland and Alita.
To just have Matt you can't get You can't get
a whole episode out of that. If you can get
all of the parties, though, to sit down and talk
about it, then sure you could do an episode on that.
You'd have to really stretch it out a little bit,
but you could do it. Misfit Wrestling Podcast after tonight,
I never again want to hear that WWE sees more
upside and Keana James ever again. They squashed her and
fed her to a jobber. Yeah, I mean, they're certainly
not using her in a way that would indicate that
they really have any plans for Donovan d Is it
time for someone else to lead creative Triple Ah seems
to have lost his Nxteam magic if it was truly him.
I watched WWF in ninety five, and even that wasn't
as bad as today's product. Well, because today's product is
just it's not again. We talked about this last week.
I don't know what this product is supposed to be.
It's not really it's not really wrestling. I don't know.
I don't know what it's supposed to be. I don't
know who it's supposed to appeal to. Lakers pats better
Build staying against Hogan in ninety seven or Rockxena WrestleMania
twenty eight. Oh as far as Build, I mean stinging Hogan,
It's not even close, Phillip says. Does Osprey say brov
more than Russo says bro No? A misfit wrestling podcast
with a ten says Jason Eisner, who is the co
creator of dark Side, saw my tweet about act Yasukawa
versus Yoshika for a future episode and liked it, So
we might be getting a future episode on this match.
I mean, if there was a match that was worthy
of a dark Side of the Ring episode, that would
be it. I don't know if that episode would do
big numbers for them, but it certainly would be worthy
of the dark Side treatment. WWE is an advertising business, now, yeah,
I mean, basically that's what it is. I mean, to
some degree, it was always an advertising vehicle. It was
an advertisement for the pay per views. But they didn't
just assault you with just how corporate they were, because
they weren't really corporate back then in the way they
are today. And you know, you would get actual wrestling
week to week on the shows and real character development,
and it's just not a priority for them anymore. You know,
everything else is secondary. Trick Williams against Baron Corbin for
the US title was announced for Summer Slam after the
show went off the air. Oh what a great time
to announce that. Oh boy, good job guys, Leo says, man.
This booking sucks ass. Keana James deserves so much better.
It's incredibly frustrating to see WWE waste. Keana. I think
I'm very close to giving up on WWE for a while.
I'm so glad I turned off the show and decided
to rewatch Logan from twenty seventeen. It's still one of
the best movies I've ever seen. I didn't see that one.
Is that the Wolverine movie? Is that another one I
should add to my list to see before Doomsday in December?
Alexander says Nick all this needs to call his finish
the Pink Slip. Now. I think he should call it
what's causing all this? I like that dry chicken without flavor.
When I saw the Cody Roads and See I'm Punk segment,
Cody accidentally dropping the mic towards Punk is like, don't
drop the soap. I said punk Punk would not bend
over for him, Alexander. If all this wins any match,
the opposing opponent should be fired by default since all
this is a representative of WWE management. Lol. Yeah, well
now he's not though, say he's officially been relieved of
his duties. Adam Pierce made that very clear. Boots with
a ten, Kathy Kelly, Oh my goodness, easy there, big fellow,
MVK with a ten. Hey, Sola. My younger brother, Hulkling
ninety three, and I laid our father to rest yesterday.
He was only sixty six, but he was a great dad. Also,
we'd like to thank you your streams helped us get
through a tough time. I'm very sorry to hear that, brother,
My condolences to you. And Hulkling sixty six is way
too young. So I hope you guys are doing okay.
And again again, you know these streams are here. If
you want to take your mind off things for a
little bit, you know where to turn to. But we're
all thinking about you, Boots says are piercing Gunther Incohoots.
Maybe they're working together, so we're gonna turn Adam Pierce
heel have one heel GM Is that what you're suggesting here?
I don't like this, Boots, I don't like this idea.
I don't like where you're going with this. No, no,
I don't think so Venom Katatsu with the twenty five
dollars super chat. It's margarite tonight at Casa de Venom.
Thanks for taking another SmackDown bullet for us. Let me.
My body is so riddle with bullets. I don't think
I could take many more of them. Digging that shirt,
my dude, you may want to cash in a one
wish Willow for Live Morgan to tune in and see
you in those threads. Now, I think she's taken. Thanks
for looking out, brother, How do I do? I do
have my one wish willow over here somewhere, Alexander says,
Tony Storm sentencing Mariah May to a lifetime of mediocrity
is now bearing fruit on this show. Shame hmm. It
does feel more real than many of us thought. MV cases.
How do you feel about the people calling out Cody
about the same old, same old, same old, always just
him in the main event? Well, because it feels that way,
doesn't it After a while, it just gets tired. And
Cody's not stupid. He has to realize the same thing.
That's why I say, if ever there was a time
for a heel turn, this would be it. You got
a big babyface now on Fridays and see them Punk. Really,
before Punk came over, they didn't have anybody else. That's
why I said, you got to be out of your
mind to turn Cody heel, because you who do you
replace him with? Who steps into that spot on Fridays.
You know there was a point in time where Jacob
fought too. You could have and boy did they cool
him off. He's a fucking stooge now on these shows.
Bron bro me it don't even get me started. All
the people they've cooled off ridiculous. They've put so many
people in the meat locker, it is ridiculous. Jeremy says,
watching Unreal has reiterated my thought that Bruce and Michael
Hayes are a huge part of the problem. They need
to get road dogged. Speaking of the same faces over
and over again. I think the same would apply behind
the scenes as much as it would to the talent
that you see on screen. Dry Chicken says, I honestly
can't feel sorry for the women's division in WWE anymore
because of the other women will defend the brain trust
of the creative team. I mean, I don't know other
women that are going out there and interviews and defending
this nonsense publicly? Are they defending this slop? Venom Cantetsu,
Nita Pete Rose, How bad it? Super Chat? How bad it?
Johnny Bernie will the Sound Off discuss reports of how
TKO is preparing for an aw Mania week announcement. I've
already talked about this. There's nothing to talk about. Already
covered this last week. I mean, I've been telling you
this for how many months? Now? You want to know
my thoughts on it again? I talked about it on
the show last week, literally talked about it and what
I would do if I were him. I floated New
Orleans as a possibility and building like a whole festival
around it. I've already I've already pitched my idea. Tyler says,
going to see The Odyssey tomorrow, very excited. Hey, you
should see it in for d X. Let me let
me know how it is in for d X. Where
You're on the high seas and the storms and your
seat shaking you around and spraying water in your face.
I'm glad I didn't see this movie in for d X.
Dry Chicken says, WWE is like a plain salad meal.
Alex says brother solo, hope you're doing great. Do you
think WWE should grow a set and allow Cody and
Punk to throw in some direct aw references. It's important
to who for their audience. I mean, why would they
Why would they encourage them to do that? You and
I would get the references, But in the context of
the story they're trying to tell, how does that enhance
their How does that enhance their Summer Slam match? I
mean it would get a rise I think out of
a lot of people in the audience. I think enough
people in the crowd would kind of get it and
they would react to it. But I don't see how
it really sells more tickets, you know, or really helps
promote the Summer Slam match anymore than you know, like
what they were talking about tonight. Dry Chicken says Sammy's
A and Niajack should link up ruin SummerSlam and purposely
interfere in the matches, Hm, Yes, and then they should
turn to each other and passionately start making out in
the middle of the ring. Here's your Russo swerve. That's
how they go off the air at Summerslim, Sammy and
Naya the pairing you never knew you needed. Hat of
discipline with a ten dollars super chat, no message, just
showing some love as he did the other night. Hey
hat a nice hat you got there, Thank you, brother
San Juan Wolf with a nineteen ninety nine. Who do
you see replacing Nick Aldos as the SmackDown general manager.
I'd be open to William Regal coming back to an
authority figure role if he would be up for it.
I don't think they're replacing him with anybody. I think
it's just temporary until summer. Slim Wade Barrett used the
word temporary on commentary tonight, So it's still gonna be
Nick all this. He's not being brought back as a
full time performer. Regal would be a fine choice if
there was suddenly an opening, but I don't believe there's
going to be an opening. Brad. What's going on? Brad?
Thank you for the ten dollars super chat, Brad, Vermilion
as Sammy's wife scowls tearfully in the crowd while holding
his child. Yes, and she gets in the ring to
try to fight off Nya. Nya gives her the annihilator.
Dry Chickens' wwe is pretty soulless. The Rosters sold their soul. Well,
they're not the only ones who sold their soul this week,
Cataclysmic says, joke question, when is Solo going to have
his inaugural match in House of Glory? Real question, chances
of Chelsea Green winning the ladder match. I'm gonna put
her chances of winning the ladder match at a cool
two percent, which is to say she has no chance
of winning the ladder match. Well, I mean I shouldn't
say that. Everybody has a chance. The chances are probably
a lot better that you're gonna get struck by lightning
three times in the next seven days than Chelsea Green
winning that ladder match. As far as one am I
gonna have my first match in HOGH, I don't know.
No one's really pissed me off enough yet. If they did, though, well,
measures would have to be taken. Alex says on that
two dollars super chet clip was sting not aware of
the chair placed behind him when he hit his head.
I actually think that was I'm trying to remember he
was wrestling Bobby Root in that clip, right, I think
that was intentional. I think that was the planned spot.
I could be wrong. It's just so funny watching it, though.
Vincent Moore Amazon greenlit a sequel for Masters of the Universe.
Did they I didn't. I wasn't so sure they would. Okay, well,
I'm happy to hear that. Nick Grosso idea for Dark
Side of the Ring. What about Art Barr. There's a
story to tell with that guy, the Juicer. Hmm. I
think I've mentioned his name before over the years. When
I've occasionally, like at the end of each season, I
usually list like I come up with my own list
of like suggested episodes. I always put Larry Sweeney on there,
Sweet and Sour Larry Sweeney. I've mentioned Art Bar before. Yo,
there's definitely a story there. But I keep coming back
to and again, I could do without hearing about this
guy is just so disgusting. But if you are looking
for a true Dark Side of the Ring episode, then
you gotta do an episode on buck Zoom off Rock
and roll buck zoom off. That's it right there. How
do you not? How do you not do an episode
on him? At Grosso says another dark side of the
ring idea the sexy Star Rosemary incident. I think that
would be interesting. It also would be interesting if they
can get Rosemary to appear out of character for that.
I don't know that see that building a whole episode
around that, I think is very unlikely. That one probably
is a no go Hannah Kamora, That one I think
would be worthy of the dark side treatment, even though
I mean, what really led to her taking her life
was a lot of criticism that she was getting that
really didn't come from the wrestling community, but she was
a wrestler and it was a very very sad story.
And Joseph Brooks, would you consider why to Jay an
underrated rival of the Rock? If you think about it,
he could match the Rock on the mic with catch phrases,
and I think he also has more wins against him.
Me personally, I don't consider him an underrated rival of
Rock because I rated their feud pretty high and they
had great matches together, So maybe other people would underrate it,
but I don't. He's not Rock's top rival or anything
like that. I thought they had a good rivalry. And
also he says, who, in your opinion, are the five
greatest wrestlers to never come to WWE from my five
or Bruiser Brody, Great, Muda, rock and Roll Express, and
Kenny Omega. It's a good list. That's a good list.
Brody Brody is a good one. I might put Brody
on there. Brody and Muda, Kenny. I mean you can
get into like Kenta Kobashi and you know people like that.
Kobashi probably should be on that list. And then if
you want to get into the women, I mean you've
got uh you know, Manami Toyota. I remember watching some
of her matches on YouTube because Meltzer always talking her up,
and I will some of her matches the first time
on YouTube. I was like, holy shit, imagine her like
in the women's division in the last ten years here
in the States. There's just too many to name, and
to narrow it down to five. I mean, you got
some pretty good names right there. I think Muda, Brody
and Omega are three really good ones. And Muda in
golden era WWE would have been fun Muda and Sting man,
they had some great matches, all right. So the main
goal was, as you could see, five hundred at see
I thought it was five fifty five hundred and thirty like.
So we are currently at five thirty two by thirty two.
You know what that means. That means we're getting two
rounds of be the booker. Let's do it. I'm excited.
I don't know who we're going to hit it, did
not know if we were going to hit it, but
we did as we usually do. We begin with a
tag team match. As Paul Levek, he cowers in fear
at the mere thought of it. Again. Two sets of
tag team belts currently not to be defended on either
night of Summer Slim unless they add something with the
Vision and the Alpha Academy, who I believe are having
a non title match on Raw Monday night. It could
lead into a title match that gets made for Summer Slim.
You would think they would want the Vision represented on
that show. If they do. I'm wondering if they add
if they have a late edition and put the Vision
on there for the world tag team titles against Alpha Academy,
if that's where we get the return to Bronson Reid.
But right now, as of this moment, we have no
tag team title matches on that show, not even the women's.
We have the Midnight Express Jim Cornett with the Dennis
Condree and beautiful Bobby Eaton, one of the great Actually,
you know what Joseph mentioned, the Rock and Roll Express,
I would sub I might sub out the Rock and
Roll Express and put the Midnight Express. As far as
the wrestler Grace wrestlers to never come to WWA, the
Midnight Express are going to be taking on the Gun
Club Austin and Colton Gunn. I like it because it's
past and present. Guns have some good athleticism, and I
think them working with a team like the Midnight Express
would be good for them. That's the kind of team
you want to work with. On the lady's side, we have, uh,
we were just talking about her. We're going back to
the glory days of Julia, when Julia was allowed to
be Julia. This is stardom Julia, and we have Stardom
Julia taking on Gail Kim, the former TNA Knockouts champion.
This is young Gail Kim with that TNA Knockouts title
over her shoulder and our first of two main events.
We have New Jack. I don't want to be and
I'm in this. By the way, solom Monster is in
be the booker. I do not. I want to have
nothing to do with New Jack. I got no beef
with New Jack. I got no reason to be in
the ring with this man. I don't want no part
of this. Drew McIntyre against New Jack, have a no
disqualification match in the main event. Just put him in
there with Al Bundy. Al Bundy and New Jack. Oh no,
that's a tough one. I probably go with Al. Probably
out in that situation. Okay, Well, we got our first sweep.
We could be looking for the double sweep. We could be.
It all comes down to what these stipulations are going
to be. Our first match is going to be a
barroom brawl, so we're going to get a little wild
and crazy here. We're going to be outside of our
comfort zone in an actual bar, an Irish pub with
Jeff Hardy. I don't know that that's the place where
Jeff Hardy should be, but Jeff Hardy is going to
be in the bar, in the barroom brawl. I need
a good one here. Oh that, I'd say that pretty
much fits the bill. I don't know if the stipulation
really makes sense for these two, but Jeff Hardy against
Hiroshi Tana Hashi in a barroom brawl. Maybe they could
just take a seat at the bar and have some
you know, soda water, and they could just have a
nice conversation. Jeff Hardy and Hiroshi a ton of Hashi.
I like it. Match number two, we're getting close men
to that double suite. I like where this is headed.
An intergender match. These are always very interesting because you
could literally end up with just so many different possible
combinations here, and it really makes you think, like, what
would that match look like if this match were to
have taken place. So we'll pick the woman first, the
women the woman, the woman in the intergender match is
going to be Who's that? I don't know who this
person is. Whatever happened to Mariah May? She was so great. This,
by the way, is still to this day, in my opinion,
the greatest ending to a dynamite. The turn on Tony
Storm was just a work of art in terms of
like angles, right, We've had great matches that have closed dynamite.
Kenny Omega just won a world title on Dynamite a
few weeks ago to close the show. But this ride here,
to me is my all time number one. So and
let me tell you, Mariah May again to the men,
this woman, I mean, you put some weapons in her hands.
She'll put up a fight. This could be a fun
one here, Mariah May. Oh my god, Mariah Bay against
Vato Sting. She may put up a fight, but I
don't know if it's gonna be enough to overcome Vatto Sting.
She turns on some of that charm, though she may
be able to distract him. Tell me, you wouldn't pay
money to see that. I'm putting together a much more
interesting card than anything you'll see on these Friday night
slopdown shows. I'll tell you that we technically could have
gotten that in aw, maybe not Vato Sting. But all right,
we got one last main event and it will be
a Monster's Ball match Monster's Ball. I guess we're going
with the all men here for this last round to
be the booker. I just realized, But that's okay. Actually, no,
we had the intergender match. I guess we're gonna skip
the tag teams here. So we got a Monster's Ball.
We're gonna get hardcore in this match with the Mighty Earthquake.
Look at those guns. The man has muscles on top
of muscles in this image. John Tenta man, what a
what a good guy. They did a Dark Side of
the Ring episode on him, and I was I remember
when they announced it. I'm like, dark Side of the Ring?
What's so dark? Well? What's dark is? Ye know? The
way he went out was very unfortunate, but just a
good dude. Just a good dude. I remember him from
the Wrestle Crap forums. He was a good sport about it.
He would engage with people on the message boards in
the community. It was before he got sick. Earthquake. Earthquake
was a favorite of mine. I will say, one of
those characters from that Golden era period that maybe isn't
your number one or two or anything like that, but
a lot of people liked Earthquake. Earthquake and Kenoske to
Keshta in a Monster's Ball that is the double chime
for the first time we got the double chime for
the double sweep here and be the booker Earthquake and
Takeushta Monsters Ball. You know. Earthquake was a legit sumo
he's a tough guy. I like that match, like that combination.
I think that would have worked out really well. Mark Bannon.
What about MASSAUA Dark Side of the Ring? Sure? Again,
I don't know that it would have the kind of
broad appeal that some of these other topics would, But
you could do a Missau episode and gold Matthew mount
rushmore of tag teams in terms of drawing, well, I'd
have to see the receipts. I mean, the Road Warriors
would have to be on there. The Road Warriors were
I mean, I would say the Road Warriors are number
one on a lot of people's lists, So I would
say the Road Warriors. You talk about drawings, I mean
you kind of have to put the Rock and Roll Express,
the Midnight Express on there. How do you not have
them on there? What about the von Erics, you know,
Danna World Class? How were they not on the list?
I feel like when it comes to drawing tag teams,
like high drawing tag teams, it's more of a territorial thing.
I don't know that there's any real individual tag teams
like in WWE or I mean, you gets it. Maybe
the Young Bucks in AW especially the early years of
aaw But like in WWE, I don't know that you
can really look at one tag team as like the
big drawing tag team. You know what, the Hardys absolutely
belong on that list. And I don't just mean for
like the early part of their career. I'm talking now.
I see it with my own two eyes. You know,
there's a reason why they're the House of Glory tag
Team champions right now. You know, we have the Hardy's
in and I mean even just the meet and Greek
lines before the show, it's out the fucking door, it's
around the building. There's a reason why they're the tag
team champions in TNA, and they're featured in TNA is
a main event attraction. Even if you feel like, well,
you know, there's not the hardis of old Well yeah,
I mean they're a lot older and they're more beat up,
but they can still go in there and play the
hits and hit their big spots and there's still a draw.
That's why they're in the spot that they're in. So
the Hardies belong on that list. Whatever position you want
to put them in, but it doesn't mount rushmore. So
where on the mountain you want to position them is
up to you, but they absolutely belong on there, so
good questions. Now, the next time I'm going to be
with you live you're on the streams is going to
be on Sunday night, and that is going to be
for the aw redemption review. So when redemption is over,
which hopefully will not be one o'clock in the morning
like Forbidden Door. Thankfully I did not go live for
that one, but the pay per view is starting an
hour earlier, seven Eastern when it's over come on by
the channel, and we'll talk about redemption. So that'll be
on Sunday night, and then of course back for the
Raw post show on Monday and all I believe all
of the usual streams Next week right Raw Dynamite SmackDown
Sunday will be a brand new episode of the Sound
of nine to seventy three much to discuss a very
busy news week, final predictions for Redemption, we'll talk Summer
Slam as well, all the news of the week, dark
side of the Ring, probably not Unreal, because I again
I'm not going to be done with it yet. Once
I'm done with Unreal, I'm sure i'll talk about it,
but that's not going to be this weekend, so just
be aware of that. Ropes and rips, ropes and is
that John? I think it is John ten dollars super
ched up late working on some new themes. Thanks for
staying up late and always doing these. See when you're
up and you have a late work night, you put
the Solemn Monster on. I'm usually on. I'm streaming almost
every night of the week at this point, or at
least it feels that way. So thank you, brother, keep
putting in the work. You do great stuff. Ricky says.
Next weekend we'll be busy for you. Yeah. God, you know,
it's like WrestleMania all over again. We have two nights
of Summer Slam. I'll be live both nights and they'll
be a sound off in the middle of it all.
Oh Heaven help me. But this is why we do
what we do, as Paula X says, this is what
we do. It's what we do, it's what we've chosen
to do. So yeah, we're gonna be super busy with
Summer Slim next weekend. So get ready. It's gonna be fun.
Even if Summer Slim is not. You know, you'll have
fun here, all right. Be well, stay safe, have yourselves
a rate weekend and I will see you for the
sound off episode nine seventy three coming up this Sunday.
Until then, take care guys.