Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Bonus Episode: Wrestlemania Reactions
47 Plays8 years ago
Immediately after returning from a trip to New Orleans Garrett & Derrick discuss Wrestlemania and what it was like to be in the crowd!
Be sure to tune in to our regular episode on Thursday to hear stories from Wrestlemania weekend! After attending Progress, Evolve, Wrestlecon Supershow, WWN Supershow, Joey Janella's Spring Break 2 & Ring Of Honor Supershow Garrett has a lot of fun and crazy stories to share!
Recommended
Transcript
WrestleMania Experiences and Organization
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Predetermined, a pro wrestling hangout. I'm your host, Garret Callender, and with me, as always, a man who I hope has more of a voice than me today, Derek Halpin. I have my voice all prepped for the bonus zone, man. We're ready to go. We're ready to do this. I attended WrestleMania over the weekend. That's why I have less of a voice today. I figured that would add to the fun. I literally just got done driving back from New Orleans to Nashville. I'm ready to talk about this thing, man. Let's hit our goddamn music.
Event Highlights and Lowlights
00:01:02
Speaker
So you may not have a voice today, but we have so much to fucking talk about. Where do you want to begin, man? Oh, I mean, Wrestle, man, this was a very as far as just if I'm going to talk about the stadium.
00:01:17
Speaker
cuz every stadium, I feel like there's been some issues getting in. This was maybe the smoothest time, just walk straight into WrestleMania this time. And this was the first time that going to a WrestleMania in the last four years, that they had stuff to do outside. They actually set up a whole block party for it.
00:01:34
Speaker
Right, I could tell you I was actually wondering that and I was gonna ask about that because I know when I was watching the kickoff show It didn't look like it was very long before there was actually a significant number of people in the in the building So it must have been a lot easier to get in this year then
00:01:50
Speaker
Yeah, they had a lot of entrances, everything moved really efficiently. I didn't even have to wait in a line. I walked straight into the building, walked right to security, got checked in, super easy. I mean, the last couple years, we've had to wait in a line that wraps several city blocks to just get through a gate, not even to get to security. And I will have to say, they must have gotten things smoothed down from WrestleMania 30. I wasn't at that one, but I talked to a lot of people who said,
00:02:20
Speaker
they got it figured out. They said there were a lot of problems at 30, none at this one. Nice. Well, good on you being able to get in a lot easier. And I guess, man, this was an interesting show to get to talk about, because as we talked about last week going into it, this was a really, really good card. And this was...
00:02:47
Speaker
This had a lot of potential here and some of it delivered and some of it didn't and let's get into that. Do you want to I mean, do you want to start with the first match or you just want to go after the big issues in the room or the positive? OK, just for anyone new listening to this right now, we're typically a pretty positive podcast. We try and find the positive and everything. But, you know, if something does warrant criticism, I feel like we should give it.
00:03:16
Speaker
some criticism and i don't think there's a single person who watched this that wouldn't have something to to pick at a little bit because this this show had some issues some major issues actually yeah but they were not early on in the show no the major issues like we're not
00:03:35
Speaker
Yeah, it feels like the first half of the show went went better than expected, I think, for a lot of people. And I think everyone was really into it. And that was the case here. Me watching it here in Chicago is we were really into it here. And I would say even more than the first half, I would say the first three quarters of that show were pretty solid. Everybody was into it. It was really just that last quarter that really something happened.
00:04:02
Speaker
I think there were some seeds planted early in that show, and we'll get into that, that kind of led to the crowd ultimately doing what they did, which was kind of turning on the main event. And you got to be in attendance for that shit show, so I'm excited to get to that. I definitely have some insights into what was happening in the building. Because for the main event, after I got home, first thing I did, pop on the network, I have to see this, what you guys saw. I had to see how that was presented. And let me tell you, completely different than what we saw in the building.
00:04:32
Speaker
Really? Oh yeah, but let's get to that. Let's do this. Let's talk about the positives on the show. Let's start off on a positive note, and then because I think the main event, the theme we're going with in this episode is going to end up being what they got wrong. So we can build towards that. Oh, absolutely. And there are a lot of right things to talk about. This was a show of high highs and low lows, but the high highs are the reason I don't have a voice today.
Impact of Show Length and Key Matches
00:05:02
Speaker
I'm gonna go ahead and just say it. Ronda Rousey crushed WrestleMania. We watched an inner gender match at WrestleMania this year. That is huge.
00:05:14
Speaker
Yeah we and you and I have talked about that a couple different times over the last couple months as to whether or not they would actually have the balls to you know step up and do something like that and they did I don't think they went full bore the way we've seen necessarily on the indie scene with Joey Ryan and Candice LeRae but they took a huge step and I think a bigger step than we expected them to as far as letting Rhonda and Triple H
00:05:37
Speaker
you know, really kind of go at it. And the crowd responded to it. I mean, that match was hot from beginning to end. And I don't know. I don't know how it picked up on TV, but that was the only match of the night that so everybody was sitting for Kurt Angle, Triple H. They had a really, you know, slow build like they really made you wait for it. Like everybody was just, you know, they were watering at the mouth to get Ronda Rousey in that ring. And the second she tagged,
00:06:05
Speaker
Everybody was on their feet for the remainder of that match. That's the only match the entire night. Everybody was standing right No, I mean I came across I mean like I said and not just the reception from the live crowd I felt I mean I know watching it here and the comfort of my own home It was exciting and the case could be made that was the most exciting part of the night bar none and
00:06:29
Speaker
It's funny cause so many people were saying, God, I hope that doesn't headline WrestleMania. And in retrospect, if that closed the show, that was your WrestleMania moment. It's possible. Yeah. That's very possible. Again, but one of the things that's coming to gonna come up later when we're talking about everything, I think the length of the show ended up playing a factor in how the crowd reacted to things. Oh, there was some fatigue. There was some fatigue.
00:06:54
Speaker
So it's almost makes you wonder did it even matter what they had on last because was the crowd going to be able to hang in that long and have the kind of enthusiasm I know that by this point in the show it felt like after everything they've seen this was a little bit of a peak and.
00:07:11
Speaker
It'll be interesting to see going forward because the stuff that they let her do in this match, it was built around kind of two things. Number one, it was built around you getting to see Ronda Rousey and Triple H actually exchange blows or moves at the very least. And they built it around when is Ronda going to get the arm bar locked in on Stephanie?
00:07:33
Speaker
That was what everyone that the whole match was predicated around. When she gets that finally locked in, this match is over and they built towards it and it was a really brilliant build and they did it the right way. You know, spots where you get angle and Triple H knocked out of the ring and wondering what's going to happen in a moment where she's taken them both on.
00:07:53
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, there was a moment where I'm like, because at first I was like, OK, we're going to see her break Stephanie's arm. But it got to a point where I'm just screaming like, oh, my God, she could break Triple H's arm. Yeah. And when he picked her up to give her a power bomb, I was losing my shit. Love inner gender matches. And I don't think it gets any bigger than Triple H fighting Ronda Rousey.
00:08:21
Speaker
This is what we're talking about, WrestleMania. It'll be interesting to see going forward, because she threw a lot of fists, and she brought in a lot of the MMA stuff, and it'll be interesting to see if that blends well when she starts having matches with actual women, how that'll carry over. But just focusing on what happened last night at WrestleMania.
00:08:42
Speaker
It went over really well with the crowd. They were super into it. Like I said, probably the peak of the show. And I think some people had tempered their expectations on it and ended up, you know, we got more out of it than I think anyone could have expected. It was it was pretty exciting stuff.
00:08:57
Speaker
Well, and I think what everybody walked away with that with is like everybody that was around me. I mean, everybody was losing their mind. There wasn't a person in that place that was against Ronda Rousey in that moment. She was the biggest star in that whole show. And it was when you see like somebody who's kind of a celebrity coming in, you get worried. No problems from her. And I think everybody realized, oh, my God, we're going to get to see her every week now.
00:09:26
Speaker
We're gonna get this at every pay-per-view. We're gonna you know, hopefully every pay-per-view we're gonna be seeing Ronda Rousey fight somebody and how exciting that is and now you're plugging in who are we gonna get with her next and I think that brings in Why the outcome of the Charlotte match ended the way it did You think that they're gonna end up doing Charlotte Ronda Rousey
00:09:51
Speaker
I think it's gonna be Charlotte Ronda Rousey at SummerSlam. Maybe further down the road than that, but I think that's why you let Charlotte win that match. Let her stay super strong cuz people wanna see Charlotte Ronda Rousey. And I think they were willing to sacrifice Asuka's streak for that match to happen. Yeah, and I've even heard rumors that they could do that at next year's WrestleMania. That's a Mania match. That's a main event of WrestleMania match.
00:10:18
Speaker
Correct. Cause as far as I'm concerned, like, you know how, I mean, I've been saying for weeks, to me, the main event of this show is Charlotte Asuka. And I think as far as wrestling goes, Charlotte and Asuka had the best wrestling match of that entire night. Yeah.
00:10:35
Speaker
and I think Ronda Rousey had the most exciting match of the entire night. To me, this WrestleMania, the women owned this WrestleMania, and I think this will be looked, hopefully, other than the main events, I hope this is looked at as a historic night for women, where the women took the show, and whatever the fuck else happened, happened at the end.
00:11:00
Speaker
So let's talk about Charlotte Asuka now. Great match. I think I was, I mean, the theme of the night really was surprises and not just like twists or turns, but just surprise finishes, finishes, guys going over that you didn't really see them picking to go over. And so the Asuka streaks over. And it's not that like, see, when I think of these two women, I the whole time I was just like, this is going to be a match where one of them passes out.
00:11:28
Speaker
They're both too badass to tap or to get pinned. This is gonna be a submission match where somebody just goes unconscious. And that wasn't the case. We watched one of the baddest women the WWE's seen in a long time tap out to the figure four in the middle of that ring.
00:11:50
Speaker
uh the figure eight i apologize um so just know next time we record i'm gonna have more of a voice and also i got a lot of weird tales from this weekend so if you're looking for some indie tales and uh like if you want to hear about dan severn cutting his fingernails wearing a fanny pack i got those kind of stories for you on thursday man
00:12:11
Speaker
I saw some weird shit this weekend, and I'm ready to talk about it like right now doing some analysis You know it was a fun show, but tune in on Thursday to hear some weird fucking stories I promise you that okay back into it more to come
00:12:27
Speaker
Yeah, this is like a crucial period for Asuka now because streaks can really tie down a character and you don't want a character to be based around them not losing because in wrestling that just doesn't work. There has to be a dynamic there of give and take and the match was great and it'll be interesting to see going forward how they handle Asuka and if she bounces back and what they do with her.
00:12:57
Speaker
I'm excited to see if they keep her on Raw, or since she lost to Charlotte, if they keep her on Raw, or if they actually follow through and keep her on SmackDown. I think at this point we do know that the three baddest ladies in this are gonna be Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Asuka.
00:13:17
Speaker
Like Asuka can have a belt from anyone.
Unique WrestleMania Moments
00:13:20
Speaker
She didn't get it this time, but a rematch is gonna be amazing. I wanna see a series of these matches out of these two. What we wanted out of Styles Nakamura is what we got out of Charlotte Asuka. We got that dream match that I think we were hoping for. I think it was pretty good.
00:13:43
Speaker
I don't know. There's nothing else I could have expected out of it. And I think, like I said, it was surprising because I had picked Oscar to win. I did, too. I mean, I figured we were going to keep that going for a while. Yeah. Or do what you said. Or Carmella cashing in immediately.
00:13:59
Speaker
Or this is kind of what I was thinking. These two women are gonna be dead by the end of this match. They're gonna kill each other for a length of time. By the end of this, they're both just dead, but Asuka gets the win, and then we hear F-A-B-A-L-O-U-S, and then, I hope it's called Fabulous, right? It didn't sound like a dumb shit. It's been a long weekend, man. I'm running on no sleep.
00:14:25
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah. And then they decide not to go with the Carmella cash-in, which again, like I said, show of surprises. That was surprising to me that they didn't go that route. Um, we'll see when they, when they decide to go with that, especially Baron Corbin failed to cash in his money in the bank contract. So this adds a lot more emphasis to whenever she does it. And, uh, no, like I said about, like I said about Rousey, the Rousey match.
00:14:50
Speaker
It worked last night. What we need to reset again, because let's be honest, the way that they did things in that match in particular is not gonna work with the rest of the women. Oh, you can't have Carmella fight Triple H. Ronda Rousey's a special- No, no, no. I mean as far as Rousey with the rest of the women.
00:15:16
Speaker
Oh, you mean like she can't have that good of a match? You mean probably like I'm assuming they had the choreography down and you know, they wanted her first match to be perfect and it was.
00:15:28
Speaker
Yes. And I think some, but I also think like, like how much, how much of her match last night, Rousey's match, we're back on that again, was, was predicated around, like I said, her throwing fists. Like she, like she wailed on Triple H in the corner. The crowd loved that. She was, her punches looked great.
00:15:48
Speaker
Right, but here's the thing, this isn't UFC, so when they put her in there with a Becky Lynch or with a, I don't know, Sasha Banks, that can't be what the match is.
00:15:59
Speaker
So she's gonna have to still learn how to wrestle, and you're not going to get the Triple H Rousey thing that you got last night every night. I'm not saying she can't do it, but again, the response to last night is so overwhelmingly positive. I'm just trying to backtrack a little bit and say, yeah, there's still a learning curve here, though.
00:16:18
Speaker
Oh, I completely. And, you know, you're not going to immediately get that Charlotte match with her because Charlotte's on a completely different level. And we just watch somebody have their first match who is still learning. So yeah, this is definitely going to be a maybe she fights a couple jobbers. Maybe she starts with, I want to say the ascension. I mean, fuck, she could beat up the ascension, but
00:16:43
Speaker
But I meant fuck, whatever pages. There's two minutes, these factions, man. Absolution. Absolution. Yeah, maybe she fights Absolution for a minute and works her way through them. Gets like a few weeks of matches with them where we gradually start to see her add moves into her arsenal and just works it out a little more.
00:17:06
Speaker
Yeah, to me, that's what it's going to come down to is if they really want to do Charlotte and Rousey at SummerSlam or WrestleMania or whatever down the line, we just have to sit back and wait for her to add to her arsenal. Charlotte, Asuka delivered. Like you said, the women were kind of the ones that followed through on their deal last night.
Fan Reactions and Unexpected Outcomes
00:17:26
Speaker
We were given a lot of promises and the women were the ones that didn't lie to us.
00:17:31
Speaker
Right. And another thing to bring up, though, the Rollins baller mismatch was a great match, too. It was a yes. That was a match of three guys that the crowd absolutely loved. Anyone could have walked away with that belt and the crowd would have been satisfied. Sure. That's a rare match.
00:17:49
Speaker
Yeah, I mean you do and it's three guys that can work and the match delivered and it was a great way to kick off mania. If you want to scuttle over the pre show really quick, Naomi ends up winning the women's battle royal after a tense exchange between Sasha Banks and Bailey. Bailey thought she had won and then Naomi re emerged.
00:18:11
Speaker
We get that Sasha Bailey story like it because in that moment everybody thought oh my god we're still gonna kind of get that Bailey Sasha match that we were all hoping for at WrestleMania immediately got it taken away and I don't think anybody can be mad at Naomi for walking away with that and good honor for two big WrestleMania moments two years in a row.
00:18:33
Speaker
Correct. And she's one of the most athletic women on the roster. So it's not like she doesn't deserve it. No, good honor. I think, you know, Bayley betrayed her friend and then it didn't end up paying off. So all she did was betray her friend and it moves that story down the line and gives an awesome wrestler a trophy that, you know, good honor. I like Naomi. I think no one has a problem with Naomi winning that. That's fine.
00:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, and I think the other thing is, like you said, it allows the Bailey-Sasha Banks thing to continue. They didn't have to cash in on it at WrestleMania, and they didn't. And now they have something to work with between those two in the next couple months. And we're gonna get a big match out of them. I don't know where that match is gonna happen. I hope it's a big pay-per-view, and I hope we get a big-
00:19:16
Speaker
just the match they deserve, those women put on the most incredible matches in NXT with the Iron Woman match. Just give them that, they need to be a main event.
00:19:30
Speaker
What did you think of the Cruiserweight match? Cruiserweight match was fine. That was a match that by the end of the show, because I haven't rewatched the entire show yet. It was good. You literally just got back. Yeah, I literally just got back. When this goes up tonight, we haven't seen Raw yet. We don't know what's going on. I just drove eight hours, got here, plugged in my shit, and I'm recording.
00:19:55
Speaker
That's about all you can say. It was fine. It did everything it needed to do and Cedric Alexander won. And there's the whole respect thing between him and Mustafa Ali. And yeah, had a men's battle royal too on that pre-show. I think a lot of us with that. I mean, the way it ended, I liked that it was two previous winners and Matt Hardy. So we had Baron Corbin, Mojo Raleigh, Matt Hardy.
00:20:21
Speaker
Yeah. Good final three, whole crowd one. If anyone in that match, the only ones that people were hoping for were Matt Hardy and Goldust. Goldust was the name I kept hearing around us. I was happy Matt Hardy, great surprise that Bray Wyatt showed up. I think we were all expecting Bray Wyatt to look different or something. Yeah. You know what would have been fun? I think a Vanguard one was just flying around.
00:20:48
Speaker
There wasn't drone flying around the arena. It looked like a God that was the camera that was going I would but that Vanguard one like if that was in touching distance people could oppose with pictures for that thing, man Yeah, I'm posing with pictures. So we're in the arena, you know an hour hour and a half before the show starts We see people going fucking crazy on the floor
00:21:11
Speaker
Everybody needs to know John Cena made his promise. He was sitting in the crowd exactly like he said he would, and he was getting mobbed. He was signing autographs, taking pictures. Looked like he was having a great time, and he did that for, you know, what appeared to be a couple hours before the show started. Right. So, I mean, that's a fun surprise for anybody that's down there that one of the biggest wrestlers in the history of the business is just casual Friday and it down on the floor.
00:21:39
Speaker
I thought this was a cool angle that they were doing as the night went on. I liked that it was different. That's something we hadn't seen before. We haven't seen a big guy hoping to get a match at Mania while the show's going on.
00:21:53
Speaker
And then him gradually moving, like I don't know if he ended up moving to other spots in the crowd. I couldn't always see, I was sitting in the lower bowl. So where I was, I had a good view of the ring and you kind of had to go out of your way to look at the big screens. So the majority of the time we were looking straight on. So I couldn't see a lot of the, if they showed anyone in the crowd famous or anything like that, I didn't really get to see that stuff. So I guess,
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, and then I guess this is now where we can kind of start to turn things where the show starts going a little off track. Which is...
00:22:30
Speaker
Do you feel like it was the right decision to have in the United States Championship match, the guy that for most people, they didn't want to win out of the four, pin the guy that everyone kind of unanimously wanted to win most. And again, is it the most important title? Is it the most important aspect of the show? No.
00:22:54
Speaker
However, Rusev has probably been the most over-character in the company over the last few months. Rusev Day chants are popping up at non-wrestling events and... Oh, that Rusev Day chants were a problem at every event. Every event all weekend. So, it's interesting to me. I know that not every match at WrestleMania can be a feel-good moment. I mean, you just can't have that. This one just felt like a, this one felt like a fuck you.
00:23:24
Speaker
a little bit. Like it came across as a very big like fuck what you want, this is what we're doing.
00:23:29
Speaker
It just that was one that really caught me off guard unless they have big plans for him to win it You know in India at the greatest rumble ever made or whatever the greatest royal rumble ever and I don't know like I will say going in I I predicted that the two biggest pops of the night we're gonna go to Daniel Bryan with the rusev is a close second and I don't think that ended up being true and
00:23:58
Speaker
Because of everybody chanting Rusev Day all before the show, I was expecting the roof to come off that place with Rusev Day chants.
Tag Team Matches and Main Event Surprises
00:24:08
Speaker
And I just didn't really get it. He got a big pop, but it was not as big as I was expecting, especially for how excited people were.
00:24:21
Speaker
Well, that doesn't speak anything to them deciding not to go with him with that belt because it didn't really fucking matter. No, because to me the pop was going to come when he won that belt. The rusev day chance would have been crazy. And in your right, it's for a belt that traditionally is the lesser of all the titles. I think.
00:24:41
Speaker
I think fans can handle one or two of those a show, and what we end up getting into is that this was just the first seed planted that ended up cashing in towards the end of the show as just a big fuck you to everything.
00:24:59
Speaker
Because by the time they got around to doing Cena Undertaker the crowd popped for the Undertaker's return. It felt I mean you need to report to me here on this podcast kind of what how the perception was I was so surprised.
00:25:16
Speaker
They brought back his jacket and his gloves and his hat in the middle of the ring, and then lightning strikes it. I don't know what that looked like to the live crowd. Basically, you just heard the lightning. We didn't see anything. Maybe that was on the screens. But for us, lights went down. That came in. The lightning thing struck. The clothes were gone. Cena looked spooked.
00:25:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yes, it was it was interesting because I think a lot of us I mean, I guess I can't speak for everybody, obviously, but like there was an expectation if he does come back, it'll probably be American Badass Biker Taker. And the fact that they went out of their way to address, oh, he left all that stuff in the middle of the ring at WrestleMania last year. And here it is again. Oh, and he's back as Deadman Undertaker. You get the entrance, you get the experience again.
00:26:08
Speaker
And then it ends up not being an epic match between John Cena and The Undertaker for whatever. It just becomes an opportunity to have Cena lay down for him one last time. And I will tell you, I'm hearing more people now saying they didn't love that, but I talked to a lot of people in that stadium on the way back. I was just pulling from people like, what was your thing? What were you here for? What did you enjoy the most? What didn't you like?
00:26:37
Speaker
And I said, I talked to a lot of people. Not one person had a negative thing to say about the Undertaker match.
00:26:46
Speaker
Like people said, I'm surprised that it went so short, but I think what they ended up doing with it is, you know, every mania you get some kind of moment where like a rock or a stone cold, somebody big shows up and just has a little spot. And Undertaker isn't gonna come out and do a 45 minute monologue like the Rockwood. His thing is he had a 45 minute walk down the ramp in a two minute match. But okay, we're friends, right?
00:27:15
Speaker
Yeah, okay. Uh, listeners, we're friends, right? Sure. I'm gonna be a little honest with you. So, I don't like to eat or drink anything before these shows.
00:27:26
Speaker
I've got a lot of stomach problems, don't want to deal with that. Biggest thing is like, I don't want to have to pee during this card, it's too big. No pee breaks. I also, I don't want to have to shit my pants during WrestleMania to miss something. Or to, you know, to try to not miss something. Oh man, I was getting the stomach gurgles during that Undertaker entrance, man. And I ate a couple hot dogs before that, already a mistake. God damn why did I do that?
00:27:52
Speaker
So, Undertaker comes out, John Cena sees him, it's gotta happen man. I had to run to the bathroom after the dead man came out. I sprint to the bathroom, no one's in there. As I'm using the bathroom, I hear the dead man's music so I'm like, good, he's still walking.
00:28:11
Speaker
He's still walking. I'm gone for what seemed like a fair amount of time, but I made it back to my seat for the start of him fighting John Cena. Yeah. And thank you Undertaker for that casual stroll, because without it, I would have missed a moment I really wanted to see. Yeah, I guess my personal feelings on that, like I don't
00:28:35
Speaker
I don't know, like to me it felt like a favor between veterans, like as a final thank you and a goodbye, like you don't have to go out as the guy with the bad hip losing to Roman Reigns, you can kick my ass one time in a couple minutes and we can get out of here. But it almost felt like to me like they jumped the shark with the character.
00:28:54
Speaker
like I had kind of emotionally accepted him being gone last year and it felt like they brought him back for like ironically enough one last ride and I when I saw that they because like he said neither of their careers were at stake in this so I would
Reflections and Future Excitement
00:29:10
Speaker
have based on how much they built like like this this fight or how they built it the fact that it was so short why was why was John Cena spooked
00:29:20
Speaker
at a guy he'd been calling out and taunting for a month now. Well, it pissed the dead man off enough that he came back from the dead to be like, okay, you want me to kick your ass so you can be sad boy Cena one more time on Mondays? Like, goddamn, I lost one more time. Here we go. I don't know, guys.
00:29:40
Speaker
go crowd popped for Elias. We didn't even mention Elias at the beginning of that, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it was what it was. It didn't. It was a feel good moment, but at the same time, man, it felt like it took forever. That whole segment felt like it had drug on forever. And I guess to me, I didn't look at it as a match as much as it was a legend segment.
00:30:03
Speaker
And I think because The Undertaker maybe retired last year, we don't know. That makes it even more confusing. But I'm pretty sure with the length that we got, it's pretty safe to say we got a legend segment rather than a match. And that's why I'm still like so much else was going on in the show. I'm like, you know what? Undertaker was nice enough to come back for another match for us. But it begs the question, are they going to do something else with him next year?
00:30:34
Speaker
They're going to keep doing it. Or is that going to be his last moment? See, I want it to go until Mark Callaway comes out. Like I told you, I want him to come out sunburnt, a Tommy Bahama shirt. Oh, fuck, man. Um, so where do we go after Undertaker Cena? Um, uh, Daniel Brandon about the, uh, the tag match with the bludgeon brothers who sows and new day. That was, that was what it was.
00:31:00
Speaker
You were surprised at how that played out? I was surprised that it wasn't a bigger match. Like that we didn't really get like a big Usos New Day match. We got kind of a pretty quick little match that ended in the Bludgeon Brothers walking out and love Luke Harper. Happy that he has a title now. Um, I don't know. I don't, it was what it was. It was kind of, you know, like the cruiserweight match. It was fine.
00:31:24
Speaker
Yeah, that's exactly, but that's, I guess in my mind, that's what I thought exactly what it was going to be. Because I thought that it was, in theory, one of the weakest matches on the card. And that's not saying anything against the Usos or the New Day or the Bludgeon Brothers, I just, the star power in that match had a lot to live, like there was a lot going on.
00:31:43
Speaker
And I knew they were going to place that match in a position as an opportunity to bring the crowd back down. And the Bludgeon's walk away with the tag titles, it was fine. Like Cedric Alexander winning the Cruiserweight title, it was fine. But nothing to rave about. Let's see, where else did we go from here? There's so many matches that without it in front of me, it's hard to...
00:32:06
Speaker
Well, we can talk we don't necessarily have to go in order How did you feel about Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss? It's fine. I Guess like the theme of this is a match was either really bad again, but yeah, I guess it would have been that anyway It's like was it bad good or fine? Yeah That was another it was fine one love Nia Jax happy like it was good happy for her They had a good story going I feel like though they had so many other big stories that that one was easy to overlook
00:32:37
Speaker
Sure. Good for Nia, though. If Nia had lost that, it would have been like, there's nothing left for her to do in this company. She's done. She had to win. She had to win.
00:32:48
Speaker
Yeah, and then we get Daniel Bryan's back and he wrestled and the crowd was hot for that. I'm getting a lot more complaints on this Daniel Bryan match. That's what's so funny to me. This was around the time you texted me and I wanted to bring this up. You texted me that the place ran out of beer. Was that bullshit or what? That was for real. I wasn't joking. My buddy Jared that went with me went to grab a beer during that match and he came back and he goes, they're fucking out of beer. The whole stadium's out of beer.
00:33:19
Speaker
And I guess they got more because you couldn't go to a stand and buy it. All the beer was gone. But some guys, you know, that would walk, like if you're at a baseball game, sell you a 9 25 beer. And oh, the guy walking by goes, beer man here 9 25. Don't be surprised. So here's what's interesting. As I was watching this match, I'm not, I'm not here to praise the match. I.
00:33:45
Speaker
It was amazing to me how unforgiving that your crowd there was at the idea of the hot tag and the comeback for Daniel Bryan and yet they fucking loved it for Rousey and they loved it like so many other matches the hot comeback and it just felt like this was the point in the show where people started to wonder about what they were going to get the rest of the night.
00:34:08
Speaker
And as soon as Daniel Bryan got, I think people were not excited about the idea of Shane McMahon having to carry the beginning of that match is how it came across to me. Like they wanted to see Daniel Bryan, there was no more patience about wanting to see the things that they wanted to see.
00:34:25
Speaker
And when he got into the match, the crowd was hot again. The yes chance were there. Everyone was fucking into it. They go on to win. Sam and Kevin remain fired and you get another feel good moment on the night. But at the I don't know, like, what's what's your perception?
00:34:43
Speaker
Like I don't know, to me this is, I guess this was one of the moments, like right there in the middle of the show where it felt like the crowd started to turn. And I couldn't figure out why there wasn't really a good rhyme or reason to why all of a sudden they weren't in this for like the storytelling anymore. They just wanted to see what they wanted to see. Yeah, and I'm getting that from some people that I talked to that, you know, were watching it at home as well. Because I mean, even if you're at home, that's a long show. Yeah. That's a long time to sit on the couch and watch it.
00:35:13
Speaker
There, though, I think everybody was into it. Everybody was, you know, yes, and they were ready to go. I was surprised that they brought Daniel Bryan in second. I thought he was gonna be the last guy to come down. Really, like, let the crowd go nuts. But that really did bring, you know, everyone was alive. Everybody was so excited. I think we knew Shane was gonna start that thing.
00:35:34
Speaker
And it makes complete sense to me to make us wait for Daniel Bryan, you know, build that anticipation and get it going. And the Daniel Bryan part was great. It's just, you know, it was a build. You had to wait to get to that point. The build leading up to it was OK. When he was finally in there, though, you know, you're losing your mind. Like everybody's smiling. Everybody was happy. Everybody was so ready to just see him in the ring again, no matter how good that match.
00:36:02
Speaker
would have been, Daniel Bryan was back. Everybody was just smiles on everyone's faces around for that. Right. Yeah, and he wins. And feel good moment and it'll be interesting to see if Kevin and Sami wind up on Raw tonight or what they're going to do with that. But he back shows back up on SmackDown.
00:36:26
Speaker
So yeah, we'll get that out of the way. Now, I think at this point, you know, let's just talk about AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura and talk about what we thought it was gonna be and what it ultimately ended up being.
00:36:43
Speaker
Okay, what we thought it was gonna be, a classic match. We thought we were about to see something that were like, I was there when Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles fought at WrestleMania 34. That's what everybody was ready for. They were ready. They're like, I'm gonna tell my kids when we're watching wrestling, I saw one of the greatest matches you've ever seen.
00:37:06
Speaker
Yeah. And as we talked about it all weekend, do you think AJ can live up to the hype? And everybody was like, if anyone can live up to the hype of a match, it's AJ Styles. And if he can make anyone have a good match, him with Shinsuke Nakamura, another one of the best in the world, they can do it. There's no going wrong. There's no way this is gonna be bad. There's no way this is gonna be a letdown. Then what happened, Derek?
00:37:36
Speaker
Well, this is what's interesting. I want to get into this because we were just talking about this during the Daniel Bryan match. It felt like I haven't watched the show again. And so and because I haven't watched the show again, I haven't watched this match again. Was it that the match was bad?
00:37:52
Speaker
or was it that it was so hyped it was so hyped and it came at a point in the show where it was like people i don't know i this is what you were you were there in the crowd was there a moment where it just felt like everyone went okay it got quiet it got really quiet in there well what the fuck happened the crowd was the crowd was behind Nakamura
00:38:16
Speaker
I mean both of them got huge cheers, but you know Nakamura got that incredible entrance.
00:38:24
Speaker
Do you think it sucked the life out of the crowd because there was a portion of them that were still kind of quietly hoping that that match would close the show and then once they realized it wasn't? That match not closing the show and then also being a let down is what ended up ruining the show because everybody, this was basically everyone in the crowd's theory.
00:38:48
Speaker
Everybody's like, no one wanted to blame AJ Styles or Nakamura for the way that match turned out. Everybody thought, and this was kind of the consensus of everybody around. They felt like they, everybody was like, AJ must have been told, don't overshadow the main event. And that was the full on consensus is everybody is still, no one wants to blame those two. Everyone that I talked to, yeah, they're just.
00:39:13
Speaker
Like, it's impossible. He doesn't have bad matches. And like you said, I haven't rewatched it either. Maybe it's a good match. I just didn't get what I was expecting. But as this match starts, crowd is still behind Nakamura. Everybody loves AJ Styles, but they're like, this is Nakamura's night. He's got this.
00:39:32
Speaker
You're hearing a lot of Nakamura chants. As the match starts going, it's off to a slow pace. And my thought as I'm watching is, holy shit, they're gonna do a New Japan style match. We're gonna do a slow build that's gonna just get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until it just has this fucking blowout ending. So the whole time it's going, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna give it the time. I'm gonna give it the time. This place is getting quiet though. Holy shit, this place is silent.
00:40:01
Speaker
What are they doing? When's it going to happen? And then even like 10 minutes in or whatever, I don't know the length of the match, but I'm like, they got to pick this shit up. Like when, when's it going to pick up? And then the match was over. Yeah. And it ends with a styles clash. And I guess, and there was also, I think the mentality for at least I can tell you what mine was, but I wasn't the only one who felt this way since they didn't give Nakamura the title over his feud with gender Mahal.
00:40:29
Speaker
It felt like it was now or never. And this is but keep in mind, this is before the surprise heel turn. When he beat him, there was a sense of, oh, fuck, another surprise. And really? And that's what the match like, like the air kind of got sucked out a little bit and it came back during the heel turn because everyone thought that part was pretty fucking awesome. But it wasn't the match that anyone expected. And if it's true,
00:40:56
Speaker
If it's true that Vince or somebody asked them not to overshadow the main event, we have a whole series of episodes where we need to talk about how fucking stupid that idea is. Where you're going to two of your best and saying, hey, here's this project I've been working on for like seven years and it hasn't gone well.
00:41:18
Speaker
And I'm banking on it going well tonight, finally, after all these years of working. Can you guys, you know, just kind of stand down and let me try another time to get this this this Roman thing working? Because I know you guys are really fucking good and probably deserve that spot, but I'm not going to give you that spot and we're going to run with this thing one more time.
00:41:39
Speaker
It just, how stupid is that? I mean, and we don't know that that's what happened, but there is part of me that still feels like that's what happened because we were all just so confused. Like, the overall consensus with the crowd in that moment was, what the fuck is happening? Like, what did we, what just happened? And even when Shinsuke turned, like, people pop for a second, but then they're like, this was what we were building to?
00:42:04
Speaker
Like, what is this? Sorry, I can tell my voice is, like, cracking even more right now. No, it's fine. But, yeah, it was... That's what set up... Like, at that moment, it was that match that got everybody confused. And I feel like confusion was a big theme for everything following the rest of the night for the crowd that was in attendance.
00:42:28
Speaker
I think surprise and confusion was the theme for the entire night. Whether it was good with good surprise and confusion or bad surprise and confusion. I think the only matches that played out basically the way we thought that they would were the Nia Jax Alexa Bliss match and the Ronda Rousey match and only in the sense that we knew who was going to win that match.
00:42:50
Speaker
That to me they weren't gonna have Rousey lose But the reaction to that match was so overwhelmingly positive that we didn't even expect that but there was nothing else You know that didn't have some kind of surprise element to it
00:43:06
Speaker
and this to this was this was a negative surprise and negative confusion and I just remember it was a hard pill to swallow because everybody like the second we realize we're getting AJ Nakamura it made the Royal Rumble feel less special like what we ended up with
00:43:24
Speaker
But, you know, we had that month, a couple months build where everybody is just building this match in their head of what kind of classic they're about to see. And I just I don't see AJ Styles as the kind of guy who chokes under pressure. Well, and here's the other thing. Both Royal Rumble winners ended up losing last night. And that was another thing. The crowd was said, OK, Asuka lost. That means Shinsuke is doing it tonight. Or, you know, both Royal Rumble winners aren't going to win.
00:43:54
Speaker
Oh no. So that was kind of the consensus, and I don't know if that moves us on to the next match, which was the bar, Braun Strowman. Yeah, more fucking confusion. More confusion, because he's going to pick his person. Okay, so Braun doesn't have a partner. The bar's there. Braun has to pick his partner. He says he's going to pick somebody in the crowd.
00:44:16
Speaker
And everybody's like, oh shit, who's going to be in the crowd? Like he's walking all over the place. Yeah. We're like, all right, somebody's in the crowd. Like, you know, we're expecting a big person to, you know, be sitting somewhere.
00:44:30
Speaker
Or at least that's kind of what it seemed like everybody was looking for. And when he picked the kid, we thought it was funny. Everybody laughed at that. Everybody thought it was funny. And what I wanted out of this match, Braun Strowman alone, beating the shit out of two guys, looking like the biggest badass on the planet, leaves that place with two belts. Correct. What we got was a five-minute comedy match.
00:44:55
Speaker
Right. Did I mean, it just it felt like once the match started, there was a couple comedy spots, a power slam and that thing was over. Yeah. And it's almost like this is kind of typical, like a criticism of WWE over the years, which is that when you want a thing, they'll give it to you, but they give it to you with some with some with some fine print with some catches.
00:45:18
Speaker
And you and I had talked about the most badass thing he could do is say, fuck it, I'm going to wrestle this match by myself no matter what they say. That's essentially what happened. But they had to add this like goofy element to it where since he was required to have a partner, he picked a partner that didn't have to contribute shit and it was supposed to be cute. Oh, and don't get me wrong. Nicholas was over. I don't know if we said it. He picked a child out of the crowd. Little Nicholas, adorable as hell. Nicholas was over.
00:45:48
Speaker
had to have felt cool as shit for that kid to get a Nicholas chant going in that place and that was not the last Nicholas chant we heard that night. Nicholas was more over than the main event and I promise you that.
00:46:02
Speaker
But did you feel like even with all that going on, you felt like you were robbed of a moment? Well, I felt like I've watched this last year, I watched Braun Strowman flip over a semi. I watched him kill Roman Reigns. I watched him have matches with Brock Lesnar where he stood toe to toe. I watched him destroy anyone that got in his path. And then I watched him have a comedy match with Sheamus and Cesaro, two guys who also didn't deserve that. Like they deserve to like, you know, put up a fight, but like,
00:46:32
Speaker
you know, still they can't beat Braun Strowman together. Like I think there was a way to even make them look good. And I think it turned out where Braun Strowman like look cute. Yeah. It wasn't like very bad. Like I wanted him to just be that bad, like that ass kicker that we wanted. And we got like a cute match. He still got both of those titles. So as a deeper, as a deeper philosophical WWE question, and then we'll turn to our attention to the main event, which is the big thing we have to talk about.
00:47:01
Speaker
Do you think it just comes down to Vince having a really skewed idea of what a babyface is? Because Braun Strowman got over and became a babyface because he was destroying certain guys, because he was flipping shit over.
00:47:18
Speaker
And then when he was like, OK, I guess that they wanted to be a babyface, here's what babyfaces do. They pick kids out of the crowd to be their tag team partners, not knowing that maybe we don't want to see the cute side of Braun Strowman. That's not what makes him a good guy. It goes back to what made Stone Cold Steve Austin a badass. His more heelish dickish tendencies is what people gravitated towards. And I
00:47:43
Speaker
I don't know if I like seeing Bronn be nice. Well, didn't they hand it that a little bit when he came out as a brainstorm in that time? But the thing is, he made a joke, but then he beat the shit out of him. Yeah. Well, but even even going back to the epic moment with him in the upright base and him breaking the upright base for Elias, it was comedic, but
00:48:08
Speaker
This, maybe they've been segwaying into this for a while. I just don't know if I necessarily like it. Like, I like him being a monster. It is a confusing thing where it's like they're listening to us and they're giving us part of what we want. Like you just said, like everything, you get what you want, but it comes with a catch.
00:48:26
Speaker
Yeah, and that's been an issue for a long time. And like you said, you take this moment, you take the scene to undertake a moment, you take Rusev not winning the belt, you take how they built the beginning of the Daniel Bryan match and all this other stuff going on, and then boom, it's main event time, man. You were on ground zero, tell me what the fuck happened, what you saw, where are we at now? It's hard to even say where this match broke down.
00:48:56
Speaker
The video package, they play everything, Roman Reigns comes out. This is my fourth WrestleMania in a row. The only four WrestleManias I have been to, I have seen Roman Reigns headline every single one.
00:49:11
Speaker
This time was the least amount of boos I've heard Roman Reigns get. He got booed, but it wasn't as big. Like, 31 and 32 were huge boos. He got booed last year because he's fighting the Undertaker, but it didn't seem as, like, this year there was just, you know, like, I heard of him. He was the most accepting the crowd's ever been of him in this spot.
00:49:35
Speaker
Like, if anything, I feel like the crowd was ready to, like, you know, be pissed off at Lesnar and be like, we know Roman Reigns is going to win. We're just going to let it happen and see where this goes from here. I feel like that's what the crowd was ready for. And, you know, he got met with kind of indifference. Brock comes out boos and cheers. He kind of was he was actually a little split with what was happening, which surprised me. I think there were a lot of casual viewers or people who don't watch at all.
00:50:05
Speaker
in this crowd. They get in the ring and just the second the match started, the crowd didn't give a shit. I think what happened is the crowd was still confused from AJ Styles. The crowd didn't really get anything super special out of the Braun Strowman match, which right now, if Rusev isn't the most over guy in the company, Braun Strowman is.
00:50:33
Speaker
Yeah. He's a top guy. And we just got a goofy five minute match, which everybody enjoyed and was cute, but we didn't get it to see him beat ass like we wanted to. And now we've got these two guys and we know what's going to happen.
00:50:48
Speaker
So the crowd immediately, it was almost immediate the beach balls came out, man. It was like, just from the perception, is it fair to say that they just, like I said earlier, they immediately remembered why they were pissed off about this idea in the first place after being like, after forgetting about it for a few weeks with Roman destroying, or Brock destroying Roman on Raw. It was like they were immediately taken back to like that second after he won the Elimination Chamber match.
00:51:14
Speaker
Oh, yeah, it was just like everybody immediately was taken back to, you know, if we got that Styles Nakamura match that everybody was expecting. I think this would not have happened to Roman Reigns or, you know, to the match because the it's so confusing. I don't even know where to start with this. Do I start with the crowd or do I do we break down what actually happened in the match?
00:51:38
Speaker
I think it was insulting on multiple fronts because there's a certain demographic that when they talk about breaking down wrestling matches or how you break down a wrestling show, there's certain people whose mentality is, oh, they swerved you.
00:51:55
Speaker
They swerved, yeah, you were expecting one thing and they gave you something different. Therefore, inherently, isn't that cool? Isn't that great? And so I think a lot of people, like the finish, not expecting Lesnar to win. They're clinging to that and saying, ba ba ba ba ba, but you thought that Roman was going to win. They gotcha. And I think ultimately it didn't fucking matter at that point because
00:52:19
Speaker
They had had so many people, I think Samoa Joe, Braun Strowman, among others, go down to one F5. And then Reigns ends up taking what, five, six? He took six, I believe. One of them threw a table. Yeah. And it was like, go ahead. What happened is Roman is getting no offense in this. He is basically getting ragdolled around.
00:52:43
Speaker
At one point, Lesnar tried to suplex him, fell down, sent him face first into the announce table. The match was looking sloppy, it looked like Reigns was getting his ass kicked, and there's a certain point when I started thinking, you know, Reigns isn't necessarily for us, but we are adults, and this is still a kids show at heart.
00:53:07
Speaker
Roman Reigns is intended to be a new generation's Hulk Hogan, right? Like, he's supposed to be the guy that the kids are like, this guy's cool. This guy's a badass. This is who I want my action figure of. I want to dress as him for Halloween. This would be like if you and I as kids, like, we're watching Hulkamania, we're going wild, and then Mike Tyson came out and just beat him to a fucking bloody pulp. The way the match felt was, it felt like I watched a UFC fighter beat up an actor.
00:53:37
Speaker
Yeah. And everybody kind of had a vibe of like this match went rogue. Like Lesnar just went into business for himself. And we see today like right before, you know, maybe an hour before we started recording this that Lesnar re-signed. But all anyone was saying is there's no way he, any of that was supposed to be planned. Like Roman Reigns did not look cool.
00:54:01
Speaker
He took a bunch of F5s. He kept kicking out of it. We don't know why. No one looked cool in this match other than Lesnar punched him in the face until he was covered in blood. He was spurtin' everywhere. He couldn't even see. It was in his eyes. He looked concussed. He just kept takin' it, tried to do something, and then it looked like Lesnar folded him up like he had no choice.
00:54:26
Speaker
WrestleMania typically ends regardless of who wins with a champion holding a belt. The second that match was over, Lesnar grabbed that belt, got out, went up the stage, nothing happened. For us and the crowd, it was so confusing. The crowd, we were looking around like, what happened? It was over. There was no announcement. No one talked to us like, thanks for coming to WrestleMania, people. The screens went off.
00:54:55
Speaker
Like normally we could look up and see what was going on, but it was just the WrestleMania logo for us. So we're like, did this just go off the air? What happened? There was no fireworks. There was no finale. He's gone. And then so the venue empties. I stayed the whole time, by the way. I sat in my seat to let the place clear and we were just kind of sitting there confused again. Like confusion is the theme of this, this pay-per-view.
00:55:22
Speaker
Sure. And then 10 minutes, I mean, it felt like 10 minutes, but the place is basically cleared out. Then Roman Reigns music hits and everybody's looking around like, wait, what is the show not over? What the fuck is happening? He walks up the ramp looking sad like he just got his ass kicked in front of his family, which he did, goes up the ramp, disappears in the back and a shit ton of fireworks go off to an empty stadium.
00:55:50
Speaker
And when I went home and rewatched it, I was like, what did this look like? They shot this from the front row. So you can't tell the stadium's empty. And it when we watched that, when we got home, my buddy Jared and I were looking at each other and we're like, there's no way he had to have gone into business for himself. The finish changed. The production was confused. They didn't know what to do because you guys got to see that video package that recap the entire night. We didn't see that. We had no idea. We thought the show was over.
00:56:22
Speaker
There was, but you know, there, there have been rumors all day going back from that, you know, there was a heated exchange between Lesnar and Vince. As soon as he got back through the curtain, the universal title got thrown. They don't know what it's over. Um, I had read, you know, a couple hours ago before we started recording this podcast that, you know, I've heard things about Lesnar going into business for himself. I read my theory, which was that they called an audible from the back.
00:56:46
Speaker
that Reigns was originally supposed to win and that Vince called an audible and switched the finish to Brock winning because Reigns wasn't getting the response and the match wasn't getting the response that he wanted it to get. Oh, he could not. You couldn't hear the chants on TV. They did a good job of hiding those, I feel like, because that place was fucking loud. I mean, at one point I counted six beach balls
00:57:13
Speaker
The crowd wasn't even paying attention to the match anymore. They were just trying to figure out what shit they could chant. There was a moment where the entire stadium in unison was chanting Johnny Wrestling. And I was thinking to myself, for the love of God, why? He's gonna get buried. Don't turn fence on Johnny. Don't punish him for being over. Yeah, don't punish Johnny Wrestling for getting cheered during a shitmate event.
00:57:41
Speaker
Yeah. See them punk chants, this is boring chants, funniest chants, Nicholas chants. Yeah. This is awful. I mean, they ran down everything. They started the wave. People were getting arrested in the crowd. That's real, by the way.
00:57:59
Speaker
multiple times I saw cops have to go down and escort people out there was one guy I guess during the AJ Styles match that was just saying such mean shit about Nakamura the whole crowd faced him and started doing the delete chant cops came and took him away so if you don't like somebody in a crowd hit him with that delete man it turns out there's a it does do something
00:58:22
Speaker
It does delete them. Yeah, they deleted people from the crowd, which I thought was kind of awesome. The crowd was deleting the match at one point. It was just it was a fucking mess. Like we were sitting there watching a show crumble and there was a moment to I was like, is how shitty there's reception being? Is this why Brock Lesnar is punishing Roman Reigns?
00:58:45
Speaker
It's totally possible. I would like to pat myself on the back for a second and say that in our last episode, I called this, um, and said that this match could get really, really fucking ugly. And it did. Um, I mean, it turned like, like you said, the Goldberg Lesnar thing had turned back into that.
00:59:03
Speaker
to me maybe eventually maybe within the next couple hours maybe in a day or two maybe in a year or two who knows maybe the story about what happened last night will finally come out if we're putting together a bullshit theory right now just based on little tidbits of information it would make total sense to me that Roman Reigns was supposed to go over last night
00:59:23
Speaker
that the crowd didn't give a fuck, that Vince had pushed all his chips into the middle table asking AJ Styles and Nakamura to stand down and not steal the show, which they probably could have. We know they could have, right? It had to. Again, another thing I brought up last episode,
00:59:43
Speaker
How many great matches has Nakamura had since he's come to the main roster? We talked about that a lot last night too, where we're like, we've seen him have great matches elsewhere, but we haven't here. He hasn't clicked in the WWE. His style, him toning down his strong style and then still referring to it as strong style, you can call it strong style as much as you want. He's not doing that.
01:00:10
Speaker
Yes. He isn't translating. That's why I think we're like, we're gonna get a real strong style match tonight. And we didn't get that. We got a regular ass WWE version of Nakamura match.
01:00:23
Speaker
So while I want to maybe run with this theory that maybe they asked him to tone it down, I do have to keep in, I have to keep it in the back of my mind that maybe it just fell short of expectations for legit reasons. Um, and I will rewatch it. I'll rewatch it before we do the Thursday show.
01:00:43
Speaker
Just to see, you know, compare and see like, if I watch it with a different expectation now, would it have been a good match without expecting the greatest match any of us had ever seen at WrestleMania? So imagine you're Vince, and we continue down this road of thinking, and you ask Styles and Nakamura to tone it down, and you go all in and you make Lesnar Reigns the match that's gonna close the show.
01:01:09
Speaker
And then this is the reception that you get. Now, I don't know if he understands what all the other things that happened on the show contributed to the crowd turning. He like he may be completely blind to that, which is mind boggling if he is. But if he calls the audible from the back that explains why there were fireworks.
01:01:28
Speaker
that went off but with no champion it would explain why Lesnar is pissed off when he comes back through the curtain if he was supposed to drop the belt and get the fuck out of there and be done with WWE and Vince said nope I need you for one more thing it explains a lot of different shit and
01:01:49
Speaker
I again, I don't understand why anybody back there would be surprised by what happened. You and I were talking about this just the other day. To me, this had a chance to get fucking ugly. And it didn't even this had a chance to get fucking ugly regardless of what happened with the rest of the card and things not delivering. But especially when we're not getting what we thought out of the rest of the card.
01:02:10
Speaker
I think everybody in the crowd felt like they got punished for paying money. I think everyone in the audience felt like they got punished for wanting other things. That's what it was. And the thing is, it was everybody in the crowd, and I think most people at home all wanted the same thing. And what they delivered us was a very, very confusing WrestleMania. And I think overall, the bummer about this is
01:02:39
Speaker
a lot like we said a lot good happened but the bad part is the worst three things happened all right at the end and people are gonna remember that is that weird WrestleMania when really we should be looking back and being like that was a fucking night of the women Charlotte ruled Ronda Rousey proved she's a fucking wrestling superstar in one match we'll see where it goes from there but in one match we watched her fight Triple H and
01:03:08
Speaker
Everybody lost their mind. I think anyone had to be losing their mind for that. And it was. Would you I mean, would you say it was a bad show or would you just be like, I guess everything evened out to where it was an OK WrestleMania? I think just based on what we got, it was OK, but but you also have to factor in expectations and what the card was.
01:03:31
Speaker
Like there's certain things that like, when you fuck them up a little bit, you can say, yeah, oh, I only fucked up a little bit. But if it was really easy to deliver on, it comes across as way worse. And that's what I can say about last night's show. It may not have been a bad WrestleMania.
01:03:46
Speaker
But maybe history will be more kind to what happened last night. But in the moment, as I had because you just brought it up, like some of the things that happened towards the end of that show are probably what's going to end up defining it. And it goes back to like something I said in one of our earlier podcast episodes. If you can't stick the landing, if you don't get the finish right, it's almost like everything else that you tried to do. It almost doesn't matter.
01:04:13
Speaker
And this is why picking the right main event and understanding what the crowd wants, that's so important. And I don't understand what the disconnect is. And it was one of the few times, and you're going to hear me say this one time and probably never again.
01:04:30
Speaker
I have been done with CM Punk chants for so long now. They are annoying. I was happy as fuck when they got squashed in December at SmackDown in Chicago. Last night was one of the last times I can ever imagine hearing a CM Punk chant and thinking, yeah, this is kind of appropriate. I think everybody agreed. I did see a couple people giving middle fingers because the CM Punk chant was happening.
01:04:59
Speaker
but it really was the first time that I'm like, yeah, you just fucked 80,000 people in one room, and this is the chant to let you know that. Right. Because I think that's what that chant has kind of tried to represent, which is that
01:05:16
Speaker
Punk left because he felt they were handling so much shit wrong, including him not getting a spot at the main event at WrestleMania that he thought he deserved, and them fucking up Daniel Bryan, almost fucking up Daniel Bryan's spot in the main event at WrestleMania. And this was just, like I said, one of those rare circumstances where I got it. It felt like it was a very specific, like, yeah, this is exactly what we were talking about. Here's the CM Punk chant.
01:05:39
Speaker
Yeah, it was everybody saying, yeah, we quit this a while ago, but we know this is gonna hurt you a little bit to hear this on the show. Here you go, one more time. Here's a middle finger for you. But, you know, I walked away from this show thinking, I'm gonna get to see Ronda Rousey a lot more now. I'm gonna get to see Daniel Bryan.
01:06:02
Speaker
More now. I'm excited. I'm excited for what's gonna happen. I'm very curious to see what Raw's like tonight. I mean, overall, I had a fun time. I think everybody in the stadium had a fun time. I think everybody got exhausted. The finish could have been substantially better, but we got a good weekend of wrestling.
01:06:27
Speaker
You had it sounds like you had quite the weekend and just just a little preview of what we're going to talk about next week. I did this for you. I kept saying I did this so you don't have to. You better fucking thank me, my friends. Well, if you would like a live update.
01:06:47
Speaker
on Raw right now, Ember Moon just made her debut on Raw. Hell yeah, hell yeah, hell yeah. Love it, love it. So no matter what we talk about here on this podcast, as we have always talked about in the past, the show goes on, there's stuff going on right now, we'll see where this goes, the card's always subject to change, and things are always getting updated, it's a never-ending storyline here, so. WrestleMania 34.
01:07:13
Speaker
Yeah, that was Mania 34. Thank you for listening, everybody. Tune in on Thursday. Thursday, we're going to have another show. This is for anyone that's listening. We usually goof around a lot more, but after a pay-per-view, we like to discuss our immediate reactions to a pay-per-view. It's usually, we record it that night immediately after. I was at this one, made it a little harder. But I did a lot of shit down in New Orleans this weekend. I went to the WrestleCon Super Show. We had a video
01:07:40
Speaker
I think right now we're about 38,000 views. Thank you, Joey Ryan. Helped us out a lot on that one. We'll talk more about that. On Friday, I watched wrestling in a building from noon on a Friday to 3.30 a.m. on a Saturday morning.
01:08:01
Speaker
And this is gonna be good stuff. I did it as a marathon just to see what my body was like. How do I feel as the day goes on? Dude, it was a trip after. I mean, I saw progress. I saw Evolve. I saw the WWN Super Show. I went to Joey Janela's Spring Break 2. Holy shit.
01:08:21
Speaker
Holy shit, holy shit. You have some stories. I have some stories. The next day I was at a progress show again. I can't get enough progress. Progress might be one of my new favorite promotions. UK fans, I want to come, progress fans in the UK, I want to go and watch a progress show with you. Holy shit, progress rules. We might have some new listeners because of all the things that you saw. You got some retweets from Joey Ryan over the weekend.
01:08:48
Speaker
Kenny King showed us some love on a post, got a few thousand views on that. Yeah, because I went to the ROH Super Show. Holy shit, one of the best ROH paper views I've ever seen. Best ladder match I've ever seen. We'll talk about that tomorrow. There was just a lot of wrestling hung out. Maybe ate lunch with one of the Rock and Roll Express. I don't know. Maybe I did. Maybe you'll hear about that.
01:09:14
Speaker
Maybe you have a picture to prove it. But yeah, you know what? Tune in on Thursday to hear some fun stories. There was some wacky shit down at WrestleMania. New Orleans is a crazy town. Thanks for listening, everybody. We will be back to you on Thursday with a new episode. I love you. Check us out on where all of our social media is, Derek. Hit us up on Facebook at WrestleHangout, on Twitter at WrestleHangout. I believe we're predetermined podcast on Instagram.
01:09:44
Speaker
Yes, I didn't have a lot of Instagram time. I got a shitload of stuff to post on there this week, though. So I'm going to be just, you know, posting things that I just didn't have time for. Maybe I'll be posting. I broke a shower at an Airbnb this weekend, man. I'll tell you about it. Let's talk on Thursday. All right, man, let's get out of here. Hit our goddamn music.