April 13, 2024 • 50 mins
In this action-packed episode of the WrestleChat Podcast, The AntMan welcomes guest co-host JR, stepping in for Michael. The duo dives deep into a spirited discussion on the latest WrestleMania events.
The conversation shifts to the thrilling outcomes at WrestleMania, particularly focusing on Sami Zayn's unexpected victory over Gunther, ending one of the longest intercontinental championship reigns. The hosts explore the emotional highs and dramatic narratives that WWE masterfully wove throughout the event, emphasizing the powerful family connections and surprise appearances that kept fans on the edge of their seats.
Adding a personal flair to the podcast, JR discusses his hobby of action figure collecting. He recounts his journey into this passion, the community he's built through it, and how it intersects with his love for wrestling. This segment provides a unique insight into the personal lives of the hosts, enriching the episode with a blend of professional analysis and personal stories.
Throughout the episode, The AntMan and JR engage in a lively banter, dissecting each match's outcomes and implications, and sharing their predictions and hopes for future WWE events. This episode of the WrestleChat Podcast is not just a recap but a heartfelt celebration of wrestling's storytelling prowess, community, and the personal connections that deepen fans' engagement with the sport.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When it comes to professional wrestling. If you were talking
about it, we are talking about it. Welcome to the
wrestle Chat Podcast with the Yeah Man. The final chapter
has been read, and boy, what an ending. Congratulations to
Cody Rhoades, You're new undisputed w WE Champion. But unlike
(00:21):
a Marvel movie, after the credits roll, we don't have
to wait three years to see what happened to Iron Man.
At most it was twenty four hours. Welcome to a
new season of the wrestle Chat Podcast. I'm your host,
the ant Man, excited to connect with you this morning
on a trip to the pinnacle of pro wrestling the
weekend that was wrestle Mania forty. Just like tying off
(00:44):
the stitching on the stitching work on a brand new
leather strap, it was done in quick fashion with a
proverbial lighter, melting the ends to sheer them up, presenting
to us a brand new undisputed champion in brand new
era in WWE. And with that a brand news story begins.
Thanks so much for hanging here for a bit this morning.
(01:05):
We call this a wrestle Chat for a reason. I
want to welcome you in with your thoughts on all
that's gone down this week. See where you think it's.
Some of the stuff is headed and we can discuss
that too. As you saw at the top. Michael Glavit
is out this week, happy to say he's recovering well
with a bowl full of his favorite ice cream, some popstickles,
(01:27):
and sponge baths. Although I'm not quite sure how sponge
baths help you recover from a tonsile ectomy, But I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Who am I to question.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I am excited to welcome in a fellow pro wrestling fan.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
See if we.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Tried this this morning, see if we can get him
on it was frozen up. Hopefully we can get there
your favorite homie Jr. Maybe I'm gonna take this off.
There's a we've had some issues already this morning. We
tried for about fifteen twenty minutes. It looks like on
my end that he's here. I know that he's in
(02:01):
there waiting, but we're not getting anything on the screen.
So apologize for that. Man we are. We'll keep trying
to get him in here in just a little bit.
He is really cool, a really cool guy who does
a lot of a lot of videos on memorabilia that
he's collected, mainly action figures and man the collection that
he has. I wanted to bring him on to talk
(02:21):
about that and and everything else that's going. Let's check you.
I gotta chat here. See as as Ron Simmons would say,
damn many, let's try see on this end, I see
your picture, j and I know you're there. On that end,
it's not showing up. That's all right, Well, I'll keep
keep trying to get that in here in just a
(02:42):
little bit. We chatted several times about him coming on
and and and hanging out with us, and love to
get him on the show and talk about all of
his his entire collection. Let's talk about Russell Mania forty,
get this sing role and surprise to see Sammy pull
in the IC title out from under gum or the
longest raining Intercontinental Champion ever. It's a story that I
(03:05):
thought i'd be honestly, I thought was a little rushed,
but not a story that I thought was undeserving because
Sammy is so stink and talented. He pulled from so
many other encounters over the past few years, encounters that
left him, you know, on his back, staring at the
lights more times than not, but with the with a
new regime in charge of WWE in a brand new
(03:26):
era that has begun. I'm excited to see what kind
of brain that Sammy has with that IC title. I mean,
there's so many directions they could go with this, so
many feuds that could go that could happen here. I'm
in the first one. It looks like it is has
already started off on Monday Night Raw, which we'll actually
get to see coming up next week on Raw. He
(03:47):
against Gable in Sammy's home country. Is this going to
be the feud moving forward? If this is going to
or will this end that part of the story with
those two and we maybe see Gable move on to
something else in turn Sammy move on somewhere else. I'd
like to know your thoughts. You're watching right now on
YouTube or X or on Instagram or Twitter I already
(04:10):
said X, but or on Facebook, I'd love for you
to chime in leave a comment with what you think
about Sammy being the brand new Intercontinental Champion, and I
would love to know your thoughts here today. And if
also remember if you're not following us on YouTube, make
sure you do that. We've got two brand new title
holders in We've got Damian Priest with the brand new
(04:32):
world title. Of course, Cody Rroads with the brand new
WWE undisputed title. You could win one of those titles
as long as you're subscribed to our YouTube. That's all
you have to do is hit subscribe. You don't have
to register somewhere else, you know, give your blood type,
social security number, nothing like that. Simply subscribe. Once we
hit ten thousand, we're going to do a drawing from
(04:53):
everyone that has subbed to that account, and you get
to pick which one you want, the world title or
the WWE title. You'll get to pick if you win it,
So make sure you're sub to our YouTube. That's all
you have to do. Another story that I thought felt
a little rushed and also you know, a little overshadowed,
was Bailey versus EO. A little rushed in the sense
(05:14):
that it felt as though, you know, we went from
from a functional slash dysfunctional faction to I know what
you said because I now speak Japanese and you're who
I'm gonna face because I won the Royal Rumble. However,
to see Bailey with gold around her waist again makes
me smile. And on SmackDown last night, we saw Bailey
(05:36):
come out and say I want to give the first
opportunity to Naoi. I am excited to see where this
feud goes. And I see if all these these first two,
at least the Intercontinental title and the Women's Undisputed title,
they both feel like I like this other person and
I think they're really really good, and I'm going to
(05:57):
give them a shot at the title. Not quite a
feud yet, however, if we've learned anything is to be
patient and watch because there's a lot that can happen
in a very very short amount of time. So I'd
love to know your thoughts on that one as well.
Hit me up in the comments. We'll share him here
on the show and talk about it. I mean, it's
me and you flying solo. Still working on trying to
(06:17):
get JR. Back in. If we do, we'll do that,
but I'd love to hear from you. Hit comments and
let me know what you think about both the IC
title run from Sammy and also what we should see
coming in in the future. Here from Bailey. I'm excited
that she has a title back around her waist. How
are you is feeling about these? Makes sure you chime
oh he's moving now, hang on, let's try this, dude.
(06:39):
I've followed you for a long time on Instagram and
I have loved your videos on your on all the
collection that you have from hits ninety five point seven.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
If I'm right, you got it man, Yet here in Denver.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Your favorite homie Jr. Thank you for being on with
us today.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Good to have you, man, Dude, this is so cool.
I mean, you know, earlier I was able to hear
what you were kind of teeing up and all the
things you were talking about, and I'm like, yeah, we
had been trying to do this for a while, and
then the moment that we get to it's like just
trying to jump through hoops. Bro. But thanks for the
kind words. Man. I'm pumped to be here.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Love technology, love that we I mean, listen, all said
and done, this is actually still fascinating to me that
you can be in Denver, I can be in Austin
and we can jump on here and do this together.
So excited to do this. Thanks for filling in for
Michael to day.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Man. Yeah, I hope he gets well soon. I heard
all about the sponge baths that Lucky Duck.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I'll hear about that one later, if not later on
in the comments. So I'm assuming that you parked yourself
in front of the TV for two big days of WrestleMania,
Am I right?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
No?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I did, dude, for sure. Night one, I actually couldn't
watch live because we have the Colorado Broadcast Awards that
night and we were up for two awards, so your
boy had to go.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
So I tried to avoid social media the whole time
that I was there and eventually got back. We did
win two award, by the way, I want to put
that out there. I was pretty proud about that and
stayed up till three am to finish Night one. It
was brutal, but Night two we did a watch party
at out the Box, which is a toy shop out
(08:14):
here that I love.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I'm talking about stand up till three. I was there
with you. I was up till three. I went to
the press conference afterwards and ended up not going to bed. Well,
I'll say it was Eastern, so it was two o'clock.
Eastern was at four o'clock, so yeah, I know late
night that night. I'm assuming that you heard a little
bit about the icy title. We were talking about that.
What are your thoughts on Sammy pulling that title out
(08:38):
from underneath Gump through the longest reigning Intercontinental champion, bro
What a.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Great couple of years, What a great couple of rustle
Mania's Sammy Zain has really had, right Yeah, think about
it main event last year in that banger of a
tag team match, right like, they just burnt it down,
and then this year to kind of have the whole
just obviously the super underdog, can he do it? Like
(09:03):
Sammy is a guy that you can really invest in
and really, you know, he's just he's such an underdog
and you want to root for him because he's not
you know, he's not jacked up, he's not ripped, he's
not a giant. He's just like a scrapper. And I
think that just relates to me and it relates to
a lot of people out there. And for Sammy to
be the person to take Gunther off that pedestal, that
(09:27):
that huge rain, like I don't even remember how many
days it was, it was so long that it's just
it's an amazing thing to see. And then wwe really
was trying to make grown men cry all freaking weekend. Dude,
But you Jammy yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
You remember the number of days because they left it
on an awkward number, six hundred and sixty six days.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Okay, I thought that was the case, but I didn't
want to be wrong and just put that number out
there on your should Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yes, yeah, but yeah, wwe was hell ben on making
grown men all weekend and to see Sammy do that
and then celebrate with his wife and his kid, and
it's just I mean, that's why we love pro wrestling.
It's that feel good stuff. It's the stories, and that
was one of the better ones leading into the event.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Very interesting how many family connections were at this WrestleMania.
That one with Sammy obviously, the one with Cody, and
and even the one Withdrew him walking over and handing
that title to presenting it to his wife for just
a moment. We'll get to that here in this adventute. First,
the six way tag match for the perceived to be
split tag titles went about how I thought it would go.
(10:40):
Awesome truth taking home the raw tag titles, a town
down undertaking home these SmackDown tag titles kind of perceived
to be the first I would say unofficial draft picks
for the brand. I don't see them winning those titles
and then having to get into the ring like Charlotte
and Becky and awkwardly hand each other the other titles.
Those matt can often be a cluster though. It's hard
(11:02):
to watch those live and catch everything. You don't know
where to look. There's so much happening all the time.
But how did you feel watching it on TVJR.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I felt like it was super fun. You know, those
aren't necessarily my favorite kind of matches. I'm more of
a one on one or tag team kind of guy.
Just because you don't, like you said, you don't really
know where to look, you don't know what to you know,
try to find. But I'll tell you the one thing
that always relates to me in those type of matchups
(11:31):
is obviously the big moves right. But then I think
more importantly is the comedy. And Our Truth brought the
comedy right. We're seeing spectacular stuff happen, you know, dives
and flips and you know, ladders breaking. But the moment
Our Truth sticks out his hand for a tag, I
(11:51):
got up off my seat and started screaming at the TV.
Make the tag, Make the tag. And then of course
mis makes the big tag and Truth comes in tears
it up. So I was super pumped to see awesome
Truth win. It's a little bit nostalgic for me. And
as far as the title splitting up, I guess that
makes sense, especially now, like you said, we know that
(12:11):
the draft is on the way, and you know Theory
and Gosh Waller. I'm not the biggest fan of those guys,
so it didn't. I was just like, come on, you know,
but at least the good guys left was something in
that matchup.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
It was cool to see our Truth show up with
a ladder to the right match as well. Yes, absolutely
not a royal rumble. What just just curious? What do
you not like about the other two? About Grayson Waller
and and Austin Theory.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
This's a good question, and it's not it's not anything
against either of them. It's just I don't I don't
think they belong together. I think they should both be
doing their own thing right. I mean, we saw for
a while Austin Theory was kind of the proverbial next up,
like the next chosen one, so to speak, for quite
a while. And Grayson Waller can be a very entertaining
(13:03):
son of a gun and he seems to be a
charming son of a gun too, and hearing him on
the mic and doing the Grayson Waller effect, I just
I feel like those two guys are just pushed together
because they just seem like, I don't know, Freddy younger
alpha dudes. It's like they can be on their own.
I think there's enough character in both of them to
(13:23):
have them do their own thing. So I think it's
just a tag team for the sake of a tie team.
And that's why I don't think I'm super into it.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I'm gonna I'm anxious for the turn already, so whenever
that does inevitably happen, that's gonna be fun. I thought
we might see some involvement from Punk on the world
title match, but I wasn't expecting that that much physicality
from him. One of these shortest world title reigns ever,
Drew beating Seth. However, after taunting seam Punk, who was
(13:50):
ringside calling the action, Punk pulled off the arm brace
you know, there was his right arm protecting the triceps
tear and used it Andrew, which that was inevitably the
cue for Damian Priest's music with him cashing in his
money in the bank briefcase they become the new World
champion man short title reign for Drew even an emotional
(14:15):
moment like we mentioned earlier there with his wife at ringside,
only to get cocky and start taunting see him Punk
like he has been doing for the past several weeks
via social media now in person and it turned on him.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, dude, that was so fun to watch. I mean,
just hearing Punk down there doing commentary was so dope.
Obviously he's one of the best, but just for Drew
to let that, I don't know, man, Drew McIntyre has
been on absolute fire. I've actually grown to really appreciate
his work and really just say this, Yeah, this new
character and this he's just like he's kind of trolling people,
(14:51):
but he's like this big badass and he's like he's frightening,
you know. So to see him kind of, you know,
mouth off with Punk and then to see it ultimately
backfire was the coolest thing. Let me tell you what
my biggest fear was going into this WrestleMania, and then
I'll get back to Drew. My biggest fear going into
(15:11):
WrestleMania was that Cody was gonna finish the story right,
like we've invested our time into for two years to see.
At this point, my girlfriend's tired of hearing about Cody
Rhodes in his damn story. She just wants me to
shut up already. I was deathly afraid Cody was gonna
pull it off, only for Damian Priest to cash in
(15:33):
on him.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
If that would have happened, I would have took to
the Internet with an outrage like you would have never
heard before. I would have went on the air here
in Denver cursing Damian Priest one, you know, one way
each way. That was my biggest fear of going in,
that they were gonna give it to us and that
they were gonna take it away. Ultimately, that's what happened
to Drew McIntyre, and with him being the bad guy,
(15:57):
you know, we didn't mind that so much, especially, you know,
just to see Punk's reaction and how happy he was
about it and how smug he was about it. He's like, look, man,
this is what happens when you mess with the Second
City Saint.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
You talked about, Drew Man. We've talked about it here
on the show before leading up to WrestleMania that this
is the best work Drew has ever done in his
career right now. Oh yeah, I'm excited to see what
he does with the world title. So the Raw after
WrestleMania thirty eight, that's when Cody set up the story
that he proclaimed he needed to finish. That was to
(16:33):
raise above his head the WWE Championship and not be
taken away from him like it was from his father Dusty.
We all thought that surely, in one year's time, Cody
would collide with Roman and fulfill that story, but at
WrestleMania thirty nine it was not to be, and it
was another sign that WWE was now in the business
(16:55):
of long term story telling. The Raw after WrestleMania thirty nine,
we also saw the sign that Cody was going to
have to go through his own hard times story, much
like his father Cody's beginning with brock Lesner. You talk
about hard times. That road was long and treacherous, and
somehow it felt as though the road from thirty nine
(17:15):
to forty was much much longer than that road from
thirty eight to thirty nine. But for fans that were
patient and believed were indeed rewarded, last weekend in Philly
when Cody placed the ww championship in the hands of
his mother. Even just saying this right now, I'm getting
chill chills and a little emotional again. And this time
(17:37):
this title was not taken away. Jr. Have you felt
that there has been a better story in pro wrestling
in your lifetime?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Honestly, dude. The other story that comes to mind is
obviously the nWo, which is probably one of the biggest
of my fandom. But as far as a story from
start to finish that has a great finish and that
you've been invested in for this long, not even close.
(18:06):
This one is hands down, dude. Like, you know, I
liked Cody enough. I thought he was really talented. I
thought he was cool. You know. I remember seeing him
in Nashville when he was with the Ring of Honor
and that was super cool. It's like, oh, I got
to see Cody in the Bucks and those guys, you know,
because they were disturbing stuff. But for Cody to to
(18:28):
go on and to become the superstar that he has,
and there's something just super relatable about him. He's not
afraid to be emotional, you know. With me talking on
the air every day. You know, being emotional is something
that I need to be because I need to convey
that to my audience. So that's something that I can appreciate.
And just the seriousness in which Cody takes this profession,
(18:52):
it makes you believe in it even more. The way
that he dresses, the way that he acts, the way
that he talks, the way that he addresses the audience.
He's Cody Rhodes is the is the biggest babyface in
the industry right now, and he's quickly climbing my mount
rushmore of my favorite wrestlers of all time, and a
(19:15):
lot of that is because of this story, this investment.
Twenty four calendar months. We waited to see this happen,
and the payoff was even better than I could have imagined.
I don't know about for.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
You, Yeah, no, it was the same. I mean, it's
easy to get impatient when we're going through it and
it's like, oh, man, come on, just do something now
that would that would help us believe a little bit more.
But getting to the end and watching every piece that
happened was told perfectly. I think if we can tweak
one thing, and I mean, who cannot like the undertaker, right,
(19:52):
but instead of undertaking, it was stone cold. That would
have been the only thing. There's rumors out there of
what did and didn't happen, what was going to happen,
and what would have happened, But what we got was
about as close to perfections as I think we're going
to get. Listen, he's I think fresh out of that spongebath.
Michael's on watching right now. Yeah, Mery, dude, dude, all
(20:16):
of us. It is the guy cry fast. WrestleMania forty recap,
I think is really help you get I hope you're
feeling better, buddy, And he can always you can always tie.
You can't talk, but you can type, ton select me,
you know, top to bottom, in and out, through and through.
I personally give WrestleMania forty an a. There's always things
that you can prove on and hindsight, of course is
(20:36):
twenty twenty. But in the moment, at its core, I
believe it's the best WrestleMania, best WrestleMania I've ever seen,
and I've watched all of them since I've watched all
of them all.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Wow, let me let me ask you this. Yeah, right
up until this point, if you were to ask me. So,
let's let's like rewind two weeks, right, WrestleMania forty hasn't
happened yet. If you were to ask me what is
the best WrestleMania of all time? Which one do you think?
I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Probably either Rock Stone Cold what is that? Seventeen or
eight to whatever that and then or Rock and Rocken Hogan.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Right, so Rockenhagan is eighteen at in Austin main event,
three times at three different manias. First because fifteen, last
one I think was was it nineteen in Seattle?
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Okay? Right, yep? I think that's right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
My favorite one of all time has always been WrestleMania seventeen.
I think it was in Houston, Texas. They had the
gimmick Battle Royal. I don't know why, but that match
always stands out to me. And it was the night
that Austin shook hands with the Devil. Right. Not the
ending that not the ending we wanted. But the WrestleMania
itself was just spectacular. Everything was at a fever pitch.
(21:52):
The matches were great, the presentation was great, the comedy
was great, the athleticly everything about it was great. But
now I'm having a hard time because we're getting two
nights now, right, so you got to kind of you
gotta take the good with the bad with that though
as well. But asking me, now, what is the best
WrestleMania of all time? I do firmly believe with Cody
(22:17):
Rhodse finishing the story in the grand fashion that he did,
even with after Night one getting the odds stacked against
him even more, which was even more thrilling to see,
WrestleMania forty is the greatest WrestleMania of all time. And
that's just not a tagline. It's gonna be the biggest
and the best and the fastest. And this isn't a
promo for Bianca bell Air, but it truly is the
(22:39):
best WrestleMania of all time, from top to bottom. You
talk about really good matches, you talk about moments, you
talk about comedy, you talk about top tier storytelling. And
let me tell you a thing that I missed in
the main event of Night two. There was so much
madness happening, and you had alluded to the Undertaker earlier,
talk about a pot for that guy right now now,
(23:03):
if the glass had broken like you had suggested, the
pop would have been a little bit bigger, but it
was still unbelievable because it was so unexpected.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Right, there's the moment in all the chaos and we're
watching this at the toy shop and we're freaking out, bro,
all of us right, having such a blast, and the
Shield music hits and immediately I'm like, oh, man, seth
Rawlins is back up to his trolling ways, right, And
then there's that moment in between, which has since the
(23:35):
show been discussed and you know, kind of dissected, But
in the moment, I wasn't even aware of what was
happening because it was just so chaotic that I couldn't
put the two and two together. But when Roman Reigns
looks back at Cody and then looks back at a
struggling seth Rawlins in his shield garb and decides to
(23:56):
put that chair over the back of Seth rather than
focus on the contest, yep, it goes to exactly what
you said long term storytelling.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Was that ten years, ten years since that happened with
the Shield.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
He never forgot yep. And that's one of those things
where I don't know if you like experience this, but
I get like, post WrestleMania depression, like when it's over,
like I go back and immediately watch the show again. Yeah,
because you don't want it to end, because it's just
it's everything that's good with the world. When pro wrestling
(24:34):
is done right, it is the best entertainment in the world.
And I'll always stand by that.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
What's gonna be one of those things that is this
the best WrestleMania ever? We have thirty nine of them before.
I think we need five six to come after to
really narrow down everything great about this and truly appreciate
it like we should. But one thing that I think
will will stand out and has already in my mind,
(25:00):
has started to stand out every time I've heard it
in a replay again is Samantha's emotional call. She will
have a call that will live forever in the world
of pro wrestling. Her announcing through tears through You've you've
tried to talk when you cry before, and it's not easy.
(25:22):
It's not you, it doesn't feel it doesn't even.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Sound like you.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
For the majority of it. You're struggling to get through it.
And everybody else's emotion feels like it's summed up in
Samantha's call at the end you're new and choking back
tears as she's saying, it is just iconic and who
knew that that would be her moment at least for
now moving forward. And it's gonna be one of those
(25:45):
things that you hear, you hear j R. Saying as
God is my witness, he has broken in half, or
the uh the uh.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Uh, the resistible force meeting the immovable object.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Beautiful exactly. You're gonna have Samantha's call in that in
that world right there forever.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
And let me tell you, man, I know you were.
You were at the show live, which was super super dope.
But let me tell you what made Samantha's her announcement,
her call even that much more emotional and powerful is
because I'm watching this at home and as Cody gets
the pen, you don't get the you know, the one,
(26:31):
the two, the three instead, Michael Cole on each Cadence says,
finished the story and I'm.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Getting goosebumps thinking about it right now, bro seriously. And
then it goes to Samantha and she breaks and then
I'm in there like around oh my boys.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
So I'm trying to be tough, right, trying to hold.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
It in, but we're all tearing up, dude, and we're
all like, Cody finished the story. Even wore this shirt
here at the event, which is an action figure photography
photo of Cody that my boy Matthew Goldberg I think
is his name on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
M mgb uh, it's his picture. And I said, you know,
I got my American Nightmare shirt, but I'm super into
these Mattel toys. Now, let me get one that's printed
of a figure.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
And it was.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
It was just so spectacular, man. And yeah, I'm just
I love pro wrestling and I don't care who knows it.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Same here, Same here.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
JR.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Here is a collector, as he just mentioned, with the
Mattel toys, and and this hobby has taken him on
trips too. I want to hear all about this and
I'll chat with JR. On how all this got started.
We come back here on the rest of Chat podcast.
Hang up for saying your favorite homie, JR. For My
(28:04):
Heart's Hits ninety five point seven and Colorado Hanging here
on the premiere episode of season two of the Wrestle
Chat Podcast. J are really good to have you on
here this morning. You are a memorabilia collector, more mainly
action figure collector. How did you get started doing this hobby?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
So I definitely recall being at a random target one day.
I think I had to go in to pick up
some I don't even know what it was, but for
some reason I strolled through.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
The toys and you left spending three hundred. I know
how it works.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, we've been there, right, So I wasn't. I you know,
at at this point, I was only into like vintage toys,
which which for me are like the WWE Jack's Bone guys,
right with their knees and their arms, that kind of
crack ugly looking toys, right, But it's that's that was
(29:00):
the jam when I was that age, you know. And
eventually I sold those all off, and I was like,
you know, I wonder what the toys look like now.
And I just remember rolling through and I saw this
raw thirtieth anniversary three pack with Razor Ramon, the Undertaker
and the one two three Kid, and I thought, man,
I got you know, I have an extra sixty bucks
(29:23):
in my pocket that I can just burn right now,
so let me go ahead and pick this up. And
for months it just sat in the box and I
just would you know, kind of walk by and look
at it, and of course I'm seeing all the stuff
with matt Cardona let them breathe, and I'm, you know,
slowly starting to watch his stuff, and I'm like, screw it,
(29:43):
I'm gonna open them up. So I opened them up,
and from that moment it was over. It was over.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
It's been one year now since I got into this
hobby with the Mattels, and I'm waist deep, dude, i
am waste dep it is.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
It is.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
It is consuming, but in a good way if you're
you know, responsible about it, which I'm typically not, but
I try to be. You know, it's like a man
rents do tomorrow, but you know that new Ultimate Yoko
Zoon is coming out in a couple of weeks. So
it's just you know what it is, man, It's it's
(30:23):
the nostalgia of it, right, And it is the best
representation of it because they look so good now, the
faces and just the pain applicat like everything about it.
They look so phenomenal. And nostalgia can be a dangerous
thing if you're not careful, and I've learned that the
hard way a couple few times. But it's the nostalgia
(30:44):
of it. It's the actual thrill of the hunt.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I can't tell you how many shops and how many
stores and you know, major retailers I've gone out to
and it's just a swing and a miss. But that
one day that you turn that corner and you bump
into the new I don't know, Hogan three pack, which
I was a must have for me. I'm the biggest
Hogan guy, right. It's just it's just it's so cool,
(31:09):
and I get to meet so many people, and you know,
not to get deep here, but moving out here to
Denver for this job. I was basically here just for
this job, right, just to advance my broadcasting career. Sure,
I wasn't in the business of making friends or meeting people,
and that's no way to live, especially for to grow
man like us, humans need interaction with other people, and
(31:32):
I've been able to get that through this hobby. I've
met so many people, shop owners, fellow collectors, and just
different walks of life that are into this same kind
of you know, plastic universe, and I guess some really
good pals out of it, man. And like you had mentioned,
I get to go and visit a bunch of cool
(31:53):
shops and I love to film and make content, and
you know, the bottom line of it is I get
to make something out of it, so I get to
share my experience with somebody else as well.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Well.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You and I have talked about this privately, but for
those that are that are wondering, you actually choose to
take the figures out of the box. And for for
so long that's been perceived as you know, a no
no in the collectors the world. What was your what
was your feeling on this and that made you decide
to unbox it? You said that that was kind of
when you decided to be a collector, and we took
it out of a box. But what made you go,
(32:24):
you know what, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna leave
it and it's pretty packaging. I'm gonna take it out
and I'm actually going to handle it, touch it, look
at it.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
It was a couple of things, bro, And that's a
good question. One of them, which is Matt Cardona obviously
preaching let them breathe, let them breathe, let them breathe,
open them up, right, And that's just fun, like it's
it's it's thrilling to open that packaging.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Right.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
The other part of it is space. I live in
a one bedroom apartment here in Denver, Colorado, so I
don't have a man cave yet. I don't own a
home yet, right, because I don't know where ultimately gonna
end up in my career. Sure, so having just a
plethora of of boxes sitting around the apartment just is
(33:10):
not you know, space wise responsible.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
And then also it's like, sure, you can display them,
you know, with their spines, and you can see you know,
like a like a book, right, but you can't actually
see the figure. So it just it. And and again,
if that's the way that people choose to collect, that's
what's beautiful about it. Do it any any way you want,
you know, you can be all in or all out,
(33:34):
or you can you know, do a mixture.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
You see the Funko Popsie that was the same way. Yeah,
I don't want one the box. You're right, the box
takes up so much space too. I'll never get to
see the backside of one whatever. You know, if it
was a John Cena, I don't get to see the
bald spot on the back of his hit.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Right, that's what we're here for. Exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
That's why I took them out, and that's really been
the fun part for me as well. On not the
not the figure side. I have a few of them
over here to my right, but you see off you
don't see they're off camera, and I have left those
in the boxes, but the Funko pops up them all out.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Well just think, man, if if you had those pops
still in the box behind you, you have a bunch
of shiny stuff coming back at your camera like that
wouldn't look.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Nice, that's true, unless it's shining off those belts. That's
all right.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Oh, the belts look so good, especially that Wanne Eagle bro.
I've had that in my WWE shop cart dozens of times. Dude,
I'll tell you I I pulled the trigger on that one.
I want to say it was less than four hours.
It's probably it was probably a little longer than that
was right around four hours.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
That was on sale. I bought it for one hundred
and eighty dollars. Oh my god, whatever reason it's on
sale dual plated. Yes, I agree your videos you mentioned
those those are those are so good. You do such
a great job at that. Uh, you showcase each and
every figure. Tell people where they can find your unboxing.
(35:00):
You go buy a new one wherever you get it,
whether it be a toy store, Target, Walmart or whatever,
and you bring it back home and you show it
to the world. Where can they go see those?
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah? Really, I have the same handle everywhere. It's at
your Fave Homie Jr. Which is a stage name I've
had since gosh, probably the late two thousands, from making
music before DJing, before radio, before Mattel took a hold
in my wallet. So yeah, at your Fave Homie jar
(35:28):
on all platforms, Instagram x I guess we're calling it
now YouTube as well. So it's all there, man, and
you know, real quick. One of the things that really
brings me a lot of joy with this stuff is
setting them up. You know, I recently bought I took
my first ever trip to Ikea, which people couldn't believe.
I had never been to an Ikea before. But growing
(35:51):
up in New England, we didn't have those. So I
bought my first like glass case, and I tell you, man,
I was so excited to put the risers in there
and get the stands and you know, get them. You know,
I got like the Golden Age and the New Gen
and the attitude, and then I got this shelf and that,
and it's just like setting them up and just putting
(36:12):
them right and accessorizing them. Dude, it's just it's it's
the best. And uh yeah, I love going out on
the hunts and that's what you're gonna predominantly see. I
just did a trip out to Phoenix so I could
visit a store out there, which was really cool. And
I like to make you know, short form content, kind
of real shorts right right right to the point. And
(36:34):
there they rely heavy on voiceover.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Yeah. Yeah, so you get to you get to feature
everything that you that you work on daily. We get
to do it with the fun stuff right right, and
not the sales piece that just came down. Yes, we
have a little bit talking a little bit about Raw,
a little bit about SmackDown.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
You got a little bit to hang with us, of course, brother,
I'm here.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Awesome. Okay. So Raw left many wondering what Rock handed Cody. However,
on SmackDown last night, we seem to get somewhat of
an answered kind of we'll chat about that. Plus let's
talk about that all in footage. Yeah, we're gonna go
there a little bit. On the wrestle Chat podcast still
coming on Monday, Cody is interrupted by the Final Boss,
(37:25):
The Rock, and my screen just went blank. Now this
one's still good. Let's see here. He was confronted by
the Final Boss, The Rock. He says he has to
go away to Hollywood for a little while. He asked
Cody if The Rock can hold Cody's title, a moment
that was met with this is awkward chance, and yes,
(37:47):
that part of it really was, I don't know where
we're going with that. It's going to be interested to
see what they do in the future. And I get
a little bit you know what, if you can if
you can gain a little ground by getting to touch
and hold the title, maybe it's it's something that you
know is going to lead you to having a battle
for coming up in the future, just because you got
a little taste of touching that to undisputed WWE title
(38:11):
newly out of the hands of Cody Rhodes. And then
Rock hands something to Cody and he says, never break
my heart again before leaving the rest of the show
and really the rest of the week. It left us
all wondering what Rock could have possibly handed codally Cody personally,
I thought we were going to play off of the
(38:32):
real life situation of Cody's bus catching on fire at WrestleMania,
and maybe what he had handed Cody was alighter. However,
Cody either you know, squashed or helped, confirmed what many
were thinking and said it was something personal, a gift
that Cody gave the Rock. Now, Cody mentioned that he
got Seth a Rolex and gifted it to him before
(38:55):
their match at WrestleMania, their tag match against Roman and Rock.
He also alluded that others others having that same watch too,
but wouldn't say names. I thought he got one for
the other three members of that tag match on Night one,
so himself, Seth, Roman and the Rock. That leads me
to believe that maybe the Rock gave back the watch smashed,
(39:17):
maybe broken. Maybe what does that mean for their next encounter.
That's something we'll have to wait and see. Something else
that happened pre Mania, c MM Punk opened up about
his side of All In and the encounter that led
to him departing ae W. Following Punk's comments, Tony and
the Bucks announced that they were going to air that
backstage footage footage the real footage. Initially, many believed it
(39:42):
would be a work and they'd spen to something else,
But when we got to Wednesday, we found out no, no,
it was indeed the real footage, sands the sound. Did
you find yourself in front of a TV on Wednesday
watching ae WJR? Just for this footage? No social media?
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Yeah? I you know, the way that I keep up
with a lot of my wrestling is through social media,
through Instagram, or I'll get off the air and come
home and fire up YouTube and see what happened on SmackDown.
You know, I knew it would be on there. I
was the tiniest bit curious about it.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Did you watch the did you watch the interview with
Ariel Juane?
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Well?
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Yeah, I mean, come on, I mean got his side.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Oh yeah, I mean, and I think you know, and
I've I've heard this take before, but I think what
we saw in the foot is just kind of confirmed
that Punk was kind of just telling the truth.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Well, here's what I think is very very fascinating. Two
people on different sides of the fence, you know, much
like our political landscape in twenty twenty four, can look
at the exact same footage the exact not from a
different angle, not from another camera view, not with audio,
and on with that audio, the exact same angle, exact
(41:05):
same footage, and.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Have two.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Very very polarizing and very different views. It was interesting
to watch for me because mainly for where are they
going to go with it? Because my conclusion doesn't matter
so much as thoughts on this did or didn't what
it did or didn't do for aew I think many
and they call it in the industry, and I hate
(41:30):
using terms of an industry that I'm not actually a
part of, especially inside terms, but I've heard them say
stuff like this being hot shot booking, something quick to
bring in viewers, bringing eyeballs for a quick hit. But
that isn't long term storytelling either, and that's not something
that brings people back to watch again and again. Now
listen if we follow up next week with something more
(41:52):
intriguing that leads to I don't know, Perry coming back,
something siding with the young, bugs against the young. But
whatever it is, I just hope it's not like I'm
pissed that you talk about this. I'm going to show
the real footage and we move on, because what does
that do?
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Nothing? And being the easy e Eric Bischoff guy that
I am. I definitely appreciate his takes on this. I'm
unapologetic about it. I feel like I think he's he's
really nailed the you know, put the nail right on
the head. It's neither of these guys are on your show.
Who does this actually help rather than maybe somebody's personal ego.
(42:33):
If anything, all it did for me was clear up
any apprehension I had about Punk coming back to the WWE,
because if you remember at Survivors series around that time, wwe'
is just on fire. Everything is hitting on all cylinders,
and with everything you're hearing over on the other side
and the other show, it's kind of like, well, you
(42:55):
don't want him to bring any of that over here,
Like we no, no, no, like we're we enjoy this show,
we don't need any of this. All that did was
sure up in my mind that this, you know, jungle
Jack guy is probably just a little punk ass man,
and I think I think Punk could have done a
lot worse to him in the clip that I saw.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
The story right now feels like so from the Bucks.
The story was we as EVPs are having our biggest
night and we had to not think about our match
anymore and go think about this this junk. Well, I mean,
I don't know what to the normal casual viewer that
does because we don't know what you do. We don't
(43:38):
know what mind the seeds. I don't know what an
EVP at AEW actually does. And if you're not going
to bring us in on that, why do we care
what this did to you as an EVP. I mean
for everybody watching, For everyone watching, you're a boss that
had to take their mind off of one thing and
put it on something else. The employees don't care. They
(44:00):
just don't. I don't know what you don't understand. What
a boss doesn't fully understand in the typical world is
what I mean is that a boss doesn't necessarily understand
all the things that an employee has to deal with,
and vice versa. The employee doesn't have to have to
deal with all the stuff a boss does. That's why
you're a boss and why I'm an employee. But AEW
definitely needs a story that will bring people back again
(44:20):
and again. And I'll come clean and say I was
not an early adopter of the Bloodline and WWE, but
they had a story to tell here. So they stuck
with it. I was at that time. I was so
used to it being like here's something, Oh, hang on,
here's something else, hang on here something else, and.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
They yeah the whole thing with like all elite. It's
ah and again. I've purchased several of their shows in
the beginning because I wanted to be a fan.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
I wanted to like it.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Having more options for us is better. It's just it's
for that radical one percenter. And you probably know the
exact guy that I'm talking about. You've seen him at
your local indie show and he's out of control. So
think of a room of you know, three four thousand
people of that one guy, and then we're gonna tell
(45:16):
you this story and show you this like security footage,
and then you're just narrowing down even more. You're just
funneling down even more. You're finding the one percent of
the one percent of the one percent, and you lost me,
completely lost me.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
It's gets where's it easy to follow?
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Right?
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Where? Like you know, where's the good guy? Where's the
bad guy? I don't want this like shades of gray
and EVP and SVP and RVD, like, just give me
something that's simple to watch, bro because the athleticism usually
on that program isn't the problem. It's just you don't
know why people are fighting each other, and there's all
this like inside baseball stuff, which is just now, come on,
(46:00):
um it down and just make me invest.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Well, imagine if you if you went on the air
and started talking inside radio terms, people will go, I
don't know what he's I don't know what a remote is.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
They would too, media exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Well, speaking of long term storytelling and speaking of the Bloodline,
do we even have time to get into all that
was implied in such a short amount of time on
Friday night? Bloodline has a new member in and one out.
Jimmy is out, Tomatanga is in. Who's Tomatanga? Make sure
you watch next week they're gonna tell more of that.
(46:32):
By orders of the tribal chief, this all happened. So
that makes me wonder because I mean, even even Paul
lifted up his phone to call the tribal chief, got
that knocked out of his hand and stomped on. This
story is is deep, it's ever changing, and maybe more importantly,
it continues without the actual presence of Roman reigns. That's
(46:55):
huge jail.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Yeah, it was uh getting off the air last night.
Like I alluded to earlier, I'm checking Instagram, I'm checking YouTube.
I want to know, Like the WWE has me to
the point again where I want to know what happened
on the show, right, not just oh, I'll wait and
hear about it next week. I got to know tonight
and to see what I did with Solo kind of
(47:19):
assuming the role of I don't want to say he's
like the new head of the table, but he's certainly,
you know, showing his chest peacocking a bit, you know,
putting it out there and then for them to turn
on Jimmy and bringing this.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
The only way that I know this Tonga guy is
is from like Bullet Club days, right, yep. So I
don't know too much about him. I never even knew
that he was Hakus Son, which now makes me think
he could beat up probably anybody anyone yet, right, and
for I don't know, man, I'm real curious. It's like
(47:57):
one thing has just ended with Cody defeating Roman. But
now I can, like I can, I can fantasy book
this whole thing in my mind where Solo kind of
has his own bloodline, and you know, whenever Roman does arrive,
people are gonna lose their minds for him because there's
there's like there's like this weird, this weird thing where
(48:21):
you've like hated him all this time, where you've loved
to hate him rather and then the moment that he's
not there anymore, you're kind of like, damn, you know what? What?
Speaker 3 (48:31):
What?
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Why didn't I appreciate him more while he was here?
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (48:35):
My wife said last night, she watches often with especially
smack Down, and she said, where's Roman, Where's when's he
going to be on us? I don't think you're gonna
see him for a few months. Yeah, he'll be off,
He'll be off. Man. You talk about this being deep.
Everybody thought that after Cody wins the title, well, then
the story's over and we don't know what else is
(48:56):
going to happen. But that's the cool part in w
W now, So we don't know what else it's gonna happen,
but we do know we have some great people in
charge that have carried everything up to now and are
excited about where we're going in the future. And I'm
excited to watch too. Next week We'll find out Cody's
first challenger for the undisped a WWE Championship at Backlash
(49:17):
in Friends. Does aj Styles get another shot at the
title or will this be La Night's turn. We'll find
out next week on SmackDown. Jr. It was awesome getting
to connect with you. Even after all the technical difficulties,
we made it in and we got to chat some
wrestling this week. Thank you for taking the time to
jump over here and hangle this man.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
I appreciate you anytime, my friend, anytime. And remember if
you don't recall anything I said this entire show, remember
this one thing right here.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
It's cool to be you for Jr. And Michael Lavin,
who is to get another spongebath right now eating Buddy
get Wilson. But he'll be back with us next week.
I'm the amp Man and we'll see you next week
on the rest of Chat podcast
When it comes to professional wrestling. If you were talking
about it, we are talking about it. Welcome to the
wrestle Chat Podcast with the Yeah Man. The final chapter
has been read, and boy, what an ending. Congratulations to
Cody Rhoades, You're new undisputed w WE Champion. But unlike
(00:21):
a Marvel movie, after the credits roll, we don't have
to wait three years to see what happened to Iron Man.
At most it was twenty four hours. Welcome to a
new season of the wrestle Chat Podcast. I'm your host,
the ant Man, excited to connect with you this morning
on a trip to the pinnacle of pro wrestling the
weekend that was wrestle Mania forty. Just like tying off
(00:44):
the stitching on the stitching work on a brand new
leather strap, it was done in quick fashion with a
proverbial lighter, melting the ends to sheer them up, presenting
to us a brand new undisputed champion in brand new
era in WWE. And with that a brand news story begins.
Thanks so much for hanging here for a bit this morning.
(01:05):
We call this a wrestle Chat for a reason. I
want to welcome you in with your thoughts on all
that's gone down this week. See where you think it's.
Some of the stuff is headed and we can discuss
that too. As you saw at the top. Michael Glavit
is out this week, happy to say he's recovering well
with a bowl full of his favorite ice cream, some popstickles,
(01:27):
and sponge baths. Although I'm not quite sure how sponge
baths help you recover from a tonsile ectomy, But I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Who am I to question.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I am excited to welcome in a fellow pro wrestling fan.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
See if we.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Tried this this morning, see if we can get him
on it was frozen up. Hopefully we can get there
your favorite homie Jr. Maybe I'm gonna take this off.
There's a we've had some issues already this morning. We
tried for about fifteen twenty minutes. It looks like on
my end that he's here. I know that he's in
(02:01):
there waiting, but we're not getting anything on the screen.
So apologize for that. Man we are. We'll keep trying
to get him in here in just a little bit.
He is really cool, a really cool guy who does
a lot of a lot of videos on memorabilia that
he's collected, mainly action figures and man the collection that
he has. I wanted to bring him on to talk
(02:21):
about that and and everything else that's going. Let's check you.
I gotta chat here. See as as Ron Simmons would say,
damn many, let's try see on this end, I see
your picture, j and I know you're there. On that end,
it's not showing up. That's all right, Well, I'll keep
keep trying to get that in here in just a
(02:42):
little bit. We chatted several times about him coming on
and and and hanging out with us, and love to
get him on the show and talk about all of
his his entire collection. Let's talk about Russell Mania forty,
get this sing role and surprise to see Sammy pull
in the IC title out from under gum or the
longest raining Intercontinental Champion ever. It's a story that I
(03:05):
thought i'd be honestly, I thought was a little rushed,
but not a story that I thought was undeserving because
Sammy is so stink and talented. He pulled from so
many other encounters over the past few years, encounters that
left him, you know, on his back, staring at the
lights more times than not, but with the with a
new regime in charge of WWE in a brand new
(03:26):
era that has begun. I'm excited to see what kind
of brain that Sammy has with that IC title. I mean,
there's so many directions they could go with this, so
many feuds that could go that could happen here. I'm
in the first one. It looks like it is has
already started off on Monday Night Raw, which we'll actually
get to see coming up next week on Raw. He
(03:47):
against Gable in Sammy's home country. Is this going to
be the feud moving forward? If this is going to
or will this end that part of the story with
those two and we maybe see Gable move on to
something else in turn Sammy move on somewhere else. I'd
like to know your thoughts. You're watching right now on
YouTube or X or on Instagram or Twitter I already
(04:10):
said X, but or on Facebook, I'd love for you
to chime in leave a comment with what you think
about Sammy being the brand new Intercontinental Champion, and I
would love to know your thoughts here today. And if
also remember if you're not following us on YouTube, make
sure you do that. We've got two brand new title
holders in We've got Damian Priest with the brand new
(04:32):
world title. Of course, Cody Rroads with the brand new
WWE undisputed title. You could win one of those titles
as long as you're subscribed to our YouTube. That's all
you have to do is hit subscribe. You don't have
to register somewhere else, you know, give your blood type,
social security number, nothing like that. Simply subscribe. Once we
hit ten thousand, we're going to do a drawing from
(04:53):
everyone that has subbed to that account, and you get
to pick which one you want, the world title or
the WWE title. You'll get to pick if you win it,
So make sure you're sub to our YouTube. That's all
you have to do. Another story that I thought felt
a little rushed and also you know, a little overshadowed,
was Bailey versus EO. A little rushed in the sense
(05:14):
that it felt as though, you know, we went from
from a functional slash dysfunctional faction to I know what
you said because I now speak Japanese and you're who
I'm gonna face because I won the Royal Rumble. However,
to see Bailey with gold around her waist again makes
me smile. And on SmackDown last night, we saw Bailey
(05:36):
come out and say I want to give the first
opportunity to Naoi. I am excited to see where this
feud goes. And I see if all these these first two,
at least the Intercontinental title and the Women's Undisputed title,
they both feel like I like this other person and
I think they're really really good, and I'm going to
(05:57):
give them a shot at the title. Not quite a
feud yet, however, if we've learned anything is to be
patient and watch because there's a lot that can happen
in a very very short amount of time. So I'd
love to know your thoughts on that one as well.
Hit me up in the comments. We'll share him here
on the show and talk about it. I mean, it's
me and you flying solo. Still working on trying to
(06:17):
get JR. Back in. If we do, we'll do that,
but I'd love to hear from you. Hit comments and
let me know what you think about both the IC
title run from Sammy and also what we should see
coming in in the future. Here from Bailey. I'm excited
that she has a title back around her waist. How
are you is feeling about these? Makes sure you chime
oh he's moving now, hang on, let's try this, dude.
(06:39):
I've followed you for a long time on Instagram and
I have loved your videos on your on all the
collection that you have from hits ninety five point seven.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
If I'm right, you got it man, Yet here in Denver.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Your favorite homie Jr. Thank you for being on with
us today.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Good to have you, man, Dude, this is so cool.
I mean, you know, earlier I was able to hear
what you were kind of teeing up and all the
things you were talking about, and I'm like, yeah, we
had been trying to do this for a while, and
then the moment that we get to it's like just
trying to jump through hoops. Bro. But thanks for the
kind words. Man. I'm pumped to be here.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Love technology, love that we I mean, listen, all said
and done, this is actually still fascinating to me that
you can be in Denver, I can be in Austin
and we can jump on here and do this together.
So excited to do this. Thanks for filling in for
Michael to day.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Man. Yeah, I hope he gets well soon. I heard
all about the sponge baths that Lucky Duck.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I'll hear about that one later, if not later on
in the comments. So I'm assuming that you parked yourself
in front of the TV for two big days of WrestleMania,
Am I right?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
No?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I did, dude, for sure. Night one, I actually couldn't
watch live because we have the Colorado Broadcast Awards that
night and we were up for two awards, so your
boy had to go.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
So I tried to avoid social media the whole time
that I was there and eventually got back. We did
win two award, by the way, I want to put
that out there. I was pretty proud about that and
stayed up till three am to finish Night one. It
was brutal, but Night two we did a watch party
at out the Box, which is a toy shop out
(08:14):
here that I love.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I'm talking about stand up till three. I was there
with you. I was up till three. I went to
the press conference afterwards and ended up not going to bed. Well,
I'll say it was Eastern, so it was two o'clock.
Eastern was at four o'clock, so yeah, I know late
night that night. I'm assuming that you heard a little
bit about the icy title. We were talking about that.
What are your thoughts on Sammy pulling that title out
(08:38):
from underneath Gump through the longest reigning Intercontinental champion, bro
What a.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Great couple of years, What a great couple of rustle
Mania's Sammy Zain has really had, right Yeah, think about
it main event last year in that banger of a
tag team match, right like, they just burnt it down,
and then this year to kind of have the whole
just obviously the super underdog, can he do it? Like
(09:03):
Sammy is a guy that you can really invest in
and really, you know, he's just he's such an underdog
and you want to root for him because he's not
you know, he's not jacked up, he's not ripped, he's
not a giant. He's just like a scrapper. And I
think that just relates to me and it relates to
a lot of people out there. And for Sammy to
be the person to take Gunther off that pedestal, that
(09:27):
that huge rain, like I don't even remember how many
days it was, it was so long that it's just
it's an amazing thing to see. And then wwe really
was trying to make grown men cry all freaking weekend. Dude,
But you Jammy yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
You remember the number of days because they left it
on an awkward number, six hundred and sixty six days.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Okay, I thought that was the case, but I didn't
want to be wrong and just put that number out
there on your should Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yes, yeah, but yeah, wwe was hell ben on making
grown men all weekend and to see Sammy do that
and then celebrate with his wife and his kid, and
it's just I mean, that's why we love pro wrestling.
It's that feel good stuff. It's the stories, and that
was one of the better ones leading into the event.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Very interesting how many family connections were at this WrestleMania.
That one with Sammy obviously, the one with Cody, and
and even the one Withdrew him walking over and handing
that title to presenting it to his wife for just
a moment. We'll get to that here in this adventute. First,
the six way tag match for the perceived to be
split tag titles went about how I thought it would go.
(10:40):
Awesome truth taking home the raw tag titles, a town
down undertaking home these SmackDown tag titles kind of perceived
to be the first I would say unofficial draft picks
for the brand. I don't see them winning those titles
and then having to get into the ring like Charlotte
and Becky and awkwardly hand each other the other titles.
Those matt can often be a cluster though. It's hard
(11:02):
to watch those live and catch everything. You don't know
where to look. There's so much happening all the time.
But how did you feel watching it on TVJR.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I felt like it was super fun. You know, those
aren't necessarily my favorite kind of matches. I'm more of
a one on one or tag team kind of guy.
Just because you don't, like you said, you don't really
know where to look, you don't know what to you know,
try to find. But I'll tell you the one thing
that always relates to me in those type of matchups
(11:31):
is obviously the big moves right. But then I think
more importantly is the comedy. And Our Truth brought the
comedy right. We're seeing spectacular stuff happen, you know, dives
and flips and you know, ladders breaking. But the moment
Our Truth sticks out his hand for a tag, I
(11:51):
got up off my seat and started screaming at the TV.
Make the tag, Make the tag. And then of course
mis makes the big tag and Truth comes in tears
it up. So I was super pumped to see awesome
Truth win. It's a little bit nostalgic for me. And
as far as the title splitting up, I guess that
makes sense, especially now, like you said, we know that
(12:11):
the draft is on the way, and you know Theory
and Gosh Waller. I'm not the biggest fan of those guys,
so it didn't. I was just like, come on, you know,
but at least the good guys left was something in
that matchup.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
It was cool to see our Truth show up with
a ladder to the right match as well. Yes, absolutely
not a royal rumble. What just just curious? What do
you not like about the other two? About Grayson Waller
and and Austin Theory.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
This's a good question, and it's not it's not anything
against either of them. It's just I don't I don't
think they belong together. I think they should both be
doing their own thing right. I mean, we saw for
a while Austin Theory was kind of the proverbial next up,
like the next chosen one, so to speak, for quite
a while. And Grayson Waller can be a very entertaining
(13:03):
son of a gun and he seems to be a
charming son of a gun too, and hearing him on
the mic and doing the Grayson Waller effect, I just
I feel like those two guys are just pushed together
because they just seem like, I don't know, Freddy younger
alpha dudes. It's like they can be on their own.
I think there's enough character in both of them to
(13:23):
have them do their own thing. So I think it's
just a tag team for the sake of a tie team.
And that's why I don't think I'm super into it.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I'm gonna I'm anxious for the turn already, so whenever
that does inevitably happen, that's gonna be fun. I thought
we might see some involvement from Punk on the world
title match, but I wasn't expecting that that much physicality
from him. One of these shortest world title reigns ever,
Drew beating Seth. However, after taunting seam Punk, who was
(13:50):
ringside calling the action, Punk pulled off the arm brace
you know, there was his right arm protecting the triceps
tear and used it Andrew, which that was inevitably the
cue for Damian Priest's music with him cashing in his
money in the bank briefcase they become the new World
champion man short title reign for Drew even an emotional
(14:15):
moment like we mentioned earlier there with his wife at ringside,
only to get cocky and start taunting see him Punk
like he has been doing for the past several weeks
via social media now in person and it turned on him.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, dude, that was so fun to watch. I mean,
just hearing Punk down there doing commentary was so dope.
Obviously he's one of the best, but just for Drew
to let that, I don't know, man, Drew McIntyre has
been on absolute fire. I've actually grown to really appreciate
his work and really just say this, Yeah, this new
character and this he's just like he's kind of trolling people,
(14:51):
but he's like this big badass and he's like he's frightening,
you know. So to see him kind of, you know,
mouth off with Punk and then to see it ultimately
backfire was the coolest thing. Let me tell you what
my biggest fear was going into this WrestleMania, and then
I'll get back to Drew. My biggest fear going into
(15:11):
WrestleMania was that Cody was gonna finish the story right,
like we've invested our time into for two years to see.
At this point, my girlfriend's tired of hearing about Cody
Rhodes in his damn story. She just wants me to
shut up already. I was deathly afraid Cody was gonna
pull it off, only for Damian Priest to cash in
(15:33):
on him.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
If that would have happened, I would have took to
the Internet with an outrage like you would have never
heard before. I would have went on the air here
in Denver cursing Damian Priest one, you know, one way
each way. That was my biggest fear of going in,
that they were gonna give it to us and that
they were gonna take it away. Ultimately, that's what happened
to Drew McIntyre, and with him being the bad guy,
(15:57):
you know, we didn't mind that so much, especially, you know,
just to see Punk's reaction and how happy he was
about it and how smug he was about it. He's like, look, man,
this is what happens when you mess with the Second
City Saint.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
You talked about, Drew Man. We've talked about it here
on the show before leading up to WrestleMania that this
is the best work Drew has ever done in his
career right now. Oh yeah, I'm excited to see what
he does with the world title. So the Raw after
WrestleMania thirty eight, that's when Cody set up the story
that he proclaimed he needed to finish. That was to
(16:33):
raise above his head the WWE Championship and not be
taken away from him like it was from his father Dusty.
We all thought that surely, in one year's time, Cody
would collide with Roman and fulfill that story, but at
WrestleMania thirty nine it was not to be, and it
was another sign that WWE was now in the business
(16:55):
of long term story telling. The Raw after WrestleMania thirty nine,
we also saw the sign that Cody was going to
have to go through his own hard times story, much
like his father Cody's beginning with brock Lesner. You talk
about hard times. That road was long and treacherous, and
somehow it felt as though the road from thirty nine
(17:15):
to forty was much much longer than that road from
thirty eight to thirty nine. But for fans that were
patient and believed were indeed rewarded, last weekend in Philly
when Cody placed the ww championship in the hands of
his mother. Even just saying this right now, I'm getting
chill chills and a little emotional again. And this time
(17:37):
this title was not taken away. Jr. Have you felt
that there has been a better story in pro wrestling
in your lifetime?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Honestly, dude. The other story that comes to mind is
obviously the nWo, which is probably one of the biggest
of my fandom. But as far as a story from
start to finish that has a great finish and that
you've been invested in for this long, not even close.
(18:06):
This one is hands down, dude. Like, you know, I
liked Cody enough. I thought he was really talented. I
thought he was cool. You know. I remember seeing him
in Nashville when he was with the Ring of Honor
and that was super cool. It's like, oh, I got
to see Cody in the Bucks and those guys, you know,
because they were disturbing stuff. But for Cody to to
(18:28):
go on and to become the superstar that he has,
and there's something just super relatable about him. He's not
afraid to be emotional, you know. With me talking on
the air every day. You know, being emotional is something
that I need to be because I need to convey
that to my audience. So that's something that I can appreciate.
And just the seriousness in which Cody takes this profession,
(18:52):
it makes you believe in it even more. The way
that he dresses, the way that he acts, the way
that he talks, the way that he addresses the audience.
He's Cody Rhodes is the is the biggest babyface in
the industry right now, and he's quickly climbing my mount
rushmore of my favorite wrestlers of all time, and a
(19:15):
lot of that is because of this story, this investment.
Twenty four calendar months. We waited to see this happen,
and the payoff was even better than I could have imagined.
I don't know about for.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
You, Yeah, no, it was the same. I mean, it's
easy to get impatient when we're going through it and
it's like, oh, man, come on, just do something now
that would that would help us believe a little bit more.
But getting to the end and watching every piece that
happened was told perfectly. I think if we can tweak
one thing, and I mean, who cannot like the undertaker, right,
(19:52):
but instead of undertaking, it was stone cold. That would
have been the only thing. There's rumors out there of
what did and didn't happen, what was going to happen,
and what would have happened, But what we got was
about as close to perfections as I think we're going
to get. Listen, he's I think fresh out of that spongebath.
Michael's on watching right now. Yeah, Mery, dude, dude, all
(20:16):
of us. It is the guy cry fast. WrestleMania forty recap,
I think is really help you get I hope you're
feeling better, buddy, And he can always you can always tie.
You can't talk, but you can type, ton select me,
you know, top to bottom, in and out, through and through.
I personally give WrestleMania forty an a. There's always things
that you can prove on and hindsight, of course is
(20:36):
twenty twenty. But in the moment, at its core, I
believe it's the best WrestleMania, best WrestleMania I've ever seen,
and I've watched all of them since I've watched all
of them all.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Wow, let me let me ask you this. Yeah, right
up until this point, if you were to ask me. So,
let's let's like rewind two weeks, right, WrestleMania forty hasn't
happened yet. If you were to ask me what is
the best WrestleMania of all time? Which one do you think?
I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Probably either Rock Stone Cold what is that? Seventeen or
eight to whatever that and then or Rock and Rocken Hogan.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Right, so Rockenhagan is eighteen at in Austin main event,
three times at three different manias. First because fifteen, last
one I think was was it nineteen in Seattle?
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Okay? Right, yep? I think that's right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
My favorite one of all time has always been WrestleMania seventeen.
I think it was in Houston, Texas. They had the
gimmick Battle Royal. I don't know why, but that match
always stands out to me. And it was the night
that Austin shook hands with the Devil. Right. Not the
ending that not the ending we wanted. But the WrestleMania
itself was just spectacular. Everything was at a fever pitch.
(21:52):
The matches were great, the presentation was great, the comedy
was great, the athleticly everything about it was great. But
now I'm having a hard time because we're getting two
nights now, right, so you got to kind of you
gotta take the good with the bad with that though
as well. But asking me, now, what is the best
WrestleMania of all time? I do firmly believe with Cody
(22:17):
Rhodse finishing the story in the grand fashion that he did,
even with after Night one getting the odds stacked against
him even more, which was even more thrilling to see,
WrestleMania forty is the greatest WrestleMania of all time. And
that's just not a tagline. It's gonna be the biggest
and the best and the fastest. And this isn't a
promo for Bianca bell Air, but it truly is the
(22:39):
best WrestleMania of all time, from top to bottom. You
talk about really good matches, you talk about moments, you
talk about comedy, you talk about top tier storytelling. And
let me tell you a thing that I missed in
the main event of Night two. There was so much
madness happening, and you had alluded to the Undertaker earlier,
talk about a pot for that guy right now now,
(23:03):
if the glass had broken like you had suggested, the
pop would have been a little bit bigger, but it
was still unbelievable because it was so unexpected.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Right, there's the moment in all the chaos and we're
watching this at the toy shop and we're freaking out, bro,
all of us right, having such a blast, and the
Shield music hits and immediately I'm like, oh, man, seth
Rawlins is back up to his trolling ways, right, And
then there's that moment in between, which has since the
(23:35):
show been discussed and you know, kind of dissected, But
in the moment, I wasn't even aware of what was
happening because it was just so chaotic that I couldn't
put the two and two together. But when Roman Reigns
looks back at Cody and then looks back at a
struggling seth Rawlins in his shield garb and decides to
(23:56):
put that chair over the back of Seth rather than
focus on the contest, yep, it goes to exactly what
you said long term storytelling.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Was that ten years, ten years since that happened with
the Shield.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
He never forgot yep. And that's one of those things
where I don't know if you like experience this, but
I get like, post WrestleMania depression, like when it's over,
like I go back and immediately watch the show again. Yeah,
because you don't want it to end, because it's just
it's everything that's good with the world. When pro wrestling
(24:34):
is done right, it is the best entertainment in the world.
And I'll always stand by that.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
What's gonna be one of those things that is this
the best WrestleMania ever? We have thirty nine of them before.
I think we need five six to come after to
really narrow down everything great about this and truly appreciate
it like we should. But one thing that I think
will will stand out and has already in my mind,
(25:00):
has started to stand out every time I've heard it
in a replay again is Samantha's emotional call. She will
have a call that will live forever in the world
of pro wrestling. Her announcing through tears through You've you've
tried to talk when you cry before, and it's not easy.
(25:22):
It's not you, it doesn't feel it doesn't even.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Sound like you.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
For the majority of it. You're struggling to get through it.
And everybody else's emotion feels like it's summed up in
Samantha's call at the end you're new and choking back
tears as she's saying, it is just iconic and who
knew that that would be her moment at least for
now moving forward. And it's gonna be one of those
(25:45):
things that you hear, you hear j R. Saying as
God is my witness, he has broken in half, or
the uh the uh.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Uh, the resistible force meeting the immovable object.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Beautiful exactly. You're gonna have Samantha's call in that in
that world right there forever.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
And let me tell you, man, I know you were.
You were at the show live, which was super super dope.
But let me tell you what made Samantha's her announcement,
her call even that much more emotional and powerful is
because I'm watching this at home and as Cody gets
the pen, you don't get the you know, the one,
(26:31):
the two, the three instead, Michael Cole on each Cadence says,
finished the story and I'm.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Getting goosebumps thinking about it right now, bro seriously. And
then it goes to Samantha and she breaks and then
I'm in there like around oh my boys.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
So I'm trying to be tough, right, trying to hold.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
It in, but we're all tearing up, dude, and we're
all like, Cody finished the story. Even wore this shirt
here at the event, which is an action figure photography
photo of Cody that my boy Matthew Goldberg I think
is his name on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
M mgb uh, it's his picture. And I said, you know,
I got my American Nightmare shirt, but I'm super into
these Mattel toys. Now, let me get one that's printed
of a figure.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
And it was.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
It was just so spectacular, man. And yeah, I'm just
I love pro wrestling and I don't care who knows it.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Same here, Same here.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
JR.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Here is a collector, as he just mentioned, with the
Mattel toys, and and this hobby has taken him on
trips too. I want to hear all about this and
I'll chat with JR. On how all this got started.
We come back here on the rest of Chat podcast.
Hang up for saying your favorite homie, JR. For My
(28:04):
Heart's Hits ninety five point seven and Colorado Hanging here
on the premiere episode of season two of the Wrestle
Chat Podcast. J are really good to have you on
here this morning. You are a memorabilia collector, more mainly
action figure collector. How did you get started doing this hobby?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
So I definitely recall being at a random target one day.
I think I had to go in to pick up
some I don't even know what it was, but for
some reason I strolled through.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
The toys and you left spending three hundred. I know
how it works.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, we've been there, right, So I wasn't. I you know,
at at this point, I was only into like vintage toys,
which which for me are like the WWE Jack's Bone guys,
right with their knees and their arms, that kind of
crack ugly looking toys, right, But it's that's that was
(29:00):
the jam when I was that age, you know. And
eventually I sold those all off, and I was like,
you know, I wonder what the toys look like now.
And I just remember rolling through and I saw this
raw thirtieth anniversary three pack with Razor Ramon, the Undertaker
and the one two three Kid, and I thought, man,
I got you know, I have an extra sixty bucks
(29:23):
in my pocket that I can just burn right now,
so let me go ahead and pick this up. And
for months it just sat in the box and I
just would you know, kind of walk by and look
at it, and of course I'm seeing all the stuff
with matt Cardona let them breathe, and I'm, you know,
slowly starting to watch his stuff, and I'm like, screw it,
(29:43):
I'm gonna open them up. So I opened them up,
and from that moment it was over. It was over.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
It's been one year now since I got into this
hobby with the Mattels, and I'm waist deep, dude, i
am waste dep it is.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
It is.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
It is consuming, but in a good way if you're
you know, responsible about it, which I'm typically not, but
I try to be. You know, it's like a man
rents do tomorrow, but you know that new Ultimate Yoko
Zoon is coming out in a couple of weeks. So
it's just you know what it is, man, It's it's
(30:23):
the nostalgia of it, right, And it is the best
representation of it because they look so good now, the
faces and just the pain applicat like everything about it.
They look so phenomenal. And nostalgia can be a dangerous
thing if you're not careful, and I've learned that the
hard way a couple few times. But it's the nostalgia
(30:44):
of it. It's the actual thrill of the hunt.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I can't tell you how many shops and how many
stores and you know, major retailers I've gone out to
and it's just a swing and a miss. But that
one day that you turn that corner and you bump
into the new I don't know, Hogan three pack, which
I was a must have for me. I'm the biggest
Hogan guy, right. It's just it's just it's so cool,
(31:09):
and I get to meet so many people, and you know,
not to get deep here, but moving out here to
Denver for this job. I was basically here just for
this job, right, just to advance my broadcasting career. Sure,
I wasn't in the business of making friends or meeting people,
and that's no way to live, especially for to grow
man like us, humans need interaction with other people, and
(31:32):
I've been able to get that through this hobby. I've
met so many people, shop owners, fellow collectors, and just
different walks of life that are into this same kind
of you know, plastic universe, and I guess some really
good pals out of it, man. And like you had mentioned,
I get to go and visit a bunch of cool
(31:53):
shops and I love to film and make content, and
you know, the bottom line of it is I get
to make something out of it, so I get to
share my experience with somebody else as well.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Well.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You and I have talked about this privately, but for
those that are that are wondering, you actually choose to
take the figures out of the box. And for for
so long that's been perceived as you know, a no
no in the collectors the world. What was your what
was your feeling on this and that made you decide
to unbox it? You said that that was kind of
when you decided to be a collector, and we took
it out of a box. But what made you go,
(32:24):
you know what, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna leave
it and it's pretty packaging. I'm gonna take it out
and I'm actually going to handle it, touch it, look
at it.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
It was a couple of things, bro, And that's a
good question. One of them, which is Matt Cardona obviously
preaching let them breathe, let them breathe, let them breathe,
open them up, right, And that's just fun, like it's
it's it's thrilling to open that packaging.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Right.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
The other part of it is space. I live in
a one bedroom apartment here in Denver, Colorado, so I
don't have a man cave yet. I don't own a
home yet, right, because I don't know where ultimately gonna
end up in my career. Sure, so having just a
plethora of of boxes sitting around the apartment just is
(33:10):
not you know, space wise responsible.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
And then also it's like, sure, you can display them,
you know, with their spines, and you can see you know,
like a like a book, right, but you can't actually
see the figure. So it just it. And and again,
if that's the way that people choose to collect, that's
what's beautiful about it. Do it any any way you want,
you know, you can be all in or all out,
(33:34):
or you can you know, do a mixture.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
You see the Funko Popsie that was the same way. Yeah,
I don't want one the box. You're right, the box
takes up so much space too. I'll never get to
see the backside of one whatever. You know, if it
was a John Cena, I don't get to see the
bald spot on the back of his hit.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Right, that's what we're here for. Exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
That's why I took them out, and that's really been
the fun part for me as well. On not the
not the figure side. I have a few of them
over here to my right, but you see off you
don't see they're off camera, and I have left those
in the boxes, but the Funko pops up them all out.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Well just think, man, if if you had those pops
still in the box behind you, you have a bunch
of shiny stuff coming back at your camera like that
wouldn't look.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Nice, that's true, unless it's shining off those belts. That's
all right.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Oh, the belts look so good, especially that Wanne Eagle bro.
I've had that in my WWE shop cart dozens of times. Dude,
I'll tell you I I pulled the trigger on that one.
I want to say it was less than four hours.
It's probably it was probably a little longer than that
was right around four hours.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
That was on sale. I bought it for one hundred
and eighty dollars. Oh my god, whatever reason it's on
sale dual plated. Yes, I agree your videos you mentioned
those those are those are so good. You do such
a great job at that. Uh, you showcase each and
every figure. Tell people where they can find your unboxing.
(35:00):
You go buy a new one wherever you get it,
whether it be a toy store, Target, Walmart or whatever,
and you bring it back home and you show it
to the world. Where can they go see those?
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah? Really, I have the same handle everywhere. It's at
your Fave Homie Jr. Which is a stage name I've
had since gosh, probably the late two thousands, from making
music before DJing, before radio, before Mattel took a hold
in my wallet. So yeah, at your Fave Homie jar
(35:28):
on all platforms, Instagram x I guess we're calling it
now YouTube as well. So it's all there, man, and
you know, real quick. One of the things that really
brings me a lot of joy with this stuff is
setting them up. You know, I recently bought I took
my first ever trip to Ikea, which people couldn't believe.
I had never been to an Ikea before. But growing
(35:51):
up in New England, we didn't have those. So I
bought my first like glass case, and I tell you, man,
I was so excited to put the risers in there
and get the stands and you know, get them. You know,
I got like the Golden Age and the New Gen
and the attitude, and then I got this shelf and that,
and it's just like setting them up and just putting
(36:12):
them right and accessorizing them. Dude, it's just it's it's
the best. And uh yeah, I love going out on
the hunts and that's what you're gonna predominantly see. I
just did a trip out to Phoenix so I could
visit a store out there, which was really cool. And
I like to make you know, short form content, kind
of real shorts right right right to the point. And
(36:34):
there they rely heavy on voiceover.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Yeah. Yeah, so you get to you get to feature
everything that you that you work on daily. We get
to do it with the fun stuff right right, and
not the sales piece that just came down. Yes, we
have a little bit talking a little bit about Raw,
a little bit about SmackDown.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
You got a little bit to hang with us, of course, brother,
I'm here.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Awesome. Okay. So Raw left many wondering what Rock handed Cody. However,
on SmackDown last night, we seem to get somewhat of
an answered kind of we'll chat about that. Plus let's
talk about that all in footage. Yeah, we're gonna go
there a little bit. On the wrestle Chat podcast still
coming on Monday, Cody is interrupted by the Final Boss,
(37:25):
The Rock, and my screen just went blank. Now this
one's still good. Let's see here. He was confronted by
the Final Boss, The Rock. He says he has to
go away to Hollywood for a little while. He asked
Cody if The Rock can hold Cody's title, a moment
that was met with this is awkward chance, and yes,
(37:47):
that part of it really was, I don't know where
we're going with that. It's going to be interested to
see what they do in the future. And I get
a little bit you know what, if you can if
you can gain a little ground by getting to touch
and hold the title, maybe it's it's something that you
know is going to lead you to having a battle
for coming up in the future, just because you got
a little taste of touching that to undisputed WWE title
(38:11):
newly out of the hands of Cody Rhodes. And then
Rock hands something to Cody and he says, never break
my heart again before leaving the rest of the show
and really the rest of the week. It left us
all wondering what Rock could have possibly handed codally Cody personally,
I thought we were going to play off of the
(38:32):
real life situation of Cody's bus catching on fire at WrestleMania,
and maybe what he had handed Cody was alighter. However,
Cody either you know, squashed or helped, confirmed what many
were thinking and said it was something personal, a gift
that Cody gave the Rock. Now, Cody mentioned that he
got Seth a Rolex and gifted it to him before
(38:55):
their match at WrestleMania, their tag match against Roman and Rock.
He also alluded that others others having that same watch too,
but wouldn't say names. I thought he got one for
the other three members of that tag match on Night one,
so himself, Seth, Roman and the Rock. That leads me
to believe that maybe the Rock gave back the watch smashed,
(39:17):
maybe broken. Maybe what does that mean for their next encounter.
That's something we'll have to wait and see. Something else
that happened pre Mania, c MM Punk opened up about
his side of All In and the encounter that led
to him departing ae W. Following Punk's comments, Tony and
the Bucks announced that they were going to air that
backstage footage footage the real footage. Initially, many believed it
(39:42):
would be a work and they'd spen to something else,
But when we got to Wednesday, we found out no, no,
it was indeed the real footage, sands the sound. Did
you find yourself in front of a TV on Wednesday
watching ae WJR? Just for this footage? No social media?
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Yeah? I you know, the way that I keep up
with a lot of my wrestling is through social media,
through Instagram, or I'll get off the air and come
home and fire up YouTube and see what happened on SmackDown.
You know, I knew it would be on there. I
was the tiniest bit curious about it.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Did you watch the did you watch the interview with
Ariel Juane?
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Well?
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Yeah, I mean, come on, I mean got his side.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Oh yeah, I mean, and I think you know, and
I've I've heard this take before, but I think what
we saw in the foot is just kind of confirmed
that Punk was kind of just telling the truth.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Well, here's what I think is very very fascinating. Two
people on different sides of the fence, you know, much
like our political landscape in twenty twenty four, can look
at the exact same footage the exact not from a
different angle, not from another camera view, not with audio,
and on with that audio, the exact same angle, exact
(41:05):
same footage, and.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Have two.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Very very polarizing and very different views. It was interesting
to watch for me because mainly for where are they
going to go with it? Because my conclusion doesn't matter
so much as thoughts on this did or didn't what
it did or didn't do for aew I think many
and they call it in the industry, and I hate
(41:30):
using terms of an industry that I'm not actually a
part of, especially inside terms, but I've heard them say
stuff like this being hot shot booking, something quick to
bring in viewers, bringing eyeballs for a quick hit. But
that isn't long term storytelling either, and that's not something
that brings people back to watch again and again. Now
listen if we follow up next week with something more
(41:52):
intriguing that leads to I don't know, Perry coming back,
something siding with the young, bugs against the young. But
whatever it is, I just hope it's not like I'm
pissed that you talk about this. I'm going to show
the real footage and we move on, because what does
that do?
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Nothing? And being the easy e Eric Bischoff guy that
I am. I definitely appreciate his takes on this. I'm
unapologetic about it. I feel like I think he's he's
really nailed the you know, put the nail right on
the head. It's neither of these guys are on your show.
Who does this actually help rather than maybe somebody's personal ego.
(42:33):
If anything, all it did for me was clear up
any apprehension I had about Punk coming back to the WWE,
because if you remember at Survivors series around that time, wwe'
is just on fire. Everything is hitting on all cylinders,
and with everything you're hearing over on the other side
and the other show, it's kind of like, well, you
(42:55):
don't want him to bring any of that over here,
Like we no, no, no, like we're we enjoy this show,
we don't need any of this. All that did was
sure up in my mind that this, you know, jungle
Jack guy is probably just a little punk ass man,
and I think I think Punk could have done a
lot worse to him in the clip that I saw.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
The story right now feels like so from the Bucks.
The story was we as EVPs are having our biggest
night and we had to not think about our match
anymore and go think about this this junk. Well, I mean,
I don't know what to the normal casual viewer that
does because we don't know what you do. We don't
(43:38):
know what mind the seeds. I don't know what an
EVP at AEW actually does. And if you're not going
to bring us in on that, why do we care
what this did to you as an EVP. I mean
for everybody watching, For everyone watching, you're a boss that
had to take their mind off of one thing and
put it on something else. The employees don't care. They
(44:00):
just don't. I don't know what you don't understand. What
a boss doesn't fully understand in the typical world is
what I mean is that a boss doesn't necessarily understand
all the things that an employee has to deal with,
and vice versa. The employee doesn't have to have to
deal with all the stuff a boss does. That's why
you're a boss and why I'm an employee. But AEW
definitely needs a story that will bring people back again
(44:20):
and again. And I'll come clean and say I was
not an early adopter of the Bloodline and WWE, but
they had a story to tell here. So they stuck
with it. I was at that time. I was so
used to it being like here's something, Oh, hang on,
here's something else, hang on here something else, and.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
They yeah the whole thing with like all elite. It's
ah and again. I've purchased several of their shows in
the beginning because I wanted to be a fan.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
I wanted to like it.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Having more options for us is better. It's just it's
for that radical one percenter. And you probably know the
exact guy that I'm talking about. You've seen him at
your local indie show and he's out of control. So
think of a room of you know, three four thousand
people of that one guy, and then we're gonna tell
(45:16):
you this story and show you this like security footage,
and then you're just narrowing down even more. You're just
funneling down even more. You're finding the one percent of
the one percent of the one percent, and you lost me,
completely lost me.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
It's gets where's it easy to follow?
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Right?
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Where? Like you know, where's the good guy? Where's the
bad guy? I don't want this like shades of gray
and EVP and SVP and RVD, like, just give me
something that's simple to watch, bro because the athleticism usually
on that program isn't the problem. It's just you don't
know why people are fighting each other, and there's all
this like inside baseball stuff, which is just now, come on,
(46:00):
um it down and just make me invest.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Well, imagine if you if you went on the air
and started talking inside radio terms, people will go, I
don't know what he's I don't know what a remote is.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
They would too, media exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Well, speaking of long term storytelling and speaking of the Bloodline,
do we even have time to get into all that
was implied in such a short amount of time on
Friday night? Bloodline has a new member in and one out.
Jimmy is out, Tomatanga is in. Who's Tomatanga? Make sure
you watch next week they're gonna tell more of that.
(46:32):
By orders of the tribal chief, this all happened. So
that makes me wonder because I mean, even even Paul
lifted up his phone to call the tribal chief, got
that knocked out of his hand and stomped on. This
story is is deep, it's ever changing, and maybe more importantly,
it continues without the actual presence of Roman reigns. That's
(46:55):
huge jail.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Yeah, it was uh getting off the air last night.
Like I alluded to earlier, I'm checking Instagram, I'm checking YouTube.
I want to know, Like the WWE has me to
the point again where I want to know what happened
on the show, right, not just oh, I'll wait and
hear about it next week. I got to know tonight
and to see what I did with Solo kind of
(47:19):
assuming the role of I don't want to say he's
like the new head of the table, but he's certainly,
you know, showing his chest peacocking a bit, you know,
putting it out there and then for them to turn
on Jimmy and bringing this.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
The only way that I know this Tonga guy is
is from like Bullet Club days, right, yep. So I
don't know too much about him. I never even knew
that he was Hakus Son, which now makes me think
he could beat up probably anybody anyone yet, right, and
for I don't know, man, I'm real curious. It's like
(47:57):
one thing has just ended with Cody defeating Roman. But
now I can, like I can, I can fantasy book
this whole thing in my mind where Solo kind of
has his own bloodline, and you know, whenever Roman does arrive,
people are gonna lose their minds for him because there's
there's like there's like this weird, this weird thing where
(48:21):
you've like hated him all this time, where you've loved
to hate him rather and then the moment that he's
not there anymore, you're kind of like, damn, you know what? What?
Speaker 3 (48:31):
What?
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Why didn't I appreciate him more while he was here?
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (48:35):
My wife said last night, she watches often with especially
smack Down, and she said, where's Roman, Where's when's he
going to be on us? I don't think you're gonna
see him for a few months. Yeah, he'll be off,
He'll be off. Man. You talk about this being deep.
Everybody thought that after Cody wins the title, well, then
the story's over and we don't know what else is
(48:56):
going to happen. But that's the cool part in w
W now, So we don't know what else it's gonna happen,
but we do know we have some great people in
charge that have carried everything up to now and are
excited about where we're going in the future. And I'm
excited to watch too. Next week We'll find out Cody's
first challenger for the undisped a WWE Championship at Backlash
(49:17):
in Friends. Does aj Styles get another shot at the
title or will this be La Night's turn. We'll find
out next week on SmackDown. Jr. It was awesome getting
to connect with you. Even after all the technical difficulties,
we made it in and we got to chat some
wrestling this week. Thank you for taking the time to
jump over here and hangle this man.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
I appreciate you anytime, my friend, anytime. And remember if
you don't recall anything I said this entire show, remember
this one thing right here.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
It's cool to be you for Jr. And Michael Lavin,
who is to get another spongebath right now eating Buddy
get Wilson. But he'll be back with us next week.
I'm the amp Man and we'll see you next week
on the rest of Chat podcast
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