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Episode 31: He Took It Out feat. SummerSlam Predictions, Randy Orton News, ROH & NJPW Sell Out Madison Square Garden and The Usual Nonsense
55 Plays7 years ago
Take a seat on the couch as Garrett & Derrick discuss the latest in Randy Orton news, ROH & NJPW selling out Madison Square Garden, give their Summerslam predictions, request a Mr. Rogers reboot starring Nick Gage, and talk about the finale to the G1! If you're looking for two friends chatting wrestling with a fair amount of nonsense thrown in, you've come to the right place!
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Transcript
Hosts' humorous take on G1 Climax
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody welcome to another episode of predetermined a pro wrestling hangout I'm your host Garrett calendar and with me as always a man who I Bet feels pretty confident that he could have scored at least two points in the g1 climax Derek Alpin
00:00:16
Speaker
If I'm going to go around bragging that I can beat one Brock Lesnar, I'm pretty confident that I can get at least those two points that you're referring to. But I don't think the odds of me traveling to Japan to get those points are very, very good. Well, I think probably what would have happened is you get to the ring, you find out your first opponent, your first opponent's Tomatanga.
00:00:39
Speaker
And then you're just like, fuck. And then you see his boys coming in and you're like, here's my two points. Is Haku with him? Um, he, Haku didn't really interfere much in the G1. I think it was just, uh, Tonga Loa and bad luck. I hear, I hear nasty rumors about Haku. So maybe I don't want to fuck with Haku. I would never, ever fuck with Haku under any circumstance.
00:01:06
Speaker
Well, then I'm not going to because you're my friend and I trust my life with you. Hey, we're friends. Hit our goddamn music.
00:01:49
Speaker
Man, we have a lot of different stuff to talk about today, and you have quite the weekend ahead of you coming up here. You're traveling to New York City. This is gonna be my first time in the Big Apple City. That's pretty crazy, because you have done a lot of traveling, but I have actually beaten you to visit in New York City. And I'm gonna go ahead and say, I bet you will have gotten to see way more of the city than I will.
00:02:17
Speaker
I feel, that's probably true. I feel like my three days are gonna be basically seeing the inside of the Barclay Center and wherever the hell I'm going in Queens on Friday.
00:02:29
Speaker
You're a self-admitted bad tourist. You're not very good. You travel a lot, but when you get to places, it doesn't seem like you go around exploring the local sights and sounds and tastes and smells. Where does that stem from? Where did you learn how to be so bad? Well, I will say I'm sure I'll get the smells of New York regardless of where I'm going.
00:02:52
Speaker
I can confirm, and this isn't not trying to trash-chalk New York City. I had a great time while I was there for a few days. But the rumors about garbage being just piled up on the street is absolutely true. So be ready for that. It's just, I feel like most cities smell like urine. So that's not a knock on New York. That's just how cities smell. Hey, every now and then. And you know what? I feel like I put my pee all over Hollywood.
00:03:21
Speaker
That's true. I mean, there's no bathroom. Sometimes you're walking home and you have to pee somewhere. Well, do you do that in Nashville? I feel like people would be like businesses would be more likely to let me use their bathroom than in LA. Are there more public restrooms there? Um, I feel like there's just more polite people that if I walked in and we're like, can I use it? They'd be like, oh, sure. Just go right ahead.
00:03:47
Speaker
And you had to put the accent in there. Well, okay. So when I first moved to Nashville, the thing that caught me off guard was how friendly everybody was and how ready everyone was to talk to you about everything. And I have a jean jacket that has a lot of different buttons all over it, and I had a Chris Hero button on it that said, Chris Hero ain't nothin' to fuck with.
00:04:10
Speaker
the lady in law is that pretty is that pretty rude down there is that considered to be rude to the what would you call it Southern Southern sensibilities I mean I think it's probably rude anywhere you go Eric not here
00:04:28
Speaker
I don't think Chicago really cares how much memorabilia you wear that has swear words on it. But the lady at the grocery store looks at it and she goes, now what does that say? Chris Hero 8. You know what? I really like that. And in my head I'm just like, what? Why? What are we having this conversation for? I don't know that you do like this.
00:04:51
Speaker
I really like it was like was she doing like one of those oh bless your heart situations where like she's saying something nice but really it means you're you're pretty horrible I don't think she meant that I think she genuinely liked it for whatever reason she doesn't even know who Chris hero is you hey he's been around for a long time maybe she saw him wrestle at the fairgrounds
00:05:13
Speaker
I guess, and she had a flashback when she saw your button. Speaking of hospitality or Southern hospitality, have you heard the news about a good friend of predetermined pro wrestling
Randy Orton's controversies discussed
00:05:28
Speaker
hangout? Have you heard the news about Randy Orton? I'm so excited to talk about this. Well, fuck it. Let's talk about it, man, because
00:05:39
Speaker
I know you've been itching to get your thoughts on this out there to the people. I've been mulling it over the last couple days from the rumors I've been reading on the Twitter sphere. And I don't know what to make of it. I know that the guy has a reputation of being a little bit of an asshole. The big one on him has always been that he shat in somebody's bag.
00:06:01
Speaker
which is a big pro wrestling rib, you shit in their duffle bag and then you shake it up and then they come back and they find it. That seems like a real Rick Steiner move. Like Rick Steiner has the look of a man who is shat in a couple bags. Well, based on your story that you told me from whatever signing he was doing, you know, the funny thing is I watched a shoot interview with Kevin Nash and Nash
00:06:25
Speaker
seems to be like a little bit of a tough guy. Like he's not somebody you would want to fuck with. But in the interview, he made it clear that the Steiners are people that you like could beat the fuck out of you if they wanted to. Both. I believe that wholeheartedly. I believe that. The question is, and if you guys who are listening to this podcast right now have not heard the rumors yet, the rumor going around is that when there was a new WWE writer that would come into the company,
00:06:53
Speaker
One Randall Keith Orton.
00:06:56
Speaker
Mr. RKO. Mr. RKO himself would stick his hand down inside of his pants and play with his manhood and his genitalia quite fondly. And then he would extend his hand to the new member of the writing team and insist that they shake his hand, which is freshly covered in juice or whatever's fucking down there and Randy Orton's balls.
00:07:28
Speaker
God damn. It sounds too good to be true, Garrett. Did I read also that he was whipping it out in the writer's room that people visibly saw his penis?
00:07:41
Speaker
I've heard that Orton was whipping his penis out left and right. He's one of those guys that everybody knew that guy in high school, a real dick shower, a guy who is always real excited to just whip his dick out any chance he got.
00:07:57
Speaker
It's cuz he gets power from it because he knows most people are really bashful and shy about that kind of thing and he's like look at me I don't care I can do it anytime I Speaking to shoot interviews and speaking of Randy Orton I remember not too long ago was watching a kayfabe commentaries clip with Do you know do you know who Ken Anderson is Ken Kennedy? Is that Mr. Anderson?
00:08:19
Speaker
That's Mr. Anderson. Yeah. He was telling a story on one of those kayfabe commentary shoots where he said that one time Randy Orton walked out of the shower in the locker room completely naked and he was sitting there like on a bench and his wrestling boots were sitting beside him and I guess Randy Orton kind of just stood over his wrestling boots and just started teabagging his genitals in and out of the wrestling boot like up and down.
00:08:49
Speaker
And just for shits and giggles, just to entertain himself and to see what his reaction would be. Okay. Jesus Christ. So what this is becoming is just us compiling a list of evidence for how fucked up Randy Orton is. Well, I'm going to say he has the tattoos of a man who teabags boots. That's just fact. But it seems like he's on record as having actually done it.
00:09:16
Speaker
I guess the question is, do you believe the story and what are your thoughts on it? Well, one, I read, I first read the story today on Fox News. Oh, so it's gotten that bit. So it's real.
00:09:33
Speaker
It's not a work. If it's on Fox News, we are not getting worked. That is where the real stuff goes. So originally, talking about Randy today, I was ready to come in and be like, okay, we got enough people telling me that we're wrong, that Randy's awesome. And don't get me wrong.
00:09:56
Speaker
No, I don't
Significance of MSG sellout for ROH and NJPW
00:09:57
Speaker
like him, but I'm not saying he's not a good wrestler. He can definitely wrestle when he wants to.
00:10:04
Speaker
For sure. And when he doesn't give a shit, you can tell. He would probably take great offense to you saying that, and he would be like, you're saying I mail it in sometimes, and you would be too scared to say yes to him. Oh, I would never, ever say that to his face. Like, I... So you're admitting you're a coward. I am fully a coward. I am hiding behind a microphone. I will likely never see Randy Orton face to face.
00:10:29
Speaker
God I want to make this happen. I know you do, but okay so after after last week's episode We got a couple messages. We got one from Luke and Billy Saying that we're wrong that Randy's awesome, and then one from Daniel saying that Randy's awesome, and that we're wrong I Started thinking about it, and I can think of a handful of Randy moments that I do enjoy and
00:10:54
Speaker
Oh, for sure. Yeah. And I was ready to come in and list off, you know, five or six different moments of his that I was like, you know what? These are times that I've popped for Randy Orton. But then he's whipping his dick out on people, like, you know, just showing his wiener, as I think he calls it. I don't think I have to defend him anymore.
00:11:19
Speaker
Are you gonna elaborate on that and how that makes you feel? How him whipping his dick out makes me feel?
00:11:25
Speaker
Yeah, were you going somewhere with that? So now that you know that he's doing that, you're not going to say anything positive? Is that where that was going? OK, there is a time and a place for whipping your dick out. And that time and place honestly was never. But if there was a time that people were going to be OK with it, it was around the release of American Pie 1. But we're further enough away from American Pie, you got to keep your dick in your pants. You should keep your dick in your pants.
00:11:54
Speaker
Was American Pie 1999? That feels like 1999. I think that was the cutoff for whipping your dick out. Which was like three full years before he made his WWE debut. Yeah, he has no excuse.
00:12:08
Speaker
What would his excuse be? He's like, I've been in this business long enough that, what, you can whip your dick out? I learned this from Bruno Sammartino, who learned it from, and he just goes down the list of people who taught him the time and place to whip out your cock. This is such a fucking off the wall way to start this episode. I don't know if we're gonna be off putting to our listeners, but it's a story. It's one of the top guys.
00:12:37
Speaker
Well, and here's the crazy thing with all this shit going on. Smackdown Live just ended a few minutes ago. They made sure to work a little Randy Orton segment in at the end towards the end of the show. I almost pissed myself. I was laughing so fucking hard. So it was his spot was super creepy. It was so weird. So just so you guys know, for the first time in months, we actually watched Smackdown Live live.
00:13:06
Speaker
before recording this. And has it been that long? Oh, it really has. I haven't watched SmackDown or Raw live since before WrestleMania. This was a big week for me.
Independent wrestling's rise with All In
00:13:18
Speaker
Just so you guys know, I watched both as they aired this week. I noticed that you knew Japan Marks, loved to brag about it the last time that you watched Raw and SmackDown, like it gets you a fucking cookie or something. What's your deal? What my deal was, hey.
00:13:34
Speaker
Think anyone haven't watched I haven't watched a live Monday Night Raw since February I've been too busy watching shit on my laptop at 3 a.m. I'm just giving you shit get over get over yourself mark
00:13:56
Speaker
Next time I'm in Chicago, you better watch your handbag. I just spit water on myself. You did good this week. You made it through two episodes of WWE programming and neither of which were NXT. I think anyone who sits through that three hours every week would even tell you, if you watch the Hulu cut, you're truly not missing that much.
00:14:24
Speaker
We know why it's three hours. We all know we don't need to be three hours. Yeah, we don't we don't need to have that conversation. But the main reason I tuned in to watch that beginning to end was Renee. Renee Young. Love her to death. I did that like in an SCU tone. Renee Young. Renee Young. I hope that catches on. We're going to make that a thing. Renee Young. If you see her. I don't think that's going to catch on the same way that.
00:14:58
Speaker
No. You can't do it anymore. You just break down. Yeah, I fall apart. I fall apart real quick. Just like Shane did. You've been smoking stogies? You've been smoking stogies ever since Kenny won the title? Oh yeah, I've been celebrating like crazy. Isn't that what you Southerners do? That's how those fucking new Japan marks do. We just get real excited and smoke cigars for months.
00:15:24
Speaker
Oh, man. Why are we all fighting as wrestling fans right now? Why is the are we at the Internet? I mean, the Internet's always fighting, but it seems like everybody is fighting about one thing or another right now. And pro wrestling, like, you know, I have I have I'm still involved on social media. I took a little bit of a hiatus recently and I came back and I've been trying to approach it from a. Oh, you were gone for a day.
00:15:52
Speaker
I was gone for a couple days. I said whatever it was a short hiatus and I came back and I'm trying to look at things from a different perspective now I'm trying not to engage every negative thing I see that pisses me off and so far I've been able to when I need to I can just disappear from social media for half a day if I need to so
00:16:12
Speaker
And I know people are laughing only half a day. Well, that's that's a pretty big step when a lot of times people can be on there 24 seven. So I don't know what people are fighting about these days. Is there in fighting between fans of different wrestling promotions? Is it is it over how Tyler Breeze is going to survive without Fandango around? What's the deal? It's really about. OK, so I don't think we talked about this last time that New Japan Ring of Honor sold out Madison Square Garden.
00:16:40
Speaker
yeah and it seems like what everybody's fighting about right now is yeah they sold it out but what could they sell it out in June everybody's going to June I don't know why everybody wants this June pay-per-view
00:16:54
Speaker
I think it's, what are considered like the down months for WWE? Like is it after SummerSlam? Like between SummerSlam and the Rumble? Yeah, that's a pretty, I mean what's between there? Like Hell in a Cell is probably the biggest one.
00:17:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean you could even say between mania and summer slam. There's not really a lot going on going on in between there and that's and that's like acknowledging that survivor series is one of the big four paper views, but
00:17:29
Speaker
since they really like the smackdown versus raw five on five thing is kind of played out and yeah i think those those fall winter months are kind of the downtime so why not use that as an example of what can ring of honor new japan sell out during this time frame
00:17:47
Speaker
But you seem to have a reaction to that. And I definitely, after the announcement was made the other day, I have thoughts on that too. But I want to get to your deal here. What are you thinking about the Madison Square Garden announcement? I mean, I think it's awesome that they were able to sell it out. They sold it out without advertising the Bucks, Kenny or Cody, because all their contracts are going to be up by then. So it's not certain they're going to be there. Yeah. I think it's just cool for wrestling.
00:18:15
Speaker
You know, I think wrestling fans, we should all just be happy that wrestling is doing well and that we're getting so much more of it from everyone. And it's, you know, I think we're living in a really good time for pro wrestling. And can we just all be happy for each other? God damn it.
00:18:31
Speaker
I can be happy for everybody right now. And I made this comment on Twitter the other day. I said, I personally feel like every time I've been a pro wrestling fan, there has been something there that I can enjoy while I'm, I mean, other than when I took a brief break. So I guess there was a time period where I said I had enough between like 06 and 2010, so like three or four years. Those were prime Randy years, my friend.
00:18:59
Speaker
I think they were prime Randy years and I missed a lot of it. And maybe that's why I have such a stigma against them. Who knows. But it is a little bit of a cliche that we use over and over again. I'm here to say you know it's a great time to be a pro wrestling fan. It sounds like something that like pro wrestling Mr. Rogers would say. But hey I mean I saw would won't you be my neighbor and we need Mr. Rogers right now more than ever. We need. Oh Mr. Rogers.
00:19:27
Speaker
Absolutely. Bring them on. Who would that be? Hulk Hogan's trying to get that spot and we're like, fuck. No, fuck off. You get in the corner, sir. We're not ready for that. Maybe Hurricane Helms.
00:19:42
Speaker
He seems pretty positive, he seems like a voice of reason. Or we're just surprised and it's Billy Kidman. It's not Nick Gage, we know that. Oh fuck yeah, that's the web series I want. Oh my god, pitch that to him right now, Derek. Why me? Because I'm afraid to.
00:20:03
Speaker
Let's get back on topic here. As far as Ring of Honor New Japan selling out Madison Square Garden, how do you argue that that's not a good thing? Is the response that you're hearing, is everyone saying so what? They're kind of saying they wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't WrestleMania weekend, which honestly, probably true.
00:20:25
Speaker
maybe but that's true it's new york a lot of people would travel there like madison square garden's a big deal like that to me that would be a destination all on its own here's something that i think is interesting because since you started doing this podcast with me you know i don't have a long history of following roh in new japan closely i do it a lot more now than i used to
00:20:49
Speaker
But maybe I'm in a very small camp here. I wasn't surprised by them selling out Madison Square Garden. I think a lot of people were happy about it, and I think some people were really, really surprised about it and shocked. Count me in the camp that, I guess I'm aware of what the pro wrestling scene is right now, and it didn't really surprise me that much. I think that
00:21:18
Speaker
There's a lot of interest generated by the Bullet Club by... I don't know, like, I didn't realize how big New Japan was over here. I think until we went and met Tetsuya Naito.
00:21:33
Speaker
Just seeing that line of people around the block with the shirt. Yeah. And it wasn't people who traveled from Japan. I mean, that was that was a local crowd. And yes, it was from people watching shit on their laptop at 3 a.m. But I think having seen that and seen how the merchandise has moved and how people who may not even be wrestling fans are walking around wearing bullet club shirts. And I see that new Japan logo now more than ever.
00:22:04
Speaker
I guess I didn't, it wasn't like, oh my God, I can't believe they're doing this. I just looked at it, I was like, yeah, I guess that makes sense. I mean, wrestling outside of WWE right now seems to be thriving. So this seems like the next logical step. I guess I figured it would sell out, but I didn't think it would sell out day one. So do you remember when All In sold out really quick and Cody was talking about how shocked and surprised he was when it sold out in 30 minutes or whatever? Yeah.
00:22:34
Speaker
What was it about that that you didn't buy that they were shocked
Thriving wrestling outside WWE
00:22:38
Speaker
by, but then when you turn around to the Madison Square Garden thing, you were surprised that they sold it out in one day? Like, what's the difference in your estimation? Well, I think with Cody, everybody wanted to support Cody and the Bucks. Everybody knew this was their thing. And they're, like you said, their fans buy a lot of stuff. And this to me seemed like everybody wanted to be a part of this thing. This felt like it was gonna be history.
00:23:03
Speaker
And I don't think the Madison Square Garden thing would have happened without this, but it's also the difference between 10,000 seats and 20,000 seats.
00:23:15
Speaker
But do you get the sense, though, that we talked about this before, if All In had been held in a bigger venue, would it still have sold out that quick? That's a good question. I mean, it seemed like everybody was ready to travel regardless. And it seemed like there were a lot of people who were disappointed they didn't get a ticket. So I mean, if it were in a big... I mean, fuck, if they had had All In in New York, do I think it would have sold out at Madison Square Garden? Yeah.
00:23:47
Speaker
I think I would've. But do you think it would have day one? Yeah, I do. I mean, again, I'm not trying to be like the, what would you call it? The contrarian asshole here. I feel weird. I feel weird that I have this optimistic view and these positive things to say that I don't even question when it comes to independent wrestling right now. I embrace kind of how big they've gotten. It's not surprising to me. And honestly,
00:24:15
Speaker
I just view the ROH New Japan show at Madison Square Garden. It's almost like an extension of All In. Like that's how, like to me, as much as All In is being funded by Cody and the Bucks, and that's their thing, the fact that it sold out is because there's such an interest in those performers, those characters. And a lot of those same names are involved in this show. I mean, they are the draws.
00:24:42
Speaker
I mean, obviously some of the New Japan stars, as I said earlier, they're bigger than a lot of people would give them credit for, but I think the American audience, I mean, they're really drawn to the Bullet Club, the Elite, the Bucks.
00:24:59
Speaker
I guess it's not surprising to me. To me, I think they could continue doing shows like this. I think every three months in the States, they could do a show like this and put it in a different part of the country. And ROH New Japan could pick a different part of the country every three months and put on a big show and it would sell out. And I think they should start moving around because I know that the show they're doing in Long Beach, you know, they're coming back to the Walter pyramid in Long Beach.
00:25:24
Speaker
And I know last time they were there, it sold out instantly. This time I hear there's still tickets left. But that's probably because they're only going to L.A. They had just done a show in San Francisco where I assume a lot of L.A. people probably made that trip, you know, just made the six hour drive north to go to that. Right. You said the Cow Palace wasn't sold out, but isn't that kind of
00:25:46
Speaker
Well, didn't we say that there were some reasons why that show didn't sell out, but do you think that if they did it as big as... I don't know, if they really hyped up them doing, say, Staples Center or something?
00:25:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, fuck, I don't know, that would, Staples Center, I guess would be pretty much the same as doing it like Madison Square Garden, seating wise. But I think they could do it, I mean, if you just didn't keep having them come to LA like every couple months, like, I like what you were saying, bounce them around the country, give some like different regions, but it would have to be a major city. So I guess like I really just picture Chicago, New York, LA.
00:26:23
Speaker
I think you could run Chicago, New York, LA, Dallas. I was gonna say Dallas is pretty central so you know that wouldn't be too hard to travel from anywhere.
00:26:32
Speaker
I guess maybe Florida. I think you could do something down there. Yeah. And then maybe like something up in Canada, like big wrestling crowd up in Canada. So I don't know. I guess I'm just giving them their due, giving them their credit. I mean, I think it's big enough. I don't think that nobody's sitting here saying that they could tomorrow start doing what WWE does where they run house shows every weekend and then do television, you know, two or three days a week. I don't think they're that big and nobody should have the expectation
00:27:02
Speaker
that they should be able to go toe to toe with WWE at this point as far as how much television product they're putting out. But I don't think it's unrealistic if they promoted it the right way every few months they could pick a different part of the country and put together something like they're doing in New York where it's a joint venture between two promotions. And hell, remember watching the beginning of Dominion and they were making a point to say they were going international now. They were going in a bigger, different direction.
00:27:31
Speaker
I'm all on board for that. I think that that would work for them. And that's four shows a year if you do it every three months. So I'd be I'd be way into that and kind of I would like it to if there was a way to kind of with what all ends doing incorporating some of the TNA guys into it or the impact guys because at this point all in.
00:27:51
Speaker
is kind of a best of the endies sure where ring of honor new japan is going to be strictly i would imagine just those two companies yeah and i wouldn't mind if they started letting impact play a little bit too that would be the what the the holy trinity if they were able to get those three companies on board working together and exchanging talent and i mean they they're doing it right now for all in and they're seeing how big that is
00:28:17
Speaker
Well, I guess going back to the point about all in selling out, the way they've been handling it, the way they're getting, like you said, the best of the Indies, or as Cody put it, wrestling Woodstock. I do think that if they'd had more than 10,000 seats, they could have done well with that too. I do not think it would have been an issue. No, with all in, I don't think it's an issue. I think that enough people were excited. I feel like that could, I'm trying to picture if they could have doubled it. Because there's a pretty big difference between 10 and 20.
00:28:47
Speaker
I guess, but you're also running it in New York City. That's true. And it's fucking WrestleMania weekend when they did this one. But I know tickets were a bitch to get again.
00:29:00
Speaker
How did you fare? I had, if you were part of the honor club, you got the pre-sale password. And they announced that the top price point for the tickets was gonna be $300. Which, in my head I was like, you know what, I'm willing to have shittier seats for WrestleMania this year, get really good seats for this show. Those price points ended up being incorrect. The first two rows were $600.
00:29:27
Speaker
And while I was staring at those price points, having to come to terms in my head with, well you're obviously not doing that, I fucked around too long and ended up further back than I would have liked to be. I'm in the stands, I'm in the 100 level, I'm fine with that, it's gonna be great. But I didn't realize, I guess they sold about 12,000 seats just in pre-sale. That means that many people had the Honor Club VIP just to get that.
00:29:55
Speaker
Right. So I mean, that's something good for Ring of Honor, how many people actually have their network and are willing to buy and travel. I mean, I know a bunch of them are on StubHub, but what are you going to do? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was an issue that was the Bucks and Cody were able to avoid mainly just what was it just because they went through Sears Center website. Yeah. So they didn't have a lot of secondary market tickets.
00:30:25
Speaker
I don't know. I guess you're gonna have quite the weekend in New York for WrestleMania. God, you got your first trip to New York this weekend, man. I know, I know. I really only have a cup. I think New York, Chicago, and then I will be in LA for Bola. So I think that's pretty much gonna wrap up my year in wrestling. I don't think I'm gonna have any more trips after that.
00:30:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's that's quite a tour though. I'm going to take a couple naps. Yeah, Rip Van Winkle that shit. But one thing I didn't expect that reference. I I'm excited. I mean, there's a lot of good stuff happening on that weekend. I mean, it looks like I'm getting Gargano Champa three.
00:31:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, how do you even begin to say a negative thing about that? I know a lot of people were excited to see Aleister Black in that three-way, but good God, you're kind of getting to see what the final of that trilogy, and it's for the title. It's almost like, I mean, they had to go to plan B, and it just turned out that plan B is probably something we would have had to wait a little longer for, but something we really, really wanted to see. So I don't know how you can be mad about that.
00:31:38
Speaker
Right, and Plan B is something that you wanted to see. It makes sense.
00:31:44
Speaker
Yeah, I guess they could have put that off a few more months, maybe six months, maybe in a year for that final act, but we're here. I don't think anybody's complaining about those two still feuding, so bring on the Last Man Standing match for the NXT Championship. You're seeing a lot of good shit this weekend. And the night before seeing Matt Riddle versus PCO, which if what we're reading is correct, could be witnessing Matt Riddle's final indie date.
00:32:12
Speaker
When is that show in relation to the rest of the weekend? That's Friday night. And NXT is Saturday. Yeah.
00:32:20
Speaker
So you're going to both of those, right? Yeah. So Riddle is going to be there on Friday. And supposedly he might show up on Saturday. And the rumors were that they were actually wanting him to not just be front row, but have him participate in a match. Huh. So you could potentially see him transition from Indies to WWE and back to back nights. Correct. That's pretty wild. All I want if they were just like, you know what? Fuck it. Here you go, Garrett. Keith Lee versus Matt Riddle.
00:32:49
Speaker
I would just shit my pants and go buy some new shorts. And since you're not in Nashville, nobody's going to let you use the bathroom to clean it up.
00:33:01
Speaker
Well, since it's wrestling, I'll just grab the nearest purse, I guess. It's New York. Just take them off and throw them on the curb. Walk around, pantsless. Nobody will notice. Okay. But I have been what I did. You're just going to blow past that like you don't want to talk about it. Okay. Okay. I am above all this poo talk. That's enough dick and shit stuff for today. Okay. So let's move on to SummerSlam.
00:33:32
Speaker
Yeah, we I'm God, where do I begin? Well, I mean, we could just hop off with what the big news was coming out of raw. Let's face it like tonight. Smackdown was just another. Let's not let anyone get hurt. Let's just get to the show kind of thing. Yeah. Raw. We had a big moment at the end.
Dean Ambrose's WWE return
00:33:51
Speaker
Mr. Dean Ambrose is back.
00:33:54
Speaker
He's back. And this motherfucker is jacked. He's jacked. He's got a new haircut. Got some guy. I mean, those shoulders were big. That was he came back and is just a beefy man now. My question is, I had asked you not too long ago if you were excited to see Ambrose come back soon. And you said, no, not really. And apparently that has changed. What changed was he came out.
00:34:26
Speaker
the whole time I'm just like he's obviously coming out Seth's really building this up so he's saying lunatic fringe but when that music hit I was ready and I'll tell you when he came out and was the beefiest goddamn man I'd ever seen in my whole life I was I was I was ready to just whip it out in a writer's room right then Randy's like see see that's why he was peeking behind that curtain
00:34:53
Speaker
Oh, man. No, I that's I think it's good timing, too. And I guess we'll see what Ambrose coming back means for Rollins and means for the Intercontinental title. But got quite the pop on Raw, even though people kind of saw it coming. The next question is, when does Jason Jordan come back in the fold? Because a lot of people thought that was going to be the swerve and it was actually going to be Jordan coming back.
00:35:17
Speaker
I don't remember if it was Meltzer or who reported this, but I read that his injury ended up being worse than they thought and that he's probably out for even longer. Okay. But that's, I mean, I read that from, you know, one of the wrestling sites. So take that for what you will. Grain of salt. Yeah. Well, as far as SummerSlam goes as a show, I don't know how everybody else is feeling that really haven't talked to anybody else about it, but I can tell you,
00:35:43
Speaker
I know this is a scary thing to say. I think it looks like a good card and I'm excited about it. It's gonna be a long ass show, no doubt. And I think that a lot of people are pissed off about the length of these WWE pay-per-views now. But as far as the actual card goes, I mean, you and I need to go over this card and then we need to kind of give some predictions. I think that's what the right thing to do is since you're going to the show, right? Hey, we have a podcast, it's time to tell people. But it's time to read a list and tell them what we goddamn think.
00:36:12
Speaker
We got Cedric Alexander and Drew Gulak for the Cruiserweight Championship. Have you been paying attention at all to 205 Live at all? I feel bad that I haven't because there's a lot of guys on there I like and I keep getting told like I keep hearing like somebody say a Specific match and then be like why aren't you watching this? They are putting on amazing shows down there Just I honestly haven't been paying attention. It's just a matter of too much wrestling and
00:36:38
Speaker
Cedric Alexander is the champion right now, and I know Drew Gulak has been, I don't know, he's been a popular character, hasn't he? For a while? Yeah, I think people really like him, and he's a guy that I used to see on the Indies. I'm picking Drew Gulak. That's my pick. He's gonna beat Cedric Alexander for the championship. I want that to happen, so I'm gonna go with you. I like Cedric though, but I think Drew would be funny with it.
00:37:02
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. We got Rusev and Lana versus Andre, Sian, Almas, and Zelina Vega of a mixed tag match.
00:37:11
Speaker
This is kind of a weird spot. I think this is on the pre-show or something. It is on the pre-show. Yeah, it's on the pre-show. This is a weird drop for Rusev going from the main event championship match at the last pay-per-view to the pre-show. Which you would think that Rusev would win just because he's so over, but at this point he's on the pre-show. And I feel like the pre-show, they're like, it didn't happen.
00:37:34
Speaker
But it's also Almas. Like, don't Almas and Vega kind of need a win here? What do you think? I think they need a win, but I think that they're going up against Rusev, who seems to just have a target on his back, so he might probably lose. But maybe there'll be some fuckery. Yeah, I think there is going to be some fuckery. I think Aiden English is going to screw something up here, and I think he's going to cost Rusev and Lana the match to continue this story that they're doing. So I'm going with Almas and Vega. I think they're winning.
00:38:00
Speaker
Once again, I agree with you. Should I start disagreeing just so this is more interesting? No, give me your honest take. I think that's what the people want. Don't just argue for the sake of- What the hell was going on with Dolph's hair?
00:38:14
Speaker
I don't like Dolph's hair. I never have, and I still don't. Even when it changes, I don't like it. What could he do to make you like his hair? Uh, quit. Have a different job? I'm a dick. No, I just... I was ready to see him go away six months ago, so...
00:38:34
Speaker
Don't have anything, who cares? I guess we'll just cut right over to that match. Dolph Ziggler with Drew McIntyre against Seth Rollins with Dean Ambrose for the Intercontinental Championship. What do you think about that? I mean, I think we all assume Dean is gonna betray Seth at some point. Is it gonna be then or is it gonna be a few months or like a month from now? Is it gonna be Seth Rollins wins and then gets DDT'd by the dude raising his hand?
00:39:00
Speaker
That makes a lot of sense. And by DDT, I mean Dirty Deeds. Yeah. No, I'm with you. I don't know. I just want to see that beefy motherfucker slam some people. Like, I feel like he's got some new tricks up his sleeve. This is going to be a brand new Dean you haven't seen before. He's a little sexy. He's a little mean. The hair's gone.
00:39:21
Speaker
Good on him for the haircut though. A lot of people are making comparisons saying he looks like the new version of Triple H, like NXT Triple H. Well, he doesn't have the best hairline for the haircut he's gone for. He's really gone for the statham on this one.
00:39:39
Speaker
And... But it works! The thing is, Statham brings a level of cool to that haircut, and I need, I mean, I only saw Dean for like three and a half minutes, so Dean's got a lot to prove to get to that haircut. And be cool with it. But, uh, goddamn look at that man in that shirt. He was just, he was just fucking buff as shit. I'm ready for that.
00:39:58
Speaker
So we got the B Team against the Revival for the Tag Team Championships on Raw. Any feelings on this? Okay, so watching on Raw, who were they taking on? The Deletors of Worlds? It was a three-way. It was the B Team versus the Revival versus the Deletors of Worlds.
00:40:15
Speaker
It's so weird. This is one of the things I do enjoy about WWE is they have sometimes wackier characters than the other shows. Like right now, it seems like the other wrestling shows are a little more serious. This one is weird as shit. So you have a team like The Revival who are just like, oh, we love 70s wrestling. We're going to look it. We're going to do it. They're called The Revival. And they're just like, hey, you got to fight a wizard and a guy who's got some mental health issues.
00:40:49
Speaker
And a team that wears $35 shirts that you could probably make with a Sharpie and a white t-shirt at home. But WWE has the balls to charge you $35 for that shit. To me, the revival's promo in that should just be like, what the fuck is happening?
00:41:07
Speaker
Why the fuck are we even here? I don't understand what's happening I feel like this is dangerous for you to put us in with people that should be in insane asylums And these two guys who are basically living out an Adam Sandler movie
00:41:22
Speaker
I'll go out on a limb, I'll say the Revival are gonna win the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship. That would make me very happy, I hope that's the case. Cuz maybe they're done with this silly shit for now and they wanna go back to some serious tag team wrestling. And I guess that would give Dolph and Drew McIntyre something to do maybe.
00:41:39
Speaker
Yeah, I got I just I love drew so much that I want to see him going for a title. So. Oh, I think that's got to happen down the road. But I mean, right now, I mean, you could even if the thing with Dean doesn't happen, I wouldn't mind if he's like, I'm next. You beat my buddy. It's my turn. Yeah, that's a way to go. Um, Alexa Bliss versus Ronda Rousey, that's your girl, man. I realized
00:42:08
Speaker
that by not watching Raw and SmackDown as much as I probably should be, I feel like I'm depriving myself of some of the best women's wrestlers right now. Yeah, that's fair. And I felt like when I turned on SmackDown tonight and the show opened with Carmella and who else was it? Charlotte and Becky. Charlotte and Becky. Carmella's so goddamn good. And it made me realize like, okay, I need to at least be tuning into these shows for these ladies.
00:42:39
Speaker
Yeah, I felt bad about that. I'm very excited about Alexa Bliss Ronda. I don't think they're going to have a fuck finish on this one because we had that last time. I feel like. Well, you were you were predicting that Alexa Bliss was finally going to do her arm breaking stick to retain her title against Ronda. Are you backing out on that now? No, no, no, that's going to happen. I mean, why would you? That seems like the perfect thing to save for SummerSlam. Right. So so you think Alexa is going to retain?
00:43:07
Speaker
No, no, I think Rhonda's gonna break her arm. Oh, I thought you were saying that Alexa, like, I was under the impression Alexa was gonna use it to trick Rhonda to think that she broke her arm. Oh, I figured this time they would just have it be like her arm is broken rather than the trick. Oh, okay. Cause they like to pretend like certain things never happen. Yeah. And I feel like- Alright, well then I guess, I guess we'll differ here. I'm going with Alexa.
00:43:32
Speaker
Do you care about the SmackDown Tag Team Championships at all? What do we got, Bludgeon Brothers versus New Day? Yeah. Who gives a shit? We'll make this quick. I'll pick New Day.
00:43:50
Speaker
I think I like the same with the tag belts again. And it's not even who gives a shit because I don't like any of those guys. I like all those guys. I would love to see Luke Harper have a singles run that matters. I would I like the new day. I don't know. It's just of all the matches that are on there. That one just doesn't feel like there's much going for it.
00:44:09
Speaker
So to keep the theme of who gives a shit matches, Shinsuke Nakamura versus Jeff Hardy, do you care? Not a bit. Not a single bit. The only thing I'm... Do you have a pick then? No.
00:44:25
Speaker
I don't know. I'll pick next. I'll pick Nakamura just for whatever. Finn Bรกlor versus Baron Corbin who gives a shit. Do you do you see the demon making a reappearance here at SummerSlam or is that retired? I think that that should be you know what at this point we keep saying like save it for special occasions is I don't know if that special occasions ever coming my friend. I think it passed. I think I think we are with the Finn Bรกlor that you have now.
00:44:52
Speaker
This is gonna be like how like four years ago you wanted Dolph Ziggler to have the heavyweight title, but it just wasn't gonna happen. I think that's where we are with Finn now. I hope that's not true. And I'm picking Finn Balor in this match. I think that they want us to have that feel good thing and that Finn will win. And I love Finn. I'd love to see him have the heavyweight championship. It's just they keep getting more and more guys.
00:45:18
Speaker
Yeah. And he's just going to move. He's I don't know if he'll ever get past how small he is with Vince. And it just seems like he's just going to move further and further down the card. I mean, during this Baron Corbin feud, Vince had like that toy house. He's like making fun of his size and that. Yeah, he thought that was hilarious, didn't he? He thought that was the best joke on the show. And I'm sure he wrote that himself. I'm sure.
00:45:42
Speaker
So let's go from the low part of this car that you don't give a shit about. Let's go right into the thing you're probably most excited about.
Daniel Bryan vs The Miz - SummerSlam hype
00:45:49
Speaker
Daniel Bryan versus the Miz. Speaking of, they announced tonight, Miz and Mrs. Season 2's happening, folks. And you know what we have? Oh, buddy. Hey, I haven't talked about Miz and Mrs. one time since it started airing.
00:46:06
Speaker
I've actually watched one episode, but you don't know that until just now. The fact that you didn't text me immediately after you watched it says something about where we are in our friendship. I'm sorry. And it feels like one of us is on the cusp of a heel turn. So let me let me make you a deal down the road.
00:46:27
Speaker
we'll do an episode just about Miz and Mrs. I would like to maybe for the the season finale we can do a bonus episode where we just do an audio commentary on the finale of Miz and Mrs. All right let's do we'll do that I'll appease you in that fashion since I haven't watched Total Divas or Total Bellas I'll watch a few episodes of Miz and Mrs and we'll do an episode on it but
00:46:53
Speaker
The here and the now, man. Daniel Bryan versus the Mizz at SummerSlam. This is what people have been begging for since Daniel Bryan got cleared to come back to wrestling. It's finally happening, happening, especially with the fucking Talking Smack promo and their history together. I mean, shit, SmackDown tonight was running like three part clips to hype up this match detailing their history. What do you think? How are you feeling? What do you what do you expect? Daniel Bryan is going down.
00:47:20
Speaker
Is he? I mean I think he's, we're not just gonna get one time of this match, right? Has Daniel Bryan re-signed? He has not. Or do we just not know? I mean as far as we know he hasn't re-signed. Because doesn't his contract end the middle of next month?
00:47:48
Speaker
I don't see him leaving WWE. I think he's where he needs to be right now.
00:48:13
Speaker
I always love when the Miz has something to brag about.
00:48:20
Speaker
Yeah. That's the best version of The Miz. He's got a TV show, so. And I would love for him to get that first win and just be like, see, you did need me. You may very well be right.
00:48:34
Speaker
Carmella versus Becky Lynch versus Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women's Championship. I'm actually looking forward to this match. I think there's a great story here. And I think Becky and Charlotte can, I mean, I guess Carmella's not horrible, but I think Becky and Charlotte can really carry this match to being something pretty cool. I love Carmella. She is, I mean, I love her for all the same reasons. I love The Miz.
00:49:01
Speaker
Not like the necessarily the most exciting wrestler but is going to brag and tell you that they are Right. I love that like she like she's she's a jerk and you love her for it. Yeah. She's just such a good asshole and In this one, I mean normally I this probably isn't who I would normally pick but I think Becky's going over
00:49:25
Speaker
I think that the feud between Becky and Charlotte is gonna prevent either of them from winning the title. I think Carmella's escaping with the belt. I think that's what they've been setting this up for. I think they're setting this up for a Becky versus Charlotte feud. So then where would Carmella go from there? God, she's got, I don't know. I mean, maybe they can do something. I mean, did she ever really finish her thing with Oscar? By the way, what's the news on Oscar? What happened with there? Where is she?
00:49:54
Speaker
Did she get hurt? Did she quit? I read that there was a rumor that she walked out, but then I saw that Meltzer said that's not true. I don't know. They'll find something for Carmella.
00:50:06
Speaker
I don't know. Maybe you're right. Maybe one of Becky or Charlotte does win it and then that feud becomes over the belt. So I just don't know who she would move to because I mean obviously those two are the other biggest people on the show. Where does she move to if she loses? No, I just mean like who moves up to take on Carmella. I don't who else is there. That's what I'm saying. But even if if Becky and Charlotte go on the feud, who's Carmella going to move on to even if she loses?
00:50:35
Speaker
I guess she's a heel. Isn't it just a roster full of heel women? Yeah. I mean, does that mean I mean, I guess you could have Charlotte go back to heel or it would be weird seeing heel Becky, but it could happen.
00:50:50
Speaker
Yeah, I'm thinking to heal Becky's on the way. That's my prediction, but... I'm gonna say, I'm gonna stick with the idea that Carmelo's retaining here. That's my guess, and you said you think Becky's winning this? I'm gonna go ahead and say Becky Lynch. I think it's Becky's time to shine. And maybe she fucks over Charlotte somehow.
00:51:09
Speaker
I'm going to try to reorganize these last couple matches in a way that makes sense because I think some couple of them are tied together. AJ Styles versus Samoa Joe for the WWE Championship. What are your thoughts? This is kind of a big one. This is going to be a fun match. I haven't like I mean, I've watched the build to it them cutting the promos on each other. They've been fine. But it's these are two guys that you just know when they get in the ring, it's going to be magic.
00:51:34
Speaker
Or did we say this about Styles and Nakamura? Yeah, I was getting ready to say, but I said that like three other times. It's DWE. How many tries did it take us watching Styles, Nakamura before we were like, okay, that was the one. Did it happen? I guess we kind of saw the money in the bank, right? Yeah, we had fun.
00:51:56
Speaker
I forgot about that kick in the dick. That was a good one. So this could be that same thing where it's just like you two go out and put on a shit match so that we don't have to deal with them following that.
00:52:12
Speaker
or just put on a match that's okay so that down the road we can put on the best version of that match, which it's still kind of a bad idea, but it depends on how they do the ebbs and flows of this pay-per-view and where they put it. But either way, who do you see coming out on top in this? Is Styles losing the belt? This is a hard one to pick because do you have Styles keep the belt for a really long time because he's obviously the top guy in the company and he's somebody you don't really see losing the belt.
00:52:42
Speaker
Plus, he's the cover for the new WWE 2K game. Are they gonna pull the belt off of him right before that comes out? I mean, when you start looking into factors like that where... I don't know. I mean, honestly, I'm gonna go ahead and say AJ wins.
00:53:02
Speaker
I'll take the other side of it. I think Samoa Joe, I think it's his time. I think if Joe winning this belt, I keep saying belt, I know there's people listening, they're like, fuck you, it's a title, it's not a belt, it doesn't hold up any pants, whatever, it's slang, leave me alone. I'm saying Joe. I don't know why, other than just I think it makes for a great story that Joe messed with AJ's head and his family and then walked away with the belt.
00:53:32
Speaker
So I guess I guess we're agreeing to disagree on this one. All right. We're going to tie in these last two matches. Garrett Brown Stroman versus Kevin Owens. If Owens finds a way to beat Stroman at all, he gets the money in the bank contract. What's happening here? I think that Stroman is going to go over and then I think Stroman is just going to join the main event.
00:53:58
Speaker
Okay. I could, I mean, you, he's the kind of guy that you can't, you don't have a guy like that. Just do a running and steal it. I feel like he's a guy that's like, I already fought one match and now I'm going to fight both of you. So you think Strowman's going to keep his, his briefcase. I think he might. I think it's a way to make him look even stronger and look more like the WWE champion.
00:54:26
Speaker
God, I keep going back and forth on this. My head is telling me that WWE booking usually leads to the least interesting situation playing out.
00:54:40
Speaker
which is that they've been finding some fucked up way to justify not giving Strowman a title match straight up, but the money in the bank contract instead, and he's been crushing people smaller than him, and he's been chucking Owens off of everything. The last two paper views, Owens has taken huge bumps. And the question is, did it make Braun look stronger? Or did it make Owens look better?
00:55:11
Speaker
It's weird with some of those matches where there's certain guys that you're like, man, I like watching him because he takes such a phenomenal beating.
00:55:19
Speaker
Yeah, there's just there's there's certain wrestlers like that where you're like God he can and actually some of them are like even in New Japan some of the baby faces They go in and you just see them take this phenomenal beating before they win right at the end And yeah, I don't know I could see this is a hard one to predict as well because it could go either way and I would be pretty okay with either I
SummerSlam match predictions
00:55:45
Speaker
Don't know I it would I would love to see KO win it
00:55:50
Speaker
Are we both working under the assumption that whoever wins this match is ending the night with the Universal Championship around their waist? Fuck, now I'm like, I'm picturing what if Lesnar retained and then the person came in and cashed in on him and beat Lesnar for it. Yeah. It would just be nice to watch Roman lose. I mean there's so many, this is why these two matches are tied together obviously because
00:56:20
Speaker
I think there's a feeling that whoever walks away with the briefcase at SummerSlam after that match between Owens and Strowman is probably ending the night as champion, right? They're not gonna delay the cash in any longer, do you? I mean, they could, but I think there's a sense that they're not going to. But how do you, okay, I think it's a lot easier to picture Strowman coming in and just bowling over whoever's in there at the end.
00:56:45
Speaker
But I don't... I don't know, I guess I would be excited to see what creative thing they have Kevin Owens do to actually succeed in cashing in. I mean, there's still the possibility that Heyman's turning on somebody. Well, and it would be hard to say if he's just like, okay, Roman, we're gonna be partners, but first I have to mace you.
00:57:11
Speaker
I don't know, I read that rumor today that maybe something on the note that Heyman showed reign said something like, here's what it's gonna look like I'm doing, but I'm gonna help you. I don't know, there's a lot of different predictions out there right now. Like I said, my head is saying that WWE booking usually results in them teasing something like crazy and creative and then just doing the safe option. And the safe option is just having Strowman retain his briefcase.
00:57:39
Speaker
And then, but here's, here's the thing about that. If he wins the briefcase and he cashes in that night, can, can Roman Reigns sustain another loss to Brock Lesnar right before he leaves? No, he can't. I mean, that's, that's, that's the thing is that Reigns kind of has to, I know we've said this before, but they can't keep doing this, can they? Like one, eventually he's going to have to win one of these. Hey man, back and forth forever.
00:58:05
Speaker
There's no back and forth. It's just been... It's just forth. You're like, it's just forth. Forth forever. That's the chance. It's just been Bronx. Forth forever. You know what? I know it's the mark in me saying this. I'll pick the crazy fucking ending and say through some shitty heal technique, Owens is going to get the fucking briefcase.
00:58:34
Speaker
And and and Braun is going to react violently to this happening and he's gonna chuck Owens off something again
00:58:42
Speaker
and he's going to get taken out on a stretcher and an ambulance and the ambulance is going to leave the arena and everyone's going to forget about it. Like Owens has the briefcase, but it's over. And then he's sneaking back in at the end of the night after Strowman or Lesnar reigns does some crazy shit and the other guys land there. And I'll say that, I mean that they're, they're advertising reigns versus Owens at Helena cell.
00:59:07
Speaker
Okay, is there a stipulation to this match, or is it just a normal one-on-one singles match? For which? For, uh... Reigns... Lesnar. There is no stipulation as far as I know. So they could be DQ'd, okay, because I was picturing something along the lines of, like, the pepper spray coming back out, and you thinking it's going to Roman, but he turns and pepper sprays Brock.
00:59:31
Speaker
Right. Maybe Pepper sprays both of them and then that's how KO pins them. Maybe. Or maybe. Heyman's just tired of this match too. He's like I've been here for this enough. I need a fucking break. Pepper sprays Lesnar. Pepper sprays Lesnar and Reign spears him and beats him and everyone thinks oh my god. Heyman's joining Reigns and Heyman raises Reigns' hand after he wins the title.
00:59:58
Speaker
and Reigns looks confused like get the fuck off of me and everyone's booing because it's fucking Roman Reigns and nobody wants to see it and then he maces Reigns as well and turns his back on both of them yeah something like some weird fuckery at the end of that show because if if they're doing Reigns and Owens at Hell in a Cell
01:00:20
Speaker
I just I don't know there's something about maybe maybe that and obviously the card subject to change so well I think the best thing that we can say about this right now is there's so many times when you're like this is definitely what's gonna happen and this one there's so many little paths that like it's kind of a choose your own adventure so as the night goes on it's gonna kind of fill in pieces of what possibly could happen and take away options
01:00:46
Speaker
Here in a minute we're going to talk a little bit about the G1, but before we wrap up our SummerSlam discussion here, I'm trying to imagine a scenario here where Strowman keeps his briefcase, reigns wins, and beats Lesnar for the title, and finally gets the Universal Championship.
01:01:05
Speaker
And then Strowman cashes in, but he pins Reigns. I mean, who's the babyface? Or does Bronn turn heel in doing that? And are the fans gonna buy Bronn turning heel? Like, even if Heyman endorses him, is that gonna work? Like, how do you get all these pieces to work if you have Strowman cashing in on Lesnar? Or, sorry, Strowman cashing in on Reigns. I mean, I feel like if you want it to work, you need Bronn to pin Lesnar.
01:01:36
Speaker
But doesn't that chuck Roman Reigns out the window that he failed again and somebody else had to do it? I think the only time, the only way that it wouldn't hurt him is if Braun does the baby face thing and just join the match and make it a triple threat. Like right as the match is getting ready to start, you hear his music and they both look over and he makes it a triple threat himself. That's the baby face thing to do and Penn, Lesnar, send him home.
01:02:07
Speaker
Yeah, I guess so. And then I get... Fuck, then how do we get to Owens versus Reigns? Hell in a cell from there. I mean, obviously that could change before then, like anything could happen. I could, but it says something that they have that in mind as a match for a pay-per-view, right? Yeah.
01:02:29
Speaker
I mean, again, I'm obviously doing wishful thinking over here, but I mean, I can put my heart aside and just think of things from a creative standpoint. Like I said, my head is saying that they'll do the straightforward thing, which is just Strowman cashing in on Raines or Lesnar and walking out with the belt. That's what kind of they've been working towards, since Greatest Royal Rumble, anyway, even though they could have done it last summer, probably.
01:02:54
Speaker
Yeah I guess prediction I guess Strowman's leaving with the belt. I like I like your plan that he joins the match and makes it a triple threat because it's just it's you know it never works for me if a baby face sneaks on something like I don't that just doesn't make him a baby face. But at the same time bronze kind of been in that thing where he's just picking on KO. So he's not really the best baby face anyway.
01:03:20
Speaker
They haven't really been framing it as that, though. I guess there's a whole other discussion. I guess we'll see how all of this plays out on Sunday. And I'm looking forward to it, man. You're going to the actual show, so I'm excited for you.
01:03:34
Speaker
Yeah, I'm way up. I think I'm in the very, very last row in a corner. You will not see me on television, and that's fine. Take some pretty pictures for me. Hey, I guess we have to give some congratulations to Tanahashi, right? That's kind of the big news from New Japan? Yeah.
Tanahashi wins G1 Climax final
01:03:57
Speaker
Tanahashi won the G1. He beat Ibushi.
01:04:02
Speaker
Well, let's give some props to fucking Ibushi in the process. Ibushi beat Kenny. That was a hell of a match, too. I mean, I think we know anytime two people who are really close are fighting each other, you're going to see some shit. You have no problem hitting your brother a little bit harder than you would somebody else. Or your lover.
01:04:26
Speaker
Wait a minute, that's domestic abuse. Hey, Ibushi hit, oh man. So you watched that match, correct? Yes, and before we get into the details, the spot where Ibushi drives his knees straight down into Kenny's chest was cringe-worthy 5,000. That's what I was gonna bring up. Oh my God. What did he do? Did he hit like a moonsault but landed on his knees?
01:04:55
Speaker
That's why he did some kind of move. But it did not land the way that I think anyone was expecting. Well, it just looked like a botch. Well, because he did that move again to Tanahashi, but he hit it more on his shins. Yeah. Wherewith Kenny, he landed both knees directly in the middle of his chest and it was just like you could watch Kenny's chest cave in.
01:05:20
Speaker
Yeah. And Kenny's dealing with a ridiculous number of injuries. He's really beat up right now. So I kind of feel bad. Doesn't he have like a sprained foot? And he's taken some time off until all in, isn't he? I would. I hope so. It's a congratulations. You're the IWGP championship. You're the IWGP champion now here. Have this have your body torn to shreds. Jesus. Yeah, that was 100 percent. Check that out.
01:05:49
Speaker
If you haven't watched Ibushi versus Kenny from the G1 this year, check that out. They beat the shit out of each other, man. And that's the other thing. So many false finishes there towards the end where you swear that the match is over. And I mean, I guess I kind of knew what happened before I watched the match, but it was still I got caught up in it. And I was surprised when the finish finally came. So it's one of those they pulled it off. You'd really like to see them in a no time limit match.
01:06:17
Speaker
In these G1 tournament matches, you know, they're all set to a 30-minute time limit, so you kind of know when it's gonna end. But I would love to see those guys go an hour, because I mean, I think, because wanting to fight Ibushi is part of the reason Kenny's here.
01:06:34
Speaker
or you know how that whole thing started with him coming to New Japan and just wanting to take on Ibushi and how they had put on a killer match and what was it like 2006 or something like that and they hadn't fought in a long time. Before my time Garrett. Yeah this was this was just an incredible match I would 100% love to see them go again and I think part of us you know during that match we're thinking oh my god are we gonna get them again at Wrestle Kingdom
01:07:00
Speaker
But I think the Tanahashi match makes sense if it happens, because Tanahashi, kind of like Braun Strowman, he has to defend his contract.
01:07:11
Speaker
Yeah, I was actually surprised. I was really thinking Naito was going to win the whole thing. So it did not play out the way I thought it was going to. And how Naito got knocked out, the way Zack Sabre Jr. knocked him out of the tournament. Zack had no chance of moving on. All he could do was prevent Naito from moving on. And he made a big point of saying how much he hates Naito and that his sole purpose in this tournament is to make sure he doesn't move on.
01:07:38
Speaker
to which to me says they would be setting up something with Naito down the road. Between Zack and him. I hope so. Yeah, and I think, gotta clarify, Zack Sabre Jr. and Naito had a great match too. And another situation where they were really beating the shit out of each other. So many hard strikes. I was trying to think, I would kinda like to see Sabre take on Jericho.
01:08:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's been like two months and Jericho hasn't defended that intercontinental title. He's really less for enough that intercontinental title. I wouldn't be surprised if Jericho's like, yeah, I won it and I took it. I may not give it back. I'm taking it on tour with me with Fauzi. You want to see this belt? You got to get on the cruise, baby. You got to get on the cruise. He's only defending it on his cruise.
01:08:28
Speaker
But either way, so we have Tana Hashi who got the contract to go to Wrestle Kingdom But he has to defend it and it looks like he has chosen Okada Good lord, so I would honestly I would rather see Tana Hashi take on Omega in the finals just because Tana Hashi's been the man there for so long and this one didn't Okada this ditch gato and
01:08:54
Speaker
Did he? Did I miss them? Yeah, they parted ways, I think. I think Okada got rid of his support there. Actually, you're right. He'd been coming out alone, those last couple. He'd just been coming out with balloons that he was releasing into the crowd. That midlife crisis is hitting him so hard. He does not know what to do.
01:09:15
Speaker
We'll see some cool shit between him and Tanahashi and I would love to see a good passing of the torch match at Wrestle Kingdom and let Tanahashi have one more huge moment because I don't picture him having a ton of years left. That's a guy who's had a lot of injuries and I would like to see him take some time to just heal, relax a little.
01:09:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yep. So I guess you thought that it was a great G1 tournament this year? I had a great time. I mean, every show I tuned into, I saw some matches that were insane. But I mean, that's going to be any show that they do. So just watch all of them. But yeah, no, there were some great things in this. I think some of the standouts, Kenny versus Ishii.
01:09:59
Speaker
Okada versus Suzuki, Naito versus Kenny. Notice I'm saying Kenny's name a lot in here. It's not a coincidence that his name is in so many great matches throughout this tournament.
01:10:14
Speaker
widely considered the best right now.
01:10:34
Speaker
It has been. Hey, before we get out of here, I want to do something a little bit different. We haven't done this yet.
Starcast podcast community shoutout
01:10:39
Speaker
As everyone knows by now, we are going to be a part of Starcast Friday during all-in weekend. But I want to give a shout out to a lot of the other podcasts that are going to be involved in Starcast that weekend. Some of them will be there on Friday. Some will be there on Thursday and Saturday and Sunday.
01:10:55
Speaker
wanted to give a shout out to heels and quads wanted to give a shout out to the court of nerds all things wrestling sports guys talking wrestling divas drop kicks and dives super kicking it with kelsey banned from ringside podcast view from the top rope hitting the marks kings of the ring audio uh two-faced wrestling talk
01:11:16
Speaker
so many, so many podcasts right now that we're going to be featured at star cast rock and wrestling podcast. We watch wrestling pro wrestling. Yeah. We watch wrestling, uh, king of pro wrestling podcast, pinned wrestling podcast. So many podcasts out there. Uh, we're, we're exchanging messages with these guys. Um, great stuff out there. If you haven't listened to their stuff, make sure you get on that. Obviously we want to be your favorite podcast. Don't ever turn your attention away from us for a second. We're the best. Uh, but
01:11:45
Speaker
We're excited to be sharing this platform and this stage with these other pro wrestling podcasts out there. So give their stuff a listen, because we're excited to be there beside those wonderful people at Podcast Row.
01:12:01
Speaker
And while you're checking out those podcasts, you're already on that app. You're on that iTunes app. You're going to be looking those up. You're already on ours, though. So why don't you go down to where it says review, hit it, write something nice, hit that five star, give us a five star review because we love you to death and you'd be helping us out greatly with that.
01:12:19
Speaker
And also while you're at it, check out our social medias. We're at Wrestle Hangout on Twitter. We are pre-determined podcast on Instagram. We're Wrestle Hangout on Facebook. Hangout with us on any of those. We're always chatting wrestling on there. We're having some, Derek does polls. He loves the polls. I love the polls. People seem to like the polls.
01:12:39
Speaker
I like the polls. I like when I see that you've done polls. I think it's important following us on social media. You're taking trips all over the country to go to these wrestling shows. You post pictures, you post videos. It's a great way to feel like you're there with Garrett. So yeah, hit us up on the social media, everyone. And be sure to check out next week's episode. We're going to have a special guest. I'm going to be joined by Queen of the Ring, Alex.
01:13:04
Speaker
Woohoo! I hope you guys put on a good show for us. I hope so too. Maybe we have terrible chemistry and it's an awful show. Maybe I should cut that out. That'll make me feel really special.
01:13:18
Speaker
I guess we'll find out. I do wish you I do wish you two luck. I she will be taking my place for that episode I'm assuming. So we're going to we've seen her YouTube videos. We're going to get to know her a little better. And we're going to have just attended Joey Janelle lost in New York NXT and SummerSlam. So we'll be able to give some insight into what happened inside of all of those buildings. Really excited to talk about it. Derek Am I leaving anything out. I don't think so. I think you can feel free to hit our God damn music.