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PICKLES! PICKLES! PICKLES!
19 Plays7 years ago
Chick Foley and The Hot Take King give their thoughts on All Elite Wrestling and what it means for the wrestling business. They discuss how nothing has changed on RAW and Smackdown despite being told that "things were going to change". Plus they preview WWE Elite 66 and the new NXT Elite lineup that will be hitting Target stores in the next couple months.
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Transcript
Introduction & Social Media
00:00:20
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Chick Foley Show, the most elite podcast on the internet. You're listening to us. I'm in the Jimmy's Famous Seafood Studios here in Baltimore. My name is Phil Gentile. My lovely co-host is across the world, the queen of pod style. Sheena Phelps, how are you Sheena? I'm doing well, man. Taking it easy over here.
00:00:47
Speaker
Nice. Yeah. We, uh, have a lot to talk about on the show here. You can follow us. Let's get the social media stuff out of the way. First, uh, some little housekeeping here. You can follow Sheena on Instagram at chick Foley. You can follow me. I hate JJ Reddick. The, uh, the show is chick Foley show on, on Twitter. And, uh, you can shoot us an email with any questions or concerns or rants at ask chick Foley at gmail.com.
AEW Rally & WWE Comparisons
00:01:13
Speaker
Uh, Sheena, what are we going to start off the show with today?
00:01:17
Speaker
Well I think one of the biggest things that happened this past week was the All Elite Wrestling Rally that took place on Tuesday in conjunction with SmackDown Live. So there's lots to cover there, lots of things happened and it was pretty exciting. Did you get to see any of the highlights or watch any of it at all?
00:01:37
Speaker
I did. I'm going to sound like a huge hater on all of this, so I want you to go into some of the details first because I didn't watch it live or anything like that and I have some serious concerns. I don't know. I just feel like when I see stuff like this, I want them to succeed. I'm not going to be a total hater, but
00:01:56
Speaker
I feel like when you see an ex-girlfriend out with a dude at the mall or something, that's how I feel. I don't want this to do well. I love the WWE so much. Obviously, there's room for competition. It's probably going to be better for the WWE if they did have competition.
00:02:12
Speaker
But I don't know. I've never been a huge fan of Cody. I know you're a huge fan of the Young Bucks. And I just hate their faces. They just have a shit-eating grin all the time. I don't know if that's their gimmick or not. But tell me why I should care about all... Tell the people listening, more importantly, why they should care that All Elite Wrestling is now a thing.
AEW Promises & Skepticism
00:02:32
Speaker
Well, you know, why you should care is, uh, there was a couple of, a couple of, they've announced, uh, that Neville AKA pack is, is signing with AEW, um, as well as Chris freaking Jericho, um, which I think is the biggest, the biggest name that they've been able to pull. And you know, they just have all these big promises. It's kind of like, I feel like it's election season all over again, and you're kind of getting those, like, you know, those TV commercials that like promise all of this change and all of these things.
00:03:02
Speaker
Um, and I'm hopeful and I hope that they can provide all the things that they're saying they can, but part of me is like, I feel like I'm getting duped, like I'm getting sucked in and they're just going against all of the things that WWE does. And they're just trying to like.
00:03:18
Speaker
just like kind of low key bash WWE without really doing it. You know, there was at one point, um, you know, Cody was talking about how they were going to take care of all their wrestlers and stuff. And you know, that wrestlers are the lowest paid, um, you know, athletes in the business and, um, that they're, it's going to change with all eight wrestling, right? So they're really going to just like step their game up and like roll the red carpet out and pay these guys accordingly. And also, um,
00:03:47
Speaker
can't
00:04:05
Speaker
are getting pretty nice salaries. Even the D-level wrestlers, they have a nice salary. Granted, they do have some crappy parts of their contract. They don't have health insurance. They do pay for a lot of their own travel and accommodations and stuff like that. And they're on the road 300 plus days a year, which kind of sucks.
00:04:29
Speaker
You know, I just think it's funny how they're just like saying all this, all this stuff and making all of these promises and they're saying they're going to, you know, the all elite wrestlers are going to have less travel and, um, wins and losses are going to matter.
AEW Storylines & WWE Competition
00:04:42
Speaker
Like they've never mattered before is something that Cody said, which leads me to believe, like, like, I don't know what, what that means. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't know what kind of structure they're going to have in place, um, where your wins and losses are really going to dictate what
00:04:58
Speaker
what and how you get to perform, you know? They also said there's no good guys or bad guys, which Vince McMahon said almost verbatim when the Attitude Era started, but it also just doesn't make any sense. I mean, you have to give people someone to cheer for and somewhere to boo against. I mean, I know you're appealing to the one percentage. You're appealing to the smart internet people that, you know, are fed up with the WWE, right? I mean, that's who they want.
00:05:24
Speaker
And they're smart. I mean, these guys are younger guys. They are more into a social media and what the fans want. So obviously when you're going to launch a product, you're just going to be on the ball and just give them everything they want. But number one, how long can that last? Are you just going to have a great wrestling show that has no storylines? I mean, because that's not going to last long, you know.
00:05:46
Speaker
That was going to be my next point is like, you know, with, with that, I was kind of thinking like they're, they're not going to have storylines. They're just going to put on good wrestling shows, which I mean, I can appreciate, but you know, at some point, like, you know, we watch wrestling for the storylines and for the progressions and for the payoff, you know, like if they're trying to make it more of a, um,
00:06:05
Speaker
of a sport, per se, like UFC or something where you legitimately have to work your way up the ranks and wins and losses do matter, then I'm just interested to see how, like you said, the sustainability for a wrestling product like that.
00:06:20
Speaker
Listen, I never watched TNA back in the day, but they're never going to have a roster that was as stacked as they had when they had Samoa Joe, I think they had an early Daniel Bryan, or he was in Ring of Honor, but they had AJ Styles, they had a ton of, Bobby Roode was there, they had a ton of talent, like 10, I don't know if it was almost 15 years now, but like in the mid 2000s.
00:06:44
Speaker
And they still weren't a blip on the radar. So to think that these guys are going to come in and change anything, I do like the health insurance thing because that's awesome. I'm sure that's something that wrestlers, the guys in the business are going to be all about. And I hope they do well.
00:07:02
Speaker
They have announced Double or Nothing is going to be their next show in Las Vegas, so it's at the MGM Grand, so they're going to pull a decent crowd there, obviously. So you sign Neville and Jericho, you have obviously Cody and the Young Bucks. It'll be interesting how they fill out the rest of this roster. I mean, we can do a whole show on this. Brandy said that they're going to pay the male wrestlers the same as the female wrestlers, which
00:07:25
Speaker
That probably needs to happen, but is Chris Jericho going to get the same pay as some of these female wrestlers? That's probably not going to happen.
00:07:33
Speaker
Right. Well, Chris Jericho did say, I'm not here for the money. I'm here to change the universe. We're going to change the universe. So I mean, I guess he's basically saying, I'm not here to have the red carpet rolled out for me. Obviously, we have no idea what the contract negotiations and stuff like that were for all these guys. But yeah, it is interesting. They did sign Britt Baker, who is Adam Cole's
00:07:57
Speaker
girlfriend. So she's, she was the first female wrestler that was signed to AEW. So she, they are having a women's division. Brandy came out and announced that they are having a women's division. And you know what? Something that came up like, you know, like a week or so ago
AEW's Future & TV Deals
00:08:12
Speaker
was that I was, I was hopeful for All Elite Wrestling. And then I found out that Brandy Rhodes is like their chief branding officer. And I'm like,
00:08:22
Speaker
Okay. Like we got, we got the inmates running the prison now. Like, you know what I'm saying? Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. Like, like what qualifies in what world is Brandy Rose qualified to be a chief branding officer of a major corporation? You know what I'm saying? It's not a major corporation yet, but if they're, if they're wanting to be a serious, want us to take it as seriously as they're presenting it, like,
00:08:46
Speaker
you know i'm all about women being in powerful positions and you know like you know all of those things but come on like you're doing instagram beauty videos like six months ago even even cody in the bottom it would be more impressive if you're signing
00:09:02
Speaker
you know, if Kevin Dunn was going over or somebody that's been running, you know, Bruce Prichard or somebody that's helped run WWE behind the scenes. Yeah, behind the scenes. Jim, Jim, I mean, that's why the Jim Ross thing was huge because he, you know, he was in charge of talent during the attitude era.
00:09:19
Speaker
And he's a big name, obviously one of the better announcers of all time. But the people they have now are going to be great in ring. But Jeff Jarrett tried this with TNA and of course made himself the first champion. I want to ask you, who's going to be the first AEW champion?
00:09:37
Speaker
Oh, I mean, I almost think it has to be Jericho. He's their biggest draw, and he's definitely the biggest star on the roster so far. I mean, obviously, we don't know who else they're going to acquire over the next month or so.
00:09:54
Speaker
I would say it's got to start with Jericho. As a wild card, I could think that maybe Marty Skrull come in and have a huge heel run. And he's got a perfect angle right now because he's still under contract with Ring of Honor. And he could use that angle like, you guys forgot about me. I was still in ROH. And you guys started this thing without me. And you already replaced me with another English dude. You got Neville.
00:10:21
Speaker
Um, and, uh, you saw like he was posting on Instagram, um, recently some, some strange, uh, captions about AEW. Like there was one and he was like, you know, what the WTF is AEW, you know, and then, uh, he posted on hangman pages, uh, posts where he was confronting Neville. He said, Oh, you got a new British friend already, huh? You know, and I mean, and it could all just be in good fun and joking and stuff, but it could, I feel like be setting up for some sort of like, you know, Marty's girl, um, angle.
00:10:51
Speaker
I'm getting word from my quote-unquote sources that it's a hundred percent that Kenny Omega is going to AEW when his contract runs out. I think it's like the last day of February or February 1st, something like that. Which bums me out because I wanted to see him, I'm sure the WWE tried to just back up the Brinks truck for him, but he wants to go wrestle with his boys. That obviously is, I mean that's again a bigger name for
00:11:19
Speaker
for the hardcore fans, but really, if you're the casual WWE fan or the casual wrestling fan period, Chris Jericho is the only name on here you probably know, you probably remember Cody Rhodes, but they're gonna have to get on TBS or TNT or something in a prime time, nighttime spot. You can't be like ROH when I have to, I see them randomly, I'm like, oh man, ROH, it's like 11 o'clock on like a Wednesday.
WWE's Reaction to AEW
00:11:46
Speaker
you know, randomly on like channel 7000. And not to knock them or anything. I just don't, you know, you can't find them. And they're owned by a huge company. Sinclair is like, you know, owns most, you know, the news channels around the country. So they're backed by some big money. You know, I hope they do well, but I'm going to be upset if we lose some big name WWE superstars to this.
00:12:08
Speaker
because I don't know how it's gonna do. And I'm really gonna be upset if a guy like Kenny Omega chooses this company over being just the possibilities of seeing him wrestle Seth Rollins and Finn Balor and those guys on the biggest stage. It's just gonna bum me out that it's gonna sting where we just never get in his prime Kenny Omega in the WWE, it's gonna suck.
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean that's the biggest, I believe that's the biggest thing that WWE could do to just go like, go ahead and just freaking kill AEW is to make Kenny an offer that he just absolutely can't refuse in it. You know, like you say, just.
00:12:43
Speaker
back that brings truck up to his front door and just, you know, whatever it takes, whatever he needs, whatever contract negotiations, you know, or clauses that he needs, like just, you know, cater to him because I do think that that would just kind of like be a dagger in AEW's heart. But, you know, do you think they're going to top all in, the, you know, OG all in?
00:13:07
Speaker
I mean, they'll have a bigger roster of guys now. I mean, Memorial Day is when it's going to happen, so they have a good amount of time. But they're going to have to fill out this roster with both male and female superstars, I would assume. I guess they're going to have a tournament or some kind of, they'll probably crown the first champion on that night. So we'll see. But I mean, like I said, with the health care thing, that's smart health insurance. And I'm sure they're going to probably tape their show if they do a Tuesday night show or whatever.
00:13:33
Speaker
It's probably going to be taped somewhere and then they'll probably just travel for the, you know, the pay-per-views, which will save guys a lot of wear and tear from traveling all the time. So, you know, I'm sure it's going to be attractive to somebody out there. If I'm them, I would really just focus on gobbling up, you know, they know the young talent around the country.
00:13:52
Speaker
the Zack Sabre juniors and all these guys that are kind of bouncing around the Dalton castles. I mean, I would think they'd have a better chance long term of just building their own stars instead of trying to sign Rusev's and guys like that that are they're well named guys, but you don't have the hardcore following that some of these independent guys have.
00:14:12
Speaker
True. And you know, Brandi was talking about like, you know, building their women's division and stuff. And she was like, you know, she was, uh, I remember she tweeted it or if she said it, but I read it somewhere that she was like, you know, yeah, I've been scouting all the, you know, the female talent from, you know, other countries and Australia and Japan, all these places. I'm like, yeah, well, so is WWE. Like, you know, they have the, the Mae Young classic and like they, all these women, like they've gotten, you know, pretty much like the best of the best of the best women in the business are,
00:14:41
Speaker
in WWE at the moment. There was conflicting reports, and I don't know. Well, some of the smarky websites were also trying to say that the WWE took Chris Jericho off their intro video and off their website and moved him to the alumni page, whatever. And trying to say that it was petty. It's a business decision. He's not involved with your company anymore. You don't need to be promoting anything he does.
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I mean, it does seem petty if you're, I mean, but at the same time, like you said, I mean, it is a business. It's about money and you know, that's, that's what he wants to do. And he wants to kind of, like I said, he's kind of low key talking shit about WWE, you know? So I mean, of course they're going to like, you know, move him to the, to the background.
00:15:29
Speaker
What do you think about the rumors from fans that were in tenants because SmackDown was in Jacksonville on the same night as this AEW rally that they were fans that were told to remove their AEW shirts that were sitting like ringside by the hard camera or told to leave?
00:15:45
Speaker
I don't think that that's true. I don't, I cannot see that. Like, I mean, who's going to like monitor that? Like the people who are scanning your tickets? You know what I'm saying? Like who are the people who are like leading you to your seats? And I mean, how many people that were sitting ringside at SmackDown had AEW t-shirts, you know? I mean, obviously that's a good, that's a good narrative and a good story and something that would like, you know, make WWE look like shit. You know, like, Oh yeah, you're just, you're trying to, you know, make this people.
00:16:15
Speaker
Yeah, you're trying to conform these people or make these people conform to WWE. But I don't think that that's true. And honestly, it was pretty telling to me the amount of people that were at the AEW rally. To me, all the major wrestling fans had tickets to SmackDown. They acted like they were going to be this big draw away from SmackDown.
00:16:37
Speaker
You know, these guys, I've seen more people online to get sneakers. You know? Yeah, it's Jacksonville. You're not in New York City. There's only a certain finite number of wrestling fans that are going to be there. I'm sure they're around for the SmackDown show. Yeah, exactly. Like I said, the wrestling fans in Jacksonville had tickets to SmackDown. And the rally, it was funny because they just showed, when you're watching clips, it just showed strategically the crowd and stuff. But then I saw an aerial shot. And I was like, man, that's not a lot of people.
00:17:07
Speaker
I tried to find that shot because they were not showing any pictures. Any of the wrestling reporters like Ryan Satin and all those guys were just kind of totally pumping up this AEW thing. I was like, show me what kind of crowd was there. I want to know if there's 100 people or 5,000 people. You couldn't really tell.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it was not, it was pretty sparse. I mean, there was, I mean, it was a good turnout, you know? I mean, if I didn't have anything else going on, I shoot, I would have went, you know? Like if I didn't have tickets to SmackDown, I would have rolled out there and, you know, been a part of it. But yeah, it wasn't very many people. I will say though, I mean, they did have pyro. So that's saying something. They're like, you know, take that WWE. We got, we got the budget for, for, uh,
00:17:50
Speaker
for Pyro and I was impressed. That was probably also a slight dig at the WWE I'm sure. Right, right. What did I want to talk about with, oh what do you think about Conrad Thompson being involved with that? He was kind of the moderator for the event and obviously he's been involved with the WWE in a limited capacity. They had his podcast on
00:18:10
Speaker
the network for a season kind of doing like a video version and you know if you don't listen to that podcast it's something to wrestle with I'm sure you do everybody who's a wrestling fan does but I would be worried that he's gonna get a bad rub from this maybe he doesn't care I don't know but I'm sure there's a bigger opportunities for him in the WWE
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think Conrad cares. I mean, obviously I have no basis to base that opinion on, but I think Conrad's gonna do what Conrad wants to do. And if they paid him to be there, hell yeah, he's gonna be there. If that check is gonna cash, I would go too.
00:18:48
Speaker
Um, and I mean, really like his affiliation with WWE is strictly just like, you know, it's, it's the podcast. It's not like he, he does like commentary or, you know, pre-show stuff or anything like that, where he would be like the face of WWE, even though we as, you know, hardcore wrestling fans, like associate him with all things wrestling because he's, you know, the
WWE Programming Critique
00:19:10
Speaker
pod father. Um, but yeah, I don't think.
00:19:13
Speaker
Conrad is too concerned about it. He'll just take his father-in-law, Rick Flair, to put out any fires that he needs to. Oh, of course, yeah. I forgot all about that one. We will keep you guys updated on AEW. We're mostly a WWE podcast, but I don't mind talking to some other companies.
00:19:32
Speaker
If they're going to be on national television, I'm going to check them out. You know, it's something because we get in a role in Smackdown a little bit before we get into some of the Royal Rumble news and some of the wrestling figure talk that we want to get into, which is the most fun part of the show. But it's been tough, Sheena, because we were promised before Christmas that the fans were fed up.
00:19:53
Speaker
The whole McMahon family trotted out there with their fake voices in the ring and told us that things were going to change. And literally nothing has changed. We've been seeing the same match. I mean, to the point where it's almost like they're trolling us because we're still getting the same matches we've been seeing for weeks.
00:20:11
Speaker
Yeah, it is kind of strange, right? It's almost like they've kind of dropped that. I feel like if they were really diving into that, they would keep saying it. They would have Michael Cole saying, this is the new WWE. This is the new WWE, but it's not something that they use as their tagline all the time.
00:20:31
Speaker
I do appreciate the fact that they got Sasha, which was kind of a surprise. They got Sasha involved in the Royal Rumble match. That's something new and exciting to me that I'm pumped for. But yeah, I do feel like they kind of trolled us a little bit.
00:20:48
Speaker
A couple things about Raw. The show starts with Seth Rollins and Bobby Lashley kind of brawling in the back, which I do like that we start the show with something other than a promo to start the show, but it just doesn't make sense. The week before Seth Rollins beats Bobby Lashley,
00:21:07
Speaker
and the show ends, and later in this week's show we learn that Seth Rollins attacked Bobby Lashley. What reason did he have for attacking him if he just beat him the week before? Didn't make much sense. And then Nia Jax just continues with awful promos. I wish I had the audio, but she said at one point that she was 300.5 ounces, which I'm sure she met pounds, but
00:21:32
Speaker
When you're 300 pounds, I don't know if you need to add a 0.5 to the end of it. It's already pretty impressive that you're 300 pounds, you know. But Sasha tried to hit it like on Hurricane Rana off the apron. And I'm sure you've seen the memes and the GIFs online. Nia just wasn't having it and just kind of flopped down and caused Sasha to land right on her face on the mats outside.
00:21:59
Speaker
You know, was there anything from Raw that kind of stood out to you in a positive way? I don't want to be too negative about the show. It just was kind of disappointing.
00:22:06
Speaker
You know, John Cena entered the Royal Rumble match. He declared for it. Everyone now is just declaring for the Royal Rumble like a Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy. No one has to compete to get in anymore. You just have to come down and say that you want to be in and you're just automatically in. It was cool to see him back on the ring at least.
00:22:31
Speaker
Yeah. Um, I was, uh, you know, something else on raw that I thought was different and interesting and definitely a new direction from the last like, you know, four years was that we saw a Hogan back on raw. Um, so, you know, that was different. Um, it was kind of awkward. Um, I don't know. Maybe it's just because he got such a huge pop in Saudi Arabia that like, I forgot how muted it would feel over here when he came out. Um,
00:22:58
Speaker
It was just less than, a less than stellar return to Monday Night Raw. I felt like the audience was kind of flat. Um, and I felt like Hogan did a good job. I felt like he came out and he did exactly what he was supposed to do. He hit all, he hit all of his marks. Um, he hit me in the field spot when he was talking about Jean and can we talk about that Mean Jean video package, like crocodile tears, like running down my face. It was.
00:23:24
Speaker
So emotional, but it was so good and I felt like it really did Gene justice. WWE does a lot of things kind of mediocre, but one of the things they do really, really well is promo packages and video montages like that. They do those so well. Whoever does those for the company does a great job. Yeah, that was really well done.
00:23:45
Speaker
you know, I've learned more about me and Gene the last week than I've ever known. It just seemed like an awesome dude that you'd want to grab a drink with, but yeah, that was a cool promo. Yeah, I thought he did a good job and then kind of ending it with, you know, what he thought, you know, would be going on in heaven. I thought that was kind of a cool little, you know, end note to, you know, to send Gene off and I really enjoyed it.
00:24:09
Speaker
Let me get a Lumberjack match between the Revival and Rude and Gable, which really doesn't make any sense because usually when you have Lumberjack matches is because there's like somebody that is always trying to run away from confrontation and that really wasn't the case here and just kind of confusing, but we did not see a title change.
00:24:29
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't a title change, but it's like now there was a weird like, you know, his foot was on the rope. But then, you know, I wonder what's going to happen. What's going to come of that? You know what I'm saying? Like, what are they? Where are they going with that? Yep. We're still seeing mixed match challenge type of matches on the show, which I'm not totally against. It kind of gives a different twist to, you know, having some of these guys like Jinder and Apollo Crews out there. The Ronda Rousey moment of bliss
00:24:58
Speaker
interview thing could have I don't know how they're messing this up but you know Alexa Bliss is such a good talker and and you know it's cool to be the only the first female to get her own you know talking yeah
00:25:10
Speaker
I feel like I don't know what it was about that segment. I feel like Rhonda kind of regressed in that segment. Like I don't know if it was just her not being in the ring or what but I mean she delivered what she was supposed to say but it sounded very like scripted and it just sounded like she had said it a million times in the mirror to herself. You know what I'm saying?
00:25:30
Speaker
I didn't buy into it like even when she was talking I was like where is this going you know and it wasn't and I mean Ron has been doing really well like I think she does good on the mic you know but I did not that segment didn't get over with me and then obviously you know you bring Naya and Sasha out and they were both awkward too and then you know Naya drops a couple of unnecessary bitches and I'm like okay now you're just trying too hard you know this is this is weird
00:25:56
Speaker
I like ending the show with Ambrose and Rollins. We see Ambrose go over and then closing the show with Bobby Lashley. I mean, if... Oh my God. Stop trying to make Bobby Lashley happen. Yeah, they really like him, huh? I mean, what's...
00:26:14
Speaker
I don't know, I don't know, I can't explain it. I can't explain it for the life of me. And I've tried, you know, there have been people that, you know, like I told you about the bar, like I was not ever a huge bar fan, but eventually, like I was like, you know what? I get these guys, like I'm digging the bar. Bobby Lashley has not done that for me at all. Like I just, there is nothing appealing. When I hear his music hit, when I see him on my screen, it does absolutely nothing for me. And I always feel bad for whoever he's booked into an angle with.
00:26:44
Speaker
if and when Roman comes back he needs to be there if anyone's booing him I don't think it happens but you feel him I mean this this raw roster is so devoid of top talent now just with one guy out I mean it doesn't help that we have a champion that doesn't wrestle on raw and then you know brawn they're still trying to keep him out of the ring so you're down three guys
00:27:08
Speaker
And it definitely feels it, man. I mean, Bobby Lashley is one of the guys that you're kind of basing the major angles around. It's tough to watch. Right. And you have somebody that's awesome like Elias, and now you're putting him in a match with Baron Corbin where Baron Corbin's beating him. And I'm like, shouldn't Baron Corbin still be mad about being just ripped out of his permanent GM position? Now he's in this angle with Elias.
00:27:36
Speaker
I don't know. It is very strange. And then the whole thing with Brock and Braun, like that, like what was the point of even having that segment? Like it was, it literally moved nothing forward. It literally did nothing to progress the storyline. Like it didn't do anything to get me excited about the match. That was like a waste of time.
00:27:56
Speaker
Well, Brock Lesnar probably got paid more for that segment than both of us get paid this year, which is pretty depressing. But before we move on to SmackDown, do you think Hulk Hogan will ever be... We talked about Vince McMahon using his fake voice. He doesn't even use a real voice anymore.
00:28:15
Speaker
Do you think Hulk Hogan will ever be able to be on WWE TV without doing a brother type voice? Can you imagine him in the back just being the commission, just talking like he did when he was a judge on Tough Enough?
00:28:30
Speaker
No, he's never going to come out. It's, it's like something, I mean, you know, I mean, you have to understand who you're talking about here. Like he is Mr. WWF, you know, like he, when he steps out into that ring, that is who he is. That is what, that is what flows through his veins is that character. And, um, yeah, you're never going to see, see anything. That's not a, let me tell you something brother. Um, other than that, when he's out there.
00:28:58
Speaker
Switching over to Smackdown, typically it's been the better show for the last couple months and it continues. Here we saw a great promo with Daniel Bryan just starting the show outside in the arena yelling at them.
00:29:11
Speaker
Oh, it was amazing. It was, it was everything I could have hoped for and wanted. And even though like, I feel like, you know, people might be like, Oh, he's just saying the same thing, but he always keeps it so fresh. And so like, I'm just drawn in and maybe it's because like inside, like I am, I'm the new Daniel Bryan in my heart. Um, and so like everything he says, I'm like, yes.
00:29:34
Speaker
Yes, yes, you know, but him like grabbing that hot dog from the fans and just talking about the high fructose corn syrup and all of the you know, the cheaply made merchandise I just
00:29:47
Speaker
Oh my gosh, I want a new Daniel Bryan shirt even though there is no new Daniel Bryan shirt. I just need to wear a sweater and a tree branch on my t-shirt because I'm all for it. I love it. Yeah, I love making fun of the fans that have paid to be there and also have no other choice of what they can eat besides the food that's offered.
00:30:09
Speaker
Oh, it's great. But yeah, he's definitely coming around. I mean, if you don't have heels at MAEW, how are you going to have moments like this where Daniel Bryan is yelling at people? Yeah. Well, let me tell you something, brother.
00:30:23
Speaker
I was really impressed with our truth. Our truth almost got a near fall on Daniel Bryan. I was like, Whoa, this, who is this guy? You know, so I was I was excited to actually see Daniel our truth. And Daniel Bryan, I thought that was kind of cool. That was a
00:30:40
Speaker
I also like the Mysterio, Samoa Josie, and Alma's Mustafa Ali match. And I'm really hoping that we get a Rey Mysterio, Alma's kind of feud heading into WrestleMania. Somebody on Twitter, I forget who it was, brought up maybe having it a hair versus mask match or something. That would be pretty cool. It is semi-racist that these two guys have to be in a feud together. We didn't see Alma's do anything until Rey Mysterio came back. And then they just throw the two.
00:31:08
Speaker
Latin American guys up against each other, but they have a great chemistry in the ring. Yeah. Well, I mean, they're both just incredible wrestlers. You know, I mean, you're not going to put that much talent into the ring together and not expect it to be electric.
00:31:21
Speaker
For sure. Um, other than that, there wasn't too much from, uh, this show, except for, you know, the main event seeing, uh, Becky Lynch become the number one contender. And I'm telling you, Sheena, they're going to mess this thing up somehow, because now how is Becky going to be what she can't lose to Oscar. Can she be, and then be in the Royal Rumble and then win that?
00:31:49
Speaker
I mean, if she wins, she obviously can't be in the rumble. Um, I mean, but there's a million, I was actually talking to Hill husband about this today because I, you know, me, I'm trying to like
Royal Rumble Predictions
00:31:59
Speaker
overanalyze and like over map and fantasy book the way that I want this to go. And he's like, Sheena, there are a million ways between now and mania that we could still get, you know, um,
00:32:12
Speaker
Rhonda versus Becky or versus Charlotte, you know it at Mania and I'm thinking to myself, but how you know, um, because now like you said, they've got Oscar versus, um, Oscar versus Becky. And if Becky wins, then you know what, like, so, so is Sasha going to take the belt off of Rhonda? You know, like that's what I'm, you know, I don't know.
00:32:36
Speaker
Yeah, and then also, if Becky beats Asuka at the Royal Rumble, what was the purpose of giving Asuka the belt just to take it away from her? I did like that the black and white t-shirt on Becky with the jean shorts, a very familiar outfit from someone else. Looks like somebody else I know, yeah. Yeah, beer drinking redneck would wear. But yeah, that was a cool match. Those three, I'm sure I could probably watch those three wrestle every single week.
00:33:04
Speaker
I just don't know how this is going to play out. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's not good enough to fantasy book and know exactly what they're going to do.
00:33:12
Speaker
We're never satisfied when we know exactly what's going to happen. We're like, oh my god, we know exactly what's going to happen. And now that we don't know, we're like, god, this is the worst. You gave our truth some props. I want to give Carmela some props. I didn't think she'd be able to hang with these two. And she reminded me that she still should be up there as a contender, maybe a move to Raw where she's not with these kind of hard hitters. But she definitely has a place more than just a gimmicky type
00:33:42
Speaker
Dance break character. Yeah, you know what's funny because you forget because she's been lumped in with the dance break and you know the mix match mix match challenge So, you know, but when you put her in a situation where she has to elevate herself She does, you know, I have always I mean I've like I've loved Carmela I always thought she was a great heel when she was Miss money in the bank when she was champ I you know, I thought she's awesome and I do I wish she could get to work with
00:34:11
Speaker
More of these hard hitters and heavy hitters so that she can you know show what she's made up I thought you were gonna say checks mix challenge. That sounded like a good. Oh my god Yes, my god some puppy child challenge. Yeah, that's me. Yeah
00:34:26
Speaker
So not too much on Raw or SmackDown to move things along. It is kind of, I don't know when we're gonna see these new wrestlers that we were promised a fucking month ago. What the hell was that? What is going on? Supposedly a couple of them have debuted on some dark matches. It was either a dark match or main event because I think they keep up the main event banner for the dark matches. I don't know why, why didn't they just save it for the Rumble? We're almost there, we're a couple weeks away.
00:34:55
Speaker
Yeah, they just, I feel like they- They panicked, they definitely panicked. They panicked. I told you before, when they did that, they were just grasping at straws. It was one of those situations where they were like, oh my God, we have to address this, but how are we gonna address this? And they did it by promising us, by being political, just like AEW, they're making us all these empty promises to appease us, and then not delivering on those once we fall for it.
00:35:22
Speaker
All right, so that's Ron Smackdown. You can definitely hit us up. If you want to show some love to the show, you can check out prowrestlingtees.com. We have an official Chick Foley shirt now for sale there. Just type in Chick Foley in the search at the main page.
00:35:37
Speaker
For $19.99, you can get assured you can go a little bit nicer with the soft style for $4 more, which I highly recommend. Yes. And they're great about shipping. There are always different deals going on. So check back there often. And we are giving away, I think it's a what's a WWE Elite NXT Ember Moon, which is a great figure, randomly to one of the people that purchased the show by the end of the month here. So we'll tally up all the people that
00:36:04
Speaker
purchase a shirt and show us some love. Check us out there at prowrestlingtees.com. They have a bunch of all elite wrestling shirts already. I'm sure they were printed up ready to go as the announcement was made. So that's Raw on SmackDown. Let's get into some Royal Rumble news and take over stuff before we get into our go figure segment. We talked about kind of the Sasha Ronda dynamic for Royal Rumble.
00:36:31
Speaker
Becky and Asuka, that's going to be an ongoing thing. We didn't really talk about Sasha getting a title match. What do you think about her kind of being thrust back into that main event? Is it just kind of a one and done, you think? And then she's back to the women's tag team titles that we also haven't heard anything about.
00:36:50
Speaker
Yeah, I thought Bailey and Sasha were going to be our first tag champs. And then all of a sudden, now Sasha's in the main event picture. They should just walk out with them next week and just say, oh, we're the tag team champs. They should give them to us. We declare we are the tag team champs. Yep, there you go. But yeah, I'm excited about it. I think Rhonda versus Sasha. I mean, we know Sasha is amazing, despite what we've seen for her poor booking over the last year and stuff.
00:37:19
Speaker
Sasha is incredible, and she is one of the most athletic women on the roster. And I think it's going to be a great match between her and Rhonda. The thing I'm worried about, though, is, like you said, is it a one and done type of situation? Just a stop before Rhonda gets back into her feuds with Becky and Charlotte and all those heavy hitters like we talked about earlier. But it could be a situation. This could be a new WWE. They're promising us. And who knows?
00:37:49
Speaker
Sasha could win the Raw Women's Championship. I mean, she's been the Raw Women's Champion before. She can totally do it again. And that really opens up Ronda for a lot of possibilities going forward. Maybe Ronda loses, then Ronda joins the Rumble and challenges Becky, who wins the title at Royal Rumble as well.
00:38:12
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's what I was telling you. Your husband was like giving me all of these like, you know, different pathways and avenues that it could happen. So like I said, I'm excited to see how it plays out. Um, you know, I love women's wrestling, so I'm going to be entertained any, in any case, but, um, I am excited to see Sasha back, um, you know, back at the top where she belongs and kind of breaking away from Bailey. I don't dislike Bailey, but I feel like Sasha's definitely
00:38:38
Speaker
superior in her abilities and talent to Bailey, even though together they've had some of the best women's matches that we've ever seen. But, um, you know, I think, I think just Sasha versus Rhonda is going to be amazing. And we also receive word that the bar is going to put their tag team titles up against the Miz and Shane McMahon. Um, yeah, I,
00:39:03
Speaker
You, your guess is as good as mine on this one. I don't know where they're going with this, um, this Shane McMahon, um, Ms. Angle. It's just been kind of weird from the beginning. Um, like they, they like each other, but they don't like each other and Shane doesn't want to be in this tag team, but they both have like these daddy issues. Obviously, you know, like I'm like, what is happening? Like why is, uh,
00:39:25
Speaker
Why are they even together? And what does Miz have to gain from this? I know he kind of touched on it, you know, that his dad was so, he was so obsessed with Shane McMahon and, you know, he said he would be proud of him and all of this and so like, but I mean, why? Like, why is this all of a sudden like coming up that Miz has these daddy issues?
00:39:46
Speaker
Yeah, it is weird. And when I went to that House show back around Christmas time, they obviously always advertise, well, SmackDown Live is going to be back in Baltimore on blah, blah, blah. I think it's April 2nd or something. I think it's that go home. It's actually the go home show to WrestleMania. And they're advertising that the bar is fighting Shane McMahon and Miz. So this is going on to WrestleMania.
00:40:12
Speaker
Yeah, which leads me to, um, you know, this point that Shane always has like some seriously like convoluted mangle, uh, mania angles. Like he came back in his return and then he got thrust into this, um, feud with undertaker for, um, you know, power of raw or like control of raw. Um, and then, you know, he had a weird angle where he was teaming with Daniel Bryan against.
00:40:36
Speaker
They were in charge of SmackDown, but they were having a feud with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, and now this whole Miz thing.
NXT TakeOver Preview
00:40:43
Speaker
And I'm like, to me, these are matches that you just kind of put in a Yahtzee cup and shook out. And it's like, okay, yeah, we're gonna put Shane with this guy. Yeah, it does feel weird.
00:40:57
Speaker
I mean Shane always puts on a good match and I'm a big fan of the Miz, but I love just super evil heel Miz much more than I like. I love this trophy Miz, so we'll see what happens there. Tell me more about NXT TakeOver Blackpool. Will you gonna be watching that? Is there anybody on that show that I should know as a casual wrestling fan that a year or two from now is gonna be on the WWE main roster?
00:41:24
Speaker
Oh, yeah, for sure. But like I haven't kept up with NXT UK as much. I mean, I'm fully at this point in my life, you know, you know, full time mom and, you know, working and all these things like I'm fully saturated at the moment with with wrestling with what I've got on my plate. But I will be watching all of the NXT UK takeovers because I mean, takeover is always amazing. Like doesn't matter if it's in the UK or the US. So
00:41:54
Speaker
It's gonna be on the 12th, so Saturday, January 12th is when NXT Takeover Blackpool is gonna be taking place. And Pete Dunne is gonna be fighting Joe Coffey for the UK title. And I mean, Pete Dunne has been the UK champion for, I mean, like a year and eight months now. He won it like May of 2017. So anytime he's defending, it's gonna be a pretty awesome match. And I love Pete Dunne. Also, Ray Ripley.
00:42:24
Speaker
Excuse me. Rhea Ripley. Is that how you say her name? She's versus Tony Storm. I think it's Rhea Ripley. Yeah, it's a tough name. Rhea, yeah. Whatever. Whoever spells your name like that, come on. You need to punish your mom for that one. Rhea Ripley versus Tony Storm. That should be a good match. I don't know if you watched Tony Storm at all in the Mae Young classic, but she's pretty freaking awesome. And then Mustache Mountain is taken on a tag team called the Grizzled Veterans.
00:42:48
Speaker
and they're going, it'll determine the first ever UK tag champs. So that's a pretty big match, you know, because they're introducing the UK tag championships.
Controversial Wrestling Moments
00:42:58
Speaker
Awesome. Would you need more titles for sure? You know, they're, you know, they're, they're cashing out on all these, all these freaking titles, man. Like these were, and like the UK titles are really, really pretty. Like if I, they're nice. They're very nice. Yeah.
00:43:12
Speaker
If I just had unlimited, you know, throwaway money, like I would have me at like a title room for sure, because those things are beautiful. Well, did you think about the Ty Dillinger tweet the other day? Sounds like he's retiring or or or something. What's what's what's your take on that? I mean, what's he done and what's he done in like the last like, you know, what's he done recently that you care about?
00:43:39
Speaker
Yeah. Why would it, why would, you know, why wouldn't he, uh, go ahead and cash it in? I mean, I guess you always, you know, maybe he's just going to take some time off. I mean, they all come back. He can retire and then unretire if the timing is right. But, uh, you know,
00:43:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's something maybe to do with concussions. Just to paraphrase this, thank you for believing in me when others didn't, for being my voice when I was afraid to use mine. I enjoyed it all. 17 years ago, I stepped into the ring for the very first time. There's been ups and downs, blah, blah, blah. But thank you all. So I don't know if he's just hanging up the boots or what. He was kind of vague on that.
00:44:13
Speaker
I do remember a couple years ago when he came out to the 10 spot at the Royal Rumble, I think it was 2017, he got a huge pop, and then we never saw him really again, so. Yeah, Ty Dillinger, the tin chant was over. Yeah, for sure. It was totally over. I have something a little more obscure to ask you about. Okay.
00:44:40
Speaker
Recently at a at a wrestling show. Um, I don't know if you know who, uh, uh, Priscilla Kelly is, but one of my favorites. Yeah. Yeah. She was wrestling this opponent named tuna and, um, like something, you know, let me, let me preface this, this.
00:45:01
Speaker
statement by saying like, you know, you and I, like, we grew up with like the new generation and like the attitude era and like we've seen some things, right? Like some pretty crazy, racy, like disgusting things, right? Like boss man, like pulling big show around on his father's casket, like Lita and edge bumping uglies in the middle of the squared circle, like boss man feeding out snow, like his dog pepper, you know, like there's been some pretty disturbing things.
00:45:26
Speaker
in the wrestling world. So it's pretty hard to shock me at this point in my life, but I can honestly say seeing this clip, I wasn't watching this match live, but obviously it like set the wrestling world on fire and I was, I saw it and it shocked me. So getting back Priscilla Kelly, she's taunting her opponent and she asks her opponent that is named Tuna if she wants to taste the tuna.
00:45:56
Speaker
Okay. Like, first of all, I'm like, okay, what, like in my mind, I'm like, okay, I know where this is going, but like, is she going to like, what kind of move is she going to do here? That's going to like, you know, put her, you know, her girly parts in this girl's face. You know what I'm saying? Like, I thought it was going to be something like that. No, no, no, no, no.
00:46:16
Speaker
She proceeds to reach her hand into her trunks and raunchily remove this used tampon and smash it into her opponent's mouth. Oh my god. Come on. This can't be real. Oh, please tell me. Can you just pull up your Google machine right now? And you need to Google this because you're just going to be like, your mouth is just going to drop open. And then you're probably going to close it because you're going to be like a fear that somebody's going to smash a tampon into it. It's always been a fear of mine.
00:46:46
Speaker
But it was so it was so crazy and like obviously like I said, you know, there was a people who like vehemently like vilified her and then the ones who came to defend her Jim Ross like literally like retweeted it and said embarrassing. And of course, she came to defend herself and she was saying, you know, like, oh, so you know, dicks are funny, but you know, vaginas are gross and disgusting. And here I am. I'm here to defend.
00:47:09
Speaker
I can't believe I'm saying this on a podcast, but I'm here to defend the vagina. I don't think that people think that the vagina is disgusting. I think that- No, no, it's great. It's great. Yeah, it's great. I mean, seriously. Well, I'm with you. We agree on something here.
00:47:23
Speaker
But it was just the shock factor of like, what? What made you think to do that? And it was pretty insane. It was one of the craziest things that I've seen.
00:47:40
Speaker
in recent wrestling history. Yeah, the girl kind of looks like a dollar store Ruby Riot kind of look. She was in the Mae Young classic. Oh yeah, see that hair, yeah. She stressed it was fake, it was Kool-Aid or Hawaiian Punch or something. Oh yeah, I'm sure it wasn't real. I don't think for a minute that she legitimately pulled out her real tampon and put it in her opponent's mouth, but it was the visual and the way that she did it was just like insane.
00:48:07
Speaker
People, people popped for it. I mean, and they, they did a, you know, a chant. I won't repeat it here, but they did a chant for her. And I mean, I guess, you know, when you're in this kind of industry, like, I mean, she got attention, you know, and is there any such thing as
WWE Storylines & Royal Rumble Anticipation
00:48:22
Speaker
like bad attention? Like, I didn't really like follow this chick at all, but now I know where she is.
00:48:26
Speaker
Yeah, people know who she is. It is kind of sad that female wrestlers have worked so hard to become legitimate, and then you have someone pulling out a fake tampon, which I'm sure is. Yeah, it is kind of like, come on, you're better than that. There's got to be something more creative than that. It's like getting flowers and crying after a match. It's just not cool.
00:48:52
Speaker
Yeah and you know it's like all the what's the word I'm looking for the affair angle that we have going on with Mandy Rose and Naomi you know I'm like okay like women's wrestling like can we just not you know have the extramarital affair thing happening on TV every week like come on.
00:49:13
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that is kind of cool that they're actually doing something with the female wrestlers. It is a little kind of tense. A little more campy. Yeah, it is campy. But it is cool to see they're not fighting for a championship. They actually have some sort of storyline that's involving them. True. True. And I think Mandy Rose is really good. I think they're kind of coupling her with the Usos to kind of get a little bit of that.
00:49:42
Speaker
Like they're, they're, um, you know, what's the word I'm looking for? Like they're star power. I do like her new, uh, her new theme song. I don't think I noticed her new theme song. No, no. I'm trying to play it right now, but it's not playing.
00:50:09
Speaker
So yeah, it's cool to see them do something different. And I like to see Naomi involved a little bit more, but, uh, I don't know if this is going to go anywhere. You know, it's, uh, I mean, it would be cool to see the Usos, not that I want to see the Usos split up, but, you know, turn one of them heel and make them. Yeah, I did. I did hook up with Mandy or something. And like, he becomes the bad guy and, you know, just to give him a different angle.
00:50:31
Speaker
Yeah, I can see that. Well, I mean, especially the twin angle, they could pull a little twin magic on Mandy. Oh, there you go. That would make things a little more, yeah. Give it a cool twist. Interesting. I could get down with that.
00:50:46
Speaker
All right, so we will get into a full Royal Rumble preview. I guess that would be next week's show, or the show after, but the next couple weeks we'll do a full Royal Rumble preview. We'll have a list of who's in, who's not in, and maybe we'll go through some possible surprises. So that'll be fun. But now it's my favorite part of the show. It's our weekly segment called Go Figure.
00:51:18
Speaker
All right. If you're new to the show, myself and Sheena are pretty big wrestling figure collectors. And that's really the main crux of how we started this podcast. And, uh, we're going to talk about what we purchased this week, some news of the wrestling figure biz and what's going on there. So Sheena, do you want me to start or do you want to get started on what we, what we purchased this week? How would you go first this week?
00:51:41
Speaker
Okay, a couple things here. I purchased a, going to my son's birthday party for one of his little daycare friends, so I purchased a John Cena WrestleMania Elite from Big Lots for 10 bucks to give the kid just because I wanted
00:51:58
Speaker
I'm tired of giving kids dumb presents that I don't like. If it's from my son, I want it to be something that he likes, that he can maybe get this other kid into wrestling. I think that. Yeah, so I got that. I did add to my WWE New Generation collection. I wanted to talk about that and give a shout out to a buddy of mine on Instagram that's been hooking me up. He is an Elite Collector 215. He's been selling off a good portion of his collection, and he's been giving me some advice on
00:52:26
Speaker
on who to pick up, and I picked up an Elite Jerry Lawler, Rocky Maivia from his Survivor Series debut, a Diesel Hall of Fame Elite, Lex Luger with the USA Trunks, and a Yokozuna Elite as well. So I added those to the collection, and I'm going to get those displayed in the next coming months as I have the basement redone and all this work done to the house.
00:52:50
Speaker
And I am still waiting for the WWE retro series seven to hit my store. I was hoping to brag about picking those up. We'll get to those and some of the news from the wrestling figure business. But that's it for me a little bit later this week. What did you add to your collection this week, Sheena?
00:53:06
Speaker
Well, you had a bigger week than I did, but we got a ringside exclusive stone cold. It was the bionic redneck vest. It's the black and red. It's a little bit harder to find. So we were able to get that loose. And then we also got Elite 12 Randy Orton. It's, you know, him, he's got the brown, like the molded t-shirt with like the tribal viper on it. So we were able to get both of those loose.
00:53:33
Speaker
via eBay. And then we got, oh, our awesome follower, Big Mouth AJ. He sent myself and the baby face an awesome Christmas present. So he sent the baby face like the little plush Seth Rollins figure, which he loved. And then he also sent us the Chase Curt Hawkins figure. So it's him with like the black gear on and then the vest. So yeah, I was really excited because we had the OG Curt Hawkins and now we have the Chase.
00:54:04
Speaker
Yeah, Big Mouth AJ. I guess my gift got lost in the mail, bro. I'm just joking. I'm just joking. He's probably known you longer than he's known me. But yeah, I've been looking for that Curt Hawkins elite figure. That's a nice looking fig. Yeah, it really is. I mean, the face scan is perfect on that. I love the hair sculpt and the beard and everything. I love the puffy vest. They nailed it on those Curt Hawkins figures.
00:54:28
Speaker
Let's get into the, we saw a couple of sneak peeks of some figures coming out this year. And I want to get into that. Elite66 on WWE.com. They've had some pictures leak out. I wanted to get your thoughts. So this is the line. It's Nikki Cross, the Bludgeon Brothers, AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, and Kevin Owens. What do you think?
00:54:55
Speaker
Oh, I'm loving Elite 66. At least the Bludgeon Brothers, those figures are amazing. I remember when they first debuted, I was really skeptical of their whole dynamic and the gimmick and everything. But I was thinking to myself, these are going to make some amazing
00:55:11
Speaker
action figures and they did not disappoint because these action figures are so dope they come with the giant hammers and the big cloaks with the hoods and you know additional hands and then you know you got rolling with the sheet mask and they absolutely nailed it on on those figures and then Nikki Cross like I'm excited for the whole sanity set but yeah they really they did a great job on Nikki as well.
00:55:35
Speaker
I'm not a fan of her face. It looks a little too Barbie-ish for me. But I agree with you on the Bludgeon Brothers, I think, especially in a time in wrestling where a lot of the guys are just guys. As a kid, I'm sure my son's going to love to play with the Bludgeon Brothers because it just gives you a different look and kind of a throwback to the campy, gimmicky 80s, Legion of Doom type of wrestlers. Those figures look awesome.
00:56:02
Speaker
The AJ Stiles is nice. I mean, the skin is pretty good. But yeah, it's an AJ Stiles figure. The Carolina Blue. I like the Carolina Blue. You know, the KO, so you've got like the fight anyone, and he's got the yep, yep, yep shirt that comes with it as well. But there's also a chase. It's the KO mania shirt. So be on the lookout for that, because there's two Kevin Owens in this Elite 66 set.
00:56:25
Speaker
And then you get the Kurt Angle USA with the raw shirt and the super derpy smile face from his shield run.
00:56:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's cool. That's a good good set there and those you said his bludgeon brothers look really awesome and then we're gonna get into the NXT elites that you're gonna be hitting Shelves, I guess in the next month or two at Target. These are all on my wish list. These are all awesome Dude, dude, this series is Like it's one of those like gotta have them all you know, it is so freaking incredible like I think I
00:57:04
Speaker
I mean, collectively, I'm pretty sure this could be the best Mattel Elite series that there has been that, you know, all in one in one series. I mean, there is just not a figure in here that is not fire. Yeah, the the the entrants are Ruby Riot.
00:57:21
Speaker
Drew McIntyre. Dude, that was the best one. That is the best figure that there is in this one. I don't know. Aleister Black's pretty incredible too. No, I just wanted to go through them all, and then we can talk about them. But Drew McIntyre, Killian Dain, and Aleister Black... No, I think the Ruby Riot is straight fire, but that Aleister Black, the tattoos...
00:57:40
Speaker
I mean, it's a toss up because they both look great. I think just the smile on Ruby Riot's face makes me go with the Aleister Black a little bit more. But, I mean, this is her NXT figure, so she was a face back then, so I can't really falter for that.
00:57:56
Speaker
But even now, as a heel, she's got like that smirk, you know, like that shitty grin. I mean, the Aleister Black figure, I mean, that could be one of the best figures ever. I mean, the tattoo detail is in freaking Sane and the face scan is spot on.
00:58:12
Speaker
I mean, I cannot wait to get this figure in my hands. And like you said, that Ruby riot, like I was looking at close up pics, um, the other night and it was just like, I mean, all the detail on her tights and you know, on her tattoos and everything, it is just.
00:58:27
Speaker
I mean, it's, it's crazy. I mean, it looks exactly like it's like you just shrunk her, you know, like it is, it is legitimately like you just shrunk her. And I'm going to go on the record right now and say it's the best female figure ever made. Like I, you know, I thought the, uh, the elite 65, uh, Naya was gonna like be the top, the cream of the crop. But after seeing this Ruby riot figure, I gotta, I gotta make an amends to that.
00:58:51
Speaker
And I mean, you've been doing this longer than I have. These are obviously four superstars that have never had a figure before in their current iteration. Do you feel like when they first do figures for people, they're never 100% like they always have to work out the kinks? Because these guys all look awesome. I mean, they did an awesome job. Is that something that you see sometimes when guys have never had a figure before that they kind of don't look 100%?
00:59:16
Speaker
Well, it's it's hard to say that because the technology has changed. You know what I'm saying? Like so now, you know, they got the true the true scan technology and all that stuff that really captures these people in their in their real form. It's not like they're just like, you know, swapping the heads on these different figures and swapping the pieces out like it's I
00:59:37
Speaker
I don't know. I think, um, I mean the Drew McIntyre is definitely a step up from his, uh, you know, what was it series eight, I think, um, his elite from series eight. I mean, it was like, it's like a totally different figure. If you put these two figures side by side, you wouldn't even know that this is the same guy. Um, he had like the knee pads with like the X's on them and stuff, uh, in his series eight elite, but, uh, yeah.
00:59:58
Speaker
I think all of these are amazing. Hideo Itami, he was supposed to be in this series too, and he's awesome as well, but I think he's getting pushed to series five. And he was actually the weakest of the series, and that's saying something, because his figure is still pretty freaking awesome.
01:00:16
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he's kind of a basic guy. There's not too much detail to him. He doesn't have the cool gear, the tattoos. But yeah, even the Drew McIntyre, I'm looking forward to him because he's obviously, of all these four, he's the most popular as far as on Raw, kind of every week. Fringe main event type guy. Now you can add him to your collection and use him.
01:00:38
Speaker
Yeah, I'm kind of partial to Alistair Black anytime there's a figure that's released from an event that I was at like I have a little bit more of an emotional tie, you know like NXT NXT
Wrestling Figure Collection
01:00:49
Speaker
Orlando like I you know, we were there and Alistair debuted and so yeah, I'm like, okay, I feel this figure
01:00:55
Speaker
Nice. Cool. Yeah, yeah. I'm down for all of them. We definitely follow both of us on social media. I've been trying to post and retweet stuff on our Twitter at Chick Foley Show whenever we find stuff out in the wild. And as I spoke about those retro Series 7, Sean Michael, Seamus, Kurt Angle, and Chris Jericho,
01:01:17
Speaker
They are hitting stores, and people are seeing them. I think it's been like Tennessee and Illinois and California. I have not seen them anywhere yet here on the East Coast. I don't know if anybody else has, and I'm dying to get my hands on them. They lowered the price to like less than $10. They all look pretty cool. The Shawn Michaels, the head is pretty awful, but everybody else is pretty mage, and I'm looking forward to adding those to the question. I'm going to double up. Sheena, I'm going to go four for in the package and four loose.
01:01:46
Speaker
Whoa. Yeah, it's a big move for me here. Oh, I'm sorry. I've also bought like 10 retro figures. I totally forgot that on the purchases. I've just been like every time I drive by a five below, I stop in and buy like two Finn Ballers or a Sammy Zane and a KO and just like been hoarding them. And I've been selling a couple of them on eBay for not a pretty penny, but just making a little bit of extra cash on the side. But anybody who needs any definitely hit me up.
01:02:17
Speaker
So yeah, those are our figures of the week. And like I said, we are sharing all that stuff on social media. Sheena has been letting you see some glimpses of the Wrestle Cave or whatever, what do you call it? What do you call it? The Mark Cave. The Mark Cave, okay. Yeah, perfect. Perfect. So let's get into our retro wrestling recommendation of the week. We both have Royal Rumble matches listed here and they're both two of my favorite matches of the last 10 years. Let's go with yours first.
01:02:47
Speaker
So mine's more of a recent retro. It's Royal Rumble 2015, which was a triple threat match between Rollins, Cena, and Lesnar. And this was really where Rollins, he established himself as a main event player in this. He was Mr. Money in the Bank at the time. And it's pretty timely that this is our retro wrestling recommendation of the week because Rollins is back at the forefront of being a main event player. And triple threats.
01:03:15
Speaker
For the most part, it's not my favorite gimmick because normally it involves just a bunch of people fighting and then a guy pretending to be out for a few minutes at a time so the other two can fight and then he comes back and somebody else is out. But this was not like that at all. This is probably the best triple threat match that I've ever seen. It was just nonstop, intense, and the whole plot made sense.
01:03:42
Speaker
Definitely go watch this triple threat match between Seth Rollins, John Cena, and Brock Lesnar because it is a classic. Great match. And for what I can remember, it's been probably a year or so since I've watched it, Lesnar gets laid out early in the match and he's kind of out for the first 10, 15 minutes just through an announce table or something. As far as Lesnar just dominating in matches, it gave a little more realism to it that this guy's
01:04:09
Speaker
Now, he's wounded and he's not 100%, and that gave Rollins and Cena more of a chance to show off what they can do. Great, great match, man. I remember watching that match at home here. It was awesome. My pick is John Cena vs. AJ Styles. I don't know if this classifies as retro, but I don't really care. It's a great match from Royal Rumble 2017.
01:04:31
Speaker
a ton of close falls. I mean, one of Cena's better matches, I'm sure Styles elevated him to his game, but a fun match. And I watched this one from Jimmy's Famous Seafood. They have every pay-per-view. They get people there. They have drink specials and food specials. And the whole bar was filled with wrestling fans, had a table with a bunch of friends.
01:04:53
Speaker
You know, every close fall, I mean, it's just cool being in a bar and, you know, just with a bunch of wrestling fans and everyone's, you know, going crazy over every near fall and, you know, going crazy for everything going on in the match. It was a fun experience and it was just a great match. I try to watch it every six months or so because it's one of my favorites.
01:05:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's when John Cena won his 16th world title. Yep, that's his last one, right? Yeah, well until, who knows? I mean, he still got one in him. He could beat the Nature Boy with 17. So I have no doubt that eventually we're going to see John Cena with 17 world titles.
01:05:33
Speaker
No, I think his gimmick is just going to be freaking out about not having a WrestleMania match and then losing the Royal Rumble and then freaking out more and then losing the elimination chamber. Undertaker, I'll find Undertaker again. Undertaker beats him every year. Give me anyone.
01:05:50
Speaker
Oh man, I love that. We didn't talk about it a couple weeks ago where, I think it was on Raw, or it might have been SmackDown, where Cena came back and was talking about how he had such a crazy year and was going through all the things he did in 2018 and none of them had anything to do with wrestling. I lived in Japan for six months and then I filmed a movie and it was a crazy year and I was like, well, did you do any wrestling?
01:06:18
Speaker
Not, not at all. Um, he did, he did have a pretty wrestle, a wrestle free year other than, you know, uh, the, the first part, but yeah, it, it was not, it was not seen as your, but that's okay. You know, uh, I felt like it was a good time to remove Cena from the, you know, from the picture and let a couple other guys rise to the top. And, um, you know, it's, it's been nice. I don't mind Cena as a, as a part-time popper inner, if you will.
01:06:45
Speaker
Yeah, pop or enter. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. Speaking of pop or enters, we have our, this is an awful segue, but we have our listener
Attitude Era Overrated Wrestlers
01:06:53
Speaker
email of the question of the week, listener mail. I just totally butchered that one. Oh, well. It's our buddy, Zach Egloff. He has a great question here. I'm stumped on this one. I don't know what I picked for this, but who in your opinion is the most overrated wrestler of the attitude error?
01:07:15
Speaker
Who's the most overrated wrestler of the Attitude Era? Yes. So we're going overrated this week, and we're going specifically the Attitude Era. Definitely give Zach a follow on Twitter. If you're on Twitter, he's, despite being a Steelers fan, he is a great guy to follow. He does a lot of our audio segments, and I'm pulling up his, he's got a weird Twitter account.
01:07:40
Speaker
It's Z-E-Golf, G-O-L-F. It's a good guy to follow. I don't know. I don't want to say The Rock, but... I don't think... What makes you say The Rock? Just because the Attitude Era, I don't know if he was 100%
01:07:59
Speaker
I mean, he had the promos down, but he wasn't like how he was when he was fighting Austin. I consider the Attitude Era kind of when he was just, you know, the die rocky die and him fighting for the intercontinental title. And I feel like he kind of rose to power more after the Attitude Era was kind of out the door. But I'm a huge rocky mark. I don't know if he's, that's just the first name that came to my head for some reason. I don't know. I don't know why.
01:08:27
Speaker
Interesting. I was thinking maybe Triple H as the most overrated. I don't know. I feel like there was a lot more talented guys than him. I mean, that's the first one that comes to my mind.
01:08:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, there were some big names at that time of the time of the Wrestling Biz, but there was also some guys just kind of, there was just so much talent. You go back and listen to some of those, something to wrestle with podcasts when they do the late 90s shows. And the first two matches on the card are guys that are probably Hall of Famers that really just didn't get a chance to do much of anything.
01:09:10
Speaker
Yeah, great question.
Unusual Wrestling Merchandise
01:09:11
Speaker
Definitely hit us up, askchickfoli at gmail.com and follow us on social media. Yeah, well, we got some random merch of the week we don't want to talk about because it's pretty crazy to me. We found this lot of Hasbro cards that were on eBay. And someone paid. This is a sold listing. Someone paid $50.
01:09:38
Speaker
Sorry, the hounds of justice are causing a little bit of chaos over by our door. So it's a lot of Hasbro cards, just the card, no bubble, no figure, anything. And someone paid 50 bucks for them. I mean, it's like a pretty good lot. I mean, if you had the actual figures, it would be pretty incredible. But I'm wondering who the hell
01:10:02
Speaker
bought these paper cards for $50, and why? Yeah, what are you going to do with those? Are they somebody who's like, oh my gosh, I got a bubble? I got to figure, if I could just find a card for this, I could make a deconstructed Hasbro display.
01:10:21
Speaker
It's pretty interesting to me, the things that people buy. I'm like, man, I feel like I should just go dig through the trash and see where I can find these and put them up. Because there's several listings for Hasbro cards. Yeah, it's weird because they have the rip mark, obviously, from where you took the bubble off of it. So it's not like you can present them anywhere. You can't display them. I mean, it would be cool if they reprint those without the rip mark because they are a pretty cool design to them.
01:10:48
Speaker
Oh, the design is awesome. And some of these are pretty ripped. Like it's not just the outline of the bubble. Like some of them, like the actual like backing has come off like with the bubble. Um, so yeah, it's pretty interesting. We'll toss it. We'll toss a picture up on the Instagram. Um, and if it was you that bought these Hasbro cards, like, please let me know what the heck you're doing with these and why
Podcast Promotion & Listener Engagement
01:11:07
Speaker
you paid so much.
01:11:07
Speaker
Yes, please do, and I reached out to the person that was selling that son Michael's sexy boy stripper hat, and I messaged him on eBay, which, you know, it's a crapshoot if anybody ever messaged you back unless you're wanting to buy something, but I just said, you know, where did you get the... At first I asked, like, do you have anything besides the small? He said, yeah, I get the large too. I was like... Oh, awesome.
01:11:32
Speaker
I'm going to buy it now." But then I was like, where did you get this stuff? How did you come across this? And he said, now I was a big merchandise seller back in the 1990s, like during Stole Cold was hot. And I was like, can I get you on my podcast? I do a wrestling podcast. He's like, well, I don't really know what the hell a podcast is, but yeah, I can record something with you.
01:11:51
Speaker
We'll maybe get him on next week's show. And just for a minute, I don't really know what I'm going to ask this guy. But a minute or two just to pick his brain about how he got into the biz. And maybe he has some cool stories about selling merch back on the Attitude Era. Might be cool. Yeah, it would be cool.
01:12:06
Speaker
So that's our show this week. Like I said, we'll get heavy into Royal Rumble. Maybe we'll talk about some of our favorite Royal Rumble memories on next week's show. Hopefully, Raw and SmackDown are better. And I'm sure we'll have some wrestling figure news. Hopefully, at that time, I already have Retro Series 7 in my grasp and I can brag about it here on the show. But definitely hit us up. We love talking to you guys on all social media platforms and you can find our show on
01:12:33
Speaker
Obviously, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Podbean, SoundCloud, basically anywhere you find podcast, you'll be able to download and listen to our stuff. We appreciate the love and the followers have been growing and growing as we go along each week here and hopefully that continues to happen. So spread the word if you're a wrestling fan, if you're a wrestling figure fan, if you're a collector, definitely let your friends know.
01:12:59
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Thanks for all your support guys. And, uh, like I said, grab yourself a t-shirt. If you do grab yourself a t-shirt, please be sure to tag us. We will repost, repost your picture wearing your chick-fil-a show t-shirt. Um, we appreciate the support and, you know, all the proceeds go back in to help us bring you all the good stuff that we want to bring to the show this coming year. All right.
Random Tangents & Humorous Reflections
01:13:19
Speaker
Well, I'm going to go do the checks mix challenge and, um,
01:13:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'm going to go do the Arby's Beef and Cheddar Challenge. OK. I was hoping you weren't going to make some sort of tampon joke there. That would have. Missed opportunity. Oh, we didn't talk about Bandersnatch or Bird Box. That's been on the script. That's going to get the cutting room floor. Maybe we'll do a Patreon episode about those two, because you need to watch Bird Box. So let's wait. I know. I do need to get on the Bird Box bandwagon. I was on the Bandersnatch bandwagon, and I thought that was pretty freaking awesome. But yeah, I will get my Bird Box on.
01:13:53
Speaker
sooner rather than later. Next week we'll review WW2K 13 on the show because we feel like that's how long we've been talking about doing that too. Oh, I did want to say, I'm sure no one's listening anymore because the show's over, but you posted something on Instagram about your flip camera.
01:14:11
Speaker
and I have literally, I'm gonna send you a picture, I have literally the same exact one that has the same exact, like, I left it on somebody's boat or something and it got ruined, but like, the back of it has like, you know, just like, the bleed marks on it, doesn't work, I don't know if yours still work, mine doesn't work, but...
01:14:28
Speaker
No. Mine looks exactly like yours. We had the same, like, teen years. Aw, flip cam twins. I know, right? Yeah, I don't remember what I did with that thing. But that was it. That was right before cell phones became able to do that kind of stuff.
01:14:44
Speaker
I was filming Lush Halls for YouTube on it. Lush is like a cosmetics, like they have like package free, more natural handmade cosmetics and I would like film Lush Halls and post them on YouTube. That's what I was doing. Oh, I need to find these now. I think I made them private at this point. Oh no. Oh man.
01:15:04
Speaker
dig them up somewhere. But yeah, it's pretty, pretty amazing. Do you still have, do you still have that hair that you had in the Elvis Presley photos? Oh, I was so blonde, like, like so blonde, like attitude era, like, you know, blonde.
01:15:21
Speaker
You need to have a retrospective, like a mean jean montage of all the Sheena Phelps hairstyles over the years. Oh my gosh, you'd be amazed. Yeah, it's been pretty crazy. I mean, I've had the same hairstyles since high school, so I know it's different for girls. I know, obviously.
01:15:39
Speaker
Oh man, what a tangent, but awesome. If anybody's still listening, thank you for listening, because yeah, you got a little behind the scenes actions with Chicken Phil. All right, there you go. So thank you for listening, Smarks. Stay classy, and we will talk to you next week. Yep. Mandy.
01:16:30
Speaker
Move jazz. Yeah.