History of Roman Reigns: Kurt Angle Joins The Shield (2017-2018)

Dive into the complete history of Roman Reigns from SummerSlam 2017 to SummerSlam 2018 — a pivotal year that defined his career. We cover his nonstop war with Brock Lesnar, the chaotic road to his first Universal Championship, backstage issues, booking controversies, and why the first S.H.I.E.L.D. reunion fell apart almost immediately.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a Prime Time with Sean Mooney Productions.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Legends see History Channel Time and thirty Wrestling History Channel.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Is Roman Rains versus brock Lessner too much? We'll find
out on today on the History of Rum and Rains
podcast right here on the Wrestling History Channel. I'm Steve,
She's Lisa. Put up your ones. How you doing today, Lisa,
I'm doing good.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
I'm excited to get into this year of Roman Rain's career.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yeah, a lot happened this year.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
We're talking from Summer Slim twenty seventeen to Summer Slim
twenty eighteen, and we get our first taste of a
singles match between Rum and Rains and John Cena. And lately,
this promo keeps popping up all over Twitter. I think
everyone knows what it's all about, where John Cena rips
apart Roman reigns for not being able to cut a promo.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
What are your thoughts on this?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Because it's funny when these things pop up out of nowhere.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Have you go back and rewatch it the whole thing? Yeah,
only the clips that appear on Twitter.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well, I am an emotional Yeah, he's over here angry
that we're talking about this look, I said since the
beginning that I didn't think I hated it, and I
think that Roman took that moment and learned from it,
and I think that's what a.

Speaker 5 (01:34):
Lot of superstars should be able to do.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
But watching it back then, I remember thinking that Roman
had a lot of really good dicks at Sina. If
you really go back and pay attention to what he
was saying and what he was doing, he was hitting
Cina where we heard with the rock you left after
you talked to all this scrap about the rock I
wish to deliver. It would have been different because if
we would have had which he did back you know,
during his tribal chief days, I got his revenge.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
But I don't. I don't think that. I think that
he was.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
There and I don't know if he was nervous because
he was in for John Cena and we all know
how John Cena is, and John Cena just gave it
to him. As a Roman Raine fan, this is like,
to me, this was more painful than the suffering. So
if you want me to be honest.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
I think you are right that it is more painful,
one hundred percent more painful because it is suck attash
is like, Oh, he's just a baby face dropping a
one liner. Watching this, John Cena just won't let Roman
get the words out of his mouth. He's trying to
cut your promo. It's very slow and methodical, but it's
not working. Years later, as you mentioned, the Tribal Chief

(02:36):
versus John Sena promo battles a million times better. Honestly,
when you see this promo between Roman and John cenam
in twenty seventeen, it's like watching a different person. It's
like it's like Roman Reigns just got like a personality transplant,
Like what's the difference?

Speaker 4 (02:53):
Confidence?

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, I wish we knew what was going through his
head at this moment. I don't know if I don't
think he forgot his lines because John Cina also hit
him with a.

Speaker 5 (03:04):
Lot of realities.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
But some of the things that Josina were saying, it's
what all the fans were saying. So everybody in the
arena start going crazy because Sina is just sitting him
with You're just like the only thing, okay, the only
thing is that Johnsina called him and you're just a
corporate been me And I'm like, there is like nothing
that I will ever compare them the way they look,
the way they act, the way they present themselves. Like

(03:26):
I'm like, I guess where Johnsina was getting at. I'm
not trying to defend Roman here, but I'm like, there's
so many more comebacks that Roman could have had to
that line. Because they're Roman and Cina are the two.
I will least compare them unless it comes to, like
now write in retrospect to accomplishments and things that they don't.
But like back then, I'm like, no, the child has

(03:47):
always been presented as this anti establishment and unfortunately Roman
kept that chill look you know what I mean. So
we're still talking about chill Roman when I'm like a
corporate Like I feel like Johnsina is. If you tell
me a corporate made John Cena, I will say Cody
Roads and the way he presents himself, right, I just
don't think that that line hit And I feel like
that was the moment that Roman could have really like

(04:08):
hit him back with a couple of things, but he didn't.
But if you go back and listen, like I said,
Roman had a couple of good days, a sena that
nobody had brought up until this time. But the way
he delivered them, and he was tonal. You could tell
that he was bothered by this whole thing. That nothing
that he said hit the way that what John Cena
was saying.

Speaker 5 (04:25):
To him hit.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
That's true.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
It's like Roman had these bullets that turn into nerf
guns like you. You could have easily taken him down,
but you didn't know how to deliver it in the
right way. And Uh, the one thing I'd definitely go
back on is Roman Rains was positioned for to a
lot of fans, not all to.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
Some as the baby face, the face of the company.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
And that's the comparison of the John Cena Roman Rains,
where you're being set up with these unstoppable scenarios. Can
you beat King, can you beat Big Show? Can you
defeat Vince McMahon in the League of Nations and all
this stuff like That's where I see the comparisons up.
John Cena in two thousand and five was jammed down
everyone's throats even if you wanted it, and the boos
were there, the cheers were there, but a lot of

(05:07):
fans who were historians were holding on to that hate.
Not until the past ten years has somebody who hated
Johnson in two thousand and five, suddenly respected John Cena
for all the Make a Wish and all the things
he contributed to wrestling. Roman reigns at this point in time,
even though he's not the world champion, even though he's
not in the world title picture, he will still view

(05:28):
him as Oh, they're trying to figure out what to
do with him because they know we're gonna boom in
the world title picture, so they'll put him in somewhere
else so he'll be safe and not be booed.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
But yet the fans were holding on to so much hate.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
They're like, no, we're gonna boo him no matter what,
because you're putting him.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
We know what you're doing. You're hiding him.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
You're just waiting to like unleash him into the main
event picture, which they do later on in the year.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah. I there's a couple of moments for this promo,
and I haven't gone back to rewife there a while,
but they live free.

Speaker 5 (05:56):
In my head. It's called a probo kid. You're gonna
have to learn to do this.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
I'm like, bro, and what he said, I do better
part time that you do it full time. That's when
I walked away.

Speaker 5 (06:05):
From my TV.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
I'm like, Okay, you know what, I'm gonna go jump
off my balcony because I.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Lived in a high rise, I was gonna say, that's
when your team just stood on fire, Like, well, yeah,
that's like you know, like.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
We were talking about this last.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Week where I told you, like, I feel like sometimes
I have very valid points for defending Roman that people
just didn't want to hear at the time because I'm biased.
I couldn't defend this. I was like, yeah, what am
I gonna say? What am I gonna say? Outside of
the fact that he had good points and delivered them terribly,
Jonsina had just better lines, and you know, they keeps
saying what the crowd feels. He's saying what the internet feels.

(06:40):
Is just one of those moments that a lot of
people felt hurt and a lot of people felt like,
oh my god, he just killed my guy, bro. And
it was funny because this is one of the reasons
why back at this time I couldn't stand Jonesy.

Speaker 5 (06:57):
Because you know, you're supposed to be putting over newtail.
You're a fart time or now, and.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
I guess you know the good thing again, I mentioned
at the beginning is that you look at Roman now
when you compare, you see like the aura and the confidence,
and like he uses everything that they wanted him to.
Eventually he got there. But you put that Roman race
next to these Roman rings, just taking it as a
learning experience and not letting it completely derail your career

(07:21):
to being just like you said, ripped a new one
by the goat. You know that really could have just
send your career on a down spiral because they put
you against the best of the pats and you couldn't
live up to the hype.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
I would say Austin theory is a good example of that.
But oh no, but oh yeah, yeah, oh well you
handled yourself, but then you didn't really handle yourself. But
August twenty first, twenty seventeen, Johnson to return to the WWE.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
He's been off to the movies.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
He's doing Hollywood and he's a free agent though that
means he can go from raw to SmackDown.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
When they tried to pretend that the draft actually.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
Mattered, but we have Johnson versus Roman reigns announced for
no mercy.

Speaker 4 (08:01):
Now.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
People were mad that it wasn't like a Big four
favorite that was that was My next question to you
was why, I know no Mercy needs marquee matches too.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
I know you need big things, but you could have
had You have WrestleMania, you have Summer Slam, you have
Survivors here.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
It's like there's a lot of things going on.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Why wait, because John Cena couldn't compete at SummerSlam, So like,
all right, well, how do we get our fall season
to be interested? Oh, we'll give us Roman Versusena in
the fall, so we don't just pile all our best
matches all on one show. Yeah, And I.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Think at this time we were really really catering to
John Cina's and at the time brocress or availability, whatever,
they could show up, We'll book something good for them.
But we really this is the times that we really
started to not know when John was gonna show up,
because he was really he had really like gone into
a part time status.

Speaker 5 (08:54):
And I feel like, you.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
Know, his filming movies is like the rock there's only
a small window that you can get these guys. You
book them when you can't. You know, we talked about
it with the Shield through.

Speaker 5 (09:03):
Put through it.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
There's a couple of matches that Roman hut that I
feel could have been in one of the Big Four,
but at this particular time, I feel like this is
when we could get Sena and then we're gonna book
him because we don't get seen every day.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
Of course, summertime is blockbuster movies.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
That's when celebrities are doing red carpets to promote their films.
And're not gonna be like, hey, let's go and in September,
let's go do a big blockbuster movie.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
No, no one's going to the movies in September.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
The people are like locking themselves in their houses, depending
on what part of the world you live, cause it's
gonna get a little cold.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
But weird about this.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Storyline, John Zena and Roman they always bring up that promo,
you know, promo kid Class and all that stuff. But
somehow Jason Jordan, Kurt Engel's son gets looped into the
storyline as well. They're really trying to make him something
and John Cena fights Jason Jordan on raw. Roman Raine
fights Jason Jordan on raw and they're just building the

(09:54):
storyline based around can John Cena beat Jason Jordan? Can
Roman beat j Jordan's I'm sorry, what the hell are
we doing here? This is how you build John sena
versus Roman reigns your two biggest stars in the past
twenty years around Jason Jordan.

Speaker 5 (10:13):
Yeah, yeah, they did that.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
They but they were really trying to do something with
Jason Jordan at this time.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
Though, so there was not the way to do it.

Speaker 5 (10:20):
No, No, it's not.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
It's not like talk about how to we got a
great storyline, what should it be? I don't know, Like,
we only have the two biggest goats that we have
right now, what should we do?

Speaker 4 (10:32):
Do you promos every week?

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (10:33):
That sounds about right now. We need God Jordan.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
You know, the other day I was streaming off topic,
but I was streaming, and every time he comes out,
you know, because he's in.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
Production of the producers.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, yeah, every time he comes out, I say like,
oh my god, this carrac goes on. And I have
one of those moys where I felt a little old
or maybe were not because did not know what I
was talking about, And I'm like, go back in history,
good luck with that chapter.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
We'll We'll do a whole Jayson Enjoying podcast In the
last time.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
I'm telling you so, I still refer to a mascara
angle son so maybe it works for something, because you
know sometimes when they do something that you're like, what
the hell are they doing? It's tacting your brain more
than some good stories they tell.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yeah, like it tag team partner Shorty g But Roman
Rains with JOHNSONA takes place at No Mercy. Rouman rains
defeats John Cena and this is this is what happens
at the end though this is my favorite moments. It's
been happening to Roman rains for a few years now.
Daniel Brian did it, and now we have JOHNSONA doing it.
When you beat someone everybody wanted to win, they have
to figure out.

Speaker 4 (11:35):
Well, we can't let Broman get booed. Well they have
Johnson to pick up Roman's hand, point at him and like, yeah,
he's the guy. When you do.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
That, that is a bulls eye. Like that's a death
sentence to anybody.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
It's no longer the eighties where if Hogan is friends
with you, you become popular.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
Like, that's not how it works in this timeframe.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
And what do you think about that when they keep
trying to do this with other wrestlers or even Roman here,
like grab your hand and point at him that help him.

Speaker 5 (12:01):
It's funny.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
I don't know. That's like a wrestling fan the but
it drives me crazy. I still I still hate it
when wrestlers like do a show of respect after a
match or something like that.

Speaker 5 (12:11):
It just feels forced, and it's just.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Like, I don't I don't go raise my opponent's arm
after I get in a real fight with so one,
especially for me after as a Robin fan again, after
what he did to it, like you you did him dirty.
You could have just taken a step back in the
problems and all that, and now you're just gonna be like, yeah,
this is the guy, you know. I don't know. Maybe
Jena was like, hey, I was a little otto, Hey

(12:33):
let me turn to help him out.

Speaker 5 (12:34):
But he doesn't help anybody.

Speaker 4 (12:35):
Oh no, Honestly, I don't really understand it.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
I understand like maybe if you work it at WWE
and you're in your many old school minded you're like, oh, well,
let's work twenty years ago.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
Is should worked today?

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Right?

Speaker 4 (12:50):
It doesn't work that way anymore.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Like people are popular because their tech talk accounts are
are blowing up, not because they have five star matches anymore.
Like that's the that's the world we're living in in
twenty seventeen. We're still trying to figure out what the
Internet and social media is to wrestling, and so it's
just strange going through.

Speaker 5 (13:06):
Either like isn't it crazy?

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Like I see what you're saying, but like that's a
conversation we can have on a different show. But if
I if that was the case, then Ria and Roman
who be champs, you know what I mean? Like Cody
and and Punk are not nobody that are moving social
media the way that these other stars are.

Speaker 4 (13:22):
So that of course, of course, I say your.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Point, because they're going for They're going for viral moments
and the TikTokers like that are gonna make the clips. Right,
we are in a short form era, which drives me
crazy because I'm still a good ole. Let me put
a long video in the background while I'm cleaning and
listen to you long, you know. But I do think
to me, it's like it feels that way, But they're
also not really going through with the people that the

(13:48):
social media will want to see on top.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
Well, how many ass videos can you watch? That's my
that's my thought. Listen, I love I love a nice ass.
But if everyone has a nice ass, then everyone has
a nice as well. How does your ass out? I'm sorry,
totally off topic, but uh, anyways, it's about rouman rainess,
not about his Ass't have a nice there.

Speaker 4 (14:10):
You go see some people like that stuff, you know,
I always uh.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
There's another argument from the time too, is when people say, like,
how dare you talk about women like that?

Speaker 4 (14:18):
Well, then I also see people.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Drooling over Rainy Orton or Rooman rains or you know,
people like that. But I'm sorry, can I tell you
the not okay for men to do to women that
it's okay for women to do to men?

Speaker 1 (14:28):
I forgot I objectify male wrestlers.

Speaker 5 (14:33):
I'm glad, and then I tell you about.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
The angry you. Somebody said, how dare you objectify them?

Speaker 5 (14:38):
Tired? And I'm like, and the way didn't you see?

Speaker 1 (14:40):
It's like, uh, well, like you said, I don't mind it, right,
I'm very open minded. I don't mind when.

Speaker 5 (14:45):
Guys do it.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Like if I feel like, if they're going to the gym,
this this superstars will probably.

Speaker 5 (14:51):
Live at the gym.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
You don't think that people will want them to notice that,
you know what I mean? Like, I don't see anything
wrong with it. It gets weird when some people like
don't know how to act around them in person.

Speaker 5 (15:01):
That's when it gets weird, right, because I can say
all kinds of things.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
I met Roman Rains some multiple times. As a matter
of fact, it's the only person that I go quiet
with when I meet him in person because I'm like,
oh my god.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
But that's when it gets weird.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
But I don't have anything against it because I agree
with you.

Speaker 5 (15:17):
It's like, I don't see. As long as you do respectfully,
you know how to act.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Listen, they probably want you to acknowledge the fact that
these people people we realize, don't look like that.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
No, no, and if they do, they're usually like they
work in a gym, you know, because they can work
out all day long. That's their that's their job. But
besides asides and beautiful people. Suddenly we're getting rumors of
the Shield coming back together in October of twenty seventeen,
where Cizarro in uh Seamus and the Miss and Bronze

(15:48):
Truman are all beating up denabros seth Ron's rumen Rains separately.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
So when they beat him up separately.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
Like oh oh, we're gonna get a little teasy here. Well,
Rouman Raine is funning Bronze Struman in a steel cage match,
returns through the ring and attacks, and now we're setting
up a TLC paper review match where it gets e
fin crazy. Okay, so you have the Shield now has reunited,

(16:13):
but they're taking on the miz Shamus, Szarro, Braun, Strowman
and Kane in reality, how is that fair to anybody?

Speaker 4 (16:23):
It's not five on three, but.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
The Shield is the shield, you know what I mean?
Like three shields these words at least one hundred jobbers
that's true.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
So you're thinking, oh, man to me, amazing, we're gonna
get three shield The shields back together, everybody, The Shields
back together.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
No, it's not.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Because breaking news October twentieth, Ruman Range is pulled from
the TLC match due to medical reasons.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
Now, the story is that it was Mumps.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
There was a Mump's outbreak backstage in the WWE and
a lot of stars were removed and Rumme Rains was
one of them.

Speaker 4 (17:03):
Did you believe that momp story? Did you do you
think that's the reason or is it?

Speaker 3 (17:08):
This is where he's having real medical issues and he's
not going to go public with him until about a
year from now.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
I believe that because I believe that we heard I
don't know if it was the same pay per view
or right before, but we heard break at it too, Yeah,
if I was around the same time.

Speaker 5 (17:24):
So it's one of.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Those things that I just believed the story they gave
me because it wasn't the first time that we have
heard it.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Okay, and uh so, who replaces rum and rains? You've
seen the meme, You've seen the image. It's Kurt Angel,
who hasn't wrestled in eleven years in the WWE.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
Well, he's here now in Shield tactical gear.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
What angle watched all of us shield at that time?

Speaker 4 (17:48):
He looked like, God.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
I'm wearing it.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
I'm wearing the Shield gear.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
So weird that it took years for a Shield reunion
to happen officially. But yet we don't get it. We
get Kurt. What a weird, bizarre moment that was?

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah, what it game was one of the greatest memes
of all time.

Speaker 4 (18:05):
Of all time.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
But this this tlc IF Piperview also gave me amazing
moments because the funniest thing is.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
Out of nowhere. The bad guys decide to turn on
Bronze Strowman. Yeah, and it made no sense at all
in the storyline. And then they bury him under a
bunch of chairs.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
But then bron Schreman gets up, fights back because he's
a monster among men.

Speaker 4 (18:26):
So what do they do. They have a garbage truck.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
And they throw Bronze Strowman in the garbage truck and
then shut it.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
So we're to believe that he's possibly squished dead. We're dead. Yes,
it never it never made sense to me. You know.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
The Shield win with Kurt Angle, that's great, but what
a crazy ass match. And the best part about this
when bron Schouman does return, the garbage truck backs up
slowly into the arena while miz In Bo Dallas and
Curtis Axel and Maurice are inside of a limousine in
bron Schowman comes out. And that is where I fell

(19:03):
in love with braunz Stroman. When he survived being murdered.
I was all in on bron Strumman.

Speaker 4 (19:09):
That's just my.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Thoughts, all right, Okay, Well, I not my not my guy,
but I know how much you love him.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
I will, I will love I will always love Braun Ambray.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
But Savivor series is coming up though, and no Rumman
rings because he's still out with medical injury, you know,
the mumps. This is also one of the most bizarre,
strangest Survivor Series matches of all time, where Triple H
starts himself into this, where Kurt Angle's in it, Shane
McMahon's in it. It really made no sense. Even at

(19:39):
the end when Brounz Strouman stares down Triple H and
scares Triple H. Did we get a storyline with Triple Bronze.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
Strumman after this? Did he get anything after this? Uh?

Speaker 3 (19:48):
Zero Deadley squat. It was like they were just writing
Survivor series for Survivor series. They didn't think, maybe tomorrow
we should continue this.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
No do that a lot, remember when we already discussed it,
But they did it with did Ambrose too when he
was forming that feud and they had that match and
Triple H one But I remember Dean's foot was under
the rope and nothing was ever found. It's like they
gave him the match to wake the people shut up
about Dinner Ambrose And remember that the Wresumantia match was
Triple Asian Roman. You know what I mean, but it

(20:18):
was like you had a funky finish and they never
really followed up with it. They did that a lot
during this time, and they still do it. Actually, they
still teach stuff that we never get to see.

Speaker 4 (20:27):
Yeah, well we read off the team for you.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
We have Team Rods, Kurt Angle, Bronze Strumman, Finn Balor,
Samoa Joe, and originally Jason Jordan, but Triple A was like,
not on my watch, So Triple Ah replaces Jason Jordan.
They defeat teams. Yeah, it doesn't work for me. Brother,
got a sledgehammer here, want on your face or your belt?

Speaker 4 (20:47):
What do you want?

Speaker 3 (20:48):
Team SmackDown at Shane McMahon, Rainy Or and Bobby Rude
just k Knackamoor and out of nowhere, they added John
Sena into the match as well.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, oh my god, that's a good throwback. I forgot
about that now you're im.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
Team Raw if they lost, kard Angle would have to
be fired as the Raw general manager Team Raw Onon,
So we didn't get that. It's just one of the
strangest moments where Triple H is on the ground in
the corner and bronze. Truman's grabbing his by his face
and he's all afraid, and I'm thinking, oh shir, we're
gonna get broad Wrestle Badia.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
We didn't. We didn't get that. We didn't get that.
I was very sad.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
This is around the time, though, you have ron Smacks
and having separate pay per views. So Raw is with
Roman Rain, so he doesn't wrestle on pay per views
often because it's every other month he has to wrestle.

Speaker 4 (21:43):
So they skip the December pay per view. They go
into Royal Rumble.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
Roman Rains has returned, he's medically cleared, no longer has
the mumps. But he doesn't win the Royal Rumble. He
is actually uh second to last. He gets tossed out
by Shakamura. I was very happy eliminated.

Speaker 5 (22:01):
In the last two.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
It is always the last one I eliminated it or
second to last one. He doesn't when he's in a rombol.
So happy in a Camara, by the way, and they
did a lot of teasing with him and said rollins
in this roy rombo. I attended this Royal rombo. It
was in Philly, and and I was I was so.
I mean, I hated the follow up and we still
haven't recovered from it, but I've been a.

Speaker 5 (22:24):
Big Chain Sky fan and used to see him point
at design. It was.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
It was such an awesome moment because you didn't think
they will go through with it. But the best part
of this rombo was we had like a passing presence
there that I remember. You had Raymonsterio Johnson and Randy
Orton and on the other side you had Shin's k
Roman and film Balor if I'm not mistaken, and it
just felt like a passing of the torch. One of
those generational generation moments that felt really freaking cool, but

(22:48):
with Romans still being left in the mix. Of course,
people didn't want him still at the time, and I
do think that helped elevate that pop that Shin's Ky
got because honestly, nobody told that they were gonna do it.
Nobody thought nope.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
This is also the roy Rumbo ward they had asco
one the roy Rumble.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
As well in the first ever women's Royal Rumbo, which
made event because it was the first ever women and
they did that rumbo so well, that's you know, that's not.

Speaker 5 (23:13):
What this podcast is about. But I have very.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Fund memories of the way that they booked that first
women's from Ale with the right legends, with the right
new stars, Like it was just it was fun and
it felt like a celebration of how far.

Speaker 5 (23:24):
Women's wrestling has come. It was it was a fun event.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
I went to Philadelphia that there were no tickets, Steve,
I bought my tickets as the gates were opening on
stuffhop very last minute listen is an adrenaline rush. I
recommend that.

Speaker 5 (23:38):
You will get the deal of your life.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
But if you're if you're a little Carol gambling, you
might not want to do it. But yeah, I went
to Philly, I sat down, had cheese. They kept waiting
for the time to go down. Tickets get going down,
and I'm like, I mean.

Speaker 3 (23:51):
Wow, wow, I've only done that recently when I played
the game of the Gamble and uh, as I'm driving
into money, not row, I'm making Oh these tickets that
were there are now disappearing very quickly. But also all
the tickets are going down very quickly. So you munta me,
you had a good choice. So ninety six dollars to
go see John cen Know when the Intercontinental title, I

(24:12):
It's domb in Boston. Obstructed view. It was like a
wire way over there, hanging in the cup. It was
even my way.

Speaker 4 (24:19):
I could see right through it.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
So it was interesting that I've never done that before,
But so it is.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
It is fun and it's a little bit of an
adrenaline rush. I don't recommend you do it, like the
way that I tell people when they ask me.

Speaker 5 (24:30):
It's like if you got to take slices and book hotels.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Don't do it.

Speaker 5 (24:32):
Get your tickets ahead of time.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
But if it's something that you can drive to and
if IY any chance you don't get the loto, you
can just drive back home. Why not. I was leaving
in New York City at the time. Philly was, you know,
two hour drive.

Speaker 4 (24:43):
Why not?

Speaker 5 (24:44):
I got very lucky doing that.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
And it sells like people are doing it more often
now because the tickets prices have gotten so crazy. But
at this time, I remember I paid it, like I
think it was like one ten per seats to get
into a royal roombo that. When I got to Philadelphia,
cheapest ticket was like three forty six. So think about it,
you know what I'm telling you. The gates open at
six thirty. I'm pretty sure I got the email with

(25:06):
my tickets are like six fifty because I wait until
gates were open, they had to drop everything.

Speaker 5 (25:11):
I had a great view.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
But that listen, that's we should we should make a
show about weird things that US wrestling fans do, because
I see a lot of people waiting to last minute.
But man, they get some good seats.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
Oh in today's world, one hundred percent more so than
ever because for a while they're unaffordable. Yeah, it's like,
what do you what do you expect people to do now? Like, oh,
we'd rather have you just buy crazy amount of tickets.

Speaker 4 (25:31):
Well, you know what if you do?

Speaker 3 (25:33):
Because I brought this up to Sean Moune and the
Golden Era podcast where I talked about it, where they like,
wrestling fans are generational.

Speaker 4 (25:40):
My my father, my grandfather.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
Okay, well I bring my son, say my son in
fifteen twenty years as a kid, but he can't go
to wrestling because unaffordable. So then his son can't go,
Then his son can't go, and then you've lost a
generation of wrestling fans because no longer are we sharing memories.
I remember when I did this, or I did that,
so you're not I know, it's a business. So you're
trying to make money now, yeah, thank you. Well in

(26:04):
fifty years we need to make money. It's like, yeah,
but what you're doing is you're clipping yourself out slowly
at a time. We're not realizing that eventually you're you'll crumble.
And but you're like, well, each ticket is now seven
thousand dollars, we're making our money. Yeah, but what if
those people stop buying your tickets, Well, then you don't
have you don't have fans, you have people who have money.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
It's such an interesting topic and conversation because I am
with you when you think about it. My grandpa loved it,
thought it to my mom. My mom passed it on
to me and my nephews. We have my nephews.

Speaker 5 (26:34):
Bonded over it. That's how I got back into it.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
And it's like really funny because even on my group chat,
did they we were having a conversation about John Cena's
last match, where you know, my nephew's like the biggest
Jon Ccena fan, and even him, who is comfortable and
has his own job now and everything was like, I
don't know if I want to spend that much for a
John Cina match because you know this, that's.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
All this this, this event is going to be surrounded around.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
And it's it's really funny because it's very rare that
I meet a wrestling fan doesn't tell me, oh my
mom used to watch it, or I used to go
with my dad, or I used to do this, you know,
and that the interview that we recently heard, would they
make Viz bac Man look like a face because this
try a price for families, you know, And it was
like crazy because I'm like, I look now in retrospect

(27:17):
and I have that ring sign I have to do
all this and when I look at the pricess and
I'm like, I wouldn't. I wouldn't go to these events.
And the way that I think about it is that
if I had all the money in the world, would
I spend it on this?

Speaker 5 (27:28):
No, not on what they're delivering right now.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
I wouldn't. That's like wasting your.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
Money ten thousand dollars to sit and watch Roy Rumble,
I'm sorry, Like or what Roy Rumble?

Speaker 4 (27:38):
Just a normal mercy?

Speaker 1 (27:41):
You know, all the fire If you had all the
money in the world and you look at the car,
and you look at how the shows are panning out right, now,
would you spend it on this? I wouldn't.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
No, I wouldn't. I was even questioning spending nine six dollars.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
For the record before we go, and you got a
great episode of Row, the best I remember a months.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
I was very happy about it.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
I'm glad we talked about ticket prices because that is,
you know, you went to this royal rumble and knocking
Mora wins, you spent what one hundred and ten dollars.
In today's world, if you went to a rumble, now,
you're not spending one hundred and ten dollars. So I'm
glad we brought that up because sometimes rants are needed.
I don't like being nice. To be nice some.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
People, well ever, being so negative. It's not everyone's being
so negative.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
Everyone just realizes all the same time, we're not enjoying
what we're watching, you know, like, how dare you be mean?
Shut the fuck up, I'm not being mean, But let's
move on. Elimination chamber.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
Event thinking I got my money work.

Speaker 4 (28:37):
Yeah, one hundred and ten dollars.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
Man Ruman reigns, though he wins their elimination chamber in
twenty eighteen. It's the first ever seven man elimination chamber match,
which you know whatever, but Braun Showman eliminates five people
in the match. Then this is where all the Roman
haters appear, because Braun defeats everyone. When Roman gets out
of the he's like all three Superman punches two spears.

(29:01):
So in reality, I bet someone's like, well, if Roman
beat Braun, that means he beat Braun, who beat further people?

Speaker 4 (29:07):
So Roman beat everybody.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
I'm angry rage he did that. I mean, Broad just
eliminated five people. Common says will tell you that Roman
he's gonna retire, so you'd be a lot easier for
Roman to beat here.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
Yeah, Well, the brock Lesnar feud then begins once again.
We are back in the Roman reins brock Lesnar land,
and this is where we keep seeing stories online about
brock Lesner being advertised for Ros and then not showing
up to them like you would see the week before,
Like next week brock Lesner will be here and then
they wouldn't even acknowledge that they advertised brock Lesnar.

Speaker 4 (29:44):
They're like, oh, like what graphic.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
But this is when Roman rain starts calling brock Lesner
a part time champion, and this is all about Vince Mann,
even confronting Vince McMahon, and then he Roman got suspended,
you know on television. Roman Reign though, is arrested by
the police, and while he's arrested, Rock Leser beat the

(30:09):
ship out of him while being handcuffed. You were there,
Describe the feelings.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
I love that segment. I love that segment, and it
felt so brutal, and I was I was hyped for this.

Speaker 5 (30:20):
I know I was the only one, Steve.

Speaker 4 (30:21):
I know I might have been you were the only one.

Speaker 5 (30:23):
I was excited.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
I think the Resumania thirty one match was so good
and I was excited to see it again. And this,
this field, this era made me question everything, like I
went through through a struggle as a fan because there
was a part of me that, obviously, these are my
two favorite guys.

Speaker 5 (30:42):
We discussed this. I don't have to go over that anymore.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
But there's a part of me that felt like the
fans were so convinced that Roman was They're just gonna
put the title Roman that I was like, I felt
like Brock was Romance witness. So it was a part
of me that kept telling you. No, No, Romans not
beating Rock and WrestleMania.

Speaker 4 (30:58):
He's not.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
But people thought that was gonna go away, especially with disappearances.
He wasn't going showing up. People thought that Brock was
just not in the not into it anymore, and they
were just gonna put it on Roman. So I know
we'll get to WrestleMania. But I might have been rooting
for Roman to not win here, but it wasn't because
I didn't like him. It was because I stopped. Putting
the title on him would just make everything so much worse.

(31:22):
So it was like a weird moment where I'm like,
if they put the title here, it's gonna be the end.

Speaker 5 (31:27):
Like it's just they can't do it.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Defense are gonna it's gonna be a sorry for the world,
but it's gonna be a jet show. So it was
like a weird moment for me because I was struggling.
You know, I was a fan. I want to see
the match. I don't care who wins because it's my
two favorite guys. But at the same time, I'm like,
they put the title Romer right now, it's gonna be
it's gonna be over that.

Speaker 5 (31:46):
I was like wrestling's gonna be over.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
The fence, is gonna stop watching.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
Possibly some might have stopped watching, you know, I always
love my favorites, like around this time, even today's world,
you always see it like I don't need your tweet
to tell me you're done watching. I don't get give
a shit if you're watching. I don't give a shit
if you're not watching. I don't need your diary about
why you don't like something anymore. I'm sorry, I don't,
so please stop doing it today, stop doing it in
twenty seventeen. I don't give a shit about your feelings.

(32:13):
We all have our own problems and this world, and
I don't give a crap about your problems.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
My favorite, My favorite is that tiktoks are the YouTube
videos where they just sit there like it's the most
depressing thing in the world that they're gonna stop watching wrestling,
And I'm like, it's gonna keep going with or without you.
He has kept going this entire time, Like why are
you putting out? Why are you sitting down in camera
and putting it like record yourself talk about you're not
gonna watch wrestling anymore.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Well, especially around this time, because I know people stop
watching because they're like, oh, well, I don't like what
they're doing, so I'm gonna stop watching. My favorite, I'm
gonna describe. I'm gonna show exactly what these videos are.
So imagine the videos are recording. I'm already sitting here.
My favorite is like somehow they're off camera, like, Okay,
we gonna hit record, goa hit record, hit record. Like oh, guys, guys,

(32:58):
you know, like, I'm just not feel it anymore.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
You have fucking record before you sat down, Like it's
all set up. I don't care about your feeling.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
The only thing that you miss is that they never
really stay right at the camera. They have the camera
set up in an angle where they're looking at I
don't know what that. Oh my god, that is so good.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
With the lips missing.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, like it's gonna keep going with or without you.
But I really feared I didn't don't know I was
gonna keep watching, you know what I mean. So I'm
not gonna make a big deal with it, but I
really fear what it will be like for Romance is
at this time, with all the hostility that he was,
you know, dealing with from defense, if they put the
title him, I felt like it was a mistake.

Speaker 5 (33:41):
So I was like, let's just.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
Keep running with Brock, like, if these are the two
options that we got.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
Yeah, and that Us Marshall thing was a great piece
of I loved it because nobody Again I'm not saying nobody,
but some people loved Rum and some hater room and
well they really enjoyed watching him get his ass handed
to them. While heyway, because the trick crowd is cheering
for brock Lesnar at this point on an episode of Row,
when he's just beating down Roman. And again, I think

(34:08):
in Vince McMahon's mind or creative is like, oh, if
you beat up Roman, he's handcuffed.

Speaker 4 (34:13):
He can't help himself. Now I was getting beat up.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
They'll sympathize with him, they'll cheer him. But yet there
is a large margin of fans who don't care about him.
There's also a very large margin who do care about him.
So I get why you can't cater to the online hate.
I get why you can't cater to the little boys
and little girls who are cheering him. So like, you
have to find a beautiful middle ground. But this WrestleMania,

(34:37):
this WrestleMania has so much going on because again it
is leaked online that oh, Roman Reigns is going to win,
like he is going to win this matchup we are
told flat out is gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
People were over like people that are washing this. If
you weren't washing during this era, you need to understand
that Brock was shim for like four hundred days at
this point. Yeah, and he's not showing up like he
he was the part timer of Part Timer. I know
we see part Time now and we see Roman do
the part time thing and know the but it was yeah,
it was new around this time, and we broke being advertised.

(35:10):
And you will get all high because believe it or not,
I know, people don't want to believe this, but Brock
is a rock bro who sell tickets and people will
show up, people will look forward people, and he wasn't there.
So you have the people that a lot of the
Internet hates against the people that a lot of the
Internet are are over like, and it's like, how you're
gonna eat. It was one of the worst matchups they

(35:31):
could have made, even though there was a few like
me that wanted to see the rematch, because on paper,
the resumea thirty one match was really freaking good, and
they had a terrible build. So you have people like
me that I was like, whoa the resume? Thirty one
went off the air with them playing toggle Wars and
they put on a banger. Why not do it again
and shut everybody up?

Speaker 3 (35:50):
Well, they didn't have seth wrongs the same this time.
But during the match up, brock Lesn moves his gloves.
That's beating down room raines.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Which he did at thirty one, which he did.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
Yes, yeah, well if you're a brand new fan, you
wouldn't know that.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
And so Roman's bleeding all over the place, and there's
the crowd is going wild. They're chanting for seam Punk,
who is not active in wrestling at this point in time.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
Boring, this is awful.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
Beach balls are in the crowd, people are hitting beach balls,
are enjoying themselves. There. Lesner wins with six f fives
and retains. Now there's a video that circulates, if I'm correct,
at brock Lesner after this walks backstage and just hums
throws the World Championship at Vince McMahon and he walks away.

(36:32):
And so now we're like, wait a minute, is this real.
Is this not real? Like we're very confused because if
I'm Brock Lesner and I'm supposed to lose to Roman,
and now I didn't lose to Roman. Like, I don't
know how Brock feels about when the crowd doesn't appreciate him,
because Brock's out there still doing the work. And if
you can feel whatever you want about these wrestlers, they're
still out there putting in the work for our entertainment.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
I think that there was a lot of things that
said this two guys saw for failure and I'd be
wanting to was a social experiment where I watched the
match on mute, because I do think the crowd ruined
a lot of this, like seeing Roman Rings bleeding the
way that he was bleeding. I remember just not being
able to get into it because of the crowd. However,
I will say that booking set them up for failure.
I told you it was one of the worst possible

(37:16):
matchups that you couldn't made. This WrestleMania was a mess
in the whole part that the best match was so
probably opener. The icy title match were set, you know,
one finally wanted and you had the mess that they
did with shinsk and Aga styles which we all number
one one at A two main events, number two one
A shans Kate win and they gave shan Ski this
grand entrance. You know, I think I remember this WrestleMania

(37:39):
for Ronda Ralsey having an amazing debut match, and that's
about and that's about it, you know what I mean,
Like everything else, I like to forget about.

Speaker 5 (37:46):
Oh and shans Kate's entrance.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Funny enough, after Shin's Kate's entrance, I don't remember anything
else because there was so much hype going into chains
Kare and agastous because of the match that had priorly
put on, you know, a New Japan. So I feel
like this WrestleMania. But by the time we get to
Roman and Brock, which nobody wanted it to Vinavent and
somehow the book it for theyn event, it was just,

(38:08):
oh yeah, Aska looses the streak to Charlotte Flair, like
this Wrestlevania. By the time you get to Roman and Brock,
you have lost the fans a long time ago. You
gotta you got we got Johnsina an undertaker and it
and it'll be like a sixty second match, like you
set these guys up for the crowd that they got,
and he drives me crazy.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
I'm so happy you brought all that up, because yes,
there was a lot of like.

Speaker 4 (38:30):
Wait, what are we doing? Wait? Why is this happening? O?
Wait what?

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (38:33):
Okay, now it's like midnight in Brockvar's rooman come out.
This is when WrestleMania would have started four pm in
the afternoon.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
And go to almost one in the morning, and me
and my.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
Buddy is watching it half asleep, trying to get through it,
knowing we have work or kids or something to do
tomorrow morning. I'm very happy to move things to Saturdays,
but very strange. And Roman Reins is now no longer.
You know, he's not gonna.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
Be champion here and bloodied and bloodied up. So what
should we do? Should we move on beyond this? No,
because we have.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
Royal rumble slash, the greatest royal rumble of all time
in Saudi Arabia. It's a steel cage rematch. It's Roman
Ring versus brock Lessner. Well the ending is Roman rain
spears brock lesnar through the cage. And I'm watching this
like everybody else, and I think we're all thinking the
same thing as well. Both men fell out of the cage,
so technically somebody won because you hit the ground right

(39:27):
and fly over. Well, Roman Rains clearly lands.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
First on the outside. Clearly, no, but we can't have that.

Speaker 3 (39:35):
The referee rules that brock Lenner escaped first, so technically
he's incorrect there.

Speaker 4 (39:41):
But yeah, massive controversy.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
Nobody was happy here, and Roman Rains claims conspiracy theories
that he got screwed here. And this is again a
point where you're like, Okay, you're trying to protect Roman,
but you are not helping with these camera.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
Angles, not helping him that. I would have not even
shown a replay of this if you didn't think he
landed the right way.

Speaker 5 (40:01):
You know, because man, poor Rob Rob has been through it.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
We owe the tribal chief an apology. I's so funny
because obviously we know how I feel about both of
these guys, but I feel like, to protect my mental health,
I mentally erased this match of my memory.

Speaker 4 (40:17):
Yeah, well, honestly, I'm gonna let.

Speaker 5 (40:20):
Me take that back.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
I raised the entire greatest Royal Roman in my memory
because I should have never freaking happened.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
How dare you, Bronze Strumman won a fifty man Royal
Rumble match.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
Fifty men.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
Remember the he had the Saudi championship and he held
it up. He's still champion, he never lost it.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
The only thing that lives in my memory for this
event was a picture of Daniel Bryant's chess looking insane.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
Yeah, this is not a good event.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
Again again, I'm guessing they got fifty million dollars to
have the greatest Roy Rumble in Saudi Arabia. And as
we podcast, maybe in ten years listen to this. But
Roy Rumble and Russell MANI will be in Saudi as well,
and millions of dollars are there and people are upset.
But guess what money talks to corporations And uh, that's
what happened.

Speaker 4 (41:05):
Here.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
By the way, meet my dog Romans.

Speaker 4 (41:08):
Here we go.

Speaker 3 (41:08):
I think we I think if anyone knows thea you
have seen that dog on the streams that she pumps
out every single damn day of the week.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
So she's a she's a trooper, she's suffering.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
Alla. I like to wake sure everybody knows that my
dog is about to turn eight, because I was accused
one time of naming my dog Roman like post rival cheap,
like everybody likes Roman. Now, I'm like, no, no, no,
this was weep. I think my dog Roman when you
guys didn't like Roman. Thank you very much.

Speaker 4 (41:34):
Good point.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
Yeah, screen people, this is a therapy session. God damn it.
Samoa Joe, though, returns to the WWE calls Rom andraines
of failure and yeah, we got our big matchup at Backlash.
It's Roman Raine versus Samoa Joe. And I texted you
about this Backlash twenty eighteen. As I said on our

(41:58):
last podcast about Extreme Rules twenty sixteen, this Backlash is
one of the worst WWE pay per views of all time.
People always say December to December or you know certain WrestleManias. No,
this Backlash is one of the worst. This is the
first time I've ever watched an event while the entrances
while the match is happening. I said to myself, you

(42:19):
know what, I think it wasted my time and I
shut it off and I said, I am done here.
I didn't even have to go on Twitter the next day.
It was all about how terrible Backlash was. Do you
remember the Samojo re Mariines set up? And do you
remember this backlash.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
Yes, I remember because it was in Newark, New Jersey,
which is one of the places that I tend to
attend every time they came to it, and I didn't go. Now,
I wasn't feeling well. It wasn't like a like a
decision on purpose because of the car or whatever.

Speaker 5 (42:46):
You know.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
At this time, I was attending everything that I could,
but I remember not going, and then I remember washing
the event, going maybe it's a good thing, I'm not
feeling so hot to do it, and I stay home
because I was gonna do. I do remember looking at
last minute tickets that day and they were cheap and
there was a lot available, and I was like, there's
not so much time going into this. I was excited

(43:07):
for Roman and some more Joe just because come on,
you know. I remember tweeting out memes like because we
all know Romans for your name is Joe. Yeah. I
remember tweeting out memes of someone Joe your order on
the internet versus what you get, you know, those kinds
of things. So I was having fun whatever, but my god,
this event was terrible.

Speaker 4 (43:27):
Styles versus ends in a draw. Yeah. Yeah, So then
we recovered.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
I feel like a j and Chinsky never recover from
this field because they did them so dirty. It's so
bad to get them like a j recover a little
bit better than chans K. But we haven't really seen
Aja being anything of major interest post this now.

Speaker 4 (43:49):
Carmala also beat Chelte Flair. If you want to know
how I mean.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
I had we had?

Speaker 5 (43:54):
Isn't this the Elsworth.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Were We're we're we've we've exited the Elsworth era of
the w WE. But we have Rollins versus mis Nijack's
selects Bliss, Jeff Hardy versus Orton, Daniel Bryan versus big casts.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
And this is when he came out as a heel
and he covered up the sea of his name, so
it says big ass.

Speaker 4 (44:20):
On the giant monitor behind him.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
You know what. We teach that kind of things sometimes.
I a lot of people are complaining about about it
right now, and I'm like, now, we we passed a
baptize man. This is normally happens, funny enough. It's typically
around this time of the year too.

Speaker 4 (44:38):
Of course, money in the bank is after after this.

Speaker 5 (44:42):
Money the banks been all over the place.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
I remember put in the bank this time of the year.
Then they moved it to after so I'm like, wait,
what are we doing not in YI since September or
something like that. What are we doing with money in
the bank?

Speaker 3 (44:56):
I don't know, but it's strange that, like one of
the ban started at WrestleMania twenty one, and then years
would go on and they realize, oh, it's profitable, let's
have our own pay per view. So one year they
actually had money in the bank at WrestleMania and a
money in the bank pay per view that year. But
then since then we've had them all over the place,
sometimes the fall, sometimes the summer, sometimes the beginning of

(45:16):
the year.

Speaker 4 (45:17):
What do you prefer?

Speaker 3 (45:18):
Because honestly, I did love the money in the bank
for a long time, and now ifn't hate it because
once someone has it, every championship match you're like, well,
I don't care about this because I'm waiting for someone
just to run down and do a little cash in
or attempt to do a cash and it ruins the
matches because you have a briefcase that can ruin the
entire ending.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
Pop plug I made a video conspiring about whether Triple
loves money in the bank or not, because you know
that was going around that tripos the concept, and there's
I talked about how much he's booked his briefcase holders
the same way, which is teasing, teasing, teasing so much
that when the cashing finally happens, you don't even care,
you know, or completely burying the briefcase by having the

(45:59):
news and media through mc tire, you know. But I like,
I like the thought of it when they when they
when they book it the right way, they really did
it in a way where he elevated the personal set.
Rollins was somebody that always felt like a thread with
the briefcase without having to tease a cashion every freaking
championship match, you know. Uh Io, what's another one in

(46:19):
recent memory that I remember she had a briefcase and
she catched it in fairly soon after, but she wasn't
teasing a cash in every single time. So when she
did it on Bianca, it hit you know. But I
like the concept.

Speaker 5 (46:30):
It's just I wish they would just do.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
More with it, agreed, or figure out a different winds presented,
like have a clock on it veru not not a year,
like you only have thirty days, like something on the
lines of that, So it makes it more oh, next
thirty days.

Speaker 4 (46:44):
He has to do this, So she has to do this.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
It makes you want to tune in because it has
to be done, you know by a certain time.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Have a coundown clock going on that damn you have
a clock actually on the briefcase, then you can buy
it you put on your room.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
As you're alarm clock for work or school. Look at
that double edge.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
So Remainder is not winning money in the bank, so
we are supposed to have brock Legs to defend the
championship extreme rules. According to the rumors, brock Lester does
not want to wrestle this month, so vince whatever you
want pile so Brock doesn't wrestle. So we're leading into
Roman Reigns saying he's an uncrowned champion and he's the
number one contender. Even though he lost the money in

(47:21):
the bank match Bobby.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
Lash where he landed first, he was still going with
that conspiracy.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Well that's true, but it won't show that video replace,
so that doesn't even matter in today's world. So then
Bobby Lashley suddenly is inserted to this storyline where Rains
and Bobby Lashley have to team up to take on
the Revival FTR and can they work together? Well, they
can't work together, so they have a match Extreme Rules.
So the uncrowned world champion Roman Rains loses to Bobby

(47:51):
Lashley here at this event. Well, guess what happens in
the next month at SummerSlam. Does Bobby Lashley fight brock
Lesson for the title?

Speaker 4 (48:02):
No, no, he doesn't. Roman reigns.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
You just lost to Bobby Lashley is suddenly now the
number one contender to.

Speaker 4 (48:10):
Brock let Us.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
There's a championship at SummerSlam. Tell me how that makes
sense in your brain?

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Because they saw how they crowd reacted to that Wrestle
thirty four match and they were like they were going crazy.
They were chanting, no match, let's book again.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
That kind of makes sense. You know what that actually
that actually doesn't make sense.

Speaker 4 (48:29):
Uh yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
Kurdan Angle made as the Raw general manager. Two triple
threat matches kard Angle. So Roman Rains defeats Finnball and
Drew McIntyre. Lastly he defeats Elias and Roman reigns. Then
Roman defeats Lashley in a match to earn the championship match.
And you know, I guess the controversy around this is
Roman must be pushing no matter what, doesn't matter, if

(48:51):
he lost, doesn't matter, if he wins, keep pushing Roman.
But we're here, we are Summer Slam. Do you think now, honestly,
take your Roman and Brock lesser hats off for a
minute and honestly think, do you think as a fan
who's paying money to go to these or watch these events,
do you think that they're interested in seeing Roman versus

(49:11):
Brock again? Or this is like what you just said.
Vin saw reactions, so he sees reactions, which means we're
doing something right.

Speaker 5 (49:19):
I was at this event.

Speaker 4 (49:21):
You were at this event.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
Yeah, this was why Summer sent for some reason, wasn't
New York every year. So I got very lucky with
four great weekends there. But because I think it was
for years in a row, I felt a hype around
the event, not necessarily the match. I hope that makes sense.
It was a whole weekend that will make a weekend
out of it, like they do now. Right, we're getting
an XT, We're getting summersm we were getting wrong. So

(49:44):
there was a hype. The place was crowded. Wasn't this
match that draw them in the building? No, but people
were excited to be there, and he sold out, and
he sold out. But this is when Summerset was also
in smaller and that's where it was a easier to
sell it out. You know, this was before the stadium
sommers E era. We're just sitting up barkleys. You just

(50:06):
need to sell about seventeen thousand tickets. It wasn't hard
to do because it felt it was a thing. You
will make a whole weekend out of the thing. So
they were doing that very smart because they weren't coming
to New York often because they knew they were coming
for Summers and so you wanted to get those tickets sold.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
Now everyone heading into the not everyone. I keep saying
that Roman in Brock heading into this. People were not
excited about this matchup. They thought, oh god again because
because we've seen it over and over and again.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
So there Roman and Brock are in the ring.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
Out of nowhere, brounze Truman and music hits and everyone
I remember watching it, She's like.

Speaker 4 (50:40):
Holy shit, they're gonna save the day.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
So Broun announced as he will cash in on the
winner immediately. So he stands outside waiting for this match
to end, which I love because it added the elements
of like, Okay, who's gonna win, because whoever wins is
gonna get cash.

Speaker 4 (50:55):
In immediately by Bronze Trumman.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
So it added another layer to this though, So nope, sorry, sorry,
bron because you get f five by Brock Lesner, so
you're taken out, not.

Speaker 5 (51:08):
Just that five after he had five.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Then Brock grabs the briefcase and throws one of the
greatest throws I've ever seen, because he sends a briefcase
throw ringside to like backstage, like he hit the.

Speaker 5 (51:20):
Wall where the rev where they come out. It's one
look at h that throw was impressive brock Lesser.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
It's a freakthleet though.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
Yeah, he he's thrown car doors before, so he's he's
easily throwing briefcases.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
But it's so funny because if you think about it, thing, God,
he went in that direction, that could have been somebody
in the crowd the way you picked it up and
thought that like brock Lifter does.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
Not give a single ever, No Vince would have been like,
that's fine, We're gonna just give a fan a couple
of T shirts.

Speaker 4 (51:46):
They'll be happy. Here's a basic man shirt. We're we
gonna arrested hair? Where has that free shirt?

Speaker 1 (51:53):
You get to be broke?

Speaker 5 (51:54):
How?

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (51:55):
You want to meet him?

Speaker 1 (51:56):
No? Why not meet the guy that crack my head
open with a flying briefcase.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
That's true, that's true.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
I want to be someone who like totally messed up
your head and your brain forever with a briefcase to
the face.

Speaker 5 (52:08):
Allegedly the gifts I hit him with the card of
that door. Got to meet him, that's what I heard.

Speaker 4 (52:13):
Good for him?

Speaker 3 (52:14):
Uh? No, I do I do like this Lesli destroying Strumman,
which really, because again I'm all, I'm all in on
this Bronz Strumman cashing on somebody because I wasn't interested,
at least personally.

Speaker 4 (52:23):
As a fan.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
But I didn't want to say, Braun, that's champion. I
know you were a big fan, but I feel so
at this point, I'm like, no, I want to stay
in my Roman or Brock ere I get rid of him.
Broun did that in in well, in the in the
in the only way that.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
Brock him, of course, and so Brock uh destroys Strumman,
gets back in the ring with the steel chair, Roman
spears him and wins his first Universal Champion, Chip Brock
had the.

Speaker 4 (52:51):
Title for five hundred and four days.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
The Reign of Terror is over and the new Reign
of Terror begins with Roman reigns as are uni.

Speaker 4 (53:01):
I'm just joking. I'm just joking.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
I know, I know, I know. We'll talk about it
on the next podcast.

Speaker 5 (53:06):
But this is this is when it gets sad.

Speaker 4 (53:08):
It does get immediately sad after this.

Speaker 3 (53:10):
But yeah, that'll be on next week's podcast of the
History of Rum and Rains right here on the Wrestling
History Channel. But you know, last week we said that
Kevin Owens might be Roman Rain's gres rival, but we'll
have to do some math on matches when we get
to the Tribal Chief era, because I think the Brock
is number two.

Speaker 4 (53:25):
Yeah, Brocket's number two.

Speaker 5 (53:27):
I know that Brock is number two.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
I think I am certain that he thought Kevin Owens
more because of Rowan smackdowns matches were Brock never wrestled there.
But if you have to ask me, it's definitely Kevin Owens.
Brock impossibly rollins. That's probably the top three that I
will tell you, like off the top of my head,
without researching.

Speaker 4 (53:45):
Of course.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
And I think the funny part about all this is
Kevin Owens might have wrestled Roman rains more, but no
one complains about that.

Speaker 4 (53:52):
Everyone complains about Roman versus brock lesniw. Why is that?
Is it because fans like Kevin Owens because he's like them.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
I think they were in a creative folk because these
are the matches that I don't like out of the rivalry,
you know, like the resulmanatary one was great, and I
do think the stuff that they did with him as
a private chief was really good, except for there were
so minion Dallas. That match was kind of there, but
that that last man's standing match whatever.

Speaker 5 (54:16):
I think that they work well together. I don't understand
why they hate for Bronck.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
I think I think Brock is you know what personal
things asiety, I don't. I never understood the lack of
appreciation for for Brock listener and talking about this era,
not even talking about now. I never understood how people
did not understand what we were having in.

Speaker 5 (54:35):
Front of us.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
I got like, you guys don't see this in front
of bo.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
Well again, look at that five hundred and four days
of Brockleausner as champion. You find any championship match he
hit on pay per view all like holy shit moments.
When you're watching it, you're like, well, I know it's
supposed to be, you know, predetermined, These punches are supposed
to be pulled.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
But Brockleusner is.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
Killing Bronze Truman, Samoa, Joe Roman reigns multi Multiman Man.
Anytime brock defended his championship, it was always a holy shit.

Speaker 4 (55:03):
Moment type match.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
Even though you might have kicked and screamed all the
way to the event, when you got to the event,
brock lesn't always delivered.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
So the hate on him is maybe a personal reason.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
So warranted in my opinion, and even at this time,
it's just so warranted.

Speaker 5 (55:17):
This is what Brock does.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
And like a lot of times he'll go and squat
your favorite and I'm like, why are you trump? This
is what Brock does. Like they thought of that throughout
his hisstory.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
Yeah, and this this year for Roman reigns, from Summer
Slim to Summer Slam, I think we're we're I think
it's a good year for him. I think we're finally
seeing I guess he's leveled up a little bit. That
John Cena, though kicking off the year in No Mercy,
really destroying him on maybe his confidence for that moment,
maybe woman finally realized, Okay, I gotta level up here

(55:49):
because there's all the big there's other guys out here
who can tear me apart instantly if I let them.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
It's funny to look at it on retrospect because the
beginning of this year from Summerson to Somerset could have
really been the end if he let that Johnson I
think just completely destroy his confidence. But he goes on
to end the year winning the Universal Championship, so it
was something that he was able to kick to the side,
get over it, and move on. But one of his
probably worst wrestle many amin events as far as crowd

(56:14):
reactions goes, I haven't had the heart to go back
and rewatch this match. I just remember not hating it
and hating that the crowd ruined it, you know, But
I just I can't watch it that I'm telling you this,
This this podcast is like therapy because there's so many
at this moment that we had talked about that I
just cannot bring myself to rewatch it, just because I
remember how deflated I felt watching at the time.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
Well, it was very weird with Kurt Angle during the
Shield for a moment, and Roman versus Brock twice three
times in about uh seven months, so there's a lot
of do you like this time? Do you not let
this time? Either way, the memories will last forever, folks.
And I gotta say it's always a pleasure talking to
you easier about Roman Rains here on the Roman Rains podcast.

(56:57):
Of course, some people are like, how dare you do
a marine's podcast.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
We'll guess what, folks, It's a history channel, so this
is history.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
Twenty eighteen is a long time ago when you think
about it.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
Crazy, This kid's crazy.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
But thanks again for being here. Put up your one
for your trivel chief. I'm Steve, She's Lisa. Have a
wonderful day and we'll see you next time. Bye bye.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
Let yourself sleeve History Channel, Time and Budgeting History, Chatt