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Episode 39: "Speaking Of Getting Chopped And Sh*tting..." feat. Progress' Hello Wembley, NJPW's King Of Pro Wrestling & WWE's Super Showdown
62 Plays7 years ago
On this week's hangout Garrett continues his war on Craig's, the boys talk Progress' Hello Wembley, New Japan Pro Wrestling's King Of Pro Wrestling, & WWE's Super Showdown & Southern Underground Pro!
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Transcript
Introduction & Public Service Announcements
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 hopes that by the time you're hearing this, you've already registered to vote and gotten your flu shot. Derek Halpin. I've gotten my flu shot. I've been registered to vote for a long time. In fact, I keep checking in on that just to make sure I'm not getting screwed over. And yeah, those are important things, people. This is a wrestling podcast, but we're worried about the real issues too.
00:00:28
Speaker
I am a little surprised that you've already gotten your flu shot. I wouldn't have pegged you as a flu shot guy. I'm not normally a flu shot guy, which is probably going to be disappointing for some people to hear or scary, depending upon how passionate they are about that. But I had a doctor's checkup a few weeks ago and definitely got my flu shot in. Nice.
00:00:50
Speaker
This is a public service announcement brought to you by pre-determined to pro wrestling hangout. Get your goddamn flu shot because I hate being sick and I don't want it to be your fault. It could be somebody else's fault, somebody's fucking kid. Or like I'm trying to think of who's like the filthiest looking wrestler. Who's the pig pin of the pro wrestling world? It has to be somebody at GCW. I'm not naming names. Yeah, I mean there's somebody from there.
00:01:17
Speaker
They know who they are, we don't have to say it. I'll be honest, the flu was the least of my worries when we were at GCW. Tetanus. Tetanus. AIDS. 100% that promotion's on top of their tetanus shot, but not their flu shot. Yeah, I hope to God everybody there has a tetanus shot. I don't want to get slammed onto halved cans.
00:01:44
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot of diseases you can contract if you hit wrestle a match in GCW. I don't know if we're shit talking or if we're just being real. I think we're being real, but I genuinely love GCW. They're putting on the Janela stuff. Yeah, good for them. And good for our goddamn music, so hit it.
00:02:38
Speaker
I feel like a responsible host since we worked all that stuff into our intro. Like, that was good. That was quality shit. Yeah, we should do more PSAs at the beginning. Like, we gotta start thinking, like, what's some other... You should do this. We need to help you be on top of these things.
00:02:53
Speaker
Don't leave your baby around water. Stuff like that. And probably not. No. Never shake your baby. Do you think that we do you think people take our advice seriously or do you think we hurt the credibility of whatever it is that we're promoting? Um.
00:03:09
Speaker
I feel like we heard it. And yet we're pushing forward and we're doing it anyway.
Garrett's Podcast Invite: True Crime Fit?
00:03:15
Speaker
We're doing it. Speaking of just where's our credibility at? So if you remember a few weeks ago we did a listener submitted match and it was from Pilar. Sure. She has her own podcast. It's I believe the Mary Buck podcast. It is a true crime show and she asked me to be part of it.
00:03:37
Speaker
Did you feel honored? Well, I did. Like, if people ask me to be on a podcast, I'm gonna, you know, I like it. That means they think I've got something to say. Jokes on them, I don't. But... But so I listened to a couple episodes of her show just before I responded, because I wanted to know what I was getting myself into. And her show's pretty heavy. I had to ask, are you sure you meant me?
00:04:07
Speaker
Yeah, I talked to you about this. I mean, like, are you prepared for a scenario where you have to discuss heavy issues for everyone here? Well, I specified when I asked, I said, obviously, you've listened to the show. Do I fit this? Because this doesn't... Are you sure? It'd be like if somebody booked Nick Gage for Glow. They have to ask, are you sure? Do you know what I am and what I bring to the table?
00:04:33
Speaker
God, him in a Halloween themed match would be something spectacular. I think every one of his matches is considered a slasher, so I'm sure it fits. Yeah, but I think for Halloween, he needs to go the opposite and do something cute. If he came out in a My Little Pony costume and wrestled a match that wasn't ultra violent, maybe that would be something. Like where he and his opponent have to dress up like Little Bo Peep or Little Miss Muffet?
00:05:01
Speaker
And they have to stab each other to death. That would be traumatizing. If you found out Nick Gage did a baseball podcast, would you listen to that? No. And I guess that when people find out that we're giving public service announcements, that's going to scare them away from whatever it is we're trying to promote. And speaking of promotion, I'm picking up on the sense that we're going to be promoting another Southern Underground Pro Show.
00:05:23
Speaker
We are, it doesn't have a name yet as far as I know, does it? You would know better than I. Yeah, we're gonna be, it's on November 4th, two o'clock like normal at basement east. They're starting to roll out some matches. And I really enjoyed that Dom Gorini and Kevin Koo are now a tag team since they joined up last time being pieces of shit. Now they're called sad comp.
00:05:53
Speaker
much like Walter's faction, Ring Kompf. Well, I was about to say something about that. I'm not comfortable with how often I've been hearing the word Kompf come up. Well, Walter is the Ring General. Uh, his is a little scarier. I feel like Sad Kompf is a cuter name, but once again, Kevin Ku almost broke my goddamn hand giving me a high five, so fuck that guy.
00:06:18
Speaker
You just won't let that go, will you? I'm not gonna let that go. And you know what I forgot to bring up last time? I know exactly what you forgot to bring up, and if you hadn't said something, I was going to force the issue. What's your deal with Craig, and how does this affect Craig Mitchell? If he's listening, Craig, I'm gonna give Garrett an opportunity here to apologize to you again.
00:06:38
Speaker
I believe I apologize to Craig Mitchell enough. Craig Mitchell, a wrestler that I see often at Southern Underground Pro, we talked a couple episodes ago about how I've never trusted a man named Craig. I had some unkind things to say about Craig Mitchell, and when he responded to let us know that he had listened with the hashtag Craigate,
00:07:01
Speaker
I responded to him with a meme of Jeff Daniels and Dumb and Dumber saying I would never offend a man of your size. I was there to stir the pot though because I told him I can't believe I do a podcast with this asshole. He is going to hit me, isn't he? I'm working on it. I feel like if he doesn't hit me, he's at least going to knock my hat off my head or maybe take my beer away from me.
00:07:28
Speaker
I'm definitely that tag partner that when shit gets real, I'm going to slap you on the back and say you're on your own and then I'm bolting through the crowd. Oh, yeah. Didn't a Velveteen Dream do that to somebody? I'm sure a lot of guys have done that. He did it to EC3. He was just like, fuck this. Split and EC3 got his ass beat. I don't have any Craig hate. That's all you, man. Name two Craig's you like. I can only name one Craig that I know. Who? We went to school with him.
00:07:56
Speaker
Yeah, and he wore, he was weird. He wore weird little shorts. So you're already going after him. I'm going after the Craig. We cover pro wrestling. A lot of people wear weird shorts. What's your deal? I don't know. They were just weird little shorts. I didn't trust them. I mean, Craig, Craig Mitchell's in a one piece. I guess do we call it a one piece or do we call it? Watch what you say. You are, you are burying yourself and Craig Mitchell's in a position to make you pay.
00:08:25
Speaker
Hey, yeah, I said hey, like there was gonna be a definitive statement. Maybe I'll have to change where I normally stand at Southern Underground Pro Blend in with the crowd a little more. I don't wanna get fucked up by Craig.
Social Media & Listener Engagement
00:08:40
Speaker
Craig Mitchell knows where to follow us on our social media though. Actually, yeah, he does, he does. At Wrestle Hangout on Twitter, at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram. Hashtag Craig hate if you agree with me.
00:08:55
Speaker
Are we still running our promotion? If you leave us a kind review on iTunes and give us those five stars, if you do that for us, we will watch whatever you want as long as it's related to pro wrestling. We'll talk about it on the show. You hear that, Craig? I'll watch your entire matchography. I don't know what I call it. I know it's discography if you're a band. Craig, matchography. You leave us a nice review. I'll watch all your matches. And maybe I'll even root for you. I just, you know. Maybe.
00:09:24
Speaker
We gotta bridge that Craig hate. I need a Craig to do something that allows me to trust him, but when there's a heel Craig running around, that just further reinforces how I feel about Craig's. I'm a little uncomfortable with how often you're using the word we. We. We need to bridge our... I don't have any Craig hate. That's all you.
00:09:43
Speaker
Take a chop. Craig, if you're listening to this podcast, please find Garrett at the next Southern Underground Pro Show and chop the shit out of him. The shit out of him. Like, multiple? It won't be too hard to chop a shit out of him, but chop him anyway. Oh, especially if I've had anything to eat. Like, anything. Anything dairy. Yeah. Yeah, feed me a milkshake and chop the shit out of him.
00:10:07
Speaker
Oh my god, it'd be like one of those old Play-Doh things from when we were kids. Just pushes it straight out. Right on your chest. Let's look at some of the matches though that Southern Underground Pro has real quick. We'll talk about them at the top here because we will be sponsoring the next show.
00:10:24
Speaker
Let's see, going through here, so we have Sad Kompf versus Donovan Allen and Angelus Lane, who she broke Kevin Koo's neck. He almost broke my hand. Angelus Lane, on your side here. You're making enemies every day. I'm not making, okay, I am a little afraid because the next show I'm supposed to interview, hopefully, Marco Stunt and Alley Cat, but if I'm in the back interviewing them and Craig walks by and sees it happening, I can't imagine he's gonna be nice.
00:10:55
Speaker
Craig, I would love to have you on the podcast so you could just run down Garrett in front of me. Craig, if you want to be on this show, there's some ground rules. There's some ground rules. First one, change your name. You both are Chicago guys.
00:11:12
Speaker
Yeah, we probably got a lot to talk about. Yeah, let's see. We've got, uh, what's that guy's name? Uh, shit. Why doesn't he, why wouldn't you put your name in your fucking thing? I think his name is, fuck it. We're not talking about this. We're just moving on. All right. We got Ali Cat and Mr. Brickster on the same team, though, for a tag match. Very excited to see, uh, see Legos and Kitty Cats.
00:11:37
Speaker
ouch cabana man dan is back he's gonna be chopping people to flip-flop god damn it's just a fun show guys get out there and we're sponsoring it and if we do something if we tell you to do something follow us blindly just do it go get your flu shot just do it register to vote it's too late if you didn't already register yeah I guess by now yeah if you're listening to this now it's too late if you didn't listen to Taylor Swift then why would you have listened to us
00:12:09
Speaker
Where do we rank? It takes a Dwayne for them to listen. A Dwayne Johnson? A Dwayne Johnson, and he's never saying shit. Would you, if Dwayne Johnson ran for any kind of political office, would you vote for him? Oh. Like seriously.
00:12:29
Speaker
I know you'll show up at his fucking movie no matter how bad it is. There's a difference between making me sit through a two hour piece of shit in, you know, four years.
00:12:42
Speaker
Those are gonna be four years of good promos, though. Oh, I mean, he'll give phenomenal speeches. He's got a beautiful smile. Hey, I've sexualized The Rock enough on this podcast to know if he's gonna... The state of the union addresses, man. The state of the union addresses. Is it gonna be like that The Reagan thing where people are afraid of him because they're like, well, he beat a fucking giant monster. Like he beat a flying wolf. He kicked out of multiple stone-cold stunners.
00:13:10
Speaker
If all it takes is fighting a giant monster, Statham punched a shark in the mag. If he told Putin to know his role and shut his mouth. Oh, I mean, I'd cum.
00:13:26
Speaker
Like, that's what we've been waiting for. Is you coming? No! I was gonna say, I don't know if I agree. I can wait a little bit longer on that. I'm not here for that. Now you getting chopped and shitting, yeah. Speaking of getting chopped and shitting, holy shit. I'm glad there's a transition for this. There is a transition. So Janela has the LA Confidential show coming up, Survivor Series Weekend.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah, which seems so far away right now. It really does. God, I wish I could be there because somebody we have talked about so many times on this show that I fear is going to be there. And I need all of our LA listeners, Billy, Luke, John. Maybe this is your first assignment. You're gonna have to get your ass out there and you're gonna have to go talk to Bob Holly for me. Oh my God. Bob Holly versus Brody King.
00:14:24
Speaker
That's, yeah, Bob Holly's a guy who can chop and make you shit. And Brody King is a guy who's gonna have to deal with shit in his pants. Like a reverse Pez dispenser. We have...
00:14:40
Speaker
And while Brody King's been mentioned, I have to say this, I was listening to one of the more recent episodes of Colt Cabana's podcast, and he was on a show with Brody. And he was talking to Brody King, and Brody was talking about how his tailbone was bruised.
00:14:58
Speaker
and he didn't go into as much rich detail as I did, but it's from that, it's from the PCO Bola match. Oh, fuck. He was talking about having to like sit on a donut on the airplane and how the entire next- But that makes travel miserable. Oh my God, flying with a broke ass. And he-
00:15:22
Speaker
Colcabana asked him what happened, and he didn't name names. All he said was, I didn't get caught as much as I should have. And I was like, motherfucker, you mean at all. You went too far that way. He went too far this way. You splatted on the concrete. And I didn't realize the next match that Brody had, he didn't bump. He figured he did a match without landing on his ass at all.
00:15:53
Speaker
I've heard them say that you don't know how to work until you work hurt. That would probably qualify. I need to see a fatal four way of three dudes with broke asses and just see what they can figure out to do. What was your quote again writing on a plane with a broke ass? I don't know. It sounds like a fucking folk song or something. I was going to say it sounds like a country western number.
00:16:22
Speaker
riding on a plane with a broke ass. Got my face full of GCW's glass. Oh, you're doing it, man. Yeah, I'm making. Yeah. I got a career ahead of me. Did you watch that Australia show?
00:16:47
Speaker
I did watch most of the Australia show. Again, we talked about the awkward time that it was on, and at one point I had considered saying, fuck it, I'm gonna get to sleep in on Saturday anyway, so maybe I'll get up and I'll watch it live. That didn't happen, because sleeping feels really, really good.
00:17:05
Speaker
Um, by the time I woke up, I actually, the WWE app made sure to let me know the result of every fucking match that happened.
WWE Highlights & Quality Promos
00:17:13
Speaker
And most of the results were very house show type results. Wouldn't you say? Yes, but I very much enjoyed the show.
00:17:24
Speaker
I enjoyed the few matches that I did watch. I watched the entire thing start to finish. That's dedication. Exactly 24 hours after it happened. The next morning? I started that show at 2 AM the next day. Oh, lovely. I felt like I needed the real experience.
00:17:45
Speaker
But honestly, I think it was, I had just been away from WWE kind of since SummerSlam. I've watched highlights here and there, but I'd never really just sat down and watched it recently, and I think I actually missed it. Did it feel nice to watch it again? Yeah, it was a different style, and they do such a good job with their promo videos that by the end of the promo video, it's like, fuck yeah, this match is important.
00:18:25
Speaker
Which actually, that's another thing we should plug while we're thinking about it. We were just on an episode of the Curtain Jerks podcast just a few days ago. They put our interview with them from Starcast up. So if you haven't already, go over to Curtain Jerks, check out their pod, and we are guests on there that you can listen to.
00:18:39
Speaker
I'm ready. Let's do it.
00:18:45
Speaker
That's exciting, isn't it, guys? Yeah, there's bonus content. You get to hear us again, and I believe Ron Funches is on the same episode as us. And then you know what? When you're done with that, hop back over if you haven't listened to our episode with Ron Funches in our episode with the Curtain Jerks. We're plugging old episodes, because that's what we do. And while you're at it, go back and listen to that GCW episode. If you want to hear us be really terrified at a wrestling show, people think that's our best episode.
00:19:14
Speaker
Okay, but back to, holy shit, I'm the one reeling it back in this time. Has that ever happened? It's a beautiful day, says YouTube. Shut up. Super Showdown. Yeah, what were your thoughts on the show? I'm opening it up. What was the... I'm trying to find the card here. What was the first match on this one? The opener was the bar against the new day.
00:19:43
Speaker
Derek, I fucking love the bar. You don't watch WWE very much for all this time, and this is what we're coming back to. You're a big bar mark. It's just every fucking time they come out, they've added a new thing to their entrance. Were you thinking about what I told you with Cesaro taking forever to come around Sheamus? Oh my god, he just takes longer and longer, and you know that Sheamus didn't come up with any of that shit.
00:20:12
Speaker
You gotta think there's sometimes where he's wondering if he's even actually behind him. Eventually he's just gonna stand up there for twelve and a half minutes with his arms out. And that bright ass light, that's why the sunglasses are there. I don't know why I love the bar as much as I do, but I have such a good time watching those two guys work.
00:20:37
Speaker
That's because they're drinking, buddies. That's it! I mean, it's just two guys that are like, you know what? We like drinking, we like kicking ass, and I like adding a whole bunch of shit to our entrance.
00:20:48
Speaker
I'm gonna, okay, so you stand with your arms out, I'm gonna stand behind you. I'm gonna wait a different amount of time every single time I come out, but I'm gonna go- And then I'm gonna scot-haul around you. I'm gonna scot-haul around you, and then we're gonna, what is it, like the Dragon Ball Z? No, that's not Dragon Ball- Yeah, they do do like the total like fusion dance thing. And then- And then they hook each other's arms around each other's shoulders and stick out their thumbs.
00:21:13
Speaker
And then they twirl sometimes down the ramp, sometimes they spin. And then it all ends with the Macarena. They do something when they get to the ring. But they've added bits and parts to their fucking gimmick and their entrance. I know that every plane ride, it's probably Cesaro just staring into the middle distance. And Sheamus says, I know I'm going to regret this.
00:21:38
Speaker
but what are you thinking about and he's like i've got just we're just missing something in our entrance we just need one more thing we need that missing piece we'll be in the main event soon if we just think of the best entrance
00:21:56
Speaker
I don't remember the match. I was going to say I don't either. But I do remember just enjoying the shit out of just seeing the bar again. I hadn't OK. We had talked about how this, you know, felt like a house show. I don't I don't know. We were also talking about how, you know, having these big shows overseas and what, you know, you can you complained a little bit that the Australians got to watch it at their normal time.
00:22:24
Speaker
I was questioning whether or not, have we completely gone international now? I'm fine with them getting their shows and them getting them to be put on WWE Network, but my question is, are they canon? You mean like is the last time I ever saw Triple H and Undertaker fight? Does that not matter anymore because they're gonna do it again next month?
00:22:46
Speaker
Yeah. I just think it's a fair question. Like, is this supposed to be a house show type vibe where anything can happen but we don't necessarily talk about it on Raw? And it doesn't seem like that was the case. I didn't know that until Raw this past Monday. They are taking everything legit.
00:23:01
Speaker
Good on WWE for, you know, their shows haven't been selling as well here. I feel like I kept hearing about some fairly empty shows. I feel like this is their way of being able to go like, you know what? Fuck you. We can put on a house show in Australia for 80,000 people and make it feel like WrestleMania. Here's two middle fingers for you.
00:23:22
Speaker
it's true now as far as we're in the middle of trying to talk about super showdown um i guess we'll come back to that here in a moment but do you think it's a bad look on them going back and doing another show in saudi arabia like is that does any goodwill created by their ability to go overseas and do all these shows to the mainstream audience is that a positive or a negative
00:23:45
Speaker
I think them traveling around is positive. I mean, us seeing these gigantic stadiums filled with people that looks great for them. Well, because it's appreciated overseas, whereas here we're inundated with it every week. And I just I feel like watching the crowds over there, they just seemed very appreciative to be seeing everybody. It's not. Yeah. These are people that we have the opportunity to see, you know, depending on where you live, like what, three times a year, sometimes more.
00:24:13
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree. You know, I'll take if it came across that I don't think that they deserve a show. That's not what I'm going for at all. I'm glad, especially since we don't know how God, how long before they do their first WrestleMania, actual WrestleMania overseas. They got to go do one in London or something. That seems to me like the crowd would just be so cool there, you know, having that chanting throughout the entire thing. But maybe Vince doesn't like the singing.
00:24:42
Speaker
I don't know. And the funny thing is they could totally do that. They could totally do WrestleMania overseas and then they could throw like a super showdown that's not WrestleMania somewhere in the States in the same year just to cover people who like going to a big show in the States.
00:25:00
Speaker
Do you, I don't know, I don't know if that would work here. I don't know if you could do a WrestleMania sized show that isn't just WrestleMania in the United States.
WrestleMania Overseas: Pros and Cons
00:25:08
Speaker
Because as I was saying, I just, I think we see them too much for any of that to be special. Maybe, maybe you're right.
00:25:16
Speaker
Maybe if they take a year off, we'll appreciate them a little bit more again. I think if they did spend more time overseas, that would make it feel a little more special when we can see them. Especially if they're getting paid a billion dollars to do a show.
00:25:33
Speaker
Yeah, like the Saudi Arabia thing, I don't blame them. I actually hope this prince gets some more control. I like where his head's at. Do you think it was the prince who requested the reuniting of DX? No, I think the prince is like, we want to see Shawn Michaels. And he's like, I'm not doing a singles match. Fuck you. And then they're like $25 million. He's like, you put Triple H in there with me. I'm in. Let's do this shit.
00:26:01
Speaker
Like, I hope that eventually this prince gets kind of wacky with it. I hope there's a point where the undertaker is retired, he's gone. And then this prince is like, we want the undertaker. And like, you can't have him, he's done. And he's like, 25 million. And Mark's like, oh yeah, man, let's do this shit. What are we doing? That'll cover a couple of new hips. And he's like, I can do whatever I want here. And they're like, who are we taking on? And the Saudi Arabian prince is like, PCO, my man. PCOs are retiring you.
00:26:30
Speaker
What else off the Super Showdown? What stood out to you? I didn't get a chance to watch every match, but I did make a point to watch Charlotte and Becky. I did catch the end of the Shield versus Braun, Ziggler, and McIntyre match. I hope you didn't miss the match of the show, which is the Cruiserweight match.
00:26:56
Speaker
I did miss that match. God damn, that was a good one. I've heard that it was a match of the year candidate. It really is, man. That is one that you absolutely should go back and watch. Well, sell me on it. Because you know I'm not nuts about 205 Live or the cruiserweight division right now. I don't really follow it. But if you saw the match, sell it to me and sell it to somebody who hasn't watched it, why this one is worth taking time to watch.
00:27:20
Speaker
They spent a lot of time kind of telling you Buddy Murphy is the best kept secret in wrestling. And he really has been. How often has it been recently that you hear, God, you really got to tune into 205 Live and see this Buddy Murphy match?
00:27:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's just it's so often and he I mean they put on a WrestleMania match they put it was Buddy Murphy and Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy man that guy is just He is so good in town crowd. Oh, yeah, he's somebody that as I was watching him I was just started wondering Who else could I see Buddy Murphy against that I would be excited about and there's so many he's somebody that if he got off a 205 live or if I
00:28:05
Speaker
they actually build it around him. I think he could be a big enough star that people would tune in to watch Buddy Murphy. They just have to figure out a way to get us to actually tune into it to see him. Part of me, and this has been my complaint since the beginning of 205 Live, I just think the cruiserweights should be incorporated with the regular show.
00:28:23
Speaker
Take him off the pre-show at the pay-per-views at least. If you want people to actually see this and make it seem like it matters, at the next pay-per-view, have a goddamn Buddy Murphy championship match in the middle of the show. Let him tear the house down and really show these people, this is why you should be tuning into this. Because, I mean, at this point, there's so much fucking wrestling, but I wanna watch Buddy Murphy go. And getting to see him win that title in his hometown,
00:28:52
Speaker
was wild. I can't imagine that he ever thought he would be wrestling in front of that many people winning a championship title. And as far as I think I read somewhere, he was the first Australian to hold a title. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. And it was also really it was the only championship that changed hands at this show. Do you feel like it made the cruiserweight title mean something?
00:29:17
Speaker
I mean, I think seeing an entire room or an entire stadium be that amped for something should make it mean a little bit more. Yeah. Because they have not had that yet. I don't know if I've seen a meaningful cruiserweight match in person yet. Oh, God, didn't Austin Aries and Neville, didn't they have some meaningful matches for that title?
00:29:42
Speaker
I guess I saw at WrestleMania Austin Aries versus Neville, and that was kind of the night we all thought Austin Aries was going over. He lost and then left the company. Yeah, and then he got mad because they cut his match from the DVD or whatever. Oh shit, I forgot about that.
00:30:00
Speaker
Yeah, that was his rationale. He felt like he put on this great match with Neville, and then when it came time to cut stuff, they just chucked it aside. Understood, and Austin Aries is out doing great things right now. Yeah, he was the belt collector for a minute. I bet he still has a couple. Yeah. You said you watch Becky Charlotte. I watched Becky Charlotte. I thought it was great. I thought it was wonderful. I think this is the best feud going in WWE right now. Wouldn't anyone disagree with that? I don't think so. I think it really is.
00:30:30
Speaker
We're recording this on a Tuesday this week, so they're supposed to have a rematch for that title tonight. Oh shit, see now that's something that I actually wanna tune in for. Yeah. They've got a story and now they're gonna have a rematch for the title? Tonight on SmackDown, yes. That's awesome. Why are they okay with doing that with the women's belt but not the men's?
00:30:52
Speaker
I don't know if they're the old. Here's the thing. There's probably the pressing issue. They've got evolution coming up here in a couple of weeks. They need to progress this story or they need to make something happen to connect what they've been doing to that pay per view. So we'll see what they end up doing tonight. But did they get in a DQ?
00:31:09
Speaker
You watched Raw last night, right? I watched most of Raw last night. Did they do anything to start progressing the evolution story? They had the Bellas turn on Ronda Rousey. I don't know. They fucked up with that. I remember at SummerSlam reading an announcement on my phone saying it was Ronda Rousey versus Nikki Bella at Evolution.
00:31:33
Speaker
Yeah, they don't know what they're doing. And then it was as if they wished they hadn't told me that. And then had to figure out how to get to it. I would have liked to have gone to last night's show from what from what I'm hearing. Raw was really, really good. That's what everyone's consensus opinion is. And like I said, I watched most of it. A lot of it was good. A lot of it was it depends on how you feel about them incorporating the old timers back into the show.
00:31:58
Speaker
Speaking of which, since we're talking about evolution, they did bring Trish Stratus back last night and had a promo against Alexa Bliss and Mickey James. They came out and it turns out they're combining two matches. It was supposed to be Mickey James versus Lita and Trish versus Alexa. Well, they're turning into a tag match now.
00:32:17
Speaker
And some people are into that. I think everyone kind of understands it's probably being done to protect Lita from being injured, which makes sense. Plus, I think Alexis hurt too. If I'm if I've been hearing correctly. And just they haven't done a singles match in so long that do they need that much time to be able to do it and.
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, everyone's going to have a different opinion on this. I was actually looking forward to seeing Trish do a singles match. And to me, this kind of takes away something from that show. It's cool to see Trish and lead a team together, no doubt. But I think the opportunity for those two, since they were such important women's wrestlers a decade plus ago, people were looking forward to seeing them wrestle on their own and just kind of jamming into another clustered tag match situation. It's a little weird.
00:33:07
Speaker
It's a little weird, it's a little disappointing from my perspective, but it is what it is if they're protecting one of their stars, totally get it. Especially somebody who hasn't wrestled in a long time, like Lita. Yeah, I mean, that being said, I'm still excited to see Alexa Bliss and Trish Stratus fight each other. God damn it, I just set my Amazon thing off. Again.
00:33:30
Speaker
I need to unplug that when I record. But yeah, so they are building a little bit towards evolution. I think people wish they would push a little bit harder and make them the primary segments of the show, which I don't know. I don't feel like they're ignoring it. I mean, maybe they could do a better job, but they did get some stuff accomplished.
WWE Evolution Event Challenges
00:33:50
Speaker
And we still have to wait for tonight's SmackDown to see what they do on that end.
00:33:54
Speaker
I think people are really looking forward to this show. And it's their first time trying to do this. So I mean, maybe they're trying to figure out how to book it and not ignore all of the male superstars on their roster. That's a difficult line to walk. I don't know. How do you think they should handle that?
00:34:13
Speaker
I mean, especially since they're not on the Saudi Arabia show again and this month is their pay per view. Yeah. Give them their time. Yeah. I. But I don't know. I also am. How are people feeling about Ronda Rousey versus Nikki Bella? Am I the only one that is that match made for me? And that match is made for you. From what I understand, most people are not happy that that's what they chose to go with.
00:34:36
Speaker
Well, I'm pointing at my balls. They can. Oh, God. So no. God, what else off this super show? And I did watch the Owens and Elias versus Cena and Lashley match, which is interesting because the talk of the show was John Cena's hair.
00:34:57
Speaker
Which, when I saw a picture of him a while back when he posted it on Instagram of how buff he was, my first thought was, I actually, when I saw the picture it was small and I thought it was JBL.
00:35:11
Speaker
It's crazy how a haircut can really transform a man's face. I turned to my girlfriend, I said, he normally gets the Mark Wahlberg jokes anyway, but with that long hair, it totally comes through even harder. So he's been in China taking lessons from Jackie Chan? Is that what they were saying? Yeah, I think they're doing some kind of movie together. I don't know what the fuck's going on, but he added a sixth move of doom. Whatever the hell that means. Yeah, he did something with like an X and then like a Dragon Ball Z punch or something.
00:35:40
Speaker
yeah it's outrageous it's crazy man he's got six he had a sixth move with that springboard stunner we just quit doing it yeah it's fucking bonkers that would have been an excellent sixth move of doom i thought that move was pretty cool stone cold was just pissed it wasn't a finisher my question to you is speaking since we're talking about this match how do you feel about owens using the stunner in his move set
00:36:02
Speaker
Well, I think he talked to Stone Cold about it and Stone Cold had some critiques. And I think he's since fixed some of it. So I like it. That's such an iconic move. Why not have somebody do it?
00:36:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's so hard, I think, on the roster. Half the roster throws super kicks now all the time. It's hard to get a move that's your own. And for him to be like, well, I was a giant stone cold fan, so I'm doing it. And I don't think Austin has a problem with it. I think it's cool. I pop for it. And he did it again on Raw. Has he been doing the pop-up power bomb as much? I mean, he goes for it. I couldn't tell you the last time I saw him connect with one.
00:36:43
Speaker
That almost means he's a man with no finisher right now.
00:36:46
Speaker
Well, they are repackaging him. So what happened last night? He's a baby face now? There was a double turn. First of all, the show was here in Chicago at Allstate Arena. And they decided to have Leo Rush be on the microphone during a Bobby Lashley versus Kevin Owens match. And they did a double turn where Leo Rush was annoying and was downplaying the threat that Owens was and saying he's not an athlete. And the crowd naturally not giving a fuck about Bobby and being annoyed by Leo Rush.
00:37:15
Speaker
and his commentary, it was already a pro Owens crowd because it was in Chicago. And then it just happened naturally. And the craziest thing about it was, I couldn't tell you the last time I saw a double turn, but they did it in the exact building that WrestleMania 13 was held in where Bret Hart and Steve Austin did their double turn. Oh no, I don't, I didn't remember that was in Chicago.
00:37:38
Speaker
Yeah, that was at the Rosemount Horizon for WrestleMania 13. Well, no wonder that's Stone Cold's favorite venue. Like the most iconic moment of his career happened there. Yeah. So they did that last night. I think it's going to help everybody involved. I think what they did on Raw is going to help everybody that participated. I think it's natural for Leo Rush to be obnoxious.
00:38:01
Speaker
and Bobby Lashley went after Owens and attacked him after the match and injured both of his knees in kayfabe land so I think oh it's gonna be interesting to see Owens play a babyface or at least at least a popular tweener which is what I think the natural reaction to him has been so
Kevin Owens' Character Turn
00:38:18
Speaker
Cause he was a baby face for a minute in WWE, right? Like wasn't he a baby face when he was the new face of America or whatever? No, he was a baby face for half a night. When he made his debut against CJ Parker, who eventually turned into Juice Robinson.
00:38:36
Speaker
And then at the end of the show, turned on Zane at the end of the, what was it, R-Evolution, NXT R-Evolution? Is that really the only time he's been an actual babyface there? Yeah, just during his debut. That's it. That's the only time. Now you could debate if you want to be one of those people that's like, well, he was getting face reactions. To me, the reaction isn't so much dictate whether or not your babyface or hurl so much as your character's actions.
00:39:01
Speaker
It's going back to the Cody thing, and different buildings are a different thing. I guess technically any show they've done in Montreal. But yeah, so we got a double turn. The shield match at Super Showdown was what it was. Yeah, we don't need to spend time on that. I mean, it was good. There were some good spots in there, but I think everyone kind of knew how that one was going to end. Yeah, and then, OK, what did you get out of Undertaker Triple H? I turned it off about 10 minutes in.
00:39:30
Speaker
So you missed the other 90 minutes of that match. I felt like I watched that match forever.
Undertaker vs Triple H: Time to Retire?
00:39:35
Speaker
I just, I wasn't interested. I wasn't interested and I was mumbling under my breath the whole match because they kept selling it as Triple H has not been able to beat Undertaker. And I wanted to keep saying to them at WrestleMania.
00:39:51
Speaker
At WrestleMania was the issue. This is super showdown. This is just the show. I'm sure Triple H has beaten Undertaker at some point at a show in his career. Making it seem like the issue was Triple H has never been able to beat this guy. No, he just hasn't been able to beat him at WrestleMania. That's not the issue.
00:40:12
Speaker
and just fucking take her, like I'm sorry guys, take her needs to retire. Like I'm sure he's getting a great payday and maybe he still loves doing it, but this whole feud to me is sad. I'm not into it that much. Yeah, kind of having Legend's headline doesn't really do it for me anymore. If the Legend is gonna headline, they need to be putting over the younger guys.
00:40:40
Speaker
So it makes sense that Taker put over Triple H then. Fuck you. I like that Triple H looks like a fucking Game of Thrones king. I will make this note. I thought it was adorable that he had an NXT patch on his leather vest that he came out in. Well he wants his kids to know that he loves him. Exactly. He was a proud papa.
00:41:07
Speaker
Let me show, let me show you guys how daddy does things. Like somewhere, like fucking Kyle O'Reilly sitting in a locker room, he's like, aw. He loves us. He's like, so I have to make my matches slower and beat up an old man. I have all of your pictures in my wallet. He opens his thing and it's just, how many fucking people are in NXT right now? He's like, a lot. I'll be like, where's Jizz and what? Fuck. Otis and Jizz. And he's like, oh, they're in here. They're in here.
00:41:37
Speaker
And it's not just the current roster, too. It's everyone that's ever been there. Jizz had a title match. At Super Showdown? No! On NXT, Jizz fought Champa. Yeah, I bet that went really well for him. I mean, it was the main event I've wanted forever. I don't know about everyone else. Fucking liar. But when they post that it's like Jizz versus Champa, which, okay, has it been long enough that we need to explain Otis and Jizz again?
00:42:08
Speaker
Briefly, I think our audience gets it. Otis and Jizz is heavy machinery. Tucker is Otis, and Otis is Jizz. Just look at their faces and tell me I'm wrong. Yeah, you know which one's Jizz when you look at him. See, now I've got Craig mad at me, Jizz isn't gonna like this at all. I hope he's listening. If Jizz is listening, he should just be happy that we talked about him. So Jizz got a title match.
00:42:34
Speaker
Yeah, he didn't win. That's, yeah. Shocking. I hope that Jizz makes it to the main roster in teams with Kevin Owens. Oh, God. Needs that KO rub. Well, he's been giving the rub to fucking everybody he's encountered in the last year and a half, so why the fuck not? That's what happens when you're good at what you do. You lose?
00:43:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's how Vince looks at it. He's like, oh, this guy's over. Let's see how over I can keep him while jobbing him out to everybody. And he's done a great job of staying over. Well, Jizz is working on getting over. We're dedicating a portion of this show to talking about Jizz from Heavy Machinery. Yeah.
00:43:23
Speaker
It's like you just realized. We have other great things to talk about that are non WWE. Let's move on
New Japan Pro Wrestling Highlights
00:43:30
Speaker
to those. I just thought like since there was a WWE show that I kind of enjoyed beginning to end and had a good time that we should talk about it. That was super showdown. What are you talking about? Now we're talking about NXT.
00:43:44
Speaker
Well let's move on to, let's move on. I'm escorting you out. Dude I watched so much wrestling this weekend that being able to remember anything specific from any of these matches is impossible. Well we can talk about the fucking New Japan show just a couple days ago. So New Japan had, what is it, King of Pro Wrestling was the name of this one?
00:44:09
Speaker
Yeah. And I was, I didn't get to watch the entire thing on this. I started with the junior heavyweight match. Yeah. I've noticed they're really starting, Wrestle kingdoms in January, isn't it? Yeah. They're already promoting that show pretty hard. Is that normal? Like, is this like an ever, like, do they usually start in October for that? Yeah. Cause now I don't think Kenny has to defend the title until wrestle kingdom.
00:44:35
Speaker
That's crazy. I think he's I mean he's going to be at all the shows probably doing like you know multi man matches or Golden Lovers stuff until then. Yeah. Yeah. But it gives you time for a long build to have him versus Tana Hashi. Yeah. Well there were so many things that happened on this show. A lot happened story wise in New Japan in the span of one show.
00:44:57
Speaker
Well, they debuted a new member of LIJ. Holy shit, which was not expecting this. Shingo Takagi, which we had just talked about. Did I say his name right? Yeah. Shingo Takagi, we just talked about him because he made it to the final three at Bola. Yeah. I watched him fucking beat Walter last month.
00:45:22
Speaker
and move on to the main event of Bola and was not expecting him. But that makes sense because remember what was it last week or two weeks ago? Neville appeared at Dragon Gate and beat Takagi in his final match at Dragon Gate. Yeah. So I guess it makes sense that he was moving on somewhere else. I guess in my head I was like, oh, I guess he's done forever. I guess your immediate reaction, you think that's a good fit?
00:45:46
Speaker
I think it's pretty cool. I mean, I didn't know a lot about the guy pre Bola, but getting to watch him work several matches in one weekend. I enjoyed what he did. I'm open to seeing what he adds to the team. Now, one of the other things we kept messaging back and forth about during the show, because we I guess we didn't want to spoil what the other one didn't know. I was getting updates on it when I got into work early. So I kind of knew some of the things that had happened was the big thing that you were referring to was was it was it Jericho?
00:46:16
Speaker
Yeah, Jericho attacked Evil. During it, it was supposed to be Evil versus Zack Sabre Jr. and the match didn't happen because this time the dick druid was Chris Jericho.
00:46:32
Speaker
How do you feel about his, like, crow makeup? He's having a good time. I mean, he's having a good time. I don't know if it's my favorite version of Jericho. I mean, my favorite thing to watch during this is he's in the crow makeup beating the shit out of evil and Zack Sabre Jr. is on the side of the ring looking confused.
00:46:51
Speaker
Like, my match is being interrupted. What do I do now? Like, I just loved watching his face. Like, this is bullshit. And then when Jericho finally leaves, he's like, well, I'm still beating the shit out of this guy. Doesn't change my plans. And then he puts him in the thing and he puts him in a hold. And I feel like you just keep hearing him yelling profanity at the crowd. I fucking love Zack Sabre Jr. I want him versus Jericho next.
00:47:17
Speaker
He made comments that could lead to that too. Yeah, he said what do you say is like stay away go keep listening to your classic rock on a boat or whatever He said he said go listen to your old man rock and stay on your boat or something like that. I Hope it does get there. I think that would be a rock dad rock. That would be an interesting matchup because Jericho was the man of how many holds and
00:47:41
Speaker
God, what was it, 3,000? Well, I promise you. Arm bar. I promise you he knows that Zack Sabre Jr. knows some shit that Jericho does not. Sure. And I'm sure Jericho's going through quite a time in his life. He and Takata would actually be really good together right now. Okada, sorry, Okada. Oh, yeah, that would man. They're both going through a midlife situation right now. Yeah, Okada had a rough weekend, man. Yeah, what happened?
00:48:11
Speaker
His buddies turned on him. Yeah, I saw that. And then goddamn Jay White joined the Bullet Club. Yeah, OG Bullet Club. He's a member of the firing squad now. Did you see, I think it was Tomatanga posted a picture and it was bullets with the names of each member, but his was a pullout knife. Yeah, I saw that. I think it was cool shit. I don't know. Do you think that's good for Jay White?
00:48:37
Speaker
I do. I don't I mean obviously like anyone that gets to join Bullet Club that's good for them because now they make that Bullet Club merch money. Yeah absolutely and they said they were recruiting and we've talked about how Jay White's just a heat machine. But didn't they they tried to recruit him a while back or no Kenny tried to recruit him and he turned it down. Yeah that makes sense. Maybe he was in negotiations at the time.
00:49:01
Speaker
That was, you know what, that it's good. Everybody there's in a faction. You know, did you check out Kushida versus Skrull? I did. I thought it was great. I had a good time. I was pretty shocked at how much, I don't know, you would kind of think that Marty wouldn't be as over as Kushida and he was getting chanced that entire match. Yep.
00:49:26
Speaker
Yeah, and I got a comment on Kushida's awesome ring gear. Fuck, there was like a Mattel logo and everything on it. You love the Back to the Future thing? Absolutely. Do you love that that's the name of his finisher?
00:49:38
Speaker
Yeah, which is basically, it's like a DDT small package. Or it's like a brain buster small package. Either way, he did a couple of those to Marty and beat him, but they had a great match. But okay, let's move on to the main event of this thing. I fucking loved this triple threat match. Yeah, it was excellent. It's just, it's so rare. What did they say it was the third time in the history of New Japan that there had been a triple threat match?
00:50:07
Speaker
Yeah, and you and I've talked before about how much we like triple threat matches in that dynamic, but there was a whole other level on this because of the relationship between Ibushi and Kenny and Cody. Like there were so many layers to this.
00:50:23
Speaker
And it was such an excellent story throughout. Yeah. And it was brutal, too. Like you could see each guy was trying to trick the other one out of getting an advantage on them. And then they had a moment where each one of them snapped and we either knock the other one through a table or knock another guy to the outside and try to get the other guy one on one. This is I don't know that you're right, though, this as far as triple threats go, this is one of the best I've ever seen.
00:50:49
Speaker
Oh, it was so excellent. The thing starts with Omega and Ibushi kind of teaming up on Cody for the first part. And then there was a moment where Ibushi's down on the ground and Cody grabs him. It's like, you grabbing him. He's looking at Omega. He's like, here, you grab him too. We're friends. That was my favorite part of the match was he had to sit there and be like, we're friends too. Help me team up on him. And Kenny had to be like, yeah, I guess you're right. Yeah, why aren't we doing that?
00:51:19
Speaker
It's like just because he's your boyfriend doesn't mean that you can't help me kick his ass We still have to hang out after this and I get I don't know God, there were some brutal spots in this. Was there ever a moment that you didn't think Kenny was going over? No, and that's okay
00:51:39
Speaker
I mean, I feel like we just got them talking about how they're booking, you know, they're building towards Wrestle Kingdom right now. They wouldn't have put the title on Kenny if they didn't intend on him walking into that event as the guy. So, I mean, as far as the story being told, it was, I mean, there were moments where you're going, oh shit. I mean, I figured Kenny was going over, but it didn't affect like my enjoyment of the match at all.
00:52:05
Speaker
I'm very, very much looking forward to Kenny versus Tana Hashi at Wrestle Kingdom. It's just this kind of like ultimate baby face, baby face passing of the torch. Yeah.
00:52:18
Speaker
Is it interesting? The one thing that was crazy about this match is at different times they were definitely trying to kill each other. And then by the time the match was over, and Kenny pinned Ibushi after a one-winged Angel.
00:52:36
Speaker
They were all friends again, even though Cody had tried to use a chair. You know, fucking who. So I can't remember who knocked Kenny through the table, which, by the way, littlest table I've ever seen. And it actually broke. Yeah. Pretty rare for a Japanese table. And it looked like Kenny smacked his head off the railing. Oh, that was nasty.
00:52:57
Speaker
Yeah and there were, I'm trying to remember what else, did somebody get powerbombed? Oh Cody got powerbombed through the announcers table while they were sitting there. Yeah, no Kenny powerbombed Cody through the table and I think he was the first guy to kind of get to sit out for a little bit while the other two worked.
00:53:15
Speaker
I loved Cody too, like struggling with wanting to be a bad guy again, where the Bucks are like, you are not gonna hit him with that chair. He's like, you're right, I'm gonna hit him with the belt. And they're like, no, you're not gonna hit him with the belt either. He's like, you're right, the chair. And he rolled back. And then that was one of the sweetest moments of the entire thing was Kenny Omega crawling on top of a bushy to take the blow of the chair.
00:53:42
Speaker
I feel like everyone's just coping with Cody's instinct of just being a dick heel. Well, he's got two major titles and he wanted a third. I get it. I get it. Here's a fair question. Do you think Cody could ever one day hold that title? I was actually wondering this the entire match. I was wondering, will Cody re-sign with New Japan?
00:54:09
Speaker
Yeah, cuz it makes me wonder He I mean he's definitely one of the people that sticks out most there is not wrestling the same as everyone else He's still to me very much wrestles a WWE like Ring of Honor like, you know a little more of a main event style than strong
Cody Rhodes & New Japan: Title Potential?
00:54:28
Speaker
style But would you think that if you didn't know that already?
00:54:32
Speaker
I think I would. I think if you watched an entire card of New Japan and then you saw him going, you'd be like, this seems different than what they're doing, but not different bad. He's got his own thing that's great. I don't know. I just, I'm wondering if now that the NWA thing's happening, would he leave and head over to do whatever the fuck they're doing on TBS?
00:54:53
Speaker
We have to wait and see how that plays out. The NWA title can go around from promotion to promotion, because it has in the past. And that's what's kind of great about it. It's malleable. It can move around. But going back to the original question, I mean,
00:55:09
Speaker
Do you seek that? I mean, I don't know what their mold is for an IWGP champion, but does Cody fit that mold? I guess it was that what you're saying about him, his style being different. Does this is there? Does there have to be a specific wrestling style to hold that title? I guess Brock Lesnar has held that title.
00:55:30
Speaker
Maybe I need to go back and watch Brock's match that he had there, or Brock's title match that he had, to see what he was doing. Because he seems like the kind of guy that could just beat the shit out of all of them, and it'd be like, yeah, he was beating the shit out of them, but that's what they wanted him to do. I don't know. With the triple threat, you can see that they're kind of putting a little more American wrestling into it, just to test the waters and see how people feel.
00:55:59
Speaker
Um, maybe, I don't know, I feel like if Cody were to have it, he would have to have some kind of fuck finish that results in basically him stealing a title.
00:56:08
Speaker
for sure. I mean, I guess that's the one argument you could have made about this match is he's really on pace to being like a dynasty if he could get another title. Oh, if he had won that, I mean, I absolutely would have popped for him. I would have been absolutely shocked that we would have had Cody Rhodes versus Tana Hashi that didn't. But I don't know. It's hard for me to picture him ever getting that belt.
00:56:32
Speaker
Yeah, I guess only time will tell and going back to what we talked about last week. Do you still, do you feel even stronger about Marty going to WWE? I still think he's headed there.
00:56:45
Speaker
Are you disappointed, or does it make sense to you? Well, I was thinking about this too while I was watching the progress show, so I guess we can kind of transition into that from this. Yeah. There's some guys that when I see them, I think, perfect, you work in WWE. To me, Marty Skirrell is going to be great in WWE. He's going to make sense there. His style is going to fit fine. I guess it bums me out that, I don't know, I want everyone to make money and do what they want to do.
00:57:15
Speaker
Yeah. So if that's where he wants to be good on him. Well, I just want to say I actually agree with you on this. If I had to pick one member of the current Bullet Club that I said, you know, I could say looks better on a WWE roster, it's Marty. And I think Yumi and Alex, you know, Queen of the Ring, we were we were coming back the day after all and we were driving back into Chicago.
00:57:37
Speaker
And one of the things we were talking about was how amazing his entrance could be at the Royal Rumble. If he came out at number 13, and a great person for him to feud with right off the bat, presuming he doesn't go to 205 Live, but it's somebody like Finn Balor.
00:57:53
Speaker
Similar, similar height, you know, it does, there's like links there between them. I was gonna say like that piano music would be amazing. Oh yeah, when that hit, like if he has, I mean, I guess if they can use the same music that he had there, but he would get an enormous pop and they're gonna be at a fucking baseball stadium. So it's gonna look huge. Yeah. I don't know.
Marty Scurll's Potential WWE Move
00:58:22
Speaker
I get it, it's like seeing one of the members, the original members of your favorite band leave, but I think Marty would be great in WWE, provided they handle him correctly. Was it you and I that were talking about this, or was I talking to Queen of the Ring about this? I don't remember, one of you, or maybe none of you, said a great first feud would be Cole, and for him to go take over undisputed era, because he was the one that replaced Cole in the Bullet Club, and now he's there.
00:58:52
Speaker
Yeah, no, I don't think I said that. She might have said that or somebody didn't. But I read that recently, too. That's a natural progression, too. But what I was saying about thinking about who's going where, last night I started watching the Hello, Wembley show from Progress. It was finally released this weekend. This show, top to bottom, good on these fucking guys. I mean, they put on their own all-in over there.
00:59:20
Speaker
And finally got a progress subscription. I don't regret it at all. I I'm loving that show. But the opening match was a Mark Haskins versus Matt Riddle and Matt Riddle's final indie match. Well, before you even get into that, talk about the owner, Jim Smallman. Yes. Talk about the promo that he cut at the top of the show, which is just passionate about being a fan of pro wrestling. And this is like like how proud he is of the company.
00:59:46
Speaker
Yeah, before, that's one of the things I enjoyed most about when I went to the Progress show in New Orleans. He comes out and talks before every show, and kind of just gets the crowd warmed up, kind of like Excalibur does at PWG, and their big thing they chant is the only rule here. There's one rule, and then the whole crowd shouts, don't be a dick.
01:00:07
Speaker
Because it's pro wrestling for adults, I think is what their thing says. But him getting to go out there and stand in such an iconic arena and just basically give a passionate speech about pro wrestling and how good his fans are, I thought it was a wonderful open to that show.
01:00:27
Speaker
Well he took a poll asking how many people had been to progress shows in the past and a large section of the audience cheered and then he's like alright and for how many people this is their first show and there were still like quite a few people who cheered for that too and no it was just a great way to open the show you could tell he's like like he said he's just a fan and he's blown away by like ironically the progress that they've made
01:00:51
Speaker
It's
01:01:09
Speaker
there is something it's completely different from watch it's so funny to go from new japan to this because it's basically two different levels of strong style but with two completely different audiences yeah and i'm going back to your opening match sorry i didn't mean to cut you off but i didn't want to forget that
01:01:26
Speaker
Yeah, no, no. To me, that's an important part. And the crowd is what made that progress show in New Orleans my favorite thing of the weekend. I really fell in love with that promotion. It was just such a good vibe and such good wrestling happening. I would love to make it over there to a show one day. Yeah. But opening match Mark Haskins versus Matt Riddle. Did you get a chance to check out any of this one?
01:01:51
Speaker
I didn't get a chance to check out this one. The big one I wanted to watch, I got to watch. Okay. Well, we'll get to that one. If you don't know who Matt Riddle is, or if you're familiar, but you haven't really seen any matches, definitely hop on the Progress app and watch this thing. Matt Riddle had a great final match for the Endies, and he's won that the whole time I was watching him. I was like, God, if I could have put him anywhere, I would have loved for him to have been a top guy in New Japan.
01:02:21
Speaker
He just he kind of he has the vibe of like a California surfer. He's the the bro Matt Riddle. He's got a big dumb smile on his face when he walks out.
Matt Riddle's Unique Wrestling Style
01:02:30
Speaker
But then when you see him start going like just the way he's built, he's like if Sean Claude Van Damme were a Southern California surfer.
01:02:40
Speaker
He's really pleasing to look at and he hits so goddamn hard because he has that MMA background or the UFC background, which I think he had a pretty good undefeated streak in UFC. Before he was let go.
01:02:55
Speaker
Well, you said this was a banger of an opening match. They were just beating the shit out of each other, and it was cool to see him, you know, go out on his back and put over Mark Haskins. Yeah. But the whole time, there was a point in it where he kind of did a Rainmaker, but he did it as a knee. It looked like a Rainmaker V-trigger.
01:03:14
Speaker
Nice. And I thought that was cool as hell. Just the whole time, I couldn't stop thinking about, fuck, I wish we could have seen him versus Minoru Suzuki. I wish we could have seen him versus Okada. I wish we could have seen him go up against these guys that are known for really hard hitting. And we're just not going to get that. I think we're going to kind of get the Shinsuke version of him down in WWE. But you could see Matt Riddle versus Roman Reigns within the next couple of years. That's a possibility.
01:03:42
Speaker
And honestly, maybe that'll be cool because he looks like a UFC fighter. So if you let him go out there shirtless and just be the super jacked guy that he is, this guy to me is such a fun baby face. He is so happy when he's out there, and then when he needs to, you just see this crazy intensity on the guy's face. I loved the match. Go check out that opener, because that is one hell of a way to open the show.
01:04:10
Speaker
Well, the match I was most excited for here, the one you really pushed me to watch, was Walter versus Tyler Bate. And there's so many things I want to say about this. I want to just let you go, because when I got a text from you earlier where you were just raving about this Walter Tyler Bate match, it just made me happy. So I'm ready to hear what you got to say.
Walter vs Tyler Bate: David vs Goliath
01:04:31
Speaker
I guess the perfect summation of what I could say about this is probably the best David versus Goliath wrestling story put into a ring that I've ever seen. And Tyler Bate was clearly
01:04:47
Speaker
Obviously, a much smaller guy than Walter. And Walter is just a lumbering, like, just huge fucking presence. And Tyler Bate, you know, what do they call him? A big strong boy? Is his shtick?
01:05:04
Speaker
Well, it fucking holds up and just fucking Walter's chops. Everybody's heard about his fucking chops by now. They echo off the rafters and him chopping guys in midair. He's notorious for this. Oh, yeah. When bait goes off the he went off the top or middle rope to try and give a European uppercut and mid swing. Walter chopped him right in the back and it was such a loud pop. It was like a gunshot.
01:05:32
Speaker
And just watching Tyler deadlift this guy as many times as he did. Or pick him up on his shoulders in like a torture act position. Just, he like- He gave him a German suplex at one point on the outside of the ring.
01:05:45
Speaker
He gave him, well, God, who gave who? Somebody gave someone, was it Tyler Bate giving Walter the, the exploder suplex off the top rope? Yes. Good Lord. Like guys, if you, if you sit down and watch this match and the size difference between this two and you like, I guess this is the quality of a good David versus Goliath style match. You forget about it. And it just becomes like Tyler Bate hangs with this guy and takes him to the limit and
01:06:14
Speaker
God, it's such a good match. Fucking Walter wins. But he made Tyler Bate look like a million bucks. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And then you had the rest of Mustache Mountain on the outside of the ring, not interfering or anything, but just cheering him on. Yeah, Pete Dunn. Pete Dunn out there with his goddamn flip flops on. Get out of here. Put some shoes on. This is a big event. What's the story on him? How serious is his injury?
01:06:42
Speaker
Oh, he had a, is he hurt right now? I heard that he had a major injury and he's gonna be out for a while. Oh, cause he, earlier in the show, he had a match with Ilya Dragunov.
01:06:54
Speaker
which is the Russian guy that I had talked about from Bola. Once again, great fucking match. There's just a point in that where Pete Dunne is just stomping on his face. He is just stomping on Ilya's face. This is a great fucking show, man. I recommend for anyone to just pop this thing on. The women's triple threat is fucking awesome. It's all good, but sorry, go ahead.
01:07:16
Speaker
No, I was just going to say like maybe I got bad news. Maybe he's fine. I had read the other day that Pete Dunn was injured and was going to miss some time. So maybe not. Maybe maybe he's good. I need to look into that. I don't know. I because I don't know what he had in between progress and I don't know what he's been doing since then. It's only been a week.
Progress Wrestling & Fan Engagement
01:07:34
Speaker
This was like the first big chunk of progress wrestling that I've watched and I was completely blown away. So I mean, if you guys haven't, I would totally watch this show. And I think the Walter match is actually free if you hop on the app.
01:07:46
Speaker
Yeah, go check that out. It's a demand progress is the name of the app. And if you find it, I believe you can watch the Walter one for free. But would you say like you had a good you have a very positive look at progress right now? Absolutely. I can't say enough good things. Like I said, the fans were great. The look, the presentation, obviously they have they're able to bring in some quality people. I love their relationship with WWE. I think they legitimize each other.
01:08:14
Speaker
Um, good stuff. Yeah. Do you think you'll like, is somebody who just checked it out? I mean, obviously I just, I haven't seen a ton of progress myself. Like other than the couple I went to that weekend and just kind of following on Twitter, what had been happening there. I kind of want to start checking it out a little more and you know, not necessarily watch every single show just cause we have so much piling on now, but I think it's an actual contender of, you know, if there's a matchup I'm interested in, I'll definitely be checking them out.
01:08:42
Speaker
Yeah, no, I'm definitely gonna make a point to pop in a little bit more frequently from now on and just see what's going on because I was really impressed. Also for our Chicago listeners or just anyone who's heard us mention AAW, I have no I need to research and find out why, but the demand progress has all the AAW shows on it. Wow. Yeah, you mentioned that and I can only assume they have some kind of working relationship with them.
01:09:07
Speaker
Yeah, AAW's on there, Fest Wrestling from down in Florida's on there. It looked like there were several promotions on the Progress app. So, I mean, for $7.99 a month, it looks like you're getting some pretty good stuff. And honestly, $7.99 for this Hello Wimbly pay-per-view. It's like a four and a half hour pay-per-view, four hours, whatever. Check this thing out, it's 100% worth $7 or $8. You're gonna have a good time checking this thing out, especially that main event.
01:09:34
Speaker
And based on what I saw, I completely co-signed that endorsement. Before we get out of here this week, I want to drop a suggestion to our listeners. Halloween's coming up later this month, as you know. I guess my nickname or my Twitter handle or whatever is at Halloween Halpin.
Planning a Halloween Episode: Suggestions Needed
01:09:53
Speaker
So I guess for our October 25th episode, we're going to try to do a Halloween themed show. And if you are listening and you would like to recommend a match to us that's
01:10:04
Speaker
Halloween themed in some way, we would really appreciate that. We're gonna spend that October 25th episode, you know, covering really gory matches, matches involving masks. Maybe it's something from WCW's Halloween Havoc. Just something really comic-y themed or creepy or whatever. If you think it fits into the Halloween theme, submit, you know, yeah, send it our way. Just don't make me watch that Hell in a Cell where Bray Wyatt ruins it and comes out of the ground.
01:10:31
Speaker
Well, now somebody is specifically going to request that. They might have already forgotten about it. Well, you know, if you want me to watch that, leave a review and tell me to watch it because that's the only way I'm doing that one. Yeah. Just keep keep listening because our October 25th episode is going to definitely be Halloween themed. The Halloween help and takeover. Yeah.
01:10:51
Speaker
We better, we better theme that episode pretty hard. So yeah, we'll find some spooky music. So as a reminder, everyone, uh, hit us up on social media. We're at wrestle hangout on Facebook at wrestle hangout on Twitter at predetermined podcast on Instagram. And as we've been saying this whole episode, get on iTunes, give us the five star review, uh, and leave us some nice commentary. We would really appreciate it. Helps us out. Hope you liked this week's show. Garrett, anything else you would like to add before we take this thing out of here?
01:11:21
Speaker
Hit our goddamn music.