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Live Report From Smackdown Memphis
28 Plays2 years ago
We hop on for a quicky to talk about what it was like being in the FedEx Forum for The Rock’s return to Smackdown in Memphis! Plus, thoughts on Mercedes Monè debut in AEW, figure news, and listener mail!
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Transcript
Introduction and Morning Routine
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Chick Foley Show.
00:00:23
Speaker
We are back with a quickie edition of the chick Foley show Me sheen dog and the whole family attended Smackdown live last night in Memphis So we're gonna tell you guys all about that experience. But before we get into it, let me introduce the star of the show Sheena How you doing doing? Well, I'm actually doing
00:00:40
Speaker
better than I typically am at this point when we're recording the show. Cause we're doing it like at what time is it like 11 30 in the morning. So yeah, the sun is, the sun, the sun is still out. I am wide awake. I haven't been, um, I'm not exhausted. So yeah, karate clinic and we got Stella watching a movie. So yeah, we actually, uh, yeah, recorded before nine o'clock, which is it's probably a handful of times in the whole history of this podcast. We've done this. I'm honest. I can't remember any times we've recorded during the day.
00:01:08
Speaker
We've done a couple of like short intros for like rerelease episodes and stuff like that, but that's about it. Feels good.
Farm Updates and Social Media Promotions
00:01:14
Speaker
All right. So tell us what is new on the farm. Got some big additions this week. Oh yeah. We hatched out some babies. I can't remember if the last time we recorded, if we'd already hashed them out. They were, they were, they were due.
00:01:24
Speaker
Okay, well, I knew we had them in the incubator, but yeah, we hatched out. So I'll put 17 eggs in the incubator and 13 of those eggs hatched over the course of last week. So super exciting. The kids were all into it. Then the incubator had me in a choke hold. Like the whole day when the chicks were hatching, I just could not stop watching. Like it was just, it's just really neat, dude. Seth has never seen the chick hatch before either.
00:01:48
Speaker
Yeah, you guys might actually hear some of it, some ambient noise if you hear it in the background. We're recording about maybe nine feet away from the little brooder tub that we got the 13 chicks in. Definitely have some wrestling inspired names. I think Stella already called Becky for one of them. So yeah, it's definitely a lot of fun having some new members of the faction here.
00:02:09
Speaker
She gonna remind the listeners where they can find you on social media. You can find me on Instagram at chick Foley Marco run the Twitter machine over at chick Foley show Join us over on Facebook and all of our fun that we're having over there go to chick Foley comm join the patreons $2 a month and yeah, you can't even get a McChicken for that anymore
00:02:26
Speaker
No, you really can't dude. I ordered you at a McDouble the other day and it was like 349 and I was like, God dang dude. And that wasn't even a double cheeseburger. So didn't even have the extra slice of cheese. So yeah, ridiculous man. So yeah, it's cheaper than a freaking McDouble to join the Patreon. It's the best way to enjoy. It's really going to enhance your wrestling enjoyment and guarantee you that. And it's a great way to find some hard to find figures. Speaking of which, make sure you use code
00:02:50
Speaker
Chick Foley at Ringside Collectibles, our presenting sponsor of this podcast. It'll save you 10% on all your purchases there. We're going to cover some new Ringside releases later on. Machine, you ready to get into it? Yep.
WWE Smackdown Experience in Memphis
00:03:03
Speaker
All right, so last night again, we attended SmackDown, the eighth consecutive sold-out episode of television for WWE. Just kind of give us some of your thoughts, you know, going to the event and just seeing that packed house at FedEx Forum. So I've been to the FedEx Forum a couple times now before this, and we actually went to an episode of SmackDown. And, you know, obviously there was a lot of people there, but it just felt totally different. Like, the city was just electric, you know, to play on words.
00:03:32
Speaker
Was in the last year was in the build-up to the Royal Rumble. Yeah, it's kind of like Roman Sami KO had their Yeah, so still still cool. But yeah, this was just totally different feel it was packed house Traffic was different as soon as we got to downtown the traffic. Yeah, it was different from the moment we got there
00:03:48
Speaker
You knew it was going to be a sold out show, just wrestling shirts galore. I always look like this is just one of my favorite things about going to a live event is just seeing all the marks walking around with their merch and their signs and you know, just the energy is really cool. So we went to Ghost River Brewing Company, which if you're ever attending a live event in Memphis at the FedEx Forum, that's definitely your go to spot. It's right next to the arena.
00:04:09
Speaker
It's right next to the Beale Street side. As soon as you turn on Beale Street, it's right there at the entrance of Beale Street. Awesome beer and really, really great food too. And they're wrestling inspired. Their wing menu is called the New Wing Order. Yeah, they're all about the wrestling. And they'll open up the back gate on their patio so you can just literally hop right across the street and you're there in the arena. Yeah, it was cool. We sat right by the window so we could see all the different fans welcome by.
00:04:33
Speaker
Yeah, it was cool. So we went over to the arena again, just like, you know, we never really had to stand in line when we went to the, when we've gone to the Grizzlies games or when we went to SmackDown before, but this time it was like, you know, packed at the entrance, at the entrances. The merch lines were just absolutely insane. Like as soon as you walked in, they had the huge merch counter there. And like, I mean, it was just like, you know, four people deep, but every, at every merch line. So.
00:04:56
Speaker
Anyway, yeah. So we went, we went to our seats, had excellent seats. We were right by the hard cam. Couldn't be better. I mean, when she says right by the hard cam, literally like you can reach over and touch the hard cam. We were able to like, you know, Google the different, uh, equipment and stuff that they were using on there, man. Like we could see the name, like we were.
00:05:12
Speaker
Yeah, I could have knocked the hard came over if I wanted to. Speaking of speaking of which, just out of curiosity, during one of the commercial breaks, we googled how much that camera costs just the camera, not the rig, not the setup, like none of the cables or any of that kind of stuff, just the actual like camera box costs over like over $90,000. Dude, like it was ridiculous.
00:05:32
Speaker
absolutely insane. It didn't really look that high tech. It looked like, you know, I'm sure it was a crazy, you know, technical, amazing piece of equipment, but it looked like kind of just a standard. Like the box on a Silicon Valley. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But yeah, 90,000 bucks, man. So.
00:05:47
Speaker
It was really cool. I would if you ever get the opportunity to set hard cam I know it can be tricky getting those seats. It was awesome, dude It was one of the best wrestling watching experiences I've had strictly from like, you know, the not not judging anything on the quality of the show But just like the perspective everything because literally all the action was directed straight towards us, right? All the wrestlers The rock was facing us while he was seeing him work. Yeah, all of it like I've I've sat pretty much everywhere you can around a
00:06:15
Speaker
You know around arena at a wrestling show and I think that was definitely my favorite man being right there hard campsite for sure So we had we had excellent seats Seth went back up to the concessions after we got the kids settled in and everything we took both kids with us So, um, you know, we got them settled in went and got us some concessions and then ice cream got some ice cream Family's fancy not just ice cream. They got a lot of they have a little a little gelato cart at FedEx Yeah, shout out to FedEx for having a different array of snacks and yeah
00:06:43
Speaker
Memphis definitely gets a bad rap and a lot of it's deservedly so it can be a pretty rough place but downtown Beale Street is really really nice and FedEx Forum is an awesome venue to go to an event man tons one they have really really good options for the concessions and the food and stuff and two they have a ton of them so the lines are never really long merch stand line
00:07:00
Speaker
really wouldn't know getting around that just because it'd be so red hot right now. But the concessions, I never waited in line longer than like a minute at the concessions. Yeah, lots of bathrooms. They're always clean. It's a great place to go to the show. It's a good place. You feel like you're going through TSA when you go walk through the doors and you're getting like a pat down and going through the middle of the textures and sliding your shit in a bin through the little laser thing or what's that thing called?
00:07:24
Speaker
x-ray metal detector no we're used to all the x-ray machine yeah the x-ray machine so yeah um you know other than that that once you get in it's it's all good it's good yeah what uh what did you think of seeing the rock in person this first time we've seen the rock since us personally like with our own eyes seeing the rock since rustlemania 31 in san jose
00:07:43
Speaker
Yeah, it was, I mean, it was electrifying, man. I love him or hate him. I saw some feedback online. There was some, you know, people saying, oh, another 40 minute rock promo that we didn't need. Dude, it was, the crowd was eating it up. They were so on fire for it and it was entertaining. I loved it. I had, I thought it was so funny. I, the stuff with mama roads was excellent. The concert, excuse me, the concert was excellent. What about the entrance? The entrance was redebut of Hollywood rocks.
00:08:12
Speaker
We got the Hollywood rock theme. Everything about it was just on fire, dude. So yeah, I love it or hate it, dude. That place was packed to the ceiling, and it wouldn't have been packed to the ceiling if the rock
Star Power and Crowd Reactions
00:08:23
Speaker
wasn't there. And it was crazy. Last week, he was out, two weeks ago, talking about the meth head, Marys, and the crackhead parents in Phoenix, talking about the Hicks in Texas, man.
00:08:33
Speaker
It was all love. He showed nothing but love for Memphis. Said he was back home and Memphis is showing love for him too, man. Rock was a baby face last night, as much crap as he was talking. I think it was really smart on WWE's part, not bringing Cody out for a face-to-face. I was kind of waiting for it with the stuff that Rock was saying about his mom. You feel like, okay, Cody's got to respond to this as a baby face.
00:08:56
Speaker
I don't know if Cody's getting cheered, man. You know, we saw Cody came out in the dark match main event and he was over like Rover. People love Cody. He made sure to mention that he wasn't here during the beginning of the show. Cody covered for himself. He said, I missed the start of the show and he was asking the fans, you know, what The Rock was talking about.
00:09:10
Speaker
But I don't know, man. I feel like Cody probably got booed last night. Oh, yeah. The only time Rock got heat was when he started talking about John Morant, dude. Yes. They booed him. If you watched SmackDown last night, you saw he was he was clowning on Seth Rollins, and he called him son. And then he rhymed it with when Ja was waving his gun, and everybody just booed him. But I mean, it was like kind of a funny boo. It wasn't a hateful boo. I don't know, dude. So they were getting pretty fired up, dude, for me. You can feel the temperature rising for sure, man. Memphis loves John Morant, dude. He has troubled NBA superstar, which
00:09:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's kind of BS. I think the NBA has gone way overboard on punishing Jaa and everything, dude. I think Jaa's... The Rock said he did say, I love you, Jaa. I mean, he wasn't like taking a direct shot. But if you're Jaa Morant and you're seeing that, you got to feel good, dude, because that Memphis fan base embraced him and they were not going to have anybody talking trash about Jaa. And I mean, The Rock mentioned you. I mean, how cool is that? You know what I mean? Not just mentioned him, they put a picture of him on the Titan drawn. Yeah.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah, so the rock concert was outstanding. You know, it was cool. New twist on an old favorite sort of segment. And then we get to the entering action, man, that the match that roasted out for me, obviously Bailey and Dakota was really cool. But I thought Randy Orton and Grayson Waller's match was just awesome. It was kind of a basic house show match. But
00:10:21
Speaker
You talk about The Rock having the aura, Randy Orton also, dude. He looked like a million bucks, man. Dude, he looks incredible. And it's been a long time since we've seen Randy in a person, too. Yes, I think WrestleMania 33 was last time we saw him in person. The last couple of WWE shows we've been at, he's either been on the opposite brand or he's been injured. But he's bigger than ever, in better shape than ever. Dude, the moves still look good. I mean, it looks like he's 25 out there, man. I know. He's like the ageless wonder. And he's almost gotten, when I first got back into wrestling in 2014,
00:10:49
Speaker
Borton was kind of boring to me. I've grown to appreciate him a lot more over the years, but now he's gotten so good at working the crowd, man. Like he was getting the crowd fired up. Like people were ready to explode by the time he hit those RKO's. Yeah. We used to, when we first got back into wrestling, I remember referring to him as Randy Borton because it was just... Just had the slow walk to the ring. Yeah, slow walk to the arena, just like so like, uh, you know, plotting. I don't know. It was just kind of like, you know, boring. And, uh, but no, now I've, I love Randy Orton, man.
00:11:17
Speaker
Yeah, so we had two dark match main events after it went off. We had Rhea Ripley defending the
00:11:24
Speaker
women's heavyweight championship against Natalia and Shana Baszler in a triple threat match, which was cool. I think that was really just an excuse to get Rhea out there and let the, let the fans see her. And it was cool seeing Rhea cause she was, it was the dark match. So she didn't have all of her war paint on. She didn't have her makeup or anything on still. I mean, she's just absolutely stunningly beautiful without all the makeup and everything, but it was just cool seeing her wrestle, um, without all that.
00:11:47
Speaker
Yeah. And then we had our the main main event Memphis Street Fight Cody versus Drew McIntyre. This was awesome, man. And I thought it was really cool that they still had the pyro and everything for Drew and Cody. I thought when they announced it, it still would have been totally fine. But I thought we were getting like the house show presentation, but it was good, man. This was a big departure from the last time we went to Smackdown, which like Sheena mentioned was January 2023. The dark match main event on that one was the Street Profits versus the Viking Raiders. You know, no shade to any of those guys, but
00:12:17
Speaker
That ain't really holding a candle to the two matches that we got tonight. And I think it did a really good job of keeping the crowd energized all the way through the end of the show. Because people were excited to see Bailey go out there and do a thing against Dakota. But I think there was that extra energy and electricity in the air, because you knew we're about to get Cody. Yeah, they kicked off the show to let us know. I mean, the crowd went wild when they said it was going to be Cody and Drew and then a Rhea match. So yeah, everybody was super excited.
00:12:41
Speaker
Everybody hung around. I mean the arena was still packed for the dark man. It was not too many empty seats at all, man. You were telling about our Cody cry babies, their merch stand hall.
00:12:51
Speaker
Oh, yeah. So Seth went up, you know, Seth's our runner, dude. I try to keep the kids, you know, in their seats and, you know, safe and all that kind of stuff. Right. And just entertained. And then Seth does all the running for snacks and, you know, merch and stuff like that. So he went up to the merch stand and Brett wanted a We Want Cody shirt, but they didn't have any in the youth side. So he found a different one, which is like, it was the... Claim Your Kingdom. Yeah. Like the nightmare logo and Pharaoh on there.
00:13:16
Speaker
Yeah. So nice shirt. Nice, nice Cody shirt. I think it's got a little bit more longevity than the we want Cody. I feel like we want Cody's just for WrestleMania season. And the other thing I was thinking is like, if, uh, you know, if he's out of context, weren't it, right? If he's just wanting to like to Walmart, like you just got a shirt and I just said, we want Cody. It's like, what the heck? Whereas this just has like, you know, a design and some graphics. Like it could be anything like, Oh, this little kid's patriotic. Yeah.
00:13:38
Speaker
Yeah. And then Seth, you know, this was about what, like three quarters of the way through the show? No, it was about halfway. This was during the LA night AJ style segment. Okay. Okay. So yeah, he went up during that. And I mean, like we told you, the merch team was packed. So Seth was, there was a couple people in front of him and one of them got the like second to last Cody buddy.
00:13:56
Speaker
And says, just think like the little, like a wrestling buddy is what I mean. And just in case you don't know, but, uh, he got up there and got the very last Cody wrestling buddy for last one. They literally took it off the, off the, they took it off the merch wall to hand it to me. Yeah. So he got that. And it was the last Pharaoh too, right? Yeah. Sissy Stella, the, uh, the Pharaoh. And then we got Brett, the, the wrestling buddy and they were so excited. They were waving them the whole time, put his new shirt on at the event, you know, couldn't wait to get home and put it on. So.
00:14:22
Speaker
They were going hard for Cody. And so then there was a, there was a moment, a couple moments, you know, our, our little Brett, he's just, he's such a tender heart, right? Like, and so there was a couple moments where they were showing the WWE universe cam and Brett was waving his Cody. He was dancing and really dancing. He really wanted to get on camera so bad and they didn't show it. And so he got, he was,
00:14:42
Speaker
Right next to hard cam probably hurt us on that, you know, it'd be hard to shoot us without the equipment stuff true Well, they were they oh, yeah true Yeah, cuz we were right there and I don't know if that crane camera that they were doing I don't know if it even turned I don't even know if it turned Yeah, it didn't turn toward us at all But yeah, so he got he got all like sad about that and then at the end, you know Cody drew through a table and there was a big like
00:15:03
Speaker
table, a slab of the table that Cody was like, you know, the rock came out here and, you know, was talking about his belt. And I feel like I came out here empty handed. Uh, so I'm going to give a piece of this table, you know, to, uh, to one of the loudest Cody fans and everybody went crazy and Brett was like cheering and waving. And then when he gave it to another little boy,
00:15:22
Speaker
He got tears in his eyes. And then Cody's defense, Brett, you know, he was a little bit delusional because we were like 10 throw up in the lower bowl though. We weren't on the floor. We weren't on the floor. We had perfect seats for seeing it, not for being ringsided. I guess Brett thought that Cody would walk up through the... Cody was gonna spot him up and hand it to a staffer or something to...
00:15:38
Speaker
to run it up. Yeah. So he autographed it and gave like the, the big chunk of the table to a little boy that was sitting ringside. So Brett's, Brett's had momentary sadness. The last two restaurants shows cause at revolution, he got upset cause he was really wanting to go get a picture with sting. You know, we've had his stings last match. We're never going to see sting again. And remember at, um, uh, NXT trick loss, he was like, he was, he just knew trick was going to win the match. And then, uh, dad, why did we come all this way? Just to see trick lose both matches.
00:16:05
Speaker
oh man to be a young wrestling fan again and not to be so jaded overall it was great though it's the third time i've been to smack down in the last three-ish years we went november 2021 the episode where roman won the uh the crown from xavier we went uh like i said january last year this one this was by far i went september 2019 yeah she has been yeah
WWE vs AEW: Events Comparison
00:16:26
Speaker
four times she went to one where i was out to sea uh this was by far the best best smack down maybe not good too man they even
00:16:33
Speaker
one criticism we've always had like comparing WWE to AW is during the commercial breaks they typically just dim out the lights and we'll play some boring ads they did a much better job keeping the fans engaged they were showing like better video packages like you know stuff that was relevant to the show and then they were doing stuff with the crowd during the commercial break yeah they had like the sign cam they had the WWE universe cam that was going around and they had like some trivia and stuff at some point so yeah just if i don't know if it was just a change in direction or if they've just been making kind of gentle tweaks along the way but
00:17:01
Speaker
it was a miles better live experience. Even just from last January. Remember we were sitting there with Hawk and we were ready to go. We were like ready to go by the end of the show. When we went last January, yeah, we had a decent time, but we were ready to go at the end of it. I felt like it went fast this time. They could have came out and announced another match after the coding dream and we would have been fired up for it. So yeah, really good time.
00:17:23
Speaker
So you have the unique perspective of seeing AEW and WWE within like the last couple weeks. You had a pretty quick turnaround. So give me some insight on like what you saw as like perceivable differences between the two companies.
00:17:36
Speaker
Really just the presentation is what sticks out a lot, you know, a lot of people like to point at the in ring style right there to be ease, definitely a little bit more of a low risk. You know, I guess slower, probably the best way to put it, style and ring whereas AWS just like balls to the wall. But I think the real difference lies in the presentation.
00:17:57
Speaker
Nobody you know what it came out and khakis in a t shirt. No, no, a w definitely caters to their base right the hardcore wrestling fan WWE is going broad they're trying to reach everybody like the characters and just you know the look the music
00:18:12
Speaker
the way they carry themselves. I feel like you could take somebody like we could take mom who's never watched wrestling. And I feel like by the time a wrestler's music hits and they get to the ring, she's going to have a decent feel for like what their character is, what they are, what they're trying to accomplish. Whereas AEW, it's just like wrestler after wrestler after wrestler. Some of them have really great presentation and there are unique folks in there. You know, you got your Orange Cassidy's, you got your Will Osprey's, people like that. But there's a ton of folks that are just here comes another wrestler in AEW, which
00:18:43
Speaker
And I just think like if you didn't know I feel like you could be overwhelmed, right? I feel like you really got to be into the in-ring stuff, you know, the punch kicks, suplexes, flips, all that stuff for AWS. I just think I think that's it. I think AEW and I think that's probably the reason why you haven't seen a huge growth in their audience. I think that they've just solidified their base. I think they're holding what they got.
00:19:04
Speaker
There's nothing wrong with that man and they are holding what they're got like I think the, the people that say it's in decline that's been greatly exaggerated if you actually look at their numbers, they're not in decline they've just yeah, they've consistent they're kind of, they don't really, they're kind of right there, where they're probably going to be out for the foreseeable future unless they get something that really somehow, you know, breaks through.
00:19:23
Speaker
Um, but it was really, really different. Like I said, WWE, the people that say WWE is for the casuals. I think you're a hundred percent right. I think there's stuff there for the hardcore fans to love, but they're definitely, they're trying to get every eyeball possible. Whereas AWS trying to just lock in the hardcore fans. Yeah. I actually had that experience that September episode of smackdown that I went to in 2019, you were out to see. And so I took my friends, LaFrieda and Greg.
00:19:46
Speaker
And they had never watched wrestling before, but they're just down for whatever. So I was like, hey, do you guys wanna go smack down with me? And it was just like a B minus show, you know what I mean? It was just- A random weekly WWE TV. A random weekly WWE television. And they had so much fun. They just thought it was the coolest thing. They wanted to stay and watch the 205 Live taping. They were like, can we stay and watch these guys?
00:20:10
Speaker
Yeah, you're exactly right. Like, I mean, they didn't know who anybody was, what any storylines were going on, and they still were just like locked in. So I will say this at the end of the day, regardless of how much we love it and how passionate we are, wrestling is for the kids. And our son Brett turned into a pretty hardcore, pretty knowledgeable wrestling fan. He's had the privilege and pleasure of attending NXT Vengeance Day.
00:20:32
Speaker
AEW revolution and an episode of Smackdown on the road to WrestleMania within the last three months and I asked him as we were leaving the arena last night remember Smackdown's fresh. He still smells like Smackdown. He's got he's got a brand new know what the rock is good Yeah, he's got a brand new Cody Rhodes t-shirt on and he's carrying a Cody Rhodes wrestling buddy as I'm walking out with them on my shoulders I said, which show did you like best it without hesitation? He said revolution. Yeah
00:20:56
Speaker
I think that was heavily weighted because it was stings last match, you know, and that last match carried it for him But he said without a doubt revolution was his favorite show so far Yeah, I remember the other day I sent you a picture of a tag team match that he was cooking and it was all AEW talent and you were like, oh take him to one AEW event So we got it converted the tavern crew will be proud. We got a little smark in the making here, dude So he's all about the AEW but
00:21:20
Speaker
All three of the shows we've been to recently have been great, man. Wrestling is just in a very, very good place right now. Some fire, man. Yeah. All right. You ready to get into some figure talk? Oh, yeah.
Wrestling Figures and Collectibles
00:21:51
Speaker
Alright, it's time for the figure four where we bring you guys the latest news from the wrestling figure world want to remind you this segment and this entire podcast is brought to you by ringside collectibles use code chick Foley to save 10% at ringside. And we're going to start off with a live review of a brand new release fresh in stock from ringside the blood and guts Brody King Darby Allen pack.
00:22:13
Speaker
Yeah, this looks awesome. I mean, personally, we're not huge collectors of like the bloody figures. But if you are a, you know, completionist, or you like these figures, the packaging is just so cool. I love the blood spatter. I love I mean, the bloody figures look cool. They're just not my my particular cup of tea, but
00:22:31
Speaker
Yeah, I got the back of the box. Yeah, the back of the yeah, you got a brutal picture of Darby Allen just choking Brody King with the with a chain off the side of the you know, the ring apron. So yeah, got the autographs on the back got the date of the event and everything quake by the lake.
00:22:48
Speaker
If you are a completionist that sting, um, San Diego comic con exclusive from last year that came with the coffin, it goes with this match. Cause this was actually, it says last man standing for that's, I think that's just like a, that's so jazz we're seeing. This was actually from the casket match that, uh, Darby and Brody had, uh, that you need a sting was involved with. Sting came with that casket last year. Yeah.
00:23:09
Speaker
incredible set man this would be if you're a moc or autograph guy this would look sick autograph dude imagine getting roadie and derby to both sign that with like a gold paint pen yeah like basically just recreate those autographs from the back of the box on the front of the box would look just sick i think this is by far the best blood and guts release so far
00:23:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think so too. Just look at the Brody, you know, you get the faded white paint with the blood on top of it. It was such a nice touch just to have like the, you know, like the faded kind of like ring worn paint and even Darby's paint is all ring worn. And I love the screaming Darby head scan too.
00:23:41
Speaker
You got the skateboard. I'm not a huge fan. I'm not a huge fan. Typically of screaming head scans, but yeah, these two look really good. And I mean, they're all bloody. So they nailed it, man. Like I said, when, when jazzwares hits, they freaking hit in this set is incredible. I mean, look at the alternate hands. You got the bloodstain knuckles and everything like.
00:23:57
Speaker
Yeah, definitely check, do not sleep on this set. I know, you know, the blood and guts have typically stood in stock for a little bit and you can get decent prices on them whenever ringside has a sale, but I don't know, I could see this one selling out, you know, especially Darby's got a ton of momentum coming off that last match with Sting and you got to figure out how some blacks get in a push at some point. They're overdue. But yeah, really, really incredible set here. Agreed.
00:24:22
Speaker
All right, we'll do some quick hitters on some figure news. I don't know how well Sheena has been keeping up with it this week, so I got some stuff to just show her and we can get some live reactions. So first off, next weekend, we're gonna have fanatics exclusive Funko Pop set of the Usos from WrestleMania last year. Those are cool. Yeah, I like that. The all white, we the ones.
00:24:39
Speaker
bloodline usos. They kind of look different, which is nice. We got the black usos that came out a while back and it was funny because somehow Funko did a better job than Mattel did on these. We got the Walmart exclusive Supreme Stinger.
00:24:54
Speaker
Oh, that looks dope, dude. Yeah. So you're going to get multiple head scans. He's got the singlet. Only thing I don't like on this man. What's this on the side? Oh, that's a mask. Oh, that's cool. He recreated the old WCW trope of, you know, Sting and Sting mask. Yeah. I don't love that coat, man. That coat looks very, very baggy. And I feel like at this point, dude, with Supremes and Ultimates, I don't want soft goods, man. Give me the molded, give me the interchangeable arms. And that'd be something really unique because we've never gotten that with Sting before.
00:25:21
Speaker
He's coming with like two or three t-shirts. So I think this is going to be a really great figure. Regardless, definitely picking this one up. But yeah, I'm a fan. Yeah, huge fan. All right. Not so not as big a fan of this one. So we saw renders of unmatched series nine by jazzware. So this series is going to be the first AW Jeff Hardy figure, Jamie Hader, and then Blackpool Combat Club. I don't really see this lineup sitting the world on fire.
00:25:50
Speaker
This looks like peg warmers central. We're gonna have Daniel Bryan with the khaki pants and the white t-shirt. The mocks looks pretty cool, but I feel like we already have like eight mocks is very similar to that. Wheeler Yuda, you know, he had a blood and guts release last year. And then we got Claudio, Jamie, and Jeff Hardy. Yeah. I mean, they're, again, no shade. They're fine. They're fine. Yeah, they're fine. That's a perfect way to say it. They're fine. As a, as a, as a set, I don't see people like counting down the days for unmatched nine to hit ringside.
00:26:17
Speaker
All right. The next ringside exclusive. This is a truly puzzling decision. I feel like once people have it in hand, they're going to be like, all right, this is a pretty cool figure, but we're getting Jericho housing from when Chris Jericho teamed up with Dan house on the Jericho cruise last year. Like, I mean, if you, if you're questioning a Jericho still has the juice backstage at AWW, he definitely does. If this is what we're getting as a ringside exclusive.
00:26:38
Speaker
If you're a Dan housing completionist, which I know there are some seriously hardcore Dan housing fans out there, you're going to have to have this. Like I said, I know this got some eye rolls and some groans and it was revealed, but I got a feeling that once people get this, you know, all the, all the ringside exclusive jazz or stuff have had incredible packaging and stuff. I think it's going to end up being a pretty cool figure. Yeah. I mean, anytime you get something super niche like this, I think it's cool, dude. I love how, how it rounds out your collection.
00:27:04
Speaker
All right, we saw the Series 3 of the Ultimate Editions for the Monday Night War Series. We got, or maybe Series 2, I can't remember, Series 2 or Series 3, but Ultimate Edition Mankind from when he won the World Championship with the help of Steve Austin. Again, similar to the Sting thing, man, I gotta be critical of the soft goods, dude.
00:27:23
Speaker
I don't, I don't love it, man. This is the first time they've, I will say they've given us, I think they kind of had to do this because we've gotten so many mankind's with the white molded shirt. I feel like they needed this to make it different. So I'll give them props for that, but I don't love how the soft good shirt came out.
00:27:37
Speaker
Yeah, let me see the front. Let me just zoom in a little bit. You even got the soft kids tie. Yeah. I think it's fine. I'm not super offended by it. Obviously, it doesn't look like a button down. And Mick Foley always had ill-fitted gear. True. So it's not like it's way out of character for him to just have a baggy, oversized type shirt. Yeah, I think. It looks a little chintzy for Ultimate Edition.
00:28:01
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know, man. Soft goods are just tough, dude. There are some times where they're nice if it's like a simple leather jacket or, you know, t-shirts. But yeah, I don't know, man. I think I'd rather just stick with my elite.
00:28:14
Speaker
Yeah, I like the soft goods tie though. I mean, I think, I don't know. I think it's cool. You can take it off and choke somebody. True. You know? This is figure of the year candidate. We're getting ultimate edition, 1997, Eddie Guerrero. Sorry, Mercedes Monet will be. Yeah. You know, we had the, we had the Eddie Guerrero in the ruthless aggression.
00:28:34
Speaker
Ultimate Editions, which, you know, got a lot of criticisms for the body style and the part choices. He looked just, you know, looked huge. Look like the Incredible Hulk, Eddie Guerrero. This one looks, dude, this is one of those times where it looks like they just shrunk the guy down, man. If they... Yeah, the face looks great. Yeah, the face, the parts. This is about as good as it gets for an Ultimate Edition. As long as they can deliver on something that looks like this prototype, we are in for a treat. And I think this is going to be, again, one of the best figures of the year. Yeah, I agree.
00:29:02
Speaker
We saw from Monday Night Wars, just the Elite Series, Series 3, we got the Rock, and they actually recreated the famous Rock, you know, eye-rolling gif. The main, yeah. Yeah, with the head scan, so that's pretty neat. And solid upgrade from the last time we got this figure was in that Kmart exclusive to let you know how old it was. The Kmart exclusive two-pack with Farooq back in 2016. We need a fanny pack Rock as a figure. I feel like that's going to happen sooner rather than later, man. Now, that's kayfabe now, you know, as part of Canon, now that they showed it on screen last night.
00:29:32
Speaker
at SmackDown. I can totally see that being in the Legends line. They've been getting pretty funky with the Legends figures. We got these Walmart-exclusive Young Bucks. This is when they were in their full heel phase. They had the lampshades and bananas. I think these are sick, man. I know people critique because these aren't
00:29:51
Speaker
Supreme so the arms can't come off. So, you know, it's got molded jacket arms, but we've got enough young bucks that I think these are awesome, dude. Especially if you're just display, if you're MOC or if you're just displaying them on the shelf or like static display. I think it's the best figures that they've gotten from jazzwares. Yeah. I like anytime there's like all kinds of color and paint apps and everything. Like I think that's so cool, dude. Cause you're so, we're so just accustomed to getting like black and white and red and blue and you know, there's a lot of detail put in these, you know, in these figures. So.
00:30:20
Speaker
I really want to see like the, we haven't gotten the definitive version of the young bucks in figure form yet from jazz. Whereas they've had some good figures, but we haven't gotten like that one set of young bucks that like, you know, it was just going to be like your classic young bucks for life. Yeah. I feel like now if you ask collectors like, Hey, what's like going to be the, you know, you only keep one set of young bucks. I feel like you're going to get like four or five different answers, you know, but I feel like maybe they're due like a Supreme two pack or something like that. Like the treatment the Lucha brothers got. Oh yeah. That'd be cool.
00:30:49
Speaker
We need it for the Bucks, because they've been just such an important part. We're going to get Black Harlem Heat in Series 3 of the Monday Night Wars. Nice. Looks good. Yeah, we got the red ones way back in Elite 46. So it's been a long, long time. They're also going to have a chase of these in the blue. Those came out nice. And that's it for figure news. Sheen, do we got any listener mail? Yep.
00:31:10
Speaker
All right, our first question comes in from Tony Barker. He says, bigger AEW signing, Osprey, Okada, or Mercedes? I think Mercedes, by far. She has a hardcore, I wouldn't even say it's cult-like. It just is a cult, right? People like to say it's a cult-like. No, she just has a cult following on social media. She's damn near spread the closest thing we got to Taylor Swift in women's wrestling as far as just having die-hard fans who would literally go to war for her.
00:31:37
Speaker
and I think she could potentially bring in some new eyes you know AEW overall I think its ratings were around 800,000 on Wednesday night but Sasha's or excuse me Mercedes segment I'd open it up was over a million so she had a million viewers in her opening segment
00:31:52
Speaker
Think about Osprey and Okada, they're amazing, right? Okada's great. Osprey's possibly the best in-ring wrestler in the world right now. Everybody that's into Osprey and Okada is already watching AEW though. I don't think they're, I think they're bringing very minimal new eyeballs to the product. Whereas Mercedes Monet could bring in, could totally bring in some new viewers.
00:32:11
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I don't think that the ratings didn't increase at all. I don't think like from the overall show they didn't, but if you look at the, they have it broke down. If you go to like restonomics, you can see it, but they have the ratings broke down by 15 minute intervals and Mercedes, the debut segment had, she brought in a million for hers and it dropped off precipitously after that. Yeah. Okada actually had the lowest rate segment on the show. His show was down to like 620,000.
00:32:39
Speaker
I know and his online I saw something that his like Mercedes her she got like seven hundred thousand YouTube hits and then he only got like you know six six hundred or five hundred thousand something like that. Yeah. And I mean he I'm sure Okada has a ton of say seven million. Wow.
00:32:55
Speaker
I'm sure Okada has a ton of say in his booking but he's doing like upper midcard comedy stuff with the Bucks right now which you know I thought you'd bring him in and give him almost the Roman Reigns treatment but I don't know it seems like they're positioning Osprey as like the new big main eventer and Okada is kind of just off in like Young Bucksville right now so
00:33:12
Speaker
a bad thing. Yeah. And I enjoyed him. I liked him coming in as a heel. I like that, but it seems like he's just kind of doing goofy stuff backstage. It's still early though. We're only a couple of weeks into it. We'll see where it goes. Speaking of that, heel or sorry, babyface Sasha Mercedes, like she's just better as a heel. I don't really buy into her.
00:33:33
Speaker
Um, baby face gimmick. It just doesn't do it for me. Like, and she was so grateful. And I guess you have to do that on your, you know, you get cheered on the night and it was in Boston. She's getting cheered. It was in Boston. You know, I think if she went against Britt Baker, if when Britt ever comes back, I think you would see, I think Mercedes would get booed. Yeah. I hope she, oh, she has a heel turn sooner rather than later. Uh, because yeah, I really appreciate her. He'll work much more, but, um,
00:33:56
Speaker
And, you know, outside of the head, they got rid of Cody, who was like their, you know, their signature cry baby. So now they got Sasha back to to shed all the tears online. What do you think? And it's been a lot of discourse online. Do you think this is ultimately going to work out or do you think we're going to see Sasha have a I can't get over it. It's actually Sasha, too. I'm going to see. Yeah, she says bought that name. Sasha Banks, Sasha Banks is just such a better name than Mercedes Monet. And the boss is way better than the CEO. Yeah.
00:34:24
Speaker
CEOs are having a bad moment right now, so I wouldn't want to, you know. Do you see this working out or do you see her having a lot of the same issues that she had in WWE with frustrations over how she's used? Yep. I talked about this before, I think, and I said it on the debate when we were talking about it over at the Turnbuckle Tavern, I think she's going to have the She and Punk Syndrome do where she
00:34:46
Speaker
you know comes in it's hot but the first time she hits a little bit of adversity or something doesn't go her way um it's just gonna start this like you know this little burning ember dude that just continues to build and build and build until there's some sort of blow up dude and yeah ultimately I've always said man I think the the narrative that she was misused in WWE is just so overblown dude if you want to go like episode by episode match by match yeah you can nitpick here and there where maybe she should have went over or maybe she should have
00:35:14
Speaker
represented slightly different, but dude, she was constantly winning championships. I feel in my mind, she had a championship belt on every time I saw her. And she was a part of all the historical moments, dude. Like, her and Bianca main event at WrestleMania, dude. There have been five females in the history of WWE that made her at WrestleMania. She's one of them, and she's still unhappy. First women's iron women match, dude. And she was women's tag team championship when she walked out.
00:35:38
Speaker
Again, I know I go into depth on this and again go not to shout out the debate, but yeah, shout out the debate there Turnbuckle Tavern debate over on the Turnbuckle Tavern podcast I did an episode with them recently and we talked about really dove into Sasha before her her debut So yeah, I the misuse thing like don't come at me with that because WWE gave her Everything and there's women in the back that work just as hard as she does and does all do you all the things? Look at Natty
00:36:04
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And they're back there at catering. Meanwhile, she's, you know, on every billboard got every star. Yeah, every, every kind of female merch that came out, Sasha had a part in it, dude, like no matter how obscure, whatever doll, whatever figure, whatever freaking thing came out, Sasha was there. So
00:36:20
Speaker
The other thing, while we're going in on Sasha, you know, she walked out in Norfolk, Virginia, dude, a city very near and dear to her heart. You know, that was May 2022. That was that November Smackdown we went to that we talked about earlier, you know, six months earlier, it was Sasha, Roman Reigns and Jeff Hardy were the three most over people tonight. That place erupted when Sasha came out. So I just know I've always I've always took a personal because I know that there were little kids that day who are looking forward to seeing Sasha Banks on Raw that night. And then you find out the last second she's not going to be there.
00:36:49
Speaker
Yeah, just because they didn't have time to play in their match. What kind of BS response is that, dude? She's a down check for me, man. I always root for AW, so hopefully it works out, but I'm not going to be surprised at all when this blows up. Yeah, blows up. Same. Anyway, I hope it works out, but unlikely. Sam Rosenthal says, what era and company do you wish you could go back in time and watch live or go to events?
00:37:14
Speaker
I'd probably go 97, 98 WWF, just, you know, you got the best year WWF. And then, you know, that first year of the Attitude Era was really great too. And the stuff was just so compelling week to week. So that'd be my pick. Yeah, I think Attitude Era for sure. I just think just the energy, it's just grungy and delinquent. And it was a vibe. It was a total vibe. So I think I would definitely go back to the WWE Attitude Era.
00:37:39
Speaker
Um, Brett Charles says, have you guys watched any of the A and E WWE documentaries? He said he watched one this week and they're pretty well done. He enjoyed the stone cold and Booker T episodes. Yeah. We watched season one. We were all in on that watching each Sunday and we kind of fell off since then. There's just, there's only so many hours in the week to devote to wrestling content. So I have not watched it. And, um, if they throw them up on like peacock or something, I definitely would check them out sometime down the road, but I enjoyed the ones we watched back in season one.
00:38:05
Speaker
Speaking of Booker T, Brian Vermeer says, I just met Booker T and Sharmelle at a convention. They were amazing. Took time to talk and shake hands. Spent a good 15 minutes with them. Prices were reasonable. My second best interaction with wrestlers. What was your best interactions? Um, Hillbilly Jim. Hillbilly Jim was, yeah, he was, he was so super cool. He was up with free, free photo off. Free photo off. Just cause you know, we're, we're all from the same neck of the woods there in Kentucky. Hacksaw Jim Duggan.
00:38:29
Speaker
was incredibly friendly. He was nice both times we met him. Brent was cool. That was very, very cool. Sting was cool. Sting was cool. Scott Hall was awesome. Scott Hall was really cool, too. He was super casual, super true. Having a conversation with us. No rush or anything.
00:38:44
Speaker
I will say somebody in the group, sorry, I can't remember who asked, but somebody in the group asked about WrestleCon. I think it was maybe James Kilka asked about WrestleCon, and that's where we met most all of these. Yeah, WrestleCon is awesome. WrestleCon is awesome. Just to walk around, dude. You're not gonna do any of the autographs or photo ops. You're still seeing all these legends in the flesh, and there's all kinds of memorabilia.
00:39:05
Speaker
I've heard that it's not been quite as good the last couple of years as it maybe had been prior. Really? Not as good a quality of people? No, not necessarily the quality of people. I think prices have gone up and I think a lot of that has to do with the venue also. The time we went in California was a little bit weird because they had it at a hotel and the thing was spread across like three different... It was cool though because it was so unorganized. It was cool. There was literally just wrestlers just walking around. We walked behind Rob Van Dam for like five minutes.
00:39:33
Speaker
Yeah. And that's where we met, uh, he'll be Jim. He didn't know where he was supposed to be and he stopped and talked to us, you know? And then the other time it was in like a super ritzy Orlando convention center. Um, cause it can be kind of crowded, but yeah, I would definitely recommend going, man. I don't think you're going to regret going. No, it was, uh, the vibe is super casual. If you ever get a chance to go to starcade, they'll fuck that. Don't go. Yeah. Never go to starcade. Um,
00:39:57
Speaker
What i got lost i drop my phone you can you can book your own commentary team is from zack herzler you can book your own commentary team who would you choose and why. I'm going to go to jim ross day i'm going to jim ross for my play by play and.
00:40:15
Speaker
I don't know. I'm never really, I'm sure there's probably some show where they were on together, but I always love Bobby Heenan on the, on the color, dude. So I would go Jim Ross and Bobby Heenan. I don't know how well that would mix, but if you're like asking me my best play by play and my best color guy, that's, that's my two.
00:40:30
Speaker
Yeah, Bobby and gorilla. They're, uh, they're awesome. I was thinking, I was thinking the question. I was thinking like not commentary people. Like if you could just pick not commentary, like, um, Oh, like just randoms. Maybe not. Maybe that's not what he meant, but anyway, I was thinking like, if you could take tat, like anybody from wrestling and make them your commentary team, but I'm, I'm stupid. So Brett Shara, what do we think of the punk reveal is going to be next week for Mattel creations?
00:40:55
Speaker
No, I think it's gonna be the exact same model that we saw with Cody. Remember, Cody's first figure was a Mattel Creations made to order from his appearance at WrestleMania 38. I think we're gonna see the same thing with CM Punk. It's gonna be a made to order Ultimate Edition from his ill-fated Royal Rumble appearance. He also says, what other figures would you guys wanna see in the vault ringside line? We need a straight edge Punk release.
00:41:19
Speaker
Probably my most wanted re-release right now would be the ringside exclusive DX Shawn Michaels. I feel like that one's do No, that wraps up listener mail for us tonight
00:41:33
Speaker
All right. Let the remind listeners where they can find tonight. It's the afternoon. The afternoon. The afternoon. Remind listeners where they can find you guys on social media. You can find me on Instagram at Chick Foley. Mark our run in the Twitter machine over at Chick Foley show. Join our Facebook fam and all the fun we're having over there at chick Foley.com. And then support our sponsors over at ringside using the code chick Foley for 10% off all of your purchases.
00:41:56
Speaker
All right. Appreciate you guys tuning in. Uh, you know, continue to let us know what you want to hear us touch on on the, as we get closer and closer to WrestleMania. Uh, it's just a great time to be a wrestling fan right now. Sheena hit us with some closing thoughts and we'll get out of here. My closing thoughts. I'm going to go ahead and mark down the date. I'm calling it right now. I think Roman is going to win at WrestleMania 40.
00:42:34
Speaker
you