Mailbag Episode #216: Listeners React To the Raw Debut on Netflix, The Rock's Disappointing Appearance, Tons of Storyline Possibilities

roy Rumbles. Next weekend are here, we go off to the races, off to predictions, off to potential WrestleMania Maine events. As we are really at this point able to predict the WrestleMania forty one main events. I think it's fair. We're in this striking distance now, so let's get into it.

Let's get into those emails, and we'll start, as always with patrons, and start with James James from the UK, and he says, with raw starting here at one am in the UK, I would usually watch it the next day, but on Monday I decided to sacrifice sleep and I was left a bit disappointed. I expected some sort of

progression towards Rock versus Roman. When the Rock placed the ulafala over Roman's head, I played for a rock Bottom, prayed for rock Bottom, and the Rocks standing over him, saying something like you might be the OTC, but you've not beaten the final Boss. Do you think we'll still get it at WrestleMania forty one? I feel fan might not take it as seriously now and will not get the match we should have gotten at WrestleMania of forty Well,

you've been looking for the Rock versus Roman seriously. It's been discussed for ten years now. I'm not even kidding. Royal Rumble twenty fifteen go back ten years. I bring this up often because it is such an inflection point in Roman's career and really the career the trajectory of the main event. Roman reigns in Philadelphia as the Rumble winner gets booed out of the building as a babyface when he was the big dog Rock comes out to

try to save him. Rock gets booed for trying to support Roman ten years so they could play on that. It's a nice even ten years now. They really have something that they could use as a foundational piece for the Rock to potentially ruin Roman Reigns's royal rumble. But if we don't get Rock Roman at some point, is it even possible to not get it? We saw what happened last year. But here's the thing with Rock Roman. I've said this literally for years. The title doesn't need

to be on the line. No title needs to be on the line. Just pride, just family precedent, just tribal warfare, whatever they want to call it. That's all that needs to be on the line. You just need the two men. You don't need any additional sauce, nothing, So all right. I thought the matches were pretty good verse with Punk versus Rollins being the best of the night apart from the multi finisher spots, and with all the advertising all

over the canvas, I hate it too. It should be blank and also ditch the sponsors along with the ring aprons and barriers, bring back the traditional pay per view aprons. All the best James from Scotland. James, I wish we could, but money matters to them big time, Okay, as it does any organization. I don't fault them for that, but as a traditionalist with pro wrestling, I don't accept this

new advertising billboarding over everything. I mean, at some point you're gonna now see logos on the ring attire for wrestlers. I mean we're gonna be that far. Somebody's gonna get a tattoo of it, right, I mean it's insane, and they're making up for a lot of it for lost ad revenue that they were making through the USA network. Yes, there are ads on Netflix, but the additional ad revenue and maybe even more than that, is coming from the

ad sponsor. The sponsors paying probably out their nose to put their brand on the WWE ring, matt on the canvas, on the ring apron for three hours, a lot of money. So it's money, man, money, money money. It's kind of in a much much smaller universe here on this show. You hear the ads. If you're not a patron, you hear ads on this show. Same thing. Monetizing my show makes sense. It's annoying, right, but you can pay to remove the ads, which leads me into my next pitch.

Here guys, and by the way, thank you James. Head on over to patreon dot com if you want an ad free experience slash WW podcast, let's go to Darren. Another patron says, hey WW podcast family, did you guys hear Raws on Netflix? Now? What? Darren? Stop messing with me? Stop Darren. I don't believe you. I'm sorry. The first episode had its good and bad moments, but I just want to talk about one thing. How disappointing the Rocks

promo was. If WWE's goal was to bring in new fans and bring back old ones, which it clearly was with all the legends, I personally think it would have been better to keep him. Heal not saying to run down the look of the crowd, but he shouldn't have been praising Cody. Anybody else could have done that. Everybody knows what a babyface Rock is, and if they see that he's now a bad guy and actually enjoyed and involved the story, that would make me want to keep tuning.

Ins go to SmackDown on the seventeenth awesome. Well, if you want to give me your thoughts on the name person December, not December the seventeenth SmackDown. Please, I'm guessing it's a week, yeah, week from today. I'd love to hear your notes. So the Rocks promo did I if you're looking for Heal Rock, the most successful version of

the Rock. By the way, we didn't get it. We got Dwayne playing the Rock, playing the babyface Rock, and suddenly all the storyline progression with Cody and Rock goes out the window in a trash can with one promo. They're joking. Cody says thank you, And what the hell is Cody sitting in the crowd for too? By the way, why is he there? Why are any of the wrestlers there? I talked about this on my Raw review. Why are they there? It's not a I don't want to feel

like you're part of the fandom. You're don't tell me you're a fan. Okay, You guys are supposed to be larger than the life. You're supposed to be elevated in status, not as a human being, but as a wrestler, as an entertainer. We pay to see you. I don't want to see you pretend to be one of us, So stop it. You have your undisputed champion sitting in the crowd, presumably voluntarily, just terrible. And yeah, the whole thing with the Rock and Cody and making jokes and what is happening?

Can we just I'll let them do a redo here. If they go back to what they originally had planned here and stop with the whole brand stuff above all else, then I'll throw away this one episode and just move on. But if they continue with this as the Rock just being Dwayne playing the Rock, yeah I'm not here for that. Thanks Daron. All right, let's go to Shahar And from Israel. She says, what's up. I wanted to share with you

my d disappointment from the Raw debuta on Netflix. It all started, of course, with the Rock opening the show. Why he just couldn't help himself and had to take this spot from another star who deserved this more like Cody Roman Seth and not just that, he also thanked Cody what well, I just went over that, Shahar. I mean he took the words out of my mouth or I took them out of yours, rather just towards terrible, terrible.

I know he's on the board of TKO. I don't care as a look from a business, this was like a corporately created business entertainment event. It wasn't a professional wrestling event. And I think WWE eventually they may take it too far here. And I'm not saying WWE's on the decline. In fact, obviously they're on in the opposite direction.

So everything I say here is of course being disproven just simply by stats revenue ratings, but from a viewership in old school mentality, they are moving so far away from pro wrestling it would make Vince McMahon blush. I mean, there were times, and I know we all look back sometimes with unfairly and everything bad that happened was Vince's fault. Everything that happened was everything bad was Vince. Everything good

was not Vince, and that's not fair. At times, I even have an issue with just that lens, historical lens, and it is not fair and it's not accurate either. More importantly, but Vince did have and show a lot of respect for the business at times. He didn't have the restlers sit in the crowd voluntarily. Okay, that was not something Vince McMahon did. And I'm not saying Triple H is all responsible for this Nick con is a

lot of very much responsible for this. The McMahons are no longer in charge of the WWE, so we're now getting a vision of somebody who's not a mcmon of what the company should be and will turn and into like that's the vision we're seeing is somebody who is not a McMahon, who has no professional wrestling experience owning the company or running a professional wrestling company, who's now bringing who's saying that entertainment is above all, the brand

is above all. But yet they still refuse to acknowledge that they're a professional wrestling company. They are that even even Triple H would say they're not. They are, and what fans want is to believe. I want to believe. I want to make you make me believe, And they have now gotten so far from that, even with Triple H at the front of the office here of creative they're they're moving in such the opposite direction, not just with the match styles of or the match pacing, and

every match seems to feel the same. The lack of just general selling in matches, the insane overuse, the egregious, hilarious but also very bleak use of finishers, in matches, the very much fourth wall breaking promos that happened all the time. They've pulled the curtain back so much that it's like they fans don't want to see that anymore, Like we know what's behind the curtain, pull it back, let there be some kind of mystery. Instead, they're like,

oh no, no, no, no, yeah, we know that. You know that, we know, so why even keep it closes anymore. It's like, no, see, that was part of the magic. Part of the magic was you keeping that curtain closed. We pretty much know what's behind the curtain, but we still want to have that childhood belief, that part of us that wants to believe because it's more fun that way. It's not insulting our intelligence. It's giving us what made you successful in the first place. It's giving us what brought us to

the product to begin with. It's not to say that you're going to convince us that progressing is real again, That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that when you constantly remind us, the company that creates the wrestling constantly reminds us all the time that what we're watching is a production, it's hard to get invested. It's really hard to get invested. Like I said, it's an equivalent of watching a movie that you can't wait to see. It's like the part three of a trilogy. You don't

know how it's going to end. And every five minutes they have an intermission where somebody sitting down with the actors the protagonist, the antagonist and asking them, oh, how did you like playing this role? And how did you like pretending to be this person or that person. Wouldn't that take you out of the moment every time? Of course it would. So I think that they've taken it too far where they've pulled back the curtain and then let it stay open when fans, I think generally want

it shut, close it back. Don't again, you're not going to try to pretend that we're going to pretend that, oh yeah, wrestling's real, right guys. No, but you can stop at least reminding us all the time that's the killer. So yeah, brand above all else, the Cody thing on raw, thank you and let's smile and hug.

any storyline forward? Didn't? So, yeah, I'm totally with you. Just horrible, totally disappointing. So I don't know what this was about. It was just I've said enough. Moving on. So Strahar continues. She says, to continue with the tribal combat that had no surprises whatsoever except for the ending when rock put Roman the Uli follow on him, and for some reason this was a bad surprise. Yeah, I mean I've already gone through that. I was hoping for

a rock Bottom too. We didn't get anything after that, for some unknown reason, we didn't get the last woman's standing match we should have had. The match between the Rihanne Live was good, but I was waiting. I was waiting for the last woman's standing stipulation. I have no idea why it didn't happen. Also, no show from Becky. Yeah, I know you're a big, huge Becky fan. She seems like she's enjoying being a mom certainly, nothing wrong with that. And you know, it's a full time gig, no doubt

about it. And I was disappointed. I thought it was somebody had said it was the last woman standing and then it didn't happen. And I don't know either they there was a rumor it was going to happen and it didn't, or it was planned and they pulled it back. I'm not sure, but yeah, I know, Becky. Sorry, I'll stop there because I have exciting news to tell you. As of this week, I'm the co founder and co host of a new podcast called The Queens of the Ring.

It's the first podcast in Israel about wrestling and hosted by women. So I'm very proud and excited. I wish you knew Hebrew so you could listen till next time. My friend, Well, yeah I couldn't. Sorry I don't know Hebrew. I mean, yeah, different culture here. You know, very very few people here know Hebrew fluently. Some may know it in passing from most people in the United States, most not all, of course, not all. A lot of bilingual people, but Hebrew is not a very commonly fluid language. Here

tell you that much right now. So if I heard it, it would here. Here's what I think I might be able to do. With all the advances in AI, all the advances in AI these days, I will say, perhaps there's a way for me to translate it on the fly, like on the go apps are becoming much more complex and capable. Perhaps there's a way for me to listen to it while having AI translated in real time. That sounds like a thing that's possible, but I don't without

actually trying it, I don't know. Well, Chahar, let me ask you this and you can email me or whatever Patreon or here. Is it on Apple Podcasts? I'm thinking it is because that's the biggest podcast platform in the world right now. So I'll check on Apple Podcasts, and if you know Hebrew, check out the Queen's of the Ring. If you don't, still check it out and give them a five star rating. All right, So, Shahar, very I've

still actually I'm going to check it out. I actually still am even if I listened to it and I go. I have no idea what they're saying. I'm still gonna do it. At the very least, I know that I can translate text because they have transcriptions built directly in to the Apple Podcast app now, so I can get transcriptions translated to English, so I know I can at least do that. Very cool, all right, DJ, Let's see what you got. He says he's back at it again.

Let me mention this by saying, Joe Hendry unfortunately did not appear in the Raw on Netflix, but I'm looking forward to seeing him appear at the Rumble. More on that and other things on Today's Joe Henry Report. Yes, we'll get to that. Secondly, I did not subscribe to Netflix yet to start up this year, I'm cutting back on the amount of streaming subscriptions that I use and don't use. Plus, i'll wait until W's partnership with NBC

Universal and Peacock end in twenty twenty six. But from watching the clips and highlights on social media, the Raw on Netflix was an okay show that kind of went over the top in my opinion. First, did John Cena confirm that the leak twenty twenty five Roll Rumble results to be true by saying he's going to win, plus is seen it going to be on TV every week as part of his Farewell to Farewell tour or is it just selected cities and pls. So I don't know

about the leak. I mean, at this point everyone's probably seen it. If you haven't, the leak said that Sena was gonna win, but I take that with the grain of salt. Leaks have come out many, many, many times before, and WWE is obviously not stupid. They follow this kind of news and they may change it. But I still think John Cena even if he doesn't win the Rumble, and I think he's a favorite, but if he doesn't win,

there's a second path. Everyone forgets that there's two pass to the main event of WrestleMania, one for each show, so it's not an end all, be all if you don't win the Rumble, but from one understand if you listen to the post conference, the press conference after the ple or after a after the raw premier on Netflix. I think it was Chris van Vliet who and I've actually had him on the show Good Guy, His boy.

His channel's taken off, isn't it. He just did a great interview with Seth Rollins if you haven't checked it out, I'm almost through all of it. Great interview with Seth Rollins, hour hour and a half whatever it is, long form interview on Chris van Vliet's show. So there's some free press for you there, Chris as if you need it. But I will say though that John Cena did mention in the press conference that he has thirty six thirty

seven dates. Then he's going to be on over the year, So that means, hey, that could mean wrestling, that could be just dates. I think it's probably just dates and probably maybe more in between if he feels up to it. But thirty seven spread out over twelve is like two a month two no, sorry three three appearances per month that might include live events. I would think that does so three per month for the next twelve months. Now some you could have at some point. It doesn't mean

exactly three of your month. You could have him show up ten in one month and then he takes two months off and you know what I mean. We'll see and hopefully no injuries. Okay, what's up with the Rock acknowledging Cody Roads accomplishment for carrying the company on his back and by the way stared down between Rock and Roman didn't lean to anything. I was expecting the Final Boss to strangle Roman with the ulafala. I guess the rumor is true that The Rock will not appear at

forty one. Well, Triple H also did an interview subsequent to this on the with Sports Illustrated and he was asked that question directly about The Rock, and he's basically said he that they stay tuned. I can't give anything away. Rock's a big star that makes a big time impact whenever. Here basically a bunch of corporate jargon, but left the

door open for The Rock to still appear. And if he does, Roy Rumble seems like a damn good time to interfere, maybe cost Roam in the Rumble, as I said earlier, So I wouldn't mark it completely off the calendar of The Rock. But if you base it on this show alone, if The Rock was going to appear at WrestleMania or not, or at least have a match, it's not great. Like there was not a lot of

evidence that he would. He was just kind of making amends and hugging everyone and ye just you know, throwing flowers at the feet of the guy that he was just bloodying in the parking lot and insulting his mother six months ago made no sense. Stupid. There's just I don't know. If I was in the crowd, I would

have booded that all right? Where was Gunther? The war Raiders, bron Breaker, These individuals are champions on Monday Night Raw, and they were not featured prominently on this premiere episode, especially gun Through, because it was seems that w W is probably getting gun Through on the back burner until whoever wins the Rumble or is runner up. A lot of speculation about Gunther over the next few months, a lot of speculation about who they could be building them

up for. Brock Lesner's name is still in the conversation. But look, that was a corporately created show, or at least a corporate serving because most of the stuff is I mean, corporate does probably have some impact on the show, so you could say by default every single show is corporately created, but this was much more of a corporately

presented in corporate audience show. It felt like people in a boardroom came up with this show with no respect or caring for the current storylines and wants only the biggest stars. That's it. That's what this show was about. It was about brand. Hey we're on Netflix if you didn't know, and making sure that the biggest stars were there. Most celebrity appearances were on camera. You saw all through the show how many celebrity appeances. Mcaulay Culkin was there.

The Kulakulkin by the way, he got a bigger pop than Hulk Hogan. Kind of funny, but that's what this was about. It's about image and brand. That's what this is about. It wasn't about, like you said, DJ, it's not about gun Through the war Raiders, Brown breakery. That wasn't even in the conversation, I'm sure, because it was all about who's the biggest stars, biggest stars period. That's

all they wanted. Hell, they had the Undertaker come out and just ride his bike, you know, pet pedal is a little bicycle around the ring and then just leave. You know where you could have had at least gun Through cut a quick promo or something, you know what I mean. But hey, Hulk Hogan did not need to be there, only get to get boot out of the building. It seems like this cancel culture movement will always be

a thing that cannot be avoided. My take on Hogan being there is just for the casual fans, the ones that grew up watching WF back into today day but then stopped watching wrestling after the nineties. Plus, nobody cares about Hogan's real American beer. There's a time and place for anything in life, and I felt that Hogan promoting his beer brand was just bad timing in both the political sphere sphere and with him supporting Trump and the

cancel cultural sphere from his racist comments from twenty years ago. Yeah, it was just a perfect storm. And plus again, you know, you're in a really politically opposed and I'm using that as gently as I can. I mean, you talk about a diametrically opposed city. It's about as blue as it

gets over there, and he is bright red. So you take that, you take the racist comments, and you take the fact that no one cares to really see Hogan anymore at this point, and then he starts promoting a beer that he's just selflessly promoting shamelessly, and he wrapped it all together and people who just rejected it outright, and I understand why. Yeah, It makes perfect sense. This isn't a mystery. There's not a lot to dissect here. You don't need to do a lot of investigation. There's

no dissertation that needs to be formulated over this. It's very clear. You know, all right? The Undertaker Mark Callaway showing up at the last woman's Last man Standing match? Was it a last woman standing? No, it wasn't. It wasn't because we Ripley hit two rip tides to beat Live. But it didn't make sense to me. It felt very odd, out of place because it made Ria, in my opinion, look like a lesser star in contrast to take her.

I predicted that Ria would win. But what this loss will do for Live and then what's next for her outside of a likely title rematch at Saturday Antimate Event. No, I actually don't think they're going to have a rematch. The reason is they build this as kind of the finale, and I think the fans are ready to move on. If they have a rematch, I'll be very surprised. I don't think the fans are all at all interested in that.

As I've said, I think liv is going to move into the icy title picture because she certainly showed she can become champion and be a very very respectable champion. So if she starts chasing the Icy Belt after the Dakota Kai or Lyra Valkyria win it, that's fine. Maybe she'll attack either one of the winners after they win the Icy Belt on Monday, because forget that's that's another big match coming up on Monday. But yeah, I don't

know what the hell Undertaker did that was his place? Yeah, Undertaker over the last couple of appearances has done things really oddly. He's done things like again, he appeared at WrestleMania forty where Stone Cold Steve Austin was a perfect fit and he didn't because of money, and Taker shows up choke slams the Rock. Again, There's there's no precedent for that. What's the precedent for Undertaker choke slamming the Rock or WrestleMania none other than just we couldn't get Austin,

so he got Taker. At least with Austin, it makes sense, it makes sense why he was there. They're natural enemies. You also had the Undertaker show up and then just ride around the ring, you know, ding ding ding on his bike and then raised his hand with Rhea, but it yeah, it did make Riea look like, oh yeah, Riea's a big star. And then you put take her next to her and she's like, it's like, oh yeah, yeah, I agree. And last, but not least, Penta did not

make his debut. He probably don't know who Penta is. He's a former wrestler from AW and previously from Impact on Luca Underground. He was originally supposed to be the mystery tag team partner with Ray against the New Day, but that match got taken off the card seemingly at the last minute, which was kind of weird because there were only four matches on this three hour premiere. Four matches. That's insane, DJ cuzmost signing off have a great weekend.

Well again, it does make or it is it is insane for a three hour plus show you have four matches. But when you look at what the purpose of this show was, as I just mentioned five minutes ago, the purpose was biggest stars, biggest celebrities, promotional show, make a statement. Look how important WWE is. Look how look how big we are with all these celebrities coming out. Yeah, look at the rock even the Rocks coming out and He's putting all the storylines aside to just be Dwayne. That's

what this is about. So you know where WWE is when it comes to push, comes to shove, where the priorities lie, and that will always be with the brand, not with individual storylines. They don't care. So it was about just promotion, promotion, promotion, that's it. It wasn't a wrestling show on Monday. So hopefully things change and we see what it will be on a weekly basis starting this Monday, and we can move on like, ok here on Netflix. Okay, great, let's go like where were you

in the story? Now? Last week was a fun little intermission. Where are you all right? Thank you DJ. We'll get to your report in a moment, but let's talk to AJ another patron. He says, I really think WWE got all four matches wrong. Speaking of which, perfect, perfect little transition. They've tanked Solo's character with him starting strong and then losing every match ever before, trying to take or make him look strong again, and then they have him cheatd

and lose to Roman. I don't think they have a plan for Solo, and I'm sick of Roman having every match and with some sort of interference. It should have been Solo winning with help and just to show Roman what he put everyone else through for all these years. They have certainly damaged Solo, no doubt about it. Remember when he was undefeated, I remember that good times? Huh until Cody Roads beat him on Raw. I think leading up to Wrestle many A forty, he beat Solo Socoa.

That was one of, if not the only loss Solo took up up until that point. But then Solo gets his own bloodline and then proceeds to oddly lose and lose and lose and lose. Not a great way to build a guy. So I would agree Live in Rhea. I felt they should have ended with Live winning because Ria was distracted and attacking dom Ria. Could you some character growth and that loss would have helped. Yeah. Ria

is an interesting case study. She is a big star in the women's division, one of the faces, dare I say, of the women's division in the entire company, And now she's back to being Women's World champion, taking back what she never lost. So first, sure, the storyline has come full circle. But Ria, now that she's passed the judge judgment day and she's passed being the part of the Terrors wins. She's passed the Live Morgan deal. It's this

is a new chapter. This is actually a really good time to start talking about Ria as where's she going? Because if those things are behind her finally after six months, what now Ria's at a crossroads and it's an opportunity for growth. Jay and Drew was ridiculous. They keep making Drew look weak when he should have been presented as the strongest guy in the Ross for outside of Gunther,

which they need to make him stop being afraid. I totally agree, fear should never even enter the mind of Gunther. By the way, ever, Travis Scott smoking a blunt during Jay's intro was kind of funny, especially especially after them just showing Rock drinking his alcohol immediately driving. Yeah. Interesting, interesting drug use on raw, especially given the fact that it's a PG show, at least that's what the ratings

said at the top left corner. Very interesting that they decided to have blunts and alcohol basically drinking and driving on the show. Pretty intense or at least I guess ballsy or unintended consequence, unintended side effect, I'm not sure, but yeah, the blunt thing got a lot of attention, and the fact that most people are talking about the blunt rather than the actual matchup Jay and Drew not a good sign. The crowd was quiet, Sadly, most people

didn't really care. They had gotten through the Rock, they got through Triple H Undertakers like they they were kind of okay, cool, we can sit and recharge here during this match. That's how they kind of viewed it because the star was the show was a star studded show, so when you finally get a match, it's almost like a breather. It's like, okay, guys, we can go get a you know, go relax, just recharge here, take a breath,

go get some food. And that sucks during a Drui and j match, but that's how big of a night it was for stars and Hogan and all that. So yeah, but rock drinking and driving was just I don't understand the intent on that. Yeah, not sure. Seth and Punk is one that I really don't have a lot of to complain on, But I think Seth getting the win and having him call Punk old would have been good fuel for Punk, who should and hopefully will beat gunther that I mean, I gave my full review on that.

I if the goal is to get this to Punk and Gunther, then that makes sense for Punk to get the victory, because then you have somebody who's coming off a massive victory and has maybe the rights to claim number one contendership or at least be in the conversation for it. But it also, and more importantly, I think turns the tide for Seth, hopefully to turn him heel, send him to the dark side. This could be what's makes him snap. That's for me what I took out

of that. Also, Sena could have just had a match to kick off his final run, not even a five minute squash of some random heel.

supposed to. I will also say I'm a bit concerned if they really thought Hogan was going to get an ounce of positive response, because that just shows the complete lack of awareness. And I don't think him getting booed and had anything to do with him being a Trump supporter or in LA when Taker got cheers. He's made some very racist comments and I think more so people are just sick of him. Bummer. There was no Austin

hopefully at WrestleMania. Well, you have to remember, yeah, Undertaker was also outspoken in support of Trump, and he did have him on his show. But if you remember Hulk Hogan showed up with the Republican National Convention invention and tore off his shirt. Think there was another appearance too. Hulk Hogan was part of the actual political events, and LA is about as far left and Democrat as you go outside of maybe San Francisco or you know, the Bronx in New York. Those are as deep blue as

blue gets or Chicago. Right, But so that was part of it, I would disagree. I would say that I said it's part of it, not all of it, not even the majority of it. But you add that the racist comments, the selfless beer promotion, the fact that really nobody's asking for Hogan returning anymore, and he just came to play his greatest hits and not do anything, you know, other than that, which again, at his age he can't.

But all of it, it was just you just boil that all up and you're just They're just like, no, we don't need to see you by So yeah, Austin. Sure, I actually don't want him them to waste an Austin appearance unless there's meaning behind it. I want some kind of purpose. Does that lead to a match? You know what? Sure, I don't think that's crazy to say, given the fact that he came out of retirement and wrestled Maingia thirty eight. I don't think that's an unfair expectation anymore to say that.

I want Austin if he's going to come back, to not just do his typical you know, drink beer and maybe give a stun or maybe not, and then leave no a dis close to WrestleMania, especially the time of the year we're in. I don't want Austin there to just sit on commentary or something. I want him there for a big reason. Do I think he'll have a match this year? No, there's no talk of it. There's nothing being discussed as far as I know, but I would.

I mean, I'm complaining about all this, or I'm complaining about something that didn't happen, but I will say I still would take a stunner at WRESTLEMANI even if it's just to come out and give the Rock a stunner at WrestleMania. I still, and I still, you know, I deserve that. I'm outed, I'm od it, so all right, because it's all about me. All right, let's talk to Let's see another emailer here, and this is Andrew and

then I know we said some other patrons. We'll get to you in just a moment here, and then we'll get to some others that are not patrons. But this is from Andrew, and he says, I had a lot of issues with the raw. Geez boy, you guys really didn't like it. But let's get to it. So Solo's buried, Live is buried. My biggest issue though, was how the Rock was portrayed. Wow, I see I'm seeing a theme. I'm seeing a theme. But let's get to it. I'll get to your take here, Andrew from Michigan. The Rock

comes out essentially drop the Final Boss character. He then tells Cody that they're cool and then acknowledges Roman. I have so many issues with all this. I feel like WW just told me the entire story leading up to WrestleMania with Cody didn't matter. Why have the Rock come out during the Rock after WrestleMania and threaten Cody? Why have The Rock come out at Bad Blood and make a threatening gesture to Cody and Roman? Why did the Rock go on a ten minute Instagram story ran about

the Final Boss after Bad Blood. This could obviously lead to the Rock turning on Roman, but it feels more like The Rock couldn't keep his schedule straight and now can't commit to Mania, so this is the turning face. You could say that The Rock was portraying a t KO boss and we need to be patient. That's too confusing, though, I don't want to be reminded of watching something scripted. I thought this segment was a slap in the face to fans. Also, whose idea was it to have Paul

Cogan do a beer advertisement in California? Yeah? Yeah, that's again. Yeah, Hogan bad, just bad. So I mean, I don't know how much more I could talk about this, but yeah, he killed two storylines with one promo, the Roman one and the Cody one. Just completely crapped all over it in one promo. Can you bring it back? Sure? I mean you could, Rocks Talented, you could do it. People would buy in because people want to see it. Yeah, you can easily have the Rock bring this back. But

it's just for one night. It made no sense and then we'd have to just pretend that Monday night didn't happen. But yeah, all the stuff, bad blood, WrestleMania, insults, beatdowns, all of it. Just like what was it all for? To just play Dwayne for what?

we go. Now for the negative We're obviously not getting Rock versus Roman after Wayne showed up and did his usual greatest Hit moments and thanked everyone, including Cody did demand forget he's a heel. Unless we swerve this again and have the Rock cost Roman at the Rumble, then we won't get much or won't get that match for another year, which is a bit frustrating as neither one are getting any younger. Could you see the Rock entertaining

the rumble or throwing Roman out? Also, we are getting Chad Gable versus a Lutrador next week on Raw, which is obviously going to be the debut of Penta. I'm hoping that they push this guy far because his in ring work is great, But I'd also love to see our Truth in a Mask come out before Penta actually debuts. Thanks keep up the good work for Scott from UK.

That's pretty good, Pretty good, Scott. I like that having our Truth do that adjusting up in a you know, just putting like a mask on, like a Ray masterial mask and pretending he's luchador that yes, please please make this happene Yes, Penta is clearly going to be the debut opponent for Chad again. I don't know how much more I can hammer this home with Rock Roman. I feel like that's been the whole topic of the show here for forty minutes, but you guys are talking about it.

I mean, that's my one hope here. Here's my prediction. You guys want something here. My prediction is this. The Rock shows up at the Rumble, costs Roman the Rumble, and Rock also loses, but he costs Roman, and then Roman and Rock go to WrestleMania and face one another. That's my thought. That's where I think we're going is Rock screws Roman. Roman ends up still screwing the Rock somehow.

Maybe he comes back in the Rumble eliminates the Rock, so they essentially eliminate each other and we're off to the races. That's what I think happens. Thank you, Scott. All Right, one more email, and it's from Tom from North Florida, where he says it's at chilly twenty six degrees. Wherever that one guy in Florida does his weather report, I need to go there. That's Brad. Brad from Florida. I would like to talk to Brad, though I think

he's northern Florida. I'm pretty sure, but I would like to talk to him because he's been bragging him out that weather. But even in Florida, the cold has dipped all the way down there. Yes, yes, yes, the cold has dipped all the way to Florida. So where you're at now, Brad? Okay, So man, here we go, guys. This is more rock stuff. Boy. I figured the rock would be a small, well, let's say, medium sized topic.

It has completely overtaken the entire show here. So it sounds like, guys, I know I'm repeating myself, but I want to give you guys a voice, all right, And I'm trying not to say the same thing over and over. So if I feel like I'm going to repeat myself, I won't respond too much to this because it's like, oh my god, we've already heard your opinion. But I want to give everyone else a chance. So here's what Tom says. I was really disappointed with the Rocks return

on Monday. So you're telling me the last four times he was on TV, he made Cody Rhodes bleed in the rain, beat him up, told him he was coming for his belt, then came back at Bad Blood and in a seemingly angry gesture to him in Roman and went off on a rant. But then last Monday, he makes a joke about the whole thing and asked how Mama Rhodes was doing well. Cody laughed together like they were two best friends, retelling good times. WWE, to me

missed a major opportunity with this story. I always thought Rocks should have been the mastermind behind the new bl bloodline, and when he walked out there to give the ole to follow to Roman, I was hoping he'd put around his own neck instead of Romans. This was the perfect setup to a future for you with Roman, and I feel like w E blew it. So where does Solo go from here? If Roman is going to run a feud with Punk or Seth, it seems the new Bloodline

story could be buried some on SmackDown There is right. Now, here's the thing. Here's what WWE has de Lena the Royal Rumble. What that means is the Bloodline doesn't have to feud with any other particular group, and it feels like the original bloodline has kind of already gone their separate way. It felt like a one night only and now they're kind of they're in their own little cells like Samuel defend j and Jay of defend Sammy, but like they're not a cohesive unit. So we got our

answer there as far as how long that'll last. But it's a royal rumble, which means every man for himself, which means you can have the bloodline feuding with like individual big stars, and that's probably where it'll land here. But you're not going to have them feuding with a Babyface group. There's not even really a big Babyface group on SmackDown if you take away the og bloodline, which seemingly they already have. So Solo is interesting. I think

he'll compete in the rumble. He's not gonna have a singles match, but he's gonna compete. He'll be a big player in the rumble, obviously not gonna win, And then you'll have you know, I mean, I don't know as far as Punk or Seth though, I mean, that's another question right now, guys. You have Rhea who needs a new path. You have Punk and Seth who need to figure out where they're going if this was a one and done or Seth's turning heel, or if Seth attacks

Punk off the laws. So right. You have Roman kind of in flux. If he's done with solo, then where does he go. You have Rock who just made amends with everyone. You know, he just decided to be Dwayne instead of the Rock, which was just horrible. Yeah, you have Cody who is still kind of feuding with Kevin in like but not really. It's a weird time. People seem to be in between programs waiting for something, and this past Monday did nothing to really help that. In fact,

it aggravated the issue. And as we get closer to the Rumble, hopefully things get back on track, hopefully even this week after this just just big celebrity circle jerk is what it was. Let's let's call it what it is, is one big circle jerk of the executives and celebrities just in one big circle. You know, everybody you know, quote giving each other a hand. You got the visual in your head. Good, And I'm trying to make this somewhat child friendly, right with a word like circle jerk,

that'll really do it. That'll bring the kids in, that'll that'll have the parents turn up the volume on the show. But that's what it was. That's you know, that is the best way to describe Monday? Is that so great? Questions, Tom, I don't have the answers you're asking them because it's a kind of a convoluted mess right now, and I

don't have an answer. I gave you my predictions. But yeah, so thank you, Tom, And we are now going to get to some of the voicemails here, trying to get through all of them, running close up on time here. I had a feeling that this would be a big show for the Mailbag, but let's see how many we can get through.

he wins Moment of the Year. If you remember, he did have a main event matchup against Ethan Page at NXT No Mercy in September of twenty twenty four. And of course, when he finally made his debut on an episode of NXT, the crowd went wild as they were chanting, we believe, we believe, we believed. So shout out to Joe Hendry as he has now won three awards. What wrestler in the game today can win two awards from two different wrestling promotions in TNA and in NXT only

Joe Hendry. Now, let's get you to what took place last week on the episode of TNA par Wrestling. A pre taped episode of TNA par Wrestling, as they get ready to kick off twenty twenty five, as Joe Hendry comes in and he thanks the fan for supporting him as he won the number one contendership at Final Resolution, as he mentioned that he is now in the running to become the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion. Leading into January nineteenth, live from Dallas, Texas, TNA Genesis as it

will be Nick nemet versus Joe Hendry. He mentions that way way back on January one, twenty thirteen, it was his resolution that he wants to become a professional wrestler, and now twelve years later, here we are and Joe Hendry is now realizing his dream that he will eventually

become a world champion. But before he continues, here comes Nick Nemo's brother, Ryan Nemett to interrupt and say all the things that he despises about Joe Hendry, as the crowd was saying you suck, You sucked to Ryan Nemett. But then Joe Hendry was like, wait a minute. You know what, for everything that I I'm about, you will never be on the level that I am at. Just

paraphrasing here, folks, just paraphrasing. Anyway, Joe Henchy made a match for Ryan Nemett against the ECW legend Rhino, but the match ends in disqualification as Rhino attacked Ryan Nemett

with a steel chair. But later on in the show, here comes the TNA World Champion, Nick Nemett as he gave his congratulations and of course acknowledges that Joe Hendry is the number one contender, and rightfully so, because he is the face of this company in terms of how the crowd loves him and how everybody in the locker room supports Joe Hendry. But then Ryan neman came in and interrupted Nick Nemat and says, why are you supporting

this guy? Why are you acknowledging Joe Hendry. I still have an issue because he stabbed you in the back when he attacked you a couple of weeks ago at a pay per view. And then of course Nick Nema was like, wait a minute, let's not go down this road. He did that by accident. He attacked me by accident.

So here we now have that. Ryan Nemett proposes a tag team matchup for next week's episode on TNA par Wrestling, as it will be Joe Hendry and the ECW legend Rhino versus the Nemett brothers of Nick Nemett and Ryan Nemett. I must also mention that Joe Hendry will now be part of Chris Jerichos Jericho Cruz that will be happening on February second, twenty twenty five. Isn't that a very strange coincidence that it's the day after the Royal Rumble?

So is there a possibility that Joe Henry could also make an appearance at the Royal Rumble before he makes an appearance on Chris Jericho's Jericho Cruz called Six on the Beach that'll be happening on February second. Whatever the case may be, this is some exciting times for Joe Hendry. And yes he has to win the TNA World Championship. We all saw this past Monday night on Raw Real

Ripley regains her championship. We saw Tiffany Stratton become the new WWE Women's Champion on SmackDown a couple of nights ago. This is a possibility that we could have a new champion in TNA in Joe Hendry. So always remember, folks to say his name. Believe, always remember the words that Joe Hendry says anytime, any place and any show.

It's not finalized. I think that it's possible. And I appreciate all of your updates on his awards, that he's winning, where he's going, who he's feuding with, and you stay hunkered down at that undisclosed location, my friend, you stay hunkered down, stay warm, and keep us updated. Alrighty, let's get to the next one.

Travis Scott smoking lead. And by the way, let's not forget Travis Scott is a guy who had ten people die at his concert while he seemingly didn't give a shit and just kept singing and oddly chanting to them in Houston, while you know, with all sorts of imagery around the concert and all sorts of crazy stuff, he gets cheered. But hull Cogan gets booed for having a different political opinion. I know that people will say that hul Cogan got booed because of all the things in

the past that he said. He said something on a phone call ten years ago, whatever. I don't give those stands enough credit. I think they were remembering him supporting Trump, and that's why you know that happens. That's why he was booed. I think it was just really disgraceful. I don't like. On another note, the Rep's new outfits. I think the stripes are the way to go. I think they kind of almost blend in with the floor a little bit too much with this navy blue shirt that

they have right now, the new thing. I did think Netflix raw was cool, like as a spectacle and everything like that, but I don't know. I would have had more exciting, like like a return of you know, a Becky Lynch or this or that makes someone who's on the current roster feel like a really big deal. I know they had the Rock return, and they had seen and this and that, but I'm talking about like arrestler that someone would say Washington the first time, Oh who's she?

Or oh who's that? Or you know. I just I just don't understand why Becky didn't come back, why a Charlotte didn't come back, why, you know, maybe Alexa Bliss or a who knows? I mean, I don't know, man. I also thought rio winning was kind of the.

pipe dream about four months away at best. I mean, sometimes it snows into April and May up here. Okay, I remember, not that anyone cares or asked, but I'm going to share it anyway. My prom junior prom in high school as well. Six you're sixteen six and seventeen seventeen. I was seventeen years old and my prom is in May, or was in May. I think it was like May, second week of May something like that. It's snowed, like two inches of snow in you know, two weeks into May.

So it happens, and you know, it's so what when I hear about, oh, it's cold in Florida, It's like, yeah, that'll last like a week a couple days and you're back to it, you know. Anyway, I almost moved out into Florida. I was very close, very close. I was going to move into Tampa. I had a job like interviews set up, and I was going to move in with one of my buddies down there. I was close back in twenty thirteen after a bad break up, and I was just loving every time I go down to Florida.

I was just like, man, I could live here. I got a friend down here, I can, you know. And then I met my wife and the rest is history, as I say. But boy, I was real close right in the Tampa area, clear Water area, Indian Rocks Beach, Dunedin, That's where I was. I was looking. And now, I mean, obviously that's a long, long gone, but I still like to visit down there, Still love going down for vacation three four days out of the year. And yeah, so anyway has nothing to do with your response, prit So

let's get to it. Yeah. Family friendly. I just talked about that too, man Like family friendly. Yeah, family friendly. Yet you're drinking and smoking, and not only drinking, but you're drinking and driving and smoking blunts. Uh yeah, yeah, but hey, it all depends on how they define it, because how they how they define TVPG and family friendly

like that has expanded, not for the better. If you want to know how family friendly T is defined nowadays, it's not how it was defined back in you know, when you and I were kids, right, we were teenagers in the nineties, in early two thousands. The umbrella of what's allowed under family friendly has expanded greatly, so that definition has not remained the same. Now. Yeah, Travis Scott, ten people died of his concert. I mean, I don't know.

I honestly, here's something for everybody that should shock nobody if you've heard this show. I've never heard of him in my life. Never. I don't even know who Travis Scott is. Like I said, he could walk into my house and someone could say to me, he's a famous musician, and I'd be like, I don't know, T Pain? Are you t Pain? I'm not sure that's my extent of knowledge in a lot of the music genres. Okay, so when I heard it, I go, Travis Scott, that sounds

like a country singer. But I look at him, I go, yeah, that's not fitting the bill. So I'm sure a lot of you were sitting there going, how does he not know? It's because I don't. I don't care. It's not my music genre, don't you know. I might have heard the name in passing, but I probably thought it was a country song, a country musician, country artist. So there when I when I saw him come out, I go, who the hell is this? As I tend to do with a lot of the current musicians that the young young

folk like I have no idea who they are. All right, all right, so let's go to Becky, Charlotte Alexa. Why why did they not have any of these big returns? Well, Number one, it's not I'm sure it wasn't a choice. Yeah, maybe, but unlikely that they chose not to reintroduce or bring up a new star or whatever. But here's the overarching issue. Beyond the fact that maybe they did or didn't decide to choose the biggest star, they wanted to make sure that you paid attention to on Monday Night. You wonder

who their biggest star was the WWE themselves. The logo that is, who was the biggest star was on WWE's Monday Night Raw on Netflix? Not The Rock, Not John Cena, Nobody, no Wonder, not the Undertaker, not Riya Ripley's victory, no Na seem Punk or Seth Rollins's match. At the end of the show, WW themselves was the star they wanted you to pay attention to. So Ria, was it a bad decision? Time will tell. I was with you. I thought that Live should have kept going. I think she

was doing fine as champion. Didn't feel like it was ready for her to lose. But I here's why I think she lost WWE. You've used Rhea Ripley as a bigger star than Live, and there's some credibility to that, just general brand value. I think Rhea has a more name recognition than does Live Morgan. But Live has really done an awesome job the last six months. I mean

just wow. Credit to her, maybe longer than six months, twelve months, but they want Live probably involved in the icy title picture moving into another title picture because they know she can handle it. Ria is a bigger star and means when you have a bigger star and you have your biggest show of the year coming up, bigger star, bigger show, they jive well. So I think they viewed Ria as a bigger star. They wanted her going into WrestleMania's champion, and yeah, I mean, we'll see if that

decision pans out, we'll see. It's also the final match. It was built as kind of the final match in their program. And Rhea was, you know, trying and trying, trying, couldn't get it, couldn't get it, couldn't get it. So she's reclaiming she never lost. And remember she didn't lose it. She had to forfeit it because of injury. So it's kind of fair. As much as I actually would have kept it on lived too, it's kind of fair that she gets it back, you know, in a in a

world where fairness actually is used to make decisions. So all right, thank you, Brad, and we have one more. We'll get to one more voicemail and call it a night.

things are about to start. It feels like we need new matchups and we'll get them. And yes, sir, turning Seth heel would make a lot of sense in a lot of ways. Seth has been babyface for years now, and I think it's time. I'm ready for it. I think a lot of the fans are ready for it. He has squeezed everything he count and can out of this revolutionary, visionary whatever, this character that we have. We've all sang the song. We've all had a chance to

sing the song. Let's go. It would improve his character, would make him much more interesting as a character, and it would allow him and the company to have more matchups because now those that he were allies with that he couldn't have a match with because they were both baby faces, he can have a match with because he's a heel. So yes, Roman's a big opponent hell the Rocks and opponent if you really want to go there, Yep, you could have an alliance with Drew, although Drew's now

on SmackDown. But so there's a lot of more. There's more benefit to having set thron heal than there's not. But on top of that, again, you have Rhya who needs a new opponent and is at a crossroads. Drew and Jay that's kind of done, let's go. Those two need new opponents, and perhaps Drew does target Cody as he tried to befriend him on SmackDown and that didn't work, but Kevin Owens continues to attack o K. Kevin continues to attack Cody. So there's a lot happening here, and

where does the rock code? Does he attack Cody? Does Cody not? And then Randy Orton's coming back at some point. He's probably gonna target Kevin Owens, but he also could turn on Cody and then yeah, so many different things, guys. It just weren't in the tumultuous part of the cycle here where it's like, Okay, things have wrapped up. Rhian Live is done, Drew and Jay is done.

of that right now, a lot of that. So thank you Alex, thank you to DJ, thank you to everybody that emailed us call this you know, Brad from Florida, thank you, And a good show as expected, a full show here with voicemails and emails coming off of a big money net RAW if you didn't hear, they're actually on Netflix now, not on USA. I know that shocks many of you. In case you didn't know, they sent a small press release about it. They didn't make a

big deal about it. They're very shy when it came to that, So don't go to USA for RAW anymore. They're relying on podcasters like myself to spread the world because they haven't really done a good job of it. So go to Netflix, guys. Believe it or not, I'm not kidding. Netflix is actually hosting RAW now, so go there and check out. We're all every single Monday. But

thank you everybody. If you want to go, add free patreon dot com slash w W podcast as the way to go, or you can go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe there. Both offer a one week free trial and you can listen to everything ad free, so if you got annoyed by that, you can make those ads go bye bye. All right, thank you so much, guys. I'll be back on Sunday with your week in review. Until then, take care. Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast.