All right, my birdie buddies, my par-saving pals, my eagle enthusiasts, it's Joe House here. Major season is... finally upon us the masters the pga championship the u.s open the open championship and fairway rowan is here to break down all of the storylines offer a little help on those betting cards for every single major this golf season. Join me.
and our incomparable accomplice, our tour boots on the ground, Nathan Hubbard, as we guide you from Augusta all the way to Northern Ireland, Royal Portrush. Away we go. Cold open question of the week. Kaz. What's up, shoes? Who's more over? Ron Killings or Mr. Iguana? Oh, my God. That is a tough question right now. You know, I would have to give the slight edge, the slightest of edge to Ron Killings because this time last week when I was out doing other things, yourself, Brian Waters.
Ben Cruz gave what was as close to a eulogy as possible to the career, life, and times of one Ron Killings. And... As much as I love me some Mr. Iguana after this week, the longstanding theory that our truth is the actual genius and we're all idiots. Yeah. Has never been more clear than this past week. Nobody on the planet is more over than Ron Killings. Yeah. Bar none. I have. This is one of the most interesting wrestling stories.
to happen in a while, and I can't wait to talk about it. This is what the show is for. The behind the scenes, the back stages, the negotiating. If we are the center for... wrestling free agency and who's going where and all that type of stuff. Man, the things that went back and forth between this and the past two or three weeks.
I could spend the whole episode talking about it, but we won't. We got a lot of other things to talk about. Shout out Mr. Iguana, though. You are the man, and I fucks with you heavy. But this is a Ron Killings week, baby. Let's talk about it. Yeah, it is a run killings week. We're going to talk Mr. Iguana too. Let's start the show. Welcome to the Masked Man Show with Kaz. How you doing, buddy?
Doing good, Shoes. How about yourself, man? I'm doing good, man. I'm doing good. It was exciting and exciting money in the bank. Yeah. R-Truth, sorry. Ron Killings, as he would now like to be known, is back. in the WWE after, as you said, we eulogized him so beautifully last week. I'm glad to see him back. And it's not like he didn't deserve it. It's not like he didn't deserve his flowers. No. Yeah.
We're here. Yeah. I mean, big takeaways from this weekend. We hit on two of them. Mr. Iguana being over his hell and Ron Truth, Ron the Truth Killings being back. I mean, is that... What a crazy moment. I guess we just got to go write it on R-Truth, right? Yes. We have a new Mr. Money in the Bank, Seth Rollins. A new...
Miss Money in the Bank and Naomi and talk about living eulogies. Big E gave her flowers in a just absolutely heart-rending, wonderful way in the show on Saturday. God bless Big E, man. no i mean and what i mean that that on i mean it's crazy on any other in any other show that naomi moment
I mean, she's a heel, so it's a little bit tricky, but that could have been the biggest moment of a show like this. Right. Celebrating, you know, Seth Rollins' big win would have been the biggest moment on a show in other years. But man, in a main event match that featured both WWE World Champions and Cody Rhodes and Logan Paul. God, he's a genius. The star of the match was Ron Killings, who was fired or who announced that WWE decided not to renew his contract last week.
Last weekend, I guess. A week ago, like you said, we came on the show and talked about how wild that was to let him go. And what a great career he had and how important he'd been and blah, blah, blah. Apparently... WWE heard all the people who were outraged about letting Truth go, and they signed him back, and now he's feuding with John Cena again. There's a... It's crazy. It's crazy. It is the funniest wrestling story of the year by far. Our first reaction... Go ahead.
No, no, no. Funny in the sense that, like, yo, it's really our imitating life. Like, all of R-Truth's character in WWE has been how this guy is, like... a space cadet like he just he would just he would just be he the way he thought would just be too dumb for geniuses and too genius for dumb people right yep And it's just like, to watch that all on foil in real life right now, you know how many wrestlers get released every year?
That people say, man, WWE, you fouled for this. Yes. Like, how many times have we had outcries? How many times have we had chance? How funny is it that last week... As we were talking about the importance of R-Truth, or I was talking about the importance of R-Truth, I prefaced it with like... It's not like he's CM Punk or anything, but he has a level of importance that is XYZ, right? Mm-hmm. Only for a week later for him to do something that CM Punk could have never done.
Get WWE to be like, yo, our bad. We messed this up, guys. Please, let's fix this right now. It's CM Punk's wildest dreams. He could not have gotten Triple H to face the music, spew what is akin to BS to the media to be like, oh, you enjoy the show? We are part of the show. Dog. Nah, it wasn't. And that's the beauty of it. That's what makes this all so interesting. Like, you cannot put a price on people like Ron Killens. And they tried to.
And they learned very fast why you can't do things like that. You know what I mean? Like, it's just hilarious. And I don't care if that return was the height of it. If him... being the most talked about person in the main event that included both world champions, Logan Paul and the American nightmare. If that's the height of it, I still stand by everything I say because at the end of the day,
You can literally count on one hand how many wrestlers, how many performers got WWE to bend the knee. Yeah. WWE never bends the knee. They never bend the knee to the crowd. The only other time we've seen them bend the knee recently was the rock and Roman thing. That was the only other time when they were like, you know what? Y'all right. This ain't the right way to go. We're going to do it this way.
We listen to you. They open the acknowledgement of us listening to what the people want. Well, there have been other times in history, right? I mean, like when Matt Hardy got fired, I always go back to that one. And every time Edge and Lita were on the screen, the fans were chanting, we want Matt. Matt came back. There have been a number of them. But like I said, only a handful. Especially in this era.
Especially in the era of social media where like everybody finds out everything. You mentioned CM Punk. I mean, certainly there was a lot of bad blood there for a while, but like over all of the years of them chanting, of the fans chanting CM Punk's name.
there were a lot of points where WWE would have happily brought him back if he had made himself available, right? Right, right. So it wouldn't have been, I mean, but you're right. I mean, it is pretty amazing. I think that there's still a lot for us to... find out if we ever will about the actual mechanics of our truth and his departure from the company or pending departure it's so weird the time frame is all messed up and it's reported now that he's not you know
It's not like they gave him another full-time deal. It was more of just like maybe a short-term kind of wrap-up deal. Probably that'll head straight into a Legends deal or whatever. But who knows? At this point, he could kind of have whatever he wanted. That's the point. I think that's the point right there. It's reported that he was already accepting indie bookings and was ignoring WWE's calls when they realized they made a mistake until Nick Khan got on the phone.
Just amazing stuff. Dude, that shit. I love it. I... Love it. And I don't think people, I think people are thinking I'm just being facetious and just like hyping it up because of whatever. But it's like, you got to understand, man, you can't look at it through the lens of, oh, he got this brand new multi-year, like that's not the point.
Ron Killens got the deal that Ron Killens wanted. Yeah. And it took the dude who runs the company to come hat in hand to be like, yo, let's figure this out. Reportedly. Reportedly. right so it's it's it's a hilarious but all interesting story now yeah because as much as that
This is probably going to work out for R-Truth and however way that works out. How's that going to work for Carrier and Cross in a few months? How's that going to work for the next super popular guy that's about to get released? Well, I'll tell you one thing, and I don't want to give WWE any bad ideas here. But it certainly helped R-Truth's case that he was alone, that he wasn't part of some mass wave of layoffs. If he had been laid off in the previous round of layoffs...
I don't think there would have been enough of a unified voice of outrage to bring him back. Maybe they would have. Maybe because of the way that the people in the locker room love him and everything else. It's certainly possible. But... I think that when they release like 20 people on the same day, we're all just sort of like, oh, that's sad, you know? And I'm certainly, if they had released all the people they released this last time, and I'm trying to think of who the best example would be.
You know, and Chad Gable. you know, there might have been, there certainly would have been a bigger outcry about Gable. But I can imagine us sitting here talking and just being like, well, you know, maybe he'll go to Japan and find some, you know, get a new lease on his career and make his way back, you know, whatever. Like, it would just seem normal.
The fact that R-Truth was, I mean, talk about brilliant. The fact that he just put it out there on Twitter, like the moment that he found out, seemingly the moment he found out, he got all of the oxygen. Just, you know, it was all about him. 22 million views that tweet got. Really? 22 million views. That one tweet saying he's... not having his contract renewed by WWE. 22 million reactions. You know what I mean? Like, it's... However this ends up for him...
and however WWE uses him going forward, it's going to be very interesting just to sort of see how they change the way they handle these things, right? Like, it's... It's pro wrestling, man. Everybody's got a favorite. But at the same time, I think what this news sort of taught you is that there's certain people... backstage that you you're literally your subtraction from them was like a subtraction to the entire roster from the top of the car all the way to the bottom like you can't tell me
The way those people reacted on TV, John Cena didn't have a heavy hand in making sure this was done the right way. But you couldn't tell me, like, given the way it went out, knowing that, well... there's only a handful of people that can know this deal went down and this is how we're ending the match. And even Triple H just left a little Easter egg there where he was like, yo, we love this heel run because John Cena deserves to end his career.
every single way the way he wants to. You can't tell me John Cena didn't make a call and be like, yeah, I got to fix this. You know what I mean? And I'm not trying to give him all the credit or whatever, but like...
just from a storyline perspective and i'm not saying this was awesome grand scheme and everybody got worked and it was all part of the show this no no our first reaction for the record was we got worked and then it became immediately clear that we were not being worked that this was all you know right right that he really did i mean everything that was out there was true wwe
Like you said, go hat in hand and fix it. All I'm saying is for it to become super reported by very reputable sources that they kind of personally make that call. it makes me understand that there was definitely a myriad of calls before it got to Nick Khan that had to have happened. And you can't tell me, you know what I mean? The biggest...
the biggest cockswingers in the entire company didn't be like, yo, like, I understand we got cost-cutting measures to make, but, like, we not. This ain't going down like this. That's a testament to how... how people will do you when you do right by people, man. Like, that's really tight. That's really tight for them. And I don't care how it ends up. I think, you know, sometimes good things just happen to good people.
Yeah. And I think that's a great... Well, sometimes bad things happen to good people and then good things follow. That's fun. That's fun. There's a very karmic aspect to all this. Okay, so you mentioned Triple H saying it was all part of the show. I did not care about this comment at all. I mean, it seemed like exactly what I expect him to say, both in the, in, you can read that as a good thing or a bad thing.
I mean, I think this is a very pro wrestling take on this, right? Like Triple H, this is, I mean, first of all, this is the press conferences, although Triple H has come out there and say true things most of the time, it's still a work, right? Like we all know why we're there. You know, the wrestlers are in character. And I understand the sort of ethics in journalism or the ethical moral sort of point of view that.
The face of a company on a press conference, a publicly traded company, you know, should not be dismissive of the questions or reality. But come on, he said it's all part of the show that he didn't say he didn't lie. He just sort of grinned and like said, you know, this is pro wrestling. What do you expect? You know? Right.
And in a way, I almost understand why he had to answer it that way, even though that's not the answer that I don't think anybody wanted to hear, right? Like, I think the answer... Well, I mean, yes, and I think there's some degree to... I think the answer everybody wanted to hear would be like, hey...
Sometimes we make mistakes. We're a company that loves our employees and loves our fans, so we're going to do right by the fans. I think that's the answer everybody wanted there. I mean... I mean, he's in a really particular position as being head of creative, but I do think there's a case you can make that like in that moment, the right thing doing right by our truth by Ron killing, sorry, is doing right by the storyline.
And the storyline doesn't need to be overcomplicated in a press conference by talking about the reality of it, even though that's what we're talking about right now. Right. I mean, it's like. by saying it's all part of the show, he also gets to sort of implicitly deny that Ron Killings is under contract, right? It'd be like Ron Killings, like if in story, in storyline terms, Ron Killings just came out of the crowd.
We don't know how they're going to play it, but it leaves the door open to whatever comes next, even if they're going to try to play a sort of, you know, there's a lot of different ways this could go. This keeps it vague, right? This keeps it, we just sort of stick around and wait and find out. It is nuts that he's back. This looks like it'll be John Cena's Knight of Champions opponent. I think it's a pretty safe bet. But you said, I don't care what happens next.
You said before, last week when we were talking, I think many people have said this, we all agree on this, that if that was going to be R-Truth's last match, the Saturday night's main event match. They should have won. That should have been his last match, not a not jobbing out to JC Mateo on SmackDown, which happened several days later.
But if, but if they had, if it was really, if he really was leaving the company, if they really did have their acts together, then they should have had that be a title versus career match and have R-Truth lose and John Cena get that heat, right? Now they could run, it wasn't even a title match. at Saturday Night's main event. Presuming he gets a title match at Night of Champions. Is the right move to run back that idea? We'll do title versus career?
and then John Cena can get that heat? Or is the right move for... I mean, is it... Seeing John Cena on Saturday... It sort of breathes some new life into the heel John Cena persona, right? The whole storyline. But no one can say this has been going smoothly as John Cena is your heel champ. Is it crazy to ask whether or not...
Ron Killings should just beat John Cena and take the belt. Hey, there were some very smart wrestling folks and fans that I trust that had similar sentiments. They were basically like, yo. This is kind of like Mick, I think it was Joey Janela. Joey Janela was like, yo, this is Mick Foley mankind-esque, like heat, good heat, where you got something on the world champion.
and a dude that is so beloved, even if you hot shot the title on Rod Killings for a day, a weekend even, also 24-7 stuff. Like when Foley won and everybody held him up in the air. Right, like... You could do that with him. And it wouldn't shock me. But the funny thing is, and the genius of this all, is that, like, in many ways, man, in many ways.
I think there were a lot of people when John Cena and R-Truth first interacted at that press conference that felt that R-Truth was going to be the guy who helps John Cena see the error of his ways. and help see that like, oh man, this guy who's his childhood hero finally gets him to come to his senses. And a lot of people were like, they should have saved this for later because R-Truth would have been the perfect guy for him to kind of be like, yo, he could be the ultimate fan, right?
Yeah. There's still a way you could kind of like, I'm not even talking about there's a way you can sort of circumvent that, but I feel like in the way John Cena is doing this creatively. He had to have felt sort of similar to how I felt about the way Saturday Night's Main Event went. He had to have felt like, duh, there's so much story here with R-Truth that...
If he's gone, why would you... It messes Cena's story up. There's so much more you can do with it now. There's so many... I think a lot of people probably had CM Punk and... John Cena penciled in for a SummerSlam or Crown Jewel or anything like that. Now, because of the fans, You could realistically talk yourself into R-Truth versus John Cena at SummerSlam for the title. And he could possibly win it. Yeah. And he could possibly win it. You know, like, it's...
I think storyline-wise, it breathes new life. You're right. I think it breathes new life into this heel character now. For the record, I just think... The next step is so important. However they take this... With Ron Killens, R-Truth, that's the next most important step. They bought themselves a lifeline. Two things. One, I just meant John Cena alongside Logan Paul. Before Ron Killens ran in, I thought that...
Smackdown and Money in the Bank were probably seen as best showing as a heel since he turned heel. But you're right. Even the Ron Killings part of it breathes new life into it. I mean... Without getting too deep here, on the one hand, I will say yes. I kind of feel like R-Truth having a day-long reign as champ or a week-long reign as champ.
could be really, really awesome and brilliant. I think the way, by the way, just totally as an aside, the way I had it kind of puzzled together in my head was that it would be that. At this point, you just have to have Cody and Cena at SummerSlam. Cody gets the win back and then save CM Punk for the actual retirement tour as Cena sort of turning face again or something. That's kind of how I had it in my head. But this does throw everything up in the air.
On the one hand, yes. I think... I'm not sure that it would be the best idea for R-Truth to be the champ. But it would be a huge moment. And I think it would be better than almost any of the other alternatives. I just imagine if John Cena just defeated him. Because there's no John Cena win that doesn't feel like a Super Cena win. There's no moral victory against John Cena, especially heel John Cena.
John Cena winning at night of champions against our truth would just, I feel like the crowd would be even more upset than they were when truth got fired. And that's good. No, I know. Well, maybe, maybe.
That's the whole point of R-Truth, though. But now what's the lesson we've learned? If we complain loud enough, then WWE doubles back. So what, R-Truth loses at Night of Champions and then... gets the match at summer slam do we need this to be a six month long feud but you got to understand why people are complaining though like they're complaining because
There's no depth to this Cena heel turn. There's so many layers that I think people were waiting to explore for a John Cena heel run. And I think people got a taste of it with The Rock and the Travis Scott thing at Elimination Chamber. And they got a taste of it. with his first promo when he won the championship, right? And said he was going to ruin wrestling, all that type of stuff. The R-Truth thing...
The complaining was about like it not having any real depth behind it. Right. Like it not like. People weren't really trying to hate John Cena yet. He didn't give you a reason to truly, truly not like him, truly, truly hate him. And now, with R-Truth as this guy who is so beloved that he can either A, shock the world and win the championship, or lose a match that I think we all expected him to lose.
And at the end of the day, it's how he loses. It's John Cena getting more believable as a guy we do not like. That's why people have been complaining. It's because it's... It's been like...
a pump fake on his heel turn. It's like they want to go all the way and make you really not like this guy and then they always stop a little bit short or Cena stops a little bit short. Now the Logan Paul thing gave a little bit of juice because people really don't like Logan Paul and they're going to boo him regardless. And now R-Truth gives you that other opportunity to give somebody John Cena who can easily dismantle and be more hated or shock the world.
even for a moment, win the title, and then lose it right back and still get more hated, right? Now you have opportunities to do everything there to help give this heel turn a little bit more life. Give it something, you know? Listen, I don't disagree with anything that you said. I just... Do we need to talk about diminishing returns on our truth? I mean... I don't want to temper this celebration with... Okay, listen. I don't want to temper this celebration with just, like, downbeat reality.
But like. Our truth is like, like. Before he got let go, we all wanted him to have this match with John Cena at Saturday Night's Main Event. We would have liked to be booked a little bit differently. There was the sense that in the absence of almost anybody else... R-Truth was maybe one of the best options to... You said to be the voice of the fans. I think you can look at it now and just be like, if for some reason Cody Rhodes isn't going to be the one to finally dethrone John Cena...
Randy Orton's already had his shot. Is R-Truth a better or worse option than CM Punk? I mean, I think there's something a lot more intriguing about the R-Truth option. Right? Like, I'm not going to deny that. I'm not sure that John Cena or Truth Match is like really materially worse than a Cody-John Cena match in terms of ring work. John Cena is just so kind of diminished at this point. How do I say this? There is an element of R-Truth's popularity that is based in irony.
I don't know if that's the right word, but it's the word I use a lot when I'm talking about wrestling. Wrestling is built in iron. Yes. The entire game. That's the whole point. That's why it's genius. Right. This is like... I think a sober person could say that Mr. Iguana is insanely over right now and also Mr. Iguana should not be WWE champion. Right? Mr. Iguana's best usage is pretty minimal. We can't overexpose Mr. Iguana if we want to keep Mr. Iguana hot.
But that's the whole point. I mean, listen, at the same time, you can make the case that Santino Morelli should have won the 2011 Royal Rumble. I mean, it's easy to say because the other guy in the ring was Alberto del fucking Rio. But like, you know. You can also make the case that Santino Moro might have been already overexposed at that point. And that moment, that moment was incredible, right? But there's also, you know, I mean, it's not, Mr. Iguana is the extreme example.
There is an element of ironic fandom. that is that R-Truth is a part of this strain Joe Hendry is a part of this strain Orange Cassidy is a part of this strain Dan Housen Dan Housen well Dan Housen is pretty extreme too but like Harley Cameron and Minnie Monet are part of this strain santino morella maybe more on the extreme end towards the end but like certainly part of the strain even even going absolutely apeshit for some of the nxt throwback concepts like the ascension is part of this strain
Oh, the Vaudevillains. I was there when the Vaudevillains was over like Rover. Was it the Blue Pants? Yes. Remember Blue Pants? Yes. But you're right. This has been a part of wrestling forever. You know? I've said it before, but go on YouTube and search for Ricky Starr if you want to see some hilarious, ironic wrestling presentation and one of the top wrestlers in the entire world in black and white TV days. This has always been a part of pro wrestling.
But I think that there is a there's a ceiling in a vacuum. There's a ceiling to which that someone who is. based in comedy slash irony can sort of run up against. But I think that the weird thing about R-Truth is I can say confidently that he should not be the WWE champion, and also that he should be the one to beat John Cena for the title. Somehow with him, it's both things at once. Part of that is a situation that WWE has kind of created for itself.
by letting him go and then bringing him back and I think again I mean part of the Triple H thing that's funny to me is like clearly he had a hand in deciding that R-Truth was going to be cut he might have been the one that decided just you know unilaterally hey I need to I mean, it's this weird circle, like cyclical situation, right? Where like Nick Khan, and obviously when I say Nick Khan, I'm talking about like TKO brass more broadly, but let's just say Nick Khan says, hey, Triple H.
I'm looking at the books. We've decided you've got to cut $15 million in salary. So Triple H releases all these people and then says, well, we're not going to renew The Miz. We're not going to renew. And who knows about The Miz? I'm just saying. Just penciling people in. And R-Truth, God, that sucks. But, you know, you got to do what you got to do. He's making a lot of money, low usage, whatever. And then Triple H...
And then they, you know, talent relations lets him know. And then the people get outraged and then Triple H is like, see? You know, I wish you hadn't made me make those cuts. And then at some point it goes back to Nick Khan, who's like, why do we fire that guy? Let's get that guy back. Everybody wants that guy back, like whatever. And it becomes this whole like circular firing squad situation. But I'm not sure how mad anybody is.
There certainly could be an element of Triple H who's just like, and whether or not it's real or part of just the presentation or whatever, but there could be a part where he was just like, I fired... i i just i put our truth on that list because i knew this would happen what better a way to deal with having with mandatory salary cuts
than to cut some people that you know the fans are going to demand you hire back. Now, I'm probably giving him too much credit here, but there was a little bit in that smile where he's just like... It's sort of like, go get the brass ring. It's like, well, if I fire you and you make enough noise online, then I don't have to fire you. Let me tell you, I didn't want to take it there to that conversation, but it's like...
there is an element of that to it, right? It's like, all right, so how over are you really, right? Now there's a benchmark. Now a benchmark has been set. There's going to be more releases. There's going to be more firings. And there's always going to be that person who gets let go that people don't believe should have been let go and is going to be called a quote-unquote fumble, right? But now, our truth has turned that entire theory back on its ear.
where it's like, all right, now we'll see how over you really are. We'll see how big of a mistake we are because we've shown, now we have this, now we have this, you know, this proof of concept that we show that, hey, we could show that. We could retcon a situation. We could say, hey, we made a mistake. Hey, we did X, Y, Z. But if you don't make that type of noise, I'll look at it like this.
The WWE Universe gives Triple H and Nick Khan free... What's the word I'm looking for? Publicity? Not publicity. Would you sort of take a survey of your fan base or whatever? Oh, yeah. The actual word has escaped me right now. I don't know why I'm forgetting it.
that's the beauty of having a vocal fan base. You have to listen to them once in a while, right? Like, yeah, you can't just feel like everything you say is the right choice. Yeah, there was a report that Triple H was like... unhappy as the as the creative director and this is i don't know why this report would be out there i mean what which who you can find out who in the writer's room is leaking
I'm saying that sarcastically. I don't think anybody would have really said that. But on the one hand, yes. If I were Triple H, I probably on some level would be upset that my carefully laid creative plans... even if they're not going as well as they could be going, are now being upended, you know? But Triple H has said more than anybody. The times I've talked to him, more than anybody, including Vince, he's the one that references the free...
like the feedback of the, of the crowds every weekend. You know, we have a free test. We have a, we have feedback. That's the word. We have a test market every single night when we go out there and do a live show. it's weird partly because the fact that they've that they've in some ways the house shows gave them like allowed them to put their finger on the scale a little bit because because
when you're, if you say, well, you know, these, these diehard, these nerd fans at the pay who come to the PLEs. Well, they like, they just, they're, they're cheering again. Ironically, they're cheering to get attention. They're getting themselves over whatever you want to say. But the real fans, the ones at the house shows that aren't playing to the camera, well, they really understood. They were big fans of babyface, of suffering, succotash, Roman Reigns. They got it, right?
Now those fans don't exist anymore because they're not going to, we're not doing house shows. Those fans are largely priced out of tickets to PLEs and the only live feedback you get are the diehard fans like us or the ones of us with money to go. And...
the people on social media who they always tried to hand wave away before too, right? It's like, well, those aren't real fans. Those are just bots or like whatever. Now that's everybody. That's all that you can hear. And someone like an arch who's firing takes on a whole new dimension, right?
I'm not saying R-Truth was a master on the house show. He probably would have scored a lot of points there too. He would have never been fired if they were still running all those. But you take my point. It is an incredibly interesting situation. I do think that there's that as with all of the people that I mentioned when I was talking about irony, you have to decide if you're booking R-Truth for real or not.
You know, like we've all like. And by the way, not it doesn't. Being a comedy wrestler, being being over ironically doesn't mean that you're not a good wrestler. I mean, certainly not the case for Orange Cassidy. You know, like there's whatever. But but there are a lot of people that get cheered because we're just. Because it is a variety show, because we want that sort of feeling, you know, because we want to be a part of that movement. And.
it's not the same as Jey Uso. It's not being a part of that movement. It's like, it's like cheering for somebody because you think it's funny because you enjoy their shtick because you know, because it is more fun to sit in the crowd and, and. say you know we want Santino than it is to say like you know we want
whoever your like work rate guy of the day is, right? Because everybody agrees on that. We want to say something and then everybody's, when everybody starts agreeing on the ironic thing, anyway. But those guys are just important. You got to decide if you're booking some truth for real or not. No, those guys are just as important though, Dave. I agree. The world champions and the guys who are the sports entertainers are equal importance.
in every wrestling show, I believe. I don't think you can have a bunch of seriously booked guys. And the beautiful thing about R-Truth right now is that, like, they're giving you clues or at least leaving breadcrumbs that, like... They're going to try and seriously book him right now. He's going by Ron Killings. He wasn't laughing when he came out. There's a lot of intimations that we're going to get a little bit of a different Ron Killings.
different version of Ron Killings this time around. Well, I hope so. But you could only do that if you're able to do all the stuff that he has mastered. No, no, no, no. Totally, totally true. Apparently he's being referred to as Ron Killings. That was his own call because he wants, because he knows he can take his name with him when he leaves. And he's, you know, his departure now feels as inevitable as ever.
Yeah, they've already shown him, like, we can let you go anytime. So he negotiated. He made sure he set up with wings and a soft pillow to land on once it's all said and done, which is, I mean. Even speaks more to the genius of the whole thing. Totally, totally. And you're right. It only works now that he's kind of established the character after all this time.
And I and maybe he's going to be true. I mean, listen, the greatest thing would be if he came and he was just like, yeah, I was messing with you guys for the past 10 years. You know, like this was my grand plan. And now he acts stupid right until he signs the contract and then have him just say, no, I was in charge all along. Right? That would be great.
It also, there's a question, like you're right, he couldn't get there without playing this other character this whole time. Now we got to see if he can play this new character, right? I mean, the real one. So that'll be, it'll be pretty intriguing to see. Anyway, a lot more happened at Money in the Bank. We'll keep talking about R-Truth, presumably, for the next several months. As mentioned, the show opened with the Women's Money in the Bank match. A little bird told me...
the two women and the two men that were being discussed as the winner. Both these winners were on that list, so I feel comfortable that the two-person list was probably true. It also could have been just to deflect attention a little bit. But Naomi came out and won the first one. What were your big takeaways from the Women's Money in the Bank match? Man. Thought it was well done. I thought Naomi was the perfect call as far as chaos proceedings. I think that was my pick also. I think...
The women's money in the bank briefcase still has a little bit more intrigue than the men's briefcase now. Because even though like we've had men not cashing and win. The women's briefcase is still 100%. 100%. Everybody who was... cashed in has still won the thing. Now it becomes a whole thing of like the first person to not do it. Exactly. Now it's a thing. So it's like, all right, don't be the first person to try and cash in as a woman and not win it.
you know, and I think Naomi's doing some great work as this heel, this unhinged sort of character. I don't understand why, I understand why she's not on the main roster given the opportunity doing... a promo i mean listen her promo against bianca uh was it last week was really incredible yeah um but man that her i i hate to keep harping on this
But the promo she cut at Wally Mania was like the greatest thing I've ever heard in my life. And when she came out on the post show on Saturday, I was like, now she's going to do it for the big crowd. Because it's a little bit, obviously there's... there's more opportunity there or whatever. But she still really didn't do it. She just kind of did the super brief version and then peaced out.
I don't know. I just think that I'm glad that she got this opportunity and hopefully she'll have a lot more promo time and a lot more ability to get herself over. I appreciate you acknowledging the Wally Mania bump. It's a real thing. Yeah. You get a Wally mania? Good things are going to happen for you, buddy. What do you think the next... I mean, first of all, if she does cash in, who is she cashing in against? And does she win? Hmm.
It's going to be interesting. I think this king and queen of the ring tournament. Which starts tonight. This is going to be very interesting. I think. You know, when you have multiple people, I think it's a bunch of failure four ways or triple threats to, you know, determine who's going to face the champ. I think that's a good spot right there. And it's weird, right? The whole reason why she went nuts is because she wants Bianca Belair to like her.
She wants Bianca to like her. That's the whole thing. She's doing all of this for Bianca. Eventually, the big joker in this whole thing is how Bianca and Naomi... and Jade are all going to sort of clash with this. So now for the first time since they've sort of been telling the story... Naomi's the only one with power over both of them.
Right? Like, for the first time, she's not the tag-along. She's not, you know, the throw-in. Like, she's not the one that's not with the title. Like, she's the only one that has any real true influence between her, Bianca, and Jade. So I think the way they tell the story is going to be interesting, man, because, you know, heels always do money in the bank better. And I think, you know, with two babyface champions.
or I guess Tiffany Stratton's babyface adjacent, but the two babyface champions, you really can't go wrong. Either way, there's a spot for Naomi to either... uh really capitalize on this character turn and being able to you know continue the 100 you know uh hit rate of women money in the bank cash ins And at the same time, figure out a way where Bianca and Jade fit into it because they're all coming for that title as well.
Yeah. So, uh, I don't know, man, but I'm, I'm interested in it. I think she deserves it. I think it was really dope. What Biggie said to her and the post show, uh, being, you know, two, the only two black people to ever hold the money in the bank briefcase. Like that wasn't lost on me as well.
And, you know, and those are two just amazing people on top of all that. So watching Naomi, like, you know, fight, fight the tears off to like, to stay heel was, was, was great to watch. Question of the week. Who's the worst person? Naomi or Biggie? I'm just kidding. I mean, nah, I'll never say that. They're both amazing humans. I'm worse. I'm worse than both of them combined. There you go. But nah, I think Naomi is in a...
is in the perfect spot right now, man. We asked her at Wale Mania just advice as far as being a career babyface. who's venturing in this new territory and would basically tell her like hey like your husband like went through the same thing career baby face and then had their biggest rise as heels. I'm like, are you prepared for that? And I feel like now we're going to find out. It's like, she has the opportunity to be as big as she's ever been, you know.
doing heel going heel for the first time just like her brother-in-law just like her husband yeah so uh you know we'll see man it's gonna be interesting yeah i think it's a really good it's a really good opportunity for i can't help i i I was trying to work through this arithmetic in my head when we did the show last week. I still am having trouble. I still feel like...
it's going to tie the money in the bank briefcase is going to tie back into the big three storyline somehow. And I don't know if that means if Bianca gets the belt first and then Naomi sitting there over her shoulder or what, but I do feel like it's going to. really mean something. Now, the other winner of the night was Seth Rollins. By the way, the other name that I heard in the Women's Money in the Bank match was Rhea Ripley, which could have just been a fallback plan sort of thing.
right i will say oh money in the bank we should talk at least a little bit about the match itself i'll just say this as great i mean watching naomi win was incredible Probably the thing that got me most excited in the match. Certainly the thing that got me most excited in the match. That infusion of new talent. But more than anything, watching Julia and Rhea Ripley.
and their interactions in the ring together. Those two are made to go against each other. They are already perfect dance partners. And I can't wait for that. to be at WrestleMania or wherever the hell it is that they are. Man, I almost feel I'm willing to bet like the only reason all three of these women were sort of like, you know, Rush graduated through NXT.
Was because they needed folks for Rhea Ripley. I almost feel like Rhea's initial title runs, especially with Charlotte on the other show. And you don't really want to run through that Bianca match yet. Like, you're going to need people for Rhea to have some credible feuds with. And, you know, Julia, Roxanne Perez, I mean, Stephanie Vakir, obviously.
The new sort of generation of the women's division is going to be really fun, man. It's got a real international flavor to it. It's not... outside of Roxanne, and you could even go back to Roxanne's experience in other wrestling promotions in North America, the AEW, Ring of Honor, all that stuff.
They don't feel like just straight up NXT graduate. They don't feel like, you know, folks that were, you know, that, that WWE built, like all three of these women got credit in other promotions, you know? So like immediately they all. give credence to not just the world champions that they currently have, but specifically for Rhea. You got to have Rhea in some credible feuds for the next couple of months, especially if they don't involve the title, man.
Probably, if you could be a stickler on anything about Rhea Ripley's career so far, is that outside of Liv Morgan, she really doesn't have any real credible... And she feuded with Charlotte Flair. And even that was just kind of like a great couple of matches. But you don't really remember anything about the feud. Now you got an opportunity with three fresh new people that are already extremely over.
Yeah. Yeah, it's totally true. Totally true. And I just cannot wait to see. I mean, they're on different shows, so it'll be a while before we get back there. I have to rank the new ones.
Yeah, who had the best debut showing of all the newbies. Well, I think you got to put Stephanie Vaqueria number one. One, because she wrestled twice in a row. And two, because she has the move that's the most over thing in the entire... world right now she also is an incredible wrestler just bell to bell as the sort of intuitive skills that i mean i don't even know who i put on that level in the women's division
I mean, she has a real Ripley trajectory, in my opinion. I feel like they both have the same sort of charisma.
where they just own every room they walk into every arena they walk into it's like oh shit like i don't know if it's i don't know if it's the gothiness of it i don't know if it's the the i don't know lovers of hips like I don't know what it is but like they both have the same sort of like they stand in a room next to each other and people go nuts and they're like i don't care if they team up i don't care if they fight each other like they are incredible to watch together so and stephanie
That's a rise that we haven't seen in a long time. I mean, Io Sky is the only person that comes to mind that just has this sort of millisecond by millisecond intuitive sort of feel for what she's doing in the ring. It's really incredible. I do think Julia has the chance to be a star on that level. And we're going to be comparing them forever because of the timing of their debuts and their NXT time together.
So it's kind of hard to draw much distinction between the two. There's not a lot of light in between those. And Roxanne too. I mean, I think Roxanne, if I had to...
If I had to make a bet about which one of them is going to be the most decorated in the... right in the wwe record books i might put my money on roxanne perez she feels like a lifer she feels like she's got like a 20 year career of just doing amazing stuff and always being at her near the top of the card you know um But she also has that...
She also has that Sasha Banks level of love where I could totally see her being like, I'm out of here and just going to AEW in four or five years if she's not booked the right way. They're both that way. And she's young enough to pull off both. Yeah, I can see that. I can see either way. I don't know if she's straight up a lifer quite yet, but I think she's a wrestling lifer. I don't know if she's a WWE lifer. Yeah, well, fair enough.
But regardless, it's just been so incredible to see all that stuff. The men's money in the bank, we got to get to Seth Rollins, the other name I heard on this list.
Do you want to guess who the other potential winner was? LA Knight? No. Damn. Damn. Yeah, it was our pick. Solo Sakoa. Okay. I think that there was a... I mean, clearly, if Solo was going to win, it was going to be with the help of Jacob Fatu, and then Jacob would turn on him right after or whatever, or we'll save the turn for next week or for the next month, whatever.
Jacob Fatu walked out maybe the biggest star of the men's Money in the Bank ladder match, even though he didn't win. I mean, what a great... My six-year-old was like... I left the room for five seconds when Jacob Fatu did his spring up. moonsault and uh and and aubrey was just like trying to explain the move to me and you know just in the context of cartoons and playground games it was he was impressed
But yeah, that was an incredible run-in. It went different than I thought. It should be. I mean, we got to say straight up, we got no CM Punk. We got no Sami Zayn on this card. In my mind, it was going to be... Seth's guys run in to interfere. Sami Zayn and CM Punk. CM Punk and Sami Zayn.
Oh, by the way, speaking of chance, I can't believe we didn't say this earlier. Big ups to John Cena for the you can't handle the truth bit on SmackDown. Anyway, they were chanting for Punk. There was every expectation that he would show up. He tends to show up at least just to pop the crowd. I thought it was going to be...
brawn and brawn the two brawns were going to run in then seth and sammy would come in i mean sorry then then punk and sammy would come in fight them off and then the bloodline would come in and allow solo to win now there's no more friends
on the outside the ring, right? They obviously went another way with it. And frankly, with R-Truth returning, card wasn't lacking for star power you know in that main event and everything else i think it was probably good to take to not take any extra spotlight off you know away from what was going to happen in the main event to keep sammy and punk off screen but um
But Seth winning was... Sorry, sorry. I mean, Jacob Fatu's involvement was incredible. The two Bron's involvement was really impressive. I love Bron Breaker in the button-up shirt. and Bronson Reed in the tank top. That was a good look. They finally got the look right, I feel like. Shoes fashion corner, that's right. uh the music brian and yeah and i mean overall i thought that was just an incredibly good match you know um i mean everybody in that match put it all on the line
LA Knight always comes big in matches like this. Andrade filled his role probably more effectively than I think I might have guessed. a grande americano was the center of the storytelling for so much of it um i love that michael cole is now open about the fact that this is chad gable under the mask but he's playing it as such a buffoon that it actually takes credence away from the argument it's just really really incredible stuff and to have two heels
sharing the booth with him who are both insisting that Grande is not Chad Gable is just a pretty weird balance. Penta is super over two. I mean, did some incredible, some really fun stuff in the match. I don't know. Who is your... what was the men's money in the bank MVP ranking for you? And you can count Jacob Fatu and Bron and Bronson. Oh, wow.
I'll probably go El Grande Americano. Like, I think once Solo was talking crap about Jacob Fatou on SmackDown and it was called and said, all gas, no brains. I was like, all right, he's definitely not winning. And then part of my brain of watching the bronze sort of come down and defend, you know, play defense for Seth Rollins. Let me think that.
all right, Seth Rollins definitely isn't winning this. Someone's going to cost him this. Here's the point when CM Punk comes down, gets his comeuppance, or Roman Reigns comes down and gets his comeuppance, and Seth doesn't get the briefcase. For a solid 12 minutes of that match, I was so convinced El Grande Americano was going to be Mr. Money in the Bank. He, of course, I'm giving him extra credit for his performance at...
You know, Worlds Collide with Buckingham. Incredible match as well. But, you know, that character is so stupid. But everything around it is so stupid. Go on. At the end of the day, the dude under that mask can fucking go. And I love, and the best thing about doing this podcast is that we could reference conversations we've actually had with the people in question. And when we talked to Chad Gable at WrestleMania, he talked about his Shorty G era.
And how if he cried and bitched and moaned and all that type of stuff and yada, yada, yada, he wouldn't have been in the situation he's at right now. He talked about how much he loved the silliness of wrestling. Even though there's nobody more legit as a pros like shoot style wrestler than Chad Gable, probably on the planet, right? Like there's only a handful of people that can really just out wrestle the fuck out of you, tie you into a knot.
than Chad Gable. And even though he didn't win, that entire day, I think, was really about letting people know, like, we're going to crown this guy one day. You got to believe it. This is how you believe that he's one of these guys. You have to have a performance like that in Money in the Bank. You have to appease the nerds like us and go out and have a smacker with Vikingo and make him look like a million bucks.
for this big AAA WWE partnership he got. And then, you know, on top of that, he probably had my favorite spot where... Even though it took a little while with the slingshot. LA Knight slingshots El Grande up the ladder. He climbs it. Seth holds it. It seesaws his way onto the top of that. That was a forgivable little whatever. It did take a little while. I forgive.
I forgive the intent of big spots for the sake of safety, okay? Like, if it makes everyone feel safe, if it's safer to, like, crawl up the ladder instead of getting catapulted onto it, whatever, I'll live with it. And then, you know, LA Knight, you know, back suplexing him off of that, I thought was the illest sort of.
you know spot right there and um he was awesome after that yeah i gotta give it to jacob fatu man that dude is a mega star like that that guy has like He has that Marshawn Lynch-esque charisma where if he's a good guy or a bad guy, he's him.
He's not anybody. You know what I mean? I just want to root for that guy. I don't care if what he's doing is bad. I don't care if what he's doing is good. I don't care if he's turning on his family. He's just got an it factor about him that you really cannot teach. And it's more of an if factor sort of like multiplies itself because a dude that big shouldn't be that athletic and be that funny and be that camera ready. And nobody.
Unwrestling looks like him, even though he comes from a family of, you know, super accomplished Samoans. Yeah. Nobody in wrestling has the sort of. presentation that he has like he's he he'd be a savage in the streets and he'd be a savage in in the ring and in the same sort of
in the same sort of instance. So I think he'd be my number two. And then I'll just do three for now. I got to give some more love for Penta, man. Like, Penta is... the funnest pro wrestler right now i would say if there was an award for like who's the most fun guy to watch
from bell to bell, not even from before to bell, from as soon as he walks into the ring to see who walks out. I think Penta would be at the very top of the list. Like Penta and like Cody Rhodes would be like, who's the most, who does this pro wrestling thing so at a level? that he could have existed in any time ever. Yeah. And I think Pence is one of those dudes, man. Like, credit to WWE because, like...
They have done so much to make him look like a star, and he's taken full advantage of everything they've given him, from the pyro to the moveset to the music. Everything about him is just rock star level. Again, I didn't think Seth Rollins needed this briefcase, but I understand why they did it. You're telling a story about a guy getting drunk with power, wanting to do...
I don't know why he wants to control the future of WWE. I don't understand what the end game is, but I get... Who wouldn't want to control the future of wrestling? Come on. I get why... giving the briefcase back to Seth Rollins, a guy who's already won it, a guy who can get a championship match pretty much whenever he feels like it, gets it, right? It's because of the feeling. It's because of the feeling. It's because you know he's going to...
try and run it back and steal somebody's main event. And it's almost guaranteed Roman Reigns is going to make sure that does not happen. Roman Reigns is going to wait for him to get it and take the belt. So there was part of me that thought if R-Truth had not been a part of the show last night, sorry, Saturday night. Yeah. Then what do you do tomorrow? What do you do tonight? Well, that was the thing. When did they announce that match? Did they announce that last week? A couple weeks ago.
I think it was right before the Logan Paul. So I guess I was existing in a... I was willfully ignorant of that timeline situation, but I really thought that all the stuff that was involved, that a quick... that a same night cash in was a real possibility. As it stands now, Roman, I mean, Jey Uso versus Gunther tonight. I actually think Seth Rollins has the highest odds of walking away from Raw as the champ, higher than either of the other two guys. You think he cashes in tonight? Yeah.
I'm not sure that he will, but I would put his odds of winning over both of those guys. J losing to Gunther would be such a weird... absent any other storytelling sort of advancement. Jay losing to Gunther would be a very odd treading water sort of choice. Gunther losing again would be a, just a. ridiculous booking decision. If you're not going to have him win, have him stay away. I mean, listen, you can make the case. He has to go find himself again, blah, blah, blah. You can tell a story.
I think, frankly, the fact that they're having this match outside of the real outside of the baseline pro wrestling logic of he has a contractually obligated stipulation for a rematch, whatever. I think the fact that they're having this match in this sort of situation at all makes me think that Seth's going to cash in. I could be wrong. This is a bold proclamation, I know. They're too heavy-handed on the Jey Uso schedule story.
The day after he won the title, they're all like, oh, man, and he's doing everything. He's running the schedule harder than everybody. Then they put him in the main event of Saturday Night's Main Event. Then they put him in the main event of Money in the Bank. They showed him limping. They showed the slow walk back to the top of the ramp at the end of Money in the Bank. They're leaning into the fact that Jey Uso is probably a little tired. Yeah. And...
Should be easy pickings for Gunther on tonight. Mm-hmm. Which makes me think... Seth's either going to... One of three things might happen. One of four things. Gunther wins cleanly. Oh my God, new champion. Sure. Jay wins by the skin of his teeth. Seth Rollins cashes in. Uh-huh. Jay wins by the skin of his teeth. Seth's about to cash in. Jay's big cousin, Roman Reigns, comes to save his ass. Okay, there you go. I'll buy that one. Jay wins by the skin of his teeth. No, Gunther is about to win.
Seth is running down with the briefcase. There's a pay-per-view. There's a Saturday Night's Main event happening in Atlanta next month with a possible retirement match. That's supposed to happen at that show. What are you talking about? Goldberg? You know what time it is, Dave. I think we get Goldberg tonight, baby. Brian, play the Kaz's Goldberg corner music now, please.
You know what's happening, baby. I was going to mention... It's time to start revving up that retirement match talk. It's in Atlanta. All signs to point to the last Goldberg match happening.
at the satellites i was going to mention goldberg because the stories about him training and getting hurt while training and having it's being impossible for him to get in shape all signs there point to uh no match damn no no point to him being about to come back like that was that felt like deliberate misdirection uh on the part of of goldberg and whoever is putting him out there to do interviews um that would not shock me no When is it? It's a Saturday night's main event, right?
that he's in atlanta that's a couple of events away from now i don't know if that's what we do next i think that's july that's just about a month i want to know we got knight of champions and is there one more thing in between Night of Champions, Saturday Night's Main Event, and Evolution are that... No, no, Great American Bash. Oh, that's NXT? That's NXT, yeah. And then, yeah, Saturday Night's Main Event, yep.
All right, maybe. I think it's Goldberg time, baby. I like your first idea better. I like Roman Reigns gets involved. First of all, I think Seth would cash in in the midst of the match. I think it's unnecessary for Jada or Gunther either to win by the skin of their teeth. Put Seth in the match. Throw the match out, right? That's how Seth won his first one. He made the match triple threat.
So I think that that's what I would bank on. Now, what happens at that point? Does CM Punk get involved? Does Roman Reigns get involved? What do you want to see next? I don't know. Then what do you do for Night of Champions? What do you do with Jey Uso? Then do you run Jey Gunther back again because now it's Night of Champions and they didn't get the finish to their one-on-one match? I mean, I guess that's feasible. You know?
if you're gonna do if you're gonna have these guys together keep them together forever let's just find a way to never have a win a victor after like 10 more matches or something they do have good chemistry um so that's interesting um What else happened at Money in the Bank? Lyra versus Becky. Oh, that was really good. You called that one.
Another banger. Another banger. The match was fantastic. Becky winning was the right choice. The post-match thing was so obvious. I can't believe we didn't just discuss it note for note before it happened, but it was so great. Lyra is... I... I know that there's a million of them, but I can't think of a time where a wrestler was transparently trying to get another wrestler over and succeeded to the level that we've seen this succeed so far. I mean, it's like...
Bruno and Zabisco. But Zabisco didn't go on to be the next Bruno Sammartino. Who knows? Obviously, we don't know what Larry Valkyrie is going to go on to be. But it just feels like it's been so immeasurably incredible in terms of turning Lyra Valkyria into a wrestler that we care about. as a turning her into a showcase for what she can already do so well it's it's been really impressive to watch and that matches a lot of fun too yeah man you gotta start giving
Becky Lynch her flowers, man. Everything she does always matters. She never... Ever since she became the man in that feud with Charlotte... Literally every feud she's had has mattered to somebody. Like she takes such great care of her feuds and makes sure all of her matches are on proper stages that like, you know, this Lyra Valkyria.
sort of experiment that we're all witnessing then like she's turned her into somebody I want to see wrestle for the world title now like I want to like as I'm watching her and Becky go at it oh yeah I'm like, man, I can't wait to see her versus Io Sky for a world title match. That's going to be great to watch. But I think we all sort of understand the mission they were trying to accomplish here, right?
Women's International Championship, first-time holder, somebody who is an incredible wrestler. The best person to put it on to is somebody that can keep it established, to keep the lineage established. Sort of definitely immediately felt the moment that Bukulins came back. It's funny that we kind of started off, Lyra Valkyria was the first IC champion. Obviously Chelsea Green was the first US champion. Now it looks like we're heading towards a Julia championship reign.
And then Becky on the other show. I mean, this is really, these mid-card titles have been absolutely enormous for establishing. Yes. The division is establishing the new talent. It's going to be, they're going to get big looks at Evolution, obviously. Yeah, I mean, just really cool. That was great. They're doing what they've done for the men, right? The mid-card titles have always been about, okay, this is your test. This is our first time running a play for you.
Let's see if you can go and score, right? And I think with the Intercontinental Championship, even with the U.S. Championship with Zelina Vega, like, Zelina Vega... is still sort of figuring it out, I think. But I think just having something to grasp for, I might be alone on this. I think the world titles... I think the top titles should be the folks that are the generation after the Four Horsewomen and them. And I think the Baileys, the Beckys.
the Chelsea Greens, the vet women, they should hold that title. I think they should hold that title for a couple of months. now established it. I think what they did was great. Oh, yeah, used the vets to elevate the mid-card. Yes, yes. Now when you bring Bayley back, the Intercontinental title for her versus Becky, that feels big now.
That feels like a good match. And then the next person could be somebody else to help build up, whether it's a Julia, whether it's a Vakir or any of these people. Now's the time that you use that title. with Becky as the champion to sort of get some of these vets in here to help establish that lineage. I think you let Lyra sort of like do her thing, get her in the mix, and then we'll figure this thing out, man. Like, I think...
I think that's why you have that deep of that deep of a roster, right? Like you could use Natalia, you can use Nia Jax, you can use, you know, all of these people who have incredible.
resumes and legacies who want to call themselves grand slam champions or whatever one of these days like now you use them to get this title some more heat to it so now when you're starting to make people now it feels much more Like the Intercontinental Championship on the men's side, where it's like, oh my God, the guy that I've always liked is finally getting a chance by winning this title without all these greats.
have held before. So I love that it's on Becky Lynch right now. I agree. I totally do. Speaking of... Midcard titles getting people over. Dominic Mysterio retained his IC championship in a semi-impromptu match made earlier in the day at Worlds Collide against Octagon Jr. There was some talk internally, according to reports, that...
If they had it to do all over again, they might have put Mr. Iguana in this spot. But Octagon Jr. availed himself just fine. It was a very, very good match. This is one of my favorite Don Mysterio matches in a while. not just the style, but also him just sort of working with a great confidence. You know, I mean, they were calling it on commentary, but there was just some great, there was a sort of comfort. He went to Eddie Guerrero's grave, maybe he came back feeling a whole different way.
It was... Yeah. Right here, Dave. Right here, Dave. I saw that picture. Doing the goosebumps bit? The goosebumps right here. Right here. Dom. Dom is about to... I know we don't give out rockets anymore. Well, Dom would have got his rocket a long time ago, but yeah. I saw that WWE just trademarked the term king of the luchadors.
And Dom, in that same Instagram post that he goes to see, he puts the title on Eddie Guerrero's grave. The caption that he came out with with the mask was King of the Luchadors. I think they're about to do something with Dom. Isn't El Grande Americano the king of the luchadors? Nah, I think that's what a lot of people were fearing when they first saw WWE trademark that term.
But I don't think it's for, I don't think it's for El Grande Americano. I think it's for Dom. Like, I think, you know, the Octagon thing, the AAA, whatever, like, dog, like. he's got a main event in TripleMania, right? Like, I feel like the main event in TripleMania in Mexico called himself King of the Luchadors after going to Eddie Guerrero's grave and putting the Intercontinental title on it. Like...
And the confidence he was wrestling with on Octagon Jr. He hit that frog splash and he sat back up and looked at the camera and I was like, oh yeah. that's the look i'm like that's it that's it right there like he's he's ready to take off for real for real for real um i think it's all connecting in the same way that's kind of been like the that That and Pence's involvement have kind of been like...
the elephants in the room of this whole Worlds Collide thing. I'm like, all right, is Dom going to show up? Is Penta going to show up? I was like, watching Worlds Collide, I'm like, this place... Well, Penta was there for the press conference and they announced it at WrestleMania weekend, right? I mean, Dom, I don't think... was a little bit of a surprise. I mean, not a shock, but given his legacy. But yeah, I agree, man. That was an incredible match. I'm probably higher on Dom now.
since he won the title than I was expecting to be, and certainly than I've been in a long time. Worlds Collide was a great card. We're not going to have time to really discuss it in depth here. We did discuss Mr. Iguana at some length, so I think that sort of counts. And then we got to the main event, Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso. Cody got his pin back over John Cena.
Cody said in, was it the press conference or a separate interview about when he asked about R-Truth, he's like, it's our job to give the fans what they want every night, which is not exactly true. I mean, Dusty Rhodes' entire career was based on not giving the fans what they want. Cody Rose. Giving the fans what they want once in a while. Yeah, letting the fans be disappointed 90% of the time.
maybe once every couple years, give them false hope and then yank it away, which kind of makes it worse than not giving them what they wanted at all. Cody's replayed a bunch of that too. We did a temperature check on Cody Rhodes last week, although I really like him with Jay. They have good chemistry. And Cody wasn't going to be able to get by forever on just being gone. He's not Sting.
You know, like he needs to sort of be present for us to appreciate him. I'm still thinking it's Cody Cena at SummerSlam. I still think Cody's the guy. I don't know. I mean, the... WWE has been very artful at prolonging feuds, dragging them out, stringing them along, stringing them out, whatever you want to say. But they're in a position now where if you have...
Cody and Cena on the same card when it's SummerSlam. You know, if this is Night of Champions, one of them can take the day off. But at SummerSlam, can you have Cody and Cena on the same card doing different stuff? Conversely, I mean, on the other side of the roster, can you have Seth Rollins at SummerSlam and have Roman Reigns and CM Punk not involved in whatever he's doing as much as they all hate each other?
You know, it's a pretty intricate balancing act that they have right now. Obviously, you could do something with Roman Reigns and Jey Uso on the side or whatever. I don't know. Does Roman come back and... join up with Seth Rollins you know like is there like there's gotta be you know that'd be weird that'd be crazy but yeah I think tonight we're definitely gonna see some stuff
We're definitely going to, I think we're going to start pointing the way towards SummerSlam coming out of Money in the Bank tonight. You think so? Yeah, I think so. I think that's the, I think, you know, I think this is, I don't know if we're going to get. minor SummerSlam plan starting.
But I think the major ones are going to start. I still think the King of the Ring, Queen of the Ring, they're going to try to fill that out. The qualifying matches begin tonight. No, no, the tournament begins tonight. It's not a qualifying match. It's the King of the Ring tournament and Queen of the Ring tournament. Nikki Bella is going to be there tonight. Nikki Bella's back. Shout out Nikki Sawa. Strong style legend. Total Divas. Nah, that's going to be fun. I mean, shoot.
That's going to be interesting, too, man. She's only gotten more famous since leaving WWE, which is kind of rare. I'm really interested to see how people react to her back in her...
natural habitat of the WWE universe. You know what I mean? It's weird. She's one of the few people who, few women's wrestlers, I would say, that is probably more... has more mainstream recognition than like wrestling cred for some reason like I don't know if I'm saying this the right way but like she's it's in the world where like they're obviously
I mean, WWE are obviously prioritizing the Travis Scouts, the Logan Pauls, the crossover fames of pro wrestlers. I'm really interested to see how people respond to Nikki Bella this time around. Are they going to... Is she going to? I don't know.
I have a million questions to see how they do this and what's going to be her role. I don't think she's going to come in and just like wrestle. Like she's definitely going to be thrown into somebody's story. And it'll be interesting to see where that sort of takes off at. So we'll see, man. We'll see. I think that's it for tonight. Summer, man. Yeah. What? Summer slam?
Just summer in general? No, I mean, it's, you know, it's the summer. It's WWE in the summertime. It's the summer trying shit, man. Like, you know, that... Is this the first official week of the summer try and shit? Yeah, it's June 9th. Yeah, that's awesome. I was wondering what that was in the year. Yeah. Oh, wait, I got one more. I have one more Mr. Iguana note before we go.
Of course, there can never be enough Mr. Iguana notes. First of all, for the bald community, Mr. Iguana is pretty huge. Our Halloween costumes are just abracadabra done, you know? Love that. LuchaBlog, great Twitter follow, said, if I have a dollar for every time someone in Mexico said Iguana was terrible for wrestling, I'd be one-tenth as rich as he's about to be.
yeah Mr. Iguana for reference is like a lot of the reaction down there has been like Jim Cornette talking about Orange Cassidy you know a lot of just like this is gonna kill the business whatever But that wasn't really the point I wanted to make. This is taken from one of the myriad news articles about the excitement for...
Mr. Iguana. This is a quote. It was also noted that Iguana's t-shirt sold exceptionally well. By the way, do you see these t-shirts they made? They made like t-shirts for Pagano, like a handful, Psycho Clown, but they're all kind of exactly the same t-shirt. It's like when you go to the team shop of a minor league baseball team and it's all the same stuff as the minor league baseball team down the street. They're all black t-shirts with the same little... Anyway.
It was noted that Iguana's t-shirt sold so exceptionally well, and there have already been discussions about how to appropriately merchandising him, including puppets of Yeska. Yeska is the name of his Iguana puppet. But here's the thing. Yes, it is a puppet. How do you make a puppet of a puppet? Also, did they let go? Clearly, this is a puppet that he purchased that like.
you know, the Busch Gardens gift shop or whatever. Like, did they have to get permission from whoever, what the puppet maker was before they put this on the air? Maybe the puppet was made. Maybe he had the puppet made for him. That would be smart if he did. How do you make a puppet of a puppet? Is it going to be a less articulated puppet, like a lesser puppet, like just a little kitty puppet? I mean, if we're going by the laws of trademark infringement...
I'm assuming this whatever iguana, if this iguana puppet doesn't have the same image and likeness of a popular iguana puppet, it would probably need to... have something of a characteristic that like differentiates it from any other iguana puppets that may be out there. So I'm assuming WWE is clearly going to buy this puppet and like.
stick a mohawk on it or something or give it its face paint or just reimagine it in a way that they could say, hey, we legally have a piece of this puppet that you don't legally own. And now we can make some money together on this puppet. money. That's right. We're doing puppet breakdowns on the show now, folks. I just think it's funny to say we're going to even make a puppet and it's a puppet. Can we not just go get this puppet?
They got to make their own puppet, man. They ain't leaving no chicken on the table. They're like, oh, you want puppets? We're going to make our own puppet. Like the Yeet glasses. The first Yeet glasses were just some glasses that Jay brought and wrote Yeet on them. And they were like, all right, we're going to hit up our little merchandise company and get that mass produced and bing, bang, boom. We're out of here, you know? So I think.
I'm not even sure this is an iguana, by the way. I don't want to start any stuff, but is there any frill on Jeska? There's no spikies on the back? I don't see much frill here. No, I can't say I do. This is just a lizard. This is a generic lizard. My Bill Nye the science guy has been, you know what I mean? It's been a while since I caught up. So the difference between reptiles and lizards, that might be a reptile.
reptile lizards I know they're not the same but they could look different you know I don't know um oh wait here we go you found it No, no, no, no, no. I'm trying to figure out if this is an Iggy the Iguana from Rainforest Cafe, but I don't believe it is. It does look similar. Anyway.
I think that's about enough. Brian, do you have any hot takes from Money in the Bank you want to get off before we get out of here? I told y'all, proceed with caution. All right. Yes, sir. Love that. Receiving with caution is a great catchphrase. It just seems to be like endlessly renewable.
like every promo she gets to it so naturally you know it's just like it's a sort of and that's the bottom line you know it's just sort of it fits so neatly at the end of every promo i love it great work by her um Obviously, the R-Truth thing, the ironic stuff, intersects with just the general appreciation piece of fandom, which Naomi is taking a big part of, too.
you know what i mean like there's a lot of like we love naomi because of what she's meant to us and because she got fired because she had to make her way back but like in a vacuum well whatever we'll get more into the nature of fandom next week or on thursday on the masked man show kaz before then you want to get your until then you want to get your plugs in
Yeah, new episode of 7pm in Brooklyn drops this Thursday. I technically don't even know which one it is, but just enjoy it. Shout out to everybody who... Watch the latest episode with Ryan Coogler. Go check that out on YouTube or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Listen to my podcast, say less with Kaz, okay, and Rosie on my YouTube stream, youtube.com slash Kazim and anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Keep it Thursday before SummerSlam open. That's all. You can find me here. You can find me on the PressBox. Thanks to our producer, Brian H. Waters. Thanks to our EP, Ben Cruz. Thank you all for listening. Finn Balor is going to be okay. So are you. We'll see you back here on Thursday, Humanoids. Peace.