Jey Uso winning the Battle Royal on Raw to face CM Punk at Saturday Night’s Main Event was the right creative decision by WWE: #AGREE or #DISAGREE?
Jey Uso vs CM Punk at SNME
Ilja Dragunov Returns To Capture US Title
Cody Rhodes vs Drew McIntyre
Hot Tag!
The fallout from the injury to Seth Rollins has begun, as he was stripped of the World Heavyweight Championship and WWE held a Battle Royal on Raw to determine CM Punk’s opponent at Saturday Night’s Main Event on November 1st.
With entrants such as LA Knight, AJ Styles, Dom Mysterio, and Penta in the mix, the final two came down to Jey Uso eliminating his brother Jimmy Uso, LAKnight and Som Mysterioto move on to the World Title Match at SNME. Did WWE make the right decision going with Uso against Punk, or did they miss a golden opportunity to set up a fresh main event picture? How does this affect The Vision?
We also saw Ilja Dragunov return on Smackdown to answer Sami Zayn’s US title open challenge, shocking the world by capturing the United States Title. We’ll discuss his return and what a win like this could mean for him moving forward, as well as what this means for Sami Zayn moving forward.
Also in Smackdown, a backstage attack eliminated Jacob Fatu from competing in a Number 1 Contender’s Match against Drew McIntyre to determine the next challenger for Cody Rhodes’ WWE Championship. Confronted by Cody, a brawl and impromptu match ensued, setting the stage for Drew to challenge Cody. Can Drew finally win the big match and defeat Cody or is he set up to lose yet another major main event opportunity? What would a loss mean for Drew?
We discuss all of this and much more on this week’s episode of the Lazy Booking Podcast!
S/P: Specialized Physical Therapy | specializedphysicaltherapy.com
Jey Uso vs CM Punk at SNME
Ilja Dragunov Returns To Capture US Title
Cody Rhodes vs Drew McIntyre
Hot Tag!
The fallout from the injury to Seth Rollins has begun, as he was stripped of the World Heavyweight Championship and WWE held a Battle Royal on Raw to determine CM Punk’s opponent at Saturday Night’s Main Event on November 1st.
With entrants such as LA Knight, AJ Styles, Dom Mysterio, and Penta in the mix, the final two came down to Jey Uso eliminating his brother Jimmy Uso, LAKnight and Som Mysterioto move on to the World Title Match at SNME. Did WWE make the right decision going with Uso against Punk, or did they miss a golden opportunity to set up a fresh main event picture? How does this affect The Vision?
We also saw Ilja Dragunov return on Smackdown to answer Sami Zayn’s US title open challenge, shocking the world by capturing the United States Title. We’ll discuss his return and what a win like this could mean for him moving forward, as well as what this means for Sami Zayn moving forward.
Also in Smackdown, a backstage attack eliminated Jacob Fatu from competing in a Number 1 Contender’s Match against Drew McIntyre to determine the next challenger for Cody Rhodes’ WWE Championship. Confronted by Cody, a brawl and impromptu match ensued, setting the stage for Drew to challenge Cody. Can Drew finally win the big match and defeat Cody or is he set up to lose yet another major main event opportunity? What would a loss mean for Drew?
We discuss all of this and much more on this week’s episode of the Lazy Booking Podcast!
S/P: Specialized Physical Therapy | specializedphysicaltherapy.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Everybody's got a price for the million dollar man? Oh
who's that kid? Nick uh? He looks like Beaker from Muppets.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The One on one Nick Right. Yeah, Yeah, I got
something amazing. I did not even I love I love that.
If I get five limit and they're all in the
same room with me, We're going at it at one
hundred and Welcome in, everybody. Tuesday Night, another edition of
(00:44):
the Lazy Booking Podcast, live here on a two D
radio Chrome, as always, joined by my colleague here, mister
Eric Archer. What's up, my brother?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
What's happening? Chrome? Good to be here. Let's get this going.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, man, lots to talk about. We're alling SmackDown. Yeah,
it's gonna be a fun show. We're gonna talk about
the new world title picture that we have that's now
unfolding coming off of our conversation last week. First and foremost,
little to our sponsor, doctor Paul Bdell and his award
winning team at Specialized Physical Therapy dot com. They got
(01:23):
physical locations in Burlington Cherry Hill, New Jersey, or you
can find him at that site on the web Specialized
Physical Therapy dot Com. No appointment is necessary, so any aches,
pains any long lasting or short term physical ailments you
have going on, please hit them up. They'll get you
on a program and get your feeling back to your
peak performance on a daily Yeah, a lot that happened
(01:48):
this week. We're gonna dive into SmackDown. We're actually gonna
start with the most recent though, Eric, because I think
it's probably our most big thing. I guess that's happened
over the last week. Uh, and that would kick us
off with our poll question here. Last night on Raw,
(02:08):
Monday Night Rawl still called Monday Night Roll. Last night
on Monday Night Roll, it was announced we talked last
week about the potential injury and how that could affect
the WWE World title picture regarding Seth Rowins getting hurt
at uh in Perth Ground Jewel. So what we learned
(02:31):
is the he has been stripped of the title. And
you know, my favorite thing to see, Eric is the
people going, oh, well, you know this perse Cody. Cody
missed whatever weeks and he wasn't stripped of his title.
It's like, guys, it's a choreograph thing. They're going to
strip the title because the dude's going to be out
from loco. Corey was off shooting like a movie or
(02:53):
something like cut me a break, had a kid?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
How dare you you?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
How tear you? But yeah, so our opening topic, they
end up having a number one was a number one contender,
but a vacant slot in a match against cmpunk for
Saturday Night's main event. They end up having a Battle
Royal last night in which jus won, and we're talking
we'll talk about that win, but our opening topic is
(03:22):
j Usso winning the Battle Royal on Raw to face
Cmpunk at Saturday Night's main event was the right creative
decision by WWE. Do you agree or disagree? So, wherever
you're at, you're on Facebook, you're on YouTube, you're on
ex Twitter, please comment, like, subscribe if you haven't yet,
and most importantly joined the conversation. We want to hear
(03:43):
from you, guys. We're going to talk about a number
of topics, but we're gonna we're diving right in head
for us. So, Eric, if you agree or disagree to
the statement that this was the right creative booking decision
for WWE to have jus So come out of this
and real quick a reminder, a lot of names in
this Battle Royal, you had aj styles, Dominic Mysterio, La Night,
(04:07):
Jimmy Usso. I mean they're russav There, Penta. There were
a lot of names of people who could have shaken
up the main events scene a little bit that they
go back to the Jayu so well, so, yeah, let's
hear your thoughts on this one.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Disagree and I don't even disagree with going back to
what they've been going with with the storyline. I just
think they picked the wrong guy. And I'm wearing the
shirt just as a coincidence. But two things here, and
it takes nothing away from jay Uso at all. I
(04:43):
think jay Uso has earned his spot as far as
being at the top of the card. He's over like
nobody else, well not, he's up there was the world champion,
got his got his moment at WrestleMania, and had a short,
(05:04):
short title reign. But he got one which I think
he deserved. He deserved a shot to take himself, you know,
to that higher tier on the card. That being said,
I think it's time for somebody else to get on
top of the card, and that guy is La Knight.
And I don't know what it is about this booking
(05:25):
with La Knight where he gets there he gets to
the top, but at some point there's he doesn't get
all the way there. And I think this was a
great opportunity to get LA Knight in that spot. And
I think it's time not saying a long term reign
(05:46):
with the title, but let's see somebody else with the title.
This is a good opportunity. Seth Rollins unfortunately is out,
and it opened up an opportunity for somebody to move up.
And of course we had CM Punk already there and
him being in the match and all well and good,
(06:07):
but I just think an opportunity was missed again with
l A. Knight to not only be in this match,
but to go over and become the world heavyweight champion.
Now you may you may say, all right, well, this
match is booked as far as USO winning that it
all points to CM Punk winning the world heavyweight title.
(06:31):
I just don't think if that's the direction they're gonna go,
why do it? Now it's been we've you've invested this
story of of CM Punk wanting to be the World
heavyweight champion. He gets the world heavyweight title for a
few minutes, loses it to Seth Rollins. Yeah, and set
(06:52):
is out. So a few things needed to be moved around,
things need to be pushed up. You know, I'll ave
the heel turn last week with the Vision, but I
don't think that really necessarily means that you had to
have to put the title on Punk right now. I
think you of course put him in the match, but
I don't think it would hurt him to lose to
(07:14):
an La Night or to like you mentioned, anybody like
an Aj Styles. Putting somebody else in that picture right now,
because I think ultimately, if the booking is what I
hope is going to happen, is whoever wins this title
is going to be defending it against one of the
Vision members, and I think the endgame, whether that's Survivor
(07:38):
Series or probably a little further along, maybe even into WrestleMania,
but I think if this he'll turn, or not even
he'll turn. If this turn with the Vision on seth rollins,
if there's a payoff, one of them should be the
World Heavyweight Champion. I mean, they teased it last night
on Raw bron not giving up the title. It's clear
(08:00):
that that is the goal to keep that title in
the Vision. So with that being said, why not put
the title on somebody different, even if it's a short
period of time to get you to the vision.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So I'm kind of in the middle of this, and
we don't we don't ride the middle. So I'm gonna
it's way one way or the other as we talk
this out. You know, you could argue the conversation, the
debate has been going on that, you know, Jay Uso
loses his title, how desperate is he to get it back?
(08:44):
Is he willing to take on a different mentality which
we've kind of started to see. We talked about it
like are returning appeal or were not turning a meal?
You know, it's kind of all over the place a
little bit. That being said, I could make an argument
for a number of people, and yes, I think l A.
Knight is one of them. I don't know that I
(09:09):
would have had him go over in this. To me,
there were two obvious choices that you could do here.
I think one is domb and I think to me,
Punk is going to come out of this as the champion.
By the way, I don't see how anybody else comes
out as champion. I could be wrong, maybe Jay does.
(09:32):
But if I'm booking this and I'm assuming that Punk
is going to come out as champion out of this.
I would think there's two people who could put on
a tremendous match with him and can take a loss.
I think it would be domb because it's another one
of those steps, like we talked about getting the John
(09:52):
Cena spot in Boston or in Madison Square Garden. I
think it's another one to kind of test the waters
and dip it toes in a main event picture esque match.
And then the other one I think is AJ styles,
Like we're we're doing this John Cena retirement tour, and
I feel like he just came off of this incredible,
(10:14):
incredible match with John Cena and giving him an opportunity
to come in here, and again, a loss doesn't hurt
AJ at this point, losses don't hurt AJ. You get
a high quality match. I think you get a match
that people would love to see in AJ Styles and
see I'm punk. I don't know how many times we've
(10:36):
gotten that is what do we get that? Once? Maybe
maybe I can't even recall, but you gonna because.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I think they kind of missed, they missed each other,
they didn't gone yeah, so I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And then he got hurt pretty quick, and Punk was
obviously hurt too around the same time. Maybe there was
an interaction wrong. If I'm wrong, if anybody's in the
common section can fix that for me, give us a
heads up on that. I love to know, but I
don't think these guys have faced each other since Ring
of Honor. I am correct on that, and maybe it's
something they'll say for the back pocket for next year.
(11:12):
I don't know, But to me, I just feel like
it almost falls into your lap to have this incredible
opportunity on Saturday Night's main event, to make that show
feel like something that's more special. I think they're trying
to do that by crowning a new champion on there,
but there are times where this has felt like a
(11:34):
glorified house show with a really cool, aesthetically pleasing, you know,
set and graphics and stuff, and I think this was
an opportunity to really set a tone, especially going into
when we get John Cena on December thirteenth on Saturday
Night's main event. So I think it's a missed opportunity there.
(11:57):
I mean, I honestly I would have been cool with
a guy like Penn to just because you're gonna know
you're gonna get an amazing match, You're gonna get something different.
There's a lot of people I feel like that we're
in this match and have had a lot of tri
Jimmy could have did Jimmy, and then you could have
carried on the storyline of you know how desperate. You know,
Jimmy doesn't win, but like, is Jay jealous now and
(12:19):
he costs Jimmy he gets in the way of that,
and then you keep on going with this head of
the table. There's a lot of different ways. So I'm
not up in arms as people are. I do feel
like though, it's we we had this thing that happened,
so we're just gonna kind of backtrack and fall back
(12:40):
on the easy solution, which is where I kind of
felt like this came in.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah, to use a term lazy booking, I think the
plan that the stuff that's already been in place is
what they use. They went back to what they think
is working. And I think fans, you know, every you
hear fans online talking about each week, there's it's the
(13:06):
same stuff over and over, the same three guys, you know,
talking about Jay and l a night and see him punk.
So like it kind of went back to the well.
But I think also going back to what you were
saying about Jimmy, that's a that's an interesting twist that
I didn't really think about. You think about the other
(13:27):
side of Jay not getting the opportunity he's died for.
He's doing whatever it takes, and his twin brother gets
it instead of him, And now he's conflicted. Does he
want to see his brother climb the ladder, you know,
get get that brass ring over him, and it plants that,
(13:49):
it plants that what if scenario? Will he cost him
the championship? And I think, you know, going the other
way now based on what happened eliminating Jimmy from the
Battle Royal. Now there's also some question as to is
is big jim had enough of being that second fiddle,
(14:11):
and now not only hearing it from the tribal chief,
but now he's hearing it from his own brother that hey,
like I you're you're kind of in my way. Let
me do my thing. But we're cool. We're cool because
we're brothers. But at the end of the day, they're
you know, they're going for the same goal right now.
So but I but I think also you know. That's
(14:36):
why I think, you know to your point, like, do
you really want to see Punk win on a glorified
house show? Like you said, like, as much as we've
invested in Punk going for that world title, do you
really want to have it to where it's like, all right,
well the guy who had it got hurt, so I'm
(14:56):
in this match and now I'm gonna win it. So
it's like it's kind of one of those because I
like fell in his lap, so to speak. So like
I just I just think him winning this he doesn't
need to. I think maybe he could try to earn it,
keep going to what we kind of thought was going
to be the end game for him anyway, which was WrestleMania,
(15:19):
where maybe he doesn't go for the world title. Maybe
this is where he goes and uh gets his opportunity
at Cody, like we've been talking about where we'd love
to see that match. But I just don't think Punk
really needs this right now. I think there's other guys
on the roster that could benefit from a from a
world title win.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yeah, listen, I just think I mean, for all we know,
maybe Punk was intended to win the title at this
all along. We don't know, you know what I mean,
it's we're speculating a lot that oh, well, he doesn't
need to win it on that show. Well, maybe that
that might be the intention, and before Seth got hurt,
that might have been the tension. I imagine it's going
(16:01):
to go to WrestleMania, but that could have been the intention.
That being said, in terms of other things we've talked
about and the opportunity to create another star, I see
this as another missed opportunity too, because you could have
done a transitional champion here and nobody would have thought
any less of them for guiling that. I do think
(16:24):
a transitional title would have hurt La Night. I don't
think this was the spot for La Knight. I get
what you're saying. I don't think Ae's as hot as
he was, so I don't know this is the time
to do it, To put him in a match where
he could potentially lose or become a transitional champion, to
just come back two months from now and drop the
title Lebraun, I don't feel that that's going to for him.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
What better way to catapult somebody with a win over
a multi time world champion? But how clean is it though,
like I'd beat him clean, but.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I don't think they would do that because I don't
think they.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I don't think they would either.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
But like, the whole thing is the long term booking
for this, right, So if Punk's going to lose, it's
going to further advance the storyline. So it would be
something along the lines of the Vision even though Set's
not here, You're still on our own hit list as well,
and the Vision somehow costs him, But I don't. I
(17:28):
just don't see that being in. So I think a
clean loss hurts Punk going down. I think it actually
negates a lot of what you've been building towards going forward.
But like again a Penta or an AJ, this could
(17:49):
have been a chance for AJ to get a two
month title run in like to Me. Honestly, I keep
coming back to AJ styles, as you know, unless like
to Me is the perfect person close. If Punk is
going to win, AJ can take the loss. If if
if there's gonna be some kind of a screwy ending,
(18:11):
that doesn't hurt AJ to get a title that way,
everybody knows he's retiring next year. You get a two
month three months, you know, maybe to the rumble and
you can have AJ get that short run in and
then switch the title to whoever you decide at that point.
As you get closer to WrestleMania, who's penciled in to
(18:33):
be your main event. It could be brock Lesner, could
be whoever the hell you want it to be. But
like to me, AJ Styles is THO was like the
no brainer booking decision here because you couldn't go wrong.
However you booked Saturday night's main event.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, it's It's it's an outside the box but logical
thing to happen with with him, especially the momentum that
has U that he gained from from Crown Joel. So
I think if the plan wasn't to put the tag
team titles on him, maybe that's maybe that's why you
(19:10):
know they didn't go that direction. But I don't know.
I don't know, but I think we're on this. I
think we agree that it could be somebody else, but
I think we're just we don't agree on another.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Why let me throw another name in there, Eric Finn.
With everything going on now with Dom and how Dom
can do everything again, I don't think it hurts Finn. Hey,
he has his title run kind of got screwed right
because he got hurt. He never really saw that level.
(19:44):
Quite again, I think he's a guy that could have
did a short run and then dom ends up somehow
costing him the title. Say it rumble and they feud.
It could have you could have spun that off and
then you could have gone whatever direction you're gonna go
with the world title, as well as create a situation
where you can advance this incredibly long storyline. And that's
(20:06):
a huge event in that in that storyline, that really
would have rejuvenated a little bit as opposed to sometimes
it's now starting to feel a little dragged on.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
I I would have agreed with you about a year
ago with Finn, but the way that they have booked
Finn balor Oh is a crime. That guy has so
much talent, and he's been kind of glorified as a
tag team wrestler who can't do it on his own,
(20:44):
and I don't think he's believable anymore. And it's unfortunate
because he's, like you said, he is, He's right up
there with Aj as far as talent, and we've seen
it and I and it's it's it's one of those
things where I don't know what the story is or
what the what the bookings. Ever since he joined Judgment
(21:04):
Day after after Priest and Rhea left, he's kind of
just been there, hasn't been a true leader of Judgment Day,
and I think that was a missed opportunity for him.
But then the ascendance of Dom kind of makes him
the leader now of Judgment Day, but they don't say that,
but it's kind of like it kind of just has
(21:25):
fallen into that, just falling into place like that. So
I would have agreed with you a year ago on
finmn Balor, maybe even six months ago, but I don't
remember the last time finn Balor got a singles win.
So it's kind of like that's where if somebody goes down,
you've got to make sure you have people that are
ready to go to that to take that opportunity. And
(21:47):
I think that's a that's a missed opportunity if that
was the direction that if they had to make a choice.
I don't think he's one of them, and I don't
and it's not his. I don't think it's a fault
of his. I think it's a fault of the booking
that he's that he's had over the last year to
two years.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's where the battle Royal
aspect comes into play though, Right, it's supposed to be
anything can happen for anybody, right, it could create an
opportunity for somebody who normally wouldn't be in this opportunity. Sure,
and so I think that that's kind of where that
negates that part a little bit. I'm I'm a little
higher on baler than I think you are, and some
(22:26):
of our other friends are. I don't. I don't feel
one way or the other. In terms of the tag
team booking. I still think Finn is a strong character.
I think we've had some really funny moments with him.
I actually really love him and JD together, and I
(22:47):
know that they're actually very close. So you know, for
all we know, he might be satisfied with the situation
he's in. You know. The one thing is we're all
kind of Tuesday in our terms, Tuesday evening quarterbacks, where you.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Know, we sit back.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
But I can tell you from my own experience talking
to certain talent who are has been talent who people
have said, oh, they should be doing more, and they
want more. And I have first hand talk to this
town who said, I'm making a paycheck, my wife's making
a paycheck. We're able to provide a life for our kids,
(23:25):
and I have fun doing what I'm doing. So some
people are in it to be the world champion always.
Some people are in it because they love the business
and whatever it is they're doing. They just want to
enjoy that part of it. And I feel like that's
thin because him and other guys people a lot about
talked about Sammy's ain and he's gonna leave the company,
(23:48):
and all of these people continue to Kevin Owens was one.
They all continue to re sign because they enjoy it.
Kevin Owens is is number one who's been open and
talked about how he doesn't it's not it's not his
be all end all is to be the world champion.
(24:08):
He's main invented a bunch of WrestleMania. He main event
in WRESTLEMANI with Steve Bawston, and then the next year
main invented it for the tag team titles. So not
everything is being the world champion. You just have to
enjoy what you're doing and the creative that.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
You Yeah, and we're speaking of selfless, we're gonna talk
about that in the in the with the SmackDown. But
but real quick, I'm not hating, as I said, I'm
not hating what Finn and JD and the Judgment Day
are doing. I think they're very entertaining and I think
(24:42):
they've established their place and for the for for the
lack of age as far as factions are concerned in
this era, how long Judgment Day has been around. And yes,
you can argue that they're not what they what they
were at the beginning. Clearly they started out with edge
(25:07):
and then they they molded into this tremendous group that
produced not only the w W Women's World Champion and
a bonus a megastar in Rhea Ripley, but they made
a world champion at a Damien Priest and you had
and Dominic Mysterio has become a megastar. So for as
(25:30):
much flack as Judgment They gets, now you cannot take
away the things that they have done and how long
that they have done it. So I think you know
to that point, I think you have you. I think
you're on the right track as far as their place,
and they're probably okay with it. And like like you said,
(25:52):
people that are probably happy with what they're doing. AJ
Styles is probably happy as can be on what he
can do because I spend more time at home.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I agree, I say that all the time. Yeah, what
he thinks like I think AJ Obviously AJ is very
self aware because he's definitely older, but he's not like
into the stratosphere of you know, we just had Sting
show up at a wrestled dream, you know what I
mean Not to say that, I don't know if Sting's
actually coming back as an m ring performer. It was
a one off, but it's still it's that idea of
(26:22):
like there are certain people who just don't have enough
self awareness when it's time to walk away and stay away.
And yet he's a guy who is performing at his
absolute peak still. I mean, he get he is a
little more temperamental in terms of injury wise, but when
he's healthy and in the ring, he goes like he
(26:43):
did fifteen years ago. But I've said it for a while,
I think he's very self aware of himself and the
position he's in and understands he does not need to
be a world champion anymore. And he has this opportunity
now to afford to people well, what he at first
wasn't given, and then was given by so many different talents,
(27:06):
including a lot of the ones that he paid homage
to in his match against John Cena, and then in
WWE working with guys like Sena and all these other
people who over time put him over so he could
be the face that runs the place on SmackDown in WWWE.
So he's incredibly self aware, and you're right, I don't
(27:28):
think to him being a world champion at this point
is a priority. It's having fun doing what he's doing
and going out while people still remember him as one
of the best that there's ever been.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Another thing, real quick, If you're champion, you're the face
of the company. Look at Cody Rhodes. Look how many
events he has to attend, how many photo shoots, how
many appearances. I'm sure at aj Styles Agent, where he's
at in his career, he probably doesn't want to do
that stuff. So let the younger guys do it. Let
(28:03):
these guys do that stuff. He doesn't need it. So
I think that's part of it too, where being the
w w E champion or the world champion takes on
a lot more responsibility than it would for somebody who's
just a part of part of the program as a
as A as a another part of the show. So
(28:24):
it's I think that's part of it too, where it's
like I've already done that, and I don't want to
have to go on the road and do all these
different events and take uh, you know, take time away
from my family for for these these responsibilities.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Yeah, I agree, And I think that's also going back
to the opening topic though. I do think that's why
he could have been a transitional champion Again, that's that's
assuming that maybe Punk is not or there's a chance
the Punk was supposed to lose, right, he would be
(28:59):
the guy. If Seth was supposed to win this match,
he would be the guy. I think that you could
go through transition not have to make that long term
commitment that you're talking about. You know, it's practically almost November,
drop the title at Rumble and then you move forward,
or even if you haven't hold the belt until the
next Saturday Night's main event, that gives you another month
(29:23):
to try to come up with something on a different
creative plane to where you could have him drop the
title there.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
So, yeah, the only the end real quick the last
thing on this so for me, so talk about transitional
champion and talking about earlier with CM punk him winning
the title. I don't want that to be a transitional
championship for him. But like I said earlier with the
(29:50):
vision with bron and Bronson, the endgame has to be
one of those guys winning the title, or it kind
of just doesn't make sense. So when does that happen?
Does it happen sooner rather than later, or we push
it out a little bit. So I think that's the
question that I think is gonna be uh tossed around
(30:10):
once we know officially on November first year, the World
Heavyweight Champion is and then then we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, I think it's another spot that we differ because,
I mean, the end game has to be there, but
I don't think the end game has to be between
now in WrestleMania. I think the end game right now
is to get them to establish them as a bona
fide main event talent, and then I think you spend
twenty twenty six, at some point in twenty twenty six
(30:40):
putting one of those titles, whether it's a WWE title
or the World Heavyweight title. On one of those guys.
I don't think it has to be that quick. So
I do think punk winning, I don't think should an
effect what the long term goals are for them. I
don't think it's gonna hurt them because I think you're
gonna have a lot of feuds that still have to
(31:01):
come along. You know, Set's gonna come back at some point. Uh.
You know, they've made a lot of enemies over the time.
So I guess we'll see where that takes them. But
it's gonna be very interesting. Obviously, we'll be covering that
as we get closer to that. I guess that would be.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Next week, right, yeah, a week from week from Saturday.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah, so we'll be previewing Saturday Night's main event. Well,
another week of creative under our belt to kind of
see the direction or try to get a feel for
where this one's going. But moving on to our second
topic here, let's jump back to SmackDown Friday Night. I
thought it was a really good show. This was this
(31:43):
was the chakra of all of it though. So samy
Zane has this open challenge I'm originally miss is coming out.
He gets attacked by Carmelo and that opens it up
for the returning Alien drag Ilia dragon Off. Who I mean,
this match was tremendous, And what I did enjoy about
(32:08):
it was even though they had Solo's music hit and
he he didn't physically get involved. He stood in the
ramp and he basically just looked at Sammy and he
made his smirk and then you know, technically Sammy still
got his offensive move in right, so he had the
exploder suplex into the corner to set up the halluva
(32:31):
kick and then obviously, Ilia, as sam he's running in,
hits him with a couple brutal, brutal forearms there and well,
I think it was the one of running me.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah, running mee and then the and then the the forearm.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, and then he which I think is it's so simple,
but it looks so vicious. I mean, he's he's a
stiff worker and you could tell.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
But in a shocking result, Ilia Dragonov defeats Samy's Ain
to win the United States title in the Open Challenge.
I'm gonna be interested to see if the Open Challenge continues.
I hope that it does. I do think it is
a the two times they've done it, I think It's
done really well for creating opportunities for people and getting
(33:20):
them on television and not needing to have some elaborate
storyline behind it to get them on television. So I
like that. But very cool for Eli. He's been out
for practically a year at this point. He had a
major injury shortly after being drafted to SmackDown, and he
comes back and he ends up winning in I mean
tremendous match. You guys haven't seen it, find it on
(33:42):
YouTube or you know when WW will be uploading it soon.
I imagine at some point over the next couple of weeks
go back and watch this match. But what are your
thoughts on Ilia coming back taking the US title and
what does this mean for Samy's ain going forward?
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Uh, tremendous match, and I would say this could be
a Match of the Year candidate. As far as you know,
I know there was there's been some bangers recently, seen
an A J and uh, you know scene in Cody.
But you know, as far as network television is concerned,
(34:20):
between Row and SmackDown, it's probably right up there. Love
the love the shock value, as far as you know
the opponent and that that US open challenge. I think
it's it's worked really well in in recent since Sammy
took the title, uh, you know, utilizing like you said,
(34:41):
other talents two uh to get a TV time and
get some get some work in and and show their
uh and show their stuff. And I think it's it's
worked really well, and I would expect it to continue.
I would say for Sammy Zane and I and I've
talked about this. You know, I'm not sure on here,
but with like friends and stuff like that, I still
(35:03):
think Sammy Zain has enough story to where, you know,
it may not be this year, but I think there's
still that end goal of being a world champion that
I think could be the next thing for him, and
he's kind of been in that place. It's kind of
(35:23):
similar to in a way La Night, where he's gotten
far and it had he hasn't completely captured, you know,
the the end goal, and he's kind of been relegated
to you know, secondary titles and and things like that,
but he's still tremendously popular and still over So I
(35:44):
would expect in the short term you may see some
matches with Solo and Ilia, maybe a triple threat match
for the for the US title, But it wouldn't surprise
me if Sammy Uh moves up the cardinal little bit.
You know, maybe maybe we get a match with with
Cody down the road or whoever is Whoever's champion, not saying,
(36:09):
you know, WrestleMania, but it wouldn't shock me if if
there's Uh, there's an opportunity for him down the road.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah, I think listen, the day is going to come.
I find it hard to believe that Sammy's not gonna
win a world title at some point. Is he going
to be a guy who has five title runs? I
don't think so. But do I think he's going to
get his kofee Mania moment or you know, yes movement moment.
I think there's gonna be a time where that that's
(36:41):
gonna be the move for w w A and I
think it's gonna be something around the WrestleMania or a
Summer Slam to maximize it and create an incredible moment
in terms of ilia. Yes, I do hope that they
continue the the US time. I'm I've been such a
(37:01):
fan of his since honestly going back to NXWW nxt
UK when he made invented with at the time Walter
now Gunter, and they had a match for and he
defeated Gunter in that match for the nxt UK title.
That I'm telling you it was brutal, hard hitting, like
(37:25):
you talk about strong style, European style, and it's just
a match that always stuck in my head. And he's
always been just such a tremendous worker. He can work
with any style of person, and I just I'm happy
for the guy. I think he he's a guy that
has a chance to be a player for them. I
(37:47):
don't I don't know if he'll ever be a in
the world title picture, but I think he's a guy
that could be gone to for main event for and
a guy who if you're trying to if you're having
(38:07):
a lot of those storyline driven shows and you want
to put a match or two on card where you
know these guys are just going to go out and
put on a tremendous wrestling match, I think that's the Onliat.
I want the US title since it's kind of not
happened as much with the IC title, with this open
challenge having happened with Senia years ago and now this,
(38:28):
I would love for the US title to become that
secondary worker work rate championship that the Intercontinental Titles legacy
was for so many years, and I would love the
Open Challenge again to maintain its placed because of that,
because it does kind of stand there then as the
(38:51):
workhorse title, and it does give opportunities to put other
people on television to not have a reason to to
it other than I'm going to come out here and
I'm going to confront this guy and I'm going to
go for his title. And we talk about this all
the time. Right. As much as I love long term storytelling,
(39:12):
the reality is, if you're someone who fights on TV
every week, you're not gonna win for a year, for
two years, You're going to lose at some point. I
would love for it to create an opportunity where this
title can kind of be passed around every two or
three months at the most and have those shocking title
(39:33):
changes make every title match feel like you never know
who's going to win this because you know the Open
title it creates such a hard work rate situation for
the person holding it. It's so hard what a title
that you constantly have to put on the line and
(39:54):
you don't know who you're going to face lean into it,
make it that, make it something amazing.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
It's a simple but effective formula. And going back to say,
I know we were talking about selfless earlier. I had
read a report over the weekend that apparently this was
Sammy's idea to put Ilia over, And wouldn't shock me
if that was absolutely true, because Sammy has shown that
(40:22):
he's a team player and knows the bigger picture, and
he looked just as good losing that match as Ilia
did winning that match. Sammy comes out, he lost the match,
but he put on a show, and he took him
to the limit. No damage done to Sammy's ain't at all.
If not it, it catapults him. So I think that's
(40:45):
a perfect example of somebody being able to lose and
look good doing it.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Absolutely hit the nail on the head on that one.
So we'll be interested to see how this goes. But
congratulations to Ilia. Awesome match, awesome win. Looking forward to
see what he can do with that title. Other also
on SmackDown, So Jacob Fatou is hurt, so storyline wise,
they have to write him out right, so he gets
(41:12):
attacked behind the scenes. The presumption is it's Drew McIntire.
I imagine it's gonna end up not being Drew McIntire.
But Drew doesn't deny it, but he doesn't claim it,
and Cody kind of gets pissed off. He comes out
confronts and we have an impromptu match. Cody's wrestling and
(41:35):
in like a fucking gorgeous suit.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
He was about to jump, He's about to jump through
the ropes, so like, oh boy.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
He must have one hell of a one hell of
a tailor that seem just never busts. It's unbelievable. But anyway,
one of these days, one of these days. But so
Cody Rhoades Drew McIntyre, Uh, I'll be nothing is official yet,
but they are setting the tone for what looks like
(42:06):
this will be a WWE title match at Saturday Night's
main event. I'm gonna jump in here first on this.
I feel very uninspired by this, very uninspired for a
number of reasons. One, if we're going back to the
well on cmpunk and Jay usso why are we doing
(42:31):
this with Drew and Cody again? Why is every probe?
Drew deserves better And it's hard to say that when
you're getting a world title or WWE title opportunity, But
Drew's not winning this. Drew is not winning this. So
what maybe they shocked me. I don't doubt I doubt it.
(42:55):
If you're gonna shock me, go ahead and shock me.
But in the meantime, Drew has done nothing but lose
big match after big match, and he he comes off
as a whining, bitching person who will do underhanded things
to get what he wants, but can never cash in
(43:16):
when the moment is the biggest and the one time
he did, he got in his own way and see
him and Damian Priest cashed in on him. I don't
like this for Drew. I don't like this for Cody
because we're going backwards into the first World title run
and I this is where I do understand and relate
(43:41):
to the booking concerns for certain things with w w A.
I hate this. I hate it, and once again I
don't I don't know that Drew can take another loss.
He keeps losing time and again, and what happens to
him then, Like, at this point, I feel like we
(44:02):
got to turn him face. As much as I love
this heel persona, he's kind of like a half face
anyway speaks the damn truth. Half the time, but he
don't ever cash in on any of it, So I
don't know where they go from here. And if you're
gonna surprise me ww, then surprise me. But I'm not
holding my breath, so to me, on the surface, this
(44:24):
looks like a lazy situation. I Jacob was probably going
to win this much, I would have Matine, I think, so, okay,
I but regardless, it seems very very lazy. And now
here we are again with something that I really don't
(44:45):
care to see again, and to watch Drew continue to
wilt away in the main of that picture. Tigers.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Yeah, I'm I agree with you. I think they could
have done something different, and maybe to your point, maybe
it was Jacob and that would have been awesome. It'd
be awesome to see somebody new, like we talked about
that with Raw with the world title, like somebody knew,
somebody fresh. It's very challenging, and we've talked about this
(45:14):
where when you have a you have your top baby
face as your champion, where's the adversity coming from? He
lost the crown jewel, I'll give him that, but he
hasn't had much adversity, you know, since he got the
(45:35):
title back. At summer something had the ever he lost
the title, he got it back, but since then now
it's like what is next? And I just think there
needs to be something shaken up there, whether it's him
losing the title or he gets he gets destroyed in
a match, or he gets attacked, Like there just needs
(45:57):
to be something where it needs to be compelling. I
just feel like right now, they just had this match
the Saturay Knights main event, the last Satday Knights main event,
So it's like, what else are you gonna do? Are
you gonna add a stipulation to it? Like all right,
But to your point, we're already gonna see a new
world heavyweight champion. I would be absolutely shocked as I've
(46:23):
ever been if there's two titles changes on a Saturday
Knights main event. I just don't see it happening either.
And to your point, it's like what is next for
either guy? Who's gonna be Who's gonna be Cody's next challenger?
What's what's what's next for Drew? Like do you send
him back to raw? Do you what? Do you turn
(46:46):
them face? Like you said, like what, Yeah, I just
don't see I just don't see a reason to have
this match again. Don't even have them wrestle on this card.
You've got a world title match already. I guess it
wouldn't have been that way, but no, in hindsight. But
(47:06):
I again, I just don't see ye. I'm I'm in
agreeance with you. I just don't. I don't see ah.
I just don't see the point.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
No, I mean, at this point, put somebody unexpected against Cody.
You don't need to just give an opportunity, an open opportunity,
to somebody else, because I just I'm over this. I'm
over this for Drew. It's frustrating. As much as I
can be sometimes a WWE defender, sometimes to a fault,
(47:41):
I don't think. I think this is where I really did.
I take my teeth into the They've absolutely destroyed everything,
in my opinion that has been going. I think Drew
needs to go away, is what I think needs to happen. Like, honestly,
maybe you send him away now and you bring them
back at the rumble, you know, do an injury angle,
do whatever, and have Drew go away and have him
(48:05):
maybe come back as a face. Because you can't keep
doing this. You can't. You can't. We're spinning the wheels.
It's the definition of insanity with Drew McIntyre. If you're
not going to put a title on him at this point,
he needs to stop being thrown into me. This isn't it,
This isn't Brian Danielson in aw where you know, he
lost a ton of world title opportunities, and I guess
(48:27):
what he eventually wanted, by the way, and honestly, as
great as the moment was, having a second cash in
at WrestleMania forty, that's not enough to satisfy Drew McIntyre
as the main event world title picture guy now. So again,
I don't I don't know what to do with him
other than to send him away for a while, take
(48:50):
a vacation, go with your wife.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
We talked, We talked about Sammy Zam being able to
lose and lose well, how many times are we going
to ask Drew McIntyre to lose well, Like, he's come
out of these losses fortunately, you know still, you know,
still legitimate, still, you know strong, and it's like, how
many more times are we going to ask him to
do that? It's just not it's lazy, and it's like
(49:17):
and I've seen enough.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
We're talking about like mystery opponents and things of that nature.
Why not an Oba Fami just throw it like do
what seen It did with the US title back years ago.
Leave it open, have somebody have what's his name, Elvis
(49:43):
come out and say, you know what, I just made
a huge free agent signing and Cody that's going to
be your opponent. It's Saturday Night's main event. Boom there,
Oba's music hit. I just this is this is all.
I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, ate it,
not into it. So we'll see what I have. I understand,
(50:06):
even though I don't. I think there's other options for
Punk and jay Us. I don't hear like this is
very vincesque to me that we're going on with these
two world title programs that have dragged on entirely. And
I do feel about you nailed it on the ED
(50:27):
with Cody. Where is the adversity, where's the new challenge.
I don't mind Cody as champion. I don't mind your
top face being championed, but you have to have the
creative foresight to be able to justify that championship reign
because otherwise the chases, the titles are, the money is
(50:49):
always in the chase when it comes to your top.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Guy, and I think it feels like and this may
be another reason why Drew keeps getting put in these matches.
But where are the other heels on smack Down? Where
are the top viable heels on SmackDown? The next one
after that is Solo, and he's lucky that he's starting
to get himself built back up because he lost match
(51:12):
after match after match.
Speaker 2 (51:14):
I actually really enjoyed Solo's work lately.
Speaker 1 (51:17):
Oh oh, without question, but he's not ready to be legitimate. No,
I agree, agree, but I but I'm with you. I
think I think the fresh coat of paint, no pun intended,
because they all have face paint out, but I think
it's a good thing for all of them to get
a fresh start. But at the same time, now, besides
(51:37):
Drew McIntyre, who do you have on SmackDown that's gonna
challenge Cody? There's really there's really nobody right now.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
I mean, you could have I know, we say like
he's kind of the he's past the point of a
heel or a face, but you could have Randy Orton.
This could have been the real without a doubt, And
maybe that's the missed opportunity. I don't know if he's hurt.
I don't think he is, but this might have been
(52:05):
the Randy Yorton spot here to have that program happen
right now.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
I think they're and I don't disagree, but I think
that they're saving that for a WrestleMania or a Major
p L. I think that's a match that we saw
it at. What was that? Uh we saw it in Saudi, right, Yeah,
saw in Saudy. So I think and I think they're
(52:30):
still they've kind of planted those seeds where Randy keeps
looking at the title and eventually something's gonna happen. I
gotta happen where Randy's just like I've had enough, I
can't take this anymore, and I'm gonna RKAO and I
want that title. I don't care who I need to
go through. So it's it's uh, I think they're saving that.
(52:53):
But I agree that if you don't have anybody else
you got, you gotta put somebody else out there. You
can't keep just you can't just keep throwing this same
guy out there and expect him to continue to come
out of it looking looking good.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah, it's not happening. Any other news and notes you
want to take from the shows this week before we
sign off.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
Here, Not from the show, actually from Friday Night SmackDown.
Looks like Soul ruka uh. They had a match tag
team match Hernzaria versus Alexa and Charlotte for the UH
for the w W Women's tag team titles. And it
looks like tonight on NXT, Soul is making a major
(53:34):
announcement and it's and it's the speculation as it could
be injury related. I know she was helped out to
the back and then she took a shot to the knee.
It looked like it I watching it, it looked like
it was planned. It was a planned attack because she
got distracted. Lake Monroe was sitting there, So I don't
(53:56):
know if it's that or some people are saying maybe
he's getting sent to the main roster. I don't think
they would do a main roster that way. I think
they would just have her show up. But I could
be wrong. I I think it might be injury related,
but hopefully hopefully it's not too long because she's impressed,
(54:16):
like she's she's fantastic, and I think she's ready for
the main roster. You know, maybe it's uh, you know,
maybe the injury. You know, she she can come back
quickly and take right back where she left off. So
hopefully it's not If it's an injury, hopefully it's not serious,
and hopefully speed up. Hopefully it's a speedy recovery. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:38):
Listen, I think she she's been one of their real
standouts at n x T. Her finisher is awesome.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
Yeah, she did it on a SmackDown that was fantastic.
Nobody else is doing that move, and you can do
it on anybody. Yeah, she can do that move to
anybody and it would it would be legit.
Speaker 2 (55:01):
Other news in wrestling too for US New Generation fans obviously,
big loss again this week for the wrestling world. Bobby
Horn passed away, also known as Moe from Men on
a Mission. I know there was reports last week that
he was struggling health wise and unfortunately did pass away
(55:23):
a couple of days ago. I loved Men on a
Mission to this day. It ain't great when you talk
about like aesthetically and all that, but man, one of
my favorite Survivor series has always been Survivor Series nineteen
ninety three.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
That was the.
Speaker 2 (55:42):
Foreign that was the Foreign Fanatics versus the what was
the mission? Yeah? Yeah, but the main event I think
was the.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
The main event was the Heart Was that the one
with the Hearts versus the Knights?
Speaker 2 (55:59):
Now was the foreign fanatics? It was like ludvig borga.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Oh yeah, Yoko Zuna.
Speaker 2 (56:06):
Yeah, I forget the name of the American team. But anyway,
like the Americans or the All Americans. Yeah, the All
Americans versus the Foreign Fanatics. But yes, that's the one
you had the Knights with with Sean and Brett and Owen.
But I always I don't know why when I was
a kid, I watched that match back. I used to
have the vhs of w w WWF's Most Unusual Matches,
(56:30):
and that had like the first ladder match of Sean
and Brett before they ever did one that was like
an ex coliseum video exclusive because they were that was
the one they were experimenting on it in WWE, so
it was never actually done on a show before they
did it at WrestleMania ten and that was one of
the matches that was on. It was like a five
(56:51):
match or six match, you know, collection, and that was
one of the matches that was on and I always
watched that match over and over. That's shimbog.
Speaker 1 (57:00):
Oh gosh.
Speaker 2 (57:02):
Anyway, Mo met on a mission. They were a very
nineties but very kind of different tag team in their day.
Obviously Mabel this or a Big Daddy v He's also
passed away, So Oscars the last one left. But Sermo.
I loved him as Cermo at that point. Oh yeah,
(57:26):
but yeah, so another loss for us for uh yeah,
our our group from thirty years ago.
Speaker 1 (57:33):
Yeah, and I just want to say real quick yet,
So he wrestled. So they wrestled from ninety three to
late ninety five on I don't know if they put
it on the vault, but I saw their first Matt
televised match on Superstars. It was like November ninety No,
it was somewhere in ninety three. I think it was
like October ninety three, and they were just different. And
(57:57):
those that follow that was a tremendously transitional time. They
were just getting out of the Hull Cogan era and
trying to find their footing, and there was a lot
of turnover, a lot of new new faces, a lot
of younger talent, and these two were just they they
(58:18):
looked they had a rapper gimmick. They did like the whoop,
there it is and wave your hands in the air.
Oscar would sing and uh it was. They were a
Sermo was big, but Mabel just made him look so tiny.
Mabel was just another just a just a massive human being.
(58:38):
And he did some like early on in his careers,
doing like spinning heel kicks, and he did a let
The finisher was a leg drop off the second rope.
This is Mabel. Yeah, and then Moe did like the
crucifix into the leg drop. So and they I think
they won the tag titles or they I don't know
if they they were recognized as tag champions. I think
(59:00):
they had like it's it's it's kind of like one
of those where I don't think they were officially tag champions,
but I think there was something where they had them
but that they didn't. I don't know if they were
officially tag team champions or not, but they were. They
were okay, one time tag team champions. Okay, I know
(59:20):
they I know they had a match at they had
a tag title match it wrestling at ten, but I
don't think they I think they won on like a
disqualification or something like that. But but yeah. They anybody
who entertained me in my childhood, I'm thankful for So
thank you to Bobby Horn for uh for entertaining me
(59:43):
during my uh, during my childhood and my my teen years.
So appreciate it. And I hope you're uh, you know,
I'm glad. You know you're not suffering anymore, and you
know you're up there. You're reunited with with uh with Mabel,
so uh you have your matches with ld there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Oh yeah, funk sack. So they were. They won the
WWF Tag Team titles at a house show in London,
England on March twenty ninth, nineteen ninety four, and then
they dropped the titles two days later to the Quebecers
(01:00:27):
at Sheffield, England at a house show.
Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
So they looked. So they beat the Quebecers and then
they dropped them back. Well.
Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
Then the Quebecers held the title for twenty six days
and dropped them to the Headshrinkers in April twenty on
April twenty six, and then the Headshrinkers held it for
like one hundred and twenty seven days. Wow, talk about
like compitating the tag team been.
Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
Talking about a rabbit hole.
Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
So they had a two day tag team title.
Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
And those that watched in ninety three, ninety four, ninety
five there are that it was. It was interesting, to
say the least. Going now going back like man like
they went from man and this this roster to these
(01:01:16):
uh to clowns and plumbers and dump and trash men
and you name it, you name the occupation.
Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
They had it, Duke, the dumps, the man, Mountain.
Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Rock, Yeah, occupier, the goon, they had the name, and
they had it occupational, occupational wrestlers. That was the thing.
Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Yeah, good times, but yeah, rest in peace tomorrow. Men
on a mission, doing their thing wherever they're at now
together a great show this week. Next week, I imagine
we'll have a little bit more to talk about because
we'll be heading into Saturday night's main event. So very
excited for that. Me and Eric will be back with
you guys, same thank five point thirty six o'clock next
(01:02:02):
week Eastern Standard time. Guys, we're on the East coast.
Make sure you guys please throw a like, throw a subscribe,
throw a follow, throw a comment, share it out whatever
you can do on our social media platforms and a
two D social media platforms we appreciate your love and support. Uh,
(01:02:22):
and for myself and for Eric and everybody here at
a two D radio, I hope you guys have a
great week. Thank you. To specialize the hope you guys
have a great week. Eric, I hope you have a
great week. Buddy, I'll see you next week.
Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
You too. Sounds good if we have a good week.
Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
Yeah, have a good week. And uh, make sure you guys.
Let everybody out there who's special to you you know
that you'll love them. But for myself and Eric, oh,
it's up to you. I might be I may or
may not have an outfit on next week because it
is our Halloween episode. Ah might be. Uh, we'll see,
(01:02:58):
we'll see accepted, accept it Alright, guys, have a go
on and we'll see you next week.
Everybody's got a price for the million dollar man? Oh
who's that kid? Nick uh? He looks like Beaker from Muppets.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The One on one Nick Right. Yeah, Yeah, I got
something amazing. I did not even I love I love that.
If I get five limit and they're all in the
same room with me, We're going at it at one
hundred and Welcome in, everybody. Tuesday Night, another edition of
(00:44):
the Lazy Booking Podcast, live here on a two D
radio Chrome, as always, joined by my colleague here, mister
Eric Archer. What's up, my brother?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
What's happening? Chrome? Good to be here. Let's get this going.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, man, lots to talk about. We're alling SmackDown. Yeah,
it's gonna be a fun show. We're gonna talk about
the new world title picture that we have that's now
unfolding coming off of our conversation last week. First and foremost,
little to our sponsor, doctor Paul Bdell and his award
winning team at Specialized Physical Therapy dot com. They got
(01:23):
physical locations in Burlington Cherry Hill, New Jersey, or you
can find him at that site on the web Specialized
Physical Therapy dot Com. No appointment is necessary, so any aches,
pains any long lasting or short term physical ailments you
have going on, please hit them up. They'll get you
on a program and get your feeling back to your
peak performance on a daily Yeah, a lot that happened
(01:48):
this week. We're gonna dive into SmackDown. We're actually gonna
start with the most recent though, Eric, because I think
it's probably our most big thing. I guess that's happened
over the last week. Uh, and that would kick us
off with our poll question here. Last night on Raw,
(02:08):
Monday Night Rawl still called Monday Night Roll. Last night
on Monday Night Roll, it was announced we talked last
week about the potential injury and how that could affect
the WWE World title picture regarding Seth Rowins getting hurt
at uh in Perth Ground Jewel. So what we learned
(02:31):
is the he has been stripped of the title. And
you know, my favorite thing to see, Eric is the
people going, oh, well, you know this perse Cody. Cody
missed whatever weeks and he wasn't stripped of his title.
It's like, guys, it's a choreograph thing. They're going to
strip the title because the dude's going to be out
from loco. Corey was off shooting like a movie or
(02:53):
something like cut me a break, had a kid?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
How dare you you?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
How tear you? But yeah, so our opening topic, they
end up having a number one was a number one contender,
but a vacant slot in a match against cmpunk for
Saturday Night's main event. They end up having a Battle
Royal last night in which jus won, and we're talking
we'll talk about that win, but our opening topic is
(03:22):
j Usso winning the Battle Royal on Raw to face
Cmpunk at Saturday Night's main event was the right creative
decision by WWE. Do you agree or disagree? So, wherever
you're at, you're on Facebook, you're on YouTube, you're on
ex Twitter, please comment, like, subscribe if you haven't yet,
and most importantly joined the conversation. We want to hear
(03:43):
from you, guys. We're going to talk about a number
of topics, but we're gonna we're diving right in head
for us. So, Eric, if you agree or disagree to
the statement that this was the right creative booking decision
for WWE to have jus So come out of this
and real quick a reminder, a lot of names in
this Battle Royal, you had aj styles, Dominic Mysterio, La Night,
(04:07):
Jimmy Usso. I mean they're russav There, Penta. There were
a lot of names of people who could have shaken
up the main events scene a little bit that they
go back to the Jayu so well, so, yeah, let's
hear your thoughts on this one.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Disagree and I don't even disagree with going back to
what they've been going with with the storyline. I just
think they picked the wrong guy. And I'm wearing the
shirt just as a coincidence. But two things here, and
it takes nothing away from jay Uso at all. I
(04:43):
think jay Uso has earned his spot as far as
being at the top of the card. He's over like
nobody else, well not, he's up there was the world champion,
got his got his moment at WrestleMania, and had a short,
(05:04):
short title reign. But he got one which I think
he deserved. He deserved a shot to take himself, you know,
to that higher tier on the card. That being said,
I think it's time for somebody else to get on
top of the card, and that guy is La Knight.
And I don't know what it is about this booking
(05:25):
with La Knight where he gets there he gets to
the top, but at some point there's he doesn't get
all the way there. And I think this was a
great opportunity to get LA Knight in that spot. And
I think it's time not saying a long term reign
(05:46):
with the title, but let's see somebody else with the title.
This is a good opportunity. Seth Rollins unfortunately is out,
and it opened up an opportunity for somebody to move up.
And of course we had CM Punk already there and
him being in the match and all well and good,
(06:07):
but I just think an opportunity was missed again with
l A. Knight to not only be in this match,
but to go over and become the world heavyweight champion.
Now you may you may say, all right, well, this
match is booked as far as USO winning that it
all points to CM Punk winning the world heavyweight title.
(06:31):
I just don't think if that's the direction they're gonna go,
why do it? Now it's been we've you've invested this
story of of CM Punk wanting to be the World
heavyweight champion. He gets the world heavyweight title for a
few minutes, loses it to Seth Rollins. Yeah, and set
(06:52):
is out. So a few things needed to be moved around,
things need to be pushed up. You know, I'll ave
the heel turn last week with the Vision, but I
don't think that really necessarily means that you had to
have to put the title on Punk right now. I
think you of course put him in the match, but
I don't think it would hurt him to lose to
(07:14):
an La Night or to like you mentioned, anybody like
an Aj Styles. Putting somebody else in that picture right now,
because I think ultimately, if the booking is what I
hope is going to happen, is whoever wins this title
is going to be defending it against one of the
Vision members, and I think the endgame, whether that's Survivor
(07:38):
Series or probably a little further along, maybe even into WrestleMania,
but I think if this he'll turn, or not even
he'll turn. If this turn with the Vision on seth rollins,
if there's a payoff, one of them should be the
World Heavyweight Champion. I mean, they teased it last night
on Raw bron not giving up the title. It's clear
(08:00):
that that is the goal to keep that title in
the Vision. So with that being said, why not put
the title on somebody different, even if it's a short
period of time to get you to the vision.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So I'm kind of in the middle of this, and
we don't we don't ride the middle. So I'm gonna
it's way one way or the other as we talk
this out. You know, you could argue the conversation, the
debate has been going on that, you know, Jay Uso
loses his title, how desperate is he to get it back?
(08:44):
Is he willing to take on a different mentality which
we've kind of started to see. We talked about it
like are returning appeal or were not turning a meal?
You know, it's kind of all over the place a
little bit. That being said, I could make an argument
for a number of people, and yes, I think l A.
Knight is one of them. I don't know that I
(09:09):
would have had him go over in this. To me,
there were two obvious choices that you could do here.
I think one is domb and I think to me,
Punk is going to come out of this as the champion.
By the way, I don't see how anybody else comes
out as champion. I could be wrong, maybe Jay does.
(09:32):
But if I'm booking this and I'm assuming that Punk
is going to come out as champion out of this.
I would think there's two people who could put on
a tremendous match with him and can take a loss.
I think it would be domb because it's another one
of those steps, like we talked about getting the John
(09:52):
Cena spot in Boston or in Madison Square Garden. I
think it's another one to kind of test the waters
and dip it toes in a main event picture esque match.
And then the other one I think is AJ styles,
Like we're we're doing this John Cena retirement tour, and
I feel like he just came off of this incredible,
(10:14):
incredible match with John Cena and giving him an opportunity
to come in here, and again, a loss doesn't hurt
AJ at this point, losses don't hurt AJ. You get
a high quality match. I think you get a match
that people would love to see in AJ Styles and
see I'm punk. I don't know how many times we've
(10:36):
gotten that is what do we get that? Once? Maybe
maybe I can't even recall, but you gonna because.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I think they kind of missed, they missed each other,
they didn't gone yeah, so I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And then he got hurt pretty quick, and Punk was
obviously hurt too around the same time. Maybe there was
an interaction wrong. If I'm wrong, if anybody's in the
common section can fix that for me, give us a
heads up on that. I love to know, but I
don't think these guys have faced each other since Ring
of Honor. I am correct on that, and maybe it's
something they'll say for the back pocket for next year.
(11:12):
I don't know, But to me, I just feel like
it almost falls into your lap to have this incredible
opportunity on Saturday Night's main event, to make that show
feel like something that's more special. I think they're trying
to do that by crowning a new champion on there,
but there are times where this has felt like a
(11:34):
glorified house show with a really cool, aesthetically pleasing, you know,
set and graphics and stuff, and I think this was
an opportunity to really set a tone, especially going into
when we get John Cena on December thirteenth on Saturday
Night's main event. So I think it's a missed opportunity there.
(11:57):
I mean, I honestly I would have been cool with
a guy like Penn to just because you're gonna know
you're gonna get an amazing match, You're gonna get something different.
There's a lot of people I feel like that we're
in this match and have had a lot of tri
Jimmy could have did Jimmy, and then you could have
carried on the storyline of you know how desperate. You know,
Jimmy doesn't win, but like, is Jay jealous now and
(12:19):
he costs Jimmy he gets in the way of that,
and then you keep on going with this head of
the table. There's a lot of different ways. So I'm
not up in arms as people are. I do feel
like though, it's we we had this thing that happened,
so we're just gonna kind of backtrack and fall back
(12:40):
on the easy solution, which is where I kind of
felt like this came in.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah, to use a term lazy booking, I think the
plan that the stuff that's already been in place is
what they use. They went back to what they think
is working. And I think fans, you know, every you
hear fans online talking about each week, there's it's the
(13:06):
same stuff over and over, the same three guys, you know,
talking about Jay and l a night and see him punk.
So like it kind of went back to the well.
But I think also going back to what you were
saying about Jimmy, that's a that's an interesting twist that
I didn't really think about. You think about the other
(13:27):
side of Jay not getting the opportunity he's died for.
He's doing whatever it takes, and his twin brother gets
it instead of him, And now he's conflicted. Does he
want to see his brother climb the ladder, you know,
get get that brass ring over him, and it plants that,
(13:49):
it plants that what if scenario? Will he cost him
the championship? And I think, you know, going the other
way now based on what happened eliminating Jimmy from the
Battle Royal. Now there's also some question as to is
is big jim had enough of being that second fiddle,
(14:11):
and now not only hearing it from the tribal chief,
but now he's hearing it from his own brother that hey,
like I you're you're kind of in my way. Let
me do my thing. But we're cool. We're cool because
we're brothers. But at the end of the day, they're
you know, they're going for the same goal right now.
So but I but I think also you know. That's
(14:36):
why I think, you know to your point, like, do
you really want to see Punk win on a glorified
house show? Like you said, like, as much as we've
invested in Punk going for that world title, do you
really want to have it to where it's like, all right,
well the guy who had it got hurt, so I'm
(14:56):
in this match and now I'm gonna win it. So
it's like it's kind of one of those because I
like fell in his lap, so to speak. So like
I just I just think him winning this he doesn't
need to. I think maybe he could try to earn it,
keep going to what we kind of thought was going
to be the end game for him anyway, which was WrestleMania,
(15:19):
where maybe he doesn't go for the world title. Maybe
this is where he goes and uh gets his opportunity
at Cody, like we've been talking about where we'd love
to see that match. But I just don't think Punk
really needs this right now. I think there's other guys
on the roster that could benefit from a from a
world title win.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yeah, listen, I just think I mean, for all we know,
maybe Punk was intended to win the title at this
all along. We don't know, you know what I mean,
it's we're speculating a lot that oh, well, he doesn't
need to win it on that show. Well, maybe that
that might be the intention, and before Seth got hurt,
that might have been the tension. I imagine it's going
(16:01):
to go to WrestleMania, but that could have been the intention.
That being said, in terms of other things we've talked
about and the opportunity to create another star, I see
this as another missed opportunity too, because you could have
done a transitional champion here and nobody would have thought
any less of them for guiling that. I do think
(16:24):
a transitional title would have hurt La Night. I don't
think this was the spot for La Knight. I get
what you're saying. I don't think Ae's as hot as
he was, so I don't know this is the time
to do it, To put him in a match where
he could potentially lose or become a transitional champion, to
just come back two months from now and drop the
title Lebraun, I don't feel that that's going to for him.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
What better way to catapult somebody with a win over
a multi time world champion? But how clean is it though,
like I'd beat him clean, but.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I don't think they would do that because I don't
think they.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I don't think they would either.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
But like, the whole thing is the long term booking
for this, right, So if Punk's going to lose, it's
going to further advance the storyline. So it would be
something along the lines of the Vision even though Set's
not here, You're still on our own hit list as well,
and the Vision somehow costs him, But I don't. I
(17:28):
just don't see that being in. So I think a
clean loss hurts Punk going down. I think it actually
negates a lot of what you've been building towards going forward.
But like again a Penta or an AJ, this could
(17:49):
have been a chance for AJ to get a two
month title run in like to Me. Honestly, I keep
coming back to AJ styles, as you know, unless like
to Me is the perfect person close. If Punk is
going to win, AJ can take the loss. If if
if there's gonna be some kind of a screwy ending,
(18:11):
that doesn't hurt AJ to get a title that way,
everybody knows he's retiring next year. You get a two
month three months, you know, maybe to the rumble and
you can have AJ get that short run in and
then switch the title to whoever you decide at that point.
As you get closer to WrestleMania, who's penciled in to
(18:33):
be your main event. It could be brock Lesner, could
be whoever the hell you want it to be. But
like to me, AJ Styles is THO was like the
no brainer booking decision here because you couldn't go wrong.
However you booked Saturday night's main event.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, it's It's it's an outside the box but logical
thing to happen with with him, especially the momentum that
has U that he gained from from Crown Joel. So
I think if the plan wasn't to put the tag
team titles on him, maybe that's maybe that's why you
(19:10):
know they didn't go that direction. But I don't know.
I don't know, but I think we're on this. I
think we agree that it could be somebody else, but
I think we're just we don't agree on another.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Why let me throw another name in there, Eric Finn.
With everything going on now with Dom and how Dom
can do everything again, I don't think it hurts Finn. Hey,
he has his title run kind of got screwed right
because he got hurt. He never really saw that level.
(19:44):
Quite again, I think he's a guy that could have
did a short run and then dom ends up somehow
costing him the title. Say it rumble and they feud.
It could have you could have spun that off and
then you could have gone whatever direction you're gonna go
with the world title, as well as create a situation
where you can advance this incredibly long storyline. And that's
(20:06):
a huge event in that in that storyline, that really
would have rejuvenated a little bit as opposed to sometimes
it's now starting to feel a little dragged on.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
I I would have agreed with you about a year
ago with Finn, but the way that they have booked
Finn balor Oh is a crime. That guy has so
much talent, and he's been kind of glorified as a
tag team wrestler who can't do it on his own,
(20:44):
and I don't think he's believable anymore. And it's unfortunate
because he's, like you said, he is, He's right up
there with Aj as far as talent, and we've seen
it and I and it's it's it's one of those
things where I don't know what the story is or
what the what the bookings. Ever since he joined Judgment
(21:04):
Day after after Priest and Rhea left, he's kind of
just been there, hasn't been a true leader of Judgment Day,
and I think that was a missed opportunity for him.
But then the ascendance of Dom kind of makes him
the leader now of Judgment Day, but they don't say that,
but it's kind of like it kind of just has
(21:25):
fallen into that, just falling into place like that. So
I would have agreed with you a year ago on
finmn Balor, maybe even six months ago, but I don't
remember the last time finn Balor got a singles win.
So it's kind of like that's where if somebody goes down,
you've got to make sure you have people that are
ready to go to that to take that opportunity. And
(21:47):
I think that's a that's a missed opportunity if that
was the direction that if they had to make a choice.
I don't think he's one of them, and I don't
and it's not his. I don't think it's a fault
of his. I think it's a fault of the booking
that he's that he's had over the last year to
two years.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's where the battle Royal
aspect comes into play though, Right, it's supposed to be
anything can happen for anybody, right, it could create an
opportunity for somebody who normally wouldn't be in this opportunity. Sure,
and so I think that that's kind of where that
negates that part a little bit. I'm I'm a little
higher on baler than I think you are, and some
(22:26):
of our other friends are. I don't. I don't feel
one way or the other. In terms of the tag
team booking. I still think Finn is a strong character.
I think we've had some really funny moments with him.
I actually really love him and JD together, and I
(22:47):
know that they're actually very close. So you know, for
all we know, he might be satisfied with the situation
he's in. You know. The one thing is we're all
kind of Tuesday in our terms, Tuesday evening quarterbacks, where you.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Know, we sit back.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
But I can tell you from my own experience talking
to certain talent who are has been talent who people
have said, oh, they should be doing more, and they
want more. And I have first hand talk to this
town who said, I'm making a paycheck, my wife's making
a paycheck. We're able to provide a life for our kids,
(23:25):
and I have fun doing what I'm doing. So some
people are in it to be the world champion always.
Some people are in it because they love the business
and whatever it is they're doing. They just want to
enjoy that part of it. And I feel like that's
thin because him and other guys people a lot about
talked about Sammy's ain and he's gonna leave the company,
(23:48):
and all of these people continue to Kevin Owens was one.
They all continue to re sign because they enjoy it.
Kevin Owens is is number one who's been open and
talked about how he doesn't it's not it's not his
be all end all is to be the world champion.
(24:08):
He's main invented a bunch of WrestleMania. He main event
in WRESTLEMANI with Steve Bawston, and then the next year
main invented it for the tag team titles. So not
everything is being the world champion. You just have to
enjoy what you're doing and the creative that.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
You Yeah, and we're speaking of selfless, we're gonna talk
about that in the in the with the SmackDown. But
but real quick, I'm not hating, as I said, I'm
not hating what Finn and JD and the Judgment Day
are doing. I think they're very entertaining and I think
(24:42):
they've established their place and for the for for the
lack of age as far as factions are concerned in
this era, how long Judgment Day has been around. And yes,
you can argue that they're not what they what they
were at the beginning. Clearly they started out with edge
(25:07):
and then they they molded into this tremendous group that
produced not only the w W Women's World Champion and
a bonus a megastar in Rhea Ripley, but they made
a world champion at a Damien Priest and you had
and Dominic Mysterio has become a megastar. So for as
(25:30):
much flack as Judgment They gets, now you cannot take
away the things that they have done and how long
that they have done it. So I think you know
to that point, I think you have you. I think
you're on the right track as far as their place,
and they're probably okay with it. And like like you said,
(25:52):
people that are probably happy with what they're doing. AJ
Styles is probably happy as can be on what he
can do because I spend more time at home.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I agree, I say that all the time. Yeah, what
he thinks like I think AJ Obviously AJ is very
self aware because he's definitely older, but he's not like
into the stratosphere of you know, we just had Sting
show up at a wrestled dream, you know what I
mean Not to say that, I don't know if Sting's
actually coming back as an m ring performer. It was
a one off, but it's still it's that idea of
(26:22):
like there are certain people who just don't have enough
self awareness when it's time to walk away and stay away.
And yet he's a guy who is performing at his
absolute peak still. I mean, he get he is a
little more temperamental in terms of injury wise, but when
he's healthy and in the ring, he goes like he
(26:43):
did fifteen years ago. But I've said it for a while,
I think he's very self aware of himself and the
position he's in and understands he does not need to
be a world champion anymore. And he has this opportunity
now to afford to people well, what he at first
wasn't given, and then was given by so many different talents,
(27:06):
including a lot of the ones that he paid homage
to in his match against John Cena, and then in
WWE working with guys like Sena and all these other
people who over time put him over so he could
be the face that runs the place on SmackDown in WWWE.
So he's incredibly self aware, and you're right, I don't
(27:28):
think to him being a world champion at this point
is a priority. It's having fun doing what he's doing
and going out while people still remember him as one
of the best that there's ever been.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Another thing, real quick, If you're champion, you're the face
of the company. Look at Cody Rhodes. Look how many
events he has to attend, how many photo shoots, how
many appearances. I'm sure at aj Styles Agent, where he's
at in his career, he probably doesn't want to do
that stuff. So let the younger guys do it. Let
(28:03):
these guys do that stuff. He doesn't need it. So
I think that's part of it too, where being the
w w E champion or the world champion takes on
a lot more responsibility than it would for somebody who's
just a part of part of the program as a
as A as a another part of the show. So
(28:24):
it's I think that's part of it too, where it's
like I've already done that, and I don't want to
have to go on the road and do all these
different events and take uh, you know, take time away
from my family for for these these responsibilities.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Yeah, I agree, And I think that's also going back
to the opening topic though. I do think that's why
he could have been a transitional champion Again, that's that's
assuming that maybe Punk is not or there's a chance
the Punk was supposed to lose, right, he would be
(28:59):
the guy. If Seth was supposed to win this match,
he would be the guy. I think that you could
go through transition not have to make that long term
commitment that you're talking about. You know, it's practically almost November,
drop the title at Rumble and then you move forward,
or even if you haven't hold the belt until the
next Saturday Night's main event, that gives you another month
(29:23):
to try to come up with something on a different
creative plane to where you could have him drop the
title there.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
So, yeah, the only the end real quick the last
thing on this so for me, so talk about transitional
champion and talking about earlier with CM punk him winning
the title. I don't want that to be a transitional
championship for him. But like I said earlier with the
(29:50):
vision with bron and Bronson, the endgame has to be
one of those guys winning the title, or it kind
of just doesn't make sense. So when does that happen?
Does it happen sooner rather than later, or we push
it out a little bit. So I think that's the
question that I think is gonna be uh tossed around
(30:10):
once we know officially on November first year, the World
Heavyweight Champion is and then then we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, I think it's another spot that we differ because,
I mean, the end game has to be there, but
I don't think the end game has to be between
now in WrestleMania. I think the end game right now
is to get them to establish them as a bona
fide main event talent, and then I think you spend
twenty twenty six, at some point in twenty twenty six
(30:40):
putting one of those titles, whether it's a WWE title
or the World Heavyweight title. On one of those guys.
I don't think it has to be that quick. So
I do think punk winning, I don't think should an
effect what the long term goals are for them. I
don't think it's gonna hurt them because I think you're
gonna have a lot of feuds that still have to
(31:01):
come along. You know, Set's gonna come back at some point. Uh.
You know, they've made a lot of enemies over the time.
So I guess we'll see where that takes them. But
it's gonna be very interesting. Obviously, we'll be covering that
as we get closer to that. I guess that would be.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Next week, right, yeah, a week from week from Saturday.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah, so we'll be previewing Saturday Night's main event. Well,
another week of creative under our belt to kind of
see the direction or try to get a feel for
where this one's going. But moving on to our second
topic here, let's jump back to SmackDown Friday Night. I
thought it was a really good show. This was this
(31:43):
was the chakra of all of it though. So samy
Zane has this open challenge I'm originally miss is coming out.
He gets attacked by Carmelo and that opens it up
for the returning Alien drag Ilia dragon Off. Who I mean,
this match was tremendous, And what I did enjoy about
(32:08):
it was even though they had Solo's music hit and
he he didn't physically get involved. He stood in the
ramp and he basically just looked at Sammy and he
made his smirk and then you know, technically Sammy still
got his offensive move in right, so he had the
exploder suplex into the corner to set up the halluva
(32:31):
kick and then obviously, Ilia, as sam he's running in,
hits him with a couple brutal, brutal forearms there and well,
I think it was the one of running me.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah, running mee and then the and then the the forearm.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, and then he which I think is it's so simple,
but it looks so vicious. I mean, he's he's a
stiff worker and you could tell.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
But in a shocking result, Ilia Dragonov defeats Samy's Ain
to win the United States title in the Open Challenge.
I'm gonna be interested to see if the Open Challenge continues.
I hope that it does. I do think it is
a the two times they've done it, I think It's
done really well for creating opportunities for people and getting
(33:20):
them on television and not needing to have some elaborate
storyline behind it to get them on television. So I
like that. But very cool for Eli. He's been out
for practically a year at this point. He had a
major injury shortly after being drafted to SmackDown, and he
comes back and he ends up winning in I mean
tremendous match. You guys haven't seen it, find it on
(33:42):
YouTube or you know when WW will be uploading it soon.
I imagine at some point over the next couple of weeks
go back and watch this match. But what are your
thoughts on Ilia coming back taking the US title and
what does this mean for Samy's ain going forward?
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Uh, tremendous match, and I would say this could be
a Match of the Year candidate. As far as you know,
I know there was there's been some bangers recently, seen
an A J and uh, you know scene in Cody.
But you know, as far as network television is concerned,
(34:20):
between Row and SmackDown, it's probably right up there. Love
the love the shock value, as far as you know
the opponent and that that US open challenge. I think
it's it's worked really well in in recent since Sammy
took the title, uh, you know, utilizing like you said,
(34:41):
other talents two uh to get a TV time and
get some get some work in and and show their
uh and show their stuff. And I think it's it's
worked really well, and I would expect it to continue.
I would say for Sammy Zane and I and I've
talked about this. You know, I'm not sure on here,
but with like friends and stuff like that, I still
(35:03):
think Sammy Zain has enough story to where, you know,
it may not be this year, but I think there's
still that end goal of being a world champion that
I think could be the next thing for him, and
he's kind of been in that place. It's kind of
(35:23):
similar to in a way La Night, where he's gotten
far and it had he hasn't completely captured, you know,
the the end goal, and he's kind of been relegated
to you know, secondary titles and and things like that,
but he's still tremendously popular and still over So I
(35:44):
would expect in the short term you may see some
matches with Solo and Ilia, maybe a triple threat match
for the for the US title, But it wouldn't surprise
me if Sammy Uh moves up the cardinal little bit.
You know, maybe maybe we get a match with with
Cody down the road or whoever is Whoever's champion, not saying,
(36:09):
you know, WrestleMania, but it wouldn't shock me if if
there's Uh, there's an opportunity for him down the road.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah, I think listen, the day is going to come.
I find it hard to believe that Sammy's not gonna
win a world title at some point. Is he going
to be a guy who has five title runs? I
don't think so. But do I think he's going to
get his kofee Mania moment or you know, yes movement moment.
I think there's gonna be a time where that that's
(36:41):
gonna be the move for w w A and I
think it's gonna be something around the WrestleMania or a
Summer Slam to maximize it and create an incredible moment
in terms of ilia. Yes, I do hope that they
continue the the US time. I'm I've been such a
(37:01):
fan of his since honestly going back to NXWW nxt
UK when he made invented with at the time Walter
now Gunter, and they had a match for and he
defeated Gunter in that match for the nxt UK title.
That I'm telling you it was brutal, hard hitting, like
(37:25):
you talk about strong style, European style, and it's just
a match that always stuck in my head. And he's
always been just such a tremendous worker. He can work
with any style of person, and I just I'm happy
for the guy. I think he he's a guy that
has a chance to be a player for them. I
(37:47):
don't I don't know if he'll ever be a in
the world title picture, but I think he's a guy
that could be gone to for main event for and
a guy who if you're trying to if you're having
(38:07):
a lot of those storyline driven shows and you want
to put a match or two on card where you
know these guys are just going to go out and
put on a tremendous wrestling match, I think that's the Onliat.
I want the US title since it's kind of not
happened as much with the IC title, with this open
challenge having happened with Senia years ago and now this,
(38:28):
I would love for the US title to become that
secondary worker work rate championship that the Intercontinental Titles legacy
was for so many years, and I would love the
Open Challenge again to maintain its placed because of that,
because it does kind of stand there then as the
(38:51):
workhorse title, and it does give opportunities to put other
people on television to not have a reason to to
it other than I'm going to come out here and
I'm going to confront this guy and I'm going to
go for his title. And we talk about this all
the time. Right. As much as I love long term storytelling,
(39:12):
the reality is, if you're someone who fights on TV
every week, you're not gonna win for a year, for
two years, You're going to lose at some point. I
would love for it to create an opportunity where this
title can kind of be passed around every two or
three months at the most and have those shocking title
(39:33):
changes make every title match feel like you never know
who's going to win this because you know the Open
title it creates such a hard work rate situation for
the person holding it. It's so hard what a title
that you constantly have to put on the line and
(39:54):
you don't know who you're going to face lean into it,
make it that, make it something amazing.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
It's a simple but effective formula. And going back to say,
I know we were talking about selfless earlier. I had
read a report over the weekend that apparently this was
Sammy's idea to put Ilia over, And wouldn't shock me
if that was absolutely true, because Sammy has shown that
(40:22):
he's a team player and knows the bigger picture, and
he looked just as good losing that match as Ilia
did winning that match. Sammy comes out, he lost the match,
but he put on a show, and he took him
to the limit. No damage done to Sammy's ain't at all.
If not it, it catapults him. So I think that's
(40:45):
a perfect example of somebody being able to lose and
look good doing it.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Absolutely hit the nail on the head on that one.
So we'll be interested to see how this goes. But
congratulations to Ilia. Awesome match, awesome win. Looking forward to
see what he can do with that title. Other also
on SmackDown, So Jacob Fatou is hurt, so storyline wise,
they have to write him out right, so he gets
(41:12):
attacked behind the scenes. The presumption is it's Drew McIntire.
I imagine it's gonna end up not being Drew McIntire.
But Drew doesn't deny it, but he doesn't claim it,
and Cody kind of gets pissed off. He comes out
confronts and we have an impromptu match. Cody's wrestling and
(41:35):
in like a fucking gorgeous suit.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
He was about to jump, He's about to jump through
the ropes, so like, oh boy.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
He must have one hell of a one hell of
a tailor that seem just never busts. It's unbelievable. But anyway,
one of these days, one of these days. But so
Cody Rhoades Drew McIntyre, Uh, I'll be nothing is official yet,
but they are setting the tone for what looks like
(42:06):
this will be a WWE title match at Saturday Night's
main event. I'm gonna jump in here first on this.
I feel very uninspired by this, very uninspired for a
number of reasons. One, if we're going back to the
well on cmpunk and Jay usso why are we doing
(42:31):
this with Drew and Cody again? Why is every probe?
Drew deserves better And it's hard to say that when
you're getting a world title or WWE title opportunity, But
Drew's not winning this. Drew is not winning this. So
what maybe they shocked me. I don't doubt I doubt it.
(42:55):
If you're gonna shock me, go ahead and shock me.
But in the meantime, Drew has done nothing but lose
big match after big match, and he he comes off
as a whining, bitching person who will do underhanded things
to get what he wants, but can never cash in
(43:16):
when the moment is the biggest and the one time
he did, he got in his own way and see
him and Damian Priest cashed in on him. I don't
like this for Drew. I don't like this for Cody
because we're going backwards into the first World title run
and I this is where I do understand and relate
(43:41):
to the booking concerns for certain things with w w A.
I hate this. I hate it, and once again I
don't I don't know that Drew can take another loss.
He keeps losing time and again, and what happens to
him then, Like, at this point, I feel like we
(44:02):
got to turn him face. As much as I love
this heel persona, he's kind of like a half face
anyway speaks the damn truth. Half the time, but he
don't ever cash in on any of it, So I
don't know where they go from here. And if you're
gonna surprise me ww, then surprise me. But I'm not
holding my breath, so to me, on the surface, this
(44:24):
looks like a lazy situation. I Jacob was probably going
to win this much, I would have Matine, I think, so, okay,
I but regardless, it seems very very lazy. And now
here we are again with something that I really don't
(44:45):
care to see again, and to watch Drew continue to
wilt away in the main of that picture. Tigers.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Yeah, I'm I agree with you. I think they could
have done something different, and maybe to your point, maybe
it was Jacob and that would have been awesome. It'd
be awesome to see somebody new, like we talked about
that with Raw with the world title, like somebody knew,
somebody fresh. It's very challenging, and we've talked about this
(45:14):
where when you have a you have your top baby
face as your champion, where's the adversity coming from? He
lost the crown jewel, I'll give him that, but he
hasn't had much adversity, you know, since he got the
(45:35):
title back. At summer something had the ever he lost
the title, he got it back, but since then now
it's like what is next? And I just think there
needs to be something shaken up there, whether it's him
losing the title or he gets he gets destroyed in
a match, or he gets attacked, Like there just needs
(45:57):
to be something where it needs to be compelling. I
just feel like right now, they just had this match
the Saturay Knights main event, the last Satday Knights main event,
So it's like, what else are you gonna do? Are
you gonna add a stipulation to it? Like all right,
But to your point, we're already gonna see a new
world heavyweight champion. I would be absolutely shocked as I've
(46:23):
ever been if there's two titles changes on a Saturday
Knights main event. I just don't see it happening either.
And to your point, it's like what is next for
either guy? Who's gonna be Who's gonna be Cody's next challenger?
What's what's what's next for Drew? Like do you send
him back to raw? Do you what? Do you turn
(46:46):
them face? Like you said, like what, Yeah, I just
don't see I just don't see a reason to have
this match again. Don't even have them wrestle on this card.
You've got a world title match already. I guess it
wouldn't have been that way, but no, in hindsight. But
(47:06):
I again, I just don't see ye. I'm I'm in
agreeance with you. I just don't. I don't see ah.
I just don't see the point.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
No, I mean, at this point, put somebody unexpected against Cody.
You don't need to just give an opportunity, an open opportunity,
to somebody else, because I just I'm over this. I'm
over this for Drew. It's frustrating. As much as I
can be sometimes a WWE defender, sometimes to a fault,
(47:41):
I don't think. I think this is where I really did.
I take my teeth into the They've absolutely destroyed everything,
in my opinion that has been going. I think Drew
needs to go away, is what I think needs to happen. Like, honestly,
maybe you send him away now and you bring them
back at the rumble, you know, do an injury angle,
do whatever, and have Drew go away and have him
(48:05):
maybe come back as a face. Because you can't keep
doing this. You can't. You can't. We're spinning the wheels.
It's the definition of insanity with Drew McIntyre. If you're
not going to put a title on him at this point,
he needs to stop being thrown into me. This isn't it,
This isn't Brian Danielson in aw where you know, he
lost a ton of world title opportunities, and I guess
(48:27):
what he eventually wanted, by the way, and honestly, as
great as the moment was, having a second cash in
at WrestleMania forty, that's not enough to satisfy Drew McIntyre
as the main event world title picture guy now. So again,
I don't I don't know what to do with him
other than to send him away for a while, take
(48:50):
a vacation, go with your wife.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
We talked, We talked about Sammy Zam being able to
lose and lose well, how many times are we going
to ask Drew McIntyre to lose well, Like, he's come
out of these losses fortunately, you know still, you know,
still legitimate, still, you know strong, and it's like, how
many more times are we going to ask him to
do that? It's just not it's lazy, and it's like
(49:17):
and I've seen enough.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
We're talking about like mystery opponents and things of that nature.
Why not an Oba Fami just throw it like do
what seen It did with the US title back years ago.
Leave it open, have somebody have what's his name, Elvis
(49:43):
come out and say, you know what, I just made
a huge free agent signing and Cody that's going to
be your opponent. It's Saturday Night's main event. Boom there,
Oba's music hit. I just this is this is all.
I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, ate it,
not into it. So we'll see what I have. I understand,
(50:06):
even though I don't. I think there's other options for
Punk and jay Us. I don't hear like this is
very vincesque to me that we're going on with these
two world title programs that have dragged on entirely. And
I do feel about you nailed it on the ED
(50:27):
with Cody. Where is the adversity, where's the new challenge.
I don't mind Cody as champion. I don't mind your
top face being championed, but you have to have the
creative foresight to be able to justify that championship reign
because otherwise the chases, the titles are, the money is
(50:49):
always in the chase when it comes to your top.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Guy, and I think it feels like and this may
be another reason why Drew keeps getting put in these matches.
But where are the other heels on smack Down? Where
are the top viable heels on SmackDown? The next one
after that is Solo, and he's lucky that he's starting
to get himself built back up because he lost match
(51:12):
after match after match.
Speaker 2 (51:14):
I actually really enjoyed Solo's work lately.
Speaker 1 (51:17):
Oh oh, without question, but he's not ready to be legitimate. No,
I agree, agree, but I but I'm with you. I
think I think the fresh coat of paint, no pun intended,
because they all have face paint out, but I think
it's a good thing for all of them to get
a fresh start. But at the same time, now, besides
(51:37):
Drew McIntyre, who do you have on SmackDown that's gonna
challenge Cody? There's really there's really nobody right now.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
I mean, you could have I know, we say like
he's kind of the he's past the point of a
heel or a face, but you could have Randy Orton.
This could have been the real without a doubt, And
maybe that's the missed opportunity. I don't know if he's hurt.
I don't think he is, but this might have been
(52:05):
the Randy Yorton spot here to have that program happen
right now.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
I think they're and I don't disagree, but I think
that they're saving that for a WrestleMania or a Major
p L. I think that's a match that we saw
it at. What was that? Uh we saw it in Saudi, right, Yeah,
saw in Saudy. So I think and I think they're
(52:30):
still they've kind of planted those seeds where Randy keeps
looking at the title and eventually something's gonna happen. I
gotta happen where Randy's just like I've had enough, I
can't take this anymore, and I'm gonna RKAO and I
want that title. I don't care who I need to
go through. So it's it's uh, I think they're saving that.
(52:53):
But I agree that if you don't have anybody else
you got, you gotta put somebody else out there. You
can't keep just you can't just keep throwing this same
guy out there and expect him to continue to come
out of it looking looking good.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah, it's not happening. Any other news and notes you
want to take from the shows this week before we
sign off.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
Here, Not from the show, actually from Friday Night SmackDown.
Looks like Soul ruka uh. They had a match tag
team match Hernzaria versus Alexa and Charlotte for the UH
for the w W Women's tag team titles. And it
looks like tonight on NXT, Soul is making a major
(53:34):
announcement and it's and it's the speculation as it could
be injury related. I know she was helped out to
the back and then she took a shot to the knee.
It looked like it I watching it, it looked like
it was planned. It was a planned attack because she
got distracted. Lake Monroe was sitting there, So I don't
(53:56):
know if it's that or some people are saying maybe
he's getting sent to the main roster. I don't think
they would do a main roster that way. I think
they would just have her show up. But I could
be wrong. I I think it might be injury related,
but hopefully hopefully it's not too long because she's impressed,
(54:16):
like she's she's fantastic, and I think she's ready for
the main roster. You know, maybe it's uh, you know,
maybe the injury. You know, she she can come back
quickly and take right back where she left off. So
hopefully it's not If it's an injury, hopefully it's not serious,
and hopefully speed up. Hopefully it's a speedy recovery. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:38):
Listen, I think she she's been one of their real
standouts at n x T. Her finisher is awesome.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
Yeah, she did it on a SmackDown that was fantastic.
Nobody else is doing that move, and you can do
it on anybody. Yeah, she can do that move to
anybody and it would it would be legit.
Speaker 2 (55:01):
Other news in wrestling too for US New Generation fans obviously,
big loss again this week for the wrestling world. Bobby
Horn passed away, also known as Moe from Men on
a Mission. I know there was reports last week that
he was struggling health wise and unfortunately did pass away
(55:23):
a couple of days ago. I loved Men on a
Mission to this day. It ain't great when you talk
about like aesthetically and all that, but man, one of
my favorite Survivor series has always been Survivor Series nineteen
ninety three.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
That was the.
Speaker 2 (55:42):
Foreign that was the Foreign Fanatics versus the what was
the mission? Yeah? Yeah, but the main event I think
was the.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
The main event was the Heart Was that the one
with the Hearts versus the Knights?
Speaker 2 (55:59):
Now was the foreign fanatics? It was like ludvig borga.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Oh yeah, Yoko Zuna.
Speaker 2 (56:06):
Yeah, I forget the name of the American team. But anyway,
like the Americans or the All Americans. Yeah, the All
Americans versus the Foreign Fanatics. But yes, that's the one
you had the Knights with with Sean and Brett and Owen.
But I always I don't know why when I was
a kid, I watched that match back. I used to
have the vhs of w w WWF's Most Unusual Matches,
(56:30):
and that had like the first ladder match of Sean
and Brett before they ever did one that was like
an ex coliseum video exclusive because they were that was
the one they were experimenting on it in WWE, so
it was never actually done on a show before they
did it at WrestleMania ten and that was one of
the matches that was on. It was like a five
(56:51):
match or six match, you know, collection, and that was
one of the matches that was on and I always
watched that match over and over. That's shimbog.
Speaker 1 (57:00):
Oh gosh.
Speaker 2 (57:02):
Anyway, Mo met on a mission. They were a very
nineties but very kind of different tag team in their day.
Obviously Mabel this or a Big Daddy v He's also
passed away, So Oscars the last one left. But Sermo.
I loved him as Cermo at that point. Oh yeah,
(57:26):
but yeah, so another loss for us for uh yeah,
our our group from thirty years ago.
Speaker 1 (57:33):
Yeah, and I just want to say real quick yet,
So he wrestled. So they wrestled from ninety three to
late ninety five on I don't know if they put
it on the vault, but I saw their first Matt
televised match on Superstars. It was like November ninety No,
it was somewhere in ninety three. I think it was
like October ninety three, and they were just different. And
(57:57):
those that follow that was a tremendously transitional time. They
were just getting out of the Hull Cogan era and
trying to find their footing, and there was a lot
of turnover, a lot of new new faces, a lot
of younger talent, and these two were just they they
(58:18):
looked they had a rapper gimmick. They did like the whoop,
there it is and wave your hands in the air.
Oscar would sing and uh it was. They were a
Sermo was big, but Mabel just made him look so tiny.
Mabel was just another just a just a massive human being.
(58:38):
And he did some like early on in his careers,
doing like spinning heel kicks, and he did a let
The finisher was a leg drop off the second rope.
This is Mabel. Yeah, and then Moe did like the
crucifix into the leg drop. So and they I think
they won the tag titles or they I don't know
if they they were recognized as tag champions. I think
(59:00):
they had like it's it's it's kind of like one
of those where I don't think they were officially tag champions,
but I think there was something where they had them
but that they didn't. I don't know if they were
officially tag team champions or not, but they were. They
were okay, one time tag team champions. Okay, I know
(59:20):
they I know they had a match at they had
a tag title match it wrestling at ten, but I
don't think they I think they won on like a
disqualification or something like that. But but yeah. They anybody
who entertained me in my childhood, I'm thankful for So
thank you to Bobby Horn for uh for entertaining me
(59:43):
during my uh, during my childhood and my my teen years.
So appreciate it. And I hope you're uh, you know,
I'm glad. You know you're not suffering anymore, and you
know you're up there. You're reunited with with uh with Mabel,
so uh you have your matches with ld there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Oh yeah, funk sack. So they were. They won the
WWF Tag Team titles at a house show in London,
England on March twenty ninth, nineteen ninety four, and then
they dropped the titles two days later to the Quebecers
(01:00:27):
at Sheffield, England at a house show.
Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
So they looked. So they beat the Quebecers and then
they dropped them back. Well.
Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
Then the Quebecers held the title for twenty six days
and dropped them to the Headshrinkers in April twenty on
April twenty six, and then the Headshrinkers held it for
like one hundred and twenty seven days. Wow, talk about
like compitating the tag team been.
Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
Talking about a rabbit hole.
Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
So they had a two day tag team title.
Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
And those that watched in ninety three, ninety four, ninety
five there are that it was. It was interesting, to
say the least. Going now going back like man like
they went from man and this this roster to these
(01:01:16):
uh to clowns and plumbers and dump and trash men
and you name it, you name the occupation.
Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
They had it, Duke, the dumps, the man, Mountain.
Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Rock, Yeah, occupier, the goon, they had the name, and
they had it occupational, occupational wrestlers. That was the thing.
Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Yeah, good times, but yeah, rest in peace tomorrow. Men
on a mission, doing their thing wherever they're at now
together a great show this week. Next week, I imagine
we'll have a little bit more to talk about because
we'll be heading into Saturday night's main event. So very
excited for that. Me and Eric will be back with
you guys, same thank five point thirty six o'clock next
(01:02:02):
week Eastern Standard time. Guys, we're on the East coast.
Make sure you guys please throw a like, throw a subscribe,
throw a follow, throw a comment, share it out whatever
you can do on our social media platforms and a
two D social media platforms we appreciate your love and support. Uh,
(01:02:22):
and for myself and for Eric and everybody here at
a two D radio, I hope you guys have a
great week. Thank you. To specialize the hope you guys
have a great week. Eric, I hope you have a
great week. Buddy, I'll see you next week.
Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
You too. Sounds good if we have a good week.
Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
Yeah, have a good week. And uh, make sure you guys.
Let everybody out there who's special to you you know
that you'll love them. But for myself and Eric, oh,
it's up to you. I might be I may or
may not have an outfit on next week because it
is our Halloween episode. Ah might be. Uh, we'll see,
(01:02:58):
we'll see accepted, accept it Alright, guys, have a go
on and we'll see you next week.
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