Latest / Real. Guy. Pods. / Top 5 Wrestlers of the SRTU Era | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #700 – 7/13/23

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Top 5 Wrestlers of the SRTU Era | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #700 – 7/13/23 · Real. Guy. Pods.

0:00
It's still leave beliving in talking talking about to believe me. Welcome everybody,
1:07
Welcome to this week's edition in a Stone Real Joe Show, Episode number seven
1:12
hundred for July thirteen, twenty twenty three. Welcome to the seven hundredth edition
1:19
of The ass Arete You. I am one after the show. I am
1:25
Jeff Pack joined every single week my cohost only doctor Trey Franklin, Doctor Trey.
1:30
We've done this for seven hundred straight weeks, my friend. Yeah,
1:34
this is one of those numbers that you hit and you start doing the bath
1:38
on it and you're like, well, let's see fifty two weeks in a
1:42
year, fifty two to seven hundred once again, you know, twelve,
1:46
that's twelve years straight. Like, if you had told me that we would
1:51
do a show for twelve years, every single week, not missing a date,
1:56
I would have said that the odds would be against us making it that
2:00
far. So it's just a tribute to our fans. It's a tribute to
2:07
our willingness to kind of work together and work through stuff. And then also
2:10
just the fact that we really don't have a life outside of this. That
2:13
is very true. And I'm the older we get the more of a life
2:15
we don't have. So by my math, so we've done seven hundred episodes
2:21
of SRTU, roughly averaging probably around an hour an episode. I know,
2:27
over the last like six months or so, we're doing probably like forty five
2:30
minutes, fifty minutes, whatever, but the average, and there's been years
2:32
in the past where we've done episodes for like two and a half hours.
2:37
Let's say if every episode was an hour long on average of SRTU seven hundred
2:43
episodes, there are enough episodes that if we released the entire library of SRTU
2:49
and there was somebody out there, some listener, some fan that was like,
2:53
I'm going to listen to every episode of srt I'm not going to sleep
2:57
until I get to the very end, the most updated episode, that person
3:02
it would take them twenty nine straight days to listen to every single episode of
3:07
SRTU. So we've done enough episodes, Doctor Trey. If my math is
3:12
right that we have done twenty nine days worth of episodes an hour, every
3:21
hour of the day for twenty nine days, that's pretty impressive, my friend.
3:25
That's that's almost a month out of our lives. That's almost as long
3:29
as an aw pay per view. True, it's it's close, but no
3:31
cigar. Yeah, but I mean that's that alone. Like people wou's talk
3:37
about content content content, It's like, yeah, we've got enough content that
3:42
I really amazed for those people who have been with us for you know,
3:46
anything more than a year, Like if you can stand listening to mine and
3:50
Jeff's voice every single week, for an hour a day for a year,
3:53
I was amazed at that. Uh, you know, we used to get
3:58
the messages from you know, huntrees overseas. I was always like, I
4:01
think I got messages from somebody in Saudi Arabia one time, somebody in Egypt.
4:05
I was just blown away that, like we had reached out across you
4:11
know, several oceans and things like that. So I don't think we have
4:16
If anybody does decide to do the binging of twenty nine days twenty four three,
4:21
we are not responsible for what happens to you at that point as well,
4:25
because yeah, that's just insanity. Yeah, that that is insanity.
4:29
And to piggyback off of doctor Trey's point there, it is it has always
4:32
been mind blowing to me. We've done this show for nearly fourteen years now.
4:38
It'll be fourteen years in February of next year, and the reach of
4:42
this has been amazing. We've met some really awesome people in our lives from
4:47
this podcast. The listenership is always insane. I know, people don't tweet
4:53
in Facebook like they used to when we first started doing this podcast, so
4:57
listen interaction is kind of dwindled as asp realize how much of a cesspool those
5:00
social media platforms can be. But from time to time still I'll get dms,
5:05
I'll get messages mentions that just aren't mind blowing, Like whenever anybody reaches
5:12
out to us and they take a time, literally take a time out of
5:14
their day for forty five minutes to an hour to listen, and Doctor Trey
5:17
and I just two wrestling fans that are friends, talk about wrestling each and
5:21
every week and what things like are important to us for seven hundred straight weeks,
5:27
seven hundred episodes is mind blowing at times. So you know, we
5:30
started in those days where podcasting was not as big back in twenty ten,
5:35
and now everybody and their mother, like literally there are probably podcasts out there
5:40
that's like my mom and I talk wrestling podcasts out there, So if we
5:45
fall into your podcast that you listen to each and every week, and there's
5:50
plenty of other content that you can listen to. Thank you so much for
5:54
us always taking time out of your day to include us in that catalog of
6:00
podcasting, because there's a lot more podcasts now than there was when we first
6:03
started back in two thousand and ten. So here we are seven hundred seven
6:08
hundredth episode of SRTU. The objective today is to cover each of our lists
6:13
of the top five wrestlers during the SRTU era, So for twenty ten to
6:18
present, we will share each of our lists on this week's edition of the
6:21
podcast. We've done this once before, and we did a top ten combined
6:29
top ten wrestlers of the SRTU era list for our two hundredth episode. That
6:32
was back on December twelve, twenty twelve, so two years in almost three
6:36
years in will I will reveal that lists momentarily. But I forgot to mention
6:43
a story that's very important to this podcast. On last week's edition of the
6:47
pod, as we all know, we talked about my wedding food poisoning being
6:51
down in Disney, and I completely forgot about telling the story that has to
6:57
do with actual wrestling. Several years ago, I mentioned on this podcast that
7:03
while in Disney World, saw Kevin Owens with his family. It was it
7:08
was right after WrestleMania thirty three in Orlando, and that was like mind blowing
7:14
to me that he was there. It was. It was badass this go
7:16
around, which I'll start with the first story, because I forgot to mention
7:19
this like months ago now, doctor Trade, It's almost probably been a year.
7:23
It was back in November. Flew into the Orlando International Airport. I'm
7:30
waiting outside for my dad to pick up my now wife and I from our
7:34
flight. And who do I see catching a car but aw superstar Michael Nakazawa.
7:42
He was out there hopping in the car and hopped in somebody's car and
7:46
then left. And then this most recent trip, I'm walking in Epcot for
7:53
those that are Disney World fans. I walked into the new Connections cafe that
7:58
they just recently built, where there's a Starbucks. I'm walking by the Starbucks
8:01
line and I see a gentleman who is probably the same height as me but
8:07
with a much wider build, next to a female that has purple hair that
8:13
is holding it or pushing a stroller and I ran into or saw Johnny Gargano,
8:18
Candas Larrey and Baby wrestling himself in line at Starbucks in Walt Disney World.
8:24
So some wrestling stories for my most recent trip, Doctor Tree, and
8:28
even one that I failed to mention several months ago when I saw Michael Nakazawa
8:33
back in November. Yeah, the Johnny Gargano Kanda's Lafe still waiting. Sammy
8:39
actually at Walmart a few weeks ago picked out the Cannas Lay figure that he
8:45
wanted because of the purple hair. So that's my attire that I look.
8:50
The fact that you recognized Michael Nakazawa is absurd, right, That just kind
8:58
of shows you, like what kind of wrestling fan Jeff Peck is. Of
9:01
all the people, he goes, hey, you know who I think that
9:03
is? And then that name pops up. It's just like, okay,
9:07
maybe we need to cut back on the wrestling a little bit because you should
9:11
not be able to recognize Michael Becazowa out of a crowd. So just putting
9:16
that out there for you. But I know, I know, But yeah,
9:18
Johnny Gargano, Kandas Larey Baby wrestling Quill Gargano and Michael Nakazawa, all
9:24
who I've seen down in Florida here in the last twelve months, did not
9:28
bother the Gargano family. I don't agree with that. Uh, they're enjoying
9:33
Disney World with their son. It was the Friday before Money the Bank,
9:37
which was the next day. Then saw Candice working Raw that Monday night,
9:41
she was working the Fatal the Gauntlet match for the Women's Tag Team Championship that
9:46
the Complaint Committee ended up winning Sonya Deville and Chelsea Green. So pretty cool.
9:52
I'm a huge fan of Johnny Gargano and had a little fanboy momentum switching
9:58
gears here. So top ten wrestlers of the SRTU era from two thousand and
10:03
ten to present. For our two hundredth episode back on December twelfth, twenty
10:09
twelve, twelve, twelve twelve, we did this episode. I think there's
10:13
gonna be some laughs, gonna be some groans, and then you're also gonna
10:16
be like man that was wrestling back then, but two hundred episodes under the
10:20
under our Belt Doctor Trey. We did a combined list at the time.
10:24
Number ten was Davy Richards from Ring of Honor wrestling at the time, So
10:31
that just goes to show you. I mean, we were very high on
10:33
David Richards at the time. He has had some accusations that are, if
10:37
deemed true, reprehensible, and I think it's retired from wrestling, but it's
10:43
still training people. But we had some high hopes for David Richards back in
10:46
two thousand twelve that have never really panned out. Yeah, and I think
10:50
even that one, like I have issues with Davy Richards personally, So it's
10:56
like it's a weird thing. If Eddie added me on Facebook like like a
11:01
year or two ago, so I was just like, okay, like I've
11:03
done nothing but bad mouth at you since like twenty fourteen, but okay,
11:07
yeah, if we want to be friends on Facebook, that's fine. So
11:09
just just forgot how odd of a choice that was, even though you know,
11:13
back then, like we were really high on not just him, but
11:16
even just the American Wholves in general and everything else and what they're what their
11:20
trajectory was. So it's a it is amazing how things can i'd say quickly
11:24
change. But that was like eleven years ago. Number nine, who at
11:31
the time I believe he was working for tena Arsse and Jeff Hardy. H
11:35
yeah, wow, Like I mean Jeff's I mean, this is a very
11:39
long, very good career, just once again had his own demons and stuff
11:43
pop up. I would say that if we did a Top twenty, Jeff
11:48
Hardy still might make our top twenty. I just don't know if he would
11:50
actually be even in our top ten. No, I don't think he's hit
11:54
the top ten right now. Maybe maybe top twenty. Number eight Daniel Bryan,
11:58
who was working to at the time. Yeah, still active, still
12:03
one of the best professional wrestlers in the world, and definitely would probably be
12:07
in our top ten if we did a top ten. By the way,
12:11
I'm not yeah, don't give away. Don't give away your list. I'm
12:13
not gonna give mine away either. So Number seven Bully Ray from Impact Wrestling
12:18
TNA at the time. He was so hot at that time, and then
12:22
it wasn't it was maybe what two years later he kind of retired and started
12:26
doing the Busted Open stuff and now he's kind of back a little bit.
12:28
But uh, at that time, that Bully Ray character was just fantastic.
12:33
Yeah, he ended up going back to we did that little run with the
12:35
Dudley Boys. That has often forgotten about Number six was Randy Orton from w
12:41
w A. Uh, if not for recent injuries, would probably like,
12:46
I mean, I'd still put him in the top ten of the SRTU era.
12:48
But you know, if he had not been injured the last year and
12:50
a half, borderline top five, uh, number five Shamus from de Wa.
12:58
You know, I I don't know how you feel that he may have
13:03
had the most underrated WW career just about anybody. I've said that about Kane
13:09
as well. Yeah, like just the longevity, holding almost every title except
13:13
for one, and then now there's some of the brawling bruis. Just you
13:16
know, you gotta remember, like if you go back, like the first
13:20
time when he beat John Cena, it was because Jesse the Body of Insure
13:24
introduced him that night too. That was one of those like just shows you
13:26
how long he's been around, because it's been a very long time. As
13:30
Jesse the Body of Venture was mentioned on w w ETV number four. I
13:35
think this is going to cause a lot of groans from w w E At
13:39
the time, Alberto del Rio wait I signed off on that, Yes,
13:46
I love that your son streamed da by the way. Yeah, he loved
13:48
some del rio, but like arguably maybe my most like most disliked wrestler I've
13:56
ever covered on this show. Yeah, yeah, no, I I know.
14:00
I think it was all afterwards that there was a lot of dislike based
14:03
on some choices and reports out there by him. Number three from at the
14:09
time Ring of Honor Wrestling. We know him today is a different person,
14:13
different name, but back then he went by his real name of Kevin Steen.
14:18
Yeah. Still arguably in our top ten and maybe the I mean,
14:24
I don't know where's gonna fall on your rankings. I don't know where you're
14:26
gonna fall on mine. But one of the most influential wrestlers of the last
14:31
twelve years for US. Number two from w w E, John Cena once
14:39
again, wasn't that long after that he would fully part time. I mean,
14:43
he's probably in the top ten just for what he's done, but really
14:46
the last year, four or five years, it's just very very part time
14:50
for US. So but Seena's like at that time, was still the workhorse
14:54
of WWE. Doctor Trey. You want to take a guess at who was
14:56
number one. Honestly have no clue from at the time WWE one c M
15:05
Punk. Yeah, I mean that was shortly after the pipe bomb everything else,
15:11
so it makes a lot of sins and he's still like, Look,
15:13
the top two people are both guys that we had to make rules about on
15:18
this show. We could not we couldn't talk about a heel turn We couldn't
15:22
talk about a CM Punk return on this show. Those are rules that we
15:24
had written off air just because we would do. I think one of those
15:28
shows you mentioned that we did hours on was most of it was about a
15:31
John Cena heel turn out of WrestleMania. So those two guys right there are
15:37
are like still to this day, are very very influential on this show over
15:41
the over all seven other episodes. So that was the top ten wrestlers of
15:46
the SRTU era back on our two hundredth episode on December twelve, twenty twelve,
15:50
once again ten David Richards nine, Jeff Hardy eight, Daniel Bryan seven,
15:54
Vullie Ray six, Randy Orton five, Shamus four, Alberto del Rio
15:58
three, Kevin Steen to John Cena and one c M Punk. Now let's
16:04
get to uh here we are five hundred episodes later. Instead of doing a
16:07
combo list, we're gonna do our and doing ten of them. We're gonna
16:12
narrow it down to our top five wrestlers of the SRTU era, each of
16:15
us doing our list. Here we are for the seven or eight episode,
16:21
so everything from two thousand and ten to present, during the history the era
16:26
of the still realta show. Um, doctor, try, would you like
16:29
me to kick it off? Would you like to kick it off? How
16:30
would you like to do things? My friend? Well, I guess I'll
16:33
go and kick it off since I'm fighting with Sammy right now because he's trying
16:37
to stab a fan with a giant stick at the same time. Okay,
16:44
you need to take a pause to make sure your son doesn't cut his fingers.
16:48
He's fine, it's it's it's it's he can't get his little fingers in
16:51
there. But that's why he got so excited, because you get the stick
16:53
to actually stick in the outer frame of the fans. So yeah, it's
17:00
if he's not hitting me, he's hitting something else. That's what he always
17:02
does. Long, very true, very true. But so I'll start off
17:06
with my number five was our number one five hundred episodes ago. I'm going
17:11
with see him Punk at number five, although he had a seven year hiatus
17:17
in the middle of it. Just from the wrestling standpoint, the fan interaction,
17:25
the amount of content he has created for us, even without being you
17:30
know, with that seven year gap, it's hard to argue his influence on
17:34
the show. And he's also one of you know, he's one of our
17:37
favorite wrestlers just to watch in general. So by number five is Phil Brooks
17:42
aka see him Punk? Wow? I mean that just tells you the the
17:47
impact he's hand because like you said, Doctor Trey, I mean it would
17:49
be two years later from our two arnth episode, our number one wrestler ranked
17:53
would not return until twenty twenty one, so seven years out of nearly fourteen
18:00
half of our existence. He wasn't performing in professional wrestling at the time.
18:07
But again, I think when it comes to some of the most controversial wrestlers
18:12
that we've ever covered, someone that moves the needle the most that is definitely
18:18
Cmpunk. I mean, there's there's not many people that when Doctor Trey and
18:22
I talk about them that we get very passionate and that there's like a major
18:26
story, whether it was what will Seempunk return to w W back in twenty
18:33
fourteen, or will see Himpunk ever returned to wrestling again? How we'll see
18:36
Himpunk perform in the UFC? Is he really signing with AW? Is he
18:41
returning to w There was a period of time just before the pandemic where he
18:44
joined w backstage where it was like, man, is he coming back?
18:48
And then the eventual return, his run, a first run with AW,
18:53
then the brawl out, the injuries, the controversy, the dirt cheats,
19:02
whether they were true or not, the stories. There's nobody that has moved
19:06
the needle more on this show than Sampunk. I think the only other person
19:11
I could really think of doctor Trey, that has moved the needle as much
19:15
as him, and it's it's very much like kind of touching the gravity that
19:23
Sampunk has had is maybe John Cena over the years. I don't think there's
19:29
anybody else that is we've talked about more than Sampunk that has moved the needle
19:33
like he has. I mean, seen has moved the needle, but kind
19:36
of in different reasons, like it's his charity work, it's the character,
19:41
it's the nature of the band's nut, all the other things that have covered
19:45
with Cmpunk whether it's the lawsuits or the brawlouts, or drawing comics from Marvel
19:52
or UFC, it's it's you know, seen it. They get our attention
19:56
for different reasons. I guess, Yeah, no, I can understand that.
20:00
Yeah, it's it's always kind of been, like I said, more
20:03
creative than anything. Um, I just from I guess from an overall standpoint,
20:07
it's always been cmpunk who's moved the needle to most here in the history
20:11
podcast. So number five for Doctor Trey is cmpunk from AW. For me
20:18
keeping with AW, my number five was the very first AW World Champion,
20:23
Chris Jericho. I think when you look through the entire history of this show,
20:29
I mean when we first started, he was I believe he was.
20:33
I believe he was World heavyweight Champion, had defeated the Undertaker and Elimination Chamber
20:40
in twenty and ten, thanks to the help of Sean Michaels, has set
20:42
up the Wrestle Many twenty sixth match. Here he is nearly fourteen years later,
20:48
and he's still a prominent figure in professional wrestling, always changing his persona,
20:53
changing his character, keeping himself fresh, keeping himself new and at all
21:00
times, and still performing in the ring at the highest equality. So for
21:03
me, doctor Trey, I gave my number five to les Champion Chris Jericho
21:10
the o Choke coming in at Sinco. I like it. It's he was
21:15
on my list of people. I was considering it, and even up until
21:18
the show started, it was kind of like back and forth, like trying
21:22
to find a spot for him because you know, not only is he one
21:26
of the greatest rustlers of all time, one of the greatest entertainers, the
21:30
king of reinvention, all those things. I mean, he moves the needle
21:33
like people pay attention to what he does. You know, he's just and
21:40
we've talked about the show like for a long time in WB and even in
21:41
AUW now he's the ultimate soldier. If he's at the top of the cards,
21:47
he's viable and people believe in him, and if he's helping elevate younger
21:51
talent, people buy into that. So, I mean, you look at
21:52
some of the matches he's had in AW with, you know, the Orange
21:56
Cassidy's, the Darby Allen, the same in gavar As, like the people
22:00
that he's worked with to help elevate them as well. For the good of
22:03
the companies these shows. He still has that mindset of, Hey, whatever
22:07
you guys need me to do, I'm going to do. Whether it's be
22:10
the world champion or be at the middle or the bottom of the card,
22:12
He's gonna do whatever it takes to help out his employers. So great overall
22:18
worker and one of the most entertaining people in the history of wrestling. All
22:22
right, Doc Trey, let's get to number four on your list. Who
22:26
came in a number four Top five wrestlers of the SRTU era. So this
22:30
is where the Jericho spot was in my head. And I went back and
22:33
forth between Jericho and the person I picked at number four for one reason,
22:38
I felt like we need an AW person on my top five. Went back
22:44
and forth. But one of the things was in the history of the show,
22:47
and we had this discussion of this group way back when, god this
22:52
is probably twenty fourteen, when I was like a guest host. So my
22:55
number four is from AW John Moxley looking at the you know, he may
23:00
not have been the most polarizing person, but consistency and going back to that
23:06
conversation about we had like a four way podcast talking about you know, the
23:12
shield and how they would fit in into the wrestling world, and we had
23:18
high hopes for all three of them, and you know, Max has delivered
23:22
for the most part. You know, he was the workhorse in WWE,
23:26
was on he felt like he was on every episode of Raw and SmackDown all
23:30
the way through his time and then coming to ADW outside of the little bit
23:34
of time he had takeaway to go to rehab, He's maybe one of the
23:37
art of the most consistent wrestlers in the world over the last ten years.
23:44
So not to mention multiple time WWE champion, multiple time a w champion,
23:49
his stuff in New Japan has been great. So my number four is John
23:53
Moxley. Yeah, great call there by mox Um. I mean he's had
23:56
a very impactful career in general, which is basically from a mainstream standpoint,
24:03
started and continued on during the entire history of this podcast, debuting in twenty
24:10
twelve with the Shield and then started hitting his stride. Once they broke up.
24:15
He became world Champion, Interconinal Champion, veered off to AW where he's
24:21
arguably been the best AW World champion during the promotion short history. He carries
24:26
the banner of AW, the flag of aw very proudly great call there,
24:32
Doctor Trey by picking John Moxley number four. So another aw wrestler making the
24:37
list here on the top five Wrestlers of the SRTU era from Doctor Trey.
24:41
Now for my number four, which I think to most is going to be
24:45
a surprise that they're this far back on the top five list. But for
24:53
me, when you look at the I've really thought about it and it was
24:57
like overall grand scheme of things, like where does this person fall in there?
25:02
They're definitely top five. You can make a case for them. For
25:06
number one. When we did the ten year anniversary special, Doctor Trey named
25:11
this person the SRTU Wrestler of the decade the first ten years of of SRTU,
25:18
and they had never won the Wrestler of the Year award in the history
25:21
of the podcast, which was badass and justifiable because they like, we're a
25:26
consistent top three wrestler during you know, most of our time in doing this
25:33
podcast. So my number four wrestler of all time here Top five Wrestlers of
25:37
the SRTU ara Doctor Trey from the we he started in RoHS Kevin Steen and
25:44
he's now known today as Kevin Owens. I gave Kevin Owens a nod at
25:48
number four. No, that's that's a it's a great choice. And excuse
25:53
me. We talked about it last like all fair last week that you know,
25:57
where do we slot a guy in that's never won our Wrestler of the
26:02
Year war but obviously has been a huge part of this show, whether it's
26:07
Jeff running into him in Disney World or Jeff talking to his dad, Like,
26:11
this guy's been all like all around us the entire history of this show.
26:18
You know, I think I've told you before, like when I was
26:19
planning on going to wrestling school back in my twenties, the character in my
26:23
head that I kind of came up with is who the Kevin Owens character is,
26:29
you know, like I'm not the best shape of the world. Like
26:32
I'm a little bit round. It's a little bit the Dusty Rose. My
26:33
belly's just a little bit too big, my butts a little bit too big.
26:37
You know. Kevin Owens kind of fits that dusty stone cold kind of
26:41
character that, you know, the blue collar guy that fans always kind of
26:45
get behind him. And we've seen it over the years, like he's just
26:48
as good at being a villain as he is being a good guy. So
26:52
one of the most well rounded workers in the history of our show, right
26:56
there, All right, doctor Crail, Let's get to number three. Who
26:59
came at number three on your list? So number three for me is somebody
27:03
who has won Wrestler of the Year twice in the history of this show.
27:07
Once again, kind of going back in that conversation I just had about John
27:11
Moxley, somebody that we discussed, I guess kind of in their infancy in
27:15
WWE. So my number three coming in is Seth freaking Rawlins. And I
27:22
hate saying freaking that sounds weird to me, but anyway, Seth Freakin Rollins
27:25
number three. Guys we talked about with Chris Jericho, one of those guys
27:29
that always seems to reinvent himself, whether it's the architect in the Shield,
27:33
whether it's you know, with um, you know, with dripple Age and
27:37
Stephanie and and Jamie Noble and those guys backing them up, you know,
27:44
all the way up through you know, the the Monday Night Messiah into the
27:48
Drip King, into this evolution that he's in now one of the most consistent
27:52
performers despite missing a year with the torn acl just one of those guys like
27:59
where it once again, wherever they need him, whether it's top of the
28:02
car, mail the car, in a tag team with Kevin Owens, like,
28:04
doesn't seem to matter what they need him to do, he does it
28:07
and the crowd always responds to him. So number three for me is Seth
28:11
Frickin Rollins. Yeah, Doctor Treman, that's a great point. You know,
28:18
he is one of the most impactful wrestlers in the history of the show.
28:22
And I think, just for the sake of other conversations here, I'm
28:27
gonna skip further dialogue here because maybe, maybe, just maybe he pops up
28:33
again on my list as well. Here for the top five. So number
28:34
three, Doctor Trey, Seth Rollins from the we my number three, that
28:41
is. I think this is gonna be funny because when we went through the
28:42
top ten wrestlers of the SRTU era, doctor Trey said that this wrestler maybe
28:48
makes the top ten and due to recent injuries, had had probably not made
28:56
the lists. And I kind of laughed a little bit because he came in
29:00
number three on my list, and it's mister consistency up until the last year
29:03
and a half of the back injury. But from w it's Randy Orton from
29:08
two thousand and ten to twenty twenty one, there was no more consistent wrestler
29:17
in the history of this podcast in my opinion than Randy Orton. I think
29:19
you can make a case for Jericho, who came in number five for me,
29:22
but there were periods of time that Jericho was not wrestling and was,
29:26
you know, doing the band thing or doing the family thing, staying up
29:30
to you know, resting the body in the mind, and Randy Orton was
29:34
always there, whether there was creative that we liked, like his most recent
29:38
run with r K bro or creative that we didn't like his run with Legacy
29:45
in the early stages of the podcast or later on with the Authority with Triple
29:51
H and Stephany McMahon. Randy Orton has always been to me, Doctor Trey
29:56
mister consistent. So this may be a shock to you, becau is of
30:00
what you said earlier on in the podcast, but I went number three.
30:03
I went with Randy Orton due to his consistency in the in the history of
30:06
the podcast. Yeah, I think for me, just the you know,
30:11
there's a couple of guys on my list that have been you know, missed
30:12
some time with some injuries and things like that, but there there really isn't
30:17
a more consistent wrestler during the course of the show than Randy Orton. I
30:22
mean, how the guys have what Fourteen time world champion, thirteen time world
30:25
champion. I mean, it's kind of hard to to knock a guy,
30:27
But for me, it was just a little bit of the injuries that kind
30:30
of pushed him out of my top five. But he's actually my favorite wrestler
30:37
to watch in the wrestling ring because he's kind of a blend of the old
30:42
school and the new school, and he could have a good, like a
30:47
really good solid match with anybody without doing a whole lot. You know,
30:52
they always people used to make fun of him a little bit for like dropping
30:55
that yeah that chin lock in the middle of a match kind of slow everything
31:00
down. But then you know, we talked about a couple of weeks ago
31:03
with uh the Brian Danielson uh uh oh, I'm sorry, blanking um from
31:10
preventing or okadah. Yeah, because it was a very Randy Orton style of
31:15
match and his influence among the younger generation as they come to the w system
31:22
has really felt because it was a lot of those super indie guys that are
31:26
super fast and in go one hundred miles an hour. You know, they
31:29
kind of watched the Randy Orton stuff and they learned to slow it down.
31:33
So, um, Randy's just the consummate professional. Like jb Elsa said,
31:37
like, if if you're going to build up a pro wrestler, you usually
31:41
end up with a guy that was just like Randy Ortons. So it's a
31:44
it's a very very solid picking. Like I said, for me, it
31:45
was just a little bit of the injuries over the over those years, I
31:48
kind of pushed him down just a hair. No, totally understand which,
31:52
by the way, so far during all these lists, like nothing I can
31:55
argue about from from your side of things either. I mean, it's these
31:59
are these are folks I felt like we've named so far that would fall into
32:01
a collective top ten lists. So it'll be interesting now as we reached the
32:06
final two if there's a lot of similarities here with what doctor Trey and I
32:10
come up with. So now it's times you get to number two Doctor Trey,
32:14
who was number two on your list for top five wrestlers of the SRTU
32:16
era. Well, number two for me is somebody we kind of already discussed,
32:22
maybe a little high on my list because you thought he was a little
32:25
low on yours. But my number two is the former Kevin Stein now known
32:31
as Kevin Owens from WWE. Like, for me, when we talk about
32:36
consistency over the course of this show, like there are very few people that
32:40
are as consistent as Kevin Owens, whether it was his time and Ring of
32:45
Honor, whether it's Hyman WWE, like, he's always been in our top
32:49
five. It seemed like every single year that this show has been on the
32:53
air. And then you look at you know, like what he's done in
32:57
ww with multiple world title reigns or Kandel title United States out now with the
33:01
tag team titles. He's one of those guys as always right there near the
33:07
top of the card. And not to mention, he's the guy that w
33:09
W hands selected to have him match with Stone Cold Steve Austin. So when
33:15
you look at all those things going in factoring in one of the best talkers
33:19
in wrestling, one of the best heels when he's a heel, really really
33:22
good baby face, I would say his heel works a little bit better than
33:24
baby Face, but outside of that, like it's this hard and knocker guy
33:28
that's just as consistent as Kevin Owens has been over the last you know,
33:32
fourteen years. So my number two is Kevin Owens. Yeah, kay,
33:36
hit on on that at all. We all know mine feelings about Kevin Owens.
33:39
Spoke about him this moment ago when I had him at number four,
33:44
But I feel like I could have had him number three. I could have
33:47
had him number two. I could have had him number one on mind list
33:51
as well. And we just spoke about consistency with Randy Orton and doct Trey.
33:54
You hit it on the head. Kevin Owens has had the same consistency
33:58
as well since two thousand and ten, since we started this podcast, when
34:00
he was on the rise in ROH became our OH World Champion, got signed
34:04
by We, became NXT Champion, went over to the main rosters, feuding
34:08
with John Cena, becomes United States Champion, Intercontinental Champions, wins the Universal
34:15
Championship. He's had some injury bugs, there's been times where creative has not
34:20
been that great, but overall, the creative, I don't know thirteen out
34:23
of fourteen years I'm doing this podcast, probably Kevin Owens is is a top
34:29
five wrestler each one of those years, so can't hit on that. Number
34:32
two on Doctor Trey's list is Kevin Owens from We and Now. My number
34:37
two, which could be number one on Doctor Trey's list, could be on
34:43
number one on most people's list, but for me, my number two is
34:47
the current Head of the Table, the Tribal Chief one Roman Reigns. It
34:53
was tough of where I could put him in on this list because the last
34:59
three years have in some of the best three years of professional wrestling I've seen
35:02
in sometime some of the best runs I've ever seen to this day in twenty
35:07
twenty three. He's been on top since twenty twenty. There's never been a
35:10
time where I've been like tired of him at all. His stuff is captivating,
35:16
it's amazing to watch on television. It's some of the best again and
35:21
creative I've ever seen. Over a thousand days as a world champion in today's
35:25
modern era is nothing to sneeze at. I think the only drawback from him
35:31
is up until this Tribal Chief, Head of the Table bloodline run Roman Reigns
35:37
was kind of mediocre, Like he was great as an inn ring performer,
35:43
but his character was lacking. It was like, you know, the way
35:46
that John Cena was for most of his career until the end when we saw
35:50
John Cena like really let it fly as an in ring performer. He wasn't
35:53
jammed down our throats as the top guy, and we were able to start
35:58
to enjoy Roman Reign John Cena back then. And that's how I feel like
36:01
lately with Roman Reigns. They finally leaned into him being a heel and it's
36:06
been amazing. It's like Hollywood Hogan esque when in w CW when it was
36:10
like ninety six to ninety nine and it was just time to turn the baby
36:15
face heel and let's see what they can do. And this character, this
36:20
iteration of Roman Reigins, is one of the best characters of all time.
36:23
This Roman Reigns, this inner iteration, this character of Roman Reigins is the
36:27
one that we're going to remember the most. We will not remember the big
36:30
Dog as much or the shield as much. It's going to be the tribal
36:32
chief, it's going to be the head of the table, the land the
36:37
island of relevancy, the head of that all that being Roman reigns. So
36:40
for me, Doctor Trey, I have him number two on my list,
36:45
so I'll kind of skip my overview because when it comes to my number one,
36:52
it's the same guy. It's the tribal chief head a table. Roman
36:54
reigns. And for the things that you said, I don't knock him as
37:00
much for the John Cena version of him that you were alluding to, Like,
37:06
I don't really knock him as badly, and I'm not saying badly is
37:10
in you know, you you over or you underrated him, But it's the
37:15
last three years has almost made up for the first seven. Um Like this
37:22
is the best performance from a professional wrestler that I've seen, Like the Hogan
37:28
of Reference is fantastic, but just I mean, this is Rick Flair four
37:32
horsemanesque. This is the kind of stuff that when you are trying to be
37:37
a heel and model yourself, like he gets the reaction that's positive and then
37:42
gets booted out of the building within the thirty seconds of each other, Like
37:45
it's it's it's he constantly now has the crowd in the palm of his hand
37:51
and the fact that he's helped elevate you know, other people around him.
37:57
Uh, not to mention you know, the USO and solo. Everything else
38:01
he's brought to the table over the last three years is something we haven't seen
38:07
in decades. I mean, this is a once in a generation performance he's
38:09
pulling off right now. So and then even before that, yeah, the
38:15
character wasn't great, but the consistency of being in the ring always be the
38:19
top of the card a guy at least give them credit for that as well.
38:22
So for me, my number one is Roman Rains, So you go,
38:24
Number one on doctor Trace list is the one and only Roman Rains coming
38:29
in number two on mine. My number one wrestler of the SRTU era is
38:36
the same guy that I named as the SRTU Wrestler of the Decade back at
38:40
our ten Years special in twenty twenty, a year that we obviously loved and
38:45
adored in twenty twenty, and that is one Seth Rollins. I won't call
38:51
him Seth freakin Rollins. I've always known him as Seth Rollins. Earned all
38:53
this so debuting in twenty twelve from a w E standpoint, but even going
39:00
back further to the beginning of the show, he had just come off of
39:05
his run as ROH World Champion. I think he left in the fall of
39:08
two thousand and nine, maybe fall of two thousand and ten. I can't
39:13
seem to remember right now, but I think it was fall of two thousand
39:16
and ten. He had become World Champion in two thousand and ten, so
39:20
even when we first started, he was ROH World Champion, went over wa
39:23
The run with the Shield is obviously electric in historic when they branched off and
39:29
he became kind of the guy coming out of that group, initially getting the
39:34
run with the authority, getting the run as a world champion. He was
39:38
a double champion at one point in United States and World Champion. He's feuding
39:42
with John Cena. He had one of the greatest moments in the history of
39:46
the podcast when he cashed in a WrestleMania. It was one of the best
39:52
WrestleManias we've ever covered in the podcast as well. I mean, and that
39:55
was a lot because of seth rownds a match at the year can in it
40:00
for each year grant him when they turned him baby face towards the later part
40:05
of twenty eighteen nineteen he started to get stale, and then they did the
40:09
right move by changing him to a heel, and the heel run that he
40:14
had was really really good as the Messiah, that was a great run.
40:20
And then you kind of saw him become a baby face again organically because the
40:23
fans really enjoyed watching him. And I feel like it's kind of been like
40:29
the cherry on top of everything lately. Is this current run he's had as
40:35
a baby face the last two years, last two three years, and now
40:37
as a world the first of this iteration of the World havyweight Championship. Running
40:43
with with that title presently has been a joy to watch. He wants to
40:46
be the workhorse champion. I went back and forth basically if I would go
40:52
with Roman Reigns or seth Rons. I think if you ask me the way
40:57
that they're going right now, what will be a year from now. It's
41:00
very well possible that it flip flops where Roman Rains is one, Rawlins is
41:04
two, or it could remain the same. I just feel like for me,
41:09
in the history of this podcast, Rawlins and Rains have been some of
41:14
the upper echelon in the history of this pod. We've watched their careers blossom
41:20
and grow into who they've become and who they are nowadays. So for me,
41:23
Doctor Trey, I went with Seth Rons number one on my list top
41:27
five wrestler of the SRTU era. Yeah, see, my top three almost
41:32
were interchangeable, Like it was that close between Rains Rawlins and like those three
41:37
guys to be are the most influential people on us as far as the history
41:44
of this show, I can't argue Seth rollinsby number one because literally I said,
41:50
it was like splitting hairs between those guys. For me, it's funny
41:54
because, like I know we did the we played like was a lad two
42:00
years ago or like at the pandemic time. We put out all the old
42:02
episodes and one of my favorite ones, like I mentioned earlier, was that
42:07
podcast the four of us did. It was like it was you be Bret
42:09
somebody else I think Benny Lopez, Benny Lopez and we were talking about the
42:14
shield and where we thought they were gonna go. And it was funny because
42:17
I was the one guy that was kind of on Seth Rollins bandwagon and everybody
42:21
else was on the Dean Ambrose and Roman Range bandwagon. And to see where
42:25
we're at now and see that all three of those guys have had amazing Hall
42:30
of Fame worthy careers. Ull I mean, god, I mean, I
42:34
can't mean, I couldn't even tell you how many World championships between all three
42:37
of those guys. Just like for a group to come in together and then
42:44
break out on their own and set such a high bar where none of them
42:47
are the Marty Janetti, you know, none of them are the ten EVIASI
42:52
Junior, They're all you know worthy of praise is incredible. So and then
42:58
like like I mentioned, was like the evolution of the character, always staying
43:02
fresh, always save the head of the curve, not to mention landing one
43:07
of those beautiful women in the world to you know, and Becky Lynch to
43:12
be his wife. The guys had a great run, so kudos to him.
43:16
And like I said, it's it's impossible to argue with Seth being your
43:21
number one. And I think when you look at both of our lists from
43:24
a thousand and foot view, like I could make a case of putting Kevin
43:29
Owens in my top three, and then you could literally have or you and
43:32
I both while different spots had Rollins, Owens reigns in our top threes each.
43:38
I mean I had him at number four, you had him at number
43:43
two. It's it's I just feel like, while there were some differences in
43:49
our lists, I think when you look at this overall, it's very well
43:52
possible that every person that we named, even the guys that weren't named the
43:57
same that we both didn't have in our top five lists, you can make
44:00
a case would fall into that top ten wrestlers of the srt RA overall.
44:06
Yeah, by the way, we ever do that again. I'm pretty sure
44:08
Davy Richards will not be in our top twenty. No, neither while Alberto
44:12
del Rio. But yeah, when you look at like anybody listening to show,
44:16
like I mean, like right now we're sitting here and Samy's names,
44:20
one of the most influential guys on both of us not in our top five.
44:23
He probably would kind of about nine or ten for both of us in
44:28
the history of this show. But you know, there are just certain guys
44:31
that we've always been fans of and keeps a ton of praise on, and
44:37
it just kind of shows that you can kind of move these guys around.
44:42
And I would say probably both your top five my top five would be in
44:46
our top tens, respectively on each side, and then you know, a
44:52
few more guys ad in there. But like it's basically been kind of these
44:57
three guys above everybody else outside of aj aj Styles. You know, I
45:01
think he won the Rust of the Year twice for US didn't make our top
45:07
five. Yeah, so's it's a very interesting list that we have. When
45:10
you look at like Rust, you know, we could have put you know,
45:14
Becky in there, Charlotte in there as well. I went back and
45:17
forth like adding new usos into my list just because of their tag team work
45:22
over the history of this show, which is probably greater than anybody else's.
45:27
So like there's a lot of people that you could kind of push. I
45:30
mean, even if we did a top ten, Jeff at eleven, twelve,
45:34
and thirteen could be argued to be in the top ten as well.
45:36
Yeah, so, great lists, great discussion here once again, Doctor Trey's
45:40
list number five, Cmpunk number four, John Moxley number three, Seth Rollins
45:45
number two, Kevin Owens number one, Roman Reigns My list number five,
45:50
Chris Jericho number four, Kevin Owens number three, Randy Or number two,
45:53
Roman reigns and number one seth rollins. So our top five rushes are the
45:59
sr TU error. For the seven hundredth episode of this podcast, out Trey
46:04
is officially in the books. My friend, Yeah, are we gonna get
46:08
it like episode fourteen hundred. Yeah, maybe I'll I'm definitely gonna keep this
46:13
list so we can always revert back to. I had to go through like
46:15
my old notes to find that top ten wrestlers of srt ER from the two
46:21
hundreth episode, and I've kept my notes from like important episodes over the years,
46:23
so I was lucky to find that. So that was cool to look
46:28
back and see how and where we came from nearly eleven years ago. For
46:32
the two hundredth episode of SRTU, so five hundred episodes ago. Um,
46:37
with that set, let's close up shop on episode number seven hundred, let's
46:40
get a couple of plugs and sponsored out of the way. You can download
46:44
show every Thursday or Friday at Real Guy Radio dot com and the still Realtive
46:47
show iTunes feed don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to help us clumb
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shots on iTunes. You can follow us individual on Twitter for myself at SRTU
46:54
Jeff and for Doctor Trey Franklin at the Doctor Trey and of course don't forget
46:59
to follow show on Twitter at SRTU podcast. With that being said, what
47:02
is going on the wonderful world of door s Dre Franklin this week. Well,
47:06
like Jeff said, you can find me on Twitter at the Doctor Trey.
47:08
You will not find me on threads yet because I have not made that
47:13
move, but you can find me on Facebook and Instagram Doctor Dre Franklin.
47:16
And when you're on Facebook, check out Rockets Each Championship Wrestling. We got
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a big show coming up next Saturday the fifteenth, so be sure to check
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it out for all the videos, all the pictures, all that fun stuff
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as well when you're on Facebook. So there you go. Support all the
47:29
great things that support the Still Real Touch show. And once again, sincere
47:34
thanks to all of you who have been downloading this podcast each and every week.
47:37
Thank you for making us reach this seven hundredth milestone. Cheers and salute
47:44
to everybody who's been here for seven hundred episodes. Congratulations to Doctor Trey,
47:49
and a sincere thanks Dam as well for doing this each and every week seven
47:52
hundred straight weeks. Nothing to sneeze out here, folks. We love doing
47:54
this podcast every single week for nearly fourteen years. So thank you for making
47:59
this part of your week. Thank you for making us part of anything that
48:01
you uh and everything you could potentially listen to. Thank you sincerely for all
48:06
your support, and until next week for dry Franklin. I'm Jeff back for
48:09
the seven hundredth time. This is the shopping I suppose that throughout pulls it
48:22
out like get the shoes yard, it'll beware looking then listen jomp, welcome
48:30
to the less time. I'm fair, got a line on you too,
48:36
don't fag well, it's always be fair. At who's checking? He even
48:44
knows where the hipp has, knows that he really wanted he wants there sitting
48:53
over there, supports that be underwear, who start is banding the hand,
49:05
all your pretenders where you check the snake surprisingly had a snake, all the
49:14
water had paint on his face, has Jim dugging and a true by four.
49:22
But with style like this man, you don't need no more. Got
49:27
a lot of friends, I got a lot of falls. Quicker than the
49:31
booth read, I'll be bouncing nothing bot lots of people talking. You gotta
49:39
tell you you want to me that? Whoa? Who was that sitting over
49:49
there sporting nothing underwear? Who is beding the hand? Are your pretenders?
50:00
Will shine the flame crack Shilba be struck by lighting on the drive the finus
50:08
car it dies to find the dynam didn't try to say that. Don't matter
50:14
which country. Masson says, by the leg ro let's wear it styling both
50:42
out all getting bud It's limousine listening on the slide. I'm not dancing on
50:49
nothing, just dealings a medically only one who's that day spoke in that thing
51:05
on the wind holds the hair while you have to say where you better be
51:15
a whoa whoa? Come I say a hole. Wh