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Predetermined: A Pro Wrestling Hangout- Bonus Episode- Royal Rumble Reactions
50 Plays8 years ago
In this bonus edition of Predetermined, Garrett and Derrick give their thoughts on the Royal Rumble as soon as the event ended.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Predetermined' Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to Predetermined, a pro wrestling hangout. I am your host, Garrett Callender. And with me, as always, my co-host, Derek Halpin. Hey everyone, we got a special edition of the podcast for you right now. We are just wrapping up the 2018 Royal Rumble. We're going to give our review and kind of our thoughts on how the event went and where we're going from here. And as always, we're standing in Gorilla. I think right now we're going to go ahead and say this is the dark match. Hit my damn music.
00:01:02
Speaker
I do like the idea of this being a dark match version of the podcast. This is just for the house. Yeah, this is just a house show, man. This is 30 minutes, you know, a little something after the show. All right. But yeah, man, we're we're going. We're rolling. Let's do this.
Review of 2018 Royal Rumble
00:01:18
Speaker
Yeah, we just wrapped up watching the 2018 Royal Rumble and I'm going to go ahead and be honest. I had a great time.
00:01:25
Speaker
Yeah, me too. After everything I said, the Royal Rumble has disappointed a lot of people the last few years. I don't think I'm gonna be seeing a lot of that this year because I thought the show was actually pretty damn good. Came out of it feeling pretty positive, just wrapped up a little over an hour ago. So how you feeling, man? What do you think? Well, first off, as I was watching it, when the Men's Rumble came up, I was shocked that it was like the second match of the night.
00:01:55
Speaker
You know, I had been wondering that all week as to what Rumble was going to close the show. And I think they made the right call having the women's Rumble since it was the first time be the main event of the show. And yeah, no, I mean, I guess I guess they wanted to have some time between, you know, the men's Rumble and
Shinsuke Nakamura's Surprising Win
00:02:12
Speaker
the women's Rumble. So I think they picked a good spot for that.
00:02:14
Speaker
Oh, and I totally get it, but there was a moment through the middle of that rumble that one of the guys I was watching with said something, I was like, holy shit, I think you might be right. There was a moment when I was like, are they really gonna have Roman Reigns win, but put it right in the middle so that I have forgotten about it because there's so much show left?
00:02:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think a lot of people were thinking that too. I know there was a lot of buzz on social media saying, yeah, they're going to get away with doing it because they're going to bury it in the middle of the show and give you time to get over it before the women's rumble comes up. And funny enough, that's not at all what happened. I think
00:02:47
Speaker
Shinsuke Nakamura ended up being the winner and I think that surprised some people even though he was one of the names that had been tossed out quite a bit as one of the possibilities to win the match but I think a lot of people since Roman lost the Intercontinental title on Raw I think a lot of people thought that Roman was gonna end up winning the Rumble and that's not the case. And let me say that this was probably one of my cat is yelling at me right now so if you hear yelling my cat just heard me come home and get excited. Is the cat excited about how the Rumble went?
00:03:16
Speaker
The cat didn't see the rumble. I actually went to some people I had met one time's house to watch it. Had a lovely time. Thank you very much for that, if they're listening. But I just want to say like this rumble was just booked. The men's rumble, I mean both. But let's start with the men's. The men's rumble was just booked so well. Like there was very few things in it that I thought like, oh man, I wish that didn't happen. Because the final four had me on the edge of my seat that whole time.
00:03:46
Speaker
Absolutely. And I think that's a thing that they've actually messed up in years past, which is like the whole drama of the rumble when you get to like the last 15, 20 minutes is it's supposed to be the four, five, six final guys are supposed to be guys that the crowd believes are people who can legitimately win it that night.
Final Four Highlights in Men's Rumble
00:04:04
Speaker
And when you knock out some of the bigger names earlier in the match, and they're not there during the final four and five, it kind of sucks the life out of the crowd. But when it came down to, what was it, Nakamura and Cena and then Reigns and who was it? Balor. Balor, yeah. Well, because my pick, I have my pick. I thought Nakamura was going to win, but my hope was Balor. Right.
00:04:29
Speaker
No, I would have, I think they made the right call on who the final four were and I thought it was super exciting. I think people were legitimately bummed when Balor got eliminated, but I think teasing. I mean, I think the way they booked the end of that match was brilliant in the sense that they knew what the Philadelphia crowd really didn't want to see. They knew what a lot of people didn't want to see and they kind of teased that.
00:04:53
Speaker
that Reigns was gonna end up pulling the match out. And no, I thought the whole men's rumble was done brilliantly. Great finish, I'm excited. I'm excited as hell, but for Nakamura, I'm glad that he won the match. I'm glad that they came right out and asked him at the end of the match which champion he was gonna go for. And it looks like we're getting a Wrestle Kingdom rematch.
Handling of Seasoned Wrestlers
00:05:20
Speaker
Which is amazing.
00:05:22
Speaker
Yeah, AJ Styles versus Shinsuke Nakamura. Who would have thought that that was a possibility for a Vince McMahon controlled WWE WrestleMania match?
00:05:31
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. And just to go back one second with something you were saying, where how in years past they didn't book these, like the fight, the cat is climbing all over the computer right now. And not earn it, not earn us the cat Miller. I wish it were here. Because, because then we'd have a guest for the show.
00:05:54
Speaker
but I'd be like, Hey, you need to wait your turn and talk when it's your time. Uh, but no, we, I actually over the weekend, cause just out of curiosity, I watched the 15, 16 and 17 rumbles just to see like, you know, now that time has passed, how did they hold up? And as far as the 2015 rumble, the final four,
00:06:16
Speaker
Well, at first you think it's Reigns, Kane and Big Show. And at that point, like you just shut down because you don't give a shit. Like you have nothing in that fight anymore. Right. Like, you know what you're getting and then Rusev comes in and everybody's cheering
Rusev and Fan Support
00:06:30
Speaker
him. But it's like, we know he's not going on. And also, I don't really, at that point, 2015, we didn't really want to see him headlining the mania. I mean, if you saw his entrance at number one today, that might be a different story.
00:06:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's crazy. The guy is ridiculously talented. And I think a year ago, I wrote him off for dead. And it's awesome to see him kind of resurrect his career and get over with this whole rusev day thing. And it's a lot of fucking fun watching that Philadelphia crowd go apeshit and chanting rusev day at moments that you like, even during the women's rumble, when Lana came out, they were given a rusev day chance. And just seeing his face. He looks like he's revived.
00:07:15
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. And that surprised me because I really thought that he was on his way out a little less than a year ago. I mean, there were even rumors. We thought he was going to quit and it just didn't happen. Like he held out and he kind of figured it out. Good for him. And did you see that WWE shop is now officially offering a rusev day calendar? Oh my God. And every day is rusev day. Every day is rusev day on the calendar. And every month has a new picture of rusev for you and your family to enjoy.
NXT Stars Shine
00:07:44
Speaker
Well, damn it. Like, I try not to buy much stuff from the E, but, uh... That's pretty good. It's $9.99, man. It's the cost of the network for a month. Oh, uh, just... Sorry, my cat. This fucking cat right now, man. I feel like people are gonna get to know the cat. This is the first time the cats bothered me while I've been recording.
00:08:06
Speaker
This wouldn't be the first time a cat has become part of a podcast, so I don't think anyone's gonna mind too much. There's pretty famous podcast cats, actually. I think My Favorite Murder has probably one of the most famous.
00:08:18
Speaker
I know Edge and Christian's had, their podcast has had some cameos by their cats. So going back to the men's rumble, to your point, I did want to say, yeah, I think a huge part of the way that like the drama of the rumble is, is who the final participants are because like everyone needs to think that the final participants have a chance of winning. And I think they pulled that off this year. And I think it coming down to Nakamura and Reigns was the right choice.
00:08:43
Speaker
Oh, I 100% agree. That final four as they're going, they still had me where I did not know what was going to happen. I had chosen Nakamura as the winner, but there was a great chance that any four of those guys may be minus Finn Balor.
00:08:59
Speaker
Right. Which still holding out to one day see Lesnar baller. But like even I have all the names that were in this match and just looking through these like some
Surprises and Crowd Reactions
00:09:10
Speaker
of the guys surprised the hell out of me as far as they got almost.
00:09:14
Speaker
Yeah, no, I thought that was great that they let him be in the match as long as he was because I mean, that's a great rub for him. Oh, that's awesome. Like he, he got like, and especially the dude just had, I mean, a match of the year contender. I know it's January, but the match he had last night on NXT was absolutely stellar and see what everyone's saying.
00:09:35
Speaker
and seeing him go that far the next day, amazing. Same with I popped hard when Adam Cole was in that. I could not believe I was watching Adam Cole in a goddamn royal rumble.
00:09:48
Speaker
Yeah, that was that was pretty fucking awesome. And I will say another guy that I popped for and I didn't expect to pop for so much was Elias. I thought Elias was ridiculously over with the Philly crowd and playing the guitar. I laughed when he said that counter that countdown will not start until I'm done playing my song or whatever. As far as his pops go.
00:10:14
Speaker
I feel like Hurricane Helms really took it over Rey Mysterio in that one.
00:10:21
Speaker
Well, here's the other thing. I know Mysterio kind of has a few years back. He had the misfortune of being in that number 30 spot. And I think they thought that the crowd was going to react to him coming out of 30 positively. But everyone was kind of pissed off because Daniel Bryan ended up getting eliminated from the Rumble. And that's what the focus was. So it didn't really get the reaction it did or that they wanted it to. But tonight, I thought Mysterio actually got a really good pop when he came out.
00:10:50
Speaker
Oh yeah. I think, I mean, at least the people I watched him with gave him a big pop eyes. I still like Ray. It's just, he's one of those guys that when I see him and he's that far into the end of the rumble, I'm just like, well, he's
00:11:03
Speaker
Ray Mysterio isn't headlining WrestleMania this year. You're right. I got to say this before we move on. Holy shit. Did he look jacked or was that just me? He looked awesome. Like that was one thing we definitely talked about was, I mean, as far as like, you know, older wrestlers coming in, like Ray looked like Ray. Yeah. Looked like a old WCW Ray actually.
00:11:27
Speaker
I'm trying to think if there's anyone else. Just, I gotta say this. There was a moment where I was watching Adam Cole strung over the top rope of the turnbuckle in the corner as Titus O'Neil was kicking the shit out of him. And if you told me two years ago, that was the thing you would see? That I was gonna get to see Titus O'Neil and Adam Cole fight each other in a royal rumble.
Braun Strowman vs. Brock Lesnar
00:11:51
Speaker
Like, honestly, that may have been the highlight of the night.
00:11:54
Speaker
A quote of the night for me, um, Braun Strowman drop kicks Brock Lesnar. And I can't remember if it was Michael Cole or Corey Graves. They made the comment, it's like a seat watching a T-Rex do a drop kick. And I popped for that quote too. Well, that's one note I made as I was watching. Just put Braun drop kick Brock Lesnar. What the fuck?
00:12:21
Speaker
Here's the thing, Braun is so big, he's gonna have spots going forward that anytime he does like a wrestling move, everyone in the crowd's gonna go, holy shit, because they don't expect it out of him. Oh, 100%, uh.
00:12:36
Speaker
Oh my god. It was right after that drop kick that he gave Brock a knee to the face. Yeah. And Brock Lesnar, shoot, just punched Braun Strowman right in the face. Yeah, I think he knocked him fucking silly. I think he was, I don't think he was selling anything. I think that was legit.
00:12:54
Speaker
Well, if you remember from, I think it was the 16, or was it 17? I think it would have been the 16 Royal Rumble, when him and Bron and Brock fought there, and Bron just was not selling to Brock's liking, so he just starts beating the fuck out of Bron Strowman.
00:13:15
Speaker
I was that when he was part of the Wyatt family and they kind of attacked Lesnar in the middle of
Nakamura's WrestleMania Prospects
00:13:20
Speaker
the rumble. Yes. Okay. Gotcha. Go back and watch that moment because when he does not start, when he just doesn't like, no cells, Brock's hit Brock just beats the shit out of him into the corner of that ring. So, so before we really review the universal title thing, um, why are you feeling about Nakamura winning and where they're going with that?
00:13:41
Speaker
way into it. I mean, just as far as like finally getting a WrestleMania match, like not just a WrestleMania moment, but like those are two guys that have a proven track record. We're going to get an awesome WrestleMania match.
00:13:57
Speaker
Yeah, Styles and Nakamura can go and I think it's ballsy and I think it's awesome that Vince is gonna let a WWE Championship match be like you said, a wrestling match. And I'm looking forward to it. And I guess the presumption going forward in the next month or so is that Raw is gonna figure out their universal title scene at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, do you think so?
00:14:20
Speaker
I mean, I think we all still think we're getting Roman Brock. And what kind of concerns me about AJ Nakamura is that we haven't even talked about the women's match yet. And what happened at the end, AJ Nakamura could easily be a mid-card match.
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's a whole discussion just debating how Vince views his cards and where he wants to book people and what he thinks the big sell is. Reigns and Lesnar is a rematch. So if that's what we end up getting, I don't think that should go on last. I really, really don't. But I know that Vince loves his big guy matches. And I know that's what it is. So if that is what we end up getting, yeah.
Women's Royal Rumble Anticipation
00:15:09
Speaker
The only thing is with that match, we don't have Seth Rollins to save us. Yeah. Yeah. No, no money in the bank to help out this year. It'd be one on one. So, but you know, it is what it is. We feel like that's probably going to happen. We're still going to get Nakamura, AJ Styles at fucking WrestleMania, which is huge. Dude, that would have fought for real. Like that's, that's like, that's dream match shit. And if the thing is, it's a dream match of a match we've already seen.
00:15:37
Speaker
Yeah, if they went if they went nuts for Wrestle Kingdom, I can imagine they're going to pull out all the stops for for a world title match at WrestleMania. Oh, this is going to be I mean, they have something to prove because last year the world title fight was trash shit. And I mean, a world title match shouldn't be a bathroom break.
00:15:57
Speaker
I, yeah, absolutely. And that's what it was last year. But instead of like, let's, let's move on a little bit, uh, just cause we're trying to keep this to be a shorter one. It's a dark match after all. Uh, let's move on to the women's. Um, I think for a lot of people, the predictions going into this were wondering whether or not Ronda Rousey was going to make an appearance during the women's Royal Rumble match. And I think that was going to determine kind of who won the thing. And I think everyone's primary pick was,
00:16:27
Speaker
Oscar and I think everyone's secondary pick was Ronda Rousey if she was in the match and then there were a few others like Nia Jax I'd heard Becky Lynch's name tossed out there And I thought it was cool the way they started the women's Rumble match with Becky and Sasha I thought those were two good choices because they could stay in there for a while and go
00:16:46
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Becky, I was close. I picked her as I've guessed she would be the number one entrant. She was two. As far as three or the 30th position goes, I had three guesses and one of my three picks for 30 was correct. Trish. I knew they were not going to give us that match without Trish Stratus.
00:17:07
Speaker
Right.
Veteran Female Wrestlers Impact
00:17:08
Speaker
I kept saying the same thing throughout the match, too. And then as the number started winding down, what was left was like Bailey and Trish hadn't appeared yet. And I was like, well, one of those two is going to be 30. And she got it. She did. She did well, too, during the match. She didn't look like she'd missed a beat. No, I mean, honestly, all but maybe one of the women looked amazing.
00:17:29
Speaker
Yeah, Michelle McCool was kicking a lot of ass. Oh, she was she was so fucking good. Like everybody in that Molly Holly looked amazing. She was awesome. Like kind of when old timers come back for the men's rumble, there's times where it can be borderline sad. Right. And we didn't get that moment with the women like the women were just like on top of it. They were good to go like.
00:18:04
Speaker
Oh, me too. I was just worried that she wasn't going to clear it and she was going to smack her face off the mat. She had no airtime. She basically dove at the ground. Oh my God, but she made it. Nobody got hurt. I thought Molly Holly had fucked up Sasha Banks when she did her, what was it, a moonsault onto her or was it like a 450? Oh, and then when they showed the replay, it was perfect.
00:18:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think the only one of the women that looked like she was even a little bit behind the times was Jacqueline, and that's completely understandable, and I still think she looked pretty good, so...
00:18:29
Speaker
Yeah. Because Sasha Banks rolled out of the ring after that spot, and it took her a while to get back in the ring. So I thought Molly Ollie had hurt Sasha.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, the one thing I will say, like I, we'd got great surprises. It was as far as a first women's Royal Rumble match. I think a lot of the ladies that came back for it deserved to be in that, you know, I mean, they were women who weren't treated with the, not that they weren't treated with respect when they were there, but like, not like it is right now. And so to be able to see, you know, Molly Holly and Trish Stratus and Michelle McCool, Jacqueline, like seeing all these people in it that deserve it and should have had one when they were there.
00:19:07
Speaker
I do not mind. It's not like I felt like somebody was getting the spot taken other than Foxy. Right. I completely agree with you, though. It's cool because you don't know what those women think now sitting there watching the product
Ronda Rousey's WWE Entrance
00:19:20
Speaker
now. They're probably really envious of the fact that like Vince treats it a little bit more seriously now and gives them the right time and the opportunity to have good matches.
00:19:30
Speaker
So I agree with you I think I was thinking the exact same thing during the match was this is awesome that they get to come back and even if just for one night Get to be a part of a women's match that's being taken seriously and it's the main event the Royal Rumble That's pretty that's pretty fucking cool. Yeah, I mean I Don't even it's hard to gather words for that. We just watched women main event the Royal Rumble
00:19:55
Speaker
This is the second biggest pay-per-view of the year. Honestly, okay, just to like cut to the end real quick, spoiler alert if you didn't see it obviously, Rousey came out. I popped super hard because I knew what her UFC music was. So I knew it from the music. Dressed up like Rowdy Rowdy Piper too. Which she did get his okay to use that.
00:20:20
Speaker
Nice. He like, okayed that back in the MMA time. Like she was rowdy Ronda Rousey. She came out in the Roddy Piper shit. So cool. She points at the WrestleMania sign, you know, every, like all that. It was awesome. That is a main event match. Like WrestleMania is built on celebrity interactions and, uh, also
00:20:39
Speaker
Just found this out. As I was driving back, I made a phone call and one of my friends that doesn't watch wrestling. Hey Dustin, how's it going, buddy? He said that he actually got a thing from ESPN pop-up that Rousey signed a full-time contract with the E.
00:20:56
Speaker
Really? And when I said, wait, what? He looked it back up and he's like, yeah, this on ESPN says she signed a full time WWE contract. If Rhonda fucking Rousey signed a full time contract with WWE, that is the biggest thing to happen to that company in a long time.
00:21:12
Speaker
That's fucking huge. So, so Oscar goes on to win the women's Rumble match. And here's the only thing, I'm super excited about them being able to get Ronda Rousey in there. I did feel a little bit bad that Oscar's moment winning the first one Rumble's match, she got a little upstaged cause she had all of like two minutes to celebrate it and then Rousey came out.
Asuka's Victory and Rousey's Impact
00:21:31
Speaker
So we'll see where they go with this. Like I know there had been rumors of doing a Ronda Rousey versus Charlotte Flair match.
00:21:40
Speaker
So we'll see but I mean good for Asuka. I thought I thought I Mean, she's undefeated I think that was one of the reasons why a lot of people were picking her that they didn't they weren't gonna have her lose her streak and a Rumble match But yeah, I mean if they if they managed to snag Ronda Rousey for a full-time deal, that's huge for fucking WWE. I
00:22:00
Speaker
Well, and say what you like. I mean, we haven't even seen her wrestle yet or know if she can. We have to assume that she's an incredible athlete and that she could fucking learn. I have all the faith in her that she could do that. I am excited, though, to see who Oscar picks. Like at this point, it kind of seems like does Rousey get whoever Oscar doesn't pick?
00:22:21
Speaker
And is our Rousey match like when you're like, well, can she wrestle? It's at WrestleMania. Or is she going to be Goldberg? Because her UFC career was breaking ladies arms in nine seconds. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I guess that's why you're supposed to tune in tomorrow to find out. I guess that's that's that's the hook. God, I hope they hold off on showing me showing me like her fighting anyone until Mania.
00:22:44
Speaker
Yeah, I would assume that that's what they're going to do, how they're going to build without having her fight. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, the thing is like she has a track record like you. There was a point when it's like Ronda Rousey is the most dangerous woman on the planet. You know, she's just she's fucking awesome. She's Ronda Rousey. But as far as Oscar goes, like obviously the match we want to see Oscar and at least me personally, I think that it's Oscar Charlotte is the coolest match.
00:23:14
Speaker
You think so? Um, cause my main problem with Alexa bliss and I have basically zero problems with Alexa bliss. Uh, she's cool like the miss, but she's like a, like a dirty obnoxious heel. Absolutely. But like I have a hard time picturing her fighting Oscar in a match that doesn't have some fuckery involved. Right.
00:23:39
Speaker
Of course, here's the thing. Whoever has Ronda Rousey as their first match is gonna have to be the one who carries the match. It doesn't matter how good of an athlete Ronda is, which she's incredible, but that's why I think Charlotte's the best women's worker they have in the company. And I think that's why they'll end up pairing. I mean, that's my prediction anyway, is that you're gonna end up with Ronda Rousey versus Charlotte Flair and Oscar versus Alexa Bliss.
00:24:05
Speaker
Which if that is the case, Charlotte Flair versus Ronda Rousey, that is a fucking main event. Yeah. Like that isn't a midcard thing. That's not a co-main event. Like to me, the biggest female star in the world versus the biggest, you know, WWE superstar or like female WWE superstar, arguably one or the other, you know, like that's a main event to me. Like I want to see that more than I want to see Lesnar Reigns.
00:24:32
Speaker
No, absolutely. I think the only question is because we haven't seen her wrestle a single match yet, is she going to be ready for that spot?
Royal Rumble Implications for WrestleMania
00:24:41
Speaker
Because I mean, if you're going to close the show, you got to be able to go a little bit.
00:24:45
Speaker
Yeah, they don't want to they don't want to have a five minute match. And it's Charlotte a five minute match that has like a 20 minute entrance. Right. Though this is something to think about. Do you remember it? She doesn't do it often. But Alexa Bliss has that really amazing trick. She's double jointed and can make it look like she broke her arm. Right. Rousey breaks arms.
00:25:07
Speaker
She does, it would make for a great spot. I don't know, it'll be interesting to see where they go with this. Like you said, that's why I'm excited to see who Oscar ends up picking, and if that'll be what determines where Rousey ends up.
00:25:22
Speaker
Well, just look at this. Like, I mean, if you look at the last like four by, wait, at least the last four Royal Rumbles, like you left in a way that you're trying to figure out how to like book yourself out of a corner. This is where we're sitting here excited about the possibilities that could come from the end of a rumble.
00:25:40
Speaker
And that's the way it's supposed to be. If you book the Rumble correctly, it just opens up a world of possibilities and people can be excited about all of them. So mission accomplished this year. I thought the Royal Rumble pay-per-view was fucking awesome this year. I'm excited about WrestleMania already. Yeah, I'm excited again to be able to chat with you, you know, Wednesday when we record, just to see how things have changed since then.
00:26:06
Speaker
Yeah, we got two shows to get through, and there's gonna be a new direction, so... This is, I mean, just overall, like, a lot of people shit on a lot that WWE does, and, I mean, a lot of times they deserve it, but I will say, like, we do deserve... They do deserve a round of applause right now for giving me a very good four-hour show.
00:26:27
Speaker
Absolutely agree. I thought they thought they hit it out of the park tonight and we'll see where they go from here. But like they'd like for as often as people bitch. I don't think that was anything to bitch about after tonight.
00:26:37
Speaker
No, I can't think of... I mean, looking through the people that are on this list, like, I don't see anyone that was eliminated that, you know, they got eliminated too soon, or... I mean, you can say what you will about the rest of the card, but it's when you put a Royal Rumble up front. It's gonna be hard to follow a Royal Rumble, is the bar.
00:26:58
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think that was the one awkward thing. I felt bad for the bar and for Rollins and Jordan. I think they pulled off what they needed to pull off in that match though, which is making Jordan look like a pussy who keeps saying that he's got championship caliber blood, but then couldn't do the match. But the audience really, I think the life, they were so excited to see Nakamura when the life had kind of been sucked out of them by the time that tag match rolled around. Oh, yeah.
00:27:27
Speaker
Yeah. Well, when Seamus got eliminated early, like immediately, or was he the one that like threw Heath Slater in? Heath Slater had one of the most fun things in that whole match. Yeah. Heath Slater spot in the rumble was absolutely hilarious. And Seamus was the guy who threw Slater in the ring finally, and Slater immediately gets up and clotheslines Seamus over the top rope and eliminates him. I was like, well, Seamus must have a hard match coming up. Yeah. No.
00:27:56
Speaker
WWE title match real quick. What do you think? Uh, once again, like it's, everybody's kind of exhausted from how good the finish to the rumble was the men's rumble. Um, that match was kind of, you know, it was what it was. Saw some big men slamming each other. Saw Brock punch, uh, Bron Stroman in the face. It, I kind of got exactly what I thought I was going to get from that match.
00:28:24
Speaker
But what'd you think about the WWE Championship, not the Universal? Oh, the WWE, oh, the opener to the show with- Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Goddamn, like at the end of a four hour show, you kind of forget what you saw. Here's what I'll say about that.
00:28:42
Speaker
I am firmly dead set that they need to have AJ Styles walk into WrestleMania as WWE Champion. Him versus Nakamura is a selling point. You can't plug in Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn and get me the same level of excited.
SmackDown Storylines and Predictions
00:28:59
Speaker
Absolutely. No, I don't think I don't think anyone would actually propose that that's what they should do. I was a little disappointed because they've got a few months to cover here. I predicted Stiles was going to win that match, but I hoped I was wrong because I thought it would have made for a nice month or two of interesting storylines with them as co-champions annoying the shit out of everyone on the roster. And we'll have to see what they do going into fast lane.
00:29:25
Speaker
but that would have been a fun like mid-season thing like you know not right before mania but i totally like you know a couple months of them just being dicks
00:29:35
Speaker
Well, yeah, I think as long as it, well, in my mind, if they were going to do that, it ends with Styles getting the belt back. Absolutely. But I just thought like, well, now they've got a couple months where they have to come up with who Styles is going to defend the title against, what they're going to do. And I don't know. I mean, I think it was probably the right booking decision, but we'll see how SmackDown books it the rest of the way because I mean,
00:29:58
Speaker
I think some people are kind of wondering where the whole Shane McMahon Daniel Bryan thing is going and how that's going to tie into all this. I think they're kind of ready to see how that climaxes. I think a lot of people were predicting Daniel Bryan to be on the Rumble tonight and he wasn't because he's not cleared.
00:30:14
Speaker
So who knows what they're going to end up doing with that? I mean, like, I mean, if we're just going to play like fantasy Booker for for a second, like I could see them doing like, you know, Daniel Bryan on a tag team with Owens and Zayn versus Shane and like two dudes.
00:30:32
Speaker
like basically like who's left that doesn't have something to do Randy Orton I don't know you know like something along those lines but once again I also don't I was never a hundred percent confident that we would see Daniel Bryan in a match
00:30:46
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think anyone was confident on it. I think it would have been neat. But if he's not clear, he's not clear. It's just not I think I think we're officially at the point on SmackDown where we're ready to see where this has all been going over the last two to three months. And that's part of the fun of wrestling, like actually build a story that leads to a thing.
00:31:04
Speaker
Right. I think some people don't have the patience for it, but it's cool to see them. They've been they've been milking this for a while and we'll see what the payoff is. But yeah. And like you were saying about the universal title match, just chaos. This is a fucking shit show with a lot of tables getting broken. And Kane did his job. That was that Kane was there to take the fall. Yeah. And at one point, Stroman like very leisurely fell into a table.
00:31:30
Speaker
Yeah, and it broke it, shattered it. Now fun spots, especially the Strowman knee followed by the Lesnar punch, that was fun. Yeah, it kinda was what it was. It wasn't bad. I think it ended the way people thought it was gonna end, so. Yeah. Not a bad thing, but just, I think everyone kinda knows where these things are going, so. Other than tonight, also, two Japanese people won the Royal Rumbles.
Conclusion and Future Storylines
00:31:59
Speaker
Yeah. That's fuckin' awesome.
00:32:01
Speaker
Yeah. Like to not just see a, you know, a bunch of white people winning stuff. Big night for WWE. Great show. This was, I don't know. This gives me a little, you know, some hope going into WrestleMania where the last few years going in, it felt like they had to work their way out of some shit. And this one feels like they have a strong story going into it with a lot of different people, a lot of different stuff going in. You know, just, it has me excited. Like when wrestling's good, it's so much fun.
00:32:29
Speaker
Yeah, I'm right there with you. I'm, I like, I thought that they handled everything tonight as well as they could. I'm excited for the shows coming up this week. And obviously like I've been saying, I'm excited for WrestleMania already, especially with all the packages they've been running on the network. So. Yeah. I mean, after this, I'm going to get on and watch that, uh, you know, their documentary they did about mania Orlando last year. Yeah. I just finished watching that while I was waiting on you. It was a good, good one. Do you see me in there anywhere?
00:32:57
Speaker
I didn't. I was looking for you though. Well, I'll look for me and I'll tell you. All right. This is a, this has been a special episode of predetermined a pro wrestling hangout. Thanks so much for sticking around for the dark match. Uh, we'll be back same time this week. We're going to give you a normal episode. Hopefully, you know, maybe some things have progressed that story wise happened at the rumble. I don't know. We'll see.
00:33:21
Speaker
Thanks for listening, everyone. This has been awesome. Love talking about how the pay-per-view went right after the pay-per-view happened. So you'll see more of these in the future, and we'll be back here in a few days. Hit our damn music.