Latest / Real. Guy. Pods. / CM Punk is back in the WWE and Survivor Series Recap | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #720 – 11/30/23

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CM Punk is back in the WWE and Survivor Series Recap | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #720 – 11/30/23 · Real. Guy. Pods.

0:00
It's still welcome everybody. Welcome to this week's This in Miss Real No Show,
0:21
Episode number seven and twenty for November thirty, twenty twenty three. This
0:26
is your WWE Survivor series recap and review edition of as Rute You. I
0:34
am one after the show, I am Jeff Peck joined every single week from
0:38
my post, I want to write doctor Trey Franklin, Doctor Trey cm punk
0:43
is back in the w W my friend, So it's officially off the band
0:49
list. Then, technically, because we had a rule we were not allowed
0:52
to talk about is cm punk coming back to WWE for seven years? We've
0:57
had that rule. Eight years we've had that rule, and now we can
1:00
actually officially take it off the table. So the only thing left we can't
1:03
talk about is John Cena Heelshurn. Yeah. I mean, I guess I've
1:06
Seena turns heel next year. Then we've completed everything in the show. We'll
1:08
wrap up right then and there and we will say goodbye. We typically kick
1:14
off a show with obviously the recap interview of a major ple in Survivor series,
1:19
but I feel like we can't go through the pl and not talk about
1:25
this because the news cycle that is Phil cmpunk Brooks, and the history of
1:30
this podcast is synonymous. Since the first time he cut the pipe bomb promo
1:38
really in twenty twelve to now, there are many, many, many episodes,
1:45
especially this past year and the year prior that cmpunk has dominated the major
1:51
story of each and every one of these podcasts. He has returned toe for
1:57
the first time in nine years. The last time he was in World Wrestling
2:00
Entertainment was the Royal Roumul of twenty fourteen. How long ago was this all?
2:05
It was the PREWE Network era of anything. The WWE Network launched three
2:13
weeks later. He was not part of the company then or he was away
2:16
at that point. There have been nine wrestlemanie is obviously since then. How
2:22
I was working in radio when I had the opportunity to interview him three times
2:25
back then. That's how many years it's been. We nearly reached the ten
2:29
year mark if it reached January twenty twenty four, but save us a couple
2:34
months, Cmpunk is back ine. This is something we really didn't cover on
2:38
last week's show because quite honestly, Doctor Trey, unless you feel differently,
2:44
I went in the last week's podcast thinking it wasn't going to happen. I
2:46
did not think at all Cmpunk was heading back to we did you see or
2:51
read or feel anything like he was going to be showing up this past Sunday,
2:53
excuse me, Saturday night. So one of the things I've kind of
2:58
realized over the last victual, the last two years, is you get initial
3:02
reports and then we get like two months of debunking the initial report, and
3:08
then the initial report happens. So I kind of went into Survivor series thinking
3:14
like, if it was ever going to happen in a perfect storm, it
3:19
would be in Chicago because you're going to get such a positive reaction from the
3:23
crowd, it's gonna be hard to combat it. So I kind of went
3:27
in thinking about maybe seventy percent chance he's going to show up and thirty percent
3:30
chance he wasn't. Because you know, we've talked about it, You and
3:34
I talked about over the past month, like you have to counterprogram Adam Copeland
3:38
going to aw and if you're gonna counter program it, there's no better counterprogramming
3:46
than see I'm Punk. So I was. I felt good, but it
3:51
wasn't like concrete, if that makes sense. So about Friday, Friday Nights
3:57
Saturday, I started seeing these like random tweets that people had said close to
4:03
cmpunk, and it didn't come from like a seen ross Sapp or any major
4:09
PW inside or type reporters that cmpunk. Sources close to cmpunk said that he
4:15
has had had conversations with top ww Brass over the last week, and there
4:21
was a report out there that he had talked to top Talent as well.
4:25
And then I saw someone share had a tweet that like in a Living color
4:31
who I actually saw a concert earlier this year in place Cult of Personality had
4:38
remastered Cult of Personality. It was up on Apple Music, Like this,
4:42
this is really strange, Like I went into the show last week thinking that
4:46
we were not gonna be talking about this a week later, and then as
4:48
the show got close and I'm like, no, this this is just all
4:51
bs. Like it's these random Twitter accounts that I'm seeing has come from.
4:56
And Sean ross Sapp hadn't had anything out there. Wrussell Voe, which is
5:00
always a very close source to WWE on Twitter or x, they had nothing.
5:10
Nick Cosmon, who's been very close to the seampunk situation, he had
5:14
nothing going in there. He said that the sources he was talking to he
5:16
felt like he was not going to be in Chicago at Survivor's series of War
5:20
Games, and so I just went in the show thinking, Oh, this
5:24
isn't going to happen. And then, obviously, as we all know,
5:27
the famous end credits graphic that has come up that was synonymous with NXC takeovers
5:33
that we remember with goes up at the end of War Games, Cempunk's music
5:38
hit and it is the most surprised and shocked I have been as a professional
5:46
wrestling fan in probably thirty years. We live in a day and age,
5:53
Doctor Trey, and this is a good thing. Let me say that.
5:55
Start off that with we live in a day and age where you go on
5:59
X, you go on your wrestling news websites, you listen to podcasts likes
6:01
ours, and you see tea leaves of what could be happening or what will
6:05
be happening, and things start to leak and spoilers start to come out,
6:09
and the surprise still happens, and there's a lot of excitement in there,
6:14
but it's like a seventy five to ninety percent feeling of joy and excitement that
6:18
it came to. This was one hundred percent shock and surprise, something that
6:24
you don't see nowadays. It's pre Internet era. I can't think of anything
6:29
off the top of my head that this is reminiscent or similar to. And
6:32
I loved absolutely everything about it. And I immediately thought to myself, maybe
6:38
it's time I stopped reading wrestling news websites. But I'm so damn addictive to
6:41
it, and we have to do podcasts, so I can't do that.
6:43
But I loved it, Doctor Tray. It took me back to my childhood
6:46
in days when you didn't know what was going on, and if you did,
6:49
you had a dial a one nine hundred number and pay ninety nine cents
6:53
a minute and rack up your grandmother's phone bill. Because I did that several
6:56
times and gotten a lot of trouble for it. But regress, it was
7:00
a beautiful moment, Doctor Trey. I loved it. We'll start picking apart
7:02
the interests of it all, but the surprise and shock factor. Holy crap.
7:06
My job was on the floor Saturday night. Yeah, so I got
7:11
I got spoiled on it, Like I did not watch the Virus Serves Life,
7:15
So I purposely stayed off of try to stay off all social media until
7:21
I got a chance to watch the show, because there was that part of
7:26
this thinking like, yeah, it's probably gonna happen, because not only did
7:30
there was that initial report and then nothing, but I also went back to
7:33
the previous year when they were in Chicago and he had the conversation with Triple
7:36
Ah and it was Vince that asked him to leave. I saw his you
7:42
know, his Twitter, his ex account, you know, kind of posting
7:45
a couple of things from you know, the the old school Devil photo from
7:49
you know, the old old w w DA's Like I was like, there's
7:54
something here, so I have purposely stayed away. And then of course one
7:56
of my friends has to screenshot the TV and text it to me like can
8:01
you believe this is happening? And I was like such a jerk, Like
8:07
but still I was. I didn't tell my wife, and so we watched
8:11
Survivor series Sunday and the end of the show comes up and she's like,
8:15
well, that's a pretty good show, and I'm like, it's not over
8:18
yet, and then you hear the music hit and she's a dieharcy I'm punk
8:22
fan. So I got to at least experience the joy and adulation through her
8:26
eyes. But I was still pumped because not only is you know, Punk
8:31
one of our favorite performers in the history of this show. I just started
8:37
going, Man, it's gonna be really really interesting to see where this goes,
8:43
what happens, what's a work, what's a shoot? Where are these
8:46
people gonna fall in line? I was just got really really excited about it.
8:50
And to me, the only thing comparable to this was the Hardy Boys
8:54
return. That's a good one. Yeah, that's a good comparison because they
9:00
wrestled the night before in a ladder match with the Young Bucks, and I
9:05
was like, there's no way they're gonna show up at Wrestle Media because of
9:09
the fact they were just on a show, albeit down the road, but
9:15
like, they're not gonna come over and in the next night. So that
9:18
was the only thing recently I compared it to. But even that there was
9:22
there was not the bridge burning with the Hardys and WWE as there was with
9:30
Cmpunk, And so in terms of that, I mean for the shock value
9:37
and then look, I'm gonna still aligne the hell freezing over aspect of it.
9:41
This is the most shocking thing I've seen in thirty years, because you
9:46
have to, like, the only thing comparable would be Goldberg in a sense
9:50
when Goldberg first came back because of the animasity with him and Triple H.
9:54
What about Brett, Yeah, yeah, I bred as well, but like
10:00
Brett did I mean it guess Golbert also like those two with how bad the
10:05
bridges were burnt, but by the time they appeared, we kind of knew
10:07
it was coming. So like this on shock value and overcoming Bridges, man,
10:13
like, I really can't think of anything else outside of that, Like
10:16
in the last twenty thirty years, it just goes to show you that professional
10:20
wrestling like it it ultimately always works itself out and there's that shock surprise.
10:26
I can't believe I'm watching this on my television that you can't get anywhere else.
10:33
Watch Survivors there at the end of it multiple times and had that feeling.
10:35
Watched Monday Night Raw, watch that segment at the end with Punk multiple
10:39
times, and that's the feeling I had. And for those fans that are
10:43
you know, Aw's only fans or seeing Punk only fans, it's it's like,
10:48
well, I mean, what's the big deal? We just saw him
10:50
on television, you know, eight weeks ago, twelve weeks ago, in
10:54
All Lead Wrestling, and it's like, yeah, no, I get that.
10:56
And Punk coming back to wrestling is something I never thought I would see
11:00
again. And he came back two years ago, but I never thought that
11:03
I would see him Punk back in a ring once he went to All Lead
11:07
Wrestling. Once aw happened, I felt like, this is how he's going
11:11
to end his career. This is the twilight. If he ever comes back
11:13
to w WI, it's they mended fences. It's some sort of legends contract.
11:18
Maybe he works one match, but he goes into Hall of Fame and
11:22
you know, tips his hat to the fans, and that's really it,
11:24
because you know, that's like what other people who had burned bridges with the
11:28
company, like the late Great Ultimate Warrior did, and I could see that
11:31
being reminiscent. I never thought that brawl out twenty twenty two and then the
11:39
all in fight with Jack Perry and then the firing, and my life was
11:45
threatened that Tony Kahn say would would have led down this road. You know,
11:50
everything that you had read was that w was not interested right away,
11:56
and it's just completely shocking. It's wild because he comes back Thanksgiving weekend twenty
12:03
twenty three and Thanksgiving twenty fourteen was when the Art of Wrestling podcast when he
12:09
and Colt Combana came out. That led to a couple of lawsuits here and
12:15
there. It was the first time Punkin spoke since his firing from w leaving
12:20
WWI, he did not speak for about the entire situation for nearly eleven months,
12:24
and in that interview, he tore apart w Medical, he tore apart
12:28
Vince rick Mann, he tore apart Triple H, he tore a part the
12:33
company, and basically vowed to never go back. So here we are nine
12:37
years later, and he's returned the time heels all wound, all that stuff.
12:43
A lot of people have a lot of different opinions on this, Doctor
12:45
Trey, Like, what are your thoughts on this when it comes to the
12:48
man sampunk here, you know, he's returned to the company that he lamb
12:52
basted pretty damn hard. He's being called the hypocrite. People are saying he's
12:58
the best hypocrite in the world. Do you agree with those assumptions? Like
13:01
what's the vibe here? Because we're still trying to It's it's Wednesday night that
13:05
you and I recorded this for the Thursday download, and I'm still trying to
13:09
get my head around this. Yeah, I mean, once again, I
13:13
think Triple H said best of one of his commas calls. He goes,
13:16
it's been ten years. I mean, you and I have been doing this
13:18
show for twelve, thirteen, fourteen years. You and I are not the
13:22
same people we were ten years ago. If people held us to the same
13:26
things we adamly said ten years ago, they would call us hypocrits as well.
13:31
You know, things change, time changes, time heals all wounds,
13:35
and you know, for me, like the fact that he went to do
13:39
the SmackDown show with Renee, you know, and still was affiliate with w
13:45
E know you mean backstage, backstage, Yes, the fact that he was
13:50
on that show. That to me like, you don't work that show unless
13:54
you're gonna have some contact with WWE. And I would have been more adamant
14:00
that he was a hypocrite then that I am now, because why would you
14:03
be in bed with a company even though you're not technically under ww contract,
14:11
but you're still working for a WWE show when you so adamly said you would
14:15
never work there again. Well, you're kind of working there at this point.
14:18
I look at like, look, AW rekindled his love of professional wrestling,
14:26
and when you fall in love, when you fall in love and fall
14:28
out of love, that fall back in love, it's really hard to get
14:31
that out of your system. And you know, for lack of a their
14:37
term here, the fire still burns for him with professional wrestling, and you
14:43
know you're gonna take advantage of it. To me, I look at it
14:46
like one of the things and I said after brawl out was if AW smart,
14:50
you capitalize on the business aspect of what this can do for your company.
14:56
Because everybody like, if we had done one see them Punk Kenny Omega
15:01
match, where would AWB at today? If we did one CM Punk or
15:05
CMFTR the Elite match, where would AWP at today? But they didn't capitalize
15:11
on because they're playing to people's egos and people's feelings being hurt and stuff like
15:16
that. WWE's they're about business and if you could do business, they're gonna
15:20
make it work somehow. And that just shows you that triple H. If
15:26
it's smart for business, you will find a way to where to make it
15:30
work. And you and I sat here for years and talked about how much
15:35
fence mending that guy can do. Whether it was the Ultimate Warrior, whether
15:37
it's Bruno, Sam Martino, you know, whoever it was that swore they
15:43
would never come back and be a part of the company. It was Triple
15:46
h that mended those fences to get people back in. You and I never
15:50
thought Cody Rose would ever be back at WWE, and he's there now because
15:54
it was best for business. And it's a shame that's it's such becomes such
15:58
a catch for But at the end of the day, you do what's best
16:02
for the company as a whole, because nobody in this something Vince talked about
16:07
years ago. No one person is bigger than the WWE. People are going
16:11
to come, people are going to go, but the company has to survive
16:15
all of these things. And Vince learned when Hogan left and Hogan started,
16:19
you would go into Hollywood how much of a hit the company could take if
16:23
everything was built around one guy and built around or a small group of egos.
16:30
He's never made that mistake again. Hunter's learned from that. He's made
16:33
sense for you know, all these people to come back to the company we
16:37
never thought would be there again. And this is just an example of we
16:40
have to do it's best for the company as a whole. And I am
16:44
a Froba cosa like if the amazing, amazing thing about this whole thing is
16:48
me reading that he cited a multiple a multi year deal. I thought he
16:52
would do a one. I thought, at best it'd be like a one
16:56
year deal with like some it's like, you know, you signed obj Odell
17:00
Beckham Junior or you sign Antonio Brown. You're not signing those guys long term.
17:04
He goes down to a one year deal and make them prove it.
17:07
I thought they would do a one year deal. The fact that Hunter has
17:11
enough confidence to go no, I'll sign do a multi year deal and I
17:14
can keep him in line and keep him focus on what we need to focus
17:17
on shows a lot of confidence in himself, the company, the culture,
17:22
and everything else. You got to tip your cap to w W because they've
17:25
always said that, you know, they'll do what's best for business, so
17:29
if the fans want it, they will deliver no matter what the burden bridge
17:33
was that led into it, and they clearly have shown that again and again
17:38
and again. There was a period of time that nobody thought Hulkchan would come
17:41
back to w W. He came back. There's a period of time that
17:44
they thought Brett Hart would never come back. He came back, Doctor Tray,
17:47
said Goldberg. He came back, came to the company, and then
17:52
came back again. It's just it's wild. It really is what w will
17:56
do for the sake of their business, and you got to tip their your
18:00
cap to them for that, whether you like them or not, Like they
18:03
will do what the fans want and what helps their business, dot matter how
18:07
personal it may be. Yeah, it's completely wild, Doctor Trey. This
18:15
is a really important time in Cmpunk's career. The last fourteen months have not
18:22
been kind to him in the news cycle because he's had a couple backstage altercations.
18:26
There's been reports of demands and attitude problems. And if you like seeing
18:33
Punk, the story is very positive. If you dislike Cempunk, the story
18:37
could be very negative. He is a polarizing figure. He was publicly fired
18:42
by the number two wrestling promotion in the United States of All Elite Wrestling by
18:47
Tony Kahan, who said quote, I felt my life was threatened, like
18:52
that's some pretty serious stuff that's being thrown out there by an owner of another
18:57
wrestling company. Much of this is a redemption story for CM Punk. How
19:03
much of this is his last chance? How much of this is him saving
19:10
his legacy and professional wrestling. I mean, I think a lot of it
19:17
is cementing his legacy. I think, like if you look went back and
19:21
looked at the career of cy up Punk, it's kind of like I'm trying
19:23
to like, like Tom Brady, Look look at Tom Brady. Tom Brady
19:27
had a great run to Patriots, you know, and then he had the
19:32
good start in Tampa Bay, but the career didn't finish up great. I
19:34
don't think Tom Brady's legacy is diminished by the last couple of years into Tampa,
19:41
you know. Joe Montana, Like I'm a diehard Dinners fan, Joe
19:44
Montana's last couple of years of Kansas City. It's not take away from the
19:47
legacy of Joe Montana to be if you look at the career CM Punk,
19:51
like you look at the guys, Arguably, the guy's a Hall of Famer.
19:55
You know, he got over every single where he went. He became
19:57
polarizing every single where he wins and then took seven years off and then came
20:03
back and a company literally built an entire show for him and not to mention
20:08
two time aw world champions. So I think his legacy is not in danger,
20:15
but he needs to have a good run here to kind of quell those
20:21
doubters, those people that want to you know, bash him for how he's
20:23
running adw ended. I mean, but if you go back and look at
20:26
almost every single person in the history of wrestling when they left a company that
20:30
was never nobody ever mutually parts ways, you know, acrimoniously, They're always
20:37
gonna there's usually always an edge or something bad that happens to cause the separation.
20:42
So this is his chance to kind of re cement that legacy ended on
20:48
a positive note and you know, like you said, get the most out
20:52
of it while you can before you wrap things up. So I for him,
20:56
I think this is just a chance to kind of you know, clear
21:00
everything up and end things on a high notes. Yeah, what do you
21:04
so is that the main motivation here? Like, what what do you think
21:07
is driving him to get back to Dotie Wie. Is Is it the redemption?
21:11
Then? Yeah, I think part of it is you know, kind
21:15
of Cody finishing the story in a sense, like you know, if you
21:18
have an opportunity to come back and you're not under the same leadership of places
21:23
under like you and I have both works of places that things didn't end well
21:27
for us. And if that company ever came back to us and they're like,
21:30
hey, we got a whole new leadership, meet with who's in charge.
21:33
Now, see if you like the fit, we can try it again,
21:36
you would at least listen to what they have to say. It's also
21:41
a way of him looking and going, look, I tried to make the
21:44
other place more professional. Obviously they didn't like it. So here's my chance
21:49
to come work somewhere else with the structure, with organization and kind of stick
21:53
it to those guys and show them what they're missing out on. So it's
21:57
a little bit of redemption and a little bit of building on that legacy and
22:00
and things anything's properly, I guess, yeah. Do you think this is
22:04
also a case of the grass isn't always greener on the other side, Like
22:07
he was in aw for for two years. I know he was injured for
22:11
you know, a decent amount of it. On that second here, but
22:15
is this him like being in AW and going like, holy crap, I
22:18
had it good in w W. I think that's very true for a lot
22:23
of folks, a lot of folks who grow up in the WW system.
22:26
When they go to AW, it's you know, the organization is, the
22:33
structure's not there like it is in WWE, and when you're in w W
22:37
kind of takes some of those things for granted. And because it's so normal,
22:41
it's like, oh, like this is always taking care for me,
22:44
or this is always handled for me, or somebody else handles this in an
22:47
AAW. You know, you go back from travel thing for you know,
22:49
for all In and Webley Stadium and that was an issue. It's like,
22:52
yeah, we don't hear about those things. And the history of the show.
22:56
We've had what the Saudi Arabia incident, like the real travel issue and
23:00
the plane ride from Hell, so two travel issues in twenty years, twenty
23:06
thirty years, and you I have watched wrestling, you know, but you
23:10
hear about that a little more often with AW. You know, the structure,
23:14
the egos and things like that. The leaks that come out of AW,
23:17
you typically don't hear about those things. In ww unless they want you
23:19
to hear about them. So, you know, it is kind of like,
23:23
you know, so when you've been somewhere for a very long time,
23:26
you kind of take things for granted. You try somewhere else out because they
23:30
promise all this stuff, and you get there, you're like, yeah,
23:33
the creative freedom might be there, but there's no structure, there's no organization,
23:37
there's no the sandbox isn't structured. You're just running off and down a
23:41
beach with not knowing where the boundaries are. So I think this is you
23:47
know, him in a structured environment is usually very successful him when things don't
23:52
go, I would say to his liking, but in the normal sense is
23:57
when he fights back. I mean, his time in TNA wasn't great because
24:03
there wasn't that infrastructure there. His time in you know, OVW wasn't great
24:07
because there was you know, he had one person that reported to, but
24:10
the other people were telling them other things. So once he got to WWE,
24:15
it was really like the launching point because there was that structure, there
24:17
was that finite voice of everything runs through this one person, where I don't
24:22
think that's always the case. At AW there was obviously two things he said
24:27
during his promo that shocked the hell out of me because I never thought I
24:33
would hear see Hi Punk say these words. But standing in a w W
24:36
ring holding a microphone on Monday night raw, he said, quote, I'm
24:41
home. How shocking was that to hear a little bit? But it's it's
24:48
the prodigal son, like he right now is the epitome of like we talked
24:52
about, they called Cody that when he returned. Punk's the same way.
24:56
Punk is the prodigal son. He's the kid that wanted to run off and
24:59
do things on his own and rebel against dad and everybody else. And you
25:03
know now that he's older and wiser and you know, appreciates the structure,
25:08
I guess then it is shocking. But in reality, if you think about
25:12
it, it makes sense, like that's the company that made him who he
25:17
is. He might be Chicago made Punk, but in reality he's fas mc
25:22
man made Punk and WW made Punk. So him coming back is kind of
25:29
like a homecoming for him. Last question here, doctor Trevi, before start
25:33
to recap reviewed Sarar series war games, where do we go from here?
25:37
The end of Cervar series war games? He returns a lot of video of
25:41
Seth freaking Ronalds freaking out. The belief is that was Rollin's working an angle,
25:47
even though it looked really really legit and serious, which if it was
25:51
him working an angle, major props to him, perfect way to do it,
25:55
I would imagine it is. If he was actually acting out like that,
25:59
it would be not rate. Yeah, So where do we go from
26:02
here with CM punk? What's what's the what's the next six to twelve months
26:07
look like? Here? I think we have Seth Rowlands WrestleMania partner. I
26:12
think right now you would on paper and you go, well if if the
26:17
Rock's not coming back, and I think that's where you and I are at
26:18
now, Like I don't think you make the CM punk stigning if you know,
26:22
Duanne Johnson's coming back to WrestleMania, So we do coding and Roman.
26:26
You need you need somebody for CM punk. I mean you need somebody for
26:30
Seth Rowlins that makes sense and gets y rates. And it's the same thing
26:34
you and I talked about with Kenny Omega. You felt like there was real
26:37
life heat. Real life heat translates a good business if there is real life
26:41
heat between Seth rawlins and sea a punk. Why would you not capitalize on
26:45
that at the biggest st Joe Mall So, I think that's gonna be Seth
26:51
supported for WrestleMania. Where we go after that is the question, like do
26:56
you put the title, Like do you trust see them Punk enough to put
27:00
it's the World Heavyweight Championship on him at wrestle Media and it does. If
27:03
that's the case, I think I don't think you go that wrong. I
27:07
think Seth wins and then Punk turns heel because I think right now he's gonna
27:11
kind of float in the middle between now and then teasing the tension, teezy
27:15
on that stuff, and then you know we've seen before, You get that
27:18
great pop, that happy crowd, everybody loves the guy, and then kind
27:22
of let that initial honeymoon period wear off and then you can turn him healed
27:26
and he'll still sell merchandise. People love him as a heel. Either that
27:32
or see him Punk goes the route that Drew McIntyre didn't, you know,
27:34
starts blaming everybody else in the Seth turns heel. But I think that's the
27:38
route you go is you let Seth retain and wrestle Media. You let Cody
27:41
Way at wrestle Media, then you have the Heels chasing the baby faces for
27:45
a little bit. But I think the honeymoon here will be to wrestled Media
27:51
and then we'll find out what the real seam Punk is coming out, because
27:55
as much as we all want to see SETH and Punk go at it,
27:59
I still think Roman Cody close up the show, and then Puck still hasn't
28:03
made events in the WrestleMania obviously talked about in his mind anyway. Obviously,
28:07
Doctor Trey and I are not in the locker room of All Lee Wrestling,
28:11
But it appears to me from the outside looking in that the similar mindsets of
28:17
the Cody Roads, Jade Card Gill, and now CM Punk, very similar
28:21
mindsets have ended up in w and left All Lee Wrestling and the folks that
28:26
are more of the mindset of the elite's way of thinking, of the young
28:30
Bucks and Kenny Omega, they've Remaine Aw. There are people on the AW
28:36
roster that to me are Cody Roads Cmpunk type people. Look at the original
28:41
first couple episodes of Collision, the Ricky Starks, the Revival, FTR Powerhouse,
28:47
Hobbs, wardlows of the world that were a little bit more team Cody,
28:52
team mindset of Jade and I guess team Cmpunk than what would be perceived
28:57
in the rest of all Lee wrestling. Makes you wonder if some other folks
29:02
could be on their way to WI in twenty twenty four. And beyond being
29:04
that, the Cmpunk's Jade card gills Cody road to the world with a company
29:11
we talked on last week's show. We'll talk about him later on the current
29:14
AW World champion MJF. I don't think he's gonna be one of those names
29:17
that makes their way over to we now based on present reports coming from THEE
29:22
side, But boy, this is a really interesting, intriguing and fun time.
29:27
And I know we're not at the end of the year officially yet,
29:33
but all I could think of when the Punk stuff happened after a really good
29:37
Survivor series war Games was like, Man, I think twenty twenty three,
29:41
Doctor Trey maybe the best year of professional wrestling we've ever covered in the history
29:48
of this podcast, whether it be the in ring stuff that's going on,
29:52
the storylines, the events themselves, the news stories that have come out this
29:56
year. This has been an absolutely phenomenal year for professional wrestling. I thought
30:00
it was fitting that we had a very phenomenal end to Survivors series this past
30:06
Saturday night. Yeah. The funny thing was, I remember when we did
30:10
the year in Reward for twenty twenty two, we did like a news story
30:14
of the year. You and I sat here and said, like in any
30:17
other year we had covered the show any one I think of that four or
30:19
five options we were looking at. Any one of them and any other year
30:23
could have been news story of the year. And you look at it now
30:26
and go with seeing Plug returns to WWE, Edge goes to AWLD, w
30:33
sold, Vince doesn't have any power like any one of those things could be
30:38
story of the year. And those three things, those four things really just
30:42
happened in the last five months. That's not counting together seven months before it.
30:48
So from a news point of view, from entering point of view,
30:52
yeah, twenty twenty three has been a year. But then again, we
30:56
also have more wrestling available to watch on television now than we ever have before.
31:00
So if you're punching or putting out that much content, by got it
31:06
better, because at least otherwise you're people going to get Overgill and you're oversaturated
31:11
the market, and I don't think we're at that. I think we get
31:15
to those tipping points of times where it's like there's too much, and then
31:18
you have a week like this, you're like, Okay, I can't get
31:21
enough. I want to see more CMPUK and WB. I want to see
31:22
more Adam Coelan and AW. I want to see what AW responds to the
31:26
counter program to CMPUK STEPT. Like I got to tune into like all these
31:30
other shows this week just to kind of figure out what's going on because my
31:34
appetite is still wanting more even though I have wrestling on my TVs usually six
31:40
nights a week. Yeah yeah, I mean for me, I think the
31:42
AWWW stuff and AWW taking shots like we're recording this durned donamit right now?
31:48
Maybe there's been a couple of shots that have been fired. I don't really
31:52
want to hear it anymore. In all honesty, like wrestling is really good
31:56
right now because of aw pushing WWE, and I think that's great for professional
32:01
wrestling fans, not just WWE fans, not just AW fans, as professional
32:07
wrestling fans. Is that these two major companies that pushed each other. And
32:09
from what I've learned over the last twenty three years twenty two to twenty three
32:14
years since WW closed to AW launching in twenty nineteen, is we need to
32:20
live in a world in the United States at least where there are two prominent
32:24
wrestling companies pushing one another like AW and WR right now, because that is
32:30
what benefits us. Why was the late ninety so good in ninety six,
32:32
two, two thousand and one because W versus WW is going on? Why
32:37
is wrestling so good in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three because AW ANDW
32:42
are pushing each other right now. It's great for US wrestling fans. And
32:46
I guess in a famous person one said, just kind of soak it in,
32:51
man. So it's it's good times, It really is. It's it's
32:54
mind blowing right now that we're talking about cmpunk back in we But that's where
32:59
we're at right now. With that said, let's get into w W Survivor
33:02
Series War Games recap review. It came to us this past Saturday from the
33:06
Alsidareen in Rosemont, Illinois. The first match here Doctor Trey was Bianca bell
33:09
Ara start Flair Shotzi and Becky Lynch defeating Damage Control in the women's Wargames match.
33:15
We both had Bianca Bella Aira's team to getting the victory. This match
33:17
got better and better and better as it progressed. The final spots where the
33:21
Wargames match began once everyone was in the ring was really good, obviously something
33:24
Biggest Companies. Bailey was considered to be Damage Control's MVP by the commentators.
33:30
Made several saves but ended up taking the pin. Those moments will help get
33:34
her over as a vaceho w creative go forward with Damage Control turning on her
33:38
like I suspect, very fun match. As I said before, it got
33:43
better and better and better as it went on. Doctor Treyer thoughts on the
33:45
Women's Wargame match, Yeah, I thought it was a damn good Wargames match.
33:50
My only knock on it was Kyrie saying still a little bit out of
33:53
sync with everybody else in the match, Like there was some noticeable spots she
33:59
kind of missed outside of that storytelling whise everything else. I thought it was
34:02
spot on and and maybe we get the Three horse Women versus uh, you
34:08
know, Oscar, Kyrie and Eu at some point and maybe that's the route
34:12
they go, but I thought overall it was it was a really really good
34:15
female or women's wargame match. Next match has gone through defeeding the Miss to
34:19
retaining w w Intergunt littlechampionshp've both had gone through getting the victory. Solid match.
34:22
I liked how the Miss tried every trick in the book to defeat Gunther.
34:25
The crowds behind this match and wanting to see Miss get the upset victory.
34:30
I'm pretty sure a bad or mediocre match for Gunthor just does not exist.
34:32
Doctor try No, it's it's he's eerily reminiscent to when you know Johnny
34:37
Gargano and Chopper and the Ring or anybody like that. Was like, yeah,
34:40
I just don't think he has bad matches, And I love the fact
34:44
that you know the Miss. It was it was a mixed entrance as far
34:47
as the crowd responds, but by the end, the crowd is fully invested
34:51
in the Miss, and it's it's always fun when you see that heel turned
34:54
baby face, but he still keeps his heel tendencies and the crowds still eats
34:58
it up, which also tells you how over Gunther is as a villain as
35:01
well, So really really fun match, and you know they tease the kind
35:05
of continuing on on Raw and maybe we get Diy and Miz against the Imperium
35:10
as simple. I don't I don't really know if that's the route to go,
35:13
but it's fun when the Miz is actively involved in storylines because he's soaked
35:17
on the bike and look, he's so underrated the ring, like he can
35:22
have a good match, but just about anybody as well. Next match here
35:24
is Santos Escabar defeeding Dragon Lee. We both at Santos Escuar getting victory.
35:29
Were originally predicted to be Santo's versus Carlito. They ran the injury Angry on
35:32
Friday SmackDown Solid match. I was very happy to see Escobar and Dragon Lee,
35:37
who was filming for the inter Carlito, get this opportunity and Survivor series
35:39
card. I could really see Santos Escar and Dragon and Lee having a long
35:44
time rivalry slash feud that could define their careers. I feel like this is
35:47
just the beginning of seeing Escabar and Lee wrestle each other on a polee solid
35:52
match. Doctor Trea Santa's Escuar got the victory. This could almost end up
35:57
being like, I don't say the mid card version, but like the Hispanic
36:00
version of Sena and Orton in a sense, like these two guys could really
36:07
help ingratiate WW even more into the Hispanic culture, much like Ray did during
36:12
his peak. Like these guys could really carry the brand that way if we
36:15
ever get like an NAT Latin America or something like that, Like these guys
36:20
are the future of that division of WW. Like I thought, the match
36:25
is really good. Everybody was into it, the crowd was behind it.
36:28
The crowd was all over Santo's escabar, which I thought you post apparently to
36:32
be a heal and WW just beat up Bravest Dieo and everybody hates you.
36:37
So it worked for Dominic, it's working for Santo's just keep doing that approach.
36:43
But Santo's the kid's got something. He's going to be a bigger star
36:47
if they ever give him the ball to run with, Like he's just got
36:50
everything. He's just so smarmy and just dirty, like you just want to
36:57
hate him. So it's the perfect role for him to be. A Dragons
37:00
is a good underdog. It is a really good comparison to kind of run.
37:04
It's a really good pairing for them to run for years to come.
37:07
Next match here is Rie Ripley defeating Zoe Start to retain the Women's World Championship,
37:12
but we both had Ria Ripley getting the victory. It's starting to feel
37:15
like the real Ripley Women's World Championship reign is going to be similar to the
37:17
dominant Fashion and Roman reigns, and Guntha have been booked with their titles.
37:22
It looks it feels like no one in the women's division on raws anywhere near
37:24
the level of Ria Ripley right now. While I was happy that Zoe Starks,
37:28
who was extremely talented, got this opportunity iNeST of Barbers series, it
37:30
never really fell close in this match. Doctor try Rea retains, Yeah.
37:36
I saw people kind of knocking Zoe Zoe during the match. I thought Zoe
37:39
get fantastic in this match. I think the problem was the build up to
37:44
get it because she hasn't been presented like a top nochell Yo. I mean,
37:47
it wasn't that long ago she was backing Nutrition and the Becky Lynch puties.
37:52
She hasn't had a lot of time to really develop depth to her character
37:54
to make people buy into her. I think from an inn ring performance wise,
37:59
I think she was fought on during the match, Like I think it's
38:02
going to come down to Rumble. If Bianca wins the Rubble, we get
38:06
Bianca and rip Rhea, then that's really the only person left other than Becky
38:10
for her to really challenge for this title. And with Becky being tied up
38:15
with the Damage Control story line, I think that just shows you that Bianca's
38:17
probably be the odds on favorite to win the Rubble to challenge Ria in WrestleMania
38:22
next match. Here is Cody Roade, Seth Freaking Roalds, Jay us So,
38:24
Sammy's Ain, and Randy Orton defeating the Judgment Day Andrew McIntyre and the
38:29
Men's War Games match. I had Cody's team Doctor trade the Judgment d Andrew
38:32
McIntyre. Great War Games match. I'm very happy to see Randy Orton back
38:37
in the Sports Circle and he looked like he did not miss a beat after
38:39
double fusion back surgery. The match flowed well and I thought it was interesting
38:45
that Damian Priest took the pin. I feel like the Women's and Men's War
38:47
Games matches that will have similar fallouts for Gardan people who took the pins.
38:51
Maybe the men's situation will take a little bit longer to play out than we
38:53
will see with Bailey. I also felt like, because I've seen a lot
38:58
of people writing this on X and what happen to you? I also felt
39:00
like the CM Punk return to w WE did not overshadow how great this match
39:05
was. Cody Seam wins the Men's War Games match Doctor Trey. All Right,
39:09
first of all, we left something out that was really really important.
39:13
Our truth also returned to w W very true. Yes, I was gonna
39:15
leave with that. Then Punk came back, so for like, I saw
39:20
something pos on Twitter, like wrestling fans are happy punch Back, Old school
39:23
fans are heavy Organs back legends are happy that Archer of the Back because that
39:27
guy is comedy gold. I mean that that skit was to be gone awful
39:30
he said, and then putting him in there with pretty Deadly and and otis
39:36
just shows you that they believe in those guys to be comedic talents as well.
39:39
The Magic self was fine, It was it was good. I loved
39:44
as soon as Organ got back in the ring. By the way, I
39:46
love the storyline of Range music not hitting, bringing RhE out to use the
39:51
cash in dand Randy's music hit and ruining it because I also sets up potentially
39:55
Randy and Damian Priest, you know, heading into WrestleMania. It's easy if
40:00
that's a route they want to go. But Randy or dear God, that
40:05
man not only did not miss it beating the ring, he looks better now
40:08
that I think he ever has before. Like he looks like he put out
40:12
about twenty thirty pounds a muscle, Like he just looks amazing. It's funny
40:16
to see him look like the monster in a match when we're so used to
40:21
him being kind of overshadowed size wise by you know, John Cena and Batista
40:25
during his prime days. But matches it was fine. I love the Jay
40:30
Husso spot him where he remembers what happened, and then Jay superkicks to save
40:36
him. So that was all funny good. I don't think the match got
40:38
overshadowed by I see him bung either. I thought the storyline stuff all made
40:43
sense. I thought it was a very very cohesive storytelling Organs match that has
40:49
fallout. It's done an end to a rivalry is actually still just another branch
40:53
on the street. Yeah, it was. It was a really good match,
40:58
Randy. I agree, looked phenomenal again. It's amazing that the guy
41:02
is back in the ring after double fusion back surgery. Really fun match.
41:07
The Wargames match matches in w We've always been really good. It's it's amazing
41:13
that this concept from NWAWCW has come over and superseded the WE concept of actually
41:19
Survivors Series. But I'm down with it, and uh, it was a
41:22
fun nine overall payview predictions record. I went five and oh, Doctor Trey
41:27
went four and one. I'm one twenty and forty one, Doctor Trey one,
41:29
twelve and nine. As we reached the end of twenty twenty three here
41:34
with just a couple of shows to go. Event rating and match the night,
41:37
I gave Survivors Series a four point one out of five and my match
41:40
match of the night was the Men's at Wargames match Doctor Trey. Yeah,
41:45
I gave it a four point zero out of five. Yeah, I'll go
41:51
to Men's war Game match or just because the Randy return really held it,
41:53
like the calamities, the crazy spots like that's always good. I really enjoyed
41:59
gunther Biz so but the Wargames match really kind of did you know, end
42:04
the show on a good note, so you go. Feel free to chime
42:07
in at SRTU podcast on Xoorfacebook dot com. Slash is so real to show
42:12
and anythink we've talked about here so far in this week's edition of SRTU.
42:15
With that debt said, we unfortunately have to close out this week's edition of
42:20
the podcast with some bad injury news. According to reports, MJF has a
42:24
torn labrum and he's also dealing with a recently dislocated hip that was popped in
42:32
Doctor Trey again. And we are both recording this during Dynamite, so I'm
42:37
sure there's been some sort of injury update. All signs are pointing to him
42:40
wrestling on December thirtieth in his hometown of Long Island, New York, at
42:45
World's End to defend the AW World Championshi against Samoa Joe Doctor Trey. AW
42:51
cannot catch a break here with these freakin' injuries. I mean, I feel
42:53
absolutely awful for AW. I feel absolutely awful for MJF. What's for the
43:00
World champ Well, I mean it's it's odd because typically we get an injury
43:06
like a torn laboram usually you're out for a few months. But we in
43:09
the past, aw has taken titles off people put him on somebody else.
43:14
We have the interim championships things like that. Hell we did with see him
43:17
Punk, you know we didn't, so h I'm gonna be curious to see
43:22
what the fallout of the show is if they name an interim champion, because
43:28
you know, you don't want this guy getting any more hurt now. Luckily
43:31
for him, his opponent coming up at World's End. It's about Joe,
43:34
who's one of the safest wrestlers in the world outside of the Tyson Kid Fluke
43:39
injury. Outside of that, I've never heard anybody say anything bad about working
43:44
with about Joe in the ring, so Joe can take care of him.
43:46
But you know, this is kind of what you gill when you have a
43:51
guy wrestling twice at night on every pay per view, like you're gonna get
43:53
wear and tear on it. And for a company that kind of did away
43:58
with house shows to save wrestler's bodies, they do have a crazy amount of
44:04
injuries, and maybe that's because of the style that they wrestle. I don't
44:07
know what it is. I mean, it can't all be just fluke injuries.
44:12
If it's just the sheer volume of injuries they keep getting. Yeah,
44:15
it's it's strange, right, Like, I don't know, I just feel
44:20
really obviously, really bad here about what's going on. But I mean it's
44:24
this table spot that he did where he still wanted to go through. J
44:29
White had gone gone already, the table had collapsed. I mean, it's
44:32
it's really biting him in the ass right now, obviously, and it just
44:36
seems like it's so snake bitten sometimes. Yeah, I mean some of it
44:39
I can get, because we do. They have brought all over a lot
44:43
of older guys, you know, the Brian daniels Is of the world.
44:46
I mean hadham Cole stuff. I mean that's just straight flukiness. To have
44:50
the concussion then come back and break your ankle. They do have an inordinate
44:54
amount of concussion injuries, maybe more so than anything else I've seen in the
45:00
in a long time. But just I mean the Mosley injuries, you know,
45:02
the guys like that, They're constantly getting beat up, and it's like,
45:07
I thought, you guys came here for a lighter schedule, but you're
45:09
wrestling every match like it's your wrestled Mania match. You're gonna get your body
45:14
beat up, and you know, are you giving yourself enough time to recuperate?
45:17
And that was you know, you go back to I think it was
45:19
twenty fourteen, you ne were doing the show, and w had a crazy
45:22
rash of injuries because they were doing the combined super shows all the time,
45:28
and then guys were going out and working three more. They were wrestling five
45:31
times a week. It was like going into Wrestlming thirty two in Dallas.
45:35
It was awful. Yeah, And that's what I feel like aw does right
45:38
now between Rampage Collision, Dynamite, Dynamite and then you know, they keep
45:45
having all these special shows and everything like like that, like every guy is
45:50
wrestling their matches like it's the last match they're ever going to wrestle in.
45:52
Unfortunately, it might end up being that way for somebody here before long,
45:55
because they're just beating themselves up to try and get noticed and sometimes less as
46:00
more guys just keep it simple, you know. I just I think that's
46:05
one of the biggest issues they have, is that there's there's so many guys
46:07
trying to get over that they're doing way too much to get over and it's
46:12
not always Dan ring work that gets you over. Yeah, very true.
46:15
It doesn't always have to be big, big spots and c at look at
46:20
Tony Storm. It's just a character change. Very true, very very true.
46:24
All Right, I think that'll do it for this week's edition, amsr
46:28
TU. I hate to end it on such a sour note there, but
46:30
hopefully we have some positive news with MJF here going into the next couple of
46:34
days into next week's edition the podcast. We will be back next week to
46:38
kick off the month of January excuse me December on December the seventh, and
46:43
we back for episode number seven and twenty one, and we will be previewing
46:45
predicting NXT Deadline that will be taking place that Saturday, one of the It's
46:52
the last show from the WE brand that year before World's End and aw wraps
46:54
up for the rest of the year. Friendly re minder for everybody, we
46:58
announce on the last week's edition the podcast, so hope everybody to good Thanksgiving
47:00
our upcoming holiday programming schedule. On Thursday, the twenty first of December,
47:05
we look back on our twenty twenty three Bold Predictions on Thursday, December twenty
47:08
eighth. We wrap up the year with the twenty twenty three srt Award Show
47:12
Special, and then we kick off twenty twenty four on January the fourth with
47:16
the twenty twenty four Wrestling Previous Show. We'll have our bold predictions in there,
47:20
and of course are wrestling forty card predictions. All that and more in
47:23
just a couple of weeks here on SRTU. As our holiday programming schedule is
47:28
right around the corner, would that say, let's get a couple of plugs
47:30
and sponsor the way. You can download show every Thursday or Friday at Real
47:34
Guide Radio dot com, Russell Chatnet on X and the Cell Real of the
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Show iTunes feed. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to help us
47:39
coming charts on iTunes. You can followus individually on X for myself at SRTU
47:44
Jeff, and for Doctor Trey Franklin at the Doctor Tray, and of course
47:46
don't forget to follow show on X at SRTU podcast. With that being said,
47:51
what's going on the one for world of Doctor Trey Franklin this week?
47:53
Well, like Jeff said, you can follow me on x at the Tray.
47:58
You've find me on Facebook at Instagram Portray Franklin. When you're on Facebook,
48:01
check out Rocket Team Championship Wrestling and Spartan Championship Wrestling, the two shows
48:05
I'm affiliate with here in Alabama. We are coming up on December second,
48:09
we are having the Rocket City seventh Anniversary show. So for the longtime listeners
48:15
of this show, just goes the show that we're all getting over because it's
48:17
been seven years that Rockets. He's been up and running, which is crazy
48:22
when I watch at XT and I see Lexus King on there knowing that he's
48:25
been in my lucker many many times. It's such a great guy. So
48:29
really happy for him. But that just means go out and supportant to local
48:31
Western shows because that guy that you might be getting an autographed from might be
48:36
aw world champion entering up on our Tight Team Champion in a few years.
48:39
So get out there, support you locally dependent wrestling as well. Sod goes
48:43
one of the great things at Sport SRTU and keep spreading the word about the
48:46
Still wilta show. Thank you for downloading this week's just the podcast. Thanks
48:52
for making us part of your week until next week. For doctor Trey Franklin,
48:55
I'm Jeff Pack. This is the Still Real Show.