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We review the Saturday double header of Vengeance Day and Grand Slam along with the rest of the news from this week in the wrestling world. We also Live Review Monday Night Wars Series 6. Plus, Listener Mail!
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Transcript
Intro and Weekly Recap
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Chick-fil-A show.
00:00:04
Speaker
are
00:00:23
Speaker
What is up, Foley fan? We are back with another episode of the Chick Foley Show, recapping a big week for NXT and AEW. We got some other late-breaking news right before the show, right before we hit record on this show, we're
Sheena's Coffee and Weather Woes
00:00:35
Speaker
going to bring to you guys. But first, let me introduce the star of the show. Sheena, how you doing?
00:00:39
Speaker
I'm doing good. I got myself a nice cup of mushroom coffee here. Gross. Trying to make it through this 10 p.m. recording. We were actually going to do a sunrise recording and then it just... It's too cold. Yeah, dude. It was nine degrees when we woke up. We just couldn't make ourselves get out of the nice warm bed. We had both kids ended up like coming down and getting tucked in with us. Yeah, as cold as it is outside and as cozy as is in that bed, you're not getting up for anything unless it's mandatory. Like, you take of the animals or something. Yeah, we're doing a nighttime recording, but all is well.
00:01:10
Speaker
Sheen, tell us what is new on the farm. Oh, boy. um So as we said earlier, it's been like super, super cold. ah Yesterday, my all my chickens like stayed in the coop, right? This has happened on more than one occasion, right? We've had cold winter days.
00:01:23
Speaker
Wasn't the first time this happened. wasn't Yeah, it wasn't the first time that all the all the chickens have ah decided to just like coop up all, just stay in the coop and not come out into the run. um Well, then last night when we went to go collect eggs and everything, um you know, I put their food in there. So they had their food and their water inside the coop.
Rooster Drama
00:01:38
Speaker
I went to collect eggs. I noticed that one of our roosters, we have two roosters, ah Norman Jr. and Solo. One of our roosters, Norman, I mean, he was just beat all to hell, dude. Like he was scratched and bleeding and one of his eyes was swollen up. His comb was all scratched up. And I was like,
00:01:53
Speaker
You know, what the hell, dude? So I got him out of the coop, brought him in, and doctored him up. um You know, just by the looks of it, it looked like our other rooster just freaking. It was an absolute squash match ah that went down on the coop yesterday while we were, you know, unsuspecting. So I got him nursing him back. I mean, it's nothing nothing fatal. It's all just like, you know, like...
00:02:13
Speaker
surface flesh wound stuff. Pretty bad ones. pretty Yeah, I mean, he he's tore up, dude. I mean, like, straight up, he's tore up. But there was nothing like, you know, no puncture wounds to, like, the body or anything like that. It was mostly just, like, face and comb and waddle and stuff. But, dude, he looks he looks rough. um And,
00:02:29
Speaker
I don't know. i don't know what we're going to do because he he's usually the the aggressor, right? like He's usually the one provoking. He's the tribal chief. Yeah, he's the tribal chief. And he's usually the one um you know provoking Solo. Putting him in his place. Putting him in his place. Solo got his lick back yesterday. Yeah, Solo freaking finally got his lick back. And so, I mean, I can't ah can't be mad at Solo, but I'm also just like, Norm is such a good rooster, dude. he He watches over the girls so well that I like,
00:02:52
Speaker
you know I'm like, damn, are we going to have to get rid of Solo? And normally Solo is out cruising the yard by himself. We've talked about it on here before how ironic it is. We have ah a rooster named Solo that literally goes around the yard all by himself all day long. So I don't know.
00:03:06
Speaker
don't know what we're going do. But we're nursing Norm back to health. Yeah, I'm interested to see what it's like when he gets reintegrated into the flock. dude, he's going to go in and whoop ass, dude. He's going to be so mad. He's going to be so mad.
Chick Foley Promo
00:03:19
Speaker
want remind you guys, use code Chick Foley to save 10% at Ringside Collectibles. They are the ones bringing you this podcast for free each and every week. And visit www.chickfoley.com to find all things Chick Foley and, most importantly, become a premium Foley fan member. Shout out some of our new members that have joined the last few weeks. It is a great community, as we tell you guys every time.
00:03:40
Speaker
Cannot recommend it enough. ah Without further ado, you ready to get into some wrestling, Shane? Let's go.
00:03:47
Speaker
So we'll start off
The Rock's SmackDown Speculations
00:03:48
Speaker
with something that broke literally you know within 30 minutes of us coming on the air tonight. The Rock is going to be back on SmackDown tomorrow night. Sheen, what's your instant take on this news? Well, I was kind of just thinking, like is it going to be corporate corporate Dwayne doing another you know um billionaire circle jerk? But I think i think we're getting you know i think we're getting the boss they we're getting the final boss on SmackDown this week. I mean, we're coming up on Elimination Chamber.
00:04:13
Speaker
we're on that We're on the road to WrestleMania, dude. So... I don't know. The post, the you know, ah this is from the rocks. I G says the final boss returns. So, you know, he's definitely hinting at it.
00:04:23
Speaker
My prediction. I think we get some little, we get a little taste of the final boss just because, you know, the rock definitely, you know, I think he himself closely monitors and he also has a team of folks that monitor the online reactions to literally anything that he does. And I'm sure they saw some of the blowback from, you know, the, the, the friendly PR rock that we got on that Netflix opening.
00:04:43
Speaker
But, I hope I'm wrong on this, man. I hope I'm wrong. But, ah you know, i got to throw it out there because I'm kind of the prediction king after guessing this Jey Uso thing, right? SmackDown is going to be in New Orleans next year. We already know New Orleans is, you know, it hasn't been officially announced yet, but it's all but confirmed.
00:04:59
Speaker
WrestleMania is in New Orleans next year. I think The Rock's rolling out there just to make the big announcement, you know, that WrestleMania 42 is going to be in New Orleans and
WrestleMania in New Orleans
00:05:07
Speaker
still going to be. I think we'll get a little lost a little final boss dust sprinkled on the presentation. But I think...
00:05:14
Speaker
I think it's going to be rock announcing. And maybe he'll announce that he's going to wrestle there. and Yeah, I doubt that. But I could see him announcing that now that you say that. ah That makes a lot of sense. um Can't be. That's just too much of a coincidence to me. But I'll double down, man. So we got something to look forward to. I think he goes and plants the seeds and says that he's wrestling in the main event against somebody. And, you know, we'll have that the next year plus to speculate who it's going to be.
00:05:36
Speaker
mean, I would imagine it's got to be Roman, right? You'd think. i mean, he's still got unfinished business with Cody, even though they kind of kind of put that to bed on that Netflix debut. they can write They could get that fired back up pretty quick. But yeah, to to me, you just, you know, you got to do him and Roman. That's got to happen.
00:05:50
Speaker
Yeah. New Orleans, though, that's fun. i remember Scott Toon saying that it was like the best WrestleMania city that he's ever been to. So. Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of New Orleans just because it's just kind of grimy down there. But, you know, i definitely love Cajun food. And, yeah, it's got the same vibes as Nashville. The Superdome is right downtown. So you can literally, you know, hang out all kinds of awesome restaurants, bars and stuff.
00:06:11
Speaker
And, you know, stumble over to to your Raws and your WrestleMania, you know, the Access or WWE World, whatever they're calling it. It's it's ah definitely a good walkable city for stuff like that. Yeah, for sure. The one time we were down there, we were visiting, we kind of did like a day trip down there because we went to see my ah my brother-in-law, Seth's brother.
00:06:28
Speaker
And um yeah, it was just like Seth said, it was just kind of grimy. I feel like if if you have enough ah grenades, isn't that in that the, you know, the drink of choice and like enough grenades or whatever, um you know, any any place looks awesome. But yeah, kind of smelled A little like a toilet. and ah Yeah, we were we ah we kept it at like a very light buzz. very Yeah, we were very, very light. But, i I mean, it would make a killer party
Memphis Wrestling Highlights
00:06:49
Speaker
city.
00:06:49
Speaker
um You guys, you and Brett went to Memphis Wrestling this past week. So, tell us what all went down there. It was awesome. This was either the fifth or sixth time we've gone to Memphis Wrestling. can't remember off the top of my head. But, we're basically regulars there now. You know, Brett did wrestling camp there. Mm-hmm.
00:07:04
Speaker
Last summer. So a lot of the wrestlers and Mr. Star, Dustin Star, Dustin Five Star, whatever you want to call him, the promoter and owner of the company. He knows bread on a first name basis. So we get the we get the VIP treatment when we go and we had absolute prime seats right next to the baby face entrance.
00:07:18
Speaker
um And it was a hell of a show. Obviously, Nick Nemeth, formerly known as Dolph Ziggler, being there was incredible. He put on a show in his match, and he was super, super cool to me. And he took the time talk with Brett and give him a really badass autograph.
00:07:31
Speaker
But even besides him, man, I just want to give a shout out to Memphis Wrestle. They're on the come up, dude. The energy, the vibe, everything. like It was by far the best show we've been into. We know they're affiliated with WWE via the WWE show.
00:07:43
Speaker
ID program. They filmed a match for ah for them on TV. It was pretty cool. I wonder how the the Memphis Wrestling regulars feel about it. They changed out the ring canvas and everything right for the WWE ID match. You know, put a bright white canvas on there.
00:07:55
Speaker
Makes sense because, you know, they're filming it for WWE and you never know how wide this is going to go. So you want to make sure that you put in your best foot forward for for Memphis wrestling. But yeah, we got to see cold brew cappuccino Jones. wre So I think that is going to be a future star.
00:08:07
Speaker
um And, you he was going against the, the first WWE ID signing for Memphis wrestling. um The, the problem child, Aaron Reynolds, man. And it was really, really cool, man. Like I said, I, I cannot, if you're in this area, if you're anywhere close,
00:08:22
Speaker
make the trip to see Memphis wrestling. Um, March 2nd is going to be the next show. um Unfortunately, we're going to miss that one. Cause Brett's got an end of season, uh, basketball party celebrating our, our undefeated season of basketball, but it's going to be crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Undefeated championship season.
00:08:36
Speaker
Um, Matt Hardy is going to be there and it's going to be the first Memphis wrestling ladder match in the promotions history. So definitely, like i said, it it is just an awesome scene and vibe, man. It is the crowds. The crowds awesome there. They're super energized or super in into Memphis wrestling. So yeah, it's always a fun time when we're there.
00:08:53
Speaker
ah Speaking of WWE ID, we saw Triple H announce that they're going have championships defended on the indies.
WWE ID Program Discussion
00:09:00
Speaker
I think this is cool as hell, man. Yeah, I think so, too, dude. I think having because I mean, if you're if you're at some local indie show and you see a WWE belt show up, dude, that's I mean, I think that's cool. I think that makes it feel like more of a big deal.
00:09:11
Speaker
Yeah, and yeah it's just it just gives that stamp of credibility to the indie promotions. I think it's going to help them out. I think the individual wrestlers that have the belt that are fighting for this belt, it gives them instant credibility when they do show up on whether it's WWE, Evolve, or NXT. It just gives them a little bit of and extra credibility, and it just helps the overall...
00:09:31
Speaker
wrestling scene so yeah i'm a big fan i can't wait to see the first you know wwe id champion coming out of memphis wrestling man it definitely felt like a big deal on sunday when they set up to tape it man like you could feel like the kind of just the overall vibe and energy pick up in the room knowing that it's going to be a wwe id match here in our humble uh memphis wrestle center yeah for sure and like you said i think i think the memphis crowd i think they would be totally behind it man i think they just want to do anything that's going to elevate what they're seeing out there and you know memphis wrestling as a whole Yeah, and the thing is, it'd be cool, you know, even if it's, you know, it's somebody from the Midwest or from the West Coast that's holding championship. If you see, like, oh, they're coming into Memphis wrestling, you know, this Sunday going fighting the gun show, you know, the gun show is getting a shot at the championship. Like, that's badass, dude. Like, you definitely got to come to see if your hometown guy or, you know.
00:10:15
Speaker
The baby face beast, John Dalton, dude. Big John Dalton. Big JD. If you find out, he's the you're you're not staying at home, man, if you know he's going to be fighting for a WWE championship on that Sunday. So I'm a big fan of it. I will definitely be in the house the first time that belt makes its way to Memphis. And, yeah, you just cannot put over Memphis Wrestling enough. We love them and definitely but we're making a point now. At this point, think regardless of who the VIP guest is, if if it's on a Sunday when we're free, we're going to be in the house for Memphis Wrestling. For sure.
00:10:43
Speaker
um let's are you ready to jump into uh something yeah let's go into this big saturday we had an awesome saturday double header uh starting around you know five o'clock in the afternoon for us and running to damn near midnight of uh pro wrestling yeah i i was fading in and out by the end like that that what was it a 10 o'clock start time or i was out grand slam yeah yeah i was i was struggling um It's funny, we're not going chronological order. Grand Slam happened about 12 hours yeah before Vengeance Day, but that we'll go in the order that they were presented to us.
00:11:11
Speaker
yeah so what What did you think overall Vengeance Day? I thought it was awesome. I thought it was a great show. Not as good as last Not as good as last year. Last year had though the Whoop That Trick movement. The Trick energy was was high last year. we had a double We had a double header for Trick last year. We were in the house, which always makes it better. you know We had Ilya Dragunov and Trick in the main event, which was just epic. like the Clarksville crowd...
00:11:32
Speaker
Last year brought it a little bit more than the D.C. crowd, too. I think it was a bigger deal having a pay-per-view level event in Clarksville than is in somewhere like D.C., but still
Vengeance Day Recap
00:11:40
Speaker
a really great show, man. All the guys brought it in the ring. I thought it was some awesome matches.
00:11:43
Speaker
We saw the new faction come in. Twice. Yeah. What what was your thought, Shane, on this this new faction? So for me, no unnamed after when still unnamed still unnamed. Um, I don't want to ish wish ill will on anybody. I hope that they do well. I hope it's, I hope it's cool.
00:11:59
Speaker
I feel like I got big, um, uh, what's the other, what's the faction that fit left? flo Retribution. Retribution they were going for shield, landed closer to retribution. Yes. I got big retribution vibes. And I feel like the sad thing is, is like, it's always cool when you just see a bunch of guys come in and just start kicking ass. But,
00:12:17
Speaker
I feel like retribution really set the tone for us to really just expect that when these things happen, it's not going to be great. To me, man, I think it's tough because when you bring in four unknowns, right, there's not like they're not coming in. and They were yeah chanting, who are you? Yeah, maybe. Who are you? Maybe maybe we see of plot. We find out these guys are you know long-term working. They're working for freaking Ethan Page or something like that. They're coming in. Obafim is going to make a heel turn. These guys are actually it was some kind of crazy swerve. They're working for him all along. Something like that. but I think when you're bringing in complete unknowns,
00:12:51
Speaker
you got to try to get them all over at the same time. It's just tough, man. So like you said, the same thing with retribution, really was the same thing with the shield, man. that To be fair, that's the same way that the shield debuted. I just think it's um an almost impossible way to debut new folks. The only reason it worked with the shield is because you had three people who were the best of their generation. man yeah I think I still, even though in hindsight it worked out great.
00:13:13
Speaker
I think that was a one in a million. And I think trying to recapture some of that, it's just not going to work, man. And you can't, You know, WWE's smart. They had to have been thinking, this going to make people think of the Shield. They had on Shield-type gear. They're all black. They had the sco the skeleton face ah covers. Yeah, and they even did, like, an evolution of the triple powerbomb. You know, they had, like, a quadruple powerbomb that they hit on Oba.
00:13:33
Speaker
Yeah. ah So you can't help but see the but the the similarities. and you know I don't think it's impossible, but I think it's a very narrow path to kind of get this act over. or something more that that Something that's not just going to fizzle out in a couple months and we see these four guys repackage in short order. Right. I think if you're doing something like that, i mean just we can suspend our disbelief, dude. like Go ahead and have the announcers like act like we should know who these people are. right today To be fair, the announcers were saying, like oh, I think that's Dion Lennox. True, yeah. They call it. I feel like you got to give them a little bit more than just like, oh, I think that's Dion Lennox. You know what i mean? Like, you got like, oh, my God, you know, it is, you know, and just give them a little bit more like je ne sais quoi or something, you know, where it's like, oh, God, who are these people? Instead of just like, I don't know, I i felt like.
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah, i dont I can't imagine these guys are going to be together in like three months. it was tough Yeah, I'm kind of with you, man. I hope I'm wrong, dude. I'll be the happiest guy in the world if I'm wrong on this one, but I think it's an extreme uphill battle they're going to have to get this act over. The other thing I think hurts them, man, they're debuting on the same week that Ricky Starks and Jordan Grace, you know, we've seen Jordan Grace a couple of times in NXT, but she's like officially NXT roster now. and We also saw Ricky Starks make his debut, so it's like...
00:14:48
Speaker
is it's, it's a, like I said, it's going to tough climb for these guys, man. And but hopefully it comes out that they're part of, you know, some bigger storyline. And it's not just these four dudes are here to run it. Cause it's just, well, and you know, WWE has a history of just like making these factions run in and run in and run like for a, for ah period of too long where it's like, we're just like, Oh my God. Like again, you know what I mean? Again, like it was retribution. They just kept in coming in causing chaos. And it was like, there was no story. There was no,
00:15:16
Speaker
I mean, to be fair, the Wyatt Sixers kind of starting to drift into that category. Exactly. Exactly. We'll see where this new Alexa stuff goes. But yeah, I think they're kind of they I think they're starting flirt with that territory. and that's why they've kind of pulled back and put them on pause to try to salvage that. But it's it's tough to do the big multi-person factions where like everybody's equal. You know, you really you've got to have a leader where you have the hierarchy. You need a leader.
00:15:40
Speaker
ah One or two midcard guys in a tag team, man. Yes. Yeah. That's kind of the formula. it's It's tough when you got just a bunch of equal dudes coming in as, as these guys have been shown so far.
00:15:50
Speaker
Right. Yeah. You would have, they would have been better. so And maybe they're going to do this, but yeah, like you said, with maybe they're working for Ethan page, they would have been better served to come in along with somebody. Right. And just like elevate themselves along the way, but we'll see. We'll see. Let's not be negative about it. From, from the jump.
00:16:05
Speaker
We had the show end with
Jordan Grace Joins NXT
00:16:08
Speaker
Jordan Grace coming out again. Shout out to Memphis Wrestling. Yeah, shout out to Memphis Wrestling. Sheena and Brett met her last summer. Not super impactful just because I feel like I've seen her debut for WWE like three or four times at this point. You know, she was just in the Rumble also.
00:16:21
Speaker
But we now we now know she's officially going to be a part of that NXT women's division. I think it's a great addition, man. I'm so i'm super stoked for Jordan Grace. i Like Seth said, we saw her in person. She's badass, dude. I mean, she's just like 100% pure muscle.
00:16:34
Speaker
I will say I did i do like her like tougher, edgier look where she's got like the braids and stuff like that versus like her you know, super glam look that she had going on when she debuted the other night, like the red lipstick and the long curly blonde hair. I feel like she needs like, she's so bad-ass, like just set her apart, right? Don't make her just like some blonde bombshell yeah wrestler, like make her look bad-ass when she comes in.
00:16:56
Speaker
um But yeah, she's, she's awesome, dude. I'm excited. I don't think it's going to be a long run. She's the dirt sheets are reporting that she's signed a contract for main roster money. So I think this is going to be something kind of get her through WrestleMania season. Right. Yeah. We talked about that a little bit last week. It's not a great time to debut on the main roster. Most of the wheels already in motion for Mania. So let her do something Let her have a big match stand and deliver. Maybe she wins a belt there and, you know has a little run through the summer. And but I think I think we need to see her on SummerSlam on the main roster.
00:17:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i think she's going to face ah Julia or Stephanie, right? one One of those two. I think because ah eventually those two going to face each other. I'm getting the the vibe that eventually they're going to go head to head. So I think this is that would be a good little like middle ground to keep them apart for a little bit longer, put Jordan Grace kind of in the mix to...
00:17:42
Speaker
to tag up with those, with those guys. Yeah. We saw them all team up on NXT too. So yeah, you can already see that, you know, like you said, the, the Alliance that lasts for a little bit until they all three end up fighting each other. Uh, last thing i want to talk about on Vengeance Day, the absolutely stunning, uh, Eddie Thorpe. I could not believe this. Trick Williams. Yeah. We, you know, we got our Foley Pixley. I think we had four people out of 38 predicted this one. This basically deep six, everybody having ah perfect a perfect card for the weekend.
00:18:07
Speaker
Um, Shocking upset, man. like I don't know. I'm assuming this leads to some sort of bigger match at Stand and Deliver, but I'm still stunned to see Trick drop this one. Either that or Trick's about to get caught up quicker than we know.
Trick Williams and Ricky Starks Updates
00:18:20
Speaker
That's what i mean that's the only rationale that i can come up with is that, I mean, maybe Monday, maybe we see Trick come out on Raw. but I mean, but like you said, it's weird because this is mania season. Where is Trick going to fit into to all of this? um But i I mean, I was stunned, dude. I was like, could not believe. And it kind of came out of nowhere. Like you pinned him and I was just like, Wait, what? It wasn't the most well-worked match. you know If there's one thing that Trix still kind of yeah a B- minus on as far as his game, it's the in-ring.
00:18:48
Speaker
and And he's actually a little bit more experienced than Eddie Thorpe is. So ah you know the in-ring left a little a lot to be desired. And like you said, the ending was kind of anticlimactic. kind of came out of nowhere. And yeah, it just left, like said, it left all of us done. So we'll see where Trick goes from here. I mean, he's ready to go main roster, but you feel like he's been such an integral part of NXT over the last few years that we think deserves a better send off than just having Eddie Thorpe beat him on Vengeance Day. We need a good season finale for for Trick, man. Vengeance Day is not Trick's pay-per-view. Maybe that's why. Maybe that's the Oncorn storyline. you know yeah he's that It's an anti-WrestleMania Undertaker thing, dude. He can't win at Vengeance Day. cannot win at Vengeance Day.
00:19:25
Speaker
um One last thing on NXT before we move over to All Elite Wrestling. We finally got it. you know We talked about it last week that it was kind of weird that they had not mentioned Ricky Starks by name on NXT. All they had said was you know the hottest free agent. so they they They went out of their way not to say his name.
00:19:41
Speaker
We now know why. They still didn't say it at all on Tuesday night all through the show. After he signs the contract, we get the zoom in and we get the classic WWE NXT name change. Ricky Starks is now Ricky Starks.
00:19:51
Speaker
Well, so I was like, oh, God, you know, we had to keep the same alliteration and everything. i was kind of already down on it and just kind of poo-pooing on it. Then um he was on Busted Open radio and he was talking about it. And he said, you know, he's got New Orleans roots.
00:20:06
Speaker
And so he said he he kind of chose the name. right i don't think he starts his real name either. i don't think. Fire up Wikipedia. Yeah, i don't I mean, that's ah definitely sounds like a stage name. Let's see. um But yeah, he's got New Orleans roots. And he said, you know, he errup it's kind of got double meaning. Right. And um so he's he's down with it. He thinks it's cool. So, I mean, and I'm, you know, it's not nearly as bad as Walter to Gunther. And I think everybody kind of forgot about that within. ah He really is Ricky Starks. So, yeah, Richard Starks up there at the top. Richard Starks. Yeah, it is a shoot name.
00:20:36
Speaker
Good old Ricky Starks. You know, we all were having meltdowns when Walter changed to Gunther. And I think everybody knew that. within then Within six weeks, that was kind of like a non-issue, man. I think it'll be even shorter than that for Ricky Starks to Ricky Saints.
00:20:48
Speaker
yeah If I could offer one thing, and I don't think it's too late for them to just correct this. book ah You know, we made a typo. Ricky Saint. Drop the S. Saints is a little bit much. Ricky Saint is more of a, uh, I think Ricky Saint. Yeah. Sounds like, you know, the John, the alternate name for John Wick or something like that. feel like that sounds for, I don't know why. I think just dropping the S off the end makes it sound much tougher. Yeah. It's cleaner. Yeah. It's like, yeah, it's like Facebook, you know, drop the d drop the the um,
00:21:13
Speaker
But yeah, so i don't know if any, I know we got some, somebody somewhere in the company is listening to this. Nobody's going to bat eye if when he comes out, the S is just gone. And it was just a typo in the contract. Yeah. Ricky St. Ricky St. is a main event name. Ricky Saints is a mid card all the way, dude. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:28
Speaker
yeah it just felt like Ricky St. It just hits a little bit different, man.
AEW Grand Slam Discussion
00:21:31
Speaker
all right, let's go to AEW. So we talked about it last week. It had been a bit of a mess getting to the show with all the different stuff. Um,
00:21:39
Speaker
going on with just the promotion moving stadiums is it a pay-per-view is going to be on tv it's airing at you know special late start time after all-star saturday night but we finally got the grand slam it was a hell of a show did you see this ring controversy sheen this popped up about the ring being smaller yeah i didn't even notice it yeah i did not notice it until after the fact everybody was bringing it up i like to me is a non-issue. Buddy Murphy did throw out a tweet complaining about it, but he's kind of, Buddy Matthews, excuse me, he did throw out a tweet complaining about it, but he's known to do stuff just to be like snarky and kind of just like feed the internet trolls just to kind of just laugh at them. You know what mean? Like toss them the cheese and let them just laugh while they munch on it.
00:22:20
Speaker
Um... So if I was a betting man, I think that was probably just him just having some fun with the the geeks. I didn't think the ring thing. it was a non-issue to me. i yeah I didn't even notice. Like I said, I mean, granted, it was, you know, past my bedtime, but I did not notice the ring being smaller. And then, you know, you wake up and everybody's like, oh, my God, you know, the ring was so small. And I'm just like, Jesus, guys, like, you know.
00:22:42
Speaker
you know It was a two-hour run time. I still thought the show delivered, man. I thought AEW came through. i dont I can't imagine anybody ah that was there in Australia left feeling like they didn't end up getting their money's worth once all was said and done.
00:22:53
Speaker
I don't know, dude. I mean, getting your i think getting your money's worth is... um is ah subjective dude I feel like if I i would have probably been pissed, dude, if I had like paid for an arena show or a a stadium show and then they were like, sorry, we're just going to move it and do all this and you're not going to get any money back, any kind of credit, any sort of merch credit or anything like that. You know what i mean And they were bragging about, oh, this was the largest gate. like, yeah, no shit, dude. You charge people for a stadium show and then crammed them into an arena. Of course, this was the biggest freaking, you know, gate for the show.
00:23:24
Speaker
I ended up giving it a thumbs up, man. So she knows a little bit more down on it than me. I thought it was cool, though. I thought the show the show overall was cool if they had just if they had just made it episode a collision from the start. If they had presented it like this from the start, it would have been excellent. But the fact all of the rigmarole and all of the drama and stuff, it was just kind of like it's always something sloppier, messier on AW. That's kind of just like their brand at this point.
00:23:49
Speaker
I can forgive it, though, just because they are giving us good wrestling. Edge's entrance, to quote Michael Cole, that was a moment, man. I thought that was pretty dang cool, dude. I haven't been in love with everything he's done since he's been in AEW, but that was something that was definitely memorable. you know i I can't imagine once this thing's all sudden done, we don't look back at that as being one of the two ah you know two or three coolest things that happened during this run.
00:24:10
Speaker
Yeah, what were your thoughts on that match as a whole, the Brisbane Brawl
Deathriders and Toni Storm's Character
00:24:14
Speaker
match? Dude, again, i love Mox. He's my favorite in AEW. The Deathriders gotta go, man. The Deathriders are absolutely sucking the life out of out of this promotion, man. There's so much stuff that's just brighter and more entertaining and more fun, and you got these guys. They're just oppressive, man. and I get that that's the gimmick, but...
00:24:33
Speaker
Dude, it's turning into a freaking shoot, man. Like, you just you just want him gone, down Yeah, you got you got Claudio, who just, you know, is an absolute excitement boy, dude. Or as Brett would say, Claudio. Yeah, he he just, you know, whatever excitement exists in a room, you know, despite how great the guy is in-ring at doing moves,
00:24:50
Speaker
it just disappears when the moment he hits the ring. yeah And, you know, Pac's cool, but he's almost kind of like a fringe member for them. Will or Yuta, like, no, dude. I do like Marina Shafir. I think she's benefited more than anybody else from this. Like, if you broke off just her and Mox, I think that could be a pretty cool act. But the the dominant faction is just...
00:25:08
Speaker
And then they they went over Edging it, man. It just killed the crowd. could not believe. Yeah, I could not believe they went over. I mean, if if anything, I mean, I thought maybe Jay White would get pinned. You know what i mean? But they freaking pinned Edge right in the middle of the ring, like, or submitted him, you know, made him pass out.
00:25:23
Speaker
And I was just like, dude, what are we doing here? Because that kind of really kills any momentum going forward. You thought they could carry this out to, you know, the next I'm kind of with Mox, you know, talking about,
00:25:35
Speaker
Edge challenging him at Revolution. Like, why the hell should I fight you? Yeah, yeah i mean exactly. Yeah, I don't know. ah yeah Again, i hate it because I love mocks, but the Deathriders are just not doing it for me, dude.
00:25:46
Speaker
I agree. We saw Tony win the belt against first ever four time women's champion, man. It was a cool moment seeing it there in Australia. what what What are your thoughts on the Tony Storm character? Timeless Tony, because I still i don't like it. It's too much for me. i it's a little bit much for me. i don't hate it. I think she's she's doing a great job with it. It's definitely not my flavor.
00:26:07
Speaker
I love just standard. freaking Tony Storm. I like, you know, just factory settings, Tony Storm. I know people love it. So I'm, I'm in the minority on this one, but I feel like the timeless Tony Storm stuff, it, to me, it's really since the start, dude, it's been the kind of thing that like, if somebody that didn't watch wrestling happened to stumble into like a Tony Storm segment while I was watching wrestling, I'd be embarrassed. Especially the recent ones where she's just like absolutely unhinged. pushing the limits on what she could say with the sexual stuff and everything. Yeah. And just like acting like she's just, yeah you know, out of her head. It's the kind of thing that would make me embarrassed to like tell somebody, oh yeah, and this is what i watch. This is what i I podcast about every week. I just feel like we need to move on, dude. I mean, Tony and um Mariah May have, have like just absolutely capitalized on the, the women's division for the past like mono year. Yeah. They've literally been just all the entire women's division. And I'm like, guys, we got it. We got to move on. We got to, you know, do something else here because this is, this is too much.
00:27:04
Speaker
Speaking of doing something else, our girl Harley lost, man. We gave her the cover last week on the podcast. Had awesome show in front of her home crowd. I think it was the right choice. It was good match. I think it was the right choice. In hindsight, yeah, we were super hyped. I would love to see her get her moment. In my heart of hearts, yeah. mean, she'd won one televised match in AW prior to that. So you're right. And I still think she leveled She didn't lose anything. Yeah, she had the best match of her career so far. mean, you know, shout out to Mercedes for, know,
00:27:28
Speaker
elevating her and giving her such a great match. But I do think it was the right call to have Harley lose. And I don't think she literally lost anything off of it. No, she looked like she belonged to. I think people would be geeked up for the rematch. And think it would be lot more believable to see her take. And the Mercedes puppet was off. You know what I mean? It was super fun. The two different ones. The regular one and the angry one.
00:27:48
Speaker
It was cool. so Overall, really, really fun week of wrestling. And, you know, I hope AEW gives us some more special Saturday collisions like that on the weeks we don't have a WWE pay-per-view or a NXT event. Yeah, I'm here for it.
00:28:22
Speaker
All right, it's time for the figure four. i want to remind you that this segment and this podcast is brought to you by Ringside Collectibles. Use code CHICKFOLLY to save 10% on all your purchases there.
00:28:33
Speaker
The new SummerSlam set for this year is just recently in stock. I believe it is on the way to us right now, so we'll have that for ah review next week. Also, speaking of our good friends at Ringside, it came out today. a lot of ah lot of rumor and innuendo around this one. They're launching their own unsanctioned classic superstars figure line.
Ringside Collectibles Excitement
00:28:52
Speaker
They're playing this one close to the vest, man. They're going to announce it on the 26th. You know, I think um I'm not overstepping my bounds here by saying me and Sheena are kind of ringside insiders. They typically keep us in the loop on everything that they're doing and ask for our help promoting stuff.
00:29:06
Speaker
We're totally in the dark on this one. I have no idea what this is going to be. I'm excited for it, though. Sheena, if you had your pick, what what do you think? Are we getting ah another retro line, something like superstars? Are we going to get actual elite scale figures?
00:29:19
Speaker
I think they're going to be elite scale figures, dude. I think... I don't know. I just don't see them spinning off with another line right now. I'm hoping they're not Ruthless Aggression style, man. You know, those would be slightly cheaper to make than elites. Right. Like the Jack style. Having classic superstars on that making me a little bit nervous. Well, that's the thing that's giving me calls for pause. I'm like...
00:29:39
Speaker
I feel like they might be in that style because it says classic superstar, yeah but it says unsanctioned. So maybe it's like, you know, they're in the elite scale, man. Like that would be great. I think everybody's kind of at their, at their threshold with the amount of retro lines and even the amount of Remco style, superstars, style figures.
00:29:56
Speaker
Or a lot now too. Whatever they do, I'm sure it's going to be great. But yeah, if they could do elite scale, that would be awesome. I know people are intimidated because this is obviously the hardest scale to do, right? This scale doesn't leave any room for, you know, kind of glossing over details and people will forgive it out of nostalgia. Like you got, you got to make realistic looking depictions of these wrestlers, but That'll be great. The possibilities are endless. If we're going for guys that aren't signed to WWE or AEW right now, there's so many interesting legends that you can make figures of. Just look at what Power Town is doing out there. So we'll see. Stay tuned on the 26th so we can see what what ringside has in store for us because I'm sure it's going to be great.
00:30:31
Speaker
Other than that, not a lot of big news this week. We do have some live reviews for you. So we got some fresh figures in from across the pond. Shout out to our good friend, Phillip Dunnett. They're in the UK.
00:30:41
Speaker
You know, UK still has a dedicated toy store, Smith's. And as you know, the Monday Night Wars line is damn near impossible to find in the States. i I see absolute just the dregs of the line. Just, you know, one or two of them were on the pegs at every Walmart I go to. There's almost never anything new from this line.
00:30:57
Speaker
but these things are just sitting over there, dude. Like he he, he was able to walk in the store, grab me the entire set, plus the chase Booker T and got them shipped over to us. Um, so we have these six figures we're going to review for you here on the air. Sheen, who do you want to start with?
00:31:11
Speaker
Uh, let's start with Kane. So Kane, this is like a 1999 Kane. He's similar to other ones we've gotten before. He's in the traditional red and black gear, but he's got the cutouts. You know, Kane, couple of years into his run, started having like these mesh see-through cutouts on the chest.
00:31:25
Speaker
It's a great looking figure, dude. He's got the shiny boots from the Ultimate Edition. Boots are super shiny. Yeah, it's Ultimate Edition articulation on the boots too. looks she He's got the toe articulation. What'd you call it? The toe box? So he's got a little, yeah, a little box articulation. Yeah.
00:31:38
Speaker
um yeah I i don't know if if um don't know where you've been the last couple years if you still need a cane with this look in your collection, but if you do, this one is great, man. Just outstanding looking figure. there's got to be a cane completionist out there somewhere. There is you remember Canaanite on Instagram? Oh, Canaanite. Yeah, Canaanite. Who has every piece of cane merch ever made, so he's definitely grabbing this.
00:31:55
Speaker
That's right. It's a cool looking figure. Like i said, it's a really badass figure, but off the top of my head, I know I have at least two figures that are extremely similar to this one. um But you know if you just start getting into the line, this is a ah great... This could totally be your definitive cane figure.
00:32:08
Speaker
Absolutely. um Let's move on Let's see. Let's go to Booker. so yeah All right. So we got two Booker T's. it' It's pretty wild that Booker has now had two chases in the Monday Night Wars line. In Series 3, him and his brother, Stevie Ray, Harlem Heat, we had the black set and the blue set.
00:32:26
Speaker
And now we have solo Booker T. This is like 98, 99 Booker T. This has actually been specifically the white tights version has been one of my most wanted figures. in the Mattel line for a couple of years now, man. I love this solo Booker T kind of broke out, had that classic best of seven series for the TV championship with Chris Benoit.
00:32:44
Speaker
um And these figures are outstanding. The only other depiction we got a Booker from this time period was in the old flashback basic series that came with that JJ Dillon build a figure. And he had like the dark,
00:32:54
Speaker
red like maroon tights i think both of these are great i think the white tights is you know it's one of my favorite figures of this year yeah the white tights look incredible dude i mean both are awesome but always love something that just doesn't have just plain black tights you know so looks great um let's go to bulldog So this is this is Bulldog from late 95. This is like early in the heel run. I'd say this is actually like fall 95, right? Yeah, short hair Bulldog.
00:33:19
Speaker
Yeah, just turned heel. Hadn't got the the super flamboyant tights he would end up going with. um Really great face sculpt, man. This probably the best face sculpt we've got for heel, Davey Boy Smith, and another great figure, man. Bulldog's another guy. I have a ton of his figures, but I feel like I still have a couple looks I need, and this was one of them. So this one's definitely going on the shelf.
00:33:38
Speaker
Then we got Hardcore Hack. I feel like this is probably like the budget throw-in. um I don't know who was excited for this one. you know This is the legendary Sandman from ECW. ah When he went to WCW, they changed his name to Hardcore Hack, Rockin' the All Black. This figure's cool enough, man. like If they had just dropped this as the first Sandman, I think people would accept it, but...
00:33:57
Speaker
the problem with this one is we just got two badass Sandman figures, you know, less than a year ago. So I think this is a strange choice. Yeah. I don't, ah you know, unless you're a ah ah late WC, late era WCW apologist, I don't see people rushing down the aisles to grab this one, but it's a build a figure set. So I think that gives Mattel a little bit of freedom to make some of these figures that maybe wouldn't be as hot sellers. Cause if you want the, the, the star of the show here, you got to get them.
00:34:22
Speaker
Yeah. I think, um you know, I think they probably just were were like, oh which route which ah i think body mold can reuse? Black soft goods tea and then everything else is a reuse from the Sandman. Looks like you got some creator wrestler bottom halves on. Yeah.
00:34:38
Speaker
Yeah. And now the star of the show. The star of the show. The oddities. We got Golga. John Tenta, one of his most famous personas. He was Earthquake. He was the shark. He was Avalanche. He was John Tenta. And then at the end with the oddities, he was Golga.
00:34:52
Speaker
ah This has been, I honestly don't think we would ever get this figure. Yeah, I'm pretty sure for the last, I mean, i don't even know how many years, you know, our buddy, the fig god, Jordan Wells, has been saying anytime we would do our ringside wish lists or like our Comic-Con wish lists, Jordan would always mention that he needs a Golga figure in his in his collection. So it's here.
00:35:13
Speaker
It's awesome. And we get we got a little mini Cartman to go with ours. got little 112 scale Cartman to go with it. You know, Golga always had... The Cartman doll. I've seen some of the folks on the internet doing some amazing work with the decals, throwing a Cartman decal on the shirt to recreate it. Me, I'm just not artistically inclined enough. She knows a little bit better than I am, but this is an expensive figure, right? Being a builder figure, you know, you got to get four figures to make this one.
00:35:38
Speaker
And I just, I really don't want to miss risk messing this one up. And I think with the little miniature Cartman along with him, I think that does enough, man. True, but what, I mean, you could always get a soft goods with the printed shirt. See, I thought about that too, because we know we have PWR Lucha, our soft goods guy. I don't, I think he'd have trouble with that big torso, dude. You know what i mean? The way the soft goods are, they're all like that stretchy material they're kind like trim cut in the,
00:36:01
Speaker
um Yeah, I think it'd be tough to execute. I think he looks fine with just the white tee holding the Cartman. Yeah, I think he looks awesome. I think he definitely needed the Cartman. so you know we'll Maybe we'll leave where we where we yeah you know got the ah got the Cartman for anybody who wants to complete their Golga figure because it definitely makes it Yeah, I think it was about $16 off eBay. Just search 112 Cartman and you can find some stuff out there.
00:36:24
Speaker
um But yeah, this is a really great Build-A-Figure, man. He's got the sleeve where he's got the black stripe on one, not on the other. The mask detailing looks great. The mask great, yeah. And the other thing, dude, the gray sweatpants used to wear. These are really great, man. It looks like gray sweatpants. It's not just plain gray legs or something, man. They...
00:36:40
Speaker
They have the perfect amount of like bagginess. They're joggers, and they got yeah you know the elastic at the bottom. Yeah, this is definitely in the mix for the best build of figures they've ever done. This is a really, really cool one. Yeah, I love it. All right, Sheen, do we have some listener mail?
00:36:52
Speaker
Of course we do.
00:37:00
Speaker
All right. Our buddy, the OG Fig Kid, Thomas Montalto, says, is there any way to legitimize the WWE Hall of Fame at this point?
WWE Hall of Fame Legitimacy
00:37:09
Speaker
You'd have to nuke it, man. You'd have to nuke it and start from the beginning. I was going to say, you got to get rid of everything because there's so much just fluff in there right now. There's no way to legitimize it going forward. You'd have to just start a whole new thing. I'll give a cheap plug. Go to our buddies, Turnbuckle Tavern, go to their Turnbuckle debate episodes. It was, I want to say two weeks ago, me and Jordan were on there and we had an in-depth discussion on the issues with the WWE Hall of Fame. And, you know, we go in depth on some of the stuff you need to to fix it. I think it's beyond repair at this point.
00:37:42
Speaker
Yeah. You would have to restart it. I don't you could do that without hurting a ton of feelings. I don't think... And not and not even hurting a ton of feelings. I mean, dude, there's so much... like People have passed away. like You couldn't re-induct people, right? like it's like it's just It would be hard to go back and do that. Toothpaces out the tube.
00:38:00
Speaker
Honestly, if Tony Khan wanted to do something that would be really lasting even more so than AEW, he would just start a definitive pro-wrestling Hall of Fame. You know, like the end-all, be-all. He's got the money to make it happen. he could get a collector yeah If happens to go under, I think that's what he should do. Just start the definitive...
00:38:15
Speaker
Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame because, yeah, man, you just, you know, the and it needs to be something to where you got levels to it, right? Some sort of like pyramid structure, man. Up at the top of the pyramid, you got your Hulk Hogan, you got your Roman Reigns, you got your Ric Flair's.
00:38:30
Speaker
And there's still people that aren't at that level accomplishment wise that should be in the Hall of Fame. Like I know Coco Beware always gets thrown out as like, how is this guy in the WWE Hall of Fame? Dude, I think Coco Beware is a Hall of Famer, man. I think he's 100% Hall of Famer.
00:38:41
Speaker
He's just a different kind. yeah it's In my vision for this Hall of Fame, guess, you know, we're talking about it. I'll go and go into what I kind of laid out on the tavern. My vision for the Hall of Fame is, again, you got levels to it, right? You got you know your top floor.
00:38:53
Speaker
You got your permanent wing, right? These are the guys who their you know their bust is on display nonstop. They yeah yeah they always got the memorabilia out. And then you know you got as you go down the floors, you got some other guys who are permanent or they stay up for you know four or five, six months at a time.
00:39:07
Speaker
And then you know maybe bottom floor, you got some rotating displays, right? And that's where Coco Beware is at. You know you got what a couple months, you got to... So you're talking about an actual... like Physical Hall of Fame. We need a physical Hall of Fame, yeah. And like I said, the bottom floor is where you got your guys like Coco Beware. you know that's the and you know He'd be part of like the animal section, right? All the guys who got to big with animals and stuff. You know you got a little segment for Coco Beware and Frankie there. so Yeah, you could definitely have like subcategories of like the Hall of Fame. Like I said, I think it's just... Right now, with everybody being... like If you're a Hall of Famer, you're a Hall of Famer, no matter what. I mean, like you said, you have Coco Beware on the same level as freaking you know The Undertaker, which is just...
00:39:42
Speaker
You can do a lot with it, man, if you did, if you had like a real legit Hall of Fame that was run somewhere to the NFL Hall of Fame, because I'm thinking you could have wrestlers. You could also induct matches, dude. You could have Hall of Fame matches. Right. I mean, like how cool would that be if you had like just individual matches could get inducted into the Hall of Fame? Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:57
Speaker
Yeah. The potential's there. Like you said, there's, there's gotta be a reason why they're not doing it. I mean, it just can't make, maybe just doesn't make financial sense. Oh, you're talking about for WWE to do physical one? Yeah. Or anybody, you know what I mean? I'm sure. I'm sure. Yeah. Like I said, it's, it's not some kind of crazy original idea for them to do it. I have no doubt that they probably crunched the numbers several times over the years and they just don't think it's viable to me. It would, I don't think it could stand on its own. I just don't think it's that big. It needs to be at like, you Yeah, it needs to be Universal, dude. You already have the built-in relationship with the long term with WWE and NBC Universal.
00:40:31
Speaker
I think if it's an attraction Universal, you would bring that would that would be enough to bring WWE fans Universal, and you get a lot of walk-up traffic there also. Dude, how epic would it be if they did WWE war? world at at Universal, dude. It was just like straight up like a yeah a whole wrestling section. Yeah, you have a roller coaster, you know, the road to WrestleMania. Oh, the road to WrestleMania. Yeah, you got your Hall of Fame. Yeah, I think you got your Hall of Fame. You can do like a little themed restaurant and you got the road to WrestleMania, man.
00:40:55
Speaker
Yeah, that would be awesome, man. ah The dream. We know what it would look like. We've been to, you know, if you've been to access, you see how cool it could be, man. They have, that's my biggest hang And have so many treasures there at the WWE archives, stuff that we haven't even seen. But if you ever go to access, I mean, it's incredible. Some of the memorabilia displays they put together and that's just stuff they're throwing together for a weekend. And it's even more, it's even more than we can imagine. Remember, what was that show that they had on the network for a while? Lost Treasures. Lost Treasures. Where they go to the archives. Yeah, where they would go to the archives and it's like these warehouses. And they'd just be oh, here's the original Hell in Cell. Yeah, just like crazy stuff that can't even imagine. Here's all Undertaker's caskets.
00:41:31
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. like I mean, you could just ah could just go wild.
Breakfast Preferences
00:41:36
Speaker
um Tony Barker, favorite breakfast food for early in the morning. Seth's not a huge breakfast guy. He likes a little quick bite in the mornings. couple bites, yeah. couple of protein and then like maybe like a Red Bull or something on the way to work. I had like...
00:41:51
Speaker
If like, you know, I'd probably go fried rice omelet, like you know, breakfast would last meal. If we're having like a proper breakfast, yeah. Yeah, I'd probably go fried rice omelet. Yeah. Favorite breakfast for early in the morning. I am not a natural like hungry person in the morning. I like to have coffee in the morning, but as I'm getting older, I have to be very mindful about not having caffeine before I have food. Like I have to have a protein rich breakfast before I have caffeine.
00:42:15
Speaker
um If it's real early morning, it's like a protein shake, dude. So I really love a nice protein shake, crack a couple eggs in there. So you got like extra protein, you put a little Greek yogurt in there and really up the protein content.
00:42:26
Speaker
Um, but that's, uh, that's me, a real smoothie. Otherwise it's typically just eggs and some kind of, some kind of meat breakfast burritos are always on the menu here. Cause the kids, the kids love their breakfast burritos and we make those and keep them in the fridge for, for breakfast on the, on the go.
00:42:41
Speaker
Um, but yeah, book your, uh, Mike Jack, our buddy, big heel book, your dream WrestleMania 41 card. Rock and Roman, dude. We know Rock's coming back. I'm just to throw it out in the atmosphere that we get Rock and Roman. so They just pivot. Just like last year, they kind of put through all the all the mania plans up in the blender. Let's do it again this year.
00:43:01
Speaker
Give us Rock and Roman ah for the night two main event, and we can go Cody Punk for night one. Yeah, um yeah i mean I'm not really mad at them. you know like If we're not going get Rock and Roman, I am glad that we might get a proper, maybe like a a Seth and Roman situation. um I don't want it to be a ah three triple threat.
00:43:18
Speaker
I would love for it to just be like one-on-one. think it is. at At this point, I think it's going to be, if you had to put a gun to my head right now, I think it's going to be Cena. I don't think Cena's winning Elimination Chamber. StatGuyGreg talked about it on GP this week.
00:43:31
Speaker
As we heard, i think, again, I think Cena's waiting until the end of the year to get his shot, dude. I think it's going to be a Punk and Cody and I think Roman and Seth. and I think that's as much people hate it, dude. I think that Cena and Logan Paul thing is going to end up happening.
00:43:44
Speaker
That's the biggest mainstream match they could do for Mania. Yeah, true. Yeah. yeah Brian Vermeer, top five wrestlers that deserve a big push in 2025.
Wrestlers' Future Push
00:43:56
Speaker
think Finn Balor deserves a lot, man. He's he's been underpushed for years, dude. So I'll throw Finn Balor out there. Who's somebody you got off the top of your head that deserves a big push?
00:44:04
Speaker
Um, I think, I think Obafemi could get a ah good push in 2025. Like once he goes to the main roster. Yeah. yeah Um, Jacob Fatu, I think he needs to have a big, a big year. I mean, I would love to see Jacob and solo.
00:44:18
Speaker
Um, still go Austin theory, man. I think Austin theory looked great in that NXT championship match on Saturday night, dude. So I'll go Austin theory. Who's somebody from AW? I'd like to see you get elevated up a little bit.
00:44:30
Speaker
I don't know. I still think Orange Cassidy's got some room to go up the card and finally make a run at the belt. That main event seems getting about as crowded in AEW as it is in WWE, man. it seems like there's a long line of people who are going be getting getting runs with that belt. But I still think Orange Cassidy, he's an AEW day one-er, always over, always entertaining.
00:44:49
Speaker
He brought the blue denim and Jane back for his entrance theme last night. I'd love to see Orange Cassidy go to the top of the card again in AEW. Athena. i would like to see Athena maybe go like, uh, I know she's an ROH, but like if they could elevate her to a W and then get her a man, that's one they got by far, dude. She just crossed 800 days with a ring of honor championship. Like I said, they they're desperately need to shake up the women's division in, um, in a W. So it is a great answer. So go ahead and push Athena to the moon.
00:45:16
Speaker
Um, Was that an Ember Moon pun? Yeah. Nice. um Thomas Montau... Did I already ask... Oh, no, he asked another question. I was like, did I get an OG big kid? We got another OG big kid question.
TNA vs AEW Analysis
00:45:28
Speaker
Has TNA passed AEW as the number two wrestling organization in the US? I don't think that, but it's within sight, man. I feel like... if we're calling NXT separate from raw SmackDown, I feel like you got raw SmackDown NXT. And then dude, I feel like, I feel like TNA is closer to AEW than AEW is to NXT at this point.
00:45:48
Speaker
Um, know. It's getting there, dude. We'll see how far this gap is closing. The problem right now is that with this partnership, it's really one sided. And I don't think it's a, don't think it's a true like 50, 50 partnership. I think it's just to give TNA some exposure and WWE is going kind of get to pillage their talent. Cause we're going to, we, know, we're going to see Moose and the Hardy boys wrestling on NXT next week.
00:46:08
Speaker
Um, you know, Obafemi is at TNA, which is cool, but i don't think he's to the level of star that Moose and and Hardy boys are yet. Uh, So, yeah, I don't think it's it's caught AW, but I do think that it's it's kind of starting to get into the end of the conversation with wrestling fans. Definitely, man. I think the problem is the TV, man. aw still got a way bigger reach on TV. So I think they have as funny as as it is to say, i think AW's got more casuals.
00:46:35
Speaker
But as the hardcore wrestling community, TNA is definitely rapidly catching up with AW as far as relevance goes. ah Sam Rosenthal, what's the next wrestling show you're going to? Like we said before, probably be another Memphis wrestling show.
00:46:49
Speaker
Support your local indies. Yeah, support your local indies. Raw usually comes to Memphis in August. We'll see if AEW comes back around this. i would definitely go to AEW next time it's close, just because I want to support them with their more affordable tickets, man. And then you know Raw will be the same as it was with SmackDown here a couple weeks ago. If it looks like going to be a good card, we'll be there.
00:47:07
Speaker
Yeah. But I'm not. It'll be like a last minute. Yeah. I'm not. I'm not paying the current ticket prices, um you know, on the hopes that something cool is happening. I kind of I kind of got to know I'm going to see some cool shit. Yeah. I mean, before when the tickets were more affordable, it's like, oh, let's go. We'll go watch Raw or we'll go watch Smackdown or whatever.
00:47:22
Speaker
And ah but yeah, now it's like I want to know. I want to know what I'm in. I'm not dropping 500 bucks for family to go watch. and The only thing I know is that Jey Uso appears. Yeah, Jey Uso's going to show up. Sam Rosenthal also says, did you ever display all of your
Wrestling Figure Collection Debate
00:47:36
Speaker
collection? Yeah, there was a number of years Yeah, in Hawaii, had little feed cave. We went about five years displaying everything. And dude, just again, man, it's too many figures just don't get seen, dude. That was my biggest thing, man. There's downsides to both. Yeah, it's crazy because they're all seen, but a lot of them are never seen, right? Like, it's like, there's just so much there. Yeah, they get their shine. And now I have, like I said, a random, you know, elite 74 collection.
00:47:58
Speaker
Adam Cole or something like that will really get a chance to like shine on the shelf. Now, the downside of that is I have figures that have been binned up for literally years, right? They just yeah never, their numbers never gotten called up to the main roster to, ah to go on the shelf. But I still kind of like the way i'm doing it now.
00:48:12
Speaker
Yeah, I like the way you're doing it. um I mean, we had i we had these risers and everything. I mean, if one of them fell, it was like a freaking you know Royal Rumble. Everybody was going over the over the rope, and it was just who it was crazy. um But yeah, I like how you do it now, because you have like everybody like you can put factions together. Everybody's posing. New matches. Yeah, you got matches. It's like you know the the this display's a little bit more meaningful, and yeah, it kind of just... ah you know, hits all the things.
00:48:39
Speaker
And you have, you have a section where you put all your newbies, right? Like there's still some stuff, but yeah, there's, I mean, we have totes in our garage that are just like stacked to the ceiling with, um, with figures that have never seen the light of day since we've lived here.
00:48:51
Speaker
um Sam also says, what is your preference? A 30 minute plus classic match or a 15 to 10, 10 to 15 minute match 30 plus. Yeah. mean, a classic or a 10 to 15 minute depends, right? I feel like it's depends. Yeah. It depends. I mean, in general,
00:49:08
Speaker
the longer matches, you got a chance to tell more of a story and stuff, right? But but it has to be worth it. Like, I feel like some some matches are just long for the sake of being long. Yeah, I hate i hate to be a fence rider on this one, man. Like, if it's main event of inter WrestleMania, I'd rather something go about 30 minutes, but I got no problem with a short match, man. but Go back and look at...
00:49:26
Speaker
Brock and Goldberg at WrestleMania 33. I think that match was right around six minutes and it was absolutely insane, dude. Non-stop action all the way around. Feeling like it's something with a different flavor. Go back to King of the Ring 1994. Owen Hart and 123 Kid have a match that's less than five minutes that is just straight up five minutes non-stop. Some of the best wrestling action you're ever going to see. So I think there's definitely room for both, man. Obviously, the epics are the ones that are going to be remembered more. I think on my all-time favorite matches, all of those are 20-minute plus bangers. So So you made me pick, I'll go with the longer matches. But I got no problem with a match being a little bit shorter. You like a nice quickie every once in a while. Oh, yeah. um Sam Rosenthal also says, I think this is our last question of the day.
2025 Wrestling Predictions
00:50:08
Speaker
What will be the biggest wrestling headline of 2025?
00:50:14
Speaker
Austin Theory when wins the World Heavyweight Championship. Wow. You are all in. Your Austin Theory stock has never been higher. The fact that people have been clowning me for it just makes me double down even more because I'm going to laugh that much.
00:50:25
Speaker
Because I know in my heart, dude, like I know wrestling, man. I've been watching this stuff hardcore was seven years old, dude. i i can i And I think I've got a pretty well established track record of being able to tab people like before they start to hit their the rise up, man. too. That they're going to blow up.
00:50:39
Speaker
And I'm telling y'all, dude, Austin Theory has it man. And this is from somebody that i original I originally didn't get it, man. When he first started getting that push in 2022, was like, what the hell is WWE doing?
00:50:50
Speaker
But I paid attention. I took a close look and the light went on. And I think that's one of the things that... the late-era events had right, man. I think he pegged this guy as a blue chipper. And people forget how young he is, man. like Because his initial push kind of fizzled out a little bit, they're thinking he's going to fall flat. Dude, the same thing happened with John Cena, dude. John Cena wasn't an overnight superstar that they lead you to believe. He kind of came in, had the big match Kurt Angle, and then he floundered for a year, a year and a half before he before he found his groove. Which is funny. Didn't Austin Theory and Cena have... a Didn't they have a match? Yeah. Like I said, if you want to look at you want connect the dots, look at his WrestleManias, dude. WrestleMania 38.
00:51:27
Speaker
He's in a match involved with Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin. WrestleMania 39, he's beating John Cena clean, defending the United States Championship. WrestleMania 40, he's won a tag team championship in a huge ladder match, dude. I'm telling you, dude, Austin Theory will be a champion. Maybe not this year. I'm going on a limb a little bit saying it's happening in 2025, but within the next three years, Austin Theory will be world champ.
00:51:49
Speaker
I think my biggest wrestling headline of 2025 is going to be WWE wishes CM Punk um well on his future endeavors, dude. i think ah I think it's just inevitable, dude. Something's going to happen at Mania.
00:52:02
Speaker
He's not going to get what he wants or, you know, he's not it's not going to fall out. The pieces going to fall the way he wants. And then by the end of the year, dude, CM Punk is going to be out of WWE. Yeah, if this rock thing ends up jumbling up the plans and he he does get screwed out of his his main event match, he thinks he's a guy coming. He may...
00:52:19
Speaker
You may be onto something there. There's definitely a greater than 0% chance that that happens. Yeah, I think there's a greater than 50% chance, dude. I wouldn't go that far. He's been a good soldier now. He's been a good soldier. We've been on almost two years now since he's been back. True, but dude, a tiger doesn't change his stripes. When somebody shows you who they believe them, right? And the other thing is, WWE is such a machine right now. They have so much talent. Even as big as CM Punk has been for them since he's came back, they can miss. He wouldn't be missed, man. He straight up would not be missed if he rolled out, man. Right.
00:52:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's an edge interesting one. We'll see. You know, shout out to a great question from Sam. You guys, you guys got me and Sheena both going out on a limb with these answers on this one.
Show Recommendation: 'Severance'
00:52:57
Speaker
Want to remind you guys use code Chick-fil-A to save 10% at ringsidecollectibles.com.
00:53:03
Speaker
Find all things Chick at www.chickfil-A.com. Sheen, hit us with some closing thoughts and we'll get out of here. My closing thoughts for the week. um I'm really behind on this, but Seth and I are watching a show called Severance on Apple. um If you haven't checked it out, it's freaking bananas. It's wild. We don't, we haven't finished season one yet, but I'm going to go ahead and put it in as a recommendation. If you haven't seen it yet, season two is already out for it. And yeah, let me know what you think. If you check it out.