Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 50: The 2018 Predetermined Awards
64 Plays7 years ago
Come hangout as Garrett and Derrick award some of their favorite wrestlers, moments and matches of 2018! Also, just a heads up, there may or may not be more talk about furries in the first 20 minutes than you would expect from a pro wrestling podcast.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Host Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, and welcome to episode 50 of Predetermined to Pro Wrestling Hangout. I'm your host, Garrett Callender, and with me, as always, a man who is this year's host for the 2018 Predetermined Awards, Derek Halpin.
Episode Milestone Discussion
00:00:18
Speaker
I'm the host?
00:00:20
Speaker
Yeah, surprise. I hope you have your monologue ready. I wasn't told this coming into this episode. And by the way, does this technically count as episode 50? Because we have a shit ton of episodes. I guess not a shit ton. We have a handful of episodes that we didn't number that were like bonus episodes. So we're over 50. Oh, yeah. This is technically 57 or 58.
00:00:41
Speaker
Yeah, that's way more accurate. But it is the last Predetermined to Pro Wrestling Hangout podcast of 2018.
Episode Highlights & Awards Preview
00:00:49
Speaker
And we've got some stuff that we gotta get accomplished today, man. What do we have to get done? We gotta hand out some awards. We got a lot of things to cover from the year, a lot of honors to hand out, lots of things to discuss. It's gonna be a fun one. I'm excited to get into it, man. I'm excited to see who walks home with these golden sofas.
00:01:10
Speaker
What are we calling them? What are we calling them? The Sofa Awards? The Sofa Slammies? What do you think? See, I put some thought into this and I don't know what sounds best. Is it the Sofa Awards? Is it the Armchair Awards? You know, like Armchair Booker? I know they don't like when we do that. Let's see, what is there? I like Davenport. If we want to go back to words that our grandparents used, maybe it's the Dabbies.
00:01:36
Speaker
I think we should let our listeners decide which of these ideas they like the best, and then it can be official next year. But for now, welcome to the davies, welcome to the sofa awards, welcome to the whatever the fucks. We're going to get you those gold sofas to take home and place on your mantle. It's an honor to receive an award from this podcast, I'm sure. Hit our goddamn music.
00:02:31
Speaker
So, for those of you who don't know, we're recording this on a Wednesday night. Last minute recording. It's December 26th.
Holiday Recap & Family Stories
00:02:42
Speaker
Christmas has passed. It has come and gone. We saw each other over the weekend. We went back to our hometown, hung out with some friends that we grew up with, caught up a little bit.
00:02:55
Speaker
And I gotta ask, how was your Christmas vacation or if it's not qualifying as a vacation? How was your Christmas break or your trip home? Well, I dealt with something I wasn't prepared for. That sounds heavy. What? I hit that time. Oh, I have an idea of what it is now. It just dawned on me.
00:03:21
Speaker
Oh, what do you think it is? I think it's the sweets. Believe it or not, yeah, that was hard as shit. And we'll get into the sweets in a second. Still standing strong on the DDP yoga. Though I think there is one thing that could be questioned, and I'm willing to put it up to the jury on this one. I might be getting chopped. All right. Well, I'm part of the jury, but our listeners are also part of that.
00:03:51
Speaker
Well, so the thing that happened that I wasn't mentally prepared for was my whole family finding out what furries are all at the same time. Oh my god.
00:04:03
Speaker
What a delight. Yeah, they watched some Christmas movie that involved furries. Oh my God, I know which one it is. I just watched this a couple weeks ago. Yes. I haven't seen this, but it did open a lot of questions for people that I, you know, that I had the answers to, but I don't know if they were comfortable that I had the answers to the furry questions.
00:04:27
Speaker
Nor was this the setting you were expecting to explain what furries were. I mean, it's it's Christmas time. The family's around and you have to explain why Ron Perlman is involved in their understanding of what a furry is. You see, oh, my God, is that how they I haven't seen the fucking movie. Is that how they found out? Ron Perlman is a furry in this movie. I think you said one of the Potter'sville.
00:04:50
Speaker
oh my god for the synopsis synopsis of this christmas movie which is it's an off-the-wall christmas movie i would recommend it if you haven't seen it i believe it's on netflix the idea is that an entire small town gets captivated by the idea that bigfoot is in their town and it's actually the local store owner who's going to like a midlife crisis and is having issues with his wife
00:05:15
Speaker
He gets mistaken for Bigfoot. The town gets caught up in it. Ron Perlman's in the movie. What's the guy's name who plays... Ian McShane, Christina Hendricks, Judy Greer. This thing has an all-star cast and apparently some furries. Furries. For those of you who don't know, Garrett, tell them what a furry is. Well, I feel like the easiest way to say it is it's somebody who would, you know, maybe want to fuck in a Mickey Mouse costume.
00:05:44
Speaker
Do they get frustrated that that's how they always get labeled as, is that they want to fuck? Because it doesn't necessarily involve that. They can just hang out. They can dance. I hear they like to do a lot of dancing and socializing. So you're telling me that a few furries that cut dickholes in their costumes made a bad name for the rest of the weirdos that just want to hang out in these costumes?
00:06:11
Speaker
I think that's the way that some of them feel about it. I don't know if we have any listeners. We might have some listeners that are furries. Think about that.
00:06:19
Speaker
However, we probably have some listeners out there who were magicians or fans of Harry Potter, and we've rightfully pissed them off in the last couple episodes. That would explain why the listenership has just drastically dropped. We had a lot of Potterheads. They're gone. There goes the furry demographic. Hey, just speaking of demographics and who's listening, we'll come back to this in a second. I want to say we have had an influx in listeners from Iraq.
00:06:47
Speaker
That's insane. That is not a place I was expecting to get downloads. Who are you? People on the other side of the world. And that's pretty impressive. Did we entertain the troops on Christmas? I hope we did. I know that if you're listening to this on the other side of the world, I am so sorry that we're beginning this show off talking about furries.
00:07:08
Speaker
I am not sorry, but please feel free to reach out to us on the social media. I would love to know who you are, or maybe you don't have the social media.
Listener Engagement & Feedback Request
00:07:20
Speaker
Shoot us an email at predeterminepodcast.gmail.com.
00:07:24
Speaker
And if you do want to reach out to us on social media, we're at Wrestle Hangout on Facebook, at Wrestle Hangout on Twitter, and at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram. And while you're at it, this is an opportunity for you to give us a gift this holiday season.
00:07:40
Speaker
Hop on iTunes, give us a five star review. We would love that. It helps get us, give us some recognition, gets our name out there. More clicks, more downloads. It's a gift we would love to receive from you. Plus, if you leave us a nice review, you get the distinction of telling us something that we have to watch or listen to that's pro wrestling related and then we get to talk about it on the show and we know that you want to be able to make us do that for your entertainment.
00:08:09
Speaker
So if you need more motivation, picture the ASPCA commercial. Sad dogs in cages. But replace them with Derek and I crying inside cages. And know that maybe Sammy Callahan's behind me with a baseball bat in that cage. Yeah. Maybe that's the real punishment for breaking DDP yoga.
00:08:29
Speaker
We've given you a full year of the hang. Now give us the gift of review. So what was it like explaining what furries are to your family over the holidays? I mean, at this point, it seems like they're not surprised by anything from me. And as I explained it, I soon felt like I was one. But I feel like now maybe I gave them the wrong explanation that it's not all about sex. And sometimes it's just about being a life-sized stuffed animal.
00:08:58
Speaker
I feel like that's the quality people most take an interest in when the subject comes up is the fact that some of them do have sex. But I don't think it's all of them. And I'm sure you did look suspicious as hell. The fact that this this oddball subject comes up and you're the first to hop up and go, oh, I know all about this. I've been talking about this for well over a decade, family. Where does this land? My buddy Brad was Chuck E. Cheese for a while.
00:09:24
Speaker
Like he was in the Chuck E. Cheese costume. Right. And he walked in and found one of his coworkers who, I don't know, have you ever tried to sneak off at work and take a nap somewhere where no one's going to notice you? I've not done that, but I have tried to sneak off to areas at work where I wouldn't be found. Yeah, maybe to shoot a text or something. Sure. Well, this guy got in the Chuck E. Cheese costume to jerk off.
00:09:52
Speaker
He's in there to jerk off. He was discovered masturbating inside of Chuck E. Cheese. Inside of the character. This is pretty disturbing.
00:10:04
Speaker
This show has really gone off the rails in the first 10 minutes. Absolutely. This is a weird way to end 2018. But you've been itching to get this off your chest. And we have some listeners who would enjoy this story. So where are you going with this? That's all I had. I was just so. One of your friends got jerking off in the Chuck E. Cheese costume.
00:10:23
Speaker
If I have to tie this back in to wrestling, all the wrestlers living dead, who was most likely to be a
WWE & Furry Characters Discussion
00:10:33
Speaker
furry, Derek? The Yeti. That guy that won tough enough? Technically, the gobbledygooker, right?
00:10:44
Speaker
If we're being honest, the gobbledygooker is the closest thing to a furry that WWE has had. Maybe CP Monk? I don't know if you know who that is. No. It's a CM Punk parody, but it's like a guy who dresses up in a chipmunk.
00:10:59
Speaker
You know, it was an indie guy. I only know about this because of some of what's the name of the PWR or whatever, the pro wrestling simulator computer game that they had. My roommate Sean used to play it in college. So CP Monk is a real thing. Check it out. You just made me fear for gobbledygooker when he goes to like WrestleCon and shit. I feel like he's going in the corner and he's always having to look over his shoulder for boogeyman. Isn't the gobbledygooker one of the Guerrero's, if I understand it correctly?
00:11:30
Speaker
I didn't know that, Derek. So maybe one of the Guerrero's is a furry. We'll never know. Excuse me! That would be my reaction if I walked in on one of your friends jerking off in the Chuck E. Cheese costume. And I'm sure that was the reaction of management when they found out.
00:11:54
Speaker
So anyways, we have some wrestling awards to hand out on this episode of the podcast. I think we should find a way to get in that direction. Garrett, steer us back. You're the face of the show. I'm the face? You're the host of these awards. I did not... Go ahead. Do I need to kick it over to Dwayne The Rock Johnson to introduce you?
00:12:16
Speaker
I wish Dwayne the Rock Johnson was on this show. We would have so many listeners. Dwayne couldn't be here tonight. Unfortunately. But the ghost of Dusty Rhodes is here actually to bring you out.
00:12:29
Speaker
All right, Ghost of Dusty Rhodes, hit it. Ladies and gentlemen, god damn it, I already fell out of it. I already fell out of it. Can't do it when there's pressure. Yeah, when I have to do it, like I found that out on the curtain jerks. The second I have to do that impression, not happening. I'm sorry. So maybe, maybe, fuck, why can't I think of his name? Maybe Nikki Bella's stepdad can introduce you.
00:12:59
Speaker
How about just you? Ladies and gentlemen, the love of my life and the host of these awards, the dazzling Derek Halpin.
00:13:14
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back to the part of the show where we actually talk about pro wrestling. I'm your host of the, uh, what are we calling them? The, uh, Davenports? The Dabbies? The Dabbies? Dabbies, yeah, like the- Welcome to the first annual predetermined pro wrestling hangout, Dabbie Awards.
00:13:38
Speaker
I don't know if the show was more off the rails when we were talking about furries or when we were trying to name these awards the Dabbies, but
2018 Wrestling Themes & Challenges
00:13:47
Speaker
Garrett, lots of stuff to talk about from 2018. It was an up and down year. I think the overall theme of 2018 obviously has been the explosion of the indie scene and the direction that that's headed in. Meanwhile, over in WWE, there's been a lot of negativity and a lot of unhappy fans this year. However, they did have quite a few high moments themselves. And then there's been stuff to talk about in between. I think we should hand out an award.
00:14:16
Speaker
I guess we're gonna debate this. This is how we're gonna figure this out. You're gonna hear this debate live on the podcast. Jaw-dropping moment of 2018 in pro wrestling. I definitely had a few for this one. Yeah, me too. And some of them are pretty recent, like Nick Gage carving up David Arquette in that death match. Yeah, that's a good nominee. I think all of us had an idea of what we've
00:14:42
Speaker
like a dream scenario of what that match would be like. I think when that version of that match actually started to happen, I mean, I know everybody in this room that I was watching it and had their mouth open and screaming. But I think that, you know, JAW definitely dropped on that one.
00:15:01
Speaker
Let me propose another one, we'll go back and forth on this. This one happened recently and it kind of, I don't want to say it made somebody, but it definitely helped make somebody. Nia Jax punching Becky Lynch in the face. Oh my god.
00:15:18
Speaker
I mean, I think you might end up seeing a theme. I mean, we haven't discussed what we're going to talk about with these, but there's a lot that Becky Lynch did in a short period of time right at the end of the year that could honestly win a lot of these categories if she wanted to.
00:15:34
Speaker
I think there's a high probability. She's going to be nominated for a lot of things just because of her work over the last few months. And I'm not going to fight it. I think that a late vote still counts. And she's had a hell of a run lately. And that's that's that's going to help her out in the dabbies. She's going to get some. She may walk away with more than one dabby.
00:15:58
Speaker
She don't want him. The man doesn't need our shit. Speaking of shit.
00:16:09
Speaker
your family. Let's take a break really quick to point out the fact that your family hooked both of us up with two new t-shirts to wear based off of something that was said on the podcast. Garrett, what's the story on this? So my dad was very, very amused by the phrase, you can't avoid how shitty I am.
00:16:34
Speaker
I remember at the time thinking that was going to be a good one. I think you even said we should get that printed on a t-shirt. Well it happened. Well he listened and now it exists. Do you think our listeners would like a you can't avoid how shitty I am t-shirt? Some might. I feel like most would be like you know what I don't want to wear swear words in public. Yeah.
00:16:57
Speaker
I'm going to get to wear mine in public and get judged. Oh, I'm going to wear mine in public. I'm just saying. I feel like some of our listeners, they're going to get blurred out on WWE TV, probably get asked to move out of the front row. Our poor listeners. I know, you guys.
00:17:17
Speaker
No, I was very happy about those shirts. If you didn't see it, we have an awesome picture of me enjoying one of the calendar family Christmas cookies right in front of Garrett's face while we're both wearing these shirts in front of a Christmas tree. It was almost like our holiday card.
Diet Dilemma & Communion Discussion
00:17:36
Speaker
So, if we're gonna go back to that for a second, let me bring up what could potentially get me chopped.
00:17:44
Speaker
That's a good point. We tried to, we got a little sidetracked and didn't come back to why you could possibly be getting chopped. So I did go to church on Christmas Eve for my mother. And they had communion. And there were, okay, they had these wafers, they were gluten-free, dairy-free, they were basically nothing. So I think those were okay. However, I think that blood of Christ fucked me. That technically counts as booze.
00:18:14
Speaker
Well, no, our church, my family's church that they go to, grape juice. And I promise you that shit probably came from concentrate. There has to have been a little sugar in there. And I even said to my mom before I went down there, this is fucking up my diet. So so but no matter what it was going to be, whether it was the whether it was booze or whether it was filled with sugar.
00:18:41
Speaker
I don't know, Garrett, I think that gets you chopped. I think it does too. I'll let the listeners decide on this one, but I don't have very good hope for my chest, but I do want you to know I'm down from 225 to 211, so it is working, but thank you, thank you, thank you. This segment brought to you by DDP Yoga. It's in the game.
00:19:07
Speaker
Free sponsorship that Diamond Dallas Page does not want from this goddamn podcast.
00:19:15
Speaker
So yeah, I'm still doing it. I didn't actually eat any sweets, though my fucking mom tried to tempt me the whole week. She's like, I won't tell anyone. I'll look away. I will know, though. I will know. And I've got honor, God damn it. And speaking of God, his fucking son may have gotten me chopped in the chest.
00:19:40
Speaker
We may have to change the rules that every time you break the diet over the course of you doing it, that's a separate chop. So you may end up getting chopped like 15 times. So we'll let our listeners, I think that's a chop.
00:19:56
Speaker
I agree. I agree. Everybody said that I shouldn't bring it up, that it didn't count, but I want to have complete honesty with you guys. I think if you came up to me and said there was somebody handing out free samples of this new Sprite, and I took this little Dixie cup and sipped that, everyone would go, well, that counts.
00:20:17
Speaker
Is this religious discrimination, what I'm doing right now? I could have not had the blood. I could have just had a little body. But I think the person with the thing would have looked at me weird like, no blood for me tonight. And they're like, bullshit, we've been listening. We know that you've been watching that death match shit. Drink it. A really funny story would have been if you had looked at them dead in the eyes and said, sorry, man, I can't have the blood of Christ. I'm doing DDP yoga.
00:20:49
Speaker
And they would have said, I totally get what you mean, it's okay. And then you wouldn't be in this predicament on the podcast. I'll be honest, I don't know how understanding they would have been. If we have any religious listeners, please let me know. Does this count? I feel like your input on this is...
00:21:08
Speaker
Probably gonna get me chopped. So Garrett, for jaw-dropping moment of 2018, one of your nominations was Nick Gage beating the shit out of David Arquette. I brought up Nia Jax punching Becky. Here's another one. We got to witness this live. After keeping it quiet for months and denying the rumors, Chris Jericho actually appeared at all in on American soil in a promotion that does not belong to Vince McMahon.
00:21:36
Speaker
Does that qualify as a jaw-dropping moment? I really think it does. I mean, me personally, I know we had discussed, like, what would it be like if he showed up, but then, you know, we saw the Fauzi dates and he never canceled it. So I think it kind of got pushed out of our minds. I think we had hoped. But, I mean, when the lights came back on and he was in the ring, did you think immediately that's Jericho? Or was there still a moment in your head where you're like, wait, what's happening?
00:22:04
Speaker
I think this is a perfect example of there's times in pro wrestling where you feel like you've been watching it for so long and you kind of understand what's coming so often that it's hard to get surprised by certain things, especially if it's something that you've been discussing for awhile.
Surprise Appearances & Unexpected Moments
00:22:20
Speaker
When Jericho showed up at all in, in the moment I had completely forgotten that that was a thing that I was wondering about for awhile.
00:22:29
Speaker
And when it when it turned out to be him in the ring, yeah, my jaw dropped. I was pretty I remember the excitement and the giddiness when I looked over at you and I was like, oh, my God, Jericho's here. Yeah, a special flight just to make that appearance. That was that was a hell of an effort by Y2J. Yeah, I don't know if we included that in our Jericho episode, but just to ask his deal a little more and unblock you just a little more. Good. Good on you, bud.
00:22:59
Speaker
Do you have another nominee or would you like to hand that award out Garrett? I've got one more. I've got one more. Velveteen Dream and Ricochet. When Ricochet did that front flip out of the ring and landed perfectly on the ground. I meant to write that down and I completely forgot it. I think that's the winner. You think because that was perfect. It was perfect. And Velveteen Dream's jaw literally dropped. Yeah, he made someone's jaw drop. Yeah.
00:23:29
Speaker
Damn, that's- I don't have a- I don't have a- I mean, these are all good nominees. There were so many, like, if that had just fucked up even a little bit, it wouldn't have been as cool. But he didn't just fucking picture perfect, looked like a superhero, and how- there's no way any of us didn't watch that more than once.
00:23:48
Speaker
Absolutely. That's still getting played in promo packages. I had a coworker at work the other day who was like, oh, did you see that flip? And I'm like, dude, that happened like four months ago. And it's still being talked about. I think that's something anyone can be impressed by. That might have it. You know what? I'm comfortable giving that a word out. We have a lot of good nominees for this one. Give it to Ricochet on that front flip out of the ring to face Velveteen Dream. That's a good one.
00:24:18
Speaker
Good on you for bringing it up, I forgot about that. Hey Garrett, this is an important award that we're about to hand out on the davies. Feel good moment of 2018 in pro wrestling. Fuck, I don't know if I felt better.
00:24:40
Speaker
in a room watching pro wrestling than I did when we watched Cody Rhodes win the NWA title. That was the first one I wrote down. That one's gonna be hard to top, but I do have a couple other ones I wanna bring up. Then we can discuss it and then we can decide. Cody Rhodes beating Nick Aldis for the NWA championship. Emotional moment, feel good moment, felt right. The entire room was hanging
00:25:08
Speaker
on that match. And when they threw up that X in the middle of the match and we thought that the guy who was running the show, whose grand idea this whole thing was, when we thought that he was hurt, life got sucked out of that room. And they got back into it when they realized he was okay.
00:25:26
Speaker
And then he beats Nick Aldis for the NWA championship at all in.
Feel-Good Moments of 2018
00:25:31
Speaker
And grown men with neckbeards were weeping, Garrett. They're listening to two of them right now. Just an awesome moment.
00:25:41
Speaker
You and I saw the movie Titanic together in theaters during its original theatrical run. And I will say, as 31 year old men, we cried more watching Cody Rhodes raise that title than we did watching that man drown at the end of Titanic.
00:26:00
Speaker
Oh, I thought another thing that's worth mentioning and this is kind of cheating to put this under feel good moment, but I think it needs to be put in there. The entire WWE evolution pay-per-view. There's that. Yeah.
00:26:21
Speaker
That was just a feel-good night for several hours. The vibe of that crowd, the entire show, made you feel like you were in that building. And it made you want to be there so bad. Yeah, I'm sad that we didn't get to be there. Friend of the show, obviously, Queen of the Rings, she got to be there. Haven't quite heard all of her comments on the podcast. We need to get her on there to get more details on that.
00:26:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's a feel good moment. That's a feel good night. So yeah, that actually man, I might have to make you be the bad guy on this one and choose between those two. Well, the only other thing I wanted to mention was was Becky beating Charlotte for the Women's Championship at Hell in a Cell. I think there were a lot of people looking forward to her getting that chance chance again and not being overlooked when it happened. That was a feel good moment. I don't I think it's a distant third between these other two, maybe. Yeah.
00:27:21
Speaker
Yeah. What do you think, man? Man, because I know a lot of people also cried at evolution. Yeah. This is tough. Fuck. Because the thing is, looking at what was happening at the time for both, both are going to go down as monumental moments.
00:27:44
Speaker
Because that was Cody Rhodes sticking it to WWE. Other, WWE finally giving this awesome women's roster their due. This is our show. Do you just want to make them co-winners? Yeah, you guys are going to have to cut that couch in half. Now you both get Golden Love seats.
00:28:05
Speaker
So we're given one half of the Davi to Cody, winning the NWA championship at all, and the other half goes to the WWE Evolution pay-per-view. Both were emotional. I think we got that one right. I think that's the right answer. We're right. Don't argue. Don't add us. Nah, you can add us. Please add us. You can add us. We want you to add us. I want you to add us. This is all about a conversation. And then if you yell at me and say, that's wrong, I'll say, well, then start your own award show.
00:28:36
Speaker
Leave us a review while you're adding us to. Yeah, actually, if you want to write to me, write to me in the review section of iTunes, because I'll see it. I think even a one star review helps us, doesn't it? Don't tell them that. If they want to tell us to fuck off in a one star review, hey, it's another review. One star. Too much furry talk. Too much. He said that he's going to get chopped because of Jesus's blood. He has friends who are deviants.
00:29:07
Speaker
So this is an award I know you're gonna be excited to debate, to hand out.
Funniest Wrestling Moments of 2018
00:29:12
Speaker
Garrett, this is the 2018 LOL Award for the Dabbies. Oh my God. Oh my God. What moment in pro wrestling, there were several moments this year in pro wrestling that were worthy of an LOL. Let's go down some, let's go, because we might have different things written down. Okay, I narrowed it down to four.
00:29:37
Speaker
Okay. Do you want me to go through all of them or are we gonna go back and forth and share here? Let's go back and forth but you started off since I only have three written down. Okay. The hardest I have laughed live and for an entire weekend was that Brody, Brody King PCO match from Bola.
00:29:56
Speaker
Which qualifies as a botch too. If I recall that was night one. So maybe even like one of the first couple matches. So that was the start of an amazing weekend of wrestling. Starting with just a botch fest. The loudest thud ever.
00:30:13
Speaker
There were two moments in that. Okay, I'm sure you all have retired of me talking about this, but I gotta set it up one more time. PCO's on the outside of the ring. Brody King's inside. He's looking at those ropes, man. He's gonna go run, springboard off, do a flip over the top rope.
00:30:35
Speaker
He runs, he jumps, as he's in the air, PCO looks over his shoulder to see Brody King sail about five feet too far to the left. And it sounds like somebody drops a stack of cinder blocks onto the floor. Oh, my God. It was so like you could I was on the opposite side of the venue and I felt the ground shake. He is a large, large man.
00:31:04
Speaker
And I need that image of him looking over, just see him sailing too far away. Not even trying, because if he were to try and help, he would have had to dive in front of him and that would have looked ridiculous. So, PCO chose to just do nothing and let Brody King bruise his fucking tailbone on the floor of the Globe Theatre. Later in that match, PCO's trying to do a senton.
00:31:32
Speaker
off the top rope and literally hung himself out like laundry. You know what's the funny thing about this story is that both of these guys got Ring of Honor deals out of this. Yes, and that they had wrestled like 10 times or some shit throughout the year. They had just wrestled. They'd put on so many matches. How was the biggest stage for them to do that match? The worst.
00:31:57
Speaker
I feel bad for Brody King. You know, he got hurt. You never want to see a wrestler get hurt. So that ranks up there, especially because you were in the live crowd for that.
00:32:10
Speaker
Oh, the rest of the weekend repeating that story brought me to tears. So there's a couple more nominees. But the thing for this award, I think you and I are going to have some overlap on this one. Oh, I think so too. So I'm going to bring up one that I don't think is on your list in anticipation of the other two I have being on your list. I don't know if people remember
00:32:36
Speaker
But the one really, really good thing that did come out of the greatest Royal Rumble was Titus O'Neill tripping on his way running down to the ring and tripping on the mat and falling face first and sliding up under the ring.
00:32:51
Speaker
I don't know if I have ever laughed so hard while just watching a show, but Corey Graves losing his shit over and over and over and over again did not help the situation. Holy crap, this was one of the funniest things I've ever seen happen as a botch. And I don't think it's as funny if it happens to anybody else, but for some reason it happening to giant fucking Titus was hilarious. And how he fully disappeared.
00:33:22
Speaker
three quarters of his body wound up under the ring. You couldn't have gotten that right if you had practiced it a hundred times. And here's the funny thing, if this had happened to any other show, there would have been an LED board on that side of the ring and he would have smashed face first.
00:33:39
Speaker
and probably got electrocuted and broke some expensive equipment but because they were in Saudi Arabia it was just a regular ring apron and he's okay he just damaged his pride a little bit he got a t-shirt out of it
00:33:53
Speaker
Yeah, you know what I totally left that off my list and you are just think that needs to be on there No, you're a hundred percent right on that. That is I Mean they were they just replayed that over and over again I was watching that on my phone at work while it was happening and I had to look up for something and when I looked down I just saw him crawling backwards out from under it and
00:34:17
Speaker
And I was very confused, like, was he getting a table? But then I heard Corey Graves just dying. And him being so amused by that and laughing for so long into that match, yeah. Yeah, Corey Graves' laughter brought us all joy. You know that tickled Vince in the gorilla position. You know that that broke him. That's what you get for touching me. Arr, arr, arr.
00:34:46
Speaker
Oh, God. Let me bring up one that I think is gonna be on both of our lists.
00:34:53
Speaker
We, I know we laughed about this when it happened, but we also laughed about it like the next day, maybe harder than we've laughed at anything in a long time. At all in, when Jericho finished his run in on Kenny Omega, and he disappeared through the crowd, he made a stop by the announced desk and slapped his hands down on the desk and yelled quickly
00:35:20
Speaker
because it's Chris Jericho, God damn it. And he scared the holy hell out of Don Callis, who had his eyeballs fixated on his monitor, calling the action as it was happening. And Jericho scared him so bad that he fell backwards off the desk, pushing his computer desk or computer chair backwards.
00:35:41
Speaker
I think the next day, you, me, and Queen of the Ring were recounting this story, and we were in tears on my kitchen floor. I know at that point, you know, we were very loopy from a very, very long weekend, but that still tickles me. And if I pull up a picture of what he looked like with the Pentagon makeup without the mask, it just brings back all the memories.
00:36:10
Speaker
so that was definitely one of the one of the lol nominees but to me here is do you have one that you need to nominate real quick I can do yeah I've got two more I'll do one real quick because one of them I think is the I think the last one I left off is the winner
00:36:24
Speaker
OK, but go ahead. OK, this it was from the takeover Chicago money in the bank weekend. Lars Sullivan, Aleister Black. That was a match that not a lot of people were looking forward to. And it ended up not being as bad, I think, as most people would have guessed, because Aleister Black's very, very good. It was it was OK.
00:36:50
Speaker
But there was a moment where I don't remember if he was going for the black mass kick or if he just kicked. But Aleister Black kicked towards Lars Sullivan and there was clearly a foot of space between his head and his foot. And later when you were recapping that.
00:37:09
Speaker
Recapping that to me. You said when I saw him, because we weren't sitting together for that one. You said, when I saw him throw that kick, all I thought was, please God, don't let him fall down.
00:37:25
Speaker
And I thought it. I said it. And I don't know if he felt the wind brush his head, but he just falls fucking face first down on that mat. And even from my seat, I was laughing because I was like, oh, no. I thought, OK, good. He's not going to do it. Oh, shit. There he goes. Thankfully, that wasn't the finish. I think he was going for black mass, but I think they got up and they pulled it off and he actually did it the right way.
00:37:51
Speaker
holy crap yeah that that I'm glad that my commentary added to that moment for you yeah anytime I think of Lars Sullivan who is you know about to make his main roster debut he did have that beautiful botch last year so a lot of these that we talked about either they weren't planned
00:38:14
Speaker
They were botches, they were mistakes, they happened spontaneously. And I'm not saying that disqualifies them from this list. A lot of times the funniest stuff is unplanned and that's fine. However, I think if something's funny and you scripted it to be that funny, you deserve extra credit because it's hard to script something that actually comes through and is hilarious. I think we're about to do the same one. There is no way
00:38:42
Speaker
I can hand this award, me personally, I'm voting for the penis druids at all in. Oh, fuck. I didn't think of that. I had a different one. That's really good, though. That was a when we saw those dicks marching up that stage.
00:38:59
Speaker
you and I were dying. Once I realized what was about to happen and I realized how genius that was as a parody and as a moment and the fact that these penis druids came out to introduce Joey Ryan at all and that he was back to life. Taking a poke at the undertaker. Nice little parody of that. And then to carry Adam Hangman Page out of the arena.
00:39:30
Speaker
I don't know how many of them there were. I don't know if it was eight, I don't know if it was 10 or 12, but there were a lot of inflated dicks carrying Hangman Page out. And as funny as it was in person, it's even funnier watching it back. Oh, with the commentary? With Don Callis' commentary. Oh my God, this conclave of coxmen can only mean one thing. We're witnessing a genuine res erection.
00:40:02
Speaker
and the crowd popped so hard for a guy who didn't even have a match. I just, well he, what did he get? He got like a super kick in. I just think that there's something about when you script something that's that good, you deserve some extra credit because that was genius. Funny on purpose is always good.
00:40:23
Speaker
Yeah. I want to make sure that we give credit to you. What was your one that you had? Okay. And this is me actually giving WWE credit for a moment that I thought was really funny that was intended to be funny. Okay. Braun Strowman and the cello. I completely forgot about this.
00:40:45
Speaker
God damn, that was 2018? That seems like so long ago. Wow. There's so much wrestling that looking back on all this, I was like, I don't want to list all this stuff from right at the end of the year, but there was a lot of good stuff right at the end. But that's one that I thought of, and man, when he came out and was playing that, holding it like a guitar, I lost it. And that was kind of the first time we saw that Braun Strowman's funny strums at once, kind of shrugs like, well, you're fucked.
00:41:12
Speaker
It just shatters in his hands. No, that definitely deserves to be a nominee. Garrett, we've laid all these out. We still have so many more dabbies to hand out here. What are you thinking? LOL moment of the year. The LOL award. See, this is hard for me because, like you said, it's important when they do make us laugh on purpose. But as funny as that was, those two fuck ups made me cry.
00:41:43
Speaker
I wasn't there for those, though. No, no, no. I mean, in the Jericho falling out of the chair, you and I cried with callous falling backwards. Yeah, man. I don't know. This is this is tough. But I do like what you said there. Like if if something truly was that funny, it deserves it might deserve the award. To me, the penis druid's thing was also one of the moments of the year.
00:42:10
Speaker
Like that was one of the moments I took away from all in that I'll be thinking about for decades to come. I don't know, I'm fine with whatever you think. Because I'm just happy we created all this stuff. Hey man, you've got the envelopes with the results in them. And I'm not going to fight for this one. But I am saying, go for it. Penis Druids. I'm just saying, check out that Brody PC. Just check out that PCO Brody match.
00:42:37
Speaker
well plug it plug it on our social media man but I it would feel wrong to not give the penis druids their due because we're never gonna see that again serious award here you had brought this up earlier and I think it is important
00:43:00
Speaker
We are sometimes able to look at a guy and say, I think he's got something special. I think he's going to be a star of the future. We're calling this one the next big thing award. Garrett nominees for this. Who do you think has a really bright future in pro wrestling that you saw a glimpse of in 2018 that you're excited about and you think they will be a star? Derek, I've got on stings trench coat.
00:43:27
Speaker
The baseball bat just slid out of my sleeve. And I'm pointing to the rafters. I'm pointing to the outfield right now. I'm calling my shot. You hear that crack of the bat? It just went a home run. Here it is. I'm calling it now. Our favorite wrestler next year is going to be Jizz. No, you're not. Although,
00:43:55
Speaker
Did you see that picture that Jeffy made for us? Oh, it was Joey. Oh, it was Joey. Yeah, my bad. Joey did design us a nice picture of Jizz, who is technically Otis. It's confusing because Tucker is Otis and Otis is Jizz. Yeah. It only makes sense to us and the people who listen to this show, we think.
00:44:20
Speaker
I'm just saying, you look at Otis, you know, you see Jizz. I'm gonna go ahead and call it. Remember how much I disliked Hangman? And that all changed. I'm thinking that Jizz is gonna surprise us on the main roster. He's gonna really be the... There's no way you feel this way. He's gonna be the Elias of the New Year. Where he's gonna shine on the main roster, yeah. There's no way this is your vote, so we'll...
00:44:51
Speaker
I had several names I wanted to put out there and discuss them with you. I had, on this list, I had Walter, I had MJF, and I had Velveteen Dream.
Future Wrestling Stars Speculation
00:45:04
Speaker
Those are all very, very good. I mean, those are all guys who had- They're just not Jizz. Sorry, MJF. You might be witty, but you ain't no Jizz.
00:45:19
Speaker
I mean, what do you think? Seriously, who do you think is gonna be a big deal soon and for a while? I think this is a little hard just because there's certain people that are already so widely known in a circle that I do think Walter's gonna be huge globally when he finally shows up.
00:45:42
Speaker
I think Jeff Cobb when he finally gets a chance to be like a main event guy like he's obviously main event at PWG right now I think he's gonna be one that when a bigger audience gets to see him they're gonna love him shit I it's hard to argue that MJF isn't gonna be one of the biggest fucking stars in the world though well who do you think cuz I'm gonna leave this one up to you you get to open this envelope
00:46:06
Speaker
Shit, I mean, as much as I love all those guys, I feel like who has the most commercial appeal and is going to just entertain everybody, I think I'm gonna have to give that to MJF. You think MJF is going to make it? I think he's gonna have a big year. I mean, look at how many guys have already been signed. Nobody has snatched him up yet, unless MLW has him. I don't know if he has like a full-time contract over there.
00:46:35
Speaker
Does MJF sign with WWE in 2019? I think he's gonna end up being a guy like EC3 that isn't going to thrive as much in NXT as he would the main roster. You think that he's better suited for the main roster, but he's obviously gonna have to go through NXT.
00:46:59
Speaker
Yeah, and hopefully it ends up being like one of those because he's not a bad wrestler by any means I'm just saying as far as the endy style of just flippy fly like I can't picture him in a new Japan Match kind of thing like him getting the shit beat out of him on that level seems really difficult Fuck I just there's one that I had written down that I didn't mention though. Okay, bring him up Matt Riddle
00:47:26
Speaker
Yeah, Matt Riddle could very well have a huge 2019 and going forward. I think he was, I mean, obviously huge on the endies. People know him from UFC, but I he's got, I actually think I'm changing my answer. You're giving it to Matt Riddle.
00:47:42
Speaker
I think I'm gonna give it to Matt Riddle. I think he's big. He's super ripped. He's a handsome dude. He's really funny. Right now in NXT, it seems like they're still letting him smoke weed, which is one of the biggest parts of his personality. Also, I was about to ask, do you think he can stay clean to get a big push? Does he have to be clean? I think so. I mean, they stripped Rob Van Damme of the WWE Championship and the ECW Championship, which he was holding at the same time, by the way. They stripped him of that because he got popped for weed.
00:48:11
Speaker
I have such a hard time believing that, cause you know a lot of these dudes aren't addicted to pain pills and shit. It seems like weed would be a healthier option.
00:48:29
Speaker
have his lifestyle meshed to the main event scene. Because if you get pushed into that spot, they're gonna definitely want you meeting kids and having, you know, signing appearances and those kind of commitments. And does he mesh with that lifestyle?
00:48:45
Speaker
You know, if he's it's not like he's out there cutting promos about weed. I think if he I think if he still just kind of had that surfer dude vibe about him and it's just high and it's just like, yeah, oh, he's I. But we're not going to talk about it. I think it'll be fine because one, he's somebody I didn't think would get signed to WWE because of that. And open the envelope, Garrett. Who do you think it is? I'm I'm still going to call it. I think Matt Riddle, I think Matt Riddle is going to do big shit in 2019.
00:49:14
Speaker
So we get the next big thing award going to Matt Riddle. I'm with it. That's fair. That was a big signing for them. He does have the look. They have been into the X UFC thing. That's a fair call, man. Here's an award I think you and I are both going to mutually agree on.
00:49:37
Speaker
Breakout Wrestler of the Year for 2018. Who really came out in 2018 and showed you something that you weren't expecting? Well, I think even the listeners at this point are like, he's been sucking the guy's dick for half a year. They're going to give it to him. So let's start with a couple others. Let's build up to him if you have any others. I do have a couple others, but I just tell you right now, they're not going to walk away with this war, but they deserve to be mentioned. One of them is Elias.
00:50:26
Speaker
Following the same thought process, Velveteen Dream. Yeah.
00:50:33
Speaker
Yeah, came out of nowhere and doesn't have like a lot of the guys down at NXT kind of have that the the long standing indie background. And this was a guy who was on tough enough and worked the Indies, but he's not thought of as that guy. And for him to have the 2018 that he had, I mean, he's working. He was working all the top names and NXT and having great matches with all of them.
00:50:58
Speaker
I mean, as far as I'm concerned, the guy had a couple match of the year contenders. Absolutely. And I don't think any of us expected him to be as good as he was. His promos have been awesome. His Twitter interactions with people have been hilarious. He looks awesome. He's a guy that you wouldn't think he would fit in NXT with that character. He's worked awesome there and he's somebody that you only see excelling in the main roster. Right.
00:51:27
Speaker
That's absolutely true. Another one I want to bring up, I don't know if this, I don't know if this goes back more to the end of 2017 and into 2018. Rusev I feel like has had a good year. Yeah, Rusev Day obviously started in 2017, but Rusev Day Chance WrestleMania weekend, that was huge. That was one of the biggest chants you were hearing everywhere all weekend. I mean, like where I said I didn't, like it made its way to Ring of Honor. Yeah.
00:51:56
Speaker
So is that when you know that something in WWE is working? I think that's a thing no one was mad about, where I don't think anyone faulted anyone for enjoying that. I think that was- You seemed pretty mad about it at Ring of Honor. Derek, are you saying that I had too much of a neck beard at that show? Well, actually. Well, actually, he wrestles on the WWE. That's across the street.
00:52:21
Speaker
And look, he's ending his 2018. He's United States champion again. And good for him. I think he should have won that championship at WrestleMania. So, good on Rusev.
00:52:34
Speaker
So Garrett, who are we handing this award out to? Because I think you and I probably agree on who it's going to. I want to name a couple others. Oh, okay. I think Joey Janela had a fucking crazy good year up until getting through. I mean, the guy sold out. I don't know if he sold out spring break too, but the attendance of that thing was insane. Actually, I think it was sold out. That place was jam fucking packed.
00:52:57
Speaker
The people were going crazy for it. I know I was burnt by that point, but he's been wrestling in PWG. He put on Lost in New York, which was one of the most fun pay-per-views I watched this entire year. He got to be it all in.
00:53:16
Speaker
and arguably one of the best matches at all in, if not the best. Yeah, easily. I think he's up there. I think Bandito could be in that running as just a guy who really broke out to me this year, Ilya Dragunov, Mark Haskins, but
00:53:35
Speaker
I think we both know who this is going to and it's Joey Janela's opponent at all in.
Breakout Performances & Comebacks
00:53:40
Speaker
Absolutely. This award is definitely going to Adam Hangman page from going when this part podcast started. This is a guy Garrett did not want to sign his Wrestle Kingdom program because Garrett didn't feel like he deserved it. And he wasn't at the event. Yes, I'm mentioning that to to now.
00:54:01
Speaker
Adam Hangman Page, as you have said before, can hang with the best of them.
00:54:07
Speaker
I mean, WrestleMania weekend, his match that he had against Ibushi at Supercard was fucking incredible. And then I feel like from there on out, it was just one after another of just fucking bangers. And we have been hyping him up a lot over the last few months as he's earned it. This is his award. He is the breakout wrestler of the year for 2018. He deserves it. And he's young. We've talked about this all the time too. He's in his mid 20s.
00:54:36
Speaker
Yeah, he's he is going to fucking explode. He is going to be the heavyweight champ of a company at some point. And hopefully he has a good run with that because it has been so much fun watching that guy work this year.
00:54:51
Speaker
So for this next award, cause we were about an hour in, we have so many more awards to hand out. Doesn't matter. We're going to keep going for this next award. I thought I knew initially my, my, my first response, my first nomination I thought was definitely going to get this award. It just came to me that quick. And then I thought about it some more. And I came up with a bigger name. We are handing out the award for comeback wrestler of the year for 2018.
00:55:23
Speaker
my I think I know who we're probably gonna end up giving it to but one of the first people that came to mind I saw him it was towards the beginning of the year at that arrow lucha show that Conan was putting on here in Nashville sure Ray Mysterio jr.
00:55:40
Speaker
I feel like it was one that's on my list. Good, good, good on you. I feel like he came back like he just looks buff as hell. It looks like he hasn't missed a step. And I mean, I don't think that he had been completely gone. He may have been wrestling elsewhere or smaller shows, but to be back in the main event scene and everything, I think he looks great. Well, let's rattle off his list of accomplishments this year. Starting back in January, he had a guest spot in that year's Royal Rumble.
00:56:08
Speaker
That was where it was his big coming out, coming back party. And people were disappointed that it was him. The guest's spot at the Royal Rumble was not like him signing a deal with WWE. He then went on to work all in and was in the main event of all in technically.
00:56:27
Speaker
Yeah, and was he working Lucha Underground this year too? I think so. I'll be honest, I didn't keep up with any Lucha Underground for the new season, but I'm pretty certain he was on their roster. And it ultimately wound up with him signing another deal with WWE, so he's back.
00:56:45
Speaker
at the top of the mountain, so you're right. I put him on my list too. Ray Mysterio absolutely deserves to be nominated for comeback wrestler of the year. Another one I think you and I are both gonna agree on, PCO. PCO, goddamn.
00:57:02
Speaker
Yeah, this is what I thought. Honestly, they could make his comeback into a movie because it's so we really could. I don't. It's just such a feel good story and it makes you feel good for the guy. I mean, I guess he had been doing big stuff in Canada. Joey Janela catches wind of it, gets him on this show with Walter. Walter beats the shit out of him. And honestly, that moon salt, people love that moon salt. PCO man. Yeah, he
00:57:32
Speaker
Was he in his 50s? Yeah, I don't have to look up his exact age, but I don't know if anyone can beat that. He went from indie sensation to signing the deal with Ring of Honor in his 50s after being a part of the Quebecers, right? Yes. That's his previous claim to fame. I mean, does he have to be the oldest person to be signed to an actual wrestling contract?
00:58:01
Speaker
God, I don't know. I just know that a couple weeks ago I read that Ric Flair says he's clear to wrestle again. And Joey Ryan says that if somebody books it, he will wrestle that match for free. Make it happen. I would love to see Flair blade from the dick throw.
00:58:19
Speaker
I have been pushing for a blade job after a dick flip for a long time and we haven't gotten it yet. It can still happen. Do you have any other nominees for this because I have the big one. I only have the big one as well.
00:58:35
Speaker
Do you want to say it just to find out if we're on the same page? It's gotta be Daniel Bryan. Absafuckin' Lutely. Regardless of how anyone feels about what he's done since he's been back. That moment where we all checked our phones and saw that Daniel Bryan was cleared and we thought it was, you know, like, somebody's fuckin' with me. There's no way this is real.
00:58:57
Speaker
We never thought we were gonna see him, right? I mean, we thought like maybe he'll go to Japan and kill himself or maybe he'll go to Ring of Honor and kill himself. None of us were expecting him when we got it.
00:59:09
Speaker
He's an indie darling. He's a WWE darling and everyone was convinced that his wrestling career was over and it happened at the right time in the build to WrestleMania and the announcement that he he's back and that he and he's been wrestling for a while and no major injuries as far as I know and to come full circle. Now he's he's acting as the pompous vegan heel.
00:59:32
Speaker
And people love the title holder who holds the WWE Championship. It has been one hell of a 2018 for Daniel Bryan and to go from where he was being forced to be in retirement to being cleared and now WWE Champion. You're right. I couldn't give this award to anybody else. Just make sure that that Davi is vegan friendly.
00:59:54
Speaker
It's definitely vegan friendly. So let's go from a high, high award like that. Let's talk about a subject people are just dying to talk about on the internet. What was the worst pro wrestling pay-per-view of 2018? Okay.
01:00:14
Speaker
It's weird to say this because I can think of one match that was, I was very high on that could even be a match of the year contender for me. But man, I feel like mania 3034 was the start of something bad. Yeah. That really was, I mean, there may have been worse things that happened after it, but that was really the start of just down fucking Hill.
Wrestling Event Critiques & Praise
01:00:39
Speaker
Does it have something to do with the fact that it is WrestleMania and the expectations are high and it's at a different level what the expectations are supposed to be? And if it was any other pay-per-view, maybe it wouldn't be looked down on so badly. But the fact that they had the opportunity to do so many things, the fact that the fans were ready to see, they were finally okay and had come to terms with the fact that Roman Reigns was gonna beat Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship. The fact that they were looking forward to the classic
01:01:09
Speaker
wrestling match between Styles and Nakamura and that they didn't get it. The fact that they saw Asuka's streak end.
01:01:17
Speaker
there were a lot of things that happened. I mean, that was a good match, but I think you're right, though. There was a lot of things on that show that pissed people off and disappointed people. With a lot of eyes. Yeah, I think the disappointing things in that show outweighed how good certain things were. And I think overall, just the feeling of everybody leaving that arena at the end of the night, everybody was so confused. Nobody left with that really good, like, man, I can't wait to come back next year.
01:01:45
Speaker
feeling like it was just like what did we just watch did we just watch that guy beat the shit out of that guy for real and then also just you know a lot of things didn't pan out the way we wanted them to in that one the the styles Nakamura match that was you know thought to be a dream match just wasn't really anything fuck what else John Cena had a squash match with the Undertaker yeah
01:02:11
Speaker
Rusev didn't win the United States championship. We talked about that earlier and they had no reason not to There was no reason like that was I feel like he was just fighting all of us at that point Like Vic McMahon is like fuck you fuck you fuck you He's like, you know what you spent too much time in the Pontchartrain Center motherfucker. Here's two of these you should have been at access I Held up two middle fingers when I said here's two of these
01:02:37
Speaker
So that's a fair nomination. We did a whole episode on this one. Backlash was really, really, really bad. And that was just a complete diagnosis of what the fuck is WWE doing right now? Where did Backlash fall? When in the year was that? I would have to go back and look.
01:03:01
Speaker
That happened back in May. This was written like the next month after Mania. So I think you're right. Mania did lead to them doing a lot of stupid shit. Okay, let's... For those of us who don't remember the card of Backlash Me, I'm pulling up the card right now just to see what we witnessed at this thing.
01:03:26
Speaker
Okay, Seth Rollins beat The Miz, Nia Jax beat Alexa Bliss, Jeff Hardy defeated Randy Orton. Was that the screwdriver one or was that, that was Hell in a Cell or something? That was Hell in a Cell. Daniel Bryan defeated Big Cass, I guess, for the first time?
01:03:43
Speaker
Carmella beat Charlotte. AJ Styles versus Nakamura again, ended in a DQ. You ended in a draw. Because we just kept getting those dick hits. Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley beat Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. And then Roman Reigns defeated Joe in just a regular singles match. The WWE Championship was not in the main event of a show where Reigns was not champion and neither was Joe.
01:04:13
Speaker
It's like mania and backlash where it was like Vince saying fuck you and what you want.
01:04:21
Speaker
Man, and yeah, right after that was Greatest Royal Rumble, which felt like a fuck you, because it was just redoing some matches. Money in the bank, I don't remember being extraordinary. Honestly, for this, I could just give it to, what, April to October 6th for Super. I think some good stuff happened in August, like at SummerSlam, some fun stuff. Because you went to New York for SummerSlam.
01:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, the main event was great on that. Yeah, the smaller paper views in between, just everything was meh. Well those, yeah. Another one that we have to bring up because it caused us to put WWE in timeout was absolutely crown jewel.
01:05:09
Speaker
I don't know what else to say. I mean, the fact that Shawn Michaels, the fact that HBK made his pro wrestling return for one match this year and because of that card, because of the circumstances around that show, nobody really gave a shit. That's just fucking sad. And that was the one where just it was there were a lot of botches. It was just it was kind of sloppy.
01:05:38
Speaker
It was just a bad idea. It was poorly executed. Hogan was on that show. This... Lesnar beat Braun Strowman? Yeah. Nothing went right. By design. This is what they wanted.
01:05:52
Speaker
Shane McMahon ended up being the best in the world? Right. I think, in my mind, Crown Jewel, and I haven't watched it, but I know what happened. I saw pictures, I saw the results, I saw the reaction. To me, Crown Jewel gets worse pay per view of the year just because of all the controversy surrounding it, and then they didn't even compensate for the controversy going into it, and they booked a shitty show.
01:06:19
Speaker
They booked a show that was a what the fuck show. But they did that right after evolution. Which they got very, very right. Yeah, it's yeah. You know what? I don't think we even have to think anymore about this. I think Crown Jewel is going to end up with this title. We're given worst pay per view of the year to Crown Jewel. So let's flip flip it around. Garrett.
01:06:43
Speaker
What's the Davi for best pay-per-view of the year for 2018? I mean, if we're just gonna rush through these, I think it's gonna be hard to beat Dominion. Dominion is definitely up there. That was a show that gave you all of your favorite wrestlers, working the Andes, working New Japan. And it seemed like all the right people went over and won. We're talking the Bucks, we're talking Jericho, we're talking Keeney.
01:07:11
Speaker
But you and I had this debate too. I mean, this happened in June as well, right at the beginning of June. So things with WWE were just starting to slip. And it was like New Japan saw a moment to just fucking pounce and be like, you know what? They haven't gotten anything they've wanted in wrestling in a while. Let's give them everything they want in a night.
01:07:33
Speaker
That's true. I think that Dominion may be at the top of my list as of right now, but I think, let me start back at the bottom a little bit, some that might get overlooked. NXT TakeOver Brooklyn IV deserves to be mentioned because that was a complete card on a show that I was entertained from start to finish for a little more than two hours.
01:07:57
Speaker
That could be said with almost any NXT. I mean, obviously like we had the Aleister Black Lars Sullivan thing happen, but I feel like NXT just books their pay-per-views near perfect every time. For sure. Every takeover this year I think has been amazing as a whole show. So yeah, kudos to NXT. We do once again have to throw
01:08:21
Speaker
on Best Paper View of the Year, we have to talk about WWE Evolution again. You said it before, they do women's wrestling right. Man, that was just such a feel-good show. Everything worked. The main event was incredible. The crowd was in such good spirits. They never lost anybody. It was a night of ups.
01:08:50
Speaker
So I mean, it was emotional. It's it's historic. And we were going to we're going to be talking about that one for a while. It'll be interesting to see when they do the next all women's pay-per-view. I'm looking forward to it. Well, our good friend Queen of the Ring might be in in trouble. She better copyright that name because it sounds like they're going to do a Queen of the Ring. Oh, man. She needs to get on that. Or she needs to fucking enter it and win.
01:09:19
Speaker
I don't know. It sounds like you don't have faith in her. I'm just saying it was enough to make to make pro wrestling tease and the elite back down when they got the cease and desist. So WWE are bullies. I do also think that you and I would agree that something we also have we have to mention on here because it would be stupid if we didn't considering it was like the top one of the top stories of 2018 all in.
01:09:47
Speaker
Yeah, all in, once again, a feel-good show, a very important show. I think it's gonna go down historically as, you know, it's looked at in a very grand way. Yeah, and deservedly so. The matches were great. Everything about that show was great.
01:10:04
Speaker
It was a diverse card. It was a moment that that was the important thing was the entire show was a moment. And then there were moments within the show that were moments like little moments as well. And it was historic. And I there were like you said, the card was diverse. There was a lot of stuff you'll never get to see again, probably. And we I don't know how much time we spend hyping up and building up all in and the vibe in that building.
01:10:33
Speaker
at the Sears Center was incredible. You have people who've been following, you had guys like Meltzer who had been following pro wrestling for decades saying that they hadn't seen anything like that. It's, man, this is another category that is just so hard to name because if you're going off of just pure pro wrestling dominion, if you're going off of importance, evolution and all in are tied again.
01:11:03
Speaker
Yeah. But once again there was so much good fucking pro wrestling at Evolution as well. Not that all-end didn't have that. But like I said earlier, fucking every NXT takeover pay-per-view was great.
01:11:17
Speaker
I think the good takeaway from all this is there was some really, really good wrestling this year. And I mean, if we go back, I mean, even Hello Wembley could be thrown into that mix. That was an excellent show. There's just... Do you want to call this one? I don't know. What are you thinking? To me, it's so hard not to...
01:11:41
Speaker
I mean, if it comes down to matter of opinion, which I guess all these are, Dominion was so much fun. We got so many things we wanted out of it. That was one of mine, my favorite of the year. But, shit, going into this, I was so prepared to give it to Dominion until we started talking it out. My vote is, this is the thing that sucks.
01:12:07
Speaker
I feel like I have a bunch of my friends in the room and I have to give one of them something nice and all the other ones have to be sad. Here's my argument for Dominion. I think, wasn't that show like four hours long? Yeah. It was a long show.
01:12:31
Speaker
And it was a show that they put together where like, like we said earlier, all the right people went over and they did it in the correct order. Like the matches increasingly got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until it built to the main event, which is ultimately going to be something we talk about later as a match of the year contender. And they did all the booking, right? I like to me that that was pro wrestling as a pay-per-view. That was pro wrestling executed perfectly.
01:13:00
Speaker
But then, I don't know, I guess if you look at it, if you actually start looking at this card, I'm looking at it right now, New Japan always puts lower things, you know, like you said, they book it the correct way, but they still have warmup matches. So like, the opening match was Eldesperado and Kanemaru? Either way, it was Suzuki Gun versus Rapunji 3K.
01:13:24
Speaker
The next match was Juice and Dave Fenley versus Jay White and Yoshi Hashi. I don't remember anything from those first two matches. Sure, but they were at the right correct placement down on the bottom end of the card. That's true.
01:13:39
Speaker
Look, I'm not gonna be upset whatever we decide on. Here's the one knock I do have on all in, and we talked about it at the time. Other than just, they ran out of time at the end of the pay-per-view. The main event had to go by really, really quick. We talked about it, I don't, I think the best way to end that show probably would have been the NWA Championship match. And I know that there were technical reasons that it didn't happen that way.
01:14:08
Speaker
I again, it's not a knock on like saying this is why all in with shit. I don't know. I like I really as object, you know how like over the course of the year, as we've been doing this podcast, you have slowly been introducing me to wrestling that I otherwise would have no knowledge of between watching progress, between watching New Japan, between attending more Ring of Honor shows, fucking GCW. There are things I have been introduced introduced to over the year.
01:14:37
Speaker
To me, objectively, as a guy who's been primarily WWE over the years, Dominion was amazing, start to finish. And I think Dominion was kind of a turning point for you too, right? Did that show kind of pull you in a little more than anything else at that point? It did. And I kept everything in perspective knowing that not every pay-per-view can be like that.
01:15:01
Speaker
Not they're not always going to be able to do what they did with Dominion and it came at the right time. But all of the title changes that happened, I mean, it was a it was that the way Dominion felt is how WrestleMania should feel every single year. No excuses, because when you know that you want certain heels to win because it makes sense and it feels right, that's when the bookings good.
01:15:28
Speaker
Yeah. And then just looking at booking again, let's look at the main event of each show. Dominion. We had Okada Omega 4, which a lot of people are calling the greatest wrestling match of all time. Yes. Evolution. The main event is not the main event we remember. Correct. I think in our head, the main event of that show was Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, which was awesome.
01:15:58
Speaker
But looking at this, I totally forgot the main event of Evolution was Rousey versus Nikki Bella, which don't get me wrong. That is the perfect main event for me. But if we're looking, which ended up being great. People had a lot of fun with that match, I think, at least more than they anticipated. I mean, it was like a 14 minute match. It was good. It was a lot better than you would have expected.
01:16:23
Speaker
But you're saying objectively. Yes, objectively. That that was the main event. All in was the six man tag that ended up having to get cut short due to timing. To me, that's kind of still easing towards dominion.
01:16:40
Speaker
And also, did you ever expect to see in 2018, Chris Jericho winning a championship in New Japan? No. No, like I think that kind of broke that, you know, that surprised all of us that we're like, oh my God, this isn't just a two time thing. He's here for a minute. Yeah. And it's leading into Wrestle Kingdom here, which will kick off 2019. I think.
01:17:05
Speaker
What'd you say? Go ahead. I think we gotta go Dominion on this one. I think it just... I think we do. I think it really... This is a hard one to give out, but I think if you break it down, Dominion was the best pay-per-view of the year. Yeah. They went nuts. They gave you everything you wanted to see. Like I said, it sucks because there's certain things you were like, you wanna give due credit to All In, you wanna give due credit to Evolution, but I think this is a complete package. Dominion was the real deal, top to bottom.
01:17:34
Speaker
Yeah. There you go. There's your award. That's gonna be some expensive shipping. But I feel like we were fair. We were fair. Because I think we were too. Of those three shows, it's easily the least important.
01:17:49
Speaker
like historically, but maybe not, because if it had a match that's considered the best of all time, that bumps it up. Either way, fuck it, Dominion, we're shipping that shit to Japan. It's gonna be expensive as hell. I hope Gato gets it. So, I'm gonna edit my order here as we kinda, we're gearing towards the last, the back end of our, the dabbies. Hope you guys are enjoying the show. I love talking about this shit, because it's been an exciting year for wrestling.
01:18:18
Speaker
feud of the year I have two written down specifically but I want to hear your take I don't like I thought long and hard about this and I'm only even gonna give you one well then let me give you the other one and then I think because I think the one that we're we're gonna vote for is the same thing okay I think
01:18:43
Speaker
We don't want to overlook how good Becky versus Charlotte was and that that was the only thing really carrying WWE there for a few months.
Influential Feuds & Faction Discussions
01:18:54
Speaker
I think that the technically she still is. You can make. Yeah. Yeah.
01:19:03
Speaker
But to me, the energy between Becky versus Charlotte had been building for a while, people wanted to see it, and it was hot. And even if we're not going to give this thing the award for View to the Year, I think it's worth mentioning because it's changed the game there right now. And it could very well wind up being what leads to the first ever female main event of WrestleMania.
01:19:31
Speaker
Becky Lynch did a lot of important shit this year, and she's undeniable. She is the best fucking thing in that company. She's made me super interested in tuning back in to see her. I have not wanted to purchase a WWE shirt in a long time.
01:19:49
Speaker
I'm going to be getting that Becky 316 shirt. I know they're not even the fucking one selling it, but I have to have that. She is the coolest fucking person. I love Charlotte Flair. She's one of the best wrestlers in that company. Those two fucking killed it. I absolutely love the two of them. So let's move on to who I think we're going to give the award to. We talked about it face to face over the holidays.
01:20:16
Speaker
Garrett, how do you not give this award to Gargano and Champa? You do just give it to him. I mean...
01:20:24
Speaker
I got to be in the building for two of those three matches. And man, those were good. Those were good main event matches in an arena. The audience was fully behind it. There was a definite heel. There was a definite baby face. It just worked. Those guys have phenomenal chemistry.
01:20:46
Speaker
Is the one you missed their first match that they had over WrestleMania weekend down in New Orleans? I missed the New Orleans one, yeah. But you saw Chicago and you saw Brooklyn? Yes. That is the definition of a story going full circle. Their match that they had to start in New Orleans, WrestleMania weekend, was a long time coming since Champa had turned on Gargano at NXT TakeOver Chicago from the previous year, right?
01:21:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that was a long, that was actually a Champa or a Gargano match of the year. He was doing the match against Olmos. Wasn't it after that one? Yeah, well, I'm saying that like Champa had turned on Gargano when they were on DIY together. Is that the one that he showed up and turned? Oh, no, because he turned and threw him into the thing and walked away and then he got hurt. And then when he came back, he smashed the crutch on.
01:21:45
Speaker
Johnny. Correct. Yes. This had been this had been a long time coming and they were able to squeeze this feud out from before Mania weekend. Twenty eighteen all through the summer and into the fall. And it just now came. Yeah.
01:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, now Gargano's a heel. He's back together with Champa. It's perfect storytelling. You can't give Feud of the Year to anybody else because this was done perfectly. They're both so good. Everything just works about it and it's been such a compelling story that we've followed it for a full year.
01:22:30
Speaker
That's yeah, it's it. Yeah, it's undeniable. So I want to skip ahead because I have something in an order that I don't think is inappropriate. So roll with me here. I'm reassigning things next award.
01:22:43
Speaker
This may create some tension and some debate amongst us, but I'm curious to hear your take. So faction of the year, stable of the year, what group, what per wrestling group do you think is the story of 2018? The leader change in the world, baby. Is that more of a business thing or is that
01:23:08
Speaker
Bullet Club is the elite, are on my list. But I also have two other ones, I had SCU. And I had undisputed error. Not talking about this, you and I listed the exact same people. That's amazing.
01:23:30
Speaker
Those, I'm looking at this, in that order, that is the exact order I had. You had, who did you have number one? Well, I had, I mean, just making the thing, I put Elite Undisputed SCU. I have Undisputed Bullet Club SCU. It's, okay, until we went to takeover in Chicago, I had absolutely no idea how big Undisputed actually was. Yeah.
01:23:58
Speaker
There were so many kids wearing undisputed shirts. That arena popped so big.
01:24:05
Speaker
I mean, Adam Cole didn't even have a match that night, but he did an Adam Cole baby, right? And the crowd went nuts. They had one of the matches of the night in an opening tag match against Oney Lorcan. And they stole the show. That was the match, basically. That was one that I don't think any of us expected as much as we got out of it. And that was really, really good. What was it I said to you is like the pop that they got when their music hit to start that show, you would have thought they were the fucking NWO.
01:24:36
Speaker
and they're doing like the guitar playing as they come down, so they kind of are. It's, man, that group of guys, like I always pictured like, yeah, Adam Cole's gonna be huge someday. He just is a charisma machine. For sure. The other three, I had seen wrestle a shit ton on the Indies, and I never pictured the three of them being where they are right now.
01:24:59
Speaker
Good on him. Let's take a moment because if you want to give the award to the elite, I don't have a huge argument against that. But we do need to take a moment to talk about where SCU was and where they are today. At the beginning, it just seemed like a bullshit three people thrown together thing that no one was super into.
01:25:23
Speaker
It seemed like Christopher Daniels was on his way out. That's kind of the way it felt at that time. And to me, SCU completely revived Daniels. Is that just because of being the elite that they were able to get to where they are? I'm wondering if it is, which again puts it back to the elite. Fair enough. That's that's the transition then. Is that what they have? I mean, they orchestrated all in together. They had the YouTube series.
01:25:53
Speaker
All of their names individually, they're all stars. The merch that they've sold. Everything that the elite that the Bullet Club has done in 2018, isn't that almost kind of the biggest story of 2018? They're like the Bulls in the mid 90s. Everybody on that team's a star.
01:26:14
Speaker
Like, you know, they have their Michael Jordan and Kenny Omega, but, you know, Hangman Page can be Scottie Pippen or Tony Kukoch. That's fine. So if we're giving the Davi out to the Bullet Club, which I'm fine with, transition that into tag team of the year. This actually changes for me. I have two people that it's tied to or tied for.
01:26:39
Speaker
If I had to give it right now without discussion, it would go to the Usos and the New Day. Okay. I had the Usos and New Day on my list as well as the Bucks.
01:26:51
Speaker
The bucks were on my list as well as like, I mean, they had a huge year. They're enormous. I mean, everything they did is huge. But to me, Usos and the New Day had to carry an entire show's tag team division. And they had to go, they had to fight over and over and over and over again all year. And then they were even friends for a while.
01:27:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think, I don't know if it was the end of 2017 into 2018, similar to Rusev, but I really, really became a fan of the Usos. And they just have such good chemistry with the new day and the new day are their own thing. And what are they now a record five time WWE tag team champions? Yep. And the longest reigning tag team champs. Correct. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's just,
01:27:42
Speaker
The fact that they've been able to keep that gimmick fresh and not hit a point where they're annoying and you're tired of them, because they've been doing this so long and it's just still working.
01:27:54
Speaker
So I mean, who's giving it to Garrett? It's hard to say that it's not for the young bucks because I just I love them. But I feel like the New Day and the Usos had a lot more work cut out for him this year. And the fact that they kept putting on entertaining matches and the environment that they were where there was a lot of complaining. I feel like not a lot of people were complaining about those guys.
01:28:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, I think that that's deserving. So you want to give it to Usos and New Day or just the Usos or just New Day?
Top Matches & Yearly Awards
01:28:29
Speaker
That's tough. I don't know. I get says give it to the Usos. You know what? They did have a good turn. Like them as heels really worked this year. I think but I think they got over with the crowd. I think they're promos. I think they've always been good workers.
01:28:47
Speaker
I'm behind that. I'm behind your decision.
01:28:53
Speaker
So now we're whittling where we've whittled the awards down to, I believe four categories. We have promotion of the year, match of the year, female wrestler of the year and male wrestler of the year. Where would you like to go next? And I just as a vote from both of us, I think we want to end the show with female wrestler of the year. That's going to be the last award we hand out before we sign out.
01:29:19
Speaker
What would you like to do next would you like to do match of the year? Match of the year this is gonna be there's I think we know where it's going But there's a lot a lot a lot of contenders correct, so Put up a nomination Okay, just starting from a while back Takahashi versus Ishimori best of the super juniors finals to decide who got to go to Dominion and fight osprey Now is this the one where somebody gets kicked down the stairs?
01:29:49
Speaker
the kick down the stairs one might have been the match before that I'm trying to remember honestly because that series Takahashi just
01:29:58
Speaker
That was the moment I fell in love with that dude was during that best of the super juniors. Like he was just, he did not care about his body anymore. And he was doing just dangerous, dangerous shit. And that match with Ishimori really was the thing that just completely won Takahashi, you know, just, I was a Takahashi fan after that. Another one I think that needs to get nominated is Ricochet and Adam Cole from NXT TakeOver, what was that, Brooklyn?
01:30:27
Speaker
That upside down superkick is gonna get gift forever. That was a damn good match between two guys who had worked together in the past on the Andes.
01:30:37
Speaker
Let's see, you know just throwing out like Let's see a Walter versus Tyler bait in Wembley. Yeah. Yeah, that was an amazing man God I forgot about that and that was a thrown together last-minute match That wasn't supposed to be who he was facing and they had to find a replacement Because I think who was it like a couple different people got pulled from it. I want to say Osprey and Sabre jr. Got pulled from it for New Japan and
01:31:04
Speaker
Right and I mean working with what those guys had that was like you said maybe the best big-man match you'd ever seen for sure um again another name gets thrown in here, I thought Becky and Charlotte from evolution in that Last man last woman standing match the first ever That was a damn good match that that should have been the main event of that show and
01:31:29
Speaker
At the end of this, it's going to come down to two matches for me. That's where we have to decide. And that is one of them. If that's where we're going, another thing, I don't know which one you would pick, but again, the Gargano Champa feud. All of their matches together were amazing. Those were awesome. Like, I'm just going to shoot through a couple others that I have here. Abushi versus Tanahashi at the G1.
01:31:54
Speaker
Yeah. That was incredible. One that, you know, I don't think it's gonna get match of the year, but I think it needs to be talked about. It wasn't a very talked about match. Wrestle Kingdom 12, Godo versus Suzuki. That was the one where it looked like Godo just got straight up chute choked out by Suzuki right at the top. That was a crazy fucking one. Velveteen Dream versus Champa. Fuck. What else do we have? Velveteen Dream and Ricochet.
01:32:20
Speaker
Velveteen Dream and Ricochet. A big one that I don't know how many will agree with it, but I really think it should be up there. Ronda Rousey in the mixed tag match at Mania. That's what we all walked away remembering was her fighting Triple H. That was cool as shit. That would have qualified as a jaw-dropping moment too, because I don't think we were expecting it to be that entertaining and that good.
01:32:44
Speaker
or to get that inner gender match at WrestleMania. For sure. I know from all in, I really enjoyed the shot of Marty Scrull versus Okada. That was my next one I was going to bring up. There was a moment of that match that just...
01:33:00
Speaker
Oh man, it still gets me pumped. It's when Marty went to punch Okada and Okada flinched and Marty stopped and didn't punch him and then just turned and flexed to the cameras that he was a heavyweight. Loved that. He deadlift powerbombed Okada at one point. Fuck yeah. Yeah, no, I think that was one of the matches on that show that I was looking forward to and I thought it delivered.
01:33:27
Speaker
Undisputed Era versus Oney Lorcan and Oney's partner. I just that was a match at that TLC or at the that NXT takeover that I loved. It was just such a hot opener. Yeah, for sure. Shit, I even thought that over Survivor Series week and I thought that the war games match that they did. Fuck war games was great. I mean, if we looked at NXT takeover shows, every show has a match of the year contender.
01:33:54
Speaker
Absolutely. That will come up very, very soon, too. Oh, yeah. Golden Lovers versus the Young Bucks and Long Beach this year on the road to Dominion or on the road to something. But either way, that match was killer. But let's let's hit it with hand out the award. Omega Okada. If I gave it to anything else, it just wouldn't feel right.
01:34:17
Speaker
People probably see this coming. I mean, yeah, this is, it is what it is. It is what it is. It's, you know, it's kind of like when Meryl Streep or, uh, fuck, Daniel Day Lewis make a movie. When you see that they have a movie out, everybody else is like, well, fuck, I guess I'm not getting an award this year. That's what's happening right now.
01:34:37
Speaker
This was this this was an epic match. It was a match that was a long time coming It was Kenny finally winning the title. It was long What was this was this was this two out of three falls?
01:34:50
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I think it ended up going an hour and five minutes. Yeah, man, this was just this was dramatic. And we talked about earlier, it was the main event of what is the best pay per view of the year, according to the guys that predetermined it. But really, really close, close, close second is Becky Charlotte. That last woman standing match was
01:35:13
Speaker
Yeah. Fucking incredible. I mean, it's so good to the point that a match that many consider to be the greatest of all time. Part of me wants to give it to him for that because they were they're just so good together. And it was just the beginning of this fucking amazing stone cold Becky Lynch run. Right. Absolutely. But we're giving it to Omega. We're giving it to Okada. Dominion. Good on him. Moving on.
01:35:44
Speaker
Promotion of the year, this is one that you brought up to me earlier today. Let's talk about it. And we're including, we're obviously including WWE, Ring of Honor, New Japan, Progress. Progress, PWGAW. Like everything, out of everything. But we made the executive decision that it would not be fair to judge WWE as a whole, and we broke it up into brands.
01:36:12
Speaker
And when we did that, at least from my perspective, this was an easy decision. You're going based off of signings, based off of quality of the pay-per-view, based off of quality of the TV product.
01:36:29
Speaker
NXT man, it's so hard to beat NXT. They have most- Consistency? They're consistently good. They're basically, if their name is on a pay-per-view, you know it's quality at this point. That is- Absolutely. They are one of the most looked forward to things of Mania weekend now.
01:36:48
Speaker
You're not going to give this award to Raw or SmackDown. You're not giving it to 205 Live. You've talked about how you've been up and down with Ring of Honor this past year. I do think a lot of credit needs to be given to New Japan and the strides that they've taken over the last year, especially in going international, especially in putting on the pay-per-view of the year.
01:37:09
Speaker
You still give it to NXT. Every take over pay-per-view, war games, all of it. Everything they did in 2018 was great. And like you said, the number of names they brought in, their future, it's its own brand. And most people consider NXT to be the best brand that WWE has. I mean, this is name a couple of their NXT's top signings this year.
01:37:34
Speaker
Keith Lee Keith Lee Matt Riddle Ricochet Adam Cole I just Yeah, I mean to me this isn't again give do Japan their do but this is going to NXT This was this is a lot like match of the year I mean, I think there's an obvious winner and then a bunch of people you also have to give credit to but uh Yeah
Promotion Accolades & Standout Performers
01:38:03
Speaker
promotion of the year going to NXT. Is that surprising? Like going back a few years ago that you'd be giving WWE developmental, the promotion of the year award? I think that's a huge surprise. And I mean, even as we started breaking it down, in the last few months, we've really been sucking progress as dick. We've been like the beginning of the year, I feel like was more new Japan. It kind of switched to progress towards the end of the year. But the one thing that's remained consistent is NXT.
01:38:34
Speaker
Moving on, we're down to the final two. Male wrestler of the year. We can bat around some names. I'm curious to get your take on this. Who do you think are the nominees? Who are the contenders for this spot? Man, it's Kenny Omega, one of the best wrestlers in the world, but his title reign has been lackluster.
01:39:04
Speaker
Is that how you feel? That is how I feel. I think a lot of people feel like we still love Kenny. We just feel like his, you know, it just hasn't been, uh, hasn't been everything we hoped and dreamed. Do you think he's going to lose the title at Wrestle Kingdom? I think he could. I really do think he could. I think if they're really doing this all elite wrestling, that Wrestle Kingdom could be the big farewell to Mr. Omega.
01:39:28
Speaker
Oh man. So give your credit to Omega. I do want to give a nod. I didn't think I'd be saying this, but it's worth mentioning to me that
01:39:39
Speaker
His name hasn't come up a whole lot during this show. I think a tip of the cap has to be given to Seth Rollins on Raw for having a great 2018 for consistently having damn good matches with everyone on the card. And it's been out of the intercontinental title spot with Brock Lesnar and the Undisputed or the Universal Championship not being there. He's kind of been the consistent main eventer for that brand and he's a good worker and everybody likes him and he's had a hot 2018.
01:40:11
Speaker
Yeah, there's no doubt that he should be on that list. I mean, AJ Styles consistently puts on good matches, but kinda like Omega, I feel like his title reign wasn't as exciting as we've wanted it to be in a big part of that- It lasted a long time, too. It lasted a long time, and there was a lot of him getting hit in the dick. Yeah, there was. To me, that isn't like a milestone of a good year.
01:40:37
Speaker
Can you believe he won that thing off of gender mahal? That man, no. A long time ago, that title reign began. And who would have thought that it would end by Vegan Daniel Bryan taking it from him? He kind of felt unbeatable, too. It never felt like anybody was really going to beat him. And they knew that. So the only thing they could do is just have people hit him in the dick.
01:41:05
Speaker
But it wasn't like, I mean, but there's something to be said for him being there every day, right? Oh, it's not the wrong listener effect. He's incredible. He deserves all the praise in the world. Just didn't have the best year. Garrett, he's phenomenal. Give the award to the guy that we're thinking. This goes to one person. I think once again, we're going to be in agreement in who this award should go to.
01:41:27
Speaker
You weren't in the best match of the year, but Cody Rhodes, you're changing the world. You're doing big things in wrestling. You put on all in, you, I don't know. It just seems like he's really bringing the wrestling community. I was going to say closer together, but at the same time, we're still a little divided on this issue. But I think you got to give it to Cody for just putting on all in and consistently being entertaining and also just stepping up his game in the ring.
01:41:56
Speaker
I mean maybe it's a several year story which is leading to us giving this award to him but I mean 2018 was the climax of that story this this all started with Cody having the balls to say I don't need WWE I'm gonna go forge my own path and he left
01:42:11
Speaker
And there were people who didn't know if he was gonna do well on the indies. There was reason to be skeptical. It's hard to make a living outside of WWE, but the game has changed in the last couple years. And for him to have the ambition to team up with the Bucks and to host their own wrestling show. The boys took the keys to the office for the night, and he was the king of Chicago during all-in weekend.
01:42:41
Speaker
And I couldn't imagine giving this award to anybody else. This goes to Cody and he deserves it. Okay, moving on to the final award. And so we're saying best female wrestler of the year. Honestly, if we had to just lump this into one wrestler, if this category, if we did not separate them and just had true best wrestler of the year, I think this person would have still got it.
01:43:08
Speaker
You think so? I think, I think the man would have. Well, let's, let's, let's list off some, some people who deserve some credit because it wasn't an amazing year for women's wrestling overall. So it would be unfair to not talk about people like Tessa Blanchard. It would be unfair to talk about a person they don't have right now. Right. Right. Like she, she's the biggest non WWE women's wrestler, right?
01:43:37
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, she was a huge reason that I bought a ticket to Impact Homecoming. I mean, she's fucking, she's so good. She's so good. And you know, maybe someday she'll end up over there. Who knows, maybe she ends up on All Elite in a women's division. I only see huge things for her and yeah, she's fucking rad. I love her. And we can talk about some of the indie names. We could talk about Britt Baker. We could talk about Chelsea Green. We can talk about Jordan Grace. Tony Storm, Bianca Belair.
01:44:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's great to see. It's been, like I said, an amazing year for women's wrestling. We gotta talk about Ronda Rousey. She made her debut at Mania. I mean, a lot of the evolution, I don't wanna say it exists because of her, but I think they realize putting her in the main event, we have a huge, huge star. She created a very loud bang when she arrived. And I think you expected that, I think,
01:44:36
Speaker
She's way ahead of where people thought she was going to be. I don't think she's where people want her to be, but I think no one could say she isn't just, yeah, miles ahead of where anyone thought she would be at this point. I don't think any match she's put on, anyone would label as disappointing. And I think it's the kind of thing where, like we talked about earlier, she made her debut at WrestleMania on the biggest stage and she delivered.
01:45:04
Speaker
and a match that a lot of people were down on, including myself. I was not looking forward to that match and I got it shoved down my throat. And I'm the first to admit that that match had me hooked. It was entertaining. And I, again,
01:45:20
Speaker
The reason Rhonda probably isn't winning this award is because the other person just went a little bit further. Oh, the other the other honorable mention. Charlotte. Go ahead. Oh, Charlotte. Sorry, I was going to say Shayna Baszler. For sure. Yeah, Shayna. Kyrie Sane. There's a lot of people that were worth mentioning.
01:45:45
Speaker
We've almost we've almost been on for two hours. Let's just wear let's just give the man or do
01:45:53
Speaker
Becky Lynch, we're ending this award show by giving you female wrestler of the year, but you might as well take them both. You're the wrestler of the year for 2018. Congratulations. You should have made a vented evolution. You've had so many top matches this year. Some that, you know, if Omega Okada hadn't happened, you would hands down have match of the year from both of us, I think.
01:46:18
Speaker
She had multiple nominations during the show. She deserved them. And she's walking away with. Well, I guess we're giving her a female wrestler of the year male and just wrestler of the year period. I don't know. I mean, I don't think there's been a cooler moment in pro wrestling this year than her with that bloody face standing at the top of the steps with her arms out and just saying I'm the man. Like that was nothing was fucking cooler than that. And that was at a time when we had them in time out. Yeah.
01:46:46
Speaker
Like, is that what makes you not want to step away? Like, you cracked because of that, or was that just one of the reasons? I mean, that's easily the biggest reason. She is WWE right now. She should main event every show from here on out until they find somebody they truly think can replace her. Because right now, I don't think that's happening for a while. Do you think ultimately we're going to get Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey, main event at WrestleMania?
01:47:16
Speaker
Do you think it'll be that, or do you think they'll throw in Charlotte as well and make it a triple threat? I hope they don't. Because I think the dynamic of those two one on one and the shit talking that they've been doing back and forth on social media, to me that's those two. If they need to move her to Raw to make that happen, they can do Charlotte Oskar. They've got two women's championships. They can do a lot of different things. Charlotte can have her own stage.
01:47:43
Speaker
I really hope they keep it a singles match for them. I know if they do it as a triple threat, they'll still tear it down. But, I mean, the popularity of Becky Lynch turned Ronda Rousey heel.
01:47:55
Speaker
Yeah. That threw everything off for them. Yeah, and the popularity of Becky Lynch made Charlotte heal. And please, just keep Becky the way she is. Keep her this stone cold Steve Austin badass that she is. I want to watch this for more years. Give her the creative freedom to do what she's been doing because it's been working.
01:48:21
Speaker
everything about Becky Lynch works right now, and that is why she is the predetermined wrestler of the year. Absolutely. She deserves it. Garrett, this is the longest episode of the show we've ever done, I think. Oh yeah, this is way too long. A lot of people have tuned out, especially because- Is it way too long? I don't know. Do you think they got past that whole 15 minutes of furries and jizz at the beginning?
01:48:48
Speaker
I mean, in theory, you could go back and edit that out if you really want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. We're going to release it as is. We love hanging out with you people. Thank you. This has been a fucking awesome year of wrestling. There's been some ups and downs. The lows have been low, but the highs have been so fucking high.
01:49:07
Speaker
It's true. Very true. I couldn't agree with you more. And I think the show being long, it needed to be. There was a lot to talk about from 2018. And I'm looking forward to 2019. Where's all elite wrestling going? Is WWE going to be turning it around? Ring of Honor just had a bunch of new signings. What's going to happen there?
Podcast Reflection & Gratitude
01:49:25
Speaker
Impact, who we thought was going to be the biggest thing in 2019, signed up to be on the goddamn Pioneer channel. I don't have that. Do you have that?
01:49:33
Speaker
What's the name of it? Is it Pioneer? Is it Pursuit? Or is it Frontier? Oh, is it Frontier? I don't know. Either way, Impact Wrestling that was really amping up right here at the end of 2018 is now on a hunting network.
01:49:48
Speaker
Yeah. Whatever. 2019 is going to be a fucking wild man. It's going to be fun and I can't wait to I can't wait to watch it. And the most important detail that we could talk about for 2018 is that we started this podcast at the end of January in 2018. So we this is the last for this is the last episode of the first year for predetermined.
01:50:10
Speaker
I think we should give a thanks to all of our listeners who have been supportive of us throughout the year. I'm looking forward to the future. We've got a lot of work to do. We've got exciting things to cover. But it's been fun, man. It's been fun doing this with you this year. I love doing this. And seriously, Derek just said it. But thank you so much, guys, for listening. We love you to death. Thank you for interacting with us on Twitter.
01:50:48
Speaker
I do want to give two quick shoutouts before we get out of here. Number one, I want to announce that we will be doing
01:50:54
Speaker
The pro wrestling t-shirt tournament will be starting in January. I do not know the exact day, but I've been getting feedback from people on this for a while. Been getting some insight. We will have a bracket. We will have you guys, the listeners, vote on what you think of the 16. 16 of the greatest pro wrestling t-shirt designs of all time. Putting them in a tournament. See who's number one. You guys get to vote on it. It's exciting. We'll be starting that next week, next month sometime.
01:51:23
Speaker
I also want to give a shout out to my roommate Christopher Kelly. I don't know if he listens to the podcast, but he did hook me up with a copy of WWE 2K19 with AJ Styles on the cover. And it's the first wrestling game I've owned in like four years. And I'm excited to get back into it.
01:51:39
Speaker
God, I just know I would suck at that. I wish you luck. I'm doing pretty well so far, Garrett. You said you're undefeated. But yes, everybody, thank you for listening. Check us out on Twitter, at Wrestle Hangout, at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram, at Wrestle Hangout on Facebook. Thank you so much, everybody. Hit that goddamn music.