Tough Cover Show: Phillies Trade Deadline, WWE SummerSlam - 08/02/25

Mark Henry Jr. and Roy Burton talk all things Phillies trade deadline and the classic Friday night game against the Tigers, NFL headlines, and more in Hour 1.

Nick Piccone joins the guys in Hour 2 to talk all things SummerSlam - the first-ever two-night SummerSlam, live from MetLife Stadium.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Number one on your car radio preset hand the new
and improved iHeart Radio apps w D A S and
w D two seven three D Philadelphia is Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
The Gambler.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Right down and the language that everybody here can easily understand.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Time to get ready for the day's action, from the
sides to the totals and everything in between. Nobody does
it better than the top cover with Mark Henry right
here on the Gambler.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
What the.

Speaker 5 (00:58):
Welcome tough cover radio show?

Speaker 6 (01:02):
I wos Mark Enders followed on one Twitter at the
Mark Henvy Junior NFL hope excuse me the old ones
now plenty of times.

Speaker 5 (01:12):
On the podcast as we don't und this year.

Speaker 7 (01:14):
We got the NFL in there now because we're damn
close to NFL season here we are. We just had
the Hall of Fame game this week. We've got no
one better back in the studio to talk to than
our guy, Roy Burton at the BS line on Twitter,
our fantasy guy here at the Gambler.

Speaker 5 (01:32):
He is one of the.

Speaker 7 (01:33):
Only people on the planet that I think is as
excited for the NFL as I am, and as excited
for fantasy season.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Roy, thanks so much for being here. How you doing, brother,
Mark Henry Jr. I watched the Hall of Fame game.
That tells you how excited I am football to be back. Man,
that's a sickness in the South.

Speaker 7 (01:51):
It is a when you have to sit through some
Trey Lance and some DJ DJU. That's where it's you know,
you're jones in for some football. You know, you know,
you're really fiended. And I was right there with you.
I was on a drive on the way home literally
watching it on my phone on the passenger seat, so
I was also invested. But we got other stuff to

(02:14):
talk about as well. At twelve o'clock, we are having
our guy Nick Pecone on. You can follow him on
Twitter at pecone or at Underscore picone. He is obviously
great for chopping up Phillies and Eagles and all things
Philly sports radio and this you Twitter great on Twitter,
but he's also the host of the Straight Shooters Radio

(02:36):
here at the station, does a lot of wrestling content here.

Speaker 5 (02:41):
But we're gonna bring him.

Speaker 7 (02:43):
On at twelve o'clock to talk about Summer Slam, which
right as this show ends, I'll be making my way
up to MetLife and driving up there to see Night
one a Summer Slam tonight.

Speaker 5 (02:55):
Fun.

Speaker 7 (02:55):
Actually, I'll save the fun facts for the second hour
about me when it comes to a certain wrestler that
I very much support, if you can tell by the
intro and maybe the shirt that I'm wearing. We'll save
that for the second hour. But we got NFL to
talk about. We're gonna get to that in second. In
the second part of this first hour, we have Michael

(03:16):
Parsons news, Terry McLaurin news, some contracts that were given out.
So it's starting to kind of pick up here and
get into the full swing of things in the NFL cycle.
But we have to start no other place than the
Philadelphia Phillies. You have to talk about the Phillies after
last night and after the deadline, and the deadline happened

(03:36):
on yeah, Thursday, Thursday, the thirty first, two days ago now,
and it's one of the more bitter sweet kind of
moments I can ever remember as a as a Philadelphia
sports fan like I. It's hard to kill a team
that maybe went out and got potentially the best player

(03:57):
that changed hands at the deadline. Regardless position you could argue,
you know, relievers are less important than other positions that
we moved, YadA, YadA, YadA, but probably the best reliever
that changed hands to the deadline, at least in terms
of what he is at this very moment. And you
still it's hard to not feel like the Phillies squandered
an opportunity and hard to not feel like the Phillies

(04:20):
had a chance. I think to cement themselves as the
second best roster.

Speaker 5 (04:24):
In the National League.

Speaker 7 (04:25):
If you went out and added a legit that Ejumeno Suarez.
I think that that puts you a leg above the
Cubs and the Mets and the Brewers and the Padres.
We know what they have in their rotation, and that's
why they're going to be able to do what they're
going to be able to do.

Speaker 5 (04:42):
If they're able to do it.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
That was maybe a.

Speaker 7 (04:43):
Tongue twister, but if they make the run, it's going
to be because of the pitching, and we all know that.

Speaker 5 (04:50):
But you have to have some hitting in there.

Speaker 7 (04:53):
And I know Kyle Swarvers, Awes and Bryce Harper's awesome,
Trey having a good year. A couple of guys stepped
up big last night, and we'll get more into last night,
but it was hard for me to not have some
intrusive thoughts.

Speaker 5 (05:07):
I love Joan Duran.

Speaker 7 (05:08):
We're gonna talk about just how much in a little bit,
but it's hard for me to not have some thoughts
of was it even worth doing that if you weren't
gonna go out and address the offense. Now he's here
for two and a half years, it's not just to
this year move.

Speaker 5 (05:23):
I get all that.

Speaker 7 (05:24):
Where are you at, Roy in terms of if I'm
I think I'm on the scale of one. You know
the people on Twitter saying, you know, fire, Dave Dombrowski
and fire Rob Thompson and you know, blow it all up.

Speaker 5 (05:38):
The team has no chance.

Speaker 7 (05:40):
And if at ten ish Luke Arcaney telling everybody that
the Phillies are perfect and we're gonna win the World
Series and that's a joke. I love Luke, but I'm
probably a four or five. I'm probably somewhere in the middle,
maybe leaning more towards negativity right now. But where are
you at on that scale coming out of the deadline?

Speaker 4 (06:03):
Yeah, I'm probably at a six.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
I guess I would I think a little bit more
optimistic than then you might be at this point. But
you're right, like there were two things that the Phillies
needed to come you know at this deadline, right, they
needed you know, a lights out closer, you know, somebody
at the back end of the bullpen to kind of
lock things up, and they needed a bat and a
power bat ideally. You know, we had the discussions in
the Gambler group chat about guys like Stephen Kaugh and
things like that, and they went one to two, right,

(06:25):
they got one of the two and they got probably
the best closer on the market, but they didn't get
that that power bat that this lineup probably needs. So yeah,
like I I like this is a good trade deadline.
But you know, are they better than the Dodgers after this?
Are they better than the Mets? Are they better than
the Padres? You know, roster construction wise, probably not. And
again like you probably should have, you know, pushed more

(06:46):
chips to the center of the table to kind of
make yourself, as you said, a top to top three
roster me. And now because the guys were out there
like as you saw, like you know, you were saying
a couple of days before the trade deadline, like this
is a kind of quiet trade deadline. Last two days
everything went crazy. So there were guys to be had
out there. If the Phillies wanted to move their prospects,
doesn't seem like they didn't. Then they didn't quite make
enough moves to kind of get over that hump.

Speaker 7 (07:07):
I think yeah, And I actually think my my thing
we're on at is after the Dodgers, I think two
through five, and take the Brewers out of it, because
I actually think the Brewers are just They're not as
good on paper as these other NL teams, but they
keep they just keep on winning.

Speaker 5 (07:24):
I think they have the.

Speaker 7 (07:25):
Best record in baseball. Haven't checked this morning, but think
they're the best record in baseball. I don't really believe
in that, Like, I think they're a good team, and
they're a great organization, and they churn out talent. You
just go through the stats, like, doesn't even make sense
that they're the best team in baseball.

Speaker 5 (07:40):
It's kind of crazy. So I don't buy that, even
though I think they were.

Speaker 7 (07:43):
If they were in the AL, i'd be saying they're
probably the best team in the American League. But if
you look at the Phillies, the Mets, the Cubs, the Padres,
I think it's just razors in. I think the margins
between all four of those teams are so razor razors
in and I think let's say that the Dodgers kind
of even the ship here, and I think right now

(08:05):
they would get I'm pulling it up as we speak. Yeah,
the Dodgers would actually be the three seed, right or no,
they'd be the two seed because the top two seeds
are from the NL Central, So the Dodgers would have
one of the two buyers. Right now, Let's say the
Dodgers get one of those two buys, right, because everybody's
focused on the division. Actually, it doesn't really matter if
you win the division or if you're the fourth or

(08:27):
the first wildcard, you're getting a home three game series.

Speaker 5 (08:30):
What matters is those top two seeds.

Speaker 7 (08:32):
If you can get one of those top two seeds
and get a bye, so one of the division winners,
especially with.

Speaker 5 (08:37):
All these guys clumped so close together.

Speaker 7 (08:39):
In these divisions, the top of these divisions, one of
these division winners is gonna win ninety five games and
feel like they're holding the bag having a host of
three game series.

Speaker 5 (08:47):
One of these really good teams come San.

Speaker 7 (08:49):
Diego, the Mets, the Cubs, us whoever, it is feeling
like they're holding the bag after they just kind of
burnt out to the midnight gas there and one ninety
five games win, you're division and doesn't matter, you're your
the three seed.

Speaker 5 (09:03):
It matters to get a top two seed.

Speaker 7 (09:04):
Let's say the Dodgers get one of those if we're
saying one of the Brewer, because the Padres wouldn't be
able to get the other one of the Brewers, Cubs, Phillies,
or Mets are getting that two seed. I think each
team has like roughly around the twenty five percent chance,
like give or take, because you know, the Brewers are

(09:25):
three ahead of the Phillies, the Cubs are two ahead
of the Phillies, the Phillies are a half ahead of
the Mets.

Speaker 5 (09:30):
The Phillies are one and a half ahead of the Padres.

Speaker 7 (09:33):
Take it with a grain of salt that you know,
those are all small enough margins at this point that
you know that can even out pretty quickly.

Speaker 5 (09:40):
I think it's.

Speaker 7 (09:40):
Pretty much even for those four teams, and it's just
gonna matter who gets hot, just gonna matter who stays healthy,
kind of or you know what low what low level
deadline acquisition that we're not paying attention to, and like
Tommy Edmund to the Dodgers or something like that, like
the twenty twenty one Braves when they brought in Jack Peterson,
Hilaire and all these guys who are basically free from

(10:03):
other places and they get there and they kind of
level the game up and they fit perfectly. Who's that
team gonna be. It's gonna be really interesting because I
think all and this is another level of this.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
I I tweeted this out.

Speaker 7 (10:16):
I think the six best teams in Major League Baseball
are in the National League. Like I don't I don't
ever remember feeling that way.

Speaker 5 (10:26):
I think the American League.

Speaker 7 (10:28):
I think there is a bigger gap right now between
the n L and the a L than any of
the years that people have complained about the a f
C and the NFC, any of the years that people
have complained about Lebron in the East and you know,
winning easy East.

Speaker 5 (10:42):
I can't speak to.

Speaker 7 (10:43):
Hockey, but I in the three professional American sports h.

Speaker 5 (10:50):
Mls.

Speaker 7 (10:52):
Yeah, I think this is the biggest gap I can
remember from.

Speaker 5 (10:57):
League to league.

Speaker 4 (10:59):
That's ooh, that's a take. I like that. I'm looking
at the AL. Yeah, I'm not entirely sold in the
blue jeas.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
I think the Tigers are good good, Yeah, the Tigers
are probably in that top I think they're one of
the six best teams in the m L, in the
major leagues, I think.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
But by the way, even like.

Speaker 7 (11:14):
It would be one thing if there was a team
like the Tigers who had like, let's say they had
sixty four wins, and the sixth place team in the
NL that I was saying was better than them was
like fifty five and fifty five or fifty eight and
fifty three like the Padres are, they'd be two and
a half back of Detroit and the Padres the sixth
seed in the NL. So it's not like it's not record.

(11:35):
I'm kind of just looking at all these teams that
are similar in record. If you look at the top
let let's let's call it, let's call it the top
three of the AL and the top six of the NL,
they're all within four and a half games. So like
the first place team in the ninth place team in
the league of all of baseball are within four and

(11:58):
a half games. So if I'm just grouping all these
guys and looking on paper, kind of diving into the metrics,
looking at expected stuff for the next half. The one
that actually sticks out to me over Detroit would be Houston.

Speaker 5 (12:11):
They'd be the team.

Speaker 7 (12:12):
But it's so dependent on your on Alvarez, which is
what I told Brace. I would pick the Astros right
now to win the AL because they've done this without
your done, and you have to imagine if he comes
back and he's any level of what he usually is,
that's gonna kind of level them up.

Speaker 5 (12:28):
I think I would.

Speaker 7 (12:30):
Take the Padres over any team in the AL, though,
and they're the worst team in the NL on in
terms of the standings right now in the playoffs. Maybe
I'm crazy, Maybe I'm over inflating the NL. I think
it's if I was a team in the AL, if
I was Detroit, if I was Houston, if I was Toronto,
if I was the Yankees, Boston, Seattle and some of
them did, I would have been going all in because

(12:52):
I think it's wide open for any of those teams
that sneak in the playoffs in the AL to make
a run.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
You're talking about the Padres and they were. They were
talking about those numb on the earlier show at over Parks.
Padres plus five hundred to win the NLS. I don't
hate that. I think the Padres are pretty They're in
a pretty good and plus seven and fifty to win
the National League. I think those are pretty on DraftKings,
I think those are pretty decent numbers if you're you know,
if you're if you're in the mood, I think those
are if you want to make some money. I think

(13:19):
that's that's the way you lean to if if you
want to bet somebody in the NL.

Speaker 7 (13:22):
Something interesting about the Padres that I didn't realize this
until I was diving deep into when I was putting
out all the numbers about our power and how I
was concerned about our power. They're more concerning if you
look at some of their power numbers. Now, either you
went out and you got O'Hearn who he's probably like
a twenty twenty five homber guy. You went out and
you got Lariano, probably a twenty twenty five homber guys,

(13:43):
so that hopefully helps that. But you look at if
you just pull up like the the the ESPN page,
Machado's got twenty, so he's on pace for probably like
around thirty probably a little bit of a down year
for him. If you went through it, I got the
look but Tatis seventeen homers, one hundred and eight games.
Maybe a little bit of a steroid merchant at the.

Speaker 5 (14:03):
Time when when he when he was taking them.

Speaker 7 (14:06):
You look back at that now and maybe that's a
little more interesting of a conversation. But I and then
after that you have Gavin Sheets with fifteen homers.

Speaker 5 (14:16):
But he's a seven thirty five ops guy.

Speaker 7 (14:18):
He's not He's got a zero point three war like,
he's not extremely valuable.

Speaker 5 (14:21):
After that.

Speaker 7 (14:22):
They had before these trades, they had no one on
their roster had more than eight homers Jackson Merrill all
the way down to seven homers this year cronin Worth
eight homers. Maybe I've been a little too hyper focused
on power recently because of what I'm watching on.

Speaker 5 (14:36):
A daily exactly, But I do think that's interesting that
the Padres, for everything they went out and they.

Speaker 7 (14:44):
Did, I think they're probably still a league average lineup.

Speaker 5 (14:50):
If we're saying, unless Tatis becomes Tatis.

Speaker 7 (14:54):
You're hot, right, I think they're I think I probably
take the Phillies lineup.

Speaker 5 (14:58):
Over them, which it seems crazy. I think the Padres
have slight.

Speaker 7 (15:02):
Not slightly, probably a good bit more depth to the
lineup but I think what Schwarber and Bryce are giving you,
or at least what Schwarber's given you all year, and
what Bryce has given you since he's been back from injury,
and maybe even you could argue Trey. I think I
take the top of the lineup pretty comfortably over what

(15:22):
San Diego has done.

Speaker 5 (15:24):
Now.

Speaker 7 (15:24):
San Diego's light years ahead in the bullpen of everybody
in not just Phillies.

Speaker 5 (15:29):
Their bullpen is special.

Speaker 7 (15:31):
That And I had a weird thought about this, and
this is a detour I did not.

Speaker 5 (15:37):
I kind of forgot that. I wanted to ran about
the Padres.

Speaker 7 (15:41):
This is a good detour, but they went out and
this is not a good comparison.

Speaker 5 (15:47):
Let me just throw that out there first before I
make it.

Speaker 7 (15:49):
The New York Giants, right, they had the third pick
this year, and you think, you know, this team.

Speaker 5 (15:56):
Is really bad. They have a lot of holes, they
have needs all over the place. There.

Speaker 7 (16:02):
They had one position of strength, the New York Giants,
and it was upfront.

Speaker 5 (16:06):
It was the defensive line.

Speaker 4 (16:07):
Right.

Speaker 7 (16:08):
Abdul Carter is so good, He's really good. I love
Abdol Carter. I'm preaching to the Penn Staters. I think
you guys should be nervous about this year because Abdul
Carter was that good. I think he was a level
up guy for the guys around him. But everybody's freaking
out about this Giants defensive line, like I've seen, Like
Sean Brace asked me on the Daily Ticket, like, man,

(16:29):
could the Giants be like a little bit pesky and
better this year?

Speaker 5 (16:33):
And they're really good up front?

Speaker 7 (16:35):
And my kind of argument to that was, like they
were good up front last year and if we're just
looking at the pod days, Mason Miller's awesome. Although he
does have like a three seventy RA I don't really
buy that his stuff's unbelievable.

Speaker 5 (16:48):
You just made the best bullpen in baseball better? Does
that really matter?

Speaker 7 (16:53):
Is it that big of a deal? I guess now. Again,
he's a haven for.

Speaker 5 (16:59):
Four more years. I think it's three or four more years, absolutely,
But you haven't for a long time. This is a
long time thing.

Speaker 7 (17:04):
I even heard some rumblings that, similar to when they
traded to Michael King from the Yankees, that they're going
to make him a starter and that they look at
Mason Miller as a starter long term, so that that
could be an interesting Wrinkle to maybe giving up the
huge piece they did. You have the number three prospect
in baseball for what we think right now as a closer, so.

Speaker 5 (17:25):
That is.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
He's been one of the better closers you know, over
the last few years. And so you know, I mean,
I get it, you know, but yeah, it's you to
your point just about the lineup. Yeah, I kind of
agree about the about the Phillies on it probably being
better than the Potters on it. Not not to say
that I know that much about the Padres, but I
mean we've seen these guys. We've seen you know, Schober,
We've seen Harper, you carry this Phillies offense, you know,

(17:50):
on a you know, for extended periods of time when
other guys haven't been able to hit right. And so
I don't think I can't speak for the Padres, but
I'm not sure that you know there as have done that.
So just based on what we see in recent history,
I would probably, I would probably agree to with you
and saying that the Phillies line up, you know, top
to bottom, at least the top.

Speaker 4 (18:05):
Of the lineup, is better than what the San Diego's
rolling out.

Speaker 7 (18:08):
It's funny the team that actually scares me the most
is the Cubs. Honestly, if we're talking about the Cubs, Mets, Padres, Brewers,
that kind of that tree or that that quartet, I
should say that that we're kind of competing with, and.

Speaker 5 (18:23):
You just go down the roster.

Speaker 7 (18:25):
I'm getting just I'm going tangent heavy on this show today.
But PCA is an MVP candidate. Sales Suzuki eight to
twenty ops. Dansby Swanson not a great hitter, but a
fine hitter and.

Speaker 5 (18:35):
An excellent fielder.

Speaker 7 (18:37):
I'm still two point six war this year, not even
having like a good year at the plate. Nico Horner
hits two eighty eight four point three ward. He's a
great fielder at second base, goal glove level guy. Kyle
Tucker one of the best hitters in baseball eight seven
or four ops Ian half down year this year, But
you know, I think he's probably what he's been for
five years. He's gonna probably regress to the mean and

(18:58):
be the normal average kind of hitter that he is.
He can play a bunch of positions. Michael Bush one
of their younger guys eight seventy six ops.

Speaker 5 (19:06):
They're catchers. Carson Kelly eight sixty five ops.

Speaker 7 (19:10):
And then you go to the other side of the
platoon Miguel Amaya eight nineteen ops, like they just have
I think it's they have set.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
They have seven guys with an eight hundred plus ops.

Speaker 7 (19:22):
The Philly's of two, and it's it's hard to think
about like that, and we have a way better rotation,
and we might even have a better.

Speaker 5 (19:29):
Bullpen than them.

Speaker 7 (19:30):
They have a shaky bullpen out in Chicago. It's I
think it's been fine. I don't think it's really hurt
them that much.

Speaker 5 (19:36):
But if you just go through, like the.

Speaker 7 (19:38):
The top names and compare them to the others across
the NL, that's where they're lacking, i'd think. But that lineup,
I think could just that's just one through nine. I
think it's gonna put you through hell in the playoffs.
But anyway, I'm gonna wrap this, uh the the before
I want to talk to Ran. But the Padres. What
the Padres did, in my opinion, is beyond reckless, and

(20:04):
people are celebrating them. They gave up half of their
top twelve prospects, like hal Or. I think eight forty
five percent of their top twenty prospects.

Speaker 5 (20:14):
They give up their entire draft class from last year.

Speaker 7 (20:17):
Like we're celebrating Preler, and I think it'd be fun
to be a Padres fan. I think it's hard to
deny that, Like they just go and get it. They're
a little bit like the nine to eleven Rubin Tomorrow
Phillies on crack like it's it's like on steroids, I
should say, like it's to another level. But there is

(20:37):
a list of I don't even want to go down
it and read a bunch of names that you know,
a lot of people probably don't even know. But there
was a list of prospects that people put out of
what he's traded in the last four years. He's made
one NLCS. He's never made a World Series like he's
made it out, like made it out of the wildcardground twice.
I think, are we throwing a parade for a J Preller?

(21:00):
Because he makes these splashy moves that are fun and
we get to talk about them on radio, and we
get to tweet about how fun it is, and you know,
we get to see new players in new uniforms. I
get that it's awesome. I don't know if he's set
up his team for success at all. I mean, look
at Mackenzie. Gore was one of the prize possessions of
this deadline, and people wouldn't even give up enough to

(21:20):
get him because he was so expensive. That's the guy
they gave up for like a year and a half
a Soto and I would have done the trade at
the time too, But you make those moves so you
don't have to make ten of these moves over the
next three years, which he has. And it's just it's interesting.
They better win it all and we just laid it
out like that. Top six in the NL is tough,

(21:42):
and I think they have the worst lineup of the bunch,
so it's a it'll be interesting. I know, we're all
celebrating the padres. I'm kind of turning heel a little
bit today.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
That's the thing.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
It's like, just to your point, it's like, you know,
all this prospect trading is fine if they win. If
they win it all right, if they win the whole thing,
then you know, no one thinks about it. You know,
good job whatever. You don't win it all, and it's like,
all right, then you gotta you know, feeld a competitive team,
like you said, for the next three, four or five years,
you know, after this current era and you just traded away,
like you said, half of your top twenty guys, so
it's gonna be a little rough, but you were running
down is you know, his his credentials sound sounds very

(22:16):
daln moriy esque if you want, you know, not very
runs in the playoffs. So I mean, I don't know
if anybody's throwing praise for Darall Mory, so I don't
think we should be throwing the praise for a preller
as well.

Speaker 5 (22:25):
And Darryl's is more impressive. I think. I think being
a GM in the NBA is.

Speaker 7 (22:30):
Harder because it's a level play, whereas the MLB, it's
like if you're one of the ten teams is willing
to spend money, like you should be a lot better
than field.

Speaker 5 (22:39):
Like but.

Speaker 7 (22:42):
It's also Darryl's done this. The crazy thing is like
Daryl's done us for twenty years and that just made
his first lottery, like just picked had for the first time.
Like it's pretty the podcas went like five hundred a
couple of years ago, Like they've had total total bad
moments and people don't care what. So his I think
his philosophy is, you know, I'm not gonna be here

(23:03):
when this goes bad if we don't win a title,
So who cares, I guess, which I guess I appreciate.
But Joanne Duran, I was there last night for the
White Show. It's why my voice is a little affected.
Crazy weekend last night. Phil's been going to SummerSlam today.
My voice is going to be shot tomorrow. But great
night at the ballpark and it you know, I thought

(23:28):
I was gonna and I think I've been plenty. I
don't think I've been that negative on this show, but
I've been plenty negative over the last twenty five minutes
about the deadline.

Speaker 5 (23:36):
But what I'll say is being in that park last
night and.

Speaker 7 (23:41):
It felt like and I feel like I've actually been
a guy over the last couple of years who some
of the regular season games I go to, and I'm
a little bit annoyed at how it's become a little
bit of a.

Speaker 5 (23:50):
Wine and cheese crowded sometimes in the regular season for
the Phillies. Last night was not that.

Speaker 7 (23:55):
Maybe it's down the stretch here the Friday night, maybe
a younger crowd, I don't know. It was an intense
crowd last night, A rowdy crowd. Maybe it's because I
was sitting high then I felt that way, but it
people were locked in. And even when it was three
nothing and six innings of you know, one hit baseball,
where the Phillies looked lifeless. When the Phillies even just
started the rally and getting on base when it was

(24:16):
three nothing, people started going crazy.

Speaker 5 (24:19):
And then obviously that leads to the light show with.

Speaker 7 (24:22):
Duran, and I walked out of there being like, you know,
with this rotation and Duran and then Kirkering and Strong
and you have Bryce and Schwarber and Shrey.

Speaker 5 (24:33):
If you get a.

Speaker 7 (24:34):
Just a couple guys in the lineup or a couple
guys in the bullpen, it's hard to not be romantic
about baseball. The being there at the park last night
was something else. And this crowd and you know, we
we obviously lost in the playoffs in the first round
last year and lost to some games in twenty twenty

(24:55):
three at home to Arizona. But and I think that's
kind of come everybody. That's all people want to talk
about when it comes to the Phillies in the playoffs.
The Phillies did go to the World Series, which meant
they want three series leading up to that.

Speaker 5 (25:09):
They won two series or a series.

Speaker 7 (25:12):
Leading Wait, they won two series leading up to the
Diamondbacks NLCS because they want in the Wildcard series and
then in the NLDS. That's five series that they won
in the last three years. That's a lot more than
most teams have to show for it, and just series victories.

Speaker 5 (25:27):
In the playoffs. Not that this crowd in this ballpark
if you are.

Speaker 7 (25:36):
Home, you know, home series and Wildcard series or three
out of five and the NLDS or even four out
of seven in the NLCS. Hard not to feel like
this rotation and now Duran with that crowd could make
it happen. And I always talk about the twenty twenty
two team. Twenty twenty two team had resplaying first base

(25:56):
terribly in the field, a much worse version of Boom
playing third base. In the field, you had Nick and
left field, or Nick and right field. You had Kyle
and left field. You had Brandon Marsh's probably a corner
outfielder in center field. Like you had the worst possible
defensive kind of rotation you could have there. You had
a worst starting rotation, a much worse bullpen. If you

(26:18):
just go back Andrew Bolotti pitched three straight days in
the World Series. People don't even know who he is.
If you have the half the ballpark last night. This
this roster, while I'm disappointed they didn't do more, is
better on paper than the one that went to the
World Series. So anything can happen any with that rotation
in that ballpark. I'm feeling a little bit more positive today.

(26:38):
Maybe I am up to a six on that meter
we were talking about where maybe I was closer to
a four before that game.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
No, you gotta feel good.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
I mean last night was magical, right, like, even you know,
even with the the Schwarrez you know, the three run
jacket he gave up. You know, there was the comeback
and everything that kind of happened with that. There was
there's a certain magic in the air last night, I think,
I mean, I think a lot of it was Duran, right,
Like everybody wanted to see you know that the the
the intro and you know we weren't. You know, after
the thre they went down three, Oh, it's like it's
not gonna happen, but you know whatever, they made a
couple moves and then you know they kind of fought

(27:08):
back and then it happened, and you know, we got
a four pitch save, you know, like the like the
save was quicker than the entire entrance right right, So
it was one of those really magic I think it was.
I think I mean, it sounds crazy because it's August
the second, but I think August the first. But I
think last night's gonna be one of those nights that
we're gonna remember for the rest of the season. You know,
if we have, if we the a Phillies are as

(27:29):
good as we think they are, we're gonna say, hey,
remember Duran's you know, the debut, because that was the
night you know, something kind of clicked. So you know,
once this offense, if and when this offense kind of
gets going consistently and they figure out whatever this platoon,
double platoon, whatever the heck they're trying to do in
the outfield, once they figure that out, I think I
think the Phillies are gonna be I think they're again
they have as good a shot as anybody, and you know,
you know, given give them what we have right now.

Speaker 7 (27:50):
I've probably been the on average ten to fifteen games
over the last since twenty eighteen. Is let's call it
since I was done with college and then probably went
to like, you know, fifteen to twenty. I had season
tickets growing up for Sunday plans, so I grew I
grew up going to probably fifteen ish games a year

(28:12):
from the two thousand and four to two thousand and twelve.

Speaker 5 (28:16):
Let's call it era last night.

Speaker 7 (28:19):
If I'm just like recalling, I think in a couple
of years, like favorite games I've been to, that's five
to ten, like one of my five to ten favorite games.
And I've probably been to one hundred and fifty games,
i'd say over the last you know, twenty years. I
was trying to tell my little brother, who doesn't go
to as many games, like they're not all like this,
and it seems like every time I bring.

Speaker 5 (28:38):
Him, it's like a special night at the ballpark.

Speaker 7 (28:40):
He was there for the Stockgrand Slam against the Marlins,
and he's been there for some some awesome moments. And
I was trying to explain, like this is a special night,
like this is out of all the games I've been to,
that that's a for a regular season game, taking out
any playoff games.

Speaker 5 (28:54):
That was a next level regular.

Speaker 7 (28:57):
Season game, especially for August first, like we're not you know,
late September in the push here or anything like really
good stuff from from the crowd last night, not that
not that we need to pump the tires of the crowd,
but that that light show was something in Minnesota and
we saw it for the first time in Philly, and
I get like, maybe it'll be more Maybe it was
more electric because it was the first time. And I'm

(29:18):
biased to say that because it was I was there. Sure,
there's also a level of like people didn't know, Like
I don't know if everybody had their phones out, Like
people don't know people who weren't fully into it yet,
Like now it's all over Twitter, and like if you
didn't see the twit, I know, like people were tweeting
out the Twins one before last night, so people knew
about it.

Speaker 5 (29:37):
But like it there was a lot of people there
that were like, oh, what's going on? Like people are.

Speaker 7 (29:43):
Gonna know the song and people are gonna like I
want some undertaker nicknames for brand.

Speaker 5 (29:48):
I don't know if he's the Undertaker.

Speaker 7 (29:49):
I don't know if he's the phenom, if he's the conscience.

Speaker 5 (29:53):
Of the Phillies organization.

Speaker 7 (29:55):
I don't know that I'm trying to think of weird
undertaker nicknames he had over the year. Gonna start out
with the gom tak Her. I don't I don't know
what it is. I think the phenom is pretty good.
I guess younger, though I feel like that implies that
he's like eighteen or nineteen.

Speaker 5 (30:11):
He he's like twenty six. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
No, No, that a good point. We need, we need
some kind of undertaker or something. And at some point,
I imagine we have to get take her to come
to come to a game.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
At some point.

Speaker 7 (30:30):
We'll see if I don't want to say anything bad
about uh about Mark, my fellow Mark.

Speaker 5 (30:40):
But let's take a break.

Speaker 7 (30:42):
On the other side, we're gonna come back and talk
some NFL some Michael Parson, Michael Michael Parcel. What I
forget it, Michael Parson, Michael Michael Parson. Uh yeah, we're
gonna talk to Michael Parsons. We're gonna talk uh some,
We're gonna talk some Terry McLaurin.

Speaker 5 (30:59):
We're gonna up some guys. When I have Roy here.

Speaker 7 (31:02):
I actually thought this morning that Sam Austrey was gonna
be on the board at eight or nine am and
I got the text from Sam that Roy was on
the board, and I was like, we got it to
a fantasy segment. Though, I was like, scrap the show.
We're talking fantasy at least for a part of this
first hour. So I wrote down some names. I didn't
write down as many stats or numbers as I usually do,

(31:23):
but guys, this is our way of kind of talking
about different guys that I've talked about. All the guys
I'm in on or out on. We talked about ADPs
I'm doing guys. I'm talking myself in on and guys
I'm talking myself out on. The more we go, the
more podcasts I listen to, the more stats I see.

Speaker 5 (31:39):
These things are keeping me up at.

Speaker 7 (31:41):
Night when I'm thinking about my rankings to where to adjust.
We're gonna talk about those guys coming up after the break.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
If you get wager on it, we're talking about it.
It's the Gambler.

Speaker 8 (31:56):
Tell you the baseline up uh huh.

Speaker 7 (32:18):
From the Standing Corn Welcome back to the Tough Cover
Radio Show. I am your host, Parke Emmy Jr. With
me up back on the ones. Is my guy Roy Burton.
You can follow him on Twitter at the bs line
by the way, it is my firmly health belief that
is one of the five best.

Speaker 5 (32:35):
Like rap beats of all time Hard Knock Life.

Speaker 7 (32:39):
I think that that maybe it's something a theater kid.
So I've got some so manny smany love, but that
that that beat something.

Speaker 5 (32:48):
My number one of all time.

Speaker 7 (32:49):
Not not okay to talk about, but all the lights,
in my opinions, the best beat ever made. Uh, and
Hard Knock Life is not too far behind, so uh,
just just a good pick there. I'm i gotta tell you,
Sean Bernard, my guy. Every time we're coming back from break,
I'm here in J Cole a lot a lot of
J Sean Bernard. You can clip this and send it

(33:11):
to Sean Bernard. Enough Germaine, enough J Cole.

Speaker 5 (33:15):
I'm not the biggest J Cole guy. I had an era.

Speaker 7 (33:19):
What's the Bourne Center was my J Cole out that's
probably I know, the warm up and some of the
Please It is probably my favorite J Cole song that's
earlier on I don't know what album that's on. It
might be the warm up. My Born Center was when
I was most into J Cole.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
Forest Hills Drive people loved.

Speaker 7 (33:40):
Since then, I've kind of been like I think I've
liked everything less than everybody else since born center.

Speaker 5 (33:46):
But that's another conversation for another day.

Speaker 7 (33:48):
Let's talk some fantasy football to I've got some guys
I'm talking myself in on as we get through the process,
and some guys I'm talking myself out on. Some of
these are kind of combos that I want to kind
of talk about, like are we sure Blank should be
going this far ahead of Blank or something like that.
And the first one I'll bring up is Joe Burrow.
Joe Burrow a guy I once upon a time called

(34:09):
a handsome merchant, maybe one of my worst takes, but Burrow,
even last year, I think we probably both agree statistically,
given the situation, the fact that you're having a throw
from behind a hung at every game, is it very
likely that Joe Burrow matches what he did last year? Ever, again,

(34:29):
I'd say maybe not, Like I think the fact that
he was just had so much pressure on him to
make everything happen and to throw from behind all game long.
And maybe I mean, I'm predicting them to be eight
and nine, So maybe that happens again and the Bengals
are just bad again, and he gets to throw a
million times and rack up a million points. But even
in that scenario where I think it was like the

(34:51):
maximum fantasy value you're gonna get from a quarterback who
doesn't run that you got from Burrow last year, he
finished one point per game ahead of Jayden Daniels finished
zero point four fantasy points per game ahead of the
guy I want to talk about that. I'm talking myself
in on Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield finished seven points behind
Joe Burrow on the full.

Speaker 5 (35:11):
Season, and he's going three to four rounds later.

Speaker 7 (35:18):
And I actually think, if I'm gonna say which guy
has the chance to throw more, I'm going to say
the guy who just added a first round receiver to
the wide receiver corps and might have the best or
the deepest wide receiver corps in the league. A lot
of these quarterbacks we can look at in the non
top five tier, let's say, and even let's take Burrow

(35:39):
out the on top four tier.

Speaker 5 (35:42):
I think we could say, you.

Speaker 7 (35:43):
Know, if their top receiver gets hurt, that's going to
be a major problem, or if.

Speaker 5 (35:46):
Their second receiver gets hurt, that's gonna be a major problem.

Speaker 7 (35:49):
I don't think anybody getting hurt in that Tampa receiver
room is going to be a problem because I think
if you roll out let's say, Godwin's not good until
week six, you roll out Mike Evans and Ed Book
and Jalen McMillan, who I'm really high on, and Kate Aughton,
and you got Bucky and Rasha out of the backfield.

Speaker 5 (36:06):
And a really good line.

Speaker 7 (36:07):
Like I think Baker's floor is a lot higher than
people think, and I think we saw just how high
the ceiling was last year. I don't think people have
accepted how good Baker Mayfield was last year, and I don't.

Speaker 5 (36:22):
See any reason why it's not going to happen again.

Speaker 7 (36:25):
Whereas with Burrow, I think I can see pretty easy
situational reasons.

Speaker 5 (36:29):
Why he could throw less, whereas Baker, I mean a
new OC, but I'm I'm kind of moving.

Speaker 7 (36:37):
I've been the weight on QB guy, and Baker's not
not waiting on quarterback. It's in the middle somewhere. I'm
starting to like that round six ish value on Baker.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
So I understand that everything is said is logical, But again,
I can kind.

Speaker 4 (36:53):
Of see the world where you know, Joe.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
Burrow is going to have to throw a lot again
just because since Andy Bengals defense is not that good, right,
so and the and the and the Bucks defense is
sixtually it's pretty decent, much better than Cincinnati's. So again,
like I think you can be in a spot and
you're right, like Tampa Bay has a ton of ton
of weapons and Baker's gonna throw for four thousand yards.
I don't think regardless of what the situation, He's gonna
be fine. But I mean I could still see a

(37:15):
world where you know, Cincinnati, you know, still forces you know,
Burrow to throw for forty four hundred yards and you know,
thirty seven touchdowns maybe you know, eight or nine interceptions.
So there is gonna be some regression because you know
what we saw from him last year, just like just
like what Saycon Barkley, just we're just not gonna see
that kind of production again out of Burrow, and he
is more prone to somebody getting injured, you know, everybody

(37:36):
else falling off. But you know, if you don't like
Joe Burrow at you know, whatever evaluation whatever around he
is now, like I don't think he slips that far
because I think, again, like Cincinnati's still gonna be in
a spo where they're gonna have to throw a ton,
and like Joe Burrow, like the floor, Joe Burrow is
still for you know, four thousand yards and you know,
like I said, thirty to thirty five touchdowns, So I
think they're probably closer than then then they're being drafted.

(37:59):
But I still think for me, Burrow still above Baker Mayfield.

Speaker 5 (38:03):
No, I agree.

Speaker 7 (38:04):
I have Burrow above him and probably about ten to
ten spots above him overall. But I think that the gap,
maybe I think is smaller than people think out there,
and I think I'd rather take this swing on Baker
in the sixth or seventh than on Burrow in the
fourth or fifth.

Speaker 5 (38:21):
I guess it's my main take here.

Speaker 7 (38:23):
And then another this is one where again I have
this guy ranked above the guy I'm going to talk
about but bon Nicks, and we're gonna I want to
talk about Denver in general, but bone Knicks is I'm
finding myself kind of souring on Denver right now in general,
And maybe it's because I'm seeing like a lot of
Denver love out there as a sneaky contender, and maybe

(38:45):
that's the contrarian in me going the other way but
I just feel like we are, and I think I'm
guilty of it because right now I have the QB nine.
You look at the numbers, and you know it's hard
to not project up instead.

Speaker 5 (38:56):
Of back for a rookie.

Speaker 7 (38:58):
We have seen a lot of times out for example,
like we projected up and.

Speaker 5 (39:02):
He went way back.

Speaker 7 (39:04):
And I find myself kind of surprised at the way
we're all just accepting bo Nicks as a top ten
fantasy quarterback and drafting him ahead to Jared Goff and
Justin Herbert and guys like that. And I had him
ranked right above those guys in the same tier. I'm
thinking about moving him behind those guys behind the Golf

(39:25):
and Herbert, so I would put him from nine to eleven.
But I so I still have him above Jordan Love,
who I have at seventeen. But the point I want
to make here is like, is there that big of
a difference like between Bo at nine and potentially taking
a swing on Love at seventeen in the fifteenth round.

Speaker 5 (39:44):
Jordan Love in twenty twenty three finished.

Speaker 7 (39:47):
As QB five, like that was just a year ago,
whereas last year starts the year with an injured knee
and plays through, it misses some time. This is again
time after trying to come back. I I think there's
a chance Jordan Love is offering tremendous value late in
the draft and just slots back in where I was

(40:09):
drafting him as like a fringe top five quarterback last year,
and I was disappointed. I was wrong to do it,
but I think it had more to do with injury
than anything else. I think Love potentially has a top ten,
top twelve fantasy quarterback season from a really good value.

Speaker 4 (40:23):
Yeah, I agree on Jordan Love. I think it's like
the thing with the quarterbacks.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
You know, you know there's a top, you know there's
a top, but four guys I think that I think
we kind of all, you know, just about everybody else
agrees on then Burrow. If you want to put you know,
Patrick Mahomes and Baker in that same tier with Burrow,
that's fine. But then after that, like a bunch of
those guys, like maybe tier three, tier four, however you
want to break it down, there is a lot of
similarities in those guys, Like there's a like like from
Kyler Murray to Jordan Love. I mean, like you can

(40:49):
pretty much take a swing on any of those guys,
and any of those guys could be in arguably a
top ten, maybe top eight fantasy quarterback. So that's why
you know, you and I have preached this, you know,
for weeks now, like just wait on quarterback. If you
don't get one of the big guys like Kyler Murray
and Jordan Love and you know justin Herbert and brock Party,
they could all wind up being quarterback seven. And you
can wait and get those guys until like you know,

(41:11):
a round nine, you know. So like, yeah, I think,
just to get back to your to bo Nick's point,
I think some of this is just optimism because you know,
we saw because rookies don't do this.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
I mean, like c. J.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
Stroud is an anomaly, So rookies don't do what bo
Nix did. And of course he's got the legs right, like,
you know, four hundred and thirty rushing yards, four touchdowns,
you know, another year, you know, in that system, you know,
maybe he bumps those up, those numbers up a little bit.
And so I think people get enamored up quite a
bit with running backs who can quarterbacks who can run
a little bit, And we saw that from bo Nix.
So I also have him at QB nine just because

(41:41):
I can't. I haven't yet made myself, you know, come
up with the argument that says, all right, who can
I leap over him? But if you wanted to say
Justin Herbert is going to be better, if you wanted
to say Dak Prescott, if you want to talk yourself
into one of those guys, that's fine. But I mean,
just because of what we saw last year and you
know the threat of the run, He's still in my
QB nine for now, but that could change.

Speaker 7 (41:59):
So I have Bow at nine, could have him at
eleven by the end of the show. And the guy
who it's interesting to be I have and this isn't
who I'm bringing up, and but I have Caleb at twelve.
And I'm actually, I'm pleasantly surprised at how the fantasy
community has like kept Cale. I actually thought like going
into this year, Caleb would be like a fringe Top
twenty Fantasy QB with how last year went. But people

(42:22):
are too smart for that, and people are buying in
on the dip and you know he's still going around
QB twelve. That's a fringe starter and it's because of
Ben Johnson. I think there's a chance by week five
or six, where like I cannot believe we were drafting
Bonnicks over Caleb Williams, Like I do think there's a
chance that that feels really silly. I'm doing it too,

(42:43):
like I'm ranking it that way too. Although I'm not
ending up with bon Nicks in any drafts. I don't
think I've done a single knock where BONNICKX has ended
up on my roster. Because you know, you already know
we're a justin Fields podcast here.

Speaker 5 (42:56):
Justin field camp?

Speaker 4 (42:58):
Though, have you seen those tweets out a jetscamp. I'm
not saying I'm just saying.

Speaker 7 (43:03):
He's this is something I always talk about with mobile quarterbacks.
They do not look good in camp because you cannot
simulate the improvisation stuff that makes them special. It's it
reminds me of Jalen early on in Jalen's justin Fields
is not Jalen when.

Speaker 5 (43:23):
You say that and say that out there, but just in.

Speaker 7 (43:26):
General, I feel like we've seen this for I've been
like since since two thousand, you know, whenever RG three
and even before that, I've since I was a kid,
I've loved I was a Madden Player, and I love
mobile quarterbacks, so immediately became obsessed with mobile quarterbacks defending

(43:48):
against my old boomer uncles and dad, who where.

Speaker 5 (43:52):
You know, throw the ball?

Speaker 7 (43:53):
It's Michael Vick's running around too much, all that stuff.
So I have found myself my whole life maybe overinflating
the value of running quarterbacks. And now we've gotten to
a point where everybody else sees the kind of value
in it. I think I've just seen a lot of
these tropes.

Speaker 5 (44:11):
I feel like for so long.

Speaker 7 (44:13):
Where it's these guys, Oh he's not practicing well, or
oh he's you know, he doesn't look good, it's scattershot,
or all these things. I think those guys, when they
get out on the field, they give you a higher
floor just from having that ability on the ground as
an offense. And I think Justin Field has been in
some horrible situations. I still believe in him as like

(44:34):
a legitimate not taking fancy out of it. Like if
we're ranking thirty two quarterbacks, I think he's comfortably in
that top thirty two. But this is the year for
him to prove that he's going to be a starter
next year, because if he doesn't do well, he probably
won't be even if he is one.

Speaker 5 (44:50):
Of the thirty two best.

Speaker 7 (44:51):
But let's real quick, go to tight end before we
go to the other positions at tight end.

Speaker 5 (44:56):
This will be quick. I'm talking myself out on Colston Loveland.

Speaker 7 (45:00):
I've here, I've heard a lot of kind of Luther
Burden press the last couple of days. If you look
at some of the numbers with Ben Johnson and his
slot receivers, and people are saying he looks at Luther
Burdon a little monraw ish and can use him that way.
I'm not really buying on Burden as a value this year,
but just another like if he's going to get legitimate
targets and legitimate work, that just hurts any chance for

(45:22):
Loveland to be anything. And I know he was the
first round guy. I know they're going to try to
use him. I'm just there's so many mouths to feed
in that offense. I'm kind of out on it. And
on the contrary, a guy who going later than Loveland
not maybe not even going in.

Speaker 5 (45:38):
Most fantasy drafts.

Speaker 7 (45:39):
I have to look at it and it's not exciting,
maybe unless you're in Philadelphia or Washington.

Speaker 5 (45:45):
But he's an Eagle's legend.

Speaker 7 (45:47):
Zach Ertz over the last twelve weeks last year averaged
eleven point nine fantasy points per game. Would have been
tight end seven on a points per game basis. Over
the full year anyway, he was tight end nine on
a points per game basis. On the full year tight
end seven overall, but over the last twelve weeks he
was actually a top five tight end. I what has

(46:08):
that much changed in Washington? Like, I know they got
Deebo Samuel. We'll talk about Terry McLaren in a second.
Let's say he holds out zach Ers is immensely more valuable.

Speaker 5 (46:17):
But even if Terry mclar employs, which I expected.

Speaker 7 (46:20):
To in week one, I think Earth's is draftable, And
I think if you're dumpster diving at tight end, I
think you should double it.

Speaker 5 (46:27):
Up with an Earth's.

Speaker 7 (46:28):
If you get a Warren or a Goddard or a
Craft or whatever you kind of choose at the end
of that that tier.

Speaker 5 (46:36):
I think Earth's is going to be a fringe fantasy
starter all year long.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
Yeah, I agree to some Well, he's draftable. I agree
on that point.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
I think a lot of that production last year was
just just touchdown related, Like he's got a bunch of
touchdowns during that last strutch I think like seven touchdowns
over that over the last seven or eight weeks.

Speaker 5 (46:51):
We got a lot of targets too.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
They got a decent amount of targets. And like you said,
like not much has changed. I mean, Debo's there, but
they have, you know, more guys to throw to. But yeah,
I think I think I think that was a little
bit of anomaly. But if you you know, I had
to rank you know, zach Ertz, like you said, he's
probably a fringe. He's a fringe, you know, te one,
probably fifteen sixteen, you know that range. So in a
bigger league, got I absolutely draft him. And you're one
undred percent right on Loveland. There's just so many miles

(47:14):
to feed In the offense. DJ Moore is a target monster,
you know, Romo Roman Doosday is going to get a
bunch of looks. I mean, you know, we've talked about,
well we haven't talked about but cole Comet. I don't
think you mentioned cole Comet. But cole Comett's a pretty good,
you know, pretty god option as well. So I don't
think Deanders is gonna get a lot of looks out
of the backfield, like receiving one, So I don't think
that that's an issue. But there's just so many guys
who have to get the ball that I don't see

(47:36):
this year being Colson Lovesland Love Loveland's year like as
a as a you know, a possible t one. But
I mean I think that could probably change, you know,
by next year.

Speaker 5 (47:45):
Yeah, I'll run through this one fast.

Speaker 7 (47:47):
Jayden Blue is a guy I'm just finding myself adopting
a lot more good pass catcher out of Texas. And
then Javonte Williams is a guy I'm finding myself, like,
I'm out.

Speaker 5 (47:57):
I looked at some I talked about this, I think
last week, but look at some.

Speaker 7 (48:00):
Of the metrics from Denver, and that line was like
the best in football. I think the Dallas A line
actually has more problems than people think.

Speaker 5 (48:06):
And I'm out.

Speaker 7 (48:07):
I think it's gonna be Jacon Blue by like mid
season at getting the Lion's share of the work or
at least getting all of the catches in that offense.
So I think Blue could be a valuable pick there.
And then a Battle of the James is here, and
I think I remember saying this last year that I
liked James Connor more than James Cook, and people thought
I was crazy, and they were right. James Cook had

(48:29):
a better season, but James Cook finished with sixteen points
seven Fantasy points per game. James Connor finished with fifteen
point nine fantasy points per game. James Cook finished ozero
point eight Fantasy points per game ahead in a year
that he scored eighteen touchdowns.

Speaker 5 (48:45):
Yep, and any year that James Connor scored nine.

Speaker 7 (48:49):
James Connor scored half the amount of touchdowns and finished
less than a point per game behind. Are we sure
James Cook should be going much ahead of James Connor,
which he is, or even just ahead of him in general?

Speaker 5 (49:02):
I have them back to back in my rankings, actually
have Connor river.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (49:05):
Actually, I'm looking at my rankings.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
I gotta rerank this because, yeah, because James Cook again,
like a lot of that you said, a lot of
his production last year touchdown based.

Speaker 4 (49:12):
I mean, it's I think there's gonna.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
Be well, there's going to be some regression for him
scoring wise this year.

Speaker 4 (49:17):
That's just natural.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
And James Connor is just he's solid, like he's just
one of the most more solid running backs has been
for several years, you know, six hundred yard games. I
think he only had five weeks, would have finished outside
of the top twenty. So he's going to give you,
you know, RB one ish you know production, you know,
just about every week. But I want to get back
really quick to your Jay and Blue point. This week
kind of swayed me because I mean I was already
out on on Miles Sanders, so I figured I thought

(49:40):
it might be a Javonte Williams situation in Dallas. But
a lot of you know, a lot of good news
this week out of Dallas, you know, concernedy Jay and Blue,
and you're right. I don't want to put a number
of the number of weeks on it, but by mid season,
I think it's clear that Jaye and Blue is going
to be, you know, of the RB one down in Dallas,
similar to what we saw last year. I can't say
his name, but there's another running back I was last

(50:00):
year who became RB one later in the season. Not
gonna say his name, but I think we have a
similar situation this year, and.

Speaker 5 (50:06):
He's going crazy low this year. By the way, I know,
we love Hubbard, we love Hubbard.

Speaker 7 (50:13):
But I think that there's a chance he ends up
getting way more work there than the.

Speaker 5 (50:19):
Hubbard people would like. I was trying to find what,
Oh wow, I like Ray Davis. Ray Davis is a
guy I've always like. I really liked.

Speaker 7 (50:28):
Him coming out of the draft, and I feel like
the glimpses I did see of him last year I liked.
He Actually only rushed for three point nine yards per carry,
so that's not very good. I think James Connor has
like people like Trey Benson.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
I've never got the Trey Benson thing.

Speaker 7 (50:42):
I think James Connor has even less to worry about there.

Speaker 5 (50:46):
Than James than James Cook has.

Speaker 7 (50:49):
So I'm yeah, I think I'm officially Connor over Cook
there and real fast. We talked about this before Pooka
over oh, and I had this stat James Cook scored
six touchdowns in twenty twenty three and three touchdowns in
twenty twenty two, by the way, so I think we
probably get more of like an eight ish touchdown year

(51:09):
this year overall, which would certainly affect things. Puka is
a guy who since you told me I had three touchdowns,
I haven't stopped thinking about it.

Speaker 5 (51:20):
Like I just he was so good and we didn't
score touchdowns.

Speaker 7 (51:24):
I for sure, for whatever reason when I initially went through,
I didn't look at touchdown stuff for him. He's gonna
I'm starting to think he's just gonna like be wide
receiver one at the end of the year. So I'm
finding myself drafting him in the middle of the first
round as I think I have him seventh and I
have him only one spot ahead of a Manra. But
ever since that, I've kind of solidified in that he
is ahead of a Monra clearly and a Monro. I'm

(51:47):
starting to get worried that Jamison Williams is going to
start eating in a little bit more to that, and
maybe a Mamra was schemed up a little bit more.

Speaker 5 (51:55):
By by Ben Johnson.

Speaker 7 (51:56):
And now that there's just an oc who we don't
maybe is not a wizard, we don't know. Maybe he's
just gonna go to the guy who's faster, and maybe
he gets open more like I'm not get to open plenty,
but I think it might be schemed. He might be
schemed up more than a guy like Jamison Williams. I
find myself kind of targeting Terry McLaren if he dips
in a draft right now, So I don't think there's
any chance Washington's gonna waste the good pr they have.

Speaker 5 (52:19):
I think they're going to pay him by the end
of August.

Speaker 7 (52:24):
I feel like there's no he's there, Like, I feel
like there's no chance this turns into anything like the
Parsons things a little crazier just because they have a
snile like maniac running the show. So it's a little
bit different. But I think both get figured out in
the next couple of weeks. I'm not gonna spend too
much time kind of worrying about McLaren. I'm down on

(52:44):
McLaren from TV regression standpoint, But if he starts going
outside the top twenty receivers, then I think you you
slam it.

Speaker 5 (52:52):
There.

Speaker 7 (52:53):
I have him wide receiver eighteen, and I think he's
like a good bit ahead of like wide receiever twenty four.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
So there you go. He's you want to get work.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
He's gonna get targets right like you said, like TD
regressing shore, but like he's going to get a lot
of looks like God Blessed dee Bo Samuel. But he's
on a wide receiver one. He's not gonna get you know,
one hundred and twenty targets or anything like that. So
there's gonna be plenty of work for Terry McLaren. And
to you, like you said, this has to get done right,
Like there are certain contracts where like all right, like
you know, maybe guys get treated or whatever, because you
can't fix this. This has to get done. Like there

(53:21):
was a clip today where Terry McClaren was, you know,
wapping up you know, Josh Harris. Like they're clearly on
good enough terms. And I think something is done over
the next couple of weeks. So Terry mclaran will be there.
He'll be there by week one, and I don't think
you have to worry about it. He's yeah, if he
goes like you said, I'll tell your top twenty of
our receivers, you absolutely have to jump on that because
that's that's tremendous value.

Speaker 7 (53:39):
And one last one, flip a flip thing of the
rookies Teed McMillan. Every video I see him, I'm just like,
oh my god, Like this guy is so good.

Speaker 5 (53:49):
And I loved him as a prospect. I was bullish
on him.

Speaker 7 (53:52):
He became a really polarizing guy in the draft community,
you either had him like top ten overall or like
outside of your top thirty. It felt like I was
the guy who had him like fifth or sixth overall.
So I'm certainly really in on Tet long term. I've
kind of preached my concern about maybe being all in
on Bryce Young or the Panthers or anything. Tet might

(54:14):
be the one guy who I'm willing to kind of
break that rule for and take a chance for. He's
not going in an insane value either way. I think
I think he's going out a pretty reasonable value. But
I'm kind of talking myself in that maybe this is
the guy that explodes onto the scene and kind of
changes that offense.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
Yeah, I can talk myself into just about anybody that's
gonna be wide receiver one on just about any team,
even even if it's the Panthers, who I'm again I'm
in love with. But he's better than the get obviously,
he's better than than dealing like he's going to get
you know, the lion's.

Speaker 4 (54:45):
Share of the work in Carolina, And.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
I don't know specifically what that translates to number wise,
like as far as catches and yards, but it's going
to translate into a lot of targets. And I'm a
target guy, So give me. Give me the guy who's
going to get you know, ninety ninety five targets, maybe
as as a rookie, and and he'll probably do something
pretty good with that.

Speaker 7 (55:02):
And then the one, the one last one. I'm out
on Matthew Golden. There's too many receivers. He's getting a
lot of a lot of buzz out of training camp.

Speaker 5 (55:12):
People love them.

Speaker 7 (55:13):
I think people are gonna think he's like the number
one receiver. Maybe he is, because there isn't one. I
think he's more of a gadget guy. Like I didn't
love him coming out of the draft the same way
a lot of people did.

Speaker 5 (55:24):
He really just does not have a large sample size
of production to go off of. So you're going off of.

Speaker 7 (55:30):
That college football playoff run that he had, which is
which was awesome, and everything leading into that, like the
last six games, which was good. But it's it's not
a full season, it's not multiple seasons, and I think
it's a little gadgety. I don't think it's a full
time Like stick him out wide and you know he's
going to get one hundred and twenty one hundred and

(55:51):
forty targets and you do well with them.

Speaker 5 (55:54):
I think it's like he's not de Sean Jackson.

Speaker 7 (55:57):
I'm not like and that would be awesome, awesome, Malcolm,
But like, I think it's a lot of like you're
gonna have some games where even even if he pans out,
and it's good in the next couple of years.

Speaker 5 (56:07):
Like, I think he's the type of guy where you'll
get like two catch twelve.

Speaker 7 (56:10):
Yard games, like where it's like, oh, it just didn't
didn't work that game.

Speaker 5 (56:14):
That what they were trying to do. So I find
myself low on him.

Speaker 7 (56:18):
Let's take a break, And on the other side, we're
gonna bring on our guy Nick Pecone from the Straight
Shooters radio podcast right here on the Gambler and Roy
also big wrestling guy here, so he'll be joining us
and talking all things Summer Slam at MetLife in New
York slash New Jersey.

Speaker 5 (56:38):
Remember, well, I don't want to get it.

Speaker 7 (56:40):
I don't want to dive into when they used to
say Wrestlingia was in New York even though it's in
East Rutherford.

Speaker 5 (56:45):
But heading down there after the show.

Speaker 7 (56:47):
Looking forward to it, gonna talk all Things SummerSlam, Whip
the Code coming up after this.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
Number one on your car Radio preset Hey and the
new and improved Diehard Radio app w d W D
two seven Break Date, Philadelpia Ice, Fox Sports Radio, The Gambler,
Come Slashing Down.

Speaker 8 (57:12):
It has side, got to take the stands.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
Don't hands.

Speaker 5 (57:23):
Welcome back to.

Speaker 7 (57:25):
The Tough Cover Radio Show on Summer Slam Saturday, and
we've got a great panel here to talk about it.

Speaker 5 (57:34):
We've got my guy obviously back in the studio. We've
been with all show, Roy Burton.

Speaker 7 (57:38):
You follow on Twitter at the Best Line, Follow me
on Twitter at Markemy Junior NFL. You follow our guests
from the Street Shooters Radio. You can follow him at Underscore.
Percone on Twitter.

Speaker 5 (57:48):
Nick p. Coome, Welcome to the show, brother.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
Appreciate you having me on. Man, how's it going.

Speaker 5 (57:53):
It's going great?

Speaker 7 (57:54):
And I maybe it's because I decided to go to
Summer Slam.

Speaker 5 (58:00):
At least I'm not going Tomorrow night.

Speaker 7 (58:02):
I'm only going tonight to Tonight's show a lot cheaper
than tomorrow Night's show.

Speaker 5 (58:07):
Fun fact, like almost like forty dollars cheaper the cheapest.

Speaker 7 (58:10):
Ticket, but Saturday Night a little bit more freedom to
get some you know, have some fun and go out.

Speaker 5 (58:17):
So I decided to go a Saturday.

Speaker 7 (58:18):
But the main reason that I am going fun fact
about the shirt that.

Speaker 5 (58:24):
I'm wearing right here. Everybody knows I'm a big CM
punk mark.

Speaker 7 (58:28):
I have never seen cmpunk wrestle live in person, so
this is this is a first for me. Yeah, I
didn't go to a show from two thousand and six
to twenty fifteen. So I went to shows like four
oh six when I was a kid, kind of stopped
going and knowing I don't know, we didn't go to
any shows, and then I didn't go again until I

(58:50):
was in college and went to the twenty fifteen Rumble,
So a long period pretty much the whole punk run
of his WW ten or so never saw never got
to see them live in person.

Speaker 5 (59:04):
Uh so got this.

Speaker 7 (59:05):
He was at Mania and Philly when we were there,
didn't wrestle, cost cost drew the belt, so he was
a part of that. Got to hear his music live.
But I decided to plump down. CM punk is drawing
this man to the house. Like we're talking about who draws,
and you know what's actually a draw?

Speaker 5 (59:23):
I'm I'm being drawn to draw drive him that life.

Speaker 7 (59:26):
But the question I want to ask you guys, because
I've seen some my algorithm.

Speaker 5 (59:32):
I don't know if you guys know this. I get
like these CM punk tweets.

Speaker 7 (59:36):
And fan videos and like edits and fancams, like it's
actually sickening how much CM punk stuff.

Speaker 5 (59:41):
It's like on my for you page.

Speaker 8 (59:43):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (59:44):
But some of the punk fans out there are calling
him mister SummerSlam if you I guess, WW put out
a list where he had a he had a couple
of matches in the top whatever, and I think brock
Les his brock match might have been ranked like second
or third on their list, and so people were saying,
maybe he's mister Summerson. When I say, obviously everybody knows
Sean Michaels.

Speaker 5 (01:00:03):
Mister WrestleMania.

Speaker 7 (01:00:04):
When I say mister SummerSlam to you, Nick pecoone, who
comes to your mind?

Speaker 5 (01:00:09):
Who's miss who is mister SummerSlam?

Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
Brett the hit Man Heart plus you know he's my favorite, right,
so one of my favorites, Randy Savage being the other.
But yeah, ninety two, ninety four the Skill Cage with
Owen Hart. You know, ninety seven he won that title
in New Jersey. So I'm a Bret hart Mark through

(01:00:31):
and through Roy.

Speaker 5 (01:00:33):
Anyone else come to mind for you? Or are you
a hit man guy there?

Speaker 7 (01:00:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
No, like yeah Somemer Mister Summer Slam is probably bred.
I can't think of anybody else you were talking about
ninety two. I think that was number one on that
WW list of best Summer Slam matches of all time.
I mean that's pretty undeniable. Seeh I think it has
to be brand I'm not. I'm not sure who's number.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Two ninety one? Who's number twenty one? Was a great
match against mister Perfect.

Speaker 7 (01:00:53):
I think there's a couple. There's a couple of ninety
one was a great match with Perfect. I agree with that.

Speaker 5 (01:00:58):
There there's couple. I think other people who have an argument.

Speaker 7 (01:01:03):
I think Brock If you look at some of the
Summer Slam matches, brockhead O two with the Rock where
he kind of arrives onto the scene.

Speaker 5 (01:01:10):
I had a great match with was it three with Angle? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:01:13):
O three with Angle at Summer Slam comes Back, has
a great match with not I wouldn't call it a
great match maybe, but what happened with Cina was certainly
a memorable That was one of my favorite nights of
like modern rest. I thought that was so cool and
so different at the time. Amazing match with Punk the

(01:01:34):
the year before that, and yeah, I think I'm I
think I'm forgetting some Taker he had the Taker Summer
Slam match. He might have even had. Did he have
a Roman Summer Slam match that caught the Yeah, okay, yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
Think Gusta and Randy Orton one year there kind of like,
oh my god.

Speaker 5 (01:01:56):
I was at that. I'll never forget. I had this guy.

Speaker 7 (01:01:59):
I was up high at that Summerslamic Bark race and
I was I had this guy behind me and you know, no,
no shade, we're all nerds watching this stuff. But there
was this guy behind me in a Roman Reigne vest
with like the the big dog like like arm things,
and he was like, he was like.

Speaker 5 (01:02:18):
Come on, Brock, you're taking it too far.

Speaker 7 (01:02:21):
This like he was like getting worked up in the
last section, like about to rush of the ring, and
Iver being like, oh my god, this hilarious. I guess
christ Jericho got got worked up the same way behind
the scenes and tried to attack Brock and they got
in a fight but that's a story for Brock was mentioned.

Speaker 5 (01:02:39):
I saw Seth Rollins. People people have.

Speaker 7 (01:02:42):
Thrown out there, Sina, people have thrown out there. I
do think punk punk has to be in the argument too.
Had a great moment with Jeff Hardy cashing in there,
had the the ladder match with Jeff Hardy. The next year,
I had the great match with Brock we already mentioned,
had the moment with Sina. The better match was a

(01:03:03):
month before, but still had the Summer Slam main event
with Sina, and last year had a great match with
Drew in his first match back in ten years from WWA.
So I think punk is in the conversation. But I
agree with you guys, it is Brett the hit man
hard not so all that to say, yeah, Brett Heart's
pretty good.

Speaker 5 (01:03:23):
Let's talk about this year.

Speaker 7 (01:03:24):
Let's talk about this version of WrestleMania. So the first
time that we get a tow night Summer Slam here
and actually real quick, Sean Brace texted me to remind me,
and he's right.

Speaker 5 (01:03:37):
I will just say tick pic.

Speaker 7 (01:03:41):
Is what brought me to the Summer Slam, Saturday Night
Spectacular and MetLife tonight because I was you know, I
was on the border, Like I didn't want to spend
you know, one hundred and fifty bucks or you know,
something like that. I didn't want to go out there
and empty empty the wallet for one night at Summer Slam.

Speaker 5 (01:04:00):
But tickpck was fifty.

Speaker 7 (01:04:02):
I went through all the ticket spot all the different
ticket sites.

Speaker 9 (01:04:05):
After fees, tickpck was fifteen dollars cheaper per ticket.

Speaker 5 (01:04:10):
And I only bought two tickets. But if you're buying
four tickets to an event, that's that's sixty bucks.

Speaker 7 (01:04:16):
Right there, just in fees that you're not paying when
you're on tickpick as opposed to the other guys. So
just I mean, that's actually just like I told that
story in the group chat, not even like as an ad.
That's just a true story. That's just a testimonial right there.
I wouldn't be going to Summer Slam, I don't think
if it wasn't for tickpick. So shot out to tickpic.
But talking about tonight, what I'll lead off with this,

(01:04:40):
Nick texted me that he's not he's not very excited
about this Summer Slam, And I totally get why I've
been pretty critical of the product lately. Maybe it's because
I'm going. I've jazzed myself up a little bit about
this contract or about I just got distracted by the
Luka Doncic contract that just dropped three years, won sixty
five million, by the way.

Speaker 5 (01:05:01):
That's why I said contract, but I got distracted.

Speaker 7 (01:05:05):
I'm excited for this Summer Slam weekend. I've talked myself up.
I've jazzed myself up. Have you gotten there yet, Nick,
We're on the morning of.

Speaker 5 (01:05:12):
Have you gotten a little bit more excited.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
I'm closer and I think if I was going, I
would feel the same way you do, because it's just
a different atmosphere.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
People say Mentlife Stadium is not a great stadium, but
I've been in there. I was there at Wrestlming in
twenty nine. I had a good time. I think it's
a nice stadium. It reminded me of the Bed a
little bit because there's really no openings, And honestly, that
was the last time I was there, so I don't
know if there's been renovations since. But I enjoyed when
I went there. It's just the feel of it. Obviously

(01:05:41):
it was a WrestleMania but yeah, this Summer Slam with
two nightsw has a propensity to over deliver sometimes when
the build's not great. So I've always you know, for
a few weeks. Now I feel like there's a way
they can grab people back because you know, it's been

(01:06:03):
kind of a lull. Twenty twenty four was their hottest
year and what it feels like decades but for a
long time, and it's really hard to live up to that,
and they've shown why, you know, this year. So I
feel like, you know, there's a couple of things they
could do. There's one thing, a major thing they can

(01:06:23):
do that I might talk about tonight to get me
back like one hundred percent, Like I think I'm maybe
like seventy percent right now. So uh, but it's tough
to consider that when Roman reigns and is on the
card tonight, something that might eclipse that. But now I'm

(01:06:45):
hopeful that tonight might over deliver in a way.

Speaker 7 (01:06:49):
Roy where are you at in terms of your excitement
for Summer Slam and do you think the to night
Summer Slam is a good move or should we leave
that for WrestleMania.

Speaker 3 (01:06:58):
I think it's I think too night should probably be
reserved for WrestleMania. I think wrestling answer, It's like that
that's the spout, that's the super Bowl weekend, right, That's
that's the kind of the thing, the the I guess,
the the ending crescendo of the w.

Speaker 4 (01:07:09):
W w W season.

Speaker 3 (01:07:10):
So I think it should be a two night thing
for that for us, just for WrestleMania, because this card
is okay.

Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
I mean, Tonight's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:07:16):
I mean tonight has a couple a couple of matches
that are interesting, but I don't think this is a
you know, this sick This twelfth match card over these
two nights is a really deep card, whereas we saw
the WrestleMania car was a little bit better, and that
proposed WrestleMania card on on Unreal was fantastic. So I
think they stressed themselves a bit thin. They stressed themselves
a bit thin in the SummerSlam card. So but to

(01:07:37):
the next point, you know, there have been times, you know,
this year, you know where I've kind of expected or
or didn't expect much from these pls and they've kind
of over delivered quite a bit. Like Elimination Chamber was fabulous, Like,
you know, they've had some really good pls. You know,
at points this year so Evolution was was fantastic, So
I'm hoping tonight it's gonna be a good night. I
think tomorrow is gonna be really good. Like, I'm not

(01:07:57):
really concerned about tomorrow. I just don't know if they
have three and a half hours of really compelling stories
to tell tonight.

Speaker 5 (01:08:05):
Yeah, I think that.

Speaker 9 (01:08:07):
I think they divided the card well, I feel like
they divided the card pretty well, like because I think
the biggest match of the weekends Cody and I guess
the next conversation is, do you guys think punkin Guther
should be main eventing tonight?

Speaker 3 (01:08:22):
Well, I think it's well, I'm sorry, I'm sorry Nick.
I think it's gonna main event because I think something
and I think Nick's gonna loud to I think something's
gonna happen at the end of the match, So I
will let Nick tell you what he thinks.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
Yeah, it's like I would think Roman would have to
open right or maybe like the middle match Romano state.
I love the middle main event quote unquote, like they've
had world title matches in the middle and I know
it was decades ago, but there's there's a lineup conducive

(01:08:52):
to like a match card lineup where you can let
the world title be the middle match and not you
know't have to call it the main event, but you
could be like, oh, our main event. And I know
it's different now and wrestling fandoms a lot different now
because you're gonna get criticized no matter what. But I'd
like that setup, Like if you have a quote unquote

(01:09:14):
main event in the middle of the card, I don't
think it takes away from anything if it's booked compellingly.
So if you have Roman, you know, if you have
Punk and Guthor main event. If you listen to the
Stay Shooters the last few weeks, I'm still not convinced
that Seth Rollins is injured enough to not compete. So

(01:09:38):
it's like out of sight, out of mind, right And
they really haven't alluded to him, And that's what I
mentioned before that can really draw me back in if
they Pug's been talking about you know, I need that title.
I mean, there's only one way to end that, right Like,
you can't just have Discutor beat him right like and
then not have set problems up here. I don't know, man,

(01:10:02):
you can't build it this way. And I'm the way
the promos have gone. It's like, oh, I'm right, I'm right.
So if it doesn't happen, I'll be kind of like crushed.
But that's the way they can grab me, man, And
there's another way they can grab me tomorrow night, and
we'll maybe talk about that. But yeah, I think that's
the story of Night one. That should be the story

(01:10:23):
of Night oneth catching it.

Speaker 5 (01:10:25):
Yeah, I gotta be honest, like, and I'm biased. I'm biased.

Speaker 7 (01:10:31):
I am extremely happy to have a punk feud that's
about a title and about like not.

Speaker 5 (01:10:40):
You left ten years ago and you're evil and Roman
Reigns and Paul Haman.

Speaker 7 (01:10:47):
It's all so like deep seated and it's nice to
just have like, oh, these guys are gonna wrestle and
you know it's very title and they want to they
want to see the best in the world.

Speaker 5 (01:10:55):
Like I always love those feuds, Like I always love
the feuds that are like just about the importance of
the title.

Speaker 7 (01:11:01):
And I think that always elevates the importance of the title, like,
and I think that's part of why it is even
beyond what's gonna happen. If seth Cash is in, which
I think is probably gonna happen, I think it does,
and they've really done a disservice in a lot of ways.
I think that Gunther, we don't have to dive deep
into a j uso conversation, but I really do think that.

Speaker 5 (01:11:22):
I mean that they're still channing.

Speaker 7 (01:11:24):
You tapped out at Gunther, and I know you could
say it's hell heat. It's hell heat. It's not like dominating,
you know, best in the world champion for four years.
He'll heat the way that I think Gunther should have.
And I think he's one of the best on the planet.
And I think he's been kind of taking some ara,
as the kids would say, away from Uh and I
think you need to do everything you can to build

(01:11:47):
that back. I think he should be punk clean, and
I'll be rooting.

Speaker 5 (01:11:51):
For the opposite.

Speaker 7 (01:11:52):
I want Punk to win the title. I don't think
it's gonna happen that. I don't think Punk's ever just
gonna like walk out of a pay per view as
the world champion again, that's my prediction. I don't think
that's Triple H's like vision for anything. Sammy, this is
I'm a big tangent guy. On today's show, Sammy Zane
once got asked if he ever thinks Triple Hill give
him the world title, and he's like, I actually think
I have a worst chance of winning the world title

(01:12:14):
than I did with Vince because he's like, Triple Ah
is so long term story and I mean, I guess
that he threw that away with jay Uso, but he's
so committed to you know, this is where I want
my title to be in nine months, and this is
what I want mania in a year, and all this
stuff where he's like, if I just did something funny
on TV, Vince might have been like, let's put the
world title on him.

Speaker 5 (01:12:34):
And I do think that there is a level of like.

Speaker 7 (01:12:40):
Long term storytelling that kind of prevents you from maybe
elevating guys or doing something that wasn't part of the plans.
And I don't think giving cm pump the world titles
ever going to be part of Triple Ah's like master plan.
Maybe I see it tonight, but I think if Guth
winning would help. And I think Seth and Punk, even

(01:13:03):
though they haven't liked I guess they had the Netflix match,
and they had matches on on main event, they haven't
had the pay per view match, the big blowoff, I
guess it feels stale at this point because they've been
doing it for like a year and a half, whether
it's been in the ring or just on the mic,
and a lot of it's great stuff, whereas pretty much,
you know pretty much everything that both guys have been
involved in his great stuff. There is a level of

(01:13:25):
I've seen a he's a heel, so it's not a problem,
but I've seen kind of an uprising against Seth on
Twitter a little bit.

Speaker 5 (01:13:32):
I feel like on wrestling Twitter and.

Speaker 7 (01:13:34):
Some of the podcasts listen to that're kind of like
sick of Seth kind of doing the same stuff for
the past year and a half and saying the same stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:13:41):
Over and over.

Speaker 7 (01:13:43):
And I there was some buzz that maybe he'd cash
in on Senior Cody, probably Cody on Night two, and that.

Speaker 5 (01:13:51):
Kind of made me more inches.

Speaker 7 (01:13:52):
I was kind of like, Seth, Cody feels fresh again
now like we had that when Cody first came.

Speaker 5 (01:13:58):
Cody feels like a different character now, so Seth, it
would I.

Speaker 7 (01:14:01):
Actually really would like the idea of Seth being going
for Cody and that being the direction for the next
couple of months. I understand that doesn't make sense with
what the story we've been telling is, but is there
any chance that that happens or did what we see
last night with the Cody Scena kind of swerve change
anything with that being a possibility.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
So I don't I didn't watch SmackDown last night, so
I don't know what happened.

Speaker 5 (01:14:27):
So just pruss me up on that John Cena turned face.

Speaker 4 (01:14:30):
Yes, it looks like Okay.

Speaker 7 (01:14:34):
John Cena cut a ten minute babyface promo where he
said he fell for what somebody else's idea of compelling
TV was and I then they left me high and
dry and I had to be someone I'm pretending to
be for the last six months.

Speaker 5 (01:14:52):
And you've got the real John Cena back if you
want some.

Speaker 3 (01:14:55):
And I'm here for the I'm here for the fans
and the winners of all this, and I'm gonna fight
you like a man.

Speaker 4 (01:15:01):
Cody Rhodes and then the.

Speaker 2 (01:15:03):
Crowd all right, interesting because he's gonna I was gonna
be like, okay, a double turn in, Like so maybe
maybe they're not going to do a double turn in
one night. I could okay, so maybe Cody will turn Sunday,
so I could kind of see that. I would have

(01:15:24):
said if Guthlor beats Punk Clean. I would think that
there's more of a chance for Set to cash in
on Sunday if that were the case. So I'm gonna
it's on my DVR. I haven't gotten a chance to
watch it yet, but I'll definitely go back and watch
that because of course, uh, you know that I had
to last night.

Speaker 5 (01:15:40):
I think it was the only thing worth watching on
the show. I watched a little show. I don't they.

Speaker 7 (01:15:44):
I mean there was a Drew, a Drew and Logan segment.
The Drew Logan tag teams is kind of funny.

Speaker 5 (01:15:51):
They kind of work together.

Speaker 2 (01:15:53):
I've seen bits and pieces of that through the last
few weeks because I've just been cut it out on
that whole with Jelly, Randy Orton and that. But I
think I saw something that they were like, uh, I
think the tag team names or something like that, and
I thought that was pretty funny.

Speaker 5 (01:16:11):
So I think Drew and Logan. I love Drew.

Speaker 7 (01:16:14):
I think Drew is maybe the guy who's gotten like
the shortest end of the stick over the last like
two to three years of creative Like that guy should
be main eventing pay per views and like world title material.

Speaker 5 (01:16:26):
He is so so good. A good thing.

Speaker 7 (01:16:30):
He got out of the UK, got his passport figure out.
There were some concerns he wasn't going to get here
in time. But other other matches on the car tonight
and we briefly mentioned it. We talked about Guther Punk
and where we think that's gonna go. The match I
thought was going to main event was Roman and Jay
against Bron and Bronson. I was pretty positive that that

(01:16:52):
was going to be the main event, and then they
said Punk and Guta remain eventing. I actually feel my
take always I hate main event tag matches. Hate tag
matches for nothing between four non tag guys who are
main events. Don't like the booking, and Triple As has
gotten a little obsessed with them over the last two years,

(01:17:14):
and it's like my least favorite booking trophy has But
the Roman save that night was one of the loudest
pops you'll hear in modern wrestling.

Speaker 5 (01:17:24):
He is a fully over, full on babyface.

Speaker 7 (01:17:27):
If he's around enough, I think he has to immediately
get leveled up into the main event title picture after this.
I don't know which side that's on or how that happens.
Maybe maybe if you're if we say let's say Punk
wins the belt.

Speaker 5 (01:17:41):
I don't think it's gonna happen.

Speaker 7 (01:17:42):
Let's say Punk wins the belt and beats Scooter and
Seth cashes in on Cody. Could we get Roman punk
with like the full on Paul Paul kind of tries
to mess with them with the with kind of Bron
and Bronson and Seth in the background.

Speaker 1 (01:17:55):
Me.

Speaker 7 (01:17:55):
I don't know if Paul's even involved, But do we
get the Roman punk thing there? Do we get Seth
in Punk and Punk or Seth in Roman and Punk
goes elsewhere? I think you have to get Roman involved
into the main event title picture if he's around enough.
I don't know if he's going to be around enough,
but I will say Bron and Bronson being like the main.

Speaker 5 (01:18:16):
Guys for Paul. I do think it feels energized right now.

Speaker 7 (01:18:19):
As opposed to it did start to feel a little
stale with the faction, even being this early is starting
to feel a little stale. I do think that they
need to take this opportunity if Seth is actually hurt,
which I don't think he is, to level Braun up
and to be to make Braun maybe even give him
the briefcase if Seth is out for multiple months, but

(01:18:40):
this is the chance to kind of make Bron breaker.
Bron should win this match, like Bron should pin probably Jay.
You probably don't want to pin Roman. Bron should pin Jay.
I think Roman probably wins though.

Speaker 3 (01:18:52):
Yeah, I think I think this is the Bron level
up match. I mean, I think this is the time.
And we've seen the interactions with them. You know, we
saw Roy rumble when they were kind of in the match,
you know, together, Like, I think this is the time
you level up Bron, you know, and then I think
we I think we all see where this is going,
like a Survivor series or we're going to see you know,
you know whatever whatever tribal whatever you want to call
them now bloodline four point zero, you know, versus versus

(01:19:15):
Seth and his team. I think that's where we're going
to eventually go, if the booking, you know, if everything
kind of like lines up. But yeah, this is the time,
you know, I think we see that that like Bron
comes becomes that quasi main event kind of guy.

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
Yeah, I think, uh, you know, Roman and Jay are
kind of expected to win, right, Like everybody's like, oh,
like they'll they'll win against Bronson Braun. But if that's
why you make the decision to have bron win pen Ja,
maybe the visual of pending Roman and Jay makes a
safe and then he just spears Jay, and after spearing

(01:19:51):
Roman and you just level him up. Like you said,
I think this is the perfect opportunity for that.

Speaker 7 (01:19:57):
Yeah, I I totally agree. I think that this should
be a big night for Braun. And then to the
women's side of things, you have to now you have
Jade and Tiffy. If I'm a big Tiffany Stratton fan,
it feels like it's kind of been a little stale,
i'd say for the last couple.

Speaker 5 (01:20:18):
Of months now.

Speaker 7 (01:20:19):
I don't know if she's had a big moment with
the belt since the Charlotte feud. It feels like now
I don't even know. If i'd say that Charlotte feud
went well for her and Jade, I wouldn't say either
of these wrestlers aren't green in the ring. So I'm
interested to see what this looks like tonight with Jade
and Tippy. I kind of have no idea what to

(01:20:40):
expect who wins on what it looks like. I'm kind
of like one of the matches I'm most excited about
over the weekend, just from like uncertainty.

Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
Yeah, I think I thought for a while that, Okay,
Jade's gonna win, Naomi's going to cash in beat Jade,
and we're going to continue that, but they squashed that
at the last show, and so now I, like you,
I really don't know what to expect. My gut feeling
would be Jade wins and then we'll have a feud
with Bianca for the title, because I don't know if

(01:21:10):
a few between them without a title is as interesting.
It could be, for sure, But yeah, with Tiffany Stratton
kind of just being there, would you keep the title
on her? And what would be the next challenger? And
would you try to make that as interesting? I don't
think it would be as interesting as Jade versus Bianca.

Speaker 4 (01:21:29):
Yeah, yeah, I agree.

Speaker 3 (01:21:30):
I'm not sure where the story goes, you know, if
Tiffany retains. And this was kind of what I was
talking about with this card. It's like, like, this is
a this is fine match, but I'm not sure how
into the how into it the crowd's going to be, Like,
I'm not sure if the crowd's gonna get hype for
a Tiffany Stratton Jade match. I don't know how hype
you're gonna be for carrying Cross and Sammy's Ain. I
don't know if they're gonna get much reaction to that
women's tag team match. So that's why I'm like a

(01:21:51):
little bit down on on the Tight's card. But again,
they've over delivered in the past, so maybe maybe one
of these matches kind of convinced to me that that
there's something there that I don't see.

Speaker 7 (01:22:01):
Yeah, I'm I think that does it pretty You have
the women's tags, which I think that'll be fun. I
was happy to see Charlotte evolution, like the crowd really
turned on her, Like for at the Rumble and leading
in the Mania, the crowd was rejecting her in a
way that is like that was pretty rare to see

(01:22:22):
a crowd reject anyone, and it was I actually felt
like it got mean a little bit at it, like
for a little bit there. And I'm a Charlotte fan,
so I've always kind of thought like she gets a
little unfairly treated sometimes online and in the rest like
Twitter and about the fans. I think she's the greatest
women's wrestler of all time. I still think that I

(01:22:43):
think people were sick of seeing her just inserted into
the main event with like no story really around it,
which I get.

Speaker 5 (01:22:48):
I don't really think that's about her. I think is
about the booking.

Speaker 7 (01:22:51):
But I think people have responded to her leveling down
and kind of being in the mid card for a
little bit. She was getting the biggest reaction, like on
the show show at Evolution in that like eight women tag,
and I think that probably continues tonight with Alexa. It
seems like this Charlotte Lexit thing is very over.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
Yeah yeah, I mean you're out a year, a year
and a half practically, and you come back and win
the rubble and it's just like, I don't care who
you are. I'm not sure that's gonna work for like
ninety five percent of wrestlers with things like there's nobody
that popular that could just miss that much time, come
back whin a rubble and be like at a main

(01:23:30):
event of WrestleMania, I mean like off the top of
the head, Like Cody came back and won and people
didn't turn on him as much, but that's because they
were ready for Roman to just lose the title. They're
like Okay, finally Cody's gonna beat Roman. Charlotte didn't really
have that avenue to be like people were tired of
a women's champion, and they wanted, okay, Charlotte to Lisa

(01:23:53):
beat her, so we'll get behind her. But yeah, I
kind of like thought that would happen, and I didn't
think Charlotte was gonna win first of all. And then
once she did and you hear the boos, I'm like, ah, this,
they'll probably change course and she won't may have that
wrestled idea that they kept going, so I think it
got worse for her in that respect. And then you

(01:24:14):
could see, like on the mic she was just kind
of like not sure what to do for a little bit.
And then the player's tribute an article you could tell like, oh,
this is real, you know, like it wasn't just an
act because I thought she was leaning into it a
little bit like oh, okay, like she'll she plied a heel,
but no, she was really affected. So I think this
is definitely gonna help her in the long run. It's
been some of the better women's storylines that we've had recently,

(01:24:37):
so with Alessa, so looking forward to seeing how that
plays out.

Speaker 3 (01:24:41):
Yeah, And just to that general point point, I mean
like they've had some you know, I think we can
all agree some rough booking these last couple of months,
but like this weekend they have a chance to kind
of course qurect quite a bit, you know, like with
the Charlotte thing, possibly with the John Cena thing. I
mean like, yeah, like last couple months have been kind
of kind of rough, but I mean like at the
end of Sunday, like we could be on a pretty good.

Speaker 4 (01:25:00):
Track heading in the Survivor series if they play it right.

Speaker 7 (01:25:03):
And then on Sunday here we have a match that
I feel like I've been in and out of of
just like seeing the I saw the the six man
tag they had on a roll. But AJ and Dom
are having a match. I feel like maybe I'm off.
I feel like this has not been built up well.
Like I feel like there hasn't been like a ton
of TV time devoted to this and in general since

(01:25:24):
Dom had his big moment winning a title at WrestleMania
and had the off script moment. I saw people tweeting
about this a couple of weeks ago, had the moment
where he decided to run back to the ring, which
was not a kind of scripted there, ran back to
the ring and celebrated more and went crazy because it
was his moment and the crowd was going insane, and

(01:25:44):
there was some rumors that he had some.

Speaker 5 (01:25:46):
Heat backstage for that. Since then, he's he's been very
much a valet.

Speaker 7 (01:25:51):
It feels like for the live in Roxanne situation, and
he's the Intercontinental champion and has been for four plus
months now, and it feels like for most of it
he's barely barely defending it. So I think AJ Styles
as a people are not going to like this stake.
I think he's become one of the least interesting wrestlers
on the planet over the last couple of years. To me,

(01:26:12):
great worker, I get it, I haven't been invested in
a feud he's been involved in in a really long time,
So I kind of disappointing to me that it's Stead
it's him too. It'll be a great match, But if
he takes the belt off Dom, and that just means
like we're cooling Dom off after he had that big
moment at Mania and you've done nothing with him since,

(01:26:32):
that'll be annoying to me.

Speaker 2 (01:26:35):
Yeah, the way you feel about AJ is how I
thought about Rady Orton For the longest time. I was like,
nothing he does Like for years, I was like, why
are people reacting to him to this way. I think
it was until the Matt Riddle story where I was like, Okay,
Raddy Orton's showing he's got like that personality. I guess
they just weren't letting him muse it on stream because

(01:26:55):
these certain characters he had were supposed to be like
slow and prodding stuff like that. It's like, that's not
interesting to me on CV SO, but now I'm like
a Rady Orton fan. So AJ is kind of in
the same boat where like, yeah, he's not he with uh.
They hit saw him like praying backstage like off stream
or something like that after Tom had talking Adam Pierce

(01:27:19):
or Nicolotis or whatever. It's just like, what is he doing?
Like should he just be going to d NA and
wrestling there for a little bit, come back at least,
like you know, he'll get a pop at the rumble
or something. But yeah, I mean, I'm not sure how
if he beats Tom, if that's gonna if that's better
than Dom just holding onto the side of not wrestling
that much. I don't know if he had a legit injury,

(01:27:42):
but like if he did have like a little injury
that didn't let him wrestle for a little bit, maybe
they leaned into it for a little bit longer so
they can get the Summer Slam for him and AJ
to have a match. But yeah, I mean, like if
they take the belt off him, like AJ is not
that much more interest thing to have an intercontinental title

(01:28:03):
feud with who, Like, I don't know. I think Don's
just a better fit. Hopefully they let him do more.

Speaker 7 (01:28:09):
He said at fan Fest yesterday that it might be
his last Summer Slam, so I want to tear the
house down. I think it would have been perfect, like
a year ago, or even if he wanted to do
a year or two.

Speaker 5 (01:28:20):
Like this is why there's two companies, Like he should
be in AW.

Speaker 7 (01:28:24):
Like, I like the way he got stale here AW
for my problems with AW Like, they would probably treat
AJ styles like a legend, and they would probably treat
him like, you know, put him in there with their
workers that he's never had a chance to wrestle with
since he's been in WW that have popped up, And yeah,
I think like he should have been like the guy

(01:28:44):
that AW really should have gave given some money to
to to bring over, but maybe too late for that,
maybe saying last Summer Slam, he's gonna go have a
run in AW after. But I do think he'd be
like a perfect guy to go over.

Speaker 5 (01:28:58):
There, you've a match.

Speaker 7 (01:29:00):
I've complained to you guys about this before. Can we
can we stop with Becky and Lyra. It's been we're
gonna do this for ten We're gonna do ten years
of pay per views. Were just gonna do a ten year,
ten year story. They wrestle every week, and I actually
do think we might get to an interesting place here
where Bailey. I think Bailey's probably gonna cost Lyra this
match based on her promo last night where she's speechless.

(01:29:23):
She's never felt like this in her career. She wasn't
at WrestleMania, and now she's not at Summer Slam. I
guess she lost the tag title match recently. She said
I couldn't even get in another IC title rematch and
all this stuff, and she looked like depressed, and she's
like she has like walked off, and I think she
probably attacks Lyra and turns heel tonight and Becky moves

(01:29:44):
on to something else would be my guess. But I people,
I saw a thread being like all these Becky Lira
matches before plus Stars, like these were all bangers, and
I was like I watched everyone. I didn't care about
any of them, like and I love beck You Lynch.
I have a beck You Lynch t shirt, like I
read her book, like I love Becky Lynch, one of
my favorite women's wrestles of all time. I would like

(01:30:08):
her to wrestle someone else. I'm good.

Speaker 2 (01:30:11):
She's apparently gonna be debuting a new theme tonight as well,
so perhaps that'll be the start.

Speaker 3 (01:30:19):
Yeah, no wonder, Yeah yeah, I think I think this
hopefully this was just to elevate this, this intercondimental belt,
and I guess they've done that. And I think to
your point, Mark, I think it makes the most sense
for Bailey to come in cost lyra Becky keeps the belt,
she'll wrestle somebody else, because again, like you need to,
you need to make these mid car belts mean a
little something. So if Becky has this for you know,
six months, twelve you know, twelve months or whatever, then

(01:30:39):
all right, it elevates that status and then Lyra can
kind of do her thing. But You're right, like this
is like I'm done, Like I'm not need no more
of this. This is I'm done.

Speaker 2 (01:30:47):
I think about a month ago I read, you know
for fans that were like okay, like Lira is getting better,
like she had some good promos here and there, but
now it was like she had one bad one and
now people kind of back down and they're like kind
of soured on it. So it's like I think this view,
it's probably jumped the shark.

Speaker 5 (01:31:05):
So yeah, I've been out the whole time. I'll have
it on the record. I don't get the gimmick, like
I don't.

Speaker 7 (01:31:10):
I don't get when she's she's sometimes a bird and
then she comes out last night in like a mini
skirt looking like she's going to the club. Like it's
just like I don't get the character. Are you a
real person?

Speaker 5 (01:31:20):
Like I don't. I don't know. I don't get like
the I don't get the.

Speaker 7 (01:31:24):
Whole thing, but I the one This is random eight
woman tag where Stephanie vecuor Nikki Rhea and uh An
Eo had a tag against Chelsea and her two girls
and someone else was in that matchup money was Naomi.

Speaker 5 (01:31:44):
Someone else is in that eight man tag. I think
it was Naomi, And uh something I noticed.

Speaker 7 (01:31:50):
Chelsea Green's taller than Rhea and like bigger than she'd be,
like bigger than everyone in the ring. It's actually kind
of a shame that they've treated her like such a
comedy character.

Speaker 5 (01:32:01):
And she's amazing at it, she's so good, but.

Speaker 7 (01:32:04):
It's almost a shame because she actually has some like believability,
like going against the Rhea's and Biancas and some of these,
some of the like that tier of wrestler. I struggle
some and I Ria and Eo are amazing in the
ring together. They have great matches. There are sometimes I
like struggle with the Ria Eo thing and Rihea's in
the ring with live and it's like this is a

(01:32:25):
little like just half the size, Like the size differential
does start to matter to me where maybe it shouldn't,
where it woul actually be nice if Chelsea at some
point could like not be treated completely like a jobber,
and she could kind of I think they tried that
with the mid card belt, but it's hard to book
like a comedy character as something serious at all.

Speaker 5 (01:32:47):
But random thing I noticed. Speaking of the women that
were in that match.

Speaker 7 (01:32:52):
We have Naomi Eo and Rhea, and I've loved the
Naomi heel turn great on the MIC.

Speaker 5 (01:33:00):
It feels like a fresh fresh coat.

Speaker 7 (01:33:03):
Of paint on the women's division to have kind of
a new heel at the top of the division, to
kind of change things up a little bit, which I think.

Speaker 5 (01:33:10):
Was sorely needed. It does feel a little bit like
there's no.

Speaker 7 (01:33:16):
Chance Naomi's losing the belt in this match, so like
a little sting is taking out of it. I don't
know how you change that, but I'm not as excited
for this match as I should be, despite it being
like good workers. I'm sure it's gonna be fast paced.
They's triple threats, I think are great in WWE. I
know some people have problems with them, but I think

(01:33:37):
triple deats have been regularly pretty amazing. And they're kind
of running back the Rio Eo Bianca triple threat, which
was great. They're just putting putting Naomi in there for Bianca.
I wish I was more excited for this match, I guess,
and I think I want Naomi to win it, but
it kind of feels it feels telegraphed.

Speaker 2 (01:33:59):
Yeah, it's like has the chance to be Match of
the weekend, you know, But Naomi's had that title win
twice to where you know, people even though she's playing
a heel now, it's like you deserve it, you know.
And back on SmackDown Live when it was on Tuesdays
and she won that, she was a face, people loved it.

(01:34:20):
So she's had two of those types of wins. I
could see her being more of a main eventor moving forward.
So if she loses tonight or loses tomorrow, loses the title,
I don't. I don't think it's like the end of
the road for her and title wins the way I
felt when she lost it the first time. It's like
they're just not putting her in the main event enough.

(01:34:40):
I think she cemented her kind of legacy there where.
She's changed brands too, so it's kind of tough. Like
if she does lose, then well she just changed brands,
but she gotta go to another brand again, like or
is she gonna be RHA or EO eventually? Is she
gonna be them one on one? It's possible. I don't
see it. So yeah, I'm kind of like okay, Like

(01:35:03):
how is she gonna win? You know, Like, but then
where does that leave Ria and Eo? Like are they
gonna are they gonna eventually be fighting for big cart titles?
Not sure? Like you know, like I don't know if
you bring them down because they are the women's division, right,
do we need.

Speaker 5 (01:35:18):
To treat Eo like she's like a main inventor who
can't lose and can't like she's like a baby face.
She's like a tiny baby face.

Speaker 2 (01:35:26):
Like I don't think it came out of nowhere, right, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:35:29):
Yeah, I'm like, I get it. She's great, she's great
in the ring.

Speaker 7 (01:35:32):
I'm much more interested in Ria and Bianca and even
Naomi in some way, like she's great. I think we're
getting I think she's gotten a little overrated, to be honest, Like,
I think some of these matches have been great people
that I've been like saying match of the year.

Speaker 5 (01:35:47):
I don't I don't know if I'd go that far.

Speaker 7 (01:35:49):
But I maybe it's the few Naomi uh made the
first made it interesting. I thought, dynamic and kind of
I don't know you just said, but back in the line,
I thought that was incredible, an incredible way to kind
of put a different spin on it, but I do
think like the fut I'm kind of done with the

(01:36:12):
Ria Eo dynamic. It's just been a long time of
it since January, since whenever Eo beat the belt before
won the belt before MANIAI leading into Mania, So I'm.

Speaker 5 (01:36:22):
Kind of Naomi Ria.

Speaker 7 (01:36:23):
I think would be interesting if you did maybe like
you do this match, you have Naomi beat Eo or something,
then you have Naomi beat Eo again, and then you
put Ria in there, and then maybe Ria takes the
belt off of her, if that's where they want to go.
But I think that'd be interesting. Something I did see
is there's a there's a rumor out there that Naomi
might be like kind of wrapping it up a little

(01:36:45):
bit and wanting to have a kid soon. So maybe
that's this is kind of like a main event on
your way out the door for a couple of months.
Maybe I don't know how long that run, you know,
I don't know what the plans are there, but just
a rumor that I saw out there.

Speaker 4 (01:37:00):
So uh.

Speaker 7 (01:37:01):
And then the matches that we didn't talk about, there's
a TLC match on Sunday. I'm gonna leave that alone.
Jacob and Solo in a cage match. I appreciate that
they've done so much to build this up, but this
should be solo squash, right, It really really should be

(01:37:25):
I think. But and then last match, of course, biggest match,
Cody and CNN. We talked about the baby face turn earlier.
My take, no matter what, last night made this this
weekend and this match ten x more interesting because.

Speaker 5 (01:37:42):
Now it was it fake. Is he gonna be a
heel again now? And swerve swerve the swerve and then
come back out and you people are so stupid, like
I I was faking being my fake self. But whatever
I there there you could go with that angle. He
could be hired, n he could be earnest and be

(01:38:02):
a babyface.

Speaker 7 (01:38:03):
And then and then Cody turns heel and Cody's the
homelander Cody, and he's the heel champion that I think.

Speaker 5 (01:38:11):
He'd be amazing at. And maybe there's a chance Cody
they do Hope and Warrior and.

Speaker 7 (01:38:17):
It's just babyface babyface and Sena raises Cody's hand at
the end, and that was what this all was getting
to maybe and maybe that was the plan all along.

Speaker 5 (01:38:27):
Who knows or seth cashes in, and Seth takes us
another direction.

Speaker 7 (01:38:33):
No matter what out of any of those four options,
I think it's more interesting than just like I am
me and John cena heel character and oh my god,
it has been one of the biggest, one of the
biggest flops in missteps in creative history in this company.
Like I don't know, I don't know if that's putting
too much sauce on it, but I think I could

(01:38:56):
make a legitimate argument this scena Heel turn has been
more harmful to business than the stone cold oh one
heel turn. I think if you look at the drop offs,
I think I could make some some big arguments that
that it's been worse.

Speaker 4 (01:39:13):
But what do you mean specifically the right away drop
off of interest?

Speaker 7 (01:39:17):
I think I think people crap on the invasion now
and if you go back and look the invasions like
one of the highest selling non like Big four pay
per views of all time, like that Survivor series OH
one show, even after the invasion was a catastrophe, did
bonkers numbers for a Survivor series, Like it feels like

(01:39:38):
we're on a little bit of the downturn of a
cyclical moment here maybe that's wrong. Maybe that swings right back,
and I think we probably felt like that before Cody
came back or before Wrestlmating A thirty nine, and there's
been moments where it swung right back.

Speaker 5 (01:39:56):
I think everything that happened.

Speaker 7 (01:39:58):
In in the WW on real episodes, and I've only
watched two of them, I'm still a couple behind. But
that Monday to April I think really did a lot
of damage to to Gunthert. It did damage to that title,
It did damage to Cody and Sina in some ways.

(01:40:19):
I think it did damage to the women's division. I
really do think that WrestleMania Matt should have been Ria
Bianca and that should have been these two young superstar faces.

Speaker 5 (01:40:29):
Of the company. Went by the way, where's Bianca bell Air?

Speaker 4 (01:40:34):
Oh she's hurt injury or something like that.

Speaker 5 (01:40:37):
Yeah, I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (01:40:38):
I was.

Speaker 5 (01:40:38):
I just felt like she was like being fake but.

Speaker 2 (01:40:40):
Not even appearing though. It's like, well, she's not doing
promos like me.

Speaker 7 (01:40:44):
In fairness to me, it feels like there's we'll just
go weeks without her, even like when she was in
the tag team situation with Jade and Naomi. Like I
it used to feel like she was Jane Cena and
she was treated at the top of the card and
she is Ria like at the same level as Rhea.
And I don't think it's anything of Bianca's doing that

(01:41:07):
she's not there still and but whatever, I don't want
to dive too deep into it, but there's a lot
of things that went wrong I think planning that Mania card,
and I think it shows how important Mania is to
tie together a year into set up a year going
forward after it.

Speaker 5 (01:41:21):
And I think they really made some creative decisions that
have her business.

Speaker 2 (01:41:26):
Maybe that's why they're going back to Vegas next year
to redo.

Speaker 7 (01:41:33):
But I guess one last question for you guys ww unreal.
I don't know how much you guys have watched of it.
I think we've all seen a million clips online of it.
If we haven't watched all the episodes of it, Roy,
I'll go to you first.

Speaker 9 (01:41:45):
What are your kind of just thoughts about it, like
breaking k fabe or is it two backs two.

Speaker 5 (01:41:52):
Behind the scenes for you? Or are you like me
where it's like this is I mean, this is right,
this is right up my ass.

Speaker 3 (01:41:58):
So I'm torn on this because I love it because
again you see stuff that you've never seen, you know before.
I think it is a little too much of the sauce,
Like I like, I don't know, like the like the
scene where like you know, they're breaking down the the
ending of elimination chamber where Seeampunk is there with everybody.
It's like at the end, you know, like seeing is
gonna grab you. Like, I think that's a little too

(01:42:18):
much of the sauce. Like I know, I know the
sausage get to made, you know a certain way. I
don't know if I need to see that much of
the sausage. Like the Writer's Room, that stuff's fine, anything
more than that, Like, I think it's a little too
much for the casual fan.

Speaker 7 (01:42:29):
Interesting, I hadn't thought about I guess the difference between
the writer Room and that.

Speaker 5 (01:42:36):
That's interesting, Nick, what what was your what's your kind
of take on it?

Speaker 2 (01:42:40):
Have not watched it yet, but I will and Vaughan
and I will be diving into that show on an
upcoming episode of The Strange Shooters. So I think, uh,
in terms of I think tough enough really maybe like
not care anymore about k fab in a way, So
I haven't thought about it in that way. In what

(01:43:01):
twenty over twenty years. I think the first year Tough
Enough was like two thousand maybe, But that's different, right,
That's just like about a talent, you know, how how
to become a talent, how to train and everything, and
how to take bumps and stuff. So for me that
was kind of like, oh, okay, they're just re into it.
When you go into the writer's room. I don't know

(01:43:23):
if it's different, but it's one of those things where
when you fantasy book, and we fantasy book all the time, right,
and it's kind of interesting to see if there's a
writer on the writing team that has the same idea
you did. I guess like shot down or something like that,
or what about this? What about that? And you're like, yeah, okay,

(01:43:44):
So they do have these conversations there. It's not just
one person that's like, no, this is how we're going
to do it whatever. I mean, a lot of people
come with ideas and I don't even know if they
vote on it, but or just one person be like,
well I like this better, so we're going with that.
Like I haven't seen yeah, I haven't really heard about
that in that show, but I think i'd be more

(01:44:05):
interested to watch it just to see how the writing
team interacts with each other and the talent.

Speaker 7 (01:44:12):
Cody is a great a liar and went on Bill
Simmons podcast and lied a ton about it and started
trying to convince Bill that the Montreal Screwjob was work
and just amazing stuff from Cody just to like throw
because it's so I think he's I think he started
to be like, this is a little too much of
the sauce, So I think he I think he even
like kind of started working on a little bit. But

(01:44:33):
he did have an interesting point about w unreal. He's like,
how much of the work is a work? He's like,
are we working a work here? A little bit where
it's a hat on a hat? But what I will
say is and a great point by Roy because what
my big take on it was like a lot of
people that were freaking out about the too much k fabe.
I was kind of like, have you guys not watched

(01:44:53):
like the WW twenty four to seven WrestleMania behind the
scenes that they put up on the Peacock, Like it's
pretty similar. The one thing that's different is what Roy mentioned.
It's the I don't think they were they were showing
the wrestlers putting together a match and saying, here's what
we're gonna do.

Speaker 5 (01:45:09):
Interesting, interesting difference.

Speaker 7 (01:45:11):
It's almost a little more wrestling with shadows ish, which
I think we're all all big fans of.

Speaker 2 (01:45:16):
But documentary, of course, maybe not just the best.

Speaker 7 (01:45:19):
Wrestling documentary ever, maybe my favorite documentary ever made.

Speaker 5 (01:45:23):
But that's just the hit man in me. But that's
gonna do it for the show.

Speaker 7 (01:45:27):
Thanks to Nick for coming on, Thanks to Roy back
in the studio, Following Nick on Twitter at Underscore Praccoon.
You can follow Roy on Twitter at the b s Line,
Followed me at Market Junior NFL, and follow the Gambler
at Fox PHL Gambler on Twitter.

Speaker 5 (01:45:40):
Summer Slam Saturday. Tough cover country, That's right,