January 29, 2025 • 26 mins
Welcome to another episode of Wrestling with Friends! This week, Jeff and I break down the latest happenings in the wrestling world. We delve into WWE's growing support for their international wrestlers, particularly the rise of Penta, and the need for a new Lucha torchbearer. We discuss AEW's storytelling dynamics and the incredible match between Jamie Hayter and the standoutJulia Hart.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Now your main event, introducing hosts Wrestling within Parready Jef
Died and Farready Friends tunor What's up?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Wrestling with Friends.
Not a lot happened in the world of wrestling this week,
but you're still gonna get two episodes because we'll break
it down for you on today's app and then the
Thursday episode we will do our predictions for Le Royal Rumblai.
My favorite pay per view of all of them, with
me as always is Jeff di on location in New
(00:37):
York City. How are you sure? What the hell are
you doing out there? Feeling good?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I'm here doing comedy shows and I was just in Baltimore,
which was great technically tumonium, and then I've got a
gig in Miami, so just taking the two days and
doing shows in New York City while I'm in.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So at least you get to warm up at the
end of your trip, because you're probably freezing your little
nuts off, aren't you.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Yeah, Baltimore's called New York is freezing. I don't know
what Miami's like. In January, we'll see and then I
go to Portland with it. It's gorgeous. That's how it is. Yeah,
well I hope well good, and then Portland will be
cold again.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Ah. The Life on the Road Wrestlers and Comics, The
Life on the Road. We would like to announce that
we will be coming back for a season five because
y'all like to listen to this show. My favorite comment
is still yeah, it's like five minutes show and twenty
five minutes of commercials. That's still like the greatest comment ever.
But thanks for listening, and we're going to come back
(01:35):
out on Wednesdays. That's our day. That's podcast day, I
think for everybody in April, and we're very excited to
continue this, this awesome podcast with all of you. So
thank you for listening and thanks for putting up with us,
thanks for agreeing with us, thanks for hating us, thanks
for loving us, thanks for all of it. Let's start
the damn show. The penta Era continues. His entrance. I
(02:00):
think it was different. Do they add fire to it? Like?
Was the entrance even better than it was last week?
It looked better to me. I thought it was. He's
got more style than anybody in WWE, like just his walk,
his presence, his I'm gonna sell. Yeah, you're doing the
walk right now in your car, Eddie Guerrero. Bro. It's
so cool. He has like an aura like that sound
(02:24):
like Charlie Murphy. You know his aura. I can see it.
You can literally like feel it on him. Man Like,
there's just something special about him. And I really think
that the WWE universe is like big time behind him.
I'll be honest, I didn't know if they were even
gonna know his like call signs and like his chance
(02:47):
because a lot of wrestling is very tribalistic, right and
kind of like our country now, and it's like you
can only like this or this, and it's like, man,
I kind of like both. So I really didn't know.
And that first one, I think it sounded like a
good seventy percent of the audience knew his set on Mielough.
But now everybody does, and it's been two freaking weeks
(03:09):
and he looked great. The match wasn't as good as
the Chad Gable match with he wrestled against Pete Dunn
don't call him, don't call him Butch, but it was
still a cool ass match and I just I can't
say enough good things about him. I love what WW
is doing right now with all their sort of international
wrestlers from Shinseki speaking in Japanese to Pentas speaking in Spanish.
(03:32):
But I really love this dude and it looks like
he's gonna be the one. And I it's wild that
AEW slept on him like this, and he was always
a guy that was losing matches instead of a guy
that was gonna get, you know, shot to the moon
mid card status and then see if that works, and
then if it works mid card, bring him up to
the top. But WW is doing a great job with him,
(03:54):
and I've and I've talked enough and I'm gonna give
it to you. No, I agree with everything you said.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I mean, how long are these residing companies gonna sleep
on Luca's You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Like, we love the high flying, we love the stuff.
It's good.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
And I want to say this as delicately because I
love Raymonsteriro Junior. But I feel like the passing of
the torch was long overdue. I feel like we still
get Raymisteriro all the time in matches, we get thanks.
I love Raymonsteriro, no disrespect. I just think you know
he's getting up there in age there's got to be
another guy, and Dominic Masterial who is a rock star
(04:33):
isn't really a Luca though, he's not like a high
flying flipper Luca. And so the fact that WWE is
making the face of the new like Lucha Era Penta,
I couldn't be happier. He looks cool, he's got the presence,
he has that it factor. He's got, like the little moves,
(04:54):
the music, that the catch phrase or what is that
it's not a catchphrase, whatever, that catch little thing that
we all get to do with. Everything he does is awesome,
and good on wrestling for embracing it, and good on
wb for noticing it and pushing it to the forefront.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I love Ray, So it's like it's weird. It's hard
to hear anyone say it's time to pass the torch,
right because he's the greatest luciator that ever wrestled. But
he is like fifty something years old. And they have
for sure tried with other wrestlers. They've given other wrestlers
(05:34):
opportunities to see how to see how it goes, to
see if they can be the next Ray, and they
haven't felt, for whatever reason, that they found that guy yet.
But man, they seem to they seem to believe in Penta.
They really seem to believe in Penta. And I guess
you I guess you're right. Man. It's it's weird for
me to say that. Ray was one of the first
(05:56):
dudes that I wrote for when I worked at WWE,
because Vince basically was like, you're you're a Mexican. You
speak Spanish to him? Speak Spanish to Ray, I'm like,
you know, he speaks English, right, Like what do we do?
What are we doing here? But uh, but yeah, man,
I think I think you're right. I think you're right.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
And it's also it's not like raymis here has got
to go anywhere, no, no, but he does putting someone over.
How many times have we had John Cena put people over?
People had to put John Cena over. That's how wrestling works.
So for for it's good that Rays. I don't want
Rado retire. I just want I just want. I think that,
like we should have a thousand Loochs, bring back you know, uh,
(06:40):
bring back all all of our Philip. I want to
see Laparka, bring back Laparka.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
You love Laparty, He's your favorite. Do you have a
Penta mask yet No, I would love one.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
But when people wear the Penta mask, it doesn't look
as cool as when Penta does it because he has
a fa to and I have context.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Now he looks, so the whole look is awesome. You
mentioned dominic U and it instantly made me think of
dominic mysterio versus Penta and how they would get there
one day, because I would love to watch that. Dominic's
so freaking awesome too. Man, I don't know. I give
him enough love. It's all I do is give him love.
(07:20):
But I'm giving him more. And Sam Punk was on
the show and he did his interview in the crowd
this week and he free flowed it. It definitely wasn't scripted.
I ain't did okay with it. It wasn't his best promo,
it wasn't his worst promo. But he is in the
Royal Rumble and talked about winning the Royal Rumble. We'll
get into our predictions on who we think will win
(07:40):
the Rumble, but I will say this because I've said
it before, I'm not betting against Sam Punk ever again.
Like I just maybe in the Royal Romo match, it'll
be different because there's thirty forty dudes. I don't know
how many they are doing this year. I hope it's
just the thirty, but yeah, man, it's if he's in
a match, I guess he wins, which is so weird.
Party on Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre and I don't
(08:10):
want to talk about the match so much. I mean,
we can, but the thing I want to focus on
is how they're continuing to tell stories and develop long
term stories, and they do it with matches, and I
wish AW would do this a little more. They've done
it a few times, but I wish they'd do it
a little more. Seth Rollins and Drew mctire they have
this big old fight in the ring, screw you, no,
(08:32):
screw you, and they're beating each other up. And yes,
I sound like Michael Winslow from Police Academy when I
do sound effects. But they had this match and some
Shenanigan's gone after the match, and Drew McIntyre's like, yo,
I'm pissed off that I lost. I'm going to attack
you and uh, and he gets he gets help from Seth,
gets help from Sammy's Ain't and Sammy's aint comes out
(08:55):
and he could have just saved Seth and that would
have been it. And in aw a lot of times
that's how it would end. And that's cool. But they
need to create story constantly in WWE because they don't
get days off like we do. We're gonna take some
time off in between or in between our seasons, but
ww takes no days off. And so they have Drew
get out of the way as Sammy's about to kick
(09:17):
him in the face, and Sammy accidentally kicks Seth in
the face. Seth's a hot head. He doesn't take kindly
to this stuff. So it gives them an opportunity to
have some story and have some reasons to fight, just
a reason to fight, not for a big pay per
view match or anything like that. It could just be
on a Monday Night Raw. It could just be the
two of them fucking with each other in the Royal
Rumble because Seth's like, nah, hell no, I'm knocking you
(09:40):
out because you kick me in the face. But it's
those little things that they do, and they're getting really
really good at it that give them opportunities to tell
more stories within their three hour shows, their two hour shows,
and their one hour shows. I'm not watching NXT, but
I heard it's gotten a lot better than when I
used to back, so maybe I'll give it another shot.
(10:03):
But anyway, I just wanted to point on that because
we've constantly talked about their long term storytelling, but we
don't often talk about their short term storytelling because that's
more an aew thing. And I just really liked the
way they did this, and I'll stop rambling. Go ahead, sir.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
I actually wish wrestling would evolve with these sort of things.
I wish wrestling was so we always talk about the storytelling, right,
That's what's the most important I think we should have.
If we haven't moved past it, we should move past
Sammy Zay kicking a guy kicking Seth Rawlins in the face,
(10:40):
and then Seth being like you kicked me, Like that's
too basic of a misunderstanding, Like you could easily clear
that up. I was trying to help you, dude, I
sidenly kicked you because he moved, Like it's so easy
to like explain, why don't we have a more evolved
way of showing a distrust between two guys. It seems
(11:01):
too basic that you would just be like, yeah, I
was trying.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
To help you. That's fair, but I think he'll say
that and said we'll check that. Yeah, I hear you. However,
and look, it's art, so you're right. It's it's not
a scientific fact that their storytelling is good. We both
have opinions on it. But I just think you need
some of those short term storytelling devices to fill in
(11:27):
a lot of these episodes. It's not going to be
this big, epic bloodline story. It's just a short, quick
thing that gives them a reason to hate each other
in the Royal Rumble, or gives us a match on
Monday Night Raw. And everything you said is correct, and
I agree with everything you said, but I still feel
there's room for it from my side and what I
(11:49):
need from wrestling. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes
total sense. All right, Well, I'm glad we're making sense.
Let's talk about Let's talk about WWE. Smack Sounds. Smack
Sounds Sound is a wonderful show. However, this, uh, this
episode was not that great. Kevin Owens is great, I
(12:09):
know that much. Jimmy Usso is pretty awesome. He came
out there and Kevin Owens is talking all kinds of
shit to Matthew McConaughey, which was really fucking cool of
Kevin Owens so much, and he gets in there, aint
Jimmy USO interrupts him and Kevin's like, what what what
are you gonna do? You know I saw him to say,
and Jimmy us just goes, you talk too damn much
(12:31):
and puts one on him. Man, And it was The
show opened real cool like that, but uh it didn't.
I don't know, man, it felt like we're getting ready
for the Royal Rumble. We don't want to risk any injuries.
Let's give some guys a night off. Let's get some
fresh blood in there. There was good stuff that we'll
talk about, but all in all, that was kind of
(12:51):
the highlight. One of the other cool things was Damian
Priest is a part of smack sound. I almost said SmackDown,
but this they spell it with an s um. You
and I agree that the Judgment Day stuff was getting
kind of old and we were wanting to see it
evolve like the bloodline organically. Well I think they agree
(13:15):
because not only did they kind of end that, they
straight took him to a whole nother show, which is
cool that they have that draft window or transfer portal,
whatever they call it. They're trying to be like college football.
So they brought Damien Priestcott him as far from the
Judgment day as possible, and now he can kind of
not restart his career, but restart a story, find a
news story. And they're going to establish him to the
(13:36):
audience first because they believe that not necessarily everyone who
watches Raw watches SmackDown, which I always disagreed with, but
they said they had numbers to prove it, so what
the hell do I know? So he gets re debuted
against Carmelo, who can really really work in there and
really really go, and they have him lose a lot,
but for some reason, I don't think it damages him.
(13:57):
He's just he looks like he could in every match
at some point in the match. He's really really good.
He's from NXT and I should have known that, but
I don't watch it because I'm an asshole. So Damian
Priest is now on SmackDown. He gets an established victory.
I don't know where you send him first, maybe after
Shinseka Nakamura because they could have a pretty crazy match
(14:19):
for the US title. But eventually he's got to go
after Cody and him and Cody had a little like, ey,
I do it, yeah, pretty good? I doing yeah, pretty good? Welcome, okay,
all right, peace and then they sort of walked off
and did there I'm a badass lion and so are
you thing. But yeah, so those were kind of the
big highlights. But is there any crap that you want
to talk about that happened on smack Shone.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Now, I'm just excited to see Damian Priest reinvents himself.
I'm excited to see what that's going to look like.
I would like to see him in some different ring gear.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I think they that's a good idea biggest star ever.
So I'm excited to see I don't know, just see
what they do with him over there.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So that's that's what I'm most most excited about. Dude,
he should get some new gear, some smack sound gear.
That would be cool. Yeah, dude, Damian Priest, he has
a cool story. I don't want to get into it
because I like other people to tell their story, but
you guys should check it out on YouTube or something
and hear him speak about it. Pretty cool. The life
changes that he went through to get to where he
(15:20):
is now. It's just something to be respected and you
guys should check it out. Google him all right. A
dubs this week they got into it. Will Ospray and
Kenny Omega got on the mic and it was like,
if you're ranking it one to ten, it was like
a seven, you know, like a good seven Ospray's I
(15:42):
still don't know how ww slept on Ospray. He's just perfect,
Like he can talk, he looks good, he can move,
he can sell, he can work, like he could do everything.
And I don't know. I know there's like mixed feelings
on Kenny Omega. And I wasn't hip to Kenny Omega
for any of this, so I he's new to me
(16:03):
still because he's been hurt for a while. I think
he's cool. He's pretty good on the mic, and he's
in good shape. He can wrestle and uh, and he
believes in selling too. I like, I like dudes itself.
I like dudes that make you look good. That that's
so important, and the ones that do it are selfless,
and those are the ones that do the best business
(16:24):
I feel. So anyway, they both got beef with the
don Kallis family and Donna's quickly becoming one of my
favorite managers. He just gets better and better every week.
Dude scarred his own head for for his art, which
is so hardcore, and he just sort of lives it. Man.
I don't know how he's pulling it off.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
You know, on the Jeredo cruise with Jericho, Cruz jobbed
for like so many matches he didn't did. Yeah, he
was like he he had all these kind of different things.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
He would just come out and lose in a match.
I thought it was hilarious. That's really fun. Dude wasn't
even managing, just being a jobber. He has been growing
on me for a long time, man, and he's he's
really really good. Dude. I can't believe he sliced his
head open. That's so hardcore. But anyway, they got beef, Jeff,
they got they got man beef. And it's not it's
(17:18):
not the gross kind of man beef. It's the violent
kind of man beef. And yeah, man, they made the
match quickly, which I still wish they would pull these
things or or make these stories longer. But I guess
they're selling tickets for a pay per view, so I
should probably shut up. About that. But they both climbed
(17:39):
up this giant pillar and basically challenged to Keshia and
I think it was Kyle Fletcher to a tag match
in Australia. I'm excited for this pay per view coming up.
And and then at the end of the promo, he
gets the line of the week. By the way, Kevin
Owens doesn't get the line of the week. It's Kevin,
It's Kenny Omega from on top. And he goes and
(17:59):
now I'm gonna get off this this this whatever scaffolding
because I'm afraid of hides. Yeah, they climbed back down.
I was like, yo, man, he kind of broke the
fourth wall there and a cool ways. I thought that
was funny. I wanted to mention that I would rather
see these dudes wrestle each other than see them in
a tag match. But I'm hyped to see the match
just the same. How did you how'd you feel about
(18:21):
a doves overall? We'll get into more of it as
we go.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Uh, nothing notable really on my end. I like, in
my opinion, I watched it, I go, oh, it's good.
It felt very much like was watching a house show
or something, which I guess is kind of the vibe
of AWS sometimes, but it was.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, sometimes that is the vibe, and sometimes it's good
and sometimes it's not good. It it kind of depends
on the stories they have going on. Well, then I'll
hit you with some other stuff, because there was some
stuff that I liked. One Bobby Lashley looked great and
Shelton Benjamin looked great, and they dominated a match that
they should have dominated, and it was awesome for private
(18:59):
part to allow them to be that dominant in the match.
Usually the AW matches feel like fifty to fifty unless
it's a squash match, like everybody gets all their moves in,
everybody gets to kick out of the of the finisher,
you know, and it's it feels very fair. And even
it's like fifty one forty nine, this match was not that.
This was not a squash, but it was dominance and
(19:22):
Bobby looked like Bobby Lashley should look. And now they're
the tag team champions. The hurt Cindy could have gold,
which legitimizes them. Eventually they'll get they'll drop those titles
and Bobby will move on once there's room towards the
World Championship. I'm sure, that's the title. He's going to
go for first, and Shelton can do great things in
like the Continental Classic and go after the International title
(19:43):
and things like that. But they look good, so I
was happy about that. My man MVP was on commentary,
always killing it out there. And the one match that
I did want to hit on because this was like
the one bright spot and kind of a boring week
of wrestling, was Jamie fucking Hater versus Julia Hart. And
(20:03):
this was like a revenge match for Jamie Hayter because
she had lost once she got the mooda mist in
the face. Oh MyH she goes down, she gets paid one, two, three,
no mooda miss this time? What's up? You're by yourself?
Julia Hart and she took the big ass hilaria from
Jamie Hayter. But it's really good to have Julia Hart
back from injury, really good to have Jamie Hayter back
(20:24):
from injury. Really awesome to see women's wrestling and to
see a good entertaining match. I don't know what the
hell's happened with Britt Baker, but whatever story she had
is now gone. Maybe she's hurt again. I've known, Maybe
she's got beef. I have no idea, but uh, their
division has been lacking, Like there hasn't been a lot
(20:44):
of matches to see. There hasn't been a lot of
opponents to be built up for Mariah May. There haven't
been a lot of opponents to be built up for
that people really were into for for Mercedes Money. So
it's been is been tough man, And this was like
a nice kind of refreshing moment. And maybe, look, maybe
it was so everything else was so boring that this
(21:06):
just stood out because it wasn't. But to me, it
felt like a really good match. They worked super clean,
a lot of the moves looked real, a lot of
them probably were, and Jamie Hayter got the win and
then cut a really cool promo at the end. It
was like, look, you're bitch, but you're a tough bitch
and if you want to fight again, fuck yeah, and
she she said it better than that. But and then
she walked out of the ring, and I thought it
(21:27):
was really quiet. Even texted you guys, I was like, yo, man,
check this match out. I thought it was pretty good.
Did you get to see that match or not?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I thought, yeah, I liked Julie Harder or that's your name, right,
Juliard Julia Crazy hard Yeah, I like her. My problem
is I'm not connecting with a lot of the mic
quirk or a lot of that kind of stuff with
h with what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
But uh I I don't know it. They're not all
going to win a category.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
I don't want to be sitting here and be a hater,
So I'm like trying to not say what.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I'm Yeah, don't be a hater on Jamie Hayter bro
It's like hits you with that Larry a lot. I'm
pretty critical of a lot of this. You are criticae.
I know your look. I don't think there's I don't
think there's anything wrong with your criticism. I think you're
always fair. I think maybe some of our listeners get
(22:26):
upset because there is a lot of tribalism and that's
my guy or that's my girl. You're talking shit on
my guy and I've believed in him forever. He's entertained
me for years, and she's entertained me for years, and
now you don't like him and you're saying shit and
you have a voice, and I don't, So I get
where that comes from. But I think you've always been fair.
I disagree with a lot of what you say because
I give more latitude to him. I think, yeah, you're
(22:47):
very nice to the wrestlers. I'm very hard on the wrestlers. Yeah. Man,
I'll put it to you this way. If I say
a promos a seven, that's probably most people's five. Like,
I'm giving a couple extra points of latitude because they
don't all take acting classes. They're not all you know, actors.
Some of them just wrestle and that's okay. And should
they have a manager, Yeah, but should they get a
(23:09):
chance to learn and develop that and maybe something cool happens, Right,
Like when Jalen Rose was originally on ESPN doing commentary
and stuff and all that, he sucked, and over the
course of a year, you watched him get better from
week to week to week to where the point where
he became one of their best voices on that friggin network. Yeah,
(23:30):
And if he didn't get those opportunities to fail and
f up, he probably would have never gotten better. He
ended up doing like a podcast TV show with this guy,
and it just he really was able to be himself
and it just kind of helped him develop his skills,
and that can happen with wrestlers too. We've seen it
happen with wrestlers. We've seen, you know, We've seen Solo
Sokoa go from no speaking to cutting full on promos
(23:51):
to going back to not speaking anymore. Now he's pissed
at the audience. He's like, fuck you guys, I'm going
out there. So I try to give more latitude with that.
I also worked there, and I know how hard the
conditions are. It's not an environment that's conducive to success
outside of the wrestling part.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, it just takes me out of the story as
all like like, and Kenny Omega is probably one of
my favorite wrestlers in the last ten years. I'm a
big Kenny Omega guy like him, and his last when
he came out gave like it did a bunch of.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Did big spot. It was terrible and.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I was literally going it made me like while I
was listening to it, I'm rethinking how I feel about
Kenny Omega, was like, this is dog shit.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
So I am at least consistent.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I just want I want the stories to be good
and I want the mic work to be good, and
I want the wrestling to be gimmicky.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
So you see, I hear you saying this, and I
don't even get mad. It makes me wish I worked there.
It makes me wish like that I could help help out,
Like I know, I one thing I was really good at.
I couldn't like book matches very well. That's a technique
that takes years to develop, and I wasn't there long enough.
(25:02):
But I could write some motherfucking dialogue. And I would
just write all the lines that no one would ever
let me say in a movie because I always had
to play the sweet boy, so I didn't get to
like talk tough. I always had to take the tough
talk right, yeah, And so I would just write all that.
And I did really well for a lot of wrestlers,
and I screwed up with some, but I got good
and I got good quick. And when I hear people
(25:25):
criticize the acting part and the writing and things like that,
I'm always like, man, I could have written that dude
to promo. I could have written that guy something sick
that he would that he would have, you know, chewed
up and spit out in a good way. So I
hear you, dude, I want the stories to be good too.
I get I get pissed off if I get taken
(25:46):
out of it, and that's when my latitude mode kicks
in and goes, ah, not give him a break, give
him a break. But you're not wrong, You're not wrong,
all right, you guys, stay tuned for Thursday show. That's right,
the Thursday shows are back, unsanctioned. Just for you guys.
We're gonna give you our Royal Rumble predictions. So for
all of those, So for all you people who just
want WWE, you got it, stay tuned. I'm baff Jeff did,
(26:07):
I'm Freddie Prinz. Peace We Out. This has been a
production of Iheart'smichael Toura podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Now your main event, introducing hosts Wrestling within Parready Jef
Died and Farready Friends tunor What's up?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Wrestling with Friends.
Not a lot happened in the world of wrestling this week,
but you're still gonna get two episodes because we'll break
it down for you on today's app and then the
Thursday episode we will do our predictions for Le Royal Rumblai.
My favorite pay per view of all of them, with
me as always is Jeff di on location in New
(00:37):
York City. How are you sure? What the hell are
you doing out there? Feeling good?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I'm here doing comedy shows and I was just in Baltimore,
which was great technically tumonium, and then I've got a
gig in Miami, so just taking the two days and
doing shows in New York City while I'm in.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So at least you get to warm up at the
end of your trip, because you're probably freezing your little
nuts off, aren't you.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Yeah, Baltimore's called New York is freezing. I don't know
what Miami's like. In January, we'll see and then I
go to Portland with it. It's gorgeous. That's how it is. Yeah,
well I hope well good, and then Portland will be
cold again.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Ah. The Life on the Road Wrestlers and Comics, The
Life on the Road. We would like to announce that
we will be coming back for a season five because
y'all like to listen to this show. My favorite comment
is still yeah, it's like five minutes show and twenty
five minutes of commercials. That's still like the greatest comment ever.
But thanks for listening, and we're going to come back
(01:35):
out on Wednesdays. That's our day. That's podcast day, I
think for everybody in April, and we're very excited to
continue this, this awesome podcast with all of you. So
thank you for listening and thanks for putting up with us,
thanks for agreeing with us, thanks for hating us, thanks
for loving us, thanks for all of it. Let's start
the damn show. The penta Era continues. His entrance. I
(02:00):
think it was different. Do they add fire to it? Like?
Was the entrance even better than it was last week?
It looked better to me. I thought it was. He's
got more style than anybody in WWE, like just his walk,
his presence, his I'm gonna sell. Yeah, you're doing the
walk right now in your car, Eddie Guerrero. Bro. It's
so cool. He has like an aura like that sound
(02:24):
like Charlie Murphy. You know his aura. I can see it.
You can literally like feel it on him. Man Like,
there's just something special about him. And I really think
that the WWE universe is like big time behind him.
I'll be honest, I didn't know if they were even
gonna know his like call signs and like his chance
(02:47):
because a lot of wrestling is very tribalistic, right and
kind of like our country now, and it's like you
can only like this or this, and it's like, man,
I kind of like both. So I really didn't know.
And that first one, I think it sounded like a
good seventy percent of the audience knew his set on Mielough.
But now everybody does, and it's been two freaking weeks
(03:09):
and he looked great. The match wasn't as good as
the Chad Gable match with he wrestled against Pete Dunn
don't call him, don't call him Butch, but it was
still a cool ass match and I just I can't
say enough good things about him. I love what WW
is doing right now with all their sort of international
wrestlers from Shinseki speaking in Japanese to Pentas speaking in Spanish.
(03:32):
But I really love this dude and it looks like
he's gonna be the one. And I it's wild that
AEW slept on him like this, and he was always
a guy that was losing matches instead of a guy
that was gonna get, you know, shot to the moon
mid card status and then see if that works, and
then if it works mid card, bring him up to
the top. But WW is doing a great job with him,
(03:54):
and I've and I've talked enough and I'm gonna give
it to you. No, I agree with everything you said.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I mean, how long are these residing companies gonna sleep
on Luca's You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Like, we love the high flying, we love the stuff.
It's good.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
And I want to say this as delicately because I
love Raymonsteriro Junior. But I feel like the passing of
the torch was long overdue. I feel like we still
get Raymisteriro all the time in matches, we get thanks.
I love Raymonsteriro, no disrespect. I just think you know
he's getting up there in age there's got to be
another guy, and Dominic Masterial who is a rock star
(04:33):
isn't really a Luca though, he's not like a high
flying flipper Luca. And so the fact that WWE is
making the face of the new like Lucha Era Penta,
I couldn't be happier. He looks cool, he's got the presence,
he has that it factor. He's got, like the little moves,
(04:54):
the music, that the catch phrase or what is that
it's not a catchphrase, whatever, that catch little thing that
we all get to do with. Everything he does is awesome,
and good on wrestling for embracing it, and good on
wb for noticing it and pushing it to the forefront.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I love Ray, So it's like it's weird. It's hard
to hear anyone say it's time to pass the torch,
right because he's the greatest luciator that ever wrestled. But
he is like fifty something years old. And they have
for sure tried with other wrestlers. They've given other wrestlers
(05:34):
opportunities to see how to see how it goes, to
see if they can be the next Ray, and they
haven't felt, for whatever reason, that they found that guy yet.
But man, they seem to they seem to believe in Penta.
They really seem to believe in Penta. And I guess
you I guess you're right. Man. It's it's weird for
me to say that. Ray was one of the first
(05:56):
dudes that I wrote for when I worked at WWE,
because Vince basically was like, you're you're a Mexican. You
speak Spanish to him? Speak Spanish to Ray, I'm like,
you know, he speaks English, right, Like what do we do?
What are we doing here? But uh, but yeah, man,
I think I think you're right. I think you're right.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
And it's also it's not like raymis here has got
to go anywhere, no, no, but he does putting someone over.
How many times have we had John Cena put people over?
People had to put John Cena over. That's how wrestling works.
So for for it's good that Rays. I don't want
Rado retire. I just want I just want. I think that,
like we should have a thousand Loochs, bring back you know, uh,
(06:40):
bring back all all of our Philip. I want to
see Laparka, bring back Laparka.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
You love Laparty, He's your favorite. Do you have a
Penta mask yet No, I would love one.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
But when people wear the Penta mask, it doesn't look
as cool as when Penta does it because he has
a fa to and I have context.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Now he looks, so the whole look is awesome. You
mentioned dominic U and it instantly made me think of
dominic mysterio versus Penta and how they would get there
one day, because I would love to watch that. Dominic's
so freaking awesome too. Man, I don't know. I give
him enough love. It's all I do is give him love.
(07:20):
But I'm giving him more. And Sam Punk was on
the show and he did his interview in the crowd
this week and he free flowed it. It definitely wasn't scripted.
I ain't did okay with it. It wasn't his best promo,
it wasn't his worst promo. But he is in the
Royal Rumble and talked about winning the Royal Rumble. We'll
get into our predictions on who we think will win
(07:40):
the Rumble, but I will say this because I've said
it before, I'm not betting against Sam Punk ever again.
Like I just maybe in the Royal Romo match, it'll
be different because there's thirty forty dudes. I don't know
how many they are doing this year. I hope it's
just the thirty, but yeah, man, it's if he's in
a match, I guess he wins, which is so weird.
Party on Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre and I don't
(08:10):
want to talk about the match so much. I mean,
we can, but the thing I want to focus on
is how they're continuing to tell stories and develop long
term stories, and they do it with matches, and I
wish AW would do this a little more. They've done
it a few times, but I wish they'd do it
a little more. Seth Rollins and Drew mctire they have
this big old fight in the ring, screw you, no,
(08:32):
screw you, and they're beating each other up. And yes,
I sound like Michael Winslow from Police Academy when I
do sound effects. But they had this match and some
Shenanigan's gone after the match, and Drew McIntyre's like, yo,
I'm pissed off that I lost. I'm going to attack
you and uh, and he gets he gets help from Seth,
gets help from Sammy's Ain't and Sammy's aint comes out
(08:55):
and he could have just saved Seth and that would
have been it. And in aw a lot of times
that's how it would end. And that's cool. But they
need to create story constantly in WWE because they don't
get days off like we do. We're gonna take some
time off in between or in between our seasons, but
ww takes no days off. And so they have Drew
get out of the way as Sammy's about to kick
(09:17):
him in the face, and Sammy accidentally kicks Seth in
the face. Seth's a hot head. He doesn't take kindly
to this stuff. So it gives them an opportunity to
have some story and have some reasons to fight, just
a reason to fight, not for a big pay per
view match or anything like that. It could just be
on a Monday Night Raw. It could just be the
two of them fucking with each other in the Royal
Rumble because Seth's like, nah, hell no, I'm knocking you
(09:40):
out because you kick me in the face. But it's
those little things that they do, and they're getting really
really good at it that give them opportunities to tell
more stories within their three hour shows, their two hour shows,
and their one hour shows. I'm not watching NXT, but
I heard it's gotten a lot better than when I
used to back, so maybe I'll give it another shot.
(10:03):
But anyway, I just wanted to point on that because
we've constantly talked about their long term storytelling, but we
don't often talk about their short term storytelling because that's
more an aew thing. And I just really liked the
way they did this, and I'll stop rambling. Go ahead, sir.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
I actually wish wrestling would evolve with these sort of things.
I wish wrestling was so we always talk about the storytelling, right,
That's what's the most important I think we should have.
If we haven't moved past it, we should move past
Sammy Zay kicking a guy kicking Seth Rawlins in the face,
(10:40):
and then Seth being like you kicked me, Like that's
too basic of a misunderstanding, Like you could easily clear
that up. I was trying to help you, dude, I
sidenly kicked you because he moved, Like it's so easy
to like explain, why don't we have a more evolved
way of showing a distrust between two guys. It seems
(11:01):
too basic that you would just be like, yeah, I
was trying.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
To help you. That's fair, but I think he'll say
that and said we'll check that. Yeah, I hear you. However,
and look, it's art, so you're right. It's it's not
a scientific fact that their storytelling is good. We both
have opinions on it. But I just think you need
some of those short term storytelling devices to fill in
(11:27):
a lot of these episodes. It's not going to be
this big, epic bloodline story. It's just a short, quick
thing that gives them a reason to hate each other
in the Royal Rumble, or gives us a match on
Monday Night Raw. And everything you said is correct, and
I agree with everything you said, but I still feel
there's room for it from my side and what I
(11:49):
need from wrestling. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes
total sense. All right, Well, I'm glad we're making sense.
Let's talk about Let's talk about WWE. Smack Sounds. Smack
Sounds Sound is a wonderful show. However, this, uh, this
episode was not that great. Kevin Owens is great, I
(12:09):
know that much. Jimmy Usso is pretty awesome. He came
out there and Kevin Owens is talking all kinds of
shit to Matthew McConaughey, which was really fucking cool of
Kevin Owens so much, and he gets in there, aint
Jimmy USO interrupts him and Kevin's like, what what what
are you gonna do? You know I saw him to say,
and Jimmy us just goes, you talk too damn much
(12:31):
and puts one on him. Man, And it was The
show opened real cool like that, but uh it didn't.
I don't know, man, it felt like we're getting ready
for the Royal Rumble. We don't want to risk any injuries.
Let's give some guys a night off. Let's get some
fresh blood in there. There was good stuff that we'll
talk about, but all in all, that was kind of
(12:51):
the highlight. One of the other cool things was Damian
Priest is a part of smack sound. I almost said SmackDown,
but this they spell it with an s um. You
and I agree that the Judgment Day stuff was getting
kind of old and we were wanting to see it
evolve like the bloodline organically. Well I think they agree
(13:15):
because not only did they kind of end that, they
straight took him to a whole nother show, which is
cool that they have that draft window or transfer portal,
whatever they call it. They're trying to be like college football.
So they brought Damien Priestcott him as far from the
Judgment day as possible, and now he can kind of
not restart his career, but restart a story, find a
news story. And they're going to establish him to the
(13:36):
audience first because they believe that not necessarily everyone who
watches Raw watches SmackDown, which I always disagreed with, but
they said they had numbers to prove it, so what
the hell do I know? So he gets re debuted
against Carmelo, who can really really work in there and
really really go, and they have him lose a lot,
but for some reason, I don't think it damages him.
(13:57):
He's just he looks like he could in every match
at some point in the match. He's really really good.
He's from NXT and I should have known that, but
I don't watch it because I'm an asshole. So Damian
Priest is now on SmackDown. He gets an established victory.
I don't know where you send him first, maybe after
Shinseka Nakamura because they could have a pretty crazy match
(14:19):
for the US title. But eventually he's got to go
after Cody and him and Cody had a little like, ey,
I do it, yeah, pretty good? I doing yeah, pretty good? Welcome, okay,
all right, peace and then they sort of walked off
and did there I'm a badass lion and so are
you thing. But yeah, so those were kind of the
big highlights. But is there any crap that you want
to talk about that happened on smack Shone.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Now, I'm just excited to see Damian Priest reinvents himself.
I'm excited to see what that's going to look like.
I would like to see him in some different ring gear.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I think they that's a good idea biggest star ever.
So I'm excited to see I don't know, just see
what they do with him over there.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So that's that's what I'm most most excited about. Dude,
he should get some new gear, some smack sound gear.
That would be cool. Yeah, dude, Damian Priest, he has
a cool story. I don't want to get into it
because I like other people to tell their story, but
you guys should check it out on YouTube or something
and hear him speak about it. Pretty cool. The life
changes that he went through to get to where he
(15:20):
is now. It's just something to be respected and you
guys should check it out. Google him all right. A
dubs this week they got into it. Will Ospray and
Kenny Omega got on the mic and it was like,
if you're ranking it one to ten, it was like
a seven, you know, like a good seven Ospray's I
(15:42):
still don't know how ww slept on Ospray. He's just perfect,
Like he can talk, he looks good, he can move,
he can sell, he can work, like he could do everything.
And I don't know. I know there's like mixed feelings
on Kenny Omega. And I wasn't hip to Kenny Omega
for any of this, so I he's new to me
(16:03):
still because he's been hurt for a while. I think
he's cool. He's pretty good on the mic, and he's
in good shape. He can wrestle and uh, and he
believes in selling too. I like, I like dudes itself.
I like dudes that make you look good. That that's
so important, and the ones that do it are selfless,
and those are the ones that do the best business
(16:24):
I feel. So anyway, they both got beef with the
don Kallis family and Donna's quickly becoming one of my
favorite managers. He just gets better and better every week.
Dude scarred his own head for for his art, which
is so hardcore, and he just sort of lives it. Man.
I don't know how he's pulling it off.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
You know, on the Jeredo cruise with Jericho, Cruz jobbed
for like so many matches he didn't did. Yeah, he
was like he he had all these kind of different things.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
He would just come out and lose in a match.
I thought it was hilarious. That's really fun. Dude wasn't
even managing, just being a jobber. He has been growing
on me for a long time, man, and he's he's
really really good. Dude. I can't believe he sliced his
head open. That's so hardcore. But anyway, they got beef, Jeff,
they got they got man beef. And it's not it's
(17:18):
not the gross kind of man beef. It's the violent
kind of man beef. And yeah, man, they made the
match quickly, which I still wish they would pull these
things or or make these stories longer. But I guess
they're selling tickets for a pay per view, so I
should probably shut up. About that. But they both climbed
(17:39):
up this giant pillar and basically challenged to Keshia and
I think it was Kyle Fletcher to a tag match
in Australia. I'm excited for this pay per view coming up.
And and then at the end of the promo, he
gets the line of the week. By the way, Kevin
Owens doesn't get the line of the week. It's Kevin,
It's Kenny Omega from on top. And he goes and
(17:59):
now I'm gonna get off this this this whatever scaffolding
because I'm afraid of hides. Yeah, they climbed back down.
I was like, yo, man, he kind of broke the
fourth wall there and a cool ways. I thought that
was funny. I wanted to mention that I would rather
see these dudes wrestle each other than see them in
a tag match. But I'm hyped to see the match
just the same. How did you how'd you feel about
(18:21):
a doves overall? We'll get into more of it as
we go.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Uh, nothing notable really on my end. I like, in
my opinion, I watched it, I go, oh, it's good.
It felt very much like was watching a house show
or something, which I guess is kind of the vibe
of AWS sometimes, but it was.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, sometimes that is the vibe, and sometimes it's good
and sometimes it's not good. It it kind of depends
on the stories they have going on. Well, then I'll
hit you with some other stuff, because there was some
stuff that I liked. One Bobby Lashley looked great and
Shelton Benjamin looked great, and they dominated a match that
they should have dominated, and it was awesome for private
(18:59):
part to allow them to be that dominant in the match.
Usually the AW matches feel like fifty to fifty unless
it's a squash match, like everybody gets all their moves in,
everybody gets to kick out of the of the finisher,
you know, and it's it feels very fair. And even
it's like fifty one forty nine, this match was not that.
This was not a squash, but it was dominance and
(19:22):
Bobby looked like Bobby Lashley should look. And now they're
the tag team champions. The hurt Cindy could have gold,
which legitimizes them. Eventually they'll get they'll drop those titles
and Bobby will move on once there's room towards the
World Championship. I'm sure, that's the title. He's going to
go for first, and Shelton can do great things in
like the Continental Classic and go after the International title
(19:43):
and things like that. But they look good, so I
was happy about that. My man MVP was on commentary,
always killing it out there. And the one match that
I did want to hit on because this was like
the one bright spot and kind of a boring week
of wrestling, was Jamie fucking Hater versus Julia Hart. And
(20:03):
this was like a revenge match for Jamie Hayter because
she had lost once she got the mooda mist in
the face. Oh MyH she goes down, she gets paid one, two, three,
no mooda miss this time? What's up? You're by yourself?
Julia Hart and she took the big ass hilaria from
Jamie Hayter. But it's really good to have Julia Hart
back from injury, really good to have Jamie Hayter back
(20:24):
from injury. Really awesome to see women's wrestling and to
see a good entertaining match. I don't know what the
hell's happened with Britt Baker, but whatever story she had
is now gone. Maybe she's hurt again. I've known, Maybe
she's got beef. I have no idea, but uh, their
division has been lacking, Like there hasn't been a lot
(20:44):
of matches to see. There hasn't been a lot of
opponents to be built up for Mariah May. There haven't
been a lot of opponents to be built up for
that people really were into for for Mercedes Money. So
it's been is been tough man, And this was like
a nice kind of refreshing moment. And maybe, look, maybe
it was so everything else was so boring that this
(21:06):
just stood out because it wasn't. But to me, it
felt like a really good match. They worked super clean,
a lot of the moves looked real, a lot of
them probably were, and Jamie Hayter got the win and
then cut a really cool promo at the end. It
was like, look, you're bitch, but you're a tough bitch
and if you want to fight again, fuck yeah, and
she she said it better than that. But and then
she walked out of the ring, and I thought it
(21:27):
was really quiet. Even texted you guys, I was like, yo, man,
check this match out. I thought it was pretty good.
Did you get to see that match or not?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I thought, yeah, I liked Julie Harder or that's your name, right,
Juliard Julia Crazy hard Yeah, I like her. My problem
is I'm not connecting with a lot of the mic
quirk or a lot of that kind of stuff with
h with what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
But uh I I don't know it. They're not all
going to win a category.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
I don't want to be sitting here and be a hater,
So I'm like trying to not say what.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I'm Yeah, don't be a hater on Jamie Hayter bro
It's like hits you with that Larry a lot. I'm
pretty critical of a lot of this. You are criticae.
I know your look. I don't think there's I don't
think there's anything wrong with your criticism. I think you're
always fair. I think maybe some of our listeners get
(22:26):
upset because there is a lot of tribalism and that's
my guy or that's my girl. You're talking shit on
my guy and I've believed in him forever. He's entertained
me for years, and she's entertained me for years, and
now you don't like him and you're saying shit and
you have a voice, and I don't, So I get
where that comes from. But I think you've always been fair.
I disagree with a lot of what you say because
I give more latitude to him. I think, yeah, you're
(22:47):
very nice to the wrestlers. I'm very hard on the wrestlers. Yeah. Man,
I'll put it to you this way. If I say
a promos a seven, that's probably most people's five. Like,
I'm giving a couple extra points of latitude because they
don't all take acting classes. They're not all you know, actors.
Some of them just wrestle and that's okay. And should
they have a manager, Yeah, but should they get a
(23:09):
chance to learn and develop that and maybe something cool happens, Right,
Like when Jalen Rose was originally on ESPN doing commentary
and stuff and all that, he sucked, and over the
course of a year, you watched him get better from
week to week to week to where the point where
he became one of their best voices on that friggin network. Yeah,
(23:30):
And if he didn't get those opportunities to fail and
f up, he probably would have never gotten better. He
ended up doing like a podcast TV show with this guy,
and it just he really was able to be himself
and it just kind of helped him develop his skills,
and that can happen with wrestlers too. We've seen it
happen with wrestlers. We've seen, you know, We've seen Solo
Sokoa go from no speaking to cutting full on promos
(23:51):
to going back to not speaking anymore. Now he's pissed
at the audience. He's like, fuck you guys, I'm going
out there. So I try to give more latitude with that.
I also worked there, and I know how hard the
conditions are. It's not an environment that's conducive to success
outside of the wrestling part.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, it just takes me out of the story as
all like like, and Kenny Omega is probably one of
my favorite wrestlers in the last ten years. I'm a
big Kenny Omega guy like him, and his last when
he came out gave like it did a bunch of.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Did big spot. It was terrible and.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I was literally going it made me like while I
was listening to it, I'm rethinking how I feel about
Kenny Omega, was like, this is dog shit.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
So I am at least consistent.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I just want I want the stories to be good
and I want the mic work to be good, and
I want the wrestling to be gimmicky.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
So you see, I hear you saying this, and I
don't even get mad. It makes me wish I worked there.
It makes me wish like that I could help help out,
Like I know, I one thing I was really good at.
I couldn't like book matches very well. That's a technique
that takes years to develop, and I wasn't there long enough.
(25:02):
But I could write some motherfucking dialogue. And I would
just write all the lines that no one would ever
let me say in a movie because I always had
to play the sweet boy, so I didn't get to
like talk tough. I always had to take the tough
talk right, yeah, And so I would just write all that.
And I did really well for a lot of wrestlers,
and I screwed up with some, but I got good
and I got good quick. And when I hear people
(25:25):
criticize the acting part and the writing and things like that,
I'm always like, man, I could have written that dude
to promo. I could have written that guy something sick
that he would that he would have, you know, chewed
up and spit out in a good way. So I
hear you, dude, I want the stories to be good too.
I get I get pissed off if I get taken
(25:46):
out of it, and that's when my latitude mode kicks
in and goes, ah, not give him a break, give
him a break. But you're not wrong, You're not wrong,
all right, you guys, stay tuned for Thursday show. That's right,
the Thursday shows are back, unsanctioned. Just for you guys.
We're gonna give you our Royal Rumble predictions. So for
all of those, So for all you people who just
want WWE, you got it, stay tuned. I'm baff Jeff did,
(26:07):
I'm Freddie Prinz. Peace We Out. This has been a
production of Iheart'smichael Toura podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
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