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NXT is Dead! + New Gen Ring Update + Kiss Cards?!?
39 Plays4 years ago
Episode 140 is here and our story of the week is the possible death of NXT as we know it. We cover every aspect of this story including our reactions, thoughts on what the future may hold, and favorite NXT matches and figures.
In the Royal Rumble, Sheena and Marco take turns swapping takes on the return of RKBro, the debut of Rampage, settle the endless debate on bone-in or boneless, and much more!
In figure news we discuss the latest on the New Generation Ultimate Ring, Nick f'n Gage receiving his own action figure, and we correct an omission from our figure retrospective for Bobby Eaton from last week.
In Random Merch of the Week, we go down the bizarre rabbit hole of Kiss Cards. Who is buying these things? And why the hell do they exist in the first place!
All that plus Listener Mail!
Use code CHICKFOLEY to save 10% on all your wrestling figures at Ringside Collectibles.
ringsidecollectibles.com
Random Merch Of The Week
https://tinyurl.com/chickfoleyshow
Check out the Pod Foundation
www.link.tree/podfoundation
Try Verb energy bars!
https://tinyurl.com/9jsfpxp2
Get your figure clothing at figtees.co.uk and use code CFS15 to save money!
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Transcript
Episode 140 Introduction
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Chick Foley Show.
00:00:23
Speaker
What is up, Foley fam? We are back with episode 140 of the Chick Foley Show. Man, we are only 10 episodes away from the big 150. We got 10 weeks left to prep for this milestone episode, Sheen. We gotta do something big. I know. We're gonna have to throw a 150 party. I don't know what the proper protocol is for your 150th episode, but I'm sure others have gone before us. We'll have to ask them what they did for their episodes.
00:00:48
Speaker
I think
Planning for Episode 150
00:00:49
Speaker
for 151 for the beverage break, we're all going to need to take a shot of some Bacardi 151. What do you guys think? That episode should get interesting. You down, Marco? Never. Never down for that. That's a bad thing waiting to happen. I don't want to jump the gun. Let me introduce the stars of our show. Sheena, how you doing?
00:01:12
Speaker
I'm doing good. Got a cold beer. It was a hot day outside. We got in a nice sweat, doing some yard work. And then we took a nice, nice shower and cracked this cold beer open, ready to talk some wrestling with you guys. So it's, it's a good night. And Marco, how is life up in Massachusetts?
00:01:28
Speaker
Going good. Um, I'm actually trying to think of ideas for that episode, that one 50th episode. Maybe we could do like a virtual keg stands or something. We'll come up with something. She never mind the listeners where they can find you guys on social media.
Social Media Handles
00:01:46
Speaker
You can find me on Instagram at chick Foley. You can find Marco running the Twitter machine over at chick Foley show. And you can join our Foley fam over on Facebook at chick Foley show.com.
Royal Rumble Watch-Along & Tag Teams Episode
00:01:57
Speaker
We just released our Royal Rumble 1993 watch along and we are putting together our part one of our top 25 best tag teams ever episode. And that'll be dropping at some point next week. So make sure you're looking out for that.
00:02:11
Speaker
Yeah, we're throwing a ton of TLC into this series of best tag teams episodes. The votes were tallied from all the Foley fan members. And I really think it's got the potential to be the best set of Chick Foley show podcasts that we've ever done. You heard, yeah, no pressure on us. You heard Sheena mentioned the Facebook group. If you are a figure collector at all, you need to be there. We have been eating when it comes to these WWE legends figures. I think pretty much everybody, you know, we're a little over 200 members in the group.
00:02:41
Speaker
And I think damn near everybody that wanted a set of legends has got one between. You know, Jordan Wells, the Fig Gods leading the way, but really everybody's been coming up, hitting the pavement and grabbing these figures for everybody that, you know, may not have access to a solid target or is overseas. You know, we've got people from Canada, we're shipping these things across borders. We're making it happen for them.
00:03:02
Speaker
Yeah, so definitely hit it up. And that's just in addition to just the really fun community we have, man. It's just a fun place to keep up. Everybody shares stuff. They got going on with their families and everything. It's a lot of fun. Speaking of community, Marco, tell the listeners about the Pod Foundation.
Introducing the Pod Foundation
00:03:20
Speaker
Oh man, the pod foundation, like I said before is the greatest collection of wrestling minds since the NWO always. That's a tagline for the, uh, pod foundation. Yeah.
00:03:36
Speaker
Yeah, so we have the Turnbuckle Tavern. So they cover everything AEW, NWA, and Impact Wrestling, as well as indie wrestling. So obviously we cover a lot of wrestling, but they get into the nitty gritty of those different organizations. So definitely check them out if you want to get more in-depth
00:03:56
Speaker
Um, uh, with those organizations, uh, next up we have pyramid wrestling, which is all figure based. So obviously we touch on figures. Uh, we do a few stories here and there, but they deep dive as well as same thing as turnbuckle time. They, but they deep dive into these, into figures and stuff like that. So anything figure related, uh, that's the show you want to go to, to get that. And then remember like back in the day when you just like hang with your friends,
00:04:22
Speaker
watch some pay-per-views. On VHS? Yeah, VHS. Wow. Maybe even try the moves. Yeah, I mean, they would try the moves on each other after after the pay-per-view. Like, I know I would. Me and my friends would just try to throw a sharpshooter on, a figure four, maybe even a chokeslam here or there. But that would be the extra coolest show. I don't think those guys do that. I hope not. They're adults, so hopefully they're not watching. What does that have to do with things? I'm sure they do. I could totally see, like, you know,
00:04:49
Speaker
Jammer Matt, putting Nick in a figure four sharpshooter, something like this. Yeah. Nick just super kicking people. Oh yeah. The Shawn Michaels fan, but yeah, you definitely want to hit up extra cooler and get all the, get the reviews of the yesteryear of the golden age of, of wrestling. So yeah, but that rounds out the pod foundation.
00:05:11
Speaker
Yeah, and you can follow on Instagram at Pod Foundation for a one-stop shop to keep up with all the latest content from all four of the shows. We debuted the video format of the Chick Foley show last week. Again,
Video Format Feedback & Plans
00:05:26
Speaker
I threw the beta tag on there when I loaded it up because it's still in testing. We're not doing video this week. We're still kind of ironing out the kinks to make sure that we bring you guys the best product possible because we don't want to roll out something that's half-assed.
00:05:38
Speaker
We're still working it out. Video will be back maybe next week, maybe the week after, but it's still a work in progress right now. Thanks for all the feedback, guys. All the people that watched it said they really enjoyed it. So we're definitely working on making it happen for you guys every week. But yeah, like you said, we're just testing things out right now. We want to make sure that we're not sacrificing the content for trying to push stuff out on video.
00:05:58
Speaker
Yeah, and we also want to thank you guys for the feedback on the leaner and meaner version of the Chick Foley show that we debuted this week. We're going to keep that rolling this week. Marco, did you get any good feedback from the Twitterverse on the slightly tweaked version of the show we debuted last week?
00:06:13
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. A lot of people liked it. I think the show, we like to hit refresh sometimes and change things up a bit. I think a lot of people appreciate that because we talked about this before. There's a lot of wrestling podcasts. There's a lot of figure podcasts out there and stuff like that. You want to try to make things different and where we touch on a lot of different
00:06:36
Speaker
subjects, not just only figures and not just wrestling, but we talk about like life stuff too sometimes. So, um, I think, yeah, a lot of people really liked the fact that we kind of, you know, made it short and sweet in that sense. So you can watch the video format, not, you know, not sit there and like waste a bunch of time, like two hours. We made it, we made it, we made it commute friendly for you guys. So that way, I mean, obviously you're not going to be watching it on YouTube commuting. I hope to God, but don't be, I don't condone anybody watching YouTube while you're driving to work, but I could definitely listen to the audio format.
00:07:06
Speaker
You guys heard if anybody from WWE and specifically at NXT is listening you guys heard Marco said we like to refresh
NXT's Future and Talent Changes
00:07:14
Speaker
it from time to time. We don't have to scorch the earth. Yeah, we'll talk about that here in a few minutes. So you want to give away some figures? Let's do it. All right. So last week we announced we were going to be giving away top picks Drew McIntyre. It's a really great figure. It's from his look at the Royal Rumble earlier this year or actually not from the 2020 Royal Rumble when he
00:07:35
Speaker
he won to punch his ticket to WrestleMania. And all you had to do was send in a screenshot of yourself listening to the podcast. So Shane, you ready to do it? Let's do it. Congratulations to at baller boy figs. Make sure you hit us up and send us your address and we will get this shipped out to you. So that's at baller underscore boy underscore figs. Congrats, man.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yeah. And we're going to keep the giveaway train rolling. Next week, we are giving away a fan takeover Christian. So this is at least for the time being, this is going to be the last ever Christian figure. You cannot get this. It's not in stock anywhere anymore.
00:08:19
Speaker
Um, really cool to configure for this one. We want you guys to leave a review on iTunes. All right. So we just debuted a new format. We're trying to drum up a little bit more, uh, interest in the show. Those reviews, they kind of feed into Apple's algorithm and it'll start spitting us out as a, um, recommendation for people who are, you know, may already be listening to wrestling podcasts or looking for something new. So.
00:08:41
Speaker
Yeah, we've been getting listeners every week, so we want to keep that momentum going and you guys could really, really help us out by just dropping a quick review or updating the review that you've left previously.
00:08:51
Speaker
Yeah, so that's why because I used to be the same thing. I'd always hear podcasts like begging for reviews and I was like, why? What does this even matter? But if you look into a little bit, those reviews are really what kind of feeds what gets promoted a lot on Apple. So help us out. Drop a review, shoot a screenshot to Tashina or Marco. If you've already left a review, just go and make a couple edits and send it because it will still register as a new review.
00:09:13
Speaker
or, you know, grab your girlfriend's phone, grab your boyfriend's phone, brother, sister, mom, dad, whoever, grab a friend's phone, leave multiple reviews. If you leave a couple, you'll get a couple entries into the contest because this is a really sweet figure. And like we said, for the time being, at least this is going to be the last Christian that we ever get from Mattel. And we will announce the winner at the start of next week's show. We want to remind you guys to always use code CHICKFOLI at Ringside Collectibles for all your wrestling figure purchases. And are you guys ready to get into the story of the week?
00:09:43
Speaker
Let's go. Let's do it. Silence, silence. We're gathered here today to pay our respects to NXT as we know it.
00:10:14
Speaker
Very, very sad day for wrestling fans across the world. Nice sound drops though. Yeah, I thought you guys might like that. This is a big thing, man. NXT has been the most... I mean, RCAEW has been great the last two years, but since I got hardcore back into wrestling in 2014, NXT has been the most consistently great thing to watch.
00:10:36
Speaker
It really broke right before we recorded last Friday night. It started with Bronson Reed getting released, and then come to find out, it ended up being about 10 people from NXT at all different points of the card. There were some mid-carders, some people who were still in developmental, but names that we knew that got released.
00:10:58
Speaker
Uh, over the weekend it came out, you know, uncle Dave, Dave Meltzer, he reported that, um, you know, behind the scenes, the big talk is that they're basically totally revamping NXT. It's going to be a different look, different presentation, different lighting. Um, supposedly Triple H is no longer even in charge at NXT. They said, uh, you know, we don't use this term, but this was an exact quote. No more midgets was one of the quotes that came out of it.
00:11:23
Speaker
No more bringing in guys who are already 30 years old to start up. They're basically taking it back to the old school style of developmental, trying to build people from the ground up and then make a box office drawers for a long time. It's no longer going to be like WWE's version of the indies. So Sheena, I'll toss it to you first. With all the information we have right now, what is your take on this?
00:11:49
Speaker
I mean, I'm just sad. I don't know. I just feel like, you know, it's the end of an era for sure. Like you said, we kind of got back into this, you know, 2014 and NXT was right on the come up. And like you mentioned, it's definitely been the most consistently good product, especially with like the takeover events and whatnot. And it just kind of, I think when, when things were really slow with WWE at times during this last, you know,
00:12:12
Speaker
six years or whatever, the NXT has always been that anchor that you could hang on to. It kept me interested in being back in wrestling in the current product. I think NXT has just been that anchor for me. And it just sucks that it's no longer going to be the same. The NXT that we've known and love since its inception is just, I mean, it sounds like it's pretty much gone. And even despite its growth and move to prime time, I hung on.
00:12:40
Speaker
I'll go on record and say I never wanted that to happen. If you guys remember when NXT was making that move to go to TV, I was totally against it. I wanted it to remain a network exclusive. Clearly, we don't have the network anymore, but I didn't want it to go on TV. But I got on board because I didn't want it to be a wet blanket and I was hoping for it to succeed and be a true third brand. Unfortunately, they barely even got their feet off the ground before the pandemic era happened. And I truly believe that
00:13:09
Speaker
NXT suffered the most from the whole pandemic situation. I feel like their product really, really, really out of all of the brands that, you know, had to make adjustments and all of that. I feel like the NXT product kind of really, um, it just didn't feel the same, you know, in the, yeah, that full sale crowd was just such a part of the act. You know, you have the same thousand or so people come into the shows every single week. So super passionate. They really got behind these guys and the people that got over, like they were,
00:13:37
Speaker
they were really, really over. That's the thing about that NXT crowd is they got people over that probably wouldn't have been over in any other capacity. People that you think of as big huge stars and if they ever came to the main roster, if they came to the main roster, they didn't really resonate, but they were such big stars in the NXT because of the crowd. The crowd loved them. They always had signs. They always had merch. I don't know. I hate
00:14:03
Speaker
And you know, it makes me really wonder because they're really cutting the fat and getting rid of all of these guys. And what does this mean for guys like, you know, I mean, Champa has been on the record saying that he doesn't want to go like he was like, if I have to go to the main roster, I'll just resign from WWE. Like I don't want to go to the main roster. I want to stay in NXT.
00:14:22
Speaker
So what does that mean for guys like Argano and Champa, right? Like they don't want to go to the main roster, but like now are they just going to like job out to these newcomers, you know, to try to get them over? Like, I don't feel like that's a good place for them either. You know, so I don't know. I just, I know they're trying to build homegrown stars and whatnot, but it just feels like, I don't know. It's a sad, sad day, honestly. For what it's worth, you know,
00:14:50
Speaker
Uncle Dave, he's been wrong as shit before. The show Tuesday night was still pretty much a normal episode of NXT. A ton of people were gone from all the people being released and everything, but it still seemed like the NXT we know and love. So there's always the chance this could pan out to be nothing, but there's definitely a ton of smoke right around this. Word on the street, obviously this is all hearsay, but word on the street is that
00:15:13
Speaker
the the crowd was really really upset obviously the you know they know that everybody's been cut um and the the stars backstage you know the the talent backstage they were all kind of like down and out so i feel like that's really going to impact the product because they don't think i mean nobody's safe i mean all these guys like what what's the point of them going out there and
00:15:31
Speaker
given it all and putting their body on the line, knowing that literally they could come in tomorrow and just be handed a pink slip until they get the hell out. I feel like that's going to have a huge impact on the way people go out and perform and how much they actually put into the product and how invested the fans get. The fans aren't going to get invested in somebody knowing that they could be cut tomorrow. Then if it's just going to be developmental, strictly developmental,
00:15:56
Speaker
Again, what's that mean for all these NXT vets that have really carried that brand to be the powerhouse that it is today?
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I guess I don't have quite as bleak an outlook on it as you do. I think the wrestlers are still going to do what the wrestlers do. That's almost always one of the most consistent parts for wrestling. The guys going out and performing in the ring. But yeah, I'm just worried that, you know, it may be the sense of the area had so much stuff in motion. We may be heading towards takeover, being like the finale of NXT as we know it. And that might be why, you know, Tuesday nights still seem like somewhat of a normal show.
00:16:35
Speaker
Marco, what's your take on all this, man?
00:16:39
Speaker
Oh man. You guys just made me sad just talking about this. I'm sorry. I was trying to bring it down. I'm kind of in wait and see mode. Yeah. I don't know, man. We'll see how it plays out. I mean, Bronson Reed was a bummer, but I wasn't too sad to see. There was nobody else that I feel like I'm going to miss, you know? And like I said, Tuesday night was still a good show. It still ended with Pete Dunne standing tall at the end of the night. So, um, I'm still down with it, but yeah, she really laid it off. She just brought everything down. Like,
00:17:07
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think it's cancel the rest of the show. Yeah. All right. Geez, let's set the tone. Why don't you? Well, listen, you played that music. The music really set the tone for me, man. I'm going to it's your fault, Seth.
00:17:19
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it does suck. I've been thinking about a bunch of different scenarios with NXT and where did I go with the Performance Center and all that stuff. I think the thing is, like Sheena mentioned, once it hit TV,
00:17:39
Speaker
Um, that's when, I don't want to say it was the downfall of NXT. Um, but they hit TV obviously when there was no AEW, um, present on TV. So, you know, they were, they, they had a good chance. Yeah. They had about a month lead up before a dynamite debuted.
00:17:54
Speaker
Let's not forget that when they were a WWE Network product, they were two hours, which is so much more digestible. No, you mean they were one hour? I'm sorry, they were one hour, my bad. Yeah, they were one hour. And then they expanded and I feel like that really showed a lot of weaknesses for... Yeah, they expanded and they had the pressure of delivering a TV rating every week. So they were, especially in the early days of it, they were
00:18:18
Speaker
hot shotting into big matches that normally would have been saved for a takeover or we would have seen get a two or three week build up on the old NXT. They were just coming up out of nowhere, which it was cool. But at the same time, I kind of missed it because NXT on the one hour NXT on WWE Network was like you said, she knew it was just excellent, man. It was the best thing to look forward to every single week. You get in, you have fun and you get out. And that's what she said. But you know what I mean? Like, you know what, I think I think, you know, the
00:18:46
Speaker
the inception of NXT was, you know, to be that alternative, uh, for the, you know, the, the fans of WWE that wanted to see like kind of like the indie type wrestling. Right. Um, and you know, at the time when it was, when it was started, obviously I mean, indie wrestling was huge. You had, what was that? Like it was like 2013, 2014. So you had the bullet club happening. The ROH was like pretty much all those organizations are on fire. So like, obviously, you know, WWE wanted, you know,
00:19:16
Speaker
get a part of that, like that action. Um, but you know, just fast forwarding now, not saying the NDC isn't as, I mean, it's not as big as it was when, you know, when this was all happening. So like, yeah, you got to take into effect that like, it's going to, that's going to happen to NXT too. It's since it was seen as kind of like an alternative to indie and where the indie wrestling is now as opposed to it was back then. It's not as
00:19:41
Speaker
Well, AEW came along and it really soaked up a lot of the talent pool. Yeah, exactly. I feel like the Indies are still rebuilding from AEW coming along and really just sopping up all of the major talent that was out there.
00:19:55
Speaker
Yeah, and it seems weird to think WWE is doing the same thing, but they're feeling the same effects of AEW taking up all the talent from the Indies. They had the chance to grab Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks and Cody and keep Jericho if they wanted to, but they opted not to.
00:20:15
Speaker
or, you know, I mean, with Jericho, they opted not to, but like, everyone else is pretty much like, I'm not going back there, or I'm never going to go there, that type of thing. So they kind of felt the effects of that as well. So I mean,
00:20:27
Speaker
The positive side to it is, you know, you, my thing was like, you won't be, if you don't see any of these people, they're just at the performance center, um, you know, trained to get on the main roster. You're not, I think the whole thing was we had so much, um, emotion and so much like feeling into these guys and, and, and ladies, um, just seeing them on TV week to week that way now we become invested in them.
00:20:51
Speaker
So it's not even going to be televised anymore. I don't know. They're not. No, they're going back to like old school, like it's a performance center. Like it sounds like, yeah, if everything comes to pass, they're really going back to the old school way of developmental, you know, and the guy, girl.
00:21:09
Speaker
Yeah. I think who we have to blame for this man is, uh, is Roman Reigns. All right. So, so hear me out. Think about all the people. Listen, listen to me. Hear me out. So think about all the people that have gotten called up from NXT over the past, you know, five or six years since it's been huge. Who's really been a box office draw? You know, you got, you got the four horse woman. I would say they are. And then I would say Roman Reigns, man. I think Roman Reigns is only big draw.
00:21:32
Speaker
Roman Reigns is a guy who really had minimal, minimal wrestling experience. I think he may have just, you know, went to wrestling school and then got signed by WWE developmental. Now that's parallel to, um, if you go back to 2001 and 2002, the old school style of developmental and Ohio Valley wrestling, that class, they had four guys, man, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Randy Orton and Batista. Um, and all four of those guys were the same thing. They were either like no training or very, very minimal training.
00:22:02
Speaker
before WWE signed them, they built these guys from the ground up in their image and all four of those guys became gigantic box office drawers for moving tickets. So I'm thinking that whoever is in Vince McMahon's ear right now, they told him that that's the way like, let's stop bringing in these guys from the indies who got their own way of doing things and their own.
00:22:19
Speaker
their own built-in fan base that shows up with them that has their expectations, you know, because that's another problem with these, you know, these guys that we know and love. They have their it's really a burden, the amount of love and expectations we put on them, because it's like if for a lot of fans, if the guy's not, you know, beaten Roman clean at WrestleMania, the WWE is not using them right. You know, what do you say about Bray, though? I mean, Bray was brought up through the system, you know, and I mean, they just cut him off. Like, what's the.
00:22:48
Speaker
That's true. And Braun Strowman. Yeah, and Braun, he was a product of WWE, you know, straight from the freaking WWE machine. I mean, I was telling you what they're thinking. I'm not saying they're right or wrong for doing this. Yeah. And there's always going to be guys to get cut, you know, but but I'm thinking I'm just saying that I think that's what their mindset is right now. That's why they're going back to this.
00:23:09
Speaker
to this old school style development. Especially if the derogatory quote is true, then that's definitely what they're doing. They want a certain image that they're looking for, a certain body type and a certain physique and presence.
00:23:24
Speaker
But I just feel like that's so limiting. I feel like when everybody's big, then nobody looks big. When you got a guy like Brock Lesnar fighting Daniel Bryan, it really makes Daniel Bryan look like a badass when he overcomes the Goliath. But if you just got a bunch of freaking beef in there, it's just like, I mean, yeah, sometimes that's entertaining. But I feel like if everybody's just gigantic gladiators, then that's going to kind of
00:23:50
Speaker
Lose its appeal after a while, you know, it's not gonna be it's not gonna be so exciting to watch I'm only gonna say I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of counter what Seth said with Roman all those guys were in there FCW before it was NXT Sure, that was that was kind of the different though Z. That was the changeover from OVW So you really can't blame Roman Reigns for that. I mean and then obviously like Batista was in a
00:24:18
Speaker
OVW. It seems like they want to recreate a Randy Oran, a John Cena, a Brock Lesnar, like you said. Yeah, that's a type of class. That's a once in a lifetime thing. I don't think that you're ever going to get a class
00:24:34
Speaker
That's hounded. No. And again, the product's just different now. I just feel like it's totally different. What people are looking for is different. Like it's just, you have to evolve with the times. You know, I'm not saying that Vince McMahon doesn't know what he's doing. You know, clearly he's run this wrestling business longer than I've been alive, but it's just.
00:24:53
Speaker
I just feel like when you're trying to recreate some magic from a long time ago or recreate like this era, like the steroid era from like freaking 40 years ago, like, I just feel like what, you know, I don't know. It just seems a little out of touch to me. Yeah. I mean, you got to think too, like on the business side of things, let's take it to the, to that other side where obviously we're talking about the wrestling side, but for the business side, how much money is NXT making WWE? None.
00:25:19
Speaker
Exactly. Obviously, it's not all Vince McMahon. He has the three amigos, as I call them, the three guys that are pretty much running the show right now for them. Nick Khan is the head guy. He seems like he's just like, whatever money's being drained, let's cut it.
00:25:40
Speaker
Get the money back again they had their most profitable year ever so it's like this point you're just getting greedy at this point you're just turning into like bad business you know yes i just feel i think there's a certain point where you have to.
00:25:57
Speaker
show some compassion and like loyalty to your talent to the point where like they're going to want to come back because I think that's what's going to happen with Adam Cole. You know, I know we haven't really brought him up yet, but I feel like why the hell would he stay around knowing that he could just get cut? I mean, unless they literally just like back some life changing, guaranteed offer up to his door, like that he just cannot refuse, I would just be like, hell no, dude. Like, you know, I'm going to go get my money over here. I'm still going to get my TV time.
00:26:23
Speaker
Um, and I'm going to be guaranteed where I'm not sitting back and catering and I'm not going to get cut in six weeks when you realize, you know, and, and say what you want. You know, there's the speculation that he had that, you know, uh, meeting with Vince on Friday during SmackDown and whatnot. And it went really well. And Vince, you know, took a liking to him or whatever, but I'm like, he, the only reason is because he has seen what AEW is doing with the talent that he's dropping and he's afraid now that they're going to get, you know, Windham or Bray or whatever you want to call him.
00:26:53
Speaker
Daniel Bryan and the CM Punk rumors and all that stuff. Vince is spooked. You can say he doesn't care, but he's spooked. Why else would he want to meet personally with Adam Cole? There's nothing about Adam Cole that screams Vince McMahon. This is literally just a power move or a FU move. I don't think Adam Cole is going to bite.
00:27:17
Speaker
I disagree. I don't think Vince is spooked by AEW. He literally was on an investor's call and said, he basically taught it, said that, yeah, we're just going to give him some more talent.
00:27:34
Speaker
He's not going to go on an investor's call and be like, Oh God. Yeah, but he's also not going to say that, you know, I'm going to give him a bunch of talent and then actually go and do it. You know, he released Bray Wyatt like a week after.
00:27:48
Speaker
he said that. And this, if you look at the dollars and cents of it, you know, with the hardcore wrestling fans, I think AWS running laps around WWE right now, but they're not a drop in the bucket compared to what WWE is doing on the global scale with all their various, um, entertainment deals. I don't
Vince McMahon's Interest in Adam Cole
00:28:05
Speaker
know about this Adam Cole thing. That was weird that Vince
00:28:07
Speaker
wanted to meet with him after all the people he's cut like Bray and Braun who you'd think are like right up his alley. But maybe he took a shine to him. We know how much he loves Shawn Michaels. He said Shawn Michaels is like a son to him and Adam Cole is probably the closest thing we have to the modern age Shawn Michaels. So maybe Shawn Michaels and Triple H probably, I was gonna say planted a bug in Vince's ear and you know, I don't know. And we talked about it, you know, last week Adam Cole's, I think
00:28:33
Speaker
pretty much at this point, I think you could say he's passed up in baller and is the best NXT wrestler that we've ever had. So maybe, you know, maybe Hunter got in his ear and said, you know what? Yeah, you can let all these other guys go. This is the one guy that we need to hang on to one way or another. Marco, I'm going to give you the tough job, man. All right. You're always the kind of beacon of positivity. Spin this for us. Tell us how all of this news can end up being a positive for wrestling fans. Oh, boy. About the so I mean, I think I kind of mentioned it before that, you know,
00:29:03
Speaker
You know, they're not going to be, obviously, they're not going to be on TV anymore. It's not going to be a televised show. I think the you know, the debuts of people that you that you're going to hear from the performance center will be a lot better. I think just
00:29:19
Speaker
having people on TV and then going to another TV show isn't the most appealing thing, personally. So for instance, when Enzo and Cass, when they were on NXT, they weren't on USA Network yet. They were still on, you have to pay to see them.
00:29:37
Speaker
So when they did show up, it was like a big thing. It was like, holy crap, they made it from this thing that we've never seen, that you can only see exclusively. Now they're on the big stage. So it made it more enticing. It made it more exciting that they actually showed up on TV. Whereas if someone's on TV week to week, and they're just transitioning over to a new show, and you really didn't care for them in the first place, essentially, and they weren't
00:30:01
Speaker
What's going to pull you in and be more invested in that person now that they're on Raw or SmackDown as opposed to NXT? I know, but is this going to be something people are even viewing or is this literally just a developmental, dark developmental territory? It seems like it's going to be dark developmental. They're just going to build and then people will appear.
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's going to be old school. Like you'll start to get little murmurs of people getting buzz at a developmental. Like this is going to be the guy to watch next year. And then all of a sudden we're going to show up on our show. The other thing too is like the other positive thing too, is if they are trying to get like the most elite talent out there, now you're not going to know until they actually appear. You might hear murmurs and stuff like that. Has WWE kept a secret or had a surprise debut in like the last freaking three, four years?
00:30:46
Speaker
So if they're going old school, when you had a guy like Brock Lesnar show up on Raw and just destroy your whole roster, that was something big, essentially. So you've never seen anything like Brock Lesnar before on TV. Yeah, destroyed the Hardy Boys in his first match.
00:31:02
Speaker
Yeah. So like, so something like that, you have like, you have someone that, you know, that they find, um, that just shows up on raw Smackdown and just decimates Roman Reigns, for instance. But now they're so worried about ratings. They're going to be like, they're going to be like, remember how AW was like, we got a big surprise. He's the biggest in the business. Tune in on Monday to see who he is. He's a great guy. He's this, you know, I just feel like it's going to be... Remember, Braun debuted cold the night after SummerSlam 2015 on Raw. He came out of nowhere and showed up.
00:31:31
Speaker
years ago. Well, if they're going old school, they might be, you know, trying to go back to that, like, you know, not giving any information out. They don't see information age. Like you're going to find out about everything. Fans are smart. They're going to go and search. They're going to go on whatever message boards, you know, on Twitter, they're going to go, whatever, whatever they need to do to get the most information that they can. But if they literally go back and just start from the beginning and just, you know, just start grooming everyone to.
00:32:00
Speaker
You're right. I hope they do some surprises. I love, I've gone on record as saying I love a surprise like entrant or like, you know, a comeback or return or whatever. I hate when they spoil it and I get it from a business perspective. They have to put eyes on the product, you know, and sell tickets and all those types of things. But I just feel like it's, it's so cool when you just see that, that crap just
00:32:20
Speaker
Like explode on social media and like everybody's like, Oh my God. Like, did you see that? And the people that missed it are really pissed that they weren't watching, you know? And that's, I feel like that's how you build interest in getting people to watch week to week is because you don't know what's going to happen. When you, when you know that nothing is going to happen, that's not like been announced, then it just kind of like, it doesn't give you any urgency to tune in. But if you think like, Oh crap, but you know, a Brock Lesnar type could just show up on Monday night and you know, just start destroying people.
00:32:49
Speaker
that's going to make your ears perk up a little bit. Yeah.
00:32:55
Speaker
Um, Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly were announced for a three stages of hell match coming up at takeover. And it's being billed as the undisputed finale. You know, they really landed on thick. It sounds like this might actually end up being the main event of, uh, of a takeover card with a couple of huge title matches. Shane, I'm put you on the spot. Yes or no. Will this be Adam Cole's last match in WWE?
00:33:20
Speaker
Yep. Yep. I think he's gone after this. Again, I just, you know, circle back to all the things that I said before, unless he's just got some life changing guaranteed offer on the table. I feel like Adam Cole, and it would only make sense. You know, Britt Baker is over in AEW. Um, you know, not that everybody that leaves WWE has to go to AEW, but
00:33:40
Speaker
I do feel like Adam Cole has some just already built in storylines over there that would be really fun to watch and really interesting. He's got a lot of history with those guys over there. So I think it's gonna be a good move for him. And yeah, I think it's Adam Cole's swan song here at the WWE.
00:33:57
Speaker
Yeah, I tend to agree. I think kind of like you alluded to a little bit earlier in the conversation, unless Vince McMahon is just giving him some sort of just crazy life changing amount of money or maybe they're, you know, guaranteeing him some sort of job where he can slide into a producer type role like what Sean and Triple H have been doing. I don't see any reason why he should stay. I just asked straight up as much as as much as I love Adam Cole.
00:34:24
Speaker
As much as I love Adam Cole, I don't, I just don't really know where he's going to fit in on the main roster on Raw and SmackDown. He is small, you know, I mean, not to, not that I really agree with WWE stance is saying like, you know, no more midgets or whatever, but at a certain point, you know, we talked about it last week, it's just, it's physics and it's believability. And I just, I don't see how he, Adam Cole beat somebody like Drew McIntyre or, or Roman Reigns, you know, so, um,
00:34:51
Speaker
I don't know. What do you think, Marco? You think there's the baddest bitch on the block? You know what I mean? He's got credentials. I feel like y'all are short-silling Adam Cole. You always say that. Like, I don't see how he could beat Roman Reigns or, you know... How could he beat Roman Reigns? He's not knowing how. Roman beat Daniel Bryan and Edge at the same time in WrestleMania, but Adam Cole... Stacked him. Stacked him and pinned him.
00:35:11
Speaker
But how is Adam Cole? Daniel Bryan being a free Goliath at WrestleMania. I mean, how did that happen? He did, actually. That's so amazing. I feel like Daniel Bryan is like... Daniel Bryan's a 5X. Not that he's a giant, but he's bigger than Adam Cole, you know what I mean? He's a lot bigger. Adam Cole was like, yeah, it's not so much like the height, but Adam Cole was very, very like skinny also, man. I don't know. I just don't see him coming in and taking out these freaking...
00:35:39
Speaker
these monsters on the main roster. Yeah, and he's 32. So he hits both of those criterias where they just cut people. He's right in the middle of the main diagram of the people they got in the crosshairs right now, man. Yeah, so he's dead in the center of that. Yeah. I don't see, I mean, like you said, if I say back the brink truck up, which I don't think they would, I think that if they did have a meeting, that meeting was just a, you know,
00:36:03
Speaker
Yeah. It just doesn't make sense. If they're cutting a guy like Bray who sells just an obscene amount of merch for budgetary reasons and puts butts in seats and all that kind of stuff, then I don't know why they would just interchangeably
00:36:19
Speaker
Give that kind of contract Adam Cole, you know, yes, well you also you never want to make the mistake of trying to apply logic to an illogical situation like we're true to where we've been going on for the last 20 minutes like there's any sort of rhyme or reason to the Decisions that David abuse making now. Yeah, very true. We hit all angles though Just so you know, someone is listening for the WWE though. They'll take our words into consideration and
00:36:44
Speaker
So if if this really is the the death of NXT as we know it they're going out with a bank That's why I said, you know We should still you know hold back just a little bit because there's a chance that all these reports are just Straight up bullshit because if you look at this takeover card we got for the night after summer slam. It is
NXT TakeOver Card Highlights
00:37:01
Speaker
straight fire So I'm gonna really run down the card. We got Walter versus dragon off the remit the rematch from what was epic
00:37:10
Speaker
Yeah, this was a candidate for, um, for match of the year, last year, going at it for the NXT UK championship. You got carrying cross going up against, uh, Samoa Joe. This is going to be Samoa Joe's first match, uh, since February of 2020. So really he's pre pandemic, man. It's going to be his first match since the pandemic broke out and they're going at it for the NXT championship. Samoa Joe on takeover always delivers. That's going to be crazy.
00:37:34
Speaker
We got the breakup, you know, the modern day Sean versus diesel. We got Dakota Kai going up against Raquel Gonzalez for the NXT Women's Championship. LA Knight and Cameron Grimes going at it again for the million dollar championship. And last but definitely not least, as previously mentioned, Kyle O'Reilly and Adam Cole in the three stages of hell match. So, I mean, that card is insane. They're going out, they're going out with a bang. What's your thoughts on this card, Marco?
00:38:01
Speaker
It's all main events. Each one of those could be, each one of these could easily headline this pay-per-view in my mind anyway. I mean, if you want to argue the LA nine Cameron Grimes, you can, but the stipulation makes it a main event, um, be an event match, but yeah, no, you can literally put any one of these there. And I mean, if this is the last takeover, it is, I mean, it.
00:38:23
Speaker
If you want to look at it this way, it does look like it could be a last takeover. The amount of talent that is on this card. And like I said, you can literally take any one of these and put them in the main event. They would all deliver.
00:38:40
Speaker
The obviously the highlight for me anyway is Walter That's gonna be a brutal match if you see the first one Yeah, you're in for a treat. I Have some choice words for carrying cross I mean I I mean
00:39:02
Speaker
I think it's maybe him floating from Rada to NXT and him not. I think, you know what? If you want to blame somebody for NXT's failure, I'm going to blame Kari Cross. Oh, wow. He'll be the last champion that they have coming off of Adam Cole. I will off of Keith Lee. I'm from Adam Cole, I think.
00:39:21
Speaker
I'm being in my own honesty, not really doing it for me personally. Yeah, I haven't been a fan. I was interested and then it just, again, I feel like it lost its mystique. It was overdone and it was just a little bit too much for me.
00:39:40
Speaker
Yeah, if you're Vince McMahon, just send back and you're going. This guy is a guy you're putting NXT's flag on. You put the flag in his hand and you're having him... No, this is... I'm going to get rid of this whole organization. He's a blame for me. So, I'm not sure if he's going to lose the title to Samoa Joe. That's either here nor there. I haven't decided on that yet, but
00:40:05
Speaker
Like I said, they're all main events. It's going to be an awesome takeover. I think the last takeover was the only one in recent memory that wasn't the best of takeovers. But I think this was great. Even when takeover misses the mark, it's still better than 95% of wrestling out there. Yeah, so I think this is definitely going to be probably the show of the year coming off of SummerSlam, depending on what happens at SummerSlam.
00:40:29
Speaker
All right. So speaking of takeover, there's been so, so, so many classic matches over the last seven years. She and I will put you on the spot. What is your all time favorite NXT match? I'm going
Favorite NXT Matches
00:40:44
Speaker
to have to go with Sasha and Bailey at TakeOver Brooklyn. I just think for me, it was like when, when women's wrestling really just kind of like came on the WWE map, not that, you know, no shade to any of the women that were doing their thing, you know, in WWE prior to this.
00:40:59
Speaker
but I feel like this this really showed that women could main event even though this wasn't a main event on that the card it like it stole the show it won match of the you know match of the year um that year so it was just amazing you know and it like all the like the building blocks had been in place for women to have a match like this but like this just kind of like gave it its final form and it was just oh my god it was just such a great match and I mean
00:41:26
Speaker
You can go back and watch it to this day and just be like, holy shit, you know, so I got to go. I mean, there's so many I could go on about a ton of different matches, but I will just pick this one. Seth, I'll just pick one option and I'm going to go with Brooklyn, Sasha and Bailey.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great choice. I think that is, it's not my pick, but it's probably the consensus pick for the best women's wrestling match in the history of wrestling. It was crazy. True. But I think, you know, what's funny about that, that you just said that I was going to say, like, I think this is when people started to be like, they wouldn't differentiate. Like this really put a nail in the, in the, like, where it was like, Oh no, this was the best wrestling match.
00:42:04
Speaker
that happened tonight. It wasn't the best women's wrestling match. It was like the best wrestling match. So I think that really kind of like set the stage for women just being like on the same playing field as the dudes.
00:42:16
Speaker
Yeah, it was one of those rare moments in wrestling when it just perfectly lines up that the babyface is really peaking at their level of fan support and the heel is peaking at their level of fans hating them, you know, because sometimes you catch it where the heel is starting to get a little bit of love and the babyface is getting kind of lukewarm or whatever, but it was just perfect. Everybody was hating Sasha for being so mean to Bailey and Bailey, it just, you know, she comes close so many times and falling short.
00:42:40
Speaker
Yeah, incredible. And then the in-ring action totally paid off all the emotion that people had invested to it. So great choice, Sheena. Marco, that's a tough one to follow, man. What's your pick?
00:42:51
Speaker
Oh my God, geez, why would you do this to me? There's way too many. I mean, I'm just going to go because it happened in my area. I'm going to go Samoa Joe, winning the NXT championship. I remember when that happened.
00:43:11
Speaker
Yeah, I believe that was actually in the same arena where Shawn Michaels lost his smile, man, back in, uh, back in 97. Yeah. Shawn Michaels lost his smile and Samoa Joe gained a championship. So it all evens out in, uh, in history. But yeah, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, uh, Ricochet and Adam Cole, cause that match was pretty amazing as well. So for the, uh, North American championship.
00:43:35
Speaker
Yeah, that was a great one. Mine is from takeover, Philadelphia in January, 2018, uh, on dry day defending the NXT championship. I know you were going to say that it's so good. I love that match, man. So like, I can never pick a favorite match. I kind of call it my, I have my magnificent seven, which is, um, Brett and Owen in the cage, summer slam 94, Brett and Austin at WrestleMania 13, uh, Brett and the bulldog at summer slam 92. You got, uh,
00:44:05
Speaker
the Ultimate Warrior in Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 6, Shawn and Undertaker in Hell in the Cell at Bad Blood, Roman and Brock from WrestleMania 31 with the Seth cash-in, and then the Heart Foundation vs. Demolition at SummerSlam 90. That's my like, seven matches I go to as my all-time favorite. If I ever changed the Manifesting 7 to the Elite 8, I would add in that match because Gargano and Andrade just tore the house down, man. There were so many little extra aspects with
00:44:33
Speaker
Um, Zelina and Candice getting involved on the outside crowd was going crazy. Wanting to see Johnny Gargano win the belt and he came up just short. And then at the end of it, we got Champa coming back to beat him down. Like, I don't know. I just love that match. I was always a huge fan of Andrade and I was actually shocked to even see him become NXT champion when he beat drew at the, um,
00:44:51
Speaker
the takeover that prior November. So yeah, great match. Really, really fun. We always got to keep the figures involved in the conversation here. You know, we're all huge figure fans. Marco, I'll kick it to you first, man. If there was one NXT figure that you could get made, what would it be?
00:45:09
Speaker
then because we didn't, we didn't get it yet. Hopefully we get it at some point. Definitely shots. He shots. He black card with the, with the mini tank. That's a good, that's a good one. It shoots a little rocket. You definitely have to, I think you have to go with that. That's, I think that was, uh, one of my picks or I think maybe last year or the year before when we were talking about, uh, any type of, uh, NXT figure, it's always going to be shots. And she's, she's definitely, you know,
00:45:34
Speaker
Very Toyota tank you know the perfect accessory yeah the jacket soft goods jacket all that so yeah definitely definitely shots the black car would be the would be the NXT figure that I would go for.
00:45:48
Speaker
If they ever brought the NXT line, I think that would be a great idea for an execution and as like a build a figure set, you know, like you could do four figures and each of them got a different part of the tank that you could just kind of snap together. That would probably be the way to do it. I don't know if we could get Shotzi with the tank. Just, you know, know what we know about how the budget works on those lines. Sheena, what's your pick?
00:46:08
Speaker
It's funny that you mentioned Andrade from that takeover of Philadelphia because that's the figure that I would get. I love that white gear that he was wearing with the lucha mask. Maybe it could be a two-pack with Selena or like one of the mariachi guys. I thought that would be such a cool one.
00:46:27
Speaker
Hold on. Honorable mention really quickly is I got to go with Johnny Gargano and Candace from Halloween Havoc when they were dressed like Jack Skellington and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas. I loved, loved, loved that year. Granted, we'll never get it because of licensing, I'm sure, but I thought that year was so awesome.
00:46:45
Speaker
Yeah, we may need to hit up somebody like Showstopper Customs to do that Andrade, because you remember that Elite 74 that we got? He was in the yellow gear, but it was the same deal. He had the jacket, and then he had the removable mask and stuff, so you could recreate it like that. But yeah.
00:47:01
Speaker
I love that entrance. That entrance was so dope. For me, I'm going to go with a guy. He's a little bit disgraced depending on what you believe, but this would have been such a great figure and it's a shame we never got it. When Velveteen Dream cosplayed as Hollywood Hulk Hogan, he had a takeover. I think that would have made just... That was awesome.
00:47:20
Speaker
just an excellent figure. Um, obviously I don't think we're ever going to get that. I don't know if Velveteen Dreams ever even going to come back and wrestle anywhere, but, but great choices. So hopefully, you know, Sheena is obviously, she's already, you know, ordered the tombstone and, you know, paid her final respects and stuff. It's a buried alive match for me.
00:47:38
Speaker
Yeah, I think me and Marco are both kind of in wait and see mode. I'm, you know, after seeing I was in the same boat as Sheena until I saw takeover on Eric until I saw NXT on Tuesday and I thought, well, you know, maybe this is all overblown and it won't end up being that big a deal. But yeah, we'll see what happens over the next few weeks. If all this stuff comes to pass, it's going to be very sad. And, you know, I think it's going to be a loss for wrestling fans everywhere.
00:48:04
Speaker
If NXT, as we know it, no longer exists. Are you guys ready to hear from Turnbuckle Tavern? Yep. Of course.
00:48:12
Speaker
Drop by and visit the Turnbuckle Tavern, where every Thursday, we give you the most in-depth analysis of all things AEW, as well as dive into impact wrestling, NWA, and all things NDA. If you like heated debates, compelling interviews, and a shot of nostalgia, you'll love the Turnbuckle Tavern, available on Apple and Spotify. Drink it in. It always goes down smooth.
00:48:42
Speaker
All right, it is time for the second week of our Royal Rumble segment. So this is where I'm going to give Sheena and Marco a kind of rapid fire list of topics and they have to, they have 30 seconds to give us their take. So Sheena, you're up first this week. You're ready to start? Let's go.
00:49:01
Speaker
All right. Randy Orton's back. He made his big return on Monday Night Raw and actually finished the show by RKO and Matt Riddle. But for some strange reason, that kind of means that they're back together. So I'm going to ask you right now, will RK bro win the raw tag team championship at SummerSlam?
00:49:19
Speaker
Yes, I think they're going to win the tag team championships. I, you know, I mean, Randy Orton has his championship stash on right now. So I feel like, you know, that that's only, that only means good things for SummerSlam. Um, also I really want to see them win the tag team championships. So this has been going on since like April. Uh, it really needs to pay off. And I feel like it would just only lead to an awesome tag team split up and hopefully a push for Matt Riddle to go on because he's so over right now.
00:49:50
Speaker
All right. I, uh, I tend to agree. I think that's how it's got to happen. I don't know what else AJ and I must condone. AJ's kind of done what he can to get this dude over, but I think it's time to see the big man go up on his own. All right, Marco, you're up next. You ready? Sure thing. All right. AEW Rampage debuts this week. Give the doubters a reason to watch live wrestling at 10 PM Eastern on a Friday night.
00:50:16
Speaker
Oh, man. If there's one thing, no Jim Ross, because it's a new commentary team. Marco Conan with a haymaker. Sorry, Chads. That's a slobber knocker. Sorry. I was joking. All new commentary team. I think there's only one reason.
00:50:36
Speaker
that you should watch Rampage at 10. And that's watching Britt Baker made an event against Red Velvet. What more could you ask for? Yeah, I guess. I don't know. Are you hyped for that, Shane? Will you tune in? Because that match has got to be good. Is it an hour show or a two hour show?
00:50:59
Speaker
I don't even know. I don't even know that. I should tell you how interested I am. Let's say I'm thinking it's a two hour, maybe it's an hour show. There's no way it's going to lead to an hour. Let's give them a minute if it's an hour. Sheena, think about how you typically feel around that time of night. At 10.45 PM on a Friday, are you staying awake to watch Red Velvet and Britt Baker? No. I am. Not happening.
00:51:23
Speaker
All right, Shane, you're back up. Max Caster has reportedly been suspended from AEW for his controversial freestyle. He dropped on dark a couple of weeks ago. Was it deserved or not?
00:51:37
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, in this climate, you know, granted, I think all the things he said were just like, I feel like he was just doing a little bit too much. I mean, he brought up, you know, the lacrosse thing from like 2016. I talked about Julia Hart's private parts. He hit on Simone Biles mental health and then, you know, he did a freaking haymaker on the PCR test. So yeah, he should have known that he was going to get some punishment. And I feel like it's definitely deserved.
00:52:07
Speaker
I thought, I don't know, I thought it was a little bit overboard. I feel like AEW was just being a little bit reactionary. They have to though. I mean, they can't not do it. That's the thing. I mean, granted, I'm not easily offended. I don't think the lacrosse thing was very... I thought that was in poor taste and the other stuff was like, whatever. I mean, the Simone Biles saying that was topical.
00:52:27
Speaker
Um, and i'm sure julia hard. I don't know if he like ran that by her before he said that but I feel like they can't not Do something about it because of the cult like the the way the society is right now. Everybody's offended by everything So if you don't do something like it's like oh so they they agree with you know, um, I don't I don't know. It's just I get it I feel like if they wouldn't have at the end of the day it's a max caster freestyle that was on dark I feel like if they wouldn't have done anything
00:52:52
Speaker
it would have blown over in a couple days, you know, they definitely didn't care because that was a tape show and they still heard it. I mean, it's cut now. Like if you go back and watch the thing, it's not on the, on there anymore. But yeah, he, he removed all the AEW stuff from his like Twitter bio and stuff. He's like, Oh, you guys co-signed it and then you aren't gonna, I mean, I guarantee you,
00:53:16
Speaker
Again, I don't want to try to kill this segment. These are supposed to be 30-second takes, but I got to get this one out. I guarantee you, somebody backstage at AEW has been telling Max Cash, like, dude, go for it. You know what I mean? Because that's where the money's at, pushing it right to the edge of what people think you might say. And I didn't think anything he said was really that bad. And then he's a heel. He's supposed to be getting heat.
00:53:36
Speaker
Either way, let's move on again. Sometimes we just love wrestling. You know, that's why sometimes this segment's going to, uh, we're going to break the gamut a few times, but, uh, we'll get back to it. Marco, you're up next. We had the very entertaining, uh, part of Tuesday night. We'll see an, uh, Indy Hartwell and Dexter Loomis go on their date. Give us your take on, uh, you know, on that skit and the index romance in general.
00:53:59
Speaker
Um, so I'm one of the people that were just like, eh, really didn't, you know, care for it at first. Uh, but after seeing this, uh, skit that they had last night, I thought it was pretty funny, uh, with Candace and, you know, Johnny acting like the parents of, uh, Andy, you know, at the beginning, uh, Johnny going, you know, you know, you've got to have it back at this time of night and all this stuff. And then I'm trying to, you know, stop the actual date from happening or intervening in the date is pretty funny, but yeah, I really enjoyed it.
00:54:30
Speaker
So you're rooting for index to pan out and be a long-term relationship? Of course. I've always wins. All right, Shane, you got the last one. I'm very interested to hear your take on this one. Okay. Boneless or bone in? Discuss.
00:54:48
Speaker
So I'm assuming we're talking about wings. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Um, okay. So yeah. Uh, boneless wings. I can eat them. I like them. Um, if I'm going, if I have to just choose one to go on a desert Island, I'm going to go bone in. Everybody knows the bone is where the good, the goodness is. Yeah. The all the, all the juice comes from the bone.
00:55:10
Speaker
And, uh, it's, I just feel like when you're, when you're boneless, they put a little bit too much breading on there and it just kind of kills the, the, uh, you know, the breast meat and you know, boneless wings are typically made out of white breast meat. Bone in wings are the dark meat. So dark meat, baby. I really feel like they should, you know, it's 2021. Like we got billionaires sending rockets to the moon and shit. There's all kinds of crazy stuff you can do. Like, why can't we get true boneless wings? You know?
00:55:39
Speaker
What's so hard about that? Because really the boneless wings we're eating right now are freaking chicken nuggets. Yeah, exactly. Why can't they just like debone? Like you get a boneless, skinless thigh, you should just be able to get boneless wings. Like just debone the wing and give me the wing. De-bone it and then deep fry what's left. Yeah, exactly. I don't know why we, yeah, we as a society, I don't know why we've accepted chicken nuggets as being called boneless wings, man. Yeah, I mean, I will eat them, but I'm not like, I'm not calling those wings. They're not wings or chicken nuggets, you know?
00:56:07
Speaker
Exactly. All right, let's drink to that.
00:56:20
Speaker
All right, it's time for the weekly beverage break where we let you guys know what we're sipping on while we record the show. Sheena, what are you drinking this week? Okay, so I am drinking an Aslan Tokyo Smoke. It is a Tokyo Smoke India pale ale. I didn't really do a lot of research on this. Seth, I know you drink one earlier in the week. So if you have anything you want to add, it's really good, but... Yeah, it's pretty good. It's kind of... So they're from Aslan... Is it Aslan Broom Company? What's the exact name on that, Sheena?
00:56:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's Aslan Beer Company, and they're out of Alexandria and Herndon, Virginia. So they're pretty local to us, a little bit more. Yeah, it's an IPA, and then it gets just kind of like a little kiss of liquid smoke at the end to just throw something a little bit different. I really didn't get much of the smoke flavor when I drank it, but it was still a nice, good, crisp IPA. Yeah, very crisp.
00:57:08
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm a big fan of... I've had a few of Aslan's offerings at this point. I'm a big fan of the stuff that they've had. So if you get a chance to pick up something from them, I think they're at the point with me where I'll trust pretty much anything that they drop and I'll at least buy a six pack and try it. The can almost looks like a Japanese Coke or something. It's got a big red label on it and it's got the way the letters are. It's kind of like those cursive Coca-Cola letters. So yeah, very pretty can. Marco, what are you drinking?
00:57:36
Speaker
I am sipping on Mayflower Brewing Company, Love and Wrestling, Double Dry Hopped. Of course, Double Dry Hopped, New England, Double IPA, right here in Plymouth, Massachusetts. So right where the Plymouth Rock is. No, I'm not sure if it's actually right there.
00:57:55
Speaker
Um, just to give you an idea of where Plymouth, Massachusetts is with where Plymouth rock. So not only do you get wrestling news, you get history, history lessons as well from, uh, from the chick Foley show. But yeah, I love this bear. Um, this one's definitely close to the, uh, to the dream team, um, that you guys both tasted. So it's not as good. It's close to it, but I enjoy it.
00:58:22
Speaker
If you guys get any like specialized, like Halloween, like Salem, which trial limited beers or anything up there, I need you to like, you know, start collecting those for me. Cause you know, Halloween stuff's already hitting the shelves, you know, in August. So be on the lookout for your girl. Of course.
00:58:39
Speaker
I'm drinking a Bitburger Rattler. This is an import. It's from Germany and it's a Shandy. It's half lemonade, half beer. Very refreshing. I enjoy it. As a bonus, I think I got one over on my local Total Wine because they rang it up and I got a four-pack for $1.97. I think maybe something was wrong with their system. I think they charged me for a single beer.
00:59:04
Speaker
the custom six packs or whatever, I think I got charged for that instead of the actual pack I got. I wasn't as honest as I could have been. I give them enough business also, so I wasn't really sweating it. Yeah, we've literally wiped out their broken school IPA section several times.
00:59:22
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, so hopefully nobody from Total Wine and Nora folks will listen. If they are, I'll talk to you guys at $10 bill next time I'm in there. Check out the Pyramid Wrestling podcast. Each week we dive deep into all things wrestling action figures from AEW Unrivaled, WWE Mattel Elite, our childhood WWF, WCW, ECW collections and more. You can also find Pyramid Wrestling on YouTube. That's Pyramid Wrestling available everywhere you listen to podcasts.
00:59:52
Speaker
Alright, so we will start off the figure four by talking about the latest with the new generation ring project. So as we went on the air last week, they had just announced that day about the macho man WrestleMania 10 slash announcer figure coming with it with the announcer set.
01:00:11
Speaker
We are currently setting at 2,766 backers. So it's a 55% funded. There's still two days left to go. Well, this is Wednesday night, August 11th, as we record this, there's still two days left on the early bird special for macho man. We need an additional 2,234 people to pledge or to back this in the next 10 days, man. Shane, I'll kick it to you first. What could they do to entice more backers?
01:00:40
Speaker
I think I said this last week, I think they just need to just go ahead and cut their losses on the stretch goals and just add everything into the freaking bucket. Just give us the doink, give us the macho man, give us the ring skirts, all of that. Just tell them at 250, this is what you're getting and try to get it to that 5,000 because otherwise I don't see it inching up because especially after that early bird special goes away, I think people are just going to be like, eh,
01:01:10
Speaker
Well, whatever, you know, it gave it a boost, but yeah, it's already that boost is kind of running out of steam. I agree. I think, yeah, I think when it hits one week, announce that give us a week where it's going all in and we can get it, you know, there's that or they could always extend the window also maybe maybe extend the window another two weeks we could get to it.
01:01:28
Speaker
They're definitely committed to it. They're pushing, they are pushing it harder. I think they can do more, maybe, maybe get a commercial on raw or something like that, you know. That's the thing, you know, Steve Ozer, action figure attack, he's been making the podcast rounds and stuff, you know, he's, he's talked to our buddy. He is.
01:01:44
Speaker
uh tom you know doing the turnbuckle sessions and i just feel like uh he's on fully poseable yeah he was on fully poseable as well so make sure you definitely go listen to those uh because yeah he does go and kind of give all the ins and outs of the uh the new gin arena new gin arena and stuff but
01:02:00
Speaker
Yeah, I just feel like, again, it was just kind of doomed from the start. I think
Crowdfunding NXT Arena Challenges
01:02:04
Speaker
they really, they really crapped the bed whenever they announced it at SDCC weekend. I feel like it just was just bad, bad timing because everybody's wallets were already tied up and everything else. And when something like that gets a slow start, it's really, really, really hard to pick up steam after the fact. Yeah, we talked about that last week. It's just, it's really based on momentum. Marco, I'm going to put you on the spot, man. Is this thing going to end up getting funded?
01:02:32
Speaker
don't make me don't make me answer this all the figure marks are gonna come for your head if you obviously we want this to be backed we want this to happen will it happen I'm gonna say probably not I don't want to give it a no I'm gonna say probably not only because
01:02:56
Speaker
We talked about this before as a rollout how this how this came about How is presented? I think that was What I think that's what but the nail the nail the coffin was essentially. Yeah, you know Maybe like like she just said maybe at the beginning or maybe not even do it at SDCC. Maybe wait till after Just be like it should have just been like a fall thing like, you know Black Friday like just announce it and then
01:03:26
Speaker
Because I mean, what would have been the big deal waiting two or three months to announce it? I just feel like... I think that Batra Man figure came a little too late, maybe announced that at the beginning with Diesel. So you have the set, you have the rank, you have the announce table, you have Batra Man, maybe that might have
01:03:47
Speaker
helped it out a little bit. Obviously, you put me on the spot to say it's not going to happen, so I don't think it's going to happen, but hopefully it does happen. I hope it does happen. Sadly, I have to agree. At this point, at the speed that it's going, I don't feel like it's going to.
01:04:05
Speaker
I don't feel like it's going to make it, dude. I know I'm in the major brothers group and I know they push it really hard. We try ourselves. I'm on Twitter, posts and stuff as well. Even Kevin Nash came out and actually tweeted about it. Maybe that'll help. We wanted to work, but
01:04:32
Speaker
Yeah, we were talking about how we hope, uh, ringside just comes through and like backs the rest of them and then sells them on, you know, the other thing too, like there was a lot of pre-orders that happened. Like we talked about this as CCC literally think everything that they announced at their, at the Mattel people were tapped out. Yeah. They announced like literally everything that they announced is, was up for pre-order.
01:04:53
Speaker
People were tapped out. So here's where they screwed up. Because once you've opened your wallet that much, the money's loose and it's flowing. But where Mattel screwed up is that they were charging people right off the bat. So had they announced it at SDCC and everybody was like, well, shit, I've already spent $1,000. What's 250 more? You know what I mean? I feel like if they would have just
01:05:13
Speaker
Not taking the money right away. It would have given people a little bit more motivation to go ahead and just like commit to it And like, you know what? Like I'm gonna go ahead and commit to this now I won't have to pay until you know, September or whatever like it'll it'll be fine But the fact that they scoop the money out right away I think that kind of spooked people and we're like and do I really want to you know invest in this and not I mean
01:05:34
Speaker
And not even know whether it's going to get funded and not know, you know, not know when this thing is going to actually be in my possession. So in the future, again, I'm, you know, I'm not telling Mattel how to run their business or anything, but I feel like it would definitely be a better crowdfunding idea. If they don't charge people right away, you're going to get a lot more interest. Yeah.
01:05:53
Speaker
Right. I get I get one to announce it at Comic Con because there's just so many extra eyeballs on, you know, the line, everything then. But there was no reason that you had to also start the backing that weekend. Also, you could have announced it on Comic Con and spend a month hyping it up, educating people on exactly how crowdfunding works and stuff. Yeah. And then and then, you know, SummerSlam weekend just happens to be a month after Comic Con. Kick it off at SummerSlam weekend, you know, that Friday. Hey, this is where we're going live. And you guys got 30 days to back this thing.
01:06:24
Speaker
I don't know, man. I'm mostly going to say this too, sour grapes. They started the weekend off with Mattel, that weekend off with Mattel Creations with the Sergeant Slaughter thing. A lot of people got pissed off that they didn't get one. You sound like you know something about that, Marco. Yeah, I don't know. I'm over it, but there are... Sounds like you're still an open wound.
01:06:47
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just saying this says that that happening at the beginning of all this. Yeah, probably. Yeah, probably didn't take you know, did help dealt this out. This is called the project. So I mean, we'll see what happens. But when he said it, I think it's a
01:07:05
Speaker
I think it's a pretty grab for the much like NXT. Yeah. I think bringing it back down, bringing the show right now. You guys are boomers tonight, man. We'll move on to somebody who's probably the exact opposite of anything new generation, Nick Gage, the king of the death match, the leader of the murdered death kill gang.
01:07:28
Speaker
He has been added to zombie sailors heels and faces line. He's going to be getting his first ever figure. This is obviously really, really cool. She has already
Nick Gage's Figure Announcement
01:07:36
Speaker
been talking about. She wants to get a pizza cutter accessory with it. Marco, I'm going to throw it over to you, man. So obviously we know Nick Gage made his dynamite debut a couple of weeks ago, fighting Chris Jericho. Do you want to see jazzwares do a Nick Gage figure or would you rather get your your 19th Cody?
01:07:52
Speaker
I mean, obviously the 19th Cody is where it's at. She set this guy straight, man. We want our unrivaled, our unmatched Nick Gage figure. Yeah. With all the fixings. Pizza cutter.
01:08:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Articulated pizza cutter. We need a light tubes that, you know, you can somehow shatter and reassemble, um, little blood packets, all that. Maybe, maybe, uh, you know, some, uh, bank robber accessories, everything you need for, uh, yeah, to make a, to make an accurate knit gauge. Oh yeah. I'd be sick.
01:08:34
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm definitely excited about Nick Gage. I think I said this on last week's show. He had the week. I mean, I'm not saying he's a household name yet, but he's out there. His name, he had quite the week. He's definitely the hottest thing in wrestling right now. I think Nick Gage is the best babyface in the business, man. He's got the one thing that you can't buy, you can't manufacture it. He is authentic, and that always resonates, whether it's
01:09:00
Speaker
Whether it's music, wrestling, sports, whatever, like that is the one thing that it just comes through over and over and it gets a connection with the people, man. I freaking love the age. People love genuine because I mean, if you want, I mean, the dark side of the rank obviously set it off. I mean, obviously he was like, he was a name already before dark side of the ring. I think it made him more mainstream. He was very, very niche before.
01:09:24
Speaker
If you grew up in certain parts of wherever you live, like the rough parts, you probably ran into somebody or know somebody much like Nick Cage. I think that he's relatable in that sense. I know a guy that actually did the stuff he did in his personal life. You know a bunch of bank robbers, Marco? Yeah, a bunch of bank robbers and guys that stab people with fluorescent tubes and stuff like that.
01:09:55
Speaker
it's I'm excited for him actually really happy and I'm gonna buy it because I don't want him coming after because if you see that video the promo that he did for his figure did you guys get to watch that yeah very dope yeah he pretty much threatened you so yeah I'm definitely gonna pre-order this because I don't want him
01:10:14
Speaker
Finding where I live and decides to be able to do a pizza cutter.
Pre-Ordering Nick Gage's Figure
01:10:18
Speaker
So that would definitely be pre-ordering. If you hear this, Dick Age, or any fans of Dick Age are listening, I am definitely pre-ordering your figure. Yeah, the chief police show. We're cool with the MBK gang all day.
01:10:31
Speaker
I did make a very very rare figure error last week when we paid our respects to beautiful Bobby Eaton I asked you guys to give me the best Bobby Eaton figure ever and we only went back and forth between his pint size all-star and his Jack's classic superstars if you guys go to the The group chat on Instagram. I just sent you guys a screenshot I forgot that in his very short-lived blue bloods gimmick where he basically became a
01:10:58
Speaker
you know, like William Regal Light, you know, a sophisticated English gentleman. He had a figure made in a tag team set with original San Francisco toy makers.
Bobby Eaton Figure Discussion
01:11:10
Speaker
Who corrected you? Did somebody send you a... No, I just thought about it, man. I literally just realized it. It was when I was going over, so I was putting together the notes for this week's show and, you know, a little peek behind the curtain. I'm lazy. I never make them from scratch. I always just go from the last week and start looking at it.
01:11:28
Speaker
And I was going through the figure segment. I saw about the Bobby Eaton and I was like, dude, you know what? I think he had a blue bloods figure and then sure shit. I looked it up. This was this set was towards the end of this style of figures, kind of like the LJN style of figures that original San Francisco Toymakers was doing. So this is actually one of the harder to get WCW sets there from the mid 90s. But but yeah, there's Bobby Eaton, the guy from Huntsville, Alabama, dressed up like a British squire.
01:11:57
Speaker
And the figure's kind of weirdly out of scale also, you know, that William Regal looks like Titanic compared to, um, but it is a cool set. And you know, it's kind of funny that William Regal's like in his in-ring gear and they got Bobby Eaton in the entrance gear and stuff. Um, so we did leave that one out. I don't think I think we're all in agreement that the Jack's midnight express is still the best. Yeah.
01:12:18
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm still going to ask you guys to do how many Marcos are our regular listeners know that we have a segment where we do how many chicks there one to five for the crypto fans out there, you know, you always got to be up on your exchange rate. So so one chick is equal to two Marcos, which means for Marcos, we'll go one through 10. So Marco, we'll let you kick it off, man. How many Marcos do you give the blue bloods Bobby Eaton figure? Oh, man.
01:12:46
Speaker
This is actually, I mean, I'm a fan of LJN style figures anyway, so I'm kind of like biased towards this. I'm already just looking at it. I don't like that. It's like you said, it's a smaller scale, but I mean, you know, it's not a huge deal breaker. Let's see. What's that? What's the highest we could give for Marcos? 10. 10. Yeah, it's one to 10.
01:13:16
Speaker
I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go eight, eight and a half. We'll go out for this because I like the entrance gear. I like the detailing on it. And I like the packaging, how it says realistic detailing and awesome awesome wrestling. Yeah, I love these San Francisco Toymaker figures. I think this is going to be one of the one of the next collections I go after, man. I was these guys had a ton of playability, man. I really love the entire line, so.
01:13:45
Speaker
I got a soft spot for these. Um, I really did not care for the blue bloods. I thought Bobby Eaton was so much better in the midnight express. I think, you know, pretty much Eddie Bobby Eaton fan would agree. This was a low point in his career, but it is a memorable figure. Um, I'll go seven. I'm gonna knock it off just for the gimmick being kind of lame and him being at a scale, but I do still like the figure. Sheena, how about you? How many Markos you giving it?
01:14:07
Speaker
I'm going to give it five. Wow. Gina is just doom and gloom this episode, man. The power of negativity.
01:14:20
Speaker
Why, you wouldn't care to elaborate or just watch? No, I, again, like, just like you guys said, it's, it's a little bit out of scale. Um, I don't really have any sentimental, um, like I don't have any sentimental value on the San Francisco Toymakers figures. Um, they're cool. I love, I love the carded figures again. You know, they definitely are nostalgic, but I just personally am like, eh,
01:14:43
Speaker
Meh, whatever. All right, fair enough. We'll move on to weekly purchases.
Weekly Wrestling Purchases
01:14:49
Speaker
So this is going to drop Friday morning, but it's actually Wednesday night as we record this just due to some, you know, some real world events that we have going on that's not going to let us record on our normal Thursday timeline. So that being the case, you know, we just recorded Friday night. I have actually zero purchases in the last four days. I don't know how I think it's happened before, but I think it's only happened once before.
01:15:11
Speaker
that we didn't have any weekly purchases. So Marco, it's all you, man. What have you added to the collection in the last few days?
01:15:18
Speaker
Just see AW on Match series I got in. I think I got it after we did the show last week. I think LJ and Cody was the only one you had last week. Yeah, that was from you, but yeah, definitely got that. We talked about this, about Mero having no chest hair. I didn't think it was going to be a big deal out of the package, but yeah, it actually
01:15:47
Speaker
Kind of takes away from it. Yeah, it kills it. Does it block arms? And he has small hands, which is kind of weird, too. You know, it's not like the hands that are harder to crush you with. That thing is just off, man. I love jazzwares for the most part. They've knocked out of the park. But there's already in the short time that line's been around, there's definitely been a few head scratchers where you're just like, what happened with this one? And I think Miro's kind of right over at the top of the list.
01:16:13
Speaker
Yeah. It's like, uh, awesome powers would say spool hands. That's what the first thing I thought when I looked at the hands, I was like, well, these hands are really tiny. Yeah. The arms are long. Yeah. There's no chest there. I was like, what? But yeah, no, I like to figure it. You know, the, the, the head scan captures his, his intensity and stuff like that too. Uh, definitely you'll have the Darby, um,
01:16:33
Speaker
Oh, that Darby is sick. With the body paint and everything. Yeah, incredible. Everything about that figure is beautiful. Him and the Kenny Omega, I think that was my favorite figure. Oh, the Kenny Omega is amazing.
01:16:44
Speaker
Yeah, I think someone did it. I forget what Instagram page I was looking at. They did a good, better, best with the Kenny Omega figures, and that one definitely is by far the best Kenny Omega figure. Yeah, that's what I said too. I think that's the best one we've gotten so far. Yeah. So yeah, that was pretty much it for my purchases. I would say at a new house, there's not many packages for what you just did.
01:17:09
Speaker
Hey everyone, it's Nick, better known as Extra Cooler. Is there anything better than diving back into the wrestling archives and watching classic matches from the past?
01:17:17
Speaker
Yes, there is. It's doing that with your buddies while cracking jokes and enjoying some ice cold beverages. If that sounds like fun to you, then be sure to check out my new podcast, The Extra Cooler Show, where each episode, my Survivor Series team and I review an old school match chosen by you, the listeners. The Extra Cooler Show is available wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to subscribe and follow us for new episodes every other Thursday morning.
01:17:55
Speaker
Random Merch of the Week is where we scour the deep recesses of the internet to track down hard to find and never before seen wrestling merchandise and share it with you, the Foley fam. You can find links to purchase our rare finds in the show notes of every episode. This segment is brought to you by Pro Wrestling Tees. Visit the official Chick Foley show store by searching Chick Foley at ProWrestlingTees.com or hitting the link in our show notes.
01:18:18
Speaker
All right, so I actually discovered the random merch for this week. We rarely go down the cards rabbit hole because there's just a whole entire culture and, you know, language and everything that you can get into when it comes to collecting cards.
WWE Kiss Cards Market
01:18:33
Speaker
But we did come across one that was very unique. So I'm not sure if something like this could even exist nowadays with the social climate, not to mention that, you know, there's a global pandemic, but we're looking at on eBay right now. It's very of the time.
01:18:47
Speaker
Yeah, the Nikki Bella 2016 tops authentic kiss card. So what this is, it's a trading card that actually has, you know, from what I can tell, the wrestler actually kissed it and it has their like lipstick print on the card. You know, there's a picture of Nikki on the left side. And it's funny, this card came out in 2016, but this looks like Nikki Bella from like 2013, 2012.
01:19:12
Speaker
on the picture and then yes, sure shit, there's a white square with some pink lips on there. Marco, you know, give me your thoughts, man. What can you tell us about the kiss card? Go to me first. You can't go to Sheena about the kiss card. I mean, there was just looking at the other, there's some other ones too. I think Dana Brooke had one. Eva Marie also had a kiss card as well. Eva Marie has one.
01:19:39
Speaker
Yeah. Interesting. Oh, boy. I think it's 2016, so it seems like it's the same, maybe the same set or whatever. I mean, it's not bad. Can you imagine Sasha Banks doing a kiss card?
01:19:55
Speaker
Oh, it'd be, it'd be a lot of money. Speaking of Sasha Banks, actually, I forgot I bought a pack of, uh, it was way back. I feel like media was, it was some NXT cards. Um, so I actually have a, uh, like a rookie, uh, Sasha Banks card when she has like her original gear and everything, which before, before the boss and everything. So that was just like a side note, whatever, but yeah, it seems like, uh, I mean, I probably, I mean, this is, this is up for bid, so I probably wouldn't.
01:20:27
Speaker
I don't know what these typically go for. I don't know if that's steep or not. It's not PSA graded or anything.
01:20:35
Speaker
I don't even know how you would go about even grading something like this. I don't know. To me, I'm not even really super sensitive to this kind of thing. This seems like kind of demeaning, you know what I mean? A freaking kiss card? Like, I don't know. I feel like this is something from like the attitude era and not something that would have been around in 2016. Sheen, what about you? You're the female perspective on the show. What do you think of the kiss cards? Yeah, like you said, it's just a little bit demeaning. Definitely. I mean, it goes right along with the butterfly title, you know, like it goes hand in hand with that. I just feel like it's just very like,
01:21:06
Speaker
It feels very attitude era. Like you said, just like leaving the lip prints. Um, I don't know, just very funny. Cause it was in a March of 2016. That's when they, they retired divas. Remember when they introduced the new women's championship and this was maybe the set came out early 2016 or maybe it was already production and tops are just like, dude, what the fuck, man? We've had this whole deal thing coming out.
01:21:31
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean it's whatever again. I'm not easily offended. It's not like it's offensive to me I just think it's kind of lame and just like especially someone I mean, I know Nikki Bella and Brie Bella have been in some like questionable storylines and stuff I'm you know, I'm not trying to say like this is the low point for
01:21:46
Speaker
of their career or anything. But I just feel like that just goes to show you how, I'm talking about my favorite NXT matches, Bayley and Sasha from Brooklyn, how far we've come in the women's revolution. So I'm glad we're past the kiss card era.
01:22:03
Speaker
Plus, yeah, I mean, Nikki ended up being a badass in the ring, dude. I love Nikki's matches there. Her last two years in the ring, Nikki got really, really good. I will go on record as saying, I love the Bellas. I know Breeze had some epic botches or whatever, but the Bella twins, like they were, they were definitely freaking trailblazers. And I feel like they just really, like they, they just unfortunately got kind of mixed in that middle ground right before the women's revolution. So they always got lumped in with like all of the divas and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I'm on record. I love the Bella twins.
01:22:33
Speaker
Yeah, I kind of thought that Brie was garbage, but I thought Nikki was pretty good. She was so bad in the ring. She's a good companion. I think she's a good companion piece for Nikki, I feel like. Yeah, character work was great. I thought she... Yeah, you're 100% right. I thought she was awesome as a...
01:22:51
Speaker
as like a manager type or, you know, escort or whatever for for for Nikki. But I got the sold listings pulled up. You guys ready for this? So it's like 2016 was the last year. How weird is this? There was a Bailey kiss card.
01:23:04
Speaker
Oh, wow. I was going to say, like I said, how would you imagine Sasha doing that? Like, yeah, this is when Bailey was working the, uh, you know, like just like the ultimate, almost like a little kid gimmick, you know, she was just like a wrestling fan or whatever. Where's your whole thing? Yeah. So her sold for a hundred bucks. These are all like sold lessons this month. Alexa sold for $177. Sasha Banks has one. So there is a Sasha. These are 99. There were 99 each of these. So these are,
01:23:31
Speaker
Pretty rare pieces of merchandise. Sasha sold for $201. Wow. That's crazy. Yeah, it looks like T&A did some of these as recently as 2019. See, that sounds like a very, yeah, T&A, I could certainly see like the T&A, like whatever, what do they call the knockouts? I can see them doing that. Bree sold for $51. Yeah, pretty wild. So yeah, kiss cards. Yeah, there's definitely a market for them. I mean, they're selling for,
01:24:11
Speaker
Yo, I'm about to blow you guys minds. 2015 page kiss card, $610. That's a sold listing that's on auction. Oh my gosh. All right. I'm down the rabbit hole now. I think our listeners will be pretty interested in this. Let me look at them highest price. So the highest one that sold was a 2016. So another Sasha Banks one, this one comes with certificate of authenticity. It went for 685 bucks.
01:24:25
Speaker
For pretty decent money. You can get it in 2012. All right, well, line up for your Chifoli Kiss cards. Oh my gosh.
01:24:40
Speaker
That is insane. Wow. So Sasha and Paige, that's the two most popular. There is an Eva Marie. Eva Marie sold for $315.
01:24:49
Speaker
And there's an AJ Lee, oh my God, they got, and, okay, I'll stop. Just go to eBay, search WWE kiss card. This is crazy, man. We'll throw some links up in the notes. I just imagine like all the Sheldon's out there are like buying these kiss cards so that they can build their own Sasha Banks, like with the DNA. You know, like they're using like, you know, to build their own Sasha Banks or their own Asuka out of the, to replicate the DNA, yeah.
01:25:17
Speaker
All right. So we'll have a we'll have a link to the the Nikki Bella kiss card along with with all the rest of the show partners that you've heard us mention so far tonight. Sheena, we got some listener mail. Oh, yeah.
Favorite Wrestling Cities
01:25:36
Speaker
All right, Sam Rosenthal, he asks us, what is your favorite wrestling city? It's been brought up a ton lately in the history of cities and which is the loudest. So I'm gonna toss it to Marco first. Marco, what is your favorite wrestling city?
01:25:50
Speaker
Um, let me go with Chicago. They're always the, uh, they're always either super amped. Um, I don't want to say they're negative, but you know, they, they're going to give you the reaction that you need. They're a rock this crowd. Yeah. Whether you're hail face doesn't matter. You're going to get some type of reaction out of, out of Chicago. All right, Seth.
01:26:14
Speaker
Um, so in general, I would say whatever city I'm in, because that means I get to go to the show. But if we're talking, I'm watching on TV. I got a, I got to echo Marco Chicago all the way. They were there. Uh, they were the crowd that executed the, the double turn for Bret Hart and Steve Austin. So yeah, they usually bring the energy and it's usually a smart crowd. So, you know, they kind of know how to react to, to really make the show that as good as possible.
01:26:39
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, I guess, you know, like MSG, you know, I think that their crowd's always awesome. It's just like a very, uh, well, well-rounded history, uh, wrestling crowd. So, um, but it's holy ground. Yeah. Just to, just to veer away from Chicago a little bit. Actually, you know what? I take that back. My favorite wrestling city is Pittsburgh.
01:27:01
Speaker
Okay, I'm lying. No, Pittsburgh is the shits. It's Shitsburg. It's Shitsburg, yeah. If you were going to give the United States an anima, you would stick the host right there. Sorry to all Pittsburgh's listeners. I'm just kidding. Rob Regina says, since SummerSlam is coming up and we all know Brett is Mr. SummerSlam.
01:27:21
Speaker
What is your personal favorite Brett Hart summer slam match? And he says he also adds you guys are the best. We love you Rob. Thank you. All right So I have to you know, I had to No, I'm not going to I'm just saying that earlier in the show I mentioned that I had two from summer slam In my top so it's a very good very good question. I would say the summer slam 94 Brett Hart versus on heart in the steel cage that was
01:27:51
Speaker
I want to say that was the first WWE match in something like five years to get, uh, or no, excuse me. That was the first WWE steel cage match ever to get five stars from a Dave Meltzer and the observer. So, you know, for what it's worth that just, that's just going to show you how great of a match it was. So yeah, Brett and Owen steel cage, summer slam 94. Yeah. Marco.
01:28:11
Speaker
Of course you have to go, uh, John Cena tag him with Bret Hart against Alberta Del Rio and I'm going to go with, uh, Fred Hart and British bulldog summer slam. Yeah, definitely. Just a storyline behind it. Um, it's obviously, if you don't know about it, definitely go search it, watch it.
Bret Hart SummerSlam Matches
01:28:32
Speaker
It's, uh, definitely one of his best matches ever, not just, you know, summer slam match.
01:28:38
Speaker
Well, golly. Um, I guess I'm gonna have to go with maybe Brett and Mr. Perfect. Uh, 1991. Yeah. You know, you guys took, obviously you guys took the, the, my, my two favorites, but yeah, Brett and Mr. Perfect, 1991, uh, classic match, just freaking two awesome workers in the ring together. Um, so I'm going to go with that one. Um, Brett's first singles pay-review match also.
01:29:04
Speaker
for all you guys keeping up with your quiz questions out there. So let's see, this is from Charlie Messing. He says, so from what I understand is the chick and the dude collect different types of figures, keep a lot later and sell them off. Are there any that you guys regret selling
01:29:24
Speaker
or any that became sought after so oh yeah so okay so he's talking about how we how we manage our collection so are there any figures Seth that you regret selling or any that like you know once you sold they became really sought after.
Regretting Sold Collectibles
01:29:40
Speaker
There's none that I sold that became really sought after. As far as value goes, I've been pretty smart on that one. Or I wouldn't even say smart, I would just say lucky because sometimes that shit's unpredictable. The only time I ever sold figures and then went back and got them was the New Day booty-o set. So this was the New Day from WrestleMania 32.
01:30:00
Speaker
their black and gold gear. It came in a big booty hose box. I had those and I sold them. And it was like a year and a half later where I just, I somehow or another that set kind of caught my attention again. I was like, you know what, I think I made a mistake. These belong in my collection. And I went back and grabbed them. That's the only time I can really think of doing that though.
01:30:18
Speaker
All right, I'm going to give us one more. Randy Smith said, we have tons of messages or tons of listener mail this week. So anything that doesn't get read off this week, I will carry them over until the next week. So make sure you tune in next week if you sent in a question. Randy Smith says, if you could start a podcast about anything else, what would
Ideas for Non-Wrestling Podcasts
01:30:39
Speaker
it be? Marco? Oh, dang. What would your non-wrestling podcast be about?
01:30:49
Speaker
Uh, they have to go, they go conspiracy theories. Oh my gosh. That is so funny that you say that Seth has been pushing. So for all the listeners out there, you guys need to help me out. I've been pushing Sheena to honor that her and Marco need to start a Patreon exclusive.
01:31:05
Speaker
conspiracy theories series like because there I know Marco's all into it and is all into it like those two can just you know pick up a different conspiracy theory every single week and just you know discuss it man discuss the various aspects of it so I'm thinking like maybe like you know once a month they get on and do that so if then if they see you guys bring it up help me out help me push these guys to do it because I think the Facebook group
01:31:33
Speaker
Yeah, every month you guys could put up a poll of like four different conspiracy theory topics and let the, let the Foley fan pick which ones you guys are going to discuss. And then, uh, and then report. What about you? What would you, uh, what would you choose for your non wrestling related podcast? Hmm. That's a good one, man. I don't, I would probably, uh,
01:31:56
Speaker
I don't know. I'm thinking maybe music, man. Music's always been a passion of mine. So I don't know. I can't really fine tune it. Obviously, I'd have to narrow it down. Music's a pretty broad topic to just say, yeah, my podcast is going to be about music. So maybe I might pick an individual song that was either a smash hit or something that just really resonated with me and just do a deep dive on it every week. Do all the research on the meaning behind it, who wrote it, how it came to be recorded, and all that. I think that could be kind of neat. Yeah.
01:32:27
Speaker
Yeah, I have so many that I would like to do. I'm into so many things. If you guys know me on a personal level, I'm a very multifaceted type of person. I have so many different interests. But I don't know, maybe I would like to start a podcast because one of these days, one of my goals is to just have a homestead and a farm and all that. I want to do the Liv Morgan and Bo Dallas route. So I would love to do a podcast on my experience
01:32:55
Speaker
with that and kind of like the good, the bad, the ugly, the trials, the triumphs, and kind of walk people through that process and what it's like. I don't know how that resonates with the common wrestling fan. There wouldn't be any crossover audience. But yeah, I think that would be something that would definitely interest me.
01:33:17
Speaker
All right. Thanks everybody for all the great questions. Uh, Sheena remind the listeners where they can find you guys on social media. You can always find me on Instagram at chick Foley Marco running the Twitter machine over at chick Foley show and then join our fully fam Facebook group at chick Foley show.com. Yeah. We want to encourage you guys to subscribe and review the show or make sure you use code chick Foley to save 10% on ringside and Marco as the reigning defending.
01:33:45
Speaker
undisputed chick fully show prediction champion. You have the closing words for this week. I feel like I'm trying to pick one to go with our NXT topic. So I have this. Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.