Two Rows Quarterly Summit- Feb 2022

We return for our quarterly summit! Hear us break down the wrestling world bit by bit. We talk Hook, Rumble, Chamber on the horizon, Reigns v. Lesnar, Heyman, AEW, WWE, and everything in between! Prepare to hang from the rafters and to engage in rapturous pandemonium!!

Episode Transcript

(00:22):
Welcome back two Rows from a ringsidefans And here we are again in February
of twenty twenty two, here forthe two Rows from Ringside Quarterly Summit.
And Ricky, I feel like there'salmost too much to talk about. We've
got ww E A E W,the royal rumble of the Elimination Chamber coming
up, the road to WrestleMania comingup. We got to talk about hook,

(00:44):
we got to talk about all kindsof shit, m jfcmpunk, we
gotta talk about October was the lasttime. So we will have including the
after WrestleMania show. Uh for twoRows. It'll be four episodes in one
year, so we will end upbeing successful on the quarterly deal. But
man, it's it's been We wantedto keep this alive because this life has

(01:08):
sort of taken over and made thingsa little bit more hectic and busy.
We don't have the chance to dothis weekly like we used to with two
Rows. Has still got to getout there to the public and uh and
offer some goodness for public consumption.So Ricky, I don't even know when
the last time you and I talkedabout wrestling was do you remember? No,
it's it's it's really been I'm guessingat least months, and I think

(01:30):
a lot has happened, to saythe least, so I'm doing some bad.
Well. I want to get intothe positive and the negative of WWE,
because I've wanted to put my fistthrough the TV screen lately when they
do these in ring fucking promos whichare goddamn brutal and horrible. But I
want to get into that a littlebit later when we talk about w W
What do you think that the biggeststories are right now in wrestling? For

(01:51):
you? What do you care aboutthe most? I mean it's it's still
going to be a Roman Rains brockLesner is so far up here and everything
else that the other things are bad, but you just can't come close to
Uh, you know, the RomanRains brock Lesner angle. It is that
true money match, big boxing LasVegas, Las Vegas event feel, and

(02:13):
again really nothing else in the businesscomes comes close. I would say next
would be CM Punk and MJF,which is many runs down the ladder.
It is many runs down. Yeah, it's if if if Lessener and Uh
and Rains are the garden. Ithink Sam Punk is playing at the at
the Paramount the Paramount Theater, soyou know, but here's the thing.

(02:37):
Even the Roman, like I hadpredicted last time we talked that I thought.
You asked me what I thought WrestleManiawould be, and I said,
I thought it would be Rains Lessertwo, And it ends up it's gonna
be that. However, I thinkthey took a misstep with the story along
the line when when Day one happenedand it was supposed to be the rematch
and uh Roman got COVID and theyhad to they had to change. Do

(03:00):
you think that took something away?Because I did. I think it did
because then it also I didn't likethat, and I didn't like the Royal
rumble angle either. Um you meanwhere Hayman got back with Rains. It
was, yeah, like what likethat just happened way too quick, like
you would have if you would havebrought him over to Brock Lesner for a
while, even a couple of months, and you build like, oh,

(03:21):
is he really loyal to Brock youknow, and that's a good story.
But that happened what like a weekor two. They did a rush job
on it like you wouldn't believe.And I agree with you. I think
when when Rains and Lessner, I'msorry, when Rains dumped Hayman and gave
him the Superman punch, that Rainsshould not have been back with Hayman until

(03:43):
at or after WrestleMania. It shouldhave gone all the way through, if
not long longer, because I mean, that's that's a that's a pretty pivotal
moment in that story. And Ijust thought that was that happened way too
quick. And then I didn't like, Like I love brock Lesner, um,
I don't. I just didn't reallycare for that Royal Rumble angle,
like you know, losing to Lashlyand then winning the Royal Rumble. It

(04:06):
was like so predictable, you knowwhat I mean, Like it just felt
cheap. A lot of people saidit was predictable. I didn't. I
liked the angle of hay of ofHayman handing the belt over to Rains and
them getting back together, but Ididn't like it this fucking soon, Like
that should have been months and months, Yeah, months and months down the
road. Because Rains and Hayman arestill the biggest money package and wrestling by

(04:28):
far, they're a bigger money packagenow than Lessner and Hayman had been a
big money package up until now.You know, Roman Rains is awesome,
don't get me wrong. He's thehottest superstar in the business. But Paul
him with Paul Hayman is Paul Haymanis the icing on the cake for him.
Yes, yeah, just the overallpackage and delivery. Roman Rains isn't

(04:49):
the same without Paul Hayman. ARoman Rains, but Paul Hayman. You
hear, you have Roman Rains,mister real serious and all business. And
let's face to pull haym in thewhole. It's supposed to be serious,
but it's kind of it's that littlecomedic relief in a way. Yeah,
well, I chief, that's it'sperfect. I love it. I love

(05:10):
it so much. They're so goodtogether. And for any of you wrestling
nerds out there like me who arealso Star Wars nerds, look at it
this way. Rains without Hayman islike Star Wars without the sound. So
by the way, my wife Meganagain never liked wrestling, but Friday night
SmackDown and be watching and then shewas this was months ago, was like
what's going on? Like who isthis guy? Like who's this like fat

(05:32):
guy coming out with Roman Rains Likeshe got such a kick out of this.
So now like if we're kind ofgiving each other orders around the house,
I'll be like, yes, mytribal chief, or she'll say that
back and can we just start cracking? And she just thought the whole thing
was and it is funny. Youknow, imagine not knowing anything about wrestling
and seeing this donut hole of aguy, you know, around this huge
you know, holding up the beltand you know at the serious face and

(05:55):
yes, my tribal chief, Yes, my tribal It's it's hysterical, you
know what. My favorite part ofthe whole thing is ricky when when Rains
is sitting there talking and doing theinterview and and Hayman's right over his shoulder
just staring right at him like ithas like a stalker. It's funny.
But it's not like it's not likecheapening the product or making the business.

(06:15):
It's perfectly. Yan's been around longenough to know what's supposed to work and
how it's supposed to work, andit's brilliant's perfect. It's uh, it
really really is good. And that'sdefinitely by far the best angle uh in
wrestling, really really good. Iwonder what they're gonna do after Mania,
because how do you beat that?Well, I've already been told, well

(06:36):
I've been told. I've been told, meaning that I read it in the
in the uh. But they're they'regoing, they're going. The plan is
Rousy and Lynch at the next WrestleManiawith and the main event would be uh
Rains and the Rock. See Iheard different which I heard Rains and Drew
McIntyre. I can't imagine they wouldmain event wrestle unless they hud McIntyre about

(07:01):
one hundred degrees. Well, Ijust started that. That's going to be
like the next feud. It's supposedto be. Um, I'm meant all
the way next year Wrestle. Yeah, I loved McIntyre is great. He's
great. He got dealt a shittyhand too, winning the bell. Yeah
he did that, really he didand it and it sucked because by the
time by the time this year rolledaround, he was cooled off. Yeah,

(07:26):
like the bloom was off the rose. They like he almost had to
go away for a little while andbe rebuilt. So he started moment,
but did you Yeah, it wassort of like I finally got a date
to the prom, but she wasmy I found out she was my cousin
by blood. Yeah you know,yeah, um, what do you think
of baby faced brock Lessener? Igotta hear this from you. You know

(07:47):
again. When I started watching wrestlinga couple of years ago, I was
so far out of it. Ididn't really know much about brock Lessner,
and I don't want to say Iwas turned off, but to me,
I saw like this big UFC guywho just did like some souplexes and like,
oh, this is the bee's knees, this is the big monster.
And not that I wasn't impressed,but I didn't really see like a full
on character. But now that he'sa baby face and he's on the mic,

(08:11):
like there's something that's likable about him, you know, you relate.
I never knew he was. I'msorry, what was the last thing you
said? Like you feel like youcould relate to him, Like you like
him, you know, you wantyou want to see him do well.
He's funny, but he's an asshole. I never realized how funny brock Lessner
was. I agree, I meanhe is he is. That's the only

(08:31):
way I could see him surviving withoutHayman is to be this version of a
baby face brock Lestener. Heel brockLessener by himself wouldn't have been as impressive
or as good without Hayman. BabyFace Lessener with Hayman was just weird and
not working for me. But babyface Lessener by himself actually works because he's
got such a strange personality. Yeah, because you're right, that's you're a

(08:52):
baby face Lessner. And then withheel Paul Hayman that doesn't work. Yeah,
that doesn't make any well, youhad your rush job on top of
it. So I understand, likeI think they just should have They should
have had the fucking match. Letlet Brock win the belt. That was
a good idea. They should havehad Brock take the belt all the way
to WrestleMania and do title for title, but never do the Hayman angle.

(09:13):
The Hayman should have been on theoutskirts, still playing both. Where one
see where it really died for mewas when they were in the ring and
all of a sudden, U brockLesser starts talking shit to Roman Rains and
uh, Paul Hayman goes brock Brockdon't don't talk to him like that.
And right before that, Rains hadbeen like, don't you talk to him
like that. It's like, dude, you just Superman punched him two weeks

(09:35):
ago. Why are you not defendinghim? It felt forced, it felt
written. It was very like deliberateand quick. Yeah. I didn't care
for it, but I think theangle is so good that they got away
with it, you know what Imean, Like it's still really good.
Like they didn't ruin it. Theydidn't ruin it. No, it was
just a little goofy. But yousee SmackDown to sick, you know,

(10:00):
the COVID, Yeah, kind ofchange things for day one. I get
it, but I don't know.I still feel like they could have done
something. Did you see the promofrom Hayman two weeks ago where he's in
the ring with the USO's and reinsand he's explaining everything that to me saved
the angle. It saved it completelybecause he explained ever he had to do.
They had like, Okay, nowwe have to salvage this and we

(10:22):
need to come up with the storyto give to the audience. Yep,
this is what happened. So whowho's better than to go out there in
bullshit than Paul Hayman and just noone lay the story. No one could,
No one could have gotten this thingback on track as well as him.
And honestly, it does make sensewhen you think about Okay, like
I disappointed my tribal chief. Itold him a truth, a hard truth
he didn't want to hear. Hedismissed me brutally, and then he found

(10:46):
it in his heart to forgive me. And when he outstretched his hand,
all that came back was I couldsee I couldn't see myself for the rest
of my life being around farm boycomedian brock Lessener. And then he and
then he puts a little heat onLessener and says what everybody already knows to
be true. That's negative. Andbasically, like my tribal chief decided to
spare me and forgive me and giveme back, let me back into the

(11:09):
fold where I belong. And itdid. It explained everything in a way
that was satisfactory, even though themonth and a half two months in between
was really rough, and I waslike, man, I think they're letting
their biggest angle run off the trackshere and it's not good. Well,
I I think the last time wespoke it was that it was different,
it was the opposite. But Ithink WWE just that angle alone is firing

(11:31):
on all cylinders. And I thinknot their competition, but the other guys.
I think you're getting in a littlebit of a pickle. Well what
do you well, we can talkabout anything we want. I want to
talk about the rumble. I wantto talk about the good and bad at
WWE. But if you want togo a w let's go there. What
are they getting wrong right now?I think there's just so much like old

(11:52):
WWE talent on that that roster isjust too big. It is like very
sizable, entire early too big fora two hour show once a week.
And um, you know, Iget lost. I watch it every week
and the entire roster is in afaction. I know, like I get

(12:13):
it. Tony Cohn loves factions,but you got way too many factions.
They're a company. Who I meanis there? Besides Adam Page isn't in
a faction. Um, but he'sstill like like friend of me is with
the Young Bucks. There's even anassociation there, so you know him walk
alone now he's got his own littlefaction with Darby and Sting and and uh

(12:35):
Moxley now and then like you debutthese guys and then you never hear from
them, like Jay Lethal that's hisname, right, really good and you
know, they hype this guy upfor a few minutes and then and hasn't
won yet, you know, andthen what happened Like these guys like Powerhouse
Hobbs, like wholesome, Like thefact that they let that fucking orange castity

(12:58):
pin Powerhouse Hobbs in that tournament.What an atrocity Ricky, oh, I
know, like what looks like aworld's champion, world chair of my favorites,
you know, and we barely gotto see him. He's not ready
for he's wrestling when dark. Yeah, there is. Look, he's not
ready for prime time yet in thesense that he could be world champion today.

(13:20):
But he looks What do you thinkof him? I mean, what
he does, it's it's cool.He's super athletic, but he's certainly not
ready. I think Jim Cornette hadit right about him when he said he's
a puppy with big pause. Yeah, I mean he's I don't hate the
guy, but he's very young andyou can tell he's green. I'm obviously

(13:43):
not a wrestler, so I can'treally you know, diagnose, uh,
you know, do this, dothat, But the average person can tell
he's very, very green. Well, his charisma is definitely a concern.
Although I did see him fire upa little bit. I forget if it.
I think it was the match withStarks and Lethal, if I'm remembering
correctly, where he got involved.He did show a little bit of fire,
a little bit of personality that StarksLethal match. I don't know if

(14:07):
you saw it, Ricky Starks andJay Lethal, What a fucking match that
was. I'm not sure if II'm not sure if I saw that.
They were fighting for the FTR,the TAZ or FTW. Fuck the World
Championship of TAZ is they were fightingover you know what's coming? Oh yeah,
what do you feel about Hook?I fucking love Hook and I'm putting
it down right now, future megastar in this business. And I think

(14:31):
he's gonna have a rap career ontop of it. I don't get it.
I don't get it. You knowwhat it is due size or just
lack thereof. He is on thesmall side, I'll give you that,
But so but Tads was built.Tads was like you know, Tads was
like a bowling ball. He wasscary looking. I I don't know what

(14:56):
else what I'm interested to hear yourtake that el you like about it is
just so small, Like I don'tknow, they're just lacking. I know
it's not a body business anymore,but I feel like they're just lacking anyone
that's intimidating. There's no one thatwhat if Vince say, turns heads in
an airport, like they're just allI don't know. And then what was

(15:16):
I think hook second match when hewrestled like that four hundred pound guy,
give me a fucking break, theBear Bronson match, Yeah, like,
give me a fucking break. Ididn't. But you didn't buy him against
I didn't buy that, Like yeah, but I mean you've seen you you've
seen UFC fights where a guy who'slike five foot three drops the fucking four

(15:37):
hundred pound giant, you know,six foot eight sumo guy. It does
happen in real life that I don'tknow. I just it wasn't your cup
of tea when you saw it,not my cup of tea, Like,
I just like, who is this? You know if they would have built
him with some vignettes like you know, you know, coming to a ew
or this or you know this,this is, this is who I am,

(15:58):
And all of a sudden, theyjust like, here he is.
Now that part was weird. Thatpart was weird, and I'll give you
my take on Hook then. Butlike all of a sudden, Hook was
around for what a year, andhe was just like he was just this
guy in a hoodie that came outwith powerhouse Hobs and Starks and was has
his muscle and he never talked,he never wrestled, And all of a

(16:18):
sudden, I'm watching a clip onDynamite. All of a sudden he's just
there and it's like, oh shit, this guy now see him. Punk
did drop the whole bring me Hookthing, so he must have known Hook
was about to debut. I think, well, let me ask you this,
if you were twenty, do youthink you feel differently about Hook than
you do now? I mean,he's kind of cool, like I get

(16:41):
it, but it's just I don'tknow, it's I think they kind of
missed the boat with building who heis, why he's here? You know,
you know he's tas his son,but it's like, Okay, well,
why why are you here? Youjust you come out marching down,
you know, But what's your story? What is the story? Same thing
we said before with Adam with AdamCole, not Adam Cole, Adam Page.

(17:06):
What's your story with the cow Whatmade you a cowboy? Why?
Like? What what is this?That was my gimmick and I'm kind of
stuck with it now even though itdoesn't define me at all. Yeah.
Oh, by the way, Iremember we talk. I love how Dan
Lambert and Jake Roberts like calling likea pussys cowboy. Yeah them cowboy because
that's what remember you? And Isaid that, like, yes, Kendall
cowboy, Like there's nothing rugged aboutit. It was just like the as

(17:29):
Bruce Ritchards in the box of gimmicks, like Okay, I'm gonna take this
one. Um. I just feellike sometimes AW, they just don't build
the well WW the same way.But they just don't build characters anymore.
I just don't know why they've heldon to it now it is over with
the smart marks of a of theA W crowd. But any casual fan
watching AW right now and I wantto get back to hook. But any

(17:51):
casual fan watching right now does notlook at Adam Page and see a cowboy.
He is Emo cowboy of all Andif they had gone all the way
with Emo cowboy, where he reallyhis character was that he was a moody
bitch. You could have even madethat work if he would have gone all
the way with Emo cowboy. Butthey he's trying to be a tough guy
and is it just me? Butlike, I know, it's their job,
so I'm not hating on them.They have to do a like when

(18:11):
Jim Ross and Chavanni are like tryingto put him over on the mic,
like it's so it's like a page. You'll never see this man quit,
you know, It's just like,oh my god, please stop. Yeah,
well I want to. I wantto. I want to talk about
the Page in Danielson series with youin a minute. But before we get
to that, let me just finishoff on Hook real quick. Here's here's

(18:32):
why I think, here's why Isaid what I said about Hook. I
there was electricity in that first debutwhere he wrestled Fuego Dell Soul and you'd
never seen him before, and allof a sudden he wipes the floor with
Fuego Dell soul and does all thesecrazy submissions and shoot moves, and then
he's got this crazy fucking flock ofseagulls. I don't give a shit haircut.
He's handsome, he's built, he'sunique. He wears these like boxer

(18:56):
shorts. Yeah, and that part'scool. I think high boots, no
need pads. He's very unique looking. If he had like a cruiserweight division,
I'd say, yeah, like he'sthe coolest guy in the cruiserweight The
size is really what spots. Itbreaks down to the size. And maybe
it's just because I'm a traditionalist andgrew up in the late eighties early nineties
and I can't let it go typeof thing. But did you ever take

(19:17):
race seriously? Or was could younever take mysterio seriously? Either? For
the same reason. Yeah, buthe has, like for years, he
wrestled in that class, you know, yeahs in the cruiserweight class. So
he really built his name, Hemade his bones as a wrestler, and
that he accepted him really really paidhis dues obviously after all the million fucking
years he's been wrestling. Yeah,he kind of paid his dues into it.

(19:40):
So I think sometimes it's a littlegoofy, but it's Ray mysterio.
He's earned his way there. Ithink also there's an attitude that Hook has
that the young people of today.I'm talking to people, I dig that
attitude, but it's um, it'sjust it feels very force fed and again
like build him up. Or ifthey you know, they if they had

(20:00):
a cruiser right division, like havethis be your big star of the cruiser
right division. You get it going, But you're gonna put Hook against guys
what like Daniel Brian Like I'd paid. I'd pay to see that tomorrow.
Brother. I mean, don't getme wrong, I'd be very curious to
see it too. I just Idon't know. Well, here, here's

(20:22):
the thing. You no, youyou're You're totally entitled to your opinion,
and I get what you're saying aboutHook. Um, do you remember when
we were when we were fans inthe Attitude era and the anti establishment guys,
the guys that would go out thereand be horses asses, the New
Age Outlaws, Triple Age, uh, even Steve Austin, that anti establishment,
fuck your boss anarchy thing. Thatwas what young people of the time

(20:45):
really connected to. And I thinkright now, we live in a completely
different time than the Attitude era.I think a personality like hook because sub
submission UFC is huge right now,and also so is this entitled emo fucking
persona that's over right now. AndI think that yeah, and I think
I know who they're trying to toappeal. I get it. And again

(21:06):
I think he's I think in likea cruise rate division. Yeah, he'd
be really really cool, but Idon't know, like he's very very He's
like kind of like an edgier likeone two three kid. But the one
two three kid though, is likereally the over the top baby face.

(21:26):
I don't know. Now, letme let me paint a scenario. Now,
I'm gonna I'm gonna use you rightnow as the guy that I need
to please with Hooks. If I'mbooking a w and you are my fan
who's not buying this guy, andyou're like, look, I get I
hear everything you're saying. Yeah he'scool, and I get why he connects,
but I don't buy it. Whatwould I have to do to to
to get you on board? Letme ask, Let me paint this scenario.

(21:48):
Let's say see him punks out thereand uh, he's, he's,
he's, He's wrestled m JF again. They've got some stipulation. MJF is
like, no, legally, Inever have to wrestle you again. You're
never gonna get to get your winback for me. We're done. We're
done, period. And then allof a sudden, when they're talking,
Hook comes up from behind, putsthe red rum on se him Punk and
chokes him out, but doesn't justchoke him out. All of a sudden,

(22:10):
he holds it on and the ringstarts filling up, and then Team
Task comes out and knocks everybody outand they can't get Hook off of Punk
and put Hook literally chokes Punk tothe point where he's unconsciousness to be taken
out on a stretcher. Would thatput Hook in a position where you'd be
excited to see that match and accepthim as a main of entner. It
would be really something to see.I mean, that would be really cool.

(22:33):
But I just part of me,maybe not to sound negative, but
I would just feel like, whatdid this guy dude to deserve such a
push so soon he's getting a hugepush, and I think, I don't
know, I think really what kindof makes me? What makes you a
little like I get pissy about islike, you know, Taz is definitely
negotiating for him, obviously looking outfor him for sure, And I bet

(22:56):
you there's guys in that locker roomthat are like, you know, wait
a minut, Like why the fuckis this kid getting a Oh I can
tell you why, Like because Daddy'shere. Like I think it's more Tony
Khn than Tazlo to be honest,I think Tony Khan is a mark for
hook. I think that scenarioud bereally cool, but again that'd be My
only criticism is like kind of likewhat happened at Goldberg, Like why the

(23:18):
hell is this guy coming on thescene getting such a push all the way?
I mean a their roster is sobig and so deep it's too not
even getting their stars on the show. Yeah, it is too big right
now, there's bringing these like whathappened to um, what's a Pillman's son?
The We haven't seen them in weeks, not since they got crushed by

(23:41):
those House of Black butcher in theblade. You know, these guys don't
see the out. They should belike jokes, but we haven't, Like
seen like these Jurassic Durassic Express.I haven't seen them in a couple.
Well, they just won the beltsa week or two or two weeks ago,
three weeks ago, they actually wonthe belts, the Tag Belts.

(24:02):
Well, okay, if that wasforget that. But I know what you
mean, Like there's a large portionof that roster that you don't see for
months. See anymore, when's thelast time he saw Miro Miro? Yes,
Miro's one, but yet I stillgot to have time a room on
my TV screen for that fucking pizzeriaUno. I stole Cordett's joke, but
like that guy looks like a jobberin the eighties For WWE, he looks

(24:25):
like a joke. The fact thathe's wrestling is kind of embarrassing. Actually,
the whole Dark Order, like prettymuch anybody in that except for Hangman
Page if he's even associated with itanymore, should not really be on television
and stop with the nine on ninelike tag teams. I can't stand that,

(24:45):
Like it's too much forty seven man, and it's just it's so And
I bet that's part of that isTony con saying, oh my god,
we gotta get these guys on TV, and this is what we have to
do. The crazy thing is they'vegot too many guys and not enough place
is to put him. You gottwo hours of dying or it is nine
an hour or two hours? Iforget hours. Okay, y got two
hours of nine to my one hourrampage. That's all the prime time you

(25:07):
have dark as a joke compared tothe rest, because it's it's seen by
a fraction of the audience. Now, Daniel Bryan, we haven't seen him
in a couple of weeks. Itwas a couple of weeks since he lost
to Hangman. No, I thinkhe just took a couple of weeks off
after page. But now he justcame back last week. Yeah, I
know he came. But so andthen you bring in you know, of

(25:29):
course they got to bring in Keighley. Nothing else Keighley. But what do
you think of that debut? ThoughJesus Christ usually build the guy across like
it was like twenty feet in theair. Yeah, that was that was
really I like Keithley. I thinkhis gimmick is fucking stupid, but at
least they're using him right now.Though he was a joke on the main
roster at WWE as the Bearcat.What the fuck I used this whole?

(25:52):
I don't like that? Yeah,I don't like that so big. Yeah,
it's like, well, are youa heel or it's a healing like
the cool like what again, whatare you? But what if they took
Keith Lee in like package to himas this mean fucking big black heel,
he would dude, would work,Like have him go there and just fucking
destroy. You're thinking like a jackedup mister Hughes type. Yeah, I

(26:17):
mean he's from the nineties. Yeah, I mean he's almost he's like a
Bobby Bobby Lashley size. You know, he's huge and scary looking. Now
that being said with him, Ithink you could. I think he could
be a very good, a verygood giant heel. You could. You
could have that whole like, youknow, because they're look people that watch
wrestling. You know, it's justa business hystereotypes. You're gonna have some
people who are, uh, theylike to see a bad black guy cast

(26:41):
in a in a in a badrole or like a dangerous role. There's
something subliminal if you have those tendenciesto begin with, and you're watching wrestling,
so I think he would work asa heel. I also think his
the money in Keith Lee is asa man of the people, and that
whole bask in the glory thing isa total contradiction from that. He should
be saying, Hey, I appreciatethat you all say that, and I
know it was a catchphrase associated withme, but I want to bask in

(27:03):
the glory of all of you whenI'm out there, I need to feel
you. I want to bask inyour glory. That would be a baby
face move that maybe sitting there,you know, soaking it in like like
he's cocky. That's a disconnect heshould have. They should have packaged him.
They should have found a wrestler thatthe angle is coming to an end,
some really nice baby face and havethe lights go out. Keith lays

(27:25):
in the ring, beats the fuckout of him, grabs the mic and
says, I you know, I'mback, and I'm pissed off. Here's
why. You know, my previouscompany, you know, screwed me blah
blah blah, and now I'm outfor myself. But like you bring that
same gimmick over from WWE, Idon't know. I just feel like they

(27:47):
missed out on that he could besuch a good here. And by the
way, his voice sounds like Banefrom Batman, so awesome, Mike.
Could you imagine him like being reallyserious on the mic? He should be
like he should have, but youcould put like a mask on like they
did with car Maybe not to theextent of carry and Cross, but what

(28:07):
you mean, big and scary,he would work like he would work as
what That's what I hate about thewrestling product is the current product is they
don't build those characters like you're right, a monster heel at your fingertips or

(28:30):
you know your vision with him thatthe monster heel vision. I can see
it very clearly too. I thinkhe would work like a million dollars as
a monster heel. But I dothink the real money because he's he's got
a little bit of he's got personalcharisma. He really does awesome. And
then there's other aspects about him.I wish I wish he would talk less
sometimes because when he does talk,he sounds millennial. Even though the guy's

(28:55):
like thirty five years old, thirtysix years old, he sounds very millennial.
And I know, I guess thatis Millennia Old Age group still,
but he sounds not like the wrestlersof yesteryear. He sounds like a modern
guy in the wrestling business, andthat's not necessarily a good thing. I
dig his voice. I think itdefinitely has that Baine sound, you know,
that raspiness too, And I don'tknow, I just I feel like

(29:18):
they could have really waited. Howare we going to package this guy.
What's his character gonna be. Let'shave him come out and destroys and beat
the ever loving shit out of himagain, do that stretcher angle? Oh
my god, Keith Lee practically killedsomeone. But instead it's like it's always
these soft these debuts where oh hecomes out and Keith Lee, Keith Lee,

(29:42):
Keith Lee, and then they're like, oh, now what do we
do? I feel yeah, butat least they did at least they did
smash him over Cassidy, like hedestroyed, and I feel like, dude,
they kind of did that with Idon't know, like, yeah,
the CM punk things getting a littlebit old in my opinion too, like
you bring these guys in, ButI think that's where the amateur the amateurism,

(30:04):
if that's the word, is shownwith Tony Khan is, how do
you book these guys? What storiesdo you create? You have the money
to bring them on, but nowthat you have them on, what do
you do with them? Well,you know, they've been doing one point
two million in the top rating whenthey do their top ratings is about one
point two millions. I couldn't believeit, but that MJFCM Punk Match only
did nine hundred and fifty thousand views. That was really that was crazy to

(30:26):
me. Yeah, it was crazyto me too, because I thought they
built it just about perfectly loved Ireally did enjoy that angle. I thought
that angle was probably second best inthe business. Some people are saying they
pulled the trigger too late, likethat it should have taken place a month
beforehand. I don't know. Ithought it was built perfectly, paced perfectly.
I think people also thought it wasgoing to be predictable, that there

(30:48):
was no way punk was not gonnawin, and the fact that it was
in Chicago, and the fact thatthey put it on at nine ten or
whatever, and then all of asudden, the fans are like, oh,
this shit's going to go the restof the show and be a draw.
And I think tuned out that wasthey were back to one point too.
The next week, I think theyshot themselves in the foot with was
a page in Danielson. You hadthat amazing first match, one of one

(31:11):
of my favorite matches, by theway, that match good, fantastic.
Why do you do that rematch?Like three weeks later I thought that was
like that, Well, I gotI got three words for you to answer.
At Winter is Coming, they hada show to promote and they decided
to throw that match on. Yeah, that's the reason. Now I feel
like they always have to. They'realways trying to put some big main event

(31:34):
on every single week, and it, I don't know, it takes away
from the angle you can get awaywith that now when you only have quarterly
pay per views. When they getto the point where they have monthly pay
per views, which they will eventuallyget to, I mark my words on
that, then I think you'll seeless shit given away on on free TV,
and the TV will not be aselectrics like electric as it is right

(31:56):
now. Now. I will sayyou can gree or disagree that like hook
is big or not big enough orwhatever, and I think a lot of
people are gonna go one way orthe other on that. But at least
they're put there. They're they're they'resmashing hook over right now. They're not
letting anybody get anything on him.He's tapping guys out every time, big
fat guys like Barrett Bronson, bigyou know, Mexican jumping being types of

(32:17):
guys like Foego Del Soul. Hejust beat somebody the other week. I
forget who um they're they're smashing himover. They smashed Keith leeover. This
is how you build stars. Youhave them succeed time after time after time
until the audience takes them seriously.I wonder what, I wonder what faction
Keith Lee is gonna be in?Oh, you know, will be in
something. He has to me,it's a w and I just I hate

(32:38):
the factions. I hate them.The tag team matches with you know,
the thirty verse thirty uh, Ihate yeah, like Powerhouse hobbs Man.
He was one of my favorites,and they gotta heat him back up because
right now you gottage, by theway, what's the story with him?
Oh he's on the outs. He'son the out. Well, it's stupid.

(33:00):
Wife came out and made a publicstatement saying like, well, I
don't know why he's not used better, and he's the star of the show
or some shit like that, whichdefinitely didn't make people happy. I think
I think enough shit was getting outabout him, some of the stupid things
he had said, the fact thathe was Look, that guy's a heart
attack waiting to happen. And Iknow that they needed their their resident monster
at the time. And Cage wasa good worker for his size, he

(33:22):
really was. But that's about allgood I can say about him. His
personality kind of sucked. Um.He just is a big juice head and
and uh, and now he's gotsome white his wife coming out there bitching
about the company and what they're doing. Like, look, if I'm Tony
Khan and I got somebody's bitch wifesaying how I need to book my show.
Guess guess how likely it is thatI'm gonna book her husband next week?

(33:43):
Well, maybe we'll hear about BrianCage at the Hamburg field House.
Well, we got we need theguys that can bump over here, but
we also gotta have something for themarquee. We need a monster. Uh.
Cage, that was all he hadgoing for him. Was he looked
like a monster. But uh,from what I understand, they're not renewing
him, so you probably won't seehim again. But I know I've really

(34:04):
sound like I'm shitting on a wI do like some of it. Um,
Brian Danielson is awesome. I loveall of his matches, minus that
one with the U and when Icould set the entire world loved except me.
No, no, I know alot of people hated it. A
lot of people hated that match.I loved it. I just loved it.

(34:25):
Darby Allen has grown on me somuch. I love Obviously he's not
a body guy, but what hedoes, he sets himself apart, you
know he does. He plays thatsmall body you know what I mean.
He doesn't try to be Do youthink Darby is the most over young guy
in a I love Darby and Sting. I think it's so awesome. Uh,

(34:45):
I love feeling Darby and m jfare about the most over young crop
of talent they have. I lovethat Sting is wrestling by the way I
mean too and doing a good job, a really really good job, Like
it just brings brings us back tobeing young. I mean, he's been
in there with He's been in therewith good guys. He's been in there
with FTR. They can make anybodylook like a million dollars. And would

(35:06):
they fucking win a match? Iknow, Oh FBR, it's so the
same thing, so good, Butwhy do they have to be a part
of fact? Like again, theyare the marquee tag team in pro just
keep them as that. Why dothey have I agree with them JF because
to me, that kind of takesaway from from them. I agree with
you that they should be able toget by with just being the best goddamn

(35:29):
tag team in the world right now, which they are. But if they
weren't win Pinnacle, they wouldn't haveeven seen a main event yet. I
know. I don't know how they'regetting the dravesty because they are. They're
awesome, They're they're fun to watch. I hope they take it from the
Drastic Express. I hope that thenext champs they should be. Yeah,
they they really should be. Theyare definitely hands down the best tag team,

(35:51):
uh probably in the world. Whatdo you think of Durrastic Express?
Are you a fan? I likethem, I like I kind of like
the cartoony, like gimmick. Iadmit that it's it's kind of cool.
It brings me back to the earlynineties. You know WWE. But you
rotten though, Yeah, he doesimpressive moves as a big guy, but

(36:14):
as a wrestler, he's rotten.Well again, I I will well.
I think it's pretty apparent. Yeah, the big body guys are cool to
me. I think that the biggerthey are, the scarer they are,
the more I want to watch it, because Wow, this guy could fucking
kill me if I was in thering with him, versus someone like Adam
Cole, who's built like my fouryear old, my four year old daughter.

(36:35):
Cole will never get over with you. I think Hook has a chance
still. I know Cornett, hereally really has shrunk. Have you,
like, actually seen Adam Cole?I have seen him, and he has
not looked impressive. I think heI think he might have lost a little
bit of size, but I thinkthe bigger thing was And look, let
me give Hook credit where it's due. I mean he's ripped. You could

(36:59):
see. Wow, you know he'she's unbelievably athletic. He's in the gym.
Is he huge and scary? No? Is he a guy that's gonna
turn ahead in the street. No, he looks like some college kid,
but obviously the guy puts in timeCole. I mean he literally when he
stands, I mean the top ropeis like at his neck. He's like

(37:19):
shrinking height wise, and his muscletone total lack yer up. Who is
someone put us on Twitter? Hewas standing next to Britt Baker. You
know they're like, dude, hisgirlfriend is more jacked than he is.
He is fucking small man, there'sno way around God. And he was
never a big guy in w obviously, but like he was kind of toned
and put together, and I betthings were a lot more strict over there.

(37:44):
Like, dude, there's a certainway you have to look and if
you start getting sloppy, but youknow, aw, I'm sure it's kind
of like past the joint, bro. But you know, all that being
said, though, Ricky Tony Kahnthinks the world old of Adam and he's
putting him up as as Page's nextchallenge. You know, it's like Cornette

(38:04):
was saying, and this not tosound like a you know, I'm repeating
Jim Cornette, but Adam Cole wasthe star of NXD they're the biggest name
that's excluding his goofy size. Butthey really have done him really terrible in
aew. I mean, anytime youdrop a guy, Yeah, anytime you
have a guy lose to fucking OrangeCassidy, you're not headed in the right.

(38:29):
Yeah, Like, it wasn't theright move for Jericho, it wasn't
the right move for fucking Cole,it wasn't the right move for Powerhouse Hobbs.
Cassidy's a joke. I like himas a character to have on.
They're doing fucking bullshit with Dan Houseand fine, that's funny. Stopped putting
him over on these things. Yes, yes, I could not with you
more like yes, and especially againstyour your your big money guys, like

(38:49):
you're you're burying them, you're buryingthem. Yes, you're absolutely right,
Ricky Um, Now I know weshould on Adam Page. His matches lately
though, have been crazy good.He's a fantastic athlete, a fantastic wrestler.
Um and as a champion, Idon't buy him yet. I would
buy him as the TNT champion.Like they're pushing Sammy Guavara. That's the
perfect push level for Sammy right now. Sammy is gonna be a future superstar

(39:13):
too. And I think Adam isawesome. Ad really is a great in
ring worker. You're you're totally rightabout that, because Danielson matches were off
the charts, but that was thatwas still seventy percent or at least sixty
percent Danielson forty percent Page. Butand when you look at Page in that
ring, I mean a cole inthat ring, it is kind of it

(39:36):
doesn't look crazy. I mean theheight. If you're not if you don't
have the height going for you,you better really, you know, have
the muscle tone and look like apro wrestler. But he just looks.
So let's play a little fantasy here. Let's play a little fantasy here.
If if you said, hey,Greg, we're giving you the job of

(39:57):
book an aw tomorrow, what wouldyou do with Adam hole to get him
over? Here's what I would do. I've said this many times before.
The only gimmick that's going to workfor a guy that's small is the chess
master. The guy who's such abrilliant wrestler that he can think like seventeen
moves ahead and he can outthink everyopponent, no matter how big no matter
how what, and he can winthat way as a strategist, then you

(40:19):
have him. Do remember those oldchromos Raven used to do it at ECW
where it was dark and he waskind of brooding in a room chain link
fence. Yeah you could have couldyou could have promos where Adam Cole is
just hovering kind of behind or aroundBrick Britt Baker. Britt Baker's a star,
She's the star of that package.She could be there as the eye
candy and as the charisma, butyou have Coal behind her as the brains.

(40:42):
He's the Spengali of the whole thing. Yeah, that's like that could
get him over. But again,like they they bring him in and it's
like they just expect like this,this simple trans transition to happen. And
I've never booked a wrestling show inmy life and I'm not gonna act.
But I'm sure it's not that simple, you know, I'm sure you have
to Again, they just don't buildanything. It's just kind of like,

(41:06):
well, here he is. Youheard it on Twitter for weeks he's coming.
Well here he is, and nowand now now what do we do?
Oh? Well, we'll see you. This guy next and nine weeks
we'll get him on a right becausewe have the next eight weeks are all
debuts, you know, all theWWE cast are all coming and that look,
you're not gonna be able to dothat forever. Like they've got to
build storylines that resonate to the pointwhere that one point two million sticks around

(41:30):
every week. And this is thealternative to the big bad WWE. And
quite frankly, you know, wCW never really promoted himself as the alternative.
They were just the better wrestling promotion, not until Bishoff made him where
the big boys play, you know. But um, it's like, well,
you're most of your matches now areall former WWE guys. M Don't

(41:53):
get me wrong, these most ofthose guys are really good, thus why
they were in the WWE. Butuh, they got to stop signing people
or they have to start another show. Do you think Wyndham Rotondo bray Wyatt's
gonna end up there eventually? Oh, I'm sure, because the payroll just
doesn't stop. And again everyone theydo it for that initial pop and everyone

(42:19):
goes nuts and oh my god,bray Wyatt's all elite and they're gonna have
Jim Ross and Tony marking out forhim, and I get they have to,
but then it's like, well,now what do we do with him?
Yeah? I mean I see himon Dark next week or no,
what's rampage? You know? Rosshas been better lately, He's got fire

(42:40):
back, you know. And it'sit's not he's doing his job. He's
paid to get these guys over.I shouldn't think he's better, he's just
he's more like the old school Ross. Now more of that fire is coming
out, yeah, which he couldn'tlet out before because it was dogshit.
So there's a lot of good thingsI but there's also still a lot of

(43:00):
bad. And I've said I saidit before and I said it again.
I know it's like a young companyfilled with young people, and they want
to be different, they want tobe the alternative. But I think again,
they have Jim Ross, they haveChivanni, they have a lot of
people have many years in the wrestlingbusiness. This is where Tony Khan needs

(43:20):
to I think. I don't wantto say grow up because that sounds kind
of like a like a a dissand it's not. But I think Tony
kan needs to sit down it's like, like, I need your wisdom.
You know, you guys have beenin this for years. Can you help
me start to Let's talk about betterbookings and story building, you know.
And I don't know how often thathappens. I don't know if it can

(43:45):
happen that much or else. Hedoesn't listen a lot of the time because
they do things that are nonsensical alot of the time. Now, I'll
give Tony Khan credit. He's wearinga lot of fucking hats. He's like
president, CEO, yeah, headmatchmaker, book or whatever, producer,
But he doesn't know everything. Idon't care if he's watched wrestling like like
we have for a million years.You need to listen to the experts in

(44:06):
the business. And if you werelistening to guys like Aren't Anderson or Jim
Ross or yeah, uh, Imean Jake Roberts was you know he was
gonna be on the creative team forWWE, Like, you have this guy
at you, you have these resourcesat your fingertips. Let's just go through
him. You have Jim Ross,you have Tony Schivanni, you have Jake
Roberts, Chard, Tolly Blanchard,Um, Chris Jericho, Billy Gunn.

(44:31):
I mean just I'm just saying Chris, Jericho, Billy Gunn, all of
these, all of these guys,all White, Mark, Henry Mark,
Mark, Henry Paul White. That'sa lot. I mean, that is
a lot to pull in and say, Look, we're not trying to get
too many cooks in the kitchen here, but you guys have been in the
business for years upon years, probablyone hundred years, all of them combined.

(44:54):
Um, and I think those thosepeople should be around the table with
Kenny Omega, with the young bucks. All the new ideas too. Is
another one we didn't mention, butlook how good punks angles because punks himself,
Punk has a lot of say inthe way those angles go. But
at least they're logical. They makesense, so they build properly for wrestling.
The segments don't go. It isn'tlike the dual this dually microphone should

(45:16):
I want to get to that ina minute. But two more questions about
aw really quick. Yes, whatdo you think Awardlow? I dig him.
And again he's the big, big, scary guy. I the power
bomb thing is really cool. Ithink he's got to kind of now,
Bob Symphony. Yeah, that's prettygood. I think like it was cool

(45:38):
for a while. It still is, but now they gotta they gotta build
him a little bit more. It'sgoldberg esque, isn't it. We get
it. I don't think CM punkshould have beat him. I thought that
was stupid. Do you think thatWardlow is the blue Chipper future main events
superstar that Jim Ross thinks he is? He could be. I mean he's

(46:00):
got he's got the look, he'sgot. Something's missing for me, something
I don't know what it is.Maybe I just haven't seen enough personality from
him yet. His facials are good. He looks like a fucking trillion dollars.
He's clearly a great athlete. Um, he's becoming huge. He's associated
with main event guys. That's agood start. They've got him in the
bodyguard position for the stars. Yeah, but there's a piece missing, and

(46:23):
you see what everybody else is seeingyet I dig him, But yeah,
there is there is something missing.Maybe he'll just come with time, and
as you get to know him betterand you see more, maybe he'll let
more come out and then he canbe more expressive both in the ring and
on the stick. Almost when yousay, Wardlow, you just think of
MJF like you don't. You don'tthink of him independently. You always think

(46:45):
like he's part of it. Andagain that's what happens to these bullshit factions,
like you can't take these guys whenthey're on their own. Now,
it kind of is like, thisis awkward, this is now. Now.
As I say that, I thinkback to the early nineties and I
early to mid nineties, and Iremember Diesel and Sean Michaels. But remember,
well, no, I'm not talkingabout the factions thing. I'm talking

(47:06):
about the guy who's with the star. When Diesel was with Shawn Michaels,
it was a similar thing. AndI didn't see Deesel as a star because
he had been fucking viny Vegas andOZ and WC. I certainly didn't see
him as a star. But excuseme when when he became the huge star
Keavin Nash that we all know nownow, it's like, oh my god,

(47:27):
how could you not have seen it? But he wasn't showing that level
of personality as when he first camein as Diesel the bodyguard for Shawn Michaels.
He wasn't showing any of that whenhe let him, when they let
him be himself, then I sawthe star. The same thing with Rains,
when they let Rains be the godliketribal chief, the head of the
table. I finally saw the starthat Vince saw those years ago. I
finally saw the whole thing. AndI think that's what Wardlow's missing for me.

(47:51):
I haven't found whoever the real guyis. I don't think you're seeing
it yet. I don't think you'reseeing the real guy's personality come out the
way it needs to. Yeah,I mean, I think he definitely has
hope. He's I think his innring stuff is pretty good. You know,
he's that big guy who's gonna throwyou around, you know, big
beach up type of guy, thebig monster. But it's again, that's

(48:12):
what these factions I think kind ofcan sometimes kill you because and then a
lot of times I find myself onthe Showmack, wait a minute, like
who's he with again? You know, because you got this guy and then
this guy and then now the youknow, the inner Circle is now baby
Fate. It's just well they're breakingup now too. You got Santana and

(48:32):
ortis going against Jericho, Yeah,Jericho and uh you know what's Jake Hager.
That'll be interesting. I'd like tosee a Jericho in Santana few and
I think that could be real good. I would say that's my biggest criticism
though, of aw The two thingsis the size or lack thereof UM and

(48:52):
Yeah, the factions, you know, it's just uh, it's they're too
big in every single person is ina faction. It's it's kind of obnoxious.
And they still I think when youhave all those factions and the size,
just like with UM you know,w W, we talked about it
like WrestleMania when Roman Reigns and brockLesner come out to that ring clash of

(49:15):
the Titans, that is I mean, as much as I enjoy AWY,
they can't even put a flame tothat moment. It's Hollywood blockbuster final scene,
final fights something. That's what itfeels like. It feels like the
marquee match of all marquee matches.And I think WW iman has a couple
factions maybe yeah, I mean,but again there's still building up their big

(49:40):
guys, you know what I mean. And well, we would be we
would be remiss and not mentioning oneother thing about aw before we move on
to the final segment, which willbe our rumble review or not a full
review, but we'll talk about therumble. Hello, we forgot some when
we were talking about those old starsdust and Rhodes. For God's sah,
of course, Yeah, you shouldn'tforget what an amazing, what an amazing

(50:00):
athlete that he's still wrestling at onewrestlers. I mean, he's wrestling like
he is like in his twenties.Yeah, he's got those Terry Funk jeans
man like Terry Funk was like thattoo. He was as good in his
fifties as he was in his earlyforties and late thirties. I think Dustin's
amazing. What an amazing athletes.By the way, I actually tweeted does
very nice guy. He responded toyour tweet. I forgot what it was.

(50:22):
This was probably like six eight monthsago to tweeted something. I tweeted
that and uh and he liked it, so, you know, engaged with
his fans. Seems like a verydown to earth, down to earth guy.
Are you saying that you feel likeyou and Dustin Rhodes have some kind
of like a friendship where he couldget us tickets. Dustin is actually sitting
next to me right now. Ohokay, okay, I thought I saw

(50:44):
some I thought I saw some littlegold spot there. It was that it
was his outfit, Cody Rhodes speakingof how can yeah uh, he allegedly
and I say allegedly has left aw and so has his wife brand they
have let their contracts expire. Ineed to ask you this, and I'm
so glad you brought that up.I try, I tried to understand this.

(51:08):
Why did everyone turn their back onhim? It became trendy? That
was it? Like what I thought. Cody Rhodes was awesome, like I
think they have by far, likehe was. He's awesome in the ring.
Um, he's always had, forthe most part, good matches.
He was always the most interesting thingon the show. Most the most angles

(51:29):
he was involved in were I meana major pill. I mean he got
a ew up and going and thenhe's crazy. Just start trashing this guy
because he did what a reality show? Is that? What it was?
Well, it's first of all,they don't like his wife because she's a
publicity horrors. She's got to goand that's what his only gun's got to
say, get out of here.Yeah, I agree, and maybe maybe
she was the main if it ifit is legit that they're gone, and

(51:51):
I don't know if it is,I still smell a work here myself.
I think that they just the waythat all of them put out uniform statements,
it was the same exact thing,thanking each other, big part of
the building, the company, blahblah blah. Then why are you letting
him go? Cody Rhodes has spentfour years, six years trashing the WWF
very subtly, but he's been doingit. He's been making fun of Triple
h H. He clearly sees himselfor maybe not making fun of Triple H

(52:14):
but taking shots at Triple H.Yeah. Yeah, that that whole thing.
Uh. The last time he wasthere, they painted him like a
carnival geek and called him Stardust.Why in the world would he want to
go back to the WWE? AndTony Khan has allowed him to be the
Cody that he had always wanted tobe, that American nightmare character that he
built on the indies. He wasable to bring it to the big time
a w and he had his mostsuccess there by far, Why in the

(52:37):
world would he want to leave?Now this story is he wanted more money
than they were willing to give,which might be true. He's gonna sign
him and put him in Polka dots. Well, exactly, why would you
trust them? They're not gonna letyou be the American la you're allowed.
Yeah, look what they did toyour dad, So I look what they
did to you. Yeah, youknow, so I think that I personally,
if I had to bet money rightnow, I'm betting that this is

(53:00):
a work. Isn't that kind offunny? Don't you think about it?
Like, Okay, they put Dustyin this ridiculous outfit. Now, gold
Dust was a very very successful character. I mean turned out to be awesome.
But I mean, let's just calla spade a spade, a very
very um it became awesome because ofDustin Rhodes and his talent, but a

(53:22):
very very controversial, uh gimmick.Yes, And it's like, boy,
they're just like really hard on theroads, the real family, like you
know, you know what, thoughDustin Rhodes made his best career success as
gold does by far ironic, likehe he killed the gimmick anyway, and
when I was a kid, Iliked people. I liked Dusty and the

(53:43):
Polka Dots when I was a child, I thought he was a cool,
funny character. And also I didn'tlike start Us. I thought Stardust was
bullshit. But h Cody Rhodes,I can't imagine he'd be going back to
w W now if he's leaving sohe can go be a bigger star with
Brandy and they can be the newReality It couple. Maybe they're so their
egos are so out of control,that's how they see them themselves. Now,
Brandy Rhodes is beautiful, I'll giveher that, But the fact that

(54:06):
how tough she wants to come off, and how like awesome she wants to
be portrayed all the time, andhow much of a publicity horse she clearly
is, I can see why thefans turned on her. But no,
man like Cody was nothing without whathe's been in aw that is the real
guy. I can't imagine him givingthat up. And I think just the
way he's been floating that line wherehe's about to be red hot, white

(54:27):
hot as a heel, if theyturned him, maybe this is the way
to do it. He breaks hebreaks the contract, he leaves, everybody
thinks he's gone. Then all ofa sudden, he comes back as a
heel, and there's your million dollarplayer player that you can put against Punk,
that you can put against Danielson,that you can put against MJF and
whatever form you can put against Page, you can put him. He comes
back and he breaks the rule andsays, I'm going to challenge for the
world title. Now my contract expired. Any agreements under that contract are no

(54:51):
and void. So and I thinkthat I think that now is the perfect
time to do to do a listeningstunt, work, work the fans,
work the boys, and come back. I hope that's what it is,
because if not, I'm like,why the hell is he leaving? I
just don't know why, Like forall these months, like they hate it,
I mean loathed him, and Iwas like, this guy was like

(55:12):
the first pay per view, thedouble or nothing. I mean, that
was like one of the best matchesever and like everyone was all about you
know, Cody and Dustin, andall of a sudden, like, I
don't know, it's just weird.That's a really really weird, yeah story
unfolding there. It is. Itis it'll be interesting to see how it
goes well. Ricky. We've onlygot about ten minutes left here as we

(55:34):
are recording this in the evening,and we do have schedules to keep here,
so let's talk. I want totalk about two things. I want
to go over our thoughts on theRumble, and then I want to talk
about w w E promos that arekilling the fucking product worse than you could
kill it. No matter if youmatter, how try, how hard you
try to kill it, nothing couldkill goddamn bullshit. Scripted promos, soulless,

(55:55):
it's sucking the soul right out ofwrestling. It's fucking terrible, and
I want to talk about it.Um that being said, I watched the
Rumble, and as I was sittingthere by the way upstairs in my office
on the computer, by the way, the only way that a true wrestling
nerd watches his product, uh likea piece of garbage, and I watched
the show. I watched the show, Ricky, and I thought it was

(56:19):
one of the best shows they've donein the years, the Royal Run.
Really I did. And then Iwent online and saw everybody's ship all over
it. I love what was thefirst match, it was Roman Rains and
I got it up here. Igot it up here. It was Rains
and Rollins the Shield feud. Thatwas a great match and was a great
match. And then I don't know, I felt like after that it just
got uh, it kind of startedgoing downhill. Uh. The Goldberg,

(56:44):
I mean Goldberg h. The BobbyLashley brock Lessner, you kind of knew
what was I don't know. Ijust I didn't like that whole finish because
what was happening. I was hopinglastly was gonna come out because I love
Bobby lash I love Slurved behind wellhim and Charlotte Flair are tied for two.
Rains is number one. Uh.But first of all, Seth Seth

(57:06):
Rawlins has gone up major levels.In my book, we talked about it
last show we did. I likeSeth before I forget and I means to
cut you off, something that WWEdoes but just drives me fucking bonkers.
How they got to put these likecode words like now it's Seth freaking rollins
h. They can't call him Anddo you know, do you notice like

(57:28):
the announcers like really have to makeit a point, they have to say
Seth freaking Rollins. You know thatthey all have to say it. They
go crazy like they can't say,oh yes, Seth. They all it's
so stupid. Yeah, it's whatI'm trying to say. Every time you
refer to Randy Savage, you haveto say macho man, Randy Savage every
single time, you know what Imean. But you know he carried that

(57:49):
name, and that was like,where did this freaking Rawlins come in?
Like what? Here's why it worksfor me. That's as far as of
all the millions of dollars or thebillion dollars they have, that's the best
your creative thing can do is Sethfreaking Robins. I could see an says,
wow, that's great. I couldsee where you would think it was
stupid. Here's why I like itbecause he's been the fucking architect, He's

(58:13):
been the fucking shield guy. He'sbeen the Monday Night Messiah, he was
the drip god, and now finallyhe's just Seth freaking Rollins. I've been
round for a decade, I've wonthe world championship, i may have ended
WrestleManias. I'm Seth freaking Rollins andthat's all there is. To it.
That's what I like about it.It's like, Okay, they've stripped away.
I like that he's still wearing thecrazy suits as the drip god,
and he's got that personality where he'slaughing at people and he's like this.

(58:36):
He described it as like a midlifecrisis joker. I don't know if I
see that or not, but whatI do see, I've never really explained
what this is. They haven't,but in a way, they don't have
to anymore because it finally fits himenough that you accept it's him. And
I thought, look, look howquickly he jumped into a monster baby face
role against Rains. I think Rollinsis still good. It's a great match.

(59:00):
Um then it had from down therejust kind of in my opinion,
maybe that was in the right moodand I was just I was just enjoying
it. Maybe I maybe I hada little too many herbal supplements that day
and my medicine, uh for mydaily medication. I don't know, but
for me, I enjoyed it.I even liked Lynch and do Drop.
I liked just about everything. Iliked all the surprises and the women's rumble

(59:22):
that Ronda rows. He ended upwinning the thing, eliminating Charlotte to set
that feud up for WrestleMania. Charlottewas still I liked that was fantastic.
Humble match was a little. Uh, that's the one everybody's shipping all over
is the men's rumble? What whatwas it about? Just not enough surprises?
It wasn't good enough action. Whatdidn't you like about it? Because

(59:44):
I don't know, maybe I wasstupid, but I didn't expect Lessner to
come back in and wom it.Yeah. Well yeah, I'm a Drew
MacIntire mark. So I hated,you know, having him, having him
lose and then I don't know,it's like Lesner Lessner loses, people feel
that disappointment. I got the vibeof like WrestleMania nine at the end with
the whole you know, the beltand remember what hegan comes out and the

(01:00:05):
wins. I could just pack theback like that. He got that Wrestlemanian
nine vibe, like, you know, let the audience kind of simmer and
be upset, you know, Lesnerlost. Yeah, I can hear that
now. I was I think Iwas marking out because I really wanted lastly
to finally be like like for themto go all the way and push him
as a main eventor and when Rainscame out and screwed Lessener out of the

(01:00:28):
belt and you not only did youreunite Rains and Hayman, which was the
right thing to do, whether thetiming was off or not, at least
they're back together. They're the bestpackage. Was better than NEUTERD Hayman and
with NEUTERD Lessner like that wasn't gonnawork Bob last year. By the way,
big MVP fan, I like himon the mic. MVP is fucking
awesome as his I don't think yeswork of his career. MVP is doing

(01:00:49):
the best work of his career.No way. Yeah, I don't know
how anybody can can not admire howhe's doing. And Bobby Lashley is a
fucking amazing beast. He deserves tobe in the main event. And the
fact that how they package him,they package him in this suit and the
glasses, he gets that big mainevent feel, you know, star athlete.
Yeah, star athlete. I thinkthat I think he is the and

(01:01:10):
honestly meant, Rains and Rollins anduh and Lashly and Lessner to me were
totally main events that I was willingto see. If I had a bit
of a pay per view, i'dhave bought it for those two matches.
Yeah, I really would have.Now Here, Here's what I thought was
going to happen. I thought afterhe screwed Lessner out of the title.
I thought the fact that he screwedLesser out of the title would just set
up their few. The winner ofthe Royal Rumbull would go on and face

(01:01:32):
Lashly and that would be their win, and then he could just program Lessner
and Rains to finally hash out alltheir differences and have the big blow off
at WrestleMania. I wasn't expecting himto come back and win the Rumble so
he could then pick his his championthat he wanted to challenge. That did
surprise me. A lot of peoplewere like, it was the most predictable
thing in the world. It justwasn't to me that day. So um

(01:01:54):
and Shane McMahon ended up losing hisjob over that rumble. If the dirt
she are correct, Did you hearthat bit? Yeah, so apparently him
and Vince had a little dust up. I forgot all about Shane McMahon until
that night. I was like,oh, that's right. He is like
in his fifties. Now it's timefor Shane to just relax, like,

(01:02:14):
you're not gonna be the world's champion. Shane. Congratulations, you helped draw
that house in in Texas with theUndertaker years ago, even though I said
it was a shitty idea. Butyou're you're you're you're seven or eight years
older than that now or maybe more, and it's time to stop pushing him
in any way. I do thinkit's time have him come in for the
appearance here and there, maybe puthim off with a feud with somebody,

(01:02:35):
and I can, I can.I'm fine with that. Have Shane have
his feud, but like not atthe top of the card. Um.
Yeah, so Ricky Drew McIntyre,I think the biggest issue for him will
be here. Here's what I thinkis gonna happen. I think Drew McIntyre
is going to be the one thatfinally dethrones Rains after Rains beats the Rock.
I think Rains is gonna go awhole other year with the title.

(01:02:59):
They're gonna put him over Lessner,They're gonna smash him over everybody for the
next year. He's going to beatthe rock and that, as I said
before, is gonna put him onthat Austin Hogan, Sam Martino, Sina
the top guy, top top guylevel. Right, I wouldn't rule it
out, um, And then Ithink McIntyre will take it from him.
After that he'll be the conquering baby'sface that finally ends the three or four

(01:03:21):
year reign of Roman reigns. That'sI think Drew stays healthy. Drew McIntyre
should be a household name. Imean, little kids should be all over
this. I mean he's like acomic book, you know, comic book
here when he's scored and the kiltslike, he's got movie star good looks
too, movie starts with him downthe road. Yeah, he's a good
looking guy. He's got personality,he's funny. He's funny. Um,

(01:03:45):
I mean he is like the totalpackage. I think Jimmick is awesome.
I like him as the I likehim as the baby face. Personally me
too, he's better. He's betteras the baby face. I mean,
he was a good heel, butthe baby face is like wow, he
could really like the beginning of theshow, I shit all over because they
were making him too goofy. Theywere making him a happy go lucky.
Now he's a baby face and youget to you get the humor in the

(01:04:06):
lighter side. But when he needsto turn on the badass Scottish warrior,
he can heard and the fireworks.I mean, that's that's just money.
And uh it's a shame because youknow, he obviously won WrestleMania when there's
no one in the in the audience. So I feel like the best is
yet to come for it. ButI hope so he's I think you're right

(01:04:27):
about that. I think the bestis yet to come. And I and
the only thing I'll say is Idon't think that. Uh. I think
if he can stay healthy. He'sgot a bad neck, which concerns me
a little bit because if there's anythingthat's going to shorten your career, it's
gonna be head issues or neck issues. Um. I'm looking forward to seeing
Charlotte Flair and Rohnda Rousey talk abouta big time main event and they're building
too. Eventually down the road,Lynch and Rousey, you've got the obviously

(01:04:53):
the rains Lessner feud is gonna peakat WrestleMania. I can't wait to do
the review of that show. Um, I wonder what they're gonna do with
guys like lash I and Rollins orlast yean Rollin's gonna fight for the WWF
title, or they're gonna have Lessnergo over at Elimination Chamber and have the
main event be title for title.I guess you could do that at this
point to add like maximum amount ofjuice to that match. I kind of
predict they probably will, But nowthose are kind of are kind of intertwined.

(01:05:17):
They ought to just do away withthis fuckings said that. I know,
we's have one belt. Yeah,I have one belt, at least
for the world title. It shouldbe one fucking belt if you need to
have two tag team champions or twomiddleweights whatever, But like the championship should
be the championship, because correct meif I'm wrong. The belt on WWE

(01:05:39):
Raw is supposed to be the Superiorbelt, correct, because it's the original.
It's the WWE title now, nottaking away from Bobby last year.
It's Bobby Lashley is awesome. However, Roman Reigns is obviously up a few
runs from Bobby, So now yourinferior belt is kind of like the you
see it's kind of goofy. Yeah, you know, it's kind of stupid,

(01:06:01):
is it waters the whole ship down? Because yeah, like your main
event belt is kind of like secondmost important now. So I hope if
that's the direction that if it takesa title for title match, to turn
it back into one belt and that'show it ends up and Rains is the
Champion of Champions, sign me upfor that all day long. Yeah,

(01:06:24):
that would be That would be awesome, merging having and having one belt again,
too many belts. We've said itbefore, just too much, too
much, too much, too much. Well, Ricky, it's been another
very informative, intriguing, energetic,opinionated, and awesome quarterly summit here for
two rows. We will see eachother again in person at the old Hershey

(01:06:46):
Park Arena here coming up not toolong from now, what is it next
week or the week after? Isnext week the twenty fifth? So you
mentioned that's going to be a stackshow. Rains is going to be there
a lessener Rousey I think you saidwas going to be there, right,
So I'm really looking forward to thatone. Uh, and uh, I'm
looking forward to watching WrestleMania with youor at least talking about with you right

(01:07:09):
afterwards. And yeah, I'm doing. Yeah, well, I'm gonna have
the boys over for Wrestleman. We'regonna do it up. That'll be fun.
And I think also, I justheard that WWE is pushing real hard
to get Steve Austin back to wrestle. Kevin Owens, have you heard this?
Oh God, it's Texas. Theyand and and right now they've only

(01:07:30):
sold fifty thousand tickets per night.They've got to put a hundred thousand.
You're going to wrestle them to givethem the rights back to the stunner.
Well, I don't know what anglethey're they'll do. But I like Kevin
Owens. I do. But there'ssomething goofy about those stunners that he I
don't know what it is. Itjust that's why about it. That's why
I think I like Kevin Owens.I like his style, you know,
like though I don't like the stunner. Yeah, that is like such a

(01:07:55):
like a niche finisher. I justfeel like you just can't it. Should
have lived and died with Steve assshould have lived and died with Steve all
And I think Kevin Owens is sounique in himself that like, dude,
you can't come up like you're theguy at two hundred and sixty pounds doing
flips off the top rope, butyou can't come up with your own finish.
Now, I personally don't think thatAustin will do the match at based

(01:08:15):
on everything that's happened over the lastdecade, I don't think Austin is going
to do the match. But ifhe does, Owens is probably a good
guy to put him against because hecan beat Owens. It won't tell Owens
to lose to Steve Austin and SteveAston. It can be a brawl.
It can be sure. He cando it street clothes if he needs to,
and he can. He can.They can make it stunner versus stunner.
That's easy to understand, and yougive the big pot for Texas.

(01:08:35):
What they really need, Steve Auston, though, for is to sell more
tickets because we're what two months outfrom WrestleMania and the both stadiums are only
slated to be half full at thispoint because they're doing two Knights. Remember
that they're trying to put one hundredthousand people in the stadium two knights in
a row, and that's a lotof tickets to sell. Man, So
you need a big draw and that'swhy I know why they do it for

(01:08:56):
the money. But I don't likethe two night thing. It's uh,
it's it's not like it used tobe. But you look, they got
out of control with the one nightthing where it was eight hours long.
I know, I just why youdon't company on the show three hours,
give your fans the greatest matches youcan in those three hours, matches,

(01:09:18):
Like why does it have to bejust so like it's a super Bowl.
They don't have every team in thesuper Bowl. And I'm a big wrestling
fan and I enjoy watching wrestling,but I mean, it's not like I
just have to keep watching it.If I'm not invested in it, I
don't care. I'm gonna be onmy phone if I'm not invested in this
match, I don't care. RightAnd if you and if you're tuning out,

(01:09:38):
then that match shouldn't have been onthere. If you're tuning out enough,
that match was not. But Iknow there's people that won't be able
to get enough. They'll be jerkingoff the wrestling for eight hours for two
nights. You know, is goldDust right next to you jerking off at
this conversation you mentioned he was rightthere? Yes, yes, you do
you have anything else for the tworows fans, Ricky, any last statement

(01:10:00):
do you want to leave them withabout what's kind of harestlemania Excited about the
way things are going. It's goingto be interesting in the next couple of
months to see, uh, youknow what what the companies do, and
it always things going and some kindof cool. But uh, well,
I want to I want to personallythank the audience for hanging with us and
joining us back for these quarterly summits, which is all we're able to do

(01:10:20):
at the current moment with all theother stuff on our you know, proverbial
plates. But I want to say, uh, as we round this out.
You know, you haven't heard thisfor me in a while, but
fans two roles from ringside fans,I want to say happy trails to you
until we meet again.