440: WWE SummerSlam '05 Deep Dive

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
What's up everyone out there, Internet Land, and welcome to
episode four forty four to four zero of the Straight
Shooters available wherever podcasts are found. My name is Vaughan Johnson,
and I'm joining us always by my main man Pots
and Pants, Nick Cocona, Fox, pH Other Gambler, and Philly Influencer.
And we have yet another fantastic show ahead of us

(00:33):
here on episode four to forty. It is a deep dive.
We're diving deep until a show that took place around
this time twenty years ago. Although we're past SummerSlam on
this current calendar, we weren't quite there yet in two
thousand and five. And that's what we're going to talk
about SummerSlam two thousand and five, which has a lot
going on with it, very worthy of a deep dive,

(00:57):
lot of good nuggets to talk about it with this show,
all right, with real life or relationships and storyline, custody
battles and ego trips, it's a lot. We're gonna talk
all about it though here on episode four forty. But
before I get into it, we get into anything else
regarding Summer Slam in two thousand and five, I gotta
do my weekly check on my man man pots and pants. Nick,

(01:19):
how are you doing on this lovely Sunday afternoon, My
good brother.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Let's get to cool off a little bit this week.
We're gonna be in the low eighties tomorrow as we
record this Tuesday Wednesday, so we get a little break
from the heat wave going on. And the Phillies are
also cooling down a little bit. And season's over go. Birds.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
We are in the middle of Eagles preseason. They did
lose to the Browns. What was that yesterday?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
I would have been kind of like worried if they won.
So I'm happy.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Preseason scores and outcomes mean zero. Okay, let me tell
you right now, mean yeero row all right? And they
And that goes for inside the building too.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
I think everybody forgets those starters basically played last preseason.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
And they don't.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Everyone's making a big deal about it this season because
I guess we're bored.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
They need rest, if anything, because they this season. They
played twenty one games last year. Sakwan Barkley played twenty
games last year. He missed one game one. He carried
the ball like three hundred plus times.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
He would have played that game.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Exactly, so you'd play. Almost played twenty one games last year.
That's a lot of work on all those guys. Look
at Landon dickinsonsert like, no, the starters don't need to play.
Outcomes don't matter. But the outcomes do matter in baseball
right now. And uh Zach Wheeler, oh boy, not the
workhorse of the of the starting rotation.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
It's the worst case scenario. And we all thought maybe
a month ago and his velocity started dipping, and it
was like, maybe he could just give him a rest,
because it's kind of happened every year at some point
during the summer where they shut him down for a
few weeks, and we were hoping, maybe this is the
time to do that. But it's a little more serious

(03:13):
than that. So it's, you know, at first and foremost,
hope he's okay as that upper extremity blood clot near
his right shoulder, getting further testing done tomorrow in Philadelphia.
Just hope he's okay. First and foremost, you know, I
want him to be healthy. And he has a family.
He just had a kid, you know, like it's and

(03:35):
he's got more than one with his wife, So I mean,
he's got a family to think about, and so first
and foremost, hope he's healthy for that. And but yeah,
it's Phillies were kind of going a little downward anyway,
the lulls of the season obviously, but without Zach Wheeler,
I'm not so sure how their playoff chances stay the

(03:57):
same or improve.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
That's tough. That's and then Duran was had to scare
people were like, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
And by the way, I'm a little annoyed at the
people that said others going overboard with it because you
wound up being like fine, And yesterday he said he
filled one hundred percent. If you're looking, if you're watching
the game, and he's not putting any weight on that
leg and he's getting a cart, Yeah, you're gonna freak.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Out anybody who gets carted off. You just assume it's serious.
Come on now, And in baseball, who gets carted off?
In baseball? It's not a contact sport.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
In Washington, National's hat cart hot dog looking crap like
that was just a cherry on the top.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
They're not even prepared. They got to pull him out,
and they got to cart him off in the bullpen
joint like in football because people get hurt every play,
so they have an actual like car. Baseball did not
prepared for that. So you see somebody get carted off
in baseball, it's like, oh wow, yeah, he must be
seriously injured. And then it's like I'm fine. It's like okay, yeah,
all right, good. You know, scared the daylights out of

(05:03):
me though.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, the manager said he said he felt okay enough
to walk, but they weren't taking any chances. So you know,
you can't blame fans for kind of going nuts Friday
night when that happened.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
I mean, that's that's the season. That's yeah, you mortgage
a little bit of the future to get this guy
so you can win this year. And then he he
looks like he's hurt this year.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
That's scary. It's like it's over. I mean when he
started not putting weight on it, I was like, I
didn't see the replay first, and I was like, oh,
I hope it's not an achilles, because that's what I
think all the time now when I see athletes limp
doesn't matter where you are football field, basketball court, baseball field,
and I'm just like, oh no, Achilles, oh no. But
you know they you know, we lucked out when it

(05:44):
comes to Duran. But then the next day we got
the Wheeler news and it's just kind of like another
so bring reality back to back. Damn.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Well, those are the ups and downs the.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Child and they're up six to nothing right now against
the Nationals on the Roku channel. Oh yeah, yeah, I
don't care about that because they they're not winning the series,
so the best they could do is tie, and that's
pretty bad when you come back and you're facing the
NL West or AL West leading Seattle Mariners. So if
they're not leading there around the top with the Astros,

(06:16):
they're a good team.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
And the big Dumper man, a big dumper as they
call them, I'm just.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Not Yeah, the vibes were good two weeks ago, a
week ago, and now they're just kind of like they
swept the Rangers last weekend. Man, that was the I
guess the peak of the season right there.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
I went on vacation and all hell broke loose.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah yeah, how was that?

Speaker 1 (06:40):
It was nice, nice to get away for a little bit,
nice to you know, recharge, and sometimes you have the
vacation from the vacation, bro spent a couple of days
doing nothing. So right, that's where I'm at now. But
I'm back and we're back here on episode four forty
no more vacation talk. And it was fun and it
was hot, but it was a good time. It was
a good time. But let's talk about current day nonsense. Well,

(07:02):
I should say that I don't have any to talk
about really because I was on vacation, so I really
didn't see a whole lot. I did see some things
though that you know, some things that we didn't get
a chance to talk about since my last recording, among
them being the new streaming deal that was struck between
WW and ESPN, the multi billion dollar deal where ESPN

(07:23):
would air I believe all of ww's pos starting in
twenty twenty six and will air a few on the
linear networks, either ESPN and maybe ABC. Like that would
be insane. But what were your thoughts ABC's championship television?
Was it championship television? On ABC? They do the thrill

(07:46):
of victory in the agony defeat and you can now
you see wrestling people doing that, Like that's insane. Worldwide worldwide,
the sports wide world of sports, that's what it's called,
wide world of sports. The war be a part of that.
That's insane. But what were your initial thoughts on the
on the deal being struck, and uh, you know, kind
of give me, give me a sense of the reaction

(08:06):
from fans, because I can imagine that it was there
was some uh hot takes being thrown out there for
sure social media.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
You get the incident up or were that oh change,
damn it, Yes, things are gonna change. And you know,
you're we're used to going to a Peacock watching you know,
live shows and old shows, especially for this podcast, and
it's been become easy just go to Peacock. It's actually
pretty easy when you have a cable box from Xfinity
where you know, the user experience isn't as bad as

(08:38):
it seemed to be years ago. It's easy to access.
And now people are like, how we get access this
or we're gonna have to buy and do thirty dollars
app per month.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
This is only for the United States, I believe, right
for like.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
International, yep, because they all the international ones I think
are already on Netflix. So people just assumed they were
going to go to NETFLI after their Peacock deal expired,
and I believe it's March twenty twenty six, but nope,
they're gonna go to a different platform. So it's not
even like, all right, well everything's gonna be on Netflix
in the US. Nope, Nope, We're gonna have to have

(09:14):
multiple things again. Yeah. Yeah, so that's annoying. And I
actually read yesterday, I don't know if it was necessarily
a report, it might have been from Sean Ross SAP that, uh,
there's a belief within WW that with their video library,
they could utilize, you know, their relationship with YouTube as

(09:35):
we've seen the last few months, especially one channel is
probably my favorite channel right now. But you know, listen,
if they don't charge anyone for their video library, like okay.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
But that's great. Yeah, honestly, that's a way for us.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah, if YouTube thing remains free, then yeah, upload fool.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Shows, upload fool shows, upload matches individually too. Like if
you weren't like, yeah, I'd be cool with that, Like
you said, not charging the extra have to go to
an extra platform like a peacock to uh, you know,
watch it, that'd be great.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah. So so I'm down with that. I don't know
if I'm gonna I don't know about the ESPN app yep,
I'm not going to Uh, I'm gonna see what the
deal is first. I don't think I necessarily need it
right now. I do have ESPN Plus. I don't know
how that's going to integrate into this other new ESPN app.
I know Hulu is gonna merge with well, not Hulu.

(10:28):
Hulu's gonna merge with something else.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Ye, Disney Plus is pretty much shutting down Hulu as
a standalone. Yeah, so I do why see you later, Hulu,
dam Yeah, But I.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Don't even know if that's related to the ESPN thing.
But I know you had the bundle of Disney Plus,
ESPN Plus and Hulu, so that's kind of put three
and three together. But you know, that might not have
anything to do with anything. But I just I don't
know if I'm gonna need it. I have cable, so
I'm one of the few, I guess and nowadays that

(10:58):
have cable. So I guess I'll see if I need
to have another service and see if it's feasible for
me to afford it. But if it's available in the
ESPN really any of their shows, I mean they still
have that deal with NBC Universal with you know, Saturday

(11:18):
Night's main event and maybe other.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
And as a part of the universe.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah, forgut about it on the US for some reason. So,
you know, and I think the techniquely basically on any platform,
and I think that's part of what their mo is
is just well, if we're not on this, then we'll
be over there, and if we're not over there, then
we'll be over there. You know, they're just kind of
spreading out a little bit.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah. I mean, when you spread it out like that,
you can get a billion dollars here and a billion
dollars there. You're gonna, you know, make more money doing
it that way. So from a business standpoint, it makes
total sense to do it that way. And that's how
the NFL does it, just follow their lead and all
the other sports leagues doing it the same way. They
have separate with each network. That adds up to and
now they kind of work it to where they kind

(12:05):
of work in symbiosis. So like we're going to give
Amazon on a Thursday night package, So ESPN you can't
have Thursday nights, all right, so you gotta get you
got to get Monday nights. Like you know, they kind
of work in concert together, but they're all separate deals
and that's how you get a billion dollars on Amazon
and a billion dollars from ESPN and a billion dollars
from NBC, you know, and and all of a sudden,
you got ten tens of billions of dollars from just

(12:27):
television revenue. So ww's following the same model. It's not
totally surprising. It was it was I remember when they
first split Raw and smack Down up in like twenty nineteen,
when they put SmackDown on Fox and kept Raw on USA.
It was like, to me, that was only the beginning.
But it was like a big deal because like they've
always paired up those shows, they never split them apart.

(12:48):
H And they've been doing it now for six years,
and so it makes sense to keep doing that. In
a way with our library could be over here, but
our pos could be separate. We don't have to keep
them together. So it makes sense from a business standpoint,
But I understand from the consumer standpoint it's like another
platform that I might have to subscribe to, especially here
in the States. If you're internationally you have to worry

(13:09):
about it, but here in the States, it's like if
you don't already subscribe to ESPN, Like I'm one of them,
I used to the happy ESPN Plus I got rid
of it a while ago. I've been using YouTube tv
for a while, so it's like, you know, you got
to manage to cost and you know in the return
on investment. I guess of each platform now because it's like,
you know, how much do you want to spend for

(13:30):
what you get and obviously and everything that goes with that.
So we'll see. Man, it's it's a lot that goes
into this type of stuff for people, you know, because
what if you're only using ESPN for WWE. You spend
thirty dollars a month to watch the pos right. You
know what if you're not that big of a sports fan,
because there are wrestling fans, you really don't watch sports

(13:51):
that often. They watch wrestling.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
That was when I was younger, wrestling was the only
thing that existed.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Right, So if you're if you're a wrestling fan but
not a sports fan, you're going to subscribe to this
whole app with I guess, like you said, maybe you
can bundle it with the Disney aspect of it, because
they are ESPN is owned by Disney, so maybe get
something from that aspect of it, but from the sports aspect.
If you're not a sports fan, there's nothing but sports there.
So if you don't want to watch you know, NBA

(14:22):
or ANHL on a random night or I don't know
if they're gonna have Sunday Night Baseball anymore on ESPN soon, right,
that's gonna go away, I.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Think, Yeah, I don't know if they're eventually gonna work
something out, but yeah, but like it's going to last.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
If you're not interested in Steven A. Smith twenty four
hours day and Pat McAfee twenty four hours a day
and Joe Buck and Troy Yikman on Monday nights, then
that's not for you. But you got the way to
you know, the cost of it, because like maybe you
resort to some other stuff. I don't know, not gonna
say they names and say they names the websites or
anything like that, but people do that, right, So it's

(15:00):
it'll be interesting to see how the consumer patterns changed
because of this, because it is a shift because now
for one platform, on Peacock, you get not only ww's library,
you also get the POS and you get all the
other content that Peacock has to offer. So even if
you're not a sports fan, if you're not a wrestling fan,
like I say, you don't you want to watch more
than wrestling. Let's say you like horror movies, Well, Peacock

(15:20):
has got a bunch of horror movies. Okay, So the costs,
you know, the return on investment is greater than let's
say that thirty dollars a month you're potentially paying or
whatever it is per year to have this very specific service,
you know, just sports. But from WW standpoint, it's a
decision you probably have to make because ESPN essentially legitimizes

(15:44):
you and a lot of people's eyes. Right. I remember
when Wrestling AR thirty one was happening and they covered
the brock Lessener contract extension on ESPN on Sports Center,
and I was like, wow, WWE is probably they've made it.
Right now, they're gonna be airing on ESPN all the time,
which means ESPN's gonna be talking about you. Look how

(16:04):
they treat the NFL in the NBA their two biggest
expenses as far as television rights. Right, they talk about
nothing but football and basketball twenty four to seven, Like first,
take get up Sports Center. That's what they cover the
most because they spend the most.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Money in the off season too.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, all the time. You watch the shows right now,
watch you watch first take right now, they're what they're
not talking about is baseball. Yeah, exactly, they're not talking
about baseball. They're not talking about the Yankees or the
Dodgers or the Phillies. Oh what the Philly is gonna
do without Zach Wheeler. They're not gonna talk about that.

(16:42):
I can get I didn't watch the show today. I
usually don't watch the show, but I can almost promise
you Zach Wheeler did not come up on first.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Take, because not on Sunday, No.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Not on what maybe not today, but he won't be
on Monday. They're gonna talk about Lebron. They're gonna talk
about the Cowboys.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
We'll talk about Luca's injury.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
They're throwing Luca, they're throwing. Yeah, they got to talk
to Luca, right he got hurt. They got to talk
about the Lakers. How does this affect the Lakers? How
does this affect Lebron? Like, how does this affect who's
the coach of the Lakers right now? J? J. Reddick?
Like yeah, oh my god. Then they got to talk
about the Cowboys because Michael Parson still isn't signed, and
that that that reality show is that out yet, the

(17:22):
Netflix show, which is like it just made. It's dawned
on me that like Jerry Jones doing all this to
promote this reality show. It's insane with your best player.
But that's what they talk about all the time because
they pay for it, imagine, And they've already done this.
But they will probably sprinkle in more WWE content on
ESPN now because they're gonna want you to buy that.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
P l e. They have Roman Reigns on, they have
John more than that.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, they might have a w W show.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
They might yeah, exactly, they.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Might have WW programming that's specifically about wrestling now. So
for and now, look, I know some people's eyes, ESPN
isn't nearly as legit as it used to be because
it's more entertainment now than it was before. And I
understand that. But the fact of the matter is ESPN
is still on in every bar pretty much indication, yeah,

(18:14):
and every barbershop and there.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
They have multiple channels, so it's like, yeah, it could
be ESPN too.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
It's just in every hotel lobby, in every doctor's office lobby,
they got like you know, you go at a certain time,
you might see the stories. They're soap operas and they'll
have first take on. It's just on.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Planet Fitness.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Come on a Jim without an ESPN on. They don't
play Lifetime ESPN gotta have ESPN on and it's just on.
It's just background. Yes, So just that alone puts you
in front of so many eyeballs across this country for sure,
So I get it. It's it could be a pain

(18:59):
in the you know, went for consumers, which they don't.
Who cares about them. They're gonna probably spend the money
anyway they're gonna they went. They went from ww network,
which is our own platform. They went from there to Peacock,
which some people hadn't even thought about Peacock before w
w uh went over there, Like I didn't. I don't
think I subscribed to Peacock before that. And I'm not
saying that Peacock was a bad app or anything like that.

(19:20):
Nobody was checking for It's just like, I'm sure there's
a lot of wrestling fans like I don't need Peacock.
I'm not getting Peacock. Oh wait, now I gotta get Peacock.
And now they will. They I'm sure they will travel
over to ESPN as well. I'm sure there's a big
chunk of the fan base that already subscribes to ESPN
or planned on plans on subscribing to it already because
they are sports fans. So it'll all work out.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
They all the NHL, you know. The only thing they
don't have is like basket NBA replays. But uh, you know,
I a lot of my clips from other teams come
from ESPN plus, so I'm using the service. You know,
I'm used to it, so I probably will stick with
it if I'm not getting every show on linear cable,

(20:09):
which I probably not. I don't think they're gonna put
every single show on ESPN channels on cable, but I.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Don't think so. I think that the bigger ones would
be on like ESPN or maybe even ABC, like we
said earlier, which would be that would be insane to
have and and damn unprecedented to have a major show
like that on network television, orn't even on cable or
even cable, which maybe maybe it'll be the opposite, Maybe

(20:37):
it'll be the lesser shows because the bigger shows, you
want people to pay for those, right UFC isn't given
away the biggest card on television right behind the page.
That's all you do, right, So maybe it'll be the opposite.
Maybe they'll use ESPN the network as the teaser for
you to pay, which that would be way more capitalistic

(20:58):
than the other way around. Right, that gonna make you
pay for backlash? You make you pay for WrestleMania. Who
would pay for backlash? You can get WrestleMania for free, right,
that'd be crazy. So yeah, it's interesting stuff. It's interesting
to see where it goes. I know, like you said earlier,
change and it's just like, yeah, I get it because
we just started getting used to this peacock stuff. Yeah,

(21:21):
and it's happening so soon. It's next year, like damn,
very little warning and depending on you know, how things
go economically in this country, man, it could really change
how people people's access to wrestling, which usually outside of
the pay per views is pretty easy, you know, if

(21:43):
you got cable, if you've got network television, but now
you got to have Netflix to watch Raw, you have
cable to watch SmackDown. But like the p's are I mean,
I guess we did live in a time where pay
per views are fifty dollars a month, Right, that wasn't
that long ago, So I guess it just sucks to
be kind of be back there again.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
And then they kind of still are if you if
you decide you want to order it on cable, which
I don't know how many people do that, but.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
That I can. I talk to you for a second.
Person out there still doing regular pay per view for anything,
like for outside of boxing, for a live sporting event,
what are we doing?

Speaker 2 (22:23):
What are we doing the Comcast channel for HD PPV
man five five o four.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
I can't do it, can't do it.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
It's like next event coming soon. I don't even know
why paper pay per view channels exist anymore.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
I mean, AW still on pay per view technically, yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
I mean like I don't hate it because you do
want to I guess reach out to any possible consumer.
But yeah, yeah, the A W pay per view is
going to be on uh, you know, Exfinity pay per view.
So let me see what was that, August, I just

(23:06):
missed it out here? Here? It is? How much does
it say? Yeah? Forty for Forbidden Door on Exfinity pay
per view HD. So I don't know if I don't
know if anything is not an HD anymore.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
But well yeah it shouldn't be geez because.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
The VA reviews were obviously we're more expensive on the
HD versions, so mhm.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
But yeah, speaking of AW, you should mention that, you
know before AW comes here in a week or so.
I think they started at twenty seventh. Oh yeah here
we got WW coming on tomorrow as we record this
for RAW, I man, I'm not going.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
To say will you be in attendance because I, out
of us two, I would have pegged you as the
one to be there because I will also not be there.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
I will not I honestly, I'm getting just getting back
on vacation. I need to be at work, just be
at work and have a good time. But I look
more power to everybody going. I hope you'll have a
good time, but I ain't gonna be there.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
But Johnson, Yeah, I ain't gonna be there, but.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
We do have a show coming, and with that show
here in Philly, we could be in uh witness to
an announcement, a game changing announcement from the w W
Women's World Champion Naomi Who. There's something Upwitter. We don't know,
we're probably gonna find out more here in Philly, But

(24:39):
there's a lot of speculation going on out there.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, she was supposed to defend that. I believe it
was supposed to be a championship matchup because EO Sky
last week, and all we got was she's not medically cleared,
and uh so, I mean that leaves the mind to
wander and uh yeah, you know, we we don't know.
There's nothing even out there right now. Oh, this is
the reason.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Nothing reported, nothing official, nothing like even substantial. It's just
a lot of He'll say.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
People think she'll make an announcement tomorrow because she is
advertised to appear on RAW tomorrow, And I just hope
it's a good reason, and I don't Yeah, I hope
it's not a bad reason.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Regardless. We hope it's good news, and we hope that
we hope that she's okay. At the end of the day,
it would I will miss her if she has to,
you know, go away for whatever reason. Yeah, I will
miss her.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
You said it.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
The run of her life, the run of her career
is happening right now, and who knows how long it's
gonna last. You know, you like to see it through
however long it's going to be but we'll see. We'll
see tomorrow night here in Philadelphia for Monday Night Raw.
And again, like I said earlier, we also got Aw's
residency coming up here the twenty three hundred arena, and

(25:58):
I guess I believe the twenty seventh.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Let me check that tape. Four weeks.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah, it's happened a lot. Let me see here it begins, yes,
August twenty seventh, so a little more so, it's about
ten days out.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
That'd be like Ring of Honor too, right.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yes, they're going to have episodes of Dynamite and Collision.
I want to do Death before Dishonor on Friday, September fifth,
but I'm pretty sure Collision comes with Ring of Honor tapings.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Right. Yeah, so red ropes, man, we love it so different.
Differentiate yourselves, damn it. Okay, hate watching wrestling today because
it looks the same.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah, I agree with you. I think it's I think
there's a lot of similarities and there's not enough uniqueness
between the products. I would agree with you in that,
whether it's colors, color scheme or something like that.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Yeah, baseball, it's not football. You don't need everything to
look the same.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
I agree with you on that.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Now six to three, Phillies are about to lose Aaron Nola.
Man oh Man, I said the Phillies about to lose this
the third inning, but they were up six to nothing.
Now six y three because they're tattooing Aaronola. Tell me
if you heard that one before one out, I've heard
a couple of times ridiculous, a couple of times forty

(27:14):
nine pitches. Well, what are we doing? Man? I thought
he was supposed to be back.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
He's back, He's in this This.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
Team pisses me off. Man, And I don't live tweet
crap anymore because people like I go over world or
purpose kind of like make people chuckle. Too many people
take it seriously, so I just kind of reserve it.
But I'm not like, oh geez, another hit. I'm not
like a doomer. But now six to four, this is
kind of it's gonna be six to five.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Oh no, you guys stop watching this game, dude.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
I gother a rou because I don't know how many
people are watching this crap.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, MLB, they be just popping up on random streaming
services now, and I'm sure these older Phillies fans are
not able to keep up. Man, baseball is America's past time.
There's some old fans who like baseball, and you got
to keep up with all the plot. You gotta keep
up with Apple TV, rocude and sometimes on NBC not
NBC Philly. Like then they playing on ESPN is like

(28:14):
not on an NBC. All of a sudden, it's like someone.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
It's funny because everyone's like, oh, they're on Apple TV Plus.
But now everyone loves that because the broadcast looks so
good compared it does, like camera, the cameras they use.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Man, oh man, that's man, that's what you. I guess
you get what you paid for. If you're paying for it,
the might as well be nicer, bro, come on, it
might as well be nicer than.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
Local radio call each team you know, like not but
that's fire Like Roku doesn't do that.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
You're trying to sell me on Apple TV Plus now
what you're doing, which I might have to. So when
they bring ted Laso back, I got to get Apple
tear back. I know they're gonna do a season four soon,
so yes, that's when I'll be back Apple TV.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
But I'm my last guy, nah.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Which I honestly still think I know they got a
lot of money for that, but I still think they
should have a local TV presence. Yeah, it's just not
that the league yet.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
This it's not like they're broadcast. There's MLS broadcasts don't
even look as good as the MLB ones, So it's like,
what are y'all doing?

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Like, come on, Yeah, I just feel like that the
local presence in this city hurts when they're not on
TV when there's so much stuff on TV here, there's
so much to watch and they're in Chester. But it's
not my not my deal. But are you ready to
shift gears, sir? To our deep dive.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Now? So? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (29:38):
Are you sure?

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Like I this is crazy? This is crazy. The Phillies
are done.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
I think they're done.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
They're done.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
You're saying it's official there.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
Their lineup sucks. They're pitching, can't be perfect forever. They're
pitching was their strength all season. They can't be perfect forever,
and Dave didn't want to improve the lineup. It makes
no sense. But every other team is mid so that
gives the Phillies a shot. Yeah, no chance. I don't

(30:13):
believe that crap. Everyone's like, oh, like other teams aren't
as good. Who cares. That's why you should be better.
So the reason to go all in if every other
team is mid like, it makes no sense.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Well, let's let's see.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
I know it takes two to tago right before.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Before we kind of move on here, let's let's just
give context of people who don't know. Okay, let's provide
some context. I think that's fair. Okay, the Phillies have
the second most wins in the National League today. They
are only behind the Milwaukee Brewers who are just running
away with the nl Central. They have seventy eight wins,

(30:50):
so afraid of them. But if the Phillies go deep,
you're probably making a trip to Milwaukee for the NLCS, right,
so pack your backs because they got an eight game
lead for that second most wins in the National League,
the same amount of wins as you're defending World champion
l A Dodgers. They also have a five game lead

(31:13):
in the division entering today, so you know, things could
be worse. Like I know that this could be the
beginning of the end, but there's still a lot of time. Yeah,

(31:33):
just just again, context, We got to provide the context
just for everybody knows. This is this is what Nick
is feeling when the Phillies have the second best record
in the National League and a five game lead over
the mighty supposedly mighty Mets in the NL East.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Who by the way, or at the Little League Classics,
So it's an apt location for them tonight. Damn well
that's well.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
See we see now? Now are you ready to dive
into summer slam? Oh five?

Speaker 2 (32:04):
I guess I could play the clip how I did
clip a little bit? So here we go.

Speaker 4 (32:12):
Your reign is.

Speaker 5 (32:14):
W w W champion is about to come to ann Sina.
You have no idea who you're dealing with. It's ain't
about being a superstar.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
It's saying about seven records of magazines and movies.

Speaker 5 (32:25):
It's about then.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Where I am going to tear you apart.

Speaker 6 (32:30):
It's your walk sound but Tom, but that up.

Speaker 5 (32:34):
The Undertaker is a legend.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
I'm the legend killer. Oh thank you Undertaker, Christina.

Speaker 5 (32:43):
I'm gonna knock you out.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Kid home.

Speaker 5 (32:45):
You're going to.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
Scary but you and I anything goes no polls part
I guarantee he will walk away the world anyweight champion,
wrestling god or a wrestling fraud.

Speaker 6 (33:04):
Ooh got him?

Speaker 5 (33:11):
Make you speak for your and you can say.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
Oh my god, No, Kurt was serious one away.

Speaker 5 (33:24):
I mean he's coming home with.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
This real fox, like this matter man, my dream of
a family, man measure as a man to meet in
any way.

Speaker 6 (33:37):
Oh lord, all right, what a.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Crazy mid two thousands le man.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
What a crazy bottle to you?

Speaker 1 (33:55):
You will never die?

Speaker 5 (33:57):
Yeah, out you've been.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Little because that's not true.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
But I mean technically, yeah.

Speaker 5 (34:03):
Twenty years ago. I'm here for each and every one
of these.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
Bride try to get everything every time I step out here.

Speaker 5 (34:11):
You I gotta find out. That's your immortality.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Man, one.

Speaker 5 (34:19):
Guess what you gotta come out do.

Speaker 7 (34:29):
What you gotta do?

Speaker 5 (34:30):
Your brother drive, You're one move.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
I'm your star. Snuff oh man, snuffed out and now
and now summers later.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
Oh how to keep that in? Because another pay per
view with no sponsor?

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Oh, no sponsorship.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Bro and SmackDown, get out.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
For Summer Slam. That's crazy crazy.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
The second highest by rates since ninety eight, I think,
or maybe the highest by rates is ninety eight.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
So it was a huge one.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
For sure.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
It was a big one. But SummerSlam. The eighteenth Annual
Summer Slam took place on August twenty first, two thousand
and five. That show emanated from what was then known
as the MCI Center in Washington, d C. It is
now known as the Capitol One Arena. We know little
something about arena names changing here because what was formerly
known as the Wells Fargo Center, what was known as

(35:34):
that for a long time. That might be the longest
name on the building, the Wells Fargo Center. It's probably
a whole generation of kids that's still known as the
Willis Fark that's always going to know what's the Wells
Fargo Center? Which is crazy because I remember the first
Union Center and Jaikovia Center, but Wells Fargo Center no more.
It is the Xfinity Mobile Arena now.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
Right, it's an arena and I hate it? Why do
you hate it? Centers is sounded cool like it was
always the Center and now it's an arena.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
Yeah, the arena.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Why couldn't it be the Exfinity Mobiles Center.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
They wanted to really shake it up. I guess man, They've.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Always been the Center, right course, State Center for City
and Center with Kovia Center, then Wells Fargo. Right, it
was after Via right, Yeah, I believe so.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
Like I said, West Fargo's around for why are we
doing I don't know. But Exfinity Mobile Arena now it's
where the Sixers and the Flyers play in Philly.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
That's where will be.

Speaker 8 (36:30):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
That's gonna be our the first real event right where
we see, like on TV, we're live from the Exfinity
Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. It's gonna be so.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Weird, it's jarring.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
We're gonna take the outside look at this, you know
arena like they always do, and you're gonna see the
Exfinity Mobile. That's gonna be all. This is weird because
I haven't been down there.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yet, and how wild is it as a w W event.
It's gonna be like the first major event that I
can think of at least that has happened in that building.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
That's how they opened up the Course State Center of
Mind Games, and six was the first big event at
the new arena.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
Somehow that happened twice. It's pretty crazy. But this night
in Washington, d C. There were allegedly eighteen, one hundred
and seventy six people there. This night, the show garnered,
according to Wrestlenomics, six hundred and forty thousand buys worldwide,
easily the second most of the year for WW behind WrestleMania,
and more than doubled the previous month of Great American

(37:26):
Bash and pretty much doubled year over year from last
year Summer Slam as well. So this man, this was
a big boom, big big poet out of nowhere. Yeah,
out of nowhere like two days four.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah, we've covered two thousand and five a little bit.
It was like the year transition, right, we got Sena
and Batista Mania twenty one that really uh, it was like, okay,
let's see how this goes. But yeah, I wouldn't have guested.
I wouldn't have guessed Hogan and Michaels would have been
like that. I guess fans would have been that interested

(37:58):
in it, because I remember me back then, I wasn't
I wasn't not interested, but I wasn't really interested. I
was just like, Okay, I.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
Guess you got to remember that Hogan was in the middle.
I'm pretty sure Hogan Those Best was on the air
in two thousand and five, and that gave him a
second like mainstream life, like almost right, like when did
that show start? I'm trying to look here. July tenth,
two thousand and five, so we're talking literally weeks after
that show debuted, and I'm sure they did a heavy

(38:27):
promotion for it. And again, Hawk Hogan was a huge name,
so maybe that helped. I don't know, I don't know. True,
that's true, Maybe that helped. He's also again huge star,
so you know that helps. But while our last Deep
Dive Summer Slam nineteen ninety eight was on the focus
on the Highway to Hell, this main event is focused
on the Highway to the first ever encounter between Hawk

(38:49):
Hogan and Sean Michaels, which proved to be I don't
know if you knew this. This was Halk Hogan's final
pay per view main event in WWE.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
He had a couple more matches here and there, but
no more pay per view main events.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
Well that's a shame.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
And what an ending it was.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
I'm not sure why it couldn't have been the middle
of the show, but.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
Hogan must pose at the end, man, come on, now
you know the rules by now you know the rules.
But this show is also famously known, maybe more famously
known as pretty much the n ring debut for Dirty
Down Mystereo. About that, and he was the subject of
a custody battle between his actual biological fathers, Raymond Stereo

(39:36):
and the father who stepped up, Eddie Guerrero.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
I can't wait to tell you who my dad thought
that was.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Oh man, oh man, Well, I can't wait to hear that. But,
like you mentioned, WW was in an interesting time as
is in the midst of a of a change. Like
you said, it's following through now on a heavy investment
into John Cena Batista, both of whom are defending the
respective title on this card and this card. Speaking of

(40:02):
this card, it also gets hella personal. It gets personal
because we got a match between Edge and Matt Hardy
where there's a lot. There's lots going on, there is
lots to talk about.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
The boy arguably was the hottest angle in w By.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
The way, I remember for so many reasons.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
I remember this timeframe, so, oh lord, it.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Was a lot going on. But yeah, since you remember
this timeframe, where were you in life in the summer
of two thousand and five?

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Well, I lied a little bit. I remember a little
bit of it. Not that much, no, I So I
was like on a semi sabbatical. I wasn't watching raw
every week. I think I was taping it here and there,
and I remember being at my friend's house storing a
Monday night. This is when I was like starting to
go out more like break out of my shell a

(40:51):
little bit. So I was like, oh, no, Monday, I'm
gonna miss RAW, but okay, whatever, Like I'm gonna hang
out with friends, Like we're not gonna watch They were
wrestling fans, so it's not like we're gonna go watch wrestling.
So I was over a friend's house and she had
a pool, so we were there were like five of us,
and we were like chilling at the pool in the pool,

(41:11):
and I remember so our cell phones didn't weren't as
you know, we weren't getting alerts or anything. We weren't
getting notifications. It was only a text message and phone calls.
That was basically.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
It for the kids out there.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yeah. Yeah, So I didn't know it was an episode
of RAW. I guess it was August. It might have
been July when Matt Hardy came back and attacked the
Edge and I hopped on my computer when I got home.
It might have been the next day or that night
and saying like Matt Hardy returned and attacked Edge or something,

(41:45):
and everyone was kind of like wondering if it was
a work or if it was real, because all the
camera was trying to stay away from Matt, so it
must have been real. He must have gotten in the
arena somehow and attacked Edge. Yeah, like the timing was
perfect that Edge was about to make his entrance and
from the backstage area and then Matt attacks him. Oh yeah,
like just perfect timing. So I remember thinking like, oh,

(42:09):
thank God, like vince rehired Matt because at that time
Matt was released. Obviously everyone knew about the Lada cheating
on Matt with Edge, and then they were together like
in real life and Matt. I think Matt at that
time was doing like the YouTube videos, I think, and
I wasn't like huge any YouTube back then, so I

(42:33):
didn't really like watch him that much. But it might
have been after that. I don't remember the exact timeline
of his YouTube videos, but I do remember like thinking
Matt got the short end of the stick. I was like,
you're you're firing a guy who got cheated on because
apparently he was hard to work with quote unquote, but yeah,

(42:53):
I mean, like that was the hottest thing in WW
at the time, despite Batista and Triple H having like
a pretty good feud. I would say Batista winning a
WrestleMania and then beating Triple Ah two other times, I
thought that was like a really big deal, but w
W apparently didn't, and maybe the number showed that. I
don't know, boy, they did not.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
They made yeah this night.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
They made John Cena the face of that, even though
I thought personally Batista was the face at w W
at the time, just based off the angle of heading
into WRESTLEMANI and everything. It just seemed like he was
the more important one. But obviously they thought Sina was,
and off he went. And I remember just no one
really caring that much about the World Champions. It was

(43:38):
more of like, alright, Matt Hardy an Edge like this
made event the show, you know, like people were going
that far because the real life implications of it, and
I remember being really hyped for that match.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
Really Edge and Matt go to main have been a
show with HAWLK Cogan on it. Haul Cogan would have
been personally offended to be on the undercart of Edge
Matt Hrdy in two thousand and five or at any
point of his career probably, But as far as me
in two thousand and five I was watching, I was
non sabbatical, but yeah, it was a weird time because
it was like stuff was okay, the matches were good,

(44:14):
but something was missing. I don't know what it was,
and maybe I should think about this Harder's more, it's
just like what was missing from w WW at this
time that didn't it didn't really have like that heat
that you would think it would have with seeing m
Batista pretty much in their prime, not to mention Randy
Orton blossom me until a star. So I don't know.
But I was getting ready for my first years of

(44:35):
varsity football. I remember that, and that's where I was
in two thousand and five. But as far as this show,
we started off with lending or cising in the national anthem.
Then we get the video package that you heard there
or earlier, I should say, and then we didna look
at the stage, which is a big semi circle pretty
much the same thing as it was in two thousand.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
Logo. I hate that logo.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
I don't love the logo either. The stage though I
thought it looked good, though I didn't. I didn't mind
the stage. I've seen worse. I thought it lit up
cool for certain people. I don't know why it didn't light
up kind of cool for everybody, like, but it it
looked cool and at its best, I thought it was like,
oh it's it's a it's a good looking stage. But oh, man,
I think Scena got the biggest best I've seen it seen.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
It was a great I don't know if you were
gonna say Hogan that like that wouldn't surprised me.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
They covered the whole thing up with the American flag
for Hogan, so you caldn't even see it really, but
seeing it, uh and uh, who else was? Man? I
can't try to remember Batista's Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I
include Batista in that too, the World Champs, you know, yeah,
they forgot his Pirates timed.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah, it's timed a little bit.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
They forgot his Pyro. But let's get into our format.
The categories for this show. Of course, we got match
at the night, we got worse match at the night,
We got a top non wrestling happening, we got a
worst non wrestling happening, hitting gems in or out of
the ring, best spot, worst spot, and some random thoughts.
So nick I shall go to you first, what was
your match of the night from SummerSlam two thousand and five.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
I kind of figured it would be this heading into it,
and I was proven right. I think Eddie and Ray,
despite it being only twenty one minutes, I believe still
a great match. It was like it didn't feel like
twenty one minutes. I felt like after like ten minutes
and I'm just guessing I didn't actually keep tying, but

(46:29):
it felt like a half hour into the match, almost
like there was so much action that they packed into this.
And it's probably hard to do when you know the
main story as a child and you know who's watching
and they keep cutting to him and it's just like,
oh my god, this poor kid. You know, back in
two thousand and five, there wasn't as much at least

(46:53):
I didn't pay attention to as much of the criticism
as like I go back to the Attitude and like
Phil Mushnick and most types, and I'm like, oh, they
just don't understand, like this isn't real, not really understand it,
because just because I didn't enact certain things that I
saw on Attitude raw WWFTV in real life doesn't mean

(47:16):
like other people didn't. So I remember, like when I
read criticism, I'm like that that doesn't happen. What are
they talking about? So I kind of felt the same
thing with storylines that we saw, you know, like Eugene here,
the dominic mysterio, custody battle, there was, uh, is there
something else? I don't know, maybe something else I'm playing.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
It was Mohammedan. There was a lot of things happening
in two thousand and five.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
At least, well, the funny thing about Mohammed a son,
I was like, it doesn't happen like he they're doing
him because he's acting like we're like those people, but
we're not. It's like totally totally, just everything over my
head because the way I went, like the daily life,
it was like no, like that's not how it is,
you know, and not understanding that my bubble was a bubble,

(48:04):
you know, it wasn't indicative of the entire world or
the entire country at that point. So I did, you know,
looking back, I'm like, yeah, I could see why this
would be controversial at this point, even in two thousand
and five, where it wasn't as much attitude era as
we saw like a ninety eight ninety nine and even
two thousand, but there were still things that it's like

(48:25):
really like it was maybe like one or two things
that you're like, why is this on that, like at
a time, like the Katie Vic thing was on that
that's far more I agree, But I'm like, it's it's
not like every single segment it's like attitude Era related.
It's like you have like your regular wrestling and then boo.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Like so I even include Matt Hardy and Edging there
because it was more about like the personal animosity between
the two because Lena cheated, but it wasn't. It wasn't.
I didn't feel like she was the focus, if that
makes sense, at least how I consumed the product at
the time, and even looking back, it was just like, well,

(49:07):
they were rivals to begin with, right, they were, you know,
the Hardy Boys resided Christian I mean, they were rivals
before that, so it kind of made sense for them
to now have more of a hate towards each other.
But I didn't. I don't know, I just didn't really
see it that way back then. Plus I was young,
you know, like my brain wasn't fully developed, so it's

(49:28):
just like a weird thing. So I know, I kind
of got sidetracked a little bit there. But the Eddie
and Ray match, the ladder match, some of the spots
they did off there. What this match might have the
best spot and the worst spot.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
But yeah, it's got some spots for sure.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
But just like Dominic coming in man and shaking the
ladder or trying to with it, like barely moving, and
I was just like, dude, this is hilarious.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Well let's let's let's break down this absurd storyline for one,
which I don't in hindsight, I don't find offensive, especially
because you know, the Hysterio family is still intact and
they were clearly on board with everything. Yeah, it's it
was it bizarre. Was not a Jerry Springer, Yeah, but
I think I mean, the match itself was good and
the fans were into it. But in storyline, in storyline,

(50:20):
Eddie Guerrero is dumbs biological father and Ray merely adopted him.
Which makes it even funnier now that Domastereo walks around
essentially looking like mid nineties Eddie Guerrero, right, and he
still does Eddie's moves. Love it, So just keep that

(50:40):
in mind. In storyline, Eddie was Dom's biological father, even
though they've w reck condact. But I don't think Dom
has let that go. That Mulla and Mustache says he
hasn't let go. But even though we know who again

(51:01):
Dom's biological father is, custody is still on the line
because Ray has raised him, he adopted and now Eddie
wants him back.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
And raised the wall that makes the challenge which is crazy.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
This is crazy, but I agree with this. I think
this is an underrated just ladder match on its own. Yeah,
there was some wonky moments Eddie and Ray just falling
off the ladders, Like just toppling off the ladders was
a lot. Eddie being upset that Vicky was not there
the first time she's supposed to be out there. Uh,
and he kind of like for one, had to hang
off the ladder and then he had to fall and

(51:36):
land on like one leg which looked terrible sore.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
They edited out obviously him him yelling yeah, but I
got the audio man looking at where is Vicky? Damn it? Yeah,
and you still you can't hear that on Peacock you.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
Cannot hear that, but you can see him very visibly upset.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
And I never kind of being confused because I didn't
pick that up, you know what I was watching. I
don't remember if I watched this live. I definitely taped it,
so I watched it at some point, but I remember
like it being like a weird spot with him quote
unquote having trouble with it and then.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Yeah, it made him It made him look bad. He
had to he had to like, you know, jiggled a
couple of times to make it seem like you couldn't
get it, and it's like this looks bad and we're
a split second. It looked bad. But then they made
up for it.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
They did, and how they how he fell though, when
Ray like pulled him down, and yeah, that looked looked
like it hurt his leg, And that's what I thought
he was mad at, like, oh no, he just broke
his leg. I remember thinking that and be like, oh,
I hope he's all right, because even though like I
didn't like him as a character, he was entertaining, you know,
like like how can you not be entertained by this?

Speaker 5 (52:51):
Promise to keep my mouth shut?

Speaker 2 (52:59):
Like how do you not love that? He's the only
heel willing to say that? I like you, like nobody
says that right, like you don't see a heel go
on the microphone to be like I lied, you know,
like they try to justify what you know they done.
But he's just like that said this, but lied, man,

(53:22):
and then say and then his father like right after
that's crazy, I said, he's so much man. He was
like I did not appreciate this at the time. I did.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
It's so absurd and like in hindsight funny, like you
have no choice but to kind of like this now,
especially like oddly enough, at the time, the fans connected
with it, like they were popping for big moments in
his match, including when Little Dom got an in.

Speaker 9 (53:50):
Trying to shake the little ladder and looking a little Dom,
he's so cute. He's like eight years old.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
He's cute.

Speaker 9 (53:55):
It's get in the world. He's the cutest little shirt,
his pants with the cuffs at the bottom.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
He's like the most well manned, well behaved kid. Like
he's calling everybody mister and miss backstage, nice to see you.
A gett missed done to take her and now he's
dirty dumb Wild Ray did everything he could to raise
dad boy right and not look at him out with
the riff raft.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
He watched it. So I'm watching this with my dad
and I'm like, who who's that talking about Dom? And uh,
because I knew that he would put two and two
together because he doesn't remember a lot back, you know,
that long ago of wrestling, because he's just watched so much.
When I watched it, he said, so Tom's blonde right

(54:50):
at this point, like dyed hair blonde, and he thinks
it's Cody Rose.

Speaker 6 (54:57):
And I was like, that's hilarious.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
So Eddie Garrero. So Raymistereo is Cody Rhodes's father? How
does that work?

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Also, Cody is like almost forty.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
This kid is it was just his hair. His hair
apparently was. And I was like, no, no, no, it's Dirty
Dom your favorite. And obviously his favor is not Dirty Dumb.
He hates Dirty Dom because he's like one of the traditionalists.
He likes the good guys, hates the bad guys. He
he calls Dom dirty dam a smack dass like you
called Austin Theory smack eddass.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
Yeah, if you reached smacked ass status from Papa pecone,
you are doing good job as a heel. You are
doing your job. And now I got to look at
Austin theory totally different now.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
So I tried to get him to watch Triple Mabia
last night, right because I wanted him to see a
dirty Dom. I keep saying, dirty Dom your favorite, and
he gives me like a look like he wants me
to stop. But it's just too damn funny. Man, it's
too damn funny, and like, nah, man, that's Dirty Dom
the Intercontinental Champion. I pull up the picture. I was
like this that little kid is this guy? Isn't that nuts?

(56:04):
And he's just like, oh my god, like I grow
up so fast, was virtually blown.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
So they grow up so fast. He's just this little,
meek little boy, just like, oh my god, hope I
go home my real family. And Ray and Eddie play
up the drama so well, yes, it's actually well done
like it is, it's actually well that. Then Vicky comes down.
It's pretty much tells Eddie like I don't want no
more kids. We're not bringing another kid home, so you

(56:29):
stay down here. I'm gonna tackle with you so you
don't wouldn't get the custody papers, which is that's funny.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
That was funny because before you know they have the
backstage segment where Vicky approaches him and is like, you're
not doing this for the love of Dom. You're doing
this just to get the Ray and right, and he's like, no, no,
I love Dom and he's like okay, like yeah, I
want to beat Ray. He basically admits that it's not
about Dom at all, So now you're like, oh yeah,

(56:56):
but her her like tackling him was like hilarious.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
And incredible, pretty much like we're not bringing home another child, okay,
because I didn't sign off on this, So you're gonna
lose his custody back. I don't give a damn who
the biological father is. He's staying with them. They raised him,
they named him, he belonged to them. Okay, we got
kids at home. We got children at home. We ain't

(57:22):
gonna bring no more back with us, all right, we
got kids at home, and Ray regains custody and it's
a big happy ending. Yay dam mist still Ray mysterios.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
Well, it was crazy when Eddie like cornered him and
it was like about to slap him. I was like, oh,
that probably didn't sit well with my dad. He doesn't
want to say stuff like that. He was actually when
Don was a good guy and brock Lesner like beat
him up. My dad got like upset, Like.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
But if he saw it now, he probably think deserved it.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Probably, but he deserved it. Yeah, it was that was
like I forgot that that happened during that match. I
was like, oh my god, like he's gonna hit him,
and that's something. Hell he raight saves him. So such
a whipped to see that man such a wild time.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
But while that's a wild good time, that's not my
match of the night. Oh, because I got a even
better time. Okay, that's a wild good time. But our
main event of the evening is gonna be my match
of the night because it was such a good time.
Because I love seeing Sean Michaels bumping around like the
way he did for hall Cogan, knowing what I know

(58:37):
in hindsight, No, I ain't watch it. Try to watch
it a two thousand and five eyes. I watched it
with twenty twenty five eyes, and it made me giggle
all the way through. Cause all right, let's let's talk
about it for one. At some point it's said in
some way, shape or form, that sewn Michael is gonna
face hall Cogan backstage. I guess people catch winded this. Okay,

(58:59):
it's playing okay, now, now what do we do? And
apparently Huck Cogan insisted on Shawn Michael's turning heel. He
essentially won Shawn Michaels to turn back into nineteen ninety
seven Shawn Michaels. The problem is Shawn Michaels didn't want
to do that because, for one, he didn't like that guy,
and for two, he was to Jesus loving babyface for
like three years now, and he really didn't have any

(59:21):
intentions of going hell again because why I like this,
I'm trying to be mister nice guy now, and the
best way for me to keep doing that people don't
necessarily didn't want necessarily want of bouch Shawn Michaels neither.
It wasn't like people were ready to bou Shawn Michaels.
They would still love Shawn Michaels. Shaw Michael's one of
the biggest baby faces in the company for this time
from two thousand and two to two thousand and five.

(59:44):
Right there he won the world title O two, there
was people really want him to win it back and
three and O four, So it doesn't make any sense
booking wise, and it didn't really probably didn't make any
sense to Shawn Michaels personally, like I don't want to
do this, like I love Jesus too, I don't think
be bad guy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
But hold, it's everything Hall claimed to be in the eighties.
Well he was actually that guy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Well at this point he apparently was. But uh, but
Hogan got his way, and Seawn Michaels said, Okay, you
want me to be a heel. Huh, well you're gonna get.
You gonna get Sean Michaels being not just a heel
but the heel you did not want to see in
nineteen ninety seven. You think you won ninety seven, Seawn Michaels,

(01:00:29):
where's the lollipop so I can have it in my
mouth while you tap me out. Let's talk about some
sunny days. You're ready to break that out? Okay? Instead,
though he didn't do all that. Instead he just comically
bumped around the ring for twenty plus minutes. He would

(01:00:50):
just fall down, get back up, and then fall down
again like it was so goofy, so funny and all
because he didn't want to be a baby heel again.
And Hogan got his way again and he didn't like it,
and Hogan he hit the lake drop and not the
lake dropped the big boot and he like fell and

(01:01:11):
like flopped around. Oh my god. Hogan looked at him
fall because he thought, I guess he thought he's already
on the ground and he's like, oh, he's still falling.
What hey, you see him down here? I'm hit the
lake drop now, I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
And like he milked the crowd too as a get
back at him. You could just see in real time
the atimosity like kind of play out.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Yeah, that was That was a lot. So if there's
one matches for comedic value alone, knowing what we know
now that I'm going back to watch again, probably not
to say there's no other matches, the lat of matches hysterical.
That's my honorable mention for this, and it was actually
a really good match. But this Hogan Sean Michael's match
was just the backstage politics pretty much playing out in

(01:01:51):
real time. And I don't know how many times you
ever get to see that, especially in this like kind
of modern era that we live in. They're mostly keeping
stuff backstage now, even in two thousand and five, except
for Edge and Matt Hardy. But this spilled out in
front everybody, and I'm sure, you know, maybe maybe there
was some words exchanged after. I don't know, but.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
Literally the next line, Shawn Michaels turns baby face again.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
Yeah, because he's like, why am I doing this?

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
And apparently the plan was like three matches, you know,
the rubber match would be some kind of stipulation and
with halt change and everything, you know, I think maybe
Sean was just like, yeah, I told y'all, like told
y'all Evince, like this is him, this is what, and
he just turned baby face again the next night basically
gave Hogan a parting the shot and that was it,

(01:02:42):
you know, like it it was nothing. I just remember
not being that interested in another Hogan match in two
thousand and five.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
I really wasn't interested in this match. I was the
heel turn itself from Sean Michaels was shocking. I will
say that that was dope, but everything after that was like, man.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
It was funny because even I was like getting I
wasn't getting tired of Sean, but I was kind of like, okay,
like you have seen in Batista as the top guys
like I don't want some of the older guys like
taking over these big spots anymore. Like I want to
see more of like seen in the main event or
Batista in the main event, like the new generation, right, yeah,

(01:03:24):
I want at the new generation of the new generation
basically exactly. And Sean there was kind of like, uh,
like I was done with Triple H too, you know,
I was kind of like a but while he was
gone for a few months during this time, I was
just like eh, like Kurn angle with Eugene. I remember
just being like eh, because Kurt at that time was

(01:03:44):
just kind of I don't want to say, getting older,
but just wasn't put in premiere spots the way he
was before. So I just I didn't want to see
Sean either, like at the main event at that point.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
We had seen a lot of that in two three four, especially.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
So like his heel turn, I was like, oh great,
like knowing that it's going to get the main event
spot pretty much at that time, and just like all right, well,
what else is gonna be on the card? Basically you
want to you know, I'm seeing that. I don't I
don't know. I didn't see it live. I remember I
must have taped it or something, so probably another Monday night.

(01:04:25):
I don't even know if that was the same Monday
night where Matt already came back. Maybe it was. I
don't know, but just remember thinking like so it was
probably not as bad as I was in the moment,
because obviously people bought this show and there was like
good things. I didn't even really care for Eddie and

(01:04:45):
Ray at that time because I was like, I've seen
this in WCW, like I want something new, and I
didn't feel like I was getting new enough, and I
was just kind of souring on a lot of things.
But a lot of things were like interesting, and you
know Hogan and Sean. I've actually thought Sean bumped way
more than he did. I remember, like watching this match back,

(01:05:06):
I was like, oh, like there were only maybe like
a couple of times where he was like really really
like going nuts.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
I mean he did like from the jump, like when
Hogan did like the shoulder block and he just flew
out of the ring.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
That was one. Obviously the big boot was another one.
But oh my god, he did this turnbuckle flip and
mister perfect turnbuckle flip.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
He never did that. Never I've seen countless Shawn Michael's matches.
He's never taken a bump like that ever.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Buckles Like when he first third, he'll like ninety two,
ninety three or something from some man.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
Yeah he did that, but in five, No way, he's
a baby face. Babyface don't bump like that, right, that's absurd. No,
he that's what you know, Like HBK is on another
one tonight. He on one tonight he reverted back the
old Shawn Michaels.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
Came out so hook and bleeding. Didn't make it like
a sense either, because it's just like he just.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
Punched punched him up a couple of times, right, and
all of a sudden, he's leaking everywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
I was like, I guess we need that, And again
I don't think they needed it neither.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
I guess Hogan felt like he needed because maybe he
couldn't do work to the level of Shawn Michaels. Was
just like, hey man, you should do the match, but
you know you try to supplement that with I guess
with color. But like Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels had
that match of wrestling in twenty one, I don't remember
any blood in that match. Maybe there was if you remember, But.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
It wasn't like a yeash. It was like right if
it was anything, it was like a nose on a
lip or something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
But that was a classic yea. So yeah, I guess
they did, you know, maybe they wanted to add that,
to add some extra to it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
But he's not the only one that bleeds tonight, brother, that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
Has got to be the holster. But uh, speaking of
that match, let's flip over to our worst match of
the night and I'll kick it off here easily for
me because of so much promise and very little, very
little on the delivery front. His edge versus Matt Hardy

(01:07:09):
bro easily by far and away. I have an honorable mention,
but it's a distant second. I don't ow Oh I
got it. I got one. But here's the problem, all right,
So let's rewind a little bit. This is a personal match,
all right. Because earlier in the year, Leda appeared on

(01:07:31):
ww show Bite This which if you never heard of
it was like an internet show, internet talk show before
internet podcast or YouTube podcast existed. This was internet talk
show hosted usually by Michael Cole, and he would occasionally
have guests on some over the phone some in studio,
and there's been some memorable episode to Bite This, but
there's a lot of forgettable ones. But probably the most

(01:07:53):
infamous episode of bite This took place in two thousand
and five when Lida was on the show and I
think had called in to the show or something like that.
Either way, the exposure happens and that Leader had had
had an affair with Adam Copeland or better known as Edge. Obviously, now,

(01:08:17):
of course Leading Edge had Leading Matt Hardy actually say
had been dating for multiple years by this point, but
Matt Hardy has suffered an injury, and I guess while
he was off the road, Leading Edge was still on
the road and they were all cool, and one thing
led to another one thing about that the Edge was
also married at the time, so the thing to of

(01:08:37):
note Leader was in the relationship, not merit. But either way,
things happened and it gets out and everybody knows, and
at some point, because everybody knows and it, you know,
everybody kind of looks bad. But like somehow Matt Hardy
gets fired because of this, even though he could have
been like sent to a separate show, because obviously you

(01:09:00):
don't want people bickering backstage.

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
I understand that's personal, so you don't this point still.

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
Right, You may not want them to cross paths too
much because it's personal and you don't want like, you
don't want Matt Hardy trying to fight Edge first thing
on site backstage, or trying to harm Lead in any
way or argue in any way. You don't want none
of that. You don't want none of that drama in
your professional work environment. So maybe you keep them separate
and say, hey, hey, hey, you guys, gotta keep it cool.
You'll give him the the finger wag, hey, hey hey, guys,

(01:09:26):
be adept, keep it cool and don't know no fighting
back here. Instead they said, by Matt, you got cheat
it on, see you later, So it was like, wow,
that's that's wild. But then they, by some reasoning, bring
him back and his first order of business is to
destroy Edge. Moment one he comes back to fight Edge,

(01:09:51):
and they shoot it in a way to make you
think that Matt Hardy is not supposed to be there.
He doesn't have theme music. Does that have to beg
Oh my god, is Matt Hardy? He just comes out
out and starts beating the daylights out of Edge. So
now We're like, oh was he even? Was this real?
Oh my god? How did he get in if he's
not supposed to be there? Is he back? What happens now? Right?
So you had this very real situation where very you know,

(01:10:15):
grown adults involved doing very grown adult things, even though
you know, people getting cheated on and whatnot, but this
is personal when you Edge and man Hardy were cool
and of course everybody they were all cool. They were colleagues, right.
But WW says, let's turn this into a story, which,
like the booker says, yeah, that's the way to do it.
That's money right there, that's he and that you know,

(01:10:37):
obviously again for professional work reasons, you probably don't want
to go down this road. But the booker in the
capitalist and he says, but that could make some money
right there. Boy. Okay, so I can't totally blame them
for doing this. Okay. However, the match itself, which you

(01:10:59):
have to all the build up and all the animosity
that they had touted and talked about and done video
packages on, amounted to a t KO finish in like
five minutes, bro. And I'm just like, wait, that's it.
That's kind of whack, bro.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
It's about the ride, Bro.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
Matt Hardy is he hits his head in the ring
post and he's bleeding a.

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
Lot, gnarly spot, but made sense.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
I guess it made sense.

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
I hated it. I'm telling you I hated it at
the time.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
There's gotta be more than that.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
That's why we call it the ride.

Speaker 1 (01:11:44):
No, that ain't the rides with the Grand Finale? Did
it go on beyond? Some honestly don't remember.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
They had a match an unforgiven steel cage. Matt Hardy
did the like drop off the Oh lord, he won
that one, and I think Edge won the rubber match or whatever.
But this I hated it at the time. You're right,
I hated it at the time. Oh my god, they
buried Matt Hardy.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
It's not even not bearing it. They could have had
a longer match before you did this.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
Well, no, what I'm saying like it was what they planned.
And I don't think I've heard any like inside stories
about this particular match. It just seemed like they wanted it.
Everyone to get like hype for Matt returning. But even
Matt kind of been like, well if I beat Edge,
then then what you know? Like it? Yeah, Edge obviously

(01:12:31):
needs to win, and then I come back and win
every whatever happens with the rubber match happened.

Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
Edges money in the bank. Also, he's pretty much I
won the world title at some point, So I understand
Edge even winning. I'm not even gets winning. It's how
it happened.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
But isn't it how it happened? Almost protecting Matt in
a way because it was a freak bump and he's
concussed that they did that with Lady Orton at the
Royal Rubble. I know we hated that too. They did
this again, basically.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
Did it again, but at least he was bleeding this time.
I guess Green Norton wasn't bleeding, you know, like, but
but give it more time before you do that. They
didn't give any time.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
I still think, you know, but was this a second
match of the night because we.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Had a pretty yes, because the first match.

Speaker 2 (01:13:24):
I think that's that makes this stand out more because
of the first match. I think, I think, yeah, I
don't think it would have been, you know, and even
I remember the next month watching like unforgiven and Matt
winning and be like okay now or like I feel
like the fans didn't want to see that story. They

(01:13:46):
wanted to see Matt just kill Edge. Basically, they didn't
want the journey. They just wanted Matt to be, you know,
vindicated because he was fired in real life. And then
he came back. And then we hear Edge say, oh,
I asked Spence to hire him back, and I was
just like, well, that's kind of lame in a way
to explain it that way, but here we are, and

(01:14:08):
then that happens to that. Yeah, it was a real
kick at the balls because I remember thinking, oh, he's
buried and that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
There's a lot of build up for kind of a
whimper at the end of that. Now understand there's more,
but like, like you said too, the first match, which
is my honorable mentioned for worst match of the night,
was Orlando Jordan defending the US title against Chris Pinoit.
And that match was probably fifteen seconds blake, you miss it,
and you miss it, cross face, tap out done. So
it's like, Okay, that's kind of weird because that's an

(01:14:38):
opening match, Like, that's a terrible opener. I mean, and
what did I say about Orlando Jordan talking about somebody
getting buried?

Speaker 2 (01:14:46):
Oh boy? And it wasn't the first time the follow
it up with this, Well, I beat him again in
like five seconds. That's they're insane after that or before
that or something. Yeah, that's insane, but beat him a
few times.

Speaker 1 (01:14:58):
You follow it up with this, which just had a
hot angle, way hotter than Orlando, Jordan and Benoit. So
you gotta I feel like you gotta make up for
that first nonsense, that first match nonsense that just happened,
and instead they follow it up with this, and it's like,
come on, like not gonna went to the third match
for something to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:15:17):
Yeah, exactly, come on, bro.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
I ordered the whole show and nothing's happened. I don't
want to see just the third match be good. I
want to see every match be at least something something substantial,
and we didn't get that from the first two matches,
and those were both of them. My worst matches other night,
But Edge Matt Hardy is the number one spot because
of everything that went into it and all the hype and
the drama that went into it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:37):
Just for that, Yeah, I think the match placement hurts it.
Bea and Jordan is my worst match of the night
because it wasn't even a match.

Speaker 1 (01:15:46):
Right that should have never been It should have never
opened the show.

Speaker 2 (01:15:48):
Right, right. I think the placement didn't help at all.
I think again, I understand like the okay, I just
has to be me, but they could have definitely gone longer.
But again, I guess you gotta get that Hogan match
plenty of times so you could post it the boy,
and I'm sure the timing didn't work out in their
favor either.

Speaker 1 (01:16:07):
Like I feel like you could have started with Mysterio
on Eddie Guerrero. I could get a WrestleMania Hello again yep,
even though it's a ladder match, and stay' no. One
and maybe start off with a ladder match, but who cares?
Maybe in two thousand and five they were worried about that,
but I don't think they're worried about that now honestly.
But back in two thousand and five, maybe, but it
would have made for a much better opener than Yeah,

(01:16:30):
Ben Wah and Jordan, But what were your worst match?
What was your worst match?

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
At the next on Jordana, I don't even consider Edge
and Matt like an honorable mention. I liked the psychology
behind it now I do Back then, I definitely hated it,
but I like it knowing what happens after that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:52):
Bah humbug. Uh how I feel about it. I didn't
have a top non wrestling happening. I don't know if
you had one.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
I did like Eddie's uh backstage interview with Vicky.

Speaker 1 (01:17:03):
That's fair. We need to talk.

Speaker 5 (01:17:05):
Oh no, baby, see I'm done talking. It's over.

Speaker 1 (01:17:09):
Well you talk.

Speaker 7 (01:17:11):
You may have been done talking. I'm not, baby. This
is not about Dominic, about Dominic. This is about you
winning against Ray and being better than him.

Speaker 1 (01:17:31):
Well that too, but.

Speaker 4 (01:17:32):
The main, the main thing, it's all about my love
for Dominic.

Speaker 1 (01:17:36):
Keep the main thing, the main thing.

Speaker 7 (01:17:38):
I'm not the type of a person about Dominic.

Speaker 1 (01:17:43):
You could care less if he came home with us.
What are you? What are you talking about?

Speaker 8 (01:17:46):
It's about hurting Ray and trying to be the better man.

Speaker 5 (01:17:50):
Hey, wait a minute, listen.

Speaker 1 (01:17:52):
I need somebody to carry on the Guerrero legacy.

Speaker 5 (01:17:54):
And if you're accusing me of hurting Ray or or
hurting his family, you're gone. You're crazier than I.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
I don't need that from you.

Speaker 7 (01:18:04):
I love you with all my heart.

Speaker 5 (01:18:09):
I don't think you do. You're not showing you right now.

Speaker 1 (01:18:13):
Damn, I love you.

Speaker 8 (01:18:16):
You are a man that I married many years ago,
and you have a heart of gold. There's this wonderful
person inside of you that I do. But this will
not allow you to defeat Ray or hurt his family.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
That I do. Do you have a heart of gold
now that you mention it? So now you don't think
I can beat Great? I can't be Gray. Huh? What
the whole family thinks like that? Oh man?

Speaker 5 (01:18:53):
Well, I'm gonna prove to everybody that I can't be
right to you now you're not being that great?

Speaker 4 (01:19:00):
Up as support do me a favorite turn around and
support on.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
I've never heard that phrase before.

Speaker 1 (01:19:08):
Support on out of here.

Speaker 8 (01:19:13):
M hm.

Speaker 1 (01:19:21):
That was pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
I can't beat him.

Speaker 8 (01:19:24):
I will be Ray in Mysterio.

Speaker 5 (01:19:29):
I couldn't beat Ramisterio.

Speaker 1 (01:19:31):
Ain't not at this time.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
God, it's about beating Ray. It's never been about Dominic.

Speaker 1 (01:19:41):
Oh man. And VICKI was like, we're not taking this
kid home cause I'm gonna be taking care of him
primarily while you out here trying to win world titles
and stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
I remember, like in O five, I didn't I did
not care about this story at all. And again, Eddie
versus Ray. I've seen it at WCW. It wasn't really
doing much for me, but looking back, I appreciate the
effort put into it by Eddie and even Ray. You know,
I think it was something that you know, again, I
was in a weird spot in my fandom where I

(01:20:13):
hated some good things, and I thought this was a
good thing. Just watching back and just Eddie Man, Eddie's character.
I I'm really kind of missed it in a moment,
and I do like watching two thousand and five. Eddie
Guerrero is a.

Speaker 1 (01:20:31):
Good time, A really good time with Eddie Guerrero.

Speaker 2 (01:20:37):
It's so funny because I show my dad puts her
dirty down today and Eddie Guerrero with a mustache and
the bullet and I was like, yeah, he probably thinks
Eddie really is his father.

Speaker 1 (01:20:48):
I mean, Dom is not necessarily dispelling that with.

Speaker 2 (01:20:52):
His look, which is so good. It's so like Dom
is carrying on the Eddie character with like the mysterio.
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:01):
I love it all right, worst non wrestling happening, I
do have one of these. It was might agree on this,
but it's the random car wash with the divas in
the middle of the show for no real reason. Yep,
it's always fun when you just your job is to
wash your boss's car, you know, like that's cool and
getting a bikini in a dark parking lot be sexy.

(01:21:24):
And then they roll down the window and you see
it's Vince McMahon in the back of the limo though.
Oh yeah, making his employees wash his car. That's great.
Un Then you see on the door you see the
presidential seal, which means like, oh president, oh, and he
looks up and says, hey, why not. It's like, okay, well,

(01:21:47):
in real life, we're not that far from it in
twenty twenty five. Seriously, I mean it was just a
joke twenty years ago. Joke's over now. And on the
back of the car says McMahon for President is on
the bumper sticker, like we got McMahon for I could
tear of education instead, but you can't rule that out
neither McMahon saying, like, you know what, I could do
this better than Donald Trump? The Battle of the Billionaires

(01:22:09):
in the White House this time. That don't sound that crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:22:14):
Now it doesn't.

Speaker 1 (01:22:16):
It's not as funny as it would have been twenty
years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:22:18):
You know, A few weeks ago, Deep dove into a
show where Donald Trump was interviewed, and I guess there
are rumors of him running for president at that point,
and Charry Lawler was like, he shouldn't be that. He's
a run king of New York.

Speaker 1 (01:22:33):
It's like, oh wait, oh, well there's that. Uh did
you have a worset non wrestling happening or.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
Was this same one? Same?

Speaker 5 (01:22:41):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:22:41):
Yeah, easy, easy target there. Yeah, any hidden gems in
or out of the ring from you, sir.

Speaker 2 (01:22:48):
Really really enjoyed Kernan Angle versus Eugene. IM not gonna
lie too.

Speaker 1 (01:22:53):
It's I know the Eugene gimmick is offensive, but he
is also a really good wrestler.

Speaker 2 (01:22:57):
Is over.

Speaker 1 (01:22:58):
He was over.

Speaker 2 (01:22:58):
He loves him.

Speaker 1 (01:22:59):
But also Kurt Angle was hell over. There's the thing, though,
they were booing Eugene at the end of the match
because kurd Angle was hello over. Kurd Angle was awesome.
I don't care nobody say, like two thousand and five,
two thousand and six, kurd Angle is the best. Again. Personally,
I'm sure he was going through some things, but in
man that intensity, I believed everything he was doing, I

(01:23:22):
believed he really just wanted to walk up to Eugene
and slap him straight in the face, and he did it.
Was kerd Angle was always good for like a short,
exciting match, Yes, And I think it's because he was
like an explosive athlete like he could as an amateur wrestler.
Part of it to have that explosion. You gotta be
a good athlete, and you gotta have that explosion, Like
I said, so, not every wrestler has that level of

(01:23:45):
explosion that kurd Angle has when he can just fire
up and do moves real fast and it looks solid,
looks great, and it looks like it's just like a great,
fun short match. He had the same type of match
with Ray Mysterio in two thousand and two where short,
quickened pace and kerninga can keep up but also maintain
the intensity throughout. Man, he's so good. But yeah, I

(01:24:08):
had this as a hitting gym as well. Another one
I want to throw out there and back to Eugene
forts like I did love Eugene doing other people's moves.

Speaker 2 (01:24:17):
I was gonna love that. Yeah, kick it out of
the stunner and the rock bottom.

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
Right like that was always fun.

Speaker 2 (01:24:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:24:24):
But another hidden gym I think is the World title
match between Batista and JBO.

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
I was ziffy on that. I thought it was good
thinking of it. I thought the end was really good.

Speaker 1 (01:24:35):
Yeah, I agree with that.

Speaker 2 (01:24:36):
I didn't like, you know, the fact, knowing that Mohammad
Asan would have been champion if I didn't fire him.
Did they lose? How did they lose faith in Batista? Like?
I still think it was more over than John Cena
for much of the year, even when he wore a
SmackDown like.

Speaker 1 (01:24:53):
I think they were just doing whatever, bro, I think
they're just doing just wild stuff. But I'm not mad
at the match. I think it started off hot JBO,
you know, jumping him on the ramp or whatever they
fight through. Yeah, obviously I thought I thought that was fun.
Uh and it was a fun little match, short match.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
But yeah, the body Batista bomb on the steel steps
was awesome. I loved it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:15):
Great. The best spot of the night, uh not the
spot between Batista and JBL with the steps. I got
Eddie Guerrell power bombing Ray mystereo as he fell from
the briefcase. I thought that looked crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:25:28):
There was multiple ones in this match that was a
great one. I my spot on the night was Eddie
getting pissed that Vicky wasn't there. I already played that earlier,
that spot that uh you know they did even so
Ray even did like a power bomb to Eddie at
one point, so it's like they like the even the

(01:25:48):
drop kick to the ladder, like it didn't look bad,
Like I think drop kicking the ladder is probably harder
than you know it, you know, sound to just get
somebody off balance enough, but Ray was small enough. I guess,
you know, Eddie kicking it looked like a legit like
launched the stereo into the ropes. And Eddie pinning Ray

(01:26:12):
down was really like a good move, like a smart move.
And man if I guess Vicky mister spot, like who
was backstage? Who was what are we doing? Like somebody
failed Vicky there, I mean, it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (01:26:26):
Her fault, so somebody's got to go go go go.

Speaker 2 (01:26:30):
Yeah, and so it's Vin said to go, go, go go.
Then he was in there all night. So uh but yeah,
that was my favorite spot when Eddie got Vickey mister Q.

Speaker 1 (01:26:45):
All right, so let's go to worst spot. I didn't
really have a worse spot. I mean, I guess I
can go with Eddie and Ray falling from the ladders
just like falling down dangerously. But that's pretty much what
I have from now.

Speaker 2 (01:26:56):
I don't have a much of a bad one here.

Speaker 1 (01:26:59):
Yeah, all right, some random thoughts, random thoughts.

Speaker 2 (01:27:03):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:27:03):
Never a big fan of Orlando Jones' perm I'm sorry,
Uh what was going on with that hair? Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:27:12):
But you know I didn't mind it. It was bald
before that, right after the one or the other? I forget, man,
it was a lot of looked better than the short baldness.

Speaker 1 (01:27:21):
He deserved a better match than the one he got
a Summer Slam though.

Speaker 2 (01:27:24):
For sure he was the watch champion, I think more
than once.

Speaker 1 (01:27:28):
So yeah, I always love Randy Orton's pyro great. Yeah,
he wasn't the first one to have it technically, remember
Christian having it, but Randy a kind of likes said
yoink and it was actually cool with Randy Orton. It
made it actually made with Radio Orton.

Speaker 2 (01:27:48):
Let me just take your entrance, uh w.

Speaker 1 (01:27:53):
W show some political figures in the crowd and we
are in Washington, d c. Uh So we got Ken
mill and Ed Gillespie almost forgot his last name. They
were both former or I think Ken was currently the
chair of the National Committee, the Republican National Committee, Ed
was a former chair, I believe, but inter this thing

(01:28:15):
about Ken Melman. He actually came out as gay in
twenty ten and lobbied to legalize gay marriage. How about that,
despite you know, the party not being for it at all.
So I thought that was an interesting nugget. I did
love Coach Clown and John Cena for being from the
hood aka westboot Newbury, Massachusetts, Like what mean streets is

(01:28:35):
he from? And then Jr. Goes, you're not spelled Topeka,
and that's where you're gonna be if you keep messing
with me. That's where you're gonna be back at keep
messing with me, coach. And then Coach also said that
Sina didn't know what it took to win at SummerSlam,
but like he kind of already won at WrestleMania, which
is technically a bigger stage.

Speaker 2 (01:28:57):
What you're talking about, Coach, He's just saying things to
say things, just saying things. Not a Bobby Heenon, Sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:29:05):
Not no, no, he tried, he tried, but no. And
then speaking of Sena, the fans cheered Jericho a lot
during that match, And I'm trying to think, remember right, same,
I'm trying to think, like, when the hell did the
people turn on Sena? How soon after he won the title,
because I feel like he made it through the summer
of two thousand and five.

Speaker 2 (01:29:25):
I thought it was the Kurrent Angle program where they
turned on him, but they were already sick of them
at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:29:31):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:29:32):
I guess what Batista wasn't getting booed.

Speaker 1 (01:29:34):
No, he was not, and rarely did until he turned
heel right, he'sn't make an interest today and people will
love him.

Speaker 2 (01:29:41):
But it was like Batista felt authentic what you believed
what he was saying, because he was like intense. You
didn't really believe Sena. That's why he came across Phony
and people liked his character, his rap character before that,
it's basic phygonomics. And then they tried to make him
in the white beat babyface, and people did not like that.
I don't think it was they didn't think seen it

(01:30:03):
was a bad wrestler, But like once they limited his
move set and then his character became that after being
drafted the raw, it's kind of like, yeah, this isn't
what we fell in love with.

Speaker 1 (01:30:12):
Yeah, it's corporate Scena now.

Speaker 2 (01:30:14):
Yeah, and it was so transparent, so it wasn't like
it wasn't like an anti authority like against Fencer whoever
the hell wasn't charge Bischoff at the time, even though
he acted like it, Like they said the promo of
him like just talking smack to Bischoff at some point, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:30:34):
Like they tried they tried phony.

Speaker 2 (01:30:37):
It was across phony.

Speaker 1 (01:30:38):
They gave him the title and said all right, you
Steve Austin now and here's your heel authority figure, and
off you go. And it's like, bruh, we've seen this
before and you know it was. It can't get no
better than that. Why are we running that back? That's
not the only way to do this, it's not the
only formula. Like you didn't build Hulk Cogan doing that,
you didn't build Brett Hart doing that. So why did

(01:30:58):
you try to build John Cena do on that? Right
off the hop? That was just like his first thing
is to beef with Eric Bischoff and Chris Jericho Boring,
been there, done that, and this is not nearly.

Speaker 2 (01:31:09):
As good, not not even close, and.

Speaker 1 (01:31:12):
Not even close, isn't evinced Sena is in Austin and Jericho,
I guess would be the rock in the situation. Hell no, like.

Speaker 2 (01:31:21):
Come on, and then Jericho was gone the next night
anyway he lost. Yeah, yeah, and I was like gone
for two years. But the uh just I'm glad they
had two world champions because I was all on the
Batisa bandwagon and I paid no mind to John Cena
at the time. I honestly thought Kerdan Angle was gonna
win the title. Problem when they did that little program and.

Speaker 1 (01:31:41):
Look I was I think I was as a kid.
I was ready for it because I was young kurd
Angle guy. So it's like, maybe win it and then
he could win it back or something.

Speaker 2 (01:31:48):
Right or something to the chase again. Yeah, but they
didn't do that.

Speaker 1 (01:31:53):
But it was really interesting to watch it in hindsight
again because I don't remember Sena least, I don't know
if he was. He was booed at times, but not
like loudly, as like it would become it would get
worse as time would go on. There's still a lot
of fans who were into Sena still obviously, and there's
still a lot of fans to this.

Speaker 2 (01:32:11):
Day wanted like the edge to their white baby.

Speaker 1 (01:32:15):
Face exactly, and they weren't. The older male audience was
not rounding the corner with Johnsen and they were not
loving Johnson. They did, like again you mentioned it, oh four,
Sena was one of the most over people in the company.
Didn't matter what his moveset was. People was popping when
he came out is buying Merge. That's why they made
him a champion because he did earn the spot. It

(01:32:36):
wasn't like he didn't earn the spy, didn't come out
of the clear blue sky and they said, here's a
champion now. No, Sena had been consistently getting the best
reactions on SmackDown for over a year and had earned it.
He was a guy. So when they, like you said,
when they switched him the Raw, they kind of switched
his whole character up a little bit, which was weird
because it's still in the thick of the ruthless Aggression era.

(01:32:58):
They're not in the PG area. They they were making
even more sanitized once they went PG. But like, why
did they switch them a little bit? They did? There
was like a tonal shift with John Cena once he
became champion that I think, I don't think set him
up for success.

Speaker 2 (01:33:13):
And this was a year where SmackDown was on still
on r PN and they going to CW that year.
So it's like on the USA you felt like, okay,
Raw is like the more adult or it's not network television,
you made see the less adult oriented from going from
network television to cables, like it just didn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
Yeah, and the results were at the beginning right now,
fans at least at the very least cheering for his
opponents heavily. And that's partially because they are more invested
in them. You know, they grew up watching Jericho and
eventually grew up watching Kurt Angle and eventually Triple H.
And these are guys who grew up watching in there
your favorites, and now here comes as Johnny come lately

(01:33:57):
knocking down your your guys. Was that you didn't been
and with for years you've been watching for years.

Speaker 2 (01:34:02):
I was already over Jericho at this point too, and
even I was just kind of like, Okay, hopefully he
could win and maybe someone else could beat Jerko.

Speaker 1 (01:34:08):
Right because he's a familiar guys like, oh, let Jericho
get another run, and I think the same for kurd Angle.
But this was we were firmly in the time of
John Cena. So he's going to mow through these people.
But it's just the road. Like you said, the journey
getting there wasn't always pleasant for fans, I don't think,
and it manifested itself in a split crowd for for

(01:34:29):
the better part of the.

Speaker 2 (01:34:30):
Sagade DC, which isn't I guess it's typically known as
a smart crowd. I'm not sure. I guess it's not
like Toronto or Chicago or.

Speaker 1 (01:34:40):
Philly or New York, but DC. I mean, DC's got fans,
good fans, knowledgeable fans, just like a lot of other places.
So uh, yeah, it was. It was really interesting to
see that play out so soon. In hindsight, like I
felt like, again, he made it through five this summer
of five before the fans started turning on them, and

(01:35:00):
instead it was already happening here and then, like I said,
for the next decade, I don't think people started cheering
for Sena fully until like sixteen seventeen.

Speaker 2 (01:35:10):
But like the cav Doellen's matches, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:35:14):
And the US Title Open stuff that's like maybe, oh
maybe fifteen give him that was in twenty fifteen. I
think the US Title Open challenges. So we're talking from
like six or maybe five to twenty fifteen, it was
at best split down the middle where you're here, let's

(01:35:35):
go see and seen a suck chance they told much
so did they put him in the video game? Bro
you were playing at match John Cena and the fans
would go, let's go see the Sena sucks. Because it
was that much of a part of WW television and
WW programming at that point. It was just as synonymous
as a this is awesome chance, you know what I'm saying,
Like thinking back to twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, when Seen

(01:35:55):
it was still on the road full time. The let's
go scene, Seena sux chance were a state of WW
television didn't have to be, but that's how it was.
So it started, I guess started around this time, and
I think both of us agree that that partly why
is because they kind of changed his character a little bit,

(01:36:17):
did changed the tone around it, and I don't think
they changed it necessarily for the better, and things only
got more in corporated, more kid friendly once they went
PG in what two thousand and eight and he started,
he switched from like camo stuff and like a lot
of black and camo to purple all of a sudden
and orange and yellow, and it's like, what what happened to?

(01:36:41):
Like the economics guy that's completely out the window, completely
out the window. It's orange T shirt in time, I
don't want to beat everybody. Oh, next one up, it's
gonna be a purple one. See made a lot of money.
He didn't make a lot of money.

Speaker 4 (01:36:59):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:36:59):
Did you have any random thoughts from SummerSlam O?

Speaker 2 (01:37:02):
I had a few of them already, but the black
ropes always kind of stood out a little bit to me.
I didn't hate them, but now as they kind of
like the w W version of ropes are just weird.
They have to be like a certain color to look good.
You know. This was before HD though, so I was like,
I just I didn't understand the black ropes. I don't

(01:37:26):
know why they decided to do black ropes for these shows.
They would do it all raw and SmackDown too, and
they would tape raw and smack Down back to back
on one night they would have black ropes so they
didn't have to change the color of the ropes. And
I was just like I was just thought it was weird.
I didn't like it so just my little event. Also,

(01:37:49):
how about that makeup on bob Orton which looked exactly
like bob Orton. It did not like.

Speaker 1 (01:37:59):
Lea Texas chainsaw masks.

Speaker 2 (01:38:01):
He didn't look any different with the makeup. It was
literally bob Orton and bob Orton's makeup.

Speaker 1 (01:38:07):
That crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:38:10):
Yes, exactly the same exact meme because.

Speaker 1 (01:38:13):
We didn't even mentioned it, and that we shorted beat
the Undertaker on this night pretty clean. I know they
had a little distraction with the old guy in disguise
who turned out to be cowboy bob Orton, but he
hit that r KO and one he did.

Speaker 2 (01:38:25):
And the distraction from bob Orton was worse than WrestleMania.
So this is just kind of like a hit and
run that didn't like. It's just weird. And why is
the referee staring down the aisle. It's not like Randy
did anything dirty to win.

Speaker 1 (01:38:40):
Hit RKO made the reference.

Speaker 2 (01:38:42):
Stupid and slides out. The ring goes and he's like
he's okay, I guess no police have handcuffed this fan yet.
That interfered tried to run in, but then he just
tears off the makeup that looks exactly like it looks
like Bob Orton with the makeup.

Speaker 1 (01:38:59):
Problem is the match was pretty good to me. I
was enjoying it, and then this old guy gets an ring.
It's like, what weird? I don't know where thing is this,
and then they do the commotion, so you know like
something's up. When the referees all just back is all
times you're thinking, like, what's he gonna do here? R
Ko won two three, and it's like, oh, that was weird.

(01:39:19):
But they had more coming, like you talk about with
Edge and Matt Hardy, but this was still kind of weird.
Not bad enough to be like a worst match of
the night, but not nearly not good enough to be
like best match of the night.

Speaker 2 (01:39:30):
Yes, right, you would say the Wrestlmanium match is better. Yes,
And I hate at the WrestleMania match.

Speaker 1 (01:39:36):
So I didn't hate the WrestleMania match.

Speaker 2 (01:39:38):
I like the WrestleMania match a little bit more just
because it showed like psychology with Orton focusing on the leg.

Speaker 1 (01:39:44):
But I didn't enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (01:39:45):
Still boring for what I expected, like I guess for
you expected with Mad Edge, and I kind of was
looking at the long term. I wasn't expecting. I wasn't
looking long term here. I was expecting more from these guys.
So I didn't even make It wasn't like worse matched,
but it wasn't best. It wasn't even mentioning.

Speaker 1 (01:40:03):
It was just there, just there, just there, And the
finish didn't help it really at all.

Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
I just why waste makeup on that? Why couldn't you
just have like a mask or something like? It was
just a waste of makeup to be because that was
a lot He's like peeling this stuff off his face,
and I was like, that literally looks like Bob Orton
with the stuff on his face, Like what are we
doing here?

Speaker 1 (01:40:25):
That was probably a lot of time in a chair
for Bob Orton just to come out for thirty seconds
tear it off. It's me And people probably still don't
know who that was, right, It's two thousand and five
and they don't know what Bob Orton even looks like. Really,
they're just like, who who was that? It was? It was?
It was Bob? You sure that's what that's what they
said on the message board already, man, Because I mean,

(01:40:47):
when do you look at the message board that's two
thousand and five, You ain't got no smartphone, so you
just assume you just have just word travels around the arena.
It was Bob Borton. It was boh, it was oh,
I heard from section one ten it was Bob Orton.
That's the only way you would have known that being
in that building, that it was cowboy Bob Wardon. Now
at home, obviously they said it, oh, it's Bob Barton,

(01:41:07):
But in the building it's like and it's that guy
with Randy Orton. So anything else from SummerSlam two thousand and.

Speaker 2 (01:41:15):
Five, it's all I got, all right, she wrote.

Speaker 1 (01:41:19):
That said, then let's take us out with some plugs.

Speaker 2 (01:41:21):
Then, Nick, you can follow me at Underscore pacone on
Twitter and TikTok follow my Philly sports clips and wrestling. There.
Can also find me on Blue Sky, at pocone and
on threads at pocone Nick for my content, and you
can follow us at Shooters Radio on all those platforms
as well, except TikTok. We're not there yet. Maybe we'll

(01:41:45):
get on there at some point, but we're on Twitter, Facebook,
Blue Sky, Instagram, threads, at Shooters Radio. You check us
out there at shooter the Shooters Pod for all the
places were available and at FOXPHL Gambler dot com run
the podcast taps straight Shooters Wrestling or wrestling roundtables there

(01:42:07):
as well. You can check that out at FOXPHR Gambler
dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:42:12):
All right, I'm at Vaughan M. Johnson on Twitter. I'm
at Vaughan Johnson on Blue Sky, at Vaughan Johnson one
six to six on Instagram. We are on Patreon, Patreon
dot com slash Shooters Radio. You can request a future
deep dive just like the one we just did here
on episode four forty. It can be a wrestling pay
per view. It could be a wrestling movie or related
this movie, I should say so. We did Suburban Commando

(01:42:34):
not that long ago. We'll do movies like that starring wrestlers,
even Body Slam, I don't know, whatever the case may be.
We'll do it the Wrestler itself with Mickey Rourke. We
still need to do that one, right, but again, you
can request it, we will fulfill it and then you
can make a cameo on the show that we're diving
deep into again. Patreon dot com slash Shooters Radio. Until

(01:42:56):
next time for Nick Pacone, I am Vaughn Johnson. Thanks
for listening to Episode for forty of the Straight Shooters,
and we'll catch y'all in very soon. Thany Gravage wake up?
This should on? Oh yeah, Jiggie

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