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Episode 57: I'm Not A Hose Boy Yet
61 Plays7 years ago
During this weeks hangout we're talking Jay White vs Tanahashi, ROH, the Double or Nothing ticket buying experience, WWE & why someone would choose to have a hose shower head.
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Transcript
Show Introduction and Personal Updates
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 I'm too tired and stressed out to give a proper introduction to, Derek Halpin.
00:00:12
Speaker
That's okay. I'm not going to hold it against you. You've had a busy slash rough week and you're living in a new place, my friend. Yeah. I basically from Friday up until Tuesday, I was either moving or packing things. It was just a lot of, a lot of movement, a lot of movement. Very tired. Last night was the first night we actually slept here.
00:00:35
Speaker
How did that go?
Ghosts and Real Estate Anecdotes
00:00:37
Speaker
Any ghosties? See, that's what I'm worried about. You know, there is, because I asked when we were looking for a house, is there going to be a ghost here? And they said no. But you know, you got to ask the important questions. Isn't it weird that that's actually kind of a thing, like when it comes to realty, that there are like, that's the thing that does come up frequently. And like even the realtors themselves will talk about things that have happened.
00:01:02
Speaker
I think it's is that something that they tend to not bring up at all unless asked right But what I'm saying is that like it does get brought up
00:01:13
Speaker
You don't find that with anything else. It's not like if you get a new car, you wonder if the car is haunted. But you do buy a house and people wonder, is the reason I got a good deal on this house because somebody was murdered in here and there's a ghost? Actually, the realtor did tell me they had a house where they asked somebody about the basement and they're like, actually, there was a fire down here, but I don't wanna disclose that. And they're like, well, you told me that, so now I have to disclose it legally.
00:01:40
Speaker
What happened? And she goes, well, my son locked my husband in the basement and set him on fire. What the fuck? Yeah. So as far as I know, that kind of shit didn't happen here. Last night, I didn't, you know, see any any ghosts. But you know, it's night one. And if I recall in the first paranormal activity, it took them a few days before they started seeing shit.
00:02:07
Speaker
Yeah, it took a while before things started rolling, but what you just found out is that some dad had a death match with his son in the basement of a house. Yeah, it was an inferno match. Yeah. That's not funny. Hit our goddamn music.
Sound Quality Concerns and Listener Engagement
00:02:54
Speaker
Kinda starting this week off on a dark note.
00:02:57
Speaker
Well, this is also, apologies if the sound quality is different this week. I think this week we might do a shortened episode. I have not had a lot of time to watch things and I am beat as hell right now. So we'll go as long as we go. But if there is an echo, I apologize. We just moved into this house. I'm looking for a space that had enough stuff that would maybe make the room not echo as bad. I don't know if I'm succeeding, but I'm trying my hardest, Derek.
00:03:26
Speaker
Well, you know, even if the episode isn't as long as it normally is, that's OK. You've had a rough week. But you know what I bet would make Philia better, Garrett? What would make me feel better? If our listeners, if our listeners, if they haven't already hopped on iTunes, gave us five stars and left us a review talking about, you know, what they like about the show, what's their favorite episode? That good stuff.
00:03:51
Speaker
And if you do that, we'll watch and talk about whatever you want. Please let it be Hobbs and Shaw, because I'm gonna go see that opening night, and actually I'm gonna leave my own review, make Derek go see it.
00:04:03
Speaker
I don't think that's how that works. Thanks for letting me know that that's what's gonna happen because now I'm not gonna do it. But I will still watch Marine Six because we're scheduled to do that. We're gonna be talking about that every week until we actually do it. That's gonna be our long running thing where it's like, and this week we still have not watched Marine Six. We do plan on getting around to it. The year is 2028. We're podcasting for Westwood One and we still haven't seen the Marine Six.
00:04:33
Speaker
Real quick before we do talk about wrestling, because if this is your first time listening, we have get to wrestling eventually, and that's kind of the theme of this show. Also, just so you know, I am doing this podcast from the standing position, because the only place that I could find to do this, there really wasn't a good surface that could be low enough for a seat. So I- Are you in the kitchen? I am in the bedroom, standing at a dresser. Like you're in a studio.
00:05:00
Speaker
I think even in studios, everyone gets to sit. Maybe, but like you see like a lot of voice acting sessions and recording sessions where you see somebody standing at the mic. And I feel like that's in my mind, that's what you're doing right now. And hopefully the sound quality isn't shit. Well, we'll we'll see. And if it is, go listen to a different episode where the sound quality is better. Check it out next week when hopefully once again, maybe better.
00:05:26
Speaker
We do have several things to talk about though. I don't know where you want to start.
Jay White's Rise in New Japan
00:05:31
Speaker
I do want to point out that we have a new IWGP heavyweight champion and that was kind of an unexpected turn of events for a lot of people. I got to be the one to inform you.
00:05:44
Speaker
of a New Japan title change. Did that feel weird? Yeah, because I hadn't been paying attention to anything. And when you sent me that, I was, well, one, any time in wrestling when you say, did you hear what happened? You immediately assume somebody's dead. That's kind of terrible. Is that where your mind goes? Well, wrestling is, you know, a lot of old, like, for all I knew, Rick Flair had passed on and I was about to be devastated.
00:06:13
Speaker
He's supposed to be on raw here in like a week or so, right? Match against Tyler Breeze birthday. Oh, yeah. Obviously, they'll probably use that spot as an angle. But going back to New Japan.
00:06:26
Speaker
The Jay White thing did catch me off guard, but I guess it shouldn't have been. He's been on a hot winning streak. But would you have expected them to cut Tana Hashi's title reign off that quickly? I mean, he's had it before multiple times. So it's not like it was a special reign. Like it seems like he could be a guy that you could always throw it back to, that people are never going to be mad that he has it. And it's a big deal when somebody beats him.
00:06:54
Speaker
is but is it weird though that I think you had brought this point up you know people waited so long to see Kenny Omega win that same title and boom out of nowhere this quickly Jay White is the champion now
00:07:10
Speaker
He has had a weirings? I don't know. I was never a huge Jay White fan. The first time that he started to get over with me was in San Francisco at the G1 special. And it was kind of his match and how shitty of a heel he is. And I'm starting to wonder, do I not like him because he's effective? Or do I not like him because his character is kind of boring and undefined?
00:07:38
Speaker
That's that Triple H heat because he isn't but the difference between him and Triple H I think is He is an exciting wrestler to watch. I think he puts on good matches It's just he doesn't have that little extra something that makes me care that much more
00:07:55
Speaker
I'm not nuts about Jay White. I don't hate him. I watched this match and nothing about the match really stood out to me that much. They kept selling the fact that Tanahashi doesn't have cartilage in his knees. That was the thing that stood out to me most. And he worked those knees the entire match. I don't know if I've seen the knees worked so much over a 30 minute time span.
00:08:18
Speaker
Well, how often do we bring up the fact that there's little bumps, there's little normal things that you see wrestlers do all the time that I think we take for granted because they're so normal. But like anytime a guy does like a spot where he either jumps out of the ring or gets dumped out of like over the top rope,
00:08:37
Speaker
That's a long fall to just be landing on your feet and then putting that kind of pressure on your knees all the time. And that was kind of the theme of the match, Jay White dumping him out onto his knees. Oh, and there were a couple where it just, I know the commentators mentioned like, oh my God, did you see his knees buckle? But it's like, yeah, I really did watch this old man's knees buckle.
00:09:00
Speaker
So Bullet Club's got the title again, technically. So yeah, looking at Jay White, what do you think it is about them that New Japan sees that is making them push this guy so hard? Because I mean, honestly, just even putting him as the leader of the Bullet Club is already trying to put a rocket on this guy. See, I don't know if it...
00:09:23
Speaker
Again, I don't hate it, but I don't get it either. And part of me thinks that this was a decision. Here we are being Marx talking about New Japan's creative process. I'm curious though, because part of me is wondering, you know, it seems like a white guy has to be in chargeable club. It seems like they've established that to me.
00:09:46
Speaker
What do we have? Finn Balor, AJ Styles, Kenny Omega, and now just another white guy. Do we need, and I don't know, is he big in Japan? Does the crowd love Jay White or love to hate him enough that this is good or is getting, I don't know. I don't know where this is headed. Is it fair to say, and obviously it's early, that he's the weakest leader thus far? As far as from a marquee standpoint?
00:10:15
Speaker
I think so. I think he has, or at least he has, is gonna have a harder road getting to a point where I would look at him like an AJ Styles or a Kenny Omega. Two guys that were a lot easier to like off the bat. Though I guess... Well, yeah. AJ Styles was established, right? Yeah, that's true. He had had a long body of work and I wasn't really familiar with Switchblade until he was in New Japan.
00:10:45
Speaker
Like I was saying, I didn't find anything about this match to be overly fantastic. I think it was a pretty good match, which is the most I'll say. But going back to the title change, do you think that this was done primarily out of shock value or to draw attention considering all the AEW news that's dropped in the last week? Like Kenny officially leaving? Like it was meant to like be like, hey, don't worry about that.
00:11:11
Speaker
I think it is. I mean, cause I hadn't watched New Japan in a little while. I'd been on kind of a break. There's hadn't been, you know, anything that big to get me to come back. And watching this total, every time I watch New Japan, it's almost, it's an instant reminder of, oh yeah, this is a great promotion. I really like their in-ring work. I actually did enjoy this match.
00:11:34
Speaker
I thought it was, oh my God, that spot where Tanahashi, he jumped like three quarters of the ring across to the outside. That guy, you know, clap, clap, clap, you still got it, bud.
00:11:49
Speaker
For not having any cartilage in his knees, he can still get some jump. Some lift. And there was just that nasty drop kick that Jay White did to Ta-Nehisi's knee and it made such a loud, I know it was just the leg slap, but even watching it, I still, you know, I marked a little bit where I was like, oh, I got worked.
00:12:09
Speaker
Here's something I've been thinking ever since, because essentially what's J. White's finisher called? The switchblade? Nah, he's the switchblade. Well, he's the switchblade, but what's his finisher called? Fuck. I don't remember. My brain's too dumb right now for that shit. He's basically got the sister Abigail as his finisher. And I've realized it's a really... It's a hard finisher to catch people with in a way that looks smooth.
00:12:39
Speaker
Like he caught Tanahashi at the end with it, but there's always that like drunken stumble. Like it's like it's like two drunk people trying to kiss where he bends them over backwards and they kind of try to find their footing and he hits it. So. You're right. The kiss is what that move is missing. The kiss is what that's actually for balance. That is that's an integral part of that move. If you don't kiss him, it throws the whole thing off.
00:13:02
Speaker
Bray needs to take him under his wing, but I don't know from the opening of this match Don Callis even said He has he said switchblade has three to one odds in his favor
00:13:14
Speaker
So, they even set it up at the beginning like, Switchblade is probably gonna win, and then the majority of the match, he is kicking Tanahashi's ass all over the place. Like, it wasn't a squash match, Tanahashi did eventually get offense, but I mean, what, the first two quarter, like the first half of the match, he was just beating his ass. Stepping away from this moment for just a second,
00:13:41
Speaker
I did point out to you that I think this is Kodo Ibushi's year. It has to be, right? Or do you have him set up as the, uh, the Intercontinental Champion because, you know, they still need to do something big with that. I don't know. To me, there's, there's still, that's the feel good moment, right? You think Ibushi getting the title is that feel good moment that's going to make the whole crowd pop? Yeah, I think so.
00:14:08
Speaker
Because when Kenny was there, that wasn't that kind of like part of the narrative that they were selling was that they trained and they fought trying to get to that level and Kenny finally got there and Kota was kind of in his shadow being the support system. Yeah, that's true. And I did see one of the press conferences, somebody asked him, what's your relationship with Kenny? And he basically said, like, I don't think about Kenny anymore. That's sad. That is very sad. Can I still wear my Golden Lover shirt?
00:14:38
Speaker
I just think that, I mean, obviously we talk about Naito quite a bit being somebody who could be champion soon. I really don't see Jay White holding onto that title for very long.
00:14:50
Speaker
But who's the guy? Okay, so it's been decided that his match at Madison Square Garden, there's gonna be a tournament and the winner gets to face Jay White there. Who is, because you would think a show that big in America, one of the most iconic arenas in the world, you'd think that New Japan would wanna have a big title match.
00:15:13
Speaker
Who is a bushy that guy to you? Is that the big title match for Madison Square Garden? He is to me. He was in the main event of all in. People associate him with the other hottest act in wrestling, which is Kenny Omega. I.
00:15:29
Speaker
To me it's too good of a story. How do you pass that up? I know a while back you said that Ibushi didn't do a lot for you yet. You weren't completely sold on him. Is it moving past that? Like now with Kenny being gone? Does this story make it interesting enough that you want to see Ibushi? If they get behind it, yeah.
00:15:52
Speaker
If it's like anything you've seen from WWE in the past where you see like a tag team split and one guy, it's kind of like the Edge and Christian thing where Edge clearly had the machine get behind him. And I don't mean that in a negative way. I just mean that like one of them kind of took off and another guy kind of got left in the dust for a while and had to go off and do his own thing. But it's always nice when you see that second guy finally get his moment.
00:16:19
Speaker
I think they have the opportunity to do something kind of special with a bushy and they can because because I guess we haven't heard that they've completely closed the door on Kenny being involved in New Japan to some extent. Like, can you imagine a moment where a bushy finally wins the title and after months and months and months of being away, Kenny comes out to celebrate with him? Yeah, that would I mean, that would get a huge pop. Correct. Or turn it around and have him fight him again.
00:16:47
Speaker
Yeah, if he's still involved. We'll see. I mean, this is going back to the Jay White thing. I just think it was it was a very interesting and surprising decision. And. I guess they're keeping things interesting. Yeah, and I do think that's what that was. I think, you know, there's so much like we're at a spot right now where Wrestle News moves so fucking quickly. And there's a lot to digest, too.
00:17:10
Speaker
And it's just every day is becoming more and more. And I mean, this week we had another big thing happen.
AEW's Upcoming Events and Speculations
00:17:15
Speaker
We had double or nothing tickets go on sale. Yeah, I think there were a lot of people who were pretty pissed off about how that process went down again. Everybody had some listeners of the show who weren't so fortunate at getting tickets. The thing is, with a huge event, there's always going to be people left out.
00:17:36
Speaker
And, you know, it's hard to find a good way to actually distribute the tickets where they're not going to scalpers, where, I mean, with the amount of seats they have, what is it? It's actually not much more than all in. Like, isn't it? They even said that, and being the elite, Cody even said, he's like, why the fuck did we call this double or nothing?
00:17:56
Speaker
Well, I think they were taking into account that a lot of people were going to have to travel during a holiday weekend in Las Vegas. Like they considered all the expenses that, you know, you had to take into account and they adjusted the prices accordingly.
00:18:10
Speaker
Oh, I mean front row for 211 bucks. Well, I don't know another promotion that you're going to get that out of this big of a show. You do know I was reminded of something over the last couple of days. MGM Grand Garden Arena was the home for a lot of WCW Halloween Havoc paper views.
00:18:28
Speaker
Nice. I hadn't, cause I was sitting around thinking about what, like I knew WCW had ran shows there, but I was like, I feel like that one came up a lot and you know, I'm Halloween helping. So I had to put that little tidbit in there. But yet we had, we had several of us trying to get tickets and there's always that debate of like, do we all try and get seats together? Or do we go every man for himself? And I feel like I'm a bit of a selfish asshole when it comes to this stuff where I'm like,
00:18:57
Speaker
If I'm not going, I want it to be because I failed. I don't want to have to deal with letting a lot of people down. I'm like, you know what? Don't forget about me. I'm on my own on this one.
00:19:12
Speaker
Plus the more tickets you add to an order, the bigger the gamble is that you'll actually get anything. And I think what pissed people off is they put out all the pre-sale codes and I think everyone, I think there was a large group of people or a majority of people that thought, oh, pre-sale code means I'm gonna get to get these. But from what I'm reading- When has that ever been the case for any pre-sale?
00:19:34
Speaker
Exactly. You know, they set out a number of tickets for the presale. They set out a number of tickets for the general sale. When they're gone, they're gone. And if you have more people than there are seats, sign up for a presale, that's gonna be a clusterfuck. But this went way smoother.
00:19:53
Speaker
Where are my words at? Fuck, I'm dumb today, man. I've gotten so little sleep in the last few days. But, you know, we scrambled, the website crashed. This time around, they sat you in a virtual waiting room, so it only let so many in at a time to actually try and purchase their seats. I imagine being patient was stressful.
00:20:16
Speaker
I got lucky in that I was in the waiting room for maybe, I logged on like 10 or 15 minutes before they went on sale. And once they were on sale, I was in in about two minutes.
00:20:28
Speaker
So I got lucky. So you're basically gloating to our listeners who didn't get that much, who didn't get that lucky. Well, I'm just saying like it is luck. It was all luck. They were randomly picking you out of the line. It wasn't like, okay, you're number one in line. It was, we're randomly pulling you out of this and putting you in the ticket purchasing area. So it just, it really did come down to luck.
00:20:54
Speaker
Part of believe that's a few months away, right? I know, I know. And then them releasing the full schedule and showing us they have a show coming up in Jacksonville after this. Then they have one in England. Uh, they're coming back to Chicago in September for all out the official sequel, which leads, which will be the lead in to their official a TV debut in October, the same month WWE is going to Fox. Hmm. That's interesting. Does that seem deliberate?
00:21:22
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean, it also the stars had to line up for that to even be possible. I mean, it's not like they were going to hold off on a deal if they could get something done sooner. You know what I mean? What's your dream? What's your dream network for them to end up on? If you could put them on any network you wanted, where would you prefer to watch AEW?
00:21:47
Speaker
As long as it's not fucking Pursuit. Or whatever the- Wait, is that the- is that the Pioneer Network? Oh yeah.
00:21:56
Speaker
Whatever the fuck. Did you see how bad the numbers have been for impact since they moved over there? I believe it. I believe, why, who's going over there to watch that? I mean, even if somebody, somebody said, they're like, I think this is going to be the year where impact finally sells. This is it. This is the year they're going under because they just got some momentum and they gave it all away. They did. I mean, there has to have been somebody that would have given them a better TV deal.
00:22:27
Speaker
They had such a hard roster. I don't have a preference. You have mentioned AEW being on HBO. I know from a nostalgia standpoint, I would love to see them wind up on TNT or TBS or NBC. You know, something high profile. That would. But I really. Yeah. Do I care if I can see it? No, not really.
00:22:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. I mean, wherever it ends up, we're gonna find a way to watch it. I think, because you were talking about this, how funny MJF has been lately, and how funny he is from an R-rated act.
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know how well he'll translate to cable, like cable TV, if that's where they in fact wind up, because a lot of his humor does come from swearing and being vulgar. And he's, I think he's, I said this to you the other day. I feel fortunate because I feel like we saw him right at the beginning of his rise.
00:23:29
Speaker
And he has, I mean, he's doing stuff with Cody and the rest of the elite on a week to week basis from where we saw him last February at AAW in like a mid-card match. I mean, it's pretty incredible to see how quickly someone's career can take off and good for him. But I think the important thing that we need to talk about really quick, considering the back and forth rivalry we've had with this guy for so long, did you see the exchange he had with Alleycat
00:23:59
Speaker
and the, uh, the proposal. Yes, I did. I did. Should we send congratulations or was that all a work or what's going on? I can't tell. I mean, it seems, I mean, that's kind of what Joey Ryan did for his proposal. He proposed to his wife in the ring and then I think he penned her. So we should say congratulations to MJF and Ally Cat. Yes. And we are cool with Ally Cat again. I did hear back from her and she let me know what was going on with the shirt.
00:24:28
Speaker
So eventually, you will get your shirt. I will. I will. We're cool. I still like Ally Cat. We were just having fun. Especially now that we're congratulating them on their engagement. Exactly. Exactly. Two wrestlers I enjoy.
Becky Lynch's WrestleMania Storyline
00:24:42
Speaker
Obviously, we got to talk about kind of the big WWE storyline this week. Becky comes out on Raw and has an interaction with Stephanie and Triple H. They kind of forgive her for everything, but they demand that she apologizes.
00:24:57
Speaker
or she gives up her match at Mania against Ronda Rousey. They gave her the night to think about it and the show ends up closing with her finally deciding. And first of all, the entire show was centered around her, which was awesome.
00:25:10
Speaker
They showed backstage segments with her and Alexa Bliss backstage segments with her and Finn Balor. Everyone kind of given their two cents on what she should do. And yeah, end of the night, she comes out and kind of gives a half hearted apology to Triple H and Stephanie to fulfill her obligations. And then Vince comes out and suspends her for 60 days taking away her WrestleMania match. And of course her replacement is Charlotte Flair. And how is where we're going.
00:25:36
Speaker
How I learned about all this was just because I haven't had time to watch Raw or Smackdown this week I just saw Becky's tweet that just said this is bullshit
00:25:46
Speaker
What complete and utter bullshit was our tweet or something? Yeah. Uh, yeah. So I mean, I guess it would appear for the time being that we're going to get that triple threat that we were talking about that could happen. Whatever. A lot of people are excited. A lot of people are upset. Controversy abound with a WWE WrestleMania main event again.
00:26:09
Speaker
So many tweets that I was seeing after that were saying like, oh, AEW came just the right time. Because right as WWE was about to do a thing we all wanted to see, they took it away from us.
00:26:23
Speaker
I don't know. Obviously it's a work that she's not in the match at all. But is that a smart move right now? Is that going to piss people off too much? I woke up to a text from you the other day asking me kind of what had happened and I gave you a pretty lengthy response and I'll just kind of try to summarize really quick.
00:26:45
Speaker
I'm not happy about it, but I don't feel the same way about it that I would feel about Brock Lesnar and that bullshit. I just, I think Charlotte right now as a heel is fucking fantastic. She is being such a bitch. I mean, there's no other way to put it. She is being a snarky, she's twisting the knife, and yeah, all of us are getting worked.
00:27:16
Speaker
And that's what they want. And from a storyline perspective, yeah, it does make sense because this goes back to once again, Becky's getting put in the shadow of Charlotte Flair, and this is supposed to be Becky's moment, yada, yada, yada. Yes, it makes sense. I made this argument to you that people have been embracing the women's evolution or revolution, whatever the fuck you wanna call it.
00:27:39
Speaker
And they're finally ready to see two women go one-on-one in the main event at WrestleMania. They want it. It's what they've wanted. It's a match that people are begging for, basically saying, if you give us this, we will be so good at this show. This, you're going to get the reaction you want from all of us. Yeah. And everybody has wanted a feel-good moment to end WrestleMania for years now. It's since WrestleMania 30, basically.
00:28:07
Speaker
And I think everyone was ready for it. Everyone was ready for a one on one match and felt like this is the one that makes sense. You have your outside the WWE star in Ronda Rousey. I mean, she's a part of WWE, but you know what I mean? She transcends just WWE, she's mainstream. You have that person involved and you have a homegrown talent who got hot at the right time. And people wanted to see that one on one match. And that makes perfect sense.
00:28:35
Speaker
And again, it's not about saying that Charlotte doesn't deserve that spot, but Charlotte has had her moments. She had her one-on-one title match with Asuka last year and she won. She broke Asuka's streak. There's no question. I think from an in-ring standpoint, Charlotte is probably the best in the company. Wouldn't you agree? 100%. She's been my favorite there for a while. And it's not that, you know, I love her. I just don't want her in this main event. I think we talked about this last week or the week before.
00:29:05
Speaker
She's had her time. She's had a lot of moments. She's had a lot of moments. Just let this build up to an even bigger match between Becky and Charlotte. And so the point that I kind of drove home here is people wanted to see Becky Lynch have her her her one on one moment. And when I say that, I mean like WrestleMania is a stage where people get made. You get made at WrestleMania.
00:29:30
Speaker
You talk about Shawn Michaels beating Bret Hart for the title. You talk about Hogan beating Andre. You talk about Austin beating HBK. You talk about Austin beating The Rock. You talk about Brock Lesnar beating Kurt Angle. These are all one-on-one. I mean, this is the cliche, stereotypical WWE spectacle match. Two people going one-on-one and one person walks out the winner and that person is made. And it's an iconic shot of that person finally getting to the top of the mountain.
00:29:58
Speaker
You don't see that very often. It rarely happens where that person does it in a gimmick match, in a triple threat or a fatal four way. They're not made in the same way because that other person is involved in the match. They only beat technically the one person that they beat, whether they pinned them or submitted them. People want Becky to have that moment.
00:30:21
Speaker
where Austin hits the stunner on Shawn Michaels and pins him, with Mike Tyson counting whatever. I just think people like having one-on-one matches be the main event at Mania, and so much of the women's evolution to this point, it's been great, but one of the complaints has been it just seems like they shove all the women into one segment. Let's cram as many women into this segment as we can to make sure that they get TV time, rather than letting two women have their moment.
00:30:50
Speaker
And at least from my standpoint, that's kind of why it's disappointing to see Charlotte in this spot. Because if they're just throwing in Charlotte, so because they think that Rousey isn't capable of, you know, holding a whole main event of WrestleMania by herself.
00:31:09
Speaker
I mean, Brock Lesnar has short matches. It doesn't have to be the longest match we've ever seen. He's had short matches in the main event for like three years. With two moves. I've heard people say they're putting Charlotte in this match so she can be the ring general for those three. Since when the fuck has Vince McMahon given a shit about the main event of his matches at Mania being quality?
00:31:35
Speaker
When have they needed to be 25, 30 minute epic wrestling matches? He's never given a shit. What is the last epic WrestleMania main event? I mean, is it 30?
00:31:51
Speaker
which was a triple threat that was basically the exact story we're dealing with right now. Daniel Bryan's kind of the exception to this rule, but he was also unique circumstances. They really resisted pushing Daniel Bryan. They really fought it. God, I couldn't tell you. I mean, I guess that one.
00:32:15
Speaker
That would count. I think people were just, see, do you remember the first rock, uh, Cena match? Yeah. I thought the match was pretty good. I didn't think it was great, but I thought that the match was the spectacle that it was actually happening. I don't know. But the point I'm making is I just, it's nothing against Charlotte. I just, just leave it the fuck alone. They're trying to do too much.
00:32:42
Speaker
All that really matters in that match is Becky going over then putting on a decent match and Ronda Rousey tapping out in the middle of the ring to a WWE homegrown talent. I just jamming like fuck it at this point. Why not put Ruby right in there and give her the rub? Why not?
00:33:03
Speaker
Why not? Because their last name isn't Flair. Again, like I said, it does make sense from a storyline perspective in that, once again, because you've got to remember Charlotte never had her match with Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series. So they can always go back to that because it kind of ended in a cluster. But again, I'm not going to lose sleep over it, but it does kind of suck because we wanted that one-on-one match so bad.
00:33:32
Speaker
If the one-on-one isn't happening, it makes me feel not as bad about missing Mania this year. Yeah. I mean, but wouldn't you feel bad about missing the first women's main event? Yeah. They put it in that spot. That's a huge bummer, for sure. Because like I said, love all three of those women. Want to watch them be at the main event. Just prefer a singles match. And also, this is just a way of justifying it in my head so I don't cry that I'm not there. I'm going to have that fear missing out real bad.
00:34:02
Speaker
Seth Rollins had a really good segment with Paul Heyman. He cut a really good promo where he said he would burn in hell to make sure that Brock Lesnar doesn't walk out of WrestleMania with the championship. Pretty good stuff. Pretty good promo.
Wrestling Highlights and Speculations
00:34:16
Speaker
The thing everyone's talking about is there was a gauntlet match on SmackDown that took about an hour and Kofi Kingston was the star.
00:34:28
Speaker
went basically almost the entire match. OK, and this was to replace Mustafa Ali.
00:34:36
Speaker
No, they just assigned, one of the members of New Day gets to replace Mustafa Ali and then they had to decide amongst themselves who was gonna participate in the gauntlet match. So New Day picked Kofi, they were democratic about it, they just voted him in. And Kofi ended up rocking, like if you haven't seen it, go back and watch it, pretty good. Starts with Kofi Kingston and Daniel Bryan. So who all did Kofi pin to win the match?
00:35:04
Speaker
Kofi did not win the match. Oh, I thought Kofi won. No, Kofi almost went the distance. Kofi got rid of Daniel Bryan, Jeff Hardy, and Samoa Joe. Holy shit. Yeah.
00:35:22
Speaker
Kind of an out of nowhere push, or out of nowhere spot for Kofi Kingston. This is WWE watching New Japan for the first time and they're like, well, I guess we have to have somebody unexpected be the champion now. Kofi, tonight's your night.
00:35:39
Speaker
Yeah, Kofi was the star of the show. And then eventually Stiles tapped him out with the calf crusher. And as soon as Stiles got back up and Randy Orton came out for his time in the gauntlet match, he came out of nowhere, arcade Stiles, and Randy Orton enters the chamber last now. Wait, goddamn. Oh, that's what. Yeah, basically the winner of the gauntlet match gets to enter the chamber match last. That's what that was all about. It was an entertainment. It was an entertainment.
00:36:09
Speaker
I don't know. It was a spectacle because once again, Kofi lasted basically an hour. See, I love when WWE just completely surprises us and has a wrestling show.
00:36:22
Speaker
The only thing that confused me was it was interesting that they just picked a random member of New Day when they could have put like Andrade in there. They could have put, you know, I don't know. Again, I don't have a complaint about it. Nobody really buys that they're gonna put the WWE Championship on Kofi Kingston going into WrestleMania. They should. Just to swerve us. Just to shake things up a bit.
00:36:50
Speaker
That would be quite the shake-up. You know what I watched, Derek? On my lunch break today, I watched the most recent episode of Ring of Honor. It had been quite a while since I had sat down and just watched a full episode. I'll watch a lot of matches. But this show, it opened with three dudes coming out saying they're the best six-man tag guys and they're gonna kick everybody's ass. So Marty Skurll and his two best friends, PCO and Brody King, came out. Two best friends. And...
00:37:20
Speaker
I had not really gotten to watch a match where they participate together. That shit is home. Derek, it's so funny. It's so funny. Because they basically, PCO starts this match, and he's going through just doing all his moves. He does, he gets on the top rope to do the senton onto the apron, onto the guy. The guy rolls, PCO bounces back first off the apron, falls onto the floor, but then sits up like Frankenstein.
00:37:49
Speaker
and his facial expressions are so insane that I don't know what to think of him ever anymore. I just don't know what PCO man, what, god damn. And at one point in this match, he ran and it looked like he was doing a topae through the middle of the ropes, but he did a fucking cannonball and like goes, it basically does a front flip through the rope as he's diving, lands on his head. PCO's gonna get somebody killed or himself.
00:38:21
Speaker
And then as they talk about him on commentary, just being like, this guy's been in the business for 30 years and you are witnessing the peak of his career right now. Every second where he's still getting to do this is the peak of his career. That being said, I actually thought that Marty and Brody King worked really well as a tag team.
00:38:43
Speaker
Can we talk about Marty for just a second? Yeah, please. He's challenging Nick Aldis for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Yeah. Yeah.
00:38:51
Speaker
Nick Aldis was the main event of the most recent episode of Ring of Honor. It was him versus PJ Black. And I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna sit through this whole match. I'm gonna do it. I don't know what happened from all in to now. I mean, I do know what happened as I went and watched a bunch of fucking boring matches of his and he lost me. But we've turned on Nick Aldis on the show.
00:39:17
Speaker
I have turned on all this. It's like watching a Triple H main event of WrestleMania. Ah, that's ugly. But do you think Marty, do you think they'll put the NWA title on him? I don't know. No, I think they're just buddies in real life and they're gonna fight each other. I'm just still confused as to how the NWA title is getting so much air time.
00:39:44
Speaker
They're trying to make it relevant again, man. But why is Ring of Honor trying to make it relevant? Doesn't everyone kind of have a hand in that? Hasn't that always been the thing with the NWA titles that it can travel around and go from promotion to promotion? I guess that's true. And Ring of Honor is one of the bigger ones to actually give it TV time. I mean, I like it because it's maybe one of my favorite belt designs, that title. I'm not knocking the belt.
00:40:11
Speaker
I'm knocking the man who has been giving me kind of boring matches since all in. Or actually, he had a good rematch in Nashville. But, you know. You're ready to see that title on somebody else besides Nick Aldis. But I also don't know who they have. Like right now, Aldis is the guy that in my mind's like, well, no one's getting that from him, even though Cody did less than a year ago. Wouldn't it be fucking all, like when is Marty's contract up? April, April, I think.
00:40:40
Speaker
Fucking have him win the NWA title and take it to AEW. Have him take it to Madison Square Garden. Yeah, that'll work. That would, yeah.
Podcast Row Cancellation Impact
00:40:55
Speaker
there you know what now I'm looking here we're doing it we're doing all right guys there you go where's our paycheck and then we don't get that hey this is a thing so we were gonna go do the whole star cast thing again sounds like there isn't gonna be a podcast row do you think I'm pissed why do you think they didn't like us Derek is it our fault were we bad I don't think it was our fault
00:41:17
Speaker
But I don't know, do you think the talent complained about just having to interact with all of us peasants? I think that, I don't know who they were expecting to sign up for Podcast Row, but it was mostly new podcasts. I mean, there were a bunch of neckbeards, a bunch of, I mean, there were people that literally the first episode they did was there. Like there were people who hadn't even started yet.
00:41:47
Speaker
And I don't know. I don't know if they just... I know for sure we bugged the shit out of them while we were there, but that's because they weren't giving us the thing that we were promised. Yeah, part of me thinks that the reason they did away with it, because there was so much complaining about their end of the bargain not being held up, and they didn't like that. That's my guess.
00:42:08
Speaker
is that there were complaints because I know that there were a lot of people who were on podcast row who reached out after the fact and said, you said we were going to get X, Y and Z. And we basically got half of X. And that half of X was a table. Right. And again, it was the first time they had tried doing something like this. So, you know, that's fine. It's just weird to see them kind of abandon the concept altogether.
00:42:34
Speaker
Cause I mean, it was a platform. It was a platform. I thought it was in the spirit of All In, which is that it was entrepreneurial. Like they were inviting startup podcasts and people were trying to get their, their shit going and an opportunity to get their name out there. Kind of, you know, the way that the Bucks and Cody had decided to, you know, dive into putting on their own show. I was looking forward to doing it again. I mean, a lot of listeners that we have now, we met you guys at All In.
00:43:01
Speaker
Yeah, that was one of the things I really... Yeah, I'm upset. Does that sour that weekend for you? Does that make you less interested in going? Yeah. Because that was one of my favorite parts about Holland Weekend, was getting to be out there and promote our podcast. I mean, it was work, quote unquote.
00:43:25
Speaker
But I don't know. It was also cool being shoulder to shoulder with all those other podcasts, too. So I don't know. It's time to think about it, digest it. Maybe something will change. Who knows? But yeah, kind of a bummer.
00:43:41
Speaker
Well, we're about to hit that 45 minute mark.
Humorous House Observations
00:43:45
Speaker
And we got to plug that social media before we get out of here because they may not know. Yeah. Before I go back and start continuing to unpack my things here, which I have, I feel like now that I'm in this house, there's things about it that tell me a lot about a person. They're too shower yourself.
00:44:04
Speaker
Not about, no, no, about the people who lived here prior. There are two showers, both of which have not just regular shower heads, they're the detachable hose shower heads. Have you ever had a hose? I've used, I don't like them. I feel like they're not as whatever. I mean, what is the hose? Like, who are these hose people? That they're like, we like this so much there needs to be two.
00:44:30
Speaker
Here's what I like being under a constant stream of hot water when I'm in the shower, but I imagine the people who like the hose like the ability to take the water stream straight up under their tank.
00:44:41
Speaker
I was getting ready to say like it really cleans the undercarriage that's that's the primary like that and like the ass crack like but that's I mean that's the only the pro that I can come up with because I've never felt like the stream coming out of those things as powerful as a regular shower head and I don't know I don't like seeing the hose
00:45:01
Speaker
Yeah, I don't, you know, I just, when I saw that, I thought this is somebody who wants to hold this against their genitals or any of their downstairs bits. And basically what you did right now was confirm that to me that I'm not crazy. No, that has to be what it is. The ladies probably use it to dittle themselves.
00:45:21
Speaker
and the dudes probably diddle themselves with it. And you know what? I'll get back to you on that next week. I've only taken one shower in it so far and I didn't detach it because I'm not a hose boy yet. And I don't know if I'll ever be one. I do want to give a shout out to one of the listeners of the podcast.
Debating the Best WrestleMania
00:45:36
Speaker
He proposed the hypothetical today online on our social media asking us, what do we think the best WrestleMania of all time is? And I can tell you,
00:45:45
Speaker
We had a couple answers come up. We'd like to hear your answers. What do you think the best WrestleMania of all time is? Let us know. We are on at Wrestle Hangout on Facebook at Wrestle Hangout on Twitter and at predetermined podcast on Instagram. Let us know my commitment between now and WrestleMania. I actually want to go back and watch more stuff from WrestleMania is one through 10.
00:46:05
Speaker
because I don't feel like I've seen enough shit from those manias. I feel ignorant. I miss homework. I miss when we had a thing where like, you know what, let's watch this thing and talk about it. I kinda miss watching old wrestling with you.
00:46:19
Speaker
Yeah, so i'm gonna hop in on that with you and let's let's uh between now and mania do one through 10 I gotta thank david my friend david on uh twitter For coming up with that idea, but yeah We need to go back and I can't really say for sure what the best mania of all time is when i've really only seen like seven of them
00:46:38
Speaker
A little more than seven, I've probably seen like 10. But still, the fact is, there's a lot of stuff from WrestleMania's one through 10 that I have not seen. And it's kind of stupid that I haven't, so. I'm pretty sure I've seen at least a match from every single one. But to say that I've sat down and watched it beginning to end, no. No, I have not done that. I'm sure the shit not gonna do that. That's way too many hours. But I may scroll through each mania and pick one or two matches to watch just to get a little flavor.
00:47:08
Speaker
Garrett, do you have anything else to add or do you need to get out of here and rest and unpack and whatever shit you gotta do? Yeah, sorry guys that this episode was a little shorter than usual. Next week I'll be back to my cheery self and hopefully my brain isn't as dumb and we'll keep watching wrestling and having a good time. Thanks for hanging out with us guys. It's been fun. I guess we should hit our god damn music.