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Episode 3: USA Hockey Plays Free Bird + WWE Elimination Chamber Preview
23 Plays3 months ago
2 for 2! We revel in the gold medal championships of both USA Men's and Women's hockey and celebrate the new hockey capital of the world! USA! USA! USA! Justin previews the WWE Elimination Chamber event coming this weekend.
Also Spring Training has begun, college baseball rolls on in week 2, A&M hoops keeps tourney hopes alive, and a year cannot be complete without jersey drama.
Most importantly, we take a moment to remember Rondale Moore and the importance of mental health. If you are struggling, please don't struggle alone.
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1 800 273 8255
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Transcript
Introduction and National Pride
00:00:01
Cody Atkinson
Hello and welcome to the Coastal Launch Sports Talk. I'm Cody coming to you from Houston, Texas. As of yesterday, a proud member of the hockey capital of the world, USA, USA, USA.
00:00:13
justin_daulton
USA, USA, USA.
00:00:18
justin_daulton
And I am Justin coming to you from the magic of Orlando, Florida, another proud member of the hockey capital of the world. Let's go.
00:00:28
Cody Atkinson
Sorry, are we chanting again?
00:00:29
justin_daulton
No, no, no, no, no.
00:00:30
Cody Atkinson
All right. We are your premier destination for the sports stories that move the needle. From the national stage to the grit of the Southeast, we're bridging the gap between our two space cities and bringing you the stories that matter most to you.
00:00:44
Cody Atkinson
And today, as I'm sure you've already figured out, We are celebrating national pride as the U.S. men's and women's hockey teams both bring gold home to the U.S. of A.
00:00:54
Cody Atkinson
As only one of us predicted, hand up. ah Beyond that, Justin is prepping us for a big weekend in wrestling with this year's Elimination Chamber. which I know nothing about. So I'm excited to hear what that's going to be about. So with the trajectory set, it's time to sit sit back, lock in and get started with
Spring Training and Team Transitions
00:01:12
Cody Atkinson
the rundown. This is the Coastal Launch and we are ready for liftoff here on episode three.
00:01:19
justin_daulton
right, man. Big week in sports. Obviously, we'll get to the big topics at the end of this, but we're let's run through the the rundown here. um Something that you and I very excited about, spring training has started. with A minor footnote in that last week, um but um we got some results in the Rays this week, or yet as of today, got our first win of spring training against the Boston Red Sox, a little little two one victory over there.
00:01:43
justin_daulton
um But I'm going to kick it to you real quick um just to see what you're looking forward to during the spring training as we get ready for the season.
00:01:50
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, absolutely, man. The Rays got their first dub. Astros don't have a dub yet, but I'm okay with that. What I'm looking forward to, the Astros made ah just a metric ton of off-season pitching acquisitions. um If you think of the the real stunner, was Tatsuya Imai from...
00:02:09
Cody Atkinson
ah the the Japan league. Nobody saw that one coming really stoked. He's a little bit of a backfield videos have started to come out. Some ah simulated at bats with Altuve Correa. Very excited for that. Mike Burrows was the big Astros pirates raised three-way trade where y'all sent low,
00:02:27
Cody Atkinson
um, to the pirates. I think you've got, like I think you've got Astros, uh, prospects in that one. We got Mike Burroughs from the, the pirates. He pitched his first spring trading, uh, two innings yesterday, two clean innings, super excited to see where that's going. Uh, Ryan Weiss from the the KBO as well. American who went to the KBO coming back to America and then a litany of, uh, of bullpen arm pickups, uh, The Astros, at least from an Astros fan's perspective, I don't know if this is um if this is sport-wide, but ah they're they're viewed as like a pitching lab among at least their own fans, where like if you get somebody with talent and you put them in the Astros system, just wait to see what happens. So they're going six-man rotation this year. I'm excited to see who steps up, and we've gotten a little bit of taste of that already.
00:03:19
justin_daulton
Very cool. Yeah, over here in Tampa, not too much in terms of excitement for this season. I think we referenced this a couple weeks
College Baseball and Basketball Highlights
00:03:26
justin_daulton
ago when we started talking about it.
00:03:26
Cody Atkinson
Gotta find a way Find a reason.
00:03:28
justin_daulton
No, I mean, ah there's definitely some excitement. There's not a lot because it's a transition time period for the Rays. We talked about this a couple a couple weeks ago where it's the the new ownership is taking over. They're putting new money in.
00:03:42
justin_daulton
We're hunting for a new stadium. We're doing all these things in the back end. So the excitement is there in terms of the future of the organization on the field. Obviously we're going to be looking at Camarino, obviously playing in the world baseball classic here in a couple of weeks. so that's the big prospects. The center fielder that we got in the trade. I don't remember his name right now. Top of my head.
00:04:04
Cody Atkinson
Uh, Jacob Milton.
00:04:04
justin_daulton
the, Melton, yep, made an amazing play in the outfield today, robbing someone of ah one of the Red Sox of a what should have just been a routine single. So obviously there's some there's some big adjustments there.
00:04:17
justin_daulton
Kevin Kiermaier's back in the clubhouse as as an outfield consultant. You and I talked about that a couple couple weeks ago.
00:04:20
Cody Atkinson
Very cool.
00:04:22
justin_daulton
So there's things to be excited in terms of the outlook for the season. I still think we're going end up where we've been as we kind of you know tease a little bit of what we've got coming up here in a couple weeks with MLB Primer, and kick off on everything.
00:04:35
justin_daulton
So things to be excited about a lot of prospects coming into the organization, which from an outsider's perspective, the Rays have always been amazing at getting the prospects, grooming them, getting them ready for the majors.
00:04:48
justin_daulton
So it's nothing nothing that I haven't seen before as a Rays fan. So there obviously we'll we'll watch and see. I got an email from the Rays the other day, $100 to watch every Rays baseball game in market.
00:04:59
justin_daulton
So that's something that I'm going to pulling trigger.
00:05:00
Cody Atkinson
but mobile
00:05:01
justin_daulton
Yeah, right.
00:05:02
Cody Atkinson
What a deal.
00:05:03
justin_daulton
What a deal. ah So definitely going to be pulling the trigger on that here soon so I can watch more baseball than I think I've ever had because of the the the terrible market when it comes to streaming sports.
00:05:13
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:05:14
justin_daulton
And then, of course, you know, in addition to that, coming off a ball start break with the with the hockey team with the Lightning, $40 to watch the remaining of the season to for the Lightning. So some steals in terms of streaming sports, but I'm sure I'll find something to be excited about as we get closer to the so the primer.
00:05:30
Cody Atkinson
For sure.
00:05:31
justin_daulton
So any other thoughts before we kick over to the next topic?
00:05:35
Cody Atkinson
No, man, I think that's good. I'm glad that you have reasons to care because I was worried that you were going to say there's nothing to look forward to. and i was like, you got to dig deeper. You got to dig deeper. But you you got some reasons. I think that's I think that's good. I'm i'm i'm happy with the with the response.
00:05:49
justin_daulton
Young team, man. Young team, LaClanahan coming back this year off of Tommy John, Rasmussen getting the start for opening. They already confirmed. So there's things to be excited about. I don't think this team's a playoff contender this year, but it'll be good baseball regardless.
00:06:02
justin_daulton
So, i I mean, we'll talk more about that in the coming weeks as we get closer to to first pitch.
00:06:03
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, tough division too, so.
00:06:08
justin_daulton
But, yeah, got to kick over to you now for your what's becoming your routine here for Coastal Launch.
00:06:12
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, dude.
00:06:16
justin_daulton
ah with let' talks Let's talk NCAA baseball real quick.
00:06:16
Cody Atkinson
This is what I do. if
00:06:20
justin_daulton
And then after that, you get an A&M basketball.
00:06:23
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I'll blitz through this. um if If enough people cared, I would do a whole se a whole podcast on college baseball, but that's not what we're here for. A&M, big weekend, kind of an underrated weekend. A lot of people don't view the Ivy League necessarily as ah as a big opponent, but you you have to look out for these Ivy League schools. They are more talented than you would expect.
00:06:45
Cody Atkinson
So A&M hosts Penn University um at Olsen Field this weekend. 3-0 weekend puts them at 7-0 on the season, but it was not an easy 3-0 weekend.
00:06:53
justin_daulton
Well.
00:06:57
Cody Atkinson
it was ah like like Let me wrap this up for you. 1-0 on Friday with a walk-off in the ninth inning. That was the only one that was scored. in 11 Saturday down
00:07:08
Cody Atkinson
Two to their second strike, ah two outs in the bottom of the ninth. A&M ties it one to one um and pushes it to overtime, wins it in the 11th inning. And then Sunday, the bats come alive for a seven to one win.
00:07:21
Cody Atkinson
um The name of the game this weekend was pitching. Check this out. of Over the four games this week. So that's Penn, three games Penn, one game A&M Corpus on Tuesday. 38 innings pitched, five runs, four of them earned, 54 strikeouts and no walks, zero walks. If you just look at the weekend alone, 29 innings pitched, two runs, only one earned, 32 Ks and no walks.
00:07:45
Cody Atkinson
ah Just and probably one of the best pitching weekends I have ever seen. There was a north wind keeping the ball in the park, which ah really hurts A&M more than Penn based on i'm on my watch this weekend. ah Didn't like the approach of the hitters on Friday and Saturday. Very disjointed, very much reminded reminded me of last season, but bounced back on Sunday with a much better approach and much better results. i' Outside A&M, I'm not going to do an SEC roundup, but real quick, two winners this weekend.
00:08:13
Cody Atkinson
UConn swept Arizona in Arizona. that was so That was a big ah weekend for UConn. And Auburn 3-0 in the ah ah the Globe Life um invitation. Amogee Bank, I think, is the sponsor. ah So big weekend for Auburn. Two losers. Tennessee loses at home two games to one to Kent State of the MAAC.
00:08:39
Cody Atkinson
um Shout out to Kent State. Don't want to dogging them too much, but not what you expect to see from Tennessee. They've got that first year coach issues similar to what we saw at A&M last year. ah Florida State, hot start, one and two in in Globe Life this weekend. that was They were 16th coming into the weekend, including a loss to Auburn, I believe. So that's your that's your college baseball roundup.
00:09:03
Cody Atkinson
If we're going straight into A&M, do you want anything you want to you want me to expound on there?
00:09:07
justin_daulton
I just wrote, think, I think we'll just real quick, also magic alive and well already in the, in the new season.
00:09:12
Cody Atkinson
Also, just so alive and well, too. I mean, three three instances in two games.
00:09:15
justin_daulton
I.
00:09:17
Cody Atkinson
Walk-off in the ninth, tie the game in the ninth, walk-off walk in the eleventh
00:09:23
justin_daulton
Yeah. So. ah Also, Magic Alive and Well, something we'll talk about, as of course, as the season goes on. So, I mean, that's my big takeaway. I did get to see, I kind of clipped the A&M baseball putt together over the weekend.
00:09:35
justin_daulton
So that was exciting to see the Olsen Magic Alive and Well. But that's about all I really got in terms of it, the early season. I think you and I talked about this a couple weeks ago. I won't be locked in quite as much early season, but by the time we get to SEC play, I'm definitely going to be right there with you as watching as much as I can.
00:09:49
Cody Atkinson
Oh, yeah. That's when it gets real for sure.
Sports Merchandise Controversy
00:09:53
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, if that's all you got, then we'll we'll shoot it over to A&M basketball. Last time we were here, A&M was coming off of, i I guess the last time we had talked, they had just lost to Vandy, made it five losses in a row. Four, no, four losses in a row. um Could not afford to lose to Ole Miss.
00:10:12
Cody Atkinson
I know um I talked to you you. You kind of kept up with the game but didn't get to watch it. um A&M, as clutch as can be, down 13 to Ole Miss with a little under 12 minutes left. Still down 10 with seven minutes left. I was ready to throw. I'm not the most resilient fan. I was throwing in the towel. I was like, it's such a disappointment to start off as hot as we did and the season to be over in February.
00:10:40
Cody Atkinson
um The team didn't throw in the towel. Thank God they are way more resilient than me. Finished on a 19-6 run in the final seven minutes. A 9-0 run to finish the game.
00:10:53
Cody Atkinson
A close win at Ole Miss. Good win, but not one that made you feel really confident going into – uh the weekend um but the weekend a m oklahoma at oklahoma i said you needed a better performance than you got against old miss uh a and m led at the half and won at the end of the game uh but the stories were very different the the first half was offensive uh oklahoma shot 39.4 from the field from three in the first half It felt like you were kind of you were hanging on. You're like, uh-oh, if they're going to shoot like this, this is going to be a tough one. In the second half, A&M defensively shuts them down 25% from the field, 23.1% from three. A&M 2-0, the recipe from this point forward, like I think you moved probably from the 10 line to the 9 line. recipe at this point is go two and two to finish the season. However you can get it done, um go two and two and you feel locked into the tourney one and three, you're going to be sweating.
00:11:54
Cody Atkinson
ah But the, but the, the word of this week was clutch when it came down to it. a and m was clutch. ah They, they won it in the final minutes at Ole Miss. They won it in the final minutes at Oklahoma. They just had more than the other team had. And it was great to see it.
00:12:11
justin_daulton
Very cool. Yeah, i don't I don't have any thoughts this week on A&M basketball. Just glad to see that they got some wins in there. And then obviously good to hear that there's still hope for the tourney. I know last week we spoke that
Favorite Alternate Jerseys
00:12:22
justin_daulton
we're going to be a bubble team for for the rest of the season. So obviously keep winning and control your own destiny, which is a good feeling to have, especially first year with Bucky McMillan.
00:12:33
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. It's just good to still be alive. At the end of the day, we will be alive in the tournemy and we will be alive in the tourney conversation come March. And that's, that's exciting. Mm-hmm.
00:12:42
justin_daulton
That's all you can ask for in terms of year one. Very cool. Moving on to the next topic. ay A sensitive topic, I think, for most sports fans. Fanatics ruling with an iron fist over like all sports gear, everything that's being sent out to not just fans, but now leagues are using fanatics. We've been using fanatics for a couple years in Major League Baseball.
00:13:06
justin_daulton
And we got some drama this week in terms of the Red Sox versus fanatics. So I don't know how much you saw. I got, I saw this as soon as everything kind of broke that the Red Sox sent out a message to everyone on social media saying that fanatics is at fault for what happened background. For those of you don't know the new, they went back to an old design, which put the D and the S at the end of Red Sox. And at the beginning or at the end of red in the beginning of socks, but a ah lot closer to the striping, the piping right down the middle of the Jersey.
00:13:38
Cody Atkinson
On top of the piping.
00:13:38
justin_daulton
and it,
00:13:39
justin_daulton
Basically, right on top of the piping, which looked atrocious. and you're talking about ah And you're talking about a classic team design in the Red Sox had the same uniforms.
00:13:42
Cody Atkinson
Atrocious.
00:13:48
justin_daulton
I would wager money on saying that they've had it for their entire existence, if not in the last hundred years. So you're changing the design of this by putting it so close to the piping. and the Red Sox organization...
00:14:00
justin_daulton
basically coming out and bodying Fanatics and saying that this is their fault. We didn't approve this. We're now working with the league and Fanatics to get us back to where we need to be, um which is the the model that they used last year.
00:14:13
justin_daulton
Then probably about two or three hours later, deleting all social media posts in regards to this, putting out a new statement saying that, hey, this was just a partnership issue.
00:14:25
justin_daulton
We're taking fault now as the Red Sox. And now you're not, you know, now we're just redirecting the blame instead of putting it all back on
Olympic Hockey Highlights
00:14:33
justin_daulton
Fanatics. So, you know, just quick, you know you know, surface level thoughts from you, because i we went to a baseball game in 2023, 2024 range, where it was the really small nameplates that they were using for Major League Baseball, really small numbers as well, just looked awful on the field.
00:14:47
Cody Atkinson
God.
00:14:52
justin_daulton
So what is your thoughts? what's Do Fanatics and the Red Sox all in kind of one? What are what are your thoughts? Cool.
00:14:58
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, no, I mean, It was flashbacks to ah the the new uniforms that they did where the names got much smaller, looked ridiculous. Everything was see-through, so you could just like you could see the outline of the jersey tucked into somebody's white pants. like It was just flashbacks to...
00:15:18
Cody Atkinson
to to that because the the other thing with that, like they were like, oh it's a better, more air flow jersey design, whatever. It doesn't matter that it looks like it was pulled out of a bin. Um, it was the the price of the jerseys for fans rose by like 30 bucks. And you're like, this is a crazy jump. I'm paying more for nonsense. And it was, it was flashbacks to that all over again. um I was glad to see that it was, uh, only one club that was dealing with it. When I first heard about it, I was like, Oh, are they all ruined again? I was glad to to find out that was only the Red Sox.
00:15:55
Cody Atkinson
Um, the The exact quote from the Red Sox is, to be clear, the original design was selected by the Red Sox. Fanatics executed to our specification as and has been an outstanding partner throughout. They deserve no blame, and we are grateful to them for making the new jerseys in time for opening day. Unreal bodying of the Red Sox by Fanatics. um i i I hate – it's funny. It's funny enough to laugh, but it's also a reminder that Fanatics runs – everything about memorabilia and is destroying it ah in the name of the bottom line. So it's both, it's it's like the the gif of the kid who's like laughing and then starts crying halfway through.
00:16:35
justin_daulton
Yes, yes.
00:16:35
Cody Atkinson
and um yeah It's like that, everything's like that when it comes to to sports and money, but it was kind of, I was cracking up and then I died a little on the inside because I remembered that everything we know and love is is going the way of the bottom line.
00:16:36
justin_daulton
yeah
00:16:50
justin_daulton
but and And in sports, it's going the way of fanatics. I got two new hats this week. I'm wearing one. I got the World Baseball Classic hat for the US of A, right ah locked and loaded. Got ah got a dub wearing it yesterday during the hockey game.
00:17:02
justin_daulton
But I also got the Ray Spring Training hat.
00:17:03
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:17:04
justin_daulton
Both boxes label fanatics up and down, left and right. So there is no MLB shop. It is all fanatics. So it's just, to me, it's it's money grabbing. It's disgusting. I wish it wasn't.
00:17:17
justin_daulton
all fanatics i wish the nhl didn't go to having fanatics logos on the jerseys instead of everything else so it's just it it's gross it's disgusting i wish that we would go back to where we were five years ago before fanatics took over took over everything
00:17:34
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I agree 100%. I usually have my new season, new hat philosophy. I can't tell you the last time I bought it actually from Fanatics. I go elsewhere looking everywhere for for my new Astros hat every season.
00:17:48
justin_daulton
And honestly, if I didn't have a gift card in MLB shop, I would have gone elsewhere. So that's the only reason.
00:17:52
Cody Atkinson
Yep. Yeah.
00:17:55
justin_daulton
Very cool.
00:17:55
Cody Atkinson
Fanatics, man.
00:17:56
justin_daulton
ah yeah I hate them. Last topic that that we're going to do for the rundown this week, um alternate jerseys. what do You threw this link in there. What are you what do your thoughts on the alternate jerseys?
00:18:10
Cody Atkinson
Alternate jerseys. i So I love a good alternate. um i If you saw the A&M Corps of Cadets hoops jerseys this weekend, i was terrified by the concept. i was like, oh, God, this is going to atrocious. done Done very well, in my opinion.
00:18:26
Cody Atkinson
um The previews looked very good. They looked good in game. Alternates can be awful or they can be incredible. um I am somebody who thinks they are well worth the risk um and I love to see a good alternate. um i I hate to see a bad alternate, but I'll take seeing a bad alternate over not trying at all.
00:18:47
Cody Atkinson
And I think A&M hit with the with the core cadets unis this week.
00:18:53
justin_daulton
Yeah, i saw I didn't get to see pictures of them on the court, but I did see the the previews and everything online. They looked good. I mean, it a who was it? Baseball did core cadet alternates a couple years ago.
00:19:05
justin_daulton
So now we're just missing – yeah, it was baseball.
00:19:05
Cody Atkinson
Did I? I forgot about that.
00:19:07
justin_daulton
It was either baseball or softball. One of the two wore core alternate, and now basketball is wearing a core alternate. So now we're just missing football wearing a core a core alternate in uni.
00:19:18
Cody Atkinson
They're not going to do that one well.
00:19:18
justin_daulton
um
00:19:19
Cody Atkinson
Don't do it.
00:19:21
justin_daulton
But other than that, I think it just pivoting real quick within alternates. Can you, off top your head, give me a top three alternate, any sport, all time.
00:19:31
Cody Atkinson
Oh, God. Do you have... Since you're asking the question, do you have a... Do you have it locked and loaded? Can you give me a couple a couple of seconds here? right. Yeah.
00:19:37
justin_daulton
I've got i've got a few. So going to go, not going to go in no particular order, but top three that I can that i can run off the I'm going to the Houston Cougars, H-Town Blue.
00:19:51
justin_daulton
It's sick. I love the blue all all the way down.
00:19:52
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:19:53
justin_daulton
I love the red lettering on the helmets, the you the the Houston and the red letter. i love those. I'm going – I love the Seahawks throwback they wore this year, the 80s, 90s era one.
00:20:11
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. So we're counting we're countying throwbacks?
00:20:13
justin_daulton
ya Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:20:14
Cody Atkinson
Okay, okay.
00:20:14
justin_daulton
Because at this point, they're there're considered alternates in the NFL. So I'm going to there. And then i'm going to give some love to the City Connects, which I think get a lot of hate in terms of MLB.
00:20:27
justin_daulton
I love the ah Space City, Houston ones that they retired. I know that's a hot take for Houston fans.
00:20:33
Cody Atkinson
The blue.
00:20:34
justin_daulton
Yeah, the blues that they that they did. Not the ones that they rolled out last year, but the ones they wore a couple years ago. I love that design. I love that hat design that they had for it. And I think to me at all, the hat is the one that needs to get the most attention because your fans are to be wearing the hats more often than not.
00:20:49
justin_daulton
And I love that like little orbit they had around the H and the and the star.
00:20:52
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:20:53
justin_daulton
It just looks so clean.
00:20:54
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, it is clean. I'm going to go. I think I think U of H um ah Columbia blue the H town blue. I think that's the true. Correct. Number one. i love the disrespect to Tennessee in the same vein.
00:21:08
Cody Atkinson
um The Cougs did it. Then Rice did it. Rice didn't do it as well. Um, but I just love the city coming together to, to flip the bird to Tennessee. Um, I think that's number one.
00:21:18
justin_daulton
the rainbow
00:21:20
Cody Atkinson
number two, i would have to go to Tequila sunrise, Astros throwbacks, the kind of, I don't know how you would describe it.
00:21:23
justin_daulton
yeah
00:21:27
Cody Atkinson
The yellow, orange horizontal stripes.
00:21:28
justin_daulton
the the rainbow yeah
00:21:30
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. I think that's gotta be number two. um it's tough. I'm trying, I try to think, I'm trying to think outside of like my fandom. um Who's that? I mean, there's probably a thousand Oregon ones that could be referenced.
00:21:45
justin_daulton
Oh, yeah. I mean, Oregon's got it on lock, but I feel like that's a cop out in terms of alternate unis.
00:21:46
Cody Atkinson
I don't know. Oregon. Yeah.
00:21:51
Cody Atkinson
I might have to stop it too, man. We might be sitting here for a while while I try to think of a third one.
00:21:57
justin_daulton
i will I will throw out my...
00:21:57
Cody Atkinson
But yeah, no, I think those are good. You could go creamsicle box, I think could, could make it too.
00:22:01
justin_daulton
Creamsie Gold Bucks is so good. I love the what they did this year, the the alternate flip where they did the white with the creamsicle piping throughout the throughout the look for the away jerseys.
00:22:11
Cody Atkinson
I
00:22:12
justin_daulton
So sick. um But I will put out my hot take, and I've been saying this for about the last couple years. I hate the Kelly Greens in Philly.
00:22:20
Cody Atkinson
like the Kelly Greens.
00:22:21
justin_daulton
I hate the Kelly Greens. and for sorry It's just too much. It's too much of the same color. It just doesn't work. it's just That's my hot take. Philly fans are going to roast me for it. I don't care. They don't look that good.
00:22:33
Cody Atkinson
You're entitled to your opinion, man. I like the Kelly greens. It's a classic. I, uh, I'm glad they don't go to it full time.
00:22:36
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:22:39
Cody Atkinson
I think going to any alternate that people love full time is a mistake. Um, the, I was a big fan of the chargers going to the powder blue full time. And now I kind of wish that there are the Navy blue with the powder blue alternates still.
00:22:51
Cody Atkinson
So, um, alternate alternates are great because they're alternates.
00:22:52
justin_daulton
I love that powder blue.
00:22:56
Cody Atkinson
Um, that's what I'll say.
00:22:56
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:22:59
justin_daulton
Cool. Well, man, that wraps up the rundown. So very exciting week as we look forward now to the breakdown hosted by your Shirley Go-Ahead.
00:23:09
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, the breakdown. we're We're talking Olympic Roundup here today. So um ah overall, the U.S. comes in second in ah total medals, which I got to do some math here. 33, I will believe, total medals.
00:23:23
Cody Atkinson
Also second in gold medals, which is what I really like to see. um So ah just a ah great... A great Winter Olympics, man. i don't I don't know how we normally fare in the Winter Olympics. like I haven't gone and looked back, but I don't think we're generally a second place Winter Olympics country. So I feel like we had a great one this year.
00:23:43
justin_daulton
Yeah, the ah the it came out today. This is the most medals we've had in the Winter Olympics ever.
00:23:49
Cody Atkinson
It felt like that. Watching it, it felt like that.
00:23:51
justin_daulton
So there you go. Yeah, for sure.
00:23:52
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah you love to see that, uh, from our perspective, the two most important, um, gold medals, uh, women's and men's hockey with the, I don't know how you want to call it almost like the dual screen Canada effect, the.
00:24:08
Cody Atkinson
the mirroring of how you beat Canada.
00:24:10
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:24:10
Cody Atkinson
ah So we'll, we'll, we'll get into that.
00:24:11
justin_daulton
Yep.
00:24:13
Cody Atkinson
We'll start with the women's hockey um quick stat correction on the last pod. We were talking about us, not giving up a goal, the entire tournament. I did notice they did give up one goal in that first game against Czechia.
00:24:26
Cody Atkinson
So throughout the entire, um well let me, that's right let me, let me check my notes here. okay
00:24:34
justin_daulton
You with a paper note.
00:24:34
Cody Atkinson
I printed out stats.
00:24:35
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:24:36
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I had to i had to do the pop so the mic will pick it up, you know? um So headlined by Erin Frankel, Erin Frankel played in ah some of these things I don't know, but she played in, I think, all but one game ah for the for the U.S., gave up two goals um throughout the entire tournament, and for the majority of this finals game,
00:25:04
Cody Atkinson
It looked like giving up two goals the entire tournament was going to was going to lead to silver. like
00:25:09
justin_daulton
Mm-hmm.
00:25:09
Cody Atkinson
Just unreal ah play by Canada going from beating them 5-0. They get their captain back, which we talked about was going to have some sort of impact. They had the experience. It looked like giving up two goals over the course of an entire Olympics was going cause you to to not win gold. um Unreal.
00:25:31
Cody Atkinson
ah Ultimately, Hillary Knight comes on late in the game with the extra attacker. They pull the goalie, go extra attacker. Hillary Knight deflects a shot into the net one-to-one, goes to overtime.
00:25:47
Cody Atkinson
Megan Keller sends us home. ah Electric. ah What are your thoughts? so what were you Did you get to watch it live? What were your thoughts watching it?
00:25:55
justin_daulton
No, I didn't get to watch it live. It it happened a while I was at work. But I did get to see a lot of the highlights afterwards and catch up there pretty immediately on my feeds everywhere. Got to see the the overtime goal.
00:26:06
justin_daulton
Didn't see the tying goal until much later in the night when I got home and kind of settled in from from the day. But yeah incredible goals, man. It was You and I are very still relatively new to the world of hockey for me about 2016 on you a little bit before me.
00:26:21
justin_daulton
So in terms of goals that are just beautiful, I love a redirection. It's to me is the most impro improbable shot that you can actually have that you have to literally just poke and pray and hope that it works out that the goalie just isn't standing on their head and it's there.
00:26:39
justin_daulton
So the fact that you're able to do to do this in a crunch time scenario, the final couple of minutes there and and in regulation to get to go up 1-1 to get into overtime, insane, insane, insane, man.
00:26:51
justin_daulton
Clutch moments. That's what this women's team has been doing the entire run, just getting shots on net and just hoping that it works out. And it and it did. The fact that we've only given up two goals the entire run is crazy. That's something that you don't hear of, even in the NHL.
00:27:05
justin_daulton
through the gauntlet that is the Stanley Cup playoffs, the fact that there was, at what was it? and stat, correct me if I'm wrong. It was three or four consecutive shutouts.
00:27:15
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I mean, they gave up a goal in the first game and they gave up a goal in the last game. So that that would be what, two two group stage games and two the first two playoff games would be would be no goal.
00:27:27
justin_daulton
Yeah, so four...
00:27:29
Cody Atkinson
So probably i would assume four in a row because I think they played, well, here I'm seeing that.
00:27:31
justin_daulton
Four in a row... Yeah, because it would have been the same as the Mint where it was.
00:27:34
Cody Atkinson
Actually, they played they played seven games total according to my stat sheet. um So it might be five in a row.
00:27:41
justin_daulton
So five consecutive shutouts.
00:27:43
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I guess it'd be five in a row too.
00:27:43
justin_daulton
Yeah, so five.
00:27:45
Cody Atkinson
They must've played, don't know.
00:27:47
justin_daulton
They had the one extra group, the one extra group team. We thought we talked about that. It was one extra group team.
00:27:51
Cody Atkinson
You're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause they did groups of, they did groups, two groups of five. So they played, it would have been, yeah, the final four or the, yeah, the math, maths.
00:28:01
justin_daulton
finals Final three and then the and then quarterfinals, semifinals.
00:28:02
Cody Atkinson
They're five games in a row. Thank you.
00:28:05
justin_daulton
There you go. So, I mean, what what a crazy run to go five straight shutouts to get into the to the gold medal game.
00:28:05
Cody Atkinson
They played four in the group. So the final three and then the two, yeah it' it's there. Don't worry. Trust me. Sources trust me, bro.
00:28:21
justin_daulton
But yeah, man, i there's not much else I think I can say about this team. We talked about it last week that this has to be one of the most impressive international teams we've ever seen in our entire lives. It may never see again in types ah in terms of domination through the entire run.
00:28:37
justin_daulton
Not even the men's who did win a lot of games convincingly through their run. Didn't reach the heights that this women's team did. I mean, where there was a six to nothing game in there to to put them into the finals. Obviously, we talked about the Canada de domination last week.
00:28:52
justin_daulton
ah So it's a crazy run that this women's team went on.
00:28:55
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:28:55
justin_daulton
And it's going to be fun to see what they can do over the next couple years. Obviously, with World Juniors coming up and and women's hockey, obviously getting more and more involved in the international scene.
00:29:06
justin_daulton
So i'm I'm going to be excited to watch the women's over the next couple of years get into the thick of it as much as the men's have been.
00:29:13
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I mean, absolutely. um Going to be really excited to see it. The the thing that i wanted to to highlight a little bit from this game is it felt like a mirror of the the men's game where the U.S.
00:29:24
justin_daulton
Mm-hmm.
00:29:28
Cody Atkinson
women's team, at least – as i recall it felt like they were the better team the whole game and they just could not get the puck in the net um i i really when i looked at it i expected to see the stats more lopsided the us only 33 to 31 shots
00:29:34
justin_daulton
isn
00:29:46
Cody Atkinson
um So from that perspective, pretty even, but watching it, it it felt like a game where the U S women were better and they just needed to break through. And it was incredible ah to see them break through there at the end. Like said, nothing, but nothing like a good redirection.
00:30:01
Cody Atkinson
um and then, um if i So we watch a lot of hockey. It gets all mixed up in these Olympics. But this was Megan Keller's game winner. That was – she's the defender, and she she sauced the she was the one she, like, sauced and brought it through.
00:30:18
justin_daulton
Yeah, she dangled she she dangled the
00:30:19
Cody Atkinson
and then – yeah, dangled it. That's the that's the phrase.
00:30:22
justin_daulton
she dangled it and then five-holed the goalie when the goalie was trying to to reposition for what they what I can only imagine was to go to the the glove side instead of the the paddle side.
00:30:22
Cody Atkinson
Incredible.
00:30:25
Cody Atkinson
Incredible.
00:30:33
justin_daulton
So, yeah, I mean, you went from an insane type of, I mean, just bracing down the ice with Megan Keller to go up against so their defenseman and just keep, and honestly, I have no words.
00:30:44
justin_daulton
Like I've watched that goal on on loop for the last couple of days and I still can't even explain how she dangled them that bad, how she even got the five hole shot off.
00:30:45
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:30:53
justin_daulton
It looks like ah just a backhanded wrister that just snuck through and it's insane.
00:30:56
Cody Atkinson
it It did.
00:31:00
justin_daulton
It should not have been a goal that happened. We should have still been playing hockey after that, but you find a way, good teams find a way to win and you find good players find a way to score goals. And that's what you got.
00:31:10
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, yeah it was it was absolutely filthy. Dangler was the word that I was thinking of um because there was there was ah it was a double roar. There was the roar ah from the dangle, people going crazy at the the gasp of an attempt at a goal and then the roar when it goes through.
00:31:20
justin_daulton
Mm-hmm.
00:31:25
Cody Atkinson
um a team that that truly deserved gold, that would have been... that would have been incredibly disappointing and and a really bad omen. Uh, if, uh, if a U S women's team that was in my opinion, clearly the better team than Canada, they had fallen short in the gold to, you know, the, the ghost or the, the figure of fear that is Canada, there's a word there.
00:31:35
justin_daulton
yeah
00:31:51
Cody Atkinson
Um, if, if, uh, if they'd fallen short of that, that would have been, uh, a real gut check and, and going into, to the men's game. So great, great to see them um come through at the end and, and, and to set the tone for, for the men's game, man. Are you, is there anything else you wanted to say about that? Are you ready to, to, to swap on over?
00:32:11
justin_daulton
No, I think you have to nail the head, Manly. When you're starting to talk about these David versus Goliath you know type of matchups with Canada, obviously being the the commanding force that they are in in hockey in the world, it it felt good to get that a couple of days ahead of the men's. So, yeah, I echo everything you had to say about that.
00:32:31
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, it felt good to get the one out of the way and to just kind of have a little bit of that momentum going into ah U.S. Canada, which actually this would have been before the semifinals.
00:32:44
Cody Atkinson
so going into U.S. Slovakia, the worst a jersey matchup in the world.
00:32:46
justin_daulton
Mm-hmm. Oof.
00:32:48
Cody Atkinson
We don't need to talk about that.
00:32:49
justin_daulton
woof
00:32:50
Cody Atkinson
um So I'm going to start us off a nod to the teams we overlooked. Cause when we were on this pod last week and I don't think we were wrong, but we were just like, Hey, it's us, it's Canada.
00:33:03
Cody Atkinson
They're going to get to the finals. They're both heads and shoulders above the rest. um And obviously the, the, the path to, the finals was more treacherous than we gave it credit for.
00:33:13
Cody Atkinson
And I think that was ah just an awesome outcome to give us, to to give us a little anxiety to prep us for, for Sunday. So um and this have been quarterfinals, U S overtime win two to one over Sweden.
00:33:28
Cody Atkinson
um That was the Quinn, you Quinn Hughes Rister um in overtime.
00:33:31
justin_daulton
breakdown.
00:33:32
Cody Atkinson
Shout out Jacob Markstrom with 38 saves that game. I'm trying to highlight a couple NHL names because We didn't, we didn't, the pod didn't exist before the Olympics. So we didn't do like ah NHL breakdowns.
00:33:44
justin_daulton
A full breakdown.
00:33:45
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, we didn't do Olympic breakdowns like we did. So I was feeling breakdowny when I was making this. um So a nod to Jacob Markstrom. ah Canada had to come back twice to beat Czechia. They were down 2-1.
00:33:57
Cody Atkinson
And then Czechia took the lead again to put them down three to two before they went to overtime and won. Czechia, Tomas Hertel, didn't know he was on that team. a former Shark draft pick back when I was a Sharks fan.
00:34:11
Cody Atkinson
David Pasternak, Andres Palat. He was a lightning, right?
00:34:16
justin_daulton
Shout out to Andres Palai, a member of the triplet line with Tyler Johnson and Kucherov.
00:34:17
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:34:23
Cody Atkinson
There you go. And then I don't know um who this goalie is, but Lucas Dostal, 37 saves. Just highlighting the the amount of saves. thell I'll return to that later with some of my thoughts.
00:34:35
Cody Atkinson
um And then in the semis, Finland jumps out to a 2-0 lead in the second. Canada responds, winning 3-2. ah Game winner scored with under 40 seconds to play. So hat tip, Mikko Rantanen, Sebastian Ejo, Eric Haula.
00:34:55
Cody Atkinson
holder i don't how to say that one. And then...
00:34:57
justin_daulton
Man, I got to get you to watch this NHL again.
00:34:57
Cody Atkinson
go
00:34:58
justin_daulton
mean These are big names you're running off here, man.
00:35:00
Cody Atkinson
No, I know these names. I just don't know how to pronounce them. I know Miko Rantanen. I know Sebastian Ajo. I don't know Eric Holla or how to how to say that. I'll admit that one. um Juice Soros, 36 saves.
00:35:11
Cody Atkinson
um Some incredible performances. i too The only name that I listed that I didn't know was Lucas Dostal and ah Eric Holla. So I'll just throw them
00:35:22
justin_daulton
I would be remiss. let me I'll throw my hand up for you. Lucas Dostal, starting goaltender for the Anaheim Ducks. So I would be remiss if I didn not if i did not get an Anaheim Ducks mention in there for my boy Dallas over here.
00:35:29
Cody Atkinson
out. Oh, very nice.
00:35:34
justin_daulton
a Big Ducks fan. He's very optimistic of the future for the Ducks as of late. So they like had a couple rough years in there, but he's very excited for the future of the Ducks. Give them enough crap for you know not being relevant during the lightning runs. But it looks like they have a a promising future there in Anaheim.
00:35:51
Cody Atkinson
Very cool. Do you do you know some of these like do you know who do you know eric Holla? you familiar with that? Okay.
00:35:58
justin_daulton
I don't know Hala. I know Sebastian Ajo, so I do know him.
00:36:02
Cody Atkinson
Pahos, hurricanes, Miko Rantaman.
00:36:02
justin_daulton
Let's see. where's Yeah, let me see where Hala is because that's one name that I don't – that was one that I did not recognize. Looks like he's on the National Predators forward on the left side playing out there with Stephen Stamkos.
00:36:14
Cody Atkinson
Oh, very cool.
00:36:18
Cody Atkinson
Hey, that's your boy
00:36:18
justin_daulton
And then well what was the other one?
00:36:21
Cody Atkinson
a
00:36:21
justin_daulton
Saros.
00:36:22
Cody Atkinson
Saros, is he in the NHL?
00:36:25
justin_daulton
That name does not sound familiar to me.
00:36:26
Cody Atkinson
I could have done this ahead of time, but I decided not to.
00:36:29
justin_daulton
Hey, you're good. Also plays for the Predators. So i got two you yeah some you got some you got some friends on there.
00:36:32
Cody Atkinson
Oh, very cool. Nashville shout-out. Finland ended up bronze, so ah shout-out to the Predators. The Nashville Predators. Sorry. Not all Predators. Sorry.
00:36:51
justin_daulton
Yeah, i to try to to try to recover this.
00:36:51
Cody Atkinson
Anywho.
00:36:54
justin_daulton
Yeah, man, we give lot of disrespect to the to these teams the quarterfinals and semifinals, both for Canada's side and for the U.S. s side of the bracket. ah Honestly, i as you referenced, neither one of us were wrong in terms of of the results and kind of where they were going to go, both teams.
00:37:14
justin_daulton
Just kind of weird of the path that we went on. Obviously, the U.S. had a little bit tougher time with with ah with Sweden, but then it had a much easier time ah with Finland. Right now, not Finland. Who was it? Yeah.
00:37:28
justin_daulton
Who was our semifinal match?
00:37:29
Cody Atkinson
slovak Slovakia.
00:37:30
justin_daulton
Slovakia, thank you. i So much easier game against Slovakia. But yeah, man, Canada not looking like the dominant force in their quarterfinals and semifinals matchup.
00:37:41
justin_daulton
I watched a little bit of their... Sweden game on the lunch break. And Sweden, for the most part, looks like the better team. Down Victor Hedman, he was a healthy, or not healthy scratch. He was just a scratch before the game.
00:37:54
justin_daulton
Been dealing with a lingering injury from the the NHL season. So obviously missing your big your big guy there on the on your front line defense. So the fact that they were even able to give them ah that much of a hard time, obviously shot to Markstrom with 38 saves.
00:38:08
justin_daulton
You know, you're going to need to play that that type of game to beat Jordan Bennington and in that that offense that Canada has. And for the most part, Sweden probably should have won that game and they just gave it away at the end.
00:38:21
Cody Atkinson
ah You're getting a flip there because Sweden was the U.S. We played Sweden.
00:38:25
justin_daulton
My apologies. Yes.
00:38:26
Cody Atkinson
So you're getting that.
00:38:26
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:38:26
Cody Atkinson
You got that flip.
00:38:27
justin_daulton
Check. Yeah. Check. Yeah. Yeah. I saw the two one, but yeah, check.
00:38:30
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:38:30
justin_daulton
Yeah. Giving Canada a tough time.
00:38:30
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:38:32
justin_daulton
And, but still the same, same purpose behind it that, right.
00:38:35
Cody Atkinson
Same goes for Sweden, US for sure, but
00:38:35
justin_daulton
That, Oh, for sure. But yeah, I mean, the the same story for Czechia, right? We saw them in group stage with the U.S. I didn't really give them much hope, but goalie stands in their head and Dostal does what they need to do. And that's what that's the story that is there. And Canada shouldn't have won that game. Czechia should have won that game ah in the same way that I think Sweden probably should have beat the U.S. in that first game. But both teams survive and move on to the semifinals.
00:39:01
justin_daulton
US has a much easier game with Slovakia and you still see some, some chinks in the armor with, with Finland against Canada.
00:39:09
Cody Atkinson
And so going off of that, I'm going to skip ahead a little bit because after Canada, Finland, which was the second game of the two, you sent a text and said, are you still, because your your prediction was US victory.
00:39:26
Cody Atkinson
My prediction was Canada gold.
00:39:26
justin_daulton
Mm-hmm.
Wrestling Highlights and Speculations
00:39:28
Cody Atkinson
um You sent the text saying, are you still feeling as good about Canada? So let's just, let's talk how the Let's talk how the week went. like from From when we talked on Monday through the first two rounds of playoffs, did your feelings about the gold medal game change? And if so, how?
00:39:54
justin_daulton
Coming off of the quarterfinal game against Sweden, I felt a little more nervous for the U.S. We talked last week that for me to feel confident about the U.S. going forward, I needed to see the offensive production step up to match what we've seen from Hellebuck and the defense.
00:40:12
justin_daulton
And we didn't get that. So that's when I started being like, oh, like I don't know if we got it. Like we're going to go against the best in the world against Canada in terms of those forwards. We're going to need to score games. I think we both talked about that. We needed it to be, you know, we we we knew it was going to be a scoring game, right? So we knew it was going to be a 2-2, whatever it was going to be um for Canada going forward. And, you know, also ultimately, spoilers going ahead, it didn't end up being that type of game. So it actually benefited the U.S. and their style of play.
00:40:41
justin_daulton
But with that said, I did feel less confident on the what was that the Wednesday matchup against Sweden. Felt a lot better after tri Slovakia, which prompted the text message to you.
00:40:51
justin_daulton
Obviously, i think 6-2 against Slovakia, correct?
00:40:54
Cody Atkinson
six Six to two I think both of the two were in the third period after it was already five to zero.
00:41:01
justin_daulton
Yeah, so that was a prompt of the message to you. I was like, okay, there's what I was talking about on the pod last week of there is the offensive production, finally matching it to the defensive side.
00:41:07
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:41:10
justin_daulton
i was like, cool, we can actually use score goals, which has been good to see in terms of the quality as a team that we've been playing. On the flip side, i didn't even think Canada was going to make it.
00:41:21
justin_daulton
like after their quarterfinal matchup with Czechia, I was like, man, this does not look like the team that we talked about last week on the pod.
00:41:22
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:41:28
justin_daulton
This was a team that dominated their entire group stage and all intents and purposes looked like the odds on favorite. I was just being a homer and picked them to lose to the U.S. So, you know, I came out of that.
00:41:39
justin_daulton
I was like, this doesn't look good. And then Finland reinforced it where they had to, you know, down once again, you know, had to come back. It was all in the third period that Canada had to come back to win that game. Obviously did, but it just didn't look like the team that we saw in group stage. So for me, i i felt more confident in my pick going into Sunday because of how Canada got to the finals, into the gold medal game.
00:42:05
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, on the flip side, i I was actually more confident in my Canada selection um going into the gold medal game. because So what I have written here um is the shot the shot difference, which if you were listening last week, I told you that's the only stat I know as of this point.
00:42:25
Cody Atkinson
That's the only advanced stat.
00:42:25
justin_daulton
it
00:42:27
Cody Atkinson
Canada outshot Finland 39-17 and outshot Czechia. and outshot checkia 41 to 24. So in my mind, those games should not have been as close as they were.
00:42:41
Cody Atkinson
um i felt like they were more dominated by Canada, but that the score didn't reflect it because the goalies were just playing out of their mind and Canada just wasn't finishing at the net.
00:42:55
Cody Atkinson
um Which of the two is it is always a question. But um to me, I felt like Canada was outplayed their opponent way more than the score dictated leading up to the finals. And and my I think my statement, my prediction in the last pod was...
00:43:15
Cody Atkinson
a goalie can only stand on their head for so long against these forwards. And I felt like that's what I was watching where you're watching a goalie play lights out, but then there's so much pressure that eventually he cracks.
00:43:29
Cody Atkinson
and And in all, in both cases, they cracked. um And so I felt like that's what we were going to see again. and and ah to transition, it's all I've never been so right.
00:43:40
Cody Atkinson
And so wrong at the same time, that's exactly what we saw, but, but Hellebuck doesn't crack.
00:43:43
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:43:45
Cody Atkinson
Like what was the, I don't, I should have written down the shot. I did ah the ultimate shot advantage for Canada, U S is Canada 42. US 28, and that was after being tied eight to eight in shots in the first period.
00:44:02
Cody Atkinson
The ice was tilted for two whole periods. Just could not take a deep breath because the Akinedo's constantly on the attack. I mean, there's the hellebuck stick save that's going to be over every American's mantle for the next 40 years.
00:44:16
justin_daulton
Mm-hmm.
00:44:16
Cody Atkinson
And there's the Rantanen, or not Rantanen, Nathan McKinnon, a whiff. the empty net whiff, if you remember that one.
00:44:28
Cody Atkinson
um I just, I was watching this game being like, dude, i spot on everything I said, spot on until ultimately you were right. Because what you said is we have Connor Hellebuck and they don't.
00:44:44
Cody Atkinson
and And he never stopped standing. and Yeah. but take ah Take a victory lap, do whatever you want. like I'm real, I'm real.
00:44:52
justin_daulton
Hey, I'll take ah i'll i'll take i'll take that. you know sometimes You know, sometimes I'm right when it comes to these things. i Yeah, man, I mean, obviously we're we're you know we're getting into the full breakdown of of Sunday at this point, right, where it's an emotional game from start to finish.
00:45:09
justin_daulton
You know, everyone's already waking up at 7.30, 8 o'clock in the morning. I'm a dad, so I've been waking up at 8 o'clock in the morning for the last year, um if not earlier some days.
00:45:16
Cody Atkinson
West Coast up at five.
00:45:17
justin_daulton
Yeah, West Coast up at five, parts of Canada up even earlier than that.
00:45:17
Cody Atkinson
West Coast at five.
00:45:22
justin_daulton
I think I saw some people talking 4 a.m., 3 a.m. ah for some parts of Canada. So, you know, it's insane, already emotional to get started. But you're talking about your arch rival. We, you know, we talked last week about Four Nations. We talked about losing in, what was it, 2020? Right, 2020? No, 2022. Sorry, that was four years ago. I can do math.
00:45:43
justin_daulton
And then 2018 as well.
00:45:43
Cody Atkinson
Okay.
00:45:44
justin_daulton
you know So two straight gold medal losses. you know we've We've had some victories in the World Juniors and some World Championship match-type setups, but nothing has been on the scale in terms of gold medal at the Olympics, which is something that Canada has dominated probably for the last 20, 30 years at this point, since the USSR dissolved back in the 90s. So...
00:46:06
justin_daulton
so It's insane to kind of see that matchup. You know, we predicted it. We were like, cool, we're here. But at the end of the day, it was always going to be that underdog story. It was going to be Miracle Part 2 to beat Canada.
00:46:20
justin_daulton
I'm glad that I was right. But I was fully prepared to be wrong coming onto this pod and concede to you and be like hey, that was a great game from Canada. And it was crazy game. i on it from the From start to finish, obviously scoring a goal six minutes into the game to the long stretch of nothing basically happening and seeing the ice slowly tilt to Canada and then not come back from that until the end of the third period really is when you started to see the ice kind of level out just a little bit.
00:46:49
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:46:51
justin_daulton
But it was all it was all Canada for that entire game. And I that's something that you you have written down for later on in this segment. But it's crazy to kind of see how the momentum shifted and did not come back. i think that's all I think I texted you or was texting my friend over here, Dallas, about it, about the momentum shift that kind of happened at the end of the second period where the U.S. kind of got their legs back under them, started skating on their own instead of playing catch up the entire time.
00:47:16
justin_daulton
And that's when you started to see some shots on goal and it looked like we were going some opportunities and it just didn't work out. Bennington obviously looks like the goalie that he is and should have been for the entire, entire Olympics run.
00:47:27
justin_daulton
But just the U.S. stayed with them, skated with them the entire time. I think that's why I texted you. He's like, we're just skating with them at this point. We're putting the pressure on them. We're not letting them get clean clean looks on the net.
00:47:39
justin_daulton
Obviously, Hellebuck did what Hellebuck did. And I think I texted you and Dallas, right, that Hellebuck will never pay for a beer ever again in his life at this point.
00:47:46
Cody Atkinson
Not a single one of these guys ever will.
00:47:47
justin_daulton
No, none of them will, but Hellebuck for sure after the performance he put in there.
00:47:50
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:47:52
justin_daulton
So yeah, it insane game. and watching it with my daughter and you know introducing her to the amazing sport that is hockey at a very early age. Her and I celebrating when the goal went in for Hughes and an electric moment for sure over here in the Dalton household with with this game.
00:48:07
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, absolutely. It was, it was electric. um Like you said, just, but I guess like, like you said, we were just skating with them. But at the end of the day, I guess that's what the team was designed to do.
00:48:20
Cody Atkinson
Like that was what we said.
00:48:20
justin_daulton
Yes. Yeah.
00:48:21
Cody Atkinson
Canada has forwards. U S has defensemen. What Canada lacks is, is true defensive minded defensemen. And so, um In a lot of ways, um I think you mentioned the you wanted to bring up the Nathan McKinnon quote, where he said, like, i don't i't I don't think I ever actually saw the quote, but he said something along the lines of Canada was the better team, I believe is what you told me.
00:48:45
justin_daulton
Yeah, let me get the full quote let me let me get the full quote for you just so that way we don't misquote the great Nathan McKinnon over here.
00:48:51
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, yeah think the the great empty netter, Nathan McKinnon.
00:48:58
justin_daulton
me get the quote for you.
00:48:59
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. But, yeah, i'll ah I'll kind of just keep keep setting that up while you do that. um He said something along the lines, which we'll correct in a second, that they were the better team. And in a lot of ways watching it, like they were. They 42 shots to 28, ice tilted in U.S.'s favor. But at the same time, the U.S. was kind of designed to be a team that wins two to one and over.
00:49:26
Cody Atkinson
Like they were designed to keep Canada out of the net. It's hella bucking goal. It's, ah you know, this list of, of defensemen, more rent ski, Quinn Hughes, like McAvoy. Like it's it's a team built around these guys that came in to beat Canada two to one. They weren't going to beat them six to five.
00:49:51
justin_daulton
Yeah. Quote for you. ah You be the judge of who was better the better team today, said Nathan McKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche. ah So, ah obviously, I mean, at the end of the day, man, like...
00:50:00
Cody Atkinson
I let the scoreboard be the judge, buddy.
00:50:04
justin_daulton
Gotta to tip your hat to this Canada team, man. Like they were constructed for one thing and one thing only.
00:50:08
Cody Atkinson
Absolutely.
00:50:10
justin_daulton
ah They just ran into the buzzsaw that was Team USA in terms of just the momentum that we were playing with and playing to our style of hockey. You know, you touched on it's like what what I said before.
00:50:20
Cody Atkinson
yeah
00:50:22
justin_daulton
we just skated with them, man. And that's, there's something to be said of just playing to your style of hockey. There was a while there in the second period where we were just chasing, we weren't playing our style of hockey. And that's what led to the, the, the car goal ah in the second period. So, i mean, that's where i was like, Ooh, okay, that's not, we need to get back to American hockey. And we started to see that, but like I referenced before, the ice started to shift back towards us hockey there at the end of the second period.
00:50:48
justin_daulton
Still, the the Canadians came out at the beginning the period, and that was something we talked about last week, right? ah Who is going to make the third period adjustment? Is it going to be John Cooper? Obviously, John Cooper, head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, has been there before, has won two Stanley Cups, knows what it takes to go out there and win hockey games.
00:51:05
justin_daulton
So I expected him to come out and be like, that's how we win hockey games. We've got out there. We've got to put pressure on them. And that's what we saw for the first season. I don't know, 10 to 15 minutes of that third period where it was just an onslaught on, on Hellebuck. That's where we got the, the taste goal. That was, that didn't happen. That's where we got the McKinnon with in the third period.
00:51:25
justin_daulton
All these things happen because those forwards are putting pressure on Hellebuck on the defense.
00:51:29
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:51:30
justin_daulton
And we just skated, man. Like we just put pressure on them. We leaned on them. We didn't let them get clean shots. We didn't let traffic down the net outside of those two or three opportunities that really looked like legit scoring opportunities where Hellebuck was in the wrong spot or the defender was in the wrong spot, and it just wasn't their day. They just weren't putting the puck in the back of the neck, and ultimately that's the reason why they lost the game. There wasn't there was no ifs, ands, or whats about it. That's how they lost the game. They just couldn't put the puck in the back of the net.
00:51:57
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, no, and I think there's there's something to be said about that. I think at the end of the day, i don't think – obviously Canada didn't have Sidney Crosby. That's a shame. Maybe things go differently if they did. Maybe they don't.
00:52:09
Cody Atkinson
I would loved would have loved to beat them full strength, but you take what you can get. I mean, I'll take the W all day. um But, yeah, i I don't think it's anything with John Cooper. I don't think it's anything with Canada in general. They played an incredible game.
00:52:26
Cody Atkinson
um that they might win more often than not, but they got goalied. They got hella bucked. He would not let anything in the net, and he didn't for 60 minutes and some change.
00:52:38
Cody Atkinson
he He wouldn't let it in the net. and And Canada, I think at the end of the day, my thoughts of the previous two games were that Canada just was unlucky in the lack of finish where they outshot Finland by 22, outshot Czechia by 17 and they they they didn't win. It's unlucky, but they also, I think they lacked finish, like just on the team.
00:53:05
Cody Atkinson
Like they just, 42 to 28 and you lose. Like they, they're shots at the net, but but nothing that's nothing fooling the goalie, nothing that's getting by him on a regular basis.
00:53:18
Cody Atkinson
And, and that's what you saw with the USA. They made those 28 shots count that break away by, by Matt Boldy, the, the, to get past the two defensemen on the double deflect incredible.
00:53:25
justin_daulton
Mm-hmm.
00:53:28
Cody Atkinson
Um, that there was a ah a, shot by Quinn Hughes and OT that inches from ending the game. And then obviously Jack Hughes with the five hole, um,
00:53:41
Cody Atkinson
Canada so just lacked that little bit of finish and hella but goalied him because he's the greatest American hockey player of all time. I don't know.
00:53:52
Cody Atkinson
So let's, ah I feel like we could talk about this forever, but I'm goingnna try to kind of get us over to to to your your topic of the day. So let's wrap this up a little bit. MVP, take it where you want. MVP of the tournament, MVP of the finals, take it take it where you want.
00:54:09
justin_daulton
Obviously, so asterisk next to it, right?
00:54:11
Cody Atkinson
If you see my next question, I'm assuming.
00:54:12
justin_daulton
well yes. um what i do want to say MVP of the tournament did go to Connor McDavid of the Canadian team, as voted upon by them.
00:54:22
Cody Atkinson
I should say this was in this is US MVP, but ah my bad, I didn't say that.
00:54:25
justin_daulton
Yeah, yeah, Obviously, US MVP.
00:54:27
Cody Atkinson
But yeah, yeah, yeah. Head tip, Conor McDavid.
00:54:30
justin_daulton
Yeah, hat tip to Conor McDevitt. Dude played the electric, just couldn't get it done in in the gold medal game and going to start being referred to as someone who can't get it done in the in the big games. Obviously,
00:54:40
Cody Atkinson
I mean, he didn't defend the final pass super well.
00:54:45
justin_daulton
No, but at the same but this but the same time, I saw i saw a reel today that he's going see Matthew Tachuk in and his nightmares, obviously losing the last two Stanley Cups to Tachuk and then now losing the gold medal match to Tachuk.
00:54:45
Cody Atkinson
It's a little lackadaisical.
00:55:00
Cody Atkinson
that's true.
00:55:02
justin_daulton
will not show any love to the Florida Panthers on this podcast, and nor will I ever show any love to the Florida Panthers on this podcast. But I will give love to the fact that the U.S. owns hockey. And McDavid has nothing to say about that.
00:55:14
justin_daulton
um Yeah, USA, USA. i yeah I think the easy answer is Hellebuck for sure after that performance. I think going through it, you it's so easy to say Hellebuck, but you also got to look at the Hughes brothers. You got to look at the Kachuk brothers.
00:55:29
Cody Atkinson
That's why the next question exists, though.
00:55:29
justin_daulton
i
00:55:31
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, it's
00:55:31
justin_daulton
Yeah, for sure.
00:55:32
justin_daulton
um I'll go with the chalk answer. It's Hellebuck.
00:55:35
Cody Atkinson
a little bit.
00:55:36
justin_daulton
You don't win that gold medal game if it's not for Hellebuck.
00:55:39
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, it's hella like 42 shots in the final game. So that's 41 saves, one one goal. um I have the full stats here. He had a 9-5-6 save percentage on the tournament. That's ah six goals against in a hundred and 131 saves. 5-0, obviously.
00:55:59
Cody Atkinson
ah Minutes percentage, he played 84% of the minutes in goal. um Really just gave up the one game.
00:56:05
justin_daulton
Just the one game that Swainman won or played in, yeah.
00:56:06
Cody Atkinson
Swayman.
00:56:09
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, so it it has to be Hellebuck. You simply do not win that game, hands down, no questions, without Hellebuck playing quite possibly the best game we've ever seen.
00:56:23
Cody Atkinson
um It has to be Hellebuck. So who's your MVP not named Hellebuck?
00:56:30
justin_daulton
That's the hard part, right? um
00:56:32
Cody Atkinson
Again, tourney, finals game, however you want to approach it.
00:56:32
justin_daulton
i Yeah, i Jeff Hughes. i have mayor
00:56:37
Cody Atkinson
Or Jackus?
00:56:39
justin_daulton
Jack Hughes, yes, Jack Hughes. I mean, dude took a he the gnarliest looking high stick I've ever seen in my life and but lots of lost some teeth in there.
00:56:46
Cody Atkinson
Oh, yeah. i was awesome
00:56:50
justin_daulton
Not even losing the whole team, just cracked a couple of teeth off that stick. And then, you know, i saw him, there was a quote from him talking about when he gave up the the penalty, the the high sticking on his side that made it go 5-3.
00:57:03
justin_daulton
on the penalty for for Canada.
00:57:04
Cody Atkinson
so yeah
00:57:05
justin_daulton
And he was like, this is what I'm going to be remembered for. And that was heartbreaking for him that he was like, this is what I'm going be remembered for in and U.S. hockey lore for for the rest of the rest of his life. So obviously, i don't even think we talked about ah couple of questions above where, you know, when did confidence wane and all that?
00:57:22
justin_daulton
And that was the five on three penalty. The fact that we did kill that five on three penalty, you know, is crazy.
00:57:26
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:57:28
justin_daulton
Obviously, that was what shifted them and the momentum that we talked about earlier. But yeah, it's Hughes. It's got to be Hughes. The dude lined up perfectly. And, you know, we can talk three on three and the the controversy around three on three that's been going around. John Cooper obviously talking about it in the news today as he comes back to Tampa in the next couple of days.
00:57:48
justin_daulton
So you got to really, you know, look at what that what that means to in terms of NHL fans and the the formatting going forward for for overtime. But at the end of the day, man, Hughes was in the right spot at the right time, took that pass beautifully, and and buried it in the back of the net. So I think you have to go to him.
00:58:06
justin_daulton
he I forget what the stats are. You may have him in front of you, or what his stat line's been for the entire run. But, man, the points scored, i think, was second or third highest on the team, if not highest on the team, ah behind I think behind Matthew Kachuk.
00:58:21
justin_daulton
But you can correct me if I'm wrong on that stat line there.
00:58:23
Cody Atkinson
So Jack Hughes had seven points across the six games in the tournament, um tied with Austin Matthews, um second to his brother Quinn Hughes.
00:58:36
Cody Atkinson
ah But he did have a plus eight, um which is tied with Wierenski for ah best plus minus um on the tourney.
00:58:36
justin_daulton
Got it. Okay.
00:58:49
justin_daulton
Yeah. So, I mean, ah dude had a great, a great Olympic run. So I think if you, you know, you take hell a bucket the equation, and it's Hughes.
00:58:57
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I am also going to say Hughes, but I'm going to say Quinn Hughes. um and Only partly because he sees ghosts the whole day and it's the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. i don't know if you're on this trend where he just stares off into space all the time.
00:59:15
Cody Atkinson
Everyone else is celebrating and he just, he looks like a man who like came back from war.
00:59:16
justin_daulton
I did see a couple of pictures of it, yeah.
00:59:21
Cody Atkinson
um And it's the funniest thing. So I've been a Hughes fan ever since then. But um the reason I'm going to go with Hughes, obviously he, he had the, the w Rister to beat Sweden in this, in the quarterfinals. That was,
00:59:35
Cody Atkinson
um Huge, especially from a defenseman. ah Eight points on the tourney is the most. ah One goal, seven assists. But the reason I'm going with him, 141 minutes of total ice time um on the tourney.
00:59:50
Cody Atkinson
The second highest on the team is ah Charlie McAvoy at 116. was just – leaned him. he was always out there the ice. he was always out there on the ice doing whatever he needed to do.
01:00:06
Cody Atkinson
um and he was one of, in my opinion, he was one of the best at getting the puck out of our zone, um playing it well, getting it out of the getting it out of our zone so that we could get shot chances.
01:00:20
Cody Atkinson
And then you did see that in the three-on-three overtime.
01:00:20
justin_daulton
Mm-hmm.
01:00:22
Cody Atkinson
He had the shot that almost – he almost got to walk it off. um in the the finals, just like he did in the quarters, but an incredible save ah by Bennington. And now his his brother gets to be the one that walks it off, which I'm sure he's just as happy about. So I'm going to go Quinn Hughes. I also am announcing that I'm rooting for the Minnesota wild for the rest of the season.
01:00:45
justin_daulton
you
01:00:45
Cody Atkinson
I, that is my, that's my fair weather fandom. of the season since I don't have a hockey team to root for locally. um I will be rooting for Matt Boldy and Quinn Hughes um in the Minnesota Wild for the rest of the season.
01:01:00
Cody Atkinson
Quick announcement for you there. um i think I think we can probably – I have a couple quick we can run through.
01:01:02
justin_daulton
but but
01:01:06
Cody Atkinson
um Hughes brothers overtaking the Kachuk brothers in fandom, or or is it still Kachuk 1, Hughes 2?
01:01:14
justin_daulton
In terms of the national stage, in terms of the taking away the NHL side.
01:01:14
Cody Atkinson
We can lightning oh
01:01:18
justin_daulton
All
01:01:19
Cody Atkinson
ah However you want to look at it. just
01:01:21
justin_daulton
right, you take it away from the...
01:01:21
Cody Atkinson
who American hockey brother duo.
01:01:23
justin_daulton
even It's the Kachuks still for for no for now.
01:01:23
Cody Atkinson
Who's one? Who's two?
01:01:26
Cody Atkinson
It's still Kachuk's one. Okay.
01:01:29
justin_daulton
I mean, yeah until the Hughes brothers putts up a Stanley Cup, I think that's the that's the ultimate thing at this point.
01:01:34
Cody Atkinson
Okay.
01:01:35
justin_daulton
While they're all American heroes at this point for winning gold, you the ultimate prize and in the world of hockey is the Stanley Cup. so and So until one of the Hughes brothers lifts to sand the Stanley Cup, I've got to go Kachukka.
01:01:48
Cody Atkinson
Okay, that's fair. I was going to go Hughes, but I admittedly not as dialed into the and NHL as you, so didn't really consider the and NHL side. I was just riding the high of them both being the two to walk it off um and and be in the the main interviews after the game.
01:02:06
Cody Atkinson
um And then ah lastly, how long until you rewatch Miracle? Yeah. Or or or if you're if you're done with Miracle, you're like, we got our own now.
01:02:13
justin_daulton
Man, I was real tough.
01:02:16
Cody Atkinson
I don't need to watch it anymore. How long until you rewatch the game? All right.
01:02:20
justin_daulton
Until I rewatched the game, it's probably going a little bit because the NHL is back on Thursday. and The Lightning, I'm
01:02:27
Cody Atkinson
It's back on Wednesday.
01:02:28
justin_daulton
minnesota I think it was one of those things. Or it's Winnipeg, I think is who they're playing. So starting off, you know we're ready to go. So to me, i'm i'm not I'm not re-watching. I'm going i'm going straight into the NHL season as we get ready for Stanley Cup push and in Tampa again here.
01:02:45
justin_daulton
ah in Until I watch a Miracle again, i was real tempted to put it on today. I'll be real honest with you. um I think it'll be a little bit just with how my free time is tied up right now.
01:02:58
justin_daulton
It isn't going back and rewatching movies. If I'm going to put a movie on, it's going to be ah to watch a movie that I i haven't been able to watch in the last year in some change since my daughter's been born. So, but yeah, the temptation definitely is real after, after miracle part two.
01:03:14
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I turned on the TV. um I guess it would have been later Sunday when I was putting this rundown together. And the first recommendation on like the smart TV homepage was watch Miracle.
01:03:26
Cody Atkinson
So that was the that was the crux of this question.
01:03:26
justin_daulton
Yeah, there you go.
01:03:29
Cody Atkinson
But did we have our own Miracle now and it's incredible. Like 46 years to the day, um Johnny Gaudreau, um just like being the motivation behind this team, how much he clearly meant to them that in the midst of celebrating, they're, they're going to get his kids so they can celebrate with them. Um, 46 years to the day, just so much, uh, going for this team.
01:03:55
Cody Atkinson
it was incredible. I hope, I hope we get a movie about this one day, but I hope they let it breathe enough that the movie is actually good and they're not rushing it out. So with that man, kick it over. Tell us about, uh, tell us about the world of wrestling.
01:04:07
Cody Atkinson
um And I will I will spectate this because as as we've ah as we've solidified on the show, this is i I don't know much about the wrestling world. So you you take it away and take us where we need to go.
01:04:18
justin_daulton
Yeah, think when you and I started talking about the pod, it was I wanted an avenue to talk about wrestling. Obviously, me and my boy Mike over here talk about wrestling all the time. So definitely getting an outlet to talk about it. I was like, this is the the prime opportunity to do it. And you talk about not watching wrestling since since you were you were younger.
01:04:35
justin_daulton
So hopefully this sparks some inspiration, at least watch some highlights, get ah get back into the world a little bit here. Admittedly, I will say the rundown is written for you. here um I'm watching right now a live update on Monday Night Raw because there are some things on Monday Night Raw that is going to change a lot of conversations right now that we're having about this.
01:04:55
Cody Atkinson
OK.
01:04:56
justin_daulton
So bear with me if I do pivot between a couple of tabs that I have open to kind of make sure I'm staying up to date on as things progress for this Saturday. But yes, this weekend, Elimination Chamber, this is the last PLE before we get to WrestleMania in April.
01:05:12
justin_daulton
So nothing... in the in the month of March as we get ready for that, um for the Wrestling World Super Bowl, as you say as we will, the end of the regular season, or end of the season, right? there We're in full-on postseason mode. We're establishing the storylines, getting the rivalry set up for WrestleMania as we get started.
01:05:29
justin_daulton
But I did put a ah footnote in here for us. Last year's winners, Bianca Belair and John Cena. John Cena did turn heel at this event last year when full-on bad guy ah took out. You know, The Rock came down. Travis Scott came out. turned heel and just obliterated Cody Rhodes to get ready for WrestleMania 41, where he ended up winning, becoming the greatest all time, winning the 17th world championship, surpassing and the great Ric Flair and and c submitting himself as the greatest all time. Like I said, um Bianca Belair on the other side ended up losing in a triple threat match that has this year's entrance into everything. Io Sky and Rhea Ripley.
01:06:07
justin_daulton
So lost that, didn't get her title out of that. Io Sky leaves WrestleMania as a champion and then goes on to lose that later on down the road and eventually forms a tag team with Rhea Ripley, which they are now current tag team champions going into the into their elimination chamber. I am waiting. That is the one update that I'm waiting for it's to hear if EO Sky punches her ticket to Elimination Chamber, it seems like that will be the main event of the night, um as I have not seen that that match come through yet to see who punches their last ticket.
01:06:37
justin_daulton
I'm going to catch you up on...
01:06:38
Cody Atkinson
That's the TBD that you have right here.
01:06:39
justin_daulton
That's the TBD that I have right now. So I'm going to pivot a little bit to kind of catch you up on some storylines and headlines from the last month since we talked about um the Royal Rumble on here in our our trial episode that we did a couple weeks ago.
01:06:53
justin_daulton
So storylines and headlines that we have right now. Javon Evans, um spoiler, punished his ticket get to Elimination Chamber last week on Raw. He is the first ever ah contestant to enter the the the Elimination Chamber that is younger than the match itself.
01:07:08
Cody Atkinson
Yep. yep
01:07:09
justin_daulton
Which is crazy. I had to fact check it because my boy told me about it. I was like, let me go double check that before I put it out there in the world. So not only is he younger than the Elimination Chamber, but when the Chamber gets here, he will be the youngest competitor in the Elimination Chamber ever.
01:07:23
justin_daulton
So... huge shout to Javon Evans, the young OG, as they call him, uh, in wrestling dudes electric. If you look up anyone that I talked to you about today, look up Javon Evans and his qualifying match.
01:07:35
justin_daulton
The dude hit a cutter, which is the, uh, as you probably know, the RKO. Um, so he hits a cutter from one turnbuckle.
01:07:39
Cody Atkinson
Okay.
01:07:41
justin_daulton
The other guy turns off the other jumps off the turnbuckle and they meet halfway in the ring and just insane, insane spot. So, if there's anything that you go and you look at it's Siobhan Evans, man. The dude is electric. he's gonna be um He's going to be insane in the elimination chamber, which is something that's not usually meant for high flyers. and Recently, we've been dabbling with the jumping off the tubes and everything in in the chamber. So it going to be a lot of fun there.
01:08:08
justin_daulton
Second headline I have in here for you, there's a masked man running around WWE w right now. um So it's ah basically black hoodie, black pants, black shoes, got the sheisty on, literally eye cutouts in the in the mask.
01:08:21
justin_daulton
He's been tormenting this group called The Vision. I don't think you and I talked about The Vision last time we spoke, but they're basically this, this they're a heel group that's been running around Monday Night Raw consisting of, it to be Seth Rollins before he got hurt, um but it's been Bron Breaker, it's been Big Bronson Reed,
01:08:37
justin_daulton
and logan paul and then recent addition austin theory who was a masked man prior to all of this happening so now there's this masked man that's running around since royal rumble who attacked bron uh bron breaker which took him out of the rumble and so he's now been running around and taking out every member of the vision with the exception of tonight which doesn't look like uh bronson re was impacted by the masked man as i'm trying to look through and make sure i don't miss any updates from tonight um So he's on attack, but everyone else did get attacked. Austin Theory got attacked.
01:09:11
justin_daulton
um And then um Logan Paul got attacked last week by the masked man by getting stomped on the, getting a nice little curb stomp on the announcer table. So this dude has been tormenting the vision. So it's someone that has it out against him.
01:09:24
justin_daulton
There's a lot of theories running around, no pun intended to Austin Theory, of his old tag partner, Grayson Waller, two guys from Australia that that used to run around together as a tag team.
01:09:36
justin_daulton
I don't think it's Grayson Waller. I'm in the camp of it's Bad Bunny. um That bad bunny is making it the Bad Bunny is making his way back to WWE.
01:09:42
Cody Atkinson
Now we're talking.
01:09:45
Cody Atkinson
now we're talking
01:09:47
justin_daulton
Yeah, there you go. now i got too bad Now I got you in it. You and I talked about it before. bad Bunny fought a couple years ago. i sent you a video of it, of the probably the best entrance that I've i've ever seen in WWE coming out of Puerto Rico to face Damian Priest.
01:10:01
justin_daulton
And it was electric. I mean, you can attest to it. If you have to sit back and watch that clip, it was an insane entrance that he had there. Um, but so I think it's him because I think they're setting up this feud of Logan Paul. Um, I don't know if you saw Logan Paul at the Superbowl where they asked him about, um, if he was excited for the halftime show and it's very coldly, went like, no, and then walked away.
01:10:23
justin_daulton
So it was very evident that he was like working at that point in time.
01:10:23
Cody Atkinson
Huh.
01:10:26
justin_daulton
And it was definitely setting up the WWE stuff. That's how it felt. Um, but on the flip side of it all, Jake Paul obviously putting out a lot of stuff on Twitter after the Super Bowl halftime show.
01:10:37
justin_daulton
So there's a lot of rumors around Jake Paul ending up at WWE and tag teaming with his brother, which then would bring in Bad Bunny to feud with him. So who who he ends up tagging with? I don't know. Maybe that's where you get Damian Priest to come back into the fold. That's where you can get you know some other guys to come in there. But my that's my leading prediction at this point is that it's Bad Bunny that's been tormenting the vision and it'll be a hilarious story to kind of watch over the next like month and a half to two months before we get to, to WrestleMania.
01:11:05
justin_daulton
Feel free to stop me if you have anything to chime in on
01:11:08
Cody Atkinson
No, that would be a ton of fun if it was Bad Bunny. um What would be the most fun if it was Bad Bunny and he tag-teamed with the other guy that you mentioned, ah Waller.
01:11:16
justin_daulton
Damian priest. Yeah.
01:11:17
Cody Atkinson
Or no, the who everyone else thinks it is.
01:11:18
justin_daulton
Oh, Waller. Oh, Waller would be hilarious. Yeah.
01:11:21
Cody Atkinson
like He's not the masked guy, but he's going tag-team with the masked guy. That would be an interesting little ah little wrinkle there, but I would love to see... um I would love to see it be Bad Bunny and to to know that the Super Bowl was used um by the wwe wwe as so as a marketing stunt would be hilarious.
01:11:40
justin_daulton
Yeah, i hopefully that's what ends up being because ah there's a lot of rumors around Bad Bunny coming back this year at some point. And WrestleMania just makes the most sense to bring someone back like that especially someone that's very evidently in superstardom at this point now after the Super Bowl. So it would be hilarious if for it to be Bad Bunny and be a great time.
01:11:59
justin_daulton
Moving on to the next one, you and I, we talked about Obafemi during the Royal Rumble breakdown. Obafemi is this... behemoth of a human being. He played shot put for the University of Alabama in some track and field activities. He's from he's from somewhere in South Africa. I mean um i don't want even want to try to figure out where it was.
01:12:21
justin_daulton
I want to say it's Lagos, so that might be the one that I'll throw out there. Dude has been tearing it up. He's been on Raw and SmackDown. He still has not signed with either brand at this point.
01:12:32
justin_daulton
But he's had some hilarious stunts since he's been kind of bouncing back and forth. There's this kind of comedic character that I don't think we talked about last time. His name is Kit Wilson. He... his whole bit is that he hates toxic masculinity.
01:12:45
justin_daulton
a And e he, has a banger of a song that he comes out to that he wrote that it's all about like, uh, you got a field in the motion and he's like swaying his hips and everything.
01:12:46
Cody Atkinson
OK.
01:12:55
justin_daulton
You know, he's just having a great time with just, you know, he's like, I'm, I'm real men have emotions, real men cry and like that type of personality. And he does it so well.
01:13:02
Cody Atkinson
okay
01:13:03
justin_daulton
Um, He's a British guy. He's having a great time with it. So he came out or he ran into Obafemi back at house a couple weeks ago. No, he was in the ring. In the ring and basically said that if any of the toxic men in the back want to come out and fight, I'm here right now.
01:13:20
justin_daulton
And then cue Obafemi's music, who is obviously this behemoth man. Super, I mean, if you want to talk about toxic masculinity, that is your prime example. Dude's like 300 pounds, gargantuan of a human being. So yeah pure definition of it comes out and just squashes them. Like they're kits, probably 175 soaking wet. That's, that's how the build is for this guy up against a 300 pound man and Obofemi.
01:13:44
justin_daulton
um So he gets pissed. Kit Wilson gets pissed. He's like, that wasn't a match. I want a real match all this stuff. um But in a hilarious stint later in the show, after, after crashing out,
01:13:56
justin_daulton
starts reading poetry back at house to Obafemi and Oba being pissed about it. Cause basically calling Oba a brood and all these things. Super hilarious. And then flash to last Friday, Kit and him have their official match and Kit's out there reading poetry where it's basically like an apology to Oba being like, i you're now just like, I see you. I see who you are. You're just a real big teddy bear.
01:14:19
justin_daulton
You're not toxic masculinity.
01:14:20
Cody Atkinson
Thank you.
01:14:20
justin_daulton
And then Oba in a typical, you know, wrestling fashion, he goes, read another one. Kit's like, no, I'm good. I don't have any other. I only prepared one, you know, back and forth. And Oba like grabs him. He's like, read another one. And he does. And it's like his old one where it basically just says like, I don't like you, Oba. You're toxic. And like halfway through, it Oba just literally picks him up and throws him into the ring and just absolutely destroys him.
01:14:45
justin_daulton
So super hilarious bits. Obviously this is just a build up over and, you know, into who he is and kind of build them to be the superstar, be the next big Brock Lesnar esque guy in the WWE. That's someone that's going to absolutely steamroll through competition made man in terms of superstardom and in main card. He's going to win whether it's the undisputed WWE championship or the world heavyweight championship.
01:15:09
justin_daulton
I would say within the next year, a year and a half, he's going to be he's going to be holding a big gold at some point in time. ah so it's just going to be, where does he end up, whether it's Raw or SmackDown? Obviously looking forward, you know I think that's let me I want want to make sure i talk about it the right way.
01:15:24
justin_daulton
Brock Lesnar did pop up at Raw this week, which was confirmed going into it. But Lesnar basically putting out an open challenge at WrestleMania. Whoever wants to fight him, I'm here.
01:15:34
justin_daulton
and a lot of fans are speculating that this is... the way for Obafemi to get to WrestleMania and have a big fight. It's obviously have them go one-on-one and it's obviously the future of what they want.
01:15:45
justin_daulton
So I think that makes the most sense as we get closer and closer to WrestleMania and you need to put Obafemi in there. Who's going to be your, your next big um superstar in terms of where we're going for the WWE.
01:15:57
justin_daulton
So that's that storyline. The next one, I was misquoted or I missaid couple weeks ago when we did the breakdown. Liv Morgan has not decided on who she wants. Liv Morgan won the Royal Rumble for the women's.
01:16:08
justin_daulton
She has not decided, um but I believe as of tonight, she has now officially decided. And that she'll be going after Stephanie, if I care, the, the women's world championship on Monday night raw. um So she has finally decided, but last week has had an amazing, um I listened to a wrestling podcast that comes out on Fridays. Santi's app. They have a great podcast. So kind of wrap up wrestling for the week.
01:16:29
justin_daulton
They're comparing it to teleno Telenova's, which is hilarious because it's Stephanie Vakir from Chile.
01:16:32
Cody Atkinson
Hmm.
01:16:35
justin_daulton
And then Liv Morgan dating, quote unquote dating, Dominic Mysterio, the son of Rey Mysterio.
01:16:37
Cody Atkinson
Hmm.
01:16:41
justin_daulton
i So, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:16:41
Cody Atkinson
Hmm.
01:16:44
justin_daulton
So the Rey or Dominic has been translating Vakir to Liv and like broke Liv down last week into tears. Like this super teleno Telenova style.
01:16:55
justin_daulton
ah Great, great way. So I hope that they keep keep building those Telenova-esque things um as they get closer and closer to WrestleMania.
01:17:03
Cody Atkinson
Thank you.
01:17:03
justin_daulton
But this was the chalk answer. ah She was never going to go against Jade Cargill. Jade Cargill doesn't make sense. Judgment Day, which is a faction that Liv Morgan is a part of, is on Raw. I didn't see her leaving Raw anytime soon to go against Jade Cargill.
01:17:15
justin_daulton
So good to see that she finally made that decision tonight to go out there after Stephanie Vakere. And it's going to be a great matchup at Mania between the two of them. um As we speak, the main event match is happening between Raquel Rodriguez, Io Sky, and Kyrie Sane.
01:17:29
justin_daulton
So hopefully as I continue continue to try to stall just a little bit so so we can get that result in there to get my full predictions as we get closer and closer to the chamber happening. um The last headline I want...
01:17:40
Cody Atkinson
I mean, it's like the it's like the first four of March Madness.
01:17:40
justin_daulton
You
01:17:42
Cody Atkinson
Sometimes you just got to you got to say who's going to win it before you know who wins.
01:17:45
justin_daulton
just to throw it out there.
01:17:46
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, you got to be like, well, UNC's winning the 11-11, so I'm going to pick them in the next one.
01:17:47
justin_daulton
Yeah. Yeah.
01:17:52
Cody Atkinson
And then you end up wrong twice. And you're like, oh, well, such is life.
01:17:55
justin_daulton
Yeah. um So that kind of wraps up Liv Morgan. The only other storyline I want to talk to you about is the Los Americanos versus OG El Grande Americano. but So I'm to backtrack for you. For about a year ah ago from right now, this guy comes out.
01:18:10
justin_daulton
as El Grande Americano, who is a completely new character, but the lore of this guy is he is a famous Mexican luchador that has been around for ah hundreds of years.
01:18:23
justin_daulton
And this is like a mask that's been handed down generation after generation after generation. And um obviously not true.
01:18:27
Cody Atkinson
okay
01:18:29
justin_daulton
A brand new creation to WWE last year. And it's Chad Gable, or rumored to be Chad Gable. Sorry, I can't. Speculation. um Of course, within kayfabe for you. um So Chad Gable, once again rumored, is running around pretending to be a Spanish guy who's pretending to be an American guy.
01:18:50
Cody Atkinson
is this tropic thunder
01:18:51
justin_daulton
Yep. so Basically, basically a guy pretending to be another guy. um So he...
01:18:56
Cody Atkinson
what do you mean you people
01:18:59
justin_daulton
So a year ago, he did all that. He fought at WrestleMania, had a pretty decent match with Penta and everyone there. Chad Gable gets hurt probably about last July-esque, like right before SummerSlam. So enter a man by the name of Ludwig Kaiser, who is a German guy who now dons the mass of El Grande Americano.
01:19:19
justin_daulton
So now we have a German guy pretending to be a Mexican guy, pretending to be an American guy. You following me now?
01:19:26
Cody Atkinson
I'll run it. that Barely. by By a thread I'm following.
01:19:29
justin_daulton
So here's my...
01:19:32
justin_daulton
So here's my thing about Ludwig Kaiser. The dude speaks fluent Spanish on top of also speaking fluent German and fluent american English American. right um So he's cutting promos and all these different languages pretending to be the El Grande Americano.
01:19:50
justin_daulton
So obviously Chad Gable's hurt. He's been out. And so he's been running around with a posse called the Los Americanos, which are two other guys who are pretending to be Mexican guys that are now American guys. So now there's this whole faction running around.
01:20:02
justin_daulton
ah Last year's WrestleMania, WWE w acquired AAA. I think we talked about AAA during the Royal Rumble, where it's the the Mexican ah brand. It's AAA, luchadors, all that stuff.
01:20:15
justin_daulton
The Los Americanos go down to AAA, and w w wants these guys to be heels. They want them to be the bad guys. They go down to Mexico, and they become good guys. So in the Mexican crowd, they're over.
01:20:26
Cody Atkinson
Okay.
01:20:28
justin_daulton
like They are the most over you can possibly be. They're shaking hands with Baby Mysterio, with Penta, all these good guys. And they are so over with the Mexican crowd. Now Chad Gable's back. and Insert him back into the now big no and or the name OG Americano.
01:20:43
justin_daulton
He goes to Mexico and he's hated. okay He is the bad guy. Flip over to Monday Night Raw, Los Americanos, bad guys. OG Americano, good guys.
01:20:54
justin_daulton
So really interesting the two different brands within the WWE umbrella are just totally flipped.
01:20:55
Cody Atkinson
ah Interesting.
01:20:58
justin_daulton
So this is easily the best story going on right now. It's hilarious. It's always these super comedy bits. And it's it's so fun to watch this. AAA happened last week, their their weekly show. And obviously the Americanos show up there big pop from the crowd. So obviously we're heading towards something with these guys.
01:21:19
justin_daulton
I hope it's a mask versus mask match at Mania because it'd be hilarious to have Kaiser versus Gable in a mask versus match, whoever demasks them. The other one is the real Americano. So that's where we're heading in terms of WrestleMania.
01:21:33
justin_daulton
And it' it'll be it'll be fantastic because i kind of see the trajectory of this storyline, but it's easily one of the best things going on in wrestling. So I got to send you some clips because they're hilarious.
01:21:42
Cody Atkinson
so these these So these storylines are not Elimination Chamber specific, right? These are building up for WrestleMania
01:21:52
justin_daulton
Yeah. Yeah.
Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania Build-Up
01:21:53
Cody Atkinson
alongside of Elimination Chamber is going to set up.
01:21:53
justin_daulton
Everything.
01:21:56
justin_daulton
Yes. Yeah. Elimination Chamber is going to set up the championship storylines going forward. So the Royal Rumble winners get to pick their champion that they want to go after.
01:22:07
justin_daulton
So we talked about Roman Reigns going after CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship. So that leaves Drew McIntyre's undisputed championship up for grabs in the elimination or the number one contendership at Elimination Chamber.
01:22:18
justin_daulton
And on the women's side, we obviously got the news tonight. Liv Morgan and going after the Women's World Championship on Raw against Stephanie Vakir. which leaves Jay Cargill's Women's WWE w Championship open for the number one contendership, which is hosted on SmackDown.
01:22:34
justin_daulton
So those are the two big are the four big championships as we go into WrestleMania season. Obviously, we'll still have the ah the undercard ones. We're going to get the Men's or Women's international or Intercontinental Championship.
01:22:46
justin_daulton
We're going to see the Men's and Women's US titles get into the play. Obviously, Men's Women's Tag Teams will also get into play during WrestleMania season. Will they all be defended? I don't know. But you'll definitely see them in play, at least those storylines in play as we get closer and closer to Mania. It's something that we'll preview on this pod as we get closer and closer WrestleMania. Maybe tap into my boy Mike to help me out a little bit in terms of make sure that we get the right storylines in there.
01:23:09
justin_daulton
Um, but great segue for me to start talking about the elimination chamber matches. So I'm going to start, uh, you with the undercard quote unquote, which I don't think these are really undercards. We got four matches confirmed as right now.
01:23:20
justin_daulton
Um, as I click over to make sure we see if we have any updates right now. Nope, nothing yet. Um, so we have two championship matches on top of the, on top of the two elimination chamber matches. So I'm going to start with the women's intercontinental championship, uh, Becky Lynch, um, is the current champion that, having that belt going up against AJ Lee. I don't know if you remember AJ Lee from back in the day of watching it. She was the the girl that went around being like, I love crazy guys and all this stuff. I did crazy.
01:23:50
justin_daulton
Did the whole skipping around the ring and all that stuff. She came back last year. She's married to CM Punk. So she fought with CM Punk in a mixed tag match against Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins, who are also married.
01:24:02
justin_daulton
So, The feud started back then and then continued into Survivor Series where AJ Lee tapped out Becky Lynch to win the Survivor Series match. Um, or ah made her, uh, not tap out, but pinfalled her.
01:24:15
justin_daulton
So that was something that was kind of big on going on there. AJ Lee kind of goes on to do some personal life things. Now she's back and is targeting, um, the Intercontinental Championship. Um,
01:24:27
justin_daulton
I'm going to go pretty chalky with my predictions, I think, so far. I think AJ Lee takes this. that This is in Chicago. It's AJ Lee and CM Punk's backyard there in Chicago. So I think it's going to be pretty chalky in terms of the championship matches.
01:24:39
justin_daulton
This is another one that's going to be setting up a WrestleMania storyline. You're probably going to see this rematch, you if not a fatal triple threat or a fatal four-way. In terms of this of this title WrestleMania, you want your star power out there WrestleMania. You want your big names in the same way that any other you know big event, right? you The Super Bowl, you want your big names out there.
01:24:58
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
01:24:58
justin_daulton
you know World Series, you want the big teams. So you you want your star power to be out there in full force on top of obviously introducing some newer talent to the world because you know people like yourself only tune in tune in for the Rumble or Mania or whatever may be, these bigger PLEs throughout the year.
01:25:13
justin_daulton
So you want to showcase your newer talent. the right way as we kind of go through to WrestleMania. So I think it's AJ Lee. It's good guy beats bad guy. Becky Lynch is this persona of almost ah Donald Trump ask where she's like, I'm the greatest. Everyone says I'm the greatest sports illustrated bleacher report. They all say I'm the greatest.
01:25:30
justin_daulton
Everyone is, this needs to listen and just, and just let me talk.
01:25:30
Cody Atkinson
Thank you.
01:25:33
justin_daulton
And, you know, she does this whole complaining bid. She hates the, the powers that be and all this stuff. So a hilarious bad guy act that she plays. and just super crash out right now against AJ Lee does not like AJ Lee. So it's going funny to watch them as they kind of go into, into Elimination Chamber. But I also think that this is going to play out all the way through WrestleMania, you but I do think that the title changed hands.
01:25:57
justin_daulton
AJ Lee wins her first title in gosh, probably 15 years, 10, 15 years. um Someone that was really big when she was around, won the Divas title over there when, when she was around um the other um championship match.
01:26:12
justin_daulton
is a WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Now, this might confuse you because I told you before as we started into this that Roman Reigns the c um chose CM Punk to fight at WrestleMania.
01:26:22
justin_daulton
Well, CM Punk has donned himself as a fighting champion. He is not going to say no to any anyone that wants a shot at his title. So a couple weeks ago, he fought Finn Balor. for the World Heavyweight Championship, beat Finn Balor.
01:26:35
justin_daulton
He's an Irishman. he He beat him in Belfast. Finn Balor is someone that the crowd is super in love with in terms of um he plays a bad guy right now but everyone wants him to kind of go back to being a babyface and become a good guy again.
01:26:48
justin_daulton
He came up to his original song, super electric. Yeah. It's a, it's a really cool song. Uh, got a whole, got a big crowd interaction piece into it. So he's got a really cool gimmick in the demon and the demon prince that takes over. It's his alternate ego that kind of takes over and helps him win the the championships. I think we may talked a little bit about it before.
01:27:06
justin_daulton
Um, So he's going face CM Punk. want to say I'm going to chalky on here. I think CM Punk pertains just looking at to state that the state of WWE. They're struggling to sell tickets to WrestleMania right now.
01:27:18
justin_daulton
So you're not going to take your your titles off of your known commodities at this point. and something And to credit the the wrestling podcast I listen to, the the Wrestling is Cool podcast,
01:27:30
justin_daulton
WWE has kind of shot themselves in the foot in terms of this buildup because you're not going to take the belt off of Punk when he's going to face Roman Reigns, which is your night to WrestleMania main event match.
01:27:38
Cody Atkinson
um
01:27:41
justin_daulton
And you're not going to give it to Finn Balor as much as the fans would love to see the belt go over to Finn Balor and have a great time there. It just doesn't make sense to take it off a Punk who's going to face Roman Reigns. So I feel bad more so for the the fans of Finn Balor, myself included. I love Finn Balor. I love what the the dude has to offer and the gimmick he has going on.
01:28:01
justin_daulton
It just doesn't make sense unless they turn this into some sort of triple threat match at Mania, but I don't see them doing that because... they They had a triple threat match with Roman Reigns last year. it was great for storylines, but Finn doesn't fit into the storyline with Roman Reigns and CM Punk in terms of where they're going with WrestleMania.
01:28:18
justin_daulton
So that's my prediction for that for that match. um Now let's get to the Elimination Chamber matches. You're obviously familiar with the Elimination Chamber, yes?
01:28:27
Cody Atkinson
Only vaguely.
01:28:29
justin_daulton
So you know it's six...
01:28:30
Cody Atkinson
It's been a long time since I've watched wrestling.
01:28:32
justin_daulton
yeah you're You're good. You're good. So it's six men go into this match to start the match, and four men and women ah in their respective matches are in tubes or locked into these tubes.
01:28:46
justin_daulton
And and i want to say five-minute increments, four-minute increments, something like that. One randomly chosen entrant gets sent into the match. um You are eliminated by pinfall or submission until there is no one left, and then you are the winner.
01:29:01
justin_daulton
So that's kind of the basis of this. But this has always been the, one of the most dangerous matches in WWE. Someone is going to get hurt. It is inevitable just by the, it's, it's a steel structure all the way around.
01:29:14
justin_daulton
i mean, we're not even talking hell the cell. It is, it is steel metal all the way across these, these, the, the, the chambers. They don't bend their plexiglass. They hurt when you get thrown into it. It's steel structure around it.
01:29:25
justin_daulton
Someone's going to get hurt. Someone's going do some high flying off of the tubes, off of some ropes in there. You still have the traditional ring inside of the chamber. but someone's going to inevitably get hurt, but people also make their names in this.
01:29:37
justin_daulton
Um, so that's what we're going to kind of get into, into this chamber matchup where we have a good spread of names in here that are going to be really interesting to watch. So I'm going to run you through the men's elimination chamber.
01:29:47
justin_daulton
Um, it hopes that we get the women's um elimination chamber matchup before i i flip over to there. Um, so the men's elimination chamber, Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Javon Evans, LA Knight, Trick Williams, and as of tonight, Jey Uso.
01:30:02
justin_daulton
So ah stacked in terms of names, you know yeah your main eventers basically are in this with the exception of two that are brand new names to it all. Cody Rhodes going back after his WWE Undisputed title, been feuding with Drew McIntyre, been feuding with Jacob Batu on Friday night.
01:30:19
justin_daulton
You have Randy Orton who hasn't held a title in years at this point. you know He's been doing a lot of good work for WWE, but not in terms of title defenses. Javon Evans, as we referenced earlier, super young guy, super talented guy. That's someone that's going to hold gold at some point in his career.
01:30:36
justin_daulton
i think he's a little ahead of the curve right now, but dude's going to be electric as we go through. Trick Williams, someone that I'm super high on, brand new guy into the fold here, came came up with Javon Evans and Obafemi from NXT.
01:30:48
justin_daulton
And then Jey Uso, which you referenced before when we talked about Royal Rumble, Jey Uso won the Royal Rumble last year. So he's back in the mix. But the report from Raw is that he was not supposed to win.
01:31:00
justin_daulton
Bronson Reed was supposed to win and got hurt in the match. They pivoted in the middle of the match to Jey Uso. um So that's where we're kind of at with the men's elimination chamber in terms of storylines that we have in here.
01:31:14
justin_daulton
Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes, lifelong friends. They came up together. They were the the nepo babies, if you will, of WWE. Randy Orton, obviously his dad in there. Cody Rose, obviously his dad involved in WWE. So they all came together. They had a big faction together when they first came up.
01:31:31
justin_daulton
Randy obviously exploded onto the scene and it stayed there. Cody got fired from the WWE, spent a lot of time away from WWE before he came back um at WrestleMania 38, 37. So he's been back for a little bit.
01:31:46
justin_daulton
There's been this kind of back and forth between the two of them when Cody had the belt that Randy was looking at the belt quite often, you know, longing for the belt, kind of, you know, kind of getting back that, you know, the voices are in the back of Randy's heads as it's always been as, as the Viper.
01:32:01
justin_daulton
So going to be interesting to see those two going at it in the chamber. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the two that start the match out there. um And then pivoting to the next one, Javon Evans and Trick Williams had a big rivalry together in NXT when they were coming up.
01:32:18
justin_daulton
Once again, I think Javon's a little ahead of the curve, but I think Trick Williams is on fire right now on SmackDown. The dude is... a Electric, the crowds behind him, you know, everything everything is pointing to to Trick Williams being the next big guy.
01:32:33
justin_daulton
Over there, obviously, we talked a lot about Obafemi earlier. Oba is the main man, but Trick is the one going to be right behind him and very easily the face of the company going forward along with Obafemi. um And then we talked about Jey Uso.
01:32:46
justin_daulton
The WWE Universe, the fans, the the internet wrestling community, the IWC, as they like to call themselves, are not behind Jey Uso. Jey Uso needs to be the guy that takes the pin early and moves on, especially if he wasn't supposed to win and it was supposed to be Bronson Reed.
01:33:01
justin_daulton
So it definitely feels like Jey Uso is just thrown in there for for cannon fodder. And I hope for the sake of what they're trying to do with WrestleMania that they don't give it to Jey Uso again because...
01:33:11
justin_daulton
If they truly are struggling to sell tickets, Jay Uso is not the guy that they need to give it to. The chalky answer for you here, man, and there's there's storylines out that i could you know I could run through with you for probably the next hour to catch you up on everything from the last month.
01:33:25
justin_daulton
um But I think the chalky answer is Cody Rhodes here to go back against Drew McIntyre. The caveat to that is I don't think it ends up being Cody Rhodes versus Drew McIntyre.
01:33:36
justin_daulton
I think it ends up being a triple threat, whether that's with Randy Orton or Jacob Fatu on Friday night, or maybe even a fatal four-way. i think this is a championship match that gets very... convoluted very murky over the next month and a half um i think cody wins it because of you need that star power you need that big name um but in the marquee to go up against drew mcintyre and like i said i don't think it ends up being a one-on-one matchup something that you and i we can kind of keep an eye on over the next month to month and a half before we get the mania but i do think that cody wins this but i don't think it's i don't think it's clean i do think it's
01:34:11
justin_daulton
involves a Randy. I think it involves Jay. I think it involves all of them to an extent, but I think you're going to see a lot of storylines played out, um, through this whole, this whole match, which i for all this purposes, it should be a really good chamber match, especially after last year's chamber match kind of being a little underwhelming, but still had some really good moments between John Cena and CM Punk last year, um, before Cena won.
01:34:33
justin_daulton
Um, it ultimately turned bad as we went on. So, um, It appears that I did stall enough. So now I have i have the full matchup.
01:34:42
Cody Atkinson
Yay. nay
01:34:43
justin_daulton
ah So the eliminat the women's elimination chamber um matchup right now is set. It is Tiffany Stratton, Alexa Bliss, Rhea Ripley, Asuka, Kiana James, and Raquel Rodriguez.
01:34:56
justin_daulton
Lots of storylines to delve into here for you, man. There's a lot of drama leading into the women's elimination chamber. Obviously now set to go against Jay Cargill, who on SmackDown is the bad guy. um she's the She's the heel over there with that championship.
01:35:12
justin_daulton
notoriously you don't usually see WWE doing a heel versus heel, especially a mania. You want your good guys in play. So I wouldn't anticipate seeing a ah heel win this. So that kind of, for me, rolls out an Oscar and Raquel Rodriguez, and maybe even Keanu James is what they call a tweener. She bounces back and forth between being a good guy and a bad guy. So I can see Keanu kind of being in that mix. that mix The big storyline here is that Keanu James should not be in this match.
01:35:40
justin_daulton
um She stole a victory on the throne.
01:35:41
Cody Atkinson
Another injury.
01:35:42
justin_daulton
yeah No, no, no, no, no injury, but she stole it off of a Charlotte Flair, who should have probably won the match on Friday night, had, um i'm drunk I'm blanking on who she, that who they were fighting but they had her in the figure four. She arched her back. She but basically was like any minute going to tap the the other person out.
01:36:03
justin_daulton
And Kiana slides in, steals the pin, one, two, three. She's going to Elimination Chamber. And that was going to be the big storyline. I think a lot of us said that Charlotte Flair probably going to win the Elimination Chamber from that matchup.
01:36:15
justin_daulton
but now not in it. So that's the big storyline of what does that do? She's a tag team with Alexa Bliss who is in this matchup. um So you you know you would have figured that there would have been some tag team drama there where they would have been together. We talked a little bit during our Rumble breakdown of, you know, they they started the Rumble off together and ultimately, you know, in a botch, Charlotte eliminates Alexa in the Rumble.
01:36:37
justin_daulton
So a lot a lot of different storylines. Tiffany Stratton coming back at the Rumble after being off for a couple months, originally lost the WWE Women's Championship to Jake Hargill back in like,
01:36:48
justin_daulton
like October, November timeframe. Tiffany was dealing with some sort of injury, so needed some time off to to recoup from that. Has come back looking strong, um looking very jacked, looking like the her hur old self.
01:37:01
justin_daulton
um Alexa Bliss came back at the Rumble last year um after her maternity leave that she had. So she's back in the mix. For me, the the lead candidate to win this this elimination chamber to go against Shea Cargill.
01:37:15
justin_daulton
A lot of people are now going to be pointing towards Rhea Ripley, with since we don't have Charlotte Flair in the mix. Rhea Ripley is the most popular woman in wrestling at this point. If you look up women's wrestling, you're going to get Rhea Ripley in your search result.
01:37:27
justin_daulton
um We talked about Asuka. I don't see Asuka winning this at all. She's the heel. She's your prototypical heel. I'm probably going to eat a pin from Rhea if I had to guess. Keanu James, I don't see her winning. She's still a little too early in it, but I can see the the future with Keanu being someone that's very popular in in the women's side of things.
01:37:46
justin_daulton
And then Raquel Rodriguez, best friends with Liv Morgan on Raw over there with the Judgment Day. I'm starting to see some cracks with Judgment Day about maybe potentially breaking up soon. So this might continue to further that conversation of like Raquel not needing, you know, the judgment day, once you're locked into that chamber, you don't get help. So, you know, can Raquel get the job done solo without the judgment day?
01:38:07
justin_daulton
So lots of different intricacies on the women's side, more so than I think on the men's side, which is why I think it leads to more of the chalky results on the men's side of things as opposed to the women.
01:38:18
justin_daulton
my answer on the women's probably can change for the next five days, honestly, before we get to Saturday with the chamber. Um, right now gonna put my money behind Alexa bliss winning the chamber to go on to face Jay Cargill.
01:38:31
justin_daulton
Um, but at any point this week, I can see myself saying Tiffy. I can say Rhea at any point this week. Um, Regardless, any of those three going against Jay Cariel is going to be and ah an electric matchup ah at Mania.
01:38:45
justin_daulton
So we'll see how it plays out. But i'm very excited. there's you know There's been some lulls since we talked about Rumble. Not a whole lot of action, but it's definitely picked up over the last two to three weeks um as we've gotten closer to the chamber. But lots of storylines, and it's goingnna it's going to produce some good talking talking points as we get closer to rumble or to Mania here in the next month or so.
01:39:07
Cody Atkinson
Absolutely, man. what a What a run down there. That was yeah that's a lot, man. There's a lot of a lot of storylines going on for Elimination Chamber and also for WrestleMania after that. So, ah yeah, man. I feel – I don't know if I'll get to watch it or not, but I feel ready to go if I do get to watch it. I'm going to know what's going on, and I'm going to know ah i'm going i know what to say so that I feel like people will think that I know what i'm talking about. Yeah.
01:39:36
justin_daulton
Absolutely.
01:39:37
Cody Atkinson
Good stuff, man.
01:39:37
justin_daulton
But yeah.
01:39:41
Cody Atkinson
All right. Well, I guess is that it? Is that everything you got for for that? We get to to to wrap it up?
01:39:48
justin_daulton
Yeah, that's all I got in terms of the chamber. There is one topic that I sent you right before we got to step onto the show that I do
01:39:53
Cody Atkinson
Oh, right, right.
Mental Health in Sports
01:39:56
justin_daulton
want to highlight.
01:39:56
justin_daulton
Obviously, some some sad news in the sports world um today or yesterday with Rondell Moore, wide receiver in the NFL, sadly passing away to what is suspected as a gunshot wound to the head.
01:40:02
Cody Atkinson
think it was yesterday.
01:40:11
justin_daulton
I'm very sad to hear this, that it does sound like it's something that's more mental health related. As someone you and I can, we can probably host a whole nother podcast talking about mental health and um that's that impacted our lives, but didn't want didn't want to didn't want to do this podcast and not give some, give some time to him and say how much that he's going to missed, not just in the NFL world, but um obviously to his family and friends.
01:40:33
justin_daulton
um But wanted to come on here and say, you know, mental health matters, especially for men. um If anyone ever needs a safe space, you know, Cody and I can be someone that can be reached out to to talk to. um Suicide's not the not the answer when it comes to things.
01:40:47
justin_daulton
So get help, you know. Cody obviously types up the show notes. I'll make sure that he gets the suicide prevention hotline in there. Anything like that to make sure that if you need an avenue to talk, you get that get that opportunity. But I didn't want to do this podcast and not put a highlight on that.
01:41:04
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, you got to mention it. i mean, Rondell Moore. um i I feel bad that I don't know the name specifically. There was a member of the Cowboys. i think it was Matthew Neeland who ah fell victim to um the same mental health issues not not too long ago.
01:41:26
Cody Atkinson
Marshawn Neeland, apologies. Yeah.
01:41:28
justin_daulton
and And Kyron Lacey as well for the, for LSU Tigers as well.
01:41:30
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:41:31
justin_daulton
so
01:41:33
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, Kyron Lacey was the other one that I was going to say, even these guys that are accomplishing what ah many of us could never dream to accomplish. um They realize that it's not enough. It's not the answer. um and And it doesn't make your issues go away overnight. So, um yeah, mental health matters. um You matter.
01:41:59
Cody Atkinson
um and take care of yourself, whatever, whatever that entails, whatever that may be. um Take care of yourself because um it's not, not necessarily something that a situation, situations can help, but it's not something that necessarily and goes away on its own.
01:42:15
Cody Atkinson
So um seek help from others um and prioritize yourself.
01:42:19
justin_daulton
ah ra you Reach out to your friends as well. you know give your Give your friends a call.
01:42:23
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
01:42:25
justin_daulton
don't let those Don't let those phone calls or text messages go unanswered. um You never know when a, ah you know, a cry for help is coming. So, you know, don't let your, don't your friends go unheard. So, but this podcast definitely thoughts and prayers out to all three of those families, obviously, but definitely more so for the Moore family after the cha events tragic events this weekend.
01:42:38
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:42:44
justin_daulton
But um yeah, man, mental health is definitely something that needs to be more and more spotlighted, especially for athletes who, you know, who are dealing with a lot of, a lot of mental stress and a lot of mental things going on over there.
01:42:57
justin_daulton
But, you know Like I said of before, if anyone's listening to this podcast needs help, you know reach out, you know get the help that you need. you know Reach out to Prince family, reach out to this podcast, whatever you need to do.
01:43:08
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. Yeah. Do do what needs to be do. Take the uncomfortable steps to um to find a way to be comfortable um in in this life. There's a lot of pressure.
01:43:19
Cody Atkinson
um Each of us ah experience it and deal with it differently, but um dealing with it quietly is not the answer. um Be uncomfortable, vocalize it and and and find the help that you need.
01:43:34
Cody Atkinson
um So with that, we'll do a little bit of ah of a somber sign off. ah Thank you for your time. If you're still listening, we hope that you enjoyed um the recap of the gold medal game. We hope that you're feeling patriotic. and that you're still playing free bird.
01:43:53
Cody Atkinson
um We hope you're looking forward to the elimination chamber this weekend. And ah if you weren't looking forward to it before, maybe the, maybe the breakdown will, will give you a reason to look for it. And we hope that you prioritize yourself um in a way that, that, that helps you find peace. So thank you for checking out the coastal launch sports network or sports talk episode three. I've been Cody.
01:44:20
justin_daulton
Love it, Justin.
01:44:21
Cody Atkinson
And we'll catch you next time. Peace.
01:44:24
justin_daulton
Peace.