Mailbag #230: Listeners React to This Week in WWE, Seth Rollins & Bron Breakker, More

my condolences. Let's continue into the mailbag here. Let's jump into some of your emails and we'll start with Luis Gonzalez. Luis, our host for After Dark, says, I know the chances of Orton is of winning him winning a slim, but do you think it's possible for Sena to lose the belt to Orton or someone else very soon, only to win it again later on? Down the line. I only bring this up because of what he said at the post conference after the rumble. I don't want I don't

win seventeen for myself. I win it so that one day I can shake the hand of the man who wins eighteen. Do you think there's a world where the writers set this up that SNA loses, wins it back, and then shakes his own hand. I mean, I think that's possible. That's definitely possible. But Triple H has shown through his tenure that he's not exactly a fan of hot potato title changes. He has been very much in the camp of long title reigns, specifically ones that start

at WrestleMania. I think that there's not a lot of benefit here for I mean John Cena. What I guess the goal is to what get John ConA more heat if you were to go with that, I mean to be funny, but also I think it would be a little bit a little bit shallow to do to the championship just to get more heat on John Cena. That yeah, that would I'm gonna say, No, is there a zero percent chance that Norton wins.

defeat Orton is gonna be hook crook. It's gonna be a low blow another title shot from what they we saw wrestle Mania forty one. That's what I think. So thanks buddy. Let's go to our next patron, Dino. What do you got for me? So you have a couple small things to get off your chest. Let me start by giving shout outs to DJ Jeff Jay and everyone else in the discord during plis. Also shout out to Brad from Florida for the great hilarity that his voicemail

caused me last week. Keep up the good work. Ryan Sprague has a great podcast voice. His voice also kind of sounds like AI. Yeah, I mean, that's what happens when your voice is too good, people will accuse you of AI. Luckily I don't have that problem. Or I guess not so lucky, but yeah, so I do believe it was me who said his name in the discord during WrestleMania, and he appeared, So you can stop the hunting down the mystery of the person who said his name.

I knew i'd find you. I knew it. You couldn't handle the pressure. I've been on the hunt since the since the night IWO of WrestleMania, I have been on the hunt. So the bounty has been collected. You've turned

yourself in. You are now responsible. Thank you. The main event of SmackDown last week, the TLC match between DIY, the Street Profits and MotorCity Machine Guns, not only should have been on the WrestleMania forty one card in place of The War Raiders versus The New Day, but in my opinion, it should have been one of the It was one of the best tag team matches in SmackDown history. I mean it was really good. Doubt that. I mean, was it one of the greatest in history?

And instead they actually they actually do the opposite of what a super Bowl actually would be, where there's actually there are fewer competitors left on the field. There's only two teams left at the end of the day, because that's what the super Bowl is. These are the two best teams of that year. And WWE said, oh, well, you know what, Yeah, we're the super Bowl of wrestling. But also, everyone gets a jersey, here's your participation in trophy.

Here's your participation trophy. Go have fun. And from a talent perspective, I'm sure that they would totally disagree with me because they get to experience WrestleMania. But it also I think hinders competitiveness inside the organization, where you know, you maybe go out on the limb, you try something different, you talk to management, you know, you push back on

ideas or whatever the case. And I think it actually propagates creativity and effort when you have a show like WrestleMania that actually will be trimmed down to only the best of the best. But when you know there's a good chance if you just do good enough that you'll get a spot at WrestleMania, then maybe you don't actually perform your best. But to talk about war rators a New Day, Yeah, unless there was a Big E return there to screw the New Day, and I thought there

was going to be. I want nothing to do with that match. Sorry. Yeah, like having the New Day not or a Biggie not there to screw the New Day or attack them made no sense. You talk about one of the most one of at least in twenty twenty five, one of the biggest flops of a heel turn thus far. It's kind of the New Day who started on fire with Big Ee and you're thinking this is a setup for a big Ee return and it turns out to be a big nothing burger and then they're in and

out of relevancy. Okay, they win the tag team titles. They've essentially held the tag team titles for their entire career, so it's not exciting or new, and no big ee that would have made it I think a little more WrestleMania worthy. Finally, on the Rock not appearing at WrestleMania, it feels like they were in a tough spot. It was all built around Sena selling out to the Rock, but then the Rock disappeared. There was an undeniable shift from that brilliant evil Scena at Chamber to the generic

I hate the fans Sena we got. They obviously realized the Rock wouldn't be around. I think for me the disconnect came when Sena doubled down on the fans when quite honestly, he's been shown nothing but admiration for the last few years, especially the last few months. It could have been more nuanced for me, but instead it felt forced. Now they could have it. Nick could save it by the end of the year by having it revealed the Rock was manipulating Sena and Scena redeems itself. But I

guess that depends on what happens going forward. This whole situation with the Rock and conflict of interests is very odd. I've seen online that The Rock pulled out last minute due to disagreement with Triple H. But who knows. Yeah,

I've seen so much. There are a lot of reports going around that the Rock's trying to out Triple H, and there's tension, and the way the Rock responded on the Pat Mackffs Show, if you're reading between the lines, you know essentially was undermining Triple H. There's a lot there. Is it possible they have disagreements. Yeah, in fact, it's very likely that they have a lot of disagreements. But to say that The Rock is actually trying to actively Outstriple H is a is a bit of a stretch.

I think Triple H is just going through a rough patch right now. Remember all the love fest of oh, no more events, no more events, Yay Triple H. Remember that I do, And now it's you know, boo, Triple H terrible main event, and he's still trying to get the stench of that main event off of him. It's gonna stick with him for a while because unfortunately, that is the biggest match, at least from a position standpoint, of the entire year. So when you flub a match

of that caliber. It sticks with you. It's not one that's just like a Monday night raw club that was a bad main event or even a bad ple e main event. This is the ple of pl e s of the year in the biggest match of that ple e. So doesn't get any bigger, doesn't the spotlight doesn't get

any brighter. And it was a big wompwomp of an ending, and it's gonna take some time to really wash the stench of that from from fans minds that it may not ever, so I think that Triple A has got a heck of a heck of a damage control on

his mind and or on his plate. So yeah, I mean again, I'm trying not to get back into the rock deal, but if it is gonna end up with Sena turning on the rock or I mean, we all we all understand that the reason that Sina did what he did in part anyway, was because of the influence of the rock that was shown to us at Chamber when he turned, and he only did what he did after the rock gave him the signal, after they made eye contact. That eye contact and that symbol of the

rock essentially cutting the throat. We never got explained. We never we never got the explanation as to what the connection is here. That's embarrassing storytelling. If you take that storytelling and you put it in a book, that book would sell zero copies, or if it did sell there there would be a lot of returns that on that particular title, because you're missing a massive hole in logic. And I don't want to hear that it's about the

spotlight on other people. It's no, because if that was the case, you wouldn't have injected yourself to begin with, knowing how people view you in the business. So I don't want to hear that crap. That is just hot garbage. It's just terrible storytelling. Oh, we'll get back to it. No, okay, Like, don't do me any favors, Like that's you don't get

back to it. That's like going from chapter one to chapter two to chapter seven to chapter eight, nine, ten, and then we're supposed to go back to chapter three, four and five and six that you missed. No, is that how we read books?

going on with the crowds lately? I feel like I'm living in a bizarre world. Tom's getting cheered, Sina and Fatu is getting cheered, Cody's getting booed. Roman did everything in his power to turn back Heel before WrestleMania, but kept getting serenaded with OTC and now the other night, Seth mentions Punk's name in the out booze. Even Seth looked shocked and didn't know what to say. Eventually they were egged on to chant his name. But what's going on?

People are still cheering Seth and singing his song even though he's trying to go full blown heel. I guess I'm old schooler. Where was I raised in the world where heels are supposed to be booed? I mean, what's next Drew and Logan Paul getting standing ovations. Yeah, there's a transition period right now. There's a transition period and the fans, I'd have to see more consistency on an individual case by case basis as to what's real what's not. The domb cheers I think are real. I think those

are here to stay. The fatuo getting cheered, I think is here to stay. Sina will continue and forever and always continue to have the mixed reaction with especially during his entrance and then afterwards he'll get mostly boozed, but have that segment that still cheers, just like the segment that cheered, and there was a segment that's still boob and he was a baby faced for the last twenty five years up until the last five seconds. Cody getting booed. You know what? That I hope is here to stay.

But I don't know if it will be the time away he's taking heals wounds right the time away or what is it time heals all wounds? It's true, and I think Cody taking time, however long it is is. The longer he's away, the higher the chance the fans will reaccept him. Even though his character was severely damaged at WrestleMania by looking like a complete weakling, just this

overly nice, too compassionate, just weak champion. I think that's going to take some time to shake off of him himself as well, and time will heal that with fans. So also his entrance, Cody's entrances beloved that I don't think is and that will help him. Fans love his entrance, between the music and the fireworks, everything and the whole prison and Roman, I think fans are generally back to just cheering him. I don't think they're gonna boo him

consistently unless they really, really really try. And the reason is because what made Roman heel mostly was because he yeah, he was not there, but more importantly, he was an absentee champion for four years. People had grown very tired of his schedule. And now people have just accepted his schedule and are much more accepting of it because of the fact he's not a champion and he's a big, big star that really does and has kind of earned

that schedule. But yeah, as far as Seth, the way you stop Seth is the cheering for Seth is number one. Changes music. That's gonna be the first thing you need to do with Cody two has changed his music. If you want to be you have a really nice, full heel turn. I don't care if he goes back to the Messiah music. I actually really enjoyed the Messiah gimmick

more than most. But that was during the pandemic, wasn't it. Yeah, But I think that that's number one changes music get don't You don't want participation from the audience, at least if you want to be a true heel. I mean, today's definition of heels are just cool heels, which doesn't make them heels at all, ironically, but if you want real heel heat, you don't want to give the fans anything to cheer for. You don't want to give into their one more time chance. When you're giving a baby

face multiple finishes, you give into nothing. You do what you want and what is best for you. Only you don't give the fans any joy inside of their brains. There is no serotonin. Is that the love chemical released in their brains when they see you. At least that's how it should be. But as far as Yeah, Logan, Paul and Drew getting standing ovations, I mean Drew is universally respected Logan Paul has no chance of that, but Drew ever want to turn them back babyface? They could,

I wouldn't. He's still in a hell of a role and it needs to be in a bigger position. But yeah, thanks thanks Tom. All right, I think we have we have any more. I know we got a couple of voicemails I think floating around, but let me just check one more thing. We go inside of Patreon and I'm gonna check our messages. No, I don't think we actually have any You guys are resting after WrestleMania, and I totally understand that. Oh no, we've got we do have

a couple here. I'm actually in my Gmail that a couple of you sent. This is from Jamie, and Jamie says, hello mate. I'm guessing you're from Australia. More of a lurker, but I wanted to pick I wanted to pick you up on something you mentioned recently about the new doc and how it takes you out of the moment and believing in the story of the documentary. Got it raw Close was Seth stomping his good friend. The crowd continued

to sing his theme song as the show ended. Is this the perfect example of us consumers not being able to be believed or be invested in a heel character because we're constantly being told that everything is a work. That's a I mean, yeah, it's a good example of the crowd continuing to sing his theme. That's why I just mentioned Seth needs to get rid of that music.

You get rid of it otherwise you're not completing the term music is a big, big deal, especially as a babyface if you continue that babyface connection of the fans chanting along with your song, which by the way, I grew real tired of real quick, and I hope he changes it because I don't want to hear it ever again.

But yeah, that's the music needs to go. The crowd's chanting one more time is something that that's a new phenomenon and it's starting to catch on, and it could be it's the shiny new thing to do as a fan when you're there and you see multiple finishes, you know, I remember really starting with Seth getting tsunamid by Bronson Reid about a year it was it about a year ago before Bronson Red got injured, which I'm excited for his return, I have to say, but I think that

that is something that started there and the fans just caught on and go, oh, we can actually control the wrestlers here, even though they're heels, and as a heel, I wouldn't do that. You don't give the fans that what they wanted. All hatred is a powerful emotion because it is balanced out with the feeling of wanting to see somebody kick that person's ass. And that's what you pay tickets for. It's really what you pay for is

good versus evil. It really is that simple. I hate to be elementary about it, but it always has been. And when it's when it becomes over complicated, that's when overbooking happens. Confusion, lack of clarity and stories. It doesn't need to be overthought. It can be very straightforward, and a lot of times things are overbooked, overplanned, or there's just no finish. There's no actual long term thought process going on. It's just let's just let's do this and

feel our way forward, which can happen at times. But how often does it feel like they just do stuff? They just do stuff and it feels like there's no real direction kind of a lot, Thanks Jamie. I think we have one. Do we have another one? Hmm? Let me see here. I thought I had another one on Gmail digging. Sorry, guys, I don't know if I do well, if I don't, I don't think I have another one. Jay who does our NXT? I can't. Let's see, I'm gonna dig I know he had one. Let me see.

Oh well, Jay was saying that he's glad I I'm on the Stephanie of Acorp train. Yes, and I will conduct that train. I'll be the damn conductor. So all right, that is it with the emails. Let's jump into those voicemails and we will do that right now.

that's being Big or Summer Slam. But Diziga end up going to be a problem where Rollins keep being vented this show and he and Jay's going to be an afroth thought kind of rely similar to similar, but I feel like the woman on Raw in general is on fire right now with Eos Champion would be with Becky and Lyra and then with the inquision with Julia and rock Fan showed up. Now sure they Roxy had particularly

named him. He needs to give him me a roster at this point, I feel like for me, but I just feel like that's like the that's one my interest is right now. It's with the women and what doing with Seth and Breaker is that could end up being a problem moving forward. For sure, he used to partake Lushporler, which he had been has been se as an actor. Thought, even though he's getting big reactions as a storyline, I

don't really care what he's doing right now. So I don't know to find an interesting for Robinson Breaker being invented the show she was gonna run now, so what is that for the lead moving forward? But like what they're doing, but Jay's kind of the actor thought here, but that's just it that.

didn't make him the main event. So the idea though that the Royal Rumble winners main event WrestleMania should never be uttered again out of the words of WWE and their announcers, the way they sell WrestleMania and they sell the Rumble, because indeed, we have seen time it again that those who win wrestle win the Rumble do not always main event WrestleMania, and we saw that twice this year.

So Jay becoming an afterthought, I mean, you listen to the reaction, it's good, as you said, but the focus has been on Breaker. The focus has been on Seth, and it leads you to believe that Seth could be sooner or later targeting Jay for the World title. I think it's very possible in twenty twenty five we see Jay versus Seth Rollins, with Seth Rollins taking the World

Championship from Jay. I really don't believe Jay's gonna have a lot run, at least in terms of the typical WrestleMania to WrestleMania length that we've seen now, I mean triple H. While I know he's a big fan of long title reigns, I don't believe they're gonna keep Ja world champion for more than six months. I really think that's kind of the cutoff. I think Jay's gonna lose it towards the end of the year. As we head into Survivors Series twenty twenty five and beyond, Jay will

not be world champion. I would be shocked if Jay Uso walks into WrestleMania forty two with the World Championship over his shoulder defending it. I would I would bet a lot of money that that's not going to be the case. So Jay's run is not going to mirror that of Cody's from last year. So that's my best guess, and just Jay has been I mean, after thought, maybe a little strong. I would say he's not the number one priority for the show. That's I mean, afterthought, I

think is a little bit overdone. But I definitely see what you mean, and maybe they changed that. But yeah, right now, it's Breaker, it's Seth, it's Paul Hayman. Right, so all right, well, thank you, let's get to our next one.

you know, if you don't like it, just do something else. Man. I know you love wrestling. We all love wrestling. We all have our different viewpoints on it, and that's good. But that's what makes this show great. So if Matt wants to moan for forty five minutes of an hour show. Matt's got the right to you because it's Matt's show, and I enjoy the critics, probably because I'm more on I share Math's passion and logical thinking about how things should go and when we spot flaws. I'm the same

anything in life. If I spot flaws in something and I'm passionate about it, break in my professional world, I will keep on at it. If it's moaning or winging or whatever I'm call it's fixed or at least to get my point across and people can acknowledge it. So yeah, I just wanted to say that Matt, it's your show, man. I know you don't need me to back you up on that, but it's your show. You get to say what you want. I'm behind you. I love your show,

I love what you do. I have no complaints and if I ever did, I would probably just go and listen to something else. So yeah, anyway, like I said, not meaning to cause any grip or attenship, but just wanted to share share that that you know she doesn't like you, don't like it, do something else, you know. Anyway, I will speak to you later. I have a good one.

of people to start shows and end shows. And to me, you have to have a passion for whatever you're talking about to continue for as long as I have and many others many I mean, there's tons of podcasts that have started way, way, way way before I did. But you have to have the passion for it. Meaning if you're complaining about something and you truly don't like it, you're not going to spend hours and hours and hours every week for years complaining about something that you actually hate.

Then you actually despise to consume. That's it's not how it works. That only is a sustainable pattern if you actually underneath all the critiques and criticisms, love what you watch and understand why you love. Like when wrestling's good, you understand how good it can be. There's that pull to professional wrestling that we all have. If you're listening to this and when you hear critiques and criticisms, it's

out of passion. It's out of hey, this sucks. Here's how you can make it better, or here's a couple of ways how you can make it better. And I just personally, you know, I love pro wrestling, and if I didn't, I wouldn't be here. But yeah, I mean, people come on and ironically, what do they do. They're complaining about me complaining, so they're doing the very thing that they're alleging they don't like I do. Oh, there is that, So whoever wants to complain. I mean, honestly,

I just don't. I don't take it. Personally, I don't mind. I have a lot of people that don't like me. That's fine. I really just I it's not I mean, like, this is part of my life, but it's not like my real life, you know, like I this helps support my real life. I enjoy doing this, but it's like, you know, I have perspective. We're all just here talking about wrestling, and you some people love what I have

to say. Some people really really hate what I have to say, or find me arrogant, or you know, I've heard racist over the years, I've heard I genuinely just don't care when people come to complain about me. I really do people think that it's gonna It doesn't. And in fact, when people interact with me like that, it actually ends up causing unbeknownst to them, or really in spite of them, usually boosts my ratings because then people are complaining about me online, which gives me free advertising.

So thanks, you know, and people I've seen that on AX, I'm like, oh, thanks for the boost, thanks for the shout outs. When people don't realize when they put negative comments on my Apple podcasts wherever, it's actually helping me because the algorithm works in such a way where more activity on your feed, even if it's in a negative light, although not as much as positive, it still does elevate your podcast, so you know, it doesn't it's like okay, yeah, sure,

you're you're hurting me, all right. Anyway, it's all perspective now, this is this is like playing in the sandbox. That's what wrestling is talking about wrestling, it's it's playing in the sandbox for adults, you know, I mean, we we all have much more important things in our lives in wrestling. Nine and a half percent of us do right as far as priorities, life, death happens. Now that that takes

you out. Things happen, and life happens, jobs, stress, kids, and this is just a way to talk about the things I love outside of that and the kind of the passion I've had for twenty how many years I don't even know, twenty thirty years, almost thirty years, so it's been quite some time. And yeah, so sure, thank you for the support, though I do appreciate it.

is a Monster from Imagine Dragon. This comes from from the video package coming up to WrestleMania thirty from Daniel Bryan.

the top of your head. Maybe a theme song, an interest interest song from a wrestler, a theme song from a pay per view, something like this, anything related to wrestling. And yeah, guys, if you want to share with us, with me through the mailbag for next week or anything through the discord chat, I'll be pleased to listen to them. To those songs and started off with you may maybe, Matt, what is one of your favorite wrestling music? Bye, guys.

I mean, you go with all the traditional ones, but here is one, and I'm gonna give you the song. And I played only for a little bit because of copyright. But take a listen, and then I'll tell you what it is.

been a just zillion of them. So I really like that one Bodies by Drowning Pool for ECW's One Night Stand in Summer Slam two thousand and one. That one's really good. Armageddon we had the end. That's a good one. So there's been there's been some really really good ones. So those are just a few off the top of my head. As far as the just the you know, promotional package video packages, that's the that's the one I've really really enjoyed. There's also Big Time for WrestleMania twenty two.

That was fine, not exactly a headbanger. But how about Highway to Hell Highway to Hell nineteen ninety eight Undertaker versus Stone Cold Steve Austin in Madison Square Garden. That's a good one, at least when I say good, it really sometimes is overshadowed by nostalgia. I may not actually like this song as much as I like the nostalgic feel it gives me, So there's a bit of a

distinction there, But that's a good one. I'm trying to look at some other ones here that people have suggested that I agree with kinda Again, that kind of does it for for right now. Yeah, So take that for what it's worth, and you know, if anybody else has any other really good ones, memorable ones again beyond my way which everyone points to and rightfully so, I really think that that is by far and away, and not only is it one of the best video packtors of

all time. But it's one of the best rivalries and probably the best match in their entire series that they've ever had, so in terms of the Rock and Austin, their second match I think was better than their first, better than their third. So yeah, just some great stuff. And again it's a lot of nostalgic feel to it that it helps helps out. So all right, well, a bit of an abbreviated mail bag here today, guyslogize for the short the short shortened version. But I'll be back.

Maybe I'll do a video tonight. I haven't done a video in a while. I've been getting into that a little bit lately and putting on YouTube also. I might put it on Patreon for those of you as well, because I need to get into video. It's a field that I know I'm completely missing out on and to my own detriment, So I will be maybe getting into that a little bit more. They won't be long form video.

It'll be short kind of to the point, you know, short topic five ten minutes tops, and then posting that on on Patreon or on on x or on other platforms just kind of grow the show a little bit because I feel like everything's video and I've been lacking big time on that, so all right. Well that'll do it, everybody. I appreciate it. If you guys want to go add free, Patreon dot com is the place to do it, as well as Spotify and Apple. And I'll be back again

unless you see me in a video. I'll be back on Sunday with your weekend review, So one week until the backlash event already. Take care.