WWE UNREAL_ WHO WAS THIS SHOW MADE FOR_

WWE’s New Documentary “Unreal” Gives Fans the Backstage Pass of a Lifetime
We break down the brand-new WWE Unreal series — a behind-the-scenes look at the road to WrestleMania 41. From Cody Rhodes’ title run to Rhea Ripley’s injury comeback, CM Punk’s return, and Jey Uso’s singles push, this is the closest you’ll get to Gorilla Position without a credential. Our hosts bring two very different perspectives:

One – a lifelong fan who knows the ins and outs of wrestling production.
The other – a newer fan seeing it all with fresh eyes. We cover:

• How Unreal balances hype with genuine behind-the-scenes insight
• The creative process and match production revealed
• Which moments will hit hardest for longtime fans
• How new fans can jump into WWE 

What did YOU think of Unreal? Drop your thoughts in the comments.  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, welcome. We are revisiting themania, primarily Wrestlmingia Rewatch podcast.
I'm Carlos and I'm Maria.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome back to revisiting the media, where we relive wrestling's wildest, weirdest,
and most wonderful moments. Today we're diving into the new
WWE Unreal documentary, a look at how pro wrestling has
always blurred the line between fantasy and reality. The stock

(00:37):
Scott Legends work shoots backstage drama, enough backstage drama to
fill an Attitude era wrestling script. Yeah, it sounds about it.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
That's pretty good. Good at at this, and thank you
for joining us for this. If you're still here and
we not clicked away, thank you. We've made our two
year anniversary. Sorry we didn't post out anything or anything

(01:20):
like that, but we've been doing this for two years
and we have grown. Not only have we surpassed forty
thousand views as a channel combined, but we've also gotten
over one hundred subscribers currently at one hundred and seven.
So thank you for taking out your time. Who's ever

(01:42):
watching this listening to this? Because we do also have downloads.
We're nearing five thousand downloads on audio podcast as a
whole Audible, Spotify, Yeah, wherever you want to listen to us.
So thank you very much for continuing to support us.
And with that we will get into our breakdown. As

(02:04):
a season fan of wrestling and as my wife is
a newer fan to Mark. Yeah, so this ww.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
E Unreal Documentaries is crafted for you? Had this question?

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah, like who was this show made for?

Speaker 2 (02:24):
What was it made for?

Speaker 1 (02:25):
You?

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Was made for me? Fans who love wrestling or the
story behind the story? Who was it made for? What's
your take on it?

Speaker 1 (02:37):
I don't know. And this is like fans, like longtime fans.
We've listened to the sheets, whether it's like they melted
from Wrestling Observer Online or Sean Ross uh seen Ross
on SRS and like many other she out there. I'm

(03:01):
not mentioning other sheets because because there's like so many
out there, but those are like the big main ones.
So mostly all of this has already been covered and
probably would have been like if you're a smart Mark,
you would have been already covering this or known about
how all of this unfolds.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Could it be for a few people, So, like you said,
smart fans, smarts like Carlos people who follow WWE and
the behind the scenes drama from the dirt sheets to
shoot interviews. They know what the k fab is, uh,
they know about the Montreal screw Job, and they appreciate

(03:42):
these narratives as much as these main event matches. You know,
they enjoy content like dark side of the ring or
the ringer, or they want like this real behind the
scenes take and what's really going on. I think this

(04:03):
is also for wrestling nostalgics. Nostalgics and casual fans like me.
I would call myself a casual fan, even though I'm
a smart market training fans who grew up on WWE
in the eighties, nineties or that Ruthless Aggression era but
kind of drifted away. I think it's also for people

(04:23):
that are interested in docuseries like we watched The Last Dance, PEPSI,
Where Is My Jet? Or Untold Saw, people that love
that storytelling. And I think it's for newcomers too. You know,
wrestling is has always been a mainstay, but now it's
kind of like we're seeing this legendary growth, and I

(04:46):
think it's a good time for something like this to
come out. They're striking while the iron's hot.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
What do you think, Oh, I can see that where
I'm not sure how it fits more with nostalgic fans
because mostly everything that they cover from this timeline is
from when the Netflix era kind of begins, which was
January sixth, but it also kind of goes back to

(05:15):
the Saturday night main event that they have in December.
So I can see where you have your note where
it's to bring in the newer casule consumers of the product.
I can actually look at that as probably being their

(05:37):
main one because as at this point in time, you know,
Netflix like might have cooked more people where they would
have been like, well, I've watched it, like you mentioned
in the eighties and nineties, and I've kind of fell
off the bandwagon and now I'm jumping back in. But

(05:58):
now you kind of like, why, as Hunter put in
his introduction, pulled back the curtain, why now have they
seen successes with other documentaries like the previous one that
we did where they did the Wrestlmingia nine Becoming the Spectacle.
They also did another documentary which primarily was on YouTube,

(06:23):
where they kind of revealed the behind the scenes of
wrestling forty So maybe they're getting more and more clicks,
more views, more hype, behind the scenes things, and decided
to go ahead and come up with something like this.
You can say that, so was there anything that stuck

(06:47):
up to you? What was we'll get into this. What
are your initial impressions of unreal as you being a
smart mark and draining, you don't read the sheets. You
primarily you do follow some people on Twitter. You do
ask me some of these questions like, Okay, have you
seen this? Have you seen that? So? Was there? Yeah?

(07:08):
Was there anything that stuck out to you when you
initially went If you want to go episode by episode
where you can do that, or if you just want
to go over all ahead.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well, some of the interesting things to me are that
Triple H we're part of. Like they were in the
Gorilla Room, so I like the throwback where they talk
about gorilla and the origin of the Gorilla Room and
that's where everything starts happens the stories. They're all wearing
their colms, they're all watching everybody do their moves. They're

(07:40):
congratulating people when they go out to their matches. So
that was pretty cool. I can see where some people
were like, but the k FABE so they're kind of like,
you know, upset to see that part of it. But
to me, I assume that there was a situation like
that where you have not only a gorilla room, because
I've seen that in past WrestleMania's, but one. We know

(08:04):
that this is televised. We know that most of it
is scripted, so it was nice to see the behind
the scenes of how they put on this really big
show because it is a one a big show too.
You have a live audience. Three sometimes this is televised

(08:25):
live in person, so we're watching this as it's happening.
So you have a lot of moving pieces that need
to be orchestrated in order for this to be successful.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Right, And if you're deciding to watch us first instead
of actually watching the documentary, let me go ahead and
get you familiar. Now. Gorilla position, which is I took
a speech shot, is named after the guy the wrestling yes,
Gorilla Monsoon, who if you've been watching wrestle Mania's like

(09:01):
primarily my wife was to get us up to speed
before we attend the Wrestlemen forty. Gorilla Monsoon was a
talent first and then he transitioned to being an on
air talent doing commentary with Vince McMahon and he kind
of was the one that was instrumental along with Fins
with booking it. And there's a picture of him as

(09:23):
they're kind of building Gorilla. As they mentioned in the documentary,
they built Gorilla in every place and it's all custom
built and they showed us as you know, how it's
custom built compared to where it is in the stadiums,
and the positions in Gorilla changed, but the positions don't

(09:47):
change as much as who is in the room. It's
always Triple H. It's always Bruce Pritchard, who is known
as Brother Love. Bruce Pritchard has been with the company
for a very long time, off and on, and this
is I think one of his longer stints. And if
you don't know who Bruce Richard is, here he is

(10:08):
and what he looks like now. They also have the
match producers. They have many match producers that pretty much
work with the talent. They break down the match and
they take the talent on how each match should work.
Many of the match producers here, we have the glorious one,

(10:31):
Bobby Rude. He's no longer an on air talent. Yes,
he works behind the scenes. Unfortunately, now there's another guy
here who's been at it for a very long time,
a fabulous freebird Michael Hayes, Michael PSAs, Do I have
any more here? There are other ones that are I

(10:55):
didn't get a picture of. But there is also Tice
Kid who's known His government name is TJ. Wilson. That's
also here. Jamie Noble is shown breaking down the match
with CM Punk before Wrestlmania forty. Jason Jordan is also
in there, and who else today the man called an

(11:20):
Abyss whose real name is Chris Park And if there's
other ones that I missed, please feel free to drop
it in the comments. So this was created? Bye?

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Have you watched The Ringer?

Speaker 1 (11:37):
I haven't watched The Ringer. I know that it's executively
produced by Peyton Manning, which, yes, if you're thinking about
Peyton Manning, the quarterback for the Indianapolis close in the
Denver broad Goals, Yes, that is him, Peyton Manning of
NFL football fame, along with his production company Omaha Productions

(12:00):
I believe it's called Omaha Studios. UH is the one that,
along with WWE, produced this documentary.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Wow, So when you talk about it being made, you
made a lot of good points, and then I talked
through a few points about who the audience is for
and why this is being made. We also talked about
it being a good time with them streaming on Netflix.
And now for those spoiler alert if you haven't heard

(12:29):
over this past week, they're going to be going over
to ESPN Sports, which has been you know, a point
of contention, you know, across the interwebs. So I think
it took a good time for them to capitalize on
this wrestling resurgence that we're seeing. Like we talked about

(12:51):
wwees experiencing a hot streak.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
For those of you that watch, we have the Bloodline storyline,
which is epic. They have record ratings. They also have
new ownership under TKO and Endeavor, So we've talked vor
and Devour for as Divorce or Nerves. Okay, so there

(13:18):
is high demand, uh for smart content like this. So
one of the things that I do like, and I'm
glad that you show these images, is that we were
able to see these images on TV or on the
screen while we were watching. And I'm a fan of
a visual so it was nice and nice to see
those visual outtakes, including the timeline from each individual match

(13:44):
like a RAW all the way to WrestleMania, which I
thought was pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah, I think you meant talking about this timeline, yes,
where they put up the calendar. So when they're filming
this initially, I guess they're showing us that they started
this November of twenty twenty four, but actually the earliest
thing that we get here is the Saturday Nights main
event that took place in December fourteenth of twenty twenty four,

(14:12):
because that's when they have that match with Cody and
Kevin Owens and where he ends up doing that spike
pile driver that's kind of or that smap or the
package pile drivers what they call it. And they start
in this episode, the first one, which is called a

(14:32):
New Era, which leads up to the first Raw on
January sixth of twenty twenty five, which launches Netflix the
Netflix Era onto the WWE universe.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Okay, so you're talking about this first the first episode.
How many episodes are out with the four.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
There's a total of five episodes. Each one has I
guess their own type of theme to it. So the
first one I mentioned is called the New Era. The
second one is called the Push. The third one is
called Worth the Wait, the fourth one is called Heel Turn,

(15:10):
and then the fifth and final one of this. One
of this, I guess you can call it a season
is WrestleMania. Because they have already said that they are
going to be coming out with future I guess they're
getting me new by Netflix, and I'm shocked, and I'm
not shocked in this is what I meant that they're doing.

(15:32):
So then they're gonna come up with future episodes already
and the like. If you go into the Netflix one,
it says new episodes coming next year.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Nice, So we have five to start out in twenty
twenty five, so setting the stage new for a new era.
Episode one the roads for WrestleMania and WWE's debut on Netflix.
Like Carlos just mentioned, a few of the highlights that
I saw were the behind the scenes of ww strategic pivot,

(16:05):
like you were talking about after Endeavor's Antto's merger.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
There's a shot of the writer's room or where everyone
gets together with Hunter, just so you can have some
background while you're talking about that.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, I am just I have a question. Was this
the same writer's room where Edge was falling from during
that one met.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
That might not be the writer's room that you're thinking
about that took place on WrestleMania thirty six. This is
from their studio or from the office in Stanford, Connecticut, right,
so the one where that one might have been filmed

(16:45):
would have been in Florida.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
So we see this. Also we see Triple H, who's
basically the head of what's his official title.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
This official title is the Chief Creative Content Officer.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
I mean he is the face of WWE.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
We see his Yeah, he is primarily the face they
put forward, even though he's not the CEO like nickkn
But whenever someone has a problem, whether it's the ESPN deal,
if it's the way a match started or away the
match finished or something, they're always like Triple H, Triple H,

(17:31):
Triple H. So he is undoubtedly the face now that
Stephanie is no longer in there of whenever you have
a problem or if you love the ways of theme
book is booked, then Triple H gets all the credit.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
And which we do see is Stephanie on occasion like
she's still there. And then after watching this documentary, I
think I was a little surprised that he was so
involved in every match, So I was a little surprised.
I figured, like at the top that maybe they come
in every so often, maybe they'll do like a spot

(18:07):
here and there where they come in during like a
match or something like that for nostalgia. But I was
surprised to see that he was like so very involved
in the match. So were you surprised or did you
kind of No.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
I kind of figured that it'd be like that because
he learned from Vince, and Vince was always involved in
in the writer's room, and you know, talking to all
of the writers, which we get a little bit here.
We get a hold of at Koski, who is introduced

(18:41):
to us in this documentary is being going to be
as one of the senior writers here. And then this
also Jonathan Bankstrom is also mentioned here in the writer's room.
We don't get a lot of more of introductions of
people in the writer's room, right. Those are some of

(19:01):
the ones that were highlighted that I wanted to get
some names to faces that they're shown here because they're
showing us these faces for a reason. These are gonna
be kind of like how you think about the TV
documentary style that you get from like series like The
Office or Parks and Recreation and Superstar. You know, they're

(19:24):
showing us these characters for a reason. They're showing you
the names to these people for a reason, so you
could get familiar. So when they're doing more of these
episodes in the future, you're already familiar with them, like, Hey,
that's Michael Ps. Hey, Hey that's you know at Cosky.

(19:45):
Hey that's you know, Bobby Rude they're introducing, right, but
for like the people like now, when you see them
on TV, you're gonna be like, hey, that's you know,
that's Bobby Rude, or hey, that's It's part. That's Abyss
who's worried in the first episode that the CM Punk

(20:05):
and Seth Rollins match on the Netflix era is going over.
So he's actually apologizing in real time to Bruce Pritchard
because they're going over time, and he's always like, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, we're trying to cut it. We're trying to
cut it because the timekeeper. They're trying to say that
they need they're going too long, and everyone, you know,

(20:28):
we weren't the only ones, but everyone assumed, just because
they're on Netflix that they had all the time in
the world, and matches will not be cut short or
matches won't be going long, but they still are kind
of holding on to keeping the raw show kind of
like get the two forty two hours thirty minute to

(20:50):
two hours of forty minute mark.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
Which I can appreciate because after three hours you probably
have lost me, and if it's been a long day,
you probably lost me after about who knows, sometimes even
fifteen minutes. Something about the sound wrestling that likes to
well me to sleep. What I do like is seeing
the evolution for Triple H. So if you've been a
long time wrestling fan, or if you're like a smart

(21:15):
market training like myself casual watcher, then you'll recall a
Hunter Helmsley, was it Hunter Hurst Helmsley and his renaissance
Garb when he first started wrestling, So like, what a
transition from him being a wrestler in the ring to
now being like creative director over these matches. So that's

(21:38):
pretty impressive to see his trajectory from beginning to like now.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Now you talk about you still referred to it as
renaissance Garb, but you we have been watching the Buccaneers
show on Apple TV, so I'm surprised you didn't reference
it being the Buccaneers, garb and you just also down
to Abby the Buccaneers and the Gilded Age.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
So but go ahead, oll, I imagine that a punter was
on a ship, or one was on a ship, you'd
be wearing what he used to wear when he first
came out as a wrestler for what was it WWF
now E, thank you, I've learned something. So we get
to see the start is prepping for WrestleMania forty one,
especially Cody Roads, which I actually enjoy it to see

(22:28):
like his.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
Background, Cody Runnelds. You mean, has we got everyone's government name?
And if you were watching this and you were wondering,
what is John Cena's real name, It's John Cena. It's
John Cena, John Cena. His stage name is John Cena
and he goes by John Cena.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
I really enjoyed that part.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
So yeah, so seeing like them build, like trying to
have you connect with Cody. They show you his is
wife Brandy, They show you his daughter Liberty. They show
you a gingerbread Sean Michael's ornament, which if you didn't

(23:10):
know that Sweet Chim music was called sweet Chim music
because some Michael's is a real gingerbread man. You'll find
out in this documentary if you want to go ahead
and watch this. We get, you know, like I said,
introduced to other talents that are part of it. We
get the introduction to Charlotte Flair, we get the interview
from backing her in two thousand and eight, and then

(23:33):
young verreally young Charlotte, and we get her government name
which is Ashley Elizabeth Flear also known as Winkie, and
their stage name Charlotte Flair.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
So I have a question for you, So do you
consider this, like we have these different generations of wrestling,
do you consider it a new era or as a
just WWE repackaging, you know, using the same playbook. What
do you think?

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Well with this pulling back the curtain to quote again Hunter,
this is kind of a new era. They're kind of
introducing us to what it takes to produce a show
from beginning to end. The beginning being plotting it out,
how are we going to get this person over, whether

(24:28):
it's getting Jay Uso over, whether it's getting Cody Roads over,
whether it's getting John Cena over. Real Ripley is from
so on and so on. You know what it takes
to get a character from point A to point B,
the endpoint or wherever they needed to go. So we

(24:48):
get that here. So it could be the title or
the beginning episode can be taken as the beginning of
them showing us what it takes, or the beginning of
the Netflix air depending, But with this documentary, that's why
I'm taking it. This is the beginning of them showing
us what it takes to get a show off.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
So I have another question. Yeah, because I've been watching
these extra old episodes up until now, and one of
the points of contention for me is seeing these like
really rough, fun raw wrestlers back in the day, you know,
just like toughing it out and wrestling. Does WWE lose

(25:33):
anything by becoming more polished and more mainstream.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Well, let's get to this next chirom here. So this
is getting to the storytelling and the match production breakdown.
Do they lose anything?

Speaker 2 (25:46):
What?

Speaker 1 (25:47):
Just all depends how you think about them losing. Like
I know a lot of people, especially our friend of
the podcast, Raymond, was worried that this would break k
FABE and I feel like kfe which if you're not
sure what k fabe is and you're using us to

(26:12):
get to that type of knowledge. Thank you very much
for you know, choosing us and listening and hanging out.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
And if you haven't subscribed, subscribe to us comment seem
a five star review if you haven't done so.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
So ca fab is pretty much like taking of a
carnival pig Latin type of thing where it's means fake
or you know, the storyline they present via the character,
the gimmick that the talent is using. So do I

(26:48):
feel that this documentary does that? I think that kind
of started going away back in the late nineth mid
nineties when we started getting Vince McMahon as the on
screen character we had the Montreal screw Job. They kind
of started blurring. They started blurring the lines, and we

(27:09):
started getting wrestlers using their government name like Scott Hall
and Kevin Nash and John Cena. So if anything, this
is probably maybe gonna maybe you will get more people
going out there and has some people referred to as

(27:32):
fantasy booking. There is a lot of e games, like
people who use like the w W E two K
series or particular WWE game to create their own characters
and create their own storylines like that whole Nighthawks thing
that Nate used to be a part of.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
So so you think this is an opportunity.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
There should also be like, yeah, this could possibly be
an opportunity to motivate someone where like, hey, I knew
this was gonna happen or I plotted out this and
I was right. They just didn't use it, you know,
and maybe they'll start getting out there and maybe if

(28:19):
they don't start booking anything or start writing or coming
up for characters for the WWE, maybe seeing all the storytelling,
like what it takes to have a story being told,
or breaking down the match, because we get a whole
bunch of thing here with Tyson helping Charlotte break down

(28:40):
the match before Wrestlingia thirty one. We also get I
think it's Hurricane Shane Helms. They're going and plotting down
the match with Chelsea when she is winning her US
title for the first time. Sugar Sugar, Sorry, it's just

(29:05):
there's a boxer named Sugar Shane. But Hurricane Shane Holmes
is telling Chelsea that she should not use her unpretty
her finisher move, that he should use a leg drop,
and she's like, I've never used a leg drop before
in my life, and she's fighting against it. She does
end up using her pretty her move and we get

(29:28):
a behind the scenes look of I believe this is
it of her getting her chest plate or sideplate on
her belt after she wins the 's the inaugural United
States Women's Champion. So that was a fun moment when
we got that too. But just seeing that getting back
to my point is probably going to motivate more people

(29:49):
knowing that they were right up to a certain point,
and maybe the WWE people, the writers or you know,
Paul or Triple H or Chuck decided to go a
different way. So that's how I think this might because
now I think from being able to bounce ideas off

(30:12):
of people like Doyle, Dre and Raymond and other people
that I interact with online socially, we have been able
to predict some of these things and whether we got
the information from dirt cheats or not. So this is

(30:33):
a kind of going the way of how we have
spoilers now, like in television series where it's like people
are trying to get to the trying to find leaks
so they can go ahead and spoil the new Marvel movie,
like a Fantastic four or the most famous one is

(30:57):
the Marvel one. The whether it is, you know, the
Avengers and Infinity War, and people did not did not
know how the netroom was going to call it, which
is called the Avengers. But people had already known that.
It was like they had already leaked it that the
title was going to be Endgame. And the Russo brothers
and Marvel and Disney were you know, going all out saying, no,

(31:20):
it's not that's not the title of the movie. It's
not called Endgame. It's just called the Avengers. What was it?
That would have been four? So and then they ended
up using Endgame.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
So do you have anything else about this episode that
you like to talk about that we haven't covered. You
went over Chelsea.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Well, Chelsea is an episode three, so I have gone
ahead on it. I did want to. I did like
that they were showing more things behind the scenes. I
like this just because it's more recent, this shot of
Cmpung talking with Gunter, because more recently and so or
Slam Night one. Sampunk just had that match for Gunter

(32:04):
and he's always he called him their his European confidants.
So seeing that kind of it was pretty cool because
it's like it them having a good match, one of
the good, one of the best matches of Night one
makes more sense because they probably had the rapport. And

(32:27):
we've always said revisiting all of these WrestleManias back that
it seems like people that are always friends backstage seem
to have more better chemistry when it comes to WrestleMania matches.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah, I mean that's definitely a great observation. And I
think we see that when we see the Mommy.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah, when you see real showing her exposing her government
name of Demedy Bennett talking backstage.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yeah, with who are the Tither ladies. I'm blinking right now.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Well, she does talk to Bianca Belair, which I didn't
capture a skate shop, but she also gives her a
government name, which is Bianca Nicole Blair Crawford because she
is married to montez Ford. And then we had that one.

(33:25):
And when she's talking to she also talks to Live
But you know, she talks to a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
But with them, she had a three way match, wasn't
it she had?

Speaker 1 (33:36):
They talked about the three match that she has with
EO Skuy and Bianca Belair at WrestleMania forty one.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
And so she was talking, well, not to jump ahead,
but she's talking about the good relationship that she has
with them and she fully trusts them, So she had
that much of a good match with them. So the
match was really good and she felt really comfortable. So
and then did you have anything else or that's it.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Not for this episode. We can move on to another
episode that probably caught your eye and something of importance
for you to talk about.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Is that episode two Push.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
The episode two is the Push.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yes, okay, So the theme for this one is who
gets a spotlight, royal rumble, politics, and the Cody conundrum.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah. So with this one, the Push, we primarily get
to the talent that they're gonna give a push to,
and it starts with highlighting Jay Uso, who at the
beginning of this episode is having trouble getting to the
arena because the security guy does not know who he is.
Jay also just pulls up pretty much wearing like his
yeet style glasses. It just doesn't say yeat in front

(34:44):
of them. They're kind of like bread the hit Man
heart style, like those Ski Goggos type of things. So
the security guard ass and who are you? Are you talent?
And he goes, I'm USO and he's like, yeah, I
don't have you on the list and he's getting frustrated.
The camera guy that's with him is getting frustrated and

(35:05):
he's like you are you Mark Henry And he's like no,
but Mark Henry's right behind me and he's like, well,
Mark Henry is going to clear me, go clear? Yeah,
is going to cleary. He's like, yeah, Mark Henry knows who.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yeah. I relate that moment to if anyone's ever seen
this interview with Jennifer Lopez or j LO when she's
walking down her old black and she tells this older
gentleman I used to live there and he's like okay,
and she's like I used to live there and he's
like who are you? So it's one of those things

(35:40):
where it's like you may think that you're like this
all star or amazing, but it's a very humbling experience
because not everybody knows who you are. And for sure
that security guard was like and who who are you?
Like I need to know who you are before I
let you in. So just I'm not sure why they

(36:02):
showed that, but it was kind of interesting to see.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
I think it was just mostly to see that Jay
Usso gets hot, he becomes this big, unstoppable talent. He
wins the Royal Rumble. But the security guy had no idea.
But if you were probably to show him a picture
or ask him if he knew who Hulkogan was, or
maybe even Cody Rhoads, he would have been like, oh yeah, yeah,

(36:27):
go ahead.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Possibly.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
So I think that's pretty much what this The purpose
of that particular one was the beginning for.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
So if you highlights this episode, we get to see
more of that creative room debates on Royal Rumble winners.
We also get to see Cody Roads defending his title
and managing expectations. But did you did you have any
comments about those or.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
I think the highlights on here is just like I mentioned.
They go back, they talk about the Saturday Night's main
event between the match between Cody and Kevin Owens, and
then they also that's when they talk about return having

(37:16):
the use of the pile the package pile driver, and
them talking to Jay Wuso a lot because they're really
thinking about giving him the push quote unquote as is
here Michael Hayes, who seems very even though he accredits

(37:36):
his wrestling knowledge and the storylines that he's put together
to God, I just put it into all of his
extensive knowledge since he's been wrestling back into the late
sixties and early seventies. For we're looking at close to

(37:57):
fifty years of wrestling knowledge. And he likes to thank God,
But I just think about all of the experience that
he's had up to that point that just made him,
you know, have a zone of where he knows where
something works. When he looks at somebody, he just knows
what type of gimmicking character they should use.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
So at least to say that, because like I can
appreciate he's like, I give credit to God, right, but also,
like you said, that's that season experience where you're so
good that you know what looks right, what's hitting right,
and what moves are good, and what the fans are
looking for.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
So he's you know, he's all like Jay. And around
this time, I remember like a lot of people were like,
Jauso's not gonna win. We had already had Jay Usso
win the Intercontinental Championship from Gunter at Russell Manu forty
the year before, and people kind of got tired of
having Jay in there, or it wasn't a j that

(38:58):
be gunter, it was actually Sami. But he had beaten
Brown Breaker, That's who had he had beaten, I believe
at SummerSlam of last year.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
So I have a question that might be contentious, Jay
lusso we talked about his growing popularity, is he would
you consider him the people's.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
Champ right now? Yeah, he probably would be the people's
champ or maybe after the events of this reach more
recent SummerSlam and maybe still John Cena and we can
get to that a little bit later. Uh.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
You know, I do like that they show him at
home with his son, so that was just nice to see, like.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Oh, he's trying on the road with his son. They
show him and Jimmy at a stopping off at a
bowling alley and him and his son just pling around
and just going on the road. So that, like you mentioned,
was a very nice tidbit to see because we do
get glimpses of his and I believe he comes out

(40:01):
with him on a few of the matches. I think
as well.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
I have a question because we see and I've been
watching the ussos together as a tag team for quite
some time. That's what I've known them ass for a while.
Do pushes feel earned anymore or do you think they're
constructed to serve corporate branding Now that we see everything

(40:29):
getting a little finessed.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
I think the one instance of it being like organic
or more of something that might have happened because of
the fans would be the Daniel Bryan push that we
got at WrestleMania thirty the Coo Famnia push that we
got later on at WrestleMania believe that was thirty four.

(40:52):
Most recently, probably.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
Especially when they let them go like the people the
fans y'all us.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Our truth when Our Truth was recently released. Uh, and
there I think being part of the internet wrestling community
and that they're getting next third sheets and things like that,
there's been a strong minority that's been you know, not

(41:21):
for the Yeat movement, you know. So I'm very happy
for Jay. I've always thought that one of them would
make it. I thought maybe more Jimmy, as he has
more technically sound. But when a gimmick hits, it hits,
and like I think Hunter is the one that says

(41:41):
it is like we're gonna put the gas on them
and we're gonna push them and we're gonna ride you.
So that's what they ended up doing because he ends
up getting the rocket and they ended up having him
when the Royal Rumble at the end of this episode two.
We also at the end of this episode that they
say at the end of this episode, we also get

(42:03):
the coverage of the Cody versus Kevin Owens ladder match,
which was a very fun match, and there you could
see like they're talking through all the spots. They're about
fifteen to twenty seconds ahead. They're telling the production booth
of when they should pan and pan out to keep

(42:24):
both of the wrestlers in view when they should get close.
So it's fun to see that. But we also get
to see the things afterwards, like when Kevin Owens comes
back and he apologizes at the end of the match
to Cody because of the particular spot on the ladder
and Kevin and Kevin is he's bleeding. He doesn't even care.

(42:45):
No one's attending to him, but he's apologizing to Cody
because he gave him a bad hit, and Cody's long
as long as my as long as I'm able to
walk and talk and still come out here. I'm okay,
gonna be okay, right. So with this we also get
a very touching moment, and I'm not sure what it

(43:11):
is that actually wanted them to show it, like if
it was more like to have us in theurselves, But
they do a cut back to a Wrestleman forty when
they first put the belt on Cody Rhodes, and Cody's
talking about how he misses his dad and how his

(43:34):
dad came up on hard financial times. Not to be
confused with this promo hard times, but Dusty ended up
selling you a lot of things to keep his family
and his promotional float which in one of the items
was a Rolex watch that he was really fond fond of.

(43:55):
Bruce Richard and Triple H were managing actually managed to
locate the man he sold that Rolets to buy it
back from him and gifted to Cody on the night
that he beat Roman Reigns at Wrestle Many forty. So
I think that was another touching or.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
So we see a moment where John Cena is passing
the torch over to Cody. Do you think that Cody
is considered or could be like the next John Cena
or do you think it's just a difference, like he
has a baby face.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
No, No, they mentioned it in the in the thing
that when Hunter is talking to Cody at the end
of a match, I believe it is at the end
of this match that white meat babyface, that they're going
to write it all the way until they can't be
written anymore. And Hunter's like, yeah, I don't think it's
going anywhere anytime soon. And I think he's right. As

(44:53):
much as people just like myself are ready for that
Cody heal turn. There's still a lot of things that
happen that we see broken down in this uh documentary
and in real life, because it's also mentioned in the
last and the last episode of when Johnsen does breaking

(45:14):
down his match with Cody Rhodes as well. So if
you want to move on to the next episode, or
we can just jump around to episode three episode and
this opens well, like I mentioned Bianca and how she's
talking about how she likes to roll out her braid
and thick.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
So the theme for this third episode is the woman's evolution.
So the woman's evolution continues and we have like you said,
Chelsea Green, and we get to see which I thought
was pretty cool. She shows what you would wear to
like WrestleMania with all her her face all over her gear,

(45:55):
which was pretty cool, and she gets an opportunity not
getting a title shot after years of reinvention. So I
thought this was pretty interesting because we get to see
like her rise and her consistently working to see where
she like I think, she buys so many tickets for
her friends and her.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
Tickets total of fifteen tickets for the Yeah for the
event that they have in hometown in Canada that she
does not make the card for. So she feels sad
and kind of disappointed that she does not get into
that card after she invited fifteen of her personal friends,

(46:39):
close personal friends, and her family. But she eventually like
the title, says worth the way it gets and trusted
to trusted to have the first ever to be the
holder of the first ever US Women's Championship, which I
showed earlier today or earlier.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
In this video, we also get to see Charlotte Flair
returning after her injury. We get to see some sentimental
moments of Charlotte at the hospital going in for surgery
with her father, Rick Flair, and then talking about getting
those nerves back and the other wrestlers champion around her

(47:19):
once she goes in and her first match. So that's
something we really think about when we're watching wrestling as
like a form of entertainment. And we've talked about this
before that yes, wrestling is entertainment, but they're taking those
bumps and hit and you have a lot of serious
incidents and injuries. So it's interesting just to see someone

(47:43):
whether it be Charlotte or even a Cody and other
episodes where they talk about taking these hits or hurts
and then going back into the ring to wrestle. So
with her losing the confidence and having to work on
rebuilding the confidence over again was pretty powerful. So just

(48:03):
one of those reminders that if you do get knocked down,
get up again and keep on going right.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
So we get a lot of things like that with.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Yeah, we get to see some like real backstage nerves
from a lot of the wrestlers and these different we get.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
We also get a little bit of I guess something
I never thought i'd hear Triple Ah say is he
has a quote for May Angelou. It's more of a
like a condensed version, but the actual thing he said,
the actual quote from May Angelou is that people will
forget what you say, people will forget what you did,

(48:42):
but people will never forget how you made them feel.
And that's pretty much how he's describing how the wrestling
business is like. So that that's interesting that he able
to pull up that quote and this.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
Pops up here and there, like, for example, we see
Cody and he is waving to john Sena fans and
he mentions, He's like, they're wearing john Sena gear. He's like,
but am I not going to say hello to them? No,
He's like, I'm going to say hello to their whole family,
which is like, of course you want to say hello,

(49:17):
you know. It's just like you make those fans feel good,
You make people feel seen, they're gonna remember you.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
Yeah. So with this episode we also get more information.
I am not sure if you ever did know this,
but we get information how Bianca makes her own ring gear.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
Yes, yeah, we had the chance to see that when
we watched her and her husband's show. Yeah, but we
get to see some takes where her ring gear or
her ring gear is like safety pin. She's sewing it
last minute, She's set up all night, and we've seen
her offits they're gorgeous, they're detailed, they're I look at

(50:01):
or strong enough. I think the thing that I was
like very surprised about is that one she talks about
her braid, her long braid, being a statement and her
husband saying, hey, like make that your statement. Not a
lot of people have like the one braid. But also
that her braid is Celtic one that she wants to

(50:23):
make a Celtics that makes a sound so you get
that signature slap. And then also that it's so strong.
We have an injury by Rhea Ripley.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Well, we got two people that I mentioned they got
whipped this this particular one day, have the elimination chamber
match with and Live is though one of the recipients
that gets a nice welts over her stomach. But real
Ripley does end up getting another get getting a welt
at the Wrestlmingia match that she has in the triple

(50:56):
threat one.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Yeah, and you know that was It's like very interesting
for me to hear. But you know, I'm a I'm
a big fan of Bianca. I don't know how you
feel about Bianca, but we saw her in the elimination
Chamber and she's just like really strong and a really
good wrestler, and I'm a big fan of her.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
Yeah, sin as we're talking about the chamber, we'll just
go ahead and go to the next episode.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Oh, you don't want to talk about like I do
have a question. So now that we see like we've
come a long way right as far as women's wrestling,
do you think as far as like earning it, do
you think that's a different look for women and men
and WWE at this point or do you think like

(51:42):
they're like going in the ranks, like their trajectory is
very similar at this point. That's what it seems like
to me.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
I still think that there's still a little bit of
work to do when you're kind of like booking the
women talent and booking the men talent. One point of
example is that the I can point out is that
the Dominic Mysterio angle with first it was real Ripley,

(52:17):
and that it came off like she was manipulating it,
but they kind of and that's how she took them
away from Ray Mystereo. But instead of trying to be
like it's kind of like, I guess, more of a
plotted or or like mastermind type of manipulation. They had

(52:39):
the angle be more or it was like kind of
sexually driven. So, and that's pretty much how it's been
plotted out for dominic Mysterio. Every time it's he's been turning,
it's not because he's being manipulated mentally, he's being manipulated
by another type of organ you know.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
So, and then I have another question, So with this
episode Charlotte's legacy, do you think her return is a
crutch like or an anchor? Do you as far as
her return like from this injury, do you think that

(53:25):
this in injury like stopped her trajectory of going up
and becoming so like super hot or do you think
that this kind of like her back.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
No. I think her entry kind of helped. It helped
in two ways, but it wasn't. One was because it
took her out of our heads because as she mentioned
in the documentary, she's kind of like almost had like
an undertaker like streak where she was like a WrestleMania's

(54:01):
in a row kind of. So she had this break
even though she didn't want it, but it made you
kind of forget that Charlotte was there because we had
Bailey and Eo and Rio Ripley and Becky Lynch in
those matches at WrestleMania. So when she was finally coming back,

(54:24):
she kind of had that babyface heat like welcome back,
like when Hunter got hurt and he had that good
babyface heat when he came back. So you were thinking
that that was kind of gonna happen. But the way
it ended up happening is she comes back, she wins

(54:45):
the Royal Rumbo and everyone in the back is happy
for her, and you know when she wins the Rumble
that everyone's there clapping for her. You see EO, you
see the interviewer Kathy Kelly's Zelina Vega. If they weren't
happy be with her, they wouldn't be there to play
for you know. So, but I think a lot of

(55:08):
us in the wrestling community felt that she probably shouldn't
have won the Rumble and it felt like it was
something that was handed to her.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
I could say that.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
Eventually everything starts changing, and that's I guess you could
see that that was kind of like, would you ask
if this was an anchor or what?

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Yeah, like a hindrance as a whole.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
It didn't It didn't help move her forward. With the
with the audience, but maybe seeing how she felt and
with this documentary, maybe that would help endear her more
and kind of get that baby face heat back, even
though she already has a whole bunch of it right
now currently with her tag team with alexiblis nice.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
All right, So we are going to take you the
audience and of course ourselves, because we're just about to
talk about this two episode for He'll Turn, and the
theme of this episode is manipulating the audience, loyalty, the
art of betrayal.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
I like, I like this episode. I think this episode
gave us more of what the psychology that goes in
behind some of the storytelling. We get a great explanation
of the babyface aspect of the characters from Xavier Woods
whose government name is Austin Watson than when they and

(56:31):
he breaks down the heel turn that they have against
Big Eye. Yeah, And the other one I like whoever's
talking to is when Michael Hayes once again is talking
about how it's great to be a heel and how
he liked being a heel, and they cut they do

(56:52):
like a little cut montage of you know, some of
the good heels they have been in the WWE, like
the Million Dollar Man, when Rocky did his Die rockyde promo,
when he joined the Nation a domination, and the famous
one though everyone talks about whether you're newer fan, especially

(57:15):
if you're a Neal fan but also a long time fan,
is when Hogan joined the nWo back in the Beach.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
So this season shows us to create a breakdown behind
a major heel turn. And were you a fan of
the Hill turn with my Exavier Woods.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
Yeah, I was a big fan of that because that's
how the New Days started when they started their whole faction.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
They said they started off as a heel for about
ten months, is what I saw.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
Yeah, they started off as a heel and everyone's like, oh,
you finally turned the New Day heel, But no, that's
how they started. They returned, just like many other people
who started off as heels return Like I guess you
could say Hunter started off as a heel kind of
because he was that Connecticut blue blood and he eventually

(58:09):
they all regressed to be heels once they start off
as heels.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
Well, we also get to see if the Rocks return
of Hollywood Hill.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Yeah, he was the people champion and now he comes
back as the final Boss.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
And his manipulation over Roman reigns legacy.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
Not only Roman reigns legacy, but we also get against
John Cena's legacy because this episode gives us the behind
the scenes of the Elimination Chamber match pay per view
that took place on March first out of I believe
It's Toronto. So we get them doing play by play
of the heel turn and them breaking down the return

(58:47):
of Jake Cargill and who injured her and how they
all set it up, and they're all telling you the
beats until Jade shows up, how the beatdown's gonna happen,
and when the when the Jade Cargo is going to
slam the door on her, And not only do we
get that, but we continue getting the breakdown of the

(59:08):
Elimination Chamber match. At the end, we see Hunter giving
Bianca Butlair her roses for doing such a great job
and selling the beatdown that she's seen of her friend
Naomi without any context of why she's getting beat down
by Jake car Gill. Because we get that explanation, I
think the next episode of SmackDown.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
We get to see the reason or how John Tina
turns heel when they asked him about it, and he
talks about wrestling as like a passion for him, which
is always like pretty cool to hear. Is like I
would still be wrestling, but as far as my body,
this body can keep wrestling. So this is his like

(59:53):
next trajectory in his career. So what do you think
about the I know you're not really.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Of no, no, no, I'm not a fan of yeah, but
I like the heel turn and I like that eventually
he does win the title as a heel. What I
don't like is what happened recently in SummerSlam is the
night before SummerSlam, we kind of get a full commitment

(01:00:21):
to Johnsena being a face, and then the next like
a few days afterwards, Johnsena comes out with a whole fanfare,
running down, throwing the towel and everything that he did
is johnson as a face.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Were you satisfied with the penn and the wind during SummerSlam?

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Not this rear? No? I did not like it because
it kind of solidified that Johnsona only won his seventhy
title as a heel. So I didn't like that it
went that way, like if he had defended the title
a couple more times as a face and lost it
to someone that's being a heel that probably would have

(01:01:01):
been better for me. And that was like the whole
thing that I didn't like because the turn seemed so
close to him dropping the belt.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
I wish I had a better finish. And then I
was really like disappointed that they brought Barack Lesner back.
I was actually complaining about this like several days after
the event, for whoever was interested in hearing or whoever
asked me what I thought about it. I was like

(01:01:29):
very unhappy with his return for multiple reasons. So I'm like,
we haven't seen him in what over two years, and
I'm still upset. Which I still ran to you about
this is that he uh, you know, defeated Undertaker and

(01:01:50):
I'm tired of his vives, so more of like an
few to him. But I'm getting off on a tangent.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
And that's what we like to do, go off tangents.
With this one. We also get that breakdown like you
mentioned of Johnson, the turning heel at this after he
went was the elimination chamber, and according to them, they
only had five people that Hunter talked to to approve

(01:02:19):
this johnsena heel turn. He talked to Nick con the
chief executive officer. He talked to The Rock for some reason,
he needed to talk to Travis Scott. He talked to
Cody Rhoades, can.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
We okay, go ahead, I'm not gonna interrupt.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
You, and then he talked to John Cena.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
What did you think about them thinking Travis Scott was
gonna be like a pop for wrestling, and he was.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
It was a pop. But then eventually you're like, why
is he getting involved? Because he had no affiliation with
anything wrestling, and now you're throwing them into a storyline
like being involved with the Rock, this Final Boss Wanning,
Cody sol and things like that. So I think that
was I think that was the main problem, especially when

(01:03:11):
you get to Wrestmania forty one, because everyone expected the
Rock to be there and The Rock was not there.
We only get Travis Scott getting involved in that match.
So that's that's the pretty much the direction of.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Well, I have a question for you, so, and you
just talked about this briefly, but why are heel turns
more effective now that fans are like in on it?

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
Do you think if they're the most effective, if they're
able to keep it a secret. Which even though they
managed to keep it a secret internally, we all saw
read the tea leaves. We all saw it happening. It
had to happen, especially me because I'm like John Cena

(01:04:01):
has been trying to win his seventeen championship since twenty
twenty three, and he has been failing at every attempt,
and like it would be nice or it would be
kind of I don't want to say ironic, the word
is escaping me, but I think it would be kind

(01:04:23):
of a cool thing if the only way John Tena
won the seventeenth title would have been him turning heel
him in this instance would have been selling his soul
to the Rock to get it, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
Like around the subject of the Rock and his like return,
which I think all of us were excited to see him,
you included, right, Do you think he is reinventing himself
or as it's just like a finessed version of Rock
like Rock two point zero.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
I just think it's more of an exaggerated type of
thing like this is probably how the Rock would be
if you were still going in wrestling, Like eventually the
Rock character would have to keep finding ways to be
an asshole.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
So with that, I have another question. Sorry to so
the WWE uses he to drive attention, right, do you
have any issues with character consistency you talked about.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
The thing I do. I think it's I think it's
one of the I think it's one of these things
where it's like you're introducing me to a character, to
a gimmick, you know, And I think if you're saying
that they're a white meat baby face, that they shouldn't

(01:05:55):
have they shouldn't have he tendencies like we've seen it
highlighted here, and if you've been paying attention, like Cody
has done some healish things right, like most recently he
signed he made Johnson to sign the contract. That's a
healish move, but he didn't returned heel. So those are

(01:06:17):
little things that I have issues with. So I guess
you can say that it's kind of like I can
equate wrestling. I guess to say that it's kind of
like a Dungeons and Dragons or a magic the gathering thing,
like you have these particular set of rules. You should
follow these rules, right, if you want me to believe

(01:06:41):
the stories that you're trying to tell me like a.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Multiverse as well, Like to a certain point, I need
my guide, and then I'm open to multiverse activities right
Like I'm able to believe that there's a variety of
Spider men, women, spider pigs everywhere with the multiverse. But
I just need the like a basic line to take

(01:07:04):
me from point eight to like B.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
So that's that's the issue that I have with some
of the inconsistencies. I feel that you get.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
Wear it and you totally like look that story up,
then I got a problem.

Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
And that's why I have a problem with the finish
of the John Cena and Cody Roads match. If you
also have an issue or will have no issue, I
want to explain to me on why it was right
for Cody to win. Drop comment, send us an email
revisiting Mania at gmail dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
I don't think the crowd was excited at that point, no.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
I think I guess I think we wanted a couple
more runs with John Cena. Defense making making is the
defence title defenses as Face John Cena. But with that
we'll get to the last episode. WrestleMania is the title
of it, and this pretty much gives us the behind
the scenes of what happened in the lead of to WrestleMania.

(01:08:03):
In the night of WrestleMania, we get breakdowns of the
j Usso Gunter match, the triple Threat match between Eo
Rhea and Leo Ria and Bianca, the Charlotte versus Tiffy
Tiffany Stranton match, the Cmpunk Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins match,

(01:08:25):
and finally the Johnson of Versus is Cody Roads match.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
We're building building building. This is called the Payoffs, which
is our bread and butter right now, WrestleMania.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
Right, So this is what's a very one equest to
being the w's version of the Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
Ken Wwe deliver the ending that fans and the company lead.
That's the question every year, So where do you want
to start? With a couple of highlights? So WrestleMania forty
one was in Las Vegas, and so we get to
see this over the top activity, and it's going to

(01:09:09):
be WrestleMania forty two is also going to be in
Vegas as well.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Right, that's correct.

Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
We're not happy with that, but it is what it is.
We get to see Cody's final showdown, right, and we
get to see the rock Roman seth All circling that
main event, which is pretty exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
Mm hmm, what do you think? I mean? This is
pretty much I like the way that this was revealed
to us. There was this one episode of SmackDown where
it was in Chicago where it's we noticed that there
was kind of like an off thing interaction promo coven

(01:09:55):
between Charlotte and Tiffany Stranton. We find out kind the
scenes that the miya yaou kind of rapport that was
happening where Charlotte gets told that she is zero and
three in the marriage department by Tiffy Stratton, and then

(01:10:18):
we get the awkward rebuttal of Tiffany Stratton's in real
life boyfriend supposedly going into Charlotte's MS. When they eventually
get backstage, we find out that all of that was unscripted.
It was and the person who started it, and which

(01:10:38):
we've kind of I kind of noticed is I don't
think Tiffany Stratton knows how to embrace being the baby
face because that's what she was supposed to be. And
if you push, push her, pressure press her, that little
canniness comes out on her. And I think we got
a little peek behind the curtain on what might trigger her.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
Well, we hear Triple H say like, hey, that's not
how we do business here.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
I needed to go apologize to Charlotte Finder and apologize, so.

Speaker 2 (01:11:09):
I think that was appropriate. But also with that said
and us watching this in the documentary, I always leave
a little room for kafae. So my question is is
this part of the storyline or is this what they
want us to believe?

Speaker 1 (01:11:30):
No, I think this was like is this what I.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
Mean is like, is this a legit thing that happened?
Because things happened. We've heard these stories before, right, We've
heard the whole Macho Man punches Hulk. You know, we've
heard why does Hulk have a big black eye? It's
because Macho Man beat him up? You know, did he
himself on a boat while he was just skiing? Sorry,

(01:11:55):
going to bring back the old school, but that's like
one of my favorite stories, and this is the same, Like, yeah,
it could be very real. It happens. We all have
like these workplace situations. But could it be a situation
where the k fabe indoors the story continues and it's
part of the storyline, So TBD.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
I think the only one that I think this one
was real. That that was they went off Tiffany, especially
when off script because she was probably losing to Charlotte
and that promo battle right, and that one for he
probably was not k fabe, the one that's probably k
fabe and that everyone was still eating up to this point.

(01:12:40):
As the Seth Rollins and seeing Punk Kate, I think
that one where m Punk talks about it, you know
that he was some kid sixteen years old who wanted
him to train uh Seth Rollins, wanted se him Punk
to train him for without for free. So I think
that one's a real like work k fave like and

(01:13:02):
they're just maintaining it this whole time, but it does
get highlighted here and I like it. The only thing
I didn't like about that match, if we're getting into it,
is that Paul Hayman ended up leaving Roman Reigns and
we ain't going to set and knowing going to Seth Rollins.

(01:13:23):
But I won't get to that because I'll just leave
that for a WrestleMania forty one revisit whenever we get
to that. But is there anything else that you want
to go over here?

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
Yes? I have a few questions. So this is all
the lead up to WrestleMania forty one, does it feel
like a new era was brought in when the Rock
appeared and we see in the bloodline and we see cality,
what do you think?

Speaker 1 (01:13:52):
I think we did not get to anything as far
as the bloodline is concerned, like splinter type of things.
But the Rock didn't show up for WrestleMania forty one.
We don't get any type of explanation why in this documentary.

(01:14:13):
I would have loved for that to have been revealed,
and why he couldn't make it, because we were all
expecting him to make it and we ended up getting
Travis Scott. Bloodline wise, I think we only had the
whole thing. Uh No, we didn't get anything bloodline related here,
not really Roman Reigns, and I like that. The one

(01:14:36):
thing I'd like to point out, which is kind of
consistent or which is still happening here, is that Michael Hayes.
I know Paul Hayman is called the oracle, but I'm
going to call Michael Hayes the oracle for this one.
He foresaw that if you took Paul Hayman away from
Roman Reigns, that he he'd be going nowhere because they

(01:15:02):
have now taken everything that made him, that made his character,
that made his gimmick work, being the original tribal sheet chief.
He has no tribe, he has no Jimmy, no Jay,
no Samy's a no solo SiCl right now, and he
has no wise man. He's not a heel and he's
not a babyface and that's true. He's like pretty much

(01:15:24):
neutral right now. So what do you do with him?
And it's very prophetic because right now it's like they
really don't know and Roman reigns is now he's involved
into this kind of like feud with Seth Rollins. But

(01:15:45):
now he's gonna and maybe that's probably a good thing
that he's kind of in a neutral state right now,
but because he's gonna go off and start filming Street
Fighter in bottom month. Yeah, but no, I don't think
he needs to be in a neutral state, but they
need to figure out what he needs. But he needs
to do and have a freshen up the tribal chief
maybe lose the OLTC thing because there's no other people

(01:16:07):
finding for the title of tribal chiefs, So why are
they still pushing that he's the original or the only
tribal chief moniker.

Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
Okay, So with that, how long has Triple Ah taken
over creative Control? How long I.

Speaker 1 (01:16:24):
Believe it's been since twenty twenty two.

Speaker 2 (01:16:27):
That makes sense. Do you think that things have been
better since he's taken over creative.

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
I think for the locker room it's been better, Like
they probably is more open to pivots or feedback or
criticisms than Bence probably was.

Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
I hear that. So that's really what I have. And
then as far as with this entire series, do you
think we saw anything about like the future of wrestling
where wrestling is going or do you think this was
just revealing what wrestling is? I know I think.

Speaker 1 (01:17:01):
This is both because and before we get to our
final thoughts here, we'll I'll answer this question. This showed
us how Triple H and the crew pretty much plots
out points in for certain shows like SmackDown Raw or

(01:17:26):
a Saturday Night's main event, Like for I think it
happened in a Satday Knight's main event where they plotted
the attack to be done off camera of when Kevin
O went to tack Cody Rhoads and he's like, we're
not gonna have a camera crew cover it. We're just
gonna let our audience cover it for us. So now

(01:17:46):
they're trying they're getting more social media savvy when it
comes to having the audience being more involved when it
comes to telling stories.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
Okay, So we talked about the this like unreveal or
reveal the kfabe, you know, do this kind of like
destroy the ca fabe. So one of the scenes that
we saw in episode two was real Rumble outcomes with
the Mpunk John Cena did that kind of ruin that

(01:18:20):
like the outcomes for you.

Speaker 1 (01:18:22):
Know, they they really don't go into it that much.
They just throw out names on how who should win, right,
and they talk about, well, seeing Punk should win the
Royal Rumble. But I think it was one of the
writers that are like, no, that I feel like Punk
should actually win the chamber, so he actually earns it,

(01:18:46):
so the audience gets more behind them. So I like
to point out that in none of this do they
actually reveal or give you any hints or in front
of the camera that the outcome misplot is already known
to the wrestler. Yeah, so that is still quote unquote

(01:19:08):
a mystery to us.

Speaker 2 (01:19:12):
And what we did not talk about yet. Even though
this was shown during this episode, we could to see
I show speeds for myself, I did not know who
this person was. He's a YouTuber and an online personality.
We get to see his royal rumble injury for Tazawa

(01:19:35):
Royal Triple H. What did you think about that?

Speaker 1 (01:19:38):
I thought that that kind of just went on how
they've actually shown that in social media during the Royal
Rumble on how I was plotted out. So I thought
that was just like a rehash. But I'm glad that
you enjoyed it because you probably did not get to
see that over and over online I did.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
I mean, if there's one thing that I remember is
him getting speed.

Speaker 1 (01:19:59):
But I'm talking about like the behind the scenes.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
Oh there's like I think about it and I still
remember him getting speared and then they show him like
behind the scenes like walking away like really hurt and
everything like that, and we just got to see jelly
rolls smashed through a table, So you know, uh, just

(01:20:21):
some like interesting thing to see like behind the scenes
for that. What I do like to hear, as a
Triple H said, seven days a week, three hundred and
sixty five days year, The story never ends, right, And
that's true. It's like very continuous.

Speaker 1 (01:20:37):
Even after because after WrestleMania is done, uh, they're packing up,
and the Triple h says, the only time I have
to worry, not worry about wrestling is the few minutes
that I'm walking to the vehicle in the script for
the raw after Manias, they're waiting for me.

Speaker 2 (01:20:59):
So it's perpetual, it's consistently going, and I guess to me,
it's at the tone for everything that there has to
come is that there's just more wrestling, right, More story
is to be written.

Speaker 1 (01:21:13):
More characters to be made, more characters to be broke,
to be taken down and repackaged, as with it's happening
now with Charlotte. Like even though she's been she was
been getting she was getting the booze up to that
Wrestlmingia point, she's been repackaged and now she's getting cheers.
She's a white face baby meet the white meat baby face.

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
So like, overall, would you recommend our fans new friends
for the show that I just came across this family
if we fell.

Speaker 1 (01:21:49):
Into I think I think if you should watch this
if you have questions about what wrestling really is, Like
I know, everyone says that wrestling is fake because everyone
knows the who's the winner is at the end, and yeah,

(01:22:10):
to a certain point, you know, maybe that is considered
a fake. But as it's been mentioned by Cody Rhodes's
daughter Libby this that she considers him a dancer, not
a wrestler. This is all like you can say, it's
an interpretive dances performance dance type of routine. Like it

(01:22:30):
takes work. You have to build the characters. You have
to make people care for them, like you know, my wife,
like me, like the eighty thousand plus people that go
to WrestleMania every year. You have to make him care
about the match. So John Cena knows because he can
tell by by listening where a match should go, that

(01:22:55):
this is going in the right direction and I should
take the loss and Cody should go over like you
did in Summer Slam. So just so you know what
it takes to make a performance goal from beginning to end,
how a storyline begins and it finishes. If you're interested
in that, and if you're interested in kind of building

(01:23:18):
up characters and things like that, you should watch this
or if you want to know what wrestling is about
as a primer, and if you get interested, you know,
good for them. But I think that's pretty much who
this sacramentary is made for. It's not made for fans
like myself who've been watching wrestling for over forty years. Yeah,

(01:23:42):
I can't believe I said that.

Speaker 2 (01:23:48):
How old are you?

Speaker 1 (01:23:51):
But yeah, what about you? Do you feel like this
is something that helped you out? And you, guys and
your fans didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:23:59):
I ain't a hell me out as a newer fan
like we all know, smart Mark and training this scal
over here a casual watcher. Did it teach me things
that were new? Like? Not? Really? Was it fun to watch? Yes?
But I recommend that you watch it. Yes. I definitely

(01:24:19):
like the trajectory, like the beginning and people's ends, them
talking about their injuries and rebuilding themselves. Also motivational, like
I said, fall down, get back up, keep moving, keep
going forward, and that stuff doesn't always work out the
way that it's planned, right, So that's what I saw

(01:24:39):
with this. I like Bianca Bellair, her making her outfits
and seeing her like gear. I like hearing them talk
about their gear as well, and then seeing Hunter he
at first I thought it was like a little you know, cringey,
seeing him hug everybody, but like him giving motivation to

(01:25:00):
those people that still need it, you know, to keep
on moving them and keeping them moving forward towards that
end goal. So I do have a few reviews. So
like from Talk Sport, they gave it critical praise. They said,
finally pulling back the curtain and the greatest soap opera
ever made, and decided review said stream it give us

(01:25:24):
the juicy beats and the almost and the maybes that
never panned out. I'm on the same page with that.
We had a few skeptic voices like from IGN unreal
is a sanitized backstage expose a interesting neither newcomers to
wrestling nor longtime followers as their perspective, And from Esquire

(01:25:46):
the walls of k fabe have come down, but what
does it mean to protect the business in twenty twenty five.
I really just don't think it's that serious. So I
think it's worth the watch. Know that you were at
the revisit. I rewatch it again just to get all
the stuff that I missed I got.

Speaker 1 (01:26:08):
Oh and as always, since we're recording this, if you
ever have any questions. If you know what content we're
putting out, You're always free to email us every Visiting
Mania at gmail dot com or drop a direct message
and Instagram sky Blue sky Dreads Twitter every Visiting Mania.

(01:26:31):
We did have one question because I did put this
out from one of our frequent guests in front of
the podcast, Doyle, who did ask. Since Phil is normally
known as being a Chicago native and living in Chicago.
There is one scene I believe it is an episode
two or no, the first one, when he's heading into

(01:26:54):
the raw for the Netflix era that shows Phil with
palm trees and he's like, where does Phil live in
Chicago that there are? Does he live in the Lincoln
Park Conservatory? And I'm like, no, we.

Speaker 2 (01:27:10):
Bring out our home trees during the summertime.

Speaker 1 (01:27:12):
But Doyle, I'm not sure if you knew, but Phil
has a home in law I believe in California, somewhere
up in the hills. I believe from what I might
have heard. So I'm pretty sure when he was doing
that row to kick off the Netflix ero, he just

(01:27:34):
drove from his home that he has also in California.
And now that I've addressed that, sorry for I forgot
to get that in while I was talking about Phil,
But thank you for joining us at Revisiting Mania. We
hope to get you guys to watch other content uh

(01:27:58):
reel free to follow up. Like I mentioned, all of
our social platforms are revisiting Mania and.

Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
Whether it's a work, a shoot, or something in between,
the Mania always deliver some drama. That's why you keep
revisiting it. So follow us

Speaker 1 (01:28:18):
And thank you deuces