Episode 110| “In Memory Of”

I don't even have the right mic. Get the microphone working, Rhodesia. Episode 1, we on 110. Episode 110 of the TFW Podcast. Yes, there it is. It is 110. I am your host, Matt, joined by longtime friend, longtime colleague, Eshaan, and longtime wife, and longtime everything else, Rhodesia. What's up, y'all? What's going on? So we got a new little... So Riverside was doing us dirty on Sunday, and they wouldn't let us in here to do a recording, so we had to hop on Zoom and whatnot.

So Big Daddy is part of the tech support world, so I just turn things on, turn things off, trying to figure out what it is, what makes things work. So there's a setting that says as soon as all the participants are in the pod, it just automatically starts. So Matt just starts the pod. I'm talking about my tummy problems, like Rhodesia's getting set up. So we just starting wet and wild on this mug, and I'm ready to go. We are here, and that's what it's about.

Thank everybody for listening on Sunday. Yeah, that was all legit. We were sitting there for two hours trying to get it fixed. We'll see where we are platform-wise, or not platform-wise, but recording software-wise here in a couple of weeks, because this we can't continue to go through. Looks great, sounds great when it works, but when it don't work, boy... I feel like I want to bust out a Negro spirit, yo. You know, chains gonna come. I'm trying to figure out what the song is.

I don't know the song, but I feel like one coming. And just to see, let's just see. I think your board is not working. All right, good talk. All right, so we won't be using any sound effects. I'm going to do... We're going to do some claps, and we'll do some boos, and some yeas on... We'll do our own verbal stuff, because the board ain't working. So then we also were going to do the Darby Allen promo piece. I guess we won't play that either, because the board ain't working.

So we'll talk through it. It was from last week's Dynamite. So anyway, crazy day, crazy day. So update, of course, everybody on to the personal lives of us. I came on here, I guess a week ago, or a week and a half ago, I told you guys about my dad and how he was sick. Once again, thank you guys for all your prayers and support. It hit me with your support and your strength. I was just telling you before we hit record, and not to get too deep.

Of course, I know you guys are here for the wrestling talk, but the universe, God, the strength that I received a few days ago on Friday is enough to move mountains. I was struggling, and my dad's been sick for a while, and we've known he's been sick, and he's known he's been sick for a while. So I've been holding on to that. And something happened this past Friday where it just all got off of me. And I was content, and I was at peace.

So me, Rhodesian, little Matt went back to Michigan this past weekend when we recorded a pod on Sunday. We were leaving to record a pod and then going to the hospital to see him. And by this time, he's not really... We don't know if he's hearing or not, but he's not reacting to much that's going on. We were able to say our goodbyes to him. I was able to say, thank you for everything. You can rest now. We got it from here. And he did pass away this morning, Tuesday morning.

So this show is absolutely going to be dedicated to my old dude. It's so funny because Richard, one of my really, really, really, really, really good friends, shot me a text today and reminded me that one of my friends in high school also passed away on this date, February 20th, which I forgot. And then he also reminded me that his mom passed away on this date, February 20th.

So of course not to get morbid, but I'm a big believer in the universe and power, positive energy and all that kind of stuff. So it just shows connection. It just shows connection. And for my dad to not be in pain anymore, yes, of course I'm going to miss him. And yes, when the Lions win the Super Bowl next year, I'm going to shed some happy tears because I'm like, man, you missed it by one year. And when anything else happens and I want to text him or give him a call, I won't have that.

But just thank you guys for anybody who would send a message on X or send me a personal DM or send me a text message. Just thank you guys because the strength that you guys have helped me get, and I'm going to continue to need it for sure, speaks volumes. So once again, not to get too crazy because this is a wrestling podcast, but Eshaan, thank you sir and Katrina for your incredible support and thoughts.

Rhodesia, of course, you mean a world to me and you've been there step by step, but I wanted to give you guys, of course, the heads up. So Rhodesia was kind of like, if you want Shashiq, come on and do the pod. I knew I was going to do it because there was no way if he would have known we would not do it today, he'd have been pissed off.

He was one of those like, man, if you don't get on that microphone and do what you do, so that is what we're going to do is we're going to do what we do on this episode. And I want to start with you Eshaan because I got a bone to pick. We watched the main event last night. Great main event. Jaiusso versus Gunther. Where was Cody Rhodes at? I don't know. Where was he at? I didn't see it. I don't know. So Jaiusso is struggling because Jimmy shows up. So now it was a two on one thing.

He's still hitting Gunther with 13 spears. He was spamming that spear button. He wasn't doing super kicks. He was doing spears. Hit him with about 13 spears, tried to go for a few splashes, jumping back outside the ring to make sure Jimmy don't get involved again. All this is going on. Gunther is not a Cody Rhodes sighting insight. Gunther ends up winning. We go off with Jimmy beating the brakes off of Jaiusso. And of course we fade to black.

I see online Cody shows up afterwards to sing his damn song, which is interesting. But pull it up. It's there. I just want to ask you Eshaan, this man is supposed to be the baby face of the century. Wipe me baby face. Everybody loves Cody. Do you not love his own friends? He's the one that brought Jaiusso to Monday Night Raw. So now Jaiusso gets his chance at a singles title that he really wants to knock out a reign of 600 plus days with Gunther and he can't have Jaiusso's back.

I just need you to explain yourself Eshaan. I need you to explain yourself in the Cody universe where the hell he was. Oh my bad. I was looking at my text. You know, I was big that he was, he was asleep last night, but I got my plug from WWE hit me up and they let me know that Cody was injured. That that's some that John Cena Samoan Spike took him out. Do you see how red his neck was? He was getting medical attention.

He wasn't fit hours later to do a run in and and and and and cause interference from that match. No, he was selling. He was selling. That's why he wasn't able to be there. I love a cell job, but are so you're telling me because that was first segment. So you're telling me that a Samoan Spike took Cody Rhodes out for two extra hours where he couldn't come down his legs to work. I think it's fist still work. You tell me he couldn't come down and make that superhero save.

I mean if you that's what you're telling me. Now I know kind of how to pay Cody. I we we we've seen John Cena since we've seen John Cena since his career is over. They didn't didn't payment tell us that that that spike is careers. So Cody was to get taken care of. Rhodes you are not the biggest Cody Rhodes fan. You made a comment during the match before you say that. Oh, OK. I was trying to shoot Cody. You know, a lot of times you don't want to give it up on the pot. You want to try to act.

You want to try to tow that line 50 50. I want to hurt no relationships and all that kind of stuff. I need you to stand in it. So if you don't tell the folks what you said, you can still snitch in a second. But we're talking about Cody right now as far as not coming back out. I want to shoot him some bail. I'm like, you know, he's on that plane on a private jet over to Perth to get ready for the nation eight chamber.

You tell me that this guy last time I checked a couple months ago broke his damn elbow with a chair shots that he can come and have a match at the end of a show. I forget that. Oh, you're talking about also when he tore his pick to that he wrestled in a hell in the cell. You talk about like that. But then you got me when you said he came back out at the end of the night. So he plays music. So they went dark. So Cody, Cody, Cody, man, was you. You were a brother.

I know that the end of the show is different. You kind of you like half white, half black brother at this show. Black history, mom, too. The show was over at that point. And he come this this is the send the crowd home happy. They're saying nothing to do with that. And we know from a storyline perspective, it would take some of the the steam off of Jimmy and J if somebody came out and saved him. It don't matter who came out. They don't know what it is. Y'all come out here just being heels.

I'm just pulling your pants down on Cody for the thousandth time. This is like part of the gimmick. It's like anyway, we can pull our pants down, spread cheeks and poop on Cody. I'm not sure why. We're we're a podcast trying to build an audience here. Y'all continuously want to tear down by crapping all over the hottest wrestler. And I don't know what we're doing. I guess I got to be the guy that kind of stands up and say enough's enough. But enough is enough.

And it's time to move on to the next segment, Matt, which you got. All right. Well, I don't cater to the Cody crybabies. We'll leave that up to you. So we're moving on to the next segment. Then let's talk about the main event with Jay and Guth and we can talk about the match, but the the Jimmy interference. So we were kind of going back and forth on, hey, if they are going to do this for manias, it's about time to start.

And when he announced his match last week, I think I even put on Twitter like the the the Jimmy no yeet. I was like, spoiler for next week. So that was like the smart money. We kind of knew that was going to happen. How do you guys think it played out? And do you think it was enough to kind of start that rivalry back up because they haven't you take out the rumble. They haven't really done anything since September or October, whenever that was.

Was it enough for you to say, OK, yep, I'm ready to get back invested in Jimmy verse Jay at a WrestleMania match that first part as far as how the match ended, I was happy how that went down because I didn't want to go there to lose it to Jay considering, I guess we're going to presume that it's going to be Jimmy Jay at mania. So I was happy about that part of it. I was like, we need to get to this now as far as getting Jimmy and Jay heated up. We're what six weeks out, five weeks out.

I'm like, this is probably like the last week to get that going to where it didn't feel like it was just thrown together. If they were we would have waited one more week. It probably would have because mania is going to be here like this, like before you know it. So I think the timing maybe was just maybe last week we could have got there, but we didn't. We had other things going on. So that's OK with that, too.

So I'm just excited to see where this is going to go as far as the full bloodline 2.0, because again, if we're talking about it's the bloodline and this Jay still part of family. Rock still says he's family. Family is family no matter what. And I my little conspiracy theory part when Cody was getting his medical check up because he couldn't take a little poke to the throat. I'm like he's like Adam Pierce comes in talking about some what you want to do, what you want to do, what you want to do.

And Cody's like, I'm good. I'm fine. I'm fine. All right. So I think that's something that's going to be in the works. That's probably why he isn't tripping like I thought he should have been tripping after that match. Yeah, I can't wait to see. I was kind of surprised when they actually I was hoping at this point we would get Gunther and Jay at Mania. I thought it would be an amazing sight to see Jay win and him doing the his little dance at the end championship.

I thought that'd be a great moment for Mania. I know that the two brothers wanted to have that match at a mania and hopefully as a it comes out across real well, they could you know, really hype a feud up between two of them with them bouncing back and forth between the shows, you know, Jimmy pops out of nowhere. I'm sorry, Jay pops out of nowhere on Friday and attacks Jimmy and this is goes on for weeks and it has to be settled and some kind of blood feud at Mania.

I mean, definitely they can really heat this up. But the biggest question for me is like, all right, what we have for Gunther was what's who's he going after? I mean, are we going to run back Chad Gable? They're going to heat him back up. I know he had a match the other day. I think a match to hell of a match. Well, Ivar and that crowd in there granted that car that crowd was there. Shout out to Anaheim. They brought it all night. That match was great.

And I'm so I'm watching the match and I'm thinking like, okay, they could easily heat him back up because that story still wasn't done. It still is not done. But if you listen to Sammy's promo and Sammy basically just talked about how there is a pathway for him to win a champ. I think he said there's a pathway for him to win a championship at WrestleMania. But we know he's not going for the main title. That's the whole point of having chamber.

And we'll give our picks for chamber here at the end of the show. We know he's not going for the tag belts. That doesn't make sense. I can't see him going for the US title. That's on SmackDown. The only other title that makes sense is Gunther and they could tell a incredible like NXT black and gold Sammy Zane underdog story. If you guys remember that was his story. He always got close and lost a big one.

Always got close and lost a big one until he won the championship and then KO turned on that same night. But they could tell a fantastic story with Gunther being indestructible, undefeated against Sammy Zane. So I think that that may be where they're going. And I mean, I would be here for that if that's what they do. I can't see him winning. Oh, she did it. Yeah. Yeah. You talk all that stuff about E of mine.

If the soundboard work, I will hit the air horns you over there talking and you won't mute first time for everything, right? First time for everything. I lost my train. I lost my train. It was like, it was like a half ass air horn. Yeah. I thought that too, like Sammy Gunther, I could be there for it. But when Gable won last night and how he won, I'm like, okay, so maybe this is the story they're trying to tell to heat him back up to go after Gable.

Because I thought after Gunther, because I did think after Gable got back with his Alpha Academy, that's what it's called, that it was kind of going to be put on pause to after mania, but seeing his showing last night and how they led up to it, like how Ivar talked about, he went through everybody in their whole Alpha Academy. Now it's time for him to go after the leader, the main person and for him not to win. That's just, again, I felt heating them up.

Well, they're heating them up because he also cut a promo on.com afterwards and he basically talked about it's time for Chad Gable to worry and care about Chad Gable, which is, you know, that's of course the baby face way of saying, Hey, I'm going for singles competition now more than not. So either way, I would be really excited to see him and Sammy. And I think that match would be incredible. Actually, we know that match would be incredible.

May even still to show them whichever night they put it on. But I'm still waiting for Gable. So eat to your point, I guess you'd go with that match and the Sammy loses. And then Gable can can take the title off of them after mania. So we'll see with that. Our guy Derek has sent us, I'm sure he doesn't believe it now or he doesn't think it now. So Derek, when you hear this, let me know if you still feel this. He sent this last week. So I wanted to get to it on Sunday and we ran out of time.

He said, can y'all see a betrayal happening at media with the bloodline? I think Jimmy turns face and costs Roman a title and Jimmy leaves the bloodline. This was all just a plot to break Roman. What do y'all think? I think it could have been the case if we didn't see what we saw on Raw. I don't think there's any way in the world now Jimmy turns face after he just attacked Jay like he did. But what's your guys thoughts on? Is there any possibility that could still be a thing before Raw?

For sure. Could it's been all cohorts with Rock? After what we saw? No, not after what we saw. But I also feel like there's so much juice with Jay right now on a singles run that I don't think it's ready for him to go back and attack. I want the Uzos to get back together at some point. My favorite tag team. I wonder maybe my favorite tag team more time. I don't know if I rated them that high, but one of my favorite tag teams. I think right now Jay is so high as a singles guy.

I think that he needs to ride this wave until it cools down, if it cools down. He's just so phenomenal as a singles. Maybe in a year or so they get back together and they do the tag team thing again, but I want to see Jay continue his singles run. I agree. I mean, and of course we know with storytelling anything can change at any time, but to that point E, I can't see them doing anything in the next three, four months where I'm like, you know what I'm clamoring for?

I'm clamoring for Jimmy and Jay to get back together. Even if we were to get that hug spot after their mania match, oh, maybe that may change it. If they have an incredible match and then they shake hands or they hug, we may feel like, all right, they'd be long enough and now we can get back together. But I'm with you. His shirts are always selling. He's got new merch. He's got sunglasses. The crowds behind him. He is a legit semi main event act on raw right now.

And I think he could be a main event act if you take Cody out the equation, you take Seth out the equation. Like, I think if something was to happen and they put that world title on Jay, business not dropping. He's in the, he's in the same zane like lane, like that upper mid card guy that you can put and he, you know, arguably has a chance. You know, he may, but he has a chance to, to, to, to give an upset. You know, I would love to see it was so bad together.

Once they get that tag division hot, or I get a couple of hot tag teams together that you would love to see the usos tag against. But yeah, as we said, I think right now is the time you take that rock that rocker strip off Jerry. I will say though, for this Jimmy and Jay and mania, I probably would have been against it because you just look at Jay is just so much higher right now than Jimmy is as far as a character.

But if this whole mania is about the bloodline, I think it's just apropos as Cody says. And then you also can do, well, they're not doing rock and Roman. I'm sure probably with the original plan was start the night with Jimmy and Jay in the night rock and Roman. I bet you, I bet you that was their quick placement of matches and you, yep. And then you can, you can book in it that way.

So Cody, Cody, we talked about, he should have came out at the end, but he did start the show him and drew had a really strong match. Hey, what's your thoughts about Cody Rose's wrestling style? Well, I've said this for years and I've said it since we've started this pod, his wrestling style of matches is not my cup of tea. I didn't say that about Roman. I don't like how they wrestle.

It's just to me, it's, it, this is probably the old school, but working of a match and you already know what I like. I like grips and grabs and moves and flips and flaps and all that kind of stuff. I like fast, fast moving pace kind of grabs and flips and flaps. There we go. I want that. I want that. I want you like head butts and head, but matches. Yes. No, um, how's the horror? No, it was only that one time when the blood was all over him. I did say it was pretty bad.

But when Cody, those, uh, like I can, I can sit and say he's putting on a good match. It's just nowhere near my favorite kind of match to watch at all. So again, even rock, I'm sorry, Roman and Cody last year, probably 2000 matches. I don't really care about, I still love the match because the story they were telling them, but just like watching them Russell to me, watching paint dry might be more entertaining. Hey, hey, hey, hit that gunshot. He hit that gunshot on her.

She said, watch it paint dry. Don't be a hater, man. Don't be a hater. I do think that, um, well, I don't think anybody would say Cody is a flashy wrestler and you like flash. Yeah, it's all it is. Well, you also like going through too and there's nothing flashy about. Yeah, but cause I think he's just so different. Like it's just like, I had never seen this before and this could be that UK solid wrestling.

Um, but when he first came over in NXT UK and as fat Walter and probably should stop saying the fat part, but as Walter, I'm like, this dude is a, he's like, I know nothing about him. And I knew that he had to be the champion. He had to be his aura. The aura wasn't even a thing back then, but I just knew it with, with Gunda. He's different. He's him. He, so Cody lost last night to drew his only second pinfall loss.

He's, he's been back in WWE, looked at balloons and it was the same finish as WrestleMania 39, which I thought was genius. Absolutely loved that. What was your thoughts on the finish and then just Cody losing his by pinfall, his second match has been back with the company. Hey, you know, real quick, I think it's interesting that, uh, Roman and Cody, you know, the two hottest wrestlers in the, all over the world, they don't have working styles that are, are your fancy. Like, right.

It's interesting because I don't, you know, when you think about the, like the rock, for instance, I said that the rock style, like I can't think of my favorite rock match, right? But he's one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. Cody's one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. Roman's one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. I can't tell you what my favorite Roman match is either, but I just go to show you how much character and story matter for wrestling, right?

Like those moves and matches, they don't mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. And I think that that's the same for most pro wrestling fans. Right. Right. Um, but to ask you a question, um, I was fine with it, you know, um, I wasn't even surprised actually, you know, what I was more surprised is that here it is. Um, you know, two months before mania, we're getting like, you know, these many, uh, level matches or at least matchups, right?

Um, drew and Cody, and then we get Gunther and, you know, Jay, you know, four hot wrestlers, we're getting matches, you know, on a, on a Monday night raw. I know I was, I can't say a stray Monday night raw, but I was fine to be very, very interesting. But the, the finish itself, I thought was fine. I liked when I saw it happen. I'm like, damn, this is the same, you know, finish, but you know what? The finish here was totally fine. Right. I mean, that was a nice finish.

This is what they should have did it. They, they, they actually took the finish and placed it properly and actually made it mean something. So they haven't placed in a crappy, you know, years ago, but no, it was fine. But that does speak to something right where you get a, um, Oh, I'll word each. It gets like a paper, uh, like, like cut a paper. Good. And that's how she raises her, her finger like that. I hope it's just something that just cuts that finger just for doing it.

I do think that, Oh, Oh gosh. Hey, real quick, wait before you go, man. So you know, Rory Deesha just gave me the middle finger fans. I didn't say anything bad. She gave me the middle finger. I remember actually I was showing you my paper cut that I got on my middle finger. That's actually what I was showing you. She gave me another middle finger. So, um, this is like when my wife and I Katrina was still dating and I think I'll jokingly gave her the middle finger. She was so upset.

She you would think I like cursed at her. Oh, I guess that's what it means. Like I can't believe you disrespected me. I, I don't know what to do. Right. And now here it is. No, uh, I won't say years later. Here she is. She's giving me middle fingers all day long. You wish me ill. Well, you said a damn irritating paper cut. You might as well have said like I hang cuticle. I don't even know what's worse than that. Oh, them, them hang cuticles is worse. I get those. Those are the worst. Oh my gosh.

Those are the worst. I mean, before y'all went on y'all hilarious tangent, I was asking about, I was just saying just how, um, smart that the finish was though, because as soon as you saw it, you knew, oh, that's the rest of me in 39 finished. Ain't too many finishes. And you know, maybe you can go Hawk Andre. Maybe you can go Hogan, uh, warrior.

Like there's not many finishes in the history of wrestling that when you see it in another match, you'd be like, oh, that's the finish from blah, blah, blah. That's how crappy it was. We know you got the dusty finish. You should call it the Roman finish. Call it the Roman finish. Right? I mean, you could call it the bloodline finish. That's how all his matches been finishing. But of course we know just from a story perspective, it made so much sense because Cody lost that way at 39.

So that's been trying to tell him like, Hey, you need some help. You can't fight the bloodline by yourself. Then he loses again, that same exact way. And how awesome was it? It happened to Drew McIntyre who also had that same type of finish happen to him at Clash of the castle. But now he got over on that finish where back then it was a detriment to him. So I, once again, I thought that that all that kind of story telling, that's why I like it so much. They told a story with it. It is.

And then I thought about like when I saw it and I'm like, damn, okay, that is his only second pinfall loss. And we know Cody's him. We know Roman's him. This has nothing to do take Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns out of it. They are one of ones with their connects to the fans and all that kind of stuff. But can you think of any wrestler that you've ever seen that would have a win loss record like those two have had that wouldn't be a massive money printing star? You lost me on that last part.

I had two people in mind, but no, no, no, say it. The reason for it, maybe you still haven't learned this whole thing of like content creating, right? When you are on the microphone, when you have cameras, you're what they call a content creator. Your job is to create content and you can't create content by holding all of your takes in. And then as soon as the microphone is off, you let them fly. I don't care about hearing them.

Tell the folks that are listening to this podcast what your takes on. That's pretty mean. You're supposed to be there for everything that I talk to you about. All of it. I'm always there. I just don't have to care. Whatever. So I got one. I got another paper cut for you too. How about that? All right. She's giving another finger. Okay. Oh, so disappointing this right now. Hey, I know I know each I don't care about ruffling no feathers. He's out.

You know, I can't think of anybody but you know when when I think another question I will have is like, has anybody's win loss record kind of flown into radar because I hadn't even noticed no Cody had lost matches in months or a year or whatever it was. Right. Because like, I don't know if they really talk about his win loss record or how many wins he's had things of that nature. And that you normally would.

And I think that kind of helps, you know, kind of keep no Cody like you think about because like I said, like I'm a big huge Cody fan and I feel like this version of Cody this white meat old school 70s baby face character. I'm really surprised that it works this way resonates with this audience. I think maybe that's what helps is that they don't bring attention to that he hasn't lost matches.

Right, because I think if they said all Cody record Cody Rose hasn't you know, one has lost a match in two and a half years or whatever case maybe you start getting that Charlotte flair. Hey, like, oh man, they're they're forcing them like they're forcing down his throat. Like, well, we have a they're not forcing Cody down our throws, even though he has been winning almost every single match. Aside from this one withdrew because you've seen him left land in segments, right?

He's fighting from underneath a lot in these matches and the other part of it too. And this is common sense. People love a winner. So that's why I asked about like the kind of the win loss thing. Like they did it with Ryback and it took a long time. But then Ryback started getting over, you know, the whole feed me more thing. But he's probably the only one I can think of in the past that was given a like a almost undefeated streak.

And then I are they where they should be it worked for Jay, for Goldberg. I got one. I would say God rest his soul, but probably Bray Wyatt because he as the I'm sorry, I'm going to call him the demon. He's the fiend as the fiend. He pretty much ate everybody up. And then toward the end of that last year, we kind of were like, well, where where is this going? And I think some people even maybe some of us on the show had even said that he's not as high as he needed to be at that moment.

That's a good one. Yeah, because everybody that he wrestled was just he left him laying afterwards. They were never the same. So yeah, that that's a good one. They probably could eventually turn him a baby. Super hot. Yeah. Oh yeah. If I could turn to baby, it would have made more sense for his supernatural character. You know, it's funny you talk about Ryback, man. I was a huge Ryback guy for like when he was hot. I was hot on him to feed me more right back. I bought a scully.

No, maybe you bought a scully man. But I wear the scully. I bought the Ryback scully. And then and then he was working as a face and then he turned him hill and the hill run was like just weird creative. I mean, I know that like punk didn't like wrestling and some people say he's unsafe for whatever. I'm not sure that's what kind of soured him with creative. I don't know what the hell is going on, but this is more weird. See now like the weird booking events make sense.

He just is a weird, nasty man. So of course the weird nastiness will bleed over to his booking. Right. I mean, he was too busy being a nasty, weird man to make good bookings. It's some things, man, that you just see now. You're just like, wow, that would have never been a thing with Vince at the head of creative and it's working. Yeah. Right. Same thing. Kind of like what Kevin Dunn, like these, I continue to talk about the presentation on these shows and how great it is.

And it's like, man, good riddance, Kevin Dunn. Like thanks for nothing and get it, get out. Another thing I wanted to bring up from Raw and you guys can take anything extra from Raw because there was a lot we could talk about that woman segment last night. I think wasn't the best and I, you could tell they had a good time out there, which I always like seeing the wrestlers have a good time and Bianca's pop. Holy hell. I thought that it was, I thought it was gone.

I didn't think she had that ability to get pop like that. Yo. And it wasn't just any old school fans know what I'm about to say. It wasn't the initial pop. It was the noise from the crowd after that just stayed and it was like a murmur and it just kept going and kept going and kept going while she's cutting her promo. And then they get to the EST channel. They tried it, but that was, that was something special.

Like if I could get goosebumps, I probably would have got goosebumps for her because that is one of those old school like Legion of doom, world warrior pops that you hear where the pop just gets higher and higher and it didn't get higher and higher, but it popped and then it just, the noise just stayed where you would think like, is that like can the noise? Are they doing something with production? And it wasn't, that was literally crowds reaction when they saw her. I was like, wow.

Did you peep? Did you peep that E? I didn't. I think I'm, you know, I honestly, I don't remember when I fell asleep, man. I think I kind of passed out. So, yeah, I don't know. And I can't tell you at what point I passed out. I remember certain parts of it. I do remember the women's last chance. Yeah, I remember that. But I think that might've been when I fell asleep or maybe I woke up at some point. I'm not sure who won that match. So you guys have to leave this one. She did. Okay. I don't know.

So I had a quote when I saw her and her doing her power things, I know that, you know, a while ago it was kind of the scuttle booty was Jay was going to be in the match. So when I saw Raquel coming out, I'm like, oh, I wonder is Raquel taking her spot as like the big power girl to do the big power moves and whatnot. So what do you guys, do you think that Raquel took that spot? I know Matt has some thoughts on that. What I'm going to say really quickly about that woman's segment.

And I'm just going to give it up because you said, hey, content, right? And this is with the most respect possible. But when Becky first came out and she starts talking in the middle of the ring, and I think it's maybe with me and my connection to Becky, I feel like maybe I connect with her more when she is backstage cutting the promo.

Because when she comes out to the ring, you know, to me, it feels almost like maybe she's trying to feed off of the crowd instead of just being in sync with the crowd and just going for it. It's like she's trying to feed into it. Again, this is my perception of it. Because at one point I'm like, what the fuck is she talking about? I mean, because at one point she was just rambling waiting for Liv Morgan to come out. Maybe Liv should have came in 10 seconds sooner.

But at one point I looked up and I'm like, she's still talking? Oh shit, that's when I fell asleep. Yeah, right. Because she just kept talking. And I'm like, I know this is a three hour show and I am not trying to disrespect her at all. But I was just like, it's just not that part won't connect with me. But when she's in on backstage interviews, I'm like, hell yeah, Becky.

When she's coming and they're showing just a video walking from outside through the ring or through the back, I even get high because she has aura. She has it. But when she was talking out in that middle of that ring, and I'm starting to see some common denominators with how I feel when she's talking, when she's in front of a live crowd by herself because she was by herself up front, it's like, OK, nope, there's just no connection with me.

Damn, Roy, did you know I was telling you guys that a couple of shows ago I was telling you all that about Becky. But the backstage was crazy. The backstage interviews are good. I love when she talks. But they're also quicker. Yeah, they're quicker. Right. I don't know if they're pre-stage. Because she comes out there, the bands come around to blah, blah, blah. I'm like, that sounds so stupid. Like the Cody, like, hey, what do you talk about? I don't like when he does that.

I don't like when Becky does the bands come around. I don't know where she's gotten that from. But I just dislike it so much. Actually, I actually, when I was to her, I said the same thing. What is this woman talking about? And this is the first time, right? I was actually kind of glad when Liv came out there and I get this. Let's move this on. Yeah. So you know, it's funny. And we hadn't had a conversation. We didn't talk about this. And I didn't go back and listen.

And I was doing a couple of things during the promo. I was still watching, but maybe I was, I think I was just eating. So I wasn't really like looking at the TV 24 seven throughout her entire promo, listening though. And I got to go back now that you two have that same feeling. I'm gonna go back and watch it. And of course, let us know, hit us up on X. That's FNW. Let us know in the YouTube comments if you feel the same way. We can talk about it on Sunday show.

She was chasing the hug from the crowd. That's what I'm saying. Okay, perfect. That's probably the better way of saying it. And about halfway through the promo, I was like, Ooh, she's chasing it. Stop chasing it. It'll come. And if it doesn't come, you're fine. She's too great to ever chase that. And that's in that. And I feel it. So it's almost like she's like, you're begging for them to like you and want you to stop. You got this. And if it's just a crowd that is not feeling you, then fine.

Then you just fall flat on your face that day. It doesn't change who you are. And we know she'll learn from it because she always has and she'll get better. Tiffany Stratton didn't have the best night on the mic either. And it was just the material. So it was funny because so they switched up her entrance music. They got rid of the Barbie kind of theme of her font, which I thought that was perfect for her. And they completely switched her music up.

So they gave her new music, gave her a new font. She comes out and if I didn't know any better, I'm the interest to see what her promos are like going forward. But she cut a wink to the internet wrestling community promo. So she comes out and she immediately goes after Naomi and she's like, she makes a comment about, you know, when you left WWE to try to go like be better crickets from the crowd. And then she stuck it.

Like she waited, like they told her like, hey, you're going to get a reaction, let the reaction happen and then start your promo again. And there was really no reaction. So she's sitting there with the microphone and she's like this and there's nothing for like three seconds. And then she hits another line where she goes to Bianca where she's like, you're so last year, like you peaked in 2023, like you're done. And that's something we've seen a lot on the internet is okay. It's over for Bianca.

Like she's had her time. So when she hit those two lines, I was like, hmm, I wonder if her new, she's still going to be the brat. She's still going to be Tiffy time and all that. But I'm like, I wonder if her new character is going to be what the internet says about these people. And she didn't really get a response either from the Bianca line.

And then like, I hate when that happens because then it's more of just like, man, see, we really are like the 5% of wrestling fans that like know everything and we react to every little single things. We can pinpoint what they're talking about. So when it, like when it falls flat like that, I'm just like, man, they aren't going to like book for us. We don't matter. What's going to be like that new social influencer type, but she could have done that as Barbie.

Like I have no, um, you said that her promo or her showing kind of fell flat or whatever word you use. I would just say that I was just upset that she went for the low hanging fruit is what I didn't like because she still has the aura. She still looked comfortable. She still looked comfortable out there.

Again, maybe, maybe she could have just like you said, chose something different because just like how we would get irritated in AEW, sometimes that low hanging fruit just, like why you you're better than that. You don't need to go for that. So I agree with Matt though. I didn't hear the line, but I don't know if she's one of the talent that probably writes her own stuff yet. I think Becky and those are probably somebody fed her those lines.

But as it goes to show that, you know, their audience doesn't care about that insider stuff. Like I don't even know. Yeah. Because that was how they, how they reacted. So of course just, and that was probably the only thing I didn't like on the show and it wasn't that I hated it. It just, it didn't land. That's all. It just didn't land. Um, y'all got anything else from raw before we move on to Brandon James send us a question.

I only call you Brandon James, Brandon James, because it's the other Brandon, which the other Brandon was going to, is going to be on the pod Sunday for our elimination chamber recap. So that's why I call you Brandon James, Brandon James, but I like the Brandon James. It just flows off the tongue. It's Brandon James, right? Y'all got anything else from raw before I get to this question? I think this happened on raw. So it is 100% official that our truth is just like not in, he's in DX now.

He's no longer in judgment day. That's all. But he has DX, DX has his back. Triple H and Shawn Michaels has his back. Not Shawn Michaels, right? Got it. Okay. That's it. Thought that was fun. I thought that was cool. His little interview he had in a rain poncho. Still didn't quite understand that. I told Matt, I told E, I told Matt that he was actually walking around without a shirt on and they were like, before you can get violated, you got to put something on.

And that's all he could find was a rain poncho. I don't know how Jackie did not break. I actually not added, you know, I tagged her in the tweet and I just said, and the best performance of the night goes to Jackie for not breaking during this video package. Ron Killen's the goat. He retweeted it, but she responded and she said, I'm a serious journalist with a smiley face. You are Jackie. You are absolutely a serious journalist because I don't know how many takes that that was not a one taker.

No way. I probably have no way of sending my resignation. Like once I see that I'm interviewing our truth today. All right. You know, this has been good. I'm gonna be like, sponge Bob. I'm gonna head on out. I'm gonna head on out. I know how this is gonna go. And no, just to think about it, like I guess it's 10 years ago at this point, I was like, damn, when are we going to get that serious? He'll our truth. Where are we going to get that in the WWE?

And now you look at them right here, like the one of the funniest men in America, right? Yeah. And I think too, like to that point, he's hilarious. So this is not taken away like, oh, he would have this same material would have worked years ago when he was doing it. But I also think the show has more serious tones to it. So when you do get some levity, if the levity is good, it sticks out even more. Sure. Sure. 100%. Yep. You know what I'm saying?

And I think also you got crazy as Vince throwing in his nuggets of what he think is funny. He's letting truth can just be truth and do his thing out there. And knowing, Hey, I've been doing this for like 20 years. I know what's funny. And I was saying that to Rhodesia yesterday, he looking at like the new day. So they they're going to have that no DQ match with Imperium on Monday next week. And they cut a real serious promo. It was, promo was great, right? Promo was great.

I'm just kind of like, all right, what's next? Like, what are we doing here? I'm excited for the match because it's new day and Imperium. I know the match will be good, but okay, cool. But I was like, talking about the embarrassment of riches. You got, uh, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods to go to their own right. And they are not needed anywhere close to the top of the car.

Like just think about the knowledge they have, the wisdom they have, how they can still go on the ring, how they can teach other people. Once again, it's just the embarrassment of riches WB has right now, which is, which is pretty cool. But back to Brandon James, he said, so this was from a few days ago. I can cut out the first sentence because that's not, it's old now. He said, I started thinking about, wow, we are really feasting again this WrestleMania season.

Like last year with Sammy KO, Cody in the bloodline. This year has me full of excitement. Triple H is cooking. Before he took over WrestleMania, uh, WrestleMania was sold on just that, the name. Other than a few, a big few matches in large WrestleMania season was very uneventful. So question for you guys, how much are you all enjoying this year compared to last year? And before last year, what WrestleMania season do you remember that really made an impression?

I should have had this question before just right now on the spot. That takes some time. Uh, for personal reasons, last year was better lead up than right now. Um, one, cause we were going to it too. So to answer that, this one is probably not as exciting. I know that it's going to be an incredible two day WrestleMania. Uh, but prior to this, um, man, we've been blessed to go to so many WrestleMania. I would say WrestleMania 18, one, it was rock versus the person we're not going to say.

It was my senior trip. So I'm going to say that's my first time, like as an adult, quote unquote, on my own out of the country has nothing to do, I guess, with wrestling per se. But as far as looking forward to WrestleMania, mine's would be WrestleMania 18. You know, I haven't, um, I guess it wouldn't seem like it, but I, I hadn't been really the biggest WWE family in the past, probably eight years. Um, I haven't really enjoyed many of the manias to be quite honest with you.

I want to say probably last year's mania was probably the most enjoyment I had in a long time. I'm really looking forward to WrestleMania 40. Um, probably my favorite really was the show. So like my first, I just started going into manias until late in life. And that's really when I got cool with these jokers over here and the guy I've told the story about, uh, WrestleMania. I'm not sure the year, but, uh, 2015, the year I first met Cody, um, that was Dallas, right? Was that Dallas?

That was Dallas. Yeah. So I was going to Dallas. So 32, um, really enjoyed hanging out with my homies and going to fan access to the actual experience of WrestleMania because like the, it's like an experience, especially if you go for the weekend, but the actual show itself, man, I can't tell you, I really enjoyed it. I spent, for me, I spent for me, which was a lot of money to go to that WrestleMania. And I was like, I felt like I was in a whole nother arena.

That's how far away from the damn ring I was sitting. Um, and I remember this being a long grueling day. We got there probably at like one o'clock. We didn't leave to after midnight. You know, man, I think I might've dozed off. This is before I got, I became sleepy big daddy. I forgot dozed off at one point. I had to. I was tired. Um, I, those shows for me, this were like, they just, they were eight hours long. They were just too damn long.

And when they switched over to the two night format, I start my, my fandom for WWE star Wayne because I thought Vince was just the worst booker in the entire history of the business. Um, so it was two nights of just me not enjoying the show. So I'll probably say 39 was probably as a viewer, um, was probably one of my favorite ones. Um, this one I'm really looking forward to. Uh, we don't have no car yet. I love us to kind of guess the car before we actually do it.

Um, but I'm really looking forward to 40. I'll say 39 long wind to answer. So actually we can, so what he make that mark that down. Let's do that for next Wednesday show because we'll have chamber. So we should know the number one contenders and et cetera, et cetera. Let's do, Hey, if we were booking mania as storylines are, what would our car be? Uh, but to Brandon's question, so like, which is a great question. WrestleMania is for me to reduce his point.

We had been to like 10 in a row or somebody that 11 in a row and my issue with manias were to Brandon's point. Yeah. One or two big matches. And then either the rest of the matches you didn't care about, or you knew already what the finish was going to be. Like I remember WrestleMania 29, right? I believe that was New York and that was rock scene or two. And I remember, and I was a hundred percent right.

I called every single winner weeks before the show and I'm just like, and I was with that was taker punk. That was a, I can't remember the car or whatever, but that was the point. Like I was like, man, we know what's going to happen here and that shouldn't happen on your biggest show of the year where you can call every single match. But I think for me, I'm more excited probably this year outside of going to the show than last year.

Cause I just have so many over talents, LA night, Logan Paul, Dom, I'll put Dom in there for heat, Gunther, Jay, Jimmy, Roman, Cody, Rock, Sammy, Gunther, Drew. And that's not even touching the women, Bianca, Becky, Rhea. You know what I mean?

Like they just have so many over acts that in an end we know like they've built up that equity, the customer equity that you're at a point where you're like, okay, everything may not be perfect because things rarely are near they have misses, but they're going to get us what we kind of want. And I think that's safe to say. So when mania comes around and you got that many over talents because of their booking and how they've been presented for the last year plus you're like, you know what?

I'm good. We couldn't say that before with mania. You will be like, why is this person in said match when they should be in the main event or they should be in the semi main event. So for me and that's where they did that because they had too many people, et cetera, et cetera. But yeah, I would go with actually if you're talking about which WrestleMania season do I remember that made an impression? I would probably go with Kofi mania since this one.

And that was, of course we know that was supposed to be Ali spot. He got hurt. Kofi wins it. And then just that bubble of fan support a lot like what happened with Cody this year. And for us to get that spot against Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania, that's the one that I can remember. And then before that, it would probably be 30 with the yes movement that really made an impression on me.

The rest of them, it was like, you're like, all right, well, let's see what the go home show was bring because my height meter just because I'm going is there. But if I was watching on TV, okay, we'll see. Hey, you know, real quick, because Brandon James also is a wrestling 2k fan as well. We know and it was like some scuttlebutt about, you know, this year is the 40 to 40 years of WrestleMania and we're missing some matches. And I think about some of the important matches I would love to see.

I guess they just can't happen because you mentioned Kofi mania. Like for me as a fan, that was an important moment for us. You know, I would love to see that. But of course, you know, Daniel said is in the company, right? Another one will be Sasha and Bianca. Like in the main event, like that's another important one. Right. And just because they're not in the company, what is it because they will have to be paid for their likeness? I don't know how the games work like that.

Or is it strictly because they don't want to draw attention to another company? I think it's all of that. Right. Because you have to you know, you can't just so you know how like back in the day are back in our day with NBA Live. Right. So, you know, we had Michael Jordan wasn't in the game. He was player 99. You remember that they had to get his license. No, they had. They had to sign off. They had to pay him. There's a reason why Charles Barkley isn't in two case series today.

They got to pay these dudes. Right. So that's one of them. You got to pay him. And then two, I don't think if I'm WB, I may want to advertise, you know, Sasha Banks, you know, and in my 40 years of WrestleMania, if she's not part of the company. So that might be it might be it's probably business both ways. But those are definitely moments I would love to see in that game. Or those are this overall this moment. Huge, huge matches over the last decade.

And if it was me, they're they're so in a man. I can't see somebody buying to play in to play in Kofi against Brian Dancin is like, you know what? I really miss Brian Dancin. Let me watch a W. I just don't see that connection. I could get it. Maybe I don't see that if you ain't watching a W because it's a W. You ain't watching it because you play in two K and all of a sudden you get nostalgia.

But see, also you got these these guys will be playable characters on a WWE game and they don't work for the company. Right. They got they got to pay these dudes to be featured. I think it's business either way. But yeah, those are the only moments over the last few years where like half the roster ain't no longer the company because they decide to do those big releases. We've been down that road before. Hey, they told Vince. Hey, look, we got put this game on, man. It's not our fault.

You don't fire happy damn company. We got a game got put out, fam. And that's in a few weeks. So Rodney, you had some you said, right? Yeah, just again, not the actual like matches leading up to Mania, but just having like Mania that I was excited for. And there's a common denominator here was WrestleMania 27 in Atlanta. The Rock was the host of WrestleMania and he had been gone for so long. And I was just crazy excited.

We went knowing that, hey, the Rock was returning and we knew he wasn't gonna wrestle, but we knew that he was gonna be there. So again, nothing to do with the match card itself. But one that I was really excited leading up to it was WrestleMania 27. We probably should have prefaced that a couple weeks ago when we were talking about just how much we wanted Rock Roman over like Cody Roman, because we literally went to that WrestleMania.

We had become almost like casual fans to WWE during that time period. And I would never forget to this day, I wasn't even watching Raw live. And I remember my uncle text me and said, turn on Raw, the Rock is back. And I turned it on. And I wasn't even DVR in it. TiVo in it back in the day. It was like that. Like if I catch it, I catch it. If I don't, I don't. And I remember he cut that promo saying he was back home. He was never leaving again. And he'll be at WrestleMania.

And I looked at him and I was like, we're going to WrestleMania. And that started like our fandom again of how we are with wrestling. So that's that I probably should have said, hey, the reason why we want Rock and Roman so bad is because rock is the reason why we're as big as fans we are in this moment. Yeah. That's super cool. So just pivoting away from our WWE for a second guys. We'll talk a little about a W. Just two weeks ago, W a W had a huge main event.

That's Sting and Darby versus the worst tag team in quite some time. And Ricky Starks and Big Bill. You know, did you by chance see that match? Of course. Okay. So she saw it, but you know, I did. Yeah. It was two weeks ago. So, you know, two weeks ago, I'm kind of like you on that. You got probably three days on me and that's about it. Oh yeah. That's how I say you got it on me. I got a two day max. That sounds like real quick. Matt sounds like a wrestler.

Like I remember one time I met big show and now stuff, this guy, huge massive. And I'm like, you know, I'm from Detroit. Oh, I love that. That I have that Denny's or I have your own town. Ram's warm on Telegraph about 15 minutes away from the airport. I mean, like these wrestlers, they have minds of like an elephant. I think that's the phrase. And that's how Matt is when it comes to sports and with wrestling. Oh, just like what he said.

I remember my uncle told me to turn on TV because rock was on. I don't remember all that. I just remember that rock was going to be there to host somebody. He has a mind of an elephant that he could tell you was sitting there, breastfeeding, hating the world. That's why at that time I was hating the world. She's hating the world. You probably cut me off for turning the channel. But you know, Darby and Sting ended up winning that match, winning the tag team championships.

Right. Now, and usually I get upset by, hey, that's a big moment. You let that moment, no sit. But out comes the young bucks and they destroy Darby. They destroy Sting, leave him laying bloody. Sting's sons were there. They looked just like them. They're big as he is. They got beat up too. They got that ass whooped too by two skinny dudes in white suits. And it was such a visual that the blood was smeared all over the white suits. It just was a visual sight.

It ended up being a really hot angle for AEW. So the following week we're like, dang, how are they going to follow this up? How are they going to follow this up? Now the young bucks still have on these white suits. They some nasty guys, man. I guess, you know, see, word on the street before, you know, Dirty Vince got put all on blast that this this this this new character was a variation of Vince.

So it kind of makes sense that they still wearing these dirty suits, you know, a week later with the blood stains on them. So that's part of the story. That's part of the visual. Right. So the young bucks a week later after brutalizing Sting and his family, the new tag team champions, Darby Allen comes out with the bat and he has a promo. Let's see if we can get this thing to work, guys. So preface it. What are you missing? What? I wish you would have done that before I started promo.

What about this promo? Did you say to yourself, oh, I can't wait to talk about this on the pot. But what I would rather do is play the promo and then we can talk about it immediately afterwards because I don't I don't want to I don't want to screw the pooch. So they say and then to I didn't want to stop the promo. I don't know if it'll work again. So Matt, if it doesn't work again, it's on you. Here we go. It's our Riverside statement of a W. What was the original mission statement of a W?

It was to change the world. I have that shirt. Listen, you know, when I was homeless and A.W. first started, I begged you guys for a job and you saw nothing in me. Yet I had to sit by and watch all your shit friends get hired. You're a little California crew. And thank God. Thank God at the time there was an EVP here with a sense of brains. OK, there was an EVP there with brains. Let's keep going. And I'm not talking about Kenny Omega. Oh, wait, wait, wait.

You know, you did a little interview last year. Why you resign to A.W. So if you guys didn't hear it, we got a Cody Rhodes chant on A.W. TV, right? We had to leave the company to get a damn Cody Rhodes chant, but we got one last week on A.W. Let's keep going. W. And what did you say in that interview? Tell us. I remind us. This is you guys said that you resigned because the travel schedule was light. The money was good. It was no longer about changing the world.

The original mission statement was dead. I thought this was all elite wrestling. But it looks like this is all friendship wrestling. You know why? Think about the very first episode of Dynamite. Darby Allen wasn't on it. You know who was? Brandon Cutler. What the? OK, so we were bringing up Brian Brandon Cutler in this interview. Again, you know, the young bucks are still outside the ring with the white suits on with his butt still on it. But we're talking about Brandon Cutler. Let's keep going.

I don't know what kind of tussles you guys got into at home school, but we're talking about Sting's final match. That's what this is about, right? You guys want to be Sting's final match. I don't think you guys understand what you guys got yourselves into. We're talking about a man that has nothing left to lose. Young Bucks, Darby Allen and Sting, the AEW Tag Championship. So he goes on and he says that they're getting their match.

Final match is going to be the Young Bucks versus Darby and Sting for the championship match. So I kind of prefaced it. So we heard the promo. I'm assuming you hadn't heard it before that, right? Not really, no. Right. So I told you, hot angle, the Young Bucks, Layout Sting, his sons, bloody everybody. They're still wearing the white blood soaked suits from the previous week. Darby Allen comes out with the bat and what he wants to do, he wants to cut a shoot promo.

Instead of, instead of, you know, coming out there addressing the brutal beat down from the week, he takes it upon himself to cut a shoot promo about the Young Bucks, the California Crew and Brandon Cutler. What a way, what a way to follow up on the hot angle is with the work shoot promo that has nothing to do with the previous week's beat down. To me guys, this is the problem with AW storytelling. This is why I said they should just shut up and wrestle.

Just give me the damn tag team match because these follow up and these storylines are horrendous. What say you guys? I'm a bit disappointed in Darby because just what I just said about Tiffy, that's low hanging fruit. Let's just dissect what he said. I tried to write down some of the things he was saying. Starting a new company so your friends are on the first episode. Well, if I'm starting a new company, I'm probably going to put my friends on first, day ones.

Two, I thought we were about to go with this whole thing is are you happy that Darby and Sting got the tag championship? And I am because at least now Sting can go out being a champion or he can lose it, but he's going into his finals match as a tag champion. So I'm actually happy and grateful for that. But you getting a Cody cheer on your programming, which if that was just that, okay, I guess that's cool. But again, it's just low hanging fruit. Darby is much better than that on the mic.

To your point, what would I have wanted to hear or as far as like what could you bring to come to follow that match they had the week before? I don't know, but it definitely wasn't that. I think that whole interview was a get a pop chasing the hug of the insider wrestling fan. You throw a Brendan Cutler under the bus. Like to me, that was just all that to me felt kind of nasty, just all the way around. And I thought Darby and I know Darby is better than that.

He could have came up with something way better than that unless they told him to come up with that. Unless you have the EVPs who said, this is my new gimmick. I want you to do this shoot promo against me. Things off limits, bring up the most craziest stuff you can bring up. And then I can't hate them for that. But if it was anything other than that, I just feel like again, low hanging fruit, let's not go there. So I don't have, I don't carry the weight to be completely honest.

I don't because I can see both sides of it. Like when I heard it and I watched it live and I'm like, I wouldn't have done that. I mean, talking about Cody, but it ain't my company. So whatever. So I had a feeling this was going to be a, cause we didn't talk about it. You just asked me in the text, like, Hey, have you seen the promo? I was like, yeah, you know, but he can't wait for the podcast. And I also didn't talk about it.

So I put a question out on X that Thursday and I said, question about this promo from Darby Allen, where he got a Cody chant from the crowd. Is it nothing because AEW does a lot of insider things on TV and the fan base enjoys it? Or is it something that hurts the product by putting more light on WWE? Just want to give you guys a few answers. Devante forever says hurts the product every time. Ain't no money in that.

Shudin the shiznit said, I don't like it, but I think you hit the nail on the head. It really does not matter when it comes to AEW audience. The audience is built on being in the know. This follows right along with that. Jesse Malloy said, I think it's nothing because Cody was a part of AEW. It's not exactly insider knowledge to acknowledge him in any facet. Derek said, I'm going to bring up something that might piss some AEW fans off, but it has to be heard. Why is it every time?

Oh, he's talking about the Vista man thing. Um, Johnny boy says, honestly. Yeah. He says, honestly, it shows the sign of little man syndrome. They are going through a hard time at the moment. So they fall back on what got the hardcore is a tune in fed references, cheap tactics done purely for smarks. Could he have just caught out their abuse of power alone? Question mark. And then straight edge, Devansator said, it's nothing because it's nothing.

It's only something because a certain portion of the population feels like making a thing out of it. This was an excellent promo by Darby to further the thing with the tag champs and the extremely violent people. So those were the comments we got. So shout out to everybody who responded to that. Um, reason why I say I can see it on both sides. I see it from a perspective of it's nothing because a W's fan base is the hardcore of the hardcore. I don't know if a W truly has like casual fans.

I think anybody and everybody who watches a W knows for a fact who Cody Rose is and they know for a fact he was in a W and a W still there. They didn't cheer for him there. Well, that's a whole other thing, but that they don't care. Right. So it just adds to the wink and the nod. The reason why it could be nothing to me and I actually enjoy the bucks right now. I like their gimmick. I like the buck. Yeah. I can see people saying it's too insider.

I get that for sure, but I'm getting the kick out of it because they're the only ones doing it. Now, if everybody's going out there and doing this shoot style, you know, work, shoot promos, I'm over it. No, thank you. But if it's stuck to just them, because that is what fans online have said. So kind of what I talked about, Tiffany Stratton, how that line didn't hit in WWE about Naomi leaving WWE and Bianca, you were sold 2023. Like you're done for that. Dig it up.

Hell, I got a Cody's chant of all things. So if they're going with the thing of, Hey, let's lean into what the IWC says about us as the young bucks to give us even more heel heat. That's probably what they're looking at. Us who have been watching this thing for decades upon decades upon decades know that, Hey, that doesn't really work to further your audience. It doesn't help you down the line. But at the end of the day, it's a promo. And honestly, that promo was not even thought about.

We're probably spending more time on that promo right now a week later than honestly, they may have even putting that promo together. I totally, I totally agree with that. So more so than the Cody thing, like I get that's just they love like that kind of stuff. It's just that, man, you go from that brutal beat down the week before to coming back with this. It just doesn't seem like it's a natural transition.

Like when you think about how normal people may react in a situation, I don't know if we'll say you and I are in a tag team and two guys, they beat up you and Matt. I'm not coming out of next week talking about, you know, I'm not coming out next week to cut a work shoot promo. Like right. Nothing he really said really responded to the brutality of the previous previous week. And I'm talking about storytelling. So this is when guys who say, oh, it was a great promo.

If you like that type of work shoot type crap promos. Sure. But talk about the story. Like the story was it continued from the week we didn't revisit the brutality. That promo did not match what we saw last week. It is not not for one moment. Why are these guys still wearing the blood soaked promo and Darby doesn't even mission it not once during the entire promo. Like this at this point should be a blood feud. Do you think is a blood feud after listening to that promo?

No, and actually that promo sounds like a promo that would have been cut before the beat down before the beat down. Right. Like that's the promo where you come out and you just say like, look, you VPs. I thought I knew what this was. What happened to y'all? And then they come and do the beat down because they do the beat down. Yeah. So, Hey, that's what I'm talking about. It's the storytelling. It just didn't. It's just didn't match.

And that's when my muscle, my issue is more so than the Cody champ because I get it. That's that. That's a chase of the hook. And it's weird that they're chasing the Cody hug and y'all had Cody and y'all crapped all over the man for months. And I get he cut a bad promo. I was there for it. I experienced it too. But you know, hey, he was the first person. Look no further than the pillar of promos. We still champion them guys. Right. So, no, I mean, that's a good bring up, man.

It's a real good bring up. And it's just one of the things that I always talk about when I talk about in a vacuum, the shows are more than fine. You watch it and you're going to be entertained for those two hours and you're going to walk away and say, okay, cool. Like I'm good. But when you watch it week to week to week to week to week, you're kind of like, Hey, that was a, Hey, did we forget that just happened? That should have happened. I got it. I get it.

Yeah. Because that's a belabor that but you're right. Did you just look at, okay, you're you're right. I don't know how many people who watch AW who are just casual fans of wrestling, but you're not going to get anybody like if I'm tuning to that and I see him saying that now I might get excited initially because of the passion and Darby's voice. But then when I hear them coding some chanting a name and let's say I just do a quick due diligence of hey, who is this Cody guy? He's a he's over WWE.

Now I'm about to go watch WWE because that's what he's seen. So then the 2k thing is right. That's why they don't want to put Sasha Banks and Dan Bryan in the 2k. You just proved me wrong. I guess there you go. Let's get to the chamber. Definitely a different pay-per-view than I think Triple H and team had planned on. No Brock Lesnar, no CM Punk. So definitely a different type show. Ritzy, I know you got the matches in front of you.

So let's go through and we don't take a long time when I think there's only four or five matches for this show. It is what 5 a.m. or 4 a.m. our time on Saturday. We'll probably still do our normal typical Sunday pie. We will have Brandon with us who was with us on the Royal Rumble post show. It won't be a live show, but he'll be on.

We'll kind of break down the next chamber and I got some WrestleMania topics that I think you guys are like that we kind of can talk about too because we should know the landscape a little bit of mania you did before we get to it and maybe Ritzy. Let's start with the women's elimination chamber. I hadn't forgotten you brought up the Jade thing.

There were some people who thought Jade should be in the chamber and then Raquel came back and she took that shot and I was trying to explain this on X. You do not put Jade in the chamber. The only way to win the chamber match is everyone has to be either pinned or submitted. It's not like the rumble where you lose. You cannot win the rumble and have nothing to do with the finish. You would have to Jade's not winning the elimination chamber.

She's not going in to fight Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania. She's not going in to fight Eos Tri because Eos already going against Bailey. So that's not guy. So there was there. So there was a lot of conversation around put her in there and she'll have a good showing. No she ain't. She ain't a good showing wrestler. She is a potential generational talent that can main event multiple WrestleMania's for years to come.

You do not show her the first time in a rumble that she doesn't win and then you back to back in the next month in the next chamber where she either gets pinned or gets submitted. Can't do that. Now what you could have done potentially is if the chamber was not a say Rheezha was like well maybe the chamber could be just first pinfall. Okay. Say let's go with that.

Now you could put in a chamber and the same person that threw her out of the rumble is the reason why she doesn't win the chamber and then that could be your WrestleMania match and her whole thing is look you have poo poo now on two of my big moments. I could have won the rumble but you threw me out. I could have won the elimination chamber but you hit me from behind when I was going for the pin. I now I want you on the grandest stages of my law right.

That's easy promo you can cut it now you got that but leave that girl way way far away from the chamber. Now if she's not on Raw Monday and they get something cooking with her quick. I don't know if you go back to Nia. I don't think that's that's the match for it looks like we're not doing Bianca and Jade as a tag team because brown breaker just went to Smackdown and we maybe we can talk about Brian sign the Smackdown next week too.

I can't see them getting Brian and Jade so I'm going to assume Jade is on on Raw. So that's the reason why I say you leave her far far away from the chamber. Well I guess we'll just start there with the EC women's chamber. So we know Raquel was the final contestant. The back and ass crew is back together again together in the chamber for y'all who was not listed to the pie back when the back and ass is a thing that is Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. She shows back and she shows ass.

So back and ass back and ass. This one's an interesting elimination chamber for me. Not because who's in it because I of course if you think about maybe the heavy hitters. This is probably who we put together. It almost feels like I know there's a lot of energy around Bianca. She has been undefeated in mania but it almost feels like the chamber it is made for Becky to win. So again it goes back to maybe being a schmuck. I heard you mentioned that somebody said that word earlier.

Am I really incited about this elimination chamber because I believe Becky is going to win so it doesn't really matter what else happens. I guess they could still put on a good match itself and have some great spots because it is an elimination chamber. But for me I feel like Becky is going to win. I don't think anybody else will. We might get some good showings but then at the end of the day I feel like almost if this doesn't start the show then I will feel bad then for the men's chamber.

What do y'all think? So you say all that you have yet to give us who's in this match. Can you please tell us who's in this match? Oh yeah I'm sorry I'm so sorry. I'm looking right at the picture here so we have right now Becky, Naomi, Bianca Belair, Tiffy and then back in ass Raquel and Liv Morgan. So you're going with who? I'm going with Becky and I feel like there's nobody's going to tell me that she can't win.

He's over there hitting the bull even though he wouldn't hit the gunshots on your guy Cody not working a fan friendly style of a match. So then you must not be going with Becky. You must be going with somebody else. Who are you going with to go against Rhea at WrestleMania? It looks like all signs are pointing to Becky. They've been really advertising their matchup for some time now. Every week. So I mean it has to be.

I'm just intrigued on what they have for Bianca right because they keep putting her out there. She keeps getting these I know I understand she has a show and but that's all the more like what do you have for her right? Like you're average you're putting her out there. You're advertising these press conferences and you're making time to put her in segments. You got to have something for her for the start. She is she's still obviously over you mentioned like the reaction she got on Raw.

I'm just intrigued because I don't think you go. I don't think we're looking at a three way for that match. I probably will rather see a one on one match probably with Becca and Rhea because they've been teasing it so much. We haven't seen any interaction with Rhea and Bianca. So I'm gonna go with Becky. Hey why you boo me then? I still don't want to hear you say it out loud though. I got it. You need to boo yourself. You can't use the media board just for your personal thoughts.

You got to use it for the entire totality of the show. On the Sunday show I'm signing in as a host and I'm gonna control the whole god dang thing. We probably won't have any listeners toward the two minute mark but watch I'm signing in as a host. You just gonna start with claps and boos for no reason. Yep. Every time you talk I'm like boo. Yeah you gotta go Becky. You gotta go Becky. I hope for Raquel Hill turn we don't need babyface Raquel again. We do not.

Been there done that maybe that's what we get for Liv. That would be fun for them to revisit them and do put them in a media match. And unless Charlotte makes a miracle comeback of the most miracle comebacks of all miracle comebacks you're right I don't know what Bianca does. Maybe there's still a chance of Bianca and Jay with Kabuki Warriors because right now we don't know what the Kabuki Warriors are doing either. Just the Bronbreaker signing to Smackdown is what threw me off.

So I'm like man how do you put both of them over there? But yes give me Becky. I think it will be a I'm all for like swerves. That'll be a ridiculous swerve to have put this much equity and time into Rhea and Becky each week for us just not to get it. So I guess we're all aligned we're going with Becky Lynch. Real quick on with Charlotte Flair. I had a question I wanted to ask y'all and I'm a bit ignorant on like Luchador wrestling.

When I was seeing Andrade El Idolo which they're going by the same name and the masks that he had could he mentioned his wife in his promo too on Raw. Could Charlotte come as a Luchador? I mean do you have to have had training in in Mexico to be able to wear the mask like is it blasphemy to wear a mask and not have that that history taught to you because it could you imagine the two of them together? That would be sick that would be fire.

It's blasphemy if you paint yourself as a Luchador just because you're under a mask doesn't mean you're claiming you're a Luchador. Okay. Right. You're just a masked wrestler. So I mean they want to do something fun like that. They could see Charlotte already do all the great things already. I would like for her to come back and have a new a new evolution of herself. And then just when I heard Andrade mentioned my wife that just made me get the thinking could they come back together?

He's Luchador. Could she wear a mask? Charlotte in the mask. You ain't bringing no Charlotte Flair back to put it on no GD mask. What's going on woman? What's the next match? Laura her mercy. Let's um let's go with the Grayson Waller effect. So we already know. Oh no no that's not a match. Yeah that's not a match. We can't talk about it. I mean we can but like. So will we see any bloodline there in the Grayson Waller effect? Will we see any bloodline there? Oh no that's a good question.

That's a good question. Does Rock and or Roman make the trip? Well we know Roman made something. Roman made sure. He never said no. He just asked if he had to go. He never said he wasn't showing up. That's a good question. Or do we just see the Grayson Waller effect and that is where they challenged Rock and Roman for a match at Mania. E? Man I mean maybe I'm still holding out that uh that you know Rock somehow gets in that chamber match. Is it the chamber?

Yeah so he's getting in that chamber match. He's not coming all the way out there. At the same time man I just I just don't know it. I'm going all the way out there just to be in an interview segment with Waller. I mean it's I mean stranger things can happen right. We've seen on AEW TV where you know a man who got brutally beat up a week before comes back and talks about their friends instead of actually coming to whoop some ass. Damn I'm sorry man. That really bothered you.

I just felt like man like hey Sting is my like that's that's that's man that man is 70 years old and you gonna let that 17 year old man get beat up and you come back the next week and talk about the Salem's friends. I'm just saying I don't know the Rock. And Roman are coming to Australia to sit on Grayson Waller's show. That's it. I mean that's that's a long ways for those are two important men.

I can't get their ass to show up you know for a regular event but they gonna show up to Australia to sit on the show. I just don't know. But if Rocky's in Hawaii though it wouldn't be too far of a trip. But then I still don't think you do that without announcing they're going to be there. Right like. That's fair. On the Waller effect too. I mean come on. But yeah. But the question I asked was bloodline. So they could also have been solo or Jimmy.

I think the bloodline will show up at the Grayson Waller effect. Yeah I mean hey man if those guys will come I can see definitely see Heyman you know. I'm gonna say he's gonna be there. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna save the men's for last so we'll go to this next two. I'm really excited to see. But again I don't think they're dropping it. So we have a men's tag team a match between Judgment Day with Finnan Damian Priest against Butch and Tyler Bates. What's his name?

I don't know S or no S Tyler Bates maybe S on the end. I'm black so Tyler Bates regardless. Well that's Tyler Bates but who's the first person to say that? Pete Dunn. Pete Dunn. I've been begging for that name forever and we finally got it back. But I think this match is gonna be a banger of a match.

I don't think I'm gonna see them dropping that at Elimination Chamber and I only say that because I don't know if there's enough heat behind Pete Dunn and Tyler Bates to be able to go into Mania as tag champions. With the titles? With the titles. If it wasn't that timing of Mania I can see them dropping it there to them too. But other than that no. What are your thoughts? I think it's gonna be another good match.

However I mean there is a chance that R-Truth can come out and cost them the championship fam. Yeah that's true. We could get that so let's keep that on the cuff. That's a good call but probably the smarter money though is R-Truth is there but the smarter money is great match. We'll be talking about it on Sunday about how they show improved and they killed it and Judgment Day once again is in a fantastic tag match. They were in a fantastic tag match on World 2.

But I still think we're looking at R-Truth winning the tag titles probably with like Miz at Mania. That's where you drop. That's where you have Judgment Day lose the titles. I don't think you have them lose. It's really easy to your point. That would be a hell of a rocket strapped on their backs though if they were to do that. I just don't see that. So give me Judgment Day. Next we'll move on to the Women's Championship match. So we have Rhea in her home country against Nia Jax.

Main event probably right? It better be the main event. It was first on the top of WWE. So give them that main event slot. She deserves it. And you haven't asked me yet but of course Rhea Ripley is winning that match. Yeah. 100%. If there was a way to bet. Bet your homes, bet your cars, bet all the money in your account. No don't bet your homes. Bet everything. No my family lost it like the whole riches in Manjong because my great great grand daddy just was a gambler so let's not bet a home.

He wasn't betting WWE. He wasn't betting Rhea Ripley in her own town. He said leave the Manjong alone in WWE. WWE didn't exist back then so. Give Rhea a babyface. We gotta go home. It's time to wrap this. We all know Rhea is going to win. Incredible hometown pop and entrance and spectacle and all that. You agree right? I agree. Okay. Last the men's chamber. So we have. Before we do the folks in it. I got a question from Eterno on this one.

He said I see a lot of people saying that the men's elimination chamber match is predictable but I see it otherwise. It's between Drew or Randy for me. I wonder what y'all think. I'm leaning towards Randy is what Eterno said. So now we know we got Drew. We got Randy. We have the other participants. We have Bobby Lashley. We have KO. We have L.A. Knight. Yeah. And then we find the. I believe the final entry was Logan.

So we have again every time I talk about mania I talk about Drew being in the main event picture. So the only way to get there is for him to win the elimination chamber. I don't think Randy is going to win it. I do think it's Drew but it's kind of like what this whole card is. I felt like I think I know who's going to win every match. So I'm excited to see what they're going to do. And I think it'll be a great match too. But I'm going to say Drew.

I'm a go Drew as well and I find it to be kind of interesting. They're putting this much equity in Drew a guy who can possibly walk the couple of months they're doing a whole lot for me if he pin Cody on he he's he's one. Yeah. I mean he they pink and they make it a big deal about that right. He lost and you know he wins the elimination chamber and gets to a mania match with Seth. I mean I almost kind of feel like Drew's destined to win the whole damn thing.

And that's a lot for a guy who's going to be who's on his way out of company. So you're going you're going to I'm a go Drew and eternal the reason why I think people are saying is predictable and I love your ordained angle but there's been nothing has been done on Smackdown for us to possibly think a Smackdown wrestler is going to jump to raw during this time to take on Seth for the championship at WrestleMania.

If they would give us some hints if they would even talk about that said thing on Smackdown okay maybe okay cool. You know if Randy comes out and cuts the promo said Monday nights are really good for me or something to that effect but they haven't done anything. So as predictable as it is I think you go Drew and I would be shocked if it's not Drew even though I would love for Bobby to win it I think it would be fun if Orton won it.

Of course I think it'd be fun if anybody who's in that match it would be fun if they won it maybe outside of KO because been there done that with him. But it's another one I think we're going to watch the match we're going to say okay so now we know we're getting LA Nightverse maybe Orton at mania. Okay now we can see how they're going to do who else is in it. Whoever right I think we'll be able to see some WrestleMania matches with those guys in it but I think it's Drew for sure.

I feel like this elimination chamber just feels a lot like the traditional no way out like you already knew at Rumble kind of already where this is the trajectory is of the matches of mania. Now they're just going to have to put on the spectacle is that a grand place in Australia.

I don't doubt that they're not going to put on the spectacle for us and put on great matches but again I just truly feel like I know everybody who's going to win and again we have four matches but I don't even know if I want a surprise too. So let me also add that I don't think I would want anybody who I didn't say to win not win because I wouldn't even know where that how that's going to look.

You know why because that's natural storytelling when you go into a movie you know John Wick is going to win at the end and when he does you're happy about it. We don't spoil alerts but hell if you ain't seen John Wick 4 by now you deserve to be spoiled. John Wick 8 at the end of the day John Wick is walking out of that mug the winner and that's just nothing wrong with getting exactly what you should want because it's exactly who you should get.

It's when you don't want it and you get it is when it sucks like we talked about like the prior WrestleMania's and things of that nature but I think Rhodesia then we can end on it.

This goes back to like I said kind of the beginning of this no punk we know he was being a high profile match no Brock Lesnar to see him and Dom would have been incredible and the TV they would have been able to tell up to that point of cocky Dom just talking about how I'm the one that threw Brock Lesnar out of the Royal Rumble so you don't get those two who knows what the original plan was gonna be for Charlotte before she got hurt for the chamber.

It's a lot of injuries it's a lot of injuries so hopefully they stop.

Shazi just came out and said she's probably out nine months so she hurt her knee which sucks that girl's been through a lot so thoughts and prayers for Shazi from her sister having cancer to she said she was battling mental health issues so just hopefully she's good hopefully she comes back better than ever but yeah it sucks that they're all going down to knee injuries so I know before we were kind of talking about all the injuries in

AEW injury bugs biting WWE too so it's just part of the it's part of the gig it just sucks when you're this close to your major shows and you get it so that is all right that's it for the chamber that's all it's gonna be ain't gonna be no more and then it is truly the road to WrestleMania like I said we'll be back on Sunday and we're gonna talk about the chamber kind of give our thoughts on that and then I'll even throw in because I got

them I got them down here somewhere let me look and see I'll throw in a couple of questions I'm gonna ask y'all I'll throw in a couple questions um one thing I'm gonna ask you guys is can the Rock deliver a mania level solo main event okay and I'm gonna ask this now and I do want comments from you guys so give it to me this week and we'll talk about it does Roman Reigns deserve a standing ovation when he loses the title should he get that

moment where champion leaves he's still in the ring and he gets a standing ovation from the crowd because I get that man out of my ring so I get my answer already everybody else's and we'll make sure that he does not this may be his worst socials that's FNW that's Twitter that's Instagram YouTube that's freaking wrestling five stars comments all that kind of good stuff right do all that kind of stuff once again thank you guys for your support we love you and we will see you guys on Sunday

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