Mailbag #244: Listeners React to UnReal, SummerSlam Results, Brock Lesnar's Return, John Cena Turning Babyface & More

It's time to once again hear from all of the listeners about their thoughts on this week in WWE!
This week listeners talk about John Cena's turn back to being a babyface, Brock Lesnar's controversial return, WWE's "UnReal" show and much more.

Want to contribute? Email us at [e-mail]

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-wwe-podcast--2187791/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to
the WWE podcast, the.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Show, the one that everybody wants me.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
God st fore sixteenth Just we yours is mind.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
You can acknowledge me. Welcome everybody to the mailbag on
this Friday, the eighth day of August twenty twenty five.
Is we are a few weeks away now from clash
in Paris. Feels like an eternity now that we've slowed
down the pacing of ples, but enjoyed the pricing of

(00:52):
the ples because, as you all know what the deal
that WWE has reached with the ESPN our pricing model
will be increase that's not finalized yet, but starting in
twenty twenty six. I don't know if it's right at
the beginning of twenty twenty six, but we will be
getting a price increase to twenty nine to ninety nine,
and they're promising even more ples, which I don't think

(01:15):
is the answer. The answer is not more pls. The
answer is quality ples. I would argue less pls would
mean more, but hey, their model of success has been
more is better, and there does come a point of regression.
But let's get to the mail bag this week, as
we have some emails to get through and we'll get

(01:35):
to them in a second. I want to welcome you
to the show. And if you haven't joined us before
and you hear the ads, you hear the ads throughout
the show, you heard them at the beginning, that means
you're on the ads supported version of the show. But
I encourage you to go to patreon dot com slash
WWE podcast if you want to remove those ads. It's
seven days for free, and then at the onset it's

(01:57):
a dollar a month. You can stay at dollar a month,
or you can increase your membership and get more benefits.
But it's available to you. If you don't appreciate the ads,
it's not a good listening experience, I understand. But all right,
let's let's go to our patrons. Patrons do get priority,
so let's see here. Let's just go to red to DJ.

(02:19):
Haven't started with you in a while, DJ, as far
as the first first person, and then we'll get to
somebody I haven't talked to in a while, so that'll
be a nice hook. All right, So DJ says, is
wwe really trying to convince us to subscribe to ESPN's
new standalone streaming app to watch all wepls for thirty
dollars in twenty twenty six. I find it very insulting

(02:42):
to most fans because now we have to commit to
yet another streaming service on top of the couple others
that we are currently subscribed to on Netflix to watch
Raw and at the moment Peacock to watch remaining wwpl's
in twenty twenty five. But then, don't forget about SmackDown
being either on Sling's streaming service or through a cable provider.
Remember back in twenty fourteen when they announced it, Well,

(03:04):
they'll have a streaming service called the WWE Network and
it'll cost nine to ninety nine. I sound like an
old timer my saying those were the good old days. Yeah,
what a deal that was, huh. But that still didn't
include Raw or SmackDown. It was very much deleted. I
think you had to wait a month to get any
kind of Raw or SmackDown episodes on the WWE Network

(03:25):
when it existed here in the United States anyway, and
it was all the ples for ten bucks a month
one hundred and twenty dollars for the entire year. Not bad,
but now yeah, I mean, here's the thing. If the
cable model still still existed, if we still had to
buy pay per views, and you were somebody that bought

(03:46):
the occasional pay per view, you bought the Big four
and then maybe you bought it a couple, you know,
a few more. Right, So you say you spent even
six out of twelve pls, assuming there were twelve during
the year. Now we have more, but that was just
back in the day. So back then, so say you
spent an average of forty dollars, and that's underdoing it.

(04:07):
Let me say fifty dollars. Probably fifty dollars is more
accurate per pay per view at the time. That's three
hundred dollars. So that's three hundred dollars just in pay
per views that you used to buy, presuming you bought them,
and you had to have a cable subscription that included
USA at the time, you or UPN or many various

(04:30):
other networks. Remember what was it not t TNT had WCW,
but all the big naval cable networks, and those cost money.
It wasn't Ala cart, but you still had to have
a cable subscription, of which most of us do not anymore.
So that costs you one hundred dollars a month, maybe
depending on the package you got, extras, sports package, all

(04:51):
that kind of crap. So that's one hundred dollars time twelve.
That's twelve hundred bucks a month, or I'm sorry, twelve
hundred dollars a year times or plus I do math today,
three hundred dollars, So it's fifteen hundred dollars per year
just in your cable subscription and your six out of
twelve month purchases of WWE pay per views. Now they

(05:15):
want you to use thirty dollars a month to get
the ples. So if that price holds, they are going
to have three hundred and sixty dollars a year pulling
being pulled out of everyone's pocket for just pls. On
top of Netflix to watch Raw, which is I don't know,
is it fifteen bucks a month depends ad free, supported whatever.

(05:38):
So if you had fifty, say fifteen fifteen dollars a
month times twelve, that's one hundred and eighty dollars on
top of was I said, what did I say? Three
hundred and forty dollars? So I'm more up to five
hundred and twenty dollars. That's just for Raw and the PLS.
Then you have SmackDown. Now, SmackDown can vary. Some people

(06:01):
still have the cable version of USA Network, perhaps they
end up changing that, but say so, to watch SmackDown,
if you don't have a cable subscription, you can do USA.
I don't know if you can do it as a standalone.
But if you get any kind of sling like so, say,

(06:21):
say you do sling. I think sling is another twenty
bucks a month. Let's just say twenty to be conservative
if you want sling, which comes up with the course
a ton of other channels, one hundred and twenty times
let's see here twenty times or twenty times twelve two
hundred and forty again plus three hundred and forty that

(06:42):
I said was the pay per views that the PLS
that you're going to have to purchase, which is five
hundred and eighty dollars. Oh yeah, plus the Netflix, which
was what is it, say, twenty bucks or fifteen dollars
a month, So we're up to seven hundred and sixty dollars,

(07:03):
all right, seven hundred and sixty bucks versus that's half
that's actually still half If you purchase the ples back
in the day, six out of twelve, all right, that's
not bad. Now if you were somebody that didn't purchase
the pls, then it is a little bit more down

(07:25):
to what you were You were already paying you ten
twenty years ago. But anyway, my point is the math
isn't as bad as some people may make it out
to be thirty bucks a month. If you're only paying fifteen,
it seems like it's doubling your price, but in reality,
it probably should have been thirty bucks a month to

(07:45):
begin with. If they're continuing on a pricing model that
they believe is worth the value that they're providing, which
is more ples. And I don't know if more is better.
As I've said, they seem to think it is. I
am of the opposite opinion. All right, anyway, let's get
off the math. I thought the original plan was to

(08:06):
move all of dot we's content to Netflix, where fans
in North America could watch Rossmackdown and the Ples on Netflix.
Since NBC and Universal's contract ends in twenty twenty six,
I envy the international fans because they could watch all
the content on Netflix. I don't like this new partnership
with ESPN with this very steep price point to watch
ples and whatever. All other content will be on ESPN,

(08:28):
the standalone streaming platform. The alternative methods to either watch
the ples is to get a VPN and watch the
content on Netflix, or watch the ples for free on
some shady website that has a lot of pop ups. Yeah,
we've all done that. It's a pain in the ass.
I've done it, and it's just like, yeah, I'm just
gonna pay the money and not have to deal with
these pop ups. It's just horrible. So it's worth the

(08:52):
price of admission if you're gonna deal with the pop ups.
With that being said, I might pay the thirty dollars,
but still it's too pricey in my opinion. I wonder
if most fans will decide to subscribe. Well, again, this
is not final, but if it's final, I think almost
fans will just begrudgingly buy it. You know what fans
are gonna do. They're gonna complain and bitch and moan,
and at the end of the day, what are they

(09:12):
gonna do. They're gonna buy it. They're gonna watch it.
Most people will, I think, because they'll justify it in
their head of the you know, well ple's you know,
they're doing two a month now and we get twenty
to twenty four plas a year, which is to me
absolutely absurd. But they're gonna do that, and they'll they'll
find ways to make you justify that price in your mind,

(09:35):
and I really don't think it's unreasonable. I mean again,
thinking about the pay per view model what we used
to be. My only complaint is, and this is not
just a complaint with wrestling, but it's a complaint with
baseball football. There's no consolidation of a place you can
go to watch all the games or all the WWE
content that you need in a In a perfect world,

(09:57):
we would have one app that has all of the
historical content, all the raws and SmackDown that you know
from forty years ago, that you could, you know, all
the content you whatever need in your life, all the
old pls, all the w twenty fours and the unreals
and documentaries and everything you'd ever want, including raw, including

(10:18):
SmackDown Live, Raw Live SmackDown, and the ples. That's a fantasy,
though while it sounds great for the consumer, from our end,
we're like, yeah, why can't this just be one damn place.
You know why, money contracts bidding sponsors. That's why, right,

(10:42):
if I'm WWE, I'm going to get much more money
from having platforms bid on my content that I'm going
to use their platform to present on, right, instead of
having an in house W network app, which was great
to begin with when streaming was streaming and they were
trying to they'll find their footing, and it was great.
I loved the WW network app worked really well. It

(11:05):
was all content, very very nice, very cleanly laid out.
And then remember they moved to Peacock and you're like, yeah,
this is all over the place. Nothing was organized. It
wasn't good. And they've since smoothed that out. There's its
own w B section now. But they don't make the
most money from having everything in house. Again, all of
this content that split among different apps is because of money.

(11:28):
They will not make the most money or anywhere near
it if they consolidated into a single app or an
in house app, they won't. They will not. So that's
the reason, all right, And Sammy's ain't carrying cross Match
for Night too of SummerSlam. I was expected to see
cross win and not Sammy. The irony in that match

(11:50):
was when Sammy picked up the pipe to hit Cross.
Sammy decided to throw it away and at that moment
it could have been Sammy turning heel, but we didn't
get it. Secondly, wwe has to stop toying with the fans.
I want to see Carrying Cross get some sort of push.
I don't know if you caunt this on the show
after night one, when the crowd was chanting, we are Cross,
But Triple H's was on the final segment of the

(12:11):
post show and said something like I hear you, we
want rock and yeah, I mean he was toying with
the crowd. I did see that. Yes. Anyway, by the
time this Mailbag episode drops, well, Scarlett and Cross will
be hours away from their contract expiring. My take on this,
if Triple H and Creative don't see Cross as the
main event, guy, stop wasting his time and release him
and his wife, because in my opinion, Cross would get

(12:32):
that rocket style push in any other promotion such as aw,
yeah it's yeah, I mean carrying Cross. I don't know
what they're gonna do. I will say that Carring Cross
did get a push. I mean, I don't know what
fans are expecting with Carrying Cross. Here, he's been given
an opportunity that, comparatively to every other point in his

(12:54):
career is a rocket shit boost. Remember the mask, Remember
him getting fired, getting coming back at the Final Testament,
getting no airtime whatsoever, not any mic time, and then
all of a sudden he's getting one on one matches
with a major star in the company. In Sammy's ain,
I would say, that's a push. It's not the one
that people think it should be, but it is one,

(13:17):
you know, and so we'll see what they do with it. Ultimately.
I'm still to me that the jury still out on
Carrying Cross. He doesn't ever have great matches, but he
does have a magnetic personality, So I understand the uh.
I understand why people like him so secondly here, thirdly,
the so called rules of the Century. I hated it.

(13:39):
The fact we didn't get any news on Seth's so
called injury leading up to SummerSlam led to many speculations
that it was work, and then to see Seth play
off the so called injury during the conclusion of Night
One was total bs. I understand it's all about progressing
a story, but for Seth to do that and then
cash in on Punk had me feeling angry. Anyway, I
think a Punk rumble wind next next year and a

(14:00):
potential Punk Rollins WrestleMania forty two match for the title
might just be the big payoff, even if there aren't
any unforeseen or legit fake injuries along the way. That
certainly is possible. But we've seen Punk Rollins a lot.
I mean, it's essentially been Punk versus Rollins since he
came back at Survivors Series in Chicago a couple of

(14:24):
years ago, because remember when Seth went off on him there,
and ever since that point, it's been kind of like, oh,
here we go. So it's essentially been Punk and Rollins
for a couple of years now, even if it's been
indirectly and many direct matches. So that's fine if they
want to do that, but I don't. It's they wouldn't
be super fresh and new for Punk from me, all right,

(14:47):
I really thought Cody was gonna win or turn. Rather,
I was expecting him to turn and after let's see
here and when Sina officially turned back face, it would
be interesting to see who Cody's next. And it's going
to be and you're thinking that next year's WrestleMania, somehow
the Final Boss returns and aligns with Cody to be

(15:08):
his corporate champion after defeating Seampunk for the unisputed title.
Well again, I'm I'm sorry. I have to disregard anything
with The Rock. I just I don't believe anything they
say or do. And apparently Saudi Arabia is trying to
get him into a pl over there and they have
got a you know, a ship ton of money, so
I said, ship like cargo ship ton of money. And

(15:31):
just for those listening, they do have a boatload of money.
That's probably a better analogy, so they might convince him.
But I'm just I'm so over. I'm so over the
Rock and his explanations and all the rest that I've
talked about for months. So alrighty, I think Brock turned
because seeing it, probably wants a match against him for

(15:52):
clash or a couple of matches. I don't see Brock
competing for the title again in twenty twenty two. Well, yeah,
he doesn't need it, exactly right. I don't need anything
with Brock and a championship ever. Again. For the love
of God, I mean, I love brock Lesnar's from a
professional wrestling standpoint, I think he's it is one of
the biggest stars that the company and this industry has

(16:13):
ever seen. But yeah, no, we don't need him at
the title match at all, all right, And finally, what
happened to our Truth? He has disappeared. Creative had this
push for him to face a Heal Sena, but that
quickly fizzled away as Truth went into a program with
Alistair Black. The question is, with Sina now back to

(16:35):
a baby face, what does that mean for Truth? Does
Creative keep him as Me against the World or does
Creative repackage him into this lovable comedic character, because in
my opinion, Truth should have never come back. Is Me
against the World character would have been great in other promotions,
kind of the similar days in tna WA. So yeah,

(16:55):
that's yeah, that's a good point too, like, what the
hell has happened to Truth? Where is he? You know?
Working with Alistair Black is not exactly what people envisioned,
And part of me wants to think there is a
little bit of cynicism in WWE where they are thinking, Okay,
fans may have won the battle, but they're not going
to win the war here, they made enough noise to

(17:18):
force us to bring back our truth. But then we're
going to bring him back and then make the fans
feel guilty that they brought him back and now they
have nothing for him. But then wwe is saying, trying
to lay it at our feet, like you wanted him
back here he is. You know what do he want
us to do? Well, again, that's not up to us.
We we're telling you the talent that our ron Killings

(17:39):
is and it's your responsibility, your responsibility to find a
place for him, a suitable storyline, a character development story
that we were hoping for. And I don't know why
they even changed his character to begin with, because again,
his character, his lovableness, his just to his aloof kind

(18:01):
of personality, his disconnection from reality was what made him fun.
It's what made the fans connect with him. And now
he became this serious dude. That's still our truth. It's
it has been a flub of return. And it's also
partly because they didn't expect him to come back, so
they didn't know what to do with them. All right,

(18:25):
let's talk to another patron, Anthony. Anthony, it's been a while. Oh,
this is going to be a fun one. You guys
ready for this? This is Anthony another patron. He says,
for all the pearl clutching, self righteous liberals out there,
the Beast is back. Deal with it. Oh jeez, that

(18:46):
auto and dear half my audience to this show. Hey,
it's all good. If I didn't want to read it,
I wouldn't have read it, right my decision. He more
than likely is a total ahole like most famous people.
But that still isn't illegal in the United States. Yeah,
I mean that's true. Being a total d bag is

(19:07):
not illegal. That's very true. Yes, you don't have to
like somebody to respect what their contributions are. But yes,
I mean I've gone into detail about this, so I'm
not going to spiral down that again, I promise. But
thanks for that, Anthony. So SummerSlam was better than media.
I can't wait to see how everything transpires seeing down

(19:27):
the road after all, I can't wait for Roman and Rollins.
Maybe at forty two, will Roman get his shoe shoe
a falla? Oh? Yeah yeah, I mean keep how much
money is Roman's been in on shoes lately? Too much?
The rock can continue to stay away, I agree. The scene.
The hill turn could have been so much more than
it was. Don't insert yourself unless you're in it for

(19:52):
the long haul. Becky was solid on the mic against Nikki.
That you can't see him anymore was pure gold. I
would agree going Unreal. I know it's maybe a peak
too much behind the curtain, but I feel like it
endears people behind the characters to the audience. Disney getting
their hooks into WWE through ESPN twenty nine ninety nine
a month. Now, have we seen the end of the

(20:16):
multiple time champion? I'm not sure what you mean. Will
we see longer title defenses as opposed to someone winning
a belt ten times? Oh? Well, I would say that
Triple H as a rule, general rule, he has been
much more a proponent of longer title reigns than Hot Potato.

(20:38):
Vince McMahon, as we all know, infamously, was on the
other side of things where occasionally you'd have a long run,
but most of the time it was every few months
to be a new champion. Again, that's not a hard
and fast world or exceptions on both sides, but Triple H, generally,
I think, has been of the belief of longer runs.
Now again, you can point to examples even just right now,

(21:00):
the change from Gunther to jay Uso to Gunther to
Seth Rollins in a four month span. That's that's that's
by definition hot potato. But yeah, I mean, thank you Anthony,
some some good points here. The whole you can't see
him anymore was was gold the Unreal Show. You know,

(21:21):
I've seen some of it. I understand that some people
there is an audience for it. It's getting a lot
of talk, a lot of wrestlers talking about a former talent.
I still, as a fan, would like there to be
just a just a speck of mystery left. I'm trying

(21:46):
to make it more magical than it is. There are
times I just I don't like For example, when I
go to a you know, I go to a pizza shop.
I pick up a pizza on a Friday night. You know,
you can see some times into the kitchen. Sometimes I
don't want to see them making the pizza. I just
want my pizza. I just want them to bring it
out hot. I pay them on I leave. I don't

(22:09):
need It's not part of my experience. There's no it's
not really to me adding anything to the experience of
eating the pizza that I see them make it in
the same way with WWE, I have never really needed
to see how they make things work. I mean from
a production standpoint, it's pretty fascinating with all the cameras,

(22:29):
and maybe they could do something like that where it's
not just a focused on the creative, it's focused on
the production. I'd like to see them do something with
the crew, give some respect to THEWWE production crew, focus
on them. That would be fascinating to me. Of how
they set up the ring, how the fireworks are timed.
I mean we've seen a little bit of that throughout

(22:50):
the years, but like something exclusive to this the cameras,
the production truck, something that's not about creative, something that's
just purely business focused on the production and the ring
set up and how the things fit in those the
trucks that they bring in and how they bring that
all that crap overseas to the shows, you know, when

(23:14):
they do the couple week tour over you know in
London and France and Saudi Arabia and all that, so
that kind of thing. It's been mainly focused on creative
here and that's been what a lot of people are
looking at with the unreal I still think that it's
It's just I don't need to see it. We all
know what it is, and I don't need to be

(23:36):
reminded every seven seconds what this is. It doesn't do
anything for me to get more emotionally invested by watching it.
So all right, Well I'm in the minority here, Thanks Anthony.
Good to hear from you. Let's let's see where do

(23:57):
we go? Where do we go? Well, I don't know
where I'm going here. I'm clicking around. We got a
lot of emails this week, so I may not get
to them all if I don't. By the way, if
I don't get to them all, I will always follow
up on Sunday in the mail bag. So if you
don't hear email or your voicemail, I will put them

(24:18):
all in the Sunday Night show. So just a little
disclaimer there. Let's talk to Danny. Danny, we haven't heard
from you in a while, or wherever have we? Let's
anybody says? He says, I'm Danny from Baltimore. So well, welcome.
It's your first time writing after being an avid listener
for the past couple of years. Wow, a couple of years.

(24:39):
Good stuff. Just wanted to share my thoughts on the
main event of Summer Slam and the overall heel run
of Johnny Sina. Okay, regarding the match, I thought it
was very enjoyable. However, it's getting ridiculous the amount of
finishers were seeing in matches. I feel like this has
been a problem for a while, but this match was
just too much. I get it, we're supposed to be
whatever it takes for both men, but it got to

(25:01):
a point where seeing the fifth AA or fifth crossroads
where you just knew they were gonna kick out. I mean, heck, hey, Danny,
I've been barking up this tree for years and it's
getting worse. It's getting worse and worse where I don't
know who is telling the talent or the agents who
are helping the talent book the match, or creative the

(25:24):
creative production team themselves, whoever is coming up with the
idea or enforcing the idea or encouraging the idea that
the ends of matches like as you get towards the
you know where they you know you're trying to power
moves happen, and kickouts happen, and false finishes happen. When
you get to the more believable part of a false
finish section of a match that you know is coming.

(25:47):
The formula doesn't need to be kick out of more finishers.
That has been the formula over many years now, and
to me it it just totally away the meaning of
a finish because if your finish is being kicked out
of on a regular basis, not the occasional big pl

(26:08):
in a big moment, that's fine. But when a big
finish is being kicked out of many times over years,
it doesn't make you excited. When you see a finish,
the immediate thought is, and everybody knows this is true,
it's not going to finish it. It's going to take
another you know, it's going to take at least two,

(26:28):
at least two to three. At what do we see?
And during the John Cena and Cody Roadse match, which
again to your point, was very good and a I
think a total remediation of their WrestleMania match, doesn't wash
away how terrible WrestleMania was, but it makes you feel
a little bit better about it because they were able
to have that kind of a match, and credit to
both men, but again, everybody has bought into including the

(26:55):
excuse me, the top talent in the company, as we
saw that kicking outs, kicking out of more finishers is
just better, and the more you kick out, the better
it is. I totally disagree. I couldn't disagree more. Now, Historically,
the AA has been kicked out of probably more than
any finish in professional wrestling history. It just has. When

(27:20):
you look back, even during Johnsena's heyday when he was
the top guy in the early two thousands to twenty tens,
late two thousands, even into the mid twenty tens, and
then he started to kind of phase out, it was
a finish that you knew was going to be kicked

(27:40):
out of, always has been, always will be up until
December anyway. So absolutely that is it's a problem the crossroads.
Since it came to w WE and he's come back
from a w it has been a finish that not
only does it look horrible, but it is a finish
that everybody kicks out of all the time on a

(28:02):
regular basis. And again, the fact that it looks horrible
and it never looks like it's actually gonna that it's
supposed to, even in a pro wrestling environment, I can't
even make myself believe that it's devastating to his opponent
because he's the one taking the bump. I don't even
like the finish, just as a from a visual perspective,
the AA okay, it doesn't look like the most devastating,
but John Cena can toss somebody pretty good. He's a

(28:24):
tall guy, so I go, okay, I can buy this
as a finish. Cody Rhoads on top of his finish
being kicked out of it just looks terrible. So there's that.
I remember a day not too long ago when one
finish did it? Think about Stone Cold Steve Boston his

(28:44):
very first victory at Wrestle Many fourteen, his very first
victory becoming the WWF champion at the time. That kicked
off the hottest run that WWE WWF had ever had
to this day has ever had from a ratings perspective,
the biggest pro wrestling ever was that where the face

(29:07):
of the company was Steve Austin. He won that match
with a single stunner, no kickout, no kickout. Shawn Michaels
didn't even hit sweet Chin music in that match. Now, granted,
Sean was injured in that match, he had a bad back.
He went on to have surgery and take a four
year absence, But they still could have easily done false

(29:32):
finishes there and they didn't because there was the finisher
was respected. Now, of course that's just one example. I'm
cherry picking. You could go back through the you know,
the annals of time and choose your own where it
wasn't constant kickouts of finishes, and it's it's not even
kickouts of finishes like at big palis as I've said,
it's kickouts to finishes on regular, regular television televised events.

(29:56):
And I bet you it happens at house shows, which
is fine because it's how shows and they can do
whatever they want, but just regular roles and smackdowns that kickout,
and the announcers don't even get excited anymore when a
kickout happens. That should be a big moment. We've all
been sanitized, we've all been brainwashed to go, it's a
kickout of a finish. Who cares it's a gay when

(30:16):
they get to the third one, let me know. That's
how it's, that's how it feels, and we shouldn't think
like that, and we shouldn't be Okay, with being conditioned
to think like that, it would be much better. And again,
this is only going to be fixed with WWE's compliance
because they you know, the fans aren't gonna get excited

(30:39):
until all of a sudden. WWE has for like an
extended period where there's one finish that happens at the
match and that ends the match, and fans are like,
what I can guarantee if that happens, even for just
a week, fans are gonna go, what the hell? What
do you mean one one finish the match? You can
easily just say, well, it's a finish move, right, It's

(31:01):
a finish move. Instead, it's being used the finishing maneuvers
have been transitioned to or rather they've been redefined to
transition moves. The finish move is no longer an actual
finish move. It's a transition move, and that should not
be the case, all right. Finally, I believe the whole

(31:26):
John Cena heel turn was botched, or the He'll run
the face turn on SmackDown was done so poorly that
it led me to believe it was all the work,
But in the end it wasn't, and that was it.
If the plan all along was to have just a
terrible Oh wait, so maybe I'm reading that wrong. If
that was the plan all along, that was just terrible booking.

(31:46):
I feel like the plans they had for Sina's heel
run were scrapped late and just decided to turn him
face quicker than they wanted to. Thanks again, Hope Ball's
well well, Thanks Danny, and same to you. I don't
think it was the plan all along. He just didn't work,
and the reasons it didn't work are fairly simple. One,

(32:07):
he is at the end of his career and I
don't think he knows how to really be a heel
because he's been a babyface for a quarter of a century,
so it's kind of no matter how he as good
as he is, it's still an inverse of his personality.
So he's trying to to do that on air in
a way that works. So he's still kind of experimenting

(32:29):
at the tail end of his career with the personality
he's never had to show on camera, so there's a
bit of a learning curve there. I still think that
he should have changed his music that could have helped.
He shouldn't have attacked the audience the way he did.
Like that wasn't very believable. Although the abusive relationship Hart
was good, but he should have been much more. It

(32:52):
should have been much more about why the rock did
but he did. I'm not gonna go down that rabbit hole.
But it's a massive misstep that one of the biggest
stars in the company gives you a signal to turn heel.
He does, he sells a soul and then we get
no follow up on the cell your soul thing. It's
inexcusably bad, inexcusably bad. So it got off on a

(33:13):
horrible foot right from the get go. After Chamber anyway,
and then he wasn't there a lot to follow up
on it. So yeah, it's tough. It's tough. I mean
you can go it to the minutia of it and
really dig into a fine powder as to why and
the different things he said, And yeah, it just didn't work.

(33:34):
And I'm glad he turned baby face. And I was
worried it was a double down two on SmackDown. I
was really worried that it was going to be a
double down and oh crap, here we're he's going to
do a double turn again. And it's see you you know,
I'm gonna really make you hate me. Fans would have
just been so turned off by that. They would have
been like, ah, no, just give us the real John Cena,
and that's what we're getting. John Cena did say that

(33:57):
the fans are going to dictate how his whole run
goes here, and I think so far they have. They've
they've kind of told you, hey, you tried, thanks a
pat on the back. No matter what you do, we're
just going to cheer you because you're leaving. There's nothing
you can say. No, you know, there's nothing as good
as you are in the mic. There's no magic words
you could say, nothing you can do in the ring

(34:19):
that'll make us hate you because you know you're leaving
and we're just going to have a good time for
you with you in the next four months. That's that's true,
because you know, real life has superseded anything they're trying
to do in the ring with John. It was the
right call. It's the only call they could make. All right,
thank you, Danny. Okay, let's talk to Dennis. Dennis says,

(34:44):
I hope you're well. The same to you. During the
tag team match between Logan Paul Drew Randy and jelly
Roll when Logan splashed jelly Roll through the announced table,
did you or the listeners notice that that Logan handed
Michael Cole something? But it was caught on camera. I'm
just curious what he handed him. SummerSlam Is was very good.

(35:06):
I enjoyed it. I think the Wide six need to
turn heel. They're a bit stale and a bit boring. Thanks,
have a great day. I don't know what he handed.
I don't know what Logan Paul handed Michael Cole. I
don't know. I didn't even notice that. I'll have to
go back and look. It's I'm trying to think of
the options that it could be. I really don't know what.
What could he have possibly handed Michael Cole that was

(35:29):
just so important at that moment, you know, I don't know,
I mean his cell phone, I mean, I don't know,
some kind of I don't know. It wasn't a blade
because nobody bled. I don't know. That's a good question.
But the Wide six turning heel, I don't even know

(35:50):
if turning heels is the right idea. They need to
do just something something. They've all fell off the face
of the earth. Yeah, we all love and miss Bray,
but you can only ride that wave for so long
before you need to come up with your own unique
identity beyond we loved Bray and that means you should

(36:11):
cheer us. They're a tribute group that is running out
of tribute. The fans are starting to just go, okay, cool,
you use his music and we have Bray's brother here,
but we haven't heard from you guys in a long time.
You're you're on TV so sporadically, yes, you're the Tag

(36:31):
team champions. Now, that's good, but like, can we do
something here? And that's the problem. They have no unique identity.
I appreciate at the beginning they did the VHS tapes,
remember that to try to give everyone an identity, and
then that's all they did and we still didn't learn
a ton even from that. And also, when's the last

(36:52):
time Nicki Cross ever spoke? Nicki Cross is actually a
decent talker. She's insane, but Nicki Cross just resolute justice
uff like the girl from the Ring, and we don't
hear from her. So it'd be nice to hear Nicky
Cross for the first time in like three years, hear
her say something or really anything, Uncle Howdie, brit Bo Dallas.

(37:15):
Somebody needs to do something or just just disband the game.
Damn group. I mean yeah, I would agree. They're not
doing much with them and it's a bit disheartening. Thanks Dennis.
All right, this is Tom and let's see here. Tom says,

(37:37):
Seth versus Roman seems a sure night two WrestleMania forty
two main event if there was one. I hope so
Seth cost him the belt at WrestleMania forty cost him
his wise man at forty one. It only makes sense
that at forty two they do battle where I think
Roman finally gets the best of Seth. I just hope
that if Roman wins the belt, which would probably be

(38:00):
the last one he'd ever win, he commits to a
somewhat full time schedule until he drops it. I don't
know if it's ever gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
Here.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Here's the other thing. I've said this with other wrestlers since,
and not just men, but women like Charlotte, where they
reach a point they don't need it, and Roman doesn't
need it, and the belt doesn't need it. See that's
the other heart half of it is has the belt
lost value that you need to have one of your
biggest stars kind of re energize it, and I don't

(38:32):
think the belt does. The belt that that undisputed championship
hasn't really been at a point where you're worried about
its own intrinsic value. Usually it's the guy who should
help make the belt, but sometimes the belt does try
to make the guy. That's not great. That's not the
greatest option, but it is one. Roman doesn't need it.

(38:54):
I have no problem with him eventually recapturing a championship,
but certainly they can't go on another run like they
did last time. They won't. They can't they and there's
just almos Als. There's no chance. There is just no
chance of Roman Reigns going on a nearly four year
run again. Now, when he wins it again, I think

(39:16):
the fans will be very excited and have flashbacks to
the days of old when he was champion and have
kind of fuzzy feeling, and then the reality of it
will go oh wait, wait, wait, guys, wait, remember his
last run, Remember how he basically wasn't there for most
of the year. Remember that. So if they have another
title run in Roman and he easily could, I would

(39:40):
advise the number one, it's a lot shorter, like six
months or less, and he's there much more frequently for
that period of time. Because if he's once again an
absentee champion as a babyface, the fans are going to
turn on it because they're going to very quickly remember, hey, wait,
wait a sec. This is a major reason that we
did not like Roman reigns at a real level. It's like,

(40:04):
you're never here, bruh, And you're racking up all these
days and going through all these milestones, but you're never here.
I could do that too. Two. I used to be
a Rock fan, but it's hard to be one anymore.
I feel like the whole scene of Turn was the
worst followed up story in the history of wrestling, and
it's all because the Rock literally just abandon the whole thing. Well, Tom,

(40:27):
you know, I just kind of went over this, and
I'm trying to not answer your question or respond to
it because it's something I repeat myself on too much.
I mean, to the detriment of the listeners, because I'm
sure they're saying, oh God, he didn't know. Don't talk
about this again, No, no, no, please, please please stop
repeating yourself. And I have a really terrible habit of that.

(40:50):
So I'm gonna have to just say to that, listen
to my previous comments on it about the rock. That's
all I can say about it, because all I'll say
to that, though, is I concur with your analysis wholeheartedly.
Massive misstep three. Can we please drop the bloodline story.

(41:11):
I don't know half of these guys, the little fat
guy and some Tongas have to go. Just keep at it, Roman, Solo, Fatu,
USO's Sammy and maybe Talatanga as I do think he
has potential, but get rid of everybody else Alas you mean, Tomatonga,
Tongaloa and Jace Matteo. I think right, I feel like
it's ruined Jimmy. It's taken some steam out of Fatu.

(41:32):
It makes Solo seem like he needs ten guys in
his faction to help him. Yes, I mean, well, I'll
say yes to the fact that there's too many right now.
It's watered down that group has. The Bloodline group is
very watered down because of the fact that, yeah, I
think they brought in too many too quick. And yeah,

(41:55):
Jace Matteo, he looks I'm assuming he's the quote little
fat guy you're talking about. But the fact that you
even can distinguish him from the other tonguas is a
good thing, even though it's supposed to be an insulting reference.
And I'm not hammering you for that. I understand your concern.
I concur with your issue that there are just too

(42:15):
many and it's watered down and the bloodline story. But
here's the thing. The bloodline story. You look back, even
two three years, people were saying, oh my god, is
this still going on? Can we drop the bloodline story?
And then it evolves, like some kind of virus that mutates.
It just continues on and they've found ways to continue
to make it work. But at some point you're going

(42:36):
to run out of mutations. Now, the mutations of the
bloodline story are not infinite, so eventually they're going to say, Okay, yeah,
we've come to the end of the line, and they
this is an iteration where it's not interesting, it's formulaic.
There's no real big story. It's very much a rinse

(42:59):
and repeat formula for for solo and yeah, he's he's
you know, working with you know, various talent to help
them get over you know, the werewolf. We have. You know,
we have a lot of guys here though, that are
trying to be made See the whole point of bringing

(43:19):
in all these guys. Jacob Fatu working with solo and
trying to get the Interconninental championship, and he became a
big star very quickly, and Jason Matteo and Tongoloa Toma Tonga,
all these guys. While the introduction of them for some
of them, the last three especially were very just kind
of like way another one another, one another one. Who

(43:41):
is this guy? A lot of us had that reaction.
The idea is and you have to respect it. New talent,
You need new blood, no pun intended. They're trying to
build new stars. This business is now and will forever
be built on stars and the star building pro This
is not always fun, it's not always exciting because you

(44:03):
don't know who these people are to start, and not
that everybody's going to be a big star. Most won't.
But you have to keep the train moving. You have
to continue to see who is and is not going
to make it, and who is and is not going
to be even a star at all, not a big one,
just some kind of star, and you need to keep

(44:23):
it moving. And the idea though that that they don't
need stars is just not They need the star building process.
And this is this kind of like one of the
unfortunate side effects of it is sometimes they just bring
in too many people too quick, and the fans are
just like throwing up their hands going out, yeah whatever,
you know, all right, And lastly there are great finishers.

(44:47):
Then there's the Crossroads. The only move I've ever seen
that you have to hit fifteen times before you get
a three count? Are you trying to trigger me? Tom?
You're hitting all my you know my trigger point. You
should have come with the trigger warning. This email should
have come with the trigger warning. But yeah, I mean,

(45:07):
I don't know what else to say about it. Crossroads
is it's not a finish. It's not a finishing move.
It's just not. You cannot tell me that a finishing
move takes three applications or more to put your opponent
down and it be worthy of being labeled to finish.
It's not. All right, let's go one or two more, guys.

(45:32):
But I told you we got we got quite the
list here, guys, and we want into any voicemails today,
all right, because of the time restrictions I have. But
as I've said, if you're like, oh, what the hell
Sunday night, all right, I will put it on the
back end of my weekend review, so I will absolutely
read it. So that that also gives everybody extra time.

(45:52):
If you want to add your thoughts or your voicemails
to the show, you can do that. It's a good time.
It gives you a little extra day or two to
give me your your email. All right, Where am I going?
Where the hell am I going? Craig. Craig says, thanks

(46:13):
for making a solid WWE program. I've been listening to
your show for two years now and love it. Well,
that's really cool. Thanks great. You know I say this
a lot, but it still just boggles my mind. I
just like you don't. You never know who the f
is listening. Could be people I know, people I don't
I know, and I don't like. It's very possible to
I've got a few of those floating around. It could

(46:34):
be people I work with. I hope not. I'm not
a big like tell people about this share it kind
of guy. I really don't. If you found out about
this and you know me personally in real life, I
can guarantee I didn't tell you about this. Someone else did.
I'm probably right on that. I'm not a big proponent

(46:55):
of going hey, you know what. I Hey, I've got
a podcast I do no, no, no, because that's not
my thing. I keep my world separate. I'm not big
on that. Most people in my life probably don't know.
They're like, WHOA you do that? You talk about Oh
you talk about wrestling? Oh you mean that fake stuff?

(47:15):
You get that sometimes? Yeah, But anyway, I don't know
how I got on that. Regarding the Netflix under a
series Unreal, I feel like learning how hot dogs are made.
Unreal is taking the fun out of the programming. Many
of us watch wrestling as a fun escape. The show
is taking away from that at some point. How much
content is too much? Well, if I'm WWE, I know

(47:38):
the answer to that. There's no such thing as too much,
because they are pushing out so much content that it
makes me I mean, I could vomit content the next
time I actually get sick from I don't know, maybe
I have some bad food, food poisoning, the flu covid.
I'm fifty to fifty on when I am throwing up

(47:59):
in the toilet. If in the toilet as I'm vomiting,
I'm going to see, you know, WWE's documentaries come up
in the toilet. There's just so much that I can
like feel it coming up, and it's going to be
part vomit, part WWE content that I'm flushing down the toilet.
Sorry for the visual, but that, I mean, it's just

(48:21):
they they don't think there's such a thing as too
much content. How do I know? Because they won't stop
making it and making more of it, So, I mean,
it's total saturation though, it's just it is too much. Now.
The argument against it is you don't have to watch it.
That's what they'd say, right, I'm being Devil's advocate. They

(48:44):
would say, well, who's forcing me to watch it? Then
don't watch it. Don't watch it, don't watch it, don't
watch it. Here's the problem with that. You're kind of
forced to watch it in a indirect way. Why, because
they're publishing how they make the show on the show
that you don't want them to tell you how it's made.

(49:06):
They're promoting the Unreal Show during Raw and SmackDown, which
previews how the show's made. On the show that it's made,
it's ridiculous. So, I mean, I get it, they have
to do it, but why wouldn't you promote it on
the shows that people are watching. But there's a bit
of a weird dynamic there. It's like watching a movie

(49:31):
and then they have intermission during the movie, but you know,
they tell you, hey, so stick around after the movie,
we're gonna tell you how this whole movie was made.
And they give you a preview of the scenes that
were in the movie that they tell you, oh, this
scene was shot this way, and this was a shot
this way, and these two guys that are fighting in
the movie are actually best friends and they're hugging each other,

(49:53):
and you know, it's like, stop it stop. So you're
kind of forced to watch it in a weird way
and be reminded at least that the very bare minimum
that what you're watching is a work as if we
need the reminders. Yeah, thanks Craig. All right, Andrew, Andrew,

(50:16):
I'm going to get to your email. Let's see here,
Andrew from Flint. I'll get to your email, but I
will say after your email, I see you have two
of them, but they're short, so I'm going to read
your two emails together. But This will be the final email,
and then I have a couple of voicemails that I
will post as I said on the Weekend review show.

(50:38):
All right, so final email. This is Andrew from Flint
and he says, hey, I heard on another podcast there
are only as few select wrestlers mail, wrestlers that move
the needle, Individuals that are worth the price of admission.
Cody Rhodes, Gunther, Seampunk, Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins, John Cena,

(50:58):
and maybe Gunther. Then there are borderline wrestlers l A Night,
Jay Uso, Jacob Fatu. In your opinion, is it worries
something that the top names are either part time or older.
Who do you think will be the next wrestler to
be put in that top echelon of talent? All right, well,
first of all, my concern is not about the borderline

(51:20):
wrestlers or the individual's worth the price of admission, or
you know, the needle movers. My biggest concern is that
you're listening to another podcast. How dare you, sir? How
dare you? I actually do listen to other wrestling podcasts
as well. I mean, we all know who they are,
we all know the big ones. And I've said this
many times. I have no issue with any of the

(51:42):
big ones. I have no issue with I mean, I
love the Torch, I love Waid Keller. I've got no
no acts to grind there. I've got no agenda to
help or hurt him. Just objectively as a neutral listener
and a fellow podcast or, I respect him, and I
respect his business and respect his podcast that he does,

(52:03):
and he's been doing it longer than most people. He's
like one of the ogs of podcasting. And he's also
starting to just get into video and stuff on YouTube,
which I can respect that too, because it's a whole
audience that a lot of US podcasters aren't reaching. Us
traditional podcasters aren't reaching with video. So that's also been
something I've keep trying to find time to do. And
I dip my toe in and then I lose time.

(52:24):
And anyway, Yeah, the other guys like Jason Powell and
Pro Wrestling, that great, great listen, super intelligent. Uh just
you talk about a wrestling you know, just a he's
got the voice. He might have the most commanding male
voice in pro wrestling podcasting of all time. I mean,

(52:45):
he's just he's got a great voice. For listening, and
I highly recommend both guys. So there's your shout out.
I mean, I didn't expect it from being promoted and
other shows on here. Maybe those aren't the shows you're
talking about. It could be Busted Open, which I really
don't have an issue with Busted Open, although Dave Lgreca
can be quite annoying at times. And I will say
Bully Ray, he's he's got a lot of good insight. Yes,

(53:11):
he's a former wrestlers we all know, and that's fine.
But on X the other day, someone was complaining about
AW and saying how some segment that somebody was videotaping
their television, about some segment that was ridiculous on AW
with Renee Piquette something, and I couldn't. I don't know,
I don't actually don't know what was bad about the segment,

(53:31):
but somebody was being critical of it. And Bully Ray
responds back and says, shut up and just watch wrestling.
Shut up and just enjoy wrestling. I should say, I mean,
are you kidding? I mean, so, wait a minute, there's
so many levels of hypocrisy here. Number one, Bully Ray
in part makes his living from critiquing the product right,

(53:54):
that's actually the thing that he makes money from. In
part I would imagine he has other income sources, but
it's certainly a part of his income is going on
Busted Open and being critical of or praising pro wrestling content.
That's what he does, right to the fact. So bit
hypocritical there, I mean, so that's number one, I'm sure

(54:18):
in response number two here he would say, See, the
difference is that I've been in the ring. A you know,
I have a more introspective opinion. I have a more
I don't know. His opinion just means more right because
he's been in the ring. To that, I would say, well,
wait a minute, I'm the paying customer. Name another industry

(54:42):
or sport in which the paying customer is not allowed
to criticize the product or service that they're receiving for
the money and time that they're trading for it? Am
I not allowed to? I guess again, by his extension,
he should never be able to create anything on the MLB, NFL, NHL,

(55:03):
any other major sport. He should just shut his mouth
because I don't believe he's been involved in any of
those other major sports because hey, according to him, which
I'm guessing, he would say, can't have any opinion on
something unless you've actually been in it. Pretty pretty difficult
principle to apply anything outside of just your narrow vision

(55:24):
of fans on the internet. Complaining again, people who are
trading their time and money for your product or service
have every right to tell you whether it's good or bad.
Comes with the territory. I am sorry if it hurts
your tummy too bad. I'm so sick of that. I'm
so sick of that crap. I understand it on a

(55:44):
very quick, superficial level, like you shut up and just
enjoy it. Okay, First, that's also number three, a horrible
way to get anyone to change their behavior. That has
a zero percent success rate guaranteed when you just tell
someone to shut up and enjoy something. Oh oh okay. Well,
when you put it like that, sure, very convincing. So again,

(56:08):
I'm not a big fan of some of the crap,
he says. But anyway to circle back, as far as
I don't know, I'm sorry, I get on these tangents, Andrew,
as you know, the individual's worth press submission. Yeah, I
mean these are needle movers. This is nothing new, though,
I mean a lot of times, you have older talent
that are the needle movers because it takes them time

(56:31):
to be figure out who they are as a performer,
become that polished, well rounded wrestler, right that find that
connection with the audience, that organic connection that you hope
is there. You are able to understand who and what
you are, so you're comfortable in the microphone, you're safe,
but a hard worker in the ring. You're stiff in

(56:51):
the ring, you know, but you're not unsafe. There's that
balance and it takes a long time, which is why
the older guys typically are the ones that are the stars. Typically,
as you said, seeing Punk, Roman, Reigns, Cody Roads. I mean,
these guys aren't ancient. A lot of these guys have
many more years in front of them. Punk probably doesn't,

(57:14):
Drew Seth Roman and Cody especially Gunther certainly have a
lot more days in front of them. So borderline wrestlers, Yeah,
first of all, it's not worries. So yeah, no, it's
not worrisome to me because again that's just the nature
of the business. It will always be the nature of
the business always. That's how things go because it takes

(57:39):
time and as time goes by, we get older, and
unless there's some kind of loophole or wormhole in space
and time that pro wrestlers have been able to take
advantage of, they're going to continue to be victims of
time and they are going to continue to, you know,
be older as they become bigger stars. That's just the

(58:02):
way it is. So who will be the next wrestler
we put in the top echelon? I mean, out of
Jacoba two, jay us on La Knight, I mean La
Knight's not a spring chicken either. He's in his forties.
Jayu so I might have might have reached his peak.
I don't know. Jacob Fat two has a lot more
potential there. I think Jacob FA two in like three

(58:23):
four five years could be in that category right now.
Of course, the landscape can change it a blink. All right,
last part of your email here, and then we're gonna
say goodbye. I apologize for sending to emails. That's okay.
I've always fascinated. I'm always fascinated by the years I
stopped watching WWE, which were twenty eight to twenty twenty two. Yeah,

(58:47):
that is a giant gap, my friend. That is at
fourteen years. It's a long time. It's a long time,
so that's very It's fascinating to me because that's a
hell of a time frame, not only time wise, but
just what happened in that timeframe. So this year I
want to talk about, or ask about, is twenty nineteen,

(59:07):
more specifically the Stomping Grounds Ple. I've heard this was
the lowest of the low for WWE. What was the
attitude going into the ple? Where was your enjoyment level
at the product in twenty nineteen? Apologize for about the
random email, I've just always been curious, all right, Well,
Andrew to close things out for Stomping Grounds twenty nineteen, Well,

(59:30):
I can say, first of all, without even going back
and looking at the card, I can answer your second
question first about my general thoughts about the industry. I
have never and probably will never fall off of the
bandwagon of watching wrestling. I've seen some really bad stories,
I've seen some really bad years, really bad matches, and
so on. That all will never discourage me from watching

(59:53):
or not watching pro wrestling. So my thought about the
current product at that time five years ago, I mean,
I'm sure I would. I'm sure I can answer that now,
even though it's five years ago, and I still't remember
the actual card. I'll pull that up in a minute.
I could probably say, yeah, you know, it wasn't great,
not a lot of top stars, but I'm still gonna watch,

(01:00:13):
you know. And this was a year before the pandemic,
right before Edge returned and the company got a boost.
So let me let me pull this up, though, I
give you more specifics. Twenty nineteen Stomping Grounds. Let's see here. Well,
Roman Reigns was still the big Dog the to give you, guys,
I'm sure you might be thinking the same thing. The

(01:00:34):
tagline for this was quote kick ass and take names,
with Roman Reigns as the big Dog in his Superman
punch position. And this took place on June twenty third,
twenty nineteen, in Tacoma, Washington. Six thousand people watched. I'm sorry,
we're in attendance. The by rate was eleven thousand, which
did not include WW network views. But you got to remember,

(01:00:57):
we're out of the pay per view model. Eleven thousand
is actually still a lot, considering the pay per view
model was dead, long dead, and WW network was live
for the last five years. Pretty amazing. But let's see
the match card. Let's go to that because that'll really
ring a bell here. So we had nine matches. We

(01:01:19):
had Drew Gulak defeat Tony Nice and Akira t Zala
for the Cruiserweight Championship. Becky Lynch beats Lacy Evans by
submission for the Women's champ Raw Women's Championship. Kevin Owens
and sammy'sz Ain defeat The New Day in a tag
team match. Ricochet beat Samoa Joe for the United States Championship.

(01:01:40):
Brian I'm Sorry, Daniel Bryan and Rowan beat Heavy Machinery,
Otis and Tucker Wow remember then for the WWE SmackDown
Tag Team Championship. Bailey beats Alexa Bliss for the SmackDown
Women's Championship. Roman Reign defeats Drew McIntyre in his singles match.

(01:02:03):
Gophy Kingston beats Dolph Ziggler by escaping the cage for
the WWE Championship. Seth Rollins beats Baron Corbin by pinfall
for the WWE Universal Championship with Lacy Evans as a
special referee. So here's what I remember from this. I

(01:02:25):
I remember feeling and I'm trying to, like, you know,
drum up five years ago feelings that I'm not going
to rewatch this pl but just based on what I'm reading,
I remember that Lacy Evans being involved in Seth and
Becky when that whole thing happened with Baron Corbin. And
remember Baron Corbin and Lacy Evans teamed up against Seth

(01:02:46):
Rollins and Becky Lynch. I know that wasn't on this card,
but this was around the same time. I remember that
that was not good. I did not enjoy the chemistry
between Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch on camera. But I mean,
you had I'm sorry you had Kofi Kingston as the
WWE champion. If you've listened to me for any length
of time, you know I thought that was just a

(01:03:07):
horrific run he was. I think he was a net
negative to the value of that championship. And not because
I don't think he's an actually genuinely good person or
taking away his accomplishments in WWE or any of his
longevity or the sacrifices he's made to be in the
company and wrestle for us. It's simply based on his

(01:03:29):
character that I thought was just an obnoxious, childish, total
drain on the Championship's value. I mean with the pancakes
and all the rest. And remember brock Lesner came in
that July and just demolished him in ten seconds. It
was the best thing I've ever seen. It was like, Okay,

(01:03:49):
we're back, and I'm not making this. Some people will
because it's today, oh black versus white thing. No, it's
just like Kofi Kingston's personality sucked on air, and it's
better now because he's a heel, which I think he
was long meant to be, But his personality, I was
just a I just remember despising, despising everything he stood

(01:04:12):
for as a as a actual character character on television.
I did not enjoy his character at all, and I
thought he was an abomination to the Championship despite the fact,
as I said it again, seems like a genuinely good
human being and he's a hell of a longevity and
respect in the company didn't matter to me because he
was just so bad. But I believe that was Roman

(01:04:36):
Reigns and Drew Mcatarre first. They're one of their first encounters.
I know they also met at WrestleMania. That WRESTLEMANIU might
have been I'd have to look it up. But Roman
Reigns and Damactar actually have a pretty big history. And yeah,
I mean looking at this card for stomping grounds and

(01:04:56):
actually I don't I don't know why people felt it
was the lowest of the low. I mean, co Kingston,
his champion is pretty pitiful. Seth Rollins beating Baron Corbin,
I actually see. I think people look at that as like, oh,
Baron Corbyn. Baron Corbin gets a lot of hate, But
Baron Corbin is actually a pretty decent wrestler. He may
be kind of boring on the microphone, but he's got

(01:05:17):
a decent look. And the bum Corbyn that he found
a year or two later was the best version of
Corbyn that we've ever seen, when he had ketchup stains
on his shirt and he was down on his luck
and all the rest. It was just that was classic
great stuff. But I mean, this card doesn't blow me away.

(01:05:37):
I don't think this is an embarrassing card. I mean,
how can it be when you got Samoa, Joe, Roman Reigns,
Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Sammy Zain, Becky Lynch,
huge names, Daniel Bryan Bailey, I mean, I don't look

(01:05:58):
at this and go wow, this is a super low.
I mean maybe ratings wise, I'm not sure where we're
getting the you know, everyone was down and the lowest
of the low. I think the lowest of the low
according to a lot of people was December to Dismember
in the mid to late two thousands. It was just
a go back and listen to some people's commentary on

(01:06:19):
that that was a horrific pay per view. So all right, well,
thanks everybody again. The voicemails that I did not get
to today, I will put on the weekend review show
as always. If you want to send your questions to me,
I will answer them also on Sunday. I'll make it
the back end of the show talking about talking back
to you guys and responding to whatever you want. And

(01:06:41):
if you want to go on Patreon and go ad
free Patreon dot com slash ww podcast is the place
to go. All right, thanks everybody, I'll talk to you
in a couple of days.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
Take care, Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't
forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you
don't miss a show, or head to wwepodcast dot com
and for all of these shows add free head over
to Patreon dot com Slash WWE Podcast. Until then, we'll

(01:07:13):
see you next time.