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Episode 17: Log Jammin' Featuring Roman Reigns & Brock Lesnar, Also WWE's Backlash Backlash
53 Plays8 years ago
During this weeks hangout Derrick has a hard time staying positive when it comes to WWE's most recent pay per view Backlash! The boys discuss Roman Reigns possible memory loss, Baron Corbin's reindeer teeth collection & Garrett gives Derrick his pro wrestling homework for the week in watching NJPW's Dontaku!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Predetermined' Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, happy Thursday and welcome to another episode of Predetermined, a pro wrestling hangout. I'm your host, Garrett Callender. And with me, as always, a man who in the next 24 hours will have me on his couch, Derek Halpin. I'm excited to
Weekend Wrestling Events Excitement
00:00:15
Speaker
get you here, buddy. We got a lot of shit to do this weekend.
00:00:17
Speaker
I know so much wrestling. Anytime I can watch wrestling with you is a glorious day for me, just because we see each other so little. So little, and we have multiple events planned for this weekend, so we're gonna have a lot of stuff to talk about.
Guest Announcement: Metal Dave
00:00:31
Speaker
Plus, not only will you be visiting with me, you'll be visiting with a friend of the podcast and a good friend of yours, Metal Dave. Yes. He'll be our first official guest we ever have. We're gonna have Metal Dave on the show next week.
00:00:47
Speaker
I'm excited to hear he's got he's got quite the story to tell. Yes. And you know, how exciting is it that we have a dude named Metal Dave coming on? When you hear that, you have to think like this is a man who's got stories. This is a man who probably likes Slayer. That's gimmick. That's a gimmick, man. He's yeah, he's got his gimmick ready to go. And you know, we've got ready to go. Our goddamn music. So hit it.
Podcast Theme Song by Joshua Hendrix
00:01:43
Speaker
All right, everybody, welcome back. And I feel like just because people have been asking lately, that theme song that we have to this, that was made by Joshua Hendrix. He's a buddy of mine, very, very talented man. Thank you again, Josh. Love you to death.
00:01:58
Speaker
Part of me wonders if the people like our theme song so much that we should provide it to them in MP3 format so they can listen to it whenever they want, but we probably need Josh's permission for that. I think that he'll probably give us that. I mean, he didn't make me sign any papers when he made us that song. No, non-disclosure agreements. So, oh, I feel like I should say this. When he sent me that, I was like, holy shit, like this is...
00:02:22
Speaker
This sounds like wrestler music. And I said, how did you how did you make that? Because he's he doesn't watch wrestling. So he pulled up YouTube videos of wrestlers walk into the ring, but had it muted and just made the song based on the tempo that most people walk to the ring to.
00:02:39
Speaker
And he fucking nailed it. And yeah, fuck, we've said it before on this fucking podcast, but I love our music. I hope you guys love the music. Gets me jacked every time I'm listening to our episode. But we've got a team of people behind us that support us. We've got people who helped make our logo. We've got people who've helped us.
00:02:56
Speaker
music, you get feedback from people who've done other podcasts, so thanks for the support, not just obviously from our listeners who, you know, if you have some time, you should give us a rating, a review and a subscription, wink, wink.
Listener Review Issues
00:03:08
Speaker
Oh, but I've got a little news on that. I found out some people have been having issues leaving reviews. I guess you have to have a unique username to leave the review or it won't leave it. Really? So do that. I found that out from our buddy, The Hungry Gringo.
00:03:26
Speaker
Which is another gimmick. Great gimmick. He is a chef friend of mine, lives in Columbia right now. Check out his YouTube channel. Very funny man.
Negative Episode Warning
00:03:35
Speaker
Great cook. Hungry gringo, gringo, chomp, chomp, chomp. But yeah, so to get things started, I received a warning from Derek. It almost sounds like Derek's going to come unhinged on this show. It's possible.
00:03:49
Speaker
I got that message saying that if I don't edit it out, this could be the most negative podcast we have done. I'm not ruling that out at this point. I'm ready to fucking go. I'm fired up. I think everyone probably knows what I'm fired up about. They probably want to hear it too. If there's any new listeners, this is typically a very, very positive podcast. We try and find the positive in wrestling. We talk about what we love, but
00:04:17
Speaker
I guess today Derek is a little pissed off. Not this week. Fuck that shit. I'm angry and you guys want to hear me be angry, I think. Because I'm not the only one who's been angry this week, man. And I haven't really heard from you.
00:04:33
Speaker
About I have a feeling that like you're gonna be so mad and I'm gonna be trying to play Devil's advocate on this one and be like well No, but this was good, and you're like fuck you all right. Yeah, hit me with your unhinged I'm gonna be I'm gonna be I mean do you want me to just fucking let loose okay?
Derek's Frustrations with WWE Backlash
00:04:49
Speaker
I mean obviously we're talking about backlash here. Yeah, is this where your anger starts? I
00:04:54
Speaker
I mean, I think if I was being fair, I know I normally don't dive into my personal life too often on here. I've had a rough week. My grandma has been in the hospital since about late March with different issues off and on. And I grew up with a single parent, so my grandma helped raise me. So I've been emotionally stressed, been going through some shit, and it's been rough. And big sports fan here too. I'm a fan of the White Sox.
00:05:22
Speaker
fan of the black hawks black hawks obviously not in the playoffs white socks as expected are playing like shit and uh... so those are the things that usually get me by uh... if it's not pro wrestling and when pro wrestling turns on me to things can get fucking ugly and this is where the culmination of shit starts going and so i won't say that it's not a factor uh... all the other stuff going on because it's definitely a factor but uh... backlash combine that with
00:05:51
Speaker
how nothing really got accomplished at Greatest Royal Rumble, combine that with how the second half of WrestleMania went, and I've got so many bones to fucking pick with WWE. I'm cutting one motherfucker of a promo today, and that's why I gave you the heads up. Well, I at least enjoy that you acknowledge that you've had a hard week, so that maybe some of this isn't necessarily Vincent Kennedy McMahon's fault, but he didn't help. I would say 99% of it's Vincent Kennedy McMahon's fault,
00:06:22
Speaker
And that may be, you're probably taken aback, but I'm actually taken aback because you're like, he is also responsible for my personal problems. But also just a couple of podcasts ago, I made a point to say something nice about Vincent Kennedy McMahon. So you know what, you know, we normally try to end on a positive note. And, uh, that said,
00:06:47
Speaker
I'll let you open on a positive note. We'll do things differently this time. Kind of give me your setup to like the last month in WWE leading up to backlash. And because because like when I get going on this, I'm not going to be able to stop. And so I'm going to let you get a word in first.
00:07:05
Speaker
So you're like, hey, if you got anything to say, get it the fuck out of the way now because you just as well sit back and enjoy my rant. Oh, fuck. I'm about to go Scott Steiner on this shit. I mean, honestly, like things since WrestleMania have felt a little weird. And then it got weirder with, you know, the Greatest Royal Rumble and then kind of a pay-per-view that
00:07:27
Speaker
felt more like an episode of Raw, but mixed things up in a weirder way because it was like they didn't just abandon an idea, like where maybe it's a thing that just shouldn't have happened or maybe a different series of things. I'm not that mad about it. And I'll tell you, just the WWE is the WWE.
Finding Solace in New Japan Pro Wrestling
00:07:44
Speaker
They're gonna do whatever the hell they wanna do, regardless of what anyone thinks is right or enjoyable. So if I enjoy something in WWE, that's awesome.
00:07:56
Speaker
If I don't, I've got New Japan and Ring of Honor that hold me over and make me happy, you know, weekly or monthly. So for me, I can handle some bad news from the WWE. Apparently I can't. Well, I'm not saying that you can't, but I guess I am saying that because it seems like you can. I'm excited since you said I might want to edit some of this out or that I might do it since, you know, I'm I'm God behind the keyboard here with the editing.
00:08:24
Speaker
Yeah, we'll see what you end up editing out, but... Nah, I'll leave it all in. Okay. Um... Hit me with it.
00:08:31
Speaker
Fucking backlash, man. The thing going into this show, everyone was saying it, I said it. We've had friends of the podcast saying it, which was that there wasn't a really great build for a lot of the matches on this card. And they were advertising this show as the first, they're getting back into doing the joint brand pay-per-views, where they have Raw and SmackDown, Superstars, their feuds are gonna be culminating on pay-per-views going forward.
00:08:59
Speaker
And so, you know what? They had that fucking singing promo where they had all the guys and girls singing to advertise this fact. You would think that they would want to kick that off on a positive note. But like I said, the build was not good. But you know what? There wasn't a great build for Fastlane either. And they managed to pull off a pretty decent show with that, wouldn't you agree?
00:09:23
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, Fastlane was fine. I think that's kind of what we were hoping for with this one, right? That like, you know, it's like, well, there wasn't that much of a build, but maybe they're going to surprise us.
00:09:34
Speaker
Right. I think you can still put together a good show without a great build. I mean, you can still sit down and watch, you know, a three hour show and be entertained and walk away with and go, I didn't care going into this, but I was entertained. Man, I will start with saying that Miz and Rollins put on one motherfucker of a match.
00:09:53
Speaker
They set the night up right like they really got it to where you're like going into that you're like There's no way the belts coming back over here. So it's gonna Rollins is gonna win, right? But is that match is going like did you find yourself popping a little bit thinking like holy shit? He might actually get it I mean, they're capable of doing anything they could do another rematch They could have the belt be defended by somebody else and switch brands the US title could get a rematch on I mean anything could have happened so
00:10:20
Speaker
I was able to you know suspend my disbelief for a little bit and just kind of get sucked into those two having a really good match and uh
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, hats off. That's that's that's a great way to start the show was not indicative of the night to come. But no, Rollins had that, you know, some God, I mean, he was just like a prototypical like babyface not given up. He gets hit with multiple skull crushing finales. He's kicking out. He goes for the the curb stump off the top rope.
00:10:51
Speaker
I mean, he sells the knee injury that everyone knows that he has. They go back and forth for a long time, and obviously Rollins ends up hitting a curb stomp and retaining. I'm sorry, I believe it is now just called the stomp. Yeah, whatever. Like, shut the fuck up, internet. That's another fucking, like, don't patronize me. You're like, not today. Of all days, not today.
00:11:20
Speaker
I think we're both happy that Nia Jax and Carmella are getting their time with the women's titles because there's been kind of like a...
Backlash Match Performances
00:11:29
Speaker
I don't know. You've seen people that you know are really, really good have those belts and it's nice to see people... How would you put it? Like... See somebody that you're not expecting, like somebody who isn't the top star in the company finally gives somebody a chance to see what happens.
00:11:44
Speaker
Yeah, I just, I feel that way. And I just, I think the drawback on that is I just don't know if Nia Jax and Carmella are in positions right now to consistently put on good matches. And I thought both of their matches, Carmella's against Charlotte and Nia Jax against Alexa Bliss. I just thought they were kind of lackluster and whatever, and I was ready for them to be over.
00:12:06
Speaker
See, I guess I didn't mind the Carmella match. And the group of guys that I was watching it with, when Carmella hit her finisher, I don't know, what do we call that? Fuck. Does it have a name even? Probably. Well, that was the thing, is like, everybody's like, what is she doing? What is she doing? I was like, well, that's her finisher. You've just only seen it like once. So you forget that that's what it is.
00:12:31
Speaker
But she's not at a position where you would say, like, it's credible that she's gonna beat Charlotte clean. Oh, I was surprised when she got that victory. Like, it just kind of suddenly, oh no, she's good now. Like, she won the title in a sneaky heel way, but you're supposed to usually transition into, like, you're fine. I mean, I guess it can come eventually, but just as sudden as it was, I don't know. Well, I mean, she won because Charlotte tweaked her knee.
00:12:57
Speaker
Yeah. So I mean, you know, she didn't necessarily she got a clean win, but it was because of an unfortunate accident with. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I mean, that's fine. But again, I still stand by my point, which is that, well, they're going to they're going to be doing these joint brand paper views and these are the women they're rolling with like.
00:13:15
Speaker
Hopefully we'll see some better stuff going forward. Maybe Carmella's wasn't the worst, but yeah, those are your women. Those are here you're building your women's division around right now until you get Ronda Rousey doing stuff for the title.
00:13:29
Speaker
Which, big news this week, we have the remaining two of the four horsewomen that just went to developmental down in Florida. Yeah, I saw that. That's exciting. That's gonna be pretty awesome. I mean, you know that eventually is going to be the four horsewomen versus the four horsewomen. Yeah. I mean, we're years off from that now, I would imagine, but knowing that we're building to that, that's pretty exciting. That's gonna be a pretty awesome, dominant faction. And at that point, you could even have Ronda Rousey as a heel and just have a heel group of badass MMA women.
00:13:59
Speaker
It's true. And do you think you see that happening at like a WrestleMania or more like a SummerSlam? I don't know. Maybe I could even see them being surprises that they've, you know, that they come out and join her or fuck. Now I'm like going way further ahead where I'm like when they turn on her and they're fighting each other.
00:14:19
Speaker
Like the possibilities with that are just so fun that I'm excited that it's gonna be a thing at all. I hope the other two are as good as Baszler and Rousey. The possibilities are endless.
00:14:30
Speaker
I guess from this point, let me just talk about kind of the things that people have been really, really diving into heavily.
Nakamura vs Styles Main Event Debate
00:14:37
Speaker
I really felt like without having Brock Lesnar on this backlash pay-per-view, the right thing to do, the thing that made sense was to have Nakamura versus Styles for the WWE Championship be the main event.
00:14:51
Speaker
And I think a lot of people felt that way. I know an image had leaked on Twitter of the production notes of what the match lineup was going to be for the night. And once I saw that, I was like, oh, fuck. And they opted to go with Roman Reigns versus Samoa Joe as the main event for the whole show, which did not involve a title, was a feud that's been brewing for a month just based on Joe talking shit. Joe is now on SmackDown, by the way. So this is technically an inter an inter promotional
00:15:20
Speaker
match. And Joe has been on fire. His promos lately have been every promo gets me excited that he does. Yeah. So do not I'm not trying to discount how awesome Joe has been, nor am I trying to discount that Roman Reigns is their guy that they're trying to go with in some form or fashion. But I still feel that Nakamura and Styles should have gone on last and they had a fucking awesome match.
00:15:50
Speaker
They ended in a Rochambeau for the title. Right? But here's the fucking thing. So I'm officially going with your conspiracy theory from WrestleMania that somebody in creative, Vince, whoever, whoever was agenting their match, told them to hold back at WrestleMania.
00:16:10
Speaker
Okay, fine. So then they have a rematch at Greatest Royal Rumble. Okay, you're not gonna have the title switch hands there, but it ends in a, what was it, a double count out, because they were outside of the ring? Yeah. So you don't give the fans a finish there.
00:16:26
Speaker
And by this point, obviously Nakamura's full-blown heel hitting nut shots left and right. Loves it. Loves it. Never seen anyone love anything more than that man who loves hitting dicks. I mean, he's the king of... I mean, you could argue he is actually the king of dong style now, right? Oh my god. Oh my god. Book it. Fucking book that match. He's going for the dick, so why not?
00:16:50
Speaker
go for the only dick that he can't get. So here in basically the span of a month, we're getting Styles Nakamura at pay-per-view level events three times. Pretty quickly. Yeah, boom, boom, boom. So we've already done that three times.
00:17:05
Speaker
Are we gonna get a four? The match ends with them kicking each other simultaneously in the dick, both of them going down. Ten count, neither respond. And the crowd is audibly invisibly pissed because they realize, shit, not only is this not the main event of the show, but we're not getting a resolution to this shit and there isn't a clear winner. And they went out of their way to make this no disqualification, presumably to try to avoid this kind of thing. I mean, like,
00:17:32
Speaker
Yeah we're getting worked but there comes a time period where I think after a while you're just like fucking just get to the part that I want. You mean that good match like that one like real good solid Nakamura AJ match? Including the finish, yes. Okay full disclosure we're recording this on Tuesday before SmackDown so we haven't seen what happens tonight but are we to assume that it's probably going to be Nakamura Styles at
00:17:57
Speaker
money in the bank? Yeah, which is what, over a month away at this point? Which is funny because that means the first interaction those two had with each other would have been one year ago money in the bank. Yeah. I mean interaction in the WWE, of course. Well, they've got to bring the resolution one year later to them meeting under that ladder. I guess. But the other issue they're going to deal with is like I just got done saying they did boom, boom, boom. They did three matches in a month.
00:18:27
Speaker
Good luck maintaining fan interest for the next month and a week with them fucking around the last two matches with their finishes. I mean, they're capable of doing it, I guess, but again, it was disrespectful in my opinion. I'm getting, I guess, I guess I'm too much of a fucking mark, but it felt like a situation where the WWE championship should have closed the show.
00:18:49
Speaker
And when it didn't, and then to justify why it didn't close the show, they gave that finish. I get it. If you're going to have a dusty fucking finish like that, then obviously that's not how you want to end the show. But then they book themselves into a corner because at the same time, this is just going to make people hate Roman Reigns even more. And that's where we're at.
00:19:09
Speaker
So what are your thoughts? I mean like fuck when you realized that Reigns and Joe were closing the show did you kind of roll your eyes at all or were you are you so immune to the WWE bullshit that you were just like whatever I get it. I guess like I'm start of I'm kind of becoming immune to everything WWE like they can't surprise me with something that's gonna upset me anymore. So I try not to let
Roman Reigns' Controversial Booking
00:19:33
Speaker
it.
00:19:33
Speaker
I mean, even if it's guys I like, it's just like, well, you signed to the WWE, you knew this was gonna happen to yourself. So you're just being in an abusive relationship and you acknowledge it.
00:19:44
Speaker
I mean, it's that Dane Cook joke where they still have my CDs in their car. But I don't know, like when I saw, the second I saw that AJ Nakamura wasn't last, I was like, well, this is gonna have another finish that ends in a not finish. And I mean, I assumed Roman Reigns was gonna win, but I also kind of thought I'm like, well, maybe they're done with him. I don't know, we've already seen him lose to Lesnar.
00:20:10
Speaker
Cause I'm gonna be mad if I have to watch him and Lesnar one more time, which seems like that's where we're headed, right? Yeah, and what would be the justification if they finally have Reigns beat him? That Lesnar wouldn't get another match against him, like his rematch. How weird is it though to have a babyface walking around being like, but I really won that title, that's my title. It's like a way to pretend that the belt's on the show.
00:20:34
Speaker
Well, that's that's a great way of putting it, which is we can we can officially call this issue the Roman Reigns Brock Lesnar logjam, which is that everything on the fucking show isn't progressing the way it should. Because on one hand, the guy who has the actual world title, the universal title, isn't fucking there. Defends the title, what, like seven times in the course of a year or whatever it is.
00:21:00
Speaker
Even if I mean is it that many times? Like if you count like random house show appearances where he has to maybe so I mean like
00:21:11
Speaker
you see where Vince is like he's got his heart on for fucking Brock because he's a shoot tough guy he's got the like the legit mean streak and you know he's he's a star outside of WWE as well as inside WWE but at the same time he also kind of once Roman Reigns in that position so when Brock isn't around it doesn't matter what else is going on in the fucking company doesn't matter what's going on on SmackDown especially that's the B show we'll get to that here in a little bit
00:21:37
Speaker
But fucking Roman Reigns gets that main event spot. And you'll wonder why fucking people are booing him. I had such a- I hit my limit with fucking Roman Reigns this past Sunday. Where I'm actually able of being complimentary towards Reigns. Because I actually think he has improved. I don't think he's horrible.
00:22:00
Speaker
Have criticisms about his moveset being pretty stale. I don't think it's a tackle and a jumping punch to the face pop people The way that they think it does. I think his charisma comes and goes
00:22:14
Speaker
But when people talk about the Roman Reigns getting jammed down your throat phenomenon, this is what they're fucking talking about. They said that Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe, not for a title, based on three weeks of Joe talking trash at Reigns about him failing to beat Lesnar, which is true, and Vince booked it so that Lesnar is better than Roman Reigns, they went and put that match on last.
00:22:41
Speaker
and it just felt like a fuck, are you fucking kidding me? Like give it a break. And not only did it go on last, like this is the type of pay-per-view that when you see that it's gonna happen, you're like, all right, well this'll be fun, it'll be two and a half hours long. Yeah. Because it's like they don't have shit going on for this pay-per-view, so we're gonna go to bed early tonight. And then you see the pay-per-view actually goes three and a half hours and goes a half hour over the time that you were expecting.
00:23:07
Speaker
And Reigns and Joe do the rest hold shit to a crowd that's already fed fucking up with everything? I mean, it just got ugly.
00:23:17
Speaker
And when, didn't it appear that at one point, like there was a video supposedly of rain showing that he tapped out? Oh yeah. We actually, all of us on the couch here in my apartment, we're all like, he just tapped. We all pointed and we're like, he was just tapping. Was that him really tapping though? Like did Joe get him just a little too tight? And he's like, no, stop. Joe was trying to go into business for himself. He's like, fuck it. I'm actually choking you out. And he's like, no, stop. I don't, I don't want to go.
00:23:43
Speaker
It's like, I thought you were the champ. I am technically the champ. I swear. I mean, that's... Would that fly in the 80s if Hulk Hogan had lost to, like, Iron Sheik? But he's like, but I'm the real champ and I know it in my heart.
00:24:03
Speaker
That's such a heel thing to do. It is. I could have pictured Seth Rollins doing that like four years ago, like walking around just being shitty about how he's the champion with no belt.
00:24:15
Speaker
fucking John Cena would walk out all mopey-faced and say, I didn't get the job done. It doesn't matter how I feel about it, at the end of the day, the referee raised the other guy's hand, I did not win. I accept the results. And then he'll just go in and be sad boy Cena, but our number one babyface comes in, just refuses to admit that he lied.
00:24:38
Speaker
Well, he does say it though, he's like, yeah, I lost. But everybody here knows that Big Dog's the champion. If they want the universal title on fucking Raw, does the writing team know that they can make that happen? Like, what the fuck?
00:24:59
Speaker
I wish we could keep Samoa Joe in Reigns, like this whole thing going, because before it was like the fun thing where it's like Roman Reigns is out here with his conspiracy theories, but then it's gonna start being like Joe genuinely concerned for Reigns' mental health, where he's like, you're very delusional. You didn't win.
00:25:18
Speaker
Look, as your Samoan brother, I need to have a heart to heart with you right now. You haven't beaten him. You've tried multiple times. You've lost every, he left you a bloody mess at WrestleMania. He's like, but I walked out last with my arm raised. I got the pyro.
00:25:34
Speaker
Well, fuck, yeah, I guess he did get the, you know what? I think that Roman Reigns truly believes he's won. Like, why else would he get the fireworks? Like, Brock Lesnar knocked him fucking stupid at WrestleMania. He walked out and there were fireworks and he's like, well, Lesnar left, I guess I win. Why did everyone go home? Yeah, I just, and you know that they're not doing any, this is the thing.
00:26:01
Speaker
It's best to never give them too much credit and think that they're doing some deep storyline where there's a twist where, oh, we had knew this all along. Like they may try and play that off sometimes. That's not what's going on here. Vince is literally trying to have his cake and eat it too.
00:26:16
Speaker
The crowd doesn't respond. I feel like this last month, just my personal feelings on this, the way the end of WrestleMania played out with the crowd turning with how ugly it got, and you were fucking there for it, so you can testify to this. This is Vince McMahon for basically the last month throwing a shit fit.
00:26:38
Speaker
where he's like, well, fine, you don't wanna cheer my guy, I'm gonna book him in the main event anyway, and he's not even gonna have the belt, and all the guys you love, like Nakamura and Styles, I'm gonna put them on the midcard, and there's nothing you can fuckin' do about it, and he's right. Well, that's what I thought was happening on Raw on Monday, where when they're like, there's gonna be a triple threat, and guess what, it's two fuckin' guys you like versus Roman Reigns. And guess what, they're both fuckin' small. Suck Roman's dick.
00:27:05
Speaker
So the other element to this whole fucking log jam here, and we've talked about it before, is that Bron Strowman should probably, actually I'm not even gonna say probably, Bron Strowman should be the Universal Champion. He could have been the Universal Champion a long fucking time ago. He had like a dozen matches with Brock Lesnar, I feel like.
00:27:27
Speaker
He fucking ruined Roman Reigns. Everyone loved him for it.
Braun Strowman's Mismanagement
00:27:31
Speaker
He got pops for every fucking destructive thing that he did on Raw, whether it was an ambulance, whether it was the fucking set. Oh, speaking of that, just real quick, I think it was two weeks ago, Bronn came out to help Roman.
00:27:47
Speaker
Yeah, what the fuck? And there was a moment where he was in there with him and I was like, if I were Roman, I'd be like, I appreciate the help, but you almost fucking killed me. He's like, look me in the eyes and tell me what you did to me. He's like, well, you were strapped to a gurney and I pushed you upside down and backwards off a loading dock onto your face.
00:28:08
Speaker
But I am sorry now I mean and and some of people I mean this this kind of goes back to the the Nicholas stuff and It's a difficult line to walk with Braun because he's so good at so many different things He's good at playing the lovable monster He's also good at being absolutely fucking terrifying and I think caught in all this and this this is where I kind of Everyone who listened to this podcast and the people who know me I'm I'm fans. I'm a fan of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. I'm not
00:28:37
Speaker
Go ahead. No, it's just when I was watching Raw and I saw Braun out there and then saw KO come out, I was just like, oh, Derek's not going to love the way this ends. Well, here's the funny thing. What they did on Raw last night.
00:28:53
Speaker
Kevin Owens is eating another pin for Braun Strowman. I'll get to that in a second. The good news is, at least in that match, they actually showed that Kevin Owens can hang with Braun Strowman a little bit. They had a really good competitive match. Yes, they did. And actually, I would argue it's been one of Braun's best matches he's had as far as just straight wrestling matches.
00:29:13
Speaker
Considering that it was, you know, just, uh, what was, was that in the middle of the show on raw or did that open the show? I don't even remember that opened the show. And that was a great, like the fucking numbers for raw last night were not good and they got worse. Obviously with each pass an hour, but the first hour did its best like it usually did. And it was a great start to raw. And, but going back to my rant about Stroman and how it relates to, uh, Owens and Zane is we've watched this shit play out for the last fucking month. Like.
00:29:42
Speaker
It started with Kurt Angle punishing Owens and Zayn by having them face Lashley and Strowman and then the next week they added gender and reigns to the mix so that it was a six man tag and it was the same result and then they booked another rematch again at Backlash where Owens and Zayn ate another pin and then Owens ate another one on Raw and the whole time
00:30:04
Speaker
I'm not going to be a Mark and I am a fan of heels. So I'm used to watching my guys eat pens. I really don't have an issue with that. And I'm not worried about Owens. This really has nothing to do with them. It has more to do with the fact that Strowman has been so fucking over on his own merit for such a long time. Why have they been teaming him with Bobby Lashley? They're not doing goddamn dick with Bobby Lashley. Like you don't have to convince me that Strowman and Lashley can beat Owens and Zayn.
00:30:34
Speaker
It's like a giant man and a slightly less giant man can beat two guys who aren't giant men.
00:30:42
Speaker
like at a point it became like I saw somebody you know one of my one of my friends on Twitter made this comment there comes a point where it looks less like like you're watching a monster be like fun and destructive and it almost came across as bullying like at this point where it's like okay yeah I fucking get it like like I buy that this is gonna happen every fucking time but what is it what happened at backlash what did that do for anybody
00:31:07
Speaker
Like, Braun is now in the Money in the Bank ladder match, and there's one of two ways that that's gonna go. Braun is either going to lose, and you will have wasted the guy who should be the universal champion and should just be the number one contender. He doesn't need a briefcase. He won the Greatest Royal Rumble. He probably should have been in a world title match at WrestleMania, and he's in a fucking tag match, and he holds the tag belts for what, one night, and then vacates them?
00:31:36
Speaker
Yeah, after Nicholas? Like, what the fuck are they doing with Braun Strowman? Like, nobody's benefiting from this situation, and if the idea, so they're either gonna have him lose and waste him at Money in the Bank, or they're gonna have him win, and Braun Strowman, the fucking monster among men who's taken down Lesnar and Reigns and been vicious, they're gonna have him either call his shot and be like, I'm using my briefcase at SummerSlam, and I'm gonna fight the beast, and I'm taking the title, and then he calls his shot,
00:32:05
Speaker
And that just basically note like why the fuck make it a money in the bank situation when you could just make it a number one contendership. Or he has the smack that he has the money in the bank briefcase. And he's sneakily cashing in. Like the money in the bank briefcase, in my opinion, maybe I'm fucking wrong. I would love to hear somebody's argument on this. Braun Strowman and the money in the bank brief briefcase do not make any sense to me.
00:32:31
Speaker
He's earned the title shot. He doesn't need to win a thing to get the title shot. Like you said, he won a 50-man Royal Rumble. He got a green belt. That green belt, he should be able to cash that in for a title shot. I agree. If you asked him, do you want to hang on to this souvenir, or would you rather go for the title? He's like, I'll go for the real one.
00:32:51
Speaker
It just seems like an underhanded back door bullshit way for Vince to be like, okay, we'll get him a title shot eventually. I would much rather see a guy like The Miz. I would much rather see a guy like Finn Balor. I would much rather see a bunch of other guys have that briefcase because it plays into the idea of them being crafty, of the timing of the cash-in being a thing. And Braun to me is just a number one contender every day he's on the show.
00:33:18
Speaker
and the idea that they're gonna put him in that map. And first of all, the news broke today that Lesnar's not supposed to be at Money in the Bank. I saw that. I kind of assumed he wouldn't be. I was hoping that he would be.
00:33:31
Speaker
I mean I don't know why because I mean fuck Lesnar's appearances at this point but for the purposes of making the show more complete I was hoping Lesnar would be there. Well okay do we know 100% like how many fucking ladder matches are gonna be in this like is each show is it just one case and we're getting half the people from one show and half from the other?
00:33:51
Speaker
yes okay so we're not having like six fucking ladder matches no we're having two the one for the men one for the women and i think there's going to be three participants from each brand well and i'm hearing now there could they could end up doing a tag or a money in the bank for the tag titles where the fuck did you hear that and oh my god overkill
00:34:10
Speaker
Well, that's what I think too, but I wouldn't cut it past the WWE. Like, I mean, don't take, like that's just something I read on the internet. It's a rumor. It's a rumor. It's a rumor. I don't have any inside information. I got the internet. I just think that the mishandling of Strom, it's starting to spill into other aspects of the show. Going back to my Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar log jam philosophy, which is that Vince loves both guys.
Critique of WWE's Booking Strategy
00:34:34
Speaker
The part-time guy has the belt, but he's going to continue to book the guy. He wants to be the guy.
00:34:39
Speaker
in the main event over people who are clearly in more compelling storylines clearly have better matches. I'm not that's not a knock on reigns all of his matches but fuck lately he hasn't been getting the reactions they want. What are they gonna do?
00:34:54
Speaker
Well, I think with the Money in the Bank match, or in Strowman being in it, I think if you're gonna have half SmackDown, half Raw, the easiest thing to do is to let it end up going to SmackDown and give it to the Miz or somebody who can cash in on AJ Styles. It's always more fun when a heel has it anyway, cuz it leaves that at any moment, this guy could come out of the back and get it.
00:35:17
Speaker
Correct. And that's why that's specifically why I brought up the Miz. Although they let SmackDown win it last year because it was a SmackDown pay-per-view. SmackDown only. Baron Corbin won it and didn't do jack shit with it. They wasted it on a SmackDown before a pay-per-view. And Cena fucked it up. And Baron Corbin hasn't really done much since. Hey, you do not take away from his fight with Jose. No way Jose right now.
00:35:44
Speaker
Sorry. If there's a man who hates a fucking conga line, it is Baron Corbin and I promise you he has never put his hand on another person's hips and gyrated his own as he goes around the line. But I would pay to see it. There's a lot of things that Baron Corbin doesn't enjoy, like probably a luau. Baron Corbin doesn't like having fun.
00:36:08
Speaker
If it's fun, Baron Corbin doesn't like it. That's his gimmick. He seems like the kind of guy that's like, what is that decoration in your home? Oh, it's a can of reindeer teeth.
00:36:21
Speaker
Like, not in a jar. It's in a fucking soup can, an old soup can. You can't even see it. You have to look in and be like, yeah, that is fucking teeth in there. And he always has a funny joke for it, where he's like, Rudolph and Santa tried landing here to give me presents on Christmas. I knocked Santa the fuck out and killed Rudolph and took his teeth, making the kids cry. For real, though, man. Where'd you get those teeth? And there's so many things.
00:36:49
Speaker
I mean, it was so weird. Like you and I have probably been to shows where we've seen this before where when Roman Reigns won the match, he pins Joe. And by the way, Joe's going back to SmackDown now. Their big acquisition that they got during the mix match, you know, not the mix match, but the superstar shakeup, their big acquisition just ate a loss or ate a loss for Roman Reigns.
00:37:12
Speaker
Why? They don't have a problem sending somebody over to SmackDown. But in the process, they just want to let you know real quick, that person, not better than Roman Reigns. No way in hell. You are right. That is like, you just got one of the biggest people you could have. It's going to be one of your top heels. But never forget, no one's better than this guy.
00:37:35
Speaker
Yep, and it doesn't matter if he just lost a bunch of matches to Brock Lesnar. Nope, he's still not as good as Roman Reigns on his best day. Real quick. Just, sorry, just before I forget it, just to go back real quick, to the Money in the Bank match, we do have Finn Balor in the match. That was a pretty good three-way they had. Yeah.
00:37:55
Speaker
You know, Zayn reigns, Finn Balor, Finn Balor goes over. Do you think that, I'm gonna keep bringing it up. I'm gonna keep bringing it up until it happens. Finn Balor wins the Money in the Bank match. He calls out Brock Lesnar for SummerSlam to get his title back where he first had won it.
00:38:11
Speaker
Do I want that? Yeah. Beast versus the demon. Book it. And you know what? I'm going to say this every fucking year until it never, it's never gonna fucking happen. But like, Hey, you know, I want to see it so bad. And they just, they don't want to give that to me. That would be such, that would be such a 180 from everything. If, if Vince isn't booking reigns to go over Lesnar right now, do you really think he has the humility to be like, yeah, that small guy could beat him with a couple of stomps to the chest. Yeah. Well, maybe he'll surprise me.
00:38:41
Speaker
maybe but I you know what I just at the beginning of this said like hey I my relationship with the WWE is they don't surprise me they're going to always do the thing that's the opposite of what I would do but I just have to accept that this is this is an old billionaire show and he gets to play with his action figures the way he wants
00:39:00
Speaker
I just thought that it was so sad that the way that show ended after Reigns pinned Joe was they cut to the crowd and you just saw people kind of stand up, like immediately stand up and turn. People were already leaving during the match. That's pretty well documented, which is now becoming a signature of Roman Reigns main event. So there you go. Well, this goes back to Roman Reigns memory loss.
00:39:21
Speaker
So Roman Reigns, he actually has the same thing Guy Pierce had in Memento. He has to write all over himself to remind himself what happens, but he has a separate history. So on his leg, it's like one backlash, people loved it, cheered out of the building. And so next time he walks out, he's like, they do love me. They love me so much.
00:39:48
Speaker
I just, I just thought it was sad. Like you just saw the crowd go, all right, well, cool. I'm glad this shit is over. This is how I saw it playing out. And I just, even if I'm not at an event, I want to see like the show end with a pop and people going home happy. And I, uh, this backlash fucking sucked.
00:40:11
Speaker
It fucking sucked. It didn't do anything for anybody except make Seth Rollins clearly the fucking guy on Raw Or at least the only guy that has a fucking belt No, don't forget it motherfucker Roman Reigns has a belt
00:40:27
Speaker
Yeah, sure. He's like, you're like, Roman, describe the belt that you have. It's red. I know it's red. What I do is I write Universal Champion on my dick and then I wrap it around my waist. And that's how I let everyone know that I'm the big dog around here. It's long and stretchy. I don't have an explanation. Oh, Jesus.
00:40:49
Speaker
I just, yeah. Fuck backlash. Fuck Vince. But didn't you kind of get what you thought you were going to get out of backlash? Like, are you surprised that it happened this way? Here's why I'm surprised. And everyone can make fun of me for saying this. I just assumed that because there was such a fucking who gives a shit build towards it, I thought they'll give me good results.
00:41:13
Speaker
That's how I thought they were gonna make up for the lack of a build. It's how I thought they would make up for nothing changing hands at Greatest Royal Rumble. It's what I thought that they would do to kind of get past some of the shit that happened at WrestleMania. And it just was fucking everything that you didn't want it to be.
00:41:29
Speaker
Oh, I do want to throw out one of the guys that came over. I had a couple people come over that I've actually met at wrestling shows around Nashville. So what I'm saying is if you're a wrestling fan, you don't have wrestling friends. Go to shows alone. You'll meet people and then they'll come to your house. I know that's weird, right?
00:41:46
Speaker
But yeah, my buddy Jeff that was here, he had a good idea, and he actually got me so excited for a thing that didn't happen. He said he really wanted in the middle of AJ Nakamura for the Bullet Club to come out. Well, you know, Gallows and Anderson. And like, you know, Shinsuke is like really, it's no DQ, and it really seems like Shinsuke's gonna fuck up AJ, and they come out, but then they join Shinsuke. Yeah.
00:42:15
Speaker
I'd actually heard that as a possibility. Somebody else put that rumor up online and I loved it. It was Jeff. Oh, was it? No, I don't know. Maybe it was Jeff. Maybe it was Jeff. I can't remember where I saw it from, so it could very well have been Jeff's idea. And Jeff, that's a great idea. I would have you on my writing team. And if you were on my writing team, the Universal Championship would probably own Raw by now.
00:42:37
Speaker
Well, he also wants Orton to restart the NWO. So don't give him credit for every idea he has. Orton would not give a fuck about the NWO. And that's why we're not doing that idea, Jeff. But the other one, I like.
00:42:57
Speaker
I think I would like Jeff to get on the social media and argue with you. I hope he does. As to why Orton fronting a new NWO is the way to go on this one. The new NWO would reinvigorate Orton's career. He'd care every week. He wouldn't be part-time anymore. Yeah. Oh, and you did receive a question from Kevin Allen that I'm supposed to relay to you.
00:43:21
Speaker
All right. And I figured just because you're on kind of an angry rant right now anyway, that this, he knows that you are a huge Kevin Owens fan. Sure. And he knows that you hate Bill Goldberg. Sure. He wants you to describe how you felt the night they had a match. I can't imagine me dying being that much worse.
00:43:45
Speaker
It was all my own death and it was a jackhammer Yeah, I mean it was like all the shit coming back to haunt me from my fucking youth. I hated Bill Goldberg
00:43:58
Speaker
in WCW. I think I've said this before on the podcast actually, but I hated him in WCW. I've listened to some of the guys and shoot interviews, talk about how seriously he takes himself. Um, guys got like what four or five moves. Um, really like, like he's pissed that his, his winning streak came to an end and kind of has this idea that it should have gone on a lot longer.
00:44:23
Speaker
or at least didn't for the longest time understand a lot of aspects of the business and how there's give and take and how you have to put guys over. And he just came across as clueless in some of the interviews I've heard and that hasn't helped his case at all. So to watch, and here's the other thing, Vince treated him like such a piece of shit in his first run with WWE back in like 2003, 2004.
00:44:47
Speaker
And it kind of made me happy. Like I wanted to see Triple H lose the belt, but I was like, yes, cool. You're you're being taught not to be a fucking mark for yourself. And then it was just like Vince had a change of heart at the most inconvenient time in my wrestling fandom. And he was like, no, we're going to have we're not going to have Jericho and Owens settle their eight month long friendship turned bitter rivalry at WrestleMania. No, what we're going to do is have Bill Goldberg come back and win the belt in about five seconds.
00:45:17
Speaker
And then Owens doesn't get a rematch. He still doesn't. I can't believe they haven't played up that. I mean, I can believe they haven't played it up, but they haven't pointed that out on Raw yet. So Kevin, to answer your question, you were gonna say just to answer your fucking question. To answer your fucking bullshit, Kevin. I hated it. I hated it so much. It was a nightmare. I like that when you were watching TV, you got to watch Bill Goldberg, Jack Hammer, and Spear You.
00:45:47
Speaker
Yeah, like he just as well have been doing it to you. He may as well. That sucked. But hey, you know what? I'm actually going to take the initiative here. I've done a lot of ranting. I backlash fucking sucked. I hated it.
00:46:01
Speaker
I'm going to continue to watch WWE. My network subscription hasn't been canceled because at the very least I have to have content every week to talk about for this podcast. And that is the thread that has been keeping me attached to the product over the last month is this podcast and me still loving professional wrestling, even at the worst and lowest moments.
Refreshing Change: New Japan Wrestling
00:46:25
Speaker
But, um,
00:46:26
Speaker
I'm going to take the initiative here. Let's talk about something else. You will see me ranting about backlash probably for another few weeks online, maybe for years. Yeah, you only ranted on about it for about 45 minutes, I mean. Well, here's the cool thing. You did give me homework, and I did something that people like, oh, fuck, Derek, watch New Japan? Yeah, I watched a few New Japan matches.
00:46:53
Speaker
Well, I feel like when there's something that I think you could potentially actually enjoy and kind of bring you over to this side to see like, hey, you know what? There's a thing that makes you sad, but there is a healthy alternative. Yeah. You can have some of this once in a while, and it'll make you feel really good because their stories are good.
00:47:13
Speaker
It was essentially a pro wrestling smoke break. And so I watched some New Japan from over the weekend and I watched Tanahashi and Okada. I watched Cody and Ibushi and I watched Hangman Page versus Kenny Omega. Got a nice little dosage of a little bit, little bit different shit in every match. I don't know where you want to begin. This is the homework you gave me, buddy, the recommendations. So let's, where do you want to, where do you want to drive this shit?
00:47:43
Speaker
Well, I'll say over the weekend, New Japan had a, or I guess it was technically Thursday and Friday for Japan, they had a two night pay-per-view Duntaku. And the main event of night one was Kenny Omega and Hangman Page. And Hangman Page is just, I know every week I'm just like, I just can't believe it. I just can't believe how good that little Hangman's getting.
00:48:09
Speaker
But for real, that guy is getting so fucking good at pro wrestling. But I guess if your mentors are Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, and the Young Bucks, and those are the people that are teaching you professional wrestling? Night in, night out, yeah. That is just a good set of three teachers to have. They can cover everything that he would need.
00:48:35
Speaker
And we're just watching this guy progress so fucking quickly. Yeah, even I was surprised. I mean, I know I don't watch a ton, but I keep hearing you over and over again over the last few months say he just keeps getting better and better, and Hangman Page can hang with the best of him, and that's fucking true. And even the way the match started, I thought was brilliant. They had Cody do a run-in. They attacked him.
00:49:00
Speaker
I thought a couple of those V-triggers that he did came out of nowhere, especially the rolling one where Paige came into the ring and fucking ate one. He does like this flip slingshot thing where he like slingshots himself over the top rope and a flip lands in the ring. And Kenny is just already right there with the V-trigger. It's just, it was so perfectly timed.
00:49:22
Speaker
and the way the match started. Cody got a table out, and so there's a table floating around, but it's just laying flat on the floor. And Hangman does the right of passage, which is, how would you describe that? It's like you get a guy ready for an Alabama slam. And then you just drop to your ass. And then you will drop to your knees, really. So it's kind of like a pile driver, but he's got a space up your butt. It's like a backwards tombstone almost.
00:49:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of what it is. And he did it onto this table that was not folded up just, you know, flat on the floor. And Kenny immediately starts bleeding from the top of his head.
00:49:59
Speaker
What are those tables made out of, by the way? Those are not normal tables. No, those are like the traditional Japanese folding table. Those things do not, like, since you're pretty new to New Japan, those fuckers don't break. Well, this is something I wanted, I made a note of this while I was watching. This didn't come up, I don't think it came up during the Page Omega match.
00:50:20
Speaker
but during the Cody a bushy match when Cody brought out the table after red shoes got knocked down let me just drop name drop red shoes shout out to red shoes red shoes takes a bump Cody goes into the ring pulls out a table and it was hilarious I laughed the announcers went out of their way to address why that table is there
00:50:39
Speaker
which I I've been watching wrestling my whole fucking life. I've never heard the announcers say it was something to the effect of, well, we keep those tables under the ring in case our tables here at ringside get busted. We have a backup. Actually, now that you say that, when they said that, I was like, Oh, that's why they're under. I just like, you know, I wish I'd had that handy. All the times people ask me questions about why certain things get used in wrestling.
00:51:09
Speaker
Yeah, they have backup tables under the ring because sometimes wrestlers destroy the announce table at ringside. That makes sense. But wouldn't you love to see Corey Graves and Coach just sitting at a folding table like partway through the show? Well this is another thing and I know this is a minor thing not related to the matches and it's one of the things that like what NXT has going for it sometimes.
00:51:31
Speaker
One of the things I like about when I watch New Japan is that there's so much focus on what's happening in the ring. And the production is based around that. I like that the house lights go out on the crowd. It's dark, there's the ramp or whatever, the walkway to the ring, there's the stage where they come out. And I just, there's something that's old school and gritty about that style of wrestling.
00:52:00
Speaker
And I know WWE will never go back to that. Those days are over, especially now that they broadcast in HD multiple times a week. But what's so cool about when I watch New Japan is that I'm like, this feels like I'm watching like a shoot fight or like a boxing match just the way they present it. It just feels different in a way that I appreciate. Um,
00:52:22
Speaker
I think exactly because like even the ring like they've got you know Advertisements on the ring like you would see for a boxing match. Yeah, there's really just there's no no bells and whistles that really come along with watching the show other than you're about to see the best in ring action in Professional wrestling right now like you are going like you know you're not getting the fireworks You're not getting all this stuff, but these guys are gonna do some shit. You've never seen I
00:52:49
Speaker
Well, and OK, so to to to that point, so when Ta-Nehisi and Okada are having their match, I saw something I feel like I maybe I'm wrong, which just so everybody knows, like we're moving at night to the main event is Okada versus Ta-Nehisi for the heavyweight championship.
00:53:06
Speaker
Yeah, but one of the things that happens during this match that I feel like I haven't seen, I'm sure it happens all the time in some other promotions, but when they're putting each other in holds, they have entire spots built around the guy trying to break the hold and then failing and then falling right back into it, like immediately.
00:53:27
Speaker
Um, and that happened early in the Okada, uh, Tanahashi match. I think it was like on a, uh, like, uh, just like a headlock, but they had, uh, Tanahashi about to break it on Okada. And then he brought it right back in and locked it in and just like.
00:53:43
Speaker
just simple stuff like that that you just don't see where like the whole build is breaking out of it but you don't see guys almost break out of it and then just fall right back into it and then the end of that fucking match just how hard it got going for the rainmaker a couple different times missing it and then tanahashi hitting it and then he goes for the splash off the top rope hits it and then goes for another gets a little bit greedy and then akata gets the knees up
00:54:11
Speaker
And I think that led into him hitting the Rainmaker finally and pinning him. But fuck, man, like that that I think when we were thinking about like Styles Nakamura being a slow build match like while we were watching it at WrestleMania, I think that's kind of what we had in our minds is how that would play out. And it didn't end up being that. But exactly. That's kind of the.
00:54:32
Speaker
The traditional way a New Japan match is set up is, you know, a really slow build and spots get higher and higher. They hit harder and harder as it goes on. And then by the end, it feels like you're just watching two guys go to war after they've done all this other stuff, building up to it. Yeah, I mean, it's this. And you said you said before you just get you're getting something completely different than what you're used to seeing over here in the States. And it's just I wish like people would, you know,
00:55:01
Speaker
I'm not saying they need to completely follow New Japan. I mean, they absolutely should, because it's a great show. But it is something that you can go check out a couple matches here and there. Because these are long shows. Even with WWE, I don't check out every match on a Raw or a SmackDown. I'll skip around if I'm not watching it live. And I mean, you can do the same thing on this. If you see some names that we've mentioned and you think, I should check out one of their matches. If it's somebody we've mentioned, they're probably worth checking out, or at least somebody that we think is worth checking out.
00:55:30
Speaker
And I think what's interesting with Okada Tanahashi is how these characters are handled. Because Okada, he's coming up on two years of being the champion.
00:55:44
Speaker
Isn't that fucking crazy? And it's to a point where people are kind of tired of him being the champion, so every match for the last several, they're cheering the other person. They want somebody else to win, because he's kind of looked at as the corporate champion right now. But people still don't hate him. It's not that same feeling you get from Roman Reigns, where he's getting shoved down your throat. It's like, yeah, Okada's champion, but he's really, really good, and nobody can beat him.
00:56:13
Speaker
Well, I think the other thing is what they've done a good job of is they've successfully convinced the audience that, um, I mean, I guess the audience is getting worked and they're ready to see somebody dethrone him because it's gone on so long, but not in a, like, what would you call it? It's not like they're breaking the fourth wall.
00:56:31
Speaker
with the way they're booking it. They're not just trolling you at this point. They're literally like they're building up a title reign so that when somebody finally fucking unseats Okada, it's gonna be a big fucking deal.
00:56:44
Speaker
Well, and I think that's what we all thought was going to happen at Wrestle Kingdom 12, and it just didn't happen.
Okada's Title Reign in New Japan
00:56:50
Speaker
So the air really got sucked out of that room because that room wanted Nido. And I mean, in this, we were talking about like how many times Lesnar has defended. In New Japan, like they're not defending the belt every single month. So in the last two years that he's had the title, he's defended it. I believe this weekend was his 13th title defense. Okay.
00:57:10
Speaker
just in this two year run. This is actually his fourth time as champion, so he's got a lot more than just those 13. But in this recent run, those Tanahashi, he is kind of New Japan's John Cena, if you want to look at it that way. But people still fucking love Tanahashi.
00:57:30
Speaker
So then does that make him John Cena then? I don't know, does it? If that's the signature of John Cena is that people don't kind of like him, or at least he's getting a 50-50 response. But that wasn't always his thing. Yeah, I don't know. But yeah, that crowd was super behind Tanahashi, that whole match. They were. Just doesn't work out for him. And then, you know, we come out, we have Okada. He gets to kind of pick his next opponent. He chooses fucking Kenny Omega one more time.
00:57:59
Speaker
Oh shit. So at the next pay-per-view, we're gonna get Kenny Omega versus Okada, best two out of three falls. And when is this show, my friend? This is next month. It is the next pay-per-view we have coming up.
00:58:15
Speaker
And what else did we have on that card? Oh, huge thing that we didn't even mention. Big thing of the show. Fucking Chris Jericho showed back up night one and picked a fight with Naito again.
Chris Jericho's Return to New Japan
00:58:25
Speaker
So next month's pay-per-view is going to have Okada versus Kenny Omega for the third time or for the final time for the title, as well as Naito versus Jericho.
00:58:37
Speaker
Yeah good props to Jericho on once again working the fucking crowd away from I don't know like he just worked the internet because somebody had asked him recently in an interview like when he thought he was gonna work with New Japan he's like well I'm not doing it right now and I just don't know when that's gonna happen again and he just kind of says like unfortunately it doesn't seem like it's gonna happen you're like yeah really casual
00:58:59
Speaker
And fucking boom again, he's back. And fucking bloodies up, Naito. Good shit. There's just something about New Japan Jericho that he's just so fucking mean. And the Japanese guys just sell the fucking code breaker so well. Yeah? They don't bounce. It's just like a really hard thud with it and just roll over.
00:59:21
Speaker
What now, what did Jericho's shirt have on it? Uh, List and Gobernable's Day Jericho. Oh my god, I want one. Yeah. Oh, they're already, uh, they already went up for pre-order at Hot Topic and sold out. Oh, I want one. Oh yeah. That's going to be something you, I, the second I saw that shirt, I was like, fuck. I, I, cause I try not to buy all this shit. Like this is, this is one compromise. You spend so much on wrestling, man.
00:59:46
Speaker
I know, like, this is kind of the compromise with my wife. She doesn't care if I go to any wrestling show. She's like, do whatever, I don't give a shit. Just don't bring it home, kind of thing.
00:59:58
Speaker
Except when you do the podcast. Well, yeah, exactly. But you know, it's like the second those Young Bucks pop finals were announced for pre-order, I had them in a cart ready to press, you know, get them, and then I realized like, oh, she is going to be so mad when these boxes of plastic show up at my doorstep. I should just be grateful that she's allowing me to travel all over the place to go to these shows and not purchase these.
01:00:23
Speaker
I hope your marriage is going just fine. I'm so sorry, Leah. My marriage is like the Bullet Club, man. It's fine.
01:00:31
Speaker
Hey, I think we should do another reminder. You're coming up to Chicago this weekend to come to a couple wrestling shows with me. Are we still gonna try to do some kind of hangout? Like a legit wrestle hangout while you're here? I don't know. It depends on, I guess, when we're able to... One, what's going on? Because while we're up there now, we have to deal with getting all-in tickets. Yeah. And that could change things because I think we were planning on doing it before Ring of Honor, but now we gotta buy all-in tickets before Ring of Honor.
01:00:59
Speaker
Now we have a different priority. Yeah, I'm sorry. I want to hang out with all of you, but I also really want to go to All In, and I'm going to be so fucking stressed out until we have tickets.
01:01:10
Speaker
Yeah, and I think there's a percentage of the people who would hang out with us anyway who feel the same way. So we're also talking about recording some video and doing maybe a Q&A or just some kind of video that we're going to put up on our social media because we haven't done that yet. We've talked about it. We've been wanting to do it. And the other news is what's what's the update on the hat situation, my friend? I mean, as far as I know, they should arrive tomorrow.
01:01:35
Speaker
Okay. So I should be able to grab them tomorrow and then take them up to Chicago with me. So if anyone in Chicago is going to want one of these hats, let us know. I'll bring them up with me and we can take care of that there. If you're going to be at GCW on Saturday or Ring of Honor, let us know on Twitter. Let's have a meetup somewhere.
01:01:54
Speaker
Correct. That's a good time to plug our social media again. We are at Wrestle Hangout on Twitter, at Wrestle Hangout on Facebook, at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram. What did you think of Backlash? What did you think of the New Japan shows over the weekend? Am I being too tough? Am I an asshole? Are you angry? Are you happy?
01:02:15
Speaker
How fucking psyched are you for those prices for the all-in tickets? Derek's happy. Oh my god, like, those are the most reasonably priced wrestling tickets. And somebody asked me, like, were you joking about that? I'm like, no. $153 for the first two rows? Yeah. That's fucking unheard of. I mean, PWG tickets, like, stand-in-room only was 80 bucks.
01:02:39
Speaker
So I mean 150 for like this card? Done. But they aren't doing it to get rich. They just want to put on a good show and have everyone be able to get access to tickets. So God, I respect that. That's so baller. And I have this is one thing everybody on the Internet has been very, very optimistic about.
01:02:59
Speaker
I feel like I had so many people texting me saying like they were going to get the, uh, like, Oh, we're, we're getting those $153 tickets. And I'm like, I fucking wish. I mean, like, if I can, if I can sit in the first two rows, I will be so fucking happy, but I'm not counting on it because I don't, I'm just not that optimistic. I think there's too many people that want to go to this show. And if we are able to get those,
01:03:24
Speaker
I'll just have to buy a new pair of pants. My position has not changed. I'll be happy to get in the fucking building because I think this is going to be really hard to get tickets to, period. I think we're just going to click best available and pray for the best. Yeah. But as long as we're in that building, and it sounds like it's going to be a whole weekend, AAW is putting on two shows now that weekend, I think a Thursday and a Friday at Logan Square.
01:03:48
Speaker
And then, what is it? The podcast thing, they're doing that star cast, so they're having a bunch of wrestling podcasts.
01:03:56
Speaker
Yeah, and yeah, like you said, we talked about this during WrestleMania. They've got their own thing going on where they've just got a bunch of fan things to participate in, a bunch of people are gonna be in town. It's exciting. And everything about it, the prices, everything that they're doing for the fans, all the other stuff that's not even related to all-in.
Anticipation for All In Event
01:04:23
Speaker
Pro-wrestling tease, I'm sure we'll be doing some stuff on the side too.
01:04:25
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And plus they said they have a huge announcement for somebody who's going to make an appearance. So naturally, everybody thinks CM Punk. I assume they made it seem like it was just for signings. It could be, though. You never know. That's fine. I mean, even if you just showed up to God, even if they just had him guest referee a match. Yeah. People getting to hear that man's music hit in Chicago. I just there's part of me that wants it to happen so bad just so that we can feel that energy.
01:04:55
Speaker
Yeah. Like you said, I'm now having to deal with the stress of hoping that we can get tickets to all in. At press conferences this weekend too, so. Yeah, they're letting 50 people in. I don't think I'm going to sleep outside all night trying to get into this thing. Yeah. It'd be nice to get in. And I think you and I had exchange messages saying that if we knew it was a guarantee that those first 50 people were getting tickets to all in, I think we would risk it and go for it.
01:05:22
Speaker
But uh, no, I haven't heard anything about that. I don't feel like sleeping on the sidewalk all night. So Yeah Hey, I do want to go out of my way. I'm protesting this week. I'm not saying anything fucking nice. That's how bad backlash was
01:05:37
Speaker
Hey, I'm gonna say something nice for you. Okay, normally, for any new listeners, we end every episode by saying something nice.
Funny Goldberg Memory and Conclusion
01:05:44
Speaker
Maybe pick a wrestler that we don't always enjoy. Maybe somebody that you grew up not enjoying. Find something nice to say about him. And I'm gonna go ahead and say something nice on Derek's behalf about a Mr. Bill Goldberg. Oh, fuck, why? Because he made me spit soda all over a television once.
01:06:04
Speaker
This is a story that I think it is. Okay, go ahead. It is. So for a minute, Bill Goldberg had, I think it was either, it might've been on the History Channel. I don't remember what channel it was on, but he had a car show. A show where he just talked about vehicles. And he had on those shitty sunglasses. Remember those ones that went over the top of his skull? To the back, there were just little circles over his eyes, but a pair of sunglasses that fit your head like a hat. The buggy eyes ones? Yeah, fuck those.
01:06:32
Speaker
You're off to a great start. Off to a great start. But Bill Goldberg does the intro to his TV show, and he's standing by a nice convertible, and he goes, let's see what's under the hood. And he goes to kick it, and then they put a graphic over the top of the car of it exploding from Bill Goldberg kicking it.
01:06:48
Speaker
and I spit soda all over my TV. And that was one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. And this is maybe 15 fucking years ago at this point, and I'm still laughing about it. So, Bill, thank you for the laughs that one time. Also, thank you for spearing, Derek. I hate you, Bill Goldberg. Nothing has changed.
01:07:10
Speaker
Uh, dude, should we get out of here? I think we should. Thank you everybody for listening this week. You know, rate, review, subscribe, do all that stuff. We love you so much. Check us out on the social medias at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram, at Wrestle Hangout on Twitter and Facebook. And what else, Derek? Do we have anything else? Nope. What should we do? Just hit us up on how shitty backlash was. I just want to hear more of that. Keep that coming. Yeah, and if you're going to be in Chicago this weekend, let us know. Come say hi to us at the shows.
01:07:41
Speaker
Backlash was shitty. Hit her goddamn music.