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Episode 83: Hobbs and Claw
59 Plays6 years ago
This week the boys are talking the G1 Climax, Glow season 3, Hobbs & Shaw... again..., SummerSlam, NXT Takeover, GCW's Janela Escapes From LA and more!
Title courtesy of @rawisjojo on twitter!
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Transcript
Introduction and Bullet Club Humor
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Predetermined, a pro wrestling hangout. I'm your host, Garrett Callender, and with me, as always, a man who is the newest addition to the Bullet Club, Derek Halpin. The Bullet Club accepted a new member who is sick in the middle of August, and that was a risky gamble on their part, because I don't know how much insurance I'm gonna be able to provide for them. And plus, I'm a little offended. I've already got a membership with LIJ. I don't know if you've forgotten that already, but that's where my loyalties lie.
00:00:29
Speaker
uh well at this point though it kind of seems like bullet club just takes anybody oh well i mean you know jay white
00:00:37
Speaker
Well, I mean, you saw the big news that Kenta joined the Bullet Club, right? Oh, I heard. What does... I don't know what's going on over there, because it seems like the audience didn't really care about Kenta, and they're like, well, people seem to like whoever wears this T-shirt. And they're like, no, no, no, that was a few months ago, sirs. I don't know if that's going to just work for anybody, but it does mean that we're going to get to see a whole shit ton of Kenta and Chase Owens tag matches.
00:01:05
Speaker
Is it crazy to think that like a year ago around this time, a Bullet Club t-shirt was like the hottest fucking fashion statement on the streets. And now you feel like half of America and a lot of people in Japan have that shirt buried in their closet and they're not breaking that out right now.
White Claw Sponsorship Jokes
00:01:24
Speaker
Well one, very awkward to wear in America right now. Oh yeah. Very awkward. Two, what the fuck are they doing? Like at this point I feel like Tom Otonga needs to get a new crew.
00:01:36
Speaker
I think he's too cool for Bullet Club. You saying they should take Seth Rollins' advice and burn it down? Well, I don't know. Him and Ishimori should go do something together. I mean, they need to go get a, you know, go hang out at an Outback Steakhouse and have a discussion about what they can do, because those two guys are awesome. But I don't want to hang out with Chase Owens. I don't really want to hang out with Kenta.
00:01:59
Speaker
Can we make the announcement that was a spoiler last week that is now officially news about who the G1's coming down to and everything? Oh, the G1's over. I know. Yeah. Can we talk about it? Yeah, I think we can talk about it. I mean, do you want to talk about it now or do you want to talk about it after you hit our goddamn music? Whoo! Segway!
00:02:55
Speaker
So let's fucking talk about it. Okay, let me get ready. Can I prepare first? Yeah, clear your throat. You know, shuffle your cards in front of you. What do you gots to say?
00:03:08
Speaker
Yes! That is the ultimate card shuffling sound. That is the cracking of a white claw. I haven't had one yet, just so you know. I'm saving my white claw virginity for you, buddy. I want you to know, I didn't realize, I had, what did I have, like, I ended up having three or four white claws when we recorded last time, and I didn't re- On accident, yeah. But when I stood up after that was over, I didn't realize how hard I partied.
00:03:36
Speaker
I saw one of my friends do a review of a white claw. They said it tastes like rose petaled assholes. Is that wrong? Which flavor? I don't know.
00:03:51
Speaker
um no i'm holding off does that make you uh feel special it does i'm excited to drink these the entire weekend with you and now that we don't have star cast to worry about me and you are going to be watching wrestling drinking white claws having the time of our lives like we're supposed to we are officially not a part of star cast which you would think would be like devastating news to us but really
00:04:15
Speaker
I'm kind of excited to have an open schedule now where we're basically going to wrestling shows and creating our content on our own terms. And I gotta ask, is the White Claw a malt beverage?
00:04:29
Speaker
Let's see. Hard seltzer with natural flavors contains alcohol. There's alcohol in it, Derek. Well, I get that, but is it defined as a malt beverage? I don't know why it would be, but I don't believe Zima definitely was. Yeah, this malt liquor.
00:04:46
Speaker
This is very low calorie. It doesn't have as much sugar. I don't think it is. I don't think it is. I don't get the hangover from these. All I do is have a great time. So I have a hard time with malt alcohol. Like it just it gives me a headache before I get a buzz. I'm not a fan. So now that I know that's not a problem.
00:05:06
Speaker
Look, there's been a white claw uprising and then there has simultaneously been a white claw backlash. Where some people think you're a little bit too much of a bitch to be getting drunk on white claw. And I can't comment either way because like I said I haven't had one yet. Have you seen this clashing of cultures?
00:05:25
Speaker
Yeah, people seem to not be happy about this, and I think it's just, you know, they don't want me to have my joy. But keep in mind, there are people that aren't excited that AEW's a thing. So you can't please everybody, and white claw is pleasing most.
00:05:40
Speaker
Is it pleasing most or is it pleasing a very select market? Because I will tell you this, when I described it, well, when I asked if the description was apt last week of, is it basically alcoholic LaCroix and you said yes, I can understand why somebody would have a guttural response to that of, uh, pussy. I don't like sparkle water, but I like when the sparkle water has 5% alcohol and makes me super excited about pro wrestling.
00:06:07
Speaker
I can't remember the last time I've ever heard you be excited about an alcoholic drink of any kind. It's never. Maybe the first time I found Stone Cold's beer, but we talked about that last week. I guess that's fair, but you don't get excited about beer in general. No, I don't really drink, ever.
00:06:26
Speaker
So, was this two years ago? You came and visited me here in the lovely, windy city, and you went out with my roommate for breakfast without me. And for breakfast, you went to this, what would you call it, like a Hawaiian themed bar slash restaurant? I would say it was a Hawaiian restaurant. I wouldn't say it was themed. I would say that was what they were. Okay, fair enough.
00:06:51
Speaker
How much did you end up spending on alcoholic pina colada? It was like a pina colada, but it was like they served it in a giant pineapple. I pointed at a thing on the menu and said, this is $10. The drink that comes in that pineapple is $10. And he said yes, and I believe it ended up being $26 for each one.
00:07:13
Speaker
Yes, me and Chris both. How many did you have? Just one. I mean, it's a whole pineapple a drink. Like, pineapple's a pretty big fruit. That seems like a deal that's too good to be true at that price point. I mean, it was good. It was on Mother's Day, and there was a mom at the end of the bar drinking one too, and I kept trying to cheers her with my pineapple, and every time she looked up, every time I tried, she looked away, and I got really mad at her.
00:07:43
Speaker
Well, then you got mad when you got the check and you saw that it wasn't $10. It was more than twice that. But at that point, I had so much alcoholic pineapple drink that I didn't give a shit. So really, that was the last time I saw you be excited about an alcoholic beverage. And even then there was a tinge of like, well, I got fucked out of that situation. Yeah, you're not getting that out of white claws. But God damn man, we how many collective minutes do you think we have spent talking about white claw at this point?
00:08:14
Speaker
At least half an hour, right? But they are an official sponsor of the show, so please go out and- They aren't. I'm just kidding. We're gonna talk it into existence. If we just pretend that it's true eventually, they'll be like, all right, here's eight cases for each of you. Have a good all-out weekend. This is our field of- I'm tagging them in this episode again. I'm gonna make it happen. This is our, you know, this is our field of dreams. If we plug it, they will come.
00:08:35
Speaker
Yeah. And then Jizz bursts through my door right now, just like, oh man, not you, get out! Oh my god, if it's the boys of predetermined White Claw and Jizz? Jizz is actually the perfect sponsor for White Claw. Or the representative, if you think about it. That's weird, right? It is weird. He does not seem like an alcoholic seltzer man. He seems like a pitcher of Mountain Dew man.
00:09:02
Speaker
Well, I'll tell you this much. We started this conversation off by saying that we wanted to discuss the
G1 Climax Finals Discussion
00:09:08
Speaker
G1. I'm gonna let you take over from here while I take a drink of water. Garrett, G1. Yeah, we got the finals of the G1. It came down to, as we said from the bus stop ad that we were told about.
00:09:22
Speaker
Jay White versus Kota Abushi. Did you watch the final? I didn't. This was WWE week for me. God damn. This was I watched a lot of fucking wrestling this weekend. This though, because, yeah, this weekend for me was two WWEs. GCW had a show Friday and then fucking the G1 and the G1. It feels so weird to say this, Derek, but this was Jay White's best match.
00:09:49
Speaker
Please tell me at this point you're not warming up to him. No. No. But I will say it was his best match because so many guys in the G1, you know, there'll be a bit of a split on them. Like the crowd will be half and half. This was maybe the first match of the G1. No, because Jay White was in other matches. But the entire crowd, there was a definite heel and a definite baby face.
00:10:14
Speaker
And we don't always get that. So this was actually kind of nice to be like the crowd wants this guy to win. They super don't want this guy to win. Let's see what happens. And my question to you is, do you think it played out the way it needed to play out? Because you know how I wanted the G1 end.
00:10:34
Speaker
No, at the end of the day, I think this is a great thing. I think Kota Ibushi going to Wrestle Kingdom is awesome. I think him winning the G1 is great. The way the match went out was just, you know, Jay White doing heel of shit. And I very much enjoy that Red Shoes does not care for Jay White. And that that is very much part of the storyline that he's like, he does not trust this guy. He thinks he's kind of a prick. So he will always, he doesn't let Jay White get away with as much as he should.
00:11:04
Speaker
Well, we've seen red shoes throw caution to the wind with the rules before. I'm glad that this is the thing that we get to bond over with red shoes too is that we also not big J white guys.
00:11:17
Speaker
Red Shoes is like, I just don't get it. I just don't get it. Like as a wrestling critique. He's like, I don't understand. How does this guy have like shirts? How does he have merch? Like why are we promoting? How did he make it this far? He made it further than Moxley. Like Red Shoes is explaining this to himself out loud.
00:11:36
Speaker
I felt, okay, so we've talked a lot about Jay White, and this was when I was at Double or Nothing. I was like, I finally found what kind of asshole wears a Jay White t-shirt, and I looked over and I realized that Luke was wearing a Jay White t-shirt, and I immediately felt so bad, and basically pretended like I didn't say that.
00:12:01
Speaker
Um, Luke, it's fine. You know, different flavors of wrestling ice cream. He is just a flavor that I don't have a taste for. He's Jay White is my cilantro. I get it. But Luke, you should have said something to Garrett. You should have confronted him on it. There's nothing that makes me feel a little giddy, a little more giddy than seeing you having made previous comments that you now suddenly have to stand by. Like,
00:12:31
Speaker
I wish PCO could have heard the episode where you said, oh, I get it with PCO. The thing is he kind of sucks. I wish you could have made those statements and then he walked up to you and oh, you don't think I'm that good in his flip flops. Fucking where's that guy at? He needs to get signed to NXT soon. You want PCO to come to NXT? What would they change his name to?
00:12:56
Speaker
Oh my god, on fucking SummerSlam, when they, uh, fuck, who did they, I guess they said the Mounties, not the Quebecers, right? Were coming out, or like, they played like a thing during SummerSlam, and in my head I'm like, here it is, secret appearance by PCO, but it was the wrong thing. I think that was the NXT, actually, wasn't it?
00:13:14
Speaker
Was it? Okay. In my head, it was going to be PCO and it wasn't. And I was not disappointed by the NXT show by any means. But God, just think if you got PCO in there somewhere. You think he's moved on from ROH and is now... Vince has welcomed him back with open arms. At this point... Trusting him with his young talent to dive on them. Like, that's where we're at. Can you do me a favor and just do a moonsault onto Ricochet?
00:13:45
Speaker
Oh my god. Okay, but back to the G1. So J. White and Ibushi. J. White comes out with the entire Bullet Club. Just a whole roster of people that you could give a fuck less about all standing in the same place at the same time. A year makes a difference.
00:14:02
Speaker
And Red Shoes takes a look at this group of who-gives-his-shits and is like, no, get out of here. He's like, we're cutting this off at the beginning. We're not letting you have 13 guys in your corner. We know this is going to get out of hand. Everybody's upset about it. He does let Gate uproar. A little uproar, but you know what? He turns out Red Shoes has way more power over the Bullet Club. They just fucking powdered. They left.
00:14:27
Speaker
But Gato stayed. He was given permission to stay. He still did heel shit throughout the whole thing. He gets kicked out. Jay White and Ibushi had a great fucking match. And it was a match where Jay White is really hurting, you know, Ibushi's ankle. He's had that injured ankle the whole time. At one point he does the stand in double knees to Jay White and Jay White rolled out of the way. And that stand in double knees straight to the ground onto no one looks like it sucks.
00:14:54
Speaker
That could have really hurt him. What the fuck? But yeah, overall, I enjoyed the shit out of it. I thought this was a really good G1. This was, you know, I think at the beginning when I saw the the two blocks, I didn't know how it was going to turn out. I ended up having a goddamn blast with this thing and it really is exhausting sitting through that much strong style. So do you think that my story and my prediction is going to come true at this point?
00:15:21
Speaker
Betabushi will take the belt at Wrestle Kingdom? Yes.
00:15:25
Speaker
I don't, he has to. But I've said that before, and Okada wins. I mean, that's what I'm rooting for. That's what I've been talking about for months. So ever since Kenny left New Japan, that has been the story to tell. In fact, Kenny fucking alluded to it in an interview when somebody asked him why Koto Ibushi didn't go to AEW. He said if he had asked him, he would have.
00:15:53
Speaker
but he knew that Ibushi wanted to stay in New Japan and win the title. That seems to
Kota Ibushi's Storyline Speculation
00:15:59
Speaker
be where they're headed. Do you think a big part of Ibushi's stain was him possibly getting this push because he's one of the last members of that group of guys that left? I could tell you it's a better decision than putting the title on Jay White when everybody leaves. Yeah, they did give that a shot. It's funny. We did not give them near enough shit for that.
00:16:21
Speaker
We did bring it up on the podcast. We did mention the fact that they were basically throwing shit at the wall to see what would stick. There's times that you need to do that, but who there is just like Jay White's the man? To me, like I said it before, Jay White is New Japan's gender mahal experiment. Except they didn't put gender mahal in charge of the NWO.
00:16:49
Speaker
Which they should. Those two are dead, I think. One is still floating in space. So before we forget,
00:17:07
Speaker
I want to give you guys something you can do for us. Hop on over to iTunes when you have a minute and give us five stars. Leave us a sweet review. And if you do that, you can suggest something for us to talk about on the podcast. As long as you can slightly tie it into professional wrestling, we will talk about it on this show for you. If you're kind enough to give us the five stars in a review, we'll do that for you.
00:17:31
Speaker
And we just go back and forth doing each other favors till the end of time. Back and forth forever. Back and forth forever. Like a podcasting 69.
00:17:42
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Hey, since the last time we spoke, Derek, I saw Hobbs and Shaw two more times. Yeah, that's what I've been hearing. I still haven't seen it. I know that that's going to be devastating news to you. I was considering seeing it Saturday morning, but that ended up not happening because I opted to sleep in because it turns out sleeping in is more important to me than going to see a movie. Now, I know that's devastating news for you to hear because this was I still might see it, Garrett.
00:18:11
Speaker
If you haven't seen it by all out weekend, we'll go see it together all out weekend. Fine.
00:18:18
Speaker
I know we have a lot to do that's a busy weekend. We have a lot of recording, but- No, that's fine because we're going to need something to do Friday morning. And I got a theater downtown where tickets are five bucks, brother. Hell yeah. If Hobbs and Shaw is still out, we're going to see it. Maybe if you're in Chicago for all out weekend and you want to go watch Hobbs and Shaw with us, give us a shout. Absolutely. The more the fucking merrier because this is going to be fun.
00:18:46
Speaker
As a matter of fact, even more incentive to leave us five stars in a nice review. You do that, join up with our fucking crew and we will go see Hobbs and Shaw together while we're all in Chicago together. The boys are predetermined. And I might even share some popcorn with you. Are we gonna get to record with Lowell?
00:19:05
Speaker
You know what? I don't know. Lowell, you're probably listening. Seems like you had a fun week in Toronto. Let us know if you're gonna be around and we can record together. Honestly, I kind of want to talk to Lowell. I feel like me and Lowell have some stuff to work out. I feel like towards the beginning there was a lot of animosity between us where he was really wanting to see me injured. Not so much lately. I don't want to bring that back up if that's gonna make him want me hurt again.
00:19:31
Speaker
I would like to see Lowell and pick his brain. I'm a big mark for Lowell. But you know what else I'm a big mark for, Garrett? You know what else I'm a big mark for? What are you a big mark for? You've been busy watching Hobbs and Shaw to your heart's content. I've actually been taking hours of my time to watch season three of Glow on Netflix. And let me tell you, Garrett, it's a whopper of a fucking season.
00:19:57
Speaker
See, I started the first, I think I watched the first two episodes and then I was like, God, there's not that a lot of wrestling in these.
Glow Season 3 Review
00:20:05
Speaker
There's a lot of rest and I wouldn't watch wrestling. I'll finish glow. I like glow. But yeah, how did this was a good season? Look.
00:20:15
Speaker
I feel there were some similarities as far as pacing goes between glow and stranger things this year and that it took me a while to really sink my teeth into both season threes. But when glow gets going here about halfway through the season.
00:20:33
Speaker
some shit happens. Let me tell you there's there's some hard hitting issues in like in relation to racism. There's some hard hitting issues in relation to homosexuality and homophobia. And it is man there's a lot of shit that happens. I told you I don't know if this is your thing.
00:20:55
Speaker
If you're listening to this, I don't know if this is what you want to hear, but I will tell you there was a noticeable uptick in the amount of boobies that you could see in this season.
00:21:04
Speaker
And I'm not complaining. You start that with, I don't know if this is your thing, but I don't know if people are like, it's two dudes hosting a wrestling podcast. Of course they're going to talk about tits. Don't know why I made it in New Yorker. I don't know why it's maybe Vince Russo, but I'm letting you know. If you watch season three glow, there's going to be a moment where you think, man, that's a lot of boobs this, this season. And then few more episodes, you get even more. There's more than that.
00:21:34
Speaker
That said, everyone's awesome in this. You're like boobs aside, great show. Boobs aside, great storytelling. If you've been a fan of the first two seasons, you'll dig season three. I'm not going to spoil anything for you. Just know that Mark Maron
00:21:54
Speaker
Going through some shit. Quick question, any wrestler cameos this season? I know the last two we've seen a handful of guys pop up. Anybody notable show up this one? I'd have to think, I know Carlito makes another cameo. He's back. Because I know Brodus Clay shows up and stuff once in a while. I know he showed up at one point in the show Preacher.
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, I can't remember. I don't know. You were worried there's not enough wrestling. Don't worry. The wrestling definitely comes into play. It was just a big weekend for wrestling. And when I started those first two episodes, I was like, come on, come on, ladies. I need wrestling in my life right now. Where's Johnny Gargano? Yeah, where?
00:22:36
Speaker
Where's The Rock and Jason Statham in this? I'm not interested. I'm done after two episodes. Did you see that Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor went to go see Hobbs and Shaw together? I did. You sent me the Instagram post of this happening. Yeah, I'm real jealous that that wasn't a screening I was at. I would actually rather see a remake of Hobbs and Shaw with Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy. Are there any two wrestlers you dig more than those two right now?
00:23:06
Speaker
Somebody asked me the other day, they said, who is your favorite wrestler right now? And no one- That's a fair question to ask a fan of pro wrestling. No one had asked- And you were surprised at how often it locks you up. Well, for years, I mean, since the beginning of this podcast and well before that, I had been saying Candice LeRae, and I started realizing, I think the way NXT had treated Candice is kind of what got me to quit watching a little bit.
00:23:37
Speaker
Which is weird because you know that consistently NXT puts on like the best wrestling shows. And yeah, I call number two. Yes, we're on to Ruby grape those claws. Yeah, this is two claws 20 minutes in this could get sloppy. Oh, it's gonna get sloppy. That editing is gonna be fun later. What editing? Slam it together.
00:24:02
Speaker
But yeah, NXT is awesome. It's weird, because it's all these awesome indie guys. It's so many people I love, but their roster's so deep that some kind of get left in the dust. And one of those was Candice LeRae. And the way I looked at it is they were basically treating her like Oney Lorcan. And in your mind, like, she's better than that. She's better than Oney. You don't deserve her. Candice rules.
00:24:28
Speaker
Not owning. I like owning. I'm trying to coax you into going into a a yelly, shouty fit like you did for Hobbs and Shaw, but about Candice LeRae this week. Well, she finally had that NXT match I've been waiting my whole goddamn life for.
NXT Women's Matches Impact
00:24:43
Speaker
TakeOver Toronto, Io Shirai, Candice LeRae. Damn fine match. That was really what I wa- and I feel like it changed kind of the NXT women's match a little bit, didn't it? To me that felt like I was watching a more Japanese style, like really hard-hitting strong style.
00:25:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's fair. And here's the thing. Like I was, I was busy Saturday and I wasn't able to watch NXT immediately. I had to watch it Sunday and got to tell you, I did a good job avoiding spoilers except for one. I just knew that Shayna Baszler retained and I was like, Oh, okay. I guess I can skip that.
00:25:20
Speaker
Are you at a point where you would just skip, you do skip Shayna matches? Because I'm kind of there too. I'm bored with the gimmick being like, haha, she retains. Did you get that way when Asuka had it forever? Not really. I don't know what the difference is.
00:25:40
Speaker
I don't know, I feel like I got that way at some point with Asuka, but the title just seems to stay on one lady so long, but is that, I mean, obviously they've built Shayna Baszler up to where when she goes to the main roster, I don't see a world where she starts out like Midgard and works her way up. It feels like she's a monster. I think that's the idea too. Yeah, but I think to your point though, and we've talked about this before,
00:26:08
Speaker
You know, you hear fans all the time say that one of the things they want in a pro wrestling program is they don't want hot potato with the championships and that they want longer title reigns and they want the title to mean something, except they don't actually think that because people fucking love NXT and with all the other titles besides the NXT Women's Championship, they hot potato the fuck out of them. It's true.
00:26:36
Speaker
It's true, they really do. And it doesn't affect anything. People pop for title changes and people pop for title changes and matches that fucking kick ass. And I think that actually is the key. They don't care, nobody cares if the title's swapping hands frequently as long as the matches that lead to the title change kick ass. So, I don't know, maybe people are just kind of over Shayna Baszler in NXT, because I feel like I am.
00:27:01
Speaker
Honestly, she's somebody I thought was going to get called up a long time ago. And at this point, I don't even know who the lady is that's going to take the belt away from her. Unless can it be Candace? Is it Candace or am I going to be too hopeful and disappointed?
00:27:18
Speaker
If it was Candice, wouldn't she have gone over? Io Shirai. That was an instance of a match, though, where I thought she looked just as strong. You know, I mean, obviously she would have looked stronger losing, but she did leave that match looking very good. I mean, that was what? Probably the best Candice match they've had in NXT so far. And somebody's like, what about this TV show that you don't watch? I don't know. You're right. So, shit.
00:27:43
Speaker
Walter was front row though. When can they just, I'm at a point where, you know, I know Walter wants to stay at home, but I don't want him to anymore.
00:27:54
Speaker
You're like, I want you on my, my primary WWE television every week. I'm even if he got bumped up to regular NXT, I really miss Walter. And we've talked about this a minute last week. I fucking miss that guy, man. We talked about him so much for months. And then, but that was also while I was like really hot on progress.
00:28:18
Speaker
It's a little bit like watching a friend that you've worked with for years get a promotion and you're really happy for them and you're proud of them because you know they're making more money, they're doing better. But it also means you're not seeing them as much and that makes you sad. That's what happened to Walter. And I could be watching NXT UK, but there's just so much shit.
00:28:38
Speaker
Okay, back to TakeOver. What on TakeOver, for me, the Candace match was Match of the Night. And I don't know if that's gonna be overall for everybody. I assume probably the main event is the match of the night for a lot, but I don't know what stood out for you on this show, because pretty much there wasn't anything bad. Again, nothing bad. I really thought there was a lot of good stuff to come out of that tag match. I felt like I hadn't given proper dues to the street profits.
00:29:07
Speaker
But, goddamn if they are not an entertaining tag team. Montez Ford is just a goddamn cartoon character when he sells. I love it.
00:29:17
Speaker
It's crazy, and this is what you have to, this is what's hard to explain to people who don't watch pro wrestling on a regular basis. It's crazy to watch something like a fucking red solo cup become symbolic of a fucking team or a person, and for the crowd to kind of embrace that one fucking item. And that only really happens in pro wrestling.
00:29:41
Speaker
So when you look out in the crowd in Toronto and there's just thousands of people holding up red solo cups with the Street Profits, I thought that was pretty fucking great. I thought their match with Undisputed Era was good shit. Do you think Dawkins is getting better? I do. I think he serves his purpose on the team well. I think it's one of those things where you got a guy who does a lot of the hard hitting tackle shit and you got a guy who does high flying technical stuff and I think it works.
00:30:09
Speaker
I really think sending them down to Evolve and letting them work indie matches for a few months really did help them out a lot. Well, speaking of Evolve, did you see that Evolve is doing a show at the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago next weekend? For this weekend, I guess? Yes. Yes, I did. And who are you getting on that show? It looked like there were some pretty big names, too. Well, our boy Craig Mitchell is facing GPA for the freelance underground championship.
00:30:38
Speaker
I believe that's what it is. Are we just gonna start showing Evolve on the WWE Network at some point? I think that's what they're working towards and honest to God, not the worst idea when you consider that they're basically trying to make NXT officially their third brand by moving it to FS1 to compete directly with AEW on TNT on Wednesday nights. Like maybe they're looking at Evolve and being like, this could be our actual developmental territory.
00:31:05
Speaker
What's crazy is putting NXT up against AEW is the closest thing we are ever going to get to a Monday Night War again because these are two shows that I mean if they start picking it up and really really competing those two shows against each other those are the two best rosters in the entire world.
00:31:26
Speaker
Well, and here's what everyone's concerned about. Supposedly the rumor is if NXT goes to FS1 on Wednesdays, that Vince is going to get his hand in that business a little bit more frequently. And people don't like the sound of that. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. What are they up to? Let's see what they do. Let's see what they do. Vince is just gonna be appalled. You just let them hit each other hard that many times? He's like, all these little guys? Who are they? Donovan Dijak's the new champion.
00:31:56
Speaker
I don't know Donovan Dijak's name. What is his name again? Wait, something Dijakovic? Get that Wally guy from NXT UK over here. He's big, right? Wally. That's definitely what Vince thinks Walter's name is. Get Wally over here. And fucking Hunter just puts his face in his hands. God damn it. I shouldn't have made this so successful. He got too big.
00:32:25
Speaker
I'm looking right now at the two matches that aired before TakeOver went on the air that I guess are airing tonight, is part of just the regular TV taping. It says that the, I guess NXT's had a breakout tournament going on with a lot of their new guys. And it showed- I wanted to talk about this. Yeah, go ahead. Let's do it.
00:32:47
Speaker
It's coming down to two people that we have seen wrestle in AAW together, which is Cameron Grimes, who used to be Trevor Lee, and fuck, I'm blanking on ACH's new name. Jordan Miles. Jordan fucking Miles.
00:33:05
Speaker
What's funny is I'm looking at the card and it said Jordan Myles versus Cameron Grimes and my first thought was who the fuck are these guys? And then I realized like oh, it's two wrestlers. I very much enjoy one Yes one guy who you know was PWG every week impact forever and the other guy fucking wrestled in New Japan this year And it's funny because they went out of their way When I saw that like the promo for this tournament that they've been doing they went out of their way to tell you what their old names were and
00:33:35
Speaker
No, they didn't. They seriously did. They literally said F.K.A. and then their independent name. So it said Cameron Grimes F.K.A. Trevor Trevor Lee, formerly known as. Oh, grimy.
00:33:50
Speaker
So what the fuck are you doing? And this is the other thing. There was a time period, like if you go back to the roots of NXT, where they were really not big on guys using their actual names. Understand that. That's why Kevin Steen became Kevin Owens. That's why fucking Generico became Sami Zayn, yada, yada, yada.
NXT Breakout Tournament Finalists
00:34:09
Speaker
But if they're at the point now where they're bringing somebody in, they're like, actually, you know them by this name. But part of pro wrestling is we just get to change people's fucking names. So deal with it.
00:34:20
Speaker
a little bit of an eye roller, I guess, but honestly though, these are the two guys you would want this tournament to come down to though, right? Trevor Lee and ACH, kind of everyone in that tournament. Who else was on it? I was looking through and trying to remember what some of the new people's names are. I don't remember what Sam Shaw's name is, Dexter Lumis. I saw that he was in there. Fuck, at this point, it's so hard to remember
00:34:46
Speaker
Who from the endies gets signed to NXT that is just randomly gonna pop up on my TV at some point that I'm like, holy fuck, I forgot they were in this. I don't know what the name of the guy was, but there's a guy in there that's definitely a classic Jizz. Oh, a real classic Jizz? A classic Jizz-looking motherfucker. Is it just- You know what I'm talking about. Like a typhoon. Yep. An earthquake. Yep. A Jizz. A Jizz.
00:35:16
Speaker
Yeah, we've beat the jizz joke into the ground if you've been listening this long. Yeah, it's dead. It's dead, it's over. We don't even talk about those. We're not even getting a pop anymore. God damn. We're both tired of it.
00:35:27
Speaker
Well, Otis, is it time to retire it? Are they officially Tucker and Otis now, or Otis and Tucker? They're Tucker and Otis. Heavy Machinery have graduated. We take them seriously. All right. Congrats, Heavy Machinery. You won't hear us say it again. Somewhere he's really, really sad. He's like, come on, guys. Anyways, you got me over.
00:35:46
Speaker
kind of just summarize your thoughts though and would you just consider this to be another great NXT takeover? Yeah they nailed it again like I saw before because I watched it late too and the only thing I heard going in I had a lot of people texting me saying like holy shit thoughts on the Candace match so I knew it was gonna be a good match or at least that's what the tone of everybody was
00:36:08
Speaker
But everybody said that really the only down spot was Shayna Baszler. But honestly, I think it's just she's had too long of a title reign and she fell between two really good matches. Are you OK with a show where basically everybody retains their titles? Street Profits retain the tag titles? Velveteen Dream keeps the North American Championship and Adam Cole keeps the NXT Championship. You cool with that?
00:36:34
Speaker
I have no problems with that. I don't really know who is going to take it from Adam Cole, but I also have not been watching week to week. From what I hear, it sounds like there's a possibility Gargano may be wrapping up in NXT. Well, didn't he move to the main roster a while ago and then they took him back? Yes. Where would you send him right now?
00:36:58
Speaker
If we're taking- Please say 205 Live so I can laugh. If we're putting NXT up against AEW, I would keep Gargano on there. God damn. What's funny is they really haven't even sunk their teeth into Keith Lee. They haven't fully sunk their teeth into the possibilities with Matt Riddle yet. There's still a ton of people down there, and then they have this breakouts tournament? Come on, man. They'll do just fine.
00:37:24
Speaker
Well, yeah, once you get to, you know, a two hour show weekly, everybody's going to get more time because, you know, guys like Keith Lee or who I'm kind of bummed that when I tune into these paper views, I'm not seeing them. But, you know, it is a short paper view, so you're not going to see everybody. I'm ready for Keith Lee to get some some like big time. And it seems like Matt Riddle is pretty much there. He's going to just be the man until they decide to give him the belt.
00:37:50
Speaker
Well, he's in the middle of the feud with Killian Dane right now. I love Killian Dane. I mean, I've been a mark for that guy since that War Games match. And to see him... I'm pretty sure Matt Riddle at one point at TakeOver called him a hairy son of a bitch. Well, he is. I love that somebody just... Well, he is. But I'm glad that somebody just fucking said it.
00:38:14
Speaker
You've got too much hair and it feels weird to touch you. It feels like we're in a industry where it's on the nose to comment on somebody's excessive body hair, but fuck it, I'm doing it anyway. Oh my god! Okay. Can we talk about fucking Matt Riddle's Goldberg story?
00:38:36
Speaker
Okay, are we talking about the tweets from a while back? Go ahead and tell me what you're talking about. No. No. If you haven't seen this video, I guess you didn't have social media over the weekend. Yeah. Gary went on a social media, what would you call it?
00:38:51
Speaker
I got hit with a case of the depressions and I thought that maybe having a little social media fast would be good for me so I did not stay on social media this weekend. Probably smart but you might have been wrong because you know how they do like the I don't know if it's on Twitter and Facebook watch or whatever but they do like the they'll they'll have a room in the arena for like a WWE pay-per-view and they'll have people doing the watch along
00:39:21
Speaker
Yeah. So, Matt Riddle's in the room and you know all the shit he's talked about, Bill Goldberg. Oh yeah, you and Matt Riddle get along well with your thoughts on Goldberg. Yes, as of January 1st, 2020, Matt Riddle and I are going to get along a lot better too.
00:39:41
Speaker
Matt Riddle's telling the story that he's walking around backstage and he sees like Brock Lesnar's locker room and then he sees the thing for fucking Goldberg's locker room and he kind of peeks around the corner because he's wanting to see him and I guess Goldberg shoulders him fucking hard and I guess Goldberg you got to watch his clip because it's Matt Riddle telling the story he looks high as all hell because he is and yeah and he's like
00:40:08
Speaker
Goldberg says to him, he's like, we've got some things we got to talk about. And he's like, all right, bro. Let's talk about it anytime you want, bro. And he's like, first of all, I'm not your bro. He's like, all right, bro. And he goes back and forth. He's like, we got some stuff we got to settle. What's your problem? He's like, I got no problem, bro. And then it ends with him once again, be like, I'm not your bro. And then walking away.
00:40:32
Speaker
Matt Riddle wanted to go and Goldberg didn't want to go. So the best build that's ever happened for a match we didn't even get to see. I'm still hoping it happens. Like I've cycled back around and now I want to see Matt Riddle versus Goldberg and I want to see Matt Riddle shoot on Bill Goldberg. That would be, he's so good. You know Goldberg does not want to get in the ring with him. He tells everyone he does like MMA type stuff, but you know that's like, not really.
00:41:04
Speaker
It's like when you go to the gym and you punch the bag for a little bit, and you're like, yeah, I box. That's basically what that is. Can I give you some very otherworldly advice for how to enjoy a WWE pay-per-view, Garrett? Yeah, does it involve marijuana and white claws? Because if so, I don't know. No, you don't even need to do that. Yeah, sit back, relax, strap it down. I've got some advice. Hard hitting.
00:41:34
Speaker
Skip the kickoff show.
00:41:37
Speaker
Just do that. If you skip the kickoff show, SummerSlam was like three and a half hours. Very easy to digest. I had a great time. I don't know, I know Edge did some stuff on the kickoff show. I know Elias got speared. I know some other stuff happened. Don't really care. The show for me started at 6 p.m. Central time and was over by like 9.30. And I was very, very happy with that.
00:42:05
Speaker
Well, I actually did tune in for the kickoff show, believe it or not. Of course you did. And yeah, because, you know, if it's WWE, I'm going to tune in for the worst part. For sure. Why? I don't know, because I'm around for it.
00:42:20
Speaker
So, I was shocked when Edge came out. I like was looking around the room at no one because I was watching it by myself. Like, is this the main show? Are they really just throwing Edge out here to do a move for the first time in however many years on the pre-show? And theoretically, he could get paralyzed or killed anytime he does something, right? That's what I've been told. So, Edge could have died on the kickoff show.
00:42:46
Speaker
giving Elias a spear, which Edge has never had the best spear of any of the spears out there. He's had the worst spear. So I wasn't that worried. Well, I mean, it was an easy soft spear. Nevertheless, he was cleared to do it, but it's still scary. No, it was cool seeing him, though. I mean, the crowd popped and it got done what it needed to do. I don't think he said a single word. He just came out and did what he did and left. We can Tarantino my review on this if you want.
00:43:13
Speaker
I enjoyed the shit out of SummerSlim. We can go back now, but I will tell you that ultimately there were a lot of people I saw online during and after the show trying to run it down. But I did see a lot of polls and most people seem to agree that it was a good show. Can I actually start with one of my favorite things?
00:43:38
Speaker
Actually, no. No. Because now we need to go back and talk about the real issue, which was how bad the fucking stream was for so many people on Sunday. Yeah. I thought my internet wasn't working because I hadn't had problems with the WWE network in a very long time. Well, they did that update like two weeks ago where I can't watch it on my Apple TV anymore.
00:44:01
Speaker
Yeah. Well, it looks, the design is sleeker. I love that you can add favorites. Like you can, you can add favorite wrestlers and legends and stuff to your account so that you can pull that stuff up pretty quickly, like matches and pay-per-views and whatnot. But this was my first time using it since the update and holy shit, it was unacceptable how bad it was.
00:44:28
Speaker
Was fucking livid. I know in my mind go ahead I was gonna say I just I know a few people text me that they said they actually quit watching because it was just lagging so much and Continuously stopping I didn't I had an issue with that where it was happening every little bit But not enough that it was ruining the show for me. So I kind of thought through it. I
00:44:50
Speaker
For me, it was fucking up like every three to four minutes. And what it would do is the audio would be fine. Like it would freeze, the audio would come back as normal, but the video feed would be from stuff like two hours on the kickoff show, like two hours earlier.
00:45:08
Speaker
It was fucking bad. And then I'm thinking, like, is this just happening to me? Like, what's going on? So I go to Twitter. Nope. It's most people. I only saw a couple people who were like, I guess I'm the only one. My network stream is working fine. I want to be like, fuck you guys.
00:45:24
Speaker
Search it. You're in the minority. I do have a favorite WWE Network fucking up moment. And it was during Money in the Bank. I got home late and didn't get to watch the show once. And I clicked play live.
00:45:40
Speaker
And instead of playing live like I had clicked, it had jumped to the live show, which had just ended and was enough to catch the final frame, which was Dean Ambrose holding a belt above his head, which showed me that not only was he the champion, but he won his Money in the Bank ladder match at the beginning of the show and then cashed in at the end. So that one frame really truly ruined an entire four hours.
00:46:10
Speaker
I remember this. Ike wasn't even mad. It was so funny. So I'll give it
SummerSlam Streaming Issues
00:46:17
Speaker
back to you. I just wanted to make sure we addressed, for the purposes of history, the WWE Network sucked really bad for SummerSlam 2019. Garrett, you said you had favorite things you wanted to get into. Hit me with them. What did you like about SummerSlam?
00:46:31
Speaker
Well, I think my favorite thing about it was the same favorite thing that a lot of people had. We had one of the biggest character re-debuts of all time, and that is Ricochet came out as his new sex craze maniac character dressed head to toe in all leather.
00:46:52
Speaker
You wrote that joke the night of the pay-per-view, didn't you? When he came out, I was like, look at this fucking sex maniac. No one wears head-to-toe black leather, including their fingies, and isn't into some weird shit. Somebody posted a picture of Ricochet in that fucking suit, and then a picture of their blue and black video game chair, and it was a spot-on match.
00:47:13
Speaker
It was fucking amazing. To me, it was like, I know they were telling me it was supposed to be Nightwing, but to me it was like, well, once upon a time in Hollywoods and theaters, we're on this big Tarantino kick. He's wrestling as the Gimp now. From Pulp Fiction.
00:47:28
Speaker
See, it took me a minute, I was like, is that Nightwing? Is that Black Panther? What the fuck is it? And then I found out, okay, it's Nightwing. But, see, this is one of the things, we were talking about this a minute ago, do you remember when Gargano and Chompa came up to the main roster and they were wearing their ring gear in a backstage segment and Chompa's got on like his jacket that's got like nuts and bolts on it and shit and everyone's looking a little bit steampunk.
00:47:55
Speaker
And they just stuck out like I was like, this look works at NXT. I don't know if this works on the main roster and I can't tell you exactly why. But I know that when I saw Ricochet come out and that's it, I was like, that's interesting.
00:48:11
Speaker
I don't know, I have a weird thing about people wearing gloves, and it was just weird to me that he was basically in a giant onesie. That being said, it does not impede his ability to be one of the best wrestlers in the entire fucking world, but that suit man. Like, once again, you gotta man that sexy. Why cover him up? The man from Alton, Illinois.
00:48:35
Speaker
Most people don't know that. Paducah, Kentucky. Paducah, Kentucky, but born in Alton, Illinois. OK, he was born in Alton? Yes. Sexiest man ever to come from Alton or Paducah, and I'm willing to put my money on that. I want to see what year. How old is Ricochet? Because he's like a few years younger than us, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's younger than us. I got a picture with him one year and then looked up the age difference and was like, fuck, I'm sad.
00:49:07
Speaker
Favorite matches from the show? He is 30 years old. Sorry, I had to look that up. It was gonna eat
Bray Wyatt's Fiend Redeem
00:49:13
Speaker
at me. For real, the Bray Wyatt-Finn-Baller match.
00:49:17
Speaker
I watched- Was it the match or was it the debut? It was the debut, but I watched it under the absolute worst circumstances, and I saw everyone going apeshit for it online, and I was like, this was not that big of a deal, guys. But let me tell you how I was watching it. My wife was using the actual TV, so I was watching SummerSlam on a pay-per-view with headphones on, on the couch while she was watching SpongeBob SquarePants.
00:49:47
Speaker
And she had just started that when the Bray Wyatt stuff was happening. So I was hearing him laughing and like just Spongebob shit. And I'll be honest, that does hurt Bray Wyatt just a little bit and it makes sense why that's not how everybody watched it. I rewatched it yesterday. Turns out it actually was as awesome as everybody said.
00:50:08
Speaker
Yes. That fucking, the head, the head looked like some shit out of a Rob Zombie movie or just like some shit from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I loved it. I loved it. I loved that they kept the mask on. I loved it. Cause at first I thought he was going to take that thing off and as he's reaching for it, you know, it looks like he's struggling with himself. He is an interesting fucking character right now. I love that they have, like he did a fucking headbutt. I feel like you don't see headbutts in WWE anymore.
00:50:36
Speaker
He broke a man's neck, Garrett. Yeah, yeah, I guess you got to really, uh, put things into perspective that why isn't that his finisher, by the way? Absolutely should be his finisher and I would be fine with it. Seth Rollins' finisher is he jumps on your fucking head. Why the fuck not at this point? And I will say this. The funniest fucking meme that I saw.
00:51:00
Speaker
about the fucking Bray Wyatt debut if somebody took the Ron Burgundy meme of him drinking the beer with the quote, Bray killed a guy. And I posted that because it was fucking true. The whole time that debut was happening, all I kept thinking over and over again in my head was WWE is letting this happen.
00:51:26
Speaker
Like this is happening on WWE television. This is genuinely terrifying. Everything about the character has the makings of a superstar for them. We used to talk about Bray Wyatt being the next Undertaker. This is that if they want it to be that, if they run with it. I can't wait for the movie. We're definitely gonna get a WWE Studios movie of The Fiend. See No Evil 3 with The Fiend.
00:51:53
Speaker
Hell yeah, it's not the first one in theaters. I'll go see a third one on straight to video. Garrett, I like this is going to be something nice. It sounds so cliche and corny, but I'm going to be thinking about that one for a while. That was a good redebut for a character that was already a former WWE champion. OK, do you think that people are going to look back on this summer slam as anything other than the debut of Bray Wyatt?
00:52:22
Speaker
Yes, I do. What else? I actually think there were some other good things on this show. Okay. I mean, you said you love the hell out of the show. Like what were some of the other top things for you? I really, really enjoyed, uh, let's get this out of the way now. Um, in one fell swoop, I now have a favorite Seth Rollins match and a favorite Brock Lesnar match.
00:52:49
Speaker
It was very good. I mean, the guy, they went like 13 and a half minutes, which is a lot longer than I would ever expect from a Brock Lesnar match. I thought- But they told the story. I've been waiting for a wrestler to tell with Brock Lesnar since he's been back.
00:53:06
Speaker
It didn't require low blows. It didn't require anything cheap. And I'm not trying to take away from Seth's, whatever match against Lesnar at Mania, but everyone, there was always kind of that underlying feeling of he didn't really hang with Brock. He just did low blows and did his finisher.
00:53:23
Speaker
This was a different kind of match. This felt very similar to Lesnar's match against CM Punk at SummerSlam 2013. And he let Seth Rollins hang with him. He had a counter for Lesnar's moves. Him doing the flip out of the Germans was cool as shit.
00:53:43
Speaker
I've been asking, so that was my fantasy situation for if they did Finn Balor versus Brock Lesnar. I always had the fantasy of it being the demon versus Lesnar and Lesnar never being able to connect with a fucking suplex because Finn would just flip and land on his feet.
00:54:01
Speaker
and just fucking kick him into the corner and coup de gras him to death. This basically happened with Seth, but it was not the coup de gras, it was the fucking stomp. So, I don't know, I really enjoyed the fuck out of the main event.
00:54:15
Speaker
I know a lot of people haven't been happy with Lesnar or Rollins as of late. That's been kind of a theme on this podcast and social media, but I don't know. This is now my new favorite Seth Rollins match. Did it change your view on Seth? Are you a bigger Seth fan now? No. I mean, I don't know. It was...
00:54:43
Speaker
It was the kind of thing where seeing him get the title back in that kind of match in that scenario, I was like, okay, yeah, Seth can run with the ball. Like, like, let him be universal champion. Let's see, give him some match ups that are not Lesnar for the next six months or whatever. Like, I don't know how long they plan on having him hold the title. I mean, you know, the other shit on this show I liked. I liked the Shane McMahon, Kevin Owens stuff. Um,
00:55:11
Speaker
I did enjoy the Natalia, what I could see of it, the Natalia Becky Lynch match to open the show seemed fun. I think it was an interesting decision to open the show on a submissions match. I liked it though. I mean, that is an unusual thing. I feel like that's not a match you see in WWE very often and yeah, it's fine with it. Really though, I think what we're all waiting for is to hear you talk about Goldberg Ziegler. Yeah. I mean, what, what, what the fuck?
00:55:43
Speaker
Goldberg did what Goldberg does. I will say the start of the match was very interesting, letting Ziggler get that much offense in, and then it just became what everyone knew it was gonna be, which was fine. And then the post-match stuff with him calling Goldberg back to the ring a couple more times to get speared into oblivion. It was funny because I will agree with Chris Jericho on something regarding Goldberg. I think we both agree that as far as pro wrestling tackles go, he has the best one.
00:56:14
Speaker
You can see that. He has the best spear. Shit, I'm sorry, man. I am going to piss my pants. I'm so sorry. Well, time out and go ahead and do it. And we are at 56 minutes. Sorry for the delay, my friends. Those white claws were screaming at me. I had to make room for more white claws. Intermission.
00:56:38
Speaker
So there were, I mean, I did, I did enjoy the Ricochet AJ styles match. I've gotten a little bit over having gallows Anderson on the outside, but I know why they're there. I thought emperor versus Bailey moon was, eh, but I will say I was surprised with how good the Charlotte flair Trish Stratus match was.
00:57:01
Speaker
It was the second longest match on the show, Garrett. I know, and I honestly, for me, that was one I felt the length on. But I also didn't know if it was going to be Trisha's last match. I think she still looks great. I really enjoy seeing her in the ring. And if this was her last match, I'm happy we gave her the time. Well, it was the second longest match behind Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton, which I thought was just sort of whatever.
00:57:30
Speaker
And it ends in a DQ, and I get why. But it feels like this is a rehash of Stiles Nakamura from last year where they're looking for excuses to extend the feud. And I'm sure some people are into this feud going a little bit longer. I don't know if I am. But I gave the show a B overall. How many burritos? How many burritos? Yeah, on the calendar scale, how many foods did it get?
00:58:00
Speaker
Out of how many? Like, what's the max? The good thing about the calendar scale is it's whatever you want it to be. Oh, okay. Basically, the wording you use decides how good of a scale that is. I mean, you could make one burrito sound really good if it's a really good burrito. I would give it three cookies out of five. What flavor? Well, I mean, oatmeal chocolate chip, right?
00:58:27
Speaker
I mean, I'm an oatmeal raisin man myself, but- Oh, I bet you are, but you know. Good for you, fucker. You let me do your fucking calendar scale of rating wrestling with food, and then you gotta fucking inject what you're- Look, I get it.
00:58:43
Speaker
I get it. I thought SummerSlam 2019 was a good show. I thought we got good wrestling this week in Toronto. I didn't watch a ton of Raw. I watched all of SmackDown. Garrett, if you haven't yet, get your ass on Hulu.
00:58:58
Speaker
Buddy Murphy versus Roman Reigns on SmackDown this week kicked ass. I believe that. I was waiting for somebody to tell me, but it did work out like it was a we got what we wanted. Roman Reigns made Buddy Murphy look like a bad motherfucker.
00:59:14
Speaker
I saw somebody on Twitter say that this could be, you know, giving Buddy Murphy this really good match against Roman Reigns could be like the AJ Styles moment for Buddy Murphy where he can prove to Vince McMahon that he's a top guy. I completely agree. Like it completely pulled away the idea that he's a cruiserweight in one match.
00:59:39
Speaker
And I think that's always going to be the thing that they have a difficulty with with some of those guys. Buddy Murphy doesn't look like a typical cruiserweight though. He hung with Roman Reigns and Reigns made a point of making him look like a badass. I love that. And even after the match. Please go back and watch it. I think you'll be shocked at how much you enjoy. It felt a little bit like a New Japan match at certain points.
01:00:02
Speaker
Okay. No, I honestly, that was one when I heard it was happening. I'm all for a Roman Reigns match. If we're going to do interesting matchups and give them a good amount of time and actually do it. Not just a Roman Reigns squash match, but bring up a guy because Buddy Murphy has been impressing the shit out of us for months. And it's it just makes sense to give him his time.
01:00:25
Speaker
Yeah, SmackDown was good this week. From what I hear, Raw was pretty good. I actually watched some clips of Raw. I watched the Sasha thing. I am very excited we got Heal Sasha back. Heal Sasha coming back is good news. I thought Blue was an interesting choice. Considering the red brand. I guess. Well, she's a heel. But I was actually just expecting her hair to be like normal.
01:00:55
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like black or brunette. Like that being the ultimate heel move for her was to not indulge the bright fantasies of the WWE universe. Just be like, guess what? My hair is like everyone else's now. Fuck off. Well, Derek, I don't know if you know this, but blue is inherently more evil than purple.
01:01:18
Speaker
Blue pants, love of baits, had blue hair when I first saw her. Nothing evil about her. I don't know if you heard, but she rubbed a lot of people the wrong way in the locker room and never got to come back. That's pretty evil. And now she's got a deal with AEW and she's doing just fine. Garrett!
01:01:38
Speaker
I DM'd you over the weekend to be like, hey, guess what Garrett, your boy Orange Cassidy signed a deal with AEW. And then you weren't on social media and I got a text from you saying, Derek, Orange Cassidy is an AEW. Oh my God. And in my mind, I'm like, fuck you. I love that, you know, you hear Tony Khan say like, no, our roster's full. If we sign somebody, it's because we really, really want them.
01:02:05
Speaker
What I was saying earlier is when people were asking me who my favorite wrestler is, for years I said Candice LeRae and just kept it at Candice. But that changed. In the last few months, no one had really asked me so I didn't have to think about it. And when I got asked, the first name that came to mind was Orange Cassidy.
01:02:24
Speaker
Is he the best pro wrestler? It's hard to say, but I enjoyed the shit out of him every week, and it makes me happy that at this point, they're only signing guys they really, really want.
Orange Cassidy in AEW Excitement
01:02:36
Speaker
The fact that they looked at Orange Cassidy and thought like, this is the, he's the man. This is the next guy. I'm happy that they took it. How do you think Jim Ross is going to feel about announcing Orange Cassidy matches on the reg?
01:02:49
Speaker
Oh man, I didn't even think about that. Does he have a problem with comedy matches? I think he does. I don't think he gets it. I don't think he gets it. To be fair to JR, I don't know how that's going to blend in either. How do you do Kenny Omega versus Orange Cassidy? I've asked this question before. And I mean, you watched during the G1 though they did Toro Yano versus Naito.
01:03:17
Speaker
And Kenny does comedy matches. We watched that match in Canada where he ended up with like a dildo in his mouth that Lulz sent us. Could you blend that in with the rest of the show? I think if you had like a mid card Orange Cassidy versus Kenny Omega match, I don't know if Orange Cassidy will ever be the main event, but I think he's always going to be an entertaining spot on the card no matter where he is. I mean, you have our truth running around for the 24 seven title and people love that.
01:03:47
Speaker
people. Not necessarily me. You did for a while. I'm not telling you it can't, I'm not telling you it can't work or that it won't, like it can't happen. I'm just saying there's reason to wonder and we're going to have to find out if they can pull it off. All I know is that when I took my wife, the video of Orange Cassidy being announced for AEW and showed her, she said, for the first time in my life, I will tune into wrestling every week if he is on TV.
01:04:16
Speaker
Did you tell, look at her and be like, you really don't have a choice because we're watching it on Wednesday.
01:04:21
Speaker
What if she's the one that's like, no, no, NXT tonight? Did you hear this match is happening? NXT and then SpongeBob. What is interesting though is with AEW announcing all their upcoming shows, you know, their first TV tapings actually announcing matches for the TV tapings and having builds for matches that are just going to be on TV. Yeah, that's a deliberate decision on their part. That's something that we're not used to.
01:04:49
Speaker
Yeah, it feels really weird as opposed to I don't know. I guess WWE does that, but they do it like three days in advance. Knowing like a couple months in advance that we can go see like Cody versus Sammy, you know, I'm I'm getting pumped. I'm excited for when I'm excited to see where they start touring.
01:05:08
Speaker
Well, they're starting to release information for things they're going to be doing along while they tour. So again, as was stated last week, I'm ridiculously excited about AEW and goes without saying, I'm ridiculously excited for all out weekend here in a couple of weeks. You and I are going to have a lot of fun fan. Uh, I'm a fan of, uh, not having to, um, worry about starcast at the moment.
01:05:37
Speaker
And Queen of the Ring will be joining us that weekend, so we'll be doing some more collaborative things with her, maybe some of our other friends, like Lowell, if you're listening.
01:05:53
Speaker
Like, honestly, you were excited for Nick Gage versus Effie so much. I'm so, honestly, I realize, and I don't know, I may have said this on the last show, I don't remember, because I was a few white claws deep as I am now, but GCW is easily my favorite promotion right now.
01:06:13
Speaker
And I realized they kind of replaced progress for me. I'm getting everything I want out of it. I just, I've had so much fun at every show of theirs I've been to. Each one is progressively getting better. And it seems like, because at this point, you know, PWG used to be the endies for me. And they would get the guys, all their guys are gone. And now it seems like the guys that PWG are getting are ones that are starting at GCW.
01:06:39
Speaker
and it feels like at GCW you're getting a good mix of top current indie talent and up and coming indie talent. The show they did this weekend, fuck, it was so good Derek. They did a show in LA, Joey Janela's Escape from LA, and this was just another show where
01:06:59
Speaker
I start to finish, just had a great goddamn time. And there are a couple guys that we've talked about on here that after seeing their match together, I am convinced they are the future of pro wrestling. Names. Alex Zane and Blake Christian.
01:07:17
Speaker
They're the future of indie pro wrestling. I think they are. We talked about Alex Zane for the first time when he had a match against Tony Deppin at the GCW Backyard show where, you know, it's kind of a silly shit show. And when I walked away from it, I said that fucking Tony Deppin Alex Zane match was awesome. Then at the next Lights Out show.
01:07:36
Speaker
Blake Christian opened the show, did so much flippy shit in basement east that I had never gotten to see anyone do there. So seeing somebody like that high of level of flippy shit, being able to work with a low ceiling. Dude, these two fucking tore the house down. They had the longest match on the card and they came in like fourth on like eight or nine matches.
01:08:00
Speaker
They, god damn, at one point, Blake Christian unscrewed the top rope so they only had the middle and bottom. Blake Christian ended up doing like a 450 off the second rope onto Alex Zane. Alex Zane beats the shit out of Blake Christian, gets on the second rope, does a 630. What the fuck?
01:08:23
Speaker
from the second rope as I just threw out this whole thing like at one point you know they're climbing up getting really high into the building on like places where you shouldn't normally be walking they're doing high spots this was just a flippy all over the arena match these
Future Stars: Alex Zane and Blake Christian
01:08:39
Speaker
two motherfuckers are so talented and I know there's gonna be a point
01:08:44
Speaker
Where Alex Zane is going to be so big and I'll get to look back and say, Leah, remember that time that he took your chair and you said, God damn it to him. And then later he returned it. That's really cool. He may even remember that years from now, too.
01:09:01
Speaker
That was goddamn, seriously though, Alex Zane. Keep an eye out on that guy, and Blake Christian as well, but I don't know, there's just something about Alex Zane that is catching my eye so goddamn hard right now, and I just, I can't wait to see more out of him, and I think we're gonna see him get fucking huge. He's my prediction of like the next big thing. Of course, the nephew of Sami Zane. Of course, of course. Apparently the same nickname as Brock Lesnar.
01:09:30
Speaker
Dude, this show had some other re- I mean, everything on here was good, so I'm not gonna cover everything, but some other highlights. Chris Dickinson versus Chris Stratlander? Holy fuck, this was a hell of an intergender match.
01:09:48
Speaker
And I have not been a Chris Dickinson fan. The last time I saw Chris Dickinson wrestle was at PWG years ago. And in the match, he ended up dropping Brian Cage on his head like three times during the match. And I never saw him come back to PWG again. It was like he was banished. I think he did.
01:10:09
Speaker
But, I mean, it's been a few years, that guy has gotten really good. I had heard of Chris Stratlander, never seen her before. Holy shit. Holy shit, at the end of this, Chris Dickinson ends up going over, but he cuts a promo about how he's like, he's like, let's face it, I'm probably gonna be here forever, but she's gonna be super fucking famous.
01:10:31
Speaker
He ended up going over he beat like it was just a match where he could not pen her He was so confident that it was gonna happen and it ended up that he had a door Put up in the corner of the turnbuckle and he gave her an outsider or a razor's edge end of the door to win
01:10:50
Speaker
He did win, but it took, I mean the match was almost 18 minutes long. It was seriously such a good intergender match. Let's see, what else do we have? Honestly, this next- And you didn't cringe at the door spot. It didn't look super dangerous. I was trying to figure out as I watched this match why I wasn't cringing as much as I was for Callahan versus
01:11:14
Speaker
Blanchard and I realize I you know what I honestly believe I just got worked with the Callahan one because I believe him so much as a heel
01:11:24
Speaker
That's what I believe. That's what I think about you in Intergenera matches. I think it's gonna be like, you know, match to match, but I think honestly that it was just Sammy did such a good job that I did not want him to win and it made me uncomfortable. So I think mission accomplished. I would redact any statements I made about that match. That match was still good. But match of the weekend for me, and this is hard because Candace had a fucking banger match.
01:11:54
Speaker
Honestly, my match of the weekend was probably Tony Deppin versus Masato Tanaka.
GCW: Deppin vs. Tanaka Review
01:12:02
Speaker
from GCW? Yes. Because Tony Deppin, I said that Alex Zane is the future of wrestling. Tony Deppin is right there though. I don't know why one of these big companies haven't signed him yet. He is clearly so fucking talented. And this was probably the biggest match he had ever had in his career at this point.
01:12:26
Speaker
And Tanaka, you know, takes those fucking crazy chair shots to the head. That's like his deal that he can take those. And a little bit like later in the match, Deppin is finally going to do the chair shot. He hits Tanaka and Tanaka no sells it. So he ends up handing the chair to Tanaka to take a chair shot to the head from him, takes it and no sells just the hardest fucking chair shot.
01:12:52
Speaker
But then Tanaka ends up throwing him the chair and ends up just forearming that chair straight into his fucking face. It was so hard-hitting. I cannot recommend this match enough. I enjoyed the absolute fuck out of it. Out of all the shows I watched this weekend, I think this might be my match of the weekend. Garrett, sell the people on why they should spend money for a GCW pay-per-view.
01:13:16
Speaker
Honestly, for what, like 13, 14 bucks a show? That's what I was paying a month for progress for one show and their back catalog. But I guess with the good thing with GCW shows, you have to buy them on Fight TV, but you do have it forever. So now I just kind of have this collection of GCW in a folder on Fight TV. But, you know, what's the difference between that and just, you know, having to buy the PWG DVD or just people used to collect wrestling tapes?
01:13:45
Speaker
I think they're doing one of the best shows in pro wrestling right now where you're getting. I mean, the main event was Nick Gage versus Jimmy Havoc for the first time ever. It's crazy to see how much your perception of GCW has changed from like a year ago. Well, I think we also saw not necessarily what GCW fully was. I think we went. I don't know, man. When we typed GCW in on YouTube, that's what came up.
01:14:13
Speaker
I honestly don't possible that GCW has evolved. Honestly, I really do think they've evolved since we've seen them. But I think they were still there. I'm pretty sure Janela was still there.
GCW Show Value and Expectations
01:14:23
Speaker
I don't know. I'd have to look into this. But since that show following GCW this whole time through the Janela spring breaks and then just starting to go to their own shows. God, they just put on such an entertaining show. And for the price point, I am entertained that entire.
01:14:39
Speaker
That entire time I never have an issue paying the 14 bucks for a GCW show I feel like I've gotten my money's worth every single time I've done it. Do I buy every one of their shows? No, I don't but when I see a match on there that feels like it's gonna be worth watching Nearly I would say 10 out of 10 times if you think it's gonna be worth watching it is worth watching.
Tipsy Garrett and Hobbs & Shaw Excitement
01:15:05
Speaker
Garrett, you're starting to get a little tipsy. I am extremely fucking majestic. How can you tell? I can tell. I know what tipsy Garrett sounds like. And I can't fucking breathe. Well, can we spend the last few minutes yelling about Hobbs and Shaw again since I saw it a couple more times? No, we've done that once. I saw it in IMAX! He was so big! There was so big, Derek! There was so big, I saw it twice!
01:15:07
Speaker
I
01:15:30
Speaker
Carrot if you're this excited use this kind of enthusiasm to plug our fucking social media Hey everybody, thank you for listening. I've had a few I didn't use enthusiasm. God damn it. Hey, I know That I've had a few white
Social Media and Event Plans
01:15:46
Speaker
claws. It's not gonna be this way every time. This is just my gimmick for a little bit But what I need you to do is hop on that social media
01:15:55
Speaker
Follow us, at WrestleHangout on Twitter, at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram. What are we, at WrestleHangout on Facebook? Probably. I'm at Gartet on social media. Derek is at Halloween Help and we absolutely love you to death for listening. Thank you so much. Please join us again next week. If you're in Chicago for All Out Weekend, hit us up. We will be at AAW both nights and GCW and All Out. We will not be at Starcast.
01:16:21
Speaker
and I'm not crying about it because I've got this white claw and honestly I don't have to spend four days in a convention hall. And there's a chance we might go see Hobbs and Shaw with you. Oh if any of you just so you know if you want to see Hobbs and Shaw with me
01:16:37
Speaker
Tweet at Derek because I still don't have social media on my phone. That's true. That's very fair. Tweet at Derek and let him know that you want it to happen because I will 100, what is that, like two weeks away? That will still be in theaters. I'll 100% go see it again in Chicago with you, with Derek. And then you know what we'll do? We'll go watch some fucking pro wrestling together.
Intoxicated Editing and Farewell
01:16:57
Speaker
And if this episode sounds shoddy, it's because I've been sick and Garrett was editing this episode while intoxicated.
01:17:06
Speaker
So good night and good luck. Hit our goddamn music.