Austin Theory + Summerslam Review

The long awaited, much anticipated interview with none other than our guy the current WWE United States Champion Austin Theory is here! We talk his US title run, working with John Cena, what it was like playing the protege-like character, and more.

Plus on the backside of that interview, stick around for our full review of Summerslam 2023! We breakdown every match and give our thoughts on the results and what we think moving forward. Enjoy!

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hey, this is Almighty Bobby Lashlyand you're listening to the baby Face Podcast.
Hey, this is Brittle and you'relistening to the Bros. This is
the baby Faces Podcast. How's itgoing on? WAB super Start Accountic Warriors

(00:22):
Shavis and you are listening to theone only baby Face Light. Friday Night
SmackDown is making its way back toLouisville at the Young Center. It's going

(00:42):
down August twenty five, and wehave the United States champion, Austin Theory
joining us here today to talk aboutthat and a whole lot more. Of
course, Austin, thanks so muchfor taking the time today, man,
Thank you guys. Absolutely, Andyou know, we've always been big Austin
Theory guys on this podcasts, andwe don't just say that to everybody,
all right, We're not just blowingsmoke. And it might be a little

(01:04):
rare for you to find fansy yourself, considering you like to go out there
and talk your trash and all that, but we've seen the potential in you
from day one. We've been bigAustin Theory guys. Actually on Raw last
year when it came to Louisville,it was on commercial Break. You were
in the ring and we were frontrow and we're out there yell and Austin
Austin theory, Yo, you demand. You gave us a little wink and
a point. So yeah, AustinTheory acknowledge the baby Faces podcast, right,

(01:30):
got a lot of those? Arethose are cool little moments? Uh?
You know a lot of people don'tknow that, like when we get
to go to break and you know, if it's between an entrance or something
like that. But it's a goodlittle time and kind of interact with people
and kind of really read the signsand see what's going on around there.
Yeah. Sure. So, likeI said, last year, you were
on Moday Night Raw when it wasin Louisville. Now a year later,

(01:52):
you're on SmackDown, Through the Throughthe Draft as the United States Champion.
What's that kind of transition been likefor you going from a raw superstar SmackDown.
Uh? Well, now I workon Fridays instead of Mondays, So
that's cool, you know, Uh, I guess most people do things on
Fridays though, So it is whatit is. But you know, it's

(02:13):
interesting. It's a it's a scheduleswitch. I'm so used to you know,
leaving on Saturdays and going to alive event and then doing the live
events Sunday and then showing up forRaw to bring it home for the work
week. And now I just kickoff, you know, my work week
on SmackDown and then do the liveevents and I'm back home. So it's
interesting and it's definitely ah, it'sa different roster, so which is good,

(02:38):
you know, new opportunities. Yeah, I think that's uh, it's
it's really neat how the WWE scheduleworks. And you can find yourself working
on Monday night, and you canfind yourself working on Friday night. You
find yourself working the whole weekend.I mean if you include all those live
shows and everything else like that.And we don't mean that. We're just
a bunch of wrestling fans here Austin, So we just like the Pepper,
a bunch of wrestlers with a bunchof random questions. Here, what a

(03:00):
Summer Slam like for you? Fromfrom from your perspective is one of the
highest drawing summer slams ever. Iknow it's a lot different from last year.
You you were still holding the moneyin the bank and you're actually challenging
for the title that you have now, the US title. What what was
Summer Slam like from your perspective,and if you can, it was a
bit different last year in Nashville.You're kind of working outside and that you
know that Southern humidity is and nowyou're kind of inside. So well,

(03:22):
what was the whole Summer Slam experiencelike for you this year? I would
say this year, honestly, it'sit's just crazy to see how much,
uh, like the Summer slams havegrown, uh and just how big they
are, you know, like eventhis year, Uh, it just feels
like a WrestleMania when you walk outthere. But for me, man,
I had a blast. You know, anytime you can be on the Summer

(03:45):
Slam card and be a part ofthat history, you know, whether I'm
defending my title, or I'm ina Battle royal, or I'm in another
kind of match, whatever it is. But just to be, you know,
one of the guys, to geton that show and be a part
of that history is uh, isalways cool with me. This US title
around that you've been on has beengoing for quite a few months now.
You've got to have a lot ofchallengers along the way. And your biggest

(04:06):
one was probably at WrestleMania this year, right with John Cina of a legend,
returning a guy that you've been comparedto a lot in your time in
WWE. So what was that likefacing a guy like that? Was that
your ultimate dream opponent or is theresomebody still out there on the bucket list
maybe for you for you to goone on one with one day? You
know, that whole moment was afull circle moment because you know, anybody

(04:29):
that knows my past knows that,you know, John Cena was always that
motivation for me and that inspiration tobecome a WWE superstar and to finally have
that moment in the ring with himand you know, me being on one
end and him being on the otherand us disagreeing and leading to that match,
Man's there's no better place. Gettingto do that in front of my

(04:50):
entire family in Los Angeles in thering with John Cena. That was a
really cool moment. But looking onahead, because I always got to look
forward and look past that for me, I would say, uh, my
next one Roman reigns, that's uh, that's definitely I'd love to be in

(05:11):
the n Yeah, I mean youknow, we got to get ready for
tribal theory. So I love that, dude. I was actually in I
was actually in LA. I attendedmy first WrestleMania this year, and it
was really awesome to see you,know you opening up the show and you
know it just kind of knowing yourstory and how I just said, the
parallels you and seeing his career.I mean even people have gone so far
as to say, I mean,hell, you kind of look like a

(05:32):
prototype John Cena when he was kindof growing up here in ob w in
Louisville, Kentucky. There's a lotof parallels like that. Is there anything
that you know it either before orafter your feud was Sina? I know
that you probably met him in thepast. Has he ever given you?
What kind of words of advice hashe given you? Maybe either breaking into
the business or even after that WrestleMania? What he uh did? Did he

(05:53):
did he give you the tip ofthe cap? Is he is? Was
it like I'll see you sometime soon? Hopefully there there's no blow low blow
interference or what? What? Whatwas that post match? Was Sina?
Like? Uh, post match?It was? It was a really cool
moment. He just told me toenjoy this day and enjoy this moment.
And uh, literally there was nostress that day whatsoever. Uh, I

(06:15):
wasn't nervous. I was just everythingthat prepared me for that moment, everything
that I had to you know,go out there and perform. I felt
like I had it. And uhthat that was something really cool. But
something that you know, John saysthat you know, you can say a
lot of people say, but it'sso true, is you know, just
not being afraid to fail and uh, you know, betting on yourself and

(06:39):
just going for it. And alot of times that's what holds a lot
of us back from things. Isus just you know, worried about this
or that. And it might noteven be you. You know, you
might believe in yourself, and justbecause one person has an opinion, it
bothers you and it sets you off. And that's the biggest things. Just
don't be afraid to fail. Youknow, it's gonna be a ride,

(07:00):
it's gonna go up, it's gonnago down. But h just continuing to
press forward. Yeah. Absolutely,And you mentioned that you're all about looking
looking ahead, looking to the future, right, and the next thing on
that checklist has got to be yourUS title defense against Santos Escobar on SmackDown
coming up here soon. And youmentioned being on a roster with with new
guys. Santos is a new competitorthat that you're going up against new challengers.

(07:23):
So what's it gonna take to toknock off Santos and keep this US
title rolling? Well, you know, I thought I had Santos figured out,
but man, he just you know, did you see what he did
to his own family, right,mysterio? I mean, that's that's just
blows my mind. You know,he injures his own role model that he
says he cares about so much,and it's a dangerous man. But you

(07:45):
know, good guy fear he's gonnacome in and wipe the matt clean with
this guy. So don't worry.I'm here to save the world again.
I think that. You know,I haven't really thought about that too much
because we're sitting there watching that matchand even Michael Colt trying to throw jabs
at you. I mean, wegot the US Champion, the youngest US
Champion, the youngest mister money inthe bank. He's not allowed to rent

(08:07):
out a sweetbox by himself. Hehas to throw jabs at you. I
mean, we're we're, we're,we're. Were you happy at all to
see maybe Michael Cole kind of takinghis talents to somewhere else raw so he
doesn't have to, you know,kind of throchtatee at you all the time.
You know what. I love whenMichael Cole has something to say because
it keeps Michael Cole relevant, youknow, And what better way to do
it than, you know, usingme every week and trying his best because

(08:31):
it's just it's hilarious. If MichaelCole got in the ring with me,
it was just it's not good,you know. So he gets it.
He's safe behind the desk with hislittle headphones a hard but he knows when
those headphones are off and he's notbehind that desk and he's walking around backstage
in the United States champions backstage,he knows who world it's in, you
know. So I think he's smartenough to not want his own selfie moment,

(08:52):
right. He definitely doesn't need thatone. That's what I'm saying,
Man, we need he needs hislittle box back so he can hide in
and talk to him. Literally,listen, bro y'all are hating on Michael
cole Man's got a WrestleMania win againstJerry Lawler. People forget it's true,
right, So that's his thing.He always uses that. He says,
uh, yeah, but are youundefeated at WrestleMania? And I'm like,

(09:13):
that's a good When the Michael coleI was like, dude, I was
like, man, but what happenedto you when you've got in the ring
with John c You? Oh that'sright, you got covered in barbecue sauce.
Remember that. I think I thinkit's I think it's funny theory.
I don't mean to step on yourtoes here, Billy, I just kind
of want to ask the question thatI'd like to get from a lot of
wrestlers. I mean, we allwe already know how the Internet is,

(09:37):
and a lot of people wouldn't necessarilyhave their finger on the pulse of what's
going on and who's supposed to getpushed right, who's the ones getting getting
shoved down everyone's spine? And Iguess I guess we can kind of say
that you're kind of in a uniquesituation, kind of just like how we
had pass guys like Drew McIntyre oreven the tribal chief Roman reigns right now,
where everyone kind of understood that,you know, they were kind of

(09:58):
the next guy. They were kindof they were kind of right hand man's
events. They were kind of theguy that was going to get that that
new push. But obviously they've theircharacters had developed over the time, and
obviously you had the selfie gimmick whenyou first came in. What's it like
kind of shedding that skin of beingthe chosen one and kind of finding your
own path? Man, I thinkit's all just a journey, and everybody

(10:20):
has a separate journey. I thinkfor me, just my whole life,
I've known that I just have abig purpose with this and uh, you
know, just finding it. I'mtwenty six and you know, like you
said, there's it's been just awild journey when I look at it,
you know, being on the independenceto having who I was there, to

(10:41):
going into NXT and being in theway and having that and then go into
the main roster and being this protegethat's just trying to listen and do the
right thing but they're not the rightthings, and getting handed opportunities where I'm
you know, becoming the United StatesChampion and everybody's holding me up and you're
watching me flow through all this eventhe money in the bank character and then

(11:01):
turning into the character that's all aboutthe now and where we are now is
the greatest United States Champion. It'sjust it's accumulation of just flowing, you
know. And it's just one ofthose things. I think you just got
to watch somebody evolved. And really, if I think if somebody constantly lets
themselves evolved, you could find youknow what you're looking for. And it

(11:22):
all just comes with time too,because at the end of the day,
I think you know who you reallyare is what helps drive that, you
know, And that's something you knowwhen you look at Roman Reigns as the
tribal chief. He is the tribalchief. That's him, you know,
and it's just turned up to ten. So it's just you know, growing
and finding that and you know,who's to say, you know, I'm

(11:43):
not there now. You know we'rewe're one situation away from seeing that change.
It's just how quick everything changes.And that's just how it is.
You know, we all know onthe internet it's uh, you know,
tomorrow you can be the greatest thingin the world and then stay you could
suck. You know. I remembera time that the internet said, Man,
this guy, he's getting burried.He loses every match. When's the

(12:05):
last time I lost the match?And people still have something to say?
Now, yeah, so to me, as long as there's something said,
I'm doing what I need to do. But if there's nothing being said,
then there's a worry there because peoplesay your name for a reason, and
it's whether it's good or bad.You know, Austin, this has been
awesome. Man. Want to thankyou again for taking the time. One

(12:26):
more question that we like to askany wrestlers coming on the podcast that are
going to be in town here soon, you know, Like I said,
Friday Night SmackDown gonna be at theYoung Center in a couple of weeks,
August twenty fifth. Maybe we gotsome listeners that are listening right now kind
of on the edge about going tothe show. Maybe give them your little
sales pitch what they can expect ifthey show up to SmackDown on August twenty
five. Well, SmackDown is myshow. And if you don't know who

(12:50):
I am, I am the greatestUnited States Champion of all time. If
you know who John Cene is.You can ask him who I am because
I smacked him at WrestleMania. Andthat's what I'm gonna do to somebody at
the Jump Center when I pull ondown for SmackDown. It's going down and
it's a town down all day.Yes, sir, that's awesome. Awesome.
I notice in the background here andI kind of brought something. You

(13:11):
have WW Action figure I have fromWalmart myself. It's high demand Action figure.
I've been loving wrestling here. It'sbeen making me as a kid again,
So I'm getting back into collecting Actionfigures. What's it like to see
this on the shelves? Man,dude? It is Uh, it's pretty
wild, you know, even man, just every pair of gear that I

(13:33):
make, that I that I havemade, just seeing it, you know,
on a figure and knowing, wow, now it's a minute, It's
it's official. It's really cool.And I don't know how many times I
can say just how I get excitedjust seeing a new one every time.
You know, once you get one, you just want to keep seeing them.
You're like, all right, what'snext? What about this one?
What about that one? Right?But he's Austin Theory, where the Baby

(13:56):
Faced Podcast you can see Austin andall your favorite SmackDown super are at the
Yum Center on August twenty Austin.Thanks again and we'll see you soon.
Man, yep, thank you guys. This is the greatest United States Champion
of all time, Austin Theory andyou're listening to the baby Faces Podcast only
on iHeart Radio. All right,let's get into Summer Slam twenty twenty three

(14:18):
went down this past weekend at FordField in Detroit's Austin, we're kind of
talking about how the Detroit theme,like it was kind of cool, but
it didn't really fit the Summer Slamvibes right, Like we've had like the
classic green and blue logo back inRuthless Aggression. Then it kind of went
to more like a cartoonist logo andPG era and never since then, it's

(14:39):
kind of been hopping around. Lastyear, what I thought was great with
the Nashville theme that they did,but I don't know, something just something
just didn't hit right with this one. Yeah, I don't know what it
is too, And I'm glad thatwe kind of like we're not alone in
thinking that I saw that online thata lot of people kind of seemed to
be thrown off by it, youknow, the whole Detroit and I get

(15:00):
at the Michigan is like muscle carlike hardworking, Like I get that,
but like I just but like Ijust I just also think of like cold
and winter. I don't know,And that's the weird thing is is Michigan
is known for like a lot oflakes in their summertimes. But I don't
know if it's just the projection onjust the rest of the world or the
rest of the United States, whereI just I just associated up North cold

(15:22):
and just like shitty football with theLions. So like, I don't,
I don't. I don't necessarily translatethat to to wrestle and last year's theme
with with the whole pinball and Nashville, like that felt like, uh the
Neon. That felt like the biggestparty of the summer and something was just
missing. And I also kind offeel the same way about the new WrestleMania
and Philly. There's like nothing wetalked about it before WrestleMania. We can

(15:46):
always kind of signify like spring breakand then we're just kind of about to
jump into the summer. And Idon't get the whole Philly Liberty Bell America
thing that they're doing for Also,Philly is just like a cold, shitty
place as well. I just don'tthink of the biggest party WrestleMania, So
it's odd, but I guarantee thosecities are forking up millions for all that.

(16:07):
Yeah, I mean that's it's abusiness. At the end of the
day, you know, they're gonnado what they gotta do to make the
money. It doesn't really matter whatthe branding of it's gonna look like.
They're they're still getting that paycheck atthe end of the day. But yeah,
this one seemed like a little bitoff tune for what SummerSlam usually is.
Nonetheless, that doesn't, you know, affect the show as a whole.
So let's let's start to get intothe show here, talk about the
matches like we do a typical reviewepisode here opened up with Logan Paul and

(16:33):
Ricochet. I don't want to spenda ton of time on this one.
I think what we all expected tohappen happen with Logan Paul going over these
two great athletes, and it wason display in the ring. You got
anything to say on this one.Otherwise we getting weak. No. I
kind of the match was kind ofwhat I thought it was. I thought
it was gonna be like, kindof more high flying, but this was.
I think Ricochet was kind of thatperfect guy to bring out the athletics.

(16:56):
We've all we've all seen glimpses oflittle things that, oh my gosh,
imagine if you put him and himtogether. And I thought Ricochet was
probably that guy to do it becausethey don't Ricchet is a great athlete,
but the way they don't care aboutpsychology. Everything looks kind of like a
choreograph dance, and I thought everythingwas nailed well. I just wish it
was it was just an armchair quarterbackhere. I just kind of wish it

(17:18):
they would have done that. Theywere trying to play into the personal aspect
of it a little bit because obviouslyRicochet is married to Samantha Irvan, the
ring announcer, and they've kind ofbeen trying to bring that a little bit
personal. I wish I wish maybeit was just the ending was weird and
it kind of felt cheap. ButLogan Paul's a heel, like they just
had Logan Paul's due just jump inthere and just kind of cost him.

(17:40):
I thought it would have been coolerif Samantha tried to get in there and
cost Logan Paul to match and costingher husband the match on accident too,
and that would that would give himmore heat. I don't know what Logan
Paul is gonna do, but Idon't it seems seems like they're pushing Ricochet
and now looks like his heat isseverely died down because last night on the
other nine overaw they had the fourman battle role for the ict idol and
he Ricochet is now left forgotten.So well, well we'll see where he

(18:03):
how he recovers. Yeah, Imean, I think Ricochet is like a
good guy to throw into a feudwith a top star if you need if
you need something right, if you'reif you're looking for when your top stars
get involved with somebody like he's beena program with brock Lesner, like he's
he stepped up to the plate inthe past. But he's never gonna be
the guy that's that the program iscentered around. Right. He's just a
good athlete that can put on agood yes And that's fine. That's every

(18:26):
you know, that's a good spotto be in. Like, that's what
kind of like the mis in theopposite of it, the mis you can
throw in there with anybody and he'llelevate the other person on the mic and
then he'll you know, give theopponent a formidable win eventually. Yeah,
so you know that's a good spotto be in. You're never gonna be
a top guy, but you're gonnahave your You're sticky, right, You're

(18:48):
like a you're like a very valuablepart of the roster, and you're getting
constant TV time. So that's what'sall about to get They're just they're just
I don't know, I've never reallybought into the whole ricochet. I'm not
I'm not a worker. I'm justa fan. So I mean, I
can't I can tell the dude workshis ass off, but it comes off
to me as a fan like theywere they they look like they were just
dying just to do the choreograph spotsjust so people can say, oh my

(19:10):
gosh, And you know that Iwas more obviously once you bring in the
personal stuff of it, like theydid with the Samantha thing, and that's
what I like in my wrestling.I don't like. I don't I don't
like just the doing things just todo it just because you're athletic and logan
Paul and want to show that youcould do this with Ricochet. I know
you can. Well, let's justsee what kind of story we can tell
and get what kind of real heatthat we can get. And I first
like I was a missed opportunity.Yeah. Yeah. The first big match

(19:33):
of the night followed this one withCody Rhodes Brock Lesner. The final match
of their trilogy kind of been whatCody's involved in since WrestleMania and losing to
Roman and he goes over here.I think many people expected Cody to come
out come out on top in thisfeud, and that's what he does two
to one. Ever, Brock wasthere in their three matches that they had,

(19:53):
was there with the show me showof respect to Cody after the match,
you know, a little handshake anda hug, and then he kind
of teased it on Raw last night, right talking about how he was talking
about the match with his mom andhis mom says, you know what just
happened there? Right? He acknowledgedyou, So a little tease, a
little teas at the Roman Cody anda lot of people kind of are are

(20:15):
looking at that at WrestleMania forty andnext year Roman versus Cody two, And
I think they're going to continue totease that as we move on through the
months here, But Cody Rhodes isgoing to get involved in other feuds until
he is able to go after thetitle again. But overall with this one,
you know, Cody Rhodes, brockLesner, two megastars on the roster

(20:36):
right now. They had three matches. I don't think any of the matches
were like overly great, but theygave Cody something to do, kept him
in the limelight a little bit,and gives gives him a big win as
he continues his story of trying tobecome the world champion one day. So,
I don't know, what do youthink you think we're heading towards Cody
Versus Roman at WrestleMania forty You thinkthis is kind of the first like stepping

(20:59):
stone towards that. Uh, itdefinitely looks like so right with everything that
they're presenting for everything that how they'representing for Cody Rhodes. And I think
we talked about this on or Maniapreview episodes with even just how much merch
they had for Cody at at theLos Angeles at the merch store, and
even when we go back to Sina, we draw the parallels of white hot
baby Face Sina when he was aboutto get his title run. They were

(21:22):
promoting the hell out of him,right, They had they had they had
him just on commercials. They hadhim one show. They also had him
that's when he debuted his rap albumand he was coming out and like doing
live you know, rap shows atraw and sing, so like you just
know something's about to happen, youknow. Fast forward and we got the
the American Nightmare documentary that just cameout. We got the good stuff that
was actually, yes, actually veryvery good. I guess I can get

(21:45):
into a little bit more once wekind of talk a little bit about Cody
and maybe even the World Heavyweight Championshipwith that we've seen a raw Cody may
factor into that too, with Sethand who who knows, But it seems
that, yeah, it seems likethat that's probably there. They're they're you
know, I think that they're probablykeeping that in their back pocket. You
know, the whole Roman thing obviouslythey don't care. They see how Superstars

(22:07):
criss crossed between Ron SmackDown, sowe're gonna see how that works. Are
they gonna give Cody a Royal Rumbleanother Royal Rumble win? Or is this
going to be kind of thing wherehe shoot shoehorned into the elimination chamber and
that's how he gets a shot atRoman. I'm not necessarily know, but
one of the last living legends thatyou that you kind of got still hanging
around as brock Lesner and and brockLesner is still one of those guys.
When he shows up, you know, it means something. It's he's kind

(22:30):
of romans now entered that category whenhe when he shows up and he has
a match, it means something.So for him to do that, and
who else can just like double justgo be a heel for like two months
and then come back like brock Lessnerhas and no one's gonna question them,
right, Yeah, So I thinkit's pretty cool. And I was actually
telling Sydney, my girlfriend, shecame in to watch a little bit of
it, and of that match,it's pretty cool. I got to explain

(22:52):
to her the OVW roots and everythinglike that, and something in the back
of my head tells him that theseguys have known each other roman Or Brock
and Cody of been working with eachother for years and years and years,
and they've all come from the sametree and all come from the same tree
of learning. So for them toput it on it was you could just
see two pros going at and theytold a good story. I mean,
it's every Brock Lesner match is thesame, right. I think the opponent

(23:15):
comes out, tries to get theupper hand, gets his ass kicked for
twenty five minutes, and easily usuallyeither loses or has some sort of heroic
finish. And I can see howthat's kind of hard to get into,
but both these guys are really goodat telling a story and ring and had
everyone invested. So I like thematch. It's probably one of the best
of the night. Yeah, Iagree, it was good stuff and I
think, you know, it'll beintriguing to see where Cody goes next from

(23:37):
here, whether he gets involved inkind of the world heavyweight title mix for
a little bit like you mentioned,but they basically got to keep him occupied
if it is penciled in, andI say penciled not sharpid that Cody Rhodes
in Roman is the plan at WrestleManiaforty, then you got to keep both
guys occupied until we can head backinto that. I like like teasing it

(24:00):
here and there like Cody did onMonday Nights, but those two should not
touch each other until it's like confirmedthat Cody is the number one consender and
he's going after Roman and like thematch is made, you know what I'm
saying, So keep those through apart. Let Roman do his thing with this
whole bloodline thing that's going on,and we'll get into that later of course,
but Cody's got to kind of stayin the mix on Raw obviously at

(24:23):
the top of the card, butnot like ever being a legitimate I don't
think you'll ever win the World theWorld Heavyweight Championship in the next number of
months because again, the end goalis the WUE Championship from Roman. So
goodwin here from Cody and excited tosee where he goes next. So after
that we can kind of breeze throughthis one a little bit. We have
the Battle Royal, yeah, pal, Yeah, twenty five man Battle Royal

(24:48):
Summer Slam, Yeah, and we'regonna bring back home most Pal, Yeah
you forgot then Chapman the surprise entrant, Oh Moss, let's go. So
what we expected here though? LaNight gets his win finally some you know,
somewhat of a big win on aon a Big four pay per view.
So yeah, I mean that's somethingthat was thrown in there last second.

(25:11):
I thought that they did a goodjob of kind of making you care
about the last couple of people thatwere there and the surprise I guess the
surprise return almost I don't think anyonecares, but it's it's always cool to
like see someone that we haven't seenin a couple of months. And uh,
they did a really good job ofbuilding up to that moment where he
got eliminated. When when they wheneveryone threw him out, you could see

(25:33):
that everyone popped really hard. Sothat was really cool, and they had
a pretty good up like pre videopackage to show it too. Was every
superstar just wasn't out there in thering and they just started the match when
they came back. So yep,yep, La Night gets the win.
Had a nice little promo with theMiz on on Monday. I can't I
can't wait to see where that goes, yeah, that should be. I
mean, you put those two together, give him a mic every week,

(25:56):
and I think you're gonna have goldthere. So I like the direction with
La Night. They're not, youknow, hot shotting him right to the
top. They know that he's over, they know he's selling the T shirts,
and they're putting him in in youknow, important spots on TV,
which I think is the most tellingsign that they see something in it.
That's always been my thing. Youknow, I've I've you know, I'm

(26:17):
never that one that this guy needsa title. This guy needs a this
guy's been cheered for three weeks.He needs to have a title push,
and everyone is it will be niceto see La Night have a title push,
But his character is the title makesthe man. The man doesn't make
the title right or am I saying? Am I saying it? Might say?
We get what you mean either way. So shout out to my guy,
Daniel Hill. I was just textinghim about that, but he's he's

(26:40):
already made. His superstar is alreadyenough for you to care about. He
just needs to be on TV andneeds to be featured more, and whether
or less that is having a titlethat would be great. I don't think
he needs it, but he justneeds to be in high profile spots where
other people are benefiting off of howhe's able to talk shit and how he's
able to carry a storyline, andhow he can also benefit of other people
caring a store aline other people talkingship back to in He doesn't need to

(27:03):
be the face of the company,doesn't need to carry the title around for
forever. He just needs to befeatured and prominent. Package wrestling is all
about everybody seeming like a threat atany point, and there's not a lot
of people that's a threat to anybodyaside from like three or four guys.
So I just like living in aworld where everybody is taken a little bit
more seriously. And I'm not oneof those fans that think in order for
you to be serious you had tohave a title run for this amount of

(27:26):
days. It's all what we alwaystalk about on the show, character being
able to put asses in seats andgetting be able to have people believe in
your character, and la I's donethat through three different name changes in the
Indies and twice in WWE. SoI don't think he should be rewarded,
you know, with the belt.It would be nice, but he's he
should be rewarded with more TV timeand and helping the product out that way.

(27:47):
That's just my opinion. And Imean, if you are going to
give him the belt at some point, let it be a slow build so
that when he finally wins it,it's a big moment. You don't have
hotshot him and all of a suddenlike oh three weeks pete last. Yeah,
yeah, exactly. If you wantlongevity on it, you gotta have
the long burned storylines and then thepayoff is gonna be that that much greater.
Then he's gonna be set up forsuccess as the champion rather than have

(28:10):
all this pressure on him all ofa sudden of Oh, I wasn't even
like getting five minutes of TV timea month ago, and all of a
sudden, you expect me to bethe face of the brand and carry the
title. So yeah, I mean, getting a win here, I think
shows that the company serious about him. Getting a lot of TV time and
a prominent spot on Monday Night Rollshows that the company serious about him.
So everybody take a deep breath,all the La Night fans out there,

(28:33):
just like us. Yeah, youjust take a deep breath and let this
play out and enjoy the ride.Like, think of all the la stuff
that's going on, what they callthe La Lord you get me on TikTok
or Facebook and something that he wasdoing twenty years ago. Somehow still looks
the same. Yeah, talks andacts the same, but he's lived so
many different lives. What do youthink about the LA night, Loren,

(28:56):
this guy, it's like he ishe an NPC bro and he's just been
like like bopping around all these randomlike Chris saws everywhere, like he literally
just spawns in. It's crazy.I don't I don't know. He's a
rest he's an ad salesman. He'sjust he's with Paul. He's with Paul
Bearer, Like, how does what'sthis guy is he? I think that's
also helped him out so much moreas everyone's found out, and once again,

(29:19):
that's that's just all character. Hedoesn't need to we found out he
botched U the other night on SmackDown, him and Shamus did kind of like
a dangerous spot and he kind offucked up and they fell down to the
floor and he kind of botched aspot on his words last night against the
minuts. But you just don't thinkabout it. You don't think or care
about that because the dudes, youbelieve what he's saying. I don't need

(29:41):
a match with high flying moves intwenty five minutes to believe in this guy.
Just give him five minutes with amicrophone. Yep, no doubt.
I did have another point on this. Oh yeah, we're talking about surprise
entrance. Where the hell is Carlitoat like or all these dirt cheats just
wrong. He's supposed to come back. He was supposed to. I'm back
like a month ago. It's likeit's done deal ink is ink is dried,

(30:04):
Like this guys is ready to go. There is waiting from the Puerto
Rico show and every everyone like yousaid, yeah, I remember you texted
me like here we go, bro. Yeah. It was like they inked
him to it to a deal andmaybe they're holding on and waiting for something
for him. But it's been reportedlike a million times that, oh,
Carlito is gonna be back, He'sat SmackDown tonight. I kind of forgot

(30:26):
about that. Yeah, me too, And that's a shame because I really
I like Carlito and that would havebeen a great spot for Carlito. It
would have, it would have,and I definitely want to see him back
on the main roster. So we'llsee, we'll see if that's in the
cards in the future. Next match, Shana defeats Ronda, who cares?
Yeah, I want to go getpizza that match. Yep, there you
go. All right, So Guntherdefending against Drew McIntyre Intercontinental Championship match.

(30:52):
What you would expect from two bigguys, like you know when they're in
WrestleMania with their triple threat with Shamustoo, And I didn't have any doubt
that Gunther was going over here.I don't think there's any doubt in Gunther's
rain until he surpasses Honky talk Man'srecord. I think that's obvious that they're
going for that. So once heclears that, then we'll start talking about
like serious challengers for the title.But you know what what is Drew Drew

(31:17):
McIntire is kind of in no man'sland, right, Yeah, Like he
signed a contract recently, Like apparentlythey're having contract disputes and he had problems
with Creative and their direction for him. But I guess he signed a new
contract and he's back, so surelythey have some plans for him that he
was happy with. But what isthat entail? Right? Like he's on

(31:37):
SmackDown and I know that you cango back and forth whatever. Actually he's
on rall now is it? He? Is he? Because gun Gunther's on
roll? I don't think who knowsthere? There ain't no brand split.
Yeah, I can't remember, wellwhen did Drew come back? When was
was it money in the bank thathe came back? I can't remember.
I don't know after So let's sayhe's on ralled in. I mean,

(31:59):
yeah, maybe the World Heavyweight Championshipsin the future form, I could see
that. I think he'd be agreat champion in that aspect, you know,
not not the main championship obviously,Roman and what he's got going on
is always going to be the maintitle until that changes. But he could
be a great secondary champion in WWEand maybe that's the future for it.
But you know, like I said, I didn't think this one was ever

(32:21):
in doubt. Yeah, I kindof agree. Yeah, this it seems
ww's just trying to I mean,WW with Bruno, Sam Martino, whole
Coogan, you can make the samekind of you make the same kind of
argument that they're doing with the undisputedtitle. Is ww's wanting more recent names
the top of their history books.And I could totally see when we're talking

(32:42):
about like the Lou Albano's and whenwe're talking about Honky talk Man, WW
is definitely try to reach out tothis new crowd that they're trying to get.
They want to put current superstars upthere. So I think gun Through's
that guy. That's a good pointabout Drew. Dude. It's like there
used to be times and you know, probably I think it was like this
time last year where we're heading intoClash of the Castle. I don't know.
I know that you didn't believe it, but I actually I thought that

(33:04):
that was a spot for They're goingto reward Drew back in his hometown,
that they were gonna finally beat Roman. Then until they went on with with
everything else in the solo entrance.Now it just seems like every match it
Drew's in, it's like we kindof know he's not gonna win anymore,
but he's I mean, he's stillthe pro when he's still you know,
he still does the job. Iheard someone else talk about this. I
can't necessarily remember, but Drew hasa look, he has the move sets,

(33:28):
but there's just something about like whenhe talks and he's trying to be
a character that just doesn't resonate withme and I I think he might have
that feeling with a couple other casualfans just as well. And I know
that casuals probably only take up alittle bit because wrestling is a is a
hardcore sport. But that's what we'retrying to market to. That's what you're
trying to get over. You wantto be able to, you know,
And Drew's an airport guy what theycall. You'd be able to recognize him

(33:51):
as an at an airport. Butwhat about Drew McIntyre would make him someone's
favorite wrestler? And that's that's agood question. I had that that I
kind of just try to try toquestion myself the other day, like what
necessarily about him? Like, Hey, he has cool moves and he looks
good, but like, where's whenhe talks. I feel like he doesn't
believe it. When he's in feuds, I feel like he doesn't really believe

(34:14):
it. And it's just I don'tnecessarily I don't necessarily know where to go
with him. I think he justmight be a victim of circumstance. Was
really getting his push back in twentynineteen with a rumble, and then just
happened to have that whole whole COVIDthing happened, and they were going to
strap that. They did strap therocket to him. They gave him,
they gave him eliminating brock Lesner,and they gave him winning the title against

(34:36):
brock Lesner at Wrestlemanian front of nofans. Albeit, but I feel like
that's where they thought that their windowwas with Drew McIntyre. COVID just happened
to happen. Yeah, I meanit would be interesting to see, like
how different does his career look ifCOVID was never a thing? Right,
Like, yeah, did it playthat big of a part and him not
being able to was excited during thatrumble? I was too everything he was.

(35:00):
He was hot, bro I meanhe was hot at the time,
and it was like the perfect sortof like the perfect storm that came together.
It was right timing with it andthe right guy to go after with
brock Lesner like that, they lookgood on you put them on a WrestleMania
poster, brock Lester Drew McIntire like, that's a mark yet matchup and two
guys that look like stars act likestars, and yeah, and then you

(35:20):
know, he wins the title andhe has to carry it through the COVID
era, which I think he dida good job of. But then you
get then you lose your steam eventually, and now you got to get it
back in front of fans, andhe doesn't go over against Bobby Lashley and
the WrestleMania the next year when fansfinally came back, and I don't know,
it just kind of like ever sincethen kind of stalled out. Yeah,
he kind of I think he hadhe's still probably had the best chance

(35:42):
of a throw in Roman. Ifeel like he had one of the best
matches against Roman in terms of like, oh my god, this guy's actually
about to win, just because it'swith everything that happened before Solo got into
it. I feel like he hadthe best shot, and I feel like
he's been kind of been cooled offsince then. I don't know if Drew
McIntire necessary, I don't know,maybe as a mark from maybe he does
care that he wants to be thechampion in front of everyone else. But

(36:04):
I think a lot of these guysjust comes down to just put me on
TV and give me a paycheck.So maybe it takes that route. Yeah,
for sure, we'll see where hegoes from here. But at SummerSlam
takes the loss against going through.So the next match was for the World
Heavyweight Championship, which we've talked abouta couple of times on the show so
far. Seth Rolins defends against FinnBalor successfully. I know many people were

(36:29):
kind of on the boat of FinnBalor going over here. I had I
had no doubt my mind Seth Rawlinswas going to win this match, And
I didn't get where the steam ofFinn Balor came from. Because looks like
Seth Rollins is the first holder ofthis title, this new title, World
Heavyweight Championship, and this is reallyhis first program that he's had as champion,
Like he had the thing with ajStyles to win the title, but

(36:52):
ever since winning the title, it'sbeen matches and feud with Finn Balor and
the judgment day. So is Sethreally gonna just have this basic ass feud
and just lose it? A couplemonths later, it's a Finn Balor and
hotshot that whole storyline of the JudgmentDay and Damian Priest having the briefcase while
Finnballer's the champion, and like,does that already come to fruition? That

(37:14):
just seemed way too fast for me. I think there is so much more
meat look on the bone of DamianPriest than his sort of you know conflict
within the Judgment Day as the moneyin the bank briefcase holder. And I
thought that if they just did thisall of a sudden at SummerSlam, it
just would have been way too rushed, and Seth Rollins is going to have
more than one program as the champion, especially the inaugural champion. So I

(37:37):
don't know, I didn't personally understandwhere all this theme for Finn Balor came
from. I saw this as aneasy Seth Rollins is going to retain and
move on to his next few typething. That's interesting because I was under
the impression that that this was everythingwith the Damian Priests money in the bank,
that was all It's all gonna andthey're planning, they're planning the seeds

(37:57):
for that eventual breakup. Hell whenwhen Dom and Rhea were like the talk
of the town with Judgment Day forthe longest time, it seems like more
or less they've kind of taken aback seat and they're they're just kind of
there for their appearance and they're doingtheir whole Dom subby girlfriend type of deal.
It's like kind of tugging tongue incheek thing that's kind of working.
Meanwhile, Finn and Damien are atthe forefront of it. WW is wanting

(38:21):
Damien to be something big. I'vegone on record, you know, and
I'll always preface by saying this,I'm not a worker, I'm just a
fan. But I just don't Idon't. I just don't care for Seth
Rollins. I don't care for histitle reign. And as I've even tweeted,
and maybe you might have been annoyedwith going and seeing some of the
replies of the fights I've gotten intoon our on our Twitter account, but

(38:42):
let this be a good look.This whole Finn and Seth Rollins personally just
bores the hell out of me.The only thing that's really cool is just
a Judgment Day factor that's coming intoit. Wins Damian priests gonna turn and
Finn. Finn and Seth ron thereare just two small dudes just going at
it, just fighting over something thathappened eight years ago, and it's it
just doesn't It just doesn't do anythingfor me. There's no character with Seth

(39:04):
Rollins. Finn balor Is I think, lost every single match that he's been
in since being a part of JudgmentDay, so he's not necessarily a threat.
Just so they were just leaning heavilyon that Finn was the next guy
before he unfortunately got hurt seven yearsago, and I thought that that's what
they're gonna do. But let everybodyget a good look that. In my

(39:24):
opinion, this is boring. Otherpeople might but this is life without Roman
Reigns. This is when every guyswant Roman Reigns to lose a title and
everyone's complaining that he's held it fortoo long. Go and see what Seth
Rollins. The fighting champion, theinternet guy, the people's champion, the
people that complains about, oh,the good champions number here, we need
a champion. They want the fuckingtitle defended every five minutes or something like

(39:45):
that. Go see how relevant SethRollins is making this title is he in
my opinion, he's not. Dominichas done more with NXT North American title,
winning that and making it a soughtafter title and two or three weeks
since having that way more than Sethis done with this belt, just because
everyone knows that this is the Romansnot here belt. We need somebody,

(40:06):
and just Seth comes across as thathis whole gimmick. I don't get it.
He. I was talking with someonethe other day and this is I
mean to stand on my soapbox forrollins. But he's not the face of
a company. Is not the guythat's it's it's it's his whole exuberant lacey
suits and all that. It's itjust screams attention. You don't see NBA
stars coming in like that. Yousee like a Russell Westbrook coming through.

(40:29):
You see the Russell Westbrook coming throughthe tunnel and something ridiculous, but you
don't see like you don't see likethe Kevin Durant and and Lebron James and
the Kobe Bryant was all business whenthey walked in. It was just always
a six guys and the people thatnever saw the court going there. Look
at me, look at me,I got the dress on, or I
got the lacey hat on. Andthat's what kind of vibes I'm getting from
Seth Rollins. I don't know whatit's, what it's trying to make up

(40:50):
for, but he just does notentertain me at all. I would have
loved and I was hoping that everyoneelse would have saw me, but that
saw the same thing. But lookwhat he's doing with the World Heavyweight Championship,
like this is this is gonna belife without Roman Reigns, and it's
just going to be just coming.It's nonsense challenges against guys that don't look
like from ridable opponents. And Iguess now that since we saw what we're
going on when Shinska Knockmore, Ithink that's a kind of guy the company

(41:13):
feels that we can have him beatSeth, but just only just to lose
it, to just to lose itto Damian Priests, just so Seth isn't
losing to Damian Priest when he takesthe title. Yeah, I definitely think
that Seth Rollins. I'm sorry.I thought that Seth was definitely gonna get
past this program with Finn, butnow that he's onto the next thing,
he's definitely in danger of losing thetitle to whoever might beat shensk Damien,

(41:37):
whatever their plan is, So fromnow on, I think it's gonna be
a little more unpredictable of what happenswith this seth Rollins title reign, which,
like you said, has been abit underwhelming. But I think they
sure he's been there, he's been, he's been showing up and all the
he's been they promote the hell outof him. I know Roman doesn't promote
every single show. I mean,you look at Roman Reigns on ESPN like

(41:59):
last week, and he's all aboutbusiness. He's got the suit, everything
just nicely, everything just nicely laidback, and you look at someone like
that like, yeah, that's theguy leading the company. Like, I
don't think that they're gonna put setthat. I mean, even if they
do put seth out there on likeESPN. As a casual viewer, I'm
turning that on and I'm seeing RomanReigns appearance and going, damn, I
think I want to watch it thisSunday. As opposer, I'm turning in.

(42:21):
Let's just say they had seth Rawlinsup there with the stupid laugh and
stupid goggles and he has that juststupid ugly looking title sitting on with Stephen
A. Smith, and I'm going, I'm going this as a joke,
but I just don't get that withRoman, and that's just not Yeah,
by all means, that's me glazingRoman reigns. But for all be it
all of a factor just because itlooks apart, plays apart, and acts
apart. And that's just something thatseth Rawlins isn't doing. That's just something

(42:44):
that like in my Wrestlers, Imean, honestly, the only Galley on
rawl that could get over, likeget the World Championship over right now,
it's probably Cody Rhodes. And Ican't put it on Cody Rhodes because you
want to do Cody versus Roman atWrestleMania most likely. So now you're kind
in no man's land with that title. But if Cody had it, it
would mean something because Cody has thatsort of alert to him right now,

(43:06):
then well what if you did this, Billy. I know we talked about
the American Nightmare documentary. One ofthe things that they tag on there from
the beginning is showing that Dusty Rhodesbasically had the WWE title one and Madison
square guard wherever they had and itwas off the count out, and there
is that image of him hitting theturnbuckle and holding him up hold enough the
title. Even though it didn't win. He was WW champion or whatnot for

(43:29):
five or ten seconds or whatnot.And that's you can history repeat itself,
where set or Cody finally wins thatand then gets cashed in on fight.
Cody finally has a WW five secondsand then like, oh my god,
like the bad luck strikes twice withthese roads and here comes Judge what judgment
days all back on the same page. It beat the hell out of Cody
and take that who necessarily knows Iknow that, I know that counter predicts

(43:52):
what I said about Shinsky. Butyou know, if if you know that
we could get we can go thatroute too. You know, my dad
had it for ten seconds. Icouldn't get the w W championship. So
I'm coming after this one. Ifinally win it, but no, only
for five seconds. I get fuckedagain. Yeah, I mean to go
back to the World Heavyweight Championship toget it over as like a meaningful thing.

(44:12):
Think back to like the last timethe World Heavyweight Championship, see seemed
meaningful. It's like back when likeJohn Cena was the w E Champion and
Batista was the World Heavyweight Champion,they felt like equals, right, It
felt like both guys were superstars,Whereas now it's like romans up here and
then Seth and Shensky and Damien andthe guys in the mix. So it's

(44:37):
just you know, like I said, Cody Rhodes is probably the only guy
that would that would actually get thattitle to feel like it means something and
get it over in a big way. But you almost can't go that route
because of your impending plans for himand the other championships. So I don't
know. It's kind of kind ofin an odd spot right now. But
nonetheless, Seth Roland's still your WorldHeavyweight Champion for the for the meantime.

(45:00):
Next match, Bianca Belair defeats Oscarand Charlotte, which I thought was pretty
shocking. I thought that Oscar wouldwould keep rolling her title reign here,
but then we get the twist ofEo Sky cashing in, So Eo Sky
is your new women's champion. Honestly, THEA it makes sense to me because
the Oscar title reign, while shehas a different character and it's something a

(45:23):
little bit you know, different fromher from the past Oscar title reigns.
She like the women's roster is sothin at the top. She has had
matches with all the girls that wouldpossibly go after her, the Charlotte's the
Bianca is like we've already seen it. So it's stale. Even though she
is a different character, these matchesare still stale. So how do you

(45:44):
how do you change that? Youbring somebody else up to the top of
the card. That's that's been puttingin the time, putting in the work.
That's EO Sky, the money inthe bank winner, obviously. So
now you get a new, anew face atop the card in the women's
division. You can create new freshmatchups with that. Uh And while EO
Sky, you know, I'm notlike the biggest fan because it's hard to
get like if you're if you havea language barrier, it's hard to really

(46:07):
get over as a character. Oscarhas done a great job of it because
she has all the like the theglitz and the glamour and like the the
you know, the other stuff thattakes away from her talking, it's just
more of like a majestic type thingwith her EO. Sky has to find
her niche as a as a character, but as an entering worker and like
a believable, a believable, youknow, a champion. I think that

(46:30):
she can be that, but shegot a little work to do on the
character side. But I'm excited tosee what she can do with this title.
I think it's a good spot forher, and I think it was
good timing. Yeah. Absolutely,I think she's an indie darling obviously.
People. I mean I had noclue who she was, but you know,
when when we were there at SummerSlam last year and she debuted with
the other chick, Dakota Kai,I think I think I knew just because

(46:52):
I saw them their names in NXT, but like they already have that fan
base of marks and stuff that knowthem. It was a I'll just go
to the match. The matches Ijust thought kind of sloppy a little bit.
I thought I'd expect a little bitbetter, But the finish turned out
to be amazing, and I thoughtBianca for the first part did a good
job of selling her knee. Ithink it was like her left knee that

(47:13):
she came down on, and thenwhen she came back she made a big
mistake and was selling the opposite knee. My guy, Daniel Hill text me
and said, did you see that? If I was a writer, that's
that's a big no. No.Like she's getting shooed out when she comes
back, which I completely understand.That kind of goes into the sloppiness of
it. But everything with the Shenanigansthat ended it, all the drama that
ended it, from the figure eightto Osca coming in and the mist and

(47:35):
then missing with the kick and thengetting rolled up, that's us. That's
a great job. I like.I like that kind of money in the
bank cashing just because you already hadthe story of Bianca getting injured earlier in
the match. It wasn't your cliche. You won, and then you got
your ass kicked afterwards, and thenyou're just sitting there left. Oh no,
of course someone's gonna come cashing it. It's almost like there was a
second almost forgot about the woman's moneyin the bank, and then I'm like,

(47:57):
oh my gosh, here comes eeosky. That's perfect. And I
thought that was really good. Inwhatever they want to do character building.
They at least have everything in damagecontrol. I know Dakota kais out,
but you they've obviously been teasing thetension between Bailey and EO Sky for the
last last month or so, sowhenever she's going to defend the title,
she already has a couple of monthsof feud set up between her group,

(48:20):
because obviously that's not gonna last,right and in the me in the meantime
until that does implode, Bailey cankind of act as her mouthpiece. Yeah,
you know, like that's perfect.Yeah, yeah, it works out
and then eventually point yep, sogood stuff there, good stuff. I
like that EO Sky knew WWE Women'sChampion onto the main events. Roman Reigns

(48:40):
defeats jay Usso to retain the WWEChampionship in a tribal combat match. Also,
I know you weren't like a hugefan of the stimulation that didn't really
play on the tribal aspect that much, right, Yeah, absolutely I was.
And I guess that's other people.Even I've been on the internet,

(49:01):
I've seen seeing Brian Alvarez and otherpeople saying there's a lot of people that
just thought a lot of people fromthe Hanawaii family would be here. Uh
yeah, a dull. That's becauseliterally see everything that all the packages that
we're doing is I mean, ifyou want to go back to just three
weeks ago whenever they made the tribalcombat like Roman range is coming out serious,

(49:23):
I can't believe you just sign amatch like that without even looking at
it, and he goes, Jaythis this is tribal combat oos and then
Roman everything that he does with facialsand everything like that supposed to mean something,
he just goes desolate, like didyou just say tribal combat And it's
like he's he was obviously disheveled ofsome sort. He did not want to
hear that, And that just makesyou play into like fuck. Even though

(49:45):
these guys, these big mob leaders, when he's when they had to answer
to somebody, when like they're they'rebig, Don is going to calm down,
and you know, like his dador whether it's fucking be Rock or
Rakishi or Off or a Seeker,anyone that's gonna come down and try to
put you in I can say thatyou've gotten power hunger. Those guys usually
get like oh shit, So Idon't know, maybe I'm shouldn't have expected

(50:06):
anything, because they really even justcame out and said like anything goes and
never played into it. I thoughtthat this would be a great time to
play into that. I just thoughtthis would be a great time for I
don't know, you don't have tohave the whole family out there, but
just like someone around the ring justto like keep order and everything that's done
with you know, their tribe andthe Samoans. Everything just kind of done

(50:27):
out of like respect and honor,and so it would have been fun to
see someone try to jump in andone of the elders stop them and say
no, this is between them oror or something. It was just a
glorified disqualification match. There was nolike special entrances. There was no They
talked about the ulufala, the neck, the ceremonial neckwear that Roman reigns wears,

(50:47):
and they did a good job ofexplaining that in a couple of minutes.
But they had all the elders andancient ancestors on their talking. It
would have been nice to see themescort them down to the ring or do
the presentation around the neck. Imean, I never thought that jay Usso
had a chance. I feel likethe timing of this match was kind of
sort of weird and rusty, eventhough I felt like the whole bloodline story

(51:08):
was going to circle around a bigmatch that's gonna involve Jay and Roman and
this was it. But it didn'tnecessarily it didn't necessarily feel nothing felt in
danger, just because there is justso much fast time to put there was.
There should have been more promotion ledup to this, like Roman Reins
could possibly lose this, and Ifelt like that could have been pushed in
by other family members coming out andtalking about the severity and what it means

(51:30):
to be tribal chief and what itmeans to be this and what it means
to be that, and you reallycould have had but it was just this
is the first time I felt likein a while, it was a hard
hitting match, the first time Ifelt in a while like, we know
Jay's losing, but where's the dramagonna unfold? And I thought that this
was a perfect time for other history, other family members that come out,
and yes, I thought the Rockwas gonna show up. I thought that

(51:52):
this was the spot. It wasthe spot, and my damn, and
I guess it. We're not goingto get it. But anybody, I
mean, they're they're doing anybody.Just send anybody out there from the family
and just make just make it.Say what felt tribal about that match?
Billy? I don't think that there'sanything that There's just two Samoans in there
and that's that. Then, yeah, tribal about that. I mean it

(52:14):
felt like remember when they were gonnahave the what was that segment before WrestleMania,
when like the whole Sammy Zane thingwas going down there. Yeah,
yeah, something like that, andthat was like promoted and then all of
a sudden it just went like radiosilent and it was nothing. So I'm
I always look at Wikipedia for referenceof like the matches and the times and

(52:35):
all that, and it literally sayson here stipulations tribal combat for the undisputed
w E University Championship and recognition ofthe tribal chief of the n Oie family.
Like that's what it was billed as, and we didn't have. It
was literally just Roman reigns vers juSo in a no DQ match. And
I also thought that a stippy maybeI was just seeing stuff or like hearing

(52:58):
stuff that wasn't true. Maybe adirt sheet set it, and I believed
it. Shame on me if that'sthe case, But I thought that a
stipulation in this match was that membersof the family can't get involved in the
match, and Jimmy Russo and Jimmyus I thought that was a stipulation,
Like I'm pretty sure that was seton TV before. And Jimmy USO is

(53:19):
literally the one that costs Jay thematch obviously. So it's almost like they
made this stipulation with zero plan andthey're like, oh fuck that, we
won't mention it again. Hopefully peoplewill just forget. We'll just make it
an extreme rules match between these twoand Jimmy, you're gonna You're gonna cost
Jay the match, and that setsup, you know whatever down the line.
They gotta stop doing this. Theygotta stop booking themselves into a corner.

(53:43):
If you don't have a plan,don't set stipulations and like rules and
stuff for you know, things thatyou have planned that don't actually come to
fruition. Like it's unreal. Yeah, that's twice now with this storyline that
they have promoted something as some sortof tribal ceremony that never happened, So
I understand the frustration with fans oflike, why do we keep like going

(54:06):
down this road? And look,I'm never going to believe that the Rock
is coming back until I actually hearIf you samel like hit and he walks
out, I'm never gonna believe it. I'm never gonna talk myself into it.
But if you're gonna keep like teasingthese these family tribal type ceremonies and
recognitions, and like, what arewe supposed to believe as fans Because obviously

(54:29):
in the back of everybody's head,it's like the money match that they used
to live out there is Roman versusRock, Yeah, and it just doesn't
seem like it's close to happening,right, I mean, it's every time
they get kind of close, it'sI don't I don't know if it's just
like Rock pulling himself last second orjust who's being the douchebag here, But
it just seems like every opportunity theyhad to grasp at that and maybe this

(54:51):
is the reaction they want out ofjust a couple of Mark fans is like
when are we getting this? What? Maybe this is exactly what we're doing
and we're falling into their hands.But I think with everything, at don't
have to be the rock. ButRakishi is still there. I mean,
I mean the Offa and SKA theycould still I mean they probably can't tell
you brought him in for the performancecenter when you just had them stand up
there during COVID and had them acknowledgeRoman Rains. I feel like you could

(55:15):
have had just a bunch of peoplethat you know, probably aren't even in
the WWE yet. This is justother people of the family, like surround
the ring or then I don't know, just kind of watch it. And
that's where I thought. That's whereI thought it would have been a cool
finish if just Roman Rain just beatJay senseless with no help whatsoever. And
that time where the shock or whereJimmy tries to come in and tries to
interfere, then that's when his dadRakishi's holding them back. No, son,

(55:37):
this is between them. And thattime Solo tries to sneak in and
Rikichi's holding both of his sons.No, you guys have to stay back.
This is between them, And thenthat's what that's the next part of
the storyline that I thought, ifyou're not going to do any new Blood
and Bloodline members. I don't knowwhich ones are in development that could come
up or whatnot, unless you wantto go a female and dude Naya Jacks,

(55:57):
or if something happens in Trinity comesback and you could do the whole
female thing. But I felt likethe next level of this Store and Bloodline
story was playing off the elders andthe and the ancestors and fucking the heat.
If Roman Reigins could have just bybeating the hell out of Rakishi that
he could get from the usos andeven doing it in front of Solo,
Solo doesn't show any emotion whatsoever.But if Roman Reigins were to just sit

(56:21):
there and make him watch, orhe beats up his dad or something,
that could totally plant and then hejust makes Roman look more like a dickhead.
And I don't necessarily know. It'sjust I'm watching it back and had
a couple of days asleep on it. It was it was both both men
work their ass off. I justwould have liked more of a tribal setting.
And let's let's talk about the turn. What do you think about the

(56:42):
whole Jimmy USO turn. I knowit wasn't in the truck. Like we're
complaining about the whole tribal combat whenit but when it comes down to the
meat and potatoes, Juso comes back. We don't know what sort of control
he's underwear. It's Roman Rains control, Paul Hayman's control, but he's it
looks like Ball means Zuso's are splitup. Now what do you think of
that? Yeah? I mean I'mtrying to think what the ultimate end goal

(57:04):
is with the bloodline storyline, right, because if you want to go we
mentioned it multiple times, if youwant to go Roman versus Cody two at
Brustlemania next year, I think yougotta tie up all the loose ends of
this Bloodline storyline before you go tothat, because now you have Jimmy and
Jay there. I don't know,man, Like, are we leading to
a fatal four way with Roman,Jimmy, Jay, and Solo. I
could totally, I could totally seethat happening. This could be a way

(57:28):
of them trying to make just thistribal chief thing. This title just mean
as much as the title, andI respect him for doing that, but
maybe it's going to turn out intoOf course, Jay's supposed to show up
at SmackDown, and I've seen alot of speculation. Is he gonna go
back or he's gonna acknowledge Rooman reignsagain, and people are saying no,
he's just gonna say no, Ididn't do it for you, or I
didn't do it. I'll do itfor the Rock. I don't know if

(57:50):
he did it for the Rock,but he's obviously there's They're probably gonna play
off that jealousy thing, and they'resetting the seeds for Solo. He's looking
at Roman a little sideways. Maybethey're all trying to buy for this head
of the table thing. And Iguess the ultimate story that they're gonna do
with Cody Rhodes and they decide togo that route, is Roman's gonna walk
into Mania forty at Philly with absolutelynobody from what we had last year,

(58:14):
just for the last couple of yearswith the usso Sammy Zane or even just
just Solo. He's gonna walk inthere with absolutely nothing. And that's that's
Roman reigns his whole story from everythingto absolutely nothing. So maybe that can
in the time of as you mentioned, fill in some time between. Then
they just go all out with everyone'sbuying for this and everyone's done and Roman

(58:35):
Reigns is still holding on to everythinghe can with just freaking duct tape by
the time he gets to Mania andthat's where it all collapses. So yeah,
or like how you texted me theother day is this? I mean
Cody? Is that Cody? Butlike, where does solo factor in?
Are you think they do a Romanversus Solo at WrestleMania. I think that's
definitely probably Plan B. Yeah,but the thing with Cody is for him

(59:00):
to finish the story quote whatever,which he needs to at some point,
Like that's his whole thing. Likehe came back to WWE because he wants
to be the WWE champion, thething that his dad never accomplished. Yeah,
that's what he always wanted to do, so that he could hand his
dad the title, say here yougo. Nobody can take this from you.
That's what his character is. That'swhy he has the sympathy from the

(59:23):
fans. That's why he's such abig baby face because people are compelled by
that story. So you can't justlike pay that off with him winning the
World Heavyweight Championship, the secondary title. It has to be the main one.
Yeah, and how much longer canyou wait? And it has to
be on a big stage like aWrestleMania. I don't think you can do

(59:43):
it anywhere besides WrestleMania, so thatit's a moment that lives forever. So
I think if it's gonna happen,it has to happen at WrestleMania forty.
So what do we have between nowand then? Like six seven, eight
months? Yeah? So two majorpay per view still got the Rumble and
Survivor Series half a year? Yeah, happy year, right, and now
all of a sudden, Roman andSolo are still cool, but has been

(01:00:07):
like little things here and there,you know, like you're saying, Solo
looking unweird stuff like that. Jimmy, I guess is now on Roman side
again and Jays the Outsider. Ithink we're gonna have a one on one
feud between those two. Obviously inRoman, I don't know what he's gonna
get involved in. Probably aside fromthis, Friday is probably going to be
an extended break problem still Survivor Series, and maybe that's where we play into

(01:00:30):
this. Maybe that's where everything comesback to full circle and you have whatever's
left of the Bloodline against fucking Codyand Sammy and Ko and maybe that's how
you revisit this in the field,or it's just all out I know they
talked about the Bloodline civil War.It's just an all out every man for
themselves for the head of the tableat Survivor series. Who knows. Yeah,
I mean, like what that's mypoint is like, this storyline has

(01:00:52):
been going on for how many years? Now? What do you want it
to be remembered as? What?What do you want the end goal to
be of all this? Like therehas to be a payoff to what we've
been doing this whole time. Andis that just simply Roman defends against all
three of the other guys and hewins, and it's like, okay,
Bloodline's over now Roman is on hisown as the champion, and here comes

(01:01:15):
Cody Rhodes. I guess you coulddo that. That just seems a little
underwhelming to me, But I don'tknow. I don't know any other options
at this point. It's something whenyou talk about having a plan I think
of and I've even said this,I think the Bloodline story I'm still all
in it. I think it's thebest thing that ww's ever put on just

(01:01:36):
because I think that they do.I think they do have an end plan,
whether that's with the whole bloodline thingin the head of the table,
I don't. I think the Romanreigns bloodline is the story is different from
him carrying the belt story, whereI feel like you can you can lose
everything in the bloodline or whatnot,and you can lose your whole family whatever.
I still have the titles, soyou can, because it turns out

(01:01:58):
at that at the end of theday, Roman doesn't give the fucking He
just wants. He just wants.He just wants a title rein. So
I don't necessarily know if it justseems even dirt sheets me falling forward and
everything, it seems like this wasliterally written three years ago with the endgame
of We're gonna eventually have you versusthe Rock, and I just think that

(01:02:20):
they're just doing a lot of fillerin between them until they get to that,
and I thought that they've been doinga good job normally of doing that.
I was just kind of the otherday, I was just kind of
just with everything with Jimmy was theone that turned on Romans. So it's
it's just gonna see I just wantto see how they explain this. I
just I just want to see what'sa good deal they explain it. Other
people are picking out memes. Youcould see Roman Reigns like kind of look

(01:02:42):
confused when he sees Jimmy. Butwhen the background of when Jimmy's about to
kick Jay, you see Paul Haymanwith this like menacing look on his face.
This Paul Hayman knows something that RomanReigns doesn't. Could they be possibly
playing the strings of Paul Hayman's thebad guy that the one pulling the strings
in the back. Paul Hayman's alwaysthe one on the phone where they showing
like backstage segments where he's like smilingat someone that does like the call on

(01:03:04):
the phone. And what if PaulHayman was the one to bring in Solo
Sokoa just at the Clash of Championsbecause the USO's couldn't go there, so
they can always play There's just somany layers. I do think the endgame
is eventually for Roman this. Ithink this whole character thing was all an
endgame to eventually face the Rock.I just think that they're just doing that

(01:03:25):
they I just I think that theyknow that they don't have rock right now.
I think they know that they theycan, and I think they know
what's gonna happen. But there thisis doing them doing their best to try
to fill everything in between, andnormally they have been doing a good job.
I was just I was just concernedwith the with the Jimmy turn.
After watching it again, I thoughtit was a good drama spot. I
thought it was it's it's it's somegood meat on the bones. Usos do

(01:03:47):
want to face each other. Idon't know if you've been seeing any of
the interviews that came out, butthat's one dream match that they've always wanted
to have, and uh, we'llsee where that leads them. I just
want to see I'm maybe I'm justlike I said, maybe I'm getting the
reaction that exactly that they wanted.I am definitely ready to tune into Friday
and just see why Jimmy why Ijust as you were talking there, I

(01:04:09):
was, I was, you know, trying to fantasy book how they can
accomplish all this. We don't likefantasy booking over here, But just just
hear me out right here, allright? If you want to check off
every box. Cody Rhodes gets hisbig moment at Rustlemania, and that's not
the end goal of the Bloodline storyline. The end goal is Roman versus Rock.
Right, here's how you do it. Cody versus Roman two at Rustlemania

(01:04:33):
forty one of the Bloodline members isstill somewhat cool with the Rock like Solo,
right, and he gets involved likehe did at Rustlemania last year,
and it looks like, oh,here we go again. The Bloodline is
gonna win like they always do.They always find a way. That's when
the Rock comes out, takes out. Solo provides the distraction for Cody Rhodes

(01:04:56):
to beat Roman for the championship.Cody Rhodes gets his big moment, Rock
acknowledges him, holds his arm upsin the show, and then we get
the Rock versus Roman year long buildlike they did with Rock versus Sina for
Rustlemania twenty eight. At WrestleMania fortyone, you do the year long build
for that to make it the ultimatemarquee sought after match. What do you

(01:05:19):
think about that? Because that's exactlyhow the Rock Versina thing went down,
Right, I could get with thatright, yeah, I mean just half
for the next year. These guyscould carry it. They're both actors.
For the next year. You canjust have Roman get pissed off at everyone
who called in Dwayne, who madethe call, who's this, who's this?
Why did you do it? Youcan have him try to uncover who's
trying to take him the fuck out, and then that's where that's where he

(01:05:41):
eventually runs off his family members whocannot trust anymore, blah blah blah,
and then that's when he starts tobring in fucking Rakishi and that's when they
start to bring in other people,and that's when he goes, you know,
screw Maga, he's dead. Idon't want to hear him. And
then that's that's whenever that's then that'swhen all the boss the main bosses,
the tribal bosses come down and say, all right, brother, you've had
too much. What did we whatdid we do? Why did we what?

(01:06:04):
What mons? Or did we justcreate by crowning you? And then
that's that's just Roman just fucking spiralsout. I like it. It's there
is a year long but I don'twant this to happen, and that matches
happened at Summer Slam. It's gotits media. It has to be the
main event of rustle media. HasI think I still do you think that
that is the final plan? Doyou think? I mean, I know
you're on the boat of until Isee fucking Dwayne's ass in the ring.

(01:06:26):
It's do you think in the backof your mind that's still the plan?
Are you just hopeless with that?Well, here's the thing. I think
they want it to be the plan, but it takes two to tango,
right. The Rock has to agreewith the terms of what's gonna go down,
And so do I think it's gonnahappen? No, because again I

(01:06:47):
won't believe it until I see it. But if you do want to go
that route, obviously you do.It's I think that's the way that you
do it because that doesn't need rockers. Roman does not need a title.
It doesn't not And if you takethe title off Roman by having Cody win
with the Rock interfering, that stillkeeps Roman strong because he lost by interference

(01:07:08):
to the Rock, Right, butyou still put Cody over in a big
way because the Rock acknowledges him.Raise his hand. Congrats, have your
moment boy, and then you havea huge title reign after Russellmandy of forty
whereas you know, Roman, whoalready takes extended absence this year and there,
can continue to do that without thetitle, and they can continue to
build this Rock versus Roman thing evenif it's not on screen with those two.

(01:07:30):
Like when they had Cniverse Rock fora year long build, Rock only
showed up here and there throughout thatwhole year, leading prerecorded segments at his
house. That's what I'm saying.So I think that's I think that's the
way to do it, and thatwould that would be a satisfying ending to
the bloodline storyline. You would giveCody Rhodes his big moments. Everybody's happy.

(01:07:51):
You got two big time man eventsfor the next two years of Russellmandy
at that point. Absolutely, Ilike it. I'm ready for it.
I just thought that I thought thatthis, I thought that this was the
spot for that. But you know, and I also thought that you could
tie in too. I guess ifyou want to go hardcore Mark, you
can tie in with the Rock andRoman reigns. The Philly thing where Roman

(01:08:11):
reigns one and originally got his bigpush and that's where he came out and
The Rock, even the Rock,you know over I thought that maybe you
can have played that kind of underliningfactor, but I don't think it's I
don't think it's really that deep.But you could have went that deep if
you wanted it. And I don'tknow if if you saw The Rock and
I sent it to you actually soI know you saw it, Yes,
Yes, Kevin Hart little and theywere like tease. It was kind of
like a weird like I don't know, kind of like obscure, like not

(01:08:34):
really saying much, but saying awhole lot at the same time. Yeah,
absolutely insinuating that he could get involvedin Philly. So yeah, I
mean have him return and cass Roomin the title and then boom. The
Rock needs more positive pr right nowthan ever. I mean, let's not
the Rocks not struggling financially or notstruggling. But if there's one thing that

(01:08:56):
we've all know, it's just wrestler'segos can be inflated. Now when you
get to the level of Dwayne theRock Johnson just times that by a million.
He hasn't been looking good in thespotlight with him, him and Henry
cavill and the whole everything that's goingon with DC and Black Adam flopping.
The XFL is absolutely flopped. Itwould behoove him to have some sort of

(01:09:16):
to get his name back in thegood And I don't I don't know if
maybe that's just him being stubborn andI don't need you guys. I don't
need you guys. But hopefully Ithink even ww's waiting to play it out.
I'm like, all right, well, we know you're gonna come crawling
back at some point. We knowwe're we're you're gonna need because ww's it's
profit numbers within this last quarter.I know that maybe that's been what all
of us e drones have been talkingabout on on Twitter over the last week,

(01:09:40):
is the Tony Kahn's the record breakingmoney that they've made. It's gonna
be hard for a guy like theRock to see that kind of platform and
deny it. So maybe that's justboth sides are just playing poker right now.
And like you said, I don'tthink it's they wanted to happen,
will it. It's it's it's apersonal thing, it's a family thing,
it's a tribal it's it's it's personal, and that's what wrestling is, not

(01:10:00):
just you bumping into some asshole inthe back. I don't like you.
Let's go out here and fight,and then they go out there and fight
with no reason for twenty five minutes. Marks love that. I don't care
for it. I want personal shitlike it. That's I wanted the personal
ship. When we had the Savannahand Logan Paul thing, go hit on,
go fuck hit on, Go goyour douchebag Logan. Everyone knows it.
Go try to get like Samantha,to commit adultery, or try to

(01:10:21):
get hurt a cheat or something,or just go rizz on her and be
the bad guy. Make it fuckingpersonal. Just don't go and just this
guy wants a viral moment, I'llgive you a viral moment. Let's see
you at summer. That's fucking stupid. I want heat in my matches and
it's gonna be pretty hard. Everythingwith Roman Reigins is just natural heat.
Everything was put together naturally, Likeyou have five or six Samoans in the

(01:10:44):
company that are all related to eachother. Why wasn't this thing done years
ago? So it's it's just mypoint and whenever that's up, ww is
gonna have They're gonna need to doa good job on trying on trying to
build other things in that because abloodline when this program is gonna suffer whenever
that's done in Roman rains is offTV. And I think they're trying to
get ahead of get ahead of thebottle, and they're trying to catch lightning

(01:11:05):
in a bottle twice with the JudgmentDay, and I think that's what they're
trying to do with the Street prophetsand Bobby Lashly. But this, make
no doubt of it. This theprogram will suffer once you don't see Roman
reigns in the bloodline on TV anymore. Well, there you have it.
That is SummerSlam twenty twenty three.Some good stuff to look forward to in

(01:11:25):
WWWE for the coming months as wehead towards the end of the year and
then Austin once we get to theend of the year, that's when WrestleMania
season kicks right back in, rightinto it. So it's great to hear
your boys. By the way,Billy I mentioned in our last episode,
Billy's been doing some things for locallymore high school here, so it's great

(01:11:45):
Billy as as you all know,a star quarterback in high school himself,
finally getting back into the game andletting his influence rub off on a bunch
of other other kids that are justtrying to make their way in the game.
And there's probably nobody better at tryingto teach a sport of football that
guy Billy right here. So youknow it's we may not hear a lot
of of of him recently because there'sgonna be a time where we bring in

(01:12:05):
somebody and Billy's just going to beat practice telling people to do push ups.
So I'm gonna be holding it downsometimes over here and gotten Billy's blessing.
So that's all, sir, absolutely, and thanks for putting me over.
Absolutely. Yeah, if you gotif anybody out there in the local
Wolsville area, you know, wantto come check out some football at any
point, I'm coaching over at MoreHigh School. We got a good thing

(01:12:27):
going over there. So if you'reever out, you know, Friday night,
looking for some Friday night football,check out the More schedule and come
on out to a game. Weactually this Friday, We're taking on John
Harden and our first like real scrimmageof the year, so preseason action.
Basically, how good does it feelto say that we got oh man,
it's great. We had a Wehad a scrimmage last week. It was
kind of like a mock thing wherethere was like five teams there and we

(01:12:49):
just did like passing or something.It was like ten plays offense, ten
plays defense, then we went ontothe next team. So it wasn't like
a true game type feel, butit was good to like get a look
against all their teams and see wherewe're at. And I liked what I
saw for the most part. Soyou know, we can make some nois
this year, and if you wantto come check us out, that'd be
great. That's exciting, very excitingas well as wrestling. So just keep

(01:13:11):
it locked right here on the babyFace Podcast. We will talk to you
guys next time.