5 YEARS AGO: Week in Review w/Ashley Mann: What Exactly is an Eye For an Eye Match? Orton vs McIntyre, Banks & Bayley Killing It

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, guys, welcome to the show. We're gonna get to
your weekend review with Ashley Mann, who's back on the show. Yes,
long last Ashley is back on the show, so really
glad to have her here. We catch up on a
lot of different stuff and all the good and bad,
including yeah, the karaoke segment on SmackDown. You can imagine
what our thoughts are on that Lashly being taken down

(00:20):
a couple of pegs. Where does Drew McIntyre go after
Dolf Ziggler. We break that down, Our thoughts on the
bar fight between Jeff Hardy and Seamus and Bailey and
Sasha Banks absolutely killing it in the women's division. So
we talk about all that, and yeah, a ton more.
We're gonna get everything going right after this.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Welcome to the WWE Podcast, the most passionate and authentic
wrestling analysis on the web. We've got you covered with
every Raw, SmackDown, and NXT show giving you a no
bulk opinion. We know you love wrestling. We do too,
so let's get this show under and that's the bottom

(01:02):
line what custone steps.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Hey guys, welcome to the WWE Podcast for this Sunday,
July twelfth, twenty twenty. I hope everyone is doing well
as we crawl into the middle of July here into
the just the dead of summer. Right, we are in
the deada summer, in the middle of a pandemic, right,

(01:35):
I mean, but we're getting through it, and it's better
than it was in March, because that was a time
that was I feel like I feel like that was.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Years ago, doesn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
It feels like it was years ago that that happened.
But here we are as we roll through summer in
the major sports in the United States are starting to
open up. Yeah, there'll be no crowds, which is like
taking the soul out of out of the sport. But
MLB is starting up in about ten days, the NHL
or I'm sorry, the NBA looks like be starting at
the end of the month, and yeah, maybe pro wrestling

(02:06):
hits fans by the end of September, and that's what
AW apparently is looking to do in the near future.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
So things are looking up.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Even if there's no fans, at least we have our
sports somewhat back, and let's hope that the virus stays
in check so that it doesn't re shut down our
entire world. But let's talk about wrestling, because we got
a lot to get to today, but with Ashley Man,
who's back on the show, to discuss everything that's been

(02:34):
going on in WWE between the I for an eyematch
and Drew McIntyre's champion when his reign could end and
it may be sooner than you think. So we covered,
as always everything in a long format for you. I
know many of you love the long form audio and
we have it for you today with Ashley back on
the on the show, one of our more most original

(02:56):
co hosts, if not the original co host to the show,
so well come back, Ashley. Great to have her on
and you guys can catch the show on Instagram at
WWE Underscore Podcast. We're down to Instagram why because Facebook
has taken down our podcast or our page. Apparently somebody
reported our page that it was using trademarks or something,

(03:20):
and to be fair, I believe my page did have
a lingering WWE logo on it, not by design. I
just didn't get around to changing it, so that's probably
what was the reason for taking down the page. So
I'll be creating a new page and making sure that
everything is right in the world. And you know it
sucks because I spent a bunch of money in like
advertising dollars and that goes out the window. But nonetheless,

(03:43):
social media is not my friend lately, with Twitter gone,
Facebook now gone, Instagram is like the last the last
of my social media talents, if you will. But anyway,
I hope everyone is doing well, and we're going to
get to the conversation with Ashley in just a minute.

(04:03):
But first I want to address the questions that came
in and the audio questions that came in, So let's
do that. I'll first do the non audio question and
let's see. This comes from Sharon, who asks, hello, Matt,
how are you? I'm good in extreme roles the Horror show.

(04:23):
There are gonna be three cinematic matches, the bar fight
and I for an Eye, and a swamp match. Because
you try to promote Instagram and Facebook, I thought you
maybe should do a short video analysis on the cinematic
aspect of these matches and you can put it in
different in your different websites. I'm a filmmaker and those
matches are more like movies, so maybe it will be

(04:44):
interesting to analyze them from cinema cinema point of view.
So he also says, I know you're a little bit
against those kinds of matches, but maybe a different perspective
make you and others understand their value.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
So yes, So here's the thing.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
I have kind of no, I have put up the
white flag and surrendered to just accepting them for what
they are, cinematic views of professional wrestling right until we
get back in front of a live audience. This is
gonna be our world of pay per views where there's
not just one. There are now multiple cinematic presentations of matches.

(05:21):
So without destroying them, I'm gonna try to look through
the lens of a movie because that's what they now
present it to be. So I'm taking off my traditional
pro wrestling glasses and I'm gonna put on the glasses
of I'm watching a movie. What makes sense here?

Speaker 3 (05:36):
What doesn't? So how about that? I will do that?

Speaker 1 (05:39):
And you know, I haven't done a whole lot of video,
and it's due to a couple of reasons. Number one,
I don't have a great setup where I am. I
want to make sure that the background isn't like you know,
kids toys and stuff. And number two, my computer is
not great with editing video. But I'm working on upgrading
my laptop. When Apple releases their MacBook pros in the fall,
I'm gonna go, like you know, I'm gonna go pretty

(06:00):
big upgrade. Like I've gotten an HP that's worth about
six hundred bucks to a MacBook Pro in the fall.
So I'll be doing eventually a big upgrade, which is
gonna help in video production and everything else. But so, yeah,
it's not a bad idea. Maybe I will do that.
The second question comes to us from Brad, and let's

(06:20):
take a listen to see what he has to say.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
Hey, Matt, what's going on. It's Brad from Pennsylvania. I
just got a quick one for you today to go
off of the fact that you see me real thrilled
about the ie for an eye match, and you said,
how are they actually going to do that? Well, unfortunately, Matt,
I think you forgot one thing. We're in the cinematic
area for WWE, so I could actually see someone's eye

(06:50):
cinematically getting ripped from their head. Even though it's PG,
it'll be on a pay per view, so I could
see them doing it. This might be Raymond STEREO's right off.
I saw on the internet right now, he's actually fighting
without a WWE contract, so this might be his ultimate sendoff,

(07:10):
or possibly if Seth needs some time away for the
whole pregnancy, this might be a way to send him
off for a little while. Maybe we'll just rip his
eyeball out of his head and hope that the WWE
fans or universe forgets that his head or his highball
was literally ripped out of his head. So I have

(07:33):
really bad expectations for this, being that we're in the
cinematic era and we're gonna have a match that can
only end when someone's eye is removed from their head.
So I could see a couple different ways for going
with Ray not having a contract, and obviously Dominic is
going to be coming soon, so maybe this is a
way to usher out Ray and usher in Dominic, or

(07:56):
send Seth off for a little vacation to prepare for
Becky He's pregnancy. I'm pretty sure she would still have
a few months to go, so I don't see why
he'd be leaving already, But you never know. I mean,
he might just need time away or.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
However you do it.

Speaker 4 (08:12):
I just don't see it going well with the eye
for an eye match. Have a good one. Take care.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Hey, Brad, So thanks for the question, and it's funny
you mentioned that I did. I did address this at
length with Ashley in the show, so without giving away
everything I said, gist, if it is as I also
said just previous to this this audio, is that I
have waved the white flag in the cinematic error, right,
I get. I'm gonna get professional wrestling in whatever way

(08:39):
WW decides to present it, and given the circumstances we're in,
I know we're gonna get a very cinematic version of
this of most of these matches and whatever I mean,
it's not my.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Cup of tea. You know that.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
I'll basically rent until I'm blue in the face about
how this is really a slap in the face pro
wrestling and it's just not my It's not my flavor.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
Right.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
But with that said, the presentation of it or the
execution of it, I talk with Ashley about it, and
I think it's it can't be truly the gouge your
opponent's eye out. If it's an eye for an eye,
then I would assume that what Seth did to Ray,
they're gonna want to do to Seth. So if that's
an eye for an eye, given you do to me

(09:24):
what I'm gonna do to you, then that would be
the equivalent. So maybe Seth is the one who gets
his eye jammed into the corner of the steps. That way,
you don't have to try to tell the story of
Seth having magical powers of being able to regrow an eyeball,
or the fact that it's a PG environment. How are
you gonna possibly show that in a PG environment of

(09:44):
somebody ripping somebody else else's eye out.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
I mean, they didn't even do that.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
In TV fourteen, so I don't think they're gonna do
that here. I think it's gonna be simple. It's gonna
be what Edge did to Orton that Orton did to
Edge before WrestleMania, Concerto for concerto. Here it's gonna be
equivalent of Seth doing or getting what he deserves from Ray.
But does it actually happen to Seth is the question,

(10:08):
because like he said, I think Ray Masterial's on his
way out. He doesn't even currently have a contract with WWE.
But I think that's what it could be. Ray could
have his other eye gouged out or whatever. Gems in
the steps. This could be a very interesting, very interesting finish.
I honestly don't know the finish to this. You know,

(10:31):
to me, an eye for an eye should be a promo,
not an actual stipulation because you can't follow through with it.
But with the cinematic a piece of it still there, again,
how do they they could execute it somehow, And I
think that's how they'll execute it is maybe Seth gets
what's got he's got coming to him, or maybe he doesn't.
Maybe they just decide that Ray Masterio's on his way
out and Seth has a lot more time here, Let's

(10:52):
give Seth the victory again. And that's how I would
do it anyway. But ye Dominic, I'm sure he's going
to get involved in what capacity we don't know, but could.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
Be a sendoff for Ray for sure. We'll have to
wait and see.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Apparently they have something big plan for the horror show
Extreme bol So. Anyway, Brad, thanks to the question. If
you want to get your question on the show Real
WWE podcast at gmail dot com, send in the audio
just the way they did, create a voice memo on
your phone and just send it via email. That's how
I get these and put them in the show. So
all right, let's get to the conversation with Ashley as

(11:27):
we cover everything in this week in WE. As always,
I'll be back on Tuesday for your RAW review, Wednesday
will be in Nostalgia, Thursday is NXT and AW, and
then on Friday or Saturday is your HSP SmackDown review.
Big shout out to Brian and Greg over there who
have been helping us cover AW as our typical co

(11:52):
host stepped aside for AW. They have filled in and
done a great job. So check out the high Spot podcast,
so shout out.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
To them, very very good.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
If you can check them out on our feed, it's
the HSP SmackDown High Spot Podcast SmackDown Review and now
they are covering AW for us, so they also have
their own show, as I mentioned, it's called the high
Spot Podcast. All right, guys, thanks so much for listening.
Here's Ashley and myself. As always, I'll talk to you soon.
All right, everybody, At long last, we have Ashley Mann

(12:22):
back with us to discuss things that happened this week
in WWE, including a karaoke segment that I think you
guys have an idea of my thoughts on a bar
fight that was announced between Jeff Hardy and Seamus, the
brilliance that's going on between Raymisterio and Seth Rollins at
least in my estimation, big show, trying to hunt down

(12:43):
Randy Orton, and so much more, including Kevin Owens back
with this KO show. So Ashley, welcome back to the show.
Hope everything's going well.

Speaker 5 (12:52):
Thank you so much for having me Me, Matt, I am
super happy to be back. It feels like it's been forever.
But yeah, I'm just ready to start talking wrestling and
just just reconnect and just.

Speaker 6 (13:02):
Go of everything that's been going on this week has
been I.

Speaker 5 (13:04):
Feel like it hasn't been as crazy lately, which could
be a good thing.

Speaker 6 (13:08):
But there's always a.

Speaker 5 (13:09):
Lot to talk about, especially after Fighter US and Great
American Bash and everything finally concluded. So I'm curious and
just looking forward to seeing what you think on some things.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, definitely. And obviously Keith Lee, who has beaten Adam
Cole and is now dual champion, and so that was
I honestly did not think that was going to happen,
So yeah, we can. We'll talk about that a ton
more stuff, obviously, Shinsky Nakamura and Sizar getting a just
really a reinvigoration of their tag team, which I am

(13:40):
really really digging. So let's kind of let's kind of
jump in, as you said, like reconnect here, I mean,
as we take ourselves out of our lives and put
ourselves into this this sandbox and start playing. It's it's
fun because it is a escape from reality.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
So let's let's do this.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
I'll start off something positive at least I think that's positive.
East in my estimation is Sasha Banks and Bailey, who
I think have been doing some of the best work,
if not the best work of their entire careers on
the main roster and teaming up and Bailey coming into
her own character. I think you and I talked on

(14:15):
that several weeks back and getting you know, victory after victory,
albeit she lost this past week because of an interference
or a distraction from Nikki Cross on the outside.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
And just what do you think.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
About Bailey and Sasha Banks? Do you like do you
like them gelling? Do you look forward to them breaking
up or are you actually hoping they stay together for
a while. What's your whole take on it?

Speaker 5 (14:39):
Yeah, No, I've always been a big Sasha and Bailey fan,
especially together, and I feel like now they kind of
are like the heartbeat of the women's division for all
shows shows, maybe not as much an XC, but maybe
maybe even so lately just with not much really going on. Yeah,
I mean, we do have a number one contender now

(15:00):
and Play but especially run Smack being the main focus.
I think Bailey and Sasha are needed on both shows,
So I see them sticking together for at least a
little while longer, and now would say at least throughout
the remaining part of the summer, if not going into
like the early fall, unless we get like a Charlie
coming back, which I'm sure we all I'm sure I'll

(15:20):
probably be before anyone else. But with the absence of
like Bianca Belair and she and a Basler and just
no real threat in the women's division or no real
storyline or substance for them that they that they've at
least been building up, they just they have to stick
with Sasha and Bailey right now. And I think I
think now we're kind of seeing a little more of

(15:41):
like little hints from Sasha that she's picking up what
Bailey's been doing, and obviously they've been starting to put
Bailien in certain situations as well in certain matches. But
I think now we're starting to see a little bit
more of Sasha, so I think it'll it'll pick up steam,
but I don't see it happening anytime soon, which I'm okay.

Speaker 6 (15:59):
With because, like I said, and like, what else are
we really going to do?

Speaker 5 (16:01):
And it gives Bailey's heel character more just substance to
talk about each week, because I think when they eventually
do split up, they have to go Slasha as the
babyface because Bailey just needs first of all, someone strong
to play off of and who better than your best friend?
And to Bailey with the type of character that she

(16:22):
had as a babyface and that dramatic and whether it
was done perfectly or not is you know in your opinion.
But I think with the major turn that Bailey as
a character took, she has to ride this heel turnout
for I would say at least another year, year and
a half at least.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Wow, that long. I mean, I'm fine with it.

Speaker 6 (16:45):
So for the Bailey Bailey's side.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
Oh yeah, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
I mean we had questions we were proponing or propositioning
that Bailey turned heel for many, many many months prior
to her He'll Turn. She finally turns heel, and it
just kind of went nowhere, and it was concerned that
her career may not pan out well because of just
it wasn't going well, and it ended up working very well.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
Obviously.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Fast forward many months later, it seemed like the switch
just bam turned on for Bailey. And I don't know
exactly when that was.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
I couldn't. I can't really pinpoint it.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
Maybe over the last two to three months, sometime during
the pandemic.

Speaker 6 (17:21):
Lacy Evans really quick.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
I think like that maybe not for like maybe maybe
not the promo sid but I think just like the intensity.
I think that she that was like a good like
someone to actually like play off of for her just
to just as a little like stiffness, if you know
what I mean, just give her that like a little
bit of edge, and that may have opened her up
and just the freedom really being on SmackDown, just being
able to like just I think, just like not have

(17:43):
to worry about the fans in a weird way.

Speaker 6 (17:44):
What do you think about that?

Speaker 3 (17:46):
Yeah, maybe very well, could be.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
I know that many all of us, I think we
can say in Unison, it's really tough without fans, and
WWE has been going just crazy with all the things
they can do and their cinematic matches in their backstage,
this and that and all, and I get it. But
I think the silver lining is, yes, you're able to
just kind of do things that you normally wouldn't be
able to do. You don't have the stress of the

(18:09):
crowd there. So if they do something that maybe you're
not expecting them to react to or reacted way that
is in opposite of what you were looking for, then
you don't have that stress there. You can just kind
of go and do what you need to do, figure
out who you are without the crowd there, and then
you'll be I think, more confident and understand who your
character is better than worrying more about the crowd reaction,

(18:30):
which is it's weird to say that because that's what
your promos are built around, that's what your character is
built around. The whole thing, the whole production is built
around crowd interaction and crowd reaction. But with Bailey, I
think this has done a really good thing for her
and just being able to focus on her not worry
about the crowd just figure out what she needs to do, and.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
You're right, this whole long game.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
I actually was in the early stages this hoping that
this would be broken up sooner. But as they went on,
I'm like, this is just getting better and better from
here now and then and you know, I'm like, oh no,
don't do it, Yeah, don't do it yet, and they'll
pull back, and then they won the tag team titles
and now there are just a absolute staple. They are

(19:12):
the foundation of the shows. I mean, I do want
to see them and all three shows if I can,
and it's great to see that the chemistry is there
they have running on all cylinders. Bailey is certainly I
think when she first started out on this team felt
like the sidekick to Sasha. Now it's almost like Sasha
is kind of the sidekick to Bailey. It's weird like

(19:35):
they have kind of maybe they've kind of leveled off
in terms of their stardom. I mean, they have really
become a tag team that I don't want to see
them break up for a number of reasons because they
are pretty much the women's tag team division. I mean,
there's not a whole lot of teams for them. To
tag against other than Alexa Bliss and Sasha or I'm sorry,
Alexa Bliss and Niki Cross and maybe the iconics that

(19:56):
kind of pop in and out of reality. And so yeah,
I'm loving this. And if this goes until they get
a crowd there, I would I want that because this
is a payoff. You want a crowd reaction for, so
however long that takes, I would say to WWE, if
I was creative, Hey, this is something that we've been
building and building for many months, if not longer. Now,

(20:17):
let's pay this off whenever the heck we get back
in front of fans. This is not something we want
to pay off in front of like say the fifteen
you know plant fans that are really NXT trainees or
the friends and family of NXT trainees. We want to
do this in front of say ten thousand people. That
that's my thinking. How would you pay this off?

Speaker 3 (20:34):
And when?

Speaker 5 (20:35):
Yeah, I mean honestly, And that's why I'm not in
a rush to break them up. Of course, if things
were more as they are, then absolutely I probably would
have broken them up, like immediately right after WrestleMania, depending
on how things were. But I think right now, like
like you said, like we that's really the main thing
that's going on.

Speaker 6 (20:53):
And in my fear is, okay, let's.

Speaker 5 (20:55):
Say Friday, for instance, they break them up, and they
go maybe a month or two into a storyline and
you know, go back and forth, maybe depending on how
it goes. If Sasha would it be Bailey for the title,
then maybe Bailey get her rematch, But then like after that,
like I just I don't have faith that w B
will give us the proper payoff long term. Why is

(21:18):
that a story and like a friendship, and how devastating
that term will be that it deserves. So that's kind
of my fear too, is I don't really I'm okay
with it taking a while and dragging out until the
setting as best as it can be in these circumstances,
because once it's done, it's done.

Speaker 6 (21:39):
You can't go back and redo it.

Speaker 5 (21:40):
You know, it's it's one of those things where people
are going to remember it just because of how well
it's been rebuilt. And of course, you know, things could
have been a little bit different. You know, they could
have done things differently building up to this point, and
you know, maybe had Bailly a little bit stronger or
what have you.

Speaker 6 (21:55):
But at the end of the day, once you pull
the trigger, it's done.

Speaker 5 (21:58):
So I just I think it should be a little
I guess comforting for us to see that since they
haven't pulled the trigger when they very well could have,
you know, when ratings have been dropping, if they felt
like they needed a quick fix, I feel like that
could have been something to shock people, you know, But
and they haven't, so I think that that should be

(22:19):
a good sign. So I think they're gonna and I
think that is in the back of their mind too,
like they at the end of the day, they know,
if we can't get fans in a building until let's say,
at least the beginning of next year, I think they'll
probably pull the trigger, maybe around like Survivor's series signframe
or it just and it just depends, you know, because
like we sit here and talk about like how long

(22:39):
it could be drawn up, and then like two weeks
from now that they could start having fans in the arena,
you know, and then everything can change. So I just
I think they're going to try to hold out as
long as they can, but once it gets to a
certain point, I feel like, you know, they're gonna have to.

Speaker 6 (22:52):
You know, they're gonna have to force their hand.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
And it's strange, with this whole pandemic, I have actually
wanted WWE to not me their best foot forward.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
I really have. It's weird.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
I actually want them to kind of be subpar. It's
weird to say, but you know, and especially right around
when WrestleMania happened, I said, I don't want this to
be an overwhelmingly great WrestleMania. I kind of want this
to be a ho hum WrestleMania. To get through what
they want to get through. Give us the results. Don't
give us big returns. Don't give us big swerves or

(23:23):
heel turns or baby face turns or returns or whatever.
Just keep everything the way it should be. Take it
down a couple of pegs, and I really want that
philosophy going forward until there's fans back, I would think
that they're thinking this too. For example, the very first
Monday Net raw that we had no fans, there was
three sixteen day How sad was it to see stone

(23:45):
Cold in there with no fans?

Speaker 3 (23:47):
It was weird. It didn't work.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
It was yes Byroing got a stunner, which made me
very happy, but it was in front of no one.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
I mean so like, yes, I.

Speaker 6 (23:56):
Just the way they did that too really quickly.

Speaker 5 (23:58):
They had a big opportunity to too, even though it
was very very fresh and we didn't really know all
the details.

Speaker 6 (24:05):
But they could have just been.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
Like, hey, even if you didn't want to use the
word Corona or COVID or anything like that, Like they
could have had the face of your company, the probably
one of the not the best talker and the best
promo guy in in their history come out there and
just level with the fans like no one else can
and just be real and just be like, hey, we're.

Speaker 6 (24:24):
Going through untried territory.

Speaker 5 (24:26):
We don't know what to expect, but just whatever you
want to say, you know, and then that's your one statement.
That's what that's why you have to do, just to
address it, just to make people feel like they understand,
like they're kind of going through this with us.

Speaker 6 (24:38):
And then maybe not as many people would have fallen off.

Speaker 5 (24:40):
I'm sure they probably would have eventually over at you know,
over time, but because that wouldn't have saved all the storylines.
But still like even that, like you just had an
opportunity there if if you're not gonna like embrace it
and do what you what you can.

Speaker 6 (24:54):
Then why you even do it?

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Yeah, that is weird.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
I never even thought about that. Like when this whole
thing started, obviously, we had so many questions. We were
all just blindsided all of a sudden. Our lives are
turned upside down. We're home, we can't go anywhere. Everything's
shut down. You gotta wear a mask. We're all gonna die.
And there wasn't a single statement from WWE about this
whole thing and what they're they're at least gonna be

(25:16):
doing going forward. Obviously they have no clue what's gonna
happen in three four, five months. But they could have
just come out, like you said, with a babyface, or
even Vince McMahon coming out on TV or a pre
paid or prepaid, pre played or pre taped segment saying
you know what the heck's going on, and we'll be
doing this for the foreseeable future, you know, like something
from the company on air. Instead, they just like pretended

(25:38):
it didn't happen except the first episode, which was Triple
H coming out and just acting wacky and they didn't
know what to do and he was uncommentary and all that,
but there wasn't every really like a thewords coronavirus were
never mentioned, and they would say, well, we're supposed to
be the escape from that, but the fans aren't. We're
still thinking about it, so address it. Just get the
elephant out of the room. Tell us what at least

(25:59):
your plan is for the first at least for the
time being, and then we'll move forward. But instead there
was nothing from Vince, nothing from anybody. And it's it's weird. Yeah,
there's an opportunity and they just let it sit there.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
I didn't even think of that.

Speaker 6 (26:13):
Yeah, it's just it's just one of those things. I
just feel like it's it's awkward.

Speaker 5 (26:17):
Because you don't talk about it and just gets more
and more awkward, you know, Like I guess now maybe
things are getting a little bit easier, but I just
feel like they lost out on a big opportunity to
really like be a leader, you know, like you know, yeah,
y'all you and you know of Force a W and
I Field the things were the only thing that was
still going. So take advantage of that, you know, and
you can generate more buzz for your TV show, like

(26:38):
just I don't I don't know, but yeah, you know,
it's just that kind of leads us back to like
the advanced things in Sasha and Bailey.

Speaker 6 (26:44):
But I don't know.

Speaker 5 (26:46):
I just I think that they could be doing and
just like taking advantage of the situation. Maybe a little
bit more, but at least with Bailey and Sasha going forward,
I think that they just need to stay the course.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
With this in my opinion, absolutely like don't don't, don't
move and so just just stay the course.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Tease.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
I don't mind if they tease it here and there
and then they pull back and there's you know, we
don't see anything for weeks and then all of a sudden,
if Sasha is volunteering Bailey for something and then Bailey
volunteers Sasha for something like they've been.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
Doing tit for tat.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
That's fine, just to remind us of what's coming, but
don't make any progress. If you're gonna do it, just
kind of be a hamster on a wheel. I mean,
and I think it's working right now. If this was
awful and it was just not working and their chemistry
wasn't there, I would say, Okay, let's let's move this along.
But this and WW knows it because they're on every show.
They are kicking ass. There's no other way to put it.

(27:34):
And so all right, so from something that is awesome
to something that I just I don't get, and I'll
just briefly touch on it because I want your take
on it. Karaoke on SmackDown. I mean we had Lacey Evans,
we had Naomi, we had Tim to come out of
he Hibernation. I mean we had who hell else was
on there?

Speaker 3 (27:55):
We had who is it? Lacey Evans, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Data Brook, Dana Brook? Who boys? She awkward, didn't she?
I mean I can't, I can't.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
She is just a weird, weird She.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Comes off very awkward on TV. I I don't know
what it is. She just has a very weird presence.
But nonetheless, they have these four women come out there
and Jimmy or no Jay us or Jimmy I think
it was Jimmy USO out there and he's playing hosts
because hey, why not?

Speaker 3 (28:22):
Uh? And he decides where.

Speaker 5 (28:23):
Have they been? By the way, like where have the
USO has been? Like if he could come out and
do that, like why aren't they the attack on the
tack team division like desperately needs like teams like, I
don't where have they been? So that's just a little frustrating.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
And where are these four women competing in their division?
Instead they're they're going out there like it's a Friday
night and they're, you know, they're singing it up at
their local bar and doing their best impressions. I guess,
I think their best impressions of the WWE themes.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
I I don't know. I don't get it. Uh do
before I give you my take? Like what what did
you think of this? Like?

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Was there any purpose to this? Was just pure entertainment,
at least at least attempt at entertainment, Like what what
the heck was this?

Speaker 5 (29:03):
I don't know, Like I I don't know. I just
I try to make excuses or maybe not excuses, but
I try to give them the benefit of the doubt
for a lot of things. But this I just I
can't like and it frustrates me just because like kind
of what we were saying earlier about the women's division
in particular, like Bailey and Sasha are pretty much holding

(29:27):
the division together, and it's frustrated just because like they
have all, you know, they have talent, Like Naomi's a
very good wrestler like Lacey Evans, you know, not for nothing,
Like she was getting momentum and she was, you know,
like she was getting better in the ring, and I
think that, you know, if they stuck with it, she
could have had like a really good, solid babyface character
and just depending on how strong they wanted to go
with either the military side or just being you know,

(29:49):
an everyday woman, like she posts videos of like how
she is like on a farm and how she teaches
her daughter's they like all these different things. So I
feel like they could have really continued to build her
up and in a time when if you maybe don't
want as much wrestling and you want more video packages,
like I feel like someone like the Lacey Evans would
benefit from just like hey, she's not on TV every week,

(30:10):
so what is she doing at home type of thing,
you know, and just enhancing her characters.

Speaker 6 (30:14):
So just thinking about.

Speaker 5 (30:16):
Like everything that they could be doing and what that
time could have gone to, Like I guess maybe they
were going obviously, I guess we should assume that they're
going for the comedic relief were out and just to
you know, like kind of like change the pace and
just have a break.

Speaker 6 (30:30):
I guess.

Speaker 5 (30:31):
But first of all, we're not even talking like it's
just a two hour show. It's not even like it's
Monday Night row Like, it's not that long of a show.

Speaker 6 (30:39):
And I just I just feel bad for them.

Speaker 5 (30:41):
Right, Like, I feel bad that they had to go
out there and do that. And maybe they enjoyed it,
maybe they had a great time and they don't care,
and like it was it didn't bother them. But for me,
I'm just like, there's just so much more you could
be doing with all of them, you know, And I
just I just felt like it was a waste.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
Come back to the WWE podcast, Let's get back to
more great wrestling audio.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
And what's weird enough? That's exactly what I'll say.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
And I'm gonna really try to not just bury this,
but there's it's really hard to not right, it's putting
lips to get a pig here.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
It's they.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
The weird thing is that they have three to four
major women out right. They have no Becky, You have
no Ronda Rowsey, I mean, yes, she's been going for
Khoda while. You have no Shana Basler, you have no Charlotte,
and yet they take these four women and they kind
of parade them out there, and to me, give me
bad flashbacks of like the pre women's evolution era, not

(31:49):
quite bron panties and pillow fights, but to the like
kind kind of divas era where it was they had
a belt that didn't mean a whole lot. They were
the kind of commercial break. They were the comedic relief.
They were like that take a breath before we get
to the main event.

Speaker 7 (32:03):
Like that's that's just like the lighthearted moment of the
show where you don't really need to pay attention, but
it's it's there, you know, like if you stayed, you know,
and it's just and them.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
No, I don't.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
To me, this was like a step back for the
women's division. Like you you present them at not as
sex symbols.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
I'm not.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
They didn't obviously do that. I mean that was at
the worst, but they presented them as not important like that.
I don't want to feel that way. Like Lacy ems,
like you.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
Said, she was on a roll.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
She was pulling the whole military thing out, showing you
know how much she cared for her daughter, and she
was being kind of the every woman. But she had
a you know, a tough side to her and defending
her family and even who is it not Lacey Evans
but to Mena who comes out every you know, six months.
I guess she's kind of like the groundhog.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
And I don't know.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
I guess she saw her shadow or something or she
didn't see her shadow, which is why she's out.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
And she comes out and she was just in a
women's title match, and then she's singing karaoke. Nowaomi, who
was kind of like was back and then went away
for a while and I was back again.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
She was clearly the star of the show.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
And you know, not to touch on political stuff, but man,
I don't know how you don't look at the political
undertones of her coming out there and singing to Dusty
Rhodes's American Dream theme as a black woman. I have
no problem with it. But was it coincidence?

Speaker 3 (33:26):
I don't know. I don't know how.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Was WWE, being a publicly traded organization, doesn't look at
that as something that is not by design, right like,
And again, it's not a bad look at all. It's
just kind of like, hmm, you kind of scratch your
head and go, this is clearly a wink and a
nod to what's going on in the world today. So
and then also you had Lacy Evans turn heel essentially

(33:48):
I guess, attacking Naomi after she won. So like this
whole thing it was like a bad dream. I don't know,
so I I don't have much to say else about it.

Speaker 6 (34:01):
It was just I don't either.

Speaker 5 (34:02):
Well, and I guess just the last thing I do
really quick. It's just like and then like the match
that they you know, I guess like if you recalled that, like,
it just it was so brief. It was like what
like a minute and a half, two minutes.

Speaker 6 (34:14):
Something like that.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
It's just like, why can't you just give them a match?
Like why can't you just use the karaoke time to
give them like an actual match.

Speaker 6 (34:22):
So it's just it's just frustrating.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
Yeah, I mean you could have just when you don't.

Speaker 5 (34:26):
Have a strong like main main event card, like you
have Bailey and Sasha and that's it.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
Then there's everyone else.

Speaker 5 (34:32):
And then yeah, you know, and it's not a knock
on them because it's it's not their fault, you know, Like.

Speaker 6 (34:37):
It's just it's just one of those things. And then
where did Sonya Deville go?

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Yeah, I don't know, just gone. I mean, yeah, where
the heck. I'm glad she at least didn't participate. If
if Sony Devilla was in this, though, I'd actually rather
have her not there versus on there and just completely
undoing everything, all the awesome work she's done over the
last couple of months with her mic work coming out
of nowhere, like, where the hell did this come from?
And so the other good thing is too, I didn't

(35:04):
see Mandy Rose or Otis at least unless I skipped
through it on SmackDown, which is always a good thing
for me. I mean, I don't think so that's good.
I think we need a break from from Mandy and Otis.
And that's a whole other conversation. So all right, back
to something that I guess, depending on your take, could
be good or bad, so I'll split the difference on SmackDown.

(35:25):
Here Stroman and Wyatt. Now this is being billed as
a swamp fight, not a swamp match. It's just a
fight that they're gonna have it a swamp apparently where
Stroman was born or where he first came in contact
with Bray Wyatt.

Speaker 6 (35:39):
And of course, right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
Exactly, I'd love to know the actual location of this place.
There's probably some anonymous swamp in Florida, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
But what do you think about this program?

Speaker 1 (35:52):
Are you enjoying the fact that they're they're going back
to the Black Sheep and that spruns Shroman is struggling
with the darkness inside him, that there's an internal battle
going on with in him and Bray Wyatt brought back
the character that we all thought was dead. So now
he's like the three faces of Foley. He's got three

(36:13):
different characters, which personally I love. But so it's really
Braun Strowman versus the swamp cult leader of Bray White
that we thought was dead. So how are you enjoying this?
That they haven't done a whole lot of progress this
past week? It was really just a replay of their
backlash or sorry there was money in the bank. They
they went to their money in the back match.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
So yeah, what do you What do you.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Think about this whole program? Have they built it and
then story behind it.

Speaker 5 (36:40):
I'm really happy that they went back to it. I
think with Braun, as you're a champion for Smacton, I
think you need a character like a Bray for him,
just due to the kind of lack of depth there
for him right now, and just with the type of
fighter and character that Braun is, It's I don't say
he's I guess he is limited, but not in.

Speaker 6 (37:00):
In that way.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
It's just it's hard to have like your average opponent
for him right and have it make sense and just
like have a substantial storyline. So and just not even
for that, just for like selfish reasons, Like I thought
from the beginning, like they left a lot on the
table initially with their first match that they went into,
like storyline wise, I felt that they could have dug

(37:22):
so much deeper into that. And like you said, I'm
a big fan of the cult version of bread White
coming back, and the kind of the three phases is
a fully type of correlation there. I just if anyone
can pull it off, obviously Brave White I can. And
I think it's it's perfect too because it buys us
more time. And I think that I think Brown is

(37:45):
going to be or I guess win somehow or just
I guess just stand tall depending on how the match
and like whatever this thing ends up being is how
you can determine a winner, that is. But I think
he's going to be that winner, and I think it's
going to lead to SummerSlam, which is where the Fiend

(38:05):
made his debut right against Ben Valor. So I think
that that can kind of be the culmination there and
just have the Fiend beat Braun. As much as I
don't necessarily think the Fiend needs to have the title,
or do I want him to have the title, but
I think for now, like you just need a story
more than wrestling, which is crazy to say because it's

(38:28):
a wrestling show, but I think like having the Fiend
as a as a core of that show will help
a thread from week to week and just help maintain
or just maybe even bring back some fans who maybe
have fallen off just because there's there's no real story
to like really like sync into. So I think this
could be the start of that, and just it can't

(38:49):
be bit so bad, right, I mean, like it's not
like it's it's for the title or anything like that,
So it's not that it's not like we should go
into it having our expectations like super high. We should
just go in there with an open mind and enjoy it,
enjoy it for what it is really. So I'm just
excited to see them doing something else in just a
new direction.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
You know, I've kind of waved the white flag getting
angry about the cinematic presentations because this is the world
that we're in now. This is not a one off,
This is not a one or two month type thing. Clearly,
this is now We're going on four months, and who
knows how much longer. I mean, if I were to guess,
probably into the early fall, uh, you know, maybe around

(39:30):
My guess again, this is all just my my brain
is probably October issue might start seeing fans back, depending
of course, on how the virus goes and where it
spreads is key, because what does WWE do with their schedule?
Do you keep the schedule and pick and choose the
towns that may you may have less risk. I mean,
I don't know how this is going to work. Do

(39:50):
you just do fans at the performance center?

Speaker 3 (39:53):
Who knows? This is? This is?

Speaker 1 (39:54):
This is tough for WWE to all hash out because
of so many unknowns. But uh, I think you're right,
and that's been my prediction too, is that this thing
is going to continue through SummerSlam, with Bray Wyatt losing
again to Bronze Strowman in the swamp fight, and then
it's the Fiend. It's his highest level. It's his most

(40:15):
sinister character coming out at SummerSlam, where bray Wyatt, the happy,
go lucky, albeit evil and creepy kids show host, is
kind of like level one. You anger him a little bit,
he goes to level two, and then level three is
like the equivalent of Cactus Jack.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Right.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
I mean, you have du Love equivalent to the bray
whitt Kids show host, then you have what is it
mankind obviously in the middle right there with kind of
the swamp cult leader, and then you have three faces
of folly capping off with Cactus Jack equivalent to the Fiend.
I think if that's how you're gonna do it, that's
exactly what's going to happen here at SummerSlam. Now, like

(40:53):
you said, does he need the belt, No, I don't
think he does. It kind of works against him. It's
weird that I don't want to see bray whittt with
the championship because he's so special that I don't want
to see him every week.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
So if they do give him the belt at.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
SummerSlam, I don't want to see him on my TV
every week just because he has the championship, doesn't mean
I need to have him on my screen. That's part
of the mystique. That's what helps this character is not
being there a lot. So that's my thought. But yeah,
I think that's where he captures it, probably in front
of No One or the same fifteen fans or NXT

(41:26):
trainees or whoever's there. That's my thinking too, And so yeah,
ultimately the swamp Fight is what it is. It's gonna
be a lot of cinematics, a lot of music, a
lot of sound effects, maybe a couple alligators thrown in
or you know, snakes slithering around or whatever other things
the are gonna do. It's gonna be kind of like
a boneyard match type of feel in a swamp. I
think that's that's probably the tone that they're going to

(41:49):
go with Bray Wyatt.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
But I don't know.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Honestly, I think this whole program has been good and
Braun Strowman's promo he gave a couple of weeks ago
in SmackDown was probably the best promo he's ever given ever,
and talking about the internal struggle, saying that he's either
going to come out of this the toughest, the toughest
SLB that he's ever been, or the toughest SLB this
company's ever seen, or he's going to go back to

(42:14):
an evil dark place, and that basically, in wrestling terms,
he's either going to stay babyface or he's going to
turn heel. That's essentially what he was saying. But that
internal struggle is there.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
So I love this story.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
I mean, it's as good as it probably can be,
I'll put it that way.

Speaker 5 (42:31):
Yeah, And and honestly, I could see a weird finish
maybe at SummerSlam if we do end up getting Braun
versus the Fiend, I could see them maybe having and
I don't even know how they could pull it off,
and maybe it's a horrible idea, but somehow having the
bron win, about the.

Speaker 6 (42:51):
Fiend really taking a loss somehow, but having had it being.

Speaker 5 (42:57):
Because Braun like actually does like race that dark side,
and we do see the Black Sheep, and then we
just that could be the threat going forward. Maybe it's
just a heel Braun as a champion going forward, because
if you think about we have Drew on Raw as
a as a good baby face champion and and Braun
is on SmackDown.

Speaker 6 (43:14):
You know, just kind of doing his own thing.

Speaker 5 (43:16):
And I think if he did turn heel, and I
feel like Braun is that type of character who does
need to be a heel. He just needs to be
that monster that and I just feel like he he
just expresses it better in the heel side, like when
he was it was him versus Rome.

Speaker 6 (43:31):
And I felt like he was really good in that
in that storyline.

Speaker 5 (43:34):
I feel like he can get back to that if
he is just able to embrace that more and just
have the right opponent. And he could if he was
able to turn heel and and have those matches again,
because in the future you can have him against like
a Daniel Bryan or Drew Gulack or whoever, you know,
just whatever it may be. But I just, yeah, I
think there's way more options if you go that route,
and then that could be a fun story too.

Speaker 6 (43:54):
Just to see what that even looks like. So we'll
see that.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
Could be really fun. Yeah, that could be.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
That could be a blast with Braun Strowman maybe even
joining Bray Wyatt and really becoming an absolutely unstoppable do
I mean imagine them just joining forces. I think to
me that's more attractive and to have somebody stand up
to them. It's gonna be a fun, really fun to watch.
And I think that one person is probably gonna be

(44:21):
a returning Roman Reigns. So I think the match that
we all thought and including yours truly for months prior
to last year this year's WrestleMania, that it was going
to be Roman versus Bray Wyatt, and it probably was
the plan until ww caught win that everyone knows that's
going to be the plan. I think they'll eventually give
us that match. I think it's going to be some

(44:42):
time later this year, whenever Roman comes back. And again,
the thing is, you don't know what the virus, because
that was the whole reason he left, was trying to
protect his family. He doesn't want to catch it and
then spread it to his family, and understandable. So with
so many unknowns, I still believe we're gonna get Roman
Reigns versus versus Wyatt, or we could get an evil

(45:03):
Dark Bronze Stroman, the Evil the Black Sheet versus Roman Reigns.
Either way, if you see a heel turn from Braun,
the equation has to balance itself out, which means Roman
Reigns has to be returning shortly. So if I see
a Roman Reigns hilt or a Bronze Roman Hill turn,
I have to think, Ah, Roman's coming back, I think,
you know, I think that's probably where they're gonna go.

(45:24):
Do you think eventually they're going to get to Roman
upon his return, immediately jumping into Bray Wyatt?

Speaker 6 (45:29):
Oh? Absolutely absolutely.

Speaker 5 (45:31):
I don't see Rooman doing anything else before that when
he gets back, because there's there's really nothing else that
would be even worthy of it, really, And I hate
to say that unless you know things depending on who
comes back, of course, but at this time, like if
you were to come back this week, like, I don't
see what else he should be doing other than going
after Braun or Bray, depending on who's the champion. So

(45:51):
I just absolutely that's exactly where they need to go.
And it's crazy that I say that because just a
few months ago I was complaining that, you know, I
didn't want room to be the champion and all this
and just one of those things, and then just a
few months later, it's like, yeah, you know, I'm ready.

Speaker 6 (46:06):
For him to come back and just have something.

Speaker 5 (46:08):
You know, it's weird without him there, Like as much
as I was never like a huge Erman fan, but
like I never hated him, but it is kind of
weird without having him there, and they don't even mention
him at all, Like you would never even know he
exists right now, which is a weird feeling because of
how stansoring, like how important he was to then.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
Yeah, he just seriously, he just never existed. He was
just a fickment of our imaginations.

Speaker 6 (46:31):
Ye.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
And it's probably a combination of a little frustration on
Vince McMahon's part for maybe the way that he told them,
or how long he took to told them he doesn't
feel comfortable.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
Or whatever it may be.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
It clearly wasn't a decision he made until a week
or two before WrestleMania, because the way that WrestleMania panned out,
Like if you looked at SmackDown a week or two before,
it was still Roman versus Goldberg, Yeah, and then a
week before we're like, wait, what it's Goldberg versus brown
stroman of which they still never explained.

Speaker 5 (47:01):
He had released his video on Instagram, they were still
advertising it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Yeah, So I think there's a little bit of a
frustration on the part of w W, a little friction
between them and Roman, and I also think it's because
they really have no clue when Roman Reign's coming back.
So I think they're trying to just keep him as
far from our brains as possible so that when he returns, a,
it's a bigger return, and B we were not tied to,

(47:25):
you know, mentioning Roman reigns weeks in advance because we
don't know when the heck he's coming back, so it's
just a way to just clean the slate. Well, he
gets back when he gets back. So so moving on though.
The other thing that happened, it's backdown, among others, a
couple of big things.

Speaker 3 (47:39):
Number one.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Bar fight announced between Jeff Hardy and Seamus Now. I
have asked Michael, who was a show a co host
on the show on Sunday last week, and he said that,
you know, basically, this is a very controversial thing to do,
and I agreed, because you know, this is something that
when you talk about alcoholism and drug addiction and you know,

(48:05):
basically things that people struggle with every day. Especially today,
I think there's probably more people of using substances than
ever before with the stress going on, with maybe people
losing their jobs, being stuck in their home for months,
financial stress, all these things, and they bring out a
storyline like this, And yes, Jeff Hardy has struggled, they
showed his mugshots. They're owning the storyline. I understand all that,

(48:27):
but man, do they really need to bring this kind
of thing to a place that people go to to
escape maybe from that thing. Maybe again, I'm not saying
WW is responsible for or should be responsible for, making
sure people stay sober, But that being said, I know
that people use entertainment and distractions to keep their mind
off of maybe addictions are struggling with and WW is

(48:50):
introducing this storyline. It really couldn't time it worse. Yet
at the same time, it's say storyline I'm kinda into
because it's it makes me want to see Shamus get
his ass kicks. So they're doing their job, but they're
doing it in a just man, a head scratching way.
Are how do you feel about the storylines? Is it
uncomfortable for you?

Speaker 3 (49:10):
Like, how do you how do you view this?

Speaker 5 (49:14):
So at first, like I didn't really have that big
of an issue with it, Like I guess after week
one I kind of wanted to see, like how it
was going to play out in like how far in
depth they went into this and like what route they
took with it? And now it's just I just every
week I'm just like why, like why go this route

(49:35):
to begin with?

Speaker 6 (49:36):
Like, especially because I feel like the.

Speaker 5 (49:38):
Last one that he had that Jeff had was wasn't
even that long ago. So it's just I feel like
it's too fresh. Even if he is doing very well
and he hasn't drank or whatever, he whatever adjustments and
changes that he needed to make for himself and his
family whatever he did, Like if he did that and
he's doing one hundred percent better, which of course we
hope he is.

Speaker 6 (49:58):
Like even if that's the case, Like.

Speaker 5 (50:00):
I'm just like why, Like it's you're not gonna get
that huge payoff because there's just not that that atmosphere
right now. Shame is his character coming back Like he didn't,
That's not really what is he gonna do? Like not
everyone is gonna have like an addiction problem or a
substance problem like like Jeff has. So the next person

(50:21):
that Shame is this is gonna be with Like how like
you're just not really building Seamus's character, Like yeah, you're
building him as a bad guy, but like what is
he like, what is his purpose? Like he's not even
going after a title right now, like he's he's more
focused on exposing Jeff for Jeff's issues than actually going
and fighting for something and like or getting revenge for something.

(50:43):
So I don't know, Like I guess, like and I
understand why some people are like very upset by it
and just have a strong feelings about it, and I
totally I totally get that and respect that, but for me,
it's it does bother me a little bit, but I'm
just more in the same token. I'm just like it's
so I think it bothers me because it's so unnecessary.

(51:04):
I just Jeff is Jeff is Jeff, Like everyone loves
Jeff party. Like you, you had so many other rounds
that you could have gone with, having just a simple
Jeff and Seamus feud, Like it didn't have to be that,
But for what it is each week and like the
segments and Jeff in the ring, like for the toast
and everything like that, Like I guess it's fine and whatnot,

(51:26):
but I just don't It's just kind of weird to me,
Like of all the times, like you said, like, why
now to do this?

Speaker 1 (51:35):
I don't Yeah, I mean seriously, there hasn't been a
worse time in history to do something like this. It's
it's very head scratching. I know what they're going for,
and I get it. It's something real. They're trying to
own it. They're making Seamus clearly the bad guy here
by trying to expose Jeff and bringing up his weaknesses
and his demons and all this thing, and Jeff is

(51:56):
playing the I'm going to overcome this and I'm going
to show everyone in be an inspiration for everyone at home,
which again, it's kind of stomach churning for me. I've
never been a fan of like clearly pandering and I'll
be your hero types of thing. It's just it's very
like take your vitamins, eat your you know, say your
prayers and all that kind of thing. It's I don't
like that kind of baby face. I like baby face
with an edge, and Jeff Harty's turned into this raw, raw,
you know, inspirational I'm gonna show everyone that I can

(52:19):
overcome type thing. And that's not my thing, not my
not my taste. But you know, I'm not I'm not
sure what they're going after here, and furthermore, like, is
beating Seamus really vindication of you getting over your substance abuse?

Speaker 3 (52:34):
I mean shouldn't.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
That's that's just a I guess, a symbolic type of victory.
It's not really overcoming and continuing to overcome your demons. Right, So,
I don't know. I think wwb's covering their backside by
having Jeff explicitly say that, you know, yeah, this stuff's
coming up, and I was bad in my past, I've

(52:56):
gotten over it and and I've continued to fight. I'm
gonna show everyone I'm an inspiration. They've covered themselves by
by talking about that explicitly saying that, yeah, but see
what we're doing here. We're trying to make this an
inspiration for people at home, And instead I would say, well.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
Why even bring it up at all?

Speaker 1 (53:13):
Like, yeah, no, I don't think anyone is sitting at
home going if Jeff's doesn't win this, you know, I'm
gonna I'm gonna pound a beer like no one's sitting
at home with a bottle in hand going. If Jeff
Hardy doesn't win this and he you know, it doesn't
inspire me, I'm going back to my old habits, like
they I know what they're trying to do. They're trying
to own it, and I get it. That's the only

(53:33):
way you can go if you're gonna really go full
bore on this whole thing. I was hoping this this
storyline would would reallygal a month, and it's going two
months now. To pay per views, I expect Jeff Hardy
to really come out on top here. I don't see
any other way if this ends in Jeff Hardy face
down in a pile of booze with after a bro
kick in a bar.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
I don't understand it. I really won't have any idea
what they're going for. But they could have gone so
many different roads with Shame as a heel who's doing
really well since his return. But this is just bizarre
at the Horror Show, extreme rules, whatever the.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
Hell that means?

Speaker 6 (54:08):
So right, right, you can't forget that.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Yeah, they changed it like three times, so I thought
originally they were referring to just the swamp fight, and
I'm like.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
What do you mean the Horrors? Is it Halloween?

Speaker 6 (54:19):
Like?

Speaker 3 (54:19):
What is this Halloween havoc?

Speaker 2 (54:21):
Like?

Speaker 3 (54:21):
What are they talking about?

Speaker 1 (54:22):
I don't know where they came up with the horror show, Like,
I have no clue, I don't understand.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
There's just somebody in.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
A production meeting from marketing was like, you know, what'd
be really cool if we had the horror show to
extreme rules And it doesn't make any sense, but nonetheless, okay,
something I really love Seamus and Cesarrow, who seemed to
be being resurrected over the last couple of weeks. We'll
see how long that lasts. But Cizarro cutting a promo,
a real promo for the first time in six months

(54:51):
on the mic, talking and tearing down New Day in
every way that I've been tearing down New Day for
for months and months and really years at this point,
about them just being happy and go lucky and throwing
pancakes and more worried about selling merchandise and all this thing,
And really I loved it. I hope Cizarrow eventually gets

(55:11):
his due with some kind of championship run, and I mean,
like in title contention for the Universal Championship. I think
Cesarrow could get there. I think Shinzke has really probably
not at that level. But I like what they did.
They dismantled the New Day this past week they sent
a message to New Day and I hope they're here
to stay, and I hope they're here for a long

(55:33):
time and not just a good time. But what are
your thoughts on Cesarro and Shinske. Hey, guys, So, retirement
may or may not be something that you're really thinking about,
but even if you are years and years away, I mean,
I'm twenty years away from retirement, but it's something that
we should all be thinking about. There's a company that
has retirement plans that you can invest in precious metals
like gold, silver, and crypto currency. There's also a big

(55:56):
opportunity to grow retirement and grow income for either your
personal or a business. And anyone who signs up at
this website receives a free investment kitt and gift. So
what is this website? It's bright Money Investments dot Com.
That's Bright Money Investments dot Com. You can diversify and
grow with metals and cryptos and you can even talk

(56:18):
to someone there to get a better idea of what
you should be investing in. So head on over to
bright money Investments dot Com.

Speaker 5 (56:26):
I agree with you on this one. I'm so here
for and I feel like it's time, you know. I
feel like I don't know why they haven't pulled the
trigger before recently, especially with everything now, because they need
more tag teams and they just need more especially heels.
So I just in Bizarre, I just feel like, yeah,

(56:47):
he may not be I guess everyone's favorite promo or
even a good promo to some people, but I enjoy it,
you know, Like, and I just I don't think everyone
needs to have that stereotypical like promo, like you know,
they announce it every word and things like that, and
they're like crisp. I think like you need diversity and
and Cizarre and Shinske like obviously have that. And it's
they're fresh, and they're a really good tag team and

(57:09):
they just yell well together.

Speaker 6 (57:12):
It's just fun, you know.

Speaker 5 (57:13):
And I've always been a huge fan of Cizar for
so many years now, and I just it's sad that
he's never gotten that that that push and and that
main event I guess run that I feel like he
deserves because he's just a freak athlete. Like he's just
so amazing and just so scary strong.

Speaker 6 (57:30):
It's just just one of.

Speaker 5 (57:31):
Those things where it's just man like you just you
just you can't wait for that moment, and you hope
he gets it.

Speaker 6 (57:37):
So if not, nonetheless, if he.

Speaker 5 (57:39):
Ends up getting like a tag team championship run with Schinsk,
I'm I'm absolutely here for and I think they need
it because you know, the New Day, like they're they're fine,
but I'm just kind of like over the new Day now.
I just need a break, and I just I just
want something new.

Speaker 3 (57:56):
I do too.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
I think that again with with COVID and all this stuff,
it's time to do something in experiment and see how people,
how the fans react, which is really the only way
you can gauge it, which is social media. It's the
only platform right now that you can do.

Speaker 6 (58:09):
Social media.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Yeah exactly. I mean social media doesn't love me. I'm
off Twitter and then Facebook somehow just took my damn
Facebook page down, so I'm really only the Instagram now.
That's I don't whole know the story. Somebody's got it
out for me. I mean, seriously, somebody is he's gone.

Speaker 6 (58:25):
Because he's he's been ruining your social media?

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Yeah, it could be.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
I mean I guess the truth will be exposed or
whatever he says. Yeah, I don't know I don't know
what it is. Somebody's got it out for me. But anyway,
I'll just I don't know, maybe I'll go on Snapchat.

Speaker 3 (58:42):
I don't know who the hell is, but anyway, Yeah,
Cizarrow is a guy.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
When he comes on the mic, it's like you never
know what you're gonna get from him. It's typically just
a couple of words. In this case, I really look
what they did, and he doesn't feel like you said.
He doesn't feel like he's reciting something like many stars
do that. Everything is just so nicely said and there's
always like a cute little line at the end.

Speaker 3 (59:03):
He's a guy that's just kind of straight in your face.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
I love his shirt that he's a wrestling purist because
it's exactly what he is.

Speaker 4 (59:10):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (59:10):
And again, I just don't I would love to see
him have a major title run. But the fact is,
and I mentioned this on a show last week that
with Vince McMahon looking at Cesarrow as.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
Well, I don't know what his problem is. It could
because he's Swiss.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
If everyone remembers that that line on Stone Cold's podcast
many years, not many years, probably four or five years ago,
whatever it was, I think that he looks at him
still as that that's the problem.

Speaker 3 (59:35):
Then he's Swiss.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
How the hell is that the problem. It's no, that's
not the problem. And I don't think that Vince really
truly gets Czarrow and why fans want to get behind him.
I could see him having kind of a Kofee slash
Daniel Bryan Magic run if he's ever put in a
situation that, you know, fans could say, hey, this could
be his moment, right like with the Chamber Kofee got

(59:58):
Magic lightning up bottle. Daniel Bryant had organic fans support
from the beginning. I think Cesaro has that same kind
of support that fans are just know that he's been
misused and misbooked for many, many years, and he's a
hell of an athlete. People respect him. He could really
be that guy that one of the list of guys

(01:00:19):
that you know, Vince would go, I don't get it.
Why are they cheering for him? And Vince just doesn't
get it, but the fans do. He's like that kind
of guy.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
But if I'll take a title attack, team tough to
run anybody with the New Day.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
At this point, I don't care.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
When New Day is champion I just don't care anymore.
Having Otis and Tucker no longer really a team. It
was kind of head scratching, heavy machinery, never really got
any traction. They just kind of went with, Oh, Otis
is a funny guy, Let's let's pull him out of
the tag team. That's more important. And no, I think, yeah,
Tucker's just look flapping in the wind. We don't know

(01:00:55):
where he's at. Otis is around with Mandy doing you know,
daydream fantasy images of him and Lana at the pool.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
I mean, like.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
They're too busy just trying to make him a funny,
big fat man, and instead of making them a legitimate
tag team and bolstering the tag team division, they decided
to just make him a comedy act.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
But that's a whole other rant.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
So anyway, back to the topic at hand, Cesarro and
Hinske for that matter too, that tag team. Hopefully these
past two weeks are an indication of where they're going
and not just a one off, let's get them through
extreme rules and then we'll kind of pull them back
type of thing.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
I hope that's the case.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
So all right, moving on to one more thing that
SmackDown delivered was a announcement that next week Matt riddol
versus aj Styles for the Uncuntent Old Championship. I didn't
get your thoughts on the whole Matt riddles sex assaults,
sexual assault allegation from Candy Cartwright and that whole thing,

(01:01:55):
and I've mentioned my thoughts many times on this show,
so I won't. But what are your thoughts on WWE
pushing this guy now into a title opportunity given the
allegations out there. I think that kind of says tells
the message of number one. We probably don't think that
Matt Riddle is going to be convicted based on the

(01:02:15):
evidence presented. And it also two number two sends a
message to those that are trying to tear down professional
athletes careers by just a simple allegation that no, we're
not giving you this power just because you say something
happened when nothing really happened. Again, if Matt Riddle is guilty,
he should be fired and charged and all that, but

(01:02:37):
the power of words right now, I think WWE is
sending the message that hey, until there's substantial evidence, we're
not going to suspend this guy, nor are we going
to fire him. And it's a direct message to anybody
who's probably maybe considering that. And there are badly intentional
people with bad intentions out there, I mean, there just are.
But I'm not saying he's innocent. I'm not saying he's guilty,

(01:02:59):
but I don't know. I mean, how do you feel
about this whole thing with Matt Riddle being pushed despite
the outstanding sexual assault allegations.

Speaker 5 (01:03:10):
Honestly, it should go with us saying if everything turns
out that he did end up doing you know, you know,
horrible things and he is found guilty, then absolutely I
think him being fired should be the least and everything
should play out how it should play out appropriately following that.
But as of right now, I feel like, especially WWE,

(01:03:33):
and this isn't like a true main event guy that
we're talking about, like a Drew McIntyre or a Big
Show or a Bronze Deowman or Brewhile or anyone like
a main event level person right now or a main
fixture on the show. So they could have very easily
even had Matt debut that one week, had a very

(01:03:55):
good showing, and then cool off on him until everything
plays out. So I think that for them to so
be pushing him and to be showcasing.

Speaker 6 (01:04:03):
Him as they are.

Speaker 5 (01:04:04):
I feel like they have to have evidence and substantial
proof to have faith in knowing that what he's saying
is true or that you know, the situation didn't happen
maybe as it did. And I hate saying that because
I don't, you know, like we don't know for sure
write what happened. So just I just feel like there's

(01:04:25):
their substantial proof for them, and like you said, like
if he is found guilty or if he did do
these things, he should be fired. But I think right
now they have to have enough on their end to
prove and have to feel good knowing that they can
show him each week and continue to push him. And again,

(01:04:46):
I feel like if you're going to be having enough
on TV, you should be pushing him, because then he
shouldn't be on TV to begin with, especially just starting off.

Speaker 6 (01:04:54):
So and that whole.

Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
His his nose shoe explanation was interesting, Yeah, you know,
I it's Matt Riddle, right, Like it's just one of
those things like first of all, like you would never
ever guess that story, you know, So it was it
was humorous to me just in that fact, like okay,

(01:05:18):
like that you you kind of wouldn't expect like maybe
an explanation from him, but if you do, it would
be some crazy story about him going to Wisconsin on
a family trip and getting frost by. So it's just
it's it's comical, right.

Speaker 6 (01:05:31):
So I'm I'm I'm entertained.

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
And but by the fact that they are like actually
letting him kind of be himself in a way, and
I just hope that they continue, right, and I feel
like he could be what they needed on SmackDown what
SmackDown's been missing, which is weird because he's not your
go to for like a strong promo per se, but
he can be your go to for just that that

(01:05:58):
good character and just like good body that you need
out there that everyone just like likes for whatever reason,
you know, Like you don't even have to necessarily have
a reason to just be like all right, well there's yeah,
there's Matt Riddle.

Speaker 6 (01:06:10):
And he can back it up, right.

Speaker 5 (01:06:12):
He's not just some like average talent, like he is
insanely strong, Like he can give you a good match
like that like we've been seeing.

Speaker 6 (01:06:22):
So I'm just here for him. I'm still here for it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
Yeah, this guy, they clearly have a big future plan
for Matt Riddle and and them not taking action against
Matt Riddle in any way scolding him. No, there's been nothing,
and just really defying the whole allegation and kind of
going in spite of what Candy Cartright is out. Allergic

(01:06:47):
tells you that number one Matt Riddle is has convinced
WWE that there is not any evidence of him doing
this sexual assault Act. And we've heard the story. But
he did admit to an affair on his wife, right, like, so,
so he did publicly admit. I'm sure you saw the video.
It was like a two minute video he posted on Instagram,
you know, saying that, Yeah, I did have an affair,
I'm not proud of it, cheated on my wife.

Speaker 6 (01:07:10):
Oh no, I didn't even see that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Yeah, he posted this three days ago, four days ago.
It was an explanation of admitting that he did cheat
on his wife, but he did not sexually assault Candy
Cartwright or anyone else. It's very it's it's like a
lot of information in two minutes. Yeah, so check that out.
But so, yeah, so that's it's bad, Like he cheated

(01:07:33):
on his wife, right, that's bad.

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
But is it enough to get him fired. No.

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
I mean, the thing is, it's bad to say, but
in the sport of professional wrestling, you're on the road
a lot, and you have possibly a wife or.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
Husband at home.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
Right, It's a sport and a lifestyle that kind of
lends itself to something like that happening. I'm not saying
it's right. Doesn't make it right, but it certainly is
an environment that is kind of condones and it's almost
expected in that environment. I mean, I've heard stories of
from many legends like Rick Flair and and really Stone

(01:08:09):
Cold admitting to it at times like that it's you know,
he went too hard, too fast, and that you know,
yeah there, and there are so many things that we
have will never know of, things that have happened behind
the scenes between this and that and cheating and all.
It's just a perfect storm of an environment for those
kinds of situations. So with Matt Riddle admitting this, it's

(01:08:30):
doesn't it's like, oh, okay, yeah, you and how many
other you know, pro wrestlers right, like, it's it's it's
not a good thing. It's it doesn't. It shouldn't normalize
that it's bad. But at the same time, it's kind
of like a yeah, well that's kind of what happens here.
So that was kind of brushed to the side. He
admitted it and he owned it and that that's that.
But the whole sexual assault he said no to and

(01:08:50):
his explanation of the frostbitten fit feet, I was very
perplexed by it. I know, Matt Riddle is kind of
kooky and he's his promos aren't exactly, you know, mind blowing,
Just like I try not to think of things in
a logical way when I hear wrestling promo sometimes because
if I do, it takes me out of the moment.
I'm trying to just turn my head off and my

(01:09:11):
brain on like shutdown mode. But when Matt Reridle's.

Speaker 3 (01:09:14):
Talking about his explanation, I'm like.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
How is that like if he got truly frostbite that way?

Speaker 3 (01:09:19):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
First of all, if he says he has can't really
feel his feet or has a nerve damage or can't
feel part of his feet, I'm pretty sure that I'm
not a doctor that if you did number one, it
would you probably see some tissue damage, like we've seen
what frostbite looks like. Yeah, and you wouldn't have control
of your feet and get to the level of a
professional athlete if you truly weren't able to feel your feet,

(01:09:41):
because then you don't really have control. And I'm pretty
sure that putting shoes on is not a side effect
after many years after this happened, of making your feet
feel like they're on fire, like a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
Of this was just it was just like wait, what,
Like it was bizarre. I like Matt Ridle so far,
but it was.

Speaker 1 (01:09:59):
Just like one of this is even like this is
so anti science, Like I'm like, no, like this is
not how this works, but whatever, Like I'm just chalking
up because he's so damn good in the ring. I mean,
I love his look, I love his style. He could
have said bro a few less times. I know his
bro is his gimmick, I get it. But he I

(01:10:20):
counted it was like ten twelve times that he said
bro in like a three minute promo.

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
Whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
But I think those that have not seen Matt Riddle
in NXT are kind of like, what is this dude?

Speaker 3 (01:10:30):
Who is this dude? Right? So I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
I like Matt Riddle, but yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:10:35):
Oh, people who have never seen that Riddle before are
probably so confused.

Speaker 3 (01:10:39):
Yeah, because he's so different. Yeah right, yeah, but that's good.
That's good.

Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
Yeah, alrighty, So let's move on to Monday Net Raw
and we'll close things out here.

Speaker 3 (01:10:49):
What do you think of an eye for an I match?

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
Right, Kevin Raham Sterio versus Seth Rollins at.

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
Extreme Rule The Horror Show.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
Extreme Rule's got to say the whole paragraph here, an
eye for an eye match? I kind of ask, what
the hell is an eye for an eye match?

Speaker 3 (01:11:04):
How is that even? Like? How does that work? Right?

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
Does the referee stop it only when you gouge out
your opponent's eye?

Speaker 3 (01:11:10):
Like? How does ya think?

Speaker 6 (01:11:11):
I think?

Speaker 5 (01:11:12):
I think that's actually the official rule that I think.
I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that you have to
actually like that I has to be like removed to win.

Speaker 6 (01:11:21):
So I'm just like, wait, what so.

Speaker 5 (01:11:26):
Right, first of all, how are you gonna do that?
And then like it makes me I don't know why,
but I flashed maybe because Seth was involved. I flashed
back to like the hell in a cell right with
him and the fiend and like when the referee stopped
that match because it was too much. But now like
we can have an eye for an eye match, and
like the whole purpose, like the whole way you win
is by golluging someone's.

Speaker 6 (01:11:45):
Eye out, And it's just.

Speaker 5 (01:11:47):
Like I don't, I don't know, like I get like
you need a stipulation or you need, like I don't,
like a gimmick. I guess per se for this type
of mage or like something, which is fine, And I
agree because of what's that that's been doing and to
Ray it particularly and then to Dominic.

Speaker 6 (01:12:04):
So absolutely it should be.

Speaker 5 (01:12:06):
It shouldn't be just a regular wrestling match, but like
I don't why. It's like I guess, is it just
kind of like the greatest wrestling match every type of
thing just to get people talking about it? Maybe probably
is it gonna be like another like cinematic type of thing,
Like is it gonna not actually be in the ring?
Are they gonna like pre tape it somewhere or is

(01:12:28):
it like half of it's gonna be spliced in or
like I don't know or I don't It's just I
don't know what to expect. But then it's like you
you kind of expect Ray to lose because how would
Seth go around without an eye? But is it gonna
work an eye patch for like the rest of his life,
because if his eyes gouged out, you know, it's gone forever.

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
They yeah, there's no way, and those are the official rules.

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
WW needs to tweak those like that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:53):
I don't know how they could get away with that's
how you win, because the plausibility of that, Like, and
it's a PG era on top of it, Like, I'm
okay if they have the eye for an eye where
you know you have to damage your opponent's eye, but
gouging it out is a whole nother world because then
that person's forever blind and you're never gonna they're always

(01:13:14):
gonna wear a patch that that, I mean, that ends
your career. Like it has to be maybe Seth getting
in what happened to you know, what he did to Ray?
Happened to him? You know, putting his eye in the
corner of the steps. That's how you win, right, if
you have blood coming from your eye, that's how it ends.

Speaker 3 (01:13:30):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:31):
To me, an eye for an eye match should never
be a thing. To me, it should be just a
part of a promo. It should just be like explaining
what you're going to do to your opponent. It should
be ray Mysterio cutting that promo saying that whatever the stipulation,
maybe it would have been a street fight. I don't know,
he probably something else, but it should be just part

(01:13:52):
of a promo, not in a stipulation for a match.
And yeah, but nonetheless, this whole story has.

Speaker 3 (01:13:58):
Been really well done.

Speaker 1 (01:14:00):
I mean, you talk about getting more mileage out of
Raymond Sterial that I didn't think we'd ever get. And
in the second half of his career, here in the
back end of his career, as he kind of rise
off in the sunset and Dominic two, who seems like
he's all in. I've really enjoyed the storyline. Seth Rollins
continues to really repair himself from the damage of WrestleMania

(01:14:21):
and the damage of money in the bank. Losing back
to back. He seems to be back in a strong position.
I'm loving where he's going. I'd love his promos.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
I love his.

Speaker 1 (01:14:30):
Just really hallucination with who he is and telling people
that they should want to be sacrificed for the greater
good and not understanding while they don't want to be.
And I'm loving it and more and more every week.
I assume AOP is probably not far behind to rescue
Seth at some point. But Kevin Owens back is also

(01:14:52):
a good thing. Seeing Kevin Owens back for the first time,
and however long it wasat great And I'm glad that
they didn't ignore the history between Seth and Ko right,
Like they didn't just pretend WrestleMania never happened. They actually
addressed it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:05):
I was surprised.

Speaker 1 (01:15:06):
I thought for sure it would just be just totally
like it never happened, and instead they didn't do that.
I was very happy about that me too.

Speaker 5 (01:15:14):
I'm so glad you mentioned that because I was pleasantly
surprised as well, and I just it gives me more hope.
Right for I guess the wrestler's going forward because Kevin,
like you just know like that. Maybe it wasn't it
was probably like a prude before he went other but
it was. It just felt real right, and he actually

(01:15:35):
just addressed something that happened in the past, even though
it wasn't that long ago. But sometimes in w B,
even the past can be like last week and you
never mentioned it again, or it didn't happen, or you
just never get an explanation or a follow up or anything.

Speaker 6 (01:15:49):
And for him to like acknowledge that.

Speaker 5 (01:15:51):
Yeah, Like, no matter if you win or lose at
wrestle Mania, if you're in a match with someone, you
share a bond and you share something with that person.

Speaker 6 (01:15:59):
So I kind of I feel like he did so much.

Speaker 5 (01:16:02):
There, and it just shows again how good Kevin Owens
can be and is on on the mic, because in
that moment, he reminded you how special WrestleMania itself is
as an event. No matter what the situation is, whether
there's you know, thousands of people there knowing they're like he,
it still meant something to him, and if it means
something to them as performers, then it showed to us

(01:16:23):
because that's while we're watching, right.

Speaker 6 (01:16:25):
So it was just it was a nice.

Speaker 5 (01:16:28):
Thing and and and Seth didn't downplay it, like Seth
actually acknowledged it, and Seth like kind of embraced it too,
like yeah, you know, like he put his own spin
on it.

Speaker 6 (01:16:36):
But it's just it was one of those things. And
the shirt was a.

Speaker 5 (01:16:39):
Nice touch because that's just you know, Kevin Owens, That's
just who Kevin is. So it was it was just
a nice little moment there and something that I hope
they like kind of give them more a leeway on
just to actually like acknowledge certain things, because sometimes it's
just so weird that you just like, for instance, two
people can be in the same ring together, but like
you never acknowledge, but happened just like a couple months ago,

(01:17:00):
even though a couple of months ago it was this big,
big angle.

Speaker 6 (01:17:03):
So it was just kind of refreshing, you know, it was.

Speaker 1 (01:17:06):
And I'm really glad because, like you said, they do
that so many times where they just assume that fans
aren't gonna care nor will they remember about things that happen,
and I think they underestimate the memory of fans and
being rewarded for remembering a story it should be something
that happens and something that I look forward to WWE

(01:17:26):
rewarding me for remembering a certain thing happening and going
why aren't they addressing it? And then they address it,
and I go, thank you. It doesn't insult the intelligence.
It makes me really, I guess proud of the promotion
to go, yeah, see they actually are congruent in their storytelling.
And so again it was a small thing, but it
was just something I go, oh, wow, thank you, They're

(01:17:48):
actually not pretending that this didn't happen at WrestleMania.

Speaker 3 (01:17:51):
So but nonetheless great story.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
Overall, I'm glad to see Kevin Owens back. I have
no clue where the hell he's going. He's just kind
of like popping in and out out lately, too, I
don't I think after Extreme Rules is probably where we'll
see him get put in some kind of steady program.
I hope it's not with seth rollins. I mean, I've
seen enough of that for a while. But I mean again,
I don't know where they're going with him, but I

(01:18:14):
hope there's something other than just hosting a talk show
that he gets put into.

Speaker 3 (01:18:19):
But I don't know. Good thing.

Speaker 1 (01:18:21):
Kyrie Saine was back, somebody that I really thought was
just gone for really just her uninspired work at WrestleMania.
I mean, and again, this is not me just taking
down Kyrie Saane and putting down her work. She's an
excellent worker, but I would argue that, you know, WrestleMania

(01:18:41):
in a few months prior, she looked very uninspired, kind
of going through the motions. You should see her face
when she's coming out at WrestleMania. It's just like I'd
rather be anywhere but here, and she didn't ended up
taking the pinfall that night, and you know, she came
back with a fist and fury this week, and yeah,
she picked up the win in a disqualification, but they
didn't have her lose. They didn't have her lose straight

(01:19:02):
out to Sasha Banks, who right now is, like you said,
one half of the women's division really with Bailey on
the other half. And yes, Bailey was the one who
caused the DQ, but to me, Kyrie Saine could be
really maybe next in line for a championship opportunity. I
know that she's on Raw and Bailey's on SmackDown, but

(01:19:25):
if they held the tag team belts, they can go anywhere.
So maybe Kyrie versus Bailey is up next. Who knows,
but I don't know. It was good to see Kyrie
sayne back. I like her work. I think they underutilized
her in the first run that she's had, and I
hope they do more with her moving forward.

Speaker 5 (01:19:41):
Yeah, no, I do as well, And I wouldn't even
be mad if they were more lenient with the whole
brand split during these times. And I'm actually kind of
surprised that they haven't been up until this point or
with I don't know because it's I guess it's tricky, right,
But like just for maybe the women's division, for instance,
like I would I would love to see like a

(01:20:03):
Bailey and Kyrie Sane feud. So I just I hope
that they are that stubborn in this aspect to not
do something like that or just even allow Bailey to
show up on Raw or continuously but she technically cancels.

Speaker 6 (01:20:19):
She's the attack team champion.

Speaker 5 (01:20:20):
I mean, maybe they can pull it off that way,
and that could be the excuse why Kyrie shows up
on SmackDown. But yeah, she's I I was hoping she
was going to go back to Japan right now. It's
because I feel like they need her. And she's a
very good baby face, Like she's believable, she's a very
good worker, and I just i'd be here for and
I think it would be a good, good babyface opponent

(01:20:43):
for Bailey to play off of as Wall.

Speaker 3 (01:20:46):
Yeah it would be.

Speaker 1 (01:20:47):
And you know, Kyrie saying I love her erring worker
insane elbow is great, you know I think she I mean,
she was off TV obviously for Attle while because of
Nya Jackson, her injuring her eighth person, you know, in.

Speaker 3 (01:21:01):
Like a couple of years.

Speaker 1 (01:21:02):
But again, Bailey versus Sasha, if they are I'm sorry
Bailey versus Kyrie saying if they want to go that road, sure,
And like I said, I am always in the world
or of the belief normally in a normal world of
do not touch the brand split.

Speaker 3 (01:21:18):
Stop with the wild card rule.

Speaker 1 (01:21:20):
Just keep the damn world separate, or don't even bother
with a brand split because you're just you're saying there's
a brand split, but then you just, you know, three
weeks later, so and so shows up with new explanation
and and all of a sudden, there's a blockbuster trade.
If AJ Styles going to SmackDown for what heath or
for Dolph Ziggler and for uh for for Bobby Rude,

(01:21:41):
I mean we're Robert Rude. I mean like things like
that that you no, we haven't seen him yet, which
to me still, if you're if you're actually doing like
a football trade or or baseball or whatever. To me,
someone of the caliber of AJ Styles is worth more
than Robert Rude and Dolf Ziggler like it should.

Speaker 3 (01:21:57):
That's a blockbuster.

Speaker 1 (01:21:58):
That's like, I don't know the equivalent of if people
don't know baseball, so many of you are like, huh,
who's that? But Garrett Cole going to the New York
Yankees and who were they trading in return?

Speaker 5 (01:22:09):
Well?

Speaker 3 (01:22:09):
I don't know. It's to be determined. Tho are players
to be named later? No? How was it? People would
lose their minds? Right, But it's w W A so
and one guy.

Speaker 6 (01:22:18):
Hasn't even been on TV and who knows how long?

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
So I don't know, but Kyrie's saying, great, great move,
and I hope that this is again a sign of
things to come down the line. A couple of things
on RAW, and then we'll touch on Fighter Fest and
Great American Bash.

Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
Heath Slater back on RAW. I did not see that coming.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
Yeah, probably cut the best promo of his career because
it was very real. I think, trying to be the
pawn of Dolve Ziggler who will be facing Drew McIntyre
at the horror show Extreme Rules, and I really enjoyed
he's promo. It felt real, and trying to bait in
Drew McIntyre and saying that.

Speaker 3 (01:22:58):
You owe me it. It was kind of weird from
this perspective.

Speaker 1 (01:23:01):
They built him up really well and it was a
very quick boom.

Speaker 3 (01:23:06):
Claymore and it's over.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
I was kind of disappointed by that. That tells me
that he Slater was there for kind of a one off.
I don't know if he's going to be in Dolf's
corner at Extreme at the Horror Show Extreme Rules.

Speaker 3 (01:23:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:21):
This is probably not a long run from Heath, but
I would hope WWE maybe reconsiders because what I saw
from Heath I saw more from him in ten minutes
of his promo than I did all the years and
three MB or all the time that he did eating
cheese Whiz with Rhino at his trailer park with his
kids or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:23:41):
I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:23:41):
So he's Slater. I hope they do something with him.
I don't know his contract status, but if it's something
long term, awesome. If it's just a one off, I'm
kind of disappointed based on the results of Monday Night
with just a single clay More and it's boom over
with no effort really or a single drop of sweat
exit from Drew McIntyre tells me it's probably a one off.

(01:24:04):
But what do you think of Heath Slater being brought
back on Monday.

Speaker 5 (01:24:07):
Night, I was so impressed, just like you said, I
it was amazing, Like like you said, with ten minutes,
it was a completely different guy, completely different guy.

Speaker 6 (01:24:18):
And his look too, like I don't I remember him.

Speaker 5 (01:24:22):
He wasn't a scrawny look guy, but he wasn't like
the biggest, but I remember, like just this past Monday,
he looked jacked, like he looked like he was in
really great shape and just like a different version of
himself and that serious vibe.

Speaker 6 (01:24:36):
Like I took him seriously.

Speaker 5 (01:24:37):
Right off the bat. The second I saw him, I
was like, wow, Like this isn't like the same Heath
Slayer that we've seen, Like, this is a completely different guy.
So I was really excited to see what they were
gonna do. And once, like you said, once Juror beat
him immediately, I was just I was kind of like
down because I of course I didn't want like a
long match, because that shouldn't happen right now, but I

(01:25:02):
was kind of just disappointed because I don't want him
to go away, and I hope that maybe they did.

Speaker 6 (01:25:05):
See something in him and can use him going forward.

Speaker 5 (01:25:09):
And a capacity, like even if it's just like for
the IC championship or like a US run, but just
have like a serious version of him, you know, like
and for him to say like, yeah, I got kids
thing was like a gimmickrant, but it is true, Like
he does have kids, just at the twenty.

Speaker 6 (01:25:25):
You know, he has two little girls.

Speaker 5 (01:25:26):
Like that's real, you know, like you can get behind that.
It's kind of like the Drake Maverick storyline, Like you
get behind stuff like that, right if you just let
them have like a real storyline and just acknowledge something
that's actually happening. So I don't I'm not hopeful, as
I say all that though, that they're gonna keep him

(01:25:46):
around and actually do something with him. But I think
they could, and I think they should, and I think
he deserves it for everything that he's put in over
the years. I don't think that he really got his
chance that he deserves. I mean, he he was it
was he had a good tag team run and that
was a good tag team with Rhino, you know, when
they were actually kind of serious, like they had potential.

Speaker 6 (01:26:08):
But he was.

Speaker 5 (01:26:09):
He was good, but he didn't really have like the
full opportunity that maybe he could have to have like
maybe a singles run or to see even to get
the chance to see what that looks like, if nothing else,
but yeah, if nothing else, like it.

Speaker 6 (01:26:23):
Was an interesting look at Drew though.

Speaker 5 (01:26:24):
It was interesting having Keith called Drew out, you know,
and because Drew has been like this this good baby face,
that's been like saving guys and just been there and
you know, doing the right thing. And then all of
a sudden, we have Heath just calling Drew out or
not calling to check up on him, and not remembering
the last time that they spoke and it was actually
on the bump apparently that they had they spoke via

(01:26:46):
I guess video chat or whatever.

Speaker 6 (01:26:48):
So that was just an interesting.

Speaker 5 (01:26:50):
Side of Drew, Like I'm not really sure what they're
going to do with that, or if it was just
that it was the truth and Heath came out and
just spoke the truth, and then that's that. And then
next week Drew goes back to just being like a
pure good guy or we start seeing like little things
like that, which I necessarily wouldn't before. But it was
just an interesting turn, to say the least, or an

(01:27:11):
interesting little tivot.

Speaker 1 (01:27:13):
It really was, like you said, yeah, that's a good
way to put it with he's feeling a totally new guy.
I was just like, where have you been the last
ten years?

Speaker 3 (01:27:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:27:22):
You know, like I was thinking you could actually it
built correctly.

Speaker 3 (01:27:27):
I was like, you know, what do they do?

Speaker 1 (01:27:29):
Why did then this guy never come out?

Speaker 3 (01:27:32):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
And because they put him in comedy. I mean, he
originally was what with the Nexus and then kind of
floated around in three mb it was just a joke
of a group went to Rhino and He's Slater, which
was semi serious, then kind of dismantled, and then the
I Got Kids thing, and he has been kind of
the butt of a lot of jokes, and this past
week it was like, uh, and I kind of was

(01:27:54):
looking at him. I'm like, like you said, he did
look jacked.

Speaker 3 (01:27:57):
He physically looked different. On the mic, he was different.

Speaker 1 (01:28:01):
And I don't know, again, I hope this is something
a little bit long term or some.

Speaker 3 (01:28:05):
Kind of experiment.

Speaker 1 (01:28:06):
Maybe they're like, hey, we're going to kind of a
week to week and see how people react. It's hard
with no audience, but I think that I honestly think
that if there was a crowd there, that people would
be chanting for Heath. I mean, he's an underdog. He's
one of those guys that just people know that he
has been I think misused, especially when they see what
he did this past week and go, oh that was there.

(01:28:26):
I didn't know that was there on Heath. So anyway,
moving on Lashly, quick question on him. He's kind of
gone in, take it a couple of steps back. He's
just beating up Cedric, Alexander and Ricochet and Raw. MVP
still there, thank god. You know, I believe you and
I had talked about how MVP has just been awesome
and has really really reinvigorated Lashley's career. Lana is no

(01:28:50):
longer a factor, thank god. So it's just Lashly being Lashly,
which is what it should be. Do you think that
they are intentionally taking him a step or two back
to propel him forward for SummerSlam? Or do you think
this is kind of WWE putting him back in a
place that they think he should be. I mean, it's

(01:29:11):
it's kind of weird that they positioned him back, you know,
a couple of pegs. But what's going on with Lashley?

Speaker 5 (01:29:18):
You know, I would like to think that they were
pulling him back to push him forward, you know, for
SummerSlam time. But I don't see it because I don't
see them pulling the trigger on having him becoming champion
and beating Drew. I just even if even I just
I don't see it, you know, And I don't think
that it would be necessary or right to have him,

(01:29:41):
you know, be feuding with Apall Cruise or in being
around MVP and being built up right now just to
be sacrificed to Drew again. You know, what's the point,
because then what is he going to do after that?
He's gonna it's just gonna be like a weird cycle.
So as much as I hate to say it, because
I feel like they could have made him like a
MANI guy and like a very serious threat, like right now,

(01:30:04):
I kind of see him as you know, maybe being
the guy that beats Apollo Cruise and just being like
a strong diamand US champion and having an m VP
right there by a side. But you know, with how
strong MVP has been lately and how m VP presented
the new championship and he's been the one holding the title,
you know, and that the new version of it, it's

(01:30:25):
it's an interesting twist. And I don't know if that
means that maybe MVP is gonna win the title first
and then Bobby's gonna get jealous or what have you.
So I'm just curious to see how that ends up
playing playing out, because I really like MVP and Bobby
Lashley together. I think MVP is perfect for lash like
just the perfect mouthpiece and because then be like, I

(01:30:47):
guess if you can't talk like that's like the main thing,
and that I guess that would be the reason why
if I hadn't make an assumption why Bobby Lashley never
really got that that strong championship run, it's because maybe
he's not touch creat on the mic. So but now
you have MVP right there, so that kind of takes
care of that problem.

Speaker 6 (01:31:05):
So I don't know, I don't I don't really.

Speaker 5 (01:31:08):
Know what they're gonna do with Bobby Lashley, but I
don't see him necessarily going back in the main event
picture anytime soon, like anytime within the next few months.
Is as unfortunate as that is. But I think he
should be the US champion. I think he should be
a strong US Champion at that.

Speaker 3 (01:31:24):
Yeah, that is disappointing.

Speaker 1 (01:31:26):
I mean, if that's the case that they did all
this stuff and build built him up and made him
a very formidable opponent for Drew McIntyre, and I was
really looking forward to that match and having him lose
the way he did because of Lana, I guess was
the out. It's just disappointing that they put him back
in this position. But my hope is that they are
positioning him for a reboost to SummerSlam where it's possibly

(01:31:49):
Lesner versus Lashley versus McIntyre. That that's my thinking. If not,
it's probably just gonna be like McIntyre versus Last, or
McIntire versus Lesner, and you know, we have Last doing
something else, possibly in the United States Championship picture. But
you know, it's hard because, like you mentioned, he's not
great on the mic. When he gets on the mic talkward,

(01:32:11):
he talks about his three sisters or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:32:14):
I mean, just weird. He's not good.

Speaker 1 (01:32:17):
But we've seen in the past where guys who are
not good on the mic are big names and are
champions and are really Hall of famers. Roman Reigns not
good on the mic, and they continue to protect him.
He's just got the ed factor, He's got the push
from the company he has been and will be a
Hall of Famer. We have brock Lesner, who has been

(01:32:38):
known to be He's not good on the mic either,
although you could argue that he's entertaining on the mic
because he's a loose cannon. You never know what the
hell he's gonna say. But he's not good wrestling quote
wrestling promo material on the mic. That's why they have
Paul HAYMTT. Now you've done the same thing with Lashley.
You've implemented MVP to counter the weakness of Lashley on
the mic, and so really you don't have any excuses here.

(01:33:01):
WW has no excuses now for not pushing Lashly to
the top. And I love Drew. You love Drew. I
think the majority of fans want to celebrate with Drew
whenever the heck we get back into a live format,
and therein lies the problem because if they were going
to ever push Lashly, the problem.

Speaker 3 (01:33:18):
Is, well, when do you do it?

Speaker 1 (01:33:20):
Because fans have not gotten in a chance to celebrate
with with Drew mcintarret his win in WrestleMania, Yet you
want to push Lashly. So with the fans get super
angry that that WW decided to not give them the
opportunity and rob them of the opportunity of being able
to celebrate with Drew in a live format by pushing
Lashley and taking the belt off of him. They're in

(01:33:42):
a conundrum, right, I would assume Drew is probably gonna
hold onto that for quite a while. I know lash
Or Lesner comes out of also his hibernation around this
time of year, so I think Lesner will show up
at Extreme Roles, if not Money Net Raw after. I mean,
that's what I really believe is that you know, Brock's
gonna come out f five Drew McIntyre maybe after he

(01:34:04):
beat Ziggler, and you know, we we get a clear
setup and path to SummerSlam for a rematch.

Speaker 3 (01:34:12):
But anyway, what are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 1 (01:34:14):
Do you think it's a possibility there's a triple threat
or is lashly I'm sorry McIntyre versus Lesnar really the
only option for SummerSlam.

Speaker 6 (01:34:24):
I kind of think they may go different route.

Speaker 5 (01:34:27):
I kind of think they may end up going, uh,
Drew McIntyre versus Randy Orton at Summer Slam, just because
Edge is gonna be out for a while, and even
if Edge were able to come back for Summer slam.
I don't think you want to rush it. I think
you kind of want to paste it out. And just
kind of with the path that Randy Orton is going
on right now, kind of like revisiting that legend killer role,

(01:34:48):
but yet he's been teaming up with younger guys like
Andrada and Angel Garza. So and I just love what
Randy Orton's been doing lately. I just he's kind of
been my favorite part on Raw, just seeing like him
interacking and just like he snapped on Angel, just took
him out like outside of the rings, landed up against
the plexiglass and against the ropes, and just like so
I had like if you choice words for them or

(01:35:08):
we're just like was blunt with them, you know, I'm
calling them out on a few things. And it was
just like you could see that Angel was kind of
like was obviously scared, but it was like a respect
thing too.

Speaker 6 (01:35:17):
So I really like this route that they're going with Randy.

Speaker 5 (01:35:20):
And honestly, like if they're looking to have Drew have
that moment in front of fans, let's say, and I
guess what could be a perfect world for us right now,
Let's say towards the end of this year, we can
have like a limited capacity maybe like a few thousand
and maybe like even five thousand fans and like an
outdoor arena type thing or like I'm kind of surprised

(01:35:41):
they haven't done, like try to do like an outside
show like at a beach or something, or like like
a huge like just just a huge land of just
like open space and just like do it up. Like,
I'm kind of surprised they haven't tried to do that,
or maybe they are looking into it now that you know,
different states are in different phases, you can have different
amounts of people now, especially outdoor or so I'm kind

(01:36:01):
of surprised that they haven't done that, especially for SummerSlam, right,
like you do an outdoor theme.

Speaker 6 (01:36:06):
But yeah, so I just I.

Speaker 5 (01:36:08):
Kind of think that they may go a Randy Orton
route and just to kind of play up on that.
And it wouldn't surprise me if they have Randy Urton
beat Drew and then with the hope in the back
of the mind that they can repay us and we
can have that moment with Drew beating Randy Orton if
he's still the champion at that point, and reget in
the Championship at this time, it is in front of fans,

(01:36:28):
and we do get to actually celebrate with him in
person for that moment, So that.

Speaker 6 (01:36:32):
Could be a round.

Speaker 5 (01:36:33):
If they're hopeful that they can actually get actual fans,
like paying fans back in attendance, that.

Speaker 1 (01:36:39):
Would interest me infinitely more than Lesnar versus McIntyre part too,
not that I don't enjoy Lesnar, and that's the whole
mystique about Lesnari. He's not there a lot. We get it,
but we kind of know what match we're gonna get.
It's just a whole bunch of like it's it's like
playing a w W two K twenty video game and
you start with like, you know, four finishers. It's just

(01:37:00):
you know, it's just gonna be power move finish, finished, kickout, finish, kickout, finish, finish, finish,
and then you finally ill. You already know what match
in style you're getting. And the story is very kind
of cut and dry. I've beat you at WrestleMania, I'm
coming back for revenge, and it's gonna be you know,
five minutes or less. We all know the formula now,
that's just what it's.

Speaker 3 (01:37:18):
Going to be. But it's so much deeper with Randy Orton.

Speaker 1 (01:37:21):
As you mentioned, he has been the absolute star of
the company. I don't think there's anybody that even touches
him right now in terms of just his ability, his performances.
Over the last few months. Yeah, we have had some
great matches from aj Styles and the whole tournament was great,
and now Bailey and Sasha are dominating the women's division.

(01:37:44):
But Randy Orton's in a stratosphere of his own right now,
and he is, like I don't think, I don't know
if I've seen a better version of Randy, because yeah,
we saw the legend killer when he was younger, but
you take all that age and experience and you add
it now to him at forty some years old, and
he is just he understands every part of himself as

(01:38:04):
a character. He knows how to to anger you, he knows,
he just gets it. And the part with Angel Garza,
if you listen, like he actually said the F word
and they blanked it out obviously because it's pretty taped.
But I was just like, wait, what what, Like I
have not seen that on WA TV maybe an entire

(01:38:24):
PG era. That was just a small thing, but I
was like, whoa, you genuinely felt scared for Angel Garzah.
Randy is on another level right now. And when you
think about this, Randy Orton has not lost in a
wrestling ring in months, right, Like, yes, he lost to

(01:38:45):
WrestleMania in what was a extremely long just I don't
want to see disappointing. They did with the best they could,
but from what we all wanted to see what happened,
it was disappointing in that aspect, but they did the
best they freaking could. But it wasn't in the middle
of the ring where Randy Orton has gotten pinned. He
didn't lose inside the ring obviously against Edge at Backlash

(01:39:08):
when it was the greatest wrestling match ever. They You know,
Randy Orton has not lost inside of a ring in
a very long time, and now we have Big Show
as kind of a stopgap. Obviously, he's not a destination,
He's a stepping stone for Randy Orton to get to.
Maybe it is Drew McIntyre. I hope it is, but
I think Big Show is gonna end up getting punted
and laid out at Extreme Rules via maybe a low

(01:39:30):
blow from Rick Flair, which I love how he's implementing
that now. I love Rick Flair's back. Hopefully he doesn't
take any bumps. I don't want Rick at seventy some
years old, taking any bumps, I really don't. But if
he's just gonna be there to cut promos, talk trash
and hit low blows for Randy, hell yeah, I mean
that's fine with me. And not having Big show. Even

(01:39:52):
be able to get a single offensive maneuver on Randy
Orton on Monday Night was awesome. Like Randy Orton has not.
He is just continuing to build heat and build heat
and build heat to the point I'm sitting here getting
angry as a fan that I haven't felt in a
long time of like somebody please put him down, and

(01:40:12):
he just avoids it and slithers away and he is
just getting it. The booking, the creative gets it with Randy.
And if he becomes champion, I would be totally fine
with him beating Drew McIntyre singly because of how damn
good he is, how damn good he would be his champion,
how angering the fans would get and having Edge be

(01:40:35):
the one to take it off of him, or like
you said, maybe it is Drew who takes it off
of him in front of fans. But with the timing
of edges injury and how long Randy would hold it,
it would make sense maybe Edge does. I don't know
where Drew would go and all this again we're getting
like four steps ahead. But this is again, Randy Orton

(01:40:55):
is damn brilliant right now. And imagine if Edge comes
out in the rumble in front of fans after Orton
has cleared the ring, he's, you know, just archaoing everybody
and Edges music hits and he's the next one out.
I mean, I've already kind of booked myself out four
or five six months, but I don't know. So anyway,
Randy Oran's killing it.

Speaker 5 (01:41:15):
Yeah, and you can literally replay last year and do
it the right way in front of fans, like if
you i'd you go that route?

Speaker 1 (01:41:22):
Oh yeah, Whenever I'm feeling down, I just played the
clip of Edge returning, like seriously, oh yeah, Edge returning
at number twenty one this year. It's just it's one
of those goosebump feeling type of moments. It's just it
does not happen often. It's like once every few years.
That's something like this, happens where it's just like, oh
my god, and you just you get that that goosebump

(01:41:44):
feeling of like this is why I love wrestling. That
But anyway, yeah, so Big Show doesn't get his hands
at Orton, I think he's gonna end up punted and
he's the next victim of Randy Orton and Big Show
kind of goes away again too. But anyway, uh so
I already mentioned I didn't mention Oscar she pinned Bailey
On via a roll up, which, by the way, if
you didn't know, is the single most devastating finish in

(01:42:06):
WWE today, the roll up, of which I'm serious. I mean, like,
think about the number of matches and it continues to happen.
It's at least like two or three matches every show
where somebody gets rolled up. Not a super kick, which
would be a knockout shot, not a DDT which is
driving your skull into the mat, not a finish which
is supposed to you know, finish the match. It is

(01:42:27):
the dreaded roll up that has just plagued our truth
in the twenty four to seven title and now is
plaguing just regular wrestling matches on all brands.

Speaker 3 (01:42:37):
It's just I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:42:39):
I've ranted about my roll up overuse of roll ups
with WWE over the last few months, but anyway, do
you notice that too with the rollups, just they do
these killer moves, They do all of these things that
are ultra athletic and would knock out a normal person,
and then all of a sudden they lose via a
roll up.

Speaker 5 (01:42:59):
It's like, what, It's just it's amazing to me because,
like you said, like you can do a super kick,
you can do anything, like you can do the most
devastating move off the top rope, but yet they kick
out right at that last second. But if you if
you just roll someone up, if you just get that
right momentum right, because it's just it's about that momentum.
You're that's it, you got the match. It's just I

(01:43:22):
like the roll of finish when it's appropriate, but there
is just so overplayed. Like you said, it's just it's
kind of like eye rolling at this point.

Speaker 3 (01:43:29):
It's the new DQ.

Speaker 1 (01:43:30):
I remember when WW was overusing the disqualification. It just
shows me really and again not to kind of troll
WW here, but they I think it's lazy booking. I
really do and and and I mean that because if
you have somebody roll up an opponent, you you yeah,
they got the victory, they got the one, two, three,
but you could chalk it up too.

Speaker 3 (01:43:51):
They got lucky, they got them at the right moment.

Speaker 1 (01:43:53):
It's not a true victory of hitting your finish and winning.
It's lazy booking by trying to keep people at at
a certain level where everyone's on the same level and
every anyone.

Speaker 3 (01:44:04):
Can beat anyone. I don't like that.

Speaker 1 (01:44:06):
I don't like thinking anybody could beat anybody because then
no one is no one's above anybody else in the
pecking order. That's not how sports work, right, Like when
you look at any sport in at least in the
United States, everybody's done by ranking. And you have like
again baseball, because I'm baseball fan, you have like Red Sox.
You know on top, say Yankees are five games behind,

(01:44:27):
the Rays are six games behind, Like you have rankings.
And to me, if you don't have a vertical system,
it's it doesn't mean as much when you have roll
ups happening because it's just just a fluke victory.

Speaker 3 (01:44:42):
But why do that. It's lazy booking.

Speaker 1 (01:44:44):
It's it's like committing to the win without the without
the commitment, it's I don't know, that's how I feel
about it.

Speaker 5 (01:44:51):
Yeah, and just just real quick and it just kind
of takes credibility away from it too, right.

Speaker 6 (01:44:55):
It's just like.

Speaker 5 (01:44:56):
You you have, what's the point of you even having
a finisher at that point? You should your finisher should
just be the role because you're you're.

Speaker 6 (01:45:03):
Not gonna be able to win by using your finish.
That should just be it. It's just I just.

Speaker 5 (01:45:09):
That, and like just the lack of selling lately, and
of course, like who am I to really talk, right,
But it's just like when something is just so obvious,
like if you hit like this high impact move and
like you just get right back up, like it just
little things like that just kind of like I don't
want to say take me out of it, but just
kind of like kind of like just.

Speaker 6 (01:45:28):
Take me saddle.

Speaker 5 (01:45:28):
But it just kind of like maybe maybe it does
just take me out of it a little bit, but
it just it just gives me a weird feeling.

Speaker 6 (01:45:33):
I don't know if it's just me or not, though I.

Speaker 1 (01:45:35):
Know you're getting me into a rabbit hole that I
have gone on like half hour rants I'm not gonna
do that obviously, but it's just.

Speaker 3 (01:45:44):
I will just say there's a very short summation.

Speaker 1 (01:45:46):
That the lack of selling and Edge brought this up
to an interview he did with ESPN, and he mentioned
that how he wants to bring back selling because selling
doesn't exist today. It's more of just registering something happened,
but there's no selling. It's about the athleticism, less about

(01:46:07):
the story, which is which is killing pro wrestling, because
then it just becomes, as I called it, a fireworks
show where everyone's just interested in the next firework, right,
You're always, oh, the next one, the next one, the
next one. And instead of like understanding why they're fighting
and and doing fewer moves that mean more and you're

(01:46:28):
able to understand what's happening, it's become an athletic spotfest
where it's who can do the coolest move and the
coolest reversal and we have to do our you know,
our obligatory twenty suicide dives every show and you know
superkicks that is it's the new clothes line. I mean
it without selling, why bother like, because without selling, you

(01:46:50):
can't tell a story, you can't feel emotion for a match.
It's just kind of like very superficial. You're just watching
a match to see cool moves rather than seeing a
match to care about the outcome and care about the
struggle of your of your baby face to get through
that match and beat the heel. It's just it's sped
up too fast. The athleticisms out off the charts and

(01:47:13):
no doubt, but it's come at the expense of selling,
which is the soul of pro wrestling.

Speaker 3 (01:47:18):
So that's my very short rant.

Speaker 5 (01:47:20):
No, I couldn't better myself.

Speaker 3 (01:47:23):
It's just.

Speaker 1 (01:47:25):
I'll make a whole show about this because it's damn
it's just prevalent.

Speaker 3 (01:47:30):
And it's not just WWE.

Speaker 1 (01:47:31):
I mean, this is all promotions. It's like a disease
that has spread. I mean, I still love pro wrestling,
but it's it's I don't know anyway. Speaking of Great
American Bash, now, full disclosure, I did not watch both
pay per views in full.

Speaker 3 (01:47:48):
I saw highlights.

Speaker 1 (01:47:49):
I simply do not have the time to consume both
of these pay per views or shows. That's why I
have hosts who cover both of these. But what do
you think about Number one, Keith Lee winning double Champion?

Speaker 3 (01:48:02):
Do you see that coming.

Speaker 5 (01:48:05):
If you would have asked me like three weeks ago, no,
But once we got a clear picture of it was
gonna be Keith Lee versus Adam Cole, I had a
weird feeling that Keith Lee was gonna win, Like I
had a weird feeling like just with them going and
being head to head with a a W, I felt
like they were gonna have that moment for Keith Lee.

Speaker 6 (01:48:24):
And it was well done.

Speaker 5 (01:48:26):
It was so well do, Like the match itself was
what it should have been. And I'm so excited to
see what they end up doing with Keith Lee going forward,
if he's gonna continue to be like a fighting dual champion,
or if there they're gonna have a tournament, which I
hope they don't for the North American title. I want
him to go forward and defend them, you know, individually,

(01:48:47):
kind of like seth wrong, you know, as we've seen,
you know, multiple champions do in the past who have
held multiple titles. So I'm just I'm really looking forward
to seeing what they do with Keith Lee. And then
because of course you have and Cross just hanging out
right there, and then you're gonna have child will come
back at any time.

Speaker 6 (01:49:05):
So there's a lot that you can do there.

Speaker 5 (01:49:08):
And then it leaves the question of what do you
do with Adam Cole going forward?

Speaker 6 (01:49:12):
And on Disputed era? Do they all stay on an XT?
Do they move to R SmackDown?

Speaker 5 (01:49:17):
Does Adam Cole move by himself and the other stay
do they turn?

Speaker 6 (01:49:22):
Like what do you do?

Speaker 5 (01:49:23):
You know, so, because we haven't seen Adam Cole without that,
Adam Cole not being a champion and so long, so
it's interesting to see what they do with him going
forward as well, and who is.

Speaker 6 (01:49:35):
Going to be the main focal point going forward for Kethy.

Speaker 3 (01:49:39):
Yeah, that's that's a good point.

Speaker 1 (01:49:40):
And you know, Adam Cole, obviously they made him a
pretty big deal when we had the whole Survivors series
angle that you know, everyone's just suddenly loyal to their
brand and all the all their rivalries go out the
window because we're just loyal to our brand because the
calendar says so.

Speaker 3 (01:49:55):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:49:55):
I mean, they made him feel like a pretty damn
big deal with an XT invading and uh, to me,
I would probably if I was a bettingman, say that
it's a signal and a sign that Adam Cole is
probably coming up sooner than later now.

Speaker 3 (01:50:10):
Could they have a rematch? Maybe?

Speaker 1 (01:50:12):
But I think that Adam cole is as much as
I enjoy him on NXT, I think that WWE Evince
would probably say we need him right now on the
main roster because of the lack of star power. I
think that a WB he be a new fresh face,
Especially if you don't watch NXT, you would be like, hey, cool,
who's this somebody new? And he's obviously very good in

(01:50:33):
the ring, good on the mic. So I don't know
that's my thought, But what did you think about the
rest of the rest of the pay per view? I
don't want to go match my match here, but just
kind of the rest of the pay per view for
n XT.

Speaker 6 (01:50:46):
It was good. It was a really good show.

Speaker 5 (01:50:49):
I enjoyed I think ninety two more than Night one.
It was just it was it was a very solid show.
I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with just
the word division going for and English and Ryan, how
strong of a champion they build her as going forward
and Asasha comes back down, and if they end up
doing anything else with that, or they just kind of

(01:51:10):
kind of leave that alone for now on So I'm
curious to see what they end up doing going forward,
just just with everything. And then Karen Cross. I'm super
excited to see how they book him and if he's
going to go right after Keith Lee or not. Who
do you? Who do you see as Keith Lee's first opponent?

Speaker 3 (01:51:27):
Though?

Speaker 5 (01:51:27):
Really quick before we move on, do you have any idea?

Speaker 1 (01:51:31):
Honestly, to be totally frank, I have him been paying
enough close attention to make an educated guess. So you're
I mean, I'll go with whatever you say, because I
really don't. I don't watch close enough to know.

Speaker 6 (01:51:42):
I feel you. No, dude, I finely. I would say
Karen Cross, maybe, but I have no idea. I have
no idea. We'll see.

Speaker 3 (01:51:49):
What about Fighter Fest?

Speaker 1 (01:51:50):
Did you enjoy Orange Cassidy versus Jericho? I know it's
the main event, obviously I'm jumping on the main event,
but how did you did you enjoy the paper here
as a whole end spec that match?

Speaker 6 (01:52:01):
Yeah, as a whole I did. I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:52:04):
I think, maybe not as much as I thought I
was going to, but it was I wasn't bored right,
it was still an entertaining show, and and Aw always
puts on a good show.

Speaker 6 (01:52:14):
You're never just like bored and just sitting there watching
the clock. It's always a good show.

Speaker 5 (01:52:20):
Just some shows are better than others, but I think
this was one of them. I don't think they were
as strong as maybe some of the other shows happened.

Speaker 6 (01:52:27):
But I did enjoy it as.

Speaker 5 (01:52:30):
A whole, and I think that arche Cassidy.

Speaker 3 (01:52:33):
It was.

Speaker 5 (01:52:33):
It was probably one of his best matches that he's had,
in my opinion, it was pretty entertaining. I think obviously
Jericho should have won, and I'm obviously glad he did, so.
I'm just I'm curious to see what they ended up
doing with Jeriica going forward, if he's gonna maybe hang
out on commentary, and just to see what they do
with both of them actually, and see if Cassidy continues
as a serious character going forward.

Speaker 1 (01:52:56):
Yeah, I've got a little bit of footage from Orange
Cassidy versus Jericho, and I mean this guy again, I
don't follow AW as closely as I would love to.
It's not that I'm just loyal WW only you don't
have to just pick one.

Speaker 3 (01:53:09):
I love all pro wrestling.

Speaker 1 (01:53:10):
I don't discriminate, but from what I've seen, like Orange
Cassidy and I've seen clips of them. I've been reading
what's going going on. Orange Cassidy is just he's He
is right now probably if not, the hottest commodity that
AW has. I mean in terms of Babyfaces and Jericho,
I think led him through that match from what I
saw very well. I mean, Jericho's a pros pro and

(01:53:31):
having Jericho can retain obviously, as you said, I think
that was a right move as well. Jericho's is your
lead heel. He's doing a hell of a job in
your in the heel role, and you have Orange Cassidy
kind of on the other side representing that that character
that is just so unique, hands in the pockets, doing
all these crazy moves, and man, I mean I've seen
him do some stuff that with his hands in his pockets,

(01:53:52):
and I'm like, how are you, like you are really
risking injury? Man, like you not be able to protect
yourself in all all in the name of, you know,
trying to be the cool, freshly squeezed Yeah, I get it,
but man, I don't know, So I don't know. What
do you think about the rest of the pay per view?
Kind of the same question from Great American Bash did
you enjoy the rest of the show.

Speaker 6 (01:54:14):
Yeah, I did.

Speaker 5 (01:54:14):
I've really enjoyed the four way tag team much that
they had. I'm really curious to see what they end
up doing with FTR and the Young Bucks going forward, because.

Speaker 6 (01:54:24):
The thing, obviously it's pretty well.

Speaker 5 (01:54:27):
I think it should be obvious that it's heading towards
the match all Out in September, no matter where it's at,
but I think that should be their main focus going forward,
at least with those two teams, and it's just gonna
be interesting to see how they get to that match
going forward, to see how much FTR calls Young but
the Young Bucks out for certain things that they do

(01:54:49):
or just maybe following the rules because they have been
mentioning that in like some interviews that they've been doing lately.
So it's just curious to see what they're gonna do
with that going forward and just how much they plan
that up or what they end up doing. Because I
really enjoyed FTR as a tag team, so I'm just
happy that they're in. You can tell that they enjoy
what they do too, so it just makes a big difference.

Speaker 1 (01:55:08):
No, definitely, And who's that heel on aw, I'm trying
to think of his name, the one who hasn't lost yet.

Speaker 3 (01:55:14):
What's his name? MJF?

Speaker 1 (01:55:17):
Yeah, do you talk about it to me? Again, I
have not watched every single show. I'm catching highlights and
reading stuff. But you talk about a guy that is
just god, his heel rolled down and just looks like
a total jerk and is unbeaten right now, at least
in my mind. MJF has a really bright feature as

(01:55:40):
a heel. I mean, he gets it. Do you do
you have like true heel heat for MJF? Like, how
do you feel about JF?

Speaker 3 (01:55:47):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (01:55:48):
Oh yeah, I mean of course, you know, I respect
him right because it takes a certain skill to do
what you do right and to at a certain level.
But I do not like him, Like I would not
buy his T shirt just because like I have perspect
for him, Like I do not support him, you know,
like I'm happy to chew or to cheer against that guy.
So yeah, I know he does his job, not the

(01:56:10):
cool heel.

Speaker 1 (01:56:11):
And I saw a picture of him like flipping off
a kid at a signing or something.

Speaker 6 (01:56:14):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, he's all.

Speaker 1 (01:56:16):
Like he's all in. I love it. And again, like.

Speaker 3 (01:56:21):
You don't that is old school heat.

Speaker 1 (01:56:23):
That is stuff like people legitimately dislike him and he's
so young. Yeah, that's that's what's great is he gets
it and he oh man, that is stuff that happened
back in the like seventies and eighties, where you know,
people would legitimately hate characters. They throw stuff in the ring.
K fab was a real big thing. It was not broken.
MJF is kind of the same way. Like he is

(01:56:45):
truly a heel's heel. He's not the cool heel that
you know. I can't wait till he turns baby face,
but I'm gonna cheer him now.

Speaker 3 (01:56:52):
Because he's so damn cool. No, that's not I'm JF.
That's what I love.

Speaker 1 (01:56:57):
He's throwing it back. So all right, Well, well, I
think we've covered everything. Unless there's anything else that we didn't.
I've scroblled out all my notes here. Do you have anything?

Speaker 3 (01:57:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:57:08):
No, I think I think that's everything. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:57:10):
Well, well, Ashley, before you go, and I'm jealous, you
can tell me what your Twitter is because I don't
know what that is anymore. But let everyone know what
your Twitter is or any other social media you want
to share. If people want to get in touch.

Speaker 5 (01:57:23):
Oh yeah, feel free to follow me on Twitter at
as H M A N N S. I haven't been
on as so much lately, but yeah, I hope to
get back and get back into that crazy Twitter world,
and hopefully you can too at some point, met I,
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:57:37):
What, I again, it's been almost two months.

Speaker 6 (01:57:40):
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:57:40):
It's funny the day the day I got banned was
May nineteenth, and if we're a wrestling fan, you know
what May nineteenth is. So I don't know if Kine
has something to do with this. Yeah, so maybe I
need to get in touch with the mayor and Knox
County because I don't know what the hell you know.

(01:58:00):
I told this to somebody on the show week ago,
two weeks ago. The only thing I can think of,
because Twitter has like actually a ton of rules. People
don't even understand or realize, Like there's a ton of
rules for Twitter. And one of the things was when
I first got my account, like eight nine years ago,
what I would do to get a bunch of followers
is just follow a bunch of people, right, because that's
the best way to get followers. You follow a bunch

(01:58:21):
of people and then you unfollow them or you unfollow
the people that don't follow you. That's called like churning.
It's like follower churning. So I think that the system
finally caught up with me after the first couple of
years where I did that. I I haven't done that
in like the last couple of years, but I think
that their systems finally caught up to my username and
was like, hey, wait a minute, like, let's look at

(01:58:42):
all these things you did, even though it was many
years ago. So it's the only thing I could think of.
So because every time I contact them, they say your
account was has been suspended and will remain suspended per
then they give me generic violations, which is like a
whole category. I'm like, well, I don't it's bizarre. So
I just keep trying to appeal. Eventually somebody's gonna come
on and go nah, maybe he's learned his lesson. I

(01:59:05):
don't know, but it's like super annoying. So and I've
tried to you know, yeah, maybe they're just like, oh
my god, just okay here, you know, I don't know,
but it's it's super hard. I've even tried to create
a second account, and they banned my second account under
another different phone number. I'm like, yeah, they're like really
on top of me. And then my Facebook goes up
in flames. I don't know what the hell's going on.

(01:59:26):
So this is getting crazy. But anyway, so those of
you that have Twitter, yeah I trust me. I wish
I could be on there. But all right, well, Ashley,
thank you again for joining us. It's glad to have
you back. I'm sure listeners are glad to have you back.
We'll do this again, well really, whenever your schedule allows.
I know everybody's got things that are going you know,

(01:59:48):
you know I'm working, they're not working.

Speaker 3 (01:59:50):
Schedules are here, people are.

Speaker 1 (01:59:51):
Working from home and they're not so well, you know,
I would say three weeks, but maybe it's sooner, maybe
it's later. We'll just kind of play it by.

Speaker 6 (01:59:58):
Your Yeah, it sounds good.

Speaker 3 (02:00:00):
All right, Ashley, thanks for coming on and enjoy your night.

Speaker 5 (02:00:03):
Thank you you too.

Speaker 2 (02:00:06):
Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to
subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss
a show, or head to wwepodcast dot com and for
all of these shows add free head over to Patreon
dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then, we'll see you

(02:00:27):
next time.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Crime Junkie

Cardiac Cowboys

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}5 YEARS AGO: Week in Review w/Ashley Mann: What Exactly is an Eye For an Eye Match? Orton vs McIntyre, Banks & Bayley Killing It

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Crime Junkie

Cardiac Cowboys

All Episodes

5 YEARS AGO: Week in Review w/Ashley Mann: What Exactly is an Eye For an Eye Match? Orton vs McIntyre, Banks & Bayley Killing It

On Purpose with Jay Shetty