Latest / Singlets & Suplexes: A Pro Wrestling Podcast / 6 - Rhodes to WrestleMania Have Begun

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6 - Rhodes to WrestleMania Have Begun · Singlets & Suplexes: A Pro Wrestling Podcast

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to Singlets and Suplexes, a pro wrestling
• 0:06
  podcast. I am Pete.
• 0:08
  I'm Luke Evening and. We are here talking about the
• 0:12
  past week in professional wrestling before diving into
• 0:15
  some sports entertainment nostalgia.
• 0:17
  Luke, Are you ready to talk some graps?
• 0:20
  I am, yeah, Massively. So.
• 0:21
  It's been a good escape for us this week, the old wrestling.
• 0:24
  So I'm looking forward to getting into it, as ever.
• 0:26
  How about you? Yes, I am very excited to talk
• 0:29
  wrestling, but as usual, before we dive into our normal
• 0:31
  segments, we will do some housekeeping.
• 0:34
  Are you ready for some housekeeping, Luke?
• 0:36
  Always, always good to start, nice and clean as we've always
• 0:39
  said. Brilliant.
• 0:40
  So I sort of made a mistake on the housekeeping because I did
• 0:45
  put a poll up this week, but I did miss one option off and that
• 0:48
  option was probably the option that should have been on there.
• 0:51
  So the poll was will it remain Drew versus Orton for
• 0:54
  WrestleMania? The options were hell yes, add
• 0:57
  Cody for a triple threat splash. And the third option was add
• 1:00
  Cody and Jacob for a mega pint four way.
• 1:04
  So obviously as people listen to the podcast, Smackdown happened
• 1:08
  and it was actually a case of Cody just wins and it's Cody
• 1:11
  Norton, which wasn't an option, which is why I think we've only
• 1:13
  had a couple of votes and 100% of the votes went to add Cody
• 1:17
  and Jacob for the mega pint four way.
• 1:18
  So before Smackdown, majority of people were hoping for a four
• 1:23
  way Mania. Luke, were you wanting a four
• 1:26
  way Mania? Are you happy with Cody versus
• 1:28
  Orton? I was on the fence about it, the
• 1:31
  multi man match and we kind of talked about that last week
• 1:33
  because I think you can get a lot of people lost in the pack
• 1:36
  and there can be a bit of a mess sometimes.
• 1:38
  So I wasn't kind of actively looking forward to it, but we'll
• 1:42
  kind of talk about more, more positives of the week.
• 1:44
  But I think if it stays Cody Drew, which we'll talk about,
• 1:47
  and not Cody Drew, Cory Orton, which we'll talk about, I think
• 1:50
  that's the better call at this moment in time.
• 1:54
  Yeah. So I think that would have been
• 1:55
  an option had I thought of that properly.
• 1:57
  And then I think probably what other people voting for that I
• 1:59
  would imagine. Let's dive into our listener
• 2:03
  comments. And Wells Bryson, he missed last
• 2:06
  week, but he's hammered us with lots of comments this.
• 2:09
  Week, lots of comments. He was very he hit us with three
• 2:11
  different comments. He's very excited about
• 2:13
  wrestling this week, which is great.
• 2:15
  Wrestling's brilliant. Always be excited about it, is
• 2:17
  what I say. So we'll go for the first one
• 2:21
  and he's just put, I actually think Drew drops the belt this
• 2:23
  week on Smackdown, likely to set up the multi man at
• 2:26
  WrestleMania. So half right there.
• 2:28
  I feel the Roman and Punk promo might have peaked too early.
• 2:31
  This is before Raw this week. I'm not sure they've left enough
• 2:35
  room for escalation. I think they definitely have.
• 2:37
  I wasn't expecting it, but they certainly have done that.
• 2:39
  We'll talk about that. There's still six weeks.
• 2:41
  Can the energy be maintained? Does the heat continue or does
• 2:44
  it fizzle out? Again, I think by using other
• 2:48
  Samoans, they've managed to keep the heat going, but we'll
• 2:50
  discuss that. Also, we need to get to the mask
• 2:54
  versus mask Americanos ASAP. He's not feeling it, so he's not
• 2:57
  ready for any more Americanos. He wants them to face off ASAP
• 3:01
  for the mask versus mask. What's your thoughts on that,
• 3:04
  Luther? Yeah, I feel like that's going
• 3:07
  all the way to WrestleMania. I get.
• 3:09
  I do agree with them that I think it it's done, you just
• 3:12
  need to have the match now. But unfortunately it is going to
• 3:16
  go to Mania, I think, and I think then that will be the end
• 3:19
  of evil Grand Americano, which is it's Ludwig Kaiser, isn't it?
• 3:24
  Nothing. Chad Gable or although I don't
• 3:26
  know. Do you have Chad Gable and mask
• 3:29
  and then go back to him? It's weird because I think Chad
• 3:32
  Gable's Americano is moreover right, but I do feel that
• 3:37
  because his Spanish is awful and Ludwig Kaiser is very a clever
• 3:43
  man who can speak many languages and pulls it off better.
• 3:46
  Is it better having the bad one just be the Americano because he
• 3:50
  can be the heel and speak Spanish fluently or not feeling
• 3:53
  but to a good level or almost have the keep Chad Gable in the
• 3:56
  costume book. He's like it's almost a joke
• 3:59
  when he's doing the Spanish. That makes sense.
• 4:02
  Yeah. And I think after this week's
• 4:04
  row as well, saying that he wants it done and obviously the
• 4:07
  off facing off on raw next week, I think we might get a triple
• 4:11
  threat for the IC title with Penta with both Grande
• 4:15
  Americanos and I think Chad Gable might get his first IC
• 4:18
  title. That's so I think, you know, he
• 4:22
  might be getting his wish that the one-on-one blow off happens
• 4:24
  this week, which I'm pretty sure is scare scheduled and I think
• 4:28
  that then leads to a triple threat.
• 4:31
  Maybe the only way original Americano can become uncursed is
• 4:35
  to become a different person and come back.
• 4:38
  That's right, because he did get cursed off Dan Housing this
• 4:40
  week. He did yes, that was just the
• 4:43
  first part of Wells comments. So he next goes on to say please
• 4:47
  that the IC was dropped by Dom, doesn't need it and didn't
• 4:50
  really elevate him any more than the storyline already has.
• 4:53
  Introducing the Dan housing Psyche psychology was great and
• 5:00
  has legs as it can impact the number of match results based on
• 5:03
  his backstage interactions. You can set up multiple angles
• 5:06
  for those on the mid card. Fault on that, Luke, No. 100% So
• 5:12
  obviously the Dan, I think Dan Housing's curses getting done on
• 5:16
  Smackdown and on Raw, it kind of shows you that, yeah, it's very,
• 5:19
  very early days, but the WWE are putting stock in them and the
• 5:22
  kind of treating the curses seriously as you can treat
• 5:26
  something that's kind of played for laughs.
• 5:28
  And I think especially after the way Raw went down, I think
• 5:32
  Dominic dropping the title to pen, that kind of elevates pen
• 5:35
  and more. And I think it kind of shows you
• 5:38
  how good of a feud Mysterio and Bala can be because I don't
• 5:41
  think it needs the belt. And obviously Judgment Day
• 5:44
  kicked Balor out this week, left them for dead, kind of which I
• 5:47
  think we all know these. And maybe Demon Balor versus
• 5:50
  Mysterio at WrestleMania, which I think you can make a really
• 5:53
  strong argument, doesn't need the title because the hookahs,
• 5:55
  it's kind of blown off a faction that's run a long time and
• 5:59
  you're probably going to get Demon Bala.
• 6:02
  Yeah, Demon Bala versus a heel Dominic Mania sells itself and
• 6:07
  the crowd will be wild into it, so that'll be fantastic.
• 6:10
  And Wells last comment, also interested to see how the Brock
• 6:13
  Open challenge plays out. What do you think?
• 6:16
  I think it's a mess because I think it's tied in with Paul him
• 6:19
  and I think it's tied in with the Vision and I think it's all
• 6:23
  just kind of, I thought the Rollins thing at the start of
• 6:27
  Raw with all the masked men and then he disappears and them just
• 6:31
  looks silly. I think it'll probably the way
• 6:34
  they're looking at it, you're going to get the Usos versus The
• 6:36
  Vision. I do think break I'll be back
• 6:38
  versus Rollins and then Ellie Knight versus Brock Lesnar.
• 6:41
  So I just think while Lesnar is the attraction, as they've said,
• 6:46
  I just feel like it's another loss for Ellie and Knight and I
• 6:49
  don't know how good of a match you're going to get out with
• 6:52
  them too. So yeah, I don't.
• 6:54
  I think it's all tied into a bit of a messy situation that
• 6:57
  they've got, which kind of is down due to injury.
• 6:59
  But yeah, I'm not feeling it. No, I know what you mean.
• 7:03
  I think there's, it's not really clear where it's going, but
• 7:08
  there's sort of little sprinkles when the little sprinkles on
• 7:10
  connecting. So yeah, that's how I feel about
• 7:13
  it. And they've obviously, I like to
• 7:14
  say do stuff on the fly with injuries and stuff, which is
• 7:17
  like unavoidable. But yeah, it's a bit.
• 7:19
  And I think, yeah, how long? Because obviously they've wrote
• 7:22
  him and off the week before on raw.
• 7:25
  So say, is he done completely now, like as in for a period of
• 7:28
  time or is he back before mania? So yeah, it's a bit all over the
• 7:31
  place. It certainly is.
• 7:33
  I think he's probably back before me and yeah, but he might
• 7:36
  not be. I think it's, yeah, it's a
• 7:38
  guessing game at the moment on that front.
• 7:40
  Yeah. Another bit of housekeeping, So
• 7:43
  if you follow us on Instagram, that is at SAS Wrestling Pod,
• 7:47
  you would have seen us post five years ago that we were notified
• 7:50
  that we had our 100. We'd reached 100 players on the
• 7:55
  podcast. That was just in our first
• 7:56
  month. Yeah, that was a big thing to
• 8:00
  celebrate. Doesn't sound like a lot, but
• 8:01
  basically, you know, I think over 100 players in our first
• 8:03
  month. No marketing, no celebrity hook.
• 8:07
  We're obviously ecstatic. So thank you very much for
• 8:08
  listening. We're trying to be a fun
• 8:09
  wrestling podcast for wrestling fans.
• 8:12
  I think if you're listening and enjoying the podcast, please
• 8:13
  share it, whether it's on social or just via word of mouth.
• 8:17
  If you guys, the listeners are spreading us to your wrestling
• 8:19
  buddies, you give us the greatest gift and that is us
• 8:22
  being able to come in more years.
• 8:25
  Also, That was five years ago, Luke.
• 8:29
  And I just want to say that since then, we have hit 151
• 8:33
  players over 5 episodes. So, you know, I think I'm very
• 8:40
  happy with that. So anyone who's listening, thank
• 8:42
  you very much. It does mean a lot.
• 8:44
  We appreciate you listening and you're coming back week after
• 8:46
  week, which is fantastic. So thank you.
• 8:47
  We appreciate you guys taking part in the polls.
• 8:49
  We appreciate the comments that you guys leave as well.
• 8:52
  So interact with us in the comments on Spotify.
• 8:54
  Please interact with us on Instagram as well as at SES
• 8:57
  Wrestling Pod. We're obviously available on
• 8:59
  Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music.
• 9:02
  Those links are all in our Instagram bio.
• 9:08
  Look your thoughts on that. No, it's excellent.
• 9:11
  You know, I'm I'm really pleased that we'll be able to call that
• 9:13
  we've been able to come in 151 years.
• 9:15
  That's always exciting. I hope that that continues to
• 9:18
  grow and kind of like you said, yeah, just I love, I love when
• 9:21
  people get in touch with us and we're kind of extremely early
• 9:24
  days. So any kind of thing saying that
• 9:26
  we can do better. Anyone not got any idea for
• 9:28
  segments questions get them into us.
• 9:31
  Like Peter said, share. So at the end of the day, we're
• 9:33
  just two little idiots who love wrestling, love talking about
• 9:37
  it, so we do this anyways. So we'll be able to kind of put
• 9:39
  this out there and see that people are interacting with it.
• 9:42
  It's kind of who knows where this can go, so keep doing it.
• 9:46
  Indeed. But no, very, very well said.
• 9:49
  But I think that brings an end to housekeeping.
• 9:51
  I think that takes us straight into the next segment, which is
• 9:55
  a week in review. Yes, Luke, I'm going to go 1st.
• 9:59
  I'm going to fire some of my positives of the last week in
• 10:01
  professional wrestling, if that's OK.
• 10:03
  It is, of course. You go for it.
• 10:05
  So this references back to sort of Wells's thoughts that he was
• 10:07
  saying in the housekeeping comments.
• 10:09
  So I thought the Punk promo with the Usos was fantastic.
• 10:15
  I thought was out of left field. I thought, you know, Roman's not
• 10:18
  going to be every week, which we know.
• 10:19
  So like, how do you keep it alive?
• 10:20
  And I think I never thought about when Punk said it, but
• 10:24
  when Punk brought obviously Roman's dead father into wit
• 10:27
  last week, then this week they've been able to have the,
• 10:30
  you know, the dead dad's nephews come out and sort of say that's
• 10:34
  not right. And I think, you know, Punk sort
• 10:37
  of treatment of respect sort of said he was going to apologize
• 10:41
  and then turned it around to being like, actually, no, I'm
• 10:43
  going to tell you why Roman's a piece of shit.
• 10:47
  And I think they sort of the way the USO solos are like the sort
• 10:51
  of knew what Punk was saying and believed Punk that Roman can be
• 10:53
  a piece of shit, but also it saw a dead uncle.
• 10:56
  So you can't do that. So yeah, I was a big fan of the
• 11:00
  Punk promo. I was a big fan of the
• 11:02
  altercation, the physicality, and I was a big fan of how it
• 11:04
  was sold afterwards. And I think I'm not saying we're
• 11:07
  going to heal. We're getting a heal Punk, but
• 11:08
  we're getting a Punk who is going to fly over the line.
• 11:11
  He's going to tell you things that are going to increase
• 11:15
  speculation. They're going to be interesting.
• 11:17
  They're going to be on the line, They're going to make a question
• 11:20
  like, should he say that? Should he not?
• 11:21
  And I think that's where he can be his best in his promos as
• 11:23
  well. I don't know what your thoughts
• 11:27
  on where where this left the world heavy title match for
• 11:29
  WrestleMania. Yeah.
• 11:31
  Well, I think it kind of it leads to more questions, doesn't
• 11:34
  it? Because kind of, you know, you
• 11:35
  get in Roma versus Punk or WrestleMania, but then what does
• 11:38
  the build up now look like? So do you think we go all the
• 11:42
  way to WrestleMania without Roman wrestling at all?
• 11:45
  Or do you think this is maybe he's being used as a way to
• 11:48
  bring in maybe some kind of six man match on the way to
• 11:51
  WrestleMania? What do you think that kind of
• 11:53
  what? Where do you think the goal
• 11:54
  with? Where do you think the goal with
• 11:55
  it? It could be a 6th man or could.
• 11:59
  Not maniac, but just on a row in the bit of obviously.
• 12:02
  That's probably a knight. There could be a 6th man in the
• 12:04
  build up, yeah, or could just be A tag match if Punk finds a
• 12:07
  partner. But I think it's going to lead
• 12:09
  to like Roman's going to interact with the Usos at some
• 12:12
  point and they're going to be like, look, you came, you
• 12:16
  started a feud with Punk and you will call them names and saying
• 12:18
  loads of shit that led the Punk saying so nasty about your dad.
• 12:21
  Then you fucked off. Now you've left us to defend the
• 12:24
  family honour. So, like, you are a piece of
• 12:26
  shit. Roman actually punks, right?
• 12:29
  Like punks wrong. So you shouldn't see what he
• 12:31
  said. And we've hit him for that and
• 12:32
  we hate him. But like, you've caused this by
• 12:34
  not being here, by winding them up and then fucking off.
• 12:36
  You've caused it. And I think it's going to need a
• 12:38
  family dynamic where it's going to be like, yeah, like you were
• 12:42
  the tribal chief, but now you're all about yourself.
• 12:44
  So like, what does that mean? Yeah, and I think my, I think
• 12:47
  like I kind of gave this on the fence because like there was
• 12:50
  positives. I say punk was great again, I
• 12:52
  thought Jay was excellent with his intensity and I think it
• 12:55
  kind of brings back why he was pushed because I think he is
• 12:58
  good on the mic and he's over. So I thought that was really
• 13:01
  good. But then, yeah, I don't know if
• 13:02
  it just muddies the water a bit because you've also got the IT
• 13:05
  kind of goes back on my comment about the vision.
• 13:07
  You've kind of got the Usos feeding with the vision.
• 13:09
  So it's kind of, I don't know if it messes it a bit, but I am
• 13:13
  looking forward to see what happens on Raw next week because
• 13:15
  Roman has definitely been announced.
• 13:16
  So yeah, hopefully the play it out smoother than I think it
• 13:19
  might end up going. Now it's going to be like
• 13:25
  Romans. This the thing that defines
• 13:27
  Romans his family right? Has done for the past like 4
• 13:29
  years with the storylines right? That's not just Roman, do you
• 13:32
  know what I mean? Like the bloodline was kind of
• 13:34
  all-encompassing for a while. Do you know what I mean?
• 13:37
  I think we're going to see like punks going to tear that apart
• 13:39
  because it's going to be like they said, they're going to lose
• 13:41
  a bit of respect for him because he because he's not here
• 13:43
  defending the family honor. He's won punk up.
• 13:45
  Now punks say they he's batting for the fences and Roman's not
• 13:49
  here to catch it. So the other family have to do
• 13:51
  The Dirty work. And I think they will do that.
• 13:54
  But then they'll tell Roman, I like, look, you've let us down
• 13:56
  here. And I think that's a very
• 13:59
  interesting dynamic where we're going to have Roman versus punk,
• 14:04
  and Roman's not going to have like the family dynamic with
• 14:07
  them, I don't think. You know, yeah, I think you've
• 14:10
  maybe hit the nail on the head there.
• 14:11
  I think maybe it's a scenario where Rains thinks he's got the
• 14:15
  Usos at his side in the walk away and maybe he's like one of
• 14:19
  the last shows going up to WrestleMania.
• 14:21
  Because I think what they've started with that Punk promo
• 14:24
  saying, you know, I'll put you in the ground and we still have
• 14:26
  someone there with you, I think that could be in that.
• 14:29
  I think that's the story, to kind of go into it, that Roman
• 14:32
  is completely on his own for the first time in a long time in a
• 14:35
  big title match. Yep, and kind of do it and time
• 14:39
  will tell. I suppose The next thing I
• 14:42
  really enjoyed was Cody and Drew for the WWE title.
• 14:46
  I thought was a great match, lots of physicality, great near
• 14:50
  falls, great storytelling, Jacob obviously getting involved,
• 14:55
  which you know, Drew has, you know, cheated his way to get him
• 15:00
  where he's gone. And also people weren't happy
• 15:02
  with the title change. But I think it may, it makes
• 15:05
  sense. I think if you putting the belt
• 15:07
  on Cody, I think the plumbers always Cory.
• 15:09
  I think they decided to put the belt on Drew just to give Mike
• 15:12
  the European Two hours champion and to help have Cory chase the
• 15:15
  belt, which makes sense and give Cory so he could chase and feel
• 15:18
  out in terms of Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber.
• 15:21
  I think that makes perfect sense.
• 15:23
  But yeah, I love this match. I love where it puts Cory and
• 15:28
  Cory Norton. Obviously with them being former
• 15:31
  Cory Bean is former Protegee in them being friends around me
• 15:34
  being a legendary respect babyface versus babyface at the
• 15:37
  minute, which I think we don't get a lot of now.
• 15:41
  So I think that could really work if they keep a baby face,
• 15:42
  very face. I'm not saying the world, but if
• 15:44
  they do, that could be really interesting and good.
• 15:46
  It could also be good if they have one of them as a heal as
• 15:48
  well. I'm not thinking it's not, but
• 15:49
  yeah, I enjoyed the match. It was.
• 15:51
  It was hard hitting. It was fast-paced, great
• 15:53
  psychology. I thought interferences were
• 15:56
  worked well. And I think, yeah, it puts it
• 16:01
  puts Cody and Orton in a good place for me.
• 16:03
  And if it stays that way, I think Drew, does it do damage to
• 16:05
  Drew? I don't think so.
• 16:06
  I think Drew, you know, you win the belt on a technicality and
• 16:09
  he's now lost the belt. Put some sort of loggerheads
• 16:12
  with Jacob if that's where they go with it.
• 16:15
  Like to really hate him because he'd cost him it, even though
• 16:17
  Jake was the one who give me in the 1st place or gain.
• 16:19
  It works. It's natural storytelling.
• 16:20
  It's subtle. It's pottery.
• 16:23
  Yeah, I know some people weren't liking it, but I really enjoyed
• 16:26
  that. I don't know what your faults
• 16:27
  were, Luke. Yeah, it was one of my positives
• 16:29
  of the week as well, like for like lots of different little
• 16:31
  reasons. So you've kind of touched on
• 16:33
  some of them. I thought match was great.
• 16:34
  It was kind of a pay-per-view quality match on a Smackdown.
• 16:37
  The video package beforehand. Obviously we'll talk about the
• 16:41
  WB production in one of my other positives, but I always do a
• 16:44
  great job with that. But I thought, like I say, I
• 16:46
  felt like you were getting a pay-per-view match on Smackdown,
• 16:49
  which I've seen in the lead up to WrestleMania.
• 16:51
  I think you've got the kind of time to do that when you've got
• 16:54
  678 weeks worth of build. I do think if you look at it
• 16:57
  from kind of a pure storyline telling, if it does end up being
• 17:01
  Cody versus Randy Orton, that's a better story.
• 17:04
  Like you say, you've got the legacy there.
• 17:06
  You've got the fact that the friends, you've got the mentor
• 17:08
  mentee. You've also got the fact that
• 17:10
  did one of them, does one of them turn before WrestleMania?
• 17:14
  So if you just look at it as what was the best option for a
• 17:16
  one-on-one match, that is definitely the best one.
• 17:20
  People like kind of negative opinions on it.
• 17:22
  It seems to be the people are on that pocket of the Internet that
• 17:24
  kind of just dislike Cody in the same way that Cena had a lot of
• 17:28
  hate for a lot of time where, you know, he wins all the time.
• 17:31
  He's politic backstage, that type of thing, which I don't
• 17:34
  think is the case. And like I say, it was still not
• 17:37
  at WrestleMania yet. Because one of my thoughts, I
• 17:40
  mean, I know it's been done before, but do we get a
• 17:42
  WrestleMania 20 situation with a contract signing where Drew
• 17:46
  comes out, puts his name on a contract?
• 17:48
  You know what I mean? Was still not at Wrestle Mania.
• 17:51
  I do think it will be one-on-one, but do you think
• 17:54
  there's a possibility that we'll get Mobiser Shawn Michaels
• 17:57
  Switcher music and he signs the contract like they did for
• 18:00
  Triple H Benoit? I think there's a few options.
• 18:03
  I think the one-on-one definitely could happen to make
• 18:05
  sense. I think you could definitely get
• 18:07
  Drew sort of put himself in their game by cheating.
• 18:09
  Like does he just come and sign it and it's like what he signed
• 18:12
  it doesn't deserve it, but he signed it and now he's involved
• 18:14
  trouble threat. That works for the character and
• 18:16
  for the storyline. And again, do you have go about
• 18:20
  WrestleMania 2004 way? Does Jacob get himself involved
• 18:24
  as well? And does it become a four way?
• 18:25
  I think all those are possibilities.
• 18:27
  I think the singles match seems more likely, and I think the
• 18:30
  triple threat maybe seems more likely than the four way.
• 18:33
  But I think if you were to put Drew in the triple threat, it
• 18:36
  leaves Jacob with nothing to do or you've got to make something
• 18:39
  very quick for Jacob to do, if that makes sense.
• 18:42
  So I don't know if they want to hurt Jacob like that.
• 18:46
  Yeah. I mean, you mentioned
• 18:47
  WrestleMania 2000 there. If they did go down the fatal
• 18:49
  four way, come the rule out that that didn't all that they don't
• 18:52
  also put a McMahon in every corner like WrestleMania 2000 as
• 18:55
  well. Is that off the table do you
• 18:56
  think? I mean, we can't have Vince
• 18:59
  can't be there because he's not. Why?
• 19:02
  It's not my, it's not my policy to debris policy, right?
• 19:04
  So he's like, well, let's just say it's not happening, but
• 19:07
  let's say we do have a McMahon in every corner and it's called.
• 19:10
  That's one McMahon, so we need to find four more.
• 19:12
  So unless why would you? But let's just say we could have
• 19:15
  them. So let's say it's a fatal four
• 19:17
  way of Jacob, Cody, Drew and Randy.
• 19:20
  What McMahon do you put with each superstar in a fan in in
• 19:23
  your fantasy book and novice who has who?
• 19:25
  Well, Jacob will have to have Vince when because Jacob is a
• 19:27
  criminal and then Vince is going to to be a criminal.
• 19:30
  Well, time will tell, but OK, right?
• 19:33
  Who else? Who, who, who?
• 19:34
  Who has next? Stephanie will be with Stephanie
• 19:39
  will be with Drew just calling. She'll be Lou out to like he's
• 19:44
  like fantastic body, not actually cheats.
• 19:48
  I'm not saying that, but I'm just saying Jenny, she'll be
• 19:50
  want to be next to him because he's really cool.
• 19:52
  Because he has the aesthetic and the long hair of a young Triple
• 19:55
  H, doesn't she? Yeah, OK.
• 19:56
  Right, right. Yeah, yeah.
• 19:59
  Next. Orton will have a Triple H He's
• 20:03
  like man, right? You can call him man.
• 20:05
  Yeah, why not? Yeah, it's your.
• 20:08
  It's your fantasy, Boo gun. Yeah, Triple H are in his
• 20:10
  corner. And then for Cody Rhodes, he is
• 20:13
  obviously the American nightmare, but he's he's red,
• 20:15
  white and blue. He's Mr. America.
• 20:16
  He's got the beach blonde hair. Why not have probably one of the
• 20:20
  best U.S. politicians out there, Linda McMahon, in his corner?
• 20:24
  That would be fantastic, wouldn't it?
• 20:25
  That that would send those certain pockets of the Internet
• 20:28
  over the edge, wouldn't it? See so, so I like it.
• 20:31
  I like all four of them. Yeah, that's good.
• 20:33
  So I think it should be a fail four way and I think it should
• 20:35
  be man in every corner. And I did have another .0.
• 20:39
  Yeah, that was it, yes. So then there's a lot of people
• 20:42
  saying potentially, do you think there's any potential at all of
• 20:44
  our Drew versus Nick Aldous? Because obviously a big part of
• 20:48
  that build up for the Cody match was the kind of what happened
• 20:51
  after the Chamber and the conflict between them two.
• 20:53
  Do you think there's any possibility you would get that?
• 20:57
  I mean, I think many has five weeks away so they could build
• 21:01
  that. I think that comes later, right?
• 21:06
  I think I think that comes after Mania.
• 21:09
  I think Mania seems is not going to be good for Drew, right?
• 21:12
  He's not going to come out of as a champion even if he's in that
• 21:15
  much, he's not going to win. And if he fights Jacob and Jacob
• 21:17
  beats him. So I think he's going to ask
• 21:20
  kicking if you fights Jacob. I think so he'll be he'll be
• 21:25
  blaming all this and that will start building.
• 21:26
  Right. OK, you blame me like you got
• 21:29
  Remember, we've got more peer reviews.
• 21:31
  We can't just spunk it all at me.
• 21:32
  And yeah, otherwise there's like no spunk left, right.
• 21:33
  And we've got, we've got more. You only get a bugger and 1/2.
• 21:36
  We've got more paper views to please and if we all run out,
• 21:39
  we'll need more blue to right. So did you build that for like a
• 21:43
  summer slam? And I think the I think, yeah, I
• 21:47
  think you're right. I I do want to see all this
• 21:50
  wrestle at some point. And I think Jacob's the obvious
• 21:52
  choice because I think because again, if you believe so, if I
• 21:55
  think Drew goes straight off the film, is it Highlander after
• 21:58
  WrestleMania? So maybe he's having a kind of
• 22:01
  brutal match with Jacob where he loses, kind of does that, which
• 22:04
  might be another reason why I was saying out the title picture
• 22:06
  if he's not going to be around. But yeah, no, but I was just
• 22:09
  interested to see if you thought the wood if we'd get oldest at
• 22:12
  Mania. But no, you don't.
• 22:14
  Not mania, but we get all this last year.
• 22:16
  Yeah. I think it makes sense to do it
• 22:19
  later because I said you don't want to spunk all too soon.
• 22:22
  You need to need to spread that out.
• 22:25
  No. And I say I would quite like to
• 22:26
  see him because I remember I got like, I don't know why, but I
• 22:29
  remember I was watching TNA religiously when he was world
• 22:32
  champion. I quite like his little faction
• 22:34
  that he had with Dixie Carter and great Maverick Rockstar
• 22:38
  sport at the time. So yeah, I do hope we'll get a
• 22:40
  half, see him have at least one match.
• 22:45
  My next positive, my third and final one is the Dan Howison
• 22:49
  presentation. And I'm not just talking about
• 22:51
  on television, obviously, I think his presentation on
• 22:54
  television has been fantastic, both on Smackdowns and Raws.
• 22:57
  His interactions with the Miz with Nick Aldous was fantastic.
• 23:01
  He's on Raw coming out with the sort of the, the, the I don't
• 23:04
  know if it was on on the raw broadcast and upward coming out
• 23:07
  with the T-shirts and form them in the crowd and the crowd
• 23:10
  loving it. And obviously his interactions
• 23:11
  with Grande Americano, as we've mentioned already, you know, it
• 23:15
  was all great. But also like his social media
• 23:17
  presence or like he's going like, to the merch stalls at the
• 23:20
  live events and like, foreign T-shirts of people and saying
• 23:23
  you don't want to John Cena anyone, this one.
• 23:24
  And like he's just being himself, the character that's
• 23:26
  performance art. As I said, he's doing that.
• 23:28
  He's on Twitter and he's like, he's being himself on Twitter or
• 23:31
  X, whatever you want to call it. You know, he's just been the
• 23:33
  character. He's he's he's tweeting the Las
• 23:34
  Vegas fear as fear saying my face needs to be on the sphere
• 23:38
  for WrestleMania. And he's tweeted some toy
• 23:39
  company and they're making dolls of them now.
• 23:41
  Like he's tweeting them is saying, I need to come and swim
• 23:44
  in your pool, please. You'll come and watch matches at
• 23:46
  your house and get better. Like he's just, he's gone full
• 23:49
  berserk down house in character mode and they're just letting
• 23:52
  him do it, which I think's fantastic because there's no way
• 23:53
  they're signing off every tweet because like, that's a lot of
• 23:56
  work. I think there's trust in the be,
• 23:57
  be the character. And that's what he's being the
• 23:59
  character. Everyone.
• 24:01
  Well, you like him, you don't. You're intrigued by him and
• 24:03
  you're following him. And yeah, it seems that he's got
• 24:06
  the wrestling world around his finger right now.
• 24:08
  He's the top merge seller on aweshop.com.
• 24:10
  So then. My house still 14 LB still 14 LB
• 24:14
  delivery. But he will.
• 24:15
  But I will get it. That's how we're going to go.
• 24:18
  We're going to go halfs. I bought some people listen to
• 24:19
  the podcast actually and they would say, oh, I'll jump in on
• 24:22
  that. Just see if the shipment even
• 24:23
  more if he's won so. It's not, it's not.
• 24:27
  It's the principle for me. I have got 14 lbs.
• 24:29
  I don't want people to think I haven't got 14 lbs.
• 24:31
  But it's, it's the principle, isn't it?
• 24:33
  Well I've never paid that was coming from America.
• 24:36
  If I was paying for if I make AUS website fair enough.
• 24:38
  But like any anywhere in Europe not 14 that's it arrives like
• 24:42
  the same day. Like no, I agree with you.
• 24:46
  But no, I do think you're right. It's I say I think they've done
• 24:49
  a really good job with them. Obviously mixed mixed reviews
• 24:51
  from across everywhere with his debut.
• 24:53
  But then everything since is being really, really good.
• 24:57
  And like I say, I think he's going to prove it'll be.
• 25:00
  And I think we'll actually I'll talk about much about the tag
• 25:03
  team stuff that I'm going to talk about.
• 25:04
  But yeah, I think you'll definitely have a bit of a
• 25:06
  WrestleMania moment you. Certainly will even just like
• 25:11
  you mean we'll have it on the broadcast.
• 25:12
  But even just him wandering around like fun access being
• 25:15
  done, housing, people are going to like lose the minds.
• 25:17
  There's going to be loads of content made there.
• 25:18
  It's going to be wild. No, definitely and again, like
• 25:23
  bit of a shit one, but I might thought I was being back in
• 25:24
  hospital this week. So it's been a bit of a hard
• 25:26
  week, but it looks there. She'll be out soon.
• 25:28
  But one of the things I was doing now this week was you are
• 25:31
  test and it was one of the only times I've been getting laughs.
• 25:34
  So it's one of our new little things actually likes us to do
• 25:36
  is tell now that just cursed. So he's brought joy to me
• 25:39
  poorly, little girl this week. That's what it's all about,
• 25:41
  bringing joy to people. They are my 3 positives.
• 25:46
  I know you mentioned one of your positives before.
• 25:47
  What are your other two positives of the week, Luke?
• 25:50
  Yeah, so like kind of a quick one, it was the US Open
• 25:53
  Challenge match on Smackdown. So you had obviously Carmelo
• 25:58
  Hayes the champion and you got another challenger in from AAA
• 26:02
  and I just it was so the kind of positive as I quite like the WWE
• 26:06
  acquisition of AAA because again, I know it's had kind of
• 26:09
  mixed backlash where they've kind of said it's being a bit
• 26:12
  kind of sanitized because you've got a lot of WWE guys in there
• 26:15
  now like Don Masserio, who's the champion almost has sent down
• 26:19
  there. And on the upcoming
• 26:20
  pay-per-view, the War Raiders are on there.
• 26:22
  But I think it's just I think something like that getting
• 26:25
  acquired. It does.
• 26:26
  It gives you the option to kind of, you know, you know, bring
• 26:29
  people like that in for open challenges.
• 26:30
  We saw a couple in the Royal Rumble.
• 26:32
  I think that was one of your positives from the Royal Rumble.
• 26:34
  Was it not getting to see the parka?
• 26:36
  The Parka BB. And for all those guys as well,
• 26:39
  like regardless of what you think the ulterior motive motive
• 26:43
  is for WB buying it like it's massive for them to have AWB
• 26:46
  back in like the all on the new game, whether it's downloadable
• 26:50
  content or already on there. Like that's massive that to have
• 26:52
  like a WWE worldwide release game that's essentially got a
• 26:56
  full roster of AAA talent on there.
• 26:58
  Like I think it's a great cool little acquisition.
• 27:02
  And I think it does wonders for AAA because I've like I admit,
• 27:05
  like I've I've seen matches from AAA like when you've heard like
• 27:08
  there's a good one here or there, but I've never kind of
• 27:11
  watched it religiously. But every time they've put a
• 27:15
  show on YouTube and there's the pay-per-view this weekend, I
• 27:17
  believe, like, and I'll make a point of maybe talking about
• 27:20
  that next week, the actual AAA pay-per-view, but it's got me
• 27:23
  into watching it more. So surely that can only be a
• 27:25
  good thing. So that was definitely one of my
• 27:27
  positives, but it was more kind of think what what's your
• 27:30
  opinion on that acquisition of AAA?
• 27:33
  Yeah, I think at the time it was a weird one because I thought
• 27:35
  all the biting off more that can chew here.
• 27:37
  But like the really smartly I think they've integrated talents
• 27:39
  well both ways. I think as you as we've seen,
• 27:43
  you know like Mr. Iguana is over big time the park has over with
• 27:47
  a degree audience as well. I think bringing some of these
• 27:49
  people in for the open challenges or, or it's
• 27:52
  introducing us to those so they can get over in the future.
• 27:55
  But I think also, you know, sending Domicilio down to AAA
• 27:57
  like, well, you like dummy, you don't.
• 28:00
  You got to remember like there's he's probably one of the most
• 28:02
  over heels in the business right now and has been for like over a
• 28:05
  year. So to have him down in AAA like
• 28:09
  puts more eyes on their product, if that makes sense.
• 28:12
  It's like, why would you not do that?
• 28:13
  Some like almost where like, you know, he's BNWE and he's had a
• 28:17
  mixed reception and mixed mixed success.
• 28:20
  You set him down there where he's like a big guy and like he
• 28:22
  doesn't have to do as much. He can work a bit differently.
• 28:24
  A, he gets a different experience, but B, like it's,
• 28:28
  it's new, new territory for him. So he can he can have a
• 28:30
  different run, a positive run, hopefully, which is good.
• 28:33
  So I think, yeah, I think overall it's been used really
• 28:35
  well. Let's see, let's see where it
• 28:38
  goes. I think we've only just
• 28:39
  scratched the surface on what's happening with it, is what I
• 28:41
  think. No, definitely.
• 28:43
  And I think, you know, one of the comments, I mean is like one
• 28:45
  of the comments that often get alleged is that, you know, the
• 28:47
  WWE are just using it as another development territory and
• 28:50
  they'll take anyone good from it.
• 28:51
  But it's kind of like, I don't know, I just feel that like
• 28:54
  you've you've definitely got more eyes on it now than you
• 28:56
  ever would have. So that that can only be a
• 28:58
  positive. And I think from what I've seen
• 29:01
  so far, it is they are doing it right.
• 29:05
  You know what I mean? Well, yeah, Dom's a champion at
• 29:07
  the moment, but the next pay-per-view, if Dom loses, he's
• 29:10
  also exiled and I think he will. So that'll be kind of him
• 29:13
  wrapped up in there for now. So it's not like they're just
• 29:15
  sending all the WE guys down all the time like they are.
• 29:18
  There is a lot of people who are already in AAA that must have
• 29:21
  benefited. And like you said, Mr. Iguana
• 29:23
  being a key example of that. Definitely.
• 29:28
  Other positives that I said enjoyed the Cody Drew match and
• 29:31
  then my other positive was essentially all of NXT Vengeance
• 29:35
  Day. Did he did he catch any of it
• 29:37
  this weekend? I've caught a couple of clips
• 29:39
  but I haven't had a chance to watch the whole thing yet.
• 29:41
  Yeah, so I really liked it because when I watched it and
• 29:44
  kind of from start to finish, like it kind of felt like a bit
• 29:48
  of a throwback. So not just in the fact that it
• 29:50
  was called Vengeance Day, but I think NXT at the moment, it's
• 29:54
  got like a really cool throwback vibe to it and where why I think
• 29:58
  that is kind of the build up to the matches.
• 30:01
  So it's very storyline, very character driven.
• 30:04
  Like every match had like a big video production before it.
• 30:08
  Like in the one I wanted to kind of focus on the most was the
• 30:11
  packed actually is he Dawn match for the NXT US North American
• 30:15
  Championship. So that's been like a huge feud
• 30:18
  where you've got kind of Sean Spears, Cullen involved.
• 30:21
  It started with kind of Tate and Paxley being in the Cullen.
• 30:25
  She wins the world title, the NXT women's world title, she
• 30:29
  gets turned on by Izzy Dawn, loses the title.
• 30:31
  Izzy Dawn then wins the US American, the US North American
• 30:34
  Championship, and now Paxley's won it back.
• 30:37
  So it's kind of like this feud that's kind of dragged loads of
• 30:40
  people and loads of different title pictures into it and that
• 30:43
  kind of just feels like kind of a back in the day.
• 30:45
  I think you know what I mean. No, it definitely has that
• 30:48
  vintage feel, I think, yeah. And again, on the kind of
• 30:51
  production side of it, like you had Henry versus every stocks
• 30:54
  and had a really cool package of Joe Henry talking about his
• 30:57
  journey about kind of, you know, he had a degree in kind of
• 31:00
  essentially advertising and he started wrestling when he was
• 31:02
  24. He left it a bit late.
• 31:04
  Things were going really well. COVID hit when it could travel
• 31:07
  again. He used his last money to get
• 31:09
  his visa. I go to TNA and now he's NXT
• 31:11
  champion. And that was always the goal.
• 31:12
  Like it was like it was a show that was packed full of great
• 31:15
  video packages. And then all the matches
• 31:17
  delivered as well in like there was lots of like themes as well.
• 31:20
  So like I say, you had the world title match, you had a
• 31:23
  underground match with all advice, you had a street fight
• 31:26
  with Blake Monroe. So it was kind of one of those
• 31:28
  kind of old school cards, I thought where every match had
• 31:31
  quite a bit of storyline and build to it.
• 31:34
  You got cool little productions before it.
• 31:36
  And then you had like gimmicks and things like that involved.
• 31:38
  And I just like I thought like from top to bottom, it was a
• 31:40
  great pay-per-view. And again, like it was one of
• 31:43
  those ones where it didn't kind of hang about.
• 31:44
  I think it was five matches and I just think if anyone hasn't
• 31:47
  caught NXT Vengeance Day, definitely check it out.
• 31:50
  And if you're looking for any match in particular, I would go
• 31:53
  for the Blake Monroe, Jada, Parker Street fight, which
• 31:56
  opened the show. So you can get that watched
• 31:58
  pretty quickly. So yeah, I've really enjoyed NXT
• 32:01
  as a whole, which I always do. But yeah, I thought that
• 32:04
  pay-per-view was one of the stronger ones.
• 32:05
  It's had for a long time. It's.
• 32:08
  Good to see that coming back strong as well, which is really
• 32:10
  positive, especially when we've mentioned the acquisition of AAA
• 32:13
  and how that's doing well. It means that all that shows
• 32:16
  need to step up and be just as good.
• 32:18
  So good to see you've got a. Good front.
• 32:21
  And you've got the cross promotion there because all of
• 32:23
  Ice is the AAA mixed tag champ with Mr. Iguana.
• 32:26
  So do you know what I mean? So it's not just kind of to be
• 32:28
  like, yeah, I just think it's a good thing, the cross promotion
• 32:31
  side of it, because I think it can be hard to do where I think
• 32:34
  if you have like an Invasion storyline where it's US versus
• 32:37
  them, I think it's hard to book where one brand doesn't come out
• 32:41
  lesser than. But with the kind of AAA, NXT
• 32:44
  and even TNA to an extent, crossover stuff, it's not being
• 32:47
  as much about US versus them. It's just anyone could pop up on
• 32:50
  any show and I think that's cool.
• 32:52
  So yes, it keeps it fresh. That means the possible is NS,
• 32:55
  which is just fantastic. Moving on to some of your
• 32:59
  negatives of the week, Luke. Yeah, so the again, you know,
• 33:02
  see our players out, but in the the tag title scene on
• 33:06
  Smackdown. So obviously the Wyatt six were
• 33:08
  champs the which I just don't think of being booked well at
• 33:12
  all. And initially I was quite
• 33:13
  excited for them. And I was thinking as the weeks
• 33:15
  go on, the weeks go on, I'll lose less and less interest in
• 33:17
  them. They're still kind of feuding
• 33:19
  with solo Sokoa's MFTS or the Bray Wyatt London and then MFTS
• 33:25
  when the tag team titles back. But then on Smackdown out of
• 33:28
  Norway, Damien Priest in our Truth winner #1 Contenders tag
• 33:32
  team title match. And I just think for A tag
• 33:35
  division that about a year ago where you had the ladder match
• 33:37
  with DIY Motor City machine guns to where it is now, it's kind of
• 33:41
  fell off a Cliff a bit. And I like our truth, I like
• 33:45
  Damien Priest. Do I want a kind of comedy tag
• 33:49
  team run with them? No, because it's almost kind of,
• 33:53
  there's a part of us that says the end up winning the titles at
• 33:55
  WrestleMania and it's like, oh, cool little moment for our
• 33:59
  truth. But he had his tag team title
• 34:01
  win with Miz a couple of years back, so it's not something that
• 34:04
  he needs. The only other thing I could
• 34:06
  think of where it works out well is the win the titles before
• 34:11
  WrestleMania and at WrestleMania you get our Truth and Priest
• 34:15
  versus Miz and Dan Housing. That could be pretty cool and I
• 34:19
  think I would I don't mind them team note as long as it leads to
• 34:23
  something. And is that a Damien Priest heel
• 34:25
  turn? Because I think the Indian
• 34:27
  priest needs something to get his teeth into at the minute.
• 34:29
  I think he's he's close to maybe falling by the wayside.
• 34:32
  And what your thoughts are on that, Luke?
• 34:34
  He's definitely kind of muddling and like, yeah, he's he's not
• 34:36
  got much going on, hence why he's being put into this.
• 34:39
  So obviously there's still the kind of, you know, that they're
• 34:41
  still stopping them because they want to use them in this way.
• 34:44
  But I just think if all the usage, this is just the kind of
• 34:47
  have a, you know, in brackets, feel good, like feel good moment
• 34:51
  at WrestleMania of him and Truth winning the titles, I don't feel
• 34:53
  like it's necessarily the feel good moment they might think it
• 34:56
  is. Yeah, I think it needs to lead
• 34:59
  to him turning on a money or nothing, being vicious again.
• 35:03
  The vicious priest is good. Good for television, good for
• 35:06
  people he works with. Yeah.
• 35:07
  Or like I say, unless it then becomes them two versus Miss and
• 35:10
  Dan Housing, in which case I'm all in.
• 35:13
  And Dan Housing and Miss Win the belt.
• 35:15
  Yep. Very nice, very evil.
• 35:18
  Yes. One of my negatives was, and
• 35:23
  it's as much negative just it's just where they've gone with it
• 35:26
  so far. I'm not sold on where I can go
• 35:28
  in the future, but the rear and Jade Cargill promo so far, it's
• 35:35
  just seems a bit muddled where it's a bit like I'm big and I'm
• 35:38
  big and you're big. We're both big.
• 35:39
  We're both going to destroy each other because we're just both
• 35:43
  believing ourselves so much. But like other than that, like
• 35:49
  there's just not much going on, if that makes sense.
• 35:51
  It's almost like the Brock and Goldberg bill from WrestleMania
• 35:53
  25 makes sense. No, it's, it's like you've read
• 35:56
  my notes on this because that was my negative as well.
• 35:58
  And I've literally got like is kind of a prompt of myself, Jade
• 36:01
  versus Ria bigger, stronger than you because that promo is
• 36:04
  essentially what you said. It was like you're bigger, but
• 36:07
  I'm bigger, you're stronger, but I'm stronger.
• 36:09
  And I thought it was absolutely terrible.
• 36:12
  Like I said, I kind of touched on it last week where I don't
• 36:15
  know how good of a match you get out of those two.
• 36:18
  And then there's a part of is that kind of worries about where
• 36:21
  the feud goes all together because have you seen much talk
• 36:25
  about it online? I know that the part of the day
• 36:28
  like a back and forth on Twitter or X as it's now known and like
• 36:31
  it was like they were shooting at each other.
• 36:33
  I mean, it's all work without, right?
• 36:34
  I don't believe they're actually shooting.
• 36:36
  But yeah, I've got that. I've heard it's got that some
• 36:38
  some mocks. I believe it could be some
• 36:40
  shooting going on. Well, there was that, but then
• 36:43
  there's also been some comments. So do you know how she shook her
• 36:46
  hand? Jade shook Ria's hand at the
• 36:48
  start of the interaction. Yep, apparently I might be,
• 36:52
  might be the wrong hand here, but let's say I'm right and she
• 36:55
  shook her hand with the left hand.
• 36:56
  And there's been comments online saying that black people shake
• 36:59
  people's left hand as a sign of disrespect.
• 37:02
  And whenever I say comments like that, I get really worried as
• 37:04
  the way this feud is going to go because it's wrestling and I get
• 37:08
  scared. I mean, I don't really know much
• 37:12
  about. I don't either but it's it's I
• 37:16
  think with them starting stuff online and that in an FN
• 37:19
  community I'm a bit like I think this could get really toxic and
• 37:23
  I don't want to watch it. Hopefully not, but I mean, it is
• 37:26
  America. But exactly, that's what
• 37:28
  obvious. I just think, oh God, like when
• 37:31
  I'm going to get another Triple H Bugatti World title match
• 37:34
  hour. It's been a long time.
• 37:36
  We've moved on since then. Well, I would like to think so.
• 37:39
  Yes, I would like to think so. And luckily Ria is the face, but
• 37:42
  we'll see like like so hopefully she doesn't come up with any
• 37:46
  offhanded comments. And I don't I don't think I
• 37:48
  should would either. But yeah, there's AI kind of get
• 37:51
  a bit on edge so far, like like starting with their back and
• 37:54
  forth online, which again, you know, probably is just a shoot
• 37:57
  whatever. And then other people's
• 37:58
  comments, which again, just idiots on the Internet.
• 38:00
  But it's like, yeah, the feud at the minute gets us a bit on edge
• 38:04
  where it's like, I don't know if the match is going to be good.
• 38:06
  I don't know where the storylines going to take us, and
• 38:08
  none of them are in a good way. Agreed.
• 38:12
  And I think when it's all said and done, then who comes out of
• 38:14
  it looking all right? Because again, wrestle me at 20
• 38:16
  after Brock and Goldberg like Rock fucks off to the NFL and
• 38:21
  Goldberg's like done. So no one comes out very good at
• 38:25
  all. When it's big like that and.
• 38:28
  No one's sold on it. Yeah, and with the kind of blend
• 38:31
  and the kind of comments in and the real life stuff, like it
• 38:35
  gets you a bit, it reminds us a bit of what like happened with
• 38:38
  Charlotte and Tiffany last year. And that was a fucking mess as
• 38:41
  well. So I feel like it's at the
• 38:42
  minute, I feel like it's just not, it's not looking good from
• 38:45
  every angle. Yeah, I agree with that.
• 38:49
  One of my other negatives was and it's not a big negative, but
• 38:52
  I just I need to see where it's going to go.
• 38:54
  But it's like the over family presentation, like I think of
• 38:57
  needless squash matches are now starting to get a little bit
• 39:00
  old. I think obviously on Smackdown,
• 39:03
  I think it was where he fought like an unprepared Johnny
• 39:06
  Gargano was a little bit different.
• 39:08
  But like I want to see him fight like a Johnny Gargano who's
• 39:12
  ready for him and beat him. Don't get us wrong.
• 39:15
  And like, yeah, like I I want to see a bit more from both of me
• 39:19
  now as we go into Mania and like, what's he doing in a
• 39:22
  Mania? It's, you know, is he going
• 39:24
  against Brock? Is he not?
• 39:26
  That's a big question mark. So if he's not going against
• 39:29
  Brook, like then we need to get him if you know someone now or
• 39:32
  does he come out and just squash someone?
• 39:33
  I mean, you're like who? Like what's your thoughts on
• 39:35
  that? Yeah, I get what you're saying.
• 39:37
  I mean, he had a longer and quite a good hard hitting match
• 39:40
  with Rousseff on Raw, which I did enjoy.
• 39:42
  But again, I mean, it was a bit of back and forth, but you know,
• 39:46
  it was never in doubt that he was winning.
• 39:48
  So it's a funny one because I don't think we're going to get
• 39:52
  him against Brock at Mania because I think this is Brock's
• 39:56
  final year and I think if he was going to face Brock at Mania,
• 40:00
  I'd have to win, which I don't think he would.
• 40:02
  So I think that's off the table. So then, yeah, the book and of
• 40:05
  it gets worrying because I can at this point I can see him
• 40:08
  being like an Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner,
• 40:12
  which I know, which I don't even know if they're still doing.
• 40:16
  But yeah, because there's nothing.
• 40:18
  There's nothing else. That he can do because you know,
• 40:21
  you've got Carmelo doing his open challenges.
• 40:24
  Does he do that and win the US championship?
• 40:26
  Maybes. But yeah, it's it's for how much
• 40:30
  he has been on every shore, it's looking less and less likely
• 40:33
  that whatever he doesn't mean, yeah, he's going to have
• 40:35
  anything that's going to be important.
• 40:40
  Yeah. Do you think looking back
• 40:43
  obviously had such a strong performance now I rumble and
• 40:47
  then was like benched for Elimination Chamber.
• 40:48
  So like he hasn't really had a role to WrestleMania Paul from
• 40:52
  the war and performance. So that has maybe derailed these
• 40:57
  WrestleMania progress, not his progress because he's squashing
• 40:59
  everyone. So he's his overall progress is
• 41:01
  good for his actual WrestleMania progress is like not very good,
• 41:05
  if that makes sense. No, definitely.
• 41:07
  Yeah, because they haven't been able to do anything except
• 41:09
  squash matches, which kind of should have been, which what he
• 41:12
  was doing up until the Elimination Chamber, then maybe
• 41:14
  start something for WrestleMania.
• 41:16
  But they haven't. And I think because all he did
• 41:19
  on Raw was beat Rusev and nothing else got set up, it's
• 41:22
  it's looking less and less likely that he's going to have
• 41:24
  anything prominent. So I mean, do you think there's
• 41:26
  any chance that you still get him versus Brock at
• 41:28
  WrestleMania? I think there's a chance, a
• 41:33
  possibility, but it's not ironed on.
• 41:36
  Like I wouldn't say I wouldn't bet on that.
• 41:39
  Do you know what I mean? I think I think it's a
• 41:41
  possibility, yes, but it's it's not iron on and I think they
• 41:46
  possibly still don't know what they're doing.
• 41:47
  Maybe they've probably got a few different options that they're
• 41:49
  going to pivot to depending on what happens with ticket prices,
• 41:53
  ratings, things like that. That can pivot to a few
• 41:55
  different options, I imagine for Brock, which which makes sense
• 41:59
  as a business as well. I think to be fair, like that's
• 42:01
  not a negative but but but yeah, I think and you've already had
• 42:07
  them beat Rousseff now and that was like that was the one.
• 42:09
  So I'm where they like had clashes backstage, like verbally
• 42:13
  and like testosterone wise, like I'm the man, you're the man.
• 42:16
  But now you've sort of paid that off already.
• 42:18
  So then what do you do? You, you can't put it against
• 42:21
  Rousseff again, right? Otherwise, like, you know,
• 42:25
  Rousseff didn't look like winning that much today.
• 42:26
  So no. No, he didn't let us see.
• 42:30
  I mean, he got more offense and than anyone else and it was
• 42:32
  there's cool, some cool little spots, but no, it was there was
• 42:35
  never in doubt. So yeah.
• 42:36
  And it's not even one way you could have someone from NXT come
• 42:39
  up because he's just come from NXT.
• 42:40
  So there's no one there that's viable.
• 42:42
  Do you get maybe someone from TNA?
• 42:45
  You know, that could be like a one off match, like a showcase
• 42:47
  thing. Maybe he's.
• 42:48
  But yeah, I think you're right to have it as a negative because
• 42:51
  I'd not really thought about it in the moment.
• 42:54
  But yeah, I couldn't tell you what he's going to end up doing.
• 42:56
  But if I have to think, I think it'll not be anything
• 42:58
  worthwhile. It's almost like he could have.
• 43:02
  Maybe he's benefited from, maybe he's having that Rumble
• 43:04
  performance and not kind of turning up until the night after
• 43:07
  WrestleMania. Yeah, and that's why I think, I
• 43:10
  think I love it off. I mean, I love his, I love, I
• 43:12
  love his presentation, everything about us think as
• 43:15
  we're building the Wards Mania, he's not doing anything towards
• 43:17
  Mania. I wouldn't idea.
• 43:19
  I mean, I don't think they would do it.
• 43:20
  But obviously Powerhouse Hobbs is someone who was at the Rumble
• 43:23
  who then hasn't been used. Is that who challenges them?
• 43:27
  Do these two have a big off? A big meat fest off?
• 43:30
  Yeah, again, that's thing it doesn't benefit anyone.
• 43:33
  So it's I don't think I'd want to see it even if they I mean,
• 43:36
  it could be a brilliant match to see, but like with no build,
• 43:39
  Yeah, I really don't know. So yeah, I think it's it'll be
• 43:42
  again, you know, we're not there yet.
• 43:44
  Things can change very quickly. But Speaking of a, you know, a
• 43:47
  big meet off, did he hear the rule by that?
• 43:49
  Apparently Mark Henry signed a one year contract to come back
• 43:52
  as a wrestler. With the WE or.
• 43:54
  With a, with no. With the WWE, yeah, just just
• 43:58
  wicked whispers. But do you know, like when you
• 44:00
  see something and you're like, I didn't know I wanted something,
• 44:03
  but now I kind of really want that to be true.
• 44:05
  Give us some sexual chocolate, baby, we love it.
• 44:08
  I'd love it if that is what he came back as.
• 44:10
  Mean why not one last one last year?
• 44:13
  Yeah. So, yeah, that could be so,
• 44:15
  yeah. Movies have an open challenges
• 44:16
  Mark Henry that would be that would be shotgun.
• 44:18
  It would indeed. Because that's someone who could
• 44:20
  lose to him and it wouldn't matter, Royce Keys.
• 44:22
  It kind of doesn't help him because he's new himself.
• 44:25
  Was like someone like Mark Henry, as much of A legend as he
• 44:27
  is, like you could he could take that loss and then over family
• 44:30
  looks good and Mark Henry doesn't affect them.
• 44:32
  So yeah, it's just. More can he would happily do
• 44:34
  that for somebody as well, like because he's already built his
• 44:37
  equity, he's already retired like almost like you know what I
• 44:39
  mean? So I believe he's a DJ anymore.
• 44:41
  Henry now. I have seen clips of that, yeah.
• 44:44
  It is like after the paper views and stuff does, which I'd love
• 44:46
  to go to. I'd love to do that the.
• 44:48
  Days wrestling conventions the easiest day job in the world the
• 44:51
  easiest DJ in the world you just you just play as wrestling
• 44:54
  themes at wrestling parties which what could go wrong
• 44:57
  nothing. Oh yeah, 100%.
• 44:59
  I look at us back in the day when trucks used to do it in
• 45:01
  South Shields. People used to go wild for it.
• 45:04
  Indeed, Rabbit the DJ, the wrestler, remember him.
• 45:06
  Yeah, he is. He is a wrestler.
• 45:07
  I think you believe he is a wrestler, yes.
• 45:09
  Yeah, he was DJ Rabbit. He is indeed.
• 45:11
  He's a good lad. My last negative is more of a
• 45:15
  joke. But not enough Cardona.
• 45:17
  We did not have enough Mac Cardona this week.
• 45:20
  Now I believe it's because he's holidaying at Disneyland or
• 45:22
  Disney World with his wife. So I mean, the great reason why
• 45:25
  not be on television would be to to be at Disneyland with your
• 45:29
  wife. I know for me personally, if I
• 45:30
  wasn't at work, I would want to be at Disney World at Disneyland
• 45:33
  with my wife. So hats off to him for that.
• 45:35
  But yeah, obviously as a I'm a big macaroon, I mark, I love
• 45:39
  them so much. I have done since, you know, Z
• 45:41
  Jordan story back in the day and I followed his journey in the
• 45:44
  Indies and everything. Love him, glad he's back.
• 45:47
  But this obviously this week he wasn't.
• 45:49
  I didn't notice him at all on television.
• 45:50
  So yeah, I'm just a bit worried that it's going to Peter out,
• 45:55
  which I don't want to have, and I want him to be all involved,
• 45:58
  brother. Quick thoughts and I suppose.
• 46:02
  What? Well, it was more of a putting a
• 46:04
  question back on you because like what, what, what would,
• 46:07
  what does success look like for him on this run?
• 46:11
  What would it be classed as? Like what would what would he
• 46:13
  have to do? I think.
• 46:15
  I know that's quite broad, but like, yeah.
• 46:17
  What does it look like? But I think, I think as a
• 46:21
  Macadona fan, I just want to see him use meaningfully so he
• 46:24
  doesn't need a title or win a title, but like, be on
• 46:26
  television, be in segments that, like, mean swimming where he's
• 46:29
  contributing well. It's not a throwaway.
• 46:31
  Like, yeah, like, just just that for me is all I want.
• 46:35
  Like to be able to watch him and cheer him on and edit.
• 46:38
  That means something is all I'm after, really.
• 46:42
  OK, cool. Because I think because like,
• 46:46
  I'm not, I'm not as big of a fan as you are, not by any stretch
• 46:49
  of the imagination, but because like kind of, you know, he's got
• 46:52
  this kind of, you know, he loves his figures, he's a bit of a
• 46:54
  nerd, that type of thing. I think a King of the ring
• 46:57
  gimmick could be quite good for him if it was done right.
• 47:00
  Well, I mean on the Indies he was king of the death match and
• 47:02
  then king of the. Indies.
• 47:04
  He's already got the Macho Man style crowns like made he wears
• 47:07
  them on that. We did wear them on the so like
• 47:09
  that, that would work and I think like it absolutely would.
• 47:13
  So yeah, I think I got to get just some meaningful.
• 47:16
  I mean, I personally don't think you'll ever be anywhere near a
• 47:19
  world title scene. Things can change overnight.
• 47:22
  Things can catch a light and really take off.
• 47:24
  So I'm not saying never, but yeah, for for me as well.
• 47:26
  Like someone who, you know, doesn't have as much stock
• 47:29
  invested as much. I imagine you have got quite a
• 47:31
  bit of stock with the figures you've bought.
• 47:34
  Yeah, I just think something meaningful, I think it can be
• 47:36
  used right, because I say is good at a lot of things.
• 47:39
  And I think someone like King of the Ring type of gimmick could
• 47:41
  be quite cool. And do you know is X heaters now
• 47:44
  where no longer attached to TNA? What about bringing Steph
• 47:47
  Delander in? Think that's ever a possibility?
• 47:50
  I think it's always a possibility.
• 47:53
  I think he works best with with heaters.
• 47:56
  If you're going to have him as like that type of heel, maybe,
• 47:59
  maybe not. If he's going to be babyface,
• 48:00
  still think you need to decide what they're doing and pull the
• 48:02
  trigger because you can do both very well now.
• 48:06
  But that's not getting between a situation you need to be one or
• 48:08
  the other. I believe so.
• 48:11
  So, yeah, obviously Chelsea's leg break maybe came the wrong
• 48:14
  time. I'm I'm not saying they would
• 48:15
  put them together. So I don't know if they would do
• 48:17
  that straightaway bring down the line, they probably will.
• 48:19
  But obviously that like break maybe has hindered any type of
• 48:22
  progress that that would have made storyline wise.
• 48:26
  He could work well with Dan Housing down the line as well.
• 48:30
  Yeah. They've got a really good
• 48:31
  chemistry like because they've done loads of stuff together on
• 48:34
  the Indies and on podcasts and stuff where Dan Housing is
• 48:37
  always in character. So like there's a lot of
• 48:40
  possibilities for Michael Dornan.
• 48:41
  Like I said, for me it doesn't need to be a world title or any
• 48:43
  title, just on television doing something meaningful.
• 48:46
  He looks great, he's jacked, he's tanned.
• 48:51
  He works the style perfectly. You know, I mean, wrestles great
• 48:53
  on television, wrestles great on live events.
• 48:56
  You know, he can, he can work with anyone.
• 48:58
  He has done on the Indies, he has done in Dubai before.
• 49:00
  You know, he's worked with Kane, he's worked with Lucha Doors,
• 49:02
  he's worked with midgets, he's worked with children and he's
• 49:05
  like, I mean, he's worked with death match wrestlers, Nick
• 49:08
  Gage, like he's worked with them all and did it really well.
• 49:10
  So he's so versatile that I hope they use him doing the best of
• 49:13
  his ability because he's really big asset if you use them.
• 49:17
  What about an NXT title run? Would that be seen as demeanor?
• 49:20
  Because I think that could be quite a cool little side mission
• 49:24
  as well. Absolutely not.
• 49:25
  I think like again, like put on there, get eyes and NXT again,
• 49:29
  you can add something wherever he goes.
• 49:30
  I think you can add something whatever, whether it's a
• 49:32
  backstage interview, that's a title match, you know, whether
• 49:35
  it's just being on common recently, you can add something
• 49:38
  to whatever, wherever he is. So like I would absolutely be up
• 49:41
  from our next team win the title.
• 49:42
  Absolutely. And I I sent him a photo I
• 49:44
  didn't know when I met him. Yes, now I've met him as well,
• 49:47
  so we need to share those on Instagram, so check.
• 49:49
  Because I'd forgot that that happened.
• 49:51
  Yeah, so we need to check with our SES wrestling pod on
• 49:54
  Instagram and we'll definitely be sharing those over the next
• 49:56
  week. Yeah, I met him inside the
• 49:58
  Elimination Chamber, but I totally forgot because I think I
• 50:00
  was quite drunk. I went, it was at one of the,
• 50:02
  because he was WWE then. So it was at one of the is AW,
• 50:05
  it's called WWE World, but it was called something else then.
• 50:08
  But yeah, I did fan access. That's the one.
• 50:10
  Yeah. So I met him inside the chamber
• 50:13
  and I said something to him that Edge and Christian had been
• 50:15
  saying about him on their podcast at the time.
• 50:17
  And he got really flustered. And then I was a bit more drunk.
• 50:20
  Later on. I met Brian Kendrick and I
• 50:21
  support him for 1/2 an hour because I'm a proud Brian
• 50:23
  Kendrick Mark. And I think he was a bit scared
• 50:26
  at first, but then was quite impressed with me knowledge of
• 50:28
  his obscure career. So yeah, that was it was a good
• 50:31
  little day. I have met Macadona in Shock Bar
• 50:35
  here in Newcastle only when he's on a DVD tour back in the day as
• 50:38
  well, so that was pretty cool. Was he with Miss?
• 50:41
  Miss was there, Yeah, similar time, yeah.
• 50:44
  Yeah, I'd been asked to leave that box.
• 50:45
  I was too drunk. I used to drink quite a bit.
• 50:48
  I remember like the next day you'd met them and I was like,
• 50:52
  oh for fuck's sake. Yeah, so I'd met Miss Ziggler
• 50:54
  and Cardona like within the space of like 15 minutes maybe.
• 50:58
  Yeah. Very cool.
• 51:00
  You live and you learn. Any more negatives for yourself?
• 51:03
  Was that all? No, that was kind of what I had
• 51:05
  because I had kind of the White 6 and the titles put together
• 51:07
  and then you kind of hit the nail on the head with Jade and
• 51:09
  rear as well. Awesome.
• 51:12
  So our next segment is a Moment in Time.
• 51:14
  This is where we look at a wrestling match, an event.
• 51:17
  It could be a promo, it could be, you know, anything that's
• 51:20
  sort of, you know, not the main things that people talk about.
• 51:22
  So it's not like Hogan slamming Andre.
• 51:24
  It's not Bretton Austin at WrestleMania.
• 51:26
  It's something that maybe less people talk about on the daily.
• 51:29
  What's something we want to highlight?
• 51:30
  And I chose this week's Moment in Time.
• 51:33
  It is a match and it is from WWE or the time WWF in your house, I
• 51:42
  believe it was mind games. So it's in your house, 10 mind
• 51:47
  games and it was from September 22nd, 1996 and it is Mankind the
• 51:53
  challenger versus the WWF at the time champion HBK Shaw Michaels.
• 51:59
  And just to give a heads up for this was after Summer Slam,
• 52:02
  where so I believe at Summer Slam, Mankind had defeated the
• 52:08
  Undertaker and a boiler room brawl.
• 52:11
  And then the event after this in your house is in your house 11
• 52:16
  buried alive. So this is in between the boiler
• 52:19
  room brawl and the buried alive match.
• 52:22
  This is in the middle. OK.
• 52:23
  And that that's important to know as we talk about the match.
• 52:26
  Luke, were you happy with this week's choice or do you think it
• 52:28
  was a bit off key? No, it's it's it's one of those
• 52:32
  ones where when you said it Canovo try to do things a bit
• 52:35
  more obscure, I was kind of like, is this not quite
• 52:37
  mainstream, like a more mainstream choice?
• 52:39
  But I don't think it is. I think it's more of a wrestling
• 52:42
  purists match, isn't it? Because I'm I was really
• 52:44
  familiar with it. But yeah, I think it is one of
• 52:47
  those matches that isn't as well known as I think it is.
• 52:49
  So I was really, I was excited when he picked because it's a
• 52:52
  match that I already knew a lot about and I love watching.
• 52:55
  Yeah, I think why I picked this cause like everybody knows about
• 52:58
  Summer Slam and everybody remembers the boiler room brawl
• 53:01
  and everybody remembers Buried Alive and the Buried alive
• 53:03
  matter in your House 11 which happens after, but this is in
• 53:05
  the middle and it sort of ties them together quite well.
• 53:11
  So yeah, we can sort of dive into it, I suppose.
• 53:14
  The presentation thing's fantastic at the start.
• 53:15
  You know, in your house it's that year of the 90s where it's
• 53:17
  all colourful but the lights dim.
• 53:19
  We've got pallbearer, we've got the druids that bring in a
• 53:22
  coffin or a a casket, as the Americans call it down to the
• 53:27
  ring. Mankind comes out of the the
• 53:29
  casket. You know, the lightning
• 53:31
  presentation I've got is just like it's fantastic mankind mix.
• 53:35
  He's rocking back and forth as like as pallbearers using the
• 53:40
  urn to sort of like give him energy.
• 53:43
  Like it's it's absolutely bonkers, but he plays it
• 53:45
  straight and it's like fantastic.
• 53:48
  Very scary that we get the Shawn Michaels editor into a big
• 53:50
  contrast. You know, the big music, the
• 53:52
  pop, the excitement you. It must have popped, wasn't it?
• 53:56
  Yeah, the energy. So I just felt that like, yeah,
• 54:00
  like I feel when my mom can't come up, there was like a
• 54:02
  nervous energy of like this dog entities here and everyone
• 54:05
  bought into that and it switches here to a completely different
• 54:09
  contrast. But again, then we brought it
• 54:10
  off. The place was absolutely
• 54:11
  fantastic. I didn't know it was a really
• 54:13
  cool sign saying a number one click chick in the crowd.
• 54:17
  I just thought I hope Scott Hall didn't find her after the show.
• 54:21
  I bet there's a few of them back in the day.
• 54:23
  But no, it was, I guess it was a good, it was a good start.
• 54:25
  And I say that pop for Sean, it was massive, wasn't it?
• 54:28
  And it just made me think of what would have been 6 year old,
• 54:30
  you would have probably been in the house as well, just jumping
• 54:32
  all over for Sean, the good guy that he was.
• 54:35
  So I was glad that you've picked a Sean match because I know
• 54:36
  you're a big fan of Shawn Michaels.
• 54:39
  Big fan of Shawn Michaels. Yes, he's not as.
• 54:42
  Good as he's just, he's more exciting, isn't he, than someone
• 54:44
  like, say, a Brett Hart? No, he's not.
• 54:46
  He's not as good as George Michael.
• 54:47
  I know that. Do you, do you not think he's as
• 54:50
  good as George Michael? He's not as good as Brett Hart.
• 54:52
  I'll tell it right now, but. Oh all right, OK, how I know I
• 54:57
  know you're the Breadhawk guy, but no, I was like, I just
• 55:01
  wanted to bring up the fact that I've seen this match a lot of
• 55:03
  times. We're kind of re watching it
• 55:04
  this week. Like that pop for sure, almost
• 55:06
  huge the pop, which I know he was, I know he was over.
• 55:09
  Like he's one of my all time favourites, but it was like, Oh
• 55:12
  well, fucking hell yeah. He really was fucking over like.
• 55:14
  I think he's Mankind over in a different way.
• 55:18
  The whole match is over, the physicality is over and we'll
• 55:20
  talk about that on the match. But I think also like this match
• 55:23
  helps build Shawn as like being like hard, being hard, being
• 55:29
  able to take a beating, being able to give a beating.
• 55:32
  It really shows you he's like he's gone a chin, which I think
• 55:34
  sometimes we don't see in these early days.
• 55:36
  Sometimes you'll see like The Flash, Shawn Michaels.
• 55:38
  But this really showed you Shawn Michaels as like a really sort
• 55:41
  of gritty champion like he can be, which I thought was really,
• 55:44
  really, really good thing. But yeah, so we've got mankind.
• 55:49
  This is mankind in the early 90s.
• 55:51
  So it's he's in the brown boiler suit.
• 55:56
  Get us we get a fast and strong start.
• 55:58
  And I love how mankind, he speeds it up when he kneels,
• 56:00
  he's moves and he slows it down as he does his like mannerisms,
• 56:03
  as he sort of looks to see what's going on.
• 56:05
  And just me, Mick 40 probably doesn't get enough credit.
• 56:08
  He gets credit for the the high spots, right?
• 56:10
  But I think Mick doesn't get enough credit for like his
• 56:12
  psychology and his character work and just how just moments
• 56:15
  like that, it's not like he can jump off a roof, but he can also
• 56:18
  like just the way he turns his head, the way he slows himself
• 56:21
  down. Like, it's so simple and so
• 56:23
  subtle, but it's like perfect storytelling, if that makes
• 56:25
  sense. Oh, it does that his character
• 56:27
  work like in this match is like it's fantastic.
• 56:29
  Like you. I'll jump in as parts that you
• 56:32
  probably already touch on, but like just at the start, like he
• 56:34
  was like the rocking in the corner, like they just you just
• 56:37
  looked unhinged and the match hadn't even started.
• 56:39
  No. He certainly, he certainly does.
• 56:41
  Like I said, there's a bit of back and forth.
• 56:43
  It's slow and strong. And then like Mick Neilson
• 56:46
  without like famous flying 'cause I make.
• 56:48
  So if he comes over the top rope, it's like a suicide clause
• 56:50
  and they both go over. Great, I say.
• 56:52
  I had that written down as well, like as it's just, it's a
• 56:55
  really, it's that it's his move, isn't it?
• 56:57
  Like loads of people do a clothesline over the top rope,
• 56:59
  but he kind of managed to tweak it enough where it was like, if
• 57:02
  anyone else did it like that, you'd be like, that's a 40
• 57:04
  clothesline. He kind of patented quite a
• 57:06
  basic move. And I don't think people know
• 57:09
  how to do it that way. I feel like it's like one of
• 57:10
  those things where he does it that way and it's like it looks
• 57:13
  dangerous where they it's obviously probably safest houses
• 57:15
  because it's he's a pro. But like, yeah, I just think
• 57:18
  that like, you know, it doesn't get as intense as that type of
• 57:22
  move and he delivers it so well. They end up on the outside.
• 57:25
  And like I just think we get sort of a really, really cool
• 57:30
  bit where 40 ends up pulling up the protection on the concrete
• 57:36
  and you think he's going to get Michaels on it.
• 57:38
  But then sort of Michaels is able to super kick him and he's
• 57:41
  like jump on him while he's underneath the.
• 57:43
  So he's in before he's on the concrete with the pattern on top
• 57:46
  of him. And it leads to some really cool
• 57:48
  spots. We get a drop, a drop kick, and
• 57:51
  then two concrete spots including a crossbody I believe,
• 57:54
  and then we get one way that sort of Mick hits his head on
• 57:55
  the concrete as well where I'm sure it's all at work and it's
• 57:58
  all safe. What it looks like, legit,
• 58:00
  really, really awesome stuff. They end up back in the ring,
• 58:03
  get some awesome Michaels high spots when we get them sort of
• 58:06
  trading blows and some really fast reversals again, where this
• 58:09
  match has already been about 8 different match types in the
• 58:11
  first like 10 minutes, which I think is fantastic.
• 58:13
  Don't know what your thoughts on how they keep changing the pace
• 58:16
  and changing the tempo. They like suit what they're
• 58:18
  doing in the story. No, dude, it's it's really
• 58:21
  fast-paced and like kind of that spot that you said where he
• 58:23
  picks up the mat, gets a drop kicked on.
• 58:25
  I'm showing stomps all over from straight into a crossbody.
• 58:28
  It's really fast. And I think if you look at it,
• 58:31
  it was of September 96. Like I feel like it was almost a
• 58:34
  bit ahead of its time. Like maybe he's, because I know
• 58:37
  earlier on that card there was ECW people in the crowd, like
• 58:41
  maybe they'd watched a bit of ECW and they were starting to
• 58:43
  implement that in there. But I feel like this match,
• 58:46
  compared to other stuff that was happening at the time, it was a
• 58:49
  bit ahead of it. You know what I mean?
• 58:50
  It was, it had an attitude here, a vibe to it.
• 58:52
  But we're in 96 actually hasn't hit yet.
• 58:56
  Indeed, there's a cool bit where Sean's chewing up the battle,
• 58:59
  switching music and mankind like he sort of dives out the rinks.
• 59:03
  He knows how he gets hit with it.
• 59:04
  He might be knocked out and lose so he froze himself out the ring
• 59:07
  and then like Paul Bear almost has to recharge him with the urn
• 59:10
  to get him to go back in the ring.
• 59:11
  Just really cool character piece.
• 59:12
  Isn't what your thoughts are on that, Luke?
• 59:14
  No, it's character work throughout.
• 59:16
  Excellent. Like he does.
• 59:17
  There's a part where he gets the he's got like a neck cooled on
• 59:22
  and like mankind like squealing while he's doing it to Sean.
• 59:26
  And like I say, like I say, the rocking in the corner.
• 59:28
  There's the bit we obviously going into what you were saying
• 59:31
  about Sean kind of having to work more gritty.
• 59:33
  Sean, like, you know, does a fantastic suplex where Mankind's
• 59:36
  leg smashes off the the ring steps.
• 59:39
  And there's a bit where like, Mankind then stabs his own leg
• 59:43
  with a pencil to try and get feeling back into it.
• 59:45
  And it's just constant reminders within the match by Foley that
• 59:49
  the Mankind character is absolutely unhinged and you
• 59:52
  don't know what he's going to do next.
• 59:54
  Yeah, and he sells this leg once Microsoft's working the leg like
• 59:57
  the ring psychology is fantastic.
• 59:58
  He works like the whole match for he sells the leg even till
• 1:00:01
  the very end to the point where he's trying to get feeling it
• 1:00:04
  with a pencil. He also the mandible claws
• 1:00:06
  built. There's like, obviously Mr.
• 1:00:08
  Stockwell doesn't exist yet for those who are listening.
• 1:00:10
  So the mandible claws sort of this evil move that like will
• 1:00:14
  knock you out. And it's like vicious and nasty
• 1:00:16
  and dirty almost. That's how it's portrayed,
• 1:00:18
  right? Nobody wants it because they
• 1:00:20
  know it's going to be game over. And it's like almost a taboo.
• 1:00:22
  Subject the mandible claw and then so not all you saw
• 1:00:25
  Michael's work mankind's leg throughout the match, but at one
• 1:00:29
  point because 40 now he gets the mandible claw on him a couple of
• 1:00:32
  times and Sean starts to like work the hand like something on
• 1:00:36
  the hand pulling the fingers or psychology to try and get the
• 1:00:39
  point where 40 can't do the mandible claw.
• 1:00:41
  Because if he has the mandible claw and you feel that legit
• 1:00:44
  fear about this move, then what your thoughts were on that?
• 1:00:48
  No, was, and I say the psychology of kind of like him
• 1:00:52
  selling the leg because then also I thought the commentary
• 1:00:55
  was really good in this match. So there's a bit where Mankind
• 1:00:59
  runs run a knee into Shawn's head and it's Vince on
• 1:01:02
  commentary who says straight away, Oh, Shawn's had a
• 1:01:04
  concussion recently. And then this is after Mankind's
• 1:01:08
  had his leg work. Foley almost starts working
• 1:01:10
  Michaels his head and they keep bringing up the concussion as
• 1:01:13
  well. So then you've got kind of to
• 1:01:14
  battle and psychologies of, you know, mankind's legs fucked,
• 1:01:18
  Sean's had a concussion and he's going for the head.
• 1:01:20
  So I thought it was really cool that there was kind of that ring
• 1:01:22
  psychology of both them were in a different body part.
• 1:01:25
  There was a back story to it. Obviously before he's been that
• 1:01:28
  happened in the match, Sean's been that he had a concussion.
• 1:01:30
  And I thought Vince actually does a really good job on
• 1:01:32
  commentary of kind of putting that over and reinforcing that.
• 1:01:35
  He certainly does and as I'm not going to go move, move because I
• 1:01:39
  said this match is. No 6.
• 1:01:40
  Minutes long, but I think you know, there's some great space
• 1:01:42
  where Sean's coming like A1 legged crab.
• 1:01:45
  You know he's working the leg. There's some awesome fight backs
• 1:01:49
  and almost like the the match moves from like Sean being the
• 1:01:52
  babyface worker and like almost like he starts working mankind
• 1:01:56
  like mankind's the babyface even though he's not.
• 1:01:58
  But it's it's done really well and like really believable,
• 1:02:01
  which is absolutely fantastic. One thing I notice is that like
• 1:02:06
  every punch looks and feels real, which I think nearly
• 1:02:09
  something we get less of these days in professional wrestling.
• 1:02:11
  But I think even 40s where like he's not a he's not a status Co
• 1:02:17
  athlete, right? But like everything he does like
• 1:02:20
  looks real, looks tight, looks vicious.
• 1:02:22
  Now we all know he's safe as houses.
• 1:02:24
  But like, I just love that. Like that legitimacy to what
• 1:02:26
  Mick brings to his work is absolutely wonderful.
• 1:02:29
  Foley's got like one of the he does is he does he doesn't do
• 1:02:32
  them for every punch, but he does those punches, which I
• 1:02:35
  always love where like you'll do them.
• 1:02:36
  He goes because I like sometimes run up on my friend at work and
• 1:02:41
  do the Foley punches and some sometimes people walk past and
• 1:02:45
  get really confused as to what's going on.
• 1:02:47
  But now he does that in this match.
• 1:02:48
  And again, yeah, no, Foley does like it looks it looks hard.
• 1:02:51
  It's it was which really great match.
• 1:02:53
  That's why I thought that I was saying I think you feel like
• 1:02:55
  it's almost a little bit ahead of its time.
• 1:02:57
  But no, everything looks like really dangerous in this match.
• 1:03:00
  Like I say, even just starting at the beginning with the
• 1:03:02
  clothesline over the top, there's the stomping on the
• 1:03:04
  mats, there's the suplex to the ring says which we've said it
• 1:03:09
  was. No, like I say, really, really
• 1:03:10
  good. Yep.
• 1:03:12
  So we sort of get a more in the match where mix being grinding
• 1:03:17
  HBK down and then sort of Sean hit somewhere the back suplex to
• 1:03:23
  recover. There's a more back and forth
• 1:03:25
  mixture of head butts and kicks. HPK starts to speed it up.
• 1:03:30
  There's an ultimate way. HPK gets hung up in the corner
• 1:03:33
  so he's like his leg's on the top turn, but when he's like his
• 1:03:35
  face, his face is down on the ring mat.
• 1:03:38
  And four, he drops an elbow on his face and gets up, pushes
• 1:03:42
  referee away and drops another elbow on his face.
• 1:03:44
  It looks like so vicious and so awful.
• 1:03:47
  Obviously just great work. But like, yeah, I don't know
• 1:03:50
  what your thoughts are on that spot.
• 1:03:51
  I thought was fantastic that he goes for a second one as well.
• 1:03:54
  No, was it was a great spot and like I say, kind of added to
• 1:03:57
  what you've said about how it was almost Sean work on his
• 1:04:00
  heel, even though that wasn't what the match was at times,
• 1:04:03
  because it was like you had this this maniac and mankind and this
• 1:04:05
  was like kind of it. Well, it goes to what it was.
• 1:04:08
  It was mind games, wasn't it? It was kind of like that's why
• 1:04:10
  Sean was working as like almost like a heel because like mankind
• 1:04:15
  had got on his head. He broken him psychologically.
• 1:04:17
  So maybe he was having to dig deep and do things that he
• 1:04:19
  wouldn't normally do as the kind of, you know, clean cup
• 1:04:22
  babyface. Absolutely.
• 1:04:24
  And I think we see Mick drop a leg drop on the back of Shawn
• 1:04:27
  Michael's head again playing a concussion storyline.
• 1:04:30
  Now we see Mick do like a big boot to the outside.
• 1:04:33
  And I just went toward Mick's work.
• 1:04:34
  I think Mankind is obviously not the tallest of dudes, right, But
• 1:04:38
  he almost works like a big man style.
• 1:04:41
  Like does that make sense? Like any these famous feuds are
• 1:04:44
  with like Kane and the Tiger like big men and he worked them.
• 1:04:47
  Like even though he wasn't a big man you almost treat him as a
• 1:04:49
  legit threat to the big men if that makes sense.
• 1:04:52
  No, I think he did and I think that's because, you know, he
• 1:04:55
  was, you know, at times in his career both yeah and yeah, I
• 1:04:58
  mean there's loads of examples that you said he worked a lot
• 1:05:00
  with a people like he and Undertaker, but then he can go
• 1:05:02
  back further. Like there's really good matches
• 1:05:04
  with obviously reference him in a little bit, but you know he
• 1:05:08
  with the infamous matches with Vader back in the day as well
• 1:05:13
  where it was kind of like builders, like the two big men
• 1:05:15
  site with matchup. Definitely.
• 1:05:19
  So yeah, after that sort of the there's like they go the outside
• 1:05:24
  again, like Mick ends up knees first into the stairs.
• 1:05:27
  There's a drop toehold into the stairs as well, which looks
• 1:05:29
  vicious and the T's and suplex is on the apron.
• 1:05:33
  There's a head forced spot into the ring post.
• 1:05:38
  You know, mandible claw. There's a bit where 40s got.
• 1:05:42
  He's got Sean like a like a leg says around his waist and then
• 1:05:46
  he's trying to put the mandible claw from behind, which looks
• 1:05:48
  like vicious and Sean's fighting it.
• 1:05:51
  Yeah, there's chair shots. Sean's even biting the Amanda
• 1:05:54
  McClure hand and it goes back to being back and forth again.
• 1:06:01
  There's a awesome table spot where the sort of the Nick goes
• 1:06:04
  to suplex and through the tail, I think Sean almost turns it,
• 1:06:06
  but they both sort of go through the table and on the concrete,
• 1:06:09
  which is it's a pretty big hit. Nick hits the Romby DT and
• 1:06:12
  Michaels has a near fall. Nick hits the pile driver and
• 1:06:14
  that's another near fall. He pins him again after a 90 or
• 1:06:19
  4 again. It's like mankind's like putting
• 1:06:21
  Sean through it now, but Sean's kicking out.
• 1:06:23
  So against building Sean's legit champion, I think that this he's
• 1:06:26
  not just the toy boy. He's not just in the play
• 1:06:28
  Playgirl magazine. It's, you know, he's a legit
• 1:06:31
  hard champion who can do high flying stuff.
• 1:06:33
  I think it's what they're trying to build.
• 1:06:34
  He's a man's man, Jr. says. It's some at one point.
• 1:06:37
  Definitely. And then we see Mick gets gets
• 1:06:42
  angry. That's where he goes soft,
• 1:06:43
  launching chairs in the ring. They also opened the coffin, the
• 1:06:48
  fighting on the casket. At one point, HPK, there's a
• 1:06:51
  vintage pop up. It's just just loads of crazy
• 1:06:56
  stuff, you know? And then I think towards the end
• 1:06:59
  we see I'm trying to get me notes now and I'm still going to
• 1:07:03
  read it. You see HPK hits switching
• 1:07:07
  music, don't we? And then he goes to cover him
• 1:07:11
  and that's when we get the interference.
• 1:07:15
  Is any kind of match I've missed before we got the interference
• 1:07:17
  section? No, no, not at all.
• 1:07:20
  Like you see, I think it's just like if what reason we pick this
• 1:07:22
  match is that I think obviously kind of recapping it before
• 1:07:25
  we're kind of going to the finish.
• 1:07:26
  It's just that I think it's one of those more obscure matches
• 1:07:28
  where you've got kind of two of the all time greats, I think
• 1:07:32
  going against each other and it's a match that people often
• 1:07:34
  forget and it's a match that's got kind of great psychology in
• 1:07:37
  it. It's a match that I think is
• 1:07:38
  kind of ahead of its time, which I've said a lot already.
• 1:07:41
  But I think it's just because obviously we didn't kind of do
• 1:07:43
  the rundown of what the other matches on the card were.
• 1:07:45
  But you can kind of still see there's a lot of that kind of
• 1:07:48
  gimmicky character stuff going on down the rest of the card.
• 1:07:51
  Like, I mean, you've got Josie Lothario versus Jim Cornette and
• 1:07:54
  one of the matches, whereas this is kind of in England as to
• 1:07:58
  where the industry's heading and it's two of the guys that are
• 1:08:01
  kind of instrumental in spearheading it.
• 1:08:03
  And then the only thing I want to say on it is that like
• 1:08:04
  obviously you mentioned about kind of Foley kind of working as
• 1:08:08
  a bigger guy as well. Like I always think like Sean's
• 1:08:11
  often kind of referred to as kind of one of the small first
• 1:08:14
  smaller guys to kind of breakthrough the mould.
• 1:08:18
  But like when I've we watched when we watched off with him, I
• 1:08:21
  don't think he looks that's like that small.
• 1:08:24
  Do you know what I mean? I don't know if it's just
• 1:08:25
  because my automatic go to now for like, you know, small guys
• 1:08:28
  who've done well is kind of Rey Mysterio.
• 1:08:31
  But like, do you think Sean looks noticeably smaller like as
• 1:08:34
  a main event guy? I wouldn't say noticeably
• 1:08:36
  smaller, but I think there's a is it pure in the 90s?
• 1:08:39
  I think this this year's one of them were like his chest is
• 1:08:42
  particularly like jacked and his biceps are particularly jacked.
• 1:08:46
  So and I think he's aware of that.
• 1:08:47
  So he's done it on purpose. So he looks like he's got a big
• 1:08:49
  buff chest, big arms, and I think that makes you look at him
• 1:08:53
  as like, Oh no, he's a big guy. Do you know?
• 1:08:56
  I mean and I think. So yeah, that's why I thought
• 1:08:58
  watching this match, I was like, I would never look at him and
• 1:09:01
  think that, oh, he's a small guy.
• 1:09:02
  I mean, obviously looking in this match, he's 61, so he's not
• 1:09:05
  short. I don't mean he's not really
• 1:09:06
  Mysterio. But yeah, I think it's a
• 1:09:08
  interesting one where people often peg him is like the first
• 1:09:11
  small like guy to really get success.
• 1:09:13
  Because I don't know how much of an argument there is to say that
• 1:09:16
  he is a small like I do. If you have to put them in that
• 1:09:18
  category, would you say he is? Depends what you if depends what
• 1:09:22
  you compare them, because if like Kim and Bret are the same,
• 1:09:23
  I would say right. So like same body types, like so
• 1:09:27
  like like they're not as big as Hogan, they're not as big as
• 1:09:30
  Bruno Sammartino. They're not as big as Sid.
• 1:09:32
  Like so like the land of the giants, the dinosaurs, as they
• 1:09:35
  often refer to the Kevin Nashes. They've got like they're all
• 1:09:38
  smaller than those guys, but they're not tiny.
• 1:09:41
  But you know, I think, I think Sean was aware that he's maybe a
• 1:09:45
  bit on the small side. So he's not small, but he's
• 1:09:48
  smaller than some of these big lads.
• 1:09:50
  So therefore he's put the work on his chest, he's put the
• 1:09:52
  worker on the biceps. You know, he can go in the ring
• 1:09:54
  and fly for it. So like therefore he looks
• 1:09:56
  legit. Yeah, because I was just looking
• 1:09:59
  there. He's actually slightly taller
• 1:10:01
  than Brett Hart. So another another win for HP
• 1:10:03
  King in the Brett Hart category. Yeah.
• 1:10:05
  At least Brett Hart can see straight.
• 1:10:08
  Can he? Can yes.
• 1:10:11
  So moving on from that, we get the crazy interference.
• 1:10:14
  So Vera steps into the match we have Paul Bearer hits HBK with
• 1:10:22
  the urn. I think Sid then makes the save
• 1:10:27
  for Sean and obviously tax Vera. Then something really cool
• 1:10:33
  happens where Pallbearer's like literally in the urn, and it
• 1:10:38
  makes like Mankind get up, like he's being controlled by the
• 1:10:40
  urn, almost like the urn's like a puppet master.
• 1:10:43
  And then like his hand fixes itself and he then gets the
• 1:10:46
  mandible claw on HBK, and we see sort of the viciousness of the
• 1:10:50
  mandible claw in action. HBK passes out, and that's when
• 1:10:53
  we have the Undertaker come out of the casket to make the save.
• 1:10:56
  So Bearer opens the casket. The casket's been shut since it
• 1:11:00
  was opened. There goes to open it, I think
• 1:11:03
  for mankind to put Shawn into it, but he opens it and take as
• 1:11:05
  in there for the big surprise and take a comes out and he
• 1:11:08
  starts born with mankind, mankind and bare.
• 1:11:10
  I sort of rush away limping up the aisle with take a following
• 1:11:14
  them, stalking them, which is obviously going to set up the
• 1:11:17
  next in your house, which is buried alive and that famous
• 1:11:21
  buried live match screen taker on mankind.
• 1:11:24
  And yeah, that was Mind Games, essentially the perfect middle
• 1:11:28
  of the trilogy for Summer Slam and very live Mind Games is the
• 1:11:32
  perfect second part in the middle.
• 1:11:35
  I think the stories progressed brilliantly.
• 1:11:36
  I think the stories progressed brilliantly.
• 1:11:39
  Everybody involved and I think HBK like looks like a legit hard
• 1:11:44
  man because of this match. So I think everybody comes out
• 1:11:47
  looking great. No, 100%.
• 1:11:50
  And I think it's the, I think it's a shame that it was a bit
• 1:11:53
  of a cluster finish, but like you say, it's because there was
• 1:11:56
  other moving parts and other stories being told kind of.
• 1:12:00
  Do you think that at any point that there would be a call to
• 1:12:02
  have mankind win the belt at this point?
• 1:12:06
  No, because I think Mankind and you've got a man mixed title,
• 1:12:10
  right. He's a three time debut.
• 1:12:11
  You have to come in, right, But I think again, mixed character
• 1:12:14
  work is so good and the character gets over on it's
• 1:12:16
  owner. It doesn't need a championship
• 1:12:18
  to like legitimize it, if that makes sense.
• 1:12:20
  I think he's in a field with take ice, beat take as he can
• 1:12:22
  take us gone suddenly move on this title match.
• 1:12:25
  Then the goal is always to get back to take because that's
• 1:12:28
  where sort of them two belong with each other, if that makes
• 1:12:30
  sense. So it's like the whole point is
• 1:12:32
  that he's going to lose here and he could have won.
• 1:12:35
  Like we don't know what was going to happen, right?
• 1:12:37
  I mean, I think Sean hasn't beat, to be fair, but I think,
• 1:12:39
  you know, the interference means we don't really know, but like
• 1:12:42
  he's got bigger fish to fry and that is the Undertaker, if that
• 1:12:44
  makes sense. And Sean will move on to, you
• 1:12:46
  know, back with the likes of Sid and Brett and people like that.
• 1:12:50
  So I don't think he needed to win at this point because I
• 1:12:52
  think he's probably already in the most talking about
• 1:12:55
  storyline, which is him and the Undertaker.
• 1:12:58
  It's a 96. And then these two go all the
• 1:13:01
  way into like, King of the Rings and that type of stuff and make
• 1:13:06
  changes to wear and sort of the shirt and the tie.
• 1:13:08
  He's not that mankind. Yeah.
• 1:13:09
  But like this, this goes on and has a big, bigger legacy.
• 1:13:11
  Do you know what I mean? Yeah, no, definitely.
• 1:13:14
  And I think, yeah, I don't think he was ever closer to win the
• 1:13:16
  title here either. But obviously you never know.
• 1:13:19
  But yeah, I think it was like his he was brought in, wasn't
• 1:13:22
  he, to an extent for this Undertaker feud.
• 1:13:25
  So yeah, this was just another part of that story enough.
• 1:13:27
  And I think it's like I say, it's a shame that was a bit of a
• 1:13:29
  cluster at the end, but it was a means to an end.
• 1:13:31
  But at least you've got like probably a match nobody was
• 1:13:34
  expecting in the build up to these are the stories that were
• 1:13:37
  going on, yeah. Definitely, I think we've got to
• 1:13:39
  see Mick really work, which is really cool.
• 1:13:41
  And we've got to see Sean like really get tested as like, you
• 1:13:45
  know, how good is Sean? I think we see just how good
• 1:13:47
  Sean is in this match, no? 100%.
• 1:13:51
  Other matches in the cards. So we're not talking about the
• 1:13:54
  dark matches or the the free for all before the broadcast, but
• 1:13:58
  Savio Vega defeats Justin Bradshaw in a Caribbean strap
• 1:14:02
  match. As you said, Josie Athario
• 1:14:04
  defeated Jim Cornett, Owen Hart and the British Bulldog.
• 1:14:07
  They defeat the Smoking Guns. Mark Henry defeats Jerry Lola by
• 1:14:11
  submission, Undertaker defeated Gold Dust earlier in the night,
• 1:14:14
  and obviously Shawn Michaels defeats Mankind via
• 1:14:17
  disqualification. A couple of dark matches,
• 1:14:22
  Chuckle H fights Jake Roberts, which is a cool dark match, and
• 1:14:25
  Cycle Sid did defeat Vera as well in a dark match.
• 1:14:29
  So all those things sort of tied in together as to where we're
• 1:14:32
  going next. Any last thought on A Moment in
• 1:14:35
  time, Luke? No, I think it was an excellent
• 1:14:38
  an excellent shout. I think only thing I was going
• 1:14:40
  to mention is that again, this is kind of another period, isn't
• 1:14:42
  it Speaking of a moment in time where like take a sales, I think
• 1:14:46
  we're down, you know, was the WE kind of everything it could be
• 1:14:49
  WF at the time that what did you think of kind of the roster
• 1:14:53
  depth in general at this point? Like, do you think it's unfairly
• 1:14:56
  kind of criticized at this time or do you think the roster
• 1:15:00
  wasn't quite as stacked as it could be?
• 1:15:03
  I think the roster, like a lot of these people become stacked,
• 1:15:06
  but at this point they're not. So I think they're still like
• 1:15:08
  being nurtured like Owen Hots on this card.
• 1:15:11
  Fantastic obviously sadly meets his end before he reaches his
• 1:15:14
  full potential. But we know how good Owen Hot
• 1:15:16
  was, right? British Bulldog, fantastic
• 1:15:18
  wrestler. He's in this, you know, Billy
• 1:15:19
  Gunnbaard, Gunnar in this this morning.
• 1:15:21
  Gunn's a great tag team. All Kenny's in the card.
• 1:15:23
  Undertaker's in the card. Gold dust.
• 1:15:24
  We know how good gold dust is. Michael's in the card, Mankind's
• 1:15:27
  on the card, Veiler's in the card.
• 1:15:28
  It's like I said, it's on the card.
• 1:15:30
  You know, we see Hunter Hurst, Helmsley in a dark match, You
• 1:15:32
  know, we know he becomes Triple H, right?
• 1:15:33
  The fantastic Triple H Jake Roberts people regard as one of
• 1:15:37
  the all time greats. He's in, he's on the card.
• 1:15:38
  So yeah, I think there's a lot of talent on the card that I
• 1:15:42
  like on the cusp, but they're not like the big name yet, but
• 1:15:46
  like in the next 5 years a lot of these people do become that.
• 1:15:51
  Yeah, I think it's a try. That's kind of ask the question
• 1:15:53
  is, isn't it? That's exactly what it is.
• 1:15:55
  Because on that card as well, you've also got Stone Cold,
• 1:15:58
  who's starting to set up a feud with Brett Hart, which leads to
• 1:16:00
  their WrestleMania match. You've also got Brian Pillman as
• 1:16:03
  part of that Austin segment. And yeah, I think it's a, it's
• 1:16:07
  a, it's a young card, isn't it? And I think it's that
• 1:16:09
  transition. I think it's a really
• 1:16:11
  interesting transition period where you like you say you've
• 1:16:13
  got loads of people there who are, well, you're, you know what
• 1:16:15
  I mean. You've got Brett, you've got
• 1:16:17
  Foley, you've got Triple H, you've got Sean, all kind of the
• 1:16:22
  Hall of Fame as many people can make arguments for all of them
• 1:16:25
  to be the greatest of all time. So yeah, it's interesting that
• 1:16:28
  it seems a bit of a down period, but there is still a lot of kind
• 1:16:31
  of talent kind of cougar and bubbling under the surface.
• 1:16:35
  I think this period is like. So yes, at the time it was like
• 1:16:38
  when I appreciated not many people watched it like compared
• 1:16:42
  to like other periods. So I'm not saying it was like
• 1:16:43
  awful, but I'm like compared to the high period, it's like a bit
• 1:16:46
  down on business. But you've got to think of it as
• 1:16:49
  like take Scarface with Al Pacino, right when that came
• 1:16:54
  out, it was a flopped with the box office, right?
• 1:16:57
  It then it then got cult status later and then everyone's seen
• 1:17:01
  it now. So do you know what I mean?
• 1:17:03
  So I think I think this period is like people going back and
• 1:17:06
  seeing it now can really appreciate it because of what
• 1:17:09
  these people become. But in that time, in that
• 1:17:12
  moment, it maybe wasn't appreciated for what it was, if
• 1:17:14
  that makes sense. Hindsight's a wonderful thing, I
• 1:17:16
  suppose. I mean this match, I mean one
• 1:17:19
  thing I will see above in something man is that he gave us
• 1:17:21
  the WWE Network where we had all the wrestling on it for £10 a
• 1:17:24
  month, never changed price ever. It was all there.
• 1:17:27
  Where to find it was fantastic. This match is on the WWE
• 1:17:30
  YouTube, so the official. So if you type in Mankind versus
• 1:17:34
  Shawn Michaels in your house, it'll come up and you can watch
• 1:17:36
  it properly with AWE production, which is great.
• 1:17:39
  But if it wasn't on there, we'll probably struggle because it
• 1:17:41
  won't be on Netflix, I don't think.
• 1:17:42
  No, it is on. It is.
• 1:17:43
  I was going to say, you know, it's on Netflix or all the in
• 1:17:45
  your house all, all. So yeah.
• 1:17:47
  So we're looking in the UK. So Netflix have all all the WWE
• 1:17:51
  pay per views on. So it hasn't got the raw
• 1:17:53
  catalog, hasn't got the Smackdown, hasn't got any WCW,
• 1:17:56
  but every WWE pay-per-view is on the network.
• 1:17:59
  I realized that with a bit of digging this week.
• 1:18:01
  Might have to go watch some in your house.
• 1:18:03
  Canadian Stampede. I watched that quite recently as
• 1:18:06
  well that that like unbelievable pay-per-view.
• 1:18:09
  But yeah, so we're looking if you're in the UK because I know
• 1:18:11
  obviously I'm going to discuss some more doing this match you
• 1:18:13
  light on the vault. But I was like, I've watched
• 1:18:15
  Canadian Stampede recently so I'm back.
• 1:18:17
  So yeah, we're looking in the UK that we do have.
• 1:18:20
  I would do have all of the. Where was my invite for Canadian
• 1:18:23
  Stampede? I would have bought a pizza and
• 1:18:25
  a kebab. Again, depressed.
• 1:18:27
  Leave it. I watched it at a hotel room
• 1:18:28
  with Blake, at a hotel room, a hospital room.
• 1:18:31
  So like it was again, it got us through the dark times.
• 1:18:34
  Yeah, we could. We could do it in your house.
• 1:18:37
  Night, though. Definitely.
• 1:18:38
  I'm up for that in your house. In my house.
• 1:18:40
  Yeah, in your house. NXT didn't in your house once as
• 1:18:44
  well in the broadband the graphics that was pretty cool
• 1:18:46
  that the graph like the graphics and this the set as well to
• 1:18:48
  remember your sky jumping off the top of it.
• 1:18:50
  I love that house, it's fantastic.
• 1:18:52
  No it I'm sure they did a figure set as well.
• 1:18:54
  I would I would buy that if that was available now.
• 1:18:57
  And that was going to be my other point of this match.
• 1:19:00
  Kind of quick question of the listeners.
• 1:19:02
  This one is what this match made us think of is that obviously at
• 1:19:05
  last year's WWE Hall of Fame, the put the first ever match in
• 1:19:09
  which was Brett versus Steve Austin, just in case people
• 1:19:14
  didn't know who Steve was. So I wouldn't know what people
• 1:19:17
  out there thought if they could put one match in the WWE Hall of
• 1:19:20
  Fame. What match would it be to any of
• 1:19:23
  you? Anything come to mind for you
• 1:19:24
  straight away with that question?
• 1:19:26
  So I would probably put Brett Hart versus Haikushi from in
• 1:19:32
  your house, whatever number it was.
• 1:19:33
  That was a great match put that one is #2.
• 1:19:36
  That's a cut, Jessica says. Choice that if.
• 1:19:41
  I'd probably put Brett in there if.
• 1:19:43
  That's the best that you want. Brett Owen in the Cage I.
• 1:19:50
  Think I think. The 1st 10 could be just Brett
• 1:19:52
  matters I think. Yeah, I went like, because I
• 1:19:55
  didn't look into it enough. Like I don't know if to go in
• 1:19:58
  the Hall of Fame it has to be a WrestleMania match.
• 1:20:00
  So I had that in me mind. So I think the two that come to
• 1:20:03
  mind for me will be the first TLC match.
• 1:20:06
  So that was at WrestleMania. And then another fully classic
• 1:20:10
  fully versus Edge of WrestleMania.
• 1:20:12
  Put that in the Hall of Fame if it has to be a WrestleMania
• 1:20:14
  match. Yeah.
• 1:20:16
  I think one thing for me about I would like to do is put some,
• 1:20:18
  put a match in that's like got some people who may be young,
• 1:20:23
  you know, maybe won't be here much longer and give them their
• 1:20:26
  flowers while while they can be there to receive them rather
• 1:20:30
  than putting them in later once they passed away.
• 1:20:31
  I think that that will be important for me.
• 1:20:33
  I think if you're going to put a match in, put it in where all
• 1:20:35
  the participants can be there and really feel what they give
• 1:20:39
  to the business, that we appreciate it.
• 1:20:41
  And you got a lot last year, didn't you?
• 1:20:42
  Because you guess you got to see Brett roll in his eyes at Triple
• 1:20:45
  H when he shook his hand. It's just Brett being Brett
• 1:20:47
  like. Oh, I know that I know.
• 1:20:50
  Mine is George Lucas and like the both them have a very dry
• 1:20:52
  sense of humor, the funny guys, but it's quite dry sense of
• 1:20:54
  humor. They're very like Vicky Gervais
• 1:20:56
  style sense of humor. So British love it.
• 1:20:58
  But like Americans don't get these people.
• 1:21:00
  So they think they're being like they think they're being like
• 1:21:03
  serious, but they're not. They're just being dry and
• 1:21:06
  funny. That's my.
• 1:21:09
  So you think Brett's being funny?
• 1:21:10
  Do. You Brett's funny all the time.
• 1:21:12
  He's just Brett, Brett, Brett. Brett's playing everyone, man.
• 1:21:16
  But interesting point he. Knows what he's doing.
• 1:21:18
  He just, he just, he winds us all up on the Internet with his
• 1:21:23
  actions and he and he's got the will upon his hand and he'll go
• 1:21:27
  home and tell his missus I rolled my eyes today and watch,
• 1:21:30
  everyone's been talking about it.
• 1:21:31
  And he does it. And they say, yeah, I told you,
• 1:21:33
  everyone still cares. I can do.
• 1:21:34
  I can roll my eyes and everybody cares about it.
• 1:21:36
  Imagine being that powerful. Have you ever met Brett?
• 1:21:40
  Yes. Did he?
• 1:21:41
  Was that Waterstones? Well, as soon as you sign my
• 1:21:43
  boot, yeah. Remember you had it.
• 1:21:47
  Very nice. OK, imagine he was here.
• 1:21:50
  I'd love to meet, I'd love to take part of some pints in a
• 1:21:52
  kebab do. You think Brett a kebab man?
• 1:21:56
  I think he is. He's a broken, so I think he
• 1:22:00
  would be. He's got, he's got bars, haven't
• 1:22:02
  he? Hasn't he the?
• 1:22:03
  Hitman Barney to go there one day.
• 1:22:04
  They do class for these picks, black curries.
• 1:22:06
  So if you win the lottery, you're taking me and you to
• 1:22:09
  Hitman Ball. Yeah, well, I think if I think
• 1:22:12
  next year we should definitely go to that for the Lover
• 1:22:15
  wrestling convention. Have you have you seen who
• 1:22:16
  they've announced already for next year?
• 1:22:19
  No, but you can meet. I haven't put a price on this.
• 1:22:23
  Yes, I'm thinking it'll be triple figures, but you can get
• 1:22:26
  a photo with all three faces of Foley.
• 1:22:29
  Wow, that'll be awesome. I.
• 1:22:31
  Know, I know that's got me who because I've wanted to go for a
• 1:22:35
  couple of years now anyways, but I was like, I would that would
• 1:22:38
  be fucking brilliant that because I've got all three
• 1:22:41
  T-shirts as well so I could change my T-shirts for the
• 1:22:44
  photos because I'm cool. So yeah, it's it's it's it's
• 1:22:48
  piqued me interest already that like to be fair.
• 1:22:50
  So yeah, that could be a little podcast road trip for an for us
• 1:22:54
  next year. And who knows, they might
• 1:22:55
  announce Brett by then. That will be an away game.
• 1:22:57
  That will be my singlets and suplexes away.
• 1:23:04
  And who knows, buy them. We could have more fans and we
• 1:23:06
  can meet us all. But that's wishful thinking.
• 1:23:08
  It is indeed. It is indeed.
• 1:23:09
  Let's move on to did they really say that?
• 1:23:12
  That is where we look. We look back at a court either
• 1:23:15
  from, you know, a promo, it could be an interview, it could
• 1:23:18
  be a shoot interview, just something that maybe hasn't aged
• 1:23:21
  well or something that is just food for thought and you are
• 1:23:25
  picked this week's. Did they really say that, Luke?
• 1:23:28
  Yeah, so mine's a recent court. So it's more on the food for
• 1:23:31
  thought category. So it's what Triple H said about
• 1:23:35
  AJ Styles after we got announced we're going into the Hall of
• 1:23:38
  Fame. So the quote from Triple H about
• 1:23:41
  AJ Styles induction of the Hall of Fame said, I've often said
• 1:23:46
  you can't live up to your full potential in this business
• 1:23:49
  without being hated by some. AJ lived up to his full
• 1:23:53
  potential and is absolutely loved by everyone.
• 1:23:56
  Age is unselfish, undying passion for his business extends
• 1:23:59
  pastors in ring ability. He's a locker room leader and
• 1:24:02
  the standard for what you look for in a superstar.
• 1:24:04
  So it's more the first part. So if Triple H thinks he can't
• 1:24:08
  live up to your full potential in this business without being
• 1:24:10
  hated by some, what's your opinion on that, first of all?
• 1:24:14
  I think that was his experience when he was coming up, right?
• 1:24:16
  So I think if you look at who he came up with, like the click
• 1:24:19
  you've got obviously him, Sean Nash, kid, Scott Hall, like, you
• 1:24:27
  know, they were all rubbing people the wrong way.
• 1:24:29
  Sometimes they stay on top. And I think that's how they felt
• 1:24:31
  they had to act to be on top. And maybe they did.
• 1:24:37
  But I think as times gone on, like I think AJ proved that in
• 1:24:40
  the modern era, maybe he didn't have to be like that.
• 1:24:44
  But I think back in that year, I was all egos and, you know, you
• 1:24:49
  could be a bit more hostile, I suppose, because of the times,
• 1:24:53
  you know, there's no HR, you know what I mean?
• 1:24:55
  And then those days, I suppose certainly wasn't any HR degree
• 1:24:59
  because the ring boy scandal was going on.
• 1:25:01
  Vince was with referees and all, like Johnny.
• 1:25:03
  That's craziness, I think. I think you didn't need that
• 1:25:05
  edge maybe. But I think as times gone on,
• 1:25:07
  ages proved that in his ear. I didn't do that.
• 1:25:12
  Yeah. So I think you're right.
• 1:25:14
  So you'll you'll get, but I think I think I agree with
• 1:25:16
  Triple H So you'll have the exception of the rule where
• 1:25:19
  you've got AJ, you've got a probably put Rey Mysterio on
• 1:25:22
  that bracket. But then I think everyone else,
• 1:25:27
  whether it's justified or not, I think they probably have had
• 1:25:30
  that kind of backlash. So if you kind of, you know, for
• 1:25:33
  everyone that loves Hulk Hogan, you'll find the same amount of
• 1:25:37
  people who hate them online. Yeah, they might bring in the
• 1:25:39
  comments he made outside of wrestling.
• 1:25:41
  But before that even got said, you know, there was all of this
• 1:25:44
  how that won't work for me, brother.
• 1:25:45
  He's only in it for himself, you know, Shawn Michaels as an
• 1:25:48
  example. And even now, like you can kind
• 1:25:51
  of, you know, see, you know, every you know, people went
• 1:25:54
  through a period where, you know, he was super seeing and he
• 1:25:56
  buried everyone and we hate seeing a chance.
• 1:25:58
  And you can kind of start to see it now with Cody a little bit.
• 1:26:01
  It's kind of fallen into that bracket.
• 1:26:03
  So I think I agree with Triple H to an XI.
• 1:26:07
  Think if I had to go do I agree with triple HI do so it's.
• 1:26:11
  For me, it's not about the fans think because we're just morons,
• 1:26:14
  right? So I think it's for me, it's
• 1:26:16
  like backstage, like in the business, are you making?
• 1:26:20
  Like, are you making? Are you hated in the business?
• 1:26:23
  So I think yeah, I think Hogan certainly was hated by some
• 1:26:28
  people and not by others. You know, Hagan Hogan, like you
• 1:26:33
  could, you could say the same for I tell you, like for
• 1:26:38
  example, Undertaker is probably in the same categories, AJ
• 1:26:42
  Styles maybe, do you think? Yeah, I would.
• 1:26:45
  Yeah, I would. Yeah, definitely because he
• 1:26:47
  seemed to be able to kind of avoid all of that click
• 1:26:50
  business, but then also not get dragged into it.
• 1:26:52
  And yeah, I would say, oh, that goes in that category.
• 1:26:55
  So, so I think it's just we've just proved it was wrong.
• 1:26:57
  So I think take a for example, were respected by the Heart
• 1:27:01
  Foundation, but also respected by the click.
• 1:27:03
  And that was probably the two types of factions you had, not
• 1:27:07
  just on television, but like, actually like, like in wrestling
• 1:27:11
  society at the time. Do you know what I mean?
• 1:27:12
  Like in the locker room. But I think it's one way for
• 1:27:16
  every example you give is for no.
• 1:27:18
  I could give you an example for yes.
• 1:27:19
  So I think it's quite an interesting one as to which way
• 1:27:21
  it really lies. Yeah.
• 1:27:24
  And again, again, you've kind of raised something I didn't think
• 1:27:27
  of. Do you think Triple H means
• 1:27:28
  behind the scenes or do you think he means with fans?
• 1:27:31
  I think he means like with your colleagues.
• 1:27:34
  So I think, I think, yeah, I think you've had to upset some
• 1:27:38
  people for some feathers that get on top, right?
• 1:27:40
  And that's the nature of the business, which I think watch
• 1:27:43
  any number of wrestling documentaries or DVDs and that
• 1:27:45
  that happens, right? But I think some with AJ Styles,
• 1:27:49
  that hasn't happened. But I also call it everybody
• 1:27:52
  Undertaker did bad with, so maybe he's one as well.
• 1:27:59
  You could see the same for Kane, maybe.
• 1:28:00
  I think Kane's pretty well liked.
• 1:28:01
  I don't want anybody else that talks bad about Kane.
• 1:28:06
  And then, but then you've got their example of Someone Like,
• 1:28:08
  You know, 1 the greats like Bill Goldberg because he has a lot of
• 1:28:12
  hit as backstage, but he got to the very top.
• 1:28:15
  We didn't do it. So I think he's he falls into
• 1:28:17
  triage's category, I think, but triage is also not nobody was in
• 1:28:23
  the car until till AJ. I think if we're seeing Taker is
• 1:28:26
  that, but then that proves him wrong if that makes sense.
• 1:28:30
  Yeah. And I think I thought it was
• 1:28:31
  quite an interesting course because again, online fans,
• 1:28:35
  we're all idiots and stuff like that.
• 1:28:37
  But like Triple H is someone who seems to be catching a lot of
• 1:28:39
  heat from people at the moment. And there's almost like a bit of
• 1:28:42
  a self-awareness from him, not, not with his current status, but
• 1:28:47
  like just generally like, you know, yeah, I got to the top,
• 1:28:51
  but I know for a fact I did things and I wasn't very well
• 1:28:53
  liked for doing it. But he has a guy who hasn't done
• 1:28:55
  that, so fucking fair play. So I thought it was quite a self
• 1:28:57
  aware quote as well that he didn't necessarily have to word
• 1:29:00
  like that. Yeah.
• 1:29:01
  And I think just to put it so I think what you're saying is that
• 1:29:04
  like, you know, probably more often than not, like, yeah, the
• 1:29:08
  top people did happy who hit them like more often than not.
• 1:29:13
  But there's there's the odd occasion where there's those who
• 1:29:15
  don't. An AJ falls into that category,
• 1:29:18
  I suppose. Yeah.
• 1:29:20
  And then it then it what I like about it as well as it also made
• 1:29:23
  us think kind of, and again, this is a question that people
• 1:29:26
  can get in touch about with. Do you think ultimately in
• 1:29:29
  wrestling, 9 times out of 10, like the cream, you know, the
• 1:29:33
  court that's from Andy. So obviously, you know, the
• 1:29:35
  cream, like the cream cream will always rise to the top.
• 1:29:38
  So kind of some examples that thought of when I thought about
• 1:29:42
  that is, you know, Van Damme eventually won the world title.
• 1:29:44
  Booker T eventually won the world title.
• 1:29:46
  Eddie Guerrero eventually won the world title.
• 1:29:47
  Do you think if you're and it doesn't necessarily be a world
• 1:29:51
  title, but do you think if you're good enough, you will
• 1:29:54
  eventually get there, just might take a bit longer?
• 1:29:57
  Or can you think of some examples where people did have
• 1:30:00
  that talent but didn't get to where they should be?
• 1:30:05
  Again, it might be one for I thought, but I just thought it
• 1:30:07
  was interesting because AJ Styles, I think someone that you
• 1:30:10
  put in that category because you know, he stayed in TNA a lot
• 1:30:13
  longer than he needed to be. It went to Japan.
• 1:30:15
  People thought what do you ever come to WWE?
• 1:30:17
  Come to WWE, people are still going, oh, Finch won't know how
• 1:30:19
  to book them, but he wins multiple world titles.
• 1:30:22
  So do you think ultimately you will always get there
• 1:30:24
  eventually? It depends what you determine is
• 1:30:26
  successful. But I think like like, I don't
• 1:30:32
  know, like take one horse, like he he he didn't touch his
• 1:30:37
  potential at all because it was great in what we saw, but he had
• 1:30:41
  so much more potential than give us and was sadly taken away.
• 1:30:44
  So I think Queen doesn't always rise atop, I'm afraid,
• 1:30:47
  professional wrestling because it can be very tragic.
• 1:30:50
  I think you could see the same for like take Jake or that's,
• 1:30:54
  you know, so good psychology wise in the ring, putting a
• 1:30:56
  match together promo fantastic. We got to see some of that
• 1:30:59
  fantastickness, but then just as wrestling started its boom
• 1:31:03
  period, He he's a drug addict and an alcoholic and he can't
• 1:31:08
  benefit from that and can't show his strengths.
• 1:31:09
  Do you know what I mean? So sometimes it doesn't rise to
• 1:31:14
  the top because sometimes all that things happen.
• 1:31:16
  So, you know, I'm trying to kill also not be sound too tragic and
• 1:31:21
  turn it on on a sad point. But but yeah, like look at Tyson
• 1:31:26
  Kidd. Like you've seen Tyson could be
• 1:31:28
  really, really good. But like obviously Korea cut
• 1:31:30
  short with that neck injury. We've seen him do really good
• 1:31:32
  stuff backstage now, but like did he have like sort of a nice
• 1:31:36
  little singles running? Like maybe we could have seen
• 1:31:38
  more of them? I'm not seeing a little
• 1:31:39
  champion, something that would have been the case.
• 1:31:41
  But you know, certainly in the midcard he could have run amok.
• 1:31:43
  I think, you know, take some module for example, like and
• 1:31:48
  always been had some big some big spots in our places.
• 1:31:53
  But like again, in WE like now you hit the heights, but then
• 1:31:56
  sort of didn't. So I think in some cases it
• 1:32:00
  does. I think if you get enough time
• 1:32:04
  in the right frame of mind, when the top, when the good stuff
• 1:32:06
  comes, you can't rise to the top board.
• 1:32:08
  Yeah, I take chick robots. You know when the wrestling boom
• 1:32:10
  happened, he was not in a position to take advantage for
• 1:32:13
  how good he was, if that makes sense.
• 1:32:16
  No, definitely. I just thought was quite
• 1:32:17
  interesting that you did. I think it was again kind of go
• 1:32:20
  triple H's case that there's probably pro that you could.
• 1:32:23
  There's plenty of people you see where the cream does always rise
• 1:32:25
  to the crop. But then he can give examples
• 1:32:27
  like you did with doesn't, which maybe he's not in this next
• 1:32:30
  guy's case. What kind of leads us on nicely
• 1:32:32
  to our next segment, which is cursed by the wrestling gods?
• 1:32:37
  Certainly is, and you've chosen today's curse.
• 1:32:41
  Haven't you? Well, we'll decide if it's a
• 1:32:42
  curse or not. In this case I think it might
• 1:32:44
  not be, but we'll we'll talk through it.
• 1:32:46
  So this week I've chosen Alberto Del Rio, so it's straight of
• 1:32:52
  off. What's your memories of Alberto
• 1:32:53
  Del Rio before I dive into this? Up and down Korea that this
• 1:32:56
  man's had. I remember him being like, like
• 1:33:01
  a legit dirty heel who I didn't like.
• 1:33:03
  He had a fantastic manager who helped him build that keelness
• 1:33:07
  up. I remember him working like he
• 1:33:09
  was a legit threat to like, Cena, a legit threat to Punk, a
• 1:33:13
  legit threat to Edge. Like, yeah, the feuds.
• 1:33:16
  I remember him being in and being like, doing his job really
• 1:33:20
  well. He's a fantastic bad guy to
• 1:33:21
  those guys. Not 100% you kind of that that
• 1:33:26
  was kind of him in a nutshell without kind of all the other
• 1:33:28
  things going on in the background.
• 1:33:30
  So, yeah, so I mean, kind of overview of Del Rio, whether
• 1:33:32
  decide where he kind of lies with regards to Curse of the
• 1:33:35
  Wrestling Gods is obviously he's from kind of Mexican wrestling
• 1:33:38
  royalty. He's the son of Dos Karas,
• 1:33:40
  nephew of Miles Morasco. He was actually trained in Greco
• 1:33:44
  Roman wrestling. He was so good that he was going
• 1:33:47
  to go to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, but Mexico didn't have
• 1:33:50
  enough funding to send a team that year.
• 1:33:52
  So, you know, not only is he from kind of wrestling, sports
• 1:33:55
  entertainment history, but he's got a legit background that he
• 1:33:58
  can go after the kind of Olympic dream died.
• 1:34:01
  He spent a lot of time in AAA with his family, kind of world
• 1:34:05
  famous in All Japan Pro Wrestling.
• 1:34:07
  He played a security guard on Raw in 2008 until he eventually
• 1:34:11
  signs with the WWE in 2009. Straightaway publicly went out
• 1:34:16
  and said that he wouldn't be doing any development, which
• 1:34:18
  apparently ruffled people the wrong way.
• 1:34:20
  So do you think, I think that's a good start in that he's not
• 1:34:23
  going to development? So I think it's obviously not a
• 1:34:26
  good start, but I think that's that's his brand, but he that's
• 1:34:29
  what he does. So I think think about the Del
• 1:34:32
  Rio we know now looking, but of course, of course he said that
• 1:34:34
  would he would he see anything different?
• 1:34:36
  Of course he wouldn't. No.
• 1:34:39
  And I think that's something that does stick out throughout
• 1:34:42
  his career that he was 100% is always backed himself.
• 1:34:46
  So yeah. So he doesn't really go to any
• 1:34:48
  kind of development. He wrestles a couple of matches
• 1:34:50
  in development. He wrestles on a European Tour
• 1:34:52
  against Christian, which I would definitely remember saying, were
• 1:34:55
  you with me for that? Can you remember that?
• 1:34:57
  I don't remember that, so I don't think I was.
• 1:34:59
  Because I do. I just remember him being there.
• 1:35:01
  Nobody knew who he was, but he wrestled the long match with
• 1:35:04
  Christian and it was kind of like, oh cool, this must be
• 1:35:06
  someone who they are going to do something with.
• 1:35:09
  And then on June 10th in 2010, old school looking vignette star
• 1:35:15
  showing a Mexican aristocrat character which is Albert with
• 1:35:19
  Del Rio in his debut on Smackdown.
• 1:35:21
  He submits more Mexican royalty in rear Mysterio, so off to a
• 1:35:26
  good start there. Yeah.
• 1:35:27
  And obviously the whole gimmick, like I say, it's Mexican as to
• 1:35:29
  cry. He's Advent, yet he's beat rare.
• 1:35:31
  He comes out of the ring in expensive cars.
• 1:35:34
  So they're not low riders like Eddie Guerrero.
• 1:35:37
  They're expensive, nice cars. He's got his personal ring
• 1:35:39
  announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez. What can you remember about
• 1:35:43
  that? Because obviously he said he had
• 1:35:44
  an awesome manager. What what was your thoughts when
• 1:35:46
  you had this guy come out with his own kind of personal ring
• 1:35:48
  announcer, things like that? Do you think it stood out?
• 1:35:51
  Did you thought this is something good?
• 1:35:52
  What did you? What was the initial thoughts on
• 1:35:53
  it? I remember the styled recorder,
• 1:35:56
  you guys have been like quite goofy, like that's how the style
• 1:35:58
  going to be like. So you wouldn't like him because
• 1:36:00
  I think he could be quite footy, but I think they were careful to
• 1:36:02
  make sure you didn't like him too much.
• 1:36:04
  Certainly the beginning anyway, because he could be likable.
• 1:36:07
  But yeah, I thought was like, it was the utmost in like ego,
• 1:36:11
  wasn't it? He had the 'cause he had the
• 1:36:12
  nice scarfs. I remember the nice scarfs.
• 1:36:14
  And he had his own personal ring announcer.
• 1:36:16
  He would, you know, often introduce him in in Spanish as
• 1:36:18
  well, which would piss the Americans off in the crowd.
• 1:36:21
  So like, yeah, I remember just the whole presentation seemed to
• 1:36:24
  really work is like being authentic but also being like
• 1:36:29
  bad like, but probably one-on-one heel business is what
• 1:36:33
  I would say. Yeah, it was like a throwback,
• 1:36:35
  wasn't he? Like sorry, watched some of the
• 1:36:38
  vignettes this week in the kind of had like a vibe of like the
• 1:36:41
  old remember the old Scott Hall ones for Raisa Ramon?
• 1:36:45
  Yes, definitely they. They had like a vibe to that to
• 1:36:47
  it and in in a less of a more favorable light what they did
• 1:36:49
  with Muhammad Hassan. And it had like a real old
• 1:36:52
  school vibe to like these vignettes.
• 1:36:54
  And then all of it like the presentation, like you felt like
• 1:36:56
  a bit of a throwback, which I remember I did enjoy.
• 1:36:58
  And so I say obviously he doesn't just get the vignettes
• 1:37:01
  in his own ring and now and so he comes straight into a few of
• 1:37:03
  Rey Mysterio. He beats them, they go back and
• 1:37:05
  forth. He's putting a fatal four way
• 1:37:07
  for the world title pretty quickly with Kane, Ray and Edge
• 1:37:10
  as well. So straight away he's kind of
• 1:37:12
  put in there with the big guys. He's obviously we've done with
• 1:37:16
  Barrett on this section. Del Rio becomes a mentor on the
• 1:37:20
  second season of NXT, which I kind of forgot about.
• 1:37:23
  And then he ends up getting broad as clear, who he then
• 1:37:25
  employs as his bodyguard. So again, you're getting the
• 1:37:28
  kind of full package there. Now you've got a heater, you've
• 1:37:30
  got your own ring announcer. It's pretty old school, isn't
• 1:37:33
  it? Very old school.
• 1:37:34
  It's like the magic formula, right?
• 1:37:37
  Yeah, definitely. And again, it's like it's just
• 1:37:39
  it's 100% proof that, you know, the kind of the putting the
• 1:37:42
  rocket on you here. And that's kind of backed up
• 1:37:44
  where within kind of 6-7 months of debuting he wins the first
• 1:37:48
  ever 40 man Royal Rumble. Can you remember that win?
• 1:37:51
  I do remember that when actually I remember being excited for the
• 1:37:54
  40 man rumble. Then I come in as being like,
• 1:37:56
  this is just too long a rumble. Again, did you watch it at mine?
• 1:38:01
  I watched that at yours. Yes, because.
• 1:38:03
  Yeah. Man, where we had the was the
• 1:38:06
  4th one. We had the call and the Nexus
• 1:38:10
  like in at the same time. Was that a different?
• 1:38:12
  One. No, it might be in that one.
• 1:38:14
  Yeah. And then yeah.
• 1:38:16
  And then the and then the because then the thoughts
• 1:38:18
  Santino and the rumble didn't. We were all really drunk.
• 1:38:23
  Yes, I remember that, yeah. Because Del Rio then comes back
• 1:38:25
  in and throw Santino out. So it was it was a good little
• 1:38:28
  reminder of that because yeah, we've done the Royal Rumble
• 1:38:30
  shots drinking game. So yeah.
• 1:38:32
  So he wins at that point until the Saudi Rumble.
• 1:38:35
  He wins the biggest Royal Rumble of all time less than a year in.
• 1:38:38
  He chooses Edge at Mania that year, loses the next night on
• 1:38:43
  Royal. We'll find out that's going to
• 1:38:44
  be Edges last match for a year because he has to retire early.
• 1:38:48
  Do you think if Edge wasn't retiring he wins that night?
• 1:38:53
  The new edge was retiring on on I'm not quite sure the timeline
• 1:38:57
  or not. I think the most of because he
• 1:39:00
  retires the next night, so the most of no one because yeah,
• 1:39:07
  again, I don't know, but I think the dead and I think if he
• 1:39:10
  wasn't retiring, I think he wins the world title.
• 1:39:12
  Then what do you think it's? Quite possible.
• 1:39:15
  Yeah, very possible. So that was he does lose the
• 1:39:18
  edges. Edges last match he then who
• 1:39:20
  loses to Christian, which we talked about in the feel good
• 1:39:22
  fact maybe last week. That was an extreme rule.
• 1:39:25
  So he's still not won the world title.
• 1:39:26
  He's drafted a raw feud with the big show for a while.
• 1:39:30
  Within that feud, Ricardo Rodriguez runs over the big show
• 1:39:34
  with his car, which is very wrestling like a good someone's
• 1:39:37
  been run over storyline. So again, he kind of had this
• 1:39:40
  big momentum. He's won the Rumble and he
• 1:39:42
  hasn't won at me and he's then lost the follow up match.
• 1:39:44
  But then after getting drafted a raw, he wins money in the bank.
• 1:39:48
  It's of that period of time where you win money in the bank,
• 1:39:50
  you cash in successfully. Can you remember his cash in?
• 1:39:53
  I cannot. So he has a sentence for you.
• 1:39:56
  He cashes in on Punk at Summer Slam after Punk's already beaten
• 1:40:00
  Cena and had been attacked by Kevin Nash.
• 1:40:03
  Oh yes, Kevin Nash. He dropped some of the Jack
• 1:40:05
  Knight, doesn't he? He does, yeah.
• 1:40:07
  So that was all in that. So again, just over a year into
• 1:40:11
  his debut, he's won the Royal Rumble, he's won Money in the
• 1:40:14
  Bank and he is now WWE champion. That's got to be up there,
• 1:40:18
  hasn't it? It's one of the most successful
• 1:40:20
  first years. It's a big year and he's worked
• 1:40:22
  with a lot of big people as well.
• 1:40:23
  Yeah, and I think at this point as well kind of, you know, the,
• 1:40:27
  you know, for lack of a better term, the Rockets, the rocket
• 1:40:29
  ship, the strap to him, it's proven.
• 1:40:31
  It's proven good so far. He doesn't hold that title very
• 1:40:33
  long. Drops it back to Cena, he tears
• 1:40:36
  his groin. He's out for six months, so kind
• 1:40:38
  of got the first injury within all of this returns to fact.
• 1:40:41
  Smackdown feuds with Sheamus over the world title for a long
• 1:40:45
  period of time. There's a time and again, kind
• 1:40:48
  of, you know, wrestling silliness.
• 1:40:49
  There's a time where Booker Tees the GM in Del Rio, says that the
• 1:40:53
  broad kick is an illegal and dangerous move, so Sheamus isn't
• 1:40:57
  allowed to use it and Booker has to do a full investigation to
• 1:40:59
  see whether or not it is dangerous.
• 1:41:01
  Ultimately the investigations found it's not too dangerous, so
• 1:41:04
  Sheamus is then allowed to use use it again.
• 1:41:06
  How? How deep down the rabbit hole do
• 1:41:08
  you think Booga went on that investigation?
• 1:41:11
  Very deep. I imagine it was a lot of time
• 1:41:14
  watching a lot of tape and shooky dooky ducks and all that
• 1:41:18
  shenanigans. Yeah, definitely.
• 1:41:20
  I would like this. Watch a documentary series of
• 1:41:23
  Booker T's investigates. And it doesn't have to be
• 1:41:26
  wrestling related. It can be anything.
• 1:41:29
  I think it'll be. I think it'll be great to watch.
• 1:41:31
  So yeah, let's say if he's with Sheamus for a long time, gets a
• 1:41:33
  concussion within this feud. So he's pulled from a match with
• 1:41:36
  Sheamus for the world title, not successful in winning the world
• 1:41:39
  title, then goes into a feud with Orton.
• 1:41:41
  So again, every time he's being in here, he's kind of in there
• 1:41:45
  with the big guys. Now this is the next.
• 1:41:47
  But I find quite interesting after his feud with Orton, he
• 1:41:50
  turns face to save Ricardo Rodriguez from getting beaten
• 1:41:56
  down by three MB. Three MB where obviously drew my
• 1:41:59
  entire Jinder Mahal Heath slate a very much job at territory and
• 1:42:04
  that leads to a six man match with Alberto Del Rio, Miss
• 1:42:08
  Brooklyn Brawler defeating 3 MB. Do you have any memory of that
• 1:42:11
  ever happening? No, no I don't.
• 1:42:13
  Like that? Get him.
• 1:42:15
  Exactly. Yeah.
• 1:42:16
  I don't know why. I don't know how that in 2011
• 1:42:19
  that was happening, but yeah. So it might look like he's kind
• 1:42:22
  of dropped here, but he then goes on to be big show in a Last
• 1:42:25
  Man Standing match to capture his Second World championship.
• 1:42:28
  He does this by Ricardo Rodriguez, duck taping big
• 1:42:32
  shows, legs to the rope again, Old school, isn't it?
• 1:42:37
  Yeah, I click. Like when I've gone back and
• 1:42:38
  I've rewatched some of this this week, like there is a lot of old
• 1:42:41
  schoolness to him. And I remember, like people
• 1:42:43
  sometimes think in the run was a bit flat.
• 1:42:45
  But he has some really good matches in there with Sheamus
• 1:42:48
  and a lot of matches with Christian.
• 1:42:49
  Like until this point, I think it's all it's all good stuff.
• 1:42:53
  This is where you'll start to get a bit more Merc.
• 1:42:55
  Yeah. So he's won the world title.
• 1:42:57
  It then sets up a WrestleMania title match with Jack Swagger.
• 1:43:00
  Can you remember what the build for this was?
• 1:43:03
  No or no, I'm not that. Don't step on us naughty
• 1:43:07
  Mexicans. We the people, yeah.
• 1:43:10
  So Jack Swagger had a line with Zeb Coulter and they were very
• 1:43:13
  much worried about immigrants. And I remember going to a house
• 1:43:17
  show in Newcastle and how over that way the people thing was.
• 1:43:21
  Yeah. And it's it's almost become like
• 1:43:24
  a kind of glimpse into the future that how over that is,
• 1:43:28
  especially as this. We've mentioned things like ICE
• 1:43:29
  recently, but yeah, so Del Rio is still the face at this point.
• 1:43:34
  But the crowd reactions are very much enjoying.
• 1:43:37
  Way the people don't tread on me.
• 1:43:38
  It looks like he was going to drop the title to him, but
• 1:43:41
  Swagger got involved in a DUI leading up to WrestleMania, so
• 1:43:44
  plans changed. He successfully defends at
• 1:43:47
  WrestleMania against Swagger. Then what happens the next night
• 1:43:52
  on Rock? I remember that part.
• 1:43:53
  The Dolph Ziggler cash in, right?
• 1:43:55
  They're all famous. Dolph Ziggler cash in, so he
• 1:43:57
  drops the world title to Dolph Ziggler at Money in the Bank.
• 1:44:01
  Obviously, unfortunately Ziggler gets a concussion, so it kind of
• 1:44:05
  delays that storyline. And then in the first title
• 1:44:07
  defence to do a double turn where Del Rio focuses on
• 1:44:10
  Ziggler's head, Ziggler plays the kind of comeback baby.
• 1:44:13
  Facebook. Del Rio regains the title, kind
• 1:44:16
  of ending Ziggler's little period in that world title scene
• 1:44:19
  as well. Got the title back.
• 1:44:21
  He feuds with Christian. He has a feud with RVD.
• 1:44:24
  Can you remember that? No.
• 1:44:26
  I do what it is because I remember that he did come back
• 1:44:30
  RVD and they hyped it up. And when I read it, I was like,
• 1:44:34
  yeah, I can. And that actually leads to a
• 1:44:35
  world title match for RVD, which he successfully defends against.
• 1:44:39
  He then drops the belt back to Cena, kind of muddles around for
• 1:44:43
  a bit. He then gets into a feud with
• 1:44:46
  Batista. So this is when Batista returns
• 1:44:49
  at the Rumble, Blue tister, if you will.
• 1:44:51
  He slags Batista off during the Rumble, says he's going to
• 1:44:53
  eliminate him. He doesn't.
• 1:44:54
  Batista eliminate him again. He then works Batista's first
• 1:44:58
  match back at Elimination Chamber leading up the Mania.
• 1:45:02
  So again, if you look at this kind of short period of time
• 1:45:05
  he's been in the company, like you kind of said in your what
• 1:45:08
  you kind of remember of him, he's worked a lot of big
• 1:45:10
  hitters, hasn't he? He.
• 1:45:12
  Has indeed, yeah. And now this is where it kind of
• 1:45:15
  starts to drop off from. So let's say obviously he has
• 1:45:17
  that match with Batista, Elimination Chamber.
• 1:45:20
  Unfortunately, as we've talked about, maybe he's almost all
• 1:45:22
  that they've got from in the card at that WrestleMania is the
• 1:45:24
  Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, which he doesn't even
• 1:45:28
  win. So within four months of being
• 1:45:31
  world champion in a lengthy little title run, he's now no
• 1:45:34
  longer on the main card at WrestleMania.
• 1:45:37
  Then again, nothing really happens after the WrestleMania.
• 1:45:41
  And then on the 7th of August 2014 he is released for
• 1:45:45
  unprofessional, unprofessional conduct following an altercation
• 1:45:49
  with an employee who allegedly made a racist joke.
• 1:45:52
  So he's departed the WWE in August of 2014.
• 1:45:57
  Wrestles around the world for a little bit, AAA, World Wrestling
• 1:46:00
  Council, Ring of Honour, Lucha Underground and then October
• 1:46:03
  2015. So just over a year later, John
• 1:46:06
  Cena's doing his US Open challenges.
• 1:46:08
  He returns with Zeb Caller as his manager and beat Cena for
• 1:46:12
  the US title again. I could not remember that.
• 1:46:16
  I don't remember that either. Well, yeah, because the then him
• 1:46:19
  and Zeb then said they've made-up and it's all about Mex
• 1:46:23
  Americana and the rebrand at the Mex American Championship I.
• 1:46:27
  Don't remember that either at all.
• 1:46:29
  Well, I don't think it was had much.
• 1:46:30
  Legs didn't go very far because he drops Zeb pretty quickly.
• 1:46:33
  And then the ill-fated League of Nations is formed, which we
• 1:46:37
  touched on when we talked about our good friend Wade Barrett.
• 1:46:39
  I remember that, yes, League of Nations.
• 1:46:41
  Drops the US title to Kalisto. As we've said in the Wade Barre
• 1:46:44
  apart, he had the six man match with a New Day which the lose at
• 1:46:47
  WrestleMania again. League of Nations disbands on
• 1:46:50
  August 18th, 2016. So less than a year of being
• 1:46:54
  back with the company, he fails a Wellness test.
• 1:46:57
  He has a 30 day suspension and there's an option in his
• 1:47:00
  contract to opt out at that point, which he does.
• 1:47:03
  So he leaves the WWE forever so far on August 18th, 2016.
• 1:47:09
  So he then wrestles on Impact. He debuts there March 2017.
• 1:47:14
  He becomes world champion by beating Bobby Lashley. 12th of
• 1:47:18
  July though 2018 suspended due to domestic violence issues with
• 1:47:23
  his then girlfriend Paige. 5th of November he returns. 7th of
• 1:47:27
  April. Released for no show on a cross
• 1:47:29
  promotion between TNA and Lucha Underground.
• 1:47:36
  And then since then he's been in AAA for a lot of years, which as
• 1:47:40
  we've discussed at the start of the show, WB had bought.
• 1:47:42
  When WE bought it, he told a lot of people that he very much will
• 1:47:46
  be front and centre of it. That's not the case.
• 1:47:48
  He dropped the world title off TV and in that match he was
• 1:47:51
  exiled from AAA and he hasn't been used by WWE since.
• 1:47:56
  So with that part of history of his career there, what's your
• 1:47:59
  thought of his standing in wrestling you?
• 1:48:03
  Know he's obviously had a, I would say a Hall of Fame career
• 1:48:08
  and that's even with some of the, you know, being fired a few
• 1:48:12
  times, being suspended a few times, couple of injuries.
• 1:48:15
  You know, even with all that, he still had a whole of him career.
• 1:48:18
  So very, very good, but a lot of potential that he didn't reach
• 1:48:23
  either. He could have had an even more
• 1:48:24
  fruitful career, I feel, had some of those things not
• 1:48:26
  happened with AAA things. So is he is he with AAA or did
• 1:48:30
  they when did we bought the company?
• 1:48:32
  Was he like, was he released? So I think he's still
• 1:48:36
  technically under contract. So it's still kind of open the
• 1:48:40
  air. And it's, I feel like even
• 1:48:41
  before WE bought AAA, he tells anyone that, listen, the doors
• 1:48:45
  always open from and then they bought AAA very much looks like
• 1:48:48
  he isn't. I mean, can you ever say I'm
• 1:48:50
  back on WETV? I mean, I just think the rosters
• 1:48:54
  very stacked now. So I think if you were to bring
• 1:48:57
  him in, like what value does he give?
• 1:48:59
  I feel like like Punk gives you Punk's getting all that now, but
• 1:49:02
  like everyone's sold. She has his name every week.
• 1:49:04
  Do I mean, even when he wasn't there, right?
• 1:49:06
  Punk has that built in equity with the fans where I feel if
• 1:49:10
  you were to bring Del Rio back, you might get that pop that
• 1:49:13
  night, like a cheap pop. But then like what does he bring
• 1:49:16
  to your long term? I don't know.
• 1:49:18
  He might be able to bring something, but that's not for
• 1:49:20
  certain. So if you were to bring him back
• 1:49:22
  in, I don't know where he fits in with like the new roster.
• 1:49:26
  Do you know what I mean? Yeah, and I think they've
• 1:49:30
  already done that, haven't they? Because like I say, obviously he
• 1:49:32
  gets released in August 2014, surprise return, October 2015,
• 1:49:37
  beat Cena. And again, it just doesn't
• 1:49:39
  really go anywhere. I feel like he was someone where
• 1:49:42
  it was an experiment and there was some very good parts of the
• 1:49:44
  experiment. But yeah, I think in, like you
• 1:49:47
  say, if it wasn't for kind of outside of problems that he's
• 1:49:50
  had, which by the sound of it kind of, he hasn't, he isn't
• 1:49:53
  completely innocent in. He's got a Hall of Fame career.
• 1:49:57
  But yeah, I just don't think he adds anything.
• 1:50:00
  I think if he could have added anything, it would have been in
• 1:50:03
  AAA. But you've either got to look at
• 1:50:05
  that two ways now where the boat's completely sailed on it
• 1:50:07
  now, or they've kept them off to bring them in as a surprise.
• 1:50:11
  So for example, let's say because he lost the title to
• 1:50:15
  Viking, who goes up against Dom this week?
• 1:50:17
  Does Dom get exiled in Del Rio? Return on Saturday?
• 1:50:20
  I mean, it's wrestling, right? So anything can happen, but that
• 1:50:23
  can all be a work. So we could be surprised and he
• 1:50:26
  could come back. But I mean, what IA question,
• 1:50:29
  what I just had thought of is are you surprised that like SO2
• 1:50:35
  parts, are you surprised that AAW didn't move for him?
• 1:50:38
  And like, why do you think he wouldn't have tried to go there
• 1:50:41
  for a little bit? I think it's to do with the
• 1:50:44
  other stuff. So there is another story where
• 1:50:46
  he was arrested for battering and sexually assaulting his
• 1:50:50
  girlfriend. So he was arrested and then the
• 1:50:54
  trial kept getting delayed and then all charges were dropped.
• 1:50:57
  So no criminal kind of charges were ever brought against him.
• 1:51:01
  But I think that's kind of it's disgusting, isn't it?
• 1:51:06
  Like if, if any of that's true, then no company should work with
• 1:51:10
  them. And unfortunately mud sticks.
• 1:51:13
  So I think if you in this day and age now as well, if you
• 1:51:16
  employ someone like him, you're going to have to answer those
• 1:51:18
  questions, especially a company like AW and WE as well, where
• 1:51:22
  they do press conferences afterwards.
• 1:51:25
  I know it's, you know, it's key for press conferences, but
• 1:51:28
  questions will still get asked. So I think it's, I think that's
• 1:51:32
  why AW is never touched them. Got you.
• 1:51:36
  And then him and Paige or Soraya, are they like that and
• 1:51:41
  on bad terms? I know it was.
• 1:51:43
  Seemed to be quite an open down relationship and quite toxic at
• 1:51:47
  times maybe. Yeah, again, yeah, you're
• 1:51:50
  reading when you don't speculate on that type of stuff, but I get
• 1:51:53
  AI get a picture that both of them weren't in great places at
• 1:51:55
  the time. But again, you know, it's that's
• 1:51:58
  that's something that only they know the true story of.
• 1:52:01
  But again, it's, it's another incident where you, yeah, it's
• 1:52:05
  there's this kind of outside factors where you can say this
• 1:52:08
  man could be seen as some kind of kind of predatory woman
• 1:52:12
  abuser, which again, it's all these all the times this
• 1:52:15
  happens, all been alleged, nothing's ever been proven.
• 1:52:17
  But it's it's it's a hot topic and it's something that any
• 1:52:22
  company that has such a big following like AWWE would
• 1:52:26
  probably have to answer questions to whether they liked
• 1:52:28
  it or not. Yeah, and I suppose if you were
• 1:52:31
  going to use them, would you not use them in the John Cena
• 1:52:33
  farewell to act concerned they've got a past.
• 1:52:37
  Yeah, but yeah, like for me, whenever I seen her stepped in,
• 1:52:41
  it was just to take a title off them.
• 1:52:43
  Like I think looking at what you had, I think is rival is great.
• 1:52:45
  Rivalries were kind of rare. I'd put Christian in there.
• 1:52:50
  Sheamus and big sure, like whenever I don't think it would
• 1:52:53
  have been needed on the on the scene or you could have it
• 1:52:55
  definitely would have been a pop.
• 1:52:56
  But yeah, but I've, but I've kind of taught myself into
• 1:52:59
  thinking that we might end up seeing them in Tripoli, but I
• 1:53:02
  don't think we'll ever see them in WWE.
• 1:53:05
  Got you. Maybe.
• 1:53:06
  Maybe Dan Housing will curse him.
• 1:53:08
  I think he's already, yeah. So do you think he has felt
• 1:53:11
  under the curse? So I would say when you look at
• 1:53:16
  how much potential he had to what he to where he is now,
• 1:53:21
  where he's not working, like yes, he's cursed, but I think he
• 1:53:25
  has had a Hall of Fame career and that's what's so crazy about
• 1:53:28
  wrestling. You can have a Hall of Fame
• 1:53:29
  career, but you can still be short on your potential, if that
• 1:53:32
  makes sense. So yeah, Hall of Fame Korea.
• 1:53:35
  And but again, will you ever get in the Hall of Fame if he's got
• 1:53:37
  this sort of negativity with the company?
• 1:53:40
  Yeah, can never say never in WWE, but yeah.
• 1:53:43
  And I think it's one of the things that you could definitely
• 1:53:45
  praise it, praise of the Koreas, that if you take the year out
• 1:53:48
  when he got released, if you look at his just as WWE Korea,
• 1:53:51
  it only really spans five years. And in five years, he won three
• 1:53:54
  world titles, Money in the Bank and the Royal Rumble like that,
• 1:53:58
  you know, so you bite your hand off, you know, the dressers out
• 1:54:01
  there who bite the hand off 1/2 of that. 100% yeah, I definitely
• 1:54:05
  agree with. That and I see I think it was an
• 1:54:07
  experiment that has pot that had positives and negatives and I
• 1:54:10
  think I think people like often he gets criticized a lot for how
• 1:54:13
  many world title shots he has from like AWWE Buchan Point, the
• 1:54:17
  Jinder Mahal title reign gets kind of criticized a lot.
• 1:54:20
  But it doesn't bother me when they do stuff like that because
• 1:54:23
  like ultimately, like they they don't have the final say in it
• 1:54:28
  to the like that, you know, Jinder Mahal never went into
• 1:54:31
  Vince's office and said you're making me world champion.
• 1:54:33
  It happened. You know what I mean?
• 1:54:34
  So ultimately it's out of your hand and I'd rather see them try
• 1:54:38
  something different in it not work.
• 1:54:40
  You could maybe put you so into this category as a more recent
• 1:54:43
  one because like, you know, you don't you don't blame the kid
• 1:54:45
  for falling down the well, you blame the parent for not
• 1:54:47
  watching them. So like, yeah, I don't mind when
• 1:54:50
  they try, when they try and push someone like Del Rio and they
• 1:54:52
  try and push someone like Jinder Mahal, when they try and push
• 1:54:54
  someone like Jay USO. Because the worst thing in the
• 1:54:57
  world is it doesn't happen. So wrestling doesn't matter.
• 1:54:59
  It moves on very quickly. Yeah, like try these things, it
• 1:55:02
  doesn't work, then we'll try something different next week.
• 1:55:04
  I mean, so yeah, like the wrestling never finishes, right?
• 1:55:07
  Every week, it continues every week forever.
• 1:55:09
  So yeah, I agree with that. And like, yeah, take the you've
• 1:55:12
  got to take these chances and see what happens.
• 1:55:15
  I think it's important to do that and give people a chance.
• 1:55:19
  Yeah, and again, it kind of, you know, he had a much more
• 1:55:21
  successful career than Hayden, right?
• 1:55:22
  But at the end of the day, someone who can say he's been in
• 1:55:24
  the ring with everyone from fucking John Cena I see I'm Punk
• 1:55:27
  to RVD. Do you know what I mean?
• 1:55:28
  It's it's pretty cool. Yes, indeed.
• 1:55:30
  And just like big show Batista, like Rey Mysterio, like yeah,
• 1:55:35
  Sheamus like multi guys from lots of different generations
• 1:55:38
  there do what I mean from our two year all the way through in
• 1:55:41
  modern. Day, definitely.
• 1:55:43
  And so like I say, you know, the personal life stuff if and
• 1:55:47
  there's any truth to it, then fuck him.
• 1:55:49
  He's a disgusting human being. But looking at kind of his run
• 1:55:51
  at a wrestling, I think it definitely makes for interest in
• 1:55:53
  reading. And there's a lot more there
• 1:55:56
  than I remembered, and there is some good stuff in there.
• 1:55:59
  Maybe he blends into a Triple H's theory that you've got to be
• 1:56:03
  hated by some people that be good at wrestling and he was
• 1:56:06
  good at wrestling and he was certainly hated by some people.
• 1:56:09
  And he was here by quite a few people in Mexico when he did
• 1:56:11
  join WWE because he stopped wearing his mask as well.
• 1:56:14
  So that was that was quite a big thing when he debuted because he
• 1:56:16
  was primarily known in Mexico as a mask wrestler.
• 1:56:19
  So yeah, maybe he does. He falls into that bracket of
• 1:56:21
  Triple HS. He.
• 1:56:23
  Does indeed, He does indeed. Awesome.
• 1:56:26
  That was a fantastic, a fantastic look down memory lane.
• 1:56:29
  Someone who I remember a lot of what you said about, but there
• 1:56:32
  were some things that I didn't remember like that you didn't
• 1:56:34
  have on it. Someone of our era who like
• 1:56:37
  there's still things with. Don't remember which thing just
• 1:56:39
  shows you how much stuff he did. No.
• 1:56:42
  And again, it kind of goes to what I've kind of said a lot
• 1:56:45
  where like on a wrestling card, you need variety and it moves
• 1:56:48
  fast because there's so much TV that you kind of do forget.
• 1:56:51
  Like I say, that three MB thing. I couldn't even find that much.
• 1:56:54
  But I did go back and watch the hardcore match he had with the
• 1:56:57
  Extreme Rules match he had with Van Damme.
• 1:56:58
  It was good stuff. Always good stuff for Van Damme
• 1:57:02
  so we move on to our pro wrestling feel good fact of the
• 1:57:05
  week. Yeah, I think you're taking this
• 1:57:08
  one, aren't you? I.
• 1:57:08
  Am indeed. So we always like to just end
• 1:57:10
  the episode with like a nice little fact or snippet just to
• 1:57:12
  go away. We have 4 feet something
• 1:57:14
  positive and I think this might sound negative at the beginning,
• 1:57:16
  but it's actually quite positive.
• 1:57:17
  So both is the stuff. The legendary buff Bagwell.
• 1:57:22
  So he's recently had his leg amputated for health reasons,
• 1:57:25
  but both he's recovered from that surgery.
• 1:57:27
  He's doing a lot of signings and Comic Con conventions and he's
• 1:57:31
  in really good spirits. He's meeting the fans, he's
• 1:57:33
  enjoying that. He's enjoying talking to the
• 1:57:34
  fans, he's enjoying signing autographs.
• 1:57:36
  He's enjoying having pitchers. He's enjoying looking at
• 1:57:38
  wrestling figures. And like he's taught about, he
• 1:57:40
  wants to try and like get to the point where he can have a
• 1:57:43
  wrestling match. And I'm not taught on
• 1:57:45
  television, but like, you know, well, it's an indie promotion,
• 1:57:47
  whatever it is. But he thinks he can get himself
• 1:57:50
  the point where he can be in a wrestling match.
• 1:57:53
  And I think to lose your leg must be such like a mind fuck.
• 1:57:56
  But to him to come out of it so positively to where he's meeting
• 1:57:59
  fans and he's not hiding, you know, he's he's showing it off.
• 1:58:02
  He's giving fans a great experience.
• 1:58:04
  And then the fact that he's saying I'm going to work towards
• 1:58:06
  maybe getting back in the ring to show can we don't I think
• 1:58:09
  just, yeah, like it makes me think, you know, that's the way
• 1:58:13
  to do it. That's the way to be positive.
• 1:58:14
  And I think, I'm not saying he's been positive all his life.
• 1:58:16
  I think there's been times when he hasn't been.
• 1:58:18
  But I think, you know, his life's given him a huge
• 1:58:20
  challenge and he's dealing with it really well.
• 1:58:22
  So yeah, I think buffers this stuff.
• 1:58:25
  If you want to wrestle me at one leg, I'd happily watch that.
• 1:58:27
  So watch this space. What's your thoughts now, Luke?
• 1:58:31
  Yeah, I think it is. It is good that and you know, he
• 1:58:33
  got himself sober as well and things like that.
• 1:58:35
  And he just seems to be someone who's in a massively positive
• 1:58:38
  place where maybe he's, if this amputation had have happened a
• 1:58:41
  couple of years ago, it could have been the end of him because
• 1:58:43
  he wasn't in the right headspace to deal with this.
• 1:58:45
  So he's had this horrible thing happened.
• 1:58:46
  Luckily, he was already in a good place and he's kind of
• 1:58:49
  still powering forward and trying to make positive out of
• 1:58:52
  it. And I think it's it's quite,
• 1:58:54
  it's kind of ending on a feel good thing.
• 1:58:55
  It's quite, it's not nice when you see it, but you see it more
• 1:58:59
  and more now with kind of wrestlers from maybe he's back
• 1:59:02
  in the day who fell on hard times or weren't around when the
• 1:59:05
  business was booming money wise, where the need surgeries or the
• 1:59:10
  the pass away and families need funeral costs.
• 1:59:12
  And it's always quite cool to see GoFundMe pages that get
• 1:59:15
  started and how much money they then raise because it's like,
• 1:59:20
  yeah, you might again, we could talk about these cursed arrest
• 1:59:22
  and guards. You could probably do a whole
• 1:59:23
  section on both Bagwell movies. We will.
• 1:59:25
  But like he still made an impact of people will be people out
• 1:59:29
  there. I remember like because I got
• 1:59:32
  into WCW because Woolworths didn't have any WF figures, but
• 1:59:36
  they had WCW and I didn't watch it at the time, but I got a buff
• 1:59:39
  Bagwell and then I started watching WCW because I bought
• 1:59:42
  that figure. Like he's made an impact on me.
• 1:59:43
  And it's cool how there's loads of guys out there like that who,
• 1:59:47
  you know, aren't you Hogans, aren't you Rocks?
• 1:59:49
  But then you have fans digging the hands in the pocket to help
• 1:59:51
  them. And I think it's cool to see
• 1:59:53
  that you kind of, you have done something that's impacted people
• 1:59:56
  and a lot of people that just look at wrestling.
• 1:59:58
  It's just a silly business that grown adults shouldn't be
• 2:00:00
  enjoying, but it means still. You know, we you'll, you'll end
• 2:00:03
  the show with the court, I'd imagine.
• 2:00:04
  But yeah, it's cool that people are out there and how much you
• 2:00:08
  can impact people's lives. Definitely.
• 2:00:10
  I think both, you know, like you know, he had the awesome shades,
• 2:00:15
  great tan. He was like Jacks, looked
• 2:00:17
  fantastic top hot. Yeah, I was.
• 2:00:22
  I was just going to say his figure came with the top hat.
• 2:00:24
  That's why. That's why I tried to make.
• 2:00:25
  I didn't know, like, so tired. Yeah, like I didn't know who a
• 2:00:28
  Diamond Dallas Page was or above Bagwell, but both Bagwell a top
• 2:00:31
  hat. So I thought I'll get him.
• 2:00:33
  Yeah, man jacked, Jacked to the nines.
• 2:00:34
  Fantastic specimen of a man. I think that brings down the
• 2:00:38
  episode. Luke, any closing thoughts as we
• 2:00:40
  take this home? Just like, yeah, get involved.
• 2:00:43
  Like I always say, get involved. You know, follow us on the
• 2:00:46
  socials and the questions are asked.
• 2:00:48
  Is there anyone where you can think it's a good example of
• 2:00:50
  talent truly rising to the top? And if you were to put a match
• 2:00:54
  into the WWE Hall of Fame, what match would you choose and why?
• 2:00:59
  Yes, you can do that if you're listening on Spotify.
• 2:01:01
  You can just leave it in the comments of the episode if you
• 2:01:04
  aren't listening on Spotify because we'll also be able on
• 2:01:06
  Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music. You can just go to our Instagram
• 2:01:10
  page that's at SAS Wrestling Pod and check that out there.
• 2:01:15
  If you are listening and you want to leave us a review,
• 2:01:16
  please leave a five star review. A lovely little sentence.
• 2:01:19
  It makes me and Luke smile all day and it does help people find
• 2:01:21
  the show. But yes, thank you very much for
• 2:01:24
  listening. We hope you've enjoyed wrestling
• 2:01:25
  this week and we're looking forward to next week.
• 2:01:28
  And remember, it's still real to us.
• 2:01:31
  Damn it. Damn it.