March 7, 2025 • 70 mins
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We pick our jaws back off the floor and staple them back on our faces as we talk about everything that happened at Elimination Chamber: Toronto
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman.
(00:04):
And as your wise man, I'm here to bestow upon you the wisdom that you're listening to...
Punx Talk Wrestling.
Welcome to...
Punx Talk Wrestling!
On this episode, we pick our jaws back off the floor
(00:26):
and staple them back onto our faces as we talk about everything that's happened
at Elimination Chamber Toronto!
I am R.W. Hellborn, the PA Rock Prince, hailing quote-unquote from Philly!
And I am one half of the crown, which is one half of your Punx Talk Wrestling...
(00:53):
Inter-universal Tag Team Podcast Champion of the World!
Now, then, and forever by my side, 3500 miles away in London, England!
(01:19):
He is my Tag Team Podcast partner. He is the other half of the crown,
which is the other half of your Punx Talk Wrestling...
Inter-universal Tag Team Podcast Champion of the World!
Mr. Digineau, Sir King of Reels,
(01:45):
the proper prick, C.J. Newman!
Oh, God, that was a good intro this week.
But did you know that in 2015, it was decided that the WWE would scrap the Elimination Chamber?
(02:16):
They were going to no longer do any more Elimination Chambers.
They hold Elimination Chamber in 2015, actually in May.
Not between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.
That year was a Tag Team Championship Chamber match and an Intercontinental Championship Chamber match.
There was actually no Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in 2016 whatsoever.
(02:42):
And then in 2017, it returned again between Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.
And that was the redesign, the Elimination Chamber as we know it now,
which we've had for the last eight years.
And the reason they actually did that, because obviously, as I said, they were going to scrap it,
(03:03):
is because the majority of the arenas in America could not actually take the Elimination Chamber.
This thing weighed 16 tons.
Oh, yeah!
So it was obviously to begin with a struggle to take it around the country.
(03:29):
But not only that, it was a struggle to have...
There were only certain arenas that could actually suspend it from the ceiling.
Right.
Goddamn it.
You don't think about that much.
That entire giant structure is hanging above the ring for all the other matches.
(03:50):
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
So, I mean, in fact, it did your bonus.
It's been a while.
Did your bonus?
Yeah!
So the original structure was a steel with an outer structure of 16 frames,
each weighing 300 pounds each.
But the chamber was 16 foot tall and 36 foot in diameter and weighed a total of 16 tons,
(04:19):
10 of which consisted of steel.
Each inner chamber consisted of three large steel frame sheets of plexiglass costing $225 per sheet.
And the chains that surround the chamber stretch two miles long and weigh six tons.
Not only that, it cost $250,000 to construct.
(04:43):
And that was the original chamber.
So, holy shit.
So, yeah, luckily they redesigned it.
It weighs a lot less.
I don't actually have the weight of the new one.
But it's now redesigned and able to be moved around a lot easier.
(05:04):
And then it's also able to go into most arenas and be suspended from the ceiling.
Yeah.
Here's another, here's a didger bonus bonus that I was just, because I was just clicking through the elimination chambers
when you were mentioning that.
There has not been an elimination chamber in America.
(05:28):
Yeah.
It's been in the, for an American audience since the March 8th elimination chamber in Philly right before the pandemic.
Wow, really?
Yeah, because 2020, the elimination chamber 2020 was March 8th, literally before, like the week before everything got shut down.
(05:51):
Everything went crazy, yeah.
And then it was in the Thunderdome.
And then 2022 was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
After that was, it was in Montreal, 2023, then Perth, and now Toronto.
And then Toronto, yeah, right.
Wow, look at that.
(06:12):
Yeah, they're interesting.
Yeah, that is interesting actually.
That was a great didger bonus bonus.
And on that note, how's about we talk about elimination chamber Toronto?
Yeah.
(06:35):
We've got the colon space location back into the actual title of the event.
They're doing that a lot more lately.
I feel it because every time they do a PLE now,
it's in a different location around the world.
So I think they're kind of, instead of...
(06:58):
Yeah, it's certainly because they're not doing, you know, summer slam, colon, Chicago, or wherever summer slam.
And also, think about who's running the show here.
Think about who's running the show because Triple H when he was doing NXT and was doing Takeover,
would it be Takeover Toronto?
Yeah, Takeover Brooklyn.
(07:19):
Yeah, I'm looking back, I'm looking behind me at my Takeover posters.
Right, so he would always do Takeover and then the name of wherever it was.
Yeah, I think, honestly, I like that.
I like that they're adding the location.
And to be honest, I don't think it would be, but they...
(07:44):
With some of the European ones, like Backlash France, they're not using the city that they're in,
but they're using the country, which I still think it works.
I don't know if we'll see them start using them for US events as well, but I mean, I don't see why not.
Like, they're probably not...
(08:06):
I mean, actually, if you think about it, I feel like SummerSlam is called SummerSlam Indianapolis when it's in a few years' time.
Oh.
Potentially.
Maybe, well, we'll see.
We'll see.
I think WrestleMania will stay WrestleMania, but anyway, we're not talking about WrestleMania.
WrestleMania will stay with numbers, yeah.
We're on the road to WrestleMania.
(08:28):
This is the last major stop, right?
Yeah, we're halfway through the road to WrestleMania.
We're at the rest stop, taking a pee.
We're at...
Yeah, we're taking...
Someone took a big dump at this restaurant, rest stop.
Also, good to note, Elimination Chamber is no...
(08:49):
Maybe you have this in your notes.
Oh, yeah, it's known as No Escape in Toronto.
No Escape in Germany.
It's always been known as No Escape because they don't want to use the word chamber for very obvious reasons.
Yeah, I think, yeah, Elimination Chamber in Germany is not a good combo.
So they just changed the name.
(09:11):
I don't know how they go about doing that when all of the promotion...
Like, you know, if you're watching any of the WWE product, they say Elimination Chamber, Elimination Chamber, Elimination Chamber all the time.
So I don't know how they...
But it's just an interesting thing to note.
Yeah.
Let me run off the fact here.
(09:34):
So, yeah, Elimination Chamber Toronto live from March 1st, 2025, Toronto, Ontario, Canada from the Rogers Centre.
Now, I didn't know this until very recently, like the last day or so.
This was the same venue as WrestleMania 18 in 2002.
(09:56):
Okay.
When it was back then, it was known as the Skydome.
Oh, yes.
It is a Skydome.
Yeah, now, which is crazy, crazy to think that in that building, we've had the return of Hulkamania with Hulk Hogan versus the Rock.
And now we've had the biggest heel turn in history all happen in that one building.
(10:18):
Now, they haven't been to the Rogers Centre since WrestleMania 18.
The last time they were in that building was WrestleMania 18.
They haven't gone back since.
Now, we'll get to...
I mean, we're obviously, we're going to get to the giant, the invisible elephant in the room that you can't see, but we all saw.
(10:39):
Well, I think you can see him now.
You can see him on the poster, which, interesting enough, was a little foreshadowing, maybe.
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know.
Do we have on-screen person?
Maybe do, so before we get to that, attendance to 38,493 people.
(11:00):
Which seems a little small to me.
Does that seem small for a place that held WrestleMania 18, or is this just...
Yes, WrestleMania 18 held 68,237, but I don't know.
So they definitely did not, I mean, I don't think they didn't mention that it was a sellout.
(11:22):
They didn't mention anything about it.
They didn't mention it was a sellout.
I think it also depends how many, I mean, I don't know, I have never really seen the layout of the stadium, but...
What's that?
But that's a large discrepancy of, like, that's a big difference.
I didn't take notice of it during the event, like, if they had any of the upper deck areas roped off or anything.
(11:48):
But, I mean, whatever, I mean, almost 40,000, that's still perfectly...
So, it's a baseball stadium.
Its capacity for baseball is 39,150, so they hit capacity of a seat, you could say.
And then concerts, concerts depending on staging is 10,000 to 55,000, so...
(12:09):
But the attendance record for that stadium is WrestleMania 18, still stands today.
I mean, WWE usually is the one to set those attendance records.
Yeah, because these...
Especially for WrestleMania...
Yeah, if you've got a small stage and a tiny ramp and a ring, like, there's loads of places to put seats, so it's kind of easy.
(12:30):
Yeah, how about you give us some on-screen personnel right there?
How about I do?
English commentators Michael Cole, Pat McAfee and Wade Barrett, Spanish commentators Marcelo Rodríguez and Jerry Sotto,
ring announcer's elite ring announcer Alicia Taylor, we've got referees Danilo Enfibio, Jason Ayers, Dan Engler, Dallas Irvin, Daphne LeSean, Eddie Urengo, Chad Patton, Charles Robinson, Ryan Trannon, Rodzapata,
(12:57):
we've got a stacked deck of referees.
Yeah, I guess, sir, just like the Royal Rumble, you need a referee for every part, one at the door and one at the ring.
The referees are getting well-used around this time of year, because there's so many matches at WrestleMania.
You need all the referees for the Royal Rumble, you need all the referees for the Elimination Chamber, so they get good use around this time of year.
(13:18):
Yeah, also, it wasn't Daphne LeSean.
Why can't I think of the other female referee?
Oh, you know what, that was Monday Night Raw, anyway, that happened on Raw.
So it doesn't matter now.
(13:40):
Yeah.
Interviewers Cathy Kelly and Byron Saxton, and we've got a pre-show panel that no one watched with Jackie Redmond, Big E, Pete Rosenberg, and Joe Tessitor.
Joe T on the pre-show panel.
Yeah, there we go, that's what we've got.
Oh yeah.
I guess straight into the first match, there was nothing else to, there was nothing before this, it just went straight in, and it was the Women's Elimination Chamber match.
(14:09):
For the number one contendership of the Women's World Championship.
At this time, we didn't know whether it was going to be Rhea Ripley or EO Sky, and obviously Raw happened a few nights ago, and we can obviously say now.
Yes, you watched Raw, right?
Yeah, I've seen Raw, so EO Sky, I very unexpectedly got the win, did not expect that at all.
(14:31):
Yeah, that was, I was surprised about that as well.
I didn't know how they were going to, I didn't know how they were going to have.
I could see a threat coming, but yeah.
Possibly, possibly, but interesting angle between Rhea Ripley and Bianca getting into it a little bit.
(14:54):
Yeah.
So we will see where that goes.
See what happens then.
Yeah, EO Sky, your new WWE Women's World Champion, and a fantastic match.
In this match, we had Naomi Bailey, Roxanne Perez, Lexa Bliss, Liv Morgan, Bianca Belair.
What did you go for in this match? I can't remember. I think you said Roxanne Perez.
(15:18):
Yeah, I was voting, I was voting Roxanne.
And I think I ended up going with you in the end actually.
Yeah, I think I convinced you to come over to my insane ideas.
So we both got surprised.
Yeah, certainly.
And I don't think, honestly, I don't think Bianca was not on either one of our, well you started off by...
(15:42):
I did, well my air was that Bianca would win, which she did, and then go on to face Rhea Ripley.
So we can go back to you being right originally. You were right.
I was right originally. You just somehow swayed me over to what's now for us.
I convinced you to be surprised.
Yeah.
But first, I guess the first thing to get to is we had a returning J. Cargo.
(16:06):
Yeah, right at the beginning of the match.
Right beginning of the match.
I guess before the match really even started, because Naomi was the last...
She was the last one to enter.
Yeah.
And basically did nothing. The match never even started.
Yeah.
Right? Because Liv was in the ring, and she backed away.
(16:31):
Jade's music hit immediately, and everyone went crazy.
Yeah, Liv's standing there, she's like saying, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me.
And obviously you think she's going to hit her, and then she just turns and attacks Naomi.
Yeah, I...
We'll see on SmackDown what happens with the aftermath of all of that.
I was not expecting that at all.
(16:52):
Yeah.
Really, I was not expecting her to come back like that.
I mean, I had little thoughts about Naomi, because in my mind I was like,
if you think about it, it makes story sense.
Last year at WrestleMania, they were the big three, right?
It was those three in a team.
And since then, kind of Naomi got forgotten about, and Bianca and Jade ended up winning the tag team championships,
(17:17):
and Naomi got left to the wayside.
So I guess it makes sense that Naomi would be jealous, and then she would just attack Jade and...
It was a simple story, and they set it up, they set it up, and they knocked it down perfectly.
You don't have to think too much, I think we... I certainly worked myself into a unnecessarily complex idea
(17:44):
that it wasn't going to be either of them.
But yeah, I mean, it makes perfect sense, because now we've got...
There's an immediate story there.
Bianca's also now distracted with her match against... well, now EO at WrestleMania.
(18:05):
So that's...
Yeah, which kind of puts... I mean, I can't remember, because she was tag team champion.
I'm pretty sure she was a SmackDown superstar, so I don't know if this puts her on Raw now,
now that she's the number one contender for the world title.
Right, that... see? Yeah, you're right, they were...
I think they were considered... Yeah, they both were SmackDown, they both were on SmackDown.
(18:28):
Yeah.
From what I remember still.
But I'm honestly like, it's great that this is like... I feel like the women's division needs the kind of care and attention.
Not that it doesn't get any, but the care and attention that the men's division get.
For example, in their main event picture of the men's scene, it's like every single storyline crosses over.
(18:50):
So now Bianca Belair is involved with multiple storylines at the same time.
Yep, and if Bianca wins, which... going out on a limb right now and just making a snap decision based on nothing else,
I wouldn't be surprised if Bianca wins.
(19:13):
Yeah.
Then she's over on Raw and that splits up... that splits her from Naomi and Jade on SmackDown.
Yeah, but what's great is at WrestleMania, well, you know, I feel like for a long time it's at WrestleMania has been reserved...
sorry, women's matches at WrestleMania has been reserved for just title matches, but we'll get to see a grudge match, you know, between two women.
(19:41):
I want to see more women involved with the storylines that aren't involved around championships.
Yeah, and this definitely gives us that option.
I think they can certainly drag it out till WrestleMania and have this be a WrestleMania match.
For sure.
We'll see what... and perhaps even some kind of stipulation would be pretty cool.
(20:07):
Because grudge matches, you want a stipulation with a grudge match, right?
Yeah.
We'll see.
We'll see what happens.
But I'm here for it.
I'm here for it now.
I'm all in.
And who knows?
We could get completely swerved again with something else.
(20:28):
We don't know.
We also don't know Bianca Belair's involvement on Jade's attack.
We don't know if she had some time in a part of it or whether she was the one that told Naomi to do it or whatever.
You never know.
Yeah, we don't know anything yet because none of them have had the time to explain themselves.
(20:49):
Yeah.
You know, they're waiting for their airtime to do it, I guess.
Yeah.
But overall the match, I mean, as far as elimination chamber matches go, great, great freaking match.
Everybody looked good.
I'm trying to remember the order here of who pinned who.
(21:12):
Oh, it's there at the bottom.
Oh, that's right.
We've got the weird elimination chamber.
The table that they use is always a little bit weird.
Yeah.
So we had Bayley.
We had Liv Morgan eliminating two people.
(21:33):
Right, so Bayley gets eliminated first.
Bayley entered fifth.
Okay, here we go.
So we had no eliminations until...
Did we have no eliminations until everyone was in?
Well, Naomi technically got eliminated.
Yeah, Naomi got there.
No proper eliminations until like 20 minutes into the match.
Yeah.
So there's Liv Morgan entered fifth.
(21:58):
Oh, Alexa Bliss was last.
No Bayley.
No, Liv Morgan was fast and second in with Naomi.
Yeah.
Yeah, Liv Morgan entered second.
Was eliminated fifth.
Bayley was eliminated second.
Bayley entered fifth was eliminated by Liv Morgan.
(22:22):
She was the first eliminated.
Roxanne Perez was then eliminated by Alexa Bliss.
So that would have been after Alexa...
Then Alexa Bliss eliminated by Liv Morgan again.
And then Liv Morgan eliminated by Bianca.
There we go.
I figured it out.
Exactly.
Figured out how to read this table.
(22:43):
Yeah, I mean, not to gloss over it,
but without just going shot for shot into just retelling the entire match.
I don't know that there wasn't any like,
oh my god moments.
No, nothing crazy here.
Nothing too crazy.
(23:04):
Just a good amount of violence.
Yeah, but as far as elimination chamber matches go,
it was good fun.
Yeah.
But yeah, that was a result of that.
Advancing storylines.
Yeah.
Yeah, but Roxanne looked pretty strong.
(23:25):
And again, I see this, that's fine.
It's fine for her because she's still NXT.
If you watch, if you got a chance to see NXT,
she got involved in something.
It was a little, there was a little weirdness with NXT going on with the women's matches.
Yeah.
Due to a core Jade possible injury.
(23:48):
But it's like, it looks like she's okay.
Yeah, it looks to be.
It was very weird, at least in the way I was able to watch it because they didn't,
you didn't know that it got called off.
Like they went to commercial and then they came back from commercial and it was over.
I think they just fumbled a bit as in they didn't really know quite what to do.
(24:12):
Yeah, I think from what I heard, she got, it looked like she just got like her bell rung a little bit.
They thought maybe it was a concussion, but it seems like it seems like she's okay.
Either way, yeah.
Second match, yeah, either way, second match.
On to hometown hero Trish Stratus with Tiffany Stratton versus Nia Jax and Candice LaRae.
(24:42):
This was just a feel good match.
It was nice.
It was great seeing Trish in the ring.
Yeah, I got, I am honestly, I haven't really got much to say about this match.
Me neither.
Trish Stratus did like a top rope strat faction.
Tiffany did a moonsault and it was all pretty and stuff.
(25:07):
And yeah, I mean, it was pretty.
Yeah, it was just a, it was a match and I'm not saying it was bad.
I'm not saying it was great.
It was just a match.
It was, yeah, exactly.
It was, it was, it was just a match and it was a good match and everybody had fun.
Trish looked great still in the ring.
(25:28):
Yeah.
And we'll see.
I mean, we'll see where we go with that.
There was a little bit of a, there was a little bit of a miscue between Nia and Candice that helped them lose.
Yeah.
So we'll see if that, we'll see if that goes anywhere.
But I mean, right now, I don't know, I don't know what's going on.
(25:49):
I don't know what, what, what they might, they might be going into a tag team picture for a bit.
I don't know.
I don't know what we're going to do with either of them right now.
Yeah.
I can see Nia Jax and Candice Leray doing that maybe or I don't know.
Because Nia Jax may be going for like the US title or something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Don't know.
Don't know where anyone's going with that.
(26:10):
The only thing we know is that, is that Charlotte Flair is facing Tiffany Stratton for the, for the women's world champion or the women's world champion.
Or the women's heavyweight championship.
WWE women's championship.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Whatever it's called.
The, the raw is the women's world champion.
(26:33):
Is it, is it the women, is it the WWE women's?
The WWE women's champion.
It's just called the WWE women's champion right now.
Okay.
Just like the men, I mean, the men's is still called the undisputed WWE.
And I'm not going to say that because it's not undisputed anymore because now there's a world champion before the undisputed men, because that was, there was two championships.
(26:54):
Yeah.
Unified.
There is still a little bit of controversy there because, and I'm seeing only, only from the, only from the standpoint of that title is, is the, is the WWE championship with the, with the whole lineage of everything.
But also the universal championship.
(27:15):
Now.
Yes.
You know, because Roman Reigns, Roman Reigns had them both and then, and then had them both and then they were unified.
But, but now that there's a world championship, the undisputed to me becomes negated because there is a dispute because there is also another world champion on another show now.
Yeah.
So I think it's just, I think it.
(27:38):
See, and that further, that further muddies it a little bit because now it, because, because that definitively says that the world championship is below the WWE championship, which we know it, I mean, we know it is everybody, everybody knows.
Yeah, it is the secondary world.
Of course, the WWE championship goes back.
Oh God, I mean, 60 years.
Yeah.
(27:59):
Um, but you know, like, like we, like we've seen time and time again, world championships and heavyweight championship title has.
History is our, our, our muddy.
Yeah.
They're muddy.
Yeah, murky and muddy.
Yeah, that's, that's for sure.
Yeah.
Um, all right.
Well, yeah, Tiff, Tiff and Trish win.
Um, 11 in 11 minutes and 40 seconds.
(28:21):
Uh, next up, we have Kevin Owens versus Sami Zayn in an unsanctioned match.
Yeah.
This one got crazy.
Yeah.
This was, it was, I mean, it was pretty much everything you wanted in a, in a match.
Yeah.
It was everything in the kitchen.
In an unsanctioned match between Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.
Um, yeah.
A lot of weapons, a lot of, you know, a lot of, a lot of work around the ring.
(28:46):
Um, I like the lighting.
I dug the lighting.
I think it was.
Yeah.
That lighting was unsanctioned lighting.
The ref had a, had a plain black shirt on.
Yeah.
To prove that it was unsanctioned.
Yeah.
Until he got knocked down and then another ref with a, with a regular ref shirt came in.
Uh, that was, that was Charles Robinson, who then got, who then got attacked by Kevin
(29:08):
Owens.
Who was the guy?
Yeah.
He got, he got stunted, right?
Or something.
Um, what happened to him?
I, I think he just, I think he just got clobbered.
I think I think he like clothes lined or something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, but again, kept fucking, um, uh, my God is named Charles Robinson still taking
bumps and he's 60 years old.
(29:30):
Yeah.
Man, that dude, that dude is a, is a trooper.
Um, he loves it.
He loves a bump.
Yeah.
I don't know.
And we, we still haven't, I guess we'll find out on Smackdown as well if there will be
any repercussions against Kevin Owens for striking the referees.
Um, I don't know.
It might be because it's unsanctioned.
Maybe there's no, maybe there's no rules to, to that either.
(29:52):
Um, although, yeah, I don't know.
I don't know.
We'll find out.
It might just get waved under the rug.
Yeah.
It was a good, I mean this, I, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was,
I, I was, I didn't know where it was going to go.
I would say we all saw the ref with the, the gloves on at the start.
I, I thought there was going to be a blood.
Uh, we actually said last week that there probably would be, there wasn't, they didn't need it.
(30:14):
They roughed each other up plenty.
I was like, I saw, you know, I don't, and, and I don't actually know when this is, but
can you remember the last time Barb wire was on a WWE show?
Cause it's been a very long time.
It's been a long time.
I mean, also I will say, I don't know.
I don't know if, if you looked closely at it that I don't want to, I don't want to be
(30:40):
kind of, I don't want to be negative about it, but that barbed wire looked fake as hell
to me.
Oh yeah.
I bet that was never like, I don't need it to be real.
I, I, I, I get, yeah, I mean maybe, but like it looked rubber.
Like it didn't even look like, it didn't even look like it was metal.
Like if you're going to make, if you're going to make fake barbed wire, like, I don't know.
(31:04):
That was the only thing that I, the only thing that I could criticize about that match is
that the barbed wire around the chair just looked like fake rubber barbed wire.
I mean, I, I didn't, I, I was, I, I didn't notice.
I did.
I guess I didn't take a good enough look at it, but, uh, I mean, I, I don't, I don't
say, I, where's that?
Go ahead.
Because, because nobody's shirts got stuck to it.
(31:27):
Like, right.
Yeah.
I did notice that.
I did notice that, but I guess, I guess for me, like, you know, like something like thumbtacked,
you can't, you can't fake, right?
That, that's a thumbtack to thumbtack.
Sure.
I think with the, um, the barbed wire, there are ways to gimmick it, uh, and make it, you
know, not as dangerous.
(31:48):
But if you've got barbed wire that is, you know, fake barbed wire that still looks real,
I'm cool with that.
I don't need to watch.
I don't need to see, I don't need to see someone's skin getting parry by barbed wire.
I don't have to, you know, I'm totally fine with it being done in the safest way possible.
And like these guys fucked each other up enough.
I don't need, you know, to see a fake barbed wire chair.
(32:12):
I'm cool with that.
Yeah.
I guess, I, I get it.
I get both.
I could see both sides of it.
Um, it was, it was a good pop.
Um, it just, I think it was on T.
I think, I think just because of watching it on TV made me made it look at least to me,
but whatever.
(32:33):
Yeah.
It was, it was still a great fucking match.
Um, I was, I guess neither of us, I don't remember who did we, I don't remember what
predictions were.
It was only days ago.
I know, right?
I do think, I think what I said was that, uh, either Sammy's ain't, I said, I think Sammy's
ain't would like end up doing something.
(32:56):
Oh, that's right.
We thought we were going to, that's right.
We thought he was going to go nefarious.
Um, yeah, but my other, my other side prediction was that he would, wouldn't be able to pull
the trigger.
And then obviously Kevin Owens would get the better of that situation.
Yeah.
Um, I don't know if that really happened.
Like, I think Sammy's ain't just went all in and, and fucked him up.
And I think they fucked each other up just as much.
(33:18):
I mean, I mean, Sammy's ain't was the one that brought out the barbed wire chair.
Exactly.
Well, he, yeah, he saw it under the ring.
His, his reaction was like, this must have been, you know, you could tell in his face
is like, I didn't put this here.
This is Kevin.
I didn't put this one here.
Who put, who put a barbed wire chair under this ring?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, so, yeah, but you've got to think about what you got to think then at what point did
(33:42):
Kevin Owens either slip that under the ring or if Kevin Owens didn't do it, who put to
get, who put that under there?
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
But, uh, yeah, I mean, good match.
Loads of good spots, the table spot outside the ring with the two, with the two tables
is cool.
Yeah.
Oh man.
Yeah.
(34:03):
Just, just a, just a fun match.
And then, and then after the match, after, after several power bombs, uh, to Sammy's
ain't, yeah.
Oh God.
So good.
Um, yeah, after the match, we get, we get voices in our head.
Yeah.
Returning Randy Orton.
Yeah.
And, and Randy Orton beats the crap out of Owens, uh, to the point where he was about
(34:26):
to punt kick him.
Uh, that's right.
And I think we'll, we'll get that payoff at WrestleMania.
I think, uh, I'm sure.
Yeah.
I think Kevin Owens get punted at WrestleMania, whether he loses or wins, he'll get punted
at WrestleMania.
Yeah.
I think so.
And then poor security guards, uh, four, four of them get our four RKO's.
(34:49):
Uh, yeah, they're just, just feds Randy Orton a bunch of security guards, basically.
And I guess, I guess security guards are, I guess, I guess being physically assaulted
is part of the security guards.
Uh, it's part of the potential in being a security guard because there, because there's
(35:11):
never a, there's never, no one ever gets fined for, you know, for attacking the security
guards.
Yeah.
I mean, if you're security, you're, you're, you know, that the physical, uh, like being
a referee, like you're there to just officiate a match being security, you know, that there's,
there's a chance you can get physically involved in something.
So, security don't matter.
(35:33):
They're just pawns.
Yeah.
Pretty much.
Pretty much there.
Just know, you know, um, but yeah, big super, super big pop.
So at this point, at this point, everyone's feeling pretty good.
You know.
We had Randy Orton's return.
Yeah.
At Randy Orton's return, we had, um, Jade Cargill's return earlier.
(35:53):
You know, we had a feel good win by the faces.
Um, even though Kevin Owens won, we get, you know, got Randy Orton returning.
So that got a big, huge pop.
Um,
Plus we had a great, like weapons based, unsanctioned match.
27 minutes.
Plus with, uh, with two Canadians in Canada.
So there's that too.
Right.
(36:14):
Right.
Um,
Yeah.
At this point, um, yeah.
And then, hey, men's men's elimination chamber match for the understated, the number one
contendership of the unspoken championship.
Yeah.
Dream McIntyre, Damian Priest, Logan Paul, Seth Rollins, CM Punk, John Cena, star starter,
the fuck elimination chamber match.
(36:34):
Um, and, uh, yeah, I thought this match was great.
I thought the storytelling generally in this match was amazing.
Uh, they're like, we went through all the options last week of who could win this.
And I mean, I went for, well, we both, to be both go for Drew McIntyre, I think we did.
Right.
I, we, we were firmly, uh, yeah.
And our, uh, the real, the real that you made right before got, uh, it got a little bit
(36:58):
of traction, but, but the traction was, was basically due to us being completely wrong
after the, after the fact.
Um, yeah, I think we were both under the, under the guise that Drew McIntyre was going
to be the one that turned, um, and sort of become, became the, became the, uh, the corporate,
(37:19):
uh, the, the, uh, the rocks pawn.
But that did, but that did not happen because, because Drew McIntyre was eliminated first.
Yeah.
He was eliminated first by Damian Priest.
Yeah.
By Damian Priest.
Crazy.
Yeah.
So, so right out the gate are, right out the gate, we were surprised.
(37:39):
Yeah.
For sure.
Which I think sets up a pretty decent, where is Drew McIntyre?
Is Drew McIntyre even, is Drew McIntyre on?
No, he's on Smackdown.
Yeah.
Drew and Damian both got drafted to Smackdown.
So they are on Smackdown now.
So, so it, it seems like that coupled with the incident at the Royal Rumble, they're,
(38:04):
they're definitely, they're definitely leaning towards where a Drew, Drew vs Damian match
just because, because Damian, Damian Priest, I mean, look, look about, look back at their
last year, like they have a lot.
I mean, even go back to WrestleMania last year, like he, uh, Damian is the one that
captured and drew.
You could basically, you could basically say Damian Priest stopped him from becoming champion
(38:28):
now three times in a row.
Yeah.
Damian Priest has really screwed over Drew McIntyre several times.
Yeah.
So, I guess.
And not because, not because he had anything specific against Drew McIntyre, it's just,
he cashed in his money in the bank at an opportune time.
And he was in the Royal Rumble where it was any, every man for himself and he's in the
(38:49):
elimination chamber where it's every man for himself.
It just so happens that Damian Priest has got, it got Drew's number.
Like it's one of those.
Yeah.
Pretty much every time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I guess one thing that hasn't happened is like a, a full on one on one match where,
you know.
Right.
And later Damian Priest gets eliminated by fucking Logan Paul.
(39:11):
Actually saying that, no, Drew McIntyre and Damian Priest did face each other.
I can't remember what PLA, PLA it was, but it was last year.
But that's when CM Punk got involved and caused Drew McIntyre to lose.
Oh, that's right.
That's right.
Because that was still during the Drew CM Punk situation.
Yeah.
But still Damian Priest and still to that point Damian Priest won that match.
(39:35):
Yeah.
So he's just constant and that was for the championship as well.
So yeah, constantly right.
That was the title match.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In fact, yeah, it was money in the bank last year because money in the bank was in, it
was in Canada somewhere.
So yeah, that makes sense.
But yeah, so yeah, Damian Priest gets eliminated by Logan Paul.
(39:55):
And Logan Paul is eliminated by CM Punk.
Yeah.
Couple minutes later.
Yeah.
But this is where we see that we get a good.
This is where things get.
Well, we got a good 12 minutes of in that match after after Logan Paul's eliminated
at the 1830 mark.
We have we have like 11 and a half minutes before before Seth gets eliminated by CM Punk.
(40:22):
So at that point it's just it's just Seth Rollins, CM Punk and John Cena for for 11
minutes.
Yeah.
And it was great.
And it was a really good.
Yeah.
I mean, it was good to see CM Punk.
They teased it a few times in the match.
But finally, CM Punk and Cena got to wrestle each other, which was like the first time
(40:42):
in like 11 years.
Yeah.
And that was great to see because they've still they've still got amazing chemistry.
Oh yeah.
Those two because those because they know how to work.
Yeah.
They just know they're they're just yeah, they're just freaking gold together.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And oh my.
I mean, let's let's just let's just do a little.
(41:04):
I mean, OK, we get we got CM Punk eliminating Seth Rollins.
Yeah.
And this is when things get really interesting.
Yeah.
And then and then Seth comes back, you know, before leave it before exiting the chamber,
curb stomps CM Punk onto the onto the freaking steel on the outside of the ring.
(41:28):
And then and then all of a sudden John Cena with the S with an FTFU.
Yeah.
And now I know it's every man from self, but like this is where things if you look back
now, you think John Cena, I don't know if John Cena of the past would have necessarily
taken advantage of the situation like that.
No.
What do you think?
I don't know.
(41:48):
I don't think so.
I don't think he would.
I don't think he would have done.
He certainly wouldn't have done it the way that he did it.
No, he he didn't think twice about it.
But I think past Cena would have like gone to attack Seth Rollins because he is friends
with CM Punk.
So he or at least maybe, you know, at least been like good guy, Cena would have at least
(42:08):
given him a moment to like a fight and chance.
But but yeah, no, I mean, we've seen as we've seen this, you know, we can't, you know, we
didn't think we really didn't think it was going to happen.
We didn't think they were going to pull the trigger on it.
But but the signs were all over the wall for, you know, yeah, all year.
And and it's crazy.
You go back and you read like people are people are now like re retweeting old or whatever,
(42:34):
reposting John Cena posts from like the weeks and months before.
And then you and then you start seeing like, oh, this dude's been he's been sprinkling
this stuff over social media for a while.
He has he has.
And like, I mean, it's well, that's that's that's this carry on for a second.
We'll get to the scene.
So he instantly grabs CM Punk, like drags him into the middle of the ring and then just
(43:00):
locks an STF you on him and and Punk passes out.
Like, yeah, doesn't give up, but he passes out.
Yeah.
Um, so we've now got now John Cena is firmly in Punk's crosshair once again, as we saw
from that, gave that scathing intro to raw.
(43:22):
What a promo.
That's the that's that's CM Punk's best promo since he's returned.
For sure.
Well, and and they and they let him and they let him drop the bullshit bombs on on Netflix.
Like, you know, they we got of course, that's right.
And that's the thing.
That's the thing that and that's that's kind of what I spoke about.
A.W. before A.W. every promo has a swear word in the WWE.
(43:45):
You drop swear words when they mean something when they mean something.
Yeah, well, yeah, well, yeah, as we see at the end that we're about to see.
We're about to hear one.
Yeah.
Yeah, they've been they've certainly been saving the the curse words, saving the swears
for for when it matters, just like just like everything.
(44:06):
When you do when you do too much shit, when you when you do stuff too much, it makes it
makes none of them important.
And yeah, it doesn't make it impactful.
And that and that and again, and we yeah.
And as we were saying, like there's been let's go back to the just the rumble.
Like we saw John Cena.
Well, fuck, not even there yet.
(44:27):
We're not even there yet.
So so so so.
So just you know, just he gets the win and straight out comes Cody Rhodes.
Yeah.
And then straight comes out the rock pretty much with Travis Scott, mind you.
Yeah, we're getting a lot of people.
A lot of people are really well, there's a there's a lot of things involving his involvement
that people are questioning and just it's it's mostly a why the fuck is he there for
(44:54):
this?
Like there I don't see any I don't see any reason why he was there.
For any for any of this.
I think that I think that I don't think we're meant to know right now.
I feel like that this is this is going to lead somewhere.
I didn't just do it for no reason.
(45:15):
I think I think the big I think the big thing is is if you look at the promo they played
earlier in the night, it was trying to show you that the rock is attached to some of the
most famous people in the world and he can get you anything he wants.
Right.
I think bringing out coming out with Travis Scott is just like a humble brag of like,
(45:37):
no, I'm a very unhumble brag of like, I've got famous friends and I could give you anything
you want.
I am an A list celebrity and and you could be one too.
If you sell your soul and join me.
Yeah, I think it has something to do with that.
But I by what I've heard the last few weeks is that Travis Scott has been has had a bit
(46:01):
of training.
So I feel like it seems like he's going to have a match of some sort.
And we've yeah, Jacques, Jacques Berman Webster the second.
I think is definitely that's Travis Scott's actual born name.
Yeah, Jacques, Jacques Berman Webster the second.
(46:22):
Travis Scott is definitely a I guess you would say a cooler name.
I don't know.
I don't know where I got the name from.
Anyway, he's in a partnership with Kylie Jenner.
He's also I don't know.
(46:42):
Like I'm not familiar with any of his work to be honest.
But it's just like the thing is, it's just like bad bunny where bad bunny first came
in everyone was like, who the fuck is this guy?
And then by the time bad bunny was done, everyone was like, you know, you're right.
And you're right.
And I think I think what we're going to find I think what we are going to find out is this
is going to tie into Triple H giving him that weird hardcore championship that he sometimes
(47:10):
carries with him and but didn't this time.
Yeah, he did.
He had it.
He had it when he came out.
Oh, he did.
I missed it.
I I yeah.
And you're right.
And I think that basically something will come along where but we know I loved you know
what I loved about it.
You know, I loved this put it this way.
What I loved about Travis Scott coming out is that everyone hated it and then guess what?
(47:33):
Yeah, meant to like that.
You know, you are correct.
You're correct in that is you're not supposed to like it and no one likes it.
So it worked because they are meant to a pit.
And so this we're speeding ahead a little bit, but the team have seen him a rock is
meant to epitomize what everyone hates.
And that is their part timers, right?
They're these big Hollywood stars that come back for the paycheck and leave for three
(47:56):
months and come back when it only means something to them.
And adding someone that is outside of wrestling into their group makes it even more obnoxious,
makes it even more hateable because we are there now.
Just they're just a group of celebrities.
They're not wrestlers anymore.
Yeah, group of celebrities.
And we already and we already hate Logan Paul for coming in and you know, I think nobody
(48:21):
hated bad bunny once they saw him wrestle, but he also wrestled as a face.
He yeah, which is different, which was different.
I think they really I think they realized celebrities as heels work better than celebrities
as faces.
Yeah, I think I think I think bad bunny work as a face.
I think I think, you know, obviously Travis Scott came out with Jey Uso recently and then
(48:43):
the crowd.
Oh, that's right.
He did come out with Jey Uso.
I think like I think what that they're turning they turn Travis Scott heel and honestly,
when they when if like, John Cena and the Rock together, like that's hateable, but like
Travis Scott's obnoxious, like at least the character that he plays is obnoxious and seeing
them stand there with Travis Scott is like it made them more obnoxious.
(49:08):
It made them more it made them more like the top 1%.
Do you know what I mean?
It made them a bit more hateable.
And anyway, I think that I think that that shot he took on on Cody to made him even more
even more legitimately hated because that looks stiff as hell.
Oh, that was stiff as hell.
He gave him a smack.
(49:29):
But hey, I mean, I probably also it probably also looked worse because his head was on
the ground like probably look worse.
And I will say like, I don't I don't doubt that like Cody's the kind of guy to be like
lay into me.
Yeah, he took those whips from the belt.
He got he got legitimately hit in the head with that championship because you could hear
it hitting his head.
(49:49):
Like once again, shots to the head.
My favorite my favorite thing.
It's good shit.
We got to see two of them as well.
Yeah.
But yeah, we had the rock come out and you know, long story short, Cody Rhodes is like,
you know, I've sold my soul to the crowd in this ring a long time ago and basically tell
the rocks to go fuck.
(50:11):
Yeah, it doesn't basically he says he says word for word, go fuck yourself.
Yeah, he said, hey, rock, go fuck yourself.
Whoa, lion, I went crazy.
Yeah, I think that's the first not just uncensored F bond.
I think that's the first actual F bomb like in a Mike all through the arena.
(50:33):
Like they've never they've never dropped the F bomb before.
Is that I know?
No, no, but what a great moment to do it.
Yeah, it was great.
It was great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you drop the F bomb, told him to go fuck himself.
And that's when you know, this is.
You know what else?
The you know what else this does?
It makes the all of Cena's all of Cena's goofy face shit that he was doing up until
(50:57):
then, like the over exaggeration that he had with every like it was it looked it looked
fake.
It looked his goofy face shit looked fake and because it was because this whole time
who knows how long it's been, but like that his his his face reactions were too over the
(51:19):
top.
They didn't look they didn't look real because they weren't.
Yeah, exactly.
And the way they played this off was utter perfection.
It was this was fucking cinema being played out in front of us.
Yeah.
And it was it was it was just expertly done.
The camera shots were perfect with with Cena's head over Cody's shoulder and his face.
(51:42):
His face dropping his face just his literal face turning into a heel.
Oh yeah.
You could see it happen.
Yeah.
And that that scowl with you know, those deep those deep Norwegian lines that he has the
face it's like it's a they just they just look great and in a scowl he looks it made
(52:07):
him look older.
It made him look mean.
It just made him look weathered.
Yeah, it made him look like this point, but it made him look like a funny enough, you
know, angry old white dude mad at mad at everything else mad at the world.
Yeah.
And I think we've all seen this side by side photo like a picture of him before the match
and a picture of him after the match.
(52:28):
Yeah, he looks like a completely different person.
Like yeah.
Yeah, it's great.
And then yeah, so Cody Rhodes gets the beat down of his life, bloodied torn up shirt hit
with the championship hit with the microphone hit with his watch.
Oh yeah.
We're pulling the watch off like yeah, it was it was fucking great.
It was fucking great.
(52:48):
And now we've got the you know now you've had this I'm hoping that we finally get to
find out what the Rock gave Cody Rhodes at the post press raw after WrestleMania last
year.
He gave him something that still hasn't been spoken about and I really hope it does get
spoken right.
We don't know what that we don't know what that is.
There there's there's still a lot.
But there's still a lot of there are so many questions and fucking and there's not a lot
(53:12):
of time to figure it out.
There isn't but we got a heel John Cena and and we I feel like we got a heel John Cena
for at least majority of his run this year and let's fucking enjoy it because we've got
something for the first year that we never ever thought we'd ever get.
So yeah, I don't yeah.
(53:33):
Now, I haven't I'll be honest.
I've looked I've been online a bit.
I'm staying away from the most aggravating of spaces online.
But I was I was there.
I was expecting to see a lot of comparisons to someone else's heel turn that you never
(53:58):
thought was ever going to happen that that happened in another company.
Yeah.
Now, I know, of course, they're not they're not Wwe isn't talking about it specifically
for reasons.
But I didn't really see anybody else really bring it up either.
Like I haven't I know I've I definitely have I definitely have and from what I'm obviously
(54:21):
everyone's saying that the fact this is the biggest heel turn to talk over in 1996.
It is.
It is the last big heel turn was him.
And that was 30 years ago.
Yeah, literally.
Yeah, 29 years, 29 years ago, 29, 29 years ago, almost almost 30 years ago, since we've
had 30 years ago, since we've had a the biggest baby face you knew turn turn heel.
(54:50):
Yeah.
And I think what makes this one a lot more unique is that Hulk Hogan still had I mean
his career still went on for many, many years after that.
What makes this so unique is that this was John Cena on his last run on his last year
as a professional wrestler.
(55:10):
Is it though?
And you would.
Well, that's any of that's what this is a question now that brings up because we mentioned
this.
I think we talked about this before with the retirement of like people retire and then
they come out of retirement.
But like, yeah, could all of this be could all of this just be a huge lie that he's not
(55:33):
like if he wins, does he just be like, you know what, screw you and screw everything
out.
I'm not going to retire.
I'm going to keep this title forever.
Yeah, it could totally happen.
But the great thing is, is like, this is happening at this stage.
It's I think it's I think it's infinitely bad and more unexpected.
And not only that, like John Cena was a face on on on another level.
(55:57):
He was not only a face in professional wrestling, he is a face in real life.
Yeah, I will say the guys that make, you know, he is the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Yeah, as much as as much as Hulk Hogan, the character and Hulkamania of its time did for
WWE and professional wrestling at the time and for as much outside of wrestling, fame,
(56:28):
Hulk Hogan, the person had, I think John John Cena has well, the rock as far surpassed him
as far as like as far as actual like success outside of wrestling.
I think John, I think John Cena, I think John Cena seamlessly transitioned to Hollywood
(56:53):
into and is and has got and got himself in some very big name, big name movies and things
that things that got himself involved at a higher level.
I think and I think John Cena John Cena is a celebrity.
If I go and ask my mom who John Cena is, my mom knows who John Cena is.
(57:15):
Yeah, yeah, I think that John I think that John Cena is a bigger celebrity than Hulk
Hogan was or is ever was.
Yeah, especially outside of that.
That's that's that's a total no brainer.
100%.
Yeah.
I don't think anyone anyone that doesn't look at at some really, really old biases
(57:37):
would would say that too.
Yeah.
And I think and here's the other and here's the other thing why I believe this is this
was a more important heel turn as well was that you didn't need to do it.
You didn't have you didn't necessarily have to do it.
(57:57):
WWE didn't need John Cena to turn heel to do something because they have all these other
things going on.
Whereas WCW desperately needed without without Hogan turning heel WCW would have died even
earlier.
There wouldn't have been there wouldn't have been an NWO that mattered.
(58:21):
Everything would have fallen apart.
So WCW needed the Hogan heel turn in order for them to even even survive even to to to
be relevant at all.
WCW was people can say whatever they want to say at the time.
But even though even though they even though WCW was they had the outsiders and they were
(58:43):
working towards this thing without without Hogan it completely fell.
It would have it would have it would have gone nowhere and WCW would have folded even
earlier.
I don't think I don't think there's anyone that can can say that that's not true.
(59:03):
Yeah I would I would agree with you I think I think this is I think this was more important.
Oh 100% and now I mean and it happened in here and it happened in the WWE in the in the
company that actually like survives exactly not in a company not in a company that died
there's a lot of speculation now as well like obviously at the end of Bad Blood last
(59:24):
year the Rock came out and he if you remember he put three fingers in the air to yeah slit
his throat and then at down at at elimination chamber he'd put two fingers in the air and
then slit his throat.
Yeah a lot of people are now thinking that there's a third person a lot of people were
thinking that the Rock Roman Reigns and John Cena are gonna form this fucking mega group
(59:48):
I mean it which puts like the two-man power trip to absolute shame to be honest.
Yeah I don't know what well do you think the Rock is gonna take I still see we've still
we've got so many things that are still dangling threads here like we were talking about the
(01:00:09):
undisputed championship remember remember the Rock telling Seth Rollins he could just
make his title go away like that.
Yeah like that's still.
I know only that we've still got CM Punk has a favorite from Paul Heyman we don't know
what the fuck that's all about either.
Yeah but I but I yeah I don't know what I don't know but I think but I think the next
(01:00:33):
the next CM Punk vs John Cena is going to be insane it very well could be and it very
well could be well CM Punk's not he's not he's not headlining WrestleMania right this
year he is not so as far as we know he's still think he's still but hey I actually I actually
could see I actually I mean after his promo on Raw I could see CM Punk vs the Rock just
(01:01:00):
because that has so much potential because hell like in CM Punk's pipe bomb promo from
2011 he said in that the fact that the Rock the fact that Dwayne is headlining WrestleMania
I'm not makes me sick and you can speed ahead fucking nearly 15 years later and the same
(01:01:23):
the same sentiment is still true yeah and this time you just swap out the name Dwayne
for John and it's just like you've you've still you've got a story to tell with with
and plus the Rock is the one that ended CM Punk's historic WWE Championship reign like
there's so much to there's so much story to be told between the two of them and they wouldn't
(01:01:46):
have CM Punk pick holes in the Rock and John Cena if they weren't aiming towards something
happening there between no yeah and who know I mean who knows does CM Punk.
CM Punk get involved in the match and cost Cena the championship does does John Cena beat
Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania and I don't know where we're going I mean we've got six weeks
(01:02:13):
to figure it out we don't know where we go and I and I love it because it was just like
this time of their last year on the way to WrestleMania 40 we had no fucking idea what
the hell was happening every single week yep and that and they've really brought that magic
back for that road to WrestleMania that's what I got and what's gonna happen yeah I gotta
say I love that I love that I love not knowing what the fuck is going to happen you know
(01:02:36):
yeah everything is so chaotic and yeah the fucking best yep so um well with that being
said what do you want to what do you want to give this pay-per-view out of a 20 out of
a 20 what's our what's our official ptw ranking for the fact that it one of the most
(01:02:56):
historic things to ever happen in professional wrestling happened on giving it a 20 it negates
anything that bad and nothing really bad happened on this card but the fact that that happened
coupled up with two great elimination chamber matches and an amazing unsanctioned match
the tag match was neither here nor there but it wasn't bad yeah the fact that we got to
see John Cena turn heel I'm giving it a straight up 20 you know I don't throw around 20s very
(01:03:21):
often you don't throw around 20s ever except for WrestleMania 40 I think that was yeah
but be the only huge man that's tough this is tough for me to does it does it go down
to 19 I go down to a 19 but it doesn't rate a critical success does it is it a critical
(01:03:43):
success like like you said the the tag match the tag match not being necessarily important
but it have it but it having some star power having hometown hometown fanfare also the fact
that they didn't have that match second to last yeah they put it on they put it on second
weird weirdly that they they had both the women's matches first when you've got four matches
(01:04:09):
we're not we're not you know you can't even differentiate between men's and women's stuff
here this is this is storyline this is storyline driven completely the first mat the first match
was well I mean this was the biggest thing obviously you can't have this finish without
(01:04:31):
this match being last I'm glad I'm I'm trying to I'm trying to figure out if I can justify
giving it anything other than a 20 really because like you said nothing there was nothing about
this there's nothing about this that was bad there was nothing about this that wasn't I
(01:04:53):
was thoroughly entertained for the three and a half hours and when that men's elimination
chamber match came on and I knew that the rock Cody situation was going to be after the
match I knew that something huge whatever it was going to be something historic and huge
is going to happen yeah even when John Cena won and even when John Cena was hanging out
(01:05:13):
in that ring after the during that segment there's not even there still wasn't a part
of me that thought he was gonna I really didn't think I still expected drew or someone else
to come out or whatever I did not expect seen that to happen and the fact and it and it just
it gave you gave me one of those it's it's one of those moments that as a as a wrestling
(01:05:39):
fan you know that's those those are the moments you fucking that's why you watch that's why
you watch wrestling yeah yeah I think you watch I think you're right man I don't I don't think
there's anything that could that could lower this ranking I want to give it a I want to
give it a perfect 20 as well because and and I think and it is because because of the scene
(01:06:00):
a turn if that didn't happen it would have it certainly would have dropped it down a
little bit but yeah man I mean give that give this a critical success man give this give
this as the only as the only PLE outside of a WrestleMania to get a perfect 20 I think
that I think we have to we go for this has to happen this is historic yeah man and also
(01:06:26):
just for we'll see just because I checked when the dates were it was it was just under
five years between between when Hogan Hogan turned heel on July 796 and WCW was sold on
end of March of 2001 so just shy of five years after Hogan's heel turn WCW was no longer
(01:06:51):
alright okay well let's see if WCW in business in 2030 yeah I think I think it's I think
it's highly likely that WWE is not going to go out of business in the next five years
I'm pretty I'm pretty confident of that yeah yeah we'll see we'll see who else is still
(01:07:13):
around in five years I don't know yeah but but where do we go I mean yeah I mean we don't
know where we're going from here no I did we just got we just got a watch and find out
as far as where we're going from here where we going next week you're still I don't even
know just yet yeah I don't know I think we've got I mean we could there's there's gonna
(01:07:37):
be some fallout there's gonna be some fallout we might just want to I don't know I say let's
let's wait for let's wait for Smackdown to get out of the way yeah and then if that if
Smackdown's a crazy show then maybe we'll have plenty to talk about we might have to
talk about we might decide on the week we'll decide on the weekend yeah yeah because we've
got a little bit we've got a little bit of time yeah we're gonna be we're gonna be doing
(01:08:02):
some more recording this weekend so we might have a lot to talk about but what next week's
episode will be about as of now don't know it'll be about wrestling that's for sure that's
for sure yeah if there's anything that anybody wants us to talk about by all means sound
off in any of the comment sections you know you can you can make comments I believe you
(01:08:24):
can comment on podcasts in Spotify and other you can yeah I think Apple so by all means
people listeners of the pod do that give us some comments tell us what you think tell
us what you want to hear us talk about but other than that I think we're I think we're
kind of wrapped up here so let me just do let me just go right into our shoutouts shoutout
(01:08:46):
to Wikipedia support Wikipedia that is where we got the information and we get most of
our information when we're running down this stuff for the podcast shout out to Al at 2k
and Kaleigh at 2k UK pre-order WWE 2k 25 the bloodline edition you can order other editions
but order the bloodline edition because you get all of the most things including including
(01:09:12):
a digital copy of 2k 24 if you don't already have it up until March 13th which is coming
up soon so you only got about a week you got a week from the recording of this episode
on on Thursday you got a week to pre-order it so there you go and tell him we told you
(01:09:35):
yeah man other than that I think we're good I think we're good to just wrap this one up
oh yeah put it in the bin we're done yeah we are I think we're I will use that as well
we'll use that one we use that done unless you wanted to say bye really quick bye
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman.
(00:04):
And as your wise man, I'm here to bestow upon you the wisdom that you're listening to...
Punx Talk Wrestling.
Welcome to...
Punx Talk Wrestling!
On this episode, we pick our jaws back off the floor
(00:26):
and staple them back onto our faces as we talk about everything that's happened
at Elimination Chamber Toronto!
I am R.W. Hellborn, the PA Rock Prince, hailing quote-unquote from Philly!
And I am one half of the crown, which is one half of your Punx Talk Wrestling...
(00:53):
Inter-universal Tag Team Podcast Champion of the World!
Now, then, and forever by my side, 3500 miles away in London, England!
(01:19):
He is my Tag Team Podcast partner. He is the other half of the crown,
which is the other half of your Punx Talk Wrestling...
Inter-universal Tag Team Podcast Champion of the World!
Mr. Digineau, Sir King of Reels,
(01:45):
the proper prick, C.J. Newman!
Oh, God, that was a good intro this week.
But did you know that in 2015, it was decided that the WWE would scrap the Elimination Chamber?
(02:16):
They were going to no longer do any more Elimination Chambers.
They hold Elimination Chamber in 2015, actually in May.
Not between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.
That year was a Tag Team Championship Chamber match and an Intercontinental Championship Chamber match.
There was actually no Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in 2016 whatsoever.
(02:42):
And then in 2017, it returned again between Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.
And that was the redesign, the Elimination Chamber as we know it now,
which we've had for the last eight years.
And the reason they actually did that, because obviously, as I said, they were going to scrap it,
(03:03):
is because the majority of the arenas in America could not actually take the Elimination Chamber.
This thing weighed 16 tons.
Oh, yeah!
So it was obviously to begin with a struggle to take it around the country.
(03:29):
But not only that, it was a struggle to have...
There were only certain arenas that could actually suspend it from the ceiling.
Right.
Goddamn it.
You don't think about that much.
That entire giant structure is hanging above the ring for all the other matches.
(03:50):
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
So, I mean, in fact, it did your bonus.
It's been a while.
Did your bonus?
Yeah!
So the original structure was a steel with an outer structure of 16 frames,
each weighing 300 pounds each.
But the chamber was 16 foot tall and 36 foot in diameter and weighed a total of 16 tons,
(04:19):
10 of which consisted of steel.
Each inner chamber consisted of three large steel frame sheets of plexiglass costing $225 per sheet.
And the chains that surround the chamber stretch two miles long and weigh six tons.
Not only that, it cost $250,000 to construct.
(04:43):
And that was the original chamber.
So, holy shit.
So, yeah, luckily they redesigned it.
It weighs a lot less.
I don't actually have the weight of the new one.
But it's now redesigned and able to be moved around a lot easier.
(05:04):
And then it's also able to go into most arenas and be suspended from the ceiling.
Yeah.
Here's another, here's a didger bonus bonus that I was just, because I was just clicking through the elimination chambers
when you were mentioning that.
There has not been an elimination chamber in America.
(05:28):
Yeah.
It's been in the, for an American audience since the March 8th elimination chamber in Philly right before the pandemic.
Wow, really?
Yeah, because 2020, the elimination chamber 2020 was March 8th, literally before, like the week before everything got shut down.
(05:51):
Everything went crazy, yeah.
And then it was in the Thunderdome.
And then 2022 was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
After that was, it was in Montreal, 2023, then Perth, and now Toronto.
And then Toronto, yeah, right.
Wow, look at that.
(06:12):
Yeah, they're interesting.
Yeah, that is interesting actually.
That was a great didger bonus bonus.
And on that note, how's about we talk about elimination chamber Toronto?
Yeah.
(06:35):
We've got the colon space location back into the actual title of the event.
They're doing that a lot more lately.
I feel it because every time they do a PLE now,
it's in a different location around the world.
So I think they're kind of, instead of...
(06:58):
Yeah, it's certainly because they're not doing, you know, summer slam, colon, Chicago, or wherever summer slam.
And also, think about who's running the show here.
Think about who's running the show because Triple H when he was doing NXT and was doing Takeover,
would it be Takeover Toronto?
Yeah, Takeover Brooklyn.
(07:19):
Yeah, I'm looking back, I'm looking behind me at my Takeover posters.
Right, so he would always do Takeover and then the name of wherever it was.
Yeah, I think, honestly, I like that.
I like that they're adding the location.
And to be honest, I don't think it would be, but they...
(07:44):
With some of the European ones, like Backlash France, they're not using the city that they're in,
but they're using the country, which I still think it works.
I don't know if we'll see them start using them for US events as well, but I mean, I don't see why not.
Like, they're probably not...
(08:06):
I mean, actually, if you think about it, I feel like SummerSlam is called SummerSlam Indianapolis when it's in a few years' time.
Oh.
Potentially.
Maybe, well, we'll see.
We'll see.
I think WrestleMania will stay WrestleMania, but anyway, we're not talking about WrestleMania.
WrestleMania will stay with numbers, yeah.
We're on the road to WrestleMania.
(08:28):
This is the last major stop, right?
Yeah, we're halfway through the road to WrestleMania.
We're at the rest stop, taking a pee.
We're at...
Yeah, we're taking...
Someone took a big dump at this restaurant, rest stop.
Also, good to note, Elimination Chamber is no...
(08:49):
Maybe you have this in your notes.
Oh, yeah, it's known as No Escape in Toronto.
No Escape in Germany.
It's always been known as No Escape because they don't want to use the word chamber for very obvious reasons.
Yeah, I think, yeah, Elimination Chamber in Germany is not a good combo.
So they just changed the name.
(09:11):
I don't know how they go about doing that when all of the promotion...
Like, you know, if you're watching any of the WWE product, they say Elimination Chamber, Elimination Chamber, Elimination Chamber all the time.
So I don't know how they...
But it's just an interesting thing to note.
Yeah.
Let me run off the fact here.
(09:34):
So, yeah, Elimination Chamber Toronto live from March 1st, 2025, Toronto, Ontario, Canada from the Rogers Centre.
Now, I didn't know this until very recently, like the last day or so.
This was the same venue as WrestleMania 18 in 2002.
(09:56):
Okay.
When it was back then, it was known as the Skydome.
Oh, yes.
It is a Skydome.
Yeah, now, which is crazy, crazy to think that in that building, we've had the return of Hulkamania with Hulk Hogan versus the Rock.
And now we've had the biggest heel turn in history all happen in that one building.
(10:18):
Now, they haven't been to the Rogers Centre since WrestleMania 18.
The last time they were in that building was WrestleMania 18.
They haven't gone back since.
Now, we'll get to...
I mean, we're obviously, we're going to get to the giant, the invisible elephant in the room that you can't see, but we all saw.
(10:39):
Well, I think you can see him now.
You can see him on the poster, which, interesting enough, was a little foreshadowing, maybe.
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know.
Do we have on-screen person?
Maybe do, so before we get to that, attendance to 38,493 people.
(11:00):
Which seems a little small to me.
Does that seem small for a place that held WrestleMania 18, or is this just...
Yes, WrestleMania 18 held 68,237, but I don't know.
So they definitely did not, I mean, I don't think they didn't mention that it was a sellout.
(11:22):
They didn't mention anything about it.
They didn't mention it was a sellout.
I think it also depends how many, I mean, I don't know, I have never really seen the layout of the stadium, but...
What's that?
But that's a large discrepancy of, like, that's a big difference.
I didn't take notice of it during the event, like, if they had any of the upper deck areas roped off or anything.
(11:48):
But, I mean, whatever, I mean, almost 40,000, that's still perfectly...
So, it's a baseball stadium.
Its capacity for baseball is 39,150, so they hit capacity of a seat, you could say.
And then concerts, concerts depending on staging is 10,000 to 55,000, so...
(12:09):
But the attendance record for that stadium is WrestleMania 18, still stands today.
I mean, WWE usually is the one to set those attendance records.
Yeah, because these...
Especially for WrestleMania...
Yeah, if you've got a small stage and a tiny ramp and a ring, like, there's loads of places to put seats, so it's kind of easy.
(12:30):
Yeah, how about you give us some on-screen personnel right there?
How about I do?
English commentators Michael Cole, Pat McAfee and Wade Barrett, Spanish commentators Marcelo Rodríguez and Jerry Sotto,
ring announcer's elite ring announcer Alicia Taylor, we've got referees Danilo Enfibio, Jason Ayers, Dan Engler, Dallas Irvin, Daphne LeSean, Eddie Urengo, Chad Patton, Charles Robinson, Ryan Trannon, Rodzapata,
(12:57):
we've got a stacked deck of referees.
Yeah, I guess, sir, just like the Royal Rumble, you need a referee for every part, one at the door and one at the ring.
The referees are getting well-used around this time of year, because there's so many matches at WrestleMania.
You need all the referees for the Royal Rumble, you need all the referees for the Elimination Chamber, so they get good use around this time of year.
(13:18):
Yeah, also, it wasn't Daphne LeSean.
Why can't I think of the other female referee?
Oh, you know what, that was Monday Night Raw, anyway, that happened on Raw.
So it doesn't matter now.
(13:40):
Yeah.
Interviewers Cathy Kelly and Byron Saxton, and we've got a pre-show panel that no one watched with Jackie Redmond, Big E, Pete Rosenberg, and Joe Tessitor.
Joe T on the pre-show panel.
Yeah, there we go, that's what we've got.
Oh yeah.
I guess straight into the first match, there was nothing else to, there was nothing before this, it just went straight in, and it was the Women's Elimination Chamber match.
(14:09):
For the number one contendership of the Women's World Championship.
At this time, we didn't know whether it was going to be Rhea Ripley or EO Sky, and obviously Raw happened a few nights ago, and we can obviously say now.
Yes, you watched Raw, right?
Yeah, I've seen Raw, so EO Sky, I very unexpectedly got the win, did not expect that at all.
(14:31):
Yeah, that was, I was surprised about that as well.
I didn't know how they were going to, I didn't know how they were going to have.
I could see a threat coming, but yeah.
Possibly, possibly, but interesting angle between Rhea Ripley and Bianca getting into it a little bit.
(14:54):
Yeah.
So we will see where that goes.
See what happens then.
Yeah, EO Sky, your new WWE Women's World Champion, and a fantastic match.
In this match, we had Naomi Bailey, Roxanne Perez, Lexa Bliss, Liv Morgan, Bianca Belair.
What did you go for in this match? I can't remember. I think you said Roxanne Perez.
(15:18):
Yeah, I was voting, I was voting Roxanne.
And I think I ended up going with you in the end actually.
Yeah, I think I convinced you to come over to my insane ideas.
So we both got surprised.
Yeah, certainly.
And I don't think, honestly, I don't think Bianca was not on either one of our, well you started off by...
(15:42):
I did, well my air was that Bianca would win, which she did, and then go on to face Rhea Ripley.
So we can go back to you being right originally. You were right.
I was right originally. You just somehow swayed me over to what's now for us.
I convinced you to be surprised.
Yeah.
But first, I guess the first thing to get to is we had a returning J. Cargo.
(16:06):
Yeah, right at the beginning of the match.
Right beginning of the match.
I guess before the match really even started, because Naomi was the last...
She was the last one to enter.
Yeah.
And basically did nothing. The match never even started.
Yeah.
Right? Because Liv was in the ring, and she backed away.
(16:31):
Jade's music hit immediately, and everyone went crazy.
Yeah, Liv's standing there, she's like saying, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me.
And obviously you think she's going to hit her, and then she just turns and attacks Naomi.
Yeah, I...
We'll see on SmackDown what happens with the aftermath of all of that.
I was not expecting that at all.
(16:52):
Yeah.
Really, I was not expecting her to come back like that.
I mean, I had little thoughts about Naomi, because in my mind I was like,
if you think about it, it makes story sense.
Last year at WrestleMania, they were the big three, right?
It was those three in a team.
And since then, kind of Naomi got forgotten about, and Bianca and Jade ended up winning the tag team championships,
(17:17):
and Naomi got left to the wayside.
So I guess it makes sense that Naomi would be jealous, and then she would just attack Jade and...
It was a simple story, and they set it up, they set it up, and they knocked it down perfectly.
You don't have to think too much, I think we... I certainly worked myself into a unnecessarily complex idea
(17:44):
that it wasn't going to be either of them.
But yeah, I mean, it makes perfect sense, because now we've got...
There's an immediate story there.
Bianca's also now distracted with her match against... well, now EO at WrestleMania.
(18:05):
So that's...
Yeah, which kind of puts... I mean, I can't remember, because she was tag team champion.
I'm pretty sure she was a SmackDown superstar, so I don't know if this puts her on Raw now,
now that she's the number one contender for the world title.
Right, that... see? Yeah, you're right, they were...
I think they were considered... Yeah, they both were SmackDown, they both were on SmackDown.
(18:28):
Yeah.
From what I remember still.
But I'm honestly like, it's great that this is like... I feel like the women's division needs the kind of care and attention.
Not that it doesn't get any, but the care and attention that the men's division get.
For example, in their main event picture of the men's scene, it's like every single storyline crosses over.
(18:50):
So now Bianca Belair is involved with multiple storylines at the same time.
Yep, and if Bianca wins, which... going out on a limb right now and just making a snap decision based on nothing else,
I wouldn't be surprised if Bianca wins.
(19:13):
Yeah.
Then she's over on Raw and that splits up... that splits her from Naomi and Jade on SmackDown.
Yeah, but what's great is at WrestleMania, well, you know, I feel like for a long time it's at WrestleMania has been reserved...
sorry, women's matches at WrestleMania has been reserved for just title matches, but we'll get to see a grudge match, you know, between two women.
(19:41):
I want to see more women involved with the storylines that aren't involved around championships.
Yeah, and this definitely gives us that option.
I think they can certainly drag it out till WrestleMania and have this be a WrestleMania match.
For sure.
We'll see what... and perhaps even some kind of stipulation would be pretty cool.
(20:07):
Because grudge matches, you want a stipulation with a grudge match, right?
Yeah.
We'll see.
We'll see what happens.
But I'm here for it.
I'm here for it now.
I'm all in.
And who knows?
We could get completely swerved again with something else.
(20:28):
We don't know.
We also don't know Bianca Belair's involvement on Jade's attack.
We don't know if she had some time in a part of it or whether she was the one that told Naomi to do it or whatever.
You never know.
Yeah, we don't know anything yet because none of them have had the time to explain themselves.
(20:49):
Yeah.
You know, they're waiting for their airtime to do it, I guess.
Yeah.
But overall the match, I mean, as far as elimination chamber matches go, great, great freaking match.
Everybody looked good.
I'm trying to remember the order here of who pinned who.
(21:12):
Oh, it's there at the bottom.
Oh, that's right.
We've got the weird elimination chamber.
The table that they use is always a little bit weird.
Yeah.
So we had Bayley.
We had Liv Morgan eliminating two people.
(21:33):
Right, so Bayley gets eliminated first.
Bayley entered fifth.
Okay, here we go.
So we had no eliminations until...
Did we have no eliminations until everyone was in?
Well, Naomi technically got eliminated.
Yeah, Naomi got there.
No proper eliminations until like 20 minutes into the match.
Yeah.
So there's Liv Morgan entered fifth.
(21:58):
Oh, Alexa Bliss was last.
No Bayley.
No, Liv Morgan was fast and second in with Naomi.
Yeah.
Yeah, Liv Morgan entered second.
Was eliminated fifth.
Bayley was eliminated second.
Bayley entered fifth was eliminated by Liv Morgan.
(22:22):
She was the first eliminated.
Roxanne Perez was then eliminated by Alexa Bliss.
So that would have been after Alexa...
Then Alexa Bliss eliminated by Liv Morgan again.
And then Liv Morgan eliminated by Bianca.
There we go.
I figured it out.
Exactly.
Figured out how to read this table.
(22:43):
Yeah, I mean, not to gloss over it,
but without just going shot for shot into just retelling the entire match.
I don't know that there wasn't any like,
oh my god moments.
No, nothing crazy here.
Nothing too crazy.
(23:04):
Just a good amount of violence.
Yeah, but as far as elimination chamber matches go,
it was good fun.
Yeah.
But yeah, that was a result of that.
Advancing storylines.
Yeah.
Yeah, but Roxanne looked pretty strong.
(23:25):
And again, I see this, that's fine.
It's fine for her because she's still NXT.
If you watch, if you got a chance to see NXT,
she got involved in something.
It was a little, there was a little weirdness with NXT going on with the women's matches.
Yeah.
Due to a core Jade possible injury.
(23:48):
But it's like, it looks like she's okay.
Yeah, it looks to be.
It was very weird, at least in the way I was able to watch it because they didn't,
you didn't know that it got called off.
Like they went to commercial and then they came back from commercial and it was over.
I think they just fumbled a bit as in they didn't really know quite what to do.
(24:12):
Yeah, I think from what I heard, she got, it looked like she just got like her bell rung a little bit.
They thought maybe it was a concussion, but it seems like it seems like she's okay.
Either way, yeah.
Second match, yeah, either way, second match.
On to hometown hero Trish Stratus with Tiffany Stratton versus Nia Jax and Candice LaRae.
(24:42):
This was just a feel good match.
It was nice.
It was great seeing Trish in the ring.
Yeah, I got, I am honestly, I haven't really got much to say about this match.
Me neither.
Trish Stratus did like a top rope strat faction.
Tiffany did a moonsault and it was all pretty and stuff.
(25:07):
And yeah, I mean, it was pretty.
Yeah, it was just a, it was a match and I'm not saying it was bad.
I'm not saying it was great.
It was just a match.
It was, yeah, exactly.
It was, it was, it was just a match and it was a good match and everybody had fun.
Trish looked great still in the ring.
(25:28):
Yeah.
And we'll see.
I mean, we'll see where we go with that.
There was a little bit of a, there was a little bit of a miscue between Nia and Candice that helped them lose.
Yeah.
So we'll see if that, we'll see if that goes anywhere.
But I mean, right now, I don't know, I don't know what's going on.
(25:49):
I don't know what, what, what they might, they might be going into a tag team picture for a bit.
I don't know.
I don't know what we're going to do with either of them right now.
Yeah.
I can see Nia Jax and Candice Leray doing that maybe or I don't know.
Because Nia Jax may be going for like the US title or something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Don't know.
Don't know where anyone's going with that.
(26:10):
The only thing we know is that, is that Charlotte Flair is facing Tiffany Stratton for the, for the women's world champion or the women's world champion.
Or the women's heavyweight championship.
WWE women's championship.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Whatever it's called.
The, the raw is the women's world champion.
(26:33):
Is it, is it the women, is it the WWE women's?
The WWE women's champion.
It's just called the WWE women's champion right now.
Okay.
Just like the men, I mean, the men's is still called the undisputed WWE.
And I'm not going to say that because it's not undisputed anymore because now there's a world champion before the undisputed men, because that was, there was two championships.
(26:54):
Yeah.
Unified.
There is still a little bit of controversy there because, and I'm seeing only, only from the, only from the standpoint of that title is, is the, is the WWE championship with the, with the whole lineage of everything.
But also the universal championship.
(27:15):
Now.
Yes.
You know, because Roman Reigns, Roman Reigns had them both and then, and then had them both and then they were unified.
But, but now that there's a world championship, the undisputed to me becomes negated because there is a dispute because there is also another world champion on another show now.
Yeah.
So I think it's just, I think it.
(27:38):
See, and that further, that further muddies it a little bit because now it, because, because that definitively says that the world championship is below the WWE championship, which we know it, I mean, we know it is everybody, everybody knows.
Yeah, it is the secondary world.
Of course, the WWE championship goes back.
Oh God, I mean, 60 years.
Yeah.
(27:59):
Um, but you know, like, like we, like we've seen time and time again, world championships and heavyweight championship title has.
History is our, our, our muddy.
Yeah.
They're muddy.
Yeah, murky and muddy.
Yeah, that's, that's for sure.
Yeah.
Um, all right.
Well, yeah, Tiff, Tiff and Trish win.
Um, 11 in 11 minutes and 40 seconds.
(28:21):
Uh, next up, we have Kevin Owens versus Sami Zayn in an unsanctioned match.
Yeah.
This one got crazy.
Yeah.
This was, it was, I mean, it was pretty much everything you wanted in a, in a match.
Yeah.
It was everything in the kitchen.
In an unsanctioned match between Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.
Um, yeah.
A lot of weapons, a lot of, you know, a lot of, a lot of work around the ring.
(28:46):
Um, I like the lighting.
I dug the lighting.
I think it was.
Yeah.
That lighting was unsanctioned lighting.
The ref had a, had a plain black shirt on.
Yeah.
To prove that it was unsanctioned.
Yeah.
Until he got knocked down and then another ref with a, with a regular ref shirt came in.
Uh, that was, that was Charles Robinson, who then got, who then got attacked by Kevin
(29:08):
Owens.
Who was the guy?
Yeah.
He got, he got stunted, right?
Or something.
Um, what happened to him?
I, I think he just, I think he just got clobbered.
I think I think he like clothes lined or something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, but again, kept fucking, um, uh, my God is named Charles Robinson still taking
bumps and he's 60 years old.
(29:30):
Yeah.
Man, that dude, that dude is a, is a trooper.
Um, he loves it.
He loves a bump.
Yeah.
I don't know.
And we, we still haven't, I guess we'll find out on Smackdown as well if there will be
any repercussions against Kevin Owens for striking the referees.
Um, I don't know.
It might be because it's unsanctioned.
Maybe there's no, maybe there's no rules to, to that either.
(29:52):
Um, although, yeah, I don't know.
I don't know.
We'll find out.
It might just get waved under the rug.
Yeah.
It was a good, I mean this, I, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was,
I, I was, I didn't know where it was going to go.
I would say we all saw the ref with the, the gloves on at the start.
I, I thought there was going to be a blood.
Uh, we actually said last week that there probably would be, there wasn't, they didn't need it.
(30:14):
They roughed each other up plenty.
I was like, I saw, you know, I don't, and, and I don't actually know when this is, but
can you remember the last time Barb wire was on a WWE show?
Cause it's been a very long time.
It's been a long time.
I mean, also I will say, I don't know.
I don't know if, if you looked closely at it that I don't want to, I don't want to be
(30:40):
kind of, I don't want to be negative about it, but that barbed wire looked fake as hell
to me.
Oh yeah.
I bet that was never like, I don't need it to be real.
I, I, I, I get, yeah, I mean maybe, but like it looked rubber.
Like it didn't even look like, it didn't even look like it was metal.
Like if you're going to make, if you're going to make fake barbed wire, like, I don't know.
(31:04):
That was the only thing that I, the only thing that I could criticize about that match is
that the barbed wire around the chair just looked like fake rubber barbed wire.
I mean, I, I didn't, I, I was, I, I didn't notice.
I did.
I guess I didn't take a good enough look at it, but, uh, I mean, I, I don't, I don't
say, I, where's that?
Go ahead.
Because, because nobody's shirts got stuck to it.
(31:27):
Like, right.
Yeah.
I did notice that.
I did notice that, but I guess, I guess for me, like, you know, like something like thumbtacked,
you can't, you can't fake, right?
That, that's a thumbtack to thumbtack.
Sure.
I think with the, um, the barbed wire, there are ways to gimmick it, uh, and make it, you
know, not as dangerous.
(31:48):
But if you've got barbed wire that is, you know, fake barbed wire that still looks real,
I'm cool with that.
I don't need to watch.
I don't need to see, I don't need to see someone's skin getting parry by barbed wire.
I don't have to, you know, I'm totally fine with it being done in the safest way possible.
And like these guys fucked each other up enough.
I don't need, you know, to see a fake barbed wire chair.
(32:12):
I'm cool with that.
Yeah.
I guess, I, I get it.
I get both.
I could see both sides of it.
Um, it was, it was a good pop.
Um, it just, I think it was on T.
I think, I think just because of watching it on TV made me made it look at least to me,
but whatever.
(32:33):
Yeah.
It was, it was still a great fucking match.
Um, I was, I guess neither of us, I don't remember who did we, I don't remember what
predictions were.
It was only days ago.
I know, right?
I do think, I think what I said was that, uh, either Sammy's ain't, I said, I think Sammy's
ain't would like end up doing something.
(32:56):
Oh, that's right.
We thought we were going to, that's right.
We thought he was going to go nefarious.
Um, yeah, but my other, my other side prediction was that he would, wouldn't be able to pull
the trigger.
And then obviously Kevin Owens would get the better of that situation.
Yeah.
Um, I don't know if that really happened.
Like, I think Sammy's ain't just went all in and, and fucked him up.
And I think they fucked each other up just as much.
(33:18):
I mean, I mean, Sammy's ain't was the one that brought out the barbed wire chair.
Exactly.
Well, he, yeah, he saw it under the ring.
His, his reaction was like, this must have been, you know, you could tell in his face
is like, I didn't put this here.
This is Kevin.
I didn't put this one here.
Who put, who put a barbed wire chair under this ring?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, so, yeah, but you've got to think about what you got to think then at what point did
(33:42):
Kevin Owens either slip that under the ring or if Kevin Owens didn't do it, who put to
get, who put that under there?
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
But, uh, yeah, I mean, good match.
Loads of good spots, the table spot outside the ring with the two, with the two tables
is cool.
Yeah.
Oh man.
Yeah.
(34:03):
Just, just a, just a fun match.
And then, and then after the match, after, after several power bombs, uh, to Sammy's
ain't, yeah.
Oh God.
So good.
Um, yeah, after the match, we get, we get voices in our head.
Yeah.
Returning Randy Orton.
Yeah.
And, and Randy Orton beats the crap out of Owens, uh, to the point where he was about
(34:26):
to punt kick him.
Uh, that's right.
And I think we'll, we'll get that payoff at WrestleMania.
I think, uh, I'm sure.
Yeah.
I think Kevin Owens get punted at WrestleMania, whether he loses or wins, he'll get punted
at WrestleMania.
Yeah.
I think so.
And then poor security guards, uh, four, four of them get our four RKO's.
(34:49):
Uh, yeah, they're just, just feds Randy Orton a bunch of security guards, basically.
And I guess, I guess security guards are, I guess, I guess being physically assaulted
is part of the security guards.
Uh, it's part of the potential in being a security guard because there, because there's
(35:11):
never a, there's never, no one ever gets fined for, you know, for attacking the security
guards.
Yeah.
I mean, if you're security, you're, you're, you know, that the physical, uh, like being
a referee, like you're there to just officiate a match being security, you know, that there's,
there's a chance you can get physically involved in something.
So, security don't matter.
(35:33):
They're just pawns.
Yeah.
Pretty much.
Pretty much there.
Just know, you know, um, but yeah, big super, super big pop.
So at this point, at this point, everyone's feeling pretty good.
You know.
We had Randy Orton's return.
Yeah.
At Randy Orton's return, we had, um, Jade Cargill's return earlier.
(35:53):
You know, we had a feel good win by the faces.
Um, even though Kevin Owens won, we get, you know, got Randy Orton returning.
So that got a big, huge pop.
Um,
Plus we had a great, like weapons based, unsanctioned match.
27 minutes.
Plus with, uh, with two Canadians in Canada.
So there's that too.
Right.
(36:14):
Right.
Um,
Yeah.
At this point, um, yeah.
And then, hey, men's men's elimination chamber match for the understated, the number one
contendership of the unspoken championship.
Yeah.
Dream McIntyre, Damian Priest, Logan Paul, Seth Rollins, CM Punk, John Cena, star starter,
the fuck elimination chamber match.
(36:34):
Um, and, uh, yeah, I thought this match was great.
I thought the storytelling generally in this match was amazing.
Uh, they're like, we went through all the options last week of who could win this.
And I mean, I went for, well, we both, to be both go for Drew McIntyre, I think we did.
Right.
I, we, we were firmly, uh, yeah.
And our, uh, the real, the real that you made right before got, uh, it got a little bit
(36:58):
of traction, but, but the traction was, was basically due to us being completely wrong
after the, after the fact.
Um, yeah, I think we were both under the, under the guise that Drew McIntyre was going
to be the one that turned, um, and sort of become, became the, became the, uh, the corporate,
(37:19):
uh, the, the, uh, the rocks pawn.
But that did, but that did not happen because, because Drew McIntyre was eliminated first.
Yeah.
He was eliminated first by Damian Priest.
Yeah.
By Damian Priest.
Crazy.
Yeah.
So, so right out the gate are, right out the gate, we were surprised.
(37:39):
Yeah.
For sure.
Which I think sets up a pretty decent, where is Drew McIntyre?
Is Drew McIntyre even, is Drew McIntyre on?
No, he's on Smackdown.
Yeah.
Drew and Damian both got drafted to Smackdown.
So they are on Smackdown now.
So, so it, it seems like that coupled with the incident at the Royal Rumble, they're,
(38:04):
they're definitely, they're definitely leaning towards where a Drew, Drew vs Damian match
just because, because Damian, Damian Priest, I mean, look, look about, look back at their
last year, like they have a lot.
I mean, even go back to WrestleMania last year, like he, uh, Damian is the one that
captured and drew.
You could basically, you could basically say Damian Priest stopped him from becoming champion
(38:28):
now three times in a row.
Yeah.
Damian Priest has really screwed over Drew McIntyre several times.
Yeah.
So, I guess.
And not because, not because he had anything specific against Drew McIntyre, it's just,
he cashed in his money in the bank at an opportune time.
And he was in the Royal Rumble where it was any, every man for himself and he's in the
(38:49):
elimination chamber where it's every man for himself.
It just so happens that Damian Priest has got, it got Drew's number.
Like it's one of those.
Yeah.
Pretty much every time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I guess one thing that hasn't happened is like a, a full on one on one match where,
you know.
Right.
And later Damian Priest gets eliminated by fucking Logan Paul.
(39:11):
Actually saying that, no, Drew McIntyre and Damian Priest did face each other.
I can't remember what PLA, PLA it was, but it was last year.
But that's when CM Punk got involved and caused Drew McIntyre to lose.
Oh, that's right.
That's right.
Because that was still during the Drew CM Punk situation.
Yeah.
But still Damian Priest and still to that point Damian Priest won that match.
(39:35):
Yeah.
So he's just constant and that was for the championship as well.
So yeah, constantly right.
That was the title match.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In fact, yeah, it was money in the bank last year because money in the bank was in, it
was in Canada somewhere.
So yeah, that makes sense.
But yeah, so yeah, Damian Priest gets eliminated by Logan Paul.
(39:55):
And Logan Paul is eliminated by CM Punk.
Yeah.
Couple minutes later.
Yeah.
But this is where we see that we get a good.
This is where things get.
Well, we got a good 12 minutes of in that match after after Logan Paul's eliminated
at the 1830 mark.
We have we have like 11 and a half minutes before before Seth gets eliminated by CM Punk.
(40:22):
So at that point it's just it's just Seth Rollins, CM Punk and John Cena for for 11
minutes.
Yeah.
And it was great.
And it was a really good.
Yeah.
I mean, it was good to see CM Punk.
They teased it a few times in the match.
But finally, CM Punk and Cena got to wrestle each other, which was like the first time
(40:42):
in like 11 years.
Yeah.
And that was great to see because they've still they've still got amazing chemistry.
Oh yeah.
Those two because those because they know how to work.
Yeah.
They just know they're they're just yeah, they're just freaking gold together.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And oh my.
I mean, let's let's just let's just do a little.
(41:04):
I mean, OK, we get we got CM Punk eliminating Seth Rollins.
Yeah.
And this is when things get really interesting.
Yeah.
And then and then Seth comes back, you know, before leave it before exiting the chamber,
curb stomps CM Punk onto the onto the freaking steel on the outside of the ring.
(41:28):
And then and then all of a sudden John Cena with the S with an FTFU.
Yeah.
And now I know it's every man from self, but like this is where things if you look back
now, you think John Cena, I don't know if John Cena of the past would have necessarily
taken advantage of the situation like that.
No.
What do you think?
I don't know.
(41:48):
I don't think so.
I don't think he would.
I don't think he would have done.
He certainly wouldn't have done it the way that he did it.
No, he he didn't think twice about it.
But I think past Cena would have like gone to attack Seth Rollins because he is friends
with CM Punk.
So he or at least maybe, you know, at least been like good guy, Cena would have at least
(42:08):
given him a moment to like a fight and chance.
But but yeah, no, I mean, we've seen as we've seen this, you know, we can't, you know, we
didn't think we really didn't think it was going to happen.
We didn't think they were going to pull the trigger on it.
But but the signs were all over the wall for, you know, yeah, all year.
And and it's crazy.
You go back and you read like people are people are now like re retweeting old or whatever,
(42:34):
reposting John Cena posts from like the weeks and months before.
And then you and then you start seeing like, oh, this dude's been he's been sprinkling
this stuff over social media for a while.
He has he has.
And like, I mean, it's well, that's that's that's this carry on for a second.
We'll get to the scene.
So he instantly grabs CM Punk, like drags him into the middle of the ring and then just
(43:00):
locks an STF you on him and and Punk passes out.
Like, yeah, doesn't give up, but he passes out.
Yeah.
Um, so we've now got now John Cena is firmly in Punk's crosshair once again, as we saw
from that, gave that scathing intro to raw.
(43:22):
What a promo.
That's the that's that's CM Punk's best promo since he's returned.
For sure.
Well, and and they and they let him and they let him drop the bullshit bombs on on Netflix.
Like, you know, they we got of course, that's right.
And that's the thing.
That's the thing that and that's that's kind of what I spoke about.
A.W. before A.W. every promo has a swear word in the WWE.
(43:45):
You drop swear words when they mean something when they mean something.
Yeah, well, yeah, well, yeah, as we see at the end that we're about to see.
We're about to hear one.
Yeah.
Yeah, they've been they've certainly been saving the the curse words, saving the swears
for for when it matters, just like just like everything.
(44:06):
When you do when you do too much shit, when you when you do stuff too much, it makes it
makes none of them important.
And yeah, it doesn't make it impactful.
And that and that and again, and we yeah.
And as we were saying, like there's been let's go back to the just the rumble.
Like we saw John Cena.
Well, fuck, not even there yet.
(44:27):
We're not even there yet.
So so so so.
So just you know, just he gets the win and straight out comes Cody Rhodes.
Yeah.
And then straight comes out the rock pretty much with Travis Scott, mind you.
Yeah, we're getting a lot of people.
A lot of people are really well, there's a there's a lot of things involving his involvement
that people are questioning and just it's it's mostly a why the fuck is he there for
(44:54):
this?
Like there I don't see any I don't see any reason why he was there.
For any for any of this.
I think that I think that I don't think we're meant to know right now.
I feel like that this is this is going to lead somewhere.
I didn't just do it for no reason.
(45:15):
I think I think the big I think the big thing is is if you look at the promo they played
earlier in the night, it was trying to show you that the rock is attached to some of the
most famous people in the world and he can get you anything he wants.
Right.
I think bringing out coming out with Travis Scott is just like a humble brag of like,
(45:37):
no, I'm a very unhumble brag of like, I've got famous friends and I could give you anything
you want.
I am an A list celebrity and and you could be one too.
If you sell your soul and join me.
Yeah, I think it has something to do with that.
But I by what I've heard the last few weeks is that Travis Scott has been has had a bit
(46:01):
of training.
So I feel like it seems like he's going to have a match of some sort.
And we've yeah, Jacques, Jacques Berman Webster the second.
I think is definitely that's Travis Scott's actual born name.
Yeah, Jacques, Jacques Berman Webster the second.
(46:22):
Travis Scott is definitely a I guess you would say a cooler name.
I don't know.
I don't know where I got the name from.
Anyway, he's in a partnership with Kylie Jenner.
He's also I don't know.
(46:42):
Like I'm not familiar with any of his work to be honest.
But it's just like the thing is, it's just like bad bunny where bad bunny first came
in everyone was like, who the fuck is this guy?
And then by the time bad bunny was done, everyone was like, you know, you're right.
And you're right.
And I think I think what we're going to find I think what we are going to find out is this
is going to tie into Triple H giving him that weird hardcore championship that he sometimes
(47:10):
carries with him and but didn't this time.
Yeah, he did.
He had it.
He had it when he came out.
Oh, he did.
I missed it.
I I yeah.
And you're right.
And I think that basically something will come along where but we know I loved you know
what I loved about it.
You know, I loved this put it this way.
What I loved about Travis Scott coming out is that everyone hated it and then guess what?
(47:33):
Yeah, meant to like that.
You know, you are correct.
You're correct in that is you're not supposed to like it and no one likes it.
So it worked because they are meant to a pit.
And so this we're speeding ahead a little bit, but the team have seen him a rock is
meant to epitomize what everyone hates.
And that is their part timers, right?
They're these big Hollywood stars that come back for the paycheck and leave for three
(47:56):
months and come back when it only means something to them.
And adding someone that is outside of wrestling into their group makes it even more obnoxious,
makes it even more hateable because we are there now.
Just they're just a group of celebrities.
They're not wrestlers anymore.
Yeah, group of celebrities.
And we already and we already hate Logan Paul for coming in and you know, I think nobody
(48:21):
hated bad bunny once they saw him wrestle, but he also wrestled as a face.
He yeah, which is different, which was different.
I think they really I think they realized celebrities as heels work better than celebrities
as faces.
Yeah, I think I think I think bad bunny work as a face.
I think I think, you know, obviously Travis Scott came out with Jey Uso recently and then
(48:43):
the crowd.
Oh, that's right.
He did come out with Jey Uso.
I think like I think what that they're turning they turn Travis Scott heel and honestly,
when they when if like, John Cena and the Rock together, like that's hateable, but like
Travis Scott's obnoxious, like at least the character that he plays is obnoxious and seeing
them stand there with Travis Scott is like it made them more obnoxious.
(49:08):
It made them more it made them more like the top 1%.
Do you know what I mean?
It made them a bit more hateable.
And anyway, I think that I think that that shot he took on on Cody to made him even more
even more legitimately hated because that looks stiff as hell.
Oh, that was stiff as hell.
He gave him a smack.
(49:29):
But hey, I mean, I probably also it probably also looked worse because his head was on
the ground like probably look worse.
And I will say like, I don't I don't doubt that like Cody's the kind of guy to be like
lay into me.
Yeah, he took those whips from the belt.
He got he got legitimately hit in the head with that championship because you could hear
it hitting his head.
(49:49):
Like once again, shots to the head.
My favorite my favorite thing.
It's good shit.
We got to see two of them as well.
Yeah.
But yeah, we had the rock come out and you know, long story short, Cody Rhodes is like,
you know, I've sold my soul to the crowd in this ring a long time ago and basically tell
the rocks to go fuck.
(50:11):
Yeah, it doesn't basically he says he says word for word, go fuck yourself.
Yeah, he said, hey, rock, go fuck yourself.
Whoa, lion, I went crazy.
Yeah, I think that's the first not just uncensored F bond.
I think that's the first actual F bomb like in a Mike all through the arena.
(50:33):
Like they've never they've never dropped the F bomb before.
Is that I know?
No, no, but what a great moment to do it.
Yeah, it was great.
It was great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you drop the F bomb, told him to go fuck himself.
And that's when you know, this is.
You know what else?
The you know what else this does?
It makes the all of Cena's all of Cena's goofy face shit that he was doing up until
(50:57):
then, like the over exaggeration that he had with every like it was it looked it looked
fake.
It looked his goofy face shit looked fake and because it was because this whole time
who knows how long it's been, but like that his his his face reactions were too over the
(51:19):
top.
They didn't look they didn't look real because they weren't.
Yeah, exactly.
And the way they played this off was utter perfection.
It was this was fucking cinema being played out in front of us.
Yeah.
And it was it was it was just expertly done.
The camera shots were perfect with with Cena's head over Cody's shoulder and his face.
(51:42):
His face dropping his face just his literal face turning into a heel.
Oh yeah.
You could see it happen.
Yeah.
And that that scowl with you know, those deep those deep Norwegian lines that he has the
face it's like it's a they just they just look great and in a scowl he looks it made
(52:07):
him look older.
It made him look mean.
It just made him look weathered.
Yeah, it made him look like this point, but it made him look like a funny enough, you
know, angry old white dude mad at mad at everything else mad at the world.
Yeah.
And I think we've all seen this side by side photo like a picture of him before the match
and a picture of him after the match.
(52:28):
Yeah, he looks like a completely different person.
Like yeah.
Yeah, it's great.
And then yeah, so Cody Rhodes gets the beat down of his life, bloodied torn up shirt hit
with the championship hit with the microphone hit with his watch.
Oh yeah.
We're pulling the watch off like yeah, it was it was fucking great.
It was fucking great.
(52:48):
And now we've got the you know now you've had this I'm hoping that we finally get to
find out what the Rock gave Cody Rhodes at the post press raw after WrestleMania last
year.
He gave him something that still hasn't been spoken about and I really hope it does get
spoken right.
We don't know what that we don't know what that is.
There there's there's still a lot.
But there's still a lot of there are so many questions and fucking and there's not a lot
(53:12):
of time to figure it out.
There isn't but we got a heel John Cena and and we I feel like we got a heel John Cena
for at least majority of his run this year and let's fucking enjoy it because we've got
something for the first year that we never ever thought we'd ever get.
So yeah, I don't yeah.
(53:33):
Now, I haven't I'll be honest.
I've looked I've been online a bit.
I'm staying away from the most aggravating of spaces online.
But I was I was there.
I was expecting to see a lot of comparisons to someone else's heel turn that you never
(53:58):
thought was ever going to happen that that happened in another company.
Yeah.
Now, I know, of course, they're not they're not Wwe isn't talking about it specifically
for reasons.
But I didn't really see anybody else really bring it up either.
Like I haven't I know I've I definitely have I definitely have and from what I'm obviously
(54:21):
everyone's saying that the fact this is the biggest heel turn to talk over in 1996.
It is.
It is the last big heel turn was him.
And that was 30 years ago.
Yeah, literally.
Yeah, 29 years, 29 years ago, 29, 29 years ago, almost almost 30 years ago, since we've
had 30 years ago, since we've had a the biggest baby face you knew turn turn heel.
(54:50):
Yeah.
And I think what makes this one a lot more unique is that Hulk Hogan still had I mean
his career still went on for many, many years after that.
What makes this so unique is that this was John Cena on his last run on his last year
as a professional wrestler.
(55:10):
Is it though?
And you would.
Well, that's any of that's what this is a question now that brings up because we mentioned
this.
I think we talked about this before with the retirement of like people retire and then
they come out of retirement.
But like, yeah, could all of this be could all of this just be a huge lie that he's not
(55:33):
like if he wins, does he just be like, you know what, screw you and screw everything
out.
I'm not going to retire.
I'm going to keep this title forever.
Yeah, it could totally happen.
But the great thing is, is like, this is happening at this stage.
It's I think it's I think it's infinitely bad and more unexpected.
And not only that, like John Cena was a face on on on another level.
(55:57):
He was not only a face in professional wrestling, he is a face in real life.
Yeah, I will say the guys that make, you know, he is the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Yeah, as much as as much as Hulk Hogan, the character and Hulkamania of its time did for
WWE and professional wrestling at the time and for as much outside of wrestling, fame,
(56:28):
Hulk Hogan, the person had, I think John John Cena has well, the rock as far surpassed him
as far as like as far as actual like success outside of wrestling.
I think John, I think John Cena, I think John Cena seamlessly transitioned to Hollywood
(56:53):
into and is and has got and got himself in some very big name, big name movies and things
that things that got himself involved at a higher level.
I think and I think John Cena John Cena is a celebrity.
If I go and ask my mom who John Cena is, my mom knows who John Cena is.
(57:15):
Yeah, yeah, I think that John I think that John Cena is a bigger celebrity than Hulk
Hogan was or is ever was.
Yeah, especially outside of that.
That's that's that's a total no brainer.
100%.
Yeah.
I don't think anyone anyone that doesn't look at at some really, really old biases
(57:37):
would would say that too.
Yeah.
And I think and here's the other and here's the other thing why I believe this is this
was a more important heel turn as well was that you didn't need to do it.
You didn't have you didn't necessarily have to do it.
(57:57):
WWE didn't need John Cena to turn heel to do something because they have all these other
things going on.
Whereas WCW desperately needed without without Hogan turning heel WCW would have died even
earlier.
There wouldn't have been there wouldn't have been an NWO that mattered.
(58:21):
Everything would have fallen apart.
So WCW needed the Hogan heel turn in order for them to even even survive even to to to
be relevant at all.
WCW was people can say whatever they want to say at the time.
But even though even though they even though WCW was they had the outsiders and they were
(58:43):
working towards this thing without without Hogan it completely fell.
It would have it would have it would have gone nowhere and WCW would have folded even
earlier.
I don't think I don't think there's anyone that can can say that that's not true.
(59:03):
Yeah I would I would agree with you I think I think this is I think this was more important.
Oh 100% and now I mean and it happened in here and it happened in the WWE in the in the
company that actually like survives exactly not in a company not in a company that died
there's a lot of speculation now as well like obviously at the end of Bad Blood last
(59:24):
year the Rock came out and he if you remember he put three fingers in the air to yeah slit
his throat and then at down at at elimination chamber he'd put two fingers in the air and
then slit his throat.
Yeah a lot of people are now thinking that there's a third person a lot of people were
thinking that the Rock Roman Reigns and John Cena are gonna form this fucking mega group
(59:48):
I mean it which puts like the two-man power trip to absolute shame to be honest.
Yeah I don't know what well do you think the Rock is gonna take I still see we've still
we've got so many things that are still dangling threads here like we were talking about the
(01:00:09):
undisputed championship remember remember the Rock telling Seth Rollins he could just
make his title go away like that.
Yeah like that's still.
I know only that we've still got CM Punk has a favorite from Paul Heyman we don't know
what the fuck that's all about either.
Yeah but I but I yeah I don't know what I don't know but I think but I think the next
(01:00:33):
the next CM Punk vs John Cena is going to be insane it very well could be and it very
well could be well CM Punk's not he's not he's not headlining WrestleMania right this
year he is not so as far as we know he's still think he's still but hey I actually I actually
could see I actually I mean after his promo on Raw I could see CM Punk vs the Rock just
(01:01:00):
because that has so much potential because hell like in CM Punk's pipe bomb promo from
2011 he said in that the fact that the Rock the fact that Dwayne is headlining WrestleMania
I'm not makes me sick and you can speed ahead fucking nearly 15 years later and the same
(01:01:23):
the same sentiment is still true yeah and this time you just swap out the name Dwayne
for John and it's just like you've you've still you've got a story to tell with with
and plus the Rock is the one that ended CM Punk's historic WWE Championship reign like
there's so much to there's so much story to be told between the two of them and they wouldn't
(01:01:46):
have CM Punk pick holes in the Rock and John Cena if they weren't aiming towards something
happening there between no yeah and who know I mean who knows does CM Punk.
CM Punk get involved in the match and cost Cena the championship does does John Cena beat
Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania and I don't know where we're going I mean we've got six weeks
(01:02:13):
to figure it out we don't know where we go and I and I love it because it was just like
this time of their last year on the way to WrestleMania 40 we had no fucking idea what
the hell was happening every single week yep and that and they've really brought that magic
back for that road to WrestleMania that's what I got and what's gonna happen yeah I gotta
say I love that I love that I love not knowing what the fuck is going to happen you know
(01:02:36):
yeah everything is so chaotic and yeah the fucking best yep so um well with that being
said what do you want to what do you want to give this pay-per-view out of a 20 out of
a 20 what's our what's our official ptw ranking for the fact that it one of the most
(01:02:56):
historic things to ever happen in professional wrestling happened on giving it a 20 it negates
anything that bad and nothing really bad happened on this card but the fact that that happened
coupled up with two great elimination chamber matches and an amazing unsanctioned match
the tag match was neither here nor there but it wasn't bad yeah the fact that we got to
see John Cena turn heel I'm giving it a straight up 20 you know I don't throw around 20s very
(01:03:21):
often you don't throw around 20s ever except for WrestleMania 40 I think that was yeah
but be the only huge man that's tough this is tough for me to does it does it go down
to 19 I go down to a 19 but it doesn't rate a critical success does it is it a critical
(01:03:43):
success like like you said the the tag match the tag match not being necessarily important
but it have it but it having some star power having hometown hometown fanfare also the fact
that they didn't have that match second to last yeah they put it on they put it on second
weird weirdly that they they had both the women's matches first when you've got four matches
(01:04:09):
we're not we're not you know you can't even differentiate between men's and women's stuff
here this is this is storyline this is storyline driven completely the first mat the first match
was well I mean this was the biggest thing obviously you can't have this finish without
(01:04:31):
this match being last I'm glad I'm I'm trying to I'm trying to figure out if I can justify
giving it anything other than a 20 really because like you said nothing there was nothing about
this there's nothing about this that was bad there was nothing about this that wasn't I
(01:04:53):
was thoroughly entertained for the three and a half hours and when that men's elimination
chamber match came on and I knew that the rock Cody situation was going to be after the
match I knew that something huge whatever it was going to be something historic and huge
is going to happen yeah even when John Cena won and even when John Cena was hanging out
(01:05:13):
in that ring after the during that segment there's not even there still wasn't a part
of me that thought he was gonna I really didn't think I still expected drew or someone else
to come out or whatever I did not expect seen that to happen and the fact and it and it just
it gave you gave me one of those it's it's one of those moments that as a as a wrestling
(01:05:39):
fan you know that's those those are the moments you fucking that's why you watch that's why
you watch wrestling yeah yeah I think you watch I think you're right man I don't I don't think
there's anything that could that could lower this ranking I want to give it a I want to
give it a perfect 20 as well because and and I think and it is because because of the scene
(01:06:00):
a turn if that didn't happen it would have it certainly would have dropped it down a
little bit but yeah man I mean give that give this a critical success man give this give
this as the only as the only PLE outside of a WrestleMania to get a perfect 20 I think
that I think we have to we go for this has to happen this is historic yeah man and also
(01:06:26):
just for we'll see just because I checked when the dates were it was it was just under
five years between between when Hogan Hogan turned heel on July 796 and WCW was sold on
end of March of 2001 so just shy of five years after Hogan's heel turn WCW was no longer
(01:06:51):
alright okay well let's see if WCW in business in 2030 yeah I think I think it's I think
it's highly likely that WWE is not going to go out of business in the next five years
I'm pretty I'm pretty confident of that yeah yeah we'll see we'll see who else is still
(01:07:13):
around in five years I don't know yeah but but where do we go I mean yeah I mean we don't
know where we're going from here no I did we just got we just got a watch and find out
as far as where we're going from here where we going next week you're still I don't even
know just yet yeah I don't know I think we've got I mean we could there's there's gonna
(01:07:37):
be some fallout there's gonna be some fallout we might just want to I don't know I say let's
let's wait for let's wait for Smackdown to get out of the way yeah and then if that if
Smackdown's a crazy show then maybe we'll have plenty to talk about we might have to
talk about we might decide on the week we'll decide on the weekend yeah yeah because we've
got a little bit we've got a little bit of time yeah we're gonna be we're gonna be doing
(01:08:02):
some more recording this weekend so we might have a lot to talk about but what next week's
episode will be about as of now don't know it'll be about wrestling that's for sure that's
for sure yeah if there's anything that anybody wants us to talk about by all means sound
off in any of the comment sections you know you can you can make comments I believe you
(01:08:24):
can comment on podcasts in Spotify and other you can yeah I think Apple so by all means
people listeners of the pod do that give us some comments tell us what you think tell
us what you want to hear us talk about but other than that I think we're I think we're
kind of wrapped up here so let me just do let me just go right into our shoutouts shoutout
(01:08:46):
to Wikipedia support Wikipedia that is where we got the information and we get most of
our information when we're running down this stuff for the podcast shout out to Al at 2k
and Kaleigh at 2k UK pre-order WWE 2k 25 the bloodline edition you can order other editions
but order the bloodline edition because you get all of the most things including including
(01:09:12):
a digital copy of 2k 24 if you don't already have it up until March 13th which is coming
up soon so you only got about a week you got a week from the recording of this episode
on on Thursday you got a week to pre-order it so there you go and tell him we told you
(01:09:35):
yeah man other than that I think we're good I think we're good to just wrap this one up
oh yeah put it in the bin we're done yeah we are I think we're I will use that as well
we'll use that one we use that done unless you wanted to say bye really quick bye
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