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February 26, 2025 15 mins

This week on WrestleChat Podcast, The AntMan is flying solo while Michael is off, but there's no shortage of topics to break down! With WWE Elimination Chamber just days away, we dive deep into the stacked match card, the high stakes for WrestleMania XLI, and the unfolding drama surrounding Cody Rhodes and The Rock. We rewind to The Rock's SmackDown! appearance and analyze his confusing, power-driven persona shift—just what ride are we on with him? Plus, we break down SmackDown’s shocking developments, including The Rock’s demand for Cody’s answer at Elimination Chamber. Will Cody “sell his soul” to The Rock? We also discuss the men's and women's Elimination Chamber matches, potential WrestleMania implications, the mystery surrounding Alexa Bliss and the Wyatt 6, and the brutal unsanctioned fight between Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. Get ready for a jam-packed episode leading into Elimination Chamber—join the conversation on X (Twitter) @WrestleChatPod and don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell! Follow the show on Instagram: ➡️ https://www.Instagram.com/WrestleChatPodcast Follow The AntMan: ➡️ https://www.Instagram.com/TheAntMan.co

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to the wrestle Chat podcast. Hey, it's the
Man flying solo. This week, Michael is off and we've
got a huge show coming up on this weekend on
Saturday Live from Toronto, WWE's Elimination Chamber. Lots of great matches,
this thing is stacked, but lots of implications that could
lead to big changes possibly happening at WrestleMania forty one.

(00:23):
And of course I'm talking about what happened with Rock
and Cody from SmackDown this past Friday. But first I
want to hit rewind and go back to Rock being
on NXT the night after the Raw premiere on Netflix. Remember,
he shows up, he shows up on Raw, but he
shows up as the Rocker or Dwayne Johnson, and he's happy,

(00:45):
go lucky, and everything's cool, and he calls out Cody
Rhodes they're in the front row, and compliments him for
the way that he's been a champion over the past
and carried the company in the past year, and just
all the excellent work that Cody has done, even kind
of I mean, we were all confused, I know I was.
It looked like Cody was confused down there in the

(01:05):
seats as well, and then we even see some behind
the scenes footage of Rock and Cody exchanging some SIPs
of Terra Mana tequila. Then we go to NXT the
next night and he comes out and he says, you
know what, maybe you should just enjoy the ride. Just
enjoy the ride the Rock is taking you on. And
those are just some of the words that you could hear.
Basically had to bleep out nearly half of them. It

(01:28):
felt like our whole thing after that was what are
you doing? You tell us to enjoy the ride, but
half the time we don't even know what ride we're
getting on with a Rock. I mean, I can understand,
and I've used this analogy a couple of times. You
go to Disneyland and you show up at Space Mountain,
and as soon as you get on the ride you
find out it's the Teacups. Well, this is not the

(01:49):
line that I actually stood in line for. As long
as you let us know the ride, I think the
whole we universe is as excited to jump on the
ride with the Rock we have been since the attitude
ere But when you don't know what you're getting and
you walk in from time to time, you got to
give us a little time to catch up to where
maybe you are. Rock. That's always been my stance when

(02:11):
it comes to things like that with him, especially here
more recently and especially after last year's WrestleMania where just
everything just felt off. It was good because it went
the way of the majority of the fans. We wanted
Cody in that title match. We wanted Cody to finish
his story at WrestleMania, or a lot of us did.
Some of us didn't. I get that, but the majority

(02:33):
of the universe wanted to see Cody finish that story.
But I felt like that ever since then that I
was always rubbed Rock the wrong way or a weird way,
And whether it's storyline or if it's real life, it
feels awkward with the Rock now in WWE, where it
feels more about power than it does about entertainment, and
that takes us to smack Down. This past Friday night,

(02:58):
they make the announcement literally think the day before that
the Final Boss is coming to SmackDown, and they made
sure to point out it was the Final Boss. It
wasn't The Rock, it wasn't Dwayne Johnson. You were going
to get the end. You were going to get the
Boss right. The head of the board was going to
show up at this SmackDown. Great, I kind of expect

(03:18):
to know what ride we're gonna get on with the
Rock this time. I'm looking forward to this. But it
comes out and it's all happy, go lucky. He I'm
confused again, we haven't Dwayne the Rock. Are we getting
the Final Boss? Well, he flipped that switch real quick
when he started doing the sing along when the Saints
go marching in and he turned on the crowd, and
then he told us you're getting the Final Boss. But then,

(03:41):
you know, earlier in the show, we found out that
he had canceled Cody's part in the six man match.
Cody was not going to be wrestling that night. He
needed him fresh in the ring to have a discussion,
and that's when he called Cody to the ring, right,
So he calls him. They come out talk about how
great things have been over the past few months, how
Cody had brought his kids to Why to see the
premiere of Mulwana two, and how families were close and

(04:04):
things were good. But here's the thing. How many Instagram
followers do you have, Cody? I mean, you have a million,
few million Rock has half a billion Did that not
feel weird to you to be touting Instagram followers to
the champion. Yes, we all know who you are, the Rock.

(04:25):
We all know who you are. Yes, we know that
you're now on the board of TKO or and even more,
you're the head of the board of TKO. We got it.
But that's what he used to use the power and
the influence to get to Cody. I like it that
you've been our champion. You've done a great job. I
want you to be my champion. Though first I assumed

(04:47):
that he was the Rocks champion. I mean, he was
my champion talking to Michael, I know he's he's been
Michael's champion. I'm assuming to you too, that he's been
your champion. He is the undisputed w YOU champion, showing
up at every single event, every single time, it feels like,
and doing it with a smile on his face, and

(05:08):
executing to the to the top level in every way,
being at all the autographed signings, being at all the appearances,
the Today Shows, the Good Morning America's, the Tonight Shows,
and what have you. Yeah, he's done a great job.
But evidently that that didn't level up for the Rock.
He needed him to be his champion, and he wanted
Cody's soul. So I'll be honest, I left there with

(05:32):
this weird feeling in my stomach. I say, I left there.
I'm here at home, but left watching SmackDown that night
with a weird feeling in my store, like what is
this about? This just feels odd? Man, he needs an
answer if he's going to basically sell The Rock his
soul or sell the Final Boss his soul by elimination

(05:53):
chamber in Toronto. He wants to know at that event
if he is going to give his soul up to
the Rock. Man, that's weird, and yes, we all know
that everything's a part of creative, but we also got
this from The Rock at the press conference afterwards.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
I think to be able to have a storyline and
two characters who are very popular, to never have to
get in the ring for a match, but yet still
hold this really unique, compelling like off putting, and it's
kind of weird, and he wants his soul? What does
that mean? I love it and I love it every

(06:39):
moment and Cody did too as well. We had a
few tequilas after tonight.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
You had Okay, I get it, I get it. We're
all wrestling fans. If you're watching this right now, assuming
that you are, and thank you. If you're watching on
YouTube right now, if you're listening on the free iHeartRadio
app or Spotify or on Apple, thank you. And if
you haven't hit subscribe yet, love, if you would do that,
it makes a big difference, and it's free for you.

(07:07):
But here I am thinking, okay, yes, we all just
watched that. Yes, did I need to know that you
guys you know, toasted thinking, Man, yeah, this is a
good idea. Backstage, I felt like Rock kind of treated
this not like professional wrestling, not like sports entertainment, but
like a movie premiere. Man, playing this part of Maui

(07:29):
and Mowanatu was such a great experience, and you know,
all the whole cast, we all thought that this was
this was just fun to all get back together and
we all you know, I passed around bottles of tea
mona there at the premiere and it was it was amazing.
We had a great time, and it all showed there
on the screen. I see guys doing that, but I
don't hear guys talking about how great they think that

(07:52):
their angle is going on professional wrestling. I think maybe
even more than the Cody I Want your Soul part
left me feeling weird. That comment left me feeling weird
about the Rock and could you just let it play out?
Could you just let it play out? Now we're starting

(08:13):
to jump on the ride and you pulled us back
off the ride again. That's where I have a lot
of confusion with the Rock. You want us to just
enjoy the ride. The Rock is taking you on, but
why do you keep stopping the ride? Stop stopping the ride? Rock,
We're all on board. Now let it roll. Let's see
what happens coming up this Saturday at Elimination Chamber and

(08:37):
what answer Cody has if you can block out what
The Rock just said, if you could block out him
him talking about he and Cody love in this new
storyline and toasting to teremana backstage, Let's just wait and
see what happens coming up this Saturday. Looking forward to it.
I also can't leave without saying it was cool to
see Live and Roquelle get the titols back, because I

(09:00):
think it says a lot that could happen, especially in
the women's Elimination Chamber. Match between Bianca and Naomi. Now
they were the title holders. We all are still questioning
what happened to Jade Cargill and some of that. They've
been bringing that back up more recently on the past

(09:20):
few raws. So is that going to Are we going
to have some answers either at elimination Chamber or shortly afterwards.
I think there's something telling about the cage. Let's jump
into some of that. But yes, congratulations to Livid Rockhelle
new women's tag champs. And I've been collecting some of
the TOPS cards and I saw that they had that
moment as a new TOPS now card that you can get,

(09:43):
so that's pretty cool for them. Let's start with the
men's elimination Chamber match. You've got Sena, Punk, Drew, Logan, Seth,
and Damien all fighting to be the one that's going
to main event WrestleMania against Cody Rhodes at least right now,
that's what we think. We've got Punk, who swears that
he's going to win this because it's best for business

(10:05):
if he goes to WrestleMania. You got Sina, who well,
he just put himself in the elimination chamber. He didn't
qualify for it. Does does he have the right to
do that? I mean, listen, longest tenured guy in there,
I think, out of all that, then then if anybody
gets a pass, maybe it's John Cena. So looking forward
to seeing what happens. Not only let's pay attention to

(10:27):
the stories inside those cells though, because I think you
could see some things happen that either we haven't thought
about in a while, or some things that we You
might see some some tendencies that aren't usual with some
people happen in this match, and you know, we'll get
to those probably on next weeks after we watch some

(10:47):
of this flesh out and or rewind this, and I'll say, see,
that's what I was talking about right there. So let's
watch this match closely. I think it's gonna be really good.
Women's just as well live who is now a in Roxanne?
The now women's team champions are in this against the
former tag team champions they just beat on Raw this
past week, Bianca and Naomi, but you also had Bailey

(11:08):
and Alexa in there. Alexa, if you've been noticing, we've
been seeing the QR code, not the QR codes, the
static happening when she's on screen a lot. We're going
to see her return to uh I say, return too.
Is she going to become part of the Wyatt six
or is she the leader of the Wyatt six? She
has she taken over for Bray? Was his brother? Is

(11:28):
his brother just still Uncle Howdy sitting over there and
playing the Uncle Howdie role? And Alexa comes in and
fills the leader spot that Bray left blank. I don't know,
We'll see what happens in that match is going to
be interesting because that will decide who goes on to
face the women's world champion. We got Tiffany and Trish

(11:51):
teaming up to take on Nya and Candace. Very interesting
here because then you've also got the the the factor
of Charlotte Flair in this whole deal with Tiffany, how
does she get involved in this? And we've seen Trish
Turnham partners in the past, and congratulations to her. She's

(12:12):
going into a big hall of fame announced on Busted
Open well as I'm recording this today and so excited
for Trishman and she gets to return home too. But
then speaking of returning home, we've alos got Sammy Zaye
and Kevin Owens which we talked about last week on
this podcast. In an unsanctioned match, anything goes. I'm gonna

(12:32):
see how unsanctioned this is once the match starts, but
I would anticipate this match being battled all over that
stadium in Toronto this Saturday. Real blood feud between these two,
both Canadian boys, and you know they're going to go
all out for an at home show, So looking forward
to seeing what happens there as well. And then Cody

(12:54):
is on schedule now to answer the Rock. What will
that answer be? Is the answer that we think is
going to happen. By the end of this we're going
to know a lot more about wrestle Mania forty one,
and I'm excited to be on the ride with you guys.
If you don't follow the show or you don't follow
me on X yet, I am at the ant Man.
The show is at Russell Chat podcast if you would

(13:16):
follow me there, I'll be tweeting along all during Elimination
Chamber this Saturday. I love talking to you guys on
there every time we have one of these pls, and
it's always fun to have some banter back and forth
instead of this just this one way me talking to
you and you chiming in in the comments section. We
can go back and forth on x during the show,
so looking forward to that. And again, if you don't

(13:37):
follow us here on YouTube, if you're watching right now,
make sure you hit the like and subscribe and the
notification bell. Never miss an episode. And we got some
more coming up, more exciting things coming up here very
very soon. I believe Michael will be back with us
next week. Looking forward to getting his take on what
happens at Elimination Chamber on Saturday. What ride we're gonna
get on with a Rock once this thing is all

(13:59):
said and done. I was reading something I saw earlier
today that said there was a port that people backstage
and WWE are frustrated with a Rock because of his
unplanned last minute return to WWE. They had the full
plan set for wrestle many of forty one, but now
they have been forced to make changes due to the Rock.

(14:20):
The only part about this is it started off with
Dave Meltzer has reported, and then that's what I did.
End up reading past it to see what else it said.
But that's always kind of the one I go, Really,
I don't know, We'll wait and see, but Saturday gonna
be a blast. Look forward to tweeting a lot. Sorry,
I'm still gonna call it Twitter. I know it's X.

(14:43):
I don't feel like we should ex along during the show.
We can tweet along during the show, So looking forward
to that on Saturday and hope to connect with you there.
Thank you guys for hanging out. That does for me
this week. We'll see you next time on the wrestle
Chat Podcast two
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Host

Anthony "The AntMan" Lay

Anthony "The AntMan" Lay

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