December 6, 2025 • 61 mins
Originally aired on January 2nd, 2020 we take a look back at some industry-shaking moments during the 2010s in WWE.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's time for your weekly fix of wrestling. The still Jia.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
When we look at wrestlings past eras from the Attitude era.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Through the Reality era.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'd like to think that maybe this company will be
better after Vince McMahon's dead, but the fact is it's
it's gonna get taken over by his idiotic daughter and
his dupest son in law and the rest of his
stupid family.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Jes a day here on the WWE podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Welcome to the WWE Podcast. Everybody on this January second,
twenty twenty, Welcome to the show. Great, great show for
you guys today, one that I've never done. I've never
been able to encompass a topic like this, one that
covers such a large span of time, but one that
(01:07):
I'm really looking forward to because it gives me a
chance to go back and reflect on what this decade
provided to us from a professional wrestling standpoint, and looking back, man,
there are gonna be some things that you guys forgot about.
As I did. I took a lot of other people's
(01:29):
lists that they had out there, and I didn't just
copy verbatim, but I did use other people's other people's
ideas and other other people's top lists as references to
be able to put my own list together. And I
think that you guys will enjoy this because it's a
it's a step back in time, as this Wrestling and
(01:50):
Stallenga show always is, and I think we're gonna have
a lot of fun with this. There is a lot
to cover. I'm not gonna go over everything. There will
be things I miss, and this is not so much
of a top ten list as it really is just
to look back at at ten different points in time
in the last ten years that I think were monumental
(02:13):
in their own right, and I tried to choose different
ones that meant different things at the time and looking back,
still hold water in today's environment and change the way
that wwe WW presented wrestling. Some of these moments are
so monumental that we're still discussing them today and how
(02:36):
it affects today's current product. There are just so many
good things. And as I know, once I give you
guys these top ten, or I shouldn't say top ten,
these ten different items, this list of ten monumental monumental
events that happened in the last ten years, I know
I will leave things off and I will get people
tweeting at me saying, how could you forget this and
(02:57):
this and this and this. Well, I don't want my
list being one hundred items long, and you could. This
is a very objective list, right, So you may agree,
you may disagree, but the fact of the matter is
that you can make an argument for this the items
that I'm gonna give you, guys, you can make an
argument that this was a big and these were big
(03:18):
turning points in the business. So before we get going,
which trust me, there's lots of good things from and
gonna give you hints from pipe bombs to streaks to revolutions.
I hope I gave you guys some hints. This was
a crazy decade and imagine what twenty thirty is gonna
be when we look back at the twenties. So anyway, guys,
(03:39):
welcome to the show. And you guys can follow me
on Twitter at the WWE podcast. You can also hit
me up on Instagram which is WWE podcast as well
or the website, which you guessed it is WWE podcast
dot com. And video is coming. I'm gonna announce that
until it actually happens, video is on the way for free.
(03:59):
The free feed for my website for Patreon at patreon
dot com, slash WWE podcast, where by the way, you
get all these shows ad free come on the show,
and lots of other cool perks, shout outs, video shoutouts
on my Twitter feed and more. So what I'm gonna
probably do once I get video up and running is
do exclusive videos just for that feed on Patreon, and
(04:23):
then do free videos occasionally during the week with my
website and my normal Apple podcast feeds. So just a
little bit of a heads up on what's going to
be coming down the line, as well as trying to
get more people on the show. What I mean by
that is not necessarily co hosts, although I do like
to mix it up from time to time, but also wrestlers,
(04:43):
actual wrestlers, whether they're on the independent scene or if
I can try to get somebody from WWE. It is
on my radar getting actual wrestlers from WWE. I've had
people ask me that it's like, you know, it takes
an Act of Congress to make it happen, because there's
a lot of red tapef to go through. A lot
of times they want a significant amount of money, even
for a short period of time, a lot of barriers, right,
(05:05):
So the actual wrestlers from WWE may be harder to
get than you know, independence and things like that, but
even those on the independent scene I think have a
lot of value to add to a conversation about wrestling,
because yeah, they may not be in the big leagues
as WW likes to call themselves, but they still have experience,
more experience than ninety eight percent of us listening and
(05:27):
wrestling is wrestling, and yes it's not ww's brand of wrestling,
but I think even those on the independent scene could
add a lot of value in conversation to this show.
So I'm gonna be working on that in the coming year.
I've made New Year's resolutions for this show, if you
can tell. Also being more active on Twitter and trying
to live watch the pay per views so I can
(05:47):
interact immediately with you guys. It's not easy for me
to do. I just my schedule at home is just
crazy with you know, a little one and everything else,
and to watch it live is not easy. But I'm
gonna be trying to do all those things in the
next year. So there's there are my New Year's resolutions
(06:09):
for this show. So again, guys, a little bit of
a schedule reminder. The A W and NXT reviews should
be coming out later tonight or even tomorrow, just so
you know those of you that are waiting on that,
as well as the weekend review with Ashley coming up
this weekend, probably dropping on Saturday, so be able to
(06:30):
hear us discuss everything that's going on as we reach
the halfway point to the Royal Rumble. And there's certainly
a lot to certainly a lot to get to. Ashley
and I certainly have good chemistry, I think at least,
and you know, she brings out some good conversation, bring
us up good points, and I know you guys love her,
and she'll be back this weekend. All right, Well, let's
(06:53):
not delay this any further. Let's let's just get to
the first item I have on this list. And again,
this is not a ten to one list or one
to ten list. There's no real order. You really could
make a case for all of these being on different
levels and different rankings in a top ten, or maybe
you wouldn't put them at all on your list, But
(07:15):
I think we need to get to one of the
biggest moments in the last ten years and this is
the one that is extremely recent. And I understand that
I'm not saying it's the most significant, and it's not,
because well, we feel like the most significant things are
the ones that happen the most recent because of the
most fresh in our minds. I'm aware of that alteration
(07:35):
of memory. Those memories that are the most recent are
the most vivid typically and the ones that you magnify.
But in this case, you could argue it's a top
ten maybe number nine or ten on some people's lists,
but it's Kofee Kingston winning the WWE Championship. And I
think that's significant because Kofee Kingston winning was something that
(07:58):
came out of left field for most people. I don't
think anybody predicted Kofee Kingston winning the WWE Championship at
the beginning of twenty nineteen. I mean you, you didn't
see it coming, and that was part of the magic.
And it really took just one injury by Mustafa Ali,
(08:18):
who's really the unsung hero of this entire run, that
allowed this opportunity for KOFE to present itself, taking Mustafa
Ali's or just Ali. Excuse me, we've chopped the name
the Kofe Kingston took Ali's spot in the elimination chamber
and went on to have an extraordinary performance against the
(08:41):
heel Daniel Brian champion at that time, nearly winning the
thing and just set the world ablaze with the Kofee
Kingston movement. And while Kevin Owens was originally scheduled to
be the opponent for Daniel Bryan, it turned into Kofi
Kingston and it just caught fire. I mean the next
(09:03):
day people were clamoring for another They want to see
it again. And credit to Brian too. Doesn't hurt that
Daniel Brian was his dancing partner in this whole thing,
and uh, it just became this organic movement for Kofe.
I was never, as you guys know, as never a
proponent of Kovie Kingston winning. He never felt like a
(09:24):
true WWE champion. And you know, I'll get to that
in a minute. For those of that haven't heard my
thoughts on that, and you're probably like, what the hell,
what are you talking about? He deserves it, Okay, Well,
Kovie Kingston was in the WWE for eleven years. We
know the story. He was the good soldier. He was
great to work with. Easy to get along with backstage,
(09:46):
was in that mid to upper tier card for the
majority of his career, caught fire with The New Day.
Started out with that fake Jamaican a Jamaican accent. We
all know the story of KOFE Kingston as it's been
repeated over and over. And then Vince McMahon throws a
bunch of obstacles in his way every SmackDown on the
way to the WrestleMania pay per view, and Koffee overcomes
(10:07):
them all, climbs that mountain and Vince McMahon takes us
on a ride and gets us to the top. KOFE
holds it for six months and then loses in nine
seconds to brock Lesner. L m AO or crying laughing
face is what I would if I was texting somebody
about this, it would be l O L L m
a oo with a bunch of with a crying face.
(10:29):
That that's a laughing crying face. That's how I would
feel about it. And you know, look here here's my
deal with KOFE. And I want to just take say
this up front because I've actually had people put in
a review that I am it's privileged, white privilege. What
I have no idea what white privilege has anything to do,
which I don't even think exists. Exists, by the way,
(10:50):
and you may say that's because you're white, Well no,
but that's a whole nother topic. I may even do
a whole other podcast on something like that, right, get
people fired up and anyway, But even if white privilege
does it does exist, then what does that have to
do with my opinion of the run of Kofe Kingston.
People like to bring in skin color. It's such an
(11:10):
easy target. It's such an easy, lazy analysis. It's a
lazy attack on somebody to just point to or a racist.
It's lazy. It just has no backing, right. I was
a Kofe Kingston proponent of in the ring forever for
his entire career. I had no issue with him in
(11:31):
the ring. I had nothing. I had not said a
bad word about Kofe Kingston probably isn't in his entire
career up until he won the w WA championship. He
just never felt like he was a champion and had
zero to do with his skin color. Zero. He could
be pink or purple, or yellow or green. I don't care.
I don't give a Damn. It just felt like a
(11:54):
mid carter carrying the belt that he didn't really deserve
and you could say for eleven years he deserves it. Well,
there are a lot of guys that work longer and
harder than him that have never held the championship and
don't deserve to. And that's okay, that's okay. Not everybody
(12:16):
needs to hold that belt just because they're there a
long time. That doesn't automatically qualify you to be the
top guy. Just because you have a long standing relationship
with a company, it should afford you more opportunities. That's
certainly the case and absolutely, but the fact of the
(12:37):
matter is Kofi as a character never ever ever to me,
reached the WWE championship level. Never he felt like a
champion that was just again holding the belt, keeping it
warm for somebody that actually was of the caliber to
hold it. And I'm not trying to disrespect Kofee. I
think he's an amazing performer. He just his character never
(12:59):
caught with me. You know why. I think the biggest
part was I was I was willing to give it
a chance at WrestleMania when he won this year, and it.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Was such a feel good moment.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Oh, on a great feel good moment he brought his
kids in the ring. Anyway, before I start ranting on that,
I was willing to give it a chance. But the
problem is, during the entire six months he was still
throwing pancakes, acting like a you know, a sophomore in
high school, like like some just goofball in the new day.
And you may say, oh, why would you change your act?
(13:30):
Why would you, you know, fix something that's not broke well,
because the WWE champion championship itself deserves more respect than
somebody parading around with pancakes. Again, those of you listening
are probably saying, let's just skin go it.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
He's black. It has nothing to do with that.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Okay, let let's grow up, all right, Let's let's not
be lazy in our attacks on people of everybody, just
pointing to racist, racist, bigot racist. It's so lazy and
it just has nothing to do with it. It's purely on
a wrestling character standpoint that Kofee Kingston had no business
being WWE champion as long as he did, he never
(14:07):
felt that way. The championship got forgotten for six months.
You don't believe me, You don't believe me that it
got lost for six months. Go back and watch Kofee
Kingston's run on SmackDown over those six months from April
until October when brock Lesnar rightfully took it away from
Kofee Kingston in nine seconds. He got really misplaced on
(14:29):
the show. If you're the champion, you got misplaced? Why
because you got overshadowed by Roman Reigns who'd done it.
You got overshadowed by other storylines that were apparently bigger
than you as WWE champion. Go back and look, and yes,
he closed that show sometimes, and you know, occasionally he
would be the main focus of the show occasionally more
(14:50):
often than not. Who stole the thunder Roman Reigns. So
that's my thoughts on that. But it was a big moment.
It was a big moment because it was it was
kind of like the Yes Movement part two with Daniel
Brian winning at WrestleMania thirty And I had no issues
with that either, But with Daniel Brian winning at thirty,
that to me was probably one of the biggest grassroots
(15:16):
movements of all time in professional wrestling. And that's actually
my next item as they get to The second piece
of this is Daniel Brian winning at WrestleMania thirty and
again one of the biggest, biggest illustrations that the power
that the crowd can have on who they want as champion,
despite what Vince McMahon may want, is Daniel Brian. I mean,
(15:37):
we know the story. He came in from the independent
scene and was put in NXT's joke at the time,
which is he was a joke of being the miss
being his pro which is hilarious to think about now,
and gets fired after he joined the Nexus and strangle
Justin Roberts with his own tie and then gets rehired
(16:01):
and then ends up. I remember he faced Shamous at
WrestleMania twenty eight and lost in like eleven seconds after
a brogue kick, and just just so many, so many
things led to Daniel Bryan and the organic love that
the fans had for him. An easy guy to like,
didn't feel like a corporately created a performer. He felt
(16:24):
like a guy that you could relate to and you'd
want to have a beer with, and was just the
every man and you know, aka the opposite of Roman Reigns,
and just the crowd began to love him. So let
me give you guys a little bit of audio for
WrestleMania thirty as. Don't forget earlier in the night, Triple
H had to he had to face Triple H and
if he won, he would make himself in a three
(16:47):
way in the main event of Batista and Randy Orton.
So let's just take a listen and let's let's remind
ourselves of what happened here in New Orleans.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
You're gonna taste up, dad, I'm gonna tast stuff, Dad,
i'nna taste dum come.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Yes, damn?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Do come on?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Give me the can tin pack?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Can taste does the train pack?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I taste up? The time I can taste up? What
did you get?
Speaker 5 (17:14):
The time?
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I think.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
You pick the.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Naki can? Fifth? Can they gonna cut my apartment straight?
Speaker 6 (17:37):
Damn? They are possible to have they called anybody.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
So just a little bit of a reminder there just
how big that moment was, and going back and watching
it to see if people chanting, Yes, I mean there's
not a person sitting down, not a single person sitting down.
It is quite a sight to see and it was
just gorgeous. I mean, no other way to put it.
It was a magnificent, huge moment that took place at
(18:28):
WrestleMania thirty and changed the course of WW forever because
I think that not only was that a successful run
for Brian that ended up getting cut short because of
an injury, only to lead to a comeback and ultimately
I think turned Roman reigns, to turn the fans against
Roman reigns, but also condition the audience to believe that
(18:49):
they can direct who they want to push and not
who the company, and Vince feels like they should he
should push because he feels that he knows better than
the audience. So this I think was really the the
ignition or the start of the fans versus Vince McMahon,
because the fans realized what power they had in their hands. Now,
(19:12):
the fans realized, guys like, look what we did, and
this was all the fans, All of the fans are
responsible for this. They are the reason Daniel Bryan got
to where he was. And you could say, oh, the
fans always have always held the keys, you know, they're
always the ones who decide who gets pushed. Nonsense, nonsense,
(19:34):
I mean it's just you would say that, and to
some degree I would agree with you. But the thing
is that Vince McMahon has just had the incessant need
to push back against fans and say that no, this
is gonna be your top guy. I mean again, look
at exhibit A Roman reigns. Right, it's this this war
(19:56):
of attrition with Roman and and Vince versus the fans.
And to some degree Vince McMahon has gotten where he
wants to be with Roman, not to this level of
success he's wanted. But we will see, as you guys know,
what happens when he faces the fiend or someone beyond
Baron Corbyn if all of this success is indeed authentic
(20:17):
dumb anyway, having that happen at Wrestlemany thirty, huge moment.
Moving on to the next item number three, and again
this is not in any particular order, was the Women's
Evolution pay per view. And this was a big deal, right.
It's the first all women's pay per view in WWE history.
(20:40):
And this really began. If you want to trace this
women's revolution back, it started because of social media. And
this started on February twenty third. It was the Belatwins
facing Page and Emma in a match on Raw. It
lasted less than a minute and it really kick started
(21:01):
the hashtag give Divas a Chance, and the Devas Championship
was still unfortunately in place, which was an awful championship.
Awful It's like, who wants to be the biggest drama queen?
That's really what the championship meant. Didn't have a whole
lot of value. It was a butterfly championship. I think
the only one to really add any prestige to that
(21:22):
was aj Lee. She felt like, you know, she was
a true champion. And yes, Paige won the Devas Championship
on our first raw and debut, we all know that story.
But the Divas Championship, for all intensive purposes, was just
a watered down drama queen championship of the Penny women
facing each other. And yeah, the bron Pennies matches were
(21:42):
not happening, but the women were really still being positioned
as a glorified bathroom break. I mean that's just what
they were. There's no getting around that they were. So
that started it in twenty fifteen and February and five
years later, here we are, and look where we've come
in The Evolution pay per view was amazing that pay
(22:02):
per view never would have taken place had that hashtag
not caught fire and really sparked the women of WWE
to do a ton of crazy first says. WW said
the first women's Money in the Bank ladder match, the
first women's Royal Rumble, you know, the first women's Hell
(22:22):
in a Cell, and then the first women's TLC match,
and ultimately the first women's main event of WrestleMania. Right,
they love saying the first, and by god, it's all
about making history. That's the one drawback to this whole
thing I think is that the competitors in their promos
were more concerned about making history than winning a match.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I had.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I took issue with that because the first and foremost,
you should be here to win. If I'm supposed to
believe in your character, I need to know that you
care about winning and not just stealing the show like
Delf Ziggler or getting into this this is awesome chance.
I need to know that you care about winning so
I can get behind you when you're in a match.
And so I think a lot of that got lost
(23:08):
in making history. How many times do we hear that
with Sasha versus Charlotte in the first women tell in
the Sale match, it's all about making history. Here's the thing,
we know, it's making history. We have the announcers to
tell us that it's not for you to transparently tell
me that it's about making history.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Does anybody else get their stomach turned by this? It's
just very heavy handed. I'm not a fan, but I'm
a fan of the women's movement. It has certainly shaking
things up, and I think made the male competitors in
WWE more competitive, that they aren't just going to be
given and afforded a better spot because of their gender now,
and that they need to earn it. And they have
(23:48):
the women who are just as hungry, if not more
hungry than the men are, and put on great matches.
And the Evolution pay per view was a huge I
think it was one of the best pay per views
of the entire year. I remember how awesome that pay
per view was. Tony Storm, I remember being a standout
in that match or in that show, and it was
awesome to see and it really just it was a
(24:11):
signal that the women are here. And I don't know
why there hasn't been another Evolution pay per view. It's
a little bit puzzling. I would have liked to have
seen another women's pay per view, but maybe I'm sure
we will, and maybe they just don't feel like they
have a strong enough roster right now with Ronda Rousey
down and several others, and that the storylines don't feel
(24:32):
as hot that they can't provide another pay per view
at that level. But I remember I was loved, I
loved a raved about the reviews on that pay per
view of Evolution. If you haven't seen it, you need to.
I also could have done without Stephanie McMahon coming out
to like, you know, stand with all the women as
if this is like, you know, a high school drama,
and we all come out at the end of the
show and bow like, hey, thanks for you know, thanks
(24:54):
for being entertained. It's god, it makes me want to vomit.
It takes everything away. But nonetheless a great pay per
view and one that I think was a turning point
and really a sign of the times that an all
women's pay per view could actually stand up and live
up to the expectations. And it did all right. The
(25:16):
next thing that I think we need to talk about
is the streak ending and Undertaker losing to Brock Lesner
at WrestleMania thirty. This was a moment that I don't
think anybody would ever believe that they would see in
(25:37):
their lifetime. It was shocking.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
It was.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Just really unbelievable to watch. And rather than rather than
me describe it, I'm just gonna give you some damn audio.
I know you guys love the audio. I do too,
So let's take a listen and we can live this
moment again, and we'll come right back with some analysis.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Brought Lester chattered, proact Lester chatter, lesser chowder. He's got
an Undertaker over his shoulders, a guy then again going
for a triple a third up, fuck the under attacker,
rock Leicester into the tuger, looks the leg, the streak
is over.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You can you can, Dad.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
Walk, you get it, look at it, you're at across.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
That was just I mean, watching that back still makes me.
It's still shocking. It's still shocking again to go twenty
one and oh, was something that you get that far
an undertaker, you know, so far in his career that
you think there's just no chance, there is no chance
(27:38):
that they're ever going to have the Undertaker lose his streak,
and Jim Ross came up with a proposition of if
the streak's going to end, here's how you do it.
You have the Undertaker declare that if he ever loses
at WrestleMania and someone breaks his streak, that he will retire.
That would create so much buzz and interest of well,
he has to lose at some time, who's going to
(27:59):
be the one to beat him. I think that's a brilliant,
brilliant creative way to get people to tune in and
eventually see who's going to break the streak, because you
know it's eventually going to be broken. But to have
it happen here at WrestleMania thirty and six years later,
Undertaker is still competing. It's insane. It's insane, but brock
(28:21):
Lesner to beat the streak. Vince has justified it by
saying that streaks are meant to be broken. He didn't
have anything big plan for thirty so he needed to
have something like this, something that that of that magnitude
and that no one wants to give back to the
business more than the Undertaker, more than Mark Callaway, As
(28:43):
he said in Stone Colts podcast, a number of years
ago so he can justify it all he wants. I
still don't believe it should have been broken, even all
these years later. It's been almost six years, isn't that insane?
Almost six years since that moment took place, and it
still doesn't sit right with me. I'll never forget sitting
there in my apartment looking at looking at this happened,
(29:07):
and I remember standing up, going what And you're waiting
for the referee to restart the match, or for Vince
to come down, somebody to come down to say that
that's not right. No, this is not right, restart the match,
or something happened, or it just you kept waiting for
some craziness to happen that would reverse the decision, and
(29:28):
instead we got silence. We got silence, and that was
a brilliant move because I think Wwe wanted to hear
the audience. They wanted to have that moment of just
just pure shock, no music, nothing, just what was the
audible invisible reactions of fans that had seen this streak
(29:49):
for twenty one years and twenty one straight victories suddenly
come to an end when no one thought he would
just you see the reactions of people it's just like crazy,
It's crazy the reactions of fans, and again one of
the moments I'd recommend you go back and listen to
and watch as well. I mean, I just just that
one clip still made me go, what the hell? Was
(30:13):
it the worst decision in wrestling history?
Speaker 1 (30:15):
No?
Speaker 2 (30:17):
No, I don't think it was, but certainly one of
the ones that was shocking and never thought we'd see.
And maybe that's why Vince did it. Alrighty, the next
one here the I believe this is what Number four
was the launch of the WWE network, right, This was
a game changer. This happened on February twenty fourth, twenty fourteen,
(30:41):
and was right before WrestleMania thirty. And I remember watching
Stephanie McMahon make the announcements and saying this is going
to be awesome, and it was priced at nine to
ninety nine a month, and saying that while we were
already paying fifty bucks for WrestleMania, what the hell is
(31:02):
another you know, just ten bucks a month? But I
know that performers, wrestlers backstage were concerned saying, is this
going to cut into our paycheck? Considering that pay per
views are thirty forty bucks a piece, and that some
people only order WrestleMania and that's sixty bucks. How are
(31:24):
the payoffs going to work? And Vince didn't really have
an answer. The answer really is volume and getting those
who may out have purchased a pay per view during
the year to realize the value of Wait for ten
bucks a month, I can get every pay per view
and it's not going to be a forty dollars charge
to my cable bill every month. And I get access
to not just every pay per view, but the entire
(31:45):
raw library, SmackDown library, documentaries, exclusives, three sixty five, table
for three, all these things that have obviously come along later,
but just everything. And the value is insane. I mean,
I'm not promoting the WWE network as if I'm getting
a cut of it, right, but I'm giving you my
honest opinion that I will gladly give nine ninety nine
(32:06):
a month for what I get back in value for
the network. Could the app be better on iPhone? Yeah,
the app on iPhone is still kind of it's better,
but it was a game changer. It was a game
changer for the vehicle, the platform in which they present content,
and it really just I think skyrocket the amount of
(32:29):
content you have access to because prior to that, what
were we all using?
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Prior to the w W network.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Think back to that time, we used what YouTube? I
used YouTube, I still use YouTube, other torrent sites or
video sharing sites, I'd use DVDs. I did not, did
not use vhs. I don't even know if I have
vhs anymore. But I did use what was that called
(32:55):
frost wire, lime wire when I could download wrestling clips.
I remember all that prior to that in this when
the paper you would come along, if it was big enough,
I would typically order the Big Four, WrestleMania Survivor series,
Rumble in Summer Slam. Those were really the ones that
I would invest my money in. And now with nine
to ninety nine a month, it really is a huge
I know this sounds like an infomercial for ww network.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
It's just my honest opinion about it, and it's a
huge game changer and it really shook up the entire
entire way that WWE presents content and it's I think
a huge game changer.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
So that was a huge moment as well. You know,
it wasn't an actual wrestling moment, but massive, massive way,
and also how they count ratings I think as well. Yes,
Raw isn't stream live on the network, but a lot
of people watch Raw and Delay, which then happens through Hulu.
So anyway, streaming has just changed the game completely and
(33:54):
ww got involved in that in February of twenty fourteen.
All Right, the WWE Performance Center is number five here.
This is a big deal in that, like the ww network,
it's not an in ring moment, but it changed the
game in a very important way of how WWE gets
(34:17):
their talent. With WCW being purchased in two thousand and one,
with very little competition. You can't count TNA, all right,
Ring of Honor doesn't count, New Japan doesn't count. None
of that unfortunately counts as true competition. So outside of
those small pools of talent availability, there wasn't anybody that
(34:40):
or any place you could go to really understand the
WWE way of their version of professional wrestling, And there
wasn't a talent pool out there that you could pull from.
And it was just a great way that happened. Again,
this happened on It opened on July eleventh, twenty thirteen, and.
Speaker 6 (35:02):
It was.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Very expensive for WWE at first, a hell of an investment,
but for WWA, for Triple H to take that by
the horns and spearhead this project to a point where
now five years removed or really well seven years almost
seven years since WWE opened that it has become the
(35:31):
truth third brand, NXT has again the performance center is
separate from NXT, but that's where you would presumably go,
is from the training the performance Center to NXT to
the main roster. That was just the path in which
stars would take. And now it's starting to change a
bit where stars don't want to leave NXT for the
fear that they'll get lost in the shuffle. It's a
different schedule in the main roster, and they want to
(35:53):
be the biggest fish in a small pond at NXT
like Tomaso Champa. And it's been documented by Triple H
that also doesn't want to leave NXT and I respect that.
So again, the training center open on July eleventh, twenty thirteen,
and really was extremely It was instrumental in developing new talent,
getting talent used to the way ww produces their shows,
(36:16):
what cameras to look at, how aesthetically, they look on camera,
there's a promo room, there's what four or five rings
in the facility, waits cardio. I mean, you name it.
Everything that you need to all the tools possible to
be a star that is are at your disposal. And
(36:37):
it changed the game. It was a brilliant idea that
Triple Ah spearheaded and it was just it was just
it worked and it continues to work, and it is
a it's really a proven system now for WWE to
have these stars really start there. Yes, they're brought in
(36:57):
from maybe restling promotions overseas or even in Mexico or
independence throughout the United States, and yes, even maybe even
AEW at some point will be a place w looks
to possibly bring in a big talent. I mean that's
not something I think we should think it should sneeze
(37:19):
at because eventually it could be WCW versus WWE in
the long run, where it's they maybe get bigger than NXT,
can maybe compete with the ratings of Ron SmackDown. Again,
we're talking down the line, but think about that, right, so,
aw Or, I'm sorry. The training center is a huge,
huge deal, huge deal, and it's just brilliant. So all right,
(37:45):
number six, the debut of the Shield that Survivor series
twoenty twelve, they attacked Rye Back and Sina. It allowed
Campunk to get the win here if you remember it was,
I remember how cool it was. I mean they were
like the Pack of Wolves as they were they were
(38:07):
really label as and having Ambrose and Rollins and Reins,
they just felt different their promos, backstage holding the camera,
everything felt different and knew about them they were they
were brought up and I know Ciampunk takes credit for
putting the Shield together. Originally he wanted Ambrose, Rollins and
Chris hero He uh, he got Roman Reigns and certainly
(38:30):
that's worked out for Reins. But it was a moment
that I remember going what the hell kind of in
the way that the The Nexus did. Except the Nexus
was a bigger group that didn't have as much of
an identity individually. It was just kind of a bunch
of bodies from NXT, whereas these were three defined guys
that we got to know over the next couple of years.
Before Rollins did his infamous and It's extremely successful. Heel
(38:53):
turned to join the Authority. But this was this was
a moment because this shield is this is iconic in
the annals of wrestling factions and the guys that they've
taken out. They took out the Rock, they took out
the Undertaker, They've taken out CM Punk, just you go
(39:13):
on and on, and they had some really really big moments,
and it's again, this is a moment that I know
I'll never forget. And hey, while we're at it, why
not why not listen listen to some audio here as
I pull it up on my computing machine, take a listen.
Speaker 6 (39:31):
Hey in the world, what is this? Who?
Speaker 3 (39:33):
What is this?
Speaker 2 (39:37):
These three guys.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
Damn Welcome to the Shield of Justice.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
So, of course that was a bit of a recap,
but uh, it was a huge moment and one that
clearly just changed the lives of all three guy, all
three guys, and really the business because how many accommodations
of of these three have we seen, as far as
even fighting amongst themselves, all three holding championships, tag team championships,
(40:18):
their their feuds with John Cena. I mean, it really
just changed the game, and I think was the first
true showing of what NXT could provide us. It was
the first successful big bring up for three guys, and yeah,
the Nexus was first, but they again they they're they're
kind of forgotten. I mean, you don't remember anybody but
(40:39):
Wade Barrett and uh yeah, of course you had the
Fiend actually come out of it. Bray Why came out
of it. You had Michael McGillicutty come out of it.
I mean, which Curtis Axel. You had guys come out
that are still kind of here, right obviously, Bray Why
being the biggest and most successful. But it was really
these three guys is that I think truly were the
(41:04):
the example of what NXT could provide us. So all right,
moving down the line here, number seven, I hope I
kind of that right. Brock Lesner's return in twenty twelve
now proud of this, we have to remember brock Lesner
was last seen in WWE in two thousand and four,
(41:24):
after having which is really widely believed one of the
worst WrestleMania matches of all time in brock Lesner versus
Goldberg or WrestleMania twenty. I've said that so many times
that it started to hurt now, but that was the
last time that we saw brock Lesner in a WWE ring.
And to have him come back eight years later, and
(41:48):
it was the night after The Rock was defeated by
I'm sorry Johnsen was defeated by the Rock, And so
john Scene is in the middle of the ring and uh, well,
why don't we just take a listen to what happened?
Speaker 6 (42:09):
M Mirrod last hours, that's summer, tell Tolly Wi sad man,
(42:52):
they have never chant our lives.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Arena has come and glowed.
Speaker 3 (42:59):
M hmm.
Speaker 5 (43:21):
Man six three, two hundred and sixty six pounds.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
So Brock goes on to F five John Cena and
the fans love it. Uh, they lose their minds. It
was a It was a great moment. And even seeing
that back, it reminds you just how big of a
deal Brock is. And we may say, oh, retired of
seeing him, you know, he's an absentee champion.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
The fact of the matter is, I don't care what
you think about him, like him, hate him, in between, indifferent.
The fact is that he is the biggest star WWE
has right now, and name somebody bigger. Roman reigns. I
don't think so, John Cena not the game anymore. And
I would argue Brock Lester is bigger than John Cena.
There's just nobody bigger nobody and that's a damn fact.
(44:23):
So yes, and by the way, brock Lenzer's back on
Monday Night Raw this coming Monday, as I predicted the
first Monday Night Raw of the new year, you'll see
big stars come back as they are now and so
but again, this moment was huge because it not only
was the return of Brock Lesner and now we're my
god freaking eight years since that moment, but it was
(44:45):
also the turning point of John Cena's career for that year,
going on a downward spiral. He lost to the Rock,
he lost to Brock in his program here and it
was a well documented year for John Cena that was
not one of his best in terms of a professional standpoint,
But it was a huge moment, one that I was
(45:05):
shocked in seeing after Brock left on very miserable terms
eight years earlier, you know, in having such success in
the UFC, I didn't think he'd come back. And yes,
he has had fights in the UFC since then, no question,
And he has won against Mark Hunt very with an
(45:26):
asterix of course, right or asterix is an asterisk or
asterix I don't know. See now I'm getting tongue tied.
But it was a huge moment and I loved it
as I love sharing this audio because it gets me
all pumped up. All right, we're on to number eight.
What is the what's number eight here? I would say
number eight is The Rock returning to WWE. And this
(45:51):
happened also in twenty eleven, and it was This was
a huge moment too, because as brock Lesner's return was
big in twenty twelve, I think The Rock's return was
also equally big because many of us believed that The
Rock was probably done. He had said it in many
(46:14):
different platforms after he was in the you know, having
finding success and big success in Hollywood, that he was
done with wrestling, and you know, have him come back
and have him face John Cena noticed the theme here.
John Cena is like the face of w W and
he had brought come back to beat him, and Rock
come back to beat him. Cool deal, right, But for
(46:37):
The Rock to come back and to have him do
what he did with John Cena and have him come
back in a way that was explosive. On Valentine's Day,
I remember that again. I was out on a date
and I missed it. It was a big moment to
have The Rock come back as the host of WrestleMania.
He was the host of WrestleMania twenty seven. He ended
(46:58):
up costing the Miz. I'm sorry, costing John Cena the
w W Championship to have the Miz retain the WWE
Championship in the main event of WrestleMania and give him
rock Bottom, and then it set up a match for
a year long bill at WrestleMania twenty eight. The Rock
goes on to win, and then The Rock becomes w
W Champion during that year and then does the favors
(47:20):
for John Cena, allowing John Cena to The Rock does
the favors for Sena at WrestleMania twenty nine, and John
Cena wins the championship. Rock actually got injured during the
match into our hamstring and then Seena becomes champion. So
it was a give and take two year long program
and I think it was beneficial for both guys. It
(47:41):
was a huge deal. The Rock coming back the way
he did, I think was explosive, great promo when he
first came back and it was in La the Staples Center.
I'll never forget it, and also having John Cena carve
out the Rock pretty bad, carved up the Rock, and
in terms of a promo ability, I mean, he just
(48:03):
I'm sorry, he spanked the Rock. And I hate to
say that, but John Cena spanked the Rock when it
came to promos. He just did.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
He just did.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
And Johnsena proves that he is the master of the mic.
It's just the way it is, which is a compliment
to him. As much as I'm a Rock fan, and
you thought The Rock was going to come back and
just chew up John Cena and it has been about
on the mic. We got a different we got a
different result, and the Rock proved he can still go.
I think WrestleMania twenty eight was a better match than
(48:34):
twenty nine, but it certainly showed that the Rock still
had it and is in phenomenal shape and was a
great business for the company. Put you know, put more
value back in the brand in terms of notoriety, in
terms of news outlets talking about the Rocks return. I mean,
it was just great publicity. I think it helped the
(48:55):
business as a whole in a time that didn't really
have a lot of top stars other than John. It
was a big deal. And then Brock obviously returns in
twenty twelve. As I just discussed, so again the Rocks
return huge here and moving on all right. Number nine
was Oh yeah, Cmpunk's pipe bomb promo, and that happened
(49:21):
on June twenty seventh, twenty eleven, in Vegas, after Punk
had just finished attacking John Cena, when he sat down
on the stage and proceeded to deliver one of the
greatest work to shoot promos of all time, all time,
and it was just nothing.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Short of.
Speaker 2 (49:42):
Miraculous, game changing. It went from this era of you know,
we don't know who the next top guy is to
we know who our top guy is, and it was
just brilliant and well, let's just take a listen to
some of it.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
I've been the.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Best ever since day one when I walked into this company,
and I've been vilified and hated since that day because
Paul Hayman saw something in me that nobody else wanted
to admit.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
That's right, I'm a Paul Hayman guy.
Speaker 4 (50:18):
You know who else was a Paul Hayman guy.
Speaker 5 (50:20):
Brock Lesner, and he's split just like I'm splitting.
Speaker 3 (50:25):
But the biggest difference between me and Brock is I'm
going to leave with a WWE championship. I've grabbed so
(50:45):
many of Vincent kay mc man's imaginary brass rings that
it's finally dawned on me that they're just that they're
completely imaginary. The only thing that's real is me and
the fact that, day in and day out, for almost
six years, I have proved everybody in the world that
I am the best on this microphone, in that ring,
(51:07):
even in commentary.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
Nobody can touch me.
Speaker 6 (51:13):
And yet you know how many, no matter how many.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
Times I prove it, I'm not on your lovely little
collector cups.
Speaker 5 (51:20):
I'm not on the cover of the program.
Speaker 3 (51:22):
I'm barely promoted.
Speaker 6 (51:24):
I don't get to be in movies.
Speaker 3 (51:26):
I'm certainly not on any crappy show on the USA network.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
I'm not on the poster WrestleMania.
Speaker 3 (51:31):
I'm not in the signature that's produced at the start.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Of the show.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
I mean, just this great stuff. I mean, I can
watch that promo all day. It's it's just such as
a staple in the in the WWE, in WWE history,
it changed the game for how promos are delivered in
an era that was very heavily scripted. It's certainly changed
(51:57):
the game big time. So we all know and love
this promo and it should be studied. It should be
studied in classes, and it's brilliant, alrighty. And that gets
us to the number ten moment here and again, this
is not a one to ten list.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
This is not.
Speaker 2 (52:18):
Any kind of again, any kind of ranking system. This
is just the ten moments that I thought we were big.
And this is not the most big, This is not
the biggest moment. This happens just be number ten. And
that was, at least to me, the Shawn Michael's retirement.
And this took place in twenty ten after WrestleMania twenty
(52:41):
six when the Undertaker defeated Shawn Michaels, and it was
extremely significant because it marked the end of one of
the greatest, if not the greatest in ring career of
all time. And you could say Rick Flair is one
of this extremely subjective, I understand, but in my eyes,
I mean I grew up watching Michaels and started in
ninety seven as he just started getting into DX and
(53:03):
all through his retirement or force retirement after the injury
from the Undertaker backdropping him on a casket and then
really coming full circle coming back in two thousand and two,
which was supposed to be a one off, and then
really making it a career for another eight years, and
(53:25):
it was one of the best careers I've ever seen.
I don't think we really fully truly understand the significance
of Sean Michaels and the impact he had on future
future performers and the overall impact he has had on
the on this industry and all the great matches he's
given us. Everything I mean to me, the WrestleMania twenty
(53:48):
five match with the Undertaker may have been the best
match I've ever seen. That's I don't say that lightly.
It really may have been. It is a a wrestling clinic.
It is a clinic in psychology. It is everything you
need a wrestling match to be, and it's paced correctly.
(54:11):
It is paced correctly at twenty five, and yes, twenty
six of course was a follow up which could never
really follow up to the twenty five match, And we're
focusing on twenty five or twenty six because it's within
twenty ten. If I go too two thousand and nine,
obviously it doesn't count because it's not part of this decade,
but again, twenty five to me was the best match
(54:33):
I've ever seen, and it proves that you don't need
today's style of five hundred miles an hour to have
of this is awesome chant. To me, this is awesome
chance or actually a sign of a wrestling style that
I'm still getting used to. It really exemplified what you
(54:53):
can do when you have two stars in the ring
that tell a story at a pace that is digestible
and just understanding ring psychology and have chemistry on top
of it, older worldly chemistry. So but again twenty six,
when Shawn Michaels slapped the Undertaker at the very end
of the match and Undertaker signaled, this is you know
(55:16):
that the end is nearly Tom spiked tombstone. Shawn Michaels
his in ring career is over. It was a huge moment,
and as big as the Rick Flair retirement just a
few years before that with under or with HBK retiring
Flair at WrestleMania what was it, WrestleMania twenty oh, good
(55:38):
grief twenty four it might have been, And it was
a huge deal, a huge deal, and again I'd recommend
anybody go back to watch twenty six and more poorly,
really WrestleMania twenty five. I know it's in two thousand
and nine, it's a year off, but i'd really really
recommend everyone go back and watch both of those. You
(55:59):
talk about every you know, just the storyline made sense.
Everything made sense from a in ring perspective. There's just
nothing better, nothing better when when two professionals can go
in there and tell a story that just grabs you
by the heartstrings and everything and just makes you forget
(56:19):
about your life for the time that they're in the ring.
Those are rare moments. Those moments don't happen very often anymore.
Number One, because the pace is just too damn fast today.
My brain can't process what's happening. And it also lends
itself to a lack of selling because everything is just hit, react,
hit react, I register it. I know that I got hit.
Speaker 1 (56:42):
I'll react to it.
Speaker 2 (56:43):
But there's no selling and showing of pain and struggle.
It's very quick. It's got to be the next move,
the next move, the next move, instead of just taking
your damn time with telling the audience a story. And
I'm not all for the Randy Orton obligatory twenty minute
(57:03):
rear chin lock in the middle of the ring. I'm
talking about just being able to tell a story and
make things mean more. You have crazy things going on
in the ring, ultra athletic things going on in the ring,
and they mean next to nothing. There are as effective
as a closed line because everything is so fast paced
(57:24):
that the opponent has to get up to take the
next move and take the next move and take the
next move, and the crazy reversals and oh my God
and holy blank chants and this is an awesome chance.
And the athleticism is coming at the expense of selling,
and selling is what the soul of professional wrestling is
and that, to me is what is suffering today. And
(57:47):
I'm still getting used to it. It's just a different
brand of wrestling. You could say it's evolving, and that's fine.
It is evolving into this new brand. I just don't
feel as much emotion as I did back when the
pacing was what it was. I'm not saying have a
slow motion match. I'm just saying to present a match
that you could tell a story that I'm not speed
(58:09):
reading a book of you know, through I am I
am actually able to read and understand what's happening and
go from A to B to C and make it
make sense instead of A to Z to Q to
L to M to you know, oh, and back again.
And that's the issue that I have with today's quote
(58:32):
quality wrestling shows. Even ae W is guilty of this,
and it's just the way the business has gone. And
I get it, and I understand that if you don't,
you know, present the audience with what they want, that
you are falling behind the times and you're just just
not giving what they want, which is not good from
a business perspective. But I think there will become a
(58:54):
time where the business goes back to the way it
was and what's old is new again, and I think
the business will slow down, at least I hope it does,
because to me, that is where true pro wrestling lives,
Where true storytelling lives, where true emotion lives, is in
the pacing and in ring psychology and not killing your bodies.
(59:16):
That's not the other thing I'm not even talking about
is the risk, the risk that these guys are putting
in gals are putting themselves through in today's quote quality
wrestling style of extremely fast paced, high risk maneuvers. Is
that it's just that it's extremely high risk and it's
putting the lives of the people doing these maneuvers and
(59:38):
in much higher risk because of the maneuvers, of what
they're doing on the top rope and everything else. It's
putting the health of those performers at a level that
it doesn't need to be. So I think that's the
other part of this that people are forgetting. But nonetheless, guys,
I hope you enjoyed my list of ten things that
(59:58):
were huge from the two twenty tens of WWE. Again,
this is not a top ten list, but you can
rank them as you will, and I'm sure there's a
bunch of stuff I forgot and there.
Speaker 6 (01:00:07):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
Of course, this is very subjective, but I want to
thank you guys for listening again. NXT's coming, aw reviews coming.
Ashley and I are coming this weekend for your weekend review.
But I wanted to give you, guys just a little
quick rundown of the twenty tens in WWE. I hope
you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Again.
Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Head to my website at wwepodcast dot com. The video
section will be filling up in the next couple of
weeks with things, as well as on my Twitter at
the WWE Podcast. You can also head over to Patreon
at patreon dot com slash WWE podcast for your ad
free version of this show and tons of other goodies,
tons and tons of other stuff. If you don't like ads,
(01:00:48):
that's your place to be. So, guys, again, thank you
for thank you for listening, thank you for being a
part of the show and your ratings and reviews. As always,
i'll talk to you next time.
It's time for your weekly fix of wrestling. The still Jia.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
When we look at wrestlings past eras from the Attitude era.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Through the Reality era.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'd like to think that maybe this company will be
better after Vince McMahon's dead, but the fact is it's
it's gonna get taken over by his idiotic daughter and
his dupest son in law and the rest of his
stupid family.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Jes a day here on the WWE podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Welcome to the WWE Podcast. Everybody on this January second,
twenty twenty, Welcome to the show. Great, great show for
you guys today, one that I've never done. I've never
been able to encompass a topic like this, one that
covers such a large span of time, but one that
(01:07):
I'm really looking forward to because it gives me a
chance to go back and reflect on what this decade
provided to us from a professional wrestling standpoint, and looking back, man,
there are gonna be some things that you guys forgot about.
As I did. I took a lot of other people's
(01:29):
lists that they had out there, and I didn't just
copy verbatim, but I did use other people's other people's
ideas and other other people's top lists as references to
be able to put my own list together. And I
think that you guys will enjoy this because it's a
it's a step back in time, as this Wrestling and
(01:50):
Stallenga show always is, and I think we're gonna have
a lot of fun with this. There is a lot
to cover. I'm not gonna go over everything. There will
be things I miss, and this is not so much
of a top ten list as it really is just
to look back at at ten different points in time
in the last ten years that I think were monumental
(02:13):
in their own right, and I tried to choose different
ones that meant different things at the time and looking back,
still hold water in today's environment and change the way
that wwe WW presented wrestling. Some of these moments are
so monumental that we're still discussing them today and how
(02:36):
it affects today's current product. There are just so many
good things. And as I know, once I give you
guys these top ten, or I shouldn't say top ten,
these ten different items, this list of ten monumental monumental
events that happened in the last ten years, I know
I will leave things off and I will get people
tweeting at me saying, how could you forget this and
(02:57):
this and this and this. Well, I don't want my
list being one hundred items long, and you could. This
is a very objective list, right, So you may agree,
you may disagree, but the fact of the matter is
that you can make an argument for this the items
that I'm gonna give you, guys, you can make an
argument that this was a big and these were big
(03:18):
turning points in the business. So before we get going,
which trust me, there's lots of good things from and
gonna give you hints from pipe bombs to streaks to revolutions.
I hope I gave you guys some hints. This was
a crazy decade and imagine what twenty thirty is gonna
be when we look back at the twenties. So anyway, guys,
(03:39):
welcome to the show. And you guys can follow me
on Twitter at the WWE podcast. You can also hit
me up on Instagram which is WWE podcast as well
or the website, which you guessed it is WWE podcast
dot com. And video is coming. I'm gonna announce that
until it actually happens, video is on the way for free.
(03:59):
The free feed for my website for Patreon at patreon
dot com, slash WWE podcast, where by the way, you
get all these shows ad free come on the show,
and lots of other cool perks, shout outs, video shoutouts
on my Twitter feed and more. So what I'm gonna
probably do once I get video up and running is
do exclusive videos just for that feed on Patreon, and
(04:23):
then do free videos occasionally during the week with my
website and my normal Apple podcast feeds. So just a
little bit of a heads up on what's going to
be coming down the line, as well as trying to
get more people on the show. What I mean by
that is not necessarily co hosts, although I do like
to mix it up from time to time, but also wrestlers,
(04:43):
actual wrestlers, whether they're on the independent scene or if
I can try to get somebody from WWE. It is
on my radar getting actual wrestlers from WWE. I've had
people ask me that it's like, you know, it takes
an Act of Congress to make it happen, because there's
a lot of red tapef to go through. A lot
of times they want a significant amount of money, even
for a short period of time, a lot of barriers, right,
(05:05):
So the actual wrestlers from WWE may be harder to
get than you know, independence and things like that, but
even those on the independent scene I think have a
lot of value to add to a conversation about wrestling,
because yeah, they may not be in the big leagues
as WW likes to call themselves, but they still have experience,
more experience than ninety eight percent of us listening and
(05:27):
wrestling is wrestling, and yes it's not ww's brand of wrestling,
but I think even those on the independent scene could
add a lot of value in conversation to this show.
So I'm gonna be working on that in the coming year.
I've made New Year's resolutions for this show, if you
can tell. Also being more active on Twitter and trying
to live watch the pay per views so I can
(05:47):
interact immediately with you guys. It's not easy for me
to do. I just my schedule at home is just
crazy with you know, a little one and everything else,
and to watch it live is not easy. But I'm
gonna be trying to do all those things in the
next year. So there's there are my New Year's resolutions
(06:09):
for this show. So again, guys, a little bit of
a schedule reminder. The A W and NXT reviews should
be coming out later tonight or even tomorrow, just so
you know those of you that are waiting on that,
as well as the weekend review with Ashley coming up
this weekend, probably dropping on Saturday, so be able to
(06:30):
hear us discuss everything that's going on as we reach
the halfway point to the Royal Rumble. And there's certainly
a lot to certainly a lot to get to. Ashley
and I certainly have good chemistry, I think at least,
and you know, she brings out some good conversation, bring
us up good points, and I know you guys love her,
and she'll be back this weekend. All right, Well, let's
(06:53):
not delay this any further. Let's let's just get to
the first item I have on this list. And again,
this is not a ten to one list or one
to ten list. There's no real order. You really could
make a case for all of these being on different
levels and different rankings in a top ten, or maybe
you wouldn't put them at all on your list, But
(07:15):
I think we need to get to one of the
biggest moments in the last ten years and this is
the one that is extremely recent. And I understand that
I'm not saying it's the most significant, and it's not,
because well, we feel like the most significant things are
the ones that happen the most recent because of the
most fresh in our minds. I'm aware of that alteration
(07:35):
of memory. Those memories that are the most recent are
the most vivid typically and the ones that you magnify.
But in this case, you could argue it's a top
ten maybe number nine or ten on some people's lists,
but it's Kofee Kingston winning the WWE Championship. And I
think that's significant because Kofee Kingston winning was something that
(07:58):
came out of left field for most people. I don't
think anybody predicted Kofee Kingston winning the WWE Championship at
the beginning of twenty nineteen. I mean you, you didn't
see it coming, and that was part of the magic.
And it really took just one injury by Mustafa Ali,
(08:18):
who's really the unsung hero of this entire run, that
allowed this opportunity for KOFE to present itself, taking Mustafa
Ali's or just Ali. Excuse me, we've chopped the name
the Kofe Kingston took Ali's spot in the elimination chamber
and went on to have an extraordinary performance against the
(08:41):
heel Daniel Brian champion at that time, nearly winning the
thing and just set the world ablaze with the Kofee
Kingston movement. And while Kevin Owens was originally scheduled to
be the opponent for Daniel Bryan, it turned into Kofi
Kingston and it just caught fire. I mean the next
(09:03):
day people were clamoring for another They want to see
it again. And credit to Brian too. Doesn't hurt that
Daniel Brian was his dancing partner in this whole thing,
and uh, it just became this organic movement for Kofe.
I was never, as you guys know, as never a
proponent of Kovie Kingston winning. He never felt like a
(09:24):
true WWE champion. And you know, I'll get to that
in a minute. For those of that haven't heard my
thoughts on that, and you're probably like, what the hell,
what are you talking about? He deserves it, Okay, Well,
Kovie Kingston was in the WWE for eleven years. We
know the story. He was the good soldier. He was
great to work with. Easy to get along with backstage,
(09:46):
was in that mid to upper tier card for the
majority of his career, caught fire with The New Day.
Started out with that fake Jamaican a Jamaican accent. We
all know the story of KOFE Kingston as it's been
repeated over and over. And then Vince McMahon throws a
bunch of obstacles in his way every SmackDown on the
way to the WrestleMania pay per view, and Koffee overcomes
(10:07):
them all, climbs that mountain and Vince McMahon takes us
on a ride and gets us to the top. KOFE
holds it for six months and then loses in nine
seconds to brock Lesner. L m AO or crying laughing
face is what I would if I was texting somebody
about this, it would be l O L L m
a oo with a bunch of with a crying face.
(10:29):
That that's a laughing crying face. That's how I would
feel about it. And you know, look here here's my
deal with KOFE. And I want to just take say
this up front because I've actually had people put in
a review that I am it's privileged, white privilege. What
I have no idea what white privilege has anything to do,
which I don't even think exists. Exists, by the way,
(10:50):
and you may say that's because you're white, Well no,
but that's a whole nother topic. I may even do
a whole other podcast on something like that, right, get
people fired up and anyway, But even if white privilege
does it does exist, then what does that have to
do with my opinion of the run of Kofe Kingston.
People like to bring in skin color. It's such an
(11:10):
easy target. It's such an easy, lazy analysis. It's a
lazy attack on somebody to just point to or a racist.
It's lazy. It just has no backing, right. I was
a Kofe Kingston proponent of in the ring forever for
his entire career. I had no issue with him in
(11:31):
the ring. I had nothing. I had not said a
bad word about Kofe Kingston probably isn't in his entire
career up until he won the w WA championship. He
just never felt like he was a champion and had
zero to do with his skin color. Zero. He could
be pink or purple, or yellow or green. I don't care.
I don't give a Damn. It just felt like a
(11:54):
mid carter carrying the belt that he didn't really deserve
and you could say for eleven years he deserves it. Well,
there are a lot of guys that work longer and
harder than him that have never held the championship and
don't deserve to. And that's okay, that's okay. Not everybody
(12:16):
needs to hold that belt just because they're there a
long time. That doesn't automatically qualify you to be the
top guy. Just because you have a long standing relationship
with a company, it should afford you more opportunities. That's
certainly the case and absolutely, but the fact of the
(12:37):
matter is Kofi as a character never ever ever to me,
reached the WWE championship level. Never he felt like a
champion that was just again holding the belt, keeping it
warm for somebody that actually was of the caliber to
hold it. And I'm not trying to disrespect Kofee. I
think he's an amazing performer. He just his character never
(12:59):
caught with me. You know why. I think the biggest
part was I was I was willing to give it
a chance at WrestleMania when he won this year, and it.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Was such a feel good moment.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Oh, on a great feel good moment he brought his
kids in the ring. Anyway, before I start ranting on that,
I was willing to give it a chance. But the
problem is, during the entire six months he was still
throwing pancakes, acting like a you know, a sophomore in
high school, like like some just goofball in the new day.
And you may say, oh, why would you change your act?
(13:30):
Why would you, you know, fix something that's not broke well,
because the WWE champion championship itself deserves more respect than
somebody parading around with pancakes. Again, those of you listening
are probably saying, let's just skin go it.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
He's black. It has nothing to do with that.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Okay, let let's grow up, all right, Let's let's not
be lazy in our attacks on people of everybody, just
pointing to racist, racist, bigot racist. It's so lazy and
it just has nothing to do with it. It's purely on
a wrestling character standpoint that Kofee Kingston had no business
being WWE champion as long as he did, he never
(14:07):
felt that way. The championship got forgotten for six months.
You don't believe me, You don't believe me that it
got lost for six months. Go back and watch Kofee
Kingston's run on SmackDown over those six months from April
until October when brock Lesnar rightfully took it away from
Kofee Kingston in nine seconds. He got really misplaced on
(14:29):
the show. If you're the champion, you got misplaced? Why
because you got overshadowed by Roman Reigns who'd done it.
You got overshadowed by other storylines that were apparently bigger
than you as WWE champion. Go back and look, and yes,
he closed that show sometimes, and you know, occasionally he
would be the main focus of the show occasionally more
(14:50):
often than not. Who stole the thunder Roman Reigns. So
that's my thoughts on that. But it was a big moment.
It was a big moment because it was it was
kind of like the Yes Movement part two with Daniel
Brian winning at WrestleMania thirty And I had no issues
with that either, But with Daniel Brian winning at thirty,
that to me was probably one of the biggest grassroots
(15:16):
movements of all time in professional wrestling. And that's actually
my next item as they get to The second piece
of this is Daniel Brian winning at WrestleMania thirty and
again one of the biggest, biggest illustrations that the power
that the crowd can have on who they want as champion,
despite what Vince McMahon may want, is Daniel Brian. I mean,
(15:37):
we know the story. He came in from the independent
scene and was put in NXT's joke at the time,
which is he was a joke of being the miss
being his pro which is hilarious to think about now,
and gets fired after he joined the Nexus and strangle
Justin Roberts with his own tie and then gets rehired
(16:01):
and then ends up. I remember he faced Shamous at
WrestleMania twenty eight and lost in like eleven seconds after
a brogue kick, and just just so many, so many
things led to Daniel Bryan and the organic love that
the fans had for him. An easy guy to like,
didn't feel like a corporately created a performer. He felt
(16:24):
like a guy that you could relate to and you'd
want to have a beer with, and was just the
every man and you know, aka the opposite of Roman Reigns,
and just the crowd began to love him. So let
me give you guys a little bit of audio for
WrestleMania thirty as. Don't forget earlier in the night, Triple
H had to he had to face Triple H and
if he won, he would make himself in a three
(16:47):
way in the main event of Batista and Randy Orton.
So let's just take a listen and let's let's remind
ourselves of what happened here in New Orleans.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
You're gonna taste up, dad, I'm gonna tast stuff, Dad,
i'nna taste dum come.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Yes, damn?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Do come on?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Give me the can tin pack?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Can taste does the train pack?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I taste up? The time I can taste up? What
did you get?
Speaker 5 (17:14):
The time?
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I think.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
You pick the.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Naki can? Fifth? Can they gonna cut my apartment straight?
Speaker 6 (17:37):
Damn? They are possible to have they called anybody.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
So just a little bit of a reminder there just
how big that moment was, and going back and watching
it to see if people chanting, Yes, I mean there's
not a person sitting down, not a single person sitting down.
It is quite a sight to see and it was
just gorgeous. I mean, no other way to put it.
It was a magnificent, huge moment that took place at
(18:28):
WrestleMania thirty and changed the course of WW forever because
I think that not only was that a successful run
for Brian that ended up getting cut short because of
an injury, only to lead to a comeback and ultimately
I think turned Roman reigns, to turn the fans against
Roman reigns, but also condition the audience to believe that
(18:49):
they can direct who they want to push and not
who the company, and Vince feels like they should he
should push because he feels that he knows better than
the audience. So this I think was really the the
ignition or the start of the fans versus Vince McMahon,
because the fans realized what power they had in their hands. Now,
(19:12):
the fans realized, guys like, look what we did, and
this was all the fans, All of the fans are
responsible for this. They are the reason Daniel Bryan got
to where he was. And you could say, oh, the
fans always have always held the keys, you know, they're
always the ones who decide who gets pushed. Nonsense, nonsense,
(19:34):
I mean it's just you would say that, and to
some degree I would agree with you. But the thing
is that Vince McMahon has just had the incessant need
to push back against fans and say that no, this
is gonna be your top guy. I mean again, look
at exhibit A Roman reigns. Right, it's this this war
(19:56):
of attrition with Roman and and Vince versus the fans.
And to some degree Vince McMahon has gotten where he
wants to be with Roman, not to this level of
success he's wanted. But we will see, as you guys know,
what happens when he faces the fiend or someone beyond
Baron Corbyn if all of this success is indeed authentic
(20:17):
dumb anyway, having that happen at Wrestlemany thirty, huge moment.
Moving on to the next item number three, and again
this is not in any particular order, was the Women's
Evolution pay per view. And this was a big deal, right.
It's the first all women's pay per view in WWE history.
(20:40):
And this really began. If you want to trace this
women's revolution back, it started because of social media. And
this started on February twenty third. It was the Belatwins
facing Page and Emma in a match on Raw. It
lasted less than a minute and it really kick started
(21:01):
the hashtag give Divas a Chance, and the Devas Championship
was still unfortunately in place, which was an awful championship.
Awful It's like, who wants to be the biggest drama queen?
That's really what the championship meant. Didn't have a whole
lot of value. It was a butterfly championship. I think
the only one to really add any prestige to that
(21:22):
was aj Lee. She felt like, you know, she was
a true champion. And yes, Paige won the Devas Championship
on our first raw and debut, we all know that story.
But the Divas Championship, for all intensive purposes, was just
a watered down drama queen championship of the Penny women
facing each other. And yeah, the bron Pennies matches were
(21:42):
not happening, but the women were really still being positioned
as a glorified bathroom break. I mean that's just what
they were. There's no getting around that they were. So
that started it in twenty fifteen and February and five
years later, here we are, and look where we've come
in The Evolution pay per view was amazing that pay
(22:02):
per view never would have taken place had that hashtag
not caught fire and really sparked the women of WWE
to do a ton of crazy first says. WW said
the first women's Money in the Bank ladder match, the
first women's Royal Rumble, you know, the first women's Hell
(22:22):
in a Cell, and then the first women's TLC match,
and ultimately the first women's main event of WrestleMania. Right,
they love saying the first, and by god, it's all
about making history. That's the one drawback to this whole
thing I think is that the competitors in their promos
were more concerned about making history than winning a match.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I had.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I took issue with that because the first and foremost,
you should be here to win. If I'm supposed to
believe in your character, I need to know that you
care about winning and not just stealing the show like
Delf Ziggler or getting into this this is awesome chance.
I need to know that you care about winning so
I can get behind you when you're in a match.
And so I think a lot of that got lost
(23:08):
in making history. How many times do we hear that
with Sasha versus Charlotte in the first women tell in
the Sale match, it's all about making history. Here's the thing,
we know, it's making history. We have the announcers to
tell us that it's not for you to transparently tell
me that it's about making history.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Does anybody else get their stomach turned by this? It's
just very heavy handed. I'm not a fan, but I'm
a fan of the women's movement. It has certainly shaking
things up, and I think made the male competitors in
WWE more competitive, that they aren't just going to be
given and afforded a better spot because of their gender now,
and that they need to earn it. And they have
(23:48):
the women who are just as hungry, if not more
hungry than the men are, and put on great matches.
And the Evolution pay per view was a huge I
think it was one of the best pay per views
of the entire year. I remember how awesome that pay
per view was. Tony Storm, I remember being a standout
in that match or in that show, and it was
awesome to see and it really just it was a
(24:11):
signal that the women are here. And I don't know
why there hasn't been another Evolution pay per view. It's
a little bit puzzling. I would have liked to have
seen another women's pay per view, but maybe I'm sure
we will, and maybe they just don't feel like they
have a strong enough roster right now with Ronda Rousey
down and several others, and that the storylines don't feel
(24:32):
as hot that they can't provide another pay per view
at that level. But I remember I was loved, I
loved a raved about the reviews on that pay per
view of Evolution. If you haven't seen it, you need to.
I also could have done without Stephanie McMahon coming out
to like, you know, stand with all the women as
if this is like, you know, a high school drama,
and we all come out at the end of the
show and bow like, hey, thanks for you know, thanks
(24:54):
for being entertained. It's god, it makes me want to vomit.
It takes everything away. But nonetheless a great pay per
view and one that I think was a turning point
and really a sign of the times that an all
women's pay per view could actually stand up and live
up to the expectations. And it did all right. The
(25:16):
next thing that I think we need to talk about
is the streak ending and Undertaker losing to Brock Lesner
at WrestleMania thirty. This was a moment that I don't
think anybody would ever believe that they would see in
(25:37):
their lifetime. It was shocking.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
It was.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Just really unbelievable to watch. And rather than rather than
me describe it, I'm just gonna give you some damn audio.
I know you guys love the audio. I do too,
So let's take a listen and we can live this
moment again, and we'll come right back with some analysis.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Brought Lester chattered, proact Lester chatter, lesser chowder. He's got
an Undertaker over his shoulders, a guy then again going
for a triple a third up, fuck the under attacker,
rock Leicester into the tuger, looks the leg, the streak
is over.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You can you can, Dad.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
Walk, you get it, look at it, you're at across.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
That was just I mean, watching that back still makes me.
It's still shocking. It's still shocking again to go twenty
one and oh, was something that you get that far
an undertaker, you know, so far in his career that
you think there's just no chance, there is no chance
(27:38):
that they're ever going to have the Undertaker lose his streak,
and Jim Ross came up with a proposition of if
the streak's going to end, here's how you do it.
You have the Undertaker declare that if he ever loses
at WrestleMania and someone breaks his streak, that he will retire.
That would create so much buzz and interest of well,
he has to lose at some time, who's going to
(27:59):
be the one to beat him. I think that's a brilliant,
brilliant creative way to get people to tune in and
eventually see who's going to break the streak, because you
know it's eventually going to be broken. But to have
it happen here at WrestleMania thirty and six years later,
Undertaker is still competing. It's insane. It's insane, but brock
(28:21):
Lesner to beat the streak. Vince has justified it by
saying that streaks are meant to be broken. He didn't
have anything big plan for thirty so he needed to
have something like this, something that that of that magnitude
and that no one wants to give back to the
business more than the Undertaker, more than Mark Callaway, As
(28:43):
he said in Stone Colts podcast, a number of years
ago so he can justify it all he wants. I
still don't believe it should have been broken, even all
these years later. It's been almost six years, isn't that insane?
Almost six years since that moment took place, and it
still doesn't sit right with me. I'll never forget sitting
there in my apartment looking at looking at this happened,
(29:07):
and I remember standing up, going what And you're waiting
for the referee to restart the match, or for Vince
to come down, somebody to come down to say that
that's not right. No, this is not right, restart the match,
or something happened, or it just you kept waiting for
some craziness to happen that would reverse the decision, and
(29:28):
instead we got silence. We got silence, and that was
a brilliant move because I think Wwe wanted to hear
the audience. They wanted to have that moment of just
just pure shock, no music, nothing, just what was the
audible invisible reactions of fans that had seen this streak
(29:49):
for twenty one years and twenty one straight victories suddenly
come to an end when no one thought he would
just you see the reactions of people it's just like crazy,
It's crazy the reactions of fans, and again one of
the moments I'd recommend you go back and listen to
and watch as well. I mean, I just just that
one clip still made me go, what the hell? Was
(30:13):
it the worst decision in wrestling history?
Speaker 1 (30:15):
No?
Speaker 2 (30:17):
No, I don't think it was, but certainly one of
the ones that was shocking and never thought we'd see.
And maybe that's why Vince did it. Alrighty, the next
one here the I believe this is what Number four
was the launch of the WWE network, right, This was
a game changer. This happened on February twenty fourth, twenty fourteen,
(30:41):
and was right before WrestleMania thirty. And I remember watching
Stephanie McMahon make the announcements and saying this is going
to be awesome, and it was priced at nine to
ninety nine a month, and saying that while we were
already paying fifty bucks for WrestleMania, what the hell is
(31:02):
another you know, just ten bucks a month? But I
know that performers, wrestlers backstage were concerned saying, is this
going to cut into our paycheck? Considering that pay per
views are thirty forty bucks a piece, and that some
people only order WrestleMania and that's sixty bucks. How are
(31:24):
the payoffs going to work? And Vince didn't really have
an answer. The answer really is volume and getting those
who may out have purchased a pay per view during
the year to realize the value of Wait for ten
bucks a month, I can get every pay per view
and it's not going to be a forty dollars charge
to my cable bill every month. And I get access
to not just every pay per view, but the entire
(31:45):
raw library, SmackDown library, documentaries, exclusives, three sixty five, table
for three, all these things that have obviously come along later,
but just everything. And the value is insane. I mean,
I'm not promoting the WWE network as if I'm getting
a cut of it, right, but I'm giving you my
honest opinion that I will gladly give nine ninety nine
(32:06):
a month for what I get back in value for
the network. Could the app be better on iPhone? Yeah,
the app on iPhone is still kind of it's better,
but it was a game changer. It was a game
changer for the vehicle, the platform in which they present content,
and it really just I think skyrocket the amount of
(32:29):
content you have access to because prior to that, what
were we all using?
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Prior to the w W network.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Think back to that time, we used what YouTube? I
used YouTube, I still use YouTube, other torrent sites or
video sharing sites, I'd use DVDs. I did not, did
not use vhs. I don't even know if I have
vhs anymore. But I did use what was that called
(32:55):
frost wire, lime wire when I could download wrestling clips.
I remember all that prior to that in this when
the paper you would come along, if it was big enough,
I would typically order the Big Four, WrestleMania Survivor series,
Rumble in Summer Slam. Those were really the ones that
I would invest my money in. And now with nine
to ninety nine a month, it really is a huge
I know this sounds like an infomercial for ww network.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
It's just my honest opinion about it, and it's a
huge game changer and it really shook up the entire
entire way that WWE presents content and it's I think
a huge game changer.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
So that was a huge moment as well. You know,
it wasn't an actual wrestling moment, but massive, massive way,
and also how they count ratings I think as well. Yes,
Raw isn't stream live on the network, but a lot
of people watch Raw and Delay, which then happens through Hulu.
So anyway, streaming has just changed the game completely and
(33:54):
ww got involved in that in February of twenty fourteen.
All Right, the WWE Performance Center is number five here.
This is a big deal in that, like the ww network,
it's not an in ring moment, but it changed the
game in a very important way of how WWE gets
(34:17):
their talent. With WCW being purchased in two thousand and one,
with very little competition. You can't count TNA, all right,
Ring of Honor doesn't count, New Japan doesn't count. None
of that unfortunately counts as true competition. So outside of
those small pools of talent availability, there wasn't anybody that
(34:40):
or any place you could go to really understand the
WWE way of their version of professional wrestling, And there
wasn't a talent pool out there that you could pull from.
And it was just a great way that happened. Again,
this happened on It opened on July eleventh, twenty thirteen, and.
Speaker 6 (35:02):
It was.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Very expensive for WWE at first, a hell of an investment,
but for WWA, for Triple H to take that by
the horns and spearhead this project to a point where
now five years removed or really well seven years almost
seven years since WWE opened that it has become the
(35:31):
truth third brand, NXT has again the performance center is
separate from NXT, but that's where you would presumably go,
is from the training the performance Center to NXT to
the main roster. That was just the path in which
stars would take. And now it's starting to change a
bit where stars don't want to leave NXT for the
fear that they'll get lost in the shuffle. It's a
different schedule in the main roster, and they want to
(35:53):
be the biggest fish in a small pond at NXT
like Tomaso Champa. And it's been documented by Triple H
that also doesn't want to leave NXT and I respect that.
So again, the training center open on July eleventh, twenty thirteen,
and really was extremely It was instrumental in developing new talent,
getting talent used to the way ww produces their shows,
(36:16):
what cameras to look at, how aesthetically, they look on camera,
there's a promo room, there's what four or five rings
in the facility, waits cardio. I mean, you name it.
Everything that you need to all the tools possible to
be a star that is are at your disposal. And
(36:37):
it changed the game. It was a brilliant idea that
Triple Ah spearheaded and it was just it was just
it worked and it continues to work, and it is
a it's really a proven system now for WWE to
have these stars really start there. Yes, they're brought in
(36:57):
from maybe restling promotions overseas or even in Mexico or
independence throughout the United States, and yes, even maybe even
AEW at some point will be a place w looks
to possibly bring in a big talent. I mean that's
not something I think we should think it should sneeze
(37:19):
at because eventually it could be WCW versus WWE in
the long run, where it's they maybe get bigger than NXT,
can maybe compete with the ratings of Ron SmackDown. Again,
we're talking down the line, but think about that, right, so,
aw Or, I'm sorry. The training center is a huge,
huge deal, huge deal, and it's just brilliant. So all right,
(37:45):
number six, the debut of the Shield that Survivor series
twoenty twelve, they attacked Rye Back and Sina. It allowed
Campunk to get the win here if you remember it was,
I remember how cool it was. I mean they were
like the Pack of Wolves as they were they were
(38:07):
really label as and having Ambrose and Rollins and Reins,
they just felt different their promos, backstage holding the camera,
everything felt different and knew about them they were they
were brought up and I know Ciampunk takes credit for
putting the Shield together. Originally he wanted Ambrose, Rollins and
Chris hero He uh, he got Roman Reigns and certainly
(38:30):
that's worked out for Reins. But it was a moment
that I remember going what the hell kind of in
the way that the The Nexus did. Except the Nexus
was a bigger group that didn't have as much of
an identity individually. It was just kind of a bunch
of bodies from NXT, whereas these were three defined guys
that we got to know over the next couple of years.
Before Rollins did his infamous and It's extremely successful. Heel
(38:53):
turned to join the Authority. But this was this was
a moment because this shield is this is iconic in
the annals of wrestling factions and the guys that they've
taken out. They took out the Rock, they took out
the Undertaker, They've taken out CM Punk, just you go
(39:13):
on and on, and they had some really really big moments,
and it's again, this is a moment that I know
I'll never forget. And hey, while we're at it, why
not why not listen listen to some audio here as
I pull it up on my computing machine, take a listen.
Speaker 6 (39:31):
Hey in the world, what is this? Who?
Speaker 3 (39:33):
What is this?
Speaker 2 (39:37):
These three guys.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
Damn Welcome to the Shield of Justice.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
So, of course that was a bit of a recap,
but uh, it was a huge moment and one that
clearly just changed the lives of all three guy, all
three guys, and really the business because how many accommodations
of of these three have we seen, as far as
even fighting amongst themselves, all three holding championships, tag team championships,
(40:18):
their their feuds with John Cena. I mean, it really
just changed the game, and I think was the first
true showing of what NXT could provide us. It was
the first successful big bring up for three guys, and yeah,
the Nexus was first, but they again they they're they're
kind of forgotten. I mean, you don't remember anybody but
(40:39):
Wade Barrett and uh yeah, of course you had the
Fiend actually come out of it. Bray Why came out
of it. You had Michael McGillicutty come out of it.
I mean, which Curtis Axel. You had guys come out
that are still kind of here, right obviously, Bray Why
being the biggest and most successful. But it was really
these three guys is that I think truly were the
(41:04):
the example of what NXT could provide us. So all right,
moving down the line here, number seven, I hope I
kind of that right. Brock Lesner's return in twenty twelve
now proud of this, we have to remember brock Lesner
was last seen in WWE in two thousand and four,
(41:24):
after having which is really widely believed one of the
worst WrestleMania matches of all time in brock Lesner versus
Goldberg or WrestleMania twenty. I've said that so many times
that it started to hurt now, but that was the
last time that we saw brock Lesner in a WWE ring.
And to have him come back eight years later, and
(41:48):
it was the night after The Rock was defeated by
I'm sorry Johnsen was defeated by the Rock, And so
john Scene is in the middle of the ring and uh, well,
why don't we just take a listen to what happened?
Speaker 6 (42:09):
M Mirrod last hours, that's summer, tell Tolly Wi sad man,
(42:52):
they have never chant our lives.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Arena has come and glowed.
Speaker 3 (42:59):
M hmm.
Speaker 5 (43:21):
Man six three, two hundred and sixty six pounds.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
So Brock goes on to F five John Cena and
the fans love it. Uh, they lose their minds. It
was a It was a great moment. And even seeing
that back, it reminds you just how big of a
deal Brock is. And we may say, oh, retired of
seeing him, you know, he's an absentee champion.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
The fact of the matter is, I don't care what
you think about him, like him, hate him, in between, indifferent.
The fact is that he is the biggest star WWE
has right now, and name somebody bigger. Roman reigns. I
don't think so, John Cena not the game anymore. And
I would argue Brock Lester is bigger than John Cena.
There's just nobody bigger nobody and that's a damn fact.
(44:23):
So yes, and by the way, brock Lenzer's back on
Monday Night Raw this coming Monday, as I predicted the
first Monday Night Raw of the new year, you'll see
big stars come back as they are now and so
but again, this moment was huge because it not only
was the return of Brock Lesner and now we're my
god freaking eight years since that moment, but it was
(44:45):
also the turning point of John Cena's career for that year,
going on a downward spiral. He lost to the Rock,
he lost to Brock in his program here and it
was a well documented year for John Cena that was
not one of his best in terms of a professional standpoint,
But it was a huge moment, one that I was
(45:05):
shocked in seeing after Brock left on very miserable terms
eight years earlier, you know, in having such success in
the UFC, I didn't think he'd come back. And yes,
he has had fights in the UFC since then, no question,
And he has won against Mark Hunt very with an
(45:26):
asterix of course, right or asterix is an asterisk or
asterix I don't know. See now I'm getting tongue tied.
But it was a huge moment and I loved it
as I love sharing this audio because it gets me
all pumped up. All right, we're on to number eight.
What is the what's number eight here? I would say
number eight is The Rock returning to WWE. And this
(45:51):
happened also in twenty eleven, and it was This was
a huge moment too, because as brock Lesner's return was
big in twenty twelve, I think The Rock's return was
also equally big because many of us believed that The
Rock was probably done. He had said it in many
(46:14):
different platforms after he was in the you know, having
finding success and big success in Hollywood, that he was
done with wrestling, and you know, have him come back
and have him face John Cena noticed the theme here.
John Cena is like the face of w W and
he had brought come back to beat him, and Rock
come back to beat him. Cool deal, right, But for
(46:37):
The Rock to come back and to have him do
what he did with John Cena and have him come
back in a way that was explosive. On Valentine's Day,
I remember that again. I was out on a date
and I missed it. It was a big moment to
have The Rock come back as the host of WrestleMania.
He was the host of WrestleMania twenty seven. He ended
(46:58):
up costing the Miz. I'm sorry, costing John Cena the
w W Championship to have the Miz retain the WWE
Championship in the main event of WrestleMania and give him
rock Bottom, and then it set up a match for
a year long bill at WrestleMania twenty eight. The Rock
goes on to win, and then The Rock becomes w
W Champion during that year and then does the favors
(47:20):
for John Cena, allowing John Cena to The Rock does
the favors for Sena at WrestleMania twenty nine, and John
Cena wins the championship. Rock actually got injured during the
match into our hamstring and then Seena becomes champion. So
it was a give and take two year long program
and I think it was beneficial for both guys. It
(47:41):
was a huge deal. The Rock coming back the way
he did, I think was explosive, great promo when he
first came back and it was in La the Staples Center.
I'll never forget it, and also having John Cena carve
out the Rock pretty bad, carved up the Rock, and
in terms of a promo ability, I mean, he just
(48:03):
I'm sorry, he spanked the Rock. And I hate to
say that, but John Cena spanked the Rock when it
came to promos. He just did.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
He just did.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
And Johnsena proves that he is the master of the mic.
It's just the way it is, which is a compliment
to him. As much as I'm a Rock fan, and
you thought The Rock was going to come back and
just chew up John Cena and it has been about
on the mic. We got a different we got a
different result, and the Rock proved he can still go.
I think WrestleMania twenty eight was a better match than
(48:34):
twenty nine, but it certainly showed that the Rock still
had it and is in phenomenal shape and was a
great business for the company. Put you know, put more
value back in the brand in terms of notoriety, in
terms of news outlets talking about the Rocks return. I mean,
it was just great publicity. I think it helped the
(48:55):
business as a whole in a time that didn't really
have a lot of top stars other than John. It
was a big deal. And then Brock obviously returns in
twenty twelve. As I just discussed, so again the Rocks
return huge here and moving on all right. Number nine
was Oh yeah, Cmpunk's pipe bomb promo, and that happened
(49:21):
on June twenty seventh, twenty eleven, in Vegas, after Punk
had just finished attacking John Cena, when he sat down
on the stage and proceeded to deliver one of the
greatest work to shoot promos of all time, all time,
and it was just nothing.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Short of.
Speaker 2 (49:42):
Miraculous, game changing. It went from this era of you know,
we don't know who the next top guy is to
we know who our top guy is, and it was
just brilliant and well, let's just take a listen to
some of it.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
I've been the.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Best ever since day one when I walked into this company,
and I've been vilified and hated since that day because
Paul Hayman saw something in me that nobody else wanted
to admit.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
That's right, I'm a Paul Hayman guy.
Speaker 4 (50:18):
You know who else was a Paul Hayman guy.
Speaker 5 (50:20):
Brock Lesner, and he's split just like I'm splitting.
Speaker 3 (50:25):
But the biggest difference between me and Brock is I'm
going to leave with a WWE championship. I've grabbed so
(50:45):
many of Vincent kay mc man's imaginary brass rings that
it's finally dawned on me that they're just that they're
completely imaginary. The only thing that's real is me and
the fact that, day in and day out, for almost
six years, I have proved everybody in the world that
I am the best on this microphone, in that ring,
(51:07):
even in commentary.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
Nobody can touch me.
Speaker 6 (51:13):
And yet you know how many, no matter how many.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
Times I prove it, I'm not on your lovely little
collector cups.
Speaker 5 (51:20):
I'm not on the cover of the program.
Speaker 3 (51:22):
I'm barely promoted.
Speaker 6 (51:24):
I don't get to be in movies.
Speaker 3 (51:26):
I'm certainly not on any crappy show on the USA network.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
I'm not on the poster WrestleMania.
Speaker 3 (51:31):
I'm not in the signature that's produced at the start.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Of the show.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
I mean, just this great stuff. I mean, I can
watch that promo all day. It's it's just such as
a staple in the in the WWE, in WWE history,
it changed the game for how promos are delivered in
an era that was very heavily scripted. It's certainly changed
(51:57):
the game big time. So we all know and love
this promo and it should be studied. It should be
studied in classes, and it's brilliant, alrighty. And that gets
us to the number ten moment here and again, this
is not a one to ten list.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
This is not.
Speaker 2 (52:18):
Any kind of again, any kind of ranking system. This
is just the ten moments that I thought we were big.
And this is not the most big, This is not
the biggest moment. This happens just be number ten. And
that was, at least to me, the Shawn Michael's retirement.
And this took place in twenty ten after WrestleMania twenty
(52:41):
six when the Undertaker defeated Shawn Michaels, and it was
extremely significant because it marked the end of one of
the greatest, if not the greatest in ring career of
all time. And you could say Rick Flair is one
of this extremely subjective, I understand, but in my eyes,
I mean I grew up watching Michaels and started in
ninety seven as he just started getting into DX and
(53:03):
all through his retirement or force retirement after the injury
from the Undertaker backdropping him on a casket and then
really coming full circle coming back in two thousand and two,
which was supposed to be a one off, and then
really making it a career for another eight years, and
(53:25):
it was one of the best careers I've ever seen.
I don't think we really fully truly understand the significance
of Sean Michaels and the impact he had on future
future performers and the overall impact he has had on
the on this industry and all the great matches he's
given us. Everything I mean to me, the WrestleMania twenty
(53:48):
five match with the Undertaker may have been the best
match I've ever seen. That's I don't say that lightly.
It really may have been. It is a a wrestling clinic.
It is a clinic in psychology. It is everything you
need a wrestling match to be, and it's paced correctly.
(54:11):
It is paced correctly at twenty five, and yes, twenty
six of course was a follow up which could never
really follow up to the twenty five match, And we're
focusing on twenty five or twenty six because it's within
twenty ten. If I go too two thousand and nine,
obviously it doesn't count because it's not part of this decade,
but again, twenty five to me was the best match
(54:33):
I've ever seen, and it proves that you don't need
today's style of five hundred miles an hour to have
of this is awesome chant. To me, this is awesome
chance or actually a sign of a wrestling style that
I'm still getting used to. It really exemplified what you
(54:53):
can do when you have two stars in the ring
that tell a story at a pace that is digestible
and just understanding ring psychology and have chemistry on top
of it, older worldly chemistry. So but again twenty six,
when Shawn Michaels slapped the Undertaker at the very end
of the match and Undertaker signaled, this is you know
(55:16):
that the end is nearly Tom spiked tombstone. Shawn Michaels
his in ring career is over. It was a huge moment,
and as big as the Rick Flair retirement just a
few years before that with under or with HBK retiring
Flair at WrestleMania what was it, WrestleMania twenty oh, good
(55:38):
grief twenty four it might have been, And it was
a huge deal, a huge deal, and again I'd recommend
anybody go back to watch twenty six and more poorly,
really WrestleMania twenty five. I know it's in two thousand
and nine, it's a year off, but i'd really really
recommend everyone go back and watch both of those. You
(55:59):
talk about every you know, just the storyline made sense.
Everything made sense from a in ring perspective. There's just
nothing better, nothing better when when two professionals can go
in there and tell a story that just grabs you
by the heartstrings and everything and just makes you forget
(56:19):
about your life for the time that they're in the ring.
Those are rare moments. Those moments don't happen very often anymore.
Number One, because the pace is just too damn fast today.
My brain can't process what's happening. And it also lends
itself to a lack of selling because everything is just hit, react,
hit react, I register it. I know that I got hit.
Speaker 1 (56:42):
I'll react to it.
Speaker 2 (56:43):
But there's no selling and showing of pain and struggle.
It's very quick. It's got to be the next move,
the next move, the next move, instead of just taking
your damn time with telling the audience a story. And
I'm not all for the Randy Orton obligatory twenty minute
(57:03):
rear chin lock in the middle of the ring. I'm
talking about just being able to tell a story and
make things mean more. You have crazy things going on
in the ring, ultra athletic things going on in the ring,
and they mean next to nothing. There are as effective
as a closed line because everything is so fast paced
(57:24):
that the opponent has to get up to take the
next move and take the next move and take the
next move, and the crazy reversals and oh my God
and holy blank chants and this is an awesome chance.
And the athleticism is coming at the expense of selling,
and selling is what the soul of professional wrestling is
and that, to me is what is suffering today. And
(57:47):
I'm still getting used to it. It's just a different
brand of wrestling. You could say it's evolving, and that's fine.
It is evolving into this new brand. I just don't
feel as much emotion as I did back when the
pacing was what it was. I'm not saying have a
slow motion match. I'm just saying to present a match
that you could tell a story that I'm not speed
(58:09):
reading a book of you know, through I am I
am actually able to read and understand what's happening and
go from A to B to C and make it
make sense instead of A to Z to Q to
L to M to you know, oh, and back again.
And that's the issue that I have with today's quote
(58:32):
quality wrestling shows. Even ae W is guilty of this,
and it's just the way the business has gone. And
I get it, and I understand that if you don't,
you know, present the audience with what they want, that
you are falling behind the times and you're just just
not giving what they want, which is not good from
a business perspective. But I think there will become a
(58:54):
time where the business goes back to the way it
was and what's old is new again, and I think
the business will slow down, at least I hope it does,
because to me, that is where true pro wrestling lives,
Where true storytelling lives, where true emotion lives, is in
the pacing and in ring psychology and not killing your bodies.
(59:16):
That's not the other thing I'm not even talking about
is the risk, the risk that these guys are putting
in gals are putting themselves through in today's quote quality
wrestling style of extremely fast paced, high risk maneuvers. Is
that it's just that it's extremely high risk and it's
putting the lives of the people doing these maneuvers and
(59:38):
in much higher risk because of the maneuvers, of what
they're doing on the top rope and everything else. It's
putting the health of those performers at a level that
it doesn't need to be. So I think that's the
other part of this that people are forgetting. But nonetheless, guys,
I hope you enjoyed my list of ten things that
(59:58):
were huge from the two twenty tens of WWE. Again,
this is not a top ten list, but you can
rank them as you will, and I'm sure there's a
bunch of stuff I forgot and there.
Speaker 6 (01:00:07):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
Of course, this is very subjective, but I want to
thank you guys for listening again. NXT's coming, aw reviews coming.
Ashley and I are coming this weekend for your weekend review.
But I wanted to give you, guys just a little
quick rundown of the twenty tens in WWE. I hope
you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Again.
Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Head to my website at wwepodcast dot com. The video
section will be filling up in the next couple of
weeks with things, as well as on my Twitter at
the WWE Podcast. You can also head over to Patreon
at patreon dot com slash WWE podcast for your ad
free version of this show and tons of other goodies,
tons and tons of other stuff. If you don't like ads,
(01:00:48):
that's your place to be. So, guys, again, thank you
for thank you for listening, thank you for being a
part of the show and your ratings and reviews. As always,
i'll talk to you next time.
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