420 Part 1: Cody/Rock, EC, WWE Morale, AEW Creative, and More

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
What's up everyone out there, Internet Land, and welcome to
episode four to twenty of the Straight Shooters available wherever
podcasts are found. My name is Vaughn Johnson, and I'm
joined as always by my main man Pots and Pants,
Nick Pocona, Fox, phl Though Gambler and Philly Influencer, and
we have yet another fantastic show ahead of us here
on episode four twenty. It is a deep dive. We

(00:36):
are diving deep into New Year's Revolution from two thousand
and five, twenty years ago this year. Why would we
talk about that show?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Because it was headlined by an elimination Chamber and what's
the next paper view on a calendar for ww or
next premium live event for WWE. You guessed it, Elimination
Chamber of course, March first in Toronto, Canada. But before
we dive into that and talk a whole pile of
current events, because again we haven't been around for a

(01:08):
couple of weeks. We've missed y'all. I shouldn't say again,
I don't think I mentioned that yet. Yeah, we're back
and we got a lot to catch up on. So
before we get into our deep dive and current day nonsense,
I gotta do my weekly check on my main man
pots and pants. Nick, how are you, my good brother?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Apparently we needed well, I needed three weeks to recover
from that Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles victory parade as well.
That parade was man, a.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Lot of fun, man so much so much.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
So, yeah, we're back, better than ever remains to be seen.
But well then ever, man, listen, I'm ready for baseball too.
We got spring training underway. Bryce Harbor got hit in
the tricep with a baseball today, so yeah, we're back.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
We're back.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
It was very frustrated back to see that.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I mean, I'm sure it was this first spring game too,
and it's like, come on, flunked with the ball. Unbelievable
type of season that the type of season is gonna
be like.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
We get these people that are like, oh, why doesn't
he just turn away? It's like, listen, when you're a
left handed hitter and there's a left handed pitcher, when
the arm angle is the release point is at the same,
you need to figure out the rotation as a batter
and everything everything looks the same, so you have to
stay in there. That's why Bryce Harper can't do that.

(02:39):
So I would like people to stop saying that that
has no idea what they're talking about. Learn baseball.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
So go get the coach Pacone. I'm just tired of
you should do some uh Tommy Mansky type of videos,
videos from back in the day. I used to love
those videos. Fred McGriffin, like, you only learn from the best,
you learned from tom and Mansky.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
It's so funny. I used to hate that swim because
he was with the Braves, but it's such it was
such a funny swing. He man twirl his arm around
his head. Loved it.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Fred McGriff and Tommy Mansky. I used to love those commercials. Bro.
They used to do go step by step through the
whole process of getting the ball turning turning second and
stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Man the Crime Do.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
That's nostalgia for the kids.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
You don't even know.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
You don't even know about the Tommy Mansky baseball commercials
from back in the day. The Fundamentals of Baseball coup
signed by Fred McGriff Hall of Famer McGriff, the Crime Dog.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
I think he was one of the first I remember
the starting lineup figures. Yes, yeah, I had him, and
I was like, even though I hded the Braves, but
he was with the Braves, and uh, yeah, I had
him when he was with the Braves. I was like,
I think I had Thurman Thomas as well. It was
at the Bills, and uh I think I had Mark
McGuire as well when he was with the athletics. Those

(03:55):
are the three. I know I had more, but those
are like the three that stand out. I like to
that was like the first ones I've had. I had had,
So there you go. Good times.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
We got some starting line figurines talk on this show already.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Oh man, let's go.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
It'st We got so much to talk about. But again
you mentioned it. The Eagles are Super BOWLD champions for
the second time in franchise history, fifth time overall, because
people forget about those NFL championships from back in the
forties and nineteen sixty, so five times your NFL champions

(04:30):
as well.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
They get rings for those.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Maybe I don't, man, they didn't even get a trophy
for the nineteen sixty when we had to story require
about the Well, they did get a trophy, but it
was like it wasn't from the league. It was like
a jeweler in the city made one for them and
then it gets lost and it's like sitting in the
like in loss closet after like fifty some ideas.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Do you remember hearing that we did.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
A story about it in the inquiry about the trophy
and in the family who has it live in west
They live in I think west Chester or something like that.
They watched every game with the trophy. They rubbed the
trophy for good luck. So how about that the nineteen
sixty NFL champions trophy. I don't know if they get
rings for those though championships. They might have, but I

(05:17):
can tell you personally they got a ring from twenty seventeen.
They got a big old ring from twenty seventeen, and
they're gonna get an even bigger one for this.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
That's what happened.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Two Lombardi trophies on it. Probably that's just me guessing,
because that's what teams do. They typically their numbers throw
the trophies on there. They already had it at the parade.
He saw the sign it with the two trophies and whatnot.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
So that PG stream shot from his speech with the
two Lombardies. I mean, I can't wait to spam that.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
That's dope. Right, it is, and I'm friends with still.
Obviously a lot of employees who work there, so they
have to take photos too, in between the two trophies,
and it's all over their social media. That's really dope
for them. I'm really happy, but for them from the employees, obviously,
I'm the objective observer. But it was fun to be there.
Obviously at the end.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Didn't you have a picture of you kissing the Lombardy as.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Once upon a time, once upon a time and in
a time long long ago. Yes, I did not resist
the urge. In hindsight, I probably should have been more cool, right,
I should have had more kuth, but could have been
more chill. But some just got a hold of me.
It's like the devil got a hold of me. I

(06:29):
got this smooch in with the Lombardy. Couldn't help myself
unhand me, Satan.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
I was jealous of you holding the Lombardy, not of.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, that's fair. No, No, I get it, I get it.
Like I said, I could have had more chill. I understand.
Got carried away, But that's what happened sometimes when you
went to Super Bowl, little carried away with things. We've
seen it, we've seen it, but it's still like this,
like I said, recovering from it, because like we mentioned before,
the Super Bowl, we're gonna be busy if they get

(07:04):
to that point. So, like I was in New Orleans
for a whole week, and man, covering a super Bowl
is on the outside probably sounds dope, but on the
inside of it is crazy.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Bro.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
It is a lot. So obviously in another city for
a whole week, and then all the stuff that comes
with the Super Bowl, but being there and being in
that stadium, man, and that energy. When Bradley Cooper did
the intro and hear all the fans, like you think,
it looked like there was a lot of Chiefs fans there.
It looked like when you look at the game, it's
like there's a lot of red and then you hear it.

(07:37):
It's like where they at though they don't like cheering,
Like they don't like make a noise. You're telling me
all the Eagles fans are the only ones making noise.
So and then obviously then the game started, then they
didn't have much to make noise about. Once the game started,
it was a complete annihilation, which I was, obviously, among
many others, stunned, by Uh.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
It was. It was wild because like I'm sitting I'm
trying to do my clips or at least get them
ready for I always wait till the clock hits zero,
especially the playoffs, so I'm like, I'm not going to
start anything. Even after halftime, I was like no, after
that DeVante touchdown, I was like, all right, I'll start.
So the audio clips and clipping the video with it

(08:21):
and everything. I'm pretty sure I got like some carpal
tunnel action going on because I was like just so
much computer work and mouse and clicking and here and there,
and it's like, oh man, I'm feeling it in my arm.
Super Bowl in the parade too, I was trying to
get as many clips as I could. So yeah, it
was a lot of fun that week. And I remember

(08:43):
just douring the game. I was like, okay, like my
content won't end here. I'm happy I get to celebrate
a parade. You gotta celebration, and you got a parade.
It really doesn't kind of slow down to after that parade.
So and yeah, that was It was crazy. Man, It was.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
It was crazy, one fun, one kind of interesting thing
that I noticed. I don't know a lot of people
talked about after the fact. But obviously you see a
lot of fans go to the super Bowl because you know,
it's the Super Bowl and fans and other teams go.
But you you tend to see more fans than others. Right.
They're wearing New jerseys, doing their shirts all the time.
So obviously in your New Orleans you're gonna see some

(09:22):
Saints fans because you're in New Orleans. Saw a lot
of Lions fans in New Orleans. I was like, damn,
saw some Bills fans to a good amount of Bills
fans too, I saw. I saw an abnormal amount of
Lions fans, more than I saw in Arizona the last
time I was at the Super Bowl. Okay, Okay, so

(09:46):
that's just one thing. I was like, damn, they thought
it was gonna be here.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
They didn't they. But again, like if you already bought.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
It like that, I mean, right, and you're going to
New Orleans, like and they may not have bought tickets
to the game. They might have just came for the
vibe a lot of people. Do you know, it's New Orleans.
You know it's a fun town. One of my favorite cities.
Uh period, So uh yeah, great time, great time down there,
and great time with the Eagles win in the Super

(10:15):
Bowl for the second time in a decade. Bro, they
were terrible beating Bobby Horn days.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
No, no, I don't want to go like the just
beating Tom Brady in the Super Bowl, beating Patrick Mahomes
in the Super Bowl, those crazy like those are our
two Lombardi's right now. It's wild.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
It's pretty crazy. And the Eagles are on a point
where I don't think they've ever been, which is like
nobody doubts them as being the best team in the
league now because there there's no evidence you can provide
that says they're not.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Right now, the funny thing is now they're a super team.
But before so yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
I do find that funny. Everybody. Yeah, everybody's like, oh man,
they're optimist prime like with that they're the Juggernauts, Like, oh,
of course they beat everybody. Now it's like, of course.
But but like you said, before the playoff started, just
like man ain't so. I remember hearing Ryders like, why
would we even consider the Eagles super Bowl contender? And
it's like, damn, they wouldn't consider them, Like probably the

(11:11):
second best team in the conference, Like I think you
should consider them.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
It's not like they were the twenty twenty two schedule,
where they were beating like bad quarterbacks, bad teams, like okay,
like they still put up in a fight in the
Super Bowl, they were leading by ten points at halftime.
This year, they were beating good, really good teams in
the regular season, there was no reason, and the good quarterbacks.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Like beating them soundly. Like people don't talk about how
soundly they beat the Rams in the regular season, how
solid they beat the Commandos the first time, how soundly
they beat even Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Baltimore, and like those games
those scores don't want like blowouts because there's some garbage
time touchdowns like you saw in the Super Bowl, right yep.
But the Ravens were down twenty four to twelve before

(11:54):
they scored with like thirty seconds left. The Rams were
down like thirty set, like thirty to ten, thirty to
fourteen or something like that, with like in the fourth quarter,
the Commanders were down think two scores at one point,
like these teams will score garbage time. And again the
Chiefs forty to six with three minutes left in the game.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
They didn't score. I think that was the score when
the nixt Syriannic got his iterated.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Beth forty to six. Did not see that's thorough domination.
Thorough domination. Did not see that coming. I said, it
is like this has to be like one of the best,
like all time Philadelphia sports championship performances ever, Oh yeah,
one of the best teams in Philadelphia sports history. I
don't think if you're an Eagles fan, I don't think

(12:40):
there will be a more of a peak moment than
what you witnessed on February ninth, which happened to be
my birthday. And that's crazy to say that we saw
that probably twice. We thought the first Super Bowl was
a peak moment. Yeah, this one was like everything everything
Eagles fans could ever want. A blowout. The defense dominated
on like every snap, like.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Those were like the two polar up not polar opposites,
but like the underdog type thing with Nick Foles and
then the domination and then the back and forth two
years ago, and then we lost that one, but there
was a real chance to pull that one out. And
can you just imagine, like if we beat Patrick Mahomes
twice in the Super Bowl. Tom Brady like, oh man.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Hey, look they got him. They got him twice though,
they got two of them. Yeah, and and within a
short amount of time, two championships, and the Cowboys still
haven't been to an infry championship somehow. That's crazy. I
say that. I say that knowing because my dad is
a Cowboys fan, so it's personal. I've said this in

(13:46):
the podcast before.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Did you wear Cowboys gear to WrestleMania?

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yes? He did? Like a goof bro, Like, what's up
with you? I got a reputation up? Hold him out here, bro,
You know I used to work for this team, right, Like,
you can't just be doing this. People don't turn their
backs on me, you know what I'm saying. Like, I
literally ran into one of my former colleagues at Wrestamant.
It was night one. It wasn't night two when I
took my dad. But still, like, what you doing? Brother?

(14:12):
And I told people to boo him straight up? You
gotta ask him. He got Jason Fonella. He was there.
He saw it too.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
That's funny.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Shout out to the tribal chef. But no, that's that's man.
Super Bowl, super Bowls of Nuts, and Philly is still celebrating.
They're gonna be celebrating for a while, celebrating for a while.
Like I said, disposition that the team has really never
been at least a fan base has not been in
because we weren't alive in nineteen forty nine when I
went back to back you know what I'm saying, or

(14:41):
whatever it was was Steve Van Buren and the Boys.
I don't look, I wasn't around. So yeah, unique position
to be in for Philly sports. When that's the bright
light right now, Philly sports, boy, the beacon of hope
is the Eagles. Everything else is in shambles outside of
the Phillies have got some hope. But those are the.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Teams they do. They're still a good team. They just
have to be hot in October. That's literally what baseballs
right now.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Get one of those top six spots and be hot
in October. Right.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
I'll still get mad at the loss in May, but
you know whatever, Look.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
They didn't lose at all in May pretty much last year,
so exactly passed the first round. But but yeah, Eagles
winning the Super Bowls. People still celebrating here in Philadelphia.
But are the WW employee celebrating. Not according to Russell Nomics,
let's get to the current day nonsense. Huh, it's a

(15:38):
lot too. We got to sift through. This has been
a while since we've recorded. Yeah, let's start off with
this Russell Nomics report that came out back on February
twenty fourth, so two days prior to us recording this.
But the headline WW employee benefits and raise is limited
as record financial performance, reward shareholders and Executive This is

(16:02):
an exclusive report from Brandon Thurston over a Wrestle Nomics
and I'll read the lead, and I'll probably read a
couple more parts, but will summarize it as well. But
here's the lead pretty much. As WW continues to post
record of financial results following his merger into TKO, employees
say they're seeing cutbacks and benefits and fewer promotions than expected.

(16:23):
Oh no, that's not good. Back to Thurston, multiple current
WW employees, speaking under the condition of anonymity, described to
Wrestle Nomics a decline and morale tied to reduced benefits,
limited pay increases, and heavier workloads as the company integrates
with UFC. So they going to talk about you know,

(16:45):
how much money ww has made over the past year
and profits and revenue, which is the profit is expected
to be between one point two two billion and one
point two four billion, and the revenue itself came in
at between two point six in two point seventy five
billion dollars. Uh So, it was a good year, damn

(17:07):
good year for WWE, UFC, t k O, and whatever
you want to call it. And yet they're apparently, at
least according to this report, reducing benefits for employees and
essentially capping pay increases. And because of the merger with

(17:31):
UFC and the other companies also that are under the
Endeavor Umbrella soon to come, they are experiencing heavier workloads.
So let's break it down right. Let's let's go through
the story real quick. Okay, because there's a lot of unpact. Well, first, Nick,
your initial thoughts on the initial report and headline from

(17:55):
Wrestlenomics here do you? What?

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Do you?

Speaker 1 (17:57):
What are your initial thoughts on this?

Speaker 2 (17:58):
I feel like because the w W turned a corner
and they were hot creatively, we heard a lot of
good things about you know, talent, feeling like they were
being heard stuff like that, and we're like, okay, hopefully
that bodes well. They're fixing the culture of the company
that is the opposite of what Vince McMahon built while

(18:19):
he was there, and it just seems like that as
I don't think anyone's like super surprised. We're kind of
hoping this wouldn't be the case, but it's kind of like, okay, yeah,
like once this report drops, we kind of feel like
the talent is different than employees, right they're independent contractors.

(18:41):
Employees also deserve, you know, the to bear the fruits
of you know, how good the company is performing right now,
and with them reportedly not bearing the fruits, it's really
tough to like hear. And it's like, come on, I
thought we were I thought we were, you know, different
right now and.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
No, no different, If anything, it's going to be more
a right, more cut through. Yeah, because it's a conglomerate.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yep, it's not Vince, We're right, what won't you Vince?

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Is going to happen eventually. Anyway, when whenever they went public,
they were essentially even though they were a multimillion dollar company,
not you had a multi billion dollar company, but in
the nineties they were family owned essentially. I'm sure maybe
Vince had some investors or something like that, don't know,
but like him and the family ran the shop, very
large shop, profitable shop. But like it was that they

(19:40):
ran the shop and then they went public and now
we're here. But no, no, no, different, different.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
It's weird because we're talking about like stock options too,
like that's even uh.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Well lessons, Well, yeah, let's get back to the room.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
So it's like not even like they don't even have
that as an employee, like what you think as an employee,
like hey, like stocks are important, and it's like, well,
let's get back to bed here Thurston Real Quick.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Employers also pointed to a growing disconnect between corporate messaging
and their daily experiences. While WW management has emphasized the
value of its workforce at town hall meetings, multiple staff
said they feel increasingly undervalued. A key reason for the
merger was to improve profitability by consolidating services under Endeavor,
who holds the majority of TKO's ownership. As expected, this

(20:34):
resulted in significant layoffs soon after the merger was finalized
in September twenty twenty three. At the same time, ww's
experiencing its hottest period in consumer business, perhaps since the
vaunted quote unquote attitude there of the late nineteen nineties
and early two thousands, despite that, the company stock purchase
program ended when the merger closed. As previously reported, the

(20:55):
program had allowed employees to buy WW shares at a
fifteen percent discount, which sounds lovely, but apparently that's no
more since the merger was back to Thurston. Since the
merger was completed, the stock price has climbed more than
fifty percent over the past eighteen months, meaning employees lost
access to a benefit that would have allowed them to
invest in the company's growth at a discounted rate. The

(21:18):
removal of the WW Superstar Program, a peer recognition initiative
that allowed employees to reward each other with points redeemable
to cash, bonuses, gift cards, or experiences, has also been
a source of frustration. Additionally, WW eliminated complementary live event
tickets for employees, a long standing perk. Whoo man, WWE

(21:44):
let me read on a little bit more. WW didn't
respond to a request for comment for this report. It's
possible the company would point to increased ticket demand as
a reason for the decision. Attendance for television events is
at its highest in years, according to data from Wrestle Ticks,
and the company has greatly reduced anthermer of domestic house shows. Still,
some employees see them move as emblematic of a broader trend.

(22:06):
Ww's corporate website, which where potential job applicants could consider
the company's quote total rewards end quote benefits still list
of recognition programs, dock purchase plan and complimentary tickets among
the rewards employees may be eligible for. Then it added
the update says, since this article was published, the total
rewards page has been updated to remove the benefits no

(22:27):
longer offered. So they forgot to remove until this report
came out. So look at that. How about that? But man,
there's a lot to impact this with that chunk there.
For one, layoffs and mergers are handed. They go hand
in hand, unfortunately, So that's not surprising. I don't think
anybody really even batter than I at that. I don't

(22:48):
think people really thought about that until recently. Like, wow,
layoffs kind of sucked, don't they like? People losing their
jobs kind of sucks. Damn that sucks, man, But no
one it den I really at this time in twenty
twenty three just took it as like corporate takeover. Man,
that's just that sucks, right, that's just life, huh, you know,

(23:09):
and that's how people look at it. But that came
at the beginning at least of a time where they
were about to have an economic boon, right, and then
they were the things. They end the stock purchase program,
like you said, that's kind of wild, like and the
price shots shoots up, but like now they lose the
benefit of even purchasing anything like that kind of sucks

(23:30):
when you take it away and something they already had.
I know, when I worked with the Eagles, I didn't
have a stock option because I don't think the team
is public, so that guess is not a thing. But
like I don't think that happens in every company that's
a publicly traded company. And then they took it take
it away, so that's kind of tough. But then you
end a peer review program where they can get gift
cards and cash bonus and stuff like that. I mean, yeah,

(23:54):
that I would be upset about that. That was a
source of morale for the staff. Now you're taking the way.
Now you're taking away another like incentive. Like again related
to when I work for the Eagles, we got to check.
But there's also lots of different things we can lost,
different perks we could take advantage of that despite working

(24:14):
for the Eagles, Like we would get tickets to games
sometimes or access to different type of events just because
we worked for the Eagles, And there's a nice little
perk to have alongside the fact that you work for
this team. Right, Sometimes we can get you know, memorabilitia
and stuff like that that you know, you know, free
stuff sometimes just anything that there's an extra perk here.

(24:35):
They had this perk with WW and or taking them away,
also taking away the live tickets, the live event tickets,
and the complimentary tickets, which again it says in the
story of long standing perk, that's another tough one. I
understand they want to make money on them. But if
it's a thing that's been happening for many, many years

(24:58):
and the company can afford to make help out their employees, again,
it's a perk. Okay, we're not gonna pay you a
ton of money, but here is a free ticket to
the show. Like I'm like, that's okay, Yeah, that's tough, man,
that's real tough.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
It's weird that, you know, this kind of stuff happened
under Vince. I guess that's part of the reason employees
stayed there because of these certain perks, and you would think, okay, well,
why why would they get rid of it? Was it
because Vince is no longer there, or it's because of
that conglomerate. It's just like, we're not going to pay
for this anymore.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
That's pretty much it. It's just like, how can we improve profits?
How can we improve the margins? Back to the wrest
Nomics report, employees told the Wrestonomics however, and this is
they alluded to something else did with it. However, but
however that ww's financial success hasn't translated into meaningful pay increases.
So before this, they ran through all the you know,
pretty much the financial winfall ww's experience over the last

(26:01):
couple of years, with whether it's Netflix, whether it's the
premium live events they did with the Saudis, or you know,
just all the gate records they've been breaking. So but
all of that hasn't translated into meaningful pay increases for
the staff. Multiple staff members said they received a three
percent cost of living rais this year, which they argue

(26:21):
hardly keeps pace with the rising living costs in Connecticut
and New York in the region around ww's headquarters. Employees
with stronger performance reviews were told that despite those positive ratings,
they would not get more than a cost of living
adjustment due to budget constraints set by upper management. Some
had experienced significant raises or promotions based on the past

(26:42):
company packed practices, but were informed that the business was
not in a position to offer increases because of the merger.
Employee morale WW has been inclining for some time now,
employees informed Wrestonomics following recent performance reviews. Employees already frustrated
by the loss of stock of the stock purchase program,
comp tickets, and peer recognition program, were further discouraged by

(27:05):
the lack of raises meaningful raises to reward those who
have performed well. Concerns over concerns raised with lower and
mid level managers we're told the astronomics were told were
met with explanations citing executive level decisions. Many who are
frustrated by these unwelcome changes since the merger hath respect
for the company, but nonetheless told us they feel obligated

(27:29):
to speak up because they want to be compensated fairly
for the work they've performed. They're surprised by this. They're
surprised by the direction WW is taken since the transaction
with Endeavor, especially with WW now on a hot streak
after many employees work through periods when the company's business
wasn't as strong as it is now. While pay increases
for most employees have been modest, top executives received substantial

(27:50):
bonuses multiple multiples of their base salary tied to the
closing of the merger, according to SEC filings, including TKO's
most recent proxy statements. So here's how the rundown goes down.
According to Wrestle Nomics, TKO CEO Ari Emmanuel See's twenty
million dollars in cash related to the merger, plus a
stock reward of three hundred thousand over three hundred thousand

(28:14):
shares and the ladder now worth around sixty million dollars
okay away from employeesos Mark Shapiro was awarded five million
dollars and a whole bunch of shares that are valued
about fifty million dollars. Nick con He receives fifteen million
dollar cash bonus and triple h Paul trouplex Nevec gets

(28:36):
awarded five million dollars, but you can only get three
percent because we can't afford to pay you more. Also,
you live in Connecticut, can you pay rent? Can you
buy a house? Also? Same for New York.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
That's wild.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
It's tough, man. I mean, look, three percent, it's not
like it's an uncommon number. That's that's something I've been
privy to in the past as well. You know, three
or three point five, three point four, whatever it is,
you could go up. You know, some people get four.
Somebody might even get five. I don't know if that
happens a lot. But either way, that's not an uncommon
number that I've seen, like three point four or something

(29:21):
like that. Three sounds kind of actual, kind of I
thought it was like three point something like three point
three three point four, But the fact that everybody's tied
to that, it's kind of it's kind of nuts. I
can't speak to how much it costs to live in Connectic.
I know it's expensive, but I can't speak to like
the percentage wise and all that, like whether the three
percent is fair or unfair based on the report, employees

(29:44):
feel like it's unfair. But yeah, that's you should be
still able to get more.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, and if you're trying to, you know, build a
company culture that's different from the previous regime, then I
just don't understand why you wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
But well, they're not worried about that, bro, It's very evident,
very evident. It's not about that they're trying to make
money here, all right, here's the last piece of this.
As ww financial outlook improves, employees say their workloads have
only increased, so some reporting Some report working fifty to
sixty hours per week, particularly during the busy WrestleMania season.

(30:25):
Others say they have been assigned additional UFC related task
since the merger, similar to how staff were previously required
to assist with XFL with XFL work when Miss mcmahony
launched the football league during the before the pandemic. Some
employees don't concerned that as TKO expands, acquiring endeavor assets
like Professional bull Riders PBR on Location, which does a

(30:48):
lot of stuff with the NFL as well. On Location
does a lot of stuff with the Super Bowl. They're
like a hospitality company in img WWE staff will be
expected to take on even more work with additional conversation
in dwindling benefits, t KO executives have publicly publicly discussed
the possibility of entering professional boxing as well. Like the

(31:09):
wrestlers and MMA fighters who work under t k L,
WW employees are not represented by a union or association,
One in WW employee noted to us Restaurnomics that morale
has suffered to the point that some staff are less
willing to go up, go above and beyond in ways
they once did. Wonder if some of those people are

(31:30):
anti union, I don't know, shouldn't be. It'd be nice
that if they have one right now, right, they probably
could use one to at least bargain, to at least
get a chance to bargain. Instead, you got to take
what they give.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
You, exactly. And as that's the shame of it, where
it's like now you wonder these employees, you know, less
willing to go above and beyond. Then that that Marie
al continues to drop and drop and we get that
that like really the first uh, you know, whence Spence

(32:10):
was out and like the we're like, ah, here we go,
and it's like really not like that, you know, It's
it's not like that at all.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
Yeah, And so here's the thing too about like the
workload increasing, that is also not necessarily an uncommon thing.
And especially the world of sports where you have ownership groups.
Now they're not just family, you know, owned their ownership group.
They own multiple teams. Look at Maple League Sports and
Entertainment in Toronto, or Monumental UH Sports Entertainment in d C.

(32:45):
Or Josh Harris's group. They own the Sixers, the New
Jersey Devils, and the Washington Commanders. Okay, they own multiple
sports teams. Then you do have some families who own
multiple teams like that. I think the Bensons in New
Orleans they own the same and the Pelicans. But here's
the thing. When you think that they oh they own
all these teams. So man, they must employ a lot

(33:06):
of people. Not necessarily, I can tell you right now.
For the Pelicans and the Saints. The people who run
the social media for the Saints also do for the Pelicans.
So in the same shoot person you shoot photos for
the Saints also shoots photo for the philos for the Pelicans.
All right, So like they overlap, I should say, at
the very least, and in some ways it's full time.

(33:29):
Some people I met some people who were going from
one NFL event and they had to go to an
NBA game two days later to cover it as a
home game. So these things are real. And the thing
is this burns people out. As a person who's worked
for one brand. In my as far as like a
singular brand, I worked for the Philadelphia Eagles, right, I

(33:51):
couldn't have imagined we'reking trying to come up with content
for a second team. There's no way because we poured
so much into that one team, to that one brand,
that one entity. Either you're you know, you're going past
your capacity, or you're not pouring in as much into

(34:15):
you're pouring in less into each brand. And now they suffer.
To me, but that's not how some of these companies
do it. They rather just have the overlape. They'd rather
just save the money and that people work multiple And
I was at WrestleMania this past year at the media scrums,
and you know, in the media sessions and stuff like that,

(34:35):
and you did see some PR folks scrambling. Okay, they
were working, and they're pulling in people from UFC. There
were multiple people I talked to who worked for UFC
and they were helping out, pitching in because WrestleMania is
obviously the busiest time of the year, so they need
extra hands, they need extra people just point people in

(34:56):
the right direction, you know. So, yeah, that's that's been happening.
And it's tough. You talk to these people, man, that
they're working. Okay, I don't think people from the outside,
you think about that, all these other people who you
don't watch, you don't hear from, You don't even know

(35:16):
their names. Obviously you don't know what to look like.
But there's people working behind the scenes, man. And not
to say that the people on the screen aren't working,
neither they are, but there's also people working really hard
behind the scenes, and they're not getting paid nearly as
much as the wrestlers are, and the wrestlers don't get
benefits they should. They should also probably unionize and collectively bargain.

(35:36):
That's what every sports entity does, to have a player's
association of some sort. The NFLPA just released their report
card today. Can you imagine if wrestlers release a poor
card about management? Oh, I don't. I think Triple A's
is booking of the women's division. F Triple A just

(35:57):
booking of the tax tim division F. But players in
the NFL and can do that, and other leagues are
adopting the same thing. They can speak truth to their
power and be like, hey, this locker room ain't great.
The Eagles locker room got an F or D plus
something like that. They just want the Super Bowl. But
the players like D plus And I can tell you
their locker room is at Novercare. The Novercare locker room

(36:19):
not the link of financial field want. The Novare locker
room is small, so the grade is earned. Okay, but
how else do they increase their leverage because the word
gets out free agents look at this, Oh the locker
room trash. I don't want to go there, so you
force the owner's hands. They got to improve working conditions

(36:41):
now or else players won't play for you. When it
comes time to, you know, to try to land free agent.
Some players will overlook it, because look at the Eagles.
Clearly players have overlooked it. Their locker room is among
the worst in the league. But yet they still get
great players to come there. But as time goes on,
it could work against you and players spread the word.

(37:01):
You don't have that in wrestling because there's no representation.
There's no collective bargaining, and the saying goes for the
employees who work for WW or t k O or endeavor.
And that's why you can have when you can have
reductions and benefits you wrote back benefits. You can only
do that when there's nobody fighting for you, I guess.

(37:23):
And that's what's happening right now. It's unfortunate, you know that,
to hear people being overworked and underpaid, which is not
necessarily new, and we might hear about that more often
as we move forward, but it sucks when it happens,
for sure. It sucks to hear it.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
It does. And it's like you run this pr campaign,
you know, for your new CEO, and you're new. It's
a new day, no pun intended for w W. And
then you just don't create any incentive for your employees,

(38:02):
you know, to continue work hard, you know, like reward them.
I just I just don't make I don't understand why
that is a thing. I just don't like these people
work for you, you know, Like, yeah, I don't get it.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
The extra perks are important, man, especially if you're not
going to pay them a ton of money. The extra
perks are important, bro, They are important. I mean, at
the very least, give them the full benefits that they need,
like life insurance, dntal vision, all that at the very least.
The crazy thing is there's another company out there in
the resting called AW. They offer all of those things,

(38:41):
and I looked at the website. They actually post the
salary range too, which I think is a good thing.
Keep that up. AW, post the salary range to all
of your positions, and keep offering those benefits that you
offer in at four oh one k, even though you
don't offer it until after six months. I think you
should do it right away, right. You should do it
most companies right away right Like every drop I work,

(39:02):
you get the four one k right up front. They
do it that the six months, okay, whatever, but at
least you give it, you offer it right at least
that's one of the That's the position I saw. It
may be different per position, but either way, it's good
that they do it, and it doesn't seem like they're
rolling it back and w a W is not working

(39:22):
with the money that w W is. They're working with
a lot of money, but it ain't got the ain't
got that w W money clearly, so we can get
we can give a w credit if nothing else, and
they think there'serve credit for a lot of things, but
if nothing else, they can get credit for that. And
hopefully it doesn't change exactly it could when.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
We talk about alternative. Okay, I could deal with the
white ropes. I could deal with the LED screens, but
that's like literally the true alternative when you when you
offer those when the other place is not.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Let's just keep it a buck man. Some places do,
some places don't. I will always applaud the places that do.
Agreed bottom line, as a person who is in the
union and you know, gets benefits through my employer, I'm
never gonna not vouch for that, So forgive me if

(40:21):
I have if I'm not objective on that particular thing.
But moving on to other w W news, it's more
bad news as apparently. And I have not noticed this,
but this is on the rundown, so you can, I
guess you can talk about this. I have not noticed this.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
I will admit it.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Okay, I've also have not I will should admit during
the super Bowl, I didn't watch any wrestling pretty much
during the Super Bowl, and when I got back I
still didn't watch a bunch of wrestling, So I am
not the person to say whether they have or have
not done this with authority, because I literally I think
this past Monday's episode of Raw, and of course I
smacked down with the rock, But that was like the

(41:02):
first show at least of WW that I've watched for
in fud a while. I've actually been watching on aw
if anything right, because it's worked out that I've been
watching it. But so with that said, Nick, what have
you read somewhere? All?

Speaker 2 (41:15):
Right? Well, I saw a viral tweet about two weeks ago,
a week and a half ago, it said, you know,
half of the month's over, but w hasn't said anything
about Black History Months, And it kind of like made
me think. I was like, oh, yeah, like we usually
see video packages, we usually see well I don't, I
shouldn't say usually, but recently we have seen that and

(41:39):
just highlighting Black History Months, highlighting black wrestlers, you know,
stuff like that. Martin Luther King obviously they do it
Ordon Martin Luther King day, but then they also kind
of highlight him and others in February. And so I
saw that tweet and I was like huh, and then
like I remember, just I'm watching like NXT. A lot

(42:01):
of times it's in the background. Obviously in February it's
been in the background while I'm doing other things, but
I'm paying attention. I'm I'm watching the raw, I'm watching
NXT and SmackDown, and I'm you know, usually I see
like the video package, I just haven't noticed it, so
I'm like, oh, I must have missed it or something.

(42:22):
And then I saw a tweet two days ago that
said has traditionally highlighted Black History Month, but this year
there's been nothing on TV or social media. With the
month nearly over, there's silence. Stands out, especially as other
companies have recognized it. It's worth discussing. So it's really
interesting that it has a picture Biggie kind of with

(42:43):
his palm on his head and just looking, you know,
dejected thor and I guess it's SmackDown episode because the
rope is blue. But this was from Wrestle to PC
Twitter account. So it's just it's so weird that, you know,
Triple H gets this flack of you know, not highlighting

(43:07):
black wrestlers as much as before. You know, for for whatever,
NXT really is seems to be the place where they're
shining right now. And I just I've read that. I
was like that, I don't know why they would make
that decision to just not do it unless it's tied

(43:30):
to I mean, we were seeing it kind of play out,
you know, it seems like, I don't know if it's
the new person in charge of the United States of America,
and well, who knows who's in charge of the United
States of America, but a lot of what he's doing
is this reflective of that. And because we see triple
hs and Donald Trump, you know, throwing it up, and

(43:53):
it's just kind of like, man, is this going to
be the new normal now? And like, well, I thought
it was a cool thing when they would highlight like
Black History Month has always been really cool to be
a part of. When I'm growing up in school and
we're highlighting you know people the inventor, the inventors, you know, musicians,
stuff like that, it was like really awesome learning about

(44:14):
all that and just not having that now or maybe
not having it as much. I don't know if people
are just like you know, if they want to research
it or research it on their own. There's a lot
of a lot of that going around, But why not
highlight it? Why not highlight it? You know, like you've

(44:35):
highlighted it before. Why is twenty twenty five different.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Well, look, we can make some assumptions as to watch
it a lot a lot of assumptions based on what
is happening in politics right now, where they're rolling back
many DEI measures that have been put in place. But
Black History there's a DEI measured. That's something that's done

(45:02):
back in decades ago. So yeah, looks if that's gets
roped into it, that would be unfortunate as a black
person to see. And I haven't noticed that WW hasn't
done any Black History Month content on TV. They have
done in the past. But the problem I always had
when WW did it was that like, man, you talking

(45:24):
about this, but you don't promote the black wrestlers you
have on the roster, and you haven't really even when
you did, you didn't always put them in the best light.
So it's like it always felt performative. So it's like,
do I want the performative measure or do I want
actual action? Instead? I'd rather take the actual action, but
at least acknowledge that Black History month exists. You don't

(45:45):
have to do the performative stuff. There's ways to do
it without being performative. So that's how I've that's how
I view it. So I think the way they used
to do it felt performative, but I still think that's
not an excuse to not do it at all.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
Yeah, I've heard people say that as well, and I
would definitely I like listening to, uh, like black people
opinions on it, because there are people that are like, Okay,
well it's performative. Whatever, highlight it on TV, you know,
put you know your champions, you know, stuff like that,
like make it mean something, and so I'm always I'm

(46:25):
always interested in hearing those point of views because to me,
it's like I understand the why people would be upset
about it, and then I understand it's like, Okay, well, like,
don't do the performative stuff. Do the stuff that actually
matters that exactly, you know.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
And I think I think black people, I'm not gonna
speak for all black people. For me, I think I'm
over the performative stuff, and I think I don't think
I'm alone in that. Uh yeah, I think people some
people at least see through that you know, when companies
are trying to check a box, right, I can't. I
can't speak for everybody, but I think I can speak

(47:00):
for more than me. And saying that, like, you know,
people can they get exactly, they can read through, they
can see through the lines on that, you know, read
the true syntax and what's going on in this situation.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
That's why I'm more willing to listen to them and
see what they think, because, yeah, like a white person's
opinion on that doesn't it doesn't mean as much. And
that's my opinion on it, like, because.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
It's the same thing where people like misappropriate you know,
Martin Luther King quotes and what he stood for, stuff
like that, and it's like you're not the person who
was talking up to he's talking against the people. You know,
you know what I'm saying, So like you don't want
it to get roped into that type of stuff, which
can happen. But remember the time Florida State put like

(47:47):
a football glove on Martin Luther King's hand. It was like,
I don't know, it was like Martin Luther day King,
Martin Luther King day content. I don't know why I
just thought about this, but Martin Luther King Day content,
which you should get a bunch of brands in trouble
because dumb stuff on MLK Day. But I think it
was the State football or something like that put like
a Martin Luther King junior graphic out and I feel
like they put like a glove on his hand or something.

(48:10):
It was something wild. I gotta look at it.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
But when you said brands, it made me think, was
it the Spaghettios that did like a nine to eleven
thing with the American fact?

Speaker 1 (48:23):
Man, I don't remember.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Here we go, okay, because.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
I'm gonna send you this link, but it's like so crazy.
It was a account called Seminoles Recruitings. I guess maybe.
I don't know if this was specifically affiliated with Florida State.
They did have a verified badge and back in twenty nineteen,
I still meant something. So, uh, I'm gonna just email

(48:50):
it to you so you can see it. But it's hilarious.
But yeah, stuff like that is what we're trying to
avoid pretty much, you know, not we I should say,
I want to see that.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Oh it was Pearl Harbor. It's like spaghetio' is are tweeted. Uh,
take us take a moment to remember Pearl Harbor has
tag Pearl Harbor and it was a spaghettio with an
American flag.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
So, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
This was obviously in the early days of Twitter.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
But yes, that's that's not a date on it. But
you don't want something like Black History Month or Martin
Luther King something so meaningful, something you know that means
Himing's a lot of people to be trivialized like that.
You know, Spaghettios is like, you know, people died, bro, Like,
come on, spaghettios. Come on, bro, you know you can

(49:40):
leave the spaghettio out. You can. You can pay tribute
without the spaghettio.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
Okay, So it was it was five years since that
sweet somebody had shared the thing. So that was on
December seventh, twenty eighteen. So they happen to in twenty thirteen.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
Twenty thirteen. Wow, that's crazy, bro, twenty thirteen still kind
of early, but not that early. Bro, you got right right,
and you got to be better.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
But they were, you know, and they will be lost
the tag team titles in the main event ross. So
people were pissed about it, and I so, and I
was seeing.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Things all right, So look, look, look, I get all right,
so now we got to relax on this one. Like
at least I think like they lost in February. Does
that look bad? Bad optics? Yeah, not good optics, but
like the story kind of dictated that they should lose
the title.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
I think people were expecting Jade, and so when Jay
didn't show up, then they were like, all right, let's
this sucks. I wanted to see j too.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
I was kind of I thought we were going to
see JD as well. But let's talk about this for
a second, though, Let's talk about w W as as
a whole. When it comes to where we are right now.
We're on the road to WrestleMania.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Doesn't feel like it doesn't, but we are apparently it's not.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Oh no no, we're not taking the fast lane and
we we might have hit a couple of roadblocks. I
don't know, but it's not the end of the line. Though.
The line terrible, terrible stuff, But WWE man has we
have it on our rundown has cooled off considerably creatively,

(51:20):
and that's a good way to put it, man, especially
for this time of the year. I think back to
last year a lot and it's like leading into WrestleMania
forty And maybe some of this is with rose colored
glasses because it was in Philly, you know you we're
all excited about you know how we got a WrestleMania
in our hometown and all this and that, But overall

(51:41):
it felt like there was more of a fervor run
a product, and I think there are a couple of
reasons why that may not be there this time. Number One,
the show is later this year. They just got more
time to kill. Yeah, it's two, like two three weeks later,
like it's gonna they're bumping it up a couple of
weeks or like ten days. It's Yeah, it's like wild

(52:05):
almost in May. So I know I get some of
the thought process behind that, but like that's still very
late in the in the game, later than it's ever been,
and I don't know if WW was quite prepared for
that feeling all that time. They got two matches announced
and we still got like six weeks. What are they
gonna do with those matches? They've already done so much

(52:25):
with Guntha and jay Us, What can you do the thing?

Speaker 2 (52:29):
It's like, so you how can you make Jay not
look like a goof until then it's like, do you
have gunthor just take him out put him on the
shelf for a month, right.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
And then he comes back and everybody's like, oh, yeay,
j Us is back. I don't know, but so you
have this the show is pretty significantly later in the
calendar than it typically is. You also don't have like
that one story that people can get behind no pun intended. Now,

(53:01):
last year, obviously we had the story to finish it,
and didn't You had to finish Cody story. But also
there was a detour, there was a roadblock in that story.
His name was the Rock, and he was like, I
don't care about your story, bruh. But everybody was mad
about that. So he's like, ah, all right, I'm the
people's champ. I'll get the people what they want. I'm
still gonna beat him though before he wins the title,
but I'll give the people what they want. He can

(53:21):
win the title whatnot. But that was a fervor and
even by the time they announced the match that they're
gonna have the tag team match on Saturday and the
Roman Range was his Cody on Sunday, that was still
like a significant amount of time before WrestleMania. They had
a lot of time as just said, to fill before WrestleMania.
Once that match was announced and that momentum maintained, it

(53:43):
wasn't like it died off because people got what they wanted.
They still were like behind Cody enough that that momentum
rode all the way to WrestleMania until he won the
title on Sunday Night and even after when he came
out and raw and everybody you know, popped big for
him again. So we're missing that this year. Maybe we're
getting it this just now, which is Cody and Rock stuff,

(54:05):
But like I think that's a that's the missing that's
a missing piece of the puzzle that they just don't
have yet that they'd had last year and even last year.
I know last year was special in a certain sense,
but they've had that in recent year Daniel Bryan and
Kophe Kingston or at least something even if you don't
really love it, they had something they tried to get
you behind. They just started that, I think with Cody

(54:28):
in the Rock. But let's start for one, what are
your thoughts about that just in general before we kind
of go piece by piece and what's happening right now.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
Yeah, And it wasn't until like I just remember last
year's WrestleMania's being great obviously in Philly, just everything about
it was, uh, you know, something I'll remember forever, and
thinking like the lead up was great and everything. I
don't think it necessarily was looking back. And then there
was somebody I stopped them on Twitter and they're like,

(54:57):
let's be real, the build up for this year's Manias
that great and neither was last year. And I'm like, well,
last year you had like the Cody thing. But like
I'm trying to put myself there into like January, February
and early March. It wasn't really until like the middle
of March where I started getting joned up and stuff
like that. And I think I might have even mentioned

(55:17):
it on when we were on Brian Isisley's podcast High
IQ Basketball that I really wasn't like feeling it quote unquote,
And it wasn't until like the end of March, middle
to end of March where I started getting into it.
So I can't necessarily disagree that last year's build wasn't
you know, the whole everyone was like everyone that wanted

(55:39):
Rock and Roman was pissed off though, and everyone that
wanted Cody at first was still pissed off, even though
they had kind of shoehorn Cody back in there. I
guess based on the reaction, I still don't think that
was the number one plan all along, but uh, you
know we had that at least right now, it just

(56:00):
feels like the Rock once again shoehorns his way into
this because maybe there's like nothing going on, you know,
like John Cena hasn't even shown up on TV. You
know it's recently, I should say, Like it's it's like,
what are we waiting for?

Speaker 1 (56:16):
You?

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Like, we're just having punk promos, trying to push stuff,
seth rollins promos, try Where's Roman like you know that
type of stuff, and we're just kind of like I
thought The Rumble was going to be the start of
something like a really good run, and it just hasn't
been that. I don't think they've had a great TV
show since before The Rubble. Maybe maybe the Netflix Raw,

(56:38):
but even that was kind of like a based on
the hype though I think it was obviously going to
be a letdown. But the Netflix Straw was like the
last one that I think people were jones for the
roar of rubble was you know, good, but it wasn't.
I guess like what people had hoped. Nobody thought Day

(56:59):
would win. People kind of turned on that a little bit.
But I think they're gonna make it work with you know, Jay,
and I don't think he's gonna lose any steam. He's
still getting those reactions every week. But yeah, it's just like, Okay,
I'm like waiting. I'm waiting. It's February twenty sixth right now.

(57:19):
It's like we still got a little less than two months.
You know, it's like what can we do to keep
our interests piqued? You know, elimination Chamber? Sure, this Saturday,
get that, But what happens after that? Because you still
have almost a month and a half.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
So yeah, it's still so much time. Like I'm thinking, like, okay,
it's late April. That means we got a month after
late March, right twenty first, it's three weeks from now,
and that's a month until WrestleMania. That's that's a long time, bro.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
I think they will see when starts that week last
week of March. It's like, come on. Usually West Media
is the same time.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
Yeah, and I know they wanted to avoid the double tournament,
but it feels like they moved it way back, and
I don't know why that had to happen. Maybe there's
something unique about this year because next year in New Orleans,
which is obviously fun city would love to go back
again for WrestleMania. But it's like, like I said, April
eleventh and twelve, I believe if I remember correctly, So

(58:20):
it's definitely earlier. It's like a week later than it
has typically been over the last like ten to fifteen years,
which is usually the first week and in April. So
it's like the second week in April next year, so
that seems like a more doable timeline. Maybe they saw
how late this one was. It's like, we can't do
it again this year. Next year, like it's already trouble
for us. The shows haven't been as good, So yeah,

(58:45):
I think the time in the calendar does play a
factor in that, but also they just haven't been doing
anything that good. That's also part of it, Like it
just hasn't been that good as well. There's a lot
of things that just like it's all right, but also

(59:05):
things that just don't have just hasn't gotten the people going.
There's some things, but not a lot. Not a lot
going on, right now, Let's start at the top, though.
Let's start with the Rock, who is apparently, uh, looking
to buy some souls. He's bought everything in the world,
so what do you get?

Speaker 2 (59:23):
You have nothing? God here, Why are him and Cody
friends all of a sudden?

Speaker 1 (59:28):
So look, I think so what I think is that
they didn't know they were going to be here or not.
So Cody was like that Cody and the Rock were cool, okay, whatever,
And it's like, oh, wait, wait a minute, we got
to actually explain why we're so friendly over the last year.
So let's let's do that somehow, And here we are

(59:50):
so like because it didn't make sense for them to
be that friendly, right, it didn't makes sense for them
to be friendly, and to begin with, because of what
happened at Wrestlemanian last year. We didn't forget about that.
So I don't know why they were ever really that
friendly on screen when there was always a chance that
they could be opponents in the future, at least on
opposite sides and opposing sides, right, So why like after WrestleMania,

(01:00:14):
the Rock said this story between me and you is
just beginning. So like then he comes out of by
blood and the camera slash and it's like where are
we going? What is happening? So yeah, the getting here
has been weird, and even that promo was kind of strange.
It's not gonna lie to you.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
It was long.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
I think that was the biggest issue. It just meandered forever. Yep.
But after we get through all of the nonsense, the
story might be kind of interesting after you stift through
kind of like the weird promo and all the kind
of just like strange steps along the way. The Rock

(01:00:56):
trying to take Cody's soul and it was just a
crazy thing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Say like he's shangs sung or something like what's the
difference of being like the champion of your company versus
the corporate? Like I don't get the difference that he's.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Looking for the difference is that I guess in this
case he does the Rocks bidding. I guess he does
what the Rocks tells him to do.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
That's what he has already done that this past year.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
That's my whole thing. It's not like Cody is anti corporate.
He doesn't look anti No.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
That's what I'm saying he's like he's the corporate champion.
The rock wasn't ninety eight, Like that's what it feels like,
I mean Cody.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
But the thing is, Cody Tech on screen is not
a corporate champion. Even though he looks every bit like
a corporate champion. He can't. His attire does not say
I'm not corporate. But his character really isn't supposed to
be the corporate guy. He's just a nice person. That's
just what he's a naturally dress he likes to dress nice,

(01:01:55):
and he's just really nice to people, genuinely. So I
guess that's possible without having to sell your soul to
do that. You can just be a nice guy. You
know what I'm saying. You're not shaking hands kissing babies
because the boss told you that's what Cody would do anyway, right,
So I guess that's that's what they're trying to do.
But the thing is, Cody just doesn't come across like

(01:02:16):
he's not corporate. Also, he's at the top of the game.
Like you said, what more could he possibly want that
the Rocker have to offer? I guess more money, I
guess the chance to be the champion forever. I don't know.
You know, he can get a big old yacht. You
want a yacht, Cody, you got a bus, how about

(01:02:38):
a yacht?

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
Like all right, I guess Like, I don't know, We'll
put your bus on the yacht.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
I guess, yeah, you can just take it with you
wherever you want to go. Speaking of yachts, I was
when it's at the super Bowl in New Orleans. We
think if we think this, who just yacht belongs to?
I will say that in the second. But there was
a massive yacht parked down on the river throughout the week.
I mean it was luxurious, okay, all white too. All

(01:03:08):
the furniture was white, just white and black. And it
was huge. Okay, this person was rich rich. We think
it was shot CON's yacht. So and it would make sense, okay,
like did you look at this super yacht that I
just witnessed. I walked past multiple times down there. He'd
be like, yeah, a billionaire, this is a billionaire yat yep,
if it's shot Coned, that that that checks. I believe you.

(01:03:32):
I don't know I can confirm that, but I never
saw a shot walking around on the yacht or anybody
for that matter, but big old yachts. But that's a
different level of wealth, clearly based on what I witnessed.
But my question is, does Cody accept this at elimination chamber?

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
You would think not, right, I would think not because
I've seen like, oh, this is a perfect chance for
Cody to turn heel. But I don't know why you
would do that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
I don't know why you would do it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
I don't know if he's.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Still your top merch seller. He still gets great reactions.
It's not like the people have started to turn on
Coke on Cody. I was intrigued with the CM punk
promo he had where they talked about how he may
not be handling the pressure of being championed. Well. I
thought that was an intriguing story that you could eventually
go down the path where Cody does crack under the

(01:04:35):
pressure and that's what turns him heel. Maybe you can
turn that into like the pressure has already gotten to
him and he, like he said, he doesn't want to
if he sells the soul, he doesn't to fight for
things anymore, or maybe the pressure's gotten to him and
he's like I'm done, I'm done fighting Rock, I'm yours
maybe that's how you get there, but I don't I
don't know about that. I don't know about that either.

(01:04:59):
I think I think Cody could be a really good heel.
I think in twenty twenty five it could be a
really good heel too. But I just don't see the
son of the plumber, the grandson of the plumber selling
his soul. I mean it would be in direct opposition

(01:05:20):
to what Dusty's values as a character would have been.
And that's kind of like Cody's north star as a character.
It's like, what would what would Dusty do? Dusty would fight,
he would fight back and try to be win it all,
or he would be the people's champ like Dusty was right,
Some of the soul doesn't sound like something Dusty would do.

(01:05:42):
Even though Dusty did join.

Speaker 2 (01:05:43):
N W l w W way too late, but he
did it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
But we want to ignore that part of history.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
You know, right, Yeah, no one remembers that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
No, No, he's a mega dween baby. Come on now.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
I remember being so pissed when I learned that, Like
that's Monday, because I didn't see he's sold out what
he did. But it's like the Stills, the Stills, they
showed and it was like Dusty was in Larry's episodic corner,
and then he turned on me at the nWo shirt.
I was like, what.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
Come on, Like not big, not big, that's not like
this damn dark Days man, dark day in wrestling history.
But uh yeah, I think it would just go. It
would fly in the face of that to a certain extent.
Or you can turn it. You can like, if you
want to just get give him a bunch of heat,

(01:06:36):
you can say I'm doing the opposite of what my
dad did. But it just fans have been in his
ride for him for now, I guess three years. And
again it's like Cody's North Stars like his dad, It's
like he finished the story for his dad. He kind
of He has his dad's nicknamed tattooed across his chest
and he uses his dad's moniker a twist on its

(01:07:00):
American Dream Virgil he has dream that time, and but
he calls himself not the American Dream but the American Nightmare,
and it's like that's all about Dusty. So I don't
so to me, I don't see it as likely. And again,
do you turn your top baby face at his peak?

(01:07:23):
I think we've been here before, and you don't do that.
I'm not saying Cody is Steve Austin, but it just
doesn't feel like it's time to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
I don't know. I did see something like a theory,
and I'll kind of set this up as best as
I can, because I'm not a great setter up, setter.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
Upper, but set her upper.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
Like, remember how we talked about Domastereo being like the
first big heel to turn heel know what double live
and everything's.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
Like, oh my god, like double he Like what about that?

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
I could see Cody possibly being the guy, you know,
a big face turning face, double face if you have
uh somebody And this is what I read like a
theory of uh you have on the rundown. If Cody
doesn't accept, who does? And I think.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
Possibly, because let me preface that this offer could be
opened not just to Cody, right, it could feasibly in theory,
In theory, it could be open to someone else. Now
he's offered it to Kody, but who's to say he
couldn't offer to someone else. Maybe he already did. Maybe
he already did, although that would be weird, but uh,
I want to see your soul you're my brother. We

(01:08:36):
drank Carmana together.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
Yeah. Well what.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
Moms love each other? Mama, Roads were talking all that
trash my mama Roads now they cool. Now the ain't cool.
My mom will never get over that that right now,
my mind. Canna hold a grudge. Boy.

Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
So Rock's still in the blood line, right, technically he's
a member of the blood line, I.

Speaker 1 (01:09:04):
Mean blood and blood out, Bro, He's in blood.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
Yeah, even though Solo has not acknowledged Roman and he's like,
they're still in the blood line, Roman, Jay, Jimmy. I
know Jay's back doing his own thing. Jimmy is kind
of like going around until Roman comes back. But you
know they're all the blood line, right. So in addition
to all that, Paul Hayman is still part of the

(01:09:33):
blood line and all that so is the quote unquote
favor that somebody is holding Paul Hayman owes a favor
to Uh does that mean an open line to.

Speaker 1 (01:09:51):
The Rock That would also kind of go against that
person's kind.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
Of like, which is why that heel versus Cody the
Babyface super Babyface I think would be possibly the best
few they can do this year.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
See him Punk joining the Man essentially that's what the
rock is in this case, he's the man keeping down
the brother man.

Speaker 2 (01:10:20):
I did see the theory, and I don't hate it,
but I don't think it's gonna happen. But when you
when you said if Cody doesn't accept, who does, I
feel like, obviously he's not going to. We will get
somebody to go against him. I don't think it's Sina,
because that was also a theory like Ciena would be
the guy. But I don't see that happening.

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
I don't neither, but I could also can I can
hear a theory where Seena is like desperate to get
back to when I get to the world Tide of number.

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
Seventeen, But then it becomes a weirdo loser. I don't want.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
He might want to heal him before he retires, you know,
he might want to feel what it's like to be
a bad guy. But See is another guy that's like
his ethos is like going. He's very anti establishment. I
think we know that about him in real life, and
as far as his character so on TV, so anti authority,
anti establishment. It feels like it would be completely opposite

(01:11:15):
of something See Him Punk would do at this point.
But again, who knows, you know, things could be wild.
Here's what I think could happen, though. I think if
someone were to pick up the offer, it could be
one of three people, or it could be all three.
It could be a faction Joe Andrey. I don't believe

(01:11:36):
in that. I don't think so. But here's where I'm going,
all right, who could stand the benefit from picking up
this ball that Cody puts down? Everybody? Obviously, But again,
who could have not also hurt on the back end,
Because I think doing so would hurt See him Punk
on the long run, and I think it could hurt

(01:11:57):
John Seen in the long run. But I don't think
it would hurt Drew McIntyre at all. Even know Drew
McIntire has been crusading against I guess members of the
blood Line, he ain't crusaded against the Rock. He ain't
got no beef with the Rock. He got beef with
Roman Reign, Jimmy Usso and Rock never did nothing that Drew.

(01:12:19):
Unless I checked Drew as the reigning player hater of
the year, it would be right in line with him
to join the Rock in some way, and I think
it would be something refresh for his character. Another person
that I think could use that refresh and could use
that rub so to speak, as being someone to do
the Rocks bidding join his quote unquote new corporation so
to speak. Right, how about Damian Priest, he could use

(01:12:43):
it maybe a little bit of a refresh. He's kind
of not up to a whole lot right now. Him
and Drew McIntire might have something going on, but I mean,
he's trying to get back to the world title. He
had a world title run, but he ain't reached his peak.
He he's a guy that's like unlike Cody and him
and Drew the same. Cody's is the top already. He's
out his own bus, He's got the Whetly Vodka sponsorship.
He's a mad man. But Drew and Damien they're trying

(01:13:06):
to get to that level still.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
They want a sponsor.

Speaker 1 (01:13:09):
Damn it, they want a sponsor too, right, Damian Priest
wants a sponsorship. He ain't get there yet. Maybe he
was looking to get be the Rocks champion. Maybe. But
this another person who I think would it would fit
them very well because I think any wrestler who did
it it could potentially hurt them. But this next person

(01:13:31):
I don't look at as just a wrestler. It would
fit Logan Paul to sell his soul to the rock
tell me it wouldn't fit and he could do it
and no one Betteran. I I think other wrestlers and
may be like, really you're gonna turn like But with
Logan Paul, he's not even really looked at as a wrestler.

(01:13:52):
He's a scoundrel to a lot of people. He's a
scumbag to a lot of people. It fits him to me,
I think Logan Paul would be that person that if
Cody doesn't accept and if that offer is still on
the table for anyone, he could pick it up, like
I'll sell my soul, so yeah, they give me the title.

(01:14:13):
What do you think about that?

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
I don't know. I don't think uh. I think out
of those three priests, might not people might turn on
that the most because they don't. I just don't think
they see him as that guy anymore. Not even sure
they did to begin with, but not no like disrespect
to him. I just don't know if people would accept that.

(01:14:38):
Drew obviously, yeah, Logan I could see, just based on
the character. But I think like, if you make the
most out of this certain biting souls type storyline. It's
either Cody has seen it or Punk would probably elicit
the most reaction negative war positive. Like I feel like

(01:15:02):
it would be that would have listened, and.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
I tend to agree with you. I think if you're
gonna do this, it would be a big name. It
would be a logan paw necessarily, I mean not say
he's not, because then they would be like, oh they
botched this. It's like maybe, but like and it would
also be shocking if Sampunk did it. It would also
be shocking if John Cena did it, it would be
like I did not see that coming. And you know
there's always that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
Uh you know, did I mean people are I mean yeah,
I was just assuming he's gonna say no, but right.

Speaker 1 (01:15:33):
That would also be surprising. But that's probably you know,
this whole Cody and the rock stuff and the souls
that the rock may be collecting like infinity stones. Uh,
that's probably the most intriguing.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
Story nowhere though, Like they did it started what Thursday,
it was like, Hey, I'm gonna be a Wraw SmackDown
tomorrow night.

Speaker 1 (01:15:53):
I was like, all right, if it felt like it
came out of nowhere. It did come out of nowhere.
They made it a on the fly as fast as
they could and trying to make sense of it. Now,
that's probably what's happening. And that's a tough bind to
be put in when you kind of build out stories
over the course of the year, you try to play

(01:16:13):
them off around this time of the year, and then
the Rock comes in and throws a monkey wrench and
all of that, and that's the second year in the
row he's done that. Maybe this will be the last,
you know, like how many more matches you're gonna do
around this time anyway, But yeah, it kind of throws
a wrench into everything.

Speaker 2 (01:16:28):
That this on Impractical Jokers like sal I believe owns
Mur's soul, like really go off in Practical Jokers.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
That's pretty wild. I mean, Sally is a big wrestling fan.
He does he does wear a lot of wrestling attire
on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
I hope I got that right. I hope it's not
the other way around, but.

Speaker 1 (01:16:52):
Somebody it could be either way. Knowing that show, it
could be either way. What didn't murderwear like Q hair
for like a whole season, like literal wig of his
old hair? Like, come on, bro, you know, you know
what's going on in that show. But uh, that's probably
again the rock Cody Souls Everywhere, probably the most intriguing

(01:17:14):
story going on in WW right now. But that's on
an intrigue alone right.

Speaker 2 (01:17:19):
Right because I don't know where nothing else is hitting.
So that's kind of the most important one there.

Speaker 1 (01:17:27):
But there are other other areas that are lacking, specifically
in the women's division, where there has been frustration expressed
by the fans and frustrations expressed by the talent. According
to Sean ross Sap, he talked to multiple wrestlers who
said that they're not in love with how they're being

(01:17:47):
booked right now, and how the same care and the
level time being spent on the men's creative, specifically in
the main events, they're not receiving the same level of
care and time and attention in the women's division. And
it's clearly is evident on TV. And I've been waiting

(01:18:09):
for WW to kind of like kick it into gear
with the women and waiting and waiting and wait, like
I'm kind of giving them the benefit of the doubt,
but it's been it's been a little wild now, been
a little wild now, and yet here we are the
best thing that's happened in time too. Yeah technically yeah, yeah,

(01:18:29):
but two and a half hours on Monday, three hours
on Friday. And the thing is that three hours. I
think it's going back to two?

Speaker 2 (01:18:35):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (01:18:36):
At some point? I believe it is. I feel like
I keep hearing that. But either way, they got TV.
They got plenty of TV time, and plenty of wrestlers
and plenty of titles and all this stuff. But yet
these stories aren't hitting like they should with the women.
They don't have the depth. I think you feel like

(01:18:57):
the best thing that's happened since Dedrea Ripley lived Morgan
was just this past Monday on Raw, with the women's
tag team title match between Naomi and Bianca Butalia going
against liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez being a classic. In
my opinion, that was an amazing match. And why was
it amazing because the crowd was invested. Why was the
crowd invested because everybody involved is over and they told

(01:19:20):
a real, a very in depth story that gave it
added stakes to it outside of it being a title
match that I think helped the Jay Cargo's story and
Naomi and Beyonca accusing liv and Raquel of attacking her
and them being like, we didn't do it, but if
we had done it, we wouldn't care about it, Like
we wouldn't be mad about it, but or sorry about it,

(01:19:42):
I should say. But that was an example of like
when they are given a chance to like really get
a story to buy into and everybody can kind of
get behind it, and then they put on a great match,
it's like you got some magic there. But that's not
necessarily the case across the women's division at all, even
for like the world titles. Now, I think there's there's

(01:20:04):
still some work to do with it comes to rear Ripley.
When it comes to WrestleMania. Obviously they got their elimination
chamber where her future number one Nintendo would be determined.
But on SmackDown you got Charlotte Flair in Tiffany Stratton.
And I don't know if there's been really a story
that's been told between these two yeats.

Speaker 2 (01:20:26):
Not yet, not yet.

Speaker 1 (01:20:29):
Charlotte had Trish this weekend, yep. And look, I'm always
I'm never gonna complain about seing trist Tratus. Shout out
to trist Stratus but it's like, where are we going here?
What's the motivation here? They haven't given Tiffany Stratton a

(01:20:50):
whole lot of depth. She's over, but who is she?

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
Yeah, it's like, all of a sudden, she's a good guy.
It's like what happened to the planning the seeds weekly
and then return? That was that the triple h you know,
effect of oh, we're not just going to do week
to week crap the way it was under events, like
we're going to give people a reason for doing what
they do. Doesn't seem like there was a reason for

(01:21:18):
tiff other than just going against Nia Jack's and then
you know, Trish helping her out or whatever. It's like, literally,
just two weeks ago, you were still like a tweener,
you know, like talking like a tweener, at least still
getting pops, but still on the mic. It was like
he was a little bit. But I mean that gone

(01:21:40):
all of a sudden.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
Maybe some people are into that. Maybe, you know, Steve
Austin talked like a hill I'm not and I hate
to really everything Steve Austin as if like he's the rules, not.

Speaker 2 (01:21:50):
Just gonna come out but down in beers.

Speaker 1 (01:21:54):
That'd be awesome. Bring like o dB too while we're
at it. She was awesome back in the day too,
But I like it. I don't want to relate everything
to him. But it's just not like it's outside of
a possibility that that's part of the reason why people
like her. But yeah, your point is thin is still

(01:22:16):
valid in that, Like she doesn't really talk like a
baby face. And it's not just that she hasn't really
earned other baby faces respect, Like she hasn't really done
anything to become a baby face. She hasn't like like
when and they've done this recently. When Jay Usso turned babyface,
nobody trusted him, he had to earn respect. Bailey turned
baby face, nobody trusted it. Bianca still don't bang with
Bailey right still, there still has not been a reconciliation

(01:22:39):
between Bianca but Lair and Bailly it maybe it's some
because Bailey has shown up recently but not a lot,
so they kept that up for a while. Samy's ain
I think had to earn people's respect when he turned
baby face again, just like and that was good. We
was like, yes, that's good. There's some there's some you know,
connective tissue. There's not just doing hard stops and hard

(01:23:01):
beginnings to the stories and hard ends to stories, and
then you just completely move on, like if nothing happened before.
But that's what's kind of happened with Tiffany Stratton a
little bit, and then Charlotte she's just there. She just
looks at Tiffany like I'm the queen and I'm gonna
beat you. And that's pretty much the story right now.
I think they thought Charlotte was gonna get cheered more

(01:23:22):
when she came back, because she's telling everybody about how
her knee took her out for a year. Her injury
had her silence. She didn't know it's gonna wrestle again,
and then everybody was like boom, okay, well you'll heal.
I guess. But it's like, I think part of that
is because what I've been saying for months and years

(01:23:44):
now is that Charlotte needs to change, she needs to evolve.
I think she just came back and said I'm your queen,
and everybody's like so. I think they just look like
a high expectation for what people want out of these
characters now.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
Like bullying, just because it's like, we don't want this again.
Like it's not so much go away heat, but it's
like give us something new heat and different. So it's
not like they at least they didn't like have her home.
She's a baby face. Like she came out the next week.
I was just like okay on the heel here and
kind of calling up and it's like, okay, can we
have like another layer for for you? And hopefully we'll

(01:24:24):
get it. But I'm not gonna like hold my breath
because I feel like, you know, it's been three weeks
since the rumble, four weeks actually, uh walk close to
four weeks. So if like we haven't gotten it yet,
we've gotta be well getting it soon or else it's
gonna be the same old Charlotte and WrestleMania.

Speaker 1 (01:24:42):
It's like, and that match is gonna not gonna have
any heat now. But they got time. They got so
much time. Unfortunately but or or fortunately, I don't know.
Maybe the time they have left they can take good,
you know, make good use of it. But like, because
they have all this time, there's still time to turn
it around. But so far not so good. But I
think it's just it's just a lesson, like yo, like

(01:25:03):
there's a reason why people love Juso and ain't we
talked about it. Ain't because he's great in the ring
or because he's always been destined to be a top star.
He was a tag team guy and this single he
would pretty much lose all the time. But people are
holy behind him that so he can win the world
Championship in two months time or a little more than

(01:25:24):
a month's time. So how did that happen? It's because
they added depth to him. They send him on a journey.
What journey has Charlotte on right now? Other than to
win her fourteenth or fifteenth title that no one wants
to see. Apparently no one wants to see this, But
we've also been there, done that with this particular iteration

(01:25:46):
of Charlotte Tiffany's journey. What's the journey she's on right now?

Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
I can't tell you.

Speaker 1 (01:25:55):
I can't tell you. I feel like on the other side, police,
she's just a huge star. So you know that the
people haven't reached the point of being apathetic towards her.
And I think we can talk about this a little
more later if they pair her up with Byonka Belair.
That's what I've said is the biggest match they can do.

(01:26:17):
That's your story, the biggest stars you got in your
division going at it. But like that's just not what's happening.
On the other side. They need to be more creative
with Charlotte and uh Tiffany, but overall they just don't.
They're just not adding depth to a lot of these
stories or these characters in the women's division. You look
at the mid card titles, the Icy title, who's lyric

(01:26:40):
of Virkeria, She's in the Continental Champion. We know that, Yeah,
that's about it. Ivy Nile. They don't. They don't get
a lot of promo time. They don't really even go
out there and win a bunch of matches. They don't
have like time to like win matches and get their
moves over. It's tough. It's tough, man. It doesn't make

(01:27:03):
any sense. It doesn't make any sense. Same for the
US title, Chelsea Green, I think it's great. I love
the Piper Niven aspect of she's the secret service to
Madam Champion, but she doesn't have a ton of opponents
to work with. Maybe if they it's like they I know,
they're kind of biding the time for to make some
NXT callers but they need them bad, Like they need

(01:27:25):
like a lash Legend to inject some life into that.
They need maybe a Jada Parker or somebody like that
to just get in there and inject some life into
some of these mid cards that they have on wrong SmackDown.

Speaker 2 (01:27:39):
I thought we were gonna get that. A lot of
people thought we'd be there right now or just not.

Speaker 1 (01:27:43):
We're just not. Maybe they're waiting to after WrestleMania, which okay,
I guess I could understand that, but it's just so
much time.

Speaker 2 (01:27:50):
They do spend most of their TV time like building
to Mania promos and stuff. So if it's like I guess,
like a see it after media, but when you when
you have this much time before Mania, is like why not?

Speaker 1 (01:28:05):
Yeah? I do understand, you know, you don't want them
to get lost in the shuffle, you know the rockets around.
Now he's gonna take up so much TV time. He's
already bumped one match off of one show. Okay, bumped
that Live Morgan Naomi match off a SmackDown, and they
got the tag team match and Raw and they made
up for it and it was great, but still just
just I see why they don't want them to get

(01:28:26):
lost in this particular shuffle before you've even established them fully. Uh.
But yeah, if there's you know, we've talked about w
W being a on a heater in the past and
how the creative has gotten better. I don't mean it's
great though overall it's there's some hot there's some there's
some high points, there's some some some big successes, some

(01:28:50):
big wins, especially in the main events stuff. They usually
do well in the main event stuff now all the time,
but they usually do. But the the level of attention
to detail and the level of care that's given to
the main event stuff is not given to the rest
of the show. And that's the symptom of the prior
the previous regime as well. When Vince was was on

(01:29:11):
his PS and Q's creatively, he put a lot of
that creative energy into the top stuff and the main
event stuff, which to a certain extent I understand. But
you still got a staff of people. That's why you
delegate the responsibility, so they can put their creative energy
into the other things while you handle the big stuff.
But it just doesn't seem like that's what's happening right now,

(01:29:34):
at least from what we're watching on screen, and those
frustrations are being expressed now publicly, well anonymously, but still publicly.

Speaker 2 (01:29:43):
Yeah, and it does feel I guess it's not confirmed,
but I did find where it says SmackDown will return
to two hours, you know, you Google search it and
there's an AI overview. I don't know how I missed this.
When Triple H was on the Pat McAfee show on
the sixth of January, you know, for the Raw Netflix

(01:30:09):
Raw on Netflix, I guess he mentioned that it was
going to go back to two hours, and I did
not see that. I didn't even like hear about it
at the time. And now it's reportedly from Brandon Thurston
of Wrestling Nomics, slated for June twenty twenty five, which
is just interesting having a show for three hours for

(01:30:29):
six months. But apparently, according to that report, the change
was made in part to allow USA Network to debut
a new show with SmackDown serving as the lead in.
So I guess they didn't want to lose viewers for
that new show. So SmackDown will be, I guess, go
back to eight to ten and whatever new show is

(01:30:50):
there will be from ten to eleven on a Friday night.
I guess I don't know how well that's going to do.
But yeah, apparently it's going to go back to two
hours and June, so I totally missed that. So the
town's gonna have less time to work with apparently at
some point. Yeah, I don't hate it in terms of

(01:31:14):
a viewing experience, because yeah, three hours is a lot.
It's not like a sports game. Like at first, I
was like, okay, like I get it if both shows
three hours, because you know, like sports games are usually
three hours at least, you know, depending on what sport
you watch, basketball games just two and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:31:31):
It's only three hours because of commercials. Though it's not
like it's it's naturally three hours like W controls how
long the shows are. It's Nike, you know, in a
basketball game, a game itself, if you without commercials, it
is about two hours, but with commercials and TV timeouts
stuff like that, you add more time into it. So

(01:31:52):
that's Whire's three hours. So ww another hand, at least
what Netflix? You see what Netflix? They're not three hour shows.
It's just like because it's not bound to the timeslot
of eight pm to eleven pm, which is a benefit
in my opinion as a viewer. But I think the
point you were about to allude to was that for
the talent, losing an hour eventually will suck. So it's

(01:32:15):
already tough now with the third album SmackDown, but that
show has suffered since it's going to three hours. Yeah,
they I don't know why, because when I feel like
when Raw was three hours not that long ago, they
were doing all right. Still, it wasn't the greatest, but
it didn't feel like they were kill actively killing.

Speaker 2 (01:32:33):
Time on Raw.

Speaker 1 (01:32:34):
The way they are now on SmackDown and the things
the tropes they rely on remind me of the Vince
McMahon era where they have all these people come out
and then they have to make the match because you
got to kill time to make the match. Two hour shows,
they would announce matches, the GM would just announce the match. Hey,
we got this match set up for the night, BAH,
and here we go. No, they had to have the

(01:32:56):
people come out now interrupt each other, and then the
GM goes, you know what, since a six of y'all
in there, how about you three on one side and
you three go on the other side and you have
a six man tag team. Max Ringing the bell. We've
seen that in a million times and they've that have
gone back to that. It feels like because of three hours.
So it's tough to watch because it reminds me of

(01:33:18):
the previous regime and it felt like we got out
of this. We've been with this, right, We're done with
that forever, and now we're back in it, at least
for the time being. So your point again, viewers from
a views from standpoint, yeah, take away their third hour.
But from a talent standpoint, I do understand that it
will limit some opportunities for the talent as well. So

(01:33:41):
definitely a double edged sword there that ww is went
to figure out eventually, speaking of figuring something out, are
they going to figure out? What the dude? The New Day?

Speaker 2 (01:33:52):
Dude, you have the perfect storyline for them and just
didn't listen to you.

Speaker 1 (01:33:57):
As far as what was my storyline? I forget right
away exactly why what what are the tag team titles doing? Now?

Speaker 2 (01:34:07):
I couldn't tell you.

Speaker 1 (01:34:09):
Why aren't they on the New Day? Where where does
the New Day trying to accomplish other than win the
tag titles? So why aren't they challenging for them or
like in at least establishing that they want them. They
haven't even said that they wanted them yet, don't think,
mostly because they get booed every time they talk, so
they don't get a chance to talk too much. But like, instead,

(01:34:31):
American Maid is getting the next title shot, which they
might win because they've already lost to the war Raiders
and an Ivy Nile might get a title. Hm hmmm,
So you're like kind of belting up the right where
do we go from there? Because you're kind of belting
up American Made? Chad Gable comes back from Mexico? What

(01:34:53):
what does he fit in? And then what does New
Day come into that? They're not babyfaces? So they're not
gonna go against the York and Made if they win
the tag titles, you would think, right, I.

Speaker 2 (01:35:04):
Just feel like they've lost heat and maybe I'm maybe
I've lied and I'm lying that it's what I'm watching them.
I don't feel the way I did. You know those
that month after they turned heel, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:35:16):
Yeah, that they should have struck while the Iron Tot
was that because the memory of that segment with Biggie
was still very fresh in people's minds, and people were outraged.
People were upset probably calling this.

Speaker 2 (01:35:26):
I'm pretty sure they've lost a match since then, maybe
or I don't know, but I don't know, but I
feel like they lost what they lost.

Speaker 1 (01:35:35):
And I was just like what it just felt like,
like you said, the timing would have been much better
if they had been more active with them around that
time when the segment happened with Biggie, which is late
twenty twenty four, that was before the New Year, right, yeah,
because yeah, they were celebrating ten years of the New Day,
which was would have been twenty fourteen to twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:35:57):
Four, so I remember it's have been on the Netflix
first Netflix for all.

Speaker 1 (01:36:02):
Yeah, we think, like right away, get them involved with
the war Raiders, and off we go through WrestleMania season.
I guess instead that hasn't happened. Don't know why. Maybe
somebody was hurt, doesn't seem like it, but I don't know.
But they finally got an entrance, they finally got a
new gear, and maybe they're ready to do this now,
but they delayed it so long that it's like people

(01:36:22):
kind of forgot that what they did was so terrible, right,
it was so terrible. I feel like they like before
they come out again. They got to replay that just
so they can get freshly.

Speaker 2 (01:36:33):
Big Yeah, they're gonna have to like get on the
mic and talk about Big E just so people like, oh, yeah,
that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:36:40):
They hate him. And we were all up, man, you're
talking about one of the most heartbreaking segments of all time.
Broke my damn heart shattered. It tragic, tragic, and nothing
as far as capitalizing on and after the fact, it's
really weird.

Speaker 2 (01:36:59):
I was when you were like, put the tag titles
on them and boom, there we go, and I was like, oh, yeah,
that's happening. Here we are.

Speaker 1 (01:37:06):
And it's not like they got something else better in
the tag team division. They don't even really need anything
in the tacking division. For as much we just talked
about how the women's division is frustrated with creative and
stuff like that, the tag team should be equally as frustrated,
maybe maybe maybe a little less. They women having pretty
tough in a society at large, but the tag team
should also be frustrated, right because they're not doing a

(01:37:31):
whole lot. It's on raw, the Smacked one ones. They
got some stuff going on, right, but there's only fourteen
you see the same combination of teams every week, but
on Raw that we don't see anybody generally, it's not
that much going on over there. We don't see the
war Raiders like that, and it's like they're the tag
team champions. I saw more of American Maid than the

(01:37:53):
war Raiders this past week. It's like, I feel like
you see to some people every week, but the people
that wrote don't make any sense, like why are you
rotating your tag team champions? If you want to make
the tax team champions seem important, like make them fixtures
on the show, make sure people know who they are.
You can watch wrong forget who the tag team champions are. Honestly,

(01:38:19):
the war Rate, you can go from beginning of a
show to the end of the show and the war
Orders could have zero presence on the show and it
wouldn't feel like the show is missing something.

Speaker 2 (01:38:29):
You'd still think JD and Finn are the tag champs
even when JD injured, right.

Speaker 1 (01:38:34):
They getting way more TV time. So yeah, it's it's
really interesting what's happening in the tag team division divisions
for WWE. But moving on to an XT, they got
some stuff going on in NXT right now.

Speaker 2 (01:38:54):
I think they're the fun show to watch right now.

Speaker 1 (01:38:58):
I mean, when they got that TNAtion going on every week,
over gets Moose and then there's some Moose has its
detractors out there, but uh, you know, the teenage integration
is happening. And then you got not Ricky Starks, but
Ricky Saints appearing in NXT. Finally he's free. I'm saying,

(01:39:21):
free Ricky for like months, free them, free that man.
They finally let him go and as soon as he
got the chance to get out of AW, he went
March eight day March, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:39:33):
So I did not see the report that he was
released apparently. I think it was a Monday, right so,
and I had come across. I did not see like
any news of that. And I remember I was doing
something and I had NFC on in the background. I
might have been putting laundry away or something, and I hear,

(01:39:54):
you know, like a voice on like that sounds familiar,
and I would go over and Ricky Starks and the audience,
I'm like holy shit, And I was like, wait a second,
Like the last thing I heard, he was not like
he was still contractually bound to AW, like Tony was
not going to release him. So I went like straight
to Google, found news reports that you know, AW released him.

(01:40:18):
I was like, whoa Like literally less than twenty four
hours later, there he.

Speaker 1 (01:40:22):
Is, first thing smoking over to WW. Couldn't wait to
get there, couldn't wait to get in NXT. And now
he's there with a new name, Ricky Saints, not Ricky
Saint singular. I guess that would make him a relative
of Johnny Saints. You don't want that confusion, but Ricky

(01:40:42):
Saints because Ricky Starks is from New Orleans. That's like
talking a lot about New Orleans on this show. I'm
not mad at it.

Speaker 2 (01:40:55):
Easy why not? Why not?

Speaker 1 (01:40:57):
But and of course just the name of the football
team down there is the Saints, So Ricky Saints. I
guess that they could they could use that, I mean
as a Saint. I guess Saints is a word. It's
not necessarily like a brand. It's like I guess I
could just use that. But uh, I don't know if
we haven't our rundown here, it was the name changed necessary? Dude,

(01:41:20):
how do you feel about that?

Speaker 2 (01:41:21):
Nick? I remember reading you know the reactions that are
like uh or the reporters is like, there's a reason
they didn't say his whole name, and I'm just like, oh, no,
like here we go. But so it could be a
lot worse, you know, especially when we're talking about if
the name changes. We've we've had under the Vincment Man

(01:41:44):
regime for years and years, so it could be worse.
I don't hate it, but I just don't know why
Ricky Starks was not an option. I know they want
to they want to own, you know. I p it.
It's like, come on, you can't make an exception like

(01:42:05):
for some people like he did for Julia. I don't
know why wasn't he the exception.

Speaker 1 (01:42:18):
I don't know, man, Maybe he wanted to change it.

Speaker 2 (01:42:20):
Maybe maybe he did, that's sure. Maybe you know, I
would have.

Speaker 1 (01:42:24):
I think Ricky Starks is a fine name.

Speaker 2 (01:42:26):
I mean, like I I first saw him on a
n W A power you know, like I feel like
I've been following his whole career. You know, he probably
was wrestling before that, but I feel like I've been
invested in him. So that might be why I was like, oh, like,
Rickey Starks is no Rickey Starks no longer. Bummer, Like,
maybe that's just me. Maybe that's a b issue.

Speaker 1 (01:42:50):
Yeah, I mean, look, it's not the best name in
the world, but I'm more of just focused on the
fact that he's not under contract to a place I
won't use him anymore. You know, we talked about crazy earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:43:02):
Ricky Williams.

Speaker 1 (01:43:05):
He ran away from a w fasten than Ricky Williams
ran from anybody couldn't wait to get over there. Ricky
Williams is fast, all right. Heightsan trophy winning that. Ricky
Williams almost the Philadelphia or at least that's what the
fans wanted. They wanted running back. They wanted a running back.

(01:43:27):
Andy Ree was like, what are they talking about? Jack,
that kid from Syracusan tell everybody to shut up, man.
Everybody wanted the playoffs a lot. They talk about Bro
Peterson and Ricky Williams. Man, yeah, win a bunch of
games with that combo in your backfield. Ricky Williams would
have got like eight hundred yards, it would have got

(01:43:48):
like four touchdowns. And was then stuffed like, we're not
scared of the quarterback, Doug Peter, Douglas Peterson. He might be,
he might make a great coach one day, be he
ain't gonna make no quarterback in the NFL right now.

Speaker 2 (01:44:03):
I remember I had a baseball game, the season opener
against the Cardinals, and it was they were up big.
I think the Eagles were up big. At halftime. We
were getting relayed messages from like our coach or whatever,
and it was like, I don't remember how big they
were up, but they wound up losing that game. The
Eagles lost that game to the Cardinals, and it was

(01:44:24):
just like that was before I even started watching football.
But I remember that day really well, and it's like, man,
good thing, I don't want pay attention to his football team.
I was always like super pissed.

Speaker 1 (01:44:37):
Again, tough times back in those days. People are our age.
We remember those late nineties years, and as people as
older than us, I remember other lean years too, which
is why what makes this time such a crazy time,
I think for Eagles fans, Yeah, winning a second Super
Bowl within a decade, but moving on to someone who
owns it also owns the NFL team, Tony Kahan, the

(01:45:00):
con family. The Jaguars hired a new head coach this
past off season. During this off season, Liam Cohen. He's
offensive coordinated from the Bucks, and he initially renigged on
the deal and started to because they had Trent Balki.
And then he went back to Tampa and he was
about to sign a new deal and he was like
he's like, no, no, no, no, no no no no,
We'll fire Tent. We'll fire tre No no no no

(01:45:21):
no no no please please please no no, we fired
we fired him. He's gone, he's cut. He fired, So
you want to come back. And he's like, I got y'all.
And that might have made some people upset the table.

Speaker 2 (01:45:31):
They bought his soul.

Speaker 1 (01:45:33):
They look, they bought him, bro. Bring you, your family,
your auntie, everybody, come up, come up to come down
to dull as he said.

Speaker 2 (01:45:45):
So Sean brace On the Gambler has that as a drop.
And I remember listening to that. I swear, I swear
I was, you know, podcasting, you know, a portion of
the program he played that, and I thought I one
hundred percent thought that was John Janssen saying.

Speaker 1 (01:46:02):
That that's the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Speaker 2 (01:46:06):
Like it's to me, it sounded like John Jansen saying
duvaugh And I'm like, well, John's always been like high
on Trevor Lawrence. So he's like a pseudo Jaguars fan.
So I'm like, okay, Like it makes sense that Jansen
would say that, not until after, like Jansen was laughing
at it. I thought it was like him saying it,
but then I realized it was from a press conference,

(01:46:29):
so it would it made more sense to me for
Jansen saying that it was like a bit, but it
was an actual press conference and I saw the video.

Speaker 1 (01:46:39):
Oh man, yeah, give your best Duval. For those who
don't know, Jacksonville is in Duval County, you probably do
notice because you're an AW fan if you listens to
this too, so you know they they're in Duval County
and they're big like slogan and like the hashtagle on
social media is douveaon like, so it's Duval County. But
when you say three years, right, a bunch of yous,

(01:47:00):
I forget the exact number. There's there's an exact number
now and they go like.

Speaker 2 (01:47:06):
They yell it, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:47:07):
But Liam Cohen, he is like a little more settled.
Why did he do that?

Speaker 2 (01:47:20):
Why did he do that?

Speaker 1 (01:47:21):
Because I don't know, he's an NFL head coach. He's
just trying to make it. Talk about flowers exactly like
Sirianne didn't always have the best presses his opening press.
I was working for the team at that point. People
were like, y'all should.

Speaker 2 (01:47:33):
Fire him to take.

Speaker 1 (01:47:36):
It was people wild, But I was there for that
and it wasn't great. But like, hey, look at him now,
But let's say all that the shift gears to a way.
That's a wild segue to a w's Liam Cohen and
his introjectory press conference. There it is.

Speaker 2 (01:48:03):
He smiles right after it, like what is going on here?

Speaker 1 (01:48:06):
He said in a room full of people, But.

Speaker 2 (01:48:10):
It's not even like his head is still. He's swaying
as he's sang. His head is swaying. O.

Speaker 1 (01:48:17):
God, wish nothing but the best. He's talented. Coach him
and Baker Mayfield did some beautiful things in Tampa this year,
like what he touchdowns this year, what he did.

Speaker 2 (01:48:29):
What if Lawrence is as good as John Jansen thinks
he is and should be a big match a.

Speaker 1 (01:48:34):
I mean they can take that defense and bring Mike
Evans with him. That might help. But they got Brian Thomas.
Brian Thomas is good this rookie.

Speaker 2 (01:48:41):
Last year he helped me tremendously during my fantasy season.

Speaker 1 (01:48:44):
There you go, there you go. So they got some pieces.
They got a Christian Kirk too. They got some pieces,
you know. Uh, but a w is it getting better.

Speaker 2 (01:48:54):
And worse? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:48:57):
I think I think they think they hit their bo
I think so. I think they feel like I feel
like they steadied creatively. Even though the Death Riders angle
is still just nobody cares.

Speaker 2 (01:49:10):
It's brutal.

Speaker 1 (01:49:11):
Nobody super Bowl Championship had on it.

Speaker 2 (01:49:19):
He's got that.

Speaker 1 (01:49:24):
Costs like sixty bucks at the super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (01:49:27):
So I will put my head up. I hated his debut,
like not his debut, but I hated like the first
I guess a few weeks months of him in aw,
I thought it was bad. This Ricochet is tremendous. It's tremendous.
So I'm so happy. Like he turned it around and

(01:49:48):
made a full lot of meats. I said he had
negative aura, and ever since that moment, he's been negative amazing.
He's been amazing Ricochet. By the way, Uh, I an
Eagles fan public and that's not why I love him,
But it's just his character right now, it's so much
better than it was.

Speaker 1 (01:50:07):
He's not from Philadelphia, but he I think he roots
for like multiple Phillies themes, which is strange. He definitely
roots for the Eagles, I know that much as to
Sam with Joe, Joe was an Eagles fan. And the
Bella twins, Yes, and it's one of them is an
Eagles I think both of them are Eagles fans. I

(01:50:30):
did not know that.

Speaker 2 (01:50:33):
I have a picture of him in an Eagles shirt.
I think he was on Rall one time and he
had that long beard, but he was wearing an Eagles shirt.
I had took a picture of.

Speaker 1 (01:50:42):
That, so really funny. Yeah, so that's a rundown of
Eagles fans who are wrestlers, I should say wrestlers that
are Eagles fans.

Speaker 2 (01:50:50):
That was in my notes for New Year's Revolution. Jeans
Snisky is an Eagles fan because he's on there.

Speaker 1 (01:50:56):
He is, he is, but a w seems like they've
kind of steadied themselves creatively again. But the problem is
that death Rider's angle just means nothing. Bro.

Speaker 2 (01:51:08):
Yeah, it's still a lot to clean up there. I
don't know if they're just trying to and miss the
revolution or if it'll go past that. But yeah, I'm good.
I'm good on it. I've been good on it.

Speaker 1 (01:51:23):
Yeah, been that's been the case. That's been the case.
But yeah, they look it didn't They're running also, like
I think better venues as well too. Ricochet is not
dancing with the hat. It's really funny, but I think
they're running better venues. I'm liking the Ricochet swear stricken
on stuff. I'm here for what Adam Page. Adam Page

(01:51:47):
is doing right now. I almost almost on Eastern Page
for some reason, and then they got Cope and stuff
like that, and this is just a lot of stuff
going on. Well, I mean, but I wasn't in love
what MJF was doing before he got to Adam Page.
That whole Jeff Jarrett stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:52:04):
Just does that disappear? Did they stop that? Because I
had seen like Jeff in a while, and.

Speaker 1 (01:52:10):
I'm not particularly upset about it. I'm not either like
like because that was going nowhere fast.

Speaker 2 (01:52:16):
And I don't know why Jared needs a storyline like
a title thing, like he's not like I know people
like him now, but for a long long time he was,
like I said this before, like a mini Triple h
t NA where it was just like his reign of
terror down there. It's like I was good on him.
People just love him now. Like I don't know if

(01:52:37):
it's the podcast or he maybe he's a good guy,
but yeah, I'm good on him right now in terms of,
you know, wrestling.

Speaker 1 (01:52:45):
It reminds me of when Kobe had Kobe Bryant had
his like farewell Tour and then like Paul Pierce tried
to do the same thing or something like that. Everybody's like,
you got Kobe Farewell Tour. I'm like, this was I
think with Paul Pierce. Remember that, I think it was
Paul Pierce. And if it was Paul Pierce, like Paul
Pierce wasn't good. He was he was the truth and

(01:53:08):
he he was the truth NBA Champion I think either
is or will be in the Hall of Fame. So
it's not like he's a bad player.

Speaker 2 (01:53:16):
He was part of the Big Three with Ray Allen
and Kevin Garnett, Right.

Speaker 1 (01:53:20):
Yep, he just wasn't Kobe. That's the only problem. As
good as he was, great as he was, it's not Kobe.
But it's kind of we found that kind of funny.
Shall we move on to this Saturday? Though we talk
talk about a past elimination chamber, but let's talk about
a future one. Let's go back to w W real

(01:53:41):
quick this Saturday in Toronto Elimination Chamber. We got only
three matches announced for the show.

Speaker 2 (01:53:48):
No, I didn't put all of them, but those are
like the three main ones I have on the rundown.
We have the Trish and oh yes, Tiffany Stratton. I
keep typing in New Year's reveel It's elimination Chamber.

Speaker 1 (01:54:01):
It's Elimination Chamber. But the Toronto the big matches are
obviously the elimination Chamber matches. We got Johnston.

Speaker 2 (01:54:07):
Yeah, those four so okay, that's the only other one.

Speaker 1 (01:54:10):
So four matches. In the men's chamber we have John Cena, Seaing, Punk,
seph Ronalds, Drew McIntire, Logan Paul and Damian Priest. And
in the women's chamber we have Live Morgan, Bianca, Butlair,
Alexa Bliss, Bailey, Naomi and Rock Sande Perez. Let's start
the men's chamber real quick, Nick, give me your prediction
who walks out of the Elimination Chamber the number one
contend to for the w W Championship.

Speaker 2 (01:54:34):
I think it'll be Sina for summer. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:54:42):
That's it, so yeah, I gotta explain more.

Speaker 2 (01:54:45):
Oh uh, I I don't remember if well, I predicted
him to win the Rumble, so I'm assuming I still
think it's his title shot of wrestlemingians to lose. So
I don't see unless we get like super storyline like
fast Lane type thing on this, I don't see like

(01:55:07):
any other thing happening at least this Saturday. So I'm
just gonna stick with Sena. You were muted.

Speaker 1 (01:55:26):
Sorry, I was on mute. So you're going with John Cena.

Speaker 2 (01:55:33):
I just don't know if the Rock's gonna be involved,
because like, is he just gonna be there for Cody
or what like, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:55:46):
You're muted again, I apologize. So you're going with johnsne
like you said, but we don't know if the Rock
is involved. I feel like he has to be in
off in some way, right think.

Speaker 2 (01:56:02):
I don't know. So do they have the Cody and
Rock thing at the end or is it going to
be the unsanctioned match, you know, Like I I don't
know because if it's at the show, certainly.

Speaker 1 (01:56:15):
I feel like the show is called elimination Chamber. You
got to a main event with at least one of.

Speaker 2 (01:56:18):
Them absolutely not, not one of we have the unsanctioned
does triple H. It's going to be the main event,
I believe.

Speaker 1 (01:56:29):
I don't think that at all. I think the ELM.
I think the men's Elimination Chamber is going to main event.

Speaker 2 (01:56:34):
That might be the first match.

Speaker 1 (01:56:36):
I think they'll probably open with the women, which as
not a formula that I want them to just run
back over and over again, but it's a formula that
they've gone back to many times. Start off the War Rumble,
Women's were Rumble first, Men's War Rumble main events. They've
done it in reverse before, and I think there should
be a time when they do it for the Elimination
Chamber Elimination Chamber as well. I just don't think they'll

(01:56:58):
do it this time. But as far as a winner,
it's tough. This is tough. Then you can make a
case for multiple people in this match. But I'm gonna
go and see him Punk. I'm gonna go see him Punk.

(01:57:20):
I feel like I'm picking and see Himunk a lot.
I feel like I'm gonna be right one of these times, actually,
and maybe this is the time. But I also understand
why I seen it. It could be your choice this
is they're promoting it as his last Elimination Chamber, even
though he hasn't been on TV in a while. Maybe

(01:57:40):
that's part of it.

Speaker 2 (01:57:41):
I mentioned earlier, it's like where has he been?

Speaker 1 (01:57:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:57:46):
Like really, like you said you were gonna make this
like your full time job this year, you know, Like
but he's.

Speaker 1 (01:57:52):
Really not, so really not at least not before Elimination Chamber,
which they're promoting with him something like, he's not part
of the promote.

Speaker 2 (01:58:00):
It was the first one that was announced, so don't
we That's all we need from the Royal Rubble press conference,
like this is.

Speaker 1 (01:58:07):
The last Elimination Chamber, this is his last appearance.

Speaker 2 (01:58:09):
And that was that was the entire build for Sina
to the Chamber, the Royal Rubble press conference.

Speaker 1 (01:58:15):
Yeah, and that's it so far. So it's kind of weird,
but I'm gonna go with see Himpung.

Speaker 2 (01:58:23):
I want to hate it, and I wouldn't hate it.

Speaker 1 (01:58:27):
Far as the women's Elimination Chamber.

Speaker 2 (01:58:31):
I think Jade's coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:58:33):
Hm hmm.

Speaker 2 (01:58:37):
Does she take someone out and like enter the match
or oh she beat up the layer in Naomi or something.

Speaker 1 (01:58:47):
Well, I don't think it's belair and Naomi. I think
it's just Naomi if she does anything. I feel like
Naomi is the culprit here because obviously she's had She's
had the most of gain. She became a tag team champion,
and she's like, Oh, we're gonna find this person. I
can't wait till we find this person. It's her. You're
the person, you are the corporate But I think that

(01:59:10):
would be a good twist, uh you know, in that story.
But as far as a winner, I think even though
that is a thing that could happen, and maybe Beyonca,
maybe Jay Cargo comes down and just takes out Naomi,
which could clear a path for Bianca, but laire to

(01:59:30):
finally get that match with Real Ripley that I've been
asking for for multi year.

Speaker 2 (01:59:35):
You don't think EO SKY is gonna beat Real Ripley
on the wrong Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:59:39):
EOSKTT could be potentially involved. Maybe if they do like
a you're finished. But I feel like the money match,
if you're gonna do it, it's gonna be Real Ripley
and Beyonca one on one. That's the money match. To me,
that's the biggest women's match they can do at the
moment in my opinion, Yes, that's bigger than Charlotte Stiffini Stratton,

(02:00:02):
So that would be the way I do it. You'd
have to find I would say, you have to find
something interesting for Eel Scott to do to me. And
I think they kind of had a misstep on this
from the beginning. I think they need some big names
to challenge for the IC and the US titles New
and Miss Division, and I think Eos Guy, even though

(02:00:24):
it's not the world title, I think she deserves the
world title. But I also think you could if she's
not gonna be it's not gonna beat Very Ripley on Monday,
and if she's not going to challenge for to WrestleMania,
well at least she can maybe lend some credibility to
something and that could be the Intercondinal Championship. Maybe that's
not that wrestle Mania, maybe that's after WrestleMania, but at
some point in the future I think that should happen.

(02:00:45):
But I back to the Icy title in the US
title for the women, I think they kind of got
off on the wrong foot with them. Not to say
that Liu Vialk, Curia and Chelsea Green aren't talented It's
just that I figured they would put them on bigger
names just to establish them as like these big names,
one of these titles like Bailey and Naomi or something
like that, even Italia, and then you can establish a

(02:01:05):
newer name by having them beat Bailey or Naomi for
the title. Maybe that's Chelsea Green Lair Vikaria, maybe that's
Ivy Nile, Maybe that's Tiffany Stratton, maybe that's somebody else.
But they started off with names that I don't think
had been fully established yet, and then they put him
against other people who also weren't fully established yet, you know,

(02:01:26):
like me Chen and Ivy Nile. So that's another flaw
that they've kind of been showcasing in the women's divisions.
Just they don't they haven't put them with the big
names yet. But I think E Scott could help that.
But back to the elimination chamber, I think Bianca Butlair
wins it. Now we have the young sanctioned match Samy's

(02:01:50):
Ain versus Kevin Owens samuse Ain. Well, let's say both
both Samusein and Kevin Owens have essentially been stalking each other.
Evin owns we saw him do it. We saw Sam's
ain't walking around in his living room with his kids
or is it one kid? Right? His thing was one
kid and then apparently saying and his wife right. Uh,

(02:02:12):
apparently Sam Zein did the same thing to Kevin Owens
and talk to Kevin Owens his mom. A lot of
stuff going on here. Either way, there's gonna be a fight.
And they knowing, these two guys because they do know
each other so well, they're gonna beat the daggylights out
of each other in Canada.

Speaker 2 (02:02:30):
Blood.

Speaker 1 (02:02:32):
Oh yeah, we're definitely gonna see blood. We're gonna see
a lot. Kevin Owl's gonna take some crazy bumps. Sam
Zain's probably gonna take some crazy bumps. I'm in fear
for their lives. See what they're gonna do.

Speaker 2 (02:02:43):
Here, WrestleMania. Let's go, this is our wrestle exactly.

Speaker 1 (02:02:50):
He just gave just motivated them even more. It's almost
like trip on purpose. It's like, all right, like we're
not gonna give you a WrestleMania, but you know, take
this emotion as a bit of like a way to
like stick it to you know, the big names. You
can do it too. Even I'm the one who puts
you in this position. Like, but yeah, I can see
them having that chip on their shoulder and doing very

(02:03:12):
dangerous and physical things to each other at elimination chamber.
But as far as the winner, who you got? Actually
do they determine to win an nung station matches by
the way.

Speaker 2 (02:03:23):
I don't know. So whoever wins, it's not going to
be a win for them on.

Speaker 1 (02:03:31):
The books.

Speaker 2 (02:03:31):
Yeah, I'll go Cavin Ellen's after losing to Cody a
couple of times the whole way out Sandy, and he'll
get the hand raised or he will be the one
to walk away.

Speaker 1 (02:03:44):
I tend to agree that Kevin Owens could use to
win here or whatever that however that looks. But what
happens next though, Like, actually, or do we actually get
an actual winner from this? Like do they maybe fight
it out?

Speaker 2 (02:03:56):
But like I feel like we'll get a gimmick match,
Like I know I'm saying is a gimmick, But will
they do hell on a cell type saying we'll they
have like the because I don't think they haven't had
that yet, right, and they've had a few matches against
each other on the main rosters, so you know, I
think that's a possibility. Maybe maybe WrestleMania. But maybe there's

(02:04:21):
almost two months until then, so they could theoretically kill
each other and then come back.

Speaker 1 (02:04:28):
They can beat each other up, go to the hospital,
heel up, get right out of the hospital, come back
fighting again, come back swinging. Yeah, it's that. My only
issue is that where they where do they go from here?
So maybe I can see Kevin Owens getting to win,
but I'm going to go I'm gonna go with the
no contest, even though it's not a contest technically is
un sanctioned, but no winners come from this, and that's

(02:04:52):
how you kind of extended to WrestleMania. And like you said,
maybe a gimmick match there, whether it's hell in the
cell or cage match, because I if one person wins
over the other, where do you go? I just don't
see a direction you go. So and you got so
much time. So maybe Kevin Owens gets back involved with Cody,

(02:05:13):
or does he get involved with you know, we haven't
seen Randy Orton in a while, that's right, Is he
gonna pop up at some point? I thought I was
gonna be at the Rumble. The Rumble. Now a month later,
we still haven't seen the guy where is he at though,
so right, just waiting for the biding their time, just

(02:05:33):
waiting for the right moment to strike on on vengeance
on somebody. Because last time we saw Randy Ordy, he's
getting powered job by Kevin Owens, right, so at some
point you would think he's going to get his revenge.
And the same for Jay Cargill. I would assume they're
coming back pretty soon to get their look back. So

(02:05:53):
we shall see. Uh. And of course the last match
we got there on Elimination Chamber, at least as of
this recording, Tiffany Stratton and trist strattis going against Charlotte Flair.
Who's Charlotte.

Speaker 2 (02:06:05):
Nia Jackson, Candice Lray Oh jack.

Speaker 1 (02:06:08):
I find, I say, Charlotte Flair, She's going to get
Charlotte Flair WrestleMania, Kaya Jackson and Candice Lora at Elimination Chamber. Uh,
trist strattis and Tiffany Stratton wanna win and then maybe
Charlotte will stand over Tiffany Stratton again point to the
WrestleMania sign.

Speaker 2 (02:06:25):
How about that?

Speaker 1 (02:06:26):
That's that's what they've been doing so far, you know,
just like let me pointing the sign real.

Speaker 2 (02:06:34):
Quick, you know, what I would I think would be interesting.
You have trist turn on Tiffany and then Trician Charlotte,
like together.

Speaker 1 (02:06:43):
On the road.

Speaker 2 (02:06:45):
What is what?

Speaker 1 (02:06:46):
What common ground are we finding here?

Speaker 2 (02:06:48):
Absolutely nothing? Something different?

Speaker 1 (02:06:51):
Like I like I we say these things and it
sounds like good in theory, but it's like, I think
the audience has sort of like raised our expectations a
little bit on the type on how WW tells the stories.
Not granted, they're still making a ton of money, so
maybe people don't care that much in reality, but like

(02:07:15):
I feel like the reason why people are booing Charlotte
is just because there's enough depth to her at the moment.
They just want more. We've been there and done that.
So if you team up somebody like a Charlotte and Trish,
why you got to explain all of this and it
would be it would feel like old school wrestling, or

(02:07:37):
not with old school wrestling, but like previous regime, WWE
to just figure it out on the fly. And these
people who've never interacted on TV, never spoken to each
other on TV, all of a sudden they're the best
of friends. What where It's way better if you kind
of like we've talked about playing those seeds along the
way and then you get to that point.

Speaker 2 (02:07:57):
But yeah, but yeah, I know that happened.

Speaker 1 (02:08:02):
I see Tiffany Striden and Chest strat is winning. The
crowd is happy, yay, oh Canada, and you know all
that stuff. Canada, by the way, just beat this in
the Four Nations Cup, and they were very excited about it. Yes,
it was a lot going on to not play in
the world. They don't like us at the moment, and

(02:08:24):
they and they thought about it, that's crazy. That's supposed
to be an All Star game. It's like, you know what,
we got heat with each other. We're gonna rumble right now.

Speaker 2 (02:08:35):
It's fun. It's pretty nute because I had thought like, whoever,
so if Canada, so the US beat them in the
round robin, and it's like if if Canada won their
next game, then they would face off in the championship.
And once they did, I was like, oh, yeah, Canada's
gonna win. That was close. But yeah, I just had
a feel in Canada was gonna beat the US and

(02:08:56):
final after what happened in the previous this game, so
at least like kind of like it was like their game.
So it was so triumphant for them, and it was
kind of funny, like how much it did mean and
then you had like all the US people get all upset,

(02:09:19):
not all of them, but I mean like it was.

Speaker 1 (02:09:22):
Relax, it was good fun, It was good hot. Yeah,
good sports.

Speaker 2 (02:09:26):
It was amazing sports.

Speaker 1 (02:09:28):
Good sports ball, you know, good sports ball.

Speaker 2 (02:09:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:09:32):
You always gonna appreciate You can appreciate good graps. You
appreciate some good sports ball too out there in the world.
As you can see, this episode has been very long,
so we're going to do our deep dive on part
two of episode four twenty coming very very soon. Thanks
for listening to part one, and again check us out

(02:09:53):
for our deep dive on part two.

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