Latest / THE STILL REAL TO US SHOW – Real Guy Radio / Is This The Greatest Roster In Wrestling History!? | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #735 – 3/14/24
Transcript
- 0:00It's still welcome everybody. Welcome to this week's edition A Surial Do Show Episoe
- 0:22number seven and thirty five from March for fourteen, twenty twenty four. Welcome
- 0:27to this week's edition of ass R to You. I am one after the
- 0:33show, I am Jeff Tack twenty every single week my post a lot like
- 0:37Doctor Prey, Franklin, Doctor Trey. Were you excited for some big business
- 0:41my friend? Oh, you mean the wrestling show, not what we were
- 0:45talking about off air. Maybe a little bit of both. Maybe a little
- 0:49bit of both. I thought you said. Welcome to as Rtuca's a conversation
- 0:55we had off air. Doctor Trey and I are talking to people are like,
- 0:58WHOA, what the frick were they doing before they show? Dot Tran.
- 1:00I have some Shark Tank ideas and it involves potty training for toddlers.
- 1:04I will leave it at that. I don't want to. I just want
- 1:08everybody prepared for us to be on Shark Tank within what six months the latest.
- 1:15The hardest part we developing a prototype. I'll work on it. Let's
- 1:19just say it's a belt and a potty belt potty. For those who listened
- 1:23to the podcast, a couple of weeks ago with young Sammy Franklin joining us
- 1:27for the first ever break in potty emergency in SRTU history. This is what
- 1:34it all has stem stem two my friends. Is Doc Tray and I trying
- 1:38to branch out and make millions of dollars because that's what this would do,
- 1:42but again I don't want to share it. Yeah, we just got to
- 1:45bring back the Dad Podcast. Oh yes, that's right, Dad's Home.
- 1:49There you go, with one and only Mike Bauer and the Sweet Nasty Chris
- 1:53Cause for those who are longtime listeners here of the Real Guy radio platform in
- 1:59the various different podcasts that have been out there. Switching back to professional wrestling
- 2:05from belt Potty, which is the working title of what Doctor Trey and I
- 2:09are working on for our Shark Tank idea, we saw some big business take
- 2:15place last night on aw Dynamite Doctor Trey and this person to you is is
- 2:23kind of a very controversial wrestler in being at Mercedes Monette, the former Sasha
- 2:30Banks is now officially after months and months and months of speculation, all elite
- 2:37and made her debut in grand fashion fashion in her hometown of Boston, Massachusetts,
- 2:42last Night Doctor Trey, I'm really interested to hear your thoughts on Mercedes
- 2:47Monette officially joining an elite wrestling So is she all elite if she's still partially
- 2:53in New Japan. I think, well, I mean she's she is a
- 2:58full time wrestler. In her contract does state that she can do work in
- 3:02New Japan, but the priority will be aw So it's not all Alie,
- 3:07it's mostly Alli. It is it's all Lead. So that if you remember
- 3:13the New Japan contract she had was like for three months and maybe like it
- 3:16was either like three months or four matches, and then she got injured.
- 3:22With what she has come out in interviews lately, it was a career ending,
- 3:25potentially career ending injury when her ankle broke in her match with will Nightingale
- 3:30in the finals of the New Japan Strong Women's Championship. She ended up having
- 3:35they ended up having to do a little bit of a swerve there. She
- 3:38was set to win that match. Willow Nightingale had to win that match because
- 3:42Mercedes Monet has been out since then. I think that injury occurred back in
- 3:46May, so she was I don't I mean, she was a New Japan
- 3:52pro wrestling star at some point. But I always felt like once she debuted
- 3:58at wrestled Kingdom, this new person Mercedes Monet. To me, it always
- 4:01felt like she was going to be in AW even before she appeared at All
- 4:05Out in London over the summer. Yeah, I mean it's good for AW.
- 4:13It got their name out there. People. They are die hard Mercedes
- 4:17Monette aka Sasha Banks fans out there. I've seen all over social media like
- 4:24whether you're on I don't want to say the red side of the Blue syce
- 4:28that that's political, but there's this weird division in wrestling where you're you're either
- 4:32an elite fan or you're a WWE fan, and supposedly you can't cross over.
- 4:36But like I've seen people out there, like I leterally say, I
- 4:39saw somebody say that she's on the Mount Rushmore of greatest women's wrestlers of all
- 4:43time. I've seen that people like on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.
- 4:46So what it did for AW was great. He got their name out
- 4:48there, people taking notice, checking out the product. That's fantastic Mercedes Money.
- 4:56Though to me, for me personally, it is one of the most
- 4:58polarizing figures in professional wrestling, because for a long time I was not a
- 5:04fan of her work. I thought she wrestled kind of lazy at times in
- 5:09the ring. Like she wrestled, she was never big on. She was
- 5:12never the one carrying the match. It was always her part, like whoever
- 5:16her dance partner was, when that was always kind of carrying the match.
- 5:19Then pandemic time hit and she stepped her game up, went to a whole
- 5:24of her level, and I was applauding her for it, And now it's
- 5:28kind of back to I'm I'm neutral on her, so to speak. I
- 5:32do think she's a bit of a drama queen at times, But at the
- 5:39end of the day, it's it's good for aw it's good for the women's
- 5:42division. It's going to get people to tune in and check out the product.
- 5:45But I just kind of see because that women's division, outside of a
- 5:49couple of female wrestlers is very green or very raw, which means she's going
- 5:57to have to carry a lot of matches to make them beyond the perceived level
- 6:02of what Mercedes Monee should be. And I haven't really seen that body of
- 6:09work from her consistently enough to really say if she can do it or not.
- 6:15I think Mercedes Monette is approaching a mount rushmore of some of the best
- 6:20women's wrestlers of all time. I mean, obviously she is a catapult into
- 6:26the greatest era of women's wrestling ever. I mean, we went from the
- 6:30bron Panis era that we predominantly saw on w W and ECW and WCW as
- 6:35well, and they became legitimate professional wrestlers to the point where I get more
- 6:45excited for women's matches, women's feuds, women getting the opportunity to main event
- 6:53WrestleMania than I ever have in my entire existence as a wrestling fan. Like,
- 6:58we just came off of a year where Doctor Trey and I both named
- 7:01Rhea Ripley are overall male or female wrestler the year, and rightfully so.
- 7:06Like Rihea Ripley to me still is one of the hottest commodities in all professional
- 7:12wrestling right now, one of the most entertaining wrestlers you will see on any
- 7:15roster, and that is because of what Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch Bailey,
- 7:21Sasha Banks did Page Emma. That NXT group of women made professional women's wrestling
- 7:30cool and then they took it to the main roster and they and they got
- 7:33the divas a chance to keep going and really spread. And she's been part
- 7:39of what I consider to be one of the best matches we've ever covered in
- 7:44the history of this podcast, when her and Bailey tore down the House and
- 7:48NX takeover Brooklyn. I think it's one of the I think it's the greatest
- 7:51women's match I've ever seen. She has headlined pay per views with Bianca Belair
- 7:59at WrestleMania, first ever women to headline, or excuse me, the first
- 8:03African American women to headline a Wrestlemnian event. That was massive. She was
- 8:09in hell and a cell elimination Chamber. She helped bring in the women's tag
- 8:13team titles. She is a trailblazer. There is a lot of things that
- 8:16she has been tied to for a lot of first or a lot of doors
- 8:20being busted down, and her name is tied all over that the part of
- 8:26Mercedes Monet, which is gonna be difficult for me to get used to right
- 8:28away here, but I'm sure it will ease in, just like every other
- 8:31time where I'm like, how the hell am I got to call Dean Ambrose,
- 8:33John Moxley, and now just flows off the tongue is I think the
- 8:39part that gives her criticism. And you said before how polarizing she can be.
- 8:43She has walked out of we twice. The first time she walked away,
- 8:48she came back eventually, and then she had that run during the pandemic.
- 8:52The second time she walked away, she walked away for good and right,
- 8:56wrong or indifferent. You can't sit there as a rending fan whether you
- 9:00agree or disagree with her. I think all of the people that agree and
- 9:05to disagree probably agree on is that there's always that possibility that she could be
- 9:11a little bit of a flight risk again, where if things don't go her
- 9:13way in aw or things that are going on that she doesn't like or feels
- 9:18like that she needs to stand up for, will she walk out on the
- 9:22company again and stand true to what she believes in and again, depending on
- 9:28how you look at it, it's like, all right, power to the
- 9:31people. We love that type of you know, attitude and popularity. But
- 9:37for me, as a guy who I'm not there obviously, I don't know
- 9:41what's going on. I'm a fan of Mercedes Monett. I support the power
- 9:45to the wrestlers and all that stuff, but you got to admit that it's
- 9:48like, Okay, first time, all right, she stuck to her guns
- 9:52and this is cool to see she doesn't like what's going on, and then
- 9:56when she did the second time, it's like, what exactly happened that led
- 10:01to this? And that's where it's very polarizing. She's able to say how
- 10:07she feels and you know stand by it. It's it's really tough, doctor
- 10:13Tray. I mean, the wrestler I really like, but the character of
- 10:16the person there are times where it's like, okay, could she be a
- 10:18flight risk again? For aw? Yeah, I mean she she arguably is
- 10:24the CM punk of women's wrestling, Like I don't know if that makes sense,
- 10:28Like, and I was thinking about this, well, what were you
- 10:31talking? Like, if you were to rank the four horse women, where
- 10:35do you rank her among the four women? That's a tough one because I
- 10:41think all four of them are one a's if that makes sense, Doctor Tray,
- 10:46it's to me, I think I would probably go Charlotte one, Becky
- 10:54two, Bailey three, Sasha four, and I think Sasha is four because
- 11:00of the walking out and stuff. There's been gaps in her career, whether
- 11:03it's because she has voluntarily walked out of her job or she had that major
- 11:09injury, like she just is coming off of with New Japan. Yeah,
- 11:13and that's when people tell me about talking about Mount rushmorees. I'm like,
- 11:16okay, well she's if you and I, I mean, I agree.
- 11:18I think it is kind of like it's a very close four. It's it's
- 11:22you know, arguably one A, one B, one C, one D.
- 11:26But if you're going to write the four, I think she comes in
- 11:28fourth. And then you talk about Mount Rushmore. It's like, okay,
- 11:31well do you put it? You can't put her above Leta. You can't
- 11:33really put her above Trish. You can't put her above you know, do
- 11:37you put her above page slash so rya like like where did? Like it's
- 11:43tricky at times. It is a little bit of like you have to pick
- 11:46your favorite flavor of ice cream in a sense. But I think what you're
- 11:50saying about her being a flight risk about like how is she going to blend
- 11:54into this locker room, because we've seen this women's locker room at time b
- 12:00very very get along and everybody's happy and then We've seen it be very very
- 12:03divisive at times as well, So it's gonna be a really interesting dynamic when
- 12:07you're putting her into the mix, especially with you know, I hate saying
- 12:11this, but the women's division in AW is a little bit like the TNA
- 12:18era when they would bring in ww people and all of a sudden shotgun them
- 12:20to the top of the card and then slowly push them back down. Impact
- 12:26kind of does the same thing. We've seen it with Surrey, We've seen
- 12:28with Ruby Soho, We've seen with Tony Storm with her initial debut and then
- 12:33this rebroke. We see it now with Diana Barrazza. They kind of start
- 12:37hot and then it's like they kind of get pushed back down. It's that
- 12:41new toy philosophy that we've talked about Tony kNN in the past, like he
- 12:45loves his shining new toys, and then after he's played with it for a
- 12:48little while, it kind of gets pushed back to the back of the toy
- 12:50box. I hear you, and I love the comparisons there for what TNA
- 12:56used to do, right, Like a major WWE name would come in and
- 12:58all of a sudden, they're immediately in the main events spot and props to
- 13:01Tony Kahn. He doesn't always do that. There are times he certainly has,
- 13:05but he doesn't always do that. But I do feel like that this
- 13:09is exactly what the AW Women's Division needed is a Mercedes Monette. They needed
- 13:16a franchise player. No disrespect to everybody on the ADW Women's Division roster,
- 13:22there are a lot of bright bright spots. There are people that are really
- 13:26ascending up the ladder, whether it be Julia Hart timeless, Tony Storm,
- 13:28who's been around for a long time, Blue Sky has really come into her
- 13:33own with the Julia Perry and I'm really enjoying the Chris stat Lander, Willem
- 13:37Nightingale stuff. Obviously loves Soireya. Doctor Britt Baker has really become a top
- 13:43star in all professional wrestling. Jamie Hayter we sincerely miss from being injured now.
- 13:50I think she's been out for almost a full year at this point.
- 13:54But I have always felt like, and this is gonna sound awful, and
- 13:58I hate to say this, but I've always felt like there has been this
- 14:03It's like the W Women's roster completely overshadows anything that's going on in the AW
- 14:09Women's division roster, whether it's the types of matches, the matches that they're
- 14:13having, the storylines that they're having, the creative the focus, it's always
- 14:18been WWW and very far behind. I've always felt like is AW And I
- 14:24think we've talked about this in the podcast, and I think maybe we differ
- 14:28on this, but I feel like, if you took, like removing Mercedes
- 14:33mon Aide out to Trey, the best AW women's wrestler, in your opinion
- 14:39is in the entire five years, is who you like over like in ring
- 14:48or just overall overall? Who has been the most overall best wrestler, Who
- 14:52has been the face of the women's division for the you know an AAW When
- 14:56they say who is the face of the AW Women's division, who comes to
- 14:58mind? Said Britt Baker until the last like six months as she's been out.
- 15:03Okay, Yeah, I would go with doctor Britt Baker too, And
- 15:05I granted I get the injury stuff, but I still think that even that
- 15:09aside, like the history of a division, it's her right. Yeah,
- 15:15I agree. I think if you put Britt Baker into w w W,
- 15:20like, where would she rank with some of the best women's wrestlers right now,
- 15:26she would be towards the top of the card because the character would kind
- 15:33of translate. The character of doctor bur Baker might translate better in WW at
- 15:37times as well. So I still think she'd be probably if you're doing a
- 15:41pecking order, maybe fifth or six, I would put Rhya, Bianca Bailey,
- 15:48Eo Sky Live, Morgan, Becky Lynch ahead of her. Would I
- 15:54would probably put her above EO and Live just because I think I think the
- 15:58pro ability, the character ability is but I mean, she could be kind
- 16:03to stale at times, I got it. Yeah, But she wouldn't be
- 16:07writing her own promos in WW. She'd have writers helping her along to keep
- 16:11it a little bit fresh, Okay. I think so this is where we
- 16:15like differ on the entire thing. I still think at the end of the
- 16:18day, I just feel like you inject some of the AW Women's wrestlers in
- 16:22there and to w w W and they just don't hold a candle to it
- 16:26to them right now, I think the one issue they have with the Women's
- 16:30Vision AW is kind of the same thing they have with the majority of their
- 16:34roster is I don't know. I don't really feel like there's a pecking I
- 16:41hate saying this because this is our old tag team name. I don't think
- 16:44there's a pecking order in AW. It feels like everybody's right, like the
- 16:48majority of the stars are all right around the same level. Like there's no
- 16:53like a WW go oh, that's a main event guy, that's a mid
- 16:56card guy that's bottom of the car guys. Same thing with the women's division,
- 17:02where in AW it kind of does feel like everybody's like basically treading all
- 17:07like within a step or two of each other, like you know, Orange
- 17:11Cassidy's you know, International Title Rod, you know down, but then he
- 17:15could be the main event like it does. It doesn't feel like there's a
- 17:18flow chart to AW like there is with WWE. I think some of the
- 17:22women AW AW, if they were put into the WW structure, could actually
- 17:26be higher. I completely agree with you. I would say when Ruby Soho
- 17:32entered AAW, she was above Live Morgan in w w WA. And I
- 17:36think they have completely widened the gap there, and that's because the creative.
- 17:40I think, at the end of the day, the creative in AW for
- 17:42the women's division has done them a disservice. I don't think any of the
- 17:45women's wrestlers are poor wrestlers. I don't think they're bad wrestlers. I think
- 17:49if most of them went into we they would be extremely successful. It's just
- 17:53that AW doesn't know what to do with them, which could be very scary
- 17:57for the Mercedes Mona store in general. But I do feel like there are
- 18:02glimmers of hope there. Case in point, very sidebar end of Dynamite On
- 18:07Wednesday Night, Mercedes Bonet makes a safe for Willow Nightingale who injured her over
- 18:14Julie Hart and sky Blue. Somebody's like, where the hell is Chris Statlander.
- 18:18I disagree with the execution of this. They ended up putting out like
- 18:22a YouTube video where stat Lerning explains that she was taken out by Julie Hart
- 18:27and sky Blue, which is which is fine, and maybe that's actually leading
- 18:33to a Chris statlerner Lander heel turn and she actually did not get beaten up
- 18:36by them. But I would have ran something on Dynamite where like the camera
- 18:41pans and Statlander's taken out and Stokely Hathaway is over her, like I can't
- 18:47believe they did that to you, And then Julie Hart and sky Blue come
- 18:49out, or as they're beating her up Willow Nightingale, you show the backstage
- 18:56of Chris Statlander taken out. I would have liked that on the main show.
- 19:00They did it on the YouTube channel and on social media. I like
- 19:04that. I liked that they executed that and they actually had enough thought and
- 19:08detail to that because add to something that they're sincerely lacking. But you know,
- 19:15again, there's glimmers of hope, and we can only hope for the
- 19:18best. But the reason why the aw women's division is not as good as
- 19:22w we's women's division, to me completely is not the athleticism, the ringability,
- 19:26any of that. It is the creative Doctor Trey. It's why would
- 19:30I care about this? Yeah, And that's why I was comparing it kind
- 19:33of to like those NA days, because you know, you would see a
- 19:37guy come you see a guy or a girl because I don't want to forget
- 19:41the knockouts division in TENA, because the knockouts division has been one of their
- 19:44strengths for over a decade. But you'd see somebody come in super hot,
- 19:51get pushed to the mood, and then three months later be you know,
- 19:55in a in a backstage vignette with a mop or something like, it's just
- 19:59like, wait, wasn't that person a main eventure like not too long ago?
- 20:02And you know, you see it a little bit with you know,
- 20:03the Ruby sohos. Now like Ruby came in super hot, huge push,
- 20:07got paired with the outpass, still a huge push, and now a mid
- 20:14tier angle with you know, Sorea and Daddy Magic or cool Hey Looui camera
- 20:19which one? I forget which is which? But it's like, no,
- 20:22like Ruby Soho is one of the best in ring female wrestlers in the world,
- 20:29and we forget like it's just kind of pushed to the side at times.
- 20:33And then, you know, as much as we enjoy sky Blue and
- 20:37Julia Hart, does that feel like a main event level feud for Mercedes Monette
- 20:44coming in like it it kind of feels like, oh, of all the
- 20:47people that she's gonna get involved with, it's the Julia Hart sky Blue storyline.
- 20:52It's not Tony Storm, it's not Sireu's not here the dream matches we
- 20:56might be thinking of. It's sky Blue and Juwl your heart. It's this
- 21:00is where the creative always kind of makes me nervous. And Mercedes might have
- 21:03come in and said, Hey, I want to work with Willow and whoever
- 21:07you got to work with, just pair me up with And that might be
- 21:08the case. But for the casual fan tuning in for the first time you
- 21:12see Mercedes in the ring with Willow and Julie and sky you're like, oh,
- 21:17these must be main event people in aw and it's not. It's like
- 21:22her walking in if you do for the Intercontinental title in WWE instead of the
- 21:26world title, it's kind of the structure doesn't make sense of where you're placing
- 21:30here, because to me, that's a mid card feud for your new big
- 21:36free agent signing. It's like sign signing a three hundred hitter and sending in
- 21:41a triple A. But but you know what you know you had said before,
- 21:44like TNA will bring in w stars and push them to the top,
- 21:48Like do you want them to do that with Mercedes Monette because I feel like
- 21:52making Julia Hart and Sky Blue and Wellow Nightingale or even Chris Statlander. Let's
- 21:56say that they involve her into this. Legit Stars is a really big deal
- 22:03ultimately as well. It's it's great for their careers, but for the company
- 22:10when you have I disagree with that. I think it's great for the company
- 22:14too well, because here's the thing. Once, this is my my my
- 22:18thought process on it is you're now elevating the TBS title to what's either equal
- 22:22to the women's titles. Like you're not you're not setting that structure. You're
- 22:26not setting that pecking order, so to speak. You know, it's like
- 22:30for the first person, for the person tuning in, you see this and
- 22:33you go, hey, this is great for like I said earlier, it's
- 22:37great for AEW as a brand recognition, it's great for those women involved with
- 22:42her. But now the first the person who's a diehard Sasha Banks fan who
- 22:47turned into AW for the first time ever, you're gonna think sky Blue and
- 22:52you know, excuse me, sky Blue and Willow Nightingale and Julia Hart are
- 22:57the focal core o the women's division to fight out later on that actually they're
- 23:03kind of in the middle. So like, it's just it's it's a thing
- 23:07to me, I hear you on the first night. I think it's a
- 23:10little bit too soon to think about the full creative on this entire thing.
- 23:14I think ultimately she gets to the AW Women's Championship with Thomas Tony Storm.
- 23:18But I don't the way that AW does things, especially now with the ranking
- 23:21system, for her to come in and immediately become the number one contender,
- 23:25it makes like no sense. We can't like bash AW creative and they're like,
- 23:27all right, welcome aboard, you're going to have the number one contender.
- 23:32But you know, Cody didn't come in to WWE and challenge for the
- 23:36Innercontinental title. He came in and got into the main event picture. You
- 23:40know, Jade had her moments in the rumble with the main event people.
- 23:45WWE has that ability? Do they have that ability? In AW you have
- 23:52the women's division, Like who would who would be? Who should she feud
- 23:56with? Doctor Trey? I mean, I'm serious, I have no idea
- 24:00outside of timeless Tony Storm as the champion. I don't know unless Britt Baker
- 24:03came back from injury. Uh and even then you got to build her back
- 24:07up. I don't know who they would put her with in that first feud.
- 24:12I think Willow Nightingale makes ten sense because Willow took her out, but
- 24:15Willow's hasn't been booked. Great, but it's like, so who do you
- 24:18put her with? I mean, I like this is what I talk about,
- 24:22like the structure in the pecking order, Like it feels like outside of
- 24:26Tony Storm, everybody else is kind of in the middle Age. So it's
- 24:30like, do you set it up? Like I mean, to me,
- 24:33Sorea is a bigger star than Julia Hart, Like if you had her come
- 24:37out like they they had Soraya and uh, what's her face? You know,
- 24:41kind of beat up Ruby Soho. What if Mercedes Bande came to Ruby
- 24:47Soho's defense and then you get Ruby or you get Mercedes and Soirey at some
- 24:51point. That's kind of a dream match for WWE fans. I'm conserned Banks
- 24:55and Page Russell, Well we thought on We're Page he actually got hurt.
- 24:59Yeah, I hear you. I'm concerned very seldom across paths like that's I
- 25:03still think Seray and Ruby Soho are a little bit higher, you know,
- 25:08perceived than Julia, Willow and Scott So it's just it's just ques like it's
- 25:15a little bit of like this is where the creative comes in, where there's
- 25:17no differentiating between the top of his a vision and the bottom. It all
- 25:23feels very very kind of level, and I think you need to start establishing
- 25:27that kind of hierarchy, so to speak, so that way, when you
- 25:30do have somebody come in that can be a focal point, you have somebody
- 25:36on equal footing with them to start them off with. I think with Mercedes
- 25:41Monette coming into AW and them adding I believe it's Jennifer Pepper Peppermin, the
- 25:48lady who left w W, who was like credited for the women's division and
- 25:52is supposed to be like the Brian Gritz of to the Rock is to her,
- 25:56to Mercedes Moonet, like Mercedes Renee's official creative writer, and was given
- 26:03a ton of props in w and they said it was a big loss.
- 26:07I think that everything that we know about the AW Women's Division pre Mercedes Monet,
- 26:11we have to kind of delete from our brains now. And it's basically
- 26:15almost in a little bit of a restart of a creative all encompassing. You
- 26:19have a legit franchise player now on your roster. How do you build around
- 26:26her, how do you build people up with her? And how do you
- 26:30make the AAW Women's Division better? I think that is ultimately what it is.
- 26:36Like I struggle to like think about who she should feud with right away.
- 26:41I know he threw out Soaya's name out there, but I'm concerned about
- 26:45the long term ability of say even wrestling, because you few and far between
- 26:51you actually see her wrestle, and if she wrestles, it's a lot of
- 26:53tag team matches, and when she does singles, it's it's very few and
- 26:57far between. It's a lot of four way matches, stuff like that.
- 27:03It's very difficult when AW and granted and over the last six months they have
- 27:08not completely like turn a blind eye to the women's division like there would be
- 27:12in the past. They're they're just not there yet. And I think that
- 27:17this signing with Mercedes Monet is big in the all important, encompassing growth of
- 27:22the AW women's division. Six months from now, a year from now,
- 27:26if it's still the same doctor Trey and we have not seen improvements with Mercedes
- 27:32Monet on the roster, then yet the bells and whistles are going to be
- 27:36alarming off. But I just don't think that I think there are two green
- 27:41I think they're too young, and I think that they have just done a
- 27:45disservice to the women's division in all honesty for too long that they're just not
- 27:52on the equivalent yet that when Mercedes Monet signs with the company, it's like,
- 27:56who do you put her with? And you're like, well, it
- 27:56could be one of three wrestlers, it could be in WWE. It's like,
- 28:03well, we may put her with this person for now and ultimately get
- 28:06her to the aw Women's Championship match. If that makes sense. I think.
- 28:10I think in a way with Mercedes signing, it's a little bit of
- 28:11a start over as well. Yeah. To me, this is kind of
- 28:17like when you have that rebuilding franchise and they bring in you know, you
- 28:21get the one person to buy in and that attracts other people. Like I
- 28:25get like Mercedes can be a building block because if you look at this women's
- 28:29division over five years, outside of Britt Baker, it's constantly shifting who they
- 28:33feel like they're building this division around. Like at one point it was Rio,
- 28:37at one point it was Nyla Rose, and at one point it was
- 28:41the outcast, and then now you feel like it's Tony Storm like and then
- 28:45it was Jade Cargill at one point as well. Like they've had six or
- 28:49seven people they feel like they were going to push in just a short amount
- 28:52of time. And at this point now you look around and you're like,
- 28:55well, Jade's gone, Nyla's on collision at best. You know, you
- 29:00hardly see Rio Kiashida is a two time women's champion and three time women's champion,
- 29:07but there's no you know, Tony Storm right now is the focal point.
- 29:11But like if the character grows stale, where does that go? And
- 29:15then you bring in Deanna Parrazzo and it's like you have the pieces, it's
- 29:21just you have to give it structure because you know, like I said,
- 29:25we watched the Rumble, we all anticipate Jade Cargill and who's she involved with?
- 29:30She gets involved with Naya Jacksonancabelle Air and like the she's not going after
- 29:34you know, the lower card NXT women, Like she's hitty high spots for
- 29:40what her projection should be. And yeah, you might want to build this
- 29:45division around Willow and Sky and Julia going forward like four or five years out.
- 29:52But not having a structure in place now is it's not a hindrance,
- 30:00but it just kind of bogs it down a little bit. Yeah, this
- 30:03is an interesting conversation because this is organically kind of shifted into what I wanted
- 30:07to bring up next with Mercedes Monett joining ALI Wrestling. We talked about this
- 30:11about a month or two ago when the realization was coming that Kazisiocada, will
- 30:17Ospray, Mercedes Monet was going to be joining ALI Wrestling, and we talked
- 30:21about how could they save the company, could they help turn it around?
- 30:25The addition to the roster, And you look at this roster and this is
- 30:29something that they were trumpeting on Dynamite last night and rightfully so it's like this
- 30:32is one of the greatest assembly of professional wrestlers on one roster than you've ever
- 30:40seen before. And they're not wrong. From Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks
- 30:45to Chris Jericho and Adam Copeland and Christian to John Moxley, Claudio Casignoli,
- 30:49Brian Danielson, Jay White, Kazichio Ocado, will Ospray, Mercedes Monet,
- 30:56Eddie Kingston, there's this FTR. There's just so many talented wrestlers. Swerve
- 31:03Strickland, Hangman Page, Samoa, Joe Wardlow, Adam Cole, Rogers,
- 31:07Strong, Kyle O'Reilly. There are so many talented wrestlers on this roster.
- 31:12Powerhouse, Ops Canisco, caniske to Keshka. I was on a roll there
- 31:18and nearly stumbled on his name, Siami Givara, the Hardy Boys. I
- 31:22mean, there's so many talented wrestlers on this roster and they're trumpeting rightfully,
- 31:27so which begs the question, is this the greatest roster of wrestling talent ever?
- 31:34This is a two part question. This is certainly the first part here,
- 31:37Doctor Trey. I think on paper right now, the AW roster is
- 31:44better than the ww roster. Is it the greatest roster of wrestling talent ever?
- 31:52Too soon to tell? To me? I still think those w W
- 31:55rosters in nineteen ninety seven to two thousand and three were the greatest rosters I've
- 32:00ever seen in professional wrestling history. From Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Brett
- 32:04Hart, the Rock, Undertaker of Triple Ah, Micfoley, Kurt Angle,
- 32:07Big Sho Caine, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, and the list goes on
- 32:10and on and on. To me, that was the greatest roster in wrestling
- 32:15history, and that's why they were so successful. They would say back there,
- 32:20it would be like the fourth match on the card, and it would
- 32:22be filled with main event level talented wrestlers that had star power and name value.
- 32:29I think, to me that period of time best roster ever. But
- 32:31the AW roster on paper right now is certainly knocking on that door, Doctor
- 32:37Trey and creating a little bit of buzz and creating a little bit of noise.
- 32:40Where do you think that this current AW roster stands when we look at
- 32:45greatest roster of wrestling talent ever? If you're going off in ring talent,
- 32:50the ability in the ring, it's arguably the greatest of all time, like
- 32:54just in ring professional wrestling ability. If you're going off like overall professional wrestlers,
- 33:00the attitude era, like you said that ninety seven to two thousand and
- 33:05two, two thousand and three is arguably my favorite. I also like,
- 33:09I'm older than you, so I go back to like W to B from
- 33:12like eighty four to eighty eight, eighty nine was really strong. When you
- 33:16have the Hogas, the Macha Man's, the Rick Rude, Opening Warrior,
- 33:20Carrie Von Eric, Mister Perfect, Brett hard Sean, all those guys in
- 33:23that window right there, it's it's right there wrestling talent wise, and I
- 33:30it's almost it's almost an issue where they are almost too deep of a roster
- 33:36right now. So that's it's an incredibly talented roster, and they have all
- 33:42the pieces in place to make a really strong run over the next few years.
- 33:46So I mean they've assembled. I mean, this is you know,
- 33:51the Philadelphia Eagle was the dream Team of like two thousand and twelve. I
- 33:55think it was when they had Donovan McNabb and Ricky Waters and had All Owens
- 34:00and they had that great team that they dubbed the Dream Team. But then
- 34:02that team went like seven to nine. So that's where you were like too
- 34:07much talent at times. But it's I don't think I've ever seen a better
- 34:12collection of wrestling talent one time. Those Attitude Air days and those you know,
- 34:16the Golden Arab WWF days were great characters, but I don't know even
- 34:22if those guys could match the inring ability of what AW has on the roster
- 34:27right now. It's very funny that you went these sports analogy route. I
- 34:30think maybe some of the names on that Eagles Dream Team roster weren't there.
- 34:34I mean that just shows our age because I think you picked Ricky Waters,
- 34:37who was like in the nineties Eagles, I meant to say, Leshan McCoy,
- 34:40Yeah, and I think it was actually Michael Vick that was in there.
- 34:43But I hear you, okay, because there's other sports analogies that you
- 34:45could go with. I'm a Yankee fan. Go through some of those two
- 34:49thousand rosters, those lineups, and it's like, how the hell did they
- 34:51ever lose a game? And how do they never win a championship? I
- 34:55think of the Philadelphia Phillies start in rotation when they had Roy Holliday, Cliff
- 35:00Lee, roy Oswalt Cole Hamils and then of course Joe Blanton, and they
- 35:05didn't win any championships. The Braves when they had the four Aces and the
- 35:09only Round one World Series when they had Glavin Small, Sematis and Avery.
- 35:14What about Miami Heat the first year that they had Bosh Wade and Lebron James,
- 35:19they did not win the NBA Championship. They ended up winning some,
- 35:22but they did not win an NBA championship. I also always think of the
- 35:23Los Angeles Lakers when they had Kobe and Shaq, Karl Malone, Gary Payton.
- 35:30They lost in the NBA Finals to a legit team in the Detroit Pistons.
- 35:32So if you're a sports fan, these analogies are making sense to you.
- 35:36If you're not a sports fan and just a wrestling fan, you're like,
- 35:37what the hell are they talking about? The last sixty seconds. Nonetheless,
- 35:43what we're trying to say is you could have all the talent in the
- 35:46world on paper on the roster. You know their abilities, But if you
- 35:51don't take full advantage of those abilities then and it's not entertaining, then nobody
- 35:57gives a shit. That's what it comes down to is if a tree falls
- 36:00in the wood, does anybody there to hear it? Is the famous phrase
- 36:05on this one. Right now, the AW roster up against the w roster.
- 36:08As I pointed out to me, the current roster AW is better,
- 36:13right it potential legitimate entering workers on paper, it's better WWE. The product
- 36:21is better than AW. Right now, AW has made some very good momentum
- 36:25forward in my opinion lately. I know we kind of differed on that on
- 36:28last week's episode, Doctor Trey, but I feel like AW has made some
- 36:31good strides momentum wise creatively, the WW creative to me, each and every
- 36:37time I sit down and I watch Ron SmackDown. No disrespect to NXT.
- 36:42I just feel like those shows have been hitting out of the park. They've
- 36:45been a ton of fun, really good, enjoyed it, entertaining, and
- 36:49I'm pumped for WrestleMania. AW has that potential, But what AW is missing
- 36:53is the creative, the entertainment, and the why in it all. As
- 36:58a wrestling fan, at the end of the day, all we want is
- 37:01a why. Why are these two wrestlers are fighting? Why do they have
- 37:07a feud? Why do I care about this? What is bringing me to
- 37:12want to watch this? Why do I want to watch this? And that
- 37:15is what I think AW is missing at the end of the day. And
- 37:19if they are able to find that why, if they are able to find
- 37:21that creative, if they are able to find that entertainment, Doctor Trey,
- 37:23then we have a very good situation on our hands because we're going to have
- 37:28two extremely good wrestling promotions in the United States. I cannot stress enough.
- 37:35Four or five years ago pre AW, if somebody told you that there's gonna
- 37:38be another United States promotion that was gonna have will Osprey J. White,
- 37:43because it's Gocott, A Kenny Omega. The list goes on and on.
- 37:45From folks from New Japan in the United States performing each and every week.
- 37:50Wrestling fans would sign up for that tenfold. But again, if there's no
- 37:55why, there's no entertainment, if there's no creative then we're not going to
- 37:59give a crap. We know the athleticism and the inn ring is there.
- 38:01You got to find that other fifty percent and make it a good solid foundation
- 38:07as to why I should invest two hours every Wednesday, one hour on Friday,
- 38:10two hours every Saturday night. And to me, Doctor Trey, that
- 38:14is what it is. At the end of the day. We named a
- 38:15lot of amazing dream teams in sports, and every nearly every one of those
- 38:21failed. And if they didn't fail and they ended up climbing over that mountain,
- 38:24it's because they tinkered a little bit. Miami Heat, they lost,
- 38:28they had the Big Three. So what they do They improved the rest of
- 38:31their team, rounded out their bench, and they made it a better opportunity
- 38:36for them to win the championship. You can't just win every wrestling week on
- 38:40paper by what your roster looks like. You got to deliver at the end
- 38:45of the day. Yeah. The thing that sometimes wrestling fans forget is that
- 38:51most of us became fans because of characters. And you know, I've said
- 38:55on the show many times, to me, wrestling when I was a kid
- 38:58was real life superhero. And I think that sometimes I hear people go,
- 39:02oh, I'm tired of promos or I get tired of these people talking or
- 39:07the backstage segments. But it's like that's character development. Like you learn about
- 39:12weaknesses, you learn about strengths, you learn about why this person hates this
- 39:15person, and why these guys are fighting, and you know, it's like,
- 39:19you know the Superman Lex Luthor stories. You know, it's like,
- 39:22well, why is Lex a villain? Because if you read the comics,
- 39:24you know it was because he lost all his hair and had all this stuff
- 39:28because of you know, Superman's asteroid crashing into the same ara that he was
- 39:31into, the radiation, all that stuff. You learn about why these guys
- 39:35don't get along, and a lot of times I feel like, aaw they
- 39:37just want everybody to kind of be in the middle. And if you look
- 39:40at the people who have really gotten hot and broke out, you know over
- 39:45the last couple of years, it was because they had defined roles, like
- 39:49they knew I'm the bad guy I gotta make everybody hate me, or I'm
- 39:52the good guy. I gotta make everybody love me. They would overcome obstacles
- 39:55or create obstacles wherever it is, whether it was you know, Darby Allen
- 39:59being the greatnerdog, Orange Cassidy being the underdog, you know, Swarre Strickland
- 40:01MGF just being slime backs, you know, just doing heinous things. A
- 40:07lot of times they like the stuff with will Ospring. Will Ospring is one
- 40:10of the best wrestlers in the world. Is he a good guy or a
- 40:14bad guy right now? I can't tell. You know. You got Samoa
- 40:16Joe. Samoa Joe, Like one minute you feel like he's a bad guy,
- 40:20the next minute he's fighting Warlow and is he okays he a good guy?
- 40:23Like wrestling fans do like having their characters defined on one side or the
- 40:29other. The majority of the time, we do get interactions like we saw
- 40:32on Raw the other night with the end of that Gauntlet match with sammy's Ay
- 40:36and Jaed Gables, two good guys fighting for the chance to fight Gunther and
- 40:39you're a little torn. But we have enough character development in them to understand
- 40:45why this is important to each of them, and I don't. I think
- 40:50AW is the one thing they lack in is character development. And a lot
- 40:53of times it's because we see the switching back and forth so many times.
- 40:58I mean, AW five years old, the young bucks have only already switched
- 41:01sides four times, you know, like it's at times AW suffers from big
- 41:07show syndrome. We gotta flip, We gotta flip this person baby Face,
- 41:12we gotta flip this person heel. It's like you do that and the audience
- 41:16can't keep up with it. And you know, I always compare wrestling to
- 41:21selp Offus. I can tune on. I haven't watched Days of our Lives
- 41:23in probably a decade, but I can tune it on, and just because
- 41:27of what I watched fifteen years ago, I can still kind of know who
- 41:30the characters are and what their roles are on this show. And wrestling usually
- 41:37is like that as well. And that way, when somebody switches, it's
- 41:40a big deal and people take notice of it. Right now, it's like
- 41:45half the roster. I couldn't tell you if they were a quote unquote babyface
- 41:49or a heel. And fifty to fifties splits aren't entertaining to me because it's
- 41:52not really obstacles to overcome at that point. On next week's podcast or the
- 41:58bonus edition, we're gonna do is Doctor Trey, He's got to go through
- 42:00the history of Bowen Hope's relationship on sr TU bonus cast. I'm sure you
- 42:07can. I remember that as a kid growing up. You know, it's
- 42:09funny you bring up that point about the heels and babyfaces because I was watching
- 42:13Dynamite on Wednesday night and they had the Elite because it's Cocott or the Young
- 42:16Bucks in the trios match against Eddie Kingston, Pentel, Sara Miedo and Pac
- 42:22and the Elite all come down in their center entrance that they have. Now
- 42:25they're clearly heals Kingston and pen to come in through on the face side of
- 42:30Dynamite. Pop comes through the heel side, and it's like, wait what.
- 42:36And I think that's it's difficult for old school fans in you and I
- 42:39to get my head around that. And that's funny because I thought to myself
- 42:43while watching Dynamite and even with the will Ospry stuff, right that is,
- 42:46he's still with the Don Calls family because he's coming out of the babyface tunnel.
- 42:50He's getting a babyface reaction. He's acting his babyface, but everybody else
- 42:53Canesco Ta Keshka and Will Powerhouse Hobbs is all coming out on the other side
- 42:59with Don Callous and they're all heels and I and I'm like, am I
- 43:02just like an old head. I'm wrestling here because I can't get my head
- 43:07around this because from a character standpoint, it does not make sense. And
- 43:14I don't know if that's new age wrestling Doctor Trey, or if if I'm
- 43:19right in that, because I do think that is a little bit of a
- 43:22mental block that maybe old fans like you and I do it for problem with
- 43:25maybe we are old heads on this. It's it's a little bit. So
- 43:29here's the thing on and I've seen this on the Independence and it's one of
- 43:34the issues that I used to always butt up against is everybody, you know,
- 43:38on the indies, you gotta sell merchandise, and it's hard to sell
- 43:40merchandise. It's hard to sell autographs if you're the bad guy like MJF.
- 43:45Out of you know, I've been on the Indies now almost a decade now,
- 43:50Jeff. As crazy as that sounds, MJF was the best on the
- 43:52indies of being able to sell merchandise and still be a dick, you know,
- 43:58best I've ever seen. I've seen eyes that were just total jerks of
- 44:00the ring. As soon as they say down their birch table, they're like
- 44:04shaking hands and super happy to see you and best friends and buy this,
- 44:07and by that, da da da. Nobody really likes to be reviled anymore,
- 44:14Like everybody feels like they have to have some kind of admiration or some
- 44:17kind of Hey, you know, I can be a jerk, but I
- 44:21still want to be somewhat endearing to the fans. You know. There was
- 44:23always a saying that, like if you were a like Shawn Michael's back when
- 44:27he first turned heel, toned down a lot of his high flying stuff because
- 44:30the high flyers typically got cheered by the fans because they're doing these crazy moves
- 44:35I know we've ever seen before, you know, And he would tone it
- 44:38down when he was a heel, and then he would do more high flying
- 44:40stuff as a baby face. But then you see, you know, guys
- 44:44who are heels now doing, you know, four fifties and six thirties and
- 44:47all these crazy things it's like, well, how can I hate that guy?
- 44:51He's so damn athletic. Like that's why, like, for me,
- 44:53the most one of the most entertaining people to watch in AW, even though
- 44:58some people say his axe growing stale is Christian Cage because he's one of the
- 45:01last true heels in that company. Everybody else feels like they're in Shades of
- 45:07gray Land. But Shades of Gray doesn't paint a great picture. It just
- 45:12comes off kind of bland if you look at it that way. Yeah,
- 45:14yeah, I mean, same episode, I'm thinking sort of Strickland's coming out
- 45:16of the baby Face Tunnel now with Prince n Nah and then later in the
- 45:21night the Gates of Agony for their tag match with Jericho and Hook even though
- 45:24they're all aligned in the Mogal Embassy, to come out as the Heel Tunnel.
- 45:29It's it doesn't make sense sometimes. I think that's where either I need
- 45:36to get my head around it, or AW needs to kind of adapt to
- 45:38rest and fans like Dotch Trey and I and being a little bit more stringent
- 45:43on babyface and heel personas, because that is something that an element that I
- 45:46do think is missing at times. It's greatly successful in WA they still do
- 45:52old school babyface heel type characters. I think the only wrestler that I would
- 45:59say is on the tweener side of things right now is Drew McIntyre, and
- 46:01he leans a little bit more on the heelside especially, but I want to
- 46:06be shocked if he's a babyface in a couple months again or work in this
- 46:08tweener role a little bit more. And I think that's what's kind of you
- 46:14know, keeping this AW roster again from you know, being the greatest of
- 46:19all time is the creative and entertainment side of things. So it's very funny
- 46:22in that discussion with Mercedes Bone that that kind of blended into that naturally,
- 46:25because that is what I wanted to bring up next as Mercedes Monet is that
- 46:30latest addition to the roster and one that we have discussed. If it's the
- 46:35part of the greatest roster of all time again, on paper, I think
- 46:37Doctor Trainer in agreement. On paper it is one of the greatest rosters of
- 46:43all time. How it translates to what we see each and every week and
- 46:45the type of business AW is able to do from this point forward is going
- 46:50to be very telling very important, and twenty twenty four is a very very
- 46:54important year for AW because it's like, really no more excuses at this point.
- 46:59It's like, how do we bring people to this product and make it
- 47:01better. We'll make it damn entertaining outside of just the d ring stuff.
- 47:05Make it entertaining, make it creative, make me want to see these two
- 47:09wrestlers go at. That's why I think Hangman Page and Swarb of Strickland has
- 47:13been one of the best feuds in AW in recent memory. So lots of
- 47:17changes in AW with a roster, and they'll be heading into Dynasty, which
- 47:21is their next pay per view in the coming weeks, and we'll see how
- 47:23the creative continues to go again. I will say for anybody that thinks we're
- 47:27haters on AW, I would say, since you know, in the last
- 47:30couple of weeks, since maybe December time with the Continental Classic, I just
- 47:34think the creative for AW has really improved. It's not two we level yet,
- 47:37but it's been really really good. And I enjoyed Dynamite this past weenday.
- 47:42I thought it was a very solid episode of Dynamite. We have some
- 47:45new additions to the WA Hall of Fame Class of twenty twenty four out Trey
- 47:51Muhammad Ali, Thunderbolt Patterson, and the US Express, micro Tona and Bury
- 47:54Wyndham, all announced for the w Hall of Fame. Your thoughts here on
- 47:59the latest additions to the Class of twenty twenty four. Dot to Troy uh
- 48:04Muhamad Ali, I thought he was already in. I did too. That's
- 48:07funny you said that I did too. I was literally like, why was
- 48:09he not one of the first celebrity inductees Sammy Hallie was at WrestleMania once.
- 48:16I'm surprised it took this long. Thunderbolt Patterson, I love that induction.
- 48:22I don't think a lot of people know who Thunderbolt Patterson is, but if
- 48:27you go watch anything about Dusty Rhodes, he gives so much credit to Thunderbolt
- 48:30Patterson for developing who The Dusty Rhodes character was just severely underrated. The US
- 48:38Express. I don't know about you. I was surprised at that one so
- 48:43speak because I don't. I think there are one time tag team champions,
- 48:46but they're better known in other tag teams, in other stables. I mean,
- 48:52micro tun is better known for his time as IRS with money inc That
- 48:55I think he was in the US Express Barry Windham of course with his time
- 48:58in the Horseman. I'm not gonna I hate saying this. I almost feel
- 49:02like this was facing because of Brace passing to induct retired they end at this
- 49:08time, so and and to put the US Express in before the Midnight Express,
- 49:14I think is a travesty. So outside of that, I think the
- 49:17other inductees are are all great and it makes a lot of sense. But
- 49:22uh yeah, to me, the fact that you know, beautiful Bobby is
- 49:25not a w Hall of Fame with either sweet Stand or Lover Moore Dennis is
- 49:30just you know, sad because Army they're one of the great top five tag
- 49:32teams of all time. US Express was in CHAMPIONIP Pressing from Florida. Outside
- 49:37of WF, they also were in All Japan Pro Wrestling. They did a
- 49:42couple of runs in a w A for a little bit, so while it
- 49:45was a very short tandem, I do agree with you, doctor Trey,
- 49:49that it's not a you. You don't really go back and you think about
- 49:54Barry Wyndham and Mike Rotunda in that tag team. I always think of Barry
- 50:00Windom and the four Horsemen. I always think of micro Tunda in as I
- 50:04R S. And then second to that is actually the Varsity Club marketing in
- 50:08w CW. So uh to me, I always remember the US Express.
- 50:14Actually, to me, their claim to fame as as a fan who did
- 50:17not really get a chance to watch them, you know, while they were
- 50:21performing, was that they had the original real American theme song for Hulk Cogan.
- 50:28So my my memory of them was that short, that that little short
- 50:31few they had with your Nikolay Volkov on the iron sheet. And outside of
- 50:36that, like I and I am a diehard wrestling fan, I really don't
- 50:38remember their time in a W A Georgia anything, just that short little window
- 50:44of WW, because I, like you said, I picture window with the
- 50:46Horsemen or even the West Texas Rednecks is Courreer Blackjacks, even yeah, I
- 50:53mean, I mean in micron, it's it's to me, it's I R
- 50:55S. It's the Varsity Club, It's all those things before the Express.
- 51:00Though VK. Wall Street was that his name in WW or Michael wall Street
- 51:04or something like that. It was bald. He had bald, he would
- 51:07be a wall Street. And I think Vince try to sue him over that
- 51:10wall street. Yes, so there you go. The the latest inductees into
- 51:15the Dodey Hall of Fame Class twenty twenty four. There are some rumbor names
- 51:19to be included in this one. I believe Leamy Via the grandmother of the
- 51:23Rock who, if anybody watched Young Rock kind of got a revival. That
- 51:28was a very enjoyable character that was played on the Young Rock Show. She
- 51:31was a promoter down in Polynesian pro wrestling, and it is out there that
- 51:37the rumor right now, it's all unconfirmed that Bray Wyatt would be inducted into
- 51:42this WA Hall of Fame classitudenty twenty four, which if that is to take
- 51:47place, would make a ton of sense. With Mike Rotunda his father and
- 51:50Barry Wyndham his I believe uncle is Barry Wyndham. I believe they are.
- 51:55I think Mike Rotunda married Barry Wyndham's sister. I think that's how it works
- 52:01out, so they're all family and that would make a ton of sense.
- 52:05I actually thought that bray White, if he was going in, would have
- 52:07been the first inductee announced. It's quite possibly maybe the last one, which
- 52:12would make a ton of sense as well, so I'm sure we'll get more
- 52:15inductees when we sit down and we talk about next week's stition. The SRTU
- 52:20some updates to the WRESTLEMANI forty card round up, so we have two new
- 52:23official matches to WrestleMania forty. It is official Roman Reigns in the Rock will
- 52:29be taken on Cody Rhodes and Seth Freakin Rollins at Wresselmania Night one. If
- 52:32Roads and Rollins win, then all members of the Bloodline will be barred from
- 52:36ringside during Rhodes's match with Roman Reigns on nine two. If Rains and Rock
- 52:39win the championship, then the championship match on Night two will be held under
- 52:43Bloodline rules. And then we also have Gunther versus Sammy Zain for the we
- 52:46Intercunalental Championship. That is now official as Sammy Zain won the Gauntlet match on
- 52:52Raw. That was very fun match to close out Raw. And then we
- 52:55have a semi official match as Damian priest Infant Balor will defend and the undisputed
- 53:00WA Tag Team Championship in a six pack ladder match. I believe three matches
- 53:06will be taking place on Monday's edition of Raw to qualify for that. So
- 53:08it's very well possible that maybe at least four out of six competitors or five
- 53:15out of six competitors will be announced by the time we sit down for next
- 53:17week's Just in the podcast. So about two and a half matches officially announced
- 53:21for wrestling as of this week. Doctor Trey. Yeah, I mean the
- 53:28tag match with Roman and Rock and Seth and Cody's gonna be pretty cool,
- 53:32just converging of you know, wrestling timeline, so to speak, with the
- 53:37Rock being in the ring with Cody and with Seth and Roman being in there
- 53:40as well. It's gonna be interesting because arguably somebody is going to headline both
- 53:46Knights of WrestleMania. I mean, it could be Cody and Roman headlining both
- 53:51Knights, which would be interesting if that's throughout the Go Samy and Goother is
- 53:55interesting. I kind of kept thinking that WrestleMania might be when some he takes
- 54:00the belt off Goother and I don't know if Sammy's the right guy to do
- 54:05that, so that'll be interesting. And the six pack ladder match for the
- 54:08tag belts, I'm calling it right now. This is how we split the
- 54:12tag belts because one team's gonna grab the Red belt or one team's gonna grab
- 54:15the Blue Belts at the same time. And that's how we get different tag
- 54:17team champions, one for SmackDown and one for a Wrong. We have been
- 54:22calling for that for some time, Doctor Truck, Yeah, which I mean,
- 54:24I you know, we both love the Judgment Day, but I mean
- 54:28when you got if you have enough tag teams to do ten tag matches to
- 54:32get entered into this tournament, you should put the titles. I'm in favor
- 54:37of splitting the titles. I'm an agreement on that, so I would be
- 54:40totally fine if one team comes down with one title the other team comes down
- 54:45with the other. I think that'd be fun. Rumored expected matches, we
- 54:49saw a little bit of momentum forward in the LA nine and AJ Styles potential
- 54:52match with rust Many forty as AJ Styles had a promo on Friday SmackDown.
- 55:00The j Uso Jimmy Uso match got a lot more momentum as jay Uso formally
- 55:06challenged Jimmy four match with Wrestminting forty. I would expect that match to be
- 55:09official on next week's edition of SRTU and then I don't know what they're going
- 55:14to do with the United States Championship right now. I almost feel like we
- 55:16maybe looking at a triple threat dotch tray with Logan, Paul, rand Yorton,
- 55:20Kevin Owens. I also maybe think that maybe it's a five pack match
- 55:23with or fatal five way with Grayson Waller and Austin Theory involved as well.
- 55:30So those were three things that I noticed from this past week of WWE programming
- 55:34in regards to the wrestlemaning card. Yeah, and then also on Jimmy Kimmel,
- 55:38Johnsena was on there after his Oscar's performance saying that East free WrestleMania weekend,
- 55:44so I wouldn't be surprised see Johnson to get shoved in there somewhere.
- 55:46By the way. I don't know if you saw this back then, that
- 55:50pop up r KO with Kevin Owens and Randy Ortan, that's really really cool.
- 55:54But yeah, I'm with you, like, I'm like, I don't
- 55:57know, maybe it is a five way match because you want to get all
- 56:00these guys in the car. But then we also, you know, we're
- 56:02probably gonund have the hundred the Giant Battle Royal on some back down, which
- 56:06might pull Waller and Theory into that, and we just do Randy Kevin and
- 56:09Logan Paul. So that's it's gonna inter see how that plays out. And
- 56:15then I'm still interesting what they're gonna do with the whole NY at Jack's Live
- 56:17Morgan Factor with Becky Lynton Rea Ripley, because if we're getting a last woman's
- 56:22standing match on Raw this coming up Monday, that's still gonna play into this.
- 56:27Because I don't know if you can leave those those two let Riha,
- 56:30I mean we Live and n I have been doing a really phenomenal job since
- 56:34the Rumble and even for NY even before the Rumble. I don't know if
- 56:37you can leave them out of the picture. Yeah, I know you were
- 56:40saying that early on. You were on that and I was not in favor
- 56:44of it. I would certainly believe the way that booking is going, creative
- 56:47is going that there is that possibility that door is potentially open for that.
- 56:52I wouldn't. I still am not in favor of the Ria Becky match becoming
- 56:57a fatal four way, but I can understand it making sense. I think
- 57:00the build of Live and Naya should be put towards maybe the Women's Battle Royal
- 57:05if they so choose that, I think, you know, use that fire
- 57:07for there and then coming out of wrestlem and he heading into backlash, and
- 57:10I think Early may use that momentum for maybe a fatal four way then between
- 57:16all four ladies. Yeah, I mean, I don't want the Ria Becky
- 57:22mash to be a four way, but just the Yeah, I don't want
- 57:24to say the writing's on the wall, but it does kind of make me
- 57:27nervous because I just, like we said with the last couple of weeks,
- 57:30I just don't want Ria Becky becoming what Becky and Ronda and then adding somebody
- 57:35else into the mix. You know what the taste it left in everybody's mouth.
- 57:38We never got Becky and Ronda one on one, and we've only had
- 57:44Becky in Rio one on one once and that was like six seven years ago,
- 57:47so on television. Yeah, so I kind of want to leave Becky
- 57:52and Rio one on one, but I wouldn't be oh how about that?
- 57:55But the cashion is that Damien comes down to help Ria, death comes down
- 58:00to counter and then Damien cashes in on Seth during the Women's title match that
- 58:05would be that'd be creative, it would be different. But I think I
- 58:08I mean, I hear you on that one. I do think that we're
- 58:12gonna see cash in here very soon. That's where I think the potential of
- 58:15Drew McIntyre turning baby face potentially happens. I agree because I think the I
- 58:22think Seth is going to need time off. I think we all could agree
- 58:24that Seth needs the stuff for a little bit. Poor guys, basically,
- 58:30he's been the horse now that you've plowed the field with so many times that
- 58:31you may feel like you'd got to put him down almost at some point though
- 58:36at least Drew playing tween or if Damien cashes in on Drew that Drew consveror
- 58:40Damien and the fans will be behind him, you know, basically him getting
- 58:44screwed over again, so to speak. You know, there's a lot of
- 58:46people making a lot of stuff, and I think we talked about it even
- 58:49on the podcast that like Seth Ron's was looking like a bit player when he
- 58:52came to the Roman Rock Cody Road stuff. Do you feel that way now,
- 58:57because I think it makes sense as to why he was kind of just
- 59:00sitting in the background observing what was taking place and was perceived to be a
- 59:04bit player, but he was observed what was going on and was like,
- 59:06this is bullshit. Well, at first, he was the one guy that
- 59:09didn't really have, you know, a reason to interject himself, you know,
- 59:15And I think that's why early on he felt like a bit player,
- 59:17because I mean, for most of us, we think back to WrestleMania,
- 59:21you know, a couple of two years ago, and it was Seth and
- 59:23Cody hated each other and there's still that mutual respect, but I don't like
- 59:28the guy approach to it. But we understand Cody and Roman. We understand
- 59:31Cody and Rock and Seth was kind of like the auxiliary piece. But storyline
- 59:37wise and what they've done with you know, the promos and the segments,
- 59:40it makes sense as to why he's interjected himself. I almost feel like after
- 59:45that Friday Night promo that Roman's almost like the ancillary piece in this whole thing
- 59:52because he's the one that's not doing a lot of talking. It's focused mostly
- 59:55on Seth, Cody and Rock lately. Yeah uh yeah, I don't know,
- 1:00:02you think it's just focusing on Seth, Cody Rock leaving Roman in the
- 1:00:07background. Now, Yeah, I think with Roman you don't have to do
- 1:00:12as much to build him into mesh because he's got three years of credibility.
- 1:00:15So you've got to kind of focus on the animosity between the other three guys
- 1:00:19and to hype it up a little bit more. But you know, I
- 1:00:22think we'll see it more on this week's Friday, Like as we close Wrestlementia
- 1:00:24start seeing a little bit more of the Roman Rock interactions, because you know,
- 1:00:29for all intentsive purposes, I think we all know we're going to get
- 1:00:30Roman and Rock at some point, so you gotta start laying some some more
- 1:00:34groundwork for that as well. Yeah, I think Roman is coming off a
- 1:00:37little bit insecure, hence the reason why he wanted Rock to acknowledge him,
- 1:00:40and he doesn't feel like he's the alpha male. Ultimately, I feel like
- 1:00:45that's playing a role into it as well, like letting Rock talk on his
- 1:00:47behalf and stuff like that. So that's why I get really excited for Creative
- 1:00:52because you can kind of like look at all these different areas and you're like,
- 1:00:55I could see this happening. I could see that happen. I could
- 1:00:58see this happening and that's what makes it cool for wrestling fan. There is
- 1:01:00all these different alternate universes that are taking place right now and making it a
- 1:01:06very fun product. All Right. With that said, let's close up shop
- 1:01:09on this week's sition of srt Do you You could download the show every Thursday
- 1:01:14or Friday at reelgut Rated dot Com, Russell Chattnet on X and the Still
- 1:01:17Real the Show iTunes feed over on iTunes, don't forget to rate, review
- 1:01:22and subscribe to help us com the charts over there. You can follow us
- 1:01:24individual n X for myself at SRTU Jeff and for Doctor Trey Franklin at The
- 1:01:29Doctor Trey. And of course don't forget to follow a show on X at
- 1:01:31SRTU podcast. With that being said, what is going on in the one
- 1:01:35for world of Doctor Trey Franklin this week? Well, like Jeff say,
- 1:01:37you can follow me on the X at the Doctor Trey. You can find
- 1:01:40me on Facebook and Instagram Doctor Trey Franklin. When you're on Facebook, check
- 1:01:45out Rocket City Championship Wrestling and Spartan Championship Wrestling, the two shows I work
- 1:01:49with here in Alabama. Closing All Star Wrestling Association as well as we are
- 1:01:52on the road to Wrestling Con seven. The official Wrestling Con seven flyer came
- 1:02:00out this week, a little bit of homage to the pandemic era flyer,
- 1:02:05a little with the Tampa Bay buccaneer style they did. We'll start getting official
- 1:02:09announcements for who's going to be on the card over the coming weeks. I
- 1:02:13do think it's a little bit of a homage to that Georgia Championship wrestlemer you're
- 1:02:16talking about it. I do believe there's'll be a couple guys from those Georgia
- 1:02:20Championship wrestling days that will be a part of Wrestling Con coming up this year.
- 1:02:23So May fifth with it, May thirteen, forty year, May eighteen.
- 1:02:30I believe it is so. And honestly, Jeff, I don't know
- 1:02:32if I'm gonna be at Wrestling Con because of my potential surgery. I'm happy
- 1:02:37surgery. I'm happy. So you're looking for just that stone cold pop if
- 1:02:40you're there, I'm looking for the John Cena That's what I want. And
- 1:02:45doctor Trece just pointing to where he's getting surgery. Yeah, like seen it
- 1:02:50did with his uh pectoral I may be the first person to do a wrestling
- 1:02:53con on a Nie s coooter. But that might be that might be what
- 1:02:55I do. That would be a great addition to a gimmick right there,
- 1:03:00just just puttering around there. I want I need the Rascal's Grand Canyon.
- 1:03:06I need a Rascal. That would be great for the gimmick. Man,
- 1:03:08I'm down with that, even if you don't need it, do it anyway,
- 1:03:13all right, So there you go. There are all the great things
- 1:03:15going on in SRT. You support everything that is supporting us and everything that
- 1:03:20we support along the way. We will be back next week another week forward
- 1:03:24towards the march to the road to wrestle Mania forty Uh. It was just
- 1:03:30a great time right now professional wrestling, everything that's going on from AW andwe
- 1:03:36it's a very exciting time. And we enjoy and appreciate everybody for sticking with
- 1:03:39us here and downloading and listening each and every week as we go through all
- 1:03:44the great things that are going on in the world professional wrestling. So until
- 1:03:47next week. For doctor Troy Franklin, I'm Jeff Pack. Thank you for
- 1:03:51downloading. This is this is still a real those show.