A restaurant's best dishes tell stories. Their flavors embed themselves in our memory like song lyrics or lines from a movie. So much so that a little slice of a restaurant's story can become part of our own. I'm Danny Chow, and this is Shift Meal, a new video podcast from The Ringer where we're sharing a bite and chopping it up with chefs and restaurant people during their off hours. All episodes of Shift Meal are out now on Ringer Food.
Cold open question of the week, Kaz. What's up, shoes? We get so much to talk about today. We had the four-hour dynamite. We had money in the bank this weekend. You and I have some stuff. But this is a little bit off script. We're going to look it all in. Okay. Thunder Rosa. Challenge. Not on TV. In an interview. challenged Britt Baker to a hair versus hair match at all in Texas. Okay. I want you to tell me a match that is less likely to happen at all in Texas.
The only less likely match to happen to all in Texas, Jack Perry versus CM Punk. Oh, yeah, that's a good one. That's pretty unlikely. Yeah, I guess that's true. That's not going to happen. Tony Khan versus... That would actually be more likely. Maybe we're getting worked. Maybe this has all been a long, strange build-up. Probably. To the Thunder Rosa Britt Baker match we've all been waiting for. Where the hell is Britt Baker? You think she's going to pop up like Mariah May popped up this week?
She's at the salon getting her hair all perfect to get shaved off at the end of this match. We repeat, it's not going to happen. Anyway, we got too much to talk about. Let's start the show. Welcome to the Masked Man Show. With Kaz. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing good, Shoes. How about yourself, man? Good. It's your first podcast in the post-Tibodeau era of the New York Knicks. Sorry, I'm not going to rip that anymore. I know you had to take Monday off to lick your wounds.
I did. I did. This is very important to me. You missed Monday's show. Like I said, we got a lot to talk about, but Monday's show was about 98.5% about the release of R-Truth. Yeah. You have any R-Truths? R-Truth thoughts you want to get off before we get into dynamite and money in the bank? Yeah, I mean, I said this on, I did a call-in with ESPN Game Day on Saturday. Sunday, actually. My guy, David Dennis.
And we were talking about the Knicks. And the last thing he asked me was like, yo, did you know R-Truth just got released? And I'm like, what? And it's just like, it's weird when wrestlers get released in WWE because it almost feels like a funeral. Like you look online and there's like all these tributes that pour in that feel like the guy died or something. And there's a little bit of uncomfortableness to that, but you got to understand, man.
These people are truly around each other all the time. If it sounds like something close to losing somebody... that's because in many ways it is like that yeah and when you're on the road like that and and you know and you see the way obviously before even he was released you see the way people talk about our truth with such reverence and you know Being around these people all the time and that lifestyle you live, people are currency and good people are currency on the road.
A dude like R-Truth is worth more than anything you could put on a wrestling contract. That's why you see the reaction that you see. Not just from the fans, but from... you know the the other wrestlers as well the other people that work at wwe it's it sucks uh so it's always it's always weird to talk about our truth like you know or talk about any wrestlers who gets released but
You know, personally, R-Truth has always been like mega cool for us, man. Like he came on the show a few times. He was super awesome. He pulled up to Wiley Mania in Philadelphia. was super awesome and you know we got to got to hang with him a bit and uh you know when i was working there for a little while and you wouldn't find anybody who was more liked by like the majority of the roster or has a story
Or like, you know, you got to remember, R-Truth was like Roman Reigns' first OG. That was the guy who was like driving. your main eventers around like that was the guy like all like the majority of the main eventers in wwe probably shared the road with our truth for a little while and if you think those stories that you see on tv or you see him in real life I mean, the stories that you see about him when he's performing or something.
Being around him, just being himself, is an entirely different experience. He's truly one of, like, he's a unique dude in so many ways. So, yeah, it definitely sucks that he's not at WWE anymore, but the great thing about it is... when these things happen you truly get to see you know uh by you know choice or not you get to kind of see your market value out there and as a pro wrestler in this industry and being as entertaining as he is
to be as in shape as he is at this age, he gets to see a great market value for him, not just for WWE, but for anything else he'd want to do for any other company out there. So I think he's going to be just fine. I think it does paint an ominous sort of picture of this era of WWE when it comes to releases. And ominous doesn't necessarily have to feel bad. Ominous kind of has to feel bad, but go on. Okay. All right. In this case, Ominous does kind of feel bad because at one point...
you know, people are going to be upset that like, you know, folks are released rather than, you know, let the contracts run out and that type of stuff. In our truth case, the contract, it looks like the contract is just running out. Yeah, it looks like the contract runs out. And it's just like, when I say it's ominous, it kind of. paints the company, WWE and TKO, in the light that they don't necessarily value.
locker room guys they don't necessarily value yeah and i and i think more importantly and it's more than a locker room guy because he was selling merch too that's the thing just in their main event the reason the reason why you would say ominous is because
his age aside, you know, his, I guess the knocks on him are pretty obvious. He's older. You know, there's probably a ceiling. He's probably not going to be main eventing WrestleMania. Like, you know, we want pure upside, whatever. You can imagine someone building that way. But to be as well-liked, to be as valued, and to be at that very moment in time as good of a moneymaker.
You know, I mean, selling merch, selling like always, always succeeding, giving the opportunities given them. It's like it feels ominous because as a wrestler, you don't know. Sometimes people get laid off and you say, well, that could be me next. But for a long time in history, people are like, well, it could be me, but I know I'm doing well. It's not going to be me.
Right? Like, you have some sort of frame of reference. Truth release sort of gets rid of a lot of that frame of reference. They probably, people thought he was a lifer, you know? And so if he's not, if he's not safe, then I think everybody feels a little unsafe, and that's... The tension can be a positive thing. I'm sure people can spin it that way, but overall, that's a negative thing. I saw somebody comment online. It was a comment on Reddit or something like that.
And even if you understand the basic logic to this, right? Like, you know, he's got a ceiling. He's sort of, you know, he's not, even though he... you know just had a feud with the world champion maybe you don't see him as a main eventer but it's a piece of the show right wrestling's a variety show and somebody had this comment where they said
I'm reading clear. Nobody's buying tickets specifically to see Fred Bird or Billy the Marlin in a baseball game, but they'd be rightfully incensed if the team said the mascots were cut because they didn't draw. Right? It's like, it's just... I don't know, man. That could be part of the reason why you go to the show. You're not trimming it down to this really narrow thing. Yeah. All that said, I was thinking about it this week. Triple H...
i'm sure was given a number that he had to cut you know and you see him it looks like that's besides the point though the reason why the reason why i said it's ominous is because if they knew this was coming Even from every level, this is disappointing. Even if you're about to release R-Truth and you have his last match be against John Cena or his last big match against John Cena.
Why not put his career on the line? Why not? No, I agree of it. Like even, even if I understand, like I'm not the most astute business man when it comes to running a billion dollar wrestling company. I understand that. But what, but. You couldn't take, like you had to have known his contract is about to expire. You couldn't make that John Cena thing, especially when the John Cena hero is.
been up and down and honestly mostly down for the past couple of months you could have got some real heat back oh crazy heat by making this a career versus title match like On every level, it's confusing. It's like you don't make it a title match, first off. The match is what it is over there. And then you kind of do this thing with the Fatus and the bloodline, and then he's just gone.
It just seems poorly planned on every aspect. It's like you didn't put into account the fans and the roster that will miss him. You didn't put into account... uh the fact that you couldn't even make good use of his release like like you couldn't even make good use of him leaving the company like you could have at least squeezed that last little bit out part of me that was the way to go out and you could have helped elevate the cena thing that has
I could see in the world where John Cena gets word that R-Truth's leaving the company and he wants to use one of his last matches against him. Yeah. You know what I mean? That makes all the sense. The way R-Truth has called him, he's used John Cena moves for the past 10 years.
On every level, it just does not make sense to R-Truth. I totally agree about the John Cena thing. There's a piece of me that wonders of R-Truth. I mean, because listen, again, his contract, he didn't get cut. Apparently, they informed him they weren't going to...
sign a new contract. And part of me wonders if he kind of got ahead of that. Maybe there was some sort of exit strategy because, like you said, of the bloodline thing, you know, because why not at a bare minimum have that Cena match be his last match? Even if you messed up and didn't do the loser leaves town, the career on the line match, that should have just been his last match. So that's what we remember him by, right?
and they didn't do that part of me wonders if there was something going on but regardless i think it's just it's yeah every every bit of it this was handled poorly in my opinion I'll never understand the high levels of TKO WWE cost-cutting business, but from the outside looking in, if I'm a fan invested in your product, everything about that is handled poorly.
like if you're gonna get me like why not make use of this release why not make use of the not renewing of the contract why not and if you're not even gonna make use of him on the way out The least you could do is give him a honorable way out, which is what most wrestlers want. Either go out on your back or what I called for last week, which I thought was going to be the plan.
for Saturday night's main event because of how this John Cena heel run has gone, straight up murdering R-Truth and being like, oh, God, give people a real reason to dislike John Cena. And you did none of that. Yeah, that's the thing with his career on the line match is that the heat goes right to Cena, right? If Truth puts his career on the line, I mean, it would have been really great.
And even if you don't put his career on the line, just have the victory mean something. A kick in the balls and a roll-up? Like, at least have John Cena beat the shit out of him and he gets stretchered out and we never see him again. Like maybe that's the, that's, that's what you do there. But I don't know. It was just, and it's not like R-Truth was like CM Punk or somebody like this wildly, like, you know, historically great.
where folks would be like, oh my God, you'd be insane to leave this person or not have this person on your roster. But I don't understand how you see the handling of that. And when I say ominous, and I keep saying the word ominous, it speaks to a larger problem with WWE so far, where it just kind of feels like the care and... the way stories and things were done in the last two or three years have trickled. You know what I mean? Like you could understand, I could understand, you know.
It's hard for me to not say that quality of the show, storyline-wise, hasn't taken a step back. I'm not going to go super deep and be like, oh man, the show's terrible now. But you cannot straight face look at me and say, the show is just as good as it was last year or the year before. It's not. And it speaks to a larger problem. It speaks to...
Whether it's a lack of planning or just the lack of foresight or the lack of awareness of letting a guy like R-Truth go so unceremoniously. Now you got to hear, we want R-Truth chants and telling people they can't wear... r-truth shirts but you see in everybody's instagram page this week you know they're using the r-truth's music or like showing subtle shout outs to him and stuff like that like it's it just speaks to a
A fear of the short-sightedness that I think the Triple H early era of the WWE TKO partnership was built upon and built upon as far as... real, not just expectation, but real confidence that they'll always land the plane, that they'll always stick the landing. And these are examples of them not landing the plane and not sticking the landing.
I think R-Truth would be fine. I'm just saying it speaks to a larger problem of what's been going on with the quality of the show. That's what I mean by ominous. okay well that's different than i was than i took it for initially i and i think that's right i mean i think that there's there's definitely i mean i guess the argument against or the counter argument doesn't really disqualify anything that you said but you know
is that they would say this isn't the landing. The plane is not nearby. You know, like this is that R-Truth at Saturday night's main event, whatever happened is not that significant. There could also be a lot of, I mean, the timing is so bizarre.
you know we always know that like especially in like the vince era it's like you never blame the actual creative team for creative issues it's almost always the top edit from the man in the office right but dave i gotta interrupt you there though man like you said they could convince you that it's not that big of a deal. The day after John Cena won the title, he got on Monday Night Raw and put a number on the screen and said, this is how many dates I have left.
Yeah. And you wasted one of those dates in a way that could have really solidified this heel turn. Oh, no, no. That was a huge waste. I mean, whatever happens. It's gotta be a waste. I just don't know if they, I mean, it's so bizarre. that I think I just go towards, I just automatically default towards like, it was somehow unavoidable. Like somehow they didn't know that they were going to have to make this cut until the moment that we found out about it too.
They meaning creative. Maybe. And you know, history probably says that I'm wrong about this. But sometimes when something feels so inexplicable, I'm just like... I got to wait for more information, you know? Because it just, it seems crazy. But everything that you said is right. It does seem crazy. Everything that you said is right. It does seem crazy. And again, we shouldn't have to...
We shouldn't have to turn it to inside baseball to, you know, not make excuses for, but to sort of explain decisions that don't seem to be as... thought out. I'm just speaking just from a fan perspective, just from what I see on the TV. If I've been invested in this guy, invested in John Cena, invested in this last run, this farewell tour.
and you don't make the most of every single stop of that farewell tour, where are you putting the emphasis and storyline in? Like, where is that extra energy going to if you just throw that out there, you know? And even if...
Even if it was something where they didn't find out until the last minute that he wasn't resigning or something wasn't happening, it still would have been good. It still would have been... something you could use even if he did resign you know what i mean like yeah listen i mean the bigger question is about the cena thing and we'll talk about him a little bit when we talk about money in the bank but but this in the scene a heel turn has been just completely botched
You know, I mean, kudos to them, I guess, for trying to put them with Logan Paul and make a little bit of a save. But still, I mean, it's, I just don't, I don't know. I just don't know. I mean, listen, we've talked through all the rumors with The Rock and what he was doing and who knows what the truth is there.
But I don't, I mean, I don't know, man. Maybe, I mean, there's something with this, when you talk about the Triple H era, I mean, there's something about it where you almost look at it and say, it feels like when something is out of his hands, the rock coming in.
contracts not getting renewed or having to make cuts like whatever it feels like there's a little bit of just throw up your hands you know it's like like oh they're making me put the rock here all right well let's we'll see how that goes
you know, a little like passive aggressive booking or something, you know, it's like, Oh, what? You're going to make me fire these guys. Well, I hope nobody complains about the storyline continuity, you know, but like, it's not actually, but it's not actually helpful. You know, it's not, it doesn't, I don't know. I don't know. Listen, there's reports that...
The Miz has gone too. Who knows? There were reports that Gunther, I mean, Gunther wiped everything off of his social media except pictures of his wife, but then he was on Raw. So who knows what the deal is with The Miz? Maybe The Miz is just unhappy. He's hosting this American Gladiator show. You know, whatever. There's reasons to think he might.
stick around it doesn't shock me that if triple h is suddenly if they suddenly say hey you got to cut x number of dollars you know from the payroll that he looks directly at like dudes he didn't hire you know and dudes who are probably making a lot like it's a it's a Dolph Ziggler problem right it's like you're you rightly get get you know
raises over the years your value to the company is really high but then at some point if you're looking to cut x number a million dollars it's just like wait why is this guy that you know is basically a mid-card gatekeeper making this much money when we could sign like five new guys with that money you know like it's this is this is the situation that you get in when you have to bounce the books like this you know and it's silly that
And I don't envy them. I don't gloss over it like it's an easy problem to have. It's a very tough problem to have. No, of course not. It's terrible. It's probably the toughest problem. Yeah. But at the same time... We got to call a spade a spade in the way things are handled. There's certain people who have, you know, we knew were about to be released or on the way out and was sent out ceremoniously, you know? And... When you talk about this Cena heel run and the way it's been handled.
There's been so many... I feel bad. I kind of feel bad for John Cena right now. I'm sure if he heard this, he'd say something very classy in ways that will either make me feel silly for... feeling bad for somebody who's so successful and so rich and has been so fortunate and is probably just happy to just be doing this one last time and just being in cities for all that stuff. But going from where the heel turn started to where it is right now.
I don't think there's a way you could look at it and say, we've stuck all the landings on this one. Everything's been sort of an A+. And it's not even just that being, it happened to be an A+. The big thing that I think I came out of WrestleMania with was, and what we always come out of WrestleMania with, is what's going to be the story of the year? Two years ago, it was Cody's debut.
And the next day, he pulled up the picture of Dusty Rose and he said, man, I'm going to hold the title that my dad never got to hold and say they can't take it from us now. He lost at WrestleMania. The entire year leading up to WrestleMania was about that redemption, right? the end of that year you get the rock you get roman you get the ultimate bloodline and then you know cody wins all of last year
It's all about Cody being the man, establishing Cody as this champion. And now, the year that we're currently in, the ball was handed to Cena, and... Comparatively to those last three years of storylines, this is trailing very far behind in all three of those. Roman as champion, Cody as chaser, and Cody as champion. Now you got John Cena here. Outside of the intros, outside of the promos, which I think are great as far as explaining his reasonings and just being...
having reasonable reactions to unreasonable things that's happened to him in his career. I think that's been great. But as far as like all of the, what seems like. unplanned roadblocks during this run, that's why I feel bad for him. Like, this could have been so much. What are the unplanned roadblocks?
The Rock going on McAfee the week after WrestleMania and being like, oh, well, you know, we were going to do this thing. And then like the whole lead up to WrestleMania was all of us expecting The Rock. because of how this heel turn started. I don't know. We've talked about this before. We can retcon it as much as we want.
It wasted a road to WrestleMania that had no payoff or hasn't had a payoff so far, except for Travis Scott eating the crossroads at WrestleMania and Michael Cole quoting goosebumps. That was it. Like, nothing else has happened that has involved the main guy talking about selling your soul. And if you're not going to make that pay off at WrestleMania, and we haven't seen the guy since, the only time we've seen him.
was on the Pat McAfee show where he was like, hey, you know, I know that stunk, but hey, not my problem. Yeah. It has handicapped John Cena's hero. Oh, it totally has. It totally has if they, you know, like we've said before. If they had done the turn at WrestleMania, it would have been so much more powerful. There's a lot of ways you could have done it that would have been better than what we have now.
And even the stuff, I mean, like even holding, waiting, I mean, waiting on the turn because it felt like they just didn't have enough content. There was enough content from the heel turn to WrestleMania. And since then, you're right, the promos have been good, but it's been kind of one note. Like, what's the point?
this like what's happening in this run you know I don't know I don't know you think Vince McMahon is sitting somewhere in his new production office whatever the hell that terrible man is doing you think he's just sitting there saying I told you you shouldn't have turned a meal. That's why I didn't turn a meal. That's why I would never turn a meal. Yeah, probably. Anyway. I think so. I honestly think.
I honestly think there's a lot of things, just booking-wise, that Vince McMahon probably would have never done that he could definitely say he told you so about. And that is it, just booking-wise. Triple H is a way better booker than Vince. I don't even want to get down this road. I think Hunter is definitely a better booker than Vince. But I definitely... You know what? I compare Triple H's booking style to... What's this guy's name? All right. Vince Russo.
Triple H is like Juan Soto, right? Triple H is probably a better five-tool booker than Vince, but Vince is a home run hitter. Nobody has hit harder.
on a higher home run like he doesn't hit for base hits his base hits are trash he's probably not going to run out he's not going to run to first base hard but if he sees one he's sending that shit into the moon and As good as a booker Triple H is, and I do believe he books better than Vince McMahon, Vince undoubtedly has hit more home runs than Triple H. He had a longer period of time.
Of course. But I would look at it a different way. I would say that Vince falls ass backwards into the good stuff. Probably. Triple H, by virtue of sort of like telling a story and sticking to the script, might be a little bit more conservative when it comes to, you know, like striking, you know, grabbing onto those big moments when they appear. Well, I'll say this. Well, Triple H learned from Vince. And he learned his home run style from Vince, right? Like, I think he still knows that.
I still think he takes some of the aspects of what makes a star from the stuff that he learned from being under Vince for so long. I just think, you know, as somebody who... has worked directly under him. And as somebody who has seen the product for a while, like Vince just wasn't as detail oriented as Triple H at all. Like there'd be certain things that he would just straight up forget.
Or just straight up just like, you know, there was certain moments where we're just like, I don't even know, like, I don't even think I remember what he had for breakfast. Like, does he know we just did this? Steak wrap and a smoothie. But yeah, I mean, uh, but. Yeah, no, I take your point. We got to move on. Let's move on, please. We did this whole thing on Monday. Let's go. We got so much to talk about. We'll get to Money in the Bank picks and Worlds Collide picks to end the show.
First, let's talk about Dynamite last night and all the trails that are flowing forward from there. Dynamite was, I believe, 19 hours long. they're doing it again next week. It was four hours last night. They're doing another four-hour show next week. I kind of like, as much as I was sort of sarcastically dreading it in our group chat. And as much as I think WWE shows should be two hours, I kind of love the idea of AEW being like one four-hour show a week.
You know, like I like you like this concept going forward. Just like four hours of straight wrestling. I didn't love the assembly of the show last night, but I think there's a real way to do a four hour show that is interesting. Right. You basically do the, the, the nitro format maybe where it's like the first hour is not like throwaway matches, but more like, you know, you get your high flyers in there, your luchadors, your cruiserweights in there, you know, just like.
stuff to get you excited. It doesn't have a whole lot of storyline weight, but then you get maybe your show opening promo in there. I mean, you set up the matches for later in the show in the first hour with guys saying stuff. Then you have a two hour show, more conventional show with just The only people that get to talk in those two hours are your biggest, biggest, biggest stars. It's like a big show. And then the last hour is like overrun some post-match interviews and...
maybe one match. You throw your battle royal in there in the last hour. You just do something to send the crowd home happy. But there's a way to do a four-hour show where you really break up the pieces and make it interesting. you know and really have it be self-contained um but but anyway i'm not going to talk about running four hours i would say you are alone on that one brother well you could also
Well, the thing with the four-hour show, the problem with it, and that you would have to lean into it, is that you're basically acknowledging that half of your viewers are going to be watching highlights. You're going to be watching on social media.
The idea that you could just carve out four hours from your Wednesday night, you know. I mean, sure, there's a lot of diehards and the wrestling fans, and a lot of those diehards are AEW fans, and maybe you're excited that you get four hours, but it's just a lot. I kind of, I guess you get caught up in the thought experiment of the whole thing. Dave, I love NFL football. Even with the four hours of NFL football you watch on Sunday.
They got to do some shit at halftime to keep me entertained. Well, yeah. That's part of the programming. We know there's a little one, two hours and a half. Here's Usher. Yeah. I mean, AEW does have... at times feels a little bit one note even like the comedy stuff feels like too much of a piece with like their serious stuff there's not a lot of distance between it so it's and they don't have you know this is when they could really use paul white
if he had knees, you know, just to go out there and chokeslam some fools in the middle of the show just to do something interesting, you know, just to make it like a spectacle, you know, like Vince would say. But anyway, let's talk about what happened and what is happening next following AEW Fighter Fest. So we had Fighter Fest last night. AEW Summer Blockbuster is next Wednesday's show.
these shows got names so they matter um the big thing we're looking where do we begin okay things that happened last night A lot of programming for the future, right? Osprey and Swerve 2 is next week at Summer Blockbuster. MJF is challenging Mystico at Gramslam Mexico. which is huge I presume that will main event because Mystico always main events and I
presume then that he will probably win if I had to place a bet, but MJF gets to, you know, lose in at least he main evented Arena Mexico. You know, like whatever. Maybe MJF will win. So that's looking into the future. What else is looking into the future here? Oh, Tay Mello is back. Sammy Guevara, her husband, was called last night The Sammy Show.
after jumping out of the ring at some point. It's just hilarious in its own. But I think just in the forward-looking category, we're definitely getting a women's tag team division in AEW. There's like 12 easy tag teams there now. So, yeah, and good to see T-Melo back. I think if I were doing it, I might have had her come out in street clothes.
Maybe even with like the baby carrier strapped around her or something, just make it look like she just happened to be there to see her husband wrestle. And now she's fighting and she gets drawn back into it as opposed to coming out in the full gear and the face paint. That said. She's been off TV for so long. I guess there's some value in introducing her as someone who's clearly a pro wrestler. Give her the full gimmick. What else happened last night?
Tekla is the greatest pro wrestler in the world. Is there anybody more awesome than Tekla? She's so... The hat is so rare in women's wrestling. for someone to feel like they have a gimmick that'll take him to the top but it's also like just if there's no gimmickry about it like she just feels like that is the character this is not a person doing a thing it's like she's just that fucking person
And she's terrifying and awesome. I think she has taken the Randy Orton mantle of person who wrestles as closely. as their uh nickname is like when randy was literally slithering around like a snake the toxic spider the toxic spider yeah like she's legitimate like that reverse bray wyatt stand-up that she does, like, legitimately moves like a spider. WWE Creative is just, like, throwing shit at the wall right now. Just like...
How did we not get there first? How is she not part of the Wyatt Six? That could have been... Not the wrestler, just the nickname. In NXT, we have tried every single combination of two words. Did they lose the Toxic or Spider magnetic name tag that they were moving around on the wall? How did we not get Toxic Spider? Anyway.
But yeah, she's great. She's just freaking great. She's obviously a good wrestler. There's a lot of cool stuff you can go back and watch online if you want to see more. But you can see her next week, again, wrestling against Queen Aminata. And that'll be a lot of fun. So she's great. You know who's also great, at least in the next best ring entrance from last night? Ooh. God, LFI, motherfucker.
Roosh and Drillistico and Beast Mortos and Mortos just seeing them come out with Roosh and the big bull gimmick and like whatever like They are the coolest trio I have ever seen in my life. I love them so much. They shouldn't have lost that. It's because they look like they'll really beat you up. Well, because they will. That's kind of the thing. They will. Yeah, like, that's their whole shtick. It's like, oh, no.
They will really fight you. They're really going to mess you up. So I like that too. I want to talk about the Osprey opening again. He was in there with Tony Schiavone. He finally got a hat to cover up whatever's going on with his hair. I'm not a big fan of wrestlers in baseball caps, but it suits him for some reason. He definitely does.
Osprey's a very good promo. And I don't think people give him enough credit for being a very good promo. I think we're at the phase where we're giving him enough credit now. Well, here's the thing. I think...
I think people were entertained by the energy and the passion behind it, but he's actually helping to tell a rational, reasonable story. He's not telling Swerve Strickland to... forget everything this happened with with hangman he's just saying like yo we can all just for one night just get it together We can get this title off. And then you could go back to killing each other. And I'm like, that makes sense. That's rational to me.
Basically how we do this podcast every week. Brian H. Writers is like, if you guys could just quit fucking arguing for five minutes here. Just for five minutes. Afterwards, you can get back into it. And then, you know. he made the case for how we get to the Swerve-Osprey match because, you know, in addition to the brawl that happened in Collision, you know, he asked him a question. He said, who is...
more of a threat, the Death Riders or, you know, Hangman. And that's a complicated answer for Swerve because the only person that would probably say anything but the only... person that would say anything but the death riders is swerve because of his history with hey man so now it makes sense to be like if osprey is a you know a um He's convinced that Hangman is the way to liberate this championship. And he doesn't want to run the risk.
of swerve strickland and his intense hatred for this man keeping him from the title when he believes that hangman kept him from the title with the young bucks now it makes sense why osprey and swerve will would fight each other i think this match next week the second one yeah is probably going to be the setup for whatever happens at all in yeah you think they're going to go
Ospreay's got to get his lick back somehow, right? And then, you know, 1v1, do it for the third time, the rubber match, and then, you know. The fact that they're already calling it two for next week. There's your dead giveaway. Do you think that's a giveaway that they're doing three at all in? Oh, 1000%. Yeah. 1000%. Yeah. I'm glad that we accidentally booked and predicted that right after the last show. Uh, so we're going to be right. But, but yeah, I mean,
It would be crazy for them to give that away and then have either of those guys do anything less important at all in. And there's nothing as important as this feud. Well, that's why I think Osprey's done a great job. of building this because he made, he made his feud or, well, his, his, his B foot swerve tied directly into the main event. So like, it's not like it's this one-off like silo thing where there'll be like, away doing this thing and then maybe he gets back to the title.
All four of those guys, Swerve, Heyman, Osprey. Yeah, there's no more silos for either of them. They're all interconnected. So that's why I think he's done a great job of sort of putting it all together. I agree. He's been great.
It's crazy how quickly he became such an important, just a hand for their storytelling and their entering promos and stuff. You know, I think at first it was just because he was exciting and new. And he's just a fucking natural, man, in terms of on the mic promos, storytelling.
he feels real, I think in part because that is real with him. I mean, that's him. He's being himself. Yeah. But to be able to be yourself and that... a promo situation is incredibly rare even in the world of pro wrestling so yeah he's he's a gifted he's a gifted orator and he's doing a lot of important work there Hangman too. Hangman is much more in character despite being one of the most real pro wrestlers in a lot of ways.
There's something about his sort of like cartoonish grimace with the mustache that, you know, he just feels like he's a character. He is in character. Mm-hmm. The V-neck was killing me last night, by the way. Black V-neck t-shirt. Fashion corner with shoes. I love the weekly fashion corner segment with Dave. We got to shit on somebody's outfit. I've had a beard. I've had a big beard.
I've had a mustache. You know, going back to my... You've had a big beard? You don't remember? I had a big beard on this show. That's had to be a while ago. What's a big beard to you? In LA, I had a beard. When I moved back, I still had the beard. I didn't shave until... I think I had a beard when Aubrey was born.
It was a big beard. Like, it was a proper beard. I mean, it was shorter than my beard. It was about, longest, maybe about the same, but it was generally shorter. But it was a proper, right? A mustache. Get out of here. Dog, I don't think I'm ever. This is crazy. I might, I might've seen you with like a strong eight o'clock shadow. No, that's that a lot. No, no. I had like, I went to the, I went to the barber shop. You was, you was lining your beard up. Like, yeah, this is my, Oh shit.
What? Now there's a picture up on the screen. Oh my God, babe. You look like. every rap producer i've ever met you look like i'll take that as a compliment you look like alchemist and uh like i don't know the beard The beard gives you a level of street credibility that I did not know was possible to be happening. It's the beard bald.
glasses combo that, like, if you would have came up to me and was like, oh, you don't know that guy? Yeah, he produced on, like, several Kanye albums, Travis Scott. I was going to say, why do you mean Kanye right out of the back? You know what you look like? You look like the white guy that Kanye and Travis Scott go to when they're done making the album to engineer it. You got a Mike Dean thing going on just without the long hair.
That's what you look like. I cannot believe I missed the beard arrow of shoes. Jeez. It looks good on you. You should bring it back. I'm glad that you say it gives me credibility because now I'm about to say something mean about Hangman and I have all the credibility I need. No, no. When you have a beard or a mustache or a... back in the day you know we're listen i'm old but we are coming up
rocking the goatees, the soul patches, the sideburns, the third eye blind Abe Lincoln, like chin strap beard. I used to have a Glenn Rice goatee. There you go, the goatee. No hair here. with just a goatee now and you're like yes yes it's very odd just a goatee in 2025 now it's like that man has committed crimes yes but anyway when you have when you have a specific look
And I'm thinking of Hangman's, you know, Hangman's big mustache. You got to dress accordingly. It's part of the problem about having distinctive facial hair. But if you have that, if you have a big mustache, you got to, like if I had a giant mustache. I can't leave the house in workout shorts and a t-shirt. You've got to be all in. You've got to put the whole fit together, man. You do. You do.
yeah and the the black v-necks a little bit like not putting the whole fit together you know you gotta you just you gotta be the character here but anyway i like it and that has been fashion corner i like what hangman did on the mic i was a big fan of i mean i cannot wait to see him watching him stare down uh moxley then that whole segment actually i will pick in it
I'm not sure that Ospreay needed to come to the ring with two steel chairs. It felt a little bit like overkill. It's got to be two on three. Do we really both need a steel chair for this? Or maybe if he came with just one steel chair and handed it to Hangman and then kind of hung back or something. The two steel chairs gimmick did not work for me. But it was a minor thing. I like seeing them. I like that. I like the whole vibe of that segment a whole lot.
I just can't get the vision of Dave being like... a wrestling fashion consultant out my head now. I would love to see. I'm going to go full gimmick. I'm going to show up. First of all, I'm going to grow a mustache. Maybe a controversial mustache. There's only one controversial mustache.
mustache, so I hope it's not that one. The Michael Jordan mustache, you mean? No, no, no. No, no, no. There's only one controversial mustache. And I hope it's not the one you're thinking of. No, what's a controversial mustache? Oh, come on, man. That's a Michael Jordan mustache. That's what MJ's been rocking for the past 40 years. MJ has a Hitler mustache? 100% yes. That's why we call it the MJ now. As does.
Oh, okay. All right. I see what you're saying. I have no idea. I'm like, there's no way. How do you not know that Michael Jordan has the Hitler mustache? That's like his thing. When I think of follicles on Michael Jordan, I think of the bald head, not the Hitler mustache. That's the first. We don't call it the Michael Jordan mustache. No, that's what I'm saying. This is his ultimate play for relevance. Can he actually get the world to start calling it the MJ instead of the Hitler?
I'm just picturing Hangman Adam Page getting ready to go into Gorilla. And Dave's like, where are you going? No, I want the curly handlebar with a waxed curl mustache and like, you know, the measuring tape that's like they use in sewing that's like made of fabric, you know, and I just like I'm running around. Just giving my advice to people. Not wearing that, you're not. Sit back down. Then he just pulls out a tape measure and just tailors his pants. And then Dave just goes... I'm just saying...
Hangman Adam Page. You don't need to know anything about him other than his name. He's a cowboy. To know that this is a dude that should be wearing a tank top, a snug fitting tank top when he comes to the ring and if he's not in wrestling gear. That's very basic stuff.
Very basic. I don't need him wearing a silk shirt like The Rock. That's obvious, right? We know these. Not that he wears a silk. I'm just saying some things are obvious. Why is it not obvious that he shouldn't be wearing just like... a v-neck from like banana republic 15 years ago like what is that like what is the what is the idea here anyway this is the most minor point of a very good very long episode of uh of
Dynamite. Dynamite. Is it even an episode of Dynamite or do we just call it Fyter Fest? And by the way, can we retire Fyter Fest for the second year in a row? Yeah. We're still doing... What was the name of the original one called? What was it? With Ja Rule and that guy? Fyter Fest. Firefest. Yeah, it was still the one. I don't know.
It's weird. See, that's the thing when you name stuff after things that were popular for six months. Because then years go by and it's just like... Well, you either own it. No one thinks of the Beatles when you hear WrestleMania. But there's nothing to really own in Fyter Fest. It's like, really? Like, it's just confusing. Anyway. Anyway, next week, Summer Blockbuster. Almost rhymes.
It almost. Ospreay swerved too. We talked about that. Tekla versus Queen Aminata. We talked about that. Anthony Bowens versus Kyle Fletcher. I like how both... Oh, I got to say something. Caster and Bowens are like doing some stuff right now. Max Caster is super. Max Caster is that comedy routine that we said we should have pointed out earlier. But yeah, go ahead. He is exactly what you mean. about wrestling being a variety show. He was the perfect breakup. And the dude is entertaining.
and incredibly even though he loses every single match there's a mustache that suits the character right there yeah like it's it's it's hilarious that he's gotten that chance over too Oh yeah. Let's go Max, you're the best wrestler alive. Let's go Max, you're the best wrestler alive.
And even when they do it well now, he's still like, honestly, guys, that was pretty bad. That was pretty bad. Nah, I'm digging what Max Caster is doing right now. That is one of the boldest things. I mean, we should have mentioned that before, but one of the boldest things. rhythm he's got an out of rhythm chant over but that's just the ballsiest thing that you could possibly do as a pro wrestler is try even even though it's hilarious to see it work it's like i'm going to try to get
I'm going to try to get everybody to chant at something they won't be able to chant. I'm just basically going to do a chant schmaz. And it's going to be funny for one week, but the fans actually got it. They care that much. It's crazy. Yeah. But to try to do something that you can't get over, you know, is just, it's just, it's like, it's like, it's like Andy Kaufman. It's like, it's like, how are you like, this is, this is like self-sabotage.
But it's just so crazy, man. But it was it's great stuff. Love him. What else do we have for next week? Let's go, Max. You're the best wrestler. Come on, Davey. Omega and Okada are officially fighting at all. I don't remember if I already said that, but they're having their contract signing for the winner-takes-all match.
By the way, this is a winner-takes-all match. Which, lest we get bogged down in this conversation week after week. And a winner-takes-all match is not a title unification match. Mm-mm. It has already been called by fans. Yes, fans have already called it an unification match. We have presumed that it would lead to a unification match. They're very specifically calling it a winner-takes-all match.
And that means that someone's carrying around two belts. Anyway, that is awesome. I'm so glad that's happening for all. And I'm so glad that we just got straight there. Let's just make it. Let's start teasing it already. Yeah. Mystico is going to be there wrestling next week before his MJF match. Oh, and then this is going to be the killer. The Hurd Syndicate, Shelton, Bobby Lashley, and MJF, who had a nice stare down.
backstage with Osprey. That's some nice teasing there. Some Bobby Will business. I like that. I want to see. I got to see. Listen. As great as the Herbert Syndicate has been in AEW, the thing I was excited for was to see Bobby Lashley against Kenny Omega. Bobby Lashley versus Ospreay. And maybe he's not the greatest wrestler in the world, and maybe those won't be the matches we remember.
from Osprey and Omega, but I want to see Lashley. I want to see what it looks like. A dude like Lashley against the greatest wrestlers in the world who can do absolutely anything. I want to see that shit. Anyway, can't wait till we get there. MJF, Shelton, and Bobby are going up against Speedball Mike Bailey, Kevin Knight, and Commander, who had a great trio's appearance last night. That match is going to freaking rock. We got...
Timeless Tony Storm versus Julia Hart with Mercedes on commentary. I'm not sure why we always do this. I would much rather have Mercedes wrestling Julia Hart and having...
Tony Storm on commentary. I don't know why... I mean, I think that there must be a deliberate decision that Mercedes is going to have... Mercedes will never have a bad match. And so every match will be... planned not like step-by-step plan but every mat there's not going to be any like oh you want to wrestle on dynamite tonight like that's just not going to happen right i would much rather it be reversed i'd much rather have tony storm on commentary and mercedes wrestling
You know, like, I'm not sure why Mercedes just sitting behind the mic every single week. She's fine. I mean, I guess you can get behind her being a bit aloof, being a little bit of the CEO character. No, no. But here's the thing. The CEO character is like exactly one sentence long. Like the promo, the in-ring face-to-face that she had with Tony Storm after she won the number one contendership, the Owen Cup, that was already twice as long as it needed to be.
The CEO or CEO gimmick is, is, is paper thin and that's fine. Um, I think that there's just not much to say. Like how much do you have to say about it? I mean, all she had to do was say one line yesterday for me to be like, oh, I can't wait to see this person get her ass kicked all in. And then by the end of the match, I'm like, all right, that's it. Now I just don't want her to be listening anymore. But the line that she said...
was that she likes her steaks well done. What type of animal? What type of Neanderthal is Mercedes Monet who likes her steaks well? Done. I mean, God, we saw Tony Storm try to chew on that steak. I was like, all right, she's going to be munched on that until, like, next Tuesday at the least. Thank God she spit it out. But golly, a well-done steak? What are you, Nigerian? Like, that's crazy.
That is crazy. That's what I was like, oh, man. Is that a Nigerian thing? I mean, we have a tendency, like Nigerians, Dominicans, Caribbeans, like we have a tendency to cook all our meat all the way through just because like we don't trust like, you know. If you ever ask my mom to make a medium steak, she's going to look at me like I have three heads. She'll just hand me back a straight brown steak that I got to cut that moves the entire table.
Yeah. And be like, yeah, that's how we do it. But yeah, Mercedes, wild. Wild having the well-done steaks. Yeah. Yeah. Here's the thing. Nobody likes a well-done steak. Well, that's not true. Cooking it through music. You cook it through. If you're leaning on the sauce, and Lord knows I went on the record as being a big A1 guy on one of my podcasts a couple months ago and got so much shit for it.
A1 is the greatest sauce. But if you're, listen, if you give me a big bottle of A1 and if you're going to go well done, make it crispy. You know, like whatever. I'll just dip it in the sauce. It'll be fine. But I feel like everybody I know who asks for their stakes.
medium well or well done is just someone who grew up eating it that way and hasn't tried they just don't know better yeah they don't know better but they have but as if you're a grown-up you've got to try things you know it's like grown-ups who haven't had sushi You know, just come on. It's like, give it a shot. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. I'll, I'll, I've had well done stakes that aren't bad. Like I've had well done stakes before that I was like, you know what? That got me through.
Is it a delicacy? Is it something that you make this fancy setup for with all of your CEO-ness when you eat your well-done steak and you're weakening the legs on your table that you're cutting the steak on? No. But to say I've never had a good, well-done steak, that's just not true. I think good, well-done steaks do exist. But that's a very heelish thing to say, especially in Denver, Colorado, wherever Colorado is at.
just take the temperature down just a little bit, you know, cross the sides, you know what I mean? Throw a butter on there. Like, that's just... I know wrestlers don't like to do too much with their steaks. They just, you know, cook them, eat them. They eat like machines. put some broccoli on the side, but nah, man, that's just a waste of, that's a waste of cow. You wasting the cow. Yeah. Wasting the cow, man. Yeah.
The cow died for this. Let's make it worthwhile. How do you feel about raw beef? Like a steak tartare. I could do a steak tartare. I love a good steak tartare. You're putting a lot of faith in the kitchen's hands. Even if you go to the store and you're like, you buy...
salmon, and it says sushi-grade salmon. I don't trust that. Someone put a sticker on here, man. I don't know the difference between fish is going to fuck me up for two weeks and fish that I can just swallow. I'll leave that to the professionals, but the steak tartare... You know, there's a lot of room for error there. Tons. If they get the wrong kind of beef, but man, a good steak tartare with some like spicy mustard that get that little quail egg on top. Like that, I could eat that.
I hate the idea of the all meat, of these caveman diets, but if you gave me restaurant-quality steak tartare dishes all the time, a little corny Sean on the side, I would eat that shit all day. Yeah, and definitely with the tartare. The bread is crucial.
Oh, you've got to have the perfect little toasts or whatever. Perfect little toast on that joint. You know what I mean? It's got to seep into the bread. It's got to have just a tad, not too much sogginess, just a tad soggy with a tad crunch to it. I'm getting to say tartart. Perfect bread. It's crazy.
I've never ordered steak tartare on purpose. I've always had it handed to me. It's always been somebody walking around with a plate like, ooh, steak tartare? I'm like, yeah, sure, whatever. I'll try some. There's some place that I go that has it and they haven't had it the last couple of times I was there and I was really upset. Anyway, I'll find it. I'm going to the grocery store today.
You can check out my steak tartare podcast. What's it called? Tartare sauce. I got a T-bone yesterday. I hope it was about to put that on the grill today. Oh, yeah. that joint go it's a beautiful day out we'll talk more about i have some i i could talk about steak i could talk about beef all day Yes. Yes. We got more to discuss. Oh, God. We didn't even talk about NXT yet, though. Oh, we do. We got to talk about NXT. And the big, shiny debuts. Lots of debuts.
Do you want to go through the debuts? Are there really multiple debuts or is it just like the sort of debut and now the real debut? Nah, this is my victory lap. You know. It is your victory lap. Every couple episodes. I don't do this often, but folks who have listened to the show for a long time, I don't do this often. I don't necessarily speak.
about things that I know. This isn't that type of podcast. This podcast has been built on just what we like, what we see on TV. We never, ever, ever, I don't think, unless we have the actual guests on the show. have ever tried to be an insidery podcast. But boy, did a lot of people try to tell me I was a shill. And boy, did a lot of people try to tell me. Well, you are a shill for the record. All right, go on. This is true. This is very true. But I just, man.
I know being petty about being right is the immature thing to do, but sometimes it's nice to be a little immature and tell people, I told you, stupid. Don't you think I know? Don't you listen? Haven't you been paying attention? If I ever leave something out there, you can take it to the bank, damn it. I wouldn't speak out of turn. The amount of things. Dave. The amount of shit that pro wrestlers that we watch on TV every day come to me and tell me about that I do not say on this show.
This could be a whole different show if I was that type of guy. But I am not. Don't start a Discord. I will not start a Discord. I will not do anything of the sort. It's just one of those things where it's like every once in a while.
especially when you're doing this show, you just got to take a little victory lap. And that's what that was. So yeah, Mariah May debuted on NXT when a bunch of idiots with no faces on Twitter told me I was full of shit. Don't know what I was talking about. We said it last week.
i said i said she was she was tweeting like uh like you like like she's the plane was landing come back from vacation she had to return all her text messages at one time right it was like she was suddenly on and then of course she's there imminent now just means In 24 hours. Yes. Like, if you see a tweet saying, oh, shit. No, we've been saying this for a while. Yeah, no, no. They leak it on purpose. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they try to get out in front of it.
Try and probably put a little damper, a little heat less on the return or whatever. And you're right, by the way. She wasn't the only debut. Tyra Mae Steele made her entering debut last night. Looked like a million bucks. She's going to be a super-duper star, man. Should we make bets on who's going to, and who has, well, we'll come back in 10 years. I was super impressed with Mike Santana also.
Oh, yeah. The Max and Ted Circle Williams match. Trick Williams won that match. Nick Nemeth tweeted that he said, Trick is a nice kid, but this is bullshit. Yeah. Nick sort of... tweets in character, or at least he is openly a dick on Twitter. I wouldn't read too much into that one. That one tweet? I think he's always working, brother. Working the sheets. Listen, it can be true that people really do believe that.
like in the tna locker room and also that like it's a good thing for the company right i mean like of course that's what like There's probably people backstage at WWE who watch Jey Uso come out and they're like, even with all the crowd going crazy, they're just like, yeah, that's bullshit. You know? The real worker should have that belt. There's always people going to say that.
you're not a real wrestler god damn it um so that was cool tyra may steal over 100 and on this name um i think it's kind of an awesome name but She is very well known by her real name. Yes. But I get it. It's weird. It's like sort of like the brawn breaker thing where it's like the real name. or at least the real name that I think we all would settle for. It kind of feels like it would make more sense, but amen.
WWE wants to own a piece of your ass, man. And if they got a chance to do it, they're going to do it. I don't get that now at this point. I don't either. Somebody tweet me and tell me the advantages to this because there was a period, there was a point when they were signing, you know, NXT black and gold and they were signing the Kevin Steen's the world, turning their name to Kevin Owens. Like, I kind of get it. Like, they want to own it. But, like...
What we've seen over and over again with the last three years of releases is that it doesn't really hurt anybody on the free market to switch their names. It feels like all you're doing is... making it confusing when they inevitably come back to wwe like elijah is elias slash elijah is doing right now or well he's unique i think it works for a lot no because that's a character name but like it's all it's like it's like they're
It's inevitable that Nick Nemeth is going to come back to WWE and we're going to have to spend just an inordinate amount of brain space trying to figure out if his name is Dolph Ziggler or Nick Nemeth. Well, AJ Francis was there at the end of NXT and he was AJ Francis. He wasn't top.
dollar you know it's right it's right i just don't see what the advantage to making up these names unless it's like i think that the one real advantage is like some people have some dumb name like somebody there's a lot of people whose real names Or the names they came up through the indies with are not good. They're just not good. Yeah. Give me an example. Terrible indie name.
Really good made-up name once they got to WWE. Oh. Dude, there's got to be examples of this. There's tons. I'll scroll through. Does Roderick Strong count? That's his real name, no? That's not his real name? Well, that's a good example of how they could... No, his name is Christopher Lindsay. Oh! Okay, I can see that. I can see that. I think Adam Cole is on the list of...
Your real name is actually cooler than your cool professional wrestling name. Austin Jenkins? Austin Jenkins! Are you kidding me? He looks like an Austin Jenkins. Adam Cole shows that he's playing a wrestler. I hear Austin Jenkins, and I think of like an eight-year veteran from El Paso, Texas. No, I think of like a three-point corner shooter, like a corner specialist for the Portland Trailblazers in 1992.
and Jenkins for three. It's good. Damn, who had a terrible indie name that was like, ah, that's a considerable upgrade. You know what? Finn Balor. Finn Balor had a terrible indie name. Fergal Devitt. Prince Devitt. Fergal Devitt is his real name, though. Prince Devitt's kind of like... That's a good example of a name that probably wouldn't work. All I'm saying is...
Maybe it's better to have a blanket policy that we're changing your name than to have to have awkward conversations with somebody where they show up and they're just like, no, I told my father.
I promised my father I'd use his name as the name that he gave me. And it's like, you know, Ichabod... smelly pants or whatever and you're just like wait did you really want to keep that Bianca Belair Bianca Belair her first her first wrestling name was like Binky Bear or something or like Big Binky something it's like Big Binky
And then it just went from Bianca Blair to Bianca Belair. And I was like, that works. Like, that's just your name. Just Belair instead of Blair, which is. But you know what? Binky, that could be like a Sasha Fierce sort of. alter ego for her one day. She got to bring Binky back. She got to bring Binky back one day. What about Shima Zion?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a terrible name. I mean, Joaquin Wilde is not like it's that much better. I mean, it hasn't proven to be that much more successful, but yes. Do TNA names count? Because... All right. Consequences Creed. Where do we stand with Consequences Creed? I mean, it was kind of a funny gimmick. Yeah, it was very much a ready to rumble, you know, Afro Thunder thing going on. Or, you know, what's the guy's name from Rocky?
Yeah. Apollo Creed. Yeah. So I get that. Xavier Woods kind of just and even Austin Creed is a little better. I don't know, guys. on the Twitter machine, X, Blue Sky, whatever. Hit us up. Terrible indie names that were actually upgraded once they got to the major leagues. I need to know your choices. Oh, I got one for you. Who you got? Christian Casanova. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. There we go. Great one.
Great one. Great one. Carmelo Hayes. Carmelo Hayes. So much better than Christian Casanova. I remember hearing about Christian Casanova and how great he was. And I was like, let me pop in the video. And I was expecting to see a white Italian dude with some silly romance gimmick or whatever. I was like, this is crazy. All right. Does Walter count?
There were some people that were like, Walter is not the name of an ultimate badass. Walter is the guy who fixes your computer. I think this is just, it's a silly to argue about it because there's never been, there's never been anything, there's never been clear agree to disagree terribly. on this either you think Walter is a badass name or you don't I don't but like I can also see the case let's be real let's be real there was nothing
imposing about the actual name Walter. The only thing imposing about it was that you had to put in all caps like MF Doom. Yes, exactly. That made it cool. But Gunther sounds like an Austrian dictator. That sounds like somebody who's just like, oh, yeah, that guy's coming. He's coming. He's the kind of guy.
They should give him a Michael Jordan mustache. Walter's coming. The Michael Jordan mustache. It's like, oh shit, Walter's coming. It's like, who the fuck is Walter? Oh shit, Gunther's coming. Tuck my chain in. How about Roxy to Roxanne Perez? No, that's fine. Roxy is kind of weak. That was a good move. Yeah. Davina Rose to Bailey. Yeah. I love that Davina Rose, but we got too many roses in wrestling. Way too many roses.
It's like we got too many bronze now. I mean, Jonah Rock to Bronson Reed, I think, is a move in the right direction, right? Yeah. I don't mind Jonah Rock. Sometimes, I don't mind Jonah Rock, but it's just sometimes you feel like you're just... you you pick a name because there's only you know you're in a company with 10 wrestlers it's like you get to be everything to everyone and then you kind of need more of a specific character when you get somewhere else but anyway anyway uh
We got to talk about Money in the Bank. We've been doing this. We're like over an hour already. We haven't talked about Money in the Bank. Thankfully, there's only four matches. It's worth pointing out. that Triple H has gone record saying he's not a huge fan of the Money in the Bank concept. So you could take that. I mean, it's probably a throwaway, all things considered, you know? But...
you can take that in a lot of different ways when you're imagining who's going to win this. I think that there's definitely a case that like, if your head booker's not a big fan of the money in the bank concept, but we're still having money in the bank. Part of that tension is having the people walk around with the briefcase for a year, right?
So if you're going to use the concept, but you're not a big fan of the concept, that sort of leads me to we're going to have cash in sooner rather than later. And we've seen that the past couple of years, right? We've seen that in the Triple H era. If you're going to... If you don't love the concept, then I think it's sort of path of least resistance in these matches is the argument I would make. You make the case that it's going to be like Seth Rollins and Rhea Ripley are going to win.
And they're both going to cash in sooner rather than later. That was going to be my question, Dave. Who are you taking in these matches? Are you taking Seth Rollins in the rear Ripley or the field? I would probably go field. Okay. One, because of my constant argument, obviously, that neither of those people need a briefcase to get a match. But I guess you can get the quick cash-in, the unexpected cash-in. It's sort of Seth's thing. He's done it in the past.
rear ripley again doesn't really need it but here okay here's the here's the mid side so we got uh seth rollins sorry i just lost my thing i lost my my my line up here Cut that part. We got Seth Rollins, Pinta, LA Knight, Solo Sokoa, Andrade, and El Grande Americano. Andrade's not going to win. I'm sorry, Andrade. It's not happening. LA Knight, probably not going to win.
okay is there a chance that el grande americano wins in the same fashion that he won his qualifying match that everybody else gets distracted and he's got a metal plate in his head and whatever Can I tell you something, Dave? Listen, if you don't love the concept, then yes, you can tell me something. There could be something incredibly funny about him winning, exposing that he is, in fact, Chad Gable, and then losing the Money in the Bank briefcase because he...
did not sign his paperwork correctly. Like that could be incredibly gratifying. What were you going to say? So when they announced CM Punk versus AJ Styles versus Grande Americano on Raw. I was like, the winner of this match is either going to be Seth Rollins or the person who wins this match. And it'd be an El Grande Americano that won it.
leads me to believe more that he's probably going to win Mr. Money in the Bank this year too. It wouldn't shock me. It wouldn't shock me, although I'm not sure that even a payoff that hilarious is that much of a... move into positive direct... I guess it's not making the most out of the money in the bank. That would be my only argument against it. You can get to wherever you want to get with Chad Gable, with Grande Americano, without the money in the bank briefcase.
So that would be, but, but I, but I do think it's very, I do think there's a strong, there's strong odds in his favor. Yeah. I mean, Seth Rollins, obviously he's got some odds. I mean, he's, he's gotta be the favorite. Pinta, I would say no way. But I actually think the other argument against El Grande Americano is there's this very conventional setup here for Pinta and Grande to take each other out of the match.
leading to a Pinta-El Grande-Americano match at Night of Champions or SummerSlam, right? Like that would be, if we're going to hang on to this for a little bit longer, El Grande-Americano versus Pinta would be the SummerSlam match I would look at.
But it doesn't have to be. LA Night is... very popular and i don't see him winning this match solo sokoa though is very interesting because there's the whole sokoa with the briefcase that looks he looks right of all these guys he's the one i would i can see that he's already got the gloves to carry the the briefcase
It could help with the tension between him and Jacob Fatu within the bloodline, but he's also got the bloodline. It can help him win this match. Anything goes in these matches, right? So you could have all these guys in. We got... At least two Bloodline members to help him out. There could always be more. Whatever happened to Hickaleo, by the way? Hickaleo, is he still hanging around backstage somewhere?
I feel like if you say his name, if you say any Samoan's name a week before... Lance and NOI still... There's still been the rumors. I don't know. At some point, you got to... you know you're letting people go like how many how many members of the bloodline do we really need to be paying at one time i guess could you just pay the family like a set a set rate like we'll pay you
whoever that's maybe that's why that's why they're fighting over tribal chief whoever's tribal chief just gets the check every month and then they have to divvy it up that's it uh but yeah it would be it would be great if we could have like you know a different fatu not jacob fatu i'm telling you the fatu family it's like a different member of the family every month
You know, and just let him give him some run. Just kind of cycle him in and out to make it interesting. But I think that there's a... I think I like Solo Secoa over O Grande Americano slightly because of the potential for interference. you know and i think that you could do more but but it's there i think el grande americano probably rightly has better odds but that's why i think that those are my three seth grande and solo those are the ones i think have a chance
Yeah, I think you might have convinced me on Solo. I hadn't really thought about that much with the gloves and the character and the tension on SmackDown. It seems like a throw-in. Listen, they haven't been doing great by... solosicoa either so true i mean for a guy who was main event of the first well one of the main events of the first raw netflix he's kind of taking a significant step back
for Jacob Fatu. And this would be a great way to kind of get them, you know, back on an even playing field. So I could see that. I could see that. But something tells me something fishy is going on with Grande Americano. He's doing double duty. He's working Worlds Collide. He's working Money in the Bank briefcase. I mean, if he ends the night as Mr. Money in the Bank, like, that could be...
That could be crazy. That could be interesting. That could be interesting. And it's weird because it's a gimmick that people are on the fence about, but a wrestler that no one's on the fence about. If somebody was like, yo, Chad gave him one Mr. Money in the Bank, people would be super hyped.
But as soon as they see El Grande Americano on, you know, Mr. Money in the Bank, it's going to cause some commotion. And I think, you know, the Money in the Bank ladder match is a great way to cause some commotion. It's going to be awesome. I mean, yeah, there's a lot of ways you go with that. Here's the other thing about Seth Rollins. Does it make sense? I know that...
Jey Uso and Cody Rhodes have their thing going on with John Cena and Logan Paul, and Jey Uso's part of that beatdown. But don't Sami Zayn and... and CM Punk have to be involved in this Money in the Bank match and sit around the card? Don't they have to come beat up Seth Rollins? Don't they have to play a role in this? I mean, obviously Seth Rollins, Braun and Braun are going to get involved too.
which might counteract my solo Sakoa take, but I just feel like Sammy and Punk are going to cost Seth the win. It does feel like Seth's going to win, but if I had to make an irrational bet... I think I'm going with Solo Sokoa. Dave, I think I'm with you. I think I'm with you. You've convinced me. Initially, I went in here thinking this is a Seth Rollins easy win. Like, he's the biggest star on the card.
he makes the most sense as far as everything he's been talking about, about having like power and all this other stuff. And the briefcase gives you power and it gives you choice. And that makes a ton of sense. But. The Dangerous Alliance, or whatever we're calling these guys, have been beating the snot out of Punk and Sammy and Jay for the past four weeks. And he's cost...
All of these guys, their chance at being either world heavyweight champion or money in the bank. So it just makes all the sense in the world for, you know, them to cost him that. And, you know. It's a nice way to get CM Punk and Sammy Zane on your card, too. Yeah, and going back to the first point, which is if Triple H is really not a fan of the money in the bank concept.
then why would he want to tell the story of his top guy using the Money in the Bank briefcase? Even if Triple H is making lemons out of lemonade in his mind and finding the best way to use this, why muck up the Seth Rollins? to the top, the Seth Rollins star-making machine with a conceit you're not that excited about. Anyway, it's all secondary.
Brian H. Waters, do you want to tell us why we're crazy for picking Solo Sikoa? I'll tell you why you're crazy for picking Solo. That's because Pinta's in the match. And when I look at Pinta, you know, we've been talking about all the... marketability. And one thing we've learned is from Damien Priest to Tiffany Stratton, that briefcase sells. So I'm seeing the briefcase.
with Penta's design and logo. We saw how much the mask sold for. And if he's not a fan of the concept, Triple H is a fan of money and dollar signs. And with R-Truth gone, you got to replace somehow some of that merch seller. Yeah, I mean, I've been on record at saying... Pence is easily the funnest pick of anybody. I could definitely picture him doing his little walk with the briefcase down to the ring and all that type of stuff. He, by far, would be the most fun pick for Money in the Bank.
I'm not necessarily sure if they're going to go for fun. And I kind of feel like with this group of people from Mr. Money in the Bank, it's almost tailor-made to star make or reestablish somebody. And Pence is already over like shit, right? Yeah, Pence is almost like a made man. It's like when he's ready to go, he's just going to go. The briefcase almost seems like it's for people who need it. And I think Solo...
After hearing Dave, I think Solo needs it the most. Solo needs it more than anybody. I think he needs it the most. I mean, it might be an argument against him, too. It's like, why on earth would you waste it on him? But still, he definitely needs it the most. Very true.
Yeah, I know, Brian. I think you're probably right. I mean, I think there's some logic there, but I'm still sticking with it. Trust me, you will not see me complaining if Penta wins Mr. Money in the Bank at all. He would be, by country mile, the most fun winner of Money in the Bank. bank in the longest time. Just him teasing it all the time. I don't even think he would like...
If he was going to cash in, I don't even think he would run to the ring. He'd probably just do the slow little walk towards down and he'd think about it. Then he'd be like, ah, not yet. Not yet, my friend. Then walk out or something. I think it's solo. We'd be happy if it's Spencer. Seth probably makes the most sense, but I think solo, solo is it. The women's money in the bank patch. Very different conversation. Alexa Bliss, Roxanne Perez, Rhea Ripley, Julia, Naomi, and Stephanie Vaquer. Now...
You can kind of put Roxanne, Julia, and Stephanie Vaquer all in the same category of future faces of the company. But I will sidebar Roxanne Perez a little bit because she's got a storyline. She's part of the Judgment Day. If it was down between Julia and Stephanie Vaqueri, we're definitely going to anoint the future face of the women's division. Who do you take? Oof, man.
Vaquera got a Rhea Ripley-like response when she came out on her own. She did. Yeah. She is over like Rover. And you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody. that has a brighter future than her in the company, no matter what show it is, you know? So I think I'm going to pick Stephanie. I'm still leaning Julia, and eventually I might get proven wrong on this, but I still feel like Julia is, I mean, like...
It's so close. They're both super duper stars. I just feel like there's a little bit more of like, I don't know. I just feel like Julie is just such a... easy star, maybe more of a main roster star than Stephanie Vaqueror. I think Julia probably cuts a better promo than Stephanie Vaqueror. The promo she cut, I was like, oh man. Even with the broken English, it was impactful. But Stephanie Vakir, to quote the kids.
She's got aura, man. When she walks out. I think they both do, but I know what you're trying to say. When she's standing in frame with other stars, you get more excited for the other star. Like, oh man, I can't wait till these two lock up. Oh man, I can't.
Can you imagine? She has that thing that Braun Breaker had when Braun Breaker first came on. And he was just standing in front of people. Jacob Fatu came on and was just standing in front of people. We were like, oh, man, I can't wait. I can't wait. I can't wait. Stephanie Vicaria's got that same thing about it where she could just stand in front of women and folks are just like, fuck yeah, give me that match, let's go. I do think that the inclusion of both of them in this match...
is sort of the statement in and of itself, though. I'm not sure that either of them is going to win. I think sort of, if it was just one of them, I could talk myself into it in a heartbeat. But I feel like having both of them there, it's more of just like, hey, we're just establishing that they're top level. stars and that's the job's already done they're in the match and they're going to give us a great match roxanne perez is a little bit different because there is like
At first, she was the first one I marked off as an option because I was like, she's already got the shit going with the Judgment Day and does she really need the briefcase? They're already doing stuff with her. But then I did a second thought and I was like... Maybe this is exactly, maybe this feeds into that story. Maybe this is, you know, maybe they do, maybe they make that a point of tension within the judgment day. You know, maybe it's a.
Maybe Liv Morgan, maybe she wins and Liv Morgan says, give me the briefcase. You want to prove you're loyal. You know? You know what? Even the term. being Mr. Money in the Bank or Miss Money in the Bank. Like when somebody says you're money in the bank, that just means, that's just a euphemism for like, You got it. You're a sure thing. You know what I mean? You are it. So it's like they've called her the prodigy.
She make note of every single record she breaks every time she gets into the ring, whether it's the Royal Rumble, whether it's being at WrestleMania. That's a good point. She can keep being the youngest everything. I think, would she be the youngest Money in the Bank winner if she won? Probably.
that's that Roman Reigns stuff you know it's like we're just gonna keep giving him all the records because we know we got him locked up yeah you can't call somebody the prodigy without them doing some prodigy some prodigal stuff. You know what I mean? Prodigal means something completely different. Some prodigious stuff. And, you know, I think her...
I think the whole Judgment Day stuff kind of helps her out, man. I think if there's a world where Liv is playing... the real role now that she played last year where like she's the incumbent established star and here comes this younger uh you know star kind of on her heels on her tails on her man
on all this other stuff it's kind of like well that's probably the best story to tell with judgment day right now because there's no carlito um the tag team titles are probably gonna you know do something with them and and finn and dominic are sort of on the collision course with jd there the best thing you could do is sort of create a power struggle within judgment day that like makes live a sympathetic baby phase and i think the quickest way you do that is
You think Liv is going to get the cheers? I mean, she's incredibly over. I'm not questioning that. It's just like, I think we're so trained to boo her. I don't even know. Oh, I think that's how it has shifted. I think they do love Roxy, but I think that that hate live stuff has shifted. Like, when she pops up, like when she popped up after, you know, in the Judgment Day locker room, after coming back from shooting the movie, she got a wild pop.
Like every time your music came out to wrestlers, you got the wild. That's true. It's just compared to somebody else. Everybody gets wild pops now, but you might be right. I, maybe I'm just leaning on my personal feelings too much. Um, So we got those three, and then we got the old hands, Alexa Bliss, Naomi, and Rhea Ripley. Now, we opened up saying, is Rhea Ripley just the obvious choice here?
She may be. I think she probably certainly would have the highest betting odds. Alexa Bliss, I think, is easy for me to write off because she doesn't have anything, like, I don't, it's not that she doesn't have anything going on right now, but... just like the last time we saw her in the Rumble, I think it's more about just the pop and keeping her relevant and we're still figuring out what the path is. Naomi is super interesting. Yeah. That was my second pick.
i think that naomi's got a there's a way that you turn the briefcase into i mean there's a lot i mean maybe this is overly complicated but there's a way that the briefcase gets her her match against Bianca Belair at SummerSlam, or a big three triple threat, and she gets into the match via the briefcase, you know, although all that... you know all that would require like eosky or somebody to lose the title and i'm not sure if that's really the way you go um
I don't really see Naomi winning it unless it's part of a contrivance to get her Bianca Belair match. I don't know when Bianca's coming back. And I don't know. Again, incredibly complicated to have Bianca then win the title and then Naomi finally get her. roundabout way into that into facing her I don't know I don't know well I thought Naomi was probably the best pick outside of Roxanne just for chaos purposes I think she probably makes the most
chaotic winners in the same way Penta makes the most fun winner. But I also think it's sort of, it's tailor-made for Naomi to be right there about to get the briefcase and Jade pushes her off the ladder just like... She got pushed off the car. That's it. We're just looking for the way that people are eliminated at this point. It's not what winner makes the most sense. It's what chaotic...
to borrow your word, what chaotic elimination makes the most sense? Who's going to get involved from the outside that's going to change the course of the match? There you go. And yeah, I think so too. So for me, I think... I really think it's Rhea and Roxanne. And maybe this is just the Rhea Ripley. Maybe the idea that Seth and Rhea Ripley are the obvious winners.
It's not going to be both of them, but maybe it's one of them. Maybe it's Rhea Ripley. I don't know. You make the pick on this one. I'm going to go with Roxanne Perez on this one. I think she's going to be Miss Money in the Bank. You can't keep calling somebody the future, the prodigy, the this, the that, first, the youngest, without a real accolade. And the Money in the Bank briefcase is the best accolade you can get that's not a championship.
I think she's missed money in the bank this year. I'm agreeing with you on this one. Brian, do you want to tell us why we're crazy? Oh, man. I mean... I know Roxanne's like your girl. I know you got a rooted interest in this, Brian. I do, but if there's anybody I like more than Roxanne in this match, it's Naomi. I love the reason why she might not win it.
But at the same time, you know, I think this will solidify her and just give her that next level of sadisticness that she's been doing. You know, she's already. threatened to put bianca in a wheelchair next to her mother and i think having this briefcase just makes everybody keep an eye on her not just bianca and jade yeah Yeah. After watching briefcase? Come on, now? I could definitely see the caution tape all over the briefcase, for sure. That's a really good call.
Yeah, when I was doing this, my first draft of these picks, I had Naomi winning. And now I'm like, no, no, I just can't. I can't quite get there. I also really want to see Roxanne versus Io Sky in the match, too. Like, I think that's such a... Oh, yeah. That's such an incoming banger right there. But there's... I think those are... Right, right, right, right. But, I mean, hey...
Those are great choices either way, though, man. I don't think you could go wrong. Yeah, it's true. There's two other matches. I got to ask you before we move on. Who's the worst pick for Money in the Bank? Who's the, oh my God, I can't believe they did this. Who? who if they of the people that are in the two matches the people that are in who would be like the the most this was a bad choice winner for money in the bank
Solo Sakoa would get the crowd vote for the worst choice, but we're picking him. I guess Andrade because it's the least... I mean, although that would be cool just to watch him have a thing. That's a thing. You could see him with the briefcase. He'd be cool. The guys and guys you don't expect to win will still be cool to win it.
And I don't know, there's something about the Money in the Bank briefcase that doesn't have the same pressure as the Royal Rumble, where it's like, no matter who wins it, you're still kind of like... oh, okay, that's interesting. We'll see where this goes. Like, I don't think a ton of people were super hyped on Damian Priest or even Drew McIntyre winning the last two years, but we rolled with it. And, you know, it still kind of worked out. So, I don't know.
Maybe there's a sinking feeling that you might have been a year too late with LA Knight. So if you put it on him, maybe it feels a little forced and you get the reverse. effect of what you could have had with them maybe like a year or two ago. So I think that will probably be my pick for the men's. So even though I love LA Knight, I just think like, man.
Y'all really could have struck with The Iron Was Hot like a year or two ago with that one. Yeah, that's true. He needs to work his way to this. Yeah, I agree. His rise to the top has to be the most organic rise to the top. Like everybody out of everybody left who was like, hasn't been a world champion, but like you could totally see it happening. Like LA Knight can't do it in a cheap way. Like, like he really has to get it from the actual.
depths of the mud like figuratively and literally like he has to he can't he can't get his first title in cheap way like he really has to like We have to see his entire journey go from like Max Dupree to this guy to like all the missed opportunities for him to like finally be a gratifying world champion. I think it might be cheap. Agreed.
agree if he wins the money and i guess i would say alexa bliss in the women's match but it's it's it's a tough i mean it's i don't well alexa i don't feel that before and that's the only reason i pick it you know like i'm like ah we've done this with alexa before so that's probably it
You can't go wrong on the women's, I think. I'd be interested regardless, but that's the only way I see it. It's like, well, we did this already. Why are we doing it again? Lyra Valkyria versus Becky Lynch for the Intercontinental Championship. If Lyra loses, she has to raise Lynch's hand and acknowledge her as the better woman. If Lynch loses, she can no longer challenge for the IC title as long as Lyra Valkyrie is champion.
Is this a lock? Is Larry Valkyria retaining here a stone-cold lock? No, it is not. I think Becky Lynch winning the Intercontinental Championship is a stone-cold lock. One million percent. You got to get the win back. i'll put the cheese and the chicken on that one really um yeah once you start never challenging and then like your thing is oh you have to raise my hand as i win like that's imbalanced
It's too unbalanced. I'm like, well, clearly. I mean, the whole point of this feud, though, is to get Lyra over. I think you still can. I think you still can by losing to Becky Lynch. She's been great. If you had told me that this feud was going to be like 75% mic work, I would have been like, oh, that's a terrible idea. Lyra has been phenomenal in the mic. Becky has also been phenomenal in the mic. This has been just breathtaking work.
by both of them on the bill in the build up to this i thought lyra winning was a given i didn't i wouldn't go a lock with becky although i guess it's not shocking he put the belt on her for a while at her Let her have that belt going into Night of Champions or even SummerSlam or whatever and maybe do a rematch there. I guess I just imagine that Becky Lynch is going to come back for a pretty short run, but I really don't have any intel on that.
Maybe you're right. Maybe you're right. Brian, who do you think is going to win? I think Becky wins. All right. Well, then the official pick of the show is Becky Lynch. Yeah. I think she gets some prestige on that title. That's awesome. Yeah, this feud has done a lot, but I don't know. Yeah, there's a lot of interesting ways you could go with this. Maybe it's not as cut and dry as I thought. Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso versus...
John Cena and Logan Paul. Who's going to win this? I don't even know. Does anybody care? Does anybody truly care? That's a crazy place to be. I don't think so. all right here we go here we go let me ask this logan paul john cena jay usso cody rhodes if all four of those guys were wrestling house shows this is an algebra problem
an equal distance from your house in different places on the same night, who do you go to see? Right now, in big 2025, Cody Rhodes. Yeah, at this moment in time. Cody Rhodes. Yeah, he's still the man. Brian? You know, I love me some Jay, and I love me some Cena. Cody's still the man. I'll go with Jay. Being there for the J entrance is pretty cool. But it's not John Cena. You get to see one of John Cena's last 10 matches.
That's a good point. I've seen enough John Cena in my lifetime. And Logan Paul, don't you know how famous this guy is? You don't know how many followers he has? The matches haven't been to the level of I... have to see this match. And... I'll save this for another show. The match... I'll save this for another show.
I'll just leave this little breadcrumb. The match that we really want to see, the match that I would travel to go see, I'm not going to be able to see. I'll put it down. Which is what? I'll just put it that way. Britt Baker versus Thunder Rosa and a hair versus hair match? Nah, but...
We'll bring this up in a couple of weeks. Let's just put it that way. With the match you want to see, bait with who? What genre are we in right now? The John Cena match that you want to see? I'll just drop that breadcrumb. And we'll come back to this in a couple weeks. All right. That's all. We'll get back there. We'll talk about it offline. I don't know. I mean, I think I'd probably pick Cena.
But I don't know the answer here. I mean, this will be a fun little match, like whatever. I think the question is how close Cody is coming out of it to John Cena's title. I assume we'll get to that rematch at SummerSlam, but who knows? What do you guys think? Are we going to have Cody Cena at SummerSlam? But I don't know who else you're putting in that spot.
Yeah, I mean... Like, it's just boring to you? I mean, that might be the night one main event, guys. I think I'd just rather hold off to that. Yeah, like, I forget it's a two-night SummerSlam, so it's like, we could do Cody and Cena, but it's like... It's a New York, New Jersey area. It's going to be a lot of energy in the city around that time, around this area. You could run Cody and Tina back again.
But it is SummerSlam. There is the outside chance that the person that John Cena works at SummerSlam probably isn't active right now. Like, it could be Roman. It could be Rock. It could be one of these guys. You know what I mean? It could be somebody that we're not even thinking of. But to run Cody and Cena back so soon? I'm not going to be mad at it, but I do think it's a little soon to do it. I do think there's a way you could kind of get back there a little bit later.
When? Survivor Series? Like right before Cena takes off? That's what I've been theorizing the whole time. But when you look at the calendar now, you're just like, SummerSlam's... There's not many dates left. Yeah. No, and SummerSlam's such a big show this year.
It is. And the Cena, what, you want more Cena, his heel champ? Is that what you're voting for here? I don't know. I mean, a WrestleMania rematch is never bad at SummerSlam. It's a time-honored tradition of running it back at SummerSlam. But I just kind of feel like...
How this tag team match sort of ends up is going to be based on how much I'm looking forward to them running it back. Well, I think Cody... went like cody getting a pin on cena sets up their match and so maybe that if that if that happens then we get summer slam and if it's a if they get a pin on if if the baby faces pin logan paul then that's you know
Obviously, Logan Paul and Jesus will have a match at some point. They already showed they had a little bit of tension there. Yeah, there's already tension there. We could have Cena versus Logan Paul at SummerSlam as one of the main events. That's totally true. I'm not sure what the crowd's going to do in that case.
But I think if Cena, you know, if Cena gets the beat down, I mean, if Cena has a dominating win on Cody Rhodes or something like that, no matter how the, how, which Maz thing leads to it, maybe, I mean, that feels like the match is urgent. That match is going to happen like... that Night of Champions or before. It's just hard to really gauge. Anyway, I think the babyfaces are going to win here. Yeah, that seems like a safe bet.
Yeah. With attention that you described. That's the deciding vote. Anyway, we've been podcasting for way too long. We got through everything, right? Yeah. Do you want to talk about Worlds Collide? Yeah, let's do it. I mean, there's Worlds Collide is on Friday. Stephanie Vaqueran, Lola Vice versus Chick Tormenta and Delece. I mean, we know. You too. Ethan Page, Javon Evans, The Radio Kid, Ray Phoenix, all in one ring. That's going to be the killer.
Chad Gable versus Iho Del Vikingo. Kind of crazy. Without breaking kayfabe, Chad Gable's got this schedule for this weekend because Iho Del Vikingo is going to be a match.
Well, Chad Cable is terrible against luchas, so he's clearly going to lose this match. He just gets squashed. And then win money in the bank later that night. Yeah. And then Legado Del Fantasma versus Iho Del... that wagner wagner jr pagano and psycho clown psycho clown i cannot wait to see in any kind of wwe production he's been the wwe style wrestler working down there for so long it's so funny to see him um
And then the LWO versus Lindsay Dorado, Octagon Jr. starring Mr. Iguana. Mr. Iguana out there in the crowd at NXT looking like a real cartoon villain. He's the funniest character. I just can't believe it exists with a fucking puppet. This is going to be the most fun wrestling watch I've had in a long time. This is going to be a big wrestling weekend. Going in there so blind and just ready to just be like, just, just.
Act like I've never seen anything of this show before. And sometimes that's the best way to enter a wrestling show. Totally true. Just with zero fucking context to anything. It's like, all right, put me on. Let me know. What am I supposed to care about?
What's important here? What's not important here? Take it from there. It should be fun. Take it from there. All right, guys. Let's get out of here. Kaz, you want to get your plugs in? Yeah, man. Brand new episode of 7 p.m. of Brooklyn is out today with the legendary.
director of Sinners, Black Panther, everything else, Ryan Coogler, myself, Carmelo Anthony. Check that out. Yeah, it was awesome, Dave. One of my favorite conversations of the year. So that should be live by the time you listen to this. check out my podcast on my YouTube page and all of my social channels and yeah man that's about it oh I might have an announcement to make real soon too about next week
SummerSlam weekend. Well, tune in on Monday. You'll hear Kaz's very important announcement. We'll see. You can find me here. You can find me on the press box. Thanks to our producer, Brian H. Waters. Thanks to our EP, Ben Cruz. Thank you all for listening. Finn Balor is going to be okay. So are you. We'll see you back here next week, humanoids. Peace.