January 28, 2025 • 27 mins
The Road to WrestleMania officially begins! This week on WrestleChat Podcast, The AntMan and Michael break down everything leading up to the Royal Rumble this weekend. JD McDonagh’s Scary Injury – Did we just witness a near career-ending moment on RAW? We discuss McDonagh’s brutal moonsault to the announce table, the insane injuries he suffered, and why he might now be an unintentional babyface. Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens – The historic Winged Eagle Championship is hanging in a ladder match, but does it really mean anything? The guys analyze the storytelling behind this unique feud and whether Kevin Owens has a chance to take the title (or "belt," as Ant-Man insists). DIY vs. Motor City Machine Guns – Some love it, some don’t. Is this the tag match that excites fans, or does it lack the storytelling to make it compelling? Women’s Royal Rumble Surprise? – Charlotte Flair’s return is all but confirmed, but could Becky Lynch make an even bigger impact? And is Jordynne Grace the shocking wildcard no one sees coming? Michael makes his case! Men’s Royal Rumble Chaos – CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Jey Uso…who is walking out with the WrestleMania main event spot? And could Brock Lesnar be Punk’s secret Paul Heyman “favor”? AEW’s Best Storyline? – While AEW takes criticism for lacking storytelling, Toni Storm is delivering in a big way. We break down her incredible character arc and why it’s one of the best in women’s wrestling today. TNA’s Rising Momentum – AntMan attended TNA Genesis and walked away impressed! Is the TNA-WWE partnership the next big thing in pro wrestling? Don't forget to like, subscribe, and leave a comment with your Royal Rumble predictions! #WrestleChatPodcast Follow the show on Instagram: ➡️ https://www.Instagram.com/WrestleChatPodcast Follow The AntMan: ➡️ https://www.Instagram.com/TheAntMan.co
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the wrestle Chat podcast. I'm the ant man.
He is Michael, and we are getting into yes WrestleMania
season because coming up this weekend, it's the Royal Rumble
that is the start to the road to WrestleMania. I
believe this is the it would it be the one
B pay per view or pl E for you.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Michael, that's one hundred percent that. I mean, nothing out
does the spectacle and the grandeur of WrestleMania, but Royal
Rumble is the close second.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yours is Royal Rumble mind SummerSlam. So we have him
balanced out with with the with the one bees. Yes,
I like that. Uh. Let's talk about first though, what
happened on Monday Monday Night Raw. I didn't see it
when it happened, but they showed the replay and I thought,
we just watched a murder or in an unintentional suicide
by Jada McDonough and the moon salt he did that
(00:49):
landed his neck and the back of his head on
the announcer's table. Did you did you think he was
knocked out when that happened?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Uh? I watched it after the fact as well. I
had to like put my kids to bed and do
a couple different things. I don't know when exactly it
fell time wise, but I was keeping updated on my
timeline on X and all of a sudden, I refresh
and it's just JD McDonough everything, and I'm like, what happened?
And so I watched it. I thought he died because
and if you watch it in slow motion, like I
(01:18):
have several times, I would not be surprised if he
I mean, I think he avoided a career threatening injury
by an inch because if you look, he caught just
enough shoulder blade on that hit. Oh interesting that I
think that it stopped from all that pressure hitting him
(01:39):
square on the neck. That's just the way I saw it.
I could be wrong, that's fine. But the fact that
he only walked away with a couple broken ribs and
a punctured lung, it's nothing short of miracle. And then
he goes, Okay, gotta be Triple H's new face guy. Okay,
(02:01):
very few people can brag about injuries like Triple H.
Dude tore his quads in two different matches, finished both
of them. It is well known history. Now you're talking
about a guy. Okay, that's not your air. Okay, your
your knees. Your knee, it hurts. Yeah, it's not gonna
work well, but it's not your air. When you break
(02:24):
your ribs and puncture alung, how do you finish a
match that is completely dependent on your ability to breathe?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
All he needs to do now is actually win a
gold medal so he can take Kurt Engle's line. I
want a gold medal with broken freaking ribs and a
punctured lung. I mean he needs to steal the line
for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Then he finishes the match, and then we see on
X that he collapsed behind the led wall when he
rounded the corner. Dude, maybe you should have tapped, you know, like,
maybe you should have not finished. But kudos do you
for doing that?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
That's the deal is I think that for more than
one reason, he shouldn't have finished, because now he unintentionally
is now a baby face. Just because he finished the match,
a heel would not finish. I got hurt too bad,
I gotta go lay down. When he got back up
and got on the side there and grabbed the tag rope,
the audience clapped. When has the last time that the
(03:25):
audience clapped at anything I've seen cheers, seen chants, seeing booze,
seen girls screaming. They sat in their seat and went
what it is loud enough that you could hear that
it was a bunch of people doing it.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, it's a sign of appreciation, but also relief. It's
the only way you can communicate support and relief in
that moment.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I agree. And now when he comes back, he's he's
got to be a babyface. Sorry, JD. I know you
didn't want to be, but now you're a bubblehead babyface.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Him and that funko pophead.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
That's what I mean by funk head for sure. Glad
he is okay, even though we're saying that he's okay
with broken ribs and punctured lung. I'm glad it wasn't
worse because that would have been probably been the last injury.
I would have guessed after seeing what had happened. I
would have said, yeap, I bet he. I bet he
broke a couple of ribs and punctured along on that one. Look. No,
I think that he severed his spine is kind of
(04:19):
what I thought, and I did love that. Leave it
to Pat McAfee to say to credit the thickness of J. D.
Mcgonough's McDonough's skull and big old head that saved him.
I just love how he pops in with with stuff
that everybody's thinking, I think in the moment. So guy's
all right, guessing he will miss the Royal Rumble coming
(04:41):
up this weekend. Let's jump in and talk about that
a little bit, starting with Cody and Kevin Man when
they when we saw the promo between Triple H and
Cody and Triple H opening up the box and saying
it's just for one night only and had had the
winged Eagle there and Cody brought that to the ring
(05:02):
that night. Did you think we would ever see that
for way more than one night, especially it actually being
in a ladder match at Royal Rumble.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It's crazy, and honestly, I didn't to answer your question,
I didn't think we would be still seeing it around.
What I thought was interesting is that the wing Eagle
was a part of the title that was hanging from
the thing. I don't know what they're gonna do with that,
if I'm being honest, because commentary openly discusses that he's
(05:31):
not a legitimate chance, not at all, and so the
fact that it's hanging there is a little interesting, So
I'm gonna trust that there's something to that. But with
this storyline, I understand that the titles on the line,
and that's fine, but I want to throw some throw
some credit again to the writing team in Triple H
(05:54):
because this feud, while it is for the title, it's
not about the title, and they have been doing such
a great job of adding story into these matches. We
go back to Drew and Punk or Seth and Punk
or Jane Drew or titles nowhere to be seen. But
(06:19):
we are so vested in these stories. And so while
I'm excited to see a great championship match, I have
to acknowledge that we're watching this not to see who
wins the strap, but to see who's gonna win. And
you know, Kevin thinks he's right, Cody thinks he's doing
the right thing. We're vested and I love it very
much so.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And even though this is one of those that I say,
even though it makes no sense that the winged Eagle
is hanging up there, I feel like if they didn't
do it, I would be missing something in this match. Yeah,
even though it means absolutely nothing, unless you credit that
title that belt, I should say, because he's not a champion,
so I wouldn't call it a title at the moment.
(06:58):
But him having that app is almost like it's his
dignity or pride that he's hanging up there kind of
symbolic of that maybe and if Cody, which I presume,
well I don't know, but presume that Cody will win,
that that's something he would be taking away from him,
you know, the one little piece of the closest he's
(07:19):
gotten to a championship, at least that title, you know,
the world title in the last ten years? Is that
what it is? Nine years? Something like that? That that
that is as close as he's been and that's on
the line and he doesn't carry it out. That's a
big deal. Yeah. Then we go over to DIY versus
the MotorCity machine Guns. I'll be honest, I feel like
(07:41):
we've talked about them before here on this podcast, the
MotorCity machine Guns and how well they have just fit in.
They feel like the guys that should be champion, at
least they do to me. They feel like the guys
that you should be feuding with. And of course they're vets.
We know that if they would actually be the guys
that I would say, Yeah, they're never leaving TNA. They're
(08:01):
gonna be here forever. They're gonna be the Stings of TNA,
like Sting was in w c W. Those will be
the guys. They've been champions together, they've been champions separately,
and then we see them on WWE and come in
here and immediately vy for the titles, win the titles,
lose the titles, and now fighting for him again on
a massive stage at the Royal Rumble. D I Y.
(08:24):
I mean those guys too, They're I kind of feel
like MotorCity machine Guns have the advantage just as far
as the storyline goes against d I Y. But they're
they're not. They're not newbies either, right, right.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
They're not newbies. There's a lot of there's a lot
of experience in this matchup. Uh, Gargano and Champa. They've
been around, MCMG has been around. I'm gonna be honest
with you. I'm gonna take the opposing seat on this one.
I'm not vested in this at.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
All, are you not?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Okay? I felt like I had always heard of MotorCity
machine Guns. I had never watched a ton of them,
obviously because they were in different different promotions, but WWE
did not introduce or teach me about them before they arrived.
(09:19):
WWE wanted me to assume, or they wanted me to
already know who they were. They're very clearly talented. They
worked super well together. But as I just the contrast
of what I just talked about, there's no story to
MotorCity Machine Guns, there's no story to DY, and then
the worst of all, there's no story between mcmg and DY.
(09:44):
I don't care, and that's no fault of any of
the guys. I love all of their work individually and collectively.
I think from a writing perspective, we're just filling time
and it's not doing anything for me. I think it
was Friday Night. There might have been a promo between DY,
maybe between themselves and somebody else. I don't remember, but
(10:05):
it was a cookie cutter promo. It was the they
don't know who they're messing with because we're DIY and
blah blah blah, and it was it was the nineteen
ninety Rocky Maya Villa promo. And you know how many
times I've gone off on the Rocky Maya via promo,
and it just it's not interesting to me. And so
I think in time those stories will develop in the
(10:28):
tag division over there, But right now that's going to
be replenishing my snacks for me, and I hope that
they give me something that I'm gonna regret maybe missing.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Sure, Sure, And you know they always say, I've always
heard this being said that wrestling should be a smorter sport,
and so as you're making your smortes your snack blade,
I would say that if WWE is holistically about storytelling,
AEW is about wrestling. In the Royal Rumble, this is
the ad aw section of the show. Yeah, this is
(11:03):
the part about the wrestling and not necessarily the story.
So we see how that goes. I have no doubt
that it's going to be a banger on that tag
team match. I really like MotorCity Machine Guns and the
matches that I've seen from them. I'm like, Yeah, these
guys definitely know what they're doing. Yeah, I think you're right.
If they get a story, this could be the could
be really.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Really good unstoppable unstoppable.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Women's Royal Rumble match. I mean, I don't know who
everybody that's in it yet I'm not even really sure
it matters because it's pretty much just all the active females.
But here's something I want I want to discuss. We've
already seen promos for Charlotte Flair, and the presumption is
that Charlotte Flair will be back at the Royal Rumble.
She'll be in the Rumble. And everybody thinks that if
(11:45):
Charlotte Flair is in the Royal Rumble, Charlotte Flair is
winning the Royal Rumble. But there's somebody else that's coming
back that they've said not a word about. And it's
interesting because I saw a sign and her husband noticed
it and gave a little shrug and walked right past it.
Somebody in the in the audience on Monday night, at
the very beginning had a sign and said where is
(12:07):
the man? And Seth stopped and looked at it and
and walked on. That is, hang on, I'm gonna give
another rock a little chill right there. That's right, a
little chill thinking about the man showing up and ruining
all of Sharp Flair's plans. How do you feel about
that story?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I think that story will happen, but that's not the
end of the story.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Of course, not you gotta finish that story.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Well, no, I don't What I mean by that is,
I don't think that's the way. I don't think either
one of them win the Rebel.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You don't think either of them will be really okay?
Would you think you're gonna save it to l afterwards?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
No, I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna pitch it now
so that I can be right. You know, Yeah, come on,
you got what? What is? What just happened? That was
big news between wrestling promotions? What just happened with WWWNA
with TNA. Who finished up at TNA Genesis?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Oh yeah, Jordan Grace.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Jordan Grace. I think Jordan Grace comes in and wins
the whole thing, because what better way to launch that
relationship than to put your former TNA champion over in
the Royal Rumble and go to WrestleMania and pull in
that whole audience. It's completely non booking reason, But if
it was me, that's exactly what I would do.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
If you like shock and awe, I love that right there,
and who doesn't like shot at all?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
And honestly, you bring her out fifteen to twenty, so
she can keep that kind of that push to her.
But I'm I'm yep, I'm gonna behold my breath for
Jordan Grace because I think we've already seen her do
crazy stuff in NXT. She is super over. People love her.
Put the strap on her and to the moon.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
That would be awesome. I'd love to see that happen.
We got the Men's Royal Rumble match, and this one
is the one that I mean, everybody's saying that they're
going to be the one that wins. It's going to
be Seth Rollins, or it's going to be Logan Paul.
I don't think it's time for Logan Paul yet I
think it and I don't even know say that this
guy is the guy who would win. But I would
think if we're going to get a surprise, and if
any time is the time to do the surprise, it'd
(14:21):
be now for brock Lesner.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
I think so I would. I would rather just quit
life than see brock Lesner in another WrestleMania main event. Agree, agreed,
And it's not because I don't like him. It has
nothing to do I love Brock. I would much rather
see him in a story like he did with Cody
last year, than I would see him. He doesn't need
the title. He doesn't need it, so don't put him
(14:45):
in the match. Brock Lesner would be a great addition
to the Royal Rumble in terms of who's winning. Dude.
I thought all day about this episode, and when you
sent the run of show, I was like, Man, who
do I think is gonna win the Royal Rumble? Dude?
I don't know because for the first time in what
(15:06):
feels like forever, at any point in time, I don't
know who might win the Royal Rumble because you always
know there's your Roman, there's your Randy, there's your I mean,
there's your Seth. You know, you know there's Punk this
time around, Dude, any one of them, I go Punk.
He's never main evented WrestleMania, and you know that he's
(15:28):
running out of time. Punk wants to main event Rustlemania.
Drew has taken way too many losses. Dude needs a win,
and the last time he won the Rumble I think
was in COVID. He needs the redo. You have Seth
that's been trying to get back on the horse after
getting healthy, being out after his title run, you have Jay,
(15:49):
who's the hottest baby face on the planet right now.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I don't know he could thinking about this. Could Brock
be the Paul Hayman favor but see him Punk Cash
is in a house cleaner.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
It could be something like that. Maybe I just I think.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I think, I think it'd be weird to see Brock
go into business for somebody else. But I wouldn't hate it,
not not when it's with Paul pulling the strings.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Maybe it's just that he doesn't eliminate see him Punk.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Maybe maybe that's all it is.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Throw anybody else out with me, That's all I want
to I want there to be more intrigued, Like, let's
take that and run it all the way the end.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Let's say Punk in Brock get all the way to
the end. Brock's done some stuff to maybe help Punk
but maybe not. And they're just staring at each other.
In Brock just gets a big old grin on his face,
goes steps over the top rope on his own accord
the floor, jumps down to the floor and just walks
off and it and it leaves, And you know that
(17:00):
half the audience is gonna love it. Half the people
are gonna hate it without one hash. But I'm sitting
there going, Yes, something I haven't seen.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Before, Binga, binga, And here's the deal. They brought it
back up on Monday. That particular comment with Jackie Redmand
that Punk made she asked him about the favor and
they brought that segment back up on purpose makes me
think that something that that favor being the something is
cashed in here for the Royal rumble this week.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Wait, I changed my mind. I want the favor to
be done by Curtis Axel because he's also a Paul
Hayman guy.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Okay, got Curtis Axel much more believable. What favor is
that I don't even know? Hey, before I forget this,
we've been talking about story all along here with WWE,
we don't talk a lot about ae W And that's okay. Listen,
if there's a there's an audience for that, you love that.
(17:57):
I think that there's a lot of things that need
to be right now. I'll work with Rossall, Marshall, von
brand New, aew guys. They are all elite and I
love that for them. It gives them a great place
to continue to hone their skills and they get a paycheck.
Love that although they're they're not on a show yet. Besides,
since the first of the year, there is a show
coming up in February with those guys close to where
(18:18):
they live here in Texas where I am, and so
hopefully they're on that. I don't know how you go
to Texas and not have von Erics on it. So
hopefully that happens. But they are often talked about, not
Rossall Marshall, but aaw about not having stories and how
so many times it feels like that, you know, maybe
the wrestlers kind of have their control. We've talked about
(18:40):
this particular thing before, this particular wrestler, and that is
Tony Storm Michael. I don't know if you saw what
happened with her this week on AW. So she reverted
back in Whenever, back to her old character really as
like a rookie is how she kind of positioned herself.
And this Wednesday, it all came to fruition that that
(19:03):
was all inact and it was the role that she
had been playing for the last couple of months, and
she went back into timeless Tony Storm. I actually got
chills watching her do that, Like I was like Okay,
finally something intriguing in this show, and I'm excited about it,
Like I don't care about anything else that happens on there.
I'll watch the Tony Storm story, Tony Storm story until
(19:28):
that thing ends, as long as whoever is in control
of that, whether it be Tony or whatever, until it
runs to the end. I am all about that and
just doing an absolutely fantastic job in.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
The height of this story. It is the best in
the height of this arc. This is the best story
in women's wrestling of probably last year and maybe even
this year. She did her promo work as timeless Tony
Storm incredible, and so I completely echo everything you've said
(20:00):
in kind of in they structure their shows that it's
about the wrestling. That's great, there's an audience for that.
But for me, I need the story. And she's been
one of the only few bright glimmers in an otherwise
kind of story list show. And that's okay. I'm not
saying that's a bad thing. Some people want the more
(20:22):
fast paced, action driven wrestling. I want, I want, you know,
a healthy mixture of story and action. So but I completely.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Yeah, I think that it's it's the balance of both
that make it really really good. There is one possible
story that didn't happen in the ring, and it's been
happening outside of the ring is the feud between Tony
Kahan and Britt Baker. I wonder if that has any
any any bearing on what happens at the Royal Rubble too,
and often I kind of wonder what kind of reaction
Britt would have if she did show up in the
(20:53):
Women's World Rubble.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I don't know. I I by the way, I really
like her too. I knowledge. I think the general populace
likes her as well. I don't think she's done anything
to turn people against her, But unfortunately it is just
kind of more fuel on the fire of some things
that are happening over there where. It seems like a
(21:15):
lot of people are ill content. If you will, we
don't know, we're not behind the scenes, we don't know
what's going on. It's he said, she said, It's all
this type of stuff. But in whatever situation, she is
an asset to whatever company has her, and I would
implore whatever company that does have her to use her
(21:35):
because she's very, very good at what she does.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
There was a good story at one time with her
and Adam Cole and Chris Jericho and whatever. That just ended.
It just literally went away the next week. Yep, nothing
ever happened again with it.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
We talked about it the week before and we had
a pretty long segment talking about that story at the
time on this show and it got rave reviews from
us and then just poof was gone.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
When are we bringing that? Oh did y'all forget it? Oh? Yeah,
I forgot about that story just never came back up.
It's just so silly. That's some good stuff. Last thing
we'll talked about here is TNA and WWE. I went
to Genesis in Dallas a couple of Sundays ago, and
I will say that we've been to WrestleMania, We've done
Summer Slams, We've done you know, we've done aw shows,
(22:26):
We've done NXT, We've done all this stuff and been
to them live. I will say though, I had one
of the best times just in an overall experience at
the TNA Genesis show.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Man. It was just like I didn't know most of
the storylines. It's hard to get I mean, can you
tell me where you can watch it? Yeah? TNA Plus
is legitimately like the only place you can watch I
mean it's not the only place, but it's the most
convenient way you can watch it here in America. And
I'll be honest, I bought it, bought it for a year.
(23:00):
I'm interested, I'm invested now. I went to that show
not knowing any of the storylines, really know some of
the players. Of course, Nick Nimmoth is a champion, and
we all know who Joe Hendry. I said his name,
so making sure you do. It appeared Joe Hendry ends
up becoming the champion, which I was just amazing, so good.
(23:22):
One of the biggest things that I took away from
it is that in their matches, Now, obviously you can't
hear the announcers, the play by play guys, right, but
they gave time to everything. I understood what was going on,
just because they gave time to the stories that were
happening in the ring. There was no doubt that everybody
absolutely hates Tessa Blanchard yea and everybody absolutely loves Jordan Grace.
(23:49):
And out of that, I mean, you could they just
told their story in the ring without saying a word,
and that just one of the best, best matches of
the of the show, having a little little interaction with
some NXT guys on there as well. So I'm excited
to see where this partnership goes. And I'm excited to
see what comes next for T and A because they
(24:09):
are they've done all the things they need to do.
Pop up to the next level now yep, great, Yeah,
excited to see what happens there. Glad you guys joined us.
If you're watching right now on YouTube, give us a like, subscribe,
leave a comment, let us know any of your thoughts
on the Royal Rumble coming up this Saturday. If you're
listening right now, thank you so much. If you wouldn't
(24:30):
mind rate this show and make sure you hip subscribe
so you don't miss the next episode. And we hope
that is next week. We've been trying to get on
a schedule, but man, our lives are going in one
hundred different directions. And started a new podcast with like
I said, with Ross and Marshall, vaugh Eric and this
week Kevin Van Eric, their father is going to be
on the podcast with us US coming up tomorrow at
(24:52):
six am. That will drop and so hope you'll check
that out as well. It's under the other podcast that
we love, what's.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Going on with a Manchild, Oh Manchild, it's kind of
the same thing. We're in and out. We have some
episodes that we throw up, you know, to be perfectly
honest with you, and normally I wouldn't drop the curtain
like this, but we've been getting together so sparingly that
there's been a few times that we got together we
hit record and we had a great time and we
(25:18):
just decided not to post it because it was it
was friend and bro time. And so we'll be getting
back into a rhythm here soon. There's some things that
are changing with the guy's schedules make it a little
easier to get on in record shows. But you know,
we always enjoy people watching us. We hope they have
(25:39):
a good time. But you know, more than anything else,
that show is just a archived hang of some really
good old friends, and so we've never wanted to lose
that vision for it. Yes, we want the podcast to
be successful, we want people to share in it with us,
but more than anything else, just about friends hanging out
and friends hanging out. Recently has been a little more
(26:02):
sparse because that's how life goes. But we'll be back
in the pocket soon and we you know, I want
to invite you guys to come check us out the
Manchild Chronicles. We're big on entertainment, movies, pop culture. We
play a lot of really stupid games that have a
lot of stupid themes, So come check us out. We
would love for you. We're on the channels you may
(26:24):
like or follow or something down below. Channels we love, Yeah,
other channels we love so yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Click on there, check it out and make sure you
get subscribed there as well. It's WrestleMania season after this weekend.
It's the kickoff to WrestleMania season and now on the road,
so hopefully we'll be back next week at least we'll
do our best to be there and all the way
through WrestleMania, bring you updates and talk with you guys
as well. So leave your comments, leave your questions. Love
to connect with you guys here on the show. Thank
(26:51):
you so much for being on the wrestle Chat podcast
this week. I'm the ant man for eleven. See you
next week
Speaker 2 (27:04):
On your Wish
Welcome back to the wrestle Chat podcast. I'm the ant man.
He is Michael, and we are getting into yes WrestleMania
season because coming up this weekend, it's the Royal Rumble
that is the start to the road to WrestleMania. I
believe this is the it would it be the one
B pay per view or pl E for you.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Michael, that's one hundred percent that. I mean, nothing out
does the spectacle and the grandeur of WrestleMania, but Royal
Rumble is the close second.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yours is Royal Rumble mind SummerSlam. So we have him
balanced out with with the with the one bees. Yes,
I like that. Uh. Let's talk about first though, what
happened on Monday Monday Night Raw. I didn't see it
when it happened, but they showed the replay and I thought,
we just watched a murder or in an unintentional suicide
by Jada McDonough and the moon salt he did that
(00:49):
landed his neck and the back of his head on
the announcer's table. Did you did you think he was
knocked out when that happened?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Uh? I watched it after the fact as well. I
had to like put my kids to bed and do
a couple different things. I don't know when exactly it
fell time wise, but I was keeping updated on my
timeline on X and all of a sudden, I refresh
and it's just JD McDonough everything, and I'm like, what happened?
And so I watched it. I thought he died because
and if you watch it in slow motion, like I
(01:18):
have several times, I would not be surprised if he
I mean, I think he avoided a career threatening injury
by an inch because if you look, he caught just
enough shoulder blade on that hit. Oh interesting that I
think that it stopped from all that pressure hitting him
(01:39):
square on the neck. That's just the way I saw it.
I could be wrong, that's fine. But the fact that
he only walked away with a couple broken ribs and
a punctured lung, it's nothing short of miracle. And then
he goes, Okay, gotta be Triple H's new face guy. Okay,
(02:01):
very few people can brag about injuries like Triple H.
Dude tore his quads in two different matches, finished both
of them. It is well known history. Now you're talking
about a guy. Okay, that's not your air. Okay, your
your knees. Your knee, it hurts. Yeah, it's not gonna
work well, but it's not your air. When you break
(02:24):
your ribs and puncture alung, how do you finish a
match that is completely dependent on your ability to breathe?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
All he needs to do now is actually win a
gold medal so he can take Kurt Engle's line. I
want a gold medal with broken freaking ribs and a
punctured lung. I mean he needs to steal the line
for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Then he finishes the match, and then we see on
X that he collapsed behind the led wall when he
rounded the corner. Dude, maybe you should have tapped, you know, like,
maybe you should have not finished. But kudos do you
for doing that?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
That's the deal is I think that for more than
one reason, he shouldn't have finished, because now he unintentionally
is now a baby face. Just because he finished the match,
a heel would not finish. I got hurt too bad,
I gotta go lay down. When he got back up
and got on the side there and grabbed the tag rope,
the audience clapped. When has the last time that the
(03:25):
audience clapped at anything I've seen cheers, seen chants, seeing booze,
seen girls screaming. They sat in their seat and went
what it is loud enough that you could hear that
it was a bunch of people doing it.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, it's a sign of appreciation, but also relief. It's
the only way you can communicate support and relief in
that moment.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I agree. And now when he comes back, he's he's
got to be a babyface. Sorry, JD. I know you
didn't want to be, but now you're a bubblehead babyface.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Him and that funko pophead.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
That's what I mean by funk head for sure. Glad
he is okay, even though we're saying that he's okay
with broken ribs and punctured lung. I'm glad it wasn't
worse because that would have been probably been the last injury.
I would have guessed after seeing what had happened. I
would have said, yeap, I bet he. I bet he
broke a couple of ribs and punctured along on that one. Look. No,
I think that he severed his spine is kind of
(04:19):
what I thought, and I did love that. Leave it
to Pat McAfee to say to credit the thickness of J. D.
Mcgonough's McDonough's skull and big old head that saved him.
I just love how he pops in with with stuff
that everybody's thinking, I think in the moment. So guy's
all right, guessing he will miss the Royal Rumble coming
(04:41):
up this weekend. Let's jump in and talk about that
a little bit, starting with Cody and Kevin Man when
they when we saw the promo between Triple H and
Cody and Triple H opening up the box and saying
it's just for one night only and had had the
winged Eagle there and Cody brought that to the ring
(05:02):
that night. Did you think we would ever see that
for way more than one night, especially it actually being
in a ladder match at Royal Rumble.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It's crazy, and honestly, I didn't to answer your question,
I didn't think we would be still seeing it around.
What I thought was interesting is that the wing Eagle
was a part of the title that was hanging from
the thing. I don't know what they're gonna do with that,
if I'm being honest, because commentary openly discusses that he's
(05:31):
not a legitimate chance, not at all, and so the
fact that it's hanging there is a little interesting, So
I'm gonna trust that there's something to that. But with
this storyline, I understand that the titles on the line,
and that's fine, but I want to throw some throw
some credit again to the writing team in Triple H
(05:54):
because this feud, while it is for the title, it's
not about the title, and they have been doing such
a great job of adding story into these matches. We
go back to Drew and Punk or Seth and Punk
or Jane Drew or titles nowhere to be seen. But
(06:19):
we are so vested in these stories. And so while
I'm excited to see a great championship match, I have
to acknowledge that we're watching this not to see who
wins the strap, but to see who's gonna win. And
you know, Kevin thinks he's right, Cody thinks he's doing
the right thing. We're vested and I love it very
much so.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And even though this is one of those that I say,
even though it makes no sense that the winged Eagle
is hanging up there, I feel like if they didn't
do it, I would be missing something in this match. Yeah,
even though it means absolutely nothing, unless you credit that
title that belt, I should say, because he's not a champion,
so I wouldn't call it a title at the moment.
(06:58):
But him having that app is almost like it's his
dignity or pride that he's hanging up there kind of
symbolic of that maybe and if Cody, which I presume,
well I don't know, but presume that Cody will win,
that that's something he would be taking away from him,
you know, the one little piece of the closest he's
(07:19):
gotten to a championship, at least that title, you know,
the world title in the last ten years? Is that
what it is? Nine years? Something like that? That that
that is as close as he's been and that's on
the line and he doesn't carry it out. That's a
big deal. Yeah. Then we go over to DIY versus
the MotorCity machine Guns. I'll be honest, I feel like
(07:41):
we've talked about them before here on this podcast, the
MotorCity machine Guns and how well they have just fit in.
They feel like the guys that should be champion, at
least they do to me. They feel like the guys
that you should be feuding with. And of course they're vets.
We know that if they would actually be the guys
that I would say, Yeah, they're never leaving TNA. They're
(08:01):
gonna be here forever. They're gonna be the Stings of TNA,
like Sting was in w c W. Those will be
the guys. They've been champions together, they've been champions separately,
and then we see them on WWE and come in
here and immediately vy for the titles, win the titles,
lose the titles, and now fighting for him again on
a massive stage at the Royal Rumble. D I Y.
(08:24):
I mean those guys too, They're I kind of feel
like MotorCity machine Guns have the advantage just as far
as the storyline goes against d I Y. But they're
they're not. They're not newbies either, right, right.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
They're not newbies. There's a lot of there's a lot
of experience in this matchup. Uh, Gargano and Champa. They've
been around, MCMG has been around. I'm gonna be honest
with you. I'm gonna take the opposing seat on this one.
I'm not vested in this at.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
All, are you not?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Okay? I felt like I had always heard of MotorCity
machine Guns. I had never watched a ton of them,
obviously because they were in different different promotions, but WWE
did not introduce or teach me about them before they arrived.
(09:19):
WWE wanted me to assume, or they wanted me to
already know who they were. They're very clearly talented. They
worked super well together. But as I just the contrast
of what I just talked about, there's no story to
MotorCity Machine Guns, there's no story to DY, and then
the worst of all, there's no story between mcmg and DY.
(09:44):
I don't care, and that's no fault of any of
the guys. I love all of their work individually and collectively.
I think from a writing perspective, we're just filling time
and it's not doing anything for me. I think it
was Friday Night. There might have been a promo between DY,
maybe between themselves and somebody else. I don't remember, but
(10:05):
it was a cookie cutter promo. It was the they
don't know who they're messing with because we're DIY and
blah blah blah, and it was it was the nineteen
ninety Rocky Maya Villa promo. And you know how many
times I've gone off on the Rocky Maya via promo,
and it just it's not interesting to me. And so
I think in time those stories will develop in the
(10:28):
tag division over there, But right now that's going to
be replenishing my snacks for me, and I hope that
they give me something that I'm gonna regret maybe missing.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Sure, Sure, And you know they always say, I've always
heard this being said that wrestling should be a smorter sport,
and so as you're making your smortes your snack blade,
I would say that if WWE is holistically about storytelling,
AEW is about wrestling. In the Royal Rumble, this is
the ad aw section of the show. Yeah, this is
(11:03):
the part about the wrestling and not necessarily the story.
So we see how that goes. I have no doubt
that it's going to be a banger on that tag
team match. I really like MotorCity Machine Guns and the
matches that I've seen from them. I'm like, Yeah, these
guys definitely know what they're doing. Yeah, I think you're right.
If they get a story, this could be the could
be really.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Really good unstoppable unstoppable.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Women's Royal Rumble match. I mean, I don't know who
everybody that's in it yet I'm not even really sure
it matters because it's pretty much just all the active females.
But here's something I want I want to discuss. We've
already seen promos for Charlotte Flair, and the presumption is
that Charlotte Flair will be back at the Royal Rumble.
She'll be in the Rumble. And everybody thinks that if
(11:45):
Charlotte Flair is in the Royal Rumble, Charlotte Flair is
winning the Royal Rumble. But there's somebody else that's coming
back that they've said not a word about. And it's
interesting because I saw a sign and her husband noticed
it and gave a little shrug and walked right past it.
Somebody in the in the audience on Monday night, at
the very beginning had a sign and said where is
(12:07):
the man? And Seth stopped and looked at it and
and walked on. That is, hang on, I'm gonna give
another rock a little chill right there. That's right, a
little chill thinking about the man showing up and ruining
all of Sharp Flair's plans. How do you feel about
that story?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I think that story will happen, but that's not the
end of the story.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Of course, not you gotta finish that story.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Well, no, I don't What I mean by that is,
I don't think that's the way. I don't think either
one of them win the Rebel.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You don't think either of them will be really okay?
Would you think you're gonna save it to l afterwards?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
No, I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna pitch it now
so that I can be right. You know, Yeah, come on,
you got what? What is? What just happened? That was
big news between wrestling promotions? What just happened with WWWNA
with TNA. Who finished up at TNA Genesis?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Oh yeah, Jordan Grace.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Jordan Grace. I think Jordan Grace comes in and wins
the whole thing, because what better way to launch that
relationship than to put your former TNA champion over in
the Royal Rumble and go to WrestleMania and pull in
that whole audience. It's completely non booking reason, But if
it was me, that's exactly what I would do.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
If you like shock and awe, I love that right there,
and who doesn't like shot at all?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
And honestly, you bring her out fifteen to twenty, so
she can keep that kind of that push to her.
But I'm I'm yep, I'm gonna behold my breath for
Jordan Grace because I think we've already seen her do
crazy stuff in NXT. She is super over. People love her.
Put the strap on her and to the moon.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
That would be awesome. I'd love to see that happen.
We got the Men's Royal Rumble match, and this one
is the one that I mean, everybody's saying that they're
going to be the one that wins. It's going to
be Seth Rollins, or it's going to be Logan Paul.
I don't think it's time for Logan Paul yet I
think it and I don't even know say that this
guy is the guy who would win. But I would
think if we're going to get a surprise, and if
any time is the time to do the surprise, it'd
(14:21):
be now for brock Lesner.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
I think so I would. I would rather just quit
life than see brock Lesner in another WrestleMania main event. Agree, agreed,
And it's not because I don't like him. It has
nothing to do I love Brock. I would much rather
see him in a story like he did with Cody
last year, than I would see him. He doesn't need
the title. He doesn't need it, so don't put him
(14:45):
in the match. Brock Lesner would be a great addition
to the Royal Rumble in terms of who's winning. Dude.
I thought all day about this episode, and when you
sent the run of show, I was like, Man, who
do I think is gonna win the Royal Rumble? Dude?
I don't know because for the first time in what
(15:06):
feels like forever, at any point in time, I don't
know who might win the Royal Rumble because you always
know there's your Roman, there's your Randy, there's your I mean,
there's your Seth. You know, you know there's Punk this
time around, Dude, any one of them, I go Punk.
He's never main evented WrestleMania, and you know that he's
(15:28):
running out of time. Punk wants to main event Rustlemania.
Drew has taken way too many losses. Dude needs a win,
and the last time he won the Rumble I think
was in COVID. He needs the redo. You have Seth
that's been trying to get back on the horse after
getting healthy, being out after his title run, you have Jay,
(15:49):
who's the hottest baby face on the planet right now.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I don't know he could thinking about this. Could Brock
be the Paul Hayman favor but see him Punk Cash
is in a house cleaner.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
It could be something like that. Maybe I just I think.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I think, I think it'd be weird to see Brock
go into business for somebody else. But I wouldn't hate it,
not not when it's with Paul pulling the strings.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Maybe it's just that he doesn't eliminate see him Punk.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Maybe maybe that's all it is.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Throw anybody else out with me, That's all I want
to I want there to be more intrigued, Like, let's
take that and run it all the way the end.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Let's say Punk in Brock get all the way to
the end. Brock's done some stuff to maybe help Punk
but maybe not. And they're just staring at each other.
In Brock just gets a big old grin on his face,
goes steps over the top rope on his own accord
the floor, jumps down to the floor and just walks
off and it and it leaves, And you know that
(17:00):
half the audience is gonna love it. Half the people
are gonna hate it without one hash. But I'm sitting
there going, Yes, something I haven't seen.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Before, Binga, binga, And here's the deal. They brought it
back up on Monday. That particular comment with Jackie Redmand
that Punk made she asked him about the favor and
they brought that segment back up on purpose makes me
think that something that that favor being the something is
cashed in here for the Royal rumble this week.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Wait, I changed my mind. I want the favor to
be done by Curtis Axel because he's also a Paul
Hayman guy.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Okay, got Curtis Axel much more believable. What favor is
that I don't even know? Hey, before I forget this,
we've been talking about story all along here with WWE,
we don't talk a lot about ae W And that's okay. Listen,
if there's a there's an audience for that, you love that.
(17:57):
I think that there's a lot of things that need
to be right now. I'll work with Rossall, Marshall, von
brand New, aew guys. They are all elite and I
love that for them. It gives them a great place
to continue to hone their skills and they get a paycheck.
Love that although they're they're not on a show yet. Besides,
since the first of the year, there is a show
coming up in February with those guys close to where
(18:18):
they live here in Texas where I am, and so
hopefully they're on that. I don't know how you go
to Texas and not have von Erics on it. So
hopefully that happens. But they are often talked about, not
Rossall Marshall, but aaw about not having stories and how
so many times it feels like that, you know, maybe
the wrestlers kind of have their control. We've talked about
(18:40):
this particular thing before, this particular wrestler, and that is
Tony Storm Michael. I don't know if you saw what
happened with her this week on AW. So she reverted
back in Whenever, back to her old character really as
like a rookie is how she kind of positioned herself.
And this Wednesday, it all came to fruition that that
(19:03):
was all inact and it was the role that she
had been playing for the last couple of months, and
she went back into timeless Tony Storm. I actually got
chills watching her do that, Like I was like Okay,
finally something intriguing in this show, and I'm excited about it,
Like I don't care about anything else that happens on there.
I'll watch the Tony Storm story, Tony Storm story until
(19:28):
that thing ends, as long as whoever is in control
of that, whether it be Tony or whatever, until it
runs to the end. I am all about that and
just doing an absolutely fantastic job in.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
The height of this story. It is the best in
the height of this arc. This is the best story
in women's wrestling of probably last year and maybe even
this year. She did her promo work as timeless Tony
Storm incredible, and so I completely echo everything you've said
(20:00):
in kind of in they structure their shows that it's
about the wrestling. That's great, there's an audience for that.
But for me, I need the story. And she's been
one of the only few bright glimmers in an otherwise
kind of story list show. And that's okay. I'm not
saying that's a bad thing. Some people want the more
(20:22):
fast paced, action driven wrestling. I want, I want, you know,
a healthy mixture of story and action. So but I completely.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Yeah, I think that it's it's the balance of both
that make it really really good. There is one possible
story that didn't happen in the ring, and it's been
happening outside of the ring is the feud between Tony
Kahan and Britt Baker. I wonder if that has any
any any bearing on what happens at the Royal Rubble too,
and often I kind of wonder what kind of reaction
Britt would have if she did show up in the
(20:53):
Women's World Rubble.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I don't know. I I by the way, I really
like her too. I knowledge. I think the general populace
likes her as well. I don't think she's done anything
to turn people against her, But unfortunately it is just
kind of more fuel on the fire of some things
that are happening over there where. It seems like a
(21:15):
lot of people are ill content. If you will, we
don't know, we're not behind the scenes, we don't know
what's going on. It's he said, she said, It's all
this type of stuff. But in whatever situation, she is
an asset to whatever company has her, and I would
implore whatever company that does have her to use her
(21:35):
because she's very, very good at what she does.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
There was a good story at one time with her
and Adam Cole and Chris Jericho and whatever. That just ended.
It just literally went away the next week. Yep, nothing
ever happened again with it.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
We talked about it the week before and we had
a pretty long segment talking about that story at the
time on this show and it got rave reviews from
us and then just poof was gone.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
When are we bringing that? Oh did y'all forget it? Oh? Yeah,
I forgot about that story just never came back up.
It's just so silly. That's some good stuff. Last thing
we'll talked about here is TNA and WWE. I went
to Genesis in Dallas a couple of Sundays ago, and
I will say that we've been to WrestleMania, We've done
Summer Slams, We've done you know, we've done aw shows,
(22:26):
We've done NXT, We've done all this stuff and been
to them live. I will say though, I had one
of the best times just in an overall experience at
the TNA Genesis show.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Man. It was just like I didn't know most of
the storylines. It's hard to get I mean, can you
tell me where you can watch it? Yeah? TNA Plus
is legitimately like the only place you can watch I
mean it's not the only place, but it's the most
convenient way you can watch it here in America. And
I'll be honest, I bought it, bought it for a year.
(23:00):
I'm interested, I'm invested now. I went to that show
not knowing any of the storylines, really know some of
the players. Of course, Nick Nimmoth is a champion, and
we all know who Joe Hendry. I said his name,
so making sure you do. It appeared Joe Hendry ends
up becoming the champion, which I was just amazing, so good.
(23:22):
One of the biggest things that I took away from
it is that in their matches, Now, obviously you can't
hear the announcers, the play by play guys, right, but
they gave time to everything. I understood what was going on,
just because they gave time to the stories that were
happening in the ring. There was no doubt that everybody
absolutely hates Tessa Blanchard yea and everybody absolutely loves Jordan Grace.
(23:49):
And out of that, I mean, you could they just
told their story in the ring without saying a word,
and that just one of the best, best matches of
the of the show, having a little little interaction with
some NXT guys on there as well. So I'm excited
to see where this partnership goes. And I'm excited to
see what comes next for T and A because they
(24:09):
are they've done all the things they need to do.
Pop up to the next level now yep, great, Yeah,
excited to see what happens there. Glad you guys joined us.
If you're watching right now on YouTube, give us a like, subscribe,
leave a comment, let us know any of your thoughts
on the Royal Rumble coming up this Saturday. If you're
listening right now, thank you so much. If you wouldn't
(24:30):
mind rate this show and make sure you hip subscribe
so you don't miss the next episode. And we hope
that is next week. We've been trying to get on
a schedule, but man, our lives are going in one
hundred different directions. And started a new podcast with like
I said, with Ross and Marshall, vaugh Eric and this
week Kevin Van Eric, their father is going to be
on the podcast with us US coming up tomorrow at
(24:52):
six am. That will drop and so hope you'll check
that out as well. It's under the other podcast that
we love, what's.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Going on with a Manchild, Oh Manchild, it's kind of
the same thing. We're in and out. We have some
episodes that we throw up, you know, to be perfectly
honest with you, and normally I wouldn't drop the curtain
like this, but we've been getting together so sparingly that
there's been a few times that we got together we
hit record and we had a great time and we
(25:18):
just decided not to post it because it was it
was friend and bro time. And so we'll be getting
back into a rhythm here soon. There's some things that
are changing with the guy's schedules make it a little
easier to get on in record shows. But you know,
we always enjoy people watching us. We hope they have
(25:39):
a good time. But you know, more than anything else,
that show is just a archived hang of some really
good old friends, and so we've never wanted to lose
that vision for it. Yes, we want the podcast to
be successful, we want people to share in it with us,
but more than anything else, just about friends hanging out
and friends hanging out. Recently has been a little more
(26:02):
sparse because that's how life goes. But we'll be back
in the pocket soon and we you know, I want
to invite you guys to come check us out the
Manchild Chronicles. We're big on entertainment, movies, pop culture. We
play a lot of really stupid games that have a
lot of stupid themes, So come check us out. We
would love for you. We're on the channels you may
(26:24):
like or follow or something down below. Channels we love, Yeah,
other channels we love so yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Click on there, check it out and make sure you
get subscribed there as well. It's WrestleMania season after this weekend.
It's the kickoff to WrestleMania season and now on the road,
so hopefully we'll be back next week at least we'll
do our best to be there and all the way
through WrestleMania, bring you updates and talk with you guys
as well. So leave your comments, leave your questions. Love
to connect with you guys here on the show. Thank
(26:51):
you so much for being on the wrestle Chat podcast
this week. I'm the ant man for eleven. See you
next week
Speaker 2 (27:04):
On your Wish
Host
Anthony "The AntMan" Lay
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