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WWE Supercuts
30 Plays4 years ago
We kick off the show discussing all the fall out from the latest round of WWE Cuts.
In the Royal Rumble, Sheena declares once and for all the greatest Thanksgiving food!
In Figure 4, we pick the best figure from the recently released a recap a huge haul of weekly purchases.
How Many Chicks features a live review of Super 7 NJPW Tomohiro Ishii.
Plus Listener Mail!
Video Version of The Chick Foley Show
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoR439WOEvja5cfwV8IbUqQ
Use code CHICKFOLEY to save 10% on all your wrestling figures at Ringside Collectibles.
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Check out the Pod Foundation
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Chick Foley Show Pint Glasses
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Transcript
Welcome and Introduction
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Chick Foley Show.
00:00:23
Speaker
What is up, Foley fam?
Survivor Series Season Preview
00:00:25
Speaker
It is the first episode of November. It's Survivor Series season. Halloween is in the rearview mirror and we are back with episode 152 of the Chick Foley Show. Let me start this episode as we do all our shows by introducing the stars. Sheena,
Early Christmas and Halloween Recap
00:00:39
Speaker
how you doing?
00:00:40
Speaker
I'm good. As you guys can see, if you're watching on YouTube, um, you know, the, the Christmas spirit hit us over here at the Phelps house a little early. I feel like I'm in full, like, uh, if you know, Christmas with the cranks, I'm in full nor crank, uh, mode over here. I put up some Christmas lights on the outside of the house. It's kind of like twofold, but the Christmas spirit hit me early this year. And then also, um, I feel like it's one of those things where if I don't do it now, it's going to end up being like December 18th. And I'm going to be like, oh crap, I haven't even put up the.
00:01:07
Speaker
Christmas tree yet, you know what I mean? So it's like, do it while you have like the energy and the free time. And yeah, here we are, you know, so if you're one of those people who is like, you know, totally against putting up anything Santa Claus before Thanksgiving before the turkeys cut, then I apologize in advance, but you know, no regrets.
00:01:28
Speaker
Yeah, I'm down. It looks great. And like you said, if you if you try to wait till later, you're going to end up delaying until the middle of December because, you know, Thanksgiving is going to be a huge chore as much as we all love that big meal. You're going to be worn out. Then you're going to, you know, you got all the cleanup after cooking the meal.
00:01:42
Speaker
You're probably going to say, well, once we get out and done with the Thanksgiving leftovers, maybe that's when we'll kick it off. So yeah, I'm going to hustle and bustle like black Friday weekend. You know what I mean? And it's just like, it kind of just slowly progresses into like, Oh, it'll be next weekend and putting up Christmas tree and all of that kind of stuff. Like I love the way it looks once it's done, but it's a major pain in the ass to like put up a Christmas tree and like put up Christmas decorations and lights and all that stuff. You know what I mean? Like again, I appreciate the, the aesthetic once it's done, but the actual like putting it up and dragging everything out and then cleaning everything up is like,
00:02:12
Speaker
It's a lot. So I'm glad I'm glad it's done. I'm glad it's off my plate now I can just enjoy the holiday season make some cookies, you know do that do the thing so You know, yeah good stuff We also have the MVP up in Massachusetts Marco. What's going on, man? How was how was Halloween up north? Good good. Yeah. Well, I didn't get to do some trick-or-treat and actually stay behind and pass out candy to the
00:02:35
Speaker
the neighborhood kids, so that was pretty fun. Oh my gosh, you sent the wife with three children out trick-or-treating by herself. Well, my mother-in-law went with them, so they had to get an extra hand with her. All right. But it's our first Halloween at the new house, so I didn't want to be that person in the neighborhood to not have the light shut off.
00:02:58
Speaker
be the mean old guy that doesn't pass out candy. So I wanted to make it a point to do so, but kick it off. Right. Yeah, of course. But, um, yeah, no, we're, we're keeping it traditional. We're not no Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. We have to, we can't know. Yeah. Marco's got the fall decorations behind him. Yeah. So we're trying to, we're trying to keep two different fonts behind his head. Exactly. Yes.
00:03:25
Speaker
Uh, Sheena, yeah, remind the listeners where they can find you guys on social media. You can find me on Instagram at Chick Foley. You can find Marco over running the Twitter machine at Chick Foley show. Most importantly, you can join our Foley fam at Chick Foley show.
00:03:39
Speaker
We
Halloween Havoc Compilation Announcement
00:03:40
Speaker
have our Halloween Havoc fuckery super show releasing this weekend. So basically we're stitching together all of our Halloween Havoc bonus episodes for you guys on one, um, one long episode. So you can just sit down, indulge, binge, finish out the Halloween season, uh, in style. You know what I mean? If you're not ready to.
00:03:58
Speaker
quite grasp Thanksgiving and put up your Christmas tree. You can extend Halloween just a little bit by listening to that this weekend. So Seth will be putting that together and we will get that out to you guys. Yeah, my thinking on that is for anybody that jumped in late, it's an easy way. You can just press play once and hear the entire series, which was so much fun. Again, shout out to Marco for the awesome idea. But two, go ahead and download this thing either through Patreon or in your podcast app if you have the RSS feed set up.
00:04:28
Speaker
And I think it's the perfect way to kick off every October for a wrestling fan. You know, sit down, just hit play. You got you a whole Halloween Havoc marathon set up. Make you
Turnbuckle Tavern Updates
00:04:37
Speaker
a little six pack of fall beers and just relax and have us playing as you're watching these shows on your TV. And I think it'll be a blast. It was a lot of fun reliving some of the highs and lows of WCW Halloween Havoc in the 90s. Speaking of Marco, tell us what's new with the Pod Foundation this week. Oh man. As always, uh, turnbuckle tavern.
00:04:57
Speaker
They're always pumping out all the shows for us. So like we say, they're the workhorses of the Pod Foundation. So we're very thankful that they're pumping out every week. So we have a new turnbuckle sessions. We have a new visits to Tavern this Friday, a new episode of the Turnbuckle Tavern as well. And I also joined the Rawdown, which is a recap show that you just started. I was on episode number two, one with Anthony from the Titan Tron podcast.
00:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, that was pretty fun. So I gave the OG Fig Kid the hot tag, because it's usually them two. So I stepped in his shoes, and it was just me and Anthony. We recapped last SmackDown and Raw this week. So that was actually really fun.
Action Figure Giveaway
00:05:43
Speaker
And anytime I can do that, that's awesome. And then I was actually talking to the OG Fig Kid, and I'll probably be hopping on the session soon. Very excited to listen to that.
00:05:56
Speaker
Is that going to be next week's episode or are you guys at some point in the near future? I think it's next week's episode, so we'll probably be recording Monday and then Tuesday you'll hear from the MVP and the staple.
00:06:09
Speaker
of the turnbuckle tavern and we'll chop it up. That'll be good. I love Tom Sessions, yeah. If you haven't listened to those or if you're not subscribed to the turnbuckle feed, definitely go back and listen to those. He's had some great interviews so far and clearly Marco's going to knock it out of the park too, so excited for that. All right, Shane, you ready to give away some figures? Oh, yeah.
00:06:30
Speaker
Here we go. I got it behind me for those watching on YouTube right now. I was looking. I was like, where is our figure? Me and Sheena are splitting off the figure display. So we were giving away the Motu Ray Mysterio. All you had to do to win this figure was shoot a screenshot to Sheena or Marco, showing that you listened to this week's show. Sheena, you ready to announce the winner? Oh, yeah. All right. I'm going to hit the drums.
00:06:58
Speaker
All right, and the winner is James Moberg 11, no underscores. So super excited to just announce James Moberg, so. Moberg. Moberg. Oh, rock guy. Wow. Sorry. Wow. Oh, that went right over my head. I was like, did Seth accidentally hit some audio he wasn't supposed to? I was just going with it. I was like, okay. As soon as I saw that. So we'll break kayfabe on the show real quick. We drew for the winner on random.org as we do all our giveaways.
00:07:27
Speaker
literally about 90 seconds before we started the show. And when we figured out that that was the lucky winner for this week, I immediately was like, okay, I got to add this sound drop. You know, Moberg's just perfect. If I was him, that's how I enter my workplace every single day, getting a Moberg chant going. You've had Goldberg, now you're going to have Moberg. Yeah. So James, just hit us up in the DMs, either on Instagram or Twitter. Send us your shipping information and we will get that Rey Mysterio figure out to you ASAP. Congrats, dude.
00:07:57
Speaker
and we'll kick off the giveaway for next week. It's going to be a legendary one. See what I did there. We got the Legends Bam Bam Bigelow ECW version comes with the ECW TV title. This is the first time this belt has been released in the Mattel line. Sick figure got the black and gray. This is from Bam Bam's awesome run in ECW in the late 90s. This is a sick figure so you're going to do a little bit more than just shoot a screenshot. This one you're going to have to drop a review on Apple
00:08:24
Speaker
podcasts to win. So shoot a screenshot to Sheena or Marco. We've done this type of giveaway before, so you guys know if you've already submitted a review, just update it, kick it back up to the top of the queue, write something fresh in there. And if you want multiple entries, grab your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your mother, brother, father, lover, anybody, wife, husband. All the above. Yeah, snatch up everybody's phones and drop those reviews. So no limit to how many times you could enter.
00:08:51
Speaker
to win this awesome bam bam figure. We want to remind you guys for all your action figure purchases to go to ringside collectibles and use code chick Foley to save 10%. You guys ready to get into the show?
John Moxley's Rehab Discussion
00:09:04
Speaker
Let's go. All right, I think we should start with a drink this week.
00:09:21
Speaker
So we're switching up the, uh, the typical format. Earlier this week, the wrestling news or the wrestling world was kind of rocked with the news that, uh, John Moxley, a favorite here at the chick Foley show, one of my personal absolute favorite wrestlers in the game today is, uh, going into inpatient rehab for.
00:09:38
Speaker
alcohol abuse, you know this it was pretty shocking hearing the story because we know him and Renee just had Their daughter and things were seemingly going great on screen So shout out the mocks for at least being strong enough to reach out and get help seems like looking at Renee's social media and stuff seems like this was like a pre-emptive move He didn't get you know He didn't do the classic celebrity thing of getting a DUI or or making an ass of himself out in public before he went and got help so shout out the mocks for that and we
00:10:06
Speaker
We always promote responsible use here on the the Chick Foley show. You know, we love to booze it up a little bit, but just, you know, just enough to knock the edge off. Nobody needs to be going out and getting in any kind of trouble or doing anything where it is affecting their personal life. So if you do need help, find a way to reach out and we will be right there for you. So with that little, you know, NBC, the more you know, PSA out of the way, we'll get to our normal beverage break. Marco, you can kick it off. What are you drinking this week? I'm sipping on the just a classic, the broken skull.
00:10:35
Speaker
IPA just Yeah, every time I every time we go to like a store I always if I see something if I see one I'm grabbing it It's not low here yet But I've seen a few stores where there's like one or two cases left So it might you know, it makes you panic appear at some point. So I've been trying to stock up as much as I can and
00:10:56
Speaker
I mean, it's a year long IPA. You can't go wrong. You don't have any like Tom, the Turkey IPA on deck or anything for this Thanksgiving. You're not going to get festive with it. You know what I mean? Not that I know of. I mean, do they have anything like that? I was in total line today. It seemed like they pulled a Sheena. They jumped straight from Halloween to Christmas. I didn't see any big displays for like fall, harvest ales or, you know, Pilgrims.
00:11:23
Speaker
from Pilsner, nothing like that, man. There were all kinds of Christmas beers already out, though. Maybe wild turkey. Maybe you could do that. Oh, I'll drink a little wild turkey, yeah. No, thanks. Well, that's a good segue, because me and Sheena are on the whiskey tonight. Sheena, you want to tell them about this cocktail that I crafted up today?
00:11:40
Speaker
Okay. So, um, I was actually telling Marco before we started recording the show, because he was shaking his head at the description of this cocktail that Seth and I are drinking. So I don't even, we haven't even come up with a name for it yet. I don't think, but it's so funny because Seth is typically just a pretty straight up guy. Like, you know, he likes some makers and Coke, um, Jameson and, you know. Ginger ale. Yeah. Ginger ale, Jameson and ginger ale.
00:12:02
Speaker
pretty straight up kind of guy if he's not drinking beer, right? But every once in a while he gets this like wild hair up his ass and it's usually around Christmas season because he'll come up with these like strange, like sweet dessert type cocktails. Um, you know, we have a drunken gingerbread man that is a, uh, you know, classic in the Phelps family. And now we have this.
00:12:22
Speaker
smory cookie dough cream soda. Maybe the Drunken Stay Puft. Maybe we'll call it the Drunken Stay Puft. Oh, the Drunken Stay Puft. I actually like that. Yeah, very, very fitting. Okay, so. Pippiny as we were on the air. Yeah, so we have, for me, I have a single, Seth has a double, but it's a shot of dough ball whiskey, which we talked about on the show, I think, before we mentioned it, maybe on the Patreon exclusive. I think that was on Patreon, Jordan.
00:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, we were discussing the dough ball whiskey. I looked for it while I was in Kentucky. It's pretty hard to find. So we managed to get our hands on some dough ball whiskey. And then we talked. That is the cookie dough flavored whiskey. That's its big gimmick. Yeah. Yeah. And I was kind of worried because sometimes, you know, cookie dough flavor is kind of like, you know, it's either really hit or it's really miss. Right. So this is like spot on. It's so good. It's so smooth. And I'm not even a whiskey drinker.
00:13:10
Speaker
but we topped it with a little cream soda and then we just set it off and make it super bougie. We toasted some marshmallows and then put a full sized toasted marshmallow on the top. And the thing about it is, so the marshmallow doesn't really like dissolve in the drink or anything, but, cause I was worried when Seth was like, we're going to toast a marshmallow and throw it on the top of this thing. I was like, why?
00:13:31
Speaker
Why would we do that? We did it this afternoon. As soon as I toasted it and put it on there and I put it up to my lips to take a drink, I was like, oh man, the toast of marshmallow really adds to the aromatics of this drink. As you're drinking it, you just inhale this beautiful, toasty sweetness that just reminds you of campfire goodness. Yeah, this is a home run. If you can get your hands on some dough ball whiskey, top it with a little cream soda,
00:13:59
Speaker
and then toast yourself a marshmallow. Dude, cheers. It's good stuff. These cocktails, similar to the drunken gingerbread man, which is Maker's Mark, Coca-Cola, and gingerbread syrup, these things are definitely dangerous. Because this is a double I'm drinking right here. It's 70 proof. And I'm getting barely even a hint of alcohol burn or anything. I can tell there's booze in it, but it's going down very, very smooth. Yeah, that's the dangerous thing. Because the other night when Seth got it, he brought it to me.
00:14:29
Speaker
And he was like, taste this. And normally like when I'm like, you know, he wants me to taste whiskey. I'm like, Oh hell no. Like I'm not doing that. You know, he's like, come on, come on, just taste it. So I put it up and drink it a little bit. And I was like, damn, that was really smooth. Normally it's like, like, no, not for me, but it was really smooth, even just straight up. So it's dangerous. So proceed with caution, tread lightly. Um, yeah, this is like a one or two beverage deal. Like don't be going out and pounding these cause it'll be easy for you to just like.
00:14:55
Speaker
you know, over over-consume with this goodness.
00:14:59
Speaker
Yeah, it seems like I might be, uh, maybe taking the reins on this, on this episode. Yeah. It's the last, the last 20 minutes is just going to be Marco, just monologue man by himself. Just just calling up other, uh, calling up other Foley fan members on the phone to put them on speaker phone. Yeah. Too bad Chaz. What do you think of those WWE releases? All right. Uh, speaking of which we'll get into our story of the
WWE Talent Releases
00:15:25
Speaker
week. It was a, another,
00:15:26
Speaker
Black Thursday, it seems like we've had a few of these this year at this point But news came out around 8 o'clock Eastern last night seemed like it was hitting That these guys are just gone, you know out of nowhere I'll quickly I'll run down the list of of the releases right now. So it is
00:15:48
Speaker
Keith Lee, Karrion Kross and Scarlett, Nia Jax, Eva Marie, Lince Dorado, Gran Metalik, Oni Lorcan, B-Fab, Ember Moon, Frankie Monet, Mia Yin, Jesse Kamea, and then a few prospects down at NXT that kind of really haven't made much of a name yet. And then Harry Smith, which he was just, I was actually excited to see what he was going to do making his comeback to WWE. We never even saw him on screen anywhere. So Marco, what were your initial reactions when you saw this news hit?
00:16:20
Speaker
Man, I think everyone had the same. I mean the first few that popped up It was just like wow like they're shocking obviously you like Frankie Monet who just literally just showed up on NXT And then Ember Moon was ever boo was a pretty big surprise to me because she just made her come back But then as it went along obviously with the you know, Kerry go scholar was next and the carry cross was sure to follow but
00:16:47
Speaker
Obviously, the big surprises were for me, Naya Jackson, Keith Lee. Those are the biggest ones, no pun intended, that were released. These are always tough. It sucks. Yeah. Yeah. When someone loses their job, it doesn't matter what job they're in. If you find out like a friend or a relative lost their job, it's tough. Not saying that these people are friends and relatives, but
00:17:15
Speaker
you know, you invite them in your home week to week. So you have a connection to them. So when you find out that they, you know, you're no longer going to see them on TV for the time being. And you like to think in your mind that the company like cares about them and you know, like values them for all the hard work and how they put their body on the line. You know, they've shown up and traveled weekend and week out. And then it's just, I mean, and then you're, you're quickly reminded that it's a business, you know, like, you know, we have this nostalgic sentimental,
00:17:44
Speaker
feeling toward wrestling and wwe and we think that everything's like hunky dory backstage and everybody's friends and like fist bumping and hanging out and like you know going to the bar after after the show or whatever but it's like no like it's it's a business you know and sometimes that business is pretty cutthroat and as of late it's been really freaking cutthroat.
00:18:04
Speaker
Um, which is sad because, you know, they just had their, whatever they call it, like their quarterly, like investor meeting or whatever on Thursday. And they're like, yeah, we're making broke records. Yeah, we're making shit tons of money. You know what I mean? Like we're making, I think what, like 256 million or something on their earnings call for the, uh, the quarterly earnings call. I'm like.
00:18:23
Speaker
That's not a good look, you know, have your quarterly earnings call and talk about how much money you're making, especially after you came right out of Saudi Arabia. Now you're just like putting people on the chopping block. Like it's just, it's a bad, it's a bad look. I think it was something like that last time too. I guess it's after the, you know, after their quarterly call, it's always like, you know, who are we going to cut to keep making money? You know?
00:18:42
Speaker
Yeah, so I think they cut, I think they make these cuts to get the balance sheet lined up. That's what they report their financials off of. And then they just drop the news, the releases like right after. So yeah, this could end up being something we see regularly from now on. So if you're, if you count on the midcard bubble, you got to be looking a little bit, a little nervous when that, uh, you see that quarterly earnings call coming up.
00:19:02
Speaker
Yeah.
NXT's Future and WWE Brand Split
00:19:03
Speaker
It used to be like every, after every WrestleMania, you would see these cuts, but now it's... They still do that after this WrestleMania, right? Didn't they have a round of cuts? It would be like eight or nine people you would see get cut after WrestleMania and that was it. We're seeing, you know, dozens. I think it's like 70 wrestlers at this point. Yeah. Or 70 talent. I guess not just wrestlers, but 70 employees. Yeah, I was going to say, don't forget there were other aspects of the WWE
00:19:29
Speaker
employees that were released, you know, like off people in the office, people, you know, that were behind the scenes and stuff like that. So the chief financial officer that was on the call yesterday got released today.
00:19:40
Speaker
Wow. Think about that. The chief financial officer that was on the on the earnings call yesterday got got canned today. So yeah, I don't know what's going on over there that it was such a just a random list. Like I really wasn't so not taking their actual talent into account. I wasn't that surprised to see Keith Lee and Karrion Kross get released because it's been clear that for whatever reason they the WWE management had soured on them on the main roster. But some of these other people have been in storylines
00:20:09
Speaker
Like within the last month, you know, Frankie Monet was on last week. Yeah. Hit Rose, like the hottest stable in WWE. And now she's just gone. Like that, that's what really puzzled me. Like in the, it was so many and they were across like the entire card, you know, you had people that were.
00:20:26
Speaker
potentially main eventers in Cross and Keith Lee all the way down to people we never heard of. I feel like there was some sort of mandate to get the talent salary below a certain dollar amount and they just had to start piecing together salaries to get under that number because some of these just make no sense. I don't know. I can't make heads or tails of it.
00:20:50
Speaker
But it's definitely it's a tough time to be a WWE fan right now. I really worry about how much longer NXT is going to keep going on, at least as a as a network show. It could end up going back to Peacock and just be, you know, the next 205 Live at this point with how far away they've gone from the NXT of even as recently as a year ago. And I don't know how much longer the brand split is going to go on. Me and Sheena were talking about this last night when the news came out.
00:21:16
Speaker
It's starting to get slim pickings, man. Like it may be time to just go back to one combined roster at this point, because it's not a whole lot of guys out there. It seems like they're going to a model. You see some sports teams use where it's called the stars and scrubs models, not the calling of the guys scrubs. But basically the philosophy is you have a few star players that you pay top dollar to and then you just fill it out with minimum salary guys. And that seems to be what they're going for. It seems like the mid card is getting gutted. I think we're going to see, you know, maybe eight to 12
00:21:46
Speaker
main event guys that they really invest in and then you're going to see a bunch of interchangeable people that they can swap out every 90 days or every six months and they don't think people are going to care. I know, but that's so sad. That does not sound like a product that I want to watch. You know what I mean? And you have to also think about what the ripple effect of that is going to be. What kind of talent is going to want to come to WWE if they're just like, oh, you know what I mean?
00:22:11
Speaker
who know I'm just gonna get cut like you know WWE used to be like the dream you know and now I feel like people I think that's why they went back to the facade is coming down a little bit you know yeah
00:22:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's why they went back to NXT being more for developmental. They want to make their own guys. So they have basically a factory down in Orlando that they can crank out people out of their own system. So they're not worried about recruiting these indie guys. Like if they can just make their own people to churn and be that mid card feeder system like I was talking about, you know, for the mid card and the low card and every once in a blue moon, you find a guy like a brawn breaker or a guy like a Roman Reigns who's going to be a true blue chipper and you hang on to them.
00:22:48
Speaker
but there's thousands of people that will be lining up. You got to look at the supply and demand. How many people would give their right arm to even be on a WWE show right now? They're always going to be out there. And I think WWE is confident enough in their developmental program that they think they can train these guys and make them stars. I'm skeptical of that model, but that's where I believe their head's at on this.
00:23:11
Speaker
I don't know. I think that's a terrible way to go. I can't remember who tweeted it. I saw a tweet earlier today. It was like, um, I don't know. I don't know what kind of, um, let's hiring a bunch of models and you know, C-level athletes or something like that and trying to plug them into wrestling and make them do what we do is not going to turn out very well. Um, yeah, I think I've seen that as well. Yeah. I think that may have been Frankie Monet or I guess we should car tie a Valkyrie now. I think that's who it was. Yeah, maybe it was her. Yeah. Yeah. Basically the idea behind that is like, you know, just.
00:23:40
Speaker
Like they did before just hire a bunch of like like kind of like bodybuilders or kind of like athletic people and then basically train them in the same exact way. Who's the best special wrestler in the world right now? Who is the best? Well, she's saying that there's not going to be a mesh of styles. It's going to be one style. It's going to be the WWE style. That's not going to be like. Yeah. So which makes sense. But remember, I think like a
00:24:10
Speaker
like a while ago when we were talking about like how when this first happened when they had this massive layoff of people and we were talking about them like selling the company and blah blah blah and all this stuff and I think I came out and said like WW because they obviously AEW comes up. Where are they gonna go? AEW, MLW
00:24:28
Speaker
There's other organizations that these people impact. They can all find jobs that way. But for some reason, like I said, WWE does not see themselves as a wrestling company. And Stephanie McMahon said on that call that WWE stars are compared to Marvel characters.
00:24:48
Speaker
She did not compare them to a W superstars. So that's reaching a little bit. I think not even reaching that. She's basically just saying that they're, they're compared. That's what they see their talent as they see the WWE universe as the Marvel universe. They don't see them as a wrestling universe. Like they're not even looking at like, like I said before, they're not looking at AWS talent or sorry, any competition or anything like that. They're, they're all like,
00:25:13
Speaker
They're trying to compete with Disney and DC and all these people. They're not trying to compete with them. I get that, but I'm not here for that. I know. It's not for me. I know wrestling fans are so fickle and they literally say they're going to cancel their peacock or their network or whatever. Anytime something doesn't go their way.
00:25:35
Speaker
I mean, I think there's really going to be a mass exodus pretty soon with like people being like, you know, screw this. Like, why am I going to watch this? You know, like, you know, what, what, why should I invest in this? Like if WWE isn't going to invest anything in me as the viewer, as the commodity that, that puts the numbers on, you know, in their freaking ratings, you know what I mean? Like if they're not going to invest anything in me, then why the hell am I watching this? You know,
00:26:01
Speaker
And sometimes I feel like I'm a glutton for punishment, you know, when you, when you watch, but it's just like, at what point are you just going to be like, they're going to have, like Sessa, they're going to have those top eight or nine guys that are on the show all the time. And they're going to just like cycle in a bunch of like scrubs, you know, quote unquote, scrubs, not actual, you know, like, I'm not trying to be offensive, but yeah, yeah, cycling those scrubs. And I mean, and who, who wants to see that? I think we, I think we spoke with that about that before too. Like, uh, like a while back, just like taking a core of like
00:26:31
Speaker
the faces that people know and see week to week, like the Roman Reigns, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Seth Rollins, all these people, it's like a TV show. So you see these cast of characters week to week and you're familiar with them. And then like Seth said, you have these other people that they shuffle out, like these
00:26:53
Speaker
These add-on characters, he's like supporting characters, if you want to say. Yeah, exactly. You have your like, say, we'll take Seinfeld. You take your Seinfeld, you have Seinfeld, Elaine, George, Kramer. That's the thing that we love though. Newman. The thing about Seinfeld and stuff like that is even after, like you still get stuff in Seinfeld where it pays off, like, you know, they mentioned stuff in episodes that happened like way back when, you know what I mean? You still get those,
00:27:20
Speaker
bits of nostalgia, whereas if you're just rotating a cycle of people through, you're not gonna have that. And that's one thing that I feel like us as this generation, we collectively love about wrestling, is that storytelling and the callbacks and the Easter eggs and all of that kind of stuff that happens and the surprises that we get when legends show up and when talent do callbacks to classic matches in the ring and stuff like that. That's the stuff we love.
00:27:49
Speaker
And that's not that's going to be non existent with this new format, if that's the direction that they go in. So I think you got to remember, we are really a small, small sliver of the WWE audience, the hardest to the hardcore fans. There are people that I've known through like work who will tell me like, Oh, yeah, I'm a wrestling fan. And then I get to talking to them. And they never even had WWE Network.
00:28:14
Speaker
They don't have Peacock. They literally just watch Raw and Smackdown every week on TV. There is a humongous chunk of people that that is how they consume the product. They just watch the weekly TV and I think that's who they're catering it for. I think WWE knows they've been such an institution on TV. It's literally decades now that they can just roll out anything with the WWE logo on it and they're going to get 600, 700, 800,000 viewers every single week and
00:28:42
Speaker
That's so valuable nowadays with the entertainment audience so fractured across all the different options that we have now. Literally,
WWE's Audience Strategy
00:28:49
Speaker
anything that any movie or TV show that's ever been out is at your disposal to watch. I think the fact that WWE still has that reliable audience week in and week out, it just makes them so valuable to advertisers that they don't care and they're going to get their talent salaries down or their overall payroll down as low as possible just to bump up that profit and loss sheet and get that stock price
00:29:12
Speaker
It's true, but it's us. It's the hardcore of the hardcore that show up and buy tickets to the shows, and we're the audience in person. It's not the casual viewer that's just watching Raw and SmackDown on TV. You know what I mean? We're the ones that show up to them. They've already shown that they can ditch the live audience, and the year of the Thunderdome was the most profitable year in WWE history.
00:29:36
Speaker
They really don't beat us, man. I think Vince McMahon was licking his chops at that. You know, stat guy Greg on Cheapie that we love, he had mentioned it that, you know, he thought it was better because they could control the crowd reaction. I feel like Vince McMahon, if you held him down and got him to tell you the honest truth, I think he'd say he loved being in the Thunderdome because he didn't have to worry about the live audience, you know, turning against what he was trying to make happen. He had total control over everything. So, yeah, I don't know. It's definitely a weird time to be in the deep end. Oh, how wonderful that was.
00:30:06
Speaker
Well, yeah, you gotta think too, if that was a case of like, you know, you can keep everyone, you don't have to release people. If you're gonna go the Thunderdome route, you know, if you're not relying on the crowd.
00:30:17
Speaker
and what they were going to react to and stuff like that. You can keep everyone on board and not have to worry about that stuff. True, but then if you're not selling out stadiums and stuff, you know what I mean? You don't need to keep all that payroll, that bloated payroll. The other thing too is there's still that old model of contract workers. They have the right to just release anyone if they want to. No one's under a union or anything like that, so they're not protected in a sense where if they
00:30:47
Speaker
You know, they can't be fired or they can't be released. They can just release whoever they want. And I know this, I forget the lawyer's name. There is a lawyer that's actually trying to like, you know, get a union going for. Andrew Yang. Yeah. He's actually, for the past like couple of years, I believe he's been trying to get something going, like pretty much a case going against, against Vince McMahon, the WWE, just like, so that stuff doesn't happen.
00:31:10
Speaker
Uh, so these, so these people are protected when that, when that does, cause it is going to happen. I'm not sure to say if I'm going to say when it does happen again, it is going to happen, which is, which is kind of sad. But, um, the other thing too, I thought about as well as we talk about like all these like cast of characters and the recurring roles and all this stuff. They remember these, I mean, they, I don't think Michael Cole says it anymore, but they used to call raw, the longest running weekly episodic.
00:31:38
Speaker
show or TV. Episodic, meaning episodes, meaning cast of characters, meaning recurring characters. They put all this stuff out there, like sports entertainment, all these key phrases, episodic television, sports entertainment. They're kind of like shining it. Obviously, Vince McMahon hates wrestling, the word baffles me that wrestling is still in the company's name, which is
00:32:04
Speaker
Kind of strange, but like you could see like all these key phrases that they throw out there that they are separating themselves from the From professional wrestling sports entertainment. Yeah, which is what he W represents so I think the good thing about it is if you want to watch professional wrestling People are gonna go to a W to watch that if you want to watch episodic Sports entertainment people gonna go to WW there's gonna be there's gonna be a market for both one's not gonna like tank Or leave because anyone that's a hardcore wrestling fan. It's gonna go to AW
00:32:35
Speaker
there's familiar faces there and they're putting out the product that a hardcore wrestling fan would want to see is like just great ass wrestling and in our pretty decent storylines, nothing too intricate. We've spoken about this before with AEW there. All their storylines are interconnected in a way where there could be a bunch of people that could split off and have their own storyline, but they do it in a way which is pretty perfect. So I don't know. It's a weird time to be a wrestling fan because
00:33:05
Speaker
You know, as an adult now, anyway, you start to care more for the people that do get released.
WWE's Talent Recruitment Strategy
00:33:11
Speaker
Like when Scott Hall and Nash left, we were younger, we were like, oh, they're going to WCW, whatever. But now it's just like, what if they got released now and there was like no way to go?
00:33:20
Speaker
Yeah, well you don't really think about that when you're a kid. You don't really think about like, you know, this person has this skill set. This person is a professional wrestler, right? Like that's their skill set. There's really not a lot you can do with a professional wrestling skill set outside of being a professional wrestler. Sure they have like, you know, they do promos and they have a little bit of acting chops, you know, if you want to call it that.
00:33:41
Speaker
Well, yeah, they could do it. They could do a podcast in the in the world of like, you know, billions of other podcasts. But I just feel like, yeah, as an adult, it hits a little harder because you're just like, damn, you know what I mean? But then you also can't really feel that sorry for them because you're like,
00:33:57
Speaker
You make a shit ton of money and here we are. We're living on a middle class income. I can't feel too bad for you. You should have put some shit in the bank while you had it. Again, nobody likes to see anybody lose their job, but I also feel like if you're a WWE superstar,
00:34:16
Speaker
of any sort, you need to be like, you know, getting some insurance plans and getting some, you know, savings account build up because you never know, you know, your head, your head could be on the freaking top. Yeah, breaking get released. Anybody can get released, I think. Yeah.
00:34:31
Speaker
I think Roman, Seth, and Becky are really the only people who are 100% nothing to worry about. Seth, honestly, as much as I hate to say it, I think being attached to Becky is what's keeping him safe.
00:34:47
Speaker
I would have said Charlotte a couple of months ago, but I feel like with all the headaches she's caused, it would not shock me one bit to wake up one morning and see Debbie the Bee has come to terms on the release of Charlotte Flair. We wish her the best on her future endeavors. I could see it coming.
Keith Lee's WWE Release
00:35:02
Speaker
Let's get away from some of the business and philosophical talk, and let's just talk about the wrestlers.
00:35:08
Speaker
Who was your individual? Who was the biggest surprise you saw on that list? To me, I'll start and I'll go with VFAB. I just thought Hit Row was so ready to go on the main roster. I thought they could have been one of the acts that were actually better on the main roster than they were on NXT. And she was a big part of that. Even though she had a ways to go in ring, I thought she just added to the vibe so much and was a really cool part. It's always unique when you have a mixed gender stable.
00:35:34
Speaker
And Hit Row was really pulling it off. So I think that's going to be a real hit on them. Pardon the pun. But B-Fab was my most surprising. How about you, Shane?
00:35:45
Speaker
I guess it's not, it's not surprising considering like his, his absence, you know, like he's kind of been hit and miss and with all the things that they've done to his character over, you know, I'm gonna say Keith Lee. So you guys know what I'm talking about, but Keith Lee, you know, they changed his look, they changed, you know, the music, the facial hair, everything about, and they really stripped away everything that we knew and love of him, you know, with his, his NXT gimmick. But I mean, at one point, I mean, he was like,
00:36:11
Speaker
the top of the mountain. He was like the champ champ in NXT. He had an awesome moments at the Rumble and Survivor Series and I just feel like they could have strapped the rocket to him and he would have just been like, we got Big E who is this amazing
00:36:29
Speaker
Loveable baby face champion but you have keith lee who is a guy who like doesn't have to overcome the same obstacles that big e has to overcome the fact that like keith lee was never tied to a tag team so people are gonna automatically assume you know like associate him with a faction or tag team he was never like the goofy clown jokester you know what i mean i think that's a big hurdle
00:36:50
Speaker
that Biggie's had to overcome. Keith Lee is just a badass. He's built like a brick shit house. He can go in the ring. Everything about him is just incredible. And he's a guy that you want your kids to look up to. When he was doing his rounds on the WWE media circuit, talking to all the after shows and all that stuff, he is just such a likable guy. And the fact that they couldn't make it work with him
00:37:16
Speaker
really makes me question like what the hell is going on and what they what they want, you know, so I mean, again, they want to build their own people. I get that, you know, and he was Keith Lee before he was Keith Lee in WWE, but
00:37:29
Speaker
Yeah, that, that was just a surprise to me. I thought surely they were going to try to make it work, but guess not. Yeah. If
Hit Row's Roster Changes
00:37:35
Speaker
I'm, if I'm Tony Khan, I'm on the phone with Keith Lee, like 30 seconds after I see that news pop on Twitter. I think he had a very bright, it's been released. I think he is ready to go and make just a gigantic splash on, on AEW. Uh, Marco, how about you? What was your biggest surprise? Um, I was, I was going to say Keith Lee as well, but, uh, we actually spoke about, uh, on the raw down, we actually spoke about how
00:37:57
Speaker
impactful hit row was going to be on SmackDown. We thought they were going to push them to the moon, essentially, as one of the key factions there, but obviously we spoke too soon on that one. But yeah, definitely Keith Lee was a really, really big surprise. I was going to say Karrion Kross, but
00:38:17
Speaker
Not really surprised is, you know, you know, Scarlett wasn't on TV with them. Yeah. You know, they had that gimmick change and all that stuff. So I really, that wasn't really surprising. Biggest surprise to me was Nya. Yeah. Nya Jax. Like her, you know, I put, I shared that post of the, the group chat of her, like, you know, saying, you know, she asked for a time off for, you know, to take up some time off for some mental, mental health issues. Yeah. Yeah. And she like, you know, she asked for more time and then obviously,
00:38:47
Speaker
They denied that and then pretty much released her after that. I spoke about this before. Just her having that weird thing with Charlotte just a month ago and then having this happen to her was almost like hitting your ducks in a row essentially. It was just like a matter of occurrences that happened to her.
00:39:08
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, she felt like a WWE lifer for sure. Just, she came up with her developmental and I just, I never really saw her leaving, you know? Yeah. I didn't see her leaving, but there has been plenty of times when I'm like, get Nia out of here. Not that I want anybody to lose a job, but after, you know what I mean? Nia has a liability sometimes. And, uh, I, I've, I've called for her to like get the heck out many, many times. Um, and she's like, you know, injured and hurt and almost injured people. Um,
00:39:36
Speaker
But yeah, I'm sad to hear that she's like had some mental health struggles. And I can only, you know, I'm sure there's lots of other people that probably have that, you know, that same thing, but they're too scared to take time off. You know, Niall was a big enough deal that we could at least ask for time off. There's probably
Nia Jax's Mental Health Break
00:39:48
Speaker
lots of people that are low on the totem pole that are struggling that like, are like, Oh shit, I can't ask for time off. Like, you know, no way, you know? Yeah. Yeah. We also, we spoke about this a little bit too. Like we talked about like, you know, your connections, uh, and within the company that's going to, you know, kind of keep you
00:40:05
Speaker
keep you there. Like obviously, you know, Roman Reigns, Uso's, their family lineage with, uh, the rock with WWE. But then the other thing too is like, so I do, I like to do a lot of research. Like, did you guys know that the rock is not actually like blood relatives with? Yeah, he's, he's there. They're cousins, but they're not cousins. They're like, they're cousins. They're like, yeah, about like a handshake because Naya is literally the only one that's blood relative to the rock out of all those people there.
00:40:35
Speaker
So that goes to show you, having someone in there, having someone in good grace with the company doesn't necessarily keep you.
00:40:43
Speaker
on the roster, essentially. Speaking of family connections, keep you on the roster. Can we get a slow clap? Tamina has survived another round of roster cuts somehow. It's been so long. She did have her tag team title run this year, but she has seemed so expendable for so long.
00:41:05
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I'm happy for her, you know, but that just goes to show you how big of a star Jimmy Snooka was as problematic as we know his legacy is nowadays. That's how big of a star he was and how loyal Vince McMahon is to, uh, to the super fly that Tamina is hanging on after all this time.
00:41:23
Speaker
You guys talked about the Uso's enrollment range. You know, the third Uso debuted on NXT this week. Solo Sakoa made his debut in a squash match. So very excited to see what he does. You know, it's weird because they've hinted at it a little bit, but they have never like overtly mentioned about Braun Bricker being a Steiner.
00:41:41
Speaker
And they stayed away from Solo Sokola being mentioned as part of the Usos and the Anawaii family, which is weird, because I feel like when Roman Reigns was coming up, we were just bashed over the head with the fact that he was the Rock's cousin. I feel like that's all we heard about. So it's weird that they're taking a different philosophy. I feel like that stuff's still going to come out. I feel like it's only a matter of time before Bronzebreaker becomes Rex Steiner. And we see Solo Sokola. It was me all along, damn it. Solo Uso or something.
00:42:12
Speaker
All right, let's get into the prediction game. So another round of cuts with some, some big names mixed in and put you guys on the spot.
Predictions on Future WWE Releases
00:42:20
Speaker
So I want to know who you think the next former major champion to get released is going to be. And by that I'm classifying, you know, the WWE or the universal champ, either of the women's championships, and then we'll extend it down to NXT with the NXT championship or NXT women's championships. So who do you think the next
00:42:35
Speaker
former major champ to get released is I'll start I think former NXT champ Bobby Roode will be the next big name to go. I just feel like he's he's another guy who had a super awesome NXT run and it never quite connected the way we thought it would on the main roster. He really he's another one of those guys that got
00:42:55
Speaker
boiled down to, they really simplified his gimmick to just be in the glorious entrance music when he was a little bit more of a complex character on NXT. And even though he's had some success on the main roster, again, it never quite hit like we thought it was going to. I would not be shocked at all within the next six months to see him get released and go back to impact and do some really big things. Sheena, what about you?
00:43:21
Speaker
I'm gonna say this may come as a shock. I'm gonna say Finn Balor. I could see Finn Balor getting released. I feel like Vince has really been sour on him ever since he messed up his arm during that SummerSlam match when he became Universal Champion. I feel like he's never really regained that same level of like, I don't wanna say star power because he definitely has the presence and the star power, but just that sense of- The belief from the company. Yeah, momentum.
00:43:49
Speaker
And he's had this weird thing, you know, he went back down to NXT. He came back to the main roster. He had that, you know, great match with Roman where it ended kind of funky. And then it's just like, I feel like they don't really know what to do with him. And I think it's just going to eventually lead to ultimately just him, you know, hitting the chopping block. So I hate to say it. I hate to see it, but I can totally like envision Finn being like a big, you know, a big cut here in the near future.
00:44:19
Speaker
Fin would be so freaking awesome to see back in AEW. That would be incredible. Marco, how about you? What's your pick? Man, this is a tough one, but I think if you want to go real big, just so it shits and giggles, then you got to go shallow it, right? Yeah. To be the next one to be cut or fired. We spoke about this before. It's all in alignment.
00:44:48
Speaker
is on the out with WWE, obviously her fiance is in another organization. And a lot of people think like Ric Flair is probably going to be, you know, signing with AEW or doing something with them in the near future to make it, you know, solidified. So I mean, once that happens, I mean, this, I mean, I think, I think she'll be gone. Just like, just all the stuff that's happened in the, like the past few months, like, like we spoke about this before with, with, with Naya and then with Becky and then all these stories you're hearing about,
00:45:18
Speaker
with her just isolating herself from the locker room and not being friendly with anyone and all that. Yeah, but even with all that stuff, it's so crazy. You hear those things, you hear those rumors, but it really will be a shock to the system and a freaking lightning bolt to the wrestling world when WWE releases Charlotte Flair. That's going to be huge, man. Insane. She's ready to go. She's already got Ashley Flair trademark and Queen of Wrestling trademark. She's already making moves to get set up for it.
00:45:48
Speaker
Yeah, this is like the that what it what it does. I'm not gonna say if what it does happen when she does make her exit from WWE, that's gonna be the
00:45:59
Speaker
I don't want to say it's the nail of the copper for WWE, but that's going to elevate the women's division and a dude. And I'm telling you right now, they do WWE. I mean, I don't know who we obviously don't know who will end up in, in a w and all that, but I mean, letting go of Ember moon and freaking tie Valkyrie. Like, you know what I mean? Like you're just like, they could slowly start building that freaking women's division and AWS because I mean, they're eventually they're going to have to start petting Jade and Brit and no, I don't want to see nine on there.
00:46:33
Speaker
Um, no, that sounds terrible. No, no, I've seen enough drops. I think I can hand, you know what I mean? Like if I've seen one Samoan drop, you've seen them all. So like, I would, I would love to see nine AW because I feel like AW really similar to ECW back in the day. They allow everybody to, um,
00:46:53
Speaker
So they accentuate the strengths of everyone instead of or it feels like sometimes WWE, they want every they push everybody to try to be like The Rock or Steve Austin's all around superstar. I think a W does a good job of accentuate people's strengths. I think a cool role for Naya would go to be like a China for somebody we don't necessarily need to see her in the ring, but she does got some
00:47:13
Speaker
get it for her. Yeah, she's got some, she's obviously got the presence and she's entertaining. It's just sometimes the in ring work isn't quite there. I'd like to see her go and be like the bodyguard for, you know, for a male wrestler. I think that would be cool. Kind of bring back the kind of dynamic for Naya. I wouldn't hate that. I just, again, and this, this is no shade to Naya. I think Naya is probably a nice girl, but I just, she's just not it for me. You know what I mean? She just doesn't do it for me.
00:47:40
Speaker
All right, so I know these guys are going to have a ton to say on over the next couple of weeks because there's nothing they love more than a bash WWE. Let's hear from the two bad chads.
00:47:53
Speaker
Drop by and visit the Turnbuckle Tavern, where every Thursday, we give you the most in-depth analysis of all things AEW, as well as dive into impact wrestling, NWA, and all things NDA. If you like heated debates, compelling interviews, and a shot of nostalgia, you'll love the Turnbuckle Tavern, available on Apple and Spotify. Drink it in. It always goes down smooth.
00:48:22
Speaker
Those guys are resident AEW experts. They got to be looking their chops, thinking about all the talent that is heading their way down to Jacksonville. All right. We're going to kick off the Royal Rumble segment. We're doing
Thanksgiving Food Favorites
00:48:32
Speaker
something a little bit different this week. So we got a big list of freshly released talent. We're going to do a draft. It's going to be two rounds, but we're going to let Sheena and Marco make their picks for who they would snatch up out of these these fresh talents hitting the streets. It's Sheena show. So she's going to get first pick. Sheena, are you ready? Let's go.
00:48:52
Speaker
Alright, you have 30 seconds and the first pick in the draft is...
00:48:58
Speaker
Keith Lee, I feel like he's the golden goose of this crop of releases to me. He's just like, he's just a treasure. And he's a big man with a unique build. He has a presence. He moves like a dude half his size. He's just a champion, like I said earlier, that you want your kids to look up to. He's not like breaking kayfabe a little bit. He's not a troublemaker. You know you can trust in this guy. He's just gonna raise the bar at any company that he's a part of. And he's gonna be allowed the opportunity to do genuine
00:49:27
Speaker
Keith Lee things Some would say he's limitless He's limitless. Yeah All right, Marco you're up the second pick of the draft is a
00:49:45
Speaker
They gotta go with the the second pick Would be carrying cross I believe would you go back to killer cross? He doesn't have to be carrying anymore. Yeah And I was gonna say scarlet, but you can they're gonna be a package together. Yeah Any company that gets both of them especially if they keep that type of that entrance that they had an NXT
00:50:10
Speaker
It's gonna be amazing. She's also a skill set, but yeah, definitely they're the second pair.
00:50:27
Speaker
That was a total accident, but that is a pretty good idea. If one of you guys are just carrying on and on, on the Royal Rumble segments. All right. The Sheena, the third pick of the draft is.
00:50:41
Speaker
It's got to be my girl Ember Moon. She's going to make any women's division better. She's just, she's a legit athlete. She's just, she's got the look. She's, she's a bad-ass. Got a unique build again. Built like a brick shit house. Got an amazing finisher. Like the Eclipse is just incredible, you know? And also just a really strong move set. Like I just feel like when she hits you, like it hurts, you know? And so yeah, she can straight up go in the ring.
00:51:07
Speaker
I love everything about Emmer. I can't wait to see her and get her opportunity to truly shine.
00:51:14
Speaker
Yeah, Ember's awesome. Bailey and Sasha from TakeOver Brooklyn 2015 is the one that always gets mentioned as the best women's match ever. But don't sleep on Ember Moon and Oscar from TakeOver Brooklyn 2017. That was the day after our son Brett was born. Sheena was asleep in bed. And I was watching TakeOver on my laptop in the hospital room while holding our little guy, less than 24 hours old.
00:51:42
Speaker
I had it super quiet because Sheena was sleeping, obviously, you know, to is, you know, somewhat of a physical exertion having a kid. I know, I know you probably understand. Yeah, yeah, completely medication. Yeah, I remember being like totally captivated by this match because Oscar was going on this such an epic undefeated streak and you just you thought Ember was just going to beat her, but it still didn't quite work out. So yeah, definitely go back and check that one out if you if you want to watch a really awesome women's match this week.
00:52:10
Speaker
All right, Marco, last pick in the draft number four and your selection is. Oh, I'm going to go with BAM. Oh, that's good. Yeah, because I mean, obviously, Keith Lee, I mean, you get I'm not going to say they're a package because they never really like, you know, obviously they're together.
00:52:27
Speaker
But I think she did get to showcase her abilities when she did get put in that horrible retribution angle at all. I think she got a feud with, I think it was Xavier Woods at one point, which is kind of weird. But yeah, she's definitely a good person.
00:52:46
Speaker
We didn't really talk a lot about Mia Yim in this episode talking about the layoffs, but yeah, that was, I mean, not that it was a shocking layoff, but dude, I feel like she has so much more to offer than what we were able to see in WWE. Cause she was, I love Mia Yim in NXT. So I hope she does land somewhere. And also before we hop over, I know I picked Charlotte as my next person to go, but we also forgot to talk about this person.
00:53:14
Speaker
There's been kind of like hinting things. Kevin Owens, kind of throwing out the, a lot of people caught the Mount Rushmore thing that he said, which is, which is obviously him and the Bucks and Adam Cole, where they were on the Indies. I was the name of their group or whatever. Actually, well, Biggie mentioned the Mount Rushmore. He would be amazing in AEW. Yeah. He said something. I don't care if it's going to be three months or three years. I have left my contract worldwide.
00:53:43
Speaker
He's been throwing out little tidbits here and there. I don't think he'll get released, but I think when his contract is up, he'll probably...
00:53:50
Speaker
It's like what next year, right? Yeah, I think he'll, I think three months. Supposedly, I think January is what I've been here in January. His contract expires. So yeah, we can see him in AW. That would be a, that would be so awesome. It's going to be a little late this year. If you look at it, it's going to be like 15 men, 15 women. Yeah. They're going to cut it down to a 15. It's going to be one rumble intergender, you know, 15 women. That'd be sick.
00:54:18
Speaker
All right, so the show's been a little heavy so far talking about all the releases, talking about mocks going into rehab. We're going to keep it heavy but in a fun way. Sheena, we're less than three weeks away from Thanksgiving. Which Thanksgiving food are you most looking forward to this year?
00:54:36
Speaker
Oh, my answer is always the same. It's always the stuffing or the dressing, whatever you want to call it. I know there are two different things, but dude, that is the centerpiece of the meal. I like turkey, but I like a little bit of turkey with my stuffing. You know what I mean? It's a meat flavored bread. What more could you ask for? It's so freaking good. It's filling. You can eat it warm. You can eat it cold. You can slap it on a sandwich. It's just versatile and delicious.
00:55:06
Speaker
Yeah. It really ties the whole meal together. So it's like, it's the foundation for everything else. You know, you could really kind of just, you could line your whole plate with stuffing and then just put everything else on top of it and you're good to go. Oh yeah. It's actually not a bad idea. Like create a base layer of stuffing. And then like, just like when you, cause when you cut through like your mashed potatoes, there will already be a layer of stuffing on the bottom. Like that is a plan. Yes. That's one of the things, uh, being Sheena connected on a while back when we were like, we asked that same question, you know, it was like, what's your favorite?
00:55:37
Speaker
Besides turkey, what's your favorite Thanksgiving meal? It's not even besides turkey. Turkey's not even in the question. It's stuffing. There's so many different types of stuffing too that people make. There's so many different ingredients and different ways you can make it. Oh, yeah. It's the most versatile. If you could just do a stuffing bar where it's just all different types of different stuffing and dressing, different flavor profiles. They got the oyster stuffing. People make the White Castle stuffing like we did last year and then there's classic stuffings.
00:56:04
Speaker
I mean, I like cranberries and shit. And I'm like, I'm here for it all. You should make a Thanksgiving restaurant. Oh, yeah, that would be good. Well, I mean, it would be good. But then it's like once you have it, you know what I mean? Like, how are you going to win? I mean, you have like multiple varieties, you know, you got like, you know, five or six different varieties of turkey. You can order like 10 different varieties of stuffing. Like, you don't have like six items, but you could have a bunch of varieties of them.
00:56:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Mac and cheese stuffing. You could do like that's actually sounds really good. Yeah. Or just keep making a buffet, make a golden corral style. There's somebody needs to experiment with a Thanksgiving buffet year round. I think it would work. I think a thanks truck could work.
00:56:45
Speaker
You know what I mean? Cause then you can travel around in different areas. You're not always stationary. You know what I mean? Look, once you Thanksgiving out in one area, you can head to another area and they're like, Oh crap. It's like July, like the Thanksgiving truck is here. You know what I mean? So, you know, make it mobile so that you can just keep it, keep the vibe alive. You know?
00:57:04
Speaker
I'm getting hungry actually having this conversation. We might be doing some DoorDash gobblers after the show. There you go. Let's get to some action figure talk.
00:57:30
Speaker
All right, when you hear that Ric Flair drip hit, you know, it's time for the figure four. Let's keep it
Favorite Released WWE Action Figures
00:57:36
Speaker
going with the recent releases. Sheena, you can go first. What is your favorite action figure from the list of WWE superstars that were released this week? Oh, OK, let me think real quick.
00:57:48
Speaker
Definitely not Eva Marie. Man, Nia Jax, as much as I bagged on her this show, she's got some excellent freaking elite figures. I don't know which one is my favorite. That recent one that she just had, it's pretty freaking epic.
00:58:08
Speaker
No, I'm going with her first elite. I'm going to go with the, the Nyjax with the, the braids. And then she's got like the, the fro in one, right? Yeah. Three different, uh, three different head scopes. Yeah. I'm gonna go with that one. Yeah. She had like her regular. Yeah. That was one of the first with multiple head scopes included in the figure. So great. Marco, how about you? I was going to go with, I was going to go with, I'm going to go with Nyjax as well. I was going to go with carrying cross cause that one's actually really awesome as well. Um, and the Keith Lee's pretty good, but.
00:58:36
Speaker
I'm going to go with Nia Jax, because I seen a picture earlier of, I think it was like Enzo posted a picture of it was him and Nia, they were like looking at, they were like staring at each other and she's wearing the
00:58:49
Speaker
She had the braids look, those like pink braids. Yeah. And that head sculpt looks exactly like it's spot on. I don't think it's been a better, I'm not sure. I mean, I'd have to look at my collection, but what's a better head sculpt than that one of her? Like it looks, they have- Yeah, we were talking about that's like figure, that was like figure of the year. I can't remember if it came out in what, 2019 or 2018? I can't remember, but- 2018 maybe? 2019, yeah, it was 2019. 2019. Yes. And then we were like, this is one of the best figures of the year for sure. That's insane.
00:59:18
Speaker
That head sculpt is ridiculous. Even the Afro one's really good as well. But yeah, I'm gonna go with Naya. Like I said, I was gonna go with Karian, but I'm gonna go with Naya. That one's just insane. What about you, Seth? So that was both you guys had good picks, but I'm here to tell you that both of you guys gave the wrong answer to this question. You probably gonna need to fire up your Google machine, because I'm going way back to Elite 7, all right? Buried in that list of releases was Harry Smith.
00:59:45
Speaker
Back in the day, he was in a little tag team known as the new heart foundation with Tyson. Elite seven, David Hart Smith. So you got the son of the British bulldog direct to send into the heart foundation in the black and pink gear with a soft, good shirt. He also, there's also a matching Tyson kid to go along with it. And you can put pretty much any natty with them to make the new heart foundation. I don't like that Tyson with the, with the, uh, Oh my God, the piece or the rooster hair. He looks like one of the Hoos. Yeah. Yeah.
01:00:14
Speaker
Yeah, the the hairstyle is off but the color that just the the heart foundation gear just makes up for it So i've always been a big fan of that tag team set of figures. So yeah elite seven david heart smith Was mine. I know I was going a little bit off the reservation With uh with that you were gonna say amber moon's nxt elite. That's another great figure Really, I mean I thought it was a little thing over the face
01:00:38
Speaker
Hold on a second, I got it back here. We'll show it off real quick for the viewers on YouTube. Yeah, it just looks really good. It's got all her little loincloth. I don't know what you would even call her little belt that she wears, but yeah, the vest and then a little- Yes, it is a little figure.
01:00:55
Speaker
The glowing eyes, the mask and everything. But I don't know. It seemed a little small to me. The articulation is kind of weird on it. So I thought I always felt like there was a better Ember Moon to be made, but obviously we're never going to get it now, unfortunately. So yeah, David Hart Smith. You never know. We might get a unmatched or an unrivaled, you know? True. Yeah, true. Our friends over at the major wrestling figure podcast, they are dropping the major bendies here coming soon. Marco, are you in
New Action Figure Releases
01:01:23
Speaker
on this line? Are you going to be picking these up?
01:01:25
Speaker
Uh, probably. I mean, there's, uh, I mean, they, they really, they, uh, announced series two as well, uh, recently with like Dan housing, Conrad. Yep. Conrad and stuff like that. But yeah, the series one is pretty, the series one is obviously the core, uh, hornswoggle guys of the, uh, of the podcast, like hornswoggle, uh, mark. So yeah. So, I mean, I do have the, uh, I do have.
01:01:54
Speaker
the major Bendy's, I do have the Bendy Rock, the Bendoms, the Rock one. They're pretty cool. When I went to that live show, they actually had one in person. I think it was the Smart Mark one that they had. They look pretty cool. I might grab the first series, if anything.
01:02:18
Speaker
If worst case scenario, you already know if you grab them and decide you don't want them, there's a major mark out there that will take them off your hands. So, uh, you know, you never have to worry about that being stuck with them.
01:02:29
Speaker
I was a big fan of the Bendoms back in the day. They were really the line that bridged the gap between Hasbro and Jack's bone crunching action. They were all we had for a while. Around 95, 96, it was just the Bendoms. That was the only new WWF figures that were dropping. And I do have plans eventually to go back and piece together a little bit of a Bendoms collection. And I feel like I'm going to need these as part of it. But I don't know when that's going to be. That could end up being years from now by the time I started on that Bendoms collection.
01:02:58
Speaker
I'll probably, uh, I'll probably know you. I know you. If you get these major bindies, like you're going to immediately start looking for. Original bindums. You're not going to be able to have, yeah, you're not going to be able to have these like, like stray, like four bindums and be like, Oh no, I'm not going to go back and get, you know, the, the originals. Like it just couldn't happen. You either, you either gotta like get them or like don't.
01:03:24
Speaker
You know, she is 100% right. So last time we were home in Kentucky, I went through my huge tote of bone crunching action figures, and basically salvaged all the ones that were still collection worthy, like basically the guys who didn't get pushed a lot in my fig fed. So the figures are still in good condition.
01:03:39
Speaker
And I brought them back with me and they're actually up in a bag up in the top of my of my closet, just out of the way because if I look at them, I'm going to want to go ahead and start pulling, you know, other bone crunching action figures off of eBay. So, so I'm just holding off. So yeah, it's definitely a little bit of a
01:03:55
Speaker
a compulsion for me to start putting together a collection once they're out there. So I'm probably going to hold off when these drop and just hope that the resale doesn't go up too high on them, but we'll see. They do look great. The carding looks awesome on them. They look like they're going to fit in great with the original bendoms with the kind of skinny lower body and the bulked up upper body. So I'm excited to see where they go with the line and I'm wishing them the best.
01:04:16
Speaker
Our friends over in the UK chella toys. They released some more Artwork and prototypes this week. We saw Gangrel and the glow-in-the-dark variant of the atom bomb figure Marco you excited for these Of course. Yeah, I mean more worthy atom bomb one because he's a he's a follower of the the chick Foley Twitter account So I mean Brian Brian Clark. Oh, yeah, it actually and I do actually actually have the micro brawler of the atom bomb as well. So
01:04:46
Speaker
That it's actually pretty cool. They show the if you guys see the picture they show the glow in the dark It was kind of it looked pretty awesome I've been treat. I'm serious glow man. It really did look radio actors. Yeah It's really bright. So yeah, I'm all in on the on the atom bomb retro figure
01:05:18
Speaker
Yeah, such a sick figure. Hopefully we get into a proper elite. You know, Chella's got their, uh, the uncensored line or whatever. So maybe we'll see, uh, maybe we'll see it coming up sooner. I don't know, dude, I don't really, I don't know if there is like a company out there that is mass producing figures that are even, I mean, I'm, there's nothing out there that's going to make me be like, Oh, this is better than our Mad Reaper gang girl. I love.
01:05:32
Speaker
Yeah, and we always need more gangrel figures too. I feel like he's one of the more underrated legends of the day. Here's our bad repercussions.
01:05:38
Speaker
that gangrel figure dude. You're right. The only thing I worry about, Mad Reaper is the best customizer in the game, bar none, but you know what the factory made, you don't got to worry about it. This thing is like a piece of art. That's why it's actually out right now because I had it on figure display and I don't want to put it back in the tote until I get a good box to put it in because these customs are always one bad drop or
01:06:01
Speaker
One of your kids picking them up and not real, you know, if you're not paying attention, they start playing with it and it's ruined. And he's got a lot of little like molded pieces like his, the cup and then the fangs and the tongue. Yeah, this is all custom. If he takes a, yeah, if he takes a bad bump, he's going to get, he's going to get chipped, especially like he's got the Seinfeld shirt and I think that could be chipped off. Yeah, the puffy shirt. Yeah, the puffy shirt. I don't want to look like a pirate. Let's get into weekly purchases.
Brett Hart's Education and AEW Figure
01:06:26
Speaker
Marco, we'll let you go first this week because me and Sheena had a pretty big haul.
01:06:29
Speaker
I had a pretty big one too. You guys are probably going to show the same ones. So I didn't bring it down. So definitely the ref Aubrey showed up too as well. It was pretty cool.
01:06:41
Speaker
I didn't want to lug it down. So I know. Yeah. Well, we have an unboxed art right there. That's got it right there. We haven't unboxed yet. So, so the ref Aubrey, I do love the fact that it has the, um, the double or nothing ring skirts. Cause I have like, uh, kind of like a display. I want to set up with, uh, with all the, like pretty much anyone that was in double or nothing 2019, their first pay-per-view. So pretty much that first line. Okay. Unrivaled figures. But then like, as you go along, like, you know, like John Boxley, he was a part of it as well. Yeah.
01:07:12
Speaker
Muchasaurus, Jungle Boy, MJF. Orange Cassidy. Orange Cassidy, they're all in the Battle Royal. You also have Nyla Rose. Bret Hart. Was in it? Bret Hart, if you want to tell Bret Hart. You need to make the accustomed Bret Hart that they're in there, man. Either that or wait for the WrestleMania elite to show up and do something with that.
01:07:34
Speaker
But yeah, so kind of working on that. And I do have the other authentic scale. Surely we'll get a luminary Sprit Hart. Oh, yeah, definitely. He's still under a WWE deal right now. So I don't know how that's going to work. You know, WWE still making figures of him. So true. It's like a true one off appearance, it seems like that he had. And we still haven't seen Brett publicly comment on what they got going on with Owen. So we don't know where Brett stands.
01:07:57
Speaker
on that. Good choice. Shout out to Brett Hart, he got his bachelor's degree this week. Point. Nice. If anybody didn't notice that, Brett got his bachelor's degree in physical education this week, so it's never too late to start working on those goals. Wow.
Humorous Brett Hart Teaching Scenario
01:08:11
Speaker
Dude, can you imagine if you just showed up and Brett was your PE teacher? You know what I mean? You just go to the elementary school and like, yeah, Brett Hart is handing out dodge balls and scooters and stuff.
01:08:35
Speaker
Yeah congrats Brett we're proud of you yeah congrats Brett on the uh on the degree man that's awesome um but yeah so my uh pickups were pretty we'll say ultimate so actually finally in my possession wow good ultimate good get
01:08:51
Speaker
Finally, you don't have to be so sour on it
Rare Action Figure Variant Discussion
01:08:54
Speaker
anymore. Not to be sour. Blue card or black card? Blue, blue card. This is getting cracked open at some point. Hell yeah. I want to get the black card. The other ultimate that I got, I'm so happy that this actually showed up. This guy right here. The ultimate heel. The immortal.
01:09:14
Speaker
piece of crap. This is from one of his more heelish moments in my opinion. As much as he is a piece of shit.
01:09:29
Speaker
This figure is actually pretty cool We both got the less valuable ones, you know There's a packaging variant where he has the bandana actually on so some of these he has the bandana on Yeah, that's the one that the the hard C collectors that's the ones they want it Yeah, same with ours and it's it's two totally different versions because the actual tray inside the box is different I was gonna say and you would have an empty hole, but yeah, that's a
01:09:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's yeah, it's just you totally. So there's a there's a small batch that has the bandana on. So if you have one of those, maybe think about flipping that one and see what you can get for it. And you can go back and purchase one of the regular ones, make a few bucks. But it is a figure.
01:10:10
Speaker
That's it on my end. You know everybody that got one and just ripped it open is like, oh shit, which one was mine? They probably weren't paying attention. Oh no. I'll start with the Elite 90.
Elite 90 Retribution Figures
01:10:22
Speaker
So first up, we got our retribution figures, Mustafa Ali and the dearly departed Mia Yim, AKA Reckoning. So thank God we got the Elite of her, man, just in time.
01:10:33
Speaker
Yeah, I'm gonna say a hot take on that that is that mask painted on her face. Yes It would have been so much better if it was molded see said thinks it's cooler But I think sometimes those masks are so like they don't they don't fit right They don't look you know I mean like especially on the female figure with their heads are so small like I feel like it could have just really Not looked right if they had given a removable mask. I
01:10:58
Speaker
But they get more stuff I'll either it should have just had true it should have just been sculpted into the face I think that's the biggest thing it's just painted whereas like if it would have had like facial sculpting like where it was raised to look for like the mask it would have been better so there's like a there's a happy medium somewhere between like just being painted and having a mask I think they could have sculpted it in.
01:11:19
Speaker
I can't really tell. If it's sculpted, it's very, very light sculpting. So yeah, it could connect a little bit better. Got made of NJ. Gotta have that. First time we got an LA in the Elite line.
01:11:32
Speaker
Boom. Bronson Reed. This gives me hope that maybe a few of these other guys who are freshly released, maybe we still see their figures drop. And then White Trunks, Randy Orton. We're not getting crispy fried fiend. But the night vision goggles as well. So we still haven't gotten confirmation that we're not getting crispy fried fiend. That might still happen. That's in Elite 92, so we'll see.
01:11:53
Speaker
There is, I mean, Elite 91 has already been announced, so we'll see what ends up dropping when they go live on ringside. But yeah, I'm skeptical like you guys, but there is still at least a little bit of hope. I think that is it for what I had to show up here.
Motu Bret Hart Figure Gift
01:12:08
Speaker
Shane, I think you want to show some stuff that our good friend Brian Vermeer gifted you.
01:12:12
Speaker
Yeah so I have a Motu Bret Hart speaking of Bret. This is a newly educated bachelor degree Bret Hart Motu. I think Brian got lucky and found like one of the damn near the only waves of those figures that hit so I know the fig god Jordan obviously he found a set of them
01:12:33
Speaker
But other than him and Brian, I have not seen those things like popping up big time on social media because I was lucky enough to get the JYD pre-ordered on Walmart, but I still need the Sergeant Slaughter and the Andre the Giant from that wave.
01:12:46
Speaker
Yeah, and then we got this. And show what else Brian threw in just out of the kindness of his heart. This is crazy. Yeah, so then we got this insane looking Triple H, LJN. Oh, the superstars, LJN, yeah. So we can put it beside our poo poo Cody. We got a poo poo Triple H and a poo poo Cody. Gross. They're going to work really well together. And then the freaking piece de la resistance.
01:13:15
Speaker
The coup de gras. Yeah. Look at this. Oh, it's a classic. What a freaking guy. Superstars. What a freaking guy, man. Sit there and listen. Still in the box. That's awesome. Dude, you know we're hardcore. We are Lucy's over here, but I just love how this looks in the box. Classic Superstars, the best packaging in the rest of the industry. Take it out. Yeah. This three-pack is just insane. It just looks so good.
Classic Superstars Packaging Admiration
01:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, the comic store that I frequent, they still have the collector's edition just of the Hart Foundation, not without Jimmy Hart there. Yeah. I never opened up the Montreal screw job.
01:14:04
Speaker
That's an awesome pack, man. It's just something about the packaging. It's just presentable. You don't have to open it. You could leave it like that. Yeah, it's just- And the articulation on the figure sucks also. They are better in the box than they are out of the box. Yeah. It's almost like a basic slash.
01:14:28
Speaker
Huge shout out to our friend Brian for that care package. Thank you so much. I think we'll be hearing from him again during a listener mail. He's going to read it off with a special request question. Easy for me to say. Easy for you to say, pal. All right. Let's hear from Extra Cooler.
Extra Cooler Podcast Promotion
01:14:48
Speaker
Hey everyone, it's Nick, better known as Extra Cooler. Is there anything better than diving back into the wrestling archives and watching classic matches from the past?
01:14:57
Speaker
Yes, there is. It's doing that with your buddies while cracking jokes and enjoying some ice cold beverages. If that sounds like fun to you, then be sure to check out my new podcast, The Extra Cooler Show, where each episode, my Survivor Series team and I review an old school match chosen by you, the listeners. The Extra Cooler Show is available wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to subscribe and follow us for new episodes every other Thursday morning.
01:15:22
Speaker
Yeah, and real quick, I just want to say we forgot to mention what the Pod Foundation had going on with the Extra Cooler show. They just released their Extra Credit episode. It was their favorite Survivor Series moment. Yes, that's right. So they're going to get you in the mood for Thanksgiving. We kind of jumped over it. I think we just overlooked it. But yeah, I want to let you guys know to definitely check out that episode this week over on the Pod Foundation. Yeah, we actually listed that this morning. It's a fun trip down memory lane, especially
01:15:47
Speaker
those early years of Survivor Series back when it was on Thanksgiving Eve, that was always such a treat, staying up the night, the night before Thanksgiving to watch the big Survivor Series. Let's get into how many chicks.
'How Many Chicks' Segment Introduction
01:16:13
Speaker
All right, it's time for how many never hear that music again. We randomly grab one. I think it'll come back when Sammy goes goes baby face. It'll come back. Maybe this is where we get cut. True. This is where we pull one of our 1000 plus figures. Sheena has no idea what is inside the undertaker's casket right here.
01:16:34
Speaker
We'll reveal it, do a quick history lesson, and then give a rating. And we kind of got it mathematically broke down now. So we'll tell you where this figure stands in the all-time, how many chicks rating. Sheena, you ready for the big reveal? Let's go. All right, for the second time this episode, I'm hitting the drum roll. Oh.
01:17:01
Speaker
Tomohiro Ishii from New Japan Super 7 Series 1. Shane, what's your initial thoughts on this figure?
Tomohiro Ishii Figure Review
01:17:10
Speaker
I mean, it looks just like him. I think, um, I think that the face scan is, uh, is on point. I just, I like that he's just a big dude. You know, I'm always here for big dude season. And, uh, as your resident, um, in JPW expert over here, I just want to say that this is, uh, you know, one of the best representations of, uh, Tomohiro Ishii that there, that there has ever been made in figure form. I was going to ask you, what's your all time favorite Tomohiro Ishii match?
01:17:37
Speaker
I don't know, that one against, it was like a jobber, he fought that one time, you know, and just kind of- It's Fu Fu Shmashma in the Tokyo Dome. That's the one, now how did you know?
01:17:48
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know if you could say that. That's a trademark. We have to remove that from the. That's a long standing gimmick of a GP. When it went in doubt, any indie wrestler that you don't actually know what they've done is called fufu shmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashmashm
01:18:08
Speaker
Yes, I did. Five years ago. I'm so waiting for our series two to show up. I'm so praying every night. Our grandkids are going to, our grandkids are going to inherit those pre-orders, man, once they finally release. It's going to be the year, yeah, the year 20, 2021. New Japan series two is going to show up. It's like, oh, this is what grandpa left me. They're going to go, what is this? Yeah, hopefully they're worth money by that time. But yeah, no, I definitely picked that up.
01:18:37
Speaker
That's an awesome figure. I've actually, like, I've actually waited, Series 2 is the one I actually want more than Series 1 because of evil. That's what I'm really looking to see. The prototypes are coming out. The prototypes in Series 2 look really cool. For Series 1, this dude was definitely the meat and potatoes figure. You know, you had Tonahachi, Okada, and Will Ospreay, who all looked, you know, really just flashy and cool. Then you had Ishii, which like Sheena said, he looks a lot like him, but
01:19:02
Speaker
It's a little bit less than spectacular. Let's get into it, Sheen. From a 0.0 to a 5.0, what do you give Tomahiro Ishii?
01:19:13
Speaker
Like I said, the, the, uh, likeness is on point for me. I think it looks really good. It gets points for soft, good shirt, but the gear is just kind of basic. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like you could like, if you put this up on a shelf with no packaging or whatever, and like some kid just walked by, like it would just like, wouldn't be very spectacular. You know what I mean? Um, yeah, not very toyetic, not going to grab your attention. Um, sorry to all the Ishi fans out there. Um,
01:19:41
Speaker
I'm going to say I'm going to give it a 2.5. Okay. I'm going to go a little bit lower. I'm going to give it a 2.0 just because it is super duper basic, but I believe they actually even has the elbow pads painted on, right? Or is that an actual elbow pad?
01:19:58
Speaker
No, it's at all. Oh, no, it's a it's a removable elbow pad. It's a sleeve. Yeah, still super basic. I'm giving it a two point. Oh, it probably a little bit low. I do. We'll give it credit for being an accurate depiction, but just low tops. Yeah, those are pretty cool wrestling boots. Marco, what do you give it? I'm going to go. I'm going to give it a two and a half.
01:20:24
Speaker
I'm going to give it a 0.5 mainly because it does have that removable elbow pad as well. It is a pretty basic figure compared to like you said the other ones on the line. The other ones are wave flashier.
01:20:38
Speaker
way better, way more colorful too. I mean, but he's not a colorful guy anyway. Yeah, I mean, that's the gimmick, you know what I mean? But as far as figure form, it doesn't make you really excited for it. I should take off half a point for how long it took these things to freaking get made and shipped over. So she just give it a zero for doing that.
01:20:57
Speaker
So with a two, a 2.5 and a 2.5, he comes out to a 2.3 average. So we have done nine, how many chicks, um, since we kind of baseline the scale, cause she was going off the chain. This guy ranks eighth out of nine. The only thing keeping him from being the bottom of the barrel, uh, figuring how many chicks was the Bray Wyatt pop, the original Bray pop and the, uh, you know, he's the cult leader.
01:21:27
Speaker
Basic. Same thing with this. Yeah, it's very similar to this. It wasn't a bad figure. It was just big. We haven't had any bad figures yet. The three lowest ones was the Brock Lesnar retro, Ishii, which we did tonight in the Bray Wyatt pop. And all three of those, I don't think any of those three figures are bad. They're not offensive. They're just kind of plain. They don't have a lot of bells and whistles. Do we have listener mail for this week? We do.
Origin of 'Chick Foley' Name
01:21:58
Speaker
All right. Brian Vermeer asks, I remember Shane. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. He says, where did chick Foley come from? We've told this on the show before. I can't remember when, but we, we talked about it, um, a while back, but just in case we got any new listeners here, um, the name chick Foley was from WrestleMania 31 weekend. So, you know, myself, he'll husband, uh, the fig God, Jordan Wells and his wife Ari all went to WrestleMania weekend together. Uh, the night before WrestleMania, we,
01:22:27
Speaker
We're doing this what we call the mania mile bar crawl there was this like long stretch of you know bars and breweries and stuff like that we were just gonna hit them you know going along the way just hanging out with all the crazy night you know definitely you know at the top of the show we say we promote responsible drinking this is probably why.
01:22:48
Speaker
because this was a wild night. It was just, you know, it was fun though. No, no hijinks. Anyway, I, you know, I get a lot of people associate me with Bret Hart a lot of times, you know, my Bret Hart love, but people don't know deep down, like I'm a lover of all things, Mick Foley, you know, like I love me some Mick Foley. So I was wearing my full Mick Foley garb, you know, cut off Buffalo plaid vest.
01:23:13
Speaker
with my cactus jack shirt underneath, like the wanted dead or alive shirt, or wanted dead shirt, I guess I should say. We were all kind of buzzing, going down in this, I think he was an Irishman, and he all of a sudden yells out. He's sitting inside the little bar patio area and we're walking by and he says,
01:23:33
Speaker
Chick Foley, you know, because it basically looked like I was in cosplay. So from that night, that guy doesn't even realize like he started a whole movement of Chick Foley by just calling me Chick Foley because the rest of the weekend, Jordan was calling me he was calling me Chick Foley. But yeah, Chick Foley kind of kind of stuck. And that's kind of I came home from that weekend. I started the Instagram account just to kind of like nerd out, you know, because I knew none of my regular friends would care anything about
01:24:00
Speaker
Seeing all my wrestling photos and all of our stuff from that weekend. And so I started the account and it just kind of started from there. So WrestleMania 31 weekend, the guy, if you're out there, if you caught, if you were at WrestleMania 31 weekend and you remember seeing a, you know, a chick in a Buffalo plaid shirt, let us know, you know, you're part of our origin story. So yeah, that's a, that's where the name came from.
AEW Fantasy Crossover Ideas
01:24:24
Speaker
All right, Brian Vermeer has another question says, what crossover think TM, TMNT, so Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and WWE, would you like AEW to do? So like what mashup of figures would you like them to do? Seth, I'll start with you.
01:24:43
Speaker
So we've seen Ninja Turtles. We've seen Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters. I think the next big thing is Star Wars, man. I think we need to see a wrestling and a Star Wars crossover. That's like the other, like, you know, the Mount Rushmore of action figures. I think, you know, wrestling, Ninja Turtles, Star Wars and Ghostbusters. So the universe too. Yeah, we've had most you already as well.
01:25:06
Speaker
Marco, you got anybody? Um, I mean, since they're technically already doing it with, uh, with street fighter or with Capcom. Oh yeah. With the t-shirts and stuff. Yeah. They have those, like, they have those like limited edition shirts that they come up with like, uh, this past week. I think it actually ends like next week. They have, uh, Adam Cole, um, facing like, uh, Ryu, whether they have, uh, CM pump facing bell rog.
01:25:31
Speaker
Vega if you guys are familiar with yeah. Oh, yeah Yeah, that'd be a pretty cool cause crossover if they Did some figures like that or even but but we talk about this all the time Tekken That'd be pretty cool as well with a you know, can't be like the resident wrestling guy on that game Danny, I think that I think they're due for some type of like Street Fighter crossover because Marvel Marvel does it with Marvel Capcom
01:25:58
Speaker
They do that thing where they have all the Marvel characters facing the Capcom characters. You don't have to include Street Fighter. You can include anyone from Capcom. Mega Man would be involved and all that stuff. Kenny Omega is a video game guy that's pretty much up as a Hallie. I think they'd be good hands if they actually ever wanted to cross over with Street Fighter.
01:26:23
Speaker
That'd be cool. I think I'm going to go with Nicktoons. I think a Nickelodeon Nicktoons crossover would be super fun. It would be really weird. I don't even know how you would execute it. You know what I mean? I'm just imagining the young bucks dressed like Phil and Lil. I mean, the NFL's doing it right now with the Nickelodeon stuff. Yeah, they're doing Nickelodeon. I love the NFL and the Nickelodeon presentation. That's so cool.
01:26:47
Speaker
Would you say, oh yeah, the Nickelodeon presentation is cool. But yeah, I think, um, you know, I have a really special place in my heart for Nicktoons and I haven't seen any sort of like mashups with them in, in figure form. So any, they should come back out with some, and I know we had a pop line recently with, with Nicktoons, but I feel like there, there's a market for actual Nicktoons figures. Maybe they're out there and I just don't know it cause I'm just not really looking for them, but
01:27:12
Speaker
Yeah. I'm thinking for Ren and Stimpy, I'm thinking the best friends would be Ren and Stimpy. That'd be pretty funny. That would be on another episode. We could do a Patreon exclusive of what figures we want for each person. Zach Hartzler says, not sure if this has been mentioned, but what are your feelings of WWE on Peacock?
WWE on Peacock Discussion
01:27:33
Speaker
For me, the thing I hate most that I noticed is that they don't have any of the kickoff shows because I wanted to watch some of the WrestleMania kickoff shows.
01:27:42
Speaker
So Seth actually likes Peacock. I'm not a huge fan. There's stuff missing. Yeah. There's definitely stuff missing. Like you said, the kickoff shows, which there's actually some really good matches on kickoff shows that you can't find. And some of the browsing is kind of weird how they have it.
01:27:59
Speaker
They basically treat the WWE like a regular TV property where all the pay per views are organized into seasons when as wrestling fans, we know that really doesn't apply. But the performance wise, it's so much better. I had, I always had issues with WWE network getting like laggy or freezing up just being weird. I've had none of that would peak out the actual performance wise, it's been smooth. I've enjoyed and I've, I think they have done a better job.
01:28:25
Speaker
putting those little curated collections on the homepage. When you go to browse, I went through and one week they'll suddenly have a whole collection of Roman Reigns stuff or a whole collection of Steve Austin stuff and they mix that up. So I think they're doing a little bit better job with that. And I think the content will get there eventually. They definitely seem like they've been committed to it. It hasn't
01:28:44
Speaker
It's been way, way, way far better than kind of that worst case scenario. I think us fans were imagining when we heard about this deal. So I've generally been happy with it, but I agree there are some things that I miss from WWE Network.
01:28:59
Speaker
Yeah.
Speculation on AEW's Future
01:29:01
Speaker
Sam Rosenthal says, the year is 2042. Is AEW still around? And where do both companies stand? Has a third emerged? And by this time, how many chalk line shorts does Seth own? So 20 years from now, where do both companies stand? Do you think AEW, do you think wrestling will even still be a thing in 20 years? Will it be something that people will want to watch in 20 years? I think so.
01:29:28
Speaker
I don't know, man. I think fighting is violent. It's too violent. Yeah, we don't. Yeah, we don't know the climate of the country in 20 years, but I would say as a like a the greatest, the greatest sport on Earth to watch. Yeah, it's definitely going to be there. I think it's going to be around. I think AW will still be around.
01:29:51
Speaker
As well, uh, I think wwb buys aw by 2042 Who knows what a prediction? Well, who knows if they're gonna be by this time like wwb might be like I think a I think yeah wwb is gonna be Yeah, wwb is gonna be like incorporated with disney. They're gonna have like their own little land at disney world You know what I mean where you can go like wwe land Um, yeah, they're not gonna back up the brink's truck. I mean maybe aw still exists under the wwe umbrella, but
01:30:21
Speaker
I don't think AWS, I don't think AWS is still going to be around run by the Khan family. Well, I mean, why though? Tony Khan does not need Vince McMahon's money. I don't understand. You know what I mean? He doesn't need any of the money he's making right now, but guess what? He's still one more. You know how you get to be a billionaire? By not saying, oh, I don't need this money. You take everything that you can get. That's what I'm saying. They're going to keep going. How many billionaires you know that say, okay, you know what? I got this. Let me just chill.
01:30:47
Speaker
But there but there's also billionaires also have giant egos especially billionaire marks who are like you know think like i don't see him like bowing at the at the feet of ends but i don't think it's going if if whether it's debbie debbie directly or debbie debbie via disney or nbc universal
01:31:08
Speaker
buys your company out for $3 billion. I don't think that's valid. I think you won. I'm not saying it's going to be a WCW situation where they beat AW into submission and they sell it for scraps. I'm saying WCW just buys them out for a huge chunk of cash.
Nia Jax's Fit in Impact Wrestling
01:31:25
Speaker
I don't know. The way things are looking now, I don't see it mainly because they're
01:31:31
Speaker
the people that they're bringing in, the way that they're doing things as far as wrestling goes and like catering to more of the wrestling fans. I mean, we spoke about this earlier. We don't know what the hell WWE is doing. What episode of Chick Foley show will we be on by then? We'll still be rolling. It's 2042.
01:31:55
Speaker
We'll have a peacock deal. We'll be on peacock or something like that. We'll be like actually. No, by then you'll just be in the ring. You'll have like the, you know, um, what do you call those things? The goggles, you know, the interactive, um,
01:32:12
Speaker
Virtual reality. Yeah, that's the thing. You won't even have to... The rest of them won't even have to wrestle. They'll just have to think of their matches and it'll automatically go into your virtual reality simulator. It'll be with the Metaverse. Yeah, it sucks. How many chalk line shorts? Are you going to keep the limit? Are you going to just keep the rotation? Yeah, still be 60.
01:32:38
Speaker
Yeah, so thank you, Sam, for that question. And then Johnny JB for the final question says, do you think Nia Jax will end up in AEW? We kind of touched on this earlier, but realistically, do you see Nia Jax going to AEW? Yes or no? She feels like an impact talent to me.
01:32:55
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like impact has been kind of the home for the WWE style talent, not the indie style guys. So I feel like the WWE guys have impact is kind of the, uh, where they find their footing at. So yeah, that's what I see for her. I see now. Yeah. If she continues to wrestle, I see her going to, uh, going to impact. Yeah, I could see that as well, but, uh, definitely would like to see, like I said, I want to see her, uh, AW only to, to face Nyla Rose, maybe just like a one-off.
01:33:24
Speaker
match and then she could go back to impact or something like that. But, uh, wake me up when it's over. Yeah, they could definitely, they could definitely use a town, especially if Charlotte does hop over, hop on over to AW. I mean, we don't want to have the, uh, yeah, round two. We don't have the same issues going on with, with Naya and Charlotte. So yeah, maybe it's better. She does go to impact. She'll definitely have more control and more freedom over her character and stuff like that. And she can.
01:33:51
Speaker
reunite with the inspiration as well. There you go. That'd be pretty cool.
SummerSlam 1990 Trivia
01:33:56
Speaker
All right. That is a wrap for episode 152. Sheena, remind the listeners where they can find you guys on social media. You can find me on Instagram at Chick Foley, Marco running the Twitter machine over at Chick Foley show, and you can join our Foley fam and all the fun we always have going on in there at Chick Foley show.com.
01:34:15
Speaker
All right. We want to remind you guys to use co chick Foley to save 10% at ringside collectibles and Marco. You were in the hot seat this week. We still got to get a streak going. She knows been whooping our ass on the trivia challenge. You're up for the trivia question of the week. Oh boy. All right. At the 1990 SummerSlam, Randy Savage's opponent was
01:34:42
Speaker
1990 SummerSlam, geez. SummerSlam, 1990. Who was Randy Savage's opponent? You know this. I know you know this, dude. No hints. Okay. I'm trying to be the first person to get it right. No hints. No, no hints.
01:35:03
Speaker
How do I have like a timer? You got five seconds. You got five seconds. Four, three, two, one. Seth, you're in the hot seat to steal. That the road, baby.
01:35:19
Speaker
It was Dusty Rose. Remember? That's when Sapphire didn't show up. Dusty was so distracted and he got beat. That Jezebel Sapphire came walking out with the million dollar man. That Jezebel. Yep. Heartbreaking. All right. I'm getting it going next week. I'm getting a streak going. We're going to make it happen.
01:35:38
Speaker
It's all right, Marco. For the record, I'm terrible at trivia too. I always freeze up, so you don't have to feel bad. All right, Sheena. As soon as you said SummerSlam 90, I was like, I got this. My grandma, my uncle got that on pay-per-view, and my grandma taped that for me. I probably watched that VHS.
01:35:57
Speaker
55 times as a kid. SummerSlam 90 is in my top five or six most watched shows ever. So I know that went backwards. For some reason it seemed like that was like early for that match. Like it seemed like it was like 92 or 93 for me for some reason. It really wasn't even, it really wasn't even much of a match, man. It was really just kind of a thing to get the angle going for a million dollar man and Ted DiBiase, the
01:36:19
Speaker
I think the match is less than like three minutes and it basically consists of like dusty looking towards the entrance way for sapphire to come out and Savage just beating on him, you know, so I'm gonna match more of an angle Sheena leave us with some closing thoughts as we wrap up episode 152
01:36:37
Speaker
All right, guys, whether you make your pit stop at Thanksgiving for you move into Christmas, this next couple of months is going to fly by as it always does for the holiday season. So take time, slow down, enjoy your family. Don't stress. And, you know, let's just let's just finish 2021 with the freaking bang. Let's all just go out and, you know, feeling good.
01:37:02
Speaker
Hell yeah.