Latest / Real. Guy. Pods. / 2024 Wrestling Preview Special | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #725 – 1/4/24

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2024 Wrestling Preview Special | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #725 – 1/4/24 · Real. Guy. Pods.

0:00
It's still leave living, all right, Let's complain to see the faith tells
0:37
people lost the song back thanks to see he leaves Basbee young girl said that,
0:50
n said, I tell Getty, Jill Jim. Welcome, everybody,
1:07
Welcome to this week's edition A Story Around the Show. Episomber seven and twenty
1:11
five for January fourth, from twenty twenty four. Welcome to the twenty twenty
1:15
four wrestling preview edition of ass R Team You. I am one after the
1:23
show, I am Jeff Pett joined every single week might tell us one only
1:26
Doctor Trey Franklin, Doctor Trey, Happy New Year, my friend, Happy
1:32
New Year to you, my friend. And this year, this is the
1:34
first time in a long time. I'm actually fully dressed for this edition of
1:37
the show. Usually I got the baby New Year Year on, but uh,
1:41
I'll be broke into my storage. You don't stole the baby New Year
1:44
Year. So there's a weird person out there running around in a diaper at
1:47
a twenty twenty four sash. So this year Jeff pants on for the podcast.
1:53
We've been told before that we're very immature, and this is us growing
1:57
as humans, as men, as individuals. So a history no more,
2:01
folks. The baby edition of Doctor Trey is now a thing in the past,
2:07
and I got to be honest, Doctor Tray. At times it was
2:07
really creepy and kind of weird. But I'm kind of sad to see this
2:12
new version of You See, everybody always wants to complain about stuff, and
2:15
then it takes that you get taken away and you're like, oh, now
2:20
I kind of miss it, so you don't know what you got till it's
2:22
gone. Right, Yeah, that's I've also said that about my waistline and
2:25
some other things too, so there you go. But yeah, yeah,
2:28
the whole digress back into the podcast. I guess the age like, plus,
2:34
it's cold outside, so there's also shrinkage involved. Sure, very very
2:37
true. When you get old, you get old, and that's that stuff
2:39
kind of happens. So here we are first show of the year twenty twenty
2:43
four. This is our fourteenth year as a wrestling podcast, Doctor Trey,
2:47
and this is how we always started off traditionally. Here it's the final show
2:52
of the holiday programming schedule. If you have if you're a little bit behind,
2:57
go out there and download the show from two weeks ago. When we
3:00
listen back to our twenty twenty three Bowl predictions and wrestling many thirty nine car
3:04
predictions, and we recap twenty twenty three for weaw and professional wrestling as a
3:07
whole. Download last week's up show episode with the SRTU Award Show, it's
3:15
always really fun laid back stuff here that we have here for content and programming
3:20
each and every year on SRTU, And this is a fun one as well
3:23
because there's really no true direction. I mean we're just basically guessing doctor Trey,
3:29
right. I mean, like in MLB or NBA, NFL, like
3:32
with any other sport, you could look at the year before the season starts
3:38
and goes, Okay, this is like the team I'm looking for, This
3:40
is the performer. This is like the baseball player I expect to have a
3:44
big year. Like we could kind of do that with professional wrestling, but
3:47
with professional wrestling you're kind of just at the edge of the seat here and
3:53
guessing by the seat of your pants on on how this year is actually going
3:57
to work out for anything in professional wrestling. Yeah, I mean we talked
4:00
about it on the Awards show last week. You know, see them Punk
4:02
getting fired and hired by WW two months later. Nobody saw that coming.
4:08
You know, Ed's jumping to aw Nobody saw that coming. You know,
4:11
there are things that you can kind of prognosticate a little bit, but you
4:15
know, for the most part, it is wrestling. For as much that's
4:19
out in the open, we don't know contract situations, we don't know the
4:24
backstation and agains. For the most part, we don't know, you know,
4:28
the inner working. He's like you and I don't have a hot line
4:30
into Tony Kahan or or Triple H's office. Hell I have friends of mine
4:35
who work for both companies, and I don't get insider tips or anything like
4:40
that. So it is a little bit of just it's a little bit of
4:44
prediction mixed with fancy booking, and we just kind of go from there.
4:47
It's a lot different than you know, you being a Yankee and Packer fan,
4:53
me being a cop at Fort R Fay. We can kind of see
4:54
prospects coming up. We kind of know the direction of the club. We
4:58
know if they're going into a rebuilding mode or or if they're going for the
5:00
playoffs. You don't know that with wrestling, because as much as we love
5:06
the athleticism of it, it's still a television show, and it'd be like
5:11
kind of predict you know, which character of your favorite show is getting killed
5:14
off this year? Yeah, very very true. I mean that is a
5:16
great point. It's like, there's no podcast that previews the Law and Order
5:20
season. So I'm sure there is. I'm sure there is two it is
5:25
podcasting. I'm sure if I typed in right now in Apple podcasts like Law
5:29
and Order podcast, I'm sure there is a preview of season seventy eight of
5:32
Law and Order. But in the famous lines that we always have here,
5:36
I digress. All right, let's get into a Doctor Trey WWE preview looking
5:41
at Ross Mackdown NXT. How do we view the year coming up here in
5:46
twenty twenty four for World Wrestling Entertainment. So for me, this, in
5:53
my opinion, could be the biggest year that ww's had in a very very
5:57
long time. Like it kind of feels like the stars are aligning, that
6:01
things are in a different place. I don't want to say it's it's not
6:05
the first full it's you know, the first real full year under the new
6:11
endeavor banner. Triple H has his fingerprints all over the show. And then
6:16
when you look at like, you know, now you have a roster like
6:19
I was trying to put the wrestlemanting card together, and I'm going you have
6:23
guys like Drew McIntyre and aj Styles who are probably gonna be upper mid card
6:27
this year just because of the depth of top when you got you know,
6:30
the seth Rawlins, the Cody Rhodes, the Roman Reigns, the CM punks.
6:34
You know, where does Logan Paul fit into this mix? You still
6:38
have you know, Sammy's a and Kevin Owens, the Judgment Day, you
6:42
know the Damien Priest Cashion, if they would it happens, all these different
6:45
things coming into it. Plus you know Becky Lynch coming back up, Brea
6:48
rippling the top of the card. Like this might be the biggest year they've
6:54
had in quite a long time. The programming has been solid for Night of
7:00
twenty twenty three heading into twenty twenty four. Really the only thing that they
7:04
may need to tweak is a little bit in NXT, which is still always
7:08
going to be that way just because it's a developmental bringer. But you know,
7:12
the good Lord Willing, there's no major backstage meltdowns with anybody. There's
7:15
no major injuries. You got Randy Orton back in the picture, AJ Styles
7:19
back in the picture. You still have you know, you're always throwing Brock
7:24
Lezard, John Cena and maybe the rock at any point as well. Like
7:29
this is arguably like the deck is stacked in W's favor for me to me
7:34
heading into twenty twenty four anyway, and this could be the year that they
7:38
become like a real household name again. Like everybody knows in the United States
7:43
who the WWW is, but you know what WWW is, and you know
7:47
who's on there, and you know what's taking place on television has only happened
7:51
a couple times in my lifetime. Late nineties comes immediately to mind, and
7:57
I think WWE could be really knocking on the door of culture again with a
8:01
lot of their performers, whether it's the returning cmpunk legends like Randy Orton,
8:05
AJ Styles or up and coming stars like Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley, you
8:11
know I mentioned on last week's edition of The Award Show. Then I think
8:13
Ria Ripley's on the verge of becoming a household name across the United States,
8:18
and I still feel that way. I think Roman Reigns is a household name.
8:24
It really feels like we're on the precipice of something truly special, and
8:28
twenty twenty four it can be that year where we takes another step forward,
8:33
which is exciting for professional wrestling. I'm really stoked about them going to France
8:39
for Backlash, Bashing Berlin in Germany. I believe in August. They're going
8:43
to be in Perth, Australia in February. So this is going to be
8:46
a really big global brand. And this is exciting year ahead for WWE Doctor
8:52
Trey. It feels like if I could compare it to something and feel old
8:56
at the same time, twenty twenty three was like nineteen ninety seven WA In
9:01
twenty twenty four it could be nineteen ninety eight w W where they were in
9:03
full swing with d X, Steve Haustin Rock, whoever else is on the
9:09
top of the card and each and every show Monday Night Raw and then eventually
9:13
SmackDown in ninety nine was Muscy Television. I think we're on the verge of
9:16
that, and I'm really excited for the year ahead for World Wrestling Entertainment.
9:20
Yeah, my only worry is Roman ray situation. If he's you know,
9:28
at some point, somebody's gonna have to beat Roman Rains and who is the
9:33
person they picked you to do it? Is it gonna be somebody that we
9:35
all go, yes, that's the right guy, or is it guy like
9:39
brock Lezer beating the Undertakers or breaking Undertaker streak where we're all like, yeah,
9:43
he didn't need that and it was the wrong time. So that's my
9:46
only worry about that is because SmackDown was SmackDown going to USA, they may
9:52
not need the star power that they had on Fox, and if they decide
9:56
to pull the trigger and put the put the title on the wrong guy or
10:00
gonna you know, have a little bit of backlash from that. But outside
10:01
of that, like when you just look at this roster, from the young
10:05
talents coming in from XT, the guys who were in their prime, and
10:07
the established veterans there may they may have never had a better cross section of
10:13
that than they have on hand right now. So there you go. There's
10:16
a little bit of the w WEE preview right there for twenty twenty four.
10:22
I miss Roman Reigns Doctor Trey. I wish he was on television a lot
10:26
more. I guess my only hope here on the first quarter of this year.
10:30
Is we get a lot of Roman reigns from here on out? Yeah?
10:33
Yeah, I mean they're really as much as he was prevalent a couple
10:39
of years ago. Like, I don't think right now you can get too
10:41
much Roman rays because he's transcended what nor Rusling is now. He's in that
10:48
iconic status. He's in that John Cena, Steve Austin, you know,
10:52
rock level of performer, where like when he's on TV, you have to
10:56
see what he's gonna do. And this is gonna be a very telling year,
11:00
like if they end up breaking up the Blood like completely, and Roman
11:03
has to go away from television for a little while to pursue his acting career
11:07
or his family life and then makes a trifle returns a baby face or something.
11:11
But this is one of those, to me, like one of those
11:13
turning point years in his career as he's either a widding it down or be
11:20
about to enter a new chapter. All right, the transition over here to
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All Elite Wrestling previewing it for twenty twenty four, Doctor Treya, I feel
11:28
like this is a very big turning point year for All Elite Wrestling. It's
11:35
year number five as a company. There are rumblings and concerns about the upcoming
11:41
TV deal. It's possible by the time this podcast drops if they've announced something
11:45
with Warner Brothers Discovery, or maybe Warner Brothers Discovery is now something with maybe
11:50
WWE for all we know, and that puts AW in a really bad spot.
11:54
I've been saying this each and every week the last couple of weeks.
11:58
For professional wrestling to be good, we need a strong number two in the
12:01
United States, and we need an all elite wrestling. If you're a tribalist
12:05
that is just PROWE and ANTIAAW, like, shame on you like watch both
12:13
programming because it's really good for professional wrestling and professional wrestling fans. If you're
12:18
pro AW and ANTIWE, do the same as well. Watch both, support
12:22
both, get behind both, and just appreciate what we're seeing in professional wrestling
12:26
right now because you may never see this again. This is someone that's speaking
12:31
from experience that I wish I could bottle up nineteen ninety six of two thousand
12:35
and one wrestling when w and WSW were around and just understand how important and
12:41
fun and appreciative I am in that time period. Right now, and it's
12:45
because both companies were pushing each other to be the very best, and you're
12:48
seeing that now. WA may not look at aw's competition, they may not
12:52
look at them as being on their level, but they now understand that they
12:56
are also taking away potential audience from them and viewers and eyes each week as
13:01
well. And if they put on a better product, WWE is going to
13:05
suffer, and if WWE puts on a better product, AW is going to
13:07
suffer. So we need both products to be performing very, very high because
13:11
we both get really good products. AW They're creative has been hit or miss.
13:18
We've talked about that a lot lately. I really hope that they get
13:22
that under control. There's the rumblings of there're going to be more new Japan
13:26
based where it's just solely focused on in ring performances and not storylines. You
13:33
need entertainment outside of the ring as well, and you need to give me
13:37
a reason to watch this other than man. These are two really good athletes.
13:41
We need everything front to back, good entertainment, great in ring work,
13:46
and that makes a good professional. Rest in the year, I'm very
13:48
optimistic about AAW. I really really think that it could move forward and take
13:54
a step forward. But I'm concerned it the way that they performed like varying
13:58
con in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, late twenty twenty one,
14:03
inconsistent, twenty twenty two, inconsistent twenty twenty three. There were parts where
14:09
it was not that great, and then there were parts where it was really
14:11
really good, and then it'd be bad again, and then it'd be really
14:13
really good. I just want it to be really good all the time.
14:18
And I know you're not going to hit a grand same out of the park
14:20
every single time, but just give me something that entertained me each and every
14:24
week. They seem to do that with dynamite, rampage and collision can be
14:28
hit or mess at times. But I'm very optimistic this year, doctor Trey.
14:33
I want to hope that they take a step forward, but it's very
14:37
well I wouldn't be shocked if they take a step back either. So that's
14:41
how I see aw in twenty twenty four as we kick off this new year.
14:46
Yeah, I see this year as kind of being one of their big
14:50
forks in the room, like a very transformative year for the company, and
14:54
basically because they need direction, they need direction in cohesion. I've kind of
15:00
beat this drum for the last few years. Like the one thing we love,
15:05
like we can't take away from them is they have great entering, talent
15:07
and athleticism. The one knock they've always had has been their creative It's been
15:13
all over the place. It's been starting stop, it's been hit and miss,
15:16
it's been hey, this guy's been you know, we're gonna push this
15:20
guy in the moon, and then they forget about him three weeks later,
15:22
we don't see him on TV for a month and a half. With they
15:28
just need direction. If you're gonna go to the new Japan route, go
15:30
to the new Japan rout. If you're gonna go the storyline traditional wresting style,
15:33
then go that way. It's really hard to get your audience to buy
15:37
in if they don't know where you're going, and sometimes it feels like they
15:41
don't know where they're going. They have plenty of television exposure right now to
15:48
pull this off. Now. My worries are, hey, if you see
15:52
that the company's taken another loss financially, how long is Daddy con gonna let
15:58
Tony have the perse shrinks for aaw If you lose the TV deal, do
16:03
you go back to like what happened with TNA and Impact Wrestling, where you're
16:07
just languishing in the forest of forgotten streaming partners, hoping to find a solid
16:15
home at some point. So that's where my worry comes in. Is more
16:21
like just finding a direction and running that race and not trying to run eight
16:26
races at one time. Just run your race, stay in your lane,
16:29
and do whatever you think you do best, do it better than everybody else,
16:33
and do it better than your competition, because then your competition will elevate
16:37
their game and then you got to elevate your game again to keep up.
16:40
So for twenty twenty four, it's it's basically it's kind of just, you
16:44
know, fork in the road, figure out which path you're gonna take.
16:47
For if you're AAW I just want to clarify that when he said Daddy Khan,
16:51
he meant Daddy Kha and not Daddy con which is a completely different thing
16:57
that I know. I'm sure it is, you know what, It has
17:00
to exist somewhere in this strange, strange world that we live. So there
17:04
is the All Elite Wrestling preview for twenty twenty four Doctor Trey. What about
17:11
all of the wrestling, TNA, wrestling, indie wrestling. How do we
17:15
look at the world of professional wrestling outside of the WA and AW bubble for
17:19
twenty twenty four. Well, I'm gonna skip T and A just for a
17:23
second and kind of focus on the MLWS, the GCWS, the rest of
17:27
your volvers of the world, like your your double A you know, Triple
17:32
A type organizations. For them, I think they can have a really good
17:36
year. We talked about a couple of weeks ago. Right now, you're
17:40
starting to see some of the the WW releases getting you know, TV or
17:44
getting matches in these promotions, whether it's man Sore and Massey if they're going
17:52
that way. Uh, They're getting bookings. You're starting to see the mustaf
17:56
Alis get the book, Eggs, Nick Neemuth aka Dolph Ziggler, Like this
18:00
is a chance when they have these big releases. If you can capitalize that,
18:03
you can grow your audience. You know, you're seeing you know,
18:07
Kushiitas re signed in TNA. So there's a lot of quality depth out there
18:11
for these promotions to to snatch up and build their programming. Uh, TNA
18:17
is gonna be interesting because we're rebranding back to TNA this year, so seeing
18:21
what they do is gonna be very very interesting because some of those people that
18:26
they've had crossovers with, whether it's the will Osprey's, the Khuzishiko Okadas like
18:32
those guys are probably gonna be under exclusive deals to whatever company. Well,
18:34
we know Ospray's stunning is with AW. We don't know what Okata is doing
18:38
yet, but there's gonna be some people that, uh you can bring in
18:42
and sign to exclusive deals with TNA, uh that may not have normally been
18:48
available to you, just because of how much depth there is out there.
18:52
So uh, it's it's a good year for a wrestling promotion if you're trying
18:56
to build up a brand, even as in the same boat. So there's
19:03
just depth. It's just fighting the quality pieces that figure programming to accentuate it
19:08
and make it even better. It's tough to predict like where wrestling is going
19:14
to go outside of the W and AW bubble. I think the one I
19:17
am most optimistic and excited for is the relaunch of TNA Wrestling. I'm excited
19:22
to see how they capitalize on nostalgia because that's only going to last time so
19:26
long, I think they're gonna have a window where folks are going to be
19:29
checking out TNA Wrestling because they went back to their name that fans new and
19:33
love. But they're going to make sure they put out programming. They have
19:36
a roster, they have matches, they have storylines, they have pay per
19:40
views that bring people and keep people in that TNA wrestling world moving forward.
19:45
So that first quarter of the year, like maybe January when they relaunched mid
19:51
January to March April timeframe is going to be very, very crucial and key
19:56
for them. So I think they really need to maintain their audience and rowe
20:00
that audience and capitalize on that audience that is coming to check out TENA Wrestling,
20:03
because I'm someone that may tune into TENA Wrestling in the next couple of
20:07
weeks just to see how they perform as the returning brand of TNA now no
20:12
longer Impact Wrestling. For the rest of professional wrestling, I want to find
20:17
an independent wrestling promotion that is like two thousand and two to two thousand and
20:22
nine Ring of Honor esque. I want to get that buzz again. I
20:26
want to see fans excited and clamoring for a match that you can see at
20:33
Defy Wrestling, Wrestling, Revolver, GCW, what have you. I want
20:37
to find a wrestling promotion on the independent scene that does some really really good
20:44
wrestling, like the Ring of Honor days. I don't know if we'll see
20:47
it anymore in twenty twenty four. We talked about this a couple of weeks
20:51
ago. When it comes to independent wrestling, it just kind of feels like
20:53
it's not what it used to be from ten years ago. And a lot
20:57
of that has to do with AW coming up as a big time second promotion
21:02
and rig and Vonnor being bought by them. They're signing up talent, and
21:04
you don't could see talent perform on the INND scene for like two three four
21:08
years, and you know people telling you, hey, have you checked out
21:11
the Samoa Joe Matchia, have you checked out Nigel McGuinness, Brian Daniels and
21:15
Kevin Stein. I missed those days of professional wrestling. There's few and far
21:19
between, and then once you kind of find those people, they end up
21:25
in AAW or sometimes they get signed by WE. So I really hope in
21:30
twenty twenty four this isn't really much of a preview for indie wrestling. It's
21:33
more of a hope for indie wrestling in twenty twenty four as we find the
21:37
rest of promotion that is underground and wrestling fans are checking out and their matches
21:42
are phenomenal, and you know you're checking them out on YouTube, Twitter,
21:45
what have you. So that is our wrestling preview for all other wrestling not
21:51
named w W, WE and AAW now looking at some stories to watch Doctor
21:56
Trey heading into this year. I've got about three stories that I'm keeping an
22:00
eye on this year that I think could define twenty twenty four in a major
22:03
way. The first being will twenty twenty four be the year of free agents?
22:08
Reportedly because it's Gokata, MJF, Seth Rollins, Drew mctarre, Becky
22:12
Lynching, Kevin Owens or reportedly supposed to be all free agents. It's possible
22:17
by this time this podcast drops that one or multiple of those wrestlers could be
22:22
signed. As W is right now going on a little bit of a signing
22:25
spree. Is they just resigned Dominic and Raymistereo to long term deals. I'm
22:30
sure W and AW will continue to look to lock down their talents, and
22:34
if one of those free agents makes it out in the open to WAW wherever,
22:41
that the competition is going to look to snatch them up. I'm optimistic
22:47
that we see a lot of people switching. I think there will probably be
22:49
a big W name that goes to AW. I don't think there will be
22:53
a big AW name that goes to WE, but who knows. Then again,
22:59
you've got It's go Ocata's name just flowing around there. There's new TV
23:03
deals on the horizon. Will w RAW go to Warner Brothers Discovery? Will
23:08
they end up on Amazon Prime? Could they end up on Disney Plus or
23:11
ESPN? For all we know? What does w RAW do? And then
23:15
how is that effect AW with their television deals coming up with Warner Brothers Discovery
23:19
reportedly in twenty twenty four and then along the same vein there of the RAW
23:25
TV deal. Could w RAW no longer be on Mondays? How does this
23:29
new TV deal in the fall twenty twenty four shape everything out? SmackDown's going
23:33
to the USA network, Nxc's going to the CW network. Will NXT remain
23:37
on Tuesdays? Will SmackDown remain on Fridays? If AW changes home. Will
23:41
they remain on Wednesdays, Friday nights and Saturday nights? What happens with them?
23:47
And again like where's Raw? I mean Doctor Trey and I talked about
23:48
it a couple weeks ago, like could they really take Monday night Raw off
23:53
of Monday Nights. It's a very well big possibility. And I hope that
23:59
news doesn't drip during the recordings of these podcasts over the next couple of weeks,
24:03
where during the holiday of a programming schedules we pre record this all that
24:07
spoils us all. But I'm really intrigued by those three things in twenty twenty
24:11
four as stories. I'm gonna be watching Doctor Trey. The Year of the
24:14
free Agents, new TV deals, and potential TV scheduling changes. Yeah,
24:18
those are all big things that the Year the free Agent thing to me has
24:22
got me kind of baffled in the says because a lot of these names you
24:26
listen up, I just you can't see them switching programming. But at the
24:29
same time, when you look at some of those guys, you're like,
24:32
well, his best friend works for the other promotion, or you know there's
24:36
significant others over the other promotion, or things like that like, in that's
24:40
way somebody's choice. So that's gonna be big for me. Right now,
24:45
I'm looking at what does see him punk means a WW in twenty twenty four,
24:49
Like he's arguably the biggest sighting that they've had in quite some time,
24:56
outside of maybe Cody Rhodes. But it's also the one that nobig expected.
25:00
Will this be a solid because it was a multi year contract? Is this
25:03
something that you know, in six months we're sitting here going, Dear God,
25:07
why they do this because he's imploding? Or is he a model citizen
25:11
and towed the company line and you know, put out great matches and great
25:15
promos and they're just reaping the benefits of it. So that's that's a big
25:19
thing for me. Aw's financial state is a big story for me to watch.
25:25
You know, the reports came out right before the end of the year
25:27
that they had lost roughly about thirty two million dollars. If you're running a
25:33
company and you're losing thirty million dollars a year, how long could you stay
25:37
afloat and be viable before you have to start cutting, you know, cutting
25:41
people. And if that, if that happens, how many those guys.
25:45
You know, we talk about the twenty twenty four contracts that are coming open
25:48
that we know, but if AW hasn't cut ten guys, how many those
25:52
guys jump back to WWE and bolster their roster even more? And then finally,
25:57
for me, it's who's gonna break out this year? Like and that
26:02
don't just mean like have a really great year, Like we talked about the
26:06
War Show, Dominic mysterio, the swerve strict was not just that, but
26:08
who's going to take that next step and go from being mainstream wrestling to being
26:15
mainstream pop culture? I think that's the one thing wrestling's really lacked. Uh,
26:19
you know since johns any kind of winded things down, But even before
26:23
that, it was you know, Rock and Austin and then Hogan and Flair,
26:26
Like, who's gonna be that guy? Because when you look at the
26:30
depth across the state of wrestling, there has to be somebody that's gonna transcend
26:37
the sport and just take pop culture by the ears and say, hey,
26:41
look at me, look at me and drive those ratings those revenues up.
26:45
Uh. I don't know how much longer we can go in professional wrestling without
26:48
having that one guy, that one voice that everybody knows, not just wrestling
26:52
fans, like I want I want my grandma to know who some of these
26:56
people are. I want her like, I've heard of this guy, heard
27:00
of that guy? What's he about? I missed that? I think professional
27:03
wrestling really really needs that, and I think that this might be the one
27:06
year in quite a while that somebody really breaks out. So there you go.
27:10
There are some stories that we'll be watching and looking out for as we
27:15
enter and start kicking things off here. Slowly but surely. We're just a
27:19
couple of days in in twenty twenty four, we'll see how this all progresses
27:22
this upcoming year. It's a really really interesting start to twenty twenty four,
27:29
and this is a very intriguing year because there's so much stuff riding on it,
27:32
whether it be free agency, TV deals, consistency and programming. It's
27:37
a really, really big big year. Does a company break out into pop
27:42
culture? Does a professional wrestler break out in pop culture? Twenty twenty four
27:48
has at least the prospect, Doctor Trey of being a really potentially big year
27:55
for professional wrestling as a whole. Yeah, And honestly, it's some thing
28:00
I always appreciated to my kids and the people that work with me. Like
28:03
life is nothing but patterns and cycles, and when you can start to see
28:07
it, it makes things easier. And every time we've had big booms and
28:11
professional wrestling, it's usually because there's frustration with the economy and with culture as
28:17
a whole. You know, whether it was the early eighties, whether it
28:21
was the late nineties, and you kind of feel that way now there's a
28:25
lot of the same vibe and the same tension in the world that was going
28:27
on in those times. This this that's when people turn to wrestling because we
28:33
can't physically go out and punch people because we get arrested for that. But
28:37
if we can watch other people do it and say the things that we always
28:41
wanted to say and act the way that we always wanted to act, that's
28:45
when people really really break out and kind of grab the country by the throats.
28:48
I think that we're trending in that way now. That's why I really
28:52
think that this is the year something could really break out and you know,
28:56
kind of polarize the nation, so to speak. That's really interesting point that
29:00
you made there, because this is like the way things are right now because
29:03
you and I both lived it is very reminiscent of the social climate heading into
29:10
that mid to late nineties of professional wrestling, and it just it's it's crazy
29:15
how time can be a flat circle, because it does feel that way from
29:19
a societal standpoint, and also as a professional wrestling fan of being like this
29:25
is I feel like all around me there's something special going on. And then
29:27
on the outside world, the world that we get away from in professional wrestling,
29:32
it's very reminiscent of individualism and we're not going to take it type attitudes
29:38
it can go on and stuff that we saw there in the mid to late
29:42
nineties. So really that's a phenomenal point, doctor Treys, as we look
29:48
at professional wrestling in twenty twenty four, where things can go from here for
29:52
society and wrestling fans as a whole. So there you go stories that we
29:56
will be watching in twenty twenty four when it comes to the world of professional
30:02
wrestling. Now, Doctor Trey, it is time to get ready for our
30:07
five Bowl predictions for twenty twenty four and our wrestlm Any forty card predictions.
30:12
Are you ready for this? Are you nervous? Are you scared? Are
30:15
you excited? How do you feel before we get into it? So it
30:18
was funny like a couple weeks ago, like Jeff brings us all the time
30:22
that I hate this show because I have to listen back to it, and
30:26
I really hate my voice and I have sinus congestion really bad, so I
30:30
think my voice like I hear it echoing in my head, which makes this
30:34
even worse. Plus, we have had almost zero success with Boll predictions for
30:40
the last two years, so like we were literally counting quarter points at half
30:44
points just to give ourselves some credits so we don't get zeros. So absolutely
30:48
nervous and terrified, but it's going to be fun because I always love hearing
30:51
what you come up with. I don't know if you think the same way
30:53
about me, but this is actually one of my favorite things we do as
30:57
far as just fantasy book creative, just weird crap that Jeff and I come
31:03
up with for a Bold predictions. Oh yeah, I love doing this because
31:07
it's is there stuff that like on the probability of actually happening as a prediction,
31:12
is it really high, is it in the middle, is it really
31:15
low? Like how crazy did we get how Okay, I could see that
31:18
happening, did we get It's a really fun thing that we do here.
31:23
We recapped our bold predictions from the first show last year two weeks ago,
31:29
and Doctor Trey, we gave the victory too in that one when it came
31:33
to all encompassing bold predictions and WrestleMania thirty nine card predictions. We will have
31:38
to see how this sounds when we replay this clip on December nineteenth of this
31:44
year, the second last to last show of the year and recap our bold
31:48
predictions and Wrestlminga have forty card predictions on that edition of the podcast. But
31:53
right now, we're living in the moment, Doctor Trey. This clip is
31:56
now playing during the first show of the year and the second to last show
32:00
of the year, and it's time to get to it, my friend.
32:02
Shall we begin with each of us going through our bull predictions one through five?
32:08
Are we gonna do you want to go back and forth or we're just
32:10
gonna go straight through? I think what we've been going straight through the last
32:14
couple of years, and I think, why don't we do it again?
32:16
You want me to go first? Or do you want to go first?
32:19
My first I'm good. I got all my stuff here, so I'll start
32:22
first. My first Bull prediction is the one non entering storyline Bowl predictions,
32:29
So my first one is that the newly minted TKO Endeavor operation buys TNA Wrestling
32:38
and decides to operate as another traveling developmental brand, similar to what AW did
32:45
with Ring of Honor. I can see Endeavor doing the same thing with TNA
32:47
and just basically one upping the Tony Conn approach and leaving you know, Scott
32:52
de Moore in charge of running the day to day operations, but another avenue
32:57
for ww to kind of get some extra revenue coming in extra TV deal already
33:01
in place, and heck, end Never just announced not too long ago,
33:07
or it was announced that they're gonna start streaming TNA Wrestling through the Endever platform,
33:10
so it kind of makes sense on that level as well. My number
33:15
two Bowl prediction is everybody's favorite wrestler right now yours and mine included. Swerve
33:22
Strickland wins the AW Heavyweight Championship and the Prince Not on Dance will take over
33:27
social media. It is one of the most entertaining duos we've seen in quite
33:32
a while. Swerve is on. It is approaching another level. I think
33:37
he keeps making that progression. And as much as I really don't want other
33:42
managers to be successful out of just spite and biases, Prince not really is
33:45
entertaining what that dance he does coming out. Uh. My number three bowl
33:51
prediction is that Adam Copeland turns heel and reunites with Christian Cage to battle FTR
33:57
for the newly minted US Anadian Maple Leaf Brown Sugar, throw in one other
34:01
other title thing you want to tag team titles in AAW. I mean,
34:05
we have a surplus of belts available in AW. But I do think Edge
34:10
and Christian reunited at some point. In as much as I love cheering for
34:15
them, I think Christian Cage has been phenomenal as a heel. Adam Copeland
34:20
hasn't played the heeling quite some time, so I think those two guys getting
34:22
back together, reuniting E n C under the C and C Moniker to take
34:29
on FTR would be highly, highly enjoyable. My number four ball prediction is
34:34
that the Guns signed with WWE and sided with Grayson Waller and Austin Theory to
34:39
form Degeneration NXT or Degeneration next, however you want to phrase it, it'd
34:45
be some kind of cool thing there. But the Guns are arguably one of
34:49
the most entertaining duos on television right now, along with the other members of
34:53
Bullet Club Gold. I think those guys are perfect caddes for ww just like
35:00
we saw with Brian Pilman Junior recently. Just a young talent that they could
35:04
bring in mold as shape and their charisma level is off the chart. So
35:08
I can see them being paired with Waller and Theory, who are kind of
35:13
like a young Seawn Michaels and Triple H in their attitudes and basically reforming or
35:17
forming some version of Degeneration next. And finally, my last bull prediction is
35:23
kind of based on our award show so to speak, that Dominic Mysterial will
35:29
win Money in the Bank and cash in on Damian Priest, who cashed in
35:34
earlier on the show at Money in Bank to win the WWE Heavyweight Championship.
35:38
So I at this point, now we're getting close to WrestleMania season, Damian
35:44
Priest still has not cashed in. It doesn't look like he's gotten an opportunity
35:49
to do so. I can see him cashing in literally almost at the one
35:52
year mark, and then Dominic cashes in or wins money in the bank and
35:57
then cashes in on Damian Priest the same night. So those are my five
36:01
bold predictions. Oh, that's really good man. It's funny because at least
36:07
two of them are very similar in a way, or at least there's a
36:12
mention to mine. So beginning with my first Bowl prediction, I have Swerve
36:17
Strickland dethroning MJF and becoming the AW World Champion. Hopefully that means MGF retained
36:23
at world's end or this bold prediction is already shot by the time this show
36:28
airs. So both Doctor Trey and I having Swerve Strickland becoming AW World Champion
36:32
in twenty twenty four with our bold predictions. My number two is that Kazachka
36:37
Okada signs with WU and takes on shins Key Knackamore at WrestleMania forty. My
36:43
number three is that CM Punk becomes the next Era or the next wave of
36:49
Raw or SmackDown performer to go to NXT where he becomes the NXT champion,
36:53
helps build up Elia Dragonoff to eventually dethroned cm Punk and become NXC champion again.
37:00
My number four, similar to one of Doctor Trey's, is that Damian
37:05
Priest turns baby face when the Judgment Day turns on him, eventually cashing in
37:08
in his money in the bank briefcase and becoming the WA World. They have
37:13
a weight champion. So Doctor Trey and I have at some point, somehow,
37:15
some way, Damian Priest cashes in and becomes a WAE World. They
37:20
have Awight Champion. And then my last bold predictions is that Mercedes Money signs
37:25
with TNA Wrestling and feuds with Trinity. There's some reports out there right now
37:30
that her stuff is with aw has quieted down and has no more to talk
37:35
about Creative. Everybody's pointing Towe for her to make a return, maybe the
37:38
Royal Rumble in a couple of weeks. I'm saying she signs with TNA.
37:43
Scott de Moore said that they have a major surprise signing for TNA Wrestling,
37:46
and I think that's going to be Mercedes Mona. So Doctor Trey, there
37:51
are five bold predictions, funny enough mentions to swerve of Strickland, mentions of
37:57
Damian Priests, and at least both of ours. Yeah. By the way,
38:00
if if Swerve does the thrown MJF, I want a video of Jeff
38:04
Peck thing the Prince. Not a dance, I can say it. I
38:06
can do it. It's not a hard it's not so much to back and
38:08
forth. It's more the last so the last so part is what I want
38:13
to see. Fair enough. I'm really good with the arms bobbing back and
38:15
forth. I'm actually doing it right now. If you can hear me doing
38:19
it, if you hear cracking, that's my shoulders. That's literally how I
38:22
dance at most wrestling shows. Wait like I'm man like if somebody's somebody always
38:27
has music playing. At one a Rocket City shows where I started dancing and
38:30
then I realized, oh crap, I'm dancing and people can see me.
38:31
I immediately stop, So that does happen. I By the way, I
38:35
love the Okada one because as I was doing my wrestle media card, I
38:38
had a hard time finding Sammy for Shinsk to wrestle, so that works out
38:44
perfectly. I really really like that as well. So, Uh, no,
38:47
solid job on your prediction. We didn't go I don't think we went
38:50
too crazy like nothing is completely out of the rebel possibility, but they are
38:59
legitimly bold predictions because they are stretches of the imagination true. And there's also
39:04
the part of those are the things that we want to see in twenty twenty
39:07
four somehow, some way, all right, WRESTLEMANNI forty card predictions, Doctor
39:12
Trey, you went first with bowl predictions. I will go first with WRESTLEMANI
39:15
forty card predictions. My first match is the is that Roman Reigns defends the
39:21
WA Universal Championship against Cody Rhodes, who earns that right by winning the elimination
39:27
Chamber in Perth, Australia. My second match is Seth Freak and Ronalds defending
39:31
the w World of aweight Championship against CM Punk, who wins the Royal Rumble.
39:37
My third match is gun Ther defending the Intercontinental Championship against Brock Lesner.
39:42
My fourth match is Logan Paul defending the United States Championship against Kevin Owens.
39:47
My fifth match is for the Women's World Heavyweight Championship as Reid Ripley defends against
39:53
Becky Lynch, who wins an elimination chamber match to become the number one contender.
39:59
My number six man is EO Sky versus Bailey, who wins the Royal
40:02
Rumble for the WA Women's Championship. Seventh match is Finn Balor and Damien Priese
40:07
defending the undisputed w W Tag Team Championship against The Street Profits and Austin Theory
40:12
and Grayson Waller in a triple threat match. I have Jay Uso versus Jimmy
40:16
Uso. I have Sammy Zain versus Drew McIntyre. I have Shinsky Knackamoor versus
40:22
Kazuko o'cada. As I mentioned my bold predictions. My eleventh match is Bianca
40:27
bel Air and Shatzi defending the WA Women's Tag Team Championship against Oscar and Kyrie
40:31
Saint also known as the Kabuki Warriors. My twelfth match is Ray Mystereo,
40:37
Dragon Lee and Bad Bunny taken on Santos Escobar, Dominic Mysterio and j D
40:43
McDonough. I have Randy Orton taken on Solo Soakoa, Bobby Lashley taken on
40:47
La Night, Alpha Academy versus Diy versus the Creed Brothers versus Imperium in a
40:52
men's WrestleMania Showcase Fatal four way tag team match and in a Women's WrestleMania Showcase
40:59
Fatal four way tag time team match. I have. So we started kin
41:00
China Basler taking on Italian Teak and Knocked taking on Cancellrraine in the Hartwell taking
41:06
on Katana Chance and Kyden Carter. I have sixteen matches. That is my
41:10
Wrestlmania forty card prediction, Doctor Trey Hell. So, I think we're about
41:16
the same number of matches here. I just I was just making sure that
41:19
we're we're kind of here. So, oh, there's quite a few on
41:22
your card that are similar to mine, but then we also have quite a
41:25
few differences as well. So, uh so my wrestle Media card I have.
41:34
Yeah. So, so apparently Sammy was not happy with my wrestling.
41:40
I think Sammy just saw my wrestle Media card and decided it was horrible.
41:44
I can't believe you kept Nyah Jack's off the card. It's literally what it
41:47
is right now. Yeah, yeah, it's right behind you, dude.
41:54
Okay, So my wrestle Media card, I have a Robot Ray's defending the
42:00
just beated the championship against Cody Rhodes, who also I have basically somehow some
42:05
way getting in through the elimination chamber. I have Seth Frick and Rawlins defending
42:09
the ww Heavyweight Championship against them Punk, who wins the Rumble, just because
42:13
I think that's a great storytelling concerning that that's when Punk left was after the
42:16
Rumble ten years ago. He then returns and now wins it. For the
42:21
United States Championship, I have Logan Paul defending against l A. Knight for
42:24
the see. I also oh the women's tag team titles. I have Chelsea
42:30
Green and Piper Nivin against the Kabukie Warriors versus Alba Fire and Eila Dawn versus
42:36
Natalia and Teagan Knox. I have A j Styles versus Randy Orton. I
42:42
have finn baller Damian Priest defending the tag team titles against d I Y for
42:45
the well I don't know the Women's Championship on raw, I have ma Rea
42:50
Ripley defending against Becky Lynch. On the SmackDown side, I have EO Sky
42:54
defending against Bailey, who also wins the Rumble. I also have Jade Cargill
42:59
make it entering debut at WrestleMania versus Bianca bel Air, Drew McIntyre versus Sammy
43:05
Zain, Kevin Owens versus Bobby Lashley, John Cena makes his return to Battle
43:10
Solo Socoa. I also have Gunther versus Brock Lezard for the Inner Condaial title,
43:15
UH, Bobby Lashie versus Seamus hits Knock and mervs. The miz Uh.
43:21
I have a tag team gauntlet match which at the New Day UH pretty
43:24
deadly the Viking, the Viking Raiders, the Creeds, alph Academy and Imperium.
43:30
And then I have raymis Stereo and the rest of the l w O
43:32
versus Antos Escobar, Hulberto Korea and Angel Garza. I like it. I
43:38
like it, Doctor Trey My. The person I had the hardest to predict
43:45
their match was actually l A and I I nearly forgot him on my card.
43:49
Who was yours mine was finding an opponent for Gunther like I wanted to
43:54
do Brock like I I just don't see that being for the Inner Connial title,
43:59
So I kept try to figure out a way to put the belt on
44:01
somebody else first, like brought causes somebody to beat Gunther. So that was
44:07
what and then yeah, it was the La Knight Kevin Owens, like who
44:10
goes with who? And I just think they're going to do Kevin Owens a
44:14
Logan Paul at Rubble and then La Knight and Logan Paul at WrestleMania. So
44:19
that's kind of my thought process anyway. Yeah, no, it makes sense.
44:22
It makes sense. So there you go. There is our five bold
44:25
predictions and our wrestlemating forty card predictions. We will reopen the vault on December
44:31
nineteenth, twenty twenty four, and we will see how Doctor Trey and I
44:37
did. So hopefully when we go back in time and listen back to these
44:42
predictions and these match predictions, doctor Trey and I look like geniuses. If
44:46
not, we will continue to laugh at ourselves. So there is our twenty
44:52
twenty four five bold predictions and our wrestuming forty card predictions here on the first
44:57
show of twenty and twenty four. And now, Doctor Trey, I guess
45:02
it's time to close up shop on this week's edition of SRT or the first
45:07
show of twenty twenty four. So with that said, let's get a couple
45:10
plugs and sponsors out of the way. You can down the show every Thursday
45:14
or Friday at Real Guy Radio dot com, Russell chat neet on X and
45:17
the still Route the show iTunes feed. Don't fig to rate, review and
45:20
subscribe to help us cimb charts on iTunes. You could follows individual on X
45:23
for myself at SRTU Jeff, and for Doctor Trey Franklin at The Doctor Trey
45:28
and of course don't forget to follow a show on X at SRTU podcast.
45:31
With that being said, what is going on in the one for world of
45:34
dot Trey Franklin this week? Well, first off, I'm disappointed in Jeff
45:37
because I thought I would at least get a chuckle out of the aw United
45:42
States Canadian brown sugar maple leaf to height team titles. I did. I
45:45
loved it, to be honest with you, but we're such a we're rocking
45:49
and rolling through there. I did love it, and I'm like, how
45:52
the hell am I going to type this out later? Like do we do
45:53
this as an acronym? I like the brown sugar thing that you added to
45:59
that sugar? Yeah. So anyway, but like Jeff said, for all
46:00
those jokes and funny, witty comments, you can follow me on X at
46:04
the Doctor Trey. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook, where you
46:07
can see pictures of me and Sammy Franklin, who had to chime in and
46:10
tell me how horrible my bull predictions were this year and my Wrestle Media card
46:15
because there was no Naya Jackson mentioned on my Wrestle Media card, so he's
46:19
very upset about that. But when you're on Facebook, be sure to check
46:22
out Rocket City Championship Wrestling and Spartan Championship Wrestling, the two shows I work
46:25
with here in the state of Alabama. As we are just two days away
46:29
from the Rocket City Rumble from when the show comes out. We'll have almost,
46:34
if not over forty competitors in the Rocket City Rumble this year, which
46:38
makes it the biggest rumble in the area. Usually we pack out the Billy
46:43
around four hundred five hundred people the building for that show, So be sure
46:45
check out Facebook dot com the Rocket Seat Championship Wrestling for all the pictures and
46:50
videos for those shows, plus all the past shows are up there too,
46:52
and you can hear my lovely commentary and all my witty jokes on there as
46:55
well. There you go support all the great things at Support SRTU believe me,
47:00
I was laughing. I'm my mic off because I want to keep the
47:02
audio pretty clean from when we go back and listen to it, and I'm
47:07
like just thinking to myself again, like how am I going to type this
47:08
out later? So that's why after every one of these, once Doc Tran
47:14
and I do this podcast, we always sit down. I'm like, all
47:15
right, so tell me your bold predictions again, so I type it all
47:17
out. WRESTLEMANI forty and we'll have to add the new aw championship that Tony
47:22
Kahn will certainly introduce a secondary tag team title, because why the fuck not
47:28
at this point, I mean everything, you get a title, you get
47:30
a title, you get a title again. Lots of fun Doctor Trey previewing
47:36
the World of Professional Wrestling for twenty twenty four. The holiday programming schedule is
47:40
in the books. This is my favorite stuff that we do all year outside
47:45
of WrestleMania previews, Thanksgiving specials, what have you. Halfway point of the
47:50
year when we look at our award show categories, I really like spending these
47:53
last three weeks where Dot Train and I get to stick it like a step
47:58
back, sit and relax recap twenty twenty three, look at the highs of
48:02
professional wrestling in twenty twenty three, and then just throw stuff againt the wall
48:07
for twenty twenty four and just kind of fantasy book a little bit and see
48:12
where you know things may go for twenty twenty four. It's it's an exciting
48:15
time professional wrestling. It has the opportunity to be another big year. I
48:21
thought we had a very big year in twenty twenty three, so this is
48:23
really exciting times. And I appreciate everybody for joining us these last couple of
48:29
weeks here during the holiday programming schedule, and now we get back to it
48:32
to the regular programming schedule. On next week's edition of SRTU, Doctor Tray
48:37
for January the eleventh, Doctor Trey and I get you ready for the Royal
48:40
Rumble twenty twenty four. That will be about two weeks away. It's three
48:45
weeks away from today, in about two weeks time, Doctor or three weeks
48:50
time, Doctor Try and I will be preview and predicting it and getting you
48:52
ready for the Royal Rumble. But it's Royal Rumble season and then before you
48:55
know it, it will be Wrestle Mayia forty season, which is absolutely mind
49:00
blowing. Again, thank you to everybody for downloading the show. I hope
49:04
everybody had a great New Year. It's a great holiday, a great couple
49:07
of weeks listening to holiday programming schedule. Once again, thank you all for
49:10
all your support and everything that you do each and every week by downloading SRTU,
49:15
it means the world to us. So until next week for Young Sammy
49:20
Franklin who's upset and I Jacks won't be at Russell Mainty forty For doctor Trey
49:23
Franklin. I'm Jeff Peck. This is the story, real good show.