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This is awesome. Yeah. Yeet. I don't like that. No. I had to do some research real quick. I have to finish the song. All the nostalgia freaks out there are gonna want the match. I'm in on this idea, but only if heard worldwide. What's up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of Ringer Wrestling Worldwide. Worldwide? A proud... And of course...
the super producer here at The Ringer, Mr. Brian H. Waters. No Ringer Wrestling Show Tribal Chief David Shoemaker today. He is off, but I still wanted to keep the spirit. of shoes alive on the show. So, um, Hollywood, I don't normally do this, but, um, I've preplanned the way I'm going to greet all of you. when I first see you in Vegas in two weeks for Manium. Can you guess the two-word greeting? I'm going to yell embarrassingly loud at all of you.
from across the lobby oh man i could just see us you know near like the fountains outside where Julius Caesar once walked, and you would walk in, your hands up, arms stretched out wide, and you would say, hello! wrestling. That's right. That's what Julius Caesar would want. Is Hollywood going to have to greet you back when you do that? I think so.
A whole chorus of people in the lobby. Hello! Well, that's how we'll know who's a listener, too. Because if they catch us and they join in, that'll be great. Then we can all have a moment. Just say hello. Exactly.
Exactly. But guys, happy April Fool's Day, by the way. April 1st. We're in April. Yeah. For those of you not tracking the dates. Again, which brings us to almost two weeks until... yeah it's it's creeping up fast uh but before we get before we leave for vegas and i abandoned my family for a couple of days to uh to go do wrestling things i need some worst i i need some parental wrestling advice okay yeah because um i got in some trouble the other day my son
tried to rock bottom my daughter oh no he yelled out rock bottom and then he had her he was trying to hook her and I, you know, obviously we immediately, we stopped it. But my wife turns to me half jokingly, half kind of seriously. And she goes, I wonder where he got that from. Because straight up, I pretend to rock bottom this dude. all the time yeah exactly right for for us yep completely this is completely normal behavior even though every
every piece of WWE content says don't try this at home. Of course we're trying this at home. What are we, you know, what are we, robots? Right. Oh, man. My question for you guys is... You're both dads and have had your kids involved in wrestling fandom in some capacity throughout their lives. How did you navigate the whole you should watch this, but maybe you shouldn't watch this? and and take this with you but don't take that part because i i as
my kids are becoming, they're little, they're younger, they're six and three, but they're becoming more aware of like what I'm watching and the video that I'm playing 2K25 all the time. So how did you guys navigate and how should I navigate as they enter their formative years? Right now, you might need to get little man some... What's the equivalent of a wrestling buddy? You know, like a little stuffed situation. I saw one of Chelsea Green the other day. I think they still... I'll do that.
The thing is, is, I mean, I... You never know what's real no more. Or license, I should say. And it is April Fool's Day, so, you know, take everything with a great assault. We don't know what's out there. We haven't Googled anything. Exactly. Back in the late 80s, I have a cousin who's a month older than me. And...
we were always a tag team, whether it was the, we were the Fantastics and, and, and it was my pet monsters before it was a wrestling buddies. And when I tell you, or if like I had to be Hawking, I was jumping off the top bunk bed and, And I'm not saying girls don't, but I know that boys do. When I got maybe 10 years later, when ECW was a thing, I remember chokeslamming my younger cousin. Like AJ Francis, bam, on the spare couch.
And he and, you know, he went on and he's he's done great things with his life. He went to the service, everything like that. When my son was a fan, he's a little older than your son. It was, I mean, he was very, he had energy and he was like, he was trying to kill. I was his wrestling buddy at that point. Yeah. The thing is, is, and again, this is why I stressed that my son was a little older because at a certain point you got to let. him know that
uh, you can let him tap, you can make him tap out. You know what I mean? Like, you, you, you gotta let him know that there was a limit. Like it's cool to, you know, you want to act like you punch in, you know, and, Oh, Like, you know, we can do that. But when you're good, especially, you know.
God forbid, your sister, and you try to hit her with, nah, we don't do that. You want to practice moves, you get a wrestling buddy, you know, you get a pillow, you get something, and you handle that in a safe environment where you're not going to get hurt. I got to ask you this question. What's up? For those who just listening, your shirt say, please don't cry. Please don't cry. How many times have you said that to your little cousin? We ain't doing nothing. Get over here.
had to find the tape. There was one infamous Christmas where everything was recorded. And I remember we pulled it was 9-1-1 from ECW at the time. We pulled the 9-1-1 choke slam off camera and then my cousin, he came on camera. He was like, they grabbed me on my neck. And we were like trying to grab at him to get him to, you know, stop snitching or whatever. That stuff feels, the thing is.
if you're into this stuff, like it's tough to not do it, but you have to have, you have to give a, you have to establish that there's rules to you. You're not jumping off furniture. You're not. throwing your sister around or anything that's going to break, anything like that. But then you have to establish some type of safety.
area for your child to bang around a little bit. Resting buddy in a pillow is a good call. It's good advice. I grew up where there was carpet in the house. Nowadays, carpet is forbidden. But, you know, that was the areas. We never...
Russell, like in the basement, me and my sister, it was never on the hard floor. It was always the basement with the carpet. And like, you know, my uncle, the one who wanted me to be named Junkyard Dog, I was by him being 15 years older than, I mean, 11 years older than me.
He was happy because I woke up in sharpshooters. My mother expected him to babysit me. So, you know, and my sister, like, there's a story where he went to, this is when Diesel was hot, and he went to hit the jackknife on my sister, and he missed the bed. The jackknife is reckless. That's rough. Powerbombs are like a controlled slam down. A jackknife is a throw. It's a throw. With us, it was with my kids.
son is five years older than my daughter. You know, it was always like, no, you got to let her, you got to let her get the edge a lot of times. And then most of the time I would team up with her. to prevent. Oh, to even it out. Yeah, to even it out. You got to teach them how to work. Yeah, like Cal said, you got to establish dominance. You got to make sure you got to hook them sometimes. Yes.
On the exerting dominance part, and I'll work from there, I do agree. And I've been trying to do that. Obviously, I've been rock bottoming our son. He's much easier to lift. But also, though... I need both of them to grow a little bit taller because there are times where...
if they're just laying down on the floor and they're acting like they've fallen down or something, if we're fake wrestling, and I'll be like, I gotta slap a sharpshooter on them or a figure floor. Their legs are not long enough. I've tried to do... the rap on a figure four and you're like your uh your limbs are there's nothing here for me absolute absolute no sell and I just get upset and that's a shoot move too yeah it is oh figure four is one of the most painful things yes I was
In the fourth grade, I was locked into figure four for an entire recess period and my legs hurt for three days. That's a true story. What kind of torture was going on? I couldn't, I was trying to reverse it. You know how you see the reverse? Where you're like, trying to lift your shoulder. Because you're like, I'm going to turn them. And actually, the reverse doesn't hurt as much as they make it seem. Exactly. Damn. Yeah. So, I can't wait until they're a little bit older so I can...
again, exert my dominance in that safer manner where I'm not going to break their legs or anything. But the wrestling buddy or pillow is a good call. Hollywood, we have some carpet in our house. I got to let you know. They've fallen plenty of times on that shit because they're kids and they run around. It does not look not a soft landing. No matter what type of safe bump you take. You know what's so funny?
The other day, me and my lady was at the park, right? And we playing on the grass, like playing, you know, baseball or whatever and talking. And I said, we used to wrestle outside.
mentally we thought when you hit the grass it was better than hitting the cement but like you said it wasn't that much of a better no it's all the same well no it's it's it's the idea of taking a pile driver on the padding versus picking up the padding and then do the power drive right there like it it's really not that different but it looks crazy different yeah
We've really just been wrestling pilled. We're figuring out what surfaces are safer to take a bump on. In actuality, now that we're all older and in our 30s, we're like... Actually, everything will hurt when you fall. Everything hurts. No matter what. Climbing the fence looking like we was in the, you know, before the cage match was the actual fence when it was still Big Blue. We was climbing the fence like it was a cage. Right. This was therapeutic, guys. Thanks for doing it. Anytime.
Yeah, I'm just like, I'm terrified of when, you know, I see some color and one of them is actually bleeding. And I'm like, okay, I'm never going to be allowed to watch. pops up looking like Jimmy Uso. That's crazy. Yeah. And I'm just going to break into a J.R. voice. He's wearing a crimson mask. My wife's going to be upset. What? Yeah. That's what you hope. She's not home at the time.
Oh yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Uh, speaking of the crimson mask though, we, that's, that's actually a great segue into what happened last night. Uh, cause Jimmy Uso was rocking. A Crimson Mask. Facts. Look, there's been a lot of discourse about this Jey Uso Gunther build over the last 10 weeks. I think one of the questions I asked Shoemaker.
last week or the week before was, you know, has this build been too long? And the answer is probably yes. But I, last night, yesterday, depending on what time you watched it, I think we turned a corner. Oh, yeah. And Team Let It Play Out had a moment. I'll start with you, Cal. How was this segment and that match specifically with Gunther and Jimmy for you in terms of building towards what Gunther and Jay are going to do at Mania?
We had the convo last week when we saw the whole situation where Jimmy was the mystery partner and what happened in the setup for this match here. And we talked about how this is what the feud needed. I didn't think we was going to get what I thought we were going to get because they had the match. It was a solid match. Gunther wins. jay immediately comes out they start beefing and then goons is just like all right hold up the title they go to they go to
Netflix commercial break. And I tweeted, I was like, well, I was kind of hoping for more, not going to lie. And then they come back and all of a sudden... Gunther's got twist ties and he's bashing Jimmy upside the head. Jimmy crawls in. The color of his face matched his fit. It was what they needed, especially when...
when Gunther's got Jimmy in the choke or whatever, whatever that hold was, and he's yelling at Jay like, come get your brother! Come get your brother! It was exactly what was the, I think, Jimmy was the sacrificial lamb that I thought he was going to be. being. I think he played the role perfectly. Jey Uso's out for blood. No pun intended. He told Gunther, I'm going to kill you. I think this is the...
Very clear. Multiple times. I think, you know, not fast and they're furious. This is that nitrous in the tank that's making Jay go from. that Yeet Man level, Royal Rumble champion, Royal Runner winner to potential World Heavyweight champion, regardless of what the streets say. I really don't even care at this point. about what they think about what Jay can or can't do in the ring. Right now, for the story, this is exactly what was needed, and they did a great job.
Those shots of Gunther walking backstage, he was all covered in Jimmy's blood. He was trying to taste on TV. Rubbing it on himself. Tasting the blood was a little crazy for me. This is what we needed, though, I think, for both of them. Gunther looked like a killer, and Jay now has even more incentive to go after Gunther. He took his brother out.
Right. And so piggybacking off of that Hollywood, what part of that segment really kind of set it off for you? Was it the coming back from the break, as Cal said, like... uh gunther's second attack which is kind of when things really turned a corner was it the image of jay zip tied to the to the ring to the corner
or was it the amount of blood that Jimmy was spilling? Obviously, all three of them collectively were key in kind of driving where the story is going, but was there any one of those specifically that really kind of put it over the top for you? For me, it was as soon as he was zip-tied. It took me back. I just watched Randy Orton and Triple H's Road to WrestleMania 25. Oh, yeah. Seeing Triple H tied to the ring.
Wow, Orton. And, you know, there's always been this talk about 2009 Orton when the guy said he would go through 2009 Orton. get at this girl and Orton tweeted, oh, he really, she really, he really wants you, bro. You know, like bro really wants you. Like he was a menace and that's what Guter looked like. Then I also. I was looking at the bloodline story the other day and it takes me back to when, you know, what made Jay say I quit the Roman was an injured Jimmy getting choked up, you know? So.
I was five years ago just out too. Exactly. Crazy, right? You know, and that right there. Like, you know, knowing how close these brothers are, you, you hearing like off camera, you hearing Jimmy talk about how proud of he is of Jay, you know? And so just that support, it's like, yeah. This is what it took, right? That right there, you holding this man and you making him watch. That's the worst thing you can do to a sibling, especially two of them that shared the womb together. Right.
Twins too. Big twins. I was trying to think this through in terms of what's... I've been trying to remember every single Gunther J interaction over the last couple of weeks, right? Because last night was so, it stuck out so much in terms of, oh, this is the best thing that's happened. In the last, you know, however many weeks it's been since the, you know, the night after the, or when, since when he chose Gunther to, to be his mania opponent. And I don't know.
I don't know if this is the correct way to look at it, but when you're looking at those moments with the Alpha Academy, where you're like, oh great, he's going to beat up Tozawa again, or Gunther's going to beat up Otis again, and Jay's coming up for the save. And I know, again, the discourse about this build has been extensive. Did last night make it all worth it, though? Or...
Is it still a conversation of has this been too long? I don't know. I'm open to both sides. I'm just curious where you guys are. I think last night made this feud. feel like it mattered more than it has before like when Jay won the Royal Rumble it felt a lot about it felt a lot like inevitable. You know what I mean? He's going to win this title. And I think because of that and then hearing that there were 10 weeks in between, it turned into, well, what's the story going to be?
And again, we're talking about a couple of weeks before we get to mania. we're getting this impactful part of the story which is what we need but you know it's part of it can feel like uh it it took a little bit you know it took a little bit to get something somewhere where something mattered but i don't know i mean is it is it going to make that much of a difference once you know we if jay wins the title are people going to be worrying about the build as much
You know, like once once once he gets that time and he's eating, I think that's why I think the bigger question to me is always. If he wins. then what what's what's the plan for for jay as a world heavyweight champion you know what i mean yeah and i mean if they've come across that challenge before right in terms of the you know i think they had to do that with seth
They did it with Cody, honestly, after he won the title last year. It took a while for him to figure out where he was going to go. He had some decent views after that, but it wasn't anything... maybe to write home about right like he had some great matches with styles is right after that right um and hollywood i'm curious your thoughts on
So obviously we need to figure out what's going to happen with Jay if and when he wins a title. And I think that's a fair question. But I'm curious if you think that this whole feud with... Jay and Gunther has ultimately been actually super beneficial for Gunther because, again, his title run up until Jay chose him was okay, right? I think we've had...
a couple of discussions on this pod alone where we're like, what is, is it time to get the title off Gunther? You know, how do we, how do we figure this out? And now again, I think it's, it's just proven that he is a bad-ass. last night proved that he can be diabolical when he needs to be. And it, I don't know, in some ways for me, I don't know if you, I want to see if you agree. It's just like, he might be okay without the title. And like, we can.
There's a path for him to succeed even without it and to kind of figure something else out. Yeah. You know, I think this is beneficial to him because like... Cal said the key word is he looked like a killer, right? Uh-huh. We felt that way before he was world champion. You know, he had that dominant run as an intercontinental champion. And it kind of felt like this world title reign, I don't want to say dummy down, but he kind of had to like...
come and meet people there to show that he's beatable. But then when Damien Priest finally said, look, in the ring, you're a general. but I'm the king in the streets. That's when they felt, okay, now we somewhere. It didn't feel like that going into him winning the title or right afterwards. But with Jey Uso...
Jey Uso being a man of the people, he's, you know, essentially today's people's champion, right? And there's always room in pro wrestling. We've seen this with DDP. There's always room in pro wrestling for a people's champion to get over. Because there's easy to get the sympathetic factor. But then also we know Jay been through bloodline rules. He's been through tribal combat. So it's like, oh, yeah, wait. We want to see. We believe he can beat because.
He got his ass whooped by his own family. That's like a rite of passage. You're not going to question a Samoa. It's like somebody, you know, if it's like gang culture, right? Even this guy might be small. You know, that's because you knew what he had to do to get in. So. which Gunther, it's easy to look at like, oh, Jake, you know what? Will he beat him this time? But I don't feel that Gunther had to like...
you know, kind of lessen himself, but he's facing somebody who's done seen the worst and yet he's beaten him before, but now he'd have made it even more personal because he beat up his brother. So now it just brings everything home. So I think this is perfect. Cause it's also make you, this is making people hate going through as opposed to feel about him. Yeah.
Before it was like, well, why is this guy on TV? We get it. He's world champion. If he wasn't a Gunther fan. Now he's that villain that we don't have in pro wrestling a lot of times. Him doing what he did to me solidify him as that. that real big heel, sort of like Tommaso Ciampa was when he was in NXT. Right. That's a good, yeah, that's a great comp. Before we move on from this, now that we kind of know the...
end of night matches for night one and night two. Where are you slotting Jay Gunther? Is it opening night one or opening night two or option C's? I guess anywhere else. It's night one somewhere. Whether it's opening or somewhere else, I don't know if it matters to me. I think it's got to be night one, though, because I don't think we're going to have... I think he needs to... Before anything happens, night two.
If Jey Uso got that title, he needs to start night two, yeeting. He may need to be yeeting all around the stadium. It's the double yeet. It is what it is. Get mad to somebody else. You will not... You may not find that double yeet upsetness here. I'll tell you that. Facts. Yeah. The fact that the WrestleMania after dark party and he's on night one. Oh, that's right.
Yeah, it just gives me the awe feeling that we're going to open night one with him yeeting. And when he's yeeting, we're going to see people. We just, you know. There's a potential. I don't think it will happen, but there's just that potential of Roman Reigns standing tall at the end of the night and then Jey Uso coming down, you know, at the end. They got to avenge. Look.
They got to avenge WrestleMania 9. Las Vegas is the backyard of the Samoan dynasty. And they both, the head shrinkers and Yokozuna didn't walk away as winners. Yeah, they did lose. So Jay got avenged for his daddy. And, you know, I don't know if Roman going to avenge for Uncle Rodney, but they got to avenge that. But that would be a nice visual. Them two. And even Roman kind of, you know.
Glancing at the belt because then that's going to trigger everybody. It's going back to manipulative Roman again. There we go. Okay. I just wanted to check in because I know we've been... I think we've floated that it's going to open before, but I think it's almost solidified now at this point. The other part from Raw that I wanted to figure out was, so...
The Judgment Day tag match with Penta and Braun, which was a good match. Obviously, Judgment Day ended up walking away with the victory, but the Judgment Day pop when they came out was... A little lackluster. It just hasn't been what it's been. Even the boos for Dom. They just haven't been as hot. When Logan Paul was out there last night, he's getting that. borderline obviously go away heat, but I just wanted to run an exercise with the judgment day with how do we reheat them?
Because there's clearly something else there. And obviously there's a potential civil war with them brewing. But again, they've cooled off significantly. Even with the women's tag titles being with them. That pop when they came out, I kind of did one of those side-eyed, raised eyebrows things where the reaction was just a little bit surprising. Cal, any... If you had to figure out a way to make them as hot as they've been in the past, what are you doing? I think you need to...
You need to start turning Dominic Mysterio a baby face. I think you need to, and this may be it on its last legs. I think unless, because you figure. Every time that the Judgment Day has been hot, there's been some person in there who's been that champion, right? You've had Rhea, you've had Damian Priest, you know, and they were able to, you know, survive at the top of the card as, you know, a top faction. Right now, and I mean, it's no disrespect, but Finn's fighting for the IC title.
You know what I mean? If Finn gets that IC title, the way that the situation between him and Dom and there's been miscommunication is a couple of times where Dom's done stuff that ends up costing him the match. you get to a point when and just like on raw you know this past monday where after the whole conversation live was like wait did you hear what he said
I don't know if she's driving a wedge in particular, but she's definitely pointing out, you know, things that could be touch points and friction between the two of them. If what happens... At Mania is what I think is going to happen. It's going to be a four-way for that IC title. And two of those people happen to be Dom and Finn.
One of them may win that title, and that's going to be the next. That, at the very least, is going to keep the judgment day in the conversation. Somebody having a title, but realistically, just like with Damien spinning off and Rhea spinning off and them spinning. off from Edge a while ago. You need somebody. You really need the story to turn up in between them. And I think it's either going to be a title or it's going to be somebody getting the hell out of there to make that happen.
right okay i like it hollywood what's your reheating plan for the judgment day one day i go back to the old music um music always simple stuff i like it yeah you know like It became iconic. So they got to go back to the old music. I don't know why they changed it, you know, but I don't know. It didn't feel like the right time. And I think we just need to have a clean breakup between Dom and Finn. You know, this is back and forth. You know, we need to see like a beat down, you know, maybe.
Maybe Liv is locked in the room, can't get out, and she's just watching Dom getting beat up by Finn, the crowd going wild, and everybody's cheering, and you just see Liv going constantly, like, crying, you know? and whatnot and then you know raquel's not around you know but there there needs to be like a clear cut i just feel like it's kind of like dragging not dragging now people have gotten bored with it yeah and
Looking back to last year, I feel like they kind of went through a similar pattern. They were obviously the tag team champions. They had both tag team titles and they obviously lost both on night one. I agree with both of you that there needs to be a definitive split. But I also think, to Cal's point, I do think they need one of the main singles titles. And I think you got to put the IC title on Dom.
Because I think everyone is low-key expecting it to go to Finn, and obviously Finn is more than deserving. But Dom winning at Mania, you could probably achieve both of... both things which is putting the title on him to reheat but also that's kind of the final driving wedge between him and Finn right where they can and then you can kind of they can feud for that title for a little bit so
And you can't tell me that if that happens in Vegas, if Dom wins the Intercontinental title, that pop's going to be nice. Hell yeah, it's going to be huge. That'll be his first main roster singles title. And his first WrestleMania win. And his first WrestleMania win. Yeah, that would be huge for him. Yeah. So that's, that's my, you know, I think simple point, but it's obviously if there's a four way, which I think you're right.
Cal, this is where this is headed. I mean, they could all obviously go the route of putting it on Penta and you can get, you know, a huge pop from that too. And rightfully so, because Penta is freaking awesome. But Dom, Dom is icy champ. would be, and especially once you get that pop, you know, that's an easy way to turn them. Yeah, 100%. To start that, you know, that path.
All right. Thanks for indulging. Again, I was just... It just stood out to me. There was a lot of things that happened in Raw last night. Exactly. No, no. Absolutely. What was your assessment of Bianca Belair's job as ref last night? When they were both outside the ring, was her count fast? A lot of her counts seemed fast.
it's her first time i can't she was getting it seemed like she was getting instructions uh last night like she flew to london to figure out how to be a a ref essentially but uh yeah i noticed when they were both outside during i'm like wait they're already at nine and they just they had to get up and start sprinting in there but uh hey you know We know what was going on there. That's what I loved about it. Yeah. Maybe that's how fast... In 2K...
25, right? When you run special referee matches and you're the special ref, you actually can count faster, right? Yes. That is part of the gimmick because, you know. one you're not as experienced but two I will say I love how seriously Bianca took being guest ref like she was getting tips from that one ref backstage she was ready
And as, as someone who, you know, we all have quote unquote normal jobs where you're like, Hey, if you, if you're like, if Brian, if Brian H waters is off, right. When, when he, he has a doc for when whoever's filling in our mass man show. This is how you do it. And that is key for whoever's filling in because this is how you do what Brian does. There's not enough people who are special guest refs who do that. They just go in. They're like, there's a count of three, right? That's it.
And then when they get in there, no wonder they're kicking people and shit because they didn't take the crash course. Bianca took that shit serious. Maybe a little too seriously. She was getting physically involved with... these corner accounts. She was hyped. She had the official WWE refs logo on her. She was pointing at it when she was going to the ring. She made it herself. I don't know if you heard Michael Cole yelling at me. She wanted y'all to know. She was big ref.
Oh, she was, yeah. But I'd say a solid B+. in terms of her reffing job hey hey hey she gets a e for the best ref on well she wasn't the best the the calling for the dq at the end uh that was personal I had enough. Yeah, she let her emotions get to her. It reminded me of Mr. Perfect from WrestleMania X. I say that because I vividly remember being so irritated with him because, you know, as a child...
eight. I want the good guys to win, right? Let Luger beat Yokozuna finally, and then I wanted Brett to beat Luger. But when Mr. Perfect decided, Luger pushed him, and he... wait a minute. I'm the referee. I got the power. And all I'm thinking is, oh, you really got mad because of what happened last year at WrestleMania 9 when Luger cheated you with that forearm, jerk. You know? Yeah. So, Bianca, when she was like...
oh, I had enough of this. Ring the bell. And I'm like, oh, man, you might have just screwed yourself because we triple threat. And they were both laid out by the end of it, too. So, yeah, we'll see what Adam Pearce has to do. Especially the double DQ opens the door wide open for a triple threat. Like if she gave it to somebody, then, you know, you could justify like, hey, you know, Rhea won, but obviously, you know. the title doesn't change hands or vice versa.
I love that she had the earpiece on visibly too. Yeah. Sometimes you see it, sometimes you don't, but it's like, usually the special guest referees, I don't remember seeing it too much. Would have been really slick if she had like a ref cam on. She had to know when to go home. They should have done a ref cam. I've not seen the ref cam since Seth had it on, right? Seth had it on. Right, right. Seth had it on. Okay, yeah. Which may have been the last time I saw it.
Which was great. But yeah, I mean, I think they've built enough heat on this triple threat now. By the way, Rhea's razor's edge into the Shining Wizard was just incredible. It was some good stuff. yeah adding that to her bag was just it was it was a great sequence but okay i just want to see how you all felt about bianca's job performance before
We get to the scene of Cody open. Now, this is the thought I put in the open of the show you was getting at. About getting in trouble. Wait, what happened? I said what you said earlier, like parental advice and wanting to show the kids and not to show the kids. This is where I thought you was going. I was like, oh, man. Yeah, I mean.
I mean, Cody kind of burned this to the ground when he dropped the F-bomb at Elimination Chamber. You know what I mean? In terms of like, hey... kids you should watch this Cody Rhodes promo because it's going to be inspirational but so the last two weeks we've let off the show with Cena Cody stuff and that's why I wanted to at least talk about some other things that happened on the show first. We obviously wanted to get to this. Cena finally explains why he did it. Right?
And then, so that's a check off, right? You check that off, which is good. They finally reference The Rock. Another checkpoint. Mm-hmm. I guess I'm just curious your guys' thoughts on... There's still some holes, I guess, in the explanation because... Sure, Cena explains, you know... his reasoning for attacking Cody. Cody then calls him out for selling his soul. But then there's still no direct reference from Cena about The Rock. Like why he...
teamed up with him or how he sold his soul? Am I reading too much into that part? We can get into the specifics of what they each said, but I just wanted to start there, Cal. That was the question I asked the first week when everybody gave Cena damn near an A+. for that promo my question was he didn't mention The Rock and the last time we saw the three of them together the last time we saw Cena and Cody together it was because The Rock swiped his neck I mean that
Mm-hmm. We got a lot of understanding of why Cena would be okay with turning heel. Oh, well. You want me to sell my soul? Well, these people haven't had my back, you know, my entire career, and they've treated me like this and that, and I'm going to ruin wrestling. Like, I can understand that, but the catalyst. what we were told or what we saw was the rock. So not getting the idea of, well,
And then I've had this idea brewing. And then when The Rock came to me and we had a conversation, like, that's when I knew I could, like, you know, it's like one little thing that needs to be connected that we're just not getting. I wonder if part of that is because they may be trying to get like, I don't know when the rock's going to be available to, you know, no, I don't think anybody knows when he's available to be on TV. So I wonder if they may be saving that part.
of the story for him to come out there in particular, which would make sense. But again, like you said, the clock's ticking. SmackDown's in America this week, but there's only like three shows after last night or something to get some of this stuff going. There's time, but there's not a lot of time if they're going to try and cross that bridge with The Rock in particular. Right. Hollywood, how did you feel about them actually touching yesterday?
also seen again the upper hand i was i was a little surprised they they went there this early um yeah same you know because i i thought i was like i remember thinking like wow they still haven't you know really touched outside of the elimination chamber you're right right right but it didn't bother me you know because like at first i thought it was like oh this would be cool but no no you know what it's cool um
It didn't bother me at all. I'm interested to see, because he did say, see you at WrestleMania. And I'm like, no, I want more. Like, I'm fine with them two trading jabs at each other back and forth. you know uh but so i think if that's the case maybe they had to touch oh i see what you're saying oh yeah that's true because scene is not advertised
As far as I know, for like the next couple of shows. Yeah. So Cody might have to carry this on his own. That's what it felt like. It felt like that. Which, if that's the last time they touched before WrestleMania. I don't know. I don't know. It may be an American nightmare in Vegas for one of those men's men in particular, because, you know, I wouldn't have been expecting Cody to be the one. doing the finger gun to to wrestlemania after that the finger gun was um it's a nice touch
I think Paul Logan, Paul Logan, Paul Logan, gosh, I sounded so old. I think Logan, I think Logan Paul did that as well. He looked like he kind of finger gunned at the WrestleMania sign as well. I don't know if that's a thing or not. Right. What was your guys' favorite line from their back and forth? Because it was probably the best interaction they've had since Chamber. Mm-hmm. Because they're back and forth like, ooh.
They were getting into some real shit. There's been a number of references that the internet's picked up on. Even MJF had to speak about people caring, which... Again, I remember times where he's made references like that on TV, too. I think people bug out because that stuff works. I mean, I don't want to go off on a rant, but especially WWE, I don't think... Has Triple H ever mentioned... All Elite Wrestling, AEW, anybody over there by name? I think if he hasn't...
And they've been going on like five, six years when there is a reference to you had to leave because, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like people are going to get hype about that because it's just like with. CM Punk doing the pipe bomb and Hi Paul Heyman talking about Brock Lesnar, all these people that at the time they weren't allowed to talk about and things he wasn't allowed to say. That type of stuff does matter to fans because no matter how much...
you think it's just a show and these are marks and they're buying tickets and everything. They're also online worrying about all this stuff and that stuff matters. I don't even think it's that deep. Like, you know, it's not like they said Vince McMahon or Tony Khan or All Elite Wrestling. But if you're smart, if you're a smart, you knew what was going on and they achieved exactly what they were doing. And it was it's not like it what it didn't make.
sense you know what i mean like cody rhodes as much as you want to paint stardust and everything going on like john cena's his guy just like i think he made you say what he says about his father say what he may say about the nature boy rick flair What he said was true. We used to ride together. When Cena was super Cena, he understands a part of the business differently because he rode around with the guy. And now he figured out, damn, it wasn't really working here. I had to dip.
Was it because he couldn't wipe John Cena's ass with his best? I don't know, but it was a great line and it made sense. Like, you know, I like the idea of a good segment having this much conversation because... it's not like they were lying. You know, what they were saying were all facts. A little bit, a little turned around, misconstrued, yeah. And Cody...
Cody did his best. I think that was probably on both ends. Cena was rapping, but I think Cody was rapping just as much. This may have been his best performance in their back and forth, and I think part of it's because they got... They played outside the lines and they got a little personal, not just with Cody leaving and the back and forth there, but their relationship years ago, back when Cody was first starting to go into WWE. Is that common knowledge that they wrote together?
That part was new information to me. I think you'd probably have to watch. Cody does a lot of interviews, you know what I mean? So I think you'll probably have to do some Googling. Which is why. I was like, oh. I feel like it was one of the Wheatley interviews that he did. It may have been with Bianca. I feel like there was a conversation, or it may have been R-Truth. One of the two of those, he had a conversation with them. The way he was talking about John Cena.
I was like, damn, no, he really looks up to him. But then I remembered, like... when John Cena was that person, Cody Rhodes was there. You know what I mean? It's just what happened. It was different than it is now. You know what I mean? Like they was really driving. They was really doing loops. You know what I mean? Like think about the hours that he, they're on the same show at a certain point.
even if he was the chauffeur to John Cena. What did Cody tell him? I know you cared about them fans at one point. We used to talk about that stuff all the time. They shared a lot. You know what I mean? He learned from... There's a reason why Cody Rhodes is the champion he is now. And I think a lot of that is because he got to learn from somebody like Cena during that time when Cena was on top. Right.
uh hollywood which were i'm gonna read you a couple of lines slash talk about a couple moments during this promo battle and i want you to pick your favorite uh cena saying you stole all my secrets while riding together as Cal alluded to. Cena's saying to Cody, you're too polished, too rehearsed, too scared to be yourself. Cody's saying...
You have more dick in your promo than you have in your jorts. That's a direct quote. You're still my hero. This is Cody Rhodes. You're still my hero, but you're also a piece of shit. Or... The reference to the You Can't Wrestle chants from Cody. Oh, man. It has to be the dick line. I'm sorry. It's crazy. Get your parents' permission. We've heard grapefruits. We've heard testicular fortitude. We've heard so many references.
Strudel. Strudel. But we've never heard a dick like that. And for it to be this baby face, I'm going to just say this, Ben. You brought up parenting advice, right? Uh-uh. We didn't have to worry about this when my travel chief was the champion. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Oh, you're saying Cody's a bad influence on the kids. I like where this is going. He's a real American nightmare. Bingo. Talk about it. He up here talking like this. This is the guy. Look.
he's supposed to be the ultimate baby face. And he's supposed to be this, but every chance he get a chance, he get it. He do it. You know, he said, he said just about every, the F word. B word, S word, reference to as they said in the DX thing, reference to genitalia. I'm like, yeah, he's supposed to be the baby face. You know, can I counter?
yeah here's my counter he's and so towards the kids you're right that's probably a heel tactic to all the parents out there who are parents of these kids who look up to cody We've all been there when we accidentally let an F-bomb slip with your kids around, right? So sometimes, hey, earmuffs, shit happens. Actual facts.
Yeah, but see, you know, it's like this Netflix deal. I know what you're saying, though. You're right. Yeah, this Netflix deal. And, you know, remember Roman said, like, look, I like being PG. You got to think outside the box, you know? And people always try, like... One of the online discourse a lot is about this guy who's going into the Hall of Fame for a third time for the immortal moment. Bret the Hitman Hart, right? And people always say...
Brett couldn't cut promos, right? And I never agree with that, but I'm going to give a shout out to my big bro fam because he said it best. He said, Brett made you think he was getting ready for the fight of his life. Yes, indeed. And I will say, that's what Cody does. He says these words, and you write, he let them slip out.
But that yesterday was still my favorite line. Even though I got to be the parent, the responsible parent that calls him out on this stuff. Supposed to be the baby face. But for him to just say, look, I ain't making no references. I'm going to just go ahead and say you. And I'm like. Yeah, because it was also unexpected. I'm sitting there like, whoa.
It was 12 o'clock on a Monday. 100%. You thought the kids was in school. You're right. 3 o'clock here. You probably thought kids in school. Let me get this in before they come home. Oh, man. Yeah, it was good stuff. It was a great promo battle, I thought, and really ramped it up. And again, we'll see. I've looked at the betting odds, and we'll kind of talk about that as we get closer.
Again, Cody getting the upper hand kind of tipped their hand a little bit in terms of where they're leaning in terms of how this result is going to shake out and looking at the betting odds. It's looking like that. We'll see. But we did a lot of talking about some current wrestling. But as always, it's now time to rewind the clock. It's time for Cal's favorite segment.
It's time for Nostalgia Freaks and talk through something that happened this week in wrestling history. And for this week's edition of Nostalgia Freaks, we're taking it back to April 1st, 2001. for wrestlemania 17 held at reliant astrodome in houston texas in front of a whopping 67 925 people and we're specifically going to take a closer look At the show-stealing, as Cal shakes his head, TLC match, the WWF Tag Team Championship between Edge and Christian, the Hardy Boys and the Dudley Boys.
Usually my first question to this is, do you remember watching it live? But I got to pivot. And I know Cal feels a certain way about this because he said something in our Slack channel. Cal. Talk to us. You seem to not have been a fan of this match. The spot from this match is Edge with that spear to Jeff Hardy who's hanging. from the belts right yep watching this match and i mean it i it had been already so much chaos there's bodies flying around i forgot
that Jeff Hardy was trying to walk across three ladders before he got to those belts and fell off that third ladder, had to reset it up to then hang on. And he almost... I may be old. I have no problem saying that I'm probably older than a lot of the olds out there watching this wrestling right now. Still talking about it. And I was a fan of ECW for a while. I understand why they wanted tables and all this other stuff.
I don't get it. Maybe I liked the first TLC match between the three of these teams more than this. This looked more like a mess to me than that last match. And I mean, if... I'm glad no, was anybody hurt? I'm glad we, I'm glad everybody got that moment. That spear looks great. The setup for it and then seeing it again, maybe in 2025 eyes. I'll just watch the clip again.
in the future. I don't know, man. But I can also understand that this match probably wasn't for me. So to not move on from that yet. So I think my biggest issue with it... And to your point of watching it through 2025 eyes, was that when Jeff's hanging from it...
There are several minutes there where he could have grabbed both titles. I think that was my biggest issue with it. Not necessarily the setup. I get it. Walking across those three ladders, which is insane, by the way. Very, very difficult. The fact that he's able to even land on his feet after falling from the third ladder was miraculous. Right. And just some freakish athleticism there. But yeah, I think he could have pulled down. He was up there for a while.
He was up there for a bit. He was up to the... I was surprised everything was... He was hanging from the belt, and Bubba Ray grabs the ladder that he was on, and his feet were still hanging on the ladder. He's like getting pulled... all the way to the tournament. I'm like, what are we doing here? What is going on? It was a giant spot fest, right? Yes, yes. It's a 15-minute match, and...
The first ladder attack happens within the first two to three minutes. We're getting nasty right away. It's all over. I don't think I'd seen this full match in probably a few years. Again, I think we've seen the spot. Yes. They run that shit all the time, right? On WWE programming. I forgot just how much of a spot fest it was. Yeah. There's three interferences, right? Each of their respective third parties. Rhino interferes. Spike Dudley interferes. Leader interferes. So... My question after...
the first couple of minutes, Hollywood, I'll start with you. Would you rather be hit with a chair, go through a table, or fall off a ladder? Because all that shit happens. In this match many times. Oh, boy. I think fall through a table. From a ladder? Yeah, it's a bump.
That's kind of doing two in one, right? You could technically fall off a ladder. You better be falling into a table if it's not on top of somebody. That might be safe. Is that safer? I feel like that's better because you're breaking something. yeah right right maybe that's my final answer yeah even yeah because the chairs the chairs hurt i don't want a chair shot i've been hit with a chair that that looks that looks freaking especially back then
They were still doing head shots with the chair, right? Lay it in. Yeah, I'm good. So Hollywood, since you enjoy going through the tables, I got to ask you this. What the hell was with the stacking of the tables? Just from a kayfabe standpoint, stacking them, what competitive advantage does that give anyone other than a nice visual? Obviously, Matt and Bubba crashed through that thing. It's great, and we're like, oh, that's awesome.
When the Dudleys started stacking them, I was just trying to figure out if I'm trying to win this match. The goal of the match is to climb the freaking ladder and grab those titles. Why are we outside stacking tables? I needed someone to explain it to me. I think so. I think the idea is double the pain because you're going through one and then you're coming through together. And then when that folds.
sure and hit you you should really be out of it yeah and then also if you're the one delivering that's less less feet to fall through right Right. You get to your opponent quicker. Yeah, they're right there. So less time for them to move, essentially, because then if you move, then you got to fall further down.
Right. Basically, because you're coming fast, right? Like a speed of lightning. So if that body's coming down, you got more time to move if the table is just a standard table as opposed to a stacked table. Right. Well, I was, but I was going to say too, I mean, we got to remember this is 2001 ECW was done at this point. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. I think there may have been XPW. When I see stacked tables, I think New Jack. And at that time, New Jack, this is around the time when New Jack and Vic Grimes are going back and forth. There's that one time where he tried, he said he tried to.
He tried to take Big Grimes out for real. And it was like a scaffold match, but there were like tables. They were stacked like... three tables hide he but he wasn't trying to throw him into the table he wouldn't throw him over the tables but that like the idea I think it was part of it was tapping into that spectacle of
the violence and the hardcore. You're not going to get light tubes or whatever. I don't think we ever got light tubes in a WrestleMania match, but if it's a TLC2, yeah, you may have to put a table on top of table. Okay. Well, okay. What was both of your favorite spots from the match not named The Edge Jeff Spear? Hollywood. I'll start with you. Probably...
It was probably, you know, either the gore or the leader. Yeah. Yeah. Probably that or leader coming out and hitting the, you know, the leader Corona before she got three D like that sequence. Um, I was going to say the lead of Karana, although the funniest part was after the Dudleys did the to Edge, Bubba Ray told D-Von to get the table.
Devon goes out. He couldn't find a table. At first, he couldn't find a table that wasn't folded. So he broke down the table. And by the time he threw the table in the ring, Bubba Ray had already threw a table in the ring. What are we doing here? Just proof that this match is absolute chaos. So much happened. Literally nine people in this match. Yeah, nine people. And they literally ran back.
the TLC one as far as a lot of the spots which today they would get crushed for but I remember at the time watching it was like oh but that was kind of like because I think I had just watched TLC one to get hyped up for this one And it was a lot of similar spots. So I think adding in their managers or allegiances really helped this out a lot. So it wouldn't feel like a, you know. It was a little different.
Yeah, because if you go back and watch Bret Hart versus Roddy Piper, no, excuse me, Bret Hart versus Ric Flair when Bret won the title, they run that match back almost, you know, last sequence in WCW. but it's easier to see this when they, it was able to kind of break it up a little bit, you know? Um, and this, like you said, show stealer, you know, it's what many people will say is the greatest WrestleMania, but.
I don't give it that title. We'll re-litigate that at some point because this card, I should say, is actually pretty solid from top to bottom. I enjoyed the Spike Dudley Bulldog from the... From the ring to the table on the outside to Christian. That was pretty freaking awesome. Cool. Jeff Hardy Swanson from the top of the ladder is insane. That's the thing, right? It's...
It's a huge ladder. And also, he recovers pretty quickly. Yeah, man. He almost goes straight from that to the walking the top of the three ladders, which is... in retrospect, just bonkers. Yeah. You should still be in a lot of pain. Exactly. From what you just put yourself through. Now, you bring up, it was 2001. That spot right there.
really made me appreciate the time we was in there with no internet just because you don't hear he messed the spot up it was like no that's that's like real life if you're trying to do something crazy yeah you're gonna fall like you always say like wrestling isn't supposed to be perfect. There's going to be hiccups. That's why, you know, so that was, that was just like a prime example of what I like loved about this time. Yeah. Yeah. Um,
It was definitely a fun match. Again, 15 minutes of just pure chaos. The ending was a bit abrupt. A little funky. I didn't really understand. Rhino pushing Christian up on his shoulders to the ladder. It looked weird, but I think they had to get to the end. I feel like someone told them.
We got to go home. Y'all having too much fun. We still got this gimmick battle royal to get to. Yeah, we got to save that. We've had to cut that from five to two minutes because of you guys. It took them that long to walk to the ring. Seriously, though. Yeah, that was a long, long ramp way. There it is. You heard the drop.
It is time for They Said What? And for today's edition of They Said What, we're going straight to the Ringer Wrestling Worldwide Hotline Hollywood. Tell us about our caller today. All right, we're going all the way to Texas to hear from Garrett. Hey, guys, it's Garrett from Texas. So it's Punk, Mullins, and Reigns being confirmed as the main event. And the Sheming, Rose, and Sina is flinging.
We now know that both Royal Rumble winners are not going to be made of any Royal Rumble, despite WWE telling us. hey, the Royal Rumble winner is guaranteed a maintenance by the rest of me. Now, obviously, this isn't the first time that this has happened, but does this run the risk? of the Royal Rumble being not as meaningful? And could it lessen the accomplishment for the superstars who win the Rumble? Just a few thoughts I had about that. Let me know what you think. Well, bye.
Shut up. I kind of had the same concerns early on once it became clear that Jay wasn't going to be in one of these last slots for Mania. But I think I've come around to, I don't know if winning the Rumble is more so about the main event than it is about the title shot. i was i've been i'm trying to figure out like if they specifically say the winner of the rumble will get the title shot or the winner of the rumble will main event
I think they go back and forth between them. Right. And sometimes they say, they kind of package it as one thing. They're going to main event WrestleMania and earn their title, whatever. I don't, I think it's, you know, to their point, this is not the first time this has happened. And it's happened plenty of times before. I just...
I think I'd rather them just, again, put them on either the earlier slot, the first match of the night. Because, again, if you're not going to be the last match, be in the first match. Just don't do that thing. I forget which PLE it was, but it was one of the first... or maybe it was the second Cody Brock match where they basically had one of these non-Big Four PLEs and they said they had like four main events.
Yeah. Yeah. And it was like, I mean, I don't, I don't just because you say it is and it's on third. Like that's, that's not how this works. Right. Right. So at least be open to just, again, there's two main events. I mean, to their point, though, they may have to repackage the way that they say what the Royal Rumble winner gets. Maybe just frame it as the title shot. Does it lessen it for you guys?
It don't for me. I think about it because then if that's the case, right, then that would have meant Jey Uso would have won the Elimination Chamber and John Cena would have won. the Royal Rumble. And that would have probably lessened it for more for me because it was like another Cena win. And I think Jey Uso would have probably lost his fire.
Had we had to wait a little bit longer. He could have gained it back in that elimination chamber. But I think the visual of him winning at the Royal Rumble was a better win. And even with Charlotte Flair winning, I thought, you know. That was a big deal, especially it was like, you know, her comeback story. But I always, I guess I've just been programmed just to look at it as like, you're guaranteed the title shot. And I don't look at it as you're guaranteed the main event.
until it's said yeah i mean even if you i think i haven't seen recent numbers i was trying to do some googling like a couple years ago it looked like it was like at one point 18 out of the last 28 manias this may have been like three years ago had the rumble winner in the main event so like that means that there were 10 manias where in that time from where that didn't happen although i think it's been more consistent over the last couple of years i i mean i think
But even thinking about those numbers, something like that tells me that because you've had more years where it's happened where it hasn't, we've... That's a good amount of years. We're like three or four months. It's the winner of the Royal Rumble is main eventing WrestleMania. So I think that's why people go along with stuff like that. But we need to...
in a year where we just saw CM Punk crying in the WWE ring because he's finally getting his Mania main event and it has nothing to do with a title shot currently. I think we need to... And...
And we just keep talking about people saying that Jey Uso ain't the main event. Again, we're hearing the other side of that argument wrapped up in... uh that concept but i think it's really we should think about the rumble as that person is getting a championship match at the at mania and not necessarily getting the main event match at mania because clearly that's not always going to be the same thing every year
Right. And winning the Rumble is still a massive, massive deal. 100%. It's still a huge accomplishment. When they throw that graphic up of how many title wins somebody has, Royal Rumble winner is on there. It's huge. It's just one of those things that is, I mean, you're beating, or you're lasting, you're surviving through 29 other people, right? So it's just a huge, still a huge accomplishment. But I understand their concern with...
Again, WWE just may need to repackage it and just frame it as the title shot. And I think the onus will be on WWE to say, hey, clearly we're not going to main event with the Rumble winner every year. Let's make sure that we're... saying things a specific way.
A big shout out to everyone who's left us a voicemail with their they said what takes. We can't get to all of them, but we will get to as many as we can. Peep the description of this episode, the number to call in, drop your take, do our best to get them on the show. show. Before we get out of here, I think it's time to get back into some Am I the Heel emails as a refresher.
It's the Reddit-themed like segment we debuted a couple weeks ago. And as a reminder, Am I the Heel is a safe space for you to maybe voice a gripe. that you have with something in pro wrestling that maybe the majority of people and fans enjoy. So, the one that we have this week is just titled CM Punk Favor.
with a u so i think our uh our emailer is either from the uk or they're from canada either way shout out to you guys it's it's shout out to cameron villeneuve i hope i'm saying that correctly but Let me read this out. Hey, guys. Maybe this is a more fantasy booking than Am I the Heel, but I think the favor should be that the winner of the triple threat...
between Seth Rollins, CM Punk, and Roman Reigns gets Paul Heyman as their wise man. I don't think you need the belt for that to mean something. And the ultimate swerve would be Seth wins, leaving CM Punk and Roman in a feud. And you have Seth with a very reluctant Paul Heyman pursuing a belt for the summer. Let me know what you think of the show. Thanks, Cameron.
David Shoemaker, I don't know if he would enjoy this because this may fall under, you know, I don't know if he, how he feels. We know how he feels about jewelry. Yeah, when it's up for grabs. I don't know how he'd feel about people. People being up for grabs. People's services being up for grabs in a match. Shaky ground there. Shaky ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is this enough of a favor?
Well, yeah, right. So the idea is it's a triple threat match. And right now, Paul Heyman would be in Roman Reigns' corner. I guess that would mean to... the thought would be if he if rome if he could cheat he could do whatever he wants and let the tribal chief win So Punk's favor, out of all the favors, every time the show about to go off the air, he said, but my favor is, like, we never know what it is. It's just going to be a Paul.
be with me to win this match? Yeah, I don't know if that's enough. I don't know if that's a big enough. Yeah, you're right. Of all the favors to ask, this dude could ask for anything upon him. Because what's better than one main event? Two. Two, yeah. I would think the favor... Correct. The thought has been that the favor would be that whoever wins the match would get...
inserted into the Cody Cena match the next night, which sounds like a bigger favor to me. I think you could probably think of a number of different favors. But again, this is assuming that...
Punk plus Heyman in the corner means Punk's winning the match, which isn't always necessarily the thing. Or... Go ahead. I was going to say, it was two ways, right? Because I... i don't think i don't like this idea as a favor but i like this idea of paul heyman being a prize i think that could mean a lot because of him as your wise man i mean roman reigns had the title for
1,016 days. So that right there is enough. You know what I mean? 13, 16. To justify Heyman being a prize. But I think we would be even interested if he's reluctant. But if Paul Heyman is reluctant to it, right? And then he cheats to help Seth Rollins. But I think, to your point about the favor, I think it would be more so... with CM Punk, I don't think it would necessarily be a insert in the match. I think it would be sort of a cash-in thing. Oh.
You can add me in at the point of my choosing. As soon as the bell rings, let's say John Cena wins, right? As soon as the bell rings, boom. Here comes CM Punk. You know what I mean? Y'all know I can't help but think about WrestleMania 9. It's one of my favorites. People shit on it for no reason. But at WrestleMania 9, everybody talks about...
Hogan screwing Yokozuna. That was supposed to be Yokozuna's night, right? And then, you know, Bret Hart talked essentially in his book about how much he hated, and he's doing like, go get the belt. He's like, yeah, go get your stupid belt. CM Punk loves Brett. What better way to sort of erase that stink off? And then CM Punk walk out of WrestleMania with the championship. Now...
Semi-related, because you were just playing the music. You know what I saw online? I think it was yesterday, and I just checked their site to confirm. In Living Colors performing in Vegas the Friday before. That main event... Vernon Reed and the squad better be out there. They was there for 29. Oh yeah. I wasn't there for 20. They better be there for 41. I need, I need that for his main event. Oh yeah.
Neither. I don't think that's coincidence at this point. I mean, y'all remember when they signed, when everything got redone, right? When they redid the deal, it was the weekend of Survivor Series. The Weeknd in Chicago, which Punk made his comeback. Yeah, he spoke about that. He had to push the button to make sure that... Because I think they re...
Whatever the deal was, they're getting more money the way that the song is set up now as opposed to it was back in the day. He loves those guys. Yeah. I mean, that's huge, though. Remember at the time, it wasn't like WWE, and they still don't really do non- in-house music for somebody's theme. I mean, that was a big... It showed how much they cared about making him the superstar they wanted him to be, that they paid for that, and they're continuing to do that.
It'd be hilarious if that was the favor. He just got them to play his music live. He needed Paul Heyman to do that. Heyman said, oh, that thing you're looking, it's in there. They're all going to be on stage at WrestleMania to play you out in PCS. We got to see Roman eventually confront Heyman about this, right? He keeps giving him that look every time something happens.
my tribal chief sir we'll talk about that later right and it's mostly been that he's gotta that's obviously I think that's my biggest issue with with the Roman side of this is I would be asking about what this favor is all the time until you told me. Because this is insane. This is just this cloud hovering over me as we're heading towards Mania. No. Exactly. Tell me what the favor is, dude. I do like them doing the...
There it is. Page five article such and such. Right here. Roman's done so many contract signings. He knows the back of his hand. He's sitting at the head of the table and he knows what pages this shit's on. It's phenomenal. One man's dream, another man's favor? Exactly. Shout out to Cameron for the email. If you... want to send in your Am I the Heal take, or sorry, Am I the Heal situation, find the email in the description of this episode. Send them in.
and we'll get them on the show. Guys, that is how you do Tuesday. Be sure to check out The Masked Man Show with... David Shoemaker and Kaz on Mondays and Thursdays. Check out this Thursday specifically because they have a very, very special guest. I'm not going to spoil it, but the interview was was
Record it ahead of time. It's going to drop on Thursday. You'll see it probably in their title and description when it drops, but it's coming. If you're not already, be sure to follow us, subscribe. It hits with those five-star ratings here on Ringer Wrestling Show Feed. Cal Bryant, tell the people where they can find you on the socials. At Cal on Twitter and Blue Sky. At Cal Dub on Instagram and threads and TikTok. But it's not about me.
Hollywood, where can they find you and where can they find the squad? You can follow me at Brian H. Waters on TikTok, Instagram, Blue Sky. But make sure you check out Ringer Wrestling on the same channels. Be sure to check out, you know, the website. stuff also uh this week i've been dropping some uh hollywood recommends the new series the new social series yeah so far i recommended the wrestlemania six match between you guessed it brutus beefcake Mr. Perfect.
but of course that was your first one hey go back and watch the match i'm trying to tell you it was a good match but uh today i just uh dropped the one the first of the austin and rock trilogy that took place at wrestlemania 15. So make sure you check those out and quite a few more to come. There we go. There we go. You follow me at control control decay, Twitter, Instagram, Blue Sky, all that good stuff. But
At Ringer Wrestling is where it's at on the same social platforms, especially TikTok. That's where you can find a lot of some great stuff. And as Hollywood mentioned, Hollywood recommends. which is absolutely phenomenal. And he'll take care of you. Create almost like a playlist. A mixtape. Heading into Mania season. Thank you very much.
to the aforementioned Brian Hollywood Waters for producing this episode, making us sound better than we should. Gentlemen, thank you as always for the Graps chat. Everyone else, we will catch you next. Worldwide!