Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Wrestlemania Review
0 Plays2 seconds ago
We look back at a memorable week in the world of professional wrestling!
Use code CHICKFOLEY to save 10% at www.ringsidecollectibles.com
Find all things CHICK at www.CHICKFOLEY.com
Recommended
Transcript
Welcome and WrestleMania 42 Highlights
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome the Chick-fil-A Show.
00:00:23
Speaker
What is up Foley fam? We are back with our post-WrestleMania edition of the Chick-Foley Show. We're going to be talking all things from both nights of WrestleMania 42, diving into some of the excitement around the figure reveals from WrestleMania week, and just kind of touching base on where we think wrestling's heading over the next calendar year, man. You know WrestleMania is always kind of like the reset button. It really is the new year for wrestling.
00:00:46
Speaker
ah And we're going to dive into everything. But first, let me introduce the star of the show, Sheena. How you doing? I'm doing good. I can't believe WrestleMania has already come and gone. It was a fun weekend, and you know we really soaked it in. i know there was a lot of ah you know chatter online about whether people loved it, hated it it, fell somewhere in between. So I'm excited to get everybody's thoughts.
00:01:05
Speaker
Jordy, what's happening out in the Midwest, man? Just getting warm here, and yeah, it was ah it was a good weekend. It was a quick weekend, but yeah, I agree. It was a good weekend, and I'm i'm really excited to talk about it.
00:01:18
Speaker
right, want to remind you guys, this show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Ringside Collectibles, www.ringsidecollectibles.com. I want to say the dust still hasn't settled on the WrestleMania sales, so there's still a lot of great figures. You can get at great prices, plus a ton of cool pre-orders went up over the weekend. Make sure you're using code CHICKFOLEY to save 10% on all your purchases there. And visit www.chickfoley.com. You can sign up for our Patreon-exclusive Facebook group,
00:01:45
Speaker
Two bucks a month gets you into the best wrestling Facebook group out there. Just a great community of folks. Going to help you find figures and just a great place to talk wrestling. And, you know, if you don't want to join, if you're a listener, it's the easiest way to share our podcast with your friends. Just tell them to go to www.chickfoley.com. We got links to the Spotify and Apple podcast to get you hooked up. We got anything else for housekeeping before we dive into it? No, let's go.
Guest Insights and Match Critiques
00:02:08
Speaker
All right, so first things first, we got a special guest this week. Going to kind of give us the the perspective of, you know, six to ten-year-olds across the world. We got Brett the Hit Boy on the pod. Brett, how's it going, man?
00:02:23
Speaker
Good. um I really enjoyed the late WrestleMania. I thought it was a good show. All right, we got we want to get your specific take on on a few matches. All right, so first off, man, tell us what what were your thoughts on Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton, the main event from night one?
00:02:42
Speaker
um I thought it was a good match. um When Cody won, i was really happy. And um when Pat McAfee came to be the referee, I thought, oh, my gosh, he's going to cheat and count fast for Randy. And then when um Cody kicked out and then um Randy RKO'd Pat McAfee e and then Cody hit the crossroads on –
00:03:15
Speaker
Randy, I, and then he pinned him. We're in the playbook. know. two three, and he won I was really happy with that match. All right, man. Clearly, dude, you got the whole finish sequence committed to memory, man. I you know need to go back and watch it, dude. Michael Cole. Yeah. Michael Cole eats out. Good memory, dude. Yeah. you Were you surprised by the outcome of that match, Brett? Did you think there was a chance? Because listen, going into this. No, he wasn't surprised. He was one of only six people to pick Cody to win. That's true. But once the match got started and once you know you saw the entrances and stuff, were you a little bit nervous that ah you know that Cody was going to go down to the to the Viper?
00:03:56
Speaker
Yes, very nervous. ah Just give Brett a little shout out. You know, we have our Foley Picks League, which is like, you know, fantasy football for for wrestling. Brett was the only person on night one to get a perfect card. He was person to get a perfect card on either night, man. weekend, yeah. Yeah, either night, yeah. So Brett, yeah, the guy, kid knows what he's talking about. That's how you're going to just it on the show. right, let's move to night two, man. What did you think of Roman Reigns and CM Punk in the main event of night two?
00:04:20
Speaker
Roman Reigns and CM Punk. I picked CM Punk to win. you down, he? Yes, he did let me down. You were rooting for CM Punk, too. Yes, I was rooting for CM Punk. I was really wanting him to win, and then he let me down. Once he... Sleeper...
00:04:38
Speaker
um roman i thought that was it and then he went for a second one i thought oh my gosh gts yeah yes and um when he collapsed you knew that was it yes i knew that was it i knew he was out yeah man it's cool man what'd you think of the entrances whose entrance was better Um, I, uh, I gotta say Punk's entrance was a little little bit better. Okay. Uh, all Last question before we kick you out of here, dude. What was your favorite match of the weekend? My favorite match of the weekend was the ladder match. yes I'm not surprised. what was so good about the ladder match?
00:05:16
Speaker
It was just a bunch of chaos. All right. And we got it. We got to touch base, man. Cause we all, we, you know, I always like to get your take on it, dude. As of right now, what do you like better? AEW or WWE? WWE right now.
00:05:29
Speaker
Why? Because it's just doing a better job right now. Okay. Straight from the horse's mouth, man. All right, dude. Hey, man. Thanks for coming on. Great job, Ray. You have to go watch a movie with your sister, okay?
00:05:41
Speaker
Bye. See you, dude. Bye, Bob. Love you. All right, man. So, yeah, if he ends up, ah you know, make sure you guys are saving that clip, dude. If he ends up fulfilling the prophecy and making it to WWE someday, man, that'll be ah making the documentaries,
Event Structure and Performance Analysis
00:05:53
Speaker
man. But, yeah, it's always good to get a kid's perspective, man, because the end of the day, all the complaints, here all the extra thought we put into it, it's wrestling still for kids, man. yeah It just is, dude. He did a good job. He was nervous. yeah said He said, oh, my gosh, my tummy has so many butterflies in it. I was like, it's just me, it's just me you, Daddy, and Jordan, dude. Yeah. if If I see somebody getting over with the kids, dude, I know. Okay. Even if I'm not liking it, I know like they're doing something right. Yeah. This was the first WrestleMania or just wrestling pay-per-view in general that Zoe sat through the entire thing. She watched night two.
00:06:24
Speaker
The only match she didn't, she said she didn't really love and she was getting bored with was ah the main event, which kind of surprised me, but, She said she really liked the rest of it. Yeah. Dude, I think, man, the you know we'll go and just get into it, man. Obviously, the big thing this year, dude, tons of ads, shorter matches, right? It's big gap. I do think that pacing is better for kids to lock in, bro, because those little attention spans, even you know when you're getting into older kids like Zoe, like the attention span still... isn't quite the same as a grown up. And I feel like those like, you know, eight to 12 minute matches are kind of perfect for them to kind of lock in and and just follow on the story and not get exhausted, dude. You know, even as a hardcore fan, man, I would take the AW pay-per-view style over what we got this weekend, but it can be exhausting, dude. Like sometimes you get into like our three and a W pay-per-view and you're you're worn out.
00:07:10
Speaker
that's that's all fine i'm i'm fine like whatever i'm fine with that i mean i do i totally understand the attention spans now are dwindling and are shorter than than ever um but which is a you know it's a soapbox in and of itself but we just why don't we add more wrestling then you know some backstage segments backstage yeah just something there's not as many video packages as we used to have dude Dude, there was actually a question in the mailbag about that. So we'll get into that. I feel like so many times we would just get like, you know, four minutes of ads and then bam, we're kicking off with an interesting. And the ads were just trash. It was like it was just totally random. Like, no. It's not like the Super where you're at least getting the entertaining ads. Exactly. was just random schlock that you'd see before a YouTube video teaching you how to, you know, replace the freaking faucet head on the sink or some shit. 100%. Total wrestling time out of two nights of WrestleMania was two hours and 47 minutes. Total ad time was two hours and 22 minutes.
00:08:06
Speaker
that It doesn't feel like it was that much, bro that Those numbers are actually you know pretty generous compared to what it felt like watching it. good If you would have told me it was under two hours, I would have believed the two main events skewed it quite a bit, though. like The two main events added ah a ton onto the actual wrestling time.
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, I'd say they probably, yeah, those two matches were close to 40, probably 40% of the in-ring time on the weekend, man. um Yeah, cody Cody and Orton was 22-44, and Roman and Punk was 33-56. I don't mind. i i enjoy kind of like mid-length matches, dude. I'm not a guy who needs 20 minutes every single match, but the matches just felt clipped, dude it but wasn't it wasn't like you had like ah It wasn't like you had just you know a breakneck seven-minute match. There's been badass five-minute matches, six-minute matches, et cetera, dude. But it they seemed like the matches were kind of just starting to find their groove.
00:08:54
Speaker
And then, bam, we're into the finishing sequence, and hit you out of nowhere, dude. They all left you wanting more. This is crazy, though. I mean, I've looked at Wikipedia results for wrestling for, I mean, years now you know what i mean and this is like seven minutes eight minutes eight minutes six minutes and the the longest match you know you had you one 14 minute match one 17 minute match and one 22 minute match like that's i say the most offensive thing for match times of the entire weekend live and stephanie got less than seven minutes and ria and uh jade got 10 minutes like That should have been completely flipped.
00:09:28
Speaker
Steph and Liv especially, dude. They had such a good build. Liv, really, man. Liv put in such good work, dude, for on this road to WrestleMania, man. I really felt like she kind of leveled up from the already, like, you know, super freaking, you know, superstar position she was in. um and yeah, to just get a seven-minute match, man. like It was fun what they did, but it was basically, you know, it was basically four minutes of action, and then, all right, let's get the interference and going into the finishing sequence. Yeah. And especially after the year, you know, Liv, we talked about it last week. Liv definitely kind of kind of ate Steph up a little bit on this.
00:09:58
Speaker
This just feud, just, you know, charisma, Mike skills, everything. If this was geared more toward the strengths of Liv towards Steph. But Steph has had a hell of a year. dude She's had such an awesome year since she got caught up, man. They they both deserve better, dude.
00:10:11
Speaker
Yeah, between that and then, dude, trick how do you Trick and Sami Zayn only get seven minutes? like I expected that match to actually be really, really good, and it got seven minutes. I mean, again, another match where it didn't even seem like they even really got started. Yeah.
00:10:27
Speaker
I don't know, man. Like you said, I don't mind the the shorter match. It's just like seven minutes is kind of an insult, especially at the biggest show you year of the year.
00:10:38
Speaker
Night one, it was more evident to me than anything. just Yeah, I don't know if they made some tweaks or if it was just how just naturally the way it played out, man. Night two definitely felt like it it was still bad, but it wasn't nearly as bad as night one. Most of the matches were at least in the double digits. i mean, you had the Obafemi and Brock, which was sub five minutes. That was its own thing, were expecting It was ah four minutes and 46 seconds, and then the only one below 10 minutes was a Trick and Sammy, dude. If they had it all on one night, we got a hell of a mania, dude. Put it on one night. Maybe put ran have Randy and Cody go on like third or something. you know go Let the crowd get lubed up a little bit. Then give us Randy and Cody, and then roll rolling the rest of this stuff into one night. I think you could have added Jacob and Drew and ah
00:11:19
Speaker
Let's see. Gunther and Seth. Gunther and Seth. Gunther and Seth and Cody to the night two card and that would have been like Call it a day. Yeah, call it a day, dude. That would have been killer movie. seriously, we had seven matches on night one and four of them didn't even get ten minutes. Like,
00:11:34
Speaker
i yeah I told Seth this through a text I said you could have you could literally cross out all the Wrestlemania signs and put up Wrestlepalooza anything you want and I would have believed it was just throwaway pay-per-view like I I wouldn't have known any better to be night one did not feel like Wrestlemania at all to me that just legitimately felt like a throwaway pay-per-view until Cody's entrance it just felt like a throwaway pay-per-view And you know that the thing about it is, is I feel like if we're gonna have this two-day format, there needs to be some continuity or some continuation from something from day one that carries over in into day two, right? Because it just, it feels very disjointed and it feels just like two separate things. And it really feels bad because day one was so crappy. yeah That it made, you know, made day two just be like, oh, wow. You know what i mean? So the to your point, man, the best mania of the modern era was did exactly that. WrestleMania 40. We had the main event of night one directly impacted night two, you know, with the bloodline rules stuff with Seth and Rock and. Roman and Cody, dude. So, yeah, I'm right there with you, man. Like, let's... It doesn't got to be something that big every year, but give me something, man. Give me the Andre the Giant Battle Royale on night one, and then the winner automatically gets in the ladder match for the IC title on night two. Something like that. That's enough to just, yeah, stitch the two nights together somehow. Yeah, it just truly seemed like night one was all the fluff for whatever they needed to do. They did the Hall of Fame thing on night one. It just... It seemed like they put note that was a night you could tell TKO booked. I mean, it it was completely obvious TKO was booking that night.
00:13:07
Speaker
just kind of, let's hit like some of the waypoints on night one, man. What, what'd you think of the set design this year? I, I, I thought it was inoffensive, but just a little generic. Yeah. Not memorable at all. That's again, that's a TKO TKO thing. They don't really care what you like. They know everybody's going to watch and there's going be people there. That's all they care about.
00:13:27
Speaker
It was probably just to maximize
Audience Engagement and Future Speculations
00:13:29
Speaker
seating. You know what i mean? Like they probably just made it. 10,000. Well, originally, when but they designed those sets well before they freaking yeah know actually um sell tickets. I mean, there were there were still 10,000 less people in the same arena this year. each night than there was last year. So and last year's set was bigger than this year's. Like, ah i don't know. Yeah. like Last year, every section was filled up. I saw some of the wide shots. It looked like, um, it looked, I mean, it still was a hell of a freaking yeah out, man. for WrestleMania, but the, it looked like the sections on the hard cam side towards the, ah the stage, man, like the the last like three or four um sections, like towards the stage where realistically people still could have sat at all those were, you know, I'm assuming they never even put tickets up for sale for those men. though They were all empty. Yeah.
00:14:16
Speaker
um shout out to I show speed, man. I'm still not a fan. I'm cool to never, ever see him grace my wrestling screen again. i don't think we've seen the last. I don't think so either. I thought he did get them in. I thought he did good. It was really good, man. That splash was really nice, dude. Yeah. Splash looked really nice, man. But, uh, that's a big move for somebody who is not a, uh, not a professional athlete. That does suck. That the biggest moment of that match was after the match was over though. Like, I mean, yeah, that was awesome, but it was after the match was over. Like,
00:14:44
Speaker
again another throwaway match just and it's sad because the usos in la night were in that match like don't even say anything about austin theory so that's the match he deserves to be in Austin Theory was there. He opened WrestleMania, man. Another thing, you know, getting an opening match WrestleMania. He's getting closer and closer fulfilling the prophecy. I'm telling you, dude. He is going to be a world champion, man. Like, just look at that real at the WrestleMania resume, dude. Worked with Vince and Steve Austin.
00:15:11
Speaker
Where he can beat John Cena at WrestleMania. Won the tag team championship at WrestleMania. And that was in the opening match of WrestleMania, man. I don't know. It's all there. You look back in the record books 10 years from now, it's going to be like, damn, he got off to really good start in his career. No, I mean. If you put him up against all the main eventers for the last however long, dude, he sticks out like a sore thumb, dude. Put him next to Roman and and Seth. I can't believe Seth didn't take it a step further. Austin Theory was in the first WrestleMania match ever televised on ESPN.
00:15:44
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. First, first WrestleMania match in ESPN. and Who did they trot out there? know None other than Austin Theory. And I show speed. The guy's still ridiculously young for a wrestler. Click his page. How old is Austin Theory right now? You get what you pay for, it He was on the free section of WrestleMania. He's freaking, he'll be, yeah, he'll be 26 in August or 29 in August, man. he'll be 29 in August. Dude still, I mean, that's a baby as far as pro wrestling is is concerned nowadays, man. Like,
00:16:09
Speaker
Let this guy cook, dude. He would have been released by now if they didn't see something in it, man. look out Look at all the people that... He's been on the chopping block. Look at all the people have been released the last four years. And then brought back. Yeah.
00:16:20
Speaker
All right. ah Do you guys have any strong thoughts on Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre? No, it was it was fine. It was good. It should not have been called an unsanctioned match. It should have just been called Falls Count Anywhere or something but along those lines. Because when I think unsanctioned, I'm thinking, dude, this is going to be crazy hardcore. And I was with Sheena after she said, ah since they're putting it on e yeah ESPN, they're going to go all out with it. Because at first, I didn't put any thought into it. And then Sheena said that. And I was like, oh, yeah, she's right. They are going to go all out. And then it was just kind of like a normal match. I mean, it didn't really feel like anything special to me.
00:16:54
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I agree. I thought we were potentially getting some sort of big stunt work. And yeah, we just did. We've we've seen too much, man, on ah from AEW over last couple of years for WWE to even touch anything with these unsanctioned matches. What do you guys think about the return of Paige? I thought she looked great. Never been a Paige fan going all the way back. I never really got...
00:17:13
Speaker
the whole deal with Paige, even going way back, man. I like Paige. She was kind of, she showed up, ah I'd say she showed up a year too early, right? Because she was like, you know, still there and that she still had kind of like the Divas era stank on her, a little bit like Naomi, you know what mean? yeah Naomi's had the chance to kind of, you know, climb out of that over the last 10 years.
00:17:29
Speaker
But I think she was still kind of lumped in with that. She looked great on Saturday and she is over like Rover with the crowd, man. The people loved her, dude. They were going nuts on Raw last night for her. They went crazy at the show. And on the post show, man, I didn't know Paige had love like that. I mean, it is a lot of international fans to like just give it a couple of weeks and it will it will not be like this. Like like I'm fine with Paige. The match itself was fine, but I just I feel like it'll just blend in in a month. Like i don I don't feel like we're going remember this in a month.
00:18:01
Speaker
Shane. I thought she looked great. I'm glad that she is getting on the straight and narrow. She's living the clean life. You know what I mean? Nobody kissed those titles. That's it for damn sure. Oh, my God. Yeah. Don't let her take that belt home. Just leave it. There's absolutely no reason for her to leave the arena with that belt. Leave it there. don't got to dig up all that. They have absolutely no purpose of taking those homes. Brian Maddox and Xavier Woods were like, yeah. Another 90 page. They're looking at chops right now. Wow. Yeah.
00:18:33
Speaker
You guys, people people evolve, people change, people grow up. I mean, you gotta think. People don't forget, though. How old was she? She was like 19 when that happened, dude. 20 years old when that happened. I mean, are you the same person at, you know, 30? I'd like to think Seth is kind of still the same person he was forever. I mean, he's kind of been the same person since I met him. Yeah, I definitely will say guilty as charged on some arrested development, but...
00:18:56
Speaker
I will also say you will not find anything like that, any material like that of me anywhere, I would hope not because Sheena would also be in it. Yeah, facts. Yeah. Dig away. Dig away. There's nothing going to be found. The other big thing on this match, dude, it it'll be a crime if we don't get Ultimate Edition Alexa Bliss, man, with the the Bray Wyatt black and white tribute gear. Y'all are covering all the listener mail. Wait a minute, the irresistible forces have to get Ultimate. Yeah, those words if we get a two-pack, that'd all, yeah, the the contrast was great. My mom, so and that's another credit to WWE and TKO, man, that, you know, maybe they've just cracked the formula for the casual fans.
00:19:37
Speaker
My mom watches wrestling like once every three years. She sat and watched the entire night one of WrestleMania with us um and was even talking about how hard of you know it was going to be for night two to top it, man. So even my mom was sports entertained. She enjoyed it. as well so like i said man maybe they have kind of just like algorithm this thing out for exactly she even texted us after she left on sunday and was like you know i had a really great time watching wrestlemania which my mom is like you know yeah yeah again she watches she tunes in everyone you know if i happen to be home while a wrestling show comes on she might steal some glances that's it yeah the casual fan got to watch eight minute matches and then there's commercials and they don't know any different
00:20:12
Speaker
True, very true. But yeah, you're right, dude. Charlotte looked great, too. They looked great in kind contrast. And what a what a great run this Charlotte and Alexa thing has been, man. It's gotten Charlotte, be so much goodwill with the fans, dude. Everybody kind of just forgave some of the stuff that was kind of annoying and turn offs about Charlotte and just got back to focusing on what she's so great at. um But yeah, I thought the match was fine. um Nia Jax Last Legend with the all-white demolition gear. That was cool, too. they looked so good, dude. Yeah. I thought they looked great.
00:20:39
Speaker
It was definitely a freaking fun match, man. Good way get all the ladies on the show. Becky and AJ, I don't know. Is there anything that needs to get said on this? That match could have been on Raw. You know what I was really hoping for, man? They've made such a big deal about Corrupt Carr. I just knew Jessica Carr was going turn and be like a bad ref, man, and turn on AJ or something, you know? She's wrestling. She's wrestling. I forget what her name is. Yeah. Something like Calix or something like that, but she's wrestling down in Evolve. That's what I was waiting for. I thought that would have more interesting than what we got. We got the class, like, just, you know, that was, that was like a heel victory, like 101, man. Like that, that finish that they did, they've been doing that. And, you know, since the territory days with a heel getting win on the baby face, it was just, I thought, I mean, seriously, man, that's a tale as old as time finish
Booking Decisions and Wrestler Impact
00:21:20
Speaker
right there, dude. Like, you know,
00:21:22
Speaker
distract the ref for a split second you cheat to get the advantage and get the roll up pin man it was uh it was a complete nothing burger of a match yeah yeah i think we jumped down to the main event dude uh we gotta skip gunther and seth Oh yeah. yeah they were They were cooking, man. But again, another one which, dude, just be ah the slightest bit creative, man. That's twice between Drew and Jacob and now this one where we, to freaking T, booked the finish of the match, man.
00:21:49
Speaker
Like, I mean, to a T, dude. Like, they didn't do anything creative. They could have had... They could have had Braun accidentally spear Gunther instead and Seth steal the win and run out of there before the Vision gets him, man. Like anything could happen. Gunther stops Braun. Maybe we get a little spinoff. Gunther and Braun feud because Gunther wants to win c clean. You know, Gunther's a heel, but he doesn't really cheat, man. Like there was, you know, there was a handful of creative things they could have done. But instead, we've got the most paint by numbers bullshit. man and when When it was a great freaking match, dude. It was a great match. and though yeah I'm glad they gave them a little bit more time. but yeah
00:22:19
Speaker
When Braun came in, it was just like buzzkill. And Braun came out and stood by the ramp like four minutes before he actually ran it. Oh my gosh, I saw that video. The live crowd knew entire time what was happening. It's like...
00:22:33
Speaker
You can't be the least bit creative. Like, dude, at least put him under the ring or something. Put him under the ring. Like, God, Have him, like, you know, hidden in the audience somewhere. Okay. know mean? I know it's cool to see, and people are going hate me for this.
00:22:46
Speaker
The brawn running down the thing and doing the spear is getting old for me really fast. Like, he whiffed that spear on Seth he totally missed it to me man I feel like Seth flinched at the last second dude I think Seth was like fuck it dude I'm not doing this I'm not getting I show speeded the first one that he did he almost killed them both into the guard rail like he missed that one too Yeah. Yeah. i I don't know. It was i was just disappointed, man. I just I had faith that it was so obvious that there's no way they're just going to run it. Exactly. hey Listen to our podcast. They were like, God damn it.
00:23:30
Speaker
Yeah, like, God damn, these guys are cooking. yeah Oh, man. Liv, what did you think of Liv's entrance, Jordan? Absolute trade. I seriously thought she was drugged out when she came out. Just like looking at her face, I was like, what is going on here? Well, I had totally forgotten. Like yeah I had just like put it out of my mind that she had just gotten like beat the heck up and like had that big hematoma on her head and had black eyes and stuff. Because I was like, what is going on with her face? Like what? Why is her makeup so weird? And then she had really bad hair extensions, which like I feel like when you have wwe WWE money, like there is absolutely no excuse for you to have bad hair extensions. You don't think they were maybe like purposely trying to make her look trashy like Christina Aguilera? No, because Charlotte had bad hair extensions for years I always was just like, Charlotte, like, you know I mean? Like, you are the freaking queen and your hair just looks absolute trashy. That's funny you said that because that was the first thing Ari pointed out is, God, her extensions look horrible. I was like, we're bad. was like, what? It was just like, Her own little like clip-ins. or so I know that we have a predominantly male audience, so you may not even like, this is like going over, over their heads, but like, you know, when you get extensions, which is like adding fake hair, like there are ways to do it where it looks like it's like part of your natural hair. And, you know, you got guys probably didn't notice, but i guarantee every woman that watched that was just like, dang, those extensions are terrible. They can never make me say something bad about the way Liv works. Dude, I love Liv. Dude, I i am a girl's girl. I put this in the group. I am a girl's girl. I'm here to root for the women. And I love Liv. That was just, I secondhand embarrassment. Like, it was hard for me to watch. And maybe that was the point. I don't know. i mean, again, Liv, you know, she's doing better than me. So, i don't have you know, I can't, but don't want to talk too much trash about her. But it was weird. It was weird. I tell you gave my i texted Seth and I was like, what are we watching? And you were like, not even I can defend this.
00:25:22
Speaker
Yeah, it was bad. Yeah, our buddy Nathan was just like, he's like, oh, everybody was kind of talking about it in the group chat. And he was like, oh, I love it. I said, oh, dude, you would have loved being ah an adolescent in the you know early 2000s, man. Everything looked like this. you know I didn't mind the actual music video. I could appreciate the trashness of it. But the whole the full dance routine and stuff like was just.
00:25:43
Speaker
And it wasn't even the dance routine. The dance routine could have been fine, but it was just the dance routine looked like it was made up backstage by all those kids that that ran out with AJ. you know what I mean? It was just a bunch of head twirling and just grinding and that was it. I mean, isn't that what dancing is now?
00:25:59
Speaker
I guess so. Yeah, we're we're in the TikTok age of dancing. Sheena, this ain't the late 90s, early 2000s. The actual dancing is gone. Yeah. Oh, man. Sad. But yeah, it was uncomfortable to watch. But you know she got she got the dub and you know she's the women's best women's world champion of all time. So... Any thoughts? Moving on? We're excited to see where it goes. We can move on. all right Cody Rhodes beats Randy Orton.
00:26:29
Speaker
Love Cody's entrance, man. Going through the different personas was cool, but the gear was incredible, bro. The gear was awesome. You can make that... I won't complain if that's a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive. They do it up, man. The one thing... We know Mattel has always struggled with the metallic, making shiny metallic stuff. They got to nail this stuff, bro. We need the robe and we need that mask helmet thing looked awesome. Like...
00:26:51
Speaker
co Cody, you know, it takes a lot for Cody to legitimately be cool. I thought he looked cool as fuck on Saturday Nightmare. Got the Cody Vader back. like did it yes the um This is my only critique about his entrance, and I know this is just nitpicking, but he didn't like reveal the actual title until he went down to do the woe thing. I think it would have looked cooler if like that part was open and the title was like, you could see the title through his robe, but yeah again, that's just nitpicking it. I thought that would looked cooler, but Again, that's it was more nitpicking it.
00:27:23
Speaker
i ah But no, I i love the entrance, man. It was awesome. And they did what ah what we talked about and what was suggested. like get rid of Get rid of Pat McAfee right off the right off the rip. and then you know he didn't He didn't really come into play until the very end. and they used a little bit Even though we kind of painted it out, it was still creative the way they it. And it was entertaining, man. And you saw, like I think you could kind of feel the trepidation in the live crowd about what's this match about to be because we knew you know yeah All signs pointed to these celebrities being super involved. And I think it it relieved kind of some of the tension on the crowd when that happened right away. It's like okay, we can enjoy this, man. you know Maybe there's some shenanigans at the end, but we're not got we don't got to be you know watching Pat McAfee grab the ref's you know ankle 15 times and all this different stuff, man. like they just They got it out of the way in an entertaining way. That elbow drop by Jelly Roll was sweet, too, dude. Jelly Roll delivered once again. and then Jelly Roll did his corner store...
00:28:17
Speaker
vigil or whatever you want to call it when he go into the ring and do what these people came here to see you do somebody I saw on a Reddit comment they're talking about how like he's so like earnest but like just so over dramatic with all the acting and like it's like he hasn't earned like the right to be this dramatic on the TV screen they were talking about when Randy first turned on Cody and it's like Jelly Roll pops up like Randy what are you doing it's me your lifelong friend Jelly Roll like How are you this emotionally invested in these two guys when like you didn't even show up on our screens until a year ago? Well, I was listening to Masked Man, and he was saying, like you know like I guess when all this was going down, like jelly roll Jelly Roll is very self-aware. like he doesn't He didn't feel like he wanted to be in this main event, but somehow TKO shoehorned them in. He thought he was going to be part of some sort of like mixed tag situation, like come come to Mania, you know what I mean? But like you know he knows he has no business being anywhere near...
00:29:13
Speaker
the main event scene. So, uh, you know, i preaching I don't, I don't blame jelly roll. I i blame TK reaching at ringside. Logan Paul still had the all-time best Jelly Roll Burn. He makes music for people who have tattoos of their kids but don't have custody of their kids. I thought the match was good, though, man. The finish, like, yeah, dude. Like, if you really want to, you know, freaking Tom Clancy this thing out, dude, like, there's plot holes galore in how the finish went down. But as far as wrestling logic goes, like, I can buy it, dude. It's Randy Orton. Yeah, he just... They did the best they have with what they... Or they did the best they they have. Randy Orton crashed out. I think Cody winning was a nice surprise, dude.
00:29:51
Speaker
I maybe could have waited until Friday to have Randy Orton, you know, resume the violence. I didn't necessarily need to see, ro you know, it gave, it gave weekly TV vibes having Cody win, but then still having the the heel stand tall at the end of it. That was definitely, you know weekly TV type stuff.
00:30:06
Speaker
But I thought the match was pretty dang good, man. I saw, I saw this match get a lot of mixed to negative reviews online. I thought it was, I thought it was a fun match. Yeah, the the match itself I thought was fine. i I didn't love the whole Randy's hurt coming into this match and how much they kept talking about it, but it is what it is. I mean, it was kind of what I expected for the match. I just didn't expect Cody to win.
00:30:30
Speaker
All right. Any further thoughts on night one? Overall night one, don't think, you know, I've kind of got to the point now, these two night manias, I'm really kind of judging each night as its own mania. I saw a lot of people saying that, after night one, that was the worst WrestleMania of all time. It was not the worst WrestleMania of all time. I would say it was night one of all time.
00:30:50
Speaker
There's been some real stinkers, dude. Obviously, we you need ah you really need a couple years to fully digest these manias, dude. But in the moment, I would probably put it a little bit below the midline, right? what if if ah I don't know, man. If maybe WrestleMania 14 is like the right in the middle of the rankings, man, I'd probably put it you know four or five notches below WrestleMania 14. It's kind of my overall title. I don't think it's fair to grade these ones like that, though. I think you have to grade these ones on the two night formula. And as far as night ones go, this was the worst night one for me. It's just to me is going to end up being the least meaningful night one.
00:31:25
Speaker
Yeah, totally forgettable, dude. Cody's entrance, you know, six months from now, Cody's entrance will probably be the only thing that I still think about from this man. Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, I know there were some um titles change hands and stuff, but for the most part, everything on everything on night one was inconsequential.
00:31:41
Speaker
You know what i mean? Like, yeah it was just... yeah Cody's and Seth's entrance was cool, but the match that I hate the ending of that match so much that I'm, I'm blocking that one out, dude. So Cody, Cody's interest be my takeaway. Um, night two, man started with a bang, dude, Oba and Brock. Um, you know, rumors are out there that this was a, uh, you know, uh, Brock going into business for himself, man. What do you think, Jordan? Do you think this was, was planned or unplanned for Brock to do the whole, uh, the whole routine? i don't know, man. I, I think it's pretty telling that everybody keeps saying like, this was Brock's choice of, of who he wanted to wrestle at this mania, which I think everybody knew going into the, that night that this was his last WrestleMania match. I don't think that was even a point. Anyone was arguing. Um, I, I don't know, man.
00:32:25
Speaker
Everybody just like said, like maybe it's just past him at this point and wrestling a guy like, oh but just really makes him feel like maybe it is time to hang it up. i don't it did It did feel real. I thought it was real too. i I don't think it was wrestling Oba. I think it was the avoidance of having to do the job to Gunther.
00:32:46
Speaker
definitely don't think he wants to do the job to Gunther. Yeah, not wanting to retire to Gunther, I think, was the thing. I mean, what but better way to go out, dude, on your own terms, at WrestleMania. yeah you got paul You got Paul Heyman freaking crying at ringside, dude. like And you're going you're going to get out against the actual next big thing, like,
00:33:07
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. I'm, ah you know, I love to get worked. I've gotten worked more, you know, than either of you two. But I ah i think it was. Foley fam, clip this one out.
00:33:19
Speaker
Both of these guys, both of my co-hosts, my my best friend and my wife, they are getting worked. Hard, dude. We're under the TKO era. They love nothing more than to squeeze every red cent out of the consumers. But Brock doesn't give a shit, though. He does. No, Brock cares about money, dude. That's all he cares about. I don't think Brock could give a shit less if they told him the job to the Brooklyn Brawler, dude. Brock has always, always done business, man. Pin me, pay me, dude. He's from the Scott Hall line of thinking. If y'all don't think that they're they they see how much money can be made, they're like they're not going to give Brock's last match for free, man. They are going to hype that up. It's going to get the full treatment.
00:33:56
Speaker
I'm still calling. and And Paul Heyman still, he acknowledged it on Monday night, man. There's ah there's a hanging, you know, the the loose thread for WrestleMania is he owes Gunther a favor. I'm still calling.
00:34:07
Speaker
Night one SummerSlam this year in Minneapolis. That's when we see Brock's last match. I think the main event is Gunther and Brock. It wasn't free, though. they was This was literally the most expensive show of the year, dude. But they didn't they did not they didn't extract additional value by claiming it is Brock's last match. There was no Brock's last match merch made, man. like ah but I'm not saying this would have been a proper send-off. i think it beautiful send-off. But just that whenever we have, you know, here in three or four weeks when we have Brock Appreciation Night on Raw, stand by. so Okay, here's here's my one thing. I would 100% agree with you. Here's why I don't agree with you.
00:34:41
Speaker
Brock actually did fucking fan photos at at a war at WWE World with those idiots that paid $20 million dollars for ringside seats like air that. fair That to me is like the biggest like red flag of, OK, he actually might be done because Brock doesn't do fan appearances. that That's just never been him because I just remember hearing Dana White tell a story that he wanted Brock to do a fan appearance at the UFC thing on Fourth July weekend. And Brock said, every picture I take is a million dollars. And Dana White was like, wow never mind. Yeah.
00:35:19
Speaker
Oh, man. And Brock cried. He cried real tears. You know what I mean? He's one of the best of all time,
Young Talent Potential and Main Event Analysis
00:35:25
Speaker
man. Y'all don't think he can squeeze out a couple of tears. brock I think Brock is underappreciated, man. He broke the fourth wall and did the X to let Paul Heyman know, like, you know, like this, like, you know. I'm not saying it's you won't hear pat i'm not saying it's completely impossible that Brock wrestles at SummerSlam. Nothing is impossible, but I think this was real. It would really feel cheap at this point if if he did wrestle at SummerSlam at this point. like this This, to me, was the perfect send-off for him.
00:35:51
Speaker
So let let's do a quick just yes-no before we move on from the show. Was this Brock Lesnar's last match? Yes. Jordan? I mean, I thought Brock Lesnar's last match was like 10 years ago to be completely honest. When he went to UFC, I just assumed he was never coming back. I'm going to say no just because it's WWE. They're just going to make it completely meaningless at the end of the day. Like, oh that whole WrestleMania thing was just completely meaningless. I don't want it to be Brock's last match. I love Brock, dude. Despite all the all the craziness that's happened in the last couple years, I so i still love Brock as wrestler. make it cool. Have Gunther attack Paul Heyman. Have him ask for... you know We don't know what favor he asked for, but you know we know he asked for it and Paul said he can't deliver. And he attacks you know Paul Heyman, then Brock comes back to save the day, man. Like... I don't know. I i don't really want Gunther to be his last match. I'm going to fantasy book this for you. I hope that Gunther's favor is that he wants to end CM Punk's career at SummerSlam.
00:36:49
Speaker
That would be cool. well and That would be a good plot twist. Just just give give me that and I'll be a happy man in 2026. Let's put Punk out the past. Let's just end it here.
00:37:00
Speaker
Okay, on on the other side of the spectrum, Obafami, dude. Over like Rover, dude. The the crowd was just like, Oba. Do you think... Okay, do you think that he's the real deal or do you think it's just like the the aura and the entrance, dude? Like, what are your thoughts on Oba going forward? like Oba. There's a ton talent. Because Monday was insane, too. He's more talented than the guy I'm about to say, i but I still think... Dude, think of how over Braun Strowman was that point, dude. I still think...
00:37:27
Speaker
There's this guy is a fork in the road. There's two outcomes for him. It's not a bad outcome. no Any wrestler should be happy to have Braun Strowman's career, dude. I think this guy could end up being in the next Brock Lesnar. I think he could just as easily end up being the next Braun Strowman. The jury's out for me. I got to see how they book him, dude. I think he's so big and so strong.
00:37:44
Speaker
I always worry about those guys. Once you start getting some some chinks in the armor, man, these guys are always fucking awesome, dude. until you see him lose and get knocked down a little bit, man. And then, and then where do they go from there? So I don't know, man. I i don't think AC, I think Oba's talented enough to do whatever they want him to do. I just don't have faith in WWE not to fuck this up, man.
00:38:05
Speaker
Dude, I'm just going to say, think he pins Roman at SummerSlam. I really do. I really do. I'm telling you, it's coming. They're about strap the rocket to this dude. Like, yeah.
00:38:17
Speaker
Everything that you hear bos behind the scenes about this dude is everybody loves him. Everybody backstage loves him. TKO loves him. Dude, they let him go out post-show on WrestleMania night too, and he called out Roman. He's winning that title at SummerSlam.
00:38:32
Speaker
And then he opened up the Raw After Mania. He's winning that title. He's winning that title at SummerSlam. It's happening. And I would also like to point out, was the only person on this show that said I would take him over Trick, and I'm buying that stock 100 more now It's looking good. It's ah that's a blue chip stock for sure.
00:38:49
Speaker
I mean, Trick, trick it I mean, if he's behind, he's barely behind, dude. Trick was over too, dude. I mean, like... you and You want to talk about Trick and Sammy? Yeah, Trick's awesome, man. Trick's awesome, dude. I think, you know, like Trick, Oba, Braun Breaker, Carmelo, Ludwig Kaiser, like, that you know, when it's time to finally push the the current old guard out, man, the the the coverage definitely ain't bare for WWE when it's time to start ah getting some of these new guys up in the main event scene.
00:39:20
Speaker
i I don't, i still have my doubts about WWE doing anything proper, especially with TKO in charge. Like it seriously still worries me that we have this many young, talented people on the roster because I could easily see them screwing it up with every single one of them.
00:39:36
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, and would any of us shocked? The main event scene's never been older, man. I mean, would any of us be shocked if WrestleMania next year were like, oh well, they blew Oba's push. They blew Trix's push. Like, i I don't think any of us would be shocked if it happened.
00:39:49
Speaker
Look at Tiffany, bro. Tiffany did not make the cut. Tiffany last year an awesome feud, beat Charlotte in a really good match. Isn't even on the card this year, man. She wrestled Jordan Grace on Friday Night SmackDown for the number one contendership for the U.S. title.
00:40:04
Speaker
Yeah. mean And look at, yeah, look at, uh, EO man. Dude, another one. every Amazing year. Didn't make the car. Every person, especially the women that they call up now from NXT, I am extremely worried for. Like, I just, I feel like they're gonna get buried on the main roster and that includes Saul Ruka. I just do not feel good about anything they do.
00:40:23
Speaker
Yeah. EO and Tiff are two of the biggest, there's two of the most egregious WrestleMania snubs from last couple years. EO's spot on WrestleMania was coming out to help Rio. Like, Just it's bad. It's it's very, very bad.
00:40:36
Speaker
My fear is that it's just we aren't going to be able to push actual talent because we're going to be too busy pushing like influencers and YouTube stars and just like. Yeah, they want to draw a new audience. people who have Yeah, people who have, you know, Netflix shows coming up and stuff like that. You know what i mean? Like, I just feel like.
00:40:53
Speaker
I mean, it's always been part of WWE, but it's never been more prevalent than it is now. Like, just including them in matches. It's egregious, dude. It's horrible. I do worry about the young stars because, I mean, we still do not have a champion that was born after 1990. Like, we're going keep saying it until it happens. Yeah. Like I said, man, if you had somebody that was born in 1990, there wouldn't even young superstar at this point, dude. It'd be 37 years old, man. Like, yeah, it's insane, dude.
00:41:26
Speaker
All right. where Where do you want to go next? ah The ladder match kind of, you know, if you've seen one six-man ladder match, I feel like you've kind of seen them all. Was there anything unique to stand out to you in the ladder match, Jordan? No, it was. i mean, it was fine. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't. It was fine. Yeah, but it was exactly what you expect from a WrestleMania ladder match.
00:41:45
Speaker
Yeah. Demon was cool. I would have liked to see maybe a little bit of a remix, man. I feel like i feel like I've seen that exact Demon you know gear face paint. I did not like that match at all. I mean i was i thought he should have won less than five minutes. I did too. I did not like that that match was it got as much time as it did. It should have been over like immediately, I felt like.
00:42:04
Speaker
I mean, 10 minutes for a demon match against Dom. I love Dom, but dude, I don't know. It just left. Especially when it's the first time you've trotted the demon out in years, you know, just, it felt like they left something on the table there in that match. Yeah.
00:42:18
Speaker
But I agree. I feel like they should have updated. i I didn't really consider that until you just said that. Like, why did they not like. It's been gone three years. Update the. Yeah. You know what mean? If that if that would have been Bray Wyatt, he would have had a whole new ass look. You know what i mean? Like, it's. i i I think, you know, in my heart of hearts, you got if you got him to just tell you his God's on truth. I think Finn was probably done with the demon also. He knows it's already been bastardized into something that doesn't even really matter. And I, you know, I'm sure he he probably wasn't feeling like putting a ton of creative energy into it anymore. Especially if he knew that it was literally just going be an entrance. in right There was nothing demon about the match. He have just fought the regular match as Finn Balor. Rhea and Jade. I thought Jade looked passable. man I thought Jade did a good job. you know Definitely your best match that she's had. I feel like the bar for the second to last match at WrestleMania should be something higher than oh they were passable. but you know I did think it was the best Jade's looked in her WWE run.
00:43:11
Speaker
The commentary in this match annoyed me so fucking bad. Like, this is one of those times where i was like, I really wish i had German commentary so I couldn't understand any of it. Dude, they just like, they're trying so hard to get her over and just like, oh, she's so much stronger than Rhea. It's like, dude, Rhea's been dominating WWE for seven years now. Like, do relax. like little Let's calm down. Relax. Like, dude, Rhea has wrestled every single person on that roster. Like, dude, Jade is nothing that Rhea has not seen before. The fact that they gave them 10 minutes is deplorable to me. Like it didn't need 10 minutes and it should not have been the last match before the main event.
00:43:49
Speaker
Yeah, ultimately, Jade just needs to be a special attraction. We see everyone. So at this point, man, the bigger thing, the wrestling is what it is. Obviously, you know, I'd say she's ah a C minus and that might be a little bit generous on her entering ability. It's just failed to connect with the crowd, man. She was over when she first got there because she looks like a star, right? Looks like an absolute star. and She's got the presence part down, right? Just how to carry herself, how to walk to the ring. Like she's got the aura. The music. The music, yeah. that And that that carried her for a good you know year and a half, almost two years.
00:44:20
Speaker
But eventually, there's you just come to realize like there's no there there. There's absolutely no substance to it. All it is is aura. and There's nothing there to really connect to. And I think that's ultimately what's going to end up you know dooming her to... end up going, you know, the Ronda Rousey route where she ends up kind of just fading away. Cause I don't think Jade works in the mid card. You know i mean Like she only, she only works in the main event. And I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, at some point in the next year, we kind see her end up getting shelved to, to write out her contract time. I mean, she signed in 2023. She can't have that much long. I, unless they re-sign or something, I don't think she's going to have that much longer there. So I think Jade, this, this could have very well been Jade's last WrestleMania match. Dude, she would have benefited so much from being in NXT for a year. Yes. Yeah. yeah sean mike
00:45:01
Speaker
And all those girls there at that time, like, I mean, the women's division in NXT is always one of the best, if not the best women's divisions in wrestling. Dude, she would see the improvement though, from the ones that started. You literally can see That's what I mean, dude. Like she's learning with those people that are also learning. Like once you're on the main roster, there's no more learning. Like, yeah.
00:45:21
Speaker
No, you got it. You're in the deep end. Yeah. There's no more teaching you how to do certain things. Like at that point. Yeah. And those, mean, and I'm sure the women on the main roster are fine, but they're not going to take time out of their day to like train you. Yeah. They don't want to lose their spot, man. Yeah. But yeah, like look at somebody like Kiana James, man, freaking, uh, you Jada Parker, even soul Ruka, man. Like you, you can literally like, it's a marked difference. If you watch some of their early stuff and some of this stuff now, as they're, you know, starting to get up to where they're hitting the main roster, man. Um, She's just got that syndrome from the Divas era, dude. The cadence of her promos and the way that she talks and her facials and stuff is giving Divas era. You know mean? It's not natural. You can tell it's forced. She looks like she's on Globe, right? She's playing a wrestler on a TV show. She's not just naturally being wrestler. Yeah, she's not naturally a wrestler. She's not naturally charismatic. She's really trying to over-deliver, and it looks phony. She's- I've been on the pod. I've said thought she was the best thing AEW had back in like 2021, man. I thought she was potentially the biggest star that they had, and I'm completely out on her at this point. Dude, she... What'd you say, Jordan? I was just gonna say, dude, she's just like a 1990s one-hit wonder. Like, once you get past I'm that bitch, like, what you have?
00:46:34
Speaker
i think I mean, seriously, every one of her promos is the exact same thing. Her matches are all the exact same thing. I agree with you guys. This was her best match. But again, that bar is pretty damn low. I mean, I i wouldn't call this a WrestleMania classic by any means. I don't think anybody's going back and watching this.
00:46:51
Speaker
I think this is one that backstage they're like, all right, we got we got in and out of there without anything embarrassing going down there. good Good job, everybody. Yeah. A round of applause for everybody that nobody got hurt in the ring.
00:47:03
Speaker
Well, speaking of WrestleMania classics, you we're going to take this ah show up a notch and be a little more positive for the next few minutes. um Roman Reigns defeated CM Punk to become the new World Heavyweight Champion in an absolute banger. Best WWE match in a long time, man. if If we're going, you know, strictly WrestleMania main events, dude, you know, it's a completely different flavor from ah from Bloodline Rules, right? It's definitely the best one since that. And this was just totally different, man.
00:47:35
Speaker
No interference, dude. um Just two guys going at it, man. That lasts like five, six minutes, man. I would show that to anybody that says Roman Reigns isn't a great wrestler, dude. Like, yeah, it may not be, you know, the super duper double loopers or anything like that, man. But, dude, just the storytelling, the tension, and everything looked crisp, man. It looked like a fight, bro. It it looked like a legit wrestling match there the They beat other up, dude. They beat each other pretty good. You know, as a long time Roman truther, this was everything. You know, all the chickens coming home to roost at once, man. The the the storytelling was there. the The action looked great. The aura was on point. And, dude, shout out to CM Punk, man. I love CM Punk's entrance entrance, dude. His entrance, like, as somebody who cannot stand CM Punk, I still was starting to get, like, a little bit of goosebumps feeling, man, on that entrance, dude.
00:48:20
Speaker
Yeah. And ah Roman Reigns proving that, you know, he's ultimately the ah the best member of the shield because CM Punk did that same exact, you know, double GTS to both Seth and Jon Moxley and took him out, dude. And and then wow and it did not. ah It did not. big dog Yeah, it did not take out the big dog. You know, had the big dog defeated him because he just couldn't overcome, ah you know, that ass whooping he took from Roman earlier on in the night. As somebody who has gone on record that I don't like either one of these guys wrestling wise, like I just it's not for me. i and i get it. Like Roman has grown on me. I will say that Roman has definitely grown on me. I i felt like he's he has gotten a lot better in the ring over the past couple of years. And I mean, obviously, like he held the bell for over a thousand days. He's got to improve during that, you know.
00:49:09
Speaker
this match was fantastic like it was it was absolutely perfect to me and i agree with seth that was the first thing i texted him there was no interference in this match they literally just let him go out there and wrestle a match like dude that's the first time in a long time where we haven't had interference in the main event i loved that match and as someone who does not like either one of those guys i loved that match i it was it was really really good like both of those guys brought it For the amount of time they were in the ring, i I was shocked that it was that crisp at the end of that match thought they both going to be absolutely gassed, which they were, but it yeah it was really, really good.
00:49:47
Speaker
And they were at the end, I mean, they were fighting like they were gassed. You know what mean? Like that's what it gave it just like this sense of realness. I mean, Punk is like literally on his hands and knees reaching out to try to like swipe for Roman, like any little thing just to try to like get a hit in, you know? And, uh, I mean, Punk throughout the match, I thought he looked like he was having a good time. He looked like he was out there like fighting for his life, but you know, when he would like get the opportunity to pin, yeah you could just tell he was just, he was high on it. And, uh,
00:50:15
Speaker
yeah The whole thing was just magnifique. yeah I'm going to go back at some point here in the next couple weeks. I'm going to own personal rankings of every WrestleMania main event see exactly where this one stacks up. It's way up there. though It's not the best ever, but it's it's it's ti easily top 10. It's in the top 10. The one stat we need to take out of this match is CM Punk cried for 20 years about getting a WrestleMania main event 0 for 2.
00:50:39
Speaker
yeah too well you were staring at the lights back to back years it was uh he went into the he went into the you know wrestlemania main event as a champion came out not the champion i mean that's a pretty big song last night he's a loser man he said it himself dude i'm a loser but no it uh it was good man i think the match is timeless i think this match is gonna age well. I mean, i think this is going to be one that, you know, it it becomes like the essential viewing on like, you know, the CM Punk and Roman Reigns playlist when they start putting them together, man. Like it's
00:51:10
Speaker
You know, it's frustrating, man. The thing me and Jordan was talking about, dude, the frustrating thing about this match is it just goes to show you what magic is still there with WWE when they just get out of their own way, man. Like, because this was everything you want in wrestling, dude. The pageantry, the drama, the action. Like, it was all there for us, just in everything you could want, man. um And I don't know why it took, you know, to the last 45 minutes of a freaking eight-hour extravaganza to to get something like that, man. like yeah They brought the OG theme back. Like, dude, it was just absolute perfection when that hit. i was like, oh, thank God. And dude, Roman woman just looks incredible. Like, he is as chiseled as I've ever seen him, dude. I love the boots, too. The black and gold Jordan 11 boots with the tribal print. It was sick, dude. I'm really hoping we get a ah an Ultimate Edition pretty soon because they should be able to crank that out pretty easy, man, just some with some paint swaps. Yeah.
00:52:04
Speaker
But no, it was great, man. I will say the one thing to their credit, dude, another thing that, you know, AEW, I don't want them to go all the way on this, but something they could benefit from. Dude, it did let but the the fact that the other matches were as short as they were and were just kind of, you know, sawed off as they were. um It let both main events really shine and stand out. You know what I mean? I think there's a medium between, you know, what we got on that and, you know, having every match on the show go 20 minutes with 16 near falls and stuff. Yeah. um But it definitely did let the main events freaking stand out, man. um But yeah, like I said, night two so carried a bunch, man. Again, I would have to go back and kind of stack it up. I'd say this mania has fallen. I think it's going to, you know, out of all 42, I think this would fall somewhere right around the middle, depending on your own personal taste, man. If you're being a Roman fan, I think kind of bumps it up a couple of notches for me. There's others, but I think it's definitely in the mid range, man. And really it's more, more than anything that happened in the ring. It was just the the TKO and shitification of the product is well yeah what drug this thing down. yeah
00:53:04
Speaker
just see like Because you you just get totally taken out whenever you're just like, oh my God, there's a match. And then it's like, you know, you get a freaking pharmaceutical ad. It's just like, my God. like And the finishes of all this this, the stuff we got in ring was good. I liked all the finishes and stuff, man, for the most. But aside from Seth and Gunther, the finishes were all pretty good. um You just needed about, you know, anywhere from two to six minutes extra for every single match. And then mix in a couple more fun, like backstage segments. We used to always have a handful of like, i remember like you saw us have the segment where you'd get all the legends you'd have like six or seven legends come backstage people who were like made the hall of fame and stuff like that yeah like or give us you know dude the other stuff they used to man like somewhere at the midpoint of the show show us roman reigns warming up backstage you know show us cm punk staring in the mirror backstage doing some soul searching we're missing all that all that kind of just connective tissue that that helps you know elevate the whole product man like all of that was gone this It's literally like, you know, here's a bunch of ads, but we're going to show you a little wrestling in between. You know what I mean? Like, it's just, it, i showed you can definitely know where they, ah where they put their, I showed Ari, uh, the WrestleMania 17 main event with the, the lead in with Limp Bizkit with the promo package. Wow. And we were watching, and Ari's like, why don't they do this now? I'm like, great question, because this is absolutely phenomenal. The promo package was almost as good as the match. like you go back yeah Those used to be the highlight, man. They used to lock in when the promo packages were coming up. Yeah, they did a really cool um roman Cody and Randy one, I thought. like but they did But they showed it in the pre-show, you know what I mean? like It wasn't even like as a part of the lead-up to the match. But i mean they still put together some awesome packages. Not as good as they used to. I feel like whoever... they I don't think...
00:54:43
Speaker
whoever used to be the video package guys got to be gone. Cause even the ones they do do now, like aren't, they ain't touch they're not close to the old ones. Yeah. Whoever did the video package before knew exactly what music to pick, exactly how to shoot it. Like now it it just seems like a paint by numbers. Like you're probably using some sort of generative AI system where they just like, you know, they would have like just, you know, a different tone for each one. Some would be super dramatic. Some would just be intense, man. Like,
00:55:08
Speaker
you know I think back to one Sean and Brett before the Iron Man match, like, you know, Sean training in down the gym in San Antonio, Brett jogging through the snow in Calgary. So but what are the so what what are they seeing in um in the arena whenever we're seeing so many ads? Are they seeing video packages? actually I assume they got ads playing on the big screen. Yeah, they're getting ads too. They're probably getting SummerSlam ads. like Tickets go on sale soon for this event. like yeah Going to a live event just seems less and less exciting to me every time I watch one. just like Dude, there there was like 30 minutes between a couple of the matches and I'm just like, this sounds awful.
00:55:46
Speaker
You could go get that $150 Tomahawk they were selling at the concession stand. I can go get me, you, Sheena, and Ari 12 hot dogs. blizzies baby yeah we went to dude we hit that sweet spot man between the time that vince was gone before tko took over man that was like the true the true renaissance era wwe man we were we were literally at the first show du post vince man that summer slam show and it was everything think about how alive that felt man like it was such an awesome night it felt like the sky was the limit man for what i know Think about that summer saying and then think about like that stretch of raws like that the next like three or four months worth of raws like all them were bangers and it was like holy shit like this is what we've been missing all these years and then they slowly started to claw it all back from us man. At least we didn't hear this is a new era on Sunday night.
00:56:30
Speaker
as They didn't even let Triple H get on the mic. I wonder if TKO told them to dial that shit back and they're just going to start doing those post shows and having the winners interview because it seems like they're really starting to lean into that a lot now.
00:56:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's true. We didn't get the the kind of the fakie press conference or anything after this one. don't know, man. i so I saw some unconfirmed reports that that Triple H is just really bit at odds with the powers that be backstage with all the interference on creative, which it definitely tracks. me oh You can tell. You can feel it. You can feel it. I can. I mean, there's a there's a marked difference between like, you know, what we were getting. Yeah, I feel like what what ended up playing out specifically with the Randy and Cody stuff, I feel like that was back that I can just picture like back and forth and that ultimately being like the compromise that they settled on on at some point, you know, between, you know, Friday night and and and Saturday night, man, for exactly how to. how to play that out. I can't imagine with all, with how big a part Pat Mac, if he was the last couple weeks, that that's truly what they had picked out for, for his involvement for me. I agree that that had to have gotten changed.
00:57:34
Speaker
I mean, the backlash was awful, dude. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I know wrestling fans can be a vocal just. No, dude, no, it was bad. And the way you know it was really shitty is because people like Pat McAfee, dude. Yeah. People like, Pat McAfee had a lot of good will WWE fans. Obviously, people love Randy and Cody. But it was such a just out of nowhere nonsensical pivot, man, that it just, you can smell the corporate interference all over. Yes, in match that absolutely 1,000% didn't need it. Yeah. That was the thing. It was like absolutely no reason for this because you have this rich history between these two guys and then you just shove in this, know, Pat McAfee because, you know, Michael coming off the top rope with a chair on Pat McAfee on commentary certainly was enjoyable.
00:58:17
Speaker
Yeah, man, just heal it off on him, dude. um Quick, but we we'll take a quick break from the entering the figure reveals, man. Was there anything that jumped out at you? ah Takeaways, and that you know, stuff you didn't like, stuff you did like from all the figure reveals, Jordan.
00:58:31
Speaker
I mean, I think we' we've kind of just kind of touched on this point so many times over the past couple of years. There's only so much more that they can make that it's just going to be like the new, new. I mean, very excited for New Jack. Like, that is definitely a figure that needed to be made.
00:58:46
Speaker
I always get excited for any Warrior figure.
Merchandise Discussions and Fan Reactions
00:58:48
Speaker
So those reveals were like the Warriors. Yeah, that the White Shirt Warrior is really cool. Obviously, that Monday Night War with the ball cap is cool. Yeah.
00:58:57
Speaker
I was not... Okay, maybe I'm just an idiot. I was not as wild about the demolition ultimates as everybody else. No, dude. If you have the elites, like unless you're doing figtography, I don't know why you need those, man. I mean, you got the extra head sculpts with like the older style face paint, but dude, that's not worth 85 bucks, man. I was expecting them to like roll out like something like incredible, and then they revealed them, and I'm like, that's really all they did? Yeah.
00:59:22
Speaker
Yeah, I don't need Why couldn't we get the pants? You know, why couldn't we? The Jax gave us the pants. Give him the pants, dude. And then the other thing, man, this is super just fig nerdy, but dude, it's the Ultimate Editions. Smash almost always had that blue knee sleeve underneath the knee pad. You know what mean? Like Ringside just had that with the unsanctioned figures. Why can't we get that on the Ultimate? You know, like, I don't know. I thought these were very, very un-Ultimate Ultimate Editions. Didn't like those. hated the fact that Jelly Roll's getting an LJN figure.
00:59:50
Speaker
yeah That's the most ridiculous inclusion in line. But to your casino, they should score points for you because he did pump... He punked CM Punk out of that lineup, dude. CM Punk was supposed to be in that Series 3 and they bumped him to a later series they could squeeze Jelly Roll I just feel like should be in the LJN line. If they want to give him an ultimate, which they are giving him, it's fine. it's just like, dude...
01:00:12
Speaker
I don't know. And then the Saturday night's main event thing I was super excited about. And a couple of the figure reveals are cool. But like, why the fuck is Jey Uso in the Saturday night's main event line? Like, yeah, i know he's bigger issue. It's why we getting another Walmart exclusive line? Like, it's one more exclusive. You already know it's going to nightmare finding those, man.
01:00:30
Speaker
I just, i don't know, man. There's just so much, again, we we've talked about this so many times. Like there's not wells running drop yeah there's not much more they can do, but I don't know. Just sometimes it seems really lazy to me, the the figures that they reveal.
01:00:43
Speaker
Yeah. The, I think we got Dory Funk Jr. want to say there was maybe like one other first time in the line that they revealed, man, for legends anyways, man. Yeah. New Jack and Dory Funk were the only two first in the line, right?
01:00:57
Speaker
Where's Repo Man? You know what mean? He got Smash back in the mix, dude. Where's Repo Man, dude? Maybe they're saving all that for Comic-Con. Yeah, maybe, man. i mean i'm but I'm with you, dude. it's kind of you know the The problem is, man, it's a credit to Mattel. They've done such an amazing job, and they've had the line so long that even the first time in the line stuff that they could do now, it's like kind of cool, like deep cut, nice to have. would say aside from Owen Hart, I don't think there's a jaw dropper that they could really have as like, you know hey, this guy's going to be in the Mattel line now. No, yeah there's not. I mean, it was like they would have to get Sting and Owen Hart back for me to be like, OK, this is really cool and macho, man. But yeah, outside that, it's like, what are they really going to do
01:01:41
Speaker
Yeah, I said victim of their own success, man. I'm still I still saw some cool figures. I'm glad we're finally getting the Blue Heart Foundation in elite form. Those are going to be nice. and there And there was some really cool stuff revealed. But yeah, just nothing that really gets your blood racing, like some of those Comic Cons and WrestleMania reveals from from, you know, six, seven years ago, man. Yeah.
01:01:59
Speaker
um Raw after Mania, I was a little bit underwhelmed. I don't know, man. I think, I don't know. It seems like after Mania is barely even a thing anymore. It's not a thing anymore. Yeah, remember, it was such a big thing. Like that WrestleMania that we went to, 31, that was like the the start of the whole ah Raw after Mania, just like madness. to Yeah, with the crowd going berserk. Yeah, it just started. It's like just another Raw, man. like We saw Ethan Page and Soul Rucka. I was telling you yesterday, I think a big issue is that, you know,
01:02:28
Speaker
the Nowadays, inx the gap between most of the people on NXT and the main roster is gigantic, whereas ah seven, eight years ago, man, the you had absolute megastars on NXT. We had people like Samoa Joe, Finn Bal, Shinsuke Nakamura on NXT. then it's Kevin Owens, Bobby Roode, like absolute huge stars just waiting to get called up. And that's not the case. Ethan Page is great. I think he's super talented, but like, I don't think he's ever made of any a pay-per-view at any point on the main roster. Yeah, but dude, when KO got called up and immediately started doing open challenges and stuff, like it felt like, it felt right. Like I i can't picture Ethan Page coming out and be like, I'm wrestling for the Intercontinental title next week. like What do you think, what do you think has caused this, just the took the gap to widen so much? I don't know. I think, um i mean, it seems like the company is really kind of holding what they got. I feel like we've kind of slowed down on some of the wrestler movement back and forth. You know, we had a lot when AEW first started up up. There was a ton of people jumping from WWE to AEW, which made, you know, those kind of pop-ups were exciting. And then there in like, you know, late 2022 to kind of early 2024, it seemed like we had some big folks from AEW coming back the other direction. i feel like we've been relatively stable the last couple of years. i mean, who was, you know, the last popular person that jumped ship was,
01:03:42
Speaker
like champa and i mean how you know i love champa but he's not anybody you know he's not a head giant super duper before that it was blake monroe and i still feel like she made a mistake leaving like i i it's not looking great so far man yeah i just i don't the early returns i don't think she's gonna be able to get over like she did in aw and i like her a lot i just i again every girl they're gonna call up at this point dude you just said it there's a huge gap like I don't know, man. i like Can you buy Saul Ruka pinning Rhea Ripley right now?
01:04:14
Speaker
No, no, definitely not. Like, straight up. Could she steal one? Yeah, but no. but there's she so Yeah, when Asuka got called up, it was like, oh, dude, she's winning the title immediately. Like, she's one the most over people. Like, Saul Ruka, Blake Monroe, none of them are pinning Rhea or any of, like, the the established women at this point. Like, it's just...
01:04:35
Speaker
I don't know, man. I just there's something that happened and I agree with you. It's just it's kind of gotten stale a little bit, at which I'm glad because watching 20 people switch shows a year was getting kind of annoying to me. Like it just there was never going to be enough time for everybody is more than anything when it comes down to. And you're in that time again now.
01:04:57
Speaker
You excited for Jacob Fatu versus Roman? I mean, it'll be good. i just, I, I was kind of surprised by that to be completely honest with you. I just didn't see it coming. and I, I didn't know who they were.
01:05:08
Speaker
I hope we don't do this whole, we're just straight up running the bloodline back and we're just going to go right back to that normal thing and anymore. Cause I really did like seeing Roman by himself on Sunday. I enjoyed the shit out of that. I think there's still a chance that the Usos turn. Yeah.
01:05:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think you could see the Usos go with Jacob, man. They were wearing the Raiders jerseys like Jacob used to wear on Monday night, man. I could totally see the Usos going. you know It feels feels like a heel turn could be good for the Usos right now. Or a tweener turn, I guess it'd be, if they join up with Jacob. And Solo really has nothing right now either. like That faction's completely dead at this point. Yeah, they're they're floating in the mid-card. It looks like we're setting up for a Tama Tonga Solo feud, which i could you know I totally see that playing out over the next four months on SmackDown without ever even sniffing a pay-per-view. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, it'll be a good match to Jacob Fatu is awesome. Like I love Jacob. He's the man dude. As far as like excitement level. I mean, i don't think he's beating him. So I know it's, it'll, it'll be a ah feud to get us through the next couple months.
01:06:07
Speaker
That's the one bad thing. ah though The one bad thing about a Roman reign is, you know, it's SummerSlam or WrestleMania. du If he if he doesn't lose at SummerSlam, he's holding that fucker till man. when when he kill some of the when He said he
Future Predictions and Industry Influence
01:06:20
Speaker
was going full time and you'd see him a lot during the summer. It just felt like he's going to do a six month run and then be off again until WrestleMania. Like it's completely fine.
01:06:30
Speaker
We don't need to see a long run. We've already seen the four-year run, man. like there's nothing Don't even try to replicate that because there's no top in that, man. We've already seen the definitive Roman Reigns title run. this is totally I'm totally fine with this being four exciting months. Let's see some let's see some new matchups. That's probably my one request on this. is let's I don't want to run back anything from the OG Tribal Chief frame, man. I want to see all new matches. You're going to ultimately get people to turn on Roman, dude. and just get They're going to start hating on him. You'll get him and Jacob for probably till mid-June, maybe July, and then I would imagine Oba at that point steps up and they make the SummerSlam match.
01:07:04
Speaker
That'll be good, man. That's good. That's putting some some younger people and in uncomfortable positions, and I feel like that's what they need to do because, dude, a four-month Roman reign would also kind of kill everything they got going with the younger guys at this point.
01:07:19
Speaker
i want to see I want to see Oba have just a hellified King of the Ring run, bro. Like stack the bracket up where he is he's levels up off each win, you know what mean? Like have him end up beating Gunther in the finals, man, but just really you know really have him beating some quality opponents on the way to getting King the Ring and getting the title shot that way against Roman. Like let's just let's keep it clean. don't need a lot of nonsense. Like rope Roman and Oba, that's going to be a money match. the The only thing coming off WrestleMania and may, I could be completely off here, but it feels like they're definitely going do Cody and Randy probably from the majority of the summer. I mean, assuming yeah Cody's face heals,
01:07:56
Speaker
What else are they building off of after WrestleMania, though, outside of Oba? And yeah, Trick had a great match, but like what else are you building off of? yeah They teased Cody and CM Punk, so I think that's... That's WrestleMania next year. there's There's no question that's WrestleMania next year. that's That's the main event of night two in Saudi.
01:08:14
Speaker
Yeah, so I don't know if... i can't I can't imagine Cody holds the belt all the way until then, but he could totally lose it and then win it back at some point. So yeah, there was Cody and... Cody and Punk, and other than that, man, we kind of got... a clean slate heading into the new year. We'll see it. We'll see what they roll out from Smackdown Friday night. yeah Uh, Sheen, we got listener mail.
01:08:32
Speaker
Oh yeah.
01:08:43
Speaker
All right. Our first question comes in from our buddy, the OG Fig Kid, Thomas Montalto. And I'm actually going to roll in old Uncle Phil from Across the Pond's question in, too, because both about Night 2. Tom says, Night 2, best main event in-ring match of any WrestleMania? question mark And Phil says, Night 2, main event top 10 Mania match? question mark I'd have to go back and see if it's a top 10 Mania match of all time. don't know. Definitely top 10 main event.
01:09:11
Speaker
i it's I'd say it's probably on the fringes of top 10 Mania matches of all time. don't know, man. It's been a lot of good matches at WrestleMania. It may be close to top 20 strictly on Mania It would be hard for it to crack the top five of main events for me, but it was fantastic. like I will say for just a straight-up one-on-one with no interference, no shenanigans,
01:09:31
Speaker
very, very good and probably one of the better ones in the last 10, 15 years as far as main event. Definitely. Yeah. As far as I think as far as straight up one on, you know, if we take all the high jeans, because again, it's a totally different flavor from the bloodline rules match, which to me is the other great main event of the last, uh,
01:09:48
Speaker
the The last 10 years or so, dude, i kind of, I think I got to go all the way back to 26 with HBK and Taker, man. For the last time we had a straight up one V one that was this dramatic and this entertaining in the main of event of mania, man. I don't love the rock and Sina matches. You know, if I'm sure there's some people that really did love those. I don't love those two matches. Similar vibes, right? Those are similar vibes. it was just one V one, two you guys going at it. But, but I, I think Taker and HBK at 26 was the last time we had a main event that was this dramatic with no, ah no, no extra. Yeah. but With none of the extra sprinkled on top.
01:10:23
Speaker
We got to give shout out to Tom too. had the most epic WrestleMania weekend of anybody, dude. I don't think there's anyone on the roster that he didn't meet, dude. Yeah. pastor present He went all in. Yeah. ah So shout out to Tom. Zach Herzler says, any prediction on next year's WrestleMania main event? We kind touched on said CM Punk and Cody. What about, ah you know, for another one? I rock Roman, man. I think the Saudis make it happen, dude.
01:10:45
Speaker
No, dude. Sami Zayn is going to be in one of those main events, dude. No. Yes, he is. don't know. That's really rich. I'm telling you him he's getting telling you, dude, he's getting his Saudi do. He's going to get his Saudi do. telling you.
01:11:00
Speaker
It's going to happen. He's going to get his Saudi do. I'll be shocked, bro, if Sammy's in the main event. The way we're trending, it could easily be three nights next year. like Yeah, you're not wrong. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Oh, my gosh.
01:11:15
Speaker
ah Yeah, no. If Sammy's in the main event, we've really we've really jumped the shark. Don't be surprised. It's in Saudi. i'm just Anything can happen in Saudi. To me, it makes it more believable that The Rock would come back than Sammy did. I don't think The Rock's coming back, dude. The fact that him and Stone Cold were both in Vegas all weekend and either one of them showed face at WrestleMania. the rock down yeah Saudi's got different kind of money there, dude. Another thing that's kind of ah adding fuel to the the backstage drama, man, is The Rock didn't even tweet or anything about WrestleMania. Really? He did not even, you know pardon the pun, acknowledge ah that WrestleMania was happening over the weekend. That's so very interesting. Yeah, yeah i think I think the Rock thing is done. i think we that failed Travis Scott and the Rock thing was the last thing we're going to see of the Rock. I think it's done.
01:12:03
Speaker
Well, I thought that too, but then, you know, like I said, you you take ah WrestleMania to where they got the big money, dude, where they're going to pull out all the stops, dude. I think means tk it's possible. I mean, TKO can get Saudi money for any show that they want to get Saudi money for, for The Rock. Like, I think Saudi would cough up money no matter if it's in Saudi or not. Like, they're going to own that company eventually.
01:12:27
Speaker
I mean, they they're literally hyping Riyadh season. that The main event was sponsored by Riyadh season. like they Saudi is pumping money into WWE, no matter if it's in Saudi or not. like I don't think that is even a thing anymore.
01:12:43
Speaker
Eric Yazzie says, ah were you hoping for more out of Cena hosting or did he do enough? I don't think what he did was bad, by the way. It just seemed minimal. I thought he did. Honestly, man, the more thought about it, he was like doing like a straight up Vince McMahon cosplay, dude, with the voice, the pinstripe suit, everything, man. um It was exactly what I was expecting. I thought we may see him get involved in AA somebody or maybe come out and, you know, make a match, right? Like, you know restart a match, something like that. I thought there may be a slight bit more involvement, but it was it was definitely within the range of what I was expecting. It was what I was expecting. I thought he did good, and I thought i thought the segments were great. He got to, you know, show everybody that ah Bianca and Montez were expecting, ah you know, a new baby, future tag team partners with ah Naomi's baby. And I think...
01:13:29
Speaker
with the Danhausen segment. That was, it was just awesome. I think both those segments were perfectly executed. And, uh, yeah, I thought it was, I think, i think the jorts have officially been retired. Unfortunately, i thought he going to show up as jort Cena on night too. So disappointing. No jorts.
01:13:46
Speaker
Well, like, ah you know, we were watching it, um Seth and, you know, our son Brett, they were both talking about how you could tell Cena was trying to hold back from like being John Cena. You know what i mean? He was trying not to do the shtick and trying not to like run down the ramp. You know, he was he was really trying to be in host mode.
01:14:02
Speaker
um So, yeah, I think I think we're wristbands and jorts are ah are no more. ah Zach Herzler also says he says, if you could change any outcome of mania, what would you change and why?
01:14:15
Speaker
If you could change any outcome. Seth and Gunther. I would add Seth and Gunther. Have Bron break. I feel like at entrance, I feel like it's so much better. It creates so much more branching storylines and stuff. If you do everything the same, have Bron come out and somehow Seth dodges and Gunther gets speared, right? And then Seth you know gets a quick win and gets out of there untouched, man. Obviously, Seth's my dude.
01:14:38
Speaker
So I'm saying this from the perspective of a Seth fan, but I feel like that, because that still keeps all the Seth stuff with the vision going, but it also, now you got Gunther in the mix also. You do an uneasy alliance action with Seth and Gunther for a little bit. You know, enemy of my enemy is my friend. And then you still got that that Paul Heyman favor hanging the whole thing. I just think so much more storytelling possibilities that if you have Seth win that match, because ah Paul Heyman's goons jacked everything up for for Gunther.
01:15:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think I would have Randy win over Cody. I think it just it it leads to more intrigue throughout the the rest of the spring and summer. Gives Cody something to chase because I feel like Cody, he he's he's best when he's chasing the title. du I think he he does his best work when he's really going step up and and show up and, you know, finish the story. But um yeah, now that that would probably be the most ah that I would change. Yeah, I really thought they were going to have Orton go over. It just, it felt like the right time to do it.
01:15:35
Speaker
just, don't know. And then you end it that way, like we talked about earlier. It just, I don't know. It just feels so tacky. I don't know. It felt like, you know, Tony Khan got in there for a second, dude. It was like, oh, wait, we're just going to add on this little extra flavor at the end. Well, if you don't have TKO catching straight. was going to say, if you don't think TKO has a high cocaine budget, you are slightly mistaken there, Sheena.
01:15:57
Speaker
Right. Hey, we didn't even touch on Darby winning the belt, man. You got, we thought it was going to steal the shine for mania when we kind of fantasy booked it last week, dude. Um, yeah, I think it was, uh, I thought that was pretty damn bad ass on, on dynamite, man. Darby getting that. That was awesome. MJF. Dude, the the amount of people that were like so pissed about that online, I'm like, Darby is a day one. Why were they pissed? Because everybody just thinks it's stupid that you have MJF beat, uh, Kenny in this huge match and then have him lose three days later. It's like, well, you, He was still beat up. I think that's old school. He was still selling. He was just in a 40 minute match with Kenny Omega, one of the two best wrestlers of the modern era. MJF is like one of the best sellers of this era. Like yeah and he knows how to like sell himself as injured. Also, he's getting ready to film a movie like he was going to lose the title eventually. Anyway, he got kicked in the nads. it's his second title reign. Everybody knows after your first title reign, you can lose weight easier. Dude, if you hate Darby, you are not a a human at all. like What is there to hate about the dude? like he's
01:16:56
Speaker
He literally puts it on the line every time he gets in a ring. Like, yeah, you can hate on some of the stuff that he does. I get it. It's a little bit over the top. But, dude, Darby's awesome. He's awesome. And you already know he's not going have a long reign, bro. This is going to be Mick Foley style. Yeah. I think he has this till...
01:17:12
Speaker
yeah'll i'll be pretty surprised if he holds it past the next pay-per-view if not the first defense on dynamite man this was this was tk doing some fan servers booking for a moment dude i think this was straight up let's do this let's create this awesome moment and it may not end up being you know historically significant but dude it was cool as hell man we got see ghosting show up that's like my number one wish now for jazzwares dude if uh They really are circling the drain. This is it. Find a way to get his old man sting, dude, before the line runs out, dude. I love the the transition to just the gray hair after he retired, man. Yeah, he's sting the white now. Yeah, it's so cool when he shows Walker sting.
01:17:48
Speaker
Also, dude, it served its purpose. at Literally, everybody was talking about that Wednesday night and Thursday morning while everybody's traveling to Vegas for WrestleMania. like it It did what it was supposed to do.
01:18:00
Speaker
It was cool, man. I loved it. It will definitely be one of my favorite moments. Yeah. And I love the match, bro. If didn't get the feels, then yeah. We just mentioned it the week before. Like, we were due for like a shock one. Give us a flash finish. Yeah, we said give us a flash finish, man, on one of these big matches, dude.
01:18:18
Speaker
Yeah. ah Like I said, you need that every once a while just to know that it's possible, man. It's within the realm of possibility that somebody gets gets the drop on someone, hits multiple finishers, and and that's it, man. i Yeah, I got no notes on what they did on Wednesday. it was awesome. And dude, when you do stuff like that, it makes people want to tune in to the weekly product. You what I mean? Yeah, everybody that's stuck with Darby and has watched all his ups and downs, everything, they they got paid off with that investment with this awesome emotional moment, man. Like, that's what wrestling should be, dude. Like, it it it did. I love the matches, but it's about the moments, man. It really is. It's one thing Vince was right about, dude. You remember the moments, man. And the matches are are just a way to get you to the moments, see? Yeah. and and she sheena's exactly right too it gets you to tune in week to week like that is one thing any w is good about like you have to watch every show because something could happen just completely off the wall any week like wwe from raw to raw it's pretty paint by numbers like you you know what you're getting like you can tell if something big is gonna happen on raw or smackdown like it's just yeah they're just they're mailing in the creative on weekly tv
01:19:25
Speaker
All right, Eric Yazzie, he talked about how, ah you know, would you like to see video packages like they used to make before? We kind of touched on that. Yeah, definitely. i would love to see more video packages, less ads, more build up, make the matches feel important. Stop breaking up the flow of the show, dude. By the way, in it dude,
01:19:43
Speaker
If you're going to just, ah you know, get the ads like ingrained in the in the the stuff, man. Give me a fucking backstage of LA Knight eating a Slim Jim. Yes. Give me that, man. Yes. If you want to give ads, 100%. Yeah. Get Bianca Belair back there doing some stuff, dude. Get freaking LA Knight. Get The Miz. Get Dan Housen. You know what i mean? Like, those are... like integrate the ads into the product so it's not just like, you know, can i do you want to have your your hemorrhoids acting up? You know, like, there i mean there is one other thing that it does annoy me and it started with the unreal show and it's just like continued as it goes along.
01:20:20
Speaker
You used used to have little to no fan access to any of the top people like in the 90s and early 2000s. You were not meeting Stone Cold just on a random Sunday. Like there there just was no way.
01:20:34
Speaker
I wish they'd go back to some of that. I know all it is about money for them. Like, it's just, it's all just a money grab. But I mean, I literally saw 50 people with CM Punk pictures on, on Saturday on my Facebook. Like, it was just, it's like, dude, can we like take back some of the kayfabe? Like we don't need to have just all, like, dude, we don't need to have all access to all these people. Like, I don't need to know, like, I mean, the thing is, is people are going to be taking pictures anyway, like bum rushing these people at the airports and at the hotels and stuff like that. So they're like, yeah, they're like, if we can make these people pay for it.
01:21:08
Speaker
guys Also, if you see a wrestler at a hotel and you're literally following them for 20 minutes, you're a fucking loser. Like, dude, leave them alone. Like they're actual human beings. i hope to god that none of our none of our listeners are those people man wait at the airports wait at the hotels like if it's like a natural thing where like they come up to you at like a casino and like they they seem like they're approachable it's fine but when you're legitimately following them ah did you guys see the cm punk video where you slap like dude leave these fucking people alone like god Well, I guess, you know, they didn't show, like, TMZ was ah of where that thing was, like, going viral and stuff. And I guess they didn't show the whole interaction. And somebody else, like, posted, like, the beginning of that interaction. That dude, like, got right up on AJ Lee. And Bailey. And Bailey, dude. And so then he was he was still recording him after they asked for him to, like, back up. So then CM Punk, like, got involved, which, like, you know, good. good for him am i i would have i would have thrown that right at that dude am i the only one that's like completely weirded out that there was no fucking security anywhere to be seen like what what are we doing
01:22:12
Speaker
I read report. It was like the day, maybe it was like day one of Mania. Yeah, it was Saturday morning. Yeah, Saturday morning. It was talking about how there was no, like the talent didn't have any like added security. And there was no special entrance. So they're having to walk through an entire casino to get up to where their were. Yeah, they literally, they're walking. All these people are walking by themselves to their rooms. Like, what the fuck are you doing?
01:22:36
Speaker
yeah and Yeah, and people just don't have any sense, dude. Especially when you know wrestling fans are the biggest creepers out of all the different fan bases out there. Wrestling fans the biggest stans of all the stans, dude. So, yeah, bad bad setup, bad form. um Just don't do that, dude. Listen, I like to get a glimpse of people as much as anybody do, but I'll never, ever go up to somebody and just like put a phone in their face and like take unsolicited photos and stuff. Drew McIntyre tweeter have either tweeted or... Oh, yeah. said something Facebook he's like thanks for everybody for using their hard-earned money to meet me it was great to meet all of you and to everybody that was following me and my family around you're lucky I'm like really nice in person like dude leave these people alone
01:23:17
Speaker
He did a PSA like two days before he did the PSA, like, you know, Friday night or like Saturday morning, it came out. He like went live on Facebook or, you know, wherever Instagram somewhere and like made a whole video. Like, Hey, I'm, you know, getting ready for WrestleMania. Just wanted to give you guys a head up heads up on some etiquette. You know what mean? Like, you we wrestlers, we really love it when you just call us by our government names and we love when you bum rush us and all this Jesus. Like, really being sarcastic. So he did, like, a whole PSA about this and he's still got freaking, you know, people creeping up on him. It's just so weird. Like, how did WWE plan that so poorly? Like, we saw where they were staying at SummerSlam, but it was blocked off. Like, you were not getting anywhere close to him. Like, dude, in Vegas of all places?
01:24:01
Speaker
Yeah. Weird. um, Zach Hertzler, any wrestler from mania that you want in figure form? Roman, Roman and Cody's my top two. I want that Alexa, the, the braid tribute, Alexa. I think that that was awesome. but that That was, that was one of the best looks of the entire weekend. I agree.
01:24:20
Speaker
the yeah naya naya and lash the darks are you i think those those would make awesome figures those would make killer figures um i like i like a punk anything with larry on it i'm here for it i love all the tributes to larry i say it's a lock that we get ultimates of cody roman and punk dude i could see all three of those is ultimates randy like don't know was just randy orton man I'm trying to think if anybody else had any last Superman. I'm not going to lie to you I really wanted Roman to put Punk's coat on in the middle of the match and flip off the Larry photo.
01:24:54
Speaker
Like the fact that that punk put the Ula fall on, I was like, please God put that coat on it or just like smear his blood on it or something like, dude, I don't know, dude. I mean, you, you can't mess with dogs, dude. I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of people's dead parents. Yeah. Much better. telling you right now, people, people will take their dogs over their parents straight up. like yeah I mean, there there is more, there is more love for dogs in this country than there is for, but it just seemed like such a missed opportunity.
01:25:24
Speaker
just think for the most, for most people's experience, man, the loss of a dog is like somehow more like, it's more like an acute pain than like the loss of parents. Obviously the loss of parents always going to be worse than the loss of a dog, but it's like, and yeah for the most people, like you kind of, you know, you have a nice full life with your, uh, your parents. 10 to 15 years with a dog.
01:25:45
Speaker
Yeah, you never get enough time with your dog, man. So, yeah, I think that it's just a different kind of pain. It's a more raw kind of pain, I guess, man, than saying your dad died. Because, again, everybody knows that Sika had a nice full life with a huge family and stuff, man. Yeah, you can't compare the two. Obviously, everybody listening, we're not comparing losing parents to losing dogs. It's just pain, though. It's just different, guys. No, we're not. Sheena is.
01:26:09
Speaker
No, I'm not. Me and Seth are Switzerland here. No, I'm definitely not. um Well, and you know, I mean, you know, AJ and Punk, they don't have, they don't have children, dude. So like before Seth and I had kids, like, dude, your dogs are your, your dogs are your kids, man. Like it's a, it's a different kind of bond. Like I, you know, I obviously loved my dogs after I had kids and they were still my babies, but it is a totally different type of bond when it's like, you know, you don't have kids and you have these little dogs and The other reason why it's more raw is I would say, you know, a good, i probably half of wrestling fans have never lost a parent. You know what mean? Almost everybody's experienced a pet dying. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah it's all, everybody can, it's more universal kind of pain. do Yeah.
01:26:48
Speaker
All right. k Kyle Haas says, after this WrestleMania, would you welcome Vince back as the owner to help fix what TKO is doing? An almost one-to-one-to-one split of entrances, commercials, and actual wrestling. Not to mention, they cut some entrances for commercials. no Johnny JB, he kind of added on. He said, more of a comment than a question. w WWE the last few months has not had my attention, and honestly, it's been kind of boring. AEW and TNA are better. And he said, do you think the corporate ministry of TKO has made WWE boring or does it lie with Triple H and the creative team? I think from what we know, man, I think Triple H is doing the best he can under some pretty straight guidelines, dude. You know, I i think...
01:27:28
Speaker
I think the Vince thing, dude, like, now I i can agree with what Kyle's saying. I think Vince would probably come back and fix some of the specific things they get on our nerves about TKO. But for every one thing Vince fixes, he's probably breaking three others, dude. Like, just go back and watch – Take away the bloodline. They struck gold with with the bloodline, and they struck gold with the Cody comeback. Other than those two things, go back and watch the last five years of events. Go back and watch from 2017. Go watch 2018. Yeah, watch through man. And, it was yeah some of the why happened. Yeah, Baron Corbin was feeding Roman dog food in that five years. Bro, was just about to say, the tribal chief was feeding dog food. For some reason, I think like we have like this skewed like image of like how great wrestling was when Vince was in charge.
01:28:17
Speaker
The last five years of Vince was not good. like Overall, all very, very bad. they st struckt Like you said, struck bloodline. It was very, very bad outside of that. I don't think so. Here's the thing. I don't think it's that people like idolize like the Vince product or whatever. I think it was just like the product had some sort of like sacred nature to it where it was like- That's true. There were things that were like, you know, just absolutely not going to happen, right? And things that, you know, you could respect about the business and things that just felt the same and things that were like a comfort, you know, like a blanket, you know, like what they just like, it was a little warm hug for your heart, right? And even when the product was shitty, dude, you knew what to expect. And TKO is just like throwing all that out. And the fact that it costs so much, like the economy is shit. People like, you know, people are struggling financially across the freaking country. And TKO is just squirreling. out something that we love and something that's a fun hobby for all of us. You what mean? They're just like, you know, trying to capitalize on every, yeah, every red cent, you know? So this is like an escape for most people and something that we enjoy and it is a hobby and we can't even enjoy it anymore because it's just like, you know, I'm not going to get another, like, you know, refinance my home to like go to WrestleMania. You know what I mean? You saying you don't think Vince would have taken $1,500 to print fans' names on the ring? Because I agree, he would not have.
01:29:43
Speaker
not apron was always sacred man there or the canvas was always sacred yeah he always refused to put ads on the canvas man yeah now we have fans names on the wrestlemania canvas like yeah it's cool but like dude what are we doing It's wild, dude. um Yeah.
01:29:59
Speaker
So many things. How think it would cost us to get the Chick-fil-A show logo on their ring apron, man? More money than any of us have. Let's get a GoFundMe going. How much do you seriously think it would be for one event to just put like a 10 by 10 Chick-fil-A logo on? Just like throw out a number.
01:30:17
Speaker
Or like a raw, I'm thinking you're probably looking at $100,000, bro. It's got to be. I would think more than that. I'd say $500,000. Dude. For raw, I don't know. I feel like $500,000 is maybe like the big one in the center, dude. So was this the first time that they had sold spots for somebody to have their name? Yes. This was the first year, yeah.
01:30:39
Speaker
Yeah, now they're going to keep doing i didn't think. Oh, 100%. Yeah, I didn't think that they had done that before. But ah yeah, I saw some people like, like, I think green shirt guy had his name on the canvas. Everybody that was in the front row had their name on the canvas because that's because now you can only get those seats on the on location thing.
01:30:57
Speaker
I looked it up for SummerSlam just because was curious. They won't even put the price out there for it. you So you have to email them to get because the price is out there for every other package but that one. But dude, it it's seriously like eight grand for an on-location package for just a floor seat.
01:31:13
Speaker
I'm just letting you know right now, if somebody tells me i have to like email them for the price of something, chances are ain't going. I'm not going. It's like the line beer fest. If you have to ask about it, you can't afford it.
01:31:25
Speaker
100% dude. Like it's just, no, not going to happen. Um, last question comes from our buddy, Nathan Dees. He says, what is one thing that could have made both nights better?
01:31:37
Speaker
Obviously less ads, uh, more, more wrestling. I'll go with just some backstage skits, man. I won't say wrestling, dude. Give ah give us two or three more backstage. Uh, I missed the, the Farouk appearance where he's damn, uh, Like I missed that stuff. That stuff was awesome, man. It added to WrestleMania. That's what I'm talking about. That's, that's the security blanket that you had with Vince, dude. You, you knew you were going to get some of that, you know, feel good. But you know, the thing is, is the crowd, the crowds nowadays are not nostalgic to that. Right. Like, or the kids nowadays, they, they want freaking I show speed. My son doesn't even like watch YouTube, doesn't have access to YouTube. And he knows freaking who I show speed is and thought that that was like, you know, super cool that he was, that he was wrestling WrestleMania, you know? So did we go wrong?
01:32:21
Speaker
I know. Well, we watch, uh, you know, beast games. And so he knows, Mr. He knows Mr. Beast. And I guess Mr. Beast is like friends with I show speed. We really fucked up not putting Chick-fil-A show on YouTube from the beginning.
01:32:35
Speaker
facts yeah loaded by now well you guys have real things video video pod just exhausting man no i don't want it's a commitment bro and listen when we started this show i had just had a baby like i was i was you know freshly freshly postpartum dude so both times like i had two babies during this time of the show and it's it's a lot man to like and seth was you know here and there and every freaking where so I'm not going lie. Every time someone asks me to do a pod and it's and I know it's video, I'm like, God, I really don't want to fucking do it.
01:33:06
Speaker
It's so much more because you can't rest, bro. You got to be on with like the kind of, you know, eye contact, dude. Like you got to be locked in, man. Like, you know, now when we're doing like this, like you can kind of take a sec to, you know, look at your phone, check something, do some quick research. Whereas you can't, it's harder to do that stuff on ah on a video pod, man. Yeah, it's just. And you gotta have a shirt on. You gotta have a shirt on, bro. You gotta look presentable. Bro, it's fucking almost May. The tarp is off the entire time I'm at home at this point. I know, and you guys you guys don't know shit, because y'all don't even gotta put makeup on. Like me, i have to go like you know put on some mascara, make some put some little bronzer, do a little defining action. It's lot, And so, yeah, it's it's a lot.
01:33:46
Speaker
You can't yawn. You know what I mean? like just hit I just hit pretty monster yawn, bro. going to be rude if you yawn on a video pod, dude. They're going to be like, oh, sorry, we're interrupting your day. Exactly. you You got Seth over here sometimes, like, you know, muting the mic and like coughing off the mic. You know what i mean? Yeah, you can ah you can't be doing that when you're diving off the top rope into the cooler.
01:34:07
Speaker
Yeah. You wouldn't think it's that big a difference, but it really is a fucking big difference. you Or like sometimes and Shinoa put the mic on mute and be like arguing with each other and shit during the middle of the pod, man.
01:34:18
Speaker
No, that's never happened. um But yeah, it's it's a whole different thing. And nowadays, like we talked about the attention span, like you got to be like editing in sounds and freaking editing in graphics. That's the good reason for doing the video because you can clip out, bro. You know what I mean? you do You do the whole pod and then you get your clips, bro. Your little video clips you post places, man. But...
01:34:37
Speaker
I don't It's a lot of work, dude. All right. And that wraps up our listener mail for tonight. All right. We're at an hour 30 plus. So we will ah we'll save the normal housekeeping for the end of the show. Sheena, hit us with some closing and thoughts for for this year's WrestleMania and we'll get out of here.
01:34:53
Speaker
ah um I had a fun WrestleMania. I don't think it was as bad as everybody thought, but also FTKO. FTKO.