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Predetermined: A Pro Wrestling Hangout- Episode 002- You'll Always Remember Your First
61 Plays8 years ago
In this weeks episode Garrett and Derrick breakdown the cards for their first ever live shows, discuss Garrett's recent trip to a Ring of Honor TV taping, and the upcoming Royal Rumble.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Predetermined' Wrestling Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in to Predetermined, a pro wrestling hangout. I am your host Garrett Callender, and with me as always, my best friend in the world, Derek Halpin. We're back, baby!
00:00:11
Speaker
We're back. We're doing it. Today,
Overview of Topics: ROH, WWE, Royal Rumble Predictions
00:00:13
Speaker
we're going to talk about a Ring of Honor show I went to over the weekend. We're going to talk about the first wrestling shows we ever attended. And then from there, I think we're going to transition into talking about everything WWE that's happened this week and what's going to happen with the Royal Rumble this coming Sunday. So should be exciting stuff. Lots to talk about, man. And
Live Recording Dynamics
00:00:31
Speaker
don't forget, we are recording this live. So as always, the card is subject to change. We're standing in the gorilla position right now. So if somebody could hit our damn music.
00:01:03
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:12
Speaker
It's good to be back. It is awesome to be back. I missed it. I kind of I kind of miss doing this So I was ready to chat with you again because last time I feel like we spent so much time talking about what we were gonna be doing Let's write fucking do it right now. That was an introduction. We're in we were in the shit now. It's it's game time Let's do this. I had a week of wrestling man. Like I know I saw that
00:01:35
Speaker
I had a great fucking time. I went to a
Ring of Honor Experience in Nashville
00:01:38
Speaker
Ring of Honor show over the weekend at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium. It was my first time going there. Those Ring of Honor shows, man, there is starting to be a lot more people at those than there used to be.
00:01:51
Speaker
It does feel like they're getting a lot of momentum. They're getting a little bit more exposure. And that's a good thing. So I mean, go ahead. Lay it on us, man. What happened this weekend? I mean, if I have to walk you from beginning to end on what this show is like, I think it's kind of crazy. Wrestling can really bring people back together.
00:02:08
Speaker
For sure. In college, I used to hang out. What's up? Exactly. Like this motherfucker I'm talking to right now. So in college, I used to go hang out at a record store all the time. And I would just kind of hang out there and talk to the employees. And Saturday
Power of Online Wrestling Communities
00:02:26
Speaker
morning, morning of that Ring of Honor show, I saw a guy that I had not talked to in a decade that worked at that record store get retweeted by the Young Bucks.
00:02:36
Speaker
Oh shit. About wanting to go to that show, but not having anybody to go with. That's a hell of a way to start the morning. Yeah. So I responded to that. I was like, Hey man, I'm here. You got a place to stay. Let's do it. So, uh, a guy hadn't seen it a decade, slept at my apartment that night. Great start to the day. So guy, uh, he had to hop in the car, drive like three hours to Nashville to see some wrestling. Yeah.
00:03:03
Speaker
You know what, I think people get too afraid to go to wrestling shows by themselves. I don't know if you've ever done it. Yeah, I have. I did it a lot. No shame. I have no shame. It is really a place that, even alone, you should go. Because if you're a wrestling fan, you're in a room full of people who want to talk to you about wrestling. Sometimes you just have to scratch that itch, man. Sometimes you need wrestling, and you don't necessarily need a partner to go with you.
00:03:28
Speaker
No, man. So you had so you had a friend come in that you haven't talked to in like a decade and man starting the day off seeing him get retweeted by the young bucks. So yeah, he was doing it right. And then like the young bucks, you know, we're telling him he should go. And then that resulted in just a bunch of people from the Internet telling him he should go. So ended up, you know, the Internet can sometimes be a nice community sometimes. It's really hard to get there. But it would have been really funny to hear like a really diplomatic position telling him why he shouldn't go.
00:03:58
Speaker
I don't think you should make that drive. Gas is too expensive. Right. It's dangerous out there. You've already listened to all your podcasts that you have, so you have nothing for the drive. Do you have a family? Do you have a family that could lose you and potentially there goes their meal ticket? There are things to consider. If you crash on in the way, what are you going to do? Your dogs are just going to not eat anymore? That's going to be a horrible day. Luckily, none of that happened.
00:04:23
Speaker
No, this is a hypothetical I don't see happening. No, I mean, good for the internet, kind of rallying around wanting them to go, and the young bucks telling them to go, and you having a place for them. That's how your day began.
00:04:37
Speaker
Yeah, everything just kind of worked out. And so I told you last time Leah and I got those matching New Japan tracksuits. Yeah, we talked
Personal Encounters with Wrestling Icons
00:04:46
Speaker
about that. And I was kind of anxious to see what they looked like. And then holy shit, I see the pictures. I just start laughing immediately because Leah looks super serious and she's like into into it like.
00:04:57
Speaker
Oh, let me tell you this. I have never dressed wacky to a show. Like, I feel like in a lot of WWE shows, you see people dressing up as, you know, the classic characters and everything. But, you know, I feel like this was a costume. This was not just clothing. It was a bit of a costume. Oh, and you want to be the belle of a ball at the Ring of Honor or New Japan shows? Wear that tracksuit.
00:05:28
Speaker
I've never had to talk to people about my clothes more than I did that night. And there was no way to not sound like an asshole when they asked where I got it.
00:05:43
Speaker
Oh, I just happened to go to Japan a few weeks ago and got this in person. I didn't order it online. I wanted to get it, you know, while I was actually in Japan. And me and my wife now, we got matching track suits for New Japan. It's kind of our thing. There were so many people that were so excited to figure out where they could get one too. And they were like, well, I actually just got it in Japan. And there were a couple people. So pretentious. It is. It is. Such an asshole. There's no way to not just sound like a dick.
00:06:11
Speaker
And there was one guy that I was like, well, I actually just got it in Japan. And he just stared at me and said... He just stares at me and goes, do you go to Wrestle Kingdom? And I said...
00:06:26
Speaker
Yeah, I did. And then he just goes, fuck you and walks away. Just like not a fun, playful fuck you, like a real fuck you. He's mad that somebody else had a good time and he didn't. So, you know, I was really getting like some some heel heat there, but also, you know, a little bit of baby face and there's some people were excited. They should be. We waited in line for like almost 90 minutes to meet the young bucks.
00:06:53
Speaker
were you like like towards the back of the line the line basically existed to be there for the Young Bucks if you wanted to beat anyone else like basically the elite had this crazy line I've I've seen the Young Bucks wrestle more than any other you know wrestlers
00:07:09
Speaker
just from live shows. I've seen them so many times, never met them. That's the crazy part. That's what I was going to bring up is that like you more than the average Joe, especially from your time living in LA and go into all the PWG shows there, you've had plenty of opportunities to either run into them or meet them or something, right? Well, like you said, I know the first show that Derek and I ever attended together wasn't until last year, believe it or not. We went to Ring of Honor in Chicago. Yeah, this past summer. Yeah.
00:07:38
Speaker
Where was I going with that? I really lost my train of thought. We were talking about you meeting the Young Bucks and how you haven't done that up until this point even if you've had plenty of chances to. Sorry, if I forget what I'm saying, I like to call those potholes.
00:07:53
Speaker
They're gonna hit some of those. No, those are called botches in this field. Oh yes, botches, sorry, not potholes. But no, so when we went to that show, I warned you, I said, hey, just so you know, when we get in this room, I am gonna boo the shit out of the young bucks. They're piece of shit heels, not gonna put up with it.
00:08:13
Speaker
And I don't watch Ring of Honor weekly. I should, I'm starting to do it more. I tend to just go to a lot of their shows and follow what I can, you know, online. We get to that show, they're just super baby face.
00:08:29
Speaker
and you look over and I'm just- Were you expecting that? I'm cheering like it's 1996 and that was Hulk Hogan. Did you feel, was it a little bit relieving to kind of be in a setting where they're over as babyfaces and they just went with it, like so that you could cheer for them? Well, I guess I should say in PWG, they were the biggest piece of shit heels. Like they were in the best, I've never seen somebody get booed and cheered simultaneously more than them, but I was a big fan of booing and you know, cheering on those babyfaces.
00:08:56
Speaker
But here in Chicago we cheer assholes, that's what we do.
00:08:59
Speaker
Finally getting to cheer the Young Bucks felt so good. But me just instantly betraying what I told you I was going to do with no warning. This was also the show we went to over this past summer. This was the first time I ever saw or heard of cheeseburger. Oh, boy. Oh, man. My world was changed immediately. There's nothing better than taking somebody to a Ring of Honor show, them not knowing who cheeseburger is, and then just getting to see him.
00:09:28
Speaker
That's not what you expect at all when he comes out. It's like, what the fuck? I don't know how I should react to this because Ring of Honor shows typically tape three or four episodes out of taping. And those get aired over the coming weeks. So I don't know how many spoilers I should give out about the show. Cheeseburger did a, he was at the show. He had a good match. He's got a lot coming up on his plate. Let me just say that. Okay.
00:09:55
Speaker
But either way, get there, get in line, wait to meet the Young Bucks, because I wanted to get them to sign my Wrestle Kingdom program since we're going to meet Nido soon. I was like, you know, get as many of the people that were there to sign the program as possible. But we get up to the Bucks. I'm not going to lie. They OK, so they made you. You didn't get to just meet the Young Bucks. You had to also meet Hangman Page. Right. I don't have a relationship with Hangman.
00:10:20
Speaker
I don't, I hate saying it. I was never, I'm not a huge hangman fan. He's starting to win me over more. But I said to the guy that I went with and my wife, I'm like, I don't, what am I going to do? I don't want to get up there and I don't want hangman to sign my program.
00:10:36
Speaker
He was like, he wasn't there. I don't want just this extra signature on there. I'm like, this is going to be awkward. So we get up, the Bucks see our tracksuits and then just go, I'm going to guess you were at Wrestle Kingdom. They just that's that's where it started. Oh, yeah. And it was like, well, good guess. And then during all this time, Leah is talking to one of the young Bucks wife wives about our honeymoon because one of the wives are the ones that take the picture for you when you get up there to him.
00:11:01
Speaker
And so things are going well, getting some two sweets, doing the whole thing, end up next to Hangman in the picture. Nick Jackson signs it, Matt Jackson signs it. Nick Jackson looks at me and says, what do you want Hangman to do? Do you want him to sign it too? He really sold me out right there in that moment. And then I looked at Hangman and we just made eye contact. I didn't say a word. And I think he knew that meant no.
00:11:33
Speaker
So you got to be the asshole to be like, I don't want your fucking signature, dude. Well, he ended up being very nice, and he ended up giving me one of the eight by tens in addition to signing. Okay, nice. So he didn't sign the program, but he gave me an eight by ten of the three of them with their belts. So we got our picture, got to, you know, hold one of those belts. There's nothing more fun than getting to hold somebody's title belt while it is currently theirs. That's pretty awesome.
00:11:59
Speaker
Uh, for instance,
Memorable WWE Show Experiences
00:12:00
Speaker
uh, Leah's favorite wrestler, my wife, she loves Dalton castle. So we ended up getting to meet him as well. And she got to hold the ROH title and I bet she was, I bet she was marking out like a motherfucker. Oh, she was excited. I feel like I would have been a little more excited to hold the title, but I didn't want to take that away from her.
00:12:18
Speaker
After all the shit she's put up with over the years, I feel like that's the least you can do for her. Yeah, I gave her that. And then also, when he was signing the picture, he said, dude, who do I make this out to? And she goes, just Leah, not Garrett. And he says, OK. And what he ends up writing is, to Leah, don't tell Garrett about this eight by 10.
00:12:44
Speaker
Was she happy with that? The best thing about Dalton is that the whole time during a meet and greet, he is in character. So you're like really getting to meet Dalton Castle. You're not meeting the man that he is. You know, he actually is. But I witnessed something in that line that. Oh, boy. So we all heard a loud clang. OK. And it was somebody. I have no idea where this is going, by the way.
00:13:12
Speaker
This is while we were in line to meet Dalton and we like peek around the line to be like, what happened? Somebody dropped Dalton Castle's title. He's the current Ring of Honor champion. He drops it. But the person that dropped it was a little person. OK. And so everybody is just like, I don't know how to react to this currently. Am I allowed to be mad? He was in character. And I think even he had a moment of like, I don't know how mad I'm allowed to be, but I'm going to. But he was still.
00:13:43
Speaker
He still scolded him in character. So it was nice. Don't drop my title. Don't drop that. And everybody after that though, he's like, you can hold it, but it's already been dropped tonight and I can't let that keep happening. But yeah, we ended up front row. Imagine how shitty that person felt.
00:14:04
Speaker
Oh, I have to imagine the rest of the night he was the guy that dropped the ROH title right on the floor. Cuz in your head when you're picking up the belt you're like you're definitely thinking okay out of everything I just can't drop it. That's the one thing I can't do.
00:14:18
Speaker
I've never held the heavyweight championship by somebody who had it. The only other belt I've held besides the six-man tag belts at that show, Ricochet let me hold the IWGP tag belts from New Japan when I met him once, and that was, I'll be honest, it feels pretty sweet, but one day,
00:14:38
Speaker
heavyweight champion's gonna let me hold that belt. Oh man. So it sounds like you and Leah basically got your fantasies fulfilled as far as meeting the young bucks in Dalton Castle. Oh, and to just, I mean, it kept going. Like while we were at the show in the middle of his match, spoiler alert, he has a title match against punishment Martinez, which we actually, the first time I saw punishment was with you. Oh, and here in Chicago? Yeah, he's a large, scary man. Yeah.
00:15:06
Speaker
But in the middle of his match, Dalton threw punishment into the gate right in front of us. You'll be able to see us a lot in the upcoming episodes wearing these bright track suits. Oh, and they'll stand out. The track suits will give you away to everyone watching. Right in the entrance, in the way they all came in, they aimed the camera right at us. But in the middle of the match with punishment, he slams them into the barricade in front of us, looks up at Leah, and just strokes her face with his hand, and then picks punishment back up to throw him back into the ring.
00:15:38
Speaker
So I guess, is it a fair question to ask, is this the most fun Leah's had at a show with you? A hundred percent. She loved that. She actually liked the attention we were getting because of the tracksuits, I think. But also when the Bucks had their match, mid-match, Matt Jackson like rolls out and sees us and he ends up too sweet in us and going, the honeymooners.
00:16:04
Speaker
You were a focal point of the show. I guess what I'm saying is I like being fussed over. You like the attention? Oh, I think I enjoyed the attention. But being front row, I had not done that since the show I'm going to talk about after this. The very first show I went to, I have not been front row since. It is really fun to get to bang on stuff and to just be there and really give it to them.
00:16:28
Speaker
Yeah, when I first started going to wrestling shows in, like, 04, 05, my first set of shows that I went to, it was like I was always within a few rows of the ring. So, I mean, that was my beginning experience. It hasn't been until the last few years that I've actually sat far away from the action. Yeah, I'm at a weirder place in my life where, like, if I can't... Well, I love to be in front row, but I also am, like, if it's at a larger venue, if I can be in a riser where I can just see fine.
00:16:56
Speaker
Right. I can I can be satisfied with that. But yeah, you were showing me pictures of some of the first shows you went to. And at that time, when you were going to those, I had no idea how close you were sitting. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I lucked out. Like, I mean, my first my first WWE show, I guess, if you want to just go right into talking about that, my first WWE show was right on the aisle where the wrestlers walked down. And I just love that vibes. Oh.
00:17:26
Speaker
doing a lot doing lots of that that was the thing that got me what you were talking about was my first show was in February of 2004 and it was a house show in Springfield, Illinois at the Prairie Capital Convention Center on February 21st 2004. Oh boy. And man what a card and
00:17:47
Speaker
The thing that hooked me, the thing that made it so much fun was I got interactions with the people coming out, which I totally hadn't counted on. I just kind of figured they would walk to the ring, do their thing, and get out of there. And then ended up, man, I had multiple guys gesture or acknowledge me. And I got to slap hands with Trish Stratus, which teenage me was just proud of. How old were you at this point?
00:18:11
Speaker
Oh God, I must have been maybe 17 or 16. You were made of boners at that point. Yeah, practically. Like you were just straight made of erections, and you touched Trish on it. I was just a bunch of glued together penises at this point, and
00:18:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean that may have been the highlight of the night for me was getting to slap hands with Trish Straddish. But man, let me go over this card real quick for my first show. Opening match was Stevie Richards with Victoria on the outside against Tess. Lance Storm defeated Nick Densmore who would later go on to be Eugene. Wait, I'm going to play a game here and just see how many people out of
00:18:55
Speaker
the people you're naming are no longer with us. Test is gone, right? Yeah, Test is not with us anymore. Like I said, Lance Storm and Nick Dinsmore had a match. Dinsmore went on to be Eugene at this time. The only Lance Storm match I've ever seen was him fighting Matt Hardy about a few months before the broken gimmick started.
00:19:24
Speaker
And they got booed out of the goddamn building, both of them. Where were you at for that one? Where were we? We were in Dallas at WrestleCon. Wow. So that would have been WrestleMania weekend. And it was just, that would have been, what, Mania 32?
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah, and that match, like, cause it was a night of like five hours of matches. And when we, when they got to them, like he just, they wanted that match to be over so bad because he was just a waste of time. And to think like six months later, you know, a year later, whatever. It was the hottest thing in wrestling. Yeah. Yeah. He was the hottest thing. Sorry to interrupt.
00:19:59
Speaker
No, you're good. Rico with Jackie defeated Horseshoe. Who's Rico? Rico. Who's Horseshoe? OK, no, here's the funny thing. You'll be more likely to know who Horseshoe is than Rico is. So Rico was the manager at one time for Billy and Chuck when they were doing their whole the gay lovers angle where they were a tag team. And then he ended up becoming a singles competitor.
00:20:28
Speaker
and he was flamboyant, that was kind of like his shtick. Horseshoe though. Horseshoe wrestled under the name, I think Luther Raines when he came up on TV, but you would know him as the jacked out muscle guy from the girl next door that they run into at the porn convention? What the fuck? That's such a random person that you've seen wrestle.
00:20:55
Speaker
Yeah. Does that end? No. I've seen him wrestle multiple times. Does that up your enjoyment of that movie? Absolutely. And the funny thing is, I don't know when I made the connection that they were the same person. But when I did, I was like, oh, this is a treat. I've seen this guy live in person multiple times. That's how I felt when I figured out that Nash was super shredder. I think there's no way.
00:21:20
Speaker
Because that was before the internet. I mean, that got around late. That's something he'd done. Oh, figuring stuff out was hard. Yeah.
00:21:29
Speaker
Wait, this is such a, this is, it's fun because like you sent me the card earlier and I just focused on the big names, not like all these mid-card matches, you know, that of guys that, cause this was definitely during the time period that I, that I bowed out for a while. Right. Yeah. You definitely weren't paying attention at this time. Oh, I powdered. Mark Jendrack and Garrison Cade beat Kevin Furtig and Travis Tomko.
00:21:56
Speaker
Were these matches fun? Like at this point, you were probably still losing your mind, right? Yeah, I mean, I really wasn't in a position to complain. I mean, it's my first wrestling show. I mean, Tomko would later go on to be a Christian's bodyguard for a couple of years, and then went to TNA with him too. And then we got to Diva's tag match of Trish Stratus and Lita against Molly Holly and Jazz with Teddy Long on the outside. Holla holla holla.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah, that actually honestly of the matches you've said so far that's the one that got me excited first Yeah, and you're and you're approaching the middle middle of the card, too And so after so after Trish and Lita when they're coming back down the aisle, and I'm just like oh god There's no way so I reach my hand out and boom Trish Stratus like I can't can't remember if she grabbed my hand or slapped my hand or whatever but
00:22:48
Speaker
How big was wrestling at this point? Was the building completely full? I think there was like 6,000, 4,000 people there. I've been to the Prairie Capital Convention Center as well. I've seen Slipknot there. Terrible gauge of how many people are in that building though. At this point, you could drive? You guys drove yourselves?
00:23:15
Speaker
Um, actually we went with a bunch of, uh, one of my friend's family. So they drove and we just rode along and it wasn't like a thing I had to worry about. So just kind of, uh, yeah, kind of went ape shit. Who was sitting around you? Did you have, uh, anybody memorable? Like, did you have, like, was it, uh, people your age or did you have some older guys getting drunk and yelling?
00:23:35
Speaker
No, I mean there were some adults there were some kids. I mean it was a mixture of everybody It's kind of what the audience is now if I mean I went with a couple friends Now they I mean I don't remember the building feeling empty like it seemed like it was pretty big Okay, I know I know Smackdown came back to that same building. I
00:23:54
Speaker
Cuz they know during the brand split smackdown came back. I think that summer I think they did a little bit less at the time But this for this this house, I don't think it was an issue Okay, who would you have next? Christian defeated Val Venus
00:24:11
Speaker
Good. So I got to see. And here was the thing. So when Christian came out, me and one of my friends, we started, you know, doing the like the exaggerated bow as he came out and said the peeps. We told him the peeps are here, Christian. And he looked over. He saw us and he gave us his two finger point. And it was I fucking marked like in. And I think from that point on, I was kind of solidified as a pretty big Christian fan.
00:24:35
Speaker
There's moments in your life that when you meet some of these guys, it doesn't matter how old you are, they can make you feel like a child. Absolutely. And I think that this is definitely one of those moments because, man, years later, I still feel like Christian was one of the most underrated guys they ever had. Yeah, no, I think that was my first like, oh my god, this guy just acknowledged me and I'm losing my fucking mind.
00:25:01
Speaker
Well, when that happens to you when you're 16, that's much more, I feel, socially acceptable than me being 30 years old, meeting Kenny Omega. And then as I'm walking away, he just goes, hey, I guess he's standing up in the PWG ring, and I was the last person in line before he left. He just goes, hey, I turn around, and he's standing there, and he goes, too sweet me. And he held the too sweet out, and I too-suited Kenny Omega.
00:25:28
Speaker
And as I'm walking back to my seat, I was probably fucking blushing. That makes sense, though. I met Batman is that like after it happens, you were probably running on a high for the longest time. Like I can't believe that just fucking happened. Oh, like, I mean, I still look at that picture sometimes. I'm like shortly after this was taken.
00:25:48
Speaker
He called me back over to two-sweet me. That's pretty fucking awesome, though. I mean, it's you specifically. And you weren't even wearing your new Japan tracksuit. Look at that. No, no, he was just in American Legion Hallpost 308. Your essence, your appearance, everything about you just drew Kenny Omega to you. Did Valvenus touch you?
00:26:09
Speaker
Valvenus did not touch me. I would have remembered that too because, I mean, he's a porn star, right? Yeah, I know that was like when you saw him when the last time I had watched Valvenus at that point, like he was definitely still doing the porn star thing. And at that point, was he still doing Hello Ladies? Did he bring?
00:26:26
Speaker
I think at this point, this was when Val Venis was going through his jobber stage on Raw. That was his gimmick, was that he was there to get his ass kicked. I think they still alluded to him being kind of a porn star, but it didn't fucking matter because he didn't look cool when he was getting his ass handed to him. Which is weird when he's like, yeah, you might be beating the shit out of me, but later I'm going to be fucking.
00:26:47
Speaker
Now here's where this part of the cards where things get interesting because this is this is the thing that sucks. So my first like my first set of shows that I go to are kind of based around somebody that the wrestling community or I guess WWE not the wrestling community WWE doesn't like talking about insane clown posse. Good one WCW probably doesn't like talking about them but they're not around anymore. Oh boy.
00:27:13
Speaker
Yeah. Say his name. Say he who shall not be named. He shall who not. Chris Benoit. Chris Benoit had an interview from the coach. And I think the coach ended up getting a Crippler cross face for doing his job.
00:27:29
Speaker
And yeah, that was the main event of the night too. Chris Benoit versus Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship was the main event. But we got through Kane versus Jericho, which was fun. There was some Undertaker like sound effect shenanigans that went on during the match, I think. And then Booker T and Rob Van Dam defended the tag titles against Randy Orton and Batista. And I think Orton was Intercontinental Champion at the time. Randy Orton who was left out of Raw 25.
00:27:59
Speaker
Yeah, we'll talk about that later, but what the fuck? Well, I'll be honest, we're kind of there. We're not done with this. We'll put a pin in it, but I just got to say real quick, part of me was like, yeah, he's probably not there because he didn't want to be.
00:28:14
Speaker
Well, you see, I thought that, but then I heard that his wife went off online saying it was bullshit that he wasn't there. So I have to assume that was something talked about in the house, right? I bet he's like, God, I'm happy to be home. I bet it seems like I don't want like it. They probably know. OK, honey, can you like tweet to make it seem like I'm angry? Because I am loving this night off, but I don't need them to know that.
00:28:37
Speaker
I don't know, he dished out a pretty enthusiastic RKO on SmackDown. So yeah, he may very well have been like, ah, I'm refreshed. I can show up at my job. He was well rested enough to give Shinsuke that RKO out of nowhere. Oh, that was a good one, though. Oh, but for real, the only person who wants to be at a WWE show less than my wife is Randy Orton. Man, is it weird that he has that reputation? I kind of respect it a little bit.
00:29:07
Speaker
I don't like going to work either. Yeah, but when you work, it's a little bit different. This is neither here nor there, but I just find it weird. You'll hear rumors that he's not happy with the direction his character's going in, and then at the same time, you'll hear rumors like, oh, I don't particularly like being here that much anyway. And it's like, ugh. I don't know what you, I don't know.
00:29:31
Speaker
I guess the way I look at it is like everybody loved Stone Cold because he beat up his boss. And that's like everybody's fantasy is they want to fight their boss. Right. But for me, I know that's not going to happen. I'm never going to hit my boss. But I do know that I hate going to work. So you're imposing his real life feelings into his character, and that's what makes you enjoy him. The thing is, I don't think his character is different from him.
00:30:01
Speaker
Like he's one guy that when he comes to the ring, he's just like, fuck, I don't wanna be here. You can see it in my walk. Other than there was one show, I went to a house show in LA at the Staples Center once and the whole match was just fucking weird. And like he was smiling and he was kinda stumbling and I talked to somebody who was in the front row later and they're like, cause he ended up going around and he shook hands with every fucking person. I'm like, wow, Randy's having a good night. And they're like, yeah, he smelled like booze.
00:30:31
Speaker
So he went and worked drunk he's like I don't give a shit and he's like I need this to care Here's the funny thing to kind of talk about this a little bit more and then we'll go over the card from your very first show Which lucky you you went to a WCW show for your first show. Oh boy
00:30:48
Speaker
A couple years ago you were visiting me here and we were talking about one of the reasons you liked Lesnar was that like he was in a position to make demands and he just was like he like he does not give like Two shits if it offends anybody he's gonna work the part-time schedule and for him it's just punching in doing his thing where he throws people around and
00:31:10
Speaker
and then he goes home and he doesn't stress and he doesn't really get caught up in like the politics of stuff backstage or worrying about how people feel about him like to him it's like you said it's literally just like a job and maybe he has passion for pro wrestling like i've i've heard i've heard that like his like because he beat you know undertaker and ended the streak i heard that there was like he was kind of emotional about it
00:31:35
Speaker
that like he wasn't just like didn't give a shit like I heard that like it kind of meant it meant something to him so I mean there's some there's someone in there that still cares right if you saw him crying it was because he knew he was gonna have to work a lot more now which isn't even that much he's just he's talking to his wife he's just like I beat him I didn't mean to
00:31:59
Speaker
This wasn't my idea. I didn't realize there were gonna be so many expectations for me. I didn't realize my actions had consequences. It's like, you have the universal title right now. I know, and it sucks. It is funny to think of it from that perspective where Vince comes in, so you're gonna beat Goldberg for the universal championship at WrestleMania. He's like, oh God, no, no. He's like, Rina, don't you know that now I have to carry this around in a backpack?
00:32:27
Speaker
Has this Minnesota or Canada? He's both. It's also me not being able to do an accent, but also me loving to do a Brock Lesnar voice. You know what? Let's do it, man. I ran down my first show. I had a good time. Main event, like I said, was Ben Wall versus Triple H and Triple H retained.
00:32:48
Speaker
World, it was a house show in Springfield, Illinois. They weren't gonna switch belts there, so. Do you, can you, I don't know, I do go to a lot of house shows still. I
Live vs. Televised Wrestling Shows
00:32:57
Speaker
have fun at the house shows, but when they call things title matches,
00:33:01
Speaker
Can you still get excited that maybe somebody's going to win a title at a house show? Because it's really hard for me. It depends on how you look at it. I was just talking with my girlfriend last week about this because she was asking me about the differences between your experiences at live events and your experience at house shows. And this is what I've always said. The house shows are basically them practicing for their pay-per-view matches.
00:33:24
Speaker
So the match quality, in comparison to what you usually get on TV, seems to be a lot better in my experience at house shows. And if you go for the pro wrestling part of the show, house shows are way better, in my opinion. And so I can kind of put aside the fact that the title's probably not going to change hands unless it's like Madison Square Garden or LA and it's been like four or five years since it's happened. Didn't AJ win the US title from Kevin Owens at Madison Square Garden over the summer?
00:33:54
Speaker
Yeah, that did in a house show. Yeah, and it was a shock to everybody. Yeah, it blew my fucking mind. And I guess that's cool. For the people in the building, that's awesome. Right. No, to me, that's not a hang up. You go into it. The kids don't know.
00:34:11
Speaker
Because the eight-year-old kids sitting there, oh man, we're getting to see a World Heavyweight Championship title match. The title's on the line. And to them, it's just, they're enjoying the show. Once you get to a certain age, you realize, I'm just here to watch a good time. No, that's where I'm at, too. The most recent house show I went to, I went by myself and where I was sitting. Because when you go to a house show, it tends to be mostly families.
00:34:37
Speaker
try taking somebody to Raw who doesn't watch wrestling. It fucking sucks. You're there for like four hours. It's a long, it's a whole deal. Like it takes up a long time. There's a lot of breaks. Like you just, a lot of downtime. When you're at a house show, it's just kind of one after another, a lot of fun. And getting to watch the kids and just see who they love is so fun. Like the last one I went to, the person they pop for the most was Kane. Which you never would suspect.
00:35:04
Speaker
Not in a million years. It was Kane versus Braun Strowman. And when Kane's music hit, watching like all of these kids that are like 10 and under pull out little cell phones to take pictures of the monster man who's walking down the aisle. Yeah. And this was 18 years ago, I kind of understand, but holy shit. And I think the other match they got pretty excited for was Enzo Amore.
00:35:31
Speaker
Yeah. Good fucking riddance, sir. Yeah. We're just going to skirt that issue because that's a whole episode unto itself. Just know I stand with the victim on this one. Fuck Enzo Amore. Get him out of there. I'm done.
00:35:46
Speaker
I mean, he's fired. But I keep hearing conflicting reports. I don't know. I don't know what to think at this point. I'm not siding with either side. I mean, clearly, if he's fucking done something, then fuck him. And I'm glad that he's gone. He didn't really do anything for me anyway at this point. I remember a year or two ago, I thought he was incredibly entertaining and over, but then just, I think, separating him from Big Cass. Whatever, whatever, whatever. Fuck him. Fuck him.
00:36:12
Speaker
Talk to me talk to me about world championship wrestling. Okay, so WCW my first wrestling show was May 10th 2000 mm-hmm WCW Thunder oh Man this thing a WCW Thunder show in the year 2000
00:36:33
Speaker
Why
First Wrestling Show: WCW Thunder 2000
00:36:34
Speaker
like isn't that kind of used as a joke? Like the measuring stick that's why I love being able to say that my first show is WCW Thunder in the year 2000 Oh man, because when I read you this fucking card, you're gonna be like man you had to drive to that
00:36:53
Speaker
there's honestly there's a couple matches in this that I was like that's pretty funny but the rest of this like when I read you these names also online I found somebody who recapped the entire show move by move
00:37:09
Speaker
Really? They wrote out everything that happened in a match, which got to remind me of certain things in matches that I was just like, Oh my God, here we go. Let's start with this. Okay. My dad went and waited in a line to get tickets, ended up getting front row tickets.
00:37:25
Speaker
I was, as a kid, blown away. First wrestling show, front row, couldn't be more excited. First match of the night. Oh, go ahead. From my perspective, I remember when you went to this being super jealous, number one, and then finding out that you were front row being like, well, how the fuck did he make that happen? And then immediately getting over the jealousy, being excited for you and then be like, you have to put my name on a sign. You have to take a sign and my name has to be on it because you're going to be on TV.
00:37:52
Speaker
Oh, I believe one side of the sign said your name and then the other side of the sign because we were in a pretty big Jeff Jarrett era of that. I think it may have said something about slap nuts. That was definitely the Jeff Jarrett slap nuts era. I wanted that slap nuts t-shirt so bad and I was not allowed. You specifically asked your dad for it and he was like, fuck you. You are not getting a shirt that says choke on this slap nuts.
00:38:20
Speaker
You are in like this. What grade would that have even been? I don't know been like Seventh eighth grade somewhere. Yeah, I think it would have been like six or seventh grade Jesus. Okay first match of the night Let's see if we you remember any of these fucking people cuz I'll believe I'll be honest. I don't I bet you I will I bet you I will cuz I know you're gonna say crowbar at some point and
00:38:44
Speaker
first match. Did you look this up already? I didn't. I swear to god. Oh my god. First match of the night WCW cruiserweight champion hard knocks Chris Candido with Tammy versus crowbar. Yes. With Daphne.
00:39:09
Speaker
Do you remember the ladies? Yeah, I do. They were, were they two of the nitro girls or would those have been? No, Daphne was like a crazy bitch. That was her gimmick. She was, she was crazy. I think she, I think she had dyed her hair black. She was pale and she just shrieked. That was like her sh like, that was her shtick is that you sh the match would be going on. So it'd be happening. You'd just hear her. I remember Daphne and that is only because of a match that happened later in the night. She also came back out.
00:39:37
Speaker
Oh, man, you got a double dosage of Daphne. Let's see who won this. Hard knocks. Chris Candido was the winner via diving headbutt. And also, I'm going to read you the times of these matches because I think it actually took longer to drive than I actually got to see wrestling. Are you taking out segments?
00:39:58
Speaker
Uh, this includes all the segments as well, but just pure wrestling saw very little of it. Hard knocks. Chris Candido goes over crowbar via the diving head, but four minutes, 52 seconds. So yeah, that's an attitude error match for sure. Cut to what's going to be the biggest running thing in the, uh, this particular show. We go to a segment of Eric Bischoff requesting that Terry funk hand over his hardcore belt.
00:40:27
Speaker
I'm sure Terry Funk told him to fuck off. He actually said, kiss my ass. That makes sense. See, whenever we talk about the show that you went to, your dad always talks about it like with an eye roll. And then he's always like, but Terry Funk was kind of funny and cool.
00:40:45
Speaker
Because when I read this back to you, you're going to be like, no, Terry Funk was the highlight of that night. It sounds like it. So he what happens is Terry Funk tells Bischoff to kiss his ass. Then he goes to get the cat. Yeah, remember the cat. Oh, Ernest Miller. Yeah. And he says the cat get the heat. So this match, let's see, it looks like this was actually a few matches away. A lot of talking segments.
00:41:12
Speaker
Oh no, match two, here we go. Harlem Heat 2000. Yeah. Which was Jay Biggs, Cash. Who else was in that? It was Stevie Ray.
00:41:24
Speaker
No Booker T. Booker T was already gone, he was not in him at that point. Right, but wasn't Big T, there was like a replacement for a while for Booker T. Big T, you're right, it was Big T. So this match happens for the hardcore title, it's a handicap match, Terry Funk versus four guys. And I hate saying this, so he's having this hardcore match, the weapons he chooses to bring out were two fried chickens.
00:41:53
Speaker
I wonder where the fuck he got those. He walked to the ring with him, started beating the shit out of these four guys with fried chickens. Didn't he use them as boxing gloves or something at one point? I think, from what I remember, he was, I think you're actually thinking of a crank, or not crank two, transporter two, and Statham punches into those watermelons and boxes a guy.
00:42:16
Speaker
I think it was a good idea. That's what I would have done. It was a good idea. He was swinging them by the legs, though. I think they got torn up. But either way, Terry Funk wins via pinfall. Three minutes, 19 seconds. A lot of action in that three minutes and 19 seconds.
00:42:31
Speaker
Four guys cannot beat up the oldest man you've ever seen in three minutes. Who is armed with turkeys. Like, he falls into a category. There's just certain wrestlers that you're like, how old are they? Like, somebody asked me that about Silas Young. Do you know Silas? He's an ROH? Yeah. Okay. Somebody's like, how old is he? And I was like, I don't know, somewhere between 30 and 60.
00:42:55
Speaker
Like, Terry Funk is, like, in that somewhere, but it's like, fuck, how old's Terry Funk? It's like, well, at that point, he was somewhere between 40 and 80 years old. It was hard to say.
00:43:05
Speaker
There's a few guys in wrestling that when their names come up, even like mainstream guys, that when somebody asks me like how old they are, it comes up for debate. Like guys like Flair or Undertaker, I'm like, I don't fucking know. Like clearly more than 50. And then at that point, then when you step back and look, and what's their career? What's their line of work? Oh, a sport where you take fucking bumps.
00:43:29
Speaker
and get your ass, like, I don't know, that's nuts to me that you can do that kind of stuff that late in life. And fucking Terry Funk. Somewhere Crowbar is looking old, man. You're going to wait until after we're done recording this and then you're going to look up how old Crowbar is right now.
00:43:46
Speaker
And then I'm going to find out that fucking crowbar is dead or something and feel really bad about all this. You should. So just to keep going through the show, there's a lot of backstage segments, a lot involving Vampiro. And this is in the middle of the new blood angle. Oh, yeah. Vince Russo was balls deep in WCW at this point. Love Cornett. So as a kid to hear about that.
00:44:07
Speaker
Oh, I don't know why. I think it was the baseball bat. Like, it didn't take much to get over with me. It was just a dude carrying around a baseball bat. He would come to the ring in a Yankees jersey and a baseball bat just for heat, because everyone hates the Yankees. And I guess this was right in the middle of Sting and Vampiro having a feud. So there's a lot of backstages with them feuding. Match three, Sean Stasek versus Lash LaRue.
00:44:33
Speaker
Sean Stasiak and Lash LaRue. Stasiak, okay. Stasiak, yeah. I don't remember him, I remember Lash LaRue, though. Well, what's funny, the thing that links our two shows, at one time, Jindrak and Stasiak were a tag team. Okay, I gotcha. So Mark Jindrak and Stasiak were a WCW thing. If you had to guess, how long do you think that match was? Oh, less than three. Oh man, you missed it, it's three ten.
00:44:58
Speaker
Oh, shit. Yeah. Let's see. Next match. Oh, my God. Rhonda Singh versus Elizabeth. So I have seen Miss Elizabeth wrestle. OK. But the thing about this match that is a little confusing.
00:45:16
Speaker
is that at one point, okay, I'm guessing you don't remember Rhonda Singh. Oh, I do. I'm actually kind of upset with how much of this I do remember. I am shocked. Rhonda was a bigger lady. She was a larger lady. She kind of had some like, I think like curly, like permed hair or something like that. Honestly, she looked more like a character from Glow.
00:45:38
Speaker
Yes. Than anything. That's a great way of putting it. Like she looks like a glow arrow wrestler. Sure. But she's fighting Miss Elizabeth. Things are not going Miss Elizabeth's way. So what happens? Lex Luger comes out, puts Rhonda in the torture rack. I am not making this up. We came out and watched a giant Lex Express roll into town. Put a woman into the torture rack.
00:46:07
Speaker
That is not the turn I was expecting. Cause in my mind, like you said, she's a bigger lady. I'm like, well, there's no way he can do that.
00:46:14
Speaker
Oh, fucking the he lacks express roles in the town, he says. Do you want me to read like the breakdown of this match? This one's a little shorter. Let's see. Get me to the spot, because that's all I care about. Security walks Liz to the ring. Liz tries to back away from Sing, but gets throttled into the corner. Liz tries to break in the corner, but Sing has none of it. Sing shoves Charles Robinson, Lil' Nate, out of the way and throttles Liz with her big ass. This is the person writing this, not me.
00:46:46
Speaker
The views and opinions expressed here are not necessarily of those of pre-determined podcasts. Liz tries to back away from saying we get throttle. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Liz is showing some good emotion. I'll say that. That's opinion by this guy as well. So basically, Miss Elizabeth is not having a good match. Then Lex enters the ring. He stands between the two women. Sing charges Luger, who evades.
00:47:15
Speaker
Liz then nails Singh with a double boot. Lex puts Singh in the torture rack for the win. Wow. She tapped out and that somehow counts as a win back then. It's WCW. I'm cool with that. How long do you think that match lasted? Uh, four minutes. One minute, 59 seconds. Oh, fuck. I overshot my lot.
00:47:40
Speaker
Okay, then there was a whole bunch of stuff with David Russo, Vince Russo, David Flair and Daphne, which led up to the next match. David Flair versus Arne Anderson. What the fuck? Who had not wrestled since 1997 at this point.
00:48:00
Speaker
Well, did he technically wrestle? I mean, I remember the R.N. Anderson retirement speech at the N.W.O. period, and yeah. Did you actually see R.N. Anderson wrestle, or did just like a thing happen? Oh, they had a match. What? I'm trying to find on here where the actual- Out of all the things to not remember, this is the one that's blowing my mind.
00:48:21
Speaker
Let me see where this falls in. I will say, there's nothing about this show that you should regret being your first show because it's a story.
00:48:32
Speaker
And it's a damn good story. Well, just so you know, to get to their match, I have to skip over several matches. They were the seventh match on the card. It was Arne Anderson versus David Flair. Let's see. At one point Daphne came in to interfere and I have a photograph in front of me of Arne Anderson holding Daphne by the hair prepared to punch her in the face.
00:48:57
Speaker
Somewhere Vince is losing his fucking mind as even being acknowledged and then basically what happened is a Daphne hit Arne with a low blow Disqualification Arne goes over at two minutes and 11 seconds by DQ
00:49:14
Speaker
Jesus, and it cuts some shit outside with, there was like a whole bunch of shit with like Hogan and Nash backstage. What were you doing while all this shit was, were you cheering? Was young Garrett like, did you feel like you were watching an awesome show? Well, I'll tell you, when the Lex Express came out and put her in that torture wreck, I was like into it. I was good to go. Somewhere there's a photograph of him. I would do that as an adult right now, if that happened.
00:49:44
Speaker
It doesn't have to be Lex Luger anybody puts something that big in the torture rack
00:49:50
Speaker
And then as I go through this, there's just a lot of backstage, like with Kat, and then there's some stuff with Norman Smiley and Ralphis dancing on the streets. Not enough Norman Smiley. I think the Goldberg monster truck ran over something. And we get to a point, though, where Bischoff comes out and is like, funk, you got to give me the belt. And he's like, kiss my ass. And he said, all right, you've got to fight again tonight, buddy.
00:50:18
Speaker
So in my first wrestling show, I watched Terry Funk fight twice. Wow. And in that match, it was the main event of WCW Saturday night. That's in quotes, Chuck Palumbo. Yeah, Chuck Palumbo. Yeah, he fought Terry Funk. Guess who won? Funker won. Four minutes, 20 seconds. So, so Chuck Palumbo, remember when I was telling you about where Rico, he was the manager of Billy and Chuck. Okay.
00:50:46
Speaker
Chuck Palumbo was Chuck. So it was Badass Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo were a gay tag team managed by Rico. OK. OK. So wow. We're really tying all these together. Fuck yeah, we are. Let's see. God, we're running long. I'm going to hustle through this a little more. We're almost at an hour. We're getting close. Saw Kidman with Bischoff and the filthy animals face Horace Hogan.
00:51:15
Speaker
And a match that if Horace loses, he gets fired and also Hulk Hogan cannot interfere. I'm assuming Horace won. Horace lost in a six-minute match. There was some kind of interference. He didn't end up getting fired. Okay. But for that night, during that match, at the very end, Hulk Hogan ran out in his, you know, N.W.O. uniform.
00:51:45
Speaker
makes a full lap around the ring chasing somebody, runs backstage, credits on Hulk.
00:51:52
Speaker
Yep. He flew to town for that. And also at that moment. He flew to Springfield, Illinois to run around the ring and probably made a nice payday that day. Oh, same with Nash. Nash walked in the ring. The new blood came out. Russo yelled at him. They dropped blood on his head. My dad's friend who went with us, who looks like Santa Claus, all the blood hit the mat, immediately just splashed straight into his white beard and mouth. And then he just shouts, it's pancake syrup.
00:52:24
Speaker
And at one point, he did get told, shut up fat boy by Rick Steiner. That's worth the price of admission. It's a shame it wasn't Scott, though. Oh, Scott wasn't there, but Rick was in a tag team with, oh shit, what was his name? He was in a tag team with Tank Abbott. I remember this. Tank Abbott was like an old school UFC fighter. Yeah. Wasn't looking the best at this point,
00:52:54
Speaker
And it was a Them versus Chronic, that match. I don't even see how long. And then let's see. The main event though of this show, Mike Awesome versus Sting in an ambulance match.
00:53:08
Speaker
You got to see Sting. You got to see Sting. I did. Runtime of the match, the main event of the show that we went to. Three minutes and 15 seconds. Fuck. What happened for that match? Vampiro runs out, pulls Sting into the ambulance, closes the door, match over. And the air was let out of the building. But, you know, we did get to see Arne Anderson wrestle, saw the funker wrestle twice.
00:53:35
Speaker
Arne Anderson came out of retirement, Hulk Hogan did a lap around the ring. Isn't it weird that in his first match back in like several years, he raised his hand to a woman? Well. I mean, she did hit him in the penis. Well, then it's OK. It's no excuses. Wrestling rules say it's OK. Actually, just speaking of just the women in matches with dudes, have you been watching the
00:54:04
Speaker
The, I want to call it like intergender challenge, but what is it? The mix match challenge? Yeah, you've been watching? Yes, I have been. I have too. It's not bad. I'm kind of digging it. This last one, the one from, I guess we're recording this on a Wednesday. Last night was Biggie and Carmella against Asuka and Miz. I didn't think the match was that great. It was kind of boring. It was kind of like almost like a squash mix tag match.
00:54:27
Speaker
But the one with the Finn Balor and Sasha Banks going over from last week, I thought that was good stuff. And I think it's cool. It's cool the way they're presenting it too with the interaction where you can see like the superstars posting comments while the match is going on.
00:54:45
Speaker
Oh, I'm into it. Like, I think a big part of it is just having fun watching people paired together. Like, Miz and Asuka together, I love Miz. I'm not going to hide that from anyone. Just seeing him interact with anyone brings joy to my heart. But also with each one, I feel like you kind of know who's going to go over, just to like, you're building a roster, you know, the bracket in your head. But I have to ask, you have to fight in the WWE, as you are now. You get no training.
00:55:14
Speaker
Okay. Who is your partner? Like my female partner? For the mix-match challenge. Ooh. That's tough. See, because you could go like, who's got the power that's going to win for me so I never have to get tagged in? Or who's going to be my friend?
00:55:32
Speaker
Well, here's the thing. Can I pick from people who are already taken in this tournament? Yes, you don't have to pick unselected folks. Just picking somebody on straight workability who can go work the match, and I can kind of spend a good chunk of the time outside catching my breath from the three things that I've done. With the three things being get punched in the face, fall down, roll to the corner, drag out. Corner tag. That's exactly. I'd probably take Charlotte, right?
00:56:02
Speaker
Oh, that's a good choice. I mean, she's probably the best female worker, so I know she could wrestle like 99% of the match and be good. Um, I think for my sake, like, so I'm not getting punched in the mouth. I would, Charlotte's a good choice, but just to pick somebody else, probably go Nia Jax or Asuka.
00:56:21
Speaker
Yeah. I think that's a safe bet. I mean, I think after Charlotte, it'd probably be for me like Becky Lynch and Asuka and Bailey. Well, I feel like Becky Lynch would be somebody that I'd want to hang out with. I feel like I'd have fun with Becky. Well, yeah, and that's my opportunity to do it. If this is my only match, like even if it's just me getting my ass handed to me. Are you going to be embarrassed when you cry?
00:56:47
Speaker
I'm not gonna cry. You found a scenario where I will find a way that I don't cry. Fuck you. You're gonna get in there against Braun Strowman.
00:56:57
Speaker
I'm the same guy who told you that I could take like 13 suplexes from Lesnar, no problem. You did not tell me this. I did. We were, we were walking back from a diner at like two in the morning and we were discussing Lesnar suplexing John Cena a whole bunch of times and I told you no big deal. I could do that. Was that the night we ran into Glen Danzig at that diner? Uh, it was at the, yeah, I think so. It was the, it was the night of the Harry Potter porno fanfic.
00:57:25
Speaker
Yeah, that was a weird night. Ran into Glen Danzig. The people listening to this are like, what the fuck are they talking about? They should know who Danzig is because some of the misfits wrestled in WCW for a while. Get your shit together. Let me pull this back. Yeah, my answer is Charlotte Flair. Fuck you. OK, I'm just saying, I know you're going to get in there and you're going to get hit, and it's going to hurt a lot more than you think. How do you know I'm not a really great worker? How do you know that I'm not really good at this and you just don't know about it?
00:57:54
Speaker
I'm gonna go ahead and say neither of us have our cardio. Yeah, but it's a tag match. I'll just take frequent breaks. I feel like one of the only people that I'd be like okay in the ring with, and he's still gonna beat the shit out of me, but at least Big E's gonna be funny about it. Yeah. I'm disappointed that they paired up Becky Lynch and Zami Zane to go against Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss, because I already know who's gonna win.
00:58:23
Speaker
Like, it seems like they really tilted this tournament in favor of Raw. Like, it feels like out of these opening, out of these opening, this first round here, that Raw's gonna win like almost all of them, except for Bobby Roode and Charlotte, they'll probably win. Actually, speaking of Raw, what did you think of what you got to see of the Raw 25, like the 25th anniversary?
00:58:47
Speaker
I
Reflecting on RAW 25th Anniversary
00:58:48
Speaker
don't know. It's similar to the 1,000th episode that they did. I set that with a list, a little episode. I love the nostalgia kick. I do. And I love when they bring all the guys back. Side note, I'm just happy to see Scott Hall in a place where he can go to a show and perform and be together, because Scott was my first favorite wrestler. So it was good seeing him.
00:59:17
Speaker
I don't know if I agree. Doing things at the Manhattan Center at the same time they were doing stuff at the Barclays Center, I thought the idea on paper looked pretty fucking awesome. You hear some reports from some of the fans at both shows and they feel like they got gypped out of half a show because of that. I do agree with that. It was definitely leaning heavy towards the Barclays Center, but also no one really got to see very much wrestling.
00:59:42
Speaker
Yeah, but I think most people kind of knew, you should have known that going in, right? If they're just gonna have like basically an alumni reunion, you shouldn't be surprised when there's just a lot of guest appearances by people. I mean, I think we knew that it was just gonna be a nostalgia show, like not very heavy on the wrestling. And I don't remember who said this to me, but like a week or so ago, when I was watching Raw and the revival came out, they gave that awesome promo. They used the words pro wrestling.
01:00:11
Speaker
Yeah. And I said, I'm like, this is awesome. We're building up the revival. They're going to put on this killer match and you know, they're going to be big. Whoever I talked to, I don't think it was you said to me, they're like, Oh, that's not what's going to happen. They're like, they're going to come out on the 25th anniversary and take a whole bunch of finishers from old guys.
01:00:28
Speaker
Oh, I knew that was going to happen when I immediately read online that they got heat, like with Vince. Vince was already unhappy about them using the term pro wrestling. See, I assumed that was part of the show. They went into business for themselves on that one.
01:00:41
Speaker
I guess because everything I because they delete they somebody had tweeted at them Oh Vince is gonna be mad and is not gonna like this and then they tweeted back he already is or something and they deleted a tweet or something like so like there were indications that they got legit heat for dropping that which is so petty like that's so that's such a weird thing when you second when the second way we're in go ahead sorry go ahead
01:01:10
Speaker
I was going to say, like the second word in the company is wrestling. It's world wrestling entertainment. Like I don't understand why it's so taboo there to use the term pro wrestler, but that's just me. Yeah. I kind of saw them getting punished. Yeah. I guess like I was just like, Oh man, some decisions have been made. Cause that was the same night that Rollins used the curb stomp.
01:01:28
Speaker
Oh, that I marked. I marked hard for that. I jumped out of my seat. Because here's the thing. And again, it sounds like such a dumb thing to quibble over. But so much of his character and his identity was wrapped up in him being able to do that finisher.
01:01:45
Speaker
And when he departed, you know, with the, from the shield and, and, and took on Triple H's pedigree, it worked for a while. You know, he was a member of the authority, but when that whole thing was over and he just, they weren't letting him go back to who he was. I just think it's huge for him. And it's such a minor thing, I guess, just being able to do your old finisher, but man, everyone reacted to it. So, I mean, I guess he proved them right. I'm sure he lobbied for it.
01:02:10
Speaker
It's such a devastating looking move that he can do to anyone. And it's just, I don't know, like I loved watching him give that to Lesnar at Mania that year. That was awesome. Yeah, no, I agree. You know who I popped for pretty hard the other night? Who'd you pop for? Did you pop for Bogeyman? No.
01:02:30
Speaker
Like, I bet no one was boogeyman boogeyman came on to the scene. I saw boogeyman at WrestleMania. So fuck you. I get to talk about what what match was boogie in mania boogie boogie man wrestled Booker T. What do you need to eat?
01:02:51
Speaker
fucking worms. Yeah, god damn right. He ate him on the grandest stage of them all. It was and I think he went into that mania hurt. So, it was that was another instance of a match being really really short. I like that we get a boogie man is probably now nowhere near his phone thinking I'm gonna get to be on the twenty-fifth anniversary of this when he should have been was hiding somewhere in Bray's house of horrors that long time ago. That would have been perfect.
01:03:17
Speaker
Like if they just cut to a room and Boogie's just in the corner eating worms and they don't mention it. And just like he's part of the background. That would have added more to that match than anything. No, I was happy to see some of my favorites. Like I said, I mentioned Hall earlier. It was
Royal Rumble Anticipations and Predictions
01:03:35
Speaker
cool seeing Christian there. I'm a big Christian fan as I've made clear on this episode.
01:03:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I get excited when they bring back some of the old guys, and as long as they're not doing it every week, like it still works. I don't know what people's expectations were. It didn't really affect me. And I mean, it's over. We're back to our regularly scheduled programming, which includes the upcoming Royal Rumble pay-per-view this weekend. Fuck, yeah. I still get excited for Rumble.
01:04:04
Speaker
me too and you know what's funny about that we were talking about this earlier today through text there's sort of a general consensus amongst like the wrestling community that the royal rumble is like behind media maybe the second most popular pay-per-view of the year i mean that's like neck and neck with summer slam i would say honestly i think that uh the rumble is probably higher than summer slam because it's a special match we only get once a year
01:04:28
Speaker
Correct. And this year, we get it twice. I can't wait. There's the women's. So no, I'm right there with you, man. To me, it probably is my second favorite pay-per-view of the year. Well, starting with the women's, what's your prediction? Who do you think is going over? Here's the thing.
01:04:47
Speaker
There's a couple different ways I can go with predictions on this, and there's the who's on the active roster, and then there's who I've been hearing rumors of. And I hear rumors that Ronda Rousey could be showing up and winning the Rumble. I've heard that rumor. If that leads to her fighting Charlotte into WrestleMania, that could be kind of cool.
01:05:08
Speaker
It could be. I do feel a little bit bad for the women who are like full-time, have been doing this for years, you know, getting to be in the first Rumble match and then having to immediately, you know, lose to put over somebody who hasn't wrestled a single pro wrestling match. I guess the only thing that doesn't bother me about Rhonda is that she is a huge wrestling fan. Sure. But I do agree with you, but I also, you know,
01:05:35
Speaker
It's WrestleMania. It would be exciting. At any time, a celebrity is going to take precedence over a main roster person. I know. And I guess the person who wants to be fair still has, I mean, again, I don't feel strongly about it. I mean, I would still be excited. I think it would be, it would be awesome for WWE if they pulled that off. And I guess my other, my other pick is Asuka, so.
01:05:58
Speaker
Oscar, yeah. Oscar versus Charlotte as well, but it would be Oscar versus Alexa Bliss, and that doesn't make me as excited.
01:06:07
Speaker
I think people, I think at least Vince in his mind has built up the idea that people really just want to see Alexa Bliss get her ass handed to her. Um, and Ossica would be a good choice for that. And, but I, you know, I've also, like I said a second ago, I've been hearing rumors that they've wanted to do Charlotte versus Ronda Rousey. And that would, that would work. It would sell. Well, maybe that means, I don't know. I hope that this year we get singles matches for the ladies and not just a big cluster fuck match.
01:06:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of the problem with the show right now is that anytime they do the women's segments, it's like the entire women's roster has to be involved. Yeah, we have a three-hour show, just break them up. Like, give me more matches with them. At this point, you know, I'm pretty much more excited to watch a lot of their matches than the guys' matches.
01:06:58
Speaker
What are your predictions for the Rumble? Rumble? The Women's Rumble, I guess. My biggest fear for the Women's Rumble is that... So we have announced today that Stephanie McMahon is going to be on commentary for that Rumble. Right. I am so worried that number 30 is going to hit. We're going to hear Stephanie's music. She's going to get in the ring and win the first Women's Royal Rumble.
01:07:22
Speaker
That's a legitimate fear. And I mean, it's not like a fear because it doesn't like hurt me, but you know, there's so many good women in the roster right now, but I can totally see me like, there's nothing bigger than a McMan when in the first rumble. Oh God. I just don't want it to, fuck. I don't want it to walk away from it with the same feeling I did for the first women's money in the bank, where I just feel cheated out of like a moment. I was in the goddamn room for that. Yeah.
01:07:52
Speaker
I was sitting there watching, and I was just like, a man just won the first one. And the guy next to me was like, huh. You're kind of like. That's the wrong kind of heat, I think. Let the women earn these firsts. I mean, I get it maybe in a couple years or something down the road, being able to do something like that. But for now, no. I mean, I'm excited about the first women's rumble. Who's your pick for the men's? For the men's?
01:08:17
Speaker
realistically who's gonna win? Probably Shinsuke? Like, I mean, that would be good for him, he needs something, because they've not done a whole lot with him, and then we would get that AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura match, that would be awesome. I mean, obviously we're hearing a lot of rumblings about Daniel Bryan, and at this point, even after hearing rumors of it, if it does happen, I'll still be surprised. Yeah. Because they have not gotten me to a point where I truly believe that might happen.
01:08:46
Speaker
yeah that's the one i'm hoping for like daniel brian i mean if daniel brian comes in in that in the last five spots of the rumble that place is going to lose its fucking mind oh and that'll be in then to have daniel brian at wrestlemania back where he won the title last time right it'd be pretty cool i guess like probably aj styles
01:09:08
Speaker
Probably because that's the SmackDown brand, but for me, a match I still am holding out to see someday doesn't, I don't know. I would love Finn Balor to win it and then challenge Brock Lesnar. Yeah, I don't know. My opinion on the men's match changed a little bit. I mean, I was really...
01:09:30
Speaker
The rumor even from last year's WrestleMania was that Brock was going to win the Universal title from Goldberg and then he was going to hold on to it for a year until the next year's WrestleMania and he was going to fight Roman Reigns again. So right now that's my pick and some of that has to do with the rumors from last year and knowing how
01:09:49
Speaker
They may be dead set on that the same way they were dead set on doing Rock Cena too. And especially with Roman losing the Intercontinental title to Miz on Raw, it seems like they're setting him up. Which we didn't talk about. I know. I know. I know Miz is your guy, so congratulations. I mean, to me that felt like a pay-per-view match. Eight times? I think he is up there, because what does he have to lose it and win it back one more time to tie Jericho?
01:10:15
Speaker
Yep, and I think Jericho's nine, so yeah. Honestly, at this point, Miz is the Intercontinental Champion to me. I know there's a lot of people from the past you can think of, but at this point, I don't know if anyone's ever made me more excited about that title than he has.
01:10:31
Speaker
Well, sure. I mean, I think, I think when all is said and done, he's probably going to go down as like the, like the best intercontinental champion of all time. And no one would have ever expected that, including myself. No, me too. I'm right there with you. So, I mean, I don't know. I guess, I guess watching Ms win the title from Roman Reigns and you know, right before the rumble, it frees Roman up to do something else. So, I mean, I guess that's my prediction and I, and I, that's, you know, I don't want to be one of those guys. I'm not trying to be that guy. I really just don't think that'll work.
01:11:02
Speaker
Like, I don't think that's something that people want to see.
01:11:05
Speaker
Wait, so you do think that Roman is gonna win the rumble? I think Roman's gonna win the rumble. I think he's gonna challenge Lesnar. In Philadelphia. Yeah, to me, it's bad booking. Who wants to see
Critiques and Desires for WWE Storytelling
01:11:18
Speaker
that at this point? I mean, I'm sure there's some, again, not being condescending. I'm sure there's a few kids here and there who would love to see big guy Roman Reigns versus big guy Brock Lesnar for the championship. But we've seen it before, number one. It was pretty good the first time, though.
01:11:35
Speaker
Yeah, I just don't know if it'll be good again.
01:11:37
Speaker
The thing is, like, him winning the Rumble more times is the hardest part to take down. But I bet somewhere, Vince is like, hmm, Philadelphia, go into the Super Bowl. They won't give a shit. Like, yeah, you're right. There's probably some wacky-ass reasoning, like, oh, this will fly under the radar. It won't be a big thing. I mean, I don't know. To me, there's just a bunch of much more interesting options. Like, I said, like, I agree with you. Like, I think Nakamura winning, challenging AJ would be cool. I guess, like, I just want, like,
01:12:07
Speaker
I know it's WWE and it's always going to be WWE, but for once I just don't want like a big man match in the main event. I would love to see like two just very athletic good wrestlers and just get this like a memorable match. No, I'm with you. And to me, it doesn't even have anything to do with it being a big man match. To me, it's just, I would like to see
01:12:31
Speaker
I would like to see the match that people want to see come to fruition, like the one that everyone's like, oh, that's a fantasy match. I would like to see that play out. And I don't know. I mean, even if they did something, they could do something off the wall. I mean, I heard someone propose the fantasy scenario of, you know, Finn Balor wins the Royal Rumble and then challenges AJ and they do it for the title.
01:12:54
Speaker
I guess like we have seen that match already though I want right if I'm gonna have to I'm still stand-by I would love I love the the size difference of Lesnar and I feel like with that you're getting kind of what you would have gotten if we had been able to see Daniel Bryan not fight Brock Lesnar yeah no I'm with you and that's a match I would love to see I wouldn't complain about that at all
01:13:18
Speaker
Like, I don't think that's the match I'm getting. I will absolutely settle for Nakamura styles, though.
Looking Forward to the Next Royal Rumble
01:13:23
Speaker
I honestly, either way, I'm gonna have a great time. I'm gonna eat some... It's a great pay-per-view. I'm gonna eat food. Oh! Shit, before we leave, did you see where they already announced where it is next year? Yeah, it's in Arizona. It's at Chase Field, home of the Diamondbacks. I have already decided I will be at that, and I would like you to attend with me. Yeah, let's talk about it. Let's talk about that shit. It's a rumble in a baseball stadium. We gotta do that.
01:13:48
Speaker
During the dead of winter, you're trying to tell me I'm going to rumble that it's in a ballpark. It's in a ballpark. Why wouldn't you be there? I don't know. I didn't go to WrestleMania 19, and I wish I had. Where was that one? It was at Safeco Field in Seattle. OK. And I haven't talked about this before, obviously, but I think WrestleMania 19 is my favorite WrestleMania, so. What was the main on that? Was that a stone cold rock again?
01:14:17
Speaker
Stone Cold Rock was on the card. That was not the main event. I mean, it was a stacked card. The main event was Lesnar versus Angle, Jericho, HBK. Oh shit, that's the one that Lesnar landed on his head doing the moonsault. Yeah, botched the shooting star press and landed right on his fucking face. God, that looked bad. Yeah, it was. Did he break Kurt's neck in that match too?
01:14:40
Speaker
Kurt's neck was already fucked up. It didn't break his neck, but I think he didn't help things either. So I don't know. I don't know. I had the idea of going to a wrestling show at a ballpark does excite the piss
Social Media and Listener Engagement
01:14:52
Speaker
out of me. So you don't have to do a ton of convincing. I don't think. All right. I think I actually heard the bell ring.
01:15:01
Speaker
Well, I think Max is over. We timed out on this one. I think we kicked ass. And I think it's time to just kind of sit back and see what happens this Sunday at the Royal Rumble. Excited about it. Snack. Yes. Also, we are going to do a special episode. We are going to do kind of just a quick episode right after the Rumble's over so we can talk about our immediate reactions to it and maybe discuss it a little further in the real episode later in the week.
01:15:27
Speaker
Sure. Yeah, no, we'll have a, we'll have another podcast recorded just here in a few days. So lots going on this week in wrestling and it's been awesome talking about it. So let's get the hell out of this ring. So before we go, if you have any questions or anything for us, if you want to talk to us on the social medias, I am at Gartet on Twitter at G-A-R-T-E-T same as Instagram. Derek, what are your social medias?
01:15:51
Speaker
Twitter, at Halloween, Halpin, H-A-L-P-I-N. Tweet me anytime. Love talking with wrestling fans, so hit me up. Ready to do this. All right, that's about it for us in our goddamn music.