WWE WrestleMania XL Reaction - 04/09/24

Vaughn Johnson, Nick Piccone, Mark Henry Jr., and Jason Fanelli discuss their #WrestleMania weekend experiences and thoughts on Philly's spotlight from this past week and weekend as WWE and professional wrestling promotions from around the country took over the city.

Episode Transcript

(00:13):
What's up, ladies and gentlemen outthere on the Internet land, and welcome
to episode three ninety two of theStraight Shooters, available wherever podcasts are found.
My name is Vaughan Johnson, andI'm joining as always by my main
man Pots and Pans, Nick Pocona, Fox pch Other Gambler, and Philly
influencer, and we have special guestsin the building. First up, we
got from Fox pH other gambler,Mark Henry Jr. No relation to the

(00:37):
World Strongest Man obviously, and alsofrom Cheese Steaks and Controllers and various video
game publications around the country, maybethe world. Maybe one day we got
big man Jason Finelli. How areyou gentlemen doing on this Tuesday evening?
Nick, I'll start with you.Yeah, that's a good word for it,

(01:00):
say Nick, Okay, Yeah,and I couldn't. I didn't know
if you said Nick or Mark.But yeah, you know, like,
I'm all right, I'm not normalyet. I'll tell you. Being out
two days in a row after likefive years of not going down and doing
anything except like maybe like one Flyersgame once in a while, Yeah,
it took a lot out of me. I was I was kind of feeling

(01:23):
it Sunday night. Yeah, butuh, you know, I you know,
I was able to rest up usethat Monday to kind of gathered myself,
and so we're here on Tuesday nightrecording this this week and uh,
you know, excited to get atit. Yeah, of course we're talking
about our little like hang post WrestleManiahangover because we all were part of the

(01:45):
festivities this past weekend at WrestleMania fortyand some capacity. So yeah, it's
Tuesday. I'm still kind of unpacking. I still haven't gotten all my photos
together for my little recap post orindeed out the notebook, as the old
time reporters say. I haven't hada chance to do that. You had
to work yesterday and today I justkind of like unplug from everything, you
know, still a little bit ofwork. But but yeah, Mark,

(02:07):
how about you? How how areyou feeling that to this whole weekend?
Yeah, my voice was shot yesterday. I like I didn't edit my NFL
Draft podcast earlier, and my voiceI feel like I like talked myself into
my voice being normal. Like Istarted off the pod like sounding horrible and
ended up sounding somewhat like myself.So I'm getting back there. But by

(02:29):
now, I mean, man,I was a kid for two days yelling
my head off and screaming my headoff, and so it makes sense that
my voice was gone. I mean, yeah, I had an absolute blast.
And you know, I'll take aten day hangover for how much fun
I had. And not just thosetwo days, but the whole weekend.
Yeah, and how about we haveone of the most impactful and probably one

(02:52):
of the best WrestleManias of all timeright now backyard? How about that?
Man, what a great time itwas. But let me spind it over
to the try chef after this weekend. The tribal chef travel chef Jason Vonelli,
who was out there throwing down onthe grill on Sunday before to night
too, whipping together cheese steaks,had a whole gang of people around them.

(03:15):
Londa to get cheese steaks, Jason, Yeah, we still got you
got any cheese stakes and rolls leftover at that after all of that.
Hell no, why do you thinkthe people were all gathered around? They
wanted they wanted some food. Butyeah, there was like fifteen people there.
I think I knew seven of them. We were just starting to yell
to people because we had extra food. It was like five o'clock. We're
getting ready to go in and uh, anybody who wonted one could have one.

(03:37):
Everything went, which was good.We got there, got we only
went to Night two. Night onewe did not go to. We got
the got to the parking lot aboutone thirty. I'd say, did the
burgers and the sausage and peppers first, let the let the grill cool for
a little bit, and then didthe cheese steaks at like four o'clock.

(03:58):
Very successful. First time I've everdone something like that. Wasn't sure it
was gonna completely work. Had acouple of things, a couple of hurdles
I had to jump over, Liketo get it down there, I had
to take the lid off the blackstoneand put it separate. But once we
got down there, man, itwas awesome. And then going inside and
seeing the stage and feeling like itwas nice. As as as Nick said

(04:24):
and as as Mark said too,it was nice to feel like the center
of the w w E universe fora couple of hours. It was awesome.
Like our seats were just off thestage too, so we could see
like some backstage stuff happened, andwe saw the chorus and the and the
and the violins line up for Roman'sentrance. We saw the mummers lining up

(04:46):
to get ready to go out there, so like, oh, someone's getting
oldered. That was cool. Sawthe bagpipers too, so it was just
weird to see behind the curtain there. We were a little worried because the
Pyro was just to our left andI remember umber twenty four what happened there,
So I wasn't trying to go tothe hospital. Let's trying to go
home. But luckily that did nothappen. Did you guys have light issues

(05:09):
with lights in your face? SoI only had it for the aj styles
La night match on the second night, didn't have it for anything else.
We chanted turn the light off andthey did pretty pretty quickly. But I
had a cousin who brought his kids, you know, sat really close and
they said that they had a brightlight right in their face for both nights,

(05:30):
the entire night. Yeah, mydad complained a couple of times at
night too. It wasn't horrible,but it was. It was definitely a
thing. But glad to hear everybodyhad a great weekend, had glad to
hear that we you know, wewere still recovering from such a you know,
I don't know, like a highalmost for lack of a vetter time

(05:51):
of what was this past weekend,and apparently it was very impactful as well,
as ww announced that they sold overtwo hundred thousand tickets this weekend,
and of course they made millions oftop of millions at like WWE World and
for all the other events they puton this week. Let's just talk about

(06:15):
just the the event overall, justWrestleMania, just real quick, and we
can get into the other things thathappen outside of it in a little bit.
But uh, Jason, I'll startwith you, just what are you
going to be your overall takeaways fromthis WrestleMania from a show standpoint and maybe
from this an impact standpoint, becausethere people talking about this is one of
the best WrestleManias of all time andthat ending, i'd say is up there

(06:39):
too as one of the most storybookand comactic endings that's ever we've ever witnessed.
So I'll go to you first,Jason, what is you what are
you trying to take away from allof this? After Saturday and Sunday.
So I agree with everything that yousaid. It was one of the best,
I mean, one of the bestwrestling shows I've ever been through,
but one of the best WrestleMania isjust objectively that I've ever watched, and

(07:00):
I've watched them all. I dothink, though, that there is a
level of this show's impact that willnot be felt for a couple of years.
And what I mean by that isthis is the first show in the
Triple H era, the first WrestleManiain the Triple H era, and as

(07:23):
we continue to see that evolve andbecome whatever he wants it to be or
whatever TKO wants it to be,people will always now go back and say
forty is where it started, andyou know, forty, whether that's their
blueprint, whether they want to callit like the the the pinnacle of I

(07:44):
hope it's not the pinnacle, butlike if that's if this is the gold
standard of a Triple H WrestleMania,I cannot wait to see what that boy
has in store in future years.So I think as much fun as we
had, I think the historical impactwill continue to prove its elf as the
years go on. Man, that'sdeep and I kind of feel you on

(08:05):
that, man. It's the scenewas very reminiscent to WrestleMania tent where there,
you know, bred Hart is gettinghoisted up on the baby Faces shoulders
and missing man is yelling over themicrophone that is the dawn of a new
era. It's a new generation.Well, they spent two days saying this
is a new era, and theynamed it a couple of times, Paula
Veck era and it's a new youknow. And here's Cody Rhoades playing the

(08:28):
role with Bret Hart leading WW intothis new era, this new generation.
Uh. And yet I think thatwas all intentional and kind of you know,
intentional callbacks a little bit, Uh, Mark, What did you think
about WrestleMania's impact? Again, wehad over two hundred thousand people over the
weekend apparently or tickets sold, Ishould say, obviously there were more people
in the area and or at leastuh a poppy around that many people coming

(08:52):
in to Philly for the weekend.Obviously there's probably people who went to both
shows and whatnot. But we alsohad broken gate records for a SmackDown attendance
records for NXT gate records for andattendance records for Raw apparently there was twenty
thousand people. They announced twenty thousandpeople yesterday at Monday Night Raw, the
Raw Aftermania. So Mark kind ofgo into what do you think about again

(09:15):
the show itself and how everything wentdown, and just how Philly was kind
of like on this stage for multipledays and we got the witness here in
Philly, one of the most impactfulwrestling weekends that's ever occurred. Yeah,
it's this is such a stupid referenceand I can't believe this is the first
thing the reference on the show.But my little brother growing up used to

(09:37):
watch some It was a WW cartoon. I think it was like Scooby Doo
and it was like Scooby Doo goesto WWE Town, and that's what it
felt like like. It felt likewe were in WWE town, like we
were the center of the WW universe. All the wrestlers were living in you
know, pack state, Like that'swhat it felt like, like we were

(09:58):
the center of the WW universe.And it was awesome. But in terms
of the historical significance, I'm obsessedwith ranking things when it comes to WrestleMania.
VO I don't know if you know. But I had Pecona on the
Tough Cover radio show on Saturday,and I was I was great in your
your Top forty there. Now Ihad some disagreements we were bringing up,

(10:20):
and I had my top I rankedmy Top forty and went through the top
ten with pecone and we were talkingabout it. So I'm obsessed with ranking
things like that. You didn't haveSavage Warrior there. Unfortunately, though I
had it fourteen, I think Ihad it fourteen, so it's not like
I had it that low. ButNick wasn't happy about it. I think
I had it fifteen, so itwasn't like I was far off or something
like that. I think, yeah, yeah, we had a lot that

(10:41):
we were pretty close on. Wehad a lot we were pretty close on.
But in terms of WrestleMania's, I'dbe hard pressed to say. I
told Nick on Saturday, I havea hard time comparing these two night manias
with the one night manias because itfeels a little unfair. But I mean,
if you even if you just tookmy too, it feels like you
could compete with some of these topWrestleManias. But if you give it both,

(11:05):
the only ones that I think arein on the level of it.
I think seventeen and nineteen are probablystill above it. For me, I
think ten probably edges it out still, and it's right there with thirty.
It's probably deeper than WrestleMania thirty was. And yeah, yeah, and you
can decide whether or not, youknow, the the Daniel Bryan moment or

(11:26):
the Coding moment went meant more.But it was really like I mean,
it was like Avengers Endgame and orthe Avengers Infinity War into Avengers Endgame.
Like I'm not even the biggest comicbook or Marvel guy or anything like that,
but you know, him losing lastyear, which I was vocally against,
and I think that they took alot of risk, and if this

(11:46):
was the plan all along, Ithink there was a lot of risk that
they incurred to get here. AndI think there's all the stars had to
align perfectly, and they did,and all the stars aligned for you know,
it's like doctor Strange said, youknow, there's only one scenario,
one outcome, and that was thatwas the endgame here, and it was
Cody Rhoades finishing the story. Yeah. I wrote in a column for US

(12:07):
said today that this is one ofthe most climactic endings in wrestling history.
It's up there. If it wasan eighties action movie, they would have
been a freeze frame at the endwhen Cody's on everybody's shoulders like yay,
like me and Cody went on tobe the best ever, like dropped out
of the business, like something somethingterrible happened to him or something like that.

(12:30):
That's what happened. That's what wouldhappened in the eighties action movie or
something like that. I forget whotweeted it, but just imagine hearing I
forget if it was twenty eighteen,twenty nineteen when Cody smashed the throne,
Like, imagine hearing you know,in six years he's gonna be like on
the shoulders of the baby Faces inthe ring celebrating the main event of WrestleMania
with Triple H and Phil Brooks.It's unbelievable, and like also in the

(12:58):
middle of a period for w Wtwo, it's I'm like, you know,
it's not just like the moment that'ssignificant, it's also everything surrounding it
that's significant because they are hitting onall cylinders financially. I mean, we
saw it firsthand here in Philly.How much people were out buying title belts.
I mean six seven hundred dollars.People had three or four of them.

(13:20):
The line for the merch line atw W World was sneaking for like
four turns. The line spend yourmoney right to get into the ww world
exactly. It was real fast toget in w W World, but to
pay you know, the money thatline man. People were spending all their
money. So did you hear thenews today Cody Rhodes one million dollars in

(13:43):
merch by himself. Good lord,that royalty check one look nice, real
nice? Okay, contributed to that. I see that. I see that
looks nice by himself, bro,And that's not that's just him. Now,
other people also eight this weekend.Independent wrestlers ate this weekend, like
everybody ate this weekend, all right, there's people who got who's the wrestling

(14:07):
on three, four or five showsthis weekend. People was eating because wrestling
is hot right now, least WWis hot, and obviously because they got
a bunch of fans here. Theother independent promotions can take advantage of that.
So everybody eats. Everybody eats.Bee Nick talk about the significance of
this moment. As a Philly wrestlingfan, We've been waiting for this for

(14:28):
a long time and then we getarguably the best WrestleMania in recent memory.
You know, Mark made me thinkabout it. You know, what was
it eight years ago when Cody wasreleased? Right? Twenty sixteen? Right,
yep? Me and Vaughan in thecar all the way to the Wildfire
Radio studios to record an episode ofThe Straight Shooters. I believe that's when

(14:54):
we found out that he was released. Rights car sounds a right, think
maybe you went on Twitter just tocheck because I got the alert, and
then you went on Twitter as we'reapproaching the studio and that's when he,
I believe, tweeted out the listsyou know, of talent that he wanted
to wrestle. And it's so funnythinking back to that moment and be like,

(15:18):
Okay, well he's never coming back, you know, like that's it's
still Vince McMahon's WW you know,imagine Cody doing what he did, coming
back and having that WrestleMania moment themain event in Philadelphia. It's like,
that's not going to happen, right, like a man where the Rock is
going to be there, I probablyI probably said something stupid in the car,

(15:43):
like, uh, you know,well, he's not going to make
it as Cody Rhodes, like startUst is probably his best option, but
as Cordus was the best option forDustin Rhodes, right, Like That's probably
something I said or thought and hedid it. And I remember there were
people kind of laughing at him whenhe signed on Impact and he couldn't use
the Cody Row's name. It wasjust Cody right for for a while.

(16:07):
So I was like, Okay,well this is it's really frustrating that this
is where we're at because of VinceMcMahon's organization and his decisions. But it
came full circle and the fact thatwe got that moment and the fact that
Cody has maintained that popularity not onlysince he came back to but he and

(16:30):
I said it, he might have. He's at the top of the list
when it comes to like three straightincredible WrestleMania matches, it's probably a very
short list. And even if helost. I don't want to say that
because I don't want to think aboutthat because he'd be over if that were
the case. But Mark and Ion this podcast last year said there's no

(16:55):
way we're going to be where weare right now, pretty much like we
just did not believe w W woulddo right by Cody after that, and
not only did they, but he'sarguably the fate. He got Roman and
he got others, but Cody Rhodesis the face of w W right now
at its highest point in how longyou know, So that in and of

(17:18):
itself, and you know Philly,and I know there's people from all over
the world, but it happening inPhilly. I remember walking into that stadium
and the set reveal kind of underwhelmedme, and I was like, well,
you really can't compare it to theWrestleMania thirty nine set because the Link
is not as big as some ofthese other stadiums that the the WrestleMania was,

(17:41):
and but being there in personal truethough, like I don't know if
that's true. Well, I don'tknow if the size of the stadium,
I mean, like the Brown Imean that they're not going to build a
set like they did for thirty nineat the Link, Like it's not gonna
be that big, They're not gonnahave that much room. It was I
go in personal Saturday, I'm like, holy crap, this is incredible,

(18:02):
Like it didn't matter. Like seeingit on you know, a screen is
a lot different than seeing that aperson and you're just like, wow,
this is really good. The onlything I kind of miss is like,
oh, why didn't they put anythingon the top of the canopy over the
ring like they did with the Statueof Liberty of that Life or you know
when they used to do that.But I guess it's not needed at this
point. They're going to hang areal bell up there. Why not?

(18:23):
Why not a triple h q CMpunk and said, you know, I'm
not here to make sets. I'mhere to make money. That was his
kind of philosophy. Right, wedon't need a big set. We here
to sell these tickets. These peoplewant to come in. Let them in.
That part of the reason with theset with raw and SmackDown, right,

(18:45):
because I think I read today thatthey're gonna actually let ticket sales dictate
how they set up the arenas nowas they should. They should. You
know, what you can put ontop of that canopy and add for chickis
and pete that's what should go upthere. You're advertising dude wipes and Minute
Made and all this other stuff.Put a local Philly brand on that canopy

(19:06):
while we're here that they did thatdidn't I bron Stroman was in there in
the pre show cracking wheatly American vodka, uh, which which I've never had
an ad turned me off more.But that's the official BAKA email. Yeah,
a sponsorship. That's pretty wild.I will not enjoy it neatly.

(19:26):
I will not enjoy it sweetly.I will not enjoy it with a fox.
I will not enjoy it in abox. I just don't want it.
Man, we got now that primelogo in the ring did not was
not as annoying as I expected itto be because it was in the UFC
match before. Yeah, it doesn'tmatter. Jansen by the way, Jansen

(19:48):
is not on this pod. Wasso upset for two straight nights, for
eight hours, and my fiance atone point in the sixth hour turned me,
you've watched boxing, You've watched UFC. They got thirty ads on the
mat. They had one like youknow, doesn't a w doesn't doesn't.

(20:11):
Yeah, at least in like atthe corners or something like that. So
come on, it's all right,it's fine. They're gonna make money.
It's okay, capitalism look good inthe ring because it wasn't what Logan unveiled
on raw. It wasn't like thewhite, it wasn't the colorful one.
It was just like a transparent thing. And I'm like, I could deal
with that. Because I could dealwith that, It's fine. I didn't

(20:33):
care not one bit about that primebottle in that ring. Okay, I
just knew that the prime bottle,the persons wearing the prime bottle suit was
you had to watch out for thatperson because it's definitely gonna get involved in
the match, which they did,and we move on from that. But
as far as the significance of thisshow for me, I mean, wow,
what a weekend, What a timeto be alive here in Philly.

(20:55):
You're one of the busiest people inPhiladelphia, and Mark obviously Jason doing everything.
And yeah, I was only reallyinvolved Saturday Sunday, but you guys
killed it all week everybody man Thursday, it was ww world shooting content there
meeting other content creators are the writerspeople that have only interacted with on social
media, which was you know,multiple people. So I don't want to

(21:18):
you know, name pep start namingpeople and then forget people. But you
see some of the social media postsand stuff like that that you know I
might have was involved in. Oneparticular I'll say this one was Cam Hawkins
doing the three sixty video right offtop. I didn't awesome. That was
just we were just out and He'slike, let's do it, and then
we did it. So that wasfun. Uh, met again, met
some other take yeah, one take, that's all we needed to swag it

(21:41):
out real quick. That wasn't youknow, this is how we do it.
You know. We did not getto get too tried with that.
That's one take, one take,Jake. But met other people as well,
shoot hands with a lot of people. I met people a while a
Mania that night as well, Meand Tommy Rohnes hanging out. Uh Phil
Strum for USA today. He wascool. I met him for the first
time. And in Friday we wentto ww with the media day and saw

(22:03):
aj Styles and La Night get intoa fight. Everybody was grabbing any phones.
Met some more cool people and thenuh when we do Saturday, actually
had to take a break from WRESTLEMANIon Saturday. I had to play some
flag football in the morning because Iwas tired of y'all. All right,
it was it was a lot,but I got a pick six. It
was worth it, I made.I made the most out of it,

(22:25):
all right, And then Saturday wasdope. But obviously Saturday that's pretty funny.
But Saturday obviously was marred by thefact that it was cold as hell
out there. The hawk was out, the hawk was everywhere, all right,
and the crowd was literally cold,and that's why they weren't cheering,

(22:47):
because there was frigid temperatures out there. I was fortunate to have a jacket
and a hoodie. I was outagain early in that morning playing football,
and it's like, oh, it'sbad now, it's gonna be worse later
at like eleven o'clock, so let'sdress warm. And it paid off for
the most part. But it wasstill damn cold. So but it was
beautiful the next day. I mean, we couldn't have asked for better weather
on Sunday. I wish I tookmy wife the first night, and poor

(23:11):
my poor wife sitting in that damncold. But my dad got lucky with
the next with the next day withthe weather, but also my man Jason
Ponella over here, the tribal chiefserving up cheese steaks, and my dad
had a cheese steak at the tailgate, even though look full disclosure. All
right, let's let's let's let's clearthe air real quick. All right,

(23:33):
let's let's pull back the curtain.All right. He makes a strong first
impression. I'll just say that,so everybody knows that I worked for the
Eagles once upon a time, andI don't work for them anymore. But
obviously, you know, people knowthat I worked there, and I still
got friends dead. You know whatI'm saying. So you know we were
cool, right. My dad showsup. My dad, unfortunately it's a

(24:00):
Cowboys fan. Oh, his wholelife. I do not think I knew
that his whole life. I don't. You don't want to tell anybody.
I am ashamed. He shows up. I'm like, all right, Dad,
where you at? I meet him? Cowboys hoodie cowboys hat at WrestleMania
in Philadelphia. I'm like, broh, I got a reputation. I'm trying

(24:22):
to get home tonight, man,and you out here playing. Nobody asked
for this. He knew what hewas doing. People. I was telling
people to bow him Bro. Hedeserved it. He deserved it so but
Jason and the crew still show lovedespite the fact that he was wearing cowboys
gear. And it was a beautifulweekend. Man. It was great to
have, like you said, theepicenter of wrestling be here in Philly and

(24:45):
for us to all be there insome capacity throughout the weekend to witness one
of the best weekends in wrestling history. As far as its being a wrestling
fan. There's a lot of peoplewho wish they would hear feet on the
ground this week because this is oneof the biggest wrestlemanians and we used to
memory. We're all fortunate enough thatthis happened here in Philadelphia. But I've
talked about some of my favorite momentsfrom the week Nick, I'll start with

(25:06):
you. What were some of yourfavorite moments from the weekend Saturday and Sunday,
Going to WrestleMania, seeing the set, seeing stadium, being in a
parking lot. Talk me through it, baby, Come on, man.
So as if like you listen tothe podcast or Dobi personally, I've been
going through some personal things the lastfew years, and it's been really tough
to get out there in the wildyou know, like it's been rough the

(25:30):
last few years social wise for meto get out there and stay out there,
and I'm really glad I was ableto do that. This weekend Saturday,
my first stop was Expetity Live.The Gambler had a free Legion radio
doing the show. Rick Flair there, Mark Henry Junior there, John Jansen
there, a bunch of people fromThe Gambler that I haven't been able to
meet in person yet because of circumstancesfor me personally, and I was able

(25:55):
to meet them in person and thatwas awesome, like finally being able to
do that. And it was funnybecause this was right as NXT was going
down right standing Deliver, So wegot there in the middle of that and
we're just kind of like, youknow, play what not very many places
to sit. I was just sureof what was going on. I didn't,
you know, I took a pictureand I think that's I didn't realize

(26:18):
the guys were already there and it'sInfinity Live from the Gamblers, so I
was just kind of standing around.I took a picture of the TV that
was airing the NXT show and Iposted it or I sent it to our
group chat at the Gambler, andI think the chance it was like wait
are you here, Like I didn'trealize you guys were already there. So
they came out and we were talkinga little bit, and then they went

(26:41):
back to prepare for the Green Leedsand Radio NXT had ended, and That'sfinity
started getting flooded and there was likeno place to really sit or even stand.
It felt like it was like man, people are like right over here
on me, Like man, Iwant to move, like get off me.
And that's kind of how I am, regardless. I don't like being

(27:03):
in a tight crowd like that.So I was able to, you know,
joining the Green Leaves and radio guysand the Gambler guys in their private
event to at least get some space. You know, there wasn't anywhere to
sit because you know, they dida great job with tickets and people came
out to see Rick Flair and thatwas a great time he was on the
radio. Mark Well, I'm surehe will talk about being able to interview

(27:26):
him on the Gambler. It wasjust really cool where I could have space,
you know, and not be crowdedand everything like that. So you
know, that was a fun momentfor me, finally being able to be
out there and meet some of thepeople I've been working with for years that
I haven't been able to meet yet. So that was a highlight of Wrestlmingia

(27:49):
Saturday for me because right after thatwe had gone over. Thanks to Mark,
I was able to go into thecrowd. I had credentials for both
nights. I really we wanted.I wasn't sure how it was going to
work, and not very many peopledid because things change. You know,
something happens to previous event doesn't meanit's going to happen at that event,

(28:10):
So you know, I could onlygo by with other people told me what
to expect. It turns out inthe press box on Saturday, they apparently
had the windows shut, so thatmade it hard to hear. Like Vaughn,
you've been up there, this isI've been up at the Phillies one,
remember when we went to interview DanielBryan. So I've been up there,

(28:33):
but I hadn't been in the Linkone yet for an event, so
I wasn't sure how it works.And those those windows they do open,
now that's a new I think that'sa relatively new thing. For the for
the link. But yeah, whenwhen I was working at the windows are
always closed and it would muffle thesound a little bit, so and I
didn't want to be I didn't wantto I wanted to be out there in
the crowd experience that, not realizinghow cold it would get, obviously with

(28:56):
the women and everything. But itwas we we persevered, you know,
we we dressed appropriately. I wascold regardless, but still we got through
it. A couple of guys sittingnext to me, We're from Ohio and
South Carolina, just like because thefirst thing I said to them was like,
you guys from around here, andyou know, we got to chatting
and one of the first things Iasked them was a view buy into the

(29:19):
narrative that were terrible people, andthey just kind of laughed, like,
no, no, no, no, one of them comes here for work,
even though they don't. They haven'tbeen out to the city. They've
been through the city, so they'relike, yeah, like they were here
for a few days, so youknow, they were having a good time,
and I'm like, well, that'swhat we're about, man. I'm
not here to try and make youlove Philly or Philly fans. But you

(29:41):
know, I was just wondering whatother people like. I never really it's
been a while since I talked tosomebody outside of Philly to kind of get
their perspective, and I kind ofwanted to see what they thought they could
expect night one and night two,because they were going to be there night
two as well, in different seats. So you know, well, I

(30:02):
will say the Rocks theme is awesome. That was the first time I It's
really hard for me to hear likeon TV because like I'm doing so many
things at once when I'm home,so I as much as I try to
pay attention, I don't always listento themes all the way through anymore.
But you know, after the Rockone and they played this team, you
know, the whole night basically afterthat, I was like, I was

(30:25):
like bop in to it. Iwas like, yeah, this is this
is a banger. I enjoy this, this is the cool theme. As
we were exiting and so that wasa fun time. And then Sunday I
had gotten my credential. Thankfully,I I lucked out. I went to
the media line around five pm whenit was open, and I was standing
there for like forty five minutes,not realizing how long they would be.

(30:48):
And I was in line with MattBreen from the Inquirer, so that was
really cool. Got to catch upwith him a little bit, and Tommy
Rowan came later, so man,sitting in the breast box together. It
was just really cool moment for mebecause you know, I've known Tommy for
a few years, like I talkedto him, and just being there and

(31:11):
experiencing it. He was like happytoo for me, and that was just
like a really cool moment to bethere. And Hey, free food,
which was nice. They had whatthey had what was the press box thread?
Well what I got was a itwas like pull pork and uh,
but I didn't get anything. Theyhad like back of cheese and but a

(31:33):
few things, but I just gota lot of pork. I got serving
uh you know, the small buns. And then they had blueberry cheesecake,
which is amazing cheesecake that I got. The cheesecake. No, no cheesecake
for me. But Sunday Saturday wasgreat. Sunday was great. I have

(31:56):
no complaints at all. Yeah,the same here man, and have some
funny stories about press box etiquette thatwe'll discuss a little bit, but Mark
wanted to go to to you.What are some of your favorite moments from
this past couple of days here inPhilly during WrestleMania. Yeah, just a
crazy weekend for for me personally.Uh, you know, Thursday, I

(32:16):
met Mark Henry, the world's strongestman. Oh my god, was a
rip in a time space. Continuingwhen that happened, he actually he asked
me, so, so you're thereal Mark Henry? Absolutely not, absolutely
not, mister he let me letme tell you right now, you know
I'm I'm not. He was awesome. He was so nice. We took

(32:38):
a picture together, had to runout of there. Went over to uh
the podcast. I listened to CheapPeter Rosenberg's podcast with someone I've become friends
with on he's the co host onthere. I become Twitter friends with a
guy named stack Guy Greg, sowent over there to support them. Ended
up sitting, uh we caught frontrow seats for it beause it was general

(33:00):
sat next to Smoke and West SideGun, which was pretty cool. They
were uh Vintage Wrestling this week aswell during wrestling, but go ahead,
they're huge fans. I mean they'reat every event and they were they were.
They were really cool. I hadRhea Dom both showed up at that

(33:21):
event, and l A. Knightshowed up. We they kind of like
said, what's up to everybody?We had a chance to say hi to
them too, So really cool.Thursday, which you know led into Friday,
we were at w W World withthe Gambler interviewed Natalia and then we
interviewed Elia Dragonov, who then camewent out and debuted on on Raw.
So I asked Ilia what his dreammatch was. He said, Seth and

(33:42):
Shinsk ended up debuting against Hinske.Either he was working me and he already
knew he was getting already they werelistening to your interview. Yeah, yeah,
you know, either he was workingme and they he knew he was
working with him and wanted to throwhim out there as one of his dream
matches, or it just happened that, you know, his debut came against
one of the guys who would behis stream match. But I thought that

(34:05):
was really cool. And then Saturday, UH with with the Gambler and Green
Leaded Radio, UH interviewed Rick Flairat Exfinity Live, which is, you
know, just a surreal experience obviously, I mean one of the greatest of
all time, if not the greatestof all time. But I had a
chance of asking about Charlotte Flair,so thank you so much for I don't

(34:25):
have a Rick Flair in my arsenal. But he almost got emotional in me
asking because I said that, inmy opinion, she's the greatest women's professional
wrestler of all time, and hewent on a diet tribe about it,
and uh, it was. Itwas pretty cool. We got the full
Rick Flair experience. And I'll leaveit at that. He was he was.

(34:45):
He was definitely the nature boy.He was styling and profile limousine ride
and Jeff flying. I'll leave itat that. That's all we got to
say about that man. I nothingelse. I don't want to get to
what he's stealing. But hey,now hold on, all right, No,

(35:10):
that was great that it was reallycool to that was an awesome opportunity.
And then went into the show.It was absolutely freezing. I was
not prepared for how cold it was. Whatsoever I thought that Night one.
I was saying all week that Ithought Night one was a much worse card
and compared to Night too, andeveryone was telling me I was crazy I

(35:31):
remember Jason Solomon, one of theproducers at the Gambler, also Jeremy,
all these people telling me how muchbetter Night one was than Night too.
I agreed to I thought Night onewas going to be better as well.
I thought Night two was stacked.I thought it was way ahead of the
time. I was like, there'stoo many tag matches on Night one.
Things are going to blend into eachother and bleed into each other. I

(35:51):
think that they could have done abetter job kind of separating it. But
we did get the Sammy Zaane momentin Night one, which was just I
mean, that's that's professional wrestling.I mean everything about that from you know
him saying you know his wife andkid in the backstage and then walking up
to Kevin Owens on his way outand that, I mean, that's the
type of stuff that makes you,you know, that gives you goosebumps as

(36:13):
a wrestling fan, and you knowyou have a guy like going through as
a belt for such a long timeand Sammy overcombs that as a babyface fighting
as an underdog, and it's that'sthat's a special moment and one of the
best moments, one of the bestwrestling moments and matches I've ever seen live.
I think it was the second bestmatch of the weekend. Is that,
well, I would go with that. Yeah. I thought that was

(36:36):
the best match of Saturday for sure. Yeah, yeah, I think it
was better than anything besides Coding andRoman on Sunday. I would agree.
Yeah, I thought that was unbelievable. And then obviously Sunday came around and
we all know what happened on Sunday. I mean, that was just an
awesome moment. And that I thevideo on Twitter, the wrestling I think

(36:58):
it's called The Wrestling Group or ort w C, the Club of Kids
that that I've heard Stack got Gregon that podcast I mentioned earlier. He's
talked about them a lot before.And the video that they put up of
them reacting to the end of thelast seven minutes of Cody Roman. Is

(37:22):
that. I mean, it's justlike that made me cry legitimately, Like
I'm not you know, I thoughtI was going to tear up when Cody
won on Sunday Nights. I didn'tget I didn't get emotional in the link.
Maybe I was too worried about,you know, getting out of the
link because it took me two hoursthe night before, but so I wasn't
emotional yet. But I watched thatvideo today actually and I was like,

(37:44):
man, like, this is justit's what it's all about. Man,
shout out to stat guy Greg Man. I gotta I was supposed to at
least like shake his hand this weekand I never ran into him, So
shout out to him. He isa good guy over at cheap Heat and
you know that while I'm man anddidn't bump into them. And I think
I think I saw my media dayand I was like, I gotta keep

(38:06):
my spot in line because there's along line. But you know, we'll
link up. We'll link up.Jason, gotta get to you to tribal
Chef. I know one of thehighlights for me was Sunday before the show,
But what are some of your topmoments from the weekend. If that
is my legacy when it comes toattending WrestleMania, it is a good legacy
to have. But like I thiswas a fantastic week weekend for me from

(38:32):
all angles. So like in videogame writing, which I normally do a
lot of times, if I haveto go to a van, I have
to go to it right so beento l A a bunch of times,
San Francisco, but that Japan wantsthat whole thing came to me and like
people that I have worked with,people that I've known, like through other
podcasts and stuff like that, theywere here. So like that great.

(38:54):
Wasn't that awesome? Awesome? Solike I go, I go to the
media for W World. I wasinvited by two K because they were supposed
to do their Superstar showdown at fourpoint thirty and ended up doing it at
a quarter of six because of DwayneJohnson. But like what do you say
to him? Like, you know, he's the Rocks, do whatever he

(39:14):
wants. But like in that timeI got to reconnect with like Dan Reicher
and Janfhow of Giant Bomb great website. There Chris Hayner, who is the
entertainment editor of game Spot, whoI've I've worked for games Spot for three
years, never met the guy,met him for the first time outside of
the W World. That was reallycool. When my my PR guy told
me to meet at a certain spot, he said, we'll wait for one
more person and then we'll go up. That one more person was Denise Salsado.

(39:38):
So I got to meet her,which was just awesome. She's great
in fact, just you know,not to not to you know, talk
myself up here, but the pictureof her in front of the ECW set
holding the trash can that she sharedall weekend, I took that. Son
of a hey, who's the manbehind the camera me? But but like
so that that was really cool.Superstar. I got to see Austin Creed,

(39:59):
who I'm met at e three andtwenty fifteen. He came to me,
which is he remembered what I was. So that was real cool.
And and that was that was areally fun night, right And then Friday,
I just watched SmackDown, didn't didn'tdo a whole lout with the wrest
On Friday Saturday, I brought myfamily, my wife and kids to w

(40:21):
W World. We did the threesixty camera, We held the belts.
Both of my daughters now want theirown belt, which I'll get into it,
Greape, I'll get into it.Not then they're not getting the five
hundred dollars one. You ready togo into debt? You ready to go
to debt? Put a second loadon my house or whatever it is.
But so another story work. I'mgonna call myself out here. You called

(40:44):
yourself out with your dad, I'mgonna call myself out here. My daughter's
favorite wrestler was is bray Wyatt,and I have not told her. I
can't. I can't, Like,how do I do that? How do
I do that to a seven yearold girl. She's got the little doll
of the Fiend that she got forChristmas, and she she called him Awi
Wowie. She loved watching The fireflyaFlundhouse. She didn't watch every episode like

(41:08):
I didn't let her watch someone wherehe bashed the rabbit's head in I thought
that was a little too far.But she loved the muscle, loved the
muscleman dance, loved all of it, loved his entrance, watched his matches.
I will never forget We're Rumble twentytwenty. She sat. It was
like two hours past your bedtime,and she sat and did not move.
Fiend versus Daniel Bryant strap match,watched the entire thing, entranced. It

(41:31):
was awesome. And then this happens, right, and we get to we
get to WWE world that is goingon that panel, the panel, but
luckily it was on the other sideof the room. Oh no, So
we took our time watching the Creatorentrances or the make yr Own entrances.

(41:51):
We took pictures in front of theset, which was really cool. She
got she like my younger daughter,got a picture in the door that was
badass. And and we waited untilthat panel was over basically and then we
we we went down that way.My Charlotte got to see Charlotte on stage,
which was neat. My Olivia didnot get to meet Living working.
Unfortunately that's the spot because she wasthere Monday and they're in school, you

(42:14):
know's it's the second grader. Sowe tried. But I did show her
the clip of Lives throwing arm lastnight. Very impressed with that, speaking
us to Aboo, who no,showed the Indie Hall of Famer legend Oh
my god, my goodness check andwalked. So yeah, we did that

(42:37):
during the day and then all day, like from when we got home about
two o'clock to when we were gettingready, like trying to leave. My
buddy Jim and I who you met. We're trying to go to night one.
We're looking for tickets, looking fortickets. It's real, real,
still expensive. Don't want to spendthis money. At about five thirty six
o'clock, we decided, you knowwhat, take this and do it for
the row after mania, and thenwe'll just sit rest up, and then

(42:59):
tomorrow we'll go all out, whichwe did. Ended up being the right
call. Thank you. Heating Yeahthere and got great seats for all which
I'll get to. And then Sundaywas the day. Uh, my daughter's
birthday party was ten thirty. Wewere home by noon. I had to
go switch the tail light in myvan because of course it had to happen

(43:20):
when I'm getting ready to have ayou know, car full of dudes.
Uh, load up the grill,load up the coolers. Got down there.
Like I said, about one thirty, had a great time out there.
Channel six came by and recorded us. My one dude had the Teremna.
We all share the Teremana, whichis nice that both of them were
good. I think I like therest Mesada one more though, that's a

(43:42):
good one. I chose that one. I got good taste, now dat
you do. Uh, Not tosay Blanco's bad. Not to say the
final boss is listening uh and justgetting mad for no reason. But yeah,
that was real good. And thenwe went in, man, and
it was like like I went backto the first wrestling show I ever went
to, right Like it was justit was that all over again, all

(44:04):
of a sudden, I was seven, and you know, I'm watching all
this great action. The Undertaker showsup just like he did when I was
seven. It was, it was, it was really hard to describe.
Like there were some moments where Ijust was like soaking it all in,
like trying not to shed a tear. Like Mark said, Cody's win did
get me. I will say,just seeing him. I think it was

(44:28):
with Brandy. When Brandy got in, I'm like, oh, man,
that's cool. You know she's aformer employee too. People forget that to
have her get that little moment upon the stage and then be in the
ring for when that was happening.The only thing would have made that better
is that they let Dustin come down, But Tony probably said no, that
was too busy planning to try tosap off the Cody Rhodes moment by having

(44:49):
Dustin wrestles World Champion. But that'sanother yeahorrow, yeah, yeah, I
will say one thing about that,Tafe. I hope, I hope,
I hope I hope. It's aYoung Bucks swerve and they do like re
enact it as like sock puppets.That will be funny. It's just so

(45:13):
w W we litigate this another time. It's a whole nother podcast right there.
So, yeah, Sunday was magical. The entire day. Getting out
of the parking lot sucked, asyou said, took us Oh my god.
We didn't move for fifty minutes.Did not move, my god.

(45:34):
It was fifty minutes. And thenwe finally got out and they changed the
pattern from Saturday to Sunday the wayI went and uh so they shut down
two ways to get to ninety fiveSouth and it's like, okay, we
were all going one way. Theyhad to wound up going like to Center
City just to go home. Itwas ridiculous, And I mean I did
it. I did a legal moveand tried to u turn because I was

(45:57):
like, oh, why is noone coming this way? I'll just you
know, you you turn and theobviously the road was blocked and the one
cops like the hell are you comingthis way for? To get out of
here? I'm like okay, well, like all you turn and I was
going to go around the cone andhe was like trying to stop my car
with one hand. I'm like,dude, I'm trying to go around the
cone, but he's like, no, right here, turn and I'm like,
oh my god. Last relaxed.We relaxed. Bro. We finally

(46:23):
got out and got home about twelvethirty something like that. Twelve twelve thirty,
unpacked everything. Monday night, We'reall was great. We we had
all planned out much better. Uh, I think we were. I think.
So we ended at eleven. Westayed for Cmpunk's Railroad Philadelphia Post showed
uh speech and I was getting offof the exit at ninety five at like

(46:45):
eleven fifteen. We was completely different. We wet out of it as soon
as the show ended. Basically wewere parked at like right next to the
main gate on the end, soall we had to do was like a
quick ubi with like a three pointturn and we were already in the lane
of ninety five. Soyle booh,it's amazing that way. But I get
to do that because we're not farfrom each other, Jason, so I

(47:05):
got to do what every we're not. Yeah, yeah, that was that
was all Jim. That wasn't me, but seeing the people that I saw
having that tailgate experience, which Idon't get very often. I'm not like
a season ticket holder than any ofthe sports teams. I can't for that
stuff. It was awesome. Itwas really really cool. I am now
like a Blackstone apologist. That thingis amazing if you ever have the opportunity.

(47:28):
And it was just It's why Ilove pro pro wrestling. It's why
I've watched pro wrestling since I wasfive or six. It was the same
feelings I had for Hogan back asa kid. I was having for Cody
right here, uh finishing his story. It was it was awesome, and
I feel like we're in a newI almost say Golden Age, but like
a new the Renaissance era that Codysaid, it's perfect the Renaissance. Yeah,

(47:51):
yeah. The only thing that wasmissing was a rage party right now,
real quick. I just wanted tosay, I'll forget if I don't.
I was dming Pecone about it todaybecause he tweeted, you know,
something about the weekend or something aboutCody or whatever whatever the case may be,
and there was two or three comments. And I've seen this on like

(48:12):
a couple of things. I don'tget the Cody thing, and it's like,
if you don't get the like theson of a legendary icon who we
saw develop as like a young wrestlerin WWE. We we saw him,
you know, we wanted more forhim than the opportunities that he got.
He had to leave and make himselfa star. WW had to accept the

(48:35):
star as is for him to comeback after he was roundly rejected by AAW's
fan base and his wife was,you know, pretty horribly treated by aw's
fan base, and all of thatcomes full circle for him to be the
baby kissing baby face of the millenniumfor WWE and the face of the company.

(48:59):
And he's bestowing upon his dead legendaryicon of a father the title that
he could never win himself. Ifyou can't understand that, stop watching professional
wrestling. Strong words from not theworld Strongest Man Marken Markeny Jr. Double

(49:19):
fren bloodline adults out there that wantedto hold the hold the bell for eight
more years and listen, I'm gonnawrite a column about Roman Rains and how
his run was. He deserves allthe kudos in the world absolutely for his
run and the fact that he isstill is. I would say a top
guy in w W is still thetop guy in WWE as a heel,

(49:43):
which is not a common occurrence inww specifically. Were all their top guys
traditionally are babyfaces. I was talkingto John McMullin last night about it that
raw shout out to John McMullin,by the way, uh, when we
were talking about maybe the last personthat you can say was a top like
the top person in WWE that wasn'ta baby face that was a heel was
probably Superstar Billy Graham. And eventhen that wasn't for an extensive period of

(50:06):
time that they usually annoint that personwho's like the ushering. The ushering in
the eras you know, the GoldenAte, the hul Comania age with Hulk
Hogan, the New Generation with BrettHart, the attitude there with Steve Vawson,
the PG era with Johnson and soon and so forth is usually with
babyfaces. But with Roman Reigns,they've been doing this with a heel,
and there's a ton of people alreadyputting up the ones. When he turns

(50:29):
babyface, it's gonna make crazy money. He could be a bigger baby face
than Cody is, right, nowbecause he's getting people holding up the ones
everywhere as a villain. Imagine whathe does as a babyface when he's cool
and he's doing it for his family. And he stood at the swag on
it's gonna be licensed to print money. But go ahead, Mark, you
had something else? No, No, I didn't. I was saying,

(50:51):
I agree with that totally. Ithink he absolutely will be a you know,
the hot of the heel, thehot of the baby face. That's
just generally the rule in wrestling.But he was Triple H ever, the
guy like it's not like I don'tthink so, I don't. I won't
matripilation in that category. He alwaysworked with the guys though he worked with
and worked with The Rock and SteveAustin, but I don't think that he

(51:14):
was the face of the company.I would say it went from it had
brock Lesno was that guy for alittle bit. They tried and he left
and then became Seena. I thing, Yeah, when did see it become
I feel like that four five five, Yeah, went with Triple H the
guy that run like because Rox leavesBen Wah wins the title at Mania twenty.
I don't think Ben Wall was theguy. I think they were searching.

(51:36):
I think there was searching and thenthey found it was Seena and Batista
too to a certain extent, andkind of went from there. But go
ahead, Jason, you had something. There's a reason they called that the
Reign of Terror. Yeah, becausenobody wants to remove it. Yeah,
yeah, good. It's an interestingdichotomy because Roman's reign, he arguably elevated

(52:02):
stars, right, and that's ahard thing to do, and that's something
that people will not acknowledge. Nopun intended that they're not gonna say,
Sammy's Ain isn't a better spot thanhe was last year. Who wouldn't say
that. You gotta be out ofyour mind, Devil's advocate, I'm not.
He didn't think that didn't make Sammy'sAin, didn't make ja Uso,

(52:22):
didn't help make help make. Ithink Jay is the best example. Cody's
obviously up there, but Jay wouldnot be where he. I think he
helped Kevin Owens stay in the mainevents for a little while and he got
involved with Aammy's Ain. I thinkhe helped all those that reunion and stuff
like that. Yeah, So Idon't Blake did that, you know,

(52:44):
back then, so that's that couldbe a reason why people don't see him
as the face of an era.And plus at that time there were like
two world titles as well, soyou know it was it's tough to Like
I said, if anything, Iwould give a rock, I was kind
of agree that maybe not completely theface of w but if you compare the

(53:06):
two eras, Triples and Roman likeRomans, I think elevated way more people
than Triple at that time are percentand they were all in the ring coratulating
Cody on the end of night togo back to their exactly. I think
that's all. And he helped la night too and that was the star

(53:29):
coming up. But he had thatmatch with Roman. It helped him,
it elevated him. He also helpedhold Logan Paul. So screw anyways,
I was the biggest heel in thelink during the Logan Paul match, telling
people to cheer for your future worldchampion. But we'll get hey, hey
yo, hey Logan Paul. Imean we could say whatever we want.

(53:51):
That guy is the truth in thering. I mean that that guy I
had an independent wrestler on he hewas I guess this one was his eleventh
match Logan Paul, and he's like, he's I've never seen any trouble,
right, yeah, big trouble.He's awesome, He's a man. Had
to hit the dump button a coupleof times, but he's the man.

(54:13):
He's uh. He said, he'snever seen anyone in independent wrestling or any
walk of life that's had eleven matchesthat that is as even half as good
as Logan Paul is in the ring. But a question for Vaughan here on,
because we're talking about the main event, we're talking about Cody and Roman.
I went through the top forty.I made to kind of to go

(54:35):
against yours and sorted out the mainevents. I was trying to figure out
where Cody and Roman ranks for me, just among wrestleman events. For me,
I had it second like I loveTaker HBK career verse streak. I
one of my hottest wrestling takes ofall time is give me the twenty six

(54:57):
match over the twenty five match forstory. I love that promo package running
up that hill. I watched thatlike once every couple of months, that
promo package going into Mania twenty sixand then the match, the throat Slash
I couldn't love that match anymore.That's probably my favorite Mania main event.
I think Cody Roman edges out,you know, Brian Orton, Batista,

(55:21):
Austin Rock Two, the Redacted tripleThreat, rocking Kurt, But I yeah,
all those, I man, thatmight be, I personally would put
it above the WrestleMania twenty six mainevent. Yeah, and you definitely had
that a lot lower than I did. Yeah. Yeah, And man,
as far as climactic endings, it'sdefinitely up there with like Wrestlmenia thirty.

(55:47):
Wrestmenia fourteen wasn't super climactic. Itwas a big moment for Austin, but
like Tyson quick counted, it waskind of weird. Honestly, the finished
that match, I won't call that'swhat's felt kind of like underwhelming. When
it happened, it's like, oh, okay, he won, all right,
he's a champion, Okay. Like, honestly, not to hijack the

(56:08):
convo, I thought they were justgoing to restart the mask because I was
like, okay, like Tyson,clearly, it's not the referee to count
like this stupid everyone's cheering. Sothat was an interesting thing live, like
while watching it. You know,I've always been of the opinion that WrestleMania
is the place of happy endings,and we got a lot of them.
This might be the happiest ending inWWE, his in WrestleMania history. So

(56:32):
for that, to me, it'sup there. It's like, it's probably
number one as far as main eventsbecause it had everything you wanted had to
It was a culmination of the beststories two stories in ww history, arguably
between the Tribal Chief had a tablecharacter and Cody Roach's story and him trying
to finish it, and the culminationwith all these characters coming back after you

(56:53):
know, being a part of thisstory for years and coming back in these
significant moments in the Rock and ofcourse to get the undertake who wasn't a
part of the story at all.But who's to say that he was supposed
he was the original choice for thatspot. Who knows all that assuming revenge
for the wrestling main event against Roman, that's the only way it makes sense.
But I don't think that's why hewas there. But either way,

(57:19):
it was still what everything it hadto be. Yeah, and I don't
know if there's been a WrestleMania mainevent that delivered the goods and delivered on
expectations more than what we got SundayNight. In your top forty, your
top ranked medium main events were Biancaand Sasha was your number one medium main
event. I didn't realize that,okay, and then Brett Sean. That's

(57:42):
when I we had a big disagreement. I think that match thinks and I
put it. I put it inthe storyline. Know some people don't like
it. Yeah and Sean are twoof my three favorite wrestlers of all time,
and I feel like they actually,like weirdly, didn't have great chemistry.
My favorite match there's actually like Survivorcoryis it nine to Star Serty ninety
two? They had a banger,But yeah, those are your two bad

(58:04):
I think Cody Roman has an argumentthat it's the It's the greatest Mania,
and you bring up another one saBianca. You almost forget about the Saturday
night main events too. Main events. But yeah, that's my highest I
didn't realize that was my highest fmain event. But yeah, I think
Cody and Roman for everything that itwas and everything that it should have been,
it delivered and you had people hoistingthem up. It's it feels like

(58:29):
the heights of an error. Almostit feels like we've hit the we hit
a peak, you know, everythingthat we wanted it to be. And
of course specifically it was in Philly'sit's even better and the weather worked out
and you know it was it wasa dope moment. So yeah, it
would be high on my list forsure. But let's listen, Nick.
Obviously I won't be long at thispoint, but just the chill. I

(58:53):
got legitimate chills even watching it back. I watched the replay about four or
five times already. Cody picked roamingup that final time for the Crossroads and
Paul Hayman screaming no, no,and that's like something that many people might
not pick up on, but Iremember in like Paul's face and stuff and
the anguish that he's going through,you know, like his travel chief.

(59:15):
And then we see the videos onsocial media. I'm hugging on the stage,
like all that's part of it.All of that's part of it,
whether you think about it in themoment or not. And I was just
like I remember, you know,in the club box they had to have
the show on, and it wasthe audio was a little delayed, but

(59:35):
I remember like once Cody Pinda likeafter he hit the last crossroads and I
hear Paul Hayman yella no no.So I'm like watching the replay to see
it in real time and not delayed. But that Dak gives me like the
if I had to choose a biggerwrestlmating man event, like I won't be

(59:57):
able to choose it based on thatalone. It almost it almost felt like
just all added to that with thescreening no no, because he knew what
was coming and just that if youmissed it, go back and watch it
and picked up on it if youdidn't hear Paul screening. But that was
just an incredible moment for me watchit. Yeah, let me let me

(01:00:19):
kind of run down my weekend realquick here because I kind of already mentioned
some things. But let's let's gointo a little bit more detail. Thursday
we start out. Thursday, wehad a Make a Wish event that we
covered a lot of media covered withinvolving Charlotte Flair and Raymond Stereo that they
helped so Make a Wish children dosome through the entrances and WW did a
really good job. They actually hadlike the you know what they had,

(01:00:39):
like you could do your own entranceset. They created trons for each kid,
which was really nice. They gaveme nicknames and their own music,
and they got to come down andgot their own belts. It was like,
damn, that belt's really nice.Kudos to them doing that. That
was pretty cool. And that's whereI met a lot of people. I
met, Like I said, KimHawkins, I met uh Demon Diva who
apparently knew who I was. Imet Candice Cordelia, who you know,

(01:01:01):
works with p w Y. Imet so many cool people that day at
that function. And then then Imet Randy Cruz for the first time.
Nick we had Randy CRUs in thepodcast in the past. I met him
for the first time and that waspretty dope. And I met some others.
I'm you know, going through youknow forgetting names. I forget your
name, please, I'm sorry.But I met a lot of people.

(01:01:23):
So of course, we do thetour of WWE World and Thursday was the
first day at open, which wasthe best day to be there as far
as content creator, because it wasn'tthat many people there. It was open.
There were people there, but youcould just walk through exhibits and shoot
content, which was nice for mebecause I got a good video done.
But after that it edited some videoand actually Jason, when he was doing

(01:01:47):
a two K event, I getcalled down to do an interview with Jay
Cargill, who you met like minutesprior, so check out Philly inquired for
that video. And there's another videoI'm a post probably tomorrow when I empty
out the old notebook there with JayCargill as well, that I'll post on
my platform probably, But got tointerview her real quick. And then after

(01:02:10):
I interviewed her, I met MegaRand. He might know Mega ran a
rapper, right, He's from Phillyup in West Oaklane. Chopped it up
with him and actually hung out withhim the next day at Bibles on South
Street. We had a long conversationjust about life and his career and stuff
like that. So I'm a rightstory for that for USA Today. Check
that out. And Mega Rand wason stage at WrestleMania apparently during I believe,

(01:02:34):
I forget which interest it was.I think it was who had drums.
I forget who had drums during herentrance. Maybe it was Roman's entrance.
I don't know. I can't rememberthe top of my head, but
I saw it on social he postedon this on this Twitter account. But
he was as part of an entranceon stage at WrestleMania. I'm going to
sign out details as to how itworked out. Keep an eye on for
that again USA today. But thenThursday night, let's go back to Thursday

(01:02:57):
night, we did walle Mania outwith my guy Tommy rom and a good
brother Tommy Rowan, uh and PhilStrump from USA today. We was hanging
out and wallet Mania man. Forthose who don't know, it's Willet's party
at WrestleMania every year, and it'slike a vibe pretty much. They play
music, people on stage, theydancing, it's curtain promos and there's a
lot of celebrities there. If yousaw we hung out with Vinnie Curry,

(01:03:20):
I actually don't actually know Vinnie Curryfrom the Eagles obviously, so we got
to hang out with him for alittle bit, took the picture or whatever,
and then uh so, but shoutout to Vinie Cary is a nice
guy, really good dude and abig wrestling fing goes to WrestleMania every year.
And you knew if Fields in Phillyand in the stadium used to play
in. Vinnie was going to bethere. Shout out to Vinnie Curry.
So, but wile Mania was agreat time. I met some cool people

(01:03:43):
there as well. I met aMillial Sparks there who's one of the hosts
at Walllemania on the Ringers not theRing of the Chepe podcast stuff like that.
So I met him, met someother people that I off the top
of my head him blanking on rightnow, honestly because a lot of people.
So if I met you, Sugarhansset, what's up? And I'm
not mentioning you right now, thatis just me. I'm apologizing right now.

(01:04:06):
Okay, I'm apologizing right this second. Okay, But you know,
obviously meeting a lot of people.But then we switched over to Friday,
and that's when we go to wrestleMania Media Day, which was at the
Marriott. Wasn't at the Convention Center, this is at the Marriott, So
I knew who also I met atWiller Manney I forget right now. It

(01:04:27):
was Roy Burton from to be atthe b S Line on Twitter obviously,
who's been on Fox Sports to gamblethis this past week. So Matt Roy
Burton for the first time. Iinterviewed Elia with me. Was that he
interviewed Ilia and Natty with me.There you go, There you go.
Also met Sean at wille Manie.How about that I met him for the
first time. Former guests here onthe Straight Shooters way way back in the

(01:04:50):
day. But night Scott sharply dressedman. Also, by the way,
he looked way more professional than everybodyelse. I fell underdressed. Honestly,
that came. You know, Iwas trying to look fresh and he came
in a suit and I was like, man, all right, well maybe
I should be more professional then melike sewing sap them out here and pants
in the shirt, like taking itwith some air maxes on. This is

(01:05:12):
hanging out. But then we flippeda Friday and that's the wrestleman the immediate
day and hanging out with Gabriella Carrollfrom the Philadelphia Inquirers. She's one of
our trending reporters, really great reporter, does a lot of great content for
us. As she was there askingwell, we didn't have to ask a
ton of questions. Honestly, theyhad lines full of reporters for each wrestler.
Obviously, I was looking enough toget AJ Styles did the video with

(01:05:35):
him, got trick. Williams gotthe video with him as well, and
then we had to fight between AjStyles and La Night. Well, I
was standing in line trying to interviewCarmelo Hayes, actually who did not get
because he even had a time.But he's sitting there talking to somebody.
And then behind the backtop on theother side of the room, all you

(01:05:56):
hear is commotions, tears falling down. We look over and we see it's
La Night and Aj Styles rolling aroundon the carpet in the Marriotte. So
everybody scrambles for their phones. Iripped my phone off the tripod hole I
get this on video. Of course, it's like it was like high school
all over again, you know whereeverybody's just seeing it. They go fight
and then run over to shoot everythingand not call the police, not call

(01:06:19):
anybody over to drink it up.We just hear the witness the mess of
Aj Styles in La Knight. Hetook a big bump, one of them
took a big bump on the carpetand it was carpet. This is a
ballroom, so it was not itwas not a canvassoever, no give whatsoever.
And after that Linke there with TimeyRowing again, walked around ww World

(01:06:39):
again, which was way more crowdedon Friday. Obviously there's more people coming
into town. But we did getto interview some people from around the world
who had WrestleMania. Once set thepeople were from the United Kingdom, another
set was from Canada. Somebody camefrom Tennessee. So let me take this
time to thank everyone who allowed meto interview them, me to shoot them

(01:07:00):
and videos like the fit checks wedid which night one we did it to
Shawn michael Stein Music, which wasan obvious choice right and in the night
too, we did it the Codybecause you know, American Nightmare went in
the title. We pay homage,you know, get him involved there.
So but thank you to everyone whotook part in all the videos and all
the interviews and taking time out oftheir days and out of their trips to
WrestleMania to talk to me and createcontent for the Philadelphia Inquirer. The fit

(01:07:25):
checks are always fun. You know, wrestling fans are gonna come out with
the fits and the belts and theshirts and the outfits and the whole get
ups, so it's a prime opportunityto get some content. We cashed in
on that the Inquirer because obviously everybody'sgonna come through looking lit, so of
course we got to document that.So Yeah, Friday after w W World,
shout up to suuth Plex again.Also thanks to suth Plex Ventus Wrestling

(01:07:47):
for allowers to shoot content there.We did a video about the store itself.
We also interviewed fans there. Prettygood store, go check them out.
Ope on South Street, they hada block party Saturday, which did
not make it through make it toobecause I was busy Saturday morning, but
we had a video up on oursite on Instagram. Gave coffee, went
up there and shot the block partySaturday morning. It looked like a great

(01:08:09):
time. I'm sure it was coldbecause it was Saturday, but it looked
like it was still a lot offun. The ring, Yeah, they
did the ring shut up in themiddle of South Street, which the fact
that they had South Street shut downon the six hundred block of South Street,
it's kind of wild embrace. Ihad a few videos of that.
Yeah, we but fortunately people showedup, people showed out, and it
looked like it was a good time. A shout out to them. But

(01:08:30):
yeah, I was up there fora little bit and then ran into magaan
at Ishka Bibbles. We sat down, chopped it up again. Look for
that interview at USA today along agreat conversation with Mega ran good dude,
and then we go to Saturday,which again I skipped up. I didn't
go to SmackDown, didn't got tothe Hall of Fame because by that point
I had to go home, editedvideo, posted, do all that stuff.
You gotta work still. As muchas like we want to go to

(01:08:53):
all these shows and all these events, we still got to I still gotta
work, like do stuff after justI wanted to go to for the culture,
but I had to edit video,so unfortunately I did not make that.
But but Saturday WrestleMania, man,and take my wife down there.
Of course we interview some more people. I'm running an Instagram story the whole

(01:09:14):
night with updates and stuff like that. So it's work. But when you
walk into that stadium and you seethe stage, and you see the ring
and you see all those damn people. The see of people at WrestleMania,
which it always looks cool on TV, but when you see it in person,
it feels it hits different right right, So where our seatsquare was?

(01:09:35):
I got good seats, y'all,I got floor level. But on the
risers, the problem was, Itake it said thirty one and thirty two.
Somebody else had thirty three and thirtyfour. The seats were labeled thirty
two and then thirty four. Itwas like, where's thirty three saying?
So they had to call somebody overand this is again we're just getting there.

(01:09:57):
We're like, wow, WrestleMania,Oh, where our seats at?
So they had to clear it up, figure it out. It worked out,
And the thing is, let mesay this, two wrestling fans are
so nice. That's the thing aboutthat I that was reiterated for me this
weekend, whether it's the media membersthat I met, all the media people
that I met, or the fansthat I interacted with, so cool,
Like everybody is happy and there tohave a good time, just to enjoy

(01:10:20):
wrestling and being wrestling fans and beingaround other wrestling fans. We don't get
these opportunities too often. I don'tcare where you're from. It's not a
common thing for thousands of wrestling fansto just be in the same group for
multiple days at the time, soI guess we were all just reveling in
it. And it kind of stilltook me by surprise. I've been a
part of it before, but thiswas still different, especially because in my

(01:10:41):
hometown and in our hometown. Sothat was really cool. And everything worked
out and we sat in that freezingcold all night at the link but I
heard that people were cheering in thepress box. I guess we'll talk about
it Sunday out because you was inthe press box Sunday. But Saturday night
was really cold. My wife gotto see the rock wrestling person though she
was very happy with that annual Mariinestoo. She got to see that,

(01:11:04):
so that was really cool. Butflip over the Sunday get down to the
parking line. Who do I runinto but the tribal chef Jason Fonelli,
and he got the group around him. He cooking up cheese steaks and they
was so much love at this tailgate. Man, Like I didn't know,
Nick, they were straight shooters fansat this tailgate, bro like we were
famous all right, Virginia from Virginia. They drove up for many hours,

(01:11:29):
barely ate any food. Jason Fonellifed these kids right. Shout out to
them though. They were big fansof the podcast, and they had nothing
but nice things to say, andthey were cool and they were dope.
So I hope they got home safe. Hope they enjoyed themselves up here in
Philly, as did everybody else.I hope that everybody else in jorged it
as well. But yes, sucha great time at the tailgate. We
had so much fun and my dadwas out there messing around. He took

(01:11:51):
there was a god Justice men dollarman who has had fake money, but
he's paying my dad to take offhis cowboys gear and stuff like that.
My dad, I'll take it off. You know. It was so stupid,
so silly, so much fun thoughat the same time. And then
we get inside and it's beautiful weatherand it's a great show, and then
we get that ending man and it'sjust like damn. You know, when

(01:12:15):
I was you know, everybody dreamsabout watching or talks about watching wrestling with
their parents when they were younger,and you see the big moment and then
I am sitting next to my dad. You know, I'm thirty five now,
but it's still is meaningful to seethat where you have the story about
this guy winning a title for hisdad, and here I am sitting next
to my dad at WrestleMania watching thisstory play out. It was a beautiful
moment, man, and it wasa beautiful moment for for wrestling. It's

(01:12:36):
a beautiful moment for me. Ihad a great time and then I went
home that night and was just like, whew, oh wait, there's wraw
the next day. And this iswhere I heard about the lot of the
press box stuff that happened Saturday andSunday where people are cheering in the press
box, right, And for thosewho don't know, a lot of wrestling

(01:12:57):
people don't know this. You know, the wrestling media, Uh, cheering
is not allowed. It's very muchfrowned upon in the press box, okay,
and any sporting venue. But ifyou're a wrestling content creator, you're
not in any press box except whenyou're at WrestleMania. So you may not
know this, but apparently there's cheeringin the press box during the matches.
And all of my you know,regular media friends who work for The Inquiry

(01:13:19):
and O the places, they're like, what in the hell is going on
in here because when I worked withthe Eagles, I couldn't cheer for the
Eagles in the press box. Okay, it is very much found upon.
Okay, the po people be like, hey, you had to sit down
somewhere. Okay, don't matter ifwe called a pick six in the NFCY
Championships. Sit you ass down somewhere. Okay. So it's it's it's really

(01:13:42):
funny to me because they they weregetting upset. All right, let me
just say we'll get mad. Also, they were laughing at the person I
kicked out of the Roman Reigns presserfor booing, and that was hysterical.
Again, don't boodoing press conferences either, people, That's not That's very much
fround upon. Uh So, Yeah, went to raw, had another,

(01:14:03):
had a great time. Man ofmy first raw after Mania. I've been
to four WrestleManias. This is myfourth, but this is my first raw.
After good time again, man hungout with John McMullan again, chopped
it up about wrestling, step Bastar, Billy Graham and stuff like that,
and then that was it. Andit was such a great weekend. It
was like we just floated for likefour days straight to wrestling heaven floated too.

(01:14:28):
Wrestling heaven. Man, It's reallyhard to describe it any other way.
It was. It was. Itwas a wrestling marathon, uh,
for for four days straight. Mostlyw w A obviously on the top billing
on the marquee, but uh,there were people. It was just nothing
but wrestling love. The videos thatcame out from all the indie shows that
that the you know, dozens ofwrestlers just meeting people on the street.

(01:14:51):
It was a man. If therewas ever like a wrestling city, like
you said this, this is whatit would be like. It would just
be fans and wrestlers hanging out ivanand having a good time. It was
magic. Man. What better placefor it to happen than Philadelphia, That's
right. And then Philly is agreat city I think to host it in

(01:15:13):
general of this because it's a verywalkable city. Things are pretty close together.
You don't need to go outside ofthe city to go to places.
The stadiums all right next to eachother, so you know that's the thing.
So yeah, I think, man, I wouldn't be upset they had
it in Philly every year. Iknow the people would wouldn't want that because
it's cold, Saturday like money though, so they might come back. Yeah,

(01:15:38):
the weather almost seems like I feellike the last few years in April
it's been like pretty hot. Idon't know, but I'm a way like
I like the cool weather but notobviously Saturday was too much because it was
the wind. But then you gotto get the wind. With that.
I can said like forty five degreesif it's not windy, but it was
the wind that made it so cold. And then you got to day where

(01:16:00):
as we record this, it waslike eighty degrees. Musicians, y'all missed.
Everybody who left Monday or whatever y'allleft at the WrestleMania went back to
your hometowns, y'all missed it.It was a beautiful day on Tuesday.
Boy id I was outside Theday justsoaking it up. All right, it
was great. It was a greattime. But let's wrap it up there,

(01:16:25):
mark any final thoughts before we wrapit up here? Uh for episode
three ninety two, anything you wantto plug I should say, anything from
the weekend that you want to kindof touch on before we wrap it up.
No, No, I think wetalked well, I guess we didn't.
We didn't even touch on. Iguess Drew and Seth and that whole
oh Cash, Yeah, that wasa great way to like start night too,

(01:16:45):
right. It kind of set thestage and it's almost there was a
sense of how can they top this? Like even if Cody wins, Like,
how could they top it? Andthey did? That was I thought
that was perfectly perfectly done. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, yeah tough
cover Radio Sharvey Saturday, not thisSaturday. I got my bachelor party,

(01:17:06):
so Sean Bernard will hold it down. Oh congratulations, thank you, thank
you. But yeah, crazy loadedApril for me WrestleMania and then my bachelor
party back to back weekends, sothat'll that'll be something else. But yeah,
I probably want to voice next Mondayeither, So Jason, anything you
want to promote or touch on atthe last uh you know a little bit

(01:17:29):
here from WrestleMania before we wrap itup. Nah, nothing specific right now.
If you're into if you're into thevideo games, you can find me.
I write a lot of GameSpot dotcom, MML, RPG dot com,
couple other places. She stakes andcontrollers will come back eventually when I
have time to breathe. It's isgood every time I want to sit down
and record an episode to get calledto do like forty million things. So,
uh, it will be back.I promise. We got the big

(01:17:50):
summer gaming season coming up, soI will. I will get back into
the swing of things there. Butas far as this weekend goes, I
wish I could capture it and reliveit over and over again. I mean
I could do that through pea cockand YouTube clips and stuff like that,
but something about being in that parkinglot surrounded by those people. You know,
I got to make fun of aCowboys fan and then shake his hand.
It's a great thing. It wasawesome, Nick and I have.

(01:18:15):
I didn't make it to Jason's tailgate. I was. I visited another tailgate.
Didn't think I would be there aslong as I was, And then
look at the time, it waslike five o'clock. I'm like, I'm
if, I'm I'm glad I gotin the media line at five because I
don't I don't know how it works, but I don't know if they just
shut it down completely. I knowit says like five to six thirty.
I don't know, but what if, like you know, it was six

(01:18:36):
forty five? Like am I gonnaget my credential if I'm still waiting in
line. I didn't know how thatworks. So it was also funny that
WW has the media weight and thenthey escort them to the press box where
you go to like any other sportingevent here, you just go to the
press box yourself. But the mediathey don't know. They don't think they
got to navigate to a press box. That's a new thing. Yeah,

(01:18:57):
I'm allowed to leave, which wasmy fear on Saturday, and that they
were confirmed from stories, so Iwas glad I didn't. I was just
I was just wanted to get mycredential, and I guess I technically could
have unless they forced me in,because you get me so exactly. I
so Saturday, I just said,you know what, pray for tomorrow.

(01:19:17):
And I was able to get wellon Sunday, So that was really cool.
Uh so I have that. Ialready scanned it, so it's like
saved as a you know, picturefile on my computer. Uh, scanning
it was awesome. But I have, you know, the actual credential,
which is really really cool. Anduh yeah, man, like I'm glad

(01:19:40):
I got out there. The pastfew years have been tough, but like
being able to experience those just twodays. I wish I was able to
go to w W World and stufflike that. But you know, I'm
not going to complain about this weekendjust because I was able to experience that.
I will say probably a little alittle bit better than WrestleMania fifteen.

(01:20:03):
Just a little bit, just alittle bit, just a little bit there,
boss Man late turn a heel on. No, oh my god.
But yeah, you know that thatwas great. You can follow me on
Twitter slash as at Underscore for Cone, check out FOXPHL Gambler dot com.

(01:20:25):
Any podcasts this this so will probablybe uploaded on the Wrestling Wrestling Round Table
page, so you can check thatout along with the Straight Shooters podcast as
well. I am at Vaughan M. Johnson on x slash Twitter. You
can find us on Patreon, Patreondot com slash shooter just the shoot Shooters
Radio. Let me do that onemore time, Patreon dot com slash Shooters

(01:20:46):
Radio. You can request a futuredeep dive and we will fulfill it.
And when you request that deep dive, we will let you make a cameo
on the show that we're diving into. So again, Patreon dot com Slash
Shoot Radio, and I'm gonna leaveeveryone with this one thought from this weekend.
If you have not been to aWrestleMania, no matter where it is
in the future, I think youowe it to yourself as a wrestling fan.

(01:21:08):
If you can, if you havethe ability to do it, you
gotta go at least once. I'mnot a big w W shill or anything
like that, but obviously let's notget ourselves. We know ww and we
know WrestleMania at least is the showof shows that's super Bowl. If you're
a football fan, you go tothe super Bowl. You try to get
to the super Bowl if you canafford the tickets. Obviously, that's not

(01:21:28):
that's easier said than done, obviously, but WrestleMania is slightly more attainable.
So I think that if you're awrestling fan and if it's close, you
know, in your vicinity, withinyour reach, try to make it at
least one time, man, becauseit's great. And I've been to bad
shows and it was still a goodtime. This was an amazing show.
So you might get one of theseand it's still in them and you'll never

(01:21:49):
forget it. But you might geta bad show and it's still a great
time. So I still think youowe it to yourself at least one time,
any wrestling fan out there to tryto get to one WrestleMania your life.
But until next time, for JasonFinelli, Mark Henry Junior and Nick
Pocone, I'm Von Johnson. Thanksfor listening to episode three ninety two of
The Straight Shooters and we'll catch youagain next week. Please,