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Episode 74: How Can Vince F*ck Up Red Shoes?
51 Plays6 years ago
This week the boys are talking NJPW's Dominion, Super Showdown, how Vince could mess up Red Shoed, a special haircut for Derrick and more of the usual nonsense!
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Transcript
Introduction: Wrestling and Haircuts
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Predetermined, a Pro Wrestling Hangout. I'm your host, Garrett Callender, and with me, as always, a man who walked into the barber shop and said, give me a coda a bushy. Derek Halpin. I wish I had the confidence to do that.
00:00:15
Speaker
What would it take? What would it take for you to go in and just show a picture of Kota? Because you do have pretty long hair. I think they've got enough to work with. Well, here's the fucked up thing. I don't think proportionally, like my body type would work with that haircut. But I do think my hair itself could pull off the Kota Ibushi look.
00:00:36
Speaker
Do you think that we could get you to give that a try? Because worst case scenario, Derek, worst case, you just have to wear a hat for like a month and then it'll just go back to normal. You know what? I'll make a bet with our listeners right here at the top of the episode, something that's unprecedented because it usually takes us a while to get to this point. If we can get seven
00:01:01
Speaker
Lucky number seven, five star reviews and a nice five star rating and a review. I'll do it. I'll go to the barbershop and I'll request the code of a bushy. Give me seven. Does it have to be by a certain point? I know right now I believe we're at 70 reviews. If we can if we can get seven. By the middle of July. I will I will go to the barbershop and say, can you give me this code of a bushy look?
00:01:32
Speaker
God, I wish we were gonna need somebody to film you going to the barber shop and getting that, because that is... We have talked since we have started doing this podcast so often about incorporating video more often into this show, and it's just not a thing that's really happened. I think that's Queen of the Rings territory. Maybe we feel a little bit weird about treading on her turf, but we haven't really done video much, but I do think that if I'm going in for the Kodo Obushi haircut,
00:01:58
Speaker
I think we gotta record that, I think you're right. What if it looks fucking awesome on you? I feel like you may have to not have a beard with that haircut. That seems like a baby-faced haircut. You don't know until you see it though, man. I know, I know, I'm excited. Maybe I'll make it look better. Okay, so we've landed on the coda, but if you could pick any other wrestler haircut, is there a wrestler that you're like, that dude's got some sick hair, I'd like that. No.
00:02:29
Speaker
I thought about saying Seamus as a joke, but there's rumors out that Seamus may be done wrestling. Yeah, too many injuries, right? Yeah, that's a bummer, man. Well, what would it take to make you get a knobs, a Brian knobs haircut? If we get a thousand. If we get a thousand, one thousand, five stars, ratings and reviews, I will absolutely go get the Brian knobs haircut.
00:02:59
Speaker
If you want to know the disparity between Kota Ibushi and Brian Nobbs as far as hairstyles go, it's seven and one thousand. See, I think you are going to pull this haircut off and be the most fuckable man I've ever seen. The most fuckable man you've ever seen when you take Kota Ibushi's hair and put it on my body. Yeah, that's the only thing that's separating you from the fuckability of Jude Law right now.
00:03:28
Speaker
I don't know if I've ever been given a better compliment. You're welcome. Hit our goddamn music.
00:04:08
Speaker
That was a hot opener. We didn't discuss sports. Did you hear that, guys? We talked about fucking pro wrestling in the first three minutes, and that was a calculated decision on my part. There is somebody with glasses pushing those glasses up their nose going, oh, technically, I didn't talk about pro wrestling. What you did is you talked about hairstyles. God damn it. You should just be happy that we mentioned wrestling. Yeah, you should. We're breaking the cycle here.
00:04:38
Speaker
Garrett, now that we're on the subject, you're not going to tell another sad story to open this show, are you? I mean, I could, but I'm not going to. I have attended four events since our last recording, none of which are pro wrestling.
Garrett's Concert Adventures
00:04:55
Speaker
Number one, Friday, went to see Ariana Grande.
00:05:01
Speaker
Were you expecting a round of applause? What the fuck do you want? I was holding a pause there so that you'd be like, fuck yeah, man, Arie. You like Arie? Good on you. Keep it going. What else did you do after Ariana?
00:05:12
Speaker
Well, I got those tickets for my birthday, and I will say, show, not great. Her stage looked like a giant toilet bowl. Don't think that was on purpose, but it definitely looked like the stage was kind of like an oval, looked like a toilet bowl, and then all the people in the middle were the shits. That's what I decided from where I was sitting. Then Saturday, or Sunday, you know, made a 10-hour drive in a day to go watch the St. Louis Blues get their ass kicked in a similar fashion to what happened last week.
00:05:43
Speaker
Was it more or less sad than the last time you went?
00:05:47
Speaker
Little of column A, little of column B, just because, you know, expectations were much higher this time. And there were about 40,000 people outside. Vibe was great. It was hot as shit, so I took my jersey off outside. And I didn't realize I had on a LIJ shirt. And I passed a man wearing a blues flag as a cape. And as he passed me, he was holding one eye open. And I was like, what the fuck is this guy doing? And then he pointed.
00:06:16
Speaker
And then he pointed down at my shirt and then I had to feel like an idiot and be like, oh yes, the eye, yes. You were the dickhead for a moment. He was like, you're not even really a fan. And then that moment I was fucking embarrassed. I'm like, no, no, I know the eye thing too. I know the eye thing. We've been with him while he did it. But you'd already lost him.
00:06:37
Speaker
Have you seen these pictures of Charlotte and Andrade hanging out as a couple? And in a lot of pictures, she's wearing like an LIJ trucker cap? No shit. Absolutely true. And every time I see the picture, there's part of me, and this is pretentious as shit, I want to be like, do you even know who that is? Oh shit, I forgot Andrade was in LIJ, wasn't he?
00:07:02
Speaker
Was he? I think he was in Mexico. Like he was in Los Inkobernables. Not, you know, not the J part, but the L.I. Not the, not the day Japan. Yeah. I think I'm pretty sure he was part of that. And people right now are like, do you even know anything? We're like, no, man. It went from you being defensive about like, no, I really, really do. And then like 30 seconds later being like, well, maybe not as much as I put on.
00:07:29
Speaker
Once again, when people pull our pro wrestling cards, they'd be like, should you have this podcast? We're not always ready to put up our papers. It's, you know, sometimes it's more about coulda than shoulda. So you've done two events that you went to. What are the others? The third, I went, you know, I love that pop music, Derek. And a while back I was talking about that goth pop and saying it was taking the people. You know, I love that pop music. You know, the first fucking good person.
00:07:57
Speaker
Go on, yes, you love that pop music. So I went to see this pop singer named Kim Petrus. She is a trans pop star from Germany. And I am not joking, Derek, when I say this is the most fucking fun I've had at a concert in a long time.
00:08:14
Speaker
Better than Pitbull? Better than Pitbull. Her songs, every song is a banger. And since it's Pride Month, that place was poppin'. And I'll tell ya, it was at Bassman East, where I normally see Southern Underground Pro, and I can confirm something about Bassman East. Okay. It doesn't matter whether it's hot, sweaty wrestling fans, or the most fabulous people you've ever seen in your life, that place smells like shit.
00:08:42
Speaker
Cause I bet on paper, every single person that was at that Kim Petras concert probably normally smells great. That venue, no ventilation, stinks to high hell. So I saw a trans pop star there last night, next person I'm seeing there, Nicholas fucking Gage.
00:09:02
Speaker
It's quite the contrast. But I was standing at the back, you know, dancing my full head off, having a great time, and a drag queen was walking by. And she was very, very tall. She was like pro wrestler size.
00:09:17
Speaker
And as she was walking by, she tripped on her heels and I quickly sprung into action and caught her from falling on the floor. And I felt like a goddamn superhero. You're a gentleman. I'm a gentleman. I'm a bear in that community. I think they would call me.
00:09:37
Speaker
But I will, I loved it. I loved it. I love the gay community coming out for this, especially like a branch of the gay community you don't hear about very often, which is just like Southern bears. Like they still have like that Southern accent and look like just a big bear, but they have that like, this is some pretty good pop music over here. You know, like wearing the camo shirts and stuff like these guys are still here. I'm happy they exist. Do you feel like since you have moved to Nashville,
00:10:07
Speaker
Let's clarify. You came from a small Midwestern town in Illinois. You went to college in a bigger town in Southern Illinois. You moved to California, spent some years out there, and now you're living in Nashville. Do you feel as a human being? Do you feel a little bit more country? Do you feel a little Southern?
00:10:32
Speaker
No. You know how to make a good biscuit? I wish. I actually was gifted classes to make biscuits and I never redeemed that class. What? You out of your fucking mind? I think most people would classify me as goddamn Yankee because I'm living in Chicago and I would absolutely attend a biscuit class. What are you talking about?
00:10:54
Speaker
What are you doing? How do you let that expire? Well, I mean, you know, I can just go to Cracker Barrel for my super biscuit party or whatever the fuck the young bucks say over there. I like a good biscuit. So you have a fourth event to tell me about. Remember when we were bragging about how we started the show talking about pro wrestling and then we immediately grabbed the wheel and yanked it back in the direction where you have to get through learning about us and all of our weird fucking tendencies? Yeah. Well, yeah, let's wrap that up with your fourth event and let's start talking about pro wrestling.
00:11:23
Speaker
Went to two concerts in one night after Kim Petras, I sped across town to catch the last part of Cherry Glazers set at exit in. Awesome LA band, check them out. Yeah, there it is, there it is, there it is. Let's go to
Dominion Show Review
00:11:35
Speaker
wrestling. Goddamn Dominion happened this weekend, Derek. Dominion!
00:11:39
Speaker
It did happen this past weekend, and I think upfront you and I are both on the same page having to watch the show. I wouldn't say it was as good as last year's Dominion, which was like peak New Japan being fucking awesome, but it was a damn good show with some really good matches.
00:11:59
Speaker
god this was yeah and it's kind of like i don't know saying that it wasn't as good is like trying to pick a best nxt takeover but i do agree with you you know last year every match just felt like it was a fucking banger after another and that it was just a very very memorable show of every single thing you wanted to happen happening
00:12:22
Speaker
If I said to you about last year's Dominion that it was the most perfectly booked wrestling show I've ever watched, would you really disagree with me? Just thinking about how happy we were when it was over and just feeling satisfied with the stories and the wrestling, I think you might be right.
00:12:42
Speaker
Like, I mean, even even it coming down to doesn't matter if the heels or baby face one, it felt right whenever that happened this year. Again, this is not to take away from this year's Dominion. It was a damn fucking awesome show on its own right in its own right.
00:13:01
Speaker
and you know normally the new japan show opens with some young lion matches i thought it was a really interesting decision to open with a young lion match but a young lion fighting john moxley and his second ever new japan match i think one of the things i'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around is how quickly i'm getting bombarded and i do not mean that in a bad way
00:13:26
Speaker
I'm getting bombarded with the presence of Jon Moxley way faster than I anticipated from him showing up at Double or Nothing to suddenly he's already having multiple matches in New Japan and has a bunch on the schedule. He's fully integrated into the non-WWE wrestling realm now and it's fucking awesome.
00:13:48
Speaker
hearing him after that match announce that he wants to be entered into the G1, like I didn't even, that hadn't even crossed my mind yet that we might see Moxley in the G1 and him jumping straight into it, I don't know, man. He went from somebody that I just didn't give a shit about anymore to just instantly loving this version of him or the, you know, the old version of him being back. Did it move a little bit?
00:14:17
Speaker
Oh, it fucked. Yeah, man, it was fully erect. You could have put a flag on that thing. You sounded so incredulous. Like, why wouldn't it have moved? Of course it did. Don't ask dumb questions on this show, Derek. This show is nothing but dumb questions and dumb answers. I really like the phrase all around sick son of a bitch. I mean, that
00:14:44
Speaker
I might get that tattoo down my back. Did you see his backstage? You know when they go backstage and they do the press conference after? Did you see Moxley's? I'm fucking blown up. Where he drags the young lion out there with him and is like, here hold my belt. This is my young lion now.
00:15:17
Speaker
Yeah, it was definitely, I mean, his match with Young Lion was, I mean, there's nothing really exciting to speak of. It was under four minutes. Right, but I mean, it was an establishment match. It was a, you know, his presence was on the show. I think that's what was most important. So, but it's definitely one to check out if you're still pretty jacked about the fact that you've got Jon Moxley.
00:15:32
Speaker
I beat you, you are now mine.
00:15:38
Speaker
participating in two wrestling companies right now? Is there any clarification from last week on what's going on with the New Japan AEW relationship? No, I mean, as far as I know, we're still in that situation where they say there is no working relationship, but AEW is letting their wrestlers kind of work where they want. But does that apply to Kenny Omega? Can Kenny Omega go work in New Japan?
00:16:05
Speaker
Would he though? Because he's the vice president of AEW, so he would have so much at stake at that company succeeding, I feel like he would only want to appear in AEW for business reasons.
00:16:19
Speaker
Well, I'm just, I would just like a very solid answer on that. Not that I fucking deserve one, but it would just be nice to have some clarification if we're sitting here gushing about the fact that Moxley can work in AEW in New Japan. I mean, both companies have a vested interest in him succeeding. So remember the issues we ran into with Hangman and Pac?
00:16:42
Speaker
Are you afraid that that could happen again? Yeah, I absolutely am. Why the fuck wouldn't it? This is kind of why I'm a little bit like, really? You're just like this fucking wild card rules getting out of hand because wrestlers are just in every company now. It's fucking stupid. By the way, I didn't watch a single second of Raw or Smackdown this week. Not that I'm bragging, I'm just letting you know. I've seen more Super Showdown in the last week than I've seen Raw or Smackdown.
00:17:13
Speaker
I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Well, anyways, just to go back to Dominion for a second and kind of going back to Ambrose, this also applies to Jericho.
Jon Moxley's Impact in Wrestling
00:17:23
Speaker
Mother fucking Moxley. Sorry, Moxley. We were doing so good there for a minute. Do you do this wee shit? It was you that did it. I'm sorry. Go on, you're fine.
00:17:35
Speaker
what do you do you think he's more excited now are you in your head starting to get some matchups that you think are gonna be more exciting than you you even imagined before he before any of this was a possibility
00:17:50
Speaker
I think he feels fresh and I think you're going to run into this with guys that do leave WWE and end up either going to the Indies, go into New Japan or going to AEW. You're going to run into a situation where it feels fresh and it feels new.
00:18:08
Speaker
for obvious reasons. You hit the nail on the head the other day. I think you sent me a message saying that you love Moxley's finisher, that it's basically dirty deeds, but it's just elevated. He throws you up a little bit higher. It looks more devastating. What's it called? The Death Rider? Yeah. His name over in New Japan now is The Death Rider. It sounded like you came. Yeah.
00:18:31
Speaker
with that answer. Hit him with the death rider, my man. Hit him with that death. Oh, he fucking gets him in. He's vertical at the death rider. His head's going into the ground. Yeah. He's allowed to have an earring. He's allowed to spray paint a leather jacket. He's wearing wrestling shoes. The tights. You and I talked about this before. I like them. There are moments where I'm like, huh?
00:19:00
Speaker
Like I feel like I'm seeing way more of Ambrose's body than I used to. See, I did it. You made me say it. Moxley, Moxley, Moxley. I think so with Moxley, the thing I'm excited about is something that I'm starting to realize with Jericho and that is how good they can be.
00:19:23
Speaker
Jericho now feels like I wouldn't even say he I don't know He just seems so fucking on his game right now and when you get to watch him hang with guys like Naito and Okada It shows how good he still is
00:19:38
Speaker
And it's kind of, I'm hoping that we're going to get that out of Moxley as well where, you know, in my head, he's a WWE guy, even though that wasn't the case before. And now I think we're going to kind of unlock some skill sets that we didn't know he had and watch him have a match where he hangs with a top guy over there. That's something I'm really, really excited to see.
00:20:00
Speaker
The question I keep asking myself in reference to the, like how exciting these matches are and how different it feels. Are they really that different? Or is, is there some like illusion that we're being manipulated by that it's like, in other words, can you pinpoint exactly why it is that a Jon Moxley match feels different than the Dean Ambrose match from say three years ago?
00:20:28
Speaker
What's funny is the match we just watched, the four minute match, I guess technically could just be a raw match. I think more, I can't pinpoint it as much with Moxley as I can with Jericho. And watching him against Okada, I did notice he was beating the shit out of Okada a lot harder than Okada was beating the shit out of him. And I mean, I'm assuming that was
00:20:54
Speaker
part of the deal where he's like, no, no, no, no, no, you weren't kicking me that hard. And he's like, well, obviously you're going to hit me that hard because I'm not a fucking pussy. Well, if we could go behind the scenes for a minute, they also probably did the match the way they did it because they knew ultimately Okada was going to retain. Like Okada is going to get the pinfall, but Jericho has to look like a badass. So he had to get in the majority of the offense in that match, and that was the case.
00:21:19
Speaker
favorite line of that entire Jericho match was- Oh my God. I know- Oh my God. You're going to say the same thing, I think. When he's, he push it or what does he choke in red shoes and red shoes is cowering and Callis is like, red shoes needs to quit being a pussy. Or he's like red shoe. Callis is like, what a pussy.
00:21:41
Speaker
I just remember the words, what a pussy, red shoes. I think it was what a pussy red shoes is, which is even funnier. I had to pause it because I was laughing so fucking hard. And just so you know, when I watched the Jericho Okada match, I made it through that entire Sunday without getting anything spoiled. Drive to and from St. Louis, a 10 hour drive, I drove back in complete silence.
00:22:05
Speaker
I just sat there and stewed for five hours without listening to music. Got home at four in the morning. First thing I did when I got home was watch Okada Jericho. Was your wife beside you on that drive? She was asleep because she still went to work the next day and I called out. Oh, you're a bad boy, Garrett. Hey, I have more sick time than she does. Yeah.
00:22:29
Speaker
Anyways, so you drove through the night in silence and anger and sadness and you didn't get anything spoiled and you got home early in the morning and she went into bed and you sat down and watched Jericho wrestle Okada. I had the laptop sitting on my stomach with headphones on and I was like, I paused it and was covering my mouth because I was shaking, trying to hold back the laughter and tears started coming out of my eyes. It's just not every day you hear a commentator call someone a pussy.
00:23:00
Speaker
let alone red shoes. Here's what gets me about it. You can only hear that. Well, I mean maybe we'll hear it more going forward. You just don't hear commentators call out the refs for how weak they look when they take a bump.
00:23:19
Speaker
Like you never hear, you never hear like when they do like a spot where a guy gets lifted up for a power bomb or something and the leg flops over and hits the referee and he flops halfway across the ring like he just got, you know, I don't know, chucked half a mile or whatever. And you never hear the commentator go, oh, what a bitch, he barely got grazed. And I realized I could go for a lot more of that. We're just like, where are the people telling the story?
00:23:49
Speaker
are not in on the fact, like why are our referees so fucking fragile?
00:24:07
Speaker
They did a zoom in at one point, and I got a good look at Redshoe's boots, his red boots, and they're looking a little rough. It looks like he can use a new pair, so maybe need to do a GoFundRaiser. Yeah, that's not a bad idea. If you were going into a match and saw that Redshoe's was the referee, would you be nervous?
00:24:27
Speaker
like shoot or work? Either. Let's just go ahead and say red shoes. He lets a lot go in his matches. He's a pretty lenient referee. He'll yell at you to stop doing stuff, but he'll never be like, we're done. This is too much. I would be excited. I think, I mean, again, everyone knows by now, my referee of choice is little Nate, Charles Robinson.
00:24:50
Speaker
and Mike Keote is a close second, but Red Shoes is in my top three, and that's having only been around the guy for a year. Or, I guess I haven't been around him. You know what I mean, Garrett. He's been in my sphere for a little over a year. When's Red Shoes gonna appear at Starcast? That's somebody I'd pay 25 bucks to get a picture with.
00:25:13
Speaker
I don't have an answer for that, because I had a more important question to ask you, which was, how pissed would you be if Vince signed red shoes? You see these awesome AEW graphics that they put up every time a new guy joins the company. What would you do if they just threw up that fucking raw graphic and they put red shoes in front of that, like is the hottest new WWE signing?
00:25:41
Speaker
honest to god read the addition or would you be happy for him the addition of red shoes would get me to tune in to see why red shoes is on the show now well he's got red shoes you gotta put them on raw you know what vents would do though he's like
00:25:56
Speaker
We can't be associated with that other company, take his shoes away, and now he's just a regular referee. Or he'd give him blue shoes. Well, because he's a ref on SmackDown. We can't put him on the raw brand, that just makes too much sense. That's exactly what he would fucking do. I love that we're doing this really fun hypothetical, how could Vince fuck up red shoes?
00:26:26
Speaker
this should be a hashtag and our listeners should fucking submit that stuff on our social media and let us know how do you think Vince would fuck up red shoes please please list me the ways that Vince McMahon would fuck up a referee
00:26:42
Speaker
I love this. I fucking love this. He'll just be like, we're only gonna use him on main event. Red shoes, you wanna prove yourself? You're uncommentary now. Do a good job or I'll yell at you. And he's like, I don't fucking speak English. What the fuck? I need a guy who knows how to book a good finish. Go get me that red shoes guy.
00:27:04
Speaker
Okay, just like what the fuck oh shit Man, I going through this card going through some other matches on here. I did skip around a little bit next I would go to ishi versus tai chi for the never open weight title I Am always gonna watch an ishi match. I don't know what it is about the guy It's just maybe that he once again be shaped like a fire hydrant, and he just seems undefeatable he seems
00:27:32
Speaker
Does he seem legitimately scary to you? Is that why you're drawn to him? I think so. I think he is just a man that if you got to your seat on the airplane and saw that he was who you were next to for the next several hours, you would be uncomfortable. God damn right you would. Well, not because he's like in your seat, just because he's an intimidating looking man. Like, he doesn't look like he's ever enjoyed anything or smiled.
00:27:59
Speaker
Give me some, I want to see some pictures of Ishii having a good time. Like I want to see Ishii wearing a visor, eating an ice cream cone. Like laughing at Disney World. Some cotton candy. Ishii, Ishii ends up going over and getting the Never Open Weight title. And there were a couple times, goddamn, his head butts look devastating. And you know, I knew I was getting worked.
00:28:24
Speaker
But even still, Jesus, there were a couple that made me cringe that I actually covered my eyes a little bit when they showed a replay. So can we talk about the fact that I'm very slowly becoming a big Will Ospreay fan? I love that. Yes, let's talk about that.
00:28:46
Speaker
And we also go back to the fact that once again, a lot of cutters. Well, I don't know what happened. I felt the same way about the Spy Kids movies. I felt like one day there was a Spy Kids movie and I went to bed and when I woke up there were like five more. Same with same with same with fucking same with fucking cutters. Will Osprey, 3D man.
00:29:11
Speaker
Not necessarily a bad thing. There needs to be more wrestling in 3D. I want AEW to be the first wrestling company to put on a 3D pay-per-view. You put that in a theater where it's one night only? You're gonna sell out a lot of theaters, my friend. It's a fathom event.
00:29:28
Speaker
Okay, so were you surprised by the outcome of this match? Osprey versus Dragonly for the junior heavyweight championship? Not really. I know that, again, I messaged you, but I didn't realize that you were at a show last night. I about shit my pants when Dragonly put Osprey on the guardrail, hooked his legs in, and then basically speared him onto the announce table behind them.
00:29:55
Speaker
God. In the audience. Is that when he did like a topรฉ and just fucking flew out there so fast? Yes, because in my mind I'm like, there's so much that can go wrong here. Like every one of these things individually is already dangerous. Was that the one like it almost looked like he overshot it a little bit? Well, yeah, because when they smashed back out beyond the table that they were supposed to fall into, I'm pretty sure Osprey smacked the back of his head off of the other guard rail. God.
00:30:23
Speaker
I mean, Osprey honestly is one that I never understand how he doesn't break his neck every single match. Because he just does the craziest shit. And I don't know if he did that in this match, but at PWG, one thing I always noticed about Osprey that I really enjoyed, he's the only person that I would consistently see sell his teeth. Like he fucking broke his teeth?
00:30:50
Speaker
Yeah, like anytime he got super kicked in his lane on the ground, you would see him with his fingers in his mouth. Like, feeling like, is my tooth still there? And I like that little touch. That's just a touch that I don't see a lot of other people do. Yeah, that's smart. And I think that's a very particular kind of... I don't know. Like, nobody wants to, like, fucking break their teeth. It's relatable. I hadn't really thought about that. But no, you're right.
00:31:15
Speaker
What were you surprised by the end of this? I was because, you know, they still kind of were. It seemed like, you know, we were still kind of headed towards that story where we were leading back towards Takahashi versus Dragon Lee to get his title back.
00:31:30
Speaker
and obviously Takahashi isn't back yet, so who knows when, because I'm hearing rumors that he was actually supposed to come out and announce that he's going in the G1 or something, but they ended up bringing out Kenta as a surprise. Right. No, I mean, I guess, again, you're more well versed in the New Japan universe than I am, and I think maybe you keep a closer eye, so maybe certain things catch, again, it's all perspective.
00:32:01
Speaker
That's one of the things I think as diehard wrestling fans for so many years that we lose sight of is that maybe the more casual audience has a completely different expectation week to week than we do. Like we're trying to think two steps ahead of the game and they're just going with the flow. And I think maybe for me in New Japan, I don't know, I expected Osprey to win this match and he did.
00:32:23
Speaker
I really like- I mean I'm not mad that he won, I like Osprey. It's just so weird to look at that guy and think of him as a junior heavyweight. That guy looks huge to me. He looks jacked. Or is he just huge in comparison to Dragon Lee, who appears to be a much smaller man?
00:32:40
Speaker
Eh, that may be the case. That's why earlier when you said about your experience at the show last night, you said this woman was pro wrestler size. I wanted to be like, you mean now? Or do you mean like
Best of the Super Juniors Finale
00:32:51
Speaker
back when Billy Gunn was a thing? This felt like I was catching Billy Gunn in drag. And like, as I grabbed her, I put my arm back and like grabbed one of her hands. Her hands were very, very large, Derek. I would put her in my corner any day of the week.
00:33:11
Speaker
I'm an ass man. Thank you. I, I don't know. I really love, I don't know. I like how the best of the super juniors ends in the final. Basically they win a chance to fight at Dominion. And I love that it's basically the next weekend. So you get that awesome best or best of the super juniors finale, which I did go back and watch. Holy shit. Yeah. Holy shit.
00:33:41
Speaker
There was a spot in that though that really, Shingo overshot and basically racked himself on the guardrail. Good lord. That is a- And again, remember, they're not really fighting, so that, like he knew very well that was gonna happen when he started moving. Are you sure?
00:34:04
Speaker
Imagine having the confidence to be like, oh, I know how this ends. Let's do it anyway. Jump out there, hit my balls on that, which is basically what Darby Allen said this week in the Road to Fighter Fest, where he's just like, I used to do skateboard tricks. I knew I wasn't going to land and I was going to get super hurt, but it was going to be entertaining for people to watch. And he's like, that's why I became a pro wrestler. There's a learning curve and it involves a lot of pain.
00:34:32
Speaker
So let's go into, oh, we got another match to discuss here. And it's Kodo Ibushi versus Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Let me ask you this question since you just asked me, did the finish to this one surprise you?
00:34:48
Speaker
Honestly, with this one, I really didn't know who was going to win. These are both guys that I could see going for the heavyweight championship at some point. And I mean, they're both such huge names that it was hard to kind of see who was going to lose out of those two. Were they alluding to the idea that Naito could be a double champion? They did. Because they said after he won that that he would like he's confident that he can hold both titles.
00:35:16
Speaker
Do you think that's something that they would actually do? I mean, if he held the IC title all the way to Wrestle Kingdom and then went in and challenged and became double champ at Wrestle Kingdom against Okada, that'd be pretty badass. That'd be a pretty big match, right? And wouldn't it kind of give... it's... because it's been so long in the making for Naito to have that title and... well, I guess he did have it for a minute, didn't he? Yeah.
00:35:43
Speaker
He's got one reign under his belt. But this would, I don't know, since he's just so big right now, he's such a big character. And also, I think, what was the match, like part of the time he was getting viciously booed and part of the time he was getting cheered, is he back to getting that John Cena reaction?
00:36:00
Speaker
Naito? Yeah? Well, do you think he's probably getting booed because Kotaabushi's such like a huge baby face? Well, yeah. But people still love LIJ. But you see, here's the thing. After I get the Kotaabushi haircut, am I going to get that reaction? Like, is like half the crowd going to be for me and half going to be against me? I think more people are going to be with you than you realize if you get that Kota haircut.
00:36:23
Speaker
I mean, I guess the crowd reaction was more in response to what Naito was than what Obushi was, but I'm just saying. You know who would be the funniest matchup? Naito versus Orange Cassidy.
00:36:40
Speaker
where most of the time they don't wanna give a shit. Oh, neither of them are gonna give a shit. Naito's gonna be taking so long to take that suit off. What if he is the first person to bore Orange Cassidy? To where he leaves? Like where he just... God, that would be... Somebody book that. Somebody book Orange Cassidy versus Tetsuya Naito. I need that in my life. What did you think of the match here between Ibushi and Naito? I mean, obviously great match. I'm surprised that Kota Ibushi didn't get knocked the fuck out.
00:37:12
Speaker
Well, not only was it surprising that he didn't get knocked the fuck out, more surprising, you assumed he was still at least hurt?
00:37:21
Speaker
And they still had no problem going back and doing like the reverse Rana and doing spots that did target like the head and neck. Like you would have thought that they would have finished the match, like not necessarily doing that. But no, they went right back to doing those big spots. So what exactly happened? I'm trying to remember. They were basically going to do there was a whole tease on the apron about, you know, Nido wanted to do some move to a bushy and then a bushy blocked it.
00:37:48
Speaker
And then Naito got the upper hand again and he ended up doing a German suplex.
00:37:53
Speaker
on the ring apron, but Ibushi kind of drifted off to the right a little bit and kind of fell off of the apron, but his head collided with the ring apron and his body went to the outside. Wait, so best case scenario, this was gonna be a German suplex to the floor? It was gonna be a German suplex on the apron. Okay, and then it became a PCO spot? Yes. I mean, he easily could have broken his neck.
00:38:22
Speaker
Oh, we're lucky that he didn't. I mean, that was nasty. Like, and I feel like we've been seeing this more lately. People just getting hurt doing those apron moves because they are fucking dangerous. Yeah, it's, it's a, I mean, on the one hand, it looks great. And obviously people, what's funny, you don't have to explain anything about pro wrestling to anybody and show them that spot. And there's an inherent feeling of extra danger anytime they do a move on the apron.
00:38:51
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, you're right. Even looking at the ring, somebody can just be like, that part looks like it hurts a little worse because it's the edge. Yep. Because you know that the frame that is holding up the entire ring is on the sides and it's extra hard. Yes. If I'm going to throw, I also like, sorry, I was getting ready to be like, it's like, do I want to get thrown through the middle of this desk I'm on or just land on the corner? That looks like it sucks worse.
00:39:18
Speaker
I like that Kevin Kelly at one point when they pull a table out from under the ring actually says those are extra tables in case one of ours gets broken, which they do often. In case this is your first time watching professional wrestling.
00:39:36
Speaker
Well, but because WWE can't really give an explanation to why those tables are under the ring because the announcers have their own special table where the New Japan announcers are actually using those tables. I like, you know, them just adding a little bit of logic to why it's there.
00:39:51
Speaker
Well, and I think you and I had this text exchange a while back where I said, you know, I think everything becomes a trope after a while. It becomes a cliche. And I think people forget that a lot of the weapons that are traditionally used in pro wrestling for a
00:40:08
Speaker
show that's taking place in a venue, a lot of these weapons make sense. Like, people joke about the steel folding chair. Like, why is that a weapon? Well, because if there was an athletic competition between two people where they were fighting and somebody went off the rails and had to grab something as a weapon at a venue, a folding chair would be there. A table would be there. Steel steps would be there if all of this was real.
00:40:35
Speaker
I don't know why a kindle stick like why they would keep that on hand. I mean, unless you bring it in yourself. I don't know why a stop sign would be there.
00:40:46
Speaker
Yeah, you get what I'm saying, but no, you're right. Like to point out like, yeah, we have chairs or we have tables here because we need tables in case one breaks because people are fighting and that happens. Whereas on Monday Night Raw, the tables seem to just have a trigger in them that makes them implode. And then like in the next segment, they've reassembled them. Like they're, I guess the forward thinking part could be like, they're so used to it in WWE that they stopped.
00:41:12
Speaker
But then I guess your point is, why do they have other tables under the ring when they already have tables that can implode and then be reassembled on the fly? This is a weird pro-wrestling, this is like a three in the morning after you've been up for a really long time discussion about pro-wrestling and why it works the way it works. This is a segment just called Two Dickheads on Reddit Arguing.
00:41:40
Speaker
Justify the weapons. Why would Iron Man do this when in this comic he did it this way? Why doesn't he just put the LED screens on all four sides of the ring? Why do two of the sides have an apron? You're asking the hard questions, Derek. I don't have-
00:42:00
Speaker
The answer is the hard camera is only on one side. Fuck it, fuck it. Dominion. Nido, Ibushi, great fucking match. They beat the shit out of each other. Nido comes out of this looking like a bad motherfucker though. He did, he did. I don't know, who do you think his next would be?
00:42:20
Speaker
I really like your idea. You know how they did Ultimate Warrior Hulk Hogan WrestleMania where it was the Intercontinental Champion versus the WWF Champion and it was a unification thing.
Future Wrestling Storylines
00:42:33
Speaker
That would be a great thing to build towards. I really like that idea of having Okada hold the IWGP Championship all the way to, why am I blinking? Wrestle Kingdom.
00:42:44
Speaker
Yes. That's a long ways away, though. I mean, yeah, that's January. But it also, if you're going to have somebody hold a title that long, I don't think it's that outlandish that Okada or Nido would hold a title that long. Right. Especially if you can have all the other titles below those two rotating frequently. Yeah, with Osprey and Dragonly. Like, honestly, I could see Osprey dropping the title and going heavyweight at some point. Yeah.
00:43:11
Speaker
Well, what about Osprey eventually challenging Jon Moxley for the IWGP United States Championship?
00:43:19
Speaker
That would be, yeah, you don't see Jon Moxley like go up against high flyers very often, or I don't remember that out of WWE at least. So that could be interesting. Fantasize. But no, I really, I think that's a good idea, man. I would really be behind them keeping those two titles on those guys for a long time so that it matters and really getting to that point where like the unification, not a true unification of those titles, but like the winner take all.
00:43:47
Speaker
And it would just be good on Naito, you know, finally win that title, but have both. And like, you know, it just kind of elevates him slightly more. Yep. And I don't think anyone would be mad at Naito for having that. No. No, he hasn't been IWGP champion for such a long time now that people would be all on board for that. Yeah, it would kind of feel like the first time. Like, you know, Daniel Bryan had held the belt before, but at 30 it felt special. Right.
00:44:14
Speaker
Okay, let's move on to, I did watch some Super Showdown.
00:44:21
Speaker
I had not watched, I didn't watch the last one they did, but I definitely, I wanted to check out that battle royal. I wanted to see if this truly was a clusterfuck. You wanted to watch the battle royal. And can I tell you? This might- What was at stake, Garrett? Yeah. Yeah, what the fuck was at stake? Nothing. Yeah. Well, you didn't make me realize that until right now, motherfucker.
00:44:52
Speaker
Cause I'll tell you, when I was watching, the stakes felt pretty high. But okay, so you know who won, right?
00:45:02
Speaker
No. Oh, you really don't know. I really don't think I know. OK, so the guys you may say and I'll be like, oh, yeah, I guess I did hear that. But I literally again, I had some of this pay per view, if you want to call it that I had some of this on on Friday when I got home from work. I had it on, but I did not give a shit. I watched a couple matches, but I wasn't invested. And to know that you were most excited about watching this 50 man battle royal.
00:45:32
Speaker
We just go from talking about new Japan pro wrestling with these awesome, amazing, hard hitting matches. And then you follow up with, Oh dude, I was so excited about this WWE 50 man battle Royal with no stakes on the other side of the planet and 110 degree temperature.
00:45:49
Speaker
Well, my immediate reaction to the 51-man battle royal was basically like, oh, this is going to be a clusterfuck. I can't wait to see how they do this all shitty. But it ended in such a way that I actually, you know, my eyes welled up a little bit. Who won? Mansur. Who's that?
00:46:20
Speaker
Come on, don't you even watch WWE, you asshole? Who? Okay, his name is Mansoor. He was signed with WWE last year. He's the first Saudi Arabian professional wrestler to step foot in the WWE ring. So he got signed last year. So basically, you could look at it this way if you want, because this is fucking what happened. But you pay enough money, your guy can win.
00:46:47
Speaker
But that being said, seeing this guy win this battle royal against top stars in his hometown, seeing the excitement on the people in that stadium's face is what pro wrestling's about. Regardless of whether or not that outcome came because they fucking paid for it to happen. But I thought it was a really, really cool moment to see everyone in the crowd genuinely pop for their hometown guy.
00:47:14
Speaker
And like actually seeing people embracing each other in the crowd out of just sheer excitement that a hometown guy, you know, did the underdog thing, defeated all, you know, came up, went above all the odds. What am I trying to say about odds? Who gives a shit? He beat everybody and he won the thing. Everybody was cheering. And at one point, because the whole show, it sounded like it was absolutely hot as fuck.
00:47:39
Speaker
I've never seen a wrestler sweat more in my entire life than Samoa Joe in this battle royal. Who usually looks pretty sweaty anyway. He's always sweaty. This dude was just, I mean, he looked like a fucking faucet was just on on his head, pouring down. It was like a mad TV sketch level of perspiration coming down to this guy. Did you hear some of the stories from this show about how hot it was?
00:48:06
Speaker
uh just from the commentators all night long oh no no no no they were apparently handing out these hydration drinks like these special hydration drinks to everyone backstage because of how hot it was and apparently the number one complaint was these hydration drinks a didn't work and b tasted like complete dog shit
00:48:28
Speaker
It's Samoa Joe gets back there. He's like, I'm about to fucking pass out and they're like here have a surge. The rumor mill is saying that it was a terrible experience enough to where everyone involved was thinking we probably shouldn't do this again.
00:48:43
Speaker
to have a fucking match in the middle of Saudi Arabia summer. And everybody else in the world's going, you think? It's just, it was all night long. You could just hear Corey Graves just being like, oh, I am soaked through all of my clothes right now. And just, he was just saying how hot he was. And during the battle royal, after Mansoor gave his, you know, I won speech,
Mansoor's Emotional Victory
00:49:06
Speaker
It's a really emotional, awesome moment. And I think as far as giving people a good pro wrestling moment, because let's face it, this crowd got a pretty shitty show. They don't know that. I do know when I watch the goddamn thing. No, they don't know that. I think they did know that because during the Seth Rollins fucking Baron Corbin match, they were making just as much noise as you and I would have if we were there.
00:49:33
Speaker
I'm not gonna take your assessment away from you. I mean, if you truly feel like it was... I didn't see it, Garrett. I didn't give a shit. But you're telling me it was a feel-good moment that was customized for that crowd? Fair enough.
00:49:50
Speaker
I think that's a fine, you know, I think that's fine. Like seeing the kids in the crowd look excited, just see that genuine excitement, which how, when was the last time? I mean, I guess WWE, the last time they made us that excited would have been mania, Becky Lynch winning. But sure, but those moments, yeah, yeah, or Kofi. Those moments are so rare that it, I don't know. If you can actually get that reaction out of people, I don't think that's a negative thing.
00:50:18
Speaker
but here in and it's on a show where people are throwing like I guess no you can't count that as a negative even if the show is going to be considered a throw away by most of the people over here for the live crowd there for that experience yeah sure that's fine
00:50:33
Speaker
The best, though, was after the speech, because I think everybody was in tears, because it was such an emotional moment, you know, just a guy talking about, you know, his dream coming true and all that. And somebody said to Corey Graves, like, I think Renee made fun of him because he was crying, and his voice was cracking, and he just goes, there is literally no liquid left in my body. Like, you could hear his voice cracking, but he's so dehydrated, he can't even cry.
00:51:04
Speaker
So, I don't know what else you want to talk about with Super Showdown because we do have a special treat for our listeners that we need to announce.
Undertaker vs. Goldberg Commentary Announcement
00:51:12
Speaker
Yes, go ahead and tell them. I am so excited about this because neither of us have watched this yet. We have been doing this podcast since January of 2018. And during that time, there have been several discussions about us doing a audio track. What would you call it? A commentary.
00:51:33
Speaker
Yeah, an audio commentary for a pro wrestling match or an event. And we haven't done one up to this point. We've been we've been toying with the idea for a while. We've officially picked what our first audio commentary is going to be and what match it's going to be. And it's going to come out this weekend, probably on Saturday. We are going to do audio commentary
00:51:59
Speaker
for Undertaker Goldberg from Super Showdown.
00:52:23
Speaker
I'm gonna be at my best for this audio track. I assure you, we're gonna get it all set up. We're gonna record this here tomorrow as the new episode is dropping. But you will have a bonus zone episode to download this weekend. And if you didn't give a shit about Super Showdown, that's fine. Time to start giving a shit because we're gonna make a segment from Super Showdown way, way, way better.
00:52:52
Speaker
So we'll give you the time stamps and everything and you'll be able to start it at the same time with us and you know, we'll have a predetermined watch along. And listen along. I'm really. Seven five star ratings and seven awesome reviews. You can put the Kota Obushi haircut on me. If you can get a thousand, I'll get the Brian Knobs haircut.
00:53:22
Speaker
challenge can you all please make sure these seven reviews happen I know Derek's hair is long enough that we can make the coda happen on his head and this will just fuck I need to see this haircut and I'm sure that a Joey could probably Photoshop that haircut onto your head so we could get a preview and I'm hoping that maybe he hears this and can make that happen for us Joey if you really want me to I'm sure I could send a couple pictures your way to use and you could put the coda a bushy hair on my head to get a preview
00:53:54
Speaker
Again, get me seven and list your friends, friends of friends, family, acquaintances, people on the street. If you listeners can get seven new reviews and ratings in by the middle of July,
00:54:11
Speaker
Kodobushi's hair is going on my head. God, I love this. Garrett, I love this. Tell them how they can reach out to us on social media and tell us what Vince would do to fuck up red shoes.
00:54:26
Speaker
Uh, please, uh, if you want to follow us on social media, we're at Wrestle Hangout on Facebook and Twitter. We're at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram. I am at Gartet on social media. Derek is at Halloween Halpin. Leave us those five star reviews because we need to see this haircut on Derek's head. Hit us with the, uh, hash. What do you want the hashtag to be? How? That's a long hashtag about red shoes.
00:54:49
Speaker
How about hashtag Vince fucks up red shoes? Okay, please leave us that. Tell us some of the best ways. We'll read what you send to us on the air next week. This has been an awesome episode.
00:55:04
Speaker
And just so you know, right now the game has started getting ready to end this. Go watch the game so you'll know as you're listening to this if Garrett's happy or sad today. But no matter what happened, I hope they just played their heart out and had a good time. I want that fucking cup though. So let's see if I'm sad next week. Good luck, Garrett. Now hit our goddamn music.