Let's talk WWE Monday Night Raw that aired May 12th, 2025. An episode that saw the first appearance of CM Punk since WrestleMania 41, Rhea & Iyo in a tag team match, AJ Styles vs Finn Balor, The War Raiders vs The Creed Brothers and much more.
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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, the.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Show the one that everybody wants.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Met Stode sixteen. So just with your ass is my eyn.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You're gonna acknowledge me.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hey, everybody, welcome to the Raw Review. It is Tuesday,
May thirteenth, twenty twenty five, Monday Night. Ron took place
last night, and I thought overall it was a decent show.
You had the return to see him Punk, the first
return that he appearance he's made since WrestleMania, since Paul
Haymond turned his back on him. And I will say
(00:54):
off the bat, I think that promo that Punk cut
was good. It was good. It wasn't anything that I
think we're going to remember in twenty years, but it
was one that gave you an idea of what Punk wants,
and that's to get his hands on Paul Hayman, get
his hands around the neck of Paul Hayman. And the
(01:16):
visual he described of choking him so hard as eyes
pop out is pretty grotesque, but it got the point across,
which I thought was good. And while Paul Hayman is
not a competitor, there's only so much he can do.
He can't take a GTS, so he's going to have
to accept, like I don't know, a punch or a
(01:38):
shot to the back with a chair, something easy that
Hayman can take, because a GTS does require a little
bit of agility and Paul Hayman has zero of that.
But at least Punk has a goal. He's not letting
WrestleMania slide. He has his tart his height set on
Paul Hayman, and that I think will be eventually the payoff,
(02:04):
perhaps come money in the bank or Summer Slam, but
it's going to take a little while because Paul Hayman
has security in the names of braun Breaker and Seth Rollins,
and they got their asses kick Monday night. But these
two who continue to evolve, I think, also did a
nice job of maybe making the case that there should
(02:26):
be a third person, and I really think there should be.
I don't know why they're pretending there shouldn't be. It's
a tag team. Otherwise, two is a team. Three is
a group or a faction, if you will, So there
needs to be a third person, and to be honest,
there should be a third person if you're trying to
utilize Seth Rollins at this stage in his career to
(02:48):
the maximum, because what you want to do, and I
don't need to tell anybody this, but you need to
create Stars's how this business continues to survive. And you
do that in part by giving younger guys an opportunity
to work with the older talent. And if Seth Rollins
can put together a faction, then I think all the better.
(03:09):
So we'll break down raw a little bit more finally
in just a minute, but I want to welcome you
to the show. If you're new, thank you for joining us.
I am the host of the WWE podcast. I do
a show about three times a week, and then we
have three other shows that are done by other team members,
that including NXT, the After Dark Show, the SmackDown Review Show,
(03:35):
and the Wrestle Magic Show that actually was dropped today
with a former ECW champion, and you can check it
out Gary Wolf. If you haven't already, I would highly
recommend you go listen to the interview they did with
him about a one hour show. Well done, and if
you haven't heard of Gary Wolf, or even if you have,
it's still a must listen. Entertaining and you learn a lot.
(04:00):
Even if you think you know a lot about him,
you'll learn a thing or two from this show. And
I think it's just entertaining and it was well done.
So check out the Gary Wolf interview that was done
last in the last show, the last episode that I
just published this morning. All right, let's get into Monday
night Raw. Let's talk about the open of the show,
(04:21):
and it ended with start, and it started with cmpunk
coming out. Alluded to this at the beginning of the
show here, but he said, it's not the first time
that Paul Hayman has stabbed him in the back. He
said it's on him because he likes to trust his friends,
and he talked about Hayman slamming a ladder around his
head and giving him thirteen staples I think twelve years ago.
(04:44):
It's good that Punk brings this stuff up because a
lot of us forget it. This kind of stuff is
easily forgotten. But it's not the first time that Punk
has been betrayed. So Punk said, Jay warned him about
Paul Hayman, and Cmpunk said that Hayman is who he
is and who he's always been, and he's a fat
(05:05):
little snake and added that he couldn't wait to get
his hands around his neck as I said, and then
Paul Hayman introduced himself. Paul asked where he was. Haymon
stormed onto the stage and Punk told him to choose
words wisely because it would be his last. That's when
seth Rollins entrance. Music played and we got Rollins and
(05:25):
bron Breaker coming out. They stood next to Hayman. Hayman
handed Rollins the mic while people were chanting for Punk,
and Rollins said, just when he thought Punk couldn't get
more selfish or egotistical, he found a way. And Rollin
said Hayman was Punk's best friend and Punk made Hayman's
life hell heading into WrestleMania, and Rollin's accused Punk of
(05:48):
gaslighting everyone while claiming that Haymon betrayed him. Rollins called
Punk trash and said the reason that Rollins isn't world
champion that Rollin that he's the reason that Roninds isn't
world champion, and Punk said that as long as he's
on two feet, Rollins will not be world heavyweight champion.
(06:08):
Rollins said Punk loves to play the victim and desperately
wants to die a Martyr, and he said, I believe
that I can or that can be arranged, and I
he said, I hope you have you your last words prepared,
and Rollin's padded Breaker on the shoulder and they headed
to the ring. Breaker got the better of Punk and
(06:31):
then Rollins came in the ring. Punk caught Breaker with
a kick and threw some punches at Rollins, and then
Breaker recovered and they both put the boots to Punk.
Sammy Zain comes out to help, and the Heel duo
ended up in control, and Hayman handed a chair to
Rollins as Rollins wound wound up to hit Punk, Jay
(06:52):
Uso comes out and stopped him from using it. So Jay,
Punk and Zane stood tall. So there has to be here.
This is a perfect opportunity for Hayman and Punk and
Breaker to bring in the third person. It screamed for
(07:14):
it here. How often do you see the Heels out numbered?
So it's definitely a clue to us. If you haven't
already picked that up, then we're going to get a
third person in this this alliance as I'm gonna call
it right now, because it's not a faction yet of
Breaker and Rollins. The question is who an XT call
(07:38):
up somebody? When I'm thinking, is it? Is it Sammy's ain?
Sammy's Ain's been kind of on the edge lately, jay USO, No,
no way. Who's it going to be? Who could benefit
from a seth Rollins Brown Breaker alliance. I'm gonna give
you guys a homework assignment there. Who What do you think?
(07:59):
What do you think? Do you have someone in mind
that just stands out? Somebody you think that could benefit
the most from having this rub from both guys, somebody
we're not thinking of, maybe a new hire, maybe somebody
from SmackDown. But there are options out there, and we'll
(08:21):
have to see if it's either a turn a return
because we know it doesn't need to be a legend
or it doesn't need to be somebody that's established. In fact,
I would argue it should be somebody like a Bronze
Breaker who fits the mold perfectly, up and coming star,
a ton of potential crowd organically supported them. They've got
that in factor. He is the perfect can at young
(08:45):
Somebody like a Breaker is exactly who Rollin should end
up teaming with. So we'll see, but it does certainly
scream for them to recruit a third person. Okay, so
we then had the uh match here Panta versus Chad
(09:06):
Gable and Oh. Cole was shown seated at ringside and
said that Pat McAfee was expected to appear at some point.
And that's when McAfee comes out, wearing glasses and slapped
hands as he headed to ring or headed ringside. He
staid on the ring steps, play to fans and walked
over and hugged Cole. So now this is this is uh,
(09:30):
this is what I'm talking about. Now. I don't love McAfee.
I don't hate McAfee. I kind of feel a little
bit in between about him. Some weeks I'm I think
he did you know, he's he's an addition. Some weeks
I think he's a distraction. But he took an ass
kicking from Gunther. He even showed it on a social
media And when you get in the ring with a
guy like that just two nights earlier, and you come
(09:54):
out and you are just pretending nothing happened. He doesn't
need to be in a wheelchair, he doesn't need to
be in a neck brace, but he can be limping.
He could have some kind of some kind of tape,
some kind of sling just for a week or two.
Sell it, man, this is the magic that you that
is It's just so overlooked. This is what brings the
(10:18):
magic full circle. It's what makes us get invested in.
When people get their ass kicked to a degree that
would put anyone in a hospital and they come out
a day or two later as if you know, they're
hopping and skipping to school. It just that little stuff, man,
that it's just it eats away at my experience watching
the product. Doesn't kill it dead. I'll be a fan forever,
(10:43):
but I reserve the right to be critical. When there's
something so fixable and so easy to fix, I think
fans should call it out. And this is something that
is not just a Pat McAfee specific issue. This is
something that is I mean, it's just it's industry wide really,
but WWE specifically, it has been a problem where they
(11:04):
just you know, somebody gets their ass kicked to a
degree that is just heinous. Cheer shot after chair, shot,
off chairs shot, are multiple finishers done and there's nothing, nothing,
nothing the next week. We've seen that, not all the time,
but too much of the time. Now as I'm thinking
of it, how would you guys like Bronson read to
(11:27):
join Seth and bron Breaker. I know Bronson reads still
out with injury. From what I understand, he's getting closer.
I know Bronson and Seth have a hell of a history.
It could look like Bronson's coming out to make the
save Seth and Bronson are you know, have had their
issues and he ends up joining them. I don't mind
(11:50):
that one. How about Bronson? Now, Bronson reading on his
own is fine, but Bronson Reid bron Breaker and Seth rawlins. Ooh,
got the chills on that one. How about that? I'm
not saying it's gonna happen, but it's possible. He fits
the bill kind of like a Bronze Breaker. Talk about
(12:11):
a powerhouse group. So we have Penta versus Chad Gable,
and this match was eleven minutes long, exactly where Penta
beats Gable in eleven minutes. The finish was Gable sitting
Penta on the top turnbuckle and Gable John and Penta,
who gave him the hand gesture, which I still don't understand,
(12:34):
Sarah Miado, I don't know, I don't understand it. Everyone
just suddenly knew what that was I'm falling behind man.
Everybody just understands what that hand gesture is. I'm not
sure what it is. I don't understand, but he does
it a lot. That's his thing. But Penta then tapped Gable,
(12:55):
who performed a backflip off the top and landed on
his feet. Penta jumped from the top and hit with
the destroyer and got the victory. Penta then sold his
left arm. Gable had some blood on his face while
he was angry at ringside. Okay, so Penta beats Gable,
but he can't beat El Grande Americano. I'll tell you that.
(13:18):
When are they going to have a Chad Gable Versus
Grande Americano match? How has Adam Pierce not decided to
do that yet? I mean, I know it would be
very much like booking Elias versus Ezekiel. I get it.
Once you do that, the probably the whole magic is up.
But it depends on long you want to keep the
Grande Americano thing going. If WW believes there's more life
(13:43):
in it and they have a longer story to go
with it, than I wouldn't do it. But of course
that's the end all be all. That's the payoff is
Grande Americano versus Chad Gable, And what I would do,
honestly even for that is have somebody with the likeness
of Chad Gable wear the mask of Grande Americano and
then you know, Chad can clar hey, see it's not me.
What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
All right?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
So we then had Dom and Balor speak backstage about
the Intercontinental Championship match, and you know, we had Dom
say how the hesitation nearly cost him the Icy title
match last week or yeah, last week I had backlash
with Penta. But they're still taking the slow burn with
(14:24):
the the Finn Balor turn on Dom. They're still taking it.
And I'm gonna be straight with you guys, I think
that when Finn does turn, it's not going to be
as a babyface. I think the fans are going to
stay with Dom. The fans are going to cheer for Dom,
and they're going to boo Finn Balor when that does happen.
People have kind of come to learn to love Dom
(14:46):
after years of booing him through the roof. I mean,
he hasn't even cut a promo. Has Dom ever cut
a as a heel? Ever cut a complete promo without
the crowd interrupting him as a heel in front of
a live audience. I don't know if that it's ever happened.
(15:06):
So you know, we're we've we've kind of hamstrung Dom
by doing that. It's been fun and people have loved
doing it. They can control the show to some degree.
But also we've limited Dom's skill set because we haven't
allowed him to get minutes in front of a crowd
to speak. Doms knows he doesn't he's a gay. I
don't have to learn. People don't want to hear from
me anyway, and all I have to do is put
(15:26):
the microphone up from my mouth and I get booed.
So I don't have to learn how to cut a promo.
But now he does so all right. So McAfee waved
to the fans after the recap the video recap of
gun the beating McFee. So again he's waving, and Cole
encouraged McAfee to stand up. He hopped on the table
again as if nothing happened, and McAfee sat down and
(15:48):
spoke about how everything was sore. You'd never know it,
you know, I believe you one percent. That's true. There's
no you know, there's no lying in that one, but
at least make it look like it. So he said,
Gunther's chop popped a blood vessel in his eye, and
McAfee said he respects gun Thro even more. He thinks
(16:09):
maybe Gunther now has a little for him and Coal. Yeah. So, boy.
The thing that even kills me the most about this
is that it's an announcer who's not selling one of
the most legit badasses in the company, who just you know,
demolished him at Backlash two days ago, not two months ago,
(16:33):
and we have McAfee as an announcer not selling it.
Are you kidding? I don't know how this was overlooked
morph McAfee just forgot. But you'd think that having a
match with gun Through, you wouldn't have to sell because
you'd be legitimately in pain and all you'd have to
do is just outwardly show how you feel, because it's real.
(16:56):
I really didn't like this. That kind of stuff undermines
so much of the products believability and just fun and watching. Alright,
so we hadn't had the war Raiders or I'm sorry
Cole announcing Seth and bron Breaker versus punkin Sammy's Ain
for Saturday Night Made event that's on May twenty fourth,
(17:20):
So we do have a massive tag team match for
Saturday Night's main event. Should be fun. It's again, Saturday
Night's main event is a it's like Raw plus or
SmackDown plus. It's not quite a pl It's certainly higher
than a house show. It's in between a televised regularly
televised event and a pl E. It's just it's just
(17:40):
it's in that like kind of gray area, and that's
what this is. So a pretty big tag team match. Fun.
I mean, it's gonna be fun to see what happens here.
I could absolutely anticipate a third person getting involved for
Seth and Braun. Could it be Bronson Reid? I don't
know now I put that out in the universe. The
war Raiders took on Julius and Brutus Creed and this
(18:05):
match went a total of ten minutes and twenty five
seconds as Julius Creed and Brutus Creed beat the war
Raiders Eric and Ivar, and the finish, of course, was
ivarn Woods distracting the referee. Kingston ran up the steps
and hit Ivar, who was in the middle rope. The
(18:25):
Creeds took advantage of the situation and hit the Brutus
ball on Ivar and he was then pinned by Brutus,
so Brutus and Julius Creed are victorious, and then the
broadcast team played up the possibility of the Creeds facing
the New Day for the tag titles, but that problem
would be a heel versus heel match, So I'm guessing
(18:46):
a triple threat is probably in order for the Saturday
Night main event. If they go that road of putting
a tag team title match on Saturday Night made event,
it's probably gonna be My guess is a triple threat.
You're not gonna have heel heel, so create Brothers versus
war Raiders versus the New Day for the tag team
titles is my guess for the Saturday Night main event
(19:10):
one of the matches for that show. So then we
had Seth speaking to Breaker backstage with a Hayman there,
and Rollin said that their adversaries probably thought they were
winning and they have no idea what he is capable of,
and Seth also said he has one more thing he
(19:31):
wanted Breaker to do before he took off, and he said,
have some fun, and he padded break around the back,
and yeah, so it was kind of just like meaning fun,
like go kick someone's ass, That's what he meant. And
so yeah, it's fine. I'd like Seth's new modified look
of not coming out in just ridiculous crap. I never
(19:54):
liked that ever at all. It never appealed to me.
It showed me you don't have an identity. You don't
know what to do when you're not consistent with your outfits.
I don't want to hear inconsistency is your consistency. It's
a cop out. It means you don't have a place
to land, you don't know what the hell you want
(20:14):
to wear, so you just come outing these outlandish outfits
that no one ever really loved. I don't think anyone
when you think of Seth rollins to me. That was
as his babyface run, largely very successful World heavyweight champion
for six months. If you remember the inaugural World heavyweight champion.
Of course, we're pretending that the one didn't exist before that,
(20:37):
but it did and had a hell of a run.
His music certainly helped him get over. But the one
thing that I will say was the detractor right from
the get go were his outfits. Never really enjoyed it.
His en ring work. You know what his in ring
work's going to be. He's top tier Hall of Famer.
(20:57):
You understand what you're gonna get with Seth Rollins in
the ring. And now we need to be I think
we're at the point in Set's career we need to
be grateful that he competes because he has put so
many miles on his body and so many bumps and
he's got injuries that I think we need to be
appreciative of it when he's in the ring because he
certainly doesn't have a ton of years left. I don't
(21:18):
think he's even alluded to that that you know, he
knows he doesn't have a ton of years left. So
we have to be appreciative of when we see Seth
Rollins in the ring. We just do I know, we're
taking it for granted right now because he's just a mainstay.
He's there all the time. He is to say quality
as an insult, he's one of the best in ring
(21:39):
talent the company's ever had. And he's just there, and
he's always there, and he's always just there to have
a good match and help other guys get over. And
I think we need to be conscious of the fact
that there's not a ton of time left probably for
Seth in terms of more than a couple of years.
That's what I think, and he really Seth has said
the same thing in previous interviews. So but my point
(21:59):
about his outfit though, it's a massive detraction for me
whenever I think about his baby face run and to
see him now in a little bit more of a
serious role because he's a heel. Hopefully those that was
off its go away and what he wore this past
week is just fine.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I think whatever he wore this past week he could
continued to wear because I can't take him seriously as
a heel if he comes out in some just you know,
fashion show prototype. So so then we have a footage
air last week of Jay shaking hands to the fans
after the went off last week's We're All went off
(22:42):
the air and logan Paul, wearing a hoodie, punched J
from behind the barricade. Cole said the footage had over
sixteen million views within twelve hours of going online, and
Cole hyped Jay versus Paul for the World Heavyweight Championship
on Saturday night's main event, which is just it's just ridiculous. Yes, no,
(23:02):
I understand Logan Paul was victorious at WrestleMania and he
should have been. I do believe that. But the idea
that you just have to attack a world champion, any
champion and get you get your shot. I mean you
are all the ways, one hundred percent of the time
you are rewarded with a championship match by attacking a
(23:26):
champion from behind, always and forever. It is a golden rule.
Men's division, Women's division, It doesn't matter. That is your reward.
While it is frowned upon, you are somehow rewarded for
your bad behavior. It's kind of incredible. Again, not really
a complaint because it's pro wrestling. We understand what pro
(23:48):
wrestling is and I can let that go. But it's
just kind of funny if you look at this logically
every single time, and if someone complains they don't get
a championship opportunity. In character, you're sitting there thinking to yourself, dude,
just go attack a champion from behind. They will reward
you with an opportunity for their championship. Again, if this
(24:09):
was a truly competitive sport, of course. But so we
get Logan Paul and we get Jay Uso for the
world title at Saturday Night's main event. And while it
is essentially a it's virtually a zero percent chance that
Logan Paul wins, it is fun to think about the
fact that he could win. I think it would be fun.
(24:33):
I honestly believe, and I truly mean this. I'm not
being facetious or trying to put down anybody or do
my usual trolling. I truly believe that Logan Paul as
world champion would be far more entertaining than Jay Uso
as world champion. He just would be. I'm not saying
that Logan Paul has a longer tenure or he has
(24:54):
more respect. Those things are not qualifiers for me in
deciding who would be more entertaining as a champion, and
Logan Paul is by far my pick. He would set
the crowd ablaze. He would be one of the first
outside stars from YouTube to come in and win a
(25:17):
world championship. In fact, has anyone come from social media?
I know the miss was a reality TV star. I
understand that, but it was before YouTube was a thing.
But is logan Paul. Is he the first one to
come from the YouTube era of this general of this
generation of human beings to win a world championship? I
(25:39):
wonder YouTube is where he's actually I'm sorry, it was
an app called Vine. Those of you that are old
enough to remember that he actually was on Vine became massive,
Vine went away, So he had a YouTube channel that
blew up and he had some bad you know, it's
some bad PRD times. But he might be the first
(25:59):
social media sensation to win a top championship in WWA.
He really might be. I know, I know, Matt Cardona,
Zach Ryder, I understand, but he was a United States champion, right,
so but I'm talking top world championship. Uns be the championship.
He might be. But the thing is with this guy,
(26:21):
he can back it up.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
He may have grown his face his platform on the internet,
which apparently I don't know how that's some kind of
diss today, because that's a hell of a feat to do,
and that's that is a tough thing to do in
a place where everyone's trying to do that thing, because
that's what most people creating content on the Internet are
(26:44):
trying to do, is to get a large platform the
size of Logan Paul's or Joe Rogan or I mean,
that's what everyone should be aiming for. So it is
quite impressive that he actually did that. I know that, oh,
you're just an Internet guy, but that is that's such
as a nineteen ninety five thing to say, because again,
when you think about it, the Internet, creating content is
(27:06):
one of the most competitive platforms you can try to
be successful on. So it's actually pretty damn impressive. And
again he's got the athletic prowess to back it up.
I think he'd be highly entertaining as a world champion.
The only thing I would want is him not to
be an absentee champion. We've had enough of those over
the last ten years between brock Lesnar or Roman Reigns.
(27:29):
I would want him to actually be there semi regularly,
like every other week, even I'd take I can't deal
with every two months, every three months, every four months.
I mean, there was a time where Roman Reigns went
from WrestleMania, he'd ever saw him until like you know,
maybe money in the bank, but he wouldn't actually have
another match or defend his championship until SummerSlam, so it'd
(27:51):
be like a four month gap between him defending the championship,
and yet they're patting his stats of saying he's, oh,
he's he's been a champion for nine hundred days, eleven
hundred days. It's like yeah, because you don't see him.
You know, he has these blocks of like one hundred
days where you don't see him. So I could pad
my stats pretty quickly too if I'm barely there. So
(28:12):
it's a bit of an artificial stat that they've got
for Roman, But it is. It is what it is,
and I don't know. I'm not advocating or I'm not
predicting that Logan Paul will win. I'm simply saying that
I think it would be much more entertaining than Jay Uso.
Just my two cents. But Gunther comes out and the
(28:35):
you tapped out champ broke out and Gunner told Jay
that the unimaginable came true and that Jay's the world champion.
Guntherer said it was the first time in that moment
since they'd met. And do you mean the moment when
I made you tap out? Said Jay? And Gunther said
he knows what it's like to be champion and noted
that eighty percent of his time in the company has
(28:55):
been spent as a champion, and he said just because
he understands doesn't mean his opinion of Jay has changed.
Gunther said Jay is not a natural champion like he
is and said he was surprised that Jay hasn't shared
the news yet. And Gunther said that the winner of
Jay Versus Logan Paul at the Saturday Night Man Event
(29:15):
show will have the honor of handing over the championship
to its rifle owner. And so what it means is
he's going to challenge for whoever wins the Jay Logan
Paul match to a championship match on June ninth, and Phoenix, Arizona.
I think that's money in the bank, And Gunther said
he hopes it's Jay because he would love nothing more
than to shut up Jay and the people for good
(29:37):
by reminding Jay of his place. So yeah, so Gunther,
you can pretty just lock it up and throw it away.
It's gonna be Gunther versus Jay, So you can't have
Logan Paul versus Gunther again. He'll heel makes no sense. Again,
you could do the same thing as you're gonna do
(29:58):
possibly with the tag team title and have a triple threat.
You could and Logan Paul versus Jay versus Gunther would
be fun. But if they want to build WrestleMania rematch,
that's also a thing that they could market too. My
hunch is that it probably is a triple threat because
(30:20):
they're really trying to get Logan Paul over. But again,
I don't mind a Logan Paul, I'm sorry, a Jay
versus Gunther rematch. In fact, I would actually advocate for
one on one, but I can't see a world in
which they decide to throw Logan Paul in there for
the money to make event all right. I also love
(30:42):
Gunther's language use here by saying that Jay's not a
natural champion, because it's the perfect phrase. Jay doesn't feel
natural as a champion. It doesn't feel organic. I'm sorry
it doesn't. I have nothing against Jay. I don't mind
his character. He's got a lot of energy, he's got
(31:05):
a lot of you know, charisma. His vocabulary is yeat
and then like four other words. Right now, we know
he's capable of more. He showed us that. But he is. Yeah,
he's a very talented in ring performer, A guy that
has earned a lot of respect from fans and from
(31:28):
the I'm sure the boy's backstage, I'm sure, but that
doesn't erase the fact that I can. I just look
at him and I go, still doesn't feel right. It
still doesn't feel right. Again, no disrespect to Jay, but
I just for me, I look at it and I go, yeah,
I totally get what Gunther's saying. Gunther is a guy
(31:50):
that you look at and feel is just organically a
natural born champion, where Jay just doesn't feel that way.
It's not the most it's egregious mismatch in w history.
I mean, look at gender Mahal, although I didn't hate
that as much as most. When gender Mahal won the
title from Randy Orton, I think it was right back
in twenty seventeen, and if I'm not mistaken, that was
(32:15):
their first trek into Saudi Arabia. I think that's when
the Saudi Deal might have started, and the beloved Saudi
Deal that we all just embrace so much. So I
certainly don't think that that's a coincidence back then, but
that's another topic for another day. So again, nothing revolutionary here,
(32:38):
but a fun path for the world championship over the
next month and a half, because you have again Jay
versus Logan Paul. Yeah, we know the outcome, but does
it end up being somehow a triple threat at Money
in the Bank. Gunther's gonna get involved, does Gunterer reclaim
his championship or does he not? Or you know what
happens there. So again you have now the the next
(33:00):
two title defense is locked up for the world title,
likely Jay versus Gunther at Money in the Bank. However,
that does mean if that's the case, does gunh actually
have the opportunity to win Money in the Bank. Probably not.
If he's in a world title match, he's exempt from
(33:22):
the Money the Bank ladder match. And honestly, that's a
match that Logan Paul is built for. So Logan Paul
at Money in the Bank to win the Money in
the Bank briefcase, I think is a heavy favorite, so
sure he'll lose at Saturday n at main event, Logan
Paul will then enter the Money the Bank ladder match.
(33:43):
I think he's a heavy favorite to win and carry
that briefcase around. I think that is to me, the
perfect way to go. So I think there that's my
official prediction for the next five weeks, all right. We
then have Saboo and obviously the passing of Saboo. BCW
Starr legend and cole recalled Saboo having a feud with
(34:05):
his friend Taz and McAfee said Saboo put his life
on the line while performing and said they're forever grateful
for his service to the industry, and Cole over condolences
to Saboo's family and friends. What happened? They're really keeping
this one close to the best.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Dare I say? Did he on alive himself? Was it
a long standing illness? I actually don't know. Every time
I try to search, it's been the cause of death
is uh? As of this publishing, I don't see anything,
all right? We then have Ohod Ludwig Kaiser was interviewed
backstage by Jackie Redmond because she's essentially like, yo, bro,
(34:44):
where you been? And he didn't get a chance to
answer because we had bron Breaker backstage attack say jay
Uso rather, and then Finn Baler took on aj Styles
and this match was really good seven venteen minutes as
it should have been, with the aj Styles beating Finn
Balor as Penta shows up, dives off the barricade under Carlito,
(35:07):
hits a backbreaker and McDonough and then Penta jumps off
the back of McDonough and hit a destroyer on Carlito,
and then in the ring, Styles hit Ballor with a
phenomenal forearm and got the victory. Penta helping Styles was fine,
I will say the destroyer when he took out Carlito,
I didn't know who got the worst of the bump.
(35:29):
It looked like Penta was legitimately in pain. That's not
a move that you can usually tell what they're trying
to do. I mean, we know to Mexican destroyers who
know what a Canadian destroyer is. But it's one of
those moves that you look at and go, I don't know,
did he reverse it, did he block it? Did he
perform it wrong? It looked like Penta again either didn't
(35:51):
deliver it correctly or is used to doing something like
that in the ring and not on the outside of
the ring under those pads. But everyone seems to be okay.
It was just one of those go I just didn't
I just looked at it and I go, did did
he reverse it? Who's supposed to be hurt here. I'm
not sure who's trying to sell because both men are down.
So then we had Cole narrate the highlights of Lyra
(36:12):
Valkyria beating Becky Lynch during Backlash to retain the Women's
Inner Continental Championship. And Becky Lynch comes out and she
said she wasn't beaten at Backlash, Valkyria was. She said
she got on an ice big bus, had a warm shower,
a shot of tequila, and basking her own brilliance while
(36:33):
Valkia went to the hospital. And Lynch said that even
after everything that she's done to her, that she still
made her the best version of herself and gave her
the best match of her career. Again, I know people
are saying this is a great Becky Lynch promo. I
don't like when they're talking about the best match of
her career, making history, tearing the house down, five star.
(36:55):
Just stop with that. That stuff is it's a byproduct
of your efforts. What are your efforts. Your efforts should
be to win. Those should be the things you talk
about winning and losing. It is really that simple when
you talk about having best matches and tearing the house
down and stealing the show. That tells me your motives
(37:17):
are elsewhere, which they really may be elsewhere. Your motives
are obviously to have great matches, but you don't outwardly
say that those should be byproducts of what you're telling
us you're trying to do and making us believe you're
trying to do. Which is win the good match ratings
(37:39):
and you know what match goes into the Hall of Fame,
which one doesn't, Which match gets chanted you know, get
this is awesome chance, and which one doesn't. Those are
all decided after the fact or in the moment by fans.
I don't want to hear from wrestlers while they're in character.
You can do it in Hall of Fame speeches and
(37:59):
in documentaries, but while you're on the air. It's another
one of those things that I think tears the product down,
It undermines itself. These little things that, whether consciously you
realize or not, I think is hurting the product. But
let's go on. So Lynch said she didn't hear defeat.
(38:20):
She heard alarms ringing in her ear, and she said
that she realized she was manipulated by Lyra and all
the fans. And she said she walked away from WWE
for nearly a year because the fans asked her to.
She said she had heard the comments and read them online,
and she asked, if she's not in WWE to win
(38:41):
World Championships, then why she there. She said that she
and the fans were in it together, but then she
won and the fans could no longer see themselves in
her because all they know is failure. Lynch said that
from now on, whatever the fans say she is is
what she is. She said she will be selfish, greedy, cutthroat,
(39:01):
and she said the women in the back were happy
that she was gone. Will now know what it's like
to be held down by the man. So she's essentially
saying that you know all the things you say I
am online, Well, I guess I'll just be those things
which I can actually appreciate. I could appreciate that in
one sense that you're just leaning into it and going, Okay,
(39:23):
you guys say I'm all this stuff. No, I'll just
be it. That's actually what I would do as a
heel right, you guys say this, I'm this, I'm this, Okay,
then I'll be it. Right, let's do it. I mean,
I get that you're leaning into it instead of trying
to fight it, and that's fine. But in the same breath,
WWE will also say, now the fans don't know anything.
(39:43):
I mean, we just heard from WWE for the week
up to let Up WrestleMania that basically shut up and
enjoy the product, which is funny because now you have
one of your heels shaping her entire personality around how
the fans view her online. So kind of funny how
you say one thing yet you're doing another. You're saying
(40:06):
you don't care what the fans say online if you
sit and be a fan, and then you're like, well, actually,
why don't we just take what the fans are saying
you are and just be that? So which one is it?
We we all know the real answer. The real answer
is they pay attention to what we say. They're sensitive
to our criticisms, especially when they're in mass, but outwardly
(40:29):
they will pretend that that our opinions don't matter and
we don't know what we're talking about because we've never
been in the ring and we shouldn't be able to
speak on anything that we've never had experience in doing,
which again is the most asinine common in the world.
In the world, okay, think about things that you go
around and purchase all day long that you had nothing
(40:49):
to do with making that product. By that logic, I
can't talk about again my iPhone. I shouldn't have any
say on what should or shouldn't be in my iPhone,
what should be in my computer screen, what this the
watch on my wrists should should look like if things
work or don't work. I you know, I shouldn't have
any any say, no suggestion box the clothes I'm wearing,
(41:10):
which I had nothing to do with purchasing, or rather
with with actually manufacturing, I should have no say in
the color or the length or the feel the material used. Nope,
because I didn't have anything to do with making it.
See how stupid that logic is. You see a little
bit of a problem in the in the the congruency
(41:31):
of of that. If you extrapolate it out from well,
you know, you'd never step through the rings. So you can't.
Okay again that if we're going to be consistent, then
you could apply that to like literally anything you purchase.
So which again, if you're purchasing something and we're purchasing
the product, we're spending our time watching it, we purchase
the merchandise. Then again, it's just it's it's asinine. So
(41:54):
sure they all outwardly say that, but internally they are
having conversations about it because they know how power powerful
online is. Right, That's the other thing that's kind of
stupid that if they don't recognize even outwardly that right now, So,
I mean, social media is bigger than it's ever been.
Social media influences a lot of stuff. A lot of
(42:15):
corporations decide to work on a project, not work on
a project, modify a project, bring this person in, how
they're going to market certain materials, how they're going to
target their audience, what they're going to do with a
lot of it social media. So for WW to pretend
they're the only major corporation that says, if the fans
(42:35):
we know better, it's nonsense. It's just pure nonsense. All right.
I've gone off on a tangent, all right. So the
Russev then has a promo video again, second week in
a row. He said he didn't know what to do,
he didn't want to do what he did to otis.
He said he didn't want any of this. He just
wanted to go home and be rich. He said he
(42:58):
was once program by lesser people, and he can't leave
his brothers until they all wake up. He asked if
they think the fans care that they missed their family,
or that their choices to hurt or be hurt. He
recalled to care of Zalas stepping up while the fans cheered.
He said, wrestlers let the sheep control the wolves, and
he said he would rather fail than fall into the abyss.
(43:21):
Another solid promo from Russev. You can kind of follow
what he's saying there. I just wonder who his real
target's going to be next and what their plan is
for Russev. Don't you wonder that they bring a guy
like Russev back see much more seasoned, much more confident
than when he left. You know, he had his time
in aaw grew there, obviously, had trouble in his personal life.
(43:45):
Lana all the rest and then or c J Perry
her real name. Might as well use her real name
because she's not wrestling anymore. And then you know, comes
back to WWE. Crowd loves it. He's still heal, but
the crowd still cheers him. Okay, So which you again.
I mean, what are they going to do with him?
I really hope they have at least three months planned
for him. I do. I mean I could see him
(44:06):
even competing for the world title, not winning, but competing.
All right. We then have let's see here Seamus asking
for a match against Grayson Waller backstage, and then Cole
talked about qualifying matches for Money in the Bank that
will start on Friday's SmackDown and will continue on Raw.
(44:28):
He hyped the following for Raw in Greenville. AJ versus
AJ Styles and Penta versus Finn and j D, Seamus
versus Grayson Waller and Jay Uso versus braun Breaker in
a non title match.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
You can pretty much bet that Logan Paul show up
there though. Julia then made her entrance and we get
EO Sky and Ripley versus Rock Samperez and Julia. The
match went fourteen minutes and ten seconds, again the women
main event of the show. Here a good match. I
(45:04):
enjoyed this for the most part, even though I think
the alliance of EO and Ripley is short lived given
the look that Rhea was giving the championship after winning.
But that's fine. I mean, she shouldn't be just she
shouldn't just be friends with the Eel because she's also
a fan favorite. I'm glad that she's targeting the women's
(45:24):
championship because you should be there to try to chase it.
The match, by the way, by the way, before we
get into the storyline specifics, the finish was Ripley hitting
riptid on Julia and got the victory while Sky prevented
Perez from getting a breaking up. The pin match was
again fourteen minutes, so we had again both per Rox
(45:50):
and Perez and Julia show up. Yeah, they showed up
to lose, but I don't care. I know those are
some complaints out there, including the one I'm reading that
we both have Roxamprez and Julia show up. They lose,
but they're in the main event of Raw, so fans
aren't going to really remember that they lost unless they
unless they just continue to lose, then that might start
(46:12):
to eat away. But if you just have them show
up and get in the ring with two top talent
like Rhea and EO, it didn't really matter who won
that match. It just mattered they show that they can
actually wrestle, and they of course they can, and they
did have a good match, and they did, and they're
(46:32):
in the main event of a Monday night Raw. That's
a pretty big deal. That's what they needed. They didn't
need to win, so I had no issue with both
Rox Samperez and Julia losing. So yeah, I mean it's
a matchup between EO and Ria that's forthcoming. We can
kind of see that as well, and perhaps Becky Lynch
(46:53):
at some point getting involved too. So good match, good
show overall. Backlashes of course behind us WrestleMania season is
now long gone. It feels like that was a you know,
four months ago, and we have the introm half pl
(47:14):
e of Saturday Night main event that's going to be
coming to us in my god a week from Saturday.
Who that's quick. And then we have the the Money
in the Bank event coming to us June ninth, so
that should be a lot of fun as Money in
the Bank qualifiers start again early call. I think Logan
Paul is in it and he's gonna win it because
(47:36):
he fits the bill perfectly. Those matches, as I say
every year, are designed just just they are designed baseline
to have a heel win because the prize is one
in which you would have a heel cash in when
the champion is at their most vulnerable. That is a
(48:01):
that is designed for a heel to win. It fits
with the heel persona. For babyfaces to do that, it
would cheapen their victory and it doesn't fit with the
morals of a babyface in WWE. And also if they
don't do it that way, it makes them look stupid.
So they could cash in by giving the person a
(48:23):
heads up. Johnsen has done that and they're like, Hey,
I'm gonna cash in next week. Well, then you're kind
of stupid. If if winning the championship is the most
important to you, then why don't you just take advantage
when the you know, the opportunity presents itself, and their
morals supersede any logic, So it makes them look stupid
if they're trying to win a belt. So it's much,
(48:44):
very much a heel prize to be won. So I
fully expect Logan Paul to win.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
That.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
You could have a couple of other candidates in there too,
but I certainly expect Logan Paul to win. Maybe Damian
Priests to be involved, but he's a former cash in
or a former winner. He could be involved, but he's
not going to win. Aj Styles could be in there too,
in the mix, just to add a lot of fun
and a lot of high flying spots and excitement into
the ladder match. But Logan Paul to me, is a
(49:13):
massive frontrunner, and he's not even announced yet as an
official entrant into that match. But it just fits, especially
this year, after the year Logan Paul has had the
match with Aj Styles of WrestleMania, he's having a world
title match with Jay Usso in which yeah, he's going
to lose, but that's not the point. So to me,
Logan Paul is a shoe in to win the Money
(49:37):
in the Bank Ladder match on June ninth, four weeks, right,
little under four weeks, all right, that'll do it for me.
I appreciate everybody listening. If you are the first time
listener here, you can catch us pretty much every day,
whether it's a retro show or a co host coming
on and talking about other topics, NXT SmackDown after Dark,
we have that all here. You can become a patron too,
(49:58):
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We also have a mailbag a mailbag show that we
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The mailbag show comes to you probably midday if I
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(50:20):
wwepodcast dot com. All right, that'll do it, everybody. I
appreciate everybody listening, and you can follow me on x
at Wrestling Underscore Audio again or mess with me at
mailbag at wwpodcast dot com. Thanks everyone, talk next time.
Speaker 3 (50:39):
Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to
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(51:00):
next time.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
MHM.
This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to
the WWE podcast, the.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Show the one that everybody wants.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Met Stode sixteen. So just with your ass is my eyn.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You're gonna acknowledge me.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hey, everybody, welcome to the Raw Review. It is Tuesday,
May thirteenth, twenty twenty five, Monday Night. Ron took place
last night, and I thought overall it was a decent show.
You had the return to see him Punk, the first
return that he appearance he's made since WrestleMania, since Paul
Haymond turned his back on him. And I will say
(00:54):
off the bat, I think that promo that Punk cut
was good. It was good. It wasn't anything that I
think we're going to remember in twenty years, but it
was one that gave you an idea of what Punk wants,
and that's to get his hands on Paul Hayman, get
his hands around the neck of Paul Hayman. And the
(01:16):
visual he described of choking him so hard as eyes
pop out is pretty grotesque, but it got the point across,
which I thought was good. And while Paul Hayman is
not a competitor, there's only so much he can do.
He can't take a GTS, so he's going to have
to accept, like I don't know, a punch or a
(01:38):
shot to the back with a chair, something easy that
Hayman can take, because a GTS does require a little
bit of agility and Paul Hayman has zero of that.
But at least Punk has a goal. He's not letting
WrestleMania slide. He has his tart his height set on
Paul Hayman, and that I think will be eventually the payoff,
(02:04):
perhaps come money in the bank or Summer Slam, but
it's going to take a little while because Paul Hayman
has security in the names of braun Breaker and Seth Rollins,
and they got their asses kick Monday night. But these
two who continue to evolve, I think, also did a
nice job of maybe making the case that there should
(02:26):
be a third person, and I really think there should be.
I don't know why they're pretending there shouldn't be. It's
a tag team. Otherwise, two is a team. Three is
a group or a faction, if you will, So there
needs to be a third person, and to be honest,
there should be a third person if you're trying to
utilize Seth Rollins at this stage in his career to
(02:48):
the maximum, because what you want to do, and I
don't need to tell anybody this, but you need to
create Stars's how this business continues to survive. And you
do that in part by giving younger guys an opportunity
to work with the older talent. And if Seth Rollins
can put together a faction, then I think all the better.
(03:09):
So we'll break down raw a little bit more finally
in just a minute, but I want to welcome you
to the show. If you're new, thank you for joining us.
I am the host of the WWE podcast. I do
a show about three times a week, and then we
have three other shows that are done by other team members,
that including NXT, the After Dark Show, the SmackDown Review Show,
(03:35):
and the Wrestle Magic Show that actually was dropped today
with a former ECW champion, and you can check it
out Gary Wolf. If you haven't already, I would highly
recommend you go listen to the interview they did with
him about a one hour show. Well done, and if
you haven't heard of Gary Wolf, or even if you have,
it's still a must listen. Entertaining and you learn a lot.
(04:00):
Even if you think you know a lot about him,
you'll learn a thing or two from this show. And
I think it's just entertaining and it was well done.
So check out the Gary Wolf interview that was done
last in the last show, the last episode that I
just published this morning. All right, let's get into Monday
night Raw. Let's talk about the open of the show,
(04:21):
and it ended with start, and it started with cmpunk
coming out. Alluded to this at the beginning of the
show here, but he said, it's not the first time
that Paul Hayman has stabbed him in the back. He
said it's on him because he likes to trust his friends,
and he talked about Hayman slamming a ladder around his
head and giving him thirteen staples I think twelve years ago.
(04:44):
It's good that Punk brings this stuff up because a
lot of us forget it. This kind of stuff is
easily forgotten. But it's not the first time that Punk
has been betrayed. So Punk said, Jay warned him about
Paul Hayman, and Cmpunk said that Hayman is who he
is and who he's always been, and he's a fat
(05:05):
little snake and added that he couldn't wait to get
his hands around his neck as I said, and then
Paul Hayman introduced himself. Paul asked where he was. Haymon
stormed onto the stage and Punk told him to choose
words wisely because it would be his last. That's when
seth Rollins entrance. Music played and we got Rollins and
(05:25):
bron Breaker coming out. They stood next to Hayman. Hayman
handed Rollins the mic while people were chanting for Punk,
and Rollins said, just when he thought Punk couldn't get
more selfish or egotistical, he found a way. And Rollin
said Hayman was Punk's best friend and Punk made Hayman's
life hell heading into WrestleMania, and Rollin's accused Punk of
(05:48):
gaslighting everyone while claiming that Haymon betrayed him. Rollins called
Punk trash and said the reason that Rollins isn't world
champion that Rollin that he's the reason that Roninds isn't
world champion, and Punk said that as long as he's
on two feet, Rollins will not be world heavyweight champion.
(06:08):
Rollins said Punk loves to play the victim and desperately
wants to die a Martyr, and he said, I believe
that I can or that can be arranged, and I
he said, I hope you have you your last words prepared,
and Rollin's padded Breaker on the shoulder and they headed
to the ring. Breaker got the better of Punk and
(06:31):
then Rollins came in the ring. Punk caught Breaker with
a kick and threw some punches at Rollins, and then
Breaker recovered and they both put the boots to Punk.
Sammy Zain comes out to help, and the Heel duo
ended up in control, and Hayman handed a chair to
Rollins as Rollins wound wound up to hit Punk, Jay
(06:52):
Uso comes out and stopped him from using it. So Jay,
Punk and Zane stood tall. So there has to be here.
This is a perfect opportunity for Hayman and Punk and
Breaker to bring in the third person. It screamed for
(07:14):
it here. How often do you see the Heels out numbered?
So it's definitely a clue to us. If you haven't
already picked that up, then we're going to get a
third person in this this alliance as I'm gonna call
it right now, because it's not a faction yet of
Breaker and Rollins. The question is who an XT call
(07:38):
up somebody? When I'm thinking, is it? Is it Sammy's ain?
Sammy's Ain's been kind of on the edge lately, jay USO, No,
no way. Who's it going to be? Who could benefit
from a seth Rollins Brown Breaker alliance. I'm gonna give
you guys a homework assignment there. Who What do you think?
(07:59):
What do you think? Do you have someone in mind
that just stands out? Somebody you think that could benefit
the most from having this rub from both guys, somebody
we're not thinking of, maybe a new hire, maybe somebody
from SmackDown. But there are options out there, and we'll
(08:21):
have to see if it's either a turn a return
because we know it doesn't need to be a legend
or it doesn't need to be somebody that's established. In fact,
I would argue it should be somebody like a Bronze
Breaker who fits the mold perfectly, up and coming star,
a ton of potential crowd organically supported them. They've got
that in factor. He is the perfect can at young
(08:45):
Somebody like a Breaker is exactly who Rollin should end
up teaming with. So we'll see, but it does certainly
scream for them to recruit a third person. Okay, so
we then had the uh match here Panta versus Chad
(09:06):
Gable and Oh. Cole was shown seated at ringside and
said that Pat McAfee was expected to appear at some point.
And that's when McAfee comes out, wearing glasses and slapped
hands as he headed to ring or headed ringside. He
staid on the ring steps, play to fans and walked
over and hugged Cole. So now this is this is uh,
(09:30):
this is what I'm talking about. Now. I don't love McAfee.
I don't hate McAfee. I kind of feel a little
bit in between about him. Some weeks I'm I think
he did you know, he's he's an addition. Some weeks
I think he's a distraction. But he took an ass
kicking from Gunther. He even showed it on a social
media And when you get in the ring with a
guy like that just two nights earlier, and you come
(09:54):
out and you are just pretending nothing happened. He doesn't
need to be in a wheelchair, he doesn't need to
be in a neck brace, but he can be limping.
He could have some kind of some kind of tape,
some kind of sling just for a week or two.
Sell it, man, this is the magic that you that
is It's just so overlooked. This is what brings the
(10:18):
magic full circle. It's what makes us get invested in.
When people get their ass kicked to a degree that
would put anyone in a hospital and they come out
a day or two later as if you know, they're
hopping and skipping to school. It just that little stuff, man,
that it's just it eats away at my experience watching
the product. Doesn't kill it dead. I'll be a fan forever,
(10:43):
but I reserve the right to be critical. When there's
something so fixable and so easy to fix, I think
fans should call it out. And this is something that
is not just a Pat McAfee specific issue. This is
something that is I mean, it's just it's industry wide really,
but WWE specifically, it has been a problem where they
(11:04):
just you know, somebody gets their ass kicked to a
degree that is just heinous. Cheer shot after chair, shot,
off chairs shot, are multiple finishers done and there's nothing, nothing,
nothing the next week. We've seen that, not all the time,
but too much of the time. Now as I'm thinking
of it, how would you guys like Bronson read to
(11:27):
join Seth and bron Breaker. I know Bronson reads still
out with injury. From what I understand, he's getting closer.
I know Bronson and Seth have a hell of a history.
It could look like Bronson's coming out to make the
save Seth and Bronson are you know, have had their
issues and he ends up joining them. I don't mind
(11:50):
that one. How about Bronson? Now, Bronson reading on his
own is fine, but Bronson Reid bron Breaker and Seth rawlins. Ooh,
got the chills on that one. How about that? I'm
not saying it's gonna happen, but it's possible. He fits
the bill kind of like a Bronze Breaker. Talk about
(12:11):
a powerhouse group. So we have Penta versus Chad Gable,
and this match was eleven minutes long, exactly where Penta
beats Gable in eleven minutes. The finish was Gable sitting
Penta on the top turnbuckle and Gable John and Penta,
who gave him the hand gesture, which I still don't understand,
(12:34):
Sarah Miado, I don't know, I don't understand it. Everyone
just suddenly knew what that was I'm falling behind man.
Everybody just understands what that hand gesture is. I'm not
sure what it is. I don't understand, but he does
it a lot. That's his thing. But Penta then tapped Gable,
(12:55):
who performed a backflip off the top and landed on
his feet. Penta jumped from the top and hit with
the destroyer and got the victory. Penta then sold his
left arm. Gable had some blood on his face while
he was angry at ringside. Okay, so Penta beats Gable,
but he can't beat El Grande Americano. I'll tell you that.
(13:18):
When are they going to have a Chad Gable Versus
Grande Americano match? How has Adam Pierce not decided to
do that yet? I mean, I know it would be
very much like booking Elias versus Ezekiel. I get it.
Once you do that, the probably the whole magic is up.
But it depends on long you want to keep the
Grande Americano thing going. If WW believes there's more life
(13:43):
in it and they have a longer story to go
with it, than I wouldn't do it. But of course
that's the end all be all. That's the payoff is
Grande Americano versus Chad Gable, And what I would do,
honestly even for that is have somebody with the likeness
of Chad Gable wear the mask of Grande Americano and
then you know, Chad can clar hey, see it's not me.
What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
All right?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
So we then had Dom and Balor speak backstage about
the Intercontinental Championship match, and you know, we had Dom
say how the hesitation nearly cost him the Icy title
match last week or yeah, last week I had backlash
with Penta. But they're still taking the slow burn with
(14:24):
the the Finn Balor turn on Dom. They're still taking it.
And I'm gonna be straight with you guys, I think
that when Finn does turn, it's not going to be
as a babyface. I think the fans are going to
stay with Dom. The fans are going to cheer for Dom,
and they're going to boo Finn Balor when that does happen.
People have kind of come to learn to love Dom
(14:46):
after years of booing him through the roof. I mean,
he hasn't even cut a promo. Has Dom ever cut
a as a heel? Ever cut a complete promo without
the crowd interrupting him as a heel in front of
a live audience. I don't know if that it's ever happened.
(15:06):
So you know, we're we've we've kind of hamstrung Dom
by doing that. It's been fun and people have loved
doing it. They can control the show to some degree.
But also we've limited Dom's skill set because we haven't
allowed him to get minutes in front of a crowd
to speak. Doms knows he doesn't he's a gay. I
don't have to learn. People don't want to hear from
me anyway, and all I have to do is put
(15:26):
the microphone up from my mouth and I get booed.
So I don't have to learn how to cut a promo.
But now he does so all right. So McAfee waved
to the fans after the recap the video recap of
gun the beating McFee. So again he's waving, and Cole
encouraged McAfee to stand up. He hopped on the table
again as if nothing happened, and McAfee sat down and
(15:48):
spoke about how everything was sore. You'd never know it,
you know, I believe you one percent. That's true. There's
no you know, there's no lying in that one, but
at least make it look like it. So he said,
Gunther's chop popped a blood vessel in his eye, and
McAfee said he respects gun Thro even more. He thinks
(16:09):
maybe Gunther now has a little for him and Coal. Yeah. So, boy.
The thing that even kills me the most about this
is that it's an announcer who's not selling one of
the most legit badasses in the company, who just you know,
demolished him at Backlash two days ago, not two months ago,
(16:33):
and we have McAfee as an announcer not selling it.
Are you kidding? I don't know how this was overlooked
morph McAfee just forgot. But you'd think that having a
match with gun Through, you wouldn't have to sell because
you'd be legitimately in pain and all you'd have to
do is just outwardly show how you feel, because it's real.
(16:56):
I really didn't like this. That kind of stuff undermines
so much of the products believability and just fun and watching. Alright,
so we hadn't had the war Raiders or I'm sorry
Cole announcing Seth and bron Breaker versus punkin Sammy's Ain
for Saturday Night Made event that's on May twenty fourth,
(17:20):
So we do have a massive tag team match for
Saturday Night's main event. Should be fun. It's again, Saturday
Night's main event is a it's like Raw plus or
SmackDown plus. It's not quite a pl It's certainly higher
than a house show. It's in between a televised regularly
televised event and a pl E. It's just it's just
(17:40):
it's in that like kind of gray area, and that's
what this is. So a pretty big tag team match. Fun.
I mean, it's gonna be fun to see what happens here.
I could absolutely anticipate a third person getting involved for
Seth and Braun. Could it be Bronson Reid? I don't
know now I put that out in the universe. The
war Raiders took on Julius and Brutus Creed and this
(18:05):
match went a total of ten minutes and twenty five
seconds as Julius Creed and Brutus Creed beat the war
Raiders Eric and Ivar, and the finish, of course, was
ivarn Woods distracting the referee. Kingston ran up the steps
and hit Ivar, who was in the middle rope. The
(18:25):
Creeds took advantage of the situation and hit the Brutus
ball on Ivar and he was then pinned by Brutus,
so Brutus and Julius Creed are victorious, and then the
broadcast team played up the possibility of the Creeds facing
the New Day for the tag titles, but that problem
would be a heel versus heel match, So I'm guessing
(18:46):
a triple threat is probably in order for the Saturday
Night main event. If they go that road of putting
a tag team title match on Saturday Night made event,
it's probably gonna be My guess is a triple threat.
You're not gonna have heel heel, so create Brothers versus
war Raiders versus the New Day for the tag team
titles is my guess for the Saturday Night main event
(19:10):
one of the matches for that show. So then we
had Seth speaking to Breaker backstage with a Hayman there,
and Rollin said that their adversaries probably thought they were
winning and they have no idea what he is capable of,
and Seth also said he has one more thing he
(19:31):
wanted Breaker to do before he took off, and he said,
have some fun, and he padded break around the back,
and yeah, so it was kind of just like meaning fun,
like go kick someone's ass, That's what he meant. And
so yeah, it's fine. I'd like Seth's new modified look
of not coming out in just ridiculous crap. I never
(19:54):
liked that ever at all. It never appealed to me.
It showed me you don't have an identity. You don't
know what to do when you're not consistent with your outfits.
I don't want to hear inconsistency is your consistency. It's
a cop out. It means you don't have a place
to land, you don't know what the hell you want
(20:14):
to wear, so you just come outing these outlandish outfits
that no one ever really loved. I don't think anyone
when you think of Seth rollins to me. That was
as his babyface run, largely very successful World heavyweight champion
for six months. If you remember the inaugural World heavyweight champion.
Of course, we're pretending that the one didn't exist before that,
(20:37):
but it did and had a hell of a run.
His music certainly helped him get over. But the one
thing that I will say was the detractor right from
the get go were his outfits. Never really enjoyed it.
His en ring work. You know what his in ring
work's going to be. He's top tier Hall of Famer.
(20:57):
You understand what you're gonna get with Seth Rollins in
the ring. And now we need to be I think
we're at the point in Set's career we need to
be grateful that he competes because he has put so
many miles on his body and so many bumps and
he's got injuries that I think we need to be
appreciative of it when he's in the ring because he
certainly doesn't have a ton of years left. I don't
(21:18):
think he's even alluded to that that you know, he
knows he doesn't have a ton of years left. So
we have to be appreciative of when we see Seth
Rollins in the ring. We just do I know, we're
taking it for granted right now because he's just a mainstay.
He's there all the time. He is to say quality
as an insult, he's one of the best in ring
(21:39):
talent the company's ever had. And he's just there, and
he's always there, and he's always just there to have
a good match and help other guys get over. And
I think we need to be conscious of the fact
that there's not a ton of time left probably for
Seth in terms of more than a couple of years.
That's what I think, and he really Seth has said
the same thing in previous interviews. So but my point
(21:59):
about his outfit though, it's a massive detraction for me
whenever I think about his baby face run and to
see him now in a little bit more of a
serious role because he's a heel. Hopefully those that was
off its go away and what he wore this past
week is just fine.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I think whatever he wore this past week he could
continued to wear because I can't take him seriously as
a heel if he comes out in some just you know,
fashion show prototype. So so then we have a footage
air last week of Jay shaking hands to the fans
after the went off last week's We're All went off
(22:42):
the air and logan Paul, wearing a hoodie, punched J
from behind the barricade. Cole said the footage had over
sixteen million views within twelve hours of going online, and
Cole hyped Jay versus Paul for the World Heavyweight Championship
on Saturday night's main event, which is just it's just ridiculous. Yes, no,
(23:02):
I understand Logan Paul was victorious at WrestleMania and he
should have been. I do believe that. But the idea
that you just have to attack a world champion, any
champion and get you get your shot. I mean you
are all the ways, one hundred percent of the time
you are rewarded with a championship match by attacking a
(23:26):
champion from behind, always and forever. It is a golden rule.
Men's division, Women's division, It doesn't matter. That is your reward.
While it is frowned upon, you are somehow rewarded for
your bad behavior. It's kind of incredible. Again, not really
a complaint because it's pro wrestling. We understand what pro
(23:48):
wrestling is and I can let that go. But it's
just kind of funny if you look at this logically
every single time, and if someone complains they don't get
a championship opportunity. In character, you're sitting there thinking to yourself, dude,
just go attack a champion from behind. They will reward
you with an opportunity for their championship. Again, if this
(24:09):
was a truly competitive sport, of course. But so we
get Logan Paul and we get Jay Uso for the
world title at Saturday Night's main event. And while it
is essentially a it's virtually a zero percent chance that
Logan Paul wins, it is fun to think about the
fact that he could win. I think it would be fun.
(24:33):
I honestly believe, and I truly mean this. I'm not
being facetious or trying to put down anybody or do
my usual trolling. I truly believe that Logan Paul as
world champion would be far more entertaining than Jay Uso
as world champion. He just would be. I'm not saying
that Logan Paul has a longer tenure or he has
(24:54):
more respect. Those things are not qualifiers for me in
deciding who would be more entertaining as a champion, and
Logan Paul is by far my pick. He would set
the crowd ablaze. He would be one of the first
outside stars from YouTube to come in and win a
(25:17):
world championship. In fact, has anyone come from social media?
I know the miss was a reality TV star. I
understand that, but it was before YouTube was a thing.
But is logan Paul. Is he the first one to
come from the YouTube era of this general of this
generation of human beings to win a world championship? I
(25:39):
wonder YouTube is where he's actually I'm sorry, it was
an app called Vine. Those of you that are old
enough to remember that he actually was on Vine became massive,
Vine went away, So he had a YouTube channel that
blew up and he had some bad you know, it's
some bad PRD times. But he might be the first
(25:59):
social media sensation to win a top championship in WWA.
He really might be. I know, I know, Matt Cardona,
Zach Ryder, I understand, but he was a United States champion, right,
so but I'm talking top world championship. Uns be the championship.
He might be. But the thing is with this guy,
(26:21):
he can back it up.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
He may have grown his face his platform on the internet,
which apparently I don't know how that's some kind of
diss today, because that's a hell of a feat to do,
and that's that is a tough thing to do in
a place where everyone's trying to do that thing, because
that's what most people creating content on the Internet are
(26:44):
trying to do, is to get a large platform the
size of Logan Paul's or Joe Rogan or I mean,
that's what everyone should be aiming for. So it is
quite impressive that he actually did that. I know that, oh,
you're just an Internet guy, but that is that's such
as a nineteen ninety five thing to say, because again,
when you think about it, the Internet, creating content is
(27:06):
one of the most competitive platforms you can try to
be successful on. So it's actually pretty damn impressive. And
again he's got the athletic prowess to back it up.
I think he'd be highly entertaining as a world champion.
The only thing I would want is him not to
be an absentee champion. We've had enough of those over
the last ten years between brock Lesnar or Roman Reigns.
(27:29):
I would want him to actually be there semi regularly,
like every other week, even I'd take I can't deal
with every two months, every three months, every four months.
I mean, there was a time where Roman Reigns went
from WrestleMania, he'd ever saw him until like you know,
maybe money in the bank, but he wouldn't actually have
another match or defend his championship until SummerSlam, so it'd
(27:51):
be like a four month gap between him defending the championship,
and yet they're patting his stats of saying he's, oh,
he's he's been a champion for nine hundred days, eleven
hundred days. It's like yeah, because you don't see him.
You know, he has these blocks of like one hundred
days where you don't see him. So I could pad
my stats pretty quickly too if I'm barely there. So
(28:12):
it's a bit of an artificial stat that they've got
for Roman, But it is. It is what it is,
and I don't know. I'm not advocating or I'm not
predicting that Logan Paul will win. I'm simply saying that
I think it would be much more entertaining than Jay Uso.
Just my two cents. But Gunther comes out and the
(28:35):
you tapped out champ broke out and Gunner told Jay
that the unimaginable came true and that Jay's the world champion.
Guntherer said it was the first time in that moment
since they'd met. And do you mean the moment when
I made you tap out? Said Jay? And Gunther said
he knows what it's like to be champion and noted
that eighty percent of his time in the company has
(28:55):
been spent as a champion, and he said just because
he understands doesn't mean his opinion of Jay has changed.
Gunther said Jay is not a natural champion like he
is and said he was surprised that Jay hasn't shared
the news yet. And Gunther said that the winner of
Jay Versus Logan Paul at the Saturday Night Man Event
(29:15):
show will have the honor of handing over the championship
to its rifle owner. And so what it means is
he's going to challenge for whoever wins the Jay Logan
Paul match to a championship match on June ninth, and Phoenix, Arizona.
I think that's money in the bank, And Gunther said
he hopes it's Jay because he would love nothing more
than to shut up Jay and the people for good
(29:37):
by reminding Jay of his place. So yeah, so Gunther,
you can pretty just lock it up and throw it away.
It's gonna be Gunther versus Jay, So you can't have
Logan Paul versus Gunther again. He'll heel makes no sense. Again,
you could do the same thing as you're gonna do
(29:58):
possibly with the tag team title and have a triple threat.
You could and Logan Paul versus Jay versus Gunther would
be fun. But if they want to build WrestleMania rematch,
that's also a thing that they could market too. My
hunch is that it probably is a triple threat because
(30:20):
they're really trying to get Logan Paul over. But again,
I don't mind a Logan Paul, I'm sorry, a Jay
versus Gunther rematch. In fact, I would actually advocate for
one on one, but I can't see a world in
which they decide to throw Logan Paul in there for
the money to make event all right. I also love
(30:42):
Gunther's language use here by saying that Jay's not a
natural champion, because it's the perfect phrase. Jay doesn't feel
natural as a champion. It doesn't feel organic. I'm sorry
it doesn't. I have nothing against Jay. I don't mind
his character. He's got a lot of energy, he's got
(31:05):
a lot of you know, charisma. His vocabulary is yeat
and then like four other words. Right now, we know
he's capable of more. He showed us that. But he is. Yeah,
he's a very talented in ring performer, A guy that
has earned a lot of respect from fans and from
(31:28):
the I'm sure the boy's backstage, I'm sure, but that
doesn't erase the fact that I can. I just look
at him and I go, still doesn't feel right. It
still doesn't feel right. Again, no disrespect to Jay, but
I just for me, I look at it and I go, yeah,
I totally get what Gunther's saying. Gunther is a guy
(31:50):
that you look at and feel is just organically a
natural born champion, where Jay just doesn't feel that way.
It's not the most it's egregious mismatch in w history.
I mean, look at gender Mahal, although I didn't hate
that as much as most. When gender Mahal won the
title from Randy Orton, I think it was right back
in twenty seventeen, and if I'm not mistaken, that was
(32:15):
their first trek into Saudi Arabia. I think that's when
the Saudi Deal might have started, and the beloved Saudi
Deal that we all just embrace so much. So I
certainly don't think that that's a coincidence back then, but
that's another topic for another day. So again, nothing revolutionary here,
(32:38):
but a fun path for the world championship over the
next month and a half, because you have again Jay
versus Logan Paul. Yeah, we know the outcome, but does
it end up being somehow a triple threat at Money
in the Bank. Gunther's gonna get involved, does Gunterer reclaim
his championship or does he not? Or you know what
happens there. So again you have now the the next
(33:00):
two title defense is locked up for the world title,
likely Jay versus Gunther at Money in the Bank. However,
that does mean if that's the case, does gunh actually
have the opportunity to win Money in the Bank. Probably not.
If he's in a world title match, he's exempt from
(33:22):
the Money the Bank ladder match. And honestly, that's a
match that Logan Paul is built for. So Logan Paul
at Money in the Bank to win the Money in
the Bank briefcase, I think is a heavy favorite, so
sure he'll lose at Saturday n at main event, Logan
Paul will then enter the Money the Bank ladder match.
(33:43):
I think he's a heavy favorite to win and carry
that briefcase around. I think that is to me, the
perfect way to go. So I think there that's my
official prediction for the next five weeks, all right. We
then have Saboo and obviously the passing of Saboo. BCW
Starr legend and cole recalled Saboo having a feud with
(34:05):
his friend Taz and McAfee said Saboo put his life
on the line while performing and said they're forever grateful
for his service to the industry, and Cole over condolences
to Saboo's family and friends. What happened? They're really keeping
this one close to the best.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Dare I say? Did he on alive himself? Was it
a long standing illness? I actually don't know. Every time
I try to search, it's been the cause of death
is uh? As of this publishing, I don't see anything,
all right? We then have Ohod Ludwig Kaiser was interviewed
backstage by Jackie Redmond because she's essentially like, yo, bro,
(34:44):
where you been? And he didn't get a chance to
answer because we had bron Breaker backstage attack say jay
Uso rather, and then Finn Baler took on aj Styles
and this match was really good seven venteen minutes as
it should have been, with the aj Styles beating Finn
Balor as Penta shows up, dives off the barricade under Carlito,
(35:07):
hits a backbreaker and McDonough and then Penta jumps off
the back of McDonough and hit a destroyer on Carlito,
and then in the ring, Styles hit Ballor with a
phenomenal forearm and got the victory. Penta helping Styles was fine,
I will say the destroyer when he took out Carlito,
I didn't know who got the worst of the bump.
(35:29):
It looked like Penta was legitimately in pain. That's not
a move that you can usually tell what they're trying
to do. I mean, we know to Mexican destroyers who
know what a Canadian destroyer is. But it's one of
those moves that you look at and go, I don't know,
did he reverse it, did he block it? Did he
perform it wrong? It looked like Penta again either didn't
(35:51):
deliver it correctly or is used to doing something like
that in the ring and not on the outside of
the ring under those pads. But everyone seems to be okay.
It was just one of those go I just didn't
I just looked at it and I go, did did
he reverse it? Who's supposed to be hurt here. I'm
not sure who's trying to sell because both men are down.
So then we had Cole narrate the highlights of Lyra
(36:12):
Valkyria beating Becky Lynch during Backlash to retain the Women's
Inner Continental Championship. And Becky Lynch comes out and she
said she wasn't beaten at Backlash, Valkyria was. She said
she got on an ice big bus, had a warm shower,
a shot of tequila, and basking her own brilliance while
(36:33):
Valkia went to the hospital. And Lynch said that even
after everything that she's done to her, that she still
made her the best version of herself and gave her
the best match of her career. Again, I know people
are saying this is a great Becky Lynch promo. I
don't like when they're talking about the best match of
her career, making history, tearing the house down, five star.
(36:55):
Just stop with that. That stuff is it's a byproduct
of your efforts. What are your efforts. Your efforts should
be to win. Those should be the things you talk
about winning and losing. It is really that simple when
you talk about having best matches and tearing the house
down and stealing the show. That tells me your motives
(37:17):
are elsewhere, which they really may be elsewhere. Your motives
are obviously to have great matches, but you don't outwardly
say that those should be byproducts of what you're telling
us you're trying to do and making us believe you're
trying to do. Which is win the good match ratings
(37:39):
and you know what match goes into the Hall of Fame,
which one doesn't, Which match gets chanted you know, get
this is awesome chance, and which one doesn't. Those are
all decided after the fact or in the moment by fans.
I don't want to hear from wrestlers while they're in character.
You can do it in Hall of Fame speeches and
(37:59):
in documentaries, but while you're on the air. It's another
one of those things that I think tears the product down,
It undermines itself. These little things that, whether consciously you
realize or not, I think is hurting the product. But
let's go on. So Lynch said she didn't hear defeat.
(38:20):
She heard alarms ringing in her ear, and she said
that she realized she was manipulated by Lyra and all
the fans. And she said she walked away from WWE
for nearly a year because the fans asked her to.
She said she had heard the comments and read them online,
and she asked, if she's not in WWE to win
(38:41):
World Championships, then why she there. She said that she
and the fans were in it together, but then she
won and the fans could no longer see themselves in
her because all they know is failure. Lynch said that
from now on, whatever the fans say she is is
what she is. She said she will be selfish, greedy, cutthroat,
(39:01):
and she said the women in the back were happy
that she was gone. Will now know what it's like
to be held down by the man. So she's essentially
saying that you know all the things you say I
am online, Well, I guess I'll just be those things
which I can actually appreciate. I could appreciate that in
one sense that you're just leaning into it and going, Okay,
(39:23):
you guys say I'm all this stuff. No, I'll just
be it. That's actually what I would do as a
heel right, you guys say this, I'm this, I'm this, Okay,
then I'll be it. Right, let's do it. I mean,
I get that you're leaning into it instead of trying
to fight it, and that's fine. But in the same breath,
WWE will also say, now the fans don't know anything.
(39:43):
I mean, we just heard from WWE for the week
up to let Up WrestleMania that basically shut up and
enjoy the product, which is funny because now you have
one of your heels shaping her entire personality around how
the fans view her online. So kind of funny how
you say one thing yet you're doing another. You're saying
(40:06):
you don't care what the fans say online if you
sit and be a fan, and then you're like, well, actually,
why don't we just take what the fans are saying
you are and just be that? So which one is it?
We we all know the real answer. The real answer
is they pay attention to what we say. They're sensitive
to our criticisms, especially when they're in mass, but outwardly
(40:29):
they will pretend that that our opinions don't matter and
we don't know what we're talking about because we've never
been in the ring and we shouldn't be able to
speak on anything that we've never had experience in doing,
which again is the most asinine common in the world.
In the world, okay, think about things that you go
around and purchase all day long that you had nothing
(40:49):
to do with making that product. By that logic, I
can't talk about again my iPhone. I shouldn't have any
say on what should or shouldn't be in my iPhone,
what should be in my computer screen, what this the
watch on my wrists should should look like if things
work or don't work. I you know, I shouldn't have
any any say, no suggestion box the clothes I'm wearing,
(41:10):
which I had nothing to do with purchasing, or rather
with with actually manufacturing, I should have no say in
the color or the length or the feel the material used. Nope,
because I didn't have anything to do with making it.
See how stupid that logic is. You see a little
bit of a problem in the in the the congruency
(41:31):
of of that. If you extrapolate it out from well,
you know, you'd never step through the rings. So you can't.
Okay again that if we're going to be consistent, then
you could apply that to like literally anything you purchase.
So which again, if you're purchasing something and we're purchasing
the product, we're spending our time watching it, we purchase
the merchandise. Then again, it's just it's it's asinine. So
(41:54):
sure they all outwardly say that, but internally they are
having conversations about it because they know how power powerful
online is. Right, That's the other thing that's kind of
stupid that if they don't recognize even outwardly that right now, So,
I mean, social media is bigger than it's ever been.
Social media influences a lot of stuff. A lot of
(42:15):
corporations decide to work on a project, not work on
a project, modify a project, bring this person in, how
they're going to market certain materials, how they're going to
target their audience, what they're going to do with a
lot of it social media. So for WW to pretend
they're the only major corporation that says, if the fans
(42:35):
we know better, it's nonsense. It's just pure nonsense. All right.
I've gone off on a tangent, all right. So the
Russev then has a promo video again, second week in
a row. He said he didn't know what to do,
he didn't want to do what he did to otis.
He said he didn't want any of this. He just
wanted to go home and be rich. He said he
(42:58):
was once program by lesser people, and he can't leave
his brothers until they all wake up. He asked if
they think the fans care that they missed their family,
or that their choices to hurt or be hurt. He
recalled to care of Zalas stepping up while the fans cheered.
He said, wrestlers let the sheep control the wolves, and
he said he would rather fail than fall into the abyss.
(43:21):
Another solid promo from Russev. You can kind of follow
what he's saying there. I just wonder who his real
target's going to be next and what their plan is
for Russev. Don't you wonder that they bring a guy
like Russev back see much more seasoned, much more confident
than when he left. You know, he had his time
in aaw grew there, obviously, had trouble in his personal life.
(43:45):
Lana all the rest and then or c J Perry
her real name. Might as well use her real name
because she's not wrestling anymore. And then you know, comes
back to WWE. Crowd loves it. He's still heal, but
the crowd still cheers him. Okay, So which you again.
I mean, what are they going to do with him?
I really hope they have at least three months planned
for him. I do. I mean I could see him
(44:06):
even competing for the world title, not winning, but competing.
All right. We then have let's see here Seamus asking
for a match against Grayson Waller backstage, and then Cole
talked about qualifying matches for Money in the Bank that
will start on Friday's SmackDown and will continue on Raw.
(44:28):
He hyped the following for Raw in Greenville. AJ versus
AJ Styles and Penta versus Finn and j D, Seamus
versus Grayson Waller and Jay Uso versus braun Breaker in
a non title match.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
You can pretty much bet that Logan Paul show up
there though. Julia then made her entrance and we get
EO Sky and Ripley versus Rock Samperez and Julia. The
match went fourteen minutes and ten seconds, again the women
main event of the show. Here a good match. I
(45:04):
enjoyed this for the most part, even though I think
the alliance of EO and Ripley is short lived given
the look that Rhea was giving the championship after winning.
But that's fine. I mean, she shouldn't be just she
shouldn't just be friends with the Eel because she's also
a fan favorite. I'm glad that she's targeting the women's
(45:24):
championship because you should be there to try to chase it.
The match, by the way, by the way, before we
get into the storyline specifics, the finish was Ripley hitting
riptid on Julia and got the victory while Sky prevented
Perez from getting a breaking up. The pin match was
again fourteen minutes, so we had again both per Rox
(45:50):
and Perez and Julia show up. Yeah, they showed up
to lose, but I don't care. I know those are
some complaints out there, including the one I'm reading that
we both have Roxamprez and Julia show up. They lose,
but they're in the main event of Raw, so fans
aren't going to really remember that they lost unless they
unless they just continue to lose, then that might start
(46:12):
to eat away. But if you just have them show
up and get in the ring with two top talent
like Rhea and EO, it didn't really matter who won
that match. It just mattered they show that they can
actually wrestle, and they of course they can, and they
did have a good match, and they did, and they're
(46:32):
in the main event of a Monday night Raw. That's
a pretty big deal. That's what they needed. They didn't
need to win, so I had no issue with both
Rox Samperez and Julia losing. So yeah, I mean it's
a matchup between EO and Ria that's forthcoming. We can
kind of see that as well, and perhaps Becky Lynch
(46:53):
at some point getting involved too. So good match, good
show overall. Backlashes of course behind us WrestleMania season is
now long gone. It feels like that was a you know,
four months ago, and we have the introm half pl
(47:14):
e of Saturday Night main event that's going to be
coming to us in my god a week from Saturday.
Who that's quick. And then we have the the Money
in the Bank event coming to us June ninth, so
that should be a lot of fun as Money in
the Bank qualifiers start again early call. I think Logan
Paul is in it and he's gonna win it because
(47:36):
he fits the bill perfectly. Those matches, as I say
every year, are designed just just they are designed baseline
to have a heel win because the prize is one
in which you would have a heel cash in when
the champion is at their most vulnerable. That is a
(48:01):
that is designed for a heel to win. It fits
with the heel persona. For babyfaces to do that, it
would cheapen their victory and it doesn't fit with the
morals of a babyface in WWE. And also if they
don't do it that way, it makes them look stupid.
So they could cash in by giving the person a
(48:23):
heads up. Johnsen has done that and they're like, Hey,
I'm gonna cash in next week. Well, then you're kind
of stupid. If if winning the championship is the most
important to you, then why don't you just take advantage
when the you know, the opportunity presents itself, and their
morals supersede any logic, So it makes them look stupid
if they're trying to win a belt. So it's much,
(48:44):
very much a heel prize to be won. So I
fully expect Logan Paul to win.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
That.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
You could have a couple of other candidates in there too,
but I certainly expect Logan Paul to win. Maybe Damian
Priests to be involved, but he's a former cash in
or a former winner. He could be involved, but he's
not going to win. Aj Styles could be in there too,
in the mix, just to add a lot of fun
and a lot of high flying spots and excitement into
the ladder match. But Logan Paul to me, is a
(49:13):
massive frontrunner, and he's not even announced yet as an
official entrant into that match. But it just fits, especially
this year, after the year Logan Paul has had the
match with Aj Styles of WrestleMania, he's having a world
title match with Jay Usso in which yeah, he's going
to lose, but that's not the point. So to me,
Logan Paul is a shoe in to win the Money
(49:37):
in the Bank Ladder match on June ninth, four weeks, right,
little under four weeks, all right, that'll do it for me.
I appreciate everybody listening. If you are the first time
listener here, you can catch us pretty much every day,
whether it's a retro show or a co host coming
on and talking about other topics, NXT SmackDown after Dark,
we have that all here. You can become a patron too,
(49:58):
if you want to get rid of the ads you've
hear about every ten minutes Patreon dot com slash WWE podcast.
We also have a mailbag a mailbag show that we
do every Friday, and that'll be no different this week.
The mailbag show comes to you probably midday if I
can get to it during the day, we'll see So
get your mailbag questions in or comments at mailbag at
(50:20):
wwepodcast dot com. All right, that'll do it, everybody. I
appreciate everybody listening, and you can follow me on x
at Wrestling Underscore Audio again or mess with me at
mailbag at wwpodcast dot com. Thanks everyone, talk next time.
Speaker 3 (50:39):
Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to
subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss
a show, or head to wwepodcast dot com. And for
all of these shows, ad free head over to Patreon
dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then, we'll see you
(51:00):
next time.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
MHM.
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