It's time to talk Monday Night Raw that aired December 8th, 2025. Gunther says he is going to make John Cena quit, Bron Breakker cuts a memorable promo on CM Punk, LA Knight is destroyed by Bronson Reed, The Usos are back in the Tag Division and much more including my response to John Cena saying "Who Cares" to his disastrous heel run.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to
the WWE podcast shown the one that everybody wants me.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Got three sixteen, So I just rip your ass is
my eyn.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You're gonna acknowledge me?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
What's going on? Everybody? It is Tuesday, December ninth, twenty
twenty five, as we roll towards John Cena's final match.
In just a few days, we will see the finale
of John Cena's career in ring. But no need to
worry again, you have not seen the last of John Cena.
He has signed a five year ambassador contract with WWE,
(00:57):
so he's essentially a globe or cheerleader for the organization
for the next five years, as if he hasn't already
been the last twenty years. Twenty five years. So I'll
just continue his role except taking the in ring part
of it out. And it's essentially Titus O'Neill's role, if
you remember. I mean Titus O'Neil is the face of
the global ambassador of w WE, and John Cena will
(01:21):
be essentially taking that role. So that's fine, and it's
good to see that he'll be still with the company
in some capacity. So don't worry. John Scene is not
dying after Saturday. Okay. I know a lot of people
are looking at this as if he's going you'll never
go to see him again. No, in fact, you may
end up seeing him more than when he had his
one year retirement tour. It's very possible. Now, I want
(01:44):
to address a couple things up front before Monday Night
Raw starts, and there's a lot to unpack for Monday
Night Raw, a lot to unpack because of bron Breaker.
I mean, just killing it once again, even more so
this week on the mic, the Dude has arrived. He
continues to show you why he truly may be the
perennial WrestleMania main event in the future, or maybe even
(02:08):
more so the present. But we'll talk about that. The
women's division, the USOS returning to the tag team division,
and so on, a tag team title match, La Night
getting destroyed. But I want to just shift our focus
to two things. One plug. If you haven't checked out
SmackDown's review from last week, go check it out. Our
(02:30):
host co host of many years, really Daniel, who has
done our main event reviews, does our SmackDown reviews, at
least for the next couple weeks until the Manda return,
so check it out. But secondly, with John Cena here,
there has been a couple of items, One that in
fact Saturday Night is not going to be John Cena's
(02:52):
final match, and that this is all one big ruse
to bring back the Rock, to say that Sena in
fact isn't done. The final boss says when he's done,
and you often go screw yourselves, and johnsen is gonna
continue all the way through WrestleMania. I don't buy it.
Cool story because it does bring the Rock back in
(03:15):
a very heal role. The people don't already don't have
a good taste in their mouth from WrestleMania. Really, his
non appearance was one of the most egregious things that
I've ever seen. And let me just say, I don't
believe this. While again it would be a massive swerve,
I don't buy this. I think there's almost no chance.
(03:38):
I'd give it a point one percent chance that this happens,
because really anything responsible, we've seen crazy things, and it
would be a swerve. But I don't I don't see
that happening where John Cena is is truly not done
and and he is continue through WrestleMania and brings the
Rock back all the rest. Saturday Night's main event is
(03:58):
not the place for that. Saturday Night main event has
not yet shown us that it is even worthy of
just kind of a standard wrestling show at times. I mean,
it's been kind of boring, which if you like just wrestling,
then it's your show. But if you like all the
extras and big returns and all that, that has not
been the platform for that. So I would say no
(04:20):
to that. Even if you've seen the rumors swirling online.
It's fun to think about, but no. Secondly, Chris van Vliet,
who I've actually spoken with several years ago, I had
him on the show. Actually good guy. He had an
interview with John Cena that dropped today yesterday, hour and
a half long, very well done as always as just
(04:43):
a very good conversationalist. And when John Cena spoke about
and Chris brought up to John Cena asking him, Hey,
what was the original plan for The Rock and Travis
Scott in the the main event of WrestleMania. Well here's
(05:04):
what mister corporate mister corporate speak had to say.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I think what people are focused on is who else
was in the ring an elimination chamber, right, you turned
heel with the rock YEP and Travis Scott? Sure, what
was the original plan for the involvement of Rock and
Travis Scott?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
This is this is where like who cares? Like it
doesn't matter. We can talk about what could have been
intil the cows come home, and I think that's what's
great about the people who were left standing. It certainly
me and Cody changed. What's the change? This all right,
let's go. I don't dwell for one second on what
(05:43):
could have been, because what could have been is Rock
doesn't leave for the NFL and there's no John Cena,
like you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Like, could there have been a match with Rock this year?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Man? Could there be anything? That's the thing that's what
sucks about what could have been?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Let me take a pause here, So I like how
Chris kind of he lightly pushes Sena here, and Sina
in his very corporate way, is like, yeah, well that
didn't happen. Let's just focus on what did that is.
If you want to ignite a fan base, it's the
best way to do it to say who cares? Pretty
(06:24):
much everyone, dude, it's the main event. Of WrestleMania. Everyone
cares like we all did, we all did. What we
want is answers. We understand what could have been. That
is wrestling. Everything could have been, would have been, should
have been, might have been done better. That's what just
fantasy booking's about. But this wasn't a fantasy angle. It
(06:47):
actually happened in front of our eyes. This is something
you guys started and then fumbled badly, horrifically. You guys
fumbled this. We want answers as to why you did
and what the original plan was. So that's what we want,
and it's a non answer. It's telling us that we
(07:08):
shouldn't care. No, no, John, no, no, see we do.
We understand it can't happen anymore. We're not asking for
you to run the clock back and try to do this.
And we know you don't have a DeLorean to go
back in time. We get that. But now that it's over,
we want to know what happened and why. But don't worry.
(07:30):
He continues with some more platitudes and just jargon. So
here we go.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
It's not what is so I think I ever talked about.
I don't care like, first of all, that's that doesn't.
I'm always last to know. It doesn't trickle down to me.
If you watch Unreal, like that process is genuine. I
talked to Rock and then I talked to this. The
last guy I gotta call is John. I'm usually the
(07:56):
last guy they call because I'm the easiest. Yeah, let's
do it, no problem. I'm in so I don't sweat
the and Yo, we don't have those guys anymore. Cool,
what do you want to do? We would like to
do this. We need you to start being more competitive.
We want to put you in these matches. We were
going to build to this. That's over. I didn't even
get that. Okay, fine, great, what are we doing now?
(08:18):
That's what's tough. And I think a lot of it's
great to talk about. It gives good argument, It gives
good perspective of like how do they book this stuff?
A lot of that stuff's beyond control of even the
people who own the sandbox. If if I decide to walk,
you know, I have contractual obligations, but they I'm not
gonna be there on the thirteenth. Like if I decide that,
(08:39):
you know, and they'll figure it out. Like I saw
Austin get fired. You know what I'm saying. I saw
Brock leave, I saw you know, Dwayne take his break
like I don't, and I don't sweat any of those
guys for what they did.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
So there you go. There you go from John Cena
saying that essentially, if you read between the lines there
that the Rock's gone, Travis Scott's gone. He basically said
that we don't have these guys anymore. Here's what we're
gonna do. I understand, Oh, you adapt and you pivot.
I'm the last one to know. I don't think that's
(09:11):
truly the case, Okay, I really don't, especially when it's
your retirement tour. And he actually said he gets to
choose what he wants to do. So which is it, John,
Do you get to choose what you want to do
or do you just get told what you want to
do and be a good little soldier. I happen to
believe it's probably option A, all right, But he's trying
(09:33):
to pretend that he's the last one to know. And
I'm sure that he does seem easy going, but we
don't know truly what happens when the cameras go off
and you see those texts or phone calls or things
that aren't unreal. They're not going to put anything on
that television show as genuine as they're trying to make
it seem. They're not going to put anything on there
that is going to make them look bad or any
(09:54):
of those intense conversations or that kind of thing. Like,
they're going to only do things that make them look
good and show how the process works. Like of course
they are. But beyond the point here, beyond the whole
unreal and all the rest the idea that John seen
is telling us that we shouldn't care, and who cares?
He's such a I actually here's what I think. Okay,
(10:17):
I am not one to believe that John Seena is
the greatest of all time. I don't. I personally don't
think he's the greatest of all time because what great
means means different things to different people, and how people
measure greatness is different. Despite that, we're told, especially by
Michael Cole, that it's definitive, that it's settled science, that
Johnsena is just factually objectively the greatest of all time.
(10:40):
To me makes me want to reject that even more.
Is he one of the greatest? Absolutely? Absolutely? I just
don't think he's the greatest of all time. But that's
my personal opinion, an extremely subjective thing. But he has
turned into a corporate stooge. I mean you, essentially, when
you become an ambassador, you that that's what the title is.
(11:00):
It's what ambassador meansner the is under the guys of
corporate stooge. That's what that real job is. You do
whatever the company tells you to do to make them
look good. You'll travel with the company, You'll maybe make appearances,
do signings. Yes, all the in ring stuff is over,
but you are essentially a raw, raw carry the company
(11:22):
flag guy for five years and probably beyond that hill,
get a Legends contract and all the other And that's fine,
that's fine, that's what he's choosing to do. But I've noticed,
really over the last I'd even say ten five to
ten years, especially the last five, he has become really
painful to listen to. He While he is well spoken
(11:46):
and some people love this version of John, I find
it very phony. I find this outward appearance, that he's developed,
this outward character that he has developed when he's doing
interviews painfully phony. I know a lot of people may
not agree with this as well. This may not be
(12:07):
as controversial as the whole dog incident last two week
with Sampunk's dog dying again. I'm surprised we haven't done
a tell ten bells salute for that or done some
kind of tribute package video and spent half the show
having people talk about their favorite memories of Larry. But
I'm being half serious. So this is not just me
(12:27):
being controversial to be controversial and ster you know what up,
It's genuinely something that I have thought about for a while.
And as good as John is on the mic, and
he is incredible, this version of Sina, this like quote
unquote real version when he's off script just speaking to
a camera and he's in a suit, it's this mask
(12:49):
he puts on that he's developed over time. The way
he speaks, it's like giving a non answer. It's like
a partly politician, partly just corporate stooge, partly just saying nothing.
He's kind of gravitated and pulled together like some of
the worst traits of people you don't want to hear speak,
(13:11):
yet he speaks. The way he speaks is slow and methodical,
but he oftentimes says a whole bunch of nothing. He
can't talk to you like a real person. I feel
like he's this is this is There's no way he
speaks to like people like this in his real life.
When the cameras are off, he talks like this, right,
(13:33):
that is not how normal people speak. He goes right
into interview mode, and he switches on this mask of
just corporate stooge and and just tr me torture. It's
torture to listen to him because you get nothing out
of him, and it's all just Oh, that's what's great. Oh,
that's what's great. The fans of the fans of something
(13:55):
to talk about. That's great. I love all there. They're
so vocal, that's great, everything's great. I'm going to take
something bad, even though it's objectively bad, and I'm going
to say, well, that's great, that's great. Well that's what
he does. I just I don't believe any of it,
because I believe what he feels on the inside is
a very very very filtered version that comes out. This
(14:20):
is not how normal people speak. This is not how
normal human beings speak. He is in interview corporate mode,
and I don't like this version of seeing. And now
I'm not saying it's a bad interview. Chris did the
best he could, not criticizing Chris, but they continue with
this WrestleMania forty one debacle of the main event. They're
(14:40):
trying to get away from it as quickly as possible.
They're trying to pretend it was supposed to happen, and
nobody's taking accountability. The Rock went on Pat McAfee show
shortly after WrestleMania forty one and really doubled down and
talked about how it wasn't about me. I was of
those buttlet it's not about me, and doubled down and
(15:00):
made everything way worse. And then, of course I know
that it's been some time, but you have John Cena
come out and who cares literally quote who cares? Mhm, yes, yeah,
who cares? Yep. Yeah, that's how we should we should feel.
We're being directed how to feel from our overlords here.
Yet No, no, I'm not forgetting that, and I still
(15:25):
care because you could have told one of the greatest
heal turned stories of all time and you fumbled it horribly.
It's just the fact that I know I keep like
droning on about this and it's been my god, it's
December and that was back in April. I understand that,
but nobody's taking accountability. I just want someone to be like, yeah, man,
(15:47):
we have to up here's the original plan. Sorry. With
all the transparency that they have, all the transparency that
ww loves to give, they have a whole show about
how the show's made, and they advertise about that show
during the show. They can't have somebody and just come
out and be like, yeah, bra, listen, here's what went wrong,
here's what changed. That tells me that the higher ups
(16:10):
are the ones that did it, did the whole thing
wrong because they don't want to be held accountable to
make the whole company look stupid. That's what it comes
down to. No one wants to take responsibility for it
or pretend that it was somehow a good solution. Anyway,
this is about my net raw. Let's talk about Rob.
(16:30):
But I wanted to get that out front right now
because there's a lot of John Cena news this weekend.
There's gonna be more, obviously with John Cena retiring in
just four days in Washington, DC, and it's gonna be
it's gonna be a night. And again, I don't believe
that this is a swerve and the Rock's coming back,
and then John's not really retired. If they do, I'd
(16:51):
be like, Bravo, good job, you fooled most of us,
and I'd be on board for it. They might actually
do it. Remember, this is the last match John Cena
is ever going to be involved in ever, and physically anyway,
may end up being a special referee or something. I
could see that happening in a few years of WrestleMania.
I absolutely believe that. But when it comes to the
(17:15):
in ring actual match, this is it. You can't go back.
We're done, which means they should pull out all the stops.
Gunther is a formidable opponent, but I still believe they've
got something up their sleeve. Here. Is it Edge, I hope?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
So?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Is it the Rock? Maybe? Is it? Also? Possibly absolutely nothing?
And Gunther just beats John Cena on the way out. Yes.
In fact, out of those three choices, statistically, that seems
to be the most logical choice. A very kind of
just ho hum ending. John Cena takes a bow, thank
you Sina, Thank you Sina for forty five minutes, and
(17:53):
then he leaves and Michael Cole wets himself over John
Cena's career talking about how you know, basically he's the
god of wrestling. So all right, hell of an intro.
If you want to join us on the ed free
side of things, you can go to Patreon of course,
Patreon dot com, slash WWE podcast. You can also go
(18:16):
to a lot of other places. You can go to
Spotify for ad free. You can go to Apple as
well and go add free there. So let's start off
because a lot of talk about here with Monaette Raw,
we'll get through it. We've got raw starting with Gunther
coming out, and he said John Cena is the greatest
sports entertainer of all time. And then on Saturday, Sena
(18:39):
will be the face the best professional wrestler of all time.
And Gunther had a countdown clock appear on the big
screen that counted down the time until Seena's final match,
and Gunther said that beating Sena won't be enough for him.
He's gonna break Sina's spirit. He's gonna push him around,
bully him, drop him on his head, and then lock
his arms around his and squeeze into the last bit
(19:01):
of hustle, loyalty and respect leaves Sina's body, he said,
who had forced Seena to do the one thing he
would never do. Give up. That was I mean, it
was just good stuff. I mean I enjoyed. It is
exactly what it needed to be for as short of
a time they have here to promote the match. It's
(19:21):
what you want. And even if there's no other additional
hocus pocus or any other kind of personnel interfering in
this match, no additional people being you know, run ins
or swapouts or whatever, this is fine and as good
as you could expect it to be. Alrighty, So we
(19:44):
have EO Sky take on Kyrie, saying, both Rhea and
Oscar are at ringside. Eo beats Kyrie in eleven and
a half minutes, with the finish being Sky dropping same
with a kick. She goes up top, Oscar tripped her
into a tree of woe while the referee was focused
on saying. Ripley kicked Oscar before tossing her into the
(20:07):
timekeeper's area, saying, went up top and stood over Sky,
who flung saying to the mat, and then Sky followed
up with an over the moon salt and got the
three count. Good match, Good match, EO should have won.
She did, but more importantly for Kyrie, who never gets
really a one on one match and is very much
a side character. This to be the opening match on Raw.
(20:30):
It was a good moment for I know that she's
kind of always an afterthought, but when you see her
in the ring, she's good. Is she as good as
EO wouldn't have as much star power. No, but it
was good for her to get some minutes because oftentimes
she is the one that takes the pin. She's there
to take the bump, she's there to lose. She doesn't
get a whole lot of Mike time. She's the kind
(20:51):
of shove around and this was good. Showed some fight
and it was eleven and a half minutes, big match
for Kyrie. That's something I think that's getting overlooked. Okay.
Logan asked Hayman if he could speak to him backstage
and said that the Ray situation would be handled tonight,
(21:12):
and Haymond said the best thing about that is Logan
has backup for the first time in his life. And
Logan said he wanted Breaker and Read to know that
if there was trouble he would be there back up too,
and Haymon said he didn't think he could respect Logan
more than he did, and Hayman pulled out the brass
nuts and gave them to Logan quote just in case,
I like that. Raybisterio comes out slapping hands with the fans,
(21:35):
but Logan Paul attacks him from behind, and the hooded man,
whoever that person is, after Ray got the advantage back
on Logan, setting him up for a six poet nine.
We had that hooded figure enter the ring in super
kick Ray and goes for that seth rollins stomp and
(21:55):
the referee, or rather the security guards chase him out,
and Logan Paul hits Ray with the brass knox. Now
before we get to any night, the mast person returns.
We still don't know who it is at this point.
I don't think it's Austin theory because everyone has figured
out it's Austin theory that a actual reveal of Austin
(22:18):
theory would be kind of a whole hum reveal, And
the more that they continue to play the game of
who is it, the bigger the expectation. So I don't
believe it's Chris Jericho. I don't believe it's Edge. It
could be Randy Orton. That's a theory, but you got
(22:39):
to look at the person no pun intended theory, get it,
no pun intended here, But also you got to look
at the pattern of who they're attacking. Whoever the person
is attacks the mpunk, then they attack raymysterio. You have
to look at who this person has common enemies with,
(23:01):
who in the past, maybe even in the medium range past,
has had issues with a cmpunk and Ramisterio. I mean,
I really don't. I don't have the answer to that.
But does Austin theory really fit the bill or is
he just attacking at random on behalf of the vision.
(23:21):
Maybe that's the case too, just whoever's in their way
he's attacking. That's possible, but it's also possible that the
targets are purposeful. So the more I think about Austin theory,
the more I I mean, I kind of side at it.
To begin with. I wasn't particularly excited about that. You
(23:41):
don't need a reveal of Austin theory to be a
hooded figure. You could just have him come out and
join the vision. He's not. You have to have a
certain type of star power in order to be a
masked figure or a hooded figure to eventually be revealed.
Austin Theory doesn't have that much star power in order
to be considered an exciting reveal, especially after the fact
(24:05):
that we all kind of lean towards the fact that
it's him, and it still could be. But you have
to have a certain level of star power in order
to qualify for that type of story, and I don't
think Austin Theory qualifies for that. So I'm leaning away
from Austin Theory, who still could join the vision. He's
a good candidate for it, But I also don't want
the group to grow too big. We don't want the
(24:27):
group to grow too big because it waters down everybody
in the group. So also, where the hell is the
outrage from Punk about this hooded figure? This came up
on some other podcasts too, but it's a great point.
You know, there's not a lot of outrage as to
who this person is. The team of Surviviorsories isn't even
trying to hunt down this person. He's barely mentioned until
(24:50):
he shows up. He should be, you know, public enemy
number one when it comes to Roman and Jay and
Punk right and his team. Where's the outrage? So Ellie
Knight comes out and he told Logan not to go anywhere.
(25:11):
He said that if the mask Man was seth, he
would stomp his head in and Knight said, raise a legend,
and he was pissed about the way Logan treated him,
and Knight said it was time for Logan to pay.
He wanted Logan to pay tonight and we have then
let's see backstay segment with the vision. Him In declined
(25:32):
to say on the Survivors series post show whether Logan
was in the faction full time. So we got aj
Styles and Dragonly versus the war Raiders for the World
tag team titles. Another eleven and a half minute match
with aj Lee and Dragonly winning against the war Raiders,
Eric and Ivar. The finish was style Is pulling Ivar
(25:55):
from the ropes with a hurricane rana that launched Ivar
into Eric, who tumbled the to ring side, and then
Dragonly hit a flip dive onto Eric on the floor.
Styles hit Ivar with the phenomenal forearm and got the victory.
So solid match here, you're you know, you kind of
forget the war Raiders are even there. I don't mean
(26:15):
that out of disrespect, just the fact of you know,
if it's out of sight, it's out of mind a
lot of times, especially how often the war Raiders are
kind of like here there, not there gone for months back,
you know. But AJ and dragon Ly as tag champions,
you knew that was going to last at least a
couple of months, and so far it has, and I
think that they are a great tag team, especially at
(26:39):
the end of aj styles career. To carry those belts
add some value to them, and now that we have
the USO's back, it adds even more value to a
tag team division that is at the moment at a
high water mark for the year. And this is the
way the tag team division goes. It'll it'll kind of
(27:00):
have these weird spikes and that it'll drop off into oblivion.
The women's detag team division is obviously the same way.
But it's nice to see at least while we're riding
high in the tag team division, we have some bona
fide stars there, AJ Styles, Dragonly, the Usos, the war
Raiders in their own right, and now we have the
(27:24):
New Day who you know, in as much as I
don't like them, at least as babyfaces, they're back in
the conversation and we know what kind of match that
the USOS and the New Day are capable of, incredible matchups,
look at their history. So the Jay announced that he's
back in his very much promo voice that I you know,
(27:47):
you have to listen very closely to understand what the
hell j is saying. And that's that's just the way
it is. He said, quote what we do in oose
and said Jason said that they were going to quote
get back to us, and Jay said, the tagged in
division is unnoticed. He said, Jimmy, he and Jimmy need gold.
(28:08):
And Jimmy said respect to the tag champions who don't
know about them yet, and he said to New Day
they do. And everything kind of broke down. Waller left
unscathed and it was good. So we also had a
video promoting SmackDown and the Royal Rumble in Riyad, Saudi
Arabia on January thirtieth and thirty. First, yes, don't forget.
(28:33):
Not only do we have WrestleMania in in Riodd for
WrestleMania forty three, but we also this coming year in
just a few short well I shouldn't say a few
short weeks, but how many weeks is that like five
six weeks we have the royal rumble in beloved Saudi Arabia,
(28:58):
So okay, booming on, we have Nicki Bella come out.
Well before that, Jackie Redmand stood the ring, introduced women's
world champion Stephanie Vicaire. Redman asked about what's next for her,
and she spoke about being the best and said that
Nicki Bella is a legend, and vicerre mentioned Ria Ripley
(29:20):
Bailey and Italian Eo and she was about to boast
about being at the top of the division when she
was interrupted. Now she got a few more words out
than I thought. I knew that it was going to
be about fifteen or so, and then she'd get cut
off because they don't trust her very much like Jade,
very much like jay Uso. They just don't trust them
to sink or swim. Stephanie eventually has to get more
(29:42):
of time to really speak. I understand she has an accent.
I don't care. She has to push through it. And also,
since when is Nicki Bella a legend? She's not. Okay,
what are we doing? That's a laughable statement. The definition
(30:03):
of legend has really been watered down. If if we
are now calling Niki Bella a legend, do we understand
what legend used to mean. It's it's the thing of folklore.
It's the stories you tell around campfires, right like that's
used to that used to be what legend meant. It
meant like it's a household name. If you're a legend,
(30:25):
that means you're a household name just by default. That's
part of being a legend. Nicki Bella is far from
a household name far so you know we had earlier
in the year, was it Kyrie saying or Oscar somebody
called Nicki Bella a trailblazer? And now she's a legend.
(30:47):
Give me a break. What are we doing legend on
what grounds? She's a twin that's attractive? Is that the
bar we're setting for legend? Really? In other Nicki news,
by the way, non wrestling related, she responded to comments
(31:08):
about about fans claiming she's sleeping with fans, and this
came on her podcast, Her and Breeze podcast. She said, quote,
by the way, someone put a comment under one of
my posts, my Bella Army appreciation posts, and they go, quote,
I wonder how many fans she banged this weekend, and
someone goes, excuse me, and he goes, well, didn't you
(31:30):
hear about the one episode of what she hopes for?
So I had to chime in, and she said, quote,
you definitely misunderstood that episode of the Nicky and Bree show,
because I remember I said, we both said, like I want,
I have to be in something with someone not Randoms.
She's very well spoken. It's very very eloquent, very very
(31:50):
well she's she's a wordsmith, no doubt about it. As
you can tell. She let's see she said, uh, she said,
by the way, I still haven't quote been involved with
the fan. And then she goes on to talk about,
you know, her court ordered divorce settlement with the former
Dancing with the Stars, her former husband, what's his name,
(32:13):
Ardem I can't pronounce his ching sative. I don't even
know his name, never saw him, never heard of him
in my life. But she's being forced to pay child
support thirty five hundred a month for her four year old.
I mean, she's supporting a family. I mean, I don't
know what led to the divorce and all the rest,
but she's clearly feeling the as she said, she said,
(32:34):
she's ready to meet somebody, and she says she's not
hooking up with the fans. I don't know if she
has or not. No idea she could be. She could be.
I mean, it certainly wouldn't be unheard of for not
just for the women, but for the men to hook
up with female fans, and for the females to a
couple of male fans. If I were them, of course,
you know, I would certainly advise against it because it's
(32:57):
a lot of risk and little reward because I'll it
take is one picture of that person with you in
bed with them, and you know, the internet goes viral
and it causes a lot of unnecessary drama for you.
It's not highly advised, I'll say that. So I can't
speak to whether or not Nicki Bella is doing that
or not, but it was something of interest that came
(33:18):
out of the Nicki Bella news wire this week. All right,
So the legend Nikki Bella then comes out with the
mic and she said that she and Vicara had not
done climbed on the apron, demanded a rematch, and that's
when Raquel Rodriguez hopped over, pulled Nicki off the apron
and launched her into the ring post very well, that
was like as a Joe test tour said, as like
(33:39):
a lawn dart. And Raquel Rodriguez comes in and told
Vicara to name the time and the place. So yeah,
I mean Rodriguez's I don't know if she's supposed to
be a babyface or what. I don't know. I don't
know what Raquel is supposed to be, but whatever it
is is more. She's in the limelight more now than
(34:02):
she ever was, so she feels more comfortable than she
ever has. As well. I don't like Raquela's a babyface,
so hopefully this, whatever this version of it is of
her continues. All righty, we had some I honestly don't
even care about this. I just don't care. I understand
Live Morgan's back. There's some tension with the Judgment Day.
(34:23):
I'm just gonna skip this and say, I don't care.
The Judgment Day is dead to me, It's been dead,
and I am the authority on this, all right, and
I decree that the Judgment Day is dead. Therefore it
is so honestly, whatever's going on with them, I could
(34:43):
not be less interested. I know some of you care
and I care what the individual wrestlers if they were
on their own, but as a group, as a collective,
I just don't care. They are boring together. We've seen everything.
Thing happened that could possibly happen. Let's just move on.
(35:05):
I there. I don't care. Sorry, guys, if you're looking
for an analysis on the judgment day in Morgan and
you know what she said backstage and what Perez, I
don't care who's in whose corner. Whatever, you guys, look
at it yourself. I mean, seriously, I'm that bored by
the judgment day, Okay, Lyra. Valkyria then takes on Roxane Perez,
(35:30):
and Roxanne Perez beats Lyra in ten minutes and fifteen seconds.
The finish was Valkyria having had Perez on her shoulders
when Morgan climbed on the apron distracted the ref while
Perez raked Valkyria's eyes, Bailey tripped Morgan, Perez kicked Bailey,
and then Valkyria rolled up Perez, who kicked out, sending
(35:51):
Valkyria towards the ropes, and then Morgan, who was lying
on the apron, kicked Valkyria and Perez hit pop rocks
to get the victory. Fine, I mean like a fine.
I just Roxamprez right now is in a very very
boring place, and same with I mean Lyra. Maybe they
should compete for the women's intercontinental title or something. I mean,
(36:12):
get yourself in there. I know that they're really pushing
Maxine Dupre and she's been on the rise, and Becky
Lynch is doing her weird trying to look at me
for attention type of story with getting the lawyers involved
with Adam Pierce and she's truly the champion and she's
(36:33):
going to get illegal involved in that. Maxine's a fraud
champion whatever I mean, Bailey or rather Becky Lynch is
doing what she needs to do to get attention, and
that's what you do to make money in the business.
I can't kick her for that. So we then have
a video focus on Maxine training with Italia and that
(36:59):
was fine. I guess. We have Logan Paul and La Knight.
The match went thirteen minutes with Logan Paul beating La Knight.
But there's more, right, So the finish was the mystery
Man rolling Night back in the ring, hopped the barricade,
Logan went up top of the frog splash and got
(37:19):
the victory. So after the match, Breaker put the boots
Tonight and then Logan picked up Night held him while
Breaker speared him read hit Night with two tsunami splashes,
and that's where Breaker just killed it on the mic again.
He just like last week. I think he did even
(37:41):
better than last week. I think did an excellent job.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Here.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Was it the best problem I've ever heard? No? Was
it the best problem I've ever heard from bron Breaker? Yes?
Now we had a Breaker beggs c M punk for
the old cmpunk. He doesn't buy this nice guy crap
taking pictures of people in the back saying, gee, what
a swell guy, all that stuff, which is probably very true.
(38:08):
And he said that you glowed about how the fact
that you've never had a sip of alcohol, you've never
done drugs, yet you look like the biggest crackhead anyone's
ever seen. I think someone else made that joke too.
It might have been was that the Rock or maybe
Roman Reigns. Someone had already done that before in a
different way. I forget who it was. Somebody already did that,
(38:31):
but it's fine. Bron Breaker did well here. He said
he wants to face the guy from twenty eleven to
twenty thirteen, who beat the Rock and had a four
hundred and thirty four D eight title reign, and Breaker
dropped to his knees. He begged for the old cmpunk
and said he wants to be the greatest superstar that
ever lays the pair of boots. He said he's going
to send him to the hospital, take his title, and hell,
(38:52):
just for the fun of it, he's going to take
his wife. And that got a lot of people up
in arms. That was a great line attacking him as
from a professional and personal perspective. Great, really good promo.
Here at memorable bron Breaker, And the thing is he
feels it him. You can tell he feels it. It
(39:14):
doesn't feel like he's rehearsing anything. It's almost like he is.
He's ad libbing this. I like the style, I like
the delivery. He's got that believability and intensity that you
look for. I really love this segment. Bron Breaker right
now is at the top of his game. He's the
(39:34):
most relevant he's ever been on the main roster, and
boy does it not leave Bronson red in the shadows
despite what he did to l A Knight. So after
this though this is of course the second piece of
the end of Monday Night Raw here where La Knight
was on the ground back stage and bron Breaker said
it would be spear one two three on January fifth,
(39:57):
and backstays read and logan Paul attack Knight, security, try
to intervene Reid, put Night over his shoulder, put him
on the hood of a car, and you know we
had Reid do what he does and hit Night with
a tsunami on top of a car injuring quote unquote
La Knight. And this I know a lot of people
(40:20):
are looking at this as the demotion for Ellie Knight.
How can it be a demotion when he's in the
final segment of the show, in the main event, in
a relatively big angle of him being quote unquote injured.
How can it be a demotion? He lost the finals
to Gunther Who cares? Because it's not for a championship.
And I've stated the reasons why it's not good for
(40:40):
Ely Knight versus John Cena for Alla Knight. Anyway, and
you have now the anticipation build for an Ella Knight return.
Why not have it be at the Royal Rumble. I mean,
it could be if you really want to push it,
you could have La Knight wait until the Royal Rumble
to return and screw over the vision for whatever big
(41:01):
angle they're in at the time, or if they're in
the rumble, this is shaping up to be a huge rumble,
assuming La Knight's in it, Rowan Rains is in it,
the USOS are likely going to be in it. Logan
Paul's likely going to be in it. Obviously, No Seth
Rollins unless he's on the you know, the the hyper
speed train of recovery. Seth Rollins is not going to
(41:23):
be in the Rumble. He's aiming for a WrestleMania return
maybe shortly before to build to an angle. So you
have a stacked rumble, probably with Brock Lesner as well
Gunther as well. Fun moments there possible, you know, kind
of interactions between Gunther and Brock teasing a future program.
(41:46):
There's some fun stuff headed headed for us for WrestleMania,
you know, on top of Bronson reed what is he doing?
So the Royal Rumble it is January thirtieth and thirty first,
but you have right now already some fake it's right
at the top there, led by Roman reigns. But you
could make the case for bron Breaker now and bron
(42:07):
Breaker and Roman Reign's going face to face even though
they just kind of already did in the Wargames match.
It's already shaping up for a fund World rumble. And yes,
we'll move on from John Cena. We will. We all
will be fine, because don't worry, he will be waving
that company flag out of his ass for probably the
(42:27):
next five years. I mean, he's probably just going to
have it surgically implanted into his ass and he's just
gonna walk around in prone position, flying it around everywhere
he goes. He probably is going to sleep with it
in his ass. The WWE flag is going to just
be a permanent part, a new appendage of John Cena's
(42:50):
body after his retirement from en Rain. I don't mean
to give you the visual as we all are thinking
about that. Kind of an interesting visual. Isn't it disturbing?
But I guess kind of funny if you have a
sense of humor. But all right, I did not expect
to talk about a flag being inserted into John Cena's backside,
(43:11):
But here we are. That's why. That's that's the quality
of the kind of show you guys are downloading right now.
That's the kind of show you guys are downloading. This
is on you, It's not on me. I mean, you
guys chose to click that download button, and what do
you get in return? You get you get to think
about You get to think about John Cena with a
(43:32):
flag sticking out of his ass. That's the kind of
analysis you're looking for, the in depth, deep deep dives
that you look for in wrestling. So all right, I'm
gonna leave it there. Clearly we're heading downhill before it
gets any worse, I'm gonna sign off here. I hope
you enjoyed it. If you want to go ahead free
Patreon dot com. Slash WWE podcast is the place to go,
(43:56):
as well as on Apple click subscribe, or on Spotify.
You can also leave reviews and give us five stars.
That really just help us as well. Or if you
hate us and want to leave nasty comments, you can
do that too. That still helps us despite what people
may think. So that'll do it for me, everybody. I'll
be back in a day or two with the official
Saturday Night main event preview show and send in your
(44:20):
predictions and your emails. I've seen a couple come in
already commenting on various topics, but I'm going to try
to do as always on the pl or Saturday night
main event, weeks do a combo show of the previews
and the mail bag. So this could be his late
as Friday, but I'm going to try. I might have
plans Thursday night, but I will try to get it
out earlier if I can. At the very latest, this
(44:43):
will all be out on Friday midday or so Eastern time.
All r everybody, Thanks so much for listening and I
will talk to you next time. Thanks for listening to
the WWE podcast.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so
you don't miss a show, or head to wwepodcast dot
com and for all of these shows add free head
over to Patreon dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then,
we'll see you next time.
This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to
the WWE podcast shown the one that everybody wants me.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Got three sixteen, So I just rip your ass is
my eyn.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You're gonna acknowledge me?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
What's going on? Everybody? It is Tuesday, December ninth, twenty
twenty five, as we roll towards John Cena's final match.
In just a few days, we will see the finale
of John Cena's career in ring. But no need to
worry again, you have not seen the last of John Cena.
He has signed a five year ambassador contract with WWE,
(00:57):
so he's essentially a globe or cheerleader for the organization
for the next five years, as if he hasn't already
been the last twenty years. Twenty five years. So I'll
just continue his role except taking the in ring part
of it out. And it's essentially Titus O'Neill's role, if
you remember. I mean Titus O'Neil is the face of
the global ambassador of w WE, and John Cena will
(01:21):
be essentially taking that role. So that's fine, and it's
good to see that he'll be still with the company
in some capacity. So don't worry. John Scene is not
dying after Saturday. Okay. I know a lot of people
are looking at this as if he's going you'll never
go to see him again. No, in fact, you may
end up seeing him more than when he had his
one year retirement tour. It's very possible. Now, I want
(01:44):
to address a couple things up front before Monday Night
Raw starts, and there's a lot to unpack for Monday
Night Raw, a lot to unpack because of bron Breaker.
I mean, just killing it once again, even more so
this week on the mic, the Dude has arrived. He
continues to show you why he truly may be the
perennial WrestleMania main event in the future, or maybe even
(02:08):
more so the present. But we'll talk about that. The
women's division, the USOS returning to the tag team division,
and so on, a tag team title match, La Night
getting destroyed. But I want to just shift our focus
to two things. One plug. If you haven't checked out
SmackDown's review from last week, go check it out. Our
(02:30):
host co host of many years, really Daniel, who has
done our main event reviews, does our SmackDown reviews, at
least for the next couple weeks until the Manda return,
so check it out. But secondly, with John Cena here,
there has been a couple of items, One that in
fact Saturday Night is not going to be John Cena's
(02:52):
final match, and that this is all one big ruse
to bring back the Rock, to say that Sena in
fact isn't done. The final boss says when he's done,
and you often go screw yourselves, and johnsen is gonna
continue all the way through WrestleMania. I don't buy it.
Cool story because it does bring the Rock back in
(03:15):
a very heal role. The people don't already don't have
a good taste in their mouth from WrestleMania. Really, his
non appearance was one of the most egregious things that
I've ever seen. And let me just say, I don't
believe this. While again it would be a massive swerve,
I don't buy this. I think there's almost no chance.
(03:38):
I'd give it a point one percent chance that this happens,
because really anything responsible, we've seen crazy things, and it
would be a swerve. But I don't I don't see
that happening where John Cena is is truly not done
and and he is continue through WrestleMania and brings the
Rock back all the rest. Saturday Night's main event is
(03:58):
not the place for that. Saturday Night main event has
not yet shown us that it is even worthy of
just kind of a standard wrestling show at times. I mean,
it's been kind of boring, which if you like just wrestling,
then it's your show. But if you like all the
extras and big returns and all that, that has not
been the platform for that. So I would say no
(04:20):
to that. Even if you've seen the rumors swirling online.
It's fun to think about, but no. Secondly, Chris van Vliet,
who I've actually spoken with several years ago, I had
him on the show. Actually good guy. He had an
interview with John Cena that dropped today yesterday, hour and
a half long, very well done as always as just
(04:43):
a very good conversationalist. And when John Cena spoke about
and Chris brought up to John Cena asking him, Hey,
what was the original plan for The Rock and Travis
Scott in the the main event of WrestleMania. Well here's
(05:04):
what mister corporate mister corporate speak had to say.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I think what people are focused on is who else
was in the ring an elimination chamber, right, you turned
heel with the rock YEP and Travis Scott? Sure, what
was the original plan for the involvement of Rock and
Travis Scott?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
This is this is where like who cares? Like it
doesn't matter. We can talk about what could have been
intil the cows come home, and I think that's what's
great about the people who were left standing. It certainly
me and Cody changed. What's the change? This all right,
let's go. I don't dwell for one second on what
(05:43):
could have been, because what could have been is Rock
doesn't leave for the NFL and there's no John Cena,
like you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Like, could there have been a match with Rock this year?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Man? Could there be anything? That's the thing that's what
sucks about what could have been?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Let me take a pause here, So I like how
Chris kind of he lightly pushes Sena here, and Sina
in his very corporate way, is like, yeah, well that
didn't happen. Let's just focus on what did that is.
If you want to ignite a fan base, it's the
best way to do it to say who cares? Pretty
(06:24):
much everyone, dude, it's the main event. Of WrestleMania. Everyone
cares like we all did, we all did. What we
want is answers. We understand what could have been. That
is wrestling. Everything could have been, would have been, should
have been, might have been done better. That's what just
fantasy booking's about. But this wasn't a fantasy angle. It
(06:47):
actually happened in front of our eyes. This is something
you guys started and then fumbled badly, horrifically. You guys
fumbled this. We want answers as to why you did
and what the original plan was. So that's what we want,
and it's a non answer. It's telling us that we
(07:08):
shouldn't care. No, no, John, no, no, see we do.
We understand it can't happen anymore. We're not asking for
you to run the clock back and try to do this.
And we know you don't have a DeLorean to go
back in time. We get that. But now that it's over,
we want to know what happened and why. But don't worry.
(07:30):
He continues with some more platitudes and just jargon. So
here we go.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
It's not what is so I think I ever talked about.
I don't care like, first of all, that's that doesn't.
I'm always last to know. It doesn't trickle down to me.
If you watch Unreal, like that process is genuine. I
talked to Rock and then I talked to this. The
last guy I gotta call is John. I'm usually the
(07:56):
last guy they call because I'm the easiest. Yeah, let's
do it, no problem. I'm in so I don't sweat
the and Yo, we don't have those guys anymore. Cool,
what do you want to do? We would like to
do this. We need you to start being more competitive.
We want to put you in these matches. We were
going to build to this. That's over. I didn't even
get that. Okay, fine, great, what are we doing now?
(08:18):
That's what's tough. And I think a lot of it's
great to talk about. It gives good argument, It gives
good perspective of like how do they book this stuff?
A lot of that stuff's beyond control of even the
people who own the sandbox. If if I decide to walk,
you know, I have contractual obligations, but they I'm not
gonna be there on the thirteenth. Like if I decide that,
(08:39):
you know, and they'll figure it out. Like I saw
Austin get fired. You know what I'm saying. I saw
Brock leave, I saw you know, Dwayne take his break
like I don't, and I don't sweat any of those
guys for what they did.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
So there you go. There you go from John Cena
saying that essentially, if you read between the lines there
that the Rock's gone, Travis Scott's gone. He basically said
that we don't have these guys anymore. Here's what we're
gonna do. I understand, Oh, you adapt and you pivot.
I'm the last one to know. I don't think that's
(09:11):
truly the case, Okay, I really don't, especially when it's
your retirement tour. And he actually said he gets to
choose what he wants to do. So which is it, John,
Do you get to choose what you want to do
or do you just get told what you want to
do and be a good little soldier. I happen to
believe it's probably option A, all right, But he's trying
(09:33):
to pretend that he's the last one to know. And
I'm sure that he does seem easy going, but we
don't know truly what happens when the cameras go off
and you see those texts or phone calls or things
that aren't unreal. They're not going to put anything on
that television show as genuine as they're trying to make
it seem. They're not going to put anything on there
that is going to make them look bad or any
(09:54):
of those intense conversations or that kind of thing. Like,
they're going to only do things that make them look
good and show how the process works. Like of course
they are. But beyond the point here, beyond the whole
unreal and all the rest the idea that John seen
is telling us that we shouldn't care, and who cares?
He's such a I actually here's what I think. Okay,
(10:17):
I am not one to believe that John Seena is
the greatest of all time. I don't. I personally don't
think he's the greatest of all time because what great
means means different things to different people, and how people
measure greatness is different. Despite that, we're told, especially by
Michael Cole, that it's definitive, that it's settled science, that
Johnsena is just factually objectively the greatest of all time.
(10:40):
To me makes me want to reject that even more.
Is he one of the greatest? Absolutely? Absolutely? I just
don't think he's the greatest of all time. But that's
my personal opinion, an extremely subjective thing. But he has
turned into a corporate stooge. I mean you, essentially, when
you become an ambassador, you that that's what the title is.
(11:00):
It's what ambassador meansner the is under the guys of
corporate stooge. That's what that real job is. You do
whatever the company tells you to do to make them
look good. You'll travel with the company, You'll maybe make appearances,
do signings. Yes, all the in ring stuff is over,
but you are essentially a raw, raw carry the company
(11:22):
flag guy for five years and probably beyond that hill,
get a Legends contract and all the other And that's fine,
that's fine, that's what he's choosing to do. But I've noticed,
really over the last I'd even say ten five to
ten years, especially the last five, he has become really
painful to listen to. He While he is well spoken
(11:46):
and some people love this version of John, I find
it very phony. I find this outward appearance, that he's developed,
this outward character that he has developed when he's doing
interviews painfully phony. I know a lot of people may
not agree with this as well. This may not be
(12:07):
as controversial as the whole dog incident last two week
with Sampunk's dog dying again. I'm surprised we haven't done
a tell ten bells salute for that or done some
kind of tribute package video and spent half the show
having people talk about their favorite memories of Larry. But
I'm being half serious. So this is not just me
(12:27):
being controversial to be controversial and ster you know what up,
It's genuinely something that I have thought about for a while.
And as good as John is on the mic, and
he is incredible, this version of Sina, this like quote
unquote real version when he's off script just speaking to
a camera and he's in a suit, it's this mask
(12:49):
he puts on that he's developed over time. The way
he speaks, it's like giving a non answer. It's like
a partly politician, partly just corporate stooge, partly just saying nothing.
He's kind of gravitated and pulled together like some of
the worst traits of people you don't want to hear speak,
(13:11):
yet he speaks. The way he speaks is slow and methodical,
but he oftentimes says a whole bunch of nothing. He
can't talk to you like a real person. I feel
like he's this is this is There's no way he
speaks to like people like this in his real life.
When the cameras are off, he talks like this, right,
(13:33):
that is not how normal people speak. He goes right
into interview mode, and he switches on this mask of
just corporate stooge and and just tr me torture. It's
torture to listen to him because you get nothing out
of him, and it's all just Oh, that's what's great. Oh,
that's what's great. The fans of the fans of something
(13:55):
to talk about. That's great. I love all there. They're
so vocal, that's great, everything's great. I'm going to take
something bad, even though it's objectively bad, and I'm going
to say, well, that's great, that's great. Well that's what
he does. I just I don't believe any of it,
because I believe what he feels on the inside is
a very very very filtered version that comes out. This
(14:20):
is not how normal people speak. This is not how
normal human beings speak. He is in interview corporate mode,
and I don't like this version of seeing. And now
I'm not saying it's a bad interview. Chris did the
best he could, not criticizing Chris, but they continue with
this WrestleMania forty one debacle of the main event. They're
(14:40):
trying to get away from it as quickly as possible.
They're trying to pretend it was supposed to happen, and
nobody's taking accountability. The Rock went on Pat McAfee show
shortly after WrestleMania forty one and really doubled down and
talked about how it wasn't about me. I was of
those buttlet it's not about me, and doubled down and
(15:00):
made everything way worse. And then, of course I know
that it's been some time, but you have John Cena
come out and who cares literally quote who cares? Mhm, yes, yeah,
who cares? Yep. Yeah, that's how we should we should feel.
We're being directed how to feel from our overlords here.
Yet No, no, I'm not forgetting that, and I still
(15:25):
care because you could have told one of the greatest
heal turned stories of all time and you fumbled it horribly.
It's just the fact that I know I keep like
droning on about this and it's been my god, it's
December and that was back in April. I understand that,
but nobody's taking accountability. I just want someone to be like, yeah, man,
(15:47):
we have to up here's the original plan. Sorry. With
all the transparency that they have, all the transparency that
ww loves to give, they have a whole show about
how the show's made, and they advertise about that show
during the show. They can't have somebody and just come
out and be like, yeah, bra, listen, here's what went wrong,
here's what changed. That tells me that the higher ups
(16:10):
are the ones that did it, did the whole thing
wrong because they don't want to be held accountable to
make the whole company look stupid. That's what it comes
down to. No one wants to take responsibility for it
or pretend that it was somehow a good solution. Anyway,
this is about my net raw. Let's talk about Rob.
(16:30):
But I wanted to get that out front right now
because there's a lot of John Cena news this weekend.
There's gonna be more, obviously with John Cena retiring in
just four days in Washington, DC, and it's gonna be
it's gonna be a night. And again, I don't believe
that this is a swerve and the Rock's coming back,
and then John's not really retired. If they do, I'd
(16:51):
be like, Bravo, good job, you fooled most of us,
and I'd be on board for it. They might actually
do it. Remember, this is the last match John Cena
is ever going to be involved in ever, and physically anyway,
may end up being a special referee or something. I
could see that happening in a few years of WrestleMania.
I absolutely believe that. But when it comes to the
(17:15):
in ring actual match, this is it. You can't go back.
We're done, which means they should pull out all the stops.
Gunther is a formidable opponent, but I still believe they've
got something up their sleeve. Here. Is it Edge, I hope?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
So?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Is it the Rock? Maybe? Is it? Also? Possibly absolutely nothing?
And Gunther just beats John Cena on the way out. Yes.
In fact, out of those three choices, statistically, that seems
to be the most logical choice. A very kind of
just ho hum ending. John Cena takes a bow, thank
you Sina, Thank you Sina for forty five minutes, and
(17:53):
then he leaves and Michael Cole wets himself over John
Cena's career talking about how you know, basically he's the
god of wrestling. So all right, hell of an intro.
If you want to join us on the ed free
side of things, you can go to Patreon of course,
Patreon dot com, slash WWE podcast. You can also go
(18:16):
to a lot of other places. You can go to
Spotify for ad free. You can go to Apple as
well and go add free there. So let's start off
because a lot of talk about here with Monaette Raw,
we'll get through it. We've got raw starting with Gunther
coming out, and he said John Cena is the greatest
sports entertainer of all time. And then on Saturday, Sena
(18:39):
will be the face the best professional wrestler of all time.
And Gunther had a countdown clock appear on the big
screen that counted down the time until Seena's final match,
and Gunther said that beating Sena won't be enough for him.
He's gonna break Sina's spirit. He's gonna push him around,
bully him, drop him on his head, and then lock
his arms around his and squeeze into the last bit
(19:01):
of hustle, loyalty and respect leaves Sina's body, he said,
who had forced Seena to do the one thing he
would never do. Give up. That was I mean, it
was just good stuff. I mean I enjoyed. It is
exactly what it needed to be for as short of
a time they have here to promote the match. It's
(19:21):
what you want. And even if there's no other additional
hocus pocus or any other kind of personnel interfering in
this match, no additional people being you know, run ins
or swapouts or whatever, this is fine and as good
as you could expect it to be. Alrighty, So we
(19:44):
have EO Sky take on Kyrie, saying, both Rhea and
Oscar are at ringside. Eo beats Kyrie in eleven and
a half minutes, with the finish being Sky dropping same
with a kick. She goes up top, Oscar tripped her
into a tree of woe while the referee was focused
on saying. Ripley kicked Oscar before tossing her into the
(20:07):
timekeeper's area, saying, went up top and stood over Sky,
who flung saying to the mat, and then Sky followed
up with an over the moon salt and got the
three count. Good match, Good match, EO should have won.
She did, but more importantly for Kyrie, who never gets
really a one on one match and is very much
a side character. This to be the opening match on Raw.
(20:30):
It was a good moment for I know that she's
kind of always an afterthought, but when you see her
in the ring, she's good. Is she as good as
EO wouldn't have as much star power. No, but it
was good for her to get some minutes because oftentimes
she is the one that takes the pin. She's there
to take the bump, she's there to lose. She doesn't
get a whole lot of Mike time. She's the kind
(20:51):
of shove around and this was good. Showed some fight
and it was eleven and a half minutes, big match
for Kyrie. That's something I think that's getting overlooked. Okay.
Logan asked Hayman if he could speak to him backstage
and said that the Ray situation would be handled tonight,
(21:12):
and Haymond said the best thing about that is Logan
has backup for the first time in his life. And
Logan said he wanted Breaker and Read to know that
if there was trouble he would be there back up too,
and Haymon said he didn't think he could respect Logan
more than he did, and Hayman pulled out the brass
nuts and gave them to Logan quote just in case,
I like that. Raybisterio comes out slapping hands with the fans,
(21:35):
but Logan Paul attacks him from behind, and the hooded man,
whoever that person is, after Ray got the advantage back
on Logan, setting him up for a six poet nine.
We had that hooded figure enter the ring in super
kick Ray and goes for that seth rollins stomp and
(21:55):
the referee, or rather the security guards chase him out,
and Logan Paul hits Ray with the brass knox. Now
before we get to any night, the mast person returns.
We still don't know who it is at this point.
I don't think it's Austin theory because everyone has figured
out it's Austin theory that a actual reveal of Austin
(22:18):
theory would be kind of a whole hum reveal, And
the more that they continue to play the game of
who is it, the bigger the expectation. So I don't
believe it's Chris Jericho. I don't believe it's Edge. It
could be Randy Orton. That's a theory, but you got
(22:39):
to look at the person no pun intended theory, get it,
no pun intended here, But also you got to look
at the pattern of who they're attacking. Whoever the person
is attacks the mpunk, then they attack raymysterio. You have
to look at who this person has common enemies with,
(23:01):
who in the past, maybe even in the medium range past,
has had issues with a cmpunk and Ramisterio. I mean,
I really don't. I don't have the answer to that.
But does Austin theory really fit the bill or is
he just attacking at random on behalf of the vision.
(23:21):
Maybe that's the case too, just whoever's in their way
he's attacking. That's possible, but it's also possible that the
targets are purposeful. So the more I think about Austin theory,
the more I I mean, I kind of side at it.
To begin with. I wasn't particularly excited about that. You
(23:41):
don't need a reveal of Austin theory to be a
hooded figure. You could just have him come out and
join the vision. He's not. You have to have a
certain type of star power in order to be a
masked figure or a hooded figure to eventually be revealed.
Austin Theory doesn't have that much star power in order
to be considered an exciting reveal, especially after the fact
(24:05):
that we all kind of lean towards the fact that
it's him, and it still could be. But you have
to have a certain level of star power in order
to qualify for that type of story, and I don't
think Austin Theory qualifies for that. So I'm leaning away
from Austin Theory, who still could join the vision. He's
a good candidate for it, But I also don't want
the group to grow too big. We don't want the
(24:27):
group to grow too big because it waters down everybody
in the group. So also, where the hell is the
outrage from Punk about this hooded figure? This came up
on some other podcasts too, but it's a great point.
You know, there's not a lot of outrage as to
who this person is. The team of Surviviorsories isn't even
trying to hunt down this person. He's barely mentioned until
(24:50):
he shows up. He should be, you know, public enemy
number one when it comes to Roman and Jay and
Punk right and his team. Where's the outrage? So Ellie
Knight comes out and he told Logan not to go anywhere.
(25:11):
He said that if the mask Man was seth, he
would stomp his head in and Knight said, raise a legend,
and he was pissed about the way Logan treated him,
and Knight said it was time for Logan to pay.
He wanted Logan to pay tonight and we have then
let's see backstay segment with the vision. Him In declined
(25:32):
to say on the Survivors series post show whether Logan
was in the faction full time. So we got aj
Styles and Dragonly versus the war Raiders for the World
tag team titles. Another eleven and a half minute match
with aj Lee and Dragonly winning against the war Raiders,
Eric and Ivar. The finish was style Is pulling Ivar
(25:55):
from the ropes with a hurricane rana that launched Ivar
into Eric, who tumbled the to ring side, and then
Dragonly hit a flip dive onto Eric on the floor.
Styles hit Ivar with the phenomenal forearm and got the victory.
So solid match here, you're you know, you kind of
forget the war Raiders are even there. I don't mean
(26:15):
that out of disrespect, just the fact of you know,
if it's out of sight, it's out of mind a
lot of times, especially how often the war Raiders are
kind of like here there, not there gone for months back,
you know. But AJ and dragon Ly as tag champions,
you knew that was going to last at least a
couple of months, and so far it has, and I
think that they are a great tag team, especially at
(26:39):
the end of aj styles career. To carry those belts
add some value to them, and now that we have
the USO's back, it adds even more value to a
tag team division that is at the moment at a
high water mark for the year. And this is the
way the tag team division goes. It'll it'll kind of
(27:00):
have these weird spikes and that it'll drop off into oblivion.
The women's detag team division is obviously the same way.
But it's nice to see at least while we're riding
high in the tag team division, we have some bona
fide stars there, AJ Styles, Dragonly, the Usos, the war
Raiders in their own right, and now we have the
(27:24):
New Day who you know, in as much as I
don't like them, at least as babyfaces, they're back in
the conversation and we know what kind of match that
the USOS and the New Day are capable of, incredible matchups,
look at their history. So the Jay announced that he's
back in his very much promo voice that I you know,
(27:47):
you have to listen very closely to understand what the
hell j is saying. And that's that's just the way
it is. He said, quote what we do in oose
and said Jason said that they were going to quote
get back to us, and Jay said, the tagged in
division is unnoticed. He said, Jimmy, he and Jimmy need gold.
(28:08):
And Jimmy said respect to the tag champions who don't
know about them yet, and he said to New Day
they do. And everything kind of broke down. Waller left
unscathed and it was good. So we also had a
video promoting SmackDown and the Royal Rumble in Riyad, Saudi
Arabia on January thirtieth and thirty. First, yes, don't forget.
(28:33):
Not only do we have WrestleMania in in Riodd for
WrestleMania forty three, but we also this coming year in
just a few short well I shouldn't say a few
short weeks, but how many weeks is that like five
six weeks we have the royal rumble in beloved Saudi Arabia,
(28:58):
So okay, booming on, we have Nicki Bella come out.
Well before that, Jackie Redmand stood the ring, introduced women's
world champion Stephanie Vicaire. Redman asked about what's next for her,
and she spoke about being the best and said that
Nicki Bella is a legend, and vicerre mentioned Ria Ripley
(29:20):
Bailey and Italian Eo and she was about to boast
about being at the top of the division when she
was interrupted. Now she got a few more words out
than I thought. I knew that it was going to
be about fifteen or so, and then she'd get cut
off because they don't trust her very much like Jade,
very much like jay Uso. They just don't trust them
to sink or swim. Stephanie eventually has to get more
(29:42):
of time to really speak. I understand she has an accent.
I don't care. She has to push through it. And also,
since when is Nicki Bella a legend? She's not. Okay,
what are we doing? That's a laughable statement. The definition
(30:03):
of legend has really been watered down. If if we
are now calling Niki Bella a legend, do we understand
what legend used to mean. It's it's the thing of folklore.
It's the stories you tell around campfires, right like that's
used to that used to be what legend meant. It
meant like it's a household name. If you're a legend,
(30:25):
that means you're a household name just by default. That's
part of being a legend. Nicki Bella is far from
a household name far so you know we had earlier
in the year, was it Kyrie saying or Oscar somebody
called Nicki Bella a trailblazer? And now she's a legend.
(30:47):
Give me a break. What are we doing legend on
what grounds? She's a twin that's attractive? Is that the
bar we're setting for legend? Really? In other Nicki news,
by the way, non wrestling related, she responded to comments
(31:08):
about about fans claiming she's sleeping with fans, and this
came on her podcast, Her and Breeze podcast. She said, quote,
by the way, someone put a comment under one of
my posts, my Bella Army appreciation posts, and they go, quote,
I wonder how many fans she banged this weekend, and
someone goes, excuse me, and he goes, well, didn't you
(31:30):
hear about the one episode of what she hopes for?
So I had to chime in, and she said, quote,
you definitely misunderstood that episode of the Nicky and Bree show,
because I remember I said, we both said, like I want,
I have to be in something with someone not Randoms.
She's very well spoken. It's very very eloquent, very very
(31:50):
well she's she's a wordsmith, no doubt about it. As
you can tell. She let's see she said, uh, she said,
by the way, I still haven't quote been involved with
the fan. And then she goes on to talk about,
you know, her court ordered divorce settlement with the former
Dancing with the Stars, her former husband, what's his name,
(32:13):
Ardem I can't pronounce his ching sative. I don't even
know his name, never saw him, never heard of him
in my life. But she's being forced to pay child
support thirty five hundred a month for her four year old.
I mean, she's supporting a family. I mean, I don't
know what led to the divorce and all the rest,
but she's clearly feeling the as she said, she said,
(32:34):
she's ready to meet somebody, and she says she's not
hooking up with the fans. I don't know if she
has or not. No idea she could be. She could be.
I mean, it certainly wouldn't be unheard of for not
just for the women, but for the men to hook
up with female fans, and for the females to a
couple of male fans. If I were them, of course,
you know, I would certainly advise against it because it's
(32:57):
a lot of risk and little reward because I'll it
take is one picture of that person with you in
bed with them, and you know, the internet goes viral
and it causes a lot of unnecessary drama for you.
It's not highly advised, I'll say that. So I can't
speak to whether or not Nicki Bella is doing that
or not, but it was something of interest that came
(33:18):
out of the Nicki Bella news wire this week. All right,
So the legend Nikki Bella then comes out with the
mic and she said that she and Vicara had not
done climbed on the apron, demanded a rematch, and that's
when Raquel Rodriguez hopped over, pulled Nicki off the apron
and launched her into the ring post very well, that
was like as a Joe test tour said, as like
(33:39):
a lawn dart. And Raquel Rodriguez comes in and told
Vicara to name the time and the place. So yeah,
I mean Rodriguez's I don't know if she's supposed to
be a babyface or what. I don't know. I don't
know what Raquel is supposed to be, but whatever it
is is more. She's in the limelight more now than
(34:02):
she ever was, so she feels more comfortable than she
ever has. As well. I don't like Raquela's a babyface,
so hopefully this, whatever this version of it is of
her continues. All righty, we had some I honestly don't
even care about this. I just don't care. I understand
Live Morgan's back. There's some tension with the Judgment Day.
(34:23):
I'm just gonna skip this and say, I don't care.
The Judgment Day is dead to me, It's been dead,
and I am the authority on this, all right, and
I decree that the Judgment Day is dead. Therefore it
is so honestly, whatever's going on with them, I could
(34:43):
not be less interested. I know some of you care
and I care what the individual wrestlers if they were
on their own, but as a group, as a collective,
I just don't care. They are boring together. We've seen everything.
Thing happened that could possibly happen. Let's just move on.
(35:05):
I there. I don't care. Sorry, guys, if you're looking
for an analysis on the judgment day in Morgan and
you know what she said backstage and what Perez, I
don't care who's in whose corner. Whatever, you guys, look
at it yourself. I mean, seriously, I'm that bored by
the judgment day, Okay, Lyra. Valkyria then takes on Roxane Perez,
(35:30):
and Roxanne Perez beats Lyra in ten minutes and fifteen seconds.
The finish was Valkyria having had Perez on her shoulders
when Morgan climbed on the apron distracted the ref while
Perez raked Valkyria's eyes, Bailey tripped Morgan, Perez kicked Bailey,
and then Valkyria rolled up Perez, who kicked out, sending
(35:51):
Valkyria towards the ropes, and then Morgan, who was lying
on the apron, kicked Valkyria and Perez hit pop rocks
to get the victory. Fine, I mean like a fine.
I just Roxamprez right now is in a very very
boring place, and same with I mean Lyra. Maybe they
should compete for the women's intercontinental title or something. I mean,
(36:12):
get yourself in there. I know that they're really pushing
Maxine Dupre and she's been on the rise, and Becky
Lynch is doing her weird trying to look at me
for attention type of story with getting the lawyers involved
with Adam Pierce and she's truly the champion and she's
(36:33):
going to get illegal involved in that. Maxine's a fraud
champion whatever I mean, Bailey or rather Becky Lynch is
doing what she needs to do to get attention, and
that's what you do to make money in the business.
I can't kick her for that. So we then have
a video focus on Maxine training with Italia and that
(36:59):
was fine. I guess. We have Logan Paul and La Knight.
The match went thirteen minutes with Logan Paul beating La Knight.
But there's more, right, So the finish was the mystery
Man rolling Night back in the ring, hopped the barricade,
Logan went up top of the frog splash and got
(37:19):
the victory. So after the match, Breaker put the boots
Tonight and then Logan picked up Night held him while
Breaker speared him read hit Night with two tsunami splashes,
and that's where Breaker just killed it on the mic again.
He just like last week. I think he did even
(37:41):
better than last week. I think did an excellent job.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Here.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Was it the best problem I've ever heard? No? Was
it the best problem I've ever heard from bron Breaker? Yes?
Now we had a Breaker beggs c M punk for
the old cmpunk. He doesn't buy this nice guy crap
taking pictures of people in the back saying, gee, what
a swell guy, all that stuff, which is probably very true.
(38:08):
And he said that you glowed about how the fact
that you've never had a sip of alcohol, you've never
done drugs, yet you look like the biggest crackhead anyone's
ever seen. I think someone else made that joke too.
It might have been was that the Rock or maybe
Roman Reigns. Someone had already done that before in a
different way. I forget who it was. Somebody already did that,
(38:31):
but it's fine. Bron Breaker did well here. He said
he wants to face the guy from twenty eleven to
twenty thirteen, who beat the Rock and had a four
hundred and thirty four D eight title reign, and Breaker
dropped to his knees. He begged for the old cmpunk
and said he wants to be the greatest superstar that
ever lays the pair of boots. He said he's going
to send him to the hospital, take his title, and hell,
(38:52):
just for the fun of it, he's going to take
his wife. And that got a lot of people up
in arms. That was a great line attacking him as
from a professional and personal perspective. Great, really good promo.
Here at memorable bron Breaker, And the thing is he
feels it him. You can tell he feels it. It
(39:14):
doesn't feel like he's rehearsing anything. It's almost like he is.
He's ad libbing this. I like the style, I like
the delivery. He's got that believability and intensity that you
look for. I really love this segment. Bron Breaker right
now is at the top of his game. He's the
(39:34):
most relevant he's ever been on the main roster, and
boy does it not leave Bronson red in the shadows
despite what he did to l A Knight. So after
this though this is of course the second piece of
the end of Monday Night Raw here where La Knight
was on the ground back stage and bron Breaker said
it would be spear one two three on January fifth,
(39:57):
and backstays read and logan Paul attack Knight, security, try
to intervene Reid, put Night over his shoulder, put him
on the hood of a car, and you know we
had Reid do what he does and hit Night with
a tsunami on top of a car injuring quote unquote
La Knight. And this I know a lot of people
(40:20):
are looking at this as the demotion for Ellie Knight.
How can it be a demotion when he's in the
final segment of the show, in the main event, in
a relatively big angle of him being quote unquote injured.
How can it be a demotion? He lost the finals
to Gunther Who cares? Because it's not for a championship.
And I've stated the reasons why it's not good for
(40:40):
Ely Knight versus John Cena for Alla Knight. Anyway, and
you have now the anticipation build for an Ella Knight return.
Why not have it be at the Royal Rumble. I mean,
it could be if you really want to push it,
you could have La Knight wait until the Royal Rumble
to return and screw over the vision for whatever big
(41:01):
angle they're in at the time, or if they're in
the rumble, this is shaping up to be a huge rumble,
assuming La Knight's in it, Rowan Rains is in it,
the USOS are likely going to be in it. Logan
Paul's likely going to be in it. Obviously, No Seth
Rollins unless he's on the you know, the the hyper
speed train of recovery. Seth Rollins is not going to
(41:23):
be in the Rumble. He's aiming for a WrestleMania return
maybe shortly before to build to an angle. So you
have a stacked rumble, probably with Brock Lesner as well
Gunther as well. Fun moments there possible, you know, kind
of interactions between Gunther and Brock teasing a future program.
(41:46):
There's some fun stuff headed headed for us for WrestleMania,
you know, on top of Bronson reed what is he doing?
So the Royal Rumble it is January thirtieth and thirty first,
but you have right now already some fake it's right
at the top there, led by Roman reigns. But you
could make the case for bron Breaker now and bron
(42:07):
Breaker and Roman Reign's going face to face even though
they just kind of already did in the Wargames match.
It's already shaping up for a fund World rumble. And yes,
we'll move on from John Cena. We will. We all
will be fine, because don't worry, he will be waving
that company flag out of his ass for probably the
(42:27):
next five years. I mean, he's probably just going to
have it surgically implanted into his ass and he's just
gonna walk around in prone position, flying it around everywhere
he goes. He probably is going to sleep with it
in his ass. The WWE flag is going to just
be a permanent part, a new appendage of John Cena's
(42:50):
body after his retirement from en Rain. I don't mean
to give you the visual as we all are thinking
about that. Kind of an interesting visual. Isn't it disturbing?
But I guess kind of funny if you have a
sense of humor. But all right, I did not expect
to talk about a flag being inserted into John Cena's backside,
(43:11):
But here we are. That's why. That's that's the quality
of the kind of show you guys are downloading right now.
That's the kind of show you guys are downloading. This
is on you, It's not on me. I mean, you
guys chose to click that download button, and what do
you get in return? You get you get to think
about You get to think about John Cena with a
(43:32):
flag sticking out of his ass. That's the kind of
analysis you're looking for, the in depth, deep deep dives
that you look for in wrestling. So all right, I'm
gonna leave it there. Clearly we're heading downhill before it
gets any worse, I'm gonna sign off here. I hope
you enjoyed it. If you want to go ahead free
Patreon dot com. Slash WWE podcast is the place to go,
(43:56):
as well as on Apple click subscribe, or on Spotify.
You can also leave reviews and give us five stars.
That really just help us as well. Or if you
hate us and want to leave nasty comments, you can
do that too. That still helps us despite what people
may think. So that'll do it for me, everybody. I'll
be back in a day or two with the official
Saturday Night main event preview show and send in your
(44:20):
predictions and your emails. I've seen a couple come in
already commenting on various topics, but I'm going to try
to do as always on the pl or Saturday night
main event, weeks do a combo show of the previews
and the mail bag. So this could be his late
as Friday, but I'm going to try. I might have
plans Thursday night, but I will try to get it
out earlier if I can. At the very latest, this
(44:43):
will all be out on Friday midday or so Eastern time.
All r everybody, Thanks so much for listening and I
will talk to you next time. Thanks for listening to
the WWE podcast.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so
you don't miss a show, or head to wwepodcast dot
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
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The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.