REWIND: WWE WrestleMania 30 Deep Dive

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Let's keep the party going here on the straight Shooters
with our latest deep dive.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
The greatest in WrestleMania.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
To wrestle Mania thirty. Now, like you just mentioned, this
is the greatest WrestleMania of all time. Now, let's never
let's not forget the fact that we did a tournament
back in what twenty sixteen talking about all the wrestlemanings
to that point in which one was the greatest, and
none of the ones have happened since then would even

(00:43):
remotely change our minds in.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
That they've had great moments, but the pay per view
as a whole, definitely not. None of them are considered,
you know, the greatest of.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
All time exactly. Especially last year's twenty twenty was just
I mean, come on, it wasn't really anybody's faults, just
what it was. It's just but our final matchup in
that tournament was WrestleMania thirty going up against WrestleMania seventeen,

(01:15):
and myself and Brian.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Eisley stopped the count.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
We both voted for and certified that election of WrestleMania
seventeen without a hitch, by the way, and Nick was
on a not on the island by himself saying that
WrestleMania thirty was indeed the greatest.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
He wouldn't let me in.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
No, no, we kept counting. He kept counting.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
But uh.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
So this is this is no timer, even though we
didn't necessarily win that bracket, but it's still finished second.
It's a runner up. And I don't think again, anyone
in the you know, anyone WrestleMania in the last couple
of years since we did that bracket which the planet
as even number two. So I wanted to know your thoughts.
So why was this still to this day in your

(02:07):
mind the greatest WrestleMania of all time?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Not not only you know, the opening promo was the
opening promo. I kind of even forgot that happened until
I watched this back. You get Daniel Brian interplation in
the first match of the night, great story going in
a great match, and you know, you have Daniel Brian winning,
and then just that storyline through the night. You have Cizarro,

(02:33):
who was, you know, one of the most beloved wrestlers
on the w W roster, especially you know, if you
bruce Twitter or any social media, he's been It's been
like that for years, and you know, I thought he
body slammed the Big Show over the top rope. Man,
this is his moment. Obviously we know that nothing really

(02:55):
came to that, but just you know, we look at
that moment, and that's where I was like Cesarro's breakout,
Like this is awesome. The end of the streak. Whether
you think it was a good idea or a bad idea,
it was the best, in my opinion, the best possible
way to end the streak because nobody expected it to happen,

(03:16):
and you got legitimate reactions from everybody. I read. I
was on Twitter. Even my jaw dropped. Honestly, I was
watching it my friend, and I obviously did not expect
that to happen. I expected a kick out because I
was like, the Undertaker's not losing, you know, he's not
loosing a brock. And then once that three hit the mat,
like I v my jaw literally dropped. And that hasn't

(03:37):
happened very often when I'm watching something. I just that's
not how I react to things. Even that shocked me,
and I read on Twitter that there were people that
were actually leaving the Superdome that happened. Yeah, and you know,

(03:57):
it's hard to fathom, Like there were no videos, but
nobody was taking a video and then posting it. They
were just videos.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
It was still social media.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well in twenty fourteen, it wasn't as common, So like
at that point, they're just tweeting, you know, they're not
worried about getting a reaction of people leaving and then
posting it. They're just they see them leaving, then they
go to Twitter. They're like, oh, people are leaving, So
I don't know if they were trying to you know.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Meanwhile, they were just going to the concession stand, yeah,
and coming back going to the bathroom.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Entirely.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Imagine leaving WrestleMania after that. That's wild.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Not what Daniel Bryan said to be in the main
event either.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
So I paid money to be here. I'm not leaving
the show early. Wow.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah, and I always believe that. Yeah, would it
have been nice for someone to get that rub from
beating the undertaker? Lessener didn't exactly need it, but we
know what they did with him the rest of the year.
We know that nobody expected that to happen, So every
reaction was genuine and you just you see everyone get

(05:00):
up after the ref counts three in the front row,
you'd like all rushed to the barricade. It reminded me
of Montreal Screwjob in ninety seven, like that. We don't
see that anymore in the modern era, Like they don't
there's no reactions like that. So I thought that was
a great moment just based off sheer like realism. And
then obviously you have Danielbrian winning the championship in the

(05:27):
main event, which was an all timer moment. Yeah, the
d still had the divis Moniker back then, and you
had the you know, invitational match. It wasn't even exactly
about a royal, but you know, you got them. It
was the first card that you really saw them trying
to get everybody on there like they did, you know
back in the early days of WrestleMania, where they had
like you know, twelve thirteen, fourteen matches that lasted two

(05:49):
or three minutes. So you got it, like at least
a lot of people on the card. So I don't
know the whole set, the whole the purple motif, like
it just looked like one of the best wrestlemandias ever,
like aesthetically and what they did in the ring, the storylines,
who won. I just loved everything about it.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
I will say this, I don't think it's the best
of all time. I still thinks me seventeen is the
best of all time. I will say Restmen, thirty is
still probably the second best of all time, and it's
up there. To me. The conversation is with because I
think this is our final four. I think nineteen was
in the picture for final four, the final four. Trying
to think off the top of my head, trying to
remember that bracket, maybe thirty one. That was a pretty

(06:34):
good one, at least as far as the ending. I
think the top three though, would be like seventeen, thirty
and nineteen would be like probably three favorites.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
I'll re upload our bracket episode because hey, yeah, March
madness and why we did a few bracket episodes. I
will sell earlier a few months ago, so I'll re
upload those to the feet so we have a little
March madness going on, right.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
So I think those are like the three, at least
of my three favorites. There's some other ones Nip Pobby
to consider, but I think those are the top three
in my head. At least thirty was a great show
because it was that Daniel Bryan story woven throughout. We had,
like you said, the genuinely shocking moments. The fans were
just ready to be excited, you know, they were just

(07:21):
ready to celebrate something happening, big happening, And we got
to see multiple times something big happen throughout the show.
So for multiple fronts, it's a historic show. Like you
look back at it, it's like, damn, this was a
lot happened at the show. Like where rest sometimes resume,
it can come and go and it's like, oh, what
that was. That was a show, but like this was.

(07:41):
This was not one of those. This is a big one.
So uh, Like I said, we're gonna talk all about
all those matches, all those things, but we gotta provide
a little bit of context for this. And the timing
is interesting because this was the first major ww show
on the WW network. Now NXT Takeover was the first

(08:05):
like real show, like the big wrestling show that he had,
but this was like the first main roster show that
was exclusively on WW network if I recall correctly, I
mean they might have. I don't think Elimination Chamber was
on Was it on WW network?

Speaker 2 (08:17):
No, it wasn't. And fasclating had not you know, been
birthed yet, so eliminated. The Chamber was the last pay
per view before WrestleMania, and that was the last one
that was only offered on you know, in terrestrial pay
per view.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
So right, and this was back when it was just hockey.
It like nine ninety nine. You get this and blah
blah blah, and it's doing all that stuff and this
is every week they was doing it. But it's crazy
to think that the WW network here we are seven
years later and it's about to be no more. Like
it's not to be.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Done yeah as we know it, yeah like, which is
kind of a shame. My biggest ripe is like the
chapters that they're kind of going to get rid of.
But that's yeah, I've grown accustomed, you know, the users
have grown accustomed to really perusing the w W network
a certain way, and it's gonna be completely different, and hell,

(09:11):
you know, there could be content that's not there, and
that's my biggest worry about it.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
We'll see, we'll see when that happens. But in twenty
fourteen when they announced the WWW, when it launched, it
was like a massive deal and I'm sure oh yeah,
a lot of people were listening probably still remember because
it's only seven years ago. It felt like yesterday when
they first launched.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
I took off.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
I remember the day had dropping, right, and I remember
the day had launched, and it was like I was
sitting in front of my computers just like everybody else
and like you see all this content, like well, I
can watch WRAW from ninety seven again, like and whatever.
And it was it was buggy in the beginning, the
interface that it wasn't great, but it was okay, and
it's gotten better over the years with how it's looked

(09:56):
and stuff like that. But they had some original shows
and what. But I remember it's just it was a
massive deal and thinking that like this is this is
the future, Like this is not even like the future,
this is like how it is now, because you gotta
remember this was wasn't when every network started popping up
with those streaming services, like that's that's a recent trend
where like Paramount has a streaming service, NBC has Peacock. Now, uh,

(10:18):
you know this seems like there's a there's tons of
Disney Plus it's a thing. It really the streaming services
was Netflix and Hulu, that was pretty much it, right,
and they didn't They didn't even have sports on like
there's no YouTube TV yet, there's no Hulu Plus or
Hulu Sports nothing like that. It was just Netflix and
Hulu at that point that I can remember. That might

(10:39):
have been other ones, but I don't really remember them.
But those are the two most prominent ones. Yeah, they
weren't like, yeah, you used the word. They weren't like
prominent if there were, right, So so to have WWE
come into that space and start their own thing, I
know the UFC has something yet because UFC I don't
know if they even had their own thing yet back

(11:01):
in twenty fourteen.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
I don't either. And if it was Fight Pass, it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
It wasn't what WW was doing.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, it wasn't comparable to the network.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Because WW was given the premium prime programming away for
ninety nine. UFC wasn't doing that and they still don't
do that. You still got to pay seventy dollars for
a pay per view on ESPN Plus for UFC. But
this was I'm like, damn, this is it, Like this
is going to catch fire and this this is how
people are going to consume wrestling and it kind of
was that way because you see other promotions start their

(11:34):
own streaming services. In New Japan, World Impact had their
own thing or still have it. That's the wrestlings of
the World Wrestling Network WWN. That kind of sprouted up,
and you know, it seemed like everyone had like to
started going into that direction. But the problem was that
the wrestling fandom it never just like we've already talked

(11:56):
about that, it never really grew outside of that million,
million and a half for so people that would subscribed
to the WW network, right, but in the beginning, what
it wasn't even available internationally. It was like unavailable in
certain countries. You had to do like commit for six months.
You couldn't do it month by month, or you get
the first month free and all that stuff. And it
was just a bunch of weird stuff with that. So

(12:18):
it was so weird in hindsight, like just just have
people subscribe for ninety nine, bro, like to make this simple.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
But it's interesting because I think a lot of those
streaming services that popped up after the fact kind of
looked at you know, the not just the WW network,
but like all the streaming services, what worked, what didn't
what can you know they improve upon before they actually launched,
Like Disney Plus didn't seem to have that many problems

(12:45):
that I recall. But you know, I don't use it
as much as a lot of other people. So you know,
for me, it's been great. You know, I went and
watched the Disney's dug that was on ABC every Saturday morning,
you know, growing up watching that, you know, Bright before
Mania or Live Wire. So uh, yeah, that I didn't
use it as much, but yeah, I didn't hear a

(13:07):
lot of the the negative feedback from those types of
streaming platforms like I did the Network when that launched.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, I mean, Disney is a whole different monstrosity compared
to WWE, Like, so they they're probably gonna do it
better than WW. That's that's there's no shame in not
doing it quite as good as Disney, you know what
I'm saying. When Disney might buy could potentially buy WW
at some point, it's just a different animal, right than WOW.
That'd be wild, right, Yeah, But it's just I thought

(13:38):
that it was gonna really like be like the future
of like if a WW is gonna have a hit
on her hands, Like this is massive deal and it
didn't quite do that. But at the end of the day,
it's still a net game for w W because it
just made a couple of billion dollars off of it
from NBC just bought all of it and but they
got two billion dollars off of it or something like that,
and so monetarily it it worked. But I think WW

(14:03):
would rather have had it been way more successful, like
you comparable to a Netflix or Hulu, And it was
just never going to be that way because there's only
a finite number of wrestling fans and even back then,
and that audience didn't grow in the last seven years.
WW didn't help that for damn sure. If anything, they
chased them off.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Oh I don't understand how they just dropped the ball with,
you know, the marketing on their TV programs, Like it
got so bad that the whole nine ninety ninth thing
became a rib and like promos and stuff, and it
clearly looked like they weren't taking themselves seriously. So why

(14:44):
should I, you know, take it seriously. I mainly watched
the old stuff anyway. The first day it launched, I
took off work and I was watching old WCW pay
per views from nineteen ninety seven. Obviously, you know there
were issues, but you know, I got it for mainly
the old stuff, not to do stuff, and yeah, like
some of the bios they've done, but they just never

(15:06):
seemed to really hit on what they can actually provide
because they had really great content on there, but they
never told anyone that was even like on the fence
about getting it. It was like, oh well, they would always
seem like, oh well, it doesn't seem that special, so
why would I waste my money? You know, ten dollars
could be you know, two bridge trips from Jersey to PA.

(15:32):
So yeah, it's just kind of crazy. Come back at
how they didn't You look.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
At Netflix, and Netflix was a big hit for you know,
years already, but then they started hitting that original content.
It's like the only place you can watch this is
on Netflix. That just made it even bigger. And WW
started out doing stuff like that, and they've done some
good stuff over the years, but not enough to make

(15:58):
you say, you know what, I gotta watch W Network,
Like I gotta get it so I can watch because
the docs are good, you know, like the twenty four
docs or the three sixty five or whatever. Some of
the stuff with Steve Awson they've done. It's pretty good,
but is it worth really parting ways with your money
to do it? Or you know, the pay per views
they're they're definitely not worth parting ways with your money,

(16:19):
like you know what I'm saying, Like, so that's not it.
Then the content, which was good, it just wasn't enough
when you're competing with Netflix. They got stuff like Peaky Blinders,
like I said, you know, or different things that they
put on Netflix, like recently Bridgerton, massive show that everybody
was watching. And then of course you got Disney Plus
now where they put up Mandalorian and WandaVision, which is

(16:42):
a huge show that everybody's talking about. I haven't watched
it yet, but everybody's talking about it. And what is
WW got to compete with that on a streaming service level.
Or they did a cool doc on Bianca Balaire and
Big Ee and those are dope. I like them, but
it's not WandaVision, you know, it's not. It's not Mandalorian,

(17:03):
you know, which by the way, had Sasha Banks.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
You know what I'm saying, Like, So it's w Campton
Clay take off, right, and it.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Can't definitely can't compete with it now, But even twenty fourteen,
twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, it just didn't quite take off
the way I thought it would. So it's just it's
not only a disappointment, and especially from a montail monetary standpoint,
they secured quite the bag off of it, but I
think most people would venture to say, like, yeah, they

(17:36):
expected more out of it, and they got something out
of it, but I think they wanted it to still
stand on his own and be a success on its
own without having to be sold and put it on
Peacock along with tons of other content they have on Peacock,
you know. So yeah, WW network, What a time? What
a time that was. It seems like like that's one

(17:59):
of the things I remember, like it was yesterday and
it's like, damn now it's like a thing of the past.
It was about to be, you know, really soon.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
So yeah, well, let's we can't really call it the
w W network anymore, you.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Know, No, it's just stuff that's on Peacock. It's crazy,
it's just on Peacock now, like not even WW network anymore.
But you know, it is what it is. But let's
we wind back to twenty fourteen. Nick, let's talk about
you real quick before we get into my trip. Where
were you in life in twenty fourteen and what did

(18:34):
you watch the show? Who did you watch the show with?
How did this come about for you?

Speaker 2 (18:38):
You know, I was pumped. I was ready for it.
You know, the raws leading up to this hype me
up on like many other years before this, even when
I was a kid. You had the Daniel Brian joining
the Wyatt family back in like December early January, and
then you had the steel cage him and Bray Wyatt
inside and that crowd. I think I pot that was

(19:02):
might have been one of the first times I posted
or like did it live tweet when that happened during
the Natural show? Like I didn't really know, like my
Twitter game, I didn't like I can't think back to
how it was, but I think it was one of
the first times I was like the ending of Monday

(19:22):
Night Raw was one of the absolute best ever. And
then I actually like converse with people about it, which
you know didn't happen that often, you know, during the
show or even after it ended. One of the best
endings to Raw ever. Daniel Brian pray Wyatt inside the
steel cage, and that's what grabbed me back. I didn't
like I was bumming cm punk quit because cmpunk quit

(19:43):
right after the Royal Rubble this year, and I was
bummed about that. But once they did the whole, this
was before that. It was like a week or two
before that, the whole Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt inside
the cage because they faced each other at the Royal,
But even Seampunk quitting, as much as a bumper that

(20:04):
was to me, I was always hopeful that they would
do the right thing, and they backed their way into
it and put the title on Danielbrian. I haven't been
this much emotionally invested since and I don't remember the
last time I was emotionally invested before this. So yeah,
this was like and maybe that has a lot to
do with why I think WrestleMania thirty is the best

(20:25):
WrestleMania ever. You know, it was just how it made
me feel. I wasn't, you know, embarrassed to be a
wrestling fan or anything like that. I was just like
daniel'brian man, he's a man like I even showed coworkers
like the video of the end of Raw and they
were just like okay, and I'm just like, hear that crowd.
Do you see that crowd?

Speaker 1 (20:45):
He's the next big thing. I'm telling you it just.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
We didn't see that. WWTV was so homogenous back then
that we never got those organic moments and we finally
got one, and oh my god, Like I was all in.
So the whole lead up to it, I was like, okay, like, clearly,
you know, plans are changing behind the scenes. They gotta
get Daniel Brian. They're gonna put him in the main event.
They're good every week, and I'm watching the show like

(21:09):
they're gonna put him in the main event. They're goldn't
put him in the main event. I'm just waiting for
it to happen. And then it finally happened. You know
what Occupy Raw and you know, Triple H agreeing to
face him in a match, and then Dan O'Brian about
to lead but then say oh no, no, no, like
I still want something more, And then that's when I knew.
I was like, yes to put the title on them. Yes,

(21:29):
And I think that was really you know, I was
hyped for it for mainly that I have my friend
might come over, you know, you've been over, just kind
of sitting in my recliner watching the show with my
dad and Mike, and you know, Mike, he was the
guy that I watched wrestling here and there with the
previous few years where I remember our reaction when Kevin

(21:52):
Nash came out like Powerbomb CM Punk at like the
Summer Slam, and he was just like, what the hell's
these doing here? You know, just like stuff like that,
stuff like that, So, you know, casual, he's a casual fan,
but you know, like a fan that isn't doesn't.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Did different say, oh my god, this diesel thought he
was dead? Lol? Might that was legendary from Punk, That
was legendary.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, he was a big cempunk fan too, so uh
but you know he didn't let that Like he didn't
really keep up the date with like the backstage news either.
So I would always kind of like tell him what
was going on. So it was kind of nice, you know,
like I just we just he just kind of enjoyed
it or didn't enjoy it. And I was kind of
like his info guy. Like he would ask me questions,

(22:41):
but he wouldn't answered ask so many questions that I
would start getting annoyed. I was like, just watch the
damn thing. Because I also had a friend that would
always ask questions like thoring matches, and I'm like, dude,
I'm trying to pay attention, like stop. I was never
never good with answering questions while I was trying to
pay attention to something, so so yeah, I mean, like

(23:02):
just watch it there. And I think it was like
a four hour WrestleMania two, so I mean they were
all like four hours at that point, but even the
pre show those were relatively new with like the hour
long pre shows at this point. I don't remember if
they actually I mean the previous year they had the
BIZ and Barrett, but I actually totally forgot to look

(23:23):
up the pre show of this year to see what
was on it, so oopsie. But yeah, I was just
hype for it.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
It was it was like an elimination tag match for
the tag titles. I believe that's where oh boy, the
real Americans split up.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
That's right, because they mentioned it during the Battle Royal. Yeah. Yeah,
and that's where I was like, I made a note
to go back, and I just didn't. But yeah, like
that's kind of like I was in my second or
third year of education, like baseball was starting and I
was kind of like, you know, we had a good team.

(23:59):
So I was it's like, no, feeling pretty good all around.
I was feeling pretty good at this point.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
It's funny you mentioned like pre shows. I remember because again,
this is when the WW network first launched, and they
were I don't think they did this after WrestleMania thirty.
They might have done it for w RESTMENA thirty one,
but I don't recall them doing it in recent years. Well,
they had like a little like an hour show each

(24:26):
day leading up to WrestleMania at like Access. It's like
a WrestleMania Today type of thing. It was almost like
they had like a desk. It was like a panel,
so pretty much what you'll see at like a super
Bowl or a Final Four. They pretty much had it
at WrestleMania. I thought that was dope. I was like, yeah,
that's that's the stuff I like to see. WW like
a little felt like Sports Center. They felt like they
were at the NBA Finals or the Standing Cup Final

(24:48):
or whatever. I remember them doing that at Access, So
I thought that was pretty dope. So I just thought
about that when you mentioned the pre show for this show.
But for me, twenty fourteen have been how old it
would have been twenty five? I guess, yeah, I guess
twenty five, right, yeah, And so obviously I went to

(25:09):
the previous year's previous show twenty nine and now I'm
all in with the blog and you know, square circle.
So obviously we got running back. We got to go
back to WrestleMania, and I was honestly surprised that they
was like, all right, we'll send you dope, let's do it.
And of course it's in New Orleans, so it's like,
let's rock. You know, I'm here, let's do it. This

(25:35):
would have been my second time going to New Orleans.
My first time being in the city was in twenty twelve,
so two years prior, when I was working for the
Philadelphia Soul Rip of the Arena Football League. My last
season with them, we went to the Arena Bowl and

(25:55):
played the Arizona Ratlers. I don't know if you remember
the Arizona Ratlers then nick, I do, I do, uh,
but we we won the conference championship game over the
Jacksonville Sharks and punched our ticket to Arena Bowl twenty
five in New Orleans. Uh, and faced Like I said that,
the Arizona Ratlers who were stacked. It was. It was
they had let me tell you who they had Nick.

(26:17):
They had Nick Davila bro who's a monster left Lefty too. Uh,
they had Rod Windsor and Marty's purified. I mean they
was they were stacked, all right. The punisher, Yeah, don't don't.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
That's what they called them, right, I.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Don't remember that at all. They might have. We had
some good players too, but it didn't work out too
well for us. We lost that game. We lost that game.
It was unfortunate. It's no Arena Bowl championship for me.
But it was a positive because I did get to
see New Orleans for the first time, and I got
to go to Berber Street in the French Quarter and
just saw how wild it was down there. For a

(26:58):
I was down there, I guess because the game was
on the Friday, so I was down the night before
Thursday night in August. There's nothing like, there's nothing special happening.
It's like it's Marty Grass or people are in New
Orleans because of the Arena Bowl. That was not the case.
You know, people didn't know the Arena Bowl was happening there.
It's sad to say it, but that's just the truth, right.

(27:18):
I still love the Arena Football League, don't get me wrong.
But the amount of people I saw out on Bourbon
Street and in the first quarter, it was just like, whoa,
you know, I'm from Philly, obviously you know we're from Philly.
And I figured, you know, I've only been like South Street,
South Street. It's like, that's the wildest thing to do.
Like why you see all these people on South Street?

(27:38):
And then I saw a Bourbon Street, Like, oh, this
is like this has got South Street beat by a lot.
It's just something else. And I never ever seen people
act like this. So I was down there and I
saw like how wild it was. I was like, man,
I gotta get back to this city, like this is crazy.
I ain't on money that I was broke, so I
just got out of college so I couldn't party like

(27:59):
I want to. But then I was like, yeah, going
back to New Orleans. Yes, let's do it all right,
let's book the hotel months in advance Philly dot Com.
Let's do it because I don't want to get shut
out of New Orleans. Because New Orleans it's a great city,
but not a big city, right, really not a big city,

(28:19):
So it can easily get booked up as far as hotels,
especially when you got an event like WrestleMania. Ww's gonna
use up whole bunch of hotels and all the fans
are gonna use up the hotel. So I'm like, let's
get this stuff out the way, let's do it, let's
book it up. But that didn't happen. For whatever reason,

(28:40):
I didn't have to. I couldn't book my hotel until February,
and by that point it was too late. I was
New Orleans was booked up, or if it was an opening,
it would have been well outside of our price range,
which I was like, I told y'all we should have
been booking in like November or December. Now here we
are in February and March, and y'all want to know,
you're looking at me like I'm creaty okay, okay, man.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
They were probably like, oh, you might not be here,
maybe that's not what you're doing.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
No, I was going so.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
I mean, like you know that whole the whole way
off thing.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Oh well yeah, that wasn't for another year, and uh,
I don't think we saw that coming down the pipe,
even a year event, so that was the case. I
probably wouldn't have gone at all. We knew that was coming.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
I always wonder, you know, if they think, you know,
in the back of their mind that's what their reasoning
is with things like that, But you know, I'm not there,
so I don't know.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
It wasn't That wasn't the case in twenty fourteen at least.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
So just lazy.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
No, it wasn't just that. It's just they didn't believe
me when I said they would get booked up. For
some reason. I guess they didn't think, like wrestlemin it
was that big of an event. It's like, no, you
don't understand, this is a big deal. One hundred thousand
people are going to be in there, in the in
the city. They were waiting for me to get my
credential confirmed by WW.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Wait. Yeah, maybe they thought because the previous year was like,
what was the timeframe of you? Oh, well you didn't
really you didn't get a hotel up there.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
No, I went the day of. But WW has this
thing where they don't really send in your confirmation until
like maybe two weeks in advance, which I don't understand
why they do that, Like, you know you're gonna tell
me yes, so just tell me now why wait? So
they were waiting for that, and I'm like I had
to call them, like, hey, look, you're going to confirm it, right.

(30:29):
They're like, yeah, we're going to confirm it. We're just
not gonna send out the letters. But you're going to confirment.
Because I'm a book we need to book now. So
I'll try to finally get a chance to book it,
but obviously can't stay in New Orleans, so no, I
gotta stay in nearby Avondale, Louisiana, which is twenty five
minutes away from New Orleans driving. This is twenty fourteen, though,

(30:55):
so I didn't really know about Uber, right. I can't
think about Uber until like twenty fifteen. So I went
to WrestleMania in California. So I'm taking taxis back and
forth from Avondale to New Orleans. Each way. It's like
thirty five bucks each way, and because of that, I

(31:16):
couldn't fully enjoy New Orleans the way I wanted to. Now,
if I knew it about Uber and back then, Uber
will probably have been not that expensive. Because you know,
this is when it first started up in a twenty
five minute ride. I've taken twenty five minute ubers before.
They're not that expensive. I could have did it, but
I didn't know. I didn't know how I was gonna
get a taxi. You know. I didn't want to get stuck,

(31:37):
so I couldn't stay too late in New Orleans without
getting my taxi back to the Madamn Hotel, which was
fortunately right across the street from a waffle House. So
that's the first time I got to go to waffle house.
And I thoroughly enjoyed the waffle house. So I don't
know why I didn't go to waffle House when I
went back last year. That's a shame I should have.
But so yeah, that was that was an unfortunate part

(31:59):
of the trip. Uh. But I did get to go
back last year, and I did thoroughly enjoy myself. I'll
talk about that in a second, I guess, But let
me get to the actual stuff that I did in
New Orleans.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
Right.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
So I get there. It's a Saturday, that's the day
of the Hall of Fame ceremony. So I get there,
I get to downtown New Orleans. I was like, all right, well,
let's go to Access. And it was a beautiful night
in New Orleans, and New Orleans just stuff has happened.
It seemed like everywhere, like there's always something happens. It's
music playing over here, there's people drinking over there. Like

(32:33):
it's a very walkable city because it's just stuff happening.
It's a vibe. I can't explain this. It's a real
vibe in a city. Like if nobody's ever going to
New Orleans, I highly recommend it. It's probably my second fivorest
city outside.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Of Philly, like honestly, and I do have family down there.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
I just you know, man, you don't really that much
if you need an excuse to all of a sudden
hit New Orleans up saying hey, I want to hang
out with my family that I haven't seen years. Do
it right, Do it right. So I get there. I
walked to Access to the Convention Center, and that's the

(33:09):
first time I really had to see a convention center
Access right, because last year and MetLife Stadium, the or
the Eyes Out Center, I should say, where Access was.
It was in an arena and it was like stuff
was in the concourse and in the suite and stuff
like that in the arena, so it wasn't quite the
same like the convention center where you can see all
the different exhibits and all the posters they had hanging up,

(33:31):
And I walked past that WrestleMania Today set they had
set up, like I said, for the WW network, they
had the NXT matches going. It was actually really dope.
Like WW. We can give them a lot of mess
for the stuff they do on TV, give them a
lot of mess for some of the business practices like
you know, laying or releasing a bunch of people during

(33:52):
a pandemic when they made record profits in twenty twenty, right,
but I will give them credit for their attention to
d tell when it comes to fan access, it's pretty
just pretty remarkable, like all the exhibits, all the memorabilia,
all the different things they have set up where you
can do you can make your own entrance, you can
watch NXT match, you can all these different photo ops,

(34:15):
or you can get an autographic, wait in line for
an autograph. There's so much stuff going on that stuff
ain't easy to pull off. I don't know who's in
charge of that, but my hat is off to them
because that's a lot, all right, a lot of logistics
at play getting that stuff. All that stuff they have
probably at that warehouse in Stanford all the way to
wherever WRESTLEMANI is. That's not easy, so I'll give them
credit for that. But I always try to go to

(34:38):
Access to get the interviews. I get the interviews. I
forget who I interviewed. Honestly, I don't know why I
blanked on who I interviewed the Access this year, but
I left out of there and went straight to the
Hall of Fame. And I didn't catch a TAXI didn't
take public expectation that just walked. It was like a
thirty minute walk. But it's New Orleans, so you just walk.

(34:59):
It's dope. It's just a fun city to walk through, right,
And this is my first Hall of Fame ceremony. I
went to WrestleMania the year before, but I didn't go
to the Hall of Fame ceremony, which I would have
liked to have done, because it was at Madison Square
Garden and I've never been to Madison Square Garden. But
this year's New Orleans. Who I got to go, and
I like dressed somewhat nice for the occasion, like I

(35:22):
wore like a shirt and the tie, and I had
like a jacket over top of it, like a like
a like a spring jack. I didn't wear like a blazer.
I had like khakis. Yeah, Like I dressed like business casual,
thinking that like people might see me, and then they
gave me a ticket.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
The people there sat right.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
I figured, like I figured they might sit me like
in a press box. I don't know, like this is
the first time. I think, this is the first time
I realized that they wouldn't do that. I don't know,
even for like a WrestleMania they wouldn't do it or
Hall of Fame ceremony, I should say, because I figured
because it's WrestleMania, they would still us in the press box.
They did not. They sat as way up top in

(36:01):
the top of the arena amongst the fans. I'm like, man,
I brought a I brought all this stuff, think, and
I was gonna be like be able to work during
this and I got nothing done. I'm just sitting up
here with a shirt and the tie on for nothing.
And it was, of course, this is the Hall of
Fame that Jake Roberts got inducted Ultimate Warrior mister T. H.

(36:24):
Scott Hall, who they always called the Rais of Ramon
leader Carl, those colonnas of Really it's actually a pretty
dope class in hindsight. But I'm just sitting way up
top listening to this. And that's when my first time
I realized, like, man, the Hall of Fame is long
and kind of boring, honestly, Like and I went the

(36:49):
next year, but and that was my last WrestleMania in person.
But if I were to go to WrestleMania again, which
next time I'll go, I'm not going as a media
member obviously, but they let's say I went to Wrestleman
in Dallas next year, I probably would have skipped the
Hall of Fame. It's just I got nothing out of it,
like really nothing like not even a good like headline
for the for the website. It's just like, nah, it's

(37:11):
all right, congrats to all the inductees, though I mean
nothing nothing against them. But that's just how it is.
But that's how I feel the least. But so the
same day the next day's to say, I pretty much
did the same thing. Started out my day at Access,
got interviews and then walked to the Superdome now the

(37:32):
arena where access or not access, the Hall of Fame was,
it's called It's funny, it's called the Smoothie King Center,
right where the Pelicans play. Uh, that's right across the way,
right across the street from the super Dome. It's like
if you think Lincoln Financial Field and Wells Fargo Center,
it's really close. It's probably even closer. And when New

(37:53):
Orleans went between Smoothie King Center and the Superdome, so
I just took the same way I took the night
before walk to the super Dome. And again it's a
beautiful day and New Orleans is a very fun city
to walk through, and it was a blast. It was
actually pretty dope because I remember walking and at one
point I got to like, you know, a straight shot

(38:15):
from to the super Dome, and it's like right downtown
New Orleans. And the closer and closer I got to
the super Dome, the more and more wrestling fans were
around me. And everybody was just partying and having a
good time, because, for one, is New Orleans like you
better party and have a good time. But also because
it's like, hey, it's wrestling fans and it's WrestleMania. Let's

(38:37):
we're in a good mood. And it was just like
it's closer and closer. I got and more and more
wrestling fans, and all of a sudden, boom, there was
a super Dome. Because this just sneaks up on you
real fast. It's like Center City, New Orleans. I guess
if you want to call up that, like imagine if
Linko Financial Fuel. It was like in downtown Philly, like
it's that That's how super Dome is, and it's just

(38:58):
like boop there. It is like you walking, there's like
a building, there's a restaurant and oh, super Dome right there, Okay,
and it's just like damn, we're here. This is WrestleMania,
Like I'm back for the second year in a row.
This is it. And you get that feeling that energy
is like, yeah, something big on happen tonight. Because like
you said earlier, there was like an energy around this

(39:19):
show heading into it, the Daniel Bryan stuff. You just
knew something big was gonna happen. This felt different from
other shows. It was just like, Okay, we're gonna watch
the show. Johnson is probably gonna win, and it's gonna
be in this stadium and to shoot up some fireworks.
Even by twenty nine and thirty, the shows that kind
of become sort of routine, at WrestleMania, this felt different.

(39:40):
Head again. There was just an energy and a fervor
around this show. I think everybody got caught up in it,
from fans to wrestlers to the media. I think we
were all kind of caught up in it because it
was the first time we had that feeling in a while,
and we just kind of reveled in it.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
I thought it was dope, yeah, you know in my mind. Also,
you know, you had WrestleMania, which was, you know, noteworthy,
Wressellmania twenty obviously noteworthy at the time, so Wrestlmania thirty
like that was probably just because it was WrestleMania thirty,
Like you knew they're gonna do something big, you know,
whether it's putting the title of Daniel Brian or something

(40:17):
else like that was you know, I was say ten
twenty thirty, you know for me, and I expect the
same damn thing. When WrestleMania forty comes, it'll be so
different than it was, you know, even in twenty fourteen.
But you know, that's just kind of how I look
at it too.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
Yeah, it's just that energy was palpable outside of the
super Dome and day and it was really dope. But
before we get into the show, I gotta talk about
nu Orleans because, like I said, I got to go back.
So don't feel too bad for me, because I know
I didn't didn't have that much fun in twenty twelve
and twenty fourteen, But in early twenty twenty, I took

(40:56):
a real vacation to Nuorles. Me and my girl went
down there around my birthday actually early February twenty twenty,
before the pandemic hit, So you don't have to worry
about you know. I didn't travel during the pandemic obviously.
Uh well, at least we didn't know really what it was, right,

(41:17):
you know, at that point, we were all pretty uneducated
when it came to that, and would continue to still
be that way until like maybe like late last year,
like right, But I got to hear Burber Street properly,
which was just fantastic, Like I felt. I remember seeing
people walking around with like the fish bowls around their
neck from twenty twelve and twenty fourteen. I I wanna

(41:40):
be that person, I don't care how much of a
tourist those people look like. I wanna be that person
having that good of a time. You y, You imagine
how much funny you gotta be having to put an
entire fishbowl around your neck and just walk around the
street with it with confidence, like that's a lot of
that's you gotta happen. You gotta be having a lot
of fun. I wouldn't do that here in Philly, you know,

(42:00):
I got a reputation upholl but down in New Orleans,
like all bets are off, you know, all bets are off.
You just have That's how much fun you're having. You
putting a whole fish full of alcohol around your neck
and you're just drinking it. That was me when we
went to We went to New Orleans and I had
to eat all this dope food and then I had
some charcoal oysters for the first time. Those were amazing.

(42:22):
I had alloc at the hot dog. Nick. Let me
tell you, I look at the hot dog. Come on,
you haven't lived unless you had a look at the
hot dog. I'm telling you, bro, Alligator hot dog, gator dog.
It's amazing. It's incredible. From from a place called that
dog that dat dog in New Orleans. Right, it's like
it tastes amazing, Right, it's a hot dog. She's just

(42:45):
a regular hot dog. It looks like a hot dog.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
It's just alligating me, like is it sweeter like tikes?

Speaker 1 (42:54):
Look? Let me, let me, let me be one hundred
percent honest with you here, because just I had that
hot dog during a food tour where me and my
girl we had them some we had consumed with some
adult beverages before the food tour. Let me just say that,
so we were a little you know, we were a
little out there. So I don't fully I couldn't give

(43:16):
you a full review of this alligated dog. Just know
that at the time I thought it was incredible. And
that's all I remember. All right. Just know, if you
do a food tour in New Orleans, at least the
one that I did, which was on Magazine Street in
New Orleans, don't do nothing before this food tour, all right, Like,

(43:40):
don't eat nothing, don't drink nothing, because on this food
tour they're gonna give you plenty of stuff to eat
and plenty of stuff to drink. And I ain't talking
about water and soda, all right, talking about cold heart
alcohol all right, straight alcohol in this store. That's what
they do, all right. They give you to go glass.
They even give you a to go glass, like here
you go, have a good time. Now see it come

(44:02):
back again. It's like, damn, this is incredible, all right.
So yeah, I went back since we got my redemption
in New Orleans. It was it was amazing, like great food.
I got to see a parade. It was a smaller parade.
It wasn't like a massive one, but it was a
parade and I had, like I probably had like a
half a dozen mimosas while waiting for this parade to start.

(44:24):
And it was incredible.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
All right, what is the parade for?

Speaker 1 (44:30):
It's just this tradition, Like no, it's just so you
know how we like the only way I can equate
it is like the Mummers up here where they have
like different crews, right and they have to they do
their thing. They had their bands and whatnot, and they're ensembles.
And of course I had the parade on New Year's Day. Well,

(44:50):
Martin Grass is like sort of like New Orleans version
of that, probably with more history behind it, and it
lasts for a lot longer time, like it's going for
a couple of months. And it's probably more fun too,
because I had a blast. I don't know about you.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
I had.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
I don't know how much fun people have my Mama's parades.
I've never been. I've seen clips of them on TV.
They don't look like people are having a grand old time.
It's just like, oh I watch it and that's fun.
But these parades, people are having a grand old time.
Let me tell you right now, because I know what
I did. At least it was. It was amazing. So

(45:25):
I mean, it's it's fun. It's a really dope city, man.
So I'd recommend it to anybody looking for a place
to vacation or just go and just like I want
to turn up for a couple of days.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
Well, they use like that parade type, uh you know
shot for these vignettes leading up to WrestleMania and New
Orleans that like there were wrestlers that like parading down
Bourbon Street. I'm assuming it was so definitely had that scene.

(45:59):
I enjoyed the all the promos leading up to it.
You know, they definitely had a door Leans field of them.
Even though I'm not from there and I don't know
exactly what a Door Leans feel. What it's like.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, like we could start out the show, I guess,
get into it, but like the show starts off with
this package with the jazz music playing in the background
and get the band playing in the French Quarter, and
it was like a New Orleans type of feel. It's
just it's funny because people see that, it's like, oh,
that's maybe New Orleans isn't always like that. They can't
just have people walking down the street playing instruments. And

(46:33):
it's like, no, that's true. Like you walk down Bourbon
and the French Quarter, there's people just there is music everywhere,
like and not just like like speakers coming through speak
I'm talking like live music, people singing their asses off
like out of these bars. Like so yeah, that was
that was a sort of accurate kind of I mean, uh,

(46:56):
if anything, they're probably not big enough in these promos
like parades canna be even bigger. But the video package
yourself as we get into the show, I've aughtays actually
really good. M hmm. I don't know who was who
the narrator was, but I dug it. I like the
narration Chris Christy not this time you thought it was

(47:21):
Sean Sena. But I like the jazz music they played
and it was a it was a good package. So
and then we get to the big pyro to start
the show, which they didn't have the year before, which
was kind of weird, but they had it the rest
of many of thirty and we're off and running.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
But I counted, by the way, six camera cuts in
two seconds. That's all opening priorros like boom boom, boom boom.
It was like relaxed. Kevin don Geez stood out to
me like a sore thumb.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
Take it ease, he's just getting started on his uh
road to quick camera cuts because they weren't too bad
on this night, but I'm sure they had their moments.
But the stage itself, the WrestleMania stage, and like you said,
the look was incredible. I thought it was great.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
Just the black and it was like shiny, you know,
and you had the This was like they were still
experimenting with these led led you know, lighting or screens
and whatnot. So you had like the led coming down
the ramp on both sides of it, and then the
center was like the black. I thought the whole look

(48:32):
was awesome.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
I agree. I thought it was dope. I mean, is
it to me? It's not the best WrestleMania stage of
all time? I think, to me, if we're going to
do a quick ranking for what I can remember, I
thought the one in Orlando, uh in twenty seventeen Resume
of thirty three was the best. It was like the
amusement park. Yeah, I guess, but I wasn't like that.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
I liked the ramp coming from the actual top of
the stadium to.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
That ramp was ridiculous. That's like eighty yards Apparently.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
I enjoyed that. But uh yeah, the Ultimate throw Ride stuff,
I just thought it was so cornball that I it
turned me off. Uh So, maybe I have to go
back and like look at it to try I reappreciate it.
But I I thought it was turned off.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
But it was super intricate and detailed, and I was like, damn,
this's and it took clue. It took a lot of work.
They pretty much just built an amusement park right then
and there. I thought it was dope. That's probably my
favorite one. This is this and maybe WrestleMania thirty four
and the second one in New Orleans. They had like
the Marti Grass like mask and the Hat. Yeah, I

(49:41):
thought that was pretty dope too. Yeah, I thought that
was pretty dope. I'm trying to think of one another
one that might kind of fit one of my favorite
I thought the one in Arizona or like like the
Assex Pyramid. I thought that was pretty cool. Uh paying
how much like the you know, the Aztec Roots. But

(50:03):
WrestleMania seventeen was always really cool.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
That was just like really really big one.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
Yeah, it was really dope too. I remember seeing that
for the first time. I was like, WHOA, Like I
couldn't because I was only twelve, and I was just incredible.
I thought nineteen was pretty cool because it was unique
and it had like the turn part of the Isleway.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
Yes, I'm always a big fan of the you know,
always a big fan of that that Ben's instead of
a straight shot, right, it's just Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
I thought wrestlemting A twenty one with the it that
was in la with like the movie set or like
it wasn't like a movie, like an award show type
of thing. I thought that was pretty cool. But yeah,
I mean the one in twenty nineteen wasn't that great
because it's just a big screen like that one that much.
The Brooklyn Bridge really didn't do it for me. The
ones that the ones the wrestlemaning in Miami and the

(50:58):
one in California were virtually this same. Uh So those
really didn't do it for me. So yeah, I mean
they're here to miss, but I thought this one was
one of the better ones they've had the rest of
the manyear thirty you just speaking of Pyro though, speaking
of Pyro, we got to talk about real quick a

(51:19):
w hmmmm mmmmm.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Uh I uh, I definitely felt ripped. I definitely felt
ripped off a little bit. But hey, hell, you know,
like I'm I'll support you know, the wrestlers that work
there that clearly uh do it for the love of
the business. Uh A lot of them at least do
And uh man, that just fell so flat, And yeah,

(51:47):
I got my jokes off, Like you know, everyone was
so quick. Like not everyone, I should say, Like some
people you could just tell that they were so embarrassed
by it that they had a they need to like
defend it or something. It's like, no, you you acknowledge it.
And I'm talking about like people on social media, not
anyone that works there, not even Tony Kahan, who tried
to like play it off a little bit. It's like, man,

(52:09):
just stop, just stop tweeting.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
Yeah, just just own it, bro, just own it.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
And it's just funny and yeah, you know, like you
you make fun of it, you realize that it was
a massive screw up, and then you move on, you
know exactly. You know, that's I wasn't tuning into Dynamite
last night just to see like the outcome of it,
like to see what they said about it. Like I
was already over it by that point. I was like

(52:34):
they could say whatever they want, like I don't, I
don't really care because there's so much other things that
they have on their program to like pay attention to that.
You know, I see what they you know, come out
of it, and I thought they did a relatively good
job explaining it, like it was funny, and you know,
they obviously acknowledged it, and then you know, you just
move on from that, and that's kind of like, but no,

(52:55):
like Sunday and Monday, I'm going to get my jokes
off and you know, that's that's the same exact thing
that happened with W and I do that, so you know,
it's it was just funny that people tried to, you know,
come to the rescue of AW for something we can't.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
There's no defending it. It's indefensible, like there's no whay
around it. It was it was a dud, like but
that's it, Like there's no way around it, Like I
don't see how anyone could possibly defend it, like like
that's it. Yeah, we we we've seen these big explosions before.
We know what they should look like. We know that

(53:30):
they were attending something else because Adie Kings and Soda
like he died and the announcers like, oh my god,
like they were going crazy about it, So we know
there was supposed to be something bigger and we didn't
get it. But like you said, it's all right, Like
nobody was really even mad at AW about it. We
were all just making fun of it because it was hilarious.
But then get the jokes off. That lasts for like

(53:52):
twenty four to forty eight hours and it's done. Like
that's stuff. That stuff happens, Like you look at I
work for sports team and something bad happens in the game.
People won't get their jokes off. Bro, There's nothing you
can do to stop it. You can't come out and
defend it. But it stops, the jokes will stop, and
people will move on eventually. And trust me, people got

(54:14):
a lot more invested emotionally into the Eagles and any
other NFL team, and they do an aaw right, let
me tell me for sure, the Eagles. Let's just know
that because people live and die with that team, and
that's just how it is. This is how Eagles fans are.
They're very passionate fan base and we love it. That's
just you know, we all love its. Fans love it.

(54:35):
Everybody loves it. But if they can move on when
something bad happens, you better believe aw fans who are
already on your side, they will move on. But when
it happened, not watching it with my girl, and she
was like, I'm telling them, like, yeah, this is gonna
be a big explosion at the end, Like wait, watch,
it's gonna happen, right because I'm telling because she's never

(54:57):
seen a death match, obviously, an exploding death mat. I've
watched a couple on YouTube or whatever from Japan. So
I'm like, I told her all the rules, like there's
a countdown, and you know, she's she knows and she's
seeing all the explosions happen. She's like, oh no, and
heep telling the people bleeding, and she didn't like to
see all the blood and stuff like that. But then
when the match ended, she's like, oh, well, at least

(55:18):
we won't have to blow the ring up and nobody's
want to get hurt. I'm like, no, I still think
they're going to do that because they're putting the heat
on it Moxley here, like they're beating them up, they're
killing the time. I think they're still going to blow
it up. That's the whole point. Like, that's not really
the whole point, but that's like the big crescendo to
the end of the exploding death matches. The ring blows
up like at the end, or they set up a

(55:39):
bunch of fireworks, right, so they do the whole thing
and the countdown, and somebody said that that was gonna
be Chernobyl out there, like, and it made it sound
like like that. It was like massive deal. People are
scrambling and running away before the Kingson comes in and
jumps some type of moxley and it's like and my

(56:03):
girl was like, that's it. I'm like, oh, well, yeah,
that's not what it's supposed to be. What a time.
So a W You'll be fine, You'll be all right,
you know, just make sure the next time if you
want to do, if there is next time for an
exploding deathmatch, that explosion comes off massively and not like

(56:24):
a wet fart in church. Oh man, that was rough.
It's a dud. It's a dud, and you move on. Hey,
people got to I mean people still laugh about the
shock Master. But yeah, I mean, hey, it is what
it is like, there's nothing you can do. There's nothing
you can do. It's all right, it's fine. It's fine though.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
It's funny. And listen, we'll still make fun of it.
It'll still be a punch line down the road. But
it's something to be said for the trying to defend.
But you know, like we're just laughing, we're having a
good time. We're not telling it. We're not saying anyone
needs to be fired for a mess up. We're not

(57:08):
saying that. You know, Aw, this is why they're worse
than w W. Like that's not it's like things happen personally.
People take it so personally. Sometimes, Yeah, W has fans
that take all this stuff. Personally, I just will never
understand it.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
Things happen. Sometimes mistakes happen, and that's when you can't
get back. Obviously, it sucks when it happens, but there's
nothing you could do. Like it's of course you didn't
want it to go, but it happened. Hey, look this
is what it is. No AW is going to lose
viewers or lose fans because of it. It's all right,
it's fine. Back to WrestleMania thirty though. We start off

(57:47):
the show with the host of WrestleMania.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
About Paul Cogan. I forgot that he was technically the host.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
Excuse me, Yes, he was right. I meant to hit
the mute button when I called and like muted it
and came back. I hit it twice.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
I'm just gonna leave it in there.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
You might as well.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Anyway, that was forgotten. It See we're laughing at ourselves. Awa.
Mistakes happened, but yeah, I totally forgot he was the host,
like technically the hosts. For some reason. I remember the
promo and I was like, oh, yeah, Hogan's gonna come
out Austin in the Rock. But I totally forgot. He
was like technically the host, which she only made like
what other appearance I think throughout the night, but they

(58:33):
used that term host. I don't know, maybe it's just
like ironically.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
It's a promotional things like oh, by the way, hosted
by Hawk Hogan, and it's not like an award show
host where you see them like seventy times during the
show with wardrobe changes. It's like, right, you get to
see them in the beginning, and you might see them
in a back stay segment and maybe one more time
after that, and that's it. That's your host, and that's it.
So hosted about Hawk great, Okay, So he comes out

(59:02):
and I was thinking of like, man, it's really a
shame that Hogan is such a goof because his music,
his theme song is a bop. I'm sorry, it's an
all timer, and it sounds a little different, like it
kind of has a different like connotation now because of
the previous presidential regime, you know, real America, And I

(59:26):
could see Donald Trump trying to dance of that and
making me never want to listen to that song ever again.
I'm es he danced to a lot of other cheesy
ass songs like was a Ymca and stuff. Like that,
But that wasn't the song's original intent, you know, when
they wrote this song and made the song, that wasn't
the thought process. So I'm still like when I first

(59:48):
when I heard it on this show, I'm like bobbing
my head til I'm like, damn, this song is still
really good. I'm tacking my foot and stuff, like when
I get the guitar solo. When the guitar sole happens,
I'm Eric Gatime, I'm like, I did that. I didn't
even think about that. I just subconsciously did that, Like
I can't help myself. So, but Huk Hogan such a

(01:00:08):
great host, right, such a great host. He immediately comes
out and messes up by getting the name of the
stadium that he is currently standing in wrong because this
event took place at the Mercedes been Superdome, home of
course to the New Orleans Saints and annually to the

(01:00:28):
Sugar Bowl. But he sat there instead of front of
the seventy five thousand, one and sixty seven fans in
the Superdome that night. Instead we're in the Silver Dome,
and everybody's like uh. And he said it not once

(01:00:52):
but twice.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
Even after the you started getting a reaction the first time, right,
and he I guess he just didn't realize it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Of course, the Silver Dome is the the Formers no
longer the stadium, but it was stadium in Pontiac, Michigan,
where the Detroit Lions used to play. I think the
Pistons played there for a little while too, but that
was where, of course, the home of WrestleMania three, where
Hawk Hogan slam Andre the Giant. The building was torn

(01:01:24):
down in twenty seventeen for those that are interested. But
he got it wrong twice, the Silver Dome, and it's
like then he stands there and looks around and everybody's
like super Dome, super Dome. He's like, oh, I'm sorry, brothers,
they're super Dome, and it's just like, oh Man, thinking

(01:01:46):
about like when SID messed up their promo and they
al was like, we're live pal, this is where we are.
We're live Pal.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Yeah. I was like, what a goof Wren. What a start.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
It started off from the very beginning as like, what
the hell's happening? This is really stupid and really entertaining
the Silver Dome brother not once but twice.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
But you know the great part about that and obviously
we'll see, you know, the rock and Austin kind of
give it to them a little bit. They moved past it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
It's okay, Aw, it's all right, it's okay, it's all right,
it's all right. It made me think I forgot just
remember too, that I forgot that WW went back to WrestleMania,
went back to New Orleans for WrestleMania in twenty eighteen,
and the reason why it went back so soon was
because the city was celebrating its Trice centennial, which also

(01:02:48):
made me think that maybe that could be a reason why,
you know, Philly gets a WrestleMania in twenty twenty six.
You know fifty two fifty well.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Baby, baby, technically not the bust of the wise that
that was, that was that would be years ago. Yeah,
it just sounded.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
But yeah, I don't know what what you would call
that fifty but Byson tannel, we'll go with that. But
as you said, holding Blabber's arms for a little bit
longer and Steve Austin comes out, the glass shatters and
our help breaks loose, and it made me think is

(01:03:30):
there anything and is there anything better in wrestling? Then
the sound of the glass shattering and the pop that follows.
I'm not sure that there is.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
If that's an instantaneous moment, I think you're right. If yeah,
there's nothing leading in the moment, you know, like I
didn't know that. I don't remember if all these people
were advertised leading up to it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
They were not, so they weren't, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
For me, I would say, like, okay, Daniel Brian, that
pop when Batista taps is great, but you're anticipating it.
There's an anticipatory moment before that, so that pops almost
not maybe not different, but it's I view it differently.
When you have like the glass shattering when you know
you don't expect it, then yeah, like it's one of

(01:04:23):
the best moments.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
Moment, Yeah, for a wrestling fan, it's just like that
adrenaline instantly is an instant adrenaline rush. The energy just
shoots through the roof and you know something that's about
to happen because Steve Awston is about to do something crazy.
Typically not on this night, but typically I was thinking, like, man,
that's like, that's just an awesome feeling. When that glass

(01:04:46):
shatter and that pop, It's like, what's a better instant
moment in wrestling than that. I don't know if there
is one, honestly, but he comes out and instantly makes
fun of whole get for saying the silver Dome and

(01:05:08):
and Rock also talks about his admiration for Hogan and
stuff like that. But then another and expected surprise, we
get the Rock. It's it was you know, if you
smell and his music starts, that's a pretty cool moment too.
I don't know if it's as quite as crazy as
the glass shattering, but his beginning of his music and

(01:05:29):
that first.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
Instant's pretty good to The glass shattering is like an
action too, Like it's it's a different type of reaction,
like if you smell, like that's that's great, but it's
a voice that, like you're kind of you're used to.
The glass shattering is so unique where I guess that's why,

(01:05:50):
like I would put it above.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
The only thing that could match today, that could potentially
match a glass shattering is if wherever this happens, and
if they have this song and this type of entrance
is if you hear that TV kind of sound and

(01:06:15):
you hear Living Color play, you know, I'm right though,
whenever we get fans back, You're right. In the arenas,
which could happen later this year and for let's say
by some weird chance to see a punk decides to
go to either w W or a W or wherever,

(01:06:37):
I don't know, you Japan.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
Impact Wrestling Impact could be.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
But if that does happen and you hear that that
TV like scratched and you hear Living Color play, that
pop is going to be immense. Yeah, if he shows
up in an arena.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Which is why I'm glad, you know, like I'm ready,
Like I don't care if he comes back, honestly, but
it would be cool. It would be a cool moment,
and I'm glad that they didn't waste it all, like,
you know, while they have this Thunderdome thing going on
and everyone's like, oh, well, you show up at the
Royal Rumble, and I was like, I hope not, because
that would be late to sell. It would be even

(01:07:16):
lame if they had people in the crowd there, Like
you need like an arena, you know the way you know,
daily these places right now with people like stretched out
the way now in Philly that you know we're they're
having fans that the arena is like you need that
set up for that to even work, and because you're
not going to have a pack stadium for another quite

(01:07:37):
a while, you know, so it's not gonna happen anytime.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
I don't know, depending on where it happens, man, that's true.
I guess Texas Rangers gonna have full capacity opening day.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
Yeah, that's interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
I'm totally later this year, depending on where it is.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
Arena States are doing what they want to do, So
you're right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
So, but yeah, the Rock comes out and he talks.
He also makes fun of Hogan for saying this silver dome. Uh,
And they you know, cut a promo and talk about,
you know, show their admiration for each other, and it
was just a really cool ass moment. But the coolest
part to me was that only that they were out there,
these three legendary figures say which one about Hogan? He

(01:08:20):
is one of the biggest stars of all time, and
of course so is Austin and so is the Rock.
But they also kind of spun it forward. They all
talked about like, Hey, we're going to see Daniel Bryan
go fight tonight. We're gonna see you know, he's gonna
stand up against the authority. We're gonna see John Cenough
do this, We're gonna and they they were there like
this is like a great use of legends not to
They could have easily had them go against each other,

(01:08:41):
like the Rock versus Hogan, Hogan Rock versus Austin in
the main event, and that would have been like, yeah,
they just wrestled each other.

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
They kind of tease that before the Rock came out,
because Austin was like, if you want to beat Open
cared a whoop ass on Hogan, Yeah, which was funny
because all they wanted was like that, hell yeah, of course. Yeah.
I wasn't taking that seriously like they were like part
of me, because you know, Austin Hogan was still kind
of talked about back then it is a possible match
if they could go physically. So like in the back

(01:09:10):
of my head, I'm like, are they planning a seed
right here? But then when the Rock came out, I
was like, I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
I don't know. Hogan was not in wrestling shape and
even in two thousand and four, But it's to me,
the uses get him out there, they get the crowd going,
But they also spent it four to the guys that
are working on the roster.

Speaker 2 (01:09:29):
That night, they booed when The Rock was saying about
John Seed, the guy that's coming out here to fight
the name of hustle, loyalty of respect, and everyone started
building who cares?

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
So The Rock and Austin did a long little handshake,
which I thought was pretty cool because you know, they
made a lot of money together headlining three WrestleManias, which
is nobody's ever done and probably would never do since.
And that was that. It was a cool ass moment
being in the building and not knowing what's happening and
just seeing, you know, seeing Steve also making entrance live,
seeing the Rock makers entries live. It's pretty cool and

(01:10:08):
there's a cool unexpected moment, and there's a great way
to kick off WrestleMania thirty. But then we move on
to the Knight's first match, which was essentially the main event,
Daniel Bryan versus Triple H. The winner gets inserted into

(01:10:28):
the actual main event for the w W World Heavyweight Championship,
a team between Batista and Randy Yorton and making it
a triple threat match. WW is here, but they got
here very reluctantly.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
Yeah, I you know, looking back, I don't know why
that was the stipulation that should have been like for Brian,
But why does Triple Ah need to be in that? Like,
I don't I don't remember if maybe I missed something
and to lead up to it, like he why does
he want the title? Like that, I kind of forgot
it out and I was kind of like, oh wait,
I don't remember why. The sole stipulation was the winner

(01:11:06):
of this match goes on to the main event. It's like,
why not if Daniel Bryan wins, he goes on to
the main event, and if Triple H twins, he can
fire Daniel Bryan. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
I don't remember why they didn't, you know, go that
round because I don't remember Triple Ah really having an
issue with Orton or Batista. They didn't really play that
off that much unless I completely missed it and they didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
And then they joined voices. Like the next night went
against the Shield, which was awesome by the way. Yeah,
the Evolution that was dope. Well, I mean I was
more happy to see the Shield beat people up. Not
only Evolution didn't care about Evolution, but that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
Evolution was like a thing that was a Bark though
for Evolution.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
So but by that point it had ended like twelve
years earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
Why do we still it brought back the theme music.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
Man, the theme music was dope.

Speaker 2 (01:11:56):
That's all I cared about.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
Mota Head did kill that song, Rest in Peace of
Lemmy by the way from Motorhead that was that was
a dope song. But I didn't need to see Evolution again,
at least not like the rehashing of it, like this
story that when they put him back together to lose
to the Shield, all right, cool, but like what they
wanted to do was put Randy Orton and Batisa in

(01:12:18):
the main event, and like, hey, remember Evolution again. It's
like we saw this ten years ago, Like we we've
already had these matches in like seven and eight, Like
we're good. But back to Daniel Brian and Triple A.
So of course we got here because Daniel Brian was
super over. In twenty thirteen, he gets becomes number one

(01:12:41):
contendent for the ww Championship at SummerSlam against John Cena.
He beats John Cena, but of course Triple A screws
him out of the title because he was a special
referee in that match. Immediately pedigresm allowing Randy Orton to
cash and money in the bank take the title right
back from Daniel Brian after only a few minutes or so.

(01:13:02):
So Triple A's does that to him, then him and
Stephanie continually call him a B plus player, that he's
just okay, and the story in storyline, they never really
had any intention on him overcoming those odds and proving
his critics wrong. It's like, you're a B plus player
and we want to treat you like one, and that's

(01:13:22):
just it. We're gonna book you like one. It's like,
what good does that do to crap on a wrestler
and then show everybody like this is why he doesn't
matter by never giving him the title right. Instead, like
I said, they wanted to go with Batista and Randy
Jordon in the main event for the ww World Heavyweight Championship. Now,

(01:13:42):
the titles had been unified late in twenty thirteen, so
that was supposed to be the main event, because you know,
for the thirtieth WrestleMania, let's have the main event be
the thirteenth match between Randy Or and Batista, Like no
one was here for that. In twenty fourteen, I know
I was.

Speaker 2 (01:14:02):
I was because I was I was a big Batista mark,
and I was just horrendous timing because at that point,
like I didn't want him to kind of overtake that
Daniel Brian spot with me because Dana Bryant came on
like after a Summer Slam. I was like, man, like whatever,
I was just annoyed watching. But then once that raw

(01:14:24):
in January hit when he turned over Brak, whyatt. I
didn't want anything else. I wanted to see Daniel Bryan
win the title at WrestleMania. So patitza coming back like
they had already, you know, I think announced that by
this point, so I was like all about it, and
then you know, I'm like, man, they and then he
won the Roar Rumble and everyone wasn't feeling it and
I'm like, yeah, like I don't. I don't feel this,

(01:14:45):
and I'm like one of the big Batista marks of
my generation, you know. So I was happy like he
was there, but I was like, yeah, this isn't his time.
It's just bad timing. I hope they don't put the
title on them because it's just got a backfire and
it's just like patisas like I like this story. They
kind of played up with him in Orton, but no,
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:15:06):
I am the biggest Batisa Marcus. Anybody loved me some
some Dave Patista, right, big Dave is the man, and
I would I would like to see him wrestle but
in the main event of WrestleMania thirty, the thirtieth, Like
you said, this is a tenth pole. WrestleMania ten twenty

(01:15:26):
thirty is where big things happen. At the tenth WrestleMania,
we crowned a new star in Brett Hart at the
twentieth one. Yeah, and eventually it didn't work out, but
they put Crispin Wild on that spot, like, hey, he's
a guy. And also, let's not I figure John Ceno
was winning the US title on that show too, right,
So you kind of spin it forward, kind of showed
this the next generation over the next ten years. This

(01:15:47):
is kind of how we you know, this is what
we're gonna look forward to. Instead, at the thirtieth WrestleMania,
they said we're gonna put this match that we and
rehash the story of the group that ended by twenty
fourteen evolution that had been done since two thousand and five.
So this is nine years and we saw plenty of

(01:16:08):
Randy Orton Batista matches in like seven eight or whatever
it was. We had been there and done that. Even
by twenty fourteen, we were done with that. Let's be
hashes now. Granted, Batista is in a different space because
he was doing big movies. Now, he wasn't just doing

(01:16:29):
B movies anymore. He was doing This is before the
first Guardians of the Galaxy came out. This is big time.
This is a Marvel movie. He's since done even in
the other big movies as well. He's become a bona
fide star in Hollywood. Like, maybe not to the level
of the Rock but he's carved out on his career
for himself. So yeah, it's a different Batista, but it's

(01:16:49):
still same or Randy Orton.

Speaker 2 (01:16:53):
Let's also remember this, this is what WW does. They
made that WrestleMania a twenty main event without Crispin wha
is Shawn Michaels versus Triple H. So yeah, this is
what they're known for.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
That's true. And nobody wanted to see that match again.

Speaker 2 (01:17:11):
Oh man. Everyone was convinced, including myself. That rematch at
Backlash the next Oneth that won at H or Shawn
Michaels was gonna beat that Wall for the titles.

Speaker 1 (01:17:21):
So good lord, Yeah, so you have that. So the
other matches on the card were supposed to be Triple
H against CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, the hottest guy
in the company throughout twenty thirteen, was apparently supposed to
go against Seamus that Seamus, no, no, no, no, no,

(01:17:46):
We're gonna rehash the fact that the match that he
had at two years prior when he lost in eighteen seconds.
Is that what's really hot right now, that's what's really
popping right now. No, and he's probably gonna lose that match.
So this was their plan until, as you mentioned earlier,
see them Punk just up and quit WW the night
after the World Rumble, and that apparently through ww's plans

(01:18:09):
all into a tizzy and forced them to finally get
the people what they wanted, which is like what a
novel concept. People were yelling and screaming in your face,
we want this, and you eventually give it to them
and people were happy. How about that? You know, like
people were happy they might spend some money with you, So.

Speaker 2 (01:18:32):
They finally.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
Gave them what they want. Especially after the roar of
Rumble when you know, everybody was crapping on everything when
they realized Daniel Brian was in no ra Rumble. So
at that point, it really wasn't denying what the people wanted.
You knew what they wanted. They wanted Daniel Brian at
ww cooking and Screaming finally gave it to him here

(01:18:55):
at WrestleMania, starting off with this match, and which was,
like I said, the opening match of the show, and
it did play into the main event, but honestly, if
you talk from a storyline standpoint, this was the match
on the show. From a story This from a storyline standpoint.
Obviously the title match was important because you wanted to

(01:19:16):
see Daniel Brien win the.

Speaker 2 (01:19:17):
Title, but if you had it, but he doesn't get
there without.

Speaker 1 (01:19:21):
Without this, and he had the most interaction, but if
he didn't really have that much interaction with Batist and
Randy Orton before Wrestlming it it was really him and
Triple H. This was this is huge and then it
started off with the video package going through Daniel Brian's
career and I was like, damn, you know what. The
min storyline has been one of the longest running fit

(01:19:43):
fused with Daniel Brian NWW, Like they could pick that
up tomorrow and it still works the Mis versus Daniel Brian.
It started in twenty ten. Here we are in twenty
twenty one and they started wrestling tomorrow. They could have
a pay per view match next month and it still
works out. And it's like a ten year feud something
that stills going. And they've always feuded against each other,

(01:20:05):
whether one was a heel. I think they switched roles
at one point. Wasn't Daniel Brian and Hill going against
the mes at one point?

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
Maybe?

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
I think when he was like the environmentalist before when
against Kobe, I think I think the Miss. I think
the Miss went against him as a babyface, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:20:20):
Like right, yeah, because we did we did a show
on their whole rivalry, so that might have been around
the time that that was going on.

Speaker 1 (01:20:31):
Yeah, I mean, it just it's been throughout Daniel Bryan's
time in WW. That feud I wrote down because you know,
looking at the video package that yes movement thing was legit.
There's a reason why we had all this energy going
into the show because Daniel Brian was like making waves

(01:20:53):
like they were doing that chant at sporting events, uh,
like Giants San Francisco Giants game. I remembered when I
think Michigan State football won the Rose Bowl and they
had like a this like Rose Bowl celebration. They honored
the team doing a basketball game, doing a Michigan State
basketball game, and one of the players started the y

(01:21:13):
s chance like and the whole arena was doing.

Speaker 2 (01:21:16):
It like its just like it was everywhere the first
time in a long time, Sam Punk couldn't even get
that mainstream connection, you know, with his characters. So h yeah,
this was like really like the mainstream was almost connecting
with Daniel Bryan on a different level that you know,

(01:21:36):
it just made it that much. And I think it
was the whole you know, small guy thing, not like
the main reason, but it was like man overcome that,
you know, overcome it, like like just that type of thing.
So I think the whole story works and the fact
that the mainstream connected with that whole movement, honestly it

(01:22:01):
made it even like it magnified it and it was great.
I've never seen like videos like that just being like
that's that's awesome, Like I wasn't embarrassing, it wasn't embarrassing.
You know. It wasn't you know a thing that people
were making fun of. They were like hyping it up.
I hadn't seen that since, like honestly, what the Rock
and Austin where the mainstream was like really playing up

(01:22:23):
that stuff and not using it as a punchline.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
It was really cool to kind of relive that through
this show, through this video package. It's like, damn it was.
It was a good time for a wrestling fan, just
from the standpoint that they're like this guy maybe the
next guy that crosses over, and we were all behind him,
everybody you wanted to see this guy when he had
to win, and it's it's wrestling is better when you

(01:22:49):
got somebody like that that people can get behind. Yeah,
and universally is behind and it's not split like with
John Cena. To me, wrestling is better when everybody's on
the same page. It's like, yep, this is so that's
what we have with Dane Brian. I think people forget
how massive that was, Like that was a big big
deal back in twenty fourteen, and that's why he had

(01:23:10):
to win these matches on this night because it's just
like if you didn't do it WrestleMania is gonna be
ruined at least on this night because you're gonna mess
it all.

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
WrestleMania ever it was done, there was no thirty one.

Speaker 1 (01:23:25):
That's it shut it down forgod. Speaking of cool stuff though,
how massive something was or whatever. Triple Ah's entrance. We
talked about it last week, how he always get the
big old entrance every year WrestleMania, but this one was
dope as hell though. When he's walking out with the
like the as the king, with his with his ladies,

(01:23:47):
I guess his concubines. I don't know what you would
call him, his helpers, I don't know, but he's got
like the gamer Thrones look going because Game of Thrones
is out by twenty fourteen, right.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
Yeah, I think premiered in twenty eleven, and I did
not even watch one second of it until way after this,
So say, I wish I was, you know, kind of
into that, because then I would have known, you know,
I think the first time I knew it was like
Seth Rowan's when he came out as a white Walker.
But yeah, you know it was great, you know, like

(01:24:22):
I I think it, yeah, because Twitter was like wit
every Sunday Night. And it was before I really before
we use Twitter the way we do now. It was
like used differently almost, and I didn't know, like what
the hell they were talking about. I don't know why,
Like I was like, what's Game of Thrones? Anthony Gargatto
would talk about it on WIP, you know, back in

(01:24:45):
the day, and I was just like he would be
like Game of Thrones, baby, and I'm like, what is this?
Like is it a game show? Like I did no
research on it, but yeah, it was like such a
great show obviously watching it back and they obviously played
off of it three years later.

Speaker 1 (01:25:02):
Yeah. Yeah, And Chuck Plush comes out with the crown.
He's looking like Shao Khan a little bit with the crown,
the half skull mask, which was dope. And of course
his ladies that was with him was, like we said
last week, three of the most prominent women on the
roster right now, Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair, and Alexa Bliss.
What do you know?

Speaker 2 (01:25:22):
It was funny because I knew I had heard this
and I was like watching it and I'm like they
look familiar, and it just it was funny because I
didn't realize that was this WrestleMania. For some reason, I
thought it was like a WrestleMania after this, like thirty one. Maybe,
uh not thirty two because I think they were on
the main roster by that point. But yeah, it was

(01:25:43):
just so funny. I was like, Wow, that was the
Russemania thirty, Like, holy crap.

Speaker 1 (01:25:48):
Yeah, WrestleMania thirty. It doesn't seem that. It doesn't seem
that long ago, but it's like, damn, they weren't even
on the main roster yet, like and we'll see like
later in the show, like the state of the women's
division or the Davis Division. I guess, I don't know.
It was in rough shape in twenty fourteen, just twenty fourteen.
That wasn't that long ago, like talking seven years ago.

(01:26:11):
So I wrote down and we remember we talked about
this with like Halloween having ninety eight and how like
how much time did it take for the first bell
to ring on this show? And I counted I looked
at the time stape. I just say, Daniel Brien makes
this entence to gets into the ring and they ring
the bell and we're more than thirty minutes into the
show before the first bell rings. I was like but

(01:26:34):
I'm left WW slot on that because they had that
dope as opening segment with the Rock and Triple Ah,
not the Rocking Triple as the Rock and Steve Voss
and the Hawkogan, Right, and this first match is going
to be a banger. It wasn't going to be like
Chris Juggo versus Raven in ninety eight. You know, we're
talking about Daniel Brian versus Triple H with a chance

(01:26:56):
to go to the main event of WrestleMania like this was.
This was essentially like the main event of the show
starting out the show. This was like a notch below
Brett versus Own. Like, if Brett versus Own is the
best opener in WrestleMania history, this is second, right. Yeah,
so I'll let WW slide for that because you know,

(01:27:17):
thirty minutes is a long time, but it is WrestleMania.
They had a lot of proper circumstance in the opening segment.
You get the Pyro, you get the pack video packages
and the eliaborate entrances and all that stuff. Nobody was
complaining though, because a lot happened in those thirty minutes. Yeah,
not like we're not watching Rick Steiner and Buff Bagwell.

Speaker 2 (01:27:35):
It was almost like, how do you use that time?
Per capita? W was always great, you know, utilizing those
minutes a lot better, especially in this show.

Speaker 1 (01:27:47):
Yeah, at least they did on this night. Whatever thing
they did before the first bell ring, they made me
think too. I don't think Daniel Brian and Tripah had
ever had a match together before this night.

Speaker 2 (01:28:01):
I don't either, because he I don't remember them ever
being a part of this like the same angle or
the same storyline.

Speaker 1 (01:28:07):
No this so but the pairing, which you know, maybe
on paper doesn't sound like, Oh, I don't know if
I wouldn't want to see that washing his back. They
worked really well together, and Triple Ah was bumping around
for Daniel Bryan and it was like he was moving

(01:28:27):
around much quicker. The pace was much quicker than a
lot of his other matches are WrestleMania, usually because he
wasn't working with somebody just like him, like he didn't
work brock Lessner, he didn't work Batista, and even though
Seth Rolinds Di isn't really like him. But that match,
for whatever reason was just long and slow from what
I remember, at least, it just didn't have the energy
that this one happened. Now obviously this had this dangle,

(01:28:50):
this had heat. You know, there was a big story
around this one. The Seth Rolands match did not have that,
you know, let's just be clear on that. But like
sting that match, it was okay, But this one had
all the emotion, all the energy and Daniel Brian going
from one side of the ring to the next and
trip As bumping around for him. I thought this match

(01:29:11):
was dope one. I mean, we got Daniel Brian taking
a mean bump on the outside of the ring when
he did that dive.

Speaker 2 (01:29:22):
I'm telling him, knowing what we know now about how
this pans out for him, like some of these bumps
he's taken, it's just like man relax, Like I know,
it's kind of like his style. But even before this,
they stopped a match in the middle of Monday night
raw yep because concussion.

Speaker 1 (01:29:42):
So you know it wasn't a concussion, it was like
a stinger because I remember his arms went limp. I
remember that match.

Speaker 2 (01:29:49):
Yeah, I just know that's my fault. I just it's
it's just weird to look at, you know, like knowing
what we know now and how he would do the
missile drop kick off the top rope, which I always
hated because and not hit his specifically, but just in general.

(01:30:10):
Booker T I think had like the best one because
he always landed where it didn't look like it hurt him.
I probably did, probably stuck a little bit landing on
like his elbow and stuff, but he turned sideways. These
people that like jump and land on their back for that,
those miss dropkicks. I'll never understand it because yeah, I
don't know he even saw like Thorn. I think it

(01:30:30):
was this match. I'm pretty sure it was this match
and not the main event where he hit. He hit it,
and he had to wait, you know a little bit
before doing the kip up. He had to gather himself
a little bit, you know like that. It's just it
sucks to watch because I know, like he's just doing
he's doing it for us, but he's like really legitimately
hurting himself, and I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
Just like, yeah, I mean he eventually did because it
cut his career short until he was able to come back.
But yeah, well for Wow, and it is career, so
I did.

Speaker 2 (01:31:02):
I did also enjoy his Ferry boots. This was a
nice little touch.

Speaker 1 (01:31:06):
Yeah homage to bruise of Brodie. Yeah, the rest in
peace to Bruise and Brodie. Uh. The exact opposite of
like a Bruiser Brodie would be Stephanie McMahon, who she
was great on this night as far as heckling Daniel
Brian at ringside, Yeah, that's like you're not good enough, Daniell,

(01:31:28):
just yelling at this is what happens when you played
the game all that stuff. So I thought that was
pretty good. But this match overall was just like I said,
the match itself was great, the storytelling, the action, the emotion,
It honestly had it all. I thought it was the
best one of the night, and it was the opener,
and I thought it was actually one of the best
match of Trip Lazer's ever had a wrestleman yet, outside

(01:31:50):
of maybe the ones he's had with Undertaker, because I
think the Hell and the Cell Undertaker was really good.
I think people forget how good the first one he
had with Undertaker at Wrestlmingia seventeen. Almost he forgotten Triple
It's Undertaking match that was dope. People forget how good
that was because I think the Hell in the Cell
and the one of the year before that kind of

(01:32:10):
overshadowed it, but I think this might have been one
of Triple's best WrestleMania matches ever.

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
Yeah, I would say that. I So, I'm definitely I'd say, like,
I don't know if I canna rank him like now,
but it's definitely the top five for me.

Speaker 1 (01:32:29):
Yeah easily. I mean he's had a bunch, has so
many Yeah, so this there's bound to be some some misses,
but I would go if you're going to go like
a top three or four whatever, Uh, his one against
Ultimate Warrior have to be up there. It was funny
they mentioned that on this show, like he's had matches
against The Rock and the Ultimate Warriors, Like he lost

(01:32:52):
that match in like thirty seconds, Like can't mention that.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
One can't go with man like right.

Speaker 1 (01:33:00):
He got right back up and kept marching through Triple H,
which I think with Triple Ah's first WrestleMania So it's interesting.
But if you're gonna go with matches, I would say,
like I said, the first Undertaking match, that the third
Undertaking match I cast a hell in the cell, there's
no particular order, and the Daniel Bryant match would be
my top three for Triple H at WrestleMania really because

(01:33:23):
I'm thinking, I don't know, what about his matches aren't
that good at WrestleMania anymore? To me? At least, they
go really long and they're kind of slow, and I
love Triple H.

Speaker 2 (01:33:31):
It's just they don't do it for me. I think
for me personally, it's it's about really the what is
that steak? And for me it was Batista in the
World Heavyweight title. That's probably that was probably one of
my if not back top Triple H media match that's

(01:33:53):
probably interesting to do a bracket style, how about that?

Speaker 1 (01:33:56):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:33:56):
Like Triple H WrestleMania matches.

Speaker 1 (01:33:58):
That's probably the fourth one on the list. But like it,
none of those are better than like so, if you
give me the Jericho match at Wrestleming in eighteen, that's
not better than the four we mentioned. And that part
of that sucked because not really sucked with part of
the timing of it was was unfortunate for them because
they followed had to follow the Rock and Hogan. The
match itself was okay, but no more, no one really

(01:34:20):
cared at that point. It's just they were all still
emotionally spent from the Rock and Hogan but the Booker
T match. Come on, I mean I get mad every
time I talk about that damn match at Wrestlemeni in
nineteen because Booker T should have won. Yeah, But Wrestlemenia
twenty the triple threat that was actually that's probably fifth
on the list. That was actually really good. It was, uh,

(01:34:42):
that's one of the best triple threat matches I've ever seen, honestly.
But the Sena match at twenty two, eh, it was
all right, the one they had I think it was
seen him and Orton at twenty four, No, the one
that gets Orton at twenty five, No, twenty six against Shamus, Nah,
like the first to take a match with I was
all right, then of course you got the second one.

(01:35:02):
It was just dope. But like Brock nope, Sting nope, Uh,
Roman Reigns nope, Seth Rollins nope. I'm just going through
Batista Nope.

Speaker 2 (01:35:15):
Late.

Speaker 1 (01:35:17):
So yeah, Daniel Brian Triple H, this one particular one
is one of the better. If you know, you can
probably make the argument that it's the best Triple H match,
the best WrestleMania match Triple H has ever had, arguably
Definitely in the conversation uh. But of course Daniel Brian

(01:35:38):
wins because he was he should have one clean as
a sheet, beat him one two three in the ring.
But of course I got to get some more heat
on him, beat him a bathroom match, perked the shoulder
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:35:51):
Yeah, give you that doubt, like oh, man, like, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:35:56):
Well, if you're gonna put the guy over, you gotta
make that hill just a little bit more steep, you know,
you know, for him to climb up, you know, because
you're gonna put him over anyway, he's got to overcome us.

Speaker 2 (01:36:06):
There was a small part of me that was, like,
you know what, it's totally visible, man, to just take
him out of the main event.

Speaker 1 (01:36:13):
Can you imagine he just never came back for the main.

Speaker 2 (01:36:19):
Wow, I would have been That would have, like I said,
it would have been the last Russel Ladi ever.

Speaker 1 (01:36:24):
You're talking about a revolt or a riot. It's bad
enough that they say they never put him in there.
That would have been bad enough. But to tease it
that she's supposed to be in it and he gets
taken away from him. Whoa that would have been? That
would have been a mutiny in New Orleans.

Speaker 2 (01:36:40):
Man, you would have been part of history for real.

Speaker 1 (01:36:44):
I probably when I got out of there, it would.

Speaker 2 (01:36:46):
Would have been you would have been leading it.

Speaker 1 (01:36:50):
I'd have been on the first flight back to Philly.
Out of here. It's lawless enough down here.

Speaker 2 (01:36:57):
All the news you see like scenes from New Orleans.

Speaker 1 (01:37:00):
All right, it's me with my me and my suitcase
and my laptop, just running running away. Mm hmmm. No,
I ain't trying to get be in the mix of
one hundred thousand marks being mad about Daniel Bryant. I'm good.

Speaker 2 (01:37:16):
We were the Royal Rubble, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:37:19):
Yeah, but this is way more people. There's way more
people from different countries and stuff. They flew all the
way overseas, took vacation days off of work.

Speaker 2 (01:37:28):
Rules are different from that, right, spit right, man.

Speaker 1 (01:37:34):
They don't care about our laws. They come over here.
They spent thousands of dollars probably on flights and hotels,
and it didn't get what they want. Oh man, I
wouldn't blame them. So but moving on, we got the
second match of the show, We got the Shield and
their second WrestleMania appearance going against the New Age Outlaws

(01:37:54):
and Caine Man Corporate came. Corporate came and the Slacks
and the New Age outlaws who made up the Authority
at that time.

Speaker 2 (01:38:05):
Yeah, I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that group a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:38:11):
What group the authority? Which version of the authority are
you talking about? You're talking about this particular one. Are
you talking about the one with J J Security and
Seth Rollins and Big Show and orton? Like, which one
are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:38:24):
I don't know, because I couldn't.

Speaker 1 (01:38:27):
I'm not I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:38:29):
My favorite authority window, I'll say window was when the
Rhodes family, you know, beat won the tag team titles
or something like that from the best thing was the Shield,
but I know they were good against the authority at
the same time, so that was my favorite like part
of that. That's when I was like, okay, like I
buy the Authority as a you know, heel faction type

(01:38:54):
thing because they're gonna let other people, you know win.
You know that the crowds were going nuts for the
Rohodse Family winning, so I was like, oh, like, hey,
things have changed.

Speaker 1 (01:39:04):
That's also in the very beginning of it. Yes, yes,
that's why I guess before it ran its course and
people were like I'm done with this, which was like
by this point.

Speaker 2 (01:39:14):
This should have been the end of the Authority at
this exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:39:18):
This should have been the end. Survivorcies later this year
should have been the end. WRESTLINGIA thirty one should have
been the end, and we were still going well, and
it didn't end until twenty sixteen or something like that
when the brand extension happened, right, I think that's when
it kindly kind of finally ended.

Speaker 2 (01:39:36):
Maybe yeah, because baby Man right.

Speaker 1 (01:39:39):
Right, But man, the Authority, what a what a trash
group that was. I will say my favorite, one of
my favorite segments though of all time, did involve the Authority,
and that was when Seth and Randy were feuding. They
were arguing the ring together and Trip places in the
middle of him. He's in between you like, it's kind

(01:40:01):
of mediate. And then Randy Orton they like Triple A
is like, don't don't do nothing, Randy chill out, bro
like be cool, and Seth is talking on his mess
talking on his trash and then Randy or just like,
you know, I forget it and it's hissed. Seth wallin
for the RKO and Seth Rollins is just on the
ground dead and all you see Randy and hits the
RKO and leaves immediately. Fans are going crazy, but tripl

(01:40:23):
Ace is standing in the ring, which is like, I
can't believe he just did it. Like that look on
his face. I will never forget. It was hysterical. It's
just like he's like I told him, not that he
did it anyway. And then Seth Ronalds is still on
the ground selling and he tows the j JAS like
get him up off the ground, man, Like, come on,
I thought that was hilarious. Triple Ah's face made the

(01:40:45):
whole segment. He was just like, oh, I can't believe
he did this is all. I can't believe it. Like
I just I've had enough. I don't know what else
to do. It was so good. It was so good.
But back to wrestle Mania thirty. We got this match
which is like, what happened here?

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
Why?

Speaker 1 (01:41:04):
What? What is this.

Speaker 2 (01:41:07):
With the entrances?

Speaker 1 (01:41:09):
Right? What? It was so bizarre. So you get the
New Age Outlaws and they do their thing. Then they
get cut off by the shield and their entrance, which
was I thought it was gonna be dope because they
had the mask on. I'm like, I got these masks
and they're gonna walk through. Then they get cut off
by Kane. It's like, what the hell, Like, what is this?

Speaker 2 (01:41:28):
You gotta have that Kane music in Pyro, But they're gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:41:31):
Get doing their Outlaws thing. I don't, I know, I know,
weird stuff going on. And then the match is super
short and this I mean, I guess it should have
happened to Yield, should have wooped everybody's ass, but it
was just really short. And then it was like done,
and it was like, that's these are It's crazy to
think that eventually all through these guys would be world

(01:41:52):
champions in the main events of WrestleMania. And they get
like a three minute match on the show and it's
just like, man like, right, this is your future right here,
this this guy should be in a very prominent spot.
They get cut very short. It's like, did they like
forget that this match is supposed to be a thing
they didn't carve out enough time for it, or that

(01:42:14):
they did not know what to do with the shield.
I didn't know what the hell was happening here, Like
it was just weird.

Speaker 2 (01:42:19):
It was like the relative beginning of their face turn.
They had only been really faces for a couple of
months I think at this point, so maybe.

Speaker 1 (01:42:27):
Yeah, and it should have been lasted longer.

Speaker 2 (01:42:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:42:30):
If they stayed together for a longer period of time,
I think they could have been a first time. They
could have had a main event treat like a main
event group as opposed to just one guy.

Speaker 2 (01:42:41):
Right, and you think about what they've done with the
New Day, who were together for what six years? Yeah,
you know, like the Shield were only together too, right,
even though.

Speaker 1 (01:42:54):
The New Day has like COVID has been champion and
they are top like they are a top group, they're
figured in, they're always on the show and stuff like that.
But the Shield could have been like, I don't want
to say, like the Beatles. I guess it's like a
really not an a comparacy, but that's that's a time
where you could put that name on the marquee and

(01:43:15):
people would be like, I'm buying tickets to see the Shield,
like like their mercer was selling and they were three
main event guys in one group, and you could have
sold them as the acts to put in the top
of the marquee. The New Day as much as I
love them, I don't know w W is ever gonna
put them in that spot all together. Case the point
they split Biggie off big E off a little bit,

(01:43:37):
you know, by himself, but the Shield was there, could
have been that and it just didn't do it. They
cut it short.

Speaker 2 (01:43:45):
But listen, damn, I was gonna say. But uh, I
often wonder if Batista leaving had anything to do with,
you know, them splitting the Shield up so early. Maybe
I don't think those that was. I think he signed
a four year deal when he came back, and then
it was clearly like I think he realized, well, this

(01:44:09):
isn't my time and got another like movie deal or whatever.
But uh, yeah, I often wonder about that if maybe
they had that in the plans and then once Batista left,
they were like, we gotta pivot.

Speaker 1 (01:44:23):
Yeah, created a new heel.

Speaker 2 (01:44:26):
But man, like what you laid out would have been
like absolutely fantastic.

Speaker 1 (01:44:30):
It would have been dope to see at least for
a while, like to see just them as a as
a trio and Nick cause still win titles together. You know,
you could have still probably put Roman in the main
event if you that's what you really wanted to do,
and I think it would have helped him have credibility
to fans. If he was with the shield still the
shield still, I should say it that way. But instead

(01:44:52):
he was on his own, and he at first you
can just tell he wasn't quite ready to be on
his own yet. He's figured it out eventually, but at
that point he needed some time. I think if he
was still with the Shield, and you know, they are
all together whooping everybody's ass, and Roman is trying to
be the w W champion, I think it would have
helped him get over way quicker than it didn't when

(01:45:14):
it actually happened. I think it would have helped all
three guys overall. But we got what we got, and
at least on this night, instead of them losing the
to the veterans, they beat the hell out of them,
which was what they should have done. One thing I
totally forgot, though, was that Dean Ambrose was the US
champion at this time. And guess who else forgot WWE

(01:45:34):
because he never defended that title. He rarely defended that title,
which was just weird. But we go backstage now to
Hack saw Jim Duggan Sergeant Slaughter playing with action figures,
because of course that's what legends do. They play with toys,
and then we get a quick count from Danny Davis

(01:45:55):
because of course he's still a cooking referee. That was
kind of great. I'm not gonna lie. And then Ricky
Steamboat comes in and does like the karate sounds and
he's doing comedy, which is like they've done that with
Ricky steinbout over the years, and I think about, like,
but he never actually did that during his career. Why
did they may come all of a sudden go whoa.

(01:46:15):
That's his character.

Speaker 2 (01:46:17):
As you age, you get funny.

Speaker 1 (01:46:20):
It's like, Ricky Steambo is a pretty serious babyface back
in the day, winning World championships. Hall of Famer obviously,
but like Ricky Steebolt, wasn't some god that just played
for last like he was. He was out here trying
to beat people up, you know what I'm saying. He
even had a Commodo dragon, a spinning fire at one point.
That's nothing funny about that. Why did WW do that?

(01:46:44):
I don't understand that. It's Ricky Steamboat. Go back and
watch those matches. He had a flair like That's all
you need to see to know this guy was a
real deal. He wasn't funny. I don't know, I didn't
get it, but then Ted Dibiyassi comes in and he
buys up all the action figures because he's the man
Dollar Man, and so I just slaughter was like, I
thought you're retired. I thought that was pretty funny. And

(01:47:07):
of course all of this ends with Ron Simmons coming
in and going damn, and that's the end of the segment.

Speaker 2 (01:47:16):
So that was way better than I thought it was
gonna be my impersonation. Yeah, I do a pretty good
Ron Simmons. I'm gonna I'm gonna have to put that
the intro.

Speaker 1 (01:47:30):
People don't really think we have Ron Simmons on the show.
I can't do that out of context.

Speaker 2 (01:47:36):
I don't do a good one. Damn damn. Why is
that so funny to be? Oh my god, am I
doing a podcast with Ron Simmons? Like, holy crap. Moving on,
move on legends.

Speaker 1 (01:47:58):
Yeah to the first ever Andre the Giant Memorial Battle
Oyal and I just thought about at the top of
my head. Remember they started this for the women and
they call it the Fabulous Mula Battle Royal. People lost
their minds rightfully, so rightfully, so people deserve to lose
their minds. But it's like, as soon as they got announced,

(01:48:19):
it's like people was like, nope, not having it, and
WW eventually changed it to the just the Women's Battle Oyal.

Speaker 2 (01:48:25):
But was that next year, by the way, or was
it No?

Speaker 1 (01:48:29):
I think the first one was twenty I want to
say the first one was twenty eighteen.

Speaker 2 (01:48:33):
Oh wow, that was late.

Speaker 1 (01:48:34):
I think the first one was twenty eighteen. I think
they only won the first one. I don't know who
won twenty nineteen.

Speaker 2 (01:48:40):
It's but you're being on Twitter and everyone was like,
this is not a great idea.

Speaker 1 (01:48:47):
No, let's not do this, let's not do this at all.
But yeah, we got the first effort on this night. Though.
The inspiration for that was the Andre the Giant Memorial
Battle Oroyal, and we got to them this night, the
first one. Really, this is type of battle war that
would happen probably on the pre show back in the day,
and no one would care, no one would watch it.
But WW was like, hey, let's actually make it a thing.

(01:49:09):
Get everybody actually on the proper show. I know they've
done it in the pre show in the years in
the in the years ensuing, I don't know if they
had it on the main card since thirty since Wrestumenia
thirty honestly, like I know, the next year it was
on the pre show, and I'm pretty sure that's been
the case probably in the years since. But of course

(01:49:29):
the first one make it a big deal. They had
it actually on the main card to get all these
guys in the show. And it's paying homage to Andre
the Giant, which is nice. So also paying homage was
Paul White, formerly known as The Big Show. Oh okay, okay,
got his own intense, but he's wearing the Andre the

(01:49:49):
Giant single it, you know, the one strap you know,
as a homage, and Seaman's got his entense too. For
some reason, it was, you know, this.

Speaker 2 (01:49:57):
Was, by the way, I think the best the Big
Show looked. And I liked his look like he was
His body looked good, his beard looked good. It wasn't
like that long straglely beard. It was like a well
shaped I think this is like the best he looked
in w W.

Speaker 1 (01:50:14):
I haven't kept track of the show looks over.

Speaker 2 (01:50:17):
The there's been at least twenty so.

Speaker 1 (01:50:21):
In at least forty five thousand turns. So yeah, has
he turned a baby face or he'll yet? In aw,
has he turned.

Speaker 2 (01:50:29):
Yet yeah, four times so far.

Speaker 1 (01:50:30):
Oh there you go. Just on just on Wednesday Night show.

Speaker 2 (01:50:35):
Yeah, I turned in the nine o'clock hour, so yep,
yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:50:41):
But I look at this match, is like some of
the people that's in this matches like, wow, like all
three members of New Day on this match before New.

Speaker 2 (01:50:48):
Day, Yeah, yeah, I notice that.

Speaker 1 (01:50:50):
That's crazy, right, Biggie was the Intercontinental champion. No one cared,
but he's the champion today and every people and it's
different this time. So let's yeah. Brad Maddox was in
this match. He was the first one eliminated, and it's like,
what the hell he's also the general manager.

Speaker 2 (01:51:08):
Of Raw apparently already Yeah, oh my god, no idea.

Speaker 1 (01:51:14):
I do remember vaguely the authority kind of pushing him
around a lot, and they eventually just took him off
of the GM. I guess it's like, why why we
have him as GM? Bro justs Clay was in there,
Greg Colley was in there, didn't remember, And I saw
three MB three man band was in there, and it's like, dude, Wow,

(01:51:34):
what a crappy group that was. But two or the
three guys are w W champions. What Drew McIntyre Gender
Marahall w W Champions Drew Gender. Mahall held the title
for like seven months.

Speaker 2 (01:51:51):
I thought Drew McIntyre, like, I totally forgot about three
mb by the way, but I even thought of Drew
McIntyre left W back in my twenty eleven or twenty twave.
So when I saw him here without a beard, you know,
and obviously you know, he looked a lot smaller, I
was like, wait, is that your McIntire? And I had
to literally wait like three times before I saw him,

(01:52:15):
or three like times I saw him to be like, yes,
that's your McIntire. I didn't even look it up to
see like the match list. I was just like, man, like,
he looks so different but so similar at the same time.
It's so weird.

Speaker 1 (01:52:28):
Yeah, yeah, it's very weird and it's funny. Him and
Jender Mhall got eliminated at the same time. Future ww
champions Summer and Slater. He Slayter soon followed, not a
future w W champion, but he is one half of
the first ever SmackDown tag team champions, So yes, remember him,
him and Rhino the first time it is and see

(01:52:51):
Slater had like a million kids all of a sudden. Yeah,
that was pretty funny. He got kids, Yeah, we got them.
Miz in his match pre Movie Star gimmick, when he
was just a babyface I think still or maybe he
wasn't a baby face. He was just lost.

Speaker 2 (01:53:07):
This was like a lost period for the surprise. He
wasn't like one of those releases when they do those
every year.

Speaker 1 (01:53:15):
At this point, it's kind of remarkable to think that
he bounced back from this because he was you think
he was WW champion at the top of the world,
and then in twenty thirteen the turned him. He turned
the baby face, which is a terrible decision in hindsight,
because he's a natural heel. And then he just got
lost and he was off TV for a long time
and he didn't come back to like June of twenty fourteen.

(01:53:37):
That's when he became the movie Star and they quiet
on the set before his theme music hits and he
started wearing ridiculous outfits and stuff like that. So it's
worked out for him, but he was just at this point,
he was just lost, just like I think they just
kind of ran their course with his character and he
didn't really have anything, and it's just like he just
needs a time away and he got that time and

(01:53:58):
he came back and he's been better for But we
also got fin don go in here, who eliminated Biggie
and then he dances around a bunch and gets eliminated
soon after. But that by Shamus, by the way, who
hit him in the chest with the club thing, you know,
forum thing. I counted twenty seven times and then he

(01:54:18):
just fell off the open. So we got Fon Dono.
Then we got Raymond Stereo. I forgot was in WW
in twenty fourteen, who I noticed was wearing the Obey
logo on one side of his his gear, on one
leg of his pants. Now, I don't know if you've
ever seen like the Obey thing, like with the face

(01:54:40):
and it's on the red block and the white letter
says Obey. I don't know if you ever seen that.
Look it up real quick. It doesn't ring, but it
kind of it kind of made like a comeback, like
a twenty fourth to twenty fifteen. That's like people started
wearing it on clothes stuff like that. But the thing
about it, it's like it's a clothing brand that somebody

(01:55:02):
made up, like in the nineties or something like that.
But the thing about that the obey part of it
was actually inspired by They Live, which starred Roddy Piper.
But the face is actually Andre the Giant's face, like
the artist drew it up actor Andre the Giant. So

(01:55:23):
that was like Raymond Seeo's kind of homage to Andre.
So that was pretty cool. The final four in the
ring for this match were del Rio, Seamus, Big Show,
and Cizarro, who had just broken up with Jack Squagger
earlier in the night. Even though he was already a

(01:55:44):
United States champion, he hadn't really broken out as a
single yet, but that was all about to change as
he to win the match, eliminated a Big Show by
hoisting this big, large man over his head and dumping
him out of the ring and becoming the first ever

(01:56:06):
winner of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Still
the best finish in the history of this match, because
no other finish is remotely as as impressive or rememorable
as this one. Sorry, Rob Grenkowski, just just didn't when
you was in it didn't do it for me. The

(01:56:27):
place exploded. You saw it on TV and it was
in the arena. It was thunderous because it's like, whoa
like no one saw that coming and he dumped him
out and it was like wow, like all right, cisorrow,
it's his time like this they had to this is
a springboard for him. Everybody already knew what he was
capable of. This is his time, let's go psych. They

(01:56:52):
tried to put him up with Paul Hammond, that didn't
work out, and he right something like that. They did
put him in some dope tag teams. You know, he's
the bar with him a Shamus. I thought that was
a dope tag teams. He was just recently in the
tag team with shins Kay Nakamura. Of course, don't forget

(01:57:14):
tyson kid. The next year that was a dope tag
team in twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen. And now they're kind
of breaking them out on his own again with the
Seth Roland stuff with sew of this goes. Hopefully they actually,
like you know, really put him in a prominent spot.
But he's still kind of trying to find something to
do with Seth csarrow even though he's plainly obvious one
of the best physical talents on a roster. He's got charisma.

(01:57:38):
What are you waiting for? Ww? Come on? Czarro is
a monster and is a He's a guy that I
think people would like to just see Russell a lot
of guys, you know, reason why people are stars because
they they got charisma, they can talk. But I think
the normal layman person would just be impressed by what
they see in the ring from Cesaro when he's throwing

(01:57:59):
people around, hit those European uppercuts, swinging people around, picking
up you know, extremely heavy people like the big show.
He's a guy I just like to watch work. Of course,
you know, charisma and everything else is a part of it,
but he's just so physically impressive that I think that
even just him doing what he does in the ring
could turns some turns some heads.

Speaker 2 (01:58:21):
So I mean it's been what he's been there even
before twenty ten, right, I think his.

Speaker 1 (01:58:29):
First shoar there like yeah. I think he sounded like
time twenty twelve, twenty eleven, something like that, because I
remember watching Ring e Vernor a lot when he was
with Chris Hero and King and the Kings of Wrestling,
and I think I think they signed it around the
same time. I think they signed at the same time.
I want to say that was twenty eleven, twenty twelve
or maybe twenty twelve something like that. And yeah, and

(01:58:53):
then don't forget he went to remember he went back
to NXT for a little bit and going against Sammy's Ain. Yeah,
and they would have US Classics down there, and that
was like twenty fourteen around this time. Actually, I think,
like I want to say, when the WW network started,
when they started doing the takeovers on the network, I
think the first win was Cizarro and Sammy's Ain and
on that card.

Speaker 2 (01:59:14):
So, yeah, he signed with W in September twenty eleven.
I thought he was there before that, but wow, no
he was. He was a ring a roundable was there
quite quite a long time?

Speaker 1 (01:59:24):
Yeah, a decade a decade for this guy, and they
still like don't know what to do with him, Like
come onsous, Like it's obvious just put him in that
stratosphere at least of getting WARLD title chances and stuff
like that, Like he should be easily taken seriously as
a top contender for the world title. You don't have
to convince people of that, just look at what he does.

Speaker 2 (01:59:44):
So and obviously the pairing with Paul Hayman could have
been great, and they just fumbled the bag.

Speaker 1 (01:59:50):
With that yeah, yeah, I don't know. I don't know
what happened there. It just didn't work for some reason.

Speaker 2 (01:59:55):
But I don't like too many Paul Hayman guys have
like Curtis Axel.

Speaker 1 (02:00:01):
Oh my god, it's like I got about that, right, Baxel?
Oh my god? Whoa? That was embarrassing. Yeah, I forgot
what they brought that Curtis Axle and made him like
try to make him like a star, and it just
didn't work. I just didn't just didn't work out. But

(02:00:21):
you know, it is what it is. We're moving on
to now one of the more marquee matches on the show,
John Cena versus Bray Wyatt and a fight for John
Dena's not quite but for John Cena's legacy. That's even worse,

(02:00:46):
Like what the hell are they talking about? And to
go along with that, they had an eminem song called Legacy.
Who cared about any of that? The song the legacy?
What what is this all about? What this is all about?

Speaker 2 (02:01:02):
If he loses to Bray Whyittt do we like get
rid of all his title reigns?

Speaker 1 (02:01:07):
Yeah? I don't. I didn't know what the hell they
were talking about. The realiest story was that bray Wyatt,
in his cryptic way, was trying to bring the monster
out of John Cena.

Speaker 2 (02:01:17):
Yeah. And they did the same damn thing with Caine
years before.

Speaker 1 (02:01:19):
This, right embrace the hate. Yeah, this time it wasn't
as direct because bray wyittt there's nothing direct about him,
tried to do the same thing, and we know what
happened here. It didn't work. John Cena wins, He overcomes
all the yadds. But it made me think, like this

(02:01:40):
is when the bray Whitatt character started to go off
the rails. Yes, because before this he was really just
a cult leader in the backwoods in the swamp and
this was his first big loss or loss at all.
I don't think he had any losses. He beat Daniel Bryan,

(02:02:02):
you know, they beat Daniel Bryan, and they beat the
Shield at elimination Chamber when the Shield still weren't losing
often like like it took a while for the Shield
to lose start losing matches, and they beat the Shield.
The White Family did, but not just the loss, but
the Creative just never rebounded from it. He could he

(02:02:25):
could have re could have rebounded from a loss to
John Cena, but they went too far into the magical territory,
which I've I've never been a fan of you. For
the five six years that we've done this podcast, I
remain consistent and my feelings towards de bray White character.
I've never liked when he could teleport and turn the
lights out, all that magical mythical stuff. He was much

(02:02:48):
more interesting to me, much more intriguing to me as
a backwards cult leader based in reality, because to me,
those are those people are more scared because they actually exist.
I'm not afraid of a guy who can teleport. Those
people don't exist, Like we don't have people teleport out here.
I play more to combat to see people teleport, But

(02:03:09):
in real life, they are a real life cult leaders
out here who exists, who can manipulate people to do
terrible things to themselves and others. That's much more intriguing
than a guy who can teleport and all that stuff
that bray Wire's done. Now he's got this mask that
makes him pretty much unstoppable, and they got the whole thing,

(02:03:30):
the swamp match and all that stuff. I don't even
care about that, and I looked just thought about It's
like he lost his way and it did the same
thing to Russav the next year WrestleMania, and it's like,
you know, basing John Cena and losing to him did
nothing for either guy.

Speaker 2 (02:03:51):
And it did help John Cena.

Speaker 1 (02:03:53):
No, it did nothing for John Cena. Now it did,
I would say beating USAF did give him the US title,
which started his US title matches which were all great,
But what did it do for Russev? Nothing? And I
know some people like where he gets to rub you know,
he got a match against John Cena. In hindsight, now
that we have six and seven years to look back

(02:04:16):
at these careers, especially specifically Russev, who's not even in
w W anymore, so we can look at his from
that time to the end of his WW run. What
did that match do for Russev? Because you look back,
his career was on the ascent. Then he went against
John Cena and it went downhill from there like a

(02:04:36):
roller coaster, but it never really came back up. It
started to come back up with Roussev day and it
just said nope, never going to be a babyface Rusev
and that was pretty much the end of it. Him
facing Sena was the height of his career and that
was it. This isn't like it took him the greater heights.
And the same goes for Bray Wyatt. I know, Breywhite
has won the Universal Championship. He's still a top star

(02:04:59):
in w W A the book him like a top star.
And he's lowing this unstoppable clown, you know, with the mask.
And I say clown in a good way and not
saying clown was like just disparagingly. But he really is.
He's got the clown mask and he's unstoppable. You know.
But what did it? What did do We cared about
the fact that he lost to John Cena and Wrestlemingia thirty. No,

(02:05:21):
it does nothing for him. It's like two fresh faces
a WWE spent an entire year building up put all
these creative juices behind it, especially with bray White. They
all all these promos, all these all these vignettes, and
then you get the druseev and all the stuff they
were doing with the Vladimir Potin and stuff, which was
wild in hindsight. Right then they gave him a tank

(02:05:44):
in a WrestleMania just to extinguish it with John Cena. Yeah,
it's like what did you do all that for? You
get all that creative energy just to have seen it,
just put that fire out for nothing.

Speaker 2 (02:05:59):
And I'll remember what I remember thinking, Oh, they made
Bray Wyatt and the Wyatt family looked pretty bad with
Daniel Brian, you know, doing what he did to them,
even though they beat. Even though Bray beat Daniel Brian
and throw a rumble, I was like, all right, they're
gonna get things back on track. He's gonna beat Seene
at Mania and then here we go. And then once

(02:06:19):
Scena one, I was almost I mean, I don't want
to exaggerate this, but it was more shocking to me
than Lessonard beating the Undertaker. No, stop kidding, but I
was very surprised. You know, I didn't have my jaw
on the floor like I did with Les Undertaker, but

(02:06:40):
I was like, are you kidding me? Seriously?

Speaker 1 (02:06:43):
Yeah, it made no sense. I was surprised, but it
still didn't make it the decision anymore befuddling, and that like,
why why would you do that? W Like you built
up You spent so much time, like eight months building
up this character and making him interesting and intriguing, and
he gets a cool entrance with the with the band

(02:07:04):
and in the cool ass song, which I forgot, like
how cool bray White's original theme song was like this
a pretty dope song. But and did the same thing
again the next year with Russev. Gave him the cool
interest to wrestle Mania with the tank and the hole
like like an army of people or whatever it was,
the soldiers and all that. Everything about it was dope.
And then Johnsona just beats him. It's like, what, what,

(02:07:29):
why did you do all that? And it did the
same thing again with the pretty much did with bray
White twice because they built up the fiend, all that
creative energy just to have Goldbert beat him in two minutes.

Speaker 2 (02:07:44):
Uh, and he yet he's still there. God bless you, bray.

Speaker 1 (02:07:53):
It just doesn't make any sense, man, just doesn't make
any sense. And those and it's more egregious with those
two guys because they were fresh faces, younger guys who
they built up from scratch. Who was bray White before
he was bray White. He's Husky Harris he was that
wasn't a guy on the indies who they you know,

(02:08:14):
made u you know, took that like Samoa Joe or
Finn Balor or something like that, aj styles and just
transported into w W. These are two guys ROUSSA have
the same thing who they built up from scratching w
W as far as a character at least, and they
just destroyed their own creations.

Speaker 2 (02:08:30):
Like why he's ejecting a lethal dose of poison stuff?

Speaker 1 (02:08:39):
They pretty much did they pretty much. It doesn't it
still till this day, doesn't make any sense to me.
Why they did that. Another thing that doesn't make any
sense to me, and it makes me upset now in
hindsight because this will never happen at this point. But
why how did w W go all these years and

(02:09:02):
never get a notable WrestleMania match out of Luke Carper?
He did have a ladder match at WrestleMania thirty one,
but that was still like an eight man match. I'm
talking they could. There's no way they shouldn't have had
a one on one spotlight match with Luke Carper, and
in fact they didn't get one. And now because he

(02:09:23):
unfortunately the man playing the character Luke Carper, John Huber,
has unfortunately passed away, we'll never get that. And it's
like damn w be having his talent. Luke Harper was
obvious one. It's not like I don't know how you
miss it. I can understand. Sometimes they miss certain guys
you shouldn't have missed Luke Carper, and they missed it,

(02:09:48):
and they never just squandered it. It's like you got
these guys in your roster, they're willing to do whatever
it takes to impress you. Let him run, and they
just don't. And now, like I said, it won't never
happen because he passed away. He didn't even get the
six second match with the Rock.

Speaker 2 (02:10:06):
Yeah, right, you know Eric Rowan got that. It's like, yeah,
but that's when they showed him the respect of like,
we're not going to job you out to the Rock.
Don't worry about it.

Speaker 1 (02:10:16):
Yeah, we just won't feature you.

Speaker 2 (02:10:18):
Yeah. What was it when?

Speaker 1 (02:10:22):
Was it twenty seventeen or whatever it was? When when
the Wire Family I guess it was getting back together
or something like that, when I don't remember when he
and was it Ray Wired, Randy Orton with Taxi Partners
or was it Randy Orton and Luke Harper, because remember
when Randyrton was in the Wire Family, right, that was
a wild time. And of course he turned on them

(02:10:42):
and whatnot. We all saw that coming. But they didn't
even have like a big match with Randy Orton and
Luke Harper. That was like a SmackDown match. Yeah, and
Randy Orton I think one, and that was it.

Speaker 2 (02:10:52):
Was it that he went to like get in the
Wire family or something that was like that had a
spoby wow because Luke Carper was never like he was
always being like, I don't know about this Randy guy.
He hears voices in his head.

Speaker 1 (02:11:06):
He was skeptical, macho man before macho man. I don't
know about this random Orton. They call him the viper.
Vipers bite people. I don't like things that bite people.
My snake on.

Speaker 2 (02:11:28):
Her. Yeah, what a time. I'm trying. I'm trying to, like,
I I don't know if I can get my machral
Man voice back. I gotta I gotta gotta dig deep.
I gotta dig deep inside and you know, be a man.

Speaker 1 (02:11:45):
Drink some whiskey, right.

Speaker 2 (02:11:49):
I finished mine, so I can't. You know, it's a
school night, so I can't.

Speaker 1 (02:11:55):
No, you can have a second that I don't worry
about it.

Speaker 2 (02:11:59):
For one told me that I'm fine, So I'm fine, Okay.

Speaker 1 (02:12:04):
Look after what everything is going down in this pandemic,
teachers to use a drink, all right, they could use
an extra drink or two.

Speaker 2 (02:12:11):
Yeah, it's true.

Speaker 1 (02:12:13):
But back to this match though, this match I wrote
down at this match was a big old bowl of okay.

Speaker 2 (02:12:24):
Well, my favorite part of this is Michael cole Bray
is learning about hustle, loyalty, and respect.

Speaker 1 (02:12:30):
What the hell is he talking about?

Speaker 2 (02:12:31):
Oh my god, I just wanted to I wanted to
stop watching after that I wrote about Daniel Bryan, I'm
turning this off. That's Horrible's nothing like and we're.

Speaker 1 (02:12:44):
Always you know, were always wanted us to give Michael
cole as that, you know, his respect sometimes because people
nobody gives it to him. But man, that's awful. What
the hell does that mean?

Speaker 2 (02:12:57):
Come on, how you learned about loyalty when you're getting
your ass kicked?

Speaker 1 (02:13:03):
Like? Also, he has his own family, who's more loyal
than Pray Whitet. He put his whole family on. I
don't know, it's just the match. It was just okay.
The fans weren't interested at all. They didn't buy into it.

Speaker 2 (02:13:25):
Makes I mean like it made sense on the surface,
but it's told terribly, given him seen in a steel
chair so he can hit him with it, Like, what's
that going to prove? How are you gonna be a better?
How are you going to be in seen his head
when he kills you with a steel chair just because
he didn't over or just because he couldn't overcome the

(02:13:48):
hate and he fell to it, like, man, you're gonna
be dead, like you.

Speaker 1 (02:13:52):
Get in his head by having him knock your head
off like with a steel chair.

Speaker 2 (02:13:58):
I just did this storytelling in too. It doesn't make
sense in the wrestling realm.

Speaker 1 (02:14:04):
Look, the best part was Sina's face trembling like ah, look,
Sina does a lot of He's getting into a lot
of movies. Now, he's in a lot of commercials now too, Right,
he's doing a lot of a lot of voiceovers and
commercials and you see him in commercials and he's going
to do a couple. I think he's in the Suicide

(02:14:25):
Squad or something like that coming up. Yeah, I don't
think the director of those movies will be like, yeah,
shake your face like just angrily. If any director ever
saw him do that day, be like you know what,
we hired him? No, he gotta go like he got
to go, we can't have this guy. When I said

(02:14:46):
no more, we can't do it, he gotta go.

Speaker 2 (02:14:50):
What acting school did you go to? Ww right, get.

Speaker 1 (02:14:53):
Out, you're fired, like no, no, no, So but Sina
wins because that's what Sena does. That's the thing. He's
had better matches even before this, He's had better matches.
He's had better matches after this. For for damn sure,

(02:15:15):
this was just a big old bowl of okay. Like
if it was alphabet soup, it'd only be two letters,
it'd be O and K. Like that's it. Okay, that's
what this was. It's like, ah, it's all right, and
that's it.

Speaker 2 (02:15:30):
Do you notice who he hugged after the match.

Speaker 1 (02:15:33):
He hugged his father, John Cena Senior, and the Rocks mother.
I forget her name. I'm sorry, the Rox mom.

Speaker 2 (02:15:41):
I should remember her name, missus Johnson.

Speaker 1 (02:15:46):
It might be my via. Actually I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:15:52):
Let me.

Speaker 1 (02:15:53):
I'm gonna look it up because I don't want to
disrespect and anyway, otta otda Johnson. So you're right, it
was so there you go. So just a big old
ball okay, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:16:12):
After by the way, as soon as he hugs Rock's
mom and they cut to the announcers. You peep Jerry
Lawler taking it, try to take a sip of mountain
dew and off he was clearly.

Speaker 1 (02:16:21):
Camera caught his ass. Hey mountain dew. Here, we got
mountain deuce a sponsor, That's what I'm.

Speaker 2 (02:16:32):
Saying, Like, why why are you trying to hide that?
Like it's a sponsor? What do you want to die?

Speaker 1 (02:16:39):
And they all had bottles of mountain dew lined up,
so I figured like that was a sponsorship spot, but
it wasn't. It don't matter.

Speaker 2 (02:16:46):
I don't think, like not all of them were full,
so I'm sure you know some of them took a
sip here and there, and they.

Speaker 1 (02:16:54):
Had him all facing label out, I know, which maybe
that was like a subtle ad. It's like, all right,
we're not going to do an actual spot, but like
make sure when the bottles are sitting on the table,
make sure the labels are out so a Mountain de
can get their impressions. Yeah, that's what they do in
the press conn because even like right, same thing with
like we do our segments on you know, when we

(02:17:16):
were doing our segments or video segments in the studio
with the Eagles, we would have like a Microsoft surface
sitting on the desk. Nobody's using the Microsoft surface, so
bringing let's let's pull back the curtain a little bit.
Nobody's using those Microsoft surfaces on the desk. But they
are a sponsor, so they sit there and you can
see they're not even a sponsoring this segment.

Speaker 2 (02:17:36):
They're just there.

Speaker 1 (02:17:38):
They're a league sponsors. So the surfaces just sitting there,
logo out, but we're not using those surfaces. I'm sorry,
so wow, So yeah, there you go. Hey, I know right,
it's crazy. But moving on to the WW Hall of Fame,

(02:17:58):
which I talked about earlier, pretty good class. Like I said,
Paul Barrow also went in. I forgot to mention him earlier.
And they bring them all out, bring all the inductees out,
minus Paul Berry because again who passed away the year before.
But they brought his sons out to receive the honor
in his uh, in his honor, I guess right. But

(02:18:19):
we get everybody and the Ultimate War comes out last
with his music and he's waving to the fans and
I was like, damn he died two days later. Did
he look kind of sickly in this night at the time,
no way of telling. He's like, it's all just a
little bit older. But he look back. He's like maybe

(02:18:39):
he was. I don't know, but it's wild that he
just died two days later.

Speaker 2 (02:18:43):
It's it's weird because people on Twitter have been comparing
the way Shane McMahon's looked on TV the last few
weeks to the way Ultimore Warriors looked, And I'm like,
I don't see it. But I don't see it. What
the word like. It's a weird thing to, you know,
speculate about. And obviously that promo when we're all didn't

(02:19:07):
do Shane any favors where I guess he was. It
was on purpose, uh stammering and uh wasting time and whatnot.
It was just a very weird promo. But yeah, I mean,
I I guess I'm a bed like detail see her

(02:19:29):
when it comes to this stuff. I don't know how
else to.

Speaker 1 (02:19:31):
Say it, Like, you're not very detail oriented when it
comes to the looks.

Speaker 2 (02:19:34):
He didn't look sickly to me here Ultimate Warrior didn't
look like, you know, anything was wrong with him. I mean,
maybe the way he walked, but like a lot of
legends walk in a weird way now because what their
body's been through. But you know, the Kern angle is
loss weird, but you know, it's just what it is.

(02:19:55):
And so I didn't really pay much attention to how
he will in the this night or the next night
on RAW when he made a speech another stitch.

Speaker 1 (02:20:07):
Yeah, so that was just crazy to think about, even
to this day. I remember being out at home and
it was man, he died. I think it was the
day after, right.

Speaker 2 (02:20:19):
I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday.

Speaker 1 (02:20:22):
It was Tuesday, and I remember sitting. I was at home,
like about to go to sleep, and then I saw
a tweet or something come through and I was like
what he what?

Speaker 2 (02:20:32):
And it's like damn, just just saw like you know
what I might have found out Wednesday because I've probably
gotten a learn on my phone. I was like, wait
what it was when it.

Speaker 1 (02:20:42):
Was late Tuesday. So it was late on Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (02:20:45):
Yeah, I went to barely because of work, and I
will wake up at like five am, five thirty am,
and I saw the notification and I was like what
the first you know, like right, I didn't know. I
was like, oh, was he in an accident?

Speaker 1 (02:20:59):
You know?

Speaker 2 (02:20:59):
Because right, well I didn't realize. It was like he
didn't look sickly to me, and so my first thought was, wow,
a tragedy happened, Like it's his family, okay, because I
know he was traveling with his family, so.

Speaker 1 (02:21:13):
Yeah, that's that's a tragic situation. You imagine, you know,
your family, and he got little girls and his wife obviously,
and they're with him, and it's like the great moment
of him being induck to the Hall of Fame, kind
of starting a new WWE, and then just like that,
that's it, and it's just like, damn, like now what
So I'm sure that was that was a rough time

(02:21:38):
for the family, but yeah, it was just it's just eerie.
It's eerie to watching now in hindsight, knowing this man
died two days later after this, Like it's just it's
like literally here today and going tomorrow and that's unfortunate.

Speaker 2 (02:21:54):
And it's it's so random, but not so random because
he just, you know, break that hatchet that him and
yeah held on for so long, and it's like damn,
like that's it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (02:22:11):
Right, all right, But now we gonna make an awkward
transition to the Undertaker versus Brock lesson, let's dark and
boy do we have a lot to talk about here.

Speaker 2 (02:22:27):
Good match two stars.

Speaker 1 (02:22:31):
First, listen, just kind of rewinds wind back to like
twenty eleven whatever it was when Brock lost the UFC
fight and the Undertaker was in the crowd and Brock
walks by. It's like, hey, you want to do it?
And Brock doesn't really say anything and goes on about
this business, and everybody's like, whoa Brock versus Undertaker? When
is that going to happen? A couple of years go by,

(02:22:55):
and even if even though Brock was in the company
for a couple of years by this point, it didn't
happen until twenty fourteen, when the Undertaker is now twenty
one to No. A WrestleMania and Brock is like, what
three and two like? And his matches in WW He's
definitely lost to Senior in triple h Uh he beat

(02:23:17):
Triple h he b c on punk. I don't know
who else he beat. He's probably like two and two
or something like that, right, so he's not really at
the top of his game as far as like, you know, uh,
not only strong power, I guess strong power and like
just heat, you know, they hadn't built him up properly
at all. So we're going into this match and it's like, Okay, well,

(02:23:41):
if the Undertaker lost a b C on Punk last year,
he's definitely being Brock because Brock doesn't need to win, right,
because who if it If they're going to end the streak,
it's gonna happen because somebody who needs it that's going
to propel them up the ladder, you know what I'm saying.

(02:24:01):
So I don't think anyone in their right minds had
Brock Lesner winning this match. Then I watched this video
package back for this podcast. For one, the word did
the voice over I thought was great for this one.
I don't know who that was, but I thought it
was great. But maybe maybe it was. But at one

(02:24:23):
point in the video package, Paul Hammond says, no one
would ever forget what Brock Lesnar is about to do,
and that was like a harbinger for things to come,
because he was right, no one would forget what he
was about to do.

Speaker 2 (02:24:39):
Uh wild, Right, It's crazy what we know about this,
or what you know we're is reported about this, about
how Haymon and Lesner and Undertaker and Vince I'm even
sure Haymon was in on it, but how close to

(02:25:00):
the vest they kept everything And for me, I could
I could totally buy that Hayman didn't know what was
like to finish. That'd be wild if he didn't, I agree,
but I would. I would buy it just because Vince
is weird, you know, and him in that promo, like

(02:25:22):
he's so good at selling, you know that. So it
is kind of crazy to look back and like hear
him say that in that package, knowing like what what
was going to happen, but wondering like if he was
just doing it to obviously sell the sell it and
is he just doing it? I don't know. He didn't

(02:25:44):
seem like that. The previous year was sea Unpunk say that.
So yeah, it's very ea quick isn't interesting?

Speaker 1 (02:25:54):
Yeah? You know what el was interesting that I found
was that each Sleep Conquered repeat shirt their brock War
which they were hoping to mix out a lot of
and I'm sure they sold a bunch, but like the
next year they started Suplex City and that was a
much bigger deal. Like they sold a lot of those
shirts because they were customizing for the specific city they

(02:26:15):
were in and stuff like that, and it was just
a cool sang. And they built the video game Chromo
around Supplex City. It was pretty good. So also with
Brock war on this night was that damn hat again.
I don't know why you wore look stupid. At least
the year before it was like, hold outside, all right,

(02:26:38):
you might have worn a hat, but he's indoors while
you wearing a hat for it's fine, didn't make any sense.

Speaker 2 (02:26:44):
It looks it's a look on him.

Speaker 1 (02:26:47):
I mean, he looks bad ass wearing a banana suit.

Speaker 2 (02:26:50):
It's Brock lesser as head and it looks even better.

Speaker 1 (02:26:55):
Okay, I take your word for it. I guess them
coase we get another elaborate undertaken entrance where we have
all the coffins lined up of all his falling opponents
over the years of WrestleMania, all twenty one of them,
even two for Shawn Michaels, two for Triple h uh.

(02:27:15):
Not the greatest optics though for somebody like Big Boss Man,
who had passed away ten years prior or Jimmy Snooker
was now in hindsight, you know he wasn't that was
fine dead yet, but he would die A couple of
years later.

Speaker 2 (02:27:28):
I mean, I guess I didn't. I didn't even like
think of it, and that's those terms. It was just hey,
the Undertaker's opponents over the years.

Speaker 1 (02:27:39):
Yeah, still I thought about it, but you're not the
only one yet. The last coffin was had number twenty
two on it had brock Lesner's name on it because
he is the next victim, you know, or so we thought.

Speaker 2 (02:27:58):
But it I loved when he started walking, like he
looked at it and then started walking and then looked
back at it. And it's got set on fire?

Speaker 1 (02:28:07):
Whoa the pot set a blaze?

Speaker 2 (02:28:13):
Take notes AW speaking of a w We're recording this
on a Thursday night, And and Practical Jokers just came
on and sal Volcano was wearing an AW shirt. How
about that? Another wrestling fans And they've had you know,
Tommy Dreamer and Bully Ray on you know, the show

(02:28:33):
at certain times. But the Salve Volcano rocking at ae
W shirt, it's cool to see, you know, my one
of my favorite shows.

Speaker 1 (02:28:41):
So salth Volcano has always got like wrestling shirts on. Yeah,
yep from Practical Jokers. And Practical Jokers are funny as show,
by the way, but yeah, He's definitely the one of
the four that I've noticed if always rocking. I think
he saw I'm wearing a Bullet Club shirt one time
or something like that. He's always rocking. Uh, wrestling stuff,

(02:29:03):
big wrestling fan. So uh, back to this undertake a
Proclessner match. I was gonna say, it's a shame that
the streak ended because no one remembers to undertake his
gear from this night. It was actually pretty dope.

Speaker 2 (02:29:18):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:29:18):
When you look back at it, it's like you really
didn't wear like that. That combination with the hat, like
the I don't know what you call it, stones, jewels
or whatever was in it. It was actually pretty dope.

Speaker 2 (02:29:30):
I didn't notice, but I didn't.

Speaker 1 (02:29:33):
So no one cares again because of what happened at
the end of this night. It's something I noticed.

Speaker 2 (02:29:40):
Well, but now I noticed. This was the first Mania
appearance for me personally that I thought he didn't look
too good, and this was before he suffered a concussion
during the match. I didn't think he looked too good.
I think his body was looking kind of frail to me.
I don't know. I don't know if it was this
me or a few noticed A little song.

Speaker 1 (02:30:03):
Uh, maybe a little something something. But if for those
who don't know the story of this matches that the
Undertaker got concussed pretty badly pretty early on, don't still
I watched this match. I'm looking for like, maybe it
happened there, maybe it happened here, but it couldn't really
tell when it happened. But it apparently happened well, apparently

(02:30:25):
happened early on, and the match as a result was
very slow and just not up to par of what
the Undertaker's usually putting out at a WrestleMania. Remember this
is the year after the two years prior Undertaker had
the best match of the show with Triple H and

(02:30:46):
Seeing Punk. And if you go back to two thousand
and nine, we're talking like a five year run with
two with Shawn Michaels too, a Triple H and the
one was Seeing Punk. Where the best matches on the
show the first one with Shawn Michaels. In my opinion,
it's still the best WrestleMania match of all time. So
we have a standard as fans of what the Undertaker
is capable of, and we didn't get it on this night.

(02:31:08):
But it seemed like meinly because the Undertaker was in
rough shape from that concussion.

Speaker 2 (02:31:14):
Well even before that, I just think he wasn't in
great shape body wise. I don't know, he just looked
thinner to me, like maybe he didn't, you know, get
the weights as much as he used to in previous years,
which you know, it happens like you get older and
you're it's whatever I think, And if you want to

(02:31:34):
go back and watch it, you go back and watch it.
You don't have to listeners, you don't have to. But
they were on the outside and I think Taker went
for a kick or Brock like got his foot and
he flipped them and Undertaker landed on the on his
back on the mat outside. But I think maybe like
he also you don't get a great shot of it,

(02:31:54):
but maybe he also hit his head because right after that,
he kind of turns over to the side and he's
you could tell like he's kind of struggling, like he's
like breathing heavy, trying to get like I guess air,
But I mean it could just be you know, the
product of his athleticism at that point. Maybe he, you
know it wasn't in great shape. But I don't know,

(02:32:17):
I feel like that's that's the one spot that sticks
out to me to where I kind of see the
match change and it's clear that Brocks now like trying
to call everything, where in the very very beginning, you know,
it was Taker that was clearly moving around a little
bit quicker, you know, and after that spot on the outside,

(02:32:38):
I just kind of felt like it was a different
type of match. So I'm not gonna obviously, I don't know.
Nobody knows unless they confirm it themselves. Undertaker confirms it himself,
and I don't know that he's done that yet.

Speaker 1 (02:32:50):
But well, he doesn't even remember the match, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:32:54):
You know, he's on record to say and his last
memory of that night was like three o'clock in the
afternoon when he was talking to.

Speaker 1 (02:33:01):
His wife in the locker room, so which is scary.

Speaker 2 (02:33:04):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. He didn't even know where he was
when he woke up in the hospital, so didn't know
what city he was in. So definitely scary stuff. But yeah,
if I had to, like, you know, go back, go
back and watch that match, that's where I would kind
of at least guess that's where it happened.

Speaker 1 (02:33:24):
You mentioned that Lesner had to call spots. He definitely
called one audibly. You can hear him call one after
he hit his first F five because the Undertaker could
barely sit up yea, and it didn't like he was
selling it look like he could just just couldn't really
move that much. And Lesni walks over to him. You
can hear him go Hell's Gate. And the Undertaker was

(02:33:46):
somehow aware enough to get a minute to lock him
in that submission.

Speaker 2 (02:33:50):
Yeah, but you can hear.

Speaker 1 (02:33:53):
Like I said, Leslian is kind of like walking. He's
kind of like checking them take her out. Like It's
not like it was like a smooth transition to the
Hell's Gate. He was just kind of bouncing around, looking around.
And I don't know if he noticed the Undertaker was
hurt or what. He was just like Hell's Gate and
Undertaker got a minute. But then, you know, Lesner breaks
the submission twice, and one time I thought maybe it

(02:34:13):
could have happened was when where Undertaker probably could have
been concussed or maybe God can cuss a second time
even with when he broke it the second time, when
Lessner you know dropped him on the mat, you know,
with his arm or whatever, and Undertaker's head hit the
hit the mat, the back of his head hit the mat.
You know, I don't know if he can cuss from
that or whatever whatever, but it didn't look good.

Speaker 2 (02:34:37):
You know, he could have had he could have had
more than one concussion absolutely in this match, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:34:43):
So so eventually, I mean this was, like I said,
slow to a crawl. Undertaker being in bad shape definitely
changed the whole complexion of the match. Eventually, Brock hits
two more at fives. So in that third at five
when Rock has them up, I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, man,

(02:35:03):
w W, they're just out here bearing the F five
because you know four, well, Undertaker's gonna kick out of this,
because he's definitely gonna kick out. So it's like he's
gonna kick out of three f fives. Like they're just
killing that five. Like I can't believe it, you know.
And then Block Lesner goes over for the pen and

(02:35:26):
the referee starts counting, and it's funny. I went back
and watched like reaction videos to this, and everybody pretty
much has the same reactions. When you see the count,
you're just like, oh yeah, whatever, And then even you
watch the match, no one is standing up when Brock
is covering the Undertaker. Like again, you watch these classic

(02:35:47):
matches the Undertakers had over the years, some of these
near falls, you think it's over, Like when Shawn Michael
hit the superkick and followed it up with the pedigree
at Wrestling in twenty eight. I think the people in
the stadium was like, it's over, and they were standing up,
like waiting to see what happened when brocket that third
at five. You look in that lower bowl and on

(02:36:09):
the TV camera side, the people who were on the
you know who are on the hard camera. None of
those people are standing up. They're not even like remotely
paying attention to this, just like whatever.

Speaker 2 (02:36:20):
Yeah, they're probably like on their phones and whatnot.

Speaker 1 (02:36:23):
Right Undertaker's on the kickout. We've been here before, we've
seen been here, done that, We've seen this episode before.
Let's get on with it. And then that hand came
down for two and then three like and everybody in
that lower bowl in that section stood up at the
same time like whoa wait a second, and the wrestling

(02:36:47):
world stood still.

Speaker 2 (02:36:49):
Yeah, it really did.

Speaker 1 (02:36:52):
For I don't know how long. But it's incredible to
watch back in hindsight because no one saw her coming.
Now when I don't know what to start with this
because it's so much to cover. There's so much ground

(02:37:13):
to cover because WWE goes straight to like reaction shots.
You see Paul Hamman, Oh my god, he did it
with all the fans. They had their hands in their heads.
He had the one black guy can't remember his name
on the top of my head, his glasses a crooked,
his face, he's breathing heavily. He can't believe what he saw.
Fans are like about to cry. People like just can't
believe what they just saw. Like it was just astonishing. Right,

(02:37:37):
You got to understand. If we got a non wrestling
fan listening to this, I mean welcome, But wrestling fans
are so hard to try to surprise.

Speaker 2 (02:37:50):
They like hunting fans looking for a podcasts.

Speaker 1 (02:37:53):
Right, they found us straight shirts. Someone listen to those guys.
But wrestling fans are super hard to surprise. We even
go as far as to try to guess the surprises.
This is how they're going to surprise us. Think about
how crazy that is. We try to predict how the company,

(02:38:14):
the promotion is going to surprise us. It happens every
year at the World.

Speaker 2 (02:38:17):
Right and complain when we're wrong.

Speaker 1 (02:38:19):
Exactly, also entitled to surprise us. We want to be surprised,
so to get a genuinely surprising reaction, to get genuine
shock and awe from wrestling fans, the only way to
get it is by angling the streak. It will never

(02:38:41):
happen again, probably not this way, right, So I know
what my perspective from being in the arena, from being
in this dadium, What was your perspective watching this on
TV as it happened?

Speaker 2 (02:38:57):
Shots Like, I was glued to the TV. We were
kind of quiet, you know. I kept telling my friend Mike,
I was like, there's no way Lesler's gonna win, like whatever.
I kind of I almost wasn't paying attention to that
final pen, I'll tell you the truth. I mean, I
was watching it, but I'm waiting for the kickout, and
then when it didn't come, you know, my jaw drops,

(02:39:18):
and I'm just like watching, and I think my friend
just went like holy and we were just watching the reactions.
So thankfully. You know, my dad was just watching. He
doesn't make a peep with this stuff, Like he just
watches and he'll, you know, talk if I ask him
a question. Or whatever. But yeah, we were just watching
the TV, and you know, I was shocked. But then

(02:39:42):
we were like listening to Paul Hayman like, oh my god,
like you did it, like all this stuff, and thinking
that Lesner was gonna say something, maybe waiting for the
Undertaker to get up. So we were, yeah, we were
just kind of glued to the TV after that three count,
and my first reaction I don't even remember if I

(02:40:03):
went right to Twitter, because I was like, show shocked
and I was stared at that. I was like, are
they going to restart the match somehow?

Speaker 1 (02:40:10):
Like what?

Speaker 2 (02:40:12):
I almost didn't believe that they were ending the streak
because pro wrestling, I'm conditioned to when something like that happens,
that's so newsworthy. There's always like a catch, you know,
it's a dusty finish or something like that. So I
was almost like waiting for a restart of the match

(02:40:32):
or reversing the decision or somehow someway. And I'm I'm
trying to go through my head and I'm like, but
how would they do that? Like there was nothing illegal happening,
no shenanigans, Like I'm like, man, he just really beat him.
And I didn't foresee what they were going to do
with Brock you know, the rest of the year. But
as a launching point, that's a pretty damn good thing.

(02:40:54):
So or a pretty damn like impressive thing that he started,
you know, his twenty fourteen run with. So yeah, my
first reaction, and really my reaction after that, I was
kind of like, Wow, well, I just witness history. I'm
not going to crap all over it, because you know,
the Undertaker's probably done, he'd probably retired, you know, like

(02:41:14):
I've seen the best of his career and it's great,
it's time for him to go. And Okay, so Lesnar like,
let's go, let's do this. I wasn't If I was
there in the arena, I probably would have had a
different perspective, just because being there is so much different
than watching all TV something like this happening. But I

(02:41:39):
don't think I would like completely hate it. I wouldn't cry,
I wouldn't do any of that stuff. I would just
be like, holy crap, they really did it.

Speaker 1 (02:41:46):
So being in the stadium, let me just say for
the record, I don't think the Street should have ended
on this night or the way that it did. But
I will say I was glad that I was there
to see it because it was something that I've never

(02:42:11):
experienced before in my life in any endeavor with sports
wrestling nothing. I've never been in the a venue with
seventy thousand stunned people, like just absolutely stunned when the
three count happened. Everybody just placed, like you said, just

(02:42:32):
it just fell silence. It was just like whoa like
when they say, oh, it's a stunned silence, a hush
over the fans, no that this is legit when this happened, okay,
And it was just like I remember thinking like when
it first happened, like, well, there has to be some
sort of mistake, like the reft grew up right, something

(02:42:54):
happened like that he wasn't he counted through when he
wasn't supposed to. Or are they going to like have
like a muddled finish where it's like disputed finish or
something like that, like and they don't have to settle
this another time? Like how how? What? This can't be it?
Because I don't know if I was even looking at
the ring or the screens. I don't know what I
was even remember looking at because I didn't think it

(02:43:16):
was over just like everybody else. So I don't I
can't really blame the people who are sitting down on
the lower level not standing up, because no one was.
No one was like, you know when that f five,
It wasn't like that the arenas had a fever pitch
and everybody's like, oh my god, this is it. No,
so we're sitting there. Everybody's like in stunned silence, and

(02:43:37):
then you hear I don't know if you can hear
it on the broadcast, but you hear this like secondary
like oh, that's when they threw up the twenty one
and one graphic on the screens, and people saw that
and it was like they just watched a family member
get disemboweled right in front of them, like like you
would have thought like they saw like somebody just get

(02:44:00):
murdered right in front of them. The way they reacted,
they was like, oh my god, no, like people couldn't
believe what they were seeing and it was but it
was real. The streak was over and you can never
get back. People looked at that graphic like it was hard.

(02:44:21):
It was like they might as well I saw they
their loved when get beat up right in front of
them like people were sad. Bro. It was like a
hush fell over them. It was like we were at
a funeral.

Speaker 2 (02:44:33):
It was like Rip saying, Randy in the hospital.

Speaker 1 (02:44:35):
Pretty much, Bro, I've never seen anything like it. We'll
probably never see anything like it ever again. All these
skeptical wrestling fans who were surprised by nothing were surprised
on this night. They were so, here's my thing, you
know about this? And I know we talked about it,

(02:44:57):
like when we talked about star K ninety eight when
Goldberg History ended, and it was like, all right, wasn't
the right time? Who should have ended it? If it
was going to end, you know, something like that. But
I think most people believe that. I remember at the
time thinking like, oh well, I could buy it ending
or whatever. But I've changed my position over the years.

(02:45:18):
The streak either should have never ended and it just
he's retired with it intact, or it goes to somebody
who could have used that rub so to speak, right,
And I think everybody deemed that brock Lesson is not
one of those people, right. But because it really in hindsight,

(02:45:43):
it really hurt. I think it hurt WrestleMania to a
certain extent. I think it hurt undertakers to a certain
extent because this is what everybody looked forward to every
single year. It was like the one certainty that we
could all count on. We could all count on the streak.
It's death taxes and the streak. It was reliable. Every year.

(02:46:08):
People go to Wrestlemanda, they go to the hang out
with other wrestling fans, they go to see the pomper
circumstances of the show, and they went to see the streak.
That was like in that order, that's what people wanted
to see, is what people wanted to do. You can
count on that, And it was just ripped away from
everybody in an instant to somebody who I don't think

(02:46:32):
anyone deemed to be worthy. It was like a real
It was like a gut punch. Like I said, it
shouldn't have been died, at least not in the way
that it did it was. It should have been the
holy Grail that someone chased and they climbed the ultimate
mountain to get it. Instead, it was just another feather

(02:46:56):
and a cap full of feathers by brock Lesner. And
it shouldn't have been that way. It shouldn't have felt
that way when if the street was going to end,
it should have been like this hard moment, and didn't
feel that way with Brock. That I think that was
the biggest missed opportunity of it. Was it believable that

(02:47:21):
Brock would beat the Undertaker. Of course, it's believable that
Brock would be anyone, right, But he didn't need the
end the Streak to become the monster he became after that,
because he already had the credibility of someone that could
destroy anyone in his path. It was WWE's fault for

(02:47:45):
making anyone think otherwise. You know what I'm saying. He
didn't need the Streak to be all of a sudden
the understoppable for us in WWE. He really didn't. He's
Brock Lesner, UFC Heavywitch JBO ran down his credentials plenty
during the show. UFC Heavyweight Champion, SAA Heavyweight Champion, WW Champion,

(02:48:08):
he was a monster. You look at this guy like, yeah,
he'd kill everybody. The Streak was not necessarily for Brock
to all of a sudden turn into the soup plex
machine he became in twenty fourteen.

Speaker 2 (02:48:25):
So I think you forfeit the creativity of doing another
streak again. If you never beat the streak, you can't
replicate it. Though it can happen, he can't not any time.
I seen. Hey, ww's forever man, We're not going to

(02:48:48):
be around in one hundred years where there might be
another streak going.

Speaker 1 (02:48:52):
But there's still video and footage of this happening, right,
and we all know this isn't work, so you can't
work it. I don't know how you can replicate the streak.

Speaker 2 (02:49:01):
There can be another superstar that comes along in twenty
thirty forty years that has a streak at WrestleMania, an
undefeated streak, that eventually retires with an undefeated streak for
the first time ever. You still hold that the first
time ever nobody's undefeated at WrestleMania. So, yes, the Undertaker

(02:49:25):
was a special character, but if you have him retire
with like a perfect WrestleMania streak, then you kind of
can't do that anymore. And I'm not saying like I'm
not saying like I'm waiting for that to happen when
it should happen soon, But you're also backing yourself into

(02:49:46):
a corner if you do make the Undertaker retire with
an undefeated streak, because in pro wrestling, that's like the
creative You can do a lot of things creatively, creatively
with that for other people than just the Undertaker. Now
it's fresh in our minds, it's twenty twenty one, it's

(02:50:07):
only seven years removed from that. We're not going to
see that anytime soon. I would imagine, Like, it's not
like we're gonna see Dominic Mysterio start having a WrestleMania
streaks start this year at nineteen twenty years old. However
old he is at this point, but he probably older

(02:50:29):
than that. But yeah, I just I don't feel as
strongly as you do about this. And you know, we
do a good job on this podcast about like explaining
our feelings towards certain things, and you did a great
job there. But I think this is something that we're
just never going to like agree on or agree to

(02:50:50):
disagree about it, just because I think the best moment
to use that shock factor was when no one expected it.
That's why the anticipation of it is. It's exciting, I'm sure,
but like when you know what's gonna happen, is it
really like a surprise or really like to me, it's not.
If you weren't gonna beat the Undertaker with Randy Orton

(02:51:12):
in two thousand and what was it five? Then I
mean who around now would.

Speaker 1 (02:51:20):
Still have plenty of plenty of legs left in two
thousand and five.

Speaker 2 (02:51:23):
I think bray Wyatt would have been the guy in
this era that would have benefited the most from that.
But obviously by that point, you know, look.

Speaker 1 (02:51:33):
It could have been Sampunk. It could have been it
could have been bray Wyatt.

Speaker 2 (02:51:38):
Sampunk was an old dude. I don't do it.

Speaker 1 (02:51:41):
He still could have used the cloud of ending the streak.

Speaker 2 (02:51:45):
All it would have been good for is his mic
skills and like his promo right, like would have done
anything for him. Like he was already at the top
though for over a year.

Speaker 1 (02:51:55):
That's fair enough. But even though he's at the top,
he wasn't even in main events of paper game. He hadn't.

Speaker 2 (02:52:01):
I don't think that necessarily would have made him in
the main event either if he beat the Undertable, this
is how better?

Speaker 1 (02:52:08):
What the hell?

Speaker 2 (02:52:08):
I don't know? Man, Like if Paul Hayman couldn't like
persuade Vince to put Punk in the main event every month,
like who it was never gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (02:52:20):
I'm just saying, I'll leave Punk in there. I'll give
you Bray Wyatt, I'll give you Roman Reigns as three
people that came along eventually that could have ended it.
Instead it was Block Lesning, which again it's Block Lesnar.
He's a badass, and that's perfectly I understand it. But
he didn't. His credibility was already intact, it's already known.

(02:52:42):
It was, like I said, it was ww's fault for Messice,
for even remotely having people question it his credibility.

Speaker 2 (02:52:51):
But there's no shock factor without that.

Speaker 1 (02:52:58):
I guess, man, if we need a shock factor, I mean,
it would have been pretty shocking. I see a Punk
did the year before.

Speaker 2 (02:53:05):
I thought, well, see, I thought the Randy Orton was
going to beat him at twenty one. I was very
surprised that he didn't. And then once they started doing
the streak like every single year, I was like, Okay,
well they're never going to end it. So it could
have been like I didn't think I was gonna watch
Standpunk beat the Undertaker at Mett Life Stadium. I just

(02:53:25):
I didn't even though, and even with them using like
Paul Burr as part of the storyline, Like in my head,
I'm like, ah, there's no way. Like in my heart,
I wanted to see it happen because it'd been a
great moment to be a part of, especially we were
there live. But I think in my heart I was
just like, he's never gonna lose. So when he finally
did lose, it legitimately surprised me in a way that

(02:53:49):
really nothing else has surprised me since and up to
that point, I'm not sure if I had been surprised
in the eror where. I know what's happening, like, I
know it's predetermined, i know decisions are being made. I'm
not a kid that I'm surprised by certain things. It's
a different type of surprise. So this was like, if

(02:54:12):
you could surprise me as somebody who knows, like or
kind of listens to what goes on inside and out side,
like in the back, behind the scenes, then I think
you've done a great job.

Speaker 1 (02:54:25):
I don't know, I would have been perfectly fine too
if it has never ended. Some things can just be pristine,
they can just be that holy grail that we all
look at and be like, man, that's incredible. Feat that
will rarely wherever be topped.

Speaker 2 (02:54:38):
You look, it would have been nice to have that
in our lifetime because right, you know, look at.

Speaker 1 (02:54:43):
What Chamberlain was one hundred point game. There's always something
we can look at it and be like, wow, you
know that's something that's just it'll never be topped or
I mean to close, anybody's comes eighty one, that's still
nineteen points off, you know. You know, uh, Joe Demad,
it was hitting streak fifty six games. Sure it ended
at some point, but it's I guess you could say

(02:55:05):
it's anything about Undertaker streak. It ended and no one
will come close to it more than likely, but like
seventeen and no Dolphins, you know that perfection and no
one could ever surpass that unless you get you know,
nineteen wins. Obviously you can surpass number of wins, but
the winning percent that you can never surpass it. It's
just some things like those holy grails that even though

(02:55:30):
even if you retired you can never touch it, you
can never beat it. It's all right, man. The thing
is the things. The thing about the difference between this
and like Goldburst streak was that this was something people
like I said, they counted on every year. You can
see it in their faces. When it ended, it was
like people's world shatter. This was the one certainty we

(02:55:50):
could always count on and it was just gone.

Speaker 2 (02:55:52):
Man.

Speaker 1 (02:55:53):
That sucked. That really sucked.

Speaker 2 (02:55:55):
I don't think wrestling mans necessarily need that security blanket.

Speaker 1 (02:56:00):
It was nice to have it. In hindsight, I think
it was nice to have it. It was nice to
know that we were gonna see the Undertaker go back
and give it, give it a world and defend that streak.

Speaker 2 (02:56:12):
It now Brian is champions, so yeah, but like it.

Speaker 1 (02:56:18):
Was still nice to have that, And then I think
it hurt the Undertaker, like I said last week, and
that when he lost that streak, I think some of
his drawing power went down with the fans. So yeah,
there's been some moments where the Undertaker comes back and say, oh,
that's pretty dope. But for the most part since the streak,
outside of his matches, let's say with Brock after the streak,
he had the Hell in the Cell match with Brock

(02:56:41):
later in twenty fifteen, I should say not later in
twenty fourteen. Twenty fifteen, k had the Summer Slam match
and had held on the Cell matches. I think the
next month or two months later or whatever it was
after that, when was the time when you saw the Undertaker?
It was like, I can't wait to see that match,
not his matches with Goldberg, not his match maybe with

(02:57:01):
the one with I thought that one where AJ would
have been dope if it was like under normal circumstances.
The Boneyard match was pretty cool too, But I was
kind of looking forward to AJ. But Sham McMahon, nope,
Bray whatt nope. The Roman reigns went not really and
that could have been significant if he actually stayed retired.

(02:57:23):
He didn't.

Speaker 2 (02:57:25):
Well, I'm like this I heard.

Speaker 1 (02:57:28):
I was kind of done with it.

Speaker 2 (02:57:30):
I forget what I just watched recently, but or what
I listened to. Man, I wish I had made a
note of it, but I heard it, and it made
sense to me that obviously it was Vince McMahon's call,
but he legitimately thought this was the Undertaker's last WrestleMania.

Speaker 1 (02:57:52):
That's funny. Even Vince was like this is it?

Speaker 2 (02:57:55):
Like I think, yes, the door is always going to
be open, but I and I, ah, man, I wish
I remember where I heard that.

Speaker 1 (02:58:04):
Well if that, if that's true, events thought it was it.
I'm not. I don't totally blame him for ending it, right,
And it was his call, Like, right, obviously it's his call.

Speaker 2 (02:58:14):
Hit Taker, didn't you know, put up a fight, you know,
that was it.

Speaker 1 (02:58:18):
I don't blame him for ending it. Then it's just
who you do it with. I mean, I guess he
had to get that Brock match in.

Speaker 2 (02:58:25):
I don't know, man, Yeah, I mean that's that's the
gripe that I can understand that if he really thought
that one coming up, and you know, it's not like
he just thought it the day of. You know, it's obvious,
you know, coming up to it, all right, if this
is your last one, who do we put you with?
And that I can see as being, you know, the

(02:58:45):
issue that fans have. But even with Brock, everyone's like, oh, well,
Undertaker's not losing to him at WrestleMania, and it happens.
So it's still the shock factor to me, and the
fact that Evince very much truly believed this was the
Undertaker's last WrestleMania. Then you know, you do the job

(02:59:05):
on the way out. You know that it was Vince's decision,
and I will try to and I just it was
like over the weekend, I watched something or read something
and now I'm trying to remember what it was. But
if I find it, I'll I'll like put it on
our feet or something like that and be like, so, yeah,
I'm not just making it up.

Speaker 1 (02:59:27):
Well either way, After the match and after the stunned silence,
Undertaker sits up, you know, finally sits up after all
this time, he gets a bunch of applause and a
bunch of chance. It took him a while to get
to his feet, but he got to his feet and
he slowly walked backstage. But this wasn't over for Undertaker

(02:59:47):
because he apparently collapsed backstage and was immediately rushed to
a hospital or a local medical facility.

Speaker 2 (02:59:55):
If you wwe can you would imagine if he never
got back.

Speaker 1 (02:59:58):
There, that'd have been I'd have been scary.

Speaker 2 (03:00:02):
That would have been like the worst thing that we
would have seen, like just collapsed like on the ramp
or something like that. And they had people come out
and so many people would think it's a work too,
which is a shame, the shame of it all. I
didn't realize how serious it was until like weeks later.
Now we had heard, you know, the next day stuff

(03:00:25):
that went on backstage, like oh, the Undertaker got said
to the hospital, and I think it was like later
on that we it was reported that he actually collapsed
and was taken by ambulance and everything, and that Vince
went with him and left the show.

Speaker 1 (03:00:37):
And it's like, whoa, which is wild. It's like a
head coach leaving in the middle of a super Bowl.
Yeah right, he's calling Vince like Vince's calling the plays.
Essentially he's got the headset on like a head coach would,
and it's like he's in the middle of the biggest show,
in the biggest game where event he leaves Like that's
that'd be wild.

Speaker 2 (03:00:58):
And it was confirmed by the Undertaker himself. So a
lot of I was like, wait is that, Like can
I really believe that? But no, it actually happened.

Speaker 1 (03:01:06):
It actually happened, and like you said, undertake and bye,
Vince thought Undertaker should have retired right than that, I
should have been in the end, but he got the
in the match.

Speaker 2 (03:01:15):
He didn't look that great. I'm still saying, like he
wasn't as muscular as he was before. So to me,
I was like, okay, looking back, his body wasn't in
great shape. This was probably it for him.

Speaker 1 (03:01:26):
Yeah, it should have been it, but I'm sure Undertaker
was like, I can't go out like that exactly.

Speaker 2 (03:01:30):
Yeah, and he came back, remember and not remembering his
last match, that's right.

Speaker 1 (03:01:36):
But then, yeah, he had to come back to redeem himself,
and he kind of did with the bray Wyatt match.
But then he gets that feeling like, oh, I could
probably got it. I probably got another couple of matches
in me, you know, and then began that vicious cycle. Yeah,
you know, because he would come back, I got a
couple more matches in me, but that match wouldn't be

(03:01:56):
quite to his liking, you know, it wasn't. It wasn't
enough for the ending. And then that vicious cycle will
begin when he would get hurt, get a surgery, come back.
That can't be the end because I don't want to
go out like that, so I gotta come back. Oh
I feel good now I can have a couple more matches.
And then he gets hurt and he goes with surgery
and comes back. Can't go out like that, Gotta come
back and wrestle. Ooh I feel good again, like and

(03:02:18):
I can do it. Again, and he just kept doing
it over and over and over again and didn't really
end until twenty twenty twenty with the Boneyard. And we
all know this now because of the whole Last Ride documentary,
but we pretty much saw it play out in reality.
We all knew what was happening. It should have been

(03:02:39):
into twenty fourteen. It didn't end all right, But twenty seventeen,
what about that? That was a perfect time left his
hat in the ring, and it was like a perfect
storybook ending. He put Rouman reigns over as the guy
it's his yard now. Boom, all right, perfect no, because
he was too banged up and he didn't want to
go out like that, so he just kept coming back
over and over again, and his pride would always just

(03:03:01):
getting away of In the meantime, he was staying too long,
which is what a lot of people always say they
want to avoid. But the Undertaker ran right into it,
and here we are so to this point though as
we record this here on March eleventh, twenty twenty, the

(03:03:22):
Undertaker was twenty twenty one.

Speaker 2 (03:03:24):
I'm sorry, I don't want to go back on here, man.

Speaker 1 (03:03:26):
It still feels like a continuation of twenty twenty sometimes,
but when twenty twenty one, the Undertaker has remained retired.
He has not come back, and it doesn't look like
he's coming back to WrestleMania this year, which I wouldn't
be surprised though. He's like, Man, I would love to
have my last match be in front of fans. He

(03:03:47):
comes back again. Oh man, I could see it. I
could see what the Undertaker bro. We've seen him do
it already is documented that he's been like, he's been
prone to do this. I can't go out like that,
but I would love to have another match in front
of the peace people. It could, it could happen, because
this last mess technically was not in front of people.

Speaker 2 (03:04:04):
That's when you bring back see him punk Okay, Punk
gets the win back, I guess.

Speaker 1 (03:04:11):
I guess. Moving on from that, there's a lot to
talk about, a lot of ground and cover with that.
I would get a quick promo for WrestleMania thirty one,
which was in California the next year. I was also
attendance for that, and that is to date by last
WrestleMania in person, So hopefully we can change that sometime

(03:04:31):
in the future get back to another one. But then
we move on to Wow, not the main event, but
to the Vicki Guerrero Invitational for the Divas Championship, featuring
the champion, aj Lee defending against Oxana man I totally

(03:04:55):
forgot about Oxana until this, and her most memorable thing
was like pretty much destroying Naomi's eye socket for like
a couple of months and forcing Naomi to way the eyepatchuh,
Alicia Fox, Prie Bella, Cameron, even Marie Layla, Naomi, Natalia,

(03:05:15):
Nikki Bella, Rosa Mendez, Summa Ray and Tomina. Again, this
is pre Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Becky, Lynch Bailey and all
the other lot of the dope that came up.

Speaker 2 (03:05:30):
Eventually, technically it's pre Paige.

Speaker 1 (03:05:33):
Pre Paige you didn't debut to the next night. I
forgot about that, so no page even So Yeah, even
Marie's on the main roster already too, which is just
wild because the total DVA is it's just crazy to
think about. But then I thought, then they talked about
as a j Lee was making her entrance, because again,

(03:05:54):
this is clearly just a way to get all the
women on the show, right. This was the first time
the Davis championship was ever defended at WrestleMania. Wow, what
an absolute embarrassment? Do I mean this title that you'd
had around since like two thousand and nine, We're in

(03:06:16):
twenty fourteen and that title had never been defended at WrestleMania.
What was the What we are doing with this division?
What we're doing with these women that they can't even
defend the championship in WrestleMania? What the hell were they
doing with the women? And it didn't defend it the
next year? Right because it was a j Lem Page

(03:06:40):
versus the the Bello Twins.

Speaker 2 (03:06:42):
I believe.

Speaker 1 (03:06:44):
That was the women's match. I'm pretty sure that was
the next year. No, she was still on WW. This
is like that was like her like our final days,
but she was still there.

Speaker 2 (03:06:54):
She was still there for like a year after her
husband quit her. Well, I don't technically, I don't think
they were married yet they married that year.

Speaker 1 (03:07:03):
I think they got married in twenty fourteen. Ye after
see him Punk quit for some rember. They talked about
they fired him on his birthday, on his wedding day.

Speaker 2 (03:07:10):
Yeah, that's right, technically fired him. I think he is right.

Speaker 1 (03:07:14):
They sent him as the letter.

Speaker 2 (03:07:16):
That's crazy. Because I just I keep forgetting a j
Lee was here in that time period. Look at she
was here for a little bit and then left.

Speaker 1 (03:07:27):
But I'm looking at wrestlingning thirty one right now right,
and the match times every match on the card on
the main card, even the pre show only had like
on the two matches on the pre show, the battery
went eighteen minutes, the tag team match went almost ten
nine fifty eight. But on the main card, every match

(03:07:48):
on the main card went more than ten minutes except one.

Speaker 2 (03:07:54):
Take a guess, Rolins Elsner.

Speaker 1 (03:08:01):
And aj Aleen Page defeating the Bella Twins in a
smooth six minutes and forty two seconds. Every other match
on the main card win at least thirteen minutes.

Speaker 2 (03:08:16):
This was half.

Speaker 1 (03:08:19):
Embarrassing. WW finally got to step together eventually, really the
next year when they had the triple threat with Charlotte,
Becky and uh Sasha.

Speaker 2 (03:08:31):
Brought back the women's title, right but.

Speaker 1 (03:08:35):
Wolf Wolf and this one with like fourteen people in
the match with one pinfall Wolf on top of that
six minutes forty eight seconds.

Speaker 2 (03:08:50):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 (03:08:52):
On top of that, they got the worst spot of
all time. There's no there's no worst spot and ever
in the wrestling history. Then being the match that follows
the end of the streak. It will never no one
will ever have the worst spot in wrestling ever, unless

(03:09:15):
I'll take that back. Having to follow Owen Hart's death
is probably the worst thing to do, right, Uh, that
was a real life thing. Obviously, when somebody passed away
and WW is like, hey, Steve Awston undertaking you still
got to wrestle. That's the worst spot. Still, the worst
spot in wrestling history was the match that followed Owen

(03:09:37):
Heart's untimely and unfortunate death. The second worst was this.
I feel bad for all these women involved because the
fans did not give not a single damn about this.
They didn't care about it going into the night. Then
after the streak is over one I didn't care. I

(03:10:02):
was in the stadium, didn't watch a second of this match.
I was too busy writing the story about the Undertakeer losing, right. Yeah,
I wrote a quick story for Philly dot Com, which
I did not plan on doing it earlier because I
didn't think he's in her hies. I did not plan
on writing a quick story, but like I knew the
headline of the Undertaker losing the Street at WrestleMania would

(03:10:25):
get some conclicks. I'll put some quick together. You don't
get the seo popping, And that was right because the
story did pretty well. But like again, the fans pretty
much booted. They didn't care. It was just like they
got the Wow, what a terrible spot to be put in.
They might as well not even been on the show.
I mean, they got paid. I'm sure they'd rather be

(03:10:45):
on the show so they could say they was on
the show. But like who at the end of the day,
A j Lee won by making Naomi tap out and
she was still the champion, So there you go. Yeah, rough,
I mean, we can't say enough how bad it was
WW like, how how insignificant they made the women's division

(03:11:08):
was even in the next year. Like I said, every
match on the show on the main card was at
least thirteen minutes. The women's match got six forty whatever.
Ronda Rousey probably had more n ring time or resting
in thirty one than Paige aj Lee and the bellotwins

(03:11:32):
and she wasn't even a member of the ROSSI yet
embrassing again, they've turned the corner and they've done some
good things. Over the last I guess five years, and
I'd imagine it they'll continue to do that, but it's
kind of rough to why some of these shows and
be like, whoa, y'all didn't give a damn like what

(03:11:56):
what did y'all sign them for? So that's the I
don't though weet anything else to add on top of that.

Speaker 2 (03:12:04):
I'm just glad it would be the last WrestleMania or
a second to last WrestleMania. I should say, well, we're
getting closer to the you know, women's revolution, and now
we see them and multiple segments every week main event
and TV shows and pay per views, So I'm glad that,
you know, we're out of that kind of like you know,

(03:12:25):
they're out of that death spot.

Speaker 1 (03:12:26):
And we might get one of those nights of WrestleMania
might be a main evented by a women's match. It
should be, and that should Sasha Banks and Bianca Butalia
should be the main event of one of the Knights
of WrestleMania, which is again I guess they're doing it
over two nights to get the fans, like, because they
get like twenty thousand fans. You do that twice, you

(03:12:47):
get forty thousand fans, but uh.

Speaker 2 (03:12:50):
But definitely uh thanks Sasha and Bianca pell Air should
I would assume they're they would have made event Saturday
and then you'd have Edge in Roman on Sunday. That's
just my right feeling. But that's anything else. You can
swap the them, you know, that's fine, but they don't
have those two at the top of each night.

Speaker 1 (03:13:13):
That's mine as well. I mean, Bobby, we dope that
Bobby lashing the main event, but like Sasha and Bianca
are more worthy in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (03:13:21):
And I don't even know like that direction for Bobby
Lashley at this point.

Speaker 1 (03:13:24):
For Mania that's a good question too, what the hell
they're gonna do with him? But either way, yeah, we've
come a long way where we could have two black
women in Mania too, potentially, which I don't know if
there's ever been. I think I think there's only been
one time where two black people have ever worn one

(03:13:47):
on one in the main event of a WW pay
per view period, and I think that's the Rock and
Booker t at Summer Slam in two thousand and one, right,
and that was like the Rocks big we turned that year.
I don't know if that's ever happened. That's happened since
with two black people in the main event of a
pay per view of WW pay perview one on one,

(03:14:08):
so that's just Sasha versus Byonca would be a historic match.
So it's for black people. Obviously I'm black, so go us.
But for women in general, I know, right, it's crazy,
but for women it's They've come a long way at WW,
and that would be another We already had a main event,
no doubt. Uh, So that was cool and it should

(03:14:32):
have been a one on one match that night wasn't
triple threat for some reason. Uh, but we might get
another main event of a night with Sasha and Bianca.
But moving on here at Wrestlmingia thirty, we go backstage
to Gene Oakland and if you're on Hal Hogan when
Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff missed a wonderful Paul Orndorff walk in.

(03:14:57):
Of course, there were Hawk Hogan's opponents at the the
main event of the very first WrestleMania back in eighty
five and Madison Square Garden and then mister t comes
in and it was like that whole match coming in
life all over again. Haul Cogan and mister T going
against mister Wonderful and Roddy Piper. Even Pat Patterson came
out in his referee outfit from WrestleMania one, which the

(03:15:19):
story is Muhammad Alias was a referee that match, but
I don't think he was in good ship with the
with the Parkinson's disease or something like that, so pat
Patterson had to come in as the referee, and they
had left Muhammad a li on the outside of the ring.
But I think originally Muhammad Ali was supposed to be
the actual referee in that match, and then Pat Patterson
did it instead. But yeah, they you know, they shook

(03:15:42):
hands and buried the hatchet. But I think Piper and
mister T had legit heat over the years. I don't
think they actually liked each other because they remember they
had that terrible match in WrestleMania two. Yeah, the boxing match,
which was awful at WrestleMania too. But then we move on,
we get some They show us some legends at ringside.

(03:16:02):
We got Brett Hart, Bob Beckland, Harley Race, Bruno s Martino,
and Dusty Rose all seated at ringside, which again a
nice touch to use some legends. Hey, they're sitting at ringside,
they're enjoying the festivities. They are here to watch the
current guys wrestle.

Speaker 2 (03:16:19):
Did they pay for those seats?

Speaker 1 (03:16:24):
I don't think so. My gut tells me they didn't.
But I think it's still that. I mean, hey, you
win a world championship.

Speaker 2 (03:16:35):
Hey, I was unsung hero two thousand and three in
my baseball team, So let's go give me some counsel something.
I guess that a council with something. But I do
like I think it's a nice touch. Just you don't
have to have the legends beating people up wrestling each other.
Now these guys are, they're a little older, They couldn't
really wrestle anymore. Boy backling probably good, honestly, but you

(03:16:59):
know that's how I used legends. Unfortunate that Dusty Bruno
and Harlan no longer with us, so rest of peace
to all three of them. But again, I thought it
was a nice touch to just have him sitting there
hanging out, watching the show and watching the main event,
which is a triple threat match for the WWE World
Heavyweight Championship Randy Orton defending against Batista and Daniel Bryan

(03:17:25):
of course, we got Randy Orton getting played to the
ring by Rev Theory, who was the band that performs
his theme song that they hear voices in their heads
and they talk to him, and they talk to them
and they understand.

Speaker 1 (03:17:41):
Randy Orton who was walking around with two belts because
they unified WW and the World Heavyweight Championship to make
them the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. But you know, I
remember everybody's like, like, what's the word I'm looking for?
Kind of like what's the word I'm looking for here?

(03:18:02):
I'm trying to a C. They were speculating, not with
a speed, not with a C at all, not what
a C with an S.

Speaker 2 (03:18:12):
Actually that's great.

Speaker 1 (03:18:15):
They were speculating as to what they would name the
unified title. A lot of people thought it was gonna
be like the Undisputed Title again. I think then they
put up like a poll on ww dot com or
something like that or WW like on raw. I think
that's what happened, is like what do you want to
name it? And they named it the w W World
Heavyweight Championship, which I wasn't really mad. I liked it

(03:18:36):
so just combining names.

Speaker 2 (03:18:38):
But for years, like how they not just used it.
I don't understand it.

Speaker 1 (03:18:44):
I don't know, but they used it for a couple
of years. Then they went to like WW World Championship.
Then it just became a WW championship again. It's like,
what the hell, why did y'all take away the name?
And then especially when they brought out the universal title,
it wasn't the w W what heavyweight championship anymore? And
she's like, stupid, just make it one title anyway.

Speaker 2 (03:19:05):
I think it still says world Heavyweight Champion on the
it does.

Speaker 1 (03:19:10):
It, sure enough does, but it's not the WW World
Heavyweight Championship anymore. But Daniel Brian's out, he is selling
the arm because of course Triple As is Stephane or
mostly triples heard it earlier. Stephane just berated them verbally,
but uh or assaulted him verbally. Yeah, she verbally assaulted them.

(03:19:32):
Triple As physically assaulted them or she actually no, she
physically assaulted them. She slapped them in the face a
couple of times before Triple A snuck him from behind.
So we got Daniel Brian. But let's talk about Batista
real quick, because he got screwed over in all of this,
Like you mentioned earlier. What poor timing, not only on

(03:19:54):
his part, just WWE, because WA Batista comes back after
what four years of being a away from WWE. He
went off to do movies and he carved out a
niche for himself and now he's a big star. But
he came back to WWE like, hey, man, I still
like the wrestle I'm gonna come back. I'm gonna do
y'all the favorite now because I'm a big star. So

(03:20:15):
let's do this ww Let's rock. They say, okay, naturally,
you know what we want to do. One bet we're
gonna put you in the main event in WrestleMania. And
probably the plan was probably to have Batista win the
title and probably have him go to you off and
do like the promotional tours for Guardians of the Galaxy

(03:20:36):
while he's a w W World Heavyweight Champion. Instead, WWE
brought him back while ignoring all this loud calamity that
was happening over here, which was fan saying hey, we
want Daniel Bryan and Batista comes back and like, hey,
oh wow, they really don't like me. Huh, they don't

(03:20:57):
want me at all? Like the whole rimber he came
out wearing blue one time it was blue Tista and
it was blue Tista and it's like Patita's like that,
I didn't ask this man what the hell? Like w W,
Like what does y'all do? Why did y'all do this?
Like how did y'all get me into this? Like and
after all of that, he didn't even win the title

(03:21:18):
because spoiler, Daniel Briant wins the title. He now doesn't
wrestle for the title ever. Again. He doesn't get his
one on one match for the title she was promised
at by winning the Worry Rumble. He goes and jobs
out to the Shield two months in a row and
then leaves. He's like, I'm done, bro, Like I'm good,
Like y'all got it, Like I'll put over the Shield

(03:21:41):
no doubt because they're dope. But like I'm done, like
y'all y'all ain't got y'all creative is whack. I'm going
off back to Marvel in Hollywood because they treat me better.
He's right, So Big Dave got screwed over in this one.
No one, no one's fault, but w w's agreed. So

(03:22:04):
at some point though, Triple as Stephanie come back out
trying to get rid of Daniel Brian with the help
of Scott Armstrong, who was apparently a crooked referee at
this point. I don't remember. I don't recall Scott Armstrong
being the crooked ref like Nick Patrick or something like that.

Speaker 2 (03:22:17):
But he was like the authority ref where they woul
kind of like force him to do all this shady
stuff and he did it. And I don't remember exactly
like each time he did it, but yeah, he was like,
you know, by he screwed Daniel Brian over here and
there a few times. So yeah, I remember him coming

(03:22:40):
out and be like, oh, not this guy.

Speaker 1 (03:22:42):
No, not that crook. That's Michael Cole called him that crook,
Scott Strong. He was just doing his job. Man, he
needs to pay his bills. I don't mean he was
a crook. Damn. Brian got rid of him by kicking
him in the head and did a dive hi on
Armstrong triple ash and Stephanie knocked him all out. Yeah,

(03:23:04):
and then he hit triple as with his own sledgehammer.
It's like, damn, it was assaulting people out here.

Speaker 2 (03:23:08):
He did. He wasn't having any bs.

Speaker 1 (03:23:11):
No, this is this is this is the this is
the end. I need to get this done. But probably
the best part of the match for me with when
Randy or And and Dave Batista Ali Daniel Brian. Batista
had Daniel Brian set up and Afford the Patista bomb,
pulled him up in the air, tossed him up in

(03:23:31):
the air, and Randy Orton caught him on the way
down threw down that oop man.

Speaker 2 (03:23:37):
I think that was supposed to be like a into
the r k O, but clearly didn't. I think Orton
hurt himself.

Speaker 1 (03:23:47):
Yeah, because I think he landed on one of the monitors.

Speaker 2 (03:23:50):
But it was it was a cool visual that it
was Ali. They were like, yeah, we got to get
rid of this guy. That will fight each other, right,
get more head, you.

Speaker 1 (03:24:01):
Know, right. Daniel Brian was put onto a stretcher, was
about to be wheeled out, but he fought his way back.

Speaker 2 (03:24:07):
No, get off me, coming back, Balliot.

Speaker 1 (03:24:11):
Valiantly coming back. And one thing I noticed this match
was Okay, it was a good match, but it was
a lot of good near falls at the end, Like
there was a couple of times like Batista like he
might have had it won a Randy Yord and I
was like, oh, and the people were into it. Like
it wasn't like when brocket that third at five and
people were like sitting down waiting for what's gonna happen next,
Like people were standing up. They were like oh, and

(03:24:33):
you know they would kick out. But at the end
of the day, the right decision was made. Daniel Brian
not only won the title, but he did it by submission.
He forced Dave Patisa to tap out to win the
ww World Heavyweight Championship to finally put a nice little

(03:24:55):
bow in the story that WW did not want to
tell and that he overcame in the eyes, he overcame
the authority calling him a B plus player and just
a guy to become the guy, the guy, the man
in the industry. It's w w WA have Waight Champion
and we got fireworks and confetti and the people are

(03:25:18):
going crazy. Michael Coles call him the miracle Kid, the
Miracle on Bourbon Street. I still think that was a
pretty good call from Michael Cole.

Speaker 2 (03:25:28):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (03:25:28):
The fans, you know, after the disappointment of the undertaking
streak ending, they just you know turned right around at
the one ad like yay, you know, Daniel Bryan's champion finally,
you know. And after after all that, it was like.

Speaker 2 (03:25:40):
The ones that they were leaving after Undertaker lost and
what was it like that Miami Heat game where they
started coming back and that's what they were doing that
playoff game, right, they were like leaving them trying to
get back in the building.

Speaker 1 (03:25:56):
Was it as a Chiefs fan of that too? When
they when they were playing the Texans in the playoffs
really and the Texans the Texans went up like twenty
one nothing in the first quarter and apparently it it's
funny because it's like one fan in particular left the
game and said it like on Twitter, the game, I'm
out left right, And as soon as he left is
when the chief started coming back and all the fans like,
you can't come back to a game no more like

(03:26:17):
in a joking way, like I think the Chiefs even
got in on it, like it was like he can't
come back, Like you can't. You got to stay home
now for for good because we as soon as you,
as soon as you came, we were stinking it. And
then you came back and you left and we came
back and won. So but yeah, it was just it
was just great to see because you don't see those
types of reactions anymore from guys winning the championship. I mean,

(03:26:41):
it wasn't even Daniel Bryant's first title reign technically, but
you would have thought it was the way people reacted,
you know, if we haven't had those moments.

Speaker 2 (03:26:51):
You know, it didn't have to be his first title win.
That was the story about, you know, finally get it,
like being screwed so many times and finally getting that win.
They backed into it, backed into that story or not.
The story was started at SummerSlam SO and Pro Wrestling.
You know, I guess it doesn't matter sometimes how you

(03:27:11):
get there, And obviously it didn't matter how they got
there this time because the right decision was made for
whenever I remember like perus and Twitter and I don't
know if it's like February or March and they're like
wrestling and plans have changed or whatever, it's like WHOA what?
And I remember like being clue to that because and
then like following on Raw and you know, it was

(03:27:34):
kind of clear to the route they were going. I'm like, yes,
this is amazing. And then if they did it, they
finally did it.

Speaker 1 (03:27:42):
Right and we were ready to run with that ball
with Daniel Bryan and then he got hurt and all that.
But on this night all was right. They did the
right thing, and like I said, these moments these days
are few and far between. It felt like they were
like an annual thing. We get this word book ending
at WrestleMania, and to me, and I've said this before,

(03:28:03):
WrestleMania is where storybook endings are supposed to happen. All right.
I understand you get heat at various times of the year,
and you know the villain might win sometimes. For that WrestleMania,
if you have a card full of babyfaces winning, I
think that's okay. That's the night where the storybook endings happen,

(03:28:23):
especially when it comes to the main event. So that's
what made like when Brock beat Roman Reigns in the
main event in twenty eighteen, it made it so bad
because like, this is WrestleMania. I waited all year for
this and Brock just wins. Again, What the hell? Like
this is where the storybook ending happens. That was the
main event too. It wasn't even like an opening match
or the middle of the card. That was the main

(03:28:44):
event of the show that was garbage. But this and
like when Kofe won and that wasn't even the main event,
but the main event still had the storybook ending of
Becky Lynch winning both titles the least and it's the
women's main event. Then you got Kofe like that was
That's what Wresumania is about. That's what it's for.

Speaker 2 (03:29:02):
Man.

Speaker 1 (03:29:03):
And when you missed that as opportunity, which WW sometimes
does miss like they for whatever reason just don't do it,
it's like, dog, you know what to do here. You've
done the work getting here. The work is the storytelling
getting to this point and making people want to buy
in to see WrestleMania and get behind whoever they want

(03:29:24):
to get behind. But for you, it's history beginding. It's easy.
Baby Face goes over in the end. Done, that's it simple.
Every other show I can understand if you don't do that,
But the WrestleMania in the main event, the baby Face
wins for the most part. Now, I will say I

(03:29:44):
will make an exception this year if Roman Rains beats
Edge only because Roman Rains is the current guy and
Edge is the older guy, so you put the newer
guy over. But if let's say Roman Reigns is going

(03:30:06):
against Daniel Bryan. Dan Brian should probably win that night
and then maybe he could lose it the next month
or something. I don't know, but yeah, that's what you
do a WrestleMania, man. So that's what This was one
of those story book endings, one of the best endings
in the WrestleMania history and definitely a recent memory, because again,
we don't get these endings too often.

Speaker 2 (03:30:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:30:29):
Uh, you know, another exception would have been WrestleMania thirty
one the next year when Seth won, But the shock
factor was that's what got everybody like, it's like the
shocking that somebody catching that WrestleMania and won the title
that way. So that's another exception to the rule. But uh,
for this night, we got the proper ending to a

(03:30:49):
WrestleMania I just recall, you know, oh well, let me
back back a little bit. We said this earlier. The
authority should have ended on this, and then it should
have ended that Survivor series, and then it should have
ended at Wrestlemaniam thirty one, and it should have ended

(03:31:09):
so many times should have ended and it took it
took a while, but we eventually got there. But I
remember leaving the stadium after the show and people were
still talking about the streak, Like people were like, I
can't believe it's over, bro, Like I'm happy for Daniel Bryant,
but I can't believe the streak is over. I can't
believe it, Like it's real. I'm dead serious, man. But

(03:31:34):
then I made my way to Bourbon Street, and by
that point, nobody cared about the streak no more. They
were in party mood and doing Yes Chance, and they
were a little bit more upbeat by the time we
got to Bourbon Street, because I mean, it's New Orleans,
after all, that's kind of what you do. You're trying
to just party and have a good time, and that's

(03:31:55):
what That's what happened that night. So again I didn't
get to enjoy it as much as I really wanted to.
That didn't happen until again last year, when trust me,
I got to have plenty of fun. But I still
got to see it a little bit and fans were
happy and doing Yes Chance everywhere and drinking and carrying on.
So but yep, that's my time at wrestlming you're thirty,

(03:32:16):
and I didn't know, if you had anything else to
put on that before we wrap it up.

Speaker 2 (03:32:22):
I'll just say I still think it's the greatest WrestleMania ever.

Speaker 1 (03:32:30):
I'm not gonna sit here and just totally dispute it,
because again we put it second place in our bracket
a couple of years ago. I will say it was
definitely a very eventful WrestleMania. It's probably the most eventful,
I'll give you that much. I'll give it that. I

(03:32:50):
don't know if there's a WrestleMania where more happened than
this one between the Streak and Daniel Bryan and maybe
you'ven throwing a Cizarro too when in the Battle Royal.
Even though at you know, in the long runner it
didn't leave mean that much, but at the time that
was a big deal, especially the way it happened. Yeah,

(03:33:14):
it was pretty eventful and everything leading up to it.
There's a lot going into that too, like that show,
like with the Sea and punk stuff, and then finally
put Daniel Brien in that position, and then Batista's here,
like Batista's is here, like here, he's the thing. He's
in the main event, and they unified the titles, like

(03:33:34):
there was a lot going on WW network is a thing.

Speaker 2 (03:33:38):
Now.

Speaker 1 (03:33:39):
There was a lot going on heading into the show. Oh,
by the way, Ultimate Warriors back into the graces of WWE.
Jake Roberts is clean and in the w W Hall
of Fame. So with Scott Hall. Wow, there was a
lot going on surrounding the show leading up to the show.
You could probably write a book just about from Summer

(03:34:00):
Slam until this night everything else surrounding WW at that point.
Is a lot going on at that point. Ye. So
I would give it the the monarker of the most eventful.
So don't think it's the best. So I'm still saying
seventeen takes that kick even though it hasn't. I'll give

(03:34:21):
it this much. It definitely has a better ending than seventeen,
that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (03:34:29):
But you know, seventeen probably has the bigger pop when
when the stands up.

Speaker 1 (03:34:37):
Probably true, bro, and I'm not even joking, that's one
of the biggest if you go between the two shows,
that pop is like in the top two or three
of the pops between that and like Daniel Brian winning
the championship, Yeah, that's pretty much it. I guess maybe
Danie Brian beating triple h. Yeah, you're right, and the

(03:34:57):
mcmah sayding up out of that chair was a huge pot.

Speaker 2 (03:35:01):
I'll never forget that man. That crowd nuts.

Speaker 1 (03:35:06):
It was great crazy.

Speaker 2 (03:35:09):
You can follow me at Underscore pecone on Twitter. You
can follow us at Shooters Radio on Twitter also known
as X and also at Facebook, Facebook dot com slash
Shooters Radio. If you can catch us at shooterspod dot com.
Lists everywhere we're available. Also check me out Phillyinfluencer dot com.

(03:35:30):
You can check this podcast out at foxphl Gambler dot com.

Speaker 1 (03:35:35):
There you go. You can check me out at Vaughan M.
Johnson on X. You can check us out on Patreon,
Patreon dot com slash Shooters Shooters Radio. Still there, right, yep,
there we go, So check us out there. If you
want to request a future deep dive, feel free to
do it. Go over to Patreon, put it in request

(03:35:56):
we will fulfill it in. You can make a cameo
on the SHO show again Patreon dot com, slash Shooters Radio.
But until next time for Nick Pocone, I am Vorn Johnson.
Thanks for listening and we'll catch you again next week. Hey,
good bitch, wake up the show on oh Yeah, Jiggy

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