March 17, 2021 • 40 mins
The Man of Bull$hit is still on the mend from what Shillgood calls the "Shanghai Sniffles" but he returns this week for an abbreviated episode talking AEW Revolution, This Week's News of Professional Wrestling, along with a quick stop over for a cocktail at the Two Rows Beat Club
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Episode Transcript
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(00:27):
Welcome fans to another edition of TwoRows from Ringside. This is Ricky along
with my partner Gregory Sterner. Thisweek we're here. We're doing a little
bit of a shorter episode. Uturns out Greg now caught the bug that
has been going around the entire world. I got it back in October and
(00:49):
I was out for a little bit. And now Greg siffles their rook.
Yeah. No, Now, Rickyand I have felt this wonderful plague.
Uh and uh, what do youthink, Ricky? On a scale of
one to ten, I'd call itan uncomfortable five. You know, I
(01:10):
was. I had two pretty bad. I had one one evening and night
when I was afraid that I willsay I was. I was a little
bit afraid one night afraid, Likewhat symptoms were you have when you were
afraid? I was short of breathwalking to the bathroom. And I was
(01:32):
in my bed one night in ahoodie, sweatpants, two two pairs of
socks on my feet, um,shivering in our bed when I had I
think two quilts over me. Yeah, And that night was a little unsettling,
and I thought, boy, ifit gets worse tomorrow, Um,
(01:55):
I met going to the stars above. Glad didn't come to that. I
know. Luckily I'm still here andI'm glad to hear that. Uh,
you and your family have are onthe rebound here and are on the up
and up. And I do apologizeto the two Rows fans. We did
have to skip last week. Ihad to. I had to issue a
(02:16):
screw job on all of you andswerve you at the last minute and take
away the show. But you wouldnot have wanted to hear me last week.
Ricky and I are going to shootfor about forty five minutes today.
Hopefully we make it, because theone thing that has hit me harder than
anything with this COVID is the fatigueis downright awful. It's like even now,
(02:40):
like you and I have been talkingfor about a half an hour before
we started recording, and I'm like, I'm already fading, man, Like
we better start recording the show becauseI'm ready to. I can feel it
setting in. I remember I waslike towards the end of the virus and
I was like, you know whatI really want? I just want an
ice cold, Like I feel likeI deserve it. You know, I'm
(03:02):
I'm improving and I'm almost done withthis, and I got like three quarters
of the way through the beer andI was like, I'm going upstairs and
taking a nap. I am notready for this. So Ricky, are
you saying that you had something youwere looking forward to? It was almost
like it would it would have beenthe main event of your day to have
that nice, ice cold beer,but instead your main event of the day
(03:25):
turned out to be an unpleasant,underwhelming disappointment of an experience. And I
think there is an interesting parallel wecan draw between that and the garbage that
you and brother Andy and who wasthe A and Brad? Yeah, brother
(03:45):
Brad, Brother Andy. You guyswere unfortunate enough to witness in person a
main event that was quite the disappointment, quite the quite the wet fart in
church. Isn't that a Cornetts orthe popcorn fart in church? Much better
than that? Well, it wasn'tjust the main event, Greg, I
mean, it was an absolute,in my opinion, an absolute disaster from
(04:10):
beginning to end. There wasn't onepart of that show that really kept kept
my interest. And that's why Isaid I'll never order an aw pay per
view unless I have friends over becauseI'm not going to spend fifty dollars on
something that I might like twenty percentof if that it was awful, It
(04:30):
was from beginning to end the stupidestthing I've ever seen. Nothing about it
was good, it was forced.It was just kind of like it almost
felt like they ran out of thingsto do. I thought the booking was
kind of stupid. Damn aw reallyhas to has to make up for that,
(04:53):
And I feel like kind of theirit kind of all caught up to
them this show. Yeah, Iwas thinking like as a make good what
they could have done was do anotherlike basically say look, fans, we're
really sorry what happened. None ofus wanted it to end that way,
not even the people in the ringwanted it to end that way. So
what we're gonna do is two weeksfrom now, we're going to offer a
(05:15):
barbed wire exploding ring rematch on freeTV, and we promise you this time
the fireworks will be blazing. AndI think if they had done that and
they had promised to make good,they probably could have weathered this storm.
But what they have done instead forthis this, I mean, and for
anybody that didn't see it, literallythe four ring posts let off some week
(05:40):
sparklers, and there was one poofand that was the exploding ring. It
was. It was one of thebiggest letdowns you'll ever see. The live
crowd of you know, a couplehundred people booed the shit out of it.
John Moxley tried to cover it upby saying, you know, Kenny
Omega is a very dangerous man,but he can't build an exploding ring worth
(06:00):
of shit. And then Tony Kahndoubled down, and they're playing this story
as though it's no big deal thatthe main event was a flop. And
and and that's not to say thematch was a flop. A lot of
people liked the match, hated theending um in your case, you kind
of hated the whole thing. Itsounds like, uh, but what is
this ship where Tony Khan is nowtrying to like double down on this.
(06:24):
Yeah, Kenny Omega built a defectivering. Come on, come on,
don't try to don't try to kfavorite. It's kind of like, you
fucked up. Yeah, you ownup to it. You messed up.
It was a it was a hugeembarrassing botch. But it happens, and
uh, Bully Ray said it best, like this is like the time when
comedians would kind of make fun ofthemselves. It's an easy way out,
(06:46):
make fun of your botch, dothe right thing. But now like you're
doubling down like some type of anembarrassed child, you know, and making
up this bullshit story. Like it'salmost like he's agitated that people are shitting
all over it, and it's like, dude, don't get mad. You
fucked up. You promised a fireworksshow in an exploding ring and what we
got was four Roman candles in afart Like you did not offer anything close
(07:12):
to what you promised. So Iknow, I own up. What do
you think of the idea of Redeemientwith a free TV version? I'd be
okay, I guess, maybe okaywith that. But part of the reason
why I wanted to watch this payper view because the exploding barbed wire deathmatch,
and they basically implied that there wasgoing to be like this big explosion,
so out of curiosity, I knewit was going to be a stupid
(07:35):
shit show, but I wanted tosee, damn, how ridiculous are they
going to be? Is this fuckingRango and explode. Yeah, is Dolly's
place going up in flames? Isthe Miami or we're Banton Florida? Is
it? Is it Miami or Jacksonville? Is the Jacksonville Fire Department waiting outside?
(07:56):
This is what I wanted to see. Um. I knew that the
main event was going to be stupid, and I was right. The match
was dumb. It was I'm sorry. I don't get off on seeing barbed
wire getting smashed into someone's That's justfucking sick. Uh. And then the
ending was so silly and I'll neverforget me bread and Andy sitting there and
(08:22):
when they were counting down from five, we were just so built up with
curiosity. And when it hit zeroand you just heard, it just sounded
like sparkle as you just hear,and pretty much nothing happened after that.
I'll never forget Andy just goes,are you serious? And I'm like,
(08:45):
I'm like, guys, did thatjust happen? And we're like, and
poor Eddie Kingston, like you talkedabout someone who was just could be ruined.
Well, because he did, hedid his job. Now he should
have reacted when he realized that nothinghappened. He shouldn't have sold it like
death. Either he should have beenlike confused and like then interacting you call
(09:07):
this ring and do that, orlike or like have an interplay with Moxley
where they're like, I don't knowwhat happened here, what I was about
to save your ass and kind oflike have the respect and the handshake thing.
They should have ad libbed him actinglike he was dead. That was
a I think he showed his lackof unintentional lack of professionalism when he did
(09:28):
that. So it just like,oh my god, what a freaking what
an absolute nightmare. And I've beensaying this since day one. All these
legends that AHw has essentially bought tocome in, the Jim Ross, the
Tully Blanchard, the arn Anderson,the Tazz, even the even Dustin Road.
(09:52):
I mean, all of these guys, none of them come in and
say, you know what, Tony, don't do it, Like, don't
do it start wrestling on your show? Like why couldn't Moxley and Omega just
be a cage match. Why doesit have to be some ridiculous gimmick over
the top, uh, you know, freak show. Why can't we just
(10:16):
watch two guys wrestling in a cage. You know, that's a good question
considering what we ended up getting fromthose two guys in the cage. Uh,
I'm sorry, two guys in thebarbed wire death. It was a
shame because I think I really likeKenny Omega. I like John Moxley.
(10:37):
Kenny Omega is a little like Ikind of like his unhinged heel persona,
but sometimes he goes a little toofar and it's just like, man,
you really are a weird goof.But he for the most part, I
think Keny Omega's pretty damn awesome,and he's a tremendous wrestler. I don't
like that he packs twenty pounds ofshit into a ten pound bag every single
(11:00):
match, but you can't deny thefact that the guy's next level. And
Moxley I've always enjoyed his aw stuff. For the most part, I still
think Mjf's a superstar. And Ithink Jericho had a couple of really rough
months where he was looking like absolutecrap and his wrestling was terrible. I
don't know what happened, if hejust started drinking again or if he was
(11:22):
just who knows, maybe his bodyjust started breaking down all at once,
but I felt like Jericho in thelast couple of weeks has really stepped it
up a notch. And now you'vegot some major things happening with the Inner
Circle. What do you think ofthis Inner Circle swerve that we got where
MJF for those of you who don'tknow, MJF basically conspired with the Inner
(11:43):
Circle to oust Jericho. But theInner Circle and Jericho were talking to each
other behind the scenes and they allturned on MJF and kicked him out.
And then MJF was like, well, I don't care about that because I've
been making my own group and itwas the New Horseman group with FTR Sean
Spears and now m JF with Warlowas the bodyguard and totally Blanchard as the
(12:07):
manager these factions. Does this meananything different to you though, because it's
like a throwback to the Horseman.Do you feel that at all? Are
you just like, you know,what, fuck this another faction? Yeah?
I threw that's exactly, And Ihaven't been watching. I've been more
NXT because to me, like I'vebeen saying, NXT is just more polished
and just just more simple in agood way. It's just a simpler show.
(12:31):
I have been watching much of it, so I can't really I don't
have too much input on the wholeInner Circle thing. I liked MJF outside
of the Inner Circle. I justthought he was like his own separate entity
of heel and to kind of coldcombined him with all those other ones.
I don't know. I just Ithink it kind of took away some of
his exclusiveness, if that makes anysense, because was one of the few
(12:54):
things that I really liked with AWand now I feel like he's not like
a single wrestler. He's part ofthat stupid faction. Yeah, I hear
that. I it's too early onthe New Horseman thing for me to know.
Here's one thing I do like aboutit. I thought, first of
all, the build up to MJFjoining the Inner Circle and then breaking up,
(13:16):
it's been some of the worst bookingI've seen, like that, you
could have done this one hundred timesbetter by having a slow burn, subtle
dissension, then they get back together. They should have won the belts from
the from the young bucks had torun with the belts. They should have
gone with this for six more monthsand then done a breakup. That's the
booking of It's been absolutely goofy.But one thing I do like is MJF
(13:39):
sort of like that, look atwhat he's done so far in this company.
At first he came in and thenall of a sudden, he's Cody
Rhodes is best friend, right,And he runs with Cody for a few
months, and then he turns onCody and they have their big match and
he costs Cody the ability to everchallenge for the world title again. And
then he joins the Inner Circle andhe sucks them dry and then tries to
(14:01):
jump jump Jericho out, and nowhe's created his own horsemen. So as
a character, I kind of likethat about MJF. That like, he's
the alternate, alternate, ultimate opportunist, and he's shown now that he can
manipulate people to bring him in onlyfor his own game. I kind of
like that as a character. Ifthey would build a heel m JF as
the champion with all this backup,and give him a long run with the
(14:26):
title and maybe a massive feud withJericho is a baby face, and then
you can start feeding him Moxley again. You can start, Yeah, at
some point, you can work upto feeding him, Hangman Page and Omega
and all these people, and youcould have a nice, good run.
I think if you're gonna build yourcompany around a heel champion, it ought
to be MJF not Kenny Omega.Kenny Omega is great in his way,
(14:48):
but like I think MJ's better inthat role. Would be better in that
role, you know what I Iand Andy mentioned two friend of the show
good point. He's like, whereis FTR? Like, how is FTR
not on this card? FTR waslike one of the few things that I
like about AW. So I wouldusually check, like on Tuesdays, I
(15:11):
would google like aw preview and seeif FTR was going to wrestle, and
I feel like, I never younever fucking see them, And then one
of them would wrestle like as asingle and I don't know, I just
felt like they're they're supposed to bethis and they are an awesome tag team,
but they're kind of like they're presentedas like the premier tag team in
(15:33):
pro wrestling, and now you havethis really big show, you only have
four pay per views a year,and they're not on the card. Well,
what the hell was Jungle Boy inthem? Doing Why didn't that that
match, the match that took placeon Dynamite where Tully teamed up they Toli
was wrestling for the first time indecades and he teamed up with FTR against
(15:56):
Lucasaurus and Jungle Boy. I thinkit was or maybe it was Marco Stunt
in there too. Why didn't theyjust save that match for the pay per
view? That was weird? Ihope I hope that FTR is being heated
back up now as being part ofthis new Horseman group, and I hope
you're finally going to see them geta nice solid run. So another big,
two big pieces of news. Soyou got two major signees for AWF.
(16:19):
Paul White, the Big Show whowas supporting a t shirt that said
no More BS, which is alittle clever, and then the big Hall
of Fame talent that they brought ondrum roll please Christian. Now, nothing
against Christian, but he was nevera huge star. The biggest run he
(16:41):
ever had was this part of atag team with Edge, and Edge was
the clear superstar. Christians always beena great wrestler. He had a tremendous
career and yes, you could arguea Hall of Fame level career. But
he's not a Hall of Fame staron the level of like Curt Angel,
who some people thought were gonna bethe what's going to be the new Signy.
He's not on stings level, youknow, he's not on the big
(17:03):
shows level. He's just a secondtier guy, and a good second tier
guy. But he to me,the fact that you bring Christian there now
and you're gonna put him up againstOmega in a world title few, which
is where it looks like they're going, doesn't that just make aw look bush
league? That the guy who wasmiddle of the road and you haven't even
wrestled in several years for the WWFis now your world title contender just because
(17:26):
he was in the WWF. Doesn'tthat make the whole thing look bush league?
In your opinion? It does?It completely does. That's why I
said, there's just there was nothingabout this. I like the Big Show.
I thought had been awesome. Ifthe Big Show came out, that
would have been really cool, Likeif he had been the Hall of Fame
(17:48):
Signy Hill. Okay, but sowhy would you I saw the Big Show
came to aw I was like scrollingthrough my social media feed and It was
like a random afternoon and I justsaw the Big Show as a w and
I'm Mike, Damn, Mike.That's kind of random. Like that would
(18:08):
have been a great introductory. Itwould have been a great presentation, you
know, for your pay per view, have this seven foot behem hath come
out. You know. Now thatyou say that, I almost wonder like
it would have made more sense tohave Christian come in and say, Christian
Cage is going to join the announcedteam because he's a clever guy. He's
a good talker. Christian Cage isgoing to join the announced team because he's
(18:29):
a good announcer too. I've heardhim do commentary and Big Show. You
save him as your Hall of Fameguy to bring in. That would have
made a whole hell of a lotmore sense than what we got. Yeah,
it was just a little bit ofa letdown. Now, speaking of
letdown, some people were majorly letdown by it, and some people thought
it was great. What did youthink about Cody and Red Velvet against Shack
(18:52):
and Jade Cargill. Did you havethe fortune, the good fortune of the
misfortune of seeing this one? No. I watched an XT and I saw
the video on YouTube of Shack goingthrough a table, which was entertaining.
Well, that part was entertaining.The ten minutes it took him to set
up the table before that was notso entertaining. But all in all,
I thought it was a nice littlespectacle. You had a couple of nice
(19:15):
big moves from Jade Cargill on theon the smaller chick, you had Shack
Dust impressive stuff. Shack looks likea goddamn giant in there. I thought
Cody worked well with Shack. Itseemed a little bit discombobulated, but I
thought as like a ratings move andas like as a like a wild thing
for the promotion to put on,I thought after I saw it. Even
(19:36):
though the build for this has beendogshit, And that's the main problem at
AW has is they don't seem toknow how to build feuds. They don't
seem to know how to build anything. Really. Once in a while they
do okay, but for the mostpart they don't know how to build feuds.
And I just thought this feud wasbuilt like shit, but as just
as a match, like if youlooked at the match as a slice out
of time. I thought it wasokay. I thought it was okay and
(20:00):
probably get into and it did anice big rating. So I think I
think that match did something like onepoint three or one point four million viewers.
So at that point you're only sixhundred thousand off the raw audience.
Uh So I would say that itdid its job as a as a as
a publicity stunt. All right,Ricky, is there anything else for aew
(20:21):
that we have not touched on yetthat is worth talking about? I mean,
it was a disaster from beginning toend. Um. Was there anything
else on that show that you thoughtwas just absolutely terrible? That the Revolution
Show? What do you think ofthe Street Fight? I didn't even get
to see the Street Fight yet?Was that any good cinematic? I mean,
(20:45):
what can I say? I meanit was wrestling match. I mean,
I'm hearing not good from Ricky onthis one. You never liked the
cinematic stuff though right now. Imean, it's just not my It's that's
crazy. It's the stupidest thing.I mean, it's you're either watching a
professional wrestling match or you're watching amovie. Let's combine them and do both.
(21:07):
I mean, come on, youwant to talk about being a fucking
like loser mark no offense. Well, do you think that it would have
been better without the commentary or wouldit just has would have been as bad
no matter what they did, becausedidn't they played commentary like it was a
live match, even though they're commentatingessentially in a movie. Yeah, it
(21:29):
was, Greg, I couldn't itwas. But I will say I will
say this. The the cinema,it looked good, like it was in
this warehouse and it did look cool, and it was I don't want to
say entertaining, but I just Ican't take it serious. And like I
was excited. I thought I wasactually going to see Sting in the ring.
Yeah, you know, and thenit turns out, oh no,
it was you know, it's it'sprerecorded. Well, I will say this,
(21:56):
Ricky, I'm going to try mybest to watch that match this week,
and if I feel differently about itby the time we record the next
show, I'll let you know ifI differ from you. But since you're
the only one that watched it atthis point, I'm going to defer to
your opinion that it sucked for now. If you didn't have anything else on
AW I'm trying to think, Idon't think there was any other major news.
(22:19):
I think we hit the big ones. A lot of major shit happened,
like they've they've had a couple ofbig weeks, but and the ratings
do look to be on the upswing. It'll be really interesting when NXT,
from all accounts, is switching toTuesday's KYE. Have you heard this?
Yeah, so I didn't hear that. So if NXT switches to Tuesdays and
AW runs unopposed on Wednesday, it'sgoing to be really interesting to see what
(22:41):
happens with the ratings because right nowthey can't quite crack that million mark on
a regular basis. It'll be interestingto see if they can consistently crack the
million and they're doing one point twoone point three per week, that would
be absolutely huge for AW because atthat point you are within striking distance of
the current ww E ratings, whichare in the t So yeah, well,
(23:03):
NXT through and through, I mean, NXT's doing really good right now.
I'm a bad pro wrestling podcast hostbecause I have not seen NXT for
weeks. I know that Eli Drakejust showed up as La night Um,
and I know that I know thatRiah Ripley's headed to the WWE like any
day. Now. Uh, what'sgood in NXT? What's what's the good
(23:26):
stuff these these days? Like giveme the give me the one or two
big highlights of the show right now. Well, Karen cross is uh looks
like he's going to be feuding withThin Baylor. Okay. Uh, you
know Adam Cole had the whole um, the whole undisputed era, like he
broke the whole thing up. Umis he in heel now or is he
a baby face? He's he's he'sheel now. Okay, So if you
(23:48):
if you watch Takeover from last month, you'll see what happened. So I'm
not going to spoil it for you, but um, it's been you know,
really really good. All right.Well, then on that record,
Nation, I might have to startchecking out some more NXT. Just I
have had holes in my I shouldsay I have not had many holes in
my schedule lately, so certain thingshave to go. So I end up
(24:10):
watching the AW clips because I guaranteeyou at least some shit that you're gonna
have talk about watching AW and mostof it might be ridiculing what we've seen,
but you're definitely gonna have something totalk about, so I will have
to check out an a W oran NXT clip or two. But anyway,
Ricky, if if there's nothing elsefrom you on that, We're gonna
(24:30):
take a quick little pause here andthen come back with the news of the
week. All right, Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen too. This week
the news and professional wrestling. Ricky, that son of a bitch andrade who
(24:53):
has been betting Charlotte Flair, myfavorite current wrestler, has been betting her
for months, has asked for hisrelease from the WWE. Apparently he's not
been happy with the way he's beenused, which I can't blame him for
that, but I'm glad to havethe son of a bitch out of there.
He has the nerve to to behaving sexual relations with Charlotte Flair when
(25:18):
that should be a right that onlyyou or I get to have. But
this son of a bitch has beengoing behind our backs and making sweet love
to sweet Charlotte. So I'm gladhe's gone. What about you, Yes,
I'm glad too, because I dohave a very small obsession with Charlotte
Flair. Oh my, oh my, is right? And what a fantastic
(25:40):
wrestler and a fantastic star she is. She really is, I mean truly
truly a star, Ricky. Thisone's gonna make you happy if you have
not heard it yet. The WWEhas recently banned something. Do you want
to know what they've banned? Iknow what it is, and it is
great, great news, thank god, ding Dung. The leg slap is
(26:04):
dead, or so the current newswould have you believe. It just goes
to show you that Vince must haveseen it one too many times and just
been like, fuck this. Theseguys look like amateur monkeys out there slapping
each other while they're doing fake kicks, and he finally put the kabash on
it. This has been something that'sso long overdue. Yes, Shawn Michaels
(26:26):
did the leg slap when he didthe super kick. Yes, Bobby Eaton
did the rib cage shot when hewould do the right hand. Yes,
Chris Adams used to slap his legwhen he did the super kick, but
that happened once in a match,twice in a match. These guys are
literally slapping themselves all match long,doing fake ass junior karate tournament kicks to
(26:48):
each other, and I would saythis is long, long overdue. Would
you agree? Yeah? And Idon't mind the kick if it was used
every once in a while, orif it was used if it was used
for like a finish, you knowwhen the Finnish mattered and it was a
one two three. But when it'sfive, six, seven twenty times in
(27:08):
a match, it's like, ohmy god. And I know I spoke
about it at nausea, and itjust it really cheapens what they do,
and it just it makes the productreally really cheap. Yeah. I really
just cutting corners in my opinion,like you guys are, especially in the
WWA. Let's leave a W outof the equation here, but the w
(27:30):
W, let's face it is thepremier wrestling promotion. It sits on top
of the hill, um and you'reslapping legs what. Yeah. So whether
that was Vince or Triple H thatcame up with that, good for them,
because that's that's bullshit. That isthat's just that's just corner cutting,
(27:52):
just my opinion. But maybe there'speople that love when love slap each other's
knees and shit like that. Tome, that's that's just corner cutting.
Yeah, I'm with you. Um, all right, Well, here's something
WrestleMania thirty seven, which is goingto be at Raymond James Stadium, was
(28:14):
supposed to be there last year.Obviously we all know what happened, Ricky.
Apparently they're gonna the latest rumor isthat they're gonna try to go for
seventy five percent capacity, which meansthat with the WrestleMania stage and set this
place I think was set up tohow's it would have it would have had
(28:34):
a capacity of sixty thousand, andthey're going to try to get between forty
and forty five thousand people in thestadium. The last thing I had heard
was thirty thousand. Now I'm herein forty to forty five thousand. Have
you heard anything different about that?No? I didn't. I didn't know
it's gonna be seventy five percent.That's amazing. I hope that's the case,
because that'll look that'll look more excitingon television than anything we've seen in
(28:57):
over a year. And if thoseforty five thousand people show up and it's
gonna be two nights, remember thatWrestleMania's two nights, so they're shooting for
If you believe the low estimate,it will be thirty thousand each night.
If you believe the higher estimate,it will be between forty and forty five
thousand each night. So they're they'replanning on packing between sixty and ninety thousand
(29:18):
people in there over the course oftwo different nights, and those fans will
see here's the updated latest WrestleMania card, Ricky, I gotta give. I
gotta say to you. Way backbefore we started this podcast, you and
I would go out on breaks fromwork and we would talk about the two
(29:40):
guys that looked the most legit likesuperstars in wrestling, and the two names
we mentioned were Drew McIntyre and BobbyLashly. And this was approximately two years
ago. And now at this WrestleManiafor the WWE Championship Champion, Bobby Lashley's
defending against Drew McIntyre. So didwe call it or what now? I
(30:03):
mean, this hurt business really tookoff. Shelton Benjamin's getting the biggest push
of his career or one of them. He's like, for the first time
in years and years, he's gettingsome attention. But yeah, the two
guys that look like the biggest starsMcIntyre and Lashly are going to fight for
the title. The other title,the Universe title. I guess that's the
ww Universe champion Roman Rains, whohas had an awesome year as a heel.
(30:29):
Have you seen much of Rains hisheel work, Ricky, No,
I heard. It wasn't that Iactually know. I heard his heel work
was better than the his baby face. But he's he'll now right he is.
He's working hell right now. He'sbeen a heel since Summer Slam.
That's right. I have been watchingthat SmackDown that much. I gotta tell
(30:49):
you he is a hundred times betteras a heel if you get to check
him out anytime, Like just thejust the attitude that he that comes off
of him, just this like Idon't give a fuck about anybody but myself,
and I'm the tribal chief and I'mthe champion. I'm the best in
the world. And then having Haymin there, the presentation is so much
better. So he's gonna fight Edgefor the title, the returning Edge who
(31:15):
won the Royal Rumble. You're alsogonna see the SmackDown Champion Women's Champion Sasha
Banks defend against Bianca Belair. BiancaBellair's okay. I could see her being
popular with the younger crowd. She'sgot a lot of energy. She seems
pretty contemporary Asuka or Osaka. Rather, the Champion of Raw is gonna fight
(31:37):
Charlotte Flair. That was supposed tobe Charlotte Flair and Lacy Evans with the
whole Rick Flair storyline, but LacyEvans went and got pregnant for real,
and now we got Oska versus Charlotteis the tentative match. And then you've
got Randy Orton against my God,what a fall from Grace, a guy
who we all thought was cool andawesome and a throwback The Fiend. Bray
(32:00):
Wyatt returns after being burned alive andmurdered several times. He's now coming back
to WrestleMania a fight Randy Orton Rickythat I'm going to tune in the city.
That that sounds pretty good. Iforgot all about The Fiend. Honestly,
I guess I don't really watch themain brand WWE because I just don't
have that much time in the week, so I'm pretty much an NXT guy.
(32:22):
But that I'm curious to see becauseas our audience knows. I was
a big fan of the Fiend whenhe first came out. M yeah,
I just don't like what they've done. Like the Fiend got so ridiculous where
he was magical and he was aspacewalker and he was a dimension jumper,
and now he got like literally RandyOrton lit him on fire in the ring
and burned him alive, and nowhe's coming back somehow, So it's gotten
(32:45):
so off the rails stupid. Hopefullythey do something memorable. I hope they
bring Randy or bray Wyatt back asbray Wyatt and give this Fiend a break
until they let some of the stinkoff of it, because they really did
ruin it, Like they really sabotagedthe Fiend I thought, which had a
lot of potential. And I don'tknow if they're just giving bray Wyatt too
(33:07):
much creative control and this is allhis influence. I don't know if this
is Bruce Pritchard. I don't knowwho it is, but it sucks.
The Fiend storylines for the year havesucked. Yeah, he really It's unfortunate,
but he really really fizzled out.He came in super hot, and
I thought he was going to behe could have. He had the potential
of being like a almost an inhouse name, you know what I mean,
(33:29):
a household name, right, becausehe was cool, he was different,
he was an over the top character. And boy, they face screwed
that one up big time. Alittle bit of news here, John Laurinitis
has returned to the ww E asessentially the head of talent relations. A
(33:52):
lot of people not happy to seeJohnny Ace back. He was not a
popular behind the scenes. See whatelse we got here for the news of
the week. Well, let's seehere that might be about it, Rickuelus,
I'm forgetting a major story that mightbe the that might be the long
(34:15):
and the short of it. Iwould say that's the meat and potatoes of
the news for sure. I dothink so. Yeah, So you're looking
forward to WrestleMania. We're gonna watchthis puppy together. I think we should.
Yes, it's gonna be a goodtime. There's gonna be uh,
it's gonna be nice to see peoplein the seats again. It will be
really nice to see that, soright away, I mean, that's just
gonna make the show substantially better.I'm excited to see people being normal again.
(34:42):
Yeah yeah, well, Ricky,uh, that about does it.
It's been a pretty eventful last coupleof weeks, so we had to do
another news segment in an aw reviewto get through it all. But as
we wind things up on this abbreviatedepisode, and while I do a apologized
fans for my lack of stamina,I'm blowing up, Ricky, I'm blowing
(35:05):
up early. So we've had togive the show the go home que.
The referee has just given us thesign to go home. So we're going
to finish it out here with aquick trip to the Two Rows Beat Club,
and I'm going to perform for youthis week. Ricky's got our next
performance coming up later on another show. But tonight I'm going to do a
(35:27):
rendition dramatic reading of motor Heads themesong for Triple H King of Kings.
I appreciate your kind attention at theTwo Rows Beat Club, and I have
(35:50):
come here tonight prepared to recite abeautiful piece of dystopian poetry by the group
Motorhead, and I call this TheKing of Kings. Behold the King,
(36:13):
the King of Kings, on yourknees, Dog a a A, all
hail, bow down to the bowdown, to the bow down to the
King. The King grin read ashe walked from the place where the traitor
(36:40):
lost both his name and his face, through all the halls and the corridors.
Stinging in bloody. He tasted hisgrin and it tasted good. The
King took his head. Badam,left him broken and dead. Badam.
(37:07):
Bow down to the bow down,to the bow down to the King.
Bow down to the bow down,to the bow down to the King.
The King left none living, noneable to tell. The King took their
(37:30):
heads, and he sent them allto hell. Their screams echoed loud in
the place of their death. Rippedopen, they died, and with their
final breath they held to the King. They all hailed the King, the
(37:54):
King of kings. Bow down tothe bow down, to the bow down
to the King. Bow down tothe bow down, to the bow down
to the King. Thank you,thank you very much, And there's only
(38:20):
one thing left to say. Nextshow, we'll be better, we'll be
longer and happy. Trails to youtill we meet again. And remember,
(38:52):
fans, if you're not down withthe safe side and you're too wild,
for the wild Side. You're rightfulplace is right here with us. Two
Rows from Ringside. Two Rows fromRingside has been brought to you by Whitehorse
Media Group and this has been wrestlingWednesdays
Welcome fans to another edition of TwoRows from Ringside. This is Ricky along
with my partner Gregory Sterner. Thisweek we're here. We're doing a little
bit of a shorter episode. Uturns out Greg now caught the bug that
has been going around the entire world. I got it back in October and
(00:49):
I was out for a little bit. And now Greg siffles their rook.
Yeah. No, Now, Rickyand I have felt this wonderful plague.
Uh and uh, what do youthink, Ricky? On a scale of
one to ten, I'd call itan uncomfortable five. You know, I
(01:10):
was. I had two pretty bad. I had one one evening and night
when I was afraid that I willsay I was. I was a little
bit afraid one night afraid, Likewhat symptoms were you have when you were
afraid? I was short of breathwalking to the bathroom. And I was
(01:32):
in my bed one night in ahoodie, sweatpants, two two pairs of
socks on my feet, um,shivering in our bed when I had I
think two quilts over me. Yeah, And that night was a little unsettling,
and I thought, boy, ifit gets worse tomorrow, Um,
(01:55):
I met going to the stars above. Glad didn't come to that. I
know. Luckily I'm still here andI'm glad to hear that. Uh,
you and your family have are onthe rebound here and are on the up
and up. And I do apologizeto the two Rows fans. We did
have to skip last week. Ihad to. I had to issue a
(02:16):
screw job on all of you andswerve you at the last minute and take
away the show. But you wouldnot have wanted to hear me last week.
Ricky and I are going to shootfor about forty five minutes today.
Hopefully we make it, because theone thing that has hit me harder than
anything with this COVID is the fatigueis downright awful. It's like even now,
(02:40):
like you and I have been talkingfor about a half an hour before
we started recording, and I'm like, I'm already fading, man, Like
we better start recording the show becauseI'm ready to. I can feel it
setting in. I remember I waslike towards the end of the virus and
I was like, you know whatI really want? I just want an
ice cold, Like I feel likeI deserve it. You know, I'm
(03:02):
I'm improving and I'm almost done withthis, and I got like three quarters
of the way through the beer andI was like, I'm going upstairs and
taking a nap. I am notready for this. So Ricky, are
you saying that you had something youwere looking forward to? It was almost
like it would it would have beenthe main event of your day to have
that nice, ice cold beer,but instead your main event of the day
(03:25):
turned out to be an unpleasant,underwhelming disappointment of an experience. And I
think there is an interesting parallel wecan draw between that and the garbage that
you and brother Andy and who wasthe A and Brad? Yeah, brother
(03:45):
Brad, Brother Andy. You guyswere unfortunate enough to witness in person a
main event that was quite the disappointment, quite the quite the wet fart in
church. Isn't that a Cornetts orthe popcorn fart in church? Much better
than that? Well, it wasn'tjust the main event, Greg, I
mean, it was an absolute,in my opinion, an absolute disaster from
(04:10):
beginning to end. There wasn't onepart of that show that really kept kept
my interest. And that's why Isaid I'll never order an aw pay per
view unless I have friends over becauseI'm not going to spend fifty dollars on
something that I might like twenty percentof if that it was awful, It
(04:30):
was from beginning to end the stupidestthing I've ever seen. Nothing about it
was good, it was forced.It was just kind of like it almost
felt like they ran out of thingsto do. I thought the booking was
kind of stupid. Damn aw reallyhas to has to make up for that,
(04:53):
And I feel like kind of theirit kind of all caught up to
them this show. Yeah, Iwas thinking like as a make good what
they could have done was do anotherlike basically say look, fans, we're
really sorry what happened. None ofus wanted it to end that way,
not even the people in the ringwanted it to end that way. So
what we're gonna do is two weeksfrom now, we're going to offer a
(05:15):
barbed wire exploding ring rematch on freeTV, and we promise you this time
the fireworks will be blazing. AndI think if they had done that and
they had promised to make good,they probably could have weathered this storm.
But what they have done instead forthis this, I mean, and for
anybody that didn't see it, literallythe four ring posts let off some week
(05:40):
sparklers, and there was one poofand that was the exploding ring. It
was. It was one of thebiggest letdowns you'll ever see. The live
crowd of you know, a couplehundred people booed the shit out of it.
John Moxley tried to cover it upby saying, you know, Kenny
Omega is a very dangerous man,but he can't build an exploding ring worth
(06:00):
of shit. And then Tony Kahndoubled down, and they're playing this story
as though it's no big deal thatthe main event was a flop. And
and and that's not to say thematch was a flop. A lot of
people liked the match, hated theending um in your case, you kind
of hated the whole thing. Itsounds like, uh, but what is
this ship where Tony Khan is nowtrying to like double down on this.
(06:24):
Yeah, Kenny Omega built a defectivering. Come on, come on,
don't try to don't try to kfavorite. It's kind of like, you
fucked up. Yeah, you ownup to it. You messed up.
It was a it was a hugeembarrassing botch. But it happens, and
uh, Bully Ray said it best, like this is like the time when
comedians would kind of make fun ofthemselves. It's an easy way out,
(06:46):
make fun of your botch, dothe right thing. But now like you're
doubling down like some type of anembarrassed child, you know, and making
up this bullshit story. Like it'salmost like he's agitated that people are shitting
all over it, and it's like, dude, don't get mad. You
fucked up. You promised a fireworksshow in an exploding ring and what we
got was four Roman candles in afart Like you did not offer anything close
(07:12):
to what you promised. So Iknow, I own up. What do
you think of the idea of Redeemientwith a free TV version? I'd be
okay, I guess, maybe okaywith that. But part of the reason
why I wanted to watch this payper view because the exploding barbed wire deathmatch,
and they basically implied that there wasgoing to be like this big explosion,
so out of curiosity, I knewit was going to be a stupid
(07:35):
shit show, but I wanted tosee, damn, how ridiculous are they
going to be? Is this fuckingRango and explode. Yeah, is Dolly's
place going up in flames? Isthe Miami or we're Banton Florida? Is
it? Is it Miami or Jacksonville? Is the Jacksonville Fire Department waiting outside?
(07:56):
This is what I wanted to see. Um. I knew that the
main event was going to be stupid, and I was right. The match
was dumb. It was I'm sorry. I don't get off on seeing barbed
wire getting smashed into someone's That's justfucking sick. Uh. And then the
ending was so silly and I'll neverforget me bread and Andy sitting there and
(08:22):
when they were counting down from five, we were just so built up with
curiosity. And when it hit zeroand you just heard, it just sounded
like sparkle as you just hear,and pretty much nothing happened after that.
I'll never forget Andy just goes,are you serious? And I'm like,
(08:45):
I'm like, guys, did thatjust happen? And we're like, and
poor Eddie Kingston, like you talkedabout someone who was just could be ruined.
Well, because he did, hedid his job. Now he should
have reacted when he realized that nothinghappened. He shouldn't have sold it like
death. Either he should have beenlike confused and like then interacting you call
(09:07):
this ring and do that, orlike or like have an interplay with Moxley
where they're like, I don't knowwhat happened here, what I was about
to save your ass and kind oflike have the respect and the handshake thing.
They should have ad libbed him actinglike he was dead. That was
a I think he showed his lackof unintentional lack of professionalism when he did
(09:28):
that. So it just like,oh my god, what a freaking what
an absolute nightmare. And I've beensaying this since day one. All these
legends that AHw has essentially bought tocome in, the Jim Ross, the
Tully Blanchard, the arn Anderson,the Tazz, even the even Dustin Road.
(09:52):
I mean, all of these guys, none of them come in and
say, you know what, Tony, don't do it, Like, don't
do it start wrestling on your show? Like why couldn't Moxley and Omega just
be a cage match. Why doesit have to be some ridiculous gimmick over
the top, uh, you know, freak show. Why can't we just
(10:16):
watch two guys wrestling in a cage. You know, that's a good question
considering what we ended up getting fromthose two guys in the cage. Uh,
I'm sorry, two guys in thebarbed wire death. It was a
shame because I think I really likeKenny Omega. I like John Moxley.
(10:37):
Kenny Omega is a little like Ikind of like his unhinged heel persona,
but sometimes he goes a little toofar and it's just like, man,
you really are a weird goof.But he for the most part, I
think Keny Omega's pretty damn awesome,and he's a tremendous wrestler. I don't
like that he packs twenty pounds ofshit into a ten pound bag every single
(11:00):
match, but you can't deny thefact that the guy's next level. And
Moxley I've always enjoyed his aw stuff. For the most part, I still
think Mjf's a superstar. And Ithink Jericho had a couple of really rough
months where he was looking like absolutecrap and his wrestling was terrible. I
don't know what happened, if hejust started drinking again or if he was
(11:22):
just who knows, maybe his bodyjust started breaking down all at once,
but I felt like Jericho in thelast couple of weeks has really stepped it
up a notch. And now you'vegot some major things happening with the Inner
Circle. What do you think ofthis Inner Circle swerve that we got where
MJF for those of you who don'tknow, MJF basically conspired with the Inner
(11:43):
Circle to oust Jericho. But theInner Circle and Jericho were talking to each
other behind the scenes and they allturned on MJF and kicked him out.
And then MJF was like, well, I don't care about that because I've
been making my own group and itwas the New Horseman group with FTR Sean
Spears and now m JF with Warlowas the bodyguard and totally Blanchard as the
(12:07):
manager these factions. Does this meananything different to you though, because it's
like a throwback to the Horseman.Do you feel that at all? Are
you just like, you know,what, fuck this another faction? Yeah?
I threw that's exactly, And Ihaven't been watching. I've been more
NXT because to me, like I'vebeen saying, NXT is just more polished
and just just more simple in agood way. It's just a simpler show.
(12:31):
I have been watching much of it, so I can't really I don't
have too much input on the wholeInner Circle thing. I liked MJF outside
of the Inner Circle. I justthought he was like his own separate entity
of heel and to kind of coldcombined him with all those other ones.
I don't know. I just Ithink it kind of took away some of
his exclusiveness, if that makes anysense, because was one of the few
(12:54):
things that I really liked with AWand now I feel like he's not like
a single wrestler. He's part ofthat stupid faction. Yeah, I hear
that. I it's too early onthe New Horseman thing for me to know.
Here's one thing I do like aboutit. I thought, first of
all, the build up to MJFjoining the Inner Circle and then breaking up,
(13:16):
it's been some of the worst bookingI've seen, like that, you
could have done this one hundred timesbetter by having a slow burn, subtle
dissension, then they get back together. They should have won the belts from
the from the young bucks had torun with the belts. They should have
gone with this for six more monthsand then done a breakup. That's the
booking of It's been absolutely goofy.But one thing I do like is MJF
(13:39):
sort of like that, look atwhat he's done so far in this company.
At first he came in and thenall of a sudden, he's Cody
Rhodes is best friend, right,And he runs with Cody for a few
months, and then he turns onCody and they have their big match and
he costs Cody the ability to everchallenge for the world title again. And
then he joins the Inner Circle andhe sucks them dry and then tries to
(14:01):
jump jump Jericho out, and nowhe's created his own horsemen. So as
a character, I kind of likethat about MJF. That like, he's
the alternate, alternate, ultimate opportunist, and he's shown now that he can
manipulate people to bring him in onlyfor his own game. I kind of
like that as a character. Ifthey would build a heel m JF as
the champion with all this backup,and give him a long run with the
(14:26):
title and maybe a massive feud withJericho is a baby face, and then
you can start feeding him Moxley again. You can start, Yeah, at
some point, you can work upto feeding him, Hangman Page and Omega
and all these people, and youcould have a nice, good run.
I think if you're gonna build yourcompany around a heel champion, it ought
to be MJF not Kenny Omega.Kenny Omega is great in his way,
(14:48):
but like I think MJ's better inthat role. Would be better in that
role, you know what I Iand Andy mentioned two friend of the show
good point. He's like, whereis FTR? Like, how is FTR
not on this card? FTR waslike one of the few things that I
like about AW. So I wouldusually check, like on Tuesdays, I
(15:11):
would google like aw preview and seeif FTR was going to wrestle, and
I feel like, I never younever fucking see them, And then one
of them would wrestle like as asingle and I don't know, I just
felt like they're they're supposed to bethis and they are an awesome tag team,
but they're kind of like they're presentedas like the premier tag team in
(15:33):
pro wrestling, and now you havethis really big show, you only have
four pay per views a year,and they're not on the card. Well,
what the hell was Jungle Boy inthem? Doing Why didn't that that
match, the match that took placeon Dynamite where Tully teamed up they Toli
was wrestling for the first time indecades and he teamed up with FTR against
(15:56):
Lucasaurus and Jungle Boy. I thinkit was or maybe it was Marco Stunt
in there too. Why didn't theyjust save that match for the pay per
view? That was weird? Ihope I hope that FTR is being heated
back up now as being part ofthis new Horseman group, and I hope
you're finally going to see them geta nice solid run. So another big,
two big pieces of news. Soyou got two major signees for AWF.
(16:19):
Paul White, the Big Show whowas supporting a t shirt that said
no More BS, which is alittle clever, and then the big Hall
of Fame talent that they brought ondrum roll please Christian. Now, nothing
against Christian, but he was nevera huge star. The biggest run he
(16:41):
ever had was this part of atag team with Edge, and Edge was
the clear superstar. Christians always beena great wrestler. He had a tremendous
career and yes, you could arguea Hall of Fame level career. But
he's not a Hall of Fame staron the level of like Curt Angel,
who some people thought were gonna bethe what's going to be the new Signy.
He's not on stings level, youknow, he's not on the big
(17:03):
shows level. He's just a secondtier guy, and a good second tier
guy. But he to me,the fact that you bring Christian there now
and you're gonna put him up againstOmega in a world title few, which
is where it looks like they're going, doesn't that just make aw look bush
league? That the guy who wasmiddle of the road and you haven't even
wrestled in several years for the WWFis now your world title contender just because
(17:26):
he was in the WWF. Doesn'tthat make the whole thing look bush league?
In your opinion? It does?It completely does. That's why I
said, there's just there was nothingabout this. I like the Big Show.
I thought had been awesome. Ifthe Big Show came out, that
would have been really cool, Likeif he had been the Hall of Fame
(17:48):
Signy Hill. Okay, but sowhy would you I saw the Big Show
came to aw I was like scrollingthrough my social media feed and It was
like a random afternoon and I justsaw the Big Show as a w and
I'm Mike, Damn, Mike.That's kind of random. Like that would
(18:08):
have been a great introductory. Itwould have been a great presentation, you
know, for your pay per view, have this seven foot behem hath come
out. You know. Now thatyou say that, I almost wonder like
it would have made more sense tohave Christian come in and say, Christian
Cage is going to join the announcedteam because he's a clever guy. He's
a good talker. Christian Cage isgoing to join the announced team because he's
(18:29):
a good announcer too. I've heardhim do commentary and Big Show. You
save him as your Hall of Fameguy to bring in. That would have
made a whole hell of a lotmore sense than what we got. Yeah,
it was just a little bit ofa letdown. Now, speaking of
letdown, some people were majorly letdown by it, and some people thought
it was great. What did youthink about Cody and Red Velvet against Shack
(18:52):
and Jade Cargill. Did you havethe fortune, the good fortune of the
misfortune of seeing this one? No. I watched an XT and I saw
the video on YouTube of Shack goingthrough a table, which was entertaining.
Well, that part was entertaining.The ten minutes it took him to set
up the table before that was notso entertaining. But all in all,
I thought it was a nice littlespectacle. You had a couple of nice
(19:15):
big moves from Jade Cargill on theon the smaller chick, you had Shack
Dust impressive stuff. Shack looks likea goddamn giant in there. I thought
Cody worked well with Shack. Itseemed a little bit discombobulated, but I
thought as like a ratings move andas like as a like a wild thing
for the promotion to put on,I thought after I saw it. Even
(19:36):
though the build for this has beendogshit, And that's the main problem at
AW has is they don't seem toknow how to build feuds. They don't
seem to know how to build anything. Really. Once in a while they
do okay, but for the mostpart they don't know how to build feuds.
And I just thought this feud wasbuilt like shit, but as just
as a match, like if youlooked at the match as a slice out
of time. I thought it wasokay. I thought it was okay and
(20:00):
probably get into and it did anice big rating. So I think I
think that match did something like onepoint three or one point four million viewers.
So at that point you're only sixhundred thousand off the raw audience.
Uh So I would say that itdid its job as a as a as
a publicity stunt. All right,Ricky, is there anything else for aew
(20:21):
that we have not touched on yetthat is worth talking about? I mean,
it was a disaster from beginning toend. Um. Was there anything
else on that show that you thoughtwas just absolutely terrible? That the Revolution
Show? What do you think ofthe Street Fight? I didn't even get
to see the Street Fight yet?Was that any good cinematic? I mean,
(20:45):
what can I say? I meanit was wrestling match. I mean,
I'm hearing not good from Ricky onthis one. You never liked the
cinematic stuff though right now. Imean, it's just not my It's that's
crazy. It's the stupidest thing.I mean, it's you're either watching a
professional wrestling match or you're watching amovie. Let's combine them and do both.
(21:07):
I mean, come on, youwant to talk about being a fucking
like loser mark no offense. Well, do you think that it would have
been better without the commentary or wouldit just has would have been as bad
no matter what they did, becausedidn't they played commentary like it was a
live match, even though they're commentatingessentially in a movie. Yeah, it
(21:29):
was, Greg, I couldn't itwas. But I will say I will
say this. The the cinema,it looked good, like it was in
this warehouse and it did look cool, and it was I don't want to
say entertaining, but I just Ican't take it serious. And like I
was excited. I thought I wasactually going to see Sting in the ring.
Yeah, you know, and thenit turns out, oh no,
it was you know, it's it'sprerecorded. Well, I will say this,
(21:56):
Ricky, I'm going to try mybest to watch that match this week,
and if I feel differently about itby the time we record the next
show, I'll let you know ifI differ from you. But since you're
the only one that watched it atthis point, I'm going to defer to
your opinion that it sucked for now. If you didn't have anything else on
AW I'm trying to think, Idon't think there was any other major news.
(22:19):
I think we hit the big ones. A lot of major shit happened,
like they've they've had a couple ofbig weeks, but and the ratings
do look to be on the upswing. It'll be really interesting when NXT,
from all accounts, is switching toTuesday's KYE. Have you heard this?
Yeah, so I didn't hear that. So if NXT switches to Tuesdays and
AW runs unopposed on Wednesday, it'sgoing to be really interesting to see what
(22:41):
happens with the ratings because right nowthey can't quite crack that million mark on
a regular basis. It'll be interestingto see if they can consistently crack the
million and they're doing one point twoone point three per week, that would
be absolutely huge for AW because atthat point you are within striking distance of
the current ww E ratings, whichare in the t So yeah, well,
(23:03):
NXT through and through, I mean, NXT's doing really good right now.
I'm a bad pro wrestling podcast hostbecause I have not seen NXT for
weeks. I know that Eli Drakejust showed up as La night Um,
and I know that I know thatRiah Ripley's headed to the WWE like any
day. Now. Uh, what'sgood in NXT? What's what's the good
(23:26):
stuff these these days? Like giveme the give me the one or two
big highlights of the show right now. Well, Karen cross is uh looks
like he's going to be feuding withThin Baylor. Okay. Uh, you
know Adam Cole had the whole um, the whole undisputed era, like he
broke the whole thing up. Umis he in heel now or is he
a baby face? He's he's he'sheel now. Okay, So if you
(23:48):
if you watch Takeover from last month, you'll see what happened. So I'm
not going to spoil it for you, but um, it's been you know,
really really good. All right.Well, then on that record,
Nation, I might have to startchecking out some more NXT. Just I
have had holes in my I shouldsay I have not had many holes in
my schedule lately, so certain thingshave to go. So I end up
(24:10):
watching the AW clips because I guaranteeyou at least some shit that you're gonna
have talk about watching AW and mostof it might be ridiculing what we've seen,
but you're definitely gonna have something totalk about, so I will have
to check out an a W oran NXT clip or two. But anyway,
Ricky, if if there's nothing elsefrom you on that, We're gonna
(24:30):
take a quick little pause here andthen come back with the news of the
week. All right, Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen too. This week
the news and professional wrestling. Ricky, that son of a bitch andrade who
(24:53):
has been betting Charlotte Flair, myfavorite current wrestler, has been betting her
for months, has asked for hisrelease from the WWE. Apparently he's not
been happy with the way he's beenused, which I can't blame him for
that, but I'm glad to havethe son of a bitch out of there.
He has the nerve to to behaving sexual relations with Charlotte Flair when
(25:18):
that should be a right that onlyyou or I get to have. But
this son of a bitch has beengoing behind our backs and making sweet love
to sweet Charlotte. So I'm gladhe's gone. What about you, Yes,
I'm glad too, because I dohave a very small obsession with Charlotte
Flair. Oh my, oh my, is right? And what a fantastic
(25:40):
wrestler and a fantastic star she is. She really is, I mean truly
truly a star, Ricky. Thisone's gonna make you happy if you have
not heard it yet. The WWEhas recently banned something. Do you want
to know what they've banned? Iknow what it is, and it is
great, great news, thank god, ding Dung. The leg slap is
(26:04):
dead, or so the current newswould have you believe. It just goes
to show you that Vince must haveseen it one too many times and just
been like, fuck this. Theseguys look like amateur monkeys out there slapping
each other while they're doing fake kicks, and he finally put the kabash on
it. This has been something that'sso long overdue. Yes, Shawn Michaels
(26:26):
did the leg slap when he didthe super kick. Yes, Bobby Eaton
did the rib cage shot when hewould do the right hand. Yes,
Chris Adams used to slap his legwhen he did the super kick, but
that happened once in a match,twice in a match. These guys are
literally slapping themselves all match long,doing fake ass junior karate tournament kicks to
(26:48):
each other, and I would saythis is long, long overdue. Would
you agree? Yeah? And Idon't mind the kick if it was used
every once in a while, orif it was used if it was used
for like a finish, you knowwhen the Finnish mattered and it was a
one two three. But when it'sfive, six, seven twenty times in
(27:08):
a match, it's like, ohmy god. And I know I spoke
about it at nausea, and itjust it really cheapens what they do,
and it just it makes the productreally really cheap. Yeah. I really
just cutting corners in my opinion,like you guys are, especially in the
WWA. Let's leave a W outof the equation here, but the w
(27:30):
W, let's face it is thepremier wrestling promotion. It sits on top
of the hill, um and you'reslapping legs what. Yeah. So whether
that was Vince or Triple H thatcame up with that, good for them,
because that's that's bullshit. That isthat's just that's just corner cutting,
(27:52):
just my opinion. But maybe there'speople that love when love slap each other's
knees and shit like that. Tome, that's that's just corner cutting.
Yeah, I'm with you. Um, all right, Well, here's something
WrestleMania thirty seven, which is goingto be at Raymond James Stadium, was
(28:14):
supposed to be there last year.Obviously we all know what happened, Ricky.
Apparently they're gonna the latest rumor isthat they're gonna try to go for
seventy five percent capacity, which meansthat with the WrestleMania stage and set this
place I think was set up tohow's it would have it would have had
(28:34):
a capacity of sixty thousand, andthey're going to try to get between forty
and forty five thousand people in thestadium. The last thing I had heard
was thirty thousand. Now I'm herein forty to forty five thousand. Have
you heard anything different about that?No? I didn't. I didn't know
it's gonna be seventy five percent.That's amazing. I hope that's the case,
because that'll look that'll look more excitingon television than anything we've seen in
(28:57):
over a year. And if thoseforty five thousand people show up and it's
gonna be two nights, remember thatWrestleMania's two nights, so they're shooting for
If you believe the low estimate,it will be thirty thousand each night.
If you believe the higher estimate,it will be between forty and forty five
thousand each night. So they're they'replanning on packing between sixty and ninety thousand
(29:18):
people in there over the course oftwo different nights, and those fans will
see here's the updated latest WrestleMania card, Ricky, I gotta give. I
gotta say to you. Way backbefore we started this podcast, you and
I would go out on breaks fromwork and we would talk about the two
(29:40):
guys that looked the most legit likesuperstars in wrestling, and the two names
we mentioned were Drew McIntyre and BobbyLashly. And this was approximately two years
ago. And now at this WrestleManiafor the WWE Championship Champion, Bobby Lashley's
defending against Drew McIntyre. So didwe call it or what now? I
(30:03):
mean, this hurt business really tookoff. Shelton Benjamin's getting the biggest push
of his career or one of them. He's like, for the first time
in years and years, he's gettingsome attention. But yeah, the two
guys that look like the biggest starsMcIntyre and Lashly are going to fight for
the title. The other title,the Universe title. I guess that's the
ww Universe champion Roman Rains, whohas had an awesome year as a heel.
(30:29):
Have you seen much of Rains hisheel work, Ricky, No,
I heard. It wasn't that Iactually know. I heard his heel work
was better than the his baby face. But he's he'll now right he is.
He's working hell right now. He'sbeen a heel since Summer Slam.
That's right. I have been watchingthat SmackDown that much. I gotta tell
(30:49):
you he is a hundred times betteras a heel if you get to check
him out anytime, Like just thejust the attitude that he that comes off
of him, just this like Idon't give a fuck about anybody but myself,
and I'm the tribal chief and I'mthe champion. I'm the best in
the world. And then having Haymin there, the presentation is so much
better. So he's gonna fight Edgefor the title, the returning Edge who
(31:15):
won the Royal Rumble. You're alsogonna see the SmackDown Champion Women's Champion Sasha
Banks defend against Bianca Belair. BiancaBellair's okay. I could see her being
popular with the younger crowd. She'sgot a lot of energy. She seems
pretty contemporary Asuka or Osaka. Rather, the Champion of Raw is gonna fight
(31:37):
Charlotte Flair. That was supposed tobe Charlotte Flair and Lacy Evans with the
whole Rick Flair storyline, but LacyEvans went and got pregnant for real,
and now we got Oska versus Charlotteis the tentative match. And then you've
got Randy Orton against my God,what a fall from Grace, a guy
who we all thought was cool andawesome and a throwback The Fiend. Bray
(32:00):
Wyatt returns after being burned alive andmurdered several times. He's now coming back
to WrestleMania a fight Randy Orton Rickythat I'm going to tune in the city.
That that sounds pretty good. Iforgot all about The Fiend. Honestly,
I guess I don't really watch themain brand WWE because I just don't
have that much time in the week, so I'm pretty much an NXT guy.
(32:22):
But that I'm curious to see becauseas our audience knows. I was
a big fan of the Fiend whenhe first came out. M yeah,
I just don't like what they've done. Like the Fiend got so ridiculous where
he was magical and he was aspacewalker and he was a dimension jumper,
and now he got like literally RandyOrton lit him on fire in the ring
and burned him alive, and nowhe's coming back somehow, So it's gotten
(32:45):
so off the rails stupid. Hopefullythey do something memorable. I hope they
bring Randy or bray Wyatt back asbray Wyatt and give this Fiend a break
until they let some of the stinkoff of it, because they really did
ruin it, Like they really sabotagedthe Fiend I thought, which had a
lot of potential. And I don'tknow if they're just giving bray Wyatt too
(33:07):
much creative control and this is allhis influence. I don't know if this
is Bruce Pritchard. I don't knowwho it is, but it sucks.
The Fiend storylines for the year havesucked. Yeah, he really It's unfortunate,
but he really really fizzled out.He came in super hot, and
I thought he was going to behe could have. He had the potential
of being like a almost an inhouse name, you know what I mean,
(33:29):
a household name, right, becausehe was cool, he was different,
he was an over the top character. And boy, they face screwed
that one up big time. Alittle bit of news here, John Laurinitis
has returned to the ww E asessentially the head of talent relations. A
(33:52):
lot of people not happy to seeJohnny Ace back. He was not a
popular behind the scenes. See whatelse we got here for the news of
the week. Well, let's seehere that might be about it, Rickuelus,
I'm forgetting a major story that mightbe the that might be the long
(34:15):
and the short of it. Iwould say that's the meat and potatoes of
the news for sure. I dothink so. Yeah, So you're looking
forward to WrestleMania. We're gonna watchthis puppy together. I think we should.
Yes, it's gonna be a goodtime. There's gonna be uh,
it's gonna be nice to see peoplein the seats again. It will be
really nice to see that, soright away, I mean, that's just
gonna make the show substantially better.I'm excited to see people being normal again.
(34:42):
Yeah yeah, well, Ricky,uh, that about does it.
It's been a pretty eventful last coupleof weeks, so we had to do
another news segment in an aw reviewto get through it all. But as
we wind things up on this abbreviatedepisode, and while I do a apologized
fans for my lack of stamina,I'm blowing up, Ricky, I'm blowing
(35:05):
up early. So we've had togive the show the go home que.
The referee has just given us thesign to go home. So we're going
to finish it out here with aquick trip to the Two Rows Beat Club,
and I'm going to perform for youthis week. Ricky's got our next
performance coming up later on another show. But tonight I'm going to do a
(35:27):
rendition dramatic reading of motor Heads themesong for Triple H King of Kings.
I appreciate your kind attention at theTwo Rows Beat Club, and I have
(35:50):
come here tonight prepared to recite abeautiful piece of dystopian poetry by the group
Motorhead, and I call this TheKing of Kings. Behold the King,
(36:13):
the King of Kings, on yourknees, Dog a a A, all
hail, bow down to the bowdown, to the bow down to the
King. The King grin read ashe walked from the place where the traitor
(36:40):
lost both his name and his face, through all the halls and the corridors.
Stinging in bloody. He tasted hisgrin and it tasted good. The
King took his head. Badam,left him broken and dead. Badam.
(37:07):
Bow down to the bow down,to the bow down to the King.
Bow down to the bow down,to the bow down to the King.
The King left none living, noneable to tell. The King took their
(37:30):
heads, and he sent them allto hell. Their screams echoed loud in
the place of their death. Rippedopen, they died, and with their
final breath they held to the King. They all hailed the King, the
(37:54):
King of kings. Bow down tothe bow down, to the bow down
to the King. Bow down tothe bow down, to the bow down
to the King. Thank you,thank you very much, And there's only
(38:20):
one thing left to say. Nextshow, we'll be better, we'll be
longer and happy. Trails to youtill we meet again. And remember,
(38:52):
fans, if you're not down withthe safe side and you're too wild,
for the wild Side. You're rightfulplace is right here with us. Two
Rows from Ringside. Two Rows fromRingside has been brought to you by Whitehorse
Media Group and this has been wrestlingWednesdays
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