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Episode 108: Wrestlemania 36
59 Plays6 years ago
This week the boys are giving their thoughts on Wrestlemania 36!
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Transcript
Reviewing WrestleMania Night 1
00:00:35
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to Predetermined, more specifically, the Predetermined after WrestleMania. I'm your host, Garrett Callender. I'm your other host, Derek Halpin. And Garrett, it's not completely after WrestleMania. This is after WrestleMania night one. And it's the first time we've ever been able to say that. It is, because it is a night packed with too much shit to fit into...
00:00:55
Speaker
One. That's too big for one podcast. Too big for one podcast. But we'll do a couple parts. I don't know. Yeah, we don't know how this is going to sort out. But we decided after watching Night 1 of WrestleMania that this was worthy of us sitting down for its own separate recording session. So that's what we're doing. We're getting into this before Night 2 has even happened.
00:01:16
Speaker
which I was not expecting us to do this. Nor was I. Clearly, if you listened to the last episode, clearly, I was not expecting to have enough information to base a podcast around. I guess information is the right word. Not enough material. Are you having a claw? Yeah, I'll have a claw. I mean, we're doing the show. Sunday afternoon, he's clawing it up. Not surprised. Just happy to hear it. 2.22 PM.
00:01:44
Speaker
Good for you, Garrett. It makes me wish I had one of my new wave beers in here with me. Well, you'll have that soon enough.
Impact of No Audience on Matches
00:01:53
Speaker
But, fucking WrestleMania man, remember when it turned out it was like pretty good? So, there were definitely ups and downs for the Mania, but for the most part, I was surprised with what they were able to pull off.
00:02:11
Speaker
When you say there were ups and downs, I don't think there were really many downs. I think there were downs. And sorting through, see here's the, we, after the show was over last night, you went out of your way to call me. And, because that's how excited we both were.
00:02:30
Speaker
at the end of that show. And if you watch the show, you know why we were excited. No need to get into that right now. But you asked me a question last night that I feel needs to be asked again, which was, did this feel like a WrestleMania or did this feel like Monday Night Raw? And I told you it felt like neither.
00:02:51
Speaker
kind of felt like its own beast. It is its own beast. And I still think that some of there are certain matches that happened last night that definitely suffered from not having a crowd there. Without question. Elias and Baron Corbin.
00:03:08
Speaker
That would probably be one. I even think that the opening tag team match suffered because you're used to WrestleMania starting off with one of the bigger matches to kind of get the crowd into it. And they just kind of started with one of the undercard matches and worked their way up. Crowd probably would have been hot for that if they had been there, but they weren't. They still gave them- That's the other thing. I think Asuka is great given the circumstances.
00:03:36
Speaker
She makes a lot of noise. Her and Kyrie put a lot into like filling the void of silence. But. That's what I was going to say. Oscar really got me excited. I would use her as a hype woman for anything. If I was going to have a rap group, she's in that rap group. I again, I can't
Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler Analysis
00:03:57
Speaker
I'm not going to sit here and bullshit you and tell you there weren't moments that definitely suffered from
00:04:04
Speaker
not having people in the building there were there were moments where it was glaringly like obvious like this is normally where the crowd would be rallying behind somebody and they're doing that spot where it takes somebody either I don't know to get to the rope or to slowly get to their feet to get back into the fight or whatever you want to call it but
00:04:25
Speaker
I don't know. I think I agree with you with, you know, yeah, there's definitely those spots where somebody needs the crowd to get them pumped up. But at the same time, if you're just still treating this like WrestleMania, you're watching it with friends or virtually with friends like I did.
00:04:42
Speaker
You know, we're still talking and having fun throughout it. So to me, that ended up kind of covering up the crowd noise. If you were just sitting there watching it by yourself, like complete silence, I could definitely see that being an issue. But honestly, sitting there watching it with friends, it felt like WrestleMania to me. You told me when we talked last night that you basically had it on mute and that's why you missed a lot of things.
00:05:07
Speaker
Yeah, I rewatched it this morning. One sober, two with sound. Okay. The reason I bring that up is once again, there you go ignoring the crowd element. Why do you want me to pay so much attention to the crowd? It's part of the fucking show! I mean, not right now. But the absence of the crowd is absolutely a part of the fucking show.
00:05:37
Speaker
So upon your first viewing, I'm sure you were having a good old time because it was already built in that you weren't hearing shit. But silence is silence. I don't think I don't think it hurt. I mean, I don't think it hurt the show beyond saving. Clearly, I'm here to give a positive review to the show. Well, we wouldn't know that yet.
00:05:59
Speaker
I'm getting to it. I can't. I don't want to end on all the negative stuff. I just I think the point I'm trying to make up front is don't kid yourself. It's still fucking weird. It's still not the same. It's this is going to be an oddball WrestleMania. This is what it's going to be. And I'm not entirely faulting them for that. But I just have to say up front, I don't want to oversell and be like, oh, dude, it doesn't. You won't even notice the fact that the crowd's not there. Oh, you'll notice.
00:06:27
Speaker
You'll notice in it, it won't be a normal WrestleMania, but there are things worth tuning in for, for sure. Well, I think everything that happened Becky Lynch on was awesome.
Sami Zayn vs. Daniel Bryan
00:06:38
Speaker
I enjoyed watching the entire, like when with the Alexa Bliss Nikki cross match, I enjoyed it, but it still didn't feel like the opener to a WrestleMania. And I think that's why at first I was a little worried.
00:06:51
Speaker
That's what I was saying, dog. No, and I'm saying, I understand that, and that's why to me, once we got to Becky Lynch, from there on out, it started feeling more like a WrestleMania.
00:07:04
Speaker
So I'll tell you this story. I started watching the Becky Lynn Shannon Babes their match. I didn't get to see all that match. My landlord showed up to have a conversation with us about how he's anxious for this quarantine to be over because the economy can't take it. And just in case if he needs he doesn't worry about social distance. He's got a gun.
00:07:26
Speaker
Wait, why did he, so he came to your apartment, knocked on the door and was like, let me tell you about social distancing to your place. Yeah, he was there to get our checks, because it was the fourth yesterday. And we were like, oh yeah, here's our checks. And then we ended up having like a four or five minute conversation, because the Becky Lynch, Shayna Baszler match wasn't long.
00:07:48
Speaker
It was eight minutes and 30 seconds. Correct. I've got that pulled up in front of me right now. But did you, did you
Ladder Match Creativity
00:07:56
Speaker
tell him to fuck off? Did you tell him it's WrestleMania Saturday? No, I didn't tell him to fuck off. There were things that had happened in this building since the last time I'd spoke to this man. The next thing I heard was Becky Lynch's ring music. Okay. So what did, do you think that this is how this match was supposed to go?
00:08:18
Speaker
I don't know. I do know that I had heard rumors in the last couple of months that immediately after having picked Shayna Baszler to be the one that comes up to face Becky Lynch, Vince McMahon immediately soured on her. I wonder what he didn't like about her.
00:08:42
Speaker
It's fucking Vince. It could have literally been anything. It literally could have been him being like, she's not traditionally pretty. She's no Lacey Evans. Think about it. Tell me I'm wrong. No, I don't think you're wrong. But honestly, it was gonna make sense to me if Shayna Baszler beat her, but then once it got switched to the Performance Center, I didn't know if they'd wanna have a huge WrestleMania moment.
00:09:09
Speaker
in the performance center. Well, you could also tell that I think a lot of people were predicting that that could have been the main event of this night was that match since it was Becky being in the main event at last year's WrestleMania would have warranted maybe doing the main event of night one. I did say right before the match started, I turned to the people watching with me and I said, you know what?
00:09:36
Speaker
I wouldn't be opposed to Becky winning this. Because how often do you see somebody carry a title for over a year? Yeah. And to go from one WrestleMania to another with it? Yeah. No, I very much enjoyed that. And it makes sense to me that she gets to keep it.
00:09:51
Speaker
I mean, and they can still run with the whole story of, Oh, I guess you're right. I did underestimate you. I guess I'll have to take you more seriously. And then they can do the match again. That's kind of what I was wondering. That was the first match that got me kind of wondering like, eh, would the outcome of this have been different if we were in a stadium
Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins Highlights
00:10:08
Speaker
though? I do to get to your point there. Yeah. I do think that the situation changed a lot of the, a lot of the finishes for the matches, or at least what they were attending and tending to do.
00:10:21
Speaker
So next up we had Sammy Zane versus Daniel Bryan. I had fun with this. I loved that topé that Daniel Bryan did where he just looked like a human missile and just shot head straight first into the wall. The consensus in the room when we were watching this match was that it's weird seeing Daniel Bryan not have the long hair but also not have like the buzz down cut. He had GM Daniel Bryan hair in this match.
00:10:50
Speaker
Well, now that you're on hair, yeah, also, Sami Zayn looked like he had missed a haircut.
00:11:02
Speaker
Actually, I was really happy for Sami on multiple fronts. Think about this. Sami, I don't know if we really covered this much. Sami won his first singles
Braun Strowman vs. Goldberg Disappointment
00:11:12
Speaker
title on the main roster when he won the Intercontinental Championship. And then the turnaround and weeks later after winning the Intercontinental title, he gets to go one on one with Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania.
00:11:22
Speaker
And no less he has Shinsuke Nakamura as his lackey. The King of Strong Style is a guy that follows Sami Zayn to the ring now.
00:11:36
Speaker
Well, the roles were reversed just a month or two ago. That's true. They're just, they're, you know, giving it a, giving it a try this way. And Cesaro with his perfect abs, that guy's in shape. I lost my shit when Brian had Sami down and punched him one time. See, this is another element where not having a crowd comes into play. You get to hear the verbal exchanges between these guys way more and that plays a huge role in the match.
00:12:02
Speaker
So it was funny watching Daniel Bryan punch Sami Zayn once and Sami Zayn say, oh my God, like he was being stabbed to death.
00:12:15
Speaker
Selling is amazing when there's not a crowd there to take it in. Yeah, no, I agree with that. Throughout the entire show, getting to hear the wrestlers shit talk each other was a highlight. And just to hop back to Becky Lynch and Shayna for a second and the sound. The second they started that match, they were just wailing on each other with punches. And because there was no crowd, you could just hear every strike. I kind of thought that was pretty awesome.
00:12:41
Speaker
Did that get you hard? It did. So I don't know if this is the first time I've seen Sammy do this, but he used a haloova kick, but it wasn't over in the corner where he normally does it. He just straight up booted Daniel Bryan in the face coming off the top rope, much like a Seamus Brogue kick. And I've come to the conclusion that getting kicked in the face at WrestleMania is Daniel Bryan's fucking Achilles heel. It puts him down every time.
00:13:13
Speaker
That makes me feel like I'm one kick away from defeating Daniel Bryan. Or maybe the
Innovative Boneyard Match
00:13:19
Speaker
key is you have to kick him in the face and also be a redhead. Either way, there's gotta be a certain amount of freckles that go into defeating Daniel Bryan. Either way, this was one of those nights where I had said after the first couple matches and I was like, maybe given the circumstances, they'll just put all of the baby faces over. The whole night.
00:13:42
Speaker
That's not what happened. I'm happy that Sammy won. Good for him. He's dealt with a lot of shit the last couple of years. So to come back, not only get your first singles title on the main roster, but then to get to go one on one with Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania and then win, get the W. Yeah, I thought that was great. And I mean, they gave him a good amount of time. It was, I mean, what, like just under 10 minutes or something like that? Yeah.
00:14:11
Speaker
But really, it was the next match that started to make this feel like WrestleMania to me, or to make it feel like, you know, a special pay-per-view at least. Which match is that? The John Morrison, Jimmy Uso, Kofi Kingston. Oh, this was so much fun.
00:14:30
Speaker
This was so much fun even for the awkward first of all another thing I don't know if this got pointed out when you were watching it. It's weird to be watching a WWE event and then when the camera has to tilt upwards you see that giant ceiling fan spinning there with 15 blades. And I pointed out they should start doing ladder matches where they put the belt on the blades of the fan and not only do you have to scale the ladder but you have to wait for the title to come back around.
00:14:56
Speaker
They have such a hard time climbing the ladder already. If you add another element, I don't know if that might break their brains. Is this the first time there's been a ladder match for tag titles where the teams were involved, just one competitor from each team? It has to be. Has to be. And only because of these circumstances. And god damn did they pick the right three guys to be in this match. For sure, that was the first thing I thought when I saw who was in the match.
00:15:23
Speaker
Oh my god, even just down to like, there's something about the sound of the ladder in an empty arena where it just rattles a little bit more and you go, oh shit, that really is a hard weapon. One of the most brutal spots to me was Jimmy Uso was kind of tightrope walking the guardrail.
00:15:45
Speaker
And Kofi just picked the ladder up and just sideways chucked it at him, and it looked so painful, because it was such an awkward way to get hit. I knew who was winning this match, just FYI. I didn't expect it to end the way it did. Where they were all fighting over, they pulled the belts down from the rope.
00:16:13
Speaker
Yeah, the cable or whatever. Yeah, I have never seen the spot where like, oh, the belts are off and everybody has titles. Who falls first? And that's how you win. No, it makes sense to me. It's so good that they got John Morrison before WrestleMania so that they could have him for a spot like this.
00:16:32
Speaker
I mean, just some of the spots that he did. Do you remember that one when Jimmy Uso was laying on the ladder in the corner and Morrison did like a gainer. The Starship whatever Starship pain. Yeah. What a ladder with him laying on it. Yeah, that was awesome.
00:16:48
Speaker
That was awesome. I mean, I wish I had more to say about it. That's insightful, but I can't because this was just awesome. This was definitely a WrestleMania worthy match. I wish that they were like the other half of their tag teams had to defend the titles tonight. Oh, that would be awesome. Miz had to be defended twice. Miz would have a much harder time in the latter match than Johnny Mundo. Maybe they do a different match with the other half of the competitors. Ooh, give them a different gimmick.
00:17:17
Speaker
Yeah, a different three-way. I'd be into that. Yeah, no, I had fun with the ladder match. Good on them. And like I said, I knew when I saw these three guys. This is definitely one you got to go back and check out if you haven't. Yeah, I've watched that one twice so far. And it was just as good the second time as it was watching it live. Or pre-recorded aired last night. So what match is next?
00:17:46
Speaker
It's your boy, KO. My boy. Gettin' for real no joke WrestleMania moment. He got one, Derek. I was so happy for you. I felt like I watched my son hit a home run.
00:18:02
Speaker
He technically got two, if you count the fact that he fucking also got the W. It was so awesome being on Twitter
Anticipation for WrestleMania Night 2
00:18:11
Speaker
during the first fall, I guess you could say, when the disqualification happened. Everyone was laughing and everyone was livid.
00:18:22
Speaker
They were like, fucking of course, fucking of course they're gonna do a disqualification. Like Brian Alvarez was losing his shit on Twitter. And I was fucking mad. Cause I was like, dude, it's been like 10 seconds. Can we wait and see what happens? So then when they restarted the match with the no DQ rules, everyone chilled out. And then everyone was happy.
00:18:40
Speaker
Like, you wanna talk about, like, you were going into, like, we were talking about how it's awesome, like, with the empty arena being able to hear them shit talk each other? Yeah. Seth and Kevin are probably, like, two of the best at that, verbally, assaulting each other while beating the shit out of each other. The one thing that their match shared with Undertaker's match was the amount of times I heard the word bitch.
00:19:09
Speaker
And you're only comfortable doing that with somebody you're friends with.
00:19:14
Speaker
Cuz you are kind of hurting them for real if you're having a wrestling match with somebody but to also be like He gets it. I'll call him bitch to get too worked up so I Literally made the joke so after they restart the match I really thought that after Kevin got the win via the DQ that like oh they're gonna come back around and then now that there's gonna be an actual fall Kevin's gonna get fucked and so then when they did the spot where he has them on the fucking table and he just
00:19:43
Speaker
I did the JBL commentary thing where Kevin disappeared backstage and said, I guess Kevin's done. Can't get disqualified. There's no count out. And then when he reappeared on top of the sign, I thought, holy shit, is he going to do the frog splash? He got this is the other thing. He got a running start.
00:20:02
Speaker
He took several steps on that sign to do the elbow drop to the table. Which was a perfect elbow drop. It was perfect. That would have been terrifying to do because he had to cover like, I don't know, 20 feet. Like, I'm talking horizontally, not vertical. I don't know how tall. Like, he had to move through the air pretty far to get to him on that table.
00:20:26
Speaker
Well, you mentioned a name that I did not know was going to be part of WrestleMania this year, and that is JBL. Fucking I love JBL commentary. He might be my favorite. He'll comment. He is my favorite. He'll commentator. Why would he do that? Like, that's what I love about him is he's so into playing the completely naive viewer. That's his shtick. What's going to happen next?
00:20:57
Speaker
Why would he ever consider doing that? That used to be my drinking game. Anytime JBL questions someone's motives, take a drink. So you said you were watching with a couple people last night?
00:21:15
Speaker
Yeah, I was watching with Luke, Billy and our dear friend, Queen of the Ring. What was the collective reaction to the spot off of the sign? Well, I believe my stream was about five seconds ahead of them. So they heard me go. Oh, it got to pop out of everybody, though. Everybody really enjoyed that. That makes me happy.
00:21:40
Speaker
Also, speaking of our friend Queen of the Ring, if you're gonna buy some pizza, use code QueenOfRing25 at Papa John's to save 25%. Queen of the Ring has Papa John sponsorships now, baby.
00:21:53
Speaker
And I used it last night. She helped me save some money on a pie. You got a fucking pizza? I got a pizza last night and ate it by myself. Wow. These are historic, different times. Dude, when we're in quarantine, I can eat whatever I want. I have nowhere to be. I can eat as much dairy as I want. All I gotta do is walk five feet to go shit. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it gives me something to do. Congrats to Queen of the Ring. I had to text her the other day about that because I thought that was pretty awesome.
00:22:22
Speaker
Good for her. She gets to hang out with Shaquille O'Neal now. Yeah, exactly. I believe she actually even mentioned last night that her and Shaquille O'Neal are technically co-workers. That's technically true. Okay. Technically. So, we both enjoyed the shit out of KO Seth Rollins.
00:22:40
Speaker
Yeah, what's this story about Seth Rollins wheezing noises? Yeah, I rewatched it and I couldn't hear it. A friend of the show, Joey, messaged us and said that he hoped that Seth Rollins wheezing noises would become the new Shane McMahon. If somebody could send me the timestamp of that, because I actually rewatched the match twice looking for it and I just, I feel like I've missed it.
00:23:02
Speaker
I don't want to doubt you Joey, but I just want to remind you, Shane McMahon death noises, they're pretty high up on the mountain. Like stuff, like guys
Night 2 Introduction and Gronk's Win
00:23:12
Speaker
just having react, like selling, that ain't going to make the list. You have to get pretty high up there to fucking be compared to Shane McMahon.
00:23:28
Speaker
I was waiting for you to join in with me. I felt lonely. Well, I was getting ready to join in, but then I realized, God, I like listening to this. But what I like listening to more is what you have to say about what happened next. Oh, match of the night. Match of the night. Two minutes, 10 seconds, which I don't believe because I was timing it myself and I had under two minutes. Nobody.
00:23:56
Speaker
gave a shit going into this. I don't think anybody gives a shit coming out of it. And this was the, I turned to the room and I said, you know what, given the circumstances, I'm all for Bill Goldberg winning this match. I don't give a shit.
00:24:11
Speaker
Fuck it. I said those words out loud. I said, that's fine. I don't like Braun Strowman. Turns out Braun Strowman's a fucking asshole. Too bad that fucking Goldberg couldn't this one time do me the favor and put Braun Strowman down. So I could be like, yeah, shut the fuck up. See, for those who haven't heard the story, Braun Strowman is apparently a fucking Twitter dick.
00:24:38
Speaker
And what did he do? Money shame indie wrestlers? He was call it. He was money shaming. I believe indie wrestlers like for doing like India go go and go fund me and trying to promote their T-shirts. Yeah. During this downtime.
00:24:54
Speaker
Yeah, I mean that giant fuckin' racist magga motherfucker fuckin' out there crushin' softballs. See, I thought, I didn't know all this stuff until recently. Fuck Bron Stroman, and nobody gives a shit that you finally won the Universal title. How's that feel? Maybe you shouldn't have fuckin' ripped on people who are workin' the indie scene, which you never had the fuckin' ability to go do, because you aren't nearly as talented as you think you are. You dick. Jesus.
00:25:23
Speaker
Fuck Bronstrom, and fuck Bill Goldberg, too. Wait, fuck Bill Goldberg? Did you at least like his white beard? No. You don't think it makes him look, like, grizzled? Distinguished? No. Yeah. Fuck him. No. However, you let the record state, you did say you were rooting for Bill Goldberg. Kind of. It's not the first time I've been in a scenario where I wanted to see Goldberg win.
00:25:48
Speaker
It's just rare. It's just very rare. It requires the right circumstances where there's another person on the roster I'm extra angry at. I mean, I was shouting to myself, just please try and give him the jackhammer. For the love of God, try and give Braun Strowman the jackhammer. You know what's funny? In all of the years I have of getting ready for a show and thinking of things that could come into play, it never once dawned on me that there's no fucking way Goldberg's winning because there's no fucking way he can get Strowman up for a jackhammer.
00:26:18
Speaker
I mean, the last time we saw him do the jackhammer, he dropped Undertaker.
00:26:24
Speaker
No, the last time we saw him try to do the jackhammer was when he tried to do it to the fucking fiend, and it was just a vertical suplex. Oh, it was a DDT, Omar. Oh, no, you're right. It was a vertical suplex. Shit. Fuck Goldberg. Man. Fuck Strowman. This is the thing. They had Goldberg basically squash the fiend so that then Goldberg could turn around and give it to fucking Strowman because they wanted that spot for Reigns, and then Reigns was smart and was like, yeah, I'm not doing this shit.
00:26:55
Speaker
How many minutes do you think Roman versus Goldberg would have gone? I guess four. I'll say five. Nice. How long was this match, Garrett? This match, well, it says it was two minutes, 10 seconds, but Billy, Luke, and I were timing it, and I think we all got under two minutes. Hmm. I believe it.
00:27:20
Speaker
but the main thing we're here to talk about, Derek. Holy shit. This is the reason that I called you. I never call you after a pay-per-view. I always wait till we get on here, but God, I couldn't wait because it was so special. All I wanted in the last episode is I said, I want them to do something cinematic with pro wrestling, and they did it so well.
00:27:44
Speaker
It's going to be hard to walk the line between talking about things in like a tongue in cheek way, but also simultaneously talking about them seriously because I loved that match. Like that match will always hold a special place in my heart.
00:28:03
Speaker
I saw a tweet last night, and I can't remember which accounts in and out, so I apologize, but somebody said, everyone involved in the production of that match, take a fucking bow. Yeah, that was, I mean, beginning to end, it was just done so well. So, it was basically, and my roommate Chris pointed this out, he said, it felt like a sci-fi series. It felt like a sci-fi series star in The Undertaker. Yes.
00:28:34
Speaker
And now that's what I want from now on. But let's let's break this down. Number one, AJ Styles shows up in a fucking hearse in a coffin. And when the coffin opens and he's in there with his arms crossed, he pops up and starts laughing. They dub his music in, despite the fact that they're at like a farm slash graveyard. They they went out of there where they're like, you guys know it's not happening in the arena.
Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley Implications
00:28:56
Speaker
Fuck it. Cinematic. Here's the soundtrack. AJ Styles music.
00:29:01
Speaker
Oh, I was wondering the whole time because I figured we were going to get after AJ Styles. You know, we're waiting for Undertaker to roll up. I assume it's going to be biker taker, but I needed to know what music are we using? Are we going back to Kid Rock? Are we using Limp Bizkit? What are we doing?
00:29:19
Speaker
We didn't get either of those things. We got a new Metallica song. We did get a new Metallica song. And on top of that, can we take a moment to appreciate that for this match in the middle of a fucking barn slash graveyard, I will not stop promoting that. There was a barn also at a graveyard.
00:29:39
Speaker
extra spooky extra spooky because it was a place you can store your hay and your putties or your minions or whatever you want to call them your cloaked your cloaked figures that for some reason weren't with the undertaker they were against him this time well those were yeah that was bullet
00:30:01
Speaker
But they couldn't legally be seen on WWE television. Yeah, we had to cover up Fergal Devitt's face. We covered up, yeah. So Tomatonga, Tongolo over there. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Well, Undertaker beat all of them, if you wouldn't. In one punch. So can we appreciate the fact that they got name plates?
00:30:22
Speaker
when they came out. Oh my god, that it just like popped their name up next to it as if it were the titles of a movie. Yes. Yes, it was the beginning of a fucking movie. Here's this character. I also loved in this match. Just speaking of AJ's name, Undertaker did say like, come here, Alan, or whatever. The fuck? He called him by his actual name.
00:30:49
Speaker
oh yes i forgot um the other quote that got me tickled you made me break my finger okay he used a headstone as a weapon aj styles picked up a fucking like 500 pound headstone and smashed undertaker wit
00:31:07
Speaker
Well, I'm rewatching it so that Headstone is already there covered in like moss or whatever. And Undertaker says, like after AJ is like, I dug you grave already. Undertaker says, you just dug your own grave. Oh shit. Yeah. Undertaker. Why did you make AJ Styles sound like Joe Exotic? Isn't that AJ Styles voice? I think he's a little deeper than that.
00:31:36
Speaker
Son of a bitch. This week, I'm going to beat the shit out of that bitch, Carole Baskins. No, seriously. Can't state this enough.
00:31:49
Speaker
Do you remember a few years ago? What WrestleMania was that? I think it was 31. I think it was before the podcast started, obviously. But I had messaged with you and said, cuz that was the year Undertaker fought Bray Wyatt. And it was the year that Undertaker basically was not a part of the buildup to his own Mania match at all.
00:32:09
Speaker
Yes. That's the one where like there was like an empty rocking chair and lightning and shit. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought for like that especially since the presumption at the time was that they were handing off the reins of the next supernatural phenom character to Bray Wyatt. I thought man wouldn't it be wild if you know he keeps calling out Undertaker and when he finally gets him it's American badass Undertaker. Well fast forward years later
00:32:33
Speaker
I gotta tell ya, I popped fuckin' hard for this version of The Undertaker, where he's not trying to be a fuckin' zombie. He's not undead, he's just a fuckin' old, grizzled fuckin' biker who's sick of everyone's shit. It made it more like a Clint Eastwood movie. It did! I mean, they even added in- It suddenly made him relatable. Yes! This was the most likable Undertaker has been to me in years.
00:33:00
Speaker
I completely agree, and I said this, and I said it kind of tongue in cheek, but I'm also not kidding. I could stand for years more of this version of The Undertaker. I don't know if he can perform in front of a live audience very well, but I know that I'm kind of over the dead man thing at this point. I kind of just want Mark Callaway.
00:33:24
Speaker
I like the idea of this guy just being an old cowboy that people think should leave and he's not ready to go yet. I think that's a perfect gimmick. I'm not done. What's my wife's name? What's my wife's name? Oh, okay. I thought you were asking me. No, that's what was one of the fucking spots in the match. He had AJ down and he was like, what's my wife's name again? What's my wife's name? And he refused to say it. All you heard was, I'm sorry. You're sorry. Sorry for what?
00:33:53
Speaker
Sorry for what, boy? Oh my fucking God. I loved when he picked him up too and he said, AJ, you gave me a good run, man. A lot of people didn't give me that good of a fight. And he gives him a hug. He gave him a fucking hug and then fucking, you knew what was coming, but it was still beautifully executed. He was like, don't bury me. First of all, not enough credit is being given to AJ Styles in this because he came out on the wrong end of a Mark Callaway beat down.
00:34:24
Speaker
AJ Styles did a good fucking job in this match of being like a cocky piece of shit who got in over his head and regretted it almost immediately. How hard did you pop when AJ got under the tractor and take her appeared behind him?
00:34:41
Speaker
Again, part of the reason I enjoyed this match was definitely because I was a little buzzed. But I'll be honest with you, my girlfriend sitting next to me at the time, she hates watching ladder matches for how long it takes the guys to climb the ladder. She's just like, hurry up and get up there and take it. Why are you being so dramatic about it? So when Styles had taken her down in the grave,
00:35:04
Speaker
and started making his way over to the tractor. She was like, just hurry up and get on the tractor and dump it on him. Hurry. And I was like, and Chris and I were both like, AJ's from the South. There's no doubt in my mind that man's been on a tractor before. He'll be fine. And sure enough, AJ got on a ladder and got that thing started up before most people would be halfway up the ladder going for a title. I did not.
00:35:33
Speaker
I got worked so hard over a simple cheesy oh wait the undertakers behind him spot. I popped so fucking hard with the lighting. By the way another under I don't I can't talk about this match and not mention I love all of the dramatic zoom ins.
00:35:53
Speaker
where they would start far away and there'd be a dramatic reveal or something. And then the camera would zoom in on the person from for dramatic effect. It just makes me really excited for night two. I'm hoping that which, you know, obviously we'll talk about in the next part here. But I'm assuming the fun house that we're probably going to get another cinematic match. Good luck topping that one.
00:36:21
Speaker
Let me ask you a question. If I told you that for the next three years that was how they were going to use the Undertaker was every year somebody was going to show up and try to beat him. Like, and they did it in a cinematic style like that where basically he was just an actor. Would you be down for that? A hundred percent. I think that's going to, like you said, it's going to be better than him being live in the ring. I think being able to edit it and everything and it makes you still remember the Undertaker is fucking cool.
00:36:49
Speaker
The Undertaker is still fucking cool, and this is not ironic at all. This is not tongue in cheek when I say this. I think what people forget about Biker Taker, about the American badass, Mark, when he's given a microphone and he doesn't just have to play the fucking undead zombie, he's got charisma.
00:37:08
Speaker
He knows how to shit talk you. That whole exchange he had with Styles before the end of that match was pretty good fucking acting on his part. That was honestly my favorite part of the match was just him talking to Styles as he walked him to that grave.
00:37:23
Speaker
He was extremely confident that he like that. That was a fantastic performance. And I guess I don't they said that took eight hours to film. They WWE built that set specifically for that. And they did it down in Florida. I'm happy they did it. I'm extra. I think the Internet the Internet loved it.
00:37:47
Speaker
And I loved it, and you loved it, and you loved it so much you had to call me as soon as it was over.
00:37:54
Speaker
Well, how rare is that in wrestling that something brand new happens for us? And I guess they've tried that before. It's not to say that there's never been cinematic wrestling. The Hardys did it with the final deletion. They tried it with Bray Wyatt versus Randy Orton, and it didn't work. But it's a new way of, an interesting way of doing it. Would you say this is the best one they've ever done by far?
00:38:20
Speaker
The Hardy stuff is really good, so it's hard to say, because that created a whole thing. Right, but that didn't happen under WWE. Yeah, with WWE doing something cinematic, this was better than any movie they put out. It was better than most of the shit they've put out in general in years.
00:38:39
Speaker
Are you meaning just wrestling in general? Yeah, I mean, obviously there's wrestling matches that were better than this. But I'm saying if you were to go grab a random match off of a Monday Night Raw or a random match off of a pay-per-view and put it up against this taped cinematic fucking masterpiece, what would you rather watch? Don't fucking lie to me. I'm not. Well, I hope we got something cinematic with Mojo Rawley coming up next. What did you say last night?
00:39:09
Speaker
about Mojo Rawley and the Gronk. Oh, the Gronk better pen Mojo Rawley and get that title. I need the Gronk in my life. Does Mojo have the 24 hour title? Yeah, he beat our truth. Okay, so Gronk's walking out with the 24 hour title tonight. Oh, yeah, if Gronk doesn't leave with that title, then I don't want to watch wrestling anymore. And I agree with my roommate. What I do want is I want a weekly
00:39:38
Speaker
fucking sci-fi series with The Undertaker hanging out in his fucking boneyard and a different person shows up every week to try to retire him. Celebrities, politicians, athletes, musicians. Everyone from Bono to Edge.
00:39:57
Speaker
And sometimes they take a different approach to it. Sometimes they try to talk them down. They try to be like, dude, we're just here for your best interest, man. We respect you. And so I just I literally want a graveyard filled with all these random tombstones. Fucking Ralph Nader, AJ Styles.
00:40:20
Speaker
Brett Favre. Either way, so now that we've seen Night One, are you excited for Night Two or do you feel like in your heart right now, before we've seen Night Two, do you think it's a fluke? It's gonna be fun because we're almost gonna have immediate. Night One is gonna be hard to top. I think a lot of the stuff I was interested in was in Night One.
00:40:49
Speaker
And the only reason I'm interested in this Firefly Funhouse match between Cena and Wyatt is because of the Undertaker Styles match. It's the only reason I'm interested in that now. And I think it's going to be hard to top, but I will give it a chance. I'll be happy for Drew if he wins. I'm assuming he'll win. But at the same time, it's not the same circumstances. I don't know what else is on this that I'm supposed to be PM a pants over, Garrett.
00:41:16
Speaker
Well, there's one I'm very excited for Rhea Ripley versus Charlotte. All right. Well, yeah, that could be a banger. And also the one match that to me, this is the main event. This is if predetermined could sponsor a WrestleMania match, it would have been this one. And that is Jizz versus Dolph Ziggler.
00:41:37
Speaker
You're yeah, that's true. Jiz is getting a WrestleMania match in hindsight. That's he is getting a WrestleMania match. We've pushed this guy to the top. We got him to the much influence we have.
00:41:50
Speaker
But also, in hindsight, if you and I were sitting down with that entire card in front of us a few days ago, having to sponsor WrestleMania match, I also would have pushed for the Boneyard match. But for different reasons than what we wound up with. You and I love Wrestle shit.
00:42:09
Speaker
Yeah, I fucking love wrestling, man, and this just put me in such a good mood during such a shitty time. I just wanna, on the podcast before we end this part of the show, I wanna say Garrett did say that if Gronk doesn't walk out with a 24-hour title, Garrett's done watching wrestling. So really, my future with this podcast, there's a lot riding on it tonight. There's a lot riding on Rob Gronkowski winning the 24-hour title.
00:42:37
Speaker
If he just wins it for a minute, does that count or does he have to leave WrestleMania the champ? You're the one who set the rules last night, man. I didn't. Shit. Yeah, you're right. Okay. Well, all right, everybody, we've got some pretty high stakes. And by this point, now that you're listening to this, you already know if I get to come back. I don't yet. Yep. So this is exciting. So stay tuned. Night two review will be coming up soon. Damn, this was fun. I look forward to chatting with you again tomorrow and we'll, we'll talk about night two.
00:43:06
Speaker
Yep, ready for night two WrestleMania man. Well, we'll be right back after this break.
00:43:23
Speaker
So, uh, I'm sitting down here with what's the name of this shitty podcast? Oh, this is a predetermined to pro wrestling hangout. Oh, great. What an original name, right? Super long. I'm sure that really helps with Brandon. Yes. Smart move. I know. Smart move, guys. If you can't tell, I'm being really sarcastic.
00:43:41
Speaker
Welcome back to part two of Predetermine's review of WrestleMania. The Gronk was back. I am your host, Garrett. Wait, I don't even have to say that part. They're still just listening. You don't have to do this. We are already knee deep in this shit. Welcome back, everyone. It's another day. Night two is in the books. My goodness. Too big for one night is goddamn right. Because, you know what, last night, or I guess, yeah, it would have been last night for us. It really decided I get to keep watching wrestling.
00:44:08
Speaker
That's true. The cliffhanger before the break was that if Gronk didn't walk out of mania with the 24-hour title, Garrett was done with wrestling forever, which would have really damaged this podcast. I'd be like, so what happened? That's why you have to explain like your family and friends. Yeah, we're not doing it anymore, but it's not because I don't want to. Oh, no. In my head, I'm still doing it. It's just you have to watch everything and describe it to me.
00:44:39
Speaker
So we still do the podcast, but like you can't watch. Yeah, that's yeah. That's fucked up. How would that work? Yeah, like I just said.
00:44:50
Speaker
Well, but like I'm gonna have to do more than just be like, cause I could just do the podcast on my own. Well, I could say things like, um, that sound pretty good. Or I don't know if I like that at all. See, those are, those are examples of things from this other podcast. Can you imagine how much you would be begging me all the time to watch Nick Gage shit?
00:45:13
Speaker
You could just be like, I need to know what happened. Tell me. I keep my accounts. And then as the just log in, please, please tell me what happens. I can give you what if I start just doing like at some point, like I'll do one of two things. I think I'll either just start writing it out for you in like a transcript like like because I can do that or I'll do old time radio voice and describe the matches to you that way while I watch them.
00:45:43
Speaker
That actually all sounds wonderful. Nick Gage has Effie in the corner and he's got the light tubes. He breaks them over his head. Oh my God, he is bleeding. The other option is I can find a friend that's like the bad kid that you got to go to their house to watch the R rated movies.
00:46:00
Speaker
and cheat? Yeah, it would be cheating, but I would have to find someone else's house that would let me watch it there. For the people at home, I was that kid when we were little, apparently. Apparently, I was the bad kid because I got you to see all the movies your parents didn't want you to see. Hey, you weren't the bad kid. I worded that wrong. No, you said it. I said it. Pandora only comes out of the box, doesn't go back in. Oh, man.
00:46:27
Speaker
No, you weren't a bad kid. I could watch Terminator 2 at your house and that ruled. Terminator 2 and Halloween and Beavis and Budhead and Speed. For some reason, Garrett's parents, Bruce, if you're still listening, we got to have a talk about this sometime. For some reason, Speed was the movie they chose that you could not watch.
00:46:52
Speaker
Pretty tame. Well, there was a good amount of profanity in there, and you know what profanity does to a kid. You knew every word in the book by that time, and I'm pretty sure they knew it too. Anyways. Well, they know it now. Also, you just named a whole list of movies that anybody would want to go to your house and watch. Yeah. I also got you in to see Freddie Got Fingered, and that's the kind of friend that I am. Speaking of exclusive sneak peeks,
00:47:22
Speaker
We fucking, I said coming into Night Two of Mania that I didn't think it was gonna be able to live up to Night One. So at the top of this, as a preview of what we're getting ready to talk about, do you feel that Night Two was as good or was it better or was it worse than Night One? I think it was as good.
00:47:45
Speaker
I don't know if I would... See, it's hard because there is one match in particular that we'll get to that I personally just for some reason did not care for. And I hope maybe you can help me figure out why. Sure.
00:48:00
Speaker
I'm ready to get into it because it was a hot topic. Do you have the card in front of you, sir? I do. Do you? I don't. So let's do what we did in part one and you go down the list and we'll talk about fucking night two of WrestleMania. Okay. The opener was Charlotte Flair versus Rhea Ripley for the NXT Women's Championship. I think as far as pure wrestling matches of the night, this was probably it, right? The best one.
00:48:25
Speaker
This is one, I agree with that. And I think this is also one where I wish there had been a crowd. Again, we're back to what I was talking about in part one. I wish the crowd was there for all of it. I think the crowd enhances a wrestling experience and that's one of the reasons they're suffering so much. But yes, the crowd would have been hot as shit for this, especially if this had been an opener.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yeah, I think they did a better job of picking a good opening match for night two than they did the first night.
00:49:06
Speaker
A really good, I don't know. This was one of the featured matches, like the big featured matches of Mania. And good opener.
Aleister Black vs. Bobby Lashley Brief Review
00:49:16
Speaker
Were you surprised to see Charlotte win the NXT Championship? A little bit.
00:49:22
Speaker
a little bit, especially since it's going to be a lot harder to continue the storyline. Why is that? I don't know. It just seems like we don't know how long they're going to just be having talking segments week to week.
00:49:43
Speaker
My initial reaction after Charlotte One was, this makes sense because it feels like they can get more life out of this feud if they swap the title here. Because I don't think this is over. It still feels pretty fresh. Or, yeah, I agree. Yeah, they could definitely run this longer. But I also see them, they could use Charlotte as somebody to, you know, put somebody over an NXT like, well, I guess at this point we wouldn't have to because the person I was going to pick fucking debuted.
00:50:12
Speaker
I guess that's true, yeah. Bianca Belair has arrived on the, I guess raw. That's the other thing we're gonna have to switch is that we now have to stop looking at NXT as developmental that people get called up from. They just leave NXT. There wasn't a draft for NXT, yet it is the official third brand.
Otis' Victory and Emotional Impact
00:50:34
Speaker
and that at the same time that was one of those words like okay did she really debut it kind of seemed like she did but also Austin theories in that match did he just debut was was this the second match after Charlotte rear Ripley
00:50:49
Speaker
Oh, no, I'm sorry. The match after that was Aleister Black versus Bobby Lashley, which was, you know, the Elias Baron Corbin match for me. Yeah, it was fine. I thought actually, I'll tell you the truth. I did like the finish of it. Like, Aleister Black has a damn good fucking kick.
00:51:07
Speaker
I love that kick. He also had really good ring gear coming in. That jacket? Yeah. You want that? I want that. I'll see if I can find an animal crossing an animal to you for your character to wear. In the new world, I can wear that every single day. It doesn't matter. As I'm referring to it as sea land, I will tell you that it has been a theme on the show since the beginning that Garrett loves a good stiff kick to the face. Love it. Bobby Lashley got one.
00:51:39
Speaker
Yeah, that one's always gonna get me. That was a match that when it started, I was like, maybe I don't care what's happening, but eventually, that guy's gonna get kicked in the face super hard. So I'm sticking around for that part. But I mean, it was a short match too. It was like seven minutes. Yeah. What was after that?
00:51:59
Speaker
Derek, after that was the main event of the entire weekend for me. For you. Otis versus Dolph Ziggler. Jizz versus Ziggs. So since I had not really been watching at all, getting to see the story that played out beforehand, that promo did it for me. I was in this match. I was so excited that Jizz had a fucking single spot on this card.
00:52:27
Speaker
That's right, Heavy Machinery did not have a spot on WrestleMania, but one member did, and that was fucking Jizz. It was like watching our baby grow up.
00:52:37
Speaker
And you know what, I almost think it's disrespectful to call him Jizz. You wanna start calling him Otis? That would be a weird turn at this point. You know, I think I just like the guy so much. Like, you're done fighting it, it's actual real love. Well that was like, I used to see Drew McIntyre all the time at PWG and he won the heavyweight title, but this was, we birthed Jizz.
00:53:01
Speaker
We did birth Jizz. There was something, he's special. Congratulations Otis, you got a singles match at WrestleMania. Many of your peers have not had that. Were you happy with the match? Absolutely. You kidding me? He did the worm, he crushed him, he won. It's the Caterpillar dog. I'm sorry, he did the Caterpillar, he got a kiss.
00:53:30
Speaker
what am I it was the love story of our time it was the you've got mail you've got jizz oh my god i was gonna say somebody photoshopped that for us but go ahead and just keep meg ryan in there
00:53:52
Speaker
You can Photoshop Mandy Rose in there if you want. I feel bad putting her on that when it says Jizz. I'm trying to be respectful here. Sure you are. Yeah, you seem very, very happy with this match. This was, like you said, at one point in the night, you sent me a text that just said, I love pro wrestling.
00:54:16
Speaker
I think... Sometimes you forget. I think that was when I needed to send that to you. That was Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth for me.
00:54:27
Speaker
Let's be clear, Mandy Rose won in all of this, you understand that, right? Like, everyone else was lying, everyone else was treating her like a real piece of shit, and Jizz was the only one that was an honest man in all of it.
Edge vs. Randy Orton Length Debate
00:54:42
Speaker
Maybe he's not Jizz anymore, maybe he's good guy Otis. Good guy Otis is in, Jizz is out. Sorry Jizz. Sorry Jizz. Good guy Otis, you're a main event player now. Good guy Otis needs a run with the Intercontinental Championship.
00:54:57
Speaker
Immediately. There's just that. There are not a lot of wrestlers like him anymore and I think it's time to appreciate that. Tucker's gotta be thinking, what the fuck? How does this happen to me? He gets to be the guy who's space monkeys or whatever. Yeah, I know what you're saying. He's the other tag team partner. He's that other guy now.
00:55:24
Speaker
So how much you were invested in this match kind of set up the next one for you is the vibe I'm getting. I think so. I think I got so much pleasure out of an eight minute match that whatever was going to happen next would have had a hard time following it. It just so happened to be edge versus Randy Orton and a last man standing match. You were not the only person who didn't didn't take to this match.
00:55:51
Speaker
And I know that the common complaint on this is that it just ran too long. The other thing is that and this is the one I definitely agree with. The commentating was just fucking weird. Like I don't know if there was supposed to be like like the thing people people keep saying is that it was like they were calling the masters.
00:56:14
Speaker
Like it was fucking golf. And now Randy Orton is setting Edge up on the weights. And he appears to be trying to take him out the same way Chris Benoit took himself out. This is a real tragedy here at the Performance Center.
00:56:32
Speaker
So what you're telling me is they needed to get JBL on that microphone where he'd be like, God damn, he's crushing his head. I think that this match, if I'm being, see, I liked the match. Me and my roommate, Chris, liked the match. Did it run a little long? Sure. But I also think it was meant to, if this had been like 15 minutes, I don't think that would have been enough time.
00:56:55
Speaker
because both of them are main event stars and I think this was a personal war. Honestly, as soon as this match got announced as a Last Man Standing match, I was like, I don't think this needed to be a regular match considering how bad the blood was there. Maybe Hell in a Cell?
00:57:16
Speaker
at Mania, an empty arena, how in the cell would it kind of been neat? Actually, yeah, that would have been pretty cool. But I, okay, I do think the match, there were good parts in this match. I think Spider-Man elbow drop hated that. You hated it? Hated it.
00:57:36
Speaker
You were an idiot. He was like two feet above him. That did not hurt. You got excited for the fucking caterpillar just a moment ago. And now you're arguing that the move didn't hurt. Did you see how much good guy Otis weighs? Oh my God. He caught some air, my friend, before he dropped to the ground edge to reach.
00:58:02
Speaker
Yeah, and it's a higher reach than Edge was from that fucking cage. First of all, their meeting room at the performance center apparently has cage over the lighting or whatever the fuck that is. Who made that decision? I do appreciate the tour we got of the performance center.
00:58:21
Speaker
Yeah I think it was partly that but I think maybe in their minds they thought they were giving us something different than they actually did. Like I think in their minds they thought there would be ambiance that you would hear all of the details of different things rattling around and falling and like maybe that's what they were trying to emphasize and they thought that that would play over well. Again
00:58:44
Speaker
If they did this exact same match with people in attendance and you could hear the crowd reaction to all these different spots, I think it plays a lot differently. I don't think they would have done that if there had been a crowd. I mean, 40 minutes is a long time. Well, here's the thing. I think the 40 minutes doesn't seem like 40 minutes if you have crowd engagement.
00:59:06
Speaker
That's true. Like, would Kenny Okada have felt like 40 minutes if they were in an empty arena for an hour or whatever? Yeah, it would have felt like two hours.
00:59:15
Speaker
I'm just, I'm just being honest. Like again, this is out of their control. It was a weird decision to do the last man standing. I enjoyed the war. I like, I, I told Chris, I was like, man, I could watch this for an hour. Like I've, I'm not going anywhere. Just fucking make it. If there's a point, what, at what point would you have walked away?
00:59:38
Speaker
If this thing lasted three hours and it was the longest match in wrestling history, would you have stuck it out? Like at what point would you have gotten reinvested? I'm trying to think like how far I could have gone with this. Did you at least like the finish? I did like the finish. I liked
01:00:03
Speaker
Okay, I think the part where they lost me was when he like leapfrogged onto a chair from the weight equipment. And they lost me for about 15 minutes. And they- I feel like the intent there was Edge wanted to do some kind of drop kick to the chest, but the chair was further away than he anticipated, so he just jumped on him.
01:00:24
Speaker
I'm thinking, too, that part of it is I don't know if I can get past the story where the story is Randy Orton loves him so much that he's going to murder him so that he never wrestles again. Well, I mean, part of the story was the edge called that a cop out and didn't and thought that was a lie and that it was about him being jealous. The edge had to work for everything that Randy had handed to him. That was in the promo package. Garrett, did you watch that? I think still coming down from fucking big good guy Otis and
01:00:54
Speaker
I was coming. No, I'm sorry. I didn't have the sound on. I was doing a virtual one, so I just skipped to the match. So I did. That is on me. Yeah, no, that was addressed in the promo package. I get it. I understand there's some
Street Profits Match and Bianca Belair's Debut
01:01:15
Speaker
people who didn't like it. I do. If this is Edges first match back after nine fucking years away,
01:01:21
Speaker
in a match that had a pretty well flushed out story. If Edge wants to go two hours, I let him go two hours. And like I said, I liked the finish. I liked the emotional. I liked Orton going for the punt and the spear. I liked that the match ended on top of one of the trucks. I'm excited to see Edge just wrestle. You asked me at one point during the match, you're like, is Edge a brawler?
01:01:52
Speaker
And I kind of wanted to be like you know exactly what the fuck edge is you watch Like he's a wrestler and then he does like the the TLC shit. Yeah, he does high spots Which is part of the reason his career was prematurely ended cuz he's taking a lot of bumps, but I wouldn't call him a brawler That's fair and in all fairness I do think he looked great I
01:02:20
Speaker
Oh, everyone agrees with that. I think I commented, he looks amazing right now. His back muscles make me excited. So I think you, with a lot of other people, thought it went long. I think there were just elements that were off.
01:02:39
Speaker
I don't think it was bad. I just think it didn't land the way they wanted it to. Honestly, if they had cut out a couple of those like empty hallways they were fighting in. Right. It may have made it a little bit better for me. Just a few minutes carved off. Fair enough. Fair enough. What did we get after this? Next was the tag team match. Okay. With the street profits and um...
01:03:07
Speaker
Who the fuck did they face again? Angel Garza and Austin Theory. Okay, yeah. Which Austin Theory, I mean the last time I saw him live was at Evolve versus Darby Allen and he stole his girlfriend. And I thought, I don't like that guy.
01:03:29
Speaker
And then he shows up at Mania. I never thought he was going to debut at WrestleMania, though. So good. Seriously, though, good for him. That's fine. Yeah, the match was fine, as I recall. And but the more important thing is Bianca Belair, right? Yes, to me, that was the biggest part of it. I finally I popped the biggest for that. I am so excited to have her on the main roster. Good for
Fatal Five-Way Match and Bailey's Role
01:03:54
Speaker
her.
01:03:54
Speaker
Good for her moving to Monday nights. Um, what was after the tag title match here? It was the fatal five way. Okay. I actually enjoyed the shit out of this match. This match got Lacey Evans over with me. What, what did it? I don't know. It was just that spot at the very end when she did this, like brought her arm up after it had just been beaten so much and gave the salute and then did the back flip.
01:04:22
Speaker
Nice. I don't know. Just that move. I was like, hell yeah. They're also doing a good job. They're planting seeds for whatever they're going to do with Sasha and Bailey. Is Sasha going to go back to being a baby face in all of this?
01:04:37
Speaker
That's a good question because when we were watching, we all actually kind of thought Sasha was going to betray Bailey and end up winning last night. But they're both heels. And Sasha ended up protecting Bailey's reign with the title.
01:04:55
Speaker
If you're a heel and you betray another heel, does it make you a babyface? Yeah, how's that work? It's just, uh, just two people being dixed to each other. It's just Tiger King. Why wasn't Carol Baskins that bitch? Why wasn't she in that match making it a fatal six way? I'll tell you what was fucking fatal, her husband in that tiger pit.
01:05:25
Speaker
Oh, fuck. That's not funny. I love I'll tell you right now. I don't know if I've stressed this enough on the pod. I love New Bailey. And I guess she's not new anymore. She's had the title for a while. She's been a heel for a long time now. Good for her. What's doing it for you? I don't think you have talked about Bailey much.
01:05:44
Speaker
I just think that the complete 180 from the pure white meat baby face smiling and high five and kids and wacky waving inflatable arm flowing to men to being like I don't know what kind of word you call that haircut is that a Bob like what the fuck I don't know she's a bat she's a bad bitch as they say.
01:06:06
Speaker
She's she's she's a mean one. She don't give no fucks I am I am happy. She's a heel now and that was always it always felt like that was gonna be an exciting time eventually when she did do that Second most anticipated heel turn other than Orange Cassidy. Oh my god And do you talking about it? We're gonna will it into existence is is when he's a heel is it gonna be just a tiny little thumbs down and
01:06:34
Speaker
Maybe just a tiny like I think you even brought that up him doing the Batista But now it'll just be upside down Chuck and Trent And then being completely devastated The other day I rewatched an episode of dynamite the one where Where Chuck said he's like, oh you go and kick my friend in the dick while the ref isn't looking
01:07:00
Speaker
That really stuck with you. That really did, and I realized they never got to have that street fight, did they? We never got blood and guts either. Morn. Morn. Okay. Now on to the main event. Well, can we do the actual main event first? That's what we're doing. No, no, no, no, no. You know what I mean. Oh, you mean- Can we talk about the last match? Oh, yeah. I just feel like that's a better placement in this grand scheme of things.
01:07:28
Speaker
If you want, this would be the perfect match for you to do an old-timey call-in. The fucking... McIntyre-Lesner match? Oh, yeah, because then you'd just be like, he hits him with a claymore, and then he hits a German suplex, German suplex, claymore, F5, claymore.
01:07:48
Speaker
Brock in the last year has jobbed to Seth Rollins twice. And he's helped tremendously in getting Drew McIntyre to the next level.
Drew McIntyre's Win Over Brock Lesnar
01:08:00
Speaker
So I do appreciate that. I wish there had been more appreciation for Kofi Kingston and making sure that him losing the title was done more gracefully.
01:08:11
Speaker
And yet here we are. Brock did a good thing with drew the last few weeks. I guess the last couple months since the rumble actually. I don't really have a whole lot to say about this. It was just it's it's what it's like a Goldberg Lesnar style where it's just finishers. We're doing finishers for two minutes.
01:08:33
Speaker
And that's what it was. And Drew McIntyre is the new WWE champion. Good for him. I'm happy for him. I'm sad for him too, because I wish this has happened in front of a live crowd. That match also would have played better in front of a live crowd.
01:08:47
Speaker
Oh, a hundred percent. People would have been losing their minds when they were watching those finishers. Right. And honestly, I was a little bit too, because you know me, I like a good stiff kick in the face. Yep. And that is that's all I got. It was just he's the formula. One, two, three. Fuck. Yes. Do it. One, two, three. Drew McIntyre. I think I do like Drew McIntyre, though. I think a lot of people are going to just be kind of cool with him, right?
01:09:15
Speaker
It's I don't know how the fact that there wasn't a live crowd there to witness the title changing hands What's it gonna be like the first time everyone gets back in front of people?
01:09:26
Speaker
Like, what's the reaction gonna be? Will they have settled in on Drew as champion at that point? Will it be exciting and fresh because they haven't been in front of the show in a while? Or will people be over it by then? I think he's gonna walk down the ramp, get in the ring. The ladies are gonna say, this guy's dreamy as fuck. The boys are gonna say, God, I like the way he kicks those people in the face. And I think he's gonna be champ for the next six months. You could say all those same things about Sami Zayn.
01:09:54
Speaker
He's not as beefy and dreamy though. I disagree.
Firefly Funhouse Match Exploration
01:09:59
Speaker
He's a handsome man, don't get me wrong. If I had to choose who I was gonna, in a merry fucker kill between those guys, I'm marrying Sammy every single time. But you're fucking true. But I am fucking true back in time. And you're killing Seamus.
01:10:17
Speaker
It's the merry fucker kill of kicks in the face as a finisher. Yeah, no, congratulations to Drew, I guess. I feel bad. He earned this a long time ago, and just the circumstances were weird. I mean, it was the right match to have go on last, I think. But let's talk about what everyone's talking about. Please.
01:10:46
Speaker
So cinematic wrestling part do at WrestleMania. I think it would be fair because I feel like this is what's confusing a lot of people. It's not it was it was it was only a match in name only. Yeah, we essentially got like a Tim and Eric style comedy sketch combined with pro wrestling. Garrett, I I loved the Firefly Funhouse match so much.
01:11:16
Speaker
I loved everything about it. I rewatched it, and I actually liked it even more the second time. It was really smart. It was really well done. And I think I texted this to you, but then I saw a bunch of other people saying it online. It was a fucking love letter to pro wrestling fans. It was good shit, pal.
01:11:37
Speaker
God damn, I couldn't believe they went ahead with that. And Vince signed off on that. Vince signed off on them putting devil horns on his puppet. Well, that's not the first time that puppets appeared. That puppet's been used for months and months. So this is another me having not watched in a long time. And I'm like, oh, look at what they did. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. It gets infinitely frustrating when I hear you come onto the pod and be like, did you see this? I'm like, yeah, everyone else saw it.
01:12:05
Speaker
So what you're telling me is we're already doing the show where I don't watch and you have to describe it to me. Yeah, kind of. It's a prototype of that show. I got to see Bray Wyatt be Eric Bischoff and John Cena be Hollywood Hogan.
01:12:24
Speaker
I got to see them two sweet each other. I got to see the Smackdown Fist of yesteryear and Cena coming out in his original fucking tights that he wore in his debut.
01:12:39
Speaker
That's fucking wild. John Cena with his dad hair. I loved the next one when he came out as ruthless aggression. I guess that would have been that one, right? Or the Doctor of Thuganomics. No, when he could only say ruthless aggression as he was punching at Bray Wyatt. Yeah, that was his debut, yeah. Yeah, I loved that.
01:12:59
Speaker
Yeah, it was so cool then basically covering the span of John's career. Here's the thing, it really felt like an acid trip, but there was a lot of thought put into that fucking bit. And basically covering John Cena's career and then tying in his long time story with Bray Wyatt into it, going back to WrestleMania 30 and how Bray should have won.
01:13:28
Speaker
Man, I remember that had one of my favorite moments too. That was, and I loved that they went back to the moment when he dropped down to his knees with the chair. Yeah. Yeah. I, the thing is, I mean, everyone felt at that time that like the thing was in that match, Cena literally had nothing to lose. Like the thing at stake was John Cena's legacy at WrestleMania 30.
01:13:53
Speaker
It wasn't a title. It wasn't like a, like a, if he loses, he has to retire situation. It was just a match where they came up with a fake steak and he still won. And I think that pissed a lot of people. I know it pissed me off and the fact that they were able to all these years later, what seven years later, six years later, six, seven. Yeah, this was 36. So yeah, that would have been six years later. Wow.
01:14:20
Speaker
Again, given the circumstances, and I want to hear the people who were mad that it wasn't a match. Were there people who were foaming at the mouth for a Fiend John Cena match? Is that what people wanted? I mean, we can still get that.
01:14:40
Speaker
I thought this was, given the circumstances, this was really fucking entertaining. Do you think that this is what it was always intended to be? No, not at all. You think Cena would have actually just had a regular wrestling match? I think that was the original intent. I don't know, like actually I was talking to my dad today and he brought up, he probably has movie deals where he can't wrestle. I was like, shit, you're probably right there.
01:15:08
Speaker
I don't know about that. But it's the same either way. Yeah.
01:15:13
Speaker
There was, um, there was a really nice thread that I saw our friend, queen of the ring, retweet from a guy named Jay Walker on Twitter. His handle is at IMJ Walker. And he did a firefly fun house match thread where he basically broke down the entire match and how genius it was. Like there's a, there's a whole thread there with pictures and descriptions of what the story of that match was. I would encourage you to hop on Twitter and check that out because it just makes you appreciate it even more.
01:15:43
Speaker
And just that I'll definitely check that out Yeah, I just want to say one of the things that got me so excited too is just that one of those last lines of the match When it was John Cena describing himself What were the what do you remember the gist of the words were well it was what he started with he said told Bray Wyatt that he was the most like overrated overused and
01:16:08
Speaker
Overhyped. Overhyped. Yeah. And then just at the end you hear him repeating that as he's getting beaten. Right. I loved it. So basically Bray went back in time and fixed WrestleMania 30.
01:16:25
Speaker
I wanted to hug Vince McMahon. After this? I did. I actually was sitting there and I was like, he had to have seen every second of this, and he green lit this going on to here. Yeah. In fact, what I read today was that not only did he green light it, especially the part about the it's such good shit, he loved it. Vince thought it was great. That's insane to me. What if everything's just different now?
01:16:56
Speaker
like this this period with the coronavirus fixes WWE yeah it turns out Bray Wyatt just had to go back in time fix WrestleMania 30 and then the last like several years didn't happen it was like that scene at the end of Deadpool 2 where he shows up with fucking Wolverine and the old Deadpool and he says sorry just cleaning up the timeline here
Future of Cinematic Wrestling
01:17:26
Speaker
So from what I'm hearing, given the circumstances, I guess WWE is planning for the time being to do more cinematic wrestling. So it sounds like we're going to get more of this stuff going forward. I am OK with it. I like I really, really like what they've done so far. I just afraid they'll overdo it. I'm just like, I really also like wrestling at the same time.
01:17:51
Speaker
Yeah, so I get it. I don't want them to overdo it. That being said, for the time being, if it's all they can give us, give me more. Yeah, bring it on those. So if this is a memorable WrestleMania. So I put a gun to your head and I say, press a button for which match, which cinematic match from WrestleMania you're going to keep and which match is going to disappear from history and never have existed.
01:18:15
Speaker
The difference, you have to choose between the Boneyard match, between Age of Styles and The Undertaker, or the Firefly Funhouse match between John Cena and Bray Wyatt. Which one are you picking? Which one are you keeping? Which one are you tossing? So you're asking me to choose between
01:18:35
Speaker
A badass action movie versus kind of an indie comedy. An acid trip. Just an acid trip comedy that would have not done well in theaters. That's really tough. That is really, really. Before you answer this question, this thing I just posed to you, do you think that these two cinematic matches saved Mania? That is a better question.
01:19:05
Speaker
I think, no, I'll answer both. I'm just, now you actually, I hadn't even thought about that. If you remove those two matches. You accused me last week of asking you a question that you knew I didn't think you could answer, or that I knew that I didn't think you could answer. That's bullshit. I thought you could answer that question.
01:19:25
Speaker
And that was about whether or not I asked you I asked you last week. What makes Joe exotic so I don't know magnetic people to Joe Joe exotic and you were like, I don't have an answer Why would you ask me this? I'm asking you this week. Are you choosing the Firefly funhouse match? Are you choosing the boneyard match? If you have to pick just one If I have to pick just one, I'm probably gonna go boneyard match.
Unique Matches of WrestleMania 36
01:19:52
Speaker
What's the rationale? I just I love it almost felt like an 80s action movie or a Clint Eastwood movie put into wrestling. And I just like the the old gunslinger coming back for for one more fight. And I guess that wasn't even one more fight. It was just like he was getting pulled back into it and he had it hadn't lost it. I don't know. I've enjoyed both of them so much, but I can. And I see myself rewatching both of them again as well.
01:19:54
Speaker
I
01:20:23
Speaker
Yeah, you've got me. I don't disagree with you. I think if I was asked the same question, I would probably I need to go back and rewatch both of them. I feel like depending upon my mood, I could answer differently. I think so too. But I also see myself at your house and at some point like just us sitting around and you saying, hey, let's throw on the Firefly Firefly fun house. And I don't see us doing that as often with the Undertaker match.
01:20:49
Speaker
No, I completely agree. What does that say? I think we picked the comedy. The other question I asked you is, did these matches, these two cinematic matches that WWE has historically bought when they've tried to do in the past, they've bought these all the time. Did these circumstances
01:21:12
Speaker
forcing them to do this again, but amp up their effort in the production. Did this save Mania this weekend? Because these are the two things that everyone's mostly talking about. I think if we didn't have those two things, it would have felt more like a regular pay-per-view. Or like them trying to do a pay-per-view in a smaller place. I think they were the thing that made them stand out enough to be able to say like, oh, I remember Mania
Favorite Matches and Merchandise Encounter
01:21:38
Speaker
36. That's when we got those videos. Yeah.
01:21:43
Speaker
But at the same time, go back and think about which matches are you going to go back and watch again? Which ones did you I love the triple threat match? I liked Owens and Rollins. I liked the Boneyard match. I liked the Firefly Fun House. I don't know if I'll go back and watch Rhea Ripley and Charlotte, but I think that was the best pure wrestling match of the night on night two.
01:22:13
Speaker
Otis and, Otis and Sigurd. I don't think I better go back and watch that. I know, I'm sorry I hurt. The good guy Otis is your boy. Also, well, just bringing up good guy Otis. I went on the WWE shop immediately to buy one of his shirts. You were going to do it? I was going to pull the trigger and then I got on there and they were like 30 bucks.
01:22:39
Speaker
but it was buy one, get one for a dollar last night. I didn't see that part and all I saw was I'm not paying $30 for this t-shirt. If you had bought one, you could have got two shirts essentially for 15 bucks. I could have gotten the Ham and Slam shirt and I could have gotten two Otis shirts. Yep. There's one that's just a picture of Otis in a heart holding some flowers.
Potential of Two-Night WrestleManias
01:22:58
Speaker
That's adorable. I feel like such a fuck now. Um,
01:23:07
Speaker
The thing is, it was up in the air whether or not I was gonna give WrestleMania my attention this weekend, and I'm sure glad that I did. I had fun. I did too. I went in ready to have fun. We got two awesome days. Do you think that they'll consider doing two nights going forward? I guess we'll see what they do for WrestleKingdom next year.
01:23:37
Speaker
Well, WrestleMania is in Hollywood next year. They're going to do the movie theme again like they did at 21. So yeah, I guess that's we'll get our answer next year or maybe soon. Maybe they'll maybe they'll have made that decision relatively soon after this. That's true. That's true. If they were going to do two nights, they probably would have listed those dates already because they did list the one date.
01:24:01
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know. It's so far off, though. I mean, it's not like tickets are on sale or anything. That's true. Anything could change. Well, any final thoughts on Mania Weekend as we wrap this episode up?
01:24:16
Speaker
Uh, you know, I wish I could have done it in person. I enjoyed I hung out with our buddies Luke and Billy. And by in person, I mean like in person hangouts, not all virtual. But I'm glad I still got to do some hangouts on the internet with our buddies and it's nice seeing Queen of the Ring as well.
01:24:34
Speaker
So overall, successful WrestleMania. Successful WrestleMania given the circumstances, and actually there's stuff from this mania that we will be talking about for years to come, which I guess is their goal every year, so mission accomplished. Vince McMahon, we've said a lot of things about you on this show. A lot of people have said a lot of things about you on the internet. Yeah, I don't know if you've read those. Maybe don't look. But if you're listening to this right now,
01:25:05
Speaker
virtual hug to you my friend because you uh i can't believe you greenlit some of that you did it and do more of it and uh hire us
01:25:17
Speaker
This is gonna become us giving a pep talk like we did to Janela a few months ago. Plus, we could take over as hosts of The Bump, and I think we would do a much better job. Ooh, I haven't watched The Bump, so I can't tell you one way or the other. I'll try and be prepared. I've watched The Bump. They're fine. I just like us better. That's fair. That's fair. Derek, do you have any final words? Love you guys.
Conclusion and Social Media Plugs
01:25:42
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the episode. Garrett, plug our social media. Get us the fuck out of here.
01:25:47
Speaker
As always, check us out on Twitter at WrestleHangout. We're at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram. I am at Gartet on social media. Derek is at Halloween Halpin. At Predetermined Podcast at gmail.com. If you want to send us an email. I think that is about it, Derek. Thanks for listening, everybody. Hit our goddamn music.