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Episode 54: If There's One Thing I Know How to Do, It's Hold A Grudge
60 Plays7 years ago
On this weeks hangout the boys find wrestling on amazon prime, is Marty Scurll's friendship with PCO working out, Royal Rumble talk, Vince McMahon tells us bible stories, Garrett goes to Southern Underground Pro, our West Coast correspondent John gives us a PWG report and more!
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Transcript
Opening Chat & Sky Sweetnam Discussion
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody welcome to another episode of pre-determined a pro wrestling hangout I'm your host Garrett calendar and with me as always a man who doesn't need to read Billy Shakespeare Derek Albin I Wonder if our Canadian listeners know who sky-sweeten him is was was she a bigger deal over there than she was here I don't I have no clue I feel like she was
00:00:24
Speaker
I mean, she had to have been a little bigger over there somewhere, but she didn't get much accomplished over here. What are we talking about, Derek? You and I have a pro wrestling podcast and for some reason every week it's a curve ball as to what the fuck you're going to end up talking about to open the show that has nothing to do with pro wrestling. It could steer us off course. And this week we're talking about Canadian rebel rocker chicks that aren't Avril Lavigne.
00:00:53
Speaker
Yeah, some Canadian rebel rocker chicks, you know, came a little after the wave. They gave it a try. Didn't work. But that doesn't mean we didn't love it. You were into it too, my friend. Oh, I was, but I mean, you went to the lengths of having a t-shirt made proclaiming your generic love of all Canadian rebel rocker chicks. Hey, it was high school, man. It was a wild time. Also, that was the first time I ever drove my car in a city.
Podcast Anniversary & Humorous Reflections
00:01:21
Speaker
I bet you were scared shitless. Oh, I was terrified. And then we took the St. Louis Metro to go see Sky Sweetnam, Canadian rebel rocker chick, open for Ryan Cabrera. So we also did see Ryan Cabrera. That's a little known fact. Very briefly, but we did. Technically, it counts. We were in the building. We had our backs to him for most of that time, trying to get Sky Sweetnam to let us on her tour bus. I don't know what the fuck we were thinking.
00:01:49
Speaker
Yeah, that was definitely it. We were in high school, so I would have been probably 16. Yeah, if you drove, I was probably 15. Yeah, we're 15, 16 years old. What the fuck were we thinking? I don't know, but to tie this back into pro wrestling, she gave up being a Canadian rebel rocker chick, joined a rock band called Sumo Psycho. They opened for Chris Jericho's band, Fozzie, our favorite band in the world, hit our goddamn music.
00:02:45
Speaker
So, it's kind of an important week for us. I don't know if you knew this, but as of the day this is released today, January 24th, we are four days away from our one year anniversary on this podcast. Are you gonna eat cake for me? I don't know, but I can tell you what I'm about to do. I'm about to crack open a beer.
00:03:11
Speaker
sip a beer for the working man. Cheers, buddy. This Miller high life is for you. Can I tell you, before we get into pro wrestling, I had a different opening that I was going to say, but I didn't know if you would be comfortable talking about it. So I figured that rather than surprise you with it at the top, I'd ease you in and then tell you how I was originally intending to introduce you. Nine times out of 10, the way you start the podcast or how you introduce me, I'm not comfortable with.
00:03:41
Speaker
I think you would have been extra uncomfortable with this. Do you remember that time that we were tried to be worked into a devil's threesome together? Uh, yeah. Yeah. That's a thing that we don't really discuss often. Like, and we really didn't discuss it for years after the proposition was made. I think about it sometimes. Do you regret not going for it? Yeah.
00:04:06
Speaker
This is my show, I can say how I feel. It was a triple threat Garrett, we had an opportunity, and maybe that's why we subconsciously like triple threats, missed opportunity. I'll be honest man, I don't know if I regret it at all, not participated in that with you. Is that because you have concerns about seeing my dick? That's what it's about, isn't it? No, I think it's more of the eye contact.
00:04:38
Speaker
You love making hard eye contact with me. You do it every time we're around each other. But we've never been presented with that specific situation, and I don't feel like I would be comfortable with it. God damn it, you are the beta, for sure. I'm drinking beer, and we're talking about a missed menager toi.
00:05:00
Speaker
This is something that legitimately almost happened. We think, right? No, it definitely almost happened. Yeah. Well, not almost, like it was definitely, there was a lady trying to make this happen and I don't know why. Why us, Derek? Why, why were we the chosen ones in that moment? Probably because we were there. I'm pretty sure we got her warmed up by watching Free Willy too.
00:05:24
Speaker
Holy shit, that was the lead-in to that. I think, yeah, there were other problems there then. That whale will get you wet. Derek, just talk about wrestling.
Social Media & Listener Engagement
00:05:36
Speaker
No, you can't put this on me. You wanted to start here, that's where we're starting. But if you do wanna talk about wrestling, head us up on social media. We're on Twitter, we're on Facebook. On Twitter, we are at WrestleHangout. On Facebook, we're at Predetermined Podcast. Wait, I fucked that up. Garrett.
00:05:54
Speaker
Apparently I'm already drunk. On Twitter, we're at Wrestle Hangout on Instagram, we're at Predetermined Podcasts, we're at Wrestle Hangout on Facebook. Also, hop on the iTunes, leave us a five star review. We would love you for that so much. It does so much for us. Something about algorithms, I don't know, people see it. They listen. We would like more listeners. I'm fine with the listeners we have. I could have the people that are listening to us right now forever and be fine with it. But you know what? Invite your friends.
00:06:25
Speaker
And you can let us know in that review if you approve of us talking about Mist 3-some opportunities, or you can tell us directly on social media. Garrett?
Wrestling Topics: Anxiety, Injuries, History
00:06:36
Speaker
I feel like I flipped this thing on its head. You, you were uncomfortable. You thought you were going to have me pinned down being uncomfortable talking about it. And then I turned it on you. That's true. I was, I was actually prepared to be the one to press you on things when you didn't want to talk about it. Oh man. Yeah. You immediately got me on that one. Hey, what do you know about Lars Sullivan? Uh, did he have an anxiety attack or something? Yes. Lars Sullivan is officially the most relatable character for me.
00:07:08
Speaker
Vince, Garrett, you're getting ready to go out and have a match with John Cena. Good luck. Garrett. Vince, I think I have a tummy ache. Yeah, Lars Sullivan, it is rumored right now that he kind of just, he's home right now. He was supposed to be on the main roster. Sounds like he was supposed to do something with John Cena, possibly a WrestleMania match. And I don't blame him. That's a lot to handle.
00:07:33
Speaker
No, we need to talk about this honestly for a moment, because I'm not gonna sit here and shame the guy for having a panic attack or whatever he had. But it's weird because it's not like he hasn't done his job in front of a large crowd before. We saw him wrestle Aleister Black at Allstate Arena in front of a lot of people. Yeah, but how'd that go? Fuck, I mean, who do I blame for the missed kick? It was okay.
00:08:02
Speaker
It's just weird. I guess it can happen to anybody, and if you suffer from anxiety, it can obviously kick up any time, but it's just weird. You don't hear about that kind of thing happen very often with people who perform in front of large crowds. This is the weirdest missed show thing since the meningitis outbreak of 2017 or whatever it was.
00:08:26
Speaker
I don't know. The second I heard this, I was like, God, now I got to get get with Lars and be like, hey, man, what pills you take? And I'm on a generic Prozac does the trick for me. But you still, you know, even on that Prozac, you throw John Cena at me at WrestleMania. I'm probably going to shit my pants a little bit. I don't think I can handle that.
00:08:44
Speaker
Well, so what's what's the game plan go because then the other news out is that They're faking their work. They're doing a work scene it injury right now so that He can go to film a movie Yeah, it to me it kind of seems like well, the large thing isn't gonna happen. We don't have something else for him We can't get him hurt anyway, so just get him out of here. That's kind of the way it seemed Go do Ferdinand to
00:09:12
Speaker
What is he doing something with Jackie Chan? He's got that glorious head of hair. How do you I have no idea what he's doing. I haven't heard any details because up in this week, I thought he was back. You know, he put Finn Bowler over in the fatal four way. That was real nice of him to come back and just do that and then get the fuck out of here. That's what he does now.
00:09:35
Speaker
You know, all the bitching for, you know, 10 plus years about him not, you know, putting guys over and holding people down and golden shovel and all that shit. And here he is at the end of his career, putting over everybody in sight, including the Undertaker in a squash match at WrestleMania. What a guy. And his way of letting you know he's letting loose, he grew out a nice full head of hair. Yeah, he's like, everybody can beat dad, Cena.
00:10:02
Speaker
So I gotta tell you this, I'm sure you already knew this, but maybe you hadn't thought about it.
00:10:10
Speaker
I'm still logged into your WWE network account. Okay. And every now and then I'll use it. And that's going to change this weekend. You can use it. I don't give a shit. We're in theory, we're both going to be watching the Royal Rumble this weekend, right? And that shouldn't matter. I think more multiple people can use it. Can you? I think the only one that multiple people can't use at the same time is the progress one.
00:10:37
Speaker
All right, I guess we'll test it out, but I was planning on logging out finally this weekend and getting my own subscription back just to not mooch off you so much. But I did take the time to do something that a lot of people like to do on that network. And over the weekend, I watched WrestleMania 17 from start to finish, no breaks, every match, every second. And I don't know if you guys have heard, but that's a good show.
00:11:08
Speaker
Actually, our West Coast correspondent, John, was in attendance for the WrestleMania 17. John got to be there? Yeah, he lived in New Orleans, so he just, he drove on over.
00:11:22
Speaker
You know, I would love to hear John's, uh, what his take of that event was because I mean, it's widely considered by a lot of people to be the best WrestleMania ever. I mean, that's subjective obviously, but it's also considered to be the, the climax or the final hurrah of the attitude era. And there were some good matches on that. I see the thing is, I think I've always watched the big matches off of that show.
00:11:48
Speaker
but I've never watched it the way people listen to an album where they just let it play all the way through. God damn, that was a fun show. Even the gimmick battle royal, the Iron Sheik ended up winning.
00:12:01
Speaker
It just makes it like I think that's the thing is that when you were we were in a different era now even like with music where you kind of select the things that you want to watch or you want to listen to and you just pick on those things and it's it just seems like I don't put on an old pay-per-view start to finish anymore and I would like to start doing that more.
Indie Wrestling on Amazon Prime
00:12:20
Speaker
I agree, because anytime we've been recommended matches to watch, would you know you leave that review, you can tell us what to watch. That's part of the deal. But anytime we've done that, I find myself watching the matches that come before and after it as well, and my mind always seems to be blown with what was happening.
00:12:39
Speaker
I think it's cool too because this is one of the things we talked about when we started this podcast, which is that you missed an era of wrestling that I was balls deep in.
00:12:52
Speaker
And so it's always awesome to hear your take on matches and angles that took place because you always come back like wide eyed and you're like in disbelief that certain things happened. Like that ruthless aggression era always gets you, man. It's beautiful. They had some of the greatest storylines in the history of the business.
00:13:13
Speaker
But wasn't WrestleMania 17 like the last WrestleMania where you gave a shit for like a long time? I actually remember watching that one live. Like not in the building, but yeah, I feel like that had to have been close to the end. But that still has one of the matches that for the longest time, if I could only show somebody one match, I would always show the TLC match from that show. Right.
00:13:39
Speaker
Yeah, and the thing is, there's... I think there's three or four really good matches on there. I really enjoyed Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit. The TLC match is great. Undertaker and Triple H have a damn good match. And of course, Rockin' Austin, it's considered the best match of their series that they did at Mania. And...
00:14:00
Speaker
No, I just kind of had nothing going on. It's it's it's cold as shit in Chicago right now. So I didn't really feel like going out and doing anything. So sitting around, pop that pay-per-view on, enjoyed that start to finish. And yeah, I watched a shit ton of wrestling myself this weekend. What'd you what'd you check out, man?
00:14:20
Speaker
Well, one of the weirder ones that I found, I was just looking through Amazon trying to find a new show to watch. And I remembered seeing some wrestling show I had never heard of, so I searched wrestling. Turns out Amazon Prime, shit ton of indie wrestling.
00:14:37
Speaker
Really like PCW ultra out in California the one that's kind of seems to be competing with PWG a little bit with some of the guys they're getting Look like all their shows are up there, but the one I ended up watching I found a promotion called
00:14:54
Speaker
let's see it's called underworld wrestling what the fuck and i thought oh boy i've seen so much wrestling and obviously since this is hiding in the middle of amazon prime this has to be the best wrestling right there
00:15:10
Speaker
Uh, sure. I'm just surprised Amazon Prime has any indie wrestling period. If you type it in, you're going to see so much, and even classic wrestling. There was a whole bunch of shit from the 80s, a lot of like Terry Funk stuff. There were some all women's promotions on there. I mean, it brought up at least a hundred things for me to watch when I typed in wrestling into Amazon Prime. So how does this compare to PWG if it's out there competing with them on the West Coast?
00:15:39
Speaker
Oh, I didn't watch the good one. I watched Underworld Wrestling. Oh. PCW Ultra, they're doing good stuff. Check them out. I chose not to watch that. Yeah, I chose... Well, you know what? I figured, you know, people might actually want to watch that, so I decided to watch the one that you weren't going to watch.
00:16:02
Speaker
That's so you so this one it's all it all takes place in Australia I say that like it's set there the whole beginning opens like it's shot like a found footage Film and then it just goes into wrestling and when they go in it immediately starts This is season 1 episode 1 they're like and in this corner JXT starting with zero points and Jackson Kelly starting with two points and already like what the fuck are you talking about?
00:16:32
Speaker
Is this hockey? Is there a point system? The announcer, the match starts, they're having a normal match and the announcer goes, you gotta remember, this isn't pro wrestling. This is a fight. Is it fucking Mortal Kombat? And as he said that, one guy Irish whipped another guy into the ropes and then gave him a running bulldog.
00:16:57
Speaker
So that's wrestling. No Derek. That's a fight. I think that's wrestling. We got worked.
00:17:03
Speaker
And they kept talking to me like I've never heard of pro wrestling. Which really, over the weekend I saw the movie Glass. One of the annoying things, I actually didn't hate the movie like a lot of people did, believe it or not. I stayed in my seat the whole time, didn't walk out. But the dumb thing about the movie is that they're constantly explaining the concept of comic books to you like you have no idea what a comic book is. And that is what
00:17:30
Speaker
underworld wrestling does. They explain wrestling to you as if it's a brand new concept.
00:17:45
Speaker
Good luck convincing them in a way that, where like this makes sense. Totally makes sense. But as this was going, I was confused as shit. I didn't understand- Do they call it underworld wrestling because it's in Australia? Is that the, is that the idea? No, Derek, it's called- They're down under? It's called underworld wrestling because this is a wrestling organization run by the ancient underground crime lords, The Claw. What?
00:18:13
Speaker
Isn't that the group that was around Inspector Gadget's nemesis? I don't remember, but maybe. Maybe he defeated them. They went to Australia and started an evil wrestling corporation that you can watch the first season of on Amazon Prime.
00:18:34
Speaker
but the rules to this fucking wrestling they they kept just explaining the rules of wrestling but they started to make less and less sense and they had a 10 minute timer going and what i found out is the only way to win in this promotion is to get somebody to submit or knock them out within that 10 minute time frame so there is no one two three you either knock them out or make them tap that's how you get two points
00:18:58
Speaker
But if you get them counted out, that's one point. If the timer goes all the way up to- It's like going to OT and losing? Yes. Yeah, you get a hockey point. I like this system. But if the 10-minute time limit runs out while the two guys are in the ring, they introduce a third guy who's going to come in and fight for another 10 minutes for those two points.
00:19:30
Speaker
Why is this on Amazon Prime? I don't know, Derek, but it's there and you don't have to watch it now because you know what it's about. Is this like when you scroll down through Netflix or Hulu, really the bottom barrel of their B movie selection where it's actually like E-movies, like they're that bad. There's a plethora of shit there that you could put on in the background that nobody actually watches. Is this what this wrestling is? It's on Amazon Prime.
00:19:58
Speaker
This is there to just be something on Amazon Prime so that Amazon Prime can say they have 10,000 things. This could also be the best wrestling promotion in Australia, for all we know. Yeah, the reason that I wasn't loving it so much is because WWE took their entire roster.
00:20:18
Speaker
But yeah, I was definitely at least eight pages into looking at TV shows. This wasn't sitting right next to the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in that Julia Roberts show. This was eight pages back. There were maybe the 25 best Looney Tunes cartoons ever, a cowboy show. I don't know, Derek. I found it.
Personal Life Updates & Toasts
00:20:40
Speaker
I watched it. That was one of the many things I watched.
00:20:43
Speaker
You're a trooper because we didn't even have a listener make you do this. You did this on your own. Glutton for punishment. Were you bored? Do we need an intervention? What do you want me to not watch wrestling?
00:21:05
Speaker
I don't know man, have you started editing our episode for next week? What's going on? No, you proposed this idea and then what do you want me to do? Go back and listen to all 106 episodes? No, we literally had people submit some of their favorite moments on Twitter. You gotta tell me these things, Derek. I didn't see that. Well, log into the goddamn Twitter account and look!
00:21:28
Speaker
Look, the people kind of care. Derek, I have big life events going on right now. What, like fucking browsing Amazon Prime Wrestling Federations? What the fuck? Derek, I am in the process of purchasing a home. Oh, so we can talk about it now? Yeah. Yeah, pretty close to having a house. It's really scary.
00:21:50
Speaker
Spoiler alert, I've lived in a lot of apartments since, what, like probably 18, 19? Not gonna be in an apartment anymore, but this does- How do you feel about that? Is that like you're a man now? Is that what it feels like? Well, there is that, but I wouldn't be a wrestling fan if I didn't bring up, it's kind of fucking up my WrestleMania plans because House is gonna put me in debt forever, so I don't know if I'm gonna be able to make Mania this year now. Well, that's a shame.
00:22:22
Speaker
So you're on beer, too. Mm-hmm. Don't get too excited. I wish I had more, but I only have two. Do you normally drink when we record? No, this is the first. Why is it a special occasion? You just you crack in them open for I literally I literally toasted our episode being one year old or our podcast being one year old and you just let it go by. You don't even give a shit. You do not care.
00:22:48
Speaker
I've also had a rough week. I've been taking lifts into work this week because my car has been, with the mechanic, getting some work done on it and I just dropped about $250 on some repairs for my car. My automobile. You probably should have asked the guy if you could have had a match with him to try and have some sort of stipulation.
00:23:14
Speaker
My auto mechanic is named John and I wouldn't fuck with him. You aren't afraid of anybody. You're not afraid of Brock Lesnar. You won't fuck with John. That's true. How fucking big is John?
00:23:27
Speaker
It's not that John's a big man, it's just John's not afraid to do what's necessary to kill you. You're like, the problem is, John is the craziest motherfucker in the fight, and that guy's always gonna win. Yeah, or he isn't gonna win, he's gonna inflict some damage.
00:23:43
Speaker
I watched him. So here's a story. So my auto mechanic I have had for the last seven years, basically the entire time I've lived in Chicago. And every time I've had an issue, I've always gone to John and John has had no issues hooking me up with a deal. He's always been fair to me. Trust him. Now, about two years ago,
00:24:02
Speaker
He works at like a shell service station and about two years ago they hired another mechanic to come in to cover like a different shift but there was some overlap between the two. The two developed a heated rivalry Garrett. They didn't like each other.
00:24:17
Speaker
And I got to watch them get into a shouting match while I was there trying to get something done on my car. And one of them called the other one racist. And the other one said the other one was full of shit. And then I ended up only paying like 100 bucks for something that was probably $800. And I was happy and it was awkward. And then the other guy, he got run out of town. It was a loser leaves town match and they were fighting over you.
Wrestling Dynamics & Storylines
00:24:42
Speaker
And fucking John won. Why do you think I'm not messing with John?
00:24:46
Speaker
I mean, if the only reason you're not fighting John is he's giving you a good deal, you could probably get a better deal, man. Just fight him, beat him. I'm not fighting John. John gives me good deals. You think Marty Skirrell is happy that he hangs out with PCO all the time now? No. Based on the limited viewing I saw of Marty at Starcast,
00:25:15
Speaker
I've been thinking about this all week. I can't stop thinking about them being in a car together. Yeah. I've got some things to run by you too, but let's talk about this. No, based on what I saw of Marty at Starcast and his interaction with people while doing karaoke, I feel like Marty is not happy that he's essentially babysitting somebody who's like in his mid fifties.
00:25:43
Speaker
when he sees that everybody's at the press conference with Jericho. Like Brody King is kind of cool because he's kind of a hot act on his own, right? Yeah. But fucking PCO man, like you got to believe they ran that idea by him and he was like, wait, what the fuck? Like really?
00:26:02
Speaker
You want me to babysit one of the old Quebecas? I just pictured Matt Jackson calling him. He was like, hey, man, how's the ring of honor treating you? That was a surprisingly good Matt Jackson impression where he has the most casual like, hey, man, how you doing? He's like, it's not good, Matt. What happened?
00:26:26
Speaker
Well, villain enterprises, we were in a six man with the kingdom. PCO, I don't even know what the fuck he was trying to do, but he jumped off the top rope. He like tripped. He landed on his head, his head spun around backwards. I thought he was dead. But then he just looked at me and smiled. Can we talk about I watched a little bit of the of the new being the elite.
00:26:50
Speaker
Can we talk about how fucking awesome it is that MJF is on that now? Oh my god, him shit-talking everybody is making my day. Behind their back, right? As soon as Cody leaves, he turns into his true self, the two-faced bullshit. I love it. My favorite was two weeks ago, he takes Hangman's coffee and he's like, ugh, this is poor coffee. Or poor person coffee or something. And then as he walks away, Hangman just goes,
00:27:17
Speaker
This cost $5. He fucking shit talked to Kazarian. And then when he walked away, Kazarian's like, that guy's an asshole. And he leans back and just says, fuck Jerry Lynn.
00:27:36
Speaker
Well you brought up Brody a bit ago. One of my weekend projects was I wanted to finally get Brody King. Like understand him? Yeah I wanted to see because I feel like I hear a lot.
00:27:52
Speaker
I went and kidnapped Brody King. He's actually in my basement right now. It wasn't that hard to get him. The nerdiest thing I can tell you I've done all week is I've been on YouTube watching people open packages of old Pokรฉmon cards and the old trading deck sets and just getting that nostalgic feeling. But go on, Brody King. So I watched quite a few Brody matches. I started with some of his AAW stuff.
00:28:22
Speaker
and I watched him in a cage match with Sammy Callahan, which I believe was right at the end of December. So it's one of their more recent shows. I will say this, AAW, great production value in their videos. Do you feel like they're way ahead of where PWG is in that regard? Like, cause a lot of the old PWG stuff, or at least I guess when I, I literally mean old, some of the PWG stuff I've seen, like it's, it's like a single camera shot sometimes and it's,
00:28:54
Speaker
I'm not saying it's the worst thing in the world, but it's not the best. But it seems like AAW's production quality is pretty nice. Yeah, the cameras looked great. They have a lot of backstage segments when you watch the full show. So you're actually seeing stories progress. And I thought that was really cool. Before the Sammy Brody match, they actually had a full video package going into it. I thought that was awesome.
00:29:18
Speaker
And Brody, during those matches, I don't know if you remember this. This was, I mean, I guess it would have been towards the end of December when him and PCO both got signed to Ring of Honor. Brody, he had broke his fucking jaw and he had all these dates left and he still finished all those dates with a broken jaw. His jaw was wired shut, Derek.
00:29:57
Speaker
He was just like, fuck that, I'm signed somewhere guys, I'm out.
00:30:00
Speaker
I bet that's hilarious that that's what he was even looking for because he was one of the most booked acts on the endies and then the second he signed just like fuck you guys i'm gonna go break my neck over here and as soon as marty saw that he was getting paired with pco he knew that he was leaving for aew first chance he got oh my god and pco's but
00:30:21
Speaker
But Pierre's coming, right? You're bringing Pierre? No, Pierre. Pierre, you're going to have to stay here and fight Bandito. And Bandito's like, what? What? This is what I signed up for. I'm one of the best in the world. Why are you doing this to me? Because you can elevate him. You're going to elevate PCO. It's going to be a real flippy lucha match. And he's like, oh, god. Because flippier for PCO just means more hurdy for everybody.
00:30:49
Speaker
Every time we bring up PCO, I still have the image of me approaching him in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency in Schomburg, Illinois. And he's wearing flip-flops. And I handed him one of our predetermined pro wrestling hangout business cards. Said we'd like to have you on the show sometime. And he told us to email him. And we haven't done that.
00:31:11
Speaker
I think our best quality right now is that we've got big plans for interviews that are probably never gonna happen. And you know why? Because we need an intern, Derek. We need to recruit an intern who does all the business stuff. I nominate Lowell. You nominate Lowell to try and book guests? We should have like a King of the Ring intern tournament.
00:31:39
Speaker
and we should have our favorite listeners compete to be our intern. Your suggestion was, we need to have our most loyal listeners compete to work for free for us. Yeah. Derek, that's a genius. I'm just kidding. I know, right? I'm not going to do that to the listeners. Reach through the phone and pat me on the back.
00:32:06
Speaker
What were we talking about before that? Oh, PCO. Yeah, I'll never lose that image in my head of, yeah, just you over there talking to PCO and pointing towards the table and then seeing PCO glance that way and then walk out pushing his car to batteries. You were supposed to get Noel Foley to come over to our table, but you didn't. Hey, I walked over. She said she would. She didn't. I can't press her.
00:32:35
Speaker
How gentlemanly of you.
Royal Rumble Speculations
00:32:37
Speaker
We got stuff to talk about the Royal Rumbles this weekend, man. Plus, another NXT TakeOver show. I'm actually getting kind of pumped for the Rumble, mostly for Brock versus Finn, just because I've finally come back around to, you know what, you've wanted this a long time. Maybe they're turning a new leaf and this is gonna be it. Maybe you're gonna get that match you want. Do you think that's gonna happen, Derek? Is Garrett gonna leave the Royal Rumble happy?
00:33:04
Speaker
No, Garrett's not gonna leave the Royal Rumble happy. Do you think it's dumb of me to be excited about things? I mean, it really does seem like they're starting to try and go in a direction that would make people happy. They are, but I've also taken the approach that every time I get excited for something in WWE, that's when I inevitably get stabbed right in the heart. Through the back, but into the heart. So you're telling me Brock's gonna win?
00:33:32
Speaker
I really hope he doesn't. And here's the thing. What is the thing, Derek? We talk about things through text sometimes and maybe we should save them for the show, but I have no problem rehashing them here on the podcast with you. I would love nothing more than to see Finn Balor dethrone Brock Lesnar.
00:33:51
Speaker
It's what everybody really wants to see. And I don't know how I feel about them on Monday Night Raw just flat out saying, hey, David versus Goliath, that's what we're going for here. As if though he hasn't also faced, you know, AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan and a million other people who are smaller than him. Like they've been, they've had an opportunity to play up the David Goliath thing a million times before and they haven't done that.
00:34:14
Speaker
Yeah, that just goes to maybe it's a thing in media right now where everybody has to over explain shit to us But when Vince McMahon's like you know the story of David and Goliath Let me tell you there's this boy named David wrong and I like started laughing Oh Andy called it a fairy tale, which I thought was amusing But just him going through it's like alright everybody ready for some Bible stories with Vince because that's what did you hear Paul Heyman say I don't read the Bible I
00:34:43
Speaker
I haven't read it. Paul Heyman went out of his way to be like, hey, I'm Jewish. I don't read that shit. Well, sorry. This just made me think of it. Bola. It was Trevor Lee who just had his final indie match and has headed to WWE. It was him versus Brody King. And he was cutting a promo on Brody King. And he looks at his tattoos and goes, you know, this isn't a good Charlotte concert, right? And then he points at him and looks at the crowd and goes, he probably doesn't even believe in God.
00:35:17
Speaker
Back to David and Goliath. Yeah, no, I mean, you had asked me if I watched that promo segment with Vince and Strowman and Lesnar and Balor. I thought it was a great little piece of television. And the only question I walked away from, if you include the Strowman-Balor match,
00:35:36
Speaker
Why the fuck was it okay for Brock Lesnar to suplex Finn Balor and there was no disqualification? I didn't understand this at all. From what I understand, it sounds like the ref wasn't supposed to be looking.
00:35:51
Speaker
Huh. I didn't know if they were going to rely on some. Well, Lesnar caught him. He was able to put him down any way he wanted to. It didn't technically count. I don't know. I'll have to go back to underground pro or underworld wrestling and have them explain the rules to me again, because I'm not sure.
00:36:08
Speaker
I was just like, what the fuck? That happened right in front of the ref in front of everybody and no DQ. And then an F five a couple of minutes later and definitely disqualification. What do you think? I mean, like seriously, I mean, I think we're both excited. You've been wanting this match for so long and they are really downplaying the idea that the demon is going to be involved. Like it's going to be straight up. Finn baller versus Brock Lesnar. All right. Does that, does that dampen your mood a little bit?
00:36:36
Speaker
I mean, we'll see. We'll see what happens. Right now, I'm still excited. Isn't it possible that he still comes out as the demon, or are they fully just like, that's not happening? They haven't said that's not happening, but even if they were, that could totally be a cover. I don't know. As of now, looking at the Royal Rumble, who do you think is going to win the men's Rumble? In your head, where do you see WrestleMania headed right now?
00:37:07
Speaker
All signs seem to point towards Seth Rollins. And there's now all of a sudden there's Betty nods in pro wrestling that you'll see come out. And Rollins is the favorite. And that makes some sense. But man I don't know man.
00:37:26
Speaker
We keep hearing that there was originally gonna be a storyline of Dwayne coming back and winning the Rumble and facing Roman at Mania. Could they still do that and have him fight Brock? Do we know if Roman's cleared? No, no, no, have Dwayne. Like if the Rock came back, could he come back and fight Lesnar? Oh, by winning the Rumble? Yeah.
00:37:52
Speaker
I don't see it happening, but it is a possibility. Yeah, I don't see it happening either, and the messed up thing is as great as The Rock is, as over as he is, I don't think the fans would welcome that, because again, you're watching one part-timer challenge another part-timer, and people are foaming at the mouth to watch them give that kind of push to the full-time talent, like all the new talent, and it's, no, I don't see that happening, nor do I want that to happen. Derek, I know how we can get that over.
00:38:22
Speaker
The Rock thing? Yes. Okay. The Rock comes back. The Rock has been watching the product, and he's tired of the champion not being there. He understands that The Rock hasn't been around as much lately, but he has no intention of holding this belt forever. He's winning it back to give it to the people. They need to turn it into a loser leaves town match. The Rock wins it, immediately relinquishes it, bring two more guys into the ring to have another match, and that's what ends Mania.
00:38:54
Speaker
I'm okay with some of that, I guess, but I don't see that happening. You don't want the Rock to come back and win one for the people and send Brock Lesnar back? Here's one I will tell you that I was thinking about today that I did not discuss with you via text message. I would actually advocate for Undertaker versus Brock Lesnar at this WrestleMania. Oh my God. No. And the entire premise is the loser has to retire.
00:39:25
Speaker
And I would love to see the Undertaker beat Brock Lesnar, retire him from pro wrestling, and then as his final act, retires himself too. Relinquishes the title. Either way, we're looking at people who are gonna win. No title involved, period. I don't want Taker to win the title. I wanna get the strap off of Brock and put Brock in a one-on-one showdown with Taker where the loser has to retire.
00:39:53
Speaker
It sounds like the main thing that you and I both want is him to just go away. Right. That is what I want. It's what people... I don't even think Lesnar necessarily wants to be there anymore other than the money. Isn't he still supposed to do something with UFC eventually? Yeah, because doesn't he only have two shows left with WWE? Doesn't he just have Mania and The Rumble? And then that's all that's in his contract? That's what I'm saying.
00:40:20
Speaker
It would actually, the thing is, if you did it the way I just, first of all, you gotta get the title off of Brock. If you put it on Balor, then the question is, are you gonna have Balor face? It could be Reigns in theory. It could be Rollins. It could be a number of guys on the raw side of things, whatever. You can address that later. But what you can do with Brock is put him in, it brings the whole ending of the streak story full circle.
00:40:48
Speaker
because Undertaker can come out and say, I've had it watching you basically hijack the show, and I'm sick of your reign of terror basically began the day you ended my streak. I'm gonna put up the only thing I have left, which is my entire career.
00:41:06
Speaker
and Brock's gonna laugh and then he's gonna say but you have to put yours on the line too and then basically Undertaker sacrifices himself he can beat Lesnar retire him and then he can find like that's the only way you can top him leaving his coat and his hat in the ring is him basically getting rid of Lesnar for the people
00:41:27
Speaker
for WWE and then peace in that himself. He by the end of this he's gonna have nothing else to leave in the ring you're right like it's just gonna be just a nude undertaker. It's the only thing he has left is his sacrificing his career.
00:41:45
Speaker
I mean, did you see the leak this week that an email went out and it was saying something about featuring and it was for mania weekend. It was saying featuring WWE hall of famers and it listed the undertaker and the hall of famers. I did not. I saw nothing about this. Yeah. No. So we're not sure if, you know, it was a misprint or does that mean undertakers getting inducted this year? Cause to me, it always seemed like when that guy gets inducted, that's the end. Yeah.
00:42:16
Speaker
yeah i don't know but i mean going back to see it depends a lot what's interesting about the royal rumble now especially since they have a men's rumble and a women's rumble and they're gonna have two world title matches
00:42:31
Speaker
How they book the show, like the order in which they book it, is really gonna tell you a lot about what they want to reveal as the night goes on. So for instance, you're gonna find out a lot about who has a chance of winning the women's rumble, depending upon who walks out with the women's titles on Raw and SmackDown.
00:42:53
Speaker
And you're gonna find out a lot about who your potential matchups are for the men's world titles like the Universal and the WWE. Based on when those take place on the show because of who's left to win the Rumble.
00:43:08
Speaker
And you and I were talking about this too. I think both of us would rather see Becky win the Royal Rumble and walk out with a mania shot rather than her walking out with a title at the Royal Rumble. I'm convinced that there's a lot more you get accomplished by having Becky win the Rumble. Basically, you can either have Ronda or Charlotte cost Becky the title against Asuka.
00:43:33
Speaker
And the thing that this also does is it sets up a Charlotte versus Asuka 2 rematch from last year's WrestleMania. Because wasn't that basically considered the best match from last year's WrestleMania? Was those two? Yeah, I mean, it was between that or trying to think like the three best matches off the top of my head are that Rhonda's match and the Intercontinental match.
00:43:57
Speaker
Yeah. So I mean, it would make a lot of sense for them to do a WrestleMania rematch of those two. And they've been at this point, it would be fucking. I mean, this is the only thing that can happen. It would be fucking stupid for them to ignore all the stuff that's been going on between Becky and Rhonda.
00:44:16
Speaker
Like that's the only way you can get those two to hook up is to send Becky over to Raw. And the only way you can do that is by having her win the Rumble. And on SmackDown this week, they were making a point in the opening of the show, having Becky say, I want a main event WrestleMania. Right.
00:44:32
Speaker
Think about how fucking crazy that is. To think about where they came from last year to this year, that this year we would actually be talking about Becky Lynch headlining WrestleMania. Absolutely, and it's awesome. It's been great. And she has totally embraced that badass character role. I would love to see, okay, I know we're kind of tired of the McMahons getting involved in stuff, but how would you feel about seeing Vince getting involved with Becky?
00:45:03
Speaker
I would love it. And let me back up. I am not. I commented. Somebody had said something on Twitter about it's nice seeing Vince interact with the new members of the roster. And I completely agree. It's been the one thing that's been lacking is you don't see acknowledgement from Vince often enough that like even like on Raw where he was talking to the revival.
00:45:27
Speaker
It helped. Like when you see the guy that you know is behind the whole thing, acknowledging and interacting with some of the new faces, it really helps put them over. This is off topic for a second, but him talking to the revival. Anyone so far that's had a rumor about leaving
WWE Talent & Roster Management
00:45:50
Speaker
it seemed to start being on TV more or like with the revival they ended up putting them in that match with what who who was it Zack Ryder and yeah Hawkins and Ryder Hawkins and Ryder back together yeah it seems like everybody that was planning on or asking for the release just got thrown into a match same with you know we were hearing rumors that because we saw the revival post something about heading to AA or AEW and Sasha Banks tweeted out take me with you
00:46:21
Speaker
Yeah. And now she's obviously Sasha's getting her title shot. Which I think we all know how that's going to go. It's a little on the nose because it comes across as kind of pathetic. Like it's basically them admitting, yeah, we knew you were, we were doing you guys dirty the whole time, but please don't go like now that there's another option. It's like, here, here's the things that you want to take them.
00:46:46
Speaker
Think about, though, if AEW got somebody like Sasha Banks, somebody that was a big star there. And I do say was because I was huge into her. And I mean, I don't know, like her being in this match seems weird to me because maybe because I haven't been watching for all those months, but it just seemed like she wasn't being talked about at all.
00:47:06
Speaker
I just think that there's certain elements of WWE TV that have been completely ignored. One of them being the tag division, and the other one being they have so many women on both rosters. Raw in particular is just a clusterfuck. Because when I was watching on Monday, it was like every segment, there was either a guy I wanted to see get pushed. For instance, the segment with Apollo Crews and Bobby Lashley.
00:47:36
Speaker
Like it was refreshing seeing Apollo Crews in a segment that kind of mattered and being like, Oh God, he is on the roster. He is really good at what he does. Oh Lord, he has a beard now. Yeah. I would like to see them do something with him.
00:47:49
Speaker
And then, a moment later, like, oh, there's Dean Ambrose again. He was just Intercontinental Champion. Wonder where he's going. What are they doing with Seth Rollins? When is Roman Reigns coming back? When is Kevin Owens coming back? When is Sami Zayn coming back? What are they gonna do with Lesnar? What are they gonna do with Strowman? And once you start going down the list of all these people, you realize they've got like 15 fucking possible main eventers there. And this is a show that's three hours long.
00:48:16
Speaker
And I'm just sitting there thinking like, God, they got to start moving people or they got to figure something out because in theory.
00:48:23
Speaker
They're going to call up more people here soon, right? We assume that there's... I have a feeling there's going to be a couple call ups at the Rumble. I'm thinking the two that I'm seeing rumors of that make the most sense are Velveteen Dream. Because if the Lars thing didn't work out, you know, Cena wants Velveteen Dream. I think that'd be a fun match. The promos between those two would be fun as hell. The other, Aleister Black.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yeah. And on paper, he's the one that I'm looking at that I'm like, if he went to Smackdown, there are so many new match ups that I would be excited about seeing with him on that roster. Right. But I mean, a lot of this working depends on getting some of these other people out of the way. Like you don't have TV time for everybody. That's that's what's so crazy. And yet. And then we talk about every week, we talk about the fact that, oh, they signed this new guide either to NXT or NXT UK.
00:49:21
Speaker
Like they're there. They've loaded up on everybody because they don't want those guys signing somewhere else, but they don't really necessarily have room or plans for them. Like if I was in Vince's shoes, I would have no problem. If you want to wipe the slate clean and start booking differently, that's one thing. Just fucking let revival go. And if you really want to start anew, then call up undisputed era and do something with them.
00:49:49
Speaker
Oh yeah, you could run an undisputed era story for so long. But I just, I just think it's, we're sitting here talking about who's going to win these matches at the Rumble. It's, it's going to be very telling because I know I saw somebody comment when, whenever they did, um, I can't remember if it was the pose down or whatever the fuck it was, but somebody was like, yep, this is typical Vince WWE shit.
00:50:18
Speaker
Like, I don't know. They they've been saying they're going to do things differently and you can choose to believe them or not believe them. But they are putting Finn Bรกlor in a championship match against Lesnar. And you can either buy into that hook line and sinker and think that there's a possibility that Bรกlor is going to win. What if he does? Doesn't that change the like how you perceive the build to mania?
00:50:46
Speaker
It'll definitely pique my interest where I know the guy who's going to be in the main event is going to be on the show talking about being there. Well, you asked me, who do you think is going to win the men's rumble? Once again, I mean, I think we agree that it's probably going to be Seth Rollins, but if it weren't Rollins, who would really be the best choice right now?
00:51:11
Speaker
Man, you either go with a surprise entrant, or if Reigns is cleared, they could go with him. That's hilarious. If he is cleared, which I haven't heard anything about that, so I'm not anticipating that. But if he showed up, because it won't be number 30, because our truth has that, but if he comes out at number 29, oh fuck, I completely forgot about that. How stupid was that?
00:51:39
Speaker
God damn it. That is dumbass fucking booking. I don't want to know who the number 30 entrant is. That's a surprise spot. You know who the number 30 entrant is for the men and the women's rumble. God fucking damn it. Drunk driving motherfuckers. That is a surprise spot. Jesus.
00:52:06
Speaker
I completely forgot, because I was sitting here talking to you about the possibility of Becky coming out in the number 30 spot.
00:52:14
Speaker
and how that would pop the fucking roof off the building if she came out at 30. I mean, they'll pop regardless if she's already lost the women's match to Asuka and she comes out in the Rumble. They're gonna pop regardless. But do you remember what year was it where everyone was expecting Daniel Bryan to come out in the Rumble? And Mysterio came out. Yeah. And everyone was just like, are you fucking kidding me? It was just the whole crowd sees Rey Mysterio and just goes like, aw.
00:52:44
Speaker
And poor Mysterio's like, hey, if I'd come in at number 10, you would have been excited. They're like, no, we wouldn't. We were waiting for Ty at 10. We would have been pissed that you took his spot. That's so fucking stupid. And then everyone got worked up because I guess.
00:53:00
Speaker
The WWE Twitter account was listing some of the participants from the women's Rumble, but they didn't make it clear until the moment that they made it seem like they were gonna reveal everybody. And then they basically just announced all the people that you knew were gonna be in the match, which is just both rosters. Right, but last year, if I recall, there were a bunch of surprise entrants. It was like the veterans, the people who were retired.
00:53:28
Speaker
But you can't do that every year, can you? I mean, if you have a few spots open, that makes sense, but... Do they have 30 women? They bought up fucking everybody. I mean, they throw some NXT people in there, and you definitely do. Let's see if, uh... Let's see if Sweet Candace ends up in there. God damn it, Candace. Well, wasn't it, like, last year they had, like, Molly Holly, Trish, Lita, Jacqueline? But to me, that makes sense to do for the first one.
00:53:54
Speaker
I get it. But again, who? I don't know. I guess maybe they could do it. Maybe they could do some of the people from the May Young classic, I guess. Totally a possibility. I'd be fine with that. I don't know. I just mean, the whole thing that's exciting, the thing that's awesome about the Rumble is not knowing who's coming out next and who it's going to be.
Indie Wrestling Highlights
00:54:18
Speaker
Derek, this just means that 29 is the mystery spot now.
00:54:25
Speaker
Hey, we sponsored a wrestling show over the weekend. Oh, fuck. Yeah, we did. Tell me about Southern Underground Pro. Tell the listeners about Southern Underground Pro. Your mom wasn't able to make it to Nashville. Because of goddamn weather. Goddamn weather. Didn't work out. And you know what? She was missed there. We were asked about her multiple times. And I let her know you guys were asking. She was very happy about that. She said she'll definitely make it out eventually.
00:54:56
Speaker
Can you promise me that we will record an episode with your mom? Cause that was the plan. Oh, a hundred percent. But first she has to witness some shit. Like maybe we should drive her up to Chicago and take her to GCW. Oh my God. But I will say this, look at me like I'm a murderer. Well, yeah. You're not a murderer. You're an accomplice. You're an accessory to.
00:55:22
Speaker
But I'm just saying, I'm the kid that got you into Freddie Got Fingered. So she's going to look at GCW and be like, this is what you introduced my son to. And I'm going to be like, no, this is what your son introduced me to. So am I going to get grounded again? I hope the fuck you get grounded at age 31.
00:55:42
Speaker
in your own house. Yes. That you just bought. Southern Underground Pro. I Am The King. Really good show. This showed me that indie wrestling is doing just fine. This place was packed.
00:55:57
Speaker
This was probably the most full it's been since I've been going. Great show. It was a really long card. I want to say there were 9 or 10 matches on this thing. And there were definitely a couple standouts. Sad Conf, which is Kevin Ku, who was looking handsome as ever. And Dom Guarini versus a team I had never heard of called the Jollyville Fuckits.
00:56:21
Speaker
I saw that. And one of the members of the Jollyville Fuckits tried something that scared the absolute shit out of me, which was a moonsault in basement east. I know a moonsault is not like the craziest of high spots, but when you're in a building with that low of a ceiling.
00:56:39
Speaker
It gets pretty like a big deal. Oh my God. And I guess that's why they couldn't raise the ring any higher because they would just have their heads into the ceiling. But when this guy did the backflip, his foot grazed the air ducts. And I was like, he didn't end up laying on his head. He landed. It looked great. That tag team is fun as hell. I really enjoyed watching them. Great workers. Hope they come back. We got to give a shout out. You got some good footage of our boy Craig Mitchell.
00:57:06
Speaker
Oh, our boy Craig. He fought stab the wrestler. You know, the guy in the scream mask with the knife? Yeah. Well, that guy took his mask off and I guess it was Craig's buddy. Craig has other buddies besides us? He does. It would have been the equivalent, I think, of if you had to fight a guy in a scream mask and it turned out it was me.
00:57:29
Speaker
I'd just hit him harder. But that was honestly top two matches of the night. I give it to Sad Conf and the Jollyville Fuckits and then Craig Mitchell versus Stab. I didn't get his buddy's name, I'm sorry. It's in my head, it's just gonna be Stab now. But yeah, Craig's match was awesome and Leo was with me. And when Craig came out, Leo started a Craig hate chant.
00:57:52
Speaker
Really? Your wife started a Craig hate chant? She did. And then after the show when we met him, as we were walking back to the car, she let me know she felt really bad about it because of how nice he was.
00:58:03
Speaker
You had some interaction with Craig after the show, you said, right? Yeah, chatted with Craig a little bit. I know he's got some shows coming up in Chicago. He wrestles for freelance. So if you're in the Chicago area, go check out Craig Mitchell at Freelance or any of the other shows. I'm definitely going to be trying to get to a Freelance show here really soon because I want to say hey to Craig. You got to go say hey. But the main event of the night, Brett Ison versus the king, Nick Gage.
00:58:34
Speaker
And they hit each other with a lot of chairs. You know, no pizza cutters came out. There wasn't blood. There wasn't glass tubes. The basement East was having a concert afterwards. And I have a feeling they didn't want to clean up blood and glass from the venue before people came to enjoy music. That's that's fair. But yeah, we after the match, which Nick Gage ended up losing.
00:58:56
Speaker
to Brett Eisen, so Brett Eisen's still the champ, but that doesn't mean he didn't get his head beat in with steel chairs, which was terrifying. Nick Gage didn't come out before or after the show, so he wasn't selling T-shirts or anything, but we hung out afterwards, and my buddy Garrett, not me, other Garrett, who is training to be a wrestler right now, he was helping tear down the ring, and Nick Gage walked back into a room, and he insisted that I go talk to him.
00:59:26
Speaker
He actually took me to Nick Gage. How scared were you? I'll be honest, I was pretty scared to talk to Nick. I wasn't afraid that he had heard the things we've said over the years, because I will say I'm a fan now. Over the years? Over the year. We've been around one year. Over all these years, Derek.
00:59:47
Speaker
Just sell for me here. So tell me what it was like to meet the king, Nick Gage. So I went over and I started talking to him, just telling him I was a fan and I let him know the first death match I had ever seen was at that Foreman Mills in Chicago. And he said, oh man, yeah, I was fighting Marcus Crane that night. And then he kind of just looked into the middle distance a little bit and he goes, he threw me off that wall through that door.
01:00:12
Speaker
And I said, yeah, I know that was through my... I said that was literally on my seat. I got your blood all over me. You said that? I said that. And then some guys came up, started talking to him, so I walked away. But then he pushed through those guys, came to me, shook my hand, and thanked me.
01:00:32
Speaker
Did Nick Gage charm you a little bit? He really did. He was a really, really nice guy, which, you know, sometimes you don't want to see Freddy Krueger be nice to people. Like, you want to see him just kill. But it's also pretty awesome to see Freddy Krueger be nice to people, too. It is, yeah. Seeing him be nice, you know, it showed me he was, he is, Nick Gage is a character as well as just a nice man.
01:00:57
Speaker
But Derek, I'm going to bring up something right now because I cannot get resolution on this. And I was debating whether or not I should bring this up on the show. So that's multiple topics that you were debating bringing up on the show. This one, Ali Cat was on the show versus Savannah Stone. Yeah. Very cool. Ali Cat. OK. I think Ali Cat has turned heel.
01:01:22
Speaker
Do I blame MJF? I don't know. I'm just saying, back in September, she was taking pre-orders for a shirt. I PayPaled her $25, and I have never received anything. That was in September. I have tried to send messages. No response. Alleycat? You're a heel now. I booed you. I booed you while you were being cheered.
01:01:46
Speaker
Why didn't you say anything to her while you were there? Because she powdered so fast. I didn't even have an opportunity to find her. She just left. You confronted Nick Gage, but you didn't have it within you to confront Ali Cat. Hey, Nick Gage at least came out eventually. I feel like she just powdered, got the
Wrestling Community & Personal Reflections
01:02:01
Speaker
fuck out of there.
01:02:01
Speaker
She came in during the end, there was a big scramble about, because they announced there's going to be a eight man tag WrestleMania weekend. Southern Underground Pro is part of a show called The Collective, where a bunch of indies around the country get to have a match on the show. So Southern Underground Pro is going to be represented Mania Weekend, which is really cool. Nice, good for them. Yeah, that's huge, that's awesome. Were you able to get a copy of the poster from the show this weekend?
01:02:25
Speaker
No, but they're going to send us the file so we can print it out. Oh, sexy. They were out of them. But she goes in the ring. Kevin Ku ended up giving her a pile driver. I had been booing Kevin Ku. I cheered him then. Alley Cat, what are you doing? You're taking this business back to that carny style where I feel like I've been grifted. I'm sorry that you lost $25, Garrett. Hey, you know, all I was expecting was a t-shirt and
01:02:55
Speaker
Didn't get it. I'm guessing MJF took my money and laughed the whole time. I guess it could still technically happen. It could. It could. We'll see. You don't sound confident. I feel like this is how I felt when Candice made it to NXT. I loved Candice and then I watched her get beat a whole bunch. And go there, love Allie Cat, then she wronged me. And there's one thing I know how to do, it's hold a grudge.
01:03:25
Speaker
And that's gonna be the title of the episode. No hard feelings though, Allie Cat, but seriously, give me that fucking shirt. Well, maybe we'll tag her when we post the episode on social media, and maybe she'll listen, and maybe you'll get your shirt. I'm afraid she's gonna send her boyfriend over to us, who's over, he's best friends with Cody now. Now I'm on Cody's bad side. Well, you know who else was on Cody's bad side? Queen of the Ring.
01:03:51
Speaker
Things worked out pretty good for her. Yeah, you know what? That's true. In pro wrestling, you can end up being friends with people at any time. You never know. You ended up being friends with Nick Gage.
01:04:02
Speaker
Well, he was a very sweet man. You didn't know that. And now you know. Hey, don't judge a book by its cover, guys. Get out there. Talk to somebody who looks scary. See what happens. I love pro wrestling so much. I do too. That's what I've been thinking this whole week. Just me getting excited about a WWE pay-per-view again, between watching WrestleMania 17, between hearing about all your shenanigans at Southern Underground Pro,
01:04:31
Speaker
despite all the bullshit I've been dealing with this week despite the money I lost putting into my car for repairs I love pro wrestling before we get out of here so our buddy John did attend the most recent PWG show I think he sent us a clip so we'll play that right now and I don't know what he said because neither of us have listened to it yet so we're gonna know in post
01:04:55
Speaker
Well, hey there, predetermined
PWG Show Insights & Attendance Issues
01:04:57
Speaker
fans. It is your West Coast correspondent, John Veron, calling in once again from a momentous night at the Pro Graps. That's right, everybody. I have returned moments ago from Pro Wrestling Gorillas' January event.
01:05:15
Speaker
I'm currently sitting on the third floor of a parking garage, about a block and a half from the historic Globe Theater where PWG runs their shows, and I am here to tell you about all the pro wrestling action I saw tonight. Great show. When this comes out on Blu-ray, strongly recommend you pick it up.
01:05:34
Speaker
The first half was a little slower, but overall I thought it was a fantastic show and the highs were so, so high. As is so often the case of PWG, as you guys know. The show was kicked off by Brody King facing off against a debuting Jungle Boy. The match started off a little bit slow. If I'm being honest, I kind of had the feeling the Jungle Boy had a little bit of a case of nerves, but he eventually found his rhythm. They slowed down a little.
01:06:01
Speaker
And they did that whole, you know, jungle boy fighting from underneath thing. But we all kind of knew how this was going to go. I mean, we all know what Brody King looks like. He's a fucking tree. So, yeah, he won with two pile drivers in a row. And that was the opener. Next up, we had DJZ taking on Puma King. Puma King won with a botched backbreaker into some kind of really cool looking hold.
01:06:26
Speaker
The hold was great. The rest of the match, in my opinion, never quite clicked the way I wanted it to. It kind of felt like a little bit of a clash of styles. And the issue here is Puma King is super over, but his moveset is a heel moveset. So DJZ had to work heel against a guy who was working heel. And because of that, the dynamics of it never quite gelled for me. They're both great performers, and I can't wait to see more of them.
01:06:56
Speaker
This, you know, we see Poma King here all the time and I can't wait to see him the next time, but this didn't quite click the way I wanted it to. But that's fine because the next match was LAX versus the Laredo Kid making his PWG debut and Ray Horace. LAX along with their finisher on Laredo Kid, but this match was incredible. The teamwork between these tag teams, the shifting dynamics,
01:07:23
Speaker
The work rate, the innovation, it was awesome. LAX is quickly becoming one of my favorite tag teams. Their combination of high-flying lucha libre with this brawler kind of style is something really innovative and cool. And they managed to make lucha libre look just positively brutal. It's awesome. After intervention, we came back to Robbie Eagles versus Jonathan Gresham.
01:07:48
Speaker
Jonathan Gresham lost Robbie Eagles. Eagles got him in a figure four and he was forced to tap out. But Gresham, guys, is a star. He's like Zack Sabre Jr. with like eight times the personality, and I loved him. It was just fantastic and incredible, the way he taunted, the way he kind of told you what he was going to do and then did it. It was awesome.
01:08:12
Speaker
They did this great misdirect in the storytelling where he was working Robbie Eagle's arm the entire time. And Jonathan Gresham is very much a map wrestler. As I mentioned, he's like, well, exactly for Junior. And so he's working the arm the whole time, and then the match just ends the other way. And it's this awesome misdirect because you think, oh, this is going to end in Jonathan Gresham getting Robbie in some sort of arm hold, and that's going to be the big moment of drama.
01:08:41
Speaker
But instead, Robbie managed to put him away. But it still makes sense that he made that attempt. Just great, great storytelling wrapped up inside of an awesome, awesome match. You guys are going to love this. Next up, we had the Rascals defeating the best friends with their standing shooting star press shove thing onto Trent. This was also awesome. You saw a tease of the dissension in the ranks that we love to see from the best friends.
01:09:09
Speaker
but they got it together and then found themselves fighting from underneath for a long, long time against the Rascals who continue to be the heir apparent, the heir's apparent rather, to the Young Bucks high flying crown as the Young Bucks move on to AEW and bigger and better things. Next up, we had Bandito defeating ACH via his German suplex bouncy apron thing. Look it up on YouTube, you'll see it.
01:09:37
Speaker
Another awesome match. ACH was working heel as hard as he could. And it's not that hard when you're in a PwG ring against Bandito, because I don't think anyone in the company is more over than Bandito right now. He is a fantastic worker. And I think one of the main reasons that I don't love the other luchadores as much as I maybe should, because they're all fantastic, is that they're unfortunately on the same card as Bandito, and Bandito is a once in a lifetime talent.
01:10:03
Speaker
a great high-flying match, interesting heel work from ACH. This was actually the first time I'd ever seen heel ACH. And I built him up in my head as, oh, we're going to see so much high-flying from these two dudes. And we didn't. And the reason we didn't was ACH was working heel. Bandito did plenty of high-flying, but ACH continually denied us that, which I thought was a very cool choice. And that, of course, led up to the main event, Jeff Cobb
01:10:29
Speaker
versus Trevor Lee for the Pro Wrestling Gorilla World Championship. This match did not click with me at first. I thought it was just a bunch of chops and standing there and it was really slow paced and I didn't really quite get it but then the storytelling kinda kicked into gear for me. Basically this was the story of Trevor Lee trying to apply his normal moveset to Jeff Cobb and failing
01:10:57
Speaker
then realizing that he's going to need to do some crazy shit and he does he started going to the top row way more than we ever see Trevor Lee do he was doing power moves trying to just find ways to innovate against Jeff Cobb and when none of that worked he kicked Justin in the chest and Justin went down and then another referee came in and he punched that referee in the dick and that referee went down
01:11:24
Speaker
Justin came back in, we had a couple of reversals. He got hit, Trevor Lee got hit with the tour of the islands and kicked out at one. Unfortunately, immediately after that, he got headbutted and then speared and then toured again, and then that went to one, two, three. What followed was a tear-filled speech by Trevor Lee, sweating so hard that vapor was coming off of his face. It was really magical looking.
01:11:49
Speaker
telling us all about how he debuted at Mystery Vortex 2, which Garrett and I were lucky enough to be at. I didn't realize that was his PWG debut, but we loved him from the moment we saw him, because he's an amazing worker, and that we had cheered him so much that it allowed him to give up his shitty frozen yogurt job, scooping frozen yogurt for shitty little kids, his words, not mine.
01:12:12
Speaker
and come out to LA to PWG, work some more, and eventually work his way into making wrestling a full-time job. So we wish him the best of luck in WWE. In his words, I'll probably get fired in a couple of months and come back and win the championship here. So we can't wait. Overall, a great show. Check it out when you can, and I will see you on the road, Garrett. This was the first PWG show, and I don't know how long that didn't sell out.
01:12:42
Speaker
Really? Yeah. Day of, you could buy a ticket at the door if you wanted. You just got done saying how well wrestling is doing right now and then you end by saying PWG isn't doing well? I'm not saying they're not doing well because it still looked like there were a ton of people there.
01:12:58
Speaker
But I'm starting kind of... John was talking about the differences with the Globe Theatre. We talked about this a while and he said, you know, the regulars from Reseda are still there, but the Globe has kind of gotten its new regulars as well.
01:13:14
Speaker
And it sounds like there's a lot of people just getting wasted and trying to get themselves over by just shouting shit at the wrestlers the entire time. He was saying there was a group of drunk guys up in one of the theater boxes on the side that were just wasted yelling shit. And he said it's kind of damaged the atmosphere a little bit. And when you're setting your ticket price at $80, is the low price to get in for just the general admission?
01:13:41
Speaker
That's pretty fucking expensive. And the same night, PCW Ultra was running their show, and I believe he said tickets were like 20 bucks to get in, and you're still getting guys like Sammy Callahan, Brian Cage, Pentagon, you know, you're getting big names for substantially less. And I know a lot of the regulars, it sounded like, did head that way just because it's a more affordable option and they're still getting some of their guys.
01:14:07
Speaker
Are you proposing the idea that maybe PWG got too big for their own good? I think that was something people were worried about with the change, but I really think that a big part of it is a lot of their guys got taken.
01:14:21
Speaker
You know, they're in a constant state of they can't really rebuild because so many guys are getting recruited that it seems like every week there's a new guy they can't have anymore. Like we saw Ilya Dragunov there. He's not coming back. He's in WWE now. But don't they let the Fox into the hen house to begin with? Yeah. I mean, if William Regal's backstage, but I guess what are you going to tell him? No. Yeah.
01:14:49
Speaker
We're having to charge $80 for general admission, Regal. Get out of here. I mean, I'm not saying he didn't buy a ticket to get in, but I'm saying if I had tried to walk backstage, they probably would have escorted me out. Oh! You know, who else showed up at Southern Underground Pro?
01:15:07
Speaker
Sorry, it just popped into my head. Marco Stunt showed up. Really? He showed up. He got back in the ring. He came in on crutches. He showed everybody his scar. I couldn't see it from where my vantage point was, but my wife was in the front row with our friends Kelly and Garrett. And I saw her reaction to it, so it must have been pretty gross. But he did tell us he was going to be back at Southern Underground Pro.
01:15:30
Speaker
Nice. Well, he is a former champion. I have to imagine AEW is going to be looking at him, right? Surely. Surely. He had such a big gear that I guess you want to wait till he's healed first, but they didn't wait till Janela was healed. Now, isn't the thing with AEW they can work other places while they're working there? Yeah, depending on your contract, because it sounds like they were going to sign Jungle Boy, which have you heard of Jungle Boy yet?
01:16:00
Speaker
Nay. He's been wrestling in GCW and some other indies. He wrestled at the Janela LA Confidential Show. He was a standout. The guy looks great. He's really young. You can tell that he's got a big future ahead. And it sounded like they were trying to get him to sign a longer contract.
Listener Base Growth & Engagement
01:16:17
Speaker
And his dad came in and got, because he's his manager, and got him to sign a shorter contract that allows him to still work indies, is what I heard. His dad, Luke Perry, from Beverly Hills, 90210.
01:16:30
Speaker
I had no clue.
01:16:33
Speaker
Hey Garrett, I meant to bring this up. You said we've got some listeners from Iraq. They're listening again. Yeah, they're back. They downloaded, they're back. Honestly, we're having listeners pop up in a lot more places. We've been getting a lot more listeners in Florida, New York, LA, even more in Tennessee, Illinois, Washington state, like they're popping up all over the place. I think almost every state has been covered at this point, but I'm starting to see a lot more pop up in a few of those.
01:17:01
Speaker
Hey, if you're new, thanks for coming. Thanks for reminding them how they can get in touch with us. Hey, hop on that social media, at Wrestle Hangout on Twitter, at Wrestle Hangout on Facebook, at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram. Hop on iTunes, leave us that five star review. Tell us what you want us to watch. We will watch literally anything you want, as long as it can be loosely tied to pro wrestling. This has been fun. Derek.
01:17:29
Speaker
This has been good. Next week we'll have done this a year. We will. What's the plan for next week? We're going to finally have that devil's threesome. I'll have to get more beer. Two ain't going to cut it. You look over, I'm just huffing paint out of a rag. It's like, ah, I need this. This is going to be for me. Derek.
01:17:57
Speaker
What should we do? Should we get out of here? Yeah, goddamn music. Yeah, let's do it.