Oh hey there, it's your girl Brynn Whitfield. You might know me from a little show called The Real Housewives of New York City on Bravo. You are about to see a whole different side of me, unedited by the way, on my new podcast. Please see below. Spoiler alert. It's not about passive aggressive company emails. actually way juicier than that. Join me every week as we get down and dirty with my friends, celebrities, experts, even some of our exes.
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If I told you that only one singles WWE champion would retain their belt at WrestleMania. You have to pick. Only one person is retaining. Is it Tiffany Stratton? Is it Gunther? Is it EO Sky? Is it Cody Rhodes? Or is it LA Knight? It is EOSky. Wow. In a triple threat match? The triple threat champion's advantage? Of course. Of course. Like, clearly, she's being booked as the afterthought throughout this entire match. So it only...
It only lets me believe that Io Sky is going to do a quadruple backflip out of the ring into a ladder. She's called the genie to the sky for a reason. The way they've told this triple threat story has made her the afterthought, even though she is the champion. Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair are already mega, super duper uber stars. Makes a whole lot of sense to make another one. And I think EOSky retaining would be the best way to go about that.
Everybody else, I feel like all the other champions. That's more interesting because I agree with your case for Eosky. The whole purpose of this. has been to put her on the same tier as Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley. But the more interesting part of your answer is that you think everybody else is going to lose. That's the implication. I think everybody else's journey is way more interesting if they lose. From LA Knight to Bron Breaker, Stratton, Cody, Gunther.
The whole landscape feels a little different. I probably, if I had to pick a second place person, I'd probably go LA night. I'd say maybe LA night probably feels a little better to retain also, but everybody else. The story gets way more interesting if they all lose their titles. And that Intercontinental Championship probably gets the most intrigue out of all the titles left to talk about. Sure. I mean, and listen, there's nothing too terribly...
enthralling about a prediction for either of the mid-card men's titles to change hands, right? I mean, it's like... It wouldn't shock you one way or the other, I don't think. But you think, I mean, talk about... sending the crowd home unhappy. We know WWE's got some experience with this in recent WrestleManias, but you think John Cena's going to walk out with the title? You think Charlotte Flair is going to walk out with the title? You think...
Well, I guess Gunther losing would be a high point in terms of crowd reaction, presumably. Just in terms of sheer yeeting. Yeah, I think it'll be a different sort of... Excitement. I'm not all the way convinced people are going to be booing John Cena during that match. I think we're going to boo him during the promos, and we're going to boo him when he's going back and forth with Cody Rhodes. And even that last...
promo with Cody Rhodes, as soon as he pointed at the title and he said, I'm taking that back with me, the crowd cheered. And I'm not necessarily sure they're going to boo him all the way in that main event. So I don't know if the crowd's going to go home that unhappy. That's the beauty about having a great babyface champion. You got terrible people like me. They get so happy when they lose at WrestleMania.
One of my favorite Mania moments was Cody Rhodes losing to Roman Reigns that one time. You were very excited about that. I wish I could bottle that feeling up. I want to ask you, I want to talk about which... which results will make the crowd most upset. But let's just do that on the show. Let's start the show. Let's start the show.
With the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be. Bret Hart coming up later in the show. But before we get to that, tell you nobody. I am stressed, stressed, stressed. But excited. We're one week away from Wally Mania. That means we're about 10-ish days away from WrestleMania. getting ready to travel, getting ready to hit that Vegas strip, getting ready to see all these crazy
Insane wrestling fans do a million interviews with a bunch of talent. We got a pretty big one today also. It's like, uh, feels like the start of Superbowl week, man. Like it's, uh, feel all right, but I have cautious, cautious optimism because of how stressful it's going to be. Your cautious optimism. Yes.
It's just because of your own personal. So the caution is just because of your personal stress. It's going to be. Oh yeah, for sure. It's good. I'm almost 99 for anybody who listens to this show. I'm like 95% optimistic when it comes to all wrestling stuff, usually because it doesn't directly involve me.
Wally Mania takes up a lot of my time, a lot of my mental capacity. So that 95% comes down to about like 85%. Now you know how the wrestlers feel. When we're out here making jokes about them, they're stressing out. And I don't got to take no bumps, you know? So I get it. I get it. But no Steiner math here, man. It's still going to be an awesome weekend. Okay, I want to talk about Seth Rollins.
And Paul Heyman on Monday. You and I still got to talk about Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton on Friday. We do. We got to talk about Dynamite last night. We've got a lot of stuff to talk about. Before we get, I mean, or as a means of getting into some of that, let's stick with the conversation we were having a minute ago. I'm going to run through the WrestleMania card super fast. which means it'll take two hours on this show. So we're trying to do it as quickly as possible. You tell me...
which has the most, which would make the crowd, what outcome would make the crowd the saddest, right? What would get the, what would send the crowd home unhappy the most? If this were the match, everybody remembered. All right.
Rey Mysterio losing to, well, Rey Mysterio versus El Grande Americano. I assume the fans want Rey Mysterio to win. We'll give him the fan vote. Although El Grande Americano, I mean, this is a close one. I don't think that would send the crowd home too unhappy if El Grande Americano won, right? No, I don't think so. Not this crowd, anyway. The fatal four-way for the Intercontinental Champion.
Braun Breaker versus Pinta versus Finn versus Dominic. Which of those people sends the crowd home most unhappy? Most unhappy? Yeah.
That's a field of choice right there, man. Like, I don't think anyone's going to be too unhappy if Bron Breaker retains because Bron Breaker is... fucking awesome and we saw he just did on monday night and we'd assume he's gonna do something awesome there penta is as popular as anybody in that locker room We've been saying Finn Balor is going to be okay for the past several months, so I think the hardcores that will more than likely be in attendance will be happy.
I'm pretty sure Dominic Mysterio is at the level of heel now where people just love to hate him. So I don't think people would be too unhappy about him either. Those are four guys that everybody kind of loves, right? Like in some way, shape or form. It's true. Yeah, the only way that it really ends up being, I think, an unhappy ending is if
is if it's built into the match and that's not a negative result for WWE, right? If it's a false finish, if it's a, you know, if it look, if, if somebody really is a wonky match, if the match just isn't good, if it doesn't live up to the hype of having like those four. super talented guys for the Intercontinental Championship and the match is just whatever that's probably the only way but I don't think the results will change that at all
No, I mean, you could see a world in which like Dominic Mysterio just got crazy over during the match and then him losing would feel like a real downbeat moment, you know. But yeah, no, I mean, I think anybody it's. I don't think that's going to be the low point of anybody's weekend. Alright.
Jade Cario versus Naomi is another interesting one. I mean, I think you would say Naomi winning would, you know, Jade winning would send the crowd home happy in a vacuum. I'm not sure. I mean, Jade just hasn't been on TV. So I don't really know. Do you think Naomi winning would make the crowd unhappy? Um... I don't think it would send the crowd home unhappy. I think it would send the crowd home...
This is not weird, but it's a unique match on the card. It's a women's match with no titles on the line. It's a straight-up grudge match, right? You would expect that the person who damn near killed Jade Cargill to get her comeuppance. But this is Naomi, right? Like, who, you know, as evil as she's come off the past couple of weeks, still has her very intense fan base. So...
A WrestleMania crowd is different than a wrestling crowd, right? People are going to cheer for whoever makes them feel the most something during that night. And even though Jade... is bigger and stronger and probably has all the reason to run through Naomi. People love Naomi, though. I know it's weird because Naomi is the heel and also the underdog in this match. Yes, yes, yes, yes. There you go. That's the perfect way to put it. She's the heel and the underdog.
I think the surprise of her winning, because I think our wrestling brains are telling her Jade's going to just dog walk her, wouldn't upset the fan base at all. No, I kind of think people would be excited because it would be unexpected. It would be unexpected, for sure.
All right. Well, Liv Morgan and Ricardo Rodriguez are defending the women's tag team champions in a gauntlet match. We'll put a pin in that. L.A. Knight versus Jacob Fatu. No, there's no version of this that's sending the crowd home unhappy.
Nope. Nope. Everybody, again, similar to the Intercontinental Championship, both of these guys rule in their own separate way. But there's something about... crowning that next guy, getting that first taste of real glory at WrestleMania that is... impossible to root against especially with a dude like Jacob Fatu who was just so unbelievably charismatic just like LA Knight you know what I mean just like LA Knight was at SummerSlam I don't disagree at all
But I also think there's something to Jacob Fatu just being in this match. That it's not as good as winning the title. but it's almost as good. Because this kind of ensconces him as a legit singles competitor, right? This makes it official. So he could lose and you would just say, well, they're going to fight for it again. Fuck. Jacob will get it at some point. You know, he's not a baby face. So it doesn't feel like there's the sort of necessity of.
Is he not a baby face? Well, he's kind of a baby face. I don't know, man. Like, I feel like... conspicuous by his absence on his card as Solo Sokoa. And I could see a world where he'll get himself involved. We put the lines in the sand between Solo and Jacob. Okay, so there's an answer. There's an answer, though. If Solo Sacoa costs Jacob Fatu the match, does that send the crowd home unhappy?
oh yeah thankfully they won't have to go home after that but you gotta sprinkle some unhappiness in there you gotta you know I think the crowd is going to be so behind Jacob that if he gets that moment where we really think he's really about to win this title and then it gets taken from him unfairly, especially by a guy like Solo Sokoa. Do you think all of the WWE fans, all of the WWE universe is there or is that just us? Is that just the weird echo chamber that we exist in?
Well, I'm only going by my prior WrestleMania experience, but... This WrestleMania is different. It is Las Vegas. It is crazy expensive. It is like... Going to be probably a much different crowd than we're used to as far as the hardcore wrestling fan base is concerned. I haven't really talked to anybody going out to Vegas.
so far that hasn't said they're going to go watch at a watch party or something like that, right? So it'll be really interesting to see how that crowd reacts because they're going to love them some LA night. And they're going to love this in Jacob Fah, too. But... Prices, man. It's going to feel like a Golden State Warriors game. Where it's like, you know.
It was great. It was great when it was in Oakland and they had the hardcore Oakland fan base, but now they're in the Chase Center and it's a bunch of accountants and tech bros in the crowd. Maybe they're just rooting for Steph and rooting for the good guys. You tell me what to root for a screen and I'll do it. Exactly. Well, here's an interesting one then. AJ Styles versus Logan Paul. Does Logan winning...
Yeah, because Logan Paul... is great at getting booed and great at not being somebody that, even though is extremely talented and is going to do some crowd-popping stuff, you get him against AJ Styles. You're almost guaranteed to see some eye popping stuff. Yeah, like we like AJ Styles. We like, you know, he's the man. Everybody wants to see Logan Paul get punched in the mouth. Even the tech bros.
Even the Golden State Warriors crowd that's going to be there understands we want to see Logan Paul get punched in the mouth. And by the way... We're going to talk a little bit about... his promo last night in just a minute. But he deserves some, he deserves some, some, some thanks here because his, his statements on Logan Paul, I feel like are kind of, have kind of been driving the Logan Paul conversation.
over the past couple of weeks. Yeah. What did he say? Oh, it was a while back. He was just like, yo, he's not a real wrestler. You know, it's just like you can go and learn how to do the flips or whatever. But Brian, see if you can get the actual transcript. He just made the pro wrestler points about it. He's not wrong. But I feel like that's where a lot of people are sort of looking right now. You know, I mean, is Logan Paul legit?
Well, he's been in there with legit guys, and AJ Styles is as legit as it gets. The matchup, the rivalry doesn't really constitute a mania build, but... It's going to be one of those matches which I just firmly believe is going to be a Logan Paul. showcase once again. And there's really not much to lose in previous years, like when he faced Seth Rollins or, you know, was Jelly Roll last time? I forgot what you were. No, The Miz, The Miz, right? Like, it wasn't really...
Not really a bunch to lose there. I see Carrier and Cross lurking around. I could definitely see AJ Styles losing this match for sure. And the crowd would be sad. That's true. Okay, let's get into the big match. Tiffany Stratton versus Charlotte Flick. Let's do it. You saw the promo battle on Friday. We talked about it already, but we talked about it on this show. I have not spoken to you about it.
No, we haven't spoken. And I haven't spoken much about it online either. Give me your breakdown of what transpired in the ring between Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair on Friday's Smackdown. See this? See this? Oh, just slow clap. Slow clap. Not that interested in this feud up until a few weeks ago. Like that split screen promo, which we talked about on this show. Yeah. When Charlotte Flair just.
took Tiffany Stratton to school, not only just took her to school, but did interviews about how she was taking Tiffany Stratton to school on these promos. Whether it was planned, whether it wasn't planned, whether you believe it went off script, even though nobody saw the script. All I'm saying is this, right? Tiffany Stratton ain't saying nothing that Charlotte Flair didn't say herself on the Sherry Shepard show literally the day before. Yeah. If there was a line that she couldn't cross.
I probably wouldn't go on the Sherry Shepard show and talk about it. Like I want to do the collab post on IG and talk about it. So whether it was planned or not. The same energy that Charlotte Flair put out. about having to step up, about the Charlotte Flair experience, about being ready to take it there. And, you know, because Charlotte definitely took it there on those promos. Tiffany had to get her lick back.
And I for one thought it was fantastic television. I thought it was the best. It was, I was hooked. Like I didn't see it live as it was happening, but I caught it afterwards. I was at the final four. And as I'm watching it, I'm just like, there's just something real about this. And no matter how much you watch professional wrestling.
The goal is to lose me in the story. Get me lost. Make me believe it. And sometimes it's a little raw and sometimes it's a little rough around the edges because that's how real life is. And if you want it to feel like real life, sometimes you got to draw from real life. I didn't have a problem with her bringing up the divorces. I didn't have the problem bringing up her drinking in her dad's basement when the Minnesota accent jumped out. I wasn't mad at... Kaiser in my DMS. Like it was all
It was produced by the Zeus Network. It was produced by VH1. It was produced by the 90 Day Fiance crew. Love After Lockup. We enjoy drama. Like it was absolutely right. It was real housewives of Potomac level. where it's like, that's what they do. If you ever watch these soaps, if you watch these reality shows. They get each other in a nice fancy room where they look fancy and they got wine and there's cameras everywhere and there's shiny things like it's just flossy, flossy, flossy.
And then you just get down and dirty and they're face to face just talking shit about people. And then maybe security gets in the way, maybe whatever, but like that. is what your girlfriend, your auntie, your fiance, your wife, that's the type of TV they watch. And I'll tell you this. If you had any sort of background knowledge on either Tiffany or Charlotte Flair and you said you didn't enjoy that segment.
I know you're some type of a liar because now I want to see them fight. Now I want to see them fight. Now I want to see them go at it. The wrestling fan in me wants to see them fight. The wrestling podcaster in me. wants to see if Charlotte is going to pull out that golden shovel and be like, you see? Do you see this is what happened? Like, is that golden shovel coming out? Did Tiffany kind of know going in?
That like, hey, we're handing the baton back to Charlotte. So I'm just saying, fuck it. I'm just going for broke anyway. Like, what's... All the interest is there now. They took the footage off the internet. It's not the official YouTube, but you can find it on other streams elsewhere, whatever. I thought it was great television. And sometimes...
In pro wrestling, the best angles are the ones that pull no punches. That's kind of what I wrote about Charlotte Flair was that it's always hard to tell with her whether or not she's... kind of shooting or working you know like to what degree she really is like the character that she's playing you know I talked to Brian about this on Monday it's like when we when I interviewed her in the basement of the
of the Barclays Center, she like brought herself to tears with a very little provocation talking about her brother. right yeah like she's and it was like it's just like off-putting but that's sort of what she does in the in these promos all the time it's like you don't know if she's working or shooting i thought
First of all, you're right. I mean, about if you say you didn't enjoy this. There has been a fair... a surprising amount of kind of performative outrage about this like if someone went as if someone going off the script is like says that they're a bad person or like you should clutch our pearls or uh I think you're right. I mean... I think you're right that it's certainly right that it's made the story more interesting.
And that's really what you have to go for. After they did the split screen thing. Why would they put them back in the ring together in person to go through all this again? You knew exactly what Charlotte was going to do because either A, it was the plan or B, you have enough experience with her to know that this is what happens every time. Yeah. And frankly, I think the most interesting, the most exciting possible outcome for WrestleMania is the golden shovel routine.
Like you said, it's making the fans think. that Charlotte refused to put Tiffany over. That is by far the most... That doesn't work for me, sister. Exactly. That is by far the most interesting thing you could do. If Charlotte loses... My read is going to be, oh, yes, she probably went off script. Charlotte made this an uncomfortable build. And the sole purpose here is putting Tiffany over. And we might not see Charlotte very much for a while.
But no, that's where I think we disagree, right? I think that's the best part of this because... Tiffany, whether it was planned or not, put herself in a position to make an intriguing storyline post-WrestleMania if she's still the champion, right? Because... Most people that are kind of sick of Charlotte Flair are sick of her because she's the same Charlotte Flair we've seen since the beginning of time, right? Fans get bored. The brilliance of what Tiffany did, whether it was planned or not.
Well, say the quiet part out loud. She's almost forcing Charlotte Flair to evolve. When she said your biggest opponent hasn't been me, it has been this crowd and trying to win them over and knowing that no matter how good you think you are, you're never going to be like your daddy. Said by anybody else, we'd be like... Well, you're not the first person to say that. Said by Tiffany Stratton, who, by all accounts...
is the younger, more athletic, blonder, you know, era parent to Charlotte Flair, uh, hits a little differently, right? Like it hits a little different. Like you see. The vulnerability in Charlotte, mentally. She was vulnerable on TV. She was vulnerable in her comeback. She was visibly shaken by the crowd reaction and what Tiffany was saying.
to the crowd. She was smiling at the end. I mean, here's the thing. Oh, that wasn't a real smile. That was a... I don't disagree, and I don't want anyone to hear what I say about Charlotte Flair. I'll say that before you say that. I just want to say, I think Tiffany might have forced Charlotte to evolve. I think you're right. I think it's a good point. I don't want anyone to hear me talk about Charlotte and think...
that I'm saying it's all one big work. Like she's putting one over on us in a, in a pure, like this is like every emotional reaction is fake, but like she is an emotionally raw human being. But like the best actors in the world, when you see them cry in a movie. They're tapping into some childhood trauma. That's a real emotion that gets them to that point. And I think that Charlotte... The best reading of Charlotte is that she's...
found a way to tap into that or allows herself to go there. And that's pretty amazing when you think about it. But regardless. I hope you're right. I hope she does evolve. Because, you know. Yeah. Because now there's a reason for her to, right? And by the way, it's not all on her. None of that stuff should be on her. It was Vince McMahon that decided to try to make her...
you know, a 12 time world champion within the first like 18 months of her run on the main roster, you know, like make her entire storyline about winning. And frankly, it's not exclusive to her for the best part. of the women's revolution, of the post-women's revolution era of women's wrestling in WWE have been...
have been hamstrung by the lack of, or hamstrung by the real sports aspect of the whole enterprise, right? It's all about winning championships. It's all about being the best athlete. It's all about being the best. in a very, you know, Olympic athletic sort of way about it. I know why they went that. But there's a reason why Jade versus Naomi is the first non-title, non-gimmick women's one-on-one match ever.
Because it's always real basic. It's always real like, oh, I want to be the champion. You're the champion. Okay, now we got to fight. you know and and that's not charlotte's fault that she's the best person that she's the most compelling real athlete you know on the roster um and that someone else picked her i do hope in terms of sending the crowd home happy or unhappy, since that was what we're talking about.
Charlotte winning will make the crowd go bonkers. They will be very upset, and it could be incredibly entertaining. But I think that kind of goes. I'm counting on it. You think she's going to win? I don't know. I don't know. I'm counting on, I think leading up to this. I was kind of counting on it as far as this will ultimately be better for Tiffany Stratton's build.
She kind of took the bull by the horns with that promo. It was like, you know what? Maybe she's good. Maybe she's already kind of ready. In the same way Tiffany is forcing Charlotte to evolve. Charlotte kind of forced Tiffany to, you know, put her big girl pants on. And go back at her. And it opened my eyes. It was one of those things where I was like, well, shit. Yeah, no, it's like I've I've compared.
I've referred to Charlotte as the female Brock Lesnar on more than one occasion, but it feels like a Brock Lesnar match where he starts working stiff and the other guy just comes back at him and he's like, okay, we're friends now. Yeah, it's that level of respect. And I think deep down, I guess once the messiness of it all... subsides. I'm pretty sure Charlotte feels the same way. Just somebody who is brought into wrestling. Somebody made the affirmative decision.
to put these two professional wrestlers in the same outfits on TV together two times for their brawl and their battle, their promo battle. This is not an accident. You know, I mean, this is it's it's it's it's been enthralling. But I do feel a little bit like we're getting worked. Oh, I always think we're getting worked. And even if we're not getting worked in the immediate...
it all eventually turns into work, right? Like, I think once you're out there on stage, once you're out there in the ring, on camera, like, everything is a work. There's something that surely definitely should not be on TV. Trust me. It won't be on camera. They will find ways to not be on TV. And I almost feel like them pulling the footage from YouTube of some of the personal slights is part of the work. Yeah. You got to get a little bit more creative to keep people interested and keep people.
forgetting that this is a show and making people like any moment that you can get from a wrestling fan to make him say oh that was real though it's a good moment it's a good moment and if it has to do with Charlotte's divorce or her dad or drinking. Like, yes, yes, use that shit. Keep me interested. Keep me going. This might be the realest WrestleMania that we've ever had for a lot of reasons.
This being one of the prime examples. Gunther versus Jey Uso. Not exactly real. Although I guess Jey could be for real insecure about his spot. About his chance. Do you think Gunther winning would send the crowd home unhappy? Yeah, I think so. And that's Guilter's job. Because we all just want to eat. We just want to yeet, man. And Gunther doesn't win matches in exciting ways.
He just decides you die during the middle of the match. And then that's just it, you know? And it's never, like, Gunther's never had a happy ending victory. It's never been like, oh, wow, like. Oh, everybody stand up and give that a round of applause. It's always just like a flurry of death moves one by one. And seeing that happen to Jay after doing all that yeeting and getting so close to...
having his first World Heavyweight Championship. Like, yeah. And it'll be the third time I think he's lost to Gunther as well. So I think there'll be some level of unhappiness for sure. We'll talk more about that in our various previews that we'll be posting next week.
Eoskai versus Bianca Belair versus Rhea Ripley. There's no real heel in this match. There's no sending the crowd home unhappy. I actually think Eoskai... might be the unhappiest ending but I think we would all just understand the story she would be like she overcame the odds so we can just skip that All right, it's on to the big ones. Roman Reigns versus CM Punk versus Seth Rollins. What is the ending that sends the crowd home most unhappy? And...
Is it also the best ending? This is going to be one of the most interesting main events I've ever seen at WrestleMania. It's going to be like a concert, right? Because it's three guys with three awesome entrance music. with three very intense fan bases. Uh-huh. But the most important person in the match is probably going to be on the side, which is Paul Heyman, all right? So... I think the way I've said this months ago, even before we got into this real build that I'm like.
Seth needs this Seth Rollins needs this win more than I think he's needed any win in his career right like I feel like when Seth Rollins came in member of the shield Breaking free, cashing in. Championships were kind of a given at that point, right? It's like, yeah, this guy's clearly the next guy. But he's fighting for something different now. He's fighting for... relevancy mega relevancy he's always relevant yeah but like there's that level of relevance that i think he lost a little bit
being Cody's road dog for the past couple of years, especially after Cody whooped him a couple of years on WrestleMania, right? Seth is kind of... Still a top, top guy. Being the road dog was the consolation prize already. He didn't get to main event, so they just shoehorned him in. They got him in the tag team match. He's still a top-tier guy, but the tiers are clearly... Cody, Roman, Punk. Right underneath that is like Rollins McIntyre.
Like maybe you could throw like LA Knight in there or something like that. No, I made this point recently. I probably made it a hundred times. I don't think it's right below that. I think Seth is without a doubt the number four guy on the roster, but I think the distance between three and four. is significant as it stands right now what's the music stops what's the music when the music is on
They're all on the level playing field. Like, everybody is as over as everybody else. But once that music stops and Seth Rollins and CM Punk are going at it, that crowd usually leans towards CM Punk. When Roman Reigns comes out... And he's going up against Seth Rollins. There's been times where more people have kind of leaned towards Seth Rollins. But this verse, the Roman Reigns. might be a little bit more beloved than Seth Rollins right now, you know? And I think...
Everybody is sort of seeing where the relationship between punk, Roman, and Heyman is going to lead. That what happened on Monday opens the door for what makes Seth important in this feud. And... Sending that crowd home unhappy or unhappy is all going to depend on what Paul Heyman does and what Seth Rollins does. I don't think Seth Rollins can afford another big time WrestleMania law. Like he would be... I don't think Seth Rollins... I mean, I was saying at the... The Netflix debut.
that as big of a deal as that was, and I was probably totally wrong, but I was like, Ron's has got to have his WrestleMania promise from Triple Eight. to agree to lose that match on that day, right? He's got to like, we already know what's happening at WrestleMania and you're going to get your win back or whatever, you know? Because I know how hard Seth's pushed.
in real life for that WrestleMania main event, not even to the main event like CM Punk has made it this totem, but to be on equal footing with Roman Reigns. And we know that his feelings about punk are based in reality. It's like, I've been here the whole time, and somehow you come in and just get all the spotlight? Come on. I think what we saw on Monday was... I think what we saw on Monday was the... was that's what they're going to replay.
when Seth walks out with Paul Heyman, if that's indeed what they do at WrestleMania, that was the moment. Because we were talking about this on Worldwide, and I missed the point. I'll say. When Seth did the curb stomp. on Paul Heyman, or feigned the curb stomp on Paul Heyman and said, now you owe me a favor. I said it was a little bit too on the nose because it's making even the...
most unwitting fan start to think, oh, are they going to be, are they going to team up? Is that now, now, now, now it's too, it's too on the nose, right? It's too obvious. Yeah. Yeah. Too obvious. But I think that the truth is that Seth... One, I'm not sure that they're already, even if they leave together, I don't think the story is going to be that they were in on it all along.
I think what Seth pulled off on Monday was sowing the seed of doubt in Paul Heyman's head. He said it in the promo, right? He said... He wanted to remove Paul Heyman from the situation, and it was implicit that what he meant is he was going to beat up Paul Heyman and take him out for the match so that that would do it. But no, what he was doing and the favor...
that he gave to Paul Heyman was showing him, A, that with that physical threat, who really cares about him? Well, it wasn't Roman Reigns. He didn't even come out. Right? That is the favor he gave to Paul Heyman. And also to prove that Punk doesn't really care about him either.
Right? I mean, Punk came out and brawled, but that was what Paul Heyman, I'm sure, wanted to know in that moment. I have to choose between CM Punk and Roman Reigns. Which one of them is going to save my ass when somebody's actually trying to take me out? Well, the answer was CM Punk. But I think Paul Heyman can now logically say, punk, you should have never forced me to make that decision, right?
I don't know exactly what's going to shove Paul Hammond and Seth Rollins together, if that's how WrestleMania ends. But it's a lot more interesting now than it was before. Also... What Seth said in that promo is that there's no titles on the line. They're battling it out for the soul of the industry. Who's the fucking soul of the professional wrestling industry? It's Paul Heyman. I mean, that's what every diehard fan like us would say. You know?
The winner of that match wins. I mean, you can joke about the custody of Paul Heyman match, but I think that's really where we're going. It's really what it is. Yeah. And I think Seth told us everything that Seth said in that promo had a double meaning. And you can go back and watch it and just say, what if he's not talking about the thing that he seems to be talking about?
I think it's pretty... I think it was a thing of beauty. I think Seth's going to win. I don't think that Seth's necessarily going to walk out with Heyman. But I do think that Seth did enough on Monday night to fracture, to permanently fracture the Heyman-Reigns relationship. Yep. I'm not positive he walked out with Heyman, but I'm almost positive. It's the last time we see Heyman and Roman together for quite some time. Yeah, I completely agree. I think Roman's got to fly solo for a bit.
purely solo for some time. That's where I am too, so I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but I'm very excited about it after Monday night. The real world implications are actually pretty funny because everything that again, everything that Seth Rollins said was actually true. Like Paul Heyman does order Roman Reigns steaks at times. He does. Like he is his manager in a way that like.
is very old school. And even if they're not together on screen, you better believe that wrote that poem and still going to be traveling with him and giving him and being this wise man in real life. And, and, and so. I don't know the degree to which. It'll be fun to watch if they actually try to...
you know, work the fans on that? Like, are we going to walk out of the arena separately? Are we going to, you know, book separate hotels? You know, I kind of doubt it. But that part of it's kind of funny as like a, you know, super duper smart mark like we all are. But yeah, I think they need to go there separately. I think we're in agreement on that. Yeah, and Seth needs it. Like, the soul of professional wrestling, you saw the era with Punk, just leaving the era with Roman.
Rollins, man. It would be interesting to see what that looks like. It'll be interesting. Maybe it's not that. What do you think it's better for Seth? Maybe Seth kills Paul Heyman off. Maybe Paul Heyman... Stick with you and turn my back in both of these guys. And Seth likes it for a while. And then he's like, psych.
Bam. Super heel Seth Rollins is born and stomps ahead. I was going to say, there have been various theories, fan theories about this. Do you think it would be better if Seth is not going to fly solo? Would it be better for him to be the new Paul Heyman guy or like the new The Rock guy? I'm still not even sure what being the rock guy is. We saw it one time. One time, that was it, Elimination Chamber. We haven't seen it since. No mention.
I'm sure Travis Scott will be there at Mania. I'm sure The Rock will be there at Mania. I'm still not even sure where The Rock guy is. I mean, I'm not at this point 100% sure The Rock's going to be there at WrestleMania, but I guess... Right, that's another thing. It would be kind of wild if he wasn't, but it's not like we have reason to believe it one way or the other. I mean I do I feel like they've sort of established now that like
They'll announce The Rock the morning of WrestleMania just to keep that buzz going. They'll hold him off as long as humanly possible, whether that's on purpose or whether that's to give the... give the volatile sort of... I mean, it helps with heel heat. If The Rock's working heel, it helps to make it seem like he's just deciding at the last minute that he can squeeze WrestleMania into his schedule. It makes it feel like to all the smart guys who think they know everything that's going on.
That The Rock just showed up on Sunday night and just swung his dick around and did rock things. And, like, that's what The Final Boss does. Like, I could totally, totally see that. So, Cena versus Cody Rhodes with presumably The Rock involved. Presumably. How unhappy is it going to send the crowd home?
John Cena wins the title. You said not very. But isn't there like a real heelish way that he and The Rock can pull out this win that would just make the place would be just raining with a chorus of boos, even if they're respectful boos at the end of night two? Hmm. I don't know. I do not know. I don't know how John Cena leaves Vegas the world champion.
And is it still somehow celebrated? This is the record-breaking title win, no matter how it is. It's John Cena's last WrestleMania, no matter how you slice it. There is going to be a heavy amount of John Cena fans in that crowd. As much as we love Cody, as much as we're supposed to be cheering for Cody, there are still going to be a lot of people.
who are going to cheer for John Cena if he gets the 1-2-3 and beats Cody Rhodes for the WWE Championship. But he's going to get boos. I mean, he's going to get boos. He's a heel. John Cena's going to try his damn job. I'm sure he's got all, he's got the entire... his entire arsenal ready of shit to draw heat for this match because he's going to try his damnedest to get booed. And you know what's going to happen?
People are going to cheer that type of stuff because we've never seen John Cena do it. But I think that results in boos of respect. Paul Heyman boos, right? I mean, he'll still get booed. because we understand that's what this wrestler that we love is wanting from us. Right? Or do you think fans will be cheering ironically the whole way through? Maybe not the whole way through.
But they'll definitely be cheering. It's still John Cena. Like, I don't think it's ironic. It's like, hey, we're cheering for the bad guy because he's a good guy. Nah, man, like. There are people who have been waiting to see this version of John Cena for years, and they're going to cheer him regardless. There are people who... We're cheering for John Cena that are going to want to see this and still cheer for him. It's going to be...
A interesting-ass crowd, man. Like, I don't think it's that cut and dry where, you know, he's going to be on SmackDown next Friday for the go-home show. You know, he's going to be there, and it's going to be really interesting, man. Like, I just... It's, it's, it's, it's gonna feel, it has potential to feel like Rock Hogan, where like, you know, Rock is clearly the good guy and Hogan has done all this heinous stuff, like run over the Rock with a truck.
But by the time we got to Toronto and we got around those crazy wrestling fans and it all hit us like, yo, this is the last time we're probably going to see this man at a WrestleMania. We never know if this is the last one. They're going to go crazy for him. Wrestling fans are fickle. They're insane. And it's not going to shock me if Cody's going to have to...
Work a little heel there and work some, you know, change some, change some, you know, change the style up a little bit because Cena might win over that WrestleMania crowd, guys. Cena's got to bring out the kid. Yeah. He's going to have to slap like a Make-A-Wish kid in the middle of the ring. That's what I was going to say. Bring Augustus Gloop back from the European tour.
have him be part of the entrance and then just leave him high and dry again. Really have the kid look devastated. The kid's just like, oh, John Cena's making it up to me. And then John Cena's like, no, I'm not. And that's it. Like, just somehow, just kids crying is the best possible reaction. The best way to send the crowd home unhappy. I don't know. I'd cheer for this.
If like Cena is beating the crap out of Cody so badly, one of Cody's fans runs into the ring and it's like, John, no, stop. And everyone's like, oh my God, we got a kid in the ring. And Cena's like, don't worry guys, I got it. what attacks the kid attacks the kid and then raises the title up like he has John Cena has to attack a child to get booed. He has to do Dave Chappelle playing street hoops on Chappelle's show type of stuff. It's a Make-A-Wish kid or something like that.
Something. Should have taught your ass how to play some street hoops and then just bam. I don't know. I just have a hard time believing John Cena's going to get booed at WrestleMania. He's going to try his damn best. I'm going to be booed. He's despicable, everything he's done to Cody.
It's a bad man, that John Cena. He actually only did like one thing. You know, beat his ass one time and just, he's really been coming at us this whole time. He really only said like one thing bad about Cody. What he truly hates.
It's us, the fans, everybody. He gave Cody his little bars a couple weeks back where he said, I'm going to bury you. It's like I buried everybody else. He's leaning into everything that... all the keyboard warriors have said about him for the past 20 years yeah so he's actually doing us a favor he's giving us what we've been asking for like you said and guess what
Those same keyboard warriors that are talking all that crap are going to be like, oh, well, see, this is kind of awesome now. Like, I know how y'all built, man. Like, some kids are going to be cheering for Cody, of course. But this is going to be Cena-Rock all over. I mean, this is going to be Rock Hogan all over again. We're going in there expecting...
good versus evil, but it's really going to be my favorite versus your favorite. And how many John Cena favorites are out there? Quite a lot. How many Cody Rhodes favorites are out there? Quite a lot. And it's going to be a history-making title win if John Cena does that. So by saying this is like Roxena, does that mean like 10 years from now?
we're all going to, there's going to be some like John Cena sex tape that's going to reveal him to be a terrible human being. Gosh, I know you meant to say Rock Hogan, but I would hope not. I would hope there's not a... John Cena sex tape out there where he's like, well, you know something, brother.
My daughter's going to have sex with Eddie, old brother. I just can't even think about Rock Hogan. I can't think about Rock Hogan without being clouded by all that stuff because history is so blurry. Anyway. I still love that moment without, you know. Oh, no, of course. Of course. The moment's the moment. Still doesn't, you know, take away from the other factors there, for sure. All right. Was that it for? Did we go through the entire?
I think we've gone through everything that we can know about. I still think if John Cena wins If it looks like the end of the elimination chamber, the crowd will go home unhappy. If there's no handshake, if Cody's lying limp in the ring. The fact that we haven't seen Rock or Travis Scott since then lets me know Cody's not just going to lose a match. He's probably going to get it.
killed even more than he did at Elimination Chamber. He might get stretchered out. Will he stretcher Cody out of WrestleMania? That will send the crowd home unhappy, yes. That might be it. That could happen. I hope we get something that dramatic. It's that memorable. Just the somber end of WrestleMania. That could be awesome. Speaking of memorable, our producer Brian H. Waters.
Got to see Will Ospreay in person last night. He was at Dynamite. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Talk to me about it, B. Waters. Man. The bruv. That's all I can say. The bruv. Like, I mean, even in a, what was that? An eight-man tag mat?
Just absolutely incredible, you know what I mean? Seeing him and... That's not your first time seeing him live, right? Yeah. That's your first time seeing him live? Mm-hmm. I had to think about it. I said, wow, this is the first time I actually, you know, seeing him, Speedball, Mike Bailey. You know, I mean, like I said, yeah, Kevin Knight's a beast, you know, and then seeing Ricochet just, I mean, Ricochet, you know what you're going to get with the rest.
but just seeing him really go in with this character and then get in when they, um, went to commercial break, watching him like really get to the Baltimore crowd. And then that let Leo rush and action. Andretti. Yeah, actually Andretti. Both Madeline guys, right? Yeah, yeah. But you know, I know Leo's more DC.
So that's always that rivalry right there. So, you know, overall, it was just a, that was a great point. To me, that was my favorite part of the show. And I mean, the show started off great, started off hot, but that was like my favorite person. The ricochet growth is like... I told y'all so, right? It's like, yo. Is a character. Yeah. Everybody tried to make, because everything about Ricochet is so inherently cool.
I feel like so many people try to make him cool or do cool stuff. And it's like, nah, man. You got to lean into the fact that he's kind of a nerd and he's kind of dorky and he's bald. The bald thing getting over is hilarious. The slap on the head, that is... That's entertaining. It's entertaining. And you know. You're going to get a banger out of him anytime. He can roll out of bed and have a banger with a broomstick.
But the fact that he's gotten people to actually... care about him as a person without winning a title without necessarily being a main event or an any aw show he gets real visceral reaction when his music hits yeah and it's a pretty generic song but like people know it and they you know He's got that. He's figured it out, man. He has figured out his character. And I think it was a great job as far as like...
If I've never heard of speedball Mike Bailey or Kevin Knight, you get them with two guys who everybody loves and Mark Briscoe and Will Ospreay. And be like, yeah, these guys are awesome. You guys will think they're awesome, too. And the promo was great in the beginning when he talked about diversifying his portfolio. If he wins $100,000, I thought that was hilarious. And, you know.
Knew a little bit about speedball Mike Bailey through our resident Mike Bailey enthusiast, the shoemaker. But I think the world's really starting to come around on Kevin Knight and just see how really good... That dude is, man. So I loved it, man. It was a great, great match, even though, you know.
Grand prizes in wrestling, it's like, all right, whatever. Who cares if you win another $100,000? But I like what they're doing with the characters, with the people that they're trying to establish on the show. That's the most important thing. And this is like Mark Briscoe's backyard too. You know, obviously the Ring of Honor days, like Baltimore love, always had great love for the Briscoes. So as soon as he came out there, you knew he was going to get a great reaction.
what was the this is like the all-star game the NBA all-star game where they always try to make it like how do we how do we make it matter and people start throwing around dollar figures and they're like how much How many dollars matters to LeBron James? You know, matters to James Harden. Like, what is the dollar figure? Is there a dollar figure that would make you care more about a tag team tournament or whatever in a wrestling organization? What is this one? Is it $400,000?
It was for a $400,000 tag team where they would split and each get $100,000. Nah, I don't think there's a money amount that would really... I've never really cared that much. The only time I cared about dollar amounts is when the wrestlers were broke. Like when Shawn Michaels had to wrestle to get out of debt.
Yeah. And, like, when Baron Bumass Corbin was trying to, like, you know what I mean? Like, the dollar amounts only matter when, like, the wrestler has nothing, right? Like, if Will Ospreay or Ricochet gets another $100,000 through the name, it's like...
Yeah, they should have to tell us what they're going to buy, what they're going to spend it on. Somebody's like, my mortgage, I just got a new place in Florida or whatever. I need some follow-up vignettes. I need some follow-up vignettes on what each of these people did.
With the extra $100,000. No, I think as a precondition of getting into the tournament, you have to tell us what you're going to spend it on. Okay, you got to cut a promo. Say, hi, my name is Mark Briscoe. And when I'm on this $100,000... I'm going to donate it to the community. Nah, follow it up. It'll be hilarious. The only time that money mattered. Money didn't even matter. Money was even abstract when Million Dollar Man was shoving it in people's mouths. Yeah.
Not when Virgil kicked that basketball from that kid. It mattered to me then. It was only, what, $100? I don't know how much it was. $500, I thought. 500 bucks. Yeah, that's the only time the money matters when it's like somebody who could really use it, you know? What about when Andre beat Big John Studd?
at WrestleMania and threw the money out to the crowd. That was great. Okay, that's cool. We can do that. Because it went to the people who could use it. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Well, I like when Shane McMahon's trust fund was on the line. Because the bounty was on Stone Cold. So it made an incentive to throw Stone Cold out of the Royal Rumble in 99. That was fun. Yeah, but we're so far removed from that now. He's coming for the bounty. Yeah.
He won't step down. He retains the title against gang girl earlier tonight. And then they're doing the DX promo. He's like, he's out of breath. I'm going to get that hundred grand, you know? Yeah. it's awesome but I would love I would love if they did a follow up I would love if they followed Kevin Knight to Magic City I would love if they followed Will Ospreay to Disney World and he was like following that like I would love if he goes to Disney World and he could only afford like
Like three things. $100,000. It's like I spent it all. It's like you ever been here? It's expensive as hell. And then have Mark Briscoe meeting with his accountants with that little visor on his head. Downloading the Robin Hood app and stuff. All that show would be hilarious. What did Speedball say he was going to spend it on? I forgot. Oh, man. I forgot, too. I forgot what he said. I know Kevin Knight said he's going to Magic City.
And Briscoe said he's going to diversify his portfolio, but I forgot what Mike Bailey said he was going to spend his $100,000. Follow it up. Get some vignettes together, AEW. Like, that would be... Some quality. You got two new guys who just got on TV. What better way to get to know them than hand them $100,000 and film what they would do with it.
They're just coming in. Oh, he said he was going to get some shoes. Speedball said he was going to get some shoes. Okay, all right. Go link up with Joe LaPuma. Go do sneaker shopping. You know what I mean? And just do the whole thing. That could be a great gimmick, though, for Briscoe to be like the $100,000 man, Jay Briscoe. upgrade the farm yeah just have them have like the million dollar belt except it's made out of like you know
just like a sensible metal, you know, not gold. Just like, and he's coming out... It's made of Swarovski crystals or something. Yeah, he's got like a cheap top hat and a monocle, but he's just like, he's... For him, it's a lot of money. That's got to be the gimmick. It is. 100,000. He's got to treat that 100,000 like a million. And just, you know, pulls up in the Kia Sorento. Balling, you know what I mean? Yeah, like suddenly he's like, you know.
camouflage gear has got the Carhartt logo on it or whatever. It's just like I got enough money to live large in my mind. There you go. Get some Levi's jeans instead of whatever jeans he was wearing. He's like, yeah, man, I'm stepping it up. Got these American apparels right here. The Municlos, you know, like the upper quality casual wear. Yeah, you know, I went to H&M, balled out. You know what I'm saying? I got an H&M suit that costs like 200 bucks, but...
Doesn't fit well, but he just squeezes into it. Each of them got to make their clothes a little bigger, man. I agree with you with no other reason than I never want to try on anything at an H&M. There's some places where you want to try some stuff on. You're like, oh, look, I got...
all the stuff I could look good in, like whatever you, the dressing, it feels like the dressing room is going to be nice. H&M, you just want to be able to pick something up and walk out the door. You know? H&M, you just eyeball it. It's just like, yeah, I look like it'll fit. You know what I mean? Like a little t-shirt. a little blazer, a jacket, like some outerwear, you know, but you don't want to try it on. I feel like if you try it on, you turn it to like.
Lou Ferrigno and just started stretching the holes out in the pants and everything. It's just... That's it. H&M's got to be the top, the number one store for like things that just don't make it out of the dressing room. You know, when they go to, when the dressing room team has to go back there and hang stuff back up, there's just Lou Ferrigno torn shit left and right out there. People are saying, not my fault, man. You said that was a 36. waste. That casual, that fast casual, man. He just...
You're getting three to four strong wares out of that H&M stuff tops. And then it is gym wear for the rest of your life. Like, out of straight clothes, you wear it to lift out, lift and take out the trash. That is it. That's so true. This episode of The Masked Man Show is brought to you by H&M. H&M, you've been clutch my whole life for like three or four. When I was at WWE, H&M used to come in the clutch. When I needed a little dress shirt or something to pop in there.
Didn't really feel like doing the laundry. A little 30 bucks here and there. Throw it off on my good blazer. I was good to go. You know? But... Yeah. Then you got back to your hotel room and just took it off, put it right in the trash can onto the next one, right? You unbutton one button, the button like pops and shoots and knocks down the painting. No, you're right. It has been clutch. I definitely had some like H&M. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, H&M's a great... When I was young, H&M was a great... I didn't make it home last night, and I still got to show up at work option for the morning, you know? Oh, yeah. That was the whole bath closet, man. I don't think you ever took whole baths. Back in my day, I used to take whole baths. Brian didn't know what a whole bath is, right? The whole bath is like when you spent the night with someone. And you weren't really planning on it. So you kind of got to go to a sink.
You know what I mean? You get to a sink. You know what I mean? You wash yourself. You get the parts of the body that are visual. I'm glad you don't think I know what that is. Yeah. Because you're not trying to like... This is... Way back in my day. Yeah, wait. Clearly. But you're not trying to like, you know, first of all, if you're shocked that you're still in that room, right? So you're just like, oh my gosh, I got to go. I got to get out of here.
So you're not trying to shower there. So you find the next best place, probably somewhere in the mall, probably a restaurant, get a little towel, something wet, hit the important parts, balls, pit, neck. Get something good to spray on. Hit H&M. Spend like 60 bucks. Got a whole new fit. It's almost like you went home and changed completely. Got some $30 pants, a $10 shirt, some socks. You're good to go for at least 24 hours. That is it.
That is where you go after you take the whole bath. You go to the whole... wardrobe. That's probably what H&M stands for. It's like The ancient H&M definitely stands for... They never told us, you're right. It's exactly what it's used for. four or five words and we're done throw it out anyway those were the days yeah That note. I went so off. What were we talking about? I don't even know what you're talking about. We're talking about Speedball Mike Bailey's shoes. Do you want to talk about...
Kenny Omega about the Young Bucks, about the Death Riders, about this whole Young Bucks are back thing. Let's do it. Let's talk about it. The Bucs are back. They appeared, shockingly, on Sunday night to help Jon Moxie retain his World Heavyweight Championship. And then last night they said, in our time away, we realize mocks, we have a lot in common. So they kind of extended the olive branch to him. Kenny Omega came out and made fun of him. Swerve.
Ended up making the save when Kenny was getting threatened. It looks like we're probably going to wind up with the Bucks and Okada against Swerve and Kenny and Hangman. I'm not quite sure how Moxley fits into all of this. I mean, that'll be a hell of a match, obviously, if that's what we get. I guess I was a little disappointed with how kind of...
straightforward that whole thing was last night. There were no swerves. I mean, no pun intended. It was just the Bucks are back and all the heels are on the same team. I don't know. What did you think about that whole segment? It went a long way to explaining what we saw on Sunday, which is necessary. You know, I appreciated that. I appreciated that. That yes. I mean, listen, AEW can drag these things out. So can WWE. No, you know what it is? I think AEW doesn't drag things out enough.
Right? No, sometimes they don't. But I mean, look at MJF interfering at the pay-per-view. Mm-hmm. I'm not saying, well, it's the right choice or the wrong choice, but you have a moment like that, like that should have been like traditionally that would have been.
The moment where we realized they were in on it together all along. And then on Dynamite, we're right back to where we were the week before where MJF and Bobby Lashley are not seeing eye to eye. And Lashley doesn't know if he's in the herpes. You know, there's a lot of those sort of symbolic moments where you're just like, wait, okay, so this bit of the story is over now. And then it's like, oh, no, we're just going to drag it out and replay it. And I guarantee...
in like three months, there's going to be another MJF interfering in a match moment that will signal the fact that they're on the same team now. You know, like it's... Anyway. But you don't think... I mean, sometimes they don't. You think they could have dragged this one out longer with the young buck? Look, if you're upset with the way the pay-per-view ended because you're so used to definitive wins, I get that, but...
Well, I think it's more disappointing to some fans because some of us, myself included, had talked ourselves into a sort of victory, right? Which I didn't think was happening. No, but it felt like they were shifting gears. Like there was whatever. But, but the fact that.
It would have been one thing if Moxley had just won, and then you were like, yeah, they were never going to do that at all. But the fact that the Bucs had to interfere, it's definitely a you're getting worked bro moment because the feeling is. Oh, if not for that, then Swerve would have won. It's almost like Tony Khan changed his mind. And the young bucks came and ruined it for everybody. That's the weird emotional reaction to that.
But I agree. I mean, listen, they explained why the books did what they did. And it was an explanation. They explained the paper shredding. They explained why they liked what the Death Riders were doing. Like, I... Got it, right? You know, maybe I'm a sick person, Dave. I think I am. I think I'm a sick man. Because the more this storyline drags out, the more I get it. the more I am into what the Death Riders are drawing out of this AEW audience. This AEW audience for years.
have benefited from the fact that they have an extremely online boss and he listens to you and he does the things that, I mean, gosh, 95% of the AEW pay-per-views. I guess unless you're an MJF fan, have always kind of been happy endings or at least satisfying endings. And for the first time, you're getting consistent endings where it's like, nope, the bad guys win. the bad guy wins like and that's how it happens sometimes and it is not a happy ending. It is not, you know.
I kind of feel like that's the point, isn't it? Isn't the point for... you guys to not like the bad guy. Yeah. And at least for that, for that, you know, I've got to appreciate what they're doing. And now you get the young bucks in who other people also don't like as much. And you got a group of folks that are just like,
I've said this earlier about the Cena stuff at WrestleMania and the build and all that. You got to get a little bit more strategic and cunning about getting... fans invested, intrigued, get them to really dislike somebody, get them to really like somebody. And their benefit, I'd say the benefit that AEW has. is that they have smart fans who think they know everything. And then the wrestlers actually know everything. So they'll throw you some shit here and there to make you feel like...
oh, this is clearly what they're going to do because any smart wrestling fan will do this. And then when they don't... They get upset. They get drawn in. And I think it draws you in even more. I think the genius part about all that is... is the fact that he still is an EVP, is the fact that even though...
We cannot stand the Young Bucks. We effing love us some Kenny Omega. And even though he's still kind of a suit, he's a suit for the right reasons, right? Like, he's sort of... gave the ethos of a w when he came out and talked to to the young bucks and all that type of stuff and pretty much put on front street that was like yo Yeah, AEW went through a rough patch. It's because I wasn't here and I left you guys in charge. You know what I mean?
There was sort of like this breath of relief that sort of happened when we finally saw Kenny and the Buck. addressing each other and I think it's interesting man like that's why it's like alright well I see what's being built here and I gotta respect what AEW is doing because they're making a strong attempt to tell a coherent story and if I'm legitimately upset as a fan not real life but if I'm a fan I'm legitimately upset That Jon Moxley is still the world champion. Yeah.
A small part of you means, a small part of that means that they're doing their job. I'm not supposed to like that guy. He is not a person that you're supposed to root for. And they're doing everything in their power to make sure that. I could not agree. Didn't love Kenny last night, but I do get the point of why we care about Kenny. I got the point. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I think that you put it perfectly. It's not exactly you're getting worked, bro. It's just... This is what pro wrestling is.
So, yeah, you know, I think it will appreciate the Moxley run more in at the, you know, at the end of it, too. I mean, it's like Roman Reigns, man. I mean, we were. We were begging for them to take the belt off him at half the pay-per-views that he defended the title, you know? Just because you want that immediate gratification of like, holy shit, Kevin Owens just beat him at it, whatever, you know? But in retrospect... It was that long championship reign that matters. It really worked.
And I think that you're right. They're telling, they're telling, at least they're telling a story here. Hopefully they are telling a story. And hangman is just consistently. There's almost something brilliant about the way that he's sort of been handled in AEW, where it's like... He's just got his own private writing team or something. And they just, they're not in charge of the big parts of the arc.
But he gets to just do whatever he wants to. And he's been putting together this sort of long-term storytelling about his character that is sort of just implausibly good. I mean, I love everything. It's getting there. I ain't got a lot. It took me a while. It took me a minute to be like, I don't know about this. But now I'm like, okay, I know about this. Get what's being done here. I'm not hating it anymore. This is all part of the long-term plan. Who knows?
And now we are joined by, I say living legend with tongue in cheek just about every time we have a wrestler on the show. This is an honest to God living legend. Honest to God. Brett the Hitman Hart, welcome to the Masked Man Show. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much for doing this. You're on the show. In part because your match with Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 is going into the WWE Hall of Fame as the first ever immortal moment that they're inducting. I think...
Wrestling fans like us would have a hard time arguing with that being the inaugural immortal moment. When you look back at your career, what does that match mean to you? Where does it rank in terms of your greatest moments in the ring? You know, I had so many great matches, so many great moments and things that really stand out about my career. But I knew that night when I walked back to the dressing room.
that that match with Steve Austin was... And it was hard to say that to myself. I think that was the best match I ever had. It was just so flawlessly pulled off that... It's almost like it was divine. There's so many little things about that match. you know, that make it stand out and you remember it for years. You know, like I will say that, you know, Steve and I had fought at Survivor Series. You know, we did everything we could think of. It was a great match. And when it was over,
I was on my way. Steve was on his way. But I think we thought that maybe I'll, I always thought maybe I'll wrestle Steve again next SummerSlam or sometime next year. We'll revive things and his character will. evolved so much more from the Survivor Series time period. And I never was very like when they, when things happen where Sean forfeited the belt and he lost his smile and all that happened. And it's like, I remember Vince telling me that.
It's going to be Sid and Undertaker for the belt. And you're not fighting Sean. I thought I was fighting Sean. i was promised sean and it was like i got always i felt it was a swerve and it probably was but um And it's like, oh, they're throwing me with Steve Austin again. It's like, again? So quick? Like, really? And I love Steve. And Steve and me had a great chemistry, and we always liked working with each other, and there was lots of respect there.
But I just thought it was a little early to be back with Steve again. And then when they told us that it's an I quit match, you know, I had done an I quit match with Bob Backlund at WrestleMania 11, if you remember that. Hopefully you don't. It was maybe the worst career. And I remember going, when you have an I quit match.
You're really handcuffing us because we don't have those one, two, oh, he's got the shoulder up and, you know, it's almost all the time. Take all those out. We don't have any of those. It's just, I remember, if you can picture us, because I was so unenthusiastic about the match, despite how well the story had been built up, because he screwed me over at the Royal Rumble, he cost me...
I think he cost me the title again against Psycho Sid, where he hit me with a chair. It was all these lead-ups where I was like, I'm getting so mad at this guy. And that was really well orchestrated. But I remember sort of dragging my feet that day to the building, kind of like... you know, this I quit match is going to suck, you know, really not what everyone thinks it's going to be. And I remember saying to Steve, I said, what do you got for submission?
He didn't have very many. He had one called the tree stump puller, which he put on me in the match, and that was a really painful haul. I remember when he said, what do you got? I'm like, well, I got... the sharpshooter obviously but i got um boston crab figure four sleeper old full nelson like it was they were not very impressive like it's like you're not gonna woo anybody with any of these molds it's like
And then it's kind of like, geez, what do we got here? Like, what are we going to do? And, you know, I think that's where, you know, I think it forced us to dig a little deeper, think a little bit on a different level. And I remember when I was a kid, I watched a school fight. between a guy that was one of the most popular guys in the school and sort of the...
I would say almost a bit of a hero and a guy that was the toughest guy. A popular guy and everyone liked him and he was cool and everyone liked him. And then this new kid came to school.
moody and but you can sort of see this collision coming between the good guy and the new bad guy that came to school and i kind of made friends with both of them so i was kind of watching this from a from a interesting perspective but i remember just like everyone thought it's like now they're going to fight after school and the word got out and i remember going like like the wrestling promoter in me kind of like
I'm going, this is going to be a sellout crowd tonight. Everybody's coming to the fight. And it built up all day where it's like, you know, who's going to win? They're both big guys. I think they both had flunked a grade or two. And anyway, it was going to be... And I remember kind of going as a... as a like a fan watching the fight and uh it was a good fight and it went back and forth back and forth but the baby face
Ended up really doing a good beatdown on the guy and beat him. But he fought heroically and lost. I remember telling Steve that day, I said, I remember there was a school fight. And I remember what's the most important part of that fight was that the next day, the guy that was the baby face, nobody would talk to him.
Everybody shunned him. And the guy that lost the fight, everybody... was his friend now everyone loved him and everyone because he lost so nobly um and i remember that day with steve standing in the ring i said because we sat on the apron going what are we doing And we're both kind of drawing blanks. And I kind of brought up this analogy of the school fight.
And he kind of was getting, he was like, oh, yeah, I get that. And then it's like, and then I remember we just kind of started putting layers on layers of the patch. It's just a beautiful story after that, really. It's the workmanship. You know, the things that we did in that match, you know from the bell even like the figure four on the post i'd never done the figure four on the post at the time but i remember thinking about it kind of
Finally decided that with Steve that I would try to do it because it's a submission match. We can do this figure four on the post idea I got. Never tried it before, but it was a good little distraction. Like Steve could sell that. When I walked along the apron and went back and picked up the bell, and I think that's an important part of the story is when I pick up that bell and it's like, I'm going to beat his brains in with this. And it's like, then I walk over and I just, wait a minute.
I set the bell on the apron, and then I go back and get a chair, and then it's not the right chair, and then I grab another chair because this one's not padded. And all that is this distraction from the bell. Like you forget all about the bell. And I remember telling Steve, they'll forget the bell. Everyone will forget. Everybody in the building will forget the bell's even there.
and we'll use that for the ending and um you know and it was just that kind of little that psychology and that's that storytelling ability to get the chair and of course the chair backfires i mean steve Busted across the back with a chair. And I tell the momentum keeps changing back and forth, which is such a... intricate part of our match. And I've always loved the big kick in the groin that Steve gave me.
It's one of those kind of things that has to be very carefully done. Let me put it that way. And it was. Basically, it was a kick in the pants. A kick in the butt. You know, that's what I love about that match is that there was no animals harmed in the making in that movie. It was just a really, you know, really two really good professionals. You know, none of these, like, Ric Flair.
which you know if you know if you're ever in a street fight you probably wouldn't do that move to somebody um anyway but it's like i think it just there's a there's the realism of it that i've always thought that that match, you know, replicates or tries to, tries to replicate a UFC match where it's like, this is a street fight and this is a really badass fight.
And this is about as real as I can get. And it was really real. Like the people really bought into the story of these two guys trying to kill each other. And I was when I walked out to the ring. You can watch the match. I'm getting back slaps, and I get a good response when I walk out. It's like, I'm going to get this guy for all the shit he's done to me for the last two months. He's cost me the title. It's really obvious. I'm the hero.
And it's funny how when I walk back at the end of the night. They hate me. I'm giving people a finger and I'm fighting people. It's really intense. thing to pull that off because it's you try to you know so this is what we're trying to do And then to see it, you know, when you're walking back to the dressing room, like all these things work. And, you know, even, you know, when Steve...
was it bleeding under the sharpshooter and he's trying to push out. I remember telling Steve, I said, you know, Nobody's ever got out of the sharpshooter, ever. Which is important, you know. Some other wrestling company would not even care about those kind of details. They're like, no, he's going to kick out of the sharp sugar. It's like, no, nobody kicks out of the sharp sugar. It's a master hold. It's one where you earn that.
you're done and in that match when steve starts to push and he's bleeding of course and and then he almost tips me over like i remember i because i could tip over and I push back up with my fist off the ground. I push up, and then I put him back in the hold. But when that happens, if you ever watch that match back,
that's when that's like the school fight. That's when we broke their hearts. They still thought that he could still. And when he started to get out of the sharpshooter, it's like, yeah, he's going to do it. He's going to be the first guy to ever get out of the sharpshoot. That's it. That's the money right there. It broke their hearts.
i'm the bad guy now and everything i did from that point on you know from shamrock throw me down all that is like it's just master storytelling it's just to me when i watch it i go that's but as beautiful as it gets and uh you know i I remember when I walked back to the dressing room and I remember Undertaker was the first guy that I saw. And he said something to me with kind of a smile on his face. It wasn't in a mean way. It was more like, damn, what a match. And he said,
He goes, I'm never going to top that match. And, you know, me and Steve, when we came back to the dressing room, because of the blood and the fact that nobody knew about the blood. And that was something that we decided on our own because you can get into a lot of trouble. You know, that was a strict rule. No blood in any matches.
And I remember thinking, like, this match has to have blood. If there's no blood... it's not gonna be the same and i remember we kind of talked about it and was like we're gonna pretend it was accidental and and when something like that does happen in a wrestling match generally there's a bit of a heated exchange in the dressing room between the two wrestlers like what the hell happened and why
You know, why didn't you do that? And so we had to go through all that in the dressing room. We kind of got into a heated exchange and Steve was talking about, you know, he's all covered in blood and he's pissed off. They all faked it.
We had to work everybody in the press room. We had to work everybody in the press room. And I wrote Chief Jay Strongbow grabbed me by the arm, grabbed me by the bicep and pulled me away because we were looking like we were going to get into, you know, come to pose in the press room, Steve and I.
And sort of even, I don't know if Steve remembers all that, but we did all that. And I remember like a minute later when everything was calmed down, we're getting ready to shower and we're kind of, it's like we kind of look at each other across the dressing room and it's kind of like. We got him. Even Vince. Vince never brought up and never said anything about it. I think he was happy after they printed a million t-shirts of it. I think they were all good.
You know, when I look back on it all, it's like it was... It was as good as it gets. It was an honor to be in the ring with Steve. I'm sure he would have had the great career that he had without that match. I won't say that. that match was what made him or anything like that because he had such great potential at that time. But I do think that...
It certainly launched to help speed up the process and really put the stamp on him being the next guy. And that's what I wanted. I wanted Steve to be the next torchbearer. You know, the guy to take my spot and be the next leader in the dress room and the champion of the company and all that kind of stuff. I always had a lot of respect for Steve. And I'm so glad that we had that match. They trusted me. Even the Survivor Series, he trusted me for all, you know, I think.
You know, I put both matches together. And, you know, I just, I know that a lot of guys... don't have the ability to see. the story unfold. I could sit down with some wrestlers and go, this is what I see.
We'll do this, this, and then I can paint, I can just paint this picture of what it's going to be. Bro, I was going to ask you about that. I was going to ask you about that because I followed your career ever since I was a little boy. You were my first favorite wrestler, but one of the things that... stood out to me was that you were an artist like you drew sketches you had like comic books and all that type of stuff and how did that like vision of
artistry as far as like drawing help you when it came to sort of like painting out the picture of a match and how exactly you wanted to go and having that specific analogy to pull from high school to pull for wrestlemania 13 how did that Well, actually, they're not the same thing. But drawing, you can't draw. By the time you draw something, the thought's gone. But I will say that I grew up in a family.
where wrestling was everything. It was the family business. I sold programs from the time I was four years old till I was in the ring. I would spend every Friday of most of my life, every Friday at a wrestling show. Wrestling was everything for me and probably everything for my family. So I watched World Champions, Harley Race, Dory Funk, Abdul the Butcher. I watched so many great wrestlers through the years wrestle. And I would say, actually, I learned.
i didn't have they didn't have action figures back then you know if i'd had uh you know the wrestling figures who knows what my career would have been but uh i think it worked out okay i think it worked out okay i probably had barbie dolls and you know ken dolls johnny west different like fig you know i remember i had I would say action figures, that I would put these matches together and have great matches.
And I think I learned as a kid to copy the wrestlers that I was watching. I remember from the time I was... five, six years old watching Luthez in an hour-long wrestling match with somebody. And I was always a study. I studied it. And I watched how real it was and how they made it feel real. the intensity. Calgary was a great territory for all kinds of different mediums. We had Japanese wrestlers, we had Mexican wrestlers.
so many different styles and we had old guys that were retired sort of the old washed up wrestlers that had had their best days wrestling against young punks like young greenhorns but i got to watch such a variety of psychology of great wrestling, I think all through my life. And then I had a great learning experience of learning wrestling.
Maybe more than any other wrestler I can think of, unless you're maybe Cary Von Erick or somebody that grew up with it like I did or Kurt Henning or those second generation or third generation wrestlers like Macho Man was another one. I'm sure he would say the same thing. I watched so much wrestling all over his lifetime that you have a bit of a...
deeper sense than someone that's like Kevin Nash that maybe just played basketball and did other stuff all his life and then gets into wrestling at a later age. It's like, I grew up with this stuff. I know. I know how to tell a story. And I was always really good at that. And I think that that was maybe what set me apart from everybody else in my mind anyway. I just had such a great schooling all my life. And, you know, I always...
I've told this to people before, but I always saw wrestling from even if I was if I was sitting down with. You know, Scott Hall or Lex Luger or whoever it is. This is what I see for the match. I was always a guy that could put myself, as I was when I was a kid, I could put myself in the front row. And now it wasn't me, it was my character. With my character, Bret the Hitman Hart, against whoever the wrestler was. But it's like I can...
I knew how to get a pop from the crowd. I knew what would work, the psychology. And I could sort of lay all that out to a wrestler. And it was always like, I wanted to always make that little kid that I was in the front row because I was always right behind the timekeeper. And I wanted to pop that kid. If I could do something that made me pop, that was pretty cool. Then I knew that that would work in a wrestling match. It's going to work.
The stuff that we did with Steve Austin, it's like me describing it to him. It's like, this is going to work. It's because I know. Because I'm that little kid in that front row watching. This is going to work so good. By the end of it, you're going to be the good guy. I'm going to be the bad guy. And it was a faith in just all that education that I had my whole lifetime of watching wrestling. And I owe a lot of that to all the guys I watched.
You talk about growing up in a family where wrestling meant everything. And I can totally see how it inspired your in-ring product over the years. But is it... you know, through your career and in the interviews you've given, it always felt like, at least watching from afar, that like...
Winning the world title meant more to you or meant something on a different level than it did to some of your contemporaries. Is that part of the second generation? Is that part of the coming from a wrestling family?
that you find a deeper meaning in different things? Well, I mean, everything, even to... Like, I knew how... i knew how harley race acted you know like how you know how respected he was when he when he flew money when he landed at the airport and how much they'd pick him up and how he was like royalty
The world champion is somebody to be, you know, and it's a big deal and there's a big crowd all because he's the world champion. So I believed in the world champion and what he meant and that respect that he got all the time. And then also there's... You know, the idea like in wrestling, like, you know, the professionalism that's involved or in wrestling somebody.
And if you have a really good star wrestler, and this happened a few times, but not often, but a few times where you had this really good star that just came in and somebody that everyone can see is going to be a big star. And he's gone. And maybe he ends up going back home and never gets his break there. You start to learn that it's so important to be professional.
safe and you know from say Steve or I wasn't weren't professional and we really hurt each other did you know injured one another um in any wrestling situation like it's like there's the truth about wrestling is that It's all about trust, and it's all about respect. And you've got to trust the guy to lie in the middle of the ring, flat on your back.
Lie there and see someone like Dynamite Kid climb up on the top turnbuckle and jump off with a knee drop and jump 20 feet in the air across the ring. And you're going, you're just lying there. You can't move. If you move, then it's your fault you get hurt. You got to lie there and trust. You put all your trust in this guy. Everything you've got, your whole life is in his hands where if he comes off the top rope and really hurts you, breaks your neck, it's like...
You just screwed up everything for everybody. You hurt the whole company and there's no trust. And then the next time he climbs up on the top turnbuckle, he jumps that off. There's no trust, and you can't be a great wrestler without having trust. You have to trust and know that this guy... is not going to hurt me. And whatever happens, he will hurt himself or blow his own knee up before he lands on me and hurts me. And that's the most important thing about wrestling.
You know, I can, you know, all I can say is it's all about trust and respect. And then you respect the guys that you can put trust in. Bro, is there a match of yours in your catalog that you think fans probably overrate a little bit? Like, is there a match that fans love that you're just like, ah, man, that wasn't the best day at the office or that wasn't the most fun time?
Not really. I love Bob Backlund. He's one of my favorite guys. But the match I had with Bob Backlund, the I quit match I had with him at WrestleMania 11. I knew it was going to be a disaster. And I've always felt that was my least greatest match. But I don't blame Bob. I don't blame myself. I blame Vince, the guy that came up with the concept of the match. it was a dud before we walked out and so i mean i i feel bad that we didn't have a great match
In fact, I love the match I had with Bob Backlund at Survivor Series with my brother. Oh, yeah. Because that was... If I can say it, a question of my greatness. I'd like to have seen Hulk Hogan wrestle Bob Backlund.
i'd like to i'd like to see sean michaels wrestle bob back i'd like to see hunter h wrestle bob back on the way i did like uh you name all throw anybody you want in there and put them against bob backland and see what they can do And that's not a knock on Bob because Bob was just a very old school.
He was a champion wrestler. He's a great wrestler. But try to find the right balance of how to wrestle Bob Backlund. I don't think very many guys could have pulled off the match I did with Bob Backlund. And it was a beautiful match. One of my favorites, I love Bob, and I love the fact that I gave him that moment. And it's just one that I think that's like, you know, you can name all kinds of wrestlers and go throw them in against Bob Backlund and see what they can do.
Bob was a challenge to figure out the right ingredient, the right measure to tell a story and have a great match. And I think we did that. And I'm very proud of that match. You know, there's all kinds of... different styles and different you know i wish i could have wrestled someone like ray mysterio just to so i never really wrestled a lucha libre style guy and you know i would love to have done some stuff especially if i was a bad guy i would love to have worked with ray
Although I did wrestle Owen and did a lot of high-flying stuff. But, you know, I just, I was always a guy that I liked a good challenge. I liked to, like when someone said, oh, you gotta wrestle this guy. I always looked at each match, even like Kevin Nash, I remember. You know, when I worked my matches with him, I remember kind of, it's like, you're a giant and I'm this smaller guy. And, you know, it's like, this is how I see it going. I can sort of map out the psychology of the match.
where they're kind of nodding their head and going, okay, I get it. I get it. I know what we're doing. I always... I'm really proud of this too about my career is that I always try to bring out the best of my opponent. I never ever went into the ring trying to think how I could make this guy look bad or make him look like a fool.
You know, I've seen in matches with Sean, for example, when he wrestled Hulk Hogan, where he's rolling his eyes. Bouncing around. Yeah. It screws up a spot where you look at, you know, you kind of... break character and go, this guy's the shits. You know, I never ever did that. I was always a total pro.
And when you trusted me in the ring, I'm going to give you the best I can absolutely give you for the whole match. If I got any problem with you after when I come back to the dressing room, you know, I might tell you you did this wrong and you did that wrong. This would be better. But I was always a guy that.
tried to bring out the best in any opponent, whether I liked him or not. I was going to give you the best match of your career if I could. And I think that's another reason that I'm as proud of my body and work as I am. I just want to follow up on that one point about being a super pro. This WrestleMania 9 documentary is coming out on Peacock this week.
And you want to talk about being a total pro. When I was a kid, when I saw you walk out after Yokozuna beating you and seeing Hulk Hogan come out and do that whole thing, I was just like... I was super young, but even then I was like, man, what the hell is this? Now I'm a little older and seeing it from a different sort of lens.
How do you, in your own opinion, because I think you're the ultimate truth-teller in professional wrestling, how do you think the way you were handled with Hulk Hogan, with Yokozuna at that WrestleMania 9 match? sort of changed backstage politics in your eyes, because I feel like watching it as a kid, it felt smelly. And even watching it older now, I'm like, Yeah, somebody came here and swung their you-know-what around and tried to make something that maybe wasn't having the fans.
in top of mind when it came to this decision. It was a weird decision then. It's still kind of weird now, but I think it kind of changed the way we all sort of looked at what quote unquote backstage wrestling politics is. In your opinion, the way you experienced it, how did it sort of change for you? Oh, it changed a lot. It changed a lot of things. Like, you know, when I, you know, first of all, in those days, at that time period, the world champion's the highest paid guy.
So here I am, the highest paid guy in the company. gone down a little bit, but I'm the star of the show now. people are started like what my memory of it is that things were like an elevator falling it was business was plummeting every week down down because hogan had the steroid scandal and the ring boys scandal had come out around the same time and vince was being investigated
a lot of dark gloomy things and then the steroid testing and all that it's like it was almost like who can we put the belt on that's not going to screw everything up and it's like oh quick put it on red heart you know i think the match i had with bulldog at wembley kind of elevated me up I remember when I won the title. Vince told me that I would be champion for...
They were looking long-term, kind of like Bruno. And he brought up Bruno and Backlund, and he said, you're going to be champion for six years. Like, we're looking for a long time. You're going to be champion for a long time. So don't worry about your position. You don't have to worry about anything. And when Hogan came in, he goes, don't worry about Hogan. He's got nothing to do with you. He's here to promote a movie. He's short term. You know, it was always Vince telling me this thing.
And so I was very confident. And I was... you know it's like the reason i became the champion that i did i think was because i believed that i was going to be champion for a long time and i'm going to be like bruno or i'm changing i'm taking a huge It's a tougher time. It's almost like a bit of a depression kind of feeling. I'm going to be the guy. I think I'm the best guy to carry going forward.
And I could tell when Hogan came back, he wouldn't even shake my hand in the dressing room. And I could tell when he was at WrestleMania 8 when I fought Piper. I had given him a big drawing of him because he was winding things down and going to move out of the company. That was pretty clear. I remember I gave it to him before he left. but i always thought because i never saw him when i became champion
I always thought if Hulk Hogan saw me then, he'd come up and shake my hand and be like really proud of me. I'm really glad they put the belt on a guy that worked as hard as you have and have given so much. I always thought he would be an advocate for me. Like, Bret Hart, they went a good direction with him. Like, he was the right guy.
When I came back, or when he came back, I saw right away that I had what he wanted. And he wanted me. I was... couldn't believe that i was champion and immediately i could just but i remember going in my heart going he doesn't matter because he already told me i'm i'm not to even worry about him he's got nothing to do with anything and it was just when that night happened i didn't find out till the night before that i lost the belt
I couldn't believe it. I was stunned when I were actually giving Vince a finish. I said, I think I got a way how I can beat Yoko. And I thought about it. And I gave him a finish. He goes, well, that's not what we're doing. He was almost shocked that I thought I was going to beat Yoko. And I'm like, well, you're the one that told me I'd be champion for six years. So I just assumed. But anyway, he laid out that whole thing with Hogan. And I was like.
I felt so betrayed, and I think that's when I went. This guy's a total liar. Vince is a liar. Hogan's a liar. This has all been... And I was really mad. But I will say that when I won the belt... The day I won it, I made a promise to myself that whatever happened from this day forward, like when the day came and they walked in and said, hey, you know, you're dropping the bell to so-and-so.
that I would do whatever was asked of me as a total professional. And I was more honored with the fact that they made me champion in the first place. And so it's like when that day comes... I won't question it. I'll just do it. And I'll do it to the best of my ability. And so that's what I did that day. I kind of bit my tongue and was like, all right, whatever you want. And I remember the thing that I remember most about that was the next day after I...
After I dropped the title to Hogan, or to Yoko, to Hogan, I remember Hulk saying to me before I walked out to the ring, he goes, happy to return the favor. And I remember I looked at him and I said, I'm going to remember that. And I'm going to remember that. He wouldn't return the favor. I remember going, this guy was never not the good guy that I always thought he was. I started to see through him. I'll be honest, my whole relationship with Vince was never the same.
I could never really trust him at his word, take him at his word anymore. it was just um even though i got the belt back and eventually and i think i only got the belt back because i earned it it wasn't like oh They gave it to me because they felt sorry about what happened or anything like that. They just put the belt on me because I was the best guy to carry it.
But as far as integrity and honesty, I never felt that Vince was... was honest with me after that and you know and you know honesty like i said it's all about trust and respect and vince broke that trust And, you know, Hogan never had any respect for me. And, you know, I think, you know, the words speak for themselves, you know. They're not talking about Hulk Hogan today.
Nah. We can do our best not to. Exactly. I was like, we try our best to keep Hogan off this show. It is what it is. We got to let you go, Brett. I have one question for you before we do. You talked about some of your opponents over the years. You know the old phrase that like that guy could have a great match with a broomstick. In your prime, if you had to wrestle me with no wrestling training in Madison Square Garden,
How good of a match could you have? I'm not even going to say could we have, because it would just be you pulling the best out of a stiff. Well, you know, I'll say this. I remember wrestling Will Sasso. Okay. And for WCW. And Will was a great guy, and I loved Will Sasso. but he had no idea what to do or anything and he was he was a willing victim like i'll do whatever you want you know But the truth is that turns out to be one of my best matches of my career in WCW. So, you know, I think...
you know, we could have had a great match. That's all I wanted to hear. Uh, Brett, the hit man heart. Your match with Stone Cold Steve Austin is going into the WWE Hall of Fame. It's an amazing match, and I hope that everybody who listens to this goes back and watches it with you doing the play-by-play. First ever three-time Hall of Famer, by the way. Oh, yeah. That's incredible. It is going there for the third time.
Congratulations, Brett, and thank you so much for doing the show, man. Thanks for having me, and I hope we get a chance to talk again. I do, too. Yes, sir. Appreciate you, Legend. Wow. Thank you. To the excellence of execution, Bret Hart. Kaz, you want to get your plugs on the way out? Yes, sir. A new episode of 7 p.m. in Brooklyn is out now. Check it out. Wale Mania tickets are on sale now. Get those before they're all gone. Hopefully, we'll be able to announce our live.
special guest for masked man show live at Wally mania. Trust me on this one. You will want to get to Wale Mania early, bright-eyed and bushy tails, because we are kicking it off with a bang with a live episode of The Masked Man Show. With some very, and I mean very. special guest. Catch me on Fanatics, catch me on Say Less, and we will catch you
in Vegas next week. All you listeners out there, don't forget about our meet and greet on Saturday, right before night one of WrestleMania at Tom's Watch Bar at the New York, New York Hotel and Casino. That's April 19th, starting at one. Come grab a drink with us. Talk to us.
snap some selfies with us if you show up you're allowed to slap Kaz in the face it's a very special yes I guarantee you are allowed to slap Kaz in the face please come say hi and even if it's not there you see us out in the wild say hi come you know just it's it's a pleasure for us um anyway thank you to our producer brian h waters thank you to ep ben cruz thanks Ben Ballard's going to be okay. See you back here next week, humanoids.