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Episode 16: It's Derrick's Birthday and We're Getting Him A Women's Revolution!
50 Plays8 years ago
Come hangout with us as we talk about our ongoing feud with The MJF, Ring of Honor's Bound by Honor, the Greatest Royal Rumble, the women's revolution and more!
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Transcript
Introduction and Birthday Celebration
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, happy Thursday, and welcome to another episode of Predetermined, a Pro Wrestling Hangout. I'm your host, Garrett Callender, and with me, as always, a man who, if you were listening to this on Thursday the 3rd, the day of its release, then the man joining me, Derek Halpin, it's his birthday. Wish him a happy birthday, ladies and gentlemen.
00:00:20
Speaker
Aw, that's so sweet. Thank you. That's right, I remembered. I know when your birthday is. It's a struggle to remember when my wife says, but I haven't known her as long as you.
00:00:31
Speaker
You know, pro wrestling related to my birthday. Do you know who has a birthday the day before me? I don't know. Dwayne The Rock Johnson. And I know this. And I know this every year. Every year, I think of the segment that this is your life segment from Raw where The Rock tells Mick Foley, mankind, that The Rock's birthday is May 2nd, you stupid son of a bitch. And I laugh every year because I think, yeah, and then there's mine.
00:01:04
Speaker
See, how I should remember my wife's is just, okay, yeah, her birthday is the same day as the big shows.
00:01:12
Speaker
Now I just have to remember when the big show's birthday is. Good luck. Big show did go to my university, my alma mater, so the more you know. No, we did. Did he really? Yeah. Paul White went to Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, my friend.
Wrestler Sightings and Confrontations
00:01:29
Speaker
Well, I don't know what wrestler went to my college, but I do know that a friend of mine saw CM Punk eating at Buffalo Wild Wings once. Really? Where at? Carbondale.
00:01:39
Speaker
in Carbondale in Carbondale because they were in town for a show and this would have been when he was part of ECW and he went to be dubs and he went to be dubs and he had a you know had a meal did he didn't have a beer though who's to say he didn't the straight edge thing could be a gimmick it's a work we're all getting work punks doing drugs man had our goddamn music
00:02:35
Speaker
Well, that was a controversial beginning. That was fun. I don't normally start with birthday celebrations. Well, and we don't normally accuse CM Punk of doing drugs. I don't think literally I think we have to have been the first people to ever do that.
00:02:49
Speaker
Well, given what has transpired in the last week with the MJF calling you out on social media, it's not impossible that CM Punk could hear this podcast and then come after both of us for insinuating that he's not actually straight edge. That's true because you see him out your window, or used to see him out your window a lot. Like, you guys live in the same neighborhood.
00:03:09
Speaker
I haven't seen CM Punk in my neighborhood in a couple of years I think. The last time I think I saw him I was sitting in the Taco Bell Cantina in Wicker Park eating a taco and I looked out and he was on his phone and walking his dog maybe 200 feet away from me.
00:03:29
Speaker
And ladies and gentlemen, what this man did next is insane. If you saw the movie The Weatherman starring Nicolas Cage, he took his soft taco and lobbed it at his face. This is, this is a, this, what are you doing? This is a lie.
00:03:47
Speaker
There are very, here's the thing. There's a bunch of wrestlers that I definitely would have no problem being like, hey man, cool, nice to, like, you know, hey, cool seeing you out and about, nice to meet you. Punk is not one of those guys that I would approach. And I have stuff I could talk to him about. Both, we're both Blackhawks fans. We live in the same neighborhood or did live in the same neighborhood. And this is just not a guy that I feel like I could approach. I feel like I would get my ass kicked.
00:04:16
Speaker
There's a handful of those wrestlers. Any time I see somebody with a photograph with Brock Lesnar in an airport, I'm just like, what the fuck are you doing? That's balls. That's a badge of honor. I would get that put on a t-shirt and wear it every fucking day. That's true. What is this? I asked Brock Lesnar for a picture in an airport.
00:04:37
Speaker
See, I joke a lot about, you know, having like a fake feud with Brock Lesnar, but if I could be serious for a moment, I would be too fucking scared of what that guy would be like if I rubbed him the wrong way. You're not afraid to take the Germans. You're just afraid to ask him for a photograph.
00:04:55
Speaker
If we could just skip the formality of me being in trouble.
Broadcasting Strategies and Wrestler Interactions
00:04:59
Speaker
Well, okay, speaking of just having confrontations with wrestlers, I was watching the Ring of Honor house show from over the weekend. I don't know if it's a pay-per-view. I don't even know what you call most of these. They just have shows all the time and you watch them. Isn't that how wrestling works? Ring of Honor is confusing to me because I've said numerous occasions
00:05:21
Speaker
I feel like they're big enough to be doing more things than they actually are. And there are times where, like you said, it seems like they're airing footage from house shows and I'm like, if you were on TV,
00:05:35
Speaker
Like on a channel I could watch regularly, I would totally be watching Ring of Honor every week. Well, I think that with these house shows that they're, you know, televising, they're doing it on the network. So it, it falls into part of that. So I don't think it's, it's not like they're major paper views, but they're kind of, it's almost like a bonus show to the, the regularly televised series. Well, that's cool. I still wish I had Ring of Honor on my TV regularly. You can, it's just hard to find.
00:06:01
Speaker
Well, that's what I'm saying. If it was easier. Well, it's like, if I know back at my parents' house I was flipping through, it was like fucking noon on a Sunday. And I was like, why is Ring of Honor on ABC? Like noon on a Sunday. I went through the same thing over the winter. I went home to visit my parents over Christmas. And I think it was like midnight. And me and my girlfriend were sitting there watching ROH on a local news channel.
00:06:29
Speaker
And my mind was blown. I tuned it into MSNBC expecting to watch reruns of Locked Up. And what I got was the greatest in-ring action on television.
00:06:42
Speaker
Yeah, it was surprising, especially like I think I've seen ROH one time on TV since I moved to Chicago. I think it was on a channel here and then I think they pulled it. So I don't know what happened with Sinclair being an asshole. You should probably just walk over to one hour tease and ask him to flip it on for you.
00:07:00
Speaker
I guess I could. You guys got a laptop. I could watch the computer that you order your shirts on and shit in the store. You just you're trying to log out of all of that. So they just I don't even come in. Hey, can I use the computer? And they're like, yeah, sure, man. And then they look over like three minutes later and everything's been closed out. And I'm trying to put in my. Your honor class password. Yeah.
00:07:28
Speaker
So, okay, so you're not afraid to confront most wrestlers, you would say that, right? I wouldn't say that I'm not afraid to confront most wrestlers. I'm saying there's definitely two or three that are big fuck-noes. Well, Lesnar being one of them for real and Punk being one for real. Um, I'm trying to say Bob Holly. Go ahead and say it. Yeah, definitely Bob. But I don't even know if I want to. So it's not like I'm missing out. So it's not like you're afraid. It's just a lack of interest.
00:07:56
Speaker
Yeah, no, it is also fear. But okay, so we're gonna be sitting front row at Ring of Honor, not Supercard of Honor, Ring of Honor War of the Worlds with some of the New Japan guys there. And I was watching this Bound by Honor
00:08:12
Speaker
house show, pay per view, whatever you want to call it from over the weekend. And the main event of night two, because it was a two night stay in a building that just did not have very many people in it, is the Champions versus the Bullet Club. So it was the Briscoes, it was Silas Young and Dalton Castle versus Cody Marty and the Bucks.
00:08:33
Speaker
and the heel versions of the Briscoes are fucking terrifying. When those guys, like the guy behind me at Supercard of Honor that we discussed that I owed an apology to, I believe out loud when the Briscoes walked out, he just says, who the hell are these swamp monsters?
00:08:55
Speaker
It's like, all right. That's a fair question. I was like, that's that's a reasonable thing you've said. But when they came out as heels, they are screaming at everybody. And you can definitely attract some attention from the Briscoes. Is that something you're brave enough to do? Me? Yeah. Are you brave enough to get the attention of these chicken farmers? Yeah.
00:09:18
Speaker
Look, I'm gonna say something and you're not, I promise you, you're not gonna believe me when I say it. But I'm gonna say it anyway, just being honest, I've gotten to a point in my life where there's, like I said, there's only a few wrestlers I'm afraid of because I think they could actually do serious harm. Unless I cross a line, unless I'm throwing garbage at somebody, unless I'm touching them or fucking around with their stuff, the worst they can do is knock me the fuck out, right?
00:09:46
Speaker
I mean, they could kill you. That's an option. But they're not going to kill me. Nick Gage at that show said, jump this ring, the barricade, I will fucking kill you. I'm fucking gang related. And we're going to be seeing Nick Gage the night before we see the Brisco. So there's so many people for you to, you know, put up or shut up with.
00:10:06
Speaker
But here's the thing, if he threatens to kill me, I'm not gonna jump the thing. I'm not gonna jump the barrier. Does that mean that you think you can't kill him first? I haven't laid eyes on this man. But when you see him, I promise you he's gonna fall onto the list where you're like, he's just too authentic. You're like, sure, fine, fucking throw him on the list of people I don't want to meet. But the point is, most...
00:10:32
Speaker
Most of these guys, like, if I get to have, okay, this goes back to our discussion we had about getting chopped by Ric Flair. Like, as much as it's gonna fuckin' hurt, it's still kinda cool, right? What am I gonna fuckin' do? What could I- A chop from Ric Flair right now, if he chopped me in the chest, his arm would bend exactly like Woody's in Toy Story, just the opposite direction, and just be limp. But the thing is, you know what? I would fuckin' sell for him as he stood there with his broke limp arm.
00:11:02
Speaker
How many times have you been to a wrestling show, Garrett? How many times have you been to a wrestling show and thought, oh, the wrestler might actually hit me for something that I say? I mean, I've called Roderick Strong a piece of shit to his face many, many times. I've said some mean things to him. He never hit me. So I think if he's willing to not, from what I yelled at him, we're all squared. I think we're gonna be good.
00:11:29
Speaker
but you think if I chant rusev day at the briscoe brothers i'm asking for it i think they're not going to give a shit but i think if when sylas young's walking by you you just shout like how old are you what is your age
00:11:42
Speaker
I do not understand you as a character. There's part of me that thinks that Silas Young, because I don't know his full backstory, might be kind of like DDP, where he's a rookie, but he's like 50. He's an advanced rookie. An advanced age rookie. We should find out he was trained in the heart dungeon by Natalia. Yeah, but here's the thing. I'm not worried about that. I don't go to wrestling shows thinking they're actually going to lay a hand on me.
00:12:09
Speaker
Well, and I don't go there looking for it. Who does? I've heard so many interviews with wrestlers where they say, as long as you're not throwing things at me, as long as you're not putting your hands on me, you can yell and shout and say whatever you want. I may push that to the fucking limit if I have a seat that close. It's been a long time since I've sat that close to a ring with the ability to influence how they feel during a match.
00:12:36
Speaker
I am going to influence how a few people feel at this Ring of Honor show we're going to. And you have to sit next to me. You know what I am genuinely afraid of now? So if you listened last week, you heard I told this story about the MJF and how he asked for $5 after I had purchased a t-shirt and asked for a picture. He won another $5. I gave him the $5. I alluded to this story kind of around our intro here. Yeah. And I have so many things to say about this. Oh, go ahead.
00:13:06
Speaker
No, I mean, the floor is yours. I have a follow-up to whatever you're going to say. Okay, well, I did ask around. I asked the question, was this heel thing or was this kind of carny? Like, who was in the wrong? Was it me or him? Or is no one in the wrong? I got several people going back to me saying he was in the wrong.
00:13:25
Speaker
Really? Yeah. Who? Name names. I mean, do I have to name names? Name drops. Okay, I'm sorry. My good buddy John. You don't have to actually name names. MJF's gonna be like, his fucking good buddy John says he's in the right. Well, fuck good buddy John. MJF, if you are listening again... Doubt it.
00:13:46
Speaker
So basically we found out that MJF had listened because he commented on one of our tweets. Do you have the tweet? Can you pull it up? I can pull it up, give me a minute, but keep going. So he basically, he just left a comment asking if I, after we were done tweeting that, if I started crying because he had stolen my last $5 and then called me a stupid white trash human garbage.
00:14:15
Speaker
I believe. Yeah, but here's here's what I thought was interesting about what he he didn't he didn't address the episode. That's what I thought was interesting about it. It wasn't like the link to our episode that we posted on Twitter. He didn't he didn't like listen to the episode and then address that.
00:14:34
Speaker
He addressed a separate tweet that had nothing to do with our episode and his exact words I had tweeted out something generic I had said pro wrestling can be so much fun retweet if you agree and the MJF responded Hey after you wrote this tweet Did you start sobbing because I took the last five dollars to your name you stupid white trash poor piece of human garbage? Oh
00:14:57
Speaker
And what I, I was once I, cause I woke up to this on Saturday morning with you informing me of his response. I wanted to tweet back at him so bad. And I think you owned him with your response. And your response was, can you at least confirm that my $5 didn't help fund the purchase of another knockoff Burberry scarf? I've been having trouble sleeping knowing I put more of those in the world.
00:15:25
Speaker
And you got 10 likes on that. Not that we're sitting here trying to brag about how much love we're... We're going to compare eight likes to seven likes, you know? Well, but here's where it's funny. Look who got more. Look who's fucking right. But here's what's funny. So his tweet at us got six likes, and three of those were from you, me, and our Twitter account that we have for this podcast. Half of them are from us.
00:15:53
Speaker
The other three are from people that we know. Our tweet responding to him got 10 likes. But part of me thinks you legitimately pissed him off. And I want to talk about that. Because all I was worried about was, well, did you hear all the nice shit I said? Well, that's what I'm wondering is because he must have, you would think he would sit through the whole episode at that point, right? He went out of his way.
00:16:21
Speaker
That's kind of what I was getting at when I said he didn't respond to our episode post. He went out of our way to watch our Twitter page for an opportunity to address us.
00:16:32
Speaker
and he took that opportunity. And you're saying, I cut a better Twitter promo. I'm saying you absolutely cut a better Twitter promo. I think you could have done better. Just saying. I think you could have buried him. But upon looking at it. I don't think I could have. I think you're being too nice with my abilities to respond to a guy who I was genuinely afraid of what he was going to say to me for a response.
00:16:59
Speaker
I know you you you locked up a little bit. It took you a little bit to come up with a response. But there was so much I wanted to say. I hope I hope to fuck. He listens to this episode and we have a little feud going on because that would be great for our shitty little podcast. Well, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. So next Sunday.
WWE Event Critique and Streaming Potential
00:17:20
Speaker
MJF is going to be at Glory Pro in St. Louis, and I know we have listeners. I know we have listeners, and I don't know where this is going. I don't know what I'm gonna tell you to say to him, but maybe just come up with it for me and just do it. You tell the MJF that the guys that predetermined a pro wrestling hangout want their five fucking dollars back.
00:17:45
Speaker
That's what this is all about, this is truly a feud over five dollars. And if he doesn't hand it over, we're gonna take it back. You know that he is in Chicago next weekend. And I think everybody listening, if you can, they would love you to go there and see, he's taking on Ace Romero, if you recall, we talked about him from AAWACBaby, a very large man.
00:18:13
Speaker
in a dog collar match. Here's the thing, Garrett. They're not in Chicago. They're in LaSalle. It's like an hour and a half away.
00:18:22
Speaker
There's a chance I might be going home this weekend. And the other thing going on is my girlfriend's daughter has her birthday this weekend. So it's not just about my birthday. It's about the birthday of a little girl. And you know what you do for that child? You take that child to LaSalle, Illinois so that she can go say something really mean to MJF and see what he says when it comes out of a child. We've got them everywhere, MJF. They're coming for you.
00:18:50
Speaker
I just, but going back to, I think you, you could have been meaner just for the record, because if the MJF is the internet troll that he puts himself off to be, he had an awful lot of typos and lack of punctuation and, and whatnot in his tweet. So you didn't take that shot. I would have taken that shot.
00:19:11
Speaker
You had the opportunity to do it. I was waiting on it. I felt like he was addressing you and your $5 robbery and I gave you the opportunity to respond. I was itching. I was itching to respond, but I gave that opportunity to you and you did well. I'm not here to say that you did poorly. I was going to be a harsh critic and you came up with a great response. Now go get your $5 back, buddy.
00:19:38
Speaker
You know what, MJF, I'm coming for you, man. Next time I see you, me, you, $5 in my hand. $5 hanging above the ring. We're gonna climb a ladder, or if we're at basement east at the next Southern Underground Pro Show, we can just fucking jump and grab it off the ceiling. I think you could take them. Do you not believe that? No.
00:20:03
Speaker
Can I tell you the funniest thing about all of this is do you ever just stop and think about the ages of these wrestlers? Sometimes. So do you realize like when I'm like that guy got my five bucks. I'm like 10 years older than him.
00:20:19
Speaker
So you're an old man complaining that he lost some money. Yeah, like I'm nine years older than this guy. He's fucking 22 years old. And I'm just like that fucking kid on his summer break got my goddamn money. The early bird special used to be 50 cents cheaper. So yeah, fuck me for being an old man on this one.
00:20:37
Speaker
Yeah, but here's the funny thing. So in all of this, I don't know who's necessarily in the wrong. You said you have people tell you that you were in the right and he was in the wrong. Well, obviously that's because that's what I want to hear. Clearly.
00:20:51
Speaker
Maybe, you know, maybe he's legit mad and I wondered this, maybe he's legit mad because on our podcast, which has thousands and thousands of subscribers and hundreds of thousands to the millions of downloads every week.
00:21:09
Speaker
All these people, they heard us talk about how he earned his money in an intimate way. And maybe he didn't like us discussing that on our wonderful podcast. So maybe he was a little bit like, well, fuck those guys. You guys want to talk about how I... So far you've called it shitty. You've said that we've had millions of listeners. You've said that we're wonderful. What do you actually think of this, Derek? What are we doing? Does what we do matter?
00:21:35
Speaker
It does matter. We have a pretty good little podcast. And if you want to make it even better, what you should do is you should give us a rating, a review, and a subscription. And also, if you have some time, hit us up on that social media. I'm plugging this stuff in the middle of the episode. Yeah, jokes on you. You're like 25 minutes in. You're like, I fucking got past them. They're not going to do the rate when you subscribe thing. Suck it. You got it. Rate, review, subscribe. We actually got a couple of, we got a few reviews this week. I'll read a couple of them.
00:22:04
Speaker
Is it because we offered to suck dicks or something? Oh, I mean, I was a vague sexual offer. It was never really specified. You have to hold up that into the bargain, buddy. I also said, leave a nice review and then under it, tell me what I have to do to you. Yeah. No one told me what I have to do to them. So these are just, these are reviews out of the kindness of people's heart. Somebody named Mortarround, like that name, it's really scary.
00:22:33
Speaker
It's, you know what, Mortar Round is still a better wrestling name than Punishment Martinez. That's true. Like, coming to the ring, fucking Mortar Round versus Punishment Martinez. Who I really like, by the way. I feel like I need to say that. I was going to say, this podcast is just going to go on a string of pissing people off. It's going to be CM Punk, Punishment Martinez, and the MJF against us and a tag partner of our choosing, which inevitably will be Bob Holly.
00:23:04
Speaker
I feel like that's what like when I find out I'm gonna get chopped by Bob Holly I'm gonna have the same reaction Roman Reigns had this weekend of three different people coming out to want to kick his ass on Raw like every time somebody new came out he just had like a
00:23:19
Speaker
It's a real macho man finding out he's gotta fight Andre the Giant this week. Like, ugh. You know that when Bob Holley's music hits and I'm standing beside you, I'm just gonna powder out? I'm like, all right, Darren, we got this. I look, you're gone, I'm getting chopped, fuck it. But mortar round, the review, the title, Garrett is a babe.
00:23:39
Speaker
Mortar round, I love you. I don't know if you're a man, a woman, maybe you're a bear. I feel like you might be a bear. I'm into that. If you're a bear, I want those bear reviews. That might not even be a human being. It could be an animal. An actual animal. It's a bear. It could be a paranormal entity.
00:23:56
Speaker
But they said that this is one of the better podcasts for wrestling. They didn't say the best. We're not claiming to be the best, but you know what? One of the better podcasts. Pretty good. That's a hell of a compliment. They said that we know how to produce and speak. And you know what? He's fucking right. We haven't stopped talking since this started.
00:24:17
Speaker
We know how to produce and how to speak. They said that we make it entertaining and informative. We also got one from that one guy again01. The best wrestling podcast on iTunes. Listen, these are both five stars. Someone thinks we're adequate. Someone thinks we're the best. We are somewhere between adequate and the best. And that is not fucking bad. Not at all.
00:24:38
Speaker
This is my go-to pro wrestling podcast subbed immediately once I found this obviously you're here sub as well review subscribe I'll read this and I'll tell you if your name is better or not better than punishment Martinez's name
00:24:52
Speaker
Twitter and Facebook, at WrestleHangout. Get on that shit. We do polls. We love hearing from you guys with ideas. We interact with you fuckers, so. Yeah, that was not nice to say. I will never call you a fucker. I disagree. You guys are totally my fuckers, so. That's the name of, that's what you call listeners of the show. Hey, fuckers! Okay, and yeah, so let's get back into this. What were we talking about?
00:25:22
Speaker
We're talking about how you pissed off the MJF. Okay, yeah, we're done with that. You're gonna get your five dollars back. Yeah, apparently. Yeah, it's just gonna happen. So one of the things that we definitely need to get into because I don't want to end the show on this note because stuff's going on. Backlash is this coming Sunday. They haven't really done any kind of what I would call a good build for this pay-per-view.
00:25:46
Speaker
And yet I also don't feel like it fucking matters. It's a show on the network on Sunday. And with that ahead of us, let's go back to this past Friday and let's talk about the greatest Royal Rumble. I'm not going to fucking waste another breath putting in a bunch of other names for this Royal Rumble because it ended up being kind of what we all speculated it was going to be, but hoped it wasn't.
00:26:12
Speaker
It wasn't bad. It was fine. I mean, be honest. Okay. Did you get to watch any of it live? Yes. Okay. Wasn't it kind of fun watching a pay-per-view in the middle of the day? It absolutely was. I could use some more of that.
00:26:28
Speaker
People may not know this about me. I'm a big fan of baseball. There are two completely different atmospheres from going to a day baseball game and a night baseball game. One, son. Two, no son. Well, no, but obviously, jackass.
00:26:43
Speaker
But there's just a completely different feel, because I think part of the experience is when you leave. I think when you go see a matinee in the theater, and you come outside, and there's still some daylight left, it's part of the experience, whether or not you realize it. I thought it was pretty cool to watch a pay-per-view wrap up with sunlight still out. And I still had part of my day left.
00:27:09
Speaker
I think you and I were both thinking that they were gonna use this as like a really crazy opportunity to do a bunch of title changes and do some stuff that they didn't do at WrestleMania, and that ended up not being the case. It was still fun. For some of the matches, the crowd was really, really hot. Some of the other matches, it didn't seem like they even knew who was fucking involved.
00:27:28
Speaker
But also they had to watch a 50 man Royal Rumble and I think what we learned from that is 50 is too many men for a Royal Rumble when you're just kind of dumping out like when you're spending 20 guys throwing the the lower card out there.
00:27:44
Speaker
I actually enjoyed the rumble. I don't know if the live crowd did. I don't know. To me, the fact that there wasn't much of a reward other than whatever the green belt and the trophy ended up being, like it's already kind of gone, isn't it? Did, Braun never held, I know they posted a picture of him holding it up as, you know, part of Monday Night Raw, but it's not like he's carrying that thing around. Well, it wasn't ringside on Raw.
00:28:11
Speaker
So I mean, like they are promoting it still, but how much I mean, how much longer are they going to actually do that? Like, like you said, the show ended up just being like a lot of people predicted. It was a glorified house show. They really didn't do anything with it. What are they and our projections immediately after we recorded our podcast last week for how much money they were getting. We were way off. They got like a hundred million dollars more than we had initially said on the past. We're not insiders.
00:28:37
Speaker
Yeah, I know. No, I'm just saying like, no, I don't fucking know. I'm just I'm telling you shit I read. I think one of the things that I I'm out loud stating part of my mission statement from doing this podcast, I would like to bridge the gap between fan and wrestler. And maybe that's one of the reasons I've embraced words like Mark is because I think that anyone I think most people who get into pro wrestling
00:29:07
Speaker
Are either fans or people who get into press and then they become fans of it So I think everyone involved is a little bit of a mark, right? See except Brock Lesnar They were there in Montreal, man. It's we We know but yeah, everybody but Lesnar And maybe Randy Orton, but I think there was a time Randy Orton was a mark. I think now he's not
00:29:30
Speaker
But I'm just saying, we're not pretending to be experts. I don't think there's anything wrong with not being an expert and talking about pro wrestling. Which means that Vince Russo's okay with this. Vince Russo can suck my dick. Hey, don't say that about Vince Russo. He said that if you're not pretending to be an expert, that he's fine with it. He's like, bro, bro, bro, I got a fucking baseball podcast. But you know, I don't play baseball, but I'm just a fan, so it's okay. But I'm not pretending to be some fucking baseball expert, bro.
00:29:58
Speaker
Vince Russo has a lot of years in the pro wrestling business. He can call himself an expert and I know he's got his feud with Jim Cornette. I didn't intend on going down this path. I will say that a couple weeks ago I watched some shoot interviews with Vince Russo that once again warped and changed how I felt about him and fuck Vince Russo.
00:30:18
Speaker
I think he has some obviously I think some of his perspectives on the industry are out of date and I think he's just fucking wrong. I think he still operates under the notion that wrestling is trying to trick people into thinking that it's real. And I think that's bullshit. Sorry, is this way too sincere for you right now? I'm just listening, man. It's your birthday. I got to let you go.
00:30:45
Speaker
You want me to cut a promo on Vince Russo? I'm not going to step in and be like, Hey, watch your mouth about Vince Russo. I guess going back to what I was saying is this, I think that one of the things that we should gravitate towards is this idea that the wrestlers are out doing their work and we are not wrestlers. We are not professionals. We're not Dave Meltzer. We don't have inside information, but
00:31:09
Speaker
If we were doing a podcast about Game of Thrones and we watch Game of Thrones we analyze that nobody would say shit But there is this weird like thing in pro wrestling where it's like if you're not an insider if you don't Actually, if you're not a pro wrestler, everyone looks at you go. Well, why do you have an opinion on it? What like like why the fuck are you wasting your breath commenting on pro wrestling? I'm like dude because it's fucking awesome and I've watched a ton of it and I've invested money in it and I after watching it for you know, what 20 plus years or whatever I
00:31:38
Speaker
I feel like I have a grasp on what is good and what is bad. I don't think I have to be Dave Meltzer to fucking sit there and say something isn't working. What you're asking for right now is an apology from Dave Meltzer.
00:31:53
Speaker
I'm not asking for an apology from anybody other than the MJF. What did Uncle Dave do to you? No, I don't have a problem with Dave. I have a problem with Vince Russo. I have a problem with the MJF not giving you your five dollars back because he's a fucking bully. Well, he hasn't been asked for it back. Like I gave him the five dollars. I didn't have to give it to him. Well, I'm speaking up for you. Give him his fucking five dollars back. But you know what? I am saying I'm coming back for my five dollars.
00:32:19
Speaker
and whoever wants to get that back for me I know you know AAW glory pro you know what maybe I get fucking ten dollars back because it gets shook down twice I don't know we got off track don't shake down MJF I'm just fucking joking you're gonna inspire some crazy person to go after your five bucks we're just gonna get a bloody five dollar bill in the mail
00:32:42
Speaker
that got there. No, yeah. Greatest Royal Rumble. What did you think? Like, I mean... I loved that I didn't work for six hours while I watched TV on my phone. But could you stand for more of these? More just like one off, like fun little side pay-per-views, like the Beast from the East pay-per-view. Yeah. See, like that was another fun one. And because me and my buddy, I don't remember what time that one came on. Come on at like 3 a.m. or something.
00:33:12
Speaker
Yeah, it was middle of the night. I didn't watch that one. I watched that one live. We actually treated it like a normal pay-per-view, because I think that was my day off work. And we just stayed up and watched the whole thing and drank and, you know, just enjoyed it like a regular pay-per-view. And, you know, wasn't the best, but Lesnar threw Kofi on his head a whole bunch, and I could deal with that. I guess I'm talking about Beast from the East now. Let's talk about GRR. Grr.
00:33:36
Speaker
So if it's a glorified house show, if, if WWE, again, this gets into a really interesting debate. If WWE was willing to charge you an extra two or $3 a month for the network, if they like a, like a, basically like a WWE network premium and you got live access to their house shows, like they had a house show camera. And anytime you wanted to, you could tune into a, like a live event.
00:34:01
Speaker
Would you do that? I don't know if I would do it with WWE as much. I mean, I'm basically doing that right now with Ring of Honor. As far as like just something that would tune into their house shows, I think that should just be part of their network. I think if they televised a house show once in a while or just even had tapes from house shows that they were showing us, I would be into checking those out once in a while. But as far as having to pay extra like a premium to see them,
00:34:28
Speaker
I don't think that's something I would be willing to give them money for right now. We had a bar here, or a bar slash restaurant here in Chicago called the Squared Circle. It was run by a woman named Lisa. You may know her as Victoria from WWE. And they closed down this past, I wanna say, end of the summer. Well, it's probably because of that s'mores calzone we had.
00:34:57
Speaker
I mean, I gotta talk about this thing. So this, we can't talk about a real- Don't shit talk the dead, man. Hey, you know, fine.
00:35:09
Speaker
No, you're not gonna stop me from talking about this. So we ordered a dessert calzone. And I believed like, you know what? Okay, it's a s'more. It's gonna be s'mores inside of a, you know, like a crust. But it's gonna be like a calzone. It wasn't. And you know what the marshmallow was? Fucking cheese. It was just cheese and chocolate stuffed inside of a fucking calzone. And I feel like that shouldn't be legal.
00:35:31
Speaker
I don't think it was just straight cheese there was something like it was cheese but it was it was like a like a dessert cheese you can do a lot of different things with cheese man I don't know if you realize that this is a weird place for the podcast to go the point I was making was I had had the idea a few months back that WWE you know how they used to have WWF New York the restaurant and yeah in New York City
00:35:54
Speaker
If they really wanted to expand to another level, they should totally try to take a Buffalo Wild Wings route, which we're coming back to Buffalo Wild Wings, and they should try to, in at least four or five or six major cities, have a WWE restaurant. And you can have special appearances. You can have events for pay-per-views. You can watch Raw and Smackdown there.
00:36:14
Speaker
And that one of the features of going to the restaurant was that if you go in, you can go watch live feeds from the house shows. And I thought that would be a cool thing to do so that there was constantly live WWE wrestling coming in on the weekends. I know they don't really run house shows during the week.
00:36:34
Speaker
but obviously you have Raw, SmackDown, and NXT on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So really the only days you would have off were Thursday. This is a weird tangent I'm going on, but the point I'm making is I think there are people who would like to watch some of the stuff going on in house shows, and here's what's interesting about that. The house show scene kind of breaks kayfabe, doesn't it? Like stuff that happens at house shows completely contradicts stuff that happens on Raw and SmackDown.
00:37:02
Speaker
Yeah, unless it's something major like a title changing which is incredibly rare. Yeah, no those I feel like what happens at a house show didn't really happen. But yet we everyone knows that they're happening. Like even fucking like 10 year olds know about house shows. Well, it's the shows for the 10 year olds.
00:37:20
Speaker
All right, but what I'm saying is a 10 year old shows up to a house show and they'll see the WWE Championship get defended. And then they'll tune into SmackDown the next week and they'll be like, you haven't defended that title in whatever a month and the kid goes, hey, I just saw that last week. Well, I'm gonna tell you my main issue right now with your restaurant idea is that I'm afraid I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna see like the menu personally selected by Jerry the King Lawler.
00:37:50
Speaker
and who is basically, you know, go back a couple episodes, listen to Jerry Lawler's favorite tendies, and you can hear all about his restaurant, but he's basically the Guy Fieri of wrestling cuisine. That's what your main concern is that Jerry Lawler's gonna get to pick the menu.
00:38:11
Speaker
I don't like him knowing that food could be involved with something that, you know, I just, I don't like it. I don't like him thinking that maybe, just maybe, he can get his favorite tendies on that menu. I think my restaurant's a good idea. Just keep Jerry Lawler away from the food. And now I want to cut off the profits when they decide to cash in on my idea.
00:38:32
Speaker
So fuck you. So going back to the Greatest Royal Rumble, there was stuff there that I liked. I actually thought that the Styles Nakamura match was doing way better than the WrestleMania match. Yeah, then he hit him in the dick again. King of the dick shot. Yeah, new music too. Have we talked about that? For Nakamura? Yeah, they remixed his music. Good stuff.
00:38:57
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know, I'll have to listen to that again. Actually, did they debut it there or did they change it somewhere else? I think they debuted it on SmackDown, but maybe I'm wrong. Because I pretty much... I think they broke it out on SmackDown. Because I was watching it at work, but I was trying to be, you know, at least a little discreet about it, so I didn't have the sound going. You didn't have the bass up or anything. Though there was a certain point when somebody walked by and said, what are you doing? And I said, I'm watching a pay-per-view. It's out of Saudi Arabia.
00:39:23
Speaker
And they're just like, oh cool, technology. They're like, all right, do what you gotta do, it's a Friday. Yeah, gotta get through. No, I think that was fine. And then we got to the Roman match, which I think caught us all off guard. We all thought he was gonna win, right? I thought he was gonna win, but I had earlier in the day said, watch, range is gonna spear Lesnar through the cage and Lesnar's gonna retain. That ended up being what happened. Fuck man, I don't know what to think anymore.
00:39:54
Speaker
It does. This is what we were getting. That's what we were getting at when we were talking about the melter stuff is that we're not insiders. We don't know what's going to happen. And it feels like WWE has been extra trolly lately. Is that fair to say? Supposedly they had leaked promotional material showing Roman Reigns as the universal champion. So they're getting clever. Like they're getting really clever in doing everything they can to leak false information to get people to think that something's coming and then it's just not there.
00:40:23
Speaker
Reign spears Lesnar out of the cage. Lesnar hits the ground first, but he hits the cage. Roman's feet actually hit the floor first, which to me, there was no way to actually choreograph that. That seems like just a fuck up. Technically, Roman Reigns' feet were on the apron. But WWE showed a picture where his feet are both clearly on the ground. Oh.
00:40:44
Speaker
They may have, but I saw some shit circulating last night suggesting that technically Roman Reigns' feet were on the apron that hangs around the ring and not the floor. We are just getting worked by everybody left and right. We are. This is all bullshit. It doesn't fucking matter. Roman Reigns is not the Universal Champion. Who's taking the Universal title off Lesnar now? It's gotta be Braun Strowman at like SummerSlam. But I say that and it's gonna be something way different. Yeah?
00:41:13
Speaker
You know what I might get? Well, Finn Balor reclaim his title that he never truly lost. You could still get your match. You could still get your match. And I just got my plane tickets to New York. I saw that very excited about it. Oh yeah. Hell yeah. I'm excited about that. Now I just need him to put those takeover tickets on sale, which I feel like we have not been doing a great job of covering NXT, which has been in.
00:41:38
Speaker
Because we record this typically on Tuesdays, so by the time we get to the next one, we're like a week behind on being able to talk about it. NXT is old news at that point. I guess just to cover that really quick, I'm a huge fan of Undisputed Era and everyone in it. We finally get Roderick Strong as a heel, exactly what he should be. And the other day, Candice had her first match against Zelina Vega.
00:42:04
Speaker
It wasn't nice. It wasn't like the best match ever or anything. But you know, it was awesome to see her on and Johnny Gargano was out there. And I believe she fights. Oh, my God. This is like a dream match for me next week. Or I guess it's already happened. You know, we're recording this on Tuesday. So it happens on Wednesday. You're listening to this on Derek's birthday Thursday. But she's going to be fighting Bianca Belair.
00:42:28
Speaker
Yeah, you were creaming in your jeans about that on social media. Oh, I can't wait. That's such a fun match. To me, those two are like the future of women's wrestling.
00:42:39
Speaker
Well, speaking of women's wrestling coming out of the Saudi Arabia Greatest Royal Rumble show. I think this is a nice segue. I guess there was some controversy because they went out of their way to not have the women at the show because of cultural differences in Saudi Arabia. But I guess they aired a promotional ad that featured Carmella. And I guess the crowd responded to it. And then I guess like the people running the show had to end up making a public apology. There was a big scene about that and
00:43:09
Speaker
I don't know, man. I have to explain this sometimes when I'm talking wrestling with my girlfriend. When I was growing up watching wrestling in the Attitude Era, women's wrestling was not taken seriously at all. It was not something that you would want your daughter
00:43:27
Speaker
to emulate or aspire to, maybe being a WWE superstar, sure.
Evolution of Women's Wrestling in WWE
00:43:34
Speaker
But it was, I mean, I'm stating that's something that everybody knows. They've come so far. It was such a shame to see them get left off that show. Obviously it happened for money. I still think it's bullshit, but
00:43:48
Speaker
And I just think we should go for a minute and talk about the women's revolution and talking about like, I guess some of that started with Paige. I was so happy when they got rid of that fucking divas belt and they just called it a women's championship again. Yeah. Sorry, I was paying attention. I don't know why like I just froze.
00:44:16
Speaker
No, I think this whole topic of the Women's Revolution could also fall into, at the end of every episode, we do the thing where we say something nice. I think this is maybe something where the biggest overall say something nice could be about, and that is just the WWE.
00:44:36
Speaker
Maybe they did a shitty thing by not letting the women participate in this event. But I will say, if you watch a lot of wrestling, I think right now, WWE, the one thing they're doing just so right is women's wrestling. They have all the best women, they put on the best matches. Every week, they are who I'm looking forward to when they're coming out.
00:45:22
Speaker
Maybe even a lot better depending who you're watching But I feel like they do they're very much lacking a solid women's roster The I didn't even bring up the title match from super card of honor when we were discussing that whole WrestleMania weekend Because it was kind of a sloppy match and the finish ended on a botch For the first ever women's title and ring of honor sucks
00:45:26
Speaker
on both shows?
00:45:44
Speaker
Yeah, it just wasn't very good. And I mean, they've got a couple ladies that are pretty good. But everybody over at WWE right now, I feel like they're just firing all on all cylinders. And I'm just I'm always excited to tune in and see what they're doing. So let me I want to ask you a couple questions. Since this is a part of the WWE, like you're super excited about every week. Do you feel like the the Women's Revolution
00:46:11
Speaker
How do I wanna wear this? Do you feel like it's sincere? Do you think that if it wasn't a big money maker that they would be doing this? I don't even wanna say a big money maker. But do you feel like that they're pursuing this because they feel it's the right thing to do? Or because they see an opportunity to make money? I think that there's probably a little of both, right?
00:46:33
Speaker
like I would like to I would like to think so but based on what happened this last Friday I mean like that they are definitely willing to compromise what they may believe for money but is that events doing it like once again this comes down to like we don't know who to blame because we don't fucking work there but it seems like you know Triple H is a big is very much responsible for this happening
00:46:57
Speaker
But he also isn't in charge of the WWE. Right. So I had said this earlier today. I just don't like I mean, I guess I'm not here. I'm not like condemning them. I guess I think a fair question to ask is, do you really think that Vince had his mind changed at his age?
00:47:17
Speaker
about women's wrestling and its place on a card or do you think that like just Triple H was able to convince him that it's worth investing and you can actually make money off of it? I think that he probably saw with Ronda Rousey not like her joining WWE but you know around the time of Rousey like and how well her paper views were selling I think he had to have seen
00:47:40
Speaker
you know like there's there's money to be made here uh people take female athletes seriously right now or you know as they should have already but i i don't know i think he looks at it as something he's like okay i can make money off of this and i would like to think that when he watches like you know sasha banks and charlotte in a hell in a cell match he's like holy shit that was really good
00:48:02
Speaker
you like to think his mind is getting changed. I mean, he has to see the reaction they're getting out there and see like when they get put in important spots on a card, they can always crush it. Like almost 100% of the time. So I mean, they proved that at WrestleMania too, so.
00:48:19
Speaker
Exactly, they were stuck in the middle of that show and that Charlotte match, easily the best match of that show and Rousey had easily the most exciting match of that show.
00:48:33
Speaker
And I guess my other question to you would be, I think we talked about this maybe last week. Could you at some point see the women getting their own show? It's kind of the way the cruiserweights have 205 Live. Do you think that the women deserve to have their own full hour dedicated to them and their own storylines?
00:48:52
Speaker
I mean, I would be all for that, but I would be afraid that it would get treated like another B-show. What I would really be wanting to see is maybe women's tag titles, maybe see a couple different belts, because they are starting to have just as stacked of a roster as the men. There's so much they could be doing right now, and there's still so many people that I'm sure they're training and other female wrestlers that they could eventually acquire.
00:49:18
Speaker
I think that thing that worries me is I think the men have made some room for the women on the main shows, obviously, because they're going with it. But as the roster gets bigger and bigger and bigger, they're gonna need more time for those women. And it's not like USA is gonna make Raw four hours and SmackDown three hours. They're gonna have to find some time to give the women more time to shine, if I can rhyme a little bit.
00:49:46
Speaker
I would be okay if they gave the women a pay-per-view. Do you think that that would sell out? Do you think they could sell out an arena with just the women?
00:50:03
Speaker
That's the uncomfortable question that I want to ask, because as much as we're sitting here talking about how great it is, do you think that by itself it's a draw? I think if, I mean it would be like any pay-per-view, because like, I mean if you look back at when gender Mahal was champ, those pay-per-views weren't selling out.
00:50:21
Speaker
They weren't selling out, but I mean, how many of those people would fall into your category of people who are saying that we are here specifically just for the women we could not give a shit about the rest of the show? Like when they were doing, did they end up doing that 205 Live tour? No, that got canceled. Right. But that was also in the middle of like Enzo was supposed to be the big draw and then that Enzo shit happened. But I also think ticket sales were probably pretty bad.
00:50:46
Speaker
Right. And I guess that's my question is that like they were even trying to pair the Hardy Wyatt feud with the 205 live tour to give an extra incentive to go see those shows. Um, so I don't know. I think people, I think if people were being honest, there's probably a little bit of fear there that they're afraid that if they try to do something like that, if it doesn't get the immediate, if they can't sell out an arena for a women show, does it look bad on them?
00:51:13
Speaker
But OK, so like UFC was able to sell out shows with, you know, obviously Ronda Rousey headlining. So if you do a show that say Ronda versus Charlotte and then also on that card you have like Bailey versus Sasha, like you just have the stack card of like, holy shit, these are going to be, I mean, stellar matches. Then do you think you could sell it out then? If you're just like, if you really do a good job building stories, but also just have these giant matches.
00:51:40
Speaker
My gut says no. You think even with Rousey? I think even with Rousey. Here's what I will say. My gut says no. I would still like to see them try.
00:51:52
Speaker
I would like them to do it, because I would like to see it. I'm just skeptical about a bunch of, like, I don't know. This is actually an interesting question to ask because it's something that hasn't been done. I mean, I guess if you go back to the early, what, glow? When a whole show is dedicated to women's wrestling.
00:52:11
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, now there's still like I know in Japan they have, you know, all women's promotions and here we have a shimmer. You know, there's there are all women's promotions. They're just not hugely, you know, famous.
00:52:24
Speaker
Yeah, no, I'm just saying that it's something I would like to see them try. And I guess we would get our answer. And that would kind of lead them to decide whether or not they think they could do a regular show on it. Yet they did the Cruiserweight Classic, and that was enough basis for them to be like, oh, we're giving a weekly show to the Cruiserweights. I feel like they also gave us a really cool tournament. WWE has been really good at tournaments, and then not following up with how cool it could be afterwards.
00:52:54
Speaker
yeah like the UK tournament was awesome but we still only get Pete done once in a while the women's tournament fucking awesome the cruiserweight tournament awesome okay actually just speaking of this because we were talking about you know how the women's rosters becoming really stacked like the men's and they need
00:53:11
Speaker
Do you think there's anyone on the card right now that would benefit or could benefit from abandoning WWE all together and trying to be like the main female on like a ring of honor?
00:53:27
Speaker
Ooh, that's a good question. Like, do you think, say like, if Bailey got to a point where she's just going nowhere, do you think she could go over and just headline every women's Ring of Honor event and, you know, kind of become Cody Rhodes? I don't know. I don't know, because how much of Bailey's appeal is in her gimmick?
00:53:53
Speaker
And she and it really comes down to when you leave WWE a lot of times unless you're you were just running off of your name You when you lose your gimmick you lose your identity and When Cody went back out onto the independent scene He just we mean he just embraced his family name and ran with that and that was enough for him Sitting here thinking about the roster shit
00:54:33
Speaker
Damn, I mean, that is tough, I don't know. The one that WWE has not gotten yet is Tessa Blanchard, who I think is easily one of the best women's wrestlers right now. And I just saw that she just signed on with Impact.
00:54:37
Speaker
I don't know, do you think Naomi could?
00:54:50
Speaker
which caught me off guard, especially because she's got the legacy name, Tully Blanchard's her dad, but she is also on all in. So I think she could easily build herself up as just this giant indie female, or I think she could do that.
00:55:08
Speaker
I think going back to once, like you said, giving WWE proper credit for their women's roster, they really invested the time and the training into it. I mean, they brought guys in specifically and they built their women's division up as they en masse. They had a large group of women that they brought up.
00:55:25
Speaker
and they kind of eradicated what used to be the old Divas division and Paige was sort of the transition from I guess Paige and AJ Lee a little bit they kind of brought in the new women's revolution and Nikki Bella and Brie Bella ended up surviving that a little bit
00:55:43
Speaker
And now we're just kind of in a whole different it's a whole different ballgame now and yeah, it's pretty awesome to see because I guess if you're if you're a parent and you have kids and they're watching WWE which is that's been there, you know, that's a family-friendly show and that's how they advertise themselves There's something there for the little girls to emulate and aspire to that's not raunchy. It's not demeaning and
00:56:08
Speaker
I don't know, it's something that you can actually, like, I don't know what their motivations are for doing it, but it's something for them, and I'm happy that they're doing it, and I'm happy that it's come this far. I would like to see them get a pay-per-view. I don't know how well it will do, and I think there's a potential there for them having a weekly show, almost out of necessity. I guess that's where I stand on that. I just don't think that USA is gonna budge and give them more time, and I don't think that you can, it's gonna be hard to warrant
00:56:38
Speaker
on some of those shows taking more time away from the men because they're pressed as it is getting all their stuff in because those rosters are still big. But I also think that they aren't always doing as good of matches as the ladies and they're getting more time for all of it. So I feel like at a certain point like these dudes need to get less time.
00:56:59
Speaker
Like if you, you know, step your shit up. I mean, that's kind of what they're doing with the paper views. Like if you're not stepping up and getting to a point where you have a belt, which I know is not, it's easier said than done to get to a point where they're, they want to put you in that picture, but they basically have cut the fat off of a pay-per-view. The women may be having better matches than some of the men on there, but the question is what demographic is watching the product now? Predominantly.
00:57:26
Speaker
I mean, they're definitely gonna be getting more girls and more women watching WWE right now because of the Women's Revolution. But the question is, if you're cutting up, how many people are gonna be like, eh? Are you gonna do an hour of SmackDown? Is the women an hour of the show as the men?
00:57:43
Speaker
I think that would be, I don't know, I think they should just go off what's actually the best storyline. Because now, you know, I feel like they're giving the women a lot of that third hour of Raw. Just because that's, you know, I know they had them like head, what did they main event the other night? Were they like a 10-woman tag? Yeah, I was after the superstar shakeup. But that's also, you know, typically the least viewed part of Raw.
00:58:09
Speaker
absolutely there's a there's a really massive drop off on that third hour which that's a whole other discussion on its own is just is raw too long and like i had said after the shake-up was like fuck it almost seems like with everything that raw gained is like and now i'm wondering if three hours is enough
00:58:24
Speaker
Like they're backing themselves into a corner if they're not released. I mean they're creating a lot of high quality talent in both the men's and women's divisions down in NXT. And every six months to a year they call up a portion of that talent. And some of that is arguably potentially main event talent at some point.
00:58:45
Speaker
And the question is, is there enough roster turnover these days? And is there enough reason to cut people to create roster turnover to make space for these people? I mean, how many people down on NXT right now could you feasibly actually say belong on a main roster on USA Network?
NXT's Brand Identity and Match Highlights
00:59:02
Speaker
I mean, there's a bunch of them. I mean, right now, pretty much where NXT is right now, it's crazy because it's just so many of the guys that I was watching at PWG. So great. NXT is just kind of for me, at least like the PWG show. And but it's even their homegrown talent. It's pretty fucking awesome.
00:59:23
Speaker
Well that's, and we had talked about this a few episodes back on the podcast, it's almost getting to a point where they need to re, they need to rethink how they're doing the shows and NXT needs to probably just be its own fucking brand. Instead of being viewed as a developmental show and developmental territory, Wednesday night should just be like,
00:59:44
Speaker
like it's a completely different style. Well, it would be, cause I mean, essentially they've become the competition for Ring of Honor, or it's like their version of what Ring of, what they think Ring of Honor is. Right. And it, I mean, it is that, but also knowing like, I don't know, it can take the fun out of it sometimes knowing like, okay, this person is probably going to get called up soon. So they're not going to win this match. I know, you know, not having that be such a certain thing would be fun.
01:00:14
Speaker
They run into those issues on the main roster too, though. They book themselves into a corner. Like, for instance, you got Sunday, you got Rollins versus Miz. Do you really think Miz has taken the Intercontinental title over to SmackDown? God, I hope so. And so there's three men's singles belts over on SmackDown, a tag title belt. Well, as long as the most must-see champion in the history of the WWE has got his title, I'll be fine.
01:00:42
Speaker
Oh, we didn't talk about this, and we do need to spend a minute talking about this from Greatest Royal Rumble. The finish to that four-way ladder match that Seth Rollins ended up winning. Holy shit, you just don't see that finish in a ladder match ever, where a guy just pounces, scampers up the ladder, and grabs the belt in like two seconds.
01:01:03
Speaker
Oh, for sure. That's the honest. That's the main thing my wife hates about ladder matches, especially ones involving Dolph Ziggler because he just has exaggerated ladder climbing. He sells up the every rung of that ladder and she's like, just climb the fucking ladder and grab it. Jesus. And Seth Rollins was like, got it done. And you know what? That was a nice surprise.
01:01:27
Speaker
No, I think, I think, and I texted you, I think we were messaging back and forth about this. You don't see that. I think it's refreshing to see once in a while. My girlfriend says the same thing about ladder matches. It drives her nuts. And I have to remind people, it's fucking pro wrestling. They're selling that they're fucked up. And if you're fucked up, you're probably not gonna climb a ladder perfectly. That's the excuse they're gonna give you.
01:01:52
Speaker
No, I thought that was a really cool spot. I thought it was appropriately done with him bouncing off the ropes to get up there. Finn looked legitimately like, oh shit. And yeah, that was a great finish. I just wanted to, that crossed my mind, but.
01:02:07
Speaker
I know we're going overtime here and we're going to have to get out of here pretty soon. But I do want to say before we go, PWG crowned a new champion last weekend at one of their final shows at the American Legion Hall. Keith Lee lost his title to Walter, who we've talked about a lot on this show.
01:02:28
Speaker
Keith Lee is the fucking man. He is so good, and he has to be headed to NXT. And why I think that, one, he just dropped the belt. Two, their next show, which is going to probably be the final show at the Legion Hall, is called Bask in His Glory, which Bask in My Glory, Keith Lee's catchphrase, they usually title it something for a send-off if somebody's not coming back. And I think that's a pretty good sign that Keith Lee's on his way out.
01:02:56
Speaker
I think something cool that you could do right now, I don't know if everyone listening realizes this, but you used to live in Burbank, California, and you used to go to shows at the Legion Hall. Would you just kind of tell me or tell our listeners kind of about your experiences there and what it was like to see PWG shows there? PWG shows were like, it was the best club you could ever be a part of. It was almost like you were part of a fight club.
01:03:21
Speaker
and honestly just going and being a part of the line was just as big of a part as the show you're waiting in a fucking parking lot for hours you're going and like just trashing a cvs bathroom with all these other wrestling nerds like we're all just ruining it
01:03:37
Speaker
You never know who's gonna pop up in line like is Joe Manganiello gonna come park real shitty and then just walk out and leave his car like that Yeah, sometimes he does but how you get inside. This is this tiny Legion Hall It's so fucking packed like it is a fire hazard that place. We're on fire. We're all done and it's worth it It's worth it to be in that room
01:04:00
Speaker
Like, I heard that it would get hot in there. Oh my god, Legion Larry, this guy's gonna go down as a pro wrestling legend for just not turning the fucking air conditioning on in a place where we're all dying, where it's like, you know, you're in this place in September, it's over, it's like 108 degrees outside, plus all the body heat inside, you're just dying, trying to sweat, you know, drink as much water as you can, which I know everything I'm saying sounds, you're like, this sounds like shit.
PWG Experiences and Podcast Closing
01:04:27
Speaker
It doesn't. It's like the thing that you gotta put your body through to get the ultimate joy.
01:04:32
Speaker
I guess it's like a really good summer festival concert where you have to put up with the massive group of people and how hot it is, but the show's worth it. Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's just all the best wrestlers from around the world. And it's because of that promotion and then booking, you know, guys from Japan, guys from England, just like guys all over Europe. Like, and everybody I was watching is now on NXT. I mean, Tommy and Chris Hero, which Tommy and his Alistair Black, you know, Ricochet's there now. Just they fucking have everybody.
01:05:02
Speaker
But these guys like really are the fucking best.
01:05:07
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of an end of an era then, so I'm sure you have some emotions and some feelings about that era coming to an end. Well, I considered flying out to go to the final PWG show at the Legion Hall, but then I saw the card, and it's just so many new guys, like guys I've heard of, but not guys I would watch there, and I just don't know if it would be the same for me. So I'm wondering if I should just- Yeah, they don't have the ability to do like a reunion where they bring back all their greatest, you know, stars.
01:05:35
Speaker
So you definitely heard a ruckus over here. Just so you know, update on the stray cat. I do look. The stray cat just lives inside now. So the stray cat is actually just my cat. But it still doesn't get along with my other cat and they just knocked over a whole bunch of shit. So that's what you just heard. Is that their way of saying we need to wrap this thing up? I think that's what they're saying. Hey, this was so fun. Thanks for hanging out with us, guys. And Derek, happy birthday.
01:06:01
Speaker
Thank you, buddy. Tell the people where they can find all our stuff. Know saying something nice this week? You know what? I think the nice thing was about WWE and just that they're doing the women's division right. Yeah.
01:06:16
Speaker
And that's how the show's ending. No, I was just saying like, tell us what, tell them where to find our shit. Oh, um, if you want to hit us up on social media, we would strongly encourage that at wrestle hangout on Facebook at wrestle hangout on Twitter at predetermined podcast on Instagram. And again, we keep plugging it. We're going to keep plugging it. It's not stopping. Give us a rating. Give us a review. Give us a subscription. Um, we're loving seeing those reviews coming in. Uh, keep them coming. Love you guys.
01:06:44
Speaker
We have our first batch of hats coming in pretty soon. I know several of them are spoken for, but I got them in assorted colors. I'll take pictures, throw them up on the Instagram, throw them up on Facebook. If you want one, let us know. We'll figure out how much they are when they get here and everything. Absolutely. I think at some point we should do a giveaway for one of those hats. Absolutely. Do a retweet contest or something. Or fucking rate review subscribe contest. Woo!
01:07:11
Speaker
Well, we can throw people who've already done it in. What else? Oh, you know what? Go to your fucking local indie promotions. I know in St. Louis this weekend, we've got Glory Pro, AAW up in La Salle. Go check out these shows. Go see your local indies, you know?
01:07:28
Speaker
Support your local indie wrestling Federation you will have a great time and you know what when something weird happens I want to be the first person you tell hop on Twitter Let us know let us know weird shit that happens at these shows because I like that and I also I want to stir the pot a little bit If you have a second tweet at the MJF let them know that the boys at predetermined podcasts have some beef with them. Oh boy You ready for this Derek? Hit our fucking music man