WWE Podcast Throwback: First SmackDown With LIVE FANS After The Pandemic Era - July 16th, 2021

Michael Ritter gives us an in-person perspective of what it was like finally being back at a wrestling event after the pandemic/thunderdome era. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the SmackDown Review for July sixteenth, twenty twenty one.
Michael Ritard joined me in this special episode of the
SmackDown Review. He was live and in person in Houston,
so he's going to cover everything that he saw and
heard in person at the arena, including who he thought

(00:22):
had the first, second, and third best pops of the night,
and so much more. Guys, this one's a lot of fun.
Let's get everything going right now. Welcome to the WWE Podcast,
your number one source for the latest.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
In w WAE news and straightforward analysis. Are you ready
to get this thing going? Hell yeah, Hell yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Dude, Let's get this show started right now. All right, everybody,
we are about to get to Michael Ritter and myself
breaking down smack Down the first show in front of

(01:10):
fans in seventy weeks, four hundred and ninety five days,
and we had fourteen, eight hundred and forty two people
in Houston, Texas for this event. And you know, it
was such a breath of fresh air. It's almost as
if all of the fans collectively said, oh my god,
finally right. And I'm sure the wrestlers, Vince, everyone involved.

(01:34):
It was just a collective sigh on both sides of
finally we are back in front of fans, where we
belong and without wrestling. Without fans, pro wrestling specifically suffers
because it's so reliant on crowd reaction, where the other
sports in our in our world are not so dependent

(01:54):
on it to direct where they're going to go. Because
it's truly competitive sports. I mean, just because you here
for somebody, your boove, if somebody doesn't mean they're gonna
do better or worse. And there's no creative backstage right.
So pro wrestling was hurt specifically hard by the pandemic
given the fact that they just are so reliant on

(02:15):
fan energy and their reactions to things to direct where
they're going with creative At least that's how it's supposed
to work. Doesn't always happen, right, Vince sometimes decides, Hey,
screw you, guys, I'm doing what I want. I know better,
I know what you want more than you know what
you want.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Right.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
But anyway, guys, thank you so much for joining us
here on the WW podcast. We're gonna break down smack
down in just one minute. I promise. I just want
to throw out there. If you're interested in joining us
on Patreon, the Discord server that I was on tonight
with our patrons where we were talking live in real

(02:52):
time watching this show together. We're gonna do the same
exact thing for the pay per view this on a
Money in the Bank and it'll be on the Discord
server that's available to patrons of the show. So if
you're interested in joining us there and getting everything AD free,
and it's only a dollar for the entire library of
eight hundred and some shows plus the Discord server, plus

(03:15):
a shout out. I mean, the list goes on Patreon,
dot com, slash ww podcast, and there's course there's other
cool stuff as you go up in tears. Or you
can join us on Apple Podcasts and hit that subscribe
button if you just want to be on Apple, it's
there too, two ninety nine a month with a three
day free trial for all of our shows AD free.
All right, So shameless plugging out of the way, let's

(03:38):
get to it guys. Tomorrow I'll be joined by Ashley
Mann for the Money in the Bank preview and prediction show.
Sunday night will be the Money in the Bank review show.
So quite a few more shows to go. It's going
to be a lot of fun. I'm sure Big returns
a lot more to come, guys, it's just getting started.

(04:00):
So everyone, thanks so much for listening. As always, I'll
talk to you next time. All right, Well, tonight is
a very special SmackDown review. Normally, you guys, don't hear
me on this show. Normally I let our brilliant co host,
Michael Ritter take the lead and steer the ship so
to speak, and review smack Down for you that drops

(04:22):
on Saturdays. And tonight though is different. Tonight is different
with the crowd being back WWE making a huge deal
out of it, as they should, but not just me
joining the show is different, but also our co host
that does this review actually attended in person in Houston

(04:44):
the very first time in seventy weeks or four hundred
and ninety five days that they brought fans back, and
it was awesome to see. So, first of all, Michael,
it's awesome to have you here and to be able
to get an in person review.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Man, it's great to be here. Matt. I do want
to apologize to the listeners up front really quickly, just
to make sure that they know that I'm not in
my normal setup so obviously, if there is some audio
differences from what I normally sound like on the Smackgown review,
that's definitely why. But the SmackDown, man, that was a
that was the hell of the show. I gotta admit.
The fans were extremely into it from the jump. I mean,

(05:21):
what I'm not used to is seeing the dark matches
that happened before SmackDown, and there was actually two of those.
There were all NXT wrestlers, though one of them featured
Austin Theory and some of the Men participants. And then
the second match was Zia Lee and Aaliyah from NXT,
and the fans went crazy for them too. I mean,
there was anybody who was coming out there at the beginning,
it was just an absolute I don't even know what

(05:45):
I mean, it was just a it was chaos, I
guess you could say. I mean, whenever Edge came out,
oh my gosh. And of course obviously we'll get into
everything like that, but man, there was there were some
pretty surprising pops. I really didn't expect.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
To hear there were, And I got to say, you know,
as a viewer at home, it had the feel of
a pay per view, I mean, and I mentioned this
in the chat I was in in our discord server
for patrons, and it did feel like a pay per view.
It had that vibe, it had that anticipation. The set
was new, so I guess all of the firings they

(06:16):
did were to save money to buy this multi you
know hunt well not to multi maybe multimillion dollars set,
however much it costs, So that was one of the
investments they made.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
And did you feel that way too. Did you feel in.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
The arena that it was a did it have a
pay per view quality vibe or was it kind of like, oh,
this is just smacked down, like what was the vibe like?

Speaker 3 (06:36):
It definitely felt like a pay per view, just just
given how invested the fans were. I mean literally, any
match that was going on, or any superstar that was
coming out, you'd get a reaction. There was absolutely no indifference.
I guess you can say whether it was cheering or
booing everybody that came out. The fans were absolutely invested,
and it did kind of have that feeling that you
didn't know what could happen. I mean, obviously, whenever you

(06:57):
go to live events or house shows, which is what
I'm are used to going to when I SEEWW live
is you know no title changes are going to happen,
you know that no storylines are going to be developed,
They're basically just there to put on a show. Well,
this felt completely different. You didn't know what was going
to happen, seeing in between commercial breaks kind of how
they do things. That was also cool, But just as
far as the show itself, it definitely felt like bigger

(07:19):
than a SmackDown. I was a little bit disappointed by
the lack of returns, so I definitely I guess that
kind of made it. It watered it down just a
little bit. But I'm not being impatient in that regard.
I'm definitely I understand that there's still more. There's still
a lot more, and there's bigger fish to fry, Like
this Sunday at the pay per view and the Monday
night raw, I think that the surprise is not happening tonight. Yeah,

(07:41):
it might have sucked for us, the people who were
there in attendance, but if you're looking at it from
the big picture, I think they might have made the
right decision just to not confuse any storylines. I mean,
if John Cena came back to night. What was he
gonna do, you know, I mean he couldn't get in
between Edge and Roman are about the fight right or
this in two days? So I personally felt like, I
feel like the returns are more timely for the pay

(08:02):
per view and Monday night raw that.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
You know, that's a good point to bring up because
a lot of us at home and obviously if you're
in the arena, you're you're wanting it even more because
you took the time and money and effort to get
there and physically be there, that you expect more. But
even though us at home we're thinking, okay, it's got
to be you know, out of those that that kind
of cluster of people that we believe are going to
be returning with brock Lesner, with uh, with Goldberg, Yikes,

(08:29):
with Becky Lynch, with John Cena, you know, among a
few others hanging out there that it's like, all right,
they'll probably drop one of them here. But it it
actually makes sense that they didn't when you when you
just pointed it out that they are two days away
from a pay per view. You can't start a start
something massive with somebody returning if you're not going to

(08:50):
do anything with it at the pay per view, and
it wouldn't make sense like you got to close it out,
you got you gotta kind of close this chapter and
then you open the new one starting next week with
a net raw and smack down. Then you were off
to the races. So I guess in person, my question
would be to you, which person did people maybe around
you or you got the sense or people talking about

(09:11):
who they thought would be that surprise return. Do you
know that whatever people were talking about, like who they
thought may would may make that big return?

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Yeah, it was John Cena. Everybody around me was asking
is John going to come back tonight? Is John going
to come back tonight? There was even chance during or
before the show started, let's go see a Sina sucks.
I mean, I mean obviously, I mean there was seeing
punk chance. Fans are just excited to be back, so
they're just chating whatever. But I do feel like they
were expecting John Cena. If anybody me personally, I thought that,

(09:41):
I thought that because obviously the tamina being added to
the money in the bank ladder match last minute, I
thought that that kind of got or maybe put a
fork in the road for a Becky Lynch return or
something like that tonight to enter herself in that money
in the bank. So I kind of as far as
the women go, I kind of put them too the
back in my mind, and I was more focused on
guys like Brock or John Cena, and I kind of,

(10:04):
I guess, just process of elimination. I'm pretty sure that
Broxen go back to Raw, So I've personally thought that
it was going to be John Cena, and the fact
that he didn't come back just tells me that once
this Edge storyline is over on Sunday, maybe next Friday
on SmackDown, we might be able to see John Cena
show up.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
I think that's much much more likely because next starting
next week, we will officially be in SummerSlam season, and
Drew McIntyre has said in interviews and through his cameos
that he does that they are treating SummerSlam like this
year's WrestleMania because they're able to do it in Vegas
at I don't know if it's Reliant Stand, whatever stadium

(10:44):
is in Vegas that holds like sixty to seventy thousand people.
They're really treating this like there WrestleMania, even though we yeah,
we had mania, But so that tells you all you
need to know about the names that could be coming back.
And next week, officially we're there and we have a
much higher chance of seeing those big big returns probably
won at money in the bank. But let's get back
to the task at hand here, and I want to

(11:06):
ask you. When Vince McMahon first came out, it seemed
on TV like he was, i mean, kind of a
hero's welcome. Yeah, there was some scattering of booze, but
I'd say it was like eighty eighty five percent. Maybe
I'm wrong, but that's how I interpreted it. Of just
people cheering the guy, and they wanted to chair kind
of sing along with his song like the No Chance

(11:27):
in Hell. And he gave a very quick, a very
quick where the.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Hell you been? Statement?

Speaker 1 (11:34):
And I expected a little more, you know, I expected, like,
you know, just something like he gave us at WrestleMania,
but it was nothing other than where the hell you been?

Speaker 2 (11:41):
And then he leaves.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
So how did you take this? How did the fans
around you take this? Were they excited to see Vince McMahon.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
I'm going to assume that the booze were coming from
the higher sections, because every single person around me and
every voice that I could possibly was absolutely losing their
mind for Vincement man. And I do think it was
kind of just you know, that hero is welcome. Man
haven't seen him in forever. They weren't sure what he
was going to do, so I do feel like a
lot of it just had to do with excitement. The
fact that he was coming out there usually means something big,

(12:11):
but I kind of thought that he was going to
bring multiple superstars out there. I thought they were gonna
line the whole roster up like they normally do on
the stage and do that thing. But once I saw
it was him by hisself, I didn't know if they
were going to use that specific segment as a way
to kind of bring somebody back, like e Vince was
going to start introducing people like John Cena or maybe
you know Snunkeld, Steve Austin. I haven't thought in the

(12:31):
back of my hand, like man, I wouldn't be surprised
if they did that, just the fact that we're here
in Texas and all that. But yeah, everybody that I
was around, even myself included, we were just absolutely losing
our minds for Vince bick Man and me me personally,
just because I've never seen him in person before and
that was my very first time at any event that
I've been to that actually lay my eyes on Vince
mc manhn. So I felt like that was a that

(12:52):
was a pretty cool little bucket listing to do.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Well, there you go, check one off. And yeah, I mean,
he came out with his power walk and it makes
me laugh every time. As much as people villain a
villa fi Vince McMahon for the things he does and
the way he runs his business. I mean, you can't
really say anything against the fact that he is one
of the biggest villains of all time, if not the
biggest arguably, and seeing him do his power walk at

(13:16):
seventy four years old is still hilarious. But yeah, so
he doesn't have much to say, but gets a big
reaction from the crowd and then fades off into the distance.
And then here we go. We get Roman reigns, we
get the six man tag with Roman and the USOS
versus Ray and Dominic and Edge of course, and we'll
get to his reaction in a minute. But when Roman

(13:38):
comes out again, my reaction at home or my interpretation
at home is it was mostly negative, and that's a
good thing in my mind. Did you hear any cheering
for Roman Reigns during his entrance.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
Nope, I didn't. I mean that there were some people
around me that were wearing USO shirts that weren't booing,
but they definitely weren't cheering. So I feel like for
the most part, fans were still I mean, I don't
know if it's just the fact that he's a hill
and they're actually buying into the storyline, or if they
still just don't like Roman Reigns. I wasn't sure to
really distinguish exactly what it was, but even the people
around me whenever, whenever they were playing the video package

(14:14):
before Smackgun even started, kind of just welcoming the fans back.
Every time Roman Rains his face would show up on
the Jumbo tron get everybody would just start booing, and
the people that were sitting next to me, I do
remember hearing one guy saying, man, they're still booing my guy.
So I do feel like he was probably a Roman
Rains fan, but it was very few and far between.
I guess you can say it was definitely I'd say

(14:36):
like ninety five percent of the entire stadium because those
boozs were loud and the stadium wasn't actually packed. I
thought it was going to be a sold out show,
and there was actually quite a bit of empty seats
whenever you just looked around, and you would have thought
that it was a jam packed house, just given how
loud some of those pops were. And Roman Rains was
definitely a guy who got the opposite end of that
and he got a lot of booze.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
It's funny you mentioned that it wasn't sold out because
we're told many many times on the show by Michael
Cole that it's a sold out crowd from Houston, Texas.
He mentioned it probably five six times coming back from
commercial break or whatever, and they mentioned the number of
fourteen thousand in change. However, many fans were there, So
I'm wondering, now, the empty seats you saw that wasn't

(15:19):
for production or like the TV crew on the TV
side setting up all their things, right, I mean it
was in places that they could have easily filled seats,
is what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Oh yeah, if you looked around, you could see empty rows,
like not just seats. There were some rows that were
being unutilized in some more rows that only had like
three up twelve seats that were filled. So, I mean,
it wasn't like it wasn't like like my Atlanta Falcons.
Their stadium never gets filled up, like it's completely If
you look in the third quarter in the stadium, you
could just see empty seats everywhere. I don't think it

(15:49):
was to that extent. But me, I was going into
the show, I expected because that's all I heard too. Hey,
it sold out. You were lucky to get a ticket
when you did, because man, it's hard to come by one.
And I don't know, I mean they it might have
gotten sold out, but if it did get sold out,
not everybody showed up.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, no, Yeah, it's possible. It's possible. I mean we
were told it to sell out.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
I mean, I know WWE sometimes will inflate the number
of people in attendance. They have been accused of that
at several WrestleManias about breaking attendance records, and then you know,
there's conflicting reports about how many people were actually there.
But nonetheless I'll take them at face value and say
it's quote a sellout. Fine, you guys were a very loud,

(16:29):
loud crowd, and it was it was what I was
hoping it would feel like. It felt like a Monday
night raw after WrestleMania slash pay per view vibe. But
as we get into this match, now, of course the
usos come out, Roman Reigns comes out, and then we
get I think the biggest pop I've heard from a
live crowd, well, of course in seventy weeks, but in

(16:51):
a long time for anybody, and that was Edge. I
don't think I heard a single person boo. I mean,
this was one hundred percent zero in terms of people
cheering and booing. Was it as loud as it came
across on TV?

Speaker 3 (17:06):
And I even said in that discord chat that it
was the loudest pop I've ever heard in person. And
I did. I have it on my phone because I
recorded him and multiple people come out just to kind
of get that pop because I wanted to hear it
and Edge, I mean, surprisingly, Bianca bell Air was the
second biggest pop behind Edge, and that kind of surprised me.
I even had to look up to see is she

(17:27):
from Houston? Because that was a crazy pop. But yeah, Edge,
without a doubt, the loudest pop. I've ever heard the
fireworks or the yeah, I guess fireworks. You can say
the pyro that goes off whenever he throws his hands
up and does like the rock and roll symbol. That
was insane. I remember you saying that it gave you
chills or goosebumps, and man, that you took the words
right out of my mouth because it was. It was

(17:48):
pretty cool to see and you could just feel the
energy in the stadium just go through the roof as
soon as his music hid.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, it did.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
I mean sitting at home getting goosebumps, so I can
imagine what it was like in person. And it was
an interesting stat that I think Michael Cole brought up
during the during the match that during the for Royal
Rumble twenty twenty, when we had Edge return and he
got the pop of the entire night, it was in Houston,
and he said he's now returning to Houston. So I
didn't know that. I didn't know. I didn't even make

(18:17):
the connection that the Royal Rumble in twenty twenty upon
when Edge returned, was actually the same spot that this
he came back to, so it's kind of full circle here.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
Yeah, And I actually didn't think about that either, but
that is one hundred percent right. It was in the
Astro Stadium, but still, I mean in Houston the same
A lot of the people were probably there, so I
bet that was pretty cool for Edge getting to have
that same pop. But yeah, I mean, I actually that
completely slipped my mind. I just didn't connect that at all.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
No, I didn't, and Michael Cole educated me tonight. But
so the match gets underway, and how I mean it
seemed as on TV that they were into everything going
on at the beginning. I mean it was and that's typical, right,
Like for any show, usually the first person or a
few segments up at the beginning have the most attention

(19:04):
you have, the fans are the most fresh at that time.
But the fans really seemed into every single maneuver, even
from Dominic. I heard some Dominic chance if I'm not mistaken,
which is cool, Like, I you know, that's fine. First,
it was his first performance in front of a live
audience since he was as they quote said, he was
birthed during the Thunderdome era, So we're was it the

(19:27):
same kind of thing in person that you guys were
into every single move that was going on.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
Oh yeah, it was really hard not to be just
at the very beginning. But as far as the Dominic
chance go, I don't know if you could see on TV,
but Raymastereo is the one who started those chants. So
I mean just turning around looking at the crowd, Domina Nick,
I mean, no matter who he's cheering for, if you're
sitting right there, Ray Masterio is telling you to cheer,
most likely gont to cheer. So I feel like that
might have had something to do with it. And someone
hears somebody else chanting something so they start. I don't

(19:55):
I'd never got the feeling that Dominic was over with
the crowd or that they were, you know, really porting him.
I feel like it was just he was in a
good situation, being tagging partners with Edge of Raymisterio who
Nostalgia was just kicking in crazy with the crowd.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
Deny it, yeah, no, and and it it certainly was.
And And I thought that that match. I thought the
match was really good. I was shocked when they decided
to have Edge's team lose and I was I was thinking, way,
what you know, they're going to bring this crowd up
just to slam them down at the first show, but
I understand why they did it because it gives the

(20:29):
team a win. Which Michael Cole did say that the
blood Line. He did say the blood Line, so I
don't know if that was a Freudian slip or if
that actually is accurate, but nonetheless he did label them
as the blood Line.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
And then you know, the.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Baby Faces get their their their their shots in especially
Edge hitting the spear on Rome and the crowd explodes.
I heard that, and so so kind of walked me
through the end of the match where people kind of
pissed off that the blood Line won or or like
what was the what was the feeling?

Speaker 3 (21:03):
Yes, people were mad as soon as as soon as
Roman Reigns music hit after the match was over, they
were I don't want to say that they were just
like because obviously it was the first match of the night.
They weren't just completely pissed off that that Edge lost,
but I could definitely tell that that they didn't expect it.
I think that everybody there was expecting Edge to win,
because whenever they lost, you could just hear like the oh,

(21:24):
like it was just it was obvious that that it
was maybe a little bit of a shock feeling that
they thought that Edge was going to go over on Roman,
and then obviously, whoever goes over on the last show
most of the time ends up losing. So that kind
of confused me at first. And then obviously a little
bit after that happened, Edge puts the attack on Roman, Reigns,
puts them in that cross face with the with the

(21:46):
bar from the chair, and then holds up the championship.
So that kind of let me know, all right, we're
back on schedule. This is what's going to happen. The
loss or the decision on who won the match was
kind of confusing, but all in all, we we we
got back on track.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Well good, No, I really enjoyed, you know the fact
that they did when I'm fine with I was cool
with the baby Faces then getting their shots in, and
so the fans are ultimately left happy with that segment
because the final image was Edge spearing, Roman reigns and
the baby Faces you know, get there, get their licks in.
So I do want to move on though, to well

(22:22):
we did get a big return. Actually, now I'm thinking
about it, you guys got Finn Balor a return that
I don't think a lot of people were thinking about.
I knew that he was rumored at some point to
come back to the main roster. It had been some time,
and the crowd really seemed to be very positive, very
very positive for Finn Balor as expected, as he interrupted

(22:44):
Sammy Zain, who Sammy Zain went on this, of course
hilarious rant about his conspiracy theory, and he cut off
you guys from singing his theme song at the very beginning,
which I thought was a genius move. If you're a heel,
I know where they actually would have gone along with it,
because it's a very catchy song. I mean, it's a

(23:04):
great babyface entrance music, and so I love how he
just cut it off at the knees and then went
into his rant, and then of course we get the
returning Finn Balors.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
So what did you think of that segment?

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Well, actually, because there was a daughter and a father
who were both wearing Finn Balor shirts sitting right in
front of me, and I asked after that, was like,
did you guys know he was coming? You guys are
wearing the shirts. He's not on SmackDown, like, because if not,
then you must have been, you know, insanely surprised just
to see him come out. But yeah, that was. That
was another one that the fans absolutely lost it for.

(23:38):
And then whenever he does his theme song and he
kind of throws his arms up in the lights get
a little bit brighter or I guess that's his interest
when he does that, But that was that's actually crazy
to see in person how bright it really gets. And
it could have something to do with the new set,
maybe that makes it brighter than what it normally is.
But me, me, sitting in the crowd, I was like,
holy shit, like that, that's pretty bright. But one thing

(24:00):
about this match, I do want to say. My roommate
actually sent me a video of the finish. I guess
it really wasn't even a match. I guess fin Valor
has attacked him, but he hit the coupdi gras. Isn't
that what it's called? Yeah, and he actually landed on
Sammy Zain's neck. Did you see that? No?

Speaker 2 (24:16):
I did.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, if you go back and watch that and slow
it down, they he landed right on Sammisin's throat and
Sammy's obviously all right, but it was still one of
those things like you don't really think about how dangerous
that move is. But man, if he could have definitely
messed me up there.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Ooh, I did not see that. I knew.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
I remember watching it going, Eh, that wasn't the cleanest
coupdi gras that I've ever seen and you know, in
my life, But I didn't notice it was on his neck.
It looked like he kind of like slipped a little bit.
It didn't look that great. But yeah, yikes, that is
very scary. That is very scary. So but yeah, I
will say his entrance, I've forgotten how cool it is
to see in front of you know, fifteen thousand fans, uh,

(24:52):
you know, doing the throwing their arms out, which is
always hilarious to me. When you're crammed in a stadium
fourteen thousand people that you know, people are getting probably
elbowed in the face, right, So you gotta be careful
of your neighbor.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Oh yeah, most definitely. And that was one where, like
I guess, if I was ranking them edge first, Pianco
bell Air and then probably Finn Balor and Kevin Owens
kind of tie for that third place. Pop But yeah,
I agree that that's kind of one of those things
I personally didn't do it, but seeing everybody around me
do it, it was pretty cool to see.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
Not gonna lie, Yeah, no it is. It's a very
visually pleasing entrance, no question.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
So that is it feels like again we were talking
about no big returns and it's like, yeah, it's not
the returns that we all are thinking about that we're
all waiting of brock lesnar or Johnscena.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Where the hell are they?

Speaker 1 (25:42):
But this is I think a significant kind of circle
back for Finn Balor coming back to the main roster. So,
but speaking of Kevin Owens, you know, we have Baron
Corbin come out and he mister dejected himself, comes out
and continuing to grow out his hair.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Which is hilarious.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
And at first, and I put this on the discord server,
I said, do you guys think they're turning in babyface
by trying to gain like sympathy or something. And then
it was very clear to me that no, that's actually
not what they're doing, because he started to make fun
of you guys in Houston and kind of took some
subtle jabs at the audience. And Kevin Owens comes out

(26:21):
and doesn't say a whole lot, just drops a stunner
on him after Corbyn had put up a corbinfundme dot
com site, which actually exists. Guys like corbynfundme dot com
is actually a real site. You can't donate, it's just
a site. It's a static site with a picture and
some text, but it's hilarious. They went through the effort

(26:42):
of actually creating it. So what did the crowd think
of and what did you think of this segment with
Kevin Owens and dropping the stunner.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
I feel like it was kind of one of those
things that got the crowd back into it because Baron Corbin,
he actually came out during the commercial break and he
was just standing in the ring. The rusher back was
going on, and they were bringing out the ladders to
set up around like in the entrance and kind of
just you know, remind you, hey, money in the banks
at Sunday, so we need twelve ladders around the ring.
But while they were doing that and setting that whole

(27:13):
thing up, Baron KORbin was in the ring and just
standing there with a mic and he was standing there
apart for like six or seven minutes before he actually
started talking. And I feel like it was just the
people that I was around, they had no sympathy for
Varon KORbin at all. They were literally just laughing at
him and poking fun at him and joking about like
the situation he's in and how there was like a

(27:34):
barbecue stain on his shirt, and how he's just his
hair still just looking absolutely ridiculous. But I personally, whenever
this segment was going on, like I said a little
bit earlier, I felt like it kind of brought the
energy back to the crowd because there was a commercial
break and Baron Korman was kind of just talking, but
once Kevin Olans hit the stunner, you could just feel
it was like the light switch, Like, man, we just

(27:54):
got an energy boost. And Kevin Owens is definitely the
person that you wanted to see do that, because he's
another one that I haven't really got to see much
of in person. Kind Of right when I started going
to WV shows live events, was kind of whenever Kevin
Owens was still in NXT, and then when we got
when you got up to the main roster, I kind
of stopped going for a little while, and just you're

(28:15):
not guaranteed to see any or see everybody whenever you
go you know, there's only a certain amount of people
who go to the shows, So anytime I got to
go to WB for whatever reason, Kevin Owens wouldn't be there.
And yeah, no, yeah, sorry.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
No, it's all right.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
I was gonna say, it is always a crapshoot, and
certainly when you go you don't know who exactly you
are going to see. You have hopes and dreams, and
you have ideas of who you may see and who
could return and all that kind of thing. And Kevin Owens,
I think I've only seen him a couple of times,
maybe at most. I haven't been to a show since
there raw twenty fifth anniversary in Brooklyn, But I would

(28:51):
say that, yeah, Kevin Owens is one that it's fun
to watch live. The Stunter is as always like one
of the most crowd pleasing maneuvers of all time, obviously
given its affiliation and long running history of great moments
with Austin. But yeah, Kevin Owens dropping dropping Corbin with that,
it was fun, Like you said, it kind of got
me back into it at home too.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
It's like, okay, cool, Like it.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Wasn't a it wasn't a wrestling match, but it was
a moment that you're like, all right, like it's a
familiar move with a familiar guy that has beloved against
a guy that is generally hated in Bearing Corbin.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
And so yeah, it was. It was a cool moment.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
And I don't know if this is going to lead
to anything. I would think probably Corbyn versus Owens' is
maybe at Summer Slam. I don't or or this could
just be a one off and they don't do anything
with it. But I do want to move on to
the SmackDown Women's Championship with Bianca bel Air, as you said,
getting the second biggest pop of the night. It did

(29:49):
come across pretty positive to me. To me at home,
it sounded like Finn Balor got a bigger pop than Bianca,
but in person obviously sometimes it so Bianca Bellair versus
versus Carmela was the Women's championship matchup? And what did
you think about this match and any notes from the crowd?

Speaker 3 (30:12):
All right about this match, and I will say just
about the Finn Balor and Bianca, I think that Bianca
might have got a louder pop for a for a smidge,
but Finn Baler's was without a doubt way longer. The
crowd was going crazy for Finn Balor for his entire entrance.
I felt like with Bianca bell Air it was more
so whenever her music first hit and she was coming
out I could hear. I was like, man, you really

(30:33):
you really don't realize it without fans being there. You
kind of just gauge it off of what you see
on social media and the pumped in crowd noise that
they're doing. But whenever fans are actually there, you get
their mind like, oh wow, she really is over with
these fans. Like I didn't realize it until you actually
are sitting there and you're hearing it and they're cheering
for every move that she does, and that kind of
just put it in my head like, Okay, maybe I

(30:54):
was a little off on how over Bianca Bella really
is with these fans. And like I said, I had
to look up there at the show is where is
she from? And obviously she's from Nxville, Tennessee, But I
was like, is she from Houston? Because this is like
a hometown pop that you would that you would get.
But yeah, I agree Finn Balor definitely, Like I said,
they're right their rivalry or their rivalry with each other,

(31:14):
I guess if I can get it out. But about
the match itself, I honestly forgot that it was a
championship match, because you don't whenever you're there in person,
you know, you don't get the the little images that
come up on the bottom of your screen as we're
going into commercial break that say, hey, a championship match
is up next. You know, you kind of just come out.

(31:34):
And it wasn't until Hamilton or I'm not sure if
it was Hamilton that announced it, or if maybe the
referee holding up the bell is when it actually clicked
to me, like, Okay, this is a women's championship match.
I better actually like buckle in here. And I feel
like throughout the entire match and it was, it went
on a little bit longer than I expected. But I
do feel like Bianca bell Air kind of set it

(31:58):
or she established herself tonight as in my opinion, one
of the most over women's wrestlers on Smackgown. I can't
really speak for Rock is obviously Charlotte, and there's wrestlers
over there who the fans absolutely love. But in my
opinion and course, Sasha Banks wasn't here tonight. A lot
of female wrestlers didn't make an appearance, but it just

(32:19):
kind of it was head and shoulders to I mean,
obviously it's people like Bianca way more than Natty and Semina,
but any other women's wrestler that came out, it was
just head and shoulders, like way different. The crowd absolutely
loved Bianca.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Well that's great to hear because you know, you never
know when they make a change at WrestleMania to a
new champion, how the live crowd is going to react.
And I think Bianca is light years ahead of where
Rhea Ripley is. I think they wish that they could
duplicate the success and genuine fan connection that Bianca has

(32:55):
with her fans that Riha does not. And right again,
she was success NXT. But it's a different animal sometimes
when you come to the quote main roster, and I
think that Ree Ripley is learning that the hard way
that sometimes it's it's not going to be a quick,
easy transition and you just grab the belt at Manium,
people are going to gravitate towards you. But Bianca I

(33:16):
felt at at home too, you know, she was She's confident.
She feels like she's settling in her crowd reaction tonight
was really good. I was I was worried that maybe
she might get some booze. I didn't hear any and
the match, you know, the match itself was okay. I
don't know if you kind of felt the same way.
I wasn't blown away by it. It was it was fine.

(33:37):
Like I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. It
was the outcome that you expected. I think nobody, I
mean exactly zero people would have expected Carmela to win
this match would have been absolutely just preposterous. For Carmela
to win this match. And you know, it was funny
with the announcers. Obviously you couldn't hear them, but they
were talking about how with Carmela that you know, it's

(33:58):
not you know, she may be beautiful, but she's one
of the most dangerous and vicious women's superstars on the roster.
I'm thinking to myself, No, no, she's not. You know
why she's not because she talks about how beautiful she
is all the time, and that's like her weapon apparently
is is her beauty.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Guys.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
It was ridiculous, but I don't think this was a
bad match. Did you think this was a like, how
did you rate the match in terms of quality? I
mean it was okay to me.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
Yeah, I feel like the match delivered. It wasn't a
bad match at all. I agree. I didn't expect Carmelo
to really have a shot at all to actually take
the championship, but the thought did cross my mind as
I was thinking, kind of what Vince McMahon did WrestleMania thirty.
You know, I want to do something big. What can
we do? Well, let's go and take the streak off
the Undertaker. We don't have anything else to do. Obviously,
not to the same extent at all, but I kind
of felt like, well, they're not going to bring back

(34:47):
any returns tonight. Vince probably wants to do something big.
This is the only championship match on the card. They
kind of put it right in the middle of the show.
I was like, I don't know, this could be a
little part where they try to swerve us here, but
luckily they didn't. I feel like they made the right decision.
Bionca bel Air, like you said just a little bit ago,
she's miles ahead in terms of fan or fans embracing

(35:10):
her than Ria Ripley is, and I feel like a
lot of that has to do with Ria Ripley having
some bad dancing partners like Osca and then being in
a situation with Charlotte where it's kind of wait, am
I the baby face? Am I the hill? What's going on?
I feel like there's more there's a more clear path
for Bionca bell Air on SmackDown than there is for
Ria Ripley. So, yeah, they won their championships the same time. Well,

(35:31):
did win her championship the same night as Bianca? I
can't really remember. Yeah, okay, yes, So I feel like
just them winning their championships on the same night, and
obviously both being young, is probably where the comparisons stop
with those two. I feel like they're just in different situations.
If Rio was on SmackDown and Bianca was on Raw,

(35:52):
I feel like maybe Rio would be I don't know
about just as over as Bianca because the storyline and
the build up to a WrestleMania match kind of had
a to do with it with building a good fan
base behind Bianca. But I don't know. I wouldn't mind
seeing rear Ripley over on SmackDown and seeing how she
had more luck there.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
It could be, and it could be the fact that
the writing team on SmackDown, the writing and production team
on SmackDown is just better run. I mean, I think
talent has something to do with it, but I also
believe that the fact that it's a two hour show
is certainly a big fact. That you don't have to
create thirty three percent more content. That's a big deal,

(36:29):
and a lot of times it's filler, but it's also,
you know, again the efficiency of that team. And I'm
concerned about when they do the draft if things get
all mucked up on SmackDown, because SmackDown is such a
far and away superior show that, you know, I'm worried
the draft is actually going to kind of f this up.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
But we'll see.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
I mean, the draft now apparently has been rumored to
be pushed from late August to October.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
This is what I'm hearing, right.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
Yeah, yeah, I've actually heard that too, And honestly, I
thought it made sense just because last year in twenty twenty,
the draft was that first week of October, so I
felt like if they were to do it once a
year like that, it doesn't always have to be in October.
But if they did it just once a year, that
way you have a whole year, You have a whole
calendar year to get used to a roster, to actually
let them build themselves up on a specific brand, because

(37:18):
we all know that the good days of the brand
split likely or over of them actually taking it as
serious as they possibly can, making it feel like two
different worlds where paths don't cross until Survivor Series, World Rumble,
maybe WrestleMania, And I feel like you're right the draft definitely.
I mean, they're kind of it's a risk, you know
that they're switching it up. They're going to get new

(37:39):
characters over there. So but as far as the draft
being moved, I wanted it to be in August selfishly,
just because, I mean, you get it sooner. You know,
we got new people to talk about, you get all
these new matchups and just drafts me. I love them.
I think that they're exciting as hell, and I just
like to shake things up a little bit. But since
I've been covering SmackDown and it's been this one roster,

(38:00):
there is a little bit of an attachment to it,
and I guess two more months with the same roster.
That's not the end of the world. I guess it's not.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
And we have big returns coming, right, like, we have
big returns that'll help the keep things a little bit
fresh for a couple of months, and fans are back.
I think it's enough to get us through to the draft.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
I really do. I think it's enough.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Time to have people go all right, like I'm ready
now for a shakeup, So certainly I think the draft
it will be welcome by the time October rolls around,
so allah.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
And really quickly before we move on from the draft,
I will say I just have a feeling, just given
with the dark matches, Shatty black Heart and Tea and
Knocks showing up, Tony Storm being rumored to come to
smack down, I think that this particular draft. I know
that we haven't seen n XT be involved like in
the Survivis series and the Royal rumble this past year,
but I think this particular draft n XT is going
to be involved pretty heavily. And that's just kind of

(38:50):
a gut feeling.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
You know, for all the time and effort they put
in trying to tell us, especially Triple H that we're
a legitimate third brand. Yeah, they speak out of both
sides of their mouth because they're telling us that. And
yet then this year they're not involved in the Survivors series.
They're barely involved in the royal rumble that we're just
we're taking people from NXT and bringing them to ron
SmackDown versus people going from ron SmackDown to NXT. Yes,

(39:15):
Finn Baler is a rare exception, but the message is
what you're doing is not matching what you're saying. So
if that is the case, and they are really going
to start doing that again and making it feel like
a legitimate third brand and continuing to do that consistently,
then yet that would absolutely be a huge deal to
have NXT as an official part of the draft.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
So Mandy Rose as well, she went back to NXT
this week. Yeah, it's official move, but moved back to NXT.
That's what I heard, or at least I saw from
a pretty credible source on the Internet that it's it's
not a part time Mandy Rose is back on NXT
long term.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Wow, Well you just created many tear drops out of
the eyes of fans around the world from Andy Rose
being push back to NXT, which you know what if
I was you know, if I was in that in
her shoes, I wouldn't look at these things as a demotion.
Like you can't look at going back to NXT as
a demotion. You have to look at it as kind
of a time to figure out who and what you

(40:13):
are and take time to improve. Like you know, so
all right, Uh, Shati and Knox though, speaking of them
versus Tamina and Natalia, they end up Shatti and Knox
end up defeating Temina in Italia for the second time,
uh in two weeks. And on commentary, I know you
couldn't hear them, which is probably for the best. Live
Morgan and Zelena Vega on commentary, Uh, they were.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
I will say I'm big.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
I'm a huge Seleena Vega fan, especially in terms of
her personality and usually her mic skills usually are very good.
Live Morgan, We're starting to really see the ascension of
and I'm behind her push as well. But on the
mic together, they felt like two bickering school girls fighting
over you know, a bus seat like it felt it

(41:00):
felt very childish the way that they were kind of
attacking each other. I know, again, you couldn't hear this,
but it was it was not fun to listen to
these two. So outside of that, though, we got this
victory from Shatzi and Knox, and Live Morgan ends up
standing tall at the end of this segment. So give
me your thoughts.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
Well, that's the weird thing about being there in person
because you don't get to see the instant replay. Yeah,
you can look up to the screen, but you're always
missing something in the ring when you do that. So
you are going to miss things when you're at a
live event. And I actually missed the end of this
match how Live Morgan and Italia or how the women
on the announced table, because I did see them down
there and I could see. I couldn't hear, obviously, but

(41:41):
you could just see them. And normally, you know, if
if they put two people on opposite sides of the
commentary table, like one person on one side and the
other on the other side, you know exactly what's going
to happen there. So that kind of told me. I
could just see them kind of going back and forth,
and Pat McAfee's facial expressions were letting me know, all right,
they're obviously arguing with each other, with each other down there,
but I didn't really see how Morgan ended up getting involved.

(42:03):
I'm guessing the tag team champions went out there after
the match and kind of provoked them or something. Is
that what happened.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
Yeah, Yeah, she was brawling with Zelena Vega on the outside,
and then she got involved with Tamina in the outside,
and then she eventually got rolled into the ring and
that's when things went her way inside the ring. So yeah,
you didn't miss a whole lot there, But it ended
up with just really surprisingly Live Morgan standing tall, which

(42:33):
I don't think that's ever happened where in a multi
woman brawl you have Lived Morgan out of all people
standing tall and and so to me, it was a
it was a good thing, and it really sent the
message to fans that you know, we hear you, and
let's see how this goes with the Live Morgan and
a lot of people are picking her to win that
Women's Money in the Bank ladder match. I think you

(42:54):
could make a case for it.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
Yeah, And I would actually love to see Live Morgan.
I mean it's no secret that I'm like Live fans,
so I would actually love to see her win the
Money in the Bank ladder match. But just quickly touching
back on this tag team match, I wanted to add
just how well or I guess just as a tag team,
Shotzi and Tigan Knocks actually do pretty well together. But
I love whenever NXT wrestlers come up, and especially at first,

(43:18):
because you see them bring their a game, like they
don't hold back at all. It's their first time wrestling
in front of this type of crowd, and I could
tell that these two women, I mean I was close
enough to see that they were there were some butterflies there,
like especially Shotzy black Cart. You could just tell her
she was just like kind of jumping before she was
like she wasn't jittery, but it was one of those
things like I don't know if I'm just I have
a different view here being this close, but I don't.

(43:40):
I don't see her get this this nervous before matches before.
So I feel like that was pretty cool to see
just them be embraced by the fans, because I mean,
it's it's almost crazy that NXT's viewed as a third
brand just because how popular they are amongst all the
ww fans. And I'm really not one of them, you know,
I'm kind of I'm not as far on the boat

(44:02):
as you are, Like I just I mean not because
I watch an XT probably like twice a month, like
and it's not like I plan to do that. It
just comes down to it, you know, with the other
podcasts and stuff like that. Time is a real is
a real factor when it comes to that stuff. So
but all the all the fans who are just completely
sold on n x T and they just absolutely love it,
they are not quiet about it. And it was and

(44:24):
it wasn't different in the show tonight. NXT chance were
going on in the dark matches whenever Ale and Zli
were fighting, and then the other the other dark match
that featured n XT people just NXT chances to throughout
the entire about the tire arena. So I was kind
of just like, man, n XT is popular as hell,
and it's just crazy that that Vince and the creative
don't you know, catch on to that and give them

(44:45):
a little bit more, Uh. I guess airtime on the
main roster.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Vince is Vince is probably sitting back on what what
letters are they chanting?

Speaker 2 (44:53):
What the hell is x n T? What are they chanting? Right?

Speaker 1 (44:56):
Like he's he may not even know that they have
a third brand, like I mean, he clearly doesn't, and
he probably just leaves it to Triple H to take
care of it. I'm sure that Vince has very little
say or really interest it shouldn't be say should He
just probably has no interest in really putting his time
and effort into that when he has Ron SmackDown and
everything else. So but that's cool, that that's really cool

(45:18):
that you know, fans were in support of NXT during
the show if you heard n XT chance and that
is a really cool thing to hear. So all right,
Cizzarro and Otis and they had their backstage segment, or
at least we had Chad Gable talk trash and then
Cesorrow come up and say my name better not be

(45:40):
on that list or something like that, and then we
got basically having Cesarrow shoved away by Otis and punched
a couple of times and then walks off, and that
leads to a match between Otis and Cesarrow, but it
ends in disqualification as we had Gable get involved and
going he got wung eight or nine times whatever it was,

(46:02):
and then Otis comes in and just cleans house. So
I mean I gotta say, do you like this quick
elevation of Otis? I mean, now he's running through Cizarrow,
leaving him laying, And how did the fans react to this?

Speaker 3 (46:20):
I don't like it. I love it. Just being completely honest,
I absolutely love this version of Otis because it tells
me that they're putting effort into it. You know, it's
multiple weeks, he's squashing guys like Cizarro and Angelo Dawkins.
I mean, I feel like this is what you need.
If you're going to give somebody a character change, you
have to go all in, like you have to do
what they're doing with Otis, make him get a haircut,
shave his beard, completely switch up everything he's doing, and

(46:44):
he feels different. He feels like he's never felt before.
And as much as I do like what Otis is
doing and all that stuff going on right now, I
will say that this match, in particular, it was probably
the low spot of the of the entire card, or
just the entire show as a whole. I just feel like, yes,
Czar got a pretty big pop chew and the fans
were excited to see him, but that's that's probably where

(47:04):
it stopped. I feel like as this was going on
and Chad Gable got involved, it just wasn't in comparison
to some of the other things that happened, It just
really wasn't up there, I guess you could say with
some of the others.

Speaker 1 (47:15):
Crazy right, like and Cizarro was a main event in
a pay per view like a couple of months ago
with Roman Reigns, and people were all behind him, and
now he's in a segment as you said that, it
is actually kind of quote.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
The low point. I don't mean low point.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
Disrespectfully, but there's always ebbs and flows of the show,
and I don't know why fans should be super excited
about this or really is no reason, given that this
was a cold start program for both guys. But I'm
with you on Otis, you know. I it was a massive,
just complete opponent of what Otis was before, with you know,

(47:48):
the obsession with food and oh yeah and Tucky and
all this garbage that was I think really really hurting
him and actually ended up causing Vince to decide to
take the money in the bank briefcase away from him
because I think he even Vince saw the fans on
social media, which is the only place he had to
go to see what fans are thinking at the time

(48:09):
to say, hey, we got to take it off of you.
And now he meets up with Chad Gable. I think
the Alpha Academy is something that I when I initially
was when it initially came out, I said, oh boy,
this is just going to be one of those silly
things they do.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
It's not going to really go anywhere.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
It's just going to be a comedy segment every week
where eventually Otis is going to figure out that Chad
Gable's just using him, and I think that was probably
the original plan. And now they are a solidified team
and Otis is a big player. Now it has turned
completely to the other way from what we all thought

(48:44):
it probably would be at this group's inception.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
So I'm with you.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
I'm all for what Otis is doing right now, and
he's clearly right on a trajectory to main eventing, probably
in the next six months for a championship, a singles championship,
or hell, do I dare say a top championship. I mean,
do you see Otis say in the next six months

(49:10):
at least capturing a singles championship of some sort Intercontinental
even Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
See, actually, I'm glad you mentioned Intercontinental because I have
thought about this before and it would be weird having
Otis versus Apollo because obviously Hill versus Hill. So I
think that if Apollo loses this championship at sometime in
the near future, which I do feel like is possible,
I feel like Otis is probably first in line to
get that opportunity. I just feel like you have to
see what what he can do. You have to see

(49:36):
how the fans react to him in that position, in
that role. So yes, I feel like it's inevitable at
some point you have to give him an opportunity and
just quickly on the whole Alpha Academy thing. I actually
really like it. I do. I was kind of with
you at the beginning. I was just waiting, Okay, Gable
obviously has something up his sleeve, and at first they
were kind of using the approach where Gable was giving

(50:00):
Otis advice during matches, and the advice that he was
giving him would ultimately end up making Otis to lose
the match. That happened multiple times, and I thought that's
what they were going to do with that, and then
out of nowhere, his advice must have just started working
or something, because it completely flipped the switch on Otis
and he's a whole new person. But just quickly on
the Alpha thing. Where I was going with that is
you seww just absolutely throw things like that out the window.

(50:22):
Whenever Jason Jordan left, I mean, Chad Gable had that
whole little run as Shorty g and all that and
eventually kind of made his way back to referencing the
whole Alpha thing. And I just think that's kind of
cool how they keep tying that to Chad Gable and
they didn't just throw it out the window because I
was actually a huge fan of American Alpha whenever they
split them up and then did the whole Kurt Angles

(50:42):
Jason Jordan's dad. We don't even have to get into that,
but I just thought that was I thought that was
too soon. And I think Chad Gable was best in
a tag team. So the fact that it's the Alpha
Academy now and he has a guy like Otis who
is clearly on the way up, I just like it.
I feel like, if this is your low point of
the show, like I said, it's not a knock on
the actual segment. I mean, something's got to be the

(51:04):
low point of the show. When you have a pretty
good show, likely it's going to be something good. So
I guess it's just whenever you're comparing it to what
else happened, it's easy to see this being being towards
the bottom. But that doesn't mean it was bad, because
I do. I really like what's going on with Otis,
and I like how every week he's saying more things,
he's doing, he's taking it a little bit further. He's
not just walking in place, so I can appreciate that, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
He is, and he's he's.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
It's a slow progression on the mic, but a huge
step forward in the ring and his overall, the overall
feel of this presence of this guy has changed amazing
that you you know, you get rid of your beard
and you're more intimidating, when typically it's the other way around.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Where beards are.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
Usually they're they're perceived as more manly and dominating. I'm
not trying to get into too much psychology, but usually
it's the other way around, and yet it has done
the opposite for Otis.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
I could tell you right now somebody who has a
beard and who has shaped their beard before you are
one riot.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
It makes them feel like they're a child, like you
look at them, especially if someone's had a beard for
a long time and they shave it. It's it's sometimes
is laughable because you're like, what what just happened? Rather
just they went from a man to a boy. And yes,
Otis does have a kind of a young looking face.
He's a bigger guy, so he's a much bigger face,
but he has a young face, if that makes sense.

(52:27):
I don't know how else to describe it. But he's
got such a kind of a mean mad face, like
he's got a very he's very emotive. He knows when
he makes his frownie face that it actually comes across
as mean even though his beard is gone. It's I
think it's actually accentuated with his beard gone, because you
can see all like his entire face when he does

(52:50):
his kind of mean mug. I don't know I'm diving
into this way too much, but I think it's a
big deal for Otis here and he's on a He's
in a better spot now than he's ever been ever
in WWE. Ever, so this is this is really good
end for Chad Gable too. So all right, any other
thoughts on that before we get closer wrapping things up

(53:11):
here with the I think this is the final match,
but anything, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
Yeah, you'll notice that covering SmackDown, it's a lot faster
and then covering all of.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
A sudden, it just popped up on me, like, wait
a minute, I feel like there should be like ten
more things. Yeah, Monda is a bear and I don't
even watch the full three hours, So all right, Well,
Seth Rollins, Shinsky, Nakamura, Bigie, Kevin Owens. I mean, like, so,
I gotta say Seth Rawlins. I know he had that
interaction backstage with Edge, and we all know at this

(53:44):
point it's absolutely inevitable that these two cross paths and
Seth likely screws Edge at the pay per view. I
think we can all see that coming a mile away,
and I'm okay with it being predictable. I'm fine with
it being predictable because it's I think the right thing
to do to protect Roman from losing, and it's also
getting Edge and Seth back into a program for the

(54:07):
first time, so that at the back stay segment was good.
I like what Seth has done. His outfits are getting
more ridiculous by the week. Hilariously ridiculous, and I mean
that complimentary. But Seth Rollins defeats Shinzkanackabara, big Eie Kevin
Owens in a fatal four way match here and Big Ee,

(54:29):
I gotta say this one thing and then I'll toss
it to you. If they don't get Big Ee away
from being just an extension of the New Day on SmackDown,
he will never ever achieve what they are intending him
to achieve. You cannot have him come into a promo

(54:49):
and start talking about New Day rocks.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
I mean, you're not in the New Day anymore, dude,
you are you?

Speaker 1 (54:57):
We all wanted you to be a single star and
you're continuing to reference the group that is on a
different brand. I could grants about that, but go ahead.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
See. I feel like with the whole New Day situation,
I almost a little bit of a comparison here that
I use is it's almost like your break. You want
to break up with a girl, but you want to
end on good terms, right. You don't want to end up.
You don't want to hate each other or anything like that.
You want it to be a peaceful, nice breakup where
you both you all go do your own things and
possibly remain friends. And I feel like that's kind of

(55:27):
what they're trying to do with the New Day, but
it's not working. I feel like with that, somebody has
to turn. And I know they said, well, you don't
have to do that when you break up a group,
but I think with this particular group, with how long
they've been together, with how they're all so similar in
their characters, you have to force them to turn on
each other just for it to like, so they can
hate each other. That's just I feel like that's the
only way that it's going to be a true split up,

(55:49):
and I think WWE is learning that the hard way.
I feel like they might have planned for Biggie to
just completely separate himself, but they realize how easy it
is and how natural it is because there was never
that turn. He still he's still friends with them, wh
wouldn't come out and support his friends and all that.
I don't agree with it, but I guess I can
see like why they would do it because there wasn't
that turn. So as far as the match, this one,

(56:10):
it was quicker than I thought this. I mean, it'd
being the main event and a fatal four way match.
I expected it to go on pretty long. But there's
a lot of spots in it. And I actually remember
you mentioned one in the discord chat where Biggie does
like the spear through the ropes. That is the thing
that's a very dangerous move.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
It's so I cringe, and He's done it so many
times you think I'd get used to it, but he
does not have any business doing that. I don't care
just because you can do it that you think you
should do it. That is That is stupid logic. There's
a lot of things I could do that I should
not do, right Like, just because you can do something

(56:47):
does not mean it's the right thing to do. And
I know the Biggie is he you know, it's part
of his repertoire. I get that, but it is such
a high risk move, especially for a guy that's two
hundred and sixty pounds of all muscle crashing down into
somebody in the outside of the ring. I really hold
my breath every time he does it, and I look

(57:09):
to the referees. You're gonna throw up the X sign?
Is someone dead? I mean, I just I really hold
my breath every time he does it. Do you feel
the same thing about when he does this? It's just
so unnecessary.

Speaker 3 (57:22):
One And it was the very first move in the
match like that, that was it? Like that the bell
rang and he did that. Obviously seth Ronalds was trying
to leave. But still, I mean, we almost didn't get
a match had that gone had that gone wrong and
the referee did throw up the X, we would have
gotten no match. So I feel like, damn. I mean,
you started off with that, and it's just weird considering
how much of a risk that is and how dangerous

(57:43):
of a move that is. Whenever you look at his
finishing move, like you're gonna do that at the very
beginning of the match, but have that be your finishing move, Like,
are you kidding me? So, I guess just in comparison,
it's like he's clearly got things in And I don't
know what it is about this finishing move, but it's
seeing it in person just didn't didn't make me feel
any better than seeing it on TV.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
I'll tell you that, yeah, in person didn't. If in
person didn't help you, this move is doomed. The big
ending is I cannot stress this enough, how soft this
finishing maneuver looks like I mean, a clothesline has more
effect a suplex. A simple overhead suplex has more of

(58:24):
an effect on me than does the big ending that
is essentially just you picking me up, holding me up,
and then I land on my belly nice and soft.
I mean, it's ridiculous, but Biggie ends up getting pinned
by Seth Rollins after a stomp on the ladder. Kevin
Owens of course does his insane jump off of the

(58:45):
off of the ladder and into Shinsky Nakamura from the
top of the ladder. I mean, this guy just has
no regard for his body whatsoever, and so that was
the big spot for Kevin Owens. But of course Seth
Rowins gets the victor, and somebody always has to. And
this isn't a knock on Seth, but ww it seems

(59:06):
as if every single time they do a money in
the bank ladder match every year, they have to have
somebody go up and hold up the briefcase or point
to the briefcase that isn't really the real one. And
it's just I don't know, but anyway, Seth ends up
being victorious, and that can probably tell you that he
won't win at this, won't win Sunday, but who knows.

Speaker 3 (59:28):
Yeah, it's actually pretty crazy too because Seth was my pick,
Like I legitimately thought that because of the references that
the announced team was making in previous weeks. They kept
saying how he was one for one. You know, he's
only been in one money in the bank ladder match
and he won it. So basically just the efficiency I
guess you can say from Seth rollins and how he
cashed it in. I mean, he's one for one and
he had the biggest cash in in WW history. So

(59:50):
I feel like the stars were kind of aligning him
trying to work his way back into that picture. I
feel like, why not give him the thing that got
him in that picture in the first place, the money
in the bank briefcase. But I can't see other superstars winning.
Matt Riddle has a good chance. Drew McIntyre, even though
I would absolutely hate that, he has a chance to win.
I think Big Eie does as well. So I feel
like there are superstars Because Big Eie went on an

(01:00:12):
interview this week. I'm not sure who he said it to,
but he said that Drew McIntyre is the favorite or
something like that, and he like admitted, I just never
hear wrestlers talk about that. So I thought that was
kind of weird, But I didn't know what to take
from it, if I should say or if I should
actually take Biggie's work for it, him basically dropping a
hint that yeah, Drew McIntyre is going to win, or
if he's trying to, you know, butter up Drew, so

(01:00:35):
maybe he can sneak in there and have all the
fans thinking it's going to be Drew or somebody like that,
and he actually gets gets the gets the win. But
as long as it's I don't really know, isn't Morrison
in this one? John Morrison? Yeah, yep, yep, yeah See.
So as long as I feel like if anybody on
Raw wins, I hope it's Matt Riddle, And I really
wouldn't care if any of the four here on SmackDown,

(01:00:56):
whether it's Shins, k Seth, Biggie or Kevin Owens. I
wouldn't care if any of those guys won. If I
would believe it, and I could, I could see the
logic behind any of them, but the uh, the John Morrison,
and I think even Ricochet might be in this match
AJ styles. He's a worthy of is AJ styles and
it actually not to think about.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
It, I don't think he.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Yeah, never mind, he's not he Yeah, he was in
that triple threat match to qualify, but he didn't he
didn't actually win. So yeah, I'm not nearly as uh
as caught up on raw I guess you can say, well,
with everything that goes on over there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Yeah, no it I mean, Rawle's a mess, but uh,
you know, you're you're right, But you know, as far
as Seth goes though, I mean, just because he was
portrayed as the winner this week and you got the
upper hand on the pay per view before the show,
before the pay per view, yes, typically logic is that
they mean that means that they're going to lose the
pay per view.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
I mean, that's WWE booking logic. One on one. That's
not always the case.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
So we've certainly seen exceptions to that rule, and I
think Seth could be that victor and we could have
a fun little time with Seth carrying the briefcase. I
don't know if that's going to be the case though,
no pun intended briefcase. Well, so I don't know if
that is, because you do have guys that have a

(01:02:11):
better case to be made for winning it, like Riddle
Drew McIntyre. I know that people are thinking, well, he
could right, and then he could go to SmackDown. I
think unless you really want to turn Drew McIntyre heel,
if that's your intent, don't have him win it, because yes,
he can't face Bobby Lashley. We know that due to
their last matchup a hell him sell and the stipulation
attached to it. But if you want to turn Drew

(01:02:34):
McIntyre heel, there's no faster way to do it than
have him win money in the bank, because you're gonna
have him for what until the draft, hold on to
it for three months and carrying it around for three
months and waiting until he gets on the same show
as Roman Reigns to challenge that person or to challenge him.

(01:02:56):
And again, the thing is you're going to be reminding
fans every week if he wins, oh yeah, he's.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Still in the title picture. He could win it at
any moment.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
He can cash at any moment, so he would be
in the title picture without being in the title picture
every single week. It would be a really really bad move,
and I think, actually Gender Mahall will probably have something
to say during this match end up screwing him where
Jews just about to get it up and you know
his fingertips are unhooked the briefcase and gener Mahall ends

(01:03:25):
up dropping Drew McIntyre, probably to some cheers.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
I wouldn't be.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
Surprised if Drew McIntyre gets a few booze, not overwhelming,
but a few boos once he's up on that ladder
within inches of the briefcase.

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
I totally agree Drew McIntyre is going to get that spot.
And I'm going to be listening very closely to the
crowd and fort Worth to see exactly how they react
to that. But you mentioned Seth Rollins and him possibly
winning the money in the bank ladder match, and I
kind of want to make a comparison here or say
something that I hope it makes sense say with me.

(01:04:00):
But basically, I feel like as far as the briefcase,
the briefcase itself, I feel like it could do more
for Matt Riddle if he were to win, Like the
briefcase itself would do more for Riddle if Riddle were
to win but I feel like Seth could do more
for the briefcase if he were to win, because the briefcase,
I feel like it would be in the main event picture,
and Riddle kind of is creeping into that main event

(01:04:22):
picture over there on a over on raw, but I
feel like that's still Bobby Lashley and whoever's next for him,
So before Riddle kind of peeks in there, I feel like,
whether it's Brock Lesner or whoever comes back to fight
Bobby Lashley, that's clearly the main event picture. Seth Rollins,
He's already got one foot in the door, challenging Edge,
mentioning Roman Rains multiple multiple times, and threatening to cash

(01:04:44):
in if he wins on Roman Rains or Edge. So
I guess that's kind of the way I look at it.
If you want the briefcase to make the wrestler, Matt
Riddle's your guy. But if you want the briefcase to
mean something and it be featured more or actually be
more important than I feel like Seth Rollins might be
the guy to win because what he can do within
I'd I'd be interested every week. I can tell you

(01:05:06):
right now, just putting the thought in my head hypothetically,
if Seth Rowlins were to win, I know my feeling
is telling me I would be super into that. So
I guess that's that's kind of what I wanted to
say there, just about the briefcase.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
So that's not a bad point.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
I think it's fair to say that Seth Rawlins, while
he was positioned as the person getting the advantage on
the paper, the go home show to the pay per
view and logic is not on his side, it could
be very fun with Seth helping make the briefcase even
further by, you know, reminding us and Wwe did that

(01:05:39):
a lot tonight showing us WrestleMania thirty one. And as
Michael Cole said, I think three or four times on
commentary he referred to the Heist of the Century. I mean,
it was one of the best lines that the Cole
has ever said, and he repeated it several times on
the show. But I think with Seth Rawlins in that
history behind him, in that big moment, the biggest cash

(01:06:00):
in of all time, Seth carrying that briefcase if he wins,
I don't think you have to worry about necessarily heal
versus heel, because if Roman Reigns retains and I think
he will and Seth wins the briefcase, and you could
have a babyface eventually taken. Say he takes somebody takes
it off him at Summerslim. Say John Cena ends up

(01:06:22):
taking the championship off of Roman Reigns at SummerSlam, and
then you have Seth Rollins come in and cash in
on the baby face, Like so you can and do
it immediately. You can do it just because a heel
is champion doesn't mean you can't have a heel carrying
the briefcase, because there's ways to get the championship off
the heel and then immediately have the heel take advantage

(01:06:44):
of a weekend babyface coming out of a grueling match
to then cash in and then you're back to a
heel champion, so without actually having to do heel versus heel.

Speaker 3 (01:06:56):
Yeah, and I think that just I think that makes sense,
and especially if there's logic behind it, like people would
get behind Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. I feel like,
obviously you want one to be a baby face versus
a Hill, but with the story that they have with
both of them being in different spots than the last
time we saw them face off, I feel like Seth Rawlins,
it just makes so much sense giving it to him,

(01:07:16):
and just the things he can do. I mean, he's,
without question, he's a Hill, so and we all know
it makes more sense to give the briefcase to a
Hill because I mean, that's just what it's made for.
So I guess just Seth Rollins is the one person
I can't take my mind off of whenever I'm thinking
about this money in the bank ladder match. But Riddle
is another one. So I feel like, if you're going

(01:07:36):
to go Hill, give it to Seth. If you're gonna
go baby Face, you got to give.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
It to Riddle, right and Orton, Randy Orton's been missing
for like three weeks, so perhaps Randy Orton comes in,
helps Riddle and then Riddle gets the briefcase. But then
Orton expects in return that if Riddle cashes in and
wins the championship, that the first person that he faces
for that belt is Randy Orton, So there's something in
it for him. So again, I think we'll see Randy

(01:08:02):
Yorton on Sunday. I don't think there's any doubt about that,
you know, obviously some other returns Sasha Banks, and you know,
we'll we have a full preview and prediction.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
Show coming tomorrow night.

Speaker 1 (01:08:12):
But one thing I do have to ask though, too,
is were you surprised that Roman Reigns didn't talk at
all tonight and it was just all business and Paul
Hamon kind of speaking for him with the Caleb Braxton interview.
You know, my thought is that they it is a
little quincidental. Did they want to hold back and Roman

(01:08:35):
Reigns another week, give him time to recalibrate before he
gets in front of a live audience and starts speaking,
or is it just coincidence that he didn't end up
speaking just because that was the creative tonight?

Speaker 3 (01:08:46):
What did you think, see, Matt, that's why you get
paid the big books. Because I didn't even realize that.
And it makes total sense why he wouldn't. I mean, because, like,
like I just said, I didn't even realize that didn't happen,
that he didn't speak on the mic, because it just
I guess I was just so excited to see him
that I was just it didn't really click to me.
But you're right, I feel like that might have been

(01:09:08):
I'm just are they scared to put Roman rings on
the mic because they don't know what the crowd's going
to do? That kind of I'm glad you brought that
up because now I'm thinking about it, and it's I'm
intrigued because I want to know if is if if
it's a confidence thing, like are they do they think
Roman Reigns can handle a real crowd because the only
other time that the crowd's been there since he's been
in this role was WrestleMania, and he clearly didn't have

(01:09:30):
any mic work there. So you're I mean, that is
a good It's a good thing to point out there,
and I'm definitely gonna have to pay attention next week
when they're in Cleveland. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
I actually I only realized that after the show, and
I'm like, oh, cool, like that. That was a really
good show, and you know, it had at least one
I guess we'll call it a return and I guess
a circle back for Finn pallor coming back to from
from NXT after a few years, and so.

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
That was big.

Speaker 1 (01:09:56):
But I thought to myself, laate a minute. We didn't
even hear Romans speak like at all, and every show
outside of the one show he took a vacation whatever
storyline they were going there. But outside of that one
vacation SmackDown a few weeks ago, they have had Romans
speak many segments throughout the show, backstage with the USOS

(01:10:18):
or in ring with the USOS, and tonight it was
all business and that's fine. It's just a little bit
of a happy coincidence that they didn't have Romans speak
at all. And I'm like, like you said, are they
still not or is Romans still not one hundred percent confident?
I mean, he's had nearly a full year now as
a heel, since late August last year, and I'm like,

(01:10:39):
I don't know, Like you said, moving forward, I'm very
interested to see if they protect him, they coddle him
like they did as a babyface he I mean, he's
like one of those guys that comes out cuts a
promo and you know, the second he starts cutting a promo,
within thirty seconds, someone's interrupting him, so he doesn't have
to do anything long form. It's very interested to see,

(01:11:01):
like you said, how they manage his live mic time.

Speaker 3 (01:11:06):
Moving forward, Yeah, because you can give them the benefit
of the doubt. For one show. You know, you can
kind of just or you can say to yourself, well,
was it a coincidence or was it just a night
that he just wasn't supposed to talk? You know, that's
just I guess that happens sometimes. I don't really understand
why you would do that, especially whenever his music hit
first where I was sitting. You can't see him exactly

(01:11:28):
right when they come out because there's cameras there. You
kind of have to wait till they get closer to
the ring. And whenever he got closer to the ring,
I saw that he didn't have a shirt on or nothing.
I thought it was gonna be one of those typical
SmackDown segments where the show opens Roman Rings comes to
the ring with Paul Hayman and he cuts a promo,
and I thought that that six man tag match was
going to close the show. Whenever it opened the show,
I was blown away. So I guess that could have

(01:11:49):
something to do with it that he got his work
done early and we didn't have the match at the
end of the show. Where during the show he kind
of there's those segments that cut back and kind of
just you know, let him talk for a little bit.
Where he's sitting down in that chair, Paul Hayman's over
his shoulder, and one of the usso's is there. So
I guess you're right. We kind of just got to
have We have to wait and see how their approaches

(01:12:12):
to this, because it's it's definitely something you have to
keep an eye on because Roman Reiins was not loved
by the crowd when he was a babyface, and now
that he's a heel and we really haven't gotten a
chance to see him. I mean, we've gotten two shows
one tonight in the WrestleMania where fans have been there
and while he comes out, it's all booing. But I
want to know when he's talking on the mic, are
they going to actually listen to what he's saying or are

(01:12:33):
they going to just do what they did last time
he had weakly you know, Mike's segments on raw or
SmackDown or whatever, and the fans were just absolutely decimating him.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
Then they can't protect him forever. And I said that
as a babyface yet they protected him forever from any
kind of harm, which was just painfully obvious. But as
a heel, he's done so well and feel so much
more comfortable out there as a heel than he does
a babyface that maybe tonight was if it wasn't a coincidence,
and this was strategic that they said, all right, this

(01:13:06):
is the biggest star we've had in a long time.
Turning him heel just did wonders for us, for him,
and this is the biggest storyline, most intriguing storyline we've
had in many years. Let's take a kind of halfway.
Let's get Roman back in front of a crowd. Let's,
you know, push him in the pool, but don't push
him into the deep end yet, and get him out

(01:13:28):
in front of a crowd, you know, kind of greases
gears again, get him used to being in front of
fourteen fifteen thousand people, and then we'll slowly start to
incorporate mic work, which they know and everyone knows, was
not his strong suit as a babyface at all. I mean,
that was one of the most uncomfortable parts of his

(01:13:50):
babyface just persona, was the fact that he just could
not cout a good promo at all. I mean, he
had some bad, bad, suffering Suckates ones, Tater Todd ones,
we all know the famous ones. But in general, he
was not good as a baby face and felt very
uncomfortable on the mic many times, and so perhaps they're saying,

(01:14:10):
let's give it him in front of a crowd, and
then we'll start to incorporate mic work slowly throughout the weeks.
As you know, live crowds are now back.

Speaker 3 (01:14:17):
So yeah, it's definitely something that I'm going to be
paying attention to because obviously, Roman Reigns is such a
huge part of the show. And that's why when you
said they can't protect him forever, I mean especially not
in this role. I mean eyes are on him. We've
all said how he's carrying the company and arguably the
whole wrestling industry as a whole. Roman Reigns is just
his role, his character. You can feel how you feel

(01:14:37):
about the storyline, because I do know people that aren't
high on this storyline. They're over it. They think it's annoying, repetitive,
and they're just tired of seeing this version of Roman
Reigns already. And I'm like, man, like, what are you
talking about? You know, like it's for the longest time
we saw a version of Roman Reigns that some people
liked only because they were diehard Roman rains fans. I
was one of them, but I still understood, like I

(01:14:58):
get why these guys are booming, you know, like I
don't really like it, but I understand. I wasn't like
getting upset at the fans or anything like that, because
there are fans out there that they get super offensive
and like protective over their favorite wrestlers. I'm like, man,
you got you gotta chill out a little bit. But yeah,
I mean they just can't do it. You know that
they can't protect him forever. And I feel like with
Paul Hayman on your side, you should be good to go. Dude.

(01:15:21):
You've had a whole year and you've done great, like
he's done great my work. And I know that Paul
Hayman is responsible for everything. You could just tell by
his demeanor, the way he speaks, and I know he
got new teeth, but I don't think that has anything
to do with it. I mean, he he's way better
on the mic. And just a little bit of a
side note here seeing him in person, because he's I mean,
I've taken a picture with Roman Reins before, so I
know how he used to look and it's an obvious difference.

(01:15:44):
This is by far the best shape he's ever been in.
So I just feel like with what Roman Reigns is
doing right now for the company, it doesn't make sense
to change anything, you know, I mean, give him the
my time, let him learn, I mean, just throw him
in the deep end. I feel like he's had enough time.
He's a veteran and there's no reason why they have
to protect him. I feel like he's good to go.

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
I hope so.

Speaker 1 (01:16:05):
And then they can't do this forever and again we'll
chalk it up to happy coincidence. I'll give him the
benefit of the doubt. They started with what I many
people would consider a main event, and I don't understand
the reason why they started out with a match like that,
because hell, it's the first first show back in front
of fans. Let's just give him a bust ass match
with big stars in it to open the show. I

(01:16:27):
agree with that completely. On their end, they could have
easily waited for this to the end of the show,
but they didn't, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
Cool with it. It worked completely for all involved.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
So any other final thoughts on the show, or any
chance or any notes from in person that maybe I
didn't ask that were interesting and noteworthy.

Speaker 3 (01:16:49):
Not really. I mean the only thing I have written
down was just that Finn Balor stumping on Sammy's throw. Obviously,
the Bianca Belair getting her huge reaction made me feel
like she was a Houston resident. But I feel like
covered it for the most part. I mean just the
chills that I got whenever the lights went out, because
the one thing you don't notice is there's literally a clock,
like you now the hard camera, or maybe not the
hard camera, but whenever the wrestlers are actually wrestling in

(01:17:11):
the ring, they have that specific angle that they use
where they only show on one side of the of
the crowd. You know that one if you're walking out
to the ring, it's the crowd that's on the left
side and on the right side, because remember I was
behind the commentary table, so I could see both of
those sides. And on the side that they don't show
the camera, there's literally a clock there that is just
a digital clock that has you know, it's like six

(01:17:33):
thirty and they started the countdown or whatever, and I
mean it's not like a countdown clock. It's a real
like time clock, like it tells you what time it is,
and that's a I guess that's one thing that I've
never seen before. Just being in the crowd, I was like, wait,
what the hell like that? There's a lot of things
that they don't show you that you can't see from
the camera angles that you can see whenever you're there, obviously,

(01:17:56):
but and then just the pyro, the fireworks that is
so loud in person like, you don't realize how loud.
Like I don't understand how they don't jump like the
people who are I know they they're expecting give us Still,
that's that's that's crazy loud.

Speaker 1 (01:18:10):
Yeah, if you are a and I've thought about this too,
and and if you're like a war vet that's come
back from overseas and you you know you have PTSD
or something, this would trigger it. I mean, it's it is. Uh,
it's unbelievably loud. It doesn't it doesn't do justice on
camera at all. No, it is extremely loud. And I
remember even when Cain would come out and have his

(01:18:31):
his four ring posts of fire, I remember how hot
that was. People don't realize how hot that was, or
even on stage when he'd have his flames come out.
You know, So the pyro and the and the the
the fireworks, all that kind of stuff they have.

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
It is louder and hotter than you think at home much.

Speaker 3 (01:18:50):
Uh but yeah, I guess, just I guess, just quickly
before before I go, I just want to. I just
want to say that I'm extremely excited that we're back
to normal. I mean, I felt like in the people
around me even agreed. I feel like we set the
tone here in Houston. I feel like the people in
Fort Worth. Now it's y'all's turn. Let's see what y'all got.
I really want to. I really want to keep this
train going. You I want to. I want them to
know not only that Texas is a pretty loud state

(01:19:11):
and passionate about wrestling, but just everywhere. You know, next
week they're going to Cleveland. Like I just I told
the people around me. I was like, look, guys, we
got to set the tone here. There's people watching from
around the world who are interested in how we react
and how we're going to how we're going to handle this. Obviously,
be yourself, but set the tone. You know, if boo
who you're gonna boo, but boo at the top of

(01:19:31):
your lungs. Like I was just trying to let them know, like,
it's a privilege to be here, and we some people
might have taken it for granted for the past eighteen
months or however long it was, but I kind of
just I made sure that they all knew that, man,
it's a it's definitely a privilege to be there.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
It is, and there's such a difference between the manufactured
crowd noise from a production truck and real live human
beings in person. It's yes, it's it's the same noise,
but there's a feel to it. It's I don't know
how to explain it other than it's just different. You
can record a crowd noise and then play it back
when you feel it should be there, but it's different

(01:20:07):
when it's live and you hear it in the moment
and that crowd tells you what they think good or bad.
It's so much different. The final question I'll ask is
what were the demographics of the crowd that you saw.
Were there are a lot of families, Was it mostly
you know, men eighteen to forty like? Was the what
was the general consensus that you got for the people

(01:20:30):
that were there.

Speaker 3 (01:20:32):
I'll probably say that over half over fifty percent of
the entire crowd was men in their late twenties to
early thirties, and then there were definitely a few families.
Obviously you're going to see groups of kids and stuff
like that, but I didn't really see as many old people.
And I know I'm not taking a shot of old
people or anything like that, but there are some old
people that like to go to wrestling shows, and I
didn't really see a lot of them. But I feel like, yeah,

(01:20:53):
I mean, for the most part, it was late twenties,
early thirties. Occasionally get your group of family, but I
didn't see as many kids as as I or at
least on the floor where I was sitting, there really
wasn't that many kids. But obviously probably in the nosebleeds
and the higher sections there probably was kids everywhere. But
I feel like, for the most part, a lot of

(01:21:14):
a lot of thirty year old guys.

Speaker 2 (01:21:16):
So so people my age yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:21:19):
And age yeah yeah. Everybody everybody that I was around
was they seem like they were similar in my in
my demographic, so I was kind of it was easy
to talk to them. It was easy to kind of
gauge what they were going to do. Sometimes they catch
you off Carlo, I didn't expect you to do that, guy,
but I mean, everyone has their own opinion, so it's
it's always fun. It's always fun to be a part
of it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:38):
Well great, I mean I'm jealous you got to go
to the show. I know there weren't the big, big,
big returns a lot. I'm sure that you expected and
others expected, but you guys still got a pay per
view quality show. I really do believe that.

Speaker 3 (01:21:49):
Then.

Speaker 1 (01:21:49):
I mean, we've we've certainly seen paper us that are
worse than SmackDown today, So uh yeah, no, I think
that this is a You guys certainly set the tone
in Houston. Fort Worth is next, and then I don't
even know where they're headed after that. Dallas, Dallas, Dallas
from Monday Ight raw, which makes you wonder about Austin Unraw.

(01:22:09):
I don't know where the hell you would fit in. Dallas,
Texas is where Austin started. He got screwed on Austin
three to sixteen day during the pandemic and it was
just very awkward. So yeah, there's a small chance, i'd
say very very small, that Austin would show up on
Monday Night. But yeah, this is you guys, have broken
the glass ceiling here. We are now through the Thunderdome era.

(01:22:31):
We are officially back into normalcy, at least in terms
of pro wrestling. So I'm glad you had a great time.

Speaker 3 (01:22:39):
Oh it really was. And I know that the returns
might be a little disappointing for some people, but I
really wasn't that disappointed. Like I said, I mean the
big picture, they're going to come. Just be patient, they're
going to come. I know we'd like to see him
in person, but I still feel like, all in all,
it was a hell of a show, and I was
I was satisfied. No money well spent in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
Well that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:22:56):
That's what you want, and I'm sure that's what ww
wants is to make sure that they feel you feel
that you got your money's worth, because I'm sure they've
missed the fans money and you've missed being able to
go to the shows. So I guess it's a win
win all the way around. So Michael, thank you so
much for coming on tonight. This is a special show
for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:23:15):
I know that.

Speaker 1 (01:23:15):
Again, guys, normally Michael does this by himself, but we
had to link up here. He was live at the show.
Fans were back. It felt like a pay per view
and yet we actually have a real pay per view
in just a couple of nights, and then probably a
pay per view quality show, hopefully for Monday Night Raw
in Dallas. So Michael, thanks for popping on and we'll

(01:23:39):
be in touch very soon anytime.

Speaker 3 (01:23:42):
I hope you have a great weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:23:43):
Yeah you too, man, Take caree, talk to you soon.

Speaker 3 (01:23:45):
Bye.