Hangman’s Bold Stipulation and More Crate Speculation

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Cold open question of the week, Kaz. What's up, shoes? It was recently uh noted on the internet. that Heidenreich, notable WWE superstar, is now working at a Walmart. Now, congrats to him. I mean good that you do I mean, whatever. Get a Heiden. This is not this is not job shaming and by the way.

As weirdly seeing him in the in the in the Walmart gear, you just looked perfect. So here's what here's my question for you, assuming that's his perfect place. I'm gonna name a couple of hide and right contemporaries. You tell me which big box store they should be working at. All right. Okay. Number one. Similar path here. Snitsky. Snitsky seems like a Target guy. I could see him work at a target for sure.

I don't know, Snitsky with the with the with the just w the facial hair in particular. Now I know he doesn't necessarily sell the facial hair now. Remember he kind of had that weird, like patchy, shocky stuff to me. That's a very That's a very like lumin liquidators or I mean L L flooring or yeah, he or like a uh a

Maybe even like a a Home Depot or something like that. Or or a Harbor Freight. Harbor Freight is my go to for Snetsky. Okay. Okay. All right, here we go. We have more. We're we're moving up the card here. JBL, what big box store would should JBL be working at? He he he strikes me as a Lowe's type of guy, you know what I mean? Like he'll kinda tell you

Like he'll tell you exactly why this is the right lawnmower to buy. Yes, but he o but weirdly he only works from like seven AM to one PM or something. So like he's never there when you go back. That's that's it. Right. Right, right, right. But he'd kill it as a Lowe's manager. Like, hey, hey, hey, buddy. Yeah.

Two by four? I don't know. I'm I don't know my this is a terrible JBO impression I'm giving right now. He just seems like someone's gonna be a good one. I wanna have is there somebody that can teach us how to do impressions? I want an impr I'm so bad at impressions. I want an impressions impression coach. To come on the show and help us do it. All right. Next one. You just see the lumber guy. Yeah. The Undertaker.

The Undertaker. Now, are we doing gimmicked Undertaker or just like Mark Callaway? Mark Callaway. Mark Callaway. All right. Yo, I would say Mark Calloway would be good for Dick's sporting goods. You know what I mean? Like sell you some great fishing rods, you know, some golf clubs. Definitely knows his way around like some uh some some Some motor vehicles, you know what I mean, that you can get over there. Some four wheelers, some all wheel drive.

Yeah, he seems like he definitely seems like that, for sure. I don't disagree with that totally. And I know this answer is not within the context of my question. I'm I'm breaking my own rules a little bit. To me, Mark Calloway's Like real life. chain operation job is like the manager of a Longhorn steakhouse sitting at the end of the bar the whole time.

Doesn't that doesn't that seem right? Sitting at that little that little mini booth, the mini chair, the mini desk that they use for uh for them. Yeah, I can see that. But he's but he's definitely like not He's just he's not working a whole lot. He's just like sipping on a whiskey and keeping an eye on things. Mm-hmm. Coming over to shake some hands, you know, and like the board member comes in for his steak dinner, you know, he'll he'll come over and say hi. Remember the movie Waiting?

Yeah, I remember the existence of the movie Waiting. Ryan Reynolds and and Del Anakis, all those guys. Yeah. He seems like he'd be like he could he could definitely work a Benegance. You know what I mean? Like he'd definitely work I think I think Longhorn Takehouse is a compliment. Binnegan seems a little bit qu like not so much a compliment.

Nah, Ben Benegins is more of a thing. Like you're you're trying to give him his his Texas and give him like steak and longhorn and Yeehaw, that type of thing. It's a sort of upscale. It's the sort of place where it's like our manager is a former bar bouncer, makes some sense. Gotcha. Definitely seems like a uh fifth grade graduation spot where he'll be like, hey man, whose birthday is it? Comes out singing happy birthday with a bunch of teenagers. No, I think at the wrong cake on the house.

Do you go to any of these places? I love me some Texas Roadhouse, all right. You're never gonna find me slandering the good name of uh Some th that bread? Oh. That bread with the country fried steak. Mm. Yeah, they got good the country fried steak, the just regular steak, though good place. Texas Roadhouse come at us, man. We'll do we'll live broadcast live from a Texas Roadhouse. Did Texas Roadhouse have the have the stakes on display? Like when you first walk in? Ooh, I don't remember.

We have a couple of Texas roadhouses. We're like in that we're kind of in a Texas roadhouse desert. You gotta drive a good like twenty, twenty five minutes to get to one, like out the out the highway. Uh in e in either direction. So um there's not just one specifically, but I'll get to that. I'll get there. Texas Roadhouse. Woo. And the underta and Mark Callaway, local district manager. Give us a give us a shout. All right, let's start the show. Very busy.

Yes sir. It's his fault we're recording on Friday today. It's usually mine. I'm so sorry guys, but we had to do it. Um, but we we've had a busy week of pro wrestling. Oh, first of all, I'm sorry, how you doing, man? I'm doing all right, brother. How about yourself, man? I'm doing good. I'm leaning over to turn up my uh To turn the volume up here a little bit. And while I do it, you can probably see that behind me I've came through with my with my word and there is now a uh

There you have a T Rex scroll behind me. Yes, yes, yes. You definitely I was about to say like how much did you pay for that back there, Dave? I gotta tell ya, the original one, what do we figure out? Cost like fifteen grand. I paid significantly less, but I got contacts in the uh in the paleontology world. So um Is that like a buy one, get one half off sale that they got going on there with the two Rex goals or

There's a great there's a great skeleton joke in there somewhere and the bike get one half off. I don't know, but we'll I'll I'll leave that to the children to figure out. We'll find it. Uh what w where where are we beginning today?

I have a couple of big questions. Do you want to talk about MJF and Hangman Adam Page? Let's talk about MJF and Hangman Adam Page. And my my deep abiding confusion. All right. Seeing those. Oh, before we start. Oh wait. Got a shout out. The new members of Only Graps. All right. Patreon dot com slash only graps, baby. I said if we get twenty people to pledge their nine dollars and ninety-nine cents, I will start a a a

A Mercedes Monet like group chat for ten percent of the cost that you would pay just to talk to me, talk to shoes. You gotta get shoes on the iPhone. So he's still on the outside. Yeah, I haven't seen it. So in the chat they said, yo I don't uh shout out to We Grow Corn on OnlyGrap.

He says, I don't ask for much in life, but I need Kit Wilson. Oh wait, wrong wrong wrong uh joint. We grew up. He said, How much extra do we need to pay to get shoemaker a twenty twenty one iPhone? is what they said. So Uh and then twenty twenty one. Is twenty twenty one like a good model, or is that just like the bare minimum you can pay to get me on here?

I think that's what I think that's the bare minimum you could pay. And I also think that when they see that you don't have a phone, they just assume that like you have like a 1996 Star Trek. or like a nokia you know i mean from 2022 to 2002 um yeah so If you want to sign up for uh the bullshit free, algorithm-free group chat where we just talk wrestling and maybe some other stuff, I might throw a video on there, might throw some behind the scenes. You can get some behind matter of fact.

Let's record some behind the scenes content right now of the making. What are you gonna show your keyboard here? Yeah, it's exactly what I'm gonna do. So this is good content. You know what I mean? Of making of the masked man show. Patreon dot com slash only graps, nine ninety nine in between podcasts. You could talk with us, chat with us. It's the best thing going, baby. That's all you did. Here's what what what I would be what I would be on there talking about right now.

Or probably it's can pretty relatively continuously for the past day and a half is the hangman Adam Page MJF Ankle. Yes. Um I I have so many questions. Normally in wrestling Even if even if something is silly, if it follows wrestling logic, you don't really object, right? If there's like like if uh like someone like like in AEW, and this is not specifically in knock AEW, if you in AEW it would be

You in AEW, there's there's some group chats out there that are just overly snarky, overly critical. Don't get in there, and that group chat is saying after every match well or after in every feud, why doesn't Tony Khan just make the match? Right,'cause Tony'cause when it s suits the story, they will come back from commercial and be like, ladies and gentlemen, Tony Khan just made the match official, right? You know, like whenever but when it's not when it you know, when it when it's not helpful

There's no you don't see Tony Khan coming anywhere near MJF and and Adam Page saying okay, here's the match. Here's the match the fans want. This is what they're gonna get. That's fine. I'm not gonna go down that path, right? Because that's just whatever. I do have so many questions about this. First of all, the the the intensity of them and the ringing together was great. It was great. I mean, these guys have have um

Just establish themselves as like the cream of the crop in in AEW. And that's why, you know. We've I don't know, it's it's hard to say. I mean, both of them are like character guys. They're both incredible workers. They're they're absolutely elite cream of the crop workers. But, you know, it feels like

I don't know, there's something that feels like real big time about it when they're they're ringing together. Well um'cause you'cause you're invested in both of them as human as characters, which is not to say hum we're invested in a lot of them as human beings, which is weirdly a lower bar for in AAW.

I mean I think I think with uh I think we gotta address the elephant in the room, right, with this, right? Like it already felt big. It already felt like a massive match, but Hangman Adam Page is potentially putting himself in a position to be Cody Rhodes out of the world title scene.

Yeah. He's gonna cody himself which is hangman basically said they got in the ring and they're he was like, We're gonna have the you know, I'm the number one contender, I get my match, but I want it to be a stipulation on the match. Please correct me if you think I'm getting this wrong because I'm I'm a little bit confused. I'm gonna put the stipulation on the match and and MJF says why in the world would I agree to a stipulation? I don't want a stipulation, I want a vanilla match.

Right. And then Hangman says, Well I'll put my if you agree to the stipulation, still not specifying a stipulation, then I will put my I then then if I lose I will never challenge for the championship again. Which is f is a fine story and there's a million outs and you know, like it doesn't have to be a thing. But of course, everybody watching immediately relates it to Cody Rhodes doing the same thing or announcing he would never go for the world title when he was with AEW.

Which people widely deride now because it put him in his own universe, basically. If he could never the idea was he would just help put people over and just sort of like, you know, have his own storylines and that's all good and well if you don't make it official. But when it's official You start saying Cody Rhodes feuds. Like if you're feuding with Cody Rhodes, he's might be putting you over in a kind of in the feud or helping build you, but it feels like you're being relegated.

You know, it's like you're not in the you're you're not in the in in in Premier League here, you're in Cody League. So everybody has a horrible taste in their mouth because of this. But then to make matters not worse, but to m to confuse things even more. After Hangman says that, MJF says I all I accept, but I'm gonna have to take a week to think of this stipulation. The implication being it's his stipulation to choose. And then Hangman says almost as if he didn't hear him. He says

you know, I'll see you later. Texas d by the way, Texas Death and walked out of the ring and everybody was just like, Oh, it's a Texas death match. Maybe MJF got his line reading wrong. But then but no, but then they announced yesterday that next week on Dynamite that these two guys are gonna be in the ring together to decide on the decide on the stipulation. So apparently the situation hasn't hasn't been decided. It's not necessarily a Texas deat match.

But then why the hell would hanger put his career online? I mean not career, but his his his ability to ever challenge wh wh why would he put the ultimate thing on the line? If there's a chance that this is a If he's negotiating just a random stipulation, like, oh, this is gonna be a lingerie pillow fight, and then is is he can never challenge again? Like it doesn't make any sense. It w like it's certain somebody was confused during that segment.

And I weirdly it seems to me that the straightest way through it was to just say it is a Texas deathmatch. MJF was confused, but he did agree, you know, like whatever. But they've gone the other way and said there was some confusion, so we'll just discuss it next week. It's so weird. But so anyway, just to just to take i if it is a Texas death match with Hangman Adam Page's, you know, championship future championship shots on the line.

Um, it's a little bit perplexing, right? Because it seems this it's a sort of stipulation. That in sort of like w r wrestling logic one point oh, you think it means well hangman's definitely gonna win. Normally this would be m way at the end of a much longer drawn out feud.

But if someone puts their career on the line and they're not actually leaving the territory, then you assume that like it's or e th that that that they're gonna win the match, right? And this is taking Hangman out of the title picture, even for a

non-indefinite amount of time is a pretty significant move. And if you if I just saw this on paper, I would say, well, hangman's going to win because he's not really going to, there's no way he can get out of the, they can take him out of the title picture. Okay. But In the in wrestling logic 2.0, the modern one, I feel like he's definitely gonna lose. My my eyes now is it's like because why would you introduce the stipulation at all unless you have planned out a payoff?

Right. At this point, there's no upside to ha putting all putting all that stuff on the line for him in Kayfe, but more importantly for Tony Khan in reality. Why would you make this crazy stipulation? Unless you have a storyline planned out where he goes on some long sojourn and eventually gets back to the title. Another one?

Another long sojourn, another long I'm not saying it's the right choice. When you heard okay, if it's career I mean not c I keep saying career, because I don't there's no way to say this easily. If indeed the match puts all of it makes it, you know, if he loses, he can never challenge the world title again in AEW. What when you hear that, what do you assume that the result is gonna be? I assume one of two things. He's either gonna win the title or he's gonna turn heel. And uh

Go back on his word. You know? Um Well that's the thing. Is there's al there's always an out. So so we but that's but that's both sides. If you just hear it and it that for for for getting the turning heel, we need to always his he's put all this on the line. Is he gonna and it's a Texas death match? Is he gonna win or lose? I think he's gonna woof I don't know. I think he might lose, honestly.

Yeah, that's what that's what I think too. Cause I think why would you make this stipulation at all unless you have a plan to make it interesting after the fact, right? I mean it doesn't because if'cause if he's gonna win then this then it's gonna feel like it was preordained. You're gonna feel like you knew it. Even though we're saying we believe it, but what we believe is that he's gonna lose. The obvious thing, the 1.0 thing is for him to win. So if he wins, no one's gonna be excited.

Cause they just set it up, but they put'em they put'em up against baby face odds. It's it's ridiculous. Now, that's all sort of beside the point. I mean, not beside the point, but if you want something that is beside the point, I will say this. For a big thing to happen like for for for them to raise the specter of something really significant like Hangman can never challenge for the title again on the same episode.

That swerve Strickland turned heel again. That makes me interested. Because if you want to draw a line to how a hangman Adam Page, who cannot wrestle for the title, finally like gets back into the mix somehow. Doesn't it make some sense that like it's uh like Maybe Swerve gets the title by all in and some and their feud reignites, but Swerve's got this upper hand that Hangman promised he would never challenge for the title again. And then maybe we get this giant blow off between them.

I don't know. I feel like there's a way there where If you're hangman Adam Page. You f well first off, you put the stipulation in place because You're hyper aware of your fan base. Your fan base immediately is gonna hearken back to Cody and it's gonna spell do it's like you're gonna do everything you can to be like, oh man, like no, let's not do this again, you know? Um

It happening the same night of a swerve heel turn makes it interesting because MJF, kind of a babyface, right? Like a heel, but like, you know, he's the heel that like. Is lovable. Sure. I could see we look forward to hearing what he has to say. I could see a way where Swerve helps Hangman win the championship because in Swerve's crazy mind. Being able to win the title back, or ever having a chance to win the championship back, or helping him win the championship twice at this point.

Help set up. Or reignite, which is what I think is their really m their real money fuse. Which is swerve and hangman. Yeah, exactly. So hang you got a babyface hangman heel swerve working towards a you know, an iteration that feels like one of those matches they've had were for the world title. You know, like it was all grudge matches. It it would be silly to take away.

To put that much importance on Hangman and his ability to win the championship, or just put the that much emphasis on Hangman in general. And take away the one thing that can elevate his biggest feud, which is either being a champion or holding the biggest. But this is what this is what I'm saying. If like basically he's bound by his word, right? I mean, maybe there's a contra contractual thing, but just for the sake of argument, he's bound by his word.

Imagine heels I mean champ swerves Strickland. and him are like feuding and feuding, but but hangman can't challenge him for the title unless and this is basically what Swerves can say to him. You can if you you can have the belt if you want, but you have to go back on your word. So if your if your word means nothing, this could be yours, right? He basically gets to like

like devil in the garden of Eden him into a title shot. And then everybody's going nuts. And it's like, can hangman beat Swerve Strickland and still remain himself? Basically. Like that seems like a very s hangman-y feud. But I could also see Swerve, you know, helping Hangman because in his warped mind.

It's not enough to just win the championship. He has to beat Hangman for the championship. You know what I mean? Like that's probably Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's so he helps Hangman win. at like against MJF. Yes. Because he wants oh, I kinda like that too. Like if he wins the championship back, like, yeah, he hates MJF. Everybody does, but

It wouldn't be as sweet, like on some Batman and Joker shit. You know what I mean? Like it wouldn't be as sweet if it came from anybody else. I gotta tell ya, you're you're that that makes a lot of sense too. Mm-hmm. And it takes away the sting of that. But I still I don't know why his career or his ability to challenge for the title is on the line. It's it feels like they could have got they could have given us something that wasn't the Cody stip.

Right. I don't think I'cause weirdly I think it's a very poignant tool in the AEW toolk tool chest. But I don't know if this is the time. I don't know. It just feels like kind of a lot. I I mean maybe I'm overthink I'm certainly I'm overthinking this whole thing. I think we're all overthinking this for sure.

Um, but I don't know. It it is fun. They're bringing back the Cody Rhodes of it all. I mean, they're at least making us think about it. They're they're making us acknowledge it. I love that I love that AEW is hyper aware of like, yo.

We know what you guys liked and what you guys didn't like. And sometimes we gotta fuck with you a little bit and put, you know, one of your favorites in the sort of situation that we probably should have never put Cody in, but we've you have to have some sort of point of reference. Like You could even go as far as being like I and I and I saw this a lot happening in the past two days.

Is Hangman's contract uh coming up soon? Is that why they did this? Like, are we gonna are we gonna find out in twenty twenty seven or twenty twenty eight that like Hangman's gonna go to WWE and this is why he like put this Cody stuff in there. I don't think so, but just the fact that that stipulation is enough for people to sort of question

His contract status? That's enough intrigue for me to spend money to go watch the stuff. By the way, Swervin is this. Swervin hangman, it's funny you talk about their contracts. They may be the two I'm trying to think through the whole through the whole roster.

They may be, I mean, I don't I don't even know quite how to say this. It's not gonna be the hottest take because I'm not wording it correctly. They may be the two most mainstream kind of WWE potentially WWE ready guys who I think are better off in AEW. It's all about Sorbonne Heymen? Yeah. Like I think both of them I I think both of them would get a lot of money on the open market. But you know, they get a really healthy offer from WAB and WWE being idiots not to pursue them.

But them and MJF are put in that category too. Feel like megastars when they're in a big hot angle on AEW. And I think it's just a little bit more of a roll the dice going to WWE. You know, they turn the volume up on you and then is hangman corny. You know what I mean? Is is Swerve d you know, does Swerve really rise to the top playing the like Playing it sort of as as as smoothly as he does, you know? Like I would he have to and I I don't know. And MJF too, I mean it's just like

'Cause their characters are all really big for AEW. They would seem in a lot of ways, they probably seem a little like, aside from MJF, a little bit quiet in WWE at times, and quiet doesn't always win out. But Swerven Hangman certainly two of my favorite dudes.

Swerve is just a lead. So swerve. We talked about him turning heel. If you didn't watch, he turned heel because he had a very long by the way, where was the where was this where was Dynamite this week? The crowd was absolutely bonkers. I kept I f I f I forgot to look it up. But that was an insane dynamite crowd. Like that was incredible. They people talk about P L E, you know, pay per view quality crowds or whatever, like that crowd was I mean, that was like

It was like going to London for the first time. Like that crowd was bonkers, like eating everything up, responding to all the big spots. It was incredible. And boy oh boy. Yeah, they were in Sacramento, California. Good job, Sacktown. Um But they I mean, this match got every chant from the crowd you can imagine. This is awesome. I'm sure more than once. I'm sure there was a fight forever in there. The crowd was just eating it up. This was this was an epic, epic match to the point where

AEW has the ability to throw these kind of matches on an episode of Dynamite and it boggles the mind, right? We've talked about it before, how it's like these two guys will sort of go at it for the first time or sort of ignite a feud and they'll have a match and it'll be like a legit five star match.

And then you're like, what but how are they gonna one up this? And then they managed to go half a star or star higher, you know, at the PLE or the pay-per-view or whatever. Mm-hmm. But this match was so so good that by the end you're like Is are they just like Showing out for some weird ratings, internal ratings reason? Or is this going somewhere? And it started elevating and elevating and elevating to the point where you're just like,

Is there gonna be a run in here? Like what is it this ha there has to be something more significant going on? And that thing turned out to be Swerve losing his fucking mind and murdering Kenny Omega. Mm-hmm. Um A beat the living tar out of him, gave him the what's the move I see again, this is me with no notes. This is an off week for me, sorry. What's the move that you did to him on the on the announce table? The house call? No.

What the house for the back to back, like oh the vertebreaker. The vertebraer, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um game the vertebreaker on the announce table. And I don't know if it's'cause there've been some announced table injuries in recent weeks in both companies, but the but that AEW announced table last night just looked like painful in a way that I'm not used to it. Maybe I just I'm on different drugs now. And uh and it looked like a lot. And then he got the chain.

Um which is just so fraught. It's so loaded. You know, I mean like we all know the implication. We all know the insinuation of Swerve Strickland wearing chains around his neck to the ring. And it's not a single one. It's a multilayered metaphor there but um but he's gone lunch and but so when he so when he brings it out it feels like he's got s magical powers. Right. It feels like that this is like a man with the intent to kill, really.

And it's like certain wrestlers that carried the rope. Certain you know, certain wrestlers have a thing that just feels like more of a well, it's like Triple H with the sledgehammer, except on a real level, not on a cartoon level. And

He's not gonna come back his hand with it when you hit two. Well I'm just saying, yes, exactly. Triple H is it's kind of a joke because Triple H with the sledgehammer has magic as literally has magical powers. Like I'm doing a thing that doesn't hurt, but you're going to explode, you know? But swerve with the chain is like the real

like I'm scared out of my mind version of that. He puts the chain around his neck. He chokes him. He goes absolutely nuts. He leans into the camera at one point. Maybe it was after the vertebraker and says, I needed that. I needed that. Like he's like he's with like he's finally just released. All these just painful babyface things about himself into the universe.

And well, if we're gonna go in the releasing line, like Pandora's box is now opened. It seems like Swerve heels you know, uh heels Swerve Strickland. Is back in effect. One, AEW needed it. I mean, they have a slightly imbalanced roster at the top of the card, opens up a lot of really interesting matches. Um A lot of guys find that a lot of way, this happens with a lot of wrestlers.

Just cause somebody's mega over as a baby as a heel doesn't mean they should be a babyface. Just cause the crowd is clapping back, you know, is is is responding to you as a heel doesn't mean you have to be a babyface. I'm not saying that's what they did with Swerve. Swerve's swerves. Narrative arc makes more sense than just about anybody in that company.

So this is not an this is not a complaint. But I do think that what we're saying is the most powerful, the most urgent version of Swarb Strickland is was heel Swerb Strickland when he was getting over like crazy. Yep. Like I'm still I'm still a violent fool. I'm still a maniac. But The crowd loves it. Don't you think?

I mean, yeah. I I think it it it fits his personality a lot better. And, you know, love me some Prince Nana. We love the dancing, love the music, and I think that was like a big part of what helped turn swerve uh organically. But I think just like uh as far as the landscape is concerned and his character

Going up against a guy like Kenny Omega and losing the way he did, like, yeah, it makes sense for him to spaz out. It makes sense for him to to, you know, he w it's one of those things where Kenny Omega is kind of like the the Roman Reigns of AEW where it's like, yeah, like that dude's probably gonna win his matches a lot.

He's the he's the he's the cream of the crop. He's like the top well, he's a living legend. I mean he's a he's he is simultaneously one of their best performers and by far the most decorated performer. Yeah. Like is

If he were fat and doing like, you know, just like cutting open his forehead to put guys over, no one would no one could say anything bad about him. You know, like he's like'cause he's he's in that sage of stage of his career where he has more to to give than he has to to to take for himself.

And yeah, but but but he is also you're right, he is the Roman Reigns. You expect he's gonna I mean you do expect he's gonna win, but you also say he's the Roman Reigns of AEW in a sense that like they use victories against him as like Huge things. A a huge thing, like a tip of the cap. Like it's almost as good as getting like a mid card title. Being being able to say you pin Kenny Omega, you beat Kenny Omega. And we've and we've we've And we have y for years we've called

Swerve Strickland, the solo Sokoa of AEW, so it makes a lot of sense that he would get the Um So so Swerve just absolutely lost his shit. Kenny Omega is a perfect patsy. I mean just 'Cause there's nobody can garner sympathy like

'Cause that's the thing. It's like sympathy comes from a human place, weirdly. You know, and hate and hatred and but mo but most baby phase and heel reactions come from a for us, come from a K fabe place a little bit. It's just like I appreciate the work you're putting in. But then when you really when you murder somebody like that, it ha there has to be a human connection to him and Kenny who

Not for nothing. I mean, uh it's whatever. Kenny who like can't necessarily evoke an emotional reaction with a promo does have the ability to evoke an incredible emo emotional reaction with his own That's easy. I mean you could've you could have said the quiet part out loud, Dave. His promos aren't the strongest but You know, uh kinda good at promos, but there's just nothing there. I mean it's just uh it's it's he's gotten a lot better and there's moments where you're like, Yeah, but there's

He's also like an anime villain in those promos, right? Yeah, the whole fair the I do thing at the end is just like like it's like Rick Steiner in the NWO level of like how many catchphrases can we stick together and still nobody cares? You know, like it's just so it's so dumb. But and he does. He sounds he sounds like he's like he's trying to be a wrestler.

Better could turn to be a wrestling villain in a weird way. You're right. And it's but the but the point is not the way he sounds or what he does or the things that he says it's that there's not a you don't feel connected to it at all. But Even so, the promos are often necessary in wrestling to get you the next place. All that is to say, whatever he can accomplish on the microphone, he can accomplish better than anybody else in the company.

with his body, like you said. Um, I'm very interested to see where Swerve goes from here. And just like with MJF, remember when MJF won the title and we're like, well all of the matchups are so much more interesting now, you know? Um There's just so many like obviously there's some ground we've been over. Swerve has been there for a long time. I mean Swerve has been around for a while and has also been heel. He was a heel for a long time. So he got some of these matches.

But man. Like, how much do you want to see Swerve versus Brody King? You know, how much do you there's like it just immediately ideas start popping into your head and you're like, oh yes, he'll swerve. That's what we need. Um and also when when Osprey comes back. Which seems to be do we have a date? Seems sooner rather than later. He certainly will be there by later. Yeah. Um But when he comes back, presumably he'll wind up with MJF before long.

If MJF is still the champ, I mean who knows? But he'll be back in the title picture before long, and that leaves like the entire rest of the roster for Either Swerve or MJF, whoever is not the the heel going against going against Osprey. You know what I mean? Like there's so there's so much room to operate as a top heel in that company. So I'm excited. Where's your playlist taking you? Down the highway, to the mountains?

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Well, here's a good question for you. You know Swerve Strickland in real life. Mm-hmm. Text with him on the regular? Mm-hmm. He's just Kaz is very nervous at what I'm gonna ask. No, this is an easy question. If if w I mean, I've met him like once with you. Didn't spend really any time with him. But if I had dinner with Swerve one-on-one. And talk to you afterwards. To me, would would would does swerve would swerve as a as a human being come off more as a healer or a baby face?

A heel. Sorb's an asshole, my ladies and gentlemen. This is breaking news to everybody who may not know him personally, but most of our text exchange, most of our conversations. Uh revolve around who's a bigger asshole and we all Between you and him? Yes. Like just th things I won't mention on this show, but you know, we we we trade lots of conversations about stuff that goes on within the wrestling industry, within the sports industry, within the music industry.

And it's always just a competition of, you know, and and you'll learn this day once you get a smartphone again, like people don't even send. pictures anymore. They just we just share we just communicate in meme sharing. You know what I mean? Like we just communicate and just like sharing the most wild or thought provoking or like fucked up thing you could find on the internet.

And we just laugh about it. So um but most of the times and he'll tell you this and I I don't think he minds me sharing this, you know, his his drive to be as great a wrestler as he is. is his source of that Is that he's an asshole. Like he's like he's just a I'm not driven driven. Yes. Like not an asshole in the sense that he's like a mean person or anything like that, but like his His thought process, like his motivation, is just in the level of

Nobody's better than me. You know what I mean? Like he he does not believe anybody is better than him in any shape of of wrestling. And and if there's a there's a form of wrestling that I like that he doesn't like.

He's gonna be tight about it and he's gonna say some asshole shit about it. But that's my guy. Don't get me wrong. What type of wrestling? What you mean you mean like ring styles, or do you mean like he doesn't like midget wrestling? Oh, we'll share like We'll share like a clip of like a r uh We'll we share botches here and there. You know what I mean? Like we'll we'll share we'll share some some

funky headlines that come from like the Meltzer reports or just, you know, uh something that goes wrong. Like if there is something, if there is a botch in any sort of wrestling, He's gonna send it to me and we're gonna talk about it. Like it's gonna be like, yo, what the fuck happened here type of shit. And like, you know, not in the sense that he doesn't botch ever, like obviously everybody does.

But that's just the way we communicate sometimes. You mean like you mean like like notable botches in AEW and WWE, not like videos of like uh uh the guy doing the the moonsault off the basketball rim into the ri set up ring and the the or the table in the gym. All of the above, Dave. All of the above. They all they all Uh they all uh adhere. And on top of that, like that's what I'm saying. If anybody ever saw

our texts or, you know, the our our conversations. They'd be like, they'd be like, Yeah, that dude is a natural heel. That dude is a natural heel. He's got a Great dude, but clearly a natural heel. Okay, good. That's so that's that's where that's where I was hoping you would go. For the s for the sake of the listeners. I'm glad that they could get that out.

Uh shout out to Niles Allen. He's in the Only Graps uh uh group chat right now. I asked I asked the group chat, yo, what did you guys think of dynamite? this week and he said, Amazing graps, but I'm always skeptical of the follow through of his story after a good episode. It's feeling like they're actually pushing the plot forward, so I'm hopeful.

So I think he's riding the same sort of vein you're thinking with the swerve field turn and Adam Page uh pretty much putting his opportunity to win titles on the line uh in in in in the future. Like Yeah. The AEW fans are hyper aware of their own history, and they're always ready to reference something in the past because. You know, I mean like mostly they know they're gonna be there for the wrestling, but like if there's something

Two of their biggest stories, I would say, in AEW history sort of revolve around what happened this past Wednesday. One of them is being Cody not being able to challenge for the championship. The other one is the Swerve hangman rivalry and the the like Swerve went to To like be as evil as possible to hangman and and and then and in short, elevated both of those guys in AEW. So

Great point. It's like it's it's n i you're always interested to see how they're gonna follow this up. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like there's definitely interest there in seeing uh what happens. So Very it was really cool. Um well let's talk about some futures a little bit. I'm gonna run back through dynamite. Uh the opening match was uh John Moxley versus Mark Davis. It was a ch eliminator match for the Continental Championship.

But I think it'll go down in history is the match where Mark Davis punched a ring post and it came up bleeding. I'm not sure. If ever just straight up fake blood was used in wrestling, this would be the time you would use it because I d I don't know I don't know anybody who'd be super easy to gimmick their hand, you know? Like I don't

Like who's taking the little razor blade corner and being like I got this and just like cutting between their fingers? Like it's the grossest that that's so much worse for some reason than the head. Um and there's a lot of veins there on the top side. I don't wanna I don't even want to think about it anymore. So that was a wild Cutting arteries or blood is always makes me a little squeamish dog. Yeah. Oh for sure. That's actually a a gimmick that that you could do in wrestling at some point.

You know, just like if you're gonna use the fake blood, make it seem like somebody's artery burst and then just cut the t tran cut the the broadcast. You know, just like, oh it's too much. Um

But uh so so you're talking about the future. What what is the what is the ceiling for babyface John Moxley? John Moxley, who is not just working babyface, which is shocking after basically nine months of him being a year, of him being the most deplored wrestler on the roster in a shoot way. Like people were just mad about his presence.

And now he's this babyface. Now he's the guy who who cuts pro cuts impromptu promos after his big matches talking about how he cares about wrestling. He he shows up to get for for his to make sure his stable mate stays true to his word and gets his head shaved. He you know, calls uh ad libs at the end of a match like his one with Takesha to send the crowd home happy. I mean everything in in real life and in K Fabe is is is

builds up to him being like the biggest babyface in the world. But what is the ceiling here? Are we gonna see baby face John Moxley challenging you know, he'll swerve for the world title at some point or MJF or somebody. Like is there is he a is he a t a title caliber baby face or are they going to have to modulate to get him back there? I'd say so. I think there is an opportunity that would swerve now. I mean w with Moxley.

To really bring his character full circle. The best way to turn babyface is without changing anything, with the crowd just turning you. You know, like you're doing he's done essentially the same stuff. Like a lot of those Death Rider promos that people thought didn't make any sense and thought he was rambling and stuff like that. Ninety-five percent of those promos was just how much he cares about AEW and wrestling and how p how how the company had lost its way. And

To strip away the, you know, hiding the title and some heel tactics. And I think a lot of wrestling fans or AEW fans would have agreed. So The fact that he's essentially the same character and cutting, you know, what is similar to the same promos out on these shows. And now getting massively cheered for it, I could only sort of Compare it to one other guy, and it might be a little blasphemous. So I'm just gonna say it anyway. You wanna talk about full circle?

The ceiling for John Moxley as a baby face in AEW is their version of Stone Cold Steve Austin. That is the silly for him. Like he's got a big thing. Dude, I compared him to Stone Gold. I don't even remember what I what I used, what what what the framing was, but I uh compared him in a very couched way to Steve Austin when he was with WWE.

And people other thing, I mean some people a lot of people agreed with it in some ways, but but of course you don't hear from them as much. Uh but I I would I would hear about that from people for at for years. People would bring that shit up. And I think if I remember correctly, my case was of the three dudes in the shield. You can say Seth Rollins is better in ring. You could say Roman Reigns is more over. There's only one dude one of the three of them that could get

deafening pops at it when the moment was absolutely perfect. You know, the crowd responded to him in a way they didn't the other guys. And I totally agree that for AEW, he can be that guy. The problem is that I think it was always his destiny to be that guy, you know? Mm-hmm. It was always his destiny to be God took his hair just so he could be Stone Cold Steve Austin. He had that podcast at Stone Cold where he was just looking at him like they didn't get along very well.

I don't think they did. Uh but yeah, I think it was kind of his his AW destiny to be there. I mean Moxley Moxley is an odd duck, right? I mean, like I I've never spent any time with the guy, but like from all reports. He kinda he would probably come off as a real life heel too and but not not in the same way as this were. Maybe more because he's just sort of in his own head, in his own space a little bit, you know? Um

But yeah, uh he's he I think Stone Gold Steve Austin with AEW Stone Gold Steve Austin is is a worthy goal. My only question would be, and this is a topic, a conversation for another day. My only question would be How long can Stone like how big of a deal is that in the modern age?'Cause we see him he's been babyface, he's been ill, he's been babyface, and Stone Cloud stone cloud C. Watson's run at the top was we've talked about this before.

Blindingly short, like a v a vanishingly small amount of time, right? Like he was what absolutely peak as peak Stone Cold was like eighteen months, maybe. Mm-hmm. Uh, and what is that and and that's in a previous era where yeah, it was crash T V and like a lot of shit was happening, but also they I feel like things still move faster now in a lot of ways. You know, just be we digest it so much more quickly.

Um peak Stone Gold Steve Austin might be nine months today. You know, and how much and then what would he have to do? Were you a fan of Stone Gold's heel turn, by the way? Two man power trip or like with the with the author I mean with the uh in the in the actually no I wasn't I wasn't really a fan of it.

to be honest. I wasn't. When he was com when he was doing the comedy shit with Kurt Angle. I mean like I like the two man power trip I think in a very abstract way and in concrete ways. Like when they were d when they did Triple H and Austin versus Benoit and Jericho. Like that felt like such a big deal because of all the parties involved, very specifically because of those parties involved.

And there is a limit. I mean, listen, they needed a heel, and Stonecold stepped into that void and was willing to do it and whatever else. I feel like it's too corny or react reactionary to say that he's that the the comedy stuff sort of was n was a you know, betrayed his character. Like he's a guy who didn't need to really change tweak his deal to be a heel and whatever. But regardless, I enjoyed moments of it. But it's hard it's weird to look back and realize what a big chunk of his WWE

time that was spent in that what seems like a very minor side quest. St uh but going back to to um Dean Ambr I'm sorry, to to John Moxley. Yeah, I think I think he could definitely be that dude with two fingers up in the in the middle of the ring, just having won the title despite in insane odds and blah blah blah and the crowd going nuts. I just there's we s we see it right now. There's so many top guys in AEW. You know, what do you do? It's hard to imagine a super long reign.

But man, I don't know. Maybe you take guys like uh hangman out of the picture. They can't wrestle for the title. It kind of opens things up. I mean, it would be cool for hangman to go Concentrate on the on the mid-tier titles, you know, the mid-card titles for a couple years or for a year before you can figure out a storyline way to get them back in there and whatever else. But it seems all very unnecessary for the telling of this story.

You know. Right. But uh here's the thing. I I feel like I compared him to Stone Cold Steve Austin because They're purposely keeping him away from the world title picture, right? Like, yeah. Yeah, and and like they're keeping him away because they know the moment that he decides to focus on the championship and

We assume that he continues this big babyface momentum. That deafening pop that you were talking about earlier in the podcast, like that's that's what happens, you know? Like if you're continuing to build him as this. guy who was a legitimate badass, but cares about wrestling, kinda cares about the fans now, but hasn't really changed much about him. So

And the title picture becomes a dire, you know you got this guy in your back pocket that can take it at any time. You know, also is beloved. So No yeah, no question at all. Um Well we've probably been talking about that for too long. I got another

storyline twist that I want to go over you with. Over on NXT. I'm trying to get out of here. You saw you saw over on NXT how that show ended. We got we uh Sol Ruck has got her title shot against JC Jane next week. At the end she kind of had a she had a break up with Zarya earlier in the show and then at the end of the ring when she was getting attacked by all of Fatal Influence, uh Zarya came out and made the save. Um so there's, you know, it's complicated for sure between those two.

Oh, who has to live through a complicated relationship? I've said I've been I've been on here saying for months that Zar that Sol can't leave until she puts Zarya over as a monster heel. It looks like that might be in the well, they were teasing that earlier in the show. Now they're friends again. Also it's gotta be noticed that JC Jane part of the promo, I mean it was a very good promo, but part of the promo she cut

um on it on th this week was basically saying to be champion you can't depend on anybody else basically you don't you can't need anybody else and and the rest of the other two fatal influencers were just like what in the background. You know, just like you could so there's a lot that could happen. And especially with post WrestleMania call ups looming, if indeed that's a thing, it wouldn't be shocking to see

Half of the people in this in this five per I mean three of the people in this five in this uh five person feud end up on the main roster in a in a month. You know, whatever. So like any kind of anything could happen. But next week they we got this title match that it's really feels built up to be the to the point where either Sol Ruck is gonna win and it's gonna be a triumphant moment or she's gonna lose and it's gonna be Zarya's fault.

You know, and and and or maybe she wins and then gets killed by Zarya. And then we have like both things we we accomplish both things. What do you think? Is Sol gonna take the title next week? Every time I bet against JC Jane, she makes me look stupid. Every single time I'm like, yep, this person's gonna lose the title, or yep, it's gonna be a transitional reign. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. And every single time I have been proven wrong.

Judging by her Royal Rumble appearance, her winning the NXT Women's Championship would probably keep her in NXT for a little bit longer than they probably need her then. Well, unless she gets beat by Zarya like the next month. I mean she could Right, right. But also I don't know, man, like I I get the feeling that like, you know, I don't think she needs to I don't think she needs I don't think she needs a grad ear like Trick Williams got last year where like he pretty much wants a TNA and like

Got his master's one. Like I'm not as I'm I'm not as I'm not as you as high a bitter on Sol Rucka than a lot of people. I don't I'm not as as all the way I mean, I think she's absolutely great, but like I'm not I'm not the ultimate Sol Rucka, you know fan over here. Right. But even I will tell you that like she felt more

at home in the W in the main roster ring when she's there than any than oh yeah. anybody is f I mean, even including like Javon. Um, it just seemed like she deserved to be up there. That she made sense up there. So yeah. Yeah, man. I'm a big fan of Surfer Charlotte, but I don't think she's gonna win this. Like I think cool.

But if she if she wins you could set up a her versus Zarya at for WrestleMania weekend. Put Zarya over WrestleMania weekend so it shows up on Monday night raw or like you know, raw for WrestleMania, like whatever. Like there's a lot of things you could I mean, but really like everybody Fallon Fallon Henry. I'm sorry, Henry. Henley, uh JC Jane could both be on the main roster and relatively short order. So Ruka. I mean Zarya could too, but I'm just Zer Zarya has

A number of stations with the cross to get through before she's tried it all out in in in NXT. Um so yeah, I think she'll be there for a little while. But it was but whatever happens, that's gonna be freaking awesome. Um

SmackDown preview time. You excited, Kez? Yeah, but so far there's nothing that's been announced for SmackDown except the the crate will be there. Some qualifier matches, right? I think we got Trick Williams, Carmelo Hill, and Damian Priest. I think that's gonna be a banger of a I say you gotta get Trick Willie in there, man. I think Trick Willie gets that dub. Uh I think so too. Although although there's a big piece of me that thinks

These are all kind of equal caliber dudes right now. Obviously, like trick's on the way up. Mull is kind of finding his new place and Damian Priest is whatever. I don't know. Like I have no no, in terms of like I don't know exactly where he is on the roster, but but uh Part of me thinks that we're going to be subjected to like a four-month Damian Priest Trick Williams feud. And WWE's thinking is gonna really help Trick get over.

What do you what do you think about my guess? I think Trick Williams could get over on anybody at this point. Oh no, no, no, no. I agree. I but I just think I feel like That Carmelo is the bet a bet on Carmelo is a bet on a side like a you know, just his sidebar feud for Trey. In most in most in most NXT call-ups.

you kinda see them get paired with a veteran to help the younger guy get over. Yeah. And I may be talking a little crazy, but I think Trick Williams is so over and his promo skills are so Out of this world. that a month-long r feud with Damien Priest Helps Damien Priest more than it helps. Like I don't disagree. Damian Priest hasn't done anything of note for for quite some time.

Um every time with Alexander Black and that's all he's done for quite some time. That was really it. You know what I mean? So it's like I think By the way he's another dude, Damian Priest. It does a in a very modern a minor key version of my complaint about Javon Evans. Just like I'm not like I don't mind that he's a babyface so much as why is he like hanging out with the other baby faces backstage? Why is he just a good like he shouldn't be a good guy in K Faith? He should be a loner, you know?

I mean he was for a minute. You know what I mean? He was for a minute, but uh golly. I think I think Trook Williams wins this match. I think you need him in that chamber. Um That was that was my guess until I started like second thing double thinking or triple what second uh I thought about it too much. I think you have an opportunity to to, you know, having Javon already in there, throwing Trick in there. I think Randy Orton, LA Knight, Cody Rhodes.

And I think the last one's uh Jay Uso and those guys and Bronson Reed in the last match. I don't know. I I really can't call it man, but I think Where they put Trick Williams on this card, uh, for Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania is gonna be mad interesting because Dude is He's getting the rock. He's he gets the rock spotlight. Like they just have him come to the ring, stand in the middle of the ring, and just run down people like the rock used to do in 1998. And it's great.

It's awesome. He could be fighting for a world championship at WrestleMania or literally just coming out and cutting a promo on celebrities and either one of them. is a great spot for him at WrestleMania. You know what I mean? So I don't know where he ends up in the elimination chamber. I don't know where he ends up tonight, but wherever he does, it's going to be very, very interesting to see how it how he ends up.

Yeah. The crate's gonna be there tonight. What's gonna be here? The crate's gonna be there tonight. Oh yeah. Uh yes. I am guessing the crate won't I'm guessing the the uh if the the extent of the crate's involvement will be Them sending it back to Raw.

Did you put an official pick for what you think the the what's in the box? I think it's gotta be Jericho. Oh, we didn't talk about Jericho's contract being frozen. That was the big news of this week. Oh, he's in Guan. Contana Mobi. Welcome. We hope you enjoy your stay. WWE has historically been obviously a much worse offender on holding guys under contract that wanted to leave when the contracts are nominally up. Tony Khan's mistake was that there he didn't realize that such a

easy funny pun would be there available to call it gu Cantonamo Bay any time somebody's held hostage. So now it's just anytime we talk about a r a wrestler being held hostage, it there'll be a Cantonamo Bay joke, even if it's WWE doing it. So good job. WWE's like Like thousand-person PR team sits around coming up with puns to try to deflect things on the AEW. Just like, what if we call it Cantonamo Bay? Hashtag it. Get it out there. Um, but yeah, it it's uh who knows if that's real. To me.

'Cause they said it was sourced to people close to Jericho. I know people close to Jericho, I could call around. Mm-hmm. But just as the unsourced fan, my gut reaction was, oh no, no, no. This is sources close to Jericho saying, like putting up a smokescreen so that we'll be shocked when he makes his WWE appearance. Mm-hmm. And he's apparently on tour with his band. I never look at these dates. I'm just f I read about him third hand and it's always too late.

But apparently he's on tour with his band until like the week before the the uh in elimination chamber. So it would make some sense that this would be my guess is that it's Jericho or Jericho related. It is interesting the number of posts I've seen around the internet across various social media platforms of people like earnestly asking their friends who what do you who do you think is in the crate or what do you think is in the crate?

I don't think it's an earnest question. I mean, I don't I don't think it's an earnest answer. Like I I don't think WWE's on the level with us here. I think I maybe this goes without saying. Whatever is inside will be funny. Right? Like it's gotta like this is a comedy bit. You could see by the way that that then that all this I mean, sorry, that that um The scrapdaddy was like f about played about the whole thing. It was silly. Here's another thing I will say. If you don't think it's Jericho.

Explain the PA with the clipboard ostentatiously being waved around in front of the crate when we were f when we first saw it. This is either that's a that's whether or not that's the answer, like WWE was definitely thr wa make trying to make us think about Chris Jarrett.

Um it could have been there accidentally, but no. I give WWE all the Stanley Kubrick style credit for background for you know random signals they could possibly do. Of course. Um it's like Rob Fee is like, make sure he has a make sure he has a clipboard. It's important. And he was right if he said that. Um but yeah, so I th I think that we'll get no answer tonight about that clipboard. Oh, well we won't get an answer until uh Chicago elimination chamber.

Do you think it'd be part of the main event? Like we'll go the whole night wondering what's going on, and then someone's gonna wheel that box so that Right before we get out. And then Bad Bunny's gonna kick the door open in the clock in the other box and point to the WrestleMania sign and be like, walk out. Well got bad bunny. He's back.

And we'll see. We didn't look at we didn't run through the WrestleMania we didn't run through the WrestleMania feuds today to see whether or not any of them were more than I than I don't like you. CM Punk. Feud with Roman Reigns at least has some history. You know, last year they had their giant falling out for the WrestleMania match and and everything.

But the ride from like Survivor series to now has been pretty empty and they're trying to make fill it up with stuff. It's basically just like, no, I don't like you. You know, like I want I'm gonna take your belt. Uh well, you know it's a little bit more than that, I would say. I mean, of course no, listen, these guys are fine. They're doing it, they're doing it up. I just think this is all but such a sidebar. I said it before.

Roman Reigns winning the rumble would have made much more sense if he spent a while trying to decide. And I don't think they had the they they could not afford to do that. Or WWE decided they couldn't. And so we got rushed into this thing that

Probably two weeks, three weeks worth of promos, and they're gonna have to spread it out over, you know, a l a longer period of time. All that is to say The crate, if they do wait, the only way they wait till the crate is the last thing they do is if it's like Chr something as big as Chris Jericho calling out the winner of the match. You know what the winner of the ch of of the CM Punk

uh Finn Balor match. Right. Because because there's no reason, no matter what is in the crate, there is no r there's nothing that'll make the crowd happier, more excited, whatever, than CM Punk winning. Right, we're in Chicago. So the last shot should be CM Punk like jumping in the crowd. Please don't do that. Please don't do that, Phil. Uh we need all of your bones intact for the WrestleMania run. Um but that that's what I that's how I assume the show would end.

That was a very long way of answering that question. The only way the crate is the last thing is if it's Chris Jericho somehow starting a feud with CM Punk, but CM Punk's already feuding with Roman Reigns. What if? What if Finn Balor wins? Then does Roman Reigns have to fight Finn Balor at WrestleMania, or does Roman get to make his choice again?

If Finn Balor wins, he's just gonna be like, Nope, I want Drew now. Yeah, what is how does that work within the rules? They haven't discussed it, which probably means Finn Balor's gonna lose. Yep. Anytime they're selling tickets based on the next match for the guy you're facing, then you're probably not gonna win the match. Um but it would be awesome if they did. If that the only way that it makes sense, like I said before, was if if it's f if it's a triple threat at WrestleMania.

Um, but I have a hard time imagining. Well, we'll see. We'll see. I don't know. What do you think about the crate? Who's it gonna be? What's it gonna be? How big will it be will it be last or not last at Elimination Chamber? Yeah, I I I think Depending on what it is, yeah, there's a way for CM Punk to not be the last uh visual all of the night. I think I think

Depending on who it's referring to. Like If it's John if it's Chris Jericho and you promised me that I get like some ill farewell tour uh as a part of WWE and and then it'll start by frickin' calling out That's good. That's really, really good. Um But CM Punk's got a dance partner. Like what is C what are they what is he gonna do with CM Punk? He's got plenty.

It depends on how the match goes. If there's some chicaner involved, you know what I mean? If there's some chicanery involved where it just makes more sense to have him be a part of the the triple threat match, I'm with it. But it just It's uh I I'd love to be shocked. I'd live to be shocked. I'd love for Finn Balor to to win the championship just even just for a couple of weeks, like two or three weeks, just to shake shit up. You know what I mean?

makes it make the roads of WrestleMania feel a little different, you know? Mm-hmm. I don't disagree. It needs they need some shaking. There is so much opportunity to shake right now. It would be cool. The judgment day was like kind of back in full force too. So it's like

You know, it would it would it would look good with the It was as much as we as much as we've, you know, had to spend time with the judgment day over the years, maybe because of that, it is very amazing that J D McDonough's return from injury felt like such a heartwarming moment. Yeah. You know, like when he walked up there, everybody was just like, There he goes. Good job, JD. There he goes.

So yeah. Well it'll be it'll be it'll be interesting. Obviously the Finn Balor has a lot on the line. He's he's once again staked his Stake this claim on on uh this sort of redemption tour and and and uh we'll see. We'll see how the other guys in the maybe this will lead may maybe he's gonna lose, but this leads to a different phase of the character. Maybe there's a judgment they fall out. Maybe there's there's a lot of things that could happen. If he loses

It's not like much will change. You know what I mean? He's been losing for a long time. If he wins, however, everything changes, even if for a couple of weeks, three weeks. So somebody asks Van Balor how to keep how to have an eight pack like him and he's like Ah it's easy. You just like just

Avoid the middle of the grocery store. It's like what? It's like you go to the fruits and vegetable section, you go to the meat section. That's it. Yeah. Meat and eggs. That's all you're allowed to eat. It's like, okay. Well. I like the meat and eggs part. That's Finn's uh uh health advice. If you ever want abs like him, you know what I mean? That's what I mean. Stay out of stay out of the middle aisles and I've I've tried to do that.

The cereal I go open. The cereal aisle calls me. I can't I can't not get a box of cereal in. When I go to the middle aisles, like I hear Finn's voice in my head like, Don't eat it. Yeah. Don't open it. Go get real food. Get real meat, real fruits and vegetables. I'm like, Thank you, Finn. I'm gonna be okay. I appreciate that. You say that while you're putting like the

share size bag of of of you know, Twix bars into your cart. Just like, Yep, I do hear you, fam. Uh sprinkled of some hot Cheeto dust in there. Something, I don't know. I don't even eat hot Cheetos, but What's your chip of choice? We gotta get out of here. But I I should I'm a salt and vinegar type of guy. Okay. My favorite chip is the the purple bag Doritos. The purple bag Doritos Uh the spite sweet and spicy crunch, whatever it is. Oh yeah. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. How hot is it?

Is it a hot is it one of those super hot ones? Oh it just gives you a little twang. It's like a little little sweetness with a little twanginess to it. It's not hot at all, but it's good. Yeah. All right. I'm all over the place on my chips right now. I feel like I'm in in between phase. I go to this when I go to grab some I never can decide what I want with my sandwich.

Mm. Usually I'm something I'll just go like plain like old school lays or whatever or ruffles if they have'em, you know. Old school lays you could never go wrong with. Like any any sort of rigid chip, you know what I mean? With some some waviness to it. I'm always I'm always with. Not too bad. I like Pringles, but like it's too flat.

It's too flat. You know? Like the the Well, it's why you can eat the whole s the whole sleeve of them in five seconds'cause it's just there's not a lot going on there. Yeah. You could like the good thing about those salt and vinegar chips is that it takes it you

You gotta take a minute. Yes. Yes. You eat a couple of those and you're like your mouth has to relax afterwards. You gotta you got those cankosaurs or those cankers in the back of your jaw. Let them feel it for a little bit, you know, wakes you up. It's like it's like Red Bull chips. We haven't talked about chips enough. I feel like we've talked about I asked what what stores every wrestler should be working at.

We g that's a good one. Also, what chip sh do you think eat is each wrestler's favorite? Yeah. Solid chip. I'm not too much of a chip guy anymore, but we're not gonna have to do that. No, me neither. So we'll have we'll we'll have but w but it's good we can have opinions about chips. You know, like wait, you look like a Like you look like a freaking, you know, blazing hot talkies guy. You know, like we I've never had Takkies in my life.

Oh they were they were a big deal in LA. I mean I know they're a big deal everywhere now. I just never got it too when I lived in LA um it dude my son came home from a um Stepson came home from what? It was th third grade or fourth grade or something like that. He was going to like public school in in um in Echo Park.

You know? And it was a the uh the the blaze the hot talkies were a huge deal amongst the other kids on the playground and he's not a hot chip guy, but like wanted to wanted to get them to be cool. So yeah, the talkies were a big part of the life. You remember the remember the that remember those kids who rapped about hot Cheetos and Takis? Do you rem do you remember this that meme from like ten years ago, eight years ago? I think I do. Yeah.

Um no, I can't do with the hot chips. I can do some hot stuff for like gimmicry, you know, just like eat this freak these hot wings, you know, eat these whatever. Just uh I mean, you know, Tex Mex food. Oh, this is a freaking ghost pepper thing. I don't love it. I don't my stomach hates it, but like

I can ima but the but this blazon hot chips do nothing for me except make me upset. Like it doesn't taste good, it's not funny, it's not whate like it's just no. Keep that shit away from me. I'm too old. I'm too old for gimmicked chips. All right? Just give me something that tastes good.

Anyway, all that's a really long thing. Oh, by the way, what are the odds that Jericho comes out and then and then he's just met swiftly by the career killer Gunther who murders him and that's the end? Like is there is there like a is that a feud? Like if the crate comes out and like Gunther just comes and just beats the crate up, you know what I mean? Assuming it's Jericho and he's like ha ha ha ha ha and then you know.

Countdown comes down and like Jericho just like Up in the W didn't he debut up in the b up in the balcony? But then when he first came to the WWE, no, are you kidding me? The the rock, the countdowns of the millennium. He was on the ramp, man. Dude, my my brain has him in for in some balcony for some reason. No I remember that Jericho debut like it was yesterday. That's why they probably going so hard to make this right.

Yeah. I guess we'll have to wait until he gets out of Cantonamo Bay to figure that whole thing out. I think it's free.

Saw a lot of folks at WWE headquarters at like Creator Creator. I saw literally nothing. The only thing I I know you were on this on the chat. So subscribers, so only graps will will uh we'll I'm sure hear a lot about it. But the only thing I saw was was that it was a clip of Chelsea like walking without a walking boot. But so there's a lot of people at WWHQ for a two K creators fest. And and you weren't invited and you're you you're upset.

Where the fuck was our invite, yo? I'm just saying. Create a lot of content in these streets. I like video games. You know what I mean? I did I did y'all character review two K's ago. And now I don't even get the invite. Y'all don't even bring me to the headquarters. I've been to the headquarters a million times. Yeah. All right.

Maybe they just thought you would be there'cause you're such a shill that you just hang out there all the time. You know, they probably thought I'd just come downstairs but not yet. Listen, I used to get invited to two K events. Maybe they think we're too good for them now. I don't know, Bryce. Maybe. Maybe I probably wouldn't have

Uh, I probably wouldn't have gone. I never go to things. But I'm trying to change things. And to be fair, to be fair, I definitely wouldn't have made it yesterday because I definitely had to go tape with Carmelo. But that's not the point. So you're complaining about we wouldn't have been there. Actually, you know what? Like Brian H. Waters would have gone. He would have like driven up.

Yes, yes he would have. And we'd had some fire content, but nah, son No, I don't don't don't make me start naming names out there, WWE, all right? Next time we don't get no invite. It's no it's not WWE. It's two K. It's a separate company that is that that throws the most lavish exciting parties. Uh and it's always fun to be ex invited. Shaking my finger at you guys. Yeah, busted open in there.

You know what I mean? We'll be launching the video component of this podcast very soon. I'm hope that I know everybody's been asking about that. Um But if we're if we need more comment content to do, I, as someone who has never played a 2K game. Well... learn how to play exclusively for the purposes of get of of making 2K happy. We can do a bit where like David learn David the old man learns how to play video games.

Uh that would be fun content. If you think it's good content, I don't know. Ask the group chat. We'll see. Yes, I shall. Yes, I shall. Matter of fact, let me hop in there one last time before we wrap up. Uh let's see. Shout out to Parham Habibie said only grabs MF. Chris Eric Clark Jr. says Bucks versus FTR is going to be wild. And uh yeah, pulling Aubrey in the wind was so so good. Shout out to Joe Gonzalez. Yeah. Yeah, p pull pulling why?

Uh Aubrey. Uh Aubrey Edwards when Swerve was you know what I mean? That was a great move. But um Yes, I'm very excited about this. I'm glad that they're leaning into the yes, you've seen this before, but it's but it's so awesome we can't resist. Uh yeah, I'm I'm I'm very excited for that. Um

God, it's just so much fun. I love and I love the FTR promo. Dax was just like you gave us you brought us here. You gave us the, you know, you you you were the best tag team in the world, and now you're way behind us. Like it's just it's exact it's all you need to say and and you're done.

Uh Bianca Belair had the hand surgery. She's gonna hopefully be back at some point now. She's think she seemed to react like she finally got it fixed months and months after her initial surgery, which is just terrifying. Um Uh what else? Xavier Woods taking time off due to injury. I guess this is this should we should be going back to the seller no sell rubric. I don't know if there's anything. Okay, here's the o the only thing I wanted to talk to you about was

Jazz has officially joined the WWE Performance Center as a coach. Go pick up Royce Key damn yeah. Uh hell yeah. Roy Royce Keyes said in his interview with Stephanie McMahon, which by the way, where's Royce? Did he just make his debut and now we're just gonna wait till after WrestleMania to do anything with him? I don't know. But um Royce Key says he wants to be a coach someday.

Or he wants to work for WWE post career, maybe as a as a agent or whatever. This guy here. What is he talking about that for? Yeah, but the news news came out that he's actually forty one or whatever, so he's not So they got they gotta so now he's now he's talking about retirement. Uh I agree. It's way too soon to talk about that. Is that a low key advantage for WWE and when it comes to free agency that they're the only we when you're especially when you're talking to people who are 40 and up?

They they're the only place that really has an infrastructure like a l AEW has a has a staff. Don't get me wrong. They they they employ a lot of former wrestlers backstage. But WWE just has a lot more job positions, right? Like is that you can work at the PC, you could work, you know, obviously as a as one of the the the army of

of uh producers. Like t is is that i would that be a an a lure part of the allure for you if you were a free agent? It would be for me. I mean, everybody wants some security. I think that's what all people are Mm-hmm. some sort of fallback option at the end of the day. So yeah You know, WWE should really have a and then they do I know they do this to some extent and maybe they do it more way more than I know.

But they should almost have like a like a doctoral student program at the PC where it's like For but it's for NXT people who have just sort of been cut'cause there is no upside for'em, or j just to go there, or just for people who are on the back half of their career and aren't getting moved. I mean aren't getting used much. Just like it's actually the PC, but you just like are not there to be a wrestler. You're there to learn how to teach at the PC.

Right. You're you're just like you're you're you're honing your teaching skills and then, you know, we could all follow those guys on some dumb reality show. That would be that that would be a thing. Anyway. That's about it for this week. We've covered everything we can. Smackdown, I'm sure, will be fun, although there's no real preview, minus the two qualifier matches, I think, which we discussed, the men's w and the women's we discussed uh on Tuesday.

So that'll be exciting. Is there anything else we missed? I hope not.

Get your plugs in. I'll see if they've posted a smackdown update. Uh yeah, man. New episode of 7 p.m. in Brooklyn, 7 p.m. in LA live is up. On YouTube with the legendary Chris Paul, myself, Carmelo Anthony, talking live from All-Star Saturday night.

Uh go check that out when you get a chance. Every Monday. I saw some parts of that. It was it was very fun. Dog riveting stuff. He was in tears at a certain point. So definitely check that out when you get a chance. Um Every Monday through Friday, catch me on mornings with Merrill with uh Kid Merrow, Mia Bell, Shiny Culture, DJ Cast one.

and uh DJ Juanito here in New York City Hot Nighty Seven. You can download the app. You can watch us on Hot Nighty Seven TV. You could see the download the podcast version of the show. You can't miss us. Can't miss us. And um, yeah, brand new episode of 7 p.m. in Brooklyn uh drops this Monday as well with guest, legendary actor Wood Harris. You know what I'm saying? So check that out as well. And um Yeah, that's all I got. Oh of course. Only grab

Patreon.com slash only graps if you wanna hop in our group chat and talk wrestling with me and the guys. We'll get Dave his phone very soon, but Holler at me for only one tenth of Mercedes Monet's uh text platform, 999. You will talk directly to your boy, and I'll make it worth your while, son. That sounds crazy. There's a there's a the WWE's doing a photo experience.

at Elimination Chamber or or uh adjacent to Elimination Chamber. The four the four people that they le that they have on the poster are Stephanie Vacare, Damian Priest, Alexa Bliss, and Penta. Who do you want your picture taken with most? Stephanie Vacer. Without even a question. Without even thinking about it. Penta too. Penta's my my daughter's favorite wrestler. But and Pinta Pinta is a more fun wrestler for your profile pick.

Oh, I don't I don't care what I don't care what app you're in. If you get a cool photo of you and Pento with like doing the hand gesture with your tongues out like That's a that could just sort of live forever. You know, that's like my author photo. Um, but you're right, it's one of those two. Anyway, thank you, Kaz. Thank you to producer Stephon Anderson. Brian H. Waters is off being lazy. Thank you to our EP. Ben Cruz, thank you all for the first time. Finn Balor's gonna be okay.

We'll see you back.