432: NXT TakeOver: Chicago II (06-16-18) Deep Dive, Janel Grant Lawsuit Update, R-Truth Gone from WWE

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

(00:36):
It is a Patreon request. What is the request? It
is NXT Takeover Chicago two, the sequel part dah if
you will from June twenty eighteen. So we're gonna dive
into that. A lot of fun watching that show, a
lot of good matches on that show. But before we
dive into anything else, I gotta do my weekly check

(00:57):
on my main man, Pots and Pants, Nick, you and
is lovely Friday afternoon, the day before money in a bank?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
My good brother, it's too hot, man. We went from
like the fifties to the eighties and like one day.
Albeit the fifties in June is uh Now, I'm a
fan of the fifties in June and everything like that.
But can't we at least get you know, like a
day or two of sixties. I guess we did. We

(01:27):
did the sixties and seventies and the eighties, but it's
been like a week and now I'm like tired of
the eighties already. I have my air on like all day.
It's annoying. I don't want to have to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
I feel like we had a good spring, man, We
had a good run a spring we did.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
It was one of the better ones in recent memory.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
One hundred percent. We usually go from winter straight to
summer and like it's like nineties and April, but this
year we had a we had fifties, sixties, it got
cold for a couple more days. The only problem is
for me, you know, what I'm going to say is
that it's been raining every weekend bro or at least
like around the weekend. And the field that we play
on for flag football does not hold up well when

(02:07):
it rains a lot. So we've been hit by the
you know, the weather bug this year, in this spring,
i should say, which is not necessarily uncommon, but this
has been particularly.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Wild.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
But we're still gonna be a good season out there.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
So yeah, there's a lot of rain in the forecast
coming up too.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well, it rained already today as we record this, and
you know, I've been looking at the radar like what's
going to happen, what's gonna happen? But I don't know.
I know it's gonna rain a little bit. I think
tomorrow morning, at least it's opposed to there's a chance.
But we'll see, we'll see how it goes. But but yeah,
where are the day at least on the eve of
Money in the Bank twenty twenty five, we did a
whole preview, a whole breakdown of the card over on

(02:49):
our other show, The Wrestling Roundtable with Mark Henry Junior
and Roy Burton earlier this week. And you check that
out over on Fox pH other games website. Ain't on
the Straight Shooter speed right now.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's there right before this episode. You should see that
right there. It's a boat. It's called Bonus. It's a
bonus episode and big letters, capital letters, all caps bonus.
Now like we can't give it a number because it's
not technically an episode of the Straight Servers. Put it's
on our feet.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
There you go. So thanks again to Markenry Junior and
Ward Borton for journalists joining us. I should say, uh so, Yeah,
if you want to fool our preview of money in
the bank, all of our predictions. Listen to that show. Yeah,
all four of those matches. Maybe a fifth is coming,
but we ain't gonna talk about it. Can't be that important.
But yeah, if you want to do that, I know
people are getting ready for money in the bank. Uh so, yeah,

(03:37):
check that out over on the Wrestling round Table. But
current day nonsense. There's a lot of stuff going on
around here. A lot of lots of nonsense is afoot
in pro wrestling. We shall start with some contract I guess,
not non renewals, contract lapses, I guess first. And four,

(04:00):
almost via his own Twitter, was the news that our
truth was not necessarily been released. I guess. I guess
he was released or his contract was not being renewed.
Either way, he's done with ww.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
He took it as a release, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
I'm sure he did. And man, that was that felt
like a gut punch earlier in the week to hear that.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
News like it literally affected my mood. You know, I
try not to let so many things affect my day
to day life anymore. As we get older, we get
you know, more responsibilities and stuff like that. We got
to pay attention to certain things, and we use this
as like an outlet to just try and have fun.

(04:41):
But man, like that day that I remember that day
I saw that and just like literally feeling down about it. Yeah,
like I said, it's been a while since I felt
that way.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
That sucked. And I mean, obviously, there's the facts of
the situation, right. Our truth is in his early fifties,
he's been around for a while. Everybody loves him, but
he's also not going to be like a world champion
anytime soon. They just gave him a world title match,
but he's probably not gonna be even intercontinental champion anytime soon. Right,
So on paper, it's like, oh, well, you know, it's
not that big of a deal. But when you think
about the type of impact Our Truths had in that

(05:16):
locker room, it's obvious when you see how many people
when it replies to Our Truths tweet saying this sucks.
I think vividly remember Naomi's tweet saying I hate this.
Like you don't usually see that for a released talent.
Usually the other talent is just like kind of quiet
or like supportive of like I'm a missue type deal,

(05:37):
like you know, you're great, you'll land on your feet,
like encouraging words. This was like almost anti company. I
hate every second of this. This is crap. And then
you hear Sean around SAP reporting saying that people pretty
much everybody they talked to you said that they hated it,
like everybody hates it, And yeah, that for me, that's

(05:58):
enough of a reason to keep him around. He's been
around for so long. I know, like Vince McMahon liked
him and thought he was hilarious. That's why he kept
him around. TKO not nearly as humorous, I guess, as
vincemick Man. They're more looking at the dollars and cents
of it, which is a cold way to do it.
In a lot of ways. It's probably good business, but
it's a little bit more cold than let's say Vince

(06:19):
likes him and he keeps him around, or even if
remove vents from the situation, anybody. You just want somebody
who's in the locker room, who's a veteran leader, who's
a morale booster, and you can plug and play in
any situation pretty much and it works and the crowd
always loves them. I don't see a reason to not
keep our truth in my mind. I thought he was

(06:40):
every time I saw him on screening, he brought joy
to me.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Right.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
And he's ageless. He's still in great shape. He's not
like he's out of shape. He's not professional like look
at him like he still can go. He's still on
point with everything he does in the ring, on the mic,
and everybody loves the guy to me, Keep him employed,
keep him with within under your umbrella, and have a

(07:04):
guy like that around to mentor younger, younger stars. I
think that's the problem. You know, you get too you
get too young, and now there's no mentors. There's no ogs,
so to speak, there's no vets around. You see that
a lot with the NBA teams where there's a bunch
of young guys, but there's no vets around to lead
these young guys and show them the ropes our truth.
I mean, sure they got other veterans around, but our
truth is one of the He's the ogs og. He

(07:26):
showed all the OG's the ropes because he's been around
so long. I think that's valuable to a locker room.
And I think that, you know, not being in the
locker room. I think that he'll lead, his presence will
be missed in that locker room. And I think that
you know that that there's something to that. I don't
think it's the end all be all to a successful promotion,
but I think that means something. And the fans were

(07:51):
voicing n displeasure as well, saying we want truth on
the show. It's gonna be the new cum punk chant
for the next ten years, like how is this gonna go?
But but yeah, I think it's I think it's a
mistake to me personally. I know business wise will say, yeah,
it's an obvious decision, but give remove business from it
for me, and I think having our Truth on the

(08:13):
roster on my on television, putting smiles on people's faces
is not a bad thing and keep them around.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, I just don't like the fact that this seemingly
is a decision made from somebody that has no idea
of a wrestling locker room, Like what it means to
somebody to have veterans like our Truth around. And I'm
not just talking about any veterans like you said. The
outpouring of support for our Truth and just the damnation

(08:41):
almost of WWE's decision or TKO's decision most likely is
just like what the hell you know? And I just
don't understand looking at a situation in the business wise
and being like, man, this our but he has people
that love this guy. He's good for morale, Like they

(09:03):
should know that, right, Like I guess it's a big
company and maybe not everyone in position of decision maker
knows what certain talents mean to a roster. They just
like you said, look at dollars and cents. Oh, we
just gave our truth the main event spot on the
you know network television. I just don't the timing is

(09:25):
so weird.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Well, I mean the timing could be his contract ran out.
That could be the timing. I understand that it's weird
because he just got.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
A Why even put him in that if you knew
it was coming up, like obviously Triple H knew it
was coming up.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
But I guess it's to finish him up, to finish
him up. He lost the match.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
It wasn't like he won, like again Roy said it
on the Restling Round Table, Uh, just the merch sales,
Like it wasn't like he was losing them money. He's
seemingly right, like selling a lot of merch. I mean,
don't I don't know that's you're looking at dollars and cents.
That if they're looking at dollars and cents, it literally

(10:05):
doesn't make sense to have our Truth not come back,
or at least not even offer him, Like I guess
we haven't heard yet if he was offered another contract
that was well below what he was making and then
he just decided not to But it just seems like
he wasn't at all. I mean from all angles, it

(10:26):
seems that we've heard so far, and it's been about
a week now, right, It's like it was about a
week ago as of this because we didn't talk about it.
It didn't happen our last show.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
So yeah, it's the first chance we've got to talk about, right.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
So, and you just see like stuff coming out that
seam Ross sat purported that he's heard of people there
that might explore their options rather than signing well ahead
of time before the contract expires. It Obviously, people that
are approached for a contract extension, maybe with a year

(10:59):
or two left on the deals, they're not gonna be
so quick to resign because if art Truth is expendable
and Again, it's funny to say that because well, he's
not the most important person on WWTV, but it's what
he means off the screen. And if that's if that
kind of person is they're willing to get rid of,

(11:20):
I mean, like, who who else would they fight to keep?
Like Nope, seems I think like nobody.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
I think part of it is, too, is that they apparently,
you know, they let his contractors expire, so it's not
like they went to the negotiation table last year. I
think that's part of it too, is like instead of
waiting till the last minute, instead of waiting till your
contract actually expires to get released X, start exploring your
options a year in advance, maybe six months in advance,
especially if they don't approach you now. If if ww

(11:49):
comes to us, say if you want to resign you now,
you do what you gotta do from there. But if
you hear radio silence from the other end, then you
got to start planning for life beyond w W well
ahead of the time that your contract expires. So at
least that's according to you know, That's how I interpreted
the quote that Seanron sapp got is that people are

(12:11):
gonna start you know, putting stuff, putting their options.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Out there earlier, but having those feelers out yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah. And another name that didn't have their contract we
knew was Carlito, who I would say is in a
similar vote as Our Truth, but not nearly as beloved.
I say that people didn't like him, but like, honestly,
I felt like he's fortunately even had the run that
he had, Like he just kind of he didn't even
have to wrestle on TV that much. He just kind

(12:42):
of hung out in the judgment day locker room meat
in Apple playing video games. So and they don't do
live events as much as they used to, So how
much to Carlile will actually have to wrestle? Not often,
he would take some bumps him in there, But it
was a sweet gig for Carlito. So I'm you know,
you haven't seen Neil of the did the outrage for Carlito,
even though you did see Domastereo wearing a Carlito shirt

(13:05):
on television. I was kind of surprised that that that happened,
especially because there's reports that saying that WW didn't want
talent wearing Our Truth merchandise on TV, which.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Is funny if like they fired Donasterio for something like that,
whatever gonna happen to see, Like again, like is he
feeling a little big right now? You know, like he's like,
I'm pretty damn important to this company, so I'm gonna
do this, like I wonder, I wonder, and hey, all
the power too, man. Like maybe I don't think Carlito

(13:36):
it was a bad thing, uh, you know in this
vignettes or the promos, backstage or whatever, just his role
in the company, but that was another one that was
probably doing a lot behind the scenes to help the
younger talent. Obviously Donastereo and uh when he came back
two years ago, that pop you know in Puerto Rico
was crazy and they just never capitalized off it. Again,

(14:02):
that's not a TKO thing. It's like Vince has done
that plenty of times before. So I just think it
was a creative thing that they couldn't get past for
whatever reason. But again, this seemed to fit in pretty well.
I Mean, he he did what he was asked to
do on TV. He was entertaining in his moments, and

(14:22):
it's just like all right, Like he's a veteran that
I think is valuable, but not valuable enough for them
in the dollars and sense category. I was like, well, like,
but you need those guys, you need them, and you do.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
I think you do.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
I wonder who, like, who steps up now to assume
those roles. You would hope that a lot some of
the veterans there that do that. Obviously, the MIZ is
the first one I thought of, But who knows how
long he'll be there.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
The thing where our truth in Carlito is that our
truth was there for like fifteen years straight. Kledo was
he really really wasn't around this generation of guys that long,
where our truth was there since like oh nine, and
he saw probably this whole roster come through n XT
or FCW back then and go from you know, zero
to hero pretty much, you know what I'm saying. I'm

(15:12):
sure he's seen a lot of people come along with
Corledo where he was around for a while back into
two thousands, then he went away for a long time
and it only came back a couple of years ago.
So big gap in time there between his ten years
in WW. So that's why I feel like our truth
might you know again not being there obviously. So this
is just you know, outside this perspective, but Our Truth

(15:33):
has a deeper connection than let's say, a Carlito, which
I understand why they would let Carledo go. He really
doesn't contribute that much to television at this point other
than to take bumps for the Judgment Day. Our Truth
was a fixture on the show though. That's the thing
about Our Truth, like his own segments on the show,
and he would enhance certain groups. He enhanced the Judgment

(15:53):
Day in my opinion, like more than Carlito did. Our
Truth did. So I don't want to pick them two
against each other, but I just to me Artruth is
bigger loss for the company than Carlita. Another loss for
the company with Sarah Logan, whose contract will also not
be renewed, and reportedly there has been no talks yet,

(16:15):
no extension talks yet on Carrion Cross, who people have.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
Gotten right now on TV too.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah, he's got a role with this, but there's a
problem with that role, even though it's prominent with this
with Sammy's Ain and essentially what it looks like it
might turn Samy's Ain hill again, but it's the same
thing and they don't really expand upon it other than
him popping up backstage and telling people that they're eventually
gonna turn evil or something like that, like essentially what

(16:42):
he's gonna do. He's Devil's advocate, right, But it feels
like he's got some ground swellow support coming out of WrestleMania.
I know, you put out like a YouTube documentary. He's
done some interviews and I think he's expressed himself in
a way that has, you know, made him more relatable
to fans and more endearing the fans in some way,

(17:02):
but that that has not translated to WW television, And
if you're WWE and you're not really using them anyway,
I guess he's in the same boat as these other names.
Now from the fans standpoint, they're like, yo, like we
like him, he's you know, we want you to push him,
please do like we're telling you. But for some reason,

(17:23):
this a disconnect. I don't understand why there is one.
You would think that WW even that they say we
listened to the audience, But there's a segment of the fans,
at least a segment. It might be more than just
a segment of the fans who really want Carring Cross
to at least be more of a fixedture on television.
I don't know if they even want them to win
like world titles or anything like that, but at least
have like more consistent more more of a consistent presence

(17:45):
and even some matches here and there, like he.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Never wrestles, so like he wrestles av It was like, Okay,
that's not capitalizing on the moment where nah, there were
reports after that WrestleMania promo that he was starting some
heads in a good way and that he was prying
to get a good position on TV and whether you know,
we're it's at the beginning stages now and then eventually

(18:10):
he'll get matches on Raw, like I guess remains to
be seen, But like you got to capitalize all that
stuff when you have that. It's not like he's a
bad wrestler, you know, it's not like you're endangering anyone
by putting me in the ring, Like you can at
least showcase him that way, along with those backstage promos
and Devil's Advocate type deals, and he's a really good promo,

(18:33):
like he's the way he speaks, his cadence and everything,
like you believe him, And I think that's that goes
a long way, So go ahead, do more with him,
Just do more with him. I don't know, it's frustrating
to see. Like I think we all realize t k
O is not necessarily completely different than events in terms

(18:55):
of how creative is going to happen, Like if Triple
h is An had a creative maybe we'll have more
long term storytelling. But in terms of like pushing and talent,
it's always like a crapshoot. It feels like you have
your certain main event level stars that just don't move,

(19:15):
and then now you have, you know, guys like Broadbreaker
and Bronson Reed trying to get elevated a little bit.
Why why not someone like carrying across like our Truth
was there for so many good things. It could have
could have had, you know, like a little run here
with John's you know, like a trilogy or something like

(19:36):
that would have been interesting. I don't know, they could
have done a lot more with that. I like what
they did, but I just I don't know, man, it's
are they letting It's trip lates just kind of like,
I don't know, I don't have any thing for them, so,

(19:56):
you know, I mean, probably it makes that decision, but
it's like he loves carrying across. Right, that was one
of the guys signed right away after he was released.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
We thought like, I just I mean, that's.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
The thing where I'm just like, I don't know if
it's necessarily triple H.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Well it may not be, who knows who it is.
But right now they're looking at their books and going like, well,
we got certain talent who, especially if the contract is expiring,
are you using them triple H anytime soon? Well not really,
Well let's let them go. We got younger talent coming up.
We need to pay them. We need to make sure
that we get this fresh young talent on television and

(20:36):
not keep people around who were not necessarily using but
we're just keeping them around. Like from a business standpoint,
that makes no sense, like right, but like you said,
from a human standpoint, from a locker room morale standpoint,
it might make sense. For certain guys, Carrying cross is
not really a morale thing. It's just like, do you
like this guy? Do you do you actually want to

(20:58):
feature him in any way? Then actually do it? If not,
then yeah, let him go. And honestly, like if you
want to just relegate them to these backstage segments where
he's mostly up to I mean obviously up to no good,
but also mostly nothing. Let him go, let him try
to do, you know, try to catch on somewhere else, honestly,
but I feel like they should also just try to

(21:20):
use them too while you got him under contract, you know.
But we'll see how that goes. Somebody they signed up.
Speaking of young talents coming into WW on this specific case,
NXT is former ae W Women's World Champion Mariah May,
debuting in NXT this week. Did not say her name,

(21:42):
though she said, who am I the next NXT Women's
World champ or not world champion? We're a women's champion,
ha ha. So it sounds like we have a Ricky
Stark situation here, which Ricky Saints isn't a terrible name,
but it's not better than Ricky Starks, and my opinion
it's not, so I would rather they stuck with Ricky Starks.

(22:05):
Mariah May not a bad name, is they don't have
a bunch of Marias. It does got some alliteration. You
don't have a bunch of Marias running around w W,
So something like you have to change her name because
of that. There's another Mariah on the roster, so okay, cool,
that fits. But I feel like we're gonna get like Macy,

(22:25):
Mariah's her name or something like that, Like you don't
be surprised, like Mariah Macy something like that. Maybe it's
that maybe it's Mariah Macy not Mariah May because they
did keep Ricky and Ricky Starks. They just changed the
last name.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
And they would be crazy to change Mariah's the first name. First.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
I think so too. I think you keep Mariah. That's
the first name.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
It would be funny if it's like Mariah money.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Crazy.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
But really, like May is a it's a month. You know,
it's not something they need trademarks. Come on, come on,
let her keep it. Let her keep it.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
Well, we'll see.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
And she made their name in AW like as Mariah.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Bay, so they don't care about that, I know.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Coming off that hot feud with Tony, like you think, okay,
maybe they'll just let it be, but they never let
do that.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
And that's if they consider AW to even be like hot,
like of course they like her, so clearly they are
scouting talent in an AW. But they'll be like, yeah,
that was cool when all but like you're in Biger
leagues now kids. Well, I mean that's how they could
look at it. I don't care that way.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
Could but it's funny like AW has got better TV lately,
so I mean, it's that back and forth. You know,
it's never if both AW and w W are throwing
banger after banger TV show that only lasts for a
certain amount of time, you know, like one's always gonna

(23:56):
go up, one's always gonna go down. And now we're
at the point where I think aw's coming up a
lot with the products, and that's why why not just
you know, people know Mariah May from AW so at
this point, so Ricky starts, Hey, I do him from
nw A and he didn't appear at a W for

(24:19):
the longest time so that I could kind of buy.
But come on, let Mariah May keep Mariah May.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
We'll see. I have a feeling, yeah, I have a
feeling it won't happen as well, But.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Because Mariah Macy will give you some of the royalties.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
On that they won't. But but it just feels like
they didn't say her name intentionally because they're changing they're
in the process at least of changing it. They haven't
quite figured out the new name just yet, but once
they do, we'll know.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
And Marias Starks, Marias.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
That'd be man. Ricky starts sitting there like, really, bro
I got to be named after a football team.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
That's going to be terrible, right, But.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
Spencer Rattler as a quarterback or who's a Tyler Shook
Shook Man? That guy? Uh yeah, that did. I break
down a bunch of film. But I watched some of
his highlights at least, and he's done some wild interceptions.
Look at Tyler Shuk's interceptions from Kyler, some of the
throwers he's made. It's like, why what did he do?

(25:18):
That third round pick by the Saints. So we'll see
how it goes. We'll see how it goes with Mariah May. Right,
with Mariah May and former Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Uhah, Moore,
there you go, there you go, could be Mariah New Orleans.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Let's just do it. On a serious note, as far
as current day nonsense, we did have some serious news
drop but still significant. Nonetheless, back on May twenty eighth,
there was a new fouling that removed former ww executive
John Laura Nightis from Janelle Grant's sex trafficking law suit
against Vince McMahon or it was against ms McMahon and

(26:02):
w W and John Laurynightis, but now no longer against
John laurynias as and it's been dismissed with Presidents with prejudice,
which means they can't revisit the claims against Laura Nightis
in the future. But basically is that John Laynidis is
flipping on Vince McMahon for the second time. It feels like,
I feel like he said that he was also a

(26:23):
victim when the lawsuit first drop. He's like, I'm also
a victim of Vince McMahon. Then he sided with events like, no,
we're on the same team. Now you know she lied.
She lying. Now after I guess, you know, some more
investigating and some more evidence has been presented, he's like,
you know what, she ain't lying, y'all. I'm on her
side again. Vince, you evil, and I'm going to tell
everybody how evil you are. We'll see pretty much. It's

(26:49):
not to like make light of it, but it's just, yeah,
John lauryniis not probably not a great guy, right, doesn't
seem like it doesn't seem like it.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
But uh, yeah, that was kind of wild. I think
that dropped the day after we recorded our last episode,
So yeah, the first time we'll get to talk about
all this. And yeah, I mean almost like I was
kind of shocked when I heard that, almost like a
bob shot at me, and it's like, oh, okay, Like
now what's to come.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
The thing is you can just never bank on anything.
You just never know these situations.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
So they could get this out tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
We don't know, right. Also, I forgot that this happened
in May. It's June. Now, Happy Pride month, everybody.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, Happy Pride Month in June.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Man, the year has gone by so fast.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Well, we re recorded on a Tuesday. Last time is
an hour on a Friday, the weekend, so it's like
a little bit longer than in between the schedules.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
That's fair. But speaking of June, let's go back to
June twenty eighteen, a simpler time in our lives.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
We had had one thing to watch pretty much.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
Yeah, and the other alternative was still a part of
that one thing, U and that was NXT and on
this in this month and twenty eighteen, yet NXT Takeover
Chicago Part da Are you ready to dive deep into
NXT takeover Chicago too?

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Let's go.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
Pay now, physical and mental suffering and distress.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Look at the noun pain.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Scriminate coming for the weak and strong alike.

Speaker 4 (28:36):
The biggest wreck that Alistair Black has ever encountered. Lars
Sullivan out, Sullivant, Catchers, black mass.

Speaker 5 (28:45):
I don't believe it, Hym not gonna take everything that
you're worth, your fore.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
The change, the weapon of choice for the violin, the
depressive god.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Mars Women's Champion.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
It's dramatic folding of it and the signature homework of
the unhinged and deranged. Oh wow, I'm scared.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Woman's Championship. Pain is ever pervasive, at the root of
all conflict and discord, but ultimately pay leaves you with
a choice. You can either feeb it what.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
A brilliant effort ford I hy or.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
You can inflict it. Oh and once pain has been unleashed,
there is no control in the path of destructure. It
will leave in its way.

Speaker 6 (29:56):
You're not confided by that.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Wrestling, Johnny wrestling, I'm not.

Speaker 6 (30:00):
Coming to Chicago to wrestle, to beat the hell out
of you.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Oh man, Angry Johnny rest.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
Takes Super Dum Hearts and Soaps an X Team to
Not Pay takes Over Chicago Pain.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Let's go, Where's Chavo Guerrero when you need him?

Speaker 2 (30:19):
Oh? We can, we can make that up.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
There's Chavo? Where's cha Vito? Talking about pain and suffering
is all he needs? Right?

Speaker 6 (30:32):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (30:32):
You know what? I probably should have organized this better.
That's all right, because I can't find it.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
Well, that's fine, it's all right.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
We cant. I found it. There we go, Here we go,
Here we go, set that up, Set that up.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
Where's Chavo when we need him? With all this pain
is what I need? Pain and punishment, that's right, Not
pain and suffering. Pain and punishment is what Chavo needs wants,
that's for sure. I'm sure it was, but what we need.
We talked about Chivo last week on an Iron Claw episode,
by the way, because it's part of that production. But

(31:09):
we're here. NXC Takeover Chicago two took place on June sixteenth,
twenty eighteen. The show emanated from the All State Arena
in Rosemont, Illinois, you know, not Chicago but Rosemont, Illinois
as everybody likes to call it. But yeah, here we
are NXC takeover and we're where are we in twenty
eighteen where we're a day before the Money in the

(31:31):
Bank pay per view for the main roster. But this
was still when ww would pair up NXT shows alongside
main roster pay per views. But in twenty seventeen they
started doing it with non Big Four shows. Right they
were doing it in WrestleMania or Rumble a Survivor series
and even SummerSlam with NXT takeover Brooklyn. But then they
started doing it with Money in the Bank in twenty seventeen,

(31:52):
although they didn't backlash in twenty seventeen, that was the
first NXC takeover for Chicago. And now here we are
again with money in the bank. We talked about twenty
eighteen at around this time when we covered nxtt takeover
New Orleans. That was around WrestleMania, so we're still essentially
in that timeline. I don't know what new we have
to talk about since NXT takeover New Orleans other than

(32:14):
the Eagles won the Super Bowl. After that, oh no,
before that. Actually, I think we got our rings on
this time. Actually not to say that, but I don't
know why I mentioned that again, But I'm just thinking
about that, that date looks familiar. Oh we got our rings,
not won the super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
But we also have a Patreon a special of you
talking about that night as well.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Oh go check it out in the archives and the
Patreon archives if you will. But what is the main
event of NXT Takeover Chicago two? Not for the championship? No, no, no, no, no no.
It is a Chicago street fight, just a good old
fashioned grudge match between Johnny Gargano and Tomaso Champa if

(32:56):
you recall from New Orleans, Gargano beach at Champa right,
and an understated ancient match to spot right and now
he said, throwing more caution to the win. And it's
taking part in the Chicago street fight. But where is
the NX Championship. It is around the ways of Alistair Black.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
And who is he defending against? This is his first
title defense, I believe, maybe a second, I don't know.
But who is he defending against? Is it Adam Cole?

Speaker 6 (33:27):
Now?

Speaker 1 (33:28):
Is it Ricochet no velveteen dream? Right? No, it's Lars Sullivan.
No wonder, this wasn't the main event.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
And let's see how I think I have the match times?
It was one of the second shortest match of.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
The night, and there's a reason for that. I'm sure, yes.
But before we get into the rest of the show,
before we get into our thoughts on the show, let's
get into our patrons thoughts on the show. Chris Johnson
here again with another Patreon request, Chris, take it away
with your thoughts on NXT Takeover Chicago two.

Speaker 7 (34:09):
What's going on a straight shooters is shoot pore? Chris
Johnson back again giving you buys my thoughts on a
deep diver about to go into for NXT Takeover Chicago too.
My match of the night was Ricochet versus the Velveteen Dream.
Velveteen Dream came out of the ringst with some Hulkogan
like a tire. Also had some like Prince Puma light
gear on his tights, going back to Ricochet's days and
Lucha Underground when he was Prince Puma. Some great exchanges
early on. Velveteen Dream was matching Ricochet's high flying offense

(34:32):
early on suicide dive and a Fostbury flop combination onto
the Velveteen Dream to the outside from Ricochet trying to
change the moment a little bit. Then Velveteen Dream take
over with a death valley bomb from the top rope
onto Ricochet of the ring. Velveteen Dream later on with
then souplex ricochet from the top rope off the apron
to the floor. Looked like that was really really painful.
Big big spot in that match. Velveteen Dream would then

(34:54):
block an attempted shooting star press with Ricochet flying nearly
halfway across the ring, and then Velvet Dream trying to
go a coast curse with the Purple Rainmaker right after
that elbow and he missed. Ricochet ended up winning the
match with a six thirty splash to the back of
the velvetean teen Dream banger of a match, one of
the best matches during this time in NXT. My honorable
mention for a Match of the Night would have to

(35:14):
go to the main event of the night, which was
Johnny Gargano and to Monscow Champa and a street fight
in Chicago street Fight. Early on in the match, Gargano
would toss Champa into Nigel McGuinness and we would have
Gargano with a crossbody off of the hockey stick boards
in the crowd onto Champa. Gargano was then later on
sent into the still steps with a chair around his
head and neck by Champa. Project Champa and then a

(35:36):
running knee with the trash can lid assisting got a
near fall for Champa. We would then have an air
raid crash onto the steps by Champa onto Gargano to
the outside for a near fall. Gargano's neck was focused
on by Champera during the match, and Gargana would also
focus on champa surgically repaired right knee. Champa took off
Gargano's wedding ring later on in the match, spat on
it and threw it, which led to Gargano hitting Champa

(35:57):
with ariid crash off of some looks like some k
through two tables to the floor. Champa was then carted
out on a stretcher, but Gargano stopped that, took him
back to the ring, handcuffed to Champa's hands behind his back,
hit him with six super kicks. Champa would then win
the match with his hands still cuffed by his back.
D D Team garganell onto the exposed wood of the ring.
Really really good match, great way to close out the show.

(36:18):
My worst match of the night would have to be
the NXT Championship match between Alistair Black and Large Sullivan.
The match was slow, of course no Lars Sullivan, being
the big strong guy, had his offense going. These two
look like the same. They had little to no chemistry involved.
Alistair Black retained the title after hitting multiple Black masses.
Nothing really much to write home about. It was a
match wasn't really good. Like I said, there was really
no chemistry. If I had to pick a hidden gym

(36:39):
from the show, I'd probably go Shanna Beazer or Nicki Cross.
The NXT Women shatle not really because of the action.
The mattion was decent. It was a solid match, but
the psychological part of the match where Nicki Cross was
playing mind games with Shana early on, making Shanna having
Shanna like what the heck is this woman doing?

Speaker 3 (36:53):
Like?

Speaker 7 (36:53):
What's going on? How do I combat this? And some
random thoughts from this show. We had see the tag
team title match to open show with only Lurk and
Danny Burch against Undisputed Air represented by Kylo rolland Roger Strong.
That was a really really good opener, a lot of
good tack, good tag team action, very physical, hard hitting match.
Lorkin hit a double blockbuster on the Undisputed era. They
got the one with the high low attack. We had

(37:14):
EC three, Kyrie sing N and Keith Lee and the
crowd during the show. My favorite non wrestling happening from
the match was during the main event, the Chicago Street Fight,
where there was a fan in the crowd. He had
a sign that said hey, Johnny Tait used this sign
and then the sign was opened up by Gargano, which
exposed a stop sign that he used on Champa during
the match. In my opinion, this was one of the
best takeovers of all time, probably top ten in my opinion,

(37:34):
top ten, top fifteen, very very good show, Straight Shooters.
I appreciate you guys allowing me back on the greatest
wrestling podcast out today. Keep doing your think up in Philly.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
Stay cool.

Speaker 7 (37:41):
I know it's summertime. Pretty sure it's hot up there.
It's hot as you know what down here. Catch you
guys soon, Poosh.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Thanks again to Chris Johnson for your patronage. We always
appreciate it, and thanks for your thoughts which I think
we all disagree on something, at least I will. I
can't speak for Nick, but I disagreed with you on
a couple of those selections you made. But if you
want to be like Chris Johnson, head on over to
patreon dot com slash Shooters Radio. You can put it
in a requests. We shall fulfill that request and you

(38:10):
can be like Chris make cameo right here on the
straight Shooters. Again, Patreon dot com slash Shooters Radio doesn't
have to be a wrestling pay per view neither, or
like a takeover from NXT, could be a movie, be
a television show. But again Patreon dot com slash Shooters Radio.
On the car for NXT Takeover Chicago too, is Nigel

(38:33):
mcguinnis Pertie Watson and Vic Joseph? What what you doing here?
What she supposed to be on two or five Live?

Speaker 2 (38:42):
What happened?

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Well he was, but Mari Ronalo was not there, and
I'm not sure why he wasn't there. Okay, well that
makes sense. They said he was on assignment. Uh so
on the call now, is Vic Joseph in his place?

Speaker 2 (38:56):
And he's still there? The yes, he guy.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
He is the permanent voice of NXT now, alongside with
Book of t which I think they've made for a
pretty good team on NXT. But I did miss Marl
Ronaldo on this show. I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yeah, I like Tomorrow in that next team man, I.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
Did as well. I thought he added a sports like
voice to the presentation, where I think Vic Joseph has
gotten better since, but at this time he was very
much trained in a w W style and didn't really
add a lot besides telling me what happened. You know,

(39:35):
Wemorrow will brings some He adds a little gravitized to
the tune in the production.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
You tune in the middle of the show, you know
it's Maro Ronalo. You tune into the middle of this show,
You're like, who the hell is that?

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Who's this guy? Who's that Vic? Who his name is?

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Vict? Sometimes that's a good thing, but I mean, for
for wrestling, sometimes you kind of want that flavor a
little bit, and I think you don't want the monotony
of a guy that sounds the same as everybody else.
But that was events then.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Yep, yep. But let's get into our format here. We
have our match of the night, worst match of the night,
top non wrestling happening, worst non wrestling happening, hidden gyms
in or out of the ring, or and I should say,
random thoughts on the show. Think about NXT shows that
they're only two and a half hours and they're usually

(40:26):
full of wrestling, So I don't know if I have
a bunch of non wrestling happenings. But let's start off
with that match of the night, Nick, what is your
match of the Knight from NXT Takeover Chicago's two?

Speaker 2 (40:38):
One acceptable answer for this, that's the main event, I
would agree that's Chicago street fight between Johnny Gargotto and
Tomaso Champa. So many great spots. I have a list here. Okay,
Gargetto with the stop sign like a homage to ECW.
That was you know, I I kind of hate some

(41:02):
stuff like that, but obviously Paul Haman's in WW, so
it's not like they're copying from somebody else at another company.
And I was like, Oh, that's cool. That's a cool callback.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
And can I say something real quick though, You don't
do you need to hide a weapon in a street fight.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
It's fight. You just got in the crowd. Pop. It
was clear, like just the way it was corny the
way it happened. But I was like, Oh, they're doing
the ECW thing the same way WCW did with Raven
and his in his matches, they had like stop sign
and everything, and uh, you know, it just made me

(41:38):
laugh and I was like, oh, that's cool, but yeah,
in a street fight, I don't know if you necessarily
needed to use my sign and yeah, I don't think
it's like that, but a cool little ECW tribute there.
And then right after that, Garganos dived from the sands
to Choppa. I thought that was a crazy landing that

(41:59):
was like almost went too far and this I think
he landed with his legs mainly on Champa. So uh,
hopefully his upper body didn't get to messed up after
that dive, but that was on the pure concrete and
he went into some chairs too, so but thankfully he

(42:19):
got up. And later on in the match was Chompa
wrapping a chair around Garganto's head throwing it into the
steel steps against the ring Apron oh Man.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
And Gargano, by the way, was selling a neck injury
that was caused by Tomasso Champa, so that was part
of the whole deal. Percy Watson, by the way, who's
not a medical professional, was like, you see the you
see his arm shaking, that means he's got nerve damage.
It's like, okay, doctor Watson. I didn't know that he's
just yelling stuff out like that on television, but okay,

(42:51):
I'd buy it.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
I'd buy it.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
Nerve damage and damage to the truspezius muscles and sure
and so you know all that stuff that uh Gorilla
monsign needs to stay.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Back in the day, I enjoyed the spot where, well the.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Spots you got did on it.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Oh man, I got a lot uh Choppa with the
trash can over his head and Garganta was super kicking it.
I thought that was funny, just Choppa's reaction, like, oh
my god, like a super kick whatever, Uh Chapa ripping
the canvas up. That's and and the padding is when
I went from sitting back in my chair to that

(43:30):
meme that now I'm I'm on the edge of my seat.
Garganto performing an air raid crash off chompa off onto
a production crates like through two tables.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
With no padding underneath.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
By the way, right, yeah, I noticed that too. I
was like, oh yeah, it looked rough, uh Choppa doing
the stretcher job. But that that was after he took
out Garganta's ring off. So Gargan was like staring at
his hand. It's like, where's my ring? I'm not letting
getting I'm not finished with you around. After Chapa brought

(44:05):
it back to the ring and the stretcher, all the
officials trying to stop them, I was like, oh, this
is great. I love the Cargato Chompa matches, man Like,
they were just incredible and this one just felt like
another they added to what they did in New Orleans
for me. After that, you know, Garganto's attacking officials, fending

(44:26):
them off. Choppa's in the ring like gotten hammered by
Gargano who handcuffed them. That's crazy. There's no referee, Like,
what the hell, where's another ref But again whatever, Cargato
beating up the officials, Uh, coming back in ready to

(44:48):
climb back in the ring where the padding was taken away,
the canvas was ripped off the mat and Choppa, with
his hands cuffed ddts him right down into the plywood.
What a freaking finish.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
Incredible.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
That was one of my favorite matt. I will rewatch
that eighty million times in my life, no lie, yeah,
eighty million.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Eighty million exactly, dude.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Just like the way. So if you want Chappa to
win that right, because Gargatta won the last one. How
do you get to where like, oh, there's no way
Johnny can lose this, he can't scuff Choppa Chopa is
savvy enough to grab Johnny as he's ready to get
back in the ring, ddt him on the plywood and
pin him. That's brilliant, dude.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
I wrote. It was brilliantly creative. Uh and the fans
was stunned. They did not see that.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yes, I said, uh, tak her losing a WrestleMania thirty
vibes damn.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, obviously that's the highest level of
shock ever in the wrestling show. But like for something
that's not quite high at stakes, like for a takeover
for sure, one of the more shocking finishes NXT history.
And like I said, just creatively done. Man, A good
way to get Chomp of the wind without really making

(46:14):
Gargana look bad in the end. One thing about that plywood, though,
I want more people to see what the ring looks
like underneath the mat, because all you see the mat,
you're like, oh, it's got springs in it and it's cushions.
You know there are right, but they probably have an
immensely more respect, an immense amount more respect for the

(46:36):
performers because they say that they fall in this flimsy
piece of foam padding that's being that's covering thick wooden planks.
That's what they're falling on. The little foam piece of
nothing that ain't nothing, it's nothing barely stops my fall.
Like that's that's pretty nuts. I'm sure that's somebody's first
time seeing it. Or again, I just want more fans

(46:58):
to see that, more people to see, like, this is
what they're falling on.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
That is what Stone called Steve Wolson fell on when
he got a stinger summer ninety seven.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
You know, yeah, like this is what they do. This
is what they go through. Can you do that? Can
you jump off of a ladder and fall on that?
I don't think you can just bounce back up after
that like they do. You've been in the hospital for
two weeks.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
And the quickness of it, it's like you have to
be perfect to be able not to get hurt on
stuff like that. The quickness. Choppa had to grab Gargano
and do the DDT to where you like you see
it happening, but like you can't process it. That nowadays,
like everything is so especially on the main roster, even
in twenty eighteen, it's like things are slow enough to

(47:40):
where the viewer can process what they're about to see.
And it's like even when Gargano grabbed him or when
Choppa grabbed him for the DDT, like I hadn't process
that Johnny Gargano is about to get ddt'd all this
finely wood, you know, like it's just the pace. It's

(48:01):
just incredible. In this era of NXT, all the matches
are so quick compared to what we saw in the
main roster, And that's part of the allure of when
we watch these matches and how good they are, is
how crisp they are. You know, there's not very many botches,
there's not very many mess ups, and everything is like

(48:22):
slowed down today because safety is paramount, right, And I'm
not saying like being hot, fast paced is bad for
your safety. You just got to be in tune with
one another. And I don't think there was anybody in
tune more in this stage right now. And maybe Kyle
O'Reilly and you know, the Undisputed era, but Johnny Gargatto
and Tamatsu Champa, I don't think had equals at this

(48:45):
point in NXT in terms of being able to go
out there and create a match that looks as real
as possible. You know, like how quick it was, how
everything they did to each other, you know, it was like, honestly,
think is Triple H's magnum opus. Like, I don't think
he's going to do better what he what he did

(49:06):
with the Gargatto chomping feud in NXT.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
And even Cody and Roman reigns pretty good.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
Almost it was good. But I mean I'm talking like
match quality and stuff quality, not even not even close.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Okay, Okay, well I do agree it was the best
match on this night for sure.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
Chris is honorable mention.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Honorable mention. Yeah, I was gonna say honorable mention is
Chris's favorite match. Lcachet versus velveteen Dream.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
The video package that they had before the match was
so damn good.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
And the thing is, it's hard, it's tough to watch
the velveteen Dream stuff because of the allegations against him,
which he's demanded an apology for. He's come out and
said I got this.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
You know, I was wrong and.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
They shouldn't have done this. Shouldn't have done that. I
don't know what happened. You know, he's he's still denying
those allegations to this day. What I do know is
that back in twenty eighteen, we all thought he was
gonna be the next big thing in wrestling. And the
line of the video when he goes when when you
talked about I think he lost a match of some sort,
and then Ricochet, Yeah, like this happened and he sucked

(50:11):
at it, and Dreaming goes, Dream has no memory of that?
Like that was like German. I forget what Ricochet was
talking about, but the Dream has no memory of that
was classic. And then the moment of Ricochet doing the
front flip in front of Velveteen Dream, velveteen Dream Job
being on the floor was like, man, that was good.

(50:33):
That was good stuff.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
Man.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
The match itself was dope. I did like Dream coming
out was Coogan for some reason. I don't know why.
It was kind of fun, uh and said Dream still
over look take his stuff and use it against stuff
and use it.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Yeah. I get like that wasn't gonna remember Hall, We'll
remember velveteen Dream with it.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
That's just like, you know, play it. I don't know
it was. It was good for what it was, cuping
his year and stuff like that, and the fans at
the time we're eating it up. Okay, although interaction with
Tayleb Braxton before he got in the top turn buckle
was kind of odd, but a lot of fun moments
in the match. The spot that that stuck out to
me was when velveteen Dreams Too plexed Ricochet on from

(51:17):
the ape and to the floor. But that was nuts.
I did like them using each other's moves a lot.
I thought that was good, and Ricochet hitting at six
thirty across Dreams Back was insane, So.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
That was how did Dreams Back up break?

Speaker 1 (51:32):
I don't know, you know, man, they'd two really good athletes,
you know, twenty eighteen, really good athletesche still going. I
haven't seen Patrick Clark wrestle in years, so I can't
speak to what he's like in the ring in twenty
twenty five. But in twenty eighteen, both of these guys
were at the peak of the game and seemingly the
future of NXT and maybe WWE. Obviously, Ricochet had his

(51:54):
chance and the main roster it didn't go that well,
or at least it didn't go as well as we
all thought it would, right, and where Velveteen Dream never
got his chance, and maybe that was his own doing,
Maybe that was his own fault. Who knows, But what
we do know is that he's not there, and but
the potential was there back in twenty eighteen. It was
on full display in this match, and this was my
honorable mention for best Match of the night.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yeah, he's also one of my honorable mentions. I actually
have two, oh too, Okay, I gotta say that. I'll
talk about the Ricochet velveteen Dream match, the Rolling Dream
rolling away as Ricochet was getting ready for like the
shooting star press and then suddenly not being able to
move further. Well, I'm just going to jump further, but

(52:41):
being able to get his knees up really literally at
the last second. I was like, oh, Ricochet's going to
hit this, and not even thinking like I haven't seen
this match, you know. Since then, you know, I don't
go rewatch that XT takeovers. I just don't except for
this pod, and I should because these takeovers are amazing.
But yeah, I was like, he rolled away, but then

(53:04):
he's like struggling to roll more, struggling to move. I
was like, well, good, come on, like, what sense does
that make? But then getting the knees up as Ricochet
does the shooting Star press was incredible, just like an
incredible spot that I thought was hilarious. I actually laughed
after that because I just didn't expect it. I just
didn't expect it, and I thought it was really really funny.

(53:25):
That was my favorite moment of that match, or you know, favorite, Yeah,
I guess moment fits. But my honorable mention, my number
one honorable mention Undisputed Era versus Danny person Onny Lorkin
was tag team match. It was an incredible tag team

(53:48):
match that ending with Kyle O'Reilly kicking. I think it
was Birch right, I think uh Lorcan had him in
like a mission.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
And yeah, so was let me I looked through my
notes here, Uh yeah, Lorcan had Roderick Strong in an
ankle lock. Yeah, Danny Birch had Kyle Raley and like
a cross face, and Kyl Raley kind of rolls himself
into a position where he's in front of Lorcan and
he just kick up into Lorcan's face.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
Because he was and it wasn't working right right, and.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
But they were trying to break the hole somehow, and
then he finally got him and that forced Lorcan to
break the ankle lock, which I guess helped both both
of them. But yeah, that was a that was a
wild and creative way to get out of that spot.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
Dude. I was like, raw the FLOORA really, I was like,
I forgot about that spot, Like that's amazing, that's great work.
The pace of this match again fast, it's not like
a slow plotting match, and uh, great talent involved. And
you had that kind of face off towards the end
of the match where they just face each other and

(54:55):
start wailing on each other before the big ending. I
thought that was kind of funny. Usually not I'm a
fan of those types of like the face off. I
think it's way overused, but I liked it here because
just I thought the tag team match was tremendous throwback
to how tag team matches used to open WWF pay
per views back at like the diets and stuff like that.

(55:17):
I was just like that XT did that a lot.
Triple As did that a lot a n XT like
tag tape openers and stuff, and I thought it was great.
I just yeah, it's an honorable mention. For sure, it's
not to me, it's not a hitting gem because I
just first match of the car and I don't it's
on a list because that's how good it is.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
I have it as a hitting gym because if you
look back at this show, what match you're going to
talk about? Probably you probably going to talk about the
Chicago Street Fight, and you're probably going to talk about
the Velveteen Dream Riucachet match. Third in that list would
be probably this match. But that's still third amongst an
NXC takeover from twenty eighteen. I wasn't even the WrestleMania

(55:57):
weekend show, so yes, I forgot this match even happened.
So it's a hidden gym for me because I forgot
that only Lorkin and Danny Birch got a tag title
match on a Takeover, Like I completely forgot about that.
So hidden for me for sure, But still a great
match nonetheless, because I always liked Danny Birch and only

(56:17):
working because they weren't necessarily over, but then you see
them wrestle in the Ring's like, okay, I like these guys,
like I like how they work. Also loved that Adam
Cole was so over at this point that he got
ejected and the fans booed when he got ejective. Referee
ejections are never booed, like everybody loves Zoe's I love him.
Probably my favorite spot in wrestling when the referee does

(56:39):
get big dramatic and you're out out here and the
wrestler is always like, what, how good you? I did
nothing wrong? Oh my god. It's the same thing every time,
and it's hilarious every time. I never get tired of it.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
He literally said, I didn't do anything like we saw
you do it, Adam.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
He saw you do it. You literally walked up to
I think he pulled Kyler Riley out of the ring.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
You didn't necessarily high didn't even put his foot on
the rope, you put it out of the r You didn't.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
Like pull your hand up from underneath the ring. You
just casually walked up and yanked your man's out. So
the referee was well within the rights to eject Adam Cole.
I was thinking, like, man, they should eject him at
this point, like that's crazy, and fortunately they did. Fans
didn't like it, though, did they love Adam Cole just
that much?

Speaker 2 (57:25):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (57:25):
And that flurry at the end you're talking about where
they're kind of going back and forth. I said that
it looked like they like it was mostly Kyler Riley
and Roderick Stong just putting together the tandem offense, and
it felt like they hit somebody with like a twelve
hit combo of Mortal Kombat or something like they destroyed
I forget who it was, but they annihilated them and
picked up the wind. So h yeah, but that was

(57:46):
my hidden gym. So I just something had to be
hitting on the show, and this is a match that
I forgot even happened, so it's hidden for me.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
It's good. That's a good way to put it for
your end. But yeah, I think those three matches could
have been a match well nothing touches good organtto Choppa,
but I think rikochhet oves Dream and that tag matcher
like one B for me.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
All Right, that's fair, that's fair. What was your worst
match of the night though? NXT takeover Chicago.

Speaker 2 (58:20):
Sorry to say, as you know, I love NXT and
I love this era, but uh, their World Champion bookings
weren't you know, the hottest around here. Alistair Black and
Lars Sullivan not didn't hate Lars Sullivan, I thought, but
he had a great wrestling look. I thought it wasn't

(58:41):
like he was some slow plotting monster either, Like he
he could move and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
I agree, but he has his own controversy surmunding him too.
But yeah, yeah, but yeah, I agree with you. I
thought Lars Sullivan for what he was was okay in
the ring. He was fine for what he did.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
But it's just when you're on a show with these
types of matches, right, it's just tough to measure up.
Something's got to be the worst one. So I agree
with you on that. I had another one kind of
like a tie here, But it's not because it was
a bad match necessarily on the card. It's just that, like,
not everything could be the thirty five minute Chicago street

(59:18):
Fight or the Ricochet velveteen Dream or even that tag
team match to open the show. So but I agree
with you as far as just being one of the
worst matches of the night. The other one I had
was the NXT Women's title match. And I don't want
to say that because I like Shanna Basler, I like
Niki Cross a lot, like both of them a lot,
But I just thought this match was just it was

(59:38):
just kind of there. The best part to me was
the finish, honestly, with Shana Basler is choking out Nicki
Cross and she's just screaming with this primal rage and
Nicky Cross as sleep. She don't even she don't even
tap out. She just goes to sleep and then wakes
up smiling like she had the best sleep she had
in years, Like she just fell asleep on a sleep

(59:59):
number mattress something bro and it spells like, I guess
if you're a person like Nicki Cross, Like a character
like Niki Cross doesn't strike me as a person that
gets a lot of sleep, So it probably was the
first sleep she had in years, that that character. So
but yeah, that match itself though, it was just it's
only nine minutes too, like it it was the shortest
match in the show. They clearly didn't dedicate a ton

(01:00:21):
of time and resources to it, and you know they
weren't fully behind it, you can just tell. And I
think the match suffered for that. So unfortunate.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
I thought, given the fact that it was short, it
was kind of hidden for me.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
But was it a gem though?

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
That's see, that's the thing it's hidden, but it's got
to also be a gem. See.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
I liked it. I liked the ending, like you said,
But I also I love I'm a sucker for those
trap them in the apron and the ring apron and
beat the daylights out of them spot like. I love
that we had that with Nicky and Shane. I love
Shana's champion during this time, no nonsense stuff, which you know.
She was another release not.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
So long ago, don't. Of all the releases, I don't
this one that still perplexes me the most.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
I just can't under ununderstandable to me. But is that word.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Maybe incomprehensible. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
No, I want to be funny with it. Comprehensible actual word,
that's fair.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
But but yeah, I'm with you. I don't get it either.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
But I like to me it was a hit and Jim,
because I didn't expect much from it going in, and
I was pleasantly entertained by it. Also, maybe I shouldn't
have been because the women's matches weren't that bad. In
this era of NXC. You didn't have Charlotte anymore, Sasha,
Becky Bailey, they were all on the main roster, but
you still have like Ember Moon, you know, like uh,

(01:01:51):
you know Scott, you know Sharai, I should say, you
know they they were just OSCA obviously like killing it
in the NXT Women's division. So I mean, I I
it's a gem for me. It's a hit and gem
for me, mainly because it was so short.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
Well, I will say going back to the Alista Black
lost Ellivan match, the finish of that match was also
kind of cool because it looked like Alista Black smooth
kick loars Elevan's head off, like kicked.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
His hit, totally bested it before that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
I'm sure, yeah, that's why he did it again in
that time. He got all of it because you can
see the top of Larst Sullivan's head.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Goes oh off, clean off.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
He showed it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
So yeah, a lot enough juice in that n XT
title match for me, not at all either.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
It was just not at all.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
I didn't even feel like it. It's hard to not
be entertained watching a takeover, but that was about as
close as I got.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
The problem was that Alistall Black, who's over and gonna
be wrong. He's a guy, but he's very brooding and
like you know, dark and mysterious and they put him
against Lars Sullivan. He's also pretty brooding and not really
dark and mysterious, but like not just a whole lot
of not a whole lot to him, not a whole
lot of pizzazz to him. He's come out in trunks.

(01:03:14):
He's got no hair on top of his head's got
a beard, but like trunks, pretty generic music, which I
kind of liked, but like no frills right and Alistair
Black has a little more frills with his entrance, but
still very brooding character. I think Alista Black works better
with someone who is more bright, vibrant and colorful, which
could be his opposite and they could play off each

(01:03:34):
other with this matchup. I just in the ring, it
wasn't bad, but just like creatively, it wasn't great. It
wasn't entertaining or enthralling television to watch. So but yeah,
that was the Those are the worst matches of the night.
What was your top non wrestling happening from NXT Takeover
for Chicago?

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
Good sir, it would be this.

Speaker 4 (01:04:03):
JNA Wrestling loses, wrestling is gone for good.

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
Finally, that's my moments.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
This un sanctioned match begins, You're selfish. He is one
of the most dangerous superstar.

Speaker 5 (01:04:22):
Scared Tony Garganda right now, Scared Garcano going to the
fight of this life here, what gets to Nasa Champa?
Mars Chap say, how is Darcando staying left in this match?

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
Grcano has the clutching his posession.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
What is the why is he stopping? Fair right?

Speaker 4 (01:04:48):
And Tonty Arcando down will get to celebrate with his
loving life. Candace Lay. They have been put through hell
by Tomasso Champa. That is all now behind them.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
No what I ain't take over New Orleans.

Speaker 6 (01:05:04):
I remembered exactly who Johnny Wrestling is and I was
ready to move forward. For too long, I was defined
by two words, Tomaso Champa. My dream since day one

(01:05:24):
is to beat the NXT champion Alistair Black. I am
challenging you, and I knew once I beat you, I
could do it.

Speaker 7 (01:05:35):
I was leaving full sale as the new NXT champion.

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
Oh my god, what the hell?

Speaker 4 (01:05:46):
Tomasa Champaka, give me your.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
Fairy tale world?

Speaker 3 (01:05:53):
He actually believed I wasn't coming back.

Speaker 6 (01:05:57):
God, Tomaso Champa had different lads. Someone needs to stopped,
just like in Chicago, Shy Wrestling is.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
When well, my husband's future may be uncertain, you will
know that Johnny Gargano was better than you.

Speaker 3 (01:06:24):
That that boy you call a husband, Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
That boy you call a husband, it is you made me.
You put her in harm's way. You live with them.

Speaker 3 (01:06:49):
This thing was personal since day one. But you brought
Candace into this a street ight.

Speaker 6 (01:06:54):
Done with us?

Speaker 5 (01:06:55):
Be done.

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
She's tired of it.

Speaker 5 (01:06:58):
Man at for Johnny Gargano versus Tomato Champer Too in a.

Speaker 6 (01:07:05):
Straight fight, take over Chicago, going back to where this
thing first started.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
We're not confined by that wrestling ring.

Speaker 7 (01:07:12):
Johnny wrestling.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
I'm not coming to Chicago to wrestle.

Speaker 6 (01:07:15):
I'm coming to beat the hell out of you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
Johnny. Got angry Johnny again? But whoa?

Speaker 6 (01:07:23):
When go till mom till dad? Tell life, tell.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
Them all to stay home games.

Speaker 5 (01:07:30):
You're gonna get ugly.

Speaker 6 (01:07:31):
Last time we were in Chicago, I left in an angulance,
and I'm gonna make sure you leave the same exact way.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
Oh I still at the crutch.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
Oh man kick his Oh that's a word?

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
An next seed brou Oh my god, no rules. This
is the best few in NXTD history. Are none NXD history,
Women's Men's Yeah team best fute this guy, I gotta
be right, and we're not even close to being doun
yet there's like smack dab in the middle. So just

(01:08:19):
and I thought it was incredible this time, and I
think it got even better at some point, like it
gets too long for sure, But man, again, two Champa
surgeries didn't help matters either, but you know, when they
were both healthy wrestling, I don't think there was anything
better in wrestling, man, Just this feud had so many

(01:08:44):
little things that made sense. It's like it made sense.
It's not just a thrown together thing and not worried
about anything. This is obviously the long term storytelling. And
we didn't get on the main rosters, so maybe that's
why I love it so much. But it was just
the best thing in wrestling at this time for me.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
I agree with you, and this is one of the
best feuds in NXT history, But I'm trying to go
through my brain and think about if there's one that
might be better, and I'm struggling right now, to be
honest with you, I think Sasha Banks and Bailey deserves
recognition for that for some of that, but it might
be right. It definitely went the longest, right, like, especially

(01:09:26):
because like you said, Chompa got hurt a couple of times,
but man, uh yeah, you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
Might be right. They team back together. It was like
Gargano is just doing it to get Choppa close so
he can turn on him again. I like that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
Wild stuff happened and wild stuff, but I did like,
obviously it's a great feud, and this was the best
match on this night for sure, top non wrestling happening
that was yours mine. I didn't really have one as much,
not nearly as dramatic as that one. But I'll go
with Keith Lee being in the stands were this show
this wild?

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
I thought he was there like already, so it was like, right,
we're made twenty eighteen and I was like, wait, he
hasn't wrestle there yet.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
And they showed EC three as well, which is like
he was in a card for the last show and
now he's in the stands again. But yeah, this was
They don't do this anymore. I don't think they don't
do they show wrestlers in the stands and NXT show.

Speaker 2 (01:10:20):
Still, I don't think.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
I don't think so they just come out at like
on like NXT, like they would have showed Mariah may
And at a takeover or Riocky Starks at a takeover,
but instead they pop up on NXT television, so I
guess they don't because that's how they would do it
back in the day. But it also just made them
look like normal people too, when they would just sit
the minute crowd and like, hey, Keith, what are you here?

(01:10:44):
Who's that Mariah may she gets a spotlight, you know,
in the arena saying thing with Vickey Saints, I should say,
you know, made them look like bigger deals. I didn't
really have a worse non wrestling happening. I'm not sure
if you had one.

Speaker 2 (01:10:59):
I did. It was something that you actually liked, which
is pretty funny.

Speaker 1 (01:11:03):
Oh, the Velveteen Dream with Hulk Hogan stuff, I don't
know why I didn't hate it, like you know how
I mean on it. That just I don't know. I
just it was kind of funny to me.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
I don't know why, the outfit, but then also mimicking
his poses and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
I was just like, but it also could be making
a mockery of.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
Him, It's true, but also velveteen Dream, you know, like
It's not like he's some great guy.

Speaker 1 (01:11:27):
I mean, we don't you know that was part of it,
but that that could be.

Speaker 2 (01:11:30):
It was like a bad guy making mimicking another worst guy.
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Well, his his trans resgressions or alleged transgressions could be
separate from his feelings on Hulk Hogan, if he has any.
I don't know what his feelings are.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
But where the boa you know, the way the shirt
was cut, Dreams Still Over I think was what was
one of that shirt which.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
I thought was good? Like, I don't know that was
like he came off talking like Haul Coogan said, Hulk
Hogan is his idol, you know, crazy thing just made
fun of Hull Coogan.

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
That's true. Chris made a good observation that he was
like his tights were more like a Prince Puma type
thing for.

Speaker 1 (01:12:09):
Like, oh, I was looking at his tights too, and
like why did they look like that? They look familiar?
Oh wait that good?

Speaker 6 (01:12:16):
Good?

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
Like that?

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
Yeah, that's really hilarious actually, and I didn't notice, like
who those are unique and like I feel like I've
seen them before. That's why I've seen him. Was on
Lucia Underground from Prince Puma. Thank you for that, Chris.

Speaker 2 (01:12:29):
Yeah, yeah, he mentioned that. So, but the the Hulk
thing kind of like took over for me a little bit.
I was like, but I didn't know why the crowd
loved it, because at this point I thought people were
just over Hulk. But I was obviously wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
I mean, look, I think a lot of people's feelings
about Hull Coogan and well documented. I just saw a
clip again where seth Rollins is on I think Kay
Adamson Show and he's ripping on Hull Cogan and it's like,
it's we all, we're on the same side here. But
I did think this is kind of funny. Yeah, and
I didn't even realize the Prince Puma tight, so.

Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
It's also cool. It's also tough to pick a worse
not wrestling happening for the NXT show.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
Especially at this time. Yeah, this time they kept it simple,
straight to the matches, get in and get out.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
You said there were like two and a half hours
at max, so it was lovely.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Yeah, it was a lovely time. Fact lovely time. Let's
go to some random thoughts. I had a couple off
top again. This was the night before Money in the Bank.
Do you know who won money in the bank in twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
Eighteen, twenty eighteen, twenty eighteen, twenty eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:13:42):
I had to look it at myself. Brother, don't don't
be don't be don't don't be ashamed.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
By I'm assuming both men's and women's at this point, right, yes, because.

Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
I think the women's one started in twenty seventeen. I
think twenty seventeen was the first.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
I remember we were talking about it on the pod,
so it had a twenty sixteen or seventeen, but the
women's uh, well, I know Nia Jacks versus Rondo was
the women's title match, right, yep, yep. So trying to
remember it was.

Speaker 1 (01:14:15):
Not easy. Oh really, it's not. I mean it's you'll
know the names, but it's not like it's going to
just come to you. Because it didn't come to me neither.
I had to look it up, bro, like it's twenty eighteen. No,
it's twenty eighteen. This is kind of like part of
a dark time and main roster time. So as much
as it was like a good time in the next tar,

(01:14:37):
it was a rough time in the main roster. We
talked about that for like WrestleMania this year and how
bad WrestleMania was in New Orleans that year.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
Bliss. It was Alexa Bliss because she'do at some point, right.

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
She did that night, I believe, I think it was
the same night, but not inside.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
I promise I should have put a camera up, but
I didn't. Do you know who won for the men
twenty eighteen?

Speaker 1 (01:15:04):
This one surprised me. I didn't know that this happened, but.

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
He didn't know what happened twenty eighteen, trying to.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
Remember Alexa Blisses because she did cash in.

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
Roman was so it was Brock Roman. What been?

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
I don't know if you would get it man, No, no, no,
that was twenty twenty one when yeah, or at least
twenty twenty you know, twenty one when he won money
in the bank or something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
So no, who was it?

Speaker 1 (01:15:29):
It was Bronze Stroman, who did not cash in in
a sneaky way. He called his shot like we talked
about on the roundtable. He challenged Roman reigns and lost,
but he told the Roman reigns ahead of time. I
guess Bronz Stroman was still as I think, so I don't. Yeah,

(01:15:50):
I mean, look again, forgetable time period, but I do
remember that he called a shot ahead of time and
lost to Roman Reigns lost the Big Dog, the Big Dog.

Speaker 2 (01:16:00):
Some people need to do that, just call it ahead
of time. Be like I understand the you know, in wrestling,
it's like win the title. But it's like you can
also market around that, and you know, you have enough
premium live events now to where you can be like
I'm cashing it in at Saturday Night's Maine men or whatever.
You know, Like I think more people should do that,
especially when you have two every year, you know, Like

(01:16:22):
I think at least one of them should always be
in advance because I don't think you need to that
are sneaky.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
Yeah, I don't. I don't think so neat. I don't
think you need to even like walking around around the
same time, Like it just feels like there's a lot
going on and you have to.

Speaker 2 (01:16:37):
Which is why I had mentioned on the roundtable, I
wouldn't be adverse to, you know, doing the men's one
year than the women's the next year, just alteredate that way,
you only have one to worry about. But you know,
if it's used for a plot device or whatever, I
guess that's one thing, but it doesn't really seem that
they are much lately. You know, it doesn't really move storylines.

(01:17:00):
It's just kind of like give it to somebody until
we're ready to make something happen. Lance might not be
in advance, is you know, as for someone that would
likely be a world champion, you would think it would
be well in advanced, but money in the bank kind
of changes out a little bit.

Speaker 6 (01:17:17):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:17:17):
We'll see how they executed this year with twenty twenty
five my last or not since they last. I got
another one after this. But another note that I have
from this show is that there are some interesting dark
matches on this show. We have Bianco but Layer beating
Dakota Kai in a dark match.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
On this show. They take those for NXT.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
Right I believe? So yeah, I think they did ads
on NXT like the next week or something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:17:45):
It was funny because it's like, hey, that looks familiar, right, But.

Speaker 1 (01:17:49):
They were dark as far as this show right right.
Another one was the war Raiders, not the Viking Experience
or the Viking Raiders that Vince would eventually call them.
They are the war Raiders now and again, uh, they
defeated the Mighty Do you remember the Mighty or a
ka the Mighty don't kneel.

Speaker 2 (01:18:07):
The Mighty don't kneel like you. But I don't remember
who it was.

Speaker 1 (01:18:11):
Nick Miller and Shane Thorn.

Speaker 2 (01:18:14):
Did not draft then you probably did.

Speaker 1 (01:18:18):
He probably did.

Speaker 2 (01:18:20):
Thorn. I definitely see what we see.

Speaker 1 (01:18:22):
What we did in that draft. We should another draft too,
by the way, we should do that again. It's been
a while obviously before cod wait wait, well before covid
uh one half of that team though, Shane Thorne, I
don't know if if you remember this, but he kind
of hung around w W longer. I think the Nick
Miller did, and he was a single for a while,

(01:18:42):
and eventually they gave him a crocodile hunter gimmick because
he was Australian see and mc mahon's no, this is
Maine roster. He got a couple of dark matches on
the main roster. I was actually in the building Goods
for a SmackDown tape and they did in Philly like
some time in twenty twenty one, and I was actually

(01:19:03):
in the building, got to see him work that gimmick
in person, and it was as bad as it sounds.
Bro his brother looked lost out there as the crocodile
hunter Bro, the Crocodile Dundee type guy. It just like
this is where we are now. Come on, Bro, you're
giving him a job, You're giving him an occupation. He
is Australian and that's his gimmick. And he was released

(01:19:26):
soon after because yeah, so I'm one of the few
wrestling fans like I can say they were in the
building that night when they saw Shane Thorne try to
be Crocodile Dundee as a gimmick. I don't think it
aired on television. It may have, and maybe I don't remember,
so if you're out there listening, you can correct me
if I'm wrong. But I think this was a couple

(01:19:49):
of dark matches and wish you the best in your
future endeavors type deal. And my last none or last
random thought I should say is it's funny given where
we are today in pro wrestling, because remember this is
pre ae W we are, man, I think a year
away from AW. I think later this year. AW is

(01:20:12):
announced as a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:20:13):
It was in January twenty nineteen, so the official press
conference happened right, but.

Speaker 1 (01:20:18):
We started hearing rumors and reports about it like late
twenty eighteen, because eventually they did the first ever I
guess all in.

Speaker 2 (01:20:24):
All In was in the summer, right it was.

Speaker 1 (01:20:27):
It was around September, I think.

Speaker 2 (01:20:28):
Okay, I think it was the show like the end
of August. Yeah, yeah, right, So.

Speaker 1 (01:20:34):
The first ever all in happened later this year, and
that was a huge deal, right, Remember how crazy that was?
Ten thousand people, like for non WWE.

Speaker 2 (01:20:41):
It's funny because I didn't care that much of it,
and it's like I kind of missed out on that
hype because it was seriously.

Speaker 1 (01:20:48):
Man, it was such a crazy thing. Because again, now
it's like we're what's seven years later, it almost seems
like it's not that big of a deal. But back
then it was a huge deal for another promotion to
be running an arena, a promotion not named WW to
be running a basketball or hockey arena. So this is
the times that we're in. So because of that, the

(01:21:09):
theme song for this pay per view was a Fozzi song,
not a not an a W show, but a w
W show with Fozzi. Their song Painless, not Judas Painless,
was the theme song for this show. Of course, Fozzi,
their front man, is the first ever ae W WARLD

(01:21:29):
Tavyweight Champion, the O Show or is he the Web now?
Is he in? I think he's a nine time world champions.
So the Nueve Chris Jericho, So those are my random.

Speaker 2 (01:21:45):
And I was just like, oh, like they're because Jericho
wasn't on and all In was he the first one?

Speaker 1 (01:21:51):
No, he wasn't involved with them until a W started.
I think Jericho is kind of I don't even know
if he was even in w W at this point.
I know, I don't think it is the last WrestleMania
matchic twenty seventeen, but I don't think he was working
with WW at all outside of this little you know
deal here. Wait, they did the song for the show,
but so yeah, he didn't work with AW until AW
officially became a thing, so he was not at all in.

(01:22:13):
So yeah, interesting stuff, interesting times we were living in
back in twenty eighteen. You have any random.

Speaker 2 (01:22:20):
Thoughts, I just had two that I, you know, commented
on earlier. But yeah, Martin Ronaldo not being on an
NXT show kind of lowered it a bit for me.
But thankfully the action kind of took over this particular
show to where the commentary wasn't something I was paying
attention to that much just because I love mar Ronaldo.

(01:22:41):
I know, like eventually he started wearing on some people.
They didn't like a style or whatever, they didn't think
it was good for wrestling. I'd never had a problem
with it. I thought he was great on SmackDown, much
less NXT, much more NXT. I should say, I just
missed him on this night. I could just imagine some
of the calls he would have during garganttle chopping man,

(01:23:01):
like yeah, just like incredible, just an incredible matchup. Might
watch it again this weekend just because I forget how
good it is.

Speaker 1 (01:23:09):
You know what's funny is I remember the people complaining
about Marronalo's I don't know if he's good for wrestling.
And now WW is viewed so far away from wrestling
presentation and commentary where they have Joe Testitour calling matches
on SmackDown, like you think about that. I don't know
if people really understand that because you just see Joe

(01:23:29):
Testatur and wrestling is like the ESPN guy. Joe Testatur
is called Monday Night Football like he's legit as as
it gets in the prime time Saturday night college football
games for ESPN for years. I think he still don't
do on the Saturday night games or the big time
Saturday games for college football for ESPN. He's calling UFL

(01:23:50):
games now. I think he does that the weekend before
Raw or the day after SmackDown. He's at a UFL
stadium calling those games. You know, I watching the game,
so I hear his voice.

Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
You would definitely know that, right.

Speaker 1 (01:24:00):
So But yeah, like so to think that, you know,
now people at least I haven't seen any you know,
acrimony towards Joe Testitour. But to think that Marl Ronalo
was getting he is, like he's perfect for for wrestling.
If anything, he's a combat sports guy who loved wrestling,
so he called combat sports and he liked wrestling. To me,
he was the perfect marriage, whereas other people didn't like.

(01:24:21):
Remember add non Verk was calling Raw. He didn't fit.
That's a guy who didn't fit. Joe Testatour he's still
getting it. I think I think he's got a potential
and I think he will get better with time. But
like again, these are not like wrestling guys that they've
brought in. Joe Testatur is as legit as it gets
as far as sporting sports and stuff like that. So

(01:24:42):
it's really interesting how that has changed over time. Where
mar Ronalo wasn't didn't fit wrestling, but now Joe Testatour
is calling SmackDown and was calling raw for a little bit,
he's calling dirty down matches. It's just it's just wild
because again I've watched Joe Testatur call col those football
games for years, and then he had a little maybe

(01:25:03):
a season or two as a head guy for Monday
Night Football. I vividly remember for some reason when we
beat I was working for the Eagles and we beat
the Giants in overtime and money on Monday Night Football,
and it was an ugly game, and it's probably an
ugly season. It's like one of those Carson win seasons.
And I think we were like nine to seven or
something like that. But yeah, I remember we beat the

(01:25:24):
Giants and overtime though with like an overtime window to
zach Ertz. So I'm pretty sure Carson through the ball
because zach Ertz got it. And I remember watching that
highlight back and Joe Tessitur's call is on that play.
So I don't know why I have these specific memories,
but I find it interesting. No, in hindsight that now

(01:25:44):
it's nobody complaints where I feel like Marronalo was the
truth for wrestling. I thought he was really made to
be a wrestling play by play, but other people saw
that differently for some reason. But you have another random
thought before we wrap it up.

Speaker 2 (01:26:02):
I'm ready three two one, Yeah, I had you know.
I love Tomorrow Cam. I don't know. I guess people
just thought he was like too into it. I don't know,
but in twenty eighteen, like I loved anything that broke
up the monotony of the main roster crap that we
were watching, you know, every week, and even on ples,

(01:26:27):
Like it wasn't like as terrible as twenty nineteen, I
don't think, but it was still like pretty bad in
twenty eighteen, but it was just getting worse at that time,
I do. I also mentioned the pace of Garganto chopping match.
I just think, like the pace of NXT matches and

(01:26:48):
this is like all of them on this card is
like every week on TV. It was like literally watching
the indies, you know, like back then I was I
was watching different indies all the time, and I was like, man,
they moved so quick. You know, it was like the
ww style slows you down and tries to, you know,
make these moves look as safe as possible. But again

(01:27:12):
that's when people can mess up, you know, if they're
too careful, then they get nervous and then they might
botch something. But a lot of the fast pacedness I
loved because I'm like, man, like, this is hardcore wrestling
from like ECW. Yeah, like they had some these hardcore matches,
but then they would have great wrestling matches that were

(01:27:34):
stuff we didn't see on WCW or WWF at the time,
you know, ninety five, and it just reminded me of
that time to where it's like NXTS, like where the
Big Boys play man, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:27:45):
Like that with the Big Boys play. Look at the noun.

Speaker 2 (01:27:50):
Where the uh just the pacing of the matches and
I'm like, how come this can't happen on the main roster?
And I was just one answer. It's one person, But
it's like, why why can't he just let them do
what they do?

Speaker 1 (01:28:06):
The thing is you say, that's the one person standing
in a in a way I'm assuming was Vince McMahon,
but he's gone. He's been gone, so why don't we
necessarily see this on the main roster now, I think
it's might see it in spurts, but we don't see
it across the board like we say on this show here,
like even for like a backlash or a Saturday Night's

(01:28:27):
main event, we don't see five bangers like this or
five let's just say five bangers, but like five quality
matches in multiple bangers.

Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
I guess Triple H bought in to whatever Vince's philosophy was,
is like just slovings down, man, just slow things down
and so and it's like everywhere in a W and
WW right now, it's whenever I see like spots that
are slow and plotting, I'm just like, I'm still like
I understand it, I'm accepting of it, but I still

(01:28:58):
have that reaction because it's like I want to see
some quickness, you know, Like I like Brett Hart matches
for nineteen ninety five and four three two one ninety
six ninety seven. They were quick, you know, like I
grew up in that. Its like Brett Hart one of
the best wrestlers ever, Like even Ultimate Warrior had quick matches.

(01:29:19):
You know. It's like as I like that, I guess
it's like what I when I can when it's slow
enough to what I can process on TV, like, oh,
this is going to happen. I don't like that, and
I know it's not for me. I know it's like
for the greater good. I'm sure it's like the casual

(01:29:40):
person watching or even maybe like a hardcore fan watching
and be like, oh, like, I know what's going to
happen next, and maybe they like that. Maybe maybe as
a fan watching, like you want to see it play
out that way. I like the quickness of a match,
people go in like one hundred miles an hour in
and out of the ring. I just love that. For
some reason, I have a soft spot for that and this,

(01:30:01):
like the NXC takeovers were huge for that. NXT in
general was huge for that. So whenever I watched these shows,
I'm just like, man, like, might be the last time
we see pace that quick? In pace shame wrestling again,
you know, Like I don't watch TNA. I don't know
if their matches are quick in the ring the way
NXT was in this era or not, or if they're

(01:30:23):
slow and plotting like they are on the main roster
now or in AW but you know it is what
it is.

Speaker 1 (01:30:33):
It is what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:30:35):
I like high paced action.

Speaker 1 (01:30:37):
I see, I can tell, I can tell. But it's
time to wrap it up here for episode four thirty two,
So Nick, take us out with some plugs please.

Speaker 2 (01:30:51):
You can follow me at Underscore picone on Twitter or
slash x and on TikTok. Follow my Philly sports and
wrestling content. Also at pocone on Blue Sky and pocone
Nick on threads I got a great viral thread going
on right now or viral video on TikTok as well.
The Brave's meltdown yesterday. They blew a ten to four

(01:31:15):
ninth inning lead and if you go to my TikTok
or any of my social media you could see how
that all sounded on Braves TV and radio. So it's
a fun it's a fun listen, so go check that out.
On my social media platforms, you can follow us at
shooters Radio on Twitter, slash x, also blue Sky, Instagram,

(01:31:38):
and threads at shooters Radio or on Facebook, Facebook dot com,
slash Shooters Radio and Shooterspod dot com. You can find
every platform we're on, includes Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Speaker Odyssey,
tune In Radio Amazon Music, Pandora. All the links to

(01:31:58):
those are at shooterpod dot com. Could also find this
podcast at the Wrestling Round Table at FOXPHR Gambler dot com.
Just go to the podcast tab click on the Wrestling
Roundtable you can see all roundtables. You can click on
Straight Shooters Podcasts see all our episodes there as well.

Speaker 1 (01:32:19):
All right, well, I am at Vaughn M. Johnson on X,
I am at Vaughn Johnson on Blue Sky. I'm at
Vaughan Johnson one sixty six on Instagram. You can follow
us on Patreon Patreon dot com slash Shooters Radio where
you can request a future deep dive and when you
request one, we will fulfill it and you can make
a cameo here on the show, just like you heard

(01:32:40):
Chris Johnson earlier. That could be you if you head
on over to Patreon dot com slash Shooters Radio. But
until next time for Nick pcone, I am Vaughn Johnson.
Thanks for listening to episode four thirty two of the
Straight Shooters and we'll catch you all again next week. Hey cleavage,
wake up the show on Oh Yeah, Jiggy

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