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Episode 12: It's Wrestlemania Week Baby And Everyone's Excited Except Randy Orton!
60 Plays8 years ago
It's Wrestlemania week, get excited! In this episode the boys are talking about Garrett attending this weeks Smackdown, who Derrick would rather go on a road trip with Randy Orton or Bret Hart and everything going on in New Orleans this weekend!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Promotion
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Predetermined, a Pro Wrestling Hangout. I'm your host, Garret Callender, and with me, as always, a man who you should not ask about the movie Goonies, because he doesn't want to talk about the movie Goonies, he hasn't seen the movie Goonies, leave him alone about Goonies, Derek Halpin. I have not seen the Goonies, man. And I think, I feel like immediately people are gonna be thinking, what a fucking heel hasn't seen Goonies, but I feel like when they hear why you haven't seen Goonies, they're gonna think I'm a heel.
00:00:27
Speaker
Okay, so quick story. We made a pact because neither of us at one time had seen the Goonies and we made a pact that we weren't going to see it. And then within a day or two, you turned your back on me and you went and saw the Goonies with your girlfriend, like immediately. I will go ahead and let you know it was less than 24 hours after that pact had been made.
00:00:49
Speaker
And how did you feel about it after you realized that you had betrayed me? And how was the movie? Did it disappoint? I've seen that movie a lot of times since and actually kind of like Goonies a lot. Now you also understand that I betrayed your trust. Immediately. Just immediately, like no loyalty.
00:01:07
Speaker
You know, you grow up a chubby kid, you get a girlfriend in high school that's more attractive than you are, and you just do whatever she says. So, yeah, I'm the guy that still hasn't seen the Goonies.
Social Media and WrestleMania Excitement
00:01:20
Speaker
So, hate me, love me for it. Hey, we're probably talking about WrestleMania today. Hit our goddamn music.
00:02:06
Speaker
All right, everybody. Welcome back. Happy Thursday. Thank you for listening. Those of you that are listening, please do us a favor, rate, review and subscribe. That helps other people find this podcast. A lot of people have found it so far. Thank you to everybody who's listening. Thanks to everybody who's spreading it to their friends. I love you to death for that.
00:02:25
Speaker
Yeah, you're doing us a big favor if you can give us the rating, the review, and the subscribe. Helps us get a little bit more recognition, helps get the word out there, and thank you for interacting with us on our social media, too, at WrestleHangout on Twitter, at WrestleHangout on Facebook. We throw out polls up there, pictures from when we attend live events, so lots of good stuff going on there, and we love hearing from you guys, so keep it up. And yeah, at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram, I'll be posting stuff all Mania weekend. I'm actually heading out
00:02:54
Speaker
As you're listening to this on Thursday, I am either on the road to WrestleMania, the actual road to it this time, not the figurative road to WrestleMania. It's WrestleMania! WrestleMania! WrestleMania! This WrestleMania season is just fucking WrestleChristmas. It is. It is so good. It's one of the situations where I wish I could do a really good Vince McMahon impression just so I could do his
00:03:22
Speaker
Welcome to WrestleMania! Thing. I could just do that all week building up to it. Yeah, like, you know, I went to work today. I didn't get shit accomplished because I spent the whole day thinking about WrestleMania. I'm like, hey, it's the day before vacation for me. You shouldn't expect much out of me. Stop yelling. You wouldn't bust Jenny's balls about Easter. This is my holiday. This is my Easter.
00:03:46
Speaker
You know me, I sit there and in my head I just fantasy book scenarios and how things are going to play
WrestleMania Expectations and Challenges
00:03:51
Speaker
out. I'm looking forward to this show so fucking much. And it's easy every year to get caught up in whatever card they give you and be excited because like you said, it's Wrestling Christmas. But you know, I feel pretty pretty confident that this is such a solid card that we're going to be we're going to be pretty impressed with what we get. I think this is the first mania since probably 30 that we're just like, this is a good one.
00:04:15
Speaker
yeah and yeah it's gonna be long as shit because they've at one point I mean how long was the first WrestleMania do we have a runtime on that I have no idea we'll have to look that up but I have to imagine it wasn't seven and a half fucking hours
00:04:31
Speaker
Well, and here's the thing. I had this conversation with some people the other day. I feel bad for people like you in the sense that like you have every reason to be there for every single minute of that. It doesn't bother me so much as a wrestling fan from the comfort of my own home watching it because I can get up. I can leave. I can get a snack. I can stretch. I can take a break. I don't have to worry about bathroom lines or
00:04:54
Speaker
But man, it's because, like I said, I've made this comparison before. You know, there's football fans during the football season that every Sunday sit on the sofa and watch football for just as long as this WrestleMania is going to be. So to me, I think people are they can do it. I think a lot of people are turned off by it if they're going to be at the event. And that's totally justifiable because holy shit, that's a long show.
Randy Orton's Persona and Anecdotes
00:05:18
Speaker
But for a long show, this is a stacked fucking card. So have at it.
00:05:24
Speaker
Well, I guess before we like go down the card, I went to the go home to Smackdown last night. It was here in Nashville. Yep. So I did attend that and I'll tell it. Let's talk a little bit about about that show. You went to the last show before mania. Did you have you had a good time? Obviously I had a good time. I was happy that you OK. So I was sitting like in the first level of the arena seating. So not the floor, but the first level of the arena facing the lower bowl.
00:05:52
Speaker
lower bowl. And I told Derek you'll probably be able to see me on TV and at a certain point I get, hey, good job giving Randy Orton that thumbs down. And you looked so dis- you were like shaking your head and giving him a thumbs down. It was very animated. Good on you. Well, you know what? I'm not gonna bury the lead on this. I'm just gonna go straight to the dark match that happened at the end of this show before anything else. Like this, to me, this was the show.
00:06:17
Speaker
Like, the SmackDown was fine. 205 Live, I'll get into that in a second. But they said, wait, because there's gonna be the main event at the end. The main event is Baron Corbin and Rusev Day, which, are we just gonna refer to them as Rusev Day? That's the team name? Yeah, that's the faction name, right? In English and Rusev. Versus the Usos and Randy Orton.
00:06:41
Speaker
Okay. And already, when I hear Randy Orton's gonna be in a dark match that's taking place at the end of a long show, I'm just like, oh, Randy doesn't wanna do that, man. Hey, I saw him in my dark match in December. And he didn't wanna do that one either. Yeah, but he had fun. He threw Sami Zayn into a Christmas tree.
00:07:00
Speaker
That wasn't even part of the show. That was just him on his own. What did you get? What did you get for your dark match? Okay, so it was those two teams against each other. Randy's music hit and that guy saunters out of there, just real casual. And he had a smirk on his face that says, I'm a little drunk.
00:07:20
Speaker
I can't confirm that because I wasn't close enough to him to smell him. But as he's walking down the ramp, he's holding the U.S. title out to the side. And I can read his lips from where I was sitting. And he was just saying, touch it, touch it. And as he was walking, I could see that the people were touching the belt. And he just touch it, touch it. So he gets up to the ring.
00:07:47
Speaker
And I shit you not, he pauses for a second and just lobs the US title over the top rope into the center of the ring like it's the sack of trash. Stone Cold Steve Austin style? Oh, just throws that shit in there. Doesn't give a fuck. Austin used to do that with the WWF title. I immediately, there's a difference though. That was part of Stone Cold's character. This isn't part of Randy Orton's personality. For him, it's just extra shit he has to put in his luggage.
00:08:17
Speaker
He's like, this belt doesn't matter to me. I have to put it in my backpack. This is a carry on. This is my carry on. I don't give a shit. An extra weight. He just lobbed that goddamn thing into the ring. I immediately started laughing and I laughed a good part of that match just because I couldn't, like tears were coming out of my eyes thinking about Randy Orton and just lobbing that belt. And then he walks over to the stairs and just slowly goes up, gets in the ring and picks up his shit belt that he does not care about.
00:08:47
Speaker
Here's my question, do you think he cares about the WWE championship any differently? No. Well I think he understands there's a difference, but I don't think he cares. In that case just keep belts away from him then.
00:09:03
Speaker
But I feel like Randy is one of those guys where he's like, man, I've got a fucking belt. I've got to deal with carrying it around. But then I feel like when he doesn't have it, he's like, this is bullshit that I don't have one. I'm like, well, Randy, what do you want? And he's like, I don't think you understand. I don't want to work here. He's like a pet. He's it's like he wants a toy that you have. But then when he has it, he doesn't know what to he doesn't know what to do with it.
00:09:28
Speaker
You try and hand Randy, he's like my cat. You try and hand him the belt, but then he turns around and shows you his butthole and walks away. But then when he has it, not interested. And you have it. He'll take a shit in your bag. Yeah. Whose bag was it that you took a shit in? It was the Divas. I think it was the Divas. You shit in ladies' bags? Yeah, that's weird. Like handbags?
00:09:53
Speaker
I don't know, I've heard he's done it multiple times. He just, I mean, what are, okay, you are forced to spend a day, a whole day with Randy Orton, like there's, you have no choice, this is what you have to do. I'm not worried. I have stuff to talk about him. Yeah, but for how long? I could probably, I don't know, I could do a day. What are you gonna do? What's your ideal mandate with Randy Orton?
00:10:19
Speaker
Probably go around St. Louis, maybe go to a baseball game, maybe go drink, because I'm pretty sure he would enjoy that. I feel like for the meeting, you should show up at his house with a six-pack. I feel like that's really going to set the... I feel like you might even get a little smile out of him. I feel like I've brought this up on the podcast before, but if I haven't, I apologize. I actually went to college with Randy Orton's brother, Nathan. Oh my God, you haven't talked about this.
00:10:46
Speaker
No, Nathan Orton lived across the hall from me in Cougar Village and Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Same apartment complex, literally just like within 15 feet is where he slept.
00:11:04
Speaker
from door to door. So Nathan was actually really, really cool. He had a very athletic build. He looked exactly like Randy. And the rumor on campus at the time was with Nathan that don't bring up his brother. Don't bring up wrestling to him. Don't bring up his brother. He doesn't want to hear it. And I was like, I get it. Understood. So I never did it. But he would come over to our apartment a couple of times.
00:11:31
Speaker
And one time I had my World Heavyweight Championship replica sitting out on our television, and he came over and was hanging out for a long time playing my roommate's guitar, strumming
Wrestling Evolution and Critiques
00:11:42
Speaker
it a little bit, we're watching TV, and then he had to know where it goes. Whose belt is that?
00:11:47
Speaker
and just silence fills the apartment everyone is everyone is too afraid and I'm sitting there like fuck like do I really want to have the yeah I'm a giant pro wrestling fan and I know who your brother is and I bet you have his cell phone number can I have it I didn't want to have that conversation
00:12:05
Speaker
So we didn't answer. But no, he gave my mom a hug when I moved out. Nathan Orton was a guy. He does stand up comedy now, by the way. I was gonna say, I see his name on a lot of posters for St. Louis comedy shows now. He did MMA for a little while. In fact, I got to watch him spar with a kid that I think he lived with, and he beat the holy piss out of him just sparring. This kid had no chance. What do you think it's like growing up with Randy Orton as your older brother?
00:12:34
Speaker
It's probably terrifying. I bet it sucks. I bet he like relentlessly fucks with you. Right. And that means there's a good chance that Cowboy Bob helped move Nathan in, which blew my mind. Like I thought about that. Every time I think about Nathan Orton, I think about the fact that Cowboy Bob was probably in my vicinity and I didn't even know it.
00:12:55
Speaker
There is probably just a time period where wrestlers that are now his like, you know, quote, unquote, uncle, like uncle, Uncle Doink showing up. And he was like, there's a fucking clown outside. Uncle Orndorf. No. So I mean, if as far as spending a day with Randall, I think I would actually do well because.
00:13:16
Speaker
I get it. I used to own several of your shirts, sir. You've probably gotten a whopping $5 worth of merch sales from me. Have another drink and let's talk about why you're not excited to be United States champion. Final question. What do you think the last book Randy Orton read was?
00:13:40
Speaker
That's tough. I think Randy Orton comes across as very quietly political. Which direction, though, do you think Randy Orton's going? Do you think he's just like, hey, I know they say they're not going to take all of our guns, but I just have a feeling that they're lying.
00:13:57
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think that's totally the direction. I think that's exactly who he is. You'll see him subtly make comments about certain things on social media sometimes. Or he's just like, hey, I don't give a shit what people say. I think the new Roseanne's funny. Oh, St. Louis' own, man. So no, tying back to what you were talking about.
00:14:23
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think Randy Orton really gives a shit that he used the United States champion, but I also don't think he just gives a shit, period. Yeah, no, this match, he still did, after the match was over, go around and high five the whole front row kind of thing, slowly went around and did that. Rusev super over during that match, and he was acting silly as hell. He was just dancing on the apron, and the whole crowd wanted him in there so bad, so obviously they weren't tagging Rusev in.
00:14:52
Speaker
So do you have any other, because I'm sure most people listening to this podcast kind of know what happened on SmackDown, you know, the show you went to. But do you have any other notes from the show? I was a little surprised by this because, you know, the last show before Mania, I think that it actually feels bigger than it is, because really what those shows are is let's give them some pretty easy matches so nobody gets hurt before Sunday. I think that's top priority.
00:15:17
Speaker
Yeah, give them some easy work and also let's get some more footage just for the promo or the promo videos that they'll play before each match. Yeah. Some more pointing at the WrestleMania sign. Exactly. But you would think like because WrestleMania is on everybody's mind, you're seeing it like people in the news talking about it a little more like, you know, ESPN Sports Illustrated, places are kind of talking about it. It's around. People have it in their heads. Tickets to the show were not very expensive. I know night of you could still get a $15 ticket.
00:15:47
Speaker
and walk in the door. And so they, I was surprised. They didn't sell the upper bowl. They only sold the floor hundred level and then the club level. Hmm. I didn't really notice. It looked pretty, it looked like it was well attended. Yeah. They had the blackout curtains and I will give Nashville credit for this. I think Nashville is a good wrestling town. Um, I've been to several shows in Nashville now, like ring of honor, uh, you know, the, the very endy show. So they're under the grand pro. Love you guys coming back to that.
00:16:16
Speaker
Speaking of, the guy who was in the dog collar match handed
Cody Rhodes's Career and Industry Impact
00:16:20
Speaker
me a flyer on the way in. And he's like, hey, you should come to this wrestling show. And I was like, I will. I'm coming. And I feel like he wasn't expecting that response. He's like, cool. The certainty caught him off guard. I do want to know what happened. Like, just to say that the show is very indie, let me tell you, the flyers they passed out were maybe two inches by two inches.
00:16:44
Speaker
It looks like they probably had ordered bigger flyers and it like fucked up and they came little, so they had to cut them into these. Smaller than a business card. Like this was, I might be exaggerating and there's no way I'm not, but in my head it was the size of a domino.
00:17:03
Speaker
I think you're exaggerating. In my head there's no way this little flyer could be any smaller. And he hands it to me, and the name of this event is actually named after Hatebreed's second album. So you know it's gonna be good.
00:17:20
Speaker
If somebody handed me an advertisement for an event that was the size of a domino, I would also assume that it's a ticket to the fucking show. Because I feel like there's no way you're fitting any text on this. There has to be a certain point, though, that when you get those flyers back and you're just like...
00:17:37
Speaker
Fuck, well, I gotta pass these
Live Wrestling Event Experiences
00:17:40
Speaker
out. And somebody inside asked me, I was telling them about that show, actually, and they said, oh, I didn't get a flyer, and I said, here. And I think they thought I was joking when I handed them over. Like, where did you get this? This is adorable.
00:17:56
Speaker
You also got to see your boy the Miz team with Asuka and win mixed match challenge, right? You knew you were excited you were gonna get to see him at a SmackDown show. I wasn't, man, sorry, I'm gonna get a loss for words right now because during that match I may have popped the hardest I have ever popped at a WWE event.
00:18:16
Speaker
Tell me why. When Charlotte Flair put the Miz in the figure four, I was standing, I was pounding on where the glass would be at the hockey arena. I was all in on that. And just getting to see, I know that they're only allowing the ladies to hit the guys in that, which is fine. But it's a step. It's a step towards intergender wrestling. I was going to ask, do you feel like this is them testing the waters for doing more of that in the future?
00:18:44
Speaker
I can't tell. I could never see them doing that on network television, but maybe somewhere else. I don't know. It seems like the NXT would be a better place for it, but I also just, I don't know. I can't ever see that happening just because they're a publicly traded company and that looks bad.
00:19:05
Speaker
Right, I don't know. But yeah, it was a big spot and the crowd popped for it huge. Oh, Miz was getting cheered big there. The crowd was cheering for everything. I mean, Rusev, obviously he lives in Nashville so he's getting bigger pops than normal, I would say. Everyone around was going nuts for Rusev.
00:19:25
Speaker
Miz got a big pop, Daniel Bryant, everybody. Nashville is a pretty good wrestling city. I think that people don't really think of this as a wrestling town, but when it's attended, people are going nuts. Yeah, it sounds like you got a pretty good show. I think SmackDown had the better go-home show. I mean, not by a ton, but I still think SmackDown had a better go-home show than Raw. I agree with that. Oh, I do have to tell you this. This kid next to me was probably around eight years old.
00:19:55
Speaker
And at a certain point, he looked at me and said, Bat and Corbin is very dominant. Like, give me an expert analysis. And I was like, yeah, Bat and Corbin is very dominant. Like, he said it with so much, he just believed in himself so much, so much confidence. I've never said anything with as much confidence as this kid told me that Bat and Corbin was very dominant. Is that the brother of Baron Corbin?
00:20:22
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, I wasn't gonna argue with him. I felt like Dave Meltzer was telling me something. Brain Strowman? Brain Strowman. Bat and Corbin? Bat and Corbin, his tummy has a happy face on it instead of the sad tummy.
00:20:42
Speaker
What else? 205 Live, they really need to fix something with, they need to cut that from being live and put that at the beginning of the show instead of the dark matches. Just because there are good matches happening there and nobody's watching. That thing cleared out. Well that's, we've talked about this before and this has kind of always been my issue with 205 Live. It's not because there's not talent there and it's not because they can't write a good show there. That's the pre-show.
00:21:08
Speaker
And cruiserweights are typically a good warm-up for any show, so it makes sense for them to have that whatever slot they need to have, whether it's 6-7 or 7-8. I just think, like people have pointed out, ever since Triple H has been in charge of 205 Live, it's made huge strides in becoming a better show.
00:21:28
Speaker
But I still think that once you come down from the peak of SmackDown, just like any pay-per-view, once you have that big match, it's kind of hard to get the crowd back into it when you start a whole new show. Oh, especially I guess in your situation, that's after Mixed Match Challenge. Oh yeah, it was a long show. I mean, I didn't get out of there. I got there at like 6.30. Show started at 6.45 with a dark match. Thing didn't get over until, I want to say I left at like 10.30.
00:21:54
Speaker
So you got your money's worth. Oh, yeah. I mean, you're there a while. And the thing that bums me out that everyone left is because we did see a couple cruiserweight matches that were OK. But then the main event of the crew, because it was supposed to be Drew Gulag versus Mark Andrews. But I think Andrews is hurt. So they brought in Buddy Murphy versus Kalisto. And at this point, I'm just like, I'm ready to go home. Like, I didn't want to watch this.
00:22:21
Speaker
They feel bad. They put on a WrestleMania worthy match.
00:22:27
Speaker
Like, I've never thought anything of Buddy Murphy, but this guy had to lose weight to get on 205 Live. He looks jacked as hell and just put on a fantastic fucking match with Kalisto. And just the crowd wasn't buying into it? The crowd was dead at this point, but they are there for a long time. But I feel like with that match, they picked up a little bit, but also they're in a half, I mean, not even half empty arena. They're in, you know, a quarter full arena at this point.
00:22:56
Speaker
and did an amazing match to no one. And that's kind of a bummer, more people should, I'm telling everybody to tune in to 205 Live, give it a, you know, you don't have to watch it when it's live, tune in later, you got some free time at night before bed, watch the main event, there's good stuff happening there. But also, I understand why you'd leave, because I wanted to stick around to see this main event, to see what Randy Orton looked like wrestling in an empty arena, because I knew it wasn't gonna be good, and I got exactly what I wanted out of it.
00:23:25
Speaker
Well, when I went to SmackDown back in December, it was the same thing where, like, the show, SmackDown was great. By the time 205 Live rolled around, the crowd was dead. They were done. And the only reason, like, I stuck around, like, a lot of people stuck around was for the dark match. So... Oh, something that will interest you because you're a Rusev Day fan. There was a huge, like, super kick spot at the end of the dark match where the Usos threw, I would guess, about 15 super kicks.
00:23:52
Speaker
And everybody was just super kicking everybody. Aidan English did super kick Rusev. On accident?
00:24:00
Speaker
No, Rusev was telling the Usos to superkick Aiden English and it made Aiden English mad so he superkicked Rusev. Oh, come on. But then, you know, I think it's that that rule of
Speculations on Wrestling Future and Storylines
00:24:11
Speaker
if it didn't happen on TV, then it didn't happen at all. It was like you get this alternate comic book universe kind of thing going on. Right. Kind of like mix match challenge. Like I think they're going to pretend like we've never seen Asuka and Charlotte touch each other. I don't know. They may use some of that for like, like I said, the promo packages and stuff, but
00:24:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I will. As far as mixed match challenge goes, if we want to kind of wrap up the Smackdown discussion, I I'm going to point out what a lot of people have been pointed out online, which is that they kind of booked themselves into a corner because you knew they weren't going to sacrifice Oscar's streak. Built going into mania over this mixed match challenge tournament, so they're just like, hey, she may have lost the streak, but these doggies now have money.
00:24:57
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's not happening. But I guess you and I were talking about the Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss wrestling for Connor's Cure, and was kind of expecting them to be towards the final two, so. Hey, we were wrong. Maybe what happens on TV is predetermined. What happens on Facebook Live is fucking real, my man. That's real shit. Tune in next year, same time. No closed fists there. They're just wrestling. They're throwing.
00:25:23
Speaker
hopefully no winning streaks. So we've got some bullet club stuff to discuss so why don't we dip into that because we've got a lot we've got a big long WrestleMania card to discuss and fuck man you've got a you've got a busy few days ahead of you so. Just so you guys know I have a shit ton to do before I head to mania I'm leaving around seven eight o'clock in the morning on Thursday to head there so that means we're recording this on Wednesday I'm getting it edited put it out and do all my mania prep.
00:25:53
Speaker
Yeah. So what do we got? What's going on with the Bullet Club this week? What's new in Bullet Club news? I'm sure you saw that, what is his name? Glenn Gilberty, also known as the Disco Inferno, from the WCW Hey Days. When you said that, I was like, I have no idea what we're getting ready to talk about.
00:26:14
Speaker
He should have really done the warrior thing and just changed his name to Disco Inferno because the other name isn't going to catch. First name, Disco, last name, Inferno. Middle name's sad. He had made a social media comment, directed it at Cody Rhodes getting his eyes split open. In a match with who do you fight? They fight Golden Lovers? I think so.
00:26:41
Speaker
or did they fight the other I can't remember there's so much wrestling there's a lot of stuff a lot of wrestling this week anyways Cody gets his eyes split open and coat or disco and photo makes the comment that's how that's why these guys don't know how to work these days that's why they're getting hurt so much
00:26:58
Speaker
and Cody fired back telling him that Disco was lucky to be wrestling in an era where he was friends with people that mattered and basically just roasted Disco Inferno and told him that he draws more than he'll ever will and makes more money and that's why nobody thinks about him. Nobody's ever left a show thinking about Disco Inferno.
00:27:20
Speaker
I've left a show thinking about Alex Wright, but I've never left a show thinking about disco inferno. I've never, here's the thing, I probably would because I was actually a little bit of a mark for the disco inferno back in the day. So did this hurt your feelings? No, not at all. You switched to Tim Kenny? No.
00:27:37
Speaker
No, I'm of the mindset. I think I had a brief exchange with you about this. There's always these generations of wrestlers fighting with the new generation, telling them that the way that they do things isn't proper. They're not doing it the right way. And it just comes across as kind of like the curmudgeony, jealous old guy.
00:27:59
Speaker
Um, and it doesn't help when it's coming from a guy who at his, at his highest peak, he was playing a, um, a manager, a second fiddle lackey to Scott Hall. Um, that was, that was the peak when he was in the, when he was in the Wolfpack, Disco Inferno was in the Wolfpack. Don't even remember that.
00:28:19
Speaker
Yeah, Disco Inferno was made as kind of like the joke member of the Wolfpack. So what you're saying is there's a certain point in every wrestler's career where they hit an age that they basically just become Jim Cornette. Basically. So basically, maybe it was just Disco Inferno's birthday. I don't know. He blew out his candles and then just like, Chuck Taylor's ruining this fucking business.
00:28:46
Speaker
Cody Rhodes and this fucking bullshit bleaching his hair. I'm excited for when it happens to Cody. Cody's like, I'm always gonna be cool. Then he hits the same age that Disco Inferno is now and he's like, Chuck Taylor was ruining the fucking business. Cody Rhodes will be ripping on Kevin Owens' son one day. Change your fucking name off of Owen. It's disrespectful. You're just using your daddy's name. No, he was using mine, man.
00:29:15
Speaker
I got my name from Owen Hart. R.I.P. Yeah. So yeah, Cody basically destroyed Disco Inferno on social media. It kind of blew up. Everyone was picking their science balls off. Like he, like Disco Inferno should have just shut the hell up and deleted his Twitter account and just, you know, go see a movie. Try and forget about what just happened. He sort of just said nothing because
00:29:42
Speaker
Suggesting that these guys who are going out and doing this and then when this is like the boom period for indie wrestling They're making money and just shut the fuck up like I mean, I'm not a worker Obviously, so maybe I'm not in the right place to be telling somebody who actually has worked Regardless of what level they've gotten to to shut the fuck up but like
00:30:02
Speaker
wrong guy to criticize so when you're a kid and you're watching the attitude era and you start to see footage of older wrestling like even if it's just 80s wrestling part of you thinks
00:30:14
Speaker
This isn't as much fun as what I'm watching now. If you grew up in the 80s and you're watching the shit from the 70s, you're thinking the same thing and, you know, back forever. But at this point, wrestling has gotten so athletic and high energy and innovative with what they're doing that I can see where these wrestlers are like, this isn't even what I was doing. This is a different thing altogether. Exactly.
00:30:36
Speaker
Fucking exactly. This is a different thing. But that's always been the case and you have to factor that in. You're watching a wave in the last couple years of people now who go back and they look at stuff from the attitude area and they have justifiable things to criticize. Some of those matches last 45 seconds.
00:30:53
Speaker
Like Monday Night Raw matches will be a vertical suplex, a couple punches, and a finisher, and matches over. And so a lot of the matches during that era sucked. But it doesn't change the fact that in every era, they have their thing that worked. Hulk Hogan worked in the 80s.
00:31:13
Speaker
It may look, you may look back on it now and think it's boring, but every era has their thing that works and you just kind of have to change with the times. And I think it's stupid to sit there and think that fucking disco Inferno knows better than a guy who's working in the current wrestling climate about what the audience wants to see. Cause really that's all that matters. Somewhere, Randy Orton sitting there with a lot of opinions. Oh, guaranteed. See now I've pissed him off now. He's like, I wish I could tell Derek everything I feel right now.
00:31:41
Speaker
Yeah, and I think Orton actually has, like, doesn't he have a lot of resentment towards some of the indie guys coming in? He has to. Because, I mean, I've heard of taking his spot a little bit. Yeah, but this goes back to what we were saying before. He doesn't even seem like he wants his fucking spot. Like, he doesn't want it, but he's gonna be mad if it gets taken away. Correct. God, what a whiny bitch. Don't say that. Don't hurt me, Randy. You know his brother. He's basically family.
00:32:12
Speaker
I'm sorry, Randy, I don't think that... Though, it seems like he's a cool stepdad. Oh yeah!
00:32:19
Speaker
He's going to be the one that, like, if Randy wortons your brother, he's going to be the guy that buys your kid beer for the first time. Oh, he doesn't go to beer first. His first thing is, here, son, take a drag off my vape pen. Don't tell your mom. When Randy comes, he's coming for you. So he's not coming for me. That if Twitter had existed long ago, that there was a period where Vern Ganya was shit talking Rick Flair for being too flashy. Absolutely.
00:32:47
Speaker
Fuckin' Bret Hart shit talks Rick Flair. Actually, I think Bret Hart shit talks the guys from the 50s for being too flashy. Yeah, Bret Hart shit talks to everybody. Everybody wrestles incorrectly according to Bret Hart. He comes across as very bitter. Okay, what would you do with him for a day? Bret? Think if you have to drive from Los Angeles to New York City in a car with Bret Hart.
00:33:09
Speaker
That could go one of two ways. It could either be really surprising how well we get along, or it's gonna be fucking awkward, because I'm just basically gonna be like, Brett, what did you think was gonna happen when you refused to give him your belt back? Where'd all that spit come from? Like, how did you just, how did you just, you know, conjure that? Like, how did that just come to be just so perfect? What was it like to punch Vince McMahon in the face?
00:33:31
Speaker
That would be a good conversation. I feel like if we had a camera of you in the car with him, the first hour is gonna be pretty quiet. Like, just silent. And then I feel like if we cut to the second hour, you're both laughing so hard that you're in tears.
00:33:46
Speaker
We both, I don't know. I would rather do the day with Randy Orton to be honest with you. Oh, me too. Like that, riding in a car with Bret Hart, I mean, legend or not, I don't want to ride in a car with somebody who seems that grumpy. Like I feel like I'm going to try and change the radio and he's just going to give me a look like, I'm going to write on Twitter about you if you change that. I don't like the fucking Eagles, man.
00:34:17
Speaker
Hey, just speaking of, I mentioned Rick Flair a minute ago, and I was talking to somebody who worked at my dad's office,
00:34:24
Speaker
She said that Rick Flair wrestled in Pittsfield, Illinois, our hometown. That's been a rumor I've heard for years, and I can't get any verification of it, but I keep hearing it. She said she was there. Where's the pictures? Why is that not a thing hanging up on a wall in our high school? She said if I go to the Pittsfield, the Pike Press, that if I go look through those microfiche, like I'm trying to solve an old murder, that I can probably find it. Trying to research the origins of the Joker.
00:34:52
Speaker
Yeah, like I'm like, ah, here he is. He has no name. But yeah, no, she said I would probably find a picture of Rick Flair. She said it was around 1983 or 84, and it was in the Pittsfield High School gym. Okay. Well, how about the next time we're home together? Let's do this.
00:35:08
Speaker
Oh, I want to go look through those. I want to look, you know, twist that knob and watch the film go up the thing. At the very least, what we can do, we need to get that prepped because that that's actually a big enough story that could reemerge in our local newspaper back home.
00:35:24
Speaker
If we can unearth footage that, you know, fucking two time Hall of Fame, 16 time world champion Rick Flair wrestled at the Pittsfield High School. The same place where, you know, my chubby ass had to jog around the outside of the gym during PE.
00:35:42
Speaker
Yeah. Flair had to do the same thing. You know how many times I didn't take a shower after doing that and went straight back to class because I didn't want the football team to see my penis. Flair did the same thing. Flair did the same. He didn't shower in there either. Yeah. No. Next time. Next time we're back home this is something we got to look into that make a good podcast episode too. Oh yeah. Well let's do that. Hey man guess what. What.
00:36:06
Speaker
You have another Bullet Club story for me? Oh shit, yeah. We were talking about Cody Rhodes. I saw a really nice story. I don't know what publication it was. I saw ESPN and Sports Illustrated both posted on Twitter or Facebook. It was an interview with Paul Heyman when he was talking about Cody Rhodes.
00:36:23
Speaker
And he was talking about how Cody Rhodes is at an amazing place in his career right now and how similar it is to where Stone Cold was in his career after he left WCW. And he was kind of comparing the two. And I thought that was maybe the highest praise Cody Rhodes could possibly get.
00:36:42
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't see that. I saw Heyman giving praise to the Usos for being like maybe the best tag team of their era, but I didn't see anything about Cody Rhodes. That is really high praise. Is that kind of a sentiment that you agree with or? I'm agreeing with it more. I mean, I think if you asked me eight months ago, if you're a new listener, at the end of the show, we do a segment called Say Something Nice. We complain about wrestling sometimes, so we gotta say something nice about somebody we would normally not say something so nice about.
00:37:08
Speaker
If you asked me several months ago, I probably would have used Cody Rhodes at some point. I never outwardly disliked him, but he didn't, he was missing something for me. And I think it was being the elite, honestly, like seeing how funny he is, and seeing his story progress on this web series. Just, he is super over with me right now. And it actually, this is the first time that I had to question whether or not I was Team Kenny or Team Cody.
00:37:36
Speaker
I don't know. It's like he left WWE and having that experience, he was able to go figure out his character and who he wanted to be without restrictions. And good on him. No, I agree. It's hard because
00:37:51
Speaker
I don't know, I like a good heel character that cuts some damn good promos and says some things that are true that rub people the wrong way. And I loved his promo that he cut the other day where he said something about, what do you say about Kenny Omega? He said he's like that band that everyone pretends that they like but can't name any of their hits. Oh, I thought that was so good. I thought that was so good.
00:38:12
Speaker
like everyone like like everyone did that like oh shit, but then like like this is the thing there's some truth to that statement with Kenny and he's known for putting on ridiculously good matches but outside of the Jericho match and his stuff with a bushy and
00:38:29
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's, uh, I feel like because everybody's seen the Kenny Omega shirt so much, and they're a really cool shirt, so a lot of people are buying them. And I think a lot of people, you know, there's a lot of wrestling fans that we were talking about it earlier. Uh, New Japan seems hard to get into for a lot of people. And I think that it's some people, it's easier to pretend that Kenny Omega is awesome, even though he is awesome. So it's easy to just be like, yeah, Kenny Omega, love him.
00:38:55
Speaker
yeah i think there's a lot of that going on i think it's anytime something gets some traction some popularity and it's not like a knock on kenny because i think when you do watch his stuff he's obviously one of the best in the world he's fucking amazing but there is a there is a hype machine going on right now with the bolt club and kenny omega because of his stuff he did with jericho recently and
00:39:13
Speaker
No, great promo. I think Edge has said this a couple times when he's been talking about heels. He's always said a good heel knows how to say something that's a little bit true and the audience hates him for saying it. And, man, Cody's really got it figured out. I'm really looking forward to kind of what they end up doing at Supercard.
00:39:38
Speaker
Oh yeah, that match could, I mean, I would, any Kenny Omega match has the potential to be, you know, a match of the weekend. Yeah. And Cody is getting better with his in-ring work. I mean, being in Japan, he's had to work his ass off and fight a lot of guys who, you know, I think are more skilled than him. And I think that's starting to rub off on him in a good way.
00:40:01
Speaker
He's been cutting his teeth for a while, but like he said, and he seems really comfortable with what he does between New Japan and all the stuff he's been doing in the States that's not very indie, but indie stuff. My favorite is just watching him shit all over Flip Gordon all the time, because Flip Gordon seems like such a nice guy. Like on April Fool's, he showed a text exchange that just said, hey, Flip, you're booked for all in. And he's like, really? And he's like, April Fool's.
00:40:32
Speaker
Fuck you or whatever he said to him. And then he put up a poll on Twitter. Who would you rather be at all in? My dog Pharaoh or Flip Gordon? I'm assuming the dog one. Pharaoh's going to be at all in.
00:40:48
Speaker
Oh, man. This is also with him trying to break up the Bullet Club. That could lead to where that kind of could give us a hint of what the, you know, the main event of all in would be something about, you know, them all versus Cody or maybe Cody gets his own team. Like, you know, maybe this is where we're splitting it off into, you know, bull or maybe it's all of them versus each other. Maybe they all face each other. Maybe that's the thing we don't see.
00:41:14
Speaker
that they actually do break up and then it's just like a five way of everybody who started this event and like Demol trying to take credit for it. Yeah. That would be a lot of fun.
00:41:26
Speaker
Oh man, we can fantasy book this all-in show all day long. And I see that the Sears Center is actually, they have the digital marquee. Yeah, they're running ads on it now. Yeah, I need, so Sears knows something, I don't. We need to get down to the Sears Center. Yeah, I'm relatively closer than you. Hey man, I'll make that trip.
00:41:50
Speaker
Oh, did you hear about, we hadn't talked about this yet. The Louisiana Boxing and Wrestling Commission put a bunch of restrictions on the wrestling this weekend.
00:42:02
Speaker
Yeah,
WrestleMania Weekend Indie Wrestling Issues
00:42:03
Speaker
it's some bullshit. They've got a bunch of different moves that they've banned and things that they've banned from happening to kind of limit what guys can do with these indie shows because they're trying to, I don't know. I think I'm sure WWE is in cahoots trying to get these other promotions and stuff from, from kind of, uh, I don't know. Poaching is the right word or what, but cashing in on the WrestleMania weekend hype. They're trying to cut down on some of that. And I think it's bullshit.
00:42:28
Speaker
Well, I could see it easily pissing WWE off because did you know none of WWE shows are sold out yet? I didn't know that. You can get a ticket to any WWE event right now. And I could see that pissing them off. But the the boxing and wrestling commission has deemed that WWE and Ring of Honor are both considered major league wrestling. Right. So they both have no restrictions.
00:42:53
Speaker
Sure. But everything else does. And I think that that shows... I mean, it's just kind of an organization being a little ignorant.
00:43:01
Speaker
because it's hard to like look at the lineup of the people who are wrestling on like you know the progress cards or the evolve cards these are major promotions you know elsewhere like progress is huge in the UK we're looking at like people like Zack Sabre Jr. Matt Riddle you know Keith Lee's in there I think there's like such a good shit I should bring up the card and look at some of these shows but I mean these are like major
00:43:27
Speaker
people in different promotions that but they're not considered major league so a lot of their arsenal is going to be eliminated just because you don't have a huge TV deal in the United States doesn't mean that you aren't at the top of the fucking game with the rest of these people right now it's bullshit and I don't know it goes back to what we were talking about like
00:43:48
Speaker
perception is everything and I think from the perception of the of the pro wrestling fan it's good that you can go down to New Orleans like you're about to for this weekend and their stuff all weekend long like you're not just going there for one or two events and WWE probably doesn't look at it the same way they look at it well we only want you going there for the WWE stuff why are you giving your money elsewhere it's like well it's a fucking
00:44:23
Speaker
with WWE, it's like I'm only going to one WWE event the entire weekend, which is Mania,
Anticipation for Major Wrestling Events
00:44:29
Speaker
But I also gave them more money for Mania than I did anything else, you know, everything else combined. These other shows are like $25 shows with some amazing talent on them. But I think in their mind, they look at it as if you weren't going to those other shows, you might be able to catch Takeover or the Hall of Fame. And they aren't wrong. Ring of Honor took me away from Takeover this year. This is the first year that I'm skipping Takeover.
00:44:54
Speaker
That's a good segue, because we're going to talk about WrestleMania here in a minute. Takeover, man. We got Gargano versus Champa. Am I saying his name right? Yeah. Tomasso Champa. I always feel like I'm saying it wrong, and then I kind of look around to make sure. It's like when you look around, you're like, I don't want to be a phony here. Like, am I doing it right? Los Inglog Lenables.
00:45:21
Speaker
It's like I it's like I I am that guy like I'm the guy that's like I can't name any Kenny Omega songs Naito I wear the shirt I got it's written I can look at the word in front of me, and I'm still gonna fuck this up
00:45:42
Speaker
and then WrestleMania. Just so you know, I've gotten multiple people saying how much they enjoy you doing that sound. You've actually gotten higher praise with the sound. I've heard that you do it spot on. So I'm gonna shut the fuck up for a second and let the people get what they want. Oh, you want me to do my Shane? Everybody, this is Derek Halpin doing Shane McMahon being slammed into some metal, whatever the fuck he got slammed into. Oh, no.
00:46:15
Speaker
Because if you hit metal hard enough, you get diverticulitis. But you're back really quick. I hope that they're like, well, we've got to ban the Canadian destroyer because that's how Brock Lesnar got diverticulitis. Yup. Vince, he's on it.
00:46:31
Speaker
But yeah, Takeover, it sucks that they put those the same time because these are two shows that I would love to be at. Like I'm going to Ring of Honor, but fuck, that means I'm gonna miss Ricochet's WWE debut. Correct. Oh my god, in a ladder match with Adam Cole, Velveteen Dream. There's really only like one guy in that entire match that I would be like, why did he win it? Which is Lars Sullivan.
00:46:57
Speaker
Well my question real quick before we go on to the big card is how did you feel about the debut of the North American Championship? Like the way the title looked, how you feeling about them having it? I don't think we should ever complain about the way a title looks because the way you feel about something can change over time. Like if your immediate reaction to it is like, I don't like that it's red, I don't give a shit.
00:47:21
Speaker
You know, fuck off. I liked it. That was my first reaction. I think it looks like an old school wrestling belt. I think it looks unique. I think they need to go more in that direction. Oh yeah, and they needed this. They have too many big guys down there. They needed another belt. And, you know, we kind of see what happened with New Japan adding the North American title. It's been good over there. I mean, it was something to give Kenny Omega since he didn't have, you know, the main belt. Some recognition and just keep it away from Randy Orton.
00:47:48
Speaker
Yeah, don't give him that, and he's like, so I can't have the North American belt? Am I not from North America now? You tell him St. Louis isn't in North America. Randy Orton cannot have the North American title. Send me down to NXT so I can work with Velveteen Dream. I can work Velveteen Dream. I'll go shit in Adam Cole's handbag. Oh, fuck. See there, I implied that Adam Cole has a handbag.
00:48:13
Speaker
Alright man, it's main event time here. Fucking WrestleMania, man. Tell me about this card. What are you looking forward to? What matches do you want to talk about? I think this is the first time that I'm just like the whole card. I'm looking forward to all of it. I don't think it's a single match yet. I mean, name a match that you're not excited for right now. Is there a match that you like? I wish that weren't on there at all.
00:48:36
Speaker
No, that doesn't exist. And there was a match that was like that, but they fixed it. I think a lot of people were kind of complaining about the US title match because I don't think anybody gave a shit. But I do think adding Rusev to that match and making it a fatal four way added something to it because he's been ridiculously over for months now. And just the chance that they put the title on him at Mania is pretty exciting. And that'll get a good reaction. How do you feel about easily end up getting a missed out?
00:49:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's very possible. I thought about that. Rusep's gonna win, and then, uh, gender befalls and everything. Whatever.
00:49:16
Speaker
But I think you probably agree with me that adding him to that match made it more interesting. It immediately made me want to watch the match. That was the match that I was like, you know what, they could put this on the pre-show and I would be fine with that. Well, speaking of the pre-show, they got two battle royals on there and the cruiserweight match. How do you feel about that? You can never have enough battle royals on a pre-show. I mean, that's just good common sense right there. That's Wrestling Booking 101.
00:49:44
Speaker
If you've got seven and a half hours to kill, you throw as many goddamn people into a pre-show as you want. Make them feel like they've seen, you know, if you haven't seen a hundred wrestlers before the first actual match has started, then that's not a goddamn wrestling show. Here's 90% of the roster. Now let the show begin.
00:50:04
Speaker
Hey, I know you're here early and you know why you showed up? Because we got DDP in this thing. Who else is in here? I don't know. Fucking Carl Malone. We got Dennis Rodman here. Guess what? Turns out it's just a basketball game. It's actually not a battle royal. The DDP is in on for some reason.
00:50:22
Speaker
Self high five, man. No, I think, um, when they announced that those three matches were going to be on the pre-show, there was a lot of complaints and people were like, Oh, come on, this is bullshit. You're having the women's battle. Royal be on the pre-show. The cruiserweights deserve on the main card. And in defense of that decision, I get where everyone's coming from complaining about that. But when you turn your attention back to the, the card that they have, what are you bumping?
00:50:46
Speaker
What are you bumping onto the pre-show from the main card? There's just nothing you
WrestleMania Match Predictions and Excitement
00:50:52
Speaker
can trade out that really makes sense. So yeah, a couple battle royals in the cruiserweight championship will be decided on the pre-show.
00:51:00
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know, man. Like, what are you thinking? We've got, you know, two world title matches. Put out a poll about that today. I have to assume you got 100% on AJ. Last time I checked on both Facebook and Twitter for which world title match people are looking forward to more. 100%.
00:51:20
Speaker
we're going for Styles and Nakamura and not a single vote for Reigns and Lesnar. And I think a question to ask is, is that indicative of Reigns and Lesnar or is that indicative of how excited people are for Styles and Nakamura? I think even a Roman Reigns fan at this point would have to be like, I love Roman Reigns, but you know, AJ Styles puts on the best matches I've ever seen.
00:51:44
Speaker
Except for Vince McMahon. That Roman Reigns fan is not budging. I don't like his hair. What kind of conditioner does he use? He needs to look wetter. We got a couple of tag team matches. We got the Rousey angle against Triple H and Stephanie match, which they opened Raw with this week. Press conference situation with them.
00:52:08
Speaker
Where do you think that falls on the card? I don't know, man. Because you know they're looking at that as a huge event. I mean, to them, that's almost a main event. They have Ronda Rousey. But to me, that's a middle of the card match. Yeah. Because we don't really know how that's going to go. I think, yeah, I don't know.
00:52:27
Speaker
that's not closing the show and I honestly I don't because what's gonna be the filler match what's gonna be the match they drop right after like Styles and Nakamura because to me that's where that match falls I think we're probably gonna get Alexa Bliss versus Nia Jax in between those that might make sense because that's a title match that's unless they do like one of the tag matches or something like maybe the because I don't know like I'm like I'm excited to watch the Usos and New Day and everybody at WrestleMania
00:52:56
Speaker
But it's like there's so many big matches that you just have to decide what is the smaller of these matches. And I think it's either that or Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax, even though I think they've got a great story going. I think just what we're going to get out of the in-ring work on that one just isn't as good as what we're going to get in the other women's match. Sure. So let me do some, I guess, like not necessarily rapid fire, but I'll ask you some questions and then I'll answer back and we'll just do that. What match do you think opens the show, the main show? Ooh.
00:53:26
Speaker
Well, let's see. There aren't many singles matches, are there? No. Or the two titles? There's Charlotte and Asuka, and then the two world title matches, for sure. Shit. That's actually really tough. I can see them opening it with maybe the Intercontinental match.
00:53:43
Speaker
I thought about that. Unless they did it 30 and they actually opened the show with a segment. There's part of me that's thinking that they're going to open the show in a way that they did with the Hardys last year. I think they'll open the show with the Raw tag title match and they'll have Braun's surprise opponent. You'll have the bar come out, you'll have Braun come out, and then you'll have whoever the surprise partner for Braun is come out.
00:54:10
Speaker
Which way would you go with his partner? Would you have him be like have him have somebody like big cast like who is I hear ready to return who could easily show up in the Andre the giant thing is a surprise Dean Ambrose is around? Or would you give him somebody like would you surprise and like bring Ellsworth back and bring it back to somebody was telling me last night? You know, I want they would like to see it come back to where he started
00:54:35
Speaker
And I could see that, you know, just Ellsworth never gets a single tag. He never enters the match one time. Braun wins it by himself, carries both titles, but that guy's with him because he was told he had to have somebody. Yeah, I don't know. Some of the options I've heard tossed out, like they intrigue me for a second and then I'm like, yeah, but whatever. You know, you keep hearing Big Show's name. It's an okay idea. To me, it loses steam immediately, like the next night on Raw.
00:55:03
Speaker
I guess it depends on if you think Braun is actually gonna win it. To me, the exciting thing would be is if he grabbed Angle at the beginning of that show and said, look, I don't have a fucking partner, I'm doing this. Because I thought that was the more intriguing match from the get-go, to be honest with you, which was a single guy going after the fucking tag belts. It's different. We haven't really seen it before.
00:55:24
Speaker
That's what I'm hoping. That's I agree with you. To me, that's the most interesting match. Throwing somebody else in, like, unless it's done for comedy, I don't really need him to have an actual partner. Right. He's probably going to wind up with one, but that's how I would do it. But then, you know, you're hearing rumors about people like, you know, I'm hearing that Conor McGregor might show up somewhere. I don't know. There's that would be nuts.
00:55:49
Speaker
I mean, people would go, that's somebody that you could actually, if his name popped up on a screen and people are like, what the fuck? Conor McGregor's gonna join Braun Strowman? Like, because the size difference there would obviously be enormous. And I think people would still pop. It has to be somebody that people are gonna be excited about regardless. And I think that's what you said, like somebody like The Rock or like somebody that's gonna get an immediate huge reaction.
00:56:17
Speaker
Like, holy fuck, this person's wrestling tonight. I can't believe they're here. Right. Mysterio's name got tossed out there, too, as a possibility. He's hurt right now, though. Yeah. OK, so let me ask one question that's actually two questions. Looking at the card, what do you think is going to be match of the night? And what match not necessarily like is going to suck, but what match do you think has the potential to be the biggest disappointment of the night?
00:56:42
Speaker
like right now the one I'm not really looking forward to is Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax. Just because I think the in-ring work just isn't gonna be as exciting as some of the other stuff I've seen. But that's not a knock on either of them. I think they're both super talented and I wanna watch it. As far as WrestleMania goes, I had to pick one. What am I most?
00:57:05
Speaker
I feel like we should have to take out AJ and Nakamura because I think that's gonna be everybody's answer to what's gonna steal the night. I'm hoping to get really good things out of that intercontinental match.
00:57:18
Speaker
that's actually what I was gonna say I was gonna cut you off there is I'm gonna say I actually think the intercontinental match is gonna be match of the night and it's not again it's not cuz I'm sitting here expressing no faith in styles and Nakamura I think there's so much focus and expectation on those two delivering and we haven't really seen Nakamura have like a
00:57:39
Speaker
killer matches a whole bunch since he's been called up to the main roster. I think there's more of a chance. I mean, I think they'll have a really, really good match. I think it's going to deliver. But I think Ms. Baller and Rollins are going to fucking steal that show.
00:57:55
Speaker
And I think that all three can go. I think Miz being in there between those two, having a competitive who's better feud going on. I think the dynamic of that match is awesome. And as I've expressed before, I love triple threat matches. I think they're exciting. Match? And I think that's a good, in my head already, just having Finn Balor and Seth Rollins in a match elevates it so high. Cuz Finn Balor is gonna go out there with a lot to prove because this is his first WrestleMania match.
00:58:25
Speaker
and I feel like if they put them in that first spot, they're gonna be like, we have to tear the house down, make it hard for anyone to follow this. Yes or no, does Balor come out as the demon? I say no. I don't think we're seeing the demon. They haven't mentioned the demon. Like, it'd be cool to see it, but this isn't a match that I think he needs it. I agree. I think the demon should be for like a, you know, heavyweight championship. That should be him versus Roman Reigns. Like, it's SummerSlam or something.
00:58:53
Speaker
I agree with you. I was actually surprised for your match of the night. You didn't mention anything about Charlotte and Asuka. That's because I didn't think about it until right now. There's my actual match. I think it's too because when people have been asking me, like of course AJ and Nock are going to be awesome. Charlotte and Asuka is the match I am most looking forward to for the entire evening. Like I said,
00:59:17
Speaker
The road to WrestleMania is a long road. We're almost there. So pretty much you're gonna hear us talk about it maybe two more times, then we're gonna be moving on to other stuff. How are we gonna not talk about goddamn Wrestle Christmas while we're on the way to it? Right, and you are literally, physically on the way to it. I'm going to take my body down to a city that I've almost been robbed in a couple times. And I'm doing that so that I can talk to you about it and also so I can have a great time.
00:59:44
Speaker
don't get murdered because we need to do more episodes yeah I don't want to get murdered and I also I want to eat some beignets gonna do it and no more no more you gotta make some more trips to Jerry Lawler's restaurant shit I gotta see if there's any wrestling restaurants down there because you know you know what that trip's already missing I can tell diarrhea yeah so that from Jerry Lawler's restaurant I don't want to make it seem like his food made me sick it just wasn't good
01:00:13
Speaker
I guess my match that I think is probably going to wind up disappointing. I think Reigns Lesnar could get really ugly. I think there's a potential there. Like you've said, that's going to be seven hours. If Lesnar doesn't put in the effort and the audience gets the feeling of they're just trying to be like persuaded into light, loving Roman Reigns. This could turn out to be another Goldberg Lesnar from WrestleMania 20.
01:00:36
Speaker
And when you've got a room of exhausted people and You're putting on a thing that they don't really want and making it be the last thing for the fourth year Yep, you're kind of fucked like I I don't see why They need to just they need to just end it with AJ everyone like AJ is maybe one of the most universally loved people in that company right now and
01:01:01
Speaker
I feel like Vince would be admitting that he was wrong if he did that though. That's how he would feel. He'd be like, he's conceding that, okay, you're right, this is too much pushing of Reigns and, oh, you guys want your indie match as a rematch on my fucking show? Fuck that. I think that's the way to go. I think, like I said, those out of everyone on the roster, they have the strongest chance of knowing that Styles Nakamura could deliver.
01:01:27
Speaker
And we've talked about this before. I think that you should end the show with the crowd cheering. Yeah. I think that they should feel like they just got maybe the best part of the night to close the show, not just, okay, now it's over.
01:01:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean this is a stacked fucking card, man. What do you, I guess real quick, are Shane and Brian winning and Owens and Zayn staying fired? Or is somebody turning on somebody? Are Zayn and Owens winning? What do you think's happening there? I feel like you can't have Daniel Bryan go back into the place that he won the world title and not walk out. And also I think Vince can look at this as, ah, we can finally get Shane a win.
01:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, I thought about that too. Um, but I, I don't know. I mean, if, if the rumors are true and styles is going over to raw, do you also see them sending Sammy and Kevin over there too? And
Engagement and Conclusion
01:02:28
Speaker
doesn't Daniel Bryan need an authority figure to feud with going forward? I don't think he needs an authority figure. I think like somebody can just, I don't know. I mean, I think next he goes in with Ms.
01:02:41
Speaker
when Miz gets swapped over. Well, maybe Miz can be the authority figure. I guess I'll just come out and say, I'm pretty convinced that Shane's gonna turn on Brian. He seemed like he's pretty hesitant to hug him. He has every reason to be pissed off at Brian. He basically almost got killed because Brian refused to give up on his friends being douchebags. He did get diverticulitis because of that. Right.
01:03:08
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, they could go a million different ways. I don't even know if there's necessarily a wrong way to go with it because there's a lot of things they can do there. And I think the good thing is we're talking about this. It's not like where we know Roman Reigns is walking out of New Orleans with that title. I have no fucking clue what's gonna happen. I assume Daniel Bryan's gonna win. What's gonna happen in it though? Who gives a shit? We're gonna get to watch Daniel Bryan wrestle and it's gonna be so much fun.
01:03:32
Speaker
Man, you're gonna have so much fun this weekend. Honestly, we're wrapping this thing up here in a minute, but let's be real. It's possible that the match of the entire weekend could be on NXT TakeOver.
01:03:44
Speaker
It could easily be on Ring of Honor, it could be on TakeOver, I still stand by, I am going to call it. Champa Gargano is going to be match of the weekend. Those two are just too good. Any match they've done, whether they're a tag team, whether they're fighting each other.
01:04:03
Speaker
you know, singles apart when they're just fighting other people. Those two are just two of the best workers they have right now. And I think when you got two guys that are best friends and they're willing to beat the absolute piss out of each other, that's when you're always going to get the best match. For sure. And they're both. But that ladder match could steal the show. There's just so much talent in one match.
01:04:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean we're gonna see Ricochet fly. I think a lot of people are gonna get their first experience of Ricochet. I think there's probably still a lot of people that don't know who he is. And I think he is going to make a huge name for himself in that company.
01:04:39
Speaker
Well, don't stress too much, man. Go have fun down there. Oh, I'm gonna try. I mean, right now, my schedule is pretty slammed. Night one, I'm getting in. Thursday night, I'll be at... So if you're listening to this on your way to WrestleMania, I'll be at the WrestleCon Super Show. So we get to watch the Golden Lovers. That's gonna be great. Next day, I'm hitting up Progress at noon, Evolve at four, and then Joey Janela's Spring Break at midnight.
01:05:06
Speaker
where I have a feeling that these death matches at midnight, they are not going to obey the rules of the Louisiana Wrestling Commission. Saturday, hitting up progress again at noon. Then, what am I doing? Then that night is Ring of Honor, and all day they're having the Festival of Honor, so they're kind of having a little, like, all day thing. Like, Ring of Honor is taking up all of Saturday. They're trying to make you go to nothing else. They're from noon until the evening.
01:05:36
Speaker
And then Sunday Mania, Monday, driving home sad that it's all over. Waiting for next year. Oh, I got a bunch of stickers printed with our new logo on it. We haven't even debuted the new logo yet. It's awesome. My buddy Anthony Kanass has made it. I have it on stickers. If you run into me, you want a sticker? Gonna have my pockets full of them. So come grab one from me.
01:05:57
Speaker
There's a possibility you're gonna hand out a sticker to somebody at the show who's now gonna come back and listen to this episode Because of the sticker you handed out. Hey, I handed you that sticker I appreciate that you took the time to go into the app type in the word predetermined Then you thought is that there it is clicked on it subscribe Did you listen to the first episode first or did you listen to this one? Cuz I'll tell you you know first episode Probably not as good as what's happening. Well, you know, it's it's a it's a learning thing. We're getting better. I
01:06:24
Speaker
Listen to them all. Listen to them. And also. First one's great. Fuck you, Garrett. You're really Randy Orton in this up. It's the Netflix age, man. Just binge listen to all of our episodes. And hey, it's going to be a crazy weekend. There's a lot of wrestling stuff going on so we can understand. We hope you're listening to this episode. If you do, please, if you've got thoughts, if you've got pictures, if you want to let us know what you're doing for WrestleMania weekend, hit us up on social media.
01:06:53
Speaker
We're at Wrestle Hangout on Facebook, at Wrestle Hangout on Twitter. Yeah, tell us about the match. Is your favorite match of the weekend? We haven't said it yet. I mean, is your favorite thing Joey Janela versus James Ellsworth? Or not Joey Janela. It's Matt Riddle versus James Ellsworth. Are you going to go see Keith Lee beat the shit out of some people? What are you excited about? Let us know, because I want to know about it.
01:07:15
Speaker
One of the things I can say for sure, if you send us pictures, if you send us your thoughts, we will retweet that stuff. We will share it. And yeah, we are part of the wrestling community, guys. So please also, like we said at the beginning of the episode, make sure that you rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. That really helps us out. And thank you for listening to another episode, guys. Hey, are we going to say something nice this week?
01:07:42
Speaker
Oh, yeah, let's do it. All right. Let's do it real quick before we leave. This is the point in the show where we say something nice. I feel like a couple times tonight I have said I'm not so much looking forward to Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss. Alexa Bliss, one of the most talented ladies in the thing. Best person on the mic right now. Alexa, Nia Jax, she probably should have already had a title at this point. She should have always been booked more dominant because she looks like she's dominant. Nia Jax is awesome. I love them both. I didn't mean any disrespect to them.
01:08:13
Speaker
That's probably the most genuine one I've done so far. Yeah. Because I'm not, like, talking about Alberto Del Rio's whistles. I'm not talking about Bob Holly having a hell of a chop. I saw he's at a show this weekend, and I'm staying the fuck away from there. Yeah, you should. He'll smack the shit out of your chest. All right. Derek, say something nice.
01:08:30
Speaker
I'll keep mine short and sweet, but I think it's apropos. It's WrestleMania weekend coming up, so as far as guys that get ripped on a lot, including myself as being one of the people who does a lot of the ripping, Vincent Kennedy McMahon is a guy who gets criticized all the fucking time, and rightfully so, holds some talent back that people feel deserves a little bit more, and pushes guys that people aren't necessarily excited about.
01:08:55
Speaker
But this is the fucking guy who created WrestleMania. The thing that we're talking about today, the thing that we're excited for, the thing that we look forward to every year, we look forward to this. And he doesn't hit them all out of the park, but he's hit more out of the park than anybody else. So Vince, you're a dick, you're kind of an asshole businessman, I'm sure you've done some shady shit, and there's probably a lot of reasons to not like you, but hey.
01:09:21
Speaker
You've made WWE, you made WrestleMania, so thank you for that. It's Wrestling Christmas, thanks to you. Yeah, he should be. Like, you know what? He shouldn't be mad that all this other stuff's coming. Like, he should feel flattered that everybody's trying to piggyback off the thing that we all love so much.
01:09:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's the highest compliment. All right, everybody. Thanks for hanging out with us. Have a good WrestleMania weekend. We're gonna have some shows. We're gonna have some shows coming up. I might possibly be doing a show with some good brothers from Australia while we're in New Orleans.
01:09:54
Speaker
So we'll see what happens there, but you know what? We'll be back on Thursday, we'll have something up for you like a Mania recap, and then we're just gonna, we're gonna go back to just shooting the shit about wrestling and hanging out. We're just, cause you know, we're just, we're just friends hanging out in the basement talking wrestling. And before we go...